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NO LINES. NO HASSLE. [Kathryn Jean Lopez] The NRO homepage has links galore to solve your Christmas shopping problems. Go there now and save yourself hassle. Posted at 08:22 PM SADDAM & MOHAMMED ATTA: PROOF? [Kathryn Jean Lopez] This sounds potentially explosive. Posted at 07:56 PM IRAQI GAS LINES [Jonathan H. Adler] Just saw a CNN story on gas lines in Iraq. Apparently Iraqis have to wait hours to refuel their cars. Sounds like the United States under President Jimmy Carter. Posted at 06:33 PM NEWS CRAWL [Andrew Stuttaford] Has the BBC ever met a dictator it doesn’t like? Check out this account of a recent speech by Mugabe. Here’s the conclusion: ”Opposition leaders in Zimbabwe may condemn Mr Mugabe for acting oppressively at home; but here in Geneva, many delegates - whether they agreed with him or not - were impressed by a lively speech.” I think I’m going to throw up. Posted at 06:23 PM KILLED BY KINDNESS [Andrew Stuttaford] If smokers were to switch to chewing tobacco and snuff, an impressively large number of lives would be saved. So what does the EU do? It bans most of these products. Just another reminder that the tobacco jihad is about control, not public health. Posted at 05:25 PM A DRUG WAR SUCCESS [Andrew Stuttaford] Here’s another success for the drug warriors: ”Italy's Mafia gangs have earned £32 billion and killed almost 700 people in the past four years, a report by the Eurispes research study unit says. It contradicts claims that the crime syndicates have been all but defeated. The most recent figures show that drug trafficking accounted for more than £18 billion, or more than half of total gangland turnover.” Thanks, guys! Posted at 04:28 PM THE 23RD PRESIDENT [John Derbyshire] Benjamin Harrison was a good egg. He married his second wife after leaving office, when he was 62, and fathered a child. I have read somewhere that he never worked after lunch--a most commendable practice. We could use a man like this in the White House nowadays. He was also, of course, the last of the Big Beards. Posted at 04:20 PM E-VOTING [Andrew Stuttaford] No apologies for returning to this topic (it’s important, folks!), so here’s a dismal story surrounding Diebold, one of the leading suppliers of e-voting equipment. If there is a way of making these systems acceptable it will involve paper receipts, but…: ”ANNAPOLIS -- An e-mail found in a collection of files stolen from Diebold Elections Systems' internal database recommends charging Maryland "out the yin-yang" if the state requires Diebold to add paper printouts to the $73 million voting system it purchased. ”The e-mail from "Ken," dated Jan. 3, 2003, discusses a (Baltimore) Sun article about a University of Maryland study of the Diebold system: "There is an important point that seems to be missed by all these articles: they already bought the system. At this point they are just closing the barn door. Let's just hope that as a company we are smart enough to charge out the yin if they try to change the rules now and legislate voter receipts." "Ken" later clarifies that he meant "out the yin-yang," adding, "any after-sale changes should be prohibitively expensive." ”The e-mail has been cited by advocates of voter-verified receipts, who say estimates of the cost of adding printers -- as much as $20 million statewide -- have been bloated.” Of course, the source is only two e-mails, and stolen ones at that (and there's no word on what "Barbie" thinks), but, if accurate, this tawdry tale is yet another reminder that the ham-fisted rush (if a rush can be ham-fisted) to electronic voting is proving very messy indeed. Posted at 04:20 PM SUPREME COURT TO VOTERS: SHUT UP [Andrew Stuttaford] ”Think about what has just happened. The Supreme Court has just ruled that political speech, the most important, and in theory most protected, kind of speech, can be banned in the days leading up to an election, the very time it's most needed, most valuable, and most beneficial. ”Incumbents in Congress have just insured that concerned citizens can't reach a mass audience with criticism of them in the months leading up to the day when the public determines whether or not they deserve to be rehired for another term. They've just given themselves job security. ”And lest we get too down on the Supreme Court that upheld this dreck, or the Congress that passed it, keep in mind that our president signed it into law, despite expressing his belief that it was unconstitutional, thus violating his oath of office.” Reason’s Julian Sanchez, meanwhile, has a modest proposal: “We must close the First Amendment loophole once and for all, and recognize that constitutional protection of "free expression" should be reserved for copies of Hustler, as the Founders intended, not extended to such dangerous frivolities as the expression of political views.” Posted at 04:13 PM FROM THE BELLY OF THE BEAST [John Derbyshire] Well, I got out alive from WBAI Pacifica wkthout anyone apparently minding (or, more probably, just knowing) that I am an agent of the Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy. Actually, I always fall into Stockholm Syndrome at these places. (I've been to a few, including one in Boulder, Colorado that was practically PAVED with granola--I actually saw my interviewer ride in on a mountain bike.) I end up liking the people. This proves yet again that I make a lousy ideologue. Harry Allen, who does the WBAI "Nonfiction" show on Friday afternoons, is a great guy--thoroughly well prepared, keenly interested in the subject he's presenting, and not at all intent on pushing the talk in the direction of any particular agenda. The segment before my talk was about the history of flight, and it was really interesting. One of the speakers blamed the decline of the U.S. small-plane industry on out-of-control trial lawyers, in a passage that would not have been out of place in a National Review editorial. When we got on to prime numbers, Harry knew just what to say, and asked all the right questions. A happy and convivial experience. I doubt there is a single person in the whole WBAI operation that votes Republican, but I wish them all well, anyway. And they need good wishes: they're having financial troubles. Good luck, thanks, and MERRY CHRISTMAS! to Harry and all the folks at WBAI. Posted at 03:57 PM EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THIS HUMONGOUS PRIME NUMBER [John Derbyshire] OK, here's the skinny on this business about the biggest prime number. First off, there is no biggest prime number. The prime numbers go on for ever. No matter how big a one you find, there's a bigger one waiting out there somewhere. What was turned up by this project was THE BIGGEST PRIME WE HAVE SO FAR FOUND. Second, it's a Mersenne prime. That needs a bit of explanation. Here are the first few primes: 2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17, 19, 23, 29, 31, 37, 41, 43, 47, 53, 59,... Notice that once you get past that starting "2," all the primes are odd numbers. Of course they are! A prime is defined to be a number into which nothing divides (except 1 and itself). An even number can be divided by 2, so it can't be prime, unless it actually **is** 2. Now, suppose I tell you to go find some prime numbers. Where are you going to look? Well, you are going to look among the odd numbers. No point looking among the even numbers. Here's a thing about odd numbers: an odd number--ANY odd number--differs from an even number by just 1. To put it the other way round, if you start with any even number, and add or subtract 1, you get an odd number. So one possible strategy for finding primes would be: (1) think of some interesting even numbers, (2) add 1 to each, to get an odd number--it might be prime! Or: (3) subtract 1 from each, ditto ditto. What is the most obvious class of even numbers? Why, the powers of 2. Here are the first few: 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256, 512, 1024, 2048,... Each number is double the one to its left. These are the powers of 2. The number 256, for instance, is 2x2x2x2x2x2x2x2, or "2 to the 8th power." We write it 2^8 for short. These numbers are SERIOUSLY even. I mean, you can't get any more even than 2x2x2x2x2x... So let's add one to each, and see if we get any primes. Here goes: 3, 5, 9, 17, 33, 65, 129, 257, 513, 1025, 2049,... Writing "P" for "prime" and "X" for "not prime," these break out as: P, P, X, P, X, X, X, P, X, X, X,... Hmmm. Didn't do too well there. Let's try the other thing: SUBTRACTING 1 from powers of 2. Here we go: 1, 3, 7, 15, 31, 63, 127, 255, 511, 1023, 2047,... These come out as: X, P, P, X, P, X, P, X, X, X, P,... Well, I'm getting SOME primes, anyway. But what are the patterns here? Very early on in math history the following things were discovered: (A) 2^n + 1 can only be a prime when "n" itself is a power of 2. In other words, the only primes of this type are 2^2^n + 1. An example is 257, which is 2^8 + 1, which is 2^2^3 +1. These are called FERMAT PRIMES, after the great 17th-century French mathematician Pierre de Fermat Note the word "can": a number of the form 2^2^n + 1 does not have to be a prime--when n=5, for example, it is not. It's only that, if you want 2^n + 1 to be prime, you must have "n" equal to some power of 2. (B) 2^n - 1 can only be a prime when "n" is itself a prime. An example is 2047, which is 2^11 - 1, since 11 is a prime. These primes are called MERSENNE PRIMES, after another 17th-century Frenchman, the monk Marin Mersenne The word "can" applies here as before: 2^p - 1 does not need to be prime (and in fact usually isn't) even when "p" is a prime. Because of the early discovery of these very particular kinds of primes, a great body of knowledge about them has accumulated. This knowledge can be used to find bigger and bigger instances. This is thus a well-established way to go looking for big primes. These are of course very particular kinds of primes. Most primes do not have the form 2^n - 1. It's just that so much work has been done on these types, that lots of techniques have developed for spotting them. Actually, this is only very profitable for Mersenne primes. Fermat primes seem to be very rare. The number 2^2^n + 1 is prime when n = 0, 1, 2, 3, or 4 (values 3, 5, 17, 257, 65537) but no other cases are known. Nor is it known whether there are any. I think most mathematicians believe there are none when n > 4, but nobody has proved this. With Mersenne primes, on the other hand, we now (as of last week) know 40. There is a list here, with dates of discovery http://www.utm.edu/research/primes/mersenne/index.html#known (go to heading 3). Notice how they have been turning up recently at the rate of slightly less than one a year. One was discovered this year, one in 2001. In the 1990s, seven were found; in the 1980s, four, and in the 1970s also four. Are there infinitely many Mersenne primes? Or will we eventually get to a point beyond which there are no more to be found? Nobody knows. Why should you care about any of this? You shouldn't. These huge Mersenne primes are of no practical value. (Big primes DO have a use in cryptography, but those primes only have 60 or so digits. These recent humongous discoveries, with MILLIONS of digits, are far too big for use in cryptography.) You are not obliged to be interested in this stuff, any more than you are obliged to be interested in symphonic music, or String Theory, or synchronized swimming. The question you might more profitably ask is: why do the people who care about this care about it? The answer is the same as for symphonic music etc.: viz. (a) because it is intrinsically beautiful--esthetically pleasing, if you have been trained to appreciate that particular esthetic, and (b) because it is fascinating to observe the very high level of technical expertise of the best workers in this field. Posted at 03:51 PM BLOOMBERG: HELPING TERROR? [Andrew Stuttaford] Nurse Bloomberg, scourge of ashtrays and destroyer of jobs, can now point to another consequence of his smoking ban – it’s become a moneymaking opportunity for criminal gangs and, possibly, terrorists. Worse still, as blogger Radley Balko points out, this was something that the Bloomberg ‘administration’ anticipated ahead of the introduction of its ridiculous and, it seems, quite literally lethal law and yet it still went ahead with it. To Balko, this is proof that the ban was not about public health, but money. He’s half right. It was never about public health, but the motive wasn’t money. It was a power trip, pure and simple. If Bloomberg had a shred of decency he would resign. But as he doesn’t, he won’t. Posted at 03:00 PM 1984 WATCH [Andrew Stuttaford] Here’s a nicely symbolic story from the belly of the beast, Brussels itself. Four Brits went to the Belgian capital (where the proposed EU’s ‘constitution’ has been under discussion) to hand out leaflets calling for a British vote in the event that any constitution ever comes up for ratification. Unfortunately, they had failed to complete the necessary paperwork in advance (this is Brussels after all), so these dangerous criminals were arrested and deported. Posted at 02:54 PM VLADDIE [John J. Miller] I have a small picture of former Detroit Red Wings defenseman Vladimir Konstantinov hanging in my office, in NR's DC bureau. Jason La Canfora--the best hockey writer in the business--tells Konstantinov's heartbreaking story in today's Washington Post. Posted at 02:17 PM Friday, December 12, 2003 ALLEN WEST [Jed Babbin] Lt. Col. Allen West met with his commanding general, Ray Odierno, today and was given non-judicial punishment for the incident regarding the Iraqi prisoner. Col. West will forfeit pay of $2500/month for two months, and soon should be transferred back to the U.S. to retire. This is just, as it allows a soldier with an unblemished record before this one incident to retire with pride and dignity, and without any stigma that would follow him into civilian life. With a little luck, he'll be home for Christmas. If military justice is to justice what military music is to music, sign me up as a Sousa fan. Posted at 05:31 PM VETERANS BENEFITS – HELP [Rich Lowry] Dean and Kerry have both been really tough on Bush for supposedly unfairly cutting veterans off benefits. I’m interested in hearing from anyone who would have an informed take on this issue. Thanks! Posted at 04:45 PM OKAY, YET ANOTHER THING [Ramesh Ponnuru] Jim Styczinski points out that Harrison lost the popular vote to Cleveland in 1888. But he doesn't seem to be a Gore voter. Posted at 04:42 PM ONE MORE THING ABOUT HARRISON [Ramesh Ponnuru] He wasn't just the last challenger to beat an incumbent president even though he had never been a governor or president himself. He was, as several of my emailers point out, the only one--at least if you count the appointed governors of the territories (such as William Henry Harrison and Andrew Jackson) as governors. . . . One more reason to think that maybe running Senator Dole against Clinton in 1996 wasn't such a hot idea. Posted at 04:38 PM HOW THEY DO IT IN CANADA [John J. Miller] The Canadians have a new prime minister. Here's how they inaugurated him, according to the Washington Post: "The multicultural ceremony included a string ensemble's rendition of "O Canada" and a purification ritual in which an elder from one of Canada's Indian nations dusted Martin with an eagle feather." Posted at 04:36 PM AND NOW [Ramesh Ponnuru] I've gotten too much email on this subject to respond individually to everyone. Sorry about that. I am, however, reading all of them. Posted at 04:27 PM CLAUDE ALLEN OPPOSED [Jonathan H. Adler] In a little noticed move, Senate Democrats prevented the nomination of HHS deputy Secretary Claude Allen to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit from being carried over to the next Senate session. As a consequence, Bush will have to renominate Allen next year. Posted at 04:22 PM THE ANSWER IS [Ramesh Ponnuru] 1888, when Benjamin Harrison won. Thanks to Charlie Banks, Kevin Hanley, Mitchell Hadley, Brian Kalt, John Williamson, and Richard Skinner, who supplied that answer in that order. Banks, however, is a blood relative of Harrison and thus had an unfair advantage. Posted at 04:20 PM DIRTY NEWS [Jonathan H. Adler] Gregg Easterbrook doesn't like the media's coverage of the Bush Administration's environmental policites -- as well he shouldn't. Posted at 04:14 PM SO... [Ramesh Ponnuru] When I posted the "Fun with Statistics" item ten people immediately wrote me to tell me about the 1980 election. Now that I've corrected the question, there's radio silence. Once again, the question is: When was the last presidential election in which an incumbent lost to a challenger who had neither been a governor nor a president? I'm at rponnuru@nationalreview.com. Posted at 04:06 PM ER, LET ME AMEND THAT [Ramesh Ponnuru] I meant "who had been a governor," not "was a sitting governor at the time," since Reagan obviously no longer was a governor in 1980. Posted at 03:52 PM FUN WITH PRESIDENTIAL STATISTICS [Ramesh Ponnuru] I was going through the last several presidential elections in my mind, trying to come up with an example of a president who was defeated for re-election by a challenger who was not a governor at the time. If I'm remembering correctly, you have to go back to 1892. What's the last time an incumbent president has been defeated by someone who was neither a sitting governor nor a former president himself? I'm at rponnuru@nationalreview.com Posted at 03:44 PM SINCE THE CORNER'S KINDA SLEEPY (I AM TOO) [Kathryn Jean Lopez] It's officially "best of" assignment day: If you haven't alreay. w-mail in your favorite pieces that appeared on NRO this year to thecorner@nationalreview.com. Posted at 03:12 PM COARSENED FOR CHRISTMAS [Tim Graham] The Catholic League has discovered a new frontier in political correctness: holiday cards. Hallmark gets a pass. But one sign of too much religious emptiness at Christmas (and certainly the religious emptiness of some greeting card makers) are categories of "rude" and "risque" Christmas cards. The league reports: "What is perhaps most telling about American Greetings is the total absence of tasteless Hanukkah and Kwanzaa cards. Indeed, neither of these two holidays merit a ‘Risqué’ or ‘Rude’ section—that’s reserved only for Christmas." Nobody should suggest what the world needs is rude Hanukkah cards in our already coarsened culture, but what's with all you "Bad Santa" worshipping types? They add: “Hanukkah is a minor holiday in the Jewish calendar, but it commands the utmost respect from Yahoo! Greetings. Of the 33 Hanukkah cards, 26 display a Star of David or Menorah. Of the 443 Christmas cards, 9 are religious. In other words, 79% of the Hanukkah cards are religious, compared to 2% of the Christmas cards." It has to be contemplated that the card-BUYERS are part of the problem here. But the makers aren't helping. Posted at 03:06 PM CHRETIEN STEPS DOWN [Kathryn Jean Lopez] Here's what Mark Steyn says about it. Posted at 02:36 PM WHEN YOU CARE TO SEND THE BEST, SEND NR'S CHILDREN TREASURIES [Jack Fowler] We're not the only ones singing praises of The National Review Treasury of Classic Children's Literature and The National Review Treasury of Classic Bedtime Stories. Here's the take on these big, beautiful books from the respected essayist and commentator Midge Decter: “ 'Treasure' is the right word to use for these three collections of children’s literature. Indeed, reading through the National Review treasuries is a happy reminder of the time when children were respected as creatures capable of both real thoughts and real imaginings rather than, as they so much are today, no more than a cohort of small and conventionally attitudinizing adults. Indeed, with the Treasuries in tow, parents and children are both apt to begin anticipating bedtime as a whole new adventure." Powerful words. Many thanks for them Midge (and congratulations again for being honored by President Bush last month with a National Humanities Medal!). And with Christmas looming the best thing you can do for children is to give them something of real worth and lasting value--something that will help shape them into being good, decent, moral folk. You know the score: the stupid must-have cheesy toys will be played with for 10 minutes and then forgotten. They're destined for a tag sale or Goodwill (or more likely the garbage). Meanwhile, NR's books are crammed with wondrous literature that is destined to influence a child's entire life. So we boldly urge you order any or all of our great titles: the original edition or "Volume Two" of The National Review Treasury of Classic Children's Literature, and our new book designed especially for new and beginning readers, The National Review Treasury of Classic Bedtime Stories (a lavishly illustrated collection of beautiful stories by the great Thornton Burgess). They are the perfect Christmas gifts (and we can get them to you before Santa slides down the chimney--by the way, how does he get through the furnace?!!). Order securely here. Posted at 02:28 PM ADLER V. LCV [Jonathan H. Adler] Incidentally, I debate someone from LCV tonight on FNC's Hannity & Colmes. It's the last segment of the show -- so it's short -- but I think I get my point across. Posted at 02:15 PM LCV ON BUSH [Jonathan H. Adler] The League of Conservation Voters declared this week that any Democratic presidential candidate would be better than President Bush. Of course, by the LCV's standards, to be pro-environment one should support tax increases (to pay for Superfund), federal land acquisition (when the feds already own 1 of 3 acres in the U.S.), taxpayer support for "family planning" in developing countries (we know what that means), and regulations to force Americans into smaller, lighter, and less-crashworthy cars. No thanks. The LCV also adopts double standards in evaluating candidates. The Reverand Al Sharpton gets credit for talking about abandoned industrial sites in decaying cities, but President Bush gets zero credit for sponsoring and signing legislation to address the problem. Posted at 02:11 PM ANNOYING ADS [Ramesh Ponnuru] There seem to be a lot of ads recently that are selling several products. Many of them involve the Cat in the Hat. The whole trend should be liquidated. Posted at 02:04 PM WORST COMMERCIALS [Kathryn Jean Lopez] Revisiting Jonah's topic of late, Fran Drescher doesn't annoy me (I confess: I had a soft spot for The Nanny--it's the ONLY reason I will EVER turn on Lifetime) so much as the James Taylor commerical for MCI and the Nexium commerical (along with any other drug commercial) at the Italian restaurant ("tossing and turning." STOP). The cable news channels seem to have them in excess. Posted at 01:36 PM 13 DAYS UNTIL CHRISTMAS [Kathryn Jean Lopez] PERFECT time to go shopping NRO style: NR Books (including kids' classic stories!), LEGACY, NR Digital, NRODT on DT, and NRO goodies--including new Derbyshire stuff and Corner gear. Posted at 01:21 PM VERMONT'S LIBERALISM [Stanley Kurtz] Tim, here’s how Vermont voted in the 2000 presidential election: Gore 50.63% Bush 40.70% Nader 6.92%. Notice the huge percentage for Nader, and that’s in addition to a very substantial margin for Gore in an even election year. Obviously, Vermont is a very liberal state. Bush had a lower percentage in Vermont than in California (41.65%), where he ran very weakly. On the other hand, there is just a grain of truth in what Carlson was saying. The socialists in Burlington went for Nader. But five states did give Bush a lower percentage than Vermont: Connecticut 38.44%, Hawaii 37.46%, Massachusetts 32.50%, New York 35.23%, and Rhode Island 31%. By this reckoning, Rhode Island, Massachusetts and New York are the most liberal states in the union, and Vermont follows in sixth place. But I’d say the sixth most anti-Bush state, with an usually high percentage of pro-Nader hard leftists to boot, counts as an awfully darned liberal state. Posted at 12:58 PM THERE'S ALWAYS THE POSSIBILITY, [Ramesh Ponnuru] Stanley, that the Clintons want Dean to go down to defeat after they were seen to be trying to get the party to follow a different path. In which case they would have to back a weak centrist candidate (but not a weak candidate seen in the Democratic party as conservative, like Lieberman). Clark fit the bill nicely. Posted at 12:48 PM HILLARY ON DEAN [Stanley Kurtz] Following up on my earlier post, Hillary probably does prefer Dean. But she only gets the benefit of Dean’s loss if she appears to oppose him. I suppose the other argument is that Hillary wants Clark for the good reason that Clark may make her the Vice-Presidential candidate. That really would help her, so long as the ticket does reasonably well. So Dean or Clark, Hillary wins. On the other hand, Hillary as Clark’s V-P candidate would hurt her if they lose big. Posted at 12:43 PM A DEAN LOSS [Stanley Kurtz] What I don’t understand is why Hillary and Bill want Clark. Sure, if Clark wins, the Clintons would be key powers. But Clark will probably lose. Yes, Hillary and Bill are doing the responsible thing for their party by trying to top the ticket with someone who won’t sink the congressional candidates. That gets them credit with the party. But the truth is, what Hillary and Bill really need is a big Dean loss in the general election. The other thing I don’t understand is why Gore wants Dean. Sure, if Dean wins, Gore could be Secretary of State (see Charles Krauthammer’s latest column). But if Dean loses, won’t that just turn the Democratic party over to the Clintons, who will be able to say, “I told you so.” The bad news is that, with the Democrats now split between the resurgent Dean left and Clintonians for Clark, Hillary is in the remarkable position of seeming to head up the practical, defense oriented wing of the party. This post rightly belongs to Leiberman. It says something about how far gone the Democrats are that Hillary is taking it instead. But Hillary is taking it, and this helps her materially. Just by being against Dean, Hillary is made to seem more moderate than she really is. In fact, so long as Dean gets creamed, it’s Hillary who stands to benefit. Like I said, Hillary should actually prefer Dean. With Clark, she gets the right to influence a loser. With Dean, she gets the right to succeed a loser. So what we’re looking at is a Dean loss in 2004, and Hillary versus Jeb in 2008. By that time, Hillary will have had four more years to burnish her bogus move to the center, and the country will be tired of Bushes. Naturally, speculation at this distance is of limited value at best. But the scenario for Hillary in ‘08 looks a whole lot rosier than I’m comfortable with. Posted at 12:38 PM NEW JERSEY CLONES [Kathryn Jean Lopez] The Garden State is on the verge (on Monday?!) of passing an unprecedented cloning bill (again). Here's my quick write-up. Posted at 12:22 PM HAWKING HARD-LEFT HOWARD [Tim Graham] On the alien planet known as Keith Olbermann's "Countdown" on MSNBC last night, Keith and old Time hand Margaret Carlson were feverishly working on the Dean's-not-liberal line. First, Keith insisted Burlington's radical, but "the rest of the state is extraordinarily New England conservative," so Dean is "essentially, conceivably, could be a liberal conservative." Carlson agreed: "Right. It's a rural state. They think of it as Ben and Jerry's ice cream and civil unions. Their minds haven't expanded. He's a fiscal conservative." But then try to figure out what Margaret is trying to say: "He looks more left because his main issue has been Iraq. And his followers, because they're so young and kind of hip. You know, a smart person, actually my daughter, said that if Jerry Garcia were still alive, there might not be a Howard Dean movement." Huh? Posted at 12:04 PM SELFLESS K-LO [Kathryn Jean Lopez] After reading this, this obnoxious New Yorker Yankee fan is officially happy Pettitte has gone home. Our loss, his gain. Posted at 11:39 AM SPACEMAN DEAN [John J. Miller] Steve & Tim: Yes, "effective" can become a weasel word for Dean. But I wonder if the politics of missile defense aren't going to change in the next couple of years. By this time next year, the United States will have deployed a rudimentary missile defense supposedly capable of defending against an attack from North Korea. I suspect that Democrats ultimately will come to support some version of national missile defense. They will continue to complain about the cost, but we'll hear less and less about how it can't be made to work. The idea of missile defense is just too popular with the public--the Dems will want to neutralize it as an issue, rather than make it a part of their national-security strategy. Something tells me that Dean's words on this topic--even though they're compromised by his embrace of the ABM Treaty--are a prelude to what's ahead. And that's very good news for conservatives. It's also something that wouldn't have happened without President Bush's leadership on the issue. Posted at 10:28 AM SOMETHING UP? [Kathryn Jean Lopez] I'm getting blackberry alerts from D.C. commuters--evidently 20 blocks or so have been shut down due to a "suspicious package." Posted at 10:00 AM DEAN'S "STAR WARS" [Tim Graham] Yes, Steve, you saw it yesterday in Jay's Impromptus. I do have trouble believing that Howard Dean can defend America within the atmosphere, not to mention above it. If the kooky MoveOn.Org crowd knew this was Dean's stated position, they might have given Kucinich the "Internet primary" win. Posted at 09:49 AM PRO-TIBET PROTESTER INTERRUPTS CHINESE P.M. AT HARVARD [John Derbyshire] A Harvard senior, 21-yr-old Meghan Howard, unfurled a Tibetan flag while Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao was giving a speech at the university. Posted at 09:44 AM WHY AM I ENCOURAGING THIS? [Kathryn Jean Lopez] A reader wants Derb to talk prime: I know it's asking for trouble, but could you get The Derb to please explain what the big deal is about discovering the largest prime number? I didn't hear him on Hugh Hewitt where he probably did explain this. It just seems to fall under the category of "Yeah...so?" Posted at 09:40 AM CONTRACTS AND DEBT RELIEF [Ramesh Ponnuru] I hope you're right, Jonah. But I don't see how it helps that strategy for the president to suggest that countries won't get on the bid list by relieving Iraq's debts. On this point, the White House has been sending mixed signals. For what purpose--if there is a purpose--I know not. Posted at 09:36 AM ABOMINATIONS [Ramesh Ponnuru] My former colleague David Klinghoffer has written an article for Beliefnet about gay marriage. In the course of it, he writes, "Any Bible-believer must agree that it’s God’s will, not man’s intellect, which decides profound moral questions." It's an unhelpful formulation. Of course man's intellect does not "decide" moral questions, but it can discern the answers to them. Also, I would think that a Bible-believer can maintain that it is God's nature rather than His "will" that compels goodness. Posted at 09:31 AM BUSH TO SLAM DEAN [Kathryn Jean Lopez] According to a new New Hampshire poll Posted at 08:58 AM RE: DEAN'S "PLEASANT SURPRISE" [Steve Hayward] John J: I am sure you recognize that "effective" in "effective missile defense" is a weasal word; Dean can easily repair behind the canard that missile defense programs do not promise to be "effective," and thereby give him an out. Hasnb't Dean said somewhere that he would re-sign the ABM treaty? Posted at 08:22 AM PLEASANT SURPRISE [John J. Miller] Howard Dean isn't a total nincompoop on missile defense or space security. The Council for a Livable World has responses to its candidate survey here. "Effective missile defense will be an important part of a Dean Administration's national and homeland security strategy," says Dean. On milspace, Dean writes: "Technological development in space will continue and we should not reduce the technological advantages that our military enjoys by prohibiting the use of space for military activities." What's most amazing is that in contrast to the other Democrats--even Joe Lieberman--Dean doesn't call for a ban on weapons in space. I wouldn't necessarily trust him to push for their development, but it looks as though he's to the right of the Dem field on this issue. Posted at 07:54 AM THOSE CONTRACTS [Jonah Goldberg] Isn't it possible that the stiffing of Germany, France and Russia is simply prelude to Jim Baker's Iraqi debt-cancellation world tour? It just seems so obvious to me now. He wanted some leverage and to send these countries a signal that we could play hardball before he left. It's fine with me as a policy or as a negotiating ploy. I mean if I hear the EUniks say this decision was "unhelpful" one more time, I'm gonna go nuts. Look at France last year, or this year, for a definition of "unhelpful." Posted at 06:39 AM Thursday, December 11, 2003 RE: RE: PRIME NUMBERS [John Derbyshire] Hugh Hewitt is a true gent--gave me a full hour to bloviate about prime numbers and my book. THANK YOU, HUGH. (And thanks to Kathryn, who put him on to me.) Tomorrow I shall be doing the same on WBAI out of Wall Street, talking to Harry Allen and a phone-in mathematician, sometime in the 2pm--3pm slot EST Posted at 09:40 PM RE: PRIME NUMBERS [Kathryn Jean Lopez] RP, evidently Hugh Hewitt devoted way too much of his show to the topic this evening. It's going to get more coverage by the end of the week...Derb. will be happy. Posted at 09:23 PM PRIME NUMBERS [Ramesh Ponnuru] On CNN tomorrow morning (around 8:30 a.m. EST), I'm supposed to talk about what the under-covered story of the week is. I'm thinking about responding with the discovery of the largest prime number ever. Posted at 09:10 PM PURE BUSH [Kathryn Jean Lopez] From that AP story: Asked about comments by German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder that international law must apply to awarding of contracts, Bush said: "International law? I better call my lawyer." Posted at 07:59 PM STILL SPENDING THE MONEY THEY MADE THERE? [Kathryn Jean Lopez] A reader asks: Bush's comments were wonderfully sensible and straightforward. Would it be too undiplomatic to add that the French, Germans and Russians already made their billions on Iraqi contracts -- when they were pumping goods and services into the country during Saddam's rule in defiance of the UN sanctions? Posted at 07:36 PM PHILOSOPHY OF THE CONTRACTS, IN A NUTSHELL [Kathryn Jean Lopez] President Bush today: "It's very simple. Our people risked their lives. Friendly coalition folks risked their lives and...the contracting is going to reflect that...that's what the U.S. taxpayers expect." Posted at 07:06 PM MICHAEL WEISSKOPF [Kathryn Jean Lopez] Deatils are sketchy (or at least the ones I have are), but Michael Weiskopf is In Iraq and was reportedly in a truck with a photographer from Time and (and one other, I believe) when they were hit by a grenade. Brit Hume just said Weisskopf caught the grenade and has lost his hand in the process--but saved the lives of the others in the truck. One wonders--I wonder--would my instinct be to catch the grenade? Posted at 06:48 PM RE: CFR [Tim Graham] Right on, Rich. Signing BCRA has to qualify as one of Bush's saddest moves. I'm sure Rove-Mehlman-Etc. can make a VERY good case that signing it accomplished great things for them -- draining the media outrage, deflating the tires on McCain's "Straight Talk Express," leading to new post-BCRA financial advantages, and most recently, showing Soros, Dean, Kerry and so on to be "reform" hypocrites. But he's still shot a hole in the ship of free political speech. As you might expect, reporting has been just as biased now as it was in the years of self-interested liberal media campaigning for "reform" enactment. Last night, ABC and CBS failed to even mention the ban on ads featuring candidate names 60 days before an election. While CBS, NBC, and CNN at least cited dissenting Justice Scalia’s free speech concerns, ABC didn’t even bother to mention the views of the dissenters. Posted at 05:27 PM HAPPY ANNUAL [Kathryn Jean Lopez] This is...America today? From an e-mailer: Thought you might find this interesting........ Posted at 04:50 PM GOODBYE ANDY [Rich Lowry] Andy Pettite was a fine athlete, a true gentleman, and a great Yankee. I’m writing about him in the past tense, of course, because he’s going to pitch for some team in Texas, which means the effective end of his meaningful baseball career. It also means the end of an era for the Yankees. The team of the mid to late 1990s is now all but gone. Pettite stood for their talent, their grit, and – dare I say – their virtue. He’ll be missed… Posted at 04:36 PM FOR WHAT IT’S WORTH… [Rich Lowry] … Here is a piece in the New York Observer about my status as a “Power Punk.” And another one in the New York Press describing an event I spoke at recently (but don’t trust the author of this one – he doesn’t know how to dress). Posted at 04:32 PM CORRECTION [Ramesh Ponnuru] Many thanks to Jack O’Toole, who has pointed out on his blog that I made an error in a recent article for the New Republic. I wrote, “In 2001, Democrats kept hoping that some Bush initiative--his pro-life executive orders, his review of arsenic regulations, his tax cut--would be the early stumble that gays in the military was for Bill Clinton. But Clinton got in trouble in 1993 because his initiatives had not been vetted during the campaign: Bush père hadn't challenged him on the military gay ban, and Clinton hadn't talked about raising taxes. In 2000, on the other hand, W.'s policies on abortion, taxes, and the environment were extensively debated.” O’Toole points out, in a post I just ran across, that Clinton had in fact talked about raising taxes on families with incomes above $200,000. My core thought was that the political ground had not been prepared for Clinton’s 1993 tax proposals. I had in mind the energy tax (which Congress pared down to a gas-tax hike) and the failure to cut middle-class tax rates. But the sentence I wrote was false and, as O'Toole notes, pretty obviously so. My apologies to the New Republic and its readers. Posted at 04:31 PM CFR UPHELD [Rich Lowry] What has happened on campaign finance reform was, unfortunately, utterly predictable. It’s why Bush shouldn’t sign bills he thinks are unconstitutional. Posted at 04:26 PM CARTER'S COMMENT ON ZELL MILLER [Ramesh Ponnuru] The former president says it was a mistake for Gov. Roy Barnes to appoint Miller to fill Paul Coverdell's Senate seat when Coverdell died. I can see why Democrats would think that. But would any other Georgia Democrat have been able to hold that seat? And if Miller had not held it in the 2000 election, how would Tom Daschle have been able to become majority leader? If it's true that no other Democrat would have held the seat, it seems like it was a good move even in retrospect. Posted at 04:22 PM JIMMY CARTER VS. ZELL MILLER [Kathryn Jean Lopez] Posted at 03:47 PM ET TU, JCPENNEY? [Kathryn Jean Lopez] This, obviously, is not as bad as Abercrombie, but it is crass. AND AT JC PENNEY! Posted at 03:44 PM WHAT'S DERB DOING? [John Derbyshire] What great project is engaging the vast resources of the Derb brain at this point in time? a reader enquires. Listen in to the workings of that mighty organ: "Red three on black four... no, no, no, should have moved the black four to the red five FIRST... all right, all right, park the black eight and put the jack on the queen..." Posted at 03:08 PM THE CHRISTMAS CLOCK'S TICKING ... ORDER NR'S KIDS BOOKS TODAY [Jack Fowler] Influential author, editor of World magazine, syndicated columnist, distinguished journalism professor--Marvin Olasky's juggling act is better than anything you've seen at Cirque de Soleil. We're exceptionally pleased by his kind (and accurate!) take on National Review Treasury of Classic Children's Literature and The National Review Treasury of Classic Bedtime Stories, which we share with you now: "Before having children I did not realize that it would be so much fun to read them bedtime stories. It's no trouble finding picture books and fairy tales for young children, but eloquent tales that can be read to or read by older kids are harder to come by. These stories are just what parents need for children's joy and their own pleasure." Many thanks Marvin. You'd be wise to take his sound advice and get your copies of these wonderful books. With Christmas looming these books are the best thing you can give a child or a family: they have real worth and lasting value, and will help shape children into being good, decent, moral folk. Order any or all of our great titles: the original edition or "Volume Two" of The National Review Treasury of Classic Children's Literature, and our new book designed especially for new and beginning readers, The National Review Treasury of Classic Bedtime Stories (a lavishly illustrated collection of enchanting stories by the great Thornton Burgess). Order here. Posted at 02:15 PM I COULD HAVE SWORN.... [Jonah Goldberg] That Instapundit was one of the good guys on this. But the Spoons experience says otherwise: You criticize the blogosphere for being silent about the Court's decision, but then praise the "exceptions" of Volokh and Instapundit. One problem: Instapundit hasn't said word one about the decision! Meanwhile, many other bloggers have, including myself . In fact, I have several posts on the subject, including a link to a roundup of what bloggers are saying. -Chris "Spoons" Kanis Posted at 02:13 PM ANOTHER-PRO CENSORSHIP G-FILE [Jonah Goldberg ] Posted at 01:52 PM PURE CLINTON [Jim Robbins] When Hillary Clinton was asked on "Meet the Press" if she would never accept the Democratic Presidential nomination, her response was , "I am not accepting the nomination." This was exactly the formulation Bill Clinton used to deny his affair with Monica Lewinsky under oath: "There is no relationship." Meaning, not at that precise moment. And we understand that Hillary was not accepting the nomination Sunday, because everyone now knows what the meaning of "is" is. Either this was a subtle joke she was playing, or this junior high-level wordplay is a family psychosis. Posted at 12:14 PM IRAQI RECONSTRUCTION [Michael Graham] After listening to pundits and Euro-weenies crying about the Bush administration's decision to keep the French, Germans and Russians from bidding on Iraq reconstruction projects, it occured to me that my four-year-old son knows more about diplomacy than they do. Posted at 10:54 AM THEIR CLASSY TIMING [Tim Graham] The hard-left Afghan-war-opposing peaceniks at MoveOn.Org have been schlepping their documentary about Iraq War lies...urging people to host viewing parties on Pearl Harbor Day. What next? The Tora Bora Lies movie, with parties on September 11? Posted at 10:51 AM HUNGARIAN WINES--SETTING THE RECORD STRAIGHT [John Derbyshire] A reader, with whom, though from a limited base of experience, I concur: "As a long-time fan of wines from Tokaji, I must say the reader who told K-Lo that Hungarian wines 'taste poisoned' has either had very bad luck, or is an abject savage." Posted at 10:18 AM "BUSH'S IRAQ"? [Kathryn Jean Lopez] from a Reuters headline. Posted at 10:17 AM BELLESILES SIGHTING [Kathryn Jean Lopez] Hey, didn't we discredit this guy? Posted at 10:02 AM LOWRY ON FOX [Kathryn Jean Lopez] See our Rich Lowry on Fox talking Dems at 10:30 this morning. Posted at 09:33 AM WOE IS WE [Kathryn Jean Lopez] Andy Pettitte is leaving the Yanks for the Astros (NBC just confirmed, too). Weeping can be heard throughout NYC. Wait with anticipation for Rich wisdom on this breaking news. Posted at 09:29 AM CONSERVATIVES: SIMON AND DEAN? [Tim Graham] Yesterday on NBC, Chip Reid explained about Sen. Simon: “Politically, he was a fiscal conservative who fought for balanced budgets but a die-hard liberal Democrat on social issues.” On ABC Radio Tuesday night, Vic Ratner also used this “social liberal, fiscal conservative” mantra. As we now brace ourselves for the constant repetition that Howard Dean is a “fiscal conservative,” Simon’s example shows how the word is misused. Simon favored a Balanced Budget Amendment to the Constitution, but his American Conservative Union rating (which is partially on fiscal issues) only rose to a lifetime average of five – yes, five – percent. Simon also favored a single-payer health-care system. To win the battle of defining conservatism, conservatives are going to have to reject the notion that balanced-budget socialism can be defined as “fiscally conservative.” Fiscal conservatism should be defined as a preference for low taxes and strictly limited government. Simon (and Dean) have preferred neither. Posted at 09:26 AM CRAPWEASELS DU MONDE [Rod Dreher] From today's Dallas Morning News (registration required, dammit), here's my version of the Big Bad Wolfowitz versus Russia, France and Germany, rendered as a ripped-off version of "The Little Red Hen." Posted at 08:26 AM PEGGY NOONAN ON BOB BARTLEY [Kathryn Jean Lopez] Posted at 06:42 AM "TRIUMPH"? ! NOT IN AMERICA. [Kathryn Jean Lopez] From a NY Times edit: "The Supreme Court delivered a stunning victory for political reform yesterday, upholding the McCain-Feingold campaign finance law virtually in its entirety. The court rejected claims that the law violates the First Amendment, making it clear that Congress has broad authority in acting against the corrupting power of money in politics. The ruling is cause for celebration, but it should also spur Congress to do more to clean up our political system." Posted at 06:40 AM Wednesday, December 10, 2003 COVETING DERB'S LOVE [Kathryn Jean Lopez] I was a tad jealous until I saw this e-mail: "More than once I've had Hungarian wine given to me as a gift. It is not poisoned. It only tastes poisoned." Posted at 10:34 PM IRAQIS VS... [Kathryn Jean Lopez] From the "HealingIraq" blog we linked to earlier (Instapundit wisely highlights this graph): "The rallies today proved to be a major success. I didn't expect anything even close to this. It was probably the largest demonstration in Baghdad for months. It wasn't just against terrorism. It was against Arab media, against the interference of neighbouring countries, against dictatorships, against Wahhabism, against oppression, and of course against the Ba'ath and Saddam." Posted at 10:30 PM HEADING OFF TO CABO...CABO... [Jonah Goldberg] My dear sister-in-law (actually one of many) is getting married in Cabo San Lucas this weekend. I'm heading there tomorrow for the festivities. This really should be my last major travel for a while. Anyway, I'll be checking in. Posted at 09:17 PM RIDGE SAYS: LEGALIZE THE ILLEGALS [Kathryn Jean Lopez] Posted at 08:38 PM EVERY PARTY NEEDS A POOPER--BUT WHO INVITED THIS GUY? [John Derbyshire] I got this wet blanket thrown over my "reader love" posting: "Well, do as you like, but long ago I made a simple rule never to ingest anything sent to me by a stranger. It was the death threats in the mail that made me think--once, not twice--about it. But still, any comestible or potable I get from total strangers goes straight into the dumpster. Even from people who claim acquaintance with an acquaintance. We have enemies, we conservatives do, and the more psychotic they are the more cleverly they can pin their way through seals and safeguards. But, as I say, do as you like. Happy Holidays!" Yeah, Merry Christmas to you too, Mr. Squidward. Posted at 05:18 PM GORE'S ENDORSEMENT [Jonah Goldberg] “I’ve seen a candidate who has what it takes to reach out to the independent, mainstream Americans who will make the difference ... particularly in the South,” Gore declared upon endorsing the Democratic contender. “He’s going to send George Bush packing and bring the Democratic Party home.” Alas, the contender in question was Michael Dukakis in 1988. Accepting the endorsement, Dukakis replied, “We aren’t going to concede one single state in this country . . . and that includes the states of the South.” I guess sometimes saying it doesn't really make it so. All from MSNBC.com Posted at 05:03 PM RE: ONE-UP-DOG-SHIP [John Derbyshire] Jonah: I apologize on Boris's behalf. He has some self-esteem issues to work through, ever since, well, the operation. That stuff about three-baggers? In his dreams! The cone taunt is totally out of character. I've told him to bring it up at group. Posted at 05:00 PM RE: AN OPP FOR NR [Kathryn Jean Lopez] A CFR expert expands and clarifies on what Steve said earlier: At the risk of being a total technical weenie, Steve is sort of right, but not completely. There are people out there who say we should not extend the press exemption to the contribution and expenditure limits to corporations that fail some "bona fide" test. But, the Commission doesn't use that requirement in the analysis. What [is looked at is] whether the newspaper, periodical or whatever is bona fide. That is, you can't print one big campaign related magazine and get a pass on that being regulated as an expenditure. But - non media companies can benefit, and have been excluded from the expenditure regulations when as a part of their ongoing activities they publish a magazine - Sam's Club most recently, for an article they ran on Elizabeth Dole. I also know that an in-flight magazine published by an airline was exempted (someone complained about a puff piece on a Senator that appeared there). Posted at 04:49 PM YOU DO KNOW, DON'T YOU [Kathryn Jean Lopez] That Reagan-on-the-dime deal Jim Geraghty writes about today on NRO came from NRO. See John Miller here and here. NRO, Freedom's Coin machine... Posted at 04:46 PM DEAN ON CBS, 2 [Tim Graham] Dean also hit CBS's "Early Show" this morning, where Harry Smith asked this fat-bat wiffleball question: "One of the things that you have said over and over again that there needs to be more international troops in Iraq. Today we learned the Pentagon has barred Russia, France and Germany from bidding on reconstruction projects there. Is that how we get them to send more troops?" Posted at 04:26 PM TAIWAN'S REFERENDUM & U.S. CHINA POLICY [John Derbyshire] A reader: "Shouldn't NRO be taking a strong position on the Taiwan referendum instead of ignoring it? How is the Bush Administration position on Taiwan's referendum compatible with 'The National Security Strategy of the United States of America'? Isn't it incredibly cynical for the Bush Administration to stand for Democracy at the point of the sword in Iraq while not recognizing the right to self determination of the people of Taiwan?" The people of Taiwan HAVE self-determination. No substantive matter of Taiwan's internal policy is dictated by China, nor by anyone else. In this globalized world, I don't know that they have any less self-determination than anyone else--than the average member of the EU, for example. The aim of U.S. policy should be to help the people of Taiwan preserve the self-determination they have got, and not lose it by tweaking the dragon's tail. Governments have to weigh goods against other goods. For Taiwan to have a referendum on its nationhood would be good--I won't argue with that. For China to give us serious help in restraining the Norks, and to stop the flagrant selling of missile technology to US-hostile regimes--those are other goods--and, so far as the people of the U.S. are concerned, far greater ones. If indeed (I have my doubts, and will write about them in due course) the administration has got some real help on those issues in return for some rough words to the Taiwan govt., personally I could live with it. Posted at 04:15 PM REWARDING OUR FRIENDS [Jonah Goldberg] Never let it be said that I never agree with anything Matthew Yglesias at Tapped has to say. I think he makes an excellent point about the Pentagon's decision to bar France, Russia and Germany from contracts in Iraq. I disagree with Yglesias when he says punishing those countries is simply "petty." But he's absolutely right when he says people miss the point that punishing the weasels is a way of rewarding our allies. By denying France, Russia and Germany from getting contracts in Iraq, we are making it more likely that Japan, Spain, Poland and Britain will get them. They took risks for us and, frankly, this is the least we could do for them. It's all about carrots for some sticks for others. Posted at 03:55 PM LIVE FROM THE KERRY CHILI FEED [Rich Lowry] John Kerry has made a practice of ladling out chili at events around New Hampshire. The firefighters, who have endorsed Kerry, make the chili, and Kerry dons a white apron to dish it out to potential voters. Today, he is at a senior citizens’ center in Claremont, New Hampshire. The crowd is medium-sized – not overflowing by any means, but not embarrassing either. After feeding everyone with Teresa at his side (she told me she likes chili, so long as it is not too “oily”), Kerry gives a stump speech. He lets his wife start things off, and she turns in a typically strange performance. She starts by saying what a great man her late husband was, and exhorts the crowd: “The woman has a right to have opinions without being called opinionated.” Okay. Kerry himself takes a cheap shot at Al Gore, saying “if there should be anyone who has respect for having all the votes counted, it’s Al Gore,” as though it’s an undemocratic act to endorse someone while it still matters. Otherwise, it’s a pretty standard issue presentation, although reporters who have seen Kerry a lot say it is better than he usually he, a little tighter and sharper. He takes an implicit shot at Dean at the beginning by saying the country can’t afford an inexperienced commander-in-chief at a time like this, and he explicitly takes shots at Dean over taxes, criticizing the former Vermont governor for wanting to repeal Bush’s middle-class tax cut. He is fairly impassioned and gets off some pretty good anti-Bush zingers. But it’s still somehow underwhelming. For whatever reason, Kerry just doesn’t have “it.” He says a woman in the chili line told him that she shook John Kennedy’s hand before he became President, and according to Kerry, “she said to me, ‘you are next.’” That has certainly been Kerry’s expectation for a long time, but so far, he’s a long way from living up to it. Posted at 03:51 PM CHUTZPAH [Jonah Goldberg] From PoliticsNH.com Ralph Nader, a guest of presidential candidate U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich, stood outside the press room of Tuesday’s debate telling reporters he’ll make a decision whether to enter his own name in the race for the White House early next year. Nader explained that he is waiting for the Democratic and Republican National Committees to formally respond to a 25-page agenda that he proposed to them in recent weeks. He will make the agenda public when he gets a response, he said. Nader said he is expecting a reply from both organizations sometime in mid-December. “I’m going to get a response,” he said. “The question is: what’s the quality.”I've got a high quality formal response for him, but I'm not sure it's anatomically possible. Posted at 03:40 PM ACTUALLY.... [Jonah Goldberg] Cosmo! get away from the computer! Derb/Boris....We live in suburbia these days too. Cosmo goes to the park every day. But please don't make fun of the cone. He hates it so much. Last night when we put it back on him, he sat with his back to us for ten minutes, sighing every minute or two just to remind us he's miserable. Posted at 03:01 PM ONE-UP-DOG-SHIP [Boris Derbyshire] Cosmo: Well, all right, your man can talk the talk, I'll grant you that. But can he walk the walkies? I just got back from a 40-minute ramble--a three-bagger! You wouldn't believe the things you smell out here in the burbs. But what would you know? You're just a city dog living in a well-nigh odorless apartment, your man slumped in front of the flickery box all day. And WITH YOUR HEAD STUCK IN A COLLAR CONE! Arf! Arf! Arf! Some of us are just born lucky, I guess. Posted at 02:46 PM "BUYER'S REMORSE" [Jonah Goldberg] Andrew Sullivan thinks Joe Conason's worries about Dean are "buyer's remorse." Well, if the speculation that the Clintons don't like Dean, isn't it more plausible that Conason -- still a Clinton-o-phile -- is seeing things from their point of view? Posted at 02:27 PM READER LOVE [John Derbyshire] If you write books, you get letters from readers. Some readers even send you gifts. This is always very touching. Authors are grateful just to be read; when a reader goes out of his way to make some further gesture of appreciation, we swoon with gratitude and joy. I do, anyway. Even within this joy-inducing category of events, though, there are some that stand out. One such just happened to me. The UPS man just pulled up outside and left a long box on my doorstep. I took it in and opened it up. Inside was a bottle of Tokaji Furmint wine, with a label mostly in Hungarian, and a letter. Now, I am a mild Hungarophile, and have blogged to that effect http://www.nationalreview.com/derbyshire/derbyshire043003.asp (search on "goulash"). There are also some Hungarians in my book Prime Obsession , and a note on the extraordinary number of good Hungarian mathematicians (Endnote 64). In that note I listed the names of some famous Hungarian mathematicians. Hungarian spelling is a nightmare--they have TWO DIFFERENT umlauts--and I checked with a Hungarian friend (Paul Hollander the historian) to see if I had got these names right. Well, the letter that came with my lunchtime package today was from a Hungarian reader of my book, and it moved me nearly to tears. Here is the body of the letter, slightly modified so as not to give any identities away. I shall be writing to the sender personally, of course, and enjoying the wine--which has a lovely honey color to it--with my Christmas dinner. Talpra Magyar! "Dear Mr. Derbyshire---Your spelling of those Hungarian names and the short story are correct. I was happy to find Professor Kurschak's name on the list, who was my teacher at the Joseph Nador Technical University in Budapest. Also the name Polya brings back the memory of my youth, the family was well known for a number of intellectuals, they also produced at least one beautiful girl, her name was "Gogo," I used to dance with her at social occasions 70 years ago! "Frankly I don't know the cause why so many mathematicians come from such a small country, but I suspect the culprit is the Hungarian wine. So I am sending you a sample direct from Budapest, not available outside of Hungary. Please enjoy it. "Wishing you and your family Happy Holidays, "With best regards, [Name] "P.S. The Furmint is dry, should be served very cold." Posted at 02:11 PM ALLEN WEST [Jed Babbin] There is very good news in the case of Lt. Col. Allen West, the army officer accused of mistreating an Iraqi prisoner. Today, the Article 32 investigation concluded that West should not face a general courts martial, and should be offered non-judicial punishment (which means the charges against him will be considered and decided by his superior officers without a court proceeding). West has accepted the NJP, and will meet with Gen. Ray Odierno, the division commander, on Friday morning in Tikrit. West's attorney, Neal Puckett, says that the general can fine West, but cannot order reduction in rank or other more severe punishments because they are not within his authority. There will be no reduction in rank or imprisonment for Allen West. The Article 32 report, which I have not yet seen, reportedly reaches some very important conclusions in West's favor. Because of West's integrity and honesty in this incident, in light of his 20-year record of service as well as the motivation behind his actions (to save the lives of his men), the Article 32 concludes that West's dignity should be preserved in whatever action the army may take against him. This is very much the right view of what this man did. It's all in Gen. Odierno's lap now. I'll let you know when I hear more. Posted at 02:04 PM BUSH'S COATTAILS [Ramesh Ponnuru] I got an email from Robert Moran, vice president of Republican consulting firm Fabrizio, McLaughlin and Associates: "Good piece. "My only disagreement with it is that I think Dean could cost the Democrats "What few realize is how much the House battleground leans our way after "There are a number of Democratic House members in strong Bush or lean Bush "A Dean debacle would almost certainly sink folks like Jim Matheson (UT-2), "To make matters worse for these Dem incumbents, they reside in deeply red "In fact, throw in the money disparities between the two parties in the House "If I were the Bush team, I would hit Dean hard on TV in these districts, The scenario Moran lays out could happen, but it would depend on Republicans' recruitment of strong candidates. Also, I'm sure Moran would want Bush to follow his advice only if he's very comfortable that he'll win his own race. And remember that the Bush team was saying it was three-five points ahead right before the 2000 election. Posted at 02:02 PM E! ON CLINTON [Meghan Keane] He's a "True Hollywood Story" this weekend. "Bill Clinton: part saint part sinner. All American." Posted at 01:50 PM DEAN'S CHANCES [Ramesh Ponnuru] I spoke to a Republican strategist I respect yesterday, and he had this to say (I paraphrase): 'I tend to agree that we will crush Dean. But there is a wild card with him that there isn't with the other candidates. Maybe he really can do what he says he will do, and create so much enthusiasm with the base of the party that he brings new people to the polls. So I would prefer to be running against one of the other candidates, who will lose in a more predictable way. The upside and downside risks are greater with Dean.' Posted at 01:41 PM MORE FROM THE IRAQ RALLY [Kathryn Jean Lopez] This blogger has photos. Posted at 01:35 PM CFR OPPORTUNITY FOR NR [Steve Hayward] There is an exception in the McCain-Feingold statute that allows "bona fide" media organizations (i.e., the New York Times) to endorse federal candidates, which is one reason why the NRA has been mulling over the idea of going into the media business, perhaps by buying some TV and radio stations. George Soros might do the same thing. The FEC will no doubt spend a lot of time pondering how to regulate what is and isn't a "bona fide" media organization, and what an NRA-owned TV station can and can't say. There is a possibility, though, that National Review, The Nation, The New Republic, etc. might become conduits for the now-banned issue ads. Just think of it: Rich Lowry could do TV spots right before the election where he says, "Buy National Review, and read all about how Howard Dean plans to turn over our country to the U.N.!" Posted at 01:06 PM RE: MURDERING RADICALS [John Derbyshire] An e-mail: "Oh my gosh, when I first read this title I thought Mr. Derbyshire was advocating murdering radicals in their jail cells. I thought that maybe another prisoner had done this deed and he was advocating more of the same. I thought while the sentiment might be poetic justice, it may be just a little harsh and definitely illegal. After reading the posting, I understand: Keep THEM in jail. OK, that makes more sense. " Derb, if you do advocate murdering radicals in their jails cells, SSSHHHH. Posted at 01:04 PM O.......KEY DOKEY [Jonah Goldberg] From a reader re today's G-File: Jonah - he of the smirky grin - seems desparate through most of this messy piece to reassure the reader that he's no prudish square, before settling down in the last two paragraphs to say something worth reading. Posted at 01:01 PM RUMP PARTY FOLLIES [Jonah Goldberg] All of this talk about the "left wing" (Gore, Dean) of the Democratic Party versus the "centrist wing" (Clinton, Clinton, Lieberman & Clark) strikes me as a symptom of the shrinking nature of the Democratic Party as a whole. When you lose power you lose the need to make compromises, to maintain coalitions. Purity matters more and therefore there's less room for diversity in part because there's less need of diversity. The Gore/Dean Vs. Clinton/Clinton battle may be about power, but it is basically the sort of conflict which can only take place in a party unburdened with the need to govern. Posted at 12:56 PM THE VERDICT [Kathryn Jean Lopez] The dogs can stay as long as they don't start talking Klingon. Posted at 12:53 PM OH YEAH.... [Cosmo] Well, my guy won an award for this story. It was some hunk of bland-smelling wood with some metal on it. But if you're interested in famous dogs, there's this l list and lots of them are from the shiny happy-fun box Jonah looks at. Posted at 12:33 PM STILL TIME TO ORDER THESE WHOLESOME CHILDREN'S BOOKS FOR CHRISTMAS! [Jack Fowler] Catholic Parent magazine raved about The National Review Treasury of Classic Children's Literature thusly: It's "excellent, wholesome, and certain to broaden the horizons (mental and spiritual) of children and adults who love them." And: This "beautiful book of wonderful children's stories by great writers that will delight, entertain and nourish your youngsters and teenagers. Described by the publishers as 'a happy voyage back to the golden era of children's literature,' it is precisely that." And one final glowing comment: it's "lavishly illustrated." The very same goes for our new titles, The National Review Treasury of Classic Children's Literature, Volume Two and The National Review Treasury of Classic Bedtime Stories. All three books are precisely the kind of gifts you should give this Christmas to those special kids in your life. Don't delay; order your copies (securely!) here: We ship them for FREE , and by UPS Ground if you want (for a small extra charge). We'll even send them as gifts with a handsome announcement card at no extra cost! (Of course, there is an alternative to our books: you can always send one of those awful, cheesy toys--you know, the ones kids stop playing with after 5 minutes!--as a gift. On second thought, that's really no alternative!) Posted at 12:28 PM ANTHROPOPHAGY [John Derbyshire] The case of Armin Miewes, the German cannibal who advertised on the Internet for someone willing to be eaten and got 400 replies, is now getting some coverage in New York's newspaper of record. Posted at 12:24 PM GREAT DOG STORIES [Boris Derbyshire] Cosmo: You know how reluctant I am to one-up guys on anything, but I remember you telling me how your man just sits there watching that stupid TV contraption, that doesn't smell of anything interesting at all. Well, my man, of a long winter evening, sometimes reads to me. The books don't smell of much, either, but some of the stories are really great. Here's my favorite--always makes me cry. Posted at 12:16 PM SYNDICATED COLUMN [Jonah Goldberg] Since no one seems interested in the porn-rich G-File today, here's the link to my syndicated column. Posted at 12:14 PM KEEP MURDERING RADICALS IN JAIL [John Derbyshire] The parole-release of unrepentant terrorist Kathy Boudin, which I blogged about a few weeks ago, has inspired some public-spirited NRO fans to launch a permanent campaign against further releases of this kind. Their current focus is on Sundiata Acoli, aka Clark Squire, a member of the Black Liberation Army who shot New Jersey State Trooper Werner Foerster to death on May 2nd, 1973. Acoli's fellow murderer, Assata Shakur (aka JoAnne Chesimard), escaped from jail in 1979 and is now living large as a guest of Communist Cuba; Sundiata Acoli remains an unrepentent radical. He's up for parole January 2nd, 2004; these good people are trying to generate publicity to make sure the parole commissioners aren't swayed by Acoli's supporters and decide to pull a stunt along the lines of Boudin. You can see their efforts here. The site includes an address for the New Jersey State Parole Board, so you can write and urge them to keep this lefty psychopath in jail till he rots. I urge you to do so. Posted at 12:12 PM RE: JAPAN MILITARIZES [John Derbyshire] There is no doubt that the ChiComs are very concerned about Japanese remilitarization, and the potential for a regional arms race is there. However, I think there are grounds for insouciance. Both these countries are in process of demographic implosion. The Japanese (median age 42.0 ) are much further along the road than the Chinese (31.5), but now that China's boom generation of the 1960s is through having kids (well, my personal household representative of that generation tells me SHE is), China's median age is headed upward. Urban Chinese, at least, have thoroughly internalized the one-child policy now, and very few of them relish the prospect of their "little emperor" going off to get killed in a war. Looking ahead 15-20 years to a possible Sino-Japanese war, it may have to be fought on the shuffleboard court. Posted at 12:10 PM CFR: YOU MUST REMEMBER THIS [Kathryn Jean Lopez] Another wonk points out: "We have Fred Thompson and George W. Bush to thank for this, you know. Bush's advisory had him sign the legislation because the courts would just throw it out." So much for that. Posted at 12:09 PM RE: POLITICS, BOOKS, MATH [John Derbyshire] For once, Jonah, the Straggler is ahead of the curve: I gave a plug for Raymond Smullyan's delightful book in my September Diary on NRO and actually included one of his harder puzzles as my brainteaser for that month. BTW, it looks as though I shall be on the wireless Friday talking about prime numbers--WBAI with Harry Allen, around 2:30 pm. And by the way, Jonah, thank you for helping keep alive the name of Fatty Arbuckle--a fine American, and a martyr to crooked lawyering and media hysteria. Now that Derb merchandise is available I was going to suggest trading one of my T-shirts for one of yours, or Cosmo's. Then I remembered that business with the tie in Rosemary's Baby...... Posted at 12:05 PM CHRISTOPHER BUCKLEY ON ROBERT BARTLEY [Kathryn Jean Lopez] A 2001 toast. Posted at 11:56 AM SCALIA SUMS IT UP [Kathryn Jean Lopez] Another reader going through the opinion, pulls this out: Justice Scalia, in his opinion, writes, "This is a sad day for freedom of speech." He then adds, "Who could have imagined that the same Court which, within the past four years, has sternly disapproved of restrictions upon such inconsequential forms of expression as virtual child pornography...tobacco advertising...dissemination of illegally intercepted communications...and sexually explicit cable programming...would smile with favor upon a law that cut to the heart of what the First Amendment is meant to protect: the right to criticize the government." Posted at 11:53 AM R.I.P. [Kathryn Jean Lopez] Bob Bartley of the Wall Street Jounral has died. He has been battling cancer. Only last month, President Bush awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Posted at 11:47 AM FELINE SHAME [Jonah Goldberg] The Brits give out an award to animals for gallantry. Buster , an adorable Springer Spaniel received one for his exploits in Iraq. The award has been given out for 60 years. In that time, 32 pigeons, 23 dogs, 3 horses and one, solitary, cat have received the award. Posted at 11:40 AM THE FIRST AMENDMENT SURVIVES . . . [Jonathan H. Adler] . . . for kids at least. Eugene Volokh has the details here. Posted at 11:34 AM THE CFR DECISION [Kathryn Jean Lopez] An expert making way through the decision says: "You know an opinion that opens with a Elihu Root quote is going to be bad." Posted at 11:31 AM "YES TO DEMOCRACY" [Kathryn Jean Lopez] An Iraqi blogs on an evidently widely attended antiterrorism rally held in Iraq today. Posted at 11:28 AM BUSH'S BUDGET DEFENSE [Ramesh Ponnuru] Joshua Bolten, Bush's budget director, defends the administration's fiscal record in today's Wall Street Journal. He argues that Bush is bringing domestic discretionary spending--that is, spending excluding defense, homeland security, and entitlements--under control. That category of spending is rising more slowly than it had been rising in the late Clinton years. But what's the justification for excluding entitlements? Bolten uses the old line that entitlements are not under the control of the president and Congress, which is a fiction. It may be politically difficult to change the entitlement laws to reduce spending--okay, that's an understatement--but if Congress and the president really wanted to do it, there would be no obstacle to their doing so. This president has just signed a massive expansion of Medicare. It's absurd to argue for his spending restraint by simply ignoring that act. Posted at 11:26 AM CULTURE WARS: DERB HAS AN EVIL THOUGHT [John Derbyshire] Stanley: Reading that John Leo piece you linked to, I had an evil thought. My thought was about the pre-1960s culturo-political consensus. In England we called it "Butskellism," after two of its characteristic figures, Hugh Gaitskell (Labour Party) and R.A. Butler (Conservative). Nowadays, nodody has a kind word to say for that consensus. To the Right, it was suffocating liberal conformity sliding into welfare socialism; to the Left, it was a bogus facade hiding racist, sexist, homophobic, etc. atrocities. My wicked thought was: hey, maybe it wasn't so bad. Maybe Western civ was healthier then. Maybe our countries were happier then, with more vitality. Just a thoughts, and of course a very deplorable one... Posted at 11:24 AM BCRA OPINION [Jonathan H. Adler] For those with lots of time on their hands, the full set BCRA opinions -- all 298 pages -- is available here. Posted at 11:20 AM LIVE FROM THE REAL-DEAL EXPRESS [Rich Lowry] I’m riding in the Kerry bus with reporters and a bunch of Kerry supporters decked out in red “the real deal” t-shirts. At the urging of aides who tell him it would be a better way to be “among people,” Kerry sits down at the very back of the bus. That’s where the reporters are. I ask Kerry if there are any other issues where there are two Howard Deans. He stares at me blankly for a moment, I think maybe my question is somehow too opaque. I ask whether there are any other issues where Dean talks one way when his record suggests something else. Kerry stares blankly some more. Finally, after an agonizing silence that had made me very uncomfortable, Kerry lets loose with a “Yes.” I venture another follow-up: “Like what?” He syas, “Well, I’ll, this is not, I’ll, at the appropriate time….” He sounds like a senatorial version of the marble-mouthed King of the Hill character Boomhauer. Then, after a pause, he adds, “You guys know it, you just want me to say it.” It seems to me that if you are going to attack someone for not being a real straight-talker, you should do it in a straightforward fashion. But Kerry seems to have some other tactic in mind. Here is some rank, totally uninformed speculation: Last night some of us overheard Kerry adviser Bob Shrum telling Kerry as they parted for the night, “Let’s do it, but let’s not do it piecemeal. Call me later.” Maybe the “it” was going after Dean as a phony, and maybe Kerry has, for now, decided to do it piecemeal. Posted at 11:07 AM THE DEFTNESS OF DEAN [Rich Lowry ] It continues to be amazing the way Dean runs rings around his rivals. Take one example from last night: His statement after all the other candidates had savaged the Gore endorsement. He associated himself with the sentiment—as he had to—that the people will decide the nominee, not insiders or polls. Then, he urged his rivals to attack him, instead of Al Gore—a standup guy move. He went on to defend Gore and remind Democrats of their outrage over the Florida outcome, which his rivals were apparently willing to put aside in the cause of attacking Gore. Finally, he concluded by talking about all the issues where he and Gore agree, bringing a process question back to substance. All together a very nice job. Posted at 10:54 AM “WHICH DEAN?” [Rich Lowry ] John Kerry just held an event at a daycare center to promote his early-childhood agenda. For half an hour so he listened to employees of the center and parents talk about daycare and it seemed certain that someone would shed tears. But, for whatever reason, eyes remained dry. The news from the event is that Kerry appears ready to embark in earnest on a campaign to portray Howard Dean as a phony. This is probably the best angle of attack against Dean. Asked by reporters about the Gore endorsement, Kerry noted that Gore made a big deal of dean’s judgment on the war yesterday. Kerry said, “The great missing story” of the campaign so far “is the truth about Howard Dean’s judgment.” Kerry declared, “I don’t know which judgment al gore was endorsing yesterday.” He recounted that Dean supported a war resolution just like all the other major democrats and that Dean was talking about Saddam Hussein having weapons of mass destruction as late as February. “Howard Dean,” Kerry said, “exercised the exact same judgment as the rest of us exercised.” According to Kerry, if Gore thinks he is endorsing an anti-war purist, “then he’s endorsing the wrong Howard Dean…I’m saying there are several Howard Deans.” So the question, according to Kerry, is “which judgment, which Howard Dean?” Kerry maintains of Dean’s shifting Iraq position, “the American people don’t know that, the people of New Hampshire don’t know that.” Kerry, it seems, is now going to try to make sure that they do. Posted at 10:53 AM POLITICS, BOOKS, MATH [Jonah Goldberg] Derb's sort of story. Posted at 10:48 AM ABERCROMBIE & FITCH [Jonah Goldberg] Is the subject of today's G-File, BTW. Posted at 10:46 AM BCRA OPINION [Jonathan H. Adler] The syllabus for the case can be found at electionlawblog.com here. The syllabus alone is 19 pages! Posted at 10:38 AM AN END IN SIGHT [Stanley Kurtz ] The hysterical campaign against Title VI reform may finally be coming to an end. Daine Jones, director of the office of government affairs at Princeton University, has written a very important piece on HR 3077 in the Yale Daily News. In effect, Jones–one of higher education’s own lobbyists–tells the opponents of this bill that they are both embarrassing themselves and rendering themselves ineffective by misrepresenting the contents of HR 3077. Jones is familiar with the negotiations on the language of HR 3077 that took place prior to the bill’s passage. She rightly points out that any concerns about government control of the curricular process have been eliminated by the addition of a provision of the bill that forbids this. By the way, I think the fear was exaggerated to begin with, and I have never opposed the provision forbidding curricular control. On the contrary, I have welcomed it. But it is a dramatic moment when one of Princeton’s own education lobbyists announces in the Yale Daily News–which has led the opposition to this bill–that the hysterical campaign against HR 3077 is off base. Jones is right. And as I said in “Opening the Classroom Door,” the better question for HR 3077 is whether, given the bill’s (justified) protection of the classroom, this legislation will actually help to correct the field’s bias. I believe that over the long term, this bill will help to make area studies more fair and open. But as I explain in “Opening the Classroom Door,” it will do so indirectly, and in a way that respects academic freedom. In the meantime, HR 3077 will put a stop to egregious abuses like bias in Congressionally mandated public outreach programs, and boycotts of national security scholarships by the very institutions being funded to support them. Now that Diane Jones has exposed the lies about this bill, it may be very difficult indeed to stop it. But we still have to worry about subtle efforts to gut the bill like the one I describe in my post about the California deans. Posted at 10:37 AM TVI: GET MOVING [Stanley Kurtz ] The battle over federal funding for Middle East and area studies is definitely heating up. My NPR debate with Rashid Khalidi is only the beginning. Up to now the academy has tried leveling false claims about the bill’s supposed interference with academic freedom. Accusations like that may get students to write letters, but they won’t fly with Congress, which understands perfectly well that HR 3077 bans federal control of the college curriculum. So now the academy is trying a more subtle approach. Powerful Deans from UCLA and U.C. Berkeley have published an Op Ed in the San Francisco Chronicle calling for changes to HR 3077. These Deans know better than to claim that HR 3077 will control the classroom. They even accept in principle the idea of a board that monitors the expenditure of federal monies. But they attack the provisions of the bill that put representatives of Defense and Intelligence agencies on the proposed Advisory Board. This attack is based on yet another false characterization of the bill, as Martin Kramer explains. But here’s what’s really going on. These Deans are angling for bogus grounds on which to exclude our defense and intelligence agencies from the proposed Advisory Board for Title VI. That would be an outrage, because it would make Congress complicit in the International Studies Community’s boycott of our defense and intelligence agencies–the very reason why a board is necessary to begin with. These folks have been boycotting our defense and intelligence agencies for years, even though Congress hands them money in the hopes that they will train students who can staff those very agencies. Now the academics say, “Alright, create a board to monitor the program, but keep defense and intelligence off of it.” That’s how they hope to keep their boycotts in place. This cannot be permitted. Consider calling on your Senator to support HR 3077 and to make sure that the legislation isn’t gutted by the higher education lobby. Posted at 10:35 AM TVI ON NPR [Stanley Kurtz ] Last Thursday, on NPR in Los Angeles, I debated the House’s proposed reform of funding for Middle East Studies (HR 3077) with Rashid Khalidi, the Edward Said Professor of Arab Studies at Columbia University. Khalidi is a past president of the Middle East Studies Association. Our debate touched on all the controversial issues–the question of bias in the academy, charges of “McCarthyism,” boycotts of national security scholarships, etc. You can listen to the debate by clicking here and scrolling down to Thursday, December 4. A minor problem is that the debate ends with Khalidi’s final remarks and leaves out my own summation, which I thought worked well. I’ll see if I can get that omission corrected. But the vast majority of the debate is online. Minus the ads, it lasts about 35 minutes. I’m grateful to the Larry Mantle show, and to Los Angeles NPR station KPCC, for having me, and for treating both sides of this controversial issue with fairness. Posted at 10:33 AM ALL-AMERICAN JOE [Meghan Keane] Joe Wilson is being given the 2003 American Patriot Award by Americans for an Informed Democracy. They don't sound very informed themselves. Posted at 10:32 AM 5-4 ON KEY PROVISIONS [Jonathan H. Adler] The AP reports the Supremes split 5-4 on the issue. Justice O'Connor joined the other four "liberals" in upholding the bulk of the law. The Supreme Court website has this page devoted to the BCRA cases, but we're still waiting for the opinion itself to be posted online. Posted at 10:31 AM THE YEAR THAT WASN'T [Jonah Goldberg] I just went back and looked at my predictions for 2003 from last year's NRO New Year's symposium . I didn't do that well on some/most fronts. But there's still time for a handful of predictions to be more or less fulfilled in spirit:
Posted at 10:30 AM SMALL STORY ON CNN [Jonathan H. Adler] One would think the BCRA decision would be the lead story, right? Not at CNN.com (or at least not yet). At this moment (10:18am posting as per CNN's site) the story (while noted on the site), takes second fiddle to reports U.S. airstrikes inadvertently killed children and other civilians in Afghanistan. It's a worthy story, to be sure, but more important than a blockbuster Supreme Court ruling? No. Posted at 10:23 AM LIVE & HOT ON THE TRAIL [Kathryn Jean Lopez] I'm talking to Rich just now, who is on his cell on the Kerry campaign bus, and all of a sudden the crowd on board breaks into "JK all the way." Very catchy. Then I hear that distinctive Massachusetts' senator's voice: "What happened to the water I brought on board?" That's the hot stuff I'm getting this week. Move over Carl Cameron. Posted at 10:22 AM FIRST AMENDMENT, R.I.P.? [Jonathan H. Adler] From the AP story: The court also upheld restrictions on political ads in the weeks before an election. The television and radio ads often feature harsh attacks by one politician against another or by groups running commercials against candidates. Posted at 10:20 AM SUPREMES UPHOLD BCRA PROVISIONS [Jonathan H. Adler] The wires are reporting the Supreme Court upheld substantial portions of the McCain-Feingold campaign finance law, including the limits on soft money. Details to follow . . . Posted at 10:19 AM SCOTUS UPHOLDS PARTS OF MCCAIN-FEINGOLD [KJL] Details to come.... Posted at 10:18 AM JAPAN MILITARIZES [Stanley Kurtz] Japan’s decision to send troops to Iraq is being billed as a major expression of the alliance between America and Japan. That it is. But China sees this move a bit differently. For China, this is the first indication of a decision by Japan to become a regional military power. China may be right. With Chinese power growing, and the United States stretched thin, it seems very likely that Japan will have to militarize to protect itself. Europe may be able to delude itself into thinking that it can get away with minimum military expenditures. But with its proximity to China, not to mention the Korean threat, Japan’s disarmed state may no longer be tenable. Posted at 09:59 AM ELECTION ON SPEED [Stanley Kurtz ] Maybe Howard Dean hasn’t wrapped up the Democratic nomination after all. Still, am I wrong to think that our election process is speeding up? It used to be that New Hampshire had vastly disproportionate influence. Then Iowa stole a march on New Hampshire and became an important part of the picture. But now, the whole thing may have been decided before a single vote was cast in either Iowa or New Hampshire–and in a year when the nomination was heavily contested. How could an underdog come so far without a single vote having been cast? I suppose this speeding-up effect can be attributed to the Internet, which has been so important to Dean, and which has pushed news cycles to speeds beyond anything imagined even a decade ago. Or am I wrong here? Are there historical precedents for hotly contested nomination contests being resolved very quickly–almost before the primaries? (Muskie’s crying?) I don’t know, but I rather suspect we’re seeing something unusual here–something rooted in the electorate’s strong polarization, and in our Internet, polling, and cable-based instant news cycle. Is all this good for democracy? Well, Dean has certainly inspired the grass roots, but we’re also seeing a relatively small group gain disproportionate power. That’s not unusual in itself (as I noted in my earlier post), but the Net may be pushing the process to an extreme, and that may be a matter for concern. Are primaries themselves becoming outdated? Or is it really just the polarization of the country that’s at work here, more than any changes wrought by the Internet, the news cycle, or polling? I think we’ll be contemplating these questions for a while. Posted at 09:56 AM THE (CULTURE) WAR'S NOT OVER [Stanley Kurtz] Remember back when folks used to say the culture war was over? They were wrong then, and they’re wrong now. Remarkably, some are still claiming that the culture war is an illusion. John Leo shows why they’re wrong in his latest piece. Some of the problem here comes from a misunderstanding of how society works. Enormous social changes can be brought about by committed groups who make up far less than a majority of the population. It’s sometimes pointed out, for example, that only about a third of the baby boomers were actively involved in the movements we call “the sixties.” That’s true. And knowing it’s true helps explain why we are in an unresolved culture war to begin with. But it’s also true that a “mere” one third of a generation was able to put in place a cultural transformation of massive significance. So too, a mere third of the Democratic electorate, itself a mere third of the national electorate, has been able to rocket Howard Dean into frontrunner status for the Democratic nomination–against all the efforts of the party’s elite. So the numbers of latter day sixties types may not be a majority, but they’re more than enough to have turned this election into an open cultural battle on nearly every front. Our culture war is real–real enough to have changed the story of this presidential election. And “all” it took to do that was a minority of the electorate driven by a powerful commitment to a particular cultural-political framework. By the way, for my own take on why the sixties happened to begin with, see my essay in the new book, Never A Matter of Indifference. Posted at 09:55 AM SING FOR YOUR CITIZENSHIP [John Derbyshire] As part of their naturalization ceremony, new Britons will have to sing "God Save the Queen" . I think this is a totally excellent idea. Nobody should become a citizen who can't do at least one verse of the Ntional Anthem. I can actually sing the SECOND verse of "The Star-Spangled Banner." Here is the second verse of "God Save the Queen": O Lord our God arise Scatter her enemies And make them fall. Confound their politics! Frustrate their knavish tricks! On thee our hopes we fix-- God save us all! Posted at 09:51 AM IN CASE YOU WEREN'T HERE LAST NIGHT [Kathryn Jean Lopez] Scroll down for Rich's on-the-scene debate takes. Posted at 09:35 AM CONTRACT BAN [John J. Miller] Cry me a river, France (and Canada and Germany and Russia). You didn't merely complain about the Iraq war--you tried to rally the world against it. Now that the country is liberated, you want to cash in with reconstruction contracts. But the Bush administration isn't letting you, in a new directive. Democrats are already describing this as an act of vengeance; Joe Biden calls it a "gratuitious slap." But it's really a forward-looking policy, because it may teach America's fair-weather allies that their actions have consequences. In the meantime, reconstruction contracts won't lack for bidders: In addition to the United States, there's Britain, Australia, Spain--the list is long. And a lot of Iraqi sub-contractors will be involved as well. Posted at 08:57 AM KRISTOL ON DEAN [John Derbyshire] Ramesh: Up to a point, Lord Copper. I think Kristol is right about the FMA, though. This is really a no-brainer for the Left. They just have to spin it to: "You want to be unkind to people. You are the unkind party--the party of bigotry, of EXCLUSION. We Democrats would prefer to seek some way that people can live freely and enjoy full civil rights, without trespassing unduly on hallowed social institutions. See, we have this Federal Civil Unions proposal...yada yada yada." This is the kind of spin operation the Left is superbly good at, and very well-practiced at. If Bush hitches himself to the FMA in '04, he'll lose a million votes. My guess is he knows this. He has always been exquisitely sensitive to the "GOP--flint-faced and exclusionary, Dems--kind and generous" dichotomy. The phrase "compassionate conservatism" mean anything? Posted at 08:41 AM GO DERB CRAZY [Kathryn Jean Lopez] The t-shirts (etc.) are in. Posted at 08:11 AM DEAN CAREENS ON TV [Tim Graham] Howard Dean was interviewed on ABC and NBC this morning. Katie Couric asked how he, identified with the left, gets along with Gore, the "hard-core centrist, if you will." Dean said that "left" thing is a ridiculous Republican claim. In the next breath, he was warning about how the massive new Medicare bill only shows "how corporations are running the government." Nothing leftish about that, eh? Posted at 08:02 AM DEMS EDGE GREEN IN SF MAYOR RACE [Tim Graham] Posted at 06:23 AM EUREKA! [Kathryn Jean Lopez ] I like this pre-order/preview on amazon concept. Wonder if I can get them to play along: I’ll come up with a book cover with my name on it (I’m sure one of you could do it while watching Battlestar Gallatica) and then just perpetually have an “in progress” book—on amazon and all. If by the time I retire, the pre-orders hit a respectable number, I might write the thing. And Rich Lowry, author of LEGACY (A GREAT 2003 CHRISTMAS GIFT, BY THE WAY), from his old-age home, can have his nurse robot plug it again and again and again. Posted at 05:59 AM JOHN J. ON THE CHEESE EATERS [Kathryn Jean Lopez ] John J. Miller is author of an upcoming book on French ant-Americanism called Our Oldest Enemy. Heard enough? Amazon’s taking pre-orders here. It comes out this summer. Posted at 05:57 AM Tuesday, December 09, 2003 GAFFNEY VS. NORQUIST [Kathryn Jean Lopez] Frank Gaffney has a very long piece raising questions about Grover Norquist's ties to unsavory characters, and worse. I haven't had the chance to read the whole thing yet, but it is here. Evidently Grover and Frank had a debate about it on Hugh Hewitt's show today. It's reairing tomorrow. Details here. Posted at 09:59 PM ABC, DEMOCRAT HELPER [Tim Graham] This is the second ABC-sponsored Democratic debate for the purpose of airing snippets at a later time. In May, snippets ran on "This Week," and tonight on "Nightline." As for ABC's record in promoting/airing debates, Brent Bozell recalls 1999. The Republicans assembled three times in December of 1999. The first two debates, on December 2 and 6, drew no ABC evening news summation, not even a snippet on the nights after the events. The third debate, on December 12, finally earned a few video clips – so reporter Dean Reynolds could attack candidate George Bush as "stiff, uninformed, programmed, or all three," while media darling McCain "appeared confident." But when liberals gathered to push their agenda, ABC rolled out the red carpet. On December 16, "Nightline" devoted itself to a New Hampshire town meeting with two favored candidates, liberal Republican McCain and liberal Democrat Bill Bradley, to promote their alliance behind the cause of harsher campaign finance regulations. The next night, ABC sponsored a special 90-minute "Nightline" debate for liberal Al Gore and Bradley. The questions from Koppel were softballs, even silly. What kind of First Ladies would their wives make? What "distinguishes" them to be a better president? Posted at 09:44 PM RE: AP [Tim Graham] Nedra Pickler is a regular political reporter who must have gotten editor's orders to "fact check" the debate, or at least note the usual candidate omissions. It would have been stronger (but taken longer) to get fuller quotes (including Koppel's) to refute. When I caught pieces of the debate (OK, sue me, ESPN2 was running an old film of the Packers "Ice Bowl" of 1967), it seemed like a tape recording of earlier debates. I felt it would be a public service for a reporter to write something like: "This is the third time Dick Gephardt has made a joke about how Bush flunked at 'playing well with others'...This is the fifth time Carol Moseley Braun has told the same sexist story about her mom sending her dad to the hardware store for a toilet fix and he came back with a lawn mower." You can see where reporters get bored on the campaign trail. Posted at 09:35 PM FOR THE RECORD [Rich Lowry] Near the end of his session in the post-debate spin room, a reporter asked Wes Clark what political junkies have been wondering for a long time: “Why don’t you ever blink?” Clark didn’t respond but provided three blinks in rapid succession. For what it’s worth… Posted at 09:31 PM UNBELIEVABLE [Rich Lowry] The two moments that garnered the most laughs in the pressroom where when Wes Clark said at the beginning of the debate that he had never thought of getting an endorsement from either of the Clintons, and when Dennis Kucinich objected to the idea that he had changed his position on abortion “in recent months.” To which the moderator asked, “Well when was it?” Posted at 09:29 PM NEW EDITOR AT THE AP? MACROS FAILING? WHAT'S HAPPENING? [Kathryn Jean Lopez] Check this out: Democrats Criticize Bush, but Sometimes Leave Out the Facts By Nedra Pickler Posted at 08:53 PM TUESDAY NIGHT LIVE [Rich Lowry ] Ted Koppel was awful, asking Sharpton, Kucinich, and Braun when they would drop out just gave them a righteous opportunity to grandstand. I hate to say it, but Sharpton is a weird sort of genius. Almost every other line is a laugh or applause line. And his slam of Koppel at the end was priceless. Posted at 08:49 PM COULD’VE BEEN NO-SHOWS [Rich Lowry ] Gephardt and Kerry didn’t seem to make any impression at all… Posted at 08:48 PM FOREIGN POLICY [Rich Lowry ] Clark seemed especially forceful and authoritative on the war tonight. Dean also seems to have boned up on his Iraq policy, although he is still not making much sense. He calls for foreign troops from Iraq’s neighbors to come into the country, apparently not noticing that that is exactly what the Iraqi’s don’t want. That’s why there are no Turkish troops in Iraq now… Posted at 08:47 PM DEAN ON THE FRONTLINE [Rich Lowry ] Quick impressions: There’s at least some small chance that Dean’s new over-dog-dom won’t wear well. Every other candidate was reveling in their newfound underdog status during the first round of answers. There was even a reference to a Dean “coronation” and Sharpton complained of “bossism” boosting Howard Dean. Is dean becoming too establishment? On the other hand, everyone else would love to be in his position, and he rebutted the other candidates on the Gore endorsement deftly, saying they should attack him, not Gore…. Posted at 08:46 PM KRISTOL: DEAN CAN WIN [Ramesh Ponnuru] The Washington Post today ran the least convincing op-ed by William Kristol that I've ever read. I'll deal with his general claim about Republican overconfidence in a piece for the site tomorrow. Two points now: 1) Kristol says that "[t]he voters. . . have consistently preferred divided government." Previous periods of unified government have been immediately ended by voters--in 1980, with the election of Reagan, and in 1994, with the election of a Republican Congress. That's a very limited sample, and it could mean that voters have consistently voted to end unified Democratic governments. It is clearly untrue that most voters have wanted divided government. Most voters have wanted either unified Democratic or unified Republican government, and in recent years the percentage of voters who have chosen unity has increased. Nor can it be assumed that everyone who split their ticket did so on the basis of a conscious preference for divided government. More of them probably voted for an incumbent congressman, or voted a split ticket for some other reason. 2) Kristol suggests that voters may not back Bush over Dean on the war on terror because too many of Bush's subordinates are insufficiently "committed to victory in that war." He writes that "his secretary of state seems committed to diplomatic compromise, and his secretary of defense to an odd kind of muscle-flexing-disengagement." (Didn't Kristol encourage Powell to run for president in 1996?) I'd like to have a Department of State more committed to the president's policies, too, and I'm certainly open to the argument that Rumsfeld's version of military transformation short-changes the need for boots on the ground. But I've always respected Kristol as a political analyst because he usually resists the temptation to assume that adherence to his views is the precondition for political success. That assumption seems especially foolish in this case. Posted at 08:46 PM NEEDING HELP IN IRAQ [Kathryn Jean Lopez] This "Chief Wiggles" has popped up in a number of news stories and seems legit. He blogs today looking for help for Iraqi girls who are aiding the war effort. Posted at 08:32 PM DEMOCRACY IS AN AMAZING THING [Kathryn Jean Lopez] President Bush, who has stared down the U.N., the Taliban, the Fedayeen, etc., actually has to seriously face one of these guys next year. For some of them it is just primary-playing, but some of the rhetoric is just so, literally, unreal. Posted at 08:10 PM WHY WE'RE IN IRAQ, REASON 99, 245 [Kathryn Jean Lopez] Saddam may have killed 61,000 in Baghdad alone. Posted at 08:02 PM DEAN & IRAN [Kathryn Jean Lopez] Dean just misspoke and said the U.S. appointed a governing Council to Iran (he meant Iraq). He caught himself and said “I’m sure that’s what goes on in Iran, too, these days.” You’re sure we appoint people in Iran? In Michael Ledeen’s dreams, maybe. If this wasn’t Dr./Gov. Soviet Union, I wouldn’t be so concerned. [UPDATE/CAUTION: A reader e-mail says he said Vermont, not Iran. Definitely not Iraq. I wasn't paying enough attention at that moment to be certainly, so take the Iran thing with a grain of salt for now, until I've reviewed and re-updated.] Posted at 07:54 PM LOOKING GOOD [Kathryn Jean Lopez] If I were Dean I would be mighty impolite about the fact I was positioned next to Rich's boy, Kerry. Posted at 07:41 PM THE GAME OF DEATH [Kathryn Jean Lopez] The abortion industry has put together an anti-Bush, anti-life cybergame, on NARAL Pro-Choice America's website. Posted at 07:32 PM ABC'S FOOD [Kathryn Jean Lopez] Rich, ABC can't even interrupt the game shows--or schedule the last debate of the year at another time--to air their own debate live. (You can get it on CSPAN, btw) Posted at 07:26 PM PASSION PURCHASE [Kathryn Jean Lopez] Icon Productions has set up a hotline for advance ticket buying for Mel Gibson's Passion. The idea behind it is to get more theaters to carry the movie. The info is here. Posted at 06:52 PM "BACKSTAGE" WITH KERRY [Rich Lowry] Meanwhile, out in the cold, each candidate leads a procession into the debating hall. I’m with John Kerry, so I follow him in. (There’s a fair amount of gallows humor when you mention to other reporters that you’re following John Kerry, all of it with the implicit question: “Why?”) It is a surprisingly large crowd, augmented by the firefighters who have endorsed Kerry here, and a troupe—whatever the right word is—of bagpipers. The Kerry supporters march in a long line after him, chanting, and carrying five- or six-foot-tall Kerry signs. The candidate is constantly illuminated by TV cameras at the front of the march, looking, as usual, quite impressive. When they write Kerry’s epithet for this campaign, it will say, “He looked great.” Posted at 06:37 PM THE DEBATE IS OVER [Rich Lowry] [NEW HAMPSHIRE--]The debate hasn’t started yet but the verdict from the press is already in--the food stinks. The talk of all the reporters is why couldn’t ABC provide a better spread? There is a huge bowl of granola and another of dried prunes and apricots. One reporter approached me with a handful of dried apricots bewailing her fate. “Couldn’t Ted Koppel do better than this?” But at least the chocolate-chip cookies look okay… Posted at 06:32 PM MEL MARTINEZ RESIGNS [Kathryn Jean Lopez] Posted at 06:06 PM WOLFOWITZ: THE GOOD AND THE BAD [Jonah Goldberg] He shafts the Russians, French and the Germans and agrees to meet with the Geneva Accord folks. Posted at 05:55 PM RE: SIMON [Tim Graham] My colleague Rich Noyes noted that AP reported last Friday that when it came to endorsing Dean, Simon left out a detail with the media: "He didn't tell reporters he was speaking from a hospital bed." Posted at 05:46 PM "I HEART GWB" [Meghan Keane] For the serious Bush fan. Posted at 05:36 PM RE: CONEHEADS [Cosmo ] Boris - I hear you and thanks. But I can't even think about strategy right now. The cone presses my (super cool) pointy ears down, it catches the wind when I chase squirrels. It's just so mortifying. Why are they doing this to me? Posted at 05:34 PM LAST POLITICAL ACT [Kathryn Jean Lopez] Simon endorsed Dean from the hospital, before he died. Posted at 05:09 PM GORE ON THE COUCH [Rick Brookhiser] Why did Gore do it? One angle unexamined so far is the psychology of polbots--men who have been trained from youth for political careers. Politics is a harsh mistress; following her in youth makes her even harsher. After decades of self-discipline and deprivations, the experience of being repudiated by the voters, especially in a presidential run, has powerful and disturbing effects. John Quincy Adams, the original polbot, managed to succeed John Adams, his father, in the White House in 1824. But he was crushed in his re-election bid. The remainder of his life formed a strange coda. JQA got to the White House by embracing national expansion, tying himself to southerners (Madison, Monroe, even for a time Andrew Jackson), and zipping his lip on all questions related to slavery. After some brief post-defeat floundering, he became a congressman, in which role he fought expansion, flayed the south, and spoke endlessly against slavery. JQA II was arguably better than JQA I--but he was certainly different. Al Gore seems to have done a similar thing, revealing an id repressed during years of political office-seeking. Now that his ambition has been swatted down, out it all hangs. Would GWB have some similar crisis if he lost in 2004? Perhaps not: he spent less of his early life pursuing the job (Jeb was the ordained successor). He has also already had his life changed, on 9/11. Posted at 05:01 PM CONE COLLAR [Boris Derbyshire] Yo Cosmo, I feel your pain, man. Been through the cone-collar business myself. We need to get PETA protesting those things. A word to the wise: work hard on the mournful big-eyes why-you-doin-this-to-me stare. Some strategic whining--not too much, it ticks them off, and not at night. Hold off the food as much as you can & don't jump up eagerly for walkies the way you normally do. A little barf on the white rug maybe--but that's a judgment call. They'll soon come round. You in for the poker game Friday? P.S. You hear about Benny? Heart worm! Such a nice guy, and no age at all. See ya. Posted at 04:58 PM D.C. ROCKS [Steve Hayward] By now the news is all over the wires that DC has experienced a small earthquake (4.5 on the Richter, though centered 100 miles from DC) about an hour ago. Having been through many earthquakes large and small in California, I thought immediately as it was happening, "This feels exactly like an earthquake. But we don't get earthquakes here. Must be a terrorist nuke going off. How come my ligths are still on?" Posted at 04:42 PM CAP'N BOB [John Derbyshire] A reader has alerted me to the following. Zimbabwe's President-for Life Robert Mugabe Sese Seko Koko Ngbendu Wa Za Banga etc. etc., attempting to soften his image, has established a personal website here. His movie career is of particular interest. Posted at 04:37 PM HIGH-LARIOUS [Jonah Goldberg] This is an item that would sell like gangbusters in the NRO store, but the suits would never, ever, go for it. Truly a must-have. See item # 12. Posted at 04:22 PM SEN. PAUL SIMON HAS DIED [Kathryn Jean Lopez] Posted at 04:12 PM IT'S THAT TIME OF YEAR [Kathryn Jean Lopez] for you to nominate your favorite NRO pieces that appeared during the course of 2003 for our "best of 2003" replay. Send your suggestions to thecorner@nationalreview.com. We'll be running them at the end of the month. Posted at 04:08 PM JILTED JOE [Kathryn Jean Lopez] In a New Hampshire press conference in the last few minutes, Lierberman was asked to characterize his conversation with Al Gore today. "It was about two to four minutes in length and too late." Posted at 04:02 PM BETTER US-CANADA RELATIONS [Jonah Goldberg] These seem like good guys, but man this homepage will give ya seizures. Posted at 03:57 PM GORE-DEAN NEWS [Tim Graham] For a concise review of the liberal media's evening and morning analysis of the Gore endorsement of Dean -- especially its avoidance of the word "liberal" to describe Hard-Left Howard, see our latest here. Posted at 03:56 PM FIDEL & BELAFONTE [Tim Graham] K-Lo, you would not believe the sound of Harry Belafonte on NPR's "Diane Rehm Show" today, still toeing the hard line about how Cuba cannot go back to the "oppression" before Castro, the wonderful land where they now have historic literacy rates, yada yada yada. Didn't this sound ridiculous in the 1980s? (He's in town to promote his Castro-loving group TransAfrica Forum. ) By the way, after these tired lines, Diane Rehm asked Harry that with his articulateness, why he's never run for office? They're tough on the hard left over there at NPR... Posted at 03:52 PM DOGS AND LAMPSHADES [Jonah Goldberg] From a reader: Jonah When my Conan (Lab/Golden retriever mix) had to wear his lampshade, he kept bumping into everything, knocking things over. I was torn between feeling sorry for him, and thinking that this was deliberate, and he was getting back at me. Posted at 03:42 PM CASTRO HELD A PROPAGANDA RALLY [Kathryn Jean Lopez] for Elian's 10th birthday on Friday. Posted at 03:23 PM OH NO! [Jonah Goldberg] Poor Cosmo has to wear the radar-cone that wraps around his head for a week. It's so humiliating. Unfortunately, he got a cut between his "toes" and it's infected. Poor kid, he's really miserable. He won't sleep or eat. He just stares at me and Jessica with a mixture of "what did I do wrong?" and "I'm going to kill you both in your sleep." Posted at 03:16 PM FOLOWING AMERICA'S LEAD [John Derbyshire] This editorial from the current (Dec. 6) London Spectator shows that the British are no laggards in burdening their businesses with stupid and unnecessary regulations against employers discriminating on the basis of religion or sexual orientation. Punchline: "Hindus have much to benefit from the new regulations, but they won't be Hindus working in Birmingham. They will be Hindus working in Bombay." Posted at 03:06 PM FOR THE RECORD [Jonah Goldberg] I haven't mentioned "Battlestar Gallactica" yet because A) I didn't see it (I was at the Return of the King preview) and B) well, that's it. Posted at 02:31 PM SURFING THE WEB WHILE ROME BURNS [John Derbyshire] Nasty African kleptocrat Robert Mugabe, whose people are dying from starvation, AIDS, and the attentions of Mugabe's secret police, whose economy is a basket case, and who has just left the British Commonwealth ahead of being expelled, is attending a conference in Geneva on Internet development. Posted at 01:59 PM WORST EVER? [Jonah Goldberg] Am I nuts or is Terry McAuliffe the worst major party chairman in modern memory? The GOP won big time in the mid-term elections in 2002. In 2003 it won 2 big governorships and lost one to a pro-life, anti-affirmative action, pro-gun Democrat in Louisiana. McAuliffe's orchestration of the primary schedule was supposed to establish early a strong candidate to run against Bush. One can certainly argue that that part's succeeded -- though we haven't had a primary vote cast yet and it's hardly clear that Dean's anything like the best candidate for the general election. Regardless, the candidate the system has spit out is precisely the one McAuliffe doesn't want. He's the Clintons' boy, after all. And if any of these rumors are to be believed, the Clintons do not want Dean to become president. Indeed, Dean's already let it be known he wants McAuliffe and the Clintonistas out of DNC headquarters if he gets the nomination. But McAuliffe has stuck to his position that all Dem candidates must be allowed to debate which makes it almost impossible for an alternative to Dean to break out. Meanwhile, George Bush is cleaning the Dems' clock when it comes to fundraising -- and fundraising is the only thing even McAuliffe's critics thought he was good at. Oh, by the way, I've heard much worse than all of this from Democrats around town. Posted at 01:21 PM RE: WEN FOR THE ROAD [John Derbyshire] Somebody wants to know what the characters in "Wen Jiabao" mean. Well: "Wen" means "lukewarm" (the radical is "water"); "Jia" means "home" (the radical is "roof"); "Bao" means "precious" (generally listed under the "roof" radical, but I think should more properly be under "wealth"). Make of it what you will. (Chinese people rarely think of the meanings of the characters that make up personal names, any more than when you meet someone named "Frank" you think: "Oh, he must be an outspoken sort of guy"...) Posted at 12:59 PM RACIST ANTIDISCRIMINATION [Roger Clegg] As the ballot initiative to ban state discrimination and preferential treatment on the basis of race, ethnicity, and sex gets under way in Michigan, here’s the poster the AFL-CIO has begun distributing, calling the proposal—you guessed it—“racist.” Posted at 12:20 PM STILL TIME TO ORDER NR'S CHILDREN TREASURIES FOR CHRISTMAS [Jack Fowler] NR's three acclaimed "classic" children's books are the perfect gifts to get this Christmas for those deserving little ones (and what little onesdon't deserve great and wholesome literature?!). There's still time to get them in time for December 25th. And we'll help make it even easier for you: if you want, we'll send them to the lucky recipient, and with a handsome gift card--that saves you the trouble of shipping, postage, etc.--at no extra charge! I'll remind you of what our good friend, mega-syndicated columnist Cal Thomas, has to say about these wondrous works: "These are great. If children can be taught to read and appreciate good literature at an early age, it helps serve as a moral, intellectual and cultural deterrent to the stuff they are being forced-fed by the pagan and dishonest media." Be assured: "good literature" is precisely what these books consist of. There's no heavy-handed sermonizing in these pages--just good, wholesome, beautifully written and illustrated stories that instill values and virtue! Every children’s or family’s library should have them, because they have real worth and lasting value (of course, you can always get the kids one of those cheesy toys that have a half-life of ten minutes . . .) Don't delay: order The National Review Treasury of Classic Children's Literature and The National Review Treasury of Classic Bedtime Stories (perfect for new and beginning readers) today, right here. Posted at 12:00 PM WEN FOR THE ROAD [John Derbyshire] Here comes Wen Jiabao (pron. "one jee-ah bow," the "j" tending towards a "dz" and the "bow" rhyming with "cow.") Mr. Wen is Prime Minister of China, and he is here to talk with the administration about Taiwan, trade, and the Norks, probably in that order. WHAT WE HAVE THAT HE WANTS: --Leverage with Taiwan. --Customers for China's manufacturers of textiles, electronics, light consumer goods. --Leverage with Japan (which the ChiComs fear may be contemplating going nuclear). WHAT HE HAS THAT WE WANT: --Leverage with the Norks. --Customers for US planes, cars, farm products. --Control over Chinese missile-parts sales to third countries (esp. Iran). --Control of the ChiCom military (we hope...) --Influence in Central Asia, where we now have friends. The big date for the ChiComs is 2008, when the Beijing Olympics take place. The Olympics are critical to the CP for continued legitimacy with their people. Their nightmare is that Taiwan declares independence 6 months before the Olympics. There are probably elements in the military command pressing for action now, so that the outrage will have blown over by 2008. Posted at 11:55 AM MOVIE GEEKS PREVIEW THE PASSION [Kathryn Jean Lopez] From an e-mailer: I'm not sure if you've heard about this yet or not, but Harry Knowles over at the Ain't It Cool News website had his 5th annual Butt-Numb-a-Thon film festival over the weekend. It's a fest that goes 24+ hours straight (over 28 hours this time, I believe). Posted at 11:52 AM A VATICAN OFFICIAL PRAISES MEL GIBSON'S PASSION [Kathryn Jean Lopez] Posted at 11:49 AM WHO IS HOWARD DEAN? [Rich Lowry] The David Brooks column today is spot-on. I made a similar point in my Dean cover story in the current issue: "But there is a chance Dean can be portrayed as a phony. The fact is that Dean governed, in Vermont terms, as a budget-balancing moderate. He could easily have run for the nomination as a Joe Lieberman centrist. Instead, the running room was to the left, especially with all the credible candidates on the record in support of the Iraq war resolution. So Dean ran left. Very little in his campaign would have seemed a natural fit two or three years ago. He spent his career fighting the angry, shaggy Left in Vermont, exactly the constituency he is attracting nationally. He was a free-trader, but now tells the labor unions, 'When I am president, we won't be talking about free trade in the Americas.' He was pro-business, but now rails against corporations. He drove Vermont environmentalists batty with his flexible approach to regulation, but now seeks a comprehensive 're-regulation' of American business. To top it off, he was a computer illiterate who knew nothing about the Internet that has become an indispensable organizing tool for his campaign." Posted at 11:27 AM GORE'S CLOUT [Jonah Goldberg] From a reader: "Jonah, Posted at 11:16 AM JOB CREATION [John Derbyshire] Rich: Nice piece today on job creation. As NRO's house pessimist, though, I feel bound to make a couple of points. You say: "The trick, of course, is to create more jobs than are lost." Well, that's part of the trick. Problems would occur, though if the jobs lost were jobs for engineers, chip designers, materials scientists and systems analysts, while the jobs created were for telemarketers, child-care providers, HMO paper-shufflers and fruit pickers. Are we sure this is not what's happening? I'm not an economist, but I live in a lower-middle-class neighborhood where people are moving in and out of jobs all the time, and I hear stuff. Similarly, if 100,000 jobs are lost to mostly U.S. citizens while 100,000 are created for largely lower-paid legal and illegal immigrants, that would not be something to celebrate. The devil is in the details. Posted at 11:10 AM RETURN OF THE KING [Jonah Goldberg] Yes, it's true. I saw it last night. I'm going to be doing a review for NRO and, probably, piece on the whole series for the mag. I'll say this: I think it was probably the best one, though it felt a bit rushed. Also, I need to look up some stuff from the book, because it seemed to me this installment departed the most from the book. But I don't want to spoil the movie or my articles, so, 'nuff said. Posted at 11:05 AM MORE GENEVA [Mark R. Levin] Andrew: It’s not that the U.S. doesn't have the "right" to pressure Israel. The U.S. is always pressuring Israel. And no doubt, for the reason you state, i.e., some believe the U.S. has paid for the right to pressure Israel. But, back to the point: the specific issue here related to the wisdom of conducting foreign policy by giving official U.S. government approval to the efforts of private citizens (the usual leftwing subjects), which conflict with the policies of the elected Israeli government. We don't normally conduct foreign policy with an ally this way, and didn't during the Cold War, either., though I'm certainly prepared to be convinced otherwise. Posted at 11:02 AM RE: LAUER [Tim Graham] The funniest part of the Lauer interview was Matt's attempt to describe the wings of the Democratic Party as "centrist," and to its left, "outsider." Nice that Lieberman tried to clarify that was silly. PS: Dean publicly endorsed Gore in an event on January 19, 2000 -- a bit later than Gore endorsed Dean. Posted at 10:58 AM GENEVA, AND GOODBYE [Rich Lowry] Hey Mark: --We “undermine” allies—i.e., pressure them--all the time when we think it’s in our interest. Just ask Chen Shui-bian. It’s not true that “allies don't pressure allies,” especially in our case, since we are the world's lone superpower and hold a lot of cards. --I noted that Bush, not Sharon, has U.S. interests more at heart because you seemed to be suggesting that the U.S. should never “undermine” an Israeli Prime Minister. If I misread you, my apologies. --What we’re talking about here is a very mild nod to Beilin by the U.S. government, as an expression of our general interest in peace in the Middle East although we think Beilin’s approach is flawed. This just doesn’t outrage me and seems perfectly reasonable. --Anyway, I have after run to New Hampshire and I’ve exhausted all my Beilin arguments (which I don't think are convincing many people anyway!). Let me leave you with this question: Once we have a decent Palestinian leadership—and yes, that's the first step--what do you think is a solution that would be just for both sides? Posted at 10:56 AM MORE TALK THAT THE ABERCROMBIE AND FITCH PORN ZINE IS DEAD [Kathryn Jean Lopez] I might add that the suggestion there that the protests had nothing to do with the magazine's death seems bogus, considering A&F hasn't simply decided not to publish in the future, they've taken the current issue off shelves. Posted at 10:54 AM THAT 1997 DEAL [Ramesh Ponnuru] Having been one of the many conservative critics of that budget deal, I later came to regard my opposition as a mistake. That doesn't change the fact that the Gingrichites handled the aftermath badly. Posted at 10:37 AM MEDICARE [Ramesh Ponnuru] Robert Goldberg brings up the 1996 welfare reform in connection with the Medicare bill. I've been thinking about the two myself, but in a different way. In 1996, Clinton signed a bill that his party's left wing hated. Afterward, did he spend his time arguing with the left and trying to persuade it that it should have been on board because the bill really was good? No. He bragged about the bill to the general public, while telling the left that he was going to go back and fix its worst features. For example, he was going to liberalize the rules for welfare for immigrants. Contrast this to the 1997 budget deal. Conservatives were furious about it. The Gingrich Republicans spent months telling us we shouldn't be. Which way will the administration and its allies go with regard to the Medicare bill? The Cesar Conda and Robert Goldberg articles on NRO this week do not seem to me to be hopeful portents. Posted at 10:34 AM RE: GENEVA [Jonah Goldberg] Two quick things: 1) Re the fence, Andrew, fair enough. My objection is with those who say it should follow the 1967 border. Doing so would actually mean retreating and capitulating under fire on an issue that is supposed to be negotiated. To pull behind the 1967 border unilaterally and build a fence on it would not only abandon settlements to be devoured, it would be a monumental concession to terrorism. Second, the latest issue of the The New Republic has an outstanding piece on why the Geneva Accords are completely antithetical to Israeli interests -- and to America's. Unfortunately, they don't have a free version on their site. But if you get a chance to read it, I think most people will find it powerfully persuasive. Posted at 10:33 AM RE: THE ENDORSEMENT [Kathryn Jean Lopez] The text is up on the Dean website. Posted at 10:28 AM EU CONSTITUTION [Andrew Stuttaford] Could Giscard’s, ahem, alien ‘constitution’ be running into even more problems? Despite his claims that EU ‘citizens’ are clamoring for a constitution, a new poll shows that less than half of them approve of the whole EU ‘project’ in the first place. Polls, however, are transient, but these comments from one usually reliably EU-enthusiastic MP may signal that Britain's Labour government is preparing to abandon the Giscard’s handiwork – at least if it is unable to get its (admittedly rather feeble) way in the intergovernmental discussions. The Daily Telegraphtakes up the story, but check out some of the details of how Giscard cooked up his draft: “In a blistering pamphlet for the Fabian Society, German-born Mrs Stuart exposed the pretence that the wordy text is needed to tidy up the treaties or pave the way for EU expansion, saying "the real reason for the constitution - and its main impact - is the political deepening of the union". “She added: "Not once in the 16 months I spent on the convention did representatives question whether deeper integration is what the people of Europe want. "The debates focused solely on where we could do more at EU level. Any representative who took issue with the fundamental goal of deeper integration was sidelined." “She said the secretive body chaired by Valery Giscard d'Estaing slipped through radical changes that had never been agreed, insisting on French documents to create confusion. When the sole East European member dared to raise a dissenting voice he was told his vote "didn't count". Charming. Posted at 10:17 AM MORE ON GENEVA [Andrew Stuttaford] Various points on all this. Firstly, to deal with Jonah’s question from earlier yesterday, I too am a reluctant supporter of the security fence. However, in building it, the Israeli government needs to demonstrate that security is not being used as cover for a land grab. I have no doubt that some, maybe even the majority, of the complaints about the route are (in the circumstances) unfair. Others, it seems, are not. Mark, of course, Israel is ultimately entitled to decide its own destiny. However, as an ally that is not only sending Israel large amounts of money, but is also attracting a great deal of opprobrium (and worse) for sticking (and, in my view, quite rightly sticking) with Israel, the US is perfectly entitled to have a say in all this. Israel is entitled to decide its own destiny, but in the end, the US is entitled to decide how to spend its money. Yes, that’s pressure, but is it unfair pressure? Step back for a second to the years of the Cold War. The US often strong-armed allies no less democratic than Israel, and it was usually right to do so. The same is true now. Finally, the question, again, about Beilin – and his role. In essence, Beilin is an opposition politician putting forward an alternative foreign policy. Oppositions oppose. That’s what they do. Foreign governments often talk to opposition leaders. That’s what they do – George Bush did it during his recent visit to London. Legally, however, nothing that is ‘decided’ in Geneva will have any force without the approval of Israel’s democratically government – that’s how democracy works. To suggest that the current discussions somehow ‘bypass’ Israeli democracy is nonsense. On the contrary, the mere fact that they can take place shows the strength of that country’s democracy, and the existence of that democracy (particularly in such an inhospitable region) is, we should always remember, an important (and entirely legitimate) justification for America’s continued support of Israel. Posted at 10:16 AM SOROS [Ramesh Ponnuru] Matt Welch runs through some of the criticisms of him that are foolish, or worse. Posted at 10:04 AM JOE ON TODAY [Jonah Goldberg] The Lieberman campaign has distributed the transcript from Lieberman's Today Show appearance:
Posted at 10:04 AM GORE JUST WANTS TO BE PRESIDENT [Kathryn Jean Lopez] David Frum: "Add one more name to the list of those who believe that Howard Dean will prove a cataclysmic disaster for the Democratic party: Al Gore. Why else would Gore have endorsed him?" Read the whole thing here. Posted at 09:49 AM A SET OF GORE-DEAN SPINS [Tim Graham] In addition to Jonah's fine Lieberman spin, here are a list of other lines out of today's political events: 1. Gore's endorsement shows growing clout of the hard-left Deanies at MoveOn.Org, which sponsored his last major address. 2. Gore's endorsement shows that he's really manipulated by his daughter Karenna, who Dean thanked by name. 3. Gore's endorsement shows all the boosting the media did over the last 20 years of Gore's supposed "hawkish" credentials, including his last-minute endorsement of the first Gulf War, was a fraud, that Gore's hawkish tendencies were political calculations, a Southern strategy. 4. Gore's endorsement shows that he believes a Dean election, and not a Lieberman election, is the best way to create the supposed tidal wave of bitter anger that the better man didn't take the oath in 2001. 5. Just so you know, the predictable media spin last night was that Gore's endorsement is a great opportunity to point out once again that Gore won the popular vote. Posted at 09:40 AM THE GORE ENDORSEMENT [Ramesh Ponnuru] Andrew Sullivan provides a sound analysis. Posted at 09:38 AM YEOMAN’S WORK [Kathryn Jean Lopez ] K-lo, Posted at 09:36 AM KERRY'S CAMPAIGN F-S UP [Kathryn Jean Lopez] Posted at 09:28 AM CHECK IT OUT [Kathryn Jean Lopez ] Go to the NRO homepage right now. There are pieces, sure. But also ads to click on. Ads that will make your Christmas much easier. Gift subscriptions to NR and NR Digital. NRO Store items. Children's books! And much more. So go. Now. You need a break. You’ll be grateful, the people who receive your gifts will be grateful. It’s the right thing to do, in more ways than one. Posted at 09:26 AM SECULARIST GRINCHES [Tim Graham] Brendan Miniter notes someone doesn't want a Christmas tree at New York's Ground Zero. Posted at 09:15 AM CANNIBAL DENTISTS [John Derbyshire] According to the Guardian, Armin Meiwes represents a huge cannibal underground in Germany: "Federal investigator Wilfried Fehl yesterday said the gruesome case was not an isolated one. His officers had discovered a flourishing cannibal scene in Germany, he said, involving middle-class professionals, as well as manual workers. 'We are talking about dentists, teachers, cooks, government officials and handymen,' he told the court during the second day of Mr Meiwes' trial for murder." Dentists! Posted at 09:14 AM ANTHROPOPHAGOPHIA [John Derbyshire] Yesterday I posted a note about German cannibal Armin Meiwes , who advertised on the Internet for someone willing to be eaten, received several replies, and ended up killing and eating one of them, apparently with the eatee's full consent. I got a number of e-mails about this, of which the following, from a reader in Texas, was the most constructive. [NB: My correspondent wites "homophagy," but I prefer the more etymologically correct "anthropophagy."] "Mr.Derbyshire--Please expand your NRO Corner comment on the trial of Armin Miewes for the consensual killing and eating of someone who had answered his advertisement on the internet. Once your full length piece is published on NRO, it will be a matter of mere minutes before outraged lefties are linking to if all over the blogosphere and howling in outrage that Derb, the well known homophobe, is also opposed to consensual adult homophagy. As a blow for freedom, perhaps the Howard Dean web site will host a forum for potential eaters and eatees to get together and make dinner plans. .... It is obviously quite possible that next year's presidential election will be another tight squeaker of a race. One thing that might help the forces of goodness and reason to triumph would be if by vociferously condemning the practice you persuaded thousands of Democrat voters to eat each other just to spite you." Posted at 09:13 AM RE: JOE [Kathryn Jean Lopez] I was thinking he might get a little sympathy boost out of this--Matt Lauer nearly hugged him on Today--but I think Gore effectively ended the Lieberman sympathy tour with his war comments. I don't think Gore will need to publicly rethink his veep choice at this point, except in a Babs Walter interview about how hard it was to know he might hurt his old friend Joe's feelings. Lieberman has been on his way out since he got into the race, and I suspect we'll see him dropping out shortly. Posted at 09:09 AM THE ENDORSEMENT [Kathryn Jean Lopez] Al Gore and Howard Dean look like two insane men (who are dressed identically, ties and all)--and considering Gore came as close as he did to being president, that's something to worry about. Gore laughed as he began talking about national security, as if the national-security of our nation is being run by morons who are making us increasingly less secure by the minute. At the core of his endorsement of Dean, Gore said: "He was the only major candidate who made the correct decision about the Iraq war." (Saddam Hussein would still be in power if Gore was president, itsn't that something to be exited about!) Posted at 08:50 AM THEY SHOULD'VE PLAYED HAIL TO THE CHIEF [Kathryn Jean Lopez] "The elected president of the United States" is in Harlem right now with Howard Dean, says Dean, just FYI. Posted at 08:37 AM THE LIEBERMAN ANGLE [Jonah Goldberg] This is a huge thing Gore is doing and I think it's too soon to tell whether it's hugely smart or hugely dumb. Clearly, it was hugely nasty for at least one guy: Joe Lieberman. More important, it underscores how unserious Al Gore has become on the war on terrorism. Will Gore say that he should have picked Dean to be his runningmate in 2000? Al Gore claimed that Joe Lieberman would be the best possible stand-in for Al Gore should the need arise. He said that Lieberman's qualifications were perfect to be president. Now, that was before the War on Terrorism. In the time since then, Joe Lieberman has been at the forefront of the War on Terrorism in the Senate. He was pretty much the original drafter of the Department of Homeland Security. Meanwhile, Howard Dean has amassed absolutely no additional national security or foreign policy experience on top of the near zero experience he had prior to 9/11. Joe Lieberman's resume has only gotten better since he ran as Al Gore's handpicked second. Howard Dean's resume has remained entirely inadequate to the task at hand (And, let's not forget that Howard Dean's policy positions are anything but serious either). Indeed, Gore could have picked Dean in 2000 to be his runningmate -- the man was no less qualified then than he is now. The only thing that has changed is that Gore has moved even further to the angry left and Dean is in a position to reward Gore (and Gore may be counting on the even angrier Dean voters in 2008, after Bush finishees his second term). And, oh yeah, we are in a long, dangerous bloody struggle with an enemy dedicated to destroying us. And, we are in the midst of one of the most ambitious and generous foreign policy efforts in American history (recall that Al Gore was a passionate defender of nation-building). But all that seems to be beside the point. In other words, Al Gore not only thinks Howard Dean is more qualified to be president of the United States than Joe Lieberman was or is, he thinks that is especially the case now after 9/11. If you really let that sink in for a second, you can see what an amazingly mercenary and damn close to dishonorable position that is. Moreover, it shows how a vast swath of the Democratic Party really, fundamentally, doesn't care that there's a war on -- except, that is, to the extent it wants to bug out from it. Posted at 07:40 AM Monday, December 08, 2003 MORE GENEVA [Mark R. Levin] Rich: I don't think I was clear the first time around. The comparison would be if the Israeli government gave its imprimatur to unofficial efforts by, say, Ramsey Clark, Bill Clinton and/or Jimmy Carter in their foreign policy endeavors with, say, North Korea, Iraq and/or Cuba, even though they contravene official U.S. policy. According to the logic you set out, if the Israelis think that's in their best interests, then so be it. If it undermines the president, that's his problem. Interestingly, I know of no other instance in which the United States conducts foreign policy this way, do you? I suppose the exception, other than Israel, would be our efforts to topple hostile regimes. But that's not this case, is it? In my opinion, it is not in America's best interests to undermine allies, especially democratic allies. And Ramesh is right, although he's not the first to say it, i.e, the best U.S. policy, at least for now, is to leave the Israelis to determine their own destiny, unless one believes that more land-for-peace deals are a matter of U.S. national interest. You're not arguing that, are you? Also, no one disputes that George Bush, not Ariel Sharon, represents U.S. interests. I don't know that anyone has said otherwise. Certainly not me. So, why raise it at all? We're talking about, or at least I am, how one ally conducts (or should conduct) foreign relations with another ally. Posted at 10:01 PM GORE'S ENDORSEMENT OF DEAN [Ramesh Ponnuru] No word yet from McGovern, Mondale, or Dukakis. . . . Come to think of it, the Ds now have a candidate with McGovern's foreign policy, Mondale's domestic policy, Dukakis's regional background, and Gore's arrogance. How perfect is that? Posted at 05:42 PM PRETEND TRAITOR? [Rich Lowry] E-mail: "The best takedown of the Geneva process was by Jon Stewart on Comedy Central's "The Daily Show" which devoted a fair amount of time to it, under the headline "Imaginary Firends". I can't remember most of it, but it ripped it hard, and ended with a promise from Stewart, something along these lines: "As long as phony statesmen get together to negotiate pretend agreements, this fake news show will be there to cover it." Posted at 05:26 PM THIS IS TREASON? [Rich Lowry] “Deciding that they know better that the majority of Israelis and the government that they elected how to deal with the Arabs.” Golly, I think I know better than the government we elected how to deal with the Saudis, the Iraqis, the North Koreans, prescription drugs, and much else. And Jonah and Mark are here in black and white UNDERMING THE U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE because they think they know better than him how to deal with the Arabs. Treason abounds…. Posted at 04:55 PM AL GORE [Kathryn Jean Lopez] is endorsing Dean tonight, according to CNN. Posted at 04:47 PM BY THE WAY.... [Jonah Goldberg] Isn't it nice to have Rich Lowry posting to the Corner again? Posted at 04:45 PM GENEVA AGAIN AND AGAIN [Rich Lowry] Ramesh: Sharp eye. I pulled up short on that quote for a reason. Seems to me that the U.S. has two interests: 1) that a new Palestinian state not be a rogue state, and to that end, we should insist that the Palestinians create a decent leadership; 2) that there be a settlement as soon as feasible after that. Our interest coincides with Israel’s in seeking the first goal, but it won’t necessarily in seeking the second. Mark: The question of whether Americans should want other Americans to travel around the world meeting with our enemies is totally distinct from the question of whether we should be outraged by Beilin or not. Yes, as an American, I get mad when Ramsey Clark runs off to North Korea, but why should an Israeli get mad? By the same token, Israelis might be mad at Beilin, but why should I as an American be mad? For me, the only question is whether or not giving Beilin some mild encouragement is in the U.S. national interest or not (I think it is – but it’s an arguable point). And I’m not ready to accept it as a general principle that the U.S. government shouldn’t undermine Israel’s prime minister when it suits our purposes. I trust President Bush to protect U.S. national interests in the region more than Ariel Sharon, or any other Israeli prime minister. That’s not Sharon’s job, after all. Posted at 04:42 PM GENEVA [Jonah Goldberg] From a reader in Israel: Mr. Lowry, As one who lives in Israel and has a front row seat to all the fun, I see two major issues with the Geneva accords, one procedural and one substantive. Posted at 04:35 PM "NICETIES" [Jonah Goldberg] I think Ramesh makes a good point. Moreover, I too all in favor of operating according to America's interests. However, it seems to me, that is something of a red-herring in this discussion. We can all agree it's in America's interest to see peace between Israel and the Palestinians. We can all agree it's in Israel's interest too. We can probably all agree it's in the Palestinians' interest -- though certainly not in Arafat's, Iran's, Syria's et al. But peace and "ceasefire" do not mean the same thing. Nor do "peace" and "bring the conflict to a close," to use Andrew's phrasing, mean the same thing. Again, for you to demonstrate that the Geneva Accords are in America's interest, you'd have to demonstrate that they would work, particularly as-promulgated. There are no end to the number of plans, proposals, schemes, plots, accords and pipe-dreams for bringing peace to the region. The shortage of working papers has never, ever, been the problem. Seizing on this one only makes sense if the benefits of doing so exceed the costs -- in terms of false hope, bad precedents, and undermining the elected government of Israel. I really don't see how Andrew or Rich have demonstrated that this is the case. Posted at 04:33 PM CALENDARS! CALENDARS! [Peter Robinson] Posting this a few days later than I’d expected (you see how much help we need managing my time?), I begin with an apology to Milton Friedman. As it turns out, our great big free-market economy does too provide decent calendar software, and all I had to do to find out about it was to ask the readers of this happy Corner. In the hope that this proves useful--particularly to the man in Tempe who wrote, “Peter, I beg of you, PLEASE post the winning calendar software in the Corner. I've been searching for the same thing for my wife too. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE”--here goes: The most often recommended: The free calendar function on Yahoo. It’s easy (or so a dozen readers have sworn), and you can use it from any computer in all the wide world that has access to the web. Go to www.calendar.yahoo.com. The second most often recommended: The free calendar software that Palm makes available. Download it, and it lives on your own computer. Upload it to a website, and anyone can look at it. And if you have a Palm Pilot (a suggestion that caused my wife, who can barely figure out how to operate her cell phone, to laugh) you can keep you calendar in sync in all three places, your Palm Pilot, your own computer, and the web. For a download, go to http://www.freewarepalm.com/utilities/palmdesktop.shtml. The most inscrutable (and here I merely quote from a reader’s email, which it must have taken him, God bless him, a quarter of an hour to work out and type up, with my thanks for the bigness of heart that must have led him to do so): OK - The following folder has the following files: An HTML file, calendar-JHP.html, that puts it all together A calendar applet (calendar.class) for insertion into the file A calendar java script file (calendar.java) for review of the source HTML Files: calendar.html: The main source for the html page (with applet embedded) calendar2.html: The source for the heading and applet (i.e. the top half of calendar) calendar3.html: The source for the table of activities for family (i.e. the bottom half of the calendar) Put all folders into the same directory. Then open calendar-JHP.html in a standard browser. Make sure the page is in the same folder as the .class file. Then navigate the calendar. Below the calendar, on the HTML page, is a table. Date, Person, and Activity are the columns. As information becomes known to your family, enter it onto the table. The usual shot from an Apple owner: One wrote to point out that if I owned an Apple, I’d already be using iCal, which is, by universal consent, the easiest-to-use, most effective, and most visually appealing calendar software ever devised by the mind of man. He closed by writing, “Never ask a friend what kind of computer he uses. If he has a Mac, he'll tell you. If he doesn't have a Mac, why embarrass him?” The profoundly satisfying rejoinder, in which another reader explained (and, once again, I quote) how it is possible to use iCal even if you don’t own an Apple: If you like ical, you can have it on a PC. You first have to install the Mozilla browser, if you haven't already. But this is good because it's light years better than IE. After disabling pop up windows, you'll be surprised at how quick you forget what a pain they were. Or as described on their web site mozilla.org. * For web browsing, email, HTML editing, IRC chat, and more * Built with your privacy and security in mind * Stop popups and junk mail * Open multiple web pages in the same window with tabbed browsing After it is installed you can go to mozilla calendar to get an ical compatible calendar that lets you subscribe to Apple calendar events and read ical files since it uses the same file format. So there. Will post on Advent calendars later today. Posted at 04:09 PM AMERICAN INTERESTS [Ramesh Ponnuru] Rich, I agree with the passage of Andrew's post that you quoted. But he goes on to say that "it is in America’s interests to bring this conflict"--that is, the Arab-Israeli or Palestinian-Arab conflict--"to a close." The relevant question is whether it is in the national interest to try to "bring this conflict to a close" given the likelihood of failure, the costs of trying, etc. I have never been convinced that the answer to that question is yes. I suspect that it might be better for U.S. interests to back off a bit from the conflict and let the Israelis and the Arabs fight it out. Give war a chance, in other words. Posted at 03:51 PM MORE GENEVA [Mark R. Levin] Rich: Let's get back to basics. I don't much like it when Ramsey Clark, a former attorney general, runs off to North Korea and Iraq to hold high-level meetings with despots. I don't much like it when Bill Clinton, a recent president, goes to Canada to denounce George Bush's treatment of that government. And I don't much like it when Jimmy Carter, an ex-president, travels to all these places and more, including Geneva, where he pontificates on a "final solution." All of this sends confusing signals to regimes that need very direct signals. Nothing has changed since Oslo. In fact, nothing has changed since 1948. Ariel Sharon gets plenty of pressure from the left. Shimon Peres repeatedly negotiates behind his back, and undermines Sharon's government. I suppose that's the nature of Israel's system. But the United States, in the person of Colin Powell, and to a lesser extent George Bush, lest they give their imprimatur to all such efforts, should not give credence to these extra-curricular, leftwing confabs. Last time I checked, neither Bush nor Powell appreciated such help when it interfered with their policies. I'm speaking of Jimmy Carter and his trip to Cuba a few months back, for instance. We have one official voice on matters of foreign policy. We, as a government, ought not participate in undermining Israel's prime minister. Posted at 03:28 PM IS THE U.S. BECOMING ISRAEL IN IRAQ? [Rich Lowry] That was the subtext of this front page New York Times story yesterday on tougher U.S. tactics in Iraq. The big advantage the U.S. has in Iraq that Israel doesn’t have in the West Bank is an achievable and coherent political solution that seems to have the support of most Iraqis. Also, Wayne Downing had a good piece on the new counter-insurgency tactics in yesterday’s Outlook section. Posted at 03:19 PM WHAT ANDREW SAID [Rich Lowry] “It is not for the US to worry about the etiquette of Israeli politics. It is for the US to pursue a policy that is in American interests…” Very well put… Posted at 03:14 PM FEB 3RD. SCENARIO = DELUSION [Rich Lowry] The New York Times reported yesterday that Wes Clark, John Edwards, and Joe Lieberman hope to stop Dean in the February 3rd. primaries, especially South Carolina. This seems unlikely. Bush was able to stop McCain in South Carolina because he had tons of money, the support of the Republican establishment, and several ways to beat up McCain with the Republican base. Dean’s rivals will have none of those things. The only thing they’ll have going for them is potentially the argument that they are more electable. I’m not sure that’s true however. Wes Clark appears nearly as gaff-prone. John Edwards may be too young and inexperienced to make a plausible commander-in-chief. And Joe Lieberman simply isn’t going anywhere. Posted at 03:12 PM RE: YET MORE GENEVA [Jonah Goldberg] Ok, a few more scattershot points. I bring up the Logan Act for the same reason -- I think -- Krauthammer brought it up. We have a Logan Act for a reason. It puts into law a fairly common sense observation that civilians should not be trying to conduct freelance foreign policy. I have to assume the Israelis don't have a similar law, otherwise Beilin would be under arrest by now. But that doesn't mean the principle is nullified. In other words, this sort of thing is such a bad idea we even make it illegal here. Just because it's not illegal there doesn't make it a good idea. You say that this is nothing but a glorified press release. But that is not the way it was billed, the way it was framed, or the way it has been treated in the West. Again, I agree with you and Andrew that the Jane Fonda analogy probably goes too far, but just to beat it into the ground: Jane Fonda defended her trip to Vietnam as nothing more than private citizen's fact-finding tour. But she knew and the Vietnamese knew, that it would be received as much more than that. Similarly, Beilin's effort can be defended as nothing more than a glorified press release but that hardly means that was the intent or the effect. Posted at 03:10 PM FANTASTICALLY GOOD NEWS [Rich Lowry] The Washington Post reported yesterday that the Saudis will shut down the Islamic Affairs sections in all their embassies around the world. This is real progress, and for the first time it makes me think that maybe the Bush administration’s quiet Saudi diplomacy is getting somewhere. Posted at 03:08 PM YET MORE GENEVA [Rich Lowry] Jonah, you make good points, and I don’t like Beilin’s politics any more than you do. This is what I would say in response, and I’ll go in order: 1) A couple of things. (a) I think private citizens do work on environmental accords, etc. I mean, isn’t that what NGOs do? (b) You make it sound as though Beilin has cut an actual peace agreement, when actually all he has done is issued a glorified – granted, very glorified – press release. (c) I too can understand the Israeli government’s rage. This whole thing is very inconvenient for them. Living in a democracy sucks. (d) You and Krauthammer say that Beilin would have violated the Logan act if he were an American citizen doing this. But he’s not an American citizen. If he has violated some Israeli law, fine, let’s slap him in leg irons right away. 2) Good point. 3) You may well be right about the Israeli public. In which case, there is nothing to fear from Beilin. 4) This is an excellent point. And this is why the roadmap is the way to go. But I have more faith in Israeli society ultimately being interested in peace than Ariel Sharon. That’s why I think it’s important that he get pressured from his Left. And it’s very easy to imagine a time when U.S. and Israeli interests will diverge in the search for a negotiated settlement. For instance, Sharon will have an interest in preserving Israeli settlements in the West Bank, when the U.S. will have none. So it makes sense for the U.S. to provide some gentle encouragement for Beilin’s work. This is exactly what Colin Powell did. He patted Beilin on the head, then said we have to stick to the roadmap. Seems reasonable to me, and not “scandalous,” as Krauthammer puts it. 5) I think for the Jane Fonda analogy to work, Beilin would have to be pictured in a suicide bomber’s belt. Posted at 02:55 PM RE: RE: RE: GENEVA [Jonah Goldberg] Andrew - Aren't we talking about two things here? The first is whether a publicity stunt should be treated as real foreign-policy making and the second is what should be done about Israel? It seems to me that the former has very little to do with the latter. I think there's merit to some of your ideas, but isn't the reliance on Palestinian "good behavior" just a redux of Oslo? And for the record, I'd be fine with a replay of Oslo, if Arafat were truly out of the equation and there was someone trustworthy to deal with on the other side from the Israelis. My guess is that the moment Arafat dies or is replaced, Sharon's popularity will plummet because he's the choice of a nation which sees few other options than fighting/waiting it out. As for the wall, which I'm not a huge fan of but I reluctantly support, I'm curious, what route do you think it should take? I ask because it sounds like your objection is its route and not its existence. Posted at 02:48 PM WHO KNEW? [Jonah Goldberg] Chris Matthews is a hateful bigot, according to RamallahOnline. Posted at 02:39 PM GENEVA [Andrew Stuttaford] Jonah, I have to say that I am with Rich on this one. As things now stand, the ‘road map’ is going nowhere. Arafat, quite clearly, cannot be trusted to deliver what he promises, while (and, no, this is not an attempt to find some sort of moral equivalence between the two men) Sharon’s refusal to do much, if anything, about either the settlements or the route being taken by the security fence also suggests that he has either no real interest in this process or that he has given up on it. Under these circumstances, it seems to me that the Geneva proposals merit serious attention by Washington. The current stalemate is simply not in American interests, and that, in and of itself, is reason for the administration to press for a workable resolution to this problem. One way, perhaps, to encourage the Israeli government to look at this question again might be for the US (or NATO?) to explicitly extend a real security guarantee to Israel in the aftermath of any deal, perhaps even membership of NATO. As for the Palestinians, the offer of an extremely generous aid program (specifically linked to continuing ‘good behavior’ in the wake of peace) could be persuasive to a sufficiently large percentage of the population to make a deal feasible. Certainly it should help convince their leadership. From what we know of Arafat, he understands the value of a dollar or two, while it must be in US interests not only to secure peace between the Israelis and Palestinians, but to ensure that any Palestinian state has a real chance of prosperity. If it’s in the US interests to rebuild a nation in Iraq, it’s no less so in ‘Palestine’. Posted at 02:32 PM RE GENEVA ACCORDS [Jonah Goldberg] For the record, I don't consider and didn't mean to suggest, that the Geneva Accords necessarily constitute treason. My objection with Rich was his assertion that there's absolutely nothing wrong with these sorts of stunts. I think something can fall short of treason and still not be "completely legitimate." Posted at 02:14 PM RE: HUMAN WEIRDNESS [John Derbyshire] From three different readers: "Pity Germany does not have the death penalty. Be interesting to see Meiwes's last-meal request." Posted at 02:06 PM P.C. RIOT (SERIES #43, 189) [John Derbyshire] From a reader in the north country: "I was reading an article on infrequently visiting waterfowl in Minnesota. There was mention of a 'long-tailed sea duck'. I scratched my head over that one until a later paragraph explained it. The government types and taxonomists had gotten together and decided to re-name the oldsquaw duck. I suppose we should be grateful it was not called the honorable elderly aboriginal female duck, or the noble Native American matriarch duck." Posted at 02:03 PM RE BCS [Jonah Goldberg] Folks, I don't follow college football nearly enough to have anything intelligent to say about this BCS business. Here are a few emails from readers on the subject. For the record, I'm not really looking for more.
And...
And....
Posted at 01:58 PM NICE MOVE JUDICIAL WATCH [Kate O'Beirne] According to the Washington Times's “Inside Politics,” yesterday Howard Dean announced that he has decided to let a judge determine which locked-away papers from his governorship should be made publicly available. Judicial Watch, the bipartisan tormentor that launches dopey lawsuits that chase the headlines, has sued to force Dean to open his gubernatorial records. "What we think the best thing to do is let the judge go through EVERY SINGLE DOCUMENT and decide for himself what ought to be revealed and what not to be revealed." How long do you suppose that will take? Some poor judge will be examining 145 boxes of stuff and we will all be enlightened at the conclusion of a case that can be dragged on and on. My guess is that by the time embarrassing tidbits see the light of day, Howard Dean will be an ex-candidate lecturing at the Kennedy School about how the right-wing media hijacked the 2004 election. The media and his competitors were closing in on Dean's intransigence and now the tiresome self-promoters at Judicial Watch have provided him with an escape. Posted at 01:57 PM FIRST DEAN WITH CONFEDERATE FLAGS, AND NOW THIS [Roger Clegg] Last week in Iowa, Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry—in the course of criticizing the Bush administration’s alleged violation of Arab-Americans’ civil liberties—declared that “our Constitution is color-blind.” Whoa, Senator! Only right-wing, anti–affirmative action types use the c-b word. Remember that your party’s last standard-bearer, Al Gore, memorably if bizarrely equated those who extol the principle of color-blindness with those who use a duck-blind to shoot ducks. Posted at 01:52 PM ADS FOR JEWELRY [John Derbyshire] Jonah: I can never watch a jewelry commercial without recalling that scene in The Lords of Flatbush where Sly Stallone, in his first decent movie role, is inviegled by his girlfriend into buying her an expensive engagement ring that is way beyond his means. At the end of the scene Sly asks the girlfriend to leave the store while he organizes payment for the ring. Then he says to the jeweler: "If you ever show my girl a ring like that again, you know what's gonna be written on your tombstone? 'I was dumb enough to show Frannie Malincanico a $1600 ring.' Ya got that?" For my money this is still, after all these years, Sly's greatest movie moment. Posted at 01:51 PM FOLLOW-UP ON GROSSEST PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT [John Derbyshire] I have inspired a competition (search on "derb" ). Posted at 01:50 PM SHE ALSO HEADED THE JUNIOR ANTI-SEX LEAGUE [Roger Clegg] The Washington Post Magazine has a feature each issue called “First Person Singular” in which a local notable gets to describe herself in her own words. Here’s the first paragraph from this week’s column, by Martha Burk, “chairman [sic!], National Council of Women’s Organizations” (and most famous for her crusade to bring women to the Augusta golf club): “My job is righting wrong. I like it. The earliest I remember is in sixth grade. Somebody in the class was having a party and they [sic again] invited everybody in the class but two or three kids. I was invited but I was outraged on the part of other kids who weren’t invited. It would have been different had it been a group or something. But these kids were clearly being left out in a malicious way. I complained to the teacher, who then tipped off the parents. I got it straightened out.” Posted at 01:49 PM RE: REV. AL'S SNL BOOST [Tim Graham] Rev. Al Sharpton's clowning on "Saturday Night Live" gained him a spot on CBS's "The Early Show" this morning. MRC's Brian Boyd noticed that co-host Julie Chen (whose most well-known journalistic duty is hosting "Big Brother" reality shows) was a little soft: 1. "Who knew that your days road managing James Brown from 1973 to 1980 would pay off so many years later? How was the experience on SNL?" 2. "You have never held elective office, why do you think you should be President of the United States?" 3. "Do you think your appearance on Saturday Night Live will translate into votes? You certainly could use the help. Current polls indicate that you are pulling in just three percent of Democratic voters." 4. "In the final 20 seconds, if you do not get the nomination who will you be pulling for?" Posted at 01:48 PM RE: THE FURTHEST EXTREMES OF HUMAN WEIRDNESS [John Derbyshire] A reader: "I always thought the furthest extreme of weird was to be a Democrat after Scoop Jackson left the scene." Posted at 01:47 PM NOTE ON JAY'S IMPROMPTUS [John Derbyshire] Jay: I think you were remiss in mentioning Harold C. Schonberg without giving a plug for his book Lives of the Great Composers, which I keep on the shelf among my standard reference works. Now shamefully out of print (according to Amazon ) but still easily available via Abebooks and other used-book sites. Posted at 01:46 PM RE: BIOETHICS IN CHINA [John Derbyshire] Stanley: The word "eugenics" has no stigma in Chinese, and there are public documents coming out of Chinese govt. research institutes declaring that eugenics is an important part of "socialist modernization." I posted an article about this on NRO back in Feb. 2001 (though unfortunately the link to the original Chinese article no longer works). Posted at 01:43 PM GENEVA 2 [Andrew Stuttaford] Jonah, as to whether 'private citizens' should try to negotiate some sort of deal, I think that it's fair to say that desperate times call for desperate measures. Think of some of Churchill's efforts during the 1930s. It's also important to stress that the analogy with Jane Fonda really does not work. She went to an enemy capital at a time of war, and worse still, she went not to try and negotiate a deal but (in essence) to proclaim the virtues of the enemy. The 'Geneva' Israelis are not doing anything of the sort. Moreover, for all the horrors and terrorist slaughter, Israel is not 'at war' with the Palestinians, as that would imply the existence of two distinct states. For as long as the occupation persists, the Palestinian issue is, at least to an extent, a matter 'internal' to Israel and thus, a legitimate area in which private Israeli citizens can involve themselves. But, this is to miss the point. It is not for the US to worry about the etiquette of Israeli politics. It is for the US to pursue a policy that is in American interests - and it is in America’s interests to bring this conflict to a close. It’s that simple and, alas, that difficult. Posted at 01:33 PM "FORGET GENEVA; WHAT ABOUT BCS!?!" [Jonah Goldberg] From a reader: Jonah, Usually the Corner is very topical and right there covering current events, but you'll are missing a huge story today. USC and the Pac-10 football conference was robbed! Again. For the second time in three years! In the five years of the BCS the PAC 10 has yet to have team play for the so-called national title; in two of those years the PAC 10 (Oregon State in 2001 and USC this year) were robbed outright and a strong case could have been made during one of the other years (2000, Washington). Get on this! Maybe pressure from the Right will finally force a football playoff! Or at least get the best (over time) football conference in the nation some well deserved recognition! Posted at 12:53 PM MORE GENEVA [Jonah Goldberg] From a reader: Rich, Jonah, Posted at 12:24 PM PERFECTLY LEGITIMATE EXERCISE? [Jonah Goldberg] Rich - I'm really kind of amazed you think there's nothing wrong with private citizens negotiating a radically different foreign policy, especially during what amounts to a time of war. If Cynthia McKinney, Noam Chomsky and Ed Asner got together and tried to hammer out an agreement with the Taliban after 9/11 would you consider that "completely legitimate"? Posted at 12:14 PM MORE GENEVA [Rich Lowry] Here is a much stronger case against Geneva by Charles Krauthammer, which I somehow missed at the time. (I blame it on Thanksgiving.) Krauthammer writes, “Israel is a democracy, and this agreement was negotiated in defiance of the democratically (and overwhelmingly) elected government of Israel.” But I don’t see how it’s the obligation of every citizen living in a free society to support the policy of its elected government. In fact, the beauty of free societies is that citizens can engage in PR stunts to pressure their governments to adapt policies more to their liking. Which is exactly what Beilin has done. You can disagree with the substance of it, as Krauthammer does powerfully, but it seems a perfectly legitimate exercise . . . Posted at 11:56 AM X-MAS LEXUS [Jonah Goldberg] So many people are writing to express their ongoing outrage with Lexus commercials. A typical one:
Posted at 11:51 AM RE: WHAT'S WRONG WITH GENEVA [Jonah Goldberg] Rich - A couple points off the top of my head. First of all, when you say this is precisely the sort of thing we should want from Palestinian and Israeli civil societies, I understand your point, but I can also understand the Israeli government's rage. After all, I'm sure you would have considerable contempt if private citizens here started working on peace treaties, environmental accords etc. without approval of the US government. If Jimmy Carter cut a deal with North Korea -- without consulting the White House -- I bet you'd be livid. And whether you were or not, Carter would be in violation of the Logan Act -- as Charles Krauthammer recently noted. Second, I'm not sure you should be as confident that these pressures on the Palestinian side are coming from their "civil society." Rabbo has admitted to being in contact with Arafat through the negotiations and it's not like you get to freelance that sort of thing on Arafat's watch (their version of the Logan Act is a pistol in a back alley). Third, the actual terms of the deal don't strike me as anything the Israeli public would really accept if they thought this would actually happen. I know it's popular now, but so was Hillary's healthcare plan until the possibility of its passage became concrete. Fourth, again as Krauthammer notes, why on earth are we supposed to believe that any Palestinian Authority still run by Arafat will be true to its word? Posted at 11:47 AM WHAT'S WRONG WITH GENEVA? [Rich Lowry] I've been waiting for someone to make a good case against the Geneva Accord that has the Israeli government throwing a conniption. Amir Taheri, whose stuff is consistently excellent, weighed in yesterday in the New York Post. I have to say, I'm not convinced. Taheri scores the Geneva architects for ignoring the fact that peacemaking is a political process rather than a technical and diplomatic one. But the whole idea of the Geneva effort is obviously to influence the political process in Tel Aviv, Washington, and the West Bank. Seems to me that the sort of pressure exerted by the Geneva architects is exactly what we should want from Israeli and Palestinian civil societies. This Taheri point, seems to me, is especially weak: "The 'wise men' of Geneva may not have realized it, but by ignoring normal political institutions – especially elected organs of decision-making – they may have bestowed some legitimacy on those who want the future of Palestine to be decided by unelected militants and suicide-bombers. After all, if Beilin and Abd-Rabbo can sign an accord, there is no reason why militant Jewish settlers and Hamas suicide-bombers should not have the right to tear up any accord." So, well-intentioned people on both sides getting together to talk about peace encourages suicide bombings? Come on... Posted at 11:28 AM THE "45 MINUTE" WMD SOURCE [Jonah Goldberg ] Very important interview from the source behind the allegation that Iraq could launch chemical weapons in 45 minutes. He stands by the story and he thinks Saddam still has the WMD. Wouldn't finding the WMDs make for an exciting October surprise? Posted at 10:56 AM NR READERS LOVE OUR "CLASSIC" KIDS BOOKS [Jack Fowler] We’ve received countless letters from very satisfied customers praising of our “classics” books. Here’s one -- from Ray and Juanita Johnson of Colorado -- that is typical: “Upon receiving our copy of the NR Treasury of Classic Children’s Literature we are fully delighted with the treasuries it holds for our own grandchildren and children throughout the country. Thus we wish to order two more copies, for their home and for our daughter’s 5th grade classroom in Maryland. As retired teachers my husband and I fully appreciate the value of this volume of Classic Children’s Literature . . .” We're always happy when someone orders our books. But we take special satisfaction when someone re-orders (and we have a lot of those "someones"): It's proof we're doing something right. Now, why don't you do the right thing this Christmas (now little more than 2 weeks away) and order those special someones in your life (children, grandchildren, niece, nephew, godchild, or that nice kid who lives down the street) any or all of our great titles: the original edition or new "Volume Two" of The National Review Treasury of Classic Children's Literature, and our new book designed especially for younger, beginning readers, The National Review Treasury of Classic Bedtime Stories (a lavishly illustrated collection of enchanting stories by the great Thornton Burgess). Order here. Posted at 10:39 AM X-MAS ADS [Jonah Goldberg] From a reader: Every time I see the DeBeers diamond ad with the guy taking his girlfriend/wife/whatever deep into the woods, up the snowy hill to the huge tree, then it lights up with a million lights, she gasps, and he gives her the diamond, I think, "He has one helluva long extension cord." Posted at 10:35 AM CHAIT VS. FRUM [Ramesh Ponnuru] They're debating what the Medicare bill says about President Bush's political character. Frum says it shows the president's moderation; Chait, his willingness to subsidize big business. I'm with Frum on the general point that Bush is more moderate than his critics contend, and on the specific point that the bill's ban on de facto price controls is principled rather than merely a sop to pharmaceutical companies. (I wish the ban were stronger.) But I think Chait is closer to the truth than Frum in one important way. Frum argues that Bush signed the Medicare bill because older voters wanted the prescription-drug benefit, not because business wanted the bill. He's right to this extent: Several years of polls showing that older voters (among others) strongly favored the benefit were a precondition for its enactment. But the bill did not have to take the form it did. Earlier this year, Republicans were debating whether to go for a universal benefit or a less expensive bill that primarily would benefit those most in need of aid. Business lobbies were quite insistent that the benefit had to be universal, essentially because they wanted to shift costs from themselves to the taxpayer. That was the decisive reason the Republicans wrote the legislation they did. Posted at 10:34 AM LAWRENCE KORB ON THE WAR [Ramesh Ponnuru] Two comments: 1) Korb is now an analyst at John Podesta's new think tank, which is supposed to generate bold new election-winning ideas for the Democrats. His position on Iraq? He thinks the war was a mistake, and he pretty clearly suggests that the Gulf War of 1991 was a mistake too. We are supposed to think that the world would be a better place if the only response to Saddam Hussein's conquest of Kuwait had been sanctions. 2) No matter what else in life Korb does--join Howard Dean's presidential campaign, lead rallies with Ramsey Clark, become a liberal talk-radio host--he will always be memorialized in op-ed bio lines as a sub-Cabinet official in the Reagan administration. Posted at 10:22 AM "EVERY KISS BEGINS WITH KAY" [Jonah Goldberg] Another Christmastime commercial that drives me nuts is the one(s) for Kay Jewellers. The husband/boyfriend buys the missus/girlfriend a diamond whatever and she gives him some sugar. The tagline as they smooch is "Every Kiss Begins with Kay." Now, I understand that it's also a pun ("kiss" begins with "K", har har har), but if every kiss begins with a bauble from the jewelers then, well, your wife's a whore. Posted at 10:21 AM SAFIRE ON HILLARY [Kathryn Jean Lopez] Sound familiar? Here's what Cliff May said in The Corner over Thanksgiving weekend: HILLARY’S TRIP [Clifford D. May] Posted at 10:19 AM CHRISTMASTIME COMMERCIALS [Jonah Goldberg] I love this time of year, but I cannot stand the commercials. The Fran Drescher Old Navy commercial alone is enough to send me on a three state killing spree (plus the District of Columbia!). But the commercials that drive me nuts the most are the ones that would probably drive the Marxists nuts the most; where they try to make a want into a need. They appear mostly on cable and they are designed solely for lame X-Mas presents. Now I don't mind advertising, marketing, capitalism etc. But I can't stand it when the advertiser thinks I'm stupid. Like this commercial for the machine that opens jars for you. They make it seem like a working mother might as well put her kids up for adoption if she doesn't have this time and labor-saving device. Another example which comes to mind isn't even for Christmastime. It's the ad for PetMeds.Com. The little story they tell is of one woman who gets to lounge around the house like the Queen of Sheba because she gets all of her dog's pills online. Meanwhile, her friend's life is little better than a North Korean peasant's. Posted at 10:17 AM NO INDIFFERENCE [Stanley Kurtz] I’ve already talked about my own essay in Never A Matter of Indifference: Sustaining Virtue in a Free Republic, the new collection edited by political philosopher, Peter Berkowitz. There’s lot’s of stuff in this book that will be of interest to readers of NRO. Political philosopher Harvey C. Mansfield contributes an essay on the tension between liberty and virtue at the American Founding. The piece features Mansfield’s very interesting take on Benjamin Franklin. Chester Finn has a great piece on the contemporary struggle over values in schooling, and Doug Kmiec makes a powerful case for a return to more traditional concepts of marriage and family. I may be somewhat more liberal than Kmiec on these issues, but his case is strong and his insights helpful to anyone with an interest in marriage and family, regardless of their viewpoint. Finally, David Davenport and Hanna Skandera do a fascinating job of tracing the decline of civic associations over the past several decades. What’s new in their analysis is the detailed way in which they link the decline of local associations to the growth and centralization of government. Posted at 10:08 AM DEAN'S CRUSADE [Stanley Kurtz] Reading the cover story of Sunday’s New York Times Magazine, I couldn’t help but smile. The story argues that politics is an almost secondary factor in the movement for Howard Dean, which has all the earmarks of a religious crusade. According to author, Samantha M. Shapiro, Dean’s website functions almost like a church, connecting his followers to one another socially in ways not usually seen in political campaigns. For Dean’s followers, says Shapiro, politics crosses over into personal life. This is much like the argument I made in, “The Church of the Left.” That piece has attracted as much attention as any I’ve written. And now, I’ve expanded my analysis of the religious nature of the left, and published it in a new book edited by political philosopher, Peter Berkowitz. The book is called, Never a Matter of Indifference: Sustaining Virtue in a Free Republic, and my essay is entitled, “Culture and Values in the 1960's.” There I go far beyond my initial NRO piece and trace the religious quality of contemporary leftism back to the birth of social science in turn of the century France. I also offer an explanation for why “the sixties” happened at all. So this essay is an attempt to back up my “Church of the Left” argument with a serious historical and sociological analysis. Posted at 10:03 AM BIOETHICS IN CHINA [Stanley Kurtz] Here’s a thought that emerges from my reading of the latest issue of The New Atlantis. Oddly, after reading about bioethics, I’m struck by the rise of China and the potential threat that it poses to the rest of the world. Eric Cohen’s overview of our bioethics debates features a discussion of biotechnology in China. It seems that China is a center of the most troubling sort of biological experimentation. The Chinese have already attempted to produce a child with three genetic parents, “ending in the gruesome death of multiple fetuses.” And other Chinese experiments, drawing on basic science perfected in the West, have included efforts to implant a female uterus in the abdomen of a man, and to produce “chimeric” man-animal embryos. Combine this with Steven Menashi’s striking account of Chinese malfeasance in his New Atlantis piece, “The Politics of the WHO” China, it seems, had a major role in obstructing international attempts to bring last year’s SARS outbreak under control. It seems that the Chinese were afraid that acknowledging the outbreak would be bad for business, so they resorted to denial and censorship in their own media, and kept international experts at bay when early intervention might have helped staunch the spread of the disease. Add to this the front page story in Sunday’s New York Times on China’s attempt to disguise its troubling labor practices. Then recall that China has just entered what used to be called the “space race,” and has announced plans for missions to the moon. The potential military implications of that may have at least something to do with reports that the administration is considering a major new space initiative. Put all these developments together and a clear picture emerges. As China modernizes, the combination of her technological prowess with illiberalism poses real dangers to the world. Maybe all the changes set of by modernization and globalization will eventually transform China’s regime. But how much mischief will be done in the meantime? We’ve got our hands full with the problems of terrorism, the Middle East, and Korea. But clearly, China is a major danger looming on the horizon. Posted at 10:01 AM THE NEW FRONTIER [Stanley Kurtz] The latest issue of The New Atlantis: A Journal of Technology and Society is out and available online. The New Atlantis is a serious attempt to come to grips with the social and moral implications of developments that promise to transform human nature itself. TNA’s editor, Eric Cohen, has a thoughtful piece on the relevance of bioethics in wartime; it is a systematic overview it gives of the state of play in our biotechnology debates. I was riveted by Christine Rosen’s piece on “ectogenesis,” “Why Not Artificial Wombs?” Rosen explains what is and isn’t happening in the race to perfect an artificial womb. She also explores the implications of this radical attempt to sever reproduction from sexuality. Proponents of artificial wombs range from philosopher Peter Singer to radical feminist Shulamith Firestone. The challenge to the family posed by artificial wombs could be immense. For a foreshadowing of what may be a core cultural debate of the future, check out Rosen’s article. There are also several pieces in this issue of The New Atlantis that I have not yet had a chance to read, but which look important. The lead article, by Adam Keiper, is called, “A new Vision for NASA.” With reports that the administration is considering a major new initiative in space, Keiper’s piece could have a serious impact. But all these pieces look fascinating, including those I haven’t had a chance to mention. Have a look. Posted at 09:58 AM DEAN & PLANNED PARENTHOOD [Rich Lowry] Posted at 09:41 AM THE FURTHEST EXTREMES OF HUMAN WEIRDNESS [John Derbyshire] Not only are there people who want to kill and eat other people, there are people who desire to be killed and eaten. Google on the extremely weird case of German cannibal Armin Meiwes, or read this opinion piece on the case by Barbara Amiel Meiwes advertised on the Internet for someone willing to be eaten, and got several replies, one of whom he eventually ate, apparently with the eatee's full consent. My God. Is there even a name for this perversion? Or are we not, in this age of non-judgmentalism, allowed to call even this perverse? Is this the first sighting of another victim group? Posted at 08:55 AM ONE HAPPY CANADIAN! [Kathryn Jean Lopez] An e-mail: Hi K-Lo,You don't have to be Canadian to experience that kind of joy! Subscribe to NR or a href="https://www.kable.com/pub/onnr/subscribe.asp">NR DIGITAL today. And not just for yourself: Gift-sub links for Digital and Dead Tree are here and here. Posted at 08:38 AM RE: IU [Kathryn Jean Lopez] Two more comments, from a alum: As a graduate of this school, I'd like to respond. Who says it is not a religious symbol? It seems to to me the fact that it is called a "Christmas tree" lends a good argument to the fact that it is a religious symbol. As for the commercial aspect, I agree that Congress probably would never abolish Christmas. However, this student has not been paying attention to what is being said in his Constitutional law class. It is the courts that we should be concerned about regarding the abolition of Christmas as a national holiday.and from a student: I'm a law student at IU - Indy also, and this whole tree ordeal has been quite encouraging to me. I heard they were taking down the tree and just sort of rolled my eyes. But the next day when I checked my school e-mail, there were over fifity e-mails regarding the subject - most of the e-mails opposing the administration's choice to take down the tree. Although the school may not be as 'ivory tower' as some other liberal law schools, it has not exactly been a bastion for conservative thought since I've been here. For the most part, students, including most Jewish students, have been against taking down the tree. As a strong Christian, I mostly see the tree as a secular image, which is what the Supreme Court held. That is why the students are so opposed to all this. The students voicing their opposition to this is what encouraged me. Posted at 08:27 AM RE: RANDY NEWMAN [Tim Graham] One of my long-lasting conservative buddies -- a true NR fan back into his youth -- also enjoys Randy Newman, but recalls that during his '96 concert at Wolf Trap, Newman lamely joked: "This country'll never be far left enough for me. Ceaucescu's Romania -- now, there was a government!" Posted at 07:44 AM ON THE GROUND AT IU [Kathryn Jean Lopez] Ms. Lopez, I am a student at IU Law and would like to clarify that the administration is not treating this as a legal issue. While I oppose taking down the tree, I think people who state that there religous freedoms are being stripped and that the holiday will eventually no longer be a national one are mistaken. For one, if a tree isn't a religous symbol, taking it down infringes on no one's free exercise rights. Also, I highly doubt any administration or Congress would denationalize the holiday since it is only the reason for the largest period of retail spending all year. To do so could have devistating effects on the economy. As long as holiday spending is great, there will be a national Christmas holiday. Posted at 05:48 AM CHRISTMAS & BASEBALL [Kathryn Jean Lopez] An interesting take, from an e-mailer: I'd like to respond to the "Ban Christmas" concern, if I might. To the glee and comfort I'm sure of all, the federal holiday of Christmas will not be banned. Posted at 05:44 AM STUDENTS PROTEST IN IRAN [Kathryn Jean Lopez] Posted at 01:19 AM ROCKY AND ME [Dave Kopel] My latest media column looks at implausible claims made by supporters of redundant legislation on identity theft. Plus, the disgraceful Associated Press story whitewashing Paul Robeson's love of Stalin and hatred of America Posted at 12:10 AM Sunday, December 07, 2003 MARX & NPR [Tim Graham] In the car last night, I departed from the norm and listened to NPR's "Prairie Home Companion" to hear the generally insufferable Garrison Keillor broadcasting from New York City instead of St. Paul. He featured composer/singer Randy Newman brandishing his liberal oeuvre. It was an NPR crowd, laughing and cheering as Newman sang "The World Isn't Fair," whose lyrics sympathize with Karl Marx about how "we care" the world isn't fair. There's a few moments of self-deprecating wit about how capitalism allows froggish men to have trophy wives, but it's generally carrying that college virus that Marx has "never really been tried." The lyrics are here. PS: The crowd also whooped its way through the Newman song "Political Science," which mocks peace-through-strength conservatism as an appetite for nuclear destruction. Its money line is "Let's drop the big one and see what happens." Posted at 11:16 PM THE GOOD OLD DAYS? [Andrew Stuttaford] Ostalgie, nostalgia for the East German dictatorship, a phenomenon that is part kitsch, part ignorance and all stupidity, is something that disgraces modern Germany. Here’s a corrective, the tale of a 14 year old locked up for playfully (if unwisely) fooling with a picture of Stalin. Her reward? “In three East German prisons, including a former Nazi concentration camp, she was repeatedly raped, starved and beaten. Finally she was forced to endure a mock mass extermination in a gas chamber.” “In the book, [the author] describes how, as a teenager in the East German town of Muhlhausen, she was bemused to see a portrait of Stalin hanging in her school, in exactly the same place that Hitler's portrait had hung only a few months earlier.” Just the right place for it, I would think. Bastards. Posted at 05:36 PM SOCK BOMBERS? [Andrew Stuttaford] Depressing story from today’s Sunday Telegraph . Another reason, I fear, for airline passengers to keep a close eye on their fellow travelers. Posted at 05:34 PM ECUSA [John Derbyshire] Some fine polemic on the crisis from the unlikely named but staunch defender of the faith, David Virtue. Posted at 05:34 PM JUNK FOOD JOE [Andrew Stuttaford] Here’s a blogger who’s not impressed by Holy Joe Lieberman’s crusade against ‘junk’ food: "...between a president who's declared a war on terror and a candidate who has declared war on jelly donuts, I know which one I'll choose." Ha ha ha. Posted at 05:32 PM OP-ED OF THE DAY [John Derbyshire] From the ever-dependable Kevin Myers, writing in the London Sunday Telegraph. Kev is writing about the current summit of the ludicrous "British Commonwealth" going on in Abuja, Nigeria. Posted at 05:29 PM MAD DOCTORS [Andrew Stuttaford] Not to be outdone by the prohibitionist thugs at The Lancet , the lunatics at the British Medical Association, an organization that has long since ceased to serve any useful purpose, have now come up with the (oh so brilliant) idea to price smokers out of their (already expensive) habit. Fortunately, the British Health Secretary has told these busybodies just where, exactly, they can shove their stethoscopes: ”To say that people don't understand the health risks associated with smoking when on every single pack there are enormous health warnings, I just find that unbelievable.” Well said. Posted at 05:26 PM GRAYDON CARTER IS RIGHT [Andrew Stuttaford] It’s normally pretty difficult to feel much sympathy for Vanity Fair’s popinjay editor, Graydon Carter, a modishly liberal commentator as vapid as his magazine is glossy, but this story might just do the trick: According to the Sunday Telegraph, Carter “has accused Mr Bloomberg of harassment after the mayor's tobacco stormtroopers - inspectors from the city's health department - raided the magazine's Times Square building no fewer than three times, aiming to catch Mr Carter smoking illegally. “During the most recent raid, both Mr Carter and his cigarettes were out of the office, but the inspectors noticed the unused ashtray. They issued an immediate ticket and fined Conde Nast - the parent company of Vanity Fair - $200 (£120). Mr Carter has consistently ridiculed Mr Bloomberg's laws, which ban smoking in all bars, restaurants and public gathering places, in addition to all offices or anywhere people are employed. “Ashtrays are also outlawed lest they encourage people to smoke. Of 2,300 summonses issued since the Bloomberg Law came into force in May, more than 200 have been for "ashtray violations".” What a contemptible little law, and what a contemptible little mayor. Posted at 01:19 PM OKLAHOMA LOSES, LSU WINS [Rod Dreher] What hath God wrought? Geaux Tigers! Posted at 12:02 PM RE: HEMMINGS OBIT [John Derbyshire] Andrew: Telegraph obits are always a good read, but this was well above par. I was rather taken with this paragraph: "Hemmings was nine when he first sang for Benjamin Britten. For three years he toured in The Turn Of The Screw, until his voice finally broke during a high aria on stage at the Champs Elysee Theatre in Paris. His understudy had been waiting, in full costume, throughout these three years, and was brought on after a brief interlude; alas, his voice broke three days later." Posted at 12:01 PM POOR GISCARD [Rick Brookhiser] Andrew being our house expert on UFOlogy, his judgment of Giscard's looks carries special weight. Is Estaing some life-sustaining planet in the Crab Nebula? Posted at 12:00 PM RE: KERRY'S PROFANE BANTER [Tim Graham] Could this be another "JFK" copycat move? In his 1977 book It Didn't Start With Watergate, Victor Lasky wrote about the hypocrisy of some who insisted President Nixon's strings of expletives on the White House tapes was shocking, but John F. Kennedy was known for a little profane pal talk with supportive reporters. Page 13: "Thus while seeking the presidential nomination in early 1960, he confided to a few Newsweek staffers how he intended to run in the forthcoming primaries: 'Well, I'm going to f---ing take Ohio, for starters.' That line did not appear in print in 1960." Posted at 11:59 AM JOHN PODHORETZ? HERE? [Peter Robinson ] Now that you’ve joined us in this happy Corner, John, perhaps you're ready to recant your attack of this past autumn on Derb, Rick Brookhiser and yours truly for daring to discuss... poetry. I mean, really, is it all that many steps from "I bid you stand, men of the West!" to "Horatius at the Bridge?" Then out spake brave Horatius, The Captain of the Gate: "To every man upon this earth Death cometh soon or late. And how can man die better Than facing fearful odds, For the ashes of his fathers, And the temples of his Gods?" While we all await a reply from Brother Podhoretz, I will add only, Take that, Viggo Mortensen. Posted at 11:57 AM GREAT (WHOLESOME! ) CHILDREN'S BOOKS YOU MUST GIVE THIS CHRISTMAS! [Jack Fowler] Catholic Parent magazine raved about The National Review Treasury of Classic Children's Literature thusly: It's "excellent, wholesome, and certain to broaden the horizons (mental and spiritual) of children and adults who love them." And: This "beautiful book of wonderful children's stories by great writers that will delight, entertain and nourish your youngsters and teenagers. Described by the publishers as 'a happy voyage back to the golden era of children's literature,' it is precisely that." And one final glowing comment: it's "lavishly illustrated." The very same goes for our new titles, The National Review Treasury of Classic Children's Literature, Volume Two and The National Review Treasury of Classic Bedtime Stories. All three books are precisely the kind of gifts you should give this Christmas to those special kids in your life. Don't delay; order your copies (securely!) here: We ship them for FREE, and by UPS Ground if you want (for a small extra charge). We'll even send them as gifts with a handsome announcement card at no extra cost! (Of course, there is an alternative to our books: you can always send one of those awful, cheesy toys--you know, the ones kids stop playing with after 5 minutes!--as a gift. On second thought, that's really no alternative!) Posted at 11:50 AM RE: WINTER WONDERLAND [Kathryn Jean Lopez] A clergyman in Maine has a much better perspective on the snow than I do (I needed to read that after an early-morning shovelling session!): The snow had just started falling here in southern Maine when I got up at 7. At 10 I went out to the store to get a few things my wife said we were short of, and the wind was blowing fairly hard, stinging exposed flesh with hard-driven flakes. Posted at 05:31 AM I LOVED [Kathryn Jean Lopez] how SNL made fun of Iowa stations not running the Sharpton show for fear of equal-time violations. Also, it was perfect how the Rev. said in his monologue that he wouldn't apologize for his past. Take that, Steven Pagones, eh? Freddie's Fashion Mart, forever proud! The low-blow award of the night goes to Tina Fey, though, for her nasty second-grade Linda Tripp slam. Posted at 05:16 AM |
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