Monthly Archives: June 2003

Sad But True

The Washington Post reports on the Supreme Court term just concluded: “The Supreme Court term that ended last week will be remembered as the one in which a court usually considered conservative decided to play against type. “The court backed gay rights in an opinion that essentially prohibits the majority from imposing its notions of sexual morality. It enshrined racial and ethnic diversity in higher education as a compelling goal »

Two constitutions

The guys at No Left Turns have steered us to two columns that are worthy of your attention. First, James Lileks has a helpful column on the proposed European Union Constitution. (As Rocket Man has pointed out previously, the New York Times credited Jacques Chirac with playing a role in the creation of the EU Constitution comparable to Thomas Jefferson’s role in shaping the American Constitution. The Times subsequently acknowledged, »

Common Sense on the Environment

Christine Whitman has a nice piece in the Washington Post on the EPA’s just released Draft Report on the Environment and on the environmentalists’ unwillingness to accept good news: “Unfortunately for the tenor of the public debate over environmental policy, too many in the environmental lobby want to hear only the bad news — they see only evil, hear only evil and speak only evil. That is why we are »

Iran to Hand Over al-Qaeda Leaders?

For some weeks, rumors have been circulating about the presence of senior al Qaeda leaders in Iran, and whether those leaders have been “detained,” as Iran says, or are being “harbored,” as the U.S. has charged. Now, ABC News claims that: “Iran has been locked in highly secretive and complex extradition talks with Egypt, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia over prisoners held here who are widely believed to be senior members »

Multiculturalism In Action

Just a couple of examples from today’s news, for those who tout the superiority of non-Western cultures: “A senior Iraqi Shia leader has issued a fatwa ordering the killing of any Jew who buys real estate in Iraq”. “Japanese Liberal Democrat politician lauds gang rapists”. »

McCain-Feingold Socks Democrats

The Washington Post reports on an analysis of political donations by the Center for Responsive Politics: “The evidence is growing that Democrats shot themselves in the foot by forcing passage of the McCain-Feingold campaign finance law restricting what had been unlimited ‘soft money’ donations to political parties. “A report released yesterday by the Center for Responsive Politics…found that, contrary to common perceptions, Republicans have a big advantage over Democrats in »

Scrutinizing “diversity”

OpinionJournal has made Shelby Steele’s column on the Michigan cases available online: “A victory for white guilt.” »

Living lies

The concept of “diversity” enshrined by the Supreme Court in Grutter as a compelling state interest overriding the right to equal protection of the laws cannot survive any rigorous scrutiny. In the issue of the Weekly Standard out this morning Peter Berkowitz sketches what Marxists might call the internal contradictions of the concept in “Dubious diversity.” This issue of the Standard is devoted to “summer reading.” One book we won’t »

Have a Good Vacation, Deacon

Deacon is off to Rehoboth Beach, where he has a summer place. This has some resonance for me, as many years ago my older brother and I spent a memorable day at Rehoboth Beach with our aunt Carolyn and our uncle Charlie, who was a spy. (Charlie was immensely popular at Maryland dinner parties in the 1960’s because he was unable to talk about his job–unlike everyone else in the »

One last rant

I’m going on vacation for a week at the Delaware shore. I’ll be doing little, if any blogging. Before I take off, I’m going to unleash one last rant regarding the Supreme Court. The decisions in the Michigan race preferences cases, and all that went before them, pretty much capture the approach of the Powell/O’Connor Court to most of the biggest issues it has dealt with. The all too familiar »

Who’s Lying?

In today’s New York Times, columnist Nicholas Kristof, who is currently in Iraq, describes his search for Iraqis who were maimed by Saddam Hussein but who nevertheless hate President Bush and the Americans. Somewhat to his surprise, he couldn’t find any. Iraqis whose tongues and ears had been amputated universally viewed the Americans as liberators. Kristof was only slightly chastened by this discovery. It didn’t take him long to get »

Bill Clinton: Beyond Parody

Since leaving office, Bill Clinton has been increasingly over-the-top in his public pronouncements, so it’s hard to be surprised by anything he says. But his speech on Tuesday before Jesse Jackson’s Rainbow/PUSH Conference in Chicago was beyond parody. Clinton began by enjoining his listeners not to stoop to the tactics of right-wing talk show hosts: “Let us never demonize or give up on those who disagree with us. We don’t »

Wishful Thinking at the Times

Today’s New York Times corrections section contains this notable retraction: “An article on Wednesday about Congressional committee testimony by a top State Department expert on chemical and biological weapons misstated the response of other officials from several intelligence agencies who were asked whether they had been pressured to tailor their analysis on Iraq and other matters to conform with the Bush administration’s views. All said no; they did not remain »

Patrick Kennedy on Tax Cuts

The infamous Patrick Kennedy, Congressman from Rhode Island, has spoken out on tax policy, as reported by the Washington Post’s Reliable Source: “As sometimes happens with Rep. Patrick Kennedy (D-R.I.), he let his mouth race ahead of his brain Wednesday night at a gathering of Young Democrats at the Washington nightspot Acropolis. After presidential candidate Howard Dean spoke, Kennedy delivered an impassioned peroration against President Bush’s tax cut. We hear »

The benefits conferred by “critical mass” diversity

The Yalediva, known here as Little Trunk, links to a student’s perspective on a sense in which participating in a student body with an artificially enlarged “critical mass” of minority students does benefit those admitted on a non-preferential basis. It comes from Ben Shapiro on Townhall.com: “I couldn’t be happier. Because I am already in college. And once you’re in, diversity programs are wonderful. Huge numbers of unqualified students walk »

Iraqi WMD–Coming Soon?

David Kay, the CIA’s chief weapons inspector in Iraq, has told CNN that progress is being made in the search for Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction: “My suspicions are that we’ll find [things] in the chemical and biological areas. In fact, I think there may be some surprises coming rather quickly in that area.” Kay declined to be more specific about the “surprises” he has in mind. »

Hamas Calls for Time Out

Hamas founder Sheikh Ahmed Yassin announced today that “Hamas has studied all the developments and has reached a decision to call a truce, or a suspension of fighting activities.” Presumably Hamas’ desire to enter into a “cease fire,” said to be good for three months, results from the damage that Israel has done to its organization in recent weeks. Hamas’ announcement was greeted coolly by Israel; a spokesman said any »