National Review back issues from August 2008:
Divisive optimism.(letters to the editor)(Letter to the editor)
Aug 04, 2008; ... In his review of Pat Buchanan's book Churchill, Hitler, and the Unnecessary War ("Sorry, No," June 30) David Pryce-Jones lists among Churchill's mistakes "the 1922 partition of Transjordan." Sorry, no. What Churchill partitioned (in 1921) was Britain's Palestine Mandate: into a Jewish ...
Dismal arithmetic.(letters to the editor)(Letter to the editor)
Aug 04, 2008; ... I was a bit confused reading "Nobody Home" (July 14). In the first paragraph, Kevin A. Hassett writes, "There are currently 129 million homes in the United States, and 18.5 million are empty." That would mean that about 14 percent of all homes in the U.S. are empty. But the ...
Sounds of Babel.(letters to the editor)(Letter to the editor)
Aug 04, 2008; ... I am sure that the ladies and gentlemen who wrote the "Week" columns of the July 14 issue are learned, intelligent journalists. But they should not assume everyone has taken French or Latin--I hold an M.S. in education, but never have. What do "cheval, restant debout, seen from ...
On the other hand, Reverend Jackson.(THE WEEK)
Aug 04, 2008 ... On the other hand, Reverend Jackson, that ...
John McCain's economic plan heavily emphasizes growth, competitiveness, investment, and spending restraint.(The Week)(Brief article)
Aug 04, 2008 ... John McCain's economic plan heavily emphasizes growth, competitiveness, investment, and spending restraint. He would cut the corporate tax, eliminate the Alternative Minimum Tax, and keep the Bush tax cuts. He would let young people invest some of their Social Security contributions. He ...
Phil Gramm, a top adviser to McCain, said that we are in a "mental recession," not a real one, and that "we have sort of become a nation of whiners.".(The Week)(Brief article)
Aug 04, 2008 ... Phil Gramm, a top adviser to McCain, said that we are in a "mental recession," not a real one, and that "we have sort of become a nation of whiners." He later clarified, reasonably, that he did not mean to suggest the economy was strong and that he was referring to our elites as whiners ....
Teetering on the edge of another "flip-flop," this time on the Iraq War, Barack Obama reaffirmed his support for a 16-month timetable for withdrawal.(Brief article)
Aug 04, 2008 ... Teetering on the edge of another "flip-flop," this time on the Iraq War, Barack Obama reaffirmed his support for a 16-month timetable for withdrawal. Never mind that U.S. commanders on the ground doubt that such a rapid drawdown would even be logistically possible. Never mind that his ...
Obama has released his first two national television ads.(Barack Obama)(Brief article)
Aug 04, 2008 ... Obama has released his first two national television ads. They are both biographical sketches that describe Obama as a product of midwestern values who worked his way through college and law school and rose to become a legislator passing bills that reduced welfare rolls and extended health ...
Obama said that Americans should worry more about whether their own kids learn Spanish than about whether immigrants' kids learn English.(Brief article)
Aug 04, 2008 ... Obama said that Americans should worry more about whether their own kids learn Spanish than about whether immigrants' kids learn English. ("They will," he breezily asserted.) Absent a failed immigration policy, however, there is no great reason for Americans to learn Spanish as opposed to ...
For a brief moment, it appeared that Obama might be moderating on abortion.(Barack Obama)(Brief article)
Aug 04, 2008 ... For a brief moment, it appeared that Obama might be moderating on abortion. He suggested that late-term abortion should be permitted only in cases of threats to the mother's physical health, and not merely to keep her from feeling "blue." If he meant what he said, he would have to advocate ...
"We cannot continue to rely only on our military in order to achieve the national-security objectives we've set," Obama proclaimed in a recent speech.(Barack Obama)(Brief article)
Aug 04, 2008 ... "We cannot continue to rely only on our military in order to achieve the national-security objectives we've set," Obama proclaimed in a recent speech. "We've got to have a civilian national-security force that's just as powerful, just as strong, just as well funded." So does that mean ...
In a TV interview, Barack Obama's children, ages ten and seven, revealed something about their dad: He doesn't like ice cream.(Brief article)
Aug 04, 2008 ... In a TV interview, Barack Obama's children, ages ten and seven, revealed ...
Jesse Jackson confided to a hot mike the kind of thought that every politician harbors about at least some of his peers.(Brief article)
Aug 04, 2008 ... Jesse Jackson confided to a hot mike the kind of thought that every politician harbors about at least some of his peers: Listen to the Watergate tapes, or read the "Anas" of Thomas Jefferson. Jackson believed Obama had condescended to a black audience, giving it Bill Cosby--esque advice, ...
Have you ever said anything critical of Obama? Shame on you.(Barack Obama)(Brief article)
Aug 04, 2008 ... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Have you ever said anything critical of Obama? Shame on you. You might have thought you were simply pointing out his flaws, but in fact you were engaged in "swift boating." The term derives, of course, from the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, the former ...
When Hall of Fame pitcher Satchel Paige drew up his "Rules for Staying Young," the first item on the list was "Avoid fried meats which angry up the blood.".(The Week)(Brief article)
Aug 04, 2008 ... When Hall of Fame pitcher Satchel Paige drew up his "Rules for Staying Young," the first item on the list was "Avoid fried meats which angry up the blood." The host committee for this year's Democratic convention took that advice to heart, instructing food vendors not to serve anything ...
The U.S. government's implicit guarantee of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac appears to have finally come due.(Brief article)
Aug 04, 2008 ... The U.S. government's implicit guarantee of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac appears to have finally come due. Policymakers are taking steps to prevent the mortgage giants from collapsing. The Federal Reserve has offered access to its discount window, and Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson has ...
President Bush signed a surveillance-reform bill that the Democrat-controlled Congress, after a shamefully acrimonious three-year onslaught, passed overwhelmingly.(George W. Bush)(Brief article)
Aug 04, 2008 ... President Bush signed a surveillance-reform bill that the Democrat-controlled Congress, after a shamefully acrimonious three-year onslaught, passed overwhelmingly. The overhaul streamlines the process for court approval of wiretapping (and other eavesdropping) designed by the outdated 1978 ...
We admired President Bush's 2003 initiative to invest $15 billion to prevent and treat AIDS in Africa.(THE WEEK)(Brief article)
Aug 04, 2008 ... We admired President Bush's 2003 initiative to invest $15 billion to prevent and treat AIDS in Africa. We admired it less when it became a $30 billion initiative at the president's request, and still less when Congress upped the ante to $50 billion. There is much to dislike in the ...
Hamilton warned against "the propensity of the legislative department to intrude upon the rights, and to absorb the powers, of the other departments.".(THE WEEK)(Brief article)
Aug 04, 2008 ... Hamilton warned against "the propensity of the legislative department to intrude upon the rights, and to absorb the powers, of the other departments." The Constitution's framers thus empowered the president with executive prerogatives, lest, as Hamilton put it, those powers be "destroyed" ...
The Supreme Court, in holding the death penalty for child rape unconstitutional, found a supposed national consensus against it.(THE WEEK)(Brief article)
Aug 04, 2008 ... The Supreme Court, in holding the death penalty for child rape unconstitutional, found a supposed national consensus against it. But Justice Kennedy, the controlling and opinion-writing justice, goofed, not realizing that a recent federal statute imposed the penalty in just such cases as ...
Iranian TV has been delivering to its viewers a documentary series on Hollywood--Jewish-Zionist domination of.(THE WEEK)(Brief article)
Aug 04, 2008 ... Iranian TV has been delivering to its viewers a documentary series on Hollywood--Jewish-Zionist domination of. And the Middle East Media Research Institute has been reporting on this series to the rest of the world. We have learned very interesting things. For example, "Names may be ...
On July 8, the Czech Republic agreed to participate in a missile-defense system with the United States.(THE WEEK)(Brief article)
Aug 04, 2008 ... On July 8, the Czech Republic agreed to participate in a missile-defense system with the United States. It promised to host a powerful radar that will work in conjunction with at least ten interceptors, probably based in Poland. The goal is to protect NATO countries from emerging threats ...
Ahmad Batebi is one of the most famous of Iranian dissidents, known to the world ever since The Economist published his picture on its cover, in 1999.(Brief article)
Aug 04, 2008 ... Ahmad Batebi is one of the most famous of Iranian dissidents, known to the world ever since The Economist published his picture on its cover, in 1999. He recently escaped Iran, and is living in the United States. The New York Times published an arresting story about him. As a dissident, he ...
Vice trade.(Democratic Party)
Aug 04, 2008; ... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] SPAGHETTI ALLA PUTTANESCA is one of my least favorite dishes. It's made with olives, anchovies, and capers: three things that should stay out of any red sauce, if you ask me. But I do love the name. It means "whore's spaghetti" or "spaghetti, ...
The Bush administration decided to remove North Korea from its list of terror sponsors, and to lift some economic sanctions against it, in return for details about the plutonium it acquired from the now-shut-down Yongbyon reactor.(THE WEEK)(George W. Bush)(Brief article)
Aug 04, 2008 ... The Bush administration decided to remove North Korea from its list of terror sponsors, and to lift some economic sanctions against it, in return for details about the plutonium it acquired from the now-shut-down Yongbyon reactor. And there was much rejoicing. Upon which we throw cold ...
Following the example of Seoul in 1988, Chinese authorities have banned the sale of dog meat and dishes made from dog for the duration of the Summer Olympics, so as not to offend the sensibilities of visiting foreigners.(THE WEEK)(Brief article)
Aug 04, 2008 ... Following the example of Seoul in 1988, Chinese authorities have banned the sale of dog meat and dishes made from dog for the duration of the Summer Olympics, so as not to offend the sensibilities of visiting foreigners. That our ...
The U.S.-India nuclear-technology accord is barely news in Washington but dominates the headlines in New Delhi, where Prime Minister Manmohan Singh risked the collapse of his government trying to hammer through the accord before George W. Bush hangs up his spurs.(THE WEEK)(Brief article)
Aug 04, 2008 ... The U.S.-India nuclear-technology accord is barely news in Washington but dominates the headlines in New Delhi, where Prime Minister Manmohan Singh risked the collapse of his government trying to hammer through the accord before George W. Bush hangs up his spurs. The pact recognizes the ...
The United Nations Security Council has rejected a resolution by the U.S. and the U.K. to impose tougher sanctions on Robert Mugabe, president of Zimbabwe these past 20 years, and key members of his government.(THE WEEK)(Brief article)
Aug 04, 2008 ... The United Nations Security Council has rejected a resolution by the U.S. and the U.K. to impose tougher sanctions on Robert Mugabe, president of Zimbabwe these past 20 years, and key members of his government. Actually Mugabe and his men are not a government at all, but a gang of racists ...
Ingrid Betancourt's ordeal is finally over.(THE WEEK)(Brief article)
Aug 04, 2008 ... Ingrid Betancourt's ordeal is finally over. Six years ago, running for office in her native Colombia, she was abducted by FARC, the self-described Marxists who really are nothing but narcoterrorists. Ever since, she has remained a victim, deprived of her family (including two growing ...
Tayside is in Scotland, and its police put out an advertisement for a new telephone number, attracting attention by showing a police cap with a German Shepherd puppy sitting on it.(THE WEEK)(Brief article)
Aug 04, 2008 ... Tayside is in Scotland, and its police put out an advertisement for a new telephone number, attracting attention by showing a police cap with a German Shepherd puppy sitting on it. Mohammed Asif is a city official and a member of the Tayside Joint Police Board as well. He took it on ...
A black hole is an object--commonly a collapsed star--so dense that even light cannot escape its gravitational field.(THE WEEK)(Brief article)
Aug 04, 2008 ... A black hole is an object--commonly a collapsed star--so dense that even light cannot escape its gravitational field. The term dates from the 1960s; actual black holes have been observed (indirectly, by their effects) since the 1970s. Once the concept had leaked out from astrophysics into ...
When the public-works department of the city of Atlanta needed to dig up a street or erect a utility pole, they put out orange signs with black lettering saying "Men At Work" or "Men Working Ahead.".(THE WEEK)(Brief article)
Aug 04, 2008 ... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] When the public-works department of the city of Atlanta needed to dig up a street or erect a utility pole, they put out orange signs with black lettering saying "MEN AT WORK" or "MEN WORKING AHEAD." No more: After protests from Cynthia Good, a local ...
The practice of text messaging on cellphones has added some new abbreviations to the language, not all of them welcome to fastidious users of the English language.(THE WEEK)(Brief article)
Aug 04, 2008 ... The practice of text messaging on cellphones has added some new abbreviations to the language, not all of them welcome to fastidious users of the English language. There is nothing much wrong with "lol" for "laugh out loud." Nor is "omg" objectionable, if interpreted as "Oh, my goodness!" ...
The law, business, and economics faculties at the University of Chicago had a bright idea--actually, a rather obvious one.(THE WEEK)(Brief article)
Aug 04, 2008 ... The law, business, and economics faculties at the University of Chicago had a bright idea--actually, a rather obvious one: name a research institute after Milton Friedman. But some 100 professors throughout the university had another idea: block the naming of the institute after Friedman ....
David H. Koch is a businessman, billionaire, and doer of good deeds.(THE WEEK)(Brief article)
Aug 04, 2008 ... David H. Koch is a businessman, billionaire, and doer of good deeds. He is also a libertarian--in fact, a Libertarian. He was the party's vice-presidential nominee in 1980. And he serves on the boards of the Cato Institute and Reason Foundation. His latest big gift was to Lincoln Center, ...
Sir John Templeton was one of the world's great stock pickers.(THE WEEK)(Brief article)
Aug 04, 2008 ... Sir John Templeton was one of the world's great stock pickers. He used his financial talents to enrich not only himself, but also those who invested with him. As a mutual-fund pioneer, he helped democratize the bounties of capitalism. Yet he was concerned about more than material rewards ....
Back in April 2006, the White House desperately needed Tony Snow.(THE WEEK)(Brief article)
Aug 04, 2008 ... Back in April 2006, the White House desperately needed Tony Snow. The war in Iraq was going badly, the CIA leak investigation was a constant irritation, and the president was plummeting in the polls. So one of the first priorities for new chief of staff Josh Bolten was to find a new and ...
Patricia Buckley Bozell was the seventh of the Buckley children and, as WFB put it, the one with whom he was "paired from infancy.".(THE WEEK)(Obituary)(Brief article)
Aug 04, 2008 ... Patricia Buckley Bozell was the seventh of the Buckley children and, as WFB put it, the one with whom he was "paired from infancy." She married Bill's best friend and debating partner from Yale, Brent Bozell, and set about producing a family as large as the one she had been raised in ....
A right restored.(THE LAW)(right to bear arms)
Aug 04, 2008 ... THE Supreme Court struck down the District of Columbia's strict ban on handguns as a violation of the Second Amendment. That amendment, protecting "the right of the people to keep and bear arms," has been one of the two provisions in the Bill of Rights that the Court has done nothing to ...
Jesse Helms, R.I.P.(Obituary)(Brief article)
Aug 04, 2008 ... JESSE HELMS began his political career, as one of North Carolina's most popular radio commentators, upholding the politics of segregation. There are second acts in American lives, pace F. Scott Fitzgerald, though in the wake of Helms's death, liberals have been unwilling to forget his ...
Kick saves in St. Paul: but can Tim Pawlenty put a puck in the naval observatory?(2008)
Aug 04, 2008; ... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] GROWING up in Minnesota, Tim Pawlenty played a lot of hockey. "I was mostly on defense," he says. Today, as the state's Republican governor, he still skates in pick-up games. Around lunchtime on Fridays in the winter, he's often at a rink. Back at his desk ...
Bench marks: sizing up McCain on judges.(John McCain)
Aug 04, 2008; ... TED OLSON has spent much time in the last year reassuring nervous Republicans. The conservative legal star, former solicitor general, and champion of Bush v. Gore headed up Rudy Giuliani's legal-advisory team in the early primaries. Now Olson is backing John McCain, and, just as with ...
Enforcement at work: the strategy of attrition is bearing fruit.
Aug 04, 2008; ... IS immigration enforcement effective? Ask the New York Times: "Children someday will study the Great Immigration Panic of the early 2000s, which harmed countless lives, wasted billions of dollars and mocked the nation's most deeply held values." An enforcement program that can move the ...
Hell on a tarmac: it's time to address airport congestion.
Aug 04, 2008; ... EVERY frequent flier has his airline horror stories. Delays, missed connections, family members stranded on holidays, lost vacation time. Virtually all observers--from these frustrated passengers to policy wonks--agree that the industry needs to deal with airport congestion, over both the ...
Tyranny by camera: some thoughts on a pestiferous swarm.(CULTURE WATCH)
Aug 04, 2008; ... A FEW years ago, I lived at the beach in Santa Monica. It was a two-storey, rectangular beach house, and in the afternoons I would sit on my balcony, smoke a cigar, sip a bourbon, and watch the sun set over the Pacific. One day, though, I was disturbed by a lot of alarming ...
Right song, wrong place: 'Lift Ev'ry Voice and Sing' makes the news.
Aug 04, 2008; ... 'LIFT EV'RY VOICE AND SING" is one of the best songs in the entire American treasury. It is part gospel song, part traditional hymn, and part anthem. It was written in 1900--and became known as the "Negro national hymn," or the "Negro national anthem." Today, of course, people refer to it ...
Lost generation: adoption in America has collapsed; here's what to do about it.(Cover story)
Aug 04, 2008; ... ADOPTION is an unexpectedly rare phenomenon in the United States, and that's a supply-side problem. The U.S. is the third-most-populous country in the world, and each year more than a third of our country's 4 million births are to unmarried women, but it is estimated that in a typical year ...
Game plan: should McCain care to win ...(2008 III)(John McCain)
Aug 04, 2008; ... EVER since Barack Obama won the Democratic nomination, John McCain has been within five points of him in a weighted average of national polls; lately, he has been within four. Most Republican strategists thought that Obama would be much farther ahead. Polls show that the public would much ...
Other half-read open-microphone apologies ...(the long view)(Letter to the editor)
Aug 04, 2008; ... Dear Mitt: I hesitate to even mention this, because it's really not a big deal, but on a recent episode of Hardball I engaged in some light-hearted banter with Chris Matthews. Unbeknownst to me, my studio microphone was still "hot," as they say in the business, and while Chris ...
Help!
Aug 04, 2008 ... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] "They're so obvious about it." [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] "WALL-E? It's a movie warning against consumerism." The Candidate of Change I'LL PULL THE TROOPS OUT IN 16 MONTHS [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] ...
One-Nation Conservatism.(Grand New Party: How Republicans Can Win the Working Class and Save the American Dream)(Book review)
Aug 04, 2008; ... Grand New Party: How Republicans Can Win the Working Class and Save the American Dream, by Ross Douthat and Reihan Salam (Doubleday, 244 pp., $23.95) [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] BACK in the early 1990s, when globalization was promising widespread gains and crime and ...
Still the one.(Book review)
Aug 04, 2008; ... The Post-American World, by Fareed Zakaria (Norton, 288 pp., $25.95) [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] THUCYDIDES, Virgil, Toynbee, Macaulay, Gibbon, and other great chroniclers of rising and falling would probably agree that every great state, empire, civilization, or even ...
The right remedies.(America's Health Care Crisis Solved: Money-Saving Solutions, Coverage for Everyone)(Book review)
Aug 04, 2008; ... America's Health Care Crisis Solved: Money-Saving Solutions, Coverage for Everyone, by J. Patrick Rooney and Dan Perrin (Wiley, 242 pp., $29.95) [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] THE "ownership society"--a key concept of today's conservatism--is premised on a reversal of the ...
Swimming pool.(Poem)
Aug 04, 2008; ... <Pre>Just one of those unexpected things in life:he's heading behind the house after schooland sees her standing there, someone's wife,undressing over the edge of her swimming pool.Barefoot, she drops her robe to the ground. Withinthe sultry-dark and muggy heats ...
The enemy speaks.(The Canons of Jihad: Terrorists' Strategy for Defeating America; A Terrorist's Call to Global Jihad: Deciphering Abu Musab al-Suri's Islamic Jihad Manifesto; Pure Goldwater; Dogmatics, Volume 4: Holy Spirit, Church, and New Creation )(Book review)
Aug 04, 2008; ... IN a project sponsored by the U.S. Joint Forces Command, the Naval Institute Press recently released a couple of paperbacks that will be very helpful to anyone trying to understand the war we're in. Both are edited by Jim Lacey, a prominent defense-policy analyst and former Army infantry ...
In praise of drabness.(Dragnet)
Aug 04, 2008; ... IF you're 50 or older, you won't need to be told the source of these half-recalled phrases: "The story you are about to see is true." "This is the city." "I carry a badge." "My name's Friday." If you're much younger than that, though, I doubt that you'll remember Dragnet with any clarity ....
A computer, not a divider.(Wall-E)
Aug 04, 2008; ... THE most interesting political controversy of the summer involves a polarizing figure with Phil Gramm's small head and goggling eyes, Bill Clinton's affinity for dangerous babes, and an oppo researcher's zeal for picking through other people's garbage. Superficially endearing but ...
Distant voices.(THE STRAGGLER)(Voices of History)(Sound recording review)
Aug 04, 2008; ... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] 'TOVARISHCHI! Grazhdanye! Bratya i syostri! Boitsy nashei armii i flota! K'vam obrashschayus ya, druzya moi ..." One listens in fascination to the man's recorded voice, then goes to one's books. Edvard Radzinsky: "On July 3 Stalin at last made ...
VP questionnaire.(but enough about you)
Aug 04, 2008; ... As vice president, my highest priority would be to: A. Support the president's agenda. B. Quietly leak it to leading columnists that I completely disagree with the president's less-popular policies. C. Attend as many funerals of foreign leaders as possible ....
Uncharitable Catholics.(letters to the editor)(Letter to the editor)
Aug 18, 2008; ... I was both surprised and distressed to learn the following in Kevin D. Williamson's "Lost Generation" (August 4): "Catholic Charities in Massachusetts suspended their adoption activities when the state attempted to force them to abandon their moral objections to facilitating ...
Not so swift.(Letter to the editor)
Aug 18, 2008; ... "The Week" (August 4) says without explanation that "the Swifties got a few things wrong." I would appreciate your telling me about these errors, because there is a large, as-yet-uncollected reward for disproving any of the Swift Boat Vets' claims. Lawrence A. Post ...
Clarification.(letters to the editor)(Correction notice)
Aug 18, 2008 ... In his article on Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty (August 4), John J. Miller cited a 2006 article from the Star Tribune in which Pawlenty said, "The era of ...
Obama shot a three-pointer.(The Week)(Barack Obama)(Brief article)
Aug 18, 2008 ... Obama shot a three-pointer ....
A reader of ours spotted a bumper sticker: "Faith ... Hope ... Obama.".(The Week)(Brief article)
Aug 18, 2008 ... A reader of ours spotted a bumper sticker: ...
President Bush abandoned his veto threat and signed a housing bill that offers a federal bailout to the lenders and borrowers who helped inflate the housing bubble and now find themselves struggling to stay afloat.(The Week)(Brief article)
Aug 18, 2008 ... President Bush abandoned his veto threat and signed a housing bill that offers a federal bailout to the lenders and borrowers who helped inflate the housing bubble and now find themselves struggling to stay afloat. The near-collapse of government-sponsored mortgage buyers Fannie Mae and ...