28 articles
THANKS BUT NO THANKS, Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle told President Clinton on May 14. After days of haggling, the White House had drafted a letter that endorsed Daschle's bill banning late-term abortions. But Daschle figured he'd be better off without the letter. Why? Opponents of abortion…
In our cover story last week on Al Gore, Tucker Carlson reported on the October 1987 Hollywood lunch where Al and Tipper Gore recanted their opposition to obscene rock lyrics and groveled for forgiveness before a group of show-biz execs. The anecdote was drawn from a contemporaneous account in…
"What we have is the world's best chess player vs. Garry Kasparov."
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT, the "preference cartel" unveiled its propaganda campaign in the third and fourth weeks of April. This campaign is designed to convince the American people that race, gender, and ethnic preferences are good for us. I suspect that its timing is aimed at influencing the Ninth…
WHEN A SCHEDULER FROM Newt Gingrich's office called Ed Crane, president of the libertarian Cato Institute, to invite him to discuss the budget deal with House Republican leaders recently, Crane's response was curt: "Tell the speaker to cut some spending." Then he hung up. Paul Weyrich, president of…
Conservatives, who seem intent on tearing their movement apart, have come together on two seemingly unrelated issues: affirmative action and inheritance taxes. Both, it seems, are bad. Affirmative action is bad because it gives certain groups (blacks, Hispanics, women) an unfair advantage in life's…
On April 29, the federal government told employers "they may not discriminate against qualified workers with mental illness, may not ask job applicants if they have a history of mental illness, and must take reasonable steps to accommodate employees with psychiatric or emotional problems." That's…
Norman Mailer
The Center of the American Experiment, a think tank in Minneapolis, hosted Margaret Thatcher at its May 9 annual dinner. But the visit of the former British prime minister was not universally welcomed. Six members of the city council -- one short of a majority --- worked themselves up into a snit.…
This week, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia will hear a case called Federal Trade Commission v. Staples, Inc. and Office Depot, Inc. The Clinton FTC is suing the two companies to block their proposed merger as a violation of federal antitrust law. The government alleges that the…
SUNDAY, MAY 4. My friend Rick is eager to go with me to a movie he has already seen called Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery. I am looking forward to Austin Powers -- a James Bond parody starring and written by the brilliant sketch comedian Mike Myers -- and I appreciate the gesture, but…
Brian Newbould
I USED TO THINK that stories were mostly lies, chunks of experience sanded down too neatly to be believed. Every tale I've ever told has run a little smoother in the telling than in the living. Recently, however, I have begun to wonder whether that isn't more a failure of my living--of my eyes to…
I used to think that stories were mostly lies, chunks of experience sanded down too neatly to be believed. Every tale I've ever told has run a little smoother in the telling than in the living. Recently, however, I have begun to wonder whether that isn't more a failure of my living -- of my eyes to…
IN THE GREAT DEBATE OVER CHINA, the playing field is becoming more level. On one side is the pro-China lobby, which favors "engagement." What this has come to mean is giving a near-absolute priority to the expansion of economic ties with China. Though it boasts extraordinary financial resources and…
Let us suppose that it becomes possible to clone human beings. The creation of Dolly the cloned sheep makes this more likely than anyone once suspected. How should we react to this event?
In his first foray into anthropology since last year's memorable encounter with the 500-year-old mummy of a 14-year-old Incan girl ("If I were a single man, I might ask that mummy out"), President Clinton toured a museum in Mexico last week that included in its collection two human skulls -- relics…
Time published an article last week about how great life is in the United States. "We're living longer, breathing cleaner air, drinking cleaner water. Crime is in a free fall . . . and the downtowns we once gave up for dead are bristling with coffee bars, green markets, life." Maybe you remember…
Last December, we noted on this page that New York philanthropist Virginia Gilder had offered a scholarship to every student unfortunate enough to be attending Albany's worst public elementary school. This generous program, known as A Better Choice, provoked a Stalinold reaction by the education…
Despite the era of good feeling ushered in by the budget deal, a few vigilant Republicans are holding the Clinton administration's feet to the fire. Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman Jesse Helms learned recently that the United States Information Agency, a branch of the State Department,…
Does someone have it in for Adam Clymer? The congressional correspondent for the New York Times, known as one of the more sour members of the media, seems to have gotten on the wrong side of the Capitol Police. Following a May 1 press conference in the Capitol, Clymer was told by an officer not to…
In a House Republican caucus not exactly brimming with leaders on the subject of foreign and defense policy, majority leader Dick Armey is beginning to step up to the plate. He was among the first to signal displeasure with the Clinton administration's policy of "constructive engagement" with…
It's been a long, long time since I was last in Cambridge, Massachusetts. How long? Well, let's put it this way: As I drove along Mt. Auburn Street, I passed the battered old sign of the University Typewriter Repair Shop and realized that the first time I had seen it, I was actually taking a…
The New York Times is well known for trying to be balanced in its news reporting, but sometimes its efforts verge on the ludicrous. Consider the following line from the May 5 front-page article on partial-birth abortion: " While a number of abortion-rights supporters have switched their votes to…
Paul Cantor scathingly dissects Joseph Sobran's conviction that the Earl of Oxford wrote the plays bearing William Shakespeare's name. I would like to add a few words.
Every pundit is allowed to be wrong, but Bruce Anderson, the political editor of the London Spectator and John Major's most ardent fan, has used up his lifetime quota. Anderson wrote a prognosticating column the week before the British election that will go down in history. "I have been up country…
Now that Ralph Reed has hung out his shingle as a political consultant, who will step into his shoes as executive director of Pat Robertson's Christian Coalition -- a position that Reed managed to make one of the most influential in Washington? Three candidates' names come up most often, all with…
STEPHEN REINHARDT is the liberal badboy of the federal judiciary. He is ideological, outlandish, and never dull. The 66-year-old judge, appointed by Jimmy Carter in 1980 to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco, is well known to the Supreme Court, which has a habit of overturning his…