National Review articles from December 2005

National Review archives from December 2005

The establishment, anew.(Letter to the editor)
December 5, 2005... John J. Miller's "Pariahs, Martyrs--and Fighters Back" (Oct. 24) casts some much-needed rays of sunlight on the double standards currently running rampant on our nation's campuses. The academic establishment jealously protects the free speech...

Orders of truth.(Letter to the editor)
December 5, 2005... John Derbyshire's report of new scientific discoveries about evolutionary processes tells us not to fear new knowledge ("The Specter of Difference," Nov. 7). In his concluding paragraph, Derbyshire, a self-proclaimed Darwinist, looks beyond...

The old black.(Letter to the editor)
December 5, 2005... I am proud to be a product of the Midwest, and now that I have read of Richard Brookhiser's difficulties locating black jeans ("The Hunt Is On," Oct. 24) I am feeling even more self-satisfied. Were Mr. Brookhiser to visit the great...

Samuel Alito submitted an article to NR for publication in the 1980s.(The Week)
December 5, 2005... Samuel Alito submitted an article to NR for publication in the 1980s. We apparently rejected it, because Mr. Alito was not nearly far enough "out of the mainstream" to be an NR author.

The story--broken by the Washington Times--that Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito wrote, in 1985, that "the Constitution does not protect a right to an abortion" set off a furor among the usual suspects in the stop-Bush-nominees coalition.(Brief article)
December 5, 2005... The story--broken by the Washington Times that Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito wrote, in 1985, that "the Constitution does not protect a right to an abortion" set off a furor among the usual suspects in the stop-Bush-nominees coalition....

If the Bush administration is under any illusions about the sorry political state of the Iraq war, recent action in the Senate should dispel them.(Brief article)
December 5, 2005... If the Bush administration is under any illusions about the sorry political state of the Iraq war, recent action in the Senate should dispel them. A Democratic proposal for a timetable for withdrawal was beaten back 5840, but Republicans passed...

The Republican infighting that has stalled approval of a budget bill to trim spending is, in part, a tribute to Nancy Pelosi's success in whipping her troops to oppose the measure unanimously.(Brief article)
December 5, 2005... The Republican infighting that has stalled approval of a budget bill to trim spending is, in part, a tribute to Nancy Pelosi's success in whipping her troops to oppose the measure unanimously. The Democratic dominatrix has denied the GOP...

"Enforcement First" is the battle cry of House members seeking to restore order to immigration.(Brief article)
December 5, 2005... "Enforcement First" is the battle cry of House members seeking to restore order to immigration. They are emphatic on this point because they remember the 1986 immigration law, which traded amnesty for nearly 3 million illegal aliens in exchange...

President Bush warned after 9/11 that the War on Terror would be fought in the shadows.(Brief article)
December 5, 2005... President Bush warned after 9/11 that the War on Terror would be fought in the shadows. Now, four years later, his critics are shocked and outraged--are they ever anything else?--to learn that the CIA has been operating "black sites," secret...

"The newly declassified information provides additional dramatic evidence that the [Bush] administration's prewar statements regarding links between Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda represents [sic] an incredible deception.".(Brief article)
December 5, 2005... "The newly declassified information provides additional dramatic evidence that the [Bush] administration's prewar statements regarding links between Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda represents [sic] an incredible deception." Thus quoth Sen. Carl...

When the school board in Dover, Pa., introduced intelligent design into the curriculum as an alternative to the theory of evolution, a group of parents sued in federal court.(Brief article)
December 5, 2005... When the school board in Dover, Pa., introduced intelligent design into the curriculum as an alternative to the theory of evolution, a group of parents sued in federal court. They claimed that intelligent design is merely creationism by another...

In the president's request for $7.1 billion to prepare the U.S. for a flu pandemic, one senses his desire not to be blamed--as he was following Hurricane Katrina--for events largely beyond his control.(The Week)(Brief article)
December 5, 2005... In the president's request for $7.1 billion to prepare the U.S. for a flu pandemic, one senses his desire not to be blamed-as he was following Hurricane Katrina--for events largely beyond his control. But the truth is that no political leader...

By late December 2003, the members of the New York Times editorial board were losing their patience.(Brief article)
December 5, 2005... By late December 2003, the members of the New York Times" editorial board were losing their patience. Obviously there had to be a special prosecutor to investigate the leak of the name of Valerie Wilson, the CIA-operative wife of the...

In August, New York Times public editor Byron Calame criticized the paper for its derelict coverage of the financial scandals at the liberal Air America radio network: weeks after the scandal broke, the Times had run one small story in the Metro section of the paper.(Brief article)
December 5, 2005... In August, New York Times public editor Byron Calame criticized the paper for its derelict coverage of the financial scandals at the liberal Air America radio network: Weeks after the scandal broke, the Times had run one small story in the...

By succeeding Rudy Giuliani in office, New York mayor Michael Bloomberg inherited a governable city rather than an ungovernable one.(Brief article)
December 5, 2005... By succeeding Rudy Giuliani in office, New York mayor Michael Bloomberg inherited a governable city rather than an ungovernable one. He has certainly made his share of mistakes, from raising property taxes to enacting a ban on smoking in bars....

President Bush's nomination of Ellen Sauerbrey to be assistant secretary of state for the bureau of population, refugees, and migration is opposed by a host of feminist groups and has been the subject of hostile editorials likening the talented former Maryland lawmaker to FEMA's hapless Michael Brown.(Brief article)
December 5, 2005... President Bush's nomination of Ellen Sauerbrey to be assistant secretary of state for the bureau of population, refugees, and migration is opposed by a host of feminist groups and has been the subject of hostile editorials likening the talented...

When is plagiarism not plagiarism?(Sherrod Brown against Samuel Alito)(Brief article)
December 5, 2005... When is plagiarism not plagiarism? When a Democrat does it. That, apparently, is the lesson of an odd episode recently featuring Rep. Sherrod Brown, the Democrat who hopes to win a Senate seat from Ohio next year. In a letter to the current...

Not Ready yet.(The Week)(Poem)
December 5, 2005... NOT READY YET The Democrats" strain for a plan. The outline's amorphous, so they Leak only on deep background or, With giggles and grunts, in the hay. They're rug dealers, really; they rail At deficit...

Abu Musab al-Zarqawi is from Jordan, and the Madrid bombers were from Morocco.(Brief article)
December 5, 2005... Abu Musab al-Zarqawi is from Jordan, and the Madrid bombers were from Morocco. It would seem, then, that al-Qaeda would mount a careful hearts-and-minds operation to recruit more volunteers from both those countries. Not a bit of it. Instead,...

Hugo Chavez continues to behave like a satirist's creation.(Brief article)
December 5, 2005... Hugo Chavez continues to behave like a satirist's creation. When George W. Bush visited Argentina for a summit of Western Hemisphere leaders, Chavez stood before a giant portrait of Che Guevara, decried American trade policies, and exhorted the...

Prime Minister Tony Blair wanted the police to detain suspected terrorists for 90 days instead of the 14 currently allowed under the law.(Brief article)
December 5, 2005... Prime Minister Tony Blair wanted the police to detain suspected terrorists for 90 days instead of the 14 currently allowed under the law. Warned that his Labour Party might revolt, he nonetheless refused all compromises on offer. On libertarian...

We were quite interested in something John Vinocur had to say, in his International Herald Tribune column: "In a new book about his time as foreign minister, called 'Les Cent semaines,' [Dominique de Villepin] is portrayed through a series of negative anecdotes as 'immeasurably pretentious.'.(Brief article)
December 5, 2005... We were quite interested in something John Vinocur had to say, in his International Herald Tribune column: "In a new book about his time as foreign minister, called 'Les Cent semaines,' [Dominique de Villepin] is portrayed through a series of...

On the occasion of the visit by Chinese president Hu Jintao to Britain in early November, the kingdom's cultural elites painted the town red for him.(Brief article)
December 5, 2005... On the occasion of the visit by Chinese president Hu Jintao to Britain in early November, the kingdom's cultural elites painted the town red for him. That is a figure of speech, but only just. Red being, naturally, the Chinese Communist Party's...

Robert Mugabe was not very pleased with our ambassador, Christopher Dell, who said some honest things about the country Mugabe rules and brutalizes, Zimbabwe.(Brief article)
December 5, 2005... Robert Mugabe was not very pleased with our ambassador, Christopher Dell, who said some honest things about the country Mugabe rules and brutalizes, Zimbabwe. Mugabe's response? "Mr. Dell, go to hell." At least Mugabe is direct, and has a Jesse...

Forget solidarity with Palestinians, harassment of military recruiters, and "Free Mumia!" rallies.(students agains Coca-Cola Co.'s plant)(Brief article)
December 5, 2005... Forget solidarity with Palestinians, harassment of military recruiters, and "Free Mumia!" rallies. The latest fad among campus activists, who seem to have far more time to spare from their studies than is proper in a competitive academic...

It is a universal truth about public affairs that politicians, who must always be doing something, will, when they have lost control of large matters, busy themselves with trivia.(Brief article)
December 5, 2005... It is a universal truth about public affairs that politicians, who must always be doing something, will, when they have lost control of large matters, busy themselves with trivia. The city of Rome has just offered an illustration. Any recent...

Under a new law making its way through the Florida state legislature, Spanish lessons will become compulsory in the state's public schools from kindergarten through second grade.(Brief article)
December 5, 2005... Under a new law making its way through the Florida state legislature, Spanish lessons will become compulsory in the state's public schools from kindergarten through second grade. The bill, filed by state senator Les Miller, a Democrat, would...

San Francisco's recent election offers a tale of two pinks.(Brief article)
December 5, 2005... San Francisco's recent election offers a tale of two pinks. Code Pink, a group of women dedicated to ending war, joined with other groups--among them, Leave My Child Alone! and College Not Combat--to pass a proposition banning military...

Barbra Streisand, a lounge singer popular around 1970, has called for the impeachment of George W. Bush and an unspecified number of his colleagues.(Brief article)
December 5, 2005... Barbra Streisand, a lounge singer popular around 1970, has called for the impeachment of George W. Bush and an unspecified number of his colleagues. The grounds for the impeachment would be, let's see, oh yes: The president deceived the country...

One has to feel sorry for the planet Pluto.(The Week)(Brief article)
December 5, 2005... One has to feel sorry for the planet Pluto. As if being named after the overlord of hell were not bad enough, Pluto dwells in cold and darkness at the tar outer edge of the solar system, and is the only planet not yet visited by a space probe....

The luxury cruise ship Seabourn Spirit was attacked by pirates off the coast of Somalia.(The Week)(Brief article)
December 5, 2005... The luxury cruise ship Seabourn Spirit was attacked by pirates off the coast of Somalia. Two inflatable craft armed with rocket-propelled grenades and automatic weapons assaulted the vessel while cruise-goers prepared to repel boarders by...

Among the recipients of President Bush's Medals of Freedom was Robert Conquest, the English-American historian, poet, and all-purpose truth-teller.(Brief article)
December 5, 2005... Among the recipients of President Bush's Medals of Freedom was Robert Conquest, the English-American historian, poet, and all-purpose truth-teller. His books about the Soviet Union helped to topple that empire. In the 1930s, when he was a...

The influence of Peter F. Drucker is hard to overestimate; postwar America, indeed the postwar world, might have looked dramatically different but for the contributions of this premier theorist of business management.(Obituary)(Brief article)
December 5, 2005... The influence of Peter F. Drucker is hard to overestimate; postwar America, indeed the postwar world, might have looked dramatically different but for the contributions of this premier theorist of business management. His first book, The End of...

The 2005 vote.(POLITICS)(gubernatorial elections)
December 5, 2005... IT is a quadrennial ritual of the punditry to evaluate the off-off-year elections in New Jersey and Virginia and search for glimmerings of what may come in approaching congressional races. There are indeed reasons why Democrats should be...

Battleground: France.(WAR ON TERROR)
December 5, 2005... PROLONGED rioting has exposed flaws and misperceptions that have long been set in place in France. As a matter of high policy, successive regimes have sought to flatter and co-opt Arabs and Muslims in order to create a counterweight to the...

Notes & asides.(Letter to the editor)
December 5, 2005... * Dear Mr. Buckley: Regarding your delightful piece on the mean-spirited Argument for Alternative Use (Nov. 7), the Bible provides perhaps the earliest example of this argument. As a woman washes Jesus' feet with expensive perfume, Judas,...

The suburbs are burning: is France a failed state?(EUROPE)
December 5, 2005... FOR the last two weeks, the French have been watching the numbers of cars burnt the night before in the suburbs the way New Yorkers watch the Dow Jones index. Does 463 mean that the riots are now in recession, or is the reduction compared with...

An old mistake: why are they trying to punish the oil companies?(PUBLIC POLICY)
December 5, 2005... THE post-Katrina gasoline-price increase seems to have unleashed madness in some GOP quarters. In a remarkable press conference in late October, House Energy Committee chairman Joe Barton and Speaker Dennis Hastert demanded that the oil...

The right justice: Alito isn't just confirmable--he's a great choice.(THE SUPREME COURT)(Samuel A. Alito Jr.)
December 5, 2005... SUPPORTERS of President Bush's nomination of Judge Samuel A. Alito Jr. to the Supreme Court shouldn't get complacent, but the fundamentals are all in place for Alito to be easily confirmed by the Senate on January 20. For starters, Alito...

Let's play hardball! Or better yet, let's tell the truth.(THE MEDIA)
December 5, 2005... PATRICK FITZGERALD, the special counsel who charged I. Lewis "'Scooter" Libby with perjury and obstruction of justice, warned reporters, "This indictment is not about the war.... The indictment will not seek to prove that the war was justified...

Gitmo legal: why are top-notch law firms aiding Gitmo detainees?(AT WAR)(Guantanamo Bay)
December 5, 2005... WHILE some attorneys who defend enemy combatants may be wild-haired, sandal-wearing radicals, most members of the self-styled Guantanamo Bay Bar Association actually are well-heeled lawyers with America's premier corporate firms. They are at...

Iraq's comeback kid: Chalabi keeps his eyes on the prize.(AT WAR II)(Ahmed Chalabi)
December 5, 2005... ON November 8, Iraqi National Congress leader Ahmad Chalabi arrived in Washington for an eight-day visit. His agenda included meetings with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, and national security adviser...

Panic in a small town: a new documentary stokes a pathological fear of ... Wal-Mart.(THE LEFT)(WAL-MART: The High Cost of Low Price)(Movie review)
December 5, 2005... THE new movie WAL-MART: The High Cost of Low Price, directed by the Hollywood liberal activist Robert Greenwald, begins with the story of H&H Hardware, a small, family-owned business in Middlefield, Ohio. A man named Don Hunter describes how he...

A horse of a different color: Maryland's Michael Steele and the courage of the black Republican.(POLITICS)
December 5, 2005... As a black Republican, Michael Steele is used to taunts and attacks. Over the years, he has developed skin that is not only black but thick as well. "I'm not an elephant for nothing," he notes. Steele, the lieutenant governor of Maryland, will...

Citizens of the world! You have nothing to lose but your countries, and your freedoms, and ...(ESSAY)(Marxism)
December 5, 2005... MARXISM'S half-life has been amazing. Outside of our finest universities, pretty much no one believes in the junk, and yet it hangs over the intellectual and political landscape like background radiation. Its categories and materialistic...

Rove's Mood.(HELP)(satire)(Brief article)
December 5, 2005... ROVE'S MOOD Observed like the glass on a clipper Approaching Cape Horn, late reports Suggest it's beginning to lighten," One cannot confirm Karl's cavorts, But judging from liberal faces (They sag when the soothsayer blooms), The...

Official Transcript: "Larry King Live," November 17, 2006.(the long view)(satire)
December 5, 2005... LARRY KING: "We're back with tonight's guest, Sundar Keffala--am I saying that right? Keffala?" SUNDAR KEFFALA: "Yes, that's right." LARRY KING: "Like 'Kabbala' but with an 'f' in there, am I right?" SUNDAR KEFFALA: "Close enough,...

The lion king.(books, arts & manners)(C. S. Lewis)(Critical essay)(Cover story)
December 5, 2005... WHEN Lucy Pevensie says that she has walked through a wardrobe and discovered a new world called Narnia, her older brothers and sister don't believe her. But little Lucy insists. By the fifth chapter of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, the...

A sad case.(Philippe Petain)
December 5, 2005... THE life of Philippe Petain is a study in ambiguity that goes to the heart of the French experience in recent times. Holding the proud title of Marshal of France, he was both a hero and a traitor, and the line between these alternative...

The Master.(Poem)
December 5, 2005... THE MASTER He had but to speak A few bare words... And all the sounds composed themselves And zoned his song. He had but to move his lips A little in the enormous star-bright blackness On the foaming...

The man upstairs.(Everything You Always Wanted to Know about God (but were afraid to ask))(Book review)
December 5, 2005... Everything You Always Wanted to Know A bout God (but were afraid to ask), by Eric Metaxas (WaterBrook, 240 pp., $14.99) THE title of this book is amusing, but it encapsulates something of the utmost seriousness--that the reason many of us...

The front lines.(One Bullet Away: The Making of a Marine Officer)(Book review)
December 5, 2005... One Bullet Away: The Making of a Marine Officer, by Nathaniel Fick (Houghton Mifflin, 384 pp., $25) CAPTAIN FICK was caught in an ambush outside Muwaffiqiya, Iraq. Running through bullets, he sensed time "expanding and contracting like a...

Winners' circle.(ESSAY)(marathon running)
December 5, 2005... I HEREBY announce my arrival as a Great Event in the world of sports. The future is now, and I am it: My running of the marathon in St. George, Utah, on October 1, 2005, is an achievement for the ages. What was my time? Impertinent...

The Whig World.(Book review)
December 5, 2005... The Whig World, by Leslie Mitchell (Hambledon & London, 256 pp., $39.95) THE term "Whig" is a pregnant one, but with what exactly: Some nave treated Whiggism as a set of doctrines: Friedrich Hayek, rejecting "conservatism," called himself...

Bonfire memories.(THE STRAGGLER)(Guy Fawkes Night)(Column)
December 5, 2005... Please to remember The Fifth of November Gunpowder, treason, and plot! OH, I remember. My very earliest Guy Fawkes Nights were family affairs. Dad would have made up a modest bonfire in the back yard and bought a box of...

It can't be said in simple words.(on the right)(Bush administration)
December 5, 2005... THE charge that the Bush administration is something of a closed society keeps coming up, for instance in the matter of Vice President Cheney and Lewis Libby. Why doesn't Mr. Cheney simply release his version of what went on in the matter of...

Presidential dilemmas.(on the right)(Iraq War)
December 5, 2005... SEN. JAY ROCKEFELLER, an intelligent and resourceful liberal, was made to listen to part of a statement he made in 2002. In that statement he spoke of the alarming developments within Iraq, of Saddam Hussein attempting an acquisition of weapons...

Gallic disruptions.(on the right)(riots in France)
December 5, 2005... THE French turmoil is explained, by many who have trained their eyes on it, as a reaction to continued French discrimination. To give evidence of this, the critics cite preferences shown by employers to applicants whose names are indisputably...

The mother of all anniversary issues.
December 19, 2005... THE 50th anniversary of NATIONAL REVIEW is a very big deal, and you're holding in your hands a big-deal issue. It runs to 120 pages, includes multiple sections, and boasts a cast of thousands. Actually, about 70--that's (roughly) the number who...

Bob Woodward isn't saying who told him about Valerie Plame.(The Week)
December 19, 2005... * Bob Woodward isn't saying who told him about Valerie Plame. Could it have been Bill Casey, in those last moments?

If President Bush's recent speech on immigration enforcement meant that he now understands how dismayed conservatives are about the chaotic, lawless state of our immigration system, that is an encouraging sign.(George W. Bush)(Brief Article)
December 19, 2005... * If President Bush's recent speech on immigration enforcement meant that he now understands how dismayed conservatives are about the chaotic, lawless state of our immigration system, that is an encouraging sign. But the particulars of the...

President Bush said he had a "good, frank discussion" during his recent trip to China about our relationship, which he called "complex ... good, vibrant, strong".(George W. Bush's foreign policy)(Brief Article)
December 19, 2005... * President Bush said he had a "good, frank discussion" during his recent trip to China about our relationship, which he called "complex... good, vibrant, strong." That bad, huh? Relations with China are at best correct. The Chinese bought 70...

The Bush administration blinked.(George W. Bush, Jose Padilla case of conspiracy)(Brief Article)
December 19, 2005... * The Bush administration blinked. It charged Jose Padilla with conspiracy after more than three years of holding him as an enemy combatant and maintaining that the domestic criminal-justice system wasn't suited to handle his case....

The most politically perilous entitlement mentality congressional Republicans have failed to rein in is their own.(investigation of Republican National Committee's politicians for taking bribes)(Brief Article)
December 19, 2005... * The most politically perilous entitlement mentality congressional Republicans have failed to rein in is their own. California representative Randy "Duke" Cunningham resigned his seat after pleading guilty to taking $2.4 million in bribes in...

Dr. Tom Coburn, GOP senator from Oklahoma, continues to fight in the Senate for the right to continue his obstetrics practice.(The Week)(Brief Article)
December 19, 2005... * Dr. Tom Coburn, GOP senator from Oklahoma, continues to fight in the Senate for the right to continue his obstetrics practice (see Kate O'Beirne's Nov. 21 article "The Doctor Is In--or Out?"). Coburn managed to win the support of a slim...

House Republicans finally won approval of a budget bill that will trim spending increases by $50 billion over the next five years.(The Week)(Brief Article)
December 19, 2005... * House Republicans finally won approval of a budget bill that will trim spending increases by $50 billion over the next five years. This legislation will now be reconciled with the Senate's even more modest $35 billion in spending "restraint."...

When special counsel Peter J. Fitzgerald announced his five-count indictment against I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, we noted that the charges against him "may look weaker with time".(Central Intelligence Agency)(Brief Article)
December 19, 2005... * When special counsel Peter J. Fitzgerald announced his five-count indictment against I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, we noted that the charges against him "may look weaker with time." That didn't take long. The Washington Post's Bob Woodward has...

Bill Richardson has many credentials--congressman, energy secretary, governor of New Mexico--but he just lost one.(member of Pittsburgh Pirates, the Los Angeles Dodgers, and the Baltimore Orioles)(Brief Article)
December 19, 2005... * Bill Richardson has many credentials--congressman, energy secretary, governor of New Mexico--but he just lost one. He was never drafted by the Kansas City Athletics. For years Richardson has said that he was drafted, in 1966, 1967, or 1968,...

Jimmy Carter must be our most pompous president ever.(The Week)(Brief Article)
December 19, 2005... * Jimmy Carter must be our most pompous president ever. Andrew Jackson and Teddy Roosevelt probably tie for most arrogant, but they expected, even welcomed, comeback. Carter, between carpenter jobs, floats little blimps of ideology with bromide...

The black X that appeared over Vice President Dick Cheney's head on CNN as he was giving a speech was the result of a "very, very insignificant" technical malfunction, a CNN spokeswoman said.(Cable News Network)(Brief Article)
December 19, 2005... * The black X that appeared over Vice President Dick Cheney's head on CNN as he was giving a speech was the result of a "very, very insignificant" technical malfunction, a CNN spokeswoman said. The X appeared for an eighth of a second--long...

The large and noisy flock of chickens that disrupted President Bush and Vice President Cheney as they welcomed British prime minister Tony Blair to the White House was "inadvertently" released by a CNN sound man, a spokesperson for the network said.(The Week)(chickens of Cable News Network donated to families of Katrina victims)(Brief Article)
December 19, 2005... * The large and noisy flock of chickens that disrupted President Bush and Vice President Cheney as they welcomed British prime minister Tony Blair to the White House was "inadvertently" released by a CNN sound man, a spokesperson for the...

The crawl that appeared at the bottom of the CNN screen saying DIE, CHIMPHITLER, DIE, DIE, as President George W. Bush pardoned the Thanksgiving turkey, was the result of an "unfortunate" glitch, a CNN spokesman said.(Cable News Network)(Brief Article)
December 19, 2005... * The crawl that appeared at the bottom of the CNN screen saying DIE, CHIMPHITLER, DIE, DIE, as President George W. Bush pardoned the Thanksgiving turkey, was the result of an "unfortunate" glitch, a CNN spokesman said. The crawl ran the full...

It's official.(The Week)(Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito)(Brief Article)
December 19, 2005... * It's official. Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito is a conservative. Or, to be perfectly precise, he was a conservative when, in 1985, he completed an application for a promotion in the Reagan Justice Department. In that document, Alito wrote...

GM's plan to cut 30,000 jobs and close all or part of twelve North American operations is, according to leaders of the United Auto Workers, "disappointing, unfair, and unfortunate".(General Motors Corp.)(Brief Article)
December 19, 2005... * GM's plan to cut 30,000 jobs and close all or part of twelve North American operations is, according to leaders of the United Auto Workers, "disappointing, unfair, and unfortunate." Sympathy for laid-off workers is understandable, but it...

Ariel Sharon has shaken the kaleidoscope of Israeli politics, and nobody can be sure what the outcome will be.(The Week)(Brief Article)
December 19, 2005... * Ariel Sharon has shaken the kaleidoscope of Israeli politics, and nobody can be sure what the outcome will be. He was pushed to it by the vote of the Labor party to elect a new head, and to leave the coalition it had joined in government with...

Evidence points to the complicity of the clique running Syria in the murder of Rafik Hariri, the onetime Lebanese prime minister.(The Week)(Brief Article)
December 19, 2005... * Evidence points to the complicity of the clique running Syria in the murder of Rafik Hariri, the onetime Lebanese prime minister. To dig at the facts, the United Nations appointed an investigator, Detlev Mehlis, and he has proved tenacious...

Every Muscovite in all the Soviet years passed the Lubyanka with head down and eyes averted in order not to see or be seen.(The Week)(Felix Dzerzhinsky's statute)(Brief Article)
December 19, 2005... * Every Muscovite in all the Soviet years passed the Lubyanka with head down and eyes averted in order not to see or be seen. More than just the headquarters of the secret police, the Lubyanka was meant to inspire terror, and it did. Activists,...

50 years later.(Poem)
December 19, 2005... I dial up with a rotary. Cassettes--I loathe a DVD-- Carry me back to Grand Hotel. No telemarketer can sell A poke to this old party. Do I fax to NATIONAL REVIEW? Sure. This ain't 1890, son. I lick stamps....

Zimbabwe, under the rule of President-for-Life Robert Mugabe, slips ever further back into the bush.(economic conditions)(Brief Article)
December 19, 2005... * Zimbabwe, under the rule of President-for-Life Robert Mugabe, slips ever further back into the bush. The national airline, Air Zimbabwe, was recently obliged to ground its entire fleet of seven passenger planes because there was not enough...

Dresden was one of the most beautiful 18th-century cities, and its great church, known as the Frauenkirche, was a particular glory, its spectacular dome an architectural and a cultural monument.(The Week)(Brief Article)
December 19, 2005... * Dresden was one of the most beautiful 18th-century cities, and its great church, known as the Frauenkirche, was a particular glory, its spectacular dome an architectural and a cultural monument. In February 1945 a huge formation of the Royal...

Here is a news item from the Friendly Giant to Our North--a country large and consequential enough, you would think, that a person who had once served as its minister of defense and deputy prime minister would be possessed of more than the average endowment of gravitas.(The Week)(Paul Hellyer accuses George W. Bush for space policy)(Brief Article)
December 19, 2005... * Here is a news item from the Friendly Giant to Our North--a country large and consequential enough, you would think, that a person who had once served as its minister of defense and deputy prime minister would be possessed of more than the...

The torture question.
December 19, 2005... WE don't need to become like our enemy to beat our enemy. This, in a nutshell, is the argument against torture. Lindsey Graham, Andrew Sullivan, the Democratic party, the New York Times, and enlightened people everywhere have offered variations...

Dwight D. Eisenhower was a decent president--not the best, not the worst.(monument on the president of United States planned)(Brief Article)
December 19, 2005... * Dwight D. Eisenhower was a decent president--not the best, not the worst. And he was undoubtedly an admirable, patriotic man. But we wonder about the propriety of erecting a monument to him on the Mall. One has been planned, and will almost...

Conrad Black was indicted on eleven counts of wire and mail fraud in connection with his management of Hollinger International, a media company that at one time owned the Chicago Sun-Times, the Jerusalem Post, and the Daily Telegraph (London).(The Week)(Brief Article)
December 19, 2005... * Conrad Black was indicted on eleven counts of wire and mail fraud in connection with his management of Hollinger International, a media company that at one time owned the Chicago Sun-Times, the Jerusalem Post, and the Daily Telegraph...