A part of me had hoped to allow Bill Clinton to go away with good riddance and without editorial comment and to simply accept his eight years in our faces as an unfortunate mistake on the part of a large number of well-intentioned people who were duped by the best political con-man of the 20th […]
Archives for 2001
Bush And The U. S. In Europe
The early June trip to Europe by President Bush was instructive to me on a couple of points. First, in his Warsaw speech on June 15, he very methodically outlined the principles that should undergird the post-Cold War order: “no more Munichs, no more Yaltas”, no more insecure states serving as a buffer zone between […]
Conservatism And The Moral High Ground
My instincts, political and otherwise, have been conservative for as long as I can remember (Goldwater ’64, etc.), although, at least until lately, my definition has not always been as clear as I would have liked. For me, conservatism consists in dispositions and habits of mind and heart encompassing the accumulation of experience and wisdom […]
Education Accountability Revisited
In November 2000, I wrote that, in spite of incremental improvement in some areas, the public school accountability measures adopted around the country over the past several years will never be enough to truly transform public education. The problem is incentives and what passes for accountability. The only real accountability rests with customers (parents) who […]
Patient “Rights”
The debate in Congress on the Patients’ Bill of Rights legislation sent me back to my notes on a Rice University lecture series of several years ago on ethics in today’s society. The subject then was “Hillary Care”, but the questions remain. The most basic one is “is there a right to health care?” You […]
Death Watch
Texas Governor Rick Perry has been roundly criticized editorially for several of his vetoes of legislation passed in the recently concluded legislative session, none more vociferously than his rejection of a bill banning the execution of mentally retarded murderers. Some suggested that this adds to Texas’ image as a callous and cruel place. But, in […]
Promoting Fatherhood
One of the programs that has a nice fit with President Bush’s faith-based initiative is the promotion of responsible fatherhood, and one particular organization, the National Fatherhood Initiative, has done a good job of leading a movement toward restoration of traditional concepts of family, marriage, and fatherhood. Recent U. S. Census statistics reflect that one-third […]
A Truth Primer
If you want an easily readable and lively couple of hundred pages on our cultural dilemma, I recommend Lynne Cheney’s 1995 book, Telling The Truth. In it, she takes on multiculturalism, radical feminism, critical race theory, political correctness in its various forms, and other postmodern trends that have undermined our cultural, political, and educational institutions. […]
Thoughts On Strategic Defense
In a recent appearance on Meet The Press, Sen. John Kerry outlined his opposition to plans for a missile defense system as follows: That they have not been discussed on a mutual basis among nations through the United Nations and related forums, but are being developed unilaterally; that the approach of the Bush administration is […]
Is There Hope For The Media?
National Review noted earlier this year that, according to Ted Kaczynski’s files, almost all the mainstream media talk show outlets wanted to provide a forum for the Unabomber, treating him as a profound thinker as well as a murderer. And Forbes Magazine passed along this quote from Ed Turner: “If we had the right technology […]