National Review articles from September 2006

National Review archives from September 2006

About that Arrow.(letters to the editor)(Letter to the editor)
September 11, 2006... Michael Rubin is right on point in "An Arrow in Our Quiver" (August 28). What I don't understand is this: If former presidents have prohibited assassinations via a series of executive orders, why doesn't President Bush reverse that damage by...

The French resistance.(letters to the editor)(Letter to the editor)
September 11, 2006... I was amused by Anthony Daniels's tongue-in-cheek article on the goats that have plagued his property in France ("The Menace in France," August 28). I was, however, a bit surprised that someone of his intellect was unable to cure the goats of...

Supply-side Christine.(letters to the editor)(Letter to the editor)
September 11, 2006... It's not much of a secret that NR has never been a fan of Christine Todd Whitman, but Chris Weinkopf, in his recent article on Gov. Arnold Schwarz-enegger's spending record in California, is wrong to suggest that Whitman is not an economic...

A juris doctor in the house?(letters to the editor)(Letter to the editor)
September 11, 2006... President Bush's intelligence has been debated and questioned as he has been criticized for his policy decisions in Iraq. What I haven't seen discussed openly by intelligent conservative analysts is this: Is George W. Bush a sociopath afflicted...

The week.(airline bomb threat, Joe Lieberman, George Allen )
September 11, 2006... * Gail Sheehy has turned her attention to the elderly in a new book called Sex and the Seasoned Woman. In related news, Bill Clinton just turned 60... * One good thing about the London-based plot to blow up America-bound airliners...

Israel, Some Time Later.(Poem)
September 11, 2006... There was no famous victory: No Inchon Landing from the sea Detached Hezbollah as the tanks Relentlessly chewed up its flanks. Clearly, a Clausewitz Olmert ain't; He doesn't know from thrust and feint. Back in Jerusalem, the looks...

No excuses.(rebuilding Iraq)
September 11, 2006... OVER the last two years, the U.S. has done nearly everything it thought might undermine the insurgency in Iraq and stabilize the country. We held elections that demonstrated the desire of most Iraqis for a better future. We brought Sunnis into...

Dead letter.(diplomacy)
September 11, 2006... THE goal of U.S. diplomacy in the Israel-Lebanon conflict was always to lock in Israel's military gains. With Resolution 1701, the U.S. achieved that goal. It's just that the Israeli military gains were so ephemeral that there was little worth...

A judge's foreign policy.(AT WAR III)
September 11, 2006... THE courts of the United States once understood that international affairs, the conduct of war, and the protection of Americans from foreign threats stood far beyond the judicial ken. As Supreme Court justice Robert Jackson wrote in 1948,...

Storm warnings.(hurricane katrina )
September 11, 2006... A YEAR after Hurricane Katrina and all the recriminations that followed in its wake, it's worth recalling how much worse this natural disaster could have been. New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin predicted 10,000 dead in his city alone, and liberal...

The tyranny of the retiree.(democracy)
September 11, 2006... EVERY form of government has its strengths and weaknesses. For democracy, a key theoretical weakness has always been the threat of a "tyranny of the majority." In Democracy in America, Alexis de Tocqueville observed: "If the free institutions...

You call that a war? Israel loses a round in Lebanon.
September 11, 2006... ISRAEL in the perception of the Iranian leaders is the West's front line. To attack it is to attack the United States in what they genuinely believe to be--in their words--"a fateful struggle against Western hegemony in the world." As one among...

Terror in the skies: and some down-to-earth lessons.
September 11, 2006... A BREATHTAKING jihadist plot to blow as many as ten U.S. airliners out of the trans-Atlantic sky after take-off from London's Heathrow Airport could well have reprised the horror of 9/11. Still, however thankful all of us must be about the two...

Divided hearts: the 'comfort' of knowing that most Muslims don't wish us dead.
September 11, 2006... ON the day on which the plot to blow up ten airliners between Britain and America was revealed to the public, I took a long taxi ride in a British city in which a good proportion of the taxi drivers are Muslim. My driver was Muslim, and I had...

American testosterone: Hummers, carrots, and other things.(CULTURE WATCH)
September 11, 2006... IF you really want to know what's happening, go get another cup of coffee when the news comes on and get back in time for the commercials. They've always been revealing, but Hummer's "Restore Your Manhood" spot is a 30-second State of the...

Last chance for Iraq? A symposium on the war.
September 11, 2006... No issue has so shaped America's recent politics or defined its present role in the world as the Iraq War. NR asked a symposium of military experts, geopolitical thinkers, Middle East scholars, and conservative writers the two paramount...

The death of the moderate Democrat: and the birth of the 'netroots' party.
September 11, 2006... THE scene is one of those Washington cocktail parties so hated by left-wing "netroots" activists--a gathering where politicians and pundits and inside-the-Beltway types meet to gossip, conspire, make deals, and generally sink farther into their...

The long goodbye: conservatism's perpetual decline.
September 11, 2006... CONSERVATIVES are famous nostalgics. Apparently we also inspire nostalgia in others: To hear some people tell it, the conservatives of yesteryear were vastly superior to today's. Some of the people lamenting our sad decline are liberals, while...

Reaganomics: how's it going? Two wins, a draw, and two losses.
September 11, 2006... WHEN Ronald Reagan came to Washington, he brought with him a conservative school of economics. This school emphasized, much more thoroughly and systematically than those associated with previous presidents of either party, the advantages of...

Let's Review.(HELP!)(Poem)
September 11, 2006... Russia sent the anti-tank guns; China mailed the drones. From Iran came rockets, gratis, Plus lotsa cellphones. Hezbollah cleans up like crazy. France reports cold feet. Kofi's scolding from New York like Ma in the back seat. ...

The new British library revised Muslim sensitivity series, 2006.(the long view)
September 11, 2006... Excerpt from Maurice Crushed under Large Boulders (formerly Maurice, by E. M. Forster): "Cripes! What are you doing?" The gamekeeper turned to Maurice fiercely, eyes blazing with anger. "I was just... just..." Maurice stammered...

Iraq: phase one.(Fiasco: The American Military Adventure in Iraq)(Book review)
September 11, 2006... Fiasco: The American Military Adventure in Iraq, by Thomas E. Ricks (Penguin, 416 pp., $27.95) [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] TOM RICKS, who has a keen eye and a depth of contacts in the military, believes the likely outcome in Iraq will be a...

The long war.(The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11)(Book review)
September 11, 2006... The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11, by Lawrence Wright (Knopf, 480 pp., $27.95) [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] WHATEVER may cause Islamic terrorism, it is certainly not Islam. That is a central message of The Looming Tower, an...

Mind over matter.(An Argument for Mind)(Book review)
September 11, 2006... An Argument for Mind, by Jerome Kagan (Yale, 304 pp., $27.50) [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] ARISTOTLE famously held that to understand something requires knowing its "four causes": its material cause, the stuff out of which it is made; its...

Of spring and the river.(Poem)
September 11, 2006... Since father's death, I have not gone To the river, not that it hasn't been on My mind, sometimes below the surface Reflections, with no landscape support For even the thought of waters on a grand Scale slipping away, and sometimes so...

The big one.(Salzburg Festival)
September 11, 2006... Salzburg, Austria WELL, this is the big one, Elizabeth (as Fred Sanford used to say). (Note to the very young or unschooled: He was a TV-sitcom character.) For many years, this city has been preparing for 2006, the 250th anniversary of Mozart's...

Too darn hot.(hot weather)(Column)
September 11, 2006... ON the indoor-outdoor thermometer attached to our bedroom window, the "outdoor" column is climbing up through the high 90s at 10 A.M. In the street there is no sign of life. Even the usual landscaping crews have apparently taken the day off....

Two minutes to midnight.(Middle East)
September 11, 2006... NEW YORK, AUGUST 4. THE threats and counterthreats mount, as also dazed questions that attempt to segregate loyalties. Some are saying that sectarian divisions are distractions and that they will soon give way as transcendent concerns...

Sonnytime.
September 11, 2006... NEW YORK, AUGUST 8 IHAVE many times quoted, in my years at bat, the wry judgment of the Viennese critic. "The trouble with socialism is socialism. The trouble with capitalism is capitalists." I'll probably say it yet again before I go, but...

Go where, Joe?(democratic primary )
September 11, 2006... NEW YORK, AUGUST 11. IT'S no wonder that so much time is being given to the Democratic primary in Connecticut, and that so many voices are being heard. The ideological triumphalists proclaim it a great renewal in the Democratic party,...

Dam facts.(letters to the editor)(Letter to the editor)
September 25, 2006... In last issue's editorial, "Katrina Storm Warnings," I was disappointed to see that your writers did not do their homework regarding the maintenance of the almost 400 miles of levees around the New Orleans region. The article incorrectly states...

Gray-haired wisdom.(letters to the editor)(Letter to the editor)
September 25, 2006... As a member of the potentially tyrannical elderly, I rise in protest of Kevin Hassett's "The Tyranny of the Retiree" in the last issue. Obviously, my generation is ailing and in the process of dying, and therefore requires more and more medical...

Air power.(letters to the editor)(Letter to the editor)
September 25, 2006... Mr. John-Bob Thornton of North Carolina suggests in a letter to NR that Anthony Daniels should have considered the use of an air rifle to repel goats. He suggests that this would be more effective than methods Mr. Daniels used. I believe Mr....

Smooth celling.(letters to the editor)(Letter to the editor)
September 25, 2006... I have always admired the linguistic standards maintained by NR. I wish therefore to raise a question about your usage of the construction "cellphone" versus the original two-word "cell phone." While the "cellular telephone" root clearly needs...

The week.(Survivor reality show, Mitt Romney confirmed monogamist, George W. Bush's new rhetoric on Iraq war)
September 25, 2006... * CBS's plans to cast the next season of Survivor with race-based tribes drew a storm of criticism, and protests at its midtown Manhattan headquarters. The Black, Latino, and Asian Caucuses of the New York City Council led the charge. *...

Hello, perky.(services of television journalist 'Katie Couric')
September 25, 2006... I AM writing this the day after Katie Couric took the helm of CBS Evening News. Full disclosure: I didn't watch much of the broadcast. Even though I make some of my living by staying abreast of the media, I just couldn't be bothered to care....

Judge Taylor's mind.(Poem)
September 25, 2006... Like Forever Amber's, it Tends to ruminate, then flit Over pertinent case law, Garnering a rude guffaw From professors who attacked Flounce impersonating fact. Anna Diggs won't, on appeal (You can bet the ranch), cartwheel. --W.H....

A doused Plame.(POLITICS)(Valerie Plame investigated)
September 25, 2006... THINK back, if you will, to the fall of 2003 and the question that consumed Washington: Who leaked the name of Valerie Plame to columnist Robert Novak? The question begat the CIA leak "scandal" and then the CIA leak investigation, which is now,...

Nearing midnight.(AT WAR)
September 25, 2006... THE U.N. Security Council's deadline for Iran to stop enriching uranium has passed, but the centrifuges at Natanz are still spinning. That Iran defied the deadline should surprise no one. What does surprise us is that the president who swore he...

Jan Lukas, R.I.P.(Obituary)
September 25, 2006... I RECALL sitting one day at my desk with two stacks of photographs by Jan Lukas in front of me. On one side was a collection of representative views taken by Lukas during the twenty years of his liberty; on the other side, the previous week's...

The war upon us: reflections five years later.(9/11)
September 25, 2006... I KNEW, from the first week after 9/11, possibly the first day, that I was seeing the rest of my life. The suddenness of my conviction was due to a big thing (the shock of being in Manhattan, watching the Trade Towers smoke and smelling them...

Katrina's 'secrets': they're not what liberals think.(THE NATION)
September 25, 2006... KATRINA, we are told, is all about "secrets." Legions of thinkers have discovered in last year's hurricane an invaluable opportunity to preach a precious hidden wisdom on black urban history--a subject they eternally rue Joe Barstool's...

Hatin' that store: what Democrats think Wal-Mart can do for them.(POLITICS)(Wake Up Wal-Mart)
September 25, 2006... "IF that's not a winning message, then I don't know politics." Chris Kofinis is talking by cellphone from Salem, Ore., where his organization, Wake Up Wal-Mart, is conducting a rally against the nation's largest retailer. Kofinis, a former...

The center holding: strength in the Iraqi government.(AT WAR)
September 25, 2006... NOT many people are optimistic about the future of Iraq these days. The centrifugal forces threatening to tear the country apart are plain to see. And yet, beneath the surface, the forces impelling Iraq toward the consolidation of central...

All about 'fascism': the word of the day.(AT WAR II)
September 25, 2006... IN early August, President Bush said that we are at war with "Islamic fascists." This brought predictable harrumphs and guffaws from various American quarters and shouts of outrage from the Middle East. Seemingly in response, Bush quickly...

The non-nobelist: but Gordon Tullock, maverick economist, deserves one.(CONSERVATISM)(Biography)
September 25, 2006... SHORTLY after George Mason University opened its new law-school building a few years ago, then-governor of Virginia Jim Gilmore toured it. He asked to meet Gordon Tullock, a renowned economist on the faculty. Off a curving fourth-floor hallway,...

A peek at Manpo: in which our correspondent almost visits North Korea.(TERRORISM II)
September 25, 2006... MAKE a note of this: If someone serves you a bowl of deep-fried sparrows, the best thing to do is pick one up quickly and eat it head first. There are two reasons for this: One, the head is the most psychologically squirrelly part of any...

Preventing Pelosi: is it possible? Maybe, but things look grim.(Nancy Pelosi)
September 25, 2006... THE question about the November elections isn't whether the Republicans will lose seats, but how many they will lose. As summer draws to a close, the forecasts are getting bleak. If Republicans lose 15 House seats, they will lose their...

Polygamy ascendant? Rumbles in our marriage debate.(CULTURE WATCH)
September 25, 2006... THE dissolution of behavioral boundaries with the consequent extension of individual choice has long seemed to many intellectuals to be the most urgent or important task confronting them. Since few social boundaries can be defended with entire...

Arab scribe: Naguib Mahfouz, a personal appreciation.(THE MIDDLE EAST)(Obituary)
September 25, 2006... NAGUIB MAHFOUZ, the Egyptian writer who died on August 30, was something rare, more rare than you may suppose: He was a born writer. It's not just that Mahfouz wanted to write, but that he was compelled by nature to. In the 1980s, shortly...

Liberals on Iran.(HELP!)(Cartoon)
September 25, 2006... They favor talks; mullahs do, too. The heavy water Persians brew Disturbs them, but they're betting talk-- Which didn't save the last Great Auk Or France's Third Republic--beats Swallowing something that repeats. From where I sit,...

Focus group results: October 19th, 2006.(the long view)(CBS Evening News with Katie Couric)(Critical essay)
September 25, 2006... "CBS Evening News with Katie Couric" What follows is a summary of the results of our extensive focus-group testing on Katie Couric's first month as host of the "CBS Evening News." As you can see from the raw data (appended), her initial...

Niall's saga.(The War of the World: Twentieth-Century Conflict and the Descent of the West)(Book review)
September 25, 2006... The War of the World: Twentieth-Century Conflict and the Descent of the West, by Niall Ferguson (Penguin, 880 pp., $35) [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] NIALL FERGUSON's ponderous volume accompanies a TV series and is heavily punctuated by maps...

Jihad on the turnpike.(Terrorist)(Book review)
September 25, 2006... Terrorist, by John Updike (Knopf, 320 pp., $24.95) [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] TO praise John Updike ought to require what the lawyers call standing. You should be in a position to bestow it--that is, your good words should be worth a damn....

Two cheers for politics.(A World beyond Politics? A Defense of the Nation-State)(Book review)
September 25, 2006... A World beyond Politics? A Defense of the Nation-State, by Pierre Manent (Princeton, 228 pp., $35) [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] IN this dazzling book, French political philosopher Pierre Manent tries to provide an "impartial overview of the...

God is in the DNA.(The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief)(The God That Did Not Fail: How Religion Built and Sustains the West)(Neoconservatism: Why We Need It)(The Reform of the Roman Liturgy: Its Problems and Background)(Don't Tread on Me: A 400-Year History of America at War, from Indian Fighting to Terrorist Hunting)(Great Philanthropic Mistakes)(Divine Likeness: Toward a Trinitarian Anthropology of the Family)(Book review)
September 25, 2006... A BOOK many of us consider sacred provides one account of reality; evidence assembled by subsequent exertions of the human intellect provides another. There's only one truth; and therefore, our adversarial culture insists, one of these two...

Wasted.(Poem)
September 25, 2006... Why do I always turn To the page that shows Dario In his death agony Diminished on his bed? It's the flesh deserves our love And pity. The poems shine Like marble in the mind And have a way with death. --RICHARD O'CONNELL

Eats from the East.(CITY DESK)(Chinese restaurants, Chinatown, New York)
September 25, 2006... WHEN I was young in the city, if you wanted fast Asian fare you ate Chinese. Now you eat sushi. Japan lost World War II, but it has won the grazing war. All the NYU kids and their employed elders eat in the Greater East Asian Co-Prosperity...

The terrorists ride high.(on the right)(airline security)
September 25, 2006... NEW YORK, AUGUST 25 RETURNING vacationers will not be without a security story, and I am no exception. At the little country airport were five functionaries, two of whom, as it happened, knew me and my work but--a curious exercise of...

What if we left?(on the right)(public opinion about Iraq war)
September 25, 2006... NEW YORK, AUGUST 29 THE wires are heavy with the question of Iraq. The defeat of Senator Lieberman in the Democratic primary in Connecticut was a call to outright defiance by Democrats running for reelection. They have been warned now, by...

Congressman Jenkins on the line.(on the right)( William L. Jenkins)
September 25, 2006... NEW YORK, SEPTEMBER 1 'AND one day," Grandma said, "when the phone rings, it will be for you." Grandma was not talking about the telephone as an expediter of teen romance. She had herself just now put down the telephone, opened the...