National Review articles from July 2006

National Review archives from July 2006

Clarification.(letters to the editor)(Letter to the editor)
July 3, 2006... My article "Scare of the Century" (June 5) quoted University of Virginia climate scientist Patrick J. Michaels as saying that "Antarctica has been gaining ice," and, based on Michaels's view, called 2002 a "high-water mark for Antarctic ice."...

On ice.(Letter to the editor)
July 3, 2006... Scientists can speak authoritatively only when backed by quantitative logic. In the case of ice balance for Antarctica, one thing is clear: Every modern climate model predicts that Antarctica will gain ice in the 21st century, resulting in a...

Let's just classify Zarqawi's martyrdom.(The Week)(Brief article)
July 3, 2006... Let's just classify Zarqawi's martyrdom as an assisted suicide.

How quickly things change.(Karl Rove)(Brief article)
July 3, 2006... How quickly things change. Top White House aide Karl Rove was under investigation in the CIA leak probe for years--the investigation will mark its third anniversary this fall. But then, on June 13, faster than you can say "frog-march," we...

The victory of Republican Brian Bilbray in a special election to fill an empty House seat representing San Diego was by no means inevitable.(The Week)(Brief article)
July 3, 2006... The victory of Republican Brian Bilbray in a special election to fill an empty House seat representing San Diego was by no means inevitable. The seat was left vacant following the Duke Cunningham bribery scandal; Bilbray is a former congressman...

The Marine staff sergeant who led the squad in Haditha has now, through his attorney, provided his side of the story of how 24 Iraqi civilians ended up dead.(The Week)
July 3, 2006... The Marine staff sergeant who led the squad in Haditha has now, through his attorney, provided his side of the story of how 24 Iraqi civilians ended up dead. His account directly contradicts news reports based on Iraqi eyewitnesses and leaks...

If Republicans were having a good year, they would have prevailed in abolishing the estate tax permanently.(The Week)(Brief article)
July 3, 2006... If Republicans were having a good year, they would have prevailed in abolishing the estate tax permanently. But they are not, and too few red-state Democratic senators were afraid of their challengers for repeal to get 60 votes. Under current...

The federal government instituted a tax on long-distance phone calls to pay for the Spanish-American War.(The Week)(Brief article)
July 3, 2006... The federal government instituted a tax on long-distance phone calls to pay for the Spanish-American War. Now the Treasury Department has agreed to stop collecting the tax, only 108 years later. Better late than never.

We think that the Supreme Court got it wrong when it ruled that the First Amendment protects flag burning.(The Week)(Brief article)
July 3, 2006... We think that the Supreme Court got it wrong when it ruled that the First Amendment protects flag burning. Setting fire to a flag is no more speech than nude dancing is. (How would you refute either "utterance"?) But there is no epidemic of...

California voters delivered a well-deserved defeat to Proposition 82, a ballot referendum that would have created a multibillion-dollar program for universal preschool in the state.(The Week)(Brief article)
July 3, 2006... California voters delivered a well-deserved defeat to Proposition 82, a ballot referendum that would have created a multibillion-dollar program for universal preschool in the state. What was expected to be a close call turned out to be a...

Shortly after Canadian authorities arrested a dozen men plus five juveniles in an alleged terrorism plot, an official with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said that the accused hailed from "the broad strata of our society.(The Week)(Brief article)
July 3, 2006... Shortly after Canadian authorities arrested a dozen men plus five juveniles in an alleged terrorism plot, an official with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said that the accused hailed from "the broad strata of our society." What he meant was...

The Department of Homeland Security announced allocations for the Urban Areas Security Initiative--a grant program Congress designed in 2003 to fund terrorism prevention in high-threat, high-risk areas.(The Week)(Brief article)
July 3, 2006... The Department of Homeland Security announced allocations for the Urban Areas Security Initiative--a grant program Congress designed in 2003 to fund terrorism prevention in high-threat, high-risk areas. The DHS cut funding for New York and...

News that three Guantanamo Bay detainees had hanged themselves quickly became propaganda.(The Week)
July 3, 2006... News that three Guantanamo Bay detainees had hanged themselves quickly became propaganda. "It was the inevitable result of creating a netherworld of despair beyond the laws of civilized nations," thundered a New York Times editorial. The Times...

When an FBI bribery investigation turned up $90,000 in cash stashed in Rep. William Jefferson's freezer, he became the rightful target of a storm of bipartisan anger.(The Week)(Brief article)
July 3, 2006... When an FBI bribery investigation turned up $90,000 in cash stashed in Rep. William Jefferson's freezer, he became the rightful target of a storm of bipartisan anger. Even House minority leader (and fellow Democrat) Nancy Pelosi demanded that...

Five years ago, a Washington Post poll asked whether race should be a factor in congressional redistricting "in order to elect more minorities to public office.(The Week)(Brief article)
July 3, 2006... Five years ago, a Washington Post poll asked whether race should be a factor in congressional redistricting "in order to elect more minorities to public office." An overwhelming majority of Americans said no, including 90 percent of whites, 83...

The American colossus, in perspective.(economic growth)
July 3, 2006... ONE of the problems with economics is that the numbers involved are just too big. A trillion here, a billion there, who can keep track of it all? U.S. nominal GDP was about $13 trillion in the first quarter of this year. Corporate profits were...

The House passed a new telecom bill after rejecting an amendment that would have given the FCC the power to enforce "net neutrality.(The Week)(Brief article)
July 3, 2006... The House passed a new telecom bill after rejecting an amendment that would have given the FCC the power to enforce "net neutrality." The amendment sought to re-regulate the market for high-speed broadband Internet access. A little history:...

The Senate voted against a constitutional amendment to define marriage as the union of a man and a woman.(The Week)(Brief article)
July 3, 2006... The Senate voted against a constitutional amendment to define marriage as the union of a man and a woman. Sen. John McCain justified his "no" vote by saying that he did not see any imminent threat that federal judges would impose same-sex...

Hawaii will remain intact for now, despite the best efforts of Sen. Daniel Akaka.(The Week)(Brief article)
July 3, 2006... Hawaii will remain intact for now, despite the best efforts of Sen. Daniel Akaka. After a contentious debate over his bill--which would have established a sovereign government entity for "native Hawaiians"--he and his supporters came up four...

The Supreme Court announced that it will hear a pair of cases involving racial preferences in its next term--the most important such cases since its ruling on the University of Michigan's admissions system declared "racial diversity" a compelling interest justifying discrimination.(The Week)(Brief article)
July 3, 2006... The Supreme Court announced that it will hear a pair of cases involving racial preferences in its next term--the most important such cases since its ruling on the University of Michigan's admissions system declared "racial diversity" a...

Six years ago, we told President-elect Bush that majority whip Tom DeLay was his "most valuable asset in Congress".(The Week)(Brief article)
July 3, 2006... Six years ago, we told President-elect Bush that majority whip Tom DeLay was his "most valuable asset in Congress." DeLay has been a valuable asset to conservatives all through his remarkable 22-year congressional career, which ended in a...

Harvard is going to get into the field of human cloning: creating human embryos for the purpose of stem-cell research that will kill them.(The Week)(Brief article)
July 3, 2006... Harvard is going to get into the field of human cloning: creating human embryos for the purpose of stem-cell research that will kill them. News coverage of Harvard's announcement has included the usual obfuscation. Some reporters have avoided...

Mark Malloch Brown, a Briton who serves as Kofi Annan's deputy at the U.N., lashed out at the United States in a move even the New York Times called "highly unusual".(The Week)(Brief article)
July 3, 2006... Mark Malloch Brown, a Briton who serves as Kofi Annan's deputy at the U.N., lashed out at the United States in a move even the New York Times called "highly unusual." Malloch Brown attacked the Bush administration's policy of linking dues...

Why would the U.S. back the offer of a light-water nuclear reactor to a country on its list of terror sponsors?(The Week)(Brief article)
July 3, 2006... Why would the U.S. back the offer of a light-water nuclear reactor to a country on its list of terror sponsors? The answer most charitable to the Bush administration is that the proposed reactor deal--one of many incentives that Europe, with...

A policeman's lot is not a happy one, according to Gilbert & Sullivan, and the blunders of the British forces in the effort to contain terrorism are proving the point over and over again.(The Week)(Brief article)
July 3, 2006... A policeman's lot is not a happy one, according to Gilbert & Sullivan, and the blunders of the British forces in the effort to contain terrorism are proving the point over and over again. The police had advance information about the London...

In the category of stories that rumble away in the background of the news while rarely making it to our front pages, let us not forget the ongoing immiseration of Robert Mugabe's Zimbabwe.(The Week)(Brief article)
July 3, 2006... In the category of stories that rumble away in the background of the news while rarely making it to our front pages, let us not forget the ongoing immiseration of Robert Mugabe's Zimbabwe. There is indeed, as Adam Smith remarked, a great deal...

Islamic militants have driven U.S.-backed warlords out of Mogadishu and may be poised to turn Somalia into a Taliban-style state.(The Week)
July 3, 2006... Islamic militants have driven U.S.-backed warlords out of Mogadishu and may be poised to turn Somalia into a Taliban-style state. It would be hard to overstate how bad this is. At least for now, the militants disclaim ties to al-Qaeda, but...

Speaking of which, one of the Somalian militants in question, Sheikh Sharif Ahmed, insisted, "We do not want to impose sharia law.(The Week)(Brief article)
July 3, 2006... Speaking of which, one of the Somalian militants in question, Sheikh Sharif Ahmed, insisted, "We do not want to impose sharia law. We will accept the views of the Somali people." That would seem not to include the people in Mogadishu who were...

We Get Zarqawi.(The Week)(Poem)
July 3, 2006... We Get Zarqawi There's no joy at MoveOn.org, Nor does Pelosi whoop Like Salome at Abu's head--Although she tries. The poop From Hillary and honeybunch Is muted. Murtha's still For bugging out. A cranky press...

The case for constitutional monarchy has rarely been better illustrated than by King Bhumipol of Thailand, who celebrated the 60th anniversary of his accession on June 9.(The Week)(Brief article)
July 3, 2006... The case for constitutional monarchy has rarely been better illustrated than by King Bhumipol of Thailand, who celebrated the 60th anniversary of his accession on June 9. Intelligent and well-educated, of an old royal line--his...

The Authority for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice is not something out of a farce, it is Saudi Arabia's official morality police force.(The Week)(Brief article)
July 3, 2006... The Authority for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice is not something out of a farce, it is Saudi Arabia's official morality police force. Reuters recently reported that the Authority for the P. of V. and P. of V. is conducting a...

The Duke lacrosse scandal is trailing off into a whimper.(The Week)(Brief article)
July 3, 2006... The Duke lacrosse scandal is trailing off into a whimper. The team's season was canceled after a stripper hired to perform at an off-campus party accused three players of rape, and D.A. Michael Nifong, in the midst of a heated campaign, quickly...

The concept of a humanoid mechanical robot, which has been around in one form or another since the 16th-century "Golem" tales, may finally be approaching realization.(The Week)(Brief article)
July 3, 2006... The concept of a humanoid mechanical robot, which has been around in one form or another since the 16th-century "Golem" tales, may finally be approaching realization. The very difficult problem of walking has recently been cracked. At a simpler...

Along with Rocky and the Liberty Bell, Philadelphia is famous for cheesesteaks--fried steak, sliced or chopped, garnished with cheese and fried onions, served in a long roll.(The Week)(Brief article)
July 3, 2006... Along with Rocky and the Liberty Bell, Philadelphia is famous for cheesesteaks--fried steak, sliced or chopped, garnished with cheese and fried onions, served in a long roll. Mr. Joseph Vento runs one of the best-known cheesesteak restaurants...

Music, Congreve told us, has charms to soothe the savage breast.(The Week)(Brief article)
July 3, 2006... Music, Congreve told us, has charms to soothe the savage breast. The municipal authorities in Sydney, Australia, are betting on the truth of this as a way to solve some of their problems with hooliganism. Gathering in streets and parking lots,...

Every year, News Corporation--Rupert Murdoch's company--hands out the Eric Breindel Award for Excellence in Opinion Journalism.(The Week)(Brief article)
July 3, 2006... Every year, News Corporation--Rupert Murdoch's company--hands out the Eric Breindel Award for Excellence in Opinion Journalism. It is given to one who demonstrates "love of country and its democratic institutions" and who "bears witness to the...

Death of a monster.(Abu Musab al-Zarqawi)
July 3, 2006... ON one banner day, news came that a U.S. air strike had killed Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, and that Iraqis had agreed on consensus choices to head the defense and interior ministries. Supporters of the war are constantly looking for signs of a...

Notes & asides.(John Kenneth Galbraith)
July 3, 2006... * Remarks by WFB at the memorial service for John Kenneth Galbraith, May 31, 2006 Mrs. Galbraith, ladies and gentlemen: There was usually mischief there, or so it was with me. He had a fine poker face, and you would not know for sure...

Back to the future: if Mexicans in America fail to assimilate, we could see the return of something ugly.(PUBLIC POLICY)
July 3, 2006... MEXICAN immigrants like it in America. They are much more likely than other immigrants to rate life in the United States as superior to life in the country where they were born, according to survey research by Public Agenda in 2003. They come...

Viva Kos Vegas? How the big lefty jamboree went down.(POLITICS)
July 3, 2006... Las Vegas ONE question kept popping up again and again at the YearlyKos convention, the gathering of devotees of the Left's biggest and most popular political website, DailyKos. The question was: How can we persuade people that we're not...

The terms of debate: if you want to get anywhere, you have to show you're 'progressive'.(Essay)
July 3, 2006... EVER since the dawn of the Progressive Era, conservatives have been fighting progressive assumptions about the role of the state, the nature of justice, and the relevance, if any, of the transcendent to public life. With few exceptions, this...

Yugoslavia, dead and gone: the meaning of the Montenegrins and their breakaway.(EUROPE)
July 3, 2006... HANDS up if you can point to Montenegro on the map. Only those with a special interest in the Balkans are likely to be able to identify this pinprick of a country with a beautiful stretch of the Adriatic and towering mountains in the...

The complicated life: what computer geeks (and others) wrought.(CULTURE WATCH)
July 3, 2006... AS Socrates undoubtedly would have said, the complicated life is not worth living, but then Americans have never been known for paying much attention to Socrates. Last week after buying a new laptop, I ran into a man who had been in the...

A fight to the finish: what the GOP Congress should do to stay on top.(Grand Old Party)(Cover story)
July 3, 2006... FOR Republicans, Brian Bilbray's narrow victory to keep disgraced former representative Duke Cunningham's seat in the GOP column was certainly better than the alternative. But the good news stops there. It was a solidly Republican district that...

George Will vs. the social cons: what's his beef?(THE RIGHT)
July 3, 2006... WILLIAM F. BUCKLEY JR., writing in 1992, called George Will "the most under-celebrated benefactor of the conservative movement in my lifetime." I don't believe that is the case today. Not, mind you, that Will is over-celebrated now. But the...

In the name of the animals: America faces a new kind of terrorism.(THE NATION)
July 3, 2006... SIX days after the World Trade Center was destroyed, the New York Stock Exchange rang its opening bell and traders sang "God Bless America" from the floor: They wanted to send a loud-and-clear message to the world that al-Qaeda could not shut...

Pope Dan I: the author of The Da Vinci Code shepherds a new religion.(CULTURE WATCH II)
July 3, 2006... THE Da Vinci Code, book and movie, gloats about bringing down the Christian Church. But what does the author, Dan Brown, dream of to fill its place? The underlying code beneath The Da Vinci Code bursts to the surface from Chapter 55 on. If...

Hillary's past.(Help!!!!)(Brief article)
July 3, 2006... Like the spot Lady Macbeth Famously tried to "out," Hillary's health history Keeps tugging at her clout. Currently, her rhetoric Re-casts it as a scar Of the honorable type--Which is to har-dee-har. ...

Welcome to your afterlife!(the long view)
July 3, 2006... Q: Why am I here exactly? A: You are here because your work leading al-Qaeda forces in Iraq and your commitment to violent acts of terrorism encountered what we in the trade call "push back" from U.S.-led forces based in Iraq, which in...

Not ready yet.(The Good Fight: Why Liberals - and Only Liberals - Can Win the War on Terror and Make America Great Again)(Book review)
July 3, 2006... The Good Fight: Why Liberals--and Only Liberals--Can Win the War on Terror and Make America Great Again, by Peter Beinart HarperCollins, 304 pp., $25.95) IN an age of hyper-partisan book marketing a title can be just a way to attract...

Cloak and founders.(Washington's Spies: The Story of America's First Spy Ring)(Book review)
July 3, 2006... Washington's Spies: The Story of America's First Spy Ring, by Alexander Rose (Bantam, 384 pp., $26) THE History Channel recently gave us Washington the Warrior; thanks to Alexander Rose, we now have Washington the Spymaster. This...

The great loser.(A Godly Hero: The Life of William Jennings Bryan)(Book review)
July 3, 2006... A Godly Hero: The Life of William Jennings Bryan, by Michael Kazin (Knopf, 400 pp., $30) WILLIAM JENNINGS BRYAN has got to be the greatest loser in American political history. No other major-party nominee has run for president so many...

Much ado about movies.(American Movie Critics: An Anthology from the Silents until Now)(Book review)
July 3, 2006... American Movie Critics: An Anthology from the Silents until Now, edited by Phillip Lopate (Library of America, 825 pp., $40) FILM was the master medium of the 20th century. Within a few years of its invention, it had supplanted live theater...

Enshrining the trees.(A Land Gone Lonesome: An Inland Voyage along the Yukon River)(Book review)
July 3, 2006... A Land Gone Lonesome: An Inland Voyage along the Yukon River, by Dan O'Neill (Counterpoint, 272 pp., $24.95) IN Dan O'Neill's previous book, The Last Giant of Beringia: The Mystery of the Bering Land Bridge, he wrote of the plants and...

Decorum vs. terror.(Edgar Allan Poe and The Juke-Box: Uncollected Poems, Drafts, and Fragments)(The Complete Poems 1927-1979)(Book review)
July 3, 2006... Edgar Allan Poe & The Juke-Box: Uncollected Poems, Drafts, and Fragments, by Elizabeth Bishop (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 392 pp., $30) The Complete Poems 1927-1979, by Elizabeth Bishop (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 287 pp., $15) THE...

Mountain Trail.(Poem)
July 3, 2006... MOUNTAIN TRAIL The shop was a hole in the wall between An insurance agency with the lights Out and a diner with two customers. It sold small items from the Orient Made of bamboo sticks and paper, with bits Of...

Dear editor.(THE STRAGGLER)
July 3, 2006... Is there any genre of literary endeavor lower--less significant, less regarded, more ephemeral--than the Letter to the Editor? Or any better illustration of the truth, first noted by one of the Roman authors, that writing is neither an art nor...

The president says it again.(on the right)
July 3, 2006... NEW YORK, MAY 30 THE broad shoulders of a national election loom just ahead. It is traditional to deplore elections as distracting from courses charted by celestial coordinates. Sure; okay; much of this is true. But elections also ratify,...

Big day at New Paltz.(on the right)
July 3, 2006... NEW YORK, JUNE 2 ARTHUR SULZBERGER JR., the publisher of the New York Times, is himself in the news. What happened is that the State University of New York at New Paltz invited him to be its commencement speaker. The publisher of the Times...

Same-sex amendment?(on the right)
July 3, 2006... NEW YORK, JUNE 6 KEY administration figures have involved themselves in the matter of the amendment to limit marriage to members of complementary sexes. Mrs. Bush was heard to say on television that she hoped the question would not become...

High culture.(letters to the editor)(Letter to the editor)
July 17, 2006... In The Week (May 22), your discussion of the medicinal benefits of marijuana ends with the rhetorical question: "If some suffering patients believe they can find comfort in smoking dope, and they don't interfere with anyone else, what...

A silver lining.(letters to the editor)(Letter to the editor)
July 17, 2006... While agreeing entirely with Roger Scruton's overall arguments against prostitution ("Old Profession, New Toleration," June 19), particularly his eloquent and moving conclusion, I must question his initial statement. He accuses the "German...

We think not.(letters to the editor)(Letter to the editor)
July 17, 2006... In The Week (June 19), you report that the Michigan Department of Education is trying to ban the use of "America" and "Americans" when referring to the United States, because doing so is apparently "inappropriate." In passing, you say that no...

Told you so.(letters to the editor)(Letter to the editor)
July 17, 2006... Over 70 years ago Lowell Thomas on his nightly newscast responded to indignation about the use of "America" and "Americans" for the United States and its inhabitants. He jokingly inquired whether we should call ourselves "United Statesers."...

Not too bright.(letters to the editor)(Letter to the editor)
July 17, 2006... In The Week (June 19) paragraph about Paris's yet again bestowing honors on convicted cop-killer Mumia Abu-Jamal, you refer to Paris as "City of Lights" (as in lamps). The common sobriquet for Paris is in fact "City of Light," as in...

The week.(immigration law in the making, Kristian Menchaca, Thomas Tucker killed by insurgents in Iraq, budget reform)
July 17, 2006... * They say Bush is ineffectual abroad--how about the U.S. soccer team? * Thirty-nine conservative intellectuals, including such heavy hitters as Thomas Sowell and William Bennett, urged Congress to pass a bill to step up enforcement of the...

The conquest of global warming.
July 17, 2006... SOMETIMES the fastest way to fix a problem is to ignore it. [GRAPHIC OMITTED] I remember learning from Ray Bradbury that the quickest way to send a man to Alpha Centauri (after the sun, the star system nearest to the earth) is to not...

Border attitudes.(Poem)
July 17, 2006... Schwarzenegger's winking, Mr. Bush; McCain won't mind the store. When frost is on the pumpkin and The kids are at the door, The people, who can be a beast, As Hamilton observed, Could work themselves into a snit. The GOP's unnerved....

Loose lips.(AT WAR)(antiterrorism measures of the Bush administration )
July 17, 2006... EVERY passing week, it becomes more apparent that disgruntled leftists in the intelligence community and anti-war crusaders in the mainstream media, annealed in their disdain for the Bush administration, are undermining our ability to win the...

Withdrawal symptoms.(AT WAR II)
July 17, 2006... WE may not know the best way to win in Iraq, but we do know the one guaranteed way to lose: pulling out U.S. troops prematurely. That happens to be the policy favored in some form or other by most Democrats, although they disagree with one...

Test case.(NORTH KOREA)(testing long range missiles)
July 17, 2006... WHY would North Korea prepare to test a long-range missile in plain sight of U.S. satellites and the world? There is much head-scratching over that, but it really shouldn't be a mystery. Aggressive and erratic behavior is pretty much what the...

Nicaragua time, again: will a Reaganite be elected? Or will the chief Sandinista return?(LATIN AMERICA)(Ronald Reagan, Daniel Ortega)
July 17, 2006... IT's not unusual for politicians to invoke the memory of Ronald Reagan. Of course, most of those who do so are American--but not Eduardo Montealegre. He's trying to become the next president of Nicaragua, and he's calling for Americans to...

Winning on immigration: the merits of guts.(CAPITOL HILL)
July 17, 2006... WHILE talking to reporters about immigration reform recently, Sen. John Cornyn, Republican of Texas, floated a tantalizing option available to the House that would bedevil the Senate. "What if the House passed just the enforcement provisions of...

Investigations to nowhere: the Senate Intelligence Committee goes on and on, tediously, fruitlessly.(CAPITOL HILL II)
July 17, 2006... IT's probably safe to say that in October 2002, when she declared on the Senate floor that "intelligence reports show that Saddam Hussein has worked to rebuild his chemical- and biological-weapons stock, his missile-delivery capability, and his...

The longest 'emergency': congress debates (sort of) the Voting Rights Act of 1965.(CAPITOL HILL III)
July 17, 2006... IN mid-June, a relatively small number of House Republicans persuaded their leaders to delay a floor vote on a bill officially called "The Fannie Lou Hamer, Rosa Parks, and Coretta Scott King Voting Rights Act Reauthorization and Amendments Act...

That shield, not a sword: how goes Ronald Reagan's goal of anti-ballistic-missile defenses?(DEFENSE)
July 17, 2006... THE uproar over the expected North Korean missile test brings the question of missile defense, once again, to the fore. Before Ronald Reagan gave his 1983 "Star Wars" speech, both Democrats and Republicans believed that the only way to counter...

Mexico, Heal thyself: the Mexican economy is a sick man, and could use several doses of Reaganism.(Cover story)
July 17, 2006... IF there is a leitmotif in the immigration debate to vex a conservative soul, it is the idea that border enforcement is anti-Mexican. This idea is vexatious because it ascribes the worst possible motives to border-enforcement advocates while...

America as jailer: we could be doing a better job, particularly in Iraq.(AT WAR)
July 17, 2006... AMERICA lacks a consistent policy regarding battlefield detainees. In Guantanamo Bay, constant outside criticism has sprung relatively few prisoners from captivity. Yet in Iraq, thousands of prisoners are periodically set free in sweeping...

Evolution and me: 'the Darwinian theory has become an all-purpose obstacle to thought rather than an enabler of scientific advance'.(Essay)
July 17, 2006... IFIRST became conscious that something was awry in Darwinian science some 40 years ago as I was writing my early critique of sexual liberation, Sexual Suicide (revised and republished as Men and Marriage). At the time, the publishing world was...

Rove roars back.(HELP!)(Cartoon)
July 17, 2006... Clyde Beatty always said technique Is what keeps circus lions meek; And last week, sprung from limbo, Karl, Whip snapping, countered every snarl (Hillary's still the meanest cat) Emitted by a Democrat. Incredibly, Karl cowed the pack,...

NSA surveillance transcript.(the long view)(National Security Agency)
July 17, 2006... TOP SECRET Begin extract: 06.26.06 17:43 GMT (Static) (Ringing) UNIDENTIFIED MALE VOICE: "Hello?" UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE VOICE: "Hi! I'm calling from the Home Delivery Customer Care Center of the New York Times. How are you...

A bullied bulldog.(books, arts & manners)(Londonistan)(Book review)
July 17, 2006... Londonistan, by Melanie Phillips (Encounter, 200 pp., $25.95) [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] LONDON is an international center of Islamist jihad and terror. Groups rigorously controlled or banned outright in Muslim countries--for instance the...

Heart Attack.(Poem)
July 17, 2006... There is storm outside. She thinks of her good father in the hospital, and weeps. The way she shudders with the lightning you might think she was waiting for the sound of a great heart breaking, and she tells me that long ago, safe...

The aesthetics of Moloch.(books, arts & manners)(My Life Among the Deathworks: Illustrations of the Aesthetics of Authority)(Book review)
July 17, 2006... My Life among the Deathworks: Illustrations of the Aesthetics of Authority, by Philip Rieff (Virginia, 288 pp., $34.95) [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] THE supreme ironical aesthete James Joyce is reputed to have said--probably while sitting at...