National Review articles from September 2007

National Review archives from September 2007

Airbone laser: an exchange.(letters to the editor)(Letter to the editor)
September 10, 2007... John J. Miller's "'Peace Through Light'" (August 13) transmits uncritically the Air Force's hype of the Airborne Laser, and hence misinforms. That Miller did not even understand the hype is shown by his statement that the ABL is supposed to...

Senator Vitter is doing well in the polls.(The Week)(Brief article)
September 10, 2007... Senator Vitter is doing well in the polls. Good news for Louisiana politicians; bad news for their wives.

Early in the last century, there was a genre of patriotic children's literature, in which Boy Scouts helped win the Great War.(The Week)(Brief article)
September 10, 2007... Early in the last century, there was a genre of patriotic children's literature, in which Boy Scouts helped win the Great War. It walks among us today, whenever Barack Obama opines on foreign affairs. His latest insight: "We've got to get the...

Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney won the Iowa straw poll by a wide margin over the runner-up, former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee (31 percent to 18 percent).(The Week)(Brief article)
September 10, 2007... Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney won the Iowa straw poll by a wide margin over the runner-up, former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee (31 percent to 18 percent). The large sums Romney spent on advertising and organizing had given him a...

Huckabee's surprise second-place finish is getting him a bit more attention, including from us (see Byron York's take in this issue).(The Week)(Brief article)
September 10, 2007... Huckabee's surprise second-place finish is getting him a bit more attention, including from us (see Byron York's take in this issue). He is thoughtful and funny enough that even journalists who cannot stand his anti-Darwinism like him. Or maybe...

"Paris is worth a Mass," said Henry of Navarre, when he foreswore his Protestant faith in order to capture the French throne at the end of the 16th century.(The Week)(Brief article)
September 10, 2007... "Paris is worth a Mass," said Henry of Navarre, when he foreswore his Protestant faith in order to capture the French throne at the end of the 16th century. Most French Catholics were pleased by his conversion, though Francois Ravaillac, a...

Giuliani and Romney are scrapping over who has the toughest record on illegal immigration.(The Week)(Rudolph Guiliani and Mitt Romney)(Brief article)
September 10, 2007... Giuliani and Romney are scrapping over who has the toughest record on illegal immigration. Sen. Mel Martinez, chairman of the RNC, stepped in to say that neither candidate was being a "leader" the way John McCain is: "leadership" apparently...

The Department of Homeland Security announced that it would issue new regulations aimed at employers who receive "no match" letters from the Social Security Administration.(The Week)(Brief article)
September 10, 2007... The Department of Homeland Security announced that it would issue new regulations aimed at employers who receive "no match" letters from the Social Security Administration. Such letters are sent to businesses that file W-2 forms on which the...

The U.S. Federal Reserve cut the rate at which it makes direct loans to banks, sending a signal to Wall Street that it is aware of the credit contraction that has hit global financial markets.(The Week)(Brief article)
September 10, 2007... The U.S. Federal Reserve cut the rate at which it makes direct loans to banks, sending a signal to Wall Street that it is aware of the credit contraction that has hit global financial markets. At the same time, the Fed wisely refrained from...

A number of the second-tier Republican presidential candidates have made supportive comments about a national sales tax; the idea is the centerpiece of Huckabee's campaign.(The Week)(Brief article)
September 10, 2007... A number of the second-tier Republican presidential candidates have made supportive comments about a national sales tax; the idea is the centerpiece of Huckabee's campaign. But none of the top-tier candidates is touching the issue--and for very...

Senate Republicans should relish the confirmation fight over Leslie H. Southwick's nomination to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals.(The Week)(Brief article)
September 10, 2007... Senate Republicans should relish the confirmation fight over Leslie H. Southwick's nomination to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. Last year the Senate Judiciary Committee unanimously approved the former Mississippi appellate judge for a...

Rove, the next day.(Poem)
September 10, 2007... ROVE, THE NEXT DAY Querulous as Banquo's ghost, Karl Rove hangs around to roast "Fatally flawed" Hillary, Whose negative apogee Dangles like a garter belt-- An affliction she was dealt By an unkind...

"I had a difficult year," Justice Stephen Breyer told the American Bar Association's annual meeting.(The Week)(Brief article)
September 10, 2007... "I had a difficult year," Justice Stephen Breyer told the American Bar Association's annual meeting. "I was in dissent quite a lot, and I wasn't happy." You may recall similar reflections from Chief Justice Marshall, Justice Cardozo, and...

Jose Padilla, the gang member turned jihadist, was convicted of terrorism conspiracy charges for his participation in a South Florida Qaeda support cell.(The Week)(Brief article)
September 10, 2007... Jose Padilla, the gang member turned jihadist, was convicted of terrorism conspiracy charges for his participation in a South Florida Qaeda support cell. The key piece of evidence against him was an application to attend a training camp in...

Global Village People.(The Week)(cosmopolitan Anthony Bourdain)(Television program review)
September 10, 2007... I'VE become something of a foodie, which is perhaps why I've become addicted to cooking shows. Lately, I've found myself enjoying No Reservations, a TV series hosted by "bad-boy chef" Anthony Bourdain. In No Reservations, which appears on the...

Two reactions are appropriate to the imminent addition of Iran's Revolutionary Guard to the State Department's list of terrorist organizations.(The Week)(Brief article)
September 10, 2007... Two reactions are appropriate to the imminent addition of Iran's Revolutionary Guard to the State Department's list of terrorist organizations. First, one should cheer: The Guard kills American troops and Iraqi civilians, is patron-in-chief to...

Everyone knocks Iraqi politicians, for missing their benchmarks, going on vacation, and generally not being all we want them to be.(The Week)(Brief article)
September 10, 2007... Everyone knocks Iraqi politicians, for missing their benchmarks, going on vacation, and generally not being all we want them to be. But they take risks of which average politicians know nothing. They are always being kidnapped, maimed,...

Has U.S. ambassador to the U.N. Zalmay Khalilzad abandoned serious efforts to bring greater transparency and accountability to that troublesome body?(The Week)(United Nations)(Brief article)
September 10, 2007... Has U.S. ambassador to the U.N. Zalmay Khalilzad abandoned serious efforts to bring greater transparency and accountability to that troublesome body? And, if so, does that represent a change in the Bush administration's policy? The early signs...

Nobody strives harder to get your attention than the guy who wants to tell you something utterly banal.(The Week)(hackers at the United Nations)(Brief article)
September 10, 2007... Nobody strives harder to get your attention than the guy who wants to tell you something utterly banal. So it is with computer hackers, some number of whom managed to break into several websites belonging to U.N. agencies and post unauthorized...

There'll be no more skirlie in Scotland this summer, at least not during business hours.(The Week)(National Health Service rules on eating at Ramadan)(Brief article)
September 10, 2007... There'll be no more skirlie in Scotland this summer, at least not during business hours. The National Health Service in Glasgow and Lothian has suspended the act of eating during the holy month of Ramadan. Doctors and health workers are not to...

"Allah is a very beautiful word for God. Shouldn't we all say that from now on we will name God Allah?".(The Week)(Brief article)
September 10, 2007... "Allah is a very beautiful word for God. Shouldn't we all say that from now on we will name God Allah?" So said Tiny Muskens, a Dutch Catholic bishop, who went on television recently to broadcast his novel idea, which he says could ease...

Readers may remember Farfur, the adorable Mickey Mouse character who starred in a children's show on Hamas-owned Al Aqsa TV in the Gaza Strip.(The Week)(Brief article)
September 10, 2007... Readers may remember Farfur, the adorable Mickey Mouse character who starred in a children's show on Hamas-owned Al Aqsa TV in the Gaza Strip. Following complaints that they were infringing on Disney's copyright, the show's producers had poor...

Every so often in the old days, the Communist East Germans shot individuals or even families attempting to cross the Iron Curtain into West Germany.(The Week)(Brief article)
September 10, 2007... Every so often in the old days, the Communist East Germans shot individuals or even families attempting to cross the Iron Curtain into West Germany. One reliable estimate is that 780 freedom-seekers lost their lives in this way. It was always...

Parades and fireworks and displays of national pride in India and Pakistan mark 60 years of independence for both countries.(The Week)(Brief article)
September 10, 2007... Parades and fireworks and displays of national pride in India and Pakistan mark 60 years of independence for both countries. The Indian subcontinent might have been the jewel in the British crown, but by 1947 the British were too war-weary and...

The Russians have claimed the North Pole. No, this was not a matter of Spetsnaz troops in Arctic camouflage storming Santa's workshop.(The Week)(Brief article)
September 10, 2007... The Russians have claimed the North Pole. No, this was not a matter of Spetsnaz troops in Arctic camouflage storming Santa's workshop. It was, in fact, entirely symbolic, a Russian minisub planting a titanium flagpole on the sea bed at latitude...

When word of Karl Rove's resignation reached the Seattle Times during a daily news meeting, cheers erupted.(The Week)(Brief article)
September 10, 2007... When word of Karl Rove's resignation reached the Seattle Times during a daily news meeting, cheers erupted. Executive editor David Boardman sent a pair of memos to his staff: "That sort of expression is simply not appropriate for a newsroom....

Poems from Guantanamo is just that, a collection of 22 poems written by War on Terror detainees at the Guantanamo Bay facility, translated by U.S. government linguists, approved by the Pentagon, published by the University of Iowa Press, and--naturally!--given a full-page review in the New York Times Sunday book section.(The Week)(Brief article)
September 10, 2007... Poems from Guantanamo is just that, a collection of 22 poems written by War on Terror detainees at the Guantanamo Bay facility, translated by U.S. government linguists, approved by the Pentagon, published by the University of Iowa Press,...

The film September Dawn purports to tell the story of the Mountain Meadows massacre of September 11, 1857, in which Mormon militiamen slaughtered over 120 people on a California-bound wagon train.(The Week)(Movie review)(Brief article)
September 10, 2007... The film September Dawn purports to tell the story of the Mountain Meadows massacre of September 11, 1857, in which Mormon militiamen slaughtered over 120 people on a California-bound wagon train. It pins the blame on Brigham Young, Mormonism's...

Michael Vick, star quarterback for the Atlanta Falcons, won't be playing for a while.(The Week)(Brief article)
September 10, 2007... Michael Vick, star quarterback for the Atlanta Falcons, won't be playing for a while. Vick and three cronies were charged with betting on dogfights, and with torturing to death the dogs that did not fight well. When the cronies pleaded guilty,...

Michael Deaver, Ronald Reagan's image-maker, was modest about his gifts.(The Week)(Obituary)(Brief article)
September 10, 2007... Michael Deaver, Ronald Reagan's image-maker, was modest about his gifts. "The only thing I did was light him well," he liked to say. That is true--Reagan was the man in charge of his own persona, and his beliefs--but good lighting, and all the...

Brooke Astor was linked, by marriage, to a great swath of the history of New York money and social life.(The Week)(Obituary)(Brief article)
September 10, 2007... Brooke Astor was linked, by marriage, to a great swath of the history of New York money and social life. John Jacob Astor, fur trader and real-estate sharpie, is memorialized in a subway stop and the Astor Library (ancestor of the New York...

Exit strategist.(POLITICS)(Karl Rove)
September 10, 2007... NO presidential aide in the modern era has had as wide-ranging a portfolio as Karl Rove. He was the president's top political adviser, as well as his top domestic policymaker. Some of the opprobrium he has received from the Left is the result...

Jeremiah Milbank Jr., R.I.P.(OBITUARY)(Obituary)
September 10, 2007... WHEN the need for such a magazine as this one crystallized, General Eisenhower was president and his reelection was presumed. But there was dissatisfaction with the substance of Republican-establishment thought, which was dismissed by many as...

Timothy J. Wheeler, R.I.P.(OBITUARY)(Obituary)
September 10, 2007... TIM WHEELER wasn't a household name, even within the conservative movement. But a generation of NR readers took delight in his words, whether or not they knew the identity of their author. Tim was the king of the "offbeat paragraph"--the short...

When the fix is in: fixers, interpreters, and reporting from Iraq.(AT WAR)
September 10, 2007... A BRITISH colleague of mine was sent by his newspaper to Iraq in 2005, just before the July 7 bombings in London. After that attack, his editor asked him to canvass "ordinary Iraqis" for their reaction. The resulting article reported that all...

The new Anbar: what the surge hath wrought.(AT WAR II)(United States troops occupation of Anbar, Iraq)
September 10, 2007... Anbar Province TO protect "operational security" I am not told about the trip until the night before. The two commanders of coalition forces in Anbar (mostly Marines) are to meet U.S. ambassador Ryan Crocker and presidential envoy Meghan...

LOST is right: the U.S. should steer clear of the Law of the Sea treaty.(THE WORLD)
September 10, 2007... ON June 29, 1982, President Reagan decided at a meeting of his National Security Council not to sign the Law of the Sea treaty. He opposed it "even without its seabed mining provisions," as he confided to his diary that night. Four months...

Uh-oh: things aren't looking so hot for the Republicans in next year's House elections.(2008)(United States Congress )
September 10, 2007... AS Republicans entered the 2008 election cycle, Washington's conventional wisdom offered them three certainties. First, their odds were long for keeping the presidency--as bad as four-to-one, Newt Gingrich has said. And, second, Republicans...

Movin' our way: Giuliani and Romney toughen up on immigration, but both still have problems ...(2008 II)(Rudolph Giuliani and Mitt Romney)
September 10, 2007... THE debate over immigration reform didn't end with the Senate defeat of President Bush's comprehensive plan. Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney are now touting their support for tough enforcement measures--while charging each other with having been...

For a nation of buttes: the glory of federalism.(CULTURE WATCH)(freedom in the modern age)
September 10, 2007... WE pulled into Butte, Montana, for lunch. We're far enough along in our story for a brief aside: One of the great advantages to working from home is that you don't have to stay there. So, almost every summer my wife (who also works from...

Another man from hope: former governor Mike Huckabee shares some of Clinton's talents, but is definitely his own man.(Interview)(Cover story)
September 10, 2007... Des Moines, Iowa MIKE HUCKABEE famously lost 110 pounds through a strict regime of diet and exercise, but on a visit to the Iowa State Fair he can't get away without trying the local specialty known as pork chop on a stick. It's not...

When 'thoughtful' is unthoughtful: Sen. Richard Lugar and the disastrous 'middle way' on Iraq.(AT WAR III)
September 10, 2007... IF you are a Republican, there is no ticket to being considered thoughtful quite like dissenting from President Bush's Iraq policy. Few senators stand to be as "thoughtful" in this sense in the September debate over Iraq as the six-term Indiana...

Woulda, coulda, shoulda: where the GOP went wrong.(POLITICS)(Republican Party)
September 10, 2007... HINDSIGHT isn't really 20/20, as arguments about history prove. When it comes to recent political history, hindsight is only a little bit better than foresight. It is easy to see that the Republican party is in bad shape right now. Figuring out...

The long view.(mortgage market)
September 10, 2007... Hello! And welcome to the Federal Reserve Bank Customer Care call center! Please listen carefully as our menu options have changed. You may make your selection at any time. Your call is important to us. Due to recent events in the...

Made in China.(HELP!!!)(Poem)
September 10, 2007... MADE IN CHINA Santa Claus has changed his brand; There's a fall-off in demand. Toys are giving kids the shakes. Mom and Dad do double-takes When the cat rolls over, dead. Peking slathers paint with lead Over...

Thou shalt not ...(Shattered Tablets: Why We Ignore the Ten Commandments at Our Peril)(Book review)
September 10, 2007... Shattered Tablets: Why We Ignore the Ten Commandments at Our Peril, by David Klinghoffer (Doubleday, 256 pp., $24.95) WHEN entering the chamber of the U.S. Supreme Court, visitors walk past a massive wooden door. On the door's lower half,...

The known unknowns.(Freedomnomics: Why the Free Market Works and Other Half-Baked Theories Don't)(Book review)
September 10, 2007... Freedomnomics: Why the Free Market Works and Other Half-Baked Theories Don't, by John R. Lott Jr. (Regnery, 256 pp., $27.95) ECONOMISTS John Lott and Steven Levitt are in the midst of a feud of somewhat operatic proportions, and Lott's...

Definitive Dante.(Paradiso)(Book review)
September 10, 2007... Paradiso, by Dante, translated by Robert Hollander and Jean Hollander (Doubleday, 915 pp., $40) FOR many years, Robert Hollander, professor of European literature at Princeton, has been working on explanatory notes for this edition of The...

Seeds of renewal.(ART)(Classical Realism painter Jacob Collins at Hirschl & Adler Galleries)(Critical essay)
September 10, 2007... ONE of the most refreshing exhibitions I have seen this year is a group of 30 small still lifes by the startlingly good young painter Jacob Collins. That's the good news. The bad news is that the show closed July 6 at the Hirschl & Adler...

Windows[R] XP for Everyone.(Brief article)(Book review)
September 10, 2007... Windows[R] XP for Everyone, by Jaime A. Restrepo (Xlibris, 447 pp., $24.99) ??BOOKS IN BRIEF ? A NOTICE to fellow patients: In re the problem of mastering Windows, I recommend what I have just been presented by my own tutor in the subject,...

High art & low taxes.(MUSIC)(interviews of Salzburg Festival personalities)(Interview)
September 10, 2007... Salzburg, Austria LAST year, the Salzburg Festival staged the mother of all Mozart blowouts: It was his 250th birthday, you know. This year, things are more normal, with a variety of composers in the showcase. Not that Wolfi is banished...

Place in the road.(Poem)
September 10, 2007... PLACE IN THE ROAD I only just felt the body shiver through the car's frame: a second's interruption, then that sorry, sick feeling. How stupid it all seems. They streak across the road-- something I would never...

Boys to men.(FILM)("Superbad")(Movie review)
September 10, 2007... THE day will come when Judd Apatow, instead of turning out shaggy, sidesplitting portraits of contemporary masculinity, finds himself directing a bad, big-budget sequel to a movie that wasn't all that great to begin with--Balls to the Wall 2,...

Fled is that music.(THE STRAGGLER)(children studying the piano)
September 10, 2007... THERE is a specter haunting the Straggler household. The specter is not actually very spectral in form. It is, as a matter of fact, a large solid object weighing several hundred pounds, and occupying a prominent position in the living room....

Nice.(letters to the editor)(Letter to the editor)
September 24, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Life has imitated art in Britain's funnily named National Institute for Clinical Excellence, which Theodore Dalrymple's "Health of the State" (August 13) identifies as one of the gatekeepers for socialized medicine...

Nice II.(Letter to the editor)
September 24, 2007... Ramesh Ponnuru makes many good points in his article "Woulda, Coulda, Shoulda" (September 10), yet he unduly complicates his analysis. The reasons the Republican party has lost its footing can be boiled down to two: It has strayed from core...

Since when is it a crime for a Republican senator.(The Week)(Brief article)
September 24, 2007... Since when is it a crime for a Republican senator to reach out to gays?

Larry Craig jokes, such as the above, have been a guilty pleasure.(The Week)(Brief article)
September 24, 2007... Larry Craig jokes, such as the above, have been a guilty pleasure. The senator cruised a bathroom, then pled guilty to a misdemeanor, hoping it would all go away. It is right that he step down. Vital public amenities should not be places of...

With the formal announcement of his candidacy for the Republican presidential nomination, former Tennessee senator Fred Thompson joins a field with no traditional frontrunner.(The Week)(Brief article)
September 24, 2007... With the formal announcement of his candidacy for the Republican presidential nomination, former Tennessee senator Fred Thompson joins a field with no traditional frontrunner. Rudy Giuliani tops national polls, while Mitt Romney holds a lead in...

In a speech to the Veterans of Foreign Wars convention in Kansas City, President Bush drew a parallel between the Iraq and Vietnam wars.(The Week)(George W. Bush)(Brief article)
September 24, 2007... In a speech to the Veterans of Foreign Wars convention in Kansas City, President Bush drew a parallel between the Iraq and Vietnam wars. "Then as now, people argued... that if we would just withdraw, the killing would end." Howls of protest...

Alberto Gonzales is leaving the Justice Department after months of being a Democratic punching bag.(The Week)(Brief article)
September 24, 2007... Alberto Gonzales is leaving the Justice Department after months of being a Democratic punching bag. Many of the hits he took were undeserved. There is no evidence that the "U.S. attorneys scandal" deserves that label. The administration,...

The primary, wrote Theodore H. White in The Making of the President 1960, "is America's most original contribution to the art of democracy.".(The Week)(Brief article)
September 24, 2007... The primary, wrote Theodore H. White in The Making of the President 1960, "is America's most original contribution to the art of democracy." He could afford to be charitable: In 1960, there were only 16 primaries; on the Democratic side, John...

An Iowa judge called his state's marriage law unconstitutional, ordering the government to recognize same-sex marriages.(The Week)(Brief article)
September 24, 2007... An Iowa judge called his state's marriage law unconstitutional, ordering the government to recognize same-sex marriages. The leading Democratic presidential candidates all claim to oppose same-sex marriage, but are unwilling to do a thing about...

No sooner did New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg put the kibosh on his presidential ambitions than other candidates began stealing his issues.(The Week)(Brief article)
September 24, 2007... No sooner did New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg put the kibosh on his presidential ambitions than other candidates began stealing his issues. Former senator John Edwards and former governor Mike Huckabee have both come out for federal bans...

The press and Democratic presidential candidates may be panicking over the "subprime meltdown" of 2007, but so far policymakers are not.(The Week)(Brief article)
September 24, 2007... The press and Democratic presidential candidates may be panicking over the "subprime meltdown" of 2007, but so far policymakers are not. Fed chairman Ben Bernanke says he is willing to expand the money supply, but only if he sees evidence of...

Six years after September 11, the CIA is still resisting accountability.(The Week)(Central Intelligence Agency)(Brief article)
September 24, 2007... Six years after September 11, the CIA is still resisting accountability. Two years ago, the inspector general finished a report on the CIA's performance before the attacks. An executive summary has been released only now, and over the strong...

A reporter asked 1988 Democratic presidential nominee Michael Dukakis for his thoughts on this race.(The Week)(Brief article)
September 24, 2007... A reporter asked 1988 Democratic presidential nominee Michael Dukakis for his thoughts on this race. He touted grassroots organizing--good advice--but gave an odd explanation. "We're not going to outspend the other guys. We're probably not...

Obama Courts Miami.(Poem)(Brief article)
September 24, 2007... OBAMA COURTS MIAMI A pitch for family giving To Cubans has gone bust. The boos reached Coral Gables; The cheers were less robust. A sloppy staff, ignoring Reno's kidnapping ploy Left many in Miami Muttering more...

A decade ago, Republican senator John Warner was widely seen as a buffoon.(The Week)(Brief article)
September 24, 2007... A decade ago, Republican senator John Warner was widely seen as a buffoon. Now he is stepping down, and his press could not be better. Warner "surprised everyone by becoming so much more than an elder statesman," wrote a Washington Post...

No new hurricanes have crashed into the Gulf Coast.(The Week)(Louisiana election)(Brief article)
September 24, 2007... * No new hurricanes have crashed into the Gulf Coast. But two years after Katrina, a mean season of racial and religious demagoguery is settling upon Louisiana. On October 20, or perhaps in a runoff on November 17, voters are likely to elect...

Bust and boom.(The Week)(real estate)
September 24, 2007... FINANCIAL markets gyrated wildly in August, in part because of concerns that the U.S. housing sector would bring the rest of the economy down. But markets were positively sedate compared with many pundits, who look at the U.S. housing sector...

Ahmed Mohamed and Youssef Megahed, Egyptian nationals and students at the University of South Florida's school of engineering, have been indicted in South Carolina for transporting explosives across state lines.(The Week)(Brief article)
September 24, 2007... Ahmed Mohamed and Youssef Megahed, Egyptian nationals and students at the University of South Florida's school of engineering, have been indicted in South Carolina for transporting explosives across state lines. The Council on American-Islamic...

The Bush administration finally took a stab at enforcing immigration laws at the workplace, only to get hit by a lawsuit.(The Week)(George W. Bush)(Brief article)
September 24, 2007... The Bush administration finally took a stab at enforcing immigration laws at the workplace, only to get hit by a lawsuit. The Social Security Administration was set to notify employers when their employees' identification numbers did not match...

Elvira Arellano, the illegal immigrant from Mexico who holed up in a Chicago church for a year, and who has now been deported to her home country, strikes us as an interesting psychological study.(The Week)(Brief article)
September 24, 2007... Elvira Arellano, the illegal immigrant from Mexico who holed up in a Chicago church for a year, and who has now been deported to her home country, strikes us as an interesting psychological study. On the one hand, Ms. Arellano is vocally...

Benazir Bhutto and Pervez Musharraf have their disagreements, but on some of the most important issues they see eye to eye: both are reformist, pro-Western, and relatively liberal.(The Week)(Brief article)
September 24, 2007... Benazir Bhutto and Pervez Musharraf have their disagreements, but on some of the most important issues they see eye to eye: Both are reformist, pro-Western, and relatively liberal. It's not surprising, then, that they are trying to work out a...

The announcement that North Korea has agreed to "disclose and dismantle" its nuclear program by the end of the year raises more questions than it answers.(The Week)(Brief article)
September 24, 2007... The announcement that North Korea has agreed to "disclose and dismantle" its nuclear program by the end of the year raises more questions than it answers. Will Pyongyang declare the clandestine uranium-enrichment program it is widely believed...

Judicial authorities in Estonia have brought a charge of genocide against 88-year-old Arnold Meri.(The Week)(Brief article)
September 24, 2007... Judicial authorities in Estonia have brought a charge of genocide against 88-year-old Arnold Meri. As a functionary of the Soviet-puppet government of Estonia in 1949, Meri participated in the postwar mass deportation of Estonian citizens to...

Hollywood is about to release a batch of Terror War movies.(The Week)(films about Iraqi War)(Brief article)
September 24, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Hollywood is about to release a batch of Terror War movies. What are they like? You'll know when you see them, but here are thumbnail advance sketches from mainstream media. Lions for Lambs: Robert Redford is an...

Once, he was a manly man to whose patriotic valor every little boy aspired.(The Week)(G.I. Joe)(Brief article)
September 24, 2007... Once, he was a manly man to whose patriotic valor every little boy aspired. But now, G.I. Joe has gone the way of the internationalists. The eponymous hero of Paramount Pictures' G.I. Joe won't be an American soldier at all--rather, an acronym,...

Prisoners in our jails are not allowed to wear belts for fear they will use them as weapons, or as instruments of suicide.(The Week)(sagging pants)(Brief article)
September 24, 2007... Prisoners in our jails are not allowed to wear belts for fear they will use them as weapons, or as instruments of suicide. In a deplorable case of "owning the insult," young black toughs have taken to wearing low-slung pants in honor of their...

The list of nations and peoples claiming to have beaten Chris Columbus to the discovery of the New World is already quite long: the Chinese, the Polynesians, the Vikings, the Irish, and the Welsh all say they were here first.(The Week)(Brief article)
September 24, 2007... The list of nations and peoples claiming to have beaten Chris Columbus to the discovery of the New World is already quite long: The Chinese, the Polynesians, the Vikings, the Irish, and the Welsh all say they were here first. In the current...

In unusually cheering news from the strange little world of ethnic apologizing, the Tolai tribesmen of Papua New Guinea have expressed formal regret for having killed, cooked, and eaten four missionaries back in 1878.(The Week)(Brief article)
September 24, 2007... In unusually cheering news from the strange little world of ethnic apologizing, the Tolai tribesmen of Papua New Guinea have expressed formal regret for having killed, cooked, and eaten four missionaries back in 1878. The missionaries were...

Was it the biggest upset in the history of college football? Probably.(The Week)(Appalachian State Mountaineers, University of Michigan Wolverines)(Brief article)
September 24, 2007... Was it the biggest upset in the history of college football? Probably. On the first day of September, the Appalachian State Mountaineers beat the University of Michigan Wolverines. What was the big deal? Michigan is one of the best and most...

Stay.(AT WAR: A SPECIAL EDITORIAL)(Iraqi War)(Cover story)
September 24, 2007... I. Facts on the Ground A YEAR ago today, we were losing the Iraq War. The Democrats won an election based largely on discontent with the war's conduct, and it looked like public support was on a long, terminal slide. Now, we have made real...