National Review articles from August 2008

National Review archives from August 2008

Divisive optimism.(letters to the editor)(Letter to the editor)
August 4, 2008... In his review of Pat Buchanan's book Churchill, Hitler, and the Unnecessary War ("Sorry, No," June 30) David Pryce-Jones lists among Churchill's mistakes "the 1922 partition of Transjordan." Sorry, no. What Churchill partitioned (in 1921) was...

Dismal arithmetic.(letters to the editor)(Letter to the editor)
August 4, 2008... I was a bit confused reading "Nobody Home" (July 14). In the first paragraph, Kevin A. Hassett writes, "There are currently 129 million homes in the United States, and 18.5 million are empty." That would mean that about 14 percent of all homes...

Sounds of Babel.(letters to the editor)(Letter to the editor)
August 4, 2008... I am sure that the ladies and gentlemen who wrote the "Week" columns of the July 14 issue are learned, intelligent journalists. But they should not assume everyone has taken French or Latin--I hold an M.S. in education, but never have. ...

On the other hand, Reverend Jackson.(THE WEEK)
August 4, 2008... On the other hand, Reverend Jackson, that might have improved the Clinton administration.

John McCain's economic plan heavily emphasizes growth, competitiveness, investment, and spending restraint.(The Week)(Brief article)
August 4, 2008... John McCain's economic plan heavily emphasizes growth, competitiveness, investment, and spending restraint. He would cut the corporate tax, eliminate the Alternative Minimum Tax, and keep the Bush tax cuts. He would let young people invest some...

Phil Gramm, a top adviser to McCain, said that we are in a "mental recession," not a real one, and that "we have sort of become a nation of whiners.".(The Week)(Brief article)
August 4, 2008... Phil Gramm, a top adviser to McCain, said that we are in a "mental recession," not a real one, and that "we have sort of become a nation of whiners." He later clarified, reasonably, that he did not mean to suggest the economy was strong and...

Teetering on the edge of another "flip-flop," this time on the Iraq War, Barack Obama reaffirmed his support for a 16-month timetable for withdrawal.(Brief article)
August 4, 2008... Teetering on the edge of another "flip-flop," this time on the Iraq War, Barack Obama reaffirmed his support for a 16-month timetable for withdrawal. Never mind that U.S. commanders on the ground doubt that such a rapid drawdown would even be...

Obama has released his first two national television ads.(Barack Obama)(Brief article)
August 4, 2008... Obama has released his first two national television ads. They are both biographical sketches that describe Obama as a product of midwestern values who worked his way through college and law school and rose to become a legislator passing bills...

Obama said that Americans should worry more about whether their own kids learn Spanish than about whether immigrants' kids learn English.(Brief article)
August 4, 2008... Obama said that Americans should worry more about whether their own kids learn Spanish than about whether immigrants' kids learn English. ("They will," he breezily asserted.) Absent a failed immigration policy, however, there is no great reason...

For a brief moment, it appeared that Obama might be moderating on abortion.(Barack Obama)(Brief article)
August 4, 2008... For a brief moment, it appeared that Obama might be moderating on abortion. He suggested that late-term abortion should be permitted only in cases of threats to the mother's physical health, and not merely to keep her from feeling "blue." If he...

"We cannot continue to rely only on our military in order to achieve the national-security objectives we've set," Obama proclaimed in a recent speech.(Barack Obama)(Brief article)
August 4, 2008... "We cannot continue to rely only on our military in order to achieve the national-security objectives we've set," Obama proclaimed in a recent speech. "We've got to have a civilian national-security force that's just as powerful, just as...

In a TV interview, Barack Obama's children, ages ten and seven, revealed something about their dad: He doesn't like ice cream.(Brief article)
August 4, 2008... In a TV interview, Barack Obama's children, ages ten and seven, revealed something about their dad: He doesn't like ice cream. Need we say or hear more?

Jesse Jackson confided to a hot mike the kind of thought that every politician harbors about at least some of his peers.(Brief article)
August 4, 2008... Jesse Jackson confided to a hot mike the kind of thought that every politician harbors about at least some of his peers: Listen to the Watergate tapes, or read the "Anas" of Thomas Jefferson. Jackson believed Obama had condescended to a black...

Have you ever said anything critical of Obama? Shame on you.(Barack Obama)(Brief article)
August 4, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Have you ever said anything critical of Obama? Shame on you. You might have thought you were simply pointing out his flaws, but in fact you were engaged in "swift boating." The term derives, of course, from the Swift...

When Hall of Fame pitcher Satchel Paige drew up his "Rules for Staying Young," the first item on the list was "Avoid fried meats which angry up the blood.".(The Week)(Brief article)
August 4, 2008... When Hall of Fame pitcher Satchel Paige drew up his "Rules for Staying Young," the first item on the list was "Avoid fried meats which angry up the blood." The host committee for this year's Democratic convention took that advice to heart,...

The U.S. government's implicit guarantee of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac appears to have finally come due.(Brief article)
August 4, 2008... The U.S. government's implicit guarantee of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac appears to have finally come due. Policymakers are taking steps to prevent the mortgage giants from collapsing. The Federal Reserve has offered access to its discount...

President Bush signed a surveillance-reform bill that the Democrat-controlled Congress, after a shamefully acrimonious three-year onslaught, passed overwhelmingly.(George W. Bush)(Brief article)
August 4, 2008... President Bush signed a surveillance-reform bill that the Democrat-controlled Congress, after a shamefully acrimonious three-year onslaught, passed overwhelmingly. The overhaul streamlines the process for court approval of wiretapping (and...

We admired President Bush's 2003 initiative to invest $15 billion to prevent and treat AIDS in Africa.(THE WEEK)(Brief article)
August 4, 2008... We admired President Bush's 2003 initiative to invest $15 billion to prevent and treat AIDS in Africa. We admired it less when it became a $30 billion initiative at the president's request, and still less when Congress upped the ante to $50...

Hamilton warned against "the propensity of the legislative department to intrude upon the rights, and to absorb the powers, of the other departments.".(THE WEEK)(Brief article)
August 4, 2008... Hamilton warned against "the propensity of the legislative department to intrude upon the rights, and to absorb the powers, of the other departments." The Constitution's framers thus empowered the president with executive prerogatives, lest, as...

The Supreme Court, in holding the death penalty for child rape unconstitutional, found a supposed national consensus against it.(THE WEEK)(Brief article)
August 4, 2008... The Supreme Court, in holding the death penalty for child rape unconstitutional, found a supposed national consensus against it. But Justice Kennedy, the controlling and opinion-writing justice, goofed, not realizing that a recent federal...

Iranian TV has been delivering to its viewers a documentary series on Hollywood--Jewish-Zionist domination of.(THE WEEK)(Brief article)
August 4, 2008... Iranian TV has been delivering to its viewers a documentary series on Hollywood--Jewish-Zionist domination of. And the Middle East Media Research Institute has been reporting on this series to the rest of the world. We have learned very...

On July 8, the Czech Republic agreed to participate in a missile-defense system with the United States.(THE WEEK)(Brief article)
August 4, 2008... On July 8, the Czech Republic agreed to participate in a missile-defense system with the United States. It promised to host a powerful radar that will work in conjunction with at least ten interceptors, probably based in Poland. The goal is to...

Ahmad Batebi is one of the most famous of Iranian dissidents, known to the world ever since The Economist published his picture on its cover, in 1999.(Brief article)
August 4, 2008... Ahmad Batebi is one of the most famous of Iranian dissidents, known to the world ever since The Economist published his picture on its cover, in 1999. He recently escaped Iran, and is living in the United States. The New York Times published an...

Vice trade.(Democratic Party)
August 4, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] SPAGHETTI ALLA PUTTANESCA is one of my least favorite dishes. It's made with olives, anchovies, and capers: three things that should stay out of any red sauce, if you ask me. But I do love the name. It means "whore's...

The Bush administration decided to remove North Korea from its list of terror sponsors, and to lift some economic sanctions against it, in return for details about the plutonium it acquired from the now-shut-down Yongbyon reactor.(THE WEEK)(George W. Bush)(Brief article)
August 4, 2008... The Bush administration decided to remove North Korea from its list of terror sponsors, and to lift some economic sanctions against it, in return for details about the plutonium it acquired from the now-shut-down Yongbyon reactor. And there was...

Following the example of Seoul in 1988, Chinese authorities have banned the sale of dog meat and dishes made from dog for the duration of the Summer Olympics, so as not to offend the sensibilities of visiting foreigners.(THE WEEK)(Brief article)
August 4, 2008... Following the example of Seoul in 1988, Chinese authorities have banned the sale of dog meat and dishes made from dog for the duration of the Summer Olympics, so as not to offend the sensibilities of visiting foreigners. That our sensibilities...

The U.S.-India nuclear-technology accord is barely news in Washington but dominates the headlines in New Delhi, where Prime Minister Manmohan Singh risked the collapse of his government trying to hammer through the accord before George W. Bush hangs up his spurs.(THE WEEK)(Brief article)
August 4, 2008... The U.S.-India nuclear-technology accord is barely news in Washington but dominates the headlines in New Delhi, where Prime Minister Manmohan Singh risked the collapse of his government trying to hammer through the accord before George W. Bush...

The United Nations Security Council has rejected a resolution by the U.S. and the U.K. to impose tougher sanctions on Robert Mugabe, president of Zimbabwe these past 20 years, and key members of his government.(THE WEEK)(Brief article)
August 4, 2008... The United Nations Security Council has rejected a resolution by the U.S. and the U.K. to impose tougher sanctions on Robert Mugabe, president of Zimbabwe these past 20 years, and key members of his government. Actually Mugabe and his men are...

Ingrid Betancourt's ordeal is finally over.(THE WEEK)(Brief article)
August 4, 2008... Ingrid Betancourt's ordeal is finally over. Six years ago, running for office in her native Colombia, she was abducted by FARC, the self-described Marxists who really are nothing but narcoterrorists. Ever since, she has remained a victim,...

Tayside is in Scotland, and its police put out an advertisement for a new telephone number, attracting attention by showing a police cap with a German Shepherd puppy sitting on it.(THE WEEK)(Brief article)
August 4, 2008... Tayside is in Scotland, and its police put out an advertisement for a new telephone number, attracting attention by showing a police cap with a German Shepherd puppy sitting on it. Mohammed Asif is a city official and a member of the Tayside...

A black hole is an object--commonly a collapsed star--so dense that even light cannot escape its gravitational field.(THE WEEK)(Brief article)
August 4, 2008... A black hole is an object--commonly a collapsed star--so dense that even light cannot escape its gravitational field. The term dates from the 1960s; actual black holes have been observed (indirectly, by their effects) since the 1970s. Once the...

When the public-works department of the city of Atlanta needed to dig up a street or erect a utility pole, they put out orange signs with black lettering saying "Men At Work" or "Men Working Ahead.".(THE WEEK)(Brief article)
August 4, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] When the public-works department of the city of Atlanta needed to dig up a street or erect a utility pole, they put out orange signs with black lettering saying "MEN AT WORK" or "MEN WORKING AHEAD." No more: After...

The practice of text messaging on cellphones has added some new abbreviations to the language, not all of them welcome to fastidious users of the English language.(THE WEEK)(Brief article)
August 4, 2008... The practice of text messaging on cellphones has added some new abbreviations to the language, not all of them welcome to fastidious users of the English language. There is nothing much wrong with "lol" for "laugh out loud." Nor is "omg"...

The law, business, and economics faculties at the University of Chicago had a bright idea--actually, a rather obvious one.(THE WEEK)(Brief article)
August 4, 2008... The law, business, and economics faculties at the University of Chicago had a bright idea--actually, a rather obvious one: name a research institute after Milton Friedman. But some 100 professors throughout the university had another idea:...

David H. Koch is a businessman, billionaire, and doer of good deeds.(THE WEEK)(Brief article)
August 4, 2008... David H. Koch is a businessman, billionaire, and doer of good deeds. He is also a libertarian--in fact, a Libertarian. He was the party's vice-presidential nominee in 1980. And he serves on the boards of the Cato Institute and Reason...

Sir John Templeton was one of the world's great stock pickers.(THE WEEK)(Brief article)
August 4, 2008... Sir John Templeton was one of the world's great stock pickers. He used his financial talents to enrich not only himself, but also those who invested with him. As a mutual-fund pioneer, he helped democratize the bounties of capitalism. Yet he...

Back in April 2006, the White House desperately needed Tony Snow.(THE WEEK)(Brief article)
August 4, 2008... Back in April 2006, the White House desperately needed Tony Snow. The war in Iraq was going badly, the CIA leak investigation was a constant irritation, and the president was plummeting in the polls. So one of the first priorities for new chief...

Patricia Buckley Bozell was the seventh of the Buckley children and, as WFB put it, the one with whom he was "paired from infancy.".(THE WEEK)(Obituary)(Brief article)
August 4, 2008... Patricia Buckley Bozell was the seventh of the Buckley children and, as WFB put it, the one with whom he was "paired from infancy." She married Bill's best friend and debating partner from Yale, Brent Bozell, and set about producing a family as...

A right restored.(THE LAW)(right to bear arms)
August 4, 2008... THE Supreme Court struck down the District of Columbia's strict ban on handguns as a violation of the Second Amendment. That amendment, protecting "the right of the people to keep and bear arms," has been one of the two provisions in the Bill...

Jesse Helms, R.I.P.(Obituary)(Brief article)
August 4, 2008... JESSE HELMS began his political career, as one of North Carolina's most popular radio commentators, upholding the politics of segregation. There are second acts in American lives, pace F. Scott Fitzgerald, though in the wake of Helms's death,...

Kick saves in St. Paul: but can Tim Pawlenty put a puck in the naval observatory?(2008)
August 4, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] GROWING up in Minnesota, Tim Pawlenty played a lot of hockey. "I was mostly on defense," he says. Today, as the state's Republican governor, he still skates in pick-up games. Around lunchtime on Fridays in the...

Bench marks: sizing up McCain on judges.(John McCain)
August 4, 2008... TED OLSON has spent much time in the last year reassuring nervous Republicans. The conservative legal star, former solicitor general, and champion of Bush v. Gore headed up Rudy Giuliani's legal-advisory team in the early primaries. Now Olson...

Enforcement at work: the strategy of attrition is bearing fruit.
August 4, 2008... IS immigration enforcement effective? Ask the New York Times: "Children someday will study the Great Immigration Panic of the early 2000s, which harmed countless lives, wasted billions of dollars and mocked the nation's most deeply held...

Hell on a tarmac: it's time to address airport congestion.
August 4, 2008... EVERY frequent flier has his airline horror stories. Delays, missed connections, family members stranded on holidays, lost vacation time. Virtually all observers--from these frustrated passengers to policy wonks--agree that the industry needs...

Tyranny by camera: some thoughts on a pestiferous swarm.(CULTURE WATCH)
August 4, 2008... A FEW years ago, I lived at the beach in Santa Monica. It was a two-storey, rectangular beach house, and in the afternoons I would sit on my balcony, smoke a cigar, sip a bourbon, and watch the sun set over the Pacific. One day, though, I...

Right song, wrong place: 'Lift Ev'ry Voice and Sing' makes the news.
August 4, 2008... 'LIFT EV'RY VOICE AND SING" is one of the best songs in the entire American treasury. It is part gospel song, part traditional hymn, and part anthem. It was written in 1900--and became known as the "Negro national hymn," or the "Negro national...

Lost generation: adoption in America has collapsed; here's what to do about it.(Cover story)
August 4, 2008... ADOPTION is an unexpectedly rare phenomenon in the United States, and that's a supply-side problem. The U.S. is the third-most-populous country in the world, and each year more than a third of our country's 4 million births are to unmarried...

Game plan: should McCain care to win ...(2008 III)(John McCain)
August 4, 2008... EVER since Barack Obama won the Democratic nomination, John McCain has been within five points of him in a weighted average of national polls; lately, he has been within four. Most Republican strategists thought that Obama would be much farther...

Other half-read open-microphone apologies ...(the long view)(Letter to the editor)
August 4, 2008... Dear Mitt: I hesitate to even mention this, because it's really not a big deal, but on a recent episode of Hardball I engaged in some light-hearted banter with Chris Matthews. Unbeknownst to me, my studio microphone was still "hot," as...

Help!
August 4, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] "They're so obvious about it." [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] "WALL-E? It's a movie warning against consumerism." The Candidate of Change I'LL PULL THE TROOPS OUT IN 16 MONTHS [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] ...

One-Nation Conservatism.(Grand New Party: How Republicans Can Win the Working Class and Save the American Dream)(Book review)
August 4, 2008... Grand New Party: How Republicans Can Win the Working Class and Save the American Dream, by Ross Douthat and Reihan Salam (Doubleday, 244 pp., $23.95) [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] BACK in the early 1990s, when globalization was promising...

Still the one.(Book review)
August 4, 2008... The Post-American World, by Fareed Zakaria (Norton, 288 pp., $25.95) [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] THUCYDIDES, Virgil, Toynbee, Macaulay, Gibbon, and other great chroniclers of rising and falling would probably agree that every great state,...

The right remedies.(America's Health Care Crisis Solved: Money-Saving Solutions, Coverage for Everyone)(Book review)
August 4, 2008... America's Health Care Crisis Solved: Money-Saving Solutions, Coverage for Everyone, by J. Patrick Rooney and Dan Perrin (Wiley, 242 pp., $29.95) [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] THE "ownership society"--a key concept of today's conservatism--is...

Swimming pool.(Poem)
August 4, 2008... Just one of those unexpected things in life: he's heading behind the house after school and sees her standing there, someone's wife, undressing over the edge of her swimming pool. Barefoot, she drops her robe to the ground....

The enemy speaks.(The Canons of Jihad: Terrorists' Strategy for Defeating America; A Terrorist's Call to Global Jihad: Deciphering Abu Musab al-Suri's Islamic Jihad Manifesto; Pure Goldwater; Dogmatics, Volume 4: Holy Spirit, Church, and New Creation )(Book review)
August 4, 2008... IN a project sponsored by the U.S. Joint Forces Command, the Naval Institute Press recently released a couple of paperbacks that will be very helpful to anyone trying to understand the war we're in. Both are edited by Jim Lacey, a prominent...

In praise of drabness.(Dragnet)
August 4, 2008... IF you're 50 or older, you won't need to be told the source of these half-recalled phrases: "The story you are about to see is true." "This is the city." "I carry a badge." "My name's Friday." If you're much younger than that, though, I doubt...

A computer, not a divider.(Wall-E)
August 4, 2008... THE most interesting political controversy of the summer involves a polarizing figure with Phil Gramm's small head and goggling eyes, Bill Clinton's affinity for dangerous babes, and an oppo researcher's zeal for picking through other people's...

Distant voices.(THE STRAGGLER)(Voices of History)(Sound recording review)
August 4, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] 'TOVARISHCHI! Grazhdanye! Bratya i syostri! Boitsy nashei armii i flota! K'vam obrashschayus ya, druzya moi..." One listens in fascination to the man's recorded voice, then goes to one's books. Edvard Radzinsky:...

VP questionnaire.(but enough about you)
August 4, 2008... As vice president, my highest priority would be to: A. Support the president's agenda. B. Quietly leak it to leading columnists that I completely disagree with the president's less-popular policies. C. Attend as many funerals of...

Uncharitable Catholics.(letters to the editor)(Letter to the editor)
August 18, 2008... I was both surprised and distressed to learn the following in Kevin D. Williamson's "Lost Generation" (August 4): "Catholic Charities in Massachusetts suspended their adoption activities when the state attempted to force them to abandon...

Not so swift.(Letter to the editor)
August 18, 2008... "The Week" (August 4) says without explanation that "the Swifties got a few things wrong." I would appreciate your telling me about these errors, because there is a large, as-yet-uncollected reward for disproving any of the Swift Boat Vets'...

Clarification.(letters to the editor)(Correction notice)
August 18, 2008... In his article on Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty (August 4), John J. Miller cited a 2006 article from the Star Tribune in which Pawlenty said, "The era of small government is over." The Star Tribune later clarified that Pawlenty was not...

Obama shot a three-pointer.(The Week)(Barack Obama)(Brief article)
August 18, 2008... Obama shot a three-pointer. The list of accomplishments grows.

A reader of ours spotted a bumper sticker: "Faith ... Hope ... Obama.".(The Week)(Brief article)
August 18, 2008... A reader of ours spotted a bumper sticker: "Faith... Hope... Obama." And the greatest of these?

President Bush abandoned his veto threat and signed a housing bill that offers a federal bailout to the lenders and borrowers who helped inflate the housing bubble and now find themselves struggling to stay afloat.(The Week)(Brief article)
August 18, 2008... President Bush abandoned his veto threat and signed a housing bill that offers a federal bailout to the lenders and borrowers who helped inflate the housing bubble and now find themselves struggling to stay afloat. The near-collapse of...

McCain knows whom to blame for the subprime-lending crisis, and he has found him just where Frank Capra would have told him to look.(The Week)(John McCain)(Brief article)
August 18, 2008... McCain knows whom to blame for the subprimelending crisis, and he has found him just where Frank Capra would have told him to look. "Wall Street is the villain," he told George Stephanopoulos. Well, well. The Federal Reserve, and Congress's...

McCain says young people should be allowed to invest some of their Social Security funds, and he wants a bipartisan group to figure out how to make the program solvent.(The Week)(John McCain)(Brief article)
August 18, 2008... McCain says young people should be allowed to invest some of their Social Security funds, and he wants a bipartisan group to figure out how to make the program solvent. Earlier, he said that taxing young people to pay for today's retirees...

With gas at $4 a gallon, plenty of people are announcing that they have the scheme to save us further pain.(The Week)(Brief article)
August 18, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] With gas at $4 a gallon, plenty of people are announcing that they have the scheme to save us further pain. That Al Gore is one of them comes as no surprise; nor does the fact that his plan to move America completely...

Federal Reserve Board chairman Ben Bernanke talked tough about inflation during his two-day testimony before Congress.(The Week)(Brief article)
August 18, 2008... Federal Reserve Board chairman Ben Bernanke talked tough about inflation during his two-day testimony before Congress, but his expressions of doubt about the economy indicated that he thinks it's still too early to raise interest rates. We hope...

Let's see if we've got this straight: Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats want to enact another "economic-stimulus package," yet they remain opposed to long-term tax relief.(The Week)(Brief article)
August 18, 2008... Let's see if we've got this straight: Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats want to enact another "economic-stimulus package," yet they remain opposed to long-term tax relief, they're opposed to cutting the business-tax rate, they're opposed to...

Barack Obama took note of our cover story about his wife ("Mrs. Obama's America," April 21), citing it, in an interview with Glamour, as an instance of "the erosion of civility in our political culture.".(The Week)(Brief article)
August 18, 2008... Barack Obama took note of our cover story about his wife ("Mrs. Obama's America," April 21), citing it, in an interview with Glamour, as an instance of "the erosion of civility in our political culture." Innocent bystanders are not fair game;...

The New York Times published an op-ed on Iraq by Barack Obama.(The Week)(Brief article)
August 18, 2008... The New York Times published an op-ed on Iraq by Barack Obama. John McCain's staff drafted a detailed reply and sent it to the Times, which demanded that it be revised to "mirror Senator Obama's piece." Although that piece was the usual Obama...

Drill, don't redistribute.(The Week)
August 18, 2008... OVER the past two months, consumer sentiment has ebbed to its lowest level in almost 30 years. The drop is at odds with much of the data--economists now believe, for example, that economic growth in the second quarter was around 2 percentage...

PBS anchor Jim Lehrer told MarketWatch.com that he doesn't think the press leans on the side of Barack Obama.(The Week)(Brief article)
August 18, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] PBS anchor Jim Lehrer told MarketWatch.com that he doesn't think the press leans on the side of Barack Obama. "There's an ebb and a flow to the news, and it will dictate how much news coverage there is going to be....

Ward Connerly is trying to put an initiative on Arizona's ballot to ban racial preferences in state contracting, employment, and university admissions.(The Week)(Brief article)
August 18, 2008... Ward Connerly is trying to put an initiative on Arizona's ballot to ban racial preferences in state contracting, employment, and university admissions. McCain has endorsed it, while Obama has called Connerly's efforts "divisive" and said they...

The Supreme Court, in the Boumediene case, invented a constitutional right for our alien enemies to challenge their detention in federal court.(The Week)(Brief article)
August 18, 2008... The Supreme Court, in the Boumediene case, invented a constitutional right for our alien enemies to challenge their detention in federal court. But it did not dictate the rules that would govern those challenges. Attorney general Michael...

When the Supreme Court handed down District of Columbia v. Heller in June, it looked like curtains for the capital's draconian gun laws.(The Week)(Brief article)
August 18, 2008... When the Supreme Court handed down District of Columbia v. Heller in June, it looked like curtains for the capital's draconian gun laws. But not so fast: The Court forbade the city only to ban "handguns." Recently D.C. decided to get around...

One state chapter of the ACLU is bucking the national organization on guns: "The ACLU of Nevada will defend this right as it defends other constitutional rights.".(The Week)(American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada)(Brief article)
August 18, 2008... One state chapter of the ACLU is bucking the national organization on guns: "The ACLU of Nevada will defend this right as it defends other constitutional rights." With extremism and frivolous lawsuits? But it is nice to see an exception to the...

The 1972 federal law popularly known as Title IX forbids sexual discrimination "under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.".(The Week)(Brief article)
August 18, 2008... The 1972 federal law popularly known as Title IX forbids sexual discrimination "under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance." Title IX is notorious for its effects--or, rather, the effects of its politicized...

General Motors is not too big to fail: it's just the right size.(The Week)(General Motors Corp.)(Brief article)
August 18, 2008... General Motors is not too big to fail: It's just the right size. Even as rival Honda reports a sweet little 8 percent bump in quarterly profits, the big American automakers are foundering under the burden of expensive health-care and retirement...

Some people, Senate majority leader Harry Reid says, "you cannot negotiate with.".(The Week ...)(Brief article)
August 18, 2008... Some people, Senate majority leader Harry Reid says, "you cannot negotiate with." Terrorists? No: Tom Coburn, the conservative Republican from Oklahoma. Coburn has blocked action on 35 bills creating 36 new government programs, and costing $10...

One of Alaska senator Ted Stevens's most memorable moments in the last few years came during the Senate fight over the infamous "Bridge to Nowhere.".(The Week ...)(Brief article)
August 18, 2008... One of Alaska senator Ted Stevens's most memorable moments in the last few years came during the Senate fight over the infamous "Bridge to Nowhere." In 2005, when Senator Coburn introduced a measure that would have redirected the money Stevens...

Among national leaders who have chosen not to attend the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics is Mirek Topolanek, the prime minister of the Czech Republic.(The Week ...)(Brief article)
August 18, 2008... Among national leaders who have chosen not to attend the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics is Mirek Topolanek, the prime minister of the Czech Republic. A few days ago, however, he said at a news conference that he would make a less...

These past 13 years, everyone has been looking for Radovan Karadzic.(The Week ...)(Brief article)
August 18, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] These past 13 years, everyone has been looking for Radovan Karadzic. He was one of the criminal figureheads of Serb nationalism, responsible for atrocities not seen in Europe since World War II: the shelling of...