National Review articles from March 2001

National Review archives from March 2001

For the Record.(George W. Bush gains a 64% favorable rating, early in his administration)(this and other items are presented)(Brief Article)
March 5, 2001... President Bush's favorable rating, according to Gallup: 64 percent. Bill Clinton's: 51 percent. . . . "Hail to the Chief" doesn't play for Bush during first weeks of presidency, at Bush's request. White House official calls it "example of...

The Week.(continuing conroversy over President Bush's proposed tax cuts)(this and other topics are discussed)
March 5, 2001... Former president Clinton is moving to Harlem. There goes the neighborhood. Critics of President Bush's tax cut have come up with a new talking point: If he were really interested in anything more than cutting taxes for the rich, he would...

Tax Cuts: The Uses of 'Frenzy'.(the election of George W.Bush brings about what is often referred to as a tax-cut feeding frenzy)(Brief Article)
March 5, 2001... It's bad enough, from the liberal point of view, that taxes are likely to be cut this year. Worse, the size of the tax cut keeps growing. Every other day, some Democratic congressman says he would be willing to tolerate, or some Republican...

Defense: More, Please.(eorge W. Bush and the Department of Defense budget)(Brief Article)
March 5, 2001... Help may still be on the way-just not yet. The Bush administration has rankled conservatives on Capitol Hill by deferring any significant increase in the defense budget until it completes a "top-to-bottom review" of military strategy. For...

The Middle East: The Wages of No.(Ariel Sharon takes over as Israel's prime minister, with the Palestinian question the country's most pressing issue)(Brief Article)
March 5, 2001... Ariel Sharon has won personal election as Israeli prime minister, but in the snake pit of the country's politics he will have his work cut out to form a government. Like all his predecessors, he has to woo a whole range of small parties with...

Notes and Asides.
March 5, 2001... Memo to: Bill From: Reid A beautiful sequence from the December 2000 issue of The New Criterion. Roger Kimball is writing about the influence of Plutarch and comes up with Plutarch's description of Cleopatra: [S]he disdained...

The Simplest 'Outreach': Ask black Americans for their votes, for heaven's sake.(African American voters continue to ignore Republican candidates)
March 5, 2001... 'Why do blacks hate us?" It's a question that has long perplexed conservatives and Republicans. They've been asking it with new intensity since November, when "compassionate conservatism" struck out with 91 percent of the black electorate....

Hail, New Columbia?: D.C. statehood, again.(new fiscal responsibility in Washington, D.C. is expected to bring up the question of statehood)
March 5, 2001... Few people outside the Beltway noticed it, but the District of Columbia went out of the red and into the black in January. Just five years ago, the D.C. government ran a deficit of more than a half-billion dollars and its bonds were rated junk....

The Governors List: What "too much" success has done.(President Bush seems eager to shift power from the federal government to the states, despite the fact that many states are in economic difficulties)
March 5, 2001... George W. Bush has made it clear that he intends to rely heavily on the 29 Republican governors as a farm team for talent and policy advice. New Jersey's Christine Whitman and Wisconsin's Tommy Thompson are in the cabinet; Virginia's Jim...

A Faraway Country . . . . . . about which we know a lot.(17 years of civil war in Sudan)
March 5, 2001... 'Why do so many Americans care about saving seals and whales but not us?" a desperate woman asked Congressman Frank Wolf during his recent trip to the town of Yei in southern Sudan. Wolf-a Virginia Republican who co-chairs the Congressional...

Push-Pull: The way the culture war works, unendingly.(ongoing cultural battle between the political right and left)
March 5, 2001... Political correctness often succeeds by creating the illusion that no other points of view exist. Go to a bookstore, for example, in a tony liberal neighborhood, and you will see that books by, say, Rush Limbaugh and Bill O'Reilly are not...

Exterminate This: The Tom DeLays and the lawyers.(Supreme Court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg; House of Representatives majority whip Tom DeLay)
March 5, 2001... In January of this year, Supreme Court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg gave a talk at the law school of the University of Melbourne, Australia. Her topic was judicial independence, and in particular "assaults on judges from the political branches."...

The DNC Race Riot: What black anger means for the Democrats.(some within the Democratic National Committee are determined to continue to contest the Florida vote count)
March 5, 2001... Maxine Waters was livid. "If Maynard Jackson does not get taken care of so he can represent us inside this party," she told delegates at the Democratic National Committee's winter gathering in Washington, "there ain't gonna be no meeting to...

Gray Dawn: The new tack of an ur-conservative.(Lingua Franca opinion that intellectuals are drifting to the political left)
March 5, 2001... The current edition of Lingua Franca, an academic magazine of more than academic interest, contains an article on the drift of intellectuals away from the Right towards a position hostile to the supposedly unregulated capitalism of the...

Fringers: Why their problem is our problem.(19th-century radicals; 21st-century demonstrators)
March 5, 2001... It has become a familiar sight, wherever businessmen and central bankers gather in newsworthy numbers: angry young people shouting in the streets, riot police in body armor standing by with tear gas and rubber bullets. Barriers block the roads;...

Our Biotech Future - An exchange.(opposing opinions on genetic engineering of children)
March 5, 2001... Ronald Bailey: Enabling parents to genetically enhance their children is not going to be as easy as some of us might hope, nor will it happen as soon as we might wish, but Dinesh D'Souza is right when he claims in his article "Staying...

The Long View.(political humor)(Brief Article)
March 5, 2001... From the (Ex-) Presidential Mailbag Dear Mr. President: Miss Streisand is currently preparing a new album, and is therefore unavailable to speak with you. She did, however, want me to get in touch with you as soon as possible, to...

Sins of the Fathers.(Review)
March 5, 2001... Constantine's Sword: The Church and the Jews: A History, by James Carroll (Houghton Mifflin, 756 pp., $28) 'If I were Pope . . ." Every Catholic at one time or another plays this game. Pro-lifers would excommunicate Senator So-and-So,...

False Choice.(Review)
March 5, 2001... Protect and Defend, by Richard North Patterson (Knopf, 549 pp., $26.95) Never let it be said that American publishers won't take a risk for a good cause. In fact they are quite happy to do so in support of political liberalism. Richard...

Modern Mystery.(Review)
March 5, 2001... The Mystery of Courage, by William Ian Miller (Harvard, 346 pp., $29.95) William Ian Miller, a professor of law at the University of Michigan and author of piquant volumes on Humiliation (1993) and The Anatomy of Disgust (1997), is brave...

Ominous Appetites.(Review)
March 5, 2001... Even though he only wrote it, and didn't direct it, Faithless may be Ingmar Bergman's most personal film. But then, it was directed by Liv Ullmann, who has known him as intimately and as long as anyone. The film deals with a painful story from...

Bin Browsing.(sound recordings)(Buyers Guide)
March 5, 2001... The record stores are bulging, as usual, and, again as usual, they are offering a mixture of the old-which is to say, the reissued-and the new-which is to say, the freshly recorded. Being conservatives, we will start with the old. Beverly...

Bookshelf.(Review)(Brief Article)
March 5, 2001... Tradition recommends that one study the Talmud not in private, but with a teacher-companion at one's side. A similar tradition has evolved with respect to the central works of the Western secular canon: In earlier generations, readers...

On the Right - Powell Versus Bush?(Colin Powell; George W. Bush)(Brief Article)(Column)
March 5, 2001... NEW YORK, FEBRUARY 2 The Lockerbie decision reminded everybody that Libya is one of what we used to call rogue states, a designation gone out of fashion. Diplomacy doesn't like provocative categories, inasmuch as it is diplomacy's business...

On the Right - FAQ: Missile Defense.(Brief Article)(Column)
March 5, 2001... NEW YORK, FEBRUARY 6 In the matter of Mr. Bush's determination to proceed with an anti- missile system, the fundamental questions are pretty easily analyzed. The first is feasibility. Some critics of anti-missile defense deplore it on...

On the Right - The Paul O'Neill Hour.(Brief Article)(Column)
March 5, 2001... NEW YORK, FEBRUARY 9 Paul O'neill, our treasury secretary, breathes clean air and has clean thoughts, and the response to them is Orwellian. We have not seen what Jay Leno and Mr. Letterman et al. will be doing to him in the days ahead,...

Misanthrope's Corner.(public opinion of the Clintons' departure from the White House)(Brief Article)
March 5, 2001... The ultimate test of a civilization's collective character is the value it places on idiosyncratic forms of honor. Ours were on heartening display in the public's reaction to the eleventh-hour kleptomania committed by departing Clintonians...

For the Record.(political happenings in the US)(Brief Article)
March 19, 2001... Grover Norquist of Americans for Tax Reform, in New York Times: "If Bush gets his $1.6 trillion [tax cut], two things happen-his stature and power in town is greatly enhanced and it makes the rest of his agenda more likely to pass." . . . Helen...

The Week.(analysis of current events)
March 19, 2001... A check of our records reveals that Robert Hanssen, the apparent FBI straight arrow and accused spy, took out a subscription to National Review soon after his espionage allegedly began. We are sorry whenever our arguments fail to convince a...

The Budget Speech - Basic Bush.(President Bush's plans for government spending)(Brief Article)
March 19, 2001... President Bush's first speech to Congress was pleasantly boring. It was boring, and pleasantly so, because it was more or less what he has been saying for two years. President Clinton's speeches often contained surprises: policy reversals (as...

Iraq - Autopilot.(Pres Bush's policy toward Iraq is reminiscent of former presidents Bush and Clinton)(Brief Article)
March 19, 2001... The pictures on the news provoked a wave of nostalgia: Colin Powell, George H. W. Bush, and Norman Schwarzkopf in Kuwait, commemorating the tenth anniversary of our liberation of that country from Saddam Hussein. In an age of terrorism and...

Mexico - Crazy like a...?(efforts by Pres Bush and Mexico Pres Fox to create guest-worker program)(Brief Article)
March 19, 2001... Presidents George W. Bush and Vicente Fox met at the latter's ranch in central Mexico to compare notes and cowboy boots. One of the things they agreed on was to set up an "immigration working group" to discuss the 2.7 million Mexicans who are...

OBITUARY - Dale Earnhardt, R.I.P.(race car driver; social aspects of stock car racing)(Brief Article)
March 19, 2001... The flag at Daytona flies at half-mast in honor of a driver whose final lap in the Daytona 500 was as final as they get. Dale hit the wall at 180 mph, and that was that. A great sport has lost one of its great men; bitter tears must fall. ...

Notes and Asides.(word creation and grammar rules)(Brief Article)(Column)
March 19, 2001... Dear Mr. Buckley: My sister attends Bates College in Maine, and shared with me a delicious new word. It's a hybrid, actually, used to describe many of the students there who choose a ragged, progressive identity despite their genteel...

Dan Burton, Right Again - The congressman who does the job.(Burton leads investigation into questionable pardons granted by Pres Clinton)
March 19, 2001... Maureen Dowd called him a "looney tune." Al Hunt called him a "buffoon." James Carville called him a "kook." And the late Lars-Erik Nelson called him a "wacko." "Obviously it hurt," says Dan Burton, chairman of the House Government Reform...

Class Clowns - The Clintons in their world.(scandalous activities of Bill and Hillary Clinton)(Column)
March 19, 2001... In Shaw's Heartbreak House, a burglar is captured by the guests at an English country-house weekend. At first they intend to hand him over to the police, but gradually they realize that this will require them to appear in court, give evidence,...

The Spending Machine - Why Leviathan keeps growing.(why a tax cut will not lead to less government spending)
March 19, 2001... The big debate in Washington this year is whether to pass President Bush's $1.6 trillion tax cut. Critics, and the neutral observers in the press corps, have called that tax cut "huge," "enormous," and "gargantuan." Such adjectives are rarely...

The Taxing Machine - Democratic arguments are absurd.
March 19, 2001... When George W. Bush was campaigning in New Hampshire, his tax-cut proposal was as large as his advisers dared to make it: Its total estimated cost was $1.3 trillion-roughly equal to the entire government surplus, excluding Social Security. At...

Parks and Wreck - Against jet skiers, snowmobilers, and other louts.
March 19, 2001... Bill Clinton is being generously lashed for his efforts on behalf of swindlers, tax cheats, crack merchants, traitors, and other well- connected felons, to the point that it will be a long time before anyone can say "pardon me" without...

Gaiam Somebody! The ethos and 'ethnicity' of Fresh Fields.
March 19, 2001... 'In our every deliberation, we must consider the impact of our decisions on the next seven generations." So sayeth the Great Law of the Iroquois Confederacy. At least that's what it says on my new roll of Seventh Generation(r) brand toilet...

Clinton's Rosenberg Case - Before we "move on" . . .
March 19, 2001... Bill Clinton's last days in office were busy ones; and the stomach still revolts from them. Hours before his successor was sworn in, Clinton granted clemency to a pair of longtime terrorists from the Weather Underground, Susan Rosenberg...

Quota U - Ann Arbor shows its colors.
March 19, 2001... The entire academy is depending on the University of Michigan. In response to lawsuits challenging its undergraduate and law-school admissions policies-cases that may well be appealed all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court-the university has...

Admissions Impossible - California without the SAT.
March 19, 2001... The president of the University of California, Richard C. Atkinson, has endorsed a bad idea: abandon the SAT, and thereby increase the racial and ethnic "diversity" of UC's many campuses. The SAT is the basic test of verbal and quantitative...

The Unmaking of a Mayor? A look at the Jersey City Kid.
March 19, 2001... Jersey City, N.J. Mayor Bret Schundler wanted to talk about dreams. Standing on an empty lot in Jersey City for the Liberty Academy Charter School's groundbreaking ceremony on February 20, Schundler was ad-libbing a speech for a group of...

The Long View.(Brief Article)
March 19, 2001... COURT-ORDERED MEDIATION IN THE MATTER: Satan (Plaintiff) v. William Jefferson Clinton (Defendant) for Breach of Contract (Verbal) Transcript April 14, 2008 present: Mr. Clinton and his counsel, Mrs. Blumenthal (the...

Bad Tidings to Zion.(Review)
March 19, 2001... One Palestine, Complete: Jews and Arabs Under the British Mandate, by Tom Segev, translated by Haim Watzman (Henry Holt, 612 pp., $35) One Palestine, Complete is the latest contribution to a growing body of anti-Zionist literature being...

Keeping the Flame.(Review)
March 19, 2001... The Guest from the Future: Anna Akhmatova and Isaiah Berlin, by Gyorgy Dalos, translated by Antony Wood (Farrar, Straus, 256 pp., $13) That all-night conversation in Leningrad haunts one's imagination. Every aspect of it is charged with...

No Nukes.(how director Tim Robbins incorporates conspiracy into plots of his films)
March 19, 2001... In the imagination of Tim Robbins, there are no accidents. His movies seethe with conspiracies-right-wing conspiracies, vast right-wing conspiracies so scary that Sid Blumenthal should not see them without a parent or other accompanying...

Oscar Pre-Mortem.(predictions for the Academy Awards)
March 19, 2001... Often as I have commented on the stupidity of the Academy Awards, a periodic swift kick still seems indicated. This year, as every year, the nominations are food for vituperation. Perhaps, when Oscar Night rolls around, this column will help...

The Skinny.(too-slender women in fashion industry do not depict normal women)(Brief Article)
March 19, 2001... Shoshanna Lonstein was a peculiarly New York kind of celebrity. She was the teenage girlfriend of Jerry Seinfeld, when everyone watched his TV show. So well known was she in this role that even I, who neither watched the TV show nor went to...

Books In Brief.(Review)(Brief Article)
March 19, 2001... The Book of Marriage: The Wisest Answers to the Toughest Questions, edited by Dana Mack and David Blankenhorn (Eerdmans, 636 pp., $30) 'It is our firm belief," write Dana Mack and David Blankenhorn, "that a successful marriage is in a real...

Books In Brief (2).(Review)(Brief Article)
March 19, 2001... Selling the Free Market: The Rhetoric of Economic Correctness, by James Arnt Aune (Guilford, 215 pp., $23.95) James Arnt Aune, a self-proclaimed "old-fashioned socialist" rhetorician from Pennsylvania State University, aims to refute "both...

On the Right - Capitalist Unction.(reaction to proposed estate tax changes by wealthy people)(Brief Article)
March 19, 2001... NEW YORK, FEBRUARY 16 Well, catch Warren Buffett! He is worried that the estate tax might be eliminated. Mr. Buffett, who is reported to be the fourth richest man in America, isn't going to wait for Congress to take his advice to maintain...

On the Right - What About Negative Stereotypes?(Brief Article)
March 19, 2001... NEW YORK, FEBRUARY 20 For years and at different levels we've gotten fired up by the fear of creeping social estrangement. The "quest for community" was one great expression of this fear, and recent misgivings on the matter of bilingual...

On the Right - Where Do We Go Now with Clinton?(Bill Clinton; issues of pardons granted)(Brief Article)
March 19, 2001... NEW YORK, FEBRUARY 23 Where on earth do we go, in the matter of Bill Clinton? President Bush is nicely philosophical when he tells the press that he is up to his keister in things to do and that we must move onward: i.e., attempt a launch...

Misanthrope's Corner.(psychology of behavior behind people who do not throw things away)(Brief Article)(Column)
March 19, 2001... The words "new neurosis" are oxymoronic because the tics and twitches of humankind are eternal. They are also universal, so imagine my joy on finding a twofer: a virgin forest of deadly nightshade with a signpost reading "Only in America." ...