EXORCISING DEMONS
In a profile on Gary Bauer, the New York Times writes that Bauer is "seemingly finding in China a substitute for the Soviet Union, which Reagan so profitably demonized." Wow. Let's consider two assumptions behind this weird swipe at the Gipper: 1. He fought the Cold War because he could "profit" from it politically; 2. It was his rhetoric--rather than Soviet actions, such as shipping people off to the gulag--that "demonized" the Communist regime.

The Cold War ended nearly a decade ago, but the Times still has its brain in a deep-freeze.

DOLLAR BILL
Bill Bradley, on Monday: "I think this is a time when it's possible to raise too much money." In 1990, the Democratic presidential candidate refused to cap his Senate campaign's spending at $3 million, as Republican challenger Christine Todd Whitman suggested they both do.

FACT AND COMMENT
First there was Forbes the Magazine. Now there's Forbes the Book. Presidential candidate Steve Forbes's campaign tome, A New Birth of Freedom, is out from Regnery. It includes plenty of allusions to Lincoln, as well as Forbes's views on a range of issues (turns out he's for the flat tax). Best line: "Political spin is substance abuse."

THE OBJECT OF HIS AFFECTION
Not many people read the Washington Post's Sunday books section, but we hope a few eyebrows were raised by this passage from Dennis Drabelle's review of The Coming Storm, a prep-school novel: "Paul Russell conjures up a world in which an affair between Noah Lathrop III, a 15-year-old boy who is prone to both physical and emotional accidents, and Tracy Parker, a 25-year-old teacher who is comfortable with his own gayness, is troublesome not because it corrupts anybody (it doesn't) but because it is apt to be stereotyped, not least by the legal system that makes it a crime. Without preaching, Russell persuades the reader (or at least, I would think, most readers who are open-minded enough to pick up a book like this in the first place) that, in and of itself, the sexual relationship between Noah and Tracy is not only harmful to neither but a boon to the precocious junior partner, who becomes a better, more engaged student after the affair gets underway." So there you have it: Pedophilia is good for your grades! Toward some things, our minds should not be open.