National Review articles from July 2004

National Review archives from July 2004

Inmates in Bible study.(Letter to the Editor)
July 12, 2004... As someone who has spent 30 years visiting over 600 prisons, I can readily affirm many of the observations of Eli Lehrer in his article "Justice Behind Bars" (June 14). I was surprised, however, by his statement that "explicitly religious...

On sex.(Letter to the Editor)
July 12, 2004... Roger Scruton ("Perversion," June 14) provides an engaging exploration of our current ideas about sex. The central notion of "reciprocal surrender" in sex could be taken even further by acknowledging that giving oneself over to another has...

Patience, patience.(Letter to the Editor)
July 12, 2004... The United States became a true democracy in 1965, a hundred years after a civil war that spilled enough blood to cover Iraq. The notion that the first Arab democracy should have become a bloodless reality within a year after the fall of a...

Investor's Business Daily poll: President Bush 43 percent, John Kerry 40 percent, Ralph Nader 5 percent.(includes other news)(News Briefs)(Brief Article)
July 12, 2004... * Investor's Business Daily poll: President Bush 43 percent, John Kerry 40 percent, Ralph Nader 5 percent.... In The Hotline's survey of state polls, Kerry leads in 21 states, worth 270 electoral votes, and Bush leads in 26 states, worth 244...

Kerry on campaigning with Al Sharpton, in Chicago Tribune: "Al Sharpton is traveling with me today because he's a friend, because he proved during the course of this presidential race that he has a great understanding of what's happening in the country and a great ability to communicate to Americans".(presidential candidate John F. Kerry; includes other news)(News Briefs)(Brief Article)
July 12, 2004... * Kerry on campaigning with Al Sharpton, in Chicago Tribune: "Al Sharpton is traveling with me today because he's a friend, because he proved during the course of this presidential race that he has a great understanding of what's happening in...

Club for Growth poll of GOP primary voters in Colorado's Senate race: former congressman Bob Schaffer leads beer-maker Pete Coors, 34 percent to 31 percent.(includes other news)(News Briefs)(Brief Article)
July 12, 2004... * Club for Growth poll of GOP primary voters in Colorado's Senate race: Former congressman Bob Schaffer leads beer-maker Pete Coors, 34 percent to 31 percent.... In July, Senate Republicans hope to hold vote on constitutional amendment banning...

Bill Clinton on affair with Monica Lewinsky, on 60 Minutes: "a terrible moral error".(includes other news)(News Briefs)(Brief Article)
July 12, 2004... * Bill Clinton on affair with Monica Lewinsky, on 60 Minutes: "a terrible moral error."... Clinton on impeachment: "The whole battle was a badge of honor. I don't see it as a stain, because it was illegitimate."... Bush, at unveiling of...

Gov. Rod Blagojevich (D., Ill.) says he voted twice for Reagan: "We had hostages in Iran, and nothing was getting done.(includes other news)(News Briefs)(Brief Article)
July 12, 2004... * Gov. Rod Blagojevich (D., Ill.) says he voted twice for Reagan: "We had hostages in Iran, and nothing was getting done.... We Americans were losing confidence in ourselves. And then here comes this guy who spoke to a lot of Democrats, who...

Russian president Vladimir Putin: "after September 11, 2001, and before the start of the military operation in Iraq, the Russian special services, the intelligence service, received information that officials from Saddam's regime were preparing terrorist attacks in the United States and outside it against the U.S. military and other interests".(includes other news)(News Briefs)(Brief Article)
July 12, 2004... * Russian president Vladimir Putin: "After September 11, 2001, and before the start of the military operation in Iraq, the Russian special services, the intelligence service, received information that officials from Saddam's regime were...

Conan O'Brien: "Yesterday at a White House ceremony, the official portrait of President Clinton was unveiled.(Humor)(Brief Article)
July 12, 2004... * Conan O'Brien: "Yesterday at a White House ceremony, the official portrait of President Clinton was unveiled. Apparently, Clinton's portrait is so realistic that Hillary immediately started yelling at it."

No more talking around the school-financing issue.
July 12, 2004... Much of the public debate about school financing over the last year has focused on whether the No Child Left Behind Act is being adequately funded. It's an important question. But if our goal is fairness as well as adequacy in how we fund our...

Well, the nation now has videotaped proof that the Clintons are sleeping together.(Bill and Hillary Clinton)(Brief Article)
July 12, 2004... * Well, the nation now has videotaped proof that the Clintons are sleeping together: They dozed, side by side, at President Reagan's funeral.

Don't lose any sleep, Muslim clerics, over the sermons you could write denouncing the recent beheadings--we don't expect them.(Brief Article)
July 12, 2004... * Don't lose any sleep, Muslim clerics, over the sermons you could write denouncing the recent beheadings--we don't expect them. Nor do we expect outrage from your congregants. A handful of Muslims in America, and abroad, call things by their...

Oh, for those simple days when all we had to worry about was a president who lied under oath, obstructed justice, and placed himself firmly in contempt of a federal court.(Bill Clinton's autobiography, My Life)(Brief Article)
July 12, 2004... * Oh, for those simple days when all we had to worry about was a president who lied under oath, obstructed justice, and placed himself firmly in contempt of a federal court. With the publication of his autobiography, My Life, Bill Clinton has...

At the gala premiere of the new Clinton-mythologizing documentary The Hunting of the President, Clinton stood before the audience and asked his old business partner Susan McDougal to come up onstage.(former president Bill Clinton)(Brief Article)
July 12, 2004... * At the gala premiere of the new Clinton-mythologizing documentary The Hunting of the President, Clinton stood before the audience and asked his old business partner Susan McDougal to come up onstage. The convicted Whitewater felon was,...

"When the Berlin Wall fell," said Clinton as he geared up for his book tour, "the perpetual Right in America"--that would be us--"which always needs an enemy, didn't have an enemy anymore.(former president Bill Clinton)(Brief Article)
July 12, 2004... * "When the Berlin Wall fell," said Clinton as he geared up for his book tour, "the perpetual Right in America"--that would be us--"which always needs an enemy, didn't have an enemy anymore. So I had to serve as the next best thing." Chew on...

We have written before in these pages that the mainstreaming of Al Sharpton is complete.(his endorsement of presidential candidate John F. Kerry)(Brief Article)
July 12, 2004... * We have written before in these pages that the mainstreaming of Al Sharpton is complete. Well, now it's really complete. Sharpton is stumping with John Kerry, and he is "going to campaign with me from now until Election Day"--that's what...

Dept. of more than we wanted to know.(comments by Teresa Heinz Kerry)(Brief Article)
July 12, 2004... * DEPT. OF MORE THAN WE WANTED TO KNOW: John Kerry's wife described herself as "cheeky" and "sexy" in an interview with CBS News. You'd think that after 65 years in this world, Mrs. Kerry would have learned that "sexy" is not an adjective you...

In recent weeks, we have celebrated the life of a man, Ronald Reagan, who took freedom seriously and who did all he could to help freedom's friends around the world.(John F. Kerry's opinion on Varela Project in Cuba)(Brief Article)
July 12, 2004... * In recent weeks, we have celebrated the life of a man, Ronald Reagan, who took freedom seriously and who did all he could to help freedom's friends around the world. Natan--formerly Anatoly--Sharansky, for example, testified about how much...

The senator wants to increase the minimum wage gradually, to $7 an hour by 2007.(John F. Kerry)(Brief Article)
July 12, 2004... * The senator wants to increase the minimum wage gradually, to $7 an hour by 2007. He points out that the minimum wage has not been increased since 1996. Inflation, while low, has steadily eroded its value. But one of the reasons the late...

After a prolonged corruption scandal, Connecticut governor John Rowland resigned rather than face certain impeachment by the legislature.(Brief Article)
July 12, 2004... * After a prolonged corruption scandal, Connecticut governor John Rowland resigned rather than face certain impeachment by the legislature. Over the previous seven months, daily newspaper reports had revealed a greedy chief executive: There...

The Al Gore Show.(Humor)(Brief Article)
July 12, 2004... THE AL GORE SHOW It's rated PG; tiny tots Flee, screaming, from the screen When Al, like attic-bound Aunt Maud, Makes what one calls A Scene. The Democrats applaud, although, With subtle signs, some...

In the recent Pledge of Allegiance case, Justice Thomas tried to guide the Supreme Court's church-state jurisprudence back toward the Constitution.(Clarence Thomas)(Brief Article)
July 12, 2004... * In the recent Pledge of Allegiance case, Justice Thomas tried to guide the Supreme Court's church-state jurisprudence back toward the Constitution. The First Amendment was originally understood as a federalist measure, one that protected the...

The Islamist government of Sudan spent two decades trying to wipe out the Christian population of its south.
July 12, 2004... * The Islamist government of Sudan spent two decades trying to wipe out the Christian population of its south. After international pressure forced an end to that, the government turned its efforts to wiping out the black Sufi Muslim population...

Even with the Cold War 15 years behind us, we should take note, occasionally, of the sheer thuggery of Communists. Have you noticed, for example, how their diplomats--"diplomats"--around the world are always pushing people around?(Brief Article)
July 12, 2004... * Even with the Cold War 15 years behind us, we should take note, occasionally, of the sheer thuggery of Communists. Have you noticed, for example, how their diplomats--"diplomats"--around the world are always pushing people around? We mean,...

In the wake of Ronald Reagan's funeral, you heard time and time again from liberals, soberly totting up history's judgments--George W. Bush is no Reagan: no charm, no warmth, no ability to unite us as Reagan did in the Cold War.(Brief Article)
July 12, 2004... * In the wake of Ronald Reagan's funeral, you heard time and time again from liberals, soberly totting up history's judgments--George W. Bush is no Reagan: no charm, no warmth, no ability to unite us as Reagan did in the Cold War. Bush's only...

The push to put Ronald Reagan on the ten-dollar bill gained new force after his death.(Brief Article)
July 12, 2004... * The push to put Ronald Reagan on the ten-dollar bill gained new force after his death. Alexander Hamilton, the tenner's current occupant, is widely visible only there, partly because he was never president, partly because New Deal historians...

The New York Times employs many Reagan-haters, and perhaps the most dogged is Frank Rich.(Brief Article)
July 12, 2004... * The New York Times employs many Reagan-haters, and perhaps the most dogged is Frank Rich. Anyway, in one of his columns, he wrote, "To conservatives, anyone who opted for even modest restraint in Reagan coverage... was guilty of insufficient...

If Madonna says it, it must be true.(celebrities' support for anti-Iraq War movement)(Brief Article)
July 12, 2004... * If Madonna says it, it must be true. In between paeans to Kabbalah, simulated sex acts, and the occasional song, the aging diva has been telling audiences on her current concert tour that they simply must see filmmaker Michael Moore's new...

One of the most cheering pieces of news has been the successful maiden flight of SpaceShipOne, a spacecraft entirely conceived and funded by private enterprise.(Brief Article)
July 12, 2004... * One of the most cheering pieces of news has been the successful maiden flight of SpaceShipOne, a spacecraft entirely conceived and funded by private enterprise. Astronaut Mike Melvill, who is a veteran civilian test pilot (and 63 years old),...

Among the latest recipients of the Presidential Medal of Freedom is Norman Podhoretz, for 35 years editor of Commentary.(Brief Article)
July 12, 2004... * Among the latest recipients of the Presidential Medal of Freedom is Norman Podhoretz, for 35 years editor of Commentary. He started as a literary critic--a student of Trilling and Leavis--and then branched into politics, as the times seemed...

Ray Charles had the private life of many pop musicians: equal parts pathos and bad habits (promiscuity, addiction).(Brief Article)
July 12, 2004... * Ray Charles had the private life of many pop musicians: equal parts pathos and bad habits (promiscuity, addiction). His singing frequently visited the land of self-parody: He would have recorded AOL's "You've got mail" message as an R&B wail....

Missed connections.(media coverage of final report on September 11 attacks; links between Al-Qaeda, Saddam Hussein)
July 12, 2004... 'PANEL Finds No Qaeda-Iraq Tie" was the headline in the New York Times for its front-page story on the interim report of the 9/11 commission. "Al Qaeda-Hussein Link Is Dismissed" was the headline of the front-page story in the Washington Post....

Tortured logic.(investigation and political effects of Abu Ghraib war prisoner abuses)
July 12, 2004... INVESTIGATIONS and prosecutions are still proceeding in the matter of Abu Ghraib, and in other alleged cases of the abuse of military prisoners. The perpetrators should be punished: both those who committed the abuses and anyone who, through...

Ring sing.(comments on Richard Wagner, The Ring of the Nibelung opera cycle)
July 12, 2004... I USED to go regularly to the opera when I was young, mostly when I was very young. At age 13 I saw Wagner's Ring in London, and again the following year in New York. My sisters and I were slaves to the whole business and had the luck, at one...

Notes & asides.(Letter to the Editor)
July 12, 2004... * Dear Mr. Buckley: Mr. Sparling's letter in Notes & Asides (May 17) stirred my thoughts regarding Peter Robinson's reference to "the mounting wave of dependent clauses that ends the second sentence" (in the example from your Fall of the Berlin...

Song of himself: the 42nd president weighs in.(Bill Clinton's autobiography My Life)
July 12, 2004... IMAGINE a Clinton State of the Union address that never ends. That's My Life. Bill Clinton is a laundry-list author, throwing everything at us with little effort to prioritize, shape, or rise above the pedestrian. Perhaps if every paragraph of...

The Douglas Brinkley show: a historian who trumpets the greatness of John Kerry.
July 12, 2004... AT around 8:30 P.M. on March 15, retired admiral Roy Hoffmann was sitting at his desk in Richmond, Va., when the phone rang. He picked up the receiver and heard a familiar voice. It was John Kerry. The two men weren't close, but they had served...

UKIP, they pick: the meaning of a conservative party's recent strong showing.(United Kingdom Independence Party)
July 12, 2004... PRIME MINISTER Tony Blair, Tory politicians, and political pundits were all "reeling," as the tabloids say, from the British results of the European elections and, in particular, from the almost vertical rise of the United Kingdom Independence...

The abortion distortion: what the 'pro-choice' people have done to law, medicine, and language.(promotion of partial-birth abortion)
July 12, 2004... THE legal battle in three separate federal trials that have followed President Bush's signing of the Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act in November 2003 illustrates how the abortion-rights lobby perverts the law, co-opts the medical profession, and...

Final scene: a service at the National Cathedral.(the funeral of former president Ronald Reagan)
July 12, 2004... A FEW days before the state funeral for Ronald Reagan, some of his old aides were talking up an idea they thought would show just the right spirit: They proposed that at noon on June 11, as services began at Washington National Cathedral, the...

An end to marijuana prohibition: the drive to legalize picks up.
July 12, 2004... NEVER before have so many Americans supported decriminalizing and even legalizing marijuana. Seventy-two percent say that for simple marijuana possession, people should not be incarcerated but fined: the generally accepted definition of...

A tortured debate: the media-fed hysteria over the treatment of terrorist prisoners.
July 12, 2004... ON Sunday, June 20, at the U.S. detention facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, the lunch menu for suspected al-Qaeda, Taliban, and other prisoners in the War on Terror was as follows: whole-wheat pita bread, stewed tomatoes, long-grain brown rice,...

Stem-cell hard sell: after Reagan's death, the campaign for embryo research grows even more dishonest.
July 12, 2004... NANCY REAGAN believes that increased government funding for embryonic stem-cell research could keep other families from going through the trauma of Alzheimer's disease. To her credit, she has never said that her husband would have favored such...

The long view.(Bill and Hillary Clinton)(Humor)
July 12, 2004... Official Transcript: Larry King Live June 20, 2008. LARRY KING: "From Port St. Joe, Florida! You're on with Bill and Hillary Clinton! Hello!" CALLER: "Me?" LARRY KING: "What's your question, caller?" CALLER: "I just wanted to...

Bill Clinton, Author.(Humor)(Brief Article)
July 12, 2004... BILL CLINTON, AUTHOR Knopf greased the chute with $10 mil. Dan played the sycophant host. John, in an oxygen tent, Sucks, but Bill's sucking the most. As a doorstop, it's OK. Early reviews are unkind. ...

Con men & heroes.(Freedom Just Around the Corner: A New American History, 1585-1828)(Book Review)
July 12, 2004... Freedom Just Around the Corner: A New American History, 1585-1828, by Walter A. McDougall (HarperCollins, 656 pp., $29.95) THIS provocative book is the first of three projected volumes in Walter A. McDougall's new history of America. At the...

2004 Caribbean Post-Election Cruise.(package tour)
July 12, 2004... November 13-20 on Holland America Line's MS Zuiderdam A LUXURY VOYAGE FEATURING ALL-STAR SPEAKERS INCLUDING renowned author VICTOR DAVIS HANSON, Islam expert BERNARD LEWIS, GOP chairman ED GILLESPIE, Club for Growth boss STEPHEN MOORE,...

Connected.(The Connection: How al Qaeda's Collaboration with Saddam Hussein Has Endangered America)(Book Review)
July 12, 2004... The Connection: How al Qaeda's Collaboration with Saddam Hussein Has Endangered America, by Stephen F. Hayes (HarperCollins, 224 pp., $19.95) 'PANEL Finds No Qaeda-Iraq Tie," screamed the New York Times headline. The Times could not have...

Vive la difference!(Taking Sex Differences Seriously)(Book Review)
July 12, 2004... Taking Sex Differences Seriously, by Steven E. Rhoads (Encounter, 374 pp., $27.95) SHORTLY after the Lewinsky scandal broke, Time White House reporter Nina Burleigh confessed in Mirabella magazine that she, too, had once caught the...

Major General Sickles visits the Army Medical Museum, July 1904.(Poem)
July 12, 2004... MAJOR GENERAL SICKLES VISITS THE ARMY MEDICAL MUSEUM, JULY 1904 "That's Daniel Sickles come to see his bones, As oft he does. Old soldiers love to tell You pups about the War. Not he, though well He could. At Gettysburg,...

Prima Donnas, all around.(Obsessions; Please Welcome ... Matt Haimovitz; recording by pianist Evgeny Kissin)(Sound Recording Review)
July 12, 2004... DEBORAH VOIGT made a little news last March, and not just musical news: Word leaked that she'd been sacked from a production of Richard Strauss's Ariadne auf Naxos at Covent Garden. The casting director, we learned, had decided that he wanted...

Innocence: a broad.(Re-Invention World Tour)(Concert Review)
July 12, 2004... LET me make one thing clear from the outset: I have never been a great fan of Madonna's music. No, I have always admired her chiefly for her work as a role model for America's young people. I say this not entirely in jest: Here's a woman...

Soul on ice.(hot weather in New York City)(Humor)(Column)
July 12, 2004... AS the song says, "All around, people looking half-dead / Walking on the sidewalk hotter than a match-head." We expect the sidewalks of New York to heat up as summer comes on. But then, we expect to be able to retreat to our airconditioned...

Trooplessness.(reorganization of American military bases abroad)
July 12, 2004... NEW YORK, JUNE 4 IT is now official. There will be a substantial redeployment of our standing military forces. There are several reasons for this, the most intriguing, that we are deploying not only soldiers and sailors, but also political...

Did we do war crimes?(alleged abuse of war prisoners in Abu Ghraib prison)
July 12, 2004... NEW YORK, JUNE 11 THE high non-Reagan moment of last week came when Attorney General John Ashcroft contended with Sen. Edward Kennedy on the whole business of torture. Ashcroft was explaining something not terribly complicated, but it led...

The playground.(religion in public schools)(Fictional Work)
July 12, 2004... NEW YORK, JUNE 15 EXCUSE me, sir. Are you Maureen's father?" John Dickson looked over at the children playing on the school playground. He ducked, but the football grazed his questioner, bloodying his nose. "Can you use my...

The wealth of Indian nations.
July 12, 2004... It is said that a rising tide raises all boats, but that has not been true for American Indians. Despite recent growth partly owing to gambling casinos built on reservations, per capita income for Native Americans living on reservations in 1999...

The 40th president.(Letter to the Editor)
July 26, 2004... As someone who describes himself as Irish by birth, German by descent, and American by destiny, I would like to offer my condolences to your entire nation (and, soon enough, mine) on the passing of Ronald Reagan. I have no fear that Reagan's...

Price controls on gasoline? Bad idea.
July 26, 2004... Americans are understandably upset by the high prices they've been paying for gasoline. Many think that the cause is oil company greed and that the solution is government-enforced price controls. But price controls on gasoline are a terrible...

In The Hotline's survey of state polls, President Bush leads in 26 states worth 227 electoral votes and John Kerry leads in 18 states worth 218 electoral votes (270 needed to win).(includes other news)(News Briefs)(Brief Article)
July 26, 2004... * In The Hotline's survey of state polls, President Bush leads in 26 states worth 227 electoral votes and John Kerry leads in 18 states worth 218 electoral votes (270 needed to win).... Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll: Bush 45 percent, Kerry...

Kerry: "I oppose abortion, personally. I don't like abortion. I believe life does begin at conception.".(John F. Kerry)(includes other news)(News Briefs)(Brief Article)
July 26, 2004... * Kerry: "I oppose abortion, personally. I don't like abortion. I believe life does begin at conception."... More Kerry: "George Bush talked about being a uniter, not a divider. But he's been the greatest divider as a president "This could...

Bill Clinton's book causes trouble for Erskine Bowles, his former chief of staff, now running for Senate in North Carolina.(includes other news)(News Briefs)(Brief Article)
July 26, 2004... * Bill Clinton's book causes trouble for Erskine Bowles, his former chief of staff, now running for Senate in North Carolina. Republican challenger Rep. Richard Burr says Bowles is running away from his record on trade and tobacco.... Gov. Bill...

Michael Reagan comes out against embryonic-stem-cell research.(includes other news)(News Briefs)(Brief Article)
July 26, 2004... * Michael Reagan comes out against embryonic-stem-cell research.... Solicitor general Ted Olson says he will leave Justice Department and return to private practice.... In survey of black students at elite colleges and universities, 41 percent...

BBC, notorious for its biased Mideast coverage, starts a 24-hour Arabic network.(includes other news)(News Briefs)(Brief Article)
July 26, 2004... * BBC, notorious for its biased Mideast coverage, starts a 24-hour Arabic network.... U.S. expels two security guards working at Iran's U.N. mission for videotaping New York City landmarks.... Saddam Hussein, in Iraqi courtroom: "The real...

From David Letterman's Top Ten Things Overheard in Line at the Clinton Book Signing.(Humor)(Brief Article)
July 26, 2004... * From David Letterman's Top Ten Things Overheard in Line at the Clinton Book Signing: "Those aren't Secret Service agents--those are Hillary's people keeping an eye on him."

Since our last issue, Iraq has been handed over to the Iraqis.
July 26, 2004... * Since our last issue, Iraq has been handed over to the Iraqis, and the Democratic party to the trial lawyers.

The lineup of speakers for the Republican National Convention is a tribute to Nelson Rockefeller.(Brief Article)
July 26, 2004... * The lineup of speakers for the Republican National Convention is a tribute to Nelson Rockefeller. It is assuredly not a picture of the modern Republican party. George Pataki, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Mike Bloomberg, Rudy Giuliani, and John...

So Vice President Cheney said the F-word to Sen. Patrick Leahy.(Dick Cheney)(Brief Article)
July 26, 2004... * So Vice President Cheney said the F-word to Sen. Patrick Leahy. Do we want vice presidents talking like (vide the Nixon tapes, or memoirs of the LBJ era) presidents? Under extreme provocation, the great statesman has two options open to him....

"I oppose abortion, personally," says John Kerry.(Brief Article)
July 26, 2004... * "I oppose abortion, personally," says John Kerry. "I don't like abortion. I believe life does begin at conception. But I can't take my Catholic belief, my article of faith, and legislate it on a Protestant or a Jew or an atheist... who...

Kerry announced that he opposes granting driver's licenses to illegal aliens.(John F. Kerry)(Brief Article)
July 26, 2004... * Kerry announced that he opposes granting driver's licenses to illegal aliens. Among Democrats, this may qualify as something like statesmanship, given their party's usual subservience to the pleadings of Hispanic lobbying groups. ("Let me...

Republican Jack Ryan was forced to end his campaign for the Senate from Illinois after the Chicago Tribune got a judge to release his divorce records.(Brief Article)
July 26, 2004... * Republican Jack Ryan was forced to end his campaign for the Senate from Illinois after the Chicago Tribune got a judge to release his divorce records. Those records included his ex-wife's allegation that he had asked her to have sex with him...

The Senate is preparing to vote on the Federal Marriage Amendment.(Brief Article)
July 26, 2004... * The Senate is preparing to vote on the Federal Marriage Amendment. A lot of senators seem inclined to present themselves as "personally opposed" to same-sex marriage: They are against it, they do not want judges to impose it, but they will do...

All along, conservatives have said that the McCain-Feingold law restricted political speech.(campaign finance reform)(Brief Article)
July 26, 2004... * All along, conservatives have said that the McCain-Feingold law restricted political speech. Liberals seemed either to disagree, or not to mind. Since the law took effect, they have been dismayed by how much money Bush has been able to raise...

We miss Harvey Pitt.(former chairman of Securities and Exchange Commission)(Brief Article)
July 26, 2004... * We miss Harvey Pitt. Bush's first appointee to run the Securities and Exchange Commission, Pitt was run out of town when he was slow to join the regulatory hysteria that gripped Washington during the accounting scandals. His successor,...

Congress has tried to restrict minors' access to online pornography by requiring porn sites to verify the age of their viewers (by, for example, getting a credit card number).(Brief Article)
July 26, 2004... Congress has tried to restrict minors' access to online pornography by requiring porn sites to verify the age of their viewers (by, for example, getting a credit card number). Most people, especially parents, consider this a modest restriction...

Following recent visits to refugee camps by Colin Powell and Kofi Annan, Sudan is pledging to mend its ways.(Brief Article)
July 26, 2004... * Following recent visits to refugee camps by Colin Powell and Kofi Annan, Sudan is pledging to mend its ways. It has been backing Arab militias that have been trying to wipe out the black Muslim population of Darfur, but now it will supposedly...

For a short time there, it looked as though Stephen Harper's Conservative party was going to storm Canada and roust the once-impregnable Liberals from office.(Brief Article)
July 26, 2004... * For a short time there, it looked as though Stephen Harper's Conservative party was going to storm Canada and roust the once-impregnable Liberals from office. Paul Martin, the Liberal leader, came across as distinctly worried in the weeks...

The International Court of Justice in The Hague is shortly to rule on the legality of the fence due to separate Israelis and Palestinians on the West Bank, and a debate in the U.N. is likely to follow--more an outcry than a debate, really.(Brief Article)
July 26, 2004... * The International Court of Justice in The Hague is shortly to rule on the legality of the fence due to separate Israelis and Palestinians on the West Bank, and a debate in the U.N. is likely to follow--more an outcry than a debate, really....

Back in April the government of China told the people of Hong Kong that, contrary to their hopes, there would be no general elections in the territory for at least eight years.(Brief Article)
July 26, 2004... * Back in April the government of China told the people of Hong Kong that, contrary to their hopes, there would be no general elections in the territory for at least eight years. The present system, in which most Hong Kong legislators, as well...

The Road to Oz.
July 26, 2004... THE ROAD TO OZ The scarecrow didn't have a brain. The woodsman had no heart. The lion cowered as he roared: John Edwards, for a start, Has chased an ambulance like mad And made a pile of dough-- ...

Britain's House of Lords has foiled an attempt to make the smacking of children illegal.(Brief Article)
July 26, 2004... * Britain's House of Lords has foiled an attempt to make the smacking of children illegal. We quote without comment, but with some italics of our own, from one of the newspaper reports: "Tony Blair said the Government wanted to strike a balance...

The organizing principle of American public life in the 21st century will apparently be that everything tends to a TV "reality show.".(Al Sharpton to host television program I Hate My Job)(Brief Article)
July 26, 2004... * The organizing principle of American public life in the 21st century will apparently be that everything tends to a TV "reality show." Corporate America has led the way, with real-estate magnate Donald Trump currently the star of NBC's hit The...

When Bill Cosby criticized blacks for not making use of the opportunities afforded by the Brown decision, some accused him of airing dirty laundry in public.(Brief Article)
July 26, 2004... * When Bill Cosby criticized blacks for not making use of the opportunities afforded by the Brown decision, some accused him of airing dirty laundry in public. Cosby returned to his theme at a Rainbow/PUSH Coalition meeting early in July. "Let...