The Public Interest back issues from June 2004:
The liberal case against gay marriage.
Jun 22, 2004; ... THE issue of gay marriage brings to a head, like few other issues of our time, a central conflict between two moral positions that interact like seismic plates beneath the surface of contemporary American political life. It is commonly thought that the issue of gay marriage pits secular ...
What I learned at AEI.(Conservative Policy Dilemmas)(American Enterprise Institute)
Jun 22, 2004; ... THE official topic of today's discussion is: "Should conservatives support same-sex marriage?" The unofficial subtitle, at least of my talk, is: "Everything I Know About Gay Marriage, I Learned at the American Enterprise Institute." Though I'm now at the Brookings Institution, my first ...
What marriage is.(Conservative Policy Dilemmas)
Jun 22, 2004; ... COMMON sense suggests it is better for homosexually oriented persons to settle into permanent relationships than to have multiple partners. But can such relationships become marriages? I do not believe that they can. Jonathan Rauch makes the affirmative case, and puts forth the best ...
Marriage-lite.(Conservative Policy Dilemmas)
Jun 22, 2004; ... JONATHAN Rauch persuasively demonstrates, central to everything else, that those of us who are not proponents of gay marriage do not have the option of hoping the issue will go away. As Rauch puts it, we have reached a bend in the river. Major changes will happen concerning the right of ...
The politics and realities of Medicare.
Jun 22, 2004; ... TRYING to understand the economics of Medicare is a difficult business, but nearly everyone agrees that things do not look good. In March 2004, the Medicare Board of Trustees issued its annual report on the financial health of Medicare Part A, which funds primarily hospital expenses, and ...
Bioethics and the Constitution.
Jun 22, 2004; ... WHEN I mentioned the topic of my essay to a man well-versed in these matters, he suggested that I respond to the question of the relation between bioethics and the Constitution as Justice Antonin Scalia might. As Supreme Court watchers know, Scalia is famous for his scathing dissents in ...
The homeland security bureaucracy.
Jun 22, 2004; ... WHEN a nation seeking to protect itself finds diplomacy, war, and foreign intelligence gathering insufficient, it can undertake three other types of activities to defend itself. It can control the movement of potential terrorists entering the country or traveling within it; it can capture ...
Why talk radio is conservative.
Jun 22, 2004; ... On March 31, 2004, the latest venture in liberal talk radio was officially launched. A left-wing radio network called Air America began broadcasting a full day's worth of programming on radio stations in Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, and Portland, Oregon. Its on-air hosts included ...
The economics of obesity.(Research Report)(Illustration)
Jun 22, 2004; ... HARDLY a day goes by that we do not read about the dire consequences of the increase in obesity. In March, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention predicted that obesity will overtake smoking as the leading cause of preventable deaths in the United States by next year if current ...
Welcome to the omnipticon.(Review)
Jun 22, 2004; ... PRIVACY has become an increasingly urgent issue for many Americans after September 11. The USA PATRIOT Act expanded the domestic surveillance powers of policing agencies and considerably enhanced their authority to track and monitor individuals. It is hardly surprising that in the new age ...
Lessons for leaders.(Review)(Book Review)
Jun 22, 2004; ... WHEN it comes to dispensing knowledge to leaders, it would be hard to find a better source than Carnes Lord. Few political theorists possess his experience as a practitioner of statecraft; fewer still who are currently slugging it out in Washington's halls of power can lay claim to Lord's ...
The paradise spell.(Review)(Book Review)
Jun 22, 2004; ... YOU can tell that David Brooks gets around America. Here he is observing workaholics (himself?) coming down the aisle boarding a plane: <Pre> They've got hand-free wires clipped to their shirt; they're trying to shimmy out of their suit coat and get their carry-on bag into the ...
All that trash.(Review)(Book Review)
Jun 22, 2004; ... ALMOST 20 years ago, Allan Bloom pointed out in The Closing of the American Mind that few of us would make room on the living-room sofa for a guest who discussed or enacted the sexual raunch, incessant violence and just plain, dumb nastiness that are regularly featured in television ...