National Review articles from May 2005

National Review archives from May 2005

The marriage war.(letters to the editor)(Letter to the Editor)
May 9, 2005... On the basis of two trivial non-events (liberal denunciations of heterosexism--nothing new there) and some parliamentary activity in Canada, David Frum declares that gay marriage must extinguish all notions of gender in family law ("A New Word,...

Whose justice?(letters to the editor)(Letter to the Editor)
May 9, 2005... In The Week (April 25), you report that Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg gave an astonishing speech defending the Supreme Court's use of foreign law in interpreting the U.S. Constitution. I wonder, would she cite and respect Koranic law when...

We hear Catholic liberals are going to demand a recount.(The Week)
May 9, 2005... We hear Catholic liberals are going to demand a recount.

You might be forgiven for assuming that Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, upon becoming pope, took the name of "Hard-line" rather than "Benedict XVI.".(The Week)(Brief Article)
May 9, 2005... You might be forgiven for assuming that Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, upon becoming pope, took the name of "Hard-line" rather than "Benedict XVI." It is probably best to ignore the media orthodoxy forming around him rather than to refute it....

John Bolton, the Bush administration's nominee to be ambassador to the U.N., is some Tartar.(The Week)(Brief Article)
May 9, 2005... John Bolton, the Bush administration's nominee to be ambassador to the U.N., is some Tartar. Carl Ford, a former colleague of Bolton, told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee he once saw Bolton waving his finger and turn red in the face as...

The campaign to take out Tom DeLay as House majority leader continues, but the pickings are pretty slim.(The Week)(Brief Article)
May 9, 2005... The campaign to take out Tom DeLay as House majority leader continues, but the pickings are pretty slim. Since we last discussed the charges against him, there have been two developments. First, the New York Times reported that DeLay's...

Republican political consultant Arthur Finkelstein hopes to raise $10 million for a STOP HER NOW effort directed against Hillary Clinton's reelection to the Senate in 2006.(The Week)(Brief Article)
May 9, 2005... Republican political consultant Arthur Finkelstein hopes to raise $10 million for a STOPHER NOW effort directed against Hillary Clinton's reelection to the Senate in 2006. Conservatives had better get used to two propositions. First, they are...

Environmental false alarms.
May 9, 2005... In his new book, Collapse, Jared Diamond begins with a chapter on my home state of Montana. Although painting a romantic picture of "Big Sky Country," he decries environmental tragedies including toxic mining waste, forest fires, soil...

Federal spending on Medicaid is projected to increase by 36 percent (or $70 billion) between 2006 and 2010.(The Week ...)(Brief Article)
May 9, 2005... Federal spending on Medicaid is projected to increase by 36 percent (or $70 billion) between 2006 and 2010. House Republicans voted for a budget that contemplates reducing that growth to 34 percent. But that's too severe a cut for some...

Several provisions of the Patriot Act, the anti-terrorism law Congress passed after September 11, expire this year.(The Week ...)
May 9, 2005... Several provisions of the Patriot Act, the anti-terrorism law Congress passed after September 11, expire this year. The bill's critics on the left and the right want to use the moment to win some modifications to the law. But their suggested...

Connecticut lawmakers are in the process of establishing civil unions for homosexuals.(The Week ...)(Brief Article)
May 9, 2005... Connecticut lawmakers are in the process of establishing civil unions for homosexuals. It's a bad idea. While there may be good reasons to tinker with laws so as to help unmarried people who are living together--be they gay lovers or roommates...

The estate tax complicates the tax code, impedes capital formation, and misallocates resources.(The Week ...)(Brief Article)
May 9, 2005... The estate tax complicates the tax code, impedes capital formation, and misallocates resources. It is an inefficient tax, costing the economy an extra dollar for every dollar it raises for the federal government. Bush's tax cuts included a...

If Social Security is the third rail of American politics, then the first two rails probably belong to Amtrak.(The Week ...)(Brief Article)
May 9, 2005... If Social Security is the third rail of American politics, then the first two rails probably belong to Amtrak. Despite proving itself woefully unable to turn a profit, Amtrak remains enormously popular among the political class and continues to...

Arlen Specter is trying to patch together a coalition to pass a bill settling asbestos litigation.(The Week ...)(Brief Article)
May 9, 2005... Arlen Specter is trying to patch together a coalition to pass a bill settling asbestos litigation. A settlement is a good idea, but the bill is badly flawed. Specter wants to create a trust fund, administered by the federal government and...

Appeals-court judge Guido Calabresi told a lawyers' meeting last summer that Bush v. Gore, the Supreme Court decision that put Bush in the White House, was an "illegitimate act" by a "legitimate institution.".(The Week ...)(Brief Article)
May 9, 2005... Appeals-court judge Guido Calabresi told a lawyers' meeting last summer that Bush v. Gore, the Supreme Court decision that put Bush in the White House, was an "illegitimate act" by a "legitimate institution." Hitler and Mussolini rose to power,...

The British elections on May 5 will probably return Labour and Tony Blair to power.(The Week ...)(Brief Article)
May 9, 2005... The British elections on May 5 will probably return Labour and Tony Blair to power. The Tories under Michael Howard recruited Lynton Crosby, the savvy Australian campaign manager who masterminded John Howard's reelection, to sharpen their...

The U.N. story.(The Week ...)(Poem)
May 9, 2005... THE U.N. STORY Conceived with hope while FDR Still lingered, and a rising star Through South Korea's agony; A slip led to a slide till we-- The One World types excepted--peered At Kofi as one would the weird. ...

Recent polls show French voters poised to reject the proposed EU constitution when it is put to a referendum on May 29.(The Week ...)(European Union)(Brief Article)
May 9, 2005... Recent polls show French voters poised to reject the proposed EU constitution when it is put to a referendum on May 29. One can sympathize with those who fear EU tentacles that prod ever deeper into member-state sovereignty, even if many of the...

The United Nations Commission on Human Rights has, one hopes, just hastened its own demise.(The Week ...)(Brief Article)
May 9, 2005... The United Nations Commission on Human Rights has, one hopes, just hastened its own demise. Shortly after Kofi Annan proposed to dissolve the body (once infamously chaired by Moammar Qaddafi's Libya, that human-rights stalwart), the 53-member...

Friendship between President Bush and Prime Minister Ariel Sharon of Israel goes back to long before either man held his present office.(The Week ...)(Brief Article)
May 9, 2005... Friendship between President Bush and Prime Minister Ariel Sharon of Israel goes back to long before either man held his present office. At their meeting in Crawford, there were "peals of laughter" in private, and mutual compliments in public....

In Iraq, they've found new mass graves, holding about 5,000 of those happy, kite-flying subjects Michael Moore depicted in his movie.(The Week ...)
May 9, 2005... In Iraq, they've found new mass graves, holding about 5,000 of those happy, kite-flying subjects Michael Moore depicted in his movie. About 300 grave sites in all have been found, containing some 300,000 Iraqis. In related news, Michael...

Mexican foreign secretary Luis Ernesto Derbez showed up the other day to give an address to students at the University of Texas Pan-American.(The Week ...)(Brief Article)
May 9, 2005... Mexican foreign secretary Luis Ernesto Derbez showed up the other day to give an address to students at the University of Texas Pan-American. On the vexed topic of illegal immigration from his country into ours, Derbez (who, to the best of our...

His Hispanicness.(The Week ...)
May 9, 2005... LAST November, George Stephanopoulos suggested that Bush's then-rumored attorney-general pick, Alberto Gonzales, would bring about a "change in tone" because a Hispanic son of immigrants would have to be more conciliatory than mean old John...

A couple of weeks ago, Flight KLM 685 took off from Amsterdam, headed for Mexico City with 278 passengers on board.(The Week ...)(Brief Article)
May 9, 2005... A couple of weeks ago, Flight KLM 685 took off from Amsterdam, headed for Mexico City with 278 passengers on board. It was a direct flight, Holland to Mexico, but because it was scheduled to cross U.S. airspace, the Mexican authorities...

Chinese resentment of Japan has been one of the invariants of the modern world, going all the way back to the May Fourth movement of 1919, when mass protests erupted in China over the transfer of German concessions in that country to Japan after World War I.(The Week ...)(Brief Article)
May 9, 2005... Chinese resentment of Japan has been one of the invariants of the modern world, going all the way back to the May Fourth movement of 1919, when mass protests erupted in China over the transfer of German concessions in that country to Japan...

For the first time since Iran's Islamic revolution, the U.S. government is preparing to give funds to Iranians and U.S. organizations working in Iran to promote human rights and democracy.(The Week ...)(Brief Article)
May 9, 2005... For the first time since Iran's Islamic revolution, the U.S. government is preparing to give funds to Iranians and U.S. organizations working in Iran to promote human rights and democracy. Congress has appropriated $3 million for the effort and...

In an article starting on page 25, Dan Oliver dispels some confusions surrounding the abortion issue.(The Week ...)(Brief Article)
May 9, 2005... In an article starting on page 25, Dan Oliver dispels some confusions surrounding the abortion issue. As he points out, nobody disputes that the human fetus is a living organism of the human species. The question, rather, is whether that...

Laurence Tribe, the liberal Harvard law professor, has been reprimanded by Harvard for a "significant lapse in proper academic practice".(The Week ...)(Brief Article)
May 9, 2005... Laurence Tribe, the liberal Harvard law professor, has been reprimanded by Harvard for a "significant lapse in proper academic practice." The reprimand comes six months after The Weekly Standard reported great similarities between Tribe's 1985...

Eric Robert Rudolph pleaded guilty to four bombings (two abortion clinics, a gay club, and the Atlanta Olympics).(The Week ...)
May 9, 2005... Eric Robert Rudolph pleaded guilty to four bombings (two abortion clinics, a gay club, and the Atlanta Olympics). He had spent five years as a fugitive in the North Carolina woods, and was sentenced to four consecutive life terms. In a rambling...

"Unlike some, I'll pay him what I owe him," wrote George Orwell in a 1943 poem giving a leftist's tribute to Winston Churchill.(The Week ...)(The Politics of Churlishness)(Brief Article)
May 9, 2005... "Unlike some, I'll pay him what I owe him," wrote George Orwell in a 1943 poem giving a leftist's tribute to Winston Churchill. In an essay, "The Politics of Churlishness," Martin Peretz, editor-in-chief of The New Republic, offers a similar...

Red-diaper baby, ex-radical, and now outspoken conservative commentator David Horowitz got a pie in the face when addressing students at Indianapolis's Butler University the other day.(The Week ...)
May 9, 2005... Red-diaper baby, ex-radical, and now outspoken conservative commentator David Horowitz got a pie in the face when addressing students at Indianapolis's Butler University the other day. Aweek earlier, Bill Kristol, editor of The Weekly Standard,...

Andrea Dworkin, radical feminist and anti-pornography zealot, died age 58.(The Week ...)(Brief Article)(Obituary)
May 9, 2005... Andrea Dworkin, radical feminist and anti-pornography zealot, died age 58. A child of the Sixties, she had gone to the end of one kind of line: Bennington literature major, marriage to an abusive Dutch radical. If that was liberation, she was...

Injudicious comments.(THE COURTS)
May 9, 2005... IN their efforts to confine the power of the federal judiciary to its proper constitutional dimensions, conservatives face two foes more tenacious and powerful than Patrick Leahy or Harry Reid. Those foes are, first, a legal culture that...

Notes & asides.
May 9, 2005... * WFB's remarks at a celebration hosted by Fr. George W. Rutler for the 50th anniversary of his parish, the Church of Our Saviour, New York City, February 8, 2005 Ladies and gentlemen. I was asked ten days ago if I would take part in this...

Tony and Tories: a little excitement on the way to Blair's third term.(BRITAIN)
May 9, 2005... London IT was very possible, indeed easy, to spend a recent Sunday afternoon walking around west London without ever bumping up against the May 5 election campaign. It was a warm, sunny, and wind-free day. London positively glittered with...

Wallis's politics: not to be confused with God's. Or are they?(THE NATION)(Jim Wallis)(God's Politics : Why the Right Gets It Wrong and the Left Doesn't Get It)(Book Review)
May 9, 2005... IN 1995, Jim Wallis was arrested for protesting against welfare reform in the Capitol Rotunda. In 1983, he was arrested in the Rotunda for protesting the MX missile. But these days, Wallis is more likely to be meeting lawmakers than breaking...

What to do about the gas 'crisis': maybe nothing.(PUBLIC POLICY)
May 9, 2005... DESPITE what you may have heard, oil and gasoline prices have yet to reach record levels--once we adjust for inflation. Even so, the gasoline price spike that began in the fall of 2002 is the second most dramatic in American economic...

Deciding abortion: the key questions.(PUBLIC POLICY II)
May 9, 2005... THE pro-abortion and antiabortion forces are warships passing in the night. Their slogans, "pro-choice" and "prolife," don't engage the central issue that divides them, which is, what actually happens in an abortion. Neither group really...

The new Ireland: it's not Catholic, for one thing.(RELIGION & SOCIETY)
May 9, 2005... THE death of the Pope presented the taoiseach (prime minister) of Ireland with a dilemma: Should he declare an official day of mourning or not? After all, Ireland is a country whose Catholicism, like that of Poland, has for centuries been...

What went right: how the U.S. began to quell the insurgency in Iraq.(Cover Story)
May 9, 2005... "Do not try to do too much with your own hands. Better the Arabs do it tolerably than that you do it perfectly. It is their war, and you are to help them, not to win it for them." --T. E. LAWRENCE IT is time to say it unequivocally: We...

The Old Hillary.(Poem)
May 9, 2005... THE OLD HILLARY At Humphrey's bash she blew her stack, Hurling the nearest bric-a-brac While ripping off that rubber mask-- The smiling one. It was a task She entered into with some joy, And did they eat it up? Oh...

Politically correct.(HELP!!!)
May 9, 2005... HEY, BORDER PATROL? I'M FROM THE MINUTEMAN PROJECT AND I SPOTTED A PERSON TRYING TO GET INTO THE COUNTRY. AND A FEW TRYING TO GET OUT. [ILLUSTRATIONS OMITTED]

Sometime ... in the not-too-distant future ...(HELP!!!!)(Cartoon)
May 9, 2005... I THOUGHT YOU AMERICANS DIDN'T HAVE KINGS! THAT'S NOT A KING! IT'S A JUDGE! WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE? KINGS CAN BE OVERTHROWN! WE'LL ALWAYS HAVE JUDGES! [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

The long view.(Pope Benedict XVI in Larry King Live)(Transcript)
May 9, 2005... Larry King Live Transcript May 27, 2005 LARRY KING: "From Houma, Louisiana! Is the caller there?" CALLER: "Um... yeah, hi, Larry." LARRY KING: "And do you have a question for Pope Benedict XVI?" CALLER: "Oh. Is he on now?"...

Soros, Inc.(The Vast Left Wing Conspiracy: The Untold Story of How Democratic Operatives, Eccentric Billionaires, Liberal Activists, and Assorted Celebrities Tried to Bring Down a President - and Why They'll Try Even Harder Next Time)(Book Review)
May 9, 2005... The Vast Left Wing Conspiracy: The Untold Story of How Democratic Operatives, Eccentric Billionaires, Liberal Activists, and Assorted Celebrities Tried to Bring Down a President-and Why They'll Try Even Harder Next Time, by Byron York (Crown...

Captive continent.(Eurabia: The Euro-Arab Axis)(Book Review)
May 9, 2005... Eurabia: The Euro-Arab Axis, by Bat Ye'or (Fairleigh Dickinson, 384 pp., $23.95) TERRORIST attacks on the United States, and then the campaign in Iraq, brought out into the open the anti-Americanism in much of European public opinion. This...

Seeing red.(Poem)
May 9, 2005... SEEING RED The brown grass of the dead season Wavers, scattered and lighter at The edges of the field, where it Mingles with withered honeysuckle, Wild blackberry, and thin saplings, Mostly poplar, maple, and oak....

A turn for the verse.(Break, Blow, Burn: Camille Paglia Reads Forty-Three of the World's Best Poems)(Book Review)
May 9, 2005... Break, Blow, Burn: Camille Paglia Reads Forty-Three of the World's Best Poems, by Camille Paglia (Pantheon, 272 pp., $20) IN the ongoing cultural catastrophe, without doubt poetry has suffered the most. While our museums sometimes feel like...

A spy, indeed.(The Lives of Agnes Smedley)(Book Review)
May 9, 2005... The Lives of Agnes Smedley, by Ruth Price (Oxford, 498 pp., $35) NOW almost forgotten, the journalist and activist Agnes Smedley (1892-1950) was a member of the pantheon of early-20th-century American radicals and feminists. Along with her...

The liberals killed Kenny!(SHELF LIFE)(Book Review)
May 9, 2005... 'I HATE conservatives," says South Park co-creator Matt Stone, "but I really f****** hate liberals." Some conservatives--those of us who are a little older, perhaps, and remember when liberals ran absolutely everything, from law and government...

Fountains and stuff.(tour of Washington, D.C.)
May 9, 2005... I HAVE an uneasy relationship with Washington, D.C. The monumental parts are wonderful, as good as anything on earth in that line. Not only are the monuments splendid in themselves, but they are very well laid out, all in a space that is nicely...

Can we stop illegals?
May 9, 2005... NEW YORK, APRIL 8 THE parallels are remarkable, Berlin-Mexico. They are nevertheless worth reciting in order to refamiliarize ourselves with what nations and human beings tend to do when pressed beyond what they believe is their capacity...

Pity Rhode Island.(John Bolton and ambassadorship)
May 9, 2005... NEW YORK, APRIL 12 WHAT is a sophisticated position on the United Nations? As the old saw goes, I'm glad you asked that question. I say that having served in the U.N. as a Public Member of the U.S. delegation, and written a book on the...

Confusion and gays.(same-sex marriages)
May 9, 2005... NEW YORK, APRIL 15 ROBERT Novak, the columnist and primary exegete of U.S. political thought, began a recent column as follows: Sen. Trent Lott looked like a supporter of Rudy Giuliani's presidential ambition when the...

Iraq and journalism.(Letter to the Editor)
May 23, 2005... In "What Went Right" (May 9) Rich Lowry does a better job of investigating our Mesopotamian success than one could hope for in other outlets. Direct reports from soldiers coming out of the "quagmire" reflect progress, which is corroborated by...

The liberal God as father.(Letter to the Editor)
May 23, 2005... I would like to add a revealing coda to Roger Kimball's well-written anti-eulogy of Arthur Miller ("Death of a Liberal God," March 14), something I gleaned from Martin Gottfried's Arthur Miller: His Life and Work. Though clearly sympathetic to...

Chiefs choice.(Letter to the Editor)
May 23, 2005... Perhaps because of all the attention given the nomination of John Bolton, and of would-be federal judges, we have not heard much about Gen. Peter Pace, President Bush's choice to head the Joint Chiefs of Staff. To illustrate what a good choice...

Sheikh Salah al-Luhaidan, chief justice of the supreme judicial council of Saudi Arabia, declared that it is lawful for young men to go to Iraq "to raise up the word of God," i.e., kill Iraqis and Americans.(The Week)(Brief Article)
May 23, 2005... Sheikh Salah al-Luhaidan, chief justice of the supreme judicial council of Saudi Arabia, declared that it is lawful for young men to go to Iraq "to raise up the word of God," i.e., kill Iraqis and Americans. Funny-none of this came up during...

The Democrats are carrying on as though there were an unbroken tradition, stretching back to the Founders, of using filibusters to require a 60-vote supermajority to confirm judges.(The Week)(Brief Article)
May 23, 2005... The Democrats are carrying on as though there were an unbroken tradition, stretching back to the Founders, of using filibusters to require a 60-vote supermajority to confirm judges. Actually, the routine use of the filibuster traces back only...

Democrats think they have won a great victory against House majority leader Tom DeLay.(The Week)(Brief Article)
May 23, 2005... Democrats think they have won a great victory against House majority leader Tom DeLay. Back in December, the Republicans changed the Ethics Committee's rules so that a majority was required to launch an investigation of a congressman. Because...

What is it about independent counsel David Barrett's final report that Sens. Byron Dorgan, John Kerry, and other Democrats don't want us to see?(The Week)(Brief Article)
May 23, 2005... What is it about independent counsel David Barrett's final report that Sens. Byron Dorgan, John Kerry, and other Democrats don't want us to see? Barrett--you may recall if you have a strong tolerance for Washington trivia--is the independent...

Business investment soared in 2003 and 2004--but early reports suggest that it has more recently dipped.(The Week ...)(Brief Article)
May 23, 2005... Business investment soared in 2003 and 2004--but early reports suggest that it has more recently dipped. It may not be a coincidence that an important tax on business investment was cut for those two years, and the tax cut then expired. Tax law...

Bad surge.(energy economics)
May 23, 2005... THE surge in oil prices in recent months to $50 a barrel is arguably the leading factor behind the recent slowdown of the economy and the sagging stock market this year. There is no point in sugarcoating the reality of our current predicament:...

Hasan Akbar, an Army sergeant, was sentenced to death for a grenade and rifle attack he launched on sleeping comrades at the start of the Iraq war in March 2003.(The Week ...)(Brief Article)
May 23, 2005... Hasan Akbar, an Army sergeant, was sentenced to death for a grenade and rifle attack he launched on sleeping comrades at the start of the Iraq war in March 2003. Akbar killed two, Army Capt. Christopher Siefert and Air Force Maj. Gregory Stone,...

According to the papers, Hillary Clinton is quite the moderate on abortion, leading her party to a less absolutist position.(The Week ...)(Brief Article)
May 23, 2005... According to the papers, Hillary Clinton is quite the moderate on abortion, leading her party to a less absolutist position. True, the senator has made some rhetorical feints, in classic Clintonian style: "Safe, legal, rare," blah, blah, blah....

Following the spread of right-to-carry laws (38 states now have them), Second Amendment enthusiasts are now promoting right-to-shoot laws, affirming that a citizen may "stand his or her ground and meet force with force, including deadly force, if he or she reasonably believes it is necessary to do so to prevent death or great bodily harm.".(The Week ...)(Brief Article)
May 23, 2005... Following the spread of right-to-carry laws (38 states now have them), Second Amendment enthusiasts are now promoting right-to-shoot laws, affirming that a citizen may "stand his or her ground and meet force with force, including deadly force,...

As anybody--well, anybody who has been to journalism school--knows perfectly well, the Democratic party represents working families, while Republicans are the party of the rich.(The Week ...)(Brief Article)
May 23, 2005... As anybody--well, anybody who has been to journalism school--knows perfectly well, the Democratic party represents working families, while Republicans are the party of the rich. Since very few citizens are rich, this raises the rather troubling...

A new government has been agreed on and approved by the parliament in Iraq.(The Week ...)(Brief Article)
May 23, 2005... A new government has been agreed on and approved by the parliament in Iraq. This is a historic achievement, giving the country its first democratically elected government in decades. But political momentum was lost in the time it took to...

Saudi police busted a secret ring of Christians, arresting 40 Pakistani men, women, and children who were praying in a Riyadh apartment.(The Week ...)
May 23, 2005... Saudi police busted a secret ring of Christians, arresting 40 Pakistani men, women, and children who were praying in a Riyadh apartment. Police found religious books and cassettes and a cross. "These people tried to spread the poison and their...

They do things their own way in Russia.(The Week ...)(Brief Article)
May 23, 2005... They do things their own way in Russia. The 60th anniversary of victory in World War II brought out onto the streets of Moscow parades of elderly men in bemedaled uniforms, and enthusiastic younger Communists as well. Here and there in the...

What the 9/11 Commission Got Wrong ...(Cutting-Edge Commentary on Public Policy: THE FIRST BOOK IN THE NEW HOOVER STUDIES IN POLITICS, ECONOMICS, AND SOCIETY SERIES)(Preventing Surprise Attacks: Intelligence Reform in the Wake of 9/11)(Book Review)
May 23, 2005... In a searing critique, Richard Posner's new book Preventing Surprise Attacks identifies the issues overlooked by the 9/11 Commission and Congress, exposes the pitfalls created by new terrorism legislation, and suggests directions for real...

Still waters run deep, so they say, and that's certainly true of Canada, which sometimes errs into holier-than-thou territory when it comes to its warmongering, rapacious, intolerant neighbor to the south.(The Week ...)(Brief Article)
May 23, 2005... Still waters run deep, so they say, and that's certainly true of Canada, which sometimes errs into holier-than-thou territory when it comes to its warmongering, rapacious, intolerant neighbor to the south. We mean, who would have thought that...

Zimbabwe was reelected to the U.N. Human Rights Commission, eliciting fierce protest from the U.S. and a handful of other countries.(The Week ...)(Brief Article)
May 23, 2005... Zimbabwe was reelected to the U.N. Human Rights Commission, eliciting fierce protest from the U.S. and a handful of other countries. The way we see it, Zimbabwe will have a moderating effect on its fellow commission members: Cuba, China, Sudan...

From time to time, these pages have mentioned Jian-li Yang, the Chinese democracy activist who is languishing in some PRC prison.(The Week ...)(Biography)
May 23, 2005... From time to time, these pages have mentioned Jian-li Yang, the Chinese democracy activist who is languishing in some PRC prison. His third "anniversary" was recently marked. Remember the basic biographical facts: Tiananmen Square leader, a...

Thirty years after the fall of Saigon, Americans can reflect that the Vietnam War did confine the virus of Communism to former Indochina.(The Week ...)(Brief Article)
May 23, 2005... Thirty years after the fall of Saigon, Americans can reflect that the Vietnam War did confine the virus of Communism to former Indochina. Vietnam's once-threatened neighbors became the Asian tigers, and Vietnam now yearns for admittance to...

Fidel Castro reads NR, but he doesn't learn anything from it.(The Week ...)
May 23, 2005... Fidel Castro reads NR, but he doesn't learn anything from it. On April 30, he quoted from Otto Reich's cover story in our April 11 issue, on the partnership between Castro and Venezuela's strongman Hugo Chavez. (The two were having a summit in...

You may remember Rachel Corrie, the 23-year-old American radical who was crushed to death when she jumped in front of an Israeli army bulldozer.(The Week ...)(Brief Article)
May 23, 2005... You may remember Rachel Corrie, the 23-year-old American radical who was crushed to death when she jumped in front of an Israeli army bulldozer. (The bulldozer was trying to destroy a building suspected of concealing tunnels used for terrorist...

Among the minor misfortunes of life, being left at the altar has always been considered one to arouse unqualified sympathy.(The Week ...)(Brief Article)
May 23, 2005... Among the minor misfortunes of life, being left at the altar has always been considered one to arouse unqualified sympathy. This unhappy fate befell John Mason of Atlanta the other day, when his bride-to-be went missing shortly before their...

With the cancellation of the TV show Enterprise, the Star Trek franchise, for the first time in years, offers nothing new on the large or small screen.(The Week ...)
May 23, 2005... With the cancellation of the TV show Enterprise, the Star Trek franchise, for the first time in years, offers nothing new on the large or small screen. The many mutations of Gene Roddenberry's brainchild march on in syndication and DVD, of...

The president leads.(SOCIAL SECURITY)(Social Security reform)
May 23, 2005... IN a press conference, President Bush provided more details on his Social Security reform. He continued to express support for personal investment accounts. He also came out, for the first time, for reductions in the growth of benefits for...

Powell vs. Bolton.(AT WAR)(Colin Powell)(John Bolton)
May 23, 2005... JOHN BOLTON is supposed to be a "kiss up, kick down" kind of guy, according to his bureaucratic critic Carl Ford. If Bolton is such a kiss-up, however, it is passing strange that he has managed to earn the opposition of nearly everyone around...

Chief among equals.(THE LAW)(William H. Rehnquist retires)
May 23, 2005... WITH the retirement of an ailing Chief Justice William Rehnquist expected soon, the mind of the Bush administration has been turning to his replacement. The White House has been getting advice, not all of it solicited. Liberal legal commentator...

The Nuclear Option.(The Week ...)(Poem)
May 23, 2005... THE NUCLEAR OPTION Pull that trigger, Dr. Frist; Reid will treat you like a cyst, As will Kennedy; but doc, For the nonce you'd have a lock On those judges Mr. Bush And the base sweat blood to push. Pull it!...

Notes & asides.(death anniversary)
May 23, 2005... Memo to: WFB From: Linda This is the tenth anniversary of the death of Bill Rickenbacker. Would you consider republishing the obit? It did him justice. And it brings to mind the book he and I co-authored. Memo to: Linda ...