Bringing a Turbulent Land Into Focus

By BRUCE CHAPMAN
December 17, 2004

We've all heard of the Green Zone, the heavily fortified district in Baghdad where the American embassy is housed and all manner of diplomats, aid-workers and support-staffers live and go about their busy days, assuming the fortifications hold firm.

But what about everything outside the Green Zone's perimeter? Our sense is that busy days in the Red Zone, as it is called, involve bombs and chaos, violence and fear. But is this portrait true? For a long time I was skeptical of the mainstream media's reporting, suspecting that it was overly negative about what is going on in Iraq.

I decided to travel to Baghdad recently to see for myself. I met hardened diplomats in the vast government compound of the Green Zone who decline to leave it. And I talked to bitter journalists who languish in such Red Zone hotels as the Sheraton and the Al Hamra -- outposts that are walled off and guarded like seraglios but with less exotic appeal. Even if you can afford $1,700 for body armor or $4,000 a day for a pair of security guards -- and I could not -- terrorist kidnappers, it is true, make the Red Zone an unreasonable peril to a visiting American.

Without Bodyguards

But that is not the whole picture. If media accounts of the dangers to Westerners are all too accurate, other media accounts -- of everyday life in today's Iraq -- can't be trusted. They aren't necessarily false, just out of focus, disproportionate and incomplete -- as if, by analogy, the life of a big American city could be captured by reciting the police blotter.

When I ran out of people who would come to see me at my hotel, I hightailed it up the scary freeway to the airport and came home. But Steven Vincent, the author of "In the Red Zone" (Spence, 240 pages, $27.95) and a free-lance reporter and art critic from New York, flew to Iraq twice, traveled about widely without bodyguards and reported at length. His book is in the great tradition of behind-the-scenes war reports, humanizing the participants of varying backgrounds and prominence -- from taxi drivers to shop owners, from tribal leaders to mullahs, from Baathist sympathizers to pro-American policemen -- and helping us to understand them in the context of their history, ordeals and dreams.

Mr. Vincent discovers that, regardless of the threats to foreigners, life is improving for the average Iraqi. We have heard of this, but he shows it. Instead of the war driving people into exile, as predicted by the peace party in the West, thousands of Iraqi refugees from Saddam's days are returning home. They are opening shops and factories and building houses and apartments. Jobs are more and more abundant. More people are buying cars and appliances, crowding narrow streets and straining the capacities of the power grid.

In Shia-dominated Basra, in the south, Iraqis are reworking farms and revitalizing commercial centers after years of Baathist neglect. The economy, of course, also expresses the conditions of the moment. As Mr. Vincent observes, there is an energetic wartime black market. And he discovers "mafia-like gangs comprised of Iranians and Saudis...smuggling oil and dealing drugs." Public transportation is mostly a riot of free-market taxi operators and street terminals ("garages"), where residents arrange intercity car and bus trips.

In recent days we have read, especially on the Internet, of as many as 156 political parties taking shape in Iraq. Perhaps the number is reliable: Mr. Vincent certainly shows plenty of Iraqis venturing out to organize themselves politically, whatever their security concerns. But he notes, too, that some "parties" -- at least at the time of his visits some months ago -- are fronts for petty criminals and fixers.

Condescending Visitors

But equally deceptive are the impressions of visiting Western groups, people embarking on what Mr. Vincent calls "pity tours" -- singers, artists and activists who visit Baghdad to fret about human-rights violations today while expressing no interest in the infinitely greater crimes of the Saddam era.

The indigenous artists whom Mr. Vincent interviews find the pity tourists condescending, to say the least, and misguided. At the Shahbandar Cafe, near the old covered bazaar, Baghdad's own bohemians tell him that they are thankful for the liberation of their country, even though some are humiliated that it was imposed rather than achieved by Iraqis themselves. Most admire the Americans. A painter named Essam Pasha Azizawy says of the U.S. servicemen he has met: "They called me 'Sir'!...Do you know what it's like for an Iraqi to hear someone in uniform call him 'sir'?"

Mr. Vincent talks to women's-rights organizers in Iraq who are surprised that they cannot get attention and support from women's groups in the West. One local feminist (and socialist) finds herself shunned by an international women's group -- because, apparently, she embraced the American overthrow of Saddam. The more militant members of the Western left, writes Mr. Vincent, "rarely describe the U.S. liberations of Afghanistan and Iraq as pro-feminist." Indeed, they seem "incapable of denouncing even the most egregious foreign customs or conceding that sometimes America has a better way."

Sophisticated Citizens

One does wish that, in addition to presenting such compelling characters, Mr. Vincent had interviewed some of Iraq's new Internet bloggers and broadcast personalities, and maybe more of Iraq's emerging political candidates. One wishes as well that he had spared us the sentimental account of his flirtation with a young woman in Basra.

But overall "In the Red Zone" has a tonic effect, renewing our sense of Iraq and its citizens and reminding us that we have much more to learn about the intricacies of Iraq's religious factions and tribes and about the layers of sophistication among its citizens. As the country approaches its first true elections, Mr. Vincent's book shows us a people who still don't fully understand democracy but who desperately want to acquire it. Your heart goes out to them.

Mr. Chapman, a former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Organizations in Vienna, is president of the Discovery Institute in Seattle, Wash.

articles 12/18

The Wonks' Loya Jirga
by David Brooks

Peace with Israel?
by David Warren

Make the Tax Cuts Permanent
Now.
by Stephen Moore & Jeffrey Bell

The Army We Have
It's too small.
by Frederick W. Kagan

Rules of Disengagement
Ariel Sharon sticks to the road map.
by Peter Berkowitz

Anxiety Over Abortion
Pro-choice Democrats eye a more restrictive approach to abortion as one way to gain ground at the polls

The Trouble with Beinart, Part III
Are our troops fighting for gay marriage?
by Mickey Kaus

California's Stem Cell Gold Rush
by William Safire

Shooting Allegedly Staged to Avoid Returning to Iraq
Philadelphia police say a soldier whose unit has been ordered back to the war had his wife's cousin wound him in the leg as part of the scheme.

At Ivy League Schools, ROTC, Long Banned, Plots a Comeback
Push May Stir Up Old PassionsOn These Elite Campuses; A Beachhead at Harvard

Reuters
Syria Redeploys Some Security Forces in Lebanon

Kids Are Us
Mary Eberstadt talks about what parental absenteeism is doing to children.
by Kathryn Jean Lopez

Holding Up Arab Reform
by Thomas Friedman

FDR Is Dead
Time to move on.
by Jonah Goldberg

Commander says Syria must curb terrorist support
by Bill Gertz

Wanted: Israeli neocons
by Caroline B. Glick

Not supporting Rumsfeld
by Robert Novak

Home alone America is 75 percent right
by Mona Charen

Selling a dangerous lie
by Rebecca Hagelin

Christianity and the Arts
by Doug Giles

Return of Return of the King
The Extended Edition DVD of Lord of the Rings: Return of the King is bigger, but is it better?
by Jonathan V. Last

ABC News
'Ocean's Twelve' Stars On 'Moral Values'

Owners open wallets to wacky contracts
For three straight offseasons, baseball's free-agent market was mostly depressed, with agents grumbling that they were the victims of "legal collusion." Well, the agents are back to giggling. True to form, the clubs could restrain themselves for only so long.
by Ken Rosenthal

Zito, Mulder may be on trading block too
A's general manager Billy Beane might not stop with his trade of ace right-hander Tim Hudson. Beane figures to make at least one more significant deal this off-season, and one of his two prized left-handers, Barry Zito or Mark Mulder, could be the next to go.
by Ken Rosenthal

Gammons: A win-win trade
The Braves bolstered their team by acquiring Tim Hudson, while the A's strengthened themselves for the long haul.
by Peter Gammons

U2 Dissect "Bomb"
Bono, Edge, Adam and Larry have their say
by David Fricke

The Key to How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb
by Steven R. Harmon
"My first listen through Atomic Bomb left me with two initial impressions. First, this album is going to be a hit. Musically it's their best overall album ever, and four or five of the tracks are naturals for release as singles that should get good airplay. Second, the majority of the people who buy and listen to this music may not fully grasp its deepest significance. Of all the albums U2 has recorded over the past 25 years, this one is the most overtly Christian in its rendering of the world. But this is obvious only to those who are already being formed by the biblical story and thus look at the world through the same set of lenses worn by the creators of this music."

Beyond the Rim

Beyond the Rim
By Mark Helprin
Wall Street Journal
December 13, 2004

From the beach at Santa Monica on a clear day in fall, with 3,000 miles of this country invisible at one's back, the Pacific horizon is a precisely etched line empty of event and set in alluring color. But beyond the rim lie two things now tightly interwoven: China, and the destiny of the United States.

There never was and never will be a "unipolar" world. The existence of one pole being conditioned upon the existence of another, the notion of such a thing is as sloppy conceptually as the thinking of the "leading international relations specialist," recently quoted in the Washington Post, who lamented that "The border . . . is becoming a dividing line."

The short unhappy life of whatever passed for unipolarity is emphatically over not merely because the strategy of the moment has allowed a small force of primitive insurgents in Iraq to occupy a large proportion of American military energy, but because China is now powerful and influential enough, at least as a "fleet-in-being," to make American world dominance inconceivable. And in the longer term, China is bent upon and will achieve gross military and economic parity with the United States.

China is methodically following the example of Meiji Japan in moving from a position of inferiority to one of military equality with far superior rivals, by deliberate application of a striking phenomenon of economics that is to the military relation between states what the golden section is to architecture. Consider a hypothetical country of 10 million people, and a $1 billion GNP, that devotes 10% of its $100 per capita GNP to defense. The people are left with $90/year, suffering one day in 10 to support a $100 million military outlay. But after 18 years of 8% economic growth and 2% population increase per annum, it becomes a hypothetical country of 14 million souls, a GNP of $4 billion, and a per capita GNP of $285. If the people retain only three-quarters of this, they are still almost two and a half times richer than they were before, and the military budget can safely rise to $1 billion. Thus, the GNP increases by a factor of four, per capita GNP more than doubles, and defense outlays swell by a factor of 10.

The Meiji called their variant of this, Fukoku Kyohei, "rich country, strong arms." To contemporary Americans and Europeans accustomed to low-single-digit economic growth and periodic recession, an 8% annual growth rate over 18 years might seem too hypothetical. But between 1980 and the present, China's GDP has grown at an average annual rate, like the 9.7% of 2004's first half, of just under 10%. It is probably safe to say that any diminution of real growth as a result of inflation is roughly offset by gains in the unreported black economy, and clearly ironic that while in China a bunch of former Maoists appreciates the potentiality of high growth, in America the left thinks it unworthy of putting the nanny state at risk.

China's steady expansion is impressive enough, but of greater significance is the 16.2% growth, in 2003, of the industrial/technical sector that has made China a mercantile power and not only contributes to social stability by providing consumer goods but assimilates and replicates Western military technology. Though the data vary according to source and time, they are all of the same complexion. In the CIA's reasonable analysis, China's is the world's second largest economy, with a GDP, expressed in purchasing power parity (PPP), of $6.5 trillion. The resultant $5,000 per capita PPP GDP, given the risks of China's transition to a market economy and the concomitant instabilities to be avoided, leaves less room at the margin for military expenditure than if stability were not in question, and China in 2003 devoted only 3.5% of GDP to defense. This moderation is simultaneously an effort to preserve social peace and a realistic view of the effective pace of military reform and technological transformation. Nonetheless, in 2003 at least $60 billion went to defense, thrice the expenditure of 10 years before.

That sum, while less than a fifth of American outlays other than the costs of the campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq, does not reflect adjustment for PPP, which, though not as powerful a multiple as in the civilian sector (due to the nature of military goods, and procurement abroad) should boost equivalent Chinese military spending to at least $100 billion. Imagine then if China, as it easily could, were to double its GDP in the next eight or nine years, and, taking advantage of a parallel increase in gains per capita, double the defense share of GDP. It would then have (PPP) defense outlays roughly equivalent to ours.

China, however, moves with great deliberation, and many signs suggest that it is aiming for parity in 20 or more years time and in synchrony with advances in technology and military doctrine.

China is at risk if, as is its wont periodically, it runs off the rails into civil war, anarchy, or revolution. But the true counter-revolutionary import of the 11th Party Congress reforms of 1978 is that, unlike the former Soviet Union, China is making its transition to the free market in careful strides so as not to be forced backwards. Though neither ideal nor democratic, its incremental economic and policy choices are carefully calibrated, redolent of compromise, and configured for the survival and stability of the state. And the more time that passes, the more the development of its internal markets will protect its now mercantile economy from the gyrations of world markets.

With its new economic resources China has embarked upon a military traverse from reliance upon mass to devotion to quality, with stress upon war in space, the oceans, and the ether -- three areas of unquestioned American superiority. China is establishing its own space- based assets and developing the means to counter others. It would neutralize American strategic superiority as the aging U.S. arsenal is reduced and it augments its own. Its submarine program is directed to the deployment of its strategic force and denial of successively greater bands of the Pacific -- eventually reaching far out into blue water -- to the safe transit of American fleets. It sees America's advantage in informational warfare both as something to be copied and as a weak link that, by countermeasure, can be shattered. In short, it harbors major ambitions.

When China was great, it sent out military expeditions by land and sea into a large part of what was for it the known world, and despite robotic protestations to the contrary it will do so again. It has already begun what it itself might at one time have called imperial expansion, driven not by ideology but the need for markets and raw materials. Major crude oil importation, begun only recently, is one-quarter the volume of U.S. crude imports, leading China to compete for petroleum not only in the Middle East but in South America and at least six countries in Africa. This it can do with its immense $400 billion balance of payments reserves and ability to supply high quality manufactured goods at all levels to its potential oil suppliers.

An example of China's growing power to interfere with crucial U.S. interests is the new Sino-Persian $100 billion trade agreement, the perfect complementarity of which -- manufactures and military goods in exchange for oil and Islamic endorsement -- is echoed by the fact that, at present, the chief American counter to Iranian nuclear weapons development is the threat of a trade embargo, which China need not observe, through the Security Council, over which China has a veto. A clue to how the world may yet divide is China's willingness, like America's in the Cold War, to take less-than-perfect states under its wing without a care for their moral improvement. In fact, China must be delighted (what rival would not be?) that America's war aims in the Middle East are conditioned upon reordering the Islamic world, the most inconvertible of all divisions of mankind. Although U.S. intervention is obviously required, the nature and scope of the enterprise as stated is a gift to China worth many years of effort.

This and a persistent blindness in regard to China's probable trajectory are wounds gratuitously self-inflicted, for no country, ever, has had both the mass and income at the margin that the United States has now, but rather than anticipate, meet, and discourage China's military development, as it easily could, the U.S. has chosen to ignore it. America's métiers are the sea, the air, and space, and with one exception our major allies in Asia are island nations. These factors could be combined to keep China on the straight and narrow for generations longer than otherwise, but America's vision has been knocked out of focus by its ideals, and when China does develop the powerful expeditionary forces that it will need to protect its far- flung interests, the U.S. will probably have successfully completed transforming its military into a force designed mainly to fight terrorism and insurgencies.

Though the dangers of epidemics and terrorist nuclear attacks are now obviously pre-eminent, rising behind them is a newer world yet. This century will be not just the century of terrorism: terrorism will fade. It will be a naval century, with the Pacific its center, and challenges in the remotest places of the world offered not by dervishes and crazy-men but by a great power that is at last and at least America's equal. Unfortunately, it is in our nature neither to foresee nor prepare for what lies beyond the rim.

Mr. Helprin, a Journal contributing editor and senior fellow of the Claremont Institute for the Study of Statesmanship and Political Philosophy, is the author, most recently, of "The Pacific and Other Stories," just out from Penguin.

Corrections & Amplifications:
China's crude oil imports are one-quarter the volume of U.S. crude imports and its balance of payments reserves is $400 billion. Due to a transmission error, both of these figures were misstated in an earlier version of this commentary.

articles 12/17

President George W. Bush and Office of Management and Budget Director Joshua Bolton (C) talk to conferees, above a misspelled sign, at the White House Conference on the Economy in Washington, December 16, 2004. The White House went all out to showcase the advantages of U.S. President George W. Bush's ambitious financial agenda this week, but in the end the 'challenges' proved too much.

Yuan-derful
The Chinese currency isn't the threat it's made out to be.
by Jonathan Anderson

Back to the Future
When will Russia atone for its Communist past?
by Duncan Currie

Here's One Use Of U.S. Power
Jacques Can't Stop "American influence" is the great white whale of the 21st century.
by Daniel Henninger

Pinochet on Trial
A victory for Bill Clinton and Henry Kissinger too.

Republican Insecurity
A party divided cannot reform Social Security.
by Fred Barnes

For Army, it's Operation Stretch
As the military rushes to reorganize in a race against time, the 3rd Infantry steels itself for a second deployment.

NY Sun
Social Security Issue Poses a Challenge For the Democrats

NY Sun
City Probing Kerik Records

NY Daily News
City starts probe of Kerik
Dept. of Investigation takes its cue from News revelations

Where Aquarius Went
by Christopher Hitchens

Bryant tries to show he's a (insert positive adjective) guy
by Mike Lopresti

articles 12/16

W. Post
At Guantanamo, a Prison Within a Prison
CIA Has Run a Secret Facility for Some Al Qaeda Detainees, Officials Say

The Defense Secretary We Have
Our soldiers deserve a better defense secretary.
by William Kristol

National Review Editorial
Operation “Gotcha!”
The McCain-Hagel Caucus is helping only its members.

Rumsfeld's War
Imagination, transformation, and reality in Iraq.
by Tom Donnelly

Mend It or End It
Taking U.N. reform seriously.
by Mario Loyola

The Year of the Blog
An anti-Christian hit piece lets Newsweek become the latest big media organization to be debunked by the blogosphere.
by Hugh Hewitt

A Republican's Mass. Appeal
By George F. Will

Conscience
by David Warren

Recovery, phase two
by Larry Kudlow

Media’s bad intelligence on the intel bill
by Joel Mowbray

Play is under siege
A doll can expand a child's mind in a way that a flashcard can't

It's Policy, Not Poetry
Democrats puzzle over how to "manipulate symbols." Why not start by taking a stand for Christmas?
by Peggy Noonan

Serious About Syria
How young Assad is working against us in Iraq.

Question Authority
What the media got wrong about Spc. Wilson and Secretary Rumsfeld.
by John Guardiano

'The Consecration'
Napoleon, David and the French paradox.
by Daniel Mark Epstein

Hunter's Gun Truck
One reason for the Iraq armor shortage: The military is too thorough.
by Brendan Miniter

A town that just doesn't get it
by Michael Medved

Hollywood's 'elite': We're not villains
By Steven Levitan

USA Today
Nordic family ties don't mean tying the knot

‘New PE' objective: Get kids in shape
Taking root in former ‘fast food capital,' program aims to thwart obesity

NFL gets fans really up close and personal
League testing next ‘cool thing': Luxury leather seats with TVs almost on the field

Rolling Stone
U2 Drops Bomb
If there was any doubt that U2 is the biggest band in the world, there's none now

U2.com
The Next Single - Twice
'All Because of You' is to be U2's second single in North America, while 'Sometimes You Can't Make it On Your Own' is set for release in the rest of the world.

articles 12/13

NY Times
The Troubles of Mr. Kerik, Ex-Nominee

THE NOMINEE'S PAST
Beyond the Disclosure About Kerik's Nanny, More Questions Were Lurking

LA Times
U.S. Options Few in Feud With Iran
Alarmed at Tehran's nuclear ambitions, Washington for now can only watch and wait.

LA Times
Exodus of Staff Hobbles the FBI
The bureau is struggling with rapid turnover among top officials and analysts. The disorder further weakens efforts at a post-9/11 makeover.

Nonviolent protest
by Michael Barone

Bush's closed door
by Robert Novak

The party of government
by Paul Jacob

How To Approach Iran
by Madeleine Albright, secretary of state in the Clinton administration; Robin Cook of Britain, Hubert Vedrine of France, Lamberto Dini of Italy, Lloyd Axworthy of Canada, Niels Helveg Petersen of Denmark, Ana Palacio of Spain and Jozias van Aartsen of the Netherlands

WSJ Editorial
Color-Blind Progress
Why Harvard, Yale, Princeton and others are dropping race-based policies.

How Daschle Got Blogged
And how online journalism is transforming politics.
by John Fund

Beyond the Rim
We ignore China's growing military and economic power at our peril.
by Mark Helprin

Freedom Blooms
A roundup of the past month's good news from Afghanistan.
by Arthur Chrenkoff

Is Libya Contagious?
Encouraged by American leadership and elections in Iraq and the Palestinian Authority, the Middle East may be changing.
by Stephen Schwartz

Judges as Plumbers
by William Safire

Iraq, Ballots and Pistachios
by Thomas Freidman

The liberalism of 1947
by George Will

NY Times
Mountains and Border Foil Quest for bin Laden

NY Times
Pentagon Weighs Use of Deception in a Broad Arena

NY Times
Christian Conservatives Press Issues in Statehouses

Rolling Stone
Q&A: Bob Dylan
He's not sorry about the Victoria's Secret ad and not sure you should call Chronicles a book

AP
Mormon Church Disciplines Author for Book

Local Family Has Daughter Born Without a Face

Donations can be made at ANY Vystar Credit Union to Juliana Wetmore at member number 2102465.
Direct donations can be sent to:
Juliana Wetmore
3018 Hickory Glenn Dr.
Orange Park, FL 32065

articles 12/12

Democratic Providentialism
by Michael Ignatieff

D for democracy
by David Warren

Time
Why We Sleep
You may think it's for your body, but it's really for your brain. The latest research is full of surprises

Newsweek
Toxic Strength
The headlines about illegal steroids have focused on professional and Olympic athletes. But the most vulnerable users may be kids in your neighborhood, high-schoolers who are risking an array of frightful side effects that can lead to death

Yushchenko Aide Alleges 'KGB' Plot
Candidate's Chief of Staff Suspects 'KGB Experts' in Poisoning

Time
The Buzz on Caffeine
The energy booster may be good for you, but only if it's taken in moderation

Fight
by David Warren

NY Times
Psychology and Sometimes a Slap: The Man Who Made Prisoners Talk

NY Times
The U.S. vs. a Nuclear Iran

NY Times Magazine
The Science of Second-Guessing
Questions for Stephen Hawking
The renowned physicist discusses (via e-mail) stem-cell research, renouncing theories and why I.Q. doesn't matter.

NY Times Magazine
The Acceptable Knockoff
In a culture of sampling and remixing, imitation of all kinds is inevitable

NY Post
Berned
White House Nailed Kerik

Newsday
Inside the Kerik mess

They'll Abstain If They're Given Good Reasons
by Deborah M. Roffman

Athletes We Deserve
We Built That Pedestal, and We Can Tear It Down
By Kathryn Jay

Mile High Musings
Comments on How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb

articles 12/11

Michael Crichton Takes on Global Warming in Latest Work
Author Says Environmentalists Are 'Fomenting False Fears'

Real Reform for Social Security
by David Brooks

U.S. News
The power of prayer
for the meek and mighty, saint and scoundrel, an undeniable urge to reach out to a greater being
Seeds of Chaos

U.S. News
The Baghdad Files: A trove of secret intelligence reports shows how Saddam Hussein planned the current insurgency in Iraq Long before the invasion that toppled his regime was even launched

NY Times
New Spy Plan Said to Involve Satellite System

In From The Cold
Deserter Charles Jenkins, who spent nearly 40 years in secretive North Korea, tells his story

Cardweb.com
Gender Gap
The average American female carries about $200 less in credit card debt than their counterpart. A new survey has found that American males have an average of $2,742 of credit card debt spread out over 2.5 cards, and that females average $2,522 of credit card debt on 3.3 cards.

Rumsfeld vs. the American Soldier
What Rummy's survival says about Bush's plans for his second term.
by Fred Kaplan

Wired News
Troops Stay in Touch on Intranet

Racism finds a home in white towers
by William Armstrong

Wired
The Cuban Biotech Revolution
Embargo or no, Castro's socialist paradise has quietly become a pharmaceutical powerhouse. (They're still working on the capitalism thing.)

AP
Fewer Teens Engaging in Sex, Study Finds

Wall Street Journal Editorial
Congress's Paperwork Humvees
First, fix the military's failed acquisition system.

NY Sun
Windfall Likely on Wall Street from Bush Plan

What Alexander had in mind during his reign
The Virtues of War: A Novel of Alexander the Great.
Steven Pressfield. Doubleday. $24.95. 368 pp.

Getting Serious About Syria
By Bush Doctrine standards, Syria is a hostile regime, so we have a Syria problem.
by William Kristol

Present at the Creation
With Dick Cheney at the inauguration of Afghanistan's first elected president.
by Stephen F. Hayes

National Review Editorial
Humvee Heartburn
Continuing transformative needs.

The Ents of Europe
Strange rumblings on the continent.
by Victor Davis Hanson

Republican Insecurity
A party divided cannot reform Social Security.
by Fred Barnes

The Iraq Effect?
Muslim anti-Americanism is mostly hot air.

'Trust the People'
The "Reagan earthquake" still reverberates through the world economy.
by Brian Wesbury

USA Today
Companies that ban guns put on defensive
Laws pit gun owners vs. employers over right to bear arms

The Democratic Boom
Kiev to Baghdad: Diverse people chase the same goal.

What is Man? Curbing Co-dependency and Eradicating Irresponsibility
by Doug Giles

A loss for Rove
by Robert Novak

Iraqi elections a test of American faith
by Kathleen Parker

Hey Kids! Want Good Sex? Try Abstinence.
by Warren Throckmorton

USA Today
Alison Krauss, Union elation
Success runs both ways — music and popularity

A Legion of Little Helpers
We're all performance-enhancers now. Hypocrites, too.
by Scott Gottlieb

AP
Dusty Baker steps to Bonds' defense

How Can You Be Sure?
by Skip Bayless

Rumblings & Grumblings
by Jayson Stark

articles 12/9

AP
Famous Atheist Now Believes in God
One of World's Leading Atheists Now Believes in God, More or Less, Based on Scientific Evidence

Wall Street Journal
Trying to RememberNew Passwords Isn't As Easy as ABC123
Codes in Flux Have EmployeesJotting, Not Memorizing;Long Lists on a Post-It

Something's Fishy in Ohio
by Jesse Jackson

Forbes
New Date for Nortel Revisions

Gallup Management Journal
Marketing to the Mass Affluent
They've got cash to spare, they're growing as a group, and their social attitudes are complex. How do you target them?

China's ‘daughter dearth'
The country's one-child policy is a humanitarian tragedy that is robbing its people one family at a time
by William R. Mattox Jr.

AP
French Judge: ATMs Help Finance Militants

NY Times
Credit Card Loyalty Put to the Switch Test

AP
Parents Go on Strike, Move to Front Yard

The fourth estate rumbles for more privilege
by Jonah Goldberg

The New And Improved Racism
by Ann Coulter

Condi’s First Test: The Oil-for-Food Scandal
by Joel Mowbray

Torturing John Snow
by Robert Novak

They think you're stupid
by Alan Reynolds

Beyond wishful thinking about Islam
by Marvin Olasky

Higher education in decline
by Walter E. Williams

Edwards in 2008
by John McCaslin

The New Seriousness
How to read the Bush administration's commitment to Iraq.
by Tom Donnelly

Jihad chat-room.
Terrorists discover the Instant Message.

NY Sun
U.N. Is Deemed A 'Lost Cause,' Annan or Not

NY Sun
Dean Warns Democrats Against Becoming 'Republican Lite'

NY Sun
A Threat to the Bush Boom

Where Are They Now?
Four years after leaving the White House, Hillary Clinton plots her return.
by Peggy Noonan

Be Careful What You Wish For
Overturning Roe v. Wade would be good for the Democrats.
by James Taranto

Wall Street Journal Editorial
A Stronger Treasury
The President needs one for rougher financial times.

Wall Street Journal Editorial
Meet the Nidniks
Washington gets another intelligence bureaucracy. Great.

GI Janes, By Stealth
The Army tries to pull a fast one.
by Mackubin Thomas Owens

Wired News
What Price Privacy?

Wall Street Journal
Questions for…Jared Fogle
Sandwich Pitchman Speaks On Being a 'Real' Character

LA Times
The New Quiz Show Scandal -- Reality Television

The Shia party
by David Warren

What If It's Not Israel They Loathe?
by Amir Taheri

Fast Company
Dee Hock on Management

Elites lost to people power
by Dick Morris

National Journal
Do Racial Preferences Limit Black Lawyers?

Drudge Report
Rumsfeld Set Up; Reporter Planted Questions With Soldier

NY Daily News
Nat'l Enquirer: Boy's prints on Jacko's porn stash

NY Times
Prepping for the Next Big Battle: The Supreme Court
"Incredibly, the article doesn't mention the role blogs will play --the subject of some speculation in my new book, but the short version is that blogs will drive the debate over any nominee, not MSM. Simply put, there are a legion of bloggers who are lawyers and law professors, and they will descend on the nominee's written record in the blink of an eye. They will also slice and dice any hack attacks from the left. In short, it will be Rathergate all over again with blog piling on blog to produce the newest news and the crucial rebuttals. And the Times thinks it is all about old Ralph Neas. Get Ralph a rocker." -- Hugh Hewitt

Let The Swap Meet Begin
by Jayson Stark

articles 12/7

NY Sun
Pentagon Eyes New Military Base as Iran Edges Toward an A-bomb

W. Post
Commander Sees Shift In Role of U.S.
Troops Force Would Focus On Training Iraqis

Christmas Cheer
'Tis the season for good economic news.
by Irwin M. Stelzer

Blame Worthy
by Noam Scheiber

Wither The Mainstream Media?
by William Bennett

The Eastern Front, 2004
by Tony Judt

NY Times
Bush's Arms Intelligence Panel Works in Secret

NY Times
2 C.I.A. Reports Offer Warnings on Iraq's Path

Monster Farming
The creepy solution to the stem-cell debate.
by William Saletan

Exit Polls and Porsches
It's all about the storytelling here at kf!
by Mickey Kaus

The "Cranks" at the CIA
The CIA is trying to distance itself from Michael Scheuer. What does that say about the Agency? by Matthew Continetti

Bias Beyond a Reasonable Doubt
Yes, the media are overwhelmingly liberal.
by Robert J. Barro

Annan is a symptom of the UN's sickness
by Jeff Jacoby

The turning tide
by Michael Barone

Random thoughts
by Thomas Sowell

Why does the media lie about Powell’s speech to the UN?
by Joel Mowbray

WSJ Editorial
HillaryCare in Tennessee
The disaster that might have been for the entire country.

The Frustrated Archbishop
A roundup of the past two weeks' good news from Iraq.
by Arthur Chrenkoff

What's the Matter With Kansas? Not a thing, it turns out.
by Steven Malanga

‘Sacred' shouldn't override science
by Mario Cuomo

So who were those values voters?
by Ralph Reed

Dodging a Bullet
The intel-reform bill may not make us safer, but Congress averted a disaster.
by Brendan Miniter

WSJ Editorial
On Planet U.N.
The Security Council provides no security.

Golden chance for NAACP
by Star Parker

Blue America: The land of the easily offended
by Dennis Prager

Looking for love in all the wrong places
by David Limbaugh

articles 12/5

White Muslim
From L.A. to New York to . . . jihad?
by Brendan Bernhard

Were the Darwinists Wrong?
National Geographic stacks the deck.

Conflicted America
The Ironies Abound
by Andrew Sullivan

NY Times
For Kerik, a Blunt New Yorker, a Complex Washington Task

NY Times Magazine
The Hidden (In Plain Sight) Persuaders
By ROB WALKER
It's not hard to understand why corporations would try "word of mouth" marketing campaigns to promote their products. But why would regular people volunteer to turn their daily interactions into marketing moments?

San Diego Union-Tribune
Fallujah battle inflicted crippling defeat on terrorists

Newsweek
Religion: The Birth of Jesus
From Mary to the manger, how the Gospels mix faith and history to tell the Christmas story and make the case for Christ

Newsweek
The Christmas Miracle
Most Americans believe the virgin birth is literally true, a NEWSWEEK poll finds

Dems Civil War
by Peter Beinart

Burdens of proof
By Michael Barone

A Conservative Departs
About Colin Powell.
by John O'Sullivan

NY Times Magazine
An Islamic Democracy for Iraq?

NY Times
The King and I
by Steve Martin

Economic reality check
by Lawrence Kudlow

Hype, hoaxes, hacks . . . and science
by Paul Jacob

Time for a Kofi Break
Annan's one virtue: He weakens the U.N.
by Glenn Harold Reynolds

The Year in Books
So many books, so few worth reading.
by Joseph Bottum

Putin's rage
by David Warren

Anchors away
by David Warren

AP
Report: Tillman's Final Minutes a Horror

Lawyers, drugs and money
by Peter Gammons

Giambi Can't Escape
by Buster Olney

U2's Bono Pledges His Life For The Greater Good

US No.1 (Plus 21 others!)
'How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb' has gone straight to the top of the US chart, the fifth time U2 have been at No.1 simultaneously on both sides of the Atlantic. And the album is now hugging the top spot in twenty one other countries. Here's the list: Austria, Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, UK, USA. U2's 11th studio album is the fifth time they have managed the feat of topping the charts on both sides of the Atlantic simultaneously - they previously achieved this with The Joshua Tree, Rattle & Hum, Zooropa and Pop.

articles 12/3

Rumsfeld to stay on as defense secretary

O'Reilly Interviews Rumsfeld

Our Ukraine
We will lead our people to a legitimate victory.
By Viktor Yushchenko

Belmont Club
Some are More Equal Than Others

The Hill
Dems plan to redirect DNC away from presidential race

The Hill
Getting ready for Court fight
Right and left prepare for knock-down drag-out over next Supreme nominee

Lynch Mob's Real Target Is the U.N., Not Annan
By James Traub

Star-Tribune
Editorial: Going after Annan/A sordid move by Coleman

The Economist
America's one-party state
If you loathe political debate, join the faculty of an American university

Putin Gambles Big--and Loses
He needs a new Ukraine policy; we need a new Russia policy.
by Michael McFaul

They Still Haven't Figured Him Out
Bush's unexpected qualities.
by Fred Barnes

The Iraq Promise
The sounds emanating from the Middle East are the sounds, faint but unmistakable, of the ice cracking.
by William Kristol

Soiled Rotten
Forget ideology. The new divide is between the corrupt and the clean.
by Denis Boyles

W. Times
Rafsanjani reasserts Iran nuke right

Telegraph
Bin Laden's hideout is touted as tourist site
by Tom Coghlan

From civil rights to Cosby values
by Clarence Page

Boca Raton News
Florida Kerry supporters meet for group therapy
Voters shout epithets at President Bush during first PEST counseling session

'Helping' the President
by Robert Novak

From McLuhan to Artest
Street-fightin' men stomp the quiet virtues.
by Daniel Henninger

Wall Street Journal
A Chill in the Classroom
Liberal professors routinely harass conservative students.

Dotty Arundhati
A peace prize winner makes war on America.
By Tunku Vardarajan

Meet the Newest Member of the Faculty
Clinton pardons a terrorist, and now she's teaching in Clinton, N.Y.
by Roger Kimball

Straighten Up and Fly Right
How long before Washington's political correcteness leads to new hijackings?

NY Sun
Iraq Election Will Amaze the World, Predicts President

Forge Ahead
The president is right: The Iraq elections need to happen in January. And there are steps we can take now to make them safer.
by Mario Mancuso

Why Only in Ukraine?
By Charles Krauthammer

Bush Has a Narrow Window to Push His Ideas Through
by John C. Fortier

More nuance and flipflops
by David Limbaugh

Not his party
by Jonah Goldberg

National Review
Absurd Rush
Wait for Silberman/Robb.

Man Is Wolfe to Man
Sigh. If only Charlotte Simmons were all fiction.
by John Derbyshire

The Independent
Saddam 'raided UN arms sites for suicide attacks'

Wall Street Journal
In From the Cold: He Was a CommunistFor Dutch Intelligence
Comrade 'Chris Petersen' Was Big in China and Albania; 'Project Mongol' Tell-All

Wall Street Journal
Ukraine, Vladimir and George

Night Falls on Caracas,With No Carter in Sight
by Mary Anastasia O'Grady

Ukraine Isn't the Only Target
by Vladimir Socor

A left-wing monopoly on campuses
by Jeff Jacoby

Anti-Abortion Dems Seek Better Seat at Table

A New Revolution
by John Podhoretz

They Don't Make Heroes The Way They Used To
by George Vecsey

W. Post
McCain Threatens Baseball Over Drugs
Ariz. Senator Wants Stricter Steroid Policy

The Truth Lies in the Numbers
By Thomas Boswell

San Francisco Chronicle
What Bonds told BALCO grand jury
"I never asked Greg" about what the products contained, Bonds testified. "When he said it was flaxseed oil, I just said, 'Whatever.' "It was in the ballpark ... in front of everybody. I mean, all the reporters, my teammates. I mean, they all saw it. I didn't hide it."

San Francisco Chronicle
Bonds' attorney insists client did nothing illegal

Far from 'Roid To Ruin
by Jayson Starke

Bonds's Tarnished Records Deserve an Asterisk
By Michael Wilbon

Don't Ask, Don't Tell, Yeah Right
by Ray Ratto

SportsNation
Bonds is guilty, but he's not alone

Throw the book at 'em
by Jack McDowell
"In deciding what to do with all this, Major League Baseball needs to look at the damage this behavior has done to the game. In my humble opinion, it far outweighs the damage Pete Rose caused the great name of baseball."

Expect Bonds, Giambi to be scorned
by Ken Rosenthal

It's up to Bud
Bonds bombshell means Selig has to take stronger stand
by Tom Verducci

Conte Comes Clean

The man behind BALCO claims he's come clean. "I have too much information to go quietly."

articles 12/2

An Arugment For A New Liberalism
A Fighting Faith
by Peter Beinart

Reuters
Bush Calls for Full U.N. Oil-For-Food Probe

Americans' Role Eyed in U.N. Oil Scandal
Were American Oil Brokers Involved in Iraq Oil Kickback Schemes?

U.S. told of Iranian effort to create nuclear warhead
by Bill Gertz

AP
U.N. Rejects Call for Annan's Resignation

Republicans Have Dems Over a Barrel
by Deborarh Orin

The 9/11 Bubble
by Thomas Freidman

Wall Street Journal editorial
Red Double-Crossed Again
The ICRC betrays America--and the Geneva Conventions.

The Demons
by David Warren

Kofi Jr.
by Emmett Tyrrell

AP
Kenneth Starr says he shouldn't have been involved in Lewinsky case

Real Clear Politics
Tax Simplification

Economic reality check
by Larry Kudlow

The most influential philosopher alive
by Marvin Olasky

NAACP needs to change more than just its leader
by Mary Mitchell

No heroes?
by Thomas Sowell

Persistent civil rights wounds
by Clarence Page

Biased coverage in Iraq
by Helle Dale

The Big Questions
God and man…well, me, specifically.
by Jonah Goldberg

Don't look now -- but Bush is uniting the country
by Larry Elder

22nd Amendment blues
by Robert Novak

Give Freedom a Chance
by Clifford D. May

Death by Committee
What the Groningen Protocol says about our world, and where it might lead next.
by Hugh Hewitt

Testing the Limits of Big Government
How the Supreme Court's ruling on medical marijuana will impact not just the drug war, but the judicial concept of federalism.
by Terry Eastland

The Education of Dan Rather
From the golden age of network TV to the end of its hegemony.
by Peggy Noonan

Wired News
More Robot Grunts Ready for Duty

ESPN
Admissions Before BALCO Grand Jury Detailed

San Francisco Chronicle
Giambi admitted taking steroids

ESPN
Giambi May Have Breached Contract

A Dark Time
by Dan Wetzel

articles 12/1

AP
More in America Putting Off Marriage

W. Post
Some Abstinence Programs Mislead Teens, Report Says

The Left and the Islamists
Joshua Kurlantzick

Islam and Freedom
by James Q. Wilson

The Islamization of Europe?
by David Pryce-Jones

LA Times
PR Meets Psy-Ops in War on Terror
The use of misleading information as a military tool sparks debate in the Pentagon. Critics say the practice puts credibility at stake.

Financial Times
US economy grows 3.9% in third quarter

NY Sun
Leading Senator Calls For Annan to Resign at U.N.

NY Sun
Tehran's Triumph
Europe and the U.N. bless Iran's march toward a nuclear weapon.

Kofi Annan Must Go
It's time for the secretary-general to resign.
by Sen. Norm Coleman

Secretary and Son Kofi
Annan isn't Kojo's keeper, but he can't shirk responsibility for the U.N.
by Claudia Rosett

To save the U.N., cut the dues
by Dick Morris

The Fourth Election
by William Safire

Misbegotten intel reform
by Tony Blankley

Chicago Sun-Times editorial
Unsung ally not unappreciated

Jesusland for thee, but not for me
by Jonah Goldberg

Desperate Di
NBC runs their own housewife for sweeps.
by Blyth Spirit

Pressure Works
by David Frum

The Freedom Haters
By Anne Applebaum

National Review editorial
Fatal Fool’s Game
Europeans ignore the deadly stakes in negotiating with Iran.

USA Today
Census: 5.4 million mothers are choosing to stay at home

USA Today
Dwindling Freemasons hope to attract new blood
Conspiracy theorists' favorite target launches campaign to soften its image

Billboard
U2's 'Bomb' Explodes At No. 1
How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb is leaping to the top of the charts across the known universe. The album has now topped the charts in the U.S., Ireland, UK, France, Germany, Holland, Denmark, Poland, Finland and Australia. If first week sales are anything to go by, the signs suggest that the new album could prove even more popular than its illustrious predecessors. How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb has now shipped 5.6 million units worldwide, 5 million outside the UK, including 2.5 million in the US. In comparison, global shipments for U2's previous studio album All That You Can't Leave Behind were 3.26 million units ahead of release. All That You Can't Leave Behind went on to sell over 10.5 million copies.

USA Today
Holiday TV classics countdown

Reuters
Brain scan shows differences in truth, lying

USA Today
Business student invents glow-in-the-dark underwear

C.S. Lewis and Mother Kirk
Why Lewis was a Protestant.

Covetousness vs. contentment
by Skip Ryan

articles 11/30

Who Is John Stott?
by David Brooks

The problem is Putin
by George Will

Presidential losers left with nowhere to go
Democrats kicked Gore to the curb. Kerry is likely next. Dispatching the vanquished so quickly isn't serving the party — or the country.
By Ross K. Baker

The Grassroots Can Save Democrats
Howard Dean paved the way to future victories.
by Joe Trippi

No Need for Nukes
The Iranian regime owes Bush a thank-you note--and disarmament.
by Brendan Miniter

Religion, Politics, and the New Obtuseness
Liberals in a tizzy over religious voters and Bush's reelection need a refresher course on the American tradition of religious expression in the political arena.
by Claudia Winkler

Recount 2004
Look for Ohio to take an honored place in fevered left-wing lore.
by Rich Lowry

Why We Need a Marriage Amendment
by Robert P. George, David L. Tubbs

Can Terrorists Turn Out Gotham’s Lights?
by Mark P. Mills, Peter W. Huber

NY Sun
Cuts To U.N. Funding Are Weighed by Senate In Sanctions Scandal

NY Sun
Rumsfeld for Defense

November Diary
The dangers of parody, MOPEs, and more.
by John Derbyshire

Iraqi bomb labs signal attacks in the works
by Bill Gertz

The Langley Lobotomy
By David Ignatius

A Second Term of Surprises?
By David S. Broder

Intelligence reform recess
by Frank J. Gaffney Jr.

Boston Globe
From left, religious figures make a push

W. Times
Fighting fear with faith

AP
Netherlands Hospital Euthanizes Babies

AFP
Early anti-Bush demos fizzle in Canada

Real Clear Politics
Wilson, War & Democracy

NY Times
Too Much Stress May Give Genes Gray Hair

Hollywood Reporter
Humble Rather earned departure fit for an icon
"'Ed Murrow's ghost is here. I've seen him and talked
to him on the third floor of this building many times
late at night. And I can tell you that he's watching
over us'"...

USA Today
Alexander the Great tells his own story in fictional ‘Virtues of War'

My "Bomb" Review
Song by song comments on the new U2 album from a Christian perspective

Entertainment Weekly
On the Edge
U2's most underrated songs.

articles 11/29

Financial Times
UN to issue alert over spread of nuclear arms

Nuclear Threat Initiative
China's Missile Exports and Assistance to Iran

'My Son, My Son'
by William Safire

NY Times
High For the Holidays

Canada on Drugs
by David Warren

Shock and Awe In the Senate
The filibuster protects minority rights, enabling government to measure and respect not merely numbers but intensity in political disputes
by George Will

Time
Iran, Still Defiant
Scott MacLeod and Nahid Siamdoust report from Tehran on how it views the nuclear standoff with the West

What Is a Cabinet For?
To serve at the pleasure of the president, not to constrain him.
by Bret Stephens

Time
The Battle Is Over, but the War Goes On
Those who think they won on "moral values" may be in for a surprise

What's Not W's Mandate
by Dick Morris

Florida Northwest
Will Democrats steal the Washington governorship?
by John Fund

Pursue Happiness, Vote GOP
The real reason Republicans win.
by Pete DuPont

France's American problem
by Robert Novak

Over the top
by John Leo

AP
Older brother of Michael Jordan his own man in the Army

Back in the USSR?
The crisis in the Ukraine is a clash between a people who want to look toward the West and an old power who wants its vassal states back. But the fight may already be over.
by Reuben F. Johnson

A Nuclear Iran
Is it a question or "if," or "when"?
by Christian Lowe

Weekly Standard
Clintonmania
It never ends in Arkansas.
by Matt Labash

NY Sun
Iran Signs Up Killers For Suicide Attacks on Yanks, Israelis

Arafat's Squalid End
How he wasted his last 30 years.
By Christopher Hitchens

Understanding Terror Networks
by Marc Sageman
Marc Sageman, a newly appointed FPRI Senior Fellow, was a CIA case officer in Afghanistan between 1987–89 and is now a forensic psychiatrist. This essay is based on his FPRI BookTalk on October 6, 2004, which doubled as one of our regular Situation Reports on the War on Terrorism, held every two months. His book, Understanding Terror Networks, was published by the University of Pennsylvania Press earlier this year.

Newsweek
Rove Unleashed
For the past 30 years he's focused like a laser on George W. Bush. What does Karl Rove do for an encore? The plans for a permanent GOP majority

World Magazine
Blue-state philosopher
Same-sex marriage? Euthanasia? Child's play issues in the avant-garde philosophy of Peter Singer, the "most influential" philosopher alive

Moral Values 101
by Joel Belz

What Is a Carnal Christian?
The Danger of Being Merely Human
by John Piper

Spin
Mysterious Days

Houston Chronicle
Are people born to believe? Geneticist says we are 'hardwired' for spiritual faith

Define "evangelical" -- please
by Terry Mattingly

ESPN
The Collusion Solution
by Jayson Stark

articles 11/28

LA Times
GOP Plants Flag on New Voting Frontier
Bush's huge victory in the fast-growing areas beyond the suburbs alters the political map.

More death
The Ukraine
by David Warren

Telegraph
Revealed: the full story of the Ukrainian election fraud

NY Times
California's New Stem-Cell Initiative Is Already Raising Concerns

LA Times
Religious spam can be the very devil

W. Post
'04 Voting: Realignment -- Or a Tilt?
Political Parties Look for Answers

Ignoring the lessons of Iraq
by Caroline B. Glick

Mamas don’t let your cowgirls grow up to be cowboys
by Mike S. Adams

Misplaced Metaphors
The conventional wisdom reveals more about us than about Iraq.
by Victor Davis Hanson

Fighting the good fight
by Charles Krauthammer

Conservatives don't always wear black hats
by Jonah Goldberg

NY Times
Chief Justice Won't Return to the Court This Year

Belmont Club
The Beat Goes On

WMDs camouflage real reasons behind Iraq invasion
by Frank Devine

WSJ
No Deficit of Courage
Congress and the president are getting spending under control.
by Joshua Bolten

Iran's Lonely Crowd
by Farouz Farzami

NY Times Magazine
Hey, Mom, Is It O.K. If These Guys Market Stuff to Us?
Inside the Geppetto Group, an advertising firm that aims at kids — and their all-consuming mothers.

NY Times Magazine
Constructing a Teen Phenom
Can endless amounts of professional coaching, video analysis, serious physical conditioning and $40,000 in tuition turn kids into team-sport stars?

W. Times
CIA report cites N. Korean proliferation threat
by Bill Gertz

Looking Back
The sound of U2 #14
the most theologically thorough review of "How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb" yet.

Christianity Today
How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb review

Christianity Today
Pop Love for a War-Torn World
Atomic Bomb is classic U2, with a prescription for healing the world.

The Wanderer
The Complete U2 review
The Complete U2 track listing

Fools For Jesus
by Brennan Manning
Does the phrase "A Christian is in the world but not of the world" correspond to the reality in which we live? One of the funny things about reality is its robust resistance to theories, abstractions, and ideals. The proverb "A stitch in time saves nine" does not confront procrastination, nor does the wisdom of Benjamin Franklin's "A penny saved is a penny earned" address the daily reality of the compulsive shopper. To be "in the world but not of the world" implies that a Christian is not influenced and intimidated by the values of our American culture. Isn't that an absurd proposition?

11/26 articles

AP
Weapons cache biggest yet

NY Sun
Annan's Son Took Payments Through 2004

NY Sun
Bush Hints at Israeli Role on Iranian Atom-Bomb

WSJ
Bashing the Boy Scouts
One group whose First Amendment rights the ACLU opposes.

The Home Front Comes to Life
America supports the troops--privately, and online.
by Daniel Henninger

Engage Iran
By David Ignatius

Some white liberals want diversity only if they get credit
by Ruben Navarrette

Dean, Clinton and Kerry: No, No, No for 2008
Democrats, lock these losers out.
by Jonathan Chait

Taxes, Social Security & the Politics of Reform
A Reaganite plan for Reagan's heirs.
by John D. Mueller

Two, Three, Many Fallujas
The allies are uprooting insurgents throughout Iraq.
by Mackubin Thomas Owens

Regime Change at the CIA
by William Kristol

Bush's European Itinerary
Where he should really go.
by Gerard Baker

ESPN
Three More Buckeyes Support Allegations
NCAA Interested In Talking to Clarett
"new sources from within the program have told ESPN they believe Clarett, and the NCAA has reason to listen to the allegations. Three former Ohio State players -- the son of a former Buckeyes assistant coach, an Academic All-Big Ten selection and a current NFL player -- spoke about tutors doing classwork for members of the football team and of a booster culture that spawned "$100 handshakes" and high-paying, low-effort summer jobs."