IN THE February 7, 2011, ISSUE
Reagan Reclaimed
The news that President Obama decided to read a biography of Ronald Reagan during his Christmas holiday in Hawaii might be taken as a sign that Reagan’s triumph over liberals ...
Also In This Issue
Articles
Violence in America
H. Rap Brown said that violence is as American as cherry pie. This is true of Brown, who is serving a life sentence for murdering a sheriff’s deputy. There is ...
Let Them Take Pills
For many years it has been politically correct to claim that people with schizophrenia or other forms of mental illness are no more dangerous than the general population. Even after ...
Obama’s Bipartisan Opportunity
The liberal storyline of the last two years of politics goes something like this: President Obama is really a very moderate fellow, but Republicans have lurched so far to the ...
Belarus, Assaulted
On December 19, at 7:30 p.m., there was still a half hour of voting to go in Belarus. One of the presidential candidates, Vladimir Neklyaev, a 64-year-old poet and democracy ...
China’s ‘Sputnik Moment’
Does China’s government-funded push into so-called green energy constitute a “Sputnik moment” for the United States? That’s the term Pres. Barack Obama used in a December 6 speech in Winston-Salem, ...
Maternity and Tyranny
Amy Chua, who is a law professor at Yale University, has a new book out: Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother. The book describes the parenting methods Professor Chua employed ...
Features
Reagan Reclaimed
The news that President Obama decided to read a biography of Ronald Reagan during his Christmas holiday in Hawaii might be taken as a sign that Reagan’s triumph over liberals ...
The Gipper Beyond 100
As we approach the 100th anniversary of Ronald Reagan’s birth on February 6, it seems that the most common question conservatives ask is whether anyone can unite the Right the ...
Two Views of Marriage
Our views about marriage are multifaceted, and the primary facets are two. On one hand, we think marriage has something to do with reproduction and its consequences; on the other, ...
Books, Arts & Manners
A Dark, Savage God
What is the enduring appeal — enduring since the late 19th century, anyway — of socialism? Is it the reeking stench of Communist countries? The cheap plastic junk they call ...
The Pleasure of His Company
When Ross Perot was running for president an age ago, I became addicted to Dana Carvey’s imitations of him on Saturday Night Live. Concentrating all the staccato zaniness of the ...
Roots of Success
If you are looking for a comprehensive autobiography of former secretary of state Condoleezza Rice, or even a comprehensive autobiography of her younger years, this is not the book for ...
Film: Heavyweight Fights
Like many filmmakers beloved for their transgressiveness, David O. Russell is at his best when he plays things relatively straight. Russell’s reputation as an edgy provocateur rests on such films ...
Tap, Tap, Tap
Winter is the Stasi of the animal world, stripping away privacy. Snow is a surveillance camera, tracking movement, taking notes: You have been here, and you, and you, and this ...
Sections
Letters
Objectively Socialist
Kevin D. Williamson’s “Socialism Is Back” (January 24) is a very informative, delightfully written piece. But I want to dispute what may seem like a minor point: his characterization ...
The Week
‐ The climate of Palin-hatred, on the other hand, may carry on as usual.
‐ Clarence Dupnik, 75 years old, has been sheriff of Arizona’s Pima County since 1980. When tragedy ...
Your People, Sir, Is a Great Beast
The Nature vs. Nurture debate is back. Once a staple of eugenics proponents, it fell into disfavor along with eugenics itself until the Gay Rights Movement took it up to ...
Advice from the Media Experts!
Dear Experts:
I own a 1994 Chevy TrailBlazer with almost 100,000 miles on it. It’s been running pretty smoothly — I’m good about the scheduled maintenance and oil changes, etc. — ...
Poetry
VOGUE
Playing with princesses, coloring pages
Inked in a magazine drawn from the ages,
Muscle and modishness meet the ideal.
Marionettes in contempt of a meal
Hang — without strings — by the strength of ...
When Asterisks A***ck
It’s been a bad year for free speech so far. Twain’s Huckleberry Finn, for example, is undergoing one of its periodic Bowdler-bouts. So far the name’s unchanged, but give them ...