National Review articles from September 2008

National Review archives from September 2008

So you're selling my baby.(letters to the editor)(Letter to the editor)
September 1, 2008... In his article "Lost Generation" (August 4) Kevin D. Williamson illustrates another tragic result of the Roe v. Wade decision and its concomitant 50 million abortions: a trend toward fewer children available for adoption in the United States....

Correction.(letters to the editor)(Correction notice)
September 1, 2008... In "Nuclear Power? Yes, Please" (June 16), Iain Murray attributed an Amory Lovins quote--"It'd be a little short of disastrous for us to discover a source of clean, cheap, abundant energy because of what we might do with it"--to a 1977...

Don't try this at home, guys.(The Week ...)(Brief article)
September 1, 2008... Don't try this at home, guys: "Well, honey, 99 percent of the time I've been faithful to you..."

What began as a trivial and unedifying sally in the presidential campaign became something more.(Brief article)
September 1, 2008... What began as a trivial and unedifying sally in the presidential campaign became something more. John McCain ran an ad comparing Barack Obama to Paris Hilton and Britney Spears, suggesting that he too had more fame than merit. Some of Obama's...

McCain showed off his "populist" side in a recent ad.(John McCain's political advertisement)(Brief article)
September 1, 2008... McCain showed off his "populist" side in a recent ad. The ad said that we are "worse off than we were four years ago." It also noted that McCain had taken on tobacco, oil, and drug companies. This anti-corporate posturing is, on the merits,...

John Edwards's confession that he had an affair with former campaign videographer Rielle Hunter was front-page news, and possible holes in his story--he denied fathering Hunter's out-of-wedlock child, saying he would take "any test necessary" to prove it, though Hunter's lawyer declared that she would "not participate"--have been well covered elsewhere.(Brief article)
September 1, 2008... John Edwards's confession that he had an affair with former campaign videographer Rielle Hunter was front-page news, and possible holes in his story--he denied fathering Hunter's out-of-wedlock child, saying he would take "any test necessary"...

Since Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign began to sputter, way back when, the Democratic political class has been fixated on the infighting and internal rivalries that plagued the effort.(Brief article)
September 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Since Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign began to sputter, way back when, the Democratic political class has been fixated on the infighting and internal rivalries that plagued the effort. Did Mark Penn say this?...

Question: what's the difference between MoveOn.org and a mob protection racket?(Brief article)
September 1, 2008... Question: What's the difference between MoveOn.org and a mob protection racket? Answer: not much. At least that's the way it looks after a former top MoveOn official, a man named Tom Matzzie, announced that he is forming a new group,...

According to the latest official statistics, the economy shrank by 0.2 percent in the last quarter of last year, then grew by 0.9 percent and 1.9 percent in the first two quarters of this one.(The Week)(Brief article)
September 1, 2008... According to the latest official statistics, the economy shrank by 0.2 percent in the last quarter of last year, then grew by 0.9 percent and 1.9 percent in the first two quarters of this one. In other words: We have had no recession, and...

After the House adjourned for summer recess without voting on an energy bill, half a dozen Republicans stayed in the empty chamber, razzing the majority and calling for offshore drilling.(Brief article)
September 1, 2008... After the House adjourned for summer recess without voting on an energy bill, half a dozen Republicans stayed in the empty chamber, razzing the majority and calling for offshore drilling. Their number swelled to about 20 as word got out;...

Pelosi has clearly been feeling the pressure, and has recently said that she might allow a vote on drilling after all.(Nancy Pelosi)(Brief article)
September 1, 2008... Pelosi has clearly been feeling the pressure, and has recently said that she might allow a vote on drilling after all. Unfortunately, she wants legislation along the lines of what ten senators recently offered as a compromise. Their bill would...

In the first week following its publication, Know Your Power, by Speaker Pelosi, sold all of 2,737 copies.(Nancy Pelosi)(Brief article)
September 1, 2008... In the first week following its publication, Know Your Power, by Speaker Pelosi, sold all of 2,737 copies. Then the House adjourned and, freed of annoyances like energy legislation and the mortgage crisis, Pelosi went on tour to promote it....

At a campaign stop in St. Cloud, Democratic-Farmer-Labor party candidate Al Franken.(Brief article)
September 1, 2008... At a campaign stop in St. Cloud, Democratic-Farmer-Labor party candidate Al Franken, who hopes to represent Minnesota in the U.S. Senate, was greeted by an audience of one, which isn't all that much worse than he did as a radio host for Air...

Sens. Lindsey Graham and Joe Lieberman, top McCain advisers, proposed legislation to counter the worst excesses of the Supreme Court's Boumediene ruling, which gave enemy combatants a constitutional right to challenge their detention in federal court.(Brief article)
September 1, 2008... Sens. Lindsey Graham and Joe Lieberman, top McCain advisers, proposed legislation to counter the worst excesses of the Supreme Court's Boumediene ruling, which gave enemy combatants a constitutional right to challenge their detention in federal...

A military-commission trial finally took place.(Brief article)
September 1, 2008... A military-commission trial finally took place. The tribunal, assimilating the anti-war Left's critique of it, seemed bent on proving it could be even more defendant-friendly than a civilian court. Salim Hamdan, Osama bin Laden's personal...

Determined to end its troubled anthrax investigation, the Justice Department held a press conference to identify Bruce Ivins, a microbiologist at the Army's infectious-diseases laboratory in Maryland, as the lone culprit.(The Week ...)(Brief article)
September 1, 2008... Determined to end its troubled anthrax investigation, the Justice Department held a press conference to identify Bruce Ivins, a microbiologist at the Army's infectious-diseases laboratory in Maryland, as the lone culprit. Investigators showed,...

Detroit mayor Kwame Kilpatrick just can't stay out of trouble.(Brief article)
September 1, 2008... Detroit mayor Kwame Kilpatrick just can't stay out of trouble. A day after serving a jail sentence for violating bond on a perjury case, he allegedly violated bond on an assault case. The former case arose from his testimony in a civil trial...

Idle youth vote.
September 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] THERE'S an old story of an ancient bureaucrat at the British Foreign Office who, after working from 1903 to 1950, reminisced that "year after year the worriers and fretters would come to me with awful predictions of...

Some observers--most notably, Reason magazine's Radley Balko--have long been documenting U.S. police forces' increasingly militaristic approach to the drug war.(Brief article)
September 1, 2008... Some observers--most notably, Reason magazine's Radley Balko--have long been documenting U.S. police forces' increasingly militaristic approach to the drug war. Their latest example is among the most shocking: After intercepting 32 pounds of...

We have been here before.(The Week ...)(Brief article)
September 1, 2008... We have been here before. In 1936 and 1980, as now, the Olympics were held in powerful despotic states, which used the games as a promotional spectacle and imposed various restrictions on journalists, athletes, and their own by-standing...

How high-minded of Moqtada al-Sadr.(Brief article)
September 1, 2008... How high-minded of Moqtada al-Sadr. After his forces were routed by American troops and the Iraqi army in Basra, Sadr City, and Amarah, he decided to disband his militia--or most of it--and make it a social-services organization. This is a...

Pakistan has always been a dictatorship masquerading as a democracy, and right now this equivocal country is very troubling.(Brief article)
September 1, 2008... Pakistan has always been a dictatorship masquerading as a democracy, and right now this equivocal country is very troubling. Pervez Musharraf, its president, seized power in 1999, and the legitimacy of his rule has been under a shadow from the...

The resignation of prime minister Ehud Olmert has gladdened most Israelis.(Brief article)
September 1, 2008... The resignation of prime minister Ehud Olmert has gladdened most Israelis. In spite of his mounting unpopularity, he had been clinging to office using all the black arts of politics. Always a man of the right, he suddenly and cynically swerved...

The social benefits of pet ownership are manifold.(Brief article)
September 1, 2008... The social benefits of pet ownership are manifold. Dog owners are specially blessed by the extra opportunities a daily walk affords for greeting, meeting, chatting, and flirting. It is apparently the flirting that most alarms Saudi Arabia's...

The left wing of the Democratic party still holds up Canada's "single payer"--that is, entirely government-financed--health-care system as a model.(Brief article)
September 1, 2008... The left wing of the Democratic party still holds up Canada's "single payer"--that is, entirely government-financed--health-care system as a model. The latest innovation of that system: Overextended doctors are deciding which patients will get...

Social scientists in Britain have conducted a survey of attitudes toward Islam among the nation's university students.(Brief article)
September 1, 2008... Social scientists in Britain have conducted a survey of attitudes toward Islam among the nation's university students. Of the Muslim students, one-third support the creation of a worldwide caliphate, about the same number believe that killing...

The Retail, Wholesale, and Department Store Union recently negotiated a new five-year contract at the Tyson Foods poultry-processing plant in Shelbyville, Tenn.(Tyson Foods Inc.)(Brief article)
September 1, 2008... The Retail, Wholesale, and Department Store Union recently negotiated a new five-year contract at the Tyson Foods poultry-processing plant in Shelbyville, Tenn. Under the new contract the plant's workers were to get eight paid holidays, as...

Climate-change hysteria is at least offering endless opportunities for entrepreneurship.(Brief article)
September 1, 2008... Climate-change hysteria is at least offering endless opportunities for entrepreneurship. We suspect, at any rate, that this may be the motivation of Australian scientist George Wilson, who is urging us to eat kangaroo meat in order to reduce...

Some years ago we quipped that if a tornado were ever to pass through Manhattan, the New York Times headline on the story would include: "Blacks and Hispanics Hardest Hit.".(Brief article)
September 1, 2008... Some years ago we quipped that if a tornado were ever to pass through Manhattan, the New York Times headline on the story would include: "Blacks and Hispanics Hardest Hit." Well, well, life imitates art. Here is Rep. James Clyburn (D., S.C.) to...

Anne Armstrong, who died on July 30 at age 80, was a long-time Republican leader and adviser to presidents from Richard Nixon to George H. W. Bush.(Obituary)(Brief article)
September 1, 2008... Anne Armstrong, who died on July 30 at age 80, was a longtime Republican leader and adviser to presidents from Richard Nixon to George H. W. Bush. She attained her greatest public prominence in 1976, when Gerald Ford named her ambassador to...

In the early 1970s, when John M. Olin wanted to turn his private foundation into the powerful underwriter of ideas that it would become, he summoned Frank O'Connell to his office.(The Week ...)(Obituary)(Brief article)
September 1, 2008... In the early 1970s, when John M. Olin wanted to turn his private foundation into the powerful underwriter of ideas that it would become, he summoned Frank O'Connell to his office. "I would like to use this fortune to help preserve the system...

Caucasus Belli.(Russian-Georgian War)
September 1, 2008... THOUGH the order "Lights, camera, action!" was given by Georgian president Mikhail Saakashvili, the wartime drama now unfolding in the Caucasus was devised, scripted, directed, and produced in Moscow by Vladimir Putin and his fellow siloviki...

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, R.I.P.(OBITUARY)(Obituary)
September 1, 2008... AFTER the fall of the Soviet Union--so thunderous, so unexpected--the bystanders wondered who had brought it about. Was it the main actors on the spot, Mikhail Gorbachev and Boris Yeltsin, pulling sometimes in tandem, more often at loggerheads?...

Peter Rodman, R.I.P.(Obituary)
September 1, 2008... As Russia's invasion of Georgia swept down the Caucasus, the editors of NATIONAL REVIEW asked each other: "What advice would Peter Rodman be giving us about this?" From 1991, when he arrived at NR as a senior editor, until he fell ill a...

Wicca economics: the theory with a magic leader.
September 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] JUST after the 2006 election, exultant Democrats and exasperated Republicans identified Iraq and corruption as the decisive issues, and predicted these issues would also shape the 2008 presidential race. They were...

Dr. Obama's prescription: it isn't one we should want to take.(Barack Obama's health policy)
September 1, 2008... MEMORIES of the Clinton health-care disaster should figure prominently in Democratic strategic planning. It was a debacle unlike any other in recent history, one the party will want to avoid repeating at all costs. In a few short months in...

Life opportunities: why McCain shouldn't run away from the abortion issue.(John McCain)
September 1, 2008... TALKING about social issues obviously makes John McCain uncomfortable, and he has said that he is not passionate about them. He doesn't have to become more enthusiastic. But he does need to understand that the most politically salient of the...

Quota quest: of Obama's vulnerability on racial preferences.
September 1, 2008... THE election of Barack Obama threatens to become the worst thing that ever happened to race-based affirmative action. So says liberal columnist Bonnie Erbe. "What could do more damage to the argument that African Americans deserve racial...

Meandering toward disaster: the perils of making a left-wing ideologue commander-in-chief.
September 1, 2008... ON the War on Terror, as with most issues, it can be difficult to understand Barack Obama's thinking if you listen only to his finely wrought speeches. But if you take the time to watch as Obama meanders toward a position, understanding him is...

Not ready for prime time: when you act too cool to be president ...
September 1, 2008... HERE'S what I'd say to Barack Obama if he called me for campaign advice (I'm not holding my breath): If you find yourself, for some reason, at the annual awards show put on by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association--otherwise known as the...

Senator stealth: how to advance radical causes when no one's looking.(Cover story)
September 1, 2008... AFTER hearing about Barack Obama's ties to the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Bill Ayers, Bernardine Dohrn, Fr. Michael Pfleger, and the militant activists of ACORN (the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now), it should be clear to...

Who is Barack Obama? His autobiography paints a disturbing picture.
September 1, 2008... WHO is Barack Obama? Obama the presidential candidate presents himself as a man who has loved America from his earliest childhood, a man proud of his mixed-race roots who comfortably transcends polarized racial politics, a man who eschews the...

Soldier for Stroger: the candidate of change helped keep Chicago politics dirty.(Todd Stroger)
September 1, 2008... WHAT is it like to work for the government of Cook County, Ill.? Simple. If you have the right political connections, you get the job. You get the raise. You get the promotion. You don't need to be qualified. You might not even need an...

Schedule changes for the democratic convention.(Calendar)
September 1, 2008... All changes marked with "***" MONDAY 7:45 AM: Sound check, final loading of staging platforms and risers. Balloons filled with helium and suspended in nets from the ceiling. ***7:47 AM: John Edwards Address--the former senator...

Schedule changes for the republican convention.(Calendar)
September 1, 2008... All changes marked with "***" MONDAY ***[PLEASE NOTE: Because of the advanced age of the candidate and most of the conventioneers, Monday's morning program has been moved to the Day Activity Room of the Sunnyside Assisted Living...

Help!(Cartoon)
September 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] "Do you have any idea how unpatriotic this is?" [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] "Do you know how much it cost me to learn all this psychobabble?" [ILLUSTRATIONS OMITTED]

Hero of a dark century.(Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn )
September 1, 2008... WITH the death of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn the world has lost one of the great souls of this or any age. His story was beyond improbable: A former prisoner or "zek" in the vast system of Soviet prisons and labor camps who had also miraculously...

Night Wind.(Poem)
September 1, 2008... NIGHT WIND What the heart believes is never lost: though sometimes to give it up seems the relief for which we would be most grateful. And as time passes by, one belief, or another, and...

Staying power.(Defending Identity: Its Indispensable Role in Protecting Democracy)(Book review)
September 1, 2008... Defending Identity: Its Indispensable Role in Protecting Democracy, by Natan Sharansky with Shira Wolosky Weiss (Public Affairs, 304 pp., $26.95) [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] WHAT kept Natan Sharansky alive in the Soviet gulag, he tells us...

Scenes of intimacy.(The Lincolns: Portrait of a Marriage)(Book review)
September 1, 2008... The Lincolns: Portrait of a Marriage, by Daniel Mark Epstein (Ballantine, 576 pp., $28) [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] IN this new book, Daniel Mark Epstein has composed an elegant and insightful study of a well-known couple. The author of...

Tales of Waugh.(Evelyn Waugh's Brideshead Revisited)(Movie review)
September 1, 2008... I SHOULD note at the outset that despite being a literary-minded Catholic convert, I regard Evelyn Waugh's Brideshead Revisited with something less than uncritical affection. I tend to share Waugh's own judgment, handed down in the late 1950s...

On the shelf.
September 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] HAS there been some kind of revolution in library management this past year or two? I recall library fines as being puny--nickels and dimes even for books overdue by a month or more. And then it seemed--and this is...

Giant.(Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn)(Obituary)
September 1, 2008... THE headline in the Times a few weeks ago--SOLZHENITSYN, LITERARY GIANT WHO DEFIED SOVIETS, DIES AT 89--seemed to come out of nowhere. It was almost (I say this blushingly) as if he had already died. "Giant" is in his case precisely accurate,...

Behind every great man ...(letters to the editor)(Letter to the editor)
September 15, 2008... Thank you for the obituary of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn ("The Week," September 1). I'm grateful that you remember his work and write appreciatively of his life. However, I'd like to point out that you extend sympathy only to his sons. Not...

Dueling batmen.(letters to the editor)(Letter to the editor)
September 15, 2008... In "Too Many Rules" (August 18), a respectful but ultimately dismissive review of The Dark Knight, Ross Douthat states that Tim Burton's Batman films will hold up better than Christopher Nolan's. Permit this aging fanboy to disagree. ...

Change you can believe in.(THE WEEK)(Brief article)
September 15, 2008... * Change you can believe in: We've been wondering for 35 years what it would take to get Joe Biden out of the Senate.

For the press, intra-Democratic disputes have all the intrinsic interest, and all the unpleasantness, of a fight within one's social circle.(THE WEEK)(Brief article)
September 15, 2008... * For the press, intra-Democratic disputes have all the intrinsic interest, and all the unpleasantness, of a fight within one's social circle. So coverage of the opening days of the Democratic convention dwelt on whether the Clintons and their...

John McCain committed a whopper when he ducked a Politico question about how many houses he has.(THE WEEK)(Brief article)
September 15, 2008... * John McCain committed a whopper when he ducked a Politico question about how many houses he has. The Obama campaign was happy to supply the figure (seven, several of them worth more than a million each). Everybody knows, the log-cabin myth...

During his days in the Illinois state legislature, Barack Obama opposed bills to provide legal protection to infants who survive botched abortions.(THE WEEK)(Brief article)
September 15, 2008... * During his days in the Illinois state legislature, Barack Obama opposed bills to provide legal protection to infants who survive botched abortions. When one such bill came to a vote, he worried that it would expose abortionists to legal...

Bill Ayers is an unrepentant terrorist responsible for various bombings.(THE WEEK)(Brief article)
September 15, 2008... * Bill Ayers is an unrepentant terrorist responsible for various bombings. He is also a friend of Barack Obama, who now dismisses Ayers as just "some guy who lives in my neighborhood"--albeit a guy who, along with his wife and fellow Weather...

Before Barack Obama announced his vice-presidential pick via text message, more than one pundit joked that he should do so at 3:00 A.M., just as a slap at Hillary Clinton.(THE WEEK)(Brief article)
September 15, 2008... * Before Barack Obama announced his vice-presidential pick via text message, more than one pundit joked that he should do so at 3:00 A.M., just as a slap at Hillary Clinton. Lo and behold, that is about the time the announcement went out. Even...

Jacob Weisberg of Slate is an either/or guy.(THE WEEK)(impact of having the first African American United States President)(Brief article)
September 15, 2008... * Jacob Weisberg of Slate is an either/or guy. If Obama wins, he writes, "we would finally be able to see our legacy of slavery, segregation and racism in the rearview mirror. Our kids would grow up thinking of prejudice as a nonfactor in their...

When it comes to oil and energy, now is an excellent time for Congress to do nothing.(THE WEEK)(Brief article)
September 15, 2008... * When it comes to oil and energy, now is an excellent time for Congress to do nothing. If nothing happens, the federal ban on producing petroleum from the 1.76 billion acres of the Outer Continental Shelf will expire on October 1, uncorking...

To avoid a reprise of 9/11, the Justice Department has worked to shift the FBI from traditional policing, in which crimes are investigated after the fact, to an intelligence orientation, aimed at preventing attacks by breaking up cells and plots at an early stage.(THE WEEK)(Brief article)
September 15, 2008... * To avoid a reprise of 9/11, the Justice Department has worked to shift the FBI from traditional policing, in which crimes are investigated after the fact, to an intelligence orientation, aimed at preventing attacks by breaking up cells and...

Citing the recent drop in commodity prices, Ben Bernanke said that the Fed was not going to hike interest rates anytime soon.(THE WEEK)(Brief article)
September 15, 2008... * Citing the recent drop in commodity prices, Ben Bernanke said that the Fed was not going to hike interest rates anytime soon. We think he is making a mistake. For one thing, he did not hike rates while commodity prices were soaring. The...

Another indicator for Bernanke to watch: Organized-crime groups are increasingly conducting their business in the euro, a Canadian report found.(THE WEEK)
September 15, 2008... * Another indicator for Bernanke to watch: Organized-crime groups are increasingly conducting their business in the euro, a Canadian report found. Perhaps gangster rappers will start wearing euro symbols around their necks.

Not many government operations function well, so it's worth noting the recent performance of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the low-key agency that insures most bank accounts up to $100,000.(THE WEEK)(Brief article)
September 15, 2008... * Not many government operations function well, so it's worth noting the recent performance of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the low-key agency that insures most bank accounts up to $100,000. When Kansas's Columbian Bank and Trust...

California's supreme court has ruled that the government may compel two doctors who declined to artificially inseminate an unmarried woman to do so, in contravention of their religious principles, which the court characterized as "incidental.".(THE WEEK)(Brief article)
September 15, 2008... * California's supreme court has ruled that the government may compel two doctors who declined to artificially inseminate an unmarried woman to do so, in contravention of their religious principles, which the court characterized as...

Iraqi prime minister Nouri al-Maliki is saying that a new security agreement with the U.S. must contain an unconditional deadline of 2011 for the pullout of all our troops.(THE WEEK)(Brief article)
September 15, 2008... * Iraqi prime minister Nouri al-Maliki is saying that a new security agreement with the U.S. must contain an unconditional deadline of 2011 for the pullout of all our troops. If he really means it, this is very bad news. But it's always...

Obama and other Democrats who have pushed relentlessly for a pullout from Iraq, insisting on arbitrary timelines and heedless of the need to consolidate battlefield victories, should look hard at Somalia.(THE WEEK)(Brief article)
September 15, 2008... * Obama and other Democrats who have pushed relentlessly for a pullout from Iraq, insisting on arbitrary timelines and heedless of the need to consolidate battlefield victories, should look hard at Somalia. In 2006, the Qaeda-affiliated Islamic...

The rich, soaked.(on President George W. Bush's tax policy)
September 15, 2008... IF you listen to critics, George W. Bush's tax cuts have dramatically changed the fairness of the U.S. federal income tax: "The Bush tax cuts give those who earn over $1 million a tax cut nearly 160 times greater than that received by...

Pakistan is close to becoming an unwelcome novelty, a failed state with somewhere between 50 and 100 nuclear bombs.(THE WEEK)(on the political and security situation in Pakistan)
September 15, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] * Pakistan is close to becoming an unwelcome novelty, a failed state with somewhere between 50 and 100 nuclear bombs. Suicide bombers wreak havoc in its streets. Whole parts of the country are a law unto themselves,...

Russia's invasion of Georgia was preceded by computerized attacks on Georgian Internet sites.(THE WEEK)(Brief article)
September 15, 2008... * Russia's invasion of Georgia was preceded by computerized attacks on Georgian Internet sites. The website of Georgian president Mikhail Saakashvili was non-functional for more than 24 hours, and the National Bank of Georgia's site was...

Before the Olympics, many observers--including members of the International Olympic Committee--speculated that the Games could spur China toward transparency and respect for human rights.(THE WEEK)(Brief article)
September 15, 2008... * Before the Olympics, many observers--including members of the International Olympic Committee--speculated that the Games could spur China toward transparency and respect for human rights. We disagreed, and, alas, things went as we predicted....

Ticking away in the red-brick row houses of Britain's old industrial cities are thousands of young Islamists.(THE WEEK)(Brief article)
September 15, 2008... * Ticking away in the red-brick row houses of Britain's old industrial cities are thousands of young Islamists. According to MI5, the nation's security agency, the current threat level is "severe," meaning there is "a high likelihood of future...

When Ali Kordan was nominated to run Iran's interior ministry, he capped off his list of qualifications by producing an honorary doctorate of laws from Oxford University.(THE WEEK)(Brief article)
September 15, 2008... * When Ali Kordan was nominated to run Iran's interior ministry, he capped off his list of qualifications by producing an honorary doctorate of laws from Oxford University. A quick inspection of the document raised doubts about its legitimacy;...

In its latest rankings, U.S. News & World Report lists George Mason University first in the new category of Up-and-Coming National Universities.(THE WEEK)(Brief article)
September 15, 2008... * In its latest rankings, U.S. News & World Report lists George Mason University first in the new category of Up-and-Coming National Universities. The ranking, based on peer assessments from other high-profile universities, underscores the...

A group of college presidents calling themselves the Amethyst Initiative wants to lower the drinking age from 21 to 18.(THE WEEK)(Brief article)
September 15, 2008... * A group of college presidents calling themselves the Amethyst Initiative wants to lower the drinking age from 21 to 18. Our Ramesh Ponnuru had the best response: "College presidents want a lower drinking age... but it is probably still a...

Kerri Walsh, American gold medalist in beach volleyball, had a post-victory message for George W. Bush.(THE WEEK)(Brief article)
September 15, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] * Kerri Walsh, American gold medalist in beach volleyball, had a post-victory message for George W. Bush. "Mr. President, we thank you. Thank you for your inspiration, and for all you do." History's verdict on the...

Madonna, intuiting that the display of her cadaverous gams in fishnet stockings is no longer sufficient to rustle up media attention and the illusion of cultural relevance that attends it, has set upon John McCain.(THE WEEK)(Brief article)
September 15, 2008... * Madonna, intuiting that the display of her cadaverous gams in fishnet stockings is no longer sufficient to rustle up media attention and the illusion of cultural relevance that attends it, has set upon John McCain. During a recent performance...

The actor Jon Voight wrote an op-ed criticizing Obama.(THE WEEK)(Barack Obama)(Brief article)
September 15, 2008... * The actor Jon Voight wrote an op-ed criticizing Obama. His fellow thespian Roseanne Barr, an Obama supporter, responded on her website by calling Voight "a frightened little girl in a pink ballet tutu," a "bitch," and a racist, hinting at...

A cautionary tale of justice at work comes from the mean streets of Grafton, Wisc., where Heidi Dalibor was recently arrested for not returning a pair of library books.(THE WEEK)(Brief article)
September 15, 2008... * A cautionary tale of justice at work comes from the mean streets of Grafton, Wisc., where Heidi Dalibor was recently arrested for not returning a pair of library books. (For the benefit of future true-crime novelists, the books were Angels...

William Shanahan, debate coach at Fort Hays State University (Kansas), got into an argument at a debate tournament in Wichita last spring, during which he shouted and dropped his pants.(THE WEEK)(Brief article)
September 15, 2008... * William Shanahan, debate coach at Fort Hays State University (Kansas), got into an argument at a debate tournament in Wichita last spring, during which he shouted and dropped his pants. When a clip surfaced recently on YouTube, he became the...

The glories of our blood and state / Are shadows, not substantial things;
September 15, 2008... * "The glories of our blood and state / Are shadows, not substantial things; / There is no armour against fate; / Death lays his icy hand on kings." Death and his many helpers, including dementia. In a forthcoming memoir, Lady Thatcher's...