National Review articles from April 2008

National Review archives from April 2008

Heavenly diction.(letters to the editor)(Letter to the editor)(Brief article)
April 7, 2008... In response to William F. Buckley's death, you write, "Let's pray they have a dictionary in Heaven" ("The Week," March 24). With respect, the Lord God has no need of one--he invented them. Did he not call his eternally begotten son "the Word"?...

Replace a hymen, save a life.(letters to the editor)(Letter to the editor)(Brief article)
April 7, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] In his February 25 column, Mark Steyn notes--flippantly--that the British National Health Service now funds hymen replacements for young Muslim women ("Would You Like a Hymen with That?"). He quotes an "expert" as...

Enough about "equality".(letters to the editor)(Letter to the editor)(Brief article)
April 7, 2008... In "A More Equal Capitalism" (February 25) Jim Manzi offers many sensible recommendations. But I scratched my head over his claims about equality. He argues that "if inequality becomes sufficiently extreme it undermines the social support...

Corrections.(Correction notice)
April 7, 2008... In our March 10 issue, the poem "You Are Not Other Men" was identified as the work of Robert Mezey. It is actually Mr. Mezey's translation of a poem by Jorge Luis Borges. Additionally, our March 24 issue misspelled Danilo Petranovich's...

On the bright side.(The Week)(Brief article)
April 7, 2008... On the bright side, he didn't invest that $80,000 in Bear Stearns.

John McCain won the Republican presidential primaries by running as a pro-life Reagan Republican, committed to low taxes and a strong defense.(The Week)(Brief article)
April 7, 2008... John McCain won the Republican presidential primaries by running as a pro-life Reagan Republican, committed to low taxes and a strong defense. We assume that he will therefore pick a running mate who shares these views and whom conservatives...

A gaffe, Michael Kinsley taught us, is not saying something false, but saying something true that no one wishes to acknowledge.(The Week)(Brief article)
April 7, 2008... A gaffe, Michael Kinsley taught us, is not saying something false, but saying something true that no one wishes to acknowledge. Former vice-presidential candidate Geraldine Ferraro, who now backs Hillary Clinton, said: "If Obama was a white...

The Democrats' difficulty in choosing a presidential nominee is the product of two characteristic decisions.(The Week)(Brief article)
April 7, 2008... The Democrats' difficulty in choosing a presidential nominee is the product of two characteristic decisions. In the name of fairness, they adopted proportional representation: none of the "winner take all" business that plutocratic Republicans...

Former House speaker Denny Hastert stepped down from his seat in the middle of his term, and picked a weak candidate, dairy magnate Jim Oberweis, to run for it.(The Week)(Brief article)
April 7, 2008... Former House speaker Denny Hastert stepped down from his seat in the middle of his term, and picked a weak candidate, dairy magnate Jim Oberweis, to run for it. Oberweis had already lost three statewide races in Illinois in this decade. Now he...

Two years ago, Alaska's Sarah Palin came out of nowhere to swipe the GOP nomination from Frank Murkowski, the unpopular incumbent Republican governor.(The Week)(Brief article)
April 7, 2008... Two years ago, Alaska's Sarah Palin came out of nowhere to swipe the GOP nomination from Frank Murkowski, the unpopular incumbent Republican governor. She went on to a general-election victory and is occasionally even discussed, in some...

Al-Qaeda trains its terrorists to resist known interrogation tactics, so the United States has a national-security interest in keeping such tactics secret.(The Week)(Brief article)
April 7, 2008... Al-Qaeda trains its terrorists to resist known interrogation tactics, so the United States has a national-security interest in keeping such tactics secret. Congressional Democrats, however, tried to make the country's techniques quite literally...

President Bush and our intelligence agencies want to go after terrorists abroad.(The Week)(Brief article)
April 7, 2008... President Bush and our intelligence agencies want to go after terrorists abroad. The Democrats and their trial-lawyer partners seem as interested in going after American businesses that have cooperated in good faith with anti-terrorism...

Adm. William Fallon resigned as head of U.S. Central Command, having served less than a year in the post with responsibility for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.(The Week)(Brief article)
April 7, 2008... Adm. William Fallon resigned as head of U.S. Central Command, having served less than a year in the post with responsibility for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. He explained, "The current embarrassing situation, public perception of...

For all their happy talk about improving diplomatic relations with America's traditional allies, Democrats didn't hesitate to go ballistic after the Pentagon awarded a big contract for Air Force refueling tankers to Northrop Grumman and a European partner rather than to Boeing.(The Week)(Brief article)
April 7, 2008... For all their happy talk about improving diplomatic relations with America's traditional allies, Democrats didn't hesitate to go ballistic after the Pentagon awarded a big contract for Air Force refueling tankers to Northrop Grumman and a...

This year's budget battles will look similar to last year's.(The Week)(Brief article)
April 7, 2008... This year's budget battles will look similar to last year's. Once again, the most pressing concern will be funding the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. The war supplemental will again be unpopular with both parties. Republicans and conservative...

Democrats are facing a party litmus test on immigration.(The Week)(Brief article)
April 7, 2008... Democrats are facing a party litmus test on immigration. Freshman Democratic congressman Heath Shuler has authored a piece of legislation known as the SAVE Act, which would add 8,000 border-patrol agents and within four years mandate that...

"Protest--[the] peaceful way [to] express their deep resentment--is a right," said the Dalai Lama, after protests in his native Tibet left 80 dead (China put the death toll at 16).(The Week)(Brief article)
April 7, 2008... "Protest--[the] peaceful way [to] express their deep resentment--is a right," said the Dalai Lama, after protests in his native Tibet left 80 dead (China put the death toll at 16). Peaceful protest may be a right in nature, and in the eye of...

China's "liberalized" economy allows some market mechanisms to operate, but it is still dominated by the corrupt leadership of the People's Liberation Army and various tentacles of the Communist Party.(The Week)(Brief article)
April 7, 2008... China's "liberalized" economy allows some market mechanisms to operate, but it is still dominated by the corrupt leadership of the People's Liberation Army and various tentacles of the Communist Party. So investors must have been scratching...

'Govern me!' he cried.
April 7, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] 'NEVER do I want to hear again from my conservative friends about how brilliant capitalists are... and how government should keep its hands off the private economy." So proclaimed the Washington Post's E. J. Dionne...

The Cuban government sent a soccer team to Florida.(The Week)
April 7, 2008... The Cuban government sent a soccer team to Florida. Seven members of that team promptly sought asylum. Cubans tend to do this, when they get a chance. They can't vote in free elections at home, so they vote with their feet. They vote when they...

Charles Taylor, president of Liberia from 1997 to 2003, is on trial for war crimes before a U.N.(The Week)(Brief article)
April 7, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Charles Taylor, president of Liberia from 1997 to 2003, is on trial for war crimes before a U.N. special court sitting in The Hague. Some of the testimony has been very gruesome. A certain Joseph "Zigzag" Marzah, for...

Cherish the name of Wafa Sultan, follow what this lady says and does: She's a true fighter for freedom.(The Week)(Brief article)
April 7, 2008... Cherish the name of Wafa Sultan, follow what this lady says and does: She's a true fighter for freedom. Originally from Syria, and a Sunni Muslim, she is now a psychiatrist in California, thus perfectly placed to assess both the world of Islam...

When the city council of Berkeley, Calif., declared Marine Corps recruiters unwelcome, the resolution attracted much criticism, and rightly so.(The Week)(Brief article)
April 7, 2008... When the city council of Berkeley, Calif., declared Marine Corps recruiters unwelcome, the resolution attracted much criticism, and rightly so. Yet there are even worse ways to propound such views, one of which was recently on display when the...

When the United Methodist Church kicks off its general assembly this month, one of the notable items on its agenda will be a vote on economic sanctions against Israel.(The Week)(Brief article)
April 7, 2008... When the United Methodist Church kicks off its general assembly this month, one of the notable items on its agenda will be a vote on economic sanctions against Israel. Notwithstanding the abundance of cruel despots who have come and gone during...

Clever marketers have long understood that the more something costs, the better people assume it must be.(The Week)(Brief article)
April 7, 2008... Clever marketers have long understood that the more something costs, the better people assume it must be. For an example of one such customer, look no farther than Eliot Spitzer. Now researchers from Duke and MIT have found that the placebo...

An eighth-grader in New Haven, Conn., was suspended when one of his classmates sold him a pack of Skittles, the bright-colored, fruit-flavored, endlessly delicious candy.(The Week)(Brief article)
April 7, 2008... An eighth-grader in New Haven, Conn., was suspended when one of his classmates sold him a pack of Skittles, the bright-colored, fruit-flavored, endlessly delicious candy. The lad was further stripped of the title of class vice president and...

One of the more amusing features of campaign-finance transparency is that it reveals the political biases of our nation's higher-education institutions.(The Week)(Brief article)
April 7, 2008... One of the more amusing features of campaign-finance transparency is that it reveals the political biases of our nation's higher-education institutions. "All Princeton faculty members who have given to 2008 presidential candidates so far have...

Antoine de Saint-Exupery was the French answer to Charles Lindbergh, a pilot whose feats became so legendary that he was known familiarly as Saint-Ex.(The Week)(Brief biography)(Brief article)
April 7, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Antoine de Saint-Exupery was the French answer to Charles Lindbergh, a pilot whose feats became so legendary that he was known familiarly as Saint-Ex. As a young man between the wars, he flew the mails across the...

Playwright David Mamet wrote an election-season piece for the Village Voice, provocatively titled "Why I Am No Longer a 'Brain-Dead Liberal.'".(The Week)(Brief article)
April 7, 2008... Playwright David Mamet wrote an election-season piece for the Village Voice, provocatively titled "Why I Am No Longer a 'Brain-Dead Liberal.'" "Brain-dead liberal" was the moniker he had been applying to himself in interior monologues--even as...

Is Prospect Bend, Fla., ready for democracy?(The Week)(Brief article)
April 7, 2008... Is Prospect Bend, Fla., ready for democracy? Perhaps not. A March 11 referendum was held to decide whether the unincorporated community would be merged with neighboring Tamarac. Government officials, worried that Prospect Bend's population of...

In 1957, Arthur C. Clarke wrote a short story in which an astronaut on an orbiting space station happens to glimpse the dead wreckage of an alien spacecraft pass by.(The Week)(In memoriam)(Brief article)
April 7, 2008... In 1957, Arthur C. Clarke wrote a short story in which an astronaut on an orbiting space station happens to glimpse the dead wreckage of an alien spacecraft pass by. Nobody else sees the wreck and there is no chance the astronaut will see it...

Averting a crisis.(THE ECONOMY)(financial crisis)
April 7, 2008... THE journalistic consensus of the moment is that we are in the middle of an economic crisis. But it is not clear that we are even in a recession. It is worth remembering that financial commentators have predicted ten of the last four...

Five years later.(AT WAR)(Iraq war)
April 7, 2008... THE horrors and disappointments of the war in Iraq should not make us forget how dangerous an Iraq with Saddam Hussein still in power would be. One of the modern world's cruelest and most repressive dictators, Saddam remained determined to...

A mighty leap.(POLITICS)
April 7, 2008... SAM PATCH was an early-American daredevil who drew huge crowds to watch him jump into river gorges at waterfalls. Barack Obama is attempting the highest leap of his career in his efforts to explain his former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright....

Fall of the graceless.(POLITICS II)(Eliot Spitzer)
April 7, 2008... NONE of former New York governor Eliot Spitzer's colleagues mourned his passing; their dislike helped grease his fall. One reason Bill Clinton toughed out the Lewinsky crisis was that he went into it with 60 percent approval ratings and cordial...

A trip down south: in which our heroes visit Antarctica.(ESSAY)(Barry Goldwater)(Travel narrative)
April 7, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] BARRY GOLDWATER traveled everywhere, and one time we found ourselves together in a remote place. I was less surprised to see the 1964 Republican candidate for president in Christchurch, New Zealand, eight years after...

Unknown quantity: are the Democrats gambling a mystery man?(2008 )(Barack Obama )
April 7, 2008... IN the past two weeks, Barack Obama has not looked like his familiar self on the campaign trail. The grand, inspirational calls to hope before large crowds have grown less frequent, and a new kind of Obama performance has debuted: the...

Oh no you can't: amateur propagandists in the YouTube age.(2008 II)
April 7, 2008... IT'S difficult to remember, I know, but not too long ago, before computers and word-processing software, hopeful screenwriters had to type their scripts on a typewriter. It was a frustrating pain in the neck, frankly, because the professional...

The power of 41: senator McConnell fights for the filibuster.(CONGRESS)(Mitch McConnell)
April 7, 2008... MITCH MCCONNELL, the Kentucky Republican who leads his party in the Senate, has a number on his mind. It's not 51, the number of Republican senators he would need to become the Senate majority leader. It's 41. If he can count on 41 senators to...

Dead end: the heartbreaking realities of today's Israel.
April 7, 2008... Jerusalem ISRAEL'S enemies have always wished to destroy it, of course, but what's new this time is that they are avoiding the set-piece battles that lost them all previous wars, and are instead elaborating the tactics of terror. Islamist...

Of governors and call girls: some thoughts upon Eliot Spitzer's downfall.
April 7, 2008... NO doubt it signifies a mixture of moral frivolity and profound lack of sexual imagination, but one of the first questions that occurred to me when I read of Gov. Eliot Spitzer's involvement with a high-class (or perhaps I should say expensive)...

Let us now praise No. 4: the greatness of Brett Favre.(PEOPLE)
April 7, 2008... BRETT FAVRE paused for just a moment before getting up. He was on his back looking skyward near the Minnesota Vikings' 40-yard line, with his feet on the ground in front of him and his legs bent slightly. The elbows of the white long-sleeved...

The Limits of hope: Obama is selling heaven, but his product isn't new.(Obama Barack)
April 7, 2008... MY colleague Kate O'Beirne once told me the story of her brief meeting with Pope John Paul II at the Vatican. The O'Beirne family met the pontiff at his private Mass. He chatted pleasantly with her sons about soccer and whatnot, and then moved...

'He's no Jeb Bush': Charlie Crist--ambiguous conservative, potential vice president.(THE NATION)(Biography)
April 7, 2008... WHEN the Florida legislature finished its spring session last year, Republican governor Charlie Crist hailed lawmakers for what he considered their most important accomplishment: "You put the nail in the coffin this afternoon on the industry...

The buckeye stops here: it's not foreigners who are hurting Ohio's economy.
April 7, 2008... Cincinnati, Ohio 'WHAT about that pillow?" I ask Standard Textile CEO Gary Heiman, pointing to an inviting cushion lying on a metal table amid a pile of multicolored scraps and samples. Heiman nods, and the grinning VP in charge of product...

Florian's world: on the writer and director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, maker of The Lives of Others.(PEOPLE II)(Biography)
April 7, 2008... TWO years ago, something extraordinary appeared: a movie called The Lives of Others, or, in its original German, Das Leben der Anderen. It was a great movie, a genuine artistic achievement. But it was also something even rarer: an honest,...

Help!!!!(Cartoon)
April 7, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] "He thinks Hillary Clinton is hiding under his bed." [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] "Okay, pal--time to give something back to the community." [ILLUSTRATIONS OMITTED]

The long view.
April 7, 2008... Excerpts from: The Collected Sermons of Jeremiah Wrighte, Parson of the Angry Lord Church of Somerstowne, Massachusetts 1775-1798, Informal Spiritual Adviser to Presidents and Governors. January 22, 1775: God bleff America? More...

The big empty and a silver voice.(books, arts & manners)(Norman Mailer and Saul Bellow)(Essay)
April 7, 2008... NORMAN MAILER died in New York City in November 2007, about two and a half years after the death of Saul Bellow in Boston in April 2005. They were probably the two most prominent American novelists since World War II. At first sight, and at the...

Put paid to said.(Defending the West: A Critique of Edward Said's Orientalism)(Book review)
April 7, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Defending the West: A Critique of Edward Said's Orientalism, by Ibn Warraq (Prometheus, 556 pp., $29.95) A YEAR or two ago I went to an extremely interesting exhibition in Birmingham (England) of 19th-century...

Snowflake.(Poem)(Brief article)
April 7, 2008... SNOWFLAKE Timing's everything. The vapor rises high in the sky, tossing to and fro, then freezes, suddenly, and crystalizes into a perfect flake of miraculous snow. For countless miles, drifting east above the...

The full history.(Sanctifying the World: The Augustinian Life and Mind of Christopher Dawson)(Book review)
April 7, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Sanctifying the World: The Augustinian Life and Mind of Christopher Dawson, by Bradley J. Birzer (Christendom, 300 pp., $30) RUSSELL KIRK said that the modern conservative "is concerned, first of all, for the...

Shelf life.(The Faithful Departed: The Collapse of Boston's Catholic Culture)(Book review)
April 7, 2008... IN 1935, a simple declaration by the cardinal archbishop of Boston was enough to doom what was otherwise a very popular bill establishing a state lottery. In Massachusetts today, a majority-Catholic state legislature defies the leadership of...

March mischief.(FILM)(The Bank Job)(Movie review)
April 7, 2008... T. S. ELIOT picked April, but as far as moviegoers are concerned, March is the cruelest month. The weeks immediately after the New Year are the traditional dumping ground for the worst of Hollywood's dross, but unless you're a critic (or a true...

A rumor of angels.(THE STRAGGLER)(Personal account)
April 7, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] WE are five: Dad, Mom, daughter, son, son's friend. The kids have reached the age where they would rather be boiled in oil than be seen in company with their parents, so on this ski lift, with seats three across, all...

States of the mindless.(happy warrior)(Essay)
April 7, 2008... THERE was a sad little interview in the New York Times the other day. Carmen Pelaez is a playwright and, therefore, a liberal, but she's also a Cuban-American, and she was a little disappointed in her ideological soulmates' reaction to her...

Undisciplined petition.(letters to the editor)(Letter to the editor)
April 21, 2008... You note in your April 7 issue ("The Week") that the upcoming United Methodist Church General Conference will consider a petition for economic sanctions on Israel. But there's rather less here than meets the eye. There are more than 1,500...

Oblasphemy?(Letter to the editor)
April 21, 2008... I cannot imagine how a magazine that carries advertisements for socially responsible Catholic investing, and for DVDs from Ignatius Press, can have a cover on which Barack Obama is compared--however satirically--to Christ (April 7, "Behold, a...

In Favre we hope.(letters to the editor)(Letter to the editor)
April 21, 2008... NATIONAL REVIEW always provokes, but reading the articles of Jonah Goldberg and Stephen F. Hayes back to back staggered me ("The Limits of Hope" and "Let Us Now Praise No. 4," April 7). I'm ready to believe Mr. Goldberg's argument that utopian...

Missing pages.(letters to the editor)(Letter to the editor)
April 21, 2008... The saddest moment came later than I expected. After perusing the March 24 issue devoted to WFB, I hoped my pensiveness was over. But the arrival of your April 7 issue prompted my habitual immediate dive into the back of the magazine, in search...

If she really wants to know what it's like to land under fire.(The Week)
April 21, 2008... If she really wants to know what it's like to land under fire, she could always ask Senator McCain.

John McCain is reintroducing himself to the American public by telling people his biography.(The Week)(Brief article)
April 21, 2008... John McCain is reintroducing himself to the American public by telling people his biography. His military service and his endurance as a POW reflect great credit upon him, and should be better known. McCain is right to resist the cynics who say...

If Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton have their way, though, the public will think McCain's chief campaign proposal is to wage "100 years of war" in Iraq.(The Week)(Barack Obama; John McCain)
April 21, 2008... If Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton have their way, though, the public will think McCain's chief campaign proposal is to wage "100 years of war" in Iraq. McCain said at a New Hampshire town-hall meeting in January that if Americans aren't...

"I remember landing under sniper fire. There was supposed to be some kind of a greeting ceremony at the airport, but instead we just ran with our heads down to get into the vehicles.".(The Week)(Brief article)
April 21, 2008... "I remember landing under sniper fire. There was supposed to be some kind of a greeting ceremony at the airport, but instead we just ran with our heads down to get into the vehicles." So Hillary Clinton recently described landing in Tuzla,...

But it is also true that Clinton has won nearly as many votes, and nearly as many delegates, as Barack Obama.(The Week)(Hillary Clinton)(Brief article)
April 21, 2008... But it is also true that Clinton has won nearly as many votes, and nearly as many delegates, as Barack Obama. While the remaining primaries are highly unlikely to give her a lead in delegates, he is unlikely to have an outright majority. Under...

Heath Shuler, a Democratic congressman from North Carolina, has introduced a bill to get serious about fighting illegal immigration.(The Week)(Brief article)
April 21, 2008... Heath Shuler, a Democratic congressman from North Carolina, has introduced a bill to get serious about fighting illegal immigration. Nancy Pelosi and company are refusing to hold a vote on it, since it would probably pass. Republicans have...

When you buy something with a Visa or MasterCard, the credit-card company gets a portion of the proceeds.(The Week)(Brief article)
April 21, 2008... When you buy something with a Visa or MasterCard, the credit-card company gets a portion of the proceeds. Usually it is less than 2 percent. Merchants consent to paying this fee in return for the benefits they get from accepting credit cards:...

New York is a "sanctuary city.".(The Week)(Brief article)
April 21, 2008... New York is a "sanctuary city." Mayor Michael Bloomberg's Executive Order 41 forbids city employees from reporting an illegal immigrant to federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents unless the immigrant has committed other...

Who would have thought that the Bush administration would err by being too soft in a death-penalty case?(The Week)(Brief article)
April 21, 2008... Who would have thought that the Bush administration would err by being too soft in a death-penalty case? But that is what happened in Medellin v. Texas, in which the administration sided with Mexican murderers over the American courts that...

Deviant economics.
April 21, 2008... BARACK OBAMA and Hillary Clinton spend a lot of time railing against the Bush tax cuts. Listen to their stump speeches on the topic and you come away with the sense that President Bush, with his irresponsible cuts, has nearly bankrupted the...

Lenin is sometimes credited with coining the term "useful idiots" to describe Westerners who unwittingly collaborated with the Soviet Union.(The Week)(Brief article)
April 21, 2008... Lenin is sometimes credited with coining the term "useful idiots" to describe Westerners who unwittingly collaborated with the Soviet Union. Perhaps it's time to pull that Cold War phrase out of retirement and apply it to the current conflict....

Saddam Hussein's Iraq cooperated with jihadist groups, including al-Qaeda affiliates.(The Week)(Brief article)
April 21, 2008... Saddam Hussein's Iraq cooperated with jihadist groups, including al-Qaeda affiliates. So concludes the Iraqi Perspectives Project, a Pentagon-commissioned analysis based on 600,000 documents captured by coalition forces since the March 2003...

In a five-minute puppet drama aired on Hamas TV in the Gaza Strip, a little Palestinian boy confronts President Bush.(The Week)(Brief article)
April 21, 2008... In a five-minute puppet drama aired on Hamas TV in the Gaza Strip, a little Palestinian boy confronts President Bush. "You killed Daddy in Iraq," sobs the lad. "You and the criminal Zionists killed her [my mother] in Lebanon." The boy then...

The PR debacle of the Beijing Olympics deepens and deepens.(The Week)(public relation)(Brief article)
April 21, 2008... The PR debacle of the Beijing Olympics deepens and deepens. The world tour of the Olympic torch is to be shadowed by pro-Tibetan demonstrators. Meanwhile, German chancellor Angela Merkel became the third leader to announce that she would not...

Geert Wilders, an anti-immigration Dutch politician, put together a 15-minute film, Fitna (Arabic for "ordeal" or "civil strife"), on the unpeaceful nature of the religion of peace.(The Week)(Brief article)
April 21, 2008... Geert Wilders, an anti-immigration Dutch politician, put together a 15-minute film, Fitna (Arabic for "ordeal" or "civil strife"), on the unpeaceful nature of the religion of peace. Shots of imams making bloodthirsty statements are intercut...

During Easter vigil at St. Peter's Basilica, Pope Benedict XVI received Magdi Allam, an Egyptian-born Italian journalist, into the Catholic Church.(The Week)(Brief article)
April 21, 2008... During Easter vigil at St. Peter's Basilica, Pope Benedict XVI received Magdi Allam, an Egyptian-born Italian journalist, into the Catholic Church. Allam, a non-practicing Muslim, had become a critic of suicide bombers and a defender of Israel;...

In the course of pursuing terrorists, Colombian forces have made some interesting finds: 66 pounds of uranium and three laptop computers, all belonging to the Marxist crime syndicate known by its Spanish acronym, "FARC.".(The Week)(Brief article)
April 21, 2008... In the course of pursuing terrorists, Colombian forces have made some interesting finds: 66 pounds of uranium and three laptop computers, all belonging to the Marxist crime syndicate known by its Spanish acronym, "FARC." The destination of the...

As we write, the results of Zimbabwe's March 29 election are still uncertain.(The Week)(Brief article)
April 21, 2008... As we write, the results of Zimbabwe's March 29 election are still uncertain. There is good circumstantial evidence that nation-wrecker Robert Mugabe's party was easily defeated by that of his main rival, Morgan Tsvangirai. But as Stalin is...

The French may have a reputation for avoiding military confrontation, but recently Nicolas Sarkozy expressed a willingness to stand up to radical Islam: he pledged to send additional French soldiers (reports suggest that the number will be 1,000) to NATO's efforts in Afghanistan.(The Week)(Brief article)
April 21, 2008... The French may have a reputation for avoiding military confrontation, but recently Nicolas Sarkozy expressed a willingness to stand up to radical Islam: He pledged to send additional French soldiers (reports suggest that the number will be...

Sarkozy's two-day visit to Britain went off exceptionally well, leading the more serious kind of British commentator to talk of a new Entente cordiale.(The Week)(Brief article)
April 21, 2008... Sarkozy's two-day visit to Britain went off exceptionally well, leading the more serious kind of British commentator to talk of a new Entente cordiale. Less serious commentators divided into the cynical and the frivolous. The cynical faction...

It is an old theme, coming up again and again: if Middle Eastern elites believe or peddle bizarre or hateful stuff, what chance does the man on the street have?(The Week)(Brief article)
April 21, 2008... It is an old theme, coming up again and again: If Middle Eastern elites believe or peddle bizarre or hateful stuff, what chance does the man on the street have? The other day, Abdullah al-Ashaal went on TV. He is not your typical rabble-rouser...

Christopher Hitchens took a swing at the Rev. Jeremiah Wright and his recently conflicted acolyte, Barack Obama.(The Week)(Brief article)
April 21, 2008... Christopher Hitchens took a swing at the Rev. Jeremiah Wright and his recently conflicted acolyte, Barack Obama. As he usually does, he swung hard. Wright's dicta are "wicked and stupid and false," and Obama's "smooth apologetics" are...

Wright has made a timely retirement from his ministry.(The Week)(Brief article)
April 21, 2008... Wright has made a timely retirement from his ministry. Since his church emphasizes--we quote from its website--a "black value system" with a "commitment to the black community" and a "disavowal of the pursuit of 'middleclassness,'" you would...

Google went "dark"--but did it matter?(The Week)(Google Inc.)(Brief article)
April 21, 2008... Google went "dark"--but did it matter? With its famous slogan, "Don't Be Evil," the company has worked hard to portray itself as the warm-and-cuddly techno-juggernaut, the anti-Microsoft, and its participation in "Earth Hour" is a triumph of...