National Review articles from September 2001

National Review archives from September 2001

For the Record.(Column)
September 3, 2001... -- Medical checkup finds President Bush in "outstanding health" and "in the top 2 percent of men his age in cardiovascular fitness." . . . Bush White House payroll is $84,000 less than Clinton's in 1998, for staff of same size. . . . Reporters...

The Week.(activities of politicians)
September 3, 2001... -- President Bush has begun a 31-day vacation in Crawford, Texas, evidently prompted by Confucius. "And Kung said, 'Wang ruled with moderation, in his day the State was well kept, and even I can remember a day when the historians left blanks in...

STEM CELLS: Holding the Lines.(Brief Article)
September 3, 2001... To be a social conservative leader in modern America can be a thankless task. You must uphold truths that were so long accepted that they are no longer well understood. A conservative politician must perforce be, to some extent, a moral...

THE MIDDLE EAST: Palestinian Suicide.(response by Israel to suicide bombings by Palestinians)(Brief Article)
September 3, 2001... The recent spate of suicide bombings has done much damage to Israel, killing about 100 people, many of them young. Inhuman in itself, the enterprise is so demoralizing because it is so totally futile. Nothing can come of it except bitterness...

Notes and Asides.(Saul Bellow and Whittaker Chambers)(Column)
September 3, 2001... -- Dear Bill: Reading in James Atlas's life of Saul Bellow, I came across the following passage, at once amusing and somewhat maddening. As it begins, in June 1943, Bellow is (apparently) on the brink of being hired as a staff writer at Time....

The Stem-Cell Slide: Be alert to the beginnings of evil.(controversy over use of stem cells for research and Pres Bush's policy)
September 3, 2001... I wish I could say that the president's speech to the nation on stem cells was as good as I had hoped. It was in many ways a wonderful speech: deeper and more philosophical than I have ever heard a president deliver, unusually balanced and fair...

Preferred Members: Affirmative action for all, except white males.
September 3, 2001... The Bush administration has decided to support race and gender preferences, in the very first case involving them to come before the Supreme Court this year. And this decision is being greeted on the right with what can only be called wishful...

Tired & Poor: The bankrupt arguments for mass, unskilled immigration.(Column)
September 3, 2001... Talks in August involving Secretary of State Powell, Attorney General Ashcroft, and their Mexican counterparts may have produced the broad outline of an immigration agreement. It would involve a two-step amnesty, first rechristening the...

Lust for Life: The most effective lobbyist in Washington.(Douglas Johnson)
September 3, 2001... In the last week before Congress closed down for summer vacation, tensions were high. GOP leaders were facing high-stakes House votes on a patients' bill of rights and President Bush's energy bill; they had to pick their fights very carefully,...

Is Spike Lee Racist?: And other inanities from the anti-stereotype police.(Bush administration considering the recommendations of movies that do not promote racial stereotypes)
September 3, 2001... If Goethe was right when he said that "a clever man commits no minor blunders," then someone in the Bush White House may be poised to go down as one of the most brilliant men in the history of the Republic. It was just one of several ideas...

Do Tell: The enduring importance of gossip.(widespread use, and interest in, gossip)
September 3, 2001... Scrutinizing the news from Brazil last week, I spotted the following. Sao Paulo (Reuters)-Rumor, the great ill born from small beginnings, has been banned among municipal employees in the Brazilian city of Cascavel, the city councilman who...

The Post-Columbo Era: How the courts killed good detective work.(how laws limit methods of criminal investigation)
September 3, 2001... Think the cops are having a tough time cracking the Chandra Levy case? Try this one on for size. Samiya Haqiqi, a 24-year-old law student at Quinnipiac College in Connecticut, drove to New York City on a Friday night in November 1999 to...

Bush to a 'Tee': The president's most heartfelt values initiative.(tee-ball at the White House)
September 3, 2001... At the first White House tee-ball game, played on the South Lawn in May, a seven-year-old batter stepped to the tee, took a big cut, missed the ball, stepped back, took another swing, and sent a hard line drive to right field. It looked like a...

Untrustworthy: The Democrats on Social Security reform.
September 3, 2001... For Social Security reformers, the good news is how quickly the public has moved forward. People have become more receptive to the idea of investing some of their Social Security payments themselves. Exit polls from the 2000 election found that...

Bombing at the Pentagon: Don Rumsfeld's agony.
September 3, 2001... For Secretary of Defense Don Rumsfeld, it was his own personal equivalent of the U.S.'s apology to China earlier this year: a way to placate a hectoring adversary after doing nothing wrong. In Rumsfeld's case, the adversary was a "discouraged,...

The Long View.(satire about Bill Clinton)(Brief Article)
September 3, 2001... Some early excerpts from Devil in a Blue Dress By Bill Clinton. from page 7: . . . her pouting red lips and teased-up hair were all I could make out in the dim Arkansas moonlight. "So, little Billy Clinton," she purred, "are you...

Unforgiven.(Review)
September 3, 2001... Supreme Injustice: How the High Court Hijacked Election 2000, by Alan Dershowitz (Oxford, 288 pp., $25) Breaking the Deadlock: The 2000 Election, the Constitution, and the Courts, by Richard Posner (Princeton, 264 pp., $24.95) An hour...

Adonis, Anyone?(Review)
September 3, 2001... Venus in Exile: The Rejection of Beauty in 20th-Century Art, by Wendy Steiner (Free Press, 280 pp., $26) In his most recent book, From Dawn to Decadence: 500 Years of Western Cultural Life, 1500 to the Present, Jacques Barzun compares and...

Killing the Messenger.(Review)
September 3, 2001... Children of Abraham, 2 vols.: An Introduction to Islam for Jews, by Khalid Duran, with Abdelwahab Hechiche (American Jewish Committee and Ktav, 326 pp., $19.95), and An Introduction to Judaism for Muslims, by Reuven Firestone (320 pp., $19.95)...

Judge Not.(Review)
September 3, 2001... Civilizations: Culture, Ambition, and the Transformation of Nature, by Felipe Fernandez-Armesto (Free Press, 545 pp., $35) Felipe Fernandez-Armesto's Civilizations is one of those grand, all- encompassing histories that many non-historians...

Beauty, for One Thing.(Review)
September 3, 2001... Who is the most beautiful person in all of music? It's a ridiculous question, but it does have an answer, probably: Helene Grimaud, a young French pianist. She could easily be taken for an actress or model. What does this matter? Ah, you must...

Reality Therapy.(talk shows)(Brief Article)
September 3, 2001... Chicago is the home of the personal talk show. Phil Donahue began there; Oprah, Jenny Jones, and Jerry Springer tape there. But New York, as a national media capital, makes its own contributions to the genre. The Montel Williams show is...

De Profundis.(Review)
September 3, 2001... Next to hen's teeth, remakes that surpass the original are scarcest; hence the surprise of The Deep End, which improves on the renowned Max Ophuls's 1949 version, The Reckless Moment. Both are based on Elisabeth Sanxay Holding's 1947 novel, The...

Books in Brief.(Review)(Brief Article)
September 3, 2001... Friedrich Hayek: A Biography, by Alan Ebenstein (Palgrave, 403 pp., $29.95) One of the greatest libertarian philosophers of the 20th century, Friedrich Hayek was also its most influential scourge of collectivist economic theory. After...

On the Right - Wanted: Policemen.(press portrayal of police)(Brief Article)
September 3, 2001... NEW YORK, JULY 31 Howard safir was police commissioner of New York City up until a year ago, serving under Mayor Giuliani, an old friend and confederate. His reputation was that of an enormously resourceful manager. It hadn't mattered in...

On the Right - Two Terrorists Less?(Middle East conflict)(Brief Article)(Column)
September 3, 2001... NEW YORK, AUGUST 3 On one day, the papers ran an obituary on an American flyer who in 1943 shot down the plane carrying Admiral Yamamoto from a Japanese base in Rabaul, New Britain. There was jubilation in America over that nice...

On the Right - Wrong-Way Corrigan Rides Again.(book contract for Bill Clinton's memoirs)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
September 3, 2001... NEW YORK, AUGUST 7 The teeth-gnashing when the news was out about Clinton's advance was mostly by people who a) didn't think Clinton should monetize the kind of thing that made him infamous, and b) felt it was yet one more affront on the...

Misanthrope's Corner.(confusing merchandising schemes)(Brief Article)(Column)
September 3, 2001... Be forewarned: I'm in a foul mood. America has gotten to me again. I'm sick of "choices." If one more corporate entity offers me a "choice" between this plan and that plan, I'm going to take to the woods like Thoreau. I don't want to be a...

For the Record.(President Bush plans to give his tax rebate to charity; Elizabeth Dole apparently plans to run for Jesse Helms' Senate seat; these and other activities are discussed)(Brief Article)
September 17, 2001... --President Bush says he plans to give his own tax-rebate check to charity. . . . More Bush: "We took exactly the right action at the right time by pushing the largest tax cut in a generation." . . . Even more Bush: "We will withdraw from the...

The Week.(Elizabeth Dole has emerged as the leading candidate for Jesse Helms' Senate seat)(this and other items are discussed)
September 17, 2001... --Bill Clinton went shopping with the actor Anthony Hopkins for bikinis and sarongs in Rio de Janeiro. The 42nd president bought two bikinis and three sarongs, spending $113. There's no joke here; we are simply reporting. --Elizabeth Dole...

JESSE HELMS - Senator, Yes.(Jesse Helms plans to retire after the completion of his fifth term as senator)(Brief Article)
September 17, 2001... Jesse Helms announced that he will retire from the Senate next year, at the end of his fifth term. He will be missed by the conservative movement, the country, and millions of now- and once-enslaved people worldwide. Helms, a former radio...

The Budget: A Surplus of Spin.(Bush administration is charged with using Social Security funds because of the tax rebates)(Brief Article)
September 17, 2001... Budget estimators in both the White House and Congress agree that this year the federal government is likely to run a surplus north of $150 billion. All this money will be used to pay down the national debt. In Washington, this seemingly happy...

Culture Watch: Legacy Admissions.(Yale Univeristy, and other schools, are finding alumni ties to the slavery of the past)(Brief Article)
September 17, 2001... A controversy over nomenclature at Yale University has spun into a broad discussion of America's national purpose, and the role of slavery, past and present. The germ of the spat at Yale is the fact that one of its twelve residential...

Notes and Asides.
September 17, 2001... Memo to: NR Staff and Fans From: WFB What happened 25 years ago? John Virtes came to NR to do research. He continues imperturbable, resourceful, genial. He knows everything, including who was there on the grassy knoll that fateful...

A Surplus of Anxiety: What the numbers mean for Bush's hopes.(Bush administration budget surplus projections are revised downward)
September 17, 2001... The morning after the Office of Management and Budget unveiled the administration's new-and dramatically lower-projections for the budget surplus, the White House communications office began holding daily strategy sessions aimed at winning the...

The General Welfare:Consequences and lessons of reform.(the Clinton administration received extensive criticism for enacting welfare reform in 1996, but five years later even the critics admit it has worked better than expected)
September 17, 2001... Only one incident provoked any resignations of conscience from the Clinton administration, and it had nothing to do with the Lewinsky scandal. For liberals, President Clinton's greatest dishonor was his signing of welfare reform on August 22,...

A Crashing Failure: The stupid tragedy of CAFE.(corporate average fuel economy program)
September 17, 2001... If the National Academy of Sciences discovered that a certain chemical was killing several dozen people a year, congressmen would rush to ban the substance. But in late July, the Academy found that a federal policy was causing thousands of...

The Power of Two: A noble minority on the Civil Rights Commission.(commission report, with two dissenting votes, concluded that African Americans were more likely to be disenfranchised in Florida, than whites)
September 17, 2001... In August, when Al Sharpton talked about why he wants to embark on a fantasy campaign for president, he made sure to mention "voter disenfranchisement" in Florida in last year's election. Just about every other Democrat can be expected to do...

Black QBs, QED: The end of an NFL myth.(African American quarterbacks)
September 17, 2001... Michael vick is an extraordinary success story. During two seasons as quarterback for Virginia Tech, he completed only 177 passes-a puny number next to Florida State star and Heisman Trophy winner Chris Weinke, who connected 650 times during...

Evil Empire: The Communist 'hot, smart book of the moment'.(Review)
September 17, 2001... The making of a bestseller is a most uncertain art. It has to do with novelty or fashion, and the manipulation of the media. Suddenly some book is on everyone's lips, and we all hurry to the stores or the Internet for a copy. The herd instinct...

Portrait of a Conservative: The contribution of Jesse Helms.(career, and public image, of Senator Jesse Helms)
September 17, 2001... In the 1940s musical Finian's Rainbow, one of the main characters is a racist southern senator who is given to making speeches along the following lines: "Forward, America! Forward to the principles of our ancestors! Forward to the sweet...

Solzhenitsyn, Still: The writer and his latest challenge.(Two Hundred Years Together)(Review)
September 17, 2001... Because Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn is one of the great men of the 20th century, it is possible to overlook how prolific and varied he has been as a writer. In his 82 years, he has produced historical novels, "regular" novels, novellas, short...

China: A Reality Check: Truth and lies in the Asian behemoth.(a visit to China leaves the impression that the dictatorship remains firmly established)
September 17, 2001... This summer I spent six weeks in China with my family, traveling all over the country, visiting with friends, relatives, and ex-students. (My wife is mainland-Chinese with a large extended family, and I taught college in China in the early...

The Long View.(humor: plans for making a movie about the Gary Condit investigation)(Brief Article)
September 17, 2001... Memo to: The Story Department from: The Marketing Department re: The Gary Condit Project First off, let me reiterate what was said at today's staff meeting: everyone in marketing is totally excited about fast-tracking the...

NYC, Before the Dawn.('The Ungovernable City: John Lindsay and His Struggle to Save New York')(Review)
September 17, 2001... The Ungovernable City: John Lindsay and His Struggle to Save New York, by Vincent J. Cannato (Basic Books, 702 pp., $35) Twenty-eight years after he departed Gracie Mansion, John Lindsay is all but forgotten. Other than a single sad stab at...

Salzburg, for Real.(Salzburg, Austria)
September 17, 2001... I always found it faintly irritating when people collared me and began expatiating on their visits to Salzburg. So many superlatives crowded together had a bad effect, like rubbing velvet the wrong way. The medieval city was so charming; the...

Such Sweet Sorrow.(film critics, and criticism)
September 17, 2001... Near the end of his book It's Only a Movie!: Films and Critics in American Culture, Raymond J. Haberski Jr. writes (forgive me for quoting at length): While both [Andrew] Sarris and [Pauline] Kael have out-shone [sic] Simon in historical...

Brother to brother.('Band of Brothers')(Review)
September 17, 2001... A paratrooper senses danger on all sides. The danger's not that way; it's every way. He drops into enemy territory and moves toward each point of the compass-because that's where the trouble is. He engages the enemy with regularity, and his...

Teach Them Well.(Review)
September 17, 2001... Making Patriots, by Walter Berns (Chicago, 150 pp., $20) America is built on a creed, a system of ideas that are universal. But patriotism-one of the most important factors in ensuring any country's continuing vigor-is a devotion not to...

Books In Brief.(book about Hoover Institution)(Review)(Brief Article)
September 17, 2001... The Competition of Ideas: How My Colleagues and I Built the Hoover Institution, by W. Glenn Campbell (Jameson, 409 pp., $35) Since its founding by Herbert Hoover in 1919 as an archive of war- related materials, the Hoover Institution on...

Books In Brief (2).(memoir about living in Castro's gulag)(Review)(Brief Article)
September 17, 2001... Against All Hope: A Memoir of Life in Castro's Gulag, by Armando Valladares, translated by Andrew Hurley (Encounter, 428 pp., $16.95) Upon the publication of Against All Hope 15 years ago, its author was hailed as the "Cuban Solzhenitsyn."...

Books In Brief (3).(Declare)(Review)(Brief Article)
September 17, 2001... Declare, by Tim Powers (Morrow, 528 pp., $25) The tradition of "Christian fantasy" is a long and honorable one, with J. R. R. Tolkien, Russell Kirk, and C. S. Lewis being three of the best-loved practitioners. Lewis's That Hideous Strength...

On the Right - GWB's Vacation Fixation.(President Bush receiving ridicule for the number of vacations he takes)(Brief Article)
September 17, 2001... NEW YORK, AUGUST 10 It seems everyone is concerned about Bush and vacations. Some commentary is simply informational, idiomatic questions put and answers given, showing nothing more than workaday curiosity. "How many vacation days a year...

On the Right - Good Soldiers, Bad Soldiers.(World War II: remembering the war dead)(Brief Article)
September 17, 2001... NEW YORK, AUGUST 14 If you want a problem for which there is no solution-zero solution-it is the problem of the war dead. Twenty Koreans, protesting the appearance of the Japanese prime minister at a military shrine, actually severed the...

On the Right - The War Parties At Work.(some in the media are urging Israel to attack the Palestinians)(Brief Article)
September 17, 2001... NEW YORK, AUGUST 28 The bugles are sounding, to rouse not the American military, but the Israeli military. George Will, writing in his syndicated column, wants war. At greater length, in an essay in The Weekly Standard, Charles Krauthammer...

Misanthrope's Corner.(personal account: a life of avid reading, brought on by childhood experiences)(Brief Article)
September 17, 2001... Boy, did I strike a nerve with my "Igno" column. The letters poured in, and every one was positive. Not only did you outdo yourselves in your impassioned support, but some of the hair-raising examples you cited from your own contact with the...