100 articles
THE POST-9/11 WORLD has been a mixed bag for the Chinese. The U.S. invasion of Afghanistan and the deployment of forces to Central Asia renewed fears of American encirclement and upset a decade of careful diplomacy. Beijing's efforts to negotiate security and stability along its continental…
IF OLD MEDIA--the "legacy media" of the big papers and old networks plus the newsweeklies--was a city and not simply a set of gasping institutions, it would look like Stalingrad circa 1944. Parts of most of the virtual buildings are still standing, but the devastation is pretty complete.
THIS WAS THE YEAR THAT WAS . . . . It opened with the world angry at America because of its willingness to use the strength of its military, and closes with the world angry at America for its willingness to tolerate the weakness of its currency. Thar's just no pleasin' these folks, as they say in…
PRESIDENT BUSH HAS PROPOSED WHAT appears at first glance to be a relatively modest agenda of health care reforms. But if passed by Congress in its entirety, the administration's plan would fundamentally restructure the health care system. It would turn upside down--actually, rightside up--almost…
GORE (not Al, the bloody stuff) is all the rage on television these days, especially in crime shows and medical dramas. After watching a camera shot dwell fondly on a diseased or mutilated body, the viewer gets to tag along into the operating room or, if he's really lucky, the medical examiner's…
Amos v. Andy
America's Right Turn
THE MOST FREQUENT CRITICISM OF President Bush's Middle East policy is that he has been too hands-off. Unless America takes the lead, so the argument goes, the "peace process" will languish. In other words, U.S. activism is the key to progress.
Amsterdam
Free World
IF JOHN KERRY HAD BEEN elected president, one of the clearest consequences would have been a bleak future for the major tax cuts signed into law by President Bush in 2001 and 2003 (most of which are scheduled to expire between 2008 and 2010). The tax issue was the most contentious issue of domestic…
THE MAYOR OF SOMERVILLE, Massachusetts, is sorry. Really sorry. He recently called the city's annual December celebration a "Christmas party." And we can't be having that. What he meant to say, he explained, is "holiday party," because the word "Christmas" contains . . . um, a word they don't use…
CIA SpyMaster
A Grateful Marine
TAIWAN'S ECONOMICS MINISTER, HO Mei-yueh, visited Washington in early December with a simple message: The United States and Taiwan should negotiate a free trade agreement to deepen and expand their economic ties. Given that Taiwan is already a major U.S. trading partner and has lately resolved most…
Istanbul
SECRETARY OF DEFENSE DONALD RUMSFELD declared, "You go to war with the Army you have. They're not the Army you might want or wish to have at a later time." The callousness and irresponsible buck-passing of this statement need no further elucidation. Its deeper irony, however, requires a little…
IN 1989, THE SUPREME Court issued a landmark decision that appeared to signal the end of racial preferences in public contracting. In City of Richmond v. Croson, a plumbing company (Croson) had successfully bid to install toilets in the city jail. Richmond (like many local governments) required…
Books in Brief
Donetsk, Ukraine
JOE KLEIN, WRITING IN Time, says Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid is "pro-life." The New York Times quotes Washington lobbyist Frank Fahrenkopf, the former Republican national chairman, as saying about Reid, "He's pro-life." In the Washington Post, after Reid was elevated to his leadership post,…
FIDEL CASTRO never much liked Christmas. He officially banned the holiday in 1969, hoping to maximize Cuba's sugar harvest. He loosened this restriction in December 1997--but only to coincide with the pending visit of Pope John Paul II. Now, thanks to James Cason, it's safe to say Fidel likes…
MICHAEL GERSON deserves extra pay, or something, for agreeing to spend half a day earlier this month discussing with journalists a subject of some controversy--"Religion, Rhetoric, and the Presidency." If anyone was qualified for such a task, it was Gerson. He is President Bush's chief…
EVEN BEFORE THE DOCTORS had completed their evacuation of the wounded to Germany in the aftermath of the attack on the Mosul dining hall, and certainly before all the next of kin of the dead had been notified, New York Times reporter Richard Stevenson had sat down at his word processor to…
Anything by P. G. Wodehouse.
FEW WRITER-DIRECTORS range as widely in tone and composition as Wes Anderson. His debut, the 1996 film Bottle Rocket, was a jittery, loose, and very independent comedy. Two years later, he made Rushmore, a film with movie stars and a tightly-scripted plot. Rushmore was still a comedy, but its humor…
ONE OF THE ENDURING CONTROVERSIES of the American experience in Iraq has been the decision to disband Saddam's army after toppling his regime. Current conventional wisdom holds that this was a huge mistake which accelerated the breakdown of order in Iraq. The trouble we're experiencing building new…
IT NEVER FAILS. If an embryonic stem cell researcher issues a press release touting a purported research advance, the media trip over each other to give the story full dramatic fanfare. But if an even better adult or umbilical cord blood stem cell advance comes to light--even when the experiments…
ONE NICE THING about the falling dollar is that it makes oil cheaper for European and other consumers who are complaining that the rise in their own currencies is hurting their competitiveness. When the euro and the dollar were at about parity, and oil was selling for $40 a barrel, it took E40 to…
IN HONOR OF THE TENTH anniversary of the fabled Republican Revolution--for precisely a decade has flown by since Republicans took control of the House of Representatives, following forty years of Democratic darkness--let us pause from our noise-making and silly-hat-wearing to ponder the story of…
Alexander the Great
CONNIE MACK, SON OF the former senator and the Republican congressman-elect from Florida's 14th district, has much in common with President Bush. Like Bush, Mack, comes from a family with a political tradition. And, again like Bush, Mack has a name and family connections that helped him surmount a…
Back to Arkansas . . .
HOWARD DEAN WAS NEVER VERY good to John Kerry. On November 1, the day before the election, Dean's blog posted six lengthy entries and mentioned Kerry just twice. On Election Day, Dean's blog led with a post proclaiming "Dean, Man of the Year," and then followed with other posts about the election.…
"WE WILL pursue nations that provide aid or safe haven to terrorism. Every nation, in every region, now has a decision to make: Either you are with us or you are with the terrorists. From this day forward, any nation that continues to harbor or support terrorism will be regarded by the United…
THE MUSEUM OF MODERN ART in New York reopened on November 20 after a three-year--and $425 million--renovation. The occasion has drawn the art world like Nagas at Kumbh Mela to the building. But as the expanded museum has been praised for the modernist restraint of its new design, the actual art…
Congratulations, America
"IT IS NOT ENOUGH to denounce unilateralism," Kofi Annan told the United Nations General Assembly last year, "unless we also face up squarely to the concerns that make some states feel uniquely vulnerable, since it is those concerns that drive them to take unilateral action."
Kabul, Afghanistan
THERE'S A WORST CASE SCENARIO for Social Security reform that haunts the White House. It goes like this. With great fanfare, President Bush announces his plan for overhauling Social Security, creating private investment accounts for every American worker, and making the system solvent. He touts his…
THE MOST DESULTORY happenstance can irrevocably alter our lives. So it went last Christmas, the day I became an intolerable bore. My sister-in-law, who'd finally exhausted the effeminate sweater collection from Banana Republic, decided instead to buy me something I'd actually requested. I'd wanted…
COLLECTED POEMS, 1943-2004
DURING THE 1980S, RONALD Reagan got on famously with then Japanese prime minister Yasuhiro Nakasone. Their personal comity, dubbed the "Ron-Yasu" friendship, boosted American interests on a slew of Cold War and trade issues. And, at the time, U.S.-Japan ties reached historic postwar heights.
Books in Brief
THE PRESS has always assailed politicians, and politicians have retaliated in various ways. Some feed scoops to the competition. Some make jokes or give nonsensical answers in response to a reporter's question. President Bush holds his press conferences few and far between and has been known to…
Herzliya, Israel
"THE GHOSTS OF 1917 have not been laid to rest." That's how Orlando Figes closed A People's Tragedy, his magisterial history of the Russian Revolution. Figes was writing in the mid-1990s, at a time when the success of democracy in ex-Soviet bloc nations did not seem a fait accompli. Sound familiar?…
A YEAR AGO TO THE DAY, I stood, alone, on the banks of the Brandywine River, and raised a quiet voice of criticism against The Return of the King. Suspecting that it would win critical praise overdue from The Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers--as well as the Oscars those movies deserved--I…
TURKEY is to join the European Union. That is big news. Next to Germany, Turkey will be the largest of the E.U. nations. More significantly, it will be the first Muslim nation to be a part of the European Union. The hope is that Turkey can show the world that Islamic values are not incompatible…
AFTER YEARS of being bootlegged, an official DVD of 1985's monster, 13-hour Live Aid concert was released this fall by organizer Bob Geldof. The proceeds will go to benefit the Band Aid Trust, with the noble goal of feeding the hungry in Ethiopia. To watch the DVD is to unearth a time capsule of…
DEFENSE SECRETARY DONALD RUMSFELD'S meeting engagement with Army Specialist Thomas Wilson in Kuwait last week was not just a reality check for an arrogant and isolated Beltway bigwig. It was also, and perhaps more profoundly, an overdue reality check for what has proved in practice to be a terrible…
A COLLECTIVE SIGH OF RELIEF could be heard in Washington last weekend, as returns from the Taiwanese legislative election found President Chen Shui-bian's ruling "Pan Green" coalition gaining less than had been expected--a net of just one seat. Much of President Chen's agenda may well be blocked by…
NEWSWEEK put Christmas on the cover of its December 13th issue, and the reaction among orthodox Christians was widespread and emphatic. Once again a leading member of the legacy media had produced a hit piece on Christian belief, employing many deceits, including the use of false dilemmas, the…
"As you know, you go to war with the Army you have. They're not the Army you might want or wish to have at a later time." --Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, in a town hall meeting with soldiers at Camp Buehring in Kuwait, Dec. 8 ACTUALLY, we have a pretty terrific Army. It's performed a lot…
THE DAILY STANDARD welcomes letters to the editor. Letters will be edited for length and clarity and must include the writer's name, city, and state.
PRESIDENT BUSH'S CHANCES of keeping world financial markets calm while pushing through Social Security and tax reform took a dive last week. Remember: If the president is to succeed in privatizing a portion of the Social Security system, he will have to persuade financial markets that it is safe to…
REPUBLICAN SENATOR-ELECT Tom Coburn is proud of the number of babies he has delivered, many of them on weekends while serving in the House of Representatives. But his participation in the miracle of life can't compete with his much-more-miraculous ability to walk on water. No one has actually seen…
THE ONGOING UPROAR over Dan Rather and CBS News has intensified concern about whether the mainstream media have a liberal bias. Some analyses, such as those by the Pew Research Center, document the strong tendency of journalists to describe themselves as liberal. This propensity--also prevalent,…
WHILE THE WORLD'S FINANCE MINISTERS and assorted politicians fret about the falling dollar, and markets chew over Alan Greenspan's warning that continued inattention to our trade deficit might have deeply unpleasant consequences, most Americans find the issue a true yawner, and certainly not one to…
WHILE THE VACUUM in Palestinian politics created by Yasser Arafat's death may seem like a great opportunity for moderates to assume power, the force best organized to take control is actually the Syrian- and Iranian-backed terrorist group Hezbollah. If Hezbollah succeeds, Palestinians will be…
AT SOME POINT in the near future I will become a bratwurst. I owe this startling realization to Naomi Judd. The singer-actress-philosopher sat down with Larry King recently to promote Naomi's Breakthrough Guide: 20 Choices to Transform Your Life. Not content to mimic the mawkish language of the…
Guns and Butter
AS THIS ARTICLE goes to press, it remains uncertain who will emerge the winner of Ukraine's presidential election. The official tally favored Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich by 3 percentage points, but momentum is with opposition candidate Viktor Yushchenko, whom exit polls showed to be the actual…
"LOOK AT THIS," said Antonio Burr. "Look at what they're selling." Standing in the gift shop of the New-York Historical Society on Manhattan's Upper West Side, Burr held a magnet to the light. On it were portraits of his ancestor Aaron Burr, the third vice president of the United States, and…
THE SOUNDS one hears emanating from the Arab Middle East are the sounds, faint but unmistakable, of the ice cracking. Though long suppressed and successfully repressed, demands for liberal reform and claims of the right to self-government seem to be on the verge of breaking through in that…
AS PRESIDENT BUSH prepares to begin his second term, he has an opportunity to turn a page in U.S. relations with Saudi Arabia. In crafting his policy, the president should draw on American experience with another ideologically expansionist dictatorship--one successfully countered and transformed…
Books in Brief
LAST NIGHT I built an igloo for my daughter out of books. A model of an igloo, you understand. We were talking about how nice it would be to have a white Christmas, and then we got talking about snow, and then we got talking about the way Eskimos live, and then, well, what with all the unread…
A DEMOCRATIC SENATOR who attended a special screening of the movie Fahrenheit 9/11 was asked what he thought was the most revealing part about President Bush. The senator pondered a moment, then said it was the episode where Bush, in close-up, continues to talk to a grade-school class in Sarasota,…
Bush Greeted by Cheering Canadians
ACCORDING TO ISRAEL'S leading newspaper of record, Yediot Ahronot, fascinating developments are underway in the Arab world. They appear to be stimulated by a possible breakthrough between Israel and the Palestinian leadership, against the backdrop of America's toppling of the dictatorship in Iraq.
Kiev
VISITORS to the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C., spend hours strolling through rooms filled with historical somethings--costumes, famous documents, "interactive exhibits," notable works of art. But, if you happen to pass by the museum's exhibit "Icons of…
AUBURN is a pretty town in the middle of nowhere. It's in eastern Alabama, 100 miles from Atlanta, just off I-85. It's a classic college town, dominated by Auburn University. Once a cow college, Auburn is now a major state university with 25,000 students. It's a conservative place with fraternities…
A MONTH AFTER the presidential election, here's a sure sign that the party-out-of-power is off its game: the Democrats aren't crying foul over Cal-Berkeley's exclusion from the Rose Bowl.
NOT SINCE 1952 has a presidential election lacked a sitting president or vice president as a contestant, and Ike was about as close as one could get to non-official incumbent. Before that, it was the 1928 race, and there, too, Herbert Hoover was, like Ike, a figure of towering popularity. In other…
YOU DON'T KNOW what you don't know. And in war, you really don't know. At war in the Middle East, you never really know.
THERE IS LITTLE in the spate of economic statistics that was published this week to upset economy-watchers here in America. The economy is growing at an annual rate of 4 percent. The Institute of Supply Management reports that both the manufacturing and service sectors are expanding at an…
RED-STATE JOHNNIE HAS THE BLUES. Times are hard for Colorado Republicans, these days. Yes, we again carried Colorado for President Bush. With a GOP voter-registration edge of 186,000, we darn well should have. But that was all we did. Down-ballot, this was the ugliest election for Colorado…
Something Resembling News from Canada!
Too Brief a Treat
THE SENATE'S COLD WAR over judicial nominations is at a crossroads. With a newly minted chamber taking office January 4, and a new minority leader already designated, the time seems ripe for a fresh start. The Republican majority wants an end to all active Democratic filibusters of appellate court…
Quicksilver
All in the Dances
REPUBLICANS, giddy and gloating, are understandably proud of the outcome of the election. Democrats from Boston to San Francisco are on a 24-hour suicide watch. Before the GOP euphoria gets out of hand, though, consider that the next four years could be challenging in ways unimagined.
Little Rock, Arkansas
The Case for Democracy
WHEN PRESIDENT BUSH toured Stuart, Florida, after Hurricane Jeanne struck the town last September, he met an engineer from Louisiana working as a volunteer with the Federal Emergency Management Administration. "Do you know Bobby Jindal?" the man asked. The president did, recalling Jindal as a…
Semper Fi
Home-Alone America
I'M A PRETTY GOOD SHOT, but I can only go at it for so many hours before my eyes start to water and my hands begin to shake. Say I get up around noon. By dinner time I'm pretty wasted, the only consolation being that by then I've racked up an impressive body count. Alternating between a shotgun and…
PORTER GOSS was confirmed as director of central intelligence on September 22, 2004. That day, acting CIA director John McLaughlin said, "I know I speak for my colleagues at CIA and throughout the intelligence community in congratulating Porter Goss on his confirmation by the Senate as director of…
John James Audubon
THE TAKEDOWN of terrorists in Falluja seems to have gone well. The terrorists, as expected, fought hard and mostly to the death, but U.S. and Iraqi casualties remain lower than the history of urban warfare would have led us to expect. Success in Falluja can be attributed to two factors: a…
ON THE FRIDAY BEFORE THANKSGIVING, Michael Scheuer, the former head of the CIA's bin Laden unit, said CIA officials had given him "carte blanche" to attack President Bush anonymously last summer in publicity interviews for his book Imperial Hubris. Specifically, Scheuer said, former CIA spokesman…
FALLUJA just might be the end of the beginning.
DESPITE CLEAR STATEMENTS from U.S. and Iraqi officials that the historic Iraqi elections scheduled for January are desirable, possible, and legally required under Iraqi law in January, some in the policy and diplomatic community are getting cold feet--they are urging a delay. This would be a…
[img caption="The July 2003 cover of Vanity Fair." float="right" width="220" height="311" render="<%photoRenderType%>"]8857[/img] BEFORE LINDSAY AND HILARY, before Amanda, before Kirsten and Britney, even before--if you can imagine--Mary-Kate and Ashley, there was Natalie. Miss Portman, just 23…
ASHCROFT V. RAICH, the "medical marijuana" case argued this week in the Supreme Court, is less about marijuana and its medical effects than it is about federal power--specifically the power of Congress to regulate interstate commerce.
WHEN NEWS of the Groningen Protocol surfaced in October, it was reported in the Grand Forks Herald,though I didn't read of it, nor apparently did many others. The Groningen Protocol could have been the stuff of a fine presidential debate question, or a series of questions, but I doubt if any of the…