National Review articles from June 2004

National Review archives from June 2004

The crime scene.(letters to the editor)(Letter to the Editor)
June 14, 2004... William F. Buckley Jr. is right to decry the silliness of the slogan that "government should stay out of the bedroom" ("Bedroom Rights," May 31). Many liberals were instrumental in getting the government into the bedroom when they worked for...

Jitters on the right.(letters to the editor)(Letter to the Editor)
June 14, 2004... Ramesh Ponnuru, as always, is right on the money when it comes to Bush hatred on the left ("Why They Hate Him," May 17). Elitist disdain accounts for a lot of it, as does a penchant for conspiracy theories. But what about the dramatic erosion...

Grand slammer.(letters to the editor)(Letter to the Editor)
June 14, 2004... Jay Nordlinger's review of the movie on Bobby Jones was masterfully done ("Our Bobby," May 31). In 1941 I was a student at Marist College High School in Atlanta, where Jones's son, Bobby III, was also a student. Jones had been called to active...

No child left behind: how to ace those tests.
June 14, 2004... One reason that the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act is important and promising is that it focuses on reading. By the same token, one reason that NCLB sometimes distorts education for the worse is that it focuses on reading. The paradox arises...

In Time/CNN poll, President Bush earns 46 percent approval rating.(for the record)(Brief Article)
June 14, 2004... * In Time/CNN poll, President Bush earns 46 percent approval rating.... Zogby poll: John Kerry 47 percent, Bush 42 percent, Ralph Nader 3 percent.... Vice President Cheney, at U.S. Coast Guard Academy: "We will engage the enemy, facing him...

Kerry, to AP: "When Bill Clinton left office, not one young American was dying in war anywhere in this world".(for the record; John Kerry quotes)(Brief Article)
June 14, 2004... * Kerry, to AP: "When Bill Clinton left office, not one young American was dying in war anywhere in this world."... Kerry: "What has happened is not just something that a few, you know, privates and corporals or sergeants engaged in.... This...

House minority leader Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) calls Bush "incompetent leader," adding: "In fact, he's not a leader.(for the record)(Brief Article)
June 14, 2004... * House minority leader Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) calls Bush "incompetent leader," adding: "In fact, he's not a leader. He's a person who has no judgment, no experience, and no knowledge of the subjects that he has to decide upon."... House...

Sen. Zell Miller (D., Ga.): "You can't make a chicken swim and you can't make John Kerry anything but an out-of-touch ultraliberal from Taxachusetts".(for the record)(Brief Article)
June 14, 2004... * Sen. Zell Miller (D., Ga.): "You can't make a chicken swim and you can't make John Kerry anything but an out-of-touch ultraliberal from Taxachusetts."... Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D., Ark.) says she won't campaign actively for Kerry, in Arkansas...

Washington Post analysis finds 62 percent of federal workers earning merit bonus or other cash award in 2002, with median value of $811.(for the record)(Brief Article)
June 14, 2004... * Washington Post analysis finds 62 percent of federal workers earning merit bonus or other cash award in 2002, with median value of $811.... Phyllis Schlafly, on CNBC: "I particularly am upset about the way the feminists have taken, really,...

Russia indicates it will support Kyoto global-warming treaty if EU endorses its bid to enter WTO.(for the record)(Brief Article)
June 14, 2004... * Russia indicates it will support Kyoto global-warming treaty if EU endorses its bid to enter WTO.... Soccer committee disqualifies Libya's bid for 2010 World Cup because it refused to say an Israeli team would be allowed in the country to...

Jay Leno: "Yesterday John Kerry and Ralph Nader met face-to-face.(for the record)
June 14, 2004... * Jay Leno: "Yesterday John Kerry and Ralph Nader met face-to-face. It was a historic meeting. Astronomers said today their meeting actually created what is called a 'charisma black hole.'"

Kerry-McCain '04?(The Week)
June 14, 2004... * Kerry-McCain '04? All right, but what's Kerry going to do to appeal to Republicans?

The Kerry campaign is reportedly toying with the idea of holding a non-nominating Democratic Convention in Boston at the end of July.(The Week)(Brief Article)
June 14, 2004... * The Kerry campaign is reportedly toying with the idea of holding a non-nominating Democratic Convention in Boston at the end of July. It should make for a great acceptance speech--or is that pre-acceptance speech? By delaying his formal...

Under court order, Massachusetts began to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples.(The Week)(Brief Article)
June 14, 2004... * Under court order, Massachusetts began to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples. The first couple to be married in Provincetown says theirs is an open marriage. One of the partners, Jonathan Yarbrough, a bisexual, told the Boston Herald...

More or less lost in the media's unending feast over revelations at Abu Ghraib was news of an important discovery in Iraq.(The Week)(Brief Article)
June 14, 2004... * More or less lost in the media's unending feast over revelations at Abu Ghraib was news of an important discovery in Iraq: Small amounts of the deadly nerve agent sarin--one of the types of weapons cited as a reason for toppling Saddam--were...

The 9/11 Commission moved to New York City, where it suffered its first rebuke.(The Week)(Brief Article)
June 14, 2004... * The 9/11 Commission moved to New York City, where it suffered its first rebuke. Former Navy secretary John Lehman said that the communications of the city's public services are "a scandal," and that its disaster-response plans are "not worthy...

The Bush White House would like you to believe that its recent deal with Senate Democrats on judges was not a presidential surrender.(The Week)(Brief Article)
June 14, 2004... * The Bush White House would like you to believe that its recent deal with Senate Democrats on judges was not a presidential surrender. After Democrats launched unprecedented filibusters of six of Bush's appeals-court nominees, the president...

In a May 7 op-ed, Sen. Fritz Hollings, a Democrat from South Carolina, denounced the Iraq war as a Bush ploy to secure Israel, which he identified as part of a larger Bush ploy to secure re-election by wooing Jewish voters.(The Week)(Brief Article)
June 14, 2004... * In a May 7 op-ed, Sen. Fritz Hollings, a Democrat from South Carolina, denounced the Iraq war as a Bush ploy to secure Israel, which he identified as part of a larger Bush ploy to secure re-election by wooing Jewish voters. Behold Hollings's...

Sumer Is Icumen In.(The Week)(Poem)
June 14, 2004... SUMER IS ICUMEN IN The Reform party nominates Nader. Like cicadas, the kooks are in voice. Feeling better, Karl's color's returning. Kerry's French is, off camera, choice. Up in Chappaqua, Clinton feigns horror. ...

When Colin Powell was taping a series of satellite interviews from Jordan, an aide tried to cut off a session with Tim Russert of Meet the Press because the scheduled ten minutes had stretched to thirteen.(The Week)(Brief Article)
June 14, 2004... * When Colin Powell was taping a series of satellite interviews from Jordan, an aide tried to cut off a session with Tim Russert of Meet the Press because the scheduled ten minutes had stretched to thirteen. Powell answered a last question...

Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11, a propaganda film dedicated to discrediting the War on Terror, won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival.(The Week)(Brief Article)
June 14, 2004... * Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11, a propaganda film dedicated to discrediting the War on Terror, won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival. One can relish Christopher Hitchens's jibe at Moore's popularity abroad. Europeans, said Hitchens,...

Susan Sontag, in an essay for the New York Times Magazine on Abu Ghraib ("Regarding the Torture of Others," May 23), says some true things about the unquenchability of images in the digital age, mixed in with the sweeping assertion that the torture flowed organically from the Iraq war, and from the War on Terror in general ("the photographs are us").(The Week)(Brief Article)
June 14, 2004... * Susan Sontag, in an essay for the New York Times Magazine on Abu Ghraib ("Regarding the Torture of Others," May 23), says some true things about the unquenchability of images in the digital age, mixed in with the sweeping assertion that the...

Oral arguments were heard on May 20 in the case of five Norwood, Ohio, property owners whose homes and small businesses are in danger of being confiscated and handed over to a private real-estate developer.(The Week)(Brief Article)
June 14, 2004... * Oral arguments were heard on May 20 in the case of five Norwood, Ohio, property owners whose homes and small businesses are in danger of being confiscated and handed over to a private real-estate developer. The Constitution recognizes...

In common with most other states, Kansas subsidizes tuition in state colleges for state residents.(The Week)(Brief Article)
June 14, 2004... * In common with most other states, Kansas subsidizes tuition in state colleges for state residents. Fifteen credit hours at Kansas State University currently costs a Kansas resident $1,755, compared with $5,700 for undergraduates from outside...

Vermont became the tenth state (the others are Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington) to permit some form of the medical use of marijuana.(The Week)(Brief Article)
June 14, 2004... * Vermont became the tenth state (the others are Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington) to permit some form of the medical use of marijuana. So this sensible reform of the drug laws has succeeded...

In an upset, India's Congress Party won the national elections.(The Week)
June 14, 2004... * In an upset, India's Congress Party won the national elections. The party leader, Sonia Gandhi, then dealt the world another surprise by declining the post of prime minister. Gandhi was born in Italy, and appears to have concluded that the...

Picture this.(Abu Ghraib photos)(Column)
June 14, 2004... SURE, I was outraged by the Abu Ghraib photos. In two senses. At first I was infuriated by what the photos depicted. But as time has gone by, my outrage over the photos has been eclipsed by outrage at the photos themselves. I am now more angry...

Rafah is a ramshackle spread of housing at the southern tip of the Gaza Strip, right alongside the Egyptian border.(The Week)(Brief Article)
June 14, 2004... * Rafah is a ramshackle spread of housing at the southern tip of the Gaza Strip, right alongside the Egyptian border. That's the trouble. Palestinian terrorists are in the habit of digging tunnels from the Egyptian side, through which to...

For some time now, we have been keeping an eye on Jian-li Yang, who visited our offices in the summer of 2001.(The Week)(Brief Article)
June 14, 2004... * For some time now, we have been keeping an eye on Jian-li Yang, who visited our offices in the summer of 2001. Since the spring of 2002, he has been a political prisoner in China. Jian-li is, indeed, one of the most famous democrats in the...

As an actor and comedian, Bill Cosby enjoys a great deal of popularity.(The Week)(Brief Article)
June 14, 2004... * As an actor and comedian, Bill Cosby enjoys a great deal of popularity. He is not quite so universally esteemed as a public speaker; not, at least, after his comments at a gala event commemorating Brown v. Board. Said Cosby, of contemporary...

Bernd Runge, 43, of Berlin, has a very nice life.(The Week)(Brief Article)
June 14, 2004... * Bernd Runge, 43, of Berlin, has a very nice life. Named "Media Man of 2003," and reportedly a member of the "jet-set," Mr. Runge is the head of media conglomerate Conde Nast's German operations. The publisher of "lifestyle" magazines Vanity...

A Mexican TV production company has produced a feature film titled A Day Without a Mexican.(The Week)(Movie Review)(Brief Article)
June 14, 2004... * A Mexican TV production company has produced a feature film titled A Day Without a Mexican. In the film, all the Mexicans mysteriously disappear from California one day. Ensuing horrors include a U.S. Senator and his wife struggling to locate...

Fans of the late, but immortal, James Mason will recall the line from his last movie, The Shooting Party, delivered when the Edward Fox character, out on an aristocratic pheasant shoot, has just brought down one of the beaters through an excess of competitive zeal: "You were not shooting like a gentleman, Gilbert.".(The Week)
June 14, 2004... * Fans of the late, but immortal, James Mason will recall the line from his last movie, The Shooting Party, delivered when the Edward Fox character, out on an aristocratic pheasant shoot, has just brought down one of the beaters through an...

It is wrong, wrong, wrong, for athletes to use performance-enhancing drugs in competition.(The Week)(Brief Article)
June 14, 2004... * It is wrong, wrong, wrong, for athletes to use performance-enhancing drugs in competition. Everyone agrees on that, don't they? Well... sort of. The International Olympic Committee has now ruled that transsexuals may compete in Olympic...

Those unacquainted with the recent--that is, post-1968--history of tennis may wonder why so many of the best women entered in the French championships are injured, otherwise unable to play, or doubtful.(The Week)(Brief Article)
June 14, 2004... * Those unacquainted with the recent--that is, post-1968--history of tennis may wonder why so many of the best women entered in the French championships are injured, otherwise unable to play, or doubtful. All, of course, are in excellent shape,...

Are we alone in thinking that one of the most wearily depressing minor features of our current national life is the 20-year effort to purge all references to Indian tribes and their martial qualities from the names of college and professional sports teams?(The Week)(Brief Article)
June 14, 2004... * Are we alone in thinking that one of the most wearily depressing minor features of our current national life is the 20-year effort to purge all references to Indian tribes and their martial qualities from the names of college and professional...

After ten years on the air, Friends finally came to an end.(The Week)(Brief Article)(Television Program Review)
June 14, 2004... * After ten years on the air, Friends finally came to an end. The show was not witty or even especially funny, and its attempt to present Chandler as a one-man Algonquin Round Table was sad. The characters were not interesting. Ross's...

The people of Russia, having freed themselves from the shackles of Soviet puritanism, are now to get their first museum of erotica, to open soon in St. Petersburg.(The Week)(Brief Article)
June 14, 2004... * The people of Russia, having freed themselves from the shackles of Soviet puritanism, are now to get their first museum of erotica, to open soon in St. Petersburg. Star attraction in the museum will be the pickled penis of Gregory Rasputin,...

Mel Lasky played a central part in the Cold War against Communism, and relished every moment of it.(The Week)(Brief Article)(Obituary)
June 14, 2004... * Mel Lasky played a central part in the Cold War against Communism, and relished every moment of it. His intellectual horsepower was as high as anyone's, and he had go-getting energy to match. A New Yorker born and bred, he had begun as a...

Slogging ahead.(At War)
June 14, 2004... IN a primetime speech, the first of several he is to give weekly, President Bush reiterated his vision for the new Iraq. If the speech didn't contain anything new, except for the symbolic gesture of proposing to destroy Abu Ghraib, it usefully...

Unhappy anniversary.(Brown V. Board)
June 14, 2004... IT was impossible for anyone, whatever his political persuasion, not to be a bit melancholy on the fiftieth anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education. The end of formal racial segregation in American education was a great advance, and Brown...

Notes & asides.(Letter to the Editor)
June 14, 2004... Dear Mr. Buckley: While taking a practice Graduate Record Examination through Princeton Review, I came across the following fill-in-the-blank, which I think you might enjoy: "In effect, Buckley's use of such pompous language, rather than adding...

The soldiers you never hear about: they're not all prisoner-abusers, you know.(At War)
June 14, 2004... ASK Americans to name some of our soldiers in Iraq and chances are they'll readily identify Lynndie England, Charles Graner Jr., Jeremy Sivits, and Ivan "Chip" Frederick II. The three major networks have run over 200 stories on the...

David Brock is buzzing again: and the gadfly's main target is rush (and Bush, of course).(Media)
June 14, 2004... SUSIE TOMPKINS BUELL was very, very impressed with David Brock. A California businesswoman who co-founded the fashion giant Esprit and went on to become a major donor to Democratic causes, Buell was in Washington last fall attending a meeting...

Pain management in crisis!
June 14, 2004... Alicia Smith took her own life on March 16 because she couldn't stand the chronic pain any longer. (1) When federal agents arrested her physician, Dr. William Hurwitz, Alicia couldn't find anyone else willing to prescribe the large dose of...

Justice behind bars: getting back to our own prison problem ...(The Nation)
June 14, 2004... IT also happens here. For all the chest-thumping and self-doubt that have accompanied revelations of prison abuse over 6,000 miles away in Iraq, America faces plenty of problems in its own 2 million-person correctional system. "The only...

Meet Eliot Spitzer: the most destructive politician in America.(Cover Story)
June 14, 2004... THERE'S a story Eliot Spitzer likes to tell about the Federalist Society. Spitzer had started to make a name for himself as an aggressive and activist attorney general for New York, and the conservative legal group invited him to speak. Spitzer...

POWs and others: detainees do not share a single status.(At War II)
June 14, 2004... THE American people were rightly shocked, outraged, and ashamed at the abuse of Iraqis at the Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad. All detainees, including Saddam Hussein loyalists and foreign jihadists, are entitled to a humane level of treatment...

The Patriot Act without tears: understanding a mythologized law.(The Law)
June 14, 2004... IT was mid-August 2001, the last desperate days before the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Desperate, that is, for an alert agent of the FBI's Foreign Counterintelligence Division (FCI); much of the rest of America, and certainly much of the rest of...

Perversion: an 'outdated' concept, desperately and perpetually needed.(Essay)(Column)
June 14, 2004... FACED with the bad news from Abu Ghraib, we find ourselves reaching for old and distrusted concepts. Sexual humiliation, administered by women to men who have been stripped and bound, is tainted, we think, by perversion--indeed, it is a form of...

Help!!!!(Comic)(Cartoon)
June 14, 2004... "THE ABUSE AT ABU GHRAIB PRISON IS AN OUTRAGEOUS MISCARRIAGE OF JUSTICE... LET'S LYNCH RUMSFELD." NOT A TERROR CONNECTION IN IRAQ. NOT A W.M.D. IN IRAQ. FRESH MEAT! "What's this I hear about you using the White Man's...

Slippery John.(Poem)
June 14, 2004... SLIPPERY JOHN In a move too sly by far, Kerry, whose cash cookie jar Overflows with online cash, Wants to make a bigger splash By postponing--it's a reach-- His prescribed acceptance speech Until Bush...

The long view.(satire )
June 14, 2004... Summer Travel Roundup Special Yankee Go Home Edition[TM] Places to Stay in Berlin: HOTEL KUGELHOPF: Charming, stately, wonderful old grande dame of Berlin hotels, with gilded mirrors in the halls, sumptuous lobby, and a...

China scrutable.(Losing the New China: A Story of American Commerce, Desire and Betrayal)(Book Review)
June 14, 2004... Losing the New China: A Story of American Commerce, Desire and Betrayal, by Ethan Gutmann (Encounter, 253 pp., $25.95) EVERY once in a while comes a book to stir your slumber, and this is one. It is about the New China, and just how new it...

An Accommodation.(Poem)
June 14, 2004... AN ACCOMMODATION Come into my pallor, said the old man to the fly, Here's a little gift that you may open by and by. By then it will mean less than nothing; I will not be I. Once I was too quick for you: to meet me was...

2004 Caribbean: sailing November 13-20 on Holland America Line's MS Zuiderdam post-election cruise.(Advertisement)
June 14, 2004... A LUXURY VOYAGE FEATURING ALL-STAR SPEAKERS INCLUDING Renowned author VICTOR DAVIS HANSON, Islam expert BERNARD LEWIS, Republican party chairman ED GILLESPIE, acclaimed author DINESH D'SOUZA, Club for Growth boss STEPHEN MOORE, columnist...

Indispensable nation.(Colossus: The Price of America's Empire)(Book Review)
June 14, 2004... Colossus: The Price of America's Empire, by Niall Ferguson (Penguin, 384 pp., $25.95) WHAT are we going to do with Niall Ferguson? Ferguson is a brilliant young Scot now emerging as one of the English-speaking world's leading popular...

Staying human.(Beyond Therapy: Biotechnology and the Pursuit of Happiness)(Book Review)
June 14, 2004... Beyond Therapy: Biotechnology and the Pursuit of Happiness: A Report of the President's Council on Bioethics (Regan, 352 pp., $14.95) THE media--goaded on by the science establishment--have been in full cry against Leon Kass, the chairman...

Immaculate preemption.(Raid on the Sun: Inside Israel's Secret Campaign that Denied Saddam the Bomb)(Book Review)
June 14, 2004... Raid on the Sun: Inside Israel's Secret Campaign that Denied Saddam the Bomb, by Rodger W. Claire (Broadway, 288 pp., $24.95) IN the course of the last 40 years, France has done more damage to the Middle East than any other country, with...

A kinder, gentler Khan.(Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World)(Book Review)
June 14, 2004... Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World, by Jack Weatherford (Crown, 352 pp., $25) FOR years the more robust souls here at NATIONAL REVIEW have prided themselves on being to the right of Genghis Khan. Now, however, comes Jack...

Oh, grow up!(Little Children)(Book Review)
June 14, 2004... Little Children, by Tom Perrotta (St. Martin's, 368 pp., $24.95) THERE are certain kinds of stories, told in novels or movies, that for all their apparent ordinariness still yield fascination, even profundity, not to mention first-class...

Behind the facades.(City Desk)(Column)
June 14, 2004... BUSY man does a million things, and cities collect many of them. Yet most of our public activities fall into a few large categories. One might be called Putting in Rivets. By the sweat of your brow shall you eat your bread, God told Adam,...

Dumb, dumbest.(on the right)(Muslim extremists)
June 14, 2004... NEW YORK, APRIL 27 IN 1962 Michael Di Salle was running for governor of Ohio. It was a season in which U.S. officials were calling out an alarm against possible air attacks. Governor Rockefeller came close to writing into the New York...

Finding honor in Abu Ghraib.(on the right)
June 14, 2004... NEW YORK, MAY 14 SEVERAL voices, trying to sway the public temper, if not exactly to overlook the grim events, at least to put them in an anesthetic perspective, are saying: "So's your old man." And there is no questioning the truth of it,...

Is everybody brutal?(on the right)(soldier brutality)
June 14, 2004... NEW YORK, MAY 21 THE television moments of the interrogation of the generals by the senators reminded one of the estoppel power of bureaucratic language. Doing a television program in Seoul some years ago I attempted to get from the...

Nancy Reagan: "My family and I would like the world to know that President Ronald Reagan has passed away after ten years of Alzheimer's disease, at 93 years of age.(for the record)(Brief Article)
June 28, 2004... * Nancy Reagan: "My family and I would like the world to know that President Ronald Reagan has passed away after ten years of Alzheimer's disease, at 93 years of age. We appreciate everyone's prayers over the years."... Michael Reagan: "I...

President Bush: "Ronald Reagan won America's respect with his greatness, and won its love with his goodness.(for the record)(Brief Article)
June 28, 2004... * President Bush: "Ronald Reagan won America's respect with his greatness, and won its love with his goodness. He had the confidence that comes with conviction, the strength that comes with character, the grace that comes with humility, and the...

RNC chairman Ed Gillespie: "Because Ronald Reagan lived, people across the globe live in greater freedom and prosperity.".(for the record)(Brief Article)
June 28, 2004... * RNC chairman Ed Gillespie: "Because Ronald Reagan lived, people across the globe live in greater freedom and prosperity."... Secretary of state Colin Powell: "The world and his fellow Americans will forever be in his debt."... House...

Sen. Ted Kennedy (D., Mass.): "On foreign policy, he will be honored as the president who won the Cold War.".(for the record)(Brief Article)
June 28, 2004... * Sen. Ted Kennedy (D., Mass.): "On foreign policy, he will be honored as the president who won the Cold War."... Sen. John Kerry (D., Mass.): "Ronald Reagan's love of country was infectious. Even when he was breaking Democrats' hearts, he did...

Former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher: "He will be missed not only by those who knew him and not only by the nation he served so proudly and loved so deeply, but also by millions of men and women who live in freedom today because of the policies he pursued.(for the record)(Brief Article)
June 28, 2004... * Former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher: "He will be missed not only by those who knew him and not only by the nation he served so proudly and loved so deeply, but also by millions of men and women who live in freedom today because of...

The federal government will close for President Reagan's funeral.(The Week)
June 28, 2004... * The federal government will close for President Reagan's funeral. One last win for the Gipper.

Sometimes a thing is said so well that it can be used again--and now, after a long time, used yet again.(The Week)(Brief Article)
June 28, 2004... * Sometimes a thing is said so well that it can be used again--and now, after a long time, used yet again. Boswell, who could do many things with words, turned to some words by William Gerard Hamilton to end his Life of Johnson, the greatest...

Before President Reagan is completely encased in the amber of eulogy, let us remember that during his career he had many vocal enemies.(The Week)(Brief Article)
June 28, 2004... * Before President Reagan is completely encased in the amber of eulogy, let us remember that during his career he had many vocal enemies. The Left, and varying numbers of liberals, depending on their mental air pressure, thought him extreme,...

Before Ronald Reagan announced his campaign for the 1976 presidential nomination--seeking to topple the detentist incumbent, Gerald Ford--National Review wrote editorially that his positions would be good, if they were "consistent with his well-known predilections.".(The Week)(Brief Article)
June 28, 2004... * Before Ronald Reagan announced his campaign for the 1976 presidential nomination--seeking to topple the detentist incumbent, Gerald Ford--NATIONAL REVIEW wrote editorially that his positions would be good, if they were "consistent with his...

John Kerry has molted again.(The Week)(Brief Article)
June 28, 2004... * John Kerry has molted again. Now that the Democratic primaries are over, he is sounding so hawkish that the Bush campaign is accusing him of becoming the "me-too" candidate. He has always been--it's just that now he is aping George Bush...

After several encouraging weeks in Iraq, the country has a new interim government.(The Week)(Brief Article)
June 28, 2004... * After several encouraging weeks in Iraq, the country has a new interim government. Bush critics have complained that the Iraqi Governing Council crucially influenced the choices of U.N. representative Lakhdar Brahimi. But Iraqis taking...

George Tenet resigned, two years and nine months too late.(The Week)(Brief Article)
June 28, 2004... * George Tenet resigned, two years and nine months too late. Bush's loyalty to subordinates, including incompetents, is one of the marks against his presidency; a lesser example would be Norman Mineta, author of our dim-witted anti-profiling...

Proponents of expanded federal funding for research on human embryos are waging a slick p.r. campaign to change President Bush's policy.(The Week)(Brief Article)
June 28, 2004... * Proponents of expanded federal funding for research on human embryos are waging a slick p.r. campaign to change President Bush's policy. Many of the people involved in the campaign--parents of children with juvenile diabetes, for example, and...

I Remember Reagan.(Poem)
June 28, 2004... I REMEMBER REAGAN They're sullen now, those critics who Peer from their spider holes, While all around (even the French) Fly flags half-mast from poles. They called him "cowboy"--ring a bell?-- And...

Time reported it, and the Washington Post picked it up.(The Week)(Brief Article)
June 28, 2004... * Time reported it, and the Washington Post picked it up. In a study off the Oval Office, President Bush keeps a brick from the house of Mullah Omar, the former (and, one hopes, late) dictator of Afghanistan, and the pistol worn by Saddam...

Evidence continues to mount that Iran, despite repeated denials and obfuscations, is developing nuclear weapons.(The Week)(Brief Article)
June 28, 2004... * Evidence continues to mount that Iran, despite repeated denials and obfuscations, is developing nuclear weapons. The June report of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) documents, among other things, Tehran's uranium-conversion...

The 15th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre was greeted with utter silence from the Chinese media.(The Week)(Brief Article)
June 28, 2004... * The 15th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre was greeted with utter silence from the Chinese media. That nation's Communist rulers have done their utmost to flush the events of June 1989 down the memory hole, prohibiting any public...

Some aged men will come back to Normandy in 2014.(The Week)
June 28, 2004... * Some aged men will come back to Normandy in 2014. But this was the last centennial commemoration of D-Day that will attract large numbers of veterans. What Lincoln called "the silent artillery of time" will accomplish what the Germans failed...

"Long choosing, and beginning late," said Milton of Paradise Lost.(The Week)(Brief Article)
June 28, 2004... * "Long choosing, and beginning late," said Milton of Paradise Lost. The same might be said of the World War Two Veterans Memorial on the Mall in Washington. For the memorial, the present was almost too late. More than 1,000 veterans of WWII...