The American Enterprise articles from September 2001

The American Enterprise archives from September 2001

Beware of Green Fairy Tales.(energy conservation)
September 1, 2001... Ah, politics. Even before President Bush unveiled his energy initiative earlier this summer, his opposition went into attack mode. House minority leader Richard Gephardt and Democratic National Committee chairman Terry McAuliffe thundered into...

Sidelights.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2001... A Minneapolis library has banned chess playing due to the rowdy behavior of those who come to watch the games. * A Pennsylvania high-schooler was disqualified from running for junior class president after joking during a speech that he would...

UNLIKELY PRO-FAMILY THEMES FROM L.A.(movies - A.I Artificial Intelligence, Baby Boy)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2001... Usually outsiders have to plead with Hollywood to honor family values. This summer, however, two movies appeared that, in their own way, resonated with surprising pro-family themes. Steven Spielberg's A.I. Artificial Intelligence, about a...

GRAY DAVIS GENERATES HEAT, NOT LIGHT.(energy crisis, California)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2001... California Governor Gray Davis is not one to let a little energy crisis get in the way of his political ambition. He's learned from the woes of fellow New Democrat Bill Clinton, who proved that any situation--no matter how damaging it may at...

THE POWER OF PUBLIC SCHOOLING.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2001... According to a new nationwide survey by the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, one out of five American teenagers doesn't know which country the colonies declared independence from on July 4, 1776. Presumably teachers had more important...

GLOBAL WARMING AND HOT HOUSE POLITICS.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2001... In the July 23 issue of The New Republic, Gregg Easterbrook notes that many global warming alarmists are motivated by something other than an interest in saving the planet. An excerpt: As concerns about global warming have mounted, nearly...

THEY DON'T KNOW JACK.(C.S. Lewis, political correctness)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2001... Another dead white male has apparently been ruled politically incorrect. The Chronicles of Narnia, an enchanting series of seven short novels for children, were written by C.S. Lewis (known as "Jack" to his friends) over 50 years ago. The...

PREENING ON CAMPUS.(college course on "How to be Gay")(Brief Article)
September 1, 2001... Among the courses opening this September at the University of Michigan is "How to be Gay: Male Homosexuality and Initiation." Professor David Halperin--recently hired as a Distinguished Professor--promises the class will cover "diva-worship,...

CREATIVE HISTORY.(Joseph Ellis on Thomas Jefferson, impeachment of Bill Clinton)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2001... For years, Mount Holyoke professor Joseph "Full Metal Jacket" Ellis had been regaling students, interviewers, and friends with gripping stories of his service in Vietnam. The Pulitzer Prize-winning historian claimed to have been a platoon...

BEYOND THE PALE.(cloning bans in many countries)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2001... As the House of Representatives considers measures that would ban human cloning, it's worth noting that a global tide of opinion against the practice has recently developed. According to Citizen Issues Alert: * Australia just passed a law...

OLD SCHOOL IN CYBERWORLD.(William Bennett, "K12" Internet-based school)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2001... "So far, there is no good evidence that most uses of computers significantly improve learning." So said William Bennett, secretary of education under Ronald Reagan, and traditional-values guru, last year. So why has Mr. Bennett, of all people,...

DEPENDS ON WHAT THE MEANING OF "FIRST" IS.(first-time offender status of television producer Aaron Sorkin)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2001... Aaron Sorkin, producer of the NBC drama "The West Wing," recently pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor and two felony charges for possession of marijuana, cocaine, and hallucinogenic mushrooms. In exchange for his guilty plea, district attorneys...

SO THAT'S WHY ENERGY CRUNCHES DON'T WORRY THEM.(essay on "How to Steal Electrical Power," New York Times Magazine)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2001... Our last issue included a SCAN item about a recent string of articles in the New York Times Magazine glorifying amoral or immoral behavior like stealing. Right after that, the column in question (which is now a regular feature) ran an essay on...

WHEN POLITICS BECOMES A JOKE.(Garry Trudeau's "Doonesbury" comic strip)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2001... One of the chief objections to legal restrictions on campaign finance expenditures of the sort advocated by John McCain is that by restricting the capacity of office-seekers and their backers to circulate their views, they will increase voters'...

MAGAZINE BUSINESS MANAGER WANTED.
September 1, 2001... The American Enterprise is seeking someone to run our business affairs--coordinating budgets, direct mail, subscriptions, ads, printing, customer service, newsstand operations, and so forth. Experience in magazine publishing essential. Must...

Bulls, Bears, and Scapegoats on Wall Street.
September 1, 2001... Every bear market needs a scapegoat, and congressional fingers are currently pointing at stock analysts. These are the professionals at investment firms who scrutinize financial statements, make on-site visits to companies, interview managers,...

Energy Crunch Replay.
September 1, 2001... What a difference a quarter century--and a President--makes "I want to have an unpleasant talk with you about a problem that is unprecedented in our history." Relax -- that was Jimmy Carter, 24 years ago. The energy talk we're going to have...

"Alternative Fuels"?
September 1, 2001... There is only one that is truly practical. And Greens hate it. Our peace and prosperity, indeed our very lives, now depend on a continuous supply of energy. Yet most of us give very little thought to how this energy arrives where and when...

Drill Phobia.(oil exploration in Alaska)
September 1, 2001... Where will America's future energy come from? The North Slope of Alaska in early June is infinitely less hostile than it is in January, but almost as featureless. The temperature is in the 30s, and the flat, barren plain stretches, brown...

The Car of the Future?(hybrid automobiles)
September 1, 2001... How markets rather than government intervention produced a better vehicle The Toyota Prius has reclining bucket seats, a CD player, a digital instrument panel in its dash, and shiny stainless steel buttons for its climate control system....

The Kyoto Treaty Deserved to Die.
September 1, 2001... Why we should think more and clamp down less on global warming. President Bush's firm rejection of the Kyoto Protocol on Climate Change put the final nail in the coffin of a doomed project. By 2012, the agreement would have required the...

Green Devil.(Gale Norton)
September 1, 2001... Why are environmentalists so terrified of Gale Norton... and George Bush? She has been called mean-spirited. She has been called an "extremist," "a natural disaster," and "James Watt in a skirt." Who is Gale Norton, and what has she done...

Back to School--In the Dining Room.(home schooling)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2001... PELHAM, MASSACHUSETTS--On a wintry morning, two masculine heads are hovering over a textbook on my scuffed dining room table. The heads begin talking about radicals. No, not the Che Guevara or Abbie Hoffman kind. Rather, the radicals familiar...

The Road to Columbine.(government control over small schools)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2001... As the school bells ring in another fall, let us recall those benighted days before the 2,000-student high school, with its Olympic-sized swimming pool, gleaming array of computers, and anonymous enrollees falling through gilded cracks. ...

Media Sins Create a Green Saint.(Ian Thomas)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2001... Last fall, deadpan Luddite Ralph Nader predicted that if he cost Al Gore the presidential election, it would be a blessing in disguise. Since Bush and Gore both were tools of the polluter lobby, Nader argued, Gore was the far more dangerous...

John Adams.(Review)
September 1, 2001... John Adams By David McCullough Simon & Schuster, 353 pages, $35 As David McCullough's new biograhy of John Adams suggests, Adams and Thomas Jefferson will remain forever linked within the history of the origins of the American Republic. The...

The Trouble With Government.(Review)
September 1, 2001... The Trouble With Government By Derek Bok Harvard University Press, 493 pages, $35 Why don't Americans like government? They want their Social Security checks, they want to protect the whooping cranes, and they support the minimum wage....

Time Lord: Sir Sandford Fleming and the Creation of Standard Time.(Review)
September 1, 2001... Time Lord: Sir Sandford Fleming and the Creation of Standard Time By Clark Blaise Pantheon Books, 272 pages, $24 When it is noon in Los Angeles, the time in New York City is 3 p.m., and it's eight in the evening in London. As we progress...

High-Tech Mogul to Transform Cinema?(Brief Article)
September 1, 2001... Imagine going to your local megaplex and instead of purchasing tickets for the latest blockbuster, buying ones to see an airing of the Stanley Cup finals, or the latest Broadway show. In addition to viewing the action on a 50-foot screen in...

A Little Law Goes A Long Way.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2001... A Little Law Goes A Long Way Jonathan Rauch, "Law and Disorder," in The New Republic (April 30, 2001), 1220 19th Street N.W., Washington, D.C. 20036. In this article, based on an AEI Bradley Lecture, Brookings writer-in-residence Jonathan...

In the Name of Deregulation.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2001... In the Name of Deregulation Alfred E. Kahn, Whom the Gods Would Destroy, or How Not to Deregulate, AEI-Brookings Joint Center for Regulatory Studies, 1150 17th Street N.W., Washington, D.C. 20036. From the failure of new local telephone...

Why Europeans Fear the Rich.
September 1, 2001... Why Europeans Fear the Rich Alberto Alesina, Rafael Di Tella, and Robert MacCulloch, Inequality and Happiness: Are Europeans and Americans Different?, NBER Working Paper W8198, National Bureau of Economic Research, 1050 Massachusetts Avenue,...

SUVs Are Safe.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2001... SUVs Are Safe Douglas Coate and James VanderHoff, "The Truth About Light Trucks," in Regulation (Spring 2001), Cato Institute, 1000 Massachusetts Avenue N.W., Washington, D.C. 20036. In recent years, some experts have accused "light...

Variety in Christian Schools.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2001... Variety in Christian Schools David Sikkink, "Speaking in Many Tongues," in Education Matters (Summer 2001), 226 Littauer North Yard, 1875 Cambridge Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138. In the twentieth century, only about 10 percent of...

The Truth About Racial Profiling.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2001... The Truth About Racial Profiling Heather Mac Donald, "The Myth of Racial Profiling," in City Journal (Spring 2001), Manhattan Institute, 52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, New York 10017. There's been an increasing uproar about "racial...

When Foundations Shape the News.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2001... When Foundations Shape the News Rick Edmonds, "How Foundations Use the News Media to Shape an Agenda," in Poynter Report (Spring 2001), 801 Third Street South, St. Petersburg, Florida 33701. Advertisers have long helped pay the bills for...

THE ENERGY SITUATION.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2001... Although most Americans don't think the U.S. is in an energy crisis now, around six in ten expect one in the future. Three-quarters think their fellow citizens take energy supplies for granted and, at this point, most people haven't made big...

EXPLORATION AND THE ENVIRONMENT.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
September 1, 2001... Americans aren't extremists about energy policy. Just 4 percent told Los Angeles Times interviewers that commercial oil and gas drilling, mining, and logging should be allowed on all public lands, and 16 percent were at the other end of the...

NUCLEAR POWER RECONSIDERED.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
September 1, 2001... In 1999, 20 years after the Three Mile Island nuclear plant mishap, 81 percent of Americans told Gallup that nuclear power was very or somewhat safe. A near majority could not remember the name of the nuclear reactor involved. Most polls today...

the Mail.
September 1, 2001... While I largely agree with Karl Zinsmeister's conclusions about slavery reparations (Bird's Eye, July/August 2001), one of his important arguments seems faulty to me: "Trying to pay slave reparations in our decade would, as one observer put it,...