National Review articles from July 2008

National Review archives from July 2008

An eye for detail.(letters to the editor)(Letter to the editor)
July 14, 2008... Dr. Rob Long--I was greatly distressed to learn that your client Hillary Clinton had stabbed you in the eye with a pencil. As I'm sure you know, the best predictor of violent behavior is past violent behavior, so I was surprised at your lack of...

Thoughtful stepping.(letters to the editor)(Letter to the editor)
July 14, 2008... Michael Knox Beran offers an intriguing explanation of Senator Kennedy's persistently liberal approach to politics and lawmaking ("Lion in Winter," June 16). It nicely explains an otherwise irrational approach to reality. However, I take issue...

Methodist wisdom.(letters to the editor)(Letter to the editor)
July 14, 2008... In your April 7 issue, you mentioned an item before the Methodist Church's general assembly concerning economic sanctions against Israel. Since I have seen no follow-up, I wanted to note that the issue was not even debated at the conference,...

Why can't we have friends like Angelo?(The Week)(Brief article)
July 14, 2008... Why can't we have friends like Angelo?

Barack Obama decided to opt out of public financing for the general election because he can raise three or four times more cash on his own.(The Week)(Brief article)
July 14, 2008... Barack Obama decided to opt out of public financing for the general election because he can raise three or four times more cash on his own. In true Obama fashion, he wrapped this self-interested, and entirely rational, decision in saccharine...

Barack Obama briefly campaigned with his very own seal--an eagle with spread wings, just like the guy at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. has, surmounted by the words "Obama for America," the whole enclosed in a circle.(The Week)(Brief article)
July 14, 2008... Barack Obama briefly campaigned with his very own seal--an eagle with spread wings, just like the guy at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. has, surmounted by the words "OBAMA for AMERICA," the whole enclosed in a circle. Experts in heraldry are invited to...

In a bitterly divided 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court ruled in Boumediene v. Bush that alien enemy prisoners, captured by our military in a war authorized by Congress and held abroad, have a constitutional right to petition our courts for their release.(The Week)(Brief article)
July 14, 2008... In a bitterly divided 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court ruled in Boumediene v. Bush that alien enemy prisoners, captured by our military in a war authorized by Congress and held abroad, have a constitutional right to petition our courts for their...

A bill to overhaul foreign-intelligence gathering passed the House with an overwhelming bipartisan majority--and now enjoys the freshly minted backing of the consistently inconsistent Barack Obama, who once threatened to filibuster the legislation.(The Week)(Brief article)
July 14, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] A bill to overhaul foreign-intelligence gathering passed the House with an overwhelming bipartisan majority--and now enjoys the freshly minted backing of the consistently inconsistent Barack Obama, who once...

Led, inevitably, by Justice Kennedy, the Supreme Court has abolished the use of the death penalty as a punishment for raping children.(The Week)(Brief article)
July 14, 2008... Led, inevitably, by Justice Kennedy, the Supreme Court has abolished the use of the death penalty as a punishment for raping children. The case was Kennedy v. Louisiana, and the meretricious reasoning was that such a sanction violates the...

The principal author of the Dodd-Shelby housing bill is Sen. Christopher Dodd, a Connecticut Democrat who chairs the Senate Banking Committee.(The Week)(Brief article)
July 14, 2008... The principal author of the Dodd-Shelby housing bill is Sen. Christopher Dodd, a Connecticut Democrat who chairs the Senate Banking Committee. Portfolio magazine has revealed that Dodd was one of two U.S. senators who benefited from Countrywide...

In a sign that he is worried about facing criminal charges for failing to pay taxes, Al Sharpton has hired former U.S. attorney Zachary Carter to represent him.(The Week)(Brief article)
July 14, 2008... In a sign that he is worried about facing criminal charges for failing to pay taxes, Al Sharpton has hired former U.S. attorney Zachary Carter to represent him. Records indicate that Sharpton personally owes almost $1.3 million in federal and...

Nobody home.(housing market)
July 14, 2008... THE problems in the housing market continue to put downward pressure on the economy. Economist Larry Lindsey, my colleague at AEI, recently noted in The Weekly Standard that things are likely to get a lot worse before they get better. Lindsey...

Obama's Social Security plan is a work in progress, but it clearly involves a large tax increase.(The Week)(Barack Obama)(Brief article)
July 14, 2008... Obama's Social Security plan is a work in progress, but it clearly involves a large tax increase. Right now, the program imposes taxes on wages up to $102,000. Everyone who makes more than that pays the same maximum tax and gets the same...

In a meeting with Hispanic leaders, McCain said he would try as president to get an immigration overhaul through Congress.(The Week)(John McCain)(Brief article)
July 14, 2008... In a meeting with Hispanic leaders, McCain said he would try as president to get an immigration overhaul through Congress. Some restrictionists were unduly alarmed when they heard this report. But there is nothing new here. McCain has never...

Two years ago, Rep. John Murtha, a Pennsylvania Democrat, accused Marines of "murder" following the deaths of 24 Iraqi civilians in Haditha.(The Week)(Jeffrey Chessani, Frank Wuterich)(Brief article)
July 14, 2008... Two years ago, Rep. John Murtha, a Pennsylvania Democrat, accused Marines of "murder" following the deaths of 24 Iraqi civilians in Haditha. Eager to expose the supposed atrocities of American troops, anti-war crusaders in the media egged him...

For five generations, St. Louis-based Anheuser-Busch has been not only an American success story but a family-run business.(The Week)(Brief article)
July 14, 2008... For five generations, St. Louis-based Anheuser-Busch has been not only an American success story but a family-run business. So it is a little sad to see Belgium's InBev, brewer of Stella Artois and Beck's, making a serious effort to take over...

Citizens of Washington State are petitioning for a vote on an initiative to copy Oregon's assisted-suicide law.(The Week)(Brief article)
July 14, 2008... Citizens of Washington State are petitioning for a vote on an initiative to copy Oregon's assisted-suicide law. Only people with terminal illnesses would have this grisly "right," at least at first--supporters of the initiative are already...

New York's judges earn the second-lowest salaries in the 50 states.(The Week)(Brief article)
July 14, 2008... New York's judges earn the second-lowest salaries in the 50 states. Most could make several times as much in private practice, so sweeping raises have been ordered, retroactive to 2001. What's wrong with that? The order came from...

In recent days, more than a hundred Israeli fighter jets conducted an exercise over the eastern Mediterranean Sea, covering a distance of some 900 miles.(The Week)(Brief article)
July 14, 2008... In recent days, more than a hundred Israeli fighter jets conducted an exercise over the eastern Mediterranean Sea, covering a distance of some 900 miles. They were accompanied by helicopters (useful in rescuing downed pilots) and...

If only Israel were being as clear-eyed about Hamas.(The Week)(Brief article)
July 14, 2008... If only Israel were being as clear-eyed about Hamas. Israel and the terror group came to an arrangement to stop their low-level tit-for-tat warfare for six months. But almost as soon as the ceasefire was supposed to start, missiles were again...

Jorge Luis Garcia Perez, known as "Antunez," is one of the bravest and noblest Cuban dissidents.(The Week)(Brief article)
July 14, 2008... Jorge Luis Garcia Perez, known as "Antunez," is one of the bravest and noblest Cuban dissidents. He was in prison for 17 years. He is also "Afro-Cuban," which is worth mentioning because Castro's apologists often claim that the regime has been...

It is eight years since six-year-old Elian Gonzalez was flown back to the custody of his father in Cuba.(The Week)(Young Communist Union)(Brief article)
July 14, 2008... It is eight years since six-year-old Elian Gonzalez was flown back to the custody of his father in Cuba. Elian's mother had fled Cuba seven months earlier with Elian and twelve others in a small boat, but the boat sank before reaching Florida....

In recent years, Russian journalists critical of the government have had the habit of being murdered.(The Week)(Javier Garcia)(Brief article)
July 14, 2008... In recent years, Russian journalists critical of the government have had the habit of being murdered. Is it now Venezuela's turn? Venezuela is not yet completely Castroized, and there is still at least one television outlet critical of the...

Zimbabwean tyrant Robert Mugabe has slaughtered and terrorized his way into an approximation of a victory at the polls: His rival, Morgan Tsvangirai of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, has opted not to ask his supporters to risk death and torture to vote in an election that is sure to be fraudulent.(The Week)(Brief article)
July 14, 2008... Zimbabwean tyrant Robert Mugabe has slaughtered and terrorized his way into an approximation of a victory at the polls: His rival, Morgan Tsvangirai of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, has opted not to ask his supporters to risk...

Lawsuits can be righteous, low, symbolic, pestiferous--many things.(The Week)(Southwestern Legal Foundation)(Brief article)
July 14, 2008... Lawsuits can be righteous, low, symbolic, pestiferous--many things. Recently, an outfit called the Southwestern Legal Foundation filed a complaint against Yahoo! Why the complaint? Because the gaily named company supplied information about...

NASA scientist James Hansen's literary output reads like the bumf one might find in the bulletin of an enduring Big Sur commune.(The Week)(National Aeronautics and Space Administration)(Brief article)
July 14, 2008... NASA scientist James Hansen's literary output reads like the bumf one might find in the bulletin of an enduring Big Sur commune. His present crusade is a call to put on trial--for "crimes against humanity," no less--the chief executives of the...

Bill Cosby continues to do a world of good.(The Week)(Brief article)
July 14, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Bill Cosby continues to do a world of good. With his longtime collaborator Alvin F. Poussaint, he took to the pages of USA Today for some very straight talk. "Why do we persist in blaming the black family crisis on...

Commonwealth Catholic Charities, in Richmond, Va., helped a minor procure an abortion.(The Week)(Richmond, Virginia)(Brief article)
July 14, 2008... Commonwealth Catholic Charities, in Richmond, Va., helped a minor procure an abortion. The organization, a recipient of federal funds, may have violated state and federal law. While the investigation proceeds, perhaps the group should change...

It appears Dartmouth has managed to dilute its alumni's influence on its board of trustees--with their consent.(The Week)(Dartmouth College)(Brief article)
July 14, 2008... It appears Dartmouth has managed to dilute its alumni's influence on its board of trustees--with their consent. Since an 1891 parity agreement, elected alumni and school-chosen trustees have each made up half the board. When some alumni...

"Let's get together and do something our parents will disapprove of!".(The Week)(pregnant teens in Gloucester, Massachusetts)(Brief article)
July 14, 2008... "Let's get together and do something our parents will disapprove of!" That sentiment has been a staple among groups of giggling teens since, very likely, the Paleolithic Era. Up in Gloucester, Mass., however, it recently seemed that things had...

Readers with long memories may recall little Pavel Morozov, who, according to Soviet lore, denounced his father to the secret police in 1932, for anti-Party activities.(The Week)(Brief article)
July 14, 2008... Readers with long memories may recall little Pavel Morozov, who, according to Soviet lore, denounced his father to the secret police in 1932, for anti-Party activities. Morozov Sr. was hustled off to a labor camp. His relatives took revenge by...

Donatella Versace dedicated her most recent line of mens-wear to Barack Obama, saying the clothes were designed for "a relaxed man who doesn't need to flex muscles to show he has power," and the Associated Press described the look this way: "The new Versace suit has a structured jacket softened by a double lapel or no lapel at all and slim trousers with slick techno-fabric sheen.(The Week)
July 14, 2008... Donatella Versace dedicated her most recent line of mens-wear to Barack Obama, saying the clothes were designed for "a relaxed man who doesn't need to flex muscles to show he has power," and the Associated Press described the look this way:...

You could say Tiger Woods had no business entering the U.S.(The Week)(United States Open)(Brief article)
July 14, 2008... You could say Tiger Woods had no business entering the U.S. Open, much less winning it. He had not played golf in two months (final round of the Masters). He had had knee surgery. His doctors told him not to play. He said that he would not only...

Planet?(The Week)(plutoid)(Brief article)
July 14, 2008... Planet? Dwarf planet? Asteroid? Kuiper Belt Object? The executive committee of the International Astronomical Union, meeting in solemn conclave in Oslo, Norway, has determined that the celestial body formerly known as the ninth planet is in...

The death of Meet the Press host Tim Russert shocked with its suddenness.(The Week)(In memoriam)(Brief article)
July 14, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The death of Meet the Press host Tim Russert shocked with its suddenness. In the absence of some malignant disease, 58 seems more appropriate to a 17th-century tombstone. His peers in journalism, and his guests in...

George Carlin was a successful and ultimately cosseted rebel.(The Week)(In memoriam)(Brief article)
July 14, 2008... George Carlin was a successful and ultimately cosseted rebel. Early in his career as a comic he realized that he was entertaining the "fathers and mothers" of his peers, and thereby "living a lie." So he took off his tie, took a lot of drugs,...

He enlisted in the Army in 1917, lying (a little) about his age.(The Week)(Frank Buckles)(Brief article)
July 14, 2008... He enlisted in the Army in 1917, lying (a little) about his age. In 1941, he happened to be in the Philippines, on business. The Japanese invaded, and they took him as a prisoner of war, for more than three years. He later settled on a farm in...

Energy incoherence.(PUBLIC POLICY)(energy policy)
July 14, 2008... JOHN MCCAIN is finally starting to exploit Barack Obama's weakness on the energy issue. With gasoline topping $4 per gallon, McCain reversed his stance on offshore drilling and called for Congress to lift a 27-year-old moratorium on coastal...

The 9/10 candidate.(AT WAR)
July 14, 2008... BARACK OBAMA says, "I have confidence that our system of justice is strong enough to deal with terrorists." Nobody else should. Our justice system, though weakened by many misguided court decisions on criminal procedure, works tolerably...

Cheers to the Irish.(THE EU)(Lisbon Treaty)
July 14, 2008... THE Irish had to fight for centuries to win their independence, and theirs is a fierce and proud record. They have just extended that record by voting to reject the Lisbon Treaty, the instrument by which the European Union intends to achieve...

Bubbling out: we need to plan for a world with less oil.(ENERGY)
July 14, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] 'THIS oil thing is just a bubble," Steve Forbes said in May. "The price of oil peaked in 1980 and then went down to almost $12 a barrel by 1986. These things run in cycles. New supplies will come forth, consumers...

Allied menace: Islamists, Marxists, and the radical Left make common cause.(AT WAR)(Viewpoint essay)
July 14, 2008... 'Here are two brother countries, united like a single fist," said socialist Hugo Chavez during a visit to Tehran last November, celebrating his alliance with Islamist Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Che Guevara's son Camilo, who also visited Tehran last...

Before the revolution: Europe's governors refuse to listen to the governed.(EUROPE)
July 14, 2008... THE Irish are making big waves. They have voted in a referendum to reject something called the Lisbon Treaty. This may sound like a technicality of interest only to those hooked on politics, but actually it bears vitally on the future of...

Gay abandon: must we give up our First Amendment liberties?(CULTURE WATCH)(Essay)
July 14, 2008... IF you're strictly mercenary about it, the recent California supreme court decision legalizing same-sex marriage has its upside. According to a recent study by the UCLA School of Law, the ensuing rash of weddings is expected to pump $683.6...

Feminism gets physical: but fails to say anything of value about physics.(CULTURE WATCH II)(Essay)
July 14, 2008... YEARS ago, between sessions at an academic conference, I heard a woman mention Susie Orbach's 1978 book Fat Is a Feminist Issue. The man she was talking to repeated the title slowly, paused for a few moments in thought, and said, "Can you give...

McCain's untouchables: four men who should not be on the ticket.(John McCain)(Cover story)(Viewpoint essay)
July 14, 2008... AS the recent HBO miniseries on his life revealed, John Adams was one of our most quotable Founding Fathers. Here's a remark he made about his vice presidency (both on television and in real life): "My country has in its wisdom contrived for me...

Battle for the 'Burbs: how Republicans can compete for the upper middle class.(THE GOP)(Viewpoint essay)
July 14, 2008... IT was only four years ago that conservatives--and a great many liberals--were convinced that the Democratic party was doomed to become a purely regional institution: "a national party no more," to borrow the title of Georgia...

In love and hauteur: Obama and the press, sneering together.(THE MEDIA)(Barack Obama)(Viewpoint essay)
July 14, 2008... THE press is in love, really in love, the kind of love that comes twice in a century. Sure, it has had crushes before--on John McCain and Bill Clinton--but those were mere infatuations, and the ardor ebbed quickly. In the cold light of day, the...

Greenspan revisionism revised: assessing the former Fed chief.(ECONOMICS)(Alan Greenspan)
July 14, 2008... ONCE people called him "the maestro." John McCain said that he was such a good Fed chairman that he should stay in his position even after his death. People held him responsible for the boom of the 1990s. The cult of Alan Greenspan was...

Shock, shock, over.(the bent pin)(Brief article)
July 14, 2008... OH, to hell with politics. Let's talk about something else. Increasingly I am finding that the only way to avoid becoming a cultural moron is to ignore the picture part of the TV screen and read the crawl. Do it regularly and you can...

The long view.(on Tim Russert)(Broadcast transcript)(Audio file)
July 14, 2008... FROM: Pellicano & Associates, Investigations TO: C. Matthews IN RE: Surveillance transcript, current matter From conference-call intercept, June 22, 2008. Four persons on the call: J. Immelt, General Electric chairman; Steve Capus,...

Help!!!!(Cartoon)
July 14, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] "Of course it's renewable--you just throw more sticks on it!" [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] "Let's see you reverse this, Switherton!" [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] JIMMY OBAMA GERALD R. MCCAIN WHY DO...

Wave of the future.('Crush the Cell: How to Defeat Terrorism Without Terrorizing Ourselves')('Law and the Long War: The Future of Justice in the Age of Terror')(Book review)
July 14, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Crush the Cell: How to Defeat Terrorism without Terrorizing Ourselves, by Michael A. Sheehan (Crown, 320 pp., $24.95 [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Law and the Long War: The Future of Justice in the Age of Terror,...

The Buckley mystique.(An American Family: The Buckleys)(Book review)
July 14, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] An American Family: The Buckleys, by Reid Buckley (Threshold Editions, 459 pp., $28) IN his remarks at his father's memorial service in April, Christopher Buckley told of an incident that took place last fall....

Chesterton's marvelous year.(books, arts & manners)(G. K. Chesterton)
July 14, 2008... IT is just a hundred years ago that one of the noblest and wittiest thinkers ever to write in our language, G. K. Chesterton, burst upon the scene with two masterworks. He is impossible to categorize in our specialized subject-area pigeonholes:...

Kapell returns.(MUSIC)(William Kapell's 'William Kapell Rediscovered: The Australian Broadcasts')
July 14, 2008... THE world makes a big deal out of musicians who die young. There are reasons for this, of course: People think of potential unfulfilled; and the departed musicians are frozen in time, forever young. In fact, there's a song, "Forever Young,"...

The Funeral Home.(Poem)
July 14, 2008... THE FUNERAL HOME In the environs of the funeral home The smell of death was absent. All there was Was flowers rioting, the odors blown Palpable as a blossom into the face, To be crushed, to overpower--as if the grass...

Windy.(The Happening)(Movie review)
July 14, 2008... FOR the world's dwindling band of M. Night Shyamalan admirers--a group in which I still count myself, though increasingly reluctantly--the best-case scenario for his latest film, The Happening, was that it would represent a return to form after...

Props to the pram.(CITY DESK)(strollers)(Viewpoint essay)
July 14, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] I KNEW the situation had reached critical mass when I saw, on a street corner a block from my apartment, a thick-gauge wire-mesh garbage can holding--a mortgage? A sheaf of dollar bills? Presentation copies of John...

Send me a postcard.(but enough about you)(John McCain's energy policy; nuclear energy)
July 14, 2008... MY little Republican heart went pit-a-pat the other day when I saw the headline in the Times: MCCAIN SETS GOAL OF 45 NEW NUCLEAR REACTORS BY 2030. I'm all for nukes in any form. I've long felt that nuclear energy is the way to go, and now that...