National Review articles from June 2005

National Review archives from June 2005

A prag.(letters to the editor)(Letter to the Editor)
June 6, 2005... After reading Michael Potemra's glowing review in NR of Louis Menand's The Metaphysical Club back in 2001, I bought the book and discovered that without knowing it I had been a Pragmatist all along. This realization led me to read Charles...

In the book.(letters to the editor)(Letter to the Editor)
June 6, 2005... In their excellent piece on the courts ("Independence Day," May 23), Ramesh Ponnuru and Robert P. George make one small mistake: Referring to Cass Sunstein, William Rehnquist, and others, they say, "None of them says that the Constitution...

Newsweek caused quite a stir in the world.(The Week)
June 6, 2005... Newsweek caused quite a stir in the world. Can Time top it? And will U.S. News issue an annual ranking of magazine-sparked murderous rampages?

Would anyone in the private sector hire Sen. George Voinovich, the Ohio Republican?(The Week)(Brief Article)
June 6, 2005... Would anyone in the private sector hire Sen. George Voinovich, the Ohio Republican? He was absent without leave for two days of public hearings on John Bolton's nomination to be U.S. ambassador to the U.N. Then when he showed up at a meeting to...

Since the president came out for personal accounts and progressive benefit cuts for Social Security, the Democrats have launched critique after critique-but so far, they have not landed a glove on its substance.(The Week)(Brief Article)
June 6, 2005... Since the president came out for personal accounts and progressive benefit cuts for Social Security, the Democrats have launched critique after critique--but so far, they have not landed a glove on its substance. Democrats in the House Ways and...

The Senate has sired a new incarnation of that monument to wasteful spending, the federal highway bill.(The Week)(Brief Article)
June 6, 2005... The Senate has sired a new incarnation of that monument to wasteful spending, the federal highway bill. According to the Heritage Foundation's Ronald D. Utt, the bill would direct up to 40 percent of federal fuel-tax revenues toward projects...

Looks like Barney Frank, the grumpy gay left-winger, is the only Democrat willing to house-train Howard Dean.(The Week)(Brief Article)
June 6, 2005... Looks like Barney Frank, the grumpy gay left-winger, is the only Democrat willing to house-train Howard Dean. The DNC chairman, addressing a convention of Massachusetts Democrats in Lowell, said that "Tom DeLay ought to go back to Houston,...

Supporters of a Federal Marriage Amendment have warned that without it, federal judges would impose same-sex marriage on the nation.(The Week ...)(Brief Article)
June 6, 2005... Supporters of a Federal Marriage Amendment have warned that without it, federal judges would impose same-sex marriage on the nation. FMA opponents have dismissed that prediction as speculation. But now a federal judge has provided confirmation....

A federal appeals court ruled that the records of the energy task force run by Vice President Dick Cheney four years ago could remain secret.(The Week ...)(Brief Article)
June 6, 2005... A federal appeals court ruled that the records of the energy task force run by Vice President Dick Cheney four years ago could remain secret. It is the correct ruling. The policies promulgated by the executive branch deserve to be scrutinized....

Ron Chernow, biographer of Alexander Hamilton, wrote an op-ed for the New York Times explaining what the Founders would think about filibustering judicial nominees.(The Week ...)(Brief Article)
June 6, 2005... Ron Chernow, biographer of Alexander Hamilton, wrote an op-ed for the New York Times explaining what the Founders would think about filibustering judicial nominees. He couldn't say exactly, of course, since the filibuster was not used until...

United Airlines is defaulting on its pensions.(The Week ...)(Brief Article)
June 6, 2005... United Airlines is defaulting on its pensions. Its workers will now receive a reduced pension from the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, part of the federal government. Like United, however, the PBGC doesn't have the money to back its...

Michael Bruce Ross murdered eight young women, in most cases after raping them, in a three-year spree in the early 1980s.(The Week ...)(Brief Article)
June 6, 2005... Michael Bruce Ross murdered eight young women, in most cases after raping them, in a three-year spree in the early 1980s. On May 13, twenty years after his arrest, Ross was executed in Somers, Conn., by lethal injection. It was the first...

Columbia University's senate, a governing body composed of faculty, students, and administrators, voted 53-10, with five abstentions, not to return ROTC to the Columbia campus.(The Week ...)(Reserve Officer Training Corps)(Brief Article)
June 6, 2005... Columbia University's senate, a governing body composed of faculty, students, and administrators, voted 53-10, with five abstentions, not to return ROTC to the Columbia campus. The vote was particularly disappointing because there was...

The Oil-for-Food revelations just keep coming.(The Week ...)(Brief Article)
June 6, 2005... The Oil-for-Food revelations just keep coming. Now we've learned from the Senate's Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, chaired by Minnesota Republican Norm Coleman, that a number of European politicians likely participated in, and...

Salama Na'mat, the Washington, D.C., bureau chief of the London-based Arabic-language daily Al-Hayat, published an article in his paper criticizing Arab regimes and the Arab media for encouraging the Iraqi insurgents.(The Week ...)(Brief Article)
June 6, 2005... Salama Na'mat, the Washington, D.C., bureau chief of the London-based Arabic-language daily Al-Hayat, published an article in his paper criticizing Arab regimes and the Arab media for encouraging the Iraqi insurgents. "Isn't their goal to...

For a moment there it looked like Europe's tireless attempts to bribe Iran into giving up key parts of its nuclear program had finally come to an end.(The Week ...)(Brief Article)
June 6, 2005... For a moment there it looked like Europe's tireless attempts to bribe Iran into giving up key parts of its nuclear program had finally come to an end. After the latest round of negotiations concluded in deadlock, Iran threatened to resume...

At the time of writing, an astonishing event is scheduled to take place in Havana: the General Meeting of the Assembly to Promote Civil Society in Cuba.(The Week ...)(Brief Article)
June 6, 2005... At the time of writing, an astonishing event is scheduled to take place in Havana: the General Meeting of the Assembly to Promote Civil Society in Cuba. This is to be a great democratic gathering, and the Cubans involved expose themselves to...

Mexican president Vicente Fox thinks it is a fine thing that several million of his citizens have moved themselves, legally or not, to the United States.(The Week ...)(Brief Article)
June 6, 2005... Mexican president Vicente Fox thinks it is a fine thing that several million of his citizens have moved themselves, legally or not, to the United States. Well, he would, wouldn't he? It is better for Mexico's elites that their nation's poor are...

Whose health care is it anyway?
June 6, 2005... In the debate over health-care reform in this country, it seems that one vitally important question is too often left out of the equation: Why should we expect the government to be responsible for providing medical care in the first place? ...

Tina Brown takes American citizenship.(The Week ...)(Brief Article)
June 6, 2005... Tina Brown takes American citizenship. Yes, the times we agree with her are random events. But on the larger questions--hype, hard work, glitz, smarts, self-promotion, promotion of others--she is as American as Capt. John Smith, who come to...

On the face of it, the Air America sketch was humor--very leaden humor.(The Week ...)(Brief Article)
June 6, 2005... On the face of it, the Air America sketch was humor--very leaden humor. A spokesman for the American Association of Armed Retired People says, "A spoiled child is telling us our Social Security isn't safe anymore, so he is going to fix it for...

Alumni of Dartmouth College elected two petition candidates to the college's board of trustees--two conservatives, no less.(The Week ...)(Brief Article)
June 6, 2005... Alumni of Dartmouth College elected two petition candidates to the college's board of trustees--two conservatives, no less. Peter Robinson '79 and Todd Zywicki '88 emerged victorious from a six-person field after a bruising smear campaign waged...

Some weeks ago, one Anna Ayala, a 39-year-old resident of Las Vegas, "found" part of a human finger in the bowl of chili served to her at a Wendy's fast-food franchise in California.(The Week ...)(Brief Article)
June 6, 2005... Some weeks ago, one Anna Ayala, a 39-year-old resident of Las Vegas, "found" part of a human finger in the bowl of chili served to her at a Wendy's fast-food franchise in California. She promptly sued, but withdrew her action when it became...

"Christ is not speaking to the press at this time," said West Virginia attorney A. P. Pishevar the other day.(The Week ...)(name change leads to licensing problem)(Brief Article)
June 6, 2005... "Christ is not speaking to the press at this time," said West Virginia attorney A. P. Pishevar the other day. Well, there's a thing you don't hear every day. Mr. Pishevar was actually referring to his client, a gentleman who started out in life...

"Diversity," "sensitivity," "inclusion" ...(The Week ...)(Christmas Parade)(Brief Article)
June 6, 2005... "Diversity," "sensitivity," "inclusion"... The warm, viscous vocabulary of the multicultural project washes over us day by day, enervating and stupefying us until at last we yield, to watch passively as yet another familiar and cherished...

Man is one of the smelliest of all creatures, though the fact is not widely known.(The Week ...)(Brief Article)
June 6, 2005... Man is one of the smelliest of all creatures, though the fact is not widely known. "There is little in the animal kingdom... to compare with the human armpit for olfactory potency," notes science writer Lyall Watson. Just so. It is an odd...

Bush Goes East.(The Week ...)(Poem)
June 6, 2005... BUSH GOES EAST Lillian Hellman rolled over; Alger Hiss groaned in his grave; George had been raking up Yalta Just before giving a wave Tooling around in Vlad's Volga. On the way home George opined From...

Revenge of the Sith, the last Star Wars film, is not in the theaters as we write, but reviewers have already spied digs at George W. Bush in it.(The Week ...)(Brief Article)
June 6, 2005... Revenge of the Sith, the last Star Wars film, is not in the theaters as we write, but reviewers have already spied digs at George W. Bush in it. Princess Padme's line, "So this is how liberty dies-to thunderous applause," could hardly be such a...

"Time is on my side," sang the Rolling Stones back in 1964.(The Week ...)
June 6, 2005... "Time is on my side," sang the Rolling Stones back in 1964. Given the well-publicized waywardness of their lifestyles, it did not seem very likely that time was on their side. You would have had to take long odds on a bet that any of them would...

A coalition of losers.(political parties)
June 6, 2005... CONSERVATIVES are patriotic, God-loving, and cheery. Liberals are meddlesome, secular killjoys. Hey, don't take my word for it--I've got data to back me. The Pew Research Center for the People and the Press has released a big new report...

Busted Flush.(MEDIA WATCH)(media controversy)
June 6, 2005... OOPS, they did it again. The mainstream media have made another of their honest mistakes that just happen to hurt the Bush administration, or impugn the integrity of the U.S. military, or undermine our foreign policy, or--as in this case--all...

Voting for democracy.(POLITICS)
June 6, 2005... THE Democratic position on the filibuster comes down to this: Senators should not be allowed to vote up or down on judges, because judges have to stay in the business of keeping voters from being able to decide policy issues. Anti-democratic...

Yalta's ghosts.(THE WORLD)(President's diplomacy)
June 6, 2005... A FIRST-RATE intelligence, wrote F. Scott Fitzgerald, can hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still function. President Bush's trip to Russia was a first-rate intellectual and diplomatic exercise. He engaged Russia, while...

Disappointments and opportunities.(BRITAIN)
June 6, 2005... FROM almost any conservative angle, Britain's election result is disappointing. From the standpoint of a British conservative, the Tory party lost a third election and gained very little ground. From the standpoint of an American...

Notes & asides.(Letter to the Editor)
June 6, 2005... * Dear Mr. Buckley: In the March 28 Notes & Asides, Kelley Dupuis cites some pet peeves regarding the language. I have some of my own, after 40 years as a newspaper copy boy, reporter, editor, and publisher (and still a working stiff): ...

The record: what sort of filibustering has taken place in the Senate, where judicial nominations are concerned?(CAPITOL HILL)
June 6, 2005... ONE of the most heated rhetorical battles in the war over Democratic judicial filibusters concerns the question of whether those filibusters are "unprecedented." Look in the Nexis database, and you'll find hundreds of examples of Republicans...

GI Jane, again: the Army tries to sneak women into combat, and some congressmen try to stop it.(AT WAR)
June 6, 2005... LAST year, the U.S. Army redesigned its combat brigades into "units of action": task-organized, self-contained organizations that include support troops--or forward support companies (FSCs)--embedded within them. The change was designed to make...

The latest amnesty: McCain and Kennedy make a bad pair on immigration.(PUBLIC POLICY)
June 6, 2005... SENS. JOHN MCCAIN and Ted Kennedy recently unveiled legislation that would give legal status--amnesty--to 10 million illegal aliens, and create a guest-worker program to admit even more foreign workers. They have an impressive collection of...

Degrees of honor: whom colleges reward, says a lot.(CULTURE WATCH)
June 6, 2005... MOST colleges that grant honorary degrees would endorse the sentiment, expressed by a Cambridge University spokesman, that "an honorary degree is the highest accolade the University can give." So what does it mean that Hamilton College decided...

'No one's liberty is expendable': Bush remembers WWII in his distinctive way.(THE WORLD)
June 6, 2005... London--Prague--Budapest CENTRAL and Eastern Europe is a good vantage point from which to judge President Bush's recent visit to Moscow for the anniversary of VE Day--and the resulting debate over Yalta and the value of his democracy...

What's in a boycott? The campaign to delegitimize Israel has smelly historical roots.(THE WORLD II)
June 6, 2005... VARIOUS Arab armed forces these past decades have resorted to military means to eliminate Israel from the world's map. All have failed. More than that, the wars each time strengthened Israel, and the Arabs have thus achieved the very opposite...

A red's white elephant: in Ceausescu's palace, gigantism and heartache.(COMMUNISM)
June 6, 2005... THERE is no building in the world more philosophically instructive than the Palatul Parlamentului--formerly the Casa Poporului--in Bucharest. It is worth going all the way to Romania just to see it, for it has layers of meaning that provide an...

A Tory victory: one of conservatism's best writers is elected to Parliament.(BRITAIN)
June 6, 2005... ON May 5, Tony Blair won a third straight term as British prime minister, a first for a member of the Labour party. Immediately, this was interpreted to be a loss--such are the peculiarities of the U.K. system. Also on May 5, Michael Gove was...

Option four: a compromise on gay marriage.(PUBLIC POLICY II)
June 6, 2005... THE debate over marriage does not seem to be amenable to compromise. It is one of those debates in which the contending parties disagree not only about what answer we should reach, but also about what the question is in the first place. As in...

Framing the framers: the Left enlists some 'dead white males' in the cause of today's international law.(THE JUDICIARY)
June 6, 2005... FOR years, academics and left-wing activists have been searching for a means of enforcing international law, as they construe it, against the United States. So far, they have not been particularly successful. This was true even throughout Bill...

Newt Loves Hillary.(Poem)
June 6, 2005... NEWT LOVES HILLARY Like the female mantis, who After copulation (whew!) Swallows hubby whole, Hill will Play besotted Gingrich till (Can he really find her cute?) A pale and exhausted Newt Winds up in...

Help!!!!(Cartoon)
June 6, 2005... "Because people would talk--that's why we can't stay in a nice motel for a change." "(ZZZZZ-HUNH?) DAGBURNIT, BUSH! WOULDTA KEEP IT DOWN OUT HERE!" [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

The corrections file ...(the long view)(Correction Notice)
June 6, 2005... "In a recent article entitled 'Our Troops in Afghanistan: Out of Control?' Newsweek described several events that purportedly occurred in prison facilities maintained and administered by American forces in Afghanistan. These events--the ritual...

Of the people.(Democracy and Populism: Fear and Hatred)(Book Review)
June 6, 2005... Democracy and Populism: Fear and Hatred, by John Lukacs (Yale, 272 pp., $25) ONE hates to invoke the most weatherworn of metaphors, but John Lukacs's new book Democracy and Populism is indeed the tip of an iceberg. The author of more than...

The doctor is in.(Our Culture, What's Left of It: The Mandarins and the Masses)(Book Review)
June 6, 2005... Our Culture, What's Left of It: The Mandarins and the Masses, by Theodore Dalrymple (Ivan R.Dee, 352 pp., $27.50) WHAT a phenomenon Theodore Dalrymple is! There is no one else writing today quite like him. Liberals have fashioned a world in...

Navasky's lullaby.(A Matter of Opinion)(Book Review)
June 6, 2005... A Matter of Opinion, by Victor S. Navasky (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 464 pp., $27) IN this absorbing account of his long stewardship of The Nation, Victor Navasky provides unimpeachable testimony that in matters of national consequence he...

Whiz kid.(The End of Poverty: Economic Possibilities for Our Time)(Book Review)
June 6, 2005... The End of Poverty: Economic Possibilities for Our Time, by Jeffrey D. Sachs (Penguin, 320 pp., $27.95) ON U2's 1987 hit album The Joshua Tree, lead singer Bono belted out a powerful number in which he claimed, "I still haven't found what...

Usable past.(SHELF LIFE)(Book Review)
June 6, 2005... MEMORIAL DAY offers an occasion to get in touch with the mystic chords of American memory. An eloquent reminder of some key episodes is provided by acclaimed historian Neil Baldwin in The American Revelation: Ten Ideals That Shaped Our Country...

Britain turns.(THE STRAGGLER)(2005 general election)
June 6, 2005... ON the whole, the recent election results from Britain make glum reading for conservatives, those with and those without a capital "C." Of a 60 percent turnout, the victorious Labour party got 36 percent, the Conservatives 33 percent, the...

Gifts.(Poem)
June 6, 2005... GIFTS I gave her a golden locket To shut my portrait in. She filled it with a butterfly Wing the blue of Heaven And wore it until the day She turned to me from the mirror To kiss, and the locket...

What we lost at the Astor.(on the right)(economic policy)
June 6, 2005... NEW YORK, MAY 3 THIS is a morality tale, springing from the old saying, "I lost it at the Astor." For the benefit of the newborn (70 or younger), the Astor was a hotel with a famous bar popular with the young, at which seductions were...

Exiting Iraq.(on the right)
June 6, 2005... NEW YORK, MAY 6 IT is time to ponder the strategic impact of the casualty figures. The U.S. has lost approximately 1,500 dead in military action and 10,000 wounded, and we continue to lose about 50 soldiers every month. The Iraqis (using...

Bushspeak in Europe.(on the right)
June 6, 2005... NEW YORK, MAY 10 THE debate was quickly framed as follows: Did President Bush, by his remarks, contribute to the stability of democracy, or did he enhance the prospects of destabilization in Russia? That criticism is serious and...

Reminds me of '54.(letters to the editor)(Letter to the Editor)
June 20, 2005... Stephan Thernstrom's "Harvard's Crucible" (April 11) was thoughtful and thought-provoking. President Lawrence Summers's situation is not unique in Harvard's history. Unlike Summers, Harvard's first president lost his presidency, in 1654. Henry...

A matter of shame.(letters to the editor)(Letter to the Editor)
June 20, 2005... Was it a coincidence that articles about the Bolton nomination battle and the continuing ignominy that is the situation in Sudan appeared in the same issue of NATIONAL REVIEW ("Blowing Their Stack" by Byron York and "About Sudan" by Jay...

Built to last.(letters to the editor)(Letter to the Editor)
June 20, 2005... Richard Brookhiser's ode to wood in the May 23 issue ("Branching Out") struck a chord with me. Raised in heavily forested South Carolina, I have always considered any place with less tree coverage to be essentially a desert. I love the look of...

According to a new book by Washington Post reporter John F. Harris, Hillary Clinton taunted her husband's staffers for not being tough enough.(The Week)
June 20, 2005... According to a new book by Washington Post reporter John F. Harris, Hillary Clinton taunted her husband's staffers for not being tough enough. "JFK had real men in his White House!" she said. Yeah, and lots of women, too.

The London tabloid the Sun is perhaps best known for the young ladies who appear on Page Three, wearing very little.(The Week)
June 20, 2005... The London tabloid the Sun is perhaps best known for the young ladies who appear on Page Three, wearing very little. It recently published a revealing shot of a different sort--a picture of Saddam Hussein in his ill-fitting prison undies,...

There are few institutions more jealous of their dignity than the United States Senate.(The Week)(Brief Article)
June 20, 2005... There are few institutions more jealous of their dignity than the United States Senate. It was hard to suppress a smile, therefore, when British member of parliament and self-promoter George Galloway showed up in Washington to defend himself...

Sen. Jim Talent, the Missouri Republican, recently proposed--and the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources approved--a mandate for 8 billion gallons of ethanol production per year.(The Week)(Brief Article)
June 20, 2005... Sen. Jim Talent, the Missouri Republican, recently proposed--and the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources approved--a mandate for 8 billion gallons of ethanol production per year. Because ethanol is federally subsidized, this...

From the New York State comptroller's office comes further evidence, if any were needed, that welfare provisions, once established, irresistibly expand beyond all bounds set by reason or concern for the public good.(The Week)(Brief Article)
June 20, 2005... From the New York State comptroller's office comes further evidence, if any were needed, that welfare provisions, once established, irresistibly expand beyond all bounds set by reason or concern for the public good. An audit by that office has...

Nightline marked Memorial Day with an extended broadcast, devoted to the names and pictures of all the American servicemen who died in Afghanistan and Iraq during the last year.(The Week)(Brief Article)
June 20, 2005... Nightline marked Memorial Day with an extended broadcast, devoted to the names and pictures of all the American servicemen who died in Afghanistan and Iraq during the last year. Ted Koppel explained why: "We owe it to these men and women who...

Whew.(The Week ...)(nomination of John Bolton)(Brief Article)
June 20, 2005... Whew. For a minute there, we thought that on May 26 Democrats filibustered the nomination of John Bolton to be U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. After all, they opposed a Republican cloture motion, blocked an up-or-down confirmation vote,...

The leader of men must be wise and strong; when he is not, he must seem so, putting on what John Keegan called the mask of command.(The Week ...)(Brief Article)
June 20, 2005... The leader of men must be wise and strong; when he is not, he must seem so, putting on what John Keegan called the mask of command. Yet at times of high tension great leaders show their emotions: Aeneas, realizing that the Carthaginians among...

The wrong road.(economic conditions)
June 20, 2005... THE great economist F. A. Hayek said in his masterpiece The Road to Serfdom that post-World War II Europe had been seduced by the temptations of socialism. By adopting cradle-to-grave welfare programs, Hayek predicted, Europe would suffer from...

Putin's Russia--Stalin lite.(Vladimir Putin)
June 20, 2005... World democratic opinion has yet to realize the alarming implications of President Vladimir Putin's State of the Union speech on April 25, 2005, in which he said that the collapse of the Soviet Union represented the "greatest geopolitical...

Remember Eason Jordan?(The Week ...)(Cable News Network)(Brief Article)
June 20, 2005... Remember Eason Jordan? He was the top CNN executive who resigned in February amid controversy over remarks in which he accused U.S. troops of targeting journalists in Iraq. Before quitting, Jordan, who had no evidence to support his charge,...

The media have been desperate to declare the Newsweek Koran-flushing story "fake but accurate".(The Week ...)(Brief Article)
June 20, 2005... The media have been desperate to declare the Newsweek Koran-flushing story "fake but accurate." FBI documents cite one detainee complaining that a Koran was flushed down a toilet in 2002. But in a new interview a few weeks ago the detainee said...

Multiple choice: The "Gulag of our times" is a) Chinese labor camps; b) Castro's dungeons; or c) North Korean prisons.(The Week ...)(Brief Article)
June 20, 2005... Multiple choice: The "Gulag of our times" is a) Chinese labor camps; b) Castro's dungeons; or c) North Korean prisons. Amnesty International has an answer: d) none of the above. Their 2005 report on human rights compares the American detention...

The Air Force has requested, and President Bush will probably issue, a national-security directive on the military use of space.(The Week ...)(Brief Article)
June 20, 2005... The Air Force has requested, and President Bush will probably issue, a national-security directive on the military use of space. Space opens up new possibilities for missile defense, among other things: Space-based interceptors could target a...

Lieutenant governor Michael Steele of Maryland is a red-blooded Republican in a true-blue state.(The Week ...)(Brief Article)
June 20, 2005... Lieutenant governor Michael Steele of Maryland is a red-blooded Republican in a true-blue state. He was elected as Gov. Robert Ehrlich's running mate in 2002, and his plan all along has been to seek reelection in 2006 and see whether greater...

This year's U.N. nonproliferation conference, a 189-nation diplomatic effort held every five years to update the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, ended in failure.(The Week ...)(United Nations)(Brief Article)
June 20, 2005... This year's U.N. nonproliferation conference, a 189-nation diplomatic effort held every five years to update the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, ended in failure. This is a shame, since if there was ever a critical time to tighten up the...

It was a small but nonetheless important step in the struggle for liberty in the Middle East: Kuwait's parliament decided, by a vote of 35 to 23, to grant Kuwaiti women full political rights.(The Week ...)(Brief Article)
June 20, 2005... It was a small but nonetheless important step in the struggle for liberty in the Middle East: Kuwait's parliament decided, by a vote of 35 to 23, to grant Kuwaiti women full political rights. The change confers long-sought-after recognition on...

Metaphors are tricky things, dangerous in the wrong hands.(The Week ...)(Brief Article)
June 20, 2005... Metaphors are tricky things, dangerous in the wrong hands. Which leads us to Indra Nooyi, president and CFO of PepsiCo. In an address to the graduating class of Columbia Business School, Ms. Nooyi spun out an elaborate metaphor contending that...

Italian journalist Oriana Fallaci called her latest book The Strength of Reason.(The Week ...)(case for inciting hatred against Muslims)(Brief Article)
June 20, 2005... Italian journalist Oriana Fallaci called her latest book The Strength of Reason. But reason hasn't always prevailed in the reactions to her writing, particularly in Europe. In 2002, her fiery The Rage and the Pride-a polemic against violent...

October marks the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Trafalgar, where British national hero Horatio Nelson, commanding 27 ships, defeated a combined French and Spanish fleet of 33 ships off the coast of Spain.(The Week ...)(Brief Article)
June 20, 2005... October marks the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Trafalgar, where British national hero Horatio Nelson, commanding 27 ships, defeated a combined French and Spanish fleet of 33 ships off the coast of Spain. The British are holding a...

If we accept the principle that making information more generally available to the public free of charge is a Good Thing, then Google's effort to digitize and place online all or part of the colossal holdings of major libraries must be counted as a Great Thing.(The Week ...)(Brief Article)
June 20, 2005... If we accept the principle that making information more generally available to the public free of charge is a Good Thing, then Google's effort to digitize and place online all or part of the colossal holdings of major libraries must be counted...

Conspicuous consumption goes differently in different cultures.(The Week ...)(shark fin soup)(Brief Article)
June 20, 2005... Conspicuous consumption goes differently in different cultures. One aspect of the Chinese variety is the serving of shark's fin soup at wedding banquets and other celebrations. The soup tastes of next to nothing, but the fins are expensive, and...

France Votes Non.(The Week ...)(Poem)
June 20, 2005... FRANCE VOTES NON A constitution isn't what, As summer nears, the French allot-- Nobody read the thing--much time. Chirac tried everything from mime To trotting out his Charles Boyer; Though at a certain age,...