National Review articles from October 2005

National Review archives from October 2005

Know when to hold 'em.(letters to the editor)(Letter to the editor)
October 10, 2005... Kate O'Beirne's "Strangle Holds" (August 29) quotes an unnamed "frustrated administration official" as saying, "For the Senate to conduct business as usual with the nation at war... is so outrageous. They do not see the nation at war; that's...

Another horse.(letters to the editor)(Letter to the editor)
October 10, 2005... I read Doonesbury every day, and I find Garry Trudeau's portrayal of our military in Iraq to be disrespectful at every turn; in fact, I believe he dishonors everything our young people are doing in the War on Terror. Michael Potemra, in his...

Cindy Sheehan, priestess of the anti-war movement, has demanded that Bush leave "occupied New Orleans.".(The Week)
October 10, 2005... Cindy Sheehan, priestess of the anti-war movement, has demanded that Bush leave "occupied New Orleans." We could only think of the good old days--the Reagan '80s when buttons said, "U.S. Out of North America."

Surely the most unfortunate thing President Bush has said since the disaster of Hurricane Katrina is the now-famous compliment directed to then--Federal Emergency Management Agency chief Michael Brown: "Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job.".(The Week)(Brief article)
October 10, 2005... Surely the most unfortunate thing President Bush has said since the disaster of Hurricane Katrina is the now-famous compliment directed to then--Federal Emergency Management Agency chief Michael Brown: "Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job."...

Shortly after Congress approved $62 billion in hurricane-relief spending, House majority leader Tom DeLay told reporters that Congress would have to borrow to pay for it.(The Week)(Brief article)
October 10, 2005... Shortly after Congress approved $62 billion in hurricane-relief spending, House majority leader Tom DeLay told reporters that Congress would have to borrow to pay for it. Apparently, there just isn't room for spending cuts in our fat-free...

Post-Katrina, TV news gave itself a big pat on the back, rightfully so: the anchors showed stamina and guts, the images were vivid.(The Week)(Brief article)
October 10, 2005... Post-Katrina, TV news gave itself a big pat on the back, rightfully so: The anchors showed stamina and guts, the images were vivid. But what television gave in immediacy, it took in lurid exaggeration. At the cold distance of a fortnight, the...

"If one person criticizes" Louisiana officials for their response to Katrina, Sen. Mary Landrieu said on ABC's This Week, "including the president of the United States, he will hear from me.(The Week)(Brief article)
October 10, 2005... "If one person criticizes" Louisiana officials for their response to Katrina, Sen. Mary Landrieu said on ABC's This Week, "including the president of the United States, he will hear from me. One more word about it after this show airs, and I...

Before Katrina swamped President Bush's legislative agenda, he was about to get a shot in the Senate at one of his longstanding goals--the permanent repeal of the estate tax, currently shrinking, shrinking, shrinking, but set to return to 55 percent in 2011.(The Week)(Brief article)
October 10, 2005... Before Katrina swamped President Bush's legislative agenda, he was about to get a shot in the Senate at one of his longstanding goals--the permanent repeal of the estate tax, currently shrinking, shrinking, shrinking, but set to return to 55...

Give Bill Clinton credit.(The Week)(Brief article)
October 10, 2005... Give Bill Clinton credit. He's always had a remarkable talent for being... well, flexible. You may remember back in 1998 when, after ordering military strikes against Iraq, Clinton said, "The hard fact is that so long as Saddam remains in...

With his poll numbers sagging, California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger said on September 16 that he will seek reelection next year.(The Week)(Brief article)
October 10, 2005... With his poll numbers sagging, California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger said on September 16 that he will seek reelection next year. His announcement was timed to boost a package of budget, school, and election-reform proposals that so far...

Fernando Ferrer eked out a victory in the New York City Democratic mayoral primary, just winning the 40 percent necessary to avoid a run-off.(The Week)(Brief article)
October 10, 2005... Fernando Ferrer eked out a victory in the New York City Democratic mayoral primary, just winning the 40 percent necessary to avoid a run-off. Ferrer, an old hack who runs left in the vain effort to generate interest, will face nominal...

The winning design for the memorial to United Flight 93 in Shanksville, Pa., was called "Crescent of Embrace"; it included, beside a chapel with wind chimes, a crescent-shaped cluster of maple trees and a white memorial wall.(The Week)(Brief article)
October 10, 2005... The winning design for the memorial to United Flight 93 in Shanksville, Pa., was called "Crescent of Embrace"; it included, beside a chapel with wind chimes, a crescent-shaped cluster of maple trees and a white memorial wall. Conservatives...

For years, radical mosques have been fueling the global jihad.(The Week)(Brief article)
October 10, 2005... For years, radical mosques have been fueling the global jihad. For just as long, it has been evident that jihadist savagery has been plotted--and sometimes carried out--by young Muslim men, often posing as mere students, who hail from overseas...

Any of our readers who find themselves in the vicinity of Las Vegas and in need of paid employment might drop in on a temp agency called Labor Express.(The Week)(Brief article)
October 10, 2005... Any of our readers who find themselves in the vicinity of Las Vegas and in need of paid employment might drop in on a temp agency called Labor Express. They have some openings in unskilled outdoor work at six dollars an hour. The work is quite...

If atheists believed in God, they might thank Him for creating Michael Newdow to protect their tender sensibilities.(The Week)(Brief article)
October 10, 2005... If atheists believed in God, they might thank Him for creating Michael Newdow to protect their tender sensibilities. It was Newdow who persuaded the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to rule that requiring students to recite the words "under God"...

The German elections have resulted in a tie, which in this case is a euphemism for crisis.(The Week)(Brief article)
October 10, 2005... The German elections have resulted in a tie, which in this case is a euphemism for crisis. The conservatives under Angela Merkel at one point had a lead of at least 20 points, and should have won hands down. They tried to explain that...

Muslim elections, Part I.(The Week)(Brief article)
October 10, 2005... MUSLIM ELECTIONS, PART I. The Afghans have pulled it off: They have held elections to select the members of a bicameral legislature. The feat is amazing. History, tradition, and culture in this wild and remote country have no trace of anything...

Muslim elections, Part II.(The Week)(Brief article)
October 10, 2005... MUSLIM ELECTIONS, PART II. A presidential election in Egypt is a foregone conclusion, and indeed Hosni Mubarak has just been elected to his fifth consecutive six-year term as president. All this time he has ruled by emergency decree, though the...

Prime Minister Koizumi won a historic reelection victory in Japan.(The Week)(Brief article)
October 10, 2005... Prime Minister Koizumi won a historic reelection victory in Japan. He staked everything on his controversial proposal for reform of Japan's postal service, which, among other things, serves as a slush fund for old-school members of his Liberal...

A promise from Kim Jong-Il to give up his nuclear program should be taken about as seriously as an invitation from a cannibal to enjoy a vegetarian dinner.(The Week)(Brief article)
October 10, 2005... A promise from Kim Jong-Il to give up his nuclear program should be taken about as seriously as an invitation from a cannibal to enjoy a vegetarian dinner. Forgive us, then, for being skeptical of the recently announced agreement that commits...

Hurrah for Tony Blair, who took a slash at the over-inflated tires of the regulation-happy environmentalist crowd.(The Week)(Brief article)
October 10, 2005... Hurrah for Tony Blair, who took a slash at the over-inflated tires of the regulation-happy environmentalist crowd. At a Manhattan meeting with Bill Clinton and other big shots, Blair resolved to deliver some "brutal honesty" about the Kyoto...

A Real Downer.(The week)(Poem)
October 10, 2005... A REAL DOWNER As Big Easy parishes drain, The Dems are exhibiting strain-- Tics, mostly, affecting the eyes, Though some get dyspeptic; the wise, Aware of the body bags' sent, Suggest the Left's looking so spent...

The question of Blair and Islamism is different.(The Week)(Brief article)
October 10, 2005... The question of Blair and Islamism is different. He has defined Islamism as an "evil ideology," but the Muslim spokesmen around him--plus the "civil liberties" crowd--make sure there is little or nothing he or anyone else can do to protect the...

The club of those who have lain down with dogs and risen up with fleas has a new member: Yahoo, Inc.(The Week)(Brief article)
October 10, 2005... The club of those who have lain down with dogs and risen up with fleas has a new member: Yahoo, Inc. Shi Tao, a Chinese journalist, sent an American website instructions he had received from the state propaganda bureau about what he could and...

Literally minutes after the Israelis pulled out of the Gaza Strip, a mob of Palestinians rushed in to loot anything left.(The Week)(Brief article)
October 10, 2005... Literally minutes after the Israelis pulled out of the Gaza Strip, a mob of Palestinians rushed in to loot anything left. They stripped bare the greenhouses in which the Israeli settlers had grown flowers and vegetables. These state-of-the-art...

Despite Kofi Annan's noble efforts, Utopia has been postponed.(The Week)(Brief article)
October 10, 2005... Despite Kofi Annan's noble efforts, Utopia has been postponed. The secretary-general convened his recent U.N. summit on poverty and reform with high hopes: Nuclear powers would agree to dismantle their arsenals; weapons would be banned from...

President Gyude Bryant of Liberia set a record recently when, on a visit to the United Nations in New York, he endorsed 103 international treaties on behalf of his nation--more treaties than have ever been endorsed before at one sitting by the representative of any nation.(The Week)(Brief article)
October 10, 2005... President Gyude Bryant of Liberia set a record recently when, on a visit to the United Nations in New York, he endorsed 103 international treaties on behalf of his nation--more treaties than have ever been endorsed before at one sitting by the...

New York got a bitter taste of British oratory when MP George Galloway slithered into town to debate Christopher Hitchens over the war in Iraq.(The Week)(Brief article)
October 10, 2005... New York got a bitter taste of British oratory when MP George Galloway slithered into town to debate Christopher Hitchens over the war in Iraq. Galloway's rhetoric was galling even for him. The worst of it came when he indulged in the Left's...

To prevent unseemly wrangles and "forum shopping" in child-custody cases, federal law--to be exact, the Parental Kidnapping Prevention Act of 1980--enjoins states to honor child-custody rulings already made by other states.(The Week)(Brief article)
October 10, 2005... To prevent unseemly wrangles and "forum shopping" in child-custody cases, federal law--to be exact, the Parental Kidnapping Prevention Act of 1980--enjoins states to honor child-custody rulings already made by other states. Well and good: but...

Chai Soua Vang was convicted of murdering six hunters who found him trespassing on their land in northern Wisconsin.(The Week)(Brief article)
October 10, 2005... Chai Soua Vang was convicted of murdering six hunters who found him trespassing on their land in northern Wisconsin. Vang, who is a Hmong, a southeast Asian tribe that was allied with us during the Vietnam War, said that the hunters berated him...

One of those periodic surveys of sexual behavior showed up in our newspapers the other day.(The Week)(Brief article)
October 10, 2005... One of those periodic surveys of sexual behavior showed up in our newspapers the other day. We learned, for example, that slightly more than half of American youngsters aged 15 to 19 have engaged in oral sex; that the proportion rises to about...

Fertility clinics in Britain will soon face a dramatic decline in supplies of sperm.(The Week)(Brief article)
October 10, 2005... Fertility clinics in Britain will soon face a dramatic decline in supplies of sperm. There is a trend all over Europe toward permitting children conceived via donated sperm to have access, when they come of age, to the name of the donor who...

In the history of film, Greta Garbo has a unique cachet.(The Week)(Brief article)
October 10, 2005... In the history of film, Greta Garbo has a unique cachet. Born exactly a hundred years ago, in Sweden, she was the very ideal of beauty, the Venus de Milo of the silent screen. The expressive eyes, the bone structure of forehead and cheeks, that...

Simon Wiesenthal experienced the full hell of the 20th century.(The Week)(Obituary)(Brief article)
October 10, 2005... Simon Wiesenthal experienced the full hell of the 20th century. Some of his relatives were murdered by the Germans, others by the Russians. In concentration camps himself, he was twice spared summary execution, and then survived forced labor in...

Hail to the chief.(THE LAW)(John Roberts)
October 10, 2005... JOHN ROBERTS won praise from most quarters for his conduct during his 20 hours of questioning from senators. Some of this praise strikes us as a trifle overdone. How intellectually nimble does a member of the Supreme Court bar have to be to...

Recovery.(HURRICANE KATRINA)
October 10, 2005... PRESIDENT BUSH'S speech from Jackson Square in New Orleans sketched his program for recovery from Hurricane Katrina. "We will do what it takes, we will stay as long as it takes, to help citizens rebuild their communities and their lives.......

Notes & asides.(Letter to the editor)
October 10, 2005... Dear Bill: I know the New York Times is widely read, but it's provincial of you to proceed as though it were read by everybody. Priscilla Buckley is an important historical figure in NATIONAL REVIEW and I think you should show the opinion of...

Outwitted and outclassed: the Democrats stumble on Roberts.(THE SUPREME COURT)(John Roberts)
October 10, 2005... AT about 6:00 P.M. on Wednesday, September 14, in approximately the 19th hour of Supreme Court chief-justice nominee John Roberts's testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee, after each senator had had the opportunity to question Roberts...

Would the chief play in the catskills? On the matter of Roberts and humor.(THE SUPREME COURT II)(John Roberts)
October 10, 2005... 'HE has," said a television pundit, describing the next Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, John Roberts, "youth on his side." Youth? I thought to myself. The guy is 50 years old. In Hollywood, where I work, being 50 almost qualifies a...

Soft corps: the recent, sad history of the Army Corps of Engineers.(HURRICANE KATRINA)
October 10, 2005... IN the first year of his presidency, Jimmy Carter went to war with Congress over $239 million worth of funding for 19 public-works projects--most of them involving the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Carter rarely found himself on the right side...

The global-warming God: must it now be appeased?(HURRICANE KATRINA II)
October 10, 2005... FOR years, I have been concerned that a major hurricane strike on New Orleans could provoke legislation on global warming that will do absolutely nothing about tropical cyclones, but harm the U.S. economy for decades. We began seeing the shape...

Debating immigration: an analyst defends herself, and her critics rejoin.(PUBLIC POLICY)(Column)
October 10, 2005... I RARELY agree with anything that NR's John O'Sullivan and Mark Krikorian say about immigration, but they have set just the right standard for the debate: realistic or utopian. Which view is more realistic, theirs or mine? The...

Hillary prepares: with her eye on the Oval, the senator pretends she's out of center field.(Cover story)
October 10, 2005... 'CLINTON for President--The Sequel" has been receiving rave notices during its road show in New York and Washington, D.C. Hillary Clinton looks like a sure bet for reelection to the Senate next year, and surveys show her lapping the field of...

A Taft too far: the Ohio GOP is in shambles--can Blackwell save it?(POLITICS)
October 10, 2005... OBSESSIVE concern for tennis schedules isn't usually regarded as one of Jimmy Carter's virtues, but a similar attention to detail might have saved the Ohio GOP a lot of grief: On August 18, Republican governor Bob Taft pleaded no contest to...

Restoration: a journey into the new-old Poland.(EUROPE)
October 10, 2005... Cracow 'RESTORATION" has not evoked warm feelings from conservatives in recent years. The term suggests a royalist sense of entitlement and a Tory sensibility. It reminds the literate that Henry Kissinger wrote a book praising the decidedly...

Depression/grief.(the long view)(tongue-in-cheek journalist admonishment)
October 10, 2005... TO: ALL NEWS STAFF FROM: MANAGEMENT RE: DEPRESSION/GRIEF As many of you know, there have been several disturbing instances of depression and depression-related events in the newsroom and in some of the other bureaus. A...

Sen. Landrieu's World.(Help !!!!)(Poem)(Brief article)
October 10, 2005... Sen. Landrieu's World Don't talk mean to her Cajuns Or scandalize her gov; Bad-mouth New Orleans's mayor and Her stare becomes a shove. Feds blaming parish locals Ignite explosive rants At Bush, his'...

Help!!!(Cartoon)
October 10, 2005... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] "What's your second choice in case it's extinct?" "WHAT CONCERNS ME, JUDGE ROBERTS IS YOU DON'T RED THE CONSTITUTION AS IS DO!"

Rated X.(Pornified: How Pornography Is Transforming Our Lives, Our Relationships, and Our Families)(Book review)
October 10, 2005... Pornified: How Pornography Is Transforming Our Lives, Our Relationships, and Our Families, by Pamela Paul (Times, 320 pp., $25) COMMENTING on our contemporary sexual mores, the poet and agrarian essayist Wendell Berry has written that "in...

O Femina! O Mores!(Female Chauvinist Pigs: Women and the Rise of Raunch Culture)(Book review)
October 10, 2005... Female Chauvinist Pigs: Women and the Rise of Raunch Culture, by Ariel Levy (Free Press, 240 pp., $25) I USED hot-pink post-it notes to mark the pages of this book; it seemed appropriate, since they matched so perfectly the book's hot-pink...

A vast conspiracy?(The Republican War on Science)(Book review)
October 10, 2005... The Republican War on Science, by Chris Mooney (Basic, 342 pp., $24.95) AMERICAN military planners have long faced the challenge of preparing to fight several wars simultaneously. Maybe they could take some lessons from the Republican...

The Complete New Yorker.(Periodical review)
October 10, 2005... THE book of the season is also a Book of the Future. The Complete New Yorker (Random House, 123 pp., $100), true to its name, is an eight-DVD set containing every page of every issue of the 80-year-old magazine. Virtually all of the physical...

Wicca's Charm: Understanding the Spiritual Hunger behind the Rise of Modern Witchcraft and Pagan Spirituality.(Book review)
October 10, 2005... Why, more than two centuries after the Enlightenment, are hundreds of thousands of Americans turning to witchcraft and other forms of paganism? One easy answer, and not an entirely inaccurate one, can be found in Chesterton's principle that...

Robert Lowell.(Poem)(Brief article)
October 10, 2005... ROBERT LOWELL I read with him at Hopkins, substituting For Theodore Roethke, who was sick or drunk or dead; No one could explain what I was doing there With Wilbur and cracked Lowell on the stage, Reciting poems about...

The Right to Be Wrong: Ending the Culture War over Religion in America.(Brief article)(Book review)
October 10, 2005... Kevin Seamus Hasson is thunder and chairman of the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, a public-interest law firm devoted to protecting the First Amendment right to free exercise of religion. In his new book, The Right to Be Wrong: Ending the...

Auden and Christianity.(Brief article)(Book review)
October 10, 2005... Auden and Christianity (Yale, 207 pp., $30), by University of Virginia professor emeritus Arthur Kirsch, is a helpful exposition of how a great poet's faith animated his work. "Art is not metaphysics," Auden once said, "and the artist is...

Domingo & Co.(Placido Domingo)(Biography)
October 10, 2005... BIG-NAME musicians make big-time recordings, and they've been churning them out lately. We'll examine a few of them, starting with the biggest one of them all: Placido Domingo's Tristan und Isolde. But he's just the tenor, isn't he? Why is...

The same old story.(THE STRAGGLER)
October 10, 2005... If one examines the murders which have given the greatest amount of pleasure to the British public... --George Orwell, "Decline of the English Murder" (1946) THE conviction of Nancy Kissel, the "milkshake murderess," was briefly...

Fighting back.(on the right)(Hurricane Katrina)
October 10, 2005... NEW YORK, SEPTEMBER 6 A joke I laughed at 50 years ago features a man who at the end of the first race was up $200. At the end of the fifth race, up $20,000. At the end of the eighth, he is--wiped out. He makes his disconsolate, infuriated way...

Post-Katrina doublethought.(on the right)
October 10, 2005... NEW YORK, SEPTEMBER 9 THE war against stable thought blazes on, the objective being to put the blame on the Bush administration for what happened in New Orleans. Thomas Friedman of the New York Times personalizes even further. The...

Is Bush a racist?(on the right)(George W. Bush)
October 10, 2005... NEW YORK, SEPTEMBER 13 CRITICS of Mr. Bush may by their excesses be undermining not him, but the weight of sound thought. The most clearly vulnerable line of attack has to do with vacation time--taken as an absolute indicator of fidelity to...

A diploma isn't everything.(Letter to the Editor)
October 24, 2005... In Tamar Jacoby's "Debating Immigration" (Oct. 10), the suggestion is made that there is a great demand for unskilled labor owing to the fact that "less than 10 percent of American men drop out of high school" today. After 29 years of...

Crime and punishment.(Letter to the Editor)
October 24, 2005... Victor Davis Hanson, in his review of R. D. Kaplan's Imperial Grunts ("The Good Mission," Sept. 26), has committed what may be the eighth deadly sin: He has put the U.S. Marine Corps in Fort Bragg, N.C. I have no idea whether it will be...

Land of dreams.(Letter to the Editor)
October 24, 2005... Rod Dreher, in "The City I Knew" (Sept. 26), vividly captures the essence of New Orleans. He also touches on why the city cannot be reconstructed as it was. New Orleans was a cultural phenomenon more than anything else: Its economic...

Just try it.(Letter to the Editor)
October 24, 2005... While I was very impressed by Alston B. Ramsay's coverage of Senator Akaka's bill to establish a race-based elite ruling class in Hawaii ("Hawaii Five-no," Sept. 26) , I was disappointed to note that Mr. Ramsay omitted a possible solution: Give...

Failing high schools.(educational assessment)
October 24, 2005... Among the "talented tenth," those in the top 10 percent of test takers, reading scores have dropped four points since 1971 and math scores have not budged since first measured in 1978. So say the latest (2004) results from the National...

Perhaps Mrs. O'Connor would consider.(The Week)
October 24, 2005... * Perhaps Mrs. O'Connor would consider staying on.

On Oct. 15 Iraqis go to the polls to vote on the new constitution.(The Week)(Brief Article)
October 24, 2005... * On Oct. 15 Iraqis go to the polls to vote on the new constitution. U.S. officials were hoping the document would embody a national consensus of all Iraq's major groups. Instead, Sunnis strongly oppose its federalism and will vote against it....

On their way to the big antiwar protest held in Washington on September 24, a group of college students began to chant.(The Week)(Brief Article)
October 24, 2005... * On their way to the big antiwar protest held in Washington on September 24, a group of college students began to chant, "FROM PALESTINE TO NEW ORLEANS, NO MORE MONEY FOR THE WAR MACHINE!" Their message didn't really make much sense--were they...

A caller to Bill Bennett's radio show was making an economic argument for banning abortion, and Bennett replied that it was perilous to rely on social science to resolve the moral question.(The Week)(Brief Article)
October 24, 2005... * A caller to Bill Bennett's radio show was making an economic argument for banning abortion, and Bennett replied that it was perilous to rely on social science to resolve the moral question. Aborting all black babies would reduce the crime...

The Democratic National Committee said that Bill Frist was involved in a "growing ethical scandal that has engulfed his office.".(The Week)(HCA Inc.)(Brief Article)
October 24, 2005... * The Democratic National Committee said that Bill Frist was involved in a "growing ethical scandal that has engulfed his office." In June, Frist sold stock in his family company, HCA Inc., just before it announced lower-than-expected earnings...

Bush has floated the idea of making the military into "first responders" in the event of another calamity like Katrina.(Geroge W. Bush's Insurrection Act )(Brief Article)
October 24, 2005... * Bush has floated the idea of making the military into "first responders" in the event of another calamity like Katrina. This would be a mistake. Disaster relief is a state and local responsibility because the locals know the particular...

The House of Representatives has removed us yet another step from the quaint idea that people are to be treated equally before the law.(Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994)(Brief Article)
October 24, 2005... * The House of Representatives has removed us yet another step from the quaint idea that people are to be treated equally before the law. By a vote of 233 to 199, the House amended legislation cracking down on child-sex offenders to include an...

If you were president, and were under attack for appointing as head of FEMA a man with no experience in emergency management, wouldn't you shield yourself from such criticisms in the future?(The Week)(Julie L. Myers nominated to Immigration and Customs Enforcement by George W. Bush)(Brief Article)
October 24, 2005... * If you were president, and were under attack for appointing as head of FEMA a man with no experience in emergency management, wouldn't you shield yourself from such criticisms in the future? You would? Then your judgment--on this matter--is...

For the first time in U.S. history, the number of illegal immigrants coming into this country now exceeds the number of legal ones.(The Week)(Brief Article)
October 24, 2005... * For the first time in U.S. history, the number of illegal immigrants coming into this country now exceeds the number of legal ones. The Pew Hispanic Center (a left-leaning organization, yet) estimated the 2004 figures as 455,000 legal and...

Everybody loves Charlie Rangel, the raspy-voiced congressman from Harlem.(The Week)(Brief Article)
October 24, 2005... * Everybody loves Charlie Rangel, the raspy-voiced congressman from Harlem. Good ol' "Chollie." He's a media darling, and even some conservatives can't resist his charms. Castro's fond of him too, as Rangel is of Castro: The Cuban dictator has...

The school board in Dover, Pa., added "intelligent design" to the 9th-grade biology curriculum.(The Week)(Brief Article)
October 24, 2005... * The school board in Dover, Pa., added "intelligent design" to the 9th-grade biology curriculum. Some parents, and almost all scientists, are outraged. They say that intelligent design is "not science." Even some proponents of ID concede that...

Undersecretary of State Karen Hughes made what was billed as a "listening tour" of the Middle East, as part of her assignment to pursue public diplomacy in the region.(The Week)(Brief Article)
October 24, 2005... * Undersecretary of State Karen Hughes made what was billed as a "listening tour" of the Middle East, as part of her assignment to pursue public diplomacy in the region. She talked up the recent Egyptian election, told Saudi women it would be a...

Terror bombs exploded in three Balinese restaurants, killing 22 and wounding 104 (the three murderers also died).(Brief Article)
October 24, 2005... * Terror bombs exploded in three Balinese restaurants, killing 22 and wounding 104 (the three murderers also died). Police suspected Jemaah Islamiyah, the al-Qaeda franchise that has sponsored attacks in Jakarta and Bali over the last three...

Tired of watching blow-dried male models and botox-faced ladies reading the TV news?(Brief Article)
October 24, 2005... * Tired of watching blow-dried male models and botox-faced ladies reading the TV news? By the miracle of the Internet, you can now tune in to Voice of the Caliphate, a video newscast featuring readers in black ski masks and bandoliers. Studio...

Capt. Ian Fishback is the latest hero of critics of the U.S. treatment of prisoners in the Terror War.(Brief Article)
October 24, 2005... * Capt. Ian Fishback is the latest hero of critics of the U.S. treatment of prisoners in the Terror War. Fishback claims he witnessed the routine abuse of prisoners near Fallujah. If this allegation is credible, it should be investigated and...

Once again, for the third or even the fourth time, the IRA has decommissioned its arms, all of them.(Brief Article)
October 24, 2005... * Once again, for the third or even the fourth time, the IRA has decommissioned its arms, all of them. This almost seasonal process is now for real. Who says so? A retired Canadian general by the name of John de Chastelain, his two aides, and...

Since Zimbabwe's president-for-life Robert Mugabe began to implement "fast-track land redistribution" (which is to say, forcible dispossession of white farmers) in 2000.(Brief Article)
October 24, 2005... * Since Zimbabwe's president-for-life Robert Mugabe began to implement "fast-track land redistribution" (which is to say, forcible dispossession of white farmers) in 2000, Africa-watching cynics have been trading the following joke. Q: What is...

A coalition of center-right parties triumphed in the Polish elections, ousting a Communist-led left-wing coalition.(Brief Article)
October 24, 2005... * A coalition of center-right parties triumphed in the Polish elections, ousting a Communist-led left-wing coalition. The losers weren't all bad--they did send 2,500 troops to post-liberation Iraq, though they recently pledged to remove them....