National Review articles from January 2007

National Review archives from January 2007

Ask not ...(Letter to the editor)
January 29, 2007... Rather than dissect the diehard Libertarian party's effect on tax increases (The Week, Dec. 18), it might be more fruitful to ask what Republicans have done lately for economic conservatives and the cause of lower taxes. From pork-barrel...

Keynes wins?(Letter to the editor)
January 29, 2007... Early in his tribute to Milton Friedman ("Economist on a White Horse," Dec. 18), John O'Sullivan writes: "Indeed, in a development that would have delighted a Gibbon or an Evelyn Waugh, Richard Nixon declared that 'we are all Keynesians now' at...

For the defense.(Letter to the editor)
January 29, 2007... There was very little productive in Mr. Buckley's column of December 12 ("Any Kind Words for Pinochet?"). There is not a "special awkwardness" in the matter of Gen. Augusto Pinochet. Simply stated, if he had not taken action in 1973, Chile...

Wouldn't it be nice if the media loved Republican presidents.(The Week ...)
January 29, 2007... * Wouldn't it be nice if the media loved Republican presidents even when they were alive?

Did we need reminding of Saddam's nature?(Saddam Hussein)(Brief article)
January 29, 2007... * Did we need reminding of Saddam's nature? Apparently so. The moment the cellphone video of his rowdy hanging hit the Internet, hands wrung over Iraqi incompetence, Sunni reaction, etc., etc. Ten days after his death, Saddam spoke from beyond...

From New Orleans, surrounded by the ravages of Hurricane Katrina, former senator John Edwards launched a campaign to fight against global warming and poverty and for universal health care and higher taxes on the rich.(Brief article)
January 29, 2007... * From New Orleans, surrounded by the ravages of Hurricane Katrina, former senator John Edwards launched a campaign to fight against global warming and poverty and for universal health care and higher taxes on the rich. The fight in Iraq he...

Let's get this clear right away: Democrats and their allies on the left have a deep, deep respect for the need to protect classified information.(The Week ...)(ho Samuel Berger stashed National Archive documents)(Brief article)
January 29, 2007... * Let's get this clear right away: Democrats and their allies on the left have a deep, deep respect for the need to protect classified information. We learned that during the CIA leak investigation, when they accused the White House of blowing...

The new Democratic Congress prepared to vote on a bill to fund stem-cell research that kills human embryos.(Brief article)
January 29, 2007... * The new Democratic Congress prepared to vote on a bill to fund stem-cell research that kills human embryos. But science may be mooting the debate. According to the advocates of funding, embryonic stem cells have more promise than adult stem...

For the Left--and, unfortunately, much of the public--conservatives' opposition to raising the minimum wage is proof that we are the kin of Scrooge.(Brief article)
January 29, 2007... * For the Left--and, unfortunately, much of the public--conservatives' opposition to raising the minimum wage is proof that we are the kin of Scrooge. Our position is especially heartless because, according to the liberal talking point of the...

What is it about cuddly animals that overrides the rational faculty of policymakers?(Brief article)
January 29, 2007... * What is it about cuddly animals that overrides the rational faculty of policymakers? Consider the polar bear (a ferocious carnivore, but it certainly looks cuddly). Interior secretary Dirk Kempthorne has recommended that it be listed as...

When the highest court in Massachusetts amends the state constitution, how are the people to amend it back?(Brief article)
January 29, 2007... * When the highest court in Massachusetts amends the state constitution, how are the people to amend it back? In the case of marriage, supporters of the old law gathered signatures and went to the legislature to put the issue on the ballot....

Condoleezza Rice has a trip to Libya penciled in her diary.(Brief article)
January 29, 2007... * Condoleezza Rice has a trip to Libya penciled in her diary. There is an impediment. In a Libyan hospital back in 1998 as many as 426 children began to show signs that they were infected with the AIDS virus. Contaminated needles and poor...

At the beginning of the year, Romania joined the European Union.(Brief article)
January 29, 2007... * At the beginning of the year, Romania joined the European Union. The entry ticket carried a price. The country had to make an official repudiation of its Communist past. There is a great deal to atone for. Taking power after World War II, the...

Bad scene.("My Scene" Barbie)
January 29, 2007... WHAT did your kids get for Christmas? My daughter--not yet four years old--got a whore. Okay, not a real prostitute. Not even a pretend one. She merely got a doll that dresses like one. Oh, and spare me the eye-rolling about how I've become a...

Ambassador John R. Miller recently resigned from his position as head of the State Department's office concerned with eliminating human trafficking.(Brief article)
January 29, 2007... * Ambassador John R. Miller recently resigned from his position as head of the State Department's office concerned with eliminating human trafficking. In his speech at a ceremony recognizing his efforts, Miller denounced the practice, "so...

Gotta watch those Danish artists.(Jan Egesborg, Pia Bertelsen)(Brief article)
January 29, 2007... * Gotta watch those Danish artists. A year after the Islamist tantrum over the Mohammed cartoons, a Danish arts group, Surrend, took out an ad in the Tehran Times under the name Danes for World Peace, listing a series of fraternal sentiments...

Somalia is neither a state nor a nation.(Brief article)
January 29, 2007... * Somalia is neither a state nor a nation. Four main clans and some five lesser ones throw up warlords whose militias dispute everything in their clan's name. Since 1991 there has been no government, and the Kalashnikov rules. The one and only...

One of those news stories that turn up so often they could well-nigh be assigned word-processor macros all their own, is the one about the Chinese government protesting because the president of Taiwan has set foot on U.S. soil.(Brief article)
January 29, 2007... * One of those news stories that turn up so often they could well-nigh be assigned word-processor macros all their own, is the one about the Chinese government protesting because the president of Taiwan has set foot on U.S. soil. That story...

The bus system of Grand Rapids, Mich., formerly turned away from their buses any passenger whose face was covered.(Brief article)
January 29, 2007... * The bus system of Grand Rapids, Mich., formerly turned away from their buses any passenger whose face was covered. This was a reasonable policy--think of ski masks, or the nylon-stocking head coverings favored by bank robbers. The policy has...

Readers of Tom Wolfe's novels will recall the scene in A Man in Full where a country-raised southern business mogul, showing a group of urban sophisticates round his stud farm, arranges for them to witness a stallion vigorously serving a mare.(Brief article)
January 29, 2007... * Readers of Tom Wolfe's novels will recall the scene in A Man in Full where a country-raised southern business mogul, showing a group of urban sophisticates round his stud farm, arranges for them to witness a stallion vigorously serving a...

The outrageousness of the Duke lacrosse case has now reached its terminal velocity.(Brief article)
January 29, 2007... * The outrageousness of the Duke lacrosse case has now reached its terminal velocity. The rape charges have been dropped against the three defendants, but they still face prosecution for the sexual assault and kidnapping of an "exotic dancer"...

The linguists and lexicographers of the American Dialect Society have picked a Word of the Year for 2006, and the winner is ... plutoed.(Brief article)
January 29, 2007... * The linguists and lexicographers of the American Dialect Society have picked a Word of the Year for 2006, and the winner is... plutoed. To "pluto" is to demote or devalue a person or thing, as was done to the unfortunate Solar System body of...

From 1991 to 2002, this magazine ran Florence King's column "The Misanthrope's Corner.".
January 29, 2007... * From 1991 to 2002, this magazine ran Florence King's column "The Misanthrope's Corner." These columns are collected in the book STET, Damnit! And now the incomparable King will have a new column: "The Bent Pin." It will run in every other...

Was there ever a president who entered office with a weaker hand than Gerald Ford?(Brief article)
January 29, 2007... * Was there ever a president who entered office with a weaker hand than Gerald Ford? Elevated by two scandalous resignations, he faced a sea of troubles--a weak economy, a prowling Evil Empire, and an angry conservative movement (including this...

One star differeth from another star in glory, said the Apostle Paul.(The Week)(Momofuku Ando, inventor of instant noodles)(Obituary)(Brief article)
January 29, 2007... * One star differeth from another star in glory, said the Apostle Paul. Something similar applies in the terrestrial sphere, and among the different varieties of worldly glory, the commercial kind is by no means to be despised. We therefore...

James Brown wrote in his autobiography, "Hair and teeth.(Brief article)
January 29, 2007... * James Brown wrote in his autobiography, "Hair and teeth. A man got those two things he's got it all." James Brown had it all and more--even a pair of eyebrows tattooed permanently on his face in 1991. A singer, a dancer, and a scream, Brown...

Elizabeth Fox-Genovese possessed a brilliant mind, as do many.(The Week)(Obituary)(Brief article)
January 29, 2007... * Elizabeth Fox-Genovese possessed a brilliant mind, as do many. What set her apart was courage. She began her academic career as a secular liberal, but eventually concluded that abortion is a "choice" by one human being to kill another. That...

A surge in time.(AT WAR)(more US troops will be sent to Iraq)
January 29, 2007... AS we went to press, President Bush was on the verge of announcing a "surge" of new troops into Baghdad. The idea is to devote enough troops to clear and then hold neighborhoods in the capital city. Our recent failed Baghdad security plan,...

Their moment.
January 29, 2007... KATHA POLLITT, a left-wing commentator, complains in The Nation that the newly empowered Democrats' "program is so modest you need a microscope to see it." True enough. One Democratic bill would authorize the president to use the federal...

An unusual end: Saddam Hussein is tried and executed.(Cover story)
January 29, 2007... SADDAM HUSSEIN was a ruler in the mold familiar for centuries in the Arab and Muslim world, disposing of life and death as he saw fit. About the only thing to be said in favor of absolute rule of this kind is that it makes life broadly...

'Barbaric!' they charge: the arrogance and insularity of death-penalty opponents.
January 29, 2007... ANYONE who watched Saddam Hussein being led to the gallows without any knowledge of who he was would have concluded that a dignified, decent, and upright man was being informally executed by a gang of criminals. After all, it was he, not they,...

Join the club: Mitt Romney and pro-life conversion.(POLITICS)
January 29, 2007... FOR decades, pro-life activists have been in the business of winning hearts and minds to their cause. Powerful arguments about the humanity of the unborn have moved public opinion, and a pro-life political force has made ambitious politicians...

Undiscussable: a question in the Senate.
January 29, 2007... JUST hours after word got out that South Dakota senator Tim Johnson had fallen ill with a serious brain ailment, minority leader Mitch McConnell's office got in touch with Republicans around the Senate. The message: Do not--repeat, do not--talk...

Michigan and beyond: Ward Connerly keeps after race preferences.
January 29, 2007... GERALD FORD had been dead for just a day when the University of Michigan issued its official statement of mourning. President Mary Sue Coleman used the occasion not only to lament the loss of the man who is her school's best-known alumnus, but...

The question of Carter's cash: in which our reporter follows the money.(Jimmy Carter)
January 29, 2007... DID Jimmy Carter do it for the money? That's the question making the rounds about Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid, an anti-Israeli screed recently written by the ex-president whose Carter Center has accepted millions in Arab funding. Even...

Bassackwards: Construction Spanish and other signs of the times.(Spanish language)
January 29, 2007... AMERICA, of course, has always been a place of many languages, along with our common tongue, English. German, its cousin Yiddish, Chinese, Italian, Polish--they have all been spoken here, especially in homes and community centers. But Spanish...

Do or die in Iraq: where we've been; where we should go.(Cover story)
January 29, 2007... IT is difficult to determine precisely what is new about President Bush's new strategy toward Iraq. Exhortations about lowering unemployment, sharing oil revenues, and reconciling with the Sunnis are already part of the strategic repertoire of...

Be like Jeb! A suburban agenda for Republicans, with models to emulate.
January 29, 2007... THE stories of Tim Pawlenty and Mark Green are, up to a point, similar. Both are Midwestern Republican ex-legislators, and both ran for governor. But Pawlenty succeeded--first in a hard-fought three-way contest for governor of Minnesota in...

Grosser and grosser.(the bent pin)(offensive language in children's toy ads)
January 29, 2007... THE catalogue of suggested Christmas gifts I got last month was not from an Elvis-on-velvet outlet. The section of gifts for adults offered quality cameras and binoculars, and enough travel accoutrements and aquarium fixtures to place their...

Damn!(Poem)
January 29, 2007... Payrolls are buoyant; wages, too. A surly Barney Frank Checked unemployment (four point five), Muttering something rank. Jobs grew so fast, Pelosi's eyes Bugged like a boa's when Denied a gulp, while Harry Reid ...

The candidates' diaries.
January 29, 2007... Special Dark-Horse Edition[TM] From the e-mail inbox of Ambassador Alan Keyes: FROM: Travelocity Travel Team RE: Manchester, New Hampshire, Marriott You are booked in a non-smoking single room. Checking in March 12th, 2007....

Fantasy & reality.(Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East, 1776 to the Present)(Book review)
January 29, 2007... Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East: 1776 to the Present, by Michael B. Oren (Norton, 778 pp., $35) THE UNITED STATES and the world of Islam are separated by geographic distance, and even more by culture and religion. The...

Judge, senator, American.(Gleanings from an Unplanned Life: An Annotated Oral History)(Book review)
January 29, 2007... Gleanings from an Unplanned Life: An Annotated Oral History, by James L. Buckley (ISI, 308 pp., $25) SENATOR/JUDGE/UNDERSECRETARY James L. Buckley discloses that he was born in an elevator. In this extraordinary book--done as a Question and...

Dates.(Poem)
January 29, 2007... DATES Dates come and go, Slip the mind And drip from stone. They start as someone else's dates But soon become our own. Like coughs from rows of faces Below the Philharmonic, The dates record the...

The too-much-information age.(War Made New: Technology, Warfare, and the Course of History: 1500 to Today)(Book review)
January 29, 2007... War Made New: Technology, Warfare, and the Course of History: 1500 to Today, by Max Boot (Gotham, 640 pp., $35) RETROSPECTIVES on the Rumsfeld era in the Pentagon have focused on the war in Iraq and the various issues surrounding...

Keeping The faith.(The Essential Russell Kirk: Selected Essays)(Book review)
January 29, 2007... The Essential Russell Kirk: Selected Essays, edited by George A. Panichas (ISI, 525 pp., $30) LOOMING over the fireplace in the late Russell Kirk's library in Mecosta, Mich., are three small stone images, statues given to Kirk by the...

The book is better.(Children of Men)(Movie review)
January 29, 2007... IT's easy for a good movie to color subsequent readings of the book it's based on. Literature is a subtle, fragile medium, more complex than cinema but also easily overwhelmed by what gets summoned up on screen. It's hard to re-read even so...

Rebels on the Hudson.(Hudson, New York; Confederate battle flag on car bumper prompts reflection)
January 29, 2007... I WAS pumping gas when in behind me pulled a pickup. Big, high built, lots of chrome. Volunteer fireman's plate on the front bumper. As I went into the PX to pay, I got a look at the back bumper: various stickerage, including a Confederate...

Can Gates succeed?(Robert Gates)
January 29, 2007... NEW YORK, DECEMBER 19 WHEN he took the oath as secretary of defense, Robert Gates was weighed down by factors he couldn't ignore, and couldn't alter. We are continuing to search for just the word that describes the U.S. mission in Iraq....

Spare thoughts on Saddam.(Saddam Hussein)
January 29, 2007... NEW YORK, DECEMBER 28 MANY data, historical and analytical, are being thrust at us, following the pronouncement of the death sentence on Saddam Hussein. What one might loosely call "the prosecution," anxious to defend this mite of justice...

Bury him good.(Saddam Hussein)
January 29, 2007... NEW YORK, JANUARY 2 WE haven't yet had, in the West, a crystallization of opinion on the matter of a) what can be shown on TV news, or b) what the public should be allowed to see via other media. Divisions on these questions were very...