NY Times
C.I.A. Answers Criticism With Pledge to Do Better
“Dear Ellen”; or, Sexual Correctness at Harvard
by Ruth R. Wisse
Bush, Sharon, My Daughter, and Me
by Norman Podhoretz
Israel's disengagement plan has won a large cohort of domestic critics, as a ten-day visit reveals. But are they right?
NY Times
E-Mails Reveal Fraud in Nuclear Site Study
Government employees studying a potential nuclear waste site in Nevada acknowledged in e-mail messages that they had made up details about their research.
NY Times
An Early Wartime Profile Depicts a Tormented Hitler
Cornell University has posted what is believed to be the first psychological profile of Adolf Hitler.
Analysis of Hitler's Personality
W. Post
NIH Staff Rankled by New Rules
Broad ethics requirements cost institute top researchers, sour collaboration with private sector.
Panel Seeks Intelligence Culpability
Commission says incoming director of national intelligence should take action against those responsible for failures to accurately assess prewar Iraq's weapons programs.
The Art of Intelligence
by David Brooks
WMD Commission Continues the Stonewall
by David Corn, The Nation
Opening Pandora's Democratic Box
by Victor Davis Hanson
It's the end of the world, and I feel fine
by Jonah Goldberg
The bad news is that a new United Nations report says the world's coming to an end.
Marriage and the Limits of Contract
by Jennifer Roback Morse
Echoes of the Gipper
What would Reagan say about Iraq, Ukraine and President Bush?
by Peter Robinson
AP
College Students Download in Dorm Rooms
College junior Kyle Taylor is downloading hundreds of songs by No Doubt, Bruce Springsteen and others onto the Compaq laptop in his cramped dormitory room. With a few more clicks of his mouse, Taylor is watching commercial-free "Seinfeld" episodes on his computer. In just minutes, he then downloads the entire movie "A League of Their Own." The 20-year-old is not breaking any laws. Nor is he at risk of expensive lawsuits by the entertainment industry over copyright violations.
Using the Gospel to Share the Gospel
A Discussion Between Michael Horton & Rico Tice
Saturday, April 02, 2005
Friday, April 01, 2005
Panel Warns of 'Headstrong Agencies'
Bush Is Urged to Intervene to Break Adherence to 'Irrelevant' Status Quo
page A07
Photo from the story
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), right, sits with other members of the presidential panel that investigated U.S. intelligence before the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
Photo Credit: Susan Biddle
page A07
Photo from the story
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), right, sits with other members of the presidential panel that investigated U.S. intelligence before the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
Photo Credit: Susan Biddle
WMD Redux
Intelligence is worthless unless policy makers act on it.
by Fred C. Ilke
But I'd shut my eyes in the sentry box,So I didn't see nothin' wrong.
--Rudyard Kipling
The report published yesterday by the WMD Commission will delight all policy wonks who have a collector's passion for intelligence failures. Equipped with a rearward-looking telescope called hindsight, hunting down other people's mistakes is a fun sport--enjoyed by policy wonks as well as the media. But prudence suggests we should also have a forward-looking telescope to warn us of policy failures on the road ahead.
Congress, unfortunately, has a knack for noisily debating past intelligence failures, the better to distract the public from its chronic policy failures. Recall what happened to the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission late last year. Those who itch to blame every enemy attack on an intelligence failure banged their drums, clamoring for an "absolutely essential" reorganization of the entire intelligence bureaucracy, and insisting this multilayered cake had to be topped off with an intelligence czar.
Their clamor drowned out all the other measures that the 9/11 Report called for. Congress thus got away without living up to the recommendations that it consolidate its multiple and redundant committees, legislate reliable ID cards and biometric passports, redirect airport screening toward explosives rather than nail-clippers, and reform the broken system for visitors' visas.
The WMD Commission was given a far more restrictive charter than the 9/11 Commission. It was told to focus exclusively on the intelligence community. Fortunately, the commissioners had the wisdom to look beyond an indictment of past failures. To their great credit, they offer not merely a good read for Monday morning quarterbacks, but also a profound analysis of the unique problems that afflict U.S. intelligence on weapons of mass destruction.
These problems will not go away. The worldwide proliferation of WMD capabilities can be slowed down, but it cannot be stopped. It is high time that our body politic took this unpleasant fact on board. The globalization of science and technology will gradually, but ineluctably, spread the wherewithal for building mass destruction weapons. We are thus fated to confront a threat of a kind we have never faced before. And intertwined with this dismal fate is another predicament: Whatever the intelligence community can contribute regarding the WMD threat is severely limited by the unique aspects of mass-destruction weapons.
I shall try to explain this predicament for the busy readers who cannot peruse the 600-page report. To start my tutorial, I need to distinguish between tactical and strategic intelligence. (The commission's reference to "current intelligence" and "strategic" or long-term analysis addresses a different issue.) An example of tactical intelligence that would have greatly reduced the horror of 9/11 is a hypothetical FBI alert sent out Sept. 10, 2001, informing the Boston airport authorities that several foreign hijackers, armed only with knives and Mace, will try to board United Flight 175 and American Flight 11 the next morning. It is bliss to have such tactical intelligence and worth great effort to obtain it. It is utterly irresponsible to count on it.
Strategic intelligence prior to 9/11, by contrast, could have been gleaned from open sources, and if acted upon, might well have prevented 9/11. We knew all along how Israel's airline protected cockpits from hijackers. And in 1994 we were shown a "smoking gun": Algerian terrorists, who had hijacked a French passenger plane, landed in Marseille and demanded (unsuccessfully) to have it refueled, evidently to enhance the inferno they wanted to cause by crashing the plane into a Paris landmark. For the U.S. government to ignore this highly visible strategic warning was a policy failure, not an intelligence failure.
With this strategic/tactical distinction in mind, we can now see why the intelligence task regarding WMD is the most difficult of all intelligence missions. To obtain valuable tactical intelligence of a major aggression with conventional arms is much easier, because the enemy's preparations are more visible. For instance, in July 1990, a few days before Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait, both the Pentagon's intelligence and the CIA had compelling evidence of Iraqi preparations for an attack across Kuwait's borders.
But an enemy planning a clandestine, terrorist attack with mass-destruction weapons would not have to deploy large forces that we could detect. To cause mass casualties far exceeding those of 9/11, he could send just one competent and trustworthy courier--someone not on America's long list of suspects--with a few vials of an easily dispersible biological agent that would propagate into a pandemic. Or if the enemy's choice of WMD were nuclear, two smuggled bombs could inflict on American society an unimaginable social, political and economic disaster. Should we be so fortunate as to receive tactical intelligence of either of these kinds of attack, it would either be due to immense enemy stupidity or to an improbable stroke of luck.
We must not let the illusory quest for "reliable and timely" tactical warning blind us to strategic intelligence in plain sight. Keep in mind, taking advantage of strategic intelligence is standard procedure for the development of vaccines to protect us from natural viruses as well as from biological weapons. U.S. health authorities do not delay the production of vaccines until they receive a frantic report from Los Angeles airport that passengers with a lethal bird flu have landed, or from New York that smallpox has been spread in a crowded metro station.
Strangely, however, to protect America against a terrorist attack with a nuclear weapon, our government has been unresponsive to strategic intelligence. Such intelligence is all around us. We know that terrorist groups have tried to acquire nuclear weapons, we know that North Korea has them, we realize the safety of Pakistan's sizeable nuclear arsenal may hang by the thread of President Pervez Musharraf's survival. Yet, the policy makers keep neglecting the need for better instruments to detect and disable a smuggled nuclear bomb. Defense scientists have offered promising recommendations to this end since 1997. Nothing was done for seven years. The bureaucratic molasses began to heave only recently, with throngs of officials holding dozens of meetings. Of course, what would help prevent nuclear terrorism are not meetings in Washington but a vigorous, generously supported research program by scientists working in their laboratories. The WMD Commission agrees. Alas, at the speed with which this endeavor is proceeding, we will be lucky to have a useful capability deployed in 2020.
At the end of the day, the best tactical and strategic intelligence is worthless unless the policy makers find a way to make use of it. And both types of intelligence usually leave the user with multiple uncertainties. How likely is the predicted event? How closely will its key aspects resemble the picture drawn by the intelligence community? Would it be prudent to ignore the ambiguous warning, instead of launching a pre-emptive military strike against the presumed terrorists or the rogue nation harboring them? On which side of this knife will the president be blamed for reaching a very costly and dangerous decision?
To realize the gravity of these questions for the coming decades, it helps to consider another disturbing piece of strategic intelligence that is now in plain sight: the possibility of a widespread and prolonged electrical blackout caused by a single, relatively low-yield nuclear weapon. To shed more light on this threat, Congress established a commission which was staffed by highly competent scientists. The report by these experts was published last summer. It explained how the electromagnetic pulse from a high-altitude explosion of a nuclear weapon can deprive a large region of electricity and permanently disable electric equipment, thus shutting down the Internet, traffic lights, gasoline stations, food storage, police cars, fire engines, and municipal water and sewer systems. Without protective measures, such a vast and disabling blackout could last for months and cause near anarchy with huge casualties.
The media barely noticed this story. But scientific papers published in Russia and China indicate that the physics of such a blackout are no secret. Could North Korean scientists and engineers learn how to carry out such an attack? One can hope that their capability would not (or will never) be up to this rather complex task. Perhaps so.
In any event, whether under the influence of hope or fear, the buck stops not with the intelligence community but with the policy makers. It is the president and Congress who must decide to take costly and dangerous actions, or accept the risks of inaction. It is these elected policy makers who must rally the people to give first priority to the survival of our country.
Most Americans prefer to believe that the United States will have a bright future and think prophets of doom belong to decaying nations. This healthy frame of mind puts a ceiling on our tolerance for intelligence warnings about all sorts of cataclysmic terrorist attacks. Fair enough. As long as we don't shut our eyes in the sentry box.
Mr. Iklé is author of "Every War Must End" (Columbia Univ. Press, 2005) and is finishing a book at the Center for Strategic & International Studies on technology as a threat to democracy. He was Undersecretary of Defense for Policy in the Reagan administration, and is currently a member of the Defense Policy Board.
by Fred C. Ilke
But I'd shut my eyes in the sentry box,So I didn't see nothin' wrong.
--Rudyard Kipling
The report published yesterday by the WMD Commission will delight all policy wonks who have a collector's passion for intelligence failures. Equipped with a rearward-looking telescope called hindsight, hunting down other people's mistakes is a fun sport--enjoyed by policy wonks as well as the media. But prudence suggests we should also have a forward-looking telescope to warn us of policy failures on the road ahead.
Congress, unfortunately, has a knack for noisily debating past intelligence failures, the better to distract the public from its chronic policy failures. Recall what happened to the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission late last year. Those who itch to blame every enemy attack on an intelligence failure banged their drums, clamoring for an "absolutely essential" reorganization of the entire intelligence bureaucracy, and insisting this multilayered cake had to be topped off with an intelligence czar.
Their clamor drowned out all the other measures that the 9/11 Report called for. Congress thus got away without living up to the recommendations that it consolidate its multiple and redundant committees, legislate reliable ID cards and biometric passports, redirect airport screening toward explosives rather than nail-clippers, and reform the broken system for visitors' visas.
The WMD Commission was given a far more restrictive charter than the 9/11 Commission. It was told to focus exclusively on the intelligence community. Fortunately, the commissioners had the wisdom to look beyond an indictment of past failures. To their great credit, they offer not merely a good read for Monday morning quarterbacks, but also a profound analysis of the unique problems that afflict U.S. intelligence on weapons of mass destruction.
These problems will not go away. The worldwide proliferation of WMD capabilities can be slowed down, but it cannot be stopped. It is high time that our body politic took this unpleasant fact on board. The globalization of science and technology will gradually, but ineluctably, spread the wherewithal for building mass destruction weapons. We are thus fated to confront a threat of a kind we have never faced before. And intertwined with this dismal fate is another predicament: Whatever the intelligence community can contribute regarding the WMD threat is severely limited by the unique aspects of mass-destruction weapons.
I shall try to explain this predicament for the busy readers who cannot peruse the 600-page report. To start my tutorial, I need to distinguish between tactical and strategic intelligence. (The commission's reference to "current intelligence" and "strategic" or long-term analysis addresses a different issue.) An example of tactical intelligence that would have greatly reduced the horror of 9/11 is a hypothetical FBI alert sent out Sept. 10, 2001, informing the Boston airport authorities that several foreign hijackers, armed only with knives and Mace, will try to board United Flight 175 and American Flight 11 the next morning. It is bliss to have such tactical intelligence and worth great effort to obtain it. It is utterly irresponsible to count on it.
Strategic intelligence prior to 9/11, by contrast, could have been gleaned from open sources, and if acted upon, might well have prevented 9/11. We knew all along how Israel's airline protected cockpits from hijackers. And in 1994 we were shown a "smoking gun": Algerian terrorists, who had hijacked a French passenger plane, landed in Marseille and demanded (unsuccessfully) to have it refueled, evidently to enhance the inferno they wanted to cause by crashing the plane into a Paris landmark. For the U.S. government to ignore this highly visible strategic warning was a policy failure, not an intelligence failure.
With this strategic/tactical distinction in mind, we can now see why the intelligence task regarding WMD is the most difficult of all intelligence missions. To obtain valuable tactical intelligence of a major aggression with conventional arms is much easier, because the enemy's preparations are more visible. For instance, in July 1990, a few days before Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait, both the Pentagon's intelligence and the CIA had compelling evidence of Iraqi preparations for an attack across Kuwait's borders.
But an enemy planning a clandestine, terrorist attack with mass-destruction weapons would not have to deploy large forces that we could detect. To cause mass casualties far exceeding those of 9/11, he could send just one competent and trustworthy courier--someone not on America's long list of suspects--with a few vials of an easily dispersible biological agent that would propagate into a pandemic. Or if the enemy's choice of WMD were nuclear, two smuggled bombs could inflict on American society an unimaginable social, political and economic disaster. Should we be so fortunate as to receive tactical intelligence of either of these kinds of attack, it would either be due to immense enemy stupidity or to an improbable stroke of luck.
We must not let the illusory quest for "reliable and timely" tactical warning blind us to strategic intelligence in plain sight. Keep in mind, taking advantage of strategic intelligence is standard procedure for the development of vaccines to protect us from natural viruses as well as from biological weapons. U.S. health authorities do not delay the production of vaccines until they receive a frantic report from Los Angeles airport that passengers with a lethal bird flu have landed, or from New York that smallpox has been spread in a crowded metro station.
Strangely, however, to protect America against a terrorist attack with a nuclear weapon, our government has been unresponsive to strategic intelligence. Such intelligence is all around us. We know that terrorist groups have tried to acquire nuclear weapons, we know that North Korea has them, we realize the safety of Pakistan's sizeable nuclear arsenal may hang by the thread of President Pervez Musharraf's survival. Yet, the policy makers keep neglecting the need for better instruments to detect and disable a smuggled nuclear bomb. Defense scientists have offered promising recommendations to this end since 1997. Nothing was done for seven years. The bureaucratic molasses began to heave only recently, with throngs of officials holding dozens of meetings. Of course, what would help prevent nuclear terrorism are not meetings in Washington but a vigorous, generously supported research program by scientists working in their laboratories. The WMD Commission agrees. Alas, at the speed with which this endeavor is proceeding, we will be lucky to have a useful capability deployed in 2020.
At the end of the day, the best tactical and strategic intelligence is worthless unless the policy makers find a way to make use of it. And both types of intelligence usually leave the user with multiple uncertainties. How likely is the predicted event? How closely will its key aspects resemble the picture drawn by the intelligence community? Would it be prudent to ignore the ambiguous warning, instead of launching a pre-emptive military strike against the presumed terrorists or the rogue nation harboring them? On which side of this knife will the president be blamed for reaching a very costly and dangerous decision?
To realize the gravity of these questions for the coming decades, it helps to consider another disturbing piece of strategic intelligence that is now in plain sight: the possibility of a widespread and prolonged electrical blackout caused by a single, relatively low-yield nuclear weapon. To shed more light on this threat, Congress established a commission which was staffed by highly competent scientists. The report by these experts was published last summer. It explained how the electromagnetic pulse from a high-altitude explosion of a nuclear weapon can deprive a large region of electricity and permanently disable electric equipment, thus shutting down the Internet, traffic lights, gasoline stations, food storage, police cars, fire engines, and municipal water and sewer systems. Without protective measures, such a vast and disabling blackout could last for months and cause near anarchy with huge casualties.
The media barely noticed this story. But scientific papers published in Russia and China indicate that the physics of such a blackout are no secret. Could North Korean scientists and engineers learn how to carry out such an attack? One can hope that their capability would not (or will never) be up to this rather complex task. Perhaps so.
In any event, whether under the influence of hope or fear, the buck stops not with the intelligence community but with the policy makers. It is the president and Congress who must decide to take costly and dangerous actions, or accept the risks of inaction. It is these elected policy makers who must rally the people to give first priority to the survival of our country.
Most Americans prefer to believe that the United States will have a bright future and think prophets of doom belong to decaying nations. This healthy frame of mind puts a ceiling on our tolerance for intelligence warnings about all sorts of cataclysmic terrorist attacks. Fair enough. As long as we don't shut our eyes in the sentry box.
Mr. Iklé is author of "Every War Must End" (Columbia Univ. Press, 2005) and is finishing a book at the Center for Strategic & International Studies on technology as a threat to democracy. He was Undersecretary of Defense for Policy in the Reagan administration, and is currently a member of the Defense Policy Board.
articles 4/1
New Republic
Giving George W. Bush His Due On Democracy
The Politics of Churlishness
by Martin Peretz
NY Times
Bush Panel Finds Big Flaws Remain In U.S. Spy Efforts
A Final Verdict Of Pre-War Intelligence Is Still Elusive
Doubts On Source For Key Piece Of Data Were Suppressed, Report Says
Panel Warns That Defense Against Germ Attack Weak
Informing The Nation In A Readable Style
W. Post
Bush Welcomes Results of WMD Report
'We Will Correct What Needs to Be Fixed,' President Says
Doubts On Weapons Were Dismissed
To Err Is Human
Organizational reforms can't prevent people from being wrong.
By Fred Kaplan
R.O.C., R.I.P.?
by David Warren
AP
Sandy Berger to Plead Guilty
Former national security adviser will admit taking material from National Archives, a misdemeanor.
Reuters
Jane Fonda Regrets 1972 Visit to Vietnam Gun Site
Jane Fonda regrets her visit to a North Vietnamese gun site in 1972, the actress and fitness guru said in an interview with CBS television show "60 Minutes" to be aired Sunday.
Riding the Waves
Why Hillary will be hard to beat.
by Peggy Noonan
The Big Pitch: Do ads still work?
by Ken Auletta
Shock and Awe Come to the World Bank
by Clive Crook
Intelligence is Worthless Unless Policy Makers Act On It
by Fred Ikle
Syria and the New Axis of Evil
by Charles Krauthammer
A Silicon Valley Operator's Manual
Incumbents are hated; "disrupters" loved.
by Rich Karlgaard
Boston Globe
For family, religion shapes politics
Heartlanders convert others to live daily by 'the word of God'
How Liberalism Failed Terri Schiavo
The question is not only what she would have wanted, but what we owe her.
by Eric Cohen
It Is Ended
How the justice system failed Terri Schiavo, and us.
by William Anderson
"Evolving Standards of Decency"
"Evolving Standards of decency" saved Christopher Simmons's life; they weren't enough to save Terri Schiavo.
Rumblings & Grumblings
by Jayson Stark
Giving George W. Bush His Due On Democracy
The Politics of Churlishness
by Martin Peretz
NY Times
Bush Panel Finds Big Flaws Remain In U.S. Spy Efforts
A Final Verdict Of Pre-War Intelligence Is Still Elusive
Doubts On Source For Key Piece Of Data Were Suppressed, Report Says
Panel Warns That Defense Against Germ Attack Weak
Informing The Nation In A Readable Style
W. Post
Bush Welcomes Results of WMD Report
'We Will Correct What Needs to Be Fixed,' President Says
Doubts On Weapons Were Dismissed
To Err Is Human
Organizational reforms can't prevent people from being wrong.
By Fred Kaplan
R.O.C., R.I.P.?
by David Warren
AP
Sandy Berger to Plead Guilty
Former national security adviser will admit taking material from National Archives, a misdemeanor.
Reuters
Jane Fonda Regrets 1972 Visit to Vietnam Gun Site
Jane Fonda regrets her visit to a North Vietnamese gun site in 1972, the actress and fitness guru said in an interview with CBS television show "60 Minutes" to be aired Sunday.
Riding the Waves
Why Hillary will be hard to beat.
by Peggy Noonan
The Big Pitch: Do ads still work?
by Ken Auletta
Shock and Awe Come to the World Bank
by Clive Crook
Intelligence is Worthless Unless Policy Makers Act On It
by Fred Ikle
Syria and the New Axis of Evil
by Charles Krauthammer
A Silicon Valley Operator's Manual
Incumbents are hated; "disrupters" loved.
by Rich Karlgaard
Boston Globe
For family, religion shapes politics
Heartlanders convert others to live daily by 'the word of God'
How Liberalism Failed Terri Schiavo
The question is not only what she would have wanted, but what we owe her.
by Eric Cohen
It Is Ended
How the justice system failed Terri Schiavo, and us.
by William Anderson
"Evolving Standards of Decency"
"Evolving Standards of decency" saved Christopher Simmons's life; they weren't enough to save Terri Schiavo.
Rumblings & Grumblings
by Jayson Stark
Thursday, March 31, 2005
Commission on the Intelligence Capabilities of the United States Regarding Weapon of Mass Destruction
DOWNLOAD ENTIRE REPORT IN PDF FORMAT (3.3 MB)
For an HTML version of this report, please visit www.wmd.gov/report.
Letter to the President on FBI and CIA Transformation Plans 
Transmittal Letter
Overview of the Report
Part One: Looking Back
Chapter One Case Study: Iraq
Chapter Two Case Study: Libya
Chapter Three Case Study: Al-Qa'ida in Afghanistan
Chapter Four: Terrorism: Managing Today's Threat
Chapter Five: Iran and North Korea: Monitoring the Development of Nuclear Weapons
Part Two: Looking Forward
Chapter Six: Leadership and Management: Forging an Integrated Intelligence Community
Chapter Seven: Collection
Chapter Eight: Analysis
Chapter Nine: Information Sharing
Chapter Ten: Intelligence at Home: The FBI, Justice, and Homeland Security
Chapter Eleven: Counterintelligence
Chapter Twelve: Covert Action
Chapter Thirteen: The Changing Proliferation Threat and the Intelligence Response
Conclusion
Postscript: Additional Intelligence Challenges
Appendix A: Authorizing Executive Order
Appendix B: List of Findings and Recommendations
Appendix C: An Intelligence Community Primer
Appendix D: Common Abbreviations
Appendix E: Biographical Information for Commissioners and List of Commission Staff
articles 3/31
Commission on the Intelligence Capabilities of the US Regarding Weapons of Mass Destruction
Executive Order [PDF] [HTML]
White House Fact Sheet [PDF] [HTML]
President's Statement [PDF] [HTML]
Report to the President of the United States, March 31, 2005
Reuters
Bush Panel to Urge Intelligence Agency Changes
Report Finds U.S. Intelligence Still Flawed
NY Times
Using Clues From Libya to Study a Nuclear Mystery
Stem cell swap
by Robert Novak
The quiet of Easter recess on Capitol Hill was interrupted last week by stunning news that Republican leaders of the House had changed their position on allowing a vote for federal funding of human embryonic stem cell research opposed by President Bush.
Going Out for Indian
By helping India become "a major world power," the administration is showing the global seriuosness of the Bush Doctrine.
by Tom Donnelly
Hating the "Religious Right"
Should people of faith also be allowed a say in the law-making process?
by Hugh Hewitt
Who Will Defend the Defenders?
The academy takes aim at the Pat Roberts Intelligence Scholars Program
by Stanley Kurtz
Photo
Spain's Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero talks to Noemi Sanin, the Colombian ambassador in Spain upon his arrival in Bogota, Colombia, Wednesday
Executive Order [PDF] [HTML]
White House Fact Sheet [PDF] [HTML]
President's Statement [PDF] [HTML]
Report to the President of the United States, March 31, 2005
Reuters
Bush Panel to Urge Intelligence Agency Changes
Report Finds U.S. Intelligence Still Flawed
NY Times
Using Clues From Libya to Study a Nuclear Mystery
Stem cell swap
by Robert Novak
The quiet of Easter recess on Capitol Hill was interrupted last week by stunning news that Republican leaders of the House had changed their position on allowing a vote for federal funding of human embryonic stem cell research opposed by President Bush.
Going Out for Indian
By helping India become "a major world power," the administration is showing the global seriuosness of the Bush Doctrine.
by Tom Donnelly
Hating the "Religious Right"
Should people of faith also be allowed a say in the law-making process?
by Hugh Hewitt
Who Will Defend the Defenders?
The academy takes aim at the Pat Roberts Intelligence Scholars Program
by Stanley Kurtz
Photo
Spain's Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero talks to Noemi Sanin, the Colombian ambassador in Spain upon his arrival in Bogota, Colombia, Wednesday
Wednesday, March 30, 2005
articles 3/30
Cracked
by Jonah Goldberg
Here we go again. Suddenly, conservatives, libertarians and other souls of a rightish bent are pondering whether a 'conservative crack-up' is nigh.
W. Post
Panel to Report on Intelligence
WMD panel's 700-page report urges government to keep specialists dispersed in various intelligence agencies.
NY Times
Bush Views New Report on Spy Lapses With Favor
Reuters
Bush Briefed on WMD Intelligence Report
Rumsfeld And the Generals
by David Ignatius
Best of the Web
Who'll Remember Terri Schiavo?
The Cuban Revolution
The maverick billionaire blogger wants to take the film out of the film industry. And his all-digital vision is coming soon to a screen near you.
By Xeni Jardin
Grok Around the Clock
Share those MP3s now—the Supreme Court may try to stop you soon.
By Emily Bazelon
AP
Review: U2 Gives Pulpit-Worthy Performance
USA Today
U2's Vertigo tour is a whirl of rock 'n' roll passion
Rockers can still stir an audience
NY Times
Rock Icons Content to Do the Things They Do Best
Reuters
U2 Opens 'Vertigo' Tour in San Diego
San Diego Union-Tribune
U2 opener uneven yet uplifting, unifying
Band begins tour with customary poise, panache
NY Post
U2: Rock & Roar
LA Times
Heartfelt ambition
Challenging, personal themes and enduring energy keep U2 more relevant than ever.
by Robert Hilburn, Times Staff Writer
Great rock bands tend to be built for sprints rather than marathons. They come and go in brief bursts of glory, usually torn apart by internal problems or the inability to maintain a creative edge. Nirvana was gone in the blink of an eye. The Beatles never really made it out of the '60s.
All this makes U2 unique.
One reason for the band's continued relevance after a quarter-century is that the quartet keeps challenging itself -- never more so than in the captivating new world tour, which began Monday at San Diego's Sports Arena.
U2's latest album, "How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb," is a thoughtful, deeply personal look at faith, family and rejuvenation; not exactly easy themes to build an arena rock show around. Yet the band brought the spirit of the album to the stage in a two-hour set that was as warm and eloquent as the songs.
Rather than open with "Vertigo," the rousing hit from "Dismantle" that is such disarming fun that even its use in the iPod ad campaign hasn't sabotaged its charm, U2 started the concert Monday with "City of Blinding Lights," a song that touches the heart of the new CD even more clearly.
In "City" and elsewhere, Bono speaks, among other things, about maintaining youthful innocence and faith: "Time ... time/ Won't leave me as I am/ But time won't take the boy out of this man.
"With the audience already on its feet dancing to the beat, Bono screamed the familiar opening line of "Vertigo" -- "Uno, dos, tres, catorce" -- and the 17,000 fans were hooked even more by the liberating strains of the guitar-driven music.
U2 then cut dramatically to a medley of tunes from its first album, 1980's "Boy," taking us back to the beginning of its journey, as musicians and people. The band members were on the edges of 20 when that album was released and the music was bathed in the innocence and aspirations of youth.
In "Dismantle," Bono, the parent and adult, looks back at some of those ideals. Where he once thought it was only a matter of time until questions of faith and life would be resolved, he now knows some of life's mysteries will never be known. Still, it's important, he says, not to succumb to cynicism and indifference.
To explore that theme, U2 featured seven songs from the CD in the concert, the most powerful of which was "Sometimes You Can't Make It on Your Own," which Bono wrote about his efforts to get closer to his father before the latter's death in 2001. Marching around the heart-shaped ramp that the group has brought with it from the last tour, Bono told about discovering during the process how dependent he was on his father despite the distance between them. Near the end of the song, it is clear he, too, is seeking comfort: "Don't leave me here alone."
For a band that made its mark with soaring, guitar-driven anthems that commanded you to march along, these new songs are all the more touching because they rely on the superb subtlety and restraint of U2 as musicians.
Instead of the rows of massive video screens the band has used on previous tours, it also aimed for an intimacy in the arena by employing only a modest screen above the stage, thus forcing the audience to watch the band members rather than larger-than-life video images. The sense of community is further stressed by the showing of all four members of the band, not just Bono.
Throughout Monday's set, U2 played, to use the title of its most affecting anthem, as one, with the sound blending together with almost uncanny force and unity. The Edge's guitar lines, the band's most inspired feature, can be both caressing and explosive, sometimes in the same passage. The rhythm section of bassist Adam Clayton and drummer Larry Mullen Jr. adds a relentless urgency to the music that backs Bono's vocals ideally, allowing his voice to soar as if he were playing a cathedral or whisper as if in a confessional booth.
The band reprised some of its most powerful old material, including the despair of "Running to Stand Still" and the commentary of "Sunday Bloody Sunday." It also strung together "Pride (In the Name of Love)," "Where the Streets Have No Name" and "One" in a moving segment during which Bono became the voice of world compassion.
Even some U2 fans used to mock Bono as "Saint Bono" for what seemed to be grandiose social ideals, but his steady devotion to social causes over the years has made him not only accepted in the role, but gives the music even more relevance because he is trying to turn his words into action.
For the final encore, however, U2 again relied on two "Dismantle" songs: a speeded-up treatment of "All Because of You," one of the most overtly devotional songs on the album, and "Yahweh," another statement of compassion and grace that includes the line, "Take this soul and make it sing."
By most rock standards, the gentle ending was too understated for the start of a tour, but it was a bold, triumphant move.
Rock 'n' roll has been built mostly on edgy elements, including rebellion, irreverence and exuberance. The Beatles became the first great rock band by both reflecting each of them and by introducing a strain of social optimism through such tunes as "All You Need Is Love."
While thousands of bands have experimented with the rebellion and irreverence, U2 has explored the idealism with a dedication and conviction that would not only have impressed the Beatles but that has earned it a place alongside that band at the very creative heart of rock.
Only Bruce Springsteen, perhaps, of post-'60s artists with such mass appeal, has approached each show with U2's unwavering passion and purpose. He tries to give his best in each show, he says, because someone in the audience may be seeing him for the first time and he always wants that newcomer to see the band at its best.
Bono and U2 have taken that mission even further. It's as if they believe there may be someone in the crowd who has been to every show, and they want to make sure that fan is touched deeper each night.
That fan would recognize in an instant that U2 was standing still if it took the easy way out and, like so many other veteran bands, just served up a "greatest hits" show every night.
No way anyone thought that Monday.
U2 didn't just take the audience in its arms the way it has for 25 years now, the band took it inside its heart.
Robert Hilburn can be reached at Robert.Hilburn@latimes .com.
by Jonah Goldberg
Here we go again. Suddenly, conservatives, libertarians and other souls of a rightish bent are pondering whether a 'conservative crack-up' is nigh.
W. Post
Panel to Report on Intelligence
WMD panel's 700-page report urges government to keep specialists dispersed in various intelligence agencies.
NY Times
Bush Views New Report on Spy Lapses With Favor
Reuters
Bush Briefed on WMD Intelligence Report
Rumsfeld And the Generals
by David Ignatius
Best of the Web
Who'll Remember Terri Schiavo?
The Cuban Revolution
The maverick billionaire blogger wants to take the film out of the film industry. And his all-digital vision is coming soon to a screen near you.
By Xeni Jardin
Grok Around the Clock
Share those MP3s now—the Supreme Court may try to stop you soon.
By Emily Bazelon
AP
Review: U2 Gives Pulpit-Worthy Performance
USA Today
U2's Vertigo tour is a whirl of rock 'n' roll passion
Rockers can still stir an audience
NY Times
Rock Icons Content to Do the Things They Do Best
Reuters
U2 Opens 'Vertigo' Tour in San Diego
San Diego Union-Tribune
U2 opener uneven yet uplifting, unifying
Band begins tour with customary poise, panache
NY Post
U2: Rock & Roar
LA Times
Heartfelt ambition
Challenging, personal themes and enduring energy keep U2 more relevant than ever.
by Robert Hilburn, Times Staff Writer
Great rock bands tend to be built for sprints rather than marathons. They come and go in brief bursts of glory, usually torn apart by internal problems or the inability to maintain a creative edge. Nirvana was gone in the blink of an eye. The Beatles never really made it out of the '60s.
All this makes U2 unique.
One reason for the band's continued relevance after a quarter-century is that the quartet keeps challenging itself -- never more so than in the captivating new world tour, which began Monday at San Diego's Sports Arena.
U2's latest album, "How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb," is a thoughtful, deeply personal look at faith, family and rejuvenation; not exactly easy themes to build an arena rock show around. Yet the band brought the spirit of the album to the stage in a two-hour set that was as warm and eloquent as the songs.
Rather than open with "Vertigo," the rousing hit from "Dismantle" that is such disarming fun that even its use in the iPod ad campaign hasn't sabotaged its charm, U2 started the concert Monday with "City of Blinding Lights," a song that touches the heart of the new CD even more clearly.
In "City" and elsewhere, Bono speaks, among other things, about maintaining youthful innocence and faith: "Time ... time/ Won't leave me as I am/ But time won't take the boy out of this man.
"With the audience already on its feet dancing to the beat, Bono screamed the familiar opening line of "Vertigo" -- "Uno, dos, tres, catorce" -- and the 17,000 fans were hooked even more by the liberating strains of the guitar-driven music.
U2 then cut dramatically to a medley of tunes from its first album, 1980's "Boy," taking us back to the beginning of its journey, as musicians and people. The band members were on the edges of 20 when that album was released and the music was bathed in the innocence and aspirations of youth.
In "Dismantle," Bono, the parent and adult, looks back at some of those ideals. Where he once thought it was only a matter of time until questions of faith and life would be resolved, he now knows some of life's mysteries will never be known. Still, it's important, he says, not to succumb to cynicism and indifference.
To explore that theme, U2 featured seven songs from the CD in the concert, the most powerful of which was "Sometimes You Can't Make It on Your Own," which Bono wrote about his efforts to get closer to his father before the latter's death in 2001. Marching around the heart-shaped ramp that the group has brought with it from the last tour, Bono told about discovering during the process how dependent he was on his father despite the distance between them. Near the end of the song, it is clear he, too, is seeking comfort: "Don't leave me here alone."
For a band that made its mark with soaring, guitar-driven anthems that commanded you to march along, these new songs are all the more touching because they rely on the superb subtlety and restraint of U2 as musicians.
Instead of the rows of massive video screens the band has used on previous tours, it also aimed for an intimacy in the arena by employing only a modest screen above the stage, thus forcing the audience to watch the band members rather than larger-than-life video images. The sense of community is further stressed by the showing of all four members of the band, not just Bono.
Throughout Monday's set, U2 played, to use the title of its most affecting anthem, as one, with the sound blending together with almost uncanny force and unity. The Edge's guitar lines, the band's most inspired feature, can be both caressing and explosive, sometimes in the same passage. The rhythm section of bassist Adam Clayton and drummer Larry Mullen Jr. adds a relentless urgency to the music that backs Bono's vocals ideally, allowing his voice to soar as if he were playing a cathedral or whisper as if in a confessional booth.
The band reprised some of its most powerful old material, including the despair of "Running to Stand Still" and the commentary of "Sunday Bloody Sunday." It also strung together "Pride (In the Name of Love)," "Where the Streets Have No Name" and "One" in a moving segment during which Bono became the voice of world compassion.
Even some U2 fans used to mock Bono as "Saint Bono" for what seemed to be grandiose social ideals, but his steady devotion to social causes over the years has made him not only accepted in the role, but gives the music even more relevance because he is trying to turn his words into action.
For the final encore, however, U2 again relied on two "Dismantle" songs: a speeded-up treatment of "All Because of You," one of the most overtly devotional songs on the album, and "Yahweh," another statement of compassion and grace that includes the line, "Take this soul and make it sing."
By most rock standards, the gentle ending was too understated for the start of a tour, but it was a bold, triumphant move.
Rock 'n' roll has been built mostly on edgy elements, including rebellion, irreverence and exuberance. The Beatles became the first great rock band by both reflecting each of them and by introducing a strain of social optimism through such tunes as "All You Need Is Love."
While thousands of bands have experimented with the rebellion and irreverence, U2 has explored the idealism with a dedication and conviction that would not only have impressed the Beatles but that has earned it a place alongside that band at the very creative heart of rock.
Only Bruce Springsteen, perhaps, of post-'60s artists with such mass appeal, has approached each show with U2's unwavering passion and purpose. He tries to give his best in each show, he says, because someone in the audience may be seeing him for the first time and he always wants that newcomer to see the band at its best.
Bono and U2 have taken that mission even further. It's as if they believe there may be someone in the crowd who has been to every show, and they want to make sure that fan is touched deeper each night.
That fan would recognize in an instant that U2 was standing still if it took the easy way out and, like so many other veteran bands, just served up a "greatest hits" show every night.
No way anyone thought that Monday.
U2 didn't just take the audience in its arms the way it has for 25 years now, the band took it inside its heart.
Robert Hilburn can be reached at Robert.Hilburn@latimes .com.
Tuesday, March 29, 2005
articles 3/29
NY Times
Report Assails CIA for Failure on Iraq Weapons
W. Post
Bush's Two Minds
NY Sun
Congress Turns Up Heat on U.N. Headquarters
Tax rates
by Bruce Bartlett
As people work on their tax returns, they would do well to spend a couple of minutes before they finish calculating their tax rates.
The Washington Post Bombs Nuclear History
Did Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, and Paul Wolfowitz try to stoke Iran's nuclear ambition in the '70s?
by Henry Sokolski
Let's get real about Social Security and Medicare
by Star Parker
The Social Security and Medicare trustees have just issued their annual report on the state of these programs, and the picture is not pretty.
Easter Charade
There's no resurrecting Terri Schiavo.
By Christopher Hitchens
Whose Team Am I On?
by David Brooks
AP
Anthrax dumped near Saddam palace
An Iraqi scientist has told U.S. interrogators that her team destroyed Iraq's stock of anthrax in 1991 by dumping it practically at the gates of one of Saddam's main palaces, but never told U.N. inspectors for fear of angering the dictator.
LA Times
Wendy's customer can't sleep since finding finger in chili
Reuters
Americans Too Sleepy for Sex, Poll Finds
Many Americans are so sleepy that they are having problems in their marriages, making mistakes at work and even going without sex, according to a report released on Tuesday.
AP
Poll: Most American Adults Sleep Poorly
Getting a good night's sleep is hard for many adults and that often means poorer health, lower productivity on the job, more danger on the roads and a less vibrant sex life.
San Diego Union-Tribune
U2 Again Looks to Reach New Heights, as 'Vertigo' Tour Opens
U2.com
'Everyone, Everyone, Everyone...'
U2's 'Vertigo//2005' Tour kicked off to a rapturous reception in San Diego tonight.
Photos from San Diego
Set List San Diego, Monday March 27th,2005
*City of Blinding Lights (Slide guitar effect from Edge)
*Vertigo/Stories for Boys
*Electric Co. ("I can see for miles and miles" - Bono Who song)
*An Cat Dubh/Into the Heart
*Beautiful Day/Beatles' "Black Bird"
*New Year's Day(Bono doesn't talk to audience)
*Miracle Drug (Edge sang last verse)
*Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own (Bono says, "My father would have loved to have been in show business")
*Love and Peace or Else (Larry uses drum set at end of Ellipse for beginning of song, then leaves midway. Bono drums on little drum set at end) (Larry singing "Release! Release!" with Bono)
*Sunday, Bloody Sunday
*Bullet the Blue Sky (Hands that Built America/Donnie Comes Marching Home - Bono puts blind fold over eyes, drops to his knees)
*Running to Stand Still (Edge sings "la la la di days") (Movie with Global Declaration of Human Rights. Different faces reading articles)
*Zoo Station (bull-fighting w/ Edge singing thru head mic)
*The Fly (streams of light that showed slogons from ZooTV)
*Elevation (Larry w/ head mic. singing)
(end of main set)
(Encore)
*Pride (Bono speaks on Africa on MLK's dream. "Sing for Africa")
*Where the Streets Have No Name
*One (Bono thanks "Mexican friends for coming up. We'll see you next year" and talks about the One Campaign)
*All Because of You (Bono w/ tamborine)
*Yahweh (Larry steps away from drums, playing keyboard)
*40 (Bono introduces the band leaves the stage first. Then Adam, then Edge, then Larry ends with drum solo)
Report Assails CIA for Failure on Iraq Weapons
W. Post
Bush's Two Minds
NY Sun
Congress Turns Up Heat on U.N. Headquarters
Tax rates
by Bruce Bartlett
As people work on their tax returns, they would do well to spend a couple of minutes before they finish calculating their tax rates.
The Washington Post Bombs Nuclear History
Did Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, and Paul Wolfowitz try to stoke Iran's nuclear ambition in the '70s?
by Henry Sokolski
Let's get real about Social Security and Medicare
by Star Parker
The Social Security and Medicare trustees have just issued their annual report on the state of these programs, and the picture is not pretty.
Easter Charade
There's no resurrecting Terri Schiavo.
By Christopher Hitchens
Whose Team Am I On?
by David Brooks
AP
Anthrax dumped near Saddam palace
An Iraqi scientist has told U.S. interrogators that her team destroyed Iraq's stock of anthrax in 1991 by dumping it practically at the gates of one of Saddam's main palaces, but never told U.N. inspectors for fear of angering the dictator.
LA Times
Wendy's customer can't sleep since finding finger in chili
Reuters
Americans Too Sleepy for Sex, Poll Finds
Many Americans are so sleepy that they are having problems in their marriages, making mistakes at work and even going without sex, according to a report released on Tuesday.
AP
Poll: Most American Adults Sleep Poorly
Getting a good night's sleep is hard for many adults and that often means poorer health, lower productivity on the job, more danger on the roads and a less vibrant sex life.
San Diego Union-Tribune
U2 Again Looks to Reach New Heights, as 'Vertigo' Tour Opens
U2.com
'Everyone, Everyone, Everyone...'
U2's 'Vertigo//2005' Tour kicked off to a rapturous reception in San Diego tonight.
Photos from San Diego
Set List San Diego, Monday March 27th,2005
*City of Blinding Lights (Slide guitar effect from Edge)
*Vertigo/Stories for Boys
*Electric Co. ("I can see for miles and miles" - Bono Who song)
*An Cat Dubh/Into the Heart
*Beautiful Day/Beatles' "Black Bird"
*New Year's Day(Bono doesn't talk to audience)
*Miracle Drug (Edge sang last verse)
*Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own (Bono says, "My father would have loved to have been in show business")
*Love and Peace or Else (Larry uses drum set at end of Ellipse for beginning of song, then leaves midway. Bono drums on little drum set at end) (Larry singing "Release! Release!" with Bono)
*Sunday, Bloody Sunday
*Bullet the Blue Sky (Hands that Built America/Donnie Comes Marching Home - Bono puts blind fold over eyes, drops to his knees)
*Running to Stand Still (Edge sings "la la la di days") (Movie with Global Declaration of Human Rights. Different faces reading articles)
*Zoo Station (bull-fighting w/ Edge singing thru head mic)
*The Fly (streams of light that showed slogons from ZooTV)
*Elevation (Larry w/ head mic. singing)
(end of main set)
(Encore)
*Pride (Bono speaks on Africa on MLK's dream. "Sing for Africa")
*Where the Streets Have No Name
*One (Bono thanks "Mexican friends for coming up. We'll see you next year" and talks about the One Campaign)
*All Because of You (Bono w/ tamborine)
*Yahweh (Larry steps away from drums, playing keyboard)
*40 (Bono introduces the band leaves the stage first. Then Adam, then Edge, then Larry ends with drum solo)
Monday, March 28, 2005
articles 3/28
Newsweek
Look Who's Not Talking—Still
A new report says U.S. intelligence agencies haven't learned to share information, despite lessons of 9/11.
Newsweek
The Legacy of Terri Schiavo
One woman's journey from marital bliss to medical darkness—and the forces that made her story a political and ethical watershed.
Getting out of Iraq II
by Robert Novak
Determination high in the Bush administration to begin irreversible withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq this year is reinforced by the presence at the State Department of the most dominant secretary since Henry Kissinger three decades ago.
The Not-So-Fantastic Four
The demise of the Republican moderates -- Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island, Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe of Maine, and John McCain of Arizona.
By Michael Crowley
No, it wasn't a cynical ploy
by Michael Barone
A lot of sophisticated people are clucking at the actions of Congress and George W. Bush that attempted to save the life of Terri Schiavo.
Fake but Accurate Again?
The "GOP talking points memo" on Terri Schiavo has all the signs of a political dirty trick. Where is the mainstream media?
by John Hinderaker
The Pentagon's New Plan
Is the new National Defense Strategy an improvement, or a step backward?
by Tom Donnelly
Rescue Mission
Kofi Annan's United Nations appeal.
by Joseph Loconte
How Liberalism Failed Terri Schiavo
The question is not only what she would have wanted, but what we owe her.
by Eric Cohen
E.U. arms madness
by Peter Brookes
Undeterred by reality, commonsense or even the vehement, growing opposition of their own citizens and media, German and French leaders persist in demanding an end to the European Union's 16-year arms embargo on China.
W. Post
Storage of Nuclear Spent Fuel Criticized in Study
Classified report points to risks that a terrorist attack could pose to the radioactive spent fuel.
NY Sun
Condoleezza Clinton?
Selective Restraint
Liberals cheered when Janet Reno defied the courts to seize Elian Gonzalez.
by John Fund
W. Post
Counterterrorism Policies In Conflict, Report Says
NY Sun
How a Lone Diplomat Compromised the Hunt for Bin Laden
NY Times
With Bush Safely Re-elected, Rove Turns Intensity to Policy
As President Bush pushes doggedly ahead with his battle to add investment accounts to Social Security, he is betting on Karl Rove's well-chronicled political skills.
Wolfie at the Bank
by Max Borders
Wolfowitz might just be the man to say "if you don't change, we cut you off." It's time somebody said that.
W. Post
Wolfowitz: 'Important Things' to Do
Is Sleep Deprivation Torture?
by Michael Rosen
Knowing that we civilians need not make these difficult decisions will allow some to sleep easier.
Bill Cosby's Not Funny
The professor and writer talks about his new book criticizing the comedian's criticism of poor black Americans.
Shopkeepers Say 'Enough'
A roundup of the past two weeks' good news from Iraq.
by Arthur Chrenkoff
NY Times
The Soul of the New Exurb
In the rapidly growing community of Surprise, Ariz., Radiant megachurch offers financial planning, athletic facilities, child care, marriage counseling and Krispy Kremes with every sermon. Welcome to the expanding conservative frontier.
W. Post
Win or Lose
In Washington, the return of baseball is the triumph of hope over experience.
Secrets of the Shy
Why so bashful? Science finds something complex--and cunning--behind the curtain
Gospel for Both Sides of the Aisle
The evangelism of the Rev. Jim Wallis defies stereotypes: He preaches a conservative morality but condemns 'pro-rich, pro-war' views.
Look Who's Not Talking—Still
A new report says U.S. intelligence agencies haven't learned to share information, despite lessons of 9/11.
Newsweek
The Legacy of Terri Schiavo
One woman's journey from marital bliss to medical darkness—and the forces that made her story a political and ethical watershed.
Getting out of Iraq II
by Robert Novak
Determination high in the Bush administration to begin irreversible withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq this year is reinforced by the presence at the State Department of the most dominant secretary since Henry Kissinger three decades ago.
The Not-So-Fantastic Four
The demise of the Republican moderates -- Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island, Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe of Maine, and John McCain of Arizona.
By Michael Crowley
No, it wasn't a cynical ploy
by Michael Barone
A lot of sophisticated people are clucking at the actions of Congress and George W. Bush that attempted to save the life of Terri Schiavo.
Fake but Accurate Again?
The "GOP talking points memo" on Terri Schiavo has all the signs of a political dirty trick. Where is the mainstream media?
by John Hinderaker
The Pentagon's New Plan
Is the new National Defense Strategy an improvement, or a step backward?
by Tom Donnelly
Rescue Mission
Kofi Annan's United Nations appeal.
by Joseph Loconte
How Liberalism Failed Terri Schiavo
The question is not only what she would have wanted, but what we owe her.
by Eric Cohen
E.U. arms madness
by Peter Brookes
Undeterred by reality, commonsense or even the vehement, growing opposition of their own citizens and media, German and French leaders persist in demanding an end to the European Union's 16-year arms embargo on China.
W. Post
Storage of Nuclear Spent Fuel Criticized in Study
Classified report points to risks that a terrorist attack could pose to the radioactive spent fuel.
NY Sun
Condoleezza Clinton?
Selective Restraint
Liberals cheered when Janet Reno defied the courts to seize Elian Gonzalez.
by John Fund
W. Post
Counterterrorism Policies In Conflict, Report Says
NY Sun
How a Lone Diplomat Compromised the Hunt for Bin Laden
NY Times
With Bush Safely Re-elected, Rove Turns Intensity to Policy
As President Bush pushes doggedly ahead with his battle to add investment accounts to Social Security, he is betting on Karl Rove's well-chronicled political skills.
Wolfie at the Bank
by Max Borders
Wolfowitz might just be the man to say "if you don't change, we cut you off." It's time somebody said that.
W. Post
Wolfowitz: 'Important Things' to Do
Is Sleep Deprivation Torture?
by Michael Rosen
Knowing that we civilians need not make these difficult decisions will allow some to sleep easier.
Bill Cosby's Not Funny
The professor and writer talks about his new book criticizing the comedian's criticism of poor black Americans.
Shopkeepers Say 'Enough'
A roundup of the past two weeks' good news from Iraq.
by Arthur Chrenkoff
NY Times
The Soul of the New Exurb
In the rapidly growing community of Surprise, Ariz., Radiant megachurch offers financial planning, athletic facilities, child care, marriage counseling and Krispy Kremes with every sermon. Welcome to the expanding conservative frontier.
W. Post
Win or Lose
In Washington, the return of baseball is the triumph of hope over experience.
Secrets of the Shy
Why so bashful? Science finds something complex--and cunning--behind the curtain
Gospel for Both Sides of the Aisle
The evangelism of the Rev. Jim Wallis defies stereotypes: He preaches a conservative morality but condemns 'pro-rich, pro-war' views.
Thursday, March 24, 2005
articles 3/24
Ladies, stop buying into rap's misogyny
Black women's fight needs more voices
by Stanley Crouch
Reuters
You Want Fingers with That?
A diner at a Wendy's fast food restaurant in San Jose, California, found a human finger in a bowl of chili prepared by the chain, local officials said on Wednesday.
Reuters
One American's Recipe for Happiness? Run 262 Miles
Pondering life on his 30th birthday and finding something lacking, Dean Karnazes staggered home from a night out drinking with friends, put on his gardening shoes and went for a run. A 30-mile run. All night.
Why we fought
by Clifford D. May
The history of the Iraq War is being twisted.
The Terri Schiavo passion
by Robert Novak
When the case of Terri Schiavo came to Washington in what appears to be the last stages of that poor woman's life, it evoked passion contrasting with the usual political play-acting in the nation's capital.
Starved for justice
by Ann Coulter
So how about a Republican governor sending in the National Guard to stop an innocent American woman from being starved to death in Florida?
The Capital Spenders
by Cal Thomas
Washington, D.C., is about to experience professional baseball for the first time in more than three decades when the Washington Nationals debut in two weeks.
Discs Are So Dead
Two new formats aim to bury the DVD. But Web distribution will kill them all.
Wired
Rise of the Green Machine
In a nation of gas-guzzlers, Toyota made hybrids cool. Now the world's number-two automaker wants to make the internal combustion engine obsolete.
Wired
China's Next Cultural Revolution
The People's Republic is on the fast track to become the car capital of the world. And the first alt-fuel superpower.
Welfare Junkies
by Robert Samuelson
Oh My God, We Really Are In a Theocracy
by Maureen Dowd
Runaway Judiciary
Congress is allowed to "intervene and guide or control the exercise of the courts' discretion"--except when it comes to Terri Schiavo.
by Hugh Hewitt
In Love With Death
The bizarre passion of the pull-the-tube people.
by Peggy Noonan
Sizing Up a New Species: Camera-Binoculars
By David Pogue
Binoculars with built-in digital cameras appeal to anyone who takes binoculars to sporting events or concerts. A review of four models.
Internet Phone Service Creating Chatty Network
by Ethan Todras-Whitehill
Either through text-messaging or over Internet telephones, more people are making contact with strangers.
The 500-Mile-Per-Gallon Solution
High-tech cars, Arctic drilling, new gas taxes: We must have the will to do it all.
by Max Boot
Baseball's Lucky Break
Bud Selig must be praying that Barry Bonds retires.
by Allan Barra
Black women's fight needs more voices
by Stanley Crouch
Reuters
You Want Fingers with That?
A diner at a Wendy's fast food restaurant in San Jose, California, found a human finger in a bowl of chili prepared by the chain, local officials said on Wednesday.
Reuters
One American's Recipe for Happiness? Run 262 Miles
Pondering life on his 30th birthday and finding something lacking, Dean Karnazes staggered home from a night out drinking with friends, put on his gardening shoes and went for a run. A 30-mile run. All night.
Why we fought
by Clifford D. May
The history of the Iraq War is being twisted.
The Terri Schiavo passion
by Robert Novak
When the case of Terri Schiavo came to Washington in what appears to be the last stages of that poor woman's life, it evoked passion contrasting with the usual political play-acting in the nation's capital.
Starved for justice
by Ann Coulter
So how about a Republican governor sending in the National Guard to stop an innocent American woman from being starved to death in Florida?
The Capital Spenders
by Cal Thomas
Washington, D.C., is about to experience professional baseball for the first time in more than three decades when the Washington Nationals debut in two weeks.
Discs Are So Dead
Two new formats aim to bury the DVD. But Web distribution will kill them all.
Wired
Rise of the Green Machine
In a nation of gas-guzzlers, Toyota made hybrids cool. Now the world's number-two automaker wants to make the internal combustion engine obsolete.
Wired
China's Next Cultural Revolution
The People's Republic is on the fast track to become the car capital of the world. And the first alt-fuel superpower.
Welfare Junkies
by Robert Samuelson
Oh My God, We Really Are In a Theocracy
by Maureen Dowd
Runaway Judiciary
Congress is allowed to "intervene and guide or control the exercise of the courts' discretion"--except when it comes to Terri Schiavo.
by Hugh Hewitt
In Love With Death
The bizarre passion of the pull-the-tube people.
by Peggy Noonan
Sizing Up a New Species: Camera-Binoculars
By David Pogue
Binoculars with built-in digital cameras appeal to anyone who takes binoculars to sporting events or concerts. A review of four models.
Internet Phone Service Creating Chatty Network
by Ethan Todras-Whitehill
Either through text-messaging or over Internet telephones, more people are making contact with strangers.
The 500-Mile-Per-Gallon Solution
High-tech cars, Arctic drilling, new gas taxes: We must have the will to do it all.
by Max Boot
Baseball's Lucky Break
Bud Selig must be praying that Barry Bonds retires.
by Allan Barra
Wednesday, March 23, 2005
articles 3/23
AP
Report: China Faces Severe Water Shortages
China's already severe water shortages are worsening due to heavy pollution of lakes and aquifers and urban development projects with a big thirst for water, such as lawns and fountains, state media reported.
Strategizing Tory
Breaking upon the law
by David Warren
Business 2.0
Casinos Bet Big on RFID
Casino chips embedded with RFID tags carry a unique player code to track behavior.
Hypocrisy without principles is the worst kind of all
By Jonah Goldberg
Not Dead at All
Why Congress was right to stick up for Terri Schiavo.
By Harriet McBryde Johnson
The Death of Idea Factories... and the Birth of Idea Networks
by Dominic Basulto
Reinventing the act of inventing
Bush's First Defeat
The president has lost on Social Security. How will he handle it?
By Jacob Weisberg
Minimum wage, maximum folly
by Walter E. Williams
Senators Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., and Rick Santorum, R-Pa., both introduced proposals to increase the minimum wage from its current $5.15 an hour.
The Telecom Revolution Americans Deserve
by James Glassman
Making our own choices, without the clumsy interventions of politicians, judges and bureaucrats.
Between Travesty and Tragedy
by Charles Krauthammer
Cheney Envy, 2008
by Lawrence Kudlow
W. Post
Cheney Defends Bush Appointments
Vice President Says Loyalists in Diplomatic Posts Will Strengthen U.S. Position
Rick Santorum Was Right
Meet the future of marriage in America.
by Stanley Kurtz
The Soft Power Summit
Our international betters--and Madeleine Albright--tell America how to fight the war on terror (and what's wrong with us).
by Thomas Joscelyn
Newsweek
From Jesus to Christ
How did a Jewish prophet come to be seen as the Christian savior? The epic story of the empty tomb, the early battles and the making of a great faith.
The MSM's life and death distortions
by Michelle Malkin
However you feel about the Terri Schiavo case, one fact is indisputable: The mainstream media coverage of the matter has been abysmal.
Business 2.0
What's Next for Apple?
Steve Jobs won't ever tell you -- but we will. Here's what a trail of intriguing evidence reveals about where the world's hottest company is going.
Report: China Faces Severe Water Shortages
China's already severe water shortages are worsening due to heavy pollution of lakes and aquifers and urban development projects with a big thirst for water, such as lawns and fountains, state media reported.
Strategizing Tory
Breaking upon the law
by David Warren
Business 2.0
Casinos Bet Big on RFID
Casino chips embedded with RFID tags carry a unique player code to track behavior.
Hypocrisy without principles is the worst kind of all
By Jonah Goldberg
Not Dead at All
Why Congress was right to stick up for Terri Schiavo.
By Harriet McBryde Johnson
The Death of Idea Factories... and the Birth of Idea Networks
by Dominic Basulto
Reinventing the act of inventing
Bush's First Defeat
The president has lost on Social Security. How will he handle it?
By Jacob Weisberg
Minimum wage, maximum folly
by Walter E. Williams
Senators Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., and Rick Santorum, R-Pa., both introduced proposals to increase the minimum wage from its current $5.15 an hour.
The Telecom Revolution Americans Deserve
by James Glassman
Making our own choices, without the clumsy interventions of politicians, judges and bureaucrats.
Between Travesty and Tragedy
by Charles Krauthammer
Cheney Envy, 2008
by Lawrence Kudlow
W. Post
Cheney Defends Bush Appointments
Vice President Says Loyalists in Diplomatic Posts Will Strengthen U.S. Position
Rick Santorum Was Right
Meet the future of marriage in America.
by Stanley Kurtz
The Soft Power Summit
Our international betters--and Madeleine Albright--tell America how to fight the war on terror (and what's wrong with us).
by Thomas Joscelyn
Newsweek
From Jesus to Christ
How did a Jewish prophet come to be seen as the Christian savior? The epic story of the empty tomb, the early battles and the making of a great faith.
The MSM's life and death distortions
by Michelle Malkin
However you feel about the Terri Schiavo case, one fact is indisputable: The mainstream media coverage of the matter has been abysmal.
Business 2.0
What's Next for Apple?
Steve Jobs won't ever tell you -- but we will. Here's what a trail of intriguing evidence reveals about where the world's hottest company is going.
Tuesday, March 22, 2005
articles 3/22
Hollywood Reporter
Actually, sex doesn't sell
Serious, adult sexuality a turn-off for movie audiences
That Bleeding Heart Wolfowitz
He's not exactly who you think he is.
By Christopher Hitchens
Bush's Shake-Up-the-World View
Wolfowitz, Bolton and Hughes understand it--and share it.
by Fred Barnes
'Culture of Life'
The Schiavo case shows that it's about more than abortion
by Brendan Miniter
Europe's Problem--and Ours
Will the EU choose collectivism over individualism? Will we?
by Pete Du Pont
Astroturf Politics
How liberal foundations fooled Congress into passing McCain-Feingold.
by John Fund
'Cruel and unusual'
by Thomas Sowell
If the tragic case of Terri Schiavo shows nothing else, it shows how easily "the right to die" can become the right to kill.
Time
The Eternal Optimist
John Kerry is on the road again, listing excuses for losing in 2004 and looking like a 2008 campaigner
Time
The Decency Police
A year after Janet Jackson, activists and Congress are revving up their drive to clean up the airwaves. Now cable may be next. Has TV gone too far--or have its critics?
Time
Hall of Shame
Hearings leave a legend stained, a commissioner under fire and a game still under suspicion
Gay-Marriage Bans: The Boomerang Effect
Marriage legislation is causing some unintended legal consequences
U.S. News & World Report
Robert Mueller is pushing some of the biggest changes in the FBI's history. Think he's a popular guy?
iPod Therefore iAm
by Douglas Kern
Contra Andrew Sullivan and Christine Rosen, I am not afraid of iPod nation. Like everything else in modernity, iPods have increased our capacity to take pleasure in our unique pursuits, even as they have increased our responsibility to choose our pursuits wisely. Will we live up to that responsibility? Maybe so, maybe not; either way, the fault lies not within our iPods, but within ourselves.
Actually, sex doesn't sell
Serious, adult sexuality a turn-off for movie audiences
That Bleeding Heart Wolfowitz
He's not exactly who you think he is.
By Christopher Hitchens
Bush's Shake-Up-the-World View
Wolfowitz, Bolton and Hughes understand it--and share it.
by Fred Barnes
'Culture of Life'
The Schiavo case shows that it's about more than abortion
by Brendan Miniter
Europe's Problem--and Ours
Will the EU choose collectivism over individualism? Will we?
by Pete Du Pont
Astroturf Politics
How liberal foundations fooled Congress into passing McCain-Feingold.
by John Fund
'Cruel and unusual'
by Thomas Sowell
If the tragic case of Terri Schiavo shows nothing else, it shows how easily "the right to die" can become the right to kill.
Time
The Eternal Optimist
John Kerry is on the road again, listing excuses for losing in 2004 and looking like a 2008 campaigner
Time
The Decency Police
A year after Janet Jackson, activists and Congress are revving up their drive to clean up the airwaves. Now cable may be next. Has TV gone too far--or have its critics?
Time
Hall of Shame
Hearings leave a legend stained, a commissioner under fire and a game still under suspicion
Gay-Marriage Bans: The Boomerang Effect
Marriage legislation is causing some unintended legal consequences
U.S. News & World Report
Robert Mueller is pushing some of the biggest changes in the FBI's history. Think he's a popular guy?
iPod Therefore iAm
by Douglas Kern
Contra Andrew Sullivan and Christine Rosen, I am not afraid of iPod nation. Like everything else in modernity, iPods have increased our capacity to take pleasure in our unique pursuits, even as they have increased our responsibility to choose our pursuits wisely. Will we live up to that responsibility? Maybe so, maybe not; either way, the fault lies not within our iPods, but within ourselves.
Saturday, March 19, 2005
articles 3/19
Reuters
Wolfowitz, U2's Bono talk poverty
Controversial pick to head the World Bank has 'enthusiastic, detailed' phone chat with Irish rocker.
Surrender Of A Bashed-Brother
by Skip Bayless
AP
McGwire backlash continues after testimony
MLB's leadership a disgrace
by Peter Gammons
One reputation is in tatters, another could be
by Jayson Stark
Think MLB gets it now?
Either baseball moves swiftly to adopt more stringent steroid testing -- again -- or Congress will act.
by Ken Rosenthal
Cincinnati Post
Ol' Lefty's right at home
Nuxhall thrives in Florida sun
Editor and Publisher
Study: Media Self-Censored Some Iraq Coverage
Many media outlets self-censored their reporting on the Iraq invasion because of concerns about public reaction to graphic images and content, according to a survey of more than 200 journalists by American University's School of Communications.
'Don't Kick It'
If Terri Schiavo is killed, Republicans will pay a political price.
by Peggy Noonan
The Do-Nothing Conspiracy
by David Brooks
Fear and Intimidation at Harvard
What do academic women want?
by Harvey Mansfield
AARP's Antagonist
The chief executive of USA Next talks about his lobbying strategy, being charmed by Bill Clinton and dealing with his left-leaning kids.
The Interregnum
With Arafat gone and the second intifada seemingly exhausted, the Palestinians are looking inward, poised between violence and democracy, despair and hope. Where are they going, and how far can Mahmoud Abbas take them?
China's Strategy
They're happy to let us worry about North Korea while they assemble long-term plans to counter American hegemony.
by Tom Donnelly
Vindicated
by Charles Krauthammer
At his news conference on Wednesday, President Bush declined an invitation to claim vindication for his policy of spreading democracy in the Middle East.
The Clinton Paradox
Liberal Democrats claim they want "another Bill Clinton." But that's only half-true.
by Duncan Currie
Democrats Could Use Someone Like Dick Cheney
by Leslie Gelb
Crying Wolfowitz
The inordinate fear of Bush's choice for the World Bank.
by Stephen F. Hayes
Wolfowitz's Tough Tasks
by Colbert King
Democrats for Wolfowitz
Senator Joe Biden isn't the only Democrat supporting Paul Wolfowitz for president of the World Bank.
by Stephen F. Hayes
Why Paul Wolfowitz May Be a Good Choice
by Fred Kaplan
Exactly What the World Bank Needs
by Jacob Heilbrunn
Wall Street Journal Editorial
Can Wolfowitz Save the World Bank?
The Nation
Wolfowitz To Rule the World (Bank)
by David Corn
Wolfowitz, U2's Bono talk poverty
Controversial pick to head the World Bank has 'enthusiastic, detailed' phone chat with Irish rocker.
Surrender Of A Bashed-Brother
by Skip Bayless
AP
McGwire backlash continues after testimony
MLB's leadership a disgrace
by Peter Gammons
One reputation is in tatters, another could be
by Jayson Stark
Think MLB gets it now?
Either baseball moves swiftly to adopt more stringent steroid testing -- again -- or Congress will act.
by Ken Rosenthal
Cincinnati Post
Ol' Lefty's right at home
Nuxhall thrives in Florida sun
Editor and Publisher
Study: Media Self-Censored Some Iraq Coverage
Many media outlets self-censored their reporting on the Iraq invasion because of concerns about public reaction to graphic images and content, according to a survey of more than 200 journalists by American University's School of Communications.
'Don't Kick It'
If Terri Schiavo is killed, Republicans will pay a political price.
by Peggy Noonan
The Do-Nothing Conspiracy
by David Brooks
Fear and Intimidation at Harvard
What do academic women want?
by Harvey Mansfield
AARP's Antagonist
The chief executive of USA Next talks about his lobbying strategy, being charmed by Bill Clinton and dealing with his left-leaning kids.
The Interregnum
With Arafat gone and the second intifada seemingly exhausted, the Palestinians are looking inward, poised between violence and democracy, despair and hope. Where are they going, and how far can Mahmoud Abbas take them?
China's Strategy
They're happy to let us worry about North Korea while they assemble long-term plans to counter American hegemony.
by Tom Donnelly
Vindicated
by Charles Krauthammer
At his news conference on Wednesday, President Bush declined an invitation to claim vindication for his policy of spreading democracy in the Middle East.
The Clinton Paradox
Liberal Democrats claim they want "another Bill Clinton." But that's only half-true.
by Duncan Currie
Democrats Could Use Someone Like Dick Cheney
by Leslie Gelb
Crying Wolfowitz
The inordinate fear of Bush's choice for the World Bank.
by Stephen F. Hayes
Wolfowitz's Tough Tasks
by Colbert King
Democrats for Wolfowitz
Senator Joe Biden isn't the only Democrat supporting Paul Wolfowitz for president of the World Bank.
by Stephen F. Hayes
Why Paul Wolfowitz May Be a Good Choice
by Fred Kaplan
Exactly What the World Bank Needs
by Jacob Heilbrunn
Wall Street Journal Editorial
Can Wolfowitz Save the World Bank?
The Nation
Wolfowitz To Rule the World (Bank)
by David Corn
Sunday, March 13, 2005
On hiatus
The blog is on hiatus this week, while the Duke travels to AZ on business. Lord willing, the blog will be updated again 3/19.
Saturday, March 12, 2005
articles 3/12
Reuters
Older siblings are smarter
Look Who's Talking at the Drive-Through
McDonald's Corp. wants to outsource your neighborhood drive-through. The world's largest fast-food chain said on Thursday it is looking into using remote call centers to take customer orders in an effort to improve service at its drive-throughs.
NY Times Magazine
Breaking Away
History may be linear, but the author's memory — of his parents' troubled marriage, of freeing himself from entanglements and of his start at The New York Times — runs in loops.
A First Draft of History? Call the rewrite man!
by Bret Stephens
WSJ Editorial
The Gerrymander Gauntlet
Gov. Schwarzenegger tries to abolish "ribbons of shame."
NY Times
Cross Selling
A youth-focused religious brand finds a place in a pop-culture temple — the mall.
WSJ
For Finicky Drinkers, Water From the Tap Isn't Tasty Enough
Jason Finds a Mountain RiverWith Liquid He Likes; Dixie and Pepper Agree
Welcome to Canada
The Great White Waste of Time.
by Matt Labash
"I Don't Do Carrots"
The big-stick diplomacy of Bush's nominee for U.N. ambassador.
by Stephen F. Hayes
W. Times
2008 run, abortion engage her politically
A Look Back
by Victor Davis Hanson
Meanwhile, Back in Baghdad
by Dan Senor
Don't wobble, Mr. President
by Caroline B. Glick
Common wisdom has it that until Hizbullah chief Hassan Nasrallah launched Tuesday's pro-Syrian demonstration in Beirut, his terror organization had been more or less on the fence regarding its position on Syria's occupation of Lebanon.
Saturday Night Lite
by David Brooks
Inside Report: Jeb For Veep?
by Robert Novak
Kerry Loves the Mainstream Media
by P.J. O'Rourke
More optimism
Feeding the wave
by David Warren
Hope now a widespread reality
Lifetime achievements for Hall of Fame
by Jayson Stark
Sporting News
Smoltz believes he has plenty of innings left
Dennis Eckersley can't even fathom what John Smoltz is doing, returning to starting pitching after achieving success as a closer. "God, no," Eckersley says. "It's beyond me." Photo Galleries... Spring training Spring training fans If anyone can pull this off, it's Smoltz, but let no one mistake the enormity of his task. Smoltz turns 38 in May. He has endured four elbow operations. And he hasn't started regularly since 1999.
U2 Concert Tix On Sale This Weekend and following
Sep. 20 Chicago, United Center
Sep. 21 Chicago, United Center
Oct. 03 Boston, Fleet Center
Oct. 04 Boston, Fleet Center
Oct. 07 New York, Madison Square Garden
Oct. 08 New York, Madison Square Garden
Oct. 10 New York, Madison Square Garden
Oct. 16 Philadelphia, Wachovia Center
Oct. 17 Philadelphia, Wachovia Center
Oct. 19 Washington, DC MCI Center
Oct. 20 Washington, DC MCI Center
Oct. 24 Detroit, Palace of Auburn Hills
Oct. 28 Houston, Toyota Center
Oct. 29 Dallas, American Airlines Center
Nov. 01 Los Angeles, Staples Center
Nov. 02 Los Angeles, Staples Center
Nov. 16 Tampa, St. Pete Times Forum
Nov. 18 Atlanta, Philips Arena
Dec. 19 Portland, Rose Garden
U2 Concert Tix On Sale Next Weekend and following
Sep. 12 Toronto, Air Canada Centre
Sep. 14 Toronto, Air Canada Centre
Sep. 23 Minneapolis, Target Center
Sep. 25 Milwaukee, Bradley Center
Oct. 22 Pittsburgh, Mellon Arena
Nov. 13 Miami, American Airlines Arena
Nov. 25 Ottawa, Corel Centre
Nov. 26 Montreal, Bell Centre
Dec. 17 Salt Lake City, Delta Center
Dec. 07 Hartford, Civic Center
Dec. 09 Buffalo, HSBC Arena
Dec. 10 Cleveland, Gund Arena
Dec. 14 St. Louis, Savvis Center
Dec. 15 Omaha, Qwest Center
Older siblings are smarter
Look Who's Talking at the Drive-Through
McDonald's Corp. wants to outsource your neighborhood drive-through. The world's largest fast-food chain said on Thursday it is looking into using remote call centers to take customer orders in an effort to improve service at its drive-throughs.
NY Times Magazine
Breaking Away
History may be linear, but the author's memory — of his parents' troubled marriage, of freeing himself from entanglements and of his start at The New York Times — runs in loops.
A First Draft of History? Call the rewrite man!
by Bret Stephens
WSJ Editorial
The Gerrymander Gauntlet
Gov. Schwarzenegger tries to abolish "ribbons of shame."
NY Times
Cross Selling
A youth-focused religious brand finds a place in a pop-culture temple — the mall.
WSJ
For Finicky Drinkers, Water From the Tap Isn't Tasty Enough
Jason Finds a Mountain RiverWith Liquid He Likes; Dixie and Pepper Agree
Welcome to Canada
The Great White Waste of Time.
by Matt Labash
"I Don't Do Carrots"
The big-stick diplomacy of Bush's nominee for U.N. ambassador.
by Stephen F. Hayes
W. Times
2008 run, abortion engage her politically
A Look Back
by Victor Davis Hanson
Meanwhile, Back in Baghdad
by Dan Senor
Don't wobble, Mr. President
by Caroline B. Glick
Common wisdom has it that until Hizbullah chief Hassan Nasrallah launched Tuesday's pro-Syrian demonstration in Beirut, his terror organization had been more or less on the fence regarding its position on Syria's occupation of Lebanon.
Saturday Night Lite
by David Brooks
Inside Report: Jeb For Veep?
by Robert Novak
Kerry Loves the Mainstream Media
by P.J. O'Rourke
More optimism
Feeding the wave
by David Warren
Hope now a widespread reality
Lifetime achievements for Hall of Fame
by Jayson Stark
Sporting News
Smoltz believes he has plenty of innings left
Dennis Eckersley can't even fathom what John Smoltz is doing, returning to starting pitching after achieving success as a closer. "God, no," Eckersley says. "It's beyond me." Photo Galleries... Spring training Spring training fans If anyone can pull this off, it's Smoltz, but let no one mistake the enormity of his task. Smoltz turns 38 in May. He has endured four elbow operations. And he hasn't started regularly since 1999.
U2 Concert Tix On Sale This Weekend and following
Sep. 20 Chicago, United Center
Sep. 21 Chicago, United Center
Oct. 03 Boston, Fleet Center
Oct. 04 Boston, Fleet Center
Oct. 07 New York, Madison Square Garden
Oct. 08 New York, Madison Square Garden
Oct. 10 New York, Madison Square Garden
Oct. 16 Philadelphia, Wachovia Center
Oct. 17 Philadelphia, Wachovia Center
Oct. 19 Washington, DC MCI Center
Oct. 20 Washington, DC MCI Center
Oct. 24 Detroit, Palace of Auburn Hills
Oct. 28 Houston, Toyota Center
Oct. 29 Dallas, American Airlines Center
Nov. 01 Los Angeles, Staples Center
Nov. 02 Los Angeles, Staples Center
Nov. 16 Tampa, St. Pete Times Forum
Nov. 18 Atlanta, Philips Arena
Dec. 19 Portland, Rose Garden
U2 Concert Tix On Sale Next Weekend and following
Sep. 12 Toronto, Air Canada Centre
Sep. 14 Toronto, Air Canada Centre
Sep. 23 Minneapolis, Target Center
Sep. 25 Milwaukee, Bradley Center
Oct. 22 Pittsburgh, Mellon Arena
Nov. 13 Miami, American Airlines Arena
Nov. 25 Ottawa, Corel Centre
Nov. 26 Montreal, Bell Centre
Dec. 17 Salt Lake City, Delta Center
Dec. 07 Hartford, Civic Center
Dec. 09 Buffalo, HSBC Arena
Dec. 10 Cleveland, Gund Arena
Dec. 14 St. Louis, Savvis Center
Dec. 15 Omaha, Qwest Center
Friday, March 11, 2005
articles 3/11
NewsFactor
Why Women Leave I.T.
Women represent nearly half the workers in the U.S. -- 46.6 percent. However, they always have been underrepresented in I.T. Even more discouraging is the fact that the percentage of women working in I.T. jobs is not growing but dropping. That is bad news indeed for employers seeking hard-to-find technical candidates and the women who might otherwise fill those well-paying jobs.
WSJ
Trophy Overload
An award just for showing up? Sorry, kid: Sports teams are getting tough. Nancy Ann Jeffrey on trophy backlash -- and how it's playing out with families.
WSJ Editorial
Virtually Home Alone
Why don't parents control their kids' media consumption?
WSJ
Seven Types of Ambiguity
Why do Americans loathe Jacko? Because he is deeply fuzzy.
by Tunku Varadarajan
WSJ Editorial
Rendering Al Qaeda
So how is the CIA supposed to squeeze terrorists?
Thinking of Jackasses
The grand delusions of the Democratic Party
by Marc Cooper
Reuters
Bono Not in Running for World Bank-Lobby Group
ESPN.com
Q&A: Congress, Steroids and Baseball
The Economist
The Neo-Conservatives Rise Again
Will George Bush's Legacy Be a Democratic Majority?
by Carroll Andrew Morse
Will President Bush's small-d democratization efforts help build a majority for the large-D Democratic party?
Syria, Leaving with a Bang?
by Olivier Guitta
Why verbal support for the courageous Lebanese opposition might not be enough...
On the Edge of Innovation
by Dominic Basulto
The pace of innovation does not have to be dependent on federal government dollars flowing to centralized research...
Marxism of the Right?
by Max Borders
Does libertarianism unleash "sadomasochism" and other caligulan horrors?
Thou Shalt Not Create
by Charles Krauthammer
Lebanon's Next Steps
by David Ignatius
W. Post
Blogging Clicking With Colleges
Blogs are now morphing into the next big thing on campus: wikis.
Neverland is online too
by Rebecca Hagelin
The bottom line is, just like the parents who gleefully sent their kids to sleepovers at Neverland and never bothered to ask too many questions, most parents would rather ignore what their kids are doing online. The mindset is the same.
Danny, ye hardly knew ye
by Jonah Goldberg
In a perfect world, Dan Rather would have left his CBS News studio, and with his crowd of well-wishers and supporters in tow, walked up to the roof of CBS headquarters to board a helicopter to whisk him away from the national stage.
NY Sun
Clinton Presidential Bid Bolstered by Appointment of Ickes
The Beirut Wall Isn't Falling
Why Berlin 1989 isn't the right analogy for today's Middle East.
By Fred Kaplan
W. Post
Americans Treated Yushchenko
Secret team of doctors helped find dioxin poisoning after family requested help.
Good riddance to Rather
by Thomas Sowell
Ordinarily, the retirement of a TV newsman would be something to be more or less passed over in silence by friend and foe alike.
St. Petersburg Times
Bumper sticker evokes road rage
Her Bush-Cheney sticker sent him into a tirade that led to a dangerous car chase through the streets of Tampa.
Baseball under siege
by Marvin Olasky
Baseball needs to put the steroids era behind it by having and enforcing tough rules against all kinds of artificial advantages, so that spring can return.
The Beuruit Tea-Party
by Thomas Freidman
Why Women Leave I.T.
Women represent nearly half the workers in the U.S. -- 46.6 percent. However, they always have been underrepresented in I.T. Even more discouraging is the fact that the percentage of women working in I.T. jobs is not growing but dropping. That is bad news indeed for employers seeking hard-to-find technical candidates and the women who might otherwise fill those well-paying jobs.
WSJ
Trophy Overload
An award just for showing up? Sorry, kid: Sports teams are getting tough. Nancy Ann Jeffrey on trophy backlash -- and how it's playing out with families.
WSJ Editorial
Virtually Home Alone
Why don't parents control their kids' media consumption?
WSJ
Seven Types of Ambiguity
Why do Americans loathe Jacko? Because he is deeply fuzzy.
by Tunku Varadarajan
WSJ Editorial
Rendering Al Qaeda
So how is the CIA supposed to squeeze terrorists?
Thinking of Jackasses
The grand delusions of the Democratic Party
by Marc Cooper
Reuters
Bono Not in Running for World Bank-Lobby Group
ESPN.com
Q&A: Congress, Steroids and Baseball
The Economist
The Neo-Conservatives Rise Again
Will George Bush's Legacy Be a Democratic Majority?
by Carroll Andrew Morse
Will President Bush's small-d democratization efforts help build a majority for the large-D Democratic party?
Syria, Leaving with a Bang?
by Olivier Guitta
Why verbal support for the courageous Lebanese opposition might not be enough...
On the Edge of Innovation
by Dominic Basulto
The pace of innovation does not have to be dependent on federal government dollars flowing to centralized research...
Marxism of the Right?
by Max Borders
Does libertarianism unleash "sadomasochism" and other caligulan horrors?
Thou Shalt Not Create
by Charles Krauthammer
Lebanon's Next Steps
by David Ignatius
W. Post
Blogging Clicking With Colleges
Blogs are now morphing into the next big thing on campus: wikis.
Neverland is online too
by Rebecca Hagelin
The bottom line is, just like the parents who gleefully sent their kids to sleepovers at Neverland and never bothered to ask too many questions, most parents would rather ignore what their kids are doing online. The mindset is the same.
Danny, ye hardly knew ye
by Jonah Goldberg
In a perfect world, Dan Rather would have left his CBS News studio, and with his crowd of well-wishers and supporters in tow, walked up to the roof of CBS headquarters to board a helicopter to whisk him away from the national stage.
NY Sun
Clinton Presidential Bid Bolstered by Appointment of Ickes
The Beirut Wall Isn't Falling
Why Berlin 1989 isn't the right analogy for today's Middle East.
By Fred Kaplan
W. Post
Americans Treated Yushchenko
Secret team of doctors helped find dioxin poisoning after family requested help.
Good riddance to Rather
by Thomas Sowell
Ordinarily, the retirement of a TV newsman would be something to be more or less passed over in silence by friend and foe alike.
St. Petersburg Times
Bumper sticker evokes road rage
Her Bush-Cheney sticker sent him into a tirade that led to a dangerous car chase through the streets of Tampa.
Baseball under siege
by Marvin Olasky
Baseball needs to put the steroids era behind it by having and enforcing tough rules against all kinds of artificial advantages, so that spring can return.
The Beuruit Tea-Party
by Thomas Freidman
Thursday, March 10, 2005
articles 3/10
NY Times
Data Lacking on Iran's Arms, U.S. Panel Says
NY Times
When Torment Is Baby's Destiny, Euthanasia Is Defended
Babies born into what is certain to be a brief life of grievous suffering should have their lives ended, according to two Dutch doctors.
Surprised?
by Pejman Yousefzadeh
The incipient spread of democracy in the Middle East may be many things. "Surprising" is not one of them.
The Science Behind Common Sense
by S.T. Karnick
Can things be true even if we can't prove them?
Must-see TV, and much ado about ... what?
by Jayson Stark
Who Is a Journalist?
Anybody who wants to be.
By Jacob Weisberg
Social Security crossroads
by Robert Novak
Sen. Robert Bennett, the chief deputy majority whip and one of the wisest Republican heads in Washington, has quietly entered the Social Security maelstrom with a thoughtful compromise that puts his party at a crossroads.
The Civil Rights Commission
by George Will
In contemporary American politics, as in earlier forms of vaudeville, it helps to have had an easy act to follow. Gerald Reynolds certainly did.
The advance of freedom
by Cal Thomas
President Bush's speech to the National Defense University in Virginia Tuesday was a first-rate definition of what freedom means to the West.
Defense Begins at Home
Freedom may be on the march, but America is still vulnerable to attack.
by Peggy Noonan
Wrong from the Beginning
Even in 1963, Dan Rather was a poor excuse for a newsman.
by Philip Chalk
High noon for judges: Part III
by Thomas Sowell
People who complain about the frivolous lawsuits that have outraged some and ruined others financially need to connect the dots to the present Senate controversy over the confirmation of federal judges.
Data Lacking on Iran's Arms, U.S. Panel Says
NY Times
When Torment Is Baby's Destiny, Euthanasia Is Defended
Babies born into what is certain to be a brief life of grievous suffering should have their lives ended, according to two Dutch doctors.
Surprised?
by Pejman Yousefzadeh
The incipient spread of democracy in the Middle East may be many things. "Surprising" is not one of them.
The Science Behind Common Sense
by S.T. Karnick
Can things be true even if we can't prove them?
Must-see TV, and much ado about ... what?
by Jayson Stark
Who Is a Journalist?
Anybody who wants to be.
By Jacob Weisberg
Social Security crossroads
by Robert Novak
Sen. Robert Bennett, the chief deputy majority whip and one of the wisest Republican heads in Washington, has quietly entered the Social Security maelstrom with a thoughtful compromise that puts his party at a crossroads.
The Civil Rights Commission
by George Will
In contemporary American politics, as in earlier forms of vaudeville, it helps to have had an easy act to follow. Gerald Reynolds certainly did.
The advance of freedom
by Cal Thomas
President Bush's speech to the National Defense University in Virginia Tuesday was a first-rate definition of what freedom means to the West.
Defense Begins at Home
Freedom may be on the march, but America is still vulnerable to attack.
by Peggy Noonan
Wrong from the Beginning
Even in 1963, Dan Rather was a poor excuse for a newsman.
by Philip Chalk
High noon for judges: Part III
by Thomas Sowell
People who complain about the frivolous lawsuits that have outraged some and ruined others financially need to connect the dots to the present Senate controversy over the confirmation of federal judges.
Wednesday, March 09, 2005
articles 3/9
Atlantic Monthly
Inside Out
Why it's so hard to infiltrate al-Qaeda
Saigon's Sharansky
Will Vietnam be the next Iraq?
by Claudia Rosett
The Overclass Under Duress
Ross Douthat has written a flawed but lyrical Harvard memoir.
by Noah Oppenheim
We Need Spy Blogs
An Army officer calls for better information gathering.
By Kris Alexander
The Real Myth of Motherhood
Reconsidering the maternal memoir-cum-manifesto.
By Ann Hulbert
Atlantic Monthly
The Air America Plan
Liberal talk radio is off the ground. Will the electorate turn blue, or just red in the face?
Getting Out Right
Warnings from many experts went unheeded before we entered Iraq. Let's listen as we prepare to "shape the exit"
by James Fallows
President Discusses War on Terror
National Defense University
Fort Lesley J. McNair
Democrats fall on the ball
by Tony Blankley
Partisan politics in Washington this season are getting interesting, as a few Democrats are cautiously beginning to challenge their leadership's strategy of total opposition to major Bush initiatives.
High noon for judges: Part II
by Thomas Sowell
One of the big confusions in the impending Senate fight over the confirmation of judicial nominees is that this is an issue about 'liberal' judges versus 'conservative' judges.
More Social Security deceit
by Walter E. Williams
A fortnight ago, I explained some of the congressional deceit that has become part and parcel of Social Security.
Upholding Kennedy's brain
by Jonah Goldberg
Imagine you were asked to protect, uphold and defend the framfra of the United States of America. Or ask yourself, What if you were appointed to faithfully execute the queenestray of the land?
Seeking sanity on Planet Massachusetts
by Kathleen Parker
There was a time not so long ago when a sane person could say, 'Children need a mom and a dad,' and the townspeople would yawn, roll their eyes and wonder why some folks insist on sharing such prosaic insights.
RealClearPolitics.com
The Arab Street Rises - With Women
Inside Out
Why it's so hard to infiltrate al-Qaeda
Saigon's Sharansky
Will Vietnam be the next Iraq?
by Claudia Rosett
The Overclass Under Duress
Ross Douthat has written a flawed but lyrical Harvard memoir.
by Noah Oppenheim
We Need Spy Blogs
An Army officer calls for better information gathering.
By Kris Alexander
The Real Myth of Motherhood
Reconsidering the maternal memoir-cum-manifesto.
By Ann Hulbert
Atlantic Monthly
The Air America Plan
Liberal talk radio is off the ground. Will the electorate turn blue, or just red in the face?
Getting Out Right
Warnings from many experts went unheeded before we entered Iraq. Let's listen as we prepare to "shape the exit"
by James Fallows
President Discusses War on Terror
National Defense University
Fort Lesley J. McNair
Democrats fall on the ball
by Tony Blankley
Partisan politics in Washington this season are getting interesting, as a few Democrats are cautiously beginning to challenge their leadership's strategy of total opposition to major Bush initiatives.
High noon for judges: Part II
by Thomas Sowell
One of the big confusions in the impending Senate fight over the confirmation of judicial nominees is that this is an issue about 'liberal' judges versus 'conservative' judges.
More Social Security deceit
by Walter E. Williams
A fortnight ago, I explained some of the congressional deceit that has become part and parcel of Social Security.
Upholding Kennedy's brain
by Jonah Goldberg
Imagine you were asked to protect, uphold and defend the framfra of the United States of America. Or ask yourself, What if you were appointed to faithfully execute the queenestray of the land?
Seeking sanity on Planet Massachusetts
by Kathleen Parker
There was a time not so long ago when a sane person could say, 'Children need a mom and a dad,' and the townspeople would yawn, roll their eyes and wonder why some folks insist on sharing such prosaic insights.
RealClearPolitics.com
The Arab Street Rises - With Women
Tuesday, March 08, 2005
Giving Wolfowitz His Due
By David Brooks
March 8, 2005
Let us now praise Paul Wolfowitz. Let us now take another look at the man who has pursued - longer and more forcefully than almost anyone else - the supposedly utopian notion that people across the Muslim world might actually hunger for freedom.
Let us look again at the man who's been vilified by Michael Moore and the rest of the infantile left, who's been condescended to by the people who consider themselves foreign policy grown-ups, and who has become the focus of much anti-Semitism in the world today - the center of a zillion Zionist conspiracy theories, and a hundred zillion clever-Jew-behind-the-scenes calumnies.
It's not necessary to absolve Wolfowitz of all sin or to neglect the postwar screw-ups in Iraq. Historians will figure out who was responsible for what, and Wolfowitz will probably come in for his share of the blame. But with political earthquakes now shaking the Arab world, it's time to step back and observe that over the course of his long career - in the Philippines, in Indonesia, in Central and Eastern Europe, and now in the Middle East - Wolfowitz has always been an ardent champion of freedom. And he has usually played a useful supporting role in making sure that pragmatic, democracy-promoting policies were put in place.
If the trends of the last few months continue, Wolfowitz will be the subject of fascinating biographies decades from now, while many of his smuggest critics will be forgotten. Those biographies will mention not only his intellectual commitment but also his personal commitment, his years spent learning the languages of the places that concerned him, and the thousands of hours spent listening deferentially to the local heroes who led the causes he supported.
To praise Wolfowitz is not triumphalism. The difficulties ahead are obvious. It's simple justice. It's a recognition that amid all the legitimate criticism, this guy has been the subject of a vicious piling-on campaign by people who know less than nothing about what is actually going on in the government, while he, in the core belief that has energized his work, may turn out to be right.
I've had only two long conversations with Wolfowitz. The second was the day after the Iraqi vote. I figured that would be an interesting day to get a sense of his mood.
He wasn't nearly as exuberant as I expected him to be, in part because, like everybody in government, he's busy with the constant flow of decisions. He said he spent 75 percent of his time on the Pentagon's budget and administration.
He deflected all my Oprahesque attempts to get him to open up and describe what it's felt like to be him for the past few years. Our tissues remained dry.
But he was eager to think ahead. "It's fascinating how many echoes this is going to have," he said. "The Iraqi election is an inspiration. It's going to be a real challenge to all absolute rulers."
He went on to suggest that American democracy-promotion could now get back onto its preferred course. Iraq, he said, was the outlier. "Iraq is exceptional because of the use of the U.S. military," he observed.
Normally, the U.S. plays the supporting role. For example, Americans can usefully raise the profile of dissidents so dictators feel less inclined to kill them. Wolfowitz was the first U.S. official to meet with Corazón Aquino. The U.S. can use its access to dictators to pressure and annoy them. Wolfowitz worked with George Shultz in the testy exchanges with Ronald Reagan, who was less inclined to ease Ferdinand Marcos out the door.
The U.S. can spark debates, but it cannot conduct them. When he was ambassador to Indonesia, Wolfowitz gave a speech calling for political "openness." He was careful not to use the words "freedom" or "democracy" because under Suharto, Indonesians might have felt inhibited about talking in such bold terms. But they were comfortable with openness, and it became the subject of magazine cover stories and a great national discussion.
Wolfowitz doesn't talk like those foreign policy blowhards who think the world is run by chessmasters sitting around at summits. He talks about national poets, national cultures and the power of people to bring sweeping change. His faith in people probably led to some of the mistakes in Iraq. But with change burbling in Beirut, with many young people proudly hoisting the Lebanese flag (in a country that was once a symbol of tribal factionalism), it's time to take a look at this guy again.
E-mail: dabrooks@nytimes.com
March 8, 2005
Let us now praise Paul Wolfowitz. Let us now take another look at the man who has pursued - longer and more forcefully than almost anyone else - the supposedly utopian notion that people across the Muslim world might actually hunger for freedom.
Let us look again at the man who's been vilified by Michael Moore and the rest of the infantile left, who's been condescended to by the people who consider themselves foreign policy grown-ups, and who has become the focus of much anti-Semitism in the world today - the center of a zillion Zionist conspiracy theories, and a hundred zillion clever-Jew-behind-the-scenes calumnies.
It's not necessary to absolve Wolfowitz of all sin or to neglect the postwar screw-ups in Iraq. Historians will figure out who was responsible for what, and Wolfowitz will probably come in for his share of the blame. But with political earthquakes now shaking the Arab world, it's time to step back and observe that over the course of his long career - in the Philippines, in Indonesia, in Central and Eastern Europe, and now in the Middle East - Wolfowitz has always been an ardent champion of freedom. And he has usually played a useful supporting role in making sure that pragmatic, democracy-promoting policies were put in place.
If the trends of the last few months continue, Wolfowitz will be the subject of fascinating biographies decades from now, while many of his smuggest critics will be forgotten. Those biographies will mention not only his intellectual commitment but also his personal commitment, his years spent learning the languages of the places that concerned him, and the thousands of hours spent listening deferentially to the local heroes who led the causes he supported.
To praise Wolfowitz is not triumphalism. The difficulties ahead are obvious. It's simple justice. It's a recognition that amid all the legitimate criticism, this guy has been the subject of a vicious piling-on campaign by people who know less than nothing about what is actually going on in the government, while he, in the core belief that has energized his work, may turn out to be right.
I've had only two long conversations with Wolfowitz. The second was the day after the Iraqi vote. I figured that would be an interesting day to get a sense of his mood.
He wasn't nearly as exuberant as I expected him to be, in part because, like everybody in government, he's busy with the constant flow of decisions. He said he spent 75 percent of his time on the Pentagon's budget and administration.
He deflected all my Oprahesque attempts to get him to open up and describe what it's felt like to be him for the past few years. Our tissues remained dry.
But he was eager to think ahead. "It's fascinating how many echoes this is going to have," he said. "The Iraqi election is an inspiration. It's going to be a real challenge to all absolute rulers."
He went on to suggest that American democracy-promotion could now get back onto its preferred course. Iraq, he said, was the outlier. "Iraq is exceptional because of the use of the U.S. military," he observed.
Normally, the U.S. plays the supporting role. For example, Americans can usefully raise the profile of dissidents so dictators feel less inclined to kill them. Wolfowitz was the first U.S. official to meet with Corazón Aquino. The U.S. can use its access to dictators to pressure and annoy them. Wolfowitz worked with George Shultz in the testy exchanges with Ronald Reagan, who was less inclined to ease Ferdinand Marcos out the door.
The U.S. can spark debates, but it cannot conduct them. When he was ambassador to Indonesia, Wolfowitz gave a speech calling for political "openness." He was careful not to use the words "freedom" or "democracy" because under Suharto, Indonesians might have felt inhibited about talking in such bold terms. But they were comfortable with openness, and it became the subject of magazine cover stories and a great national discussion.
Wolfowitz doesn't talk like those foreign policy blowhards who think the world is run by chessmasters sitting around at summits. He talks about national poets, national cultures and the power of people to bring sweeping change. His faith in people probably led to some of the mistakes in Iraq. But with change burbling in Beirut, with many young people proudly hoisting the Lebanese flag (in a country that was once a symbol of tribal factionalism), it's time to take a look at this guy again.
E-mail: dabrooks@nytimes.com
articles 3/8
NY Sun
A Clash in the Senate Likely on Nomination of Bolton to the U.N.
NY Times
Why is the NAACP against Social Security reform?
by Star Parker
The NAACP has weighed in on the great Social Security debate. And its predictable stand tells us, yet again, how out of touch this organization is today with the needs of African-Americans.
LA Times
Spy Agencies Fear Some Applicants Are Terrorists
Counterintelligence officials are concerned that Al Qaeda operatives may have tried to get jobs at the CIA and other agencies to spy on U.S. efforts.
NY Times
At a Suit's Core: Are Bloggers Reporters, Too?
WSJ Editorial
Tough Love for the U.N.
Moynihan, Kirkpatrick and now John Bolton.
LA Times
Advertisers: Their skin is available
The man who sold ad space on his forehead isn't alone. Others are willing to tattoo body parts with company logos for a price.
End of Another Era?
The Democrats' welfare-reform pitfall has lessons for the GOP on Social Security.
by Brendan Miniter
CBS, What Is the Frequency?
What the network should do in the post-Rather era.
By Jack Shafer
High noon for judges
by Thomas Sowell
It is painfully ironic that we should be promoting the spread of democracy abroad when democracy is shrinking at home.
In Our Name, Not In Our Image
by Andrew Apostolou
Yet again, the US appears to be facing a setback in Iraq. Iraqi Arabs voted not for liberals but for Islamists, while the minorities opted for nationalists. It looks like "blowback" all over again. But to eulogize an Iraqi liberalism that never was, is to misunderstand the US role in Iraqi domestic politics.
Interest Factors
Alan Greenspan looks at growth, housing, and oil as he decides what to do with interest rates.
by Irwin M. Stelzer
NY Times
Close Doesn't Always Count in Winning Games
Social scientists say that decentralized groups (like the Yankees) are more resilient than tighter-knit ones (like the Red Sox).
A Clash in the Senate Likely on Nomination of Bolton to the U.N.
NY Times
Why is the NAACP against Social Security reform?
by Star Parker
The NAACP has weighed in on the great Social Security debate. And its predictable stand tells us, yet again, how out of touch this organization is today with the needs of African-Americans.
LA Times
Spy Agencies Fear Some Applicants Are Terrorists
Counterintelligence officials are concerned that Al Qaeda operatives may have tried to get jobs at the CIA and other agencies to spy on U.S. efforts.
NY Times
At a Suit's Core: Are Bloggers Reporters, Too?
WSJ Editorial
Tough Love for the U.N.
Moynihan, Kirkpatrick and now John Bolton.
LA Times
Advertisers: Their skin is available
The man who sold ad space on his forehead isn't alone. Others are willing to tattoo body parts with company logos for a price.
End of Another Era?
The Democrats' welfare-reform pitfall has lessons for the GOP on Social Security.
by Brendan Miniter
CBS, What Is the Frequency?
What the network should do in the post-Rather era.
By Jack Shafer
High noon for judges
by Thomas Sowell
It is painfully ironic that we should be promoting the spread of democracy abroad when democracy is shrinking at home.
In Our Name, Not In Our Image
by Andrew Apostolou
Yet again, the US appears to be facing a setback in Iraq. Iraqi Arabs voted not for liberals but for Islamists, while the minorities opted for nationalists. It looks like "blowback" all over again. But to eulogize an Iraqi liberalism that never was, is to misunderstand the US role in Iraqi domestic politics.
Interest Factors
Alan Greenspan looks at growth, housing, and oil as he decides what to do with interest rates.
by Irwin M. Stelzer
NY Times
Close Doesn't Always Count in Winning Games
Social scientists say that decentralized groups (like the Yankees) are more resilient than tighter-knit ones (like the Red Sox).
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