National Review articles from November 2003

National Review archives from November 2003

Letters.
November 10, 2003... --There is an interesting coincidence in two of the items in your Sept. 29 issue. In "For the Record" you note that Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee and former congressman Asa Hutchinson -- both Republicans -- are declining to run against...

The Week.
November 10, 2003... -- NEWS ITEM: "Washington governor Gary Locke's trip to China bore its first fruit Monday with news that a Kent-based printing-press maker signed a contract worth $11 million a year with the People's Daily newspaper, the Communist Party organ."...

EDITORIAL: IRAQ: Tools for the Job.(Editorial)
November 10, 2003... Ahmad Chalabi, who led Free Iraq's delegation to the U.N. early in October, gave a notable speech to the body that did so little to liberate his country. He thanked those who did help: President Bush, the United States, Great Britain. He...

EDITORIAL: AT WAR: The Moderate from Malaysia.(Prime Minister Mohamad Mahathir)(Editorial)
November 10, 2003... The prime minister of Malaysia, Dr. Mahathir Mohamad, is an international superstar -- a toast of the Davos forum, a darling of Western correspondents and analysts. He is thought to be the Great Muslim Moderate, and in certain respects he is --...

Notes & Asides.
November 10, 2003... -- Remarks on awarding the Bradley Prize to Thomas Sowell, October 7, 2003 I do not undertake to summarize, or even to list, the thirty books written by Dr. Sowell or the one hundred learned essays or the one thousand newspaper columns....

Of Mullahs and Their Nukes: A deadly problem out of Iran.
November 10, 2003... Until last spring, it seemed as if Iran and the United States were moving toward a discreet dialogue designed to defuse more than two decades of antagonism. Now, however, with the release of fresh evidence that Iran may be pursuing nuclear...

By George: The Democratic Party is now brought to you by super-investor George Soros.
November 10, 2003... Last June, the billionaire investor George Soros announced that he was cutting back the work his foundation, the Open Society Institute, did in Russia so that he could focus his attention on the United States. The change was needed, Soros told...

The Horror, the Horror: Halloween has grown into a big deal -- too big.
November 10, 2003... One morning about this time last year I stopped at a coffee shop. The line moved peacefully along, until it was my turn to order. "What'll it be?" said the fellow behind the counter, still looking down at his cash register. "A chocolate...

Against Baseball Socialism: Haves, have-nots, and Commissioner Selig's faulty vision.
November 10, 2003... The nation (or most of it) may have been rooting for a Cubs-Red Sox World Series, but, as the Series opened, baseball commissioner Allan H. "Bud" Selig was the happiest man in America. He couldn't have chosen a better match than that between...

NASCAR Nation: One journalist's journey of discovery.
November 10, 2003... Forget about the Soccer Mom, object of obsessive interest to political strategists in the last two presidential elections. Two election cycles is as much concentrated attention as a voter bloc can expect to get in these fast-changing times. The...

Air Rummy: A conversation with the secretary of defense -- and the missus.(Interview)
November 10, 2003... Donald Rumsfeld's up and at 'em, raring to go -- as usual. Big grin, bounce in his step, shiny as a penny. We're at the Broadmoor Hotel in Colorado Springs, where the secretary has just hosted a conference of NATO defense ministers. The...

Into Cuba: The embargo must go.
November 10, 2003... The subject of Cuba and U.S. policy toward that troubled and ill- governed island has surfaced again in the highest quarters of our land. The island was discovered by Columbus on October 27, 1492. Four hundred and ten years later it became a...

The Long View.
November 10, 2003... ***** DRAFT COPY ***** NOT FOR RELEASE Democratic National Convention July 26-29, 2004 Fleet Center, Boston Tentative Breakdown opening ceremony: Dixie Chicks (status: CONFIRMED) keynote address: Gov. Howard...

The Content of His Character.(Book Review)
November 10, 2003... Legacy: Paying the Price for the Clinton Years, by Rich Lowry (Regnery, 470 pp., $27.95) In the course of a lunch with a prominent liberal journalist recently, I was asked why the Right hated Clinton so much. I wasn't surprised to be...

The Governor Prevaileth.(Book Review)
November 10, 2003... Governor Reagan: His Rise to Power, by Lou Cannon (PublicAffairs, 592 pp., $30) Lou Cannon has become the premier biographer of Ronald Reagan. As a journalist, he covered Reagan's political career from his days in California through his...

Unfit to Print.(Book Review)
November 10, 2003... The Great Unraveling: Losing Our Way in the New Century, by Paul Krugman (Norton, 320 pp., $25.95) It is fitting that the first words in this collection of Paul Krugman's New York Times columns offer thanks to disgraced former Times...

Restoring an Original.(Book Review)
November 10, 2003... Benjamin Franklin: An American Life, by Walter Isaacson (Simon & Schuster, 608 pp., $30) When Thomas Jefferson first presented himself at Versailles in 1784, one observer wrote that the spectacle of John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, and...

The Bloodstained Rise.(Book Review)
November 10, 2003... All Day Permanent Red: The First Battle Scenes of Homer's Iliad Rewritten, by Christopher Logue (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 64 pp., $18) Christopher Logue has been a dealer in stolen property (briefly), a prisoner in a Crusader castle (16...

Books in Brief.(Book Review)(Brief Article)
November 10, 2003... Shut Up & Sing: How Elites from Hollywood, Politics, and the UN Are Subverting America, by Laura Ingraham (Regnery, 360 pp., $27.95) In her new book, radio talk-show host (and former Supreme Court clerk) Laura Ingraham takes on "the...

On the Right.
November 10, 2003... Bee Gee Wars NEW YORK, SEPTEMBER 30 A big battle is shaping up. The major players are musicians and the industry that retails their wares, and the people (mostly young) who love the music but don't want to pay for it. The music...

Major league debate.(Letter to the Editor)
November 24, 2003... Few would quibble with the notion that one who relies on factual inaccuracies while writing about an industry that he does not understand is unlikely to produce sound analysis. Tim Marchman's recent article "Against Baseball Socialism" (Nov....

In Newsweek poll, President Bush earns 51 percent approval rating and leads all prospective Democratic challengers in matchups by at least 6 points....(for the record)(Brief Article)
November 24, 2003... * In Newsweek poll, President Bush earns 51 percent approval rating and leads all prospective Democratic challengers in matchups by at least 6 points.... "The tax relief we passed is working," says Bush. "We left more money in the hands of the...

Wesley Clark (D.) on Baghdad terrorism, in Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: "Maybe it's desperation. Maybe it isn't. What if it isn't? What if it's an expression of strength and resolve and conviction?".(for the record)(Brief Article)
November 24, 2003... * Wesley Clark (D.) on Baghdad terrorism, in Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: "Maybe it's desperation. Maybe it isn't. What if it isn't? What if it's an expression of strength and resolve and conviction?"... "It's a temperament issue," says former...

Former HUD secretary Andrew Cuomo calls Democrats "bloodless, soulless, clueless" in Crossroads: the future of American Politics, according to New York Post.(for the record)(Brief Article)
November 24, 2003... * Former HUD secretary Andrew Cuomo calls Democrats "bloodless, soulless, clueless" in Crossroads: The Future of American Politics, according to New York Post. "We handled 9/11 like it was a debate over a highway bill instead of a matter of...

Sen. Hillary Clinton (D., N.Y.) accuses Bush administration of hiding Iraq casualty figures: "We must always be vigilant against letting our desire to keep information confidential be used as a pretext for classifying information that is more about political embarrassment than national security.".(for the record)(Brief Article)
November 24, 2003... * Sen. Hillary Clinton (D., N.Y.) accuses Bush administration of hiding Iraq casualty figures: "We must always be vigilant against letting our desire to keep information confidential be used as a pretext for classifying information that is more...

Justice Sandra Day O'Connor: "Over time we will rely increasingly, or take notice at least increasingly, on international and foreign courts in examining domestic issues".(for the record)(Brief Article)
November 24, 2003... * Justice Sandra Day O'Connor: "Over time we will rely increasingly, or take notice at least increasingly, on international and foreign courts in examining domestic issues."... NR editor Rich Lowry's debut book, Legacy: Paying the Price for...

Interrogations of captured al-Qaeda leaders reveal fourth plane on 9/11 was destined for Capitol building, reports Der Spiegel.(for the record)(Brief Article)
November 24, 2003... * Interrogations of captured al-Qaeda leaders reveal fourth plane on 9/11 was destined for Capitol building, reports Der Spiegel.... Human Rights Watch says government in Zimbabwe limits food supply to political opponents.... One in four...

David Letterman: "Violent crime is down in New York City.(for the record)
November 24, 2003... * David Letterman: "Violent crime is down in New York City. In fact, the only way to get assaulted now is to marry Liza Minnelli."

Manufacturing: a crisis alert.
November 24, 2003... America is losing the capacity to manufacture the goods it consumes and the weapons it needs. This decline is partially reflected in U.S. manufacturing employment, which dropped from 17.3 million jobs in July 2000 to 14.5 million in...

Okay, now that CBS has canceled the Reagan movie, can we do something about Dan Rather?(The Week)
November 24, 2003... * Okay, now that CBS has canceled the Reagan movie, can we do something about Dan Rather?

America was evidently hard at work this summer, producing the fastest economic growth the country has seen in any three months since 1984.(The Week)(Brief Article)
November 24, 2003... * America was evidently hard at work this summer, producing the fastest economic growth the country has seen in any three months since 1984. The economy grew at an annualized rate of 7.2 percent. Most economists expect job growth to resume in...

Democrats have a great new idea for fighting the war on terrorism--it's the same as their old idea for fighting terrorism.(The Week)(Brief Article)
November 24, 2003... * Democrats have a great new idea for fighting the war on terrorism--it's the same as their old idea for fighting terrorism. John Kerry and Wesley Clark have recently asserted that the war should fundamentally be a law-enforcement action. This...

Pity the poor folks at MTV and Rock the Vote.(The Week)(Brief Article)
November 24, 2003... * Pity the poor folks at MTV and Rock the Vote. They want to get young people interested in Democratic politicians--remember how they swooned for Clinton and Gore?--but this year, it's just not working. A new poll from Harvard University's...

In one of those flaps that mark presidential nomination battles like warts on an old pumpkin, Howard Dean drew the wrath of his fellow Dems.(The Week)(Brief Article)
November 24, 2003... * In one of those flaps that mark presidential nomination battles like warts on an old pumpkin, Howard Dean drew the wrath of his fellow Dems. "I still want to be the candidate for guys with Confederate flags in their pickup trucks," Dean told...

Sen. Zell Miller, Democrat of Georgia, says that when James Jeffords left the Republican party and gave the Senate to the Democrats, Republicans asked him to cross the aisle to restore their majority.(The Week)(Brief Article)
November 24, 2003... * Sen. Zell Miller, Democrat of Georgia, says that when James Jeffords left the Republican party and gave the Senate to the Democrats, Republicans asked him to cross the aisle to restore their majority. Miller declined to change parties. A...

Republican victories in governor's races in Kentucky and Mississippi underscored the Democratic party's woes in the South.(The Week)(Brief Article)
November 24, 2003... * Republican victories in governor's races in Kentucky and Mississippi underscored the Democratic party's woes in the South. President Bush campaigned for both winning Republican candidates. The Democratic candidates were too wise to invite...

Congress is hard at work on a bill to get Medicare to provide prescription-drug coverage.(The Week)(Brief Article)
November 24, 2003... * Congress is hard at work on a bill to get Medicare to provide prescription-drug coverage. There are many thorny issues to be worked out. How fast should the country be bankrupted? How much heavier a tax burden should young people face to pay...

On November 5, President Bush signed into law a ban on partial-birth abortion.(The Week)(Brief Article)
November 24, 2003... * On November 5, President Bush signed into law a ban on partial-birth abortion. President Clinton had twice vetoed similar laws. It has taken eight years for pro-lifers to get this far, but the fight is not over yet: There are already legal...

The Internet Tax Freedom Act prohibits state and local governments from taxing Internet access or taxing online sales more heavily than other sales.(The Week)(Brief Article)
November 24, 2003... * The Internet Tax Freedom Act prohibits state and local governments from taxing Internet access or taxing online sales more heavily than other sales. Congress is probably going to make the law permanent. But a few senators, acting at the...

Two congressional staffers went out on their lunch hour October 30 to buy Halloween costumes.(The Week)(anti-gun laws)(Brief Article)
November 24, 2003... * Two congressional staffers went out on their lunch hour October 30 to buy Halloween costumes. Among their purchases was a toy gun, which showed up in a security X-ray of the staffers' bags when they re-entered their office building. Security...

In its last issue, NR ran an editorial paragraph that it did not mean to run.(The Week)(Brief Article)
November 24, 2003... * In its last issue, NR ran an editorial paragraph that it did not mean to run. We had had a debate among the editors about Gen. William Boykin, who made some highly provocative remarks about the War on Terror. Some editors felt that he should...

Lt. Col. Allen B. West's 4th Infantry Division faces almost daily attacks in carrying out its mission to provide security around Saddam's hometown of Tikrit.(The Week)(Brief Article)
November 24, 2003... * Lt. Col. Allen B. West's 4th Infantry Division faces almost daily attacks in carrying out its mission to provide security around Saddam's hometown of Tikrit. To get a captured Iraqi to tell what he knew of planned ambushes, Lt. Col. West...

Gov. Jeb Bush of Florida, acting under a new law written for the occasion, intervened to keep a brain-damaged woman on her feeding tube.(The Week)(Brief Article)
November 24, 2003... * Gov. Jeb Bush of Florida, acting under a new law written for the occasion, intervened to keep a brain-damaged woman on her feeding tube. Her husband, who is engaged to another woman and has had children with her, wants her to be dehydrated to...

A Joyful Noise.(Poem)
November 24, 2003... A JOYFUL NOISE Oh, that third quarter: It shot Up like a rocket and got Daschle so downhearted, he Stares out--like Miss Liberty; While in the White House, the staff Smothers guffaws, though a laugh Like a...

Southern California's recent wildfires, which claimed 20 lives and destroyed almost 3,000 houses, were a tragedy.(The Week)(Brief Article)
November 24, 2003... * Southern California's recent wildfires, which claimed 20 lives and destroyed almost 3,000 houses, were a tragedy. What is worse, they were a needless tragedy. For years, the U.S. Forest Service, pressured by the environmental lobby, has...

Iran has huge reserves of oil and natural gas.(The Week)(Brief Article)
November 24, 2003... * Iran has huge reserves of oil and natural gas. Why the country might need nuclear energy isn't obvious. On the other hand, a regime that sees itself as God's agent against the rest of the world might want a nuclear bomb and the power and...

Mikhail Khodorkovsky rose from obscurity to become chairman of Yukos, a giant Russian oil company and possible partner of Exxon-Mobil.(The Week)(Brief Article)
November 24, 2003... * Mikhail Khodorkovsky rose from obscurity to become chairman of Yukos, a giant Russian oil company and possible partner of Exxon-Mobil. He's the most visible of the oligarchs, or robber barons who made killings out of post-Communist...

The Rev. V. Gene Robinson was consecrated as Episcopal Bishop of New Hampshire.(The Week)(Brief Article)
November 24, 2003... * The Rev. V. Gene Robinson was consecrated as Episcopal Bishop of New Hampshire. Bishop Robinson left his wife and children, and has been living with a gay partner for 14 years. Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury, channeling the voice of...

It is not yet a crime to disapprove of homosexuality, but it sometimes seems as though that's where we are headed.(The Week)(Brief Article)(Column)
November 24, 2003... * It is not yet a crime to disapprove of homosexuality, but it sometimes seems as though that's where we are headed. Most recently, a court in Denver has forbidden a mother to tell her child that homosexuality is wrong. The mother will, in...

CBS dumped the TV miniseries The Reagans, which it had commissioned, after protests from Reagan's admirers.(The Week)(Brief Article)(Television Program Review)
November 24, 2003... * CBS dumped the TV miniseries The Reagans, which it had commissioned, after protests from Reagan's admirers. Now the series will be aired on Showtime. In its most egregious blunder, the film showed Reagan (played by Barbra Streisand's husband,...

In the New York Times's Sunday magazine, they interviewed Noam Chomsky, and asked him the mushiest of questions.(The Week)(Brief Article)
November 24, 2003... * In the New York Times's Sunday magazine, they interviewed Noam Chomsky, and asked him the mushiest of questions. "How would you explain your large ambition?" they said. Also: "You have remained a vocal critic of Israel"--yeah, right. "Vocal...

A 14-year-old middle-school student in New Jersey was suspended for five days after drawing a picture of a U.S. Marine shooting a Taliban fighter.(The Week)(Brief Article)
November 24, 2003... * A 14-year-old middle-school student in New Jersey was suspended for five days after drawing a picture of a U.S. Marine shooting a Taliban fighter. The boy's father is a Navy engineer currently serving in the Persian Gulf. His mother said that...

The trustees of the University of New Hampshire have decided that rioting merits expulsion--and have already banished several students.(The Week)(Brief Article)
November 24, 2003... * The trustees of the University of New Hampshire have decided that rioting merits expulsion--and have already banished several students. This is about 35 years late, but it is welcome, indeed. Civilization is being reaffirmed. If New Hampshire...

Madame Chiang Kai-shek died October 23 at the astonishing age of 105, having far outlived her fame.(The Week)(Brief Article)(Obituary)
November 24, 2003... * Madame Chiang Kai-shek died October 23 at the astonishing age of 105, having far outlived her fame. Older Americans remembered her as an attractive and eloquent spokeswoman for her nation, which her husband was struggling valiantly to defend...

A delightful comment reported in the New York Times: lefties held a conference in Washington on "New American Strategies for Security and Peace".(The Week)(Brief Article)
November 24, 2003... * A delightful comment reported in the New York Times: Lefties held a conference in Washington on "New American Strategies for Security and Peace." According to the paper, there were American flags everywhere, as this is the new Democratic...

Fabulous fiber[TM].(Lewis Labs)(Advertisement)
November 24, 2003... In the past few years, fiber has received a great deal of well justified attention from nutritional scientists throughout the world. In addition to its impressive known benefits, research--now underway--may shed light on its possible role in...

Future recalls require further reform.(Gubernatorial recalls)
November 24, 2003... California is the first state in more than eighty years to recall a sitting governor. Is this landmark event a fluke or part of a larger anti-incumbent strain? Would those states without a recall mechanism be wise to follow California's lead?...

Careful whom you soak.(George W. Bush's tax cuts)
November 24, 2003... PRESIDENT BUSH'S tax cuts have been lambasted by the Left as a policy that "helps Joe Millionaire more than Joe Lunch Bucket." What they don't realize is that, without the Joe Millionaires in our society, Joe Lunch Bucket might be in the...

War and post-war.(Iraq)
November 24, 2003... The downing of the CH-47 Chinook helicopter outside the Iraqi city of Falluja and the loss of 16 soldiers aboard was the most dramatic in a string of American casualties that has continued since President Bush said that "major combat...

A new beginning.(Britain)
November 24, 2003... EVER since the defenestration of Margaret Thatcher, political correspondents have been writing about the Tory party as anthropologists might write about primitive tribes, or Gothic novelists about ancestral sins. Matricide, blood-guilt,...

Notes & asides.(Letter to the Editor)
November 24, 2003... * Dear Mr. Buckley: Both James L. Fletcher Jr. and yourself extol the virtues of Elvis Presley (July 28). Having lived through the era of the '40s to the '60s, and having been in the entertainment business, I would like to interject the...

What to do: the problem in Iraq is neither political nor military; it is a security problem.
November 24, 2003... IN late October and early November, the Iraqi capital of Baghdad had some horrible days, with terrorist attacks that claimed scores of victims. The attacks put the usual what-is-to-be-done industry into overdrive in Washington and elsewhere....

A war of cultures: shame and honor, as always.(Iraq)
November 24, 2003... MOST Iraqis recognize that they owe a debt to the United States. They have never been so free and prosperous, and they expect things will get better still. There's been banking and currency reform, with lines of credit now readily available....

The Malay precedent: lessons from the Brits.(Iraq War)
November 24, 2003... How the Iraq crisis is resolved will be decided in two countries: Iraq and America. If the U.S. defeats the insurgency quickly and thoroughly, American voices demanding withdrawal will fade away. If on the other hand the conflict drags on in...

The war room, cont.: this time, the Democrats are calling it a 'think tank'.(Politics)(Al Franken)
November 24, 2003... AL FRANKEN was becoming agitated. The comedian and conservative-basher was at a Washington party for the new liberal think tank, the Center for American Progress, when he was asked to say a few words to the crowd. As he often does, Franken...

A good man, kept down: why is John Warner playing games with James Roche?(Washington)
November 24, 2003... WHEN President Bush tapped Air Force secretary James Roche for a transfer to the Army as its civilian chief in May, he did not appreciate Sen. John Warner's willingness to put blame-shifting and grandstanding over the needs of the Army. Warner,...

Loyalty, how quaint: the timeless importance of an old quality.(Essay)
November 24, 2003... EVEN in our postmodern age 19th-century ideas like patriotism, loyalty, and treason still cause controversy. The recent news that some Arab-American and Islamic translators and chaplains at the military prison at Guantanamo Bay were either...

Marriage amendment jitters: the social Right tries to get it together.(Public Policy)(same sex marriage)
November 24, 2003... SANDY RIOS, the president of Concerned Women for America, was pounding the table. She was at an October 1 meeting of social-conservative activists and the leading Republicans in the House and Senate. Some Republicans were worried about the...

The Perils of 'Fat Acceptance': density-as-destiny and other myths.(Culture Watch)
November 24, 2003... ON my office wall hangs a framed New Yorker cartoon of a map of the United States that labels the entire country "Too Fat," save for the dot designating Los Angeles as "Too Skinny." I chose it as a parody both of the field in which I...

The long view.(satire)
November 24, 2003... CBS Presents: Political Theater From "Oil and Water: The George H. W. Bush Story" SCENE 47: INTERIOR--OVAL OFFICE--NIGHT President Bush is on the phone. SecDef Dick Cheney, NSA Scowcroft, et al. on the sofa. The president hangs up...

Help!!!!(Comic)
November 24, 2003... "MY DOG ATE THE PALM PILOT THAT HAD THE VRL OF THE WEBSITE MY HOMEWORK WAS POSTED ON." "White-collar crime is on the increase." YOU WERE SAYING? [ILLUSTRATIONS OMITTED]

Betting on Bush.(Poem)
November 24, 2003... BETTING ON BUSH If Iraq goes, there goes the game. As almost all the Dems take aim (Biden excepted) or recoil Like gourmets at a salad oil, The president digs in his heels, Assaulting all with fund appeals ...

The great makers.(Art: A New History)(Book Review)
November 24, 2003... Art: A New History, by Paul Johnson (HarperCollins, 792 pp., $39.95) EVERY sentient adult has his own favorite book by the English historian Paul Johnson. Some favor Intellectuals (1989), his devastating and often hilarious dissection of...

A flawed colossus.(Franklin Delano Roosevelt: Champion of Freedom)(Book Review)
November 24, 2003... Franklin Delano Roosevelt: Champion of Freedom, by Conrad Black (Public Affairs, 1,280 pp., $39.95) WHAT historians do is make generalizations. They study and take notes from the relevant documents and secondary literature. As they ingest...

Hope.(Poem)
November 24, 2003... HOPE In winter the crescent moon vanishes So quickly in the blue, down the horizon, Between the starry darkness and morning, Like the hull of a ship without rigging That I was meaning to load with wishes, O not...

Yes, he has lived.(Vixi: Memoirs of a Non-Belonger)(Book Review)
November 24, 2003... Vixi: Memoirs of a Non-Belonger, by Richard Pipes (Yale, 264 pp., $30) FOR half a century, Richard Pipes has been one of the world's foremost scholars of Russia, and a man of political and policy influence as well: In the 1970s, he headed...

Founding enigma.(Jefferson's Demons: Portrait of a Restless Mind)(Book Review)
November 24, 2003... Jefferson's Demons: Portrait of a Restless Mind, by Michael Knox Beran (Free Press, 265 pp., $25) IN Thomas Jefferson, there is at once something and nothing for everyone. Conservatives share his fondness for a republic of yeoman farmers,...

Raffish royalty.(The Kennedys: America's Emerald Kings)(Book Review)
November 24, 2003... The Kennedys: America's Emerald Kings, by Thomas Maier (Basic, 676 pp., $29.95) THE author, a biographer of Dr. Spock, describes the Irish Catholicism of five generations of Kennedys, whose influence on American religion paralleled Spock's...

The freedom forces.(Shelf Life)(Boots on the Ground: A Month with the 82nd Airborne in the Battle for Iraq)(Book Review)
November 24, 2003... IN Boots on the Ground: A Month with the 82nd Airborne in the Battle for Iraq (St. Martin's Press, 213 pp., $24.95), Karl Zinsmeister gives us a thrilling firsthand account of the liberation of Iraq. This book, in and of itself, justifies the...

Literature night.(City Desk)(public readings)
November 24, 2003... WE are in a slot beneath a Greenwich Village restaurant. The walls are painted brick, close together as in a bad dream, widened only by rows of mirrors and by our faith that the red EXIT signs actually lead somewhere. At the head of the room is...

Easing off on Iowa.(on the right)
November 24, 2003... NEW YORK, OCTOBER 21 TWO spokesmen for the Democratic party in Iowa professed surprise, and threatened reprisal and death for the two candidates who announced that they were pulling out of the state caucus. Gen. Clark said that there was...

Understanding Rumsfeld.(on the right)(Rumsfeld: A Personal Portrait)(Book Review)
November 24, 2003... NEW YORK, OCTOBER 24 THE memo by Donald Rumsfeld, circulated, we are told, to only four people, brings to mind the lesson my old friend and mentor, the strategist James Burnham, once told his fellow editors. "My father would say, pointing...

Stopping illegals.(on the right)(immigration)
November 24, 2003... NEW YORK, OCTOBER 31 THE subject of immigration is vigorous on the airwaves. Recently the contest was between an ardent commentator who had served with the INS and a retired general who sounded like George Patton. The general said that...