January 2003 Archives

Archives of the entries for this month are listed below, by category. You may jump directly to categories using the navigation bar thumbnails. Please keep in mind that links do expire, and that archived links may not still be available.

American Politics

Technology And Life's Dominion
(01-30-2003) There's a growing sentiment against unfettered abortion on demand in the United States, and technology may well be playing a role. As Sydney Smith asks, "who ... could consider a fetus as life unworthy of living, once they've held its hand?"

Principled Realism
(01-29-2003) The first Reagan Administration brought a moral sense to American foreign policy that had been missing in the GOP in its Kissinger-realist stage, but a myopic realism had returned by the first Bush presidency. As Lawrence Kaplan and Bill Kristol argue, this President Bush has returned the moral component to foreign policy.

Inside Scoop
(01-29-2003) A senior White House official gives Weekly Standard editor Fred Barnes (and others) the inside scoop on President Bush's plans and resolve. (More) (More)

1984 All Over Again?
(01-29-2003) In 1984, NARAL demanded that Walter Mondale choose a woman as his vice-presidential nominee. More recently, NARAL summoned the aspiring 2004 Dem presidential nominees and laid down the law on abortion. Noemie Emery suggests it is 1984 all over again. (More)

Ties Of Terror
(01-27-2003) The anti-war Left's favorite argument against liberating Iraq is that there's no link between Iraq and Al Qaeda, a contention that their favorite Bush Administration official conceded after 11 September. Now, writes William Safire, even Colin Powell has admitted a link. But will the Left? (More)

The Inspections Trap
(01-27-2003) In 1998, then-President Bill Clinton backed down from threatened military action against Iraq at the urgings of European diplomats, further emboldening Saddam Hussein. Martin Indyk and Kenneth Pollack explain how President Bush can avoid the inspections trap this time.

We Know Iraq Is Lying
(01-23-2003) "By both its actions and its inactions," writes national security advisor Condoleezza Rice, "Iraq is proving not that it is a nation bent on disarmament, but that it is a nation with something to hide. Iraq is still treating inspections as a game. It should know that time is running out."

W's Souter?
(01-22-2003) If President Bush's recent proclamation on the Univeristy of Michigan racial preferences case didn't seem entirely coherent, that's because it wasn't. Robert Novak reports that White House counsel Alberto Gonzales carved up a much stronger petition by Ted Olson. Will Gonzales be the next Souter?

Off The Rails
(01-21-2003) As David Brooks notes, the attacks of the liberal educated class on SUVs have nearly reached the point of absurdity. Even usually sensible liberals like Gregg Easterbrook seem to let their hatred of SUVs get the best of them, as Jonathan Adler explains. (More)

Roe At 30
(01-20-2003) As Peggy Noonan observes, the Dems "often seem like the Not Republican Party, no more and no less." But they remain united on one issue: abortion on demand. Will the party be abortion's final victim? (More)

Oil Econ 101
(01-20-2003) It's a popular, if wholly misguided, idea that the United States can conserve its way off of Middle Eastern oil. Oil is oil, explains Arnold Kling, and the rest is high school economics.

The Joe Show
(01-19-2003) Any Democrat who hopes to win the Presidency must energize black voters. Surprisingly, Joe Lieberman is leading the Dem pack among blacks, despite having to compete against Al Sharpton. Conveniently, notes Stephen F. Hayes, Lieberman has also forgotten his past opposition to group preferences. (More)

Economic Master Planning
(01-16-2003) The so-called living-wage campaign is not simply an altruistic effort to win higher wages for low-skill workers. Rather, explains Steven Malanga, it's a far-reaching effort to impose a leftist economic agenda on cities.

Castro Hits The Target
(01-16-2003) Robert Novak speculates that Fidel Castro must be absolutely giddy that Otto Reich won't be renominated to the State Department. But at least President Bush had the good sense not to nominate Colin Powell's preferred candidate to the post. (More)

North Korea Scorecard
(01-15-2003) Liberal pundits and members of the previous administration have been full of criticism and advice on North Korea lately. Defense policy intellectual Frank Gaffney assesses what we have learned so far, and urges the Bush Administration to stay the course.

Marx Without The Realism
(01-15-2003) "America-bashing," notes Lee Harris, "has sadly come to be 'the opium of the intellectual,' to use the phrase Raymond Aron borrowed from Marx in order to characterize those who followed the latter into the 20th century. And like opium it produces vivid and fantastic dreams." (More)

Power Shift
(01-15-2003) Although of questionable conformity to the Founders constitutionalism, independent regulatory agencies created by Congress have always existed as an effective fourth branch of government. As Peter J. Wallison reports, that may be changing, in part a consequence of Democrat election tactics in 2002.

Dodgy Drafters
(01-12-2003) The American all-volunteer military is the finest fighting force ever assembled. So naturally, liberals opposed to any use of American power have played the race and class cards in a new draft proposal. Former Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger calls it "utter and pernicious nonsense."

Democrat Choices
(01-07-2003) "A consistent trend against government growth over more than 30 years has elevated the Republicans to the majority party in the United States," notes Peter J. Wallison. If that trend holds, the Dems have some tough choices to make.

The Family Way
(01-07-2003) Communities have responded to gang and drug-related crime -- crimes largely committed by young men -- in a myriad of ways: no-tolerance policing, job programs, even midnight basketball. Noted social theorist James Q. Wilson suggests that the real policy focus should be families.

Tacitly Racial
(01-07-2003) "The moral clarity the Democratic Party feels on race is rooted in nostalgia," writes Richard Cohen. It's time for the party to stop its racial demagoguery, he adds, and to start dealing with today's issues.

The Most Influential Journalist
(01-04-2003) Over the last thirty years, the Wall Street Journal editorial page became one of the most influential in the world, as well as the conservative standard-bearer in American politics. Robert Novak profiles Robert Bartley, the recently retired editor who took it there.

Don Of A New Era
(01-02-2003) Perhaps even moreso than President Bush, Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld has become the public face of the War on Terror. Ann Scott Tyson profiles the former "fireman's carry" specialist.

Emerging Majority?
(01-02-2003) Following the 2000 Presidential election, red-blue maps and talk of the deep fissure in American politics were all the rage. And then John Judis and Ruy Teixeira wrote of an emerging Democratic majority. Meanwhile, George Bush's GOP keeps racking up victories and the Dems have turned left. Daniel Casse surveys the political landscape.

Getting It Right
(01-02-2003) Conservative American defense intellectuals like Frank Gaffney and Richard Perle and William Van Cleave have been getting it right for a long time, causing some consternation for the Left. Indeed, as Hugh Hewitt reports, at least one early American history grad student/web pundit could learn from them.

Taking The U.S. Seriously
(01-01-2003) "While Bill Clinton was not taken seriously by leaders in the world of Islam," says Fawaz Gerges, "George W. Bush is taken very seriously, and his words - unequivocally - are seen as quite decisive." Linda Feldmann assesses the Bush foreign policy style.

Tax Policy And Politics
(01-01-2003) The Bush Administration is promising more tax cuts in 2003, and Congress is likely to go along. But as Virginia Postrel points out, political considerations are already distorting two good proposals.

International

Surprising Allies
(01-30-2003) French and German footdragging on Iraq is as much about seizing control over the EU as anything, and the Canadian outlook is not that hard to figure. It's the large number of unlikely countries that have decided to support the U.S. that is surprising, argues Steven Martinovich.

Saddam's Friends
(01-29-2003) Uday Hussein's television broadcasts regularly showcase the friends of the tyrannical regime: American Noam Chomsky, Britain's Tony Benn, France's Jean-Marie Le Pen, Austria's Jörg Haider, and Russia's Gennadi Zyuganov. Amir Taheri takes a closer look at the "Don't Touch Saddam" antiwar crowd.

Bad Herr Dye
(01-27-2003) German chancellor Gerhard Schroder's "political switching and diplomatic maneuvering are no laughing matter," writes William Safire. "The German design is apparently to saw off the Atlantic part of the Atlantic Alliance, separating Britain and the U.S. from a federal Europe dominated by Germany and France...." (More) (More)

No Leaf To Ward Off Hezbollah
(01-20-2003) Canadians have been told not to wear their the red-maple-leaf symbol when travelling, for fear of reprisals over the government's treatment of Hezbollah. It seems Islamic fanatics just don't have the respect they once did for leaves.

Nuclear Breach?
(01-19-2003) Last Thursday's discovery of undeclared warheads in Iraq represents a so-called "material breach" of Iraq's obligations in itself. But as the author of Saddam: King Of Terror reports, weapons inspectors have actually uncovered evidence of Baghdad's ongoing nuclear weapons program. (More) (More)

Hamlet Of The Indus
(01-19-2003) As Ralph Peters notes, Pakistan's nominal leader Pervez Musharraf is "a head of state who insists on a sovereignty he cannot enforce over territory that continues to harbor both international terrorists and Afghan renegades." That leaves few good options for the U.S. and the West.

Third World Lessons
(01-17-2003) It is pretty much a given in the Western world that the state has an obligation to school its children. But perhaps it shouldn't be. James Tooley thinks there are lessons to be drawn from the success of private education in Africa and India.

North Korean Gulag
(01-16-2003) MSNBC's Robert Windrem has discovered that North Korea's Kim Jong Il runs a tyrannical regime not unlike those of Mao, Stalin, and Hitler. The current American President suggested something similar months ago.

Tony Blair's Journey
(01-15-2003) A considerable segment of the British public wants nothing to do with a war against Iraq. Yet Tony Blair seems determined to stay the course. Michael Gove considers the prime minister's journey from people-pleaser to statesman.

Is John Galt Venezuelan?
(01-15-2003) Ninety percent of the working population of Venezuela has gone on a protest strike against President Hugo Chavez. Thor L. Halvorssen asks if Atlas is shrugging in Venezuela.

The Coming Palestinian War
(01-12-2003) "Terrorism," writes Martin Peretz, "is about the sum total of what the Palestinians have bestowed on our civilization during the last five decades." It will make the coming Palestinian civil war that much nastier.

One Coin, Two Sides
(01-04-2003) In a no-man's land between Argentina, Paraguay, and Brazil, militant members of Hezbollah, ETA, FARC, the IRA, and maybe even Al Qaeda regularly train. Greg Buete suggests that they may soon be pooling their efforts at terrorism.

Brutish British?
(01-04-2003) Think Nazism couldn't happen in the UK? Theodore Dalrymple might beg to differ: "We, too, are now creating a cultural context in which great state crimes are possible, though perhaps not yet inevitable." (More)

Exploiting The Palestinians
(01-04-2003) Yassir Arafat recently scolded Osama bin Laden for exploiting the Palestinians. But it should really have come as no surprise to the Nobel winner/terrorist. As Max Boot points out, Arabs, Europeans, and the U.N. have been exploiting Palestinians for years.

Countering North Korea
(01-03-2003) North Korea's nuclear breakout is a crisis, despite denials from the Bush administration. And there are few options available to the U.S. to contain the crisis. Charles Krauthammer advocates playing the ultimate trump card: nuclear Japan.

Lula's Big Promises
(01-01-2003) Not unlike Peru's Alejandro Toledo, Brazil's new president was swept into office by a combination of anti-incumbent sentiment and appeals to the nation's poor. With little revenue to work with, will Luis Inacio (Lula) da Silva be able to keep any of his promises?

Party Of The Worried Bourgeoisie
(01-01-2003) Most of Israel's small political parties are expected to lose ground in upcoming Knesset elections. But the Shinui party is likely to double its representation. Calev Ben-David explains why.

What Is Jihad?
(01-01-2003) The simple meaning of the term jihad is "holy war." But as Daniel Pipes elaborates, "the purpose of jihad ... is not directly to spread the Islamic faith but to extend sovereign Muslim power (faith, of course, often follows the flag)."

Books and Arts

Founding Limits
(01-28-2003) Bernard Bailyn's To Begin The World Anew is an honest look at the creativity of the Founders by an eminent historian -- even though, as Woody West notes, it oversimplifies the tension between originalists and "living constitution" advocates. (More)

Pox
(01-19-2003) It is difficult to imagine describing any book on the history of syphilis as "riveting" or "eye-opening." But Elizabeth M. Whelan bestows that praise and more on Deborah Hayden's Pox: Genius, Madness, And The Mysteries Of Syphilis.

"Shut Up," They Explained
(01-13-2003) In its ruling on Bjorn Lomborg's Skeptical Environmentalist, the Danish Committee On Scientific Dishonesty "may have done for Lomborg and sensible environmental discourse what the Inquisition did for Galileo and astronomy in the seventeenth century." So explains Steven Hayward.

Supersizing America
(01-12-2003) Americans still think of gluttony as a sin of sorts, and hence will refrain from ordering extra portions of food. However, break the taboo by "supersizing" those portions and Americans will eat up to 30% more. So says Greg Critser in Fat Land: How Americans Became The Fattest People In The World

Tolkien And Beowulf
(01-08-2003) Professor Michael Drout was understandably thrilled when he ran across a lost JRR Tolkien manuscript on Beowulf. But to publish it, he had to navigate the normal hazards of academia not to mention the author's estate and even fans. Finally, Tolkien's Beowulf And The Critics is available. (via Bookslut)

The Coalition That Isn't
(01-08-2003) John Judis and Ruy Texeira received considerable media fanfare after the release of their (hopeful) new book, The Emerging Democratic Majority. Voracious reviewer Orrin Judd concludes that we shouldn't expect their "Progressive Centrist" majority to emerge any time soon.

Texana

Revolution Rock
(01-19-2003) "They were really fascinated with Texas, and especially towns with names like Laredo, El Paso, San Antonio," says legendary Texas singer-songwriter Joe Ely about The Clash. "To them, Texas was a mythical place that they only knew about in old Marty Robbins gunfighter ballads and Westerns and stuff."

Teen Beat
(01-06-2003) The Itasca (TX) Paw Print Press is like many small-town newspapers: it's not cutting-edge in its reporting, nor is it bold in its editorializing. But it's restored a civic culture that was missing when the town was newspaperless. Oh, and it's run by high school students.

Society

The Accidental Entrepreneur
(01-20-2003) Tools like Blogger and GreyMatter and Movable Type have been partially responsible for the blogging explosion over the last year or two. But none of those tools can create a community like LiveJournal.

XM Radio
(01-19-2003) "Private" television courtesy of cable providers helped give consumers greater choice and diversity vis-a-vis commercial television. Frank Ahrens considers whether XM Radio will do the same thing in the broadcast radio industry.

The Press Gets Rael
(01-07-2003) "Some journalists are angry at the coverage of Clonaid not because they oppose cloning, but because they fear crackpots will tarnish a great scientific advance, " writes George Neumayr. "A UFO cult is crazy to them, but cloning is not. That the craziness of cloning might attract crazies hasn't yet occurred to them."

Mag Hags
(01-02-2003) The music industry blames declining sales on the internet and cd burners, rather than depressingly poor, sanitized product. So what about the similarly pitiful state of music journalism? Rob Harvilla takes on the topic.

Forget Fat
(01-02-2003) Americans have become obsessed about their weight. But as Paul Campo argues, we should be much more concerned about our levels of activity and keys to overall good health.

Last Ride
(01-01-2003) "Just before sunrise on New Year's Day 50 years ago, a sleek baby-blue Cadillac roared up to the rural Oak Hill, W.Va., hospital in the cold Appalachian darkness. The driver was just 17, exhausted and scared. The passenger was barely 29 and dead." Jim Tharpe recounts Hank Williams's last ride.

Other Headlines

Tyrrell: Searching For Jacques Shirk

Fund: Half And Half

Noonan: The Right Man

Hayes: Tom Daschle's Fantasy World

Tell: More American Unilateralism

Europes Backs U.S. On Iraq; France, Germany Isolated

Hewitt: Daschle's Lowest Blow

Blankley: Stumbledee And Stumbledum

Peters: American Resolve

Pleszczynski: Bush In Command

Moore: Reagan's Third Term

Brooks: Speech As Autobiography

Arkes: Our War

Ledeen: Chirac Is No Leader

Bartley: The U.N.'s Final Opportunity

Novak: Whither Colin Powell

Charen: Is Iraq A Distraction?

The Damning Of Saddam

Staley: Wrecking Property Rights

The CIA's Secret Army

Tierney: Gary Hart Profiled

War And Consequences

Scheiber: Countdown

Barnes: Blix Tricks

Will: The Arrogance Of The Left

Kelly: Marching With Stalinists

Lomborg: Smearing A Skeptic

Elder: Lessons From Yao

Halvorrsen: Horror In Venezuela

Hogberg: Protesting Too Much

Chown: An Enigmatic Number

Smith: Dangerous Lies

Bottum: Fending Off Uptight Claremonsters

Fields: To Be, Or Not To Be, An English Prof

Bartley: The Dawning Bush Establishment?

Bailey: Saddam's Bogus Journey

Novak: Dem Slow Walk

Barnes: The Four Horsemen Of Bush Economic Policy

Goldblatt: On Derrida

Perry & Carter: The Korean Crisis Last Time

Carlson: Dems Should Quit Being Losers

Tell: Planned Un-Parenthood

Brooks: Bill Frist's New (Old) South

One Man's Terrorist

Kennedy: The Dems' Iowa Problem

Sullum: The Benefits Of Huffington's Campaign

Ignatius: The Read On Wolfowitz

Rice Influenced Bush Affirmative-Action Stance

Allen: Seoul's Choice

Matus: The Thin Green Cyprus Line

Schwartz: A Crime In Bosnia

Blix: Situation In Iraq "Tense, Dangerous"

London: Ethics And The Academy

Corry: The Pipsqueaks' Dirty War

Sowell: Hard Times For Envy

Pipes: Europe v. America

Brooks: The Triumph Of Hope Over Self-Interest

Card: Why We Won't Invade Korea

Democrat Obstruction In Senate Continues

Bloch: And The Winner Is. . . Netanyahu

Will: A Cassandra Candidacy?

Owens: What Strategic Pause?

Glassman: Denmark's Ministry Of Truth

Krauthammer: The Powell Doctrine

Jacoby: The Fig Leaf Of Diversity

Gove: Socialism Of Fools

Knopf Cancels Printing Of Fraudulent Bellesiles Text

Hodge: A Clear Choice On Taxes

Abortion Group Plans Name Change

Bush Tax Plan Could Reshape Government

Chavez To Split PDVSA

The Hispanic Vote

Ignatieff: The Burden

Freese: FCC Con Man?

Gaffney: Nuclear Meltdown

Eastland: Wants And Needs

U.S. Operatives Active In Iraq?

The Evil Behind The Axis?

Frum: Bush's Party

Walter Russell Mead Reviews First Great Triumph

Ahlert: Saddam's People, And Adolf's

Courtesy Of Trial Lawyers: America's Looming Healthcare Crisis

Sowell: Dangers Ahead From The Left

Dalrymple: The Coming (Gun) Law Of The Ghetto

Fort Worth Live Music Scene Growing Grim

Arab States May Pressure Iraqi Dictator

Palm: No Song And Dance

Katz: Sharon's Egregious Blunder

Safire: Three Ring (Dove) Circus

Mexican Officials Report Zapatista Threats

Tyrrell: Waldheim's Wonderboy

Rutten: Cult Clones A Baby! Read All About It!

Overbye: E and mc2

U.S., Pakistan Troops Exchange Fire

Fein: Dominance In The Oval Office

Gaffney: Options For The Dems

Goldberg: 2002 Winners And Losers