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 Saturday, February 9
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HAPPY V-DAY [Kathryn J. Lopez]
Brace yourselves: Valentine's Day is this coming week and so, if you haven’t noticed already, Eve Ensler and her Vagina Monologues are seemingly everywhere. This year Ensler contends that ''Afghanistan Is Everywhere,'' and through her activism will rid the world of violence against women by the year 2005. Despite her goal, however, she has been leading some of the most prominent anti-war protests. "We can bomb rubble," she tells a NYTimes reporter, "but we can't stop women from being raped?" How curious--how we were to stop the Taliban from oppressing women without sending our military to Afghanistan.
Posted
8:24 PM | [Link]
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SUPER-SIZE DEAL [Kathryn J. Lopez]
Earlier this week, the Smithsonian passed up a gift of $38 million because they’re not into celebrating individual achievement. But the Smithsonian does not pass up every moneymaker. Despite protests from groups with nutritional concerns, the Air & Space Museum, the most popular of the Smithsonian museums, will replace it’s (awful) cafeteria with a McDonald’s.
Posted
8:24 PM | [Link]
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AIN’T SO BAD FOR MILO [Kathryn J. Lopez]
Slobodan Milosevic sooths himself with Frank Sinatra’s "My Way," in his Dutch prison cell, according to a Reuters report. He’s also got a satellite television, Mr. Coffee, and "en-suite shower." "He is free to spend the day wandering around the communal areas of his wing, to cook a meal in the shared kitchen, play cards and chess with other detainees, exercise in the gym or take a stroll in the exercise yard, which he favors." And, of course, there are conjugal visits from his wife in an "intimacy room"--they were "teenage sweethearts." International justice is just ruthless. Somehow I can’t see the Serbs putting a TV--or much of anything else--in his cell.
Posted
5:00 PM | [Link]
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FYI [Jonah]
I will be on CNN's Reliable Sources tonight 6:30 PM EST. Also, I will be on "Late Edition With Wolf Blitzer" tomorrow at 2:30 PM EST. Both times I plan on being fully-clothed.
Posted
4:42 PM | [Link]
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PRINCESS MARGARET [Andrew Stuttaford]
It's a Brit thing, I know, but it's difficult not to feel sorry for the Queen today. The death of her only sister, Princess Margaret, this morning comes almost fifty years to the day after the tragically early death of her father, George VI. Margaret herself was a complex and, by all accounts, sometimes difficult character. Nevertheless, it is worth remembering that, back in the 1950s, she gave up her relationship with the man who was probably the love of her life on the grounds that he had a previous marriage. Marrying a divorced man, it was felt, would be damaging to the monarchy. Times have changed, not least in the House of Windsor, and it is easy to imagine that the events of later years must have made the princess feel that her sacrifice was pointless. RIP.
Posted
2:00 PM | [Link]
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P.S. [Kathryn J. Lopez] They pay me to read this stuff. But I have exceeded my Vogue quota, have no fear.
Posted
1:43 PM | [Link]
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ONE LAST THING [Kathryn J. Lopez]
A friend of Sex in the City's Sarah Jessica Parker tells Vogue: "She’s really shy about talking about sex or anything like that." Yeah, I bet she considered voting against Hillary, too.
Posted
1:42 PM | [Link]
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AN EARLY LEFT [Kathryn J. Lopez]
The aforementioned Sarah Jessica Parker was a child actress and has been Left from the start. She explains to Vogue that even starring in Annie, working with Bob Hope as a kid, wasn’t all that cool. She says, "I guess it was pretty exciting, but even at age twelve I knew he was a Republican."
Posted
1:41 PM | [Link]
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SARAH JESSICA PUNDIT [Kathryn J. Lopez]
In case you were wondering, celebrities still think people care what they think about politics and it is still uber-chic to be anti-GOP. In an interview with Vogue, trend-setter Sarah Jessica Parker assesses the war thus far: "I don’t have a doctorate in foreign policy, but it seems to me that this war is all about the Middle East. Despite my feelings about Bush, this war is seemingly successful and the Dow is up, but, I don’t know…." Someone call Greta’s booker!
What’s amazing is she never even had to tell the interviewer what her feelings on Bush are. They are never mentioned in the piece. It’s just understood. Because how could you have any other feelings? We stars all think the same.
Posted
1:38 PM | [Link]
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NO COMMENT [Kathryn J. Lopez]
This is Sex and the City’s executive producer, Michael Patrick King, on September 11, as written up Vogue:
I thought, What do we do? Is the show over? Am I over? Then I went to dinner. I went shopping at Jeffrey. I kept on going even when I could smell the buildings burning. We want to live!" King--who seems more Carrie than Carrie [the show’s main character]--sees no real trouble ahead. "The show has always reflected the city, with a glossier or sadder edge. The season coming up will reflect the city as we know it, whether that’s with a Dior gas mask or whatever.
Posted
1:24 PM | [Link]
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BROOMSTICK BRIGADES [Andrew Stuttaford]
Rod, without knowing all the details of the case that you cite in Hawaii, it is quite likely that the Satanist will prevail. After all, there have been at least a couple of occasions in recent years when "Wiccans" (witches) have established the right to wear their symbols at schools here on the American mainland. In a probably vain attempt to avert any angry spells being hurled in my direction, I should quickly note that most believers in Wicca will tell you that their creed is benign. It has, they say, nothing to do with Satanism. That may well be true (I'm no theologian). Nevertheless, in a legal environment where commonsense has long since disappeared, it's easy to see how the tolerance extended to the broomstick brigade will set a useful precedent for the Devil's advocates as they work their way through the Hawaiian courts.
Posted
1:22 PM | [Link]
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POT SPOT [Andrew Stuttaford]
As someone who supports the legalization of marijuana, I am in favor of allowing it for medicinal purposes. Nevertheless, check out the picture on page A10 of today's NY Times (NYC Edition) for an example of how medical-marijuana advocates are sometimes their own worst enemies when it comes to winning over the skeptics on the other side.
Posted
1:22 PM | [Link]
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SHOW OF HANDS [Jonah]
Who thinks Weekends in the Corner should be Catholic-scandal free?
Posted
10:38 AM | [Link]
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ON THE FRENCH: [Kathryn J. Lopez] Um, Jonah, Rod. You guys think the Friday G-File made people mad? Please just don't start cheering them on for golds.
Posted
9:41 AM | [Link]
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LIARS: [Dreher] This morning, the Boston Herald reports that in at least three cases, the Archdiocese of Boston reassigned to parish work priests with whom it had settled sexual abuse lawsuits -- this in violation of terms of the settlements, under which the Church promised victims these priests would never work in parish ministry again. Isn't this against the law, for God's sake? Shouldn't the administrators responsible for this go to jail, even if they're a bishop or cardinal? Does anybody out there believe that this is just a Boston problem?
Posted
9:36 AM | [Link]
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87: [Dreher] Yesterday, the Archdiocese of Boston turned over to police the names of 49 more priests who have had, in the judgment of archdiocesan officials, "substantial" allegations of sexual abuse against them. This brings the eight-day total to 87 names of priests provided to Boston authorities. This is nearly nine percent -- nine percent! -- of the entire Boston presbyterate. Put another way, by the Church's own reckoning, there is "substantial" reason to believe that one in 10 Catholic priests in Boston is a sex abuser. And the search of the Church's records hasn't ended yet. Keep in mind, too, that these are only the priests against which the Church has received substantial allegations; there may be more whose victims have never made an official complaint with Church authorities. I'm sorry if I seem obsessed by this story, but I've got non-Catholic friends and family members asking me these days, in all charity, if I was considering leaving the Church, if only for the safety of my son. Not a chance, I say; the Truth was established upon this Rock. But it's a profoundly humiliating to be asked, and to realize that hey, I don't blame them, I'd wonder the same thing if I were on the outside.
Posted
8:43 AM | [Link]
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Friday, February 8
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ON SECOND THOUGHT: [Dreher] The show got a lot better, didn't it? Even though there was a certain "Stool Boom!" (from "Waiting for Guffman") shlocky pageantry to the thing, there were, in the end, some pretty amazing moments. And NONE more satisfying than seeing the aforementioned Mr. Eruzione and his 1980 teammates lighting the Olympic flame. If only -- if only! -- someone would have hoisted that smarmy Little Lost Child aloft and tossed him onto the pyre. Oh well, you can't have everything. Let the games begin! (P.S., Is it just me, or has Jim McKay turned into Grampa Simpson?)
Posted
11:42 PM | [Link]
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DISSENT IN THE RANKS [Jonah]
I've been amazed by the response to today's column. Most feedback has been positive, but a sizable minority of normally friendly fans have been pretty angry. Here's a good example:
"Regarding your Friday column: Yuck!
What exactly was the point of your vapid, silly, commentary? It was entirely incoherent, and I am, in general, a fan.
P.S. You need to get our more. I live an affluent, suburban lifestyle, but through just the most nominal volunteering in my community have experienced a horrifying level of economic need in working families here in San Diego. Worst hit are the children who really are poor, who really are hungry, who really don't have adequate clothing or shelter. Get off the couch and go help some people. Today's column made you sound like a pig."
Posted
9:55 PM | [Link]
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YEAH, YEAH. THE FRENCH ATHLETES ARE OK [Jonah]
Not, every single Frenchie runs in terror at the sound of a German accent either. Though, I'm curious to see how close they get to the German bi-athletes (they carry guns).
Posted
9:53 PM | [Link]
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JONAH, AVERT YOUR EYES: [Dreher] You will not normally hear me say this, without a glass of wine in my hand, but here it is: "VIVE LA FRANCE!" I'm watching the French athletes parade in, and they're waving double-sided flags. On one side is the Tricolor, on the other are the Stars and Stripes. Yes, Jonah, they're cheese-eating surrender monkeys, but this claret-swilling tinpot gourmand will forgive the French everything on the slightest pretense.
Posted
9:47 PM | [Link]
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SUBLIME TO RIDICULOUS: [Dreher] It's time for Winter Olympics Blogs! Man oh Manischewitz, was that not a Moment when President Bush walked out, followed by the World Trade Center flag? When TV cut to the American troops in Kandahar standing up for the "Star-Spangled Banner," I lost it. I'd just as soon have turned off the opening ceremonies after the president left, and watched a tape of the 1980 Olympic Hockey Final (Mike Eruzione is *still* the bomb!). I think it is metaphysically impossible for the "artistic portion" of the opening ceremony to be anything but asinine. I thought the Tinseled Skating Sasquatches were cool, but the Little Lost Child business was sooooo cheesy. The Space KKK Robots chased the little dude, and then Ziggy Stardust, who in real life named his son "Blade," saved him. Help, I'm swimming in fondue!
Posted
9:39 PM | [Link]
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HEAVEN HELP US [Kathryn J. Lopez] This goes in the ever-expanding "things have not really changed since Sept. 11th" file: 51-year-old VOLUNTARY Bible class in Tenn. elementary school killed by a judge and a lawsuit from some "Freedom from Religion" group.
Posted
8:45 PM | [Link]
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NITWIT DU JOUR: [Dreher] From the Moral Idiocy File, a Satanist who works for a public school in Hawaii has filed a complaint with the state attorney general, protesting a school policy forbidding clothing promoting devil-worship. The employee has found support among at least one student, 10th-grade philosopher Ashley Williams, who reasons, "If people are allowed to wear bracelets that say: 'What Would Jesus Do,' they should be allowed to say: 'What would Satan do.'" Presumably when the Hitler Youth show up at pep rallies in swastika drag, Miss Williams will opine, "If people are allowed to wear shirts that say 'Gore-Lieberman 2000,' they should be allowed to say 'Hitler is Totally Awesome.'"
Posted
7:24 PM | [Link]
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ONEIL Vs. BYRD CONT'D [Jonah Goldberg]
A reader thinks I missed the point in my column about Byrd Vs. O’Neill. Here’s part of his objection:
"The great thing about that public conversation (I watched it on the BBC.) was the fact that it could happen at all. Here are (arguably) two of the most successful Americans alive today arguing over their humble beginnings. They are both living proof that anybody can succeed in this country.
In many parts of the world, the "better" classes would be loath to admit that they even had poor relatives, let alone a history of poverty themselves. But we buried nobility with the Constitution."
Actually, I don’t disagree with that. But it wasn’t what I was going for.
Posted
5:39 PM | [Link]
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RED HOT GENEVA CONVENTION COMMENTARY!!!: [Rich Lowry]
For those interested in my ongoing series, everything you never wanted to know about the Geneva Convention, check out my latest post.
Posted
4:55 PM | [Link]
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CATO AT WAR, THE PREQUEL: [John J. Miller]
Sheer unpersuasiveness is apparently a specialty of Ivan Eland's, Ramesh. You will recall the item we wrote about his response to President Bush's missile-defense speech last year.
Posted
3:50 PM | [Link]
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CATO AT WAR [Ramesh Ponnuru]
I'm a little behind in reading through my Cato Institute press releases, so I'm only now reading the post-State of the Union statement by its director of defense policy studies, Ivan Eland. He thinks it's a mistake for Bush to expand the war on terrorism. The line that really stands out, for sheer unpersuasiveness, is this one: "What if North Korea, Iran or Iraq have already sent intelligence operatives or terrorists to the United States with weapons of mass destruction to lie in wait in case a strike is needed in retaliation for a U.S. attempt at regime change?" Now there's an argument for leaving those countries alone.
Posted
2:19 PM | [Link]
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COVERING THE SPECTRUM FROM A TO, WELL, ALMOST B: [Jonah Goldberg]
In a piece about the "War on Boys" in Salon, Amy Benfer offers this howler:
"While the girl empowerment campaign united women from very different backgrounds and philosophies -- academics like Carol Gilligan, popular writers like Mary Pipher, journalists like Anna Quindlen and Peggy Orenstein, political organizations like the National Organization of Women and researchers in the American Association of University Women -- there is nowhere near this kind of unity in the movement to help boys."
"Very different backgrounds and philosophies"? You mean the National Organization of Women and the American Association of University Women actually found common ground with each other? Carol Gilligan and Anna Quindlen? Good Lord, that’s amazing. If such "diverse" groups can get together there’s still hope for the Israelis and Palestinians.
Posted
12:18 PM | [Link]
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RICH, I DON'T BELIEVE YOU: [Ramesh Ponnuru] . . . when you write that "you hate to say" how banal Sen. Chuck Hagel is. But Hagel does have his fans, notably the McCainiacs. I wonder what their take on the man is now that he's criticizing President Bush for being too tough on the Iranian regime.
Posted
12:14 PM | [Link]
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CORNER AS YORKSHIRE [Kathryn J. Lopez] Rich, Rod, (Sen. Byrd, Sec't O'Neill): You'all missed the funniest part of the Monty Python skit. Check this out:
"Right. I had to get up in the morning at ten o'clock at night, half an hour before I went to bed, eat a lump of cold poison, work twenty-nine hours a day down mill, and pay mill owner for permission to come to work...."
Jonah, is it me, or is this life at NRO?!
Posted
12:11 PM | [Link]
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ENGLISH NOT SPOKEN HERE: [John J. Miller]
Test scores of limited-English students in California have skyrocketed ever since voters passed Ron Unz's Proposition 227 almost four years ago. But now the state board of education--controlled by Gray Davis appointees--is planning to issue a set of regulations that would undermine this crucial reform. Tomorrow the three GOP candidates for governor--Riordan, Simon, and Jones--will debate each other. One of them (or all of them) should pick up on this issue. It would be a great one to use against Davis, especially for Riordan--who was just about the only elected official in California to support 227 when it was on the ballot.
Posted
12:07 PM | [Link]
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SAUDI BLOWBACK: [Rich Lowry]
Here's part of an e-mail I just got from a pro-Saudi expert I talked to for my Saudi piece: "Other than that, your criticism about the Saudis is true, but so what. They are corrupt, yes indeed and so. They adhere to a puritanical interpretation of Islam, yes indeed. For you they export terrorism, for me, they don't. And this can go on and on. But at the end, will what you say really have an impact as long as America's Vital Strategic interests are at stake in the stability of the House of Saud? I really, really don't think so."
Posted
11:08 AM | [Link]
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OUT WITH "JONAH": [Rich Lowry]
Jonah, don't know if you caught the bit the other day about the New Jersey marijuana enthusiast who wants to legally change his name to NJweedman.com. What do we have to do to get you to change your name to nationalreview.com?
Posted
11:08 AM | [Link]
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MR. CONVENTIONAL: [Rich Lowry]
I had breakfast, along with some New York poo-bahs, with media-fave Sen. Chuck Hagel this morning. Hate to say it, but it was the most mind-numbingly--almost insultingly--banal performance that I have ever heard from politician.
Posted
11:07 AM | [Link]
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IN CASE YOU WERE WONDERING…[Rich Lowry]…yes, I had insomnia last night.
Posted
11:06 AM | [Link]
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MORE ON "BIAS": [Ramesh Ponnuru]
James Bowman has an excellent review of Goldberg's book, and of the other reviews of it, in the February New Criterion. In TNC, the headline for Bowman's piece is "The charges & countercharges of self-righteous prigs." I like the title Jim uses on his website better.
Posted
10:47 AM | [Link]
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"BIAS": [Ramesh Ponnuru]
Al Neuharth's latest USA Today column is even more embarrassing than usual: It's an attack on Bernard Goldberg's bestselling book on media bias. Neuharth claims that "there is a huge difference between occasional sloppy journalism and the deliberate liberal bias that Goldberg 'exposes.'" I haven't read the book, but every other review I've read notes that Goldberg explicitly denies a deliberate
conspiracy of liberals to present biased news--he just thinks the media is helplessly biased. Neuharth also writes that based on his "longtime acquaintance with each," Peter Jennings, Dan Rather, and Tom Brokaw are all fair. Well if Neuharth says so, I guess that settles it.
Posted
10:43 AM | [Link]
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MORE O'NEILL: [Jonah Goldberg]
One last thing Ramesh, Rod, Rich (the 3 Rs). Why it should fall to me make this point I don't know. But can we at least nod that there is no shame to being born rich. I wasn't born wealthy, but I want my kids to be. O'Neill took offense at the suggestion he was born to money. Well, should he be ashamed of his kids? After all they're nominal millionaires. Sure, wealth can breed bad habits in people. But so can poverty. That's just one of the reasons most rapists, drug dealers and robbers are born poor, not rich. You could look it up.
Posted
10:40 AM | [Link]
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THE WAX DOESN'T LIE [Andrew Stuttaford]
Something of a setback today for Britain's new Conservative leader, Iain Duncan-Smith. The London Times is reporting that Madame Tussaud's is not going to include him in the display of current political figures featured at their site in the British capital. Apparently the somewhat understated (let's be kind) Tory boss is too "lifeless" to be worth rendering in wax.
Posted
10:28 AM | [Link]
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IN DEFENSE OF O’NEILL: [Ramesh Ponnuru]
I’ve criticized the Treasury secretary before, and I agree with Rich and Rod that there was an absurd quality to his exchange with Senator Byrd. But how satisfying it was to see someone stand up to the bullying blowhard from West Virginia—and especially to find a way to allude to the senator’s past membership in the KKK, for which he gets off way too easily. And since Byrd had been lecturing him about his insensitivity to the non-poor, why shouldn’t O’Neill have gone autobiographical in response?
That said, I still think O’Neill should go.
Posted
10:20 AM | [Link]
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I BEG YOUR PARDON [Kathryn J. Lopez] This morning's Washington Post criticizes President Bush for not using the pardon power--for not being merciful, in its telling--during his first year in office. While they admit that Clinton didn't either in his freshman year and that he, in fact, "disgraced himself with a raft of last-minute pardons to politically connected convicts,” the Post, however, fails to explain why during his first year it didn’t criticize the previous president for not using the pardon.
Posted
9:53 AM | [Link]
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SIX MORE: [ Rod Dreher] The Boston Globe reports today that the Boston archdiocese has removed from their posts six more priests against whom sex abuse allegations have been made in the past. The archdiocesan spokeswoman said these names were discovered in an ongoing review of personnel records. Funny, but Cardinal Bernard Law has twice before -- in 1993, and last month -- assured the public that all such priests had already been removed. But it wasn't true. Turns out that two of the six removed yesterday were living in church rectories, and the pastors of those parishes had not been told of the allegations against their clerical guests. Like I keep saying, not only the laity but innocent priests are also being betrayed by episcopal malfeasance.
Posted
9:46 AM | [Link]
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YOU TALKING TO ME? [Jonah Goldberg]
Glenn Reynolds of InstaPundit raises a great point. Who is Congress to be lecturing the Enron execs? Don’t get me wrong, if Skilling & Co. broke the law they should go to jail – and they probably will. But spare me the righteous indignation. Look at the crimes involved. Moving debt off-books? Um, Congress is the Valhalla of un-funded liabilities. Accounting gimmicks? Can you say "lock box." Arrogant disregard for the common man? Congress writes laws for the whole country and exempts itself from them. And, let us not forget, the Federal Government doesn’t raise its money from the equity markets, it does it by threatening to kill or imprison people. I’m sorry, but if GE were run by Congress it would be a penny stock (or the Mafia).
Posted
9:46 AM | [Link]
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INVESTIGATING BELLESILES [Melissa Seckora] Emory University has initiated a formal investigation of history professor Michael Bellesiles and his book Arming America. Last fall Emory had requested that Professor Bellesiles give a "point-by-point" response to his critics. At that time, Emory also said that if there is ''prima facie evidence of scholarly misconduct, the university has to conduct a thorough investigation.'' Apparently, the university must think they have a case. Stay tuned to NRO for developments.
Posted
9:38 AM | [Link]
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"FOUR YORKSHIREMEN": [Rod Dreher] Rich: Yes, my liege, you did see that on Monty Python. It's a skit called ''Four Yorkshiremen," and it's my very favorite Python routine. It has a quartet of well-off geezers trying to one-up each other in their humble beginnings. Excerpt:
"I was happier then, and I had nothin'. We used to live in this tiiiny old house, with greaaaat big holes in the roof."
"House? You were lucky to have a house! We used to live in one room, all hundred and twenty-six of us, no furniture. Half the floor was missing; we were all huddled together in one corner for fear of falling!
"You were lucky to have a room! We used to have to live in a corridor!"
"Ohhh, we used to dream of livin' in a corridor. Woulda' been a palace to us... ."
Et cetera. What a disgraceful exchange that was between pompous old Byrd and weepy O'Neill (I hate to see a grown man cry). And why was O'Neill prattling on like a Sensitive New Age Guy about "human potential"? Made my skin crawl.
Posted
9:09 AM | [Link]
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MORNING IN AMERICA [Kathryn J. Lopez] Remember “safe, legal, and rare”? It is so gone. A Republican White House has managed to make honest women out of abortion advocates. Earlier this week, when the DOJ announced filed a brief backing Ohio’s partial-birth-abortion ban, “pro-choicers” went berserk—for the second time in a week now. Last week it was because the White House was planning on expanding a federal program to include pre-natal care. This week it is because the federal government dares to support limits on abortion. Contrary to what the women squealing would admit, the Ohio ban even includes a health exception. What more can the pro-choicers want? Oh yes, no limits. So much for rare. So much for safe. Isn’t honesty refreshing?
Posted
7:51 AM | [Link]
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AFGHAN ART: [John J. Miller]
An important faction of the art world insists that countries retain ownership of native cultural artifacts, e.g. returning the Elgin Marbles from the British Museum to Greece. When a third-world country is involved, it often lays a heavy guilt trip on the (usually) American or European institution housing its cultural treasure with silly talk about "cultural imperialism" and so forth. There's already a movement afoot to return Afghan art to Afghanistan. But isn't the example of Afghanistan powerful evidence against this practice?
Posted
7:11 AM | [Link]
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DIDN’T I SEE THIS ON MONTY PYTHON ONCE?: [Rich Lowry]
Amazing exchange between Paul O’Neill and Sen. Byrd yesterday:
"`I started my life in a house without water or electricity,’ said O'Neill, who grew up in a low-income St. Louis, Mo., household. `So I don't cede to you the high moral ground of not knowing what life is like in a ditch.’
"‘Well, Mr. Secretary, I lived in a house without electricity too, no running water, no telephone, a little wooden outhouse,’ said Byrd, who was raised by his aunt and uncle in West Virginia's coal country."
If I’m not mistaken, didn’t Orrin Hatch talk in one of the GOP primary debates about living for a time in a converted chicken coop?
Posted
3:57 AM | [Link]
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THE CAMPAIGN-FINANCE SCANDAL GROWS: [Rich Lowry]
E.J. Dionne in Washington Post today cites a study that explodes the awful truth behind the current campaign-finance system. Some people out there—and you know who you are--are trying to influence elections: "the overwhelming majority of the ads run by outside groups in the two months before Election Day were designed not to make a case about an issue but to elect or defeat a particular candidate." This must be stopped!
Posted
3:56 AM | [Link]
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"A QUAGMIRE OF GLOBAL SCALE": [Rich Lowry]
Guess what? The next phase of the global war on terrorism is already a "quagmire," according to Michael Kinsley. Never mind that we don’t even know what exactly it is yet. My only question: Is Johnny Apple going to be upset that Kinsley got to the Q-word first?
Posted
3:55 AM | [Link]
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Thursday, February 7
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BOOB RETRACTION [Jonah Goldberg]
Turns out the killer boob story was too good to be true. Still kids don't try any of that at home.
Posted
5:57 PM | [Link]
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SEX ON THE TUBE [Kathryn J. Lopez]
I really hate racy TV but maybe I have been hanging at the CATO too much because I’m not too keen on petitioning the FCC to crack down on the likes of FOX’s Boston Public. Recent Boston Public episodes, family groups point out, have included storylines about a female candidate for class president performing oral sex on a male opponent in exchange for his support, a student earning extra cash by working as a stripper, and a prolonged affair between a teacher and a student. None of that has any business being on network TV at 8pm. Whatever happened to a voluntary, every-body-does-it family hour? The FCC shouldn’t be mandating one, but the networks should be shamed into it.
Posted
5:47 PM | [Link]
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DECLARING WAR: [Ramesh Ponnuru]
Michael Kinsley suggests that Bush should get a declaration of war before taking action against Iraq. I'm agnostic on the question, leaning toward agreement. But I am struck that Bush's purely partisan interest would counsel getting Congress on record. People like Paul Wellstone would presumably feel compelled--by their most fervent supporters if not by their own consciences--to vote no, and that vote would probably not play well with the electorate at large (which has consistently supported war with Iraq since the attacks). I'd bet that Congress would back Bush--it's even possible a majority of Democrats would. But there would be many who wouldn't, and--at least if the vote were taken before November this year--the party would suffer the consequences.
Posted
5:33 PM | [Link]
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I.C.K: [Dreher] Brian Barcaro, editor of the conservative Catholic news and commentary website diocesereport.com, points out that the Society of St. John is not the only traditionalist RC order dealing with gay sex allegations within its ranks. Fr. Timothy Svea, 38, of the Institute of Christ the King Sovereign, was
arrested last month on charges that he handcuffed a 16-year-old boy to his bed and took sexual liberties with him. The Institute appears to have done the right thing, and suspended Svea immediately. I.C.K. claims it had no reason to believe the priest had a problem of this kind. No word on where the accused priest is now. A close friend of mine, a Church traditionalist, was a big admirer of the accused priest's, and even took him to dinner once. He's taking this news hard.
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5:17 PM | [Link]
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INTERESTING WAY TO GO: [Jonah Goldberg]
If your fiancé is going to kill you for going to a strip club anyway, this is about as good a way to go as any other.
Posted
5:13 PM | [Link]
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IS THE MOOSE AN ISSUE AD? [Jonah Goldberg]
Recall the New York primary when the nefarious Wyly brothers funded diabolical "issue ads" attacking John McCain. At the time the goody-goody corps was scandalized. Senator McCain railed: "We ask governor Bush to tell his sleazy Texas buddies to stop these negative ads. Take your money back to Texas where it belongs." The editors of the New York Times declared that "the secret sponsorship" of these ads "cries out for investigation." Well, I’ve been poking around the Project for Conservative Reform and I’ll be damned if I can figure out who pays for its regular pro-McCain and anti-GOP establishment diatribes. Would campaign finance reform spell the end of the Moose?
Posted
5:09 PM | [Link]
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THOSE TOLERANT MUSLIMS: [Dreher] Seems that some Peace-Loving Muslims have run afoul of the Los Angeles public school authorities. An Islamic foundation donated Korans to the schools in a post-9/11 attempt to encourage tolerance and understanding. The Korans were just yanked because the foundation included in the Korans its own grossly anti-Semitic commentary.
Posted
4:47 PM | [Link]
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TOP TEN -- THE RESULTS ARE IN!: [Dreher] Thanks to all those NRO readers who participated in the contest, which was inspired by NYC Mayor Bloomberg's goofy idea to pay for the upkeep of parks and landmarks by selling corporations naming rights. The votes are in, and I can now reveal that the Top Ten Worst New Corporate Names for New York Landmarks are:
10. Comedy Central Park
9. Bic Penn Station (also: Pilot Penn Station)
8. The Chase Manhattan Bridge.
7. Madison Guaranty Square Garden ("in honor of New York's junior senator," the reader writes)
6. The Ralph Lauren Polo Grounds.
5. The Google-heim Museum.
4. Western Union Square.
3. Energizer Battery Park (also, Duracell Battery Park).
2. Ground NetZero.
And the No. 1 Worst New Corporate Name for a New York City Landmark is: THE STATUE OF LIBERTY MUTUAL.
Posted
3:05 PM | [Link]
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RIGHT ON [Andrew Stuttaford]
I suppose that NRO types shouldn't fill up the Corner praising each other, but if you want to see the spirit of conservatism summed up in one half-sentence check out this quote from John Derbyshire's piece on NRO today: "It's in the nature of dreams to end in tears...."
How splendidly bleak.
Posted
2:39 PM | [Link]
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MATERNAL WISDOM: [Jonah Goldberg]
Well Rich, my mom just reminded me that the President did say we should fear the "Axes of Evil."
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2:15 PM | [Link]
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AX FOLLOW-UP: [Rich Lowry]
Jonah--it was just that sort of color that was missing from your airport-day-in-hell piece for us. Forget smuggling nail clippers. You should have tried to force a cock-pit door.
Posted
2:00 PM | [Link]
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OUCH: [Rich Lowry]
Check it out. Guy got hit in head with an ax, when he tried to force his way into a cockpit.
Posted
1:59 PM | [Link]
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CHEW THIS [Andrew Stuttaford] Here's something to chew over. Yesterday's WSJ reported that UST, inc., (the makers of Skoal and Copenhagen) has asked the FTC for permission to advertise its chaw as being a possibly safer way to consume tobacco than smoking. Naturally this raises some health issues. The Journal touches on these, but a more detailed discussion can be found in NR alumnus Jacob Sullum's For Your Own Good, the best book there is on the anti-tobacco jihad.
Chewing tobacco comes with some nasty health risks (oral cancer, primarily), but it is far less dangerous than Joe Camel's alternative. There isn't even any passive smoke to complain about. Jacob cites data showing that if all U.S. smokers switched to chewing tobacco the death rate would be an annual 6,000 deaths from oral cancer as opposed to the more than 400,000 deaths a year currently linked to cigarette smoking.
Reducing the death toll by anything approaching that amount would usually be seen as a healthcare triumph, but, as Jacob noted back in 1998, the anti-tobacco establishment wants to have nothing to do with it. Judging by the WSJ report, it still does not. This makes no sense unless one understands that many anti-smoking activists are driven more by their authoritarian impulses than any concern for the health of their fellow citizens. The FTC should ignore these fanatics, and look favorably at the proposed changes, unless like Transportation Secretary Mineta, it wants to put PC principle over public safety.
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1:50 PM | [Link]
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SHAME ON YOU RICH! [Jonah Goldberg]
Rich, you really shouldn't be doing the bidding of the lucre-obsessed suits. Why, just this morning, while snugly ensconced in my ultra-cozy National Review Online fleece pullover , I was thinking that we should maintain the most scrupulous ethical standards possible. Why, I’m sitting here right now, sipping from my stylish cobalt-blue National Review coffee mug thinking, "Rich really shouldn’t be such a sell-out." NRO’s readers expect unimpeachable insight – just like it says on the T-shirt – and nothing else. If you want to, we can discuss this over a beer sometime. I’ll bring the National Review Online Official Flying Monkey Beer Mugs.
Posted
1:25 PM | [Link]
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SHAMLESS SUBSCRIPTION TROLLING (ED CAPANO MAKES ME DO IT!) [Rich Lowry]
Here’s a reader e-mail: “By the way--you will find my name on the NRODT [National Review on Dead Tree] subscriber list. This is a direct result of the excellent work going on at NR Online. Before I started visiting the website, it had never occurred to me subscribe. Now I'm hooked, and I enjoy the magazine very much.” Everyone else should do the same.
[Richardlowry@hotmail.com]
Posted
12:42 PM | [Link]
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FINALLY: THE SWEATIEST MOVIE: [Jonah Goldberg]
Okay, yes: The question of "what was the sweatiest movie ever?" was first raised in the very first episode of Cheers. Now, John Podhoretz and many readers present a very strong case for "A Time to Kill," and I must admit this is a strong contender – and clearly the sweatiest film of the 1990s. "Body Heat" is also a reader favorite, but there are really only two sweaty people in this film, and the sheer tonnage of perspiration is inadequate for anything but an honorable mention. The same holds true for "Angel Heart" and the "Rocky" movies. (Also, porn movies do not count). So, yes, in my humble opinion, as well as most of my readers’ opinions, Cheers had it right all those years ago. The answer is "Cool Hand Luke."
Here’s is my own official list:
10. Angel Heart/Body Heat [Tie]
9. Sorcerer
8. Rambo II
7. Bridge on the River Kwai
6. Twelve Angry Men
5. King Rat
4. Do the Right Thing/ Long Hot Summer [Tie]
3. Papillon/Apocalypse Now [Tie]
2. A Time to Kill
1. Cool Hand Luke
I don’t know if this will end all discussion of this vital topic. But I can assure you it ends my discussion of it for quite some time.
Posted
12:22 PM | [Link]
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THIS IS REFORM?: [Rich Lowry]
The National Right to Life Committee has become one of the most effective advocates against campaign-finance reform, which is why--of course--John McCain denounced it as corrupt during his presidential campaign. Here is just part of a devastating NRLC anlysis of the McCainiac assault on the First Amendment about to be voted on in the House:"Sections 201, 203, and 204 of H.R. 2356 retain the Senate bill's unconstitutional restrictions on broadcast issue ads. The net effect of these provisions is to ban NRLC, NRLC affiliates, and all other 501(c)(4) advocacy corporations (but not PACs) from funding TV or radio ads that even mention the name of a local member of Congress for 30 days before a state's congressional primary, and for another 60 days before the general election (or a runoff election). This restriction applies to any ad that "can be received" by 50,000 or more "persons," including minors, within a district -- which covers nearly any TV or radio ad, since few persons do not possess TVs and radios." For more--and there is much, much more--on this consitutional monstrosity of a bill, check out the website of the James Madison Center for Free Speech at www.jamesmadisoncenter.org. [Richardlowry@hotmail.com]
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11:57 AM | [Link]
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THE MOOSE, EXPLAINED: [Jonah Goldberg]
Rich, I keep getting email from people saying, "Who is this Moose you and Lowry keep talking about?"
Here’s a quick primer for the uninitiated. The "Bull Moose" is the mascot for the Project for Conservative Reform. This is a Teddy Roosevelt-worshipping, McCain-o-phile semi-think tank which pushes very hard for campaign finance reform and the like. It is run, reportedly, by Marshall Wittmann, a former Christian Coalition and Heritage Foundation analyst now with the Hudson Institute. We suspect that Marshall writes the anonymous "Bull Moose" column which regularly denounces the corrupting influence of big money on conservatives and Republicans. Rich and I think this analysis is usually a bunch of Bull (moose) droppings. We’re giving Marshall…er…the Moose a hard time because in the last few weeks the Moose’s heroes – John McCain and Bill Kristol -- have both been revealed to have taken money from Global Crossing and Enron respectively. We think the Moose should, for consistency’s sake, denounce "Big Money" wherever he sees it. So, now you know why we are looking for the Moose. Here Moosey, here Moosey-Moosey…
Posted
11:49 AM | [Link]
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FROM THE MOOSE ARCHIVE: [Jonah Goldberg]
Rich, Good point on Global Crossing. Look what I just found. It’s a piece by Alison Mitchell in the January 13, 2002 New York Times:
".…As the collapse of the energy giant Enron sent the White House into a flurry of damage control last week, trying to distance the Bush administration from the company that had been its generous campaign donor, W. could do worse than follow [Teddy Roosevelt’s] example…. Mr. Bush, like his ebullient predecessor, might call himself the "Trust Buster" and thunder against representatives of "predatory wealth."
Perhaps …Mr. Bush could lambaste the judiciary for failing to stop "the abuses of the criminal rich."
True, the president has never expressed such views, but a few Republicans who believe their party has become too beholden to corporate interests were hoping Mr. Bush might seize the moment to remake himself….
"My sense is his one vulnerability is that the administration is too beholden to big money," said Marshall Wittmann, a conservative maverick who uses the logo of a Bull Moose (as T.R. did as an independent presidential candidate, running on the Bull Moose ticket) on the Web page of his Project for Conservative Reform.
Posted
11:43 AM | [Link]
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THE RETURN OF...: [Rich Lowry]
...the $700 toilet seat. You could just feel it coming with Bush's proposed proposed defense increase, and sure enough a couple of defense-policy weenies raise it in a New York Times op-ed today complaining about defense waste. I hate government waste as much as anyone, but as Don Rumsfeld unfortunately proved last year, it is nearly impossible to rationalize the defense budget. It sadly makes more sense just throw money at the Pentagon, on the theory that you will be able to fund some good programs along with all the stupid outdated pork-barrel weapons programs.
Posted
11:31 AM | [Link]
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THE RETURN OF...: [Rich Lowry]
... "racial insensitivity." It's the charge that liberals make when they can't actually accuse someone of being a racist. It's a smear that achieved its full flower during the Ashcroft confirmation fight. Now it's back in the Pickering confirmation fight, courtesy of among others Bob Herbert in the New York Times this morning. It's a wonderful accusation for the Left, since it basically amounts to accusing someone of disagreeing with liberals.
Posted
11:18 AM | [Link]
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MORE ON OSAMA’S PUBLICIST: [Jonah Goldberg]
The other day I suggested that Al Jazeera spiked its Osama interview because it made him look bad, i.e. like the terrorist he is. After reading Howie Kurtz’s piece today, I’m even more convinced.
Posted
11:15 AM | [Link]
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THE RETURN OF...: [Rich Lowry]
...the Moose? No. The so-called Project for Conservative Reform is still AWOL on John McCain's appearance of corruption in the Global Crossing controversy.
Posted
11:15 AM | [Link]
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THE SOON-TO-END WEST WING CONVERSATION [Kathryn J. Lopez] Jonah, you're are right, Toby did say he'd look over the tolerance language in the end, but you know, just this time, I excuse it. The joke of a corrupted government in the Congo--and the no-holds-barred-nature of that particular story line--along with the right-on words re: Islam were just so unusual for a prime-time show, especially this one, I thought were enough to excuse him possibly just appeasing the congresswomen who was, afterall his ex-wife. It's not like they cut to Martin Sheen delivering the U.N. speech as he delivered a "tolerance" line. Actually, you know what bothered me the most? The continuing image of pundit Lawrence O'Donnell as Pres. Bartlett's father (who, of course, scarred him for life).
Posted
10:48 AM | [Link]
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UNHAPPY BIRTHDAY MR. PRESIDENT: [Jonah Goldberg]
Yesterday the House voted on a bill recognizing Ronald Reagan’s 91st birthday. 4 Representatives refused to vote in favor, casting a vote of "present" instead. They were Eddie Bernice Johnson of Texas and Pete Stark, Barbara Lee, and Diane Watson of California. They are all Democrats.
Posted
10:44 AM | [Link]
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ARGH!!! [Jonah Goldberg]
Look, I don’t like feeding the Leviathan. But, Lord help me, I hate – yes, hate with a blinding passion not usually found outside the furnaces of Hell – morons on cell phones screwing up traffic. This morning, some lead-paint eating imbecile nearly got me killed twice – once by veering out of his lane, the other because my rage nearly gave me a heart attack. Almost every day I lose a left turn signal or some other opportunity because some yacker won’t put the phone down. And yet, in this country, if I were to kill them I would be the one to go to jail! In DC we just had a car accident which killed five people because a girl was talking to her boyfriend on her phone when she flipped over a rail. I know the Cato types oppose car phone bans and say the devices make us safer, but I’ve got tell say my personal experience says otherwise. Someone give me a free-market alternative to a handheld cell phone ban, please, or I’m going to be wearing someone’s viscera for a scarf.
Posted
10:17 AM | [Link]
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APRES LAW, LE DELUGE: [Dreher] Actually, Bernard Cardinal Law is somehow still there, and the deluge is occurring anyway in the Archdiocese of Boston. Today's Boston Herald reports that phones "are ringing off the hook" at Boston-area law firms. People are calling in saying they were sexually abused by archdiocesan priests, and want to file suit against the Church because of it. And the state of Massachusetts announced yesterday it was going to look into the 30 state-licensed day care centers run by the archdiocese, to see if any abuse occurred there. A reader points out that that is called "expanding the investigation," and that it was the documenting of child molestation in church-run day-care centers that eventually bankrupted the Anglicans in western Canada. Remember that the Boston archdiocese said recently that it's insurance fund to pay for these settlements is almost tapped out -- this, with many lawsuits pending, and now many more apparently on the verge of being filed. What did the Catholic laity of Boston do to deserve this millstone? Only trusted their priests and their bishops.
Posted
10:15 AM | [Link]
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BIRDS OF A FEATHER: [Dreher] Here's a moment. I'm sitting on my floor reading the Times just now while listening to President Bush speak at the National Prayer Breakfast. It was a lovely speech, all the more so because of the sure knowledge that we finally have a president who is not cynical when he praises faith and character. As Bush was speaking, my eyes fell upon the following lines in Caryn James' review, in today's Times, of tonight's PBS "Frontline" report on the porn industry: "From the 70's through the early 90's, [the documentary] says, pornography was regularly prosecuted, until the Clinton administration took a different approach. Janet Reno, that administration's attorney general, explains on camera that issues like national security and eliminating violence were higher priorities. 'Frontline' tips the balance against that argument by including disgruntled prosecutors and, most vividly, the producer of a video series called 'Jailbabies,' who says, 'When Clinton comes in, it's definitely blue skies and green lights and fat bank accounts.'"
Posted
9:03 AM | [Link]
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AND NOW SOME PRAISE FOR WEST WING: [Jonah Goldberg]
But I will say what is really refreshing is that they don’t make up names of countries. Normally, in shows like this, you’d expect them to make up the African nation of "Bong-Bongo," the Central American republic of "Parador," or similar fictitious nonsense in order to avoid offending people. Or, they might ascribe traits to nations that don’t make sense ("Mr. President, separatist rebels in Liechtenstein have just seized control of our embassy!"). West Wing doesn’t do that. They portrayed the Congo as the corrupt, horrible country it is. Bravo.
Posted
9:02 AM | [Link]
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WEST WING CONT’D [Jonah Goldberg]
Rod, K-Lo: Yeah, the "they’ll like us when we win," stuff was great in West Wing. Though I think you guys missed the salient part. Once Toby was done with his little outburst, he agreed to look at the more conciliatory language for the speech. West Wing does this head-fake stuff all the time. They give wonderful speeches and arguments that conservatives can agree with but, in the end, common sense (read: liberalism) wins. The producers seem to think it shows "balance" to air conservative arguments only to see them defeated when it really matters.
Posted
9:01 AM | [Link]
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TIM NOAH COMES CLEAN: [Jonah Goldberg]
In Lloyd Grove’s gossip column today, he revisits Tim Noah’s typically bitchy little item about Danielle Crittenden’s email in which she bragged about her husband’s authorship of the "Axis of Evil" line. Yawn, I know. But Noah’s defense is that the news had already been made public (as Kathryn Lopez noted here yesterday). Stay with me. If the news had already been made public, then what exactly is the news, Tim? I mean, for such a famously prissy guardian of journalistic ethics, how is that a defense for revealing a private email? It’s one thing to say, "Oh, this minor invasion of privacy was warranted by the news value blah, blah, blah." It’s another thing to say it was warranted because there was no news value. In effect, Noah’s simply admitting "I did it because I’m an obnoxious, nosy liberal with nothing serious to report." Yes, I do think Danielle shouldn’t have sent out the email (though as the husband of a speechwriter I do understand the temptation). But, if it bought us this admission, her small headache is worth it.
Posted
8:39 AM | [Link]
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About West Wing [Kathryn J. Lopez] Rod, maybe the real White House could hire Toby as special assistant for Arab affairs. Move over CAIR!
Posted
5:51 AM | [Link]
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GET YOUR FUNDS OFF MY FETUS [Kathryn J. Lopez] Senators Jeff Bingamin and Jon Corzine hit the NYTimes today with the anti-"unborn child" message. The men, who had they the opposite view would be implored to back away from women's ovaries, should expect due props from the lefty "it's-a-zygote" women of the Beltway.
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5:45 AM | [Link]
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Wednesday, February 6
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GO 'WEST WING'!: [Rod Dreher] Did y'all see Toby Zigler just now on "The West Wing," slam-dunking his Congressman ex-wife, who was whining about the president's upcoming speech being insufficiently sensitive to the Islamic world? After angrily cataloguing the good the US has done for the ungrateful Islamic world, "Why does the United States have to take every Arab country out for an ice cream cone? They'll like us when we win." Hats off to Aaron Sorkin for a great TV moment of truth-telling.
Posted
9:56 PM | [Link]
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LOOK OUT, DIANE REHM!: [Dreher] KISS tonguemeister Gene Simmons upset the NPR apple cart when he got down and dirty in a cringeworthy interview with "Fresh Air" host Terry Gross. A partial transcript is available in this New York Post account. I feel bad for poor Gross, but whaddaya expect when you have as your guest a rock-and-roll wild man who wears a studded leather codpiece?
Posted
5:44 PM | [Link]
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BAD FREE MARKET! BAD!: [Dreher] We're all free-marketeers here, but I gotta say, Mayor Bloomberg's latest big idea, as reported by the Times (link requires registration), strikes me as vulgar bordering on crackpot. Faced with a huge city budget shortfall, Bloomy's talking about selling naming rights to public parks and sites to corporations, in exchange for those corporations contributing toward their upkeep. Public-private civic partnerships are a great idea, and nobody can begrudge a business that spends money to keep a park clean the right to put up a sign saying so. But to change the name of beloved public landmarks? What is he, nuts? Does everything have to be a billboard? Who would be edified by the Tostitos Central Park, or the Poulan Weed Eater Grand Army Plaza? (Though the idea of "New York Post Times Square" does make me smile). This kind of thing debases both the landmark and the company, which would instantly and forevermore be hated by New Yorkers. Readers are invited to submit to rdreher@nationalreview.com their suggestions for Top Ten Worst New Corporate Names for NYC Landmarks.
Posted
5:12 PM | [Link]
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FLIPPING ARIANNA THE BIRD II [Jonah Goldberg]
Rod, Ramesh flipped Arianna the bird in a devastating piece for NR a while back. This actually isn't a shameless plug. I loved this article.
Posted
3:40 PM | [Link]
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MEGADITTOES, RICH!: [Dreher] Rich, you are absolutely right about those high school kids. I was coming out of the subway the other day as those kids were getting out for their lunch hour. They swarmed the subway station, shoving people aside, cursing, hooting, and yelling racial epithets at each other for fun. Call me stodgy, but it's appalling to hear young black people, for whose liberty Martin Luther King Jr. lived and died, calling each other "nigga" as a matter of course. Their behavior was insulting, it was threatening, and it was disgraceful. And I am quite sure it's par for the course. Don't these kids have any self-respect, much less respect for others? Frankly, if you want to see anarchy on the streets, don't go to anti-globalization protests, just station yourself outside a NYC public school when the last bell rings.
Posted
3:28 PM | [Link]
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RAISING TRAITORS [Kate O'Beirne] Don't miss the NYT's front-page piece on another apparent American recruit with the Taliban. Hiram Torres, Perth Amboy High, Class of 1993, bid his single mother farewell in 1994, as he headed off to Bangladesh. He had visited there the year before and told his mom that he particularly appreciated the way women showed proper respect for the menfolk. Like his fellow creepy misogynist, just denied bail (You don't suppose Brosnahan was kidding?), whose father moved out to keep house with a male friend, Torres was seemingly short of examples of men who deserved respect. He sure wasn't short on opportunity, however. He left Yale after a few weeks, having been admittted with SAT scores well below the Ivy League average.
P.S.: Torres was introduced to the welcome wonders of Bangladesh during his trip with a pal he met through the "Upward Bound" program for "low-income" kids--who clearly have no trouble swinging excellent adventures abroad.
Posted
3:15 PM | [Link]
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WIN BEN STEIN'S FINGER: [Dreher] Somehow, I missed last month a pop-culture happening of signifcant import. Ben Stein, arguing with Arianna Huffington on CNN about the fate of al-Qaeda detainees, flipped her the bird. The story gets told on a pro-Arianna website. By the by, I was taking a shortcut through Beverly Hills over Thanksgiving, and espied the Hon. Stein standing on the sidewalk in a short, white terry cloth robe. Made my week. If only he had given me the finger.
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3:11 PM | [Link]
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BLOOMBERG TIME?: [Rich Lowry]
Now in the post-Guiliani era, New Yorkers are constantly looking for signs of back-sliding. Here is something I just witnessed that I'm not sure I saw in New York the last four years. A block from NR's office there is a public school. Schools in New York are generally to be avoided. When there was a fight over a proposed new zoning law a few years ago that would have made it impossible for a sex shop to operate within a certain distance of a school, a friend of mine quipped that most people would rather live near sex shop than a New York city school, since the schools generally attract a seedier and more dangerous clientele. In any case, today a bunch of kids were standing outside eating McDonald's food, and just brazenly throwing their trash in a huge pile on the sidewalk. A minor incident in the scheme of things, yes, but you wonder if the proverbial "windows" of New York will soon be broken again.
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3:08 PM | [Link]
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DOES THIS MAKE SENSE?: [Rich Lowry]
I love James Surowiecki of The New Yorker. He's a great financial writer. So, I wonder about his argument in the current issue that defense spending hurts the economy, by gobbling up all the good scientists and researchers, thus diverting them from more economically productive work: "Between 1994 and 2000, the percentage of research and development that was financed by the government fell to its lowest point ever. Corporate R. & D., meanwhile, accelerated by 8.5 per cent a year. Productivity rates jumped to levels not seen since the nineteen-sixties, fuelling the longest economic expansion in America’s history." Does that make sense? If anyone has special insight on the question, drop me an e-mail, richardlowry@hotmail.com.
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3:06 PM | [Link]
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UNHALLOWED GROVE [Ramesh Ponnuru] I know Lloyd Grove is a gossip columnist, but today’s column was pretty sleazy even making allowances for that. He mentions David Brock’s new invent-all book about the Right, from which Brock has excised some of his attacks on Barbara Olson. Olson, of course, died in the plane that slammed into the Pentagon. Brock graciously shares the contents of those excised attacks with Grove’s readers: He alleges, for example, that Olson married for power.
Brock has lied in print before, as he admits. Still, one must almost admire the creative and efficient new method which he, with Grove, has found to smear people. None of this should be surprising: Grove is a talentless sleazeball who slept his way to the middle of the Washington Post. I can’t really back that up, but I can say that I was going to put it in my memoirs. I realize that I still haven’t equaled B&G’s journalistic standards, though: I’m not attacking the recently deceased.
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2:27 PM | [Link]
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ALL AMERICAN [John Derbyshire] Tomorrow morning 10:20 am I have my INS interview, i.e. for citizenship. Any advice? Any NON-FACETIOUS advice?
Posted
2:19 PM | [Link]
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OUR FRIENDS THE PAKS, REPLY [John Derbyshire] Rich, ISI? Really? You sure about this, Rich? I gave a talk to them over in Indianapolis last year--they seemed like a really nice bunch of young conservatives.
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1:48 PM | [Link]
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RIORDAN WATCH: [Ramesh Ponnuru]
California Republican political consultant Arnie Steinberg made a good point the other day about the governor’s race out there. Gray Davis, the Democratic governor, is running ads pointing out that Richard Riordan, his leading Republican opponent, used to be pro-life. As Steinberg points out, the reason the ads are effective isn’t that they make pro-choicers doubt his commitment to abortion rights. (Or even, Steinberg might have added, that they remind pro-life Republicans to be annoyed with him.) It’s that they make everyone doubt his commitment to anything. He looks like just another politician—especially since he never gave a compelling explanation for his switch. If you’ll flip on abortion for expedience, why should you be trusted on anything else?
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1:47 PM | [Link]
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YOU ARE WHAT YOU EAT [Andrew Stuttaford] Interesting detail today from the London Daily Telegraph about the supposedly ascetic Bin Laden. Apparently his personal chef has been captured.
It turns out that the sybaritic sheikh is particularly partial to quail, sometimes specially shipped in from Iran (a country which is evidently the larder if not the axis of evil). Bin Laden also likes mutton and, appropriately enough for a commander who deserted his troops, will also settle for chicken.
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1:40 PM | [Link]
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MAKE THIS GAL TRANSPORTATION SEC'Y [Andrew Stuttaford] Tremendous piece on the NY Times op-ed page (yes, it's possible) from Fedwa Malti-Douglas, an Arab-American academic. The article, entitled "Let Them Profile Me" concludes as follows:Arab-Americans like me want to be safe when we fly. Cooperating with security procedures, even when we suspect that we are getting more attention than our fellow citizens, makes sense. Does anyone really want a security official to hesitate before stopping a suspicious passenger out of a fear of an accusation of bias? Well yes, Fedwa, there is at least one person who does, and he's called Norm Mineta, the transportation secretary. Why this incompetent and self-indulgent bureaucrat remains in office is a mystery. Maybe the administration just doesn't care about aviation safety.
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1:37 PM | [Link]
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“CIRCLING THE MAMMOGRAPHY WAGONS”: [Ramesh Ponnuru]
I don’t know if the New York Times’s second editorial today is right or wrong. I do think they could have found a more felicitous headline.
Posted
1:27 PM | [Link]
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TODAY'S PAPIST-PERSON ITEM: [Dreher] Sorry, Jonah, for delaying your daily update from the world of us mackerel-snappers. Here's something interesting, sent to me by a priest commenting on my Justice Scalia blog: "In re: Scalia on the death penalty and Catholic doctrine. He does not need to square any circles, since he is disagreeing on a point of prudence, not
doctrine -- viz, whether conditions in the modern west make executions unnecessary. Such is not and cannot be a matter of 'Church teaching' in the formal sense. Hence Scalia is not 'dissenting,' refusing assent to any
doctrine. A fine point, perhaps, but a needed one."
Posted
1:13 PM | [Link]
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LATEST FROM THE MINISTRY OF SPORTS [Kathryn J. Lopez] The International Olympic Committee has changed its tuned, evidently, for the better on the World Trade Center flag. Today, they've surrendered, allowing New Yorkers and U.S. athletes to carry the flag in the opening ceremonies. However, it seems they've might have moved onto prohibiting the new Afghan flag.
Posted
1:04 PM | [Link]
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PICKERING: [Ramesh Ponnuru] Byron York has a piece on NRO today on the sliming of Bush judicial nominee Charles Pickering. As York mentions, all the pro-abortion groups have found to justify their opposition to him is that he worked on the Republican platform in 1976--specifically the section that included the party’s announcement of opposition to Roe v. Wade. ABC quotes a NARAL spokeswoman: “He’s anti-choice, and this goes way, way, way back.” Indeed it does. If NARAL’s standard--that no one who was pro-life in the 1970s or 1980s should be confirmed--is adopted, a number of Democratic politicians aren’t going to be able to retire to the federal bench: Dick Gephardt, Joe Biden, Jesse Jackson Sr., Ted Kennedy, and many more. . . . I do have one problem with the Pickering nomination, though: Why is Bush picking 64-year-olds for the bench? I’d prefer something closer to 20, if possible.
Posted
12:12 PM | [Link]
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OUR FRIENDS THE PAKS: [Rich Lowry]
Newsweek raises the possibility that a rogue faction of the ISI could be involved in the Pearl kidnapping. When it comes to the ISI, I'm like an old leftist and the CIA--I believe every nasty rumor and piece of innuendo. What bastards.
Posted
12:08 PM | [Link]
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"A STUNNED SILENCE": [Rich Lowry]
Another one from Newsweek about the fallout from the "axis of evil": "`The president meant what he said,' the Secretary of State told his harried diplomats, who have had to explain the administration's increasingly bellicose bent to a worried world. `He feels deeply about it, and I don't want anyone in this room to take the edge off it,' one attendee quoted Powell as saying. As the secretary spoke, there was a stunned silence in the seventh-floor conference room at State."
Posted
12:05 PM | [Link]
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WHERE'S THE MOOSE? (PART OF AN ONGOING SERIES) [Rich Lowry]
Final Newsweek item. The indispensable Robert Samuelson points out that there's a corruption behind programs like farm subsidies, that do nothing to promote the public interest but do help politicians get elected: "Farm subsidies are huge political bribes. Though they are perfectly legal, the ethics are questionable. The trouble is that hardly anyone raises the questions. The silence defines Washington's self-serving and hypocritical `morality.'" Why is the “scandal” that certain businessmen give politicians their money? Shouldn't it be much worse when politicians, for utterly self-serving and venal reasons, give favored constituents our money?
Posted
12:00 PM | [Link]
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THE GIPPER WAS RIGHT: [Ramesh Ponnuru]
Speaking of the State of the Union--and I agree entirely with you about that little creep Timothy Noah, Jonah--Hendrik Hertzberg’s take on it in the New Yorker isn’t as bad as I expected; there are even some good points I hadn’t considered. He does spill some ink, however, denying that the Soviet Union was all that evil an empire when Reagan called it one. Its evil days were mostly behind it, he writes. It was just unhappy by the 1980s. Unhappy it certainly was—mainly because the regime in power denied its people their right to pursue happiness. The ruling ideology demanded total control of people’s lives, including their religious lives. It also exported this misery far and wide. The Soviet Union was an empire, and it was evil—right up to the end.
Posted
11:12 AM | [Link]
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A NATION OF SHARANSKYS: [Jonah Goldberg]
In my syndicated column, I compare the youth of Iran to Natan Sharansky when he learned of Ronald Reagan's "Evil Empire" speech. Today's Wall Street Journal has a phenomenal op-ed which makes precisely that point:
"President Bush has spoken to our hearts, which yearn for freedom. He will be remembered as another Abraham Lincoln by the freedom-loving people of Iran." These are words of support from within Iran, in reaction to last week's State of the Union address, uttered by an Iranian calling the Voice of America's Persian service. As a guest at the station that night, I witnessed hundreds of calls, faxes and e-mails from inside Iran praising Mr. Bush. For the first time since the establishment of the theocracy, a U.S. president had chosen to speak to, and for, Iran's downtrodden."
Posted
11:09 AM | [Link]
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WHERE IS EVERYBODY? [Jonah Goldberg]
Hey, I know today is magazine production day. But you'd think at least Dreher could offer some update on Catholic stuff or something. In the meantime, while I write today's G-File, you might want to check out my syndicated column.
Posted
11:03 AM | [Link]
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SWEATY FILMS UPDATE [Jonah Goldberg]
My apologies for the delay. I haven’t had a chance to wade through the 200-300 new emails I’ve gotten on this subject. I want to be thorough. Today, all will be revealed. Please no more sweaty emails.
Posted
10:09 AM | [Link]
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MORE NOAH [Kathryn J. Lopez] You're absolutely right, Jonah about Noah. And, I might add that besides it being snarky and rotten, it wasn't even worth repeating for its newsworthiness. Word was already around that it was Frum's line--and it wasn't just Beltway cocktail-party buzz, either--Chris Hitchens even made a point of mentioning it on Hardball.
Posted
9:54 AM | [Link]
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IS TIM NOAH THE MOST SMUG (SMUGGEST?) WRITER AROUND? [Jonah Goldberg]
I'm no fan of Slate's Tim Noah (Full disclosure: he zinged me a year or so ago on a column I wrote about the founding fathers. I mention that because he's a classic hall-monitor journalist and if I failed to mention it he’d no doubt get his panties in a knot about it). So maybe it's a matter of my own bias. But doesn't he seem particularly asinine here? As Andrew Sullivan points out, Noah sees nothing but his own cleverness in reprinting a private email. But, worse, he responds to the author's completely reasonable objections as if they were not worth his time to even respond to. Noah sounds like a bitchy high school girl entertaining her clique with the protestations of a younger girl. Then again, I think that's how he sounds most of the time.
Posted
9:17 AM | [Link]
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DUH [Kathryn J. Lopez] Feb. 6, 2002. Our ally, Saudi Arabia acknowledges that the majority of the Sept. 11 suicide hijackers were Saudis.
Posted
5:41 AM | [Link]
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Tuesday, February 5
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THAT FLAG [Kathryn J. Lopez] I'm not sure it matters who and when or how the well-travelled flag from the World Trade Center makes an appearance at the Olympics, but that the Olympics Committee is using multiculturalism--the universalism of the games--as an excuse seems intolerable. Wouldn't it make a great statement to the terorrists of the world if we didn't succumb to political correctness at the Olympics on this?
Posted
6:27 PM | [Link]
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THREE CHEERS FOR THE NYPD!: [Rod Dreher] New York's Finest earned their title during the World Economic Forum that recently concluded here. While most protesters were peaceful, there were some who came to town intending to cause trouble. But the cops stayed one step ahead of them, using a massive show of force and making use of undercover intelligence to checkmate the would-be rioters before they could make their planned moves. Result: the demonstrators got to have their say, and those who intended to break things were for the most part held in check. My old NYPost colleague Douglas Montero infiltrated the protesters as well, and wrote about it. Though he's a solid liberal in his politics, four days with these out-of-town trust-fund brigands pretending he was one of them convinced Doug that they were nothing but a bunch of punks.
Posted
3:23 PM | [Link]
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MR. YESTERDAY [Kathryn J. Lopez] Jonah, you are like so two years ago. As we discussed--evidently when you were forgetting to beat your wife--over the weekend in the Corner, even NOW & co. have stopped playing the Super Bowl game. There are so many other fictions they can peddle. There were a few scattered thiings I've seen mentions of--New Mexico State University had some kind of silent protest of the Super Bowl on domestic-violence grounds and some folks in Alaska went skiing in the hopes to avoid the need to beat--but mostly, the sistas have moved on. Sorry to disappoint.
Posted
2:50 PM | [Link]
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DAMN, I FORGOT: [Jonah Goldberg]
I didn't beat my wife during the Superbowl. Could someone call NOW and find out if I have to wait a whole year before real men are supposed to give the missus a little smack?
Posted
2:34 PM | [Link]
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WHO YOU CALLING MESSIAH?[Kathryn J. Lopez] This is from a Daniel Pipes column from October about what Muslims think of Osama bin Laden: "A Palestinian Authority policeman calls him 'the greatest man in the world & our Messiah' even as he (reluctantly) disperses students who march in solidarity with the Saudi."
Posted
2:21 PM | [Link]
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ST. YASSER: You're right, Jonah, it was a blasphemous comment, particularly considering that Jesus was not known for murdering innocent Jews, or anybody else. The remark would have been mitigated had the Palestinian described Arafat as a "Christ figure," which would have been merely objectionable. I wonder how many Christians in the West appreciate how tough the Palestinian Christians have it, aside from the hardships resulting from the conflict with the Israelis. Muslim radicals are making life ever more difficult for them to practice their faith. When I was in the Holy Land, Palestinian Christians denounced the Israelis as fiercely as any Hamas berserker. But when I put away my notepad, several confessed to me how terrible the Muslims, who are the overwhelming majority of Palestinians, made life for them, and how afraid they were to be seen as in any way opposed to the will of the Islamic majority.
Posted
1:31 PM | [Link]
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ARAFAT IS CHRIST? CONT'D: [Jonah Goldberg]
A reader provides further clarification:
"Christ, no! Christ is Greek for Anointed One, or Messiah, if you will. It isn't
necessarily specific to Jesus of Nazareth, though we tend to think of it
that way in this neck of the woods. That said, the concept that Arafat is
some kind of Messiah--even a secular one--is the height of absurdity."
Posted
1:29 PM | [Link]
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CHILL, CHILL [Kathryn J. Lopez] Kevin Cherry, sometimes (including today) NRO contributor e-mails me to say that we should all calm down about Scalia. "Okay, sure I understand the predictable emphasis on Scalia's Catholicism. But what is novel about the idea that a judge who has a fundamental moral disagreement with the laws he is charged to uphold should, at the very least, recuse himself from such cases or, when the dissent reaches a critical level, resign? It has nothing to do with religion; the left-liberal activists who are similarly opposed to the death penalty should similarly recuse/resign as necessary. I just don't see all the fuss, except, of course, that Scalia can't help but be provacative."
I think Cherry's right. And I think Scalia adopts the middle position Ramesh mentions himself on abortion, and expects that most Catholic judges do on the death penalty if they oppose it. I think his answer to a question asked at a law-school conference is a lot more dog-bites-man than the news coverage or our blogging would suggest.
Posted
1:22 PM | [Link]
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HOLY BLACKMAIL: [Rod Dreher] In "Sins of the Fathers," the cover story of the current issue of NR, I quote psychiatrist Richard Sipe -- a church liberal, by the way -- explaining that much clerical sexual misconduct, including but not limited to pederasty, goes on with bishops knowing about it, but unable or unwilling to act against it. Why? Because, says Sipe, some bishops themselves are homosexual, and are or have been sexually active, thus leaving themselves open to blackmail if they move against sexually corrupt priests. A perfect example of how this dirty game is played can be seen in this story from Spain. A gay Spanish priest has caused a huge uproar by coming out of the closet, and saying he has a black book with the names of many other gay priests. A homosexual activist came to his defense, claiming to have slept with three seminarians who became bishops in the 1980s, and threatening to reveal their names if they lay a hand on the homosexual priest.
Posted
1:18 PM | [Link]
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RESIGN, RESIGN [Ramesh Ponnuru] I don't understand Scalia's position. A judge who thinks the death penalty is immoral has to resign rather than take unconstitutional steps against it? Isn't there a middle position, wherein a judge could think the death penalty wrong but uphold laws that allow it? I don't see why declaring the law to be the law has to be considered complicity in its (posited) evil. What's the implication of Scalia's view for a lower-court judge who is pro-life but is generally considered bound to rule in line with higher-court precedents that permit abortion? Should Catholic lower-court judges resign too?
Posted
12:53 PM | [Link]
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BLASPHEMY WATCH [Jonah Goldberg]
Yesterday's New York Times reports that "Ahmed Abdel Rahman, one of Mr. Arafat's close advisers, said, 'At this moment, Arafat is the Christ of the Palestinian people.'"
Now, as a Jew I'm no expert on things Catholic or Muslim (or for that matter Jewish). But my understanding is that Jesus was God made flesh, God's only son etc. It is also my understanding that Muslims think this is blasphemous; to deify a man is heresy. Mohammed was a man and a prophet -- and according to Islam, so was Jesus -- not a God, angel or other form of supernatural deity. This notion is at the heart of Islam. After all, the Taliban (and the Saudis) forbid representative art because it makes man a creator, a role reserved solely to Allah. Or something like that. So, how come Islamic Jihad isn't a little p.o.'d over the elevation of Arafat to Christ-status. And, hey, for that matter why aren't the Christians? I mean, I'm no expert but Arafat's never been a turn-the-other-cheek sort of guy.
Posted
12:51 PM | [Link]
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PEACE ON EARTH [Rich Lowry]
Here’s a Nobel Peace Prize nomination we like. Check out the bit about how sometimes it takes a war to make peace.
Posted
12:17 PM | [Link]
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BETTER IDEA! [Jonah Goldberg]
Send checks directly to me -- I'll just tell ya what's in the magazine.
[Dear suits, please don't fire me.]
Posted
12:17 PM | [Link]
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GOOD IDEA: [NRO Advertisement]
Get 4 risk-free trial issues of National Review. Click here.
Posted
11:59 AM | [Link]
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MORE ON SCALIA [Kathryn J. Lopez] Well, Rod, from what little I have read about the Scalia remarks, what he said in regard to Catholic lawyers resigning is that if a judge is going to reject the death penalty as a matter of law, then he should resign: According to USA Today, he said in answering a student’s question, "In my view, the choice for the judge who believes the death penalty to be immoral is resignation rather than simply ignoring duly enacted constitutional laws and sabotaging the death penalty." Scalia said that "any Catholic jurist (with such concerns) ... would have to resign." He said that "You couldn't function as a judge" if you were going to choose to ignore the law. I'm not sure he can be faulted for that. If you reject the law, and believe it is against Divine Law then there is a legitimacy question in your mind about the very law you are sworn to uphold. So yeah, resignation would be called for if you are a judge and have made that choice.
Posted
11:44 AM | [Link]
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SCALIA CONTRA ROME: [Rod Dreher] Supreme Court associate justice Antonin Scalia, a devoutly conservative Catholic, has made public his rejection of the Church's most recent teaching on capital punishment. Building on past tradition, the Church today teaches that while the death penalty can never be ruled out as always and everywhere illicit, conditions in the modern West make its use immoral in nearly all cases. Not so says Scalia, who urges Catholic judges who reject the death penalty to resign in good conscience. I'm not sure how as a Catholic, Scalia squares this circle.
Posted
11:26 AM | [Link]
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HUH? [Jonah Goldberg]
The New York Times declares this morning:
"The Bush budget is a road map toward a different kind of American society, in which the government no longer taxes the rich to aid the poor, and in fact does very little but protect the nation from foreign enemies."
First, let me say, "I wish." Second, only the editors of the New York Times could look at a 2.1 trillion dollar budget and a $48 billion increase in defense spending (2.3% of the entire federal budget) and see the obvious defenestration of the poor. And third, the "rich" still carry far more of the freight than any other group, even under this cruel budget.
Posted
11:20 AM | [Link]
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FUNDAMENTALS & FUNDAMENTALISM [Stanley Kurtz] Mark Krikorian has a fascinating piece up on NRO today that takes off from my veiling articles. Noting the deep tensions between Islam and modernity, his idea is to let the fundamentalists take over and wait for them to make a mess. The result will be a pro-modern, pro-American, anti-Islamic reaction, just as we are seeing now in Iran. I wish we had the luxury of trying such an experiment, but we don’t. Given the technology of weaponry, the potential consequences of even “a little” terrorism are now so great as to be unacceptable. The policing Krikorian calls for will quickly result in exactly the sort of regional war we are in the midst of right now. I think our policy has to be a combination of hawkish force, intelligent democratization, and realist prudence. The global reach and technological potential of terrorism is forcing us to build a de facto imperial presence in the Middle East. The trick will be to wield our power wisely, avoid cultural over-reach, yet still encourage change. This will not be easy, but it is the challenge of the day.
Posted
10:15 AM | [Link]
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IF YOU LOVE SHEILA JACKSON LEE... [Jonah Goldberg]
Don't read this.
Posted
10:05 AM | [Link]
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NO MULTICULTI UTOPIA AFTERALL [Andrew Stuttaford] The Brits seem to be at last waking up to the problem of Muslim extremists within their supposedly happily multicultural country. The London Daily Telegraph is reporting that an MP from Britain's ruling (and usually PC) Labour Party is calling for action to be taken against some of the propaganda being circulated by these groups.
As an example of what is going around, the Telegraph reports that the Imam of a London mosque has been filmed urging young men to attack non-believers in the following terms, "Crush his head in your arms, wring his throat, rip his intestines
out...Forget wasting a bullet on them--cut them in half."
Posted
10:04 AM | [Link]
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WHITHER THE CORNER? [Jonah Goldberg]
Rod, you raise an interesting and legitimate question. In the spirit of Marcus Aurelius, we must ask what is the corner? What is its nature? Well, it seems to me that that it doesn’t have one yet. This is an experiment. But I am loathe to declare so soon that we must pray at the alter of Seriousness and Maturity because, for example, a few people don’t have an opinion on such important matters as to which film was marked by the most perspiration. Indeed, my email box runneth over with missives from people keenly interested in this topic. Speaking more broadly, the success of NRO is due in no small part to the fact that we run counter to the liberal stereotype (long aided by some Very Serious Conservatives) that the Right is populated by hordes of humorless and angry eggheads desperately in need of more fiber in their diet. But, I do take your point. We should avoid the rocky shoals of excessive jocularity and navel-gazing insularity whenever possible. And that is why I have diligently avoided mentioning the interesting sounds I can make with unconventional parts of my anatomy.
Posted
10:01 AM | [Link]
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THE GAY SCIENCE [Kathryn J. Lopez]Maggie Gallagher’s column today is on the American Academy of Pediatrics move we mentioned here yesterday to embrace gay parenting and adoption by gay partners. But what business do they have doing this anyway? Afterall, as Gallagher points out, research is slim and flawed. It’s much like, in the ‘70s, she says, when every little study that suggested divorce could be just great for kids was heralded. We now know that isn’t true. Sure, in specific cases, two gay parents could be the better alternative for a child, but that’s no reason to make universal assumptions. "Scientific academies" do us all a diservice when they make political statements like they have here. Here’s Gallagher's column.
Posted
8:28 AM | [Link]
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BERRY, BERRY BAD FOR AMERICA: [Rod Dreher] Now that a judge has ruled that the increasingly Robert Mugabe-like termagant Mary Frances Berry can have her irrational way with the U.S. Civil Rights Commission, it's time for Congress to consider defunding the thing. It has clearly become a $9 million tea party hosted by an ideological bully. It would be wrong if a Republican appointee were behaving this way, and taking away a Democratic president's right to select his own members to fill vacancies. Under the current set-up, an outgoing president could have members of his party on the commission resign just before his term ends, then appoint new members before he leaves office -- and the new president would be powerless to do anything about it until midway through his second term. That's not right.
Posted
12:53 AM | [Link]
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INTERVENTION?: Jonah, I think the reader who wrote you -- a Mr. Richard Feder from Fort Lee, NJ -- is trying to tell us that The Corner may be on the verge of jumping the shark, owing to the fact that some of us have fewer and fewer unblogged thoughts. Unless we can find a politically or culturally relevant angle to a particular item, I say we restrain ourselves. You work down in Washington, and don't have to worry that K-Lo is going to come storming out of her office and Ruth Buzzi you with her handbag. I do.
Posted
12:38 AM | [Link]
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OOGA-BOOGA: [Rod Dreher] Today's multicultural folly comes to us from Africa. Seems that superstitious villagers demanded that authorities kill two "zombies" that were scaring everybody to death. Turns out that the zombies were actually two mentally disabled young people.
Posted
12:33 AM | [Link]
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Monday, February 4
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IT'S LIKE HE'S CHANNELING KATHRYN LOPEZ: [Jonah Goldberg]
This reader writes:
"Dear Jonah,
Please accept this comment with the utmost respect, from a fellow
procrastinator. G-File was late today, even by your usual standards. Yet in
the mean time, you had time to make EIGHT entries in The Corner! It sounds like you've found a new way to procrastinate. And as someone who relies on G-File as one of MY ways to procrastinate, I want to protest. If you procrastinate too much, I may have to be productive. We can't have that!
And if you simply MUST post to The Corner, the LEAST you could do is include
some commentary from Cosmo. We Cosmo fans have a right to know what he's thinking."
This is a real problem with the corner, and I am working to remedy it.
Posted
9:37 PM | [Link]
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PODHORETZ STANDS BY HIS CALL [Jonah Goldberg]
"Jonah - Rod is wrong. They sweat more in A Time to Kill. A Time to Kill's director Joel Schumacher clearly wanted to out-schvitz To Kill a Mockingbird, another Southern racist courtroom drama -- and since A Time to Kill is in color, he succeeded.
You are doubtless going to mention Lawrence of Arabia, or something like that. You will be wrong. There's some brow mopping, but nowhere near the sweat pouring off Ashley Judd's chestal area in A Time to Kill."
I was not going to mention Lawrence of Arabia, except as another example of an incorrect guess. All will be revealed tomorrow.
Posted
6:20 PM | [Link]
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HERE'S SOMETHING I WAS TRYING TO SAY: [Jonah Goldberg]
I had a terrible case of Monday-writer's block today. I had to pull out today's G-File like a bad tooth. Anyway, here's an email from a loyal reader who's also a lifelong student of things Islamic. He managed to make a point I meant to make, better than I would have made it:
"Here's another much-overlooked hypocrisy of Eddie Said. His critique of
"Orientalism" is that Orientalists have created a view of the middle east
as an unchanging, static, passive caricature (to justify imperialism,
colonialism, blah blah blah). Not only is he flatly wrong--read the
great Orientalists, forgodssakes--but his critique is nothing more than
an unchanging, static, caricature of the West. He depicts them in the
exact terms in which he denounces their "orientalism." There's your
"Occidentalism." Blah. Where's my baseball bat?"
Posted
6:17 PM | [Link]
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TIME IS NOT ON HIS SIDE: [Rod Dreher] Here's an interesting story from Sunday's Boston Herald, reporting that two brothers are prepared to file charges against the elderly priest they allege molested them as altar boys in the 1980s. Fr. Paul Desilets, 78, has been working in Canada since leaving the boys' Boston-area parish in 1984. When contacted by the Herald, Fr. Desilets denied the accusation, but when told the boys were going to sign a criminal complaint against him, reportedly replied, "Isn't there a statute of limitations on that?" There is -- but it doesn't apply in this case. Under Massachusetts law, if you leave the country, the statute of limitations is frozen.
Posted
4:55 PM | [Link]
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REAL CAMPAIGN-FINANCE REFORM: [Rich Lowry]
We had our fortnightly editorial meeting here in New York this morning. Rick Brookhiser raised an interesting point, as he always does. He reminded us that at the founding, Gouverneur Morris argued that an unrestricted franchise would increase the influence of the rich—because the rich would buy the votes of the poor. So, if campaign-finance reformers really want to squeeze money out of politics, maybe they should just shrink the franchise.
Posted
4:31 PM | [Link]
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ADOPTIVE MEASURES [Kathryn J. Lopez] The National Academy of Pediatrics announced their support for “second-parent” gay adoption today in their flagship journal Pediatrics. That is, the right of a gay person to adopted his partner’s child. Others, including the American Psychological Association have already done this. Others will continue to do so. Among other things, the significance of the Pediatrics statement is the seeming inevitability of gay marriage. A reminder that--whatever you think of it--a federal marriage amendment is worth a debate.
Posted
4:20 PM | [Link]
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SWEAT EMAIL OVERWHELMING: [Jonah Goldberg]
Rod - so far readers agree with you about Body Heat. Alas, your suggestion is a good one, but inaccurate. I will give you a hint -- at let readers ponder a bit more -- the sweatiest movies tend to take place in very hot places.
Posted
3:51 PM | [Link]
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ON THE OTHER, OTHER HAND: [Rich Lowry]
Here's another good Madden e-mail. Jonah, I wonder what the Moose thinks? "The Pats were never going to allow a three-and-out series with three incompletions. I'm quite sure that if the first two passes would have been incomplete, Bellicheck would have called a running play, and because the Rams were out of timeouts, they would have been powerless to stop the clock from running almost all the way down. Why not take a few shots to see if you can get a first down?
Playing for overtime would have been a terrible move. The Rams had all the momentum, and I really question whether Brady, in the absence of the soft-defense that inevitably accompanies another team's no-huddle drive, would have orchestrated the march down the field. I have little doubt that the Rams would have done so if given another opportunity."
Posted
3:43 PM | [Link]
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FILMED IN SHVITZERAMA: [Rod Dreher] The correct answer to Jonah's query is "Body Heat," which was set in Florida. I might also have said any home movie from my summers growing up in south Louisiana. Whenever we suffer heat waves here in NYC, Yankee pals say, "Oh, come on, you must be used to it." Cher, you never get used to that kind of heat and humidity. If Louisiana seems holy in August, it's because the Devil has gone back to Hell to cool off.
Posted
3:18 PM | [Link]
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ON THE OTHER HAND [Rich Lowry]
Here's a smart e-mail defending John Madden: "I enjoyed Madden's comments. He even said that, with 20/20 hindsight, they were right and he was wrong. So he was up front with what he thought was the right thing to do and was the first to admit that the Patriots were right and he was wrong.
On the other hand, things would have looked very differently if the Pats had thrown three incomplete passes and gave the ball back to the Rams at near-mid-field with more than a minute on the clock! Madden's call was the right one. Given the, until then, inability of the Pats to move the ball on offense, what was more probable, driving the ball into field goal range with 1:30 on the clock and no time-outs or getting the ball during overtime? Rooting for the Pats, I would have put their chances of driving the ball into field goal range at less than 25% and their chances of getting the ball during overtime at more than 60% (50% coin toss plus the possibility of another Rams turnover). So, the SMART thing to do would have been run out the clock. The HEROIC thing was to do is what they did, which is what makes the game one of the best Super Bowls ever."
Posted
2:54 PM | [Link]
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SWEATIEST MOVIE REDUX: [Jonah Goldberg]
In Friday's Goldberg File I mentioned that NRO once ran a poll asking what the sweatiest movie ever was. John Podhoretz writes in to say:
"I didn't see that poll, but the actual answer is A Time to Kill, of which I once wrote a review entitled 'A Time to Schvitz.'"
Anybody got a better or different nomination? Since I know the correct answer, I will be the judge.
Posted
1:48 PM | [Link]
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HOLY SCIENTOLOGY BAT MAN! [Jonah Goldberg]
Jeepers-creepers check out Greta's Peepers.
Posted
12:35 PM | [Link]
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IS JOHN MADDEN NUTS? [Rich Lowry]
The only thing that ruined my enjoyment of the Super Bowl was the John Madden’s carping during the Patriots’ dramatic final drive. Madden thought it was a mistake for the Patriots to attempt to score with only a minute and halt left and the ball deep in their own territory. He thought they should have run out the clock and waited for overtime. But with a minute and a half left and the score tied, you’re basically already in overtime, in a sudden-death situation. And the most important factor in overtime is simply having possession of the ball. It would have been insane for the Patriots to fritter away this final possession on the off-chance that they might get the ball back in overtime. Instead, they had to go for it, and did—with splendid results.
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11:49 AM | [Link]
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GOING EASY ON THE FRENCH [Andrew Stuttaford] Jonah is, strangely, being too kind to the French and their new money. When it comes to acting as a defender of value the Franc's pan-European successor has so far turned out to be something of a monetary Maginot. At the time of its legal launch in January 1999 the Euro traded at around $1.16. These days a Euro will cost you about 87 cents.
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11:39 AM | [Link]
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GOOD READING: [Jonah Goldberg]
John Miller has written a great review of Joe Klein's new book on Bill Clinton.
Posted
10:35 AM | [Link]
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CEREBRAL CRITICISM: [Jonah Goldberg]
From a reader:
"Jonah -- Just a note to inform you, after seeing you on television this afternoon, your head (especially in profile) is bigger than Neil Cavuto's head. Just thought you should know!"
It's true. My secret shame is revealed. I have, in the words of my wife, an "enormous gourd." I have a very difficult time finding hats that come even close to fitting.
Posted
10:15 AM | [Link]
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REAGAN-HATING IS FOREVER: [Jonah Goldberg]
Pretty much every Sunday I'm a panelist on CNN's "Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer." Yesterday, we were asked -- on the occasion of Ronald Reagan's 93rd birthday -- what the Gipper's legacy would be. I did the usual, well-deserved, rah-rah for Reagan and so did Robert George. Peter Beinart of the New Republic mouthed the predictable TNR criticisms. But here's Donna Brazile's response to the question:
BRAZILE: Big spender, deficit spender. And that's what he'll be remembered as.
BLITZER: That's not very nice. He's going to be 91 years old. He's got his birthday coming up. Say something nice about him. We want to hear something nice about Ronald Reagan.
BRAZILE: I'll pass.
And they call me an irrational-Clinton hater.
Posted
9:54 AM | [Link]
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MOOSE, WE HAVEN'T FORGOTTEN YOU:
Also, if the Project for Conservative Reform wants to take out an ad with us, explaining why the Enron Pundits haven't been corrupted, we'll take their money too. Then again, wouldn't such a pro-McCain issue ad be illegal under the Moose's beloved "Shays-Meehan" bill?
Posted
9:53 AM | [Link]
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HOW TO SUCCEED IN ADVERTISING: [Jonah Goldberg]
Howie Kurtz has an interesting item in his Media Notes column today. Apparently the Washington Times invited Andy Stahl, an eviro-activist, to respond to the paper's harsh coverage in an ad. "For $9,450, he could buy a full-page ad to counter criticism of him and his allies in a barrage of Times news stories about an environmental dispute," Kurtz reports. The Times has apologized for the error. I say, not so fast. I think this is a great idea. We at NRO would like to invite the French Embassy to take out an ad regaling us with tales of Gallic bravery and moral fortitude. We will gladly take their money. And, now that they use the Euro, we don't have to worry about Billy Wilder's advice: "France is the only country where the money falls apart and you can't tear the toilet paper."
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9:50 AM | [Link]
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CHANGE OF HEART: [Ramesh Ponnuru]
George Will on the British monarchy in September 1997, at the time of Princess Diana’s death: “The monarchy is a residue of the infancy of the British people. They still like it, and it is their right to retain it, rationality being broadly optional. But there is no evading the fact that an occupational hazard of royalty is infantilism, now that royalty is shorn of serious duties and exists primarily to do public relations for itself.” George Will on the British monarchy yesterday, celebrating the 50th anniversary of Elizabeth II’s reign: “Britain’s monarchy adds to the public stock of pretty-much-harmless pleasure. Of course it is irrational, but so are many things we love, including love.”
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9:17 AM | [Link]
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YOUR AD ON DRUGS: [Ramesh Ponnuru]
Was I the only one who was appalled by the drug-war ads during the Super Bowl? You know, the ones suggesting that teenagers who toke up are helping to finance Osama bin Laden and other bad guys. One of the ads featured kids saying, alternately, “I was only having fun” and “I helped kill a police officer.” NORML, the pot-legalization outfit, says that most of the marijuana consumed in America comes from Mexico, Jamaica, or Canada and does not finance terrorist regimes. But even if the drug czar’s office were right about that, there’d be a simple solution: Let people grow pot in their backyard.
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9:09 AM | [Link]
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THE DRUG WAR AND TERROR: [Ramesh Ponnuru]
As it stands, the drug war hurts the war on terrorism in three ways: It distorts our foreign policy, diverts law-enforcement resources, and keeps lets thugs monopolize (and therefore reap above-market profits from) the drug trade. If we ran an ad on their culpability for evil, what would the drug warriors say? “I was only trying to keep chemo patients from treating their nausea”?
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9:08 AM | [Link]
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MEET FATHER SPERM [Kathryn Jean Lopez]
In 1983 “Irene” was 40, single, and wanted a baby. So she was artificially inseminated with sperm from a California sperm bank. Now her daughter is preparing to meet the sperm donor. “Claire” will be the first offspring of an anonymous (at least at the time) sperm donation to opt to meet the donor. Those who think that critics of cloning are nervous Nellies should consider the realities of the reproductive "advances" of the last few decades.
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8:25 AM | [Link]
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SUCH A NICE BOY: Like I said last night, the NYPD were very polite to the freakydeaks. Actual dialogue between burly Ofc. Palmer and a little old lady protester he helped cross the street:
COP (sweetly): "This way, ma'am. Watch your step, now. You have a good weekend."
LITTLE OLD LADY (smiling gratefully): "Listen to WBAI, now. It's back on the air. It's a people's station!"
COP (even more sweetly): "That's right, ma'am."
Posted
12:03 AM | [Link]
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Sunday, February 3
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PLEASED TO MEET YOU TOO: [Rod Dreher] Early Saturday afternoon, I follow a Danish reporter into a crowd of protesters cordoned off near the Waldorf-Astoria. Two white middle-aged hausfraus from the Upper West Side see our notepads, and run over to denounce the police for trampling on their right to free speech by "penning us in." The taller one goes off for a while, and when I stop to ask for her name, she wants to know who I am and for whom I write. I tell her. She looks like she's just discovered she's been canoodling with Bill O'Reilly. "I object to your racist coverage!" she says. "Racist! You're a racist!" She backs away like I'm going to bite her, and turns to speed off. "Wait! Wait!" says the Dane. "I'm left-wing! We're a left-wing paper!"
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11:59 PM | [Link]
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HELLO, HE LIED: [Rod Dreher] John Leo's new column helpfully reminds us that as late as last July, Boston's Cardinal Law was denying that he shuffled pedophile priest John Geoghan from parish to parish. "Never was there an effort on my part to shift a problem from one place to the next," Law wrote in the archdiocesan newspaper. This was before the cardinal knew that a Boston court would order Church files on pedophile priests made public, thereby exposing his lie. Leo says lawyers for victims and the media in other parts of the country will no doubt use the same courtroom tactics to force the truth about sexually abusive priests out of local Catholic bishops.
Posted
10:39 PM | [Link]
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WWJD?: [Rod Dreher] Today in Calgary, Alberta, Catholic priest Keith Sorge told his congregation that his beloved assistant, Father Jim, had once been convicted of sexually assaulting a 16-year-old boy. The local bishop allowed Father Jim to work in the parish despite his record, and the current pastor chose not to tell the congregation its assistant pastor was a convicted sex offender. Father Keith said today he wasn't sorry he never told anybody, and urged his congregation to ask themselves, "What would Jesus do?" And Catholic bishops wonder why the faithful are mad as hell and losing trust in their leadership.
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10:17 PM | [Link]
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THE GAME [Kathryn Jean Lopez] Before the Super Bowl begins, check out some of our fearless contributors predicting the score spread. John J. Miller proves to be a brave man, the only one going out on a limb for the Patriots. It's here.
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6:28 PM | [Link]
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ISN'T IT BLACK HISTORY MONTH? [Kathryn Jean Lopez] I wasn't in the mood to read the NY Times today until a friend pointed out Laurie Goodman's amazing piece about right-wingers wanting to nix a LBJ-era rule banning politiking from the pulpit ("Churches on Right Seek Right to Back Candidates". Did Goodman sleep through all of Al Gore's campaign stops at black churches during the last presidential election?
Posted
12:08 PM | [Link]
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FYI [Jonah Goldberg]
Assuming the schedule holds, I should be on CNN at 2:30 PM EST. In case you have nothing better to do.
Posted
11:55 AM | [Link]
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SHOCKED, CONT'D [Jonah Goldberg]
And now I'm hearing word that Wetheimer is stunned by revelations that bears crap in the woods. "This is a bizarre use of our national forests by the bears. They are using our natural heritage as a toilet!"
Posted
10:00 AM | [Link]
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SHOCKED, SHOCKED! [Jonah Goldberg]
There's a typically bizarre story about campaign finance "reform" in today's Washington Post. It seems the GOP is unloading it's soft money in anticipation that it will be made illegal when the Shays-Meehan bill is passed. Fred Wertheimer longtime "reform" zealot decries this move, saying: "This is a bizarre use of soft money by the NRCC, whose sole purpose is to elect Republicans to the House," he said.
Curse that Ol' Debil Republican Party! They're trying to get Republicans elected!
Posted
9:07 AM | [Link]
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PROTEST SHMOTEST: [Rod Dreher] So I went to the anti-globalization protest today, and all I got was ... cold. It was a generally peaceful affair, with only 36 arrests, and no smashing-and-grabbing by anarchists. I found a semi-warm spot on Lexington Avenue, across from the Citicorp Tower, and watched the freak flags fly. The cops were incredibly polite (I even saw a burly cop named Officer Palmer get all Boy-Scouty with an elderly commie, helping her negotiate a curb like he a Norman Rockwell stock character). I don't want to spoil all the color from the day's events, which I'll recount in Monday's NRO, but I gotta say that the thing that stuck with me most about the crowd was how white, young and sanctimonious it was, and how completely unhinged it was from anything approaching the lives 99.9 percent of us in America live. These kids were absolutely sure of themselves and their causes (socialism, Maoism, environmentalism, pro-pot-ism, lesbianism, free Mumia, etc.) You could no more have argued with them about the relative merits of globalization -- the ostensible reason for the gathering --than you could have disputed a hungry Labrador retriever over the goodness of Alpo. As long as the anti-globalization movement remains the province of grizzled old hippies and tattooed young tofu-brains who revel in I-hate-America burlesque, multinational capitalism doesn't have a thing to worry about.
Posted
12:48 AM | [Link]
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