National Review articles from October 2003

National Review archives from October 2003

Letters.(Letter to the Editor)
October 13, 2003... --I want to take issue with the characterization of the Arab American Institute (AAI) in the article by Alex Alexiev ("Stopping the Saudis," Sept. 1). In the piece, Alexiev managed to recycle a number of allegations about U.S.-Saudi relations...

The Week.(Wesley Clark's presidential campaign; other current events)
October 13, 2003... -- Hurricane Isabel was destructive, but say this for her: She shut down the federal government for two days. -- Gen. Wesley Clark, four-star CNN pundit, and now would-be presidential candidate, rushed to the head of the Democratic pack,...

Editorial: IRAQ: Following Through.(President Bush's speech to United Nations)(Editorial)
October 13, 2003... President Bush's speech to the U.N. was a determined holding action in an unsettled strategic situation. He stuck to his guns without considering whether some of them should be moved. He justified the U.N. address he gave last year on...

Editorial: CALIFORNIA: A Leap in the Dark.(gubernatorial recall election)(Editorial)
October 13, 2003... California conservatives are more responsible than anyone else in the state for putting the recall initiative on the ballot, with the possible exception of Governor Gray Davis. But the recall now presents them with an excruciatingly difficult...

Notes & Asides.(Letter to the Editor)
October 13, 2003... -- Dear Mr. Buckley: Sometime during the 1980s, I began to wonder whom to invite if I could select five people who would accept a dinner invitation. In all these years I haven't come up with a complete list, which has recently caused me to set...

An 'Ism' for All Seasons: Intellectuals and their camp followers have found a new ideology.(Column)
October 13, 2003... At the time when the Soviet empire collapsed in ignominy and the totalitarian system in Russia itself disintegrated, people asked: What will take its place in the minds of intellectuals and all those who believed in a utopia on earth? What...

The Joy of Recess: An idea for countering Democratic filibustering.(author suggests George W. Bush make judicial appointments during Congressional recess)(Column)
October 13, 2003... When Miguel Estrada withdrew his nomination to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals -- 28 months after it was submitted to the Senate, where seven unsuccessful votes were held to try to break a filibuster -- a triumphant Sen. Edward Kennedy...

The Unlikely Superstar: Johnny Cash, up to Glory.(Obituary)
October 13, 2003... According to the old musical formula, if you want to be a master bluesman you sell your soul to the devil -- or you can sign on with God and play country. Johnny Cash took the latter path and it's safe to say he did pretty well with his...

The 'Flatlanders' and Their King: From Ethan Allen to Calvin Coolidge to Howard Dean . . . how sad.
October 13, 2003... The statehouse in Montpelier is pretty much what you'd expect: traditional Yankee colonial with a few bits of kitsch for the tourists. Portraits of fusty old Vermonters festoon the walls. Most are of former governors in funereal suits. Some of...

The U.N.: Now Less Than Ever: There must be a way out.
October 13, 2003... An American, looking back over the recent conflict with Iraq, is likely to wonder how it is that a petty tyrant could have defied the world for so long, despite the determination of the United States to unseat him. The answer is to be found in...

Iraq As It Stands: There is good news, and bad news, and a country given a chance.
October 13, 2003... As millions of Iraqi children start a new school year, they face two uncertainties. The first: Will enough of their teachers show up in the classrooms? The Ministry of Education has appealed to all teachers to be present at their posts -- but...

Topsy-Turvy: American universities are places of dizzying unreality -- and this does considerable harm.
October 13, 2003... Our universities have become odd places. They appear almost eerily out of step with the rest of us in times of national crisis. When all of our institutions become subject to greater scrutiny in wartime, the public begins to grasp just how...

Waking Up: September 11 has made some students question the orthodoxy of their teachers.
October 13, 2003... American universities have long been centers of anti-Americanism. During the Cold War, academic hostility to America took the form of support for the Soviet Union, often buttressed by faulty scholarship and the deliberate hiding of Communist...

The Great Servers: For applicants, 'community service' is de rigueur -- and often baloney.
October 13, 2003... 'So," I asked, "what are you doing this summer?" "I'm setting up a nonprofit to help at-risk youth attend college." "That's great," I replied. "How are you going to fund it?" Pause. "That's kind of the problem. I don't really...

The Long View.(political humor)
October 13, 2003... The Candidates' Diaries Special All Mixed Up Edition(tm) From the diary of Bob Graham, candidate for the presidency of the United States: . . . a nice basket of those big muffins, with the sugary tops, you know the ones? They sort...

A Global Coup d'Etat.(Coercing Virtue: The Worldwide Rule of Judges)(Book Review)
October 13, 2003... Coercing Virtue: The Worldwide Rule of Judges, by Robert H. Bork (AEI, 159 pp., $25) "We set ourselves to achieve a society that would be maximally tolerant. But that resolve not only gives maximum scope to the activities of those who have...

Desperation Island.(Cuba: The Morning After -- Confronting Castro's Legacy)(Book Review)
October 13, 2003... Cuba: The Morning After -- Confronting Castro's Legacy, by Mark Falcoff (AEI, 285 pp., $25) Just as Franco died, and Tito died, and Grandma Moses died, Castro will die -- as unlikely as it seems some days. He has ruled Cuba for 45 years...

Existence, At Least.(Right to Exist: A Moral Defense of Israel's Wars)(The Case for Israel)(Book Review)
October 13, 2003... Right to Exist: A Moral Defense of Israel's Wars, by Yaacov Lozowick (Doubleday, 336 pp., $26) The Case for Israel, by Alan Dershowitz (Wiley, 264 pp., $19.95) Nations are often called upon to defend their policies, and sometimes even...

Sweet Tales of the CIA.(Book Review)
October 13, 2003... Loose Lips, by Claire Berlinski (Random House, 272 pp., $21.95) Is the Central Intelligence Agency really as bursting with ninnies as is thought by many, including, it would seem, by Claire Berlinski? Her first novel pulls back the curtains...

SHELF LIFE: Reagan's Thinking Points.(Reagan: A Life in Letters)(Evil: An Investigation)(Politicians, Partisans, and Parasites: My Adventures in Cable News)(Samuel Johnson's Dictionary: Selections from the 1755 Work That Defined the English Language)(Book Review)(Brief Article)
October 13, 2003... Ronald Reagan, even at this late date, continues to amaze. A massive new book, Reagan: A Life in Letters (Free Press, 934 pp., $35), edited by Kiron K. Skinner, Annelise Anderson, and Martin Anderson, contains about 1,000 of the letters he...

BOOKS IN BRIEF: Envy, by Joseph Epstein.(Book Review)
October 13, 2003... (Oxford, 144 pp., $17.95) Reading this book, the first in Oxford's Seven Deadly Sins series, one imagines the Devil's marginalia: "So true -- why didn't I think of that?" This question, says Joseph Epstein, is the linchpin of envy: "Why...

THE STRAGGLER: The Tale of the Tapes.(Aeneid)(Audiobook Review)
October 13, 2003... My morning walk with Boris, Hound of the Derbyshires, is a leisurely affair. We wander as the spirit moves us, through quiet suburban streets and bosky country lanes, sometimes for an hour or more. It is around the hour mark, however, that...

On the Right.(appeal to U.N. for help on Iraq occupation; opposition emotions on Pres. Bush; US ultimatum to Israel)
October 13, 2003... U.S. at Bay? Or U.N.? NEW YORK, SEPTEMBER 5 There's no question that the administration misjudged the extent of the Iraq problem. That problem is the problem of Iraq, #1, and #2, the problem of our allies and of the United Nations....

What's Right.(Hurricane Isabel)
October 13, 2003... Do Tell, Isabel If you read the Drudge Report, you know all about Hurricane Isabel. Or maybe not: Maybe you are one of those who shrug off "weather hype" and skip past Drudge's weather headlines down to the political and celebrity items....

Letters.(Letter to the Editor)
October 27, 2003... --I was quite surprised to find that NR would take the time to comment on my new symphony. [The Symphony No. 3, commissioned by the New York Philharmonic to commemorate the second anniversary of September 11. It uses the 9th-century Anglo-Saxon...

The Week.(Arnold Schwarzenegger wins in California; timing of Los Angeles Times's groping allegations against Schwarzenegger; political recall; other political issues )
October 27, 2003... -- And they said Arnold wasn't a true Kennedy! -- Schwarzenegger's big win in California is being taken in some quarters as a sign that there is a new Republican party aborning-one that is "inclusive," "tolerant," cool, and not uptight...

Editorial: IRAQ: Worth Every Penny.(President Bush's request for $87 billion for Iraq)(Editorial)
October 27, 2003... Foreign aid is not popular in America, and for excellent reasons. Too often it amounts to "poor people in rich countries sending money to rich people in poor countries," to quote the late, great development economist Peter Bauer. So it is not...

Editorial: POLITICS: Leak Proof.(intelligence leak of identity of CIA operative)(Editorial)
October 27, 2003... For three weeks this summer, Washington, D.C., was obsessed with 16 words. It was one of those firestorms that threaten to take down the presidency and get their own logos on cable-news channels, and then are forgotten. The controversy centered...

Editorial: THE MEDIA: Rush Week.(Rush Limbaugh's problems)(Brief Article)(Editorial)
October 27, 2003... Rush limbaugh has had better weeks. His troubles began with his latest triumph-an ESPN gig, commenting on the NFL. One Sunday, he suggested that Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb was overrated. "I think what we've had here is...

Notes & Asides.(WEilliam F. Buckley Jr.'s Ttast to John Kenneth and Catherine Galbraith)
October 27, 2003... -- Toast to John Kenneth and Catherine Galbraith, Mount Auburn Hospital Benefit, Royal Sonesta Hotel, Cambridge, Mass., September 24, 2003 Ladies and gentlemen and fans of the Mount Auburn Hospital: I have been given two minutes to...

Governor!: The weird and improbable event that is Arnold Schwarzenegger's election.
October 27, 2003... Governor schwarzenegger, it is. Despite the groping stories of the last five days of the campaign, the closing scenes of the Arnold bus tour were a celebrity frenzy that even Ben and J-Lo couldn't match. The bus tour was a masterstroke. Every...

Lagging Indicator: Unemployment is not the big deal in politics it used to be.
October 27, 2003... In early September, Sen. Robert Bennett of Utah was briefing his Republican colleagues about the economy. Bennett, the party's chief deputy whip in the Senate and the chairman of the Joint Economic Committee, said that the stock market was...

Liberal Radio and Its Dark Angel: Meet the amazing Sheldon Drobny.
October 27, 2003... 'Everything is going very well," says Sheldon Drobny of his new project, the much-publicized move to create a liberal talk-radio network. "We're moving along toward being on the air in early January. In fact, we're going to be on the air in a...

The Chaplain Problem: What gives with imams (and others) in the military?
October 27, 2003... Abdurahman Alamoudi presented the first imam in the United States Armed Forces with the military's newest insignia, a silver crescent moon, at Army captain Abdul Muhammad's commissioning service in 1993. The American Muslim...

Trouble in Miami: If Bush doesn't watch out, he could lose those Cuban- Americans.
October 27, 2003... A little before midnight on July 14, a dozen Cubans with knives in their hands and black stockings on their heads surprised three sentries near the town of Nuevitas. They disarmed the watchmen and boarded the Gaviota 16, a boat owned by a...

Naked Ambition: The Clinton legacy laid bare.
October 27, 2003... For Bill Clinton, his exit from office in January 2001 was a national disaster. Not long ago, at Sen. Tom Harkin's steak fry in Iowa, Clinton lamented: "We went from surplus to deficit, from job gain to job loss, from a reduction in poverty to...

A Stern Face and a Warm Welcome: What to do about immigration policy and immigrant policy-two different things.
October 27, 2003... To the casual observer, it might seem that the federal government has made real progress on immigration since 9/11. And, in fact, some of the measures we've seen over the past two years are encouraging signs that immigration is again being...

Divorce-on-Demand: Forget about gay marriage-what about the state of regular marriage?
October 27, 2003... Much has been made, and rightly so, of the campaign to permit marriages between persons of the same sex. But even if that campaign were to succeed, its proponents would likely find their victory a hollow one. That is because marriage as an...

The Long View.(satire)
October 27, 2003... Transcript from Larry King Live, November 11, 2003 larry king: "You're on the air with the winners of the 2003 World Series, the Boston Red Sox! Hello!" caller: "Is it me?" larry king: "What's your question, caller?" caller:...

The Anti-Excusers.(No Excuses: Closing the Racial Gap in Learning)(Book Review)
October 27, 2003... No Excuses: Closing the Racial Gap in Learning, by Abigail Thernstrom and Stephan Thernstrom (Simon & Schuster, 352 pp., $26) Odd that Abigail Thernstrom and Stephan Thernstrom should be considered big conservatives today. Mrs. Thernstrom...

The Mills of Justice.(Death and Justice: An Expose of Oklahoma's Death Row Machine)(Book Review)
October 27, 2003... Death and Justice: An Expose of Oklahoma's Death Row Machine, by Mark Fuhrman (Morrow, 288 pp., $25.95) First, full disclosure: I knew Mark Fuhrman for many years when he worked for the Los Angeles Police Department. We were neither...

You Look Marvelous.(The Substance of Style: How the Rise of Aesthetic Value Is Remaking Commerce, Culture, and Consciousness)(Book Review)
October 27, 2003... The Substance of Style: How the Rise of Aesthetic Value Is Remaking Commerce, Culture, and Consciousness, by Virginia Postrel (HarperCollins, 237 pp., $24.95) This is a book devoted, in large measure, to asserting that its subject matters....

Unequal Struggle.(Bush vs. the Beltway: How the CIA and the State Department Tried to Stop the War on Terror)(Book Review)
October 27, 2003... Bush vs. the Beltway: How the CIA and the State Department Tried to Stop the War on Terror, by Laurie Mylroie (HarperCollins, 272 pp., $25.95) This book is the best available account of the reasoning behind the conduct of the war on...

Shelf Life: Everybody's Bill of Rights.(political books)(Book Review)(Brief Article)
October 27, 2003... Americans are justly concerned whenever it becomes obvious that the freedoms of speech and religion are under attack. But sometimes the threats are least visible when they are in plain sight-that is to say, when the group being discriminated...

City Desk: Kneads and Wants.(masseuse narrative)
October 27, 2003... She has been my masseuse for twelve years. She has the skill to find and loosen knots of tension, and what is harder, the knack of imparting peace of mind. She believes that energies not unlike those she untangles in an instep or a mood fill...

On the Right.(capital punishment; presidential candidates' tax policy; political polls)(Column)
October 27, 2003... The Fight to Kill NEW YORK, SEPTEMBER 23 The governor of Massachusetts has announced his intention to restore the death penalty. He has set up a commission to devise legislation that would guard against any possibility of executing...

What's Right.(conservative reaction to Pres Bush)
October 27, 2003... Against Panic Here's an understatement: President Bush provokes strong emotions. On the left: hatred. On the right: anxiety. Before he won the presidency, Bush caused conservatives anxiety because they did not yet know him and were not...