National Review articles from December 2007

National Review archives from December 2007

On your oath.(letters to the editor)(Letter to the editor)
December 3, 2007... As a loyal subscriber to the smartest publication on the planet, I would like to express my disappointment over the violation of the Third Commandment in the title of Mr. Buckley's new book (advertised on page 59 of the November 19 issue). I am...

Captain prime minister?(letters to the editor)(Letter to the editor)
December 3, 2007... Mr. Gilbert's choice for president (Letters, November 19) has one minor problem: While Capt. James Tiberius Kirk is a farm boy from Iowa, William Shatner is proud to be Canadian! Richard Tengdin Costa Mesa, Calif.

Hillary Clinton says that her competitors are picking on her because she's a woman.(The Week)(Brief article)
December 3, 2007... Hillary Clinton says that her competitors are picking on her because she's a woman. Hey, Hillary: If you can't stand the heat, stay in the kitchen.

Rudolph Giuliani is getting ever closer to his final answer on abortion.(The Week)(Brief article)
December 3, 2007... Rudolph Giuliani is getting ever closer to his final answer on abortion. He told a social-conservative gathering that as president he would veto any weakening of existing anti-abortion policies and sign any reasonable restriction on abortion....

Fred Thompson may have started his presidential campaign late, but he is the first candidate in either party to come out with solid plans to reform Social Security and immigration.(The Week)(Brief article)
December 3, 2007... Fred Thompson may have started his presidential campaign late, but he is the first candidate in either party to come out with solid plans to reform Social Security and immigration. To keep Social Security solvent, he would make sure that...

The purity of Rep. Ron Paul's libertarianism has won him an impressively dedicated bunch of followers.(The Week)(Brief article)
December 3, 2007... The purity of Rep. Ron Paul's libertarianism has won him an impressively dedicated bunch of followers. The Republican, running for president, has gained some new fans in liberals who like the anti-Iraq War implications of his isolationism. But...

Michael Mukasey was confirmed as attorney general by a 53-40 vote.(The Week)(Brief article)
December 3, 2007... Michael Mukasey was confirmed as attorney general by a 53-40 vote. The Democrats who voted against him--and a few who voted for him--said that they were appalled that Mukasey was not willing to say that waterboarding constitutes torture and is...

Republicans lost the Kentucky governorship and the Virginia state senate.(The Week)(Brief article)
December 3, 2007... Republicans lost the Kentucky governorship and the Virginia state senate. Local issues played a big role. Gov. Ernie Fletcher has spent almost all of his term in a scandal about the state's tough civil-service rules, and Virginia Republicans...

School choice suffered a new blow in Utah, where voters rejected a ballot initiative that would have given parents more control over their children's education.(The Week ...)(Brief article)
December 3, 2007... School choice suffered a new blow in Utah, where voters rejected a ballot initiative that would have given parents more control over their children's education. The defeat follows previous referendum failures in California, Colorado, and...

Last year President Bush cast his first veto.(The Week ...)(George W. Bush)(Brief article)
December 3, 2007... Last year President Bush cast his first veto. Now Congress has overridden one of his vetoes for the first time. Harry Reid and friendly commentators call it a reassertion of the legislature's constitutional authority--as though anyone doubted...

Backward march.(The Week ...)(Frank Rich's opinion on George W. Bush)
December 3, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] WE hear a lot of bleating and whining from liberals these days about the parlous state of our democracy. For example, Frank Rich of the New York Times--and I am not making this up--flatly said that President Bush...

Paper or a biodegradable material made from corn starch?(The Week ...)(Brief article)
December 3, 2007... Paper or a biodegradable material made from corn starch? This question has replaced the more traditional "Paper or plastic?" at San Francisco supermarkets, and the New York City Council may follow suit. The bill that council speaker Christine...

In a long-overdue vote, the House passed a free-trade agreement with Peru over considerable Democratic opposition.(The Week ...)(Brief article)
December 3, 2007... In a long-overdue vote, the House passed a free-trade agreement with Peru over considerable Democratic opposition. It faces less resistance in the Senate, which will probably act before the end of the year. The Bush administration has also sent...

The Senate is set to consider the Law of the Sea Treaty, which has the Bush administration's blessing.(The Week ...)(Brief article)
December 3, 2007... The Senate is set to consider the Law of the Sea Treaty, which has the Bush administration's blessing. Senators should say no. The treaty's codification of existing maritime law, while modestly useful, grants the U.S. no rights it does not...

Nicolas Sarkozy came to Washington, and a friendly affair it was.(The Week ...)(Brief article)
December 3, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Nicolas Sarkozy came to Washington, and a friendly affair it was. This was understandable: He is only embarking on his course, but the signs are that he wants to lead France and Europe in directions more compatible...

In Cuba, police rounded up a group of young people for wearing white rubber wristbands inscribed with a word: Cambio--Change.(The Week ...)(Brief article)
December 3, 2007... In Cuba, police rounded up a group of young people for wearing white rubber wristbands inscribed with a word: Cambio--Change. The U.S. secretary of commerce, Cuban-born Carlos Gutierrez, wears one too. When the Cuban youth were rounded up--at...

During his recent European tour, King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia had an audience with the Pope in the Vatican.(The Week ...)(Brief article)
December 3, 2007... During his recent European tour, King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia had an audience with the Pope in the Vatican. Presumably the Vicar of Christ and the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques traded tips on the almost-extinct art of running a theocratic...

The student president at the University of the Andes in Hugo Chavez's Venezuela bears the very mellifluous, in fact Milhousian, name Nixon Moreno.(The Week ...)(Brief article)
December 3, 2007... The student president at the University of the Andes in Hugo Chavez's Venezuela bears the very mellifluous, in fact Milhousian, name Nixon Moreno. Pursued by the authorities, Sr. Moreno has been obliged to take asylum in the papal diplomatic...

NFL scouts are after him, but Adam Ballard, a senior fullback at the Naval Academy, isn't biting.(The Week ...)(National Football League)(Brief article)
December 3, 2007... NFL scouts are after him, but Adam Ballard, a senior fullback at the Naval Academy, isn't biting. "Being a Marine fits my mentality," he said, explaining why he's seeking a commission that would deny him a shot at a professional career. "I...

The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) recently won a small victory for freedom of thought.(The Week ...)(Brief article)
December 3, 2007... The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) recently won a small victory for freedom of thought. According to FIRE, students at the University of Delaware underwent a series of "treatments" (the university's term) designed to...

The Writers' Guild of America has come out on strike against the major movie studios and TV networks.(The Week ...)(Brief article)
December 3, 2007... The Writers' Guild of America has come out on strike against the major movie studios and TV networks. In the long view, this is one more tremor from the tectonic shifts occurring in the world of media, as both audio and video migrate to digital...

Currently touring Europe is a traveling exhibition named the Museum of Broken Relationships.(The Week ...)(Brief article)
December 3, 2007... Currently touring Europe is a traveling exhibition named the Museum of Broken Relationships. The originators were two Croatian artists who, after splitting up, decided to do something positive with their distress. They collected objects...

"Lamentably, I killed your cat while trying just to sting it.(The Week ...)(Jimmy Carter)(Brief article)
December 3, 2007... "Lamentably, I killed your cat while trying just to sting it. It was crouched, as usual, under one of our bird feeders & I fired from some distance with bird shot. It may ease your grief somewhat to know that the cat was buried properly with a...

Daniel C. Searle isn't mentioned in the same breath as the great triumvirate of conservative philanthropists: Olin, Bradley, and Scaife.(The Week ...)(In memoriam)(Brief article)
December 3, 2007... Daniel C. Searle isn't mentioned in the same breath as the great triumvirate of conservative philanthropists: Olin, Bradley, and Scaife. At least not yet. When he died on October 30, he left behind not only a legacy of grant-making during his...

Pakistan on the brink.(AT WAR)
December 3, 2007... WHEN it comes to being "our S.O.B.," Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf has the "S.O.B." part down. We just wish we could have more confidence in the "our." Musharraf declared a state of emergency that brought back memories of the coup...

Romney's religion.(POLITICS)(Mitt Romney)
December 3, 2007... ONE non-Protestant has been elected president in our history. Mitt Romney is being urged to follow John F. Kennedy's example and make a speech taking the "Mormon issue" head on. It is bad advice. Kennedy sought to defuse anti-Catholicism by...

Dollar down.(THE ECONOMY)(Brief article)
December 3, 2007... BAD things happen when the Fed overreacts to negative market psychology. The dollar's continuing slide is a case in point. Markets have been in a tizzy since the subprime fiasco began, even though the housing market is a tiny fraction of...

Norman Mailer, R.I.P.(OBITUARY)(Obituary)(Brief article)
December 3, 2007... IN conversation with the book editor of NATIONAL REVIEW the subject of Norman Mailer of course came up. Passing by the event (he had died on Saturday) as if it were inconsequential was one alternative, ruled out. The most obvious reason being...

A few years later I had Mailer as a guest on Firing Line.(The Week ...)(Norman Mailer)
December 3, 2007... A few years later I had Mailer as a guest on Firing Line. "Seeing Buckley and Mailer on the tube yesterday I can't get over it," one critic wrote in the New York Avatar, which was briefly the court circular of the underground press. "The...

Mailer took two practical steps that bounced off our Chicago exchange.(The Week ...)(Norman Mailer)(Brief article)
December 3, 2007... Mailer took two practical steps that bounced off our Chicago exchange. The first was to sue Playboy--on the grounds that, manifestly, his essay was worth more than the $5,000 paid to us. That done, he said he wished to explore with me a string...

But Norman Mailer is a towering writer!(The Week ...)(Brief article)
December 3, 2007... But Norman Mailer is a towering writer! So why this small talk? Perhaps because it no longer seems so very small. I said about Mailer a few years ago that he created the most beautiful metaphors in the language. I reiterate that. But I go...

Rudy wins the pundit primary: conservative journalists choose up.(2008)(Rudy Giuliani)
December 3, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] RUDOLPH GIULIANI may not win New Hampshire, but he has already won the pundit primary. It's not even close. Quite a few conservative journalists are in Giuliani's corner. His rivals have no similar support. The...

Voting and the single woman: the raw demographic truth in American politics.(2008 II)(Hillary Rodham Clinton)
December 3, 2007... HILLARY CLINTON's relationship with male voters puts her in solidarity with every woman whose efforts to woo have ended in the unwelcome recognition "He's just not that into you." She is also unlikely to fare well with married women, who are...

The un-inevitability of Hillary Clinton: before we become resigned to her ...(2008 III)
December 3, 2007... THERE's a common notion out there that members of the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy--or whatever you want to call us--are in it for the money. We conservatives must secretly know we're wrong, because otherwise we wouldn't be liars; and the only...

Republican from Michigan: Dave Camp is a quiet but effective congressman.(CAPITOL HILL)
December 3, 2007... A coat rack stands in the corner of Rep. Dave Camp's office on Capitol Hill. It looks like a weeping-willow tree, drooping with ties instead of branches and leaves. Dozens of them hang from it, and the Michigan Republican probably won't ever...

Understanding Pakistan: some myths and realities about an explosive nation.(THE WORLD)
December 3, 2007... THERE are no simple answers to the dilemmas presented by Pakistan and its president. Of course, Pervez Musharraf's state of emergency is nothing like the terrifying authoritarian scourge painted by some of the Western media. If it were, he...

Conspiracies so immense ...: the spooky condition of today's Russia--and yesterday's, too.(THE WORLD II)(Blowing Up Russia: The Secret Plot to Bring Back KGB Terror)
December 3, 2007... TO talk to Yuri Felshtinsky is to revisit an era meant to have ended when Boris Yeltsin leapt onto a tank in Moscow. But when Dr. Felshtinsky examines photographs of that heroic August day, he sees something else. Visible just behind the...

Cut from the same cloth: Jimmy Carter in the '76 campaign, Barack Obama in this one.
December 3, 2007... BARACK OBAMA comes from a long line of thoughtful, achingly idealistic reformers in Democratic presidential politics. They inspire people, impress everyone with their resplendent good intentions, eschew rough-and-tumble politics as usual--and...

Riding with Romney: an interview with the candidate about his salient problems.(2008 IV)(Mitt Romney)(Interview)
December 3, 2007... MITT ROMNEY is in a hurry. His meet-and-greet in Charles City, at the Floyd County Museum, went a little long after organizers decided to hold it in the museum's tractor annex, where Romney could speak to supporters surrounded by antique...

The soul and its enemies: countering the materialists, Christian and not.(ESSAY)(Essay)
December 3, 2007... FOR 2,000 years, Christians have believed that man has a spiritual soul and is therefore unique among terrestrial creatures--that there is, in the words of Pope John Paul II, an "ontological discontinuity" between human beings and other...

NSA intercept radio frequency surveillance.(the long view)(Democrat presidential debate)
December 3, 2007... Begin extract: UNIDENTIFIED MALE VOICE: "Is the focus group set?" UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE VOICE: "All set. Dials working. Ready to go." UMV: "Okay, the debate begins in three minutes. Tell your focus-group moderators to stand by." ...

[Cartoon].(Help!!!!)(Cartoon)
December 3, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] "It's called 'fire'--it'll give us energy independence!" [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] "Is it true?--Did you push the plaintiff so that she fall down go boom?" [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] IT'S TIME I STARTED...

Writing checks.(Book review)
December 3, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Heroic Conservatism: Why Republicans Need to Embrace America's Ideals (And Why They Deserve to Fail If They Don't), by Michael J. Gerson (HarperOne, 320 pp., $26.95) SHORTLY before the scheduled publication of...

A neglected master.(Book review)
December 3, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] George Inness: A Catalogue Raisonne, by Michael Quick (Rutgers, 2 vols., 1,274 pp., $400 the boxed set) HERE's an early Christmas-gift idea for that special art-lover on your list. George Inness (1825-1894) is...

Idols.(Poem)(Brief article)
December 3, 2007... IDOLS Suddenly they look ridiculously old Our idols--comical and out of place To us, who through our priest-craft pierce their cold Glamour and glimpse their terrible vacuity; Yet they are worshipped by the race ...

Boys behaving badly.(TELEVISION)(Mad Men)(Television program review)
December 3, 2007... MAD MEN, the critically lauded new series on AMC that not long ago wrapped up its debut season, takes place in the boozy, smoke-filled haze of a fictional top-tier advertising firm in Manhattan circa 1960. It's a world where advertising is a...

Nordlinger's melange.(Here, There and Everywhere: Collected Writers of Jay Nordlinger)(Reprint)
December 3, 2007... NATIONAL REVIEW is pleased to announce the publication of Here, There & Everywhere: Collected Writings of Jay Nordlinger. The book contains almost 100 pieces, on a great variety of subjects. It's a little over 500 pages long, with a generous...

Virtue, Valor, & Vanity: The Founding Fathers and the Pursuit of Fame.(BOOKS IN BRIEF)(Brief article)
December 3, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] ERIC BURNS--the slyly intelligent host of the media-criticism show Fox News Watch--has been writing what by now amounts to an impressive mini-bookshelf of works on American history. His latest book, Virtue, Valor, &...

Lame lambs.(FILM)(Movie review)
December 3, 2007... MIDWAY through one of the three narratives that twine through Lions for Lambs, Robert Redford's hilariously awful drama about the War on Terror, Jasper Irving, an up-and-coming Republican senator played by Tom Cruise, steps out of his office to...

It's a living.(THE STRAGGLER)(jobs)
December 3, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] THE other day I met a very bright and beautiful young woman who had been introduced to me as "a dating columnist." As an old married guy, I am long past the dating stage of life, and our encounter was on far less...

Impeach Bush?(on the right)(George W. Bush)
December 3, 2007... NEW YORK, OCTOBER 26 IT'S not as it was with Nixon. The thought of Nixon is impossible now except under the shadow of Watergate--which would have meant impeachment and probable conviction. But it isn't widely remembered that there was a...

Illegalizing illegals.(on the right)(illegals' right to driver's license)
December 3, 2007... NEW YORK, NOVEMBER 2 THE shooting war in New York over the question of driver's licenses for illegal aliens dramatizes several features of U.S. culture. The first of these is that the right to drive a car is the most cherished right in...

One up for the donors.(on the right)(Robertson Foundation)
December 3, 2007... NEW YORK, NOVEMBER 6 THE Foundation Management Institute lets out what can only be described as a screech of joy. The cause? "Judge Neil Shuster [of Trenton] ruled that the Robertson family is entitled to its day in court. At issue is...

Doubletake.(letters to the editor)(Letter to the editor)
December 17, 2007... Kate O'Beirne tries to convince conservatives to take a "second look" at John McCain (November 5). But conservatives have already had quite a few looks at McCain: first when he was a Reaganite conservative, then when he abandoned those fiscal...

Smooth operator.(letters to the editor)(Letter to the editor)
December 17, 2007... I was appalled, and befuddled, by Jonah Goldberg's associating Frank Rich and his recent New York Times rant with "sweaty ham-radio operators and religious militiamen" (The Week, December 3). Having been an active ham-radio operator for...

Rudy-Huck '08?(The Week)(Rudy Guiliani-Mike Huckabee tandem for 2008 US presidential elections)(Brief article)
December 17, 2007... Rudy-Huck '08? Between the two of them, the ticket will have one solid conservative.

The phone in the Iowa or New Hampshire kitchen rings.(The Week)(push-polling)(Brief article)
December 17, 2007... The phone in the Iowa or New Hampshire kitchen rings. It's a pollster--blah blah blah. But, as the questions unspool, they assume a particular tendency: Would the fact that X (the religion of candidate Y) believes Z, prejudice you against Y?...

Sen. Trent Lott's retirement announcement brings a close to a 35-year Capitol Hill career that saw the Mississippi legislator rise from a backbencher in the House to Senate majority leader.(The Week)(Brief article)
December 17, 2007... Sen. Trent Lott's retirement announcement brings a close to a 35-year Capitol Hill career that saw the Mississippi legislator rise from a backbencher in the House to Senate majority leader. While serving in the House minority, Lott played an...

In our last issue, we commented that Fred Thompson had released the most detailed and conservative set of policy prescriptions on Social Security and immigration.(The Week)(Brief article)
December 17, 2007... In our last issue, we commented that Fred Thompson had released the most detailed and conservative set of policy prescriptions on Social Security and immigration. He now has a detailed, conservative tax-reform proposal too, and there is a lot...

There was scant reason to think the Annapolis conference would help resolve the Israeli-Palestinian dispute.(The Week)(Brief article)
December 17, 2007... There was scant reason to think the Annapolis conference would help resolve the Israeli-Palestinian dispute. Breakthroughs have historically come when both sides act from a position of strength. Ehud Olmert is fighting for political survival,...

The Aussies wanted a change, and out went John Howard.(The Week ...)(Brief article)
December 17, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The Aussies wanted a change, and out went John Howard. For America the change is tinged with regret: Howard was an unusually generous and outspoken ally. But among the many Australian institutions transformed by...

Garry Kasparov heads Other Russia, a party contesting parliamentary elections on December 2.(The Week ...)(Brief article)
December 17, 2007... Garry Kasparov heads Other Russia, a party contesting parliamentary elections on December 2. As a chess champion, he must know that he and his party are a small piece on the board. But how courageous! They had permission to hold a rally in...

Strikes of trains, the subway, and air-traffic control brought France to a standstill for almost two weeks.(The Week ...)(Brief article)
December 17, 2007... Strikes of trains, the subway, and air-traffic control brought France to a standstill for almost two weeks. A third of the 5 million state-sector workers are still apparently on strike, and so are students and others. In a bravura performance,...

Talleyrand, the archetypal diplomat, was said to be able to keep an expressionless face while being kicked in the backside.(The Week ...)(Brief article)
December 17, 2007... Talleyrand, the archetypal diplomat, was said to be able to keep an expressionless face while being kicked in the backside. Spain's King Juan Carlos flunks that test. At an Ibero-American summit in Chile, Venezuela's left-wing strongman, Hugo...

The first line of an AP report tells the story: "The United Nations has expressed regret that undercover Cuban officials attended a U.N. news conference on human rights, where they sought information on a French journalist asking critical questions about Fidel Castro's regime.".(The Week ...)(Associated Press)(United Nations)(Brief article)
December 17, 2007... The first line of an AP report tells the story: "The United Nations has expressed regret that undercover Cuban officials attended a U.N. news conference on human rights, where they sought information on a French journalist asking critical...

Last year, a 19-year-old Saudi woman met a former boyfriend in a car to ask him to return pictures, since she was about to marry someone else.(The Week ...)(Brief article)
December 17, 2007... Last year, a 19-year-old Saudi woman met a former boyfriend in a car to ask him to return pictures, since she was about to marry someone else. The couple was set upon by seven men, who gang-raped them 14 times. Wait, it gets worse. The rapists...

Bernard Lewis and Fouad Ajami are two of the most distinguished Orientalists not just in this country but in the world.(The Week ...)(Association for the Study of the Middle East and Africa)(Brief article)
December 17, 2007... Bernard Lewis and Fouad Ajami are two of the most distinguished Orientalists not just in this country but in the world. True scholars, they think that all is far from well in the Arab and Muslim world, and are not afraid to say so. Together...

The American president has many perks, including the handing out of Medals of Freedom--for an article on that subject, see page 24 ("A Tasty Presidential Perk," by Jay Nordlinger).(The Week ...)(Editorial)
December 17, 2007... The American president has many perks, including the handing out of Medals of Freedom--for an article on that subject, see page 24 ("A Tasty Presidential Perk," by Jay Nordlinger). A president also hands out Humanities Medals. And, like the...

Tribbulations.(health spending)
December 17, 2007... FOR my money, the best of all the original Star Trek episodes was "The Trouble with Tribbles." In that epic show, Lieutenant Uhura brings a delightful little ball of fur called a "tribble" back to the USS Enterprise. The tribbles purr and...

Benjamin Hooks, former executive director of the NAACP, received the Medal of Freedom from President Bush.(The Week ...)(National Association for the Advancement of Colored People)(George W. Bush)(Brief article)
December 17, 2007... Benjamin Hooks, former executive director of the NAACP, received the Medal of Freedom from President Bush. After the ceremony, the 82-year-old lawyer and minister spoke with a reporter from the Memphis Commercial Appeal. "We bought the books;...

The Earl of Kent in Lear was famously ill-disposed toward the letter "z": "Thou whoreson zed, thou unnecessary letter ...".(The Week ...)(words that start with letter N)(Brief article)
December 17, 2007... The Earl of Kent in Lear was famously ill-disposed toward the letter "z": "Thou whoreson zed, thou unnecessary letter... " We are beginning to feel the same about "n," at least in initial positions. What everyone calls "the n-word" has now...

Since the remotest Paleolithic Era, human beings have huddled for warmth around the family hearth.(The Week ...)(Brief article)
December 17, 2007... Since the remotest Paleolithic Era, human beings have huddled for warmth around the family hearth. Well, that's enough of that, says San Francisco's Bay Area Air Quality Management District, which plans public hearings to determine the fate of...

In 1995, a questioner said to Carole Simpson, then an anchor at ABC News, "The liberal bias of your network is obvious.".(The Week ...)(American Broadcasting Company)(Brief article)
December 17, 2007... In 1995, a questioner said to Carole Simpson, then an anchor at ABC News, "The liberal bias of your network is obvious." Simpson was offended. "I disagree wholeheartedly," she said, calling the accusation "mean-spiritedness... directed at the...

Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury, gave an interview to a British Muslim magazine.(The Week ...)(Brief article)
December 17, 2007... Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury, gave an interview to a British Muslim magazine. He criticized American conduct in Iraq, which he said is based on "the assumption that a quick burst of violent action will somehow clear the decks and...

Pope Benedict XVI has called for "continuity with tradition" in church music, referring specifically to St. Gregory the Great, the patron of Gregorian chant.(The Week ...)(Brief article)
December 17, 2007... Pope Benedict XVI has called for "continuity with tradition" in church music, referring specifically to St. Gregory the Great, the patron of Gregorian chant. Talk about bucking trends: The sexual revolution and the Islamification of Europe are...

On a recent evening of the New York Philharmonic, Glazunov's Violin Concerto was on the program.(The Week ...)(Alexander Glazunov)(Brief article)
December 17, 2007... On a recent evening of the New York Philharmonic, Glazunov's Violin Concerto was on the program. And the program notes told us something interesting. Glazunov was a Russian who lived from 1865 to 1936--and, in 1905, he assumed the post of...

If it's strict immigration policies you're looking for, try New Zealand.(The Week ...)(Brief article)
December 17, 2007... If it's strict immigration policies you're looking for, try New Zealand. Mr. Richie Trezise of Wales, a specialist in the rare art of undersea cable maintenance, was recruited by a firm in New Zealand seeking just those skills. He hit a snag...

Burned bones unearthed in July in a field near Yekaterinburg, Russia, have been identified by forensics experts as the remains of Alexei and Maria, children of Czar Nicholas II.(The Week ...)(Brief article)
December 17, 2007... Burned bones unearthed in July in a field near Yekaterinburg, Russia, have been identified by forensics experts as the remains of Alexei and Maria, children of Czar Nicholas II. All eleven members of the former imperial family and its staff,...

Toni Vernelli of Somerset, England, had herself sterilized at age 27 to reduce her carbon footprint.(The Week ...)(Brief article)
December 17, 2007... Toni Vernelli of Somerset, England, had herself sterilized at age 27 to reduce her carbon footprint. Now aged 35, Toni, who works for--what else?--an environmental charity, tells us that she and her first husband "both passionately wanted to...

Speech codes for Santa Claus? Down in Sydney, Australia, a firm that trains and supplies department-store Santas has instructed trainees that the traditional "Ho! Ho! Ho!" could be "derogatory to women.".(The Week ...)(Brief article)
December 17, 2007... Speech codes for Santa Claus? Down in Sydney, Australia, a firm that trains and supplies department-store Santas has instructed trainees that the traditional "Ho! Ho! Ho!" could be "derogatory to women." Aspiring Santas, says the firm, should...

The universe, said J. B. S. Haldane, is not only queerer than we suppose, but queerer than we can suppose.(The Week ...)(John Burdon Sanderson Haldane)(Brief article)
December 17, 2007... The universe, said J. B. S. Haldane, is not only queerer than we suppose, but queerer than we can suppose. One of the queerest things about it is that its properties at the very largest scales--galactic superclusters--are very intimately...

Ian Smith, who died, age 88, was suited by birth and temperament to maintain the British Empire in Africa.(The Week ...)(Obituary)(Brief article)
December 17, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Ian Smith, who died, age 88, was suited by birth and temperament to maintain the British Empire in Africa. Born in what was then Rhodesia in 1919, he served gallantly with the RAF in World War II (a crash permanently...

Five years ago, the W. H. Brady Foundation decided to spend down its endowment and issue a handful of major grants in order to have a large impact on our time rather than a watered-down influence on the future.(The Week ...)(William H. Brady)(In memoriam)(Brief article)
December 17, 2007... Five years ago, the W. H. Brady Foundation decided to spend down its endowment and issue a handful of major grants in order to have a large impact on our time rather than a watered-down influence on the future. Established by and named after a...

Denial.(AT WAR)(congressional Democrats' handling of war on Iraq)
December 17, 2007... WHAT was it that Hillary Clinton once said about the willing suspension of disbelief? For congressional Democrats, that line has gone from a putdown (of Gen. David Petraeus's testimony before Congress) to a way of life. On Iraq, Democrats now...