National Review articles from March 2005

National Review archives from March 2005

Got I.D.?(letters to the editor)(Letter to the Editor)
March 14, 2005... Since Darwin's Black Box was published in 1996, many commentators have thoughtfully critiqued intelligent design. Not so John Derbyshire, whose recent article "But Is It Science?" (Feb. 14) is one long sneer. Aside from his claim that I.D. is...

Military options.(letters to the editor)(Letter to the Editor)
March 14, 2005... One of your news items in "The Week," Feb. 28, noted the military development of a microwave (actually a millimeter-wave) weapon designed to produce a burning sensation on the skin. The discussion seemed to portray this development as leading...

Victories against terrorism.(Column)
March 14, 2005... The scars are too fresh, the mistakes too profound, the human tragedy too deep for anyone to gloat. But with free elections held in Palestinian territory and Iraq, the emergence of Mahmoud Abbas as Palestinian leader, and the whispers of...

Good news: Jacques Chirac was asked by an American journalist why the French are so spineless.(The Week)(Brief Article)
March 14, 2005... * Good news: Jacques Chirac was asked by an American journalist why the French are so spineless. Bad news: It was Jeff Gannon who asked.

In other news, we received a letter from a reader (really) who said, "I shouldn't have doubted my daughter.".(The Week)
March 14, 2005... * In other news, we received a letter from a reader (really) who said, "I shouldn't have doubted my daughter." She had told him that her university--Cal State, Chico--didn't have Presidents' Day off, but did have Cesar Chavez's birthday off...

The president appears to have opened the door to a major tax increase.(The Week)(Brief Article)
March 14, 2005... * The president appears to have opened the door to a major tax increase. Social Security taxes are currently levied on the first $90,000 of income. If you make more than that, the extra money isn't subject to the Social Security tax. The man...

We were skeptical about a directorship of national intelligence, but if you're going to have one, you could do worse than to fill it with John Negroponte.(The Week)(Brief Article)
March 14, 2005... * We were skeptical about a directorship of national intelligence, but if you're going to have one, you could do worse than to fill it with John Negroponte. For the past nine months, he has been our man in Baghdad. Before that, he was...

A majority of the Congress has favored a reform of class-action lawsuits for some time.(The Week)(Brief Article)
March 14, 2005... * A majority of the Congress has favored a reform of class-action lawsuits for some time. But it took the November elections, which sent four more Republican senators to Washington, to make it possible to overcome the obstacles that a...

Howard Dean--you know him: the former governor of Vermont who's now chairman of the Democratic National Committee and who recently declared, "I hate the Republicans and everything they stand for"--met with the DNC's "black caucus.".(The Week)(Brief Article)
March 14, 2005... * Howard Dean--you know him: the former governor of Vermont who's now chairman of the Democratic National Committee and who recently declared, "I hate the Republicans and everything they stand for"--met with the DNC's "black caucus." He said,...

A New York jury found Lynne Stewart--the radical lawyer accused of helping her terrorist client, "blind sheikh" Omar Abdel Rahman, communicate with his Islamist followers from prison--guilty on all of the counts against her, including conspiring to provide and providing material support to terrorists.(The Week)(Brief Article)
March 14, 2005... * A New York jury found Lynne Stewart--the radical lawyer accused of helping her terrorist client, "blind sheikh" Omar Abdel Rahman, communicate with his Islamist followers from prison--guilty on all of the counts against her, including...

Time for Welfare Reform II.
March 14, 2005... YES, the welfare-reform bill of 1996 was one of the stunning conservative success stories of this generation. It has cut the welfare caseloads in most states by half, while requiring that most beneficiaries of traditional cash-assistance...

The United Nations, of all places, might be an ethical step ahead of us on human cloning.(The Week)(Brief Article)
March 14, 2005... * The United Nations, of all places, might be an ethical step ahead of us on human cloning. In mid-February, a U.N. panel declared its support for a ban on all forms of human cloning. At around the same time, the president of the Massachusetts...

An attack submarine was named after Jimmy Carter.(The Week)(Brief Article)
March 14, 2005... * An attack submarine was named after Jimmy Carter. This $3.2 billion beauty is the last of the Seawolf class, ordered in the final years of the Cold War. We have a hundred things to say, but will confine ourselves to this: May the USS Jimmy...

Pfc. Rob Jacobs of New Jersey was expecting words of comfort and support when he opened a package of letters from middle-school students in Park Slope, Brooklyn.(The Week)(Brief Article)
March 14, 2005... * Pfc. Rob Jacobs of New Jersey was expecting words of comfort and support when he opened a package of letters from middle-school students in Park Slope, Brooklyn. Instead, the soldier--stationed near North Korea--got a burst of sixth-grade...

Lebanon Detonates.(Poem)
March 14, 2005... LEBANON DETONATES Before the dust had settled, there Was Condi honking like An 18-wheeler racing toward Damascus down the pike. Though Jacques attended services And walked beside the bier, When Condi...

On January 25, about seven Iranian political prisoners began a hunger strike to protest their government's abuses, including its crackdown on journalists and political activists, and its incarceration of dissidents with ordinary, often dangerous, criminals.(The Week)(Brief Article)
March 14, 2005... * On January 25, about seven Iranian political prisoners began a hunger strike to protest their government's abuses, including its crackdown on journalists and political activists, and its incarceration of dissidents with ordinary, often...

Also in Iran, a group of prominent intellectuals, activists, and student leaders have launched a nationwide call for a referendum on Iran's constitution, which would be an up-or-down vote on the current clerical regime.(The Week)(Brief Article)
March 14, 2005... * Also in Iran, a group of prominent intellectuals, activists, and student leaders have launched a nationwide call for a referendum on Iran's constitution, which would be an up-or-down vote on the current clerical regime. The idea has generated...

Those plucky Danes.(The Week)(Anders Fogh Rasmussen re-elected)(Brief Article)
March 14, 2005... * Those plucky Danes. Not only happy to remain, with the Brits, holdouts against the authoritarianism of the European Union, they handed center-right prime minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen a resounding victory in February's snap election; the...

Greenpeace should choose its targets more wisely.(The Week)(Invasion of London's International Petroleum Exchange)(Brief Article)
March 14, 2005... * Greenpeace should choose its targets more wisely. When 35 protesters invaded London's International Petroleum Exchange--where open-cry trading in the rough-and-tumble pits is practiced--sounding fog horns, setting off alarms, and blowing...

Recapture the glory that was Ancient Greece with this brilliant course ... Ancient Greek Civilization offers 24 information-packed lectures on one of the greatest cultures the world has ever seen.(Taped lectures on Greek history)(Advertisement)
March 14, 2005... Blazoned above the portals of Apollo 's temple at Delphi were the words, "Know thyself." For us, this means knowing the Greeks. In a corner of the Mediterranean, emerging from the darkness of prehistory, the Greeks created a culture that...

The South Shropshire shall rise again!(The Week)(Fox hunting ban)(Brief Article)
March 14, 2005... * The South Shropshire shall rise again! That and the Quorn, the Blencathra, the Warwickshire, the Bicester, and the Tynedale, among others, all fox-hunting groups whose hounds are threatened with extinction following the British ban on hunting...

Richard Sander, a law professor and economist, has no objection to racial preferences in principle.(The Week)
March 14, 2005... * Richard Sander, a law professor and economist, has no objection to racial preferences in principle. But he has done a study that suggests that racial preferences in law-school admissions are having the perverse effect of reducing the number...

The American Council on Education, a coordinating body for higher-ed institutions, reports that more and more students are refusing to answer the race question on their college applications.(The Week)(Brief Article)
March 14, 2005... * The American Council on Education, a coordinating body for higher-ed institutions, reports that more and more students are refusing to answer the race question on their college applications. The number of students who declined to identify...

Harvard released a transcript of Lawrence Summers's controversial comments on the dearth of female scientists on the faculties of top universities.(The Week)(Brief Article)
March 14, 2005... * Harvard released a transcript of Lawrence Summers's controversial comments on the dearth of female scientists on the faculties of top universities. The transcript adds some important details to the story, but mostly it confirms what we...

Eason Jordan, chief news executive of CNN, resigned two weeks after telling a Davos panel that the U.S. military "targeted" journalists in Iraq.(The Week)(Brief Article)
March 14, 2005... * Eason Jordan, chief news executive of CNN, resigned two weeks after telling a Davos panel that the U.S. military "targeted" journalists in Iraq. Rony Abovitz, a businessman attending Davos, posted the remark online, conservative bloggers...

Susan Estrich, law professor and manager of Michael Dukakis's presidential campaign, has been living on the West Coast.(The Week)(Michael Kinsey)(Brief Article)
March 14, 2005... * Susan Estrich, law professor and manager of Michael Dukakis's presidential campaign, has been living on the West Coast. So has Michael Kinsley, first to run Slate, now to run the opinion pages of the Los Angeles Times. Estrich tried to...

The New York Times has run a series of elegiac articles on the closing of 22 Catholic elementary schools in Brooklyn and Queens.(The Week)(Brief Article)
March 14, 2005... * The New York Times has run a series of elegiac articles on the closing of 22 Catholic elementary schools in Brooklyn and Queens. This is the long goodbye to a lost geography of New York, when, as one reporter pointed out, neighborhoods were...

Hunter S. Thompson had some real talent--his prose kept a loose-jointed rhythm long after sense and humor had flown--but never was a writer, not even Truman Capote, so consumed by his persona.(The Week)(Brief Article)(Obituary)
March 14, 2005... * Hunter S. Thompson had some real talent--his prose kept a loose-jointed rhythm long after sense and humor had flown--but never was a writer, not even Truman Capote, so consumed by his persona. Thompson's breakaway hit was Fear and Loathing in...

"Attention must be paid," said Willy Loman's wife of her husband in Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman.(The Week)(Brief Article)(Obituary)
March 14, 2005... * "Attention must be paid," said Willy Loman's wife of her husband in Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman. Perhaps that was the problem with Miller's work--too much attention, not enough inspiration. His plays were labored and square; All My...

Something better.(The Middle East)
March 14, 2005... TURMOIL in the Middle East--what else is new? Only this: that the current turmoil may mark underlying shifts in the region's dynamics. Iraq's electoral commission formally certified the results of the January 30 vote. The largely Shiite...

Stetsons and Berets.(Europe)(International politics; George W. Bush's trip to Europe)
March 14, 2005... COULD it be that those smiles really were genuine? President Bush's trip to Europe was expected to be the occasion for manufactured bonhomie, but actual good feeling seemed to break out. Partly it was Bush's native charm at work--he's not the...

Jews on the brain.(At War)(The CIA, Jews and politics)
March 14, 2005... WE all know that something was seriously wrong with the CIA's counter-terrorism operation in the 1990s--and now thanks to Michael Scheuer we are beginning to see what that something was. Scheuer ran the CIA's bin Laden unit from 1996 until...

Notes & asides.(Letter to the Editor)
March 14, 2005... * Dear Mr. Buckley: Alas! It has been a rough year for Kentuckians, not least because of the Hollywoodian attempt to trivialize any entity in the interest of "survival entertainment." In the cartoon on page 59 of the December 13 issue of NR,...

'Teachable moments': but who will teach the teachers?(Cover Story)
March 14, 2005... IT recently came to light that University of Colorado professor Ward Churchill had slandered some of the 9/11 victims as "Little Eichmanns," who may well have deserved punishment for their participation in what went on "in the sterile sanctuary...

Gannongate: the weird story of a non-scandal.(The Media)(Jeff Gannon, real name James D. Guckert)(Column)
March 14, 2005... IF you've been spending your time following developments in the fight over Social Security, or the nuclear showdown with North Korea, or the formation of a government in Iraq, you might have missed what has become, to some on the left, the...

Keep it going: the robust economy, that is--and you do it by locking in the tax cuts.(Public Policy)(Economic indicators)
March 14, 2005... DON'T look now, but the U.S. economy has just shifted into fifth gear and is now purring like a Porsche. The latest job numbers indicate that the unemployment rate has fallen to 5.2 percent--its lowest in more than three years--compared with 11...

Solidarity, exemplified: the amazing story of the Czechs and the Cubans.(Abroad)
March 14, 2005... 'I AM not one of Fidel Castro's favorite people," said Vaclav Havel in February 2001. The millennium is still young, but that should end up one of its greatest understatements. The former Czech president--and still the guiding spirit in that...

Death of a liberal God: reacting to Arthur Miller.(Culture Watch)(Critical Essay)
March 14, 2005... ATTENTION must be paid to the attention that's been paid to Arthur Miller, playwright, darling of the Left, husband of Marilyn Monroe, self-appointed public moralist, and did I mention that he was married to Marilyn Monroe? The outpouring of...

Duty calls: it certainly calls Elizabeth II--but what about her eldest son?(The Cousins)(Marriage of Price Charles, Prince of Wales, to Camilla Parker Bowles)
March 14, 2005... IN the latest episode of the British Royal Family Soap Opera, the Crown Prince has finally got his girl. In short, Prince Charles is to marry Camilla Parker-Bowles, the love of his life, and his mother, the Queen (who is also head of the...

How to be a hero of liberty: you may have to gild the lily ...
March 14, 2005... WHEN historian Doris Kearns Goodwin was accused of plagiarism, Laurence Tribe rushed to her defense. The Harvard Crimson had published an editorial demanding that Goodwin resign from Harvard's board. Tribe, a professor of constitutional law at...

A cowboy in Brussels: President Bush's trip and the great reckoning with Europe.(Geopolitcs)
March 14, 2005... MY Washington taxi driver had heard the president's speech in Brussels over the radio. He thought it had handled the Europeans well: Bush had set out to assure them of America's goodwill, but had not made any substantial concessions on policy....

The face of gallantry: what one Iraqi's case tells us about the struggle for the Middle East, and for freedom.(At War)(Mithal al-Alusi)(Column)
March 14, 2005... IN a recent "Diary" for National Review Online, I told the terrible story of Mithal al-Alusi, a gallant Iraqi politician and democrat whose two sons and bodyguard were gunned down in Baghdad on February 8. I invited NRO readers to send messages...

Myths about social security: and the dispelling truth.(Public Policy II)
March 14, 2005... WHEN it comes to Social Security, Robert Bixby of the Concord Coalition sees too little choice between do-nothing Democrats and free-lunch Republicans. Bixby has a point: If all the future taxpayer-financed benefits promised to millions of...

The long view.(Political satire)
March 14, 2005... Psychiatrists' notes from all over... Groupe Psychiatrique 12, rue Jacob Paris 75006 22 February 2005 Le patient arrives several minutes late, in an agitated state. Quite tense, displaying a great deal of self-directed anger, and,...

They're Off!(Poem)
March 14, 2005... THEY'RE OFF! Mrs. Clinton polls 40 percent. At 28, Kerry's a drag. Stuck at 17, Edwards recedes-- Pretty much of a no-money nag. In the stands, white males (40 percent) Harbor negative thoughts about...

Politically correct.(Cartoon)
March 14, 2005... SOMEONE MUST REALLY LOVE ME AWWWW. IS THAT A VALENTINE CARD? EVEN BETTER! [ILLUSTRATIONS OMITTED]

Help!!!!(Comic)(Cartoon)
March 14, 2005... "... and then Prince John flip-flopped on the middle-class tax cut, and the rest is history." "NO PROBLEM! WE'LL WORRY ABOUT IT WHEN WE GET THERE." [ILLUSTRATIONS OMITTED]

Sphere of influence?(The Anglosphere Challenge: Why the English-Speaking Nations Will Lead the Way in the Twenty-First Century)(Book Review)
March 14, 2005... The Anglosphere Challenge: Why the English-Speaking Nations Will Lead the Way in the Twenty-First Century, by James C. Bennett (Rowman & Littlefield, 352 pp., $39.95) AS soon as most people hear the word "Anglosphere," they have a fairly...

Undismal scientist.(John Kenneth Galbraith: His Life, His Politics, His Economics)(Book Review)
March 14, 2005... John Kenneth Galbraith: His Life, His Politics, His Economics, by Richard Parker (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 832 pp., $35) MIDWAY through this doorstop of a biography, the narrative is interrupted by a raft of photographs. There is John...

Kenner in bloom.(Shelf Life)(Flaubert, Joyce and Beckett: The Stoic Comedians)(The Islamic Paradox: Shiite Clerics, Sunni Fundamentalists, and the Coming of Arab Democracy )(Tear Down This Wall: The Reagan Revolution, A National Review History)(Book Review)
March 14, 2005... WHEN Hugh Kenner died in 2003, the English-speaking world lost a master stylist, one of its best literary critics; NATIONAL REVIEW lost a longtime friend and contributor. Dalkey Archive has just released a new paperback edition of his 1962...

Rubens resplendent.(Art)(Peter Paul Rubens exhibition)
March 14, 2005... THE most enchanting exhibition in New York at the moment is the show of drawings by the Baroque Flemish master Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640) at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (through April 3). This gathering of 115 works on paper touches every...

Movie Theory.(Poem)
March 14, 2005... MOVIE THEORY Both Rhett and Schindler were war profiteers, And each held a girl in red most dear, Though each in his way very differently, And each self assured in his own formality, Without a hair out of place, in the...

Vox humana.(The Straggler)(American accents; phonetics)
March 14, 2005... 'WITH that voice," the lady gushed, "you can always get what you want!" If only it were true! The mise-en-scene, I hasten to say, was far from intimate. There were half a dozen of us sitting round a restaurant table in Washington, D.C.,...

Oil-for-U.N.(on the right)
March 14, 2005... NEW YORK, FEBRUARY 4 A WILD thought passes through my mind, which is that maybe Benon Sevan is in fact innocent! Innocent of receiving money directly from his buddy Fakhry Abdelnour, the Egyptian whose company wanted Iraqi chits to permit...

Royal pastimes.(on the right)(Wedding of Prince Charles, Prince of Wales, to Camilla Parker Bowles)
March 14, 2005... NEW YORK, FEBRUARY 11 THE talk of the wedding planned by the Prince of Wales and Camilla Parker Bowles seems mostly genial. For a while, royal communicants thought it would not come off; but they were wrong, it seems. After April 8, when...

Pyongyang knocking.(on the right)(North Korean nuclear weapons program)
March 14, 2005... NEW YORK, FEBRUARY 15 THE North Korean nuclear bomb issue is as exasperating as any post-Soviet dilemma the U.S. has ever faced. We don't know whether Dear Leader Kim Jong Il actually has the bombs alleged, but there is no alternative to...

Redefining the school leader.
March 28, 2005... The job description of today's school leader is a far cry from what is was just a generation ago. Changing demographics, education reform, and an expanding view of school's role in our society have redefined the roles and responsibilities...

Up, up, and away.(letters to the editor)(Letter to the Editor)
March 28, 2005... Cheers and some groans to Alexander Rose for his review of the state of NASA's programs ("Giant Leaps . . .," Feb. 28). His conclusion is right on: We are going to have to build a starship with airplane economics. But I disagree with his...

Pen pals.(letters to the editor)(Letter to the Editor)
March 28, 2005... I have a story to add to yours about middle-school students' sending nasty letters to the troops ("The Week," March 14). Last year at my university's multicultural fair, the College Republicans decided to set up a table where children could...

The delicate sex.(letters to the editor)(Letter to the Editor)
March 28, 2005... I laughed out loud reading Christina Hoff Sommers's "Summers Storm" (Feb. 14), which illuminated the insensitive, intolerant, and anti-intellectual actions of the sensitive, tolerant, and intellectual Left. Especially pleasing was the image of...

The burden of law.(Advertisement)
March 28, 2005... Not long ago, I visited an inner-city Catholic high school. I was impressed with what I saw. The halls were quiet, the students respected their teachers, and the principal was the ultimate authority on issues regarding students and teachers....

Liberal law professor Jack Balkin makes a prediction in the Ten Commandments case.(The Week)(Brief Article)
March 28, 2005... * Liberal law professor Jack Balkin makes a prediction in the Ten Commandments case: "Justice O'Connor upholds five, strikes down five."

Martha Stewart lost 20 pounds in jail.(The Week)(Brief Article)
March 28, 2005... * Martha Stewart lost 20 pounds in jail. Could white-collar crime be the solution to America's "obesity crisis"?

The president is having some success on Social Security.(The Week)(Brief Article)
March 28, 2005... * The president is having some success on Social Security. In polls, most people say that the program has a serious problem that requires action. Democrats, who at the start of the year were insisting that there was no major problem, are...

Senate Democratic chief Harry Reid said that Alan Greenspan was "one of the biggest political hacks we have in Washington.".(The Week)(Brief Article)
March 28, 2005... * Senate Democratic chief Harry Reid said that Alan Greenspan was "one of the biggest political hacks we have in Washington." Greenspan achieved this hackdom by supporting President Bush on Social Security reform and on tax cuts, albeit with...

Howard Dean, new DNC chair, went to Lawrence, Kan., and said, "This is a struggle of good and evil.(The Week)(Brief Article)
March 28, 2005... * Howard Dean, new DNC chair, went to Lawrence, Kan., and said, "This is a struggle of good and evil. And we're the good." Noted. Next?

West Virginia senator Robert Byrd, upset about Republican plans to end the filibustering of judges, called the move Hitlerian.(The Week)(Brief Article)
March 28, 2005... * West Virginia senator Robert Byrd, upset about Republican plans to end the filibustering of judges, called the move Hitlerian. To force up-or-down votes on judges would be to eviscerate the rule of law, just as Nazi Germany did. The resulting...

President Bush nominated John Bolton, now undersecretary of state for arms control and international security, to be our ambassador to the U.N.(The Week)(Brief Article)
March 28, 2005... * President Bush nominated John Bolton, now undersecretary of state for arms control and international security, to be our ambassador to the U.N. This is joyous news, an appointment in the tradition of Jeane Kirkpatrick. Within hours of the...

U.S. News & World Report had a happy little item on Alberto Gonzales.(The Week)(Brief Article)
March 28, 2005... * U.S. News & World Report had a happy little item on Alberto Gonzales. He has "a refreshing approach to his new job as the nation's attorney general," the magazine said. "Rather than being the heavy known just for jailing bad guys, a role...

In 1978, Congress created a bankruptcy law that was quite generous toward debtors.(The Week)(Brief Article)
March 28, 2005... * In 1978, Congress created a bankruptcy law that was quite generous toward debtors. Too generous: Under this law, the number of people filing bankruptcy has soared--it's up fivefold over the last two decades. Increased bankruptcy rates hurt...

Dan, done.(The Week)(Dan Rather)
March 28, 2005... THANKS to a lengthy "farewell" profile of Dan Rather in The New Yorker, we've now learned that Rather keeps an ancient Royal typewriter smack-dab in the middle of his desk because, "It reminds me of what I aspire to be--I want to be a great...

Almost every state imposes restrictions on voting by people who have committed felonies.(The Week)(Brief Article)
March 28, 2005... * Almost every state imposes restrictions on voting by people who have committed felonies. Senators Clinton, Kerry, and Boxer are sponsoring a bill to force every state to allow felons to vote. Proponents say that once out of prison, criminals...

The Supreme Court is considering whether two governmental displays of the Ten Commandments--one in Kentucky, another in Texas--violate the First Amendment.(The Week)(Brief Article)
March 28, 2005... * The Supreme Court is considering whether two governmental displays of the Ten Commandments--one in Kentucky, another in Texas--violate the First Amendment. The question is often thought to turn on whether the government is endorsing the...

Giuliana Sgrena, a journalist with the Italian Communist daily Il Manifesto, was kidnapped in February in Iraq.(The Week)(Brief Article)
March 28, 2005... * Giuliana Sgrena, a journalist with the Italian Communist daily Il Manifesto, was kidnapped in February in Iraq. Evidently the Italian government made a secret payment to spring her, and did not tip the American army. As Sgrena's car sped...

The Bush administration is considering offering benefits to Iran in exchange for its agreement to relinquish its nuclear ambitions.(The Week)(Brief Article)
March 28, 2005... * The Bush administration is considering offering benefits to Iran in exchange for its agreement to relinquish its nuclear ambitions. This is a tactical maneuver designed both to show good will toward Britain, France, and Germany, which have...

Iran's courageous democracy advocates are certainly not safe in their own country, where they risk imprisonment, torture, and worse for criticizing Iran's corrupt mullahcracy.(The Week)(Brief Article)
March 28, 2005... * Iran's courageous democracy advocates are certainly not safe in their own country, where they risk imprisonment, torture, and worse for criticizing Iran's corrupt mullahcracy. But they may not be safe outside Iran, either. Abdulrahim Raeesi,...

The Big Question.(Poem)
March 28, 2005... THE BIG QUESTION Could Mr. Bush be right? Could he, Despite not one damn WMD, Have led this flotsam into what, With no help from that EU lot, Looks like the frigging Promised Land? In Tinseltown, a sad-sack band...

One risk of liberalization is that Islamists can come to power.(The Week)(Brief Article)
March 28, 2005... * One risk of liberalization is that Islamists can come to power. Look at Holland. Two Dutch members of parliament, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a Somalian-born feminist, and Geert Wilders, a conservative immigration restrictionist, are essentially in jail...

Robert Mugabe has ruled Zimbabwe since the country's independence a quarter-century ago.(The Week)(Brief Article)
March 28, 2005... * Robert Mugabe has ruled Zimbabwe since the country's independence a quarter-century ago. During those years, Zimbabwe has gone from being the breadbasket of southern Africa to being a basket case begging for handouts from international aid...

Canada's announcement that it will not cooperate with the United States in building a missile-defense system says more about the weakness of prime minister Paul Martin's minority government than it does about the merits of the Bush administration's plans.(The Week)(Brief Article)
March 28, 2005... * Canada's announcement that it will not cooperate with the United States in building a missile-defense system says more about the weakness of prime minister Paul Martin's minority government than it does about the merits of the Bush...

It is not Pol Pot chic, exactly.(The Week)(Brief Article)
March 28, 2005... * It is not Pol Pot chic, exactly. But a recent review in the New York Times, of Philip Short's Pol Pot: Anatomy of a Nightmare, by William T. Vollmann, makes for a queasy read. Vollmann and Short agree that Pol Pot was a mass murderer. Yet in...

After 40 years, The Public Interest has ceased publication, and it will be missed.(The Week)(Brief Article)
March 28, 2005... * After 40 years, The Public Interest has ceased publication, and it will be missed. Founded in 1965 by Irving Kristol, Nathan Glazer, Daniel Patrick Moynihan, and Daniel Bell, it began with enthusiasm about the vast meliorative efforts of...

The Eric Breindel Award for Excellence in Opinion Journalism is given once a year, by the News Corporation.(The Week)
March 28, 2005... * The Eric Breindel Award for Excellence in Opinion Journalism is given once a year, by the News Corporation. It goes to a journalist who exhibits "love of country and its democratic institutions" and "bears witness to the evils of...

What would the Oscars be these days without some culture-war fight?(The Week)(movie industry)(Brief Article)
March 28, 2005... * What would the Oscars be these days without some culture-war fight? Million Dollar Baby racked up four big ones (Best Picture, Director, Actress, and Supporting Actor). Propaganda for assisted suicide? True. A reliable formula well-executed?...