National Review articles from October 2007

National Review archives from October 2007

Mad hatters.(letters to the editor)(Letter to the editor)
October 8, 2007... In his review of David Gelernter's Americanism: The Fourth Great Western Religion ("Apologia Americana," August 13), Christopher Levenick criticizes the author on many grounds, including for ridiculing the " 'spike-decorated clown hats' of the...

Hollywood at War.(letters to the editor)(Letter to the editor)
October 8, 2007... In the September 24 issue, you mention the barrage of upcoming films Hollywood is producing that are supposed to be attacks on the Iraq War (The Week). One of those mentioned, Charlie Wilson's War, is an adaptation of the book by George Crile...

'Real' battles.(letters to the editor)(Letter to the editor)
October 8, 2007... Regarding Senator Obama's threat of military action against Taliban types in Pakistan, The Week observes (August 27), "Obama was looking for a way to push a liberal theme: Bush has mired us in Iraq, but we will fight the real battle,...

The Vatican has announced that it will be the first carbon-neutral state.(The Week)(Brief article)
October 8, 2007... The Vatican has announced that it will be the first carbon-neutral state. What, no puff of white smoke when the next pope is picked?

Prompted by a tempting rhyme, and their own antimilitary reflexes (which require no temptation to activate), MoveOn.org bought a full-page ad in the New York Times blasting Gen. David Petraeus on the eve of his testimony to Congress: "General Petraeus or General Betray Us?/Cooking the books for the White House," the headline and subhead cried.(The Week)(Brief article)
October 8, 2007... Prompted by a tempting rhyme, and their own antimilitary reflexes (which require no temptation to activate), MoveOn.org bought a full-page ad in the New York Times blasting Gen. David Petraeus on the eve of his testimony to Congress: "GENERAL...

Only two groups of Americans need to worry about Hillary Clinton's new health plan: people who are healthy, and people who are sick. The healthy would pay higher insurance premiums, because Clinton would prohibit insurers from giving them a discount.(The Week)(Brief article)
October 8, 2007... Only two groups of Americans need to worry about Hillary Clinton's new health plan: people who are healthy, and people who are sick. The healthy would pay higher insurance premiums, because Clinton would prohibit insurers from giving them a...

Republicans keep saying that the Democrats are running a "do-nothing Congress.".(The Week)(Brief article)
October 8, 2007... Republicans keep saying that the Democrats are running a "do-nothing Congress." We wish. It is a Congress that wants to do a great deal. It has failed to do much only because it has sought to do more than many Republicans are willing to...

Michael B. Mukasey, President Bush's nominee to be attorney general, is a well-respected former trial judge with sound views on national-security issues.(The Week)(Brief article)
October 8, 2007... Michael B. Mukasey, President Bush's nominee to be attorney general, is a well-respected former trial judge with sound views on national-security issues. Nominated by President Reagan to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New...

Everyone sees the world through his own prism.(The Week)(Brief article)
October 8, 2007... Everyone sees the world through his own prism. When the country was falling apart in the winter of 1860-61, rumor had it that President James Buchanan had gone mad. The stock market rose. Alan Greenspan, former master of all markets, has...

The Fed blinked, easing monetary policy to reassure markets that are jittery about a housing slump and weak jobs growth.(The Week)(Brief article)
October 8, 2007... The Fed blinked, easing monetary policy to reassure markets that are jittery about a housing slump and weak jobs growth. The Fed said its action would "promote moderate growth over time." But promoting long-term growth is not something the Fed...

Norman Hsu, the Hong Kong-born businessman who fled a prosecution for a Ponzi scheme 15 years ago, fled another prosecution for fleeing, before he was found, ill, on a train in Colorado.(The Week)(Brief article)
October 8, 2007... Norman Hsu, the Hong Kong-born businessman who fled a prosecution for a Ponzi scheme 15 years ago, fled another prosecution for fleeing, before he was found, ill, on a train in Colorado. He now resides safely in jail. Hsu was a bundler of...

Former Rhode Island senator Lincoln Chafee left the party of Lincoln, changing his affiliation to independent.(The Week)(Brief article)
October 8, 2007... Former Rhode Island senator Lincoln Chafee left the party of Lincoln, changing his affiliation to independent. Could have been worse: Chafee, who fended off conservative challenger Steve Laffey in the 2006 primary, might have gotten reelected.

Pennsylvania governor Robert Casey was among the last of the fighting pro-life Democrats.(The Week)(Brief article)
October 8, 2007... Pennsylvania governor Robert Casey was among the last of the fighting pro-life Democrats. His son, Robert Casey Jr., pledged to oppose abortion, too, during his Senate race against Rick Santorum, neutralizing the issue. Casey won. But he has...

Democratic presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich appeared on Syrian television to condemn the United States for its "illegal occupation" of Iraq, and he went on to praise Bashar Assad, the Syrian president, for his human-rights record.(The Week)(Brief article)
October 8, 2007... Democratic presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich appeared on Syrian television to condemn the United States for its "illegal occupation" of Iraq, and he went on to praise Bashar Assad, the Syrian president, for his human-rights record. In the...

This Might Hurt.(Poem)
October 8, 2007... This Might Hurt Harry and Louise, where are you? Hillary's proposed Yet another diagnosis Like the one she nosed At us waving enema bags Back in '93. When she says, "Relax," remember: This is Hillary. ...

On September 18, 57 senators voted for a bill that would grant the District of Columbia a permanent seat in the House of Representatives--a privilege that the Constitution limits to "the several states.".(The Week)(political representation)(Brief article)
October 8, 2007... On September 18, 57 senators voted for a bill that would grant the District of Columbia a permanent seat in the House of Representatives--a privilege that the Constitution limits to "the several states." The proposal failed because it came shy...

Having lost the battle for "comprehensive" immigration reform, Sen. Dick Durbin and like-minded colleagues are now trying for amnesty on the installment plan.(The Week)(Brief article)
October 8, 2007... Having lost the battle for "comprehensive" immigration reform, Sen. Dick Durbin and like-minded colleagues are now trying for amnesty on the installment plan. Durbin, the number-two Democrat in the Senate, wants to give citizenship to people...

Monaco on the Potomac.(taxation in District of Columbia)
October 8, 2007... Living in Washington, D.C., requires some annoying compromises. The non-specialty supermarkets are abysmal. There's a Giant Food near my house that looks like live chickens and Polish peasants should be wandering around inside. Of course, the...

The Habeas Corpus Restoration Act of 2007, brainchild of Arlen Specter and Patrick Leahy, seeks to return to federal district courts the cases of alien enemy combatants held at Guantanamo Bay.(The Week)(Brief article)
October 8, 2007... The Habeas Corpus Restoration Act of 2007, brainchild of Arlen Specter and Patrick Leahy, seeks to return to federal district courts the cases of alien enemy combatants held at Guantanamo Bay. Its title is a misnomer. Habeas corpus can be...

For years, scientists studying everything from weather patterns to volcanic activity have been allowed limited access to images taken by spy satellites as they fly over the United States.(The Week)(Brief article)
October 8, 2007... For years, scientists studying everything from weather patterns to volcanic activity have been allowed limited access to images taken by spy satellites as they fly over the United States. The Department of Homeland Security would like...

While conservatives hold a range of views on the details of antitrust policy, they think that most mergers should be allowed to go forward.(The Week)(Brief article)
October 8, 2007... While conservatives hold a range of views on the details of antitrust policy, they think that most mergers should be allowed to go forward. Some conservatives are especially favorable toward the proposed merger of Sirius and XM, because the...

You know the refrain: America is in Iraq "to achieve the interests of the major corporations.".(The Week)(Brief article)
October 8, 2007... You know the refrain: America is in Iraq "to achieve the interests of the major corporations." "The life of all mankind is in danger because... the White House insists on not observing the Kyoto Accord." Noam Chomsky "spoke sober words of...

German authorities arrested three Islamist terrorists, and are looking for at least ten others, in connection with a plot to strike multiple targets: most prominently, Ramstein Air Base and Frankfurt International Airport, critical hubs for American military operations and civilian travel.(The Week)(Brief article)
October 8, 2007... German authorities arrested three Islamist terrorists, and are looking for at least ten others, in connection with a plot to strike multiple targets: most prominently, Ramstein Air Base and Frankfurt International Airport, critical hubs for...

Israel has just struck out at Syria--that's a fact--and Syria is complaining to the United Nations--that's another fact.(The Week)(Brief article)
October 8, 2007... Israel has just struck out at Syria--that's a fact--and Syria is complaining to the United Nations--that's another fact. Otherwise everything about this incident is obscure. Israeli military censorship has blocked reporting and investigation,...

Once they had Potemkin villages in Russia, fake facades made to look from a distance like the real thing, and now they have Potemkin democracy.(The Week)(Brief article)
October 8, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Once they had Potemkin villages in Russia, fake facades made to look from a distance like the real thing, and now they have Potemkin democracy. In answer to the outward prescriptions of convention, there is a prime...

"Who, or why, or which, or what, is the Akond of Swat?" wondered the poet Edward Lear.(The Week)(muslim saint, Pakistan)(Brief article)
October 8, 2007... "Who, or why, or which, or what, is the Akond of Swat?" wondered the poet Edward Lear. NATIONAL REVIEW readers, an exceptionally well-informed sector of the citizenry, no doubt know that the Akond was a 19th-century Muslim saint who lived in...

In his first State of the Nation address, Mexico's president Felipe Calderon condemned the treatment of Mexicans living illegally in the U.S.(The Week)(Brief article)
October 8, 2007... In his first State of the Nation address, Mexico's president Felipe Calderon condemned the treatment of Mexicans living illegally in the U.S. "Mexico does not end at its borders," said the president. "Where there is a Mexican, there is Mexico,"...

Deaths can be mysterious in China, not least because Chinese officialdom has a way of forgetting that anyone has died.(The Week)
October 8, 2007... Deaths can be mysterious in China, not least because Chinese officialdom has a way of forgetting that anyone has died. So it was with 71-year-old Han Dingxiang, a Catholic bishop who--according to a religious-rights group--spent some 35 years...

Nepal Airlines, the national carrier for the Himalayan kingdom, had a problem with one of the two Boeing 757s that are the pride of its tiny fleet.(The Week)(Brief article)
October 8, 2007... Nepal Airlines, the national carrier for the Himalayan kingdom, had a problem with one of the two Boeing 757s that are the pride of its tiny fleet. The plane was malfunctioning, and technicians were baffled. Airline executives decided to try a...

October 4, 2007, marks precisely 50 years since the launch of Sputnik, the first man-made object to achieve earth orbit.(The Week)(Brief article)
October 8, 2007... October 4, 2007, marks precisely 50 years since the launch of Sputnik, the first man-made object to achieve earth orbit. The staticky beepings of Sputnik (technically, Sputnik 1--there were 40 subsequent Sputniki) fell upon American ears like...

The story of O. J. Simpson's arrest on a charge of armed robbery is a bit hard to follow.(The Week)(Brief article)
October 8, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The story of O. J. Simpson's arrest on a charge of armed robbery is a bit hard to follow. Simpson and five acquaintances entered a Las Vegas hotel room occupied by three dealers of memorabilia. Simpson says he was...

The Jewish New Year was brightened by Madonna, who toasted it in Jerusalem with Israeli president Shimon Peres and declared herself an "ambassador for Judaism.".(The Week)(Brief article)
October 8, 2007... The Jewish New Year was brightened by Madonna, who toasted it in Jerusalem with Israeli president Shimon Peres and declared herself an "ambassador for Judaism." The lady, as her given name suggests, is not a born Jew, though she has become a...

You know you have a dim view of Larry Summers when even his Harvard-based persecutors think you've gone too far.(The Week)(Brief article)
October 8, 2007... You know you have a dim view of Larry Summers when even his Harvard-based persecutors think you've gone too far. Such is the case with the professorial rabble at the University of California-Davis. Some of them recently circulated a petition...

The fair state of Washington seems to be a center of academic "diversity" busyness.(The Week)(diverse identity of college students)(Brief article)
October 8, 2007... The fair state of Washington seems to be a center of academic "diversity" busyness. Washington State University in Pullman employs a Chief Diversity Officer with a staff of 55 and a budget of $3 million. Over on the other side of the Evergreen...

Who is a poster boy for the new Louis Vuitton ad campaign, along with Steffi Graf, Andre Agassi, and Catherine Deneuve? Who but Mikhail Gorbachev, former general secretary of the Communist party of the Soviet Union.(The Week)(Brief article)
October 8, 2007... Who is a poster boy for the new Louis Vuitton ad campaign, along with Steffi Graf, Andre Agassi, and Catherine Deneuve? Who but Mikhail Gorbachev, former general secretary of the Communist party of the Soviet Union. Gorbachev sits in a limo,...

Luciano Pavarotti has been called many things: "The King of the High C's"; "The Voice of the Century"; the most popular opera singer in history.(The Week)(Obituary)(Brief article)
October 8, 2007... Luciano Pavarotti has been called many things: "The King of the High C's"; "The Voice of the Century"; the most popular opera singer in history. He has also been called a few names: "schlockmeister," for one. The people who really know his...

Progress report.(AT WAR)(David Petraeus' report on Iraq)
October 8, 2007... Gen. David Petraeus gave his September progress report on the surge to Congress. For months, Democrats had hoped that political support for the war would collapse after his report. Instead, he and Amb. Ryan Crocker gave a sober account of clear...

Getting immigration right: a headache and a half for the GOP.(PUBLIC POLICY)(Grand Old Party)
October 8, 2007... Immigration poses a serious political problem for Republicans. The problem isn't that it deeply divides them--although it does. It's that neither side in the intra-party debate has a viable political strategy for dealing with immigration. ...

Amateur Hour? Fred Thompson, an old pro, has had lots of campaign growing pains.(2008)
October 8, 2007... The great hope and fear that conservatives feel about Fred Thompson is best summed up in the words of one Washington activist who has not yet chosen his presidential candidate: "I want to believe," he says. "But is there anything there?" ...

Comes the fair tax: the latest in the push for saner, more effective taxation in the United States.(2008 II)(FairTax, tax reform)
October 8, 2007... The biggest success story of the 2008 Republican primary season isn't about a candidate. It's about an issue: FairTax, a proposal that would eliminate income taxes outright and replace them with a national sales tax. From relative obscurity a...

Me conservative, me stupid: or at least rigid and habit-bound, says 'the science'.(CULTURE WATCH)(left and right wing's attitudes)
October 8, 2007... 'Back off, man, we're scientists!" That's Bill Murray in Ghostbusters, but it might as well be David Amodio of NYU. I appeared with him on a San Francisco public-radio program, Forum. His basic argument was, "I'm a scientist, I deal with...

Return of the sheik: one man, and one tribe, in Iraq.(Mishan al-Jumaily)
October 8, 2007... The town of Kharma lies several kilometers northeast of Fallujah in the dusty corridor of farmland that skirts the Euphrates River. This is the ancestral seat of the Jumaily tribe. According to its paramount lineal sheik, Mishan al-Jumaily, it...

A matter of pride: anthropological discernment in our current conflict.(liberty and international security)
October 8, 2007... President Bush doesn't give up easily. Back in mid-July, when news of progress in Iraq hadn't yet made a dent in the political debate and even administration officials were leaking about an imminent drawdown of troops, he met with a dozen...

Leader of the Chinese: Jian-li Yang, democracy activist, after five years in prison.(CHINA)
October 8, 2007... Jian-Li YANG is a face of the new China--or rather, what many hope will be the new China: free, democratic, and respectful of human rights. He is one of the leading democracy activists of the Chinese people, and one of the leading democracy...

The origin of species, and Everything Else: coping with evolution and religion.(SCIENCE)
October 8, 2007... In the closing scene of the classic 1960 movie Inherit the Wind, Spencer Tracy holds a Bible in one hand and Darwin's Origin of Species in the other, smiles, claps them together, and puts them both under his arm as he walks out of the...

Preschool for All! Hillary and others drive for 'universal preschool'.(Hillary Clinton and other politicians)
October 8, 2007... Last May, just as the academic year was wrapping up, Hillary Clinton stopped by a Miami Beach elementary school to say that she wanted to define school down. "As president, I will establish universal pre-kindergarten education," she promised,...

How to fix the Universities: not easy, if you don't have tanks.(reform and management)
October 8, 2007... For quite a while now, whenever I've thought about the job of "reforming" or "retaking" the university, a little voice emerges to ask, "Are you mad?" For the most part, intelligent opinion about the problem of reforming the university is...

Do they know anything about Islam? Rights and wrongs of multicultural ed.(multicultural education)
October 8, 2007... I was in Cambridge, Mass., in February of last year when I heard the latest news out of Iraq: The al-Askari Mosque, the so-called "Golden Mosque" of Samarra, had been nearly leveled in a devastating explosion. It was a Wednesday, and that...

Choice for Me, but Not for thee: democratic presidential candidates and their kids' education.
October 8, 2007... The presidential campaign season is a bit like the airport security line: We shuffle through endless switchback rows, barked at by bureaucrats ("Remove your belts! Read about my health-care plan!"), until finally, exhausted, we get through the...

Et Tu, Alan?(HELP!!!!)(Poem)
October 8, 2007... Et Tu, Alan? (HELP!!!!) Greenspan isn't being helpful, Zonking George Bush just As the sub-prime market teeters Like it's going bust. If one may remind the chairman: Had the Fed not kept Rates low as a...

NSA Surveillance Transcript (Patriot Act-authorized).(the long view)(National Security Agency)(Audio file)
October 8, 2007... [static] NORMAN HSU: "Hello, this is Norman Hsu. How much do you need?" UNIDENTIFIED MALE VOICE: "Norman?" NORMAN HSU: "Speaking. How much do you need?" UNIDENTIFIED MALE VOICE: "Hi! I'm calling from Senator Clinton's...

Scoops of a half-century.(The Prince of Darkness: 50 Years Reporting in Washington)(Book review)
October 8, 2007... The Prince of Darkness: 50 Years Reporting in Washington, by Robert D. Novak (Crown, 672 pp., $29.95) [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Edwin O'Connor's classic political novel, The Last Hurrah, was published in 1956, a year before Robert Novak...

Lover.(Poem)
October 8, 2007... LOVER To you, my love, in the distant future, who would have been my perfect love: Think of our trips together: the canyons out west (where as you stood in wonder, I'd kiss the desert from your lips). Think of how...

Gathering storm.(The Last Days of Europe: Epitaph for an Old Continent)(Book review)
October 8, 2007... The Last Days of Europe: Epitaph for an Old Continent, by Walter Laqueur (Thomas Dunne, 256 pp., $25.95) [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] 'The Last Days of Europe" is a title with a drum-beat to it. Can the implicit doom really be true? A mere...

Mild, mild life.(Girls Gone Mild: Young Women Reclaim Self-Respect and Find It's Not Bad to Be Good)(Book review)
October 8, 2007... Girls Gone Mild: Young Women Reclaim Self-Respect and Find It's Not Bad to Be Good, by Wendy Shalit (Random House, 352 pp., $25.95) [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Baby, baby, it's a wild world--from your earliest days. Recalling a 2002...

For humanity.(Defending Life: A Moral and Legal Case against Abortion Choice)(Book review)
October 8, 2007... Defending Life: A Moral and Legal Case Against Abortion Choice, by Francis J. Beckwith (Cambridge, 312 pp., $22.99) [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] 'Supreme Court Settles Abortion Issue": So declared the New York Times the day after the Court's...

Low Life.(FILM)(Eastern Promises)(Movie review)
October 8, 2007... The worst thing about this movie is the title. Eastern Promises--it sounds like a cruise ship, or a pricey spa, or a bodice-ripper set in Meiji Japan. Instead, David Cronenberg's new film takes place in the underworld of a rainswept London,...

The virtual attic.(THE STRAGGLER)(website administration)
October 8, 2007... My attic, like yours, is a place of dust and dark corners, exposed brickwork and beams, and piled boxes and bundles of forgotten or little-used items: luggage, old magazines, out-of-favor toys, medical mementoes from long-ago mishaps (did I...

Jobs, trade, and the democrats.(on the right)
October 8, 2007... NEW YORK, AUGUST 21 Did you know--better, would you have guessed?--that the top income-tax rate in India, which is the home of breastfed socialism, is a mere 30 percent? That is down from 60 percent in 1979. How does that compare? Well, in...

Is epiphany running for office?(on the right)(Mitt Romney)
October 8, 2007... NEW YORK, SEPTEMBER 7 This is the season in which, quite obviously, lascivious ears tune up for hypocrisy on the part of politicians. More often than not the scorn is justified. It can't be a surprise that politicians seeking public office...

Iraq: one more time.(on the right)
October 8, 2007... NEW YORK, SEPTEMBER 11 Not enough attention has been paid, on the Iraq question, to the factor of universal access to information. For many years, in many wars, news reporters could not get near the front-line scene. And where high...

Way of light.(letters to the editor)(Letter to the editor)
October 22, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Reading Michael Novak's piece on the suffering of Mother Teresa ("Way of Darkness," September 24), I recalled a thought offered to me years ago by an instructor in medical school: It is no feat to be civil to someone...

The State of D.C.(letters to the editor)(Letter to the editor)
October 22, 2007... Jonah Goldberg missed one more reason to object to the District of Columbia's license-plate slogan, "Taxation Without Representation": It's hypocritical (The Week, October 8). If the District ever becomes a state, its first move will be to levy...

Wordplay.(letters to the editor)(Letter to the editor)
October 22, 2007... Rob Long's piece on school choice ("Choice for Me, but Not for Thee," October 8) was, as usual, on-target and to the point, but I thought it contained a spelling error. Shouldn't the reference to La Rodham's future performance be "a treasure...

Abu Bin Fred?(letters to the editor)(Letter to the editor)
October 22, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] As I gazed at the cover of your October 8 issue, I said to myself, "What is Fred Thompson doing in that burnoose?" Wally Harpen Wilmington, Ohio

If there were gays in Iran.(The Week)
October 22, 2007... If there were gays in Iran, would Ahmadinejad dress that badly?

Newt Gingrich says he will not run for president, and, in our opinion, the presidency is not a job to which he would be well suited.(The Week)(Brief article)
October 22, 2007... Newt Gingrich says he will not run for president, and, in our opinion, the presidency is not a job to which he would be well suited. But he has spent many years thinking and talking--intelligently, boldly, and creatively--about some of the...

John McCain said in an interview that he would prefer to have a Christian president, but could support a well-qualified Muslim one.(The Week)(Brief article)
October 22, 2007... John McCain said in an interview that he would prefer to have a Christian president, but could support a well-qualified Muslim one. We see no reason to object to his comment, although it may be the type of abstract speculation that a...

Rudy Giuliani has proposed expanding NATO to include India, Israel, Japan, Australia, and Singapore.(The Week)(Brief article)
October 22, 2007... Rudy Giuliani has proposed expanding NATO to include India, Israel, Japan, Australia, and Singapore. Australia, Singapore, and Japan would probably join, and be welcomed. But major European members of NATO are likely to resist Israeli...

Some social-conservative leaders are musing about supporting a third-party presidential candidate if Giuliani wins the Republican nomination.(The Week)(Rudy Giuliani )(Brief article)
October 22, 2007... Some social-conservative leaders are musing about supporting a third-party presidential candidate if Giuliani wins the Republican nomination. We'll defer considering the wisdom of such a contingency plan to another day. Come to think of it,...

Jesse Adam Macbeth became an antiwar hero when he claimed to have committed atrocities in Iraq as an Army Ranger, including the murders of hundreds of innocent civilians.(The Week)(Brief article)
October 22, 2007... Jesse Adam Macbeth became an antiwar hero when he claimed to have committed atrocities in Iraq as an Army Ranger, including the murders of hundreds of innocent civilians. A group called Iraq Veterans Against the War, among others, promoted his...

Gen. Peter Pace has stepped down as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and retired from the Marines.(The Week)(Brief article)
October 22, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Gen. Peter Pace has stepped down as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and retired from the Marines. Virginia Republicans should try to draft him for a new mission: a Senate campaign. Republican John Warner...

Eliot Spitzer, governor of New York, wants to give driver's licenses to illegal immigrants.(The Week)(Brief article)
October 22, 2007... Eliot Spitzer, governor of New York, wants to give driver's licenses to illegal immigrants. His executive order, to take effect in December, will lift the requirement that license applicants provide a valid Social Security number. This order...

Blackwater, the private security firm, has lost its license to operate in Iraq.(The Week)(Brief article)
October 22, 2007... Blackwater, the private security firm, has lost its license to operate in Iraq. The Iraqi interior ministry accuses it of using excessive force during a shootout in which eight people were killed. Contrary to a lot of press accounts about the...

The decline of the dollar--it is now worth less than Canadian currency!--is more than an indignity.(The Week)(Brief article)
October 22, 2007... The decline of the dollar--it is now worth less than Canadian currency!--is more than an indignity. It is a sign that our monetary policy is too loose, and that the threat of inflation is rising. And not the only sign: The price of gold shot up...

Ahmadinejad's comeuppance.(The Week)(Poem)
October 22, 2007... AHMADINEJAD'S COMEUPPANCE From Columbia of all Places! Where an ivied wall Heretofore--I'm still in shock-- Had been favored 'round the clock For advice found in the Gents'; Bollinger the president's ...

As Americans wonder how to cope with Iran, Iran keeps killing Americans.(The Week)(Brief article)
October 22, 2007... As Americans wonder how to cope with Iran, Iran keeps killing Americans. The primary battleground is Iraq, where agents of Iran's Revolutionary Guards fund and arm the Shiite extremists whose IEDs pierce the armor of U.S. soldiers and whose...

There has been little reaction to the Lieberman-Kyl amendment on the Muslim street, but some of our politicians are taking offense for the silent billion.(The Week)(Bill Richardson)(Brief article)
October 22, 2007... There has been little reaction to the Lieberman-Kyl amendment on the Muslim street, but some of our politicians are taking offense for the silent billion. Said Bill Richardson, governor of New Mexico and Democratic presidential candidate:...

The games we play.(Halo 3)
October 22, 2007... THERE have been two seismic events in popular culture this year. The first was the release of J. K. Rowling's conclusion to her wildly popular Harry Potter series. The final installment, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, rang up about $170...

U.S. government officials have now anonymously confirmed to reporters that the target of a Sept. 6 Israeli raid on Syria was a suspected nuclear site--one that allegedly operated in cooperation with North Korea.(The Week)(Brief article)
October 22, 2007... U.S. government officials have now anonymously confirmed to reporters that the target of a Sept. 6 Israeli raid on Syria was a suspected nuclear site--one that allegedly operated in cooperation with North Korea. North Korea denies the claim,...

Few regimes on earth can compete with the Burmese junta for pure evil.(The Week)(Brief article)
October 22, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Few regimes on earth can compete with the Burmese junta for pure evil. It has condoned, indeed encouraged, decades of civil war and genocide, and turned a once-prosperous country into an impoverished and oppressed...

The Burmese have endured military dictatorship since Gen. Ne Win's coup against the post-independence parliamentary republic in 1962.(The Week)(Brief article)
October 22, 2007... The Burmese have endured military dictatorship since Gen. Ne Win's coup against the post-independence parliamentary republic in 1962. Widespread public protests in 1988 were suppressed with great brutality, but led to a change of dictators, the...

Nuon Chea, the number-two leader of the Khmer Rouge, was arrested in Phnom Penh and charged with crimes against humanity.(The Week)(Brief article)
October 22, 2007... Nuon Chea, the number-two leader of the Khmer Rouge, was arrested in Phnom Penh and charged with crimes against humanity. He has been called the Khmer Rouge's chief ideologue. But that is an abstract term. The war-crimes tribunal put it better:...

President Bush announced that he would attend the summer Olympics in Beijing in August 2008.(The Week)(George W. Bush)(Brief article)
October 22, 2007... President Bush announced that he would attend the summer Olympics in Beijing in August 2008. "It's going to be a great moment of pride for the Chinese people," Bush said. He is correct. The current phase of Chinese Communism, corresponding to...