The American Enterprise articles from September 2002

The American Enterprise archives from September 2002

Great expectations. (Bird's Eye).
September 1, 2002... The importance of a university education is not seriously disputed in the United States. Most Americans agree that, whether one is seeking what former British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli called "a place of light, of liberty, and of...

Sidelights.(international stories of political correctness)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2002... Kenya strategically placed witch doctors throughout the World Cup stadium in order to assist its soccer team. A sign reading Smert Zhidam--"Death to Yids"--was seen alongside a road just outside Moscow. When 28-year-old Tatyana Sapunova...

Smallpox, big risk. (Scan).(Brief Article)
September 1, 2002... Don't feel bad if you missed the 1995 movie 12 Monkeys, starring Bruce Willis and Brad Pitt--unless you spend your time trying to foil terrorist plots. The flick wasn't a critical success by any stretch, but it provides a simple plan for anyone...

Deadly intentions. (Scan).(criminal negligence)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2002... Tarajee Maynor left her ten-month-old daughter and three-year-old son inside her sweltering car while she spent hours at a hair salon. The 25-year-old from Detroit even took a break from hair fashion to buy herself a refreshing soda and a...

Right beats wrong--and the left. (Scan).(world politics)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2002... An historic shift has recently given the Right an unprecedented amount of political power around the globe. Though few have noticed, a political earthquake has dislodged the Left from power across Europe, in the U.S., and in Australia. ...

Speak for yourself. (Scan).(controversy over Pledge of Allegiance)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2002... If Michael Newdow has his way, students in schools on the Left Coast may have a new Pledge of Allegiance when the next school year begins. Or no Pledge at all. The Sacramento atheist claims that his daughter experienced "discomfort" due to...

Why guns matter. (Scan).(Brief Article)
September 1, 2002... During the tense weeks that followed Election Night 2000, many Americans became familiar with the color-coded map dividing their country into patches of red and blue. Many publications, including TAE (see March 2002), have described the...

Warning: you may not be able to sleep after reading this. (Scan).(scientific names for fears)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2002... We all know that arachnophobia is the fear of spiders; claustrophia, the fear of being in confined spaces; and agoraphobia, the fear of open spaces. But, as is evident from Time.com's Web site, the list of well-defined human fears is virtually...

Aiding aids. (Scan).(AIDS disease)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2002... In June, President Bush announced he would make $500 million available to provide anti-viral drugs, medical staff training, and preventive care to pregnant women in African and Caribbean nations. The goal: Preventing these women from passing...

Dangerous prison conversions? (Scan).(converts to Islam)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2002... Prison Fellowship Ministries founder Chuck Colson is concerned about outreach to prisoners by radical Muslims. "Alienated, disenfranchised people are prime targets for radical Islamists who preach a religion of violence," Colson wrote in the...

Gotti glorification: godawful. (Scan).(mobster John Gotti)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2002... John Gotti, a racketeer, murderer, and former head of the Gambino crime family, died in federal prison on June 10. Gotti's quick wit, fancy clothes, and swagger captivated New York in the 1980s and early '90s as he beat the rap three times. He...

"It don't matter if you're black or white". (Scan).(lawsuit by singer Michael Jackson)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2002... So sang Michael Jackson a few years ago. Of course, that's when the self-proclaimed King of Pop's record sales where higher. Now, he whines that Tommy Mottola, chairman of Sony Music, Jackson's record label, is a "very, very devilish" racist,...

Marriage: just say yes. (Scan).(Brief Article)
September 1, 2002... Men aren't known for being great communicators, but recently some of them opened up. During focus-group discussions conducted by The National Marriage Project, men shared in detail why they're in no hurry to marry. The Project's report of these...

Bush's white elephant. (Politico).(approval rating of Pres George W. Bush)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2002... President Bush's approval rating has remained above 70 percent for ten months. Far from being an asset, these approval ratings are a liability that has hurt his agenda. Immediately after the attacks on the World Trade Center and the...

Liberate the dividend. (Forward Observer).(Brief Article)
September 1, 2002... Back in March, I testified before a House committee that was looking for ways to prevent Enron-style disasters. Don't bother with more nitpicking accounting rules or changes in pension regulations, I told the members. Instead, get tough on...

"Live" with TAE: as a leader in higher education, it's hard to match his record. He's a dedicated Democrat and self-described liberal who fights for high standards, creates controversy, and clashes with the Left. Meet ... John Silber.(Interview)
September 1, 2002... In over 30 years of leading Boston University--25 as president, the last six as chancellor, and, since early July, also as acting president--John Silber has boosted what had been a big but undistinguished commuter school into the upper echelon...

The shame of America's one-party campuses.(Statistical Data Included)
September 1, 2002... In most sectors of American life--corporations, non-profits, government agencies, churches, unions, voluntary organizations, the military, you name it--you will find ample numbers of both conservatives and liberals, Republicans and Democrats,...

Time to fight back: an anti-discrimination campaign waiting to happen?
September 1, 2002... Imagine opening your newspaper one morning and reading a Supreme Court opinion that puts a startling new twist on an old civil rights tactic. The Court declares that some prominent university has violated equal opportunity laws by "engaging in...

History to the left of us.
September 1, 2002... USA Today recently reported on its front page that American high school seniors could not perform even at the most basic level in the subject of history. Less than half the students could identify or explain major events in U.S. history, such...

The big snooze: how college trustees are failing their universities.
September 1, 2002... "A bloodless civil war." That's what the Atlanta Journal and Constitution calls the controversy at Auburn University in Alabama, where faculty, students, and alumni are struggling with the university's board of trustees. The trustees, their...

The twisted academy: how academics get other cultures wrong.
September 1, 2002... A Chinese Famine Ignored By Arthur Waldron China's relative opening to the world in the late 1970s has provided scholars with something that many never imagined possible: the opportunity to compare facts that are known today to the...

Vulnerable under God: could religious colleges be the next institutions under legal attack?
September 1, 2002... Education scholar Diane Ravitch reiterates in the New Republic what must be the best legal argument for school vouchers: "Why are children from impoverished families ineligible for tuition support if they attend St. Joseph's High School, but...

If you think we have problems ... Japan's inferior university system.
September 1, 2002... After more than 12 years of living and teaching in Japan, I'm still amazed at the plethora of myths and cliches surrounding Japanese culture. Perhaps the most egregiously false of these perceptions is that of Japan's "superior" educational...

A reunion. (In real life: first-person America).(Brief Article)
September 1, 2002... We were best friends in grade school. True best friends--the kind where you're virtually inseparable, and, if alone, classmates asked, Where's the other? Spending the night at each other's homes was the greatest treat. Her name was Andrea. ...

School's out! (Flashback).(Brief Article)
September 1, 2002... As the dog days of summer stretch out in all their yawning glory, you may be sure that somewhere, a man with an advanced degree and a mean streak is muttering under furrowed brow, "Why aren't those kids in school?" The average length of...

Patriot practitioner. (Working Lunch).(Brief Article)(Interview)
September 1, 2002... World War II Navy veteran, scholar of Constitutional law and political philosophy, prolific author, patriot, and gentleman--those are just a few terms to describe AEI's old-school resident scholar Walter Berns. Mr. Berns sat down with TAE...

How the celebrity cult might keep movie stars real. (Now Playing).(Simone)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2002... The two prescient movies that have sprung from the mind of filmmaker Andrew Niccol--Gattaca and The Truman Show--both celebrate the spirit of the individual. His latest picture, Simone, satirizes that spirit's antithesis: the cult of celebrity....

Wealth for the lazy. (the University Economist).
September 1, 2002... An alien explorer might stumble upon tiny Oberlin College near Cleveland, Ohio and be astonished by what he sees. The school has a collection of Steinway pianos that is the largest in the world and an art collection that includes masterpieces...

The new faith. (Book Talk).(Economics as Religion: From Samuelson to Chicago and Beyond)
September 1, 2002... Economics as Religion: From Samuelson to Chicago and Beyond By Robert H. Nelson Penn State University Press, 378 pages, $35 The House of Bishops of the Episcopal Church offered the following opinion on the cause of the September 11 attacks:...

Red harvest. (Book Talk).(Selected Letters of Dashiell Hammett: 1921-1960)
September 1, 2002... Selected Letters of Dashiell Hammett: 1921-1960 Edited by Richard Layman and Julie M. Rivett Counterpoint Press, 650 pages, $25 In March of 1947, Dashiell Hammett, author of such classics of mystery fiction as The Maltese Falcon and The...

Global pop. (Book Talk).(Gilligan Unbound: Pop Culture in the Age of Globalization)
September 1, 2002... Gilligan Unbound: Pop Culture in the Age of Globalization By Paul Cantor Rowman & Littlefield, 255 pages, $27.95 Gilligan Unbound, Paul Cantor's smart, lighthearted analysis of American TV's attitudes toward globalization, is not the sort...

Should public universities seek profits? (Society).(Brief Article)
September 1, 2002... David Kirp and Patrick Roberts, "Mr. Jefferson's University Breaks Up" in The Public Interest (Summer 2002), 1112 16th St. N.W., Washington, D.C. 20036 In the search for better ways to run public universities, many have suggested allowing...

Let the market fight terror. (Society).(Brief Article)
September 1, 2002... Eli Lehrer, "The Case for a Private National Identity System," The Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, 1020 19th Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20036 In the wake of September 11, proposals for national identity cards--all-purpose...

Less support for big government. (Politics).(Brief Article)
September 1, 2002... G. Calvin Mackenzie and Judith Labiner, "Opportunity Lost: The Rise and Fall of Trust and Confidence in Government After September 11," The Brookings Institution, 1775 Massachusetts Avenue N.W., Washington, D.C. 20036 After the Watergate...

A new attack on malaria? (Science And Environment).(Brief Article)
September 1, 2002... Junitsu Ito et al., "Transgenic Anopheline Mosquitoes Impaired in Transmission of a Malaria Parasite," in Nature (No. 6887), 4 Crinan Street, London, England N1 9XW Malaria kills anywhere from 1 to 3 million people a year, almost all in...

Pot makes you stupid. (Science And Environment).(Brief Article)
September 1, 2002... Nadia Solowij, et al., "The Long-Term Negative Effects of Cannabis Use" in Journal of the American Medical Association (March 6, 2002), 515 N. State Street, Chicago, Illinois 60610 Many drug legalization proponents believe that marijuana...

Allow organ selling. (Economics And Business).(Brief Article)
September 1, 2002... David Kaserman and A. H. Barnett, The U.S. Organ Procurement System: A Prescription for Reform, American Enterprise Institute, 1150 17th Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20036 Since the mid 1980s, the federal government has outlawed any...

The path to Anglosphere. (Other Countries).(relations between the United States and the United Kingdom)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2002... Robin Harris, "The State of the Special Relationship," in Policy Review, (June/July 2002), 818 Connecticut Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20006 A former top aide to Margaret Thatcher finds that the recent goodwill between the U.S. and the...

Russia builds a legal system. (Other Countries).(Brief Article)
September 1, 2002... Leon Aron, "Russia Reinvents the Rule of Law" in Russian Outlook, American Enterprise Institute, 1150 17th Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20036 A EI scholar Leon Aron finds a wealth of heartening changes in the Russian legal system. Under...

The higher education imperative. (Opinion Pulse).(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
September 1, 2002... More than 60 percent of Americans say that being able to go to college or provide a college education for their children is what the American Dream is all about, and three quarters say getting a college degree is more important than it was ten...

Where the girls are. (Opinion Pulse).(higher education for women)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
September 1, 2002... They're on college campuses pursuing advanced degrees in record numbers while young men are lagging behind. Young women appear to be working harder in high school than are young men and getting better grades. Fifty-five percent of freshmen...

College students' attitudes. (Opinion Pulse).(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
September 1, 2002... For years, conservatives have complained about the political views of faculty members, particularly those in the humanities. But faculty attitudes haven't radicalized students. The number of college freshmen who consider themselves far left or...

The mail.
September 1, 2002... In "Wimps, Whiners, and Weenies: Men in Movies Today," (July/August), Don Feder lists lots of wimps. But his list of "real men" leaves out Charlton Heston, a major star who has sacrificed a great deal to defend the Second Amendment. He's a...

Last gasp.
September 1, 2002... "I've always wanted a place unspoiled by man, except us of course..." "I'm flying a kite." It's two sizes too big but it fits. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]