National Review articles from January 2002

National Review archives from January 2002

Letters.(Letter to the Editor)
January 28, 2002... --Richard Lowry ("Delay or Die?," Dec. 3) underestimates the positive impact of international nonproliferation agreements and derides the "fantasy of nonproliferation." While it is true that Iraq, North Korea, and other states have violated...

The Week.
January 28, 2002... -- The CNN promotions department got in deep trouble for advertising newswoman Paula Zahn as "sexy." Well, she is. And hey, CNN: What about Bob Novak? -- Buddy, by acclamation the most honorable and decent of the Clinton gang, died...

Notes & Asides.(Brief Article)
January 28, 2002... -- Dear Mr. Buckley: In the Notes & Asides section of your Dec. 17 issue, a reader wanted to know why The Bronx is the only borough of New York City to have the definite article in its name. The reply expressed complete ignorance on the...

Rising Freshman: Bush at Year One.(President Bush)
January 28, 2002... That President Bush has done a splendid job as a war leader, by now, goes without saying. On all the big decisions, he made the right calls. He also quickly became an eloquent spokesman for national resolve. Bush's stratospheric approval...

Almost Astrology: The Democratic view of the economy.
January 28, 2002... In his indispensable book The Making of Modern Economics, Mark Skousen reports that in the late 19th century some economists actually theorized that "the configuration of the stars and planets" was a key cause of business crises. This economic...

Dr. West and Mr. Summers: A Harvard tale.(Cornel West vs. Larry Summers)
January 28, 2002... When an individual assumes certain positions of public responsibility, we require him to place his financial assets in a blind trust. We do this in order that he not profit personally from his office. When an individual assumes the presidency...

Just Your Average Shoe-Bomber:'Not a bad lad,' and how not to be had.(Richard Reid)
January 28, 2002... Shortly after the identity of the would-be shoe-bomber of the Paris-to- Miami flight was revealed, a British newspaper traced and interviewed his father. Speaking of his son, Richard Reid, Mr. Reid Sr. said, "He's not a bad lad. I can't imagine...

Bush vs. Brush: The zen of the president's pastime.
January 28, 2002... Long ago, a wise woman suggested to me that instead of asking a person what he does-the standard opening line in Washington-one could gain deeper insight into character and temperament by asking, "What do you like to do?" That sounded like a...

'Ali! Ali!'": How they interpret the champ.
January 28, 2002... In the 1962 film The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, a newspaper editor learns the real story of Ransom Stoddard, a fictional western hero who has built an admirable career as a statesman on his reputation for killing a notorious scoundrel. It...

Profiles in Cowardice: How to deal with the terrorist threat-and how not to.
January 28, 2002... In late September, M. Ahsan Baig was kept off United Flight 288 from San Francisco to Philadelphia because the pilot didn't like the way he seemed to be furtively talking to another passenger in the waiting area. Baig, a California computer...

Veil of Fears: Why they veil; why we should leave it alone.(Afghan women)
January 28, 2002... Last month's dramatic pictures of Afghan women shyly peeking out from beneath freshly lifted veils set off a torrent of commentary on the meaning and aims of the war. Although Afghanistan's new rulers quickly abolished the Taliban's draconian...

As the World Turns: The shape of things now.
January 28, 2002... In a Moscow radio and TV phone-in program on December 24, Vladimir Putin took a number of questions on Russian foreign policy. Asked by a concerned citizen of Latvia about the position of Russian-speakers in the Baltic states, he replied...

Getting the Right Right: Liberals (and others) write conservative history.
January 28, 2002... When Barry Goldwater spoke to the American Political Science Association two months before the 1964 election, he almost didn't have an audience: A University of Chicago professor tried to organize a boycott. It bombed, at least on that day. The...

The Long View.(Humor)(Brief Article)
January 28, 2002... April 17, 2002 Transcript from Larry King Live larry king: Dayton, Ohio, you're on with John Walker, hello. dayton: Hey, Larry, hey, John. john walker: Salaam. dayton: Yeah, um, I just want to know now that he's home...

A Love and a Virtue.('Losing Friends')
January 28, 2002... Losing Friends, by Digby Anderson (The Social Affairs Unit, [pound]12.95, 206 pp.) It's a big subject-friendship-and one not often written about these days. Euripides said, "One loyal friend is worth 10,000 relatives." Aristotle found that...

Good Breeding.('A Life of Sir Francis Galton: From African Exploration to the Birth of Eugenics')
January 28, 2002... A Life of Sir Francis Galton: From African Exploration to the Birth of Eugenics, by Nicholas Wright Gillham (Oxford, 432 pp., $35) Ninety years after his death, arguments still rage about Francis Galton's intellectual legacy. Galton fans...

Kissing the Corpse.('Armageddon Averted: The Soviet Collapse, 1970-2000')
January 28, 2002... Armageddon Averted: The Soviet Collapse, 1970-2000, by Stephen Kotkin (Oxford, 245 pp., $25) In 1970 the Soviet Union was in command of swathes of the globe, and motivated by ideology toward further armed conquest. A few short years later,...

Providence Abroad.('Special Providence: American Foreign Policy and How It Changed the World')
January 28, 2002... Special Providence: American Foreign Policy and How It Changed the World, by Walter Russell Mead (Knopf, 374 pp., $30) This highly readable history and analysis of American foreign policy offers an answer to a question that was never more...

Class Clown.('Doomed Bourgeois in Love: Essays on the Films of Whit Stillman')
January 28, 2002... Doomed Bourgeois in Love: Essays on the Films of Whit Stillman, edited by Mark C. Henrie (ISI, 176 pp., $14.95) Thirteen years ago-that can't be right, but I'm afraid it is-I was running a monthly cocktail party-salon headquartered in an...

SHELF Life: American Beauty.
January 28, 2002... So you're at a party, and you meet a young couple. The husband is, rather obviously, a tough case. He's angry at the world-thinks everybody is either stupid, or out to get him, or both. But he and his wife speak Russian, and you want to improve...

On the Right.(Osama bin Laden's potential leverage on the public imagination)(Editorial)
January 28, 2002... Osama the Invincible NEW YORK, DECEMBER 11 We do well to remind ourselves of the potential leverage Osama bin Laden has on the public imagination. You begin with what we simply know to be true and can only grit our teeth over: Osama is...

Misanthrope's Corner.(Brief Article)(Column)
January 28, 2002... You know what I like about this magazine? I never hear a word about "the National Review family." We must be the only outfit left that doesn't push the huddle-and-cuddle organizing principle now rampant in American business, political, and...