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DANIEL FOSTER on Mamet l ROB LONG on Weiner
HowHow toto OutgrowOutgrow
$4.99 thethe ObamaObama Years Years 27 Alan Reynolds l Kevin A. Hassett l Chris Chocola l Reihan Salam Veronique de Rugy l Keith Hennessey l David Beckworth l Jim Manzi Samuel Gregg l Kevin D. Williamson 0 74820 08155 6
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“ The commitment to safety among nuclear plant operators is second to none.” ÊÊ
Douglas Cobb, Shift Manager-Operations at the Surry nuclear energy facility in Virginia. ÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊ
ommunities have the right to know the safety record Plant operators undergo intensive training and are frequently of their nuclear energy plants. We are proud to tested on simulators that are exact replicas of their plant C share it. Professionals like Doug Cobb work every control rooms. They are held to the highest of standards by day to exceed already stringent federal safety standards at independent Nuclear Regulatory Commission inspectors who America’s nuclear power plants provide ongoing oversight at every reactor every day.
American nuclear plants are among the safest in the world American energy companies are the world leaders in nuclear because they are managed and operated by leading engineers, energy, with 104 reactors producing one-fifth of our electricity. scientists and licensed reactor operators. They undergo Providing affordable electricity and ending our dependence significantly more oversight and have more safety measures on foreign energy sources simply cannot be achieved in place than reactors in other countries. without nuclear energy playing a significant role in a balanced energy portfolio.
For more information on safe nuclear energy, go to nei.org toc_QXP-1127940144.qxp 6/15/2011 2:06 PM Page 1 Contents
JULY 4, 2011 | VOLUME LXIII, NO. 12 | www.nationalreview.com
COVER STORY Page 25 Growth Formulas Rob Long on Anthony Weiner p. 23 Alan Reynolds, Kevin A. Hassett, Chris Chocola, Reihan BOOKS, ARTS Salam, Veronique de Rugy, & MANNERS Keith Hennessey, David 40 A HARD MAN’S WITNESS Beckworth, Jim Manzi, Samuel Daniel Foster reviews The Secret Gregg, and Kevin D. Williamson Knowledge: On the Dismantling of American suggest ways out of the Culture, by David Mamet.
Obama economic mess. 42 GRAND TOURS Brian Bolduc reviews The Greater Journey: Americans in Paris, COVER: ROMAN GENN by David McCullough.
ARTICLES 47 RIGHTS REVISITED Joseph Tartakovsky reviews 16 GROWING PAINS by Ramesh Ponnuru Rehabilitating Lochner: Defending Individual Rights Pawlenty sets a bold but questionable economic target. against Progressive Reform, by David E. Bernstein. 18 WORTHWHILE CANADIAN INITIATIVES by Kevin D. Williamson All we need is a left-wing government and a debt crisis . . . hey! 48 ART: AN EYE FOR THE REAL Roger Kimball reviews Jacob 21 FRIENDS IN NEED by Jay Nordlinger Collins: New Works. A cadre of worthies takes up the cause of Israel. 50 FILM: THE WAY OF GRACE Ross Douthat reviews The Tree VIRTUAL MANHOOD 23 by Rob Long of Life. Of Anthony Weiner and Internet scandal. 51 CITY DESK: OTHER PEOPLE’S MUSIC Richard Brookhiser lifts and listens. FEATURES
25 GROWTH FORMULAS A symposium. SECTIONS
2 Letters to the Editor ENTITLEMENT BANDITS by Michael F. Cannon 29 4 The Week How the Ryan plan would curb Medicare and Medicaid fraud. 37 The Bent Pin ...... Florence King 38 The Long View ...... Rob Long 34 LAW AND BORDER by Kris Kobach 39 Athwart ...... James Lileks A Supreme Court victory for Arizona and the nation. 43 Poetry ...... Lawrence Dugan 52 Happy Warrior ...... Mark Steyn
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Womyn and Males JULY 4 ISSUE; PRINTED JUNE 16 Jay Nordlinger’s “War of Words” (June 20) prompted me to think of the loss of EDITOR Richard Lowry “ladies and gentlemen,” so common in my generation. Here is The New York
Senior Editors Times Manual of Style and Usage—heartbreaking: “Except in jesting or teasing Richard Brookhiser / Jay Nordlinger contexts, gentleman is obsolete for man, just as lady is obsolete for woman.” Ramesh Ponnuru / David Pryce-Jones Managing Editor Jason Lee Steorts Literary Editor Michael Potemra Executive Editor Christopher McEvoy Ed Kuhn National Correspondent John J. Miller Hernandez, N.M. Political Reporter Robert Costa Art Director Luba Kolomytseva Deputy Managing Editors Fred Schwarz / Kevin D. Williamson Associate Editors Helen Rittelmeyer / Robert VerBruggen Chemistry Corner Research Director Katherine Connell Research Manager Dorothy McCartney Executive Secretary Frances Bronson Regarding Rod Adams’s article “Nuclear Power after Fukushima” (June 20): Assistant to the Editor Christeleny Frangos Could Mr. Adams please explain how “burning a ton of coal releases between Contributing Editors two and four tons of waste into the environment”? Robert H. Bork / John Derbyshire Ross Douthat / Rod Dreher / David Frum Roman Genn / Jim Geraghty / Jonah Goldberg Florence King / Lawrence Kudlow / Mark R. Levin Dwayne Weigel Yuval Levin / Rob Long / Jim Manzi Rockville, Md. Andrew C. McCarthy / Kate O’Beirne David B. Rivkin Jr.
NATIONALREVIEWONLINE Rod AdAMs REPliEs: Coal is a complex hydrocarbon that is roughly 85 percent Editor-at-Large Kathryn Jean Lopez Managing Editor Edward John Craig carbon. The chemical reaction for burning carbon is represented by the follow- News Editor Daniel Foster ing equation: C + o2 → Co2. Editorial Associates Brian Stewart / Katrina Trinko Carbon has an atomic mass of 12, and oxygen has an atomic mass of 16— Web Developer Nathan Goulding Applications Developer Gareth du Plooy meaning that when a carbon atom from coal combines with an o2 molecule from Technical Services Russell Jenkins the air, the resulting carbon dioxide weighs more than three times as much as the
EDITORS- AT- LARGE original carbon. Linda Bridges / John O’Sullivan There are many other minor components in coal and other parts of the waste Contributors stream, but that is the dominant reaction. Hadley Arkes / Baloo / Tom Bethell James Bowman / Priscilla L. Buckley Eliot A. Cohen / Brian Crozier Dinesh D’Souza / M. Stanton Evans Chester E. Finn Jr. / Neal B. Freeman James Gardner / David Gelernter A Matter of Interpretation George Gilder / Jeffrey Hart Kevin A. Hassett / Charles R. Kesler David Klinghoffer / Anthony Lejeune in “The Week” (June 20), you commend Justice scalia’s dissenting opinion in a D. Keith Mano / Michael Novak recent case and quote him: “There comes before us, now and then, a case whose Alan Reynolds / Tracy Lee Simmons Terry Teachout / Taki Theodoracopulos proper outcome is so clearly indicated by tradition and common sense, that its Vin Weber decision ought to shape the law, rather than vice versa.” Chief Financial Officer James X. Kilbridge Accounting Manager Galina Veygman This sounds much like judicial activism. However, one of the bedrocks of Accountant Zofia Baraniak conservative political theory is that the judicial system is not to be used to “leg- Business Services Alex Batey / Amy Tyler islate from the bench.” Circulation Manager Jason Ng WORLD WIDE WEB www.nationalreview.com MAIN NUMBER 212-679-7330 Mindy Reifer SUBSCRIPTION INQUIRIES 386-246-0118 WASHINGTON OFFICE 202-543-9226 Wesley Hills, N.Y. ADVERTISING SALES 212-679-7330 Executive Publisher Scott F. Budd Advertising Director Jim Fowler THE EdiToRs REPly: in this case, the Court’s majority claimed that the Con - Advertising Manager Kevin Longstreet ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER Paul Olivett stitution requires California to release tens of thousands of prisoners. scalia said
PUBLISHER that it is wildly implausible to assert that the Constitution requires a policy as Jack Fowler absurd as this; he did not say that we should try to read the Constitution to yield CHAIRMANEMERITUS desired policies. He is correct. Thomas L. Rhodes
FOUNDER William F. Buckley Jr. Letters may be sub mitted by e-mail to [email protected].
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n Newt Gingrich’s aides seem to be leaving him for a younger, more attractive candidate.
n American forces have routed the Taliban in its traditional strongholds in Kandahar and Helmand provinces in the south over the last year. This is the fruit of the surge of 30,000 ad - ditional troops that President Obama ordered in 2009. Astonishingly, the White House is now debating whether to hand these gains back to the Taliban with a large, premature troop withdrawal beginning next month. Obama will probably feel obliged to bring out some troops, since he foolishly promised to begin a drawdown in July 2011. But it would be a mistake to make it more than symbolic. The Taliban is trying to fight its way back, with little success so far. If we repel them, we will have a chance to consolidate our gains. The public is understandably fatigued with the war. As critics point out, it has lasted ten years. But for much of that period we were not heavily engaged. The current counterinsurgency campaign got fully under way only last year. Afghanistan will always be a mess of a country. But it need not be governed or partially con- trolled by Islamic militants allied with international terrorists. President Obama should see through what he began.
n Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum announced their bids for the Republican presidential nomination. Romney is generally considered the frontrunner, and even his worst critics acknowl- edge that he is an intelligent, capable, and determined man. But n Rep. Anthony Weiner (D., N.Y.) was an aggressive liberal, the sincerity of his convictions is widely doubted; and the more like his mentor, Sen. Charles Schumer, but with an immature, attention conservatives have paid to the health-care law he uncontrolled edge: He thought yelling on the House floor was signed when he was governor of Massachusetts, the less they rhetorically forceful. The Twitter scandal that engulfed him have liked it. Santorum, in his two terms as a senator from showed him to be a restless pervert, trolling social media for Pennsylvania, combined the political courage of an outsider admirers and sending them pictures of what were once called with the savvy of an insider. But his self-confidence sometimes private parts. He lied, directly to his colleagues, in bulk to the crossed the line into brashness, and in the Republican nadir of left-wing bloggers and journalists (Kossacks, Chris Matthews) 2006 he lost reelection by a margin unusually large for an who defended him. He lied to his wife, Huma Abedin, preg- incumbent. Let the best man, or woman, beat Obama. nant with their child. Every subsequent gesture of contrition or reform, from partially admitting his guilt to announcing that he n The tires came off Newt Gingrich’s presidential campaign— would seek treatment, seems bogus: the latest maneuver of a along with the chassis, the doors, and the rumble seat, as half a wretch clinging to a job that is his only justification for being. dozen top aides quit, followed by another half dozen Iowa staff. But Weiner’s self-immolation also casts a garish light on It was a quarrel over ways and means: Gingrich says he wants the media he used to make himself prominent, and to impress to run a “solutions-oriented campaign” (i.e., an ideas gusher); chicks. “Thou hast set our iniquities before thee,” says Psalm the ex-aides wanted boots on the ground too. N.B.: Two of the 90, “our secret sins in the light of thy countenance.” But that exes, Dave Carney and Rob Johnson, have worked for Texas is the Almighty’s countenance, not the Tweetdeck’s or ours. governor Rick Perry, who may run himself. Campaign profes- Anthony Weiner brought his travail on himself, but not even sionals are a self-important lot, and it would be fun to see them he quite deserves his fate. shown up. But they rightly demand a politician who takes his candidacy seriously enough to commit to the necessary grind, n John Edwards was indicted for using illegal campaign con- and to make no more than the usual number of gaffes. Newt tributions to hide Rielle Hunter, his pregnant mistress, during Gingrich is a considerable figure in American political history, his 2008 presidential primary bid. Edwards funneled $925,000 and still worth listening to. But he may be too erratic to run for from Bunny Mellon, a wealthy heiress, and Fred Baron, his
ROMAN GENN president, let alone to hold the office. campaign’s finance chairman, to keep Hunter incognito—not
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THE WEEK a typical campaign expense. Still, several experts opined that a state helicopter to watch his son’s baseball game. Democrats prosecuting Edwards under the campaign-finance laws is a are having a field day, of course, saying that the governor’s stretch; surely the gifts of his supporters more blatantly vio - attitude is “Do as I say.” The Christie camp initially pointed out lated the tax laws (did Mrs. Mellon declare “mistress protec- that the helicopter ride cost taxpayers absolutely nothing: tion” on her long form?). Meanwhile Edwards’s nemesis, the because such flights count as pilot training. Still, it looked bad. National Enquirer, reports that his late wife, Elizabeth, made He was right to reimburse the state. Now keep on cutting. a deathbed revenge video detailing her husband’s affair and cover-up. What a trail of destruction and self-destruction the n Herman Cain, the former CEO of Godfather’s Pizza, says Edwardses left in their wake. And to think that John Edwards that if elected president he will hire Muslims only if they take came within one state of being John Kerry’s vice president an oath of loyalty. This position may not formally violate the in 2004. Constitution’s ban on religious tests for office, but it surely contradicts its spirit. It is also naïve about the Islamist threat. n Republicans “want to literally drag us all the way back to Asking people whether they wish to overthrow the government Jim Crow laws and literally—and very transparently—block and impose an alien system of law is not the professionally rec- access to the polls to voters who are more likely to vote for ommended approach to ferreting out sleeper agents. “This Democratic candidates than Republican candidates,” says nation is under attack constantly by people who want to kill all Democratic National Committee chairwoman Debbie Wasser - of us, so I’m going to take extra precaution,” Cain says. If pres- man Schultz. Allow us a lesson in proper usage: Represen - idential candidates took some precaution, they would say tative Wasserman Schultz literally doesn’t know what she’s fewer foolish things. talking about. n In a speech at Chrysler’s Toledo plant celebrating his admin- istration’s “successful” bailout of the company, the president n Sarah Palin once was flummoxed when asked which invoked the multiplier effect by pointing out that saving the newspapers and magazines she prefers. Michele Bach - plant had helped Chet’s Restaurant, a Toledo institution since mann, who is running for the Republican presidential nom- the 1920s, to stay open. A few days later, Chet’s announced ination, learned from that example: Asked by the Wall that it was closing; the owner laid equal blame on the current Street Journal about her economic reading, the gentlelady hard times and Ohio’s 2006 enactment of a smoking ban. from Minnesota said she was bringing along Ludwig von When dirigisme meets the nanny state, the results are not good Mises’s Human Action and Bureaucra - for old-school greasy spoons, and while Obama may envision cy to the beach this summer. Other a future of highway rest stops filled with subsidized Tofu thinkers who make the Bachmann Huts, the demise of Chet’s shows the usual relationship cut are Milton Friedman, Arthur between government activism and business success. Laffer, Thomas Sowell, and Walter Williams. Michele Bachmann may n Wisconsin governor Scott Walker has been a hate figure for not be elected president of the United the Left since his attempt to curb the power of public-sector States, but it would be a tragedy if she unions in his state earlier this year. The governor is now seen failed to become president of the by liberals as fair game for any kind of disruptive tactic. A new congressional book club. low point was reached in early June when two events occurred on the same day. One was the opening of the 2011 Wisconsin Special Olympics, marked by an address from Governor n Reporters converged on Juneau to inspect 24,199 pages of Walker to 500 assembled athletes outside the state capitol. The e-mails that Sarah Palin wrote as governor, released by the other was Zombie Day, declared by a student group at the state in response to media requests. Preliminary eyeballing University of Wisconsin to protest a voter ID law that, they revealed nothing damaging to Palin and, indeed, almost noth- said, will make it harder for students to vote. In the hyperbolic ing of any significance whatever. There was, however, the full scale of leftist values, this renders students as good as dead. text of an e-mail she sent to friends before the birth of her While the governor was addressing the Special Olympians, a youngest child, Trig, written in the form of a letter from God: group of students made up as zombies lumbered in line across “I put the idea in your hearts that his name should be ‘Trig,’ the front of the crowd and turned to stand with their backs to because it’s so fitting, with two Norse meanings: ‘True’ and the podium for the duration of Walker’s speech. If the hard Left ‘Brave Victory.’ . . . He’ll show you what ‘true, brave victory’ has a case, is it too much to hope that it will make it with some really means as those who love him will think less about regard to common decency? Yes, it probably is. self and focus less on what the world tells you is ‘normal’ or ‘perfect.’” Look past the media overlay of fascination and n The court challenge to the individual mandate should not loathing, and you can see someone human, interesting, and be allowed to leave the impression that the rest of Obamacare in this case altogether admirable. is constitutional. The law also establishes an Independent Payment Advisory Board that is supposed to save money by n In New Jersey, Gov. Chris Christie has made a national cutting payment rates for medical providers and determining AP
/ name for himself, and become a conservative hero, by con- which treatments are too wasteful to be financed. The Obama - fronting budgetary reality. He has called for sacrifice—neces- care legislation purports to allow this board’s rulings to
JIM COLE sary and painful sacrifice—from one and all. Recently, he took become law unless Congress enacts alternative savings. It also
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THE WEEK purports to deny future Congresses the right to abolish the you waiting for?” That bit about the “fully automatic assault board. But no Congress can bind another, nor vest other rifle” is entirely false—fully automatic weapons are tightly bodies with the legislative power. The board is central to the controlled by federal licensure—but facts have never encum- legislation’s claims of cost control. It is also central to its un- bered the anti-gun gang, and Gadahn’s claim was repeated as con stitutional, indeed anti-constitutional, project of rule by an fact throughout the media and by Mayor Bloomberg. The New administrative elite. Congress should abolish the board, and York Daily News went so far as to declare Gadahn “right on the take pride as it does in ignoring the law’s command. facts,” a documentably false claim that 60 seconds of research would have prevented. When you’re getting your talking n Native English speakers rise fast in al-Qaeda, as evidenced points from al-Qaeda, do a bit of fact-checking. by California’s Adam Gadahn, a.k.a. Azzam al-Amriki, who recently gave a speech that was one part Osama bin Laden and n The Department of Education recently sent a SWAT team to one part Michael Bloomberg, exhorting Western Muslims to barge in on a California family to collect on defaulted student engage in freelance jihadism: “You can go down to a gun show loans. Or at least, that’s the story that circulated on the Internet: at the local convention center and come away with a fully auto- The department itself claims that the officers were “special matic assault rifle, without a background check, and most like- agents,” and according to the search warrant, the crime at issue ly without having to show an identification card. So what are was financial-aid fraud, not defaulted loans. But most impor-
Mistaken-Identity Politics
N the 1990s comedy sketch show In Living Color, they revealed that Paula Brooks, the lesbian editor of Lez Get I had a bit where a news reporter covers the first annual Real, that lesbian website by and for lesbians, was in fact Heterosexual Pride Parade. Back in those days the Bill Graber, a 58-year-old retired construction worker living premise itself was funny because it seemed like everyone in Ohio. And, just in case you’re understandably confused, was turning out to be gay—and I don’t mean festive and he was not the ugliest lesbian you’ve ever seen; he, too, jovial. Indeed, part of the joke was that the parade was so was a man. sparsely attended. Yes, the creator and editor of Lez Get Real was not a real As the reporter says, “Not since the Kennedy brothers lez. He told the Washington Post that he had “adopted his has the world seen such a tremen- wife’s identity” online to pass him - dous concentration of rampant self off as a lesbian. As far as I can tell heterosexuality,” David Alan Grier, from the published sources, however, decked out like a groupie for the Graber’s wife is not in fact a lesbian, Village People, marches up carrying a even though Graber said he was she sign: “I love my straight son.” He tells in order to pass himself off as one. the reporter, “My son is straight and I When the Post tried to interview him, don’t care who knows it.” he said it couldn’t, because he was We’re not quite there yet, but we’ve not only a lesbian, but a deaf lesbian made more progress in that direc tion with severe social-anxiety disorder. If than I realized. On June 12, the author only it had occurred to him to convert of the blog A Gay Girl in Damascus to Islam, he could have showed up at was outed—not as gay, but as Tom the interview in a hijab and simply pre- Tom MacMaster MacMaster, a 40-year-old career stu- tended to be a woman. After all, being dent from Georgia. He said he assumed the lesbian-Muslim a Wahhabi drag queen requires only a black sheet and persona in order to be taken seriously in online discussion some eyeliner. groups. One such forum was Lez Get Real, an online lesbian According to the Post, the 40-year-old MacMaster and forum whose creator helped expose MacMaster’s hoax. the 58-year-old Graber had flirted with each other online, I wrote a column about it, noting how MacMaster’s fake never knowing that the other one was also a dude, giving Muslim lesbianism represented the triumph of identity poli- an almost M. C. Escher quality to the old joke about being tics. A straight male left-wing peace activist couldn’t just a lesbian trapped in a man’s body. denounce George W. Bush, Israel, and Western imperial- I suppose there are some profound points one could ism, he had to pretend he was lesbian behind a hijab in make about all this, but res ipsa loquitur might just say order to get a hearing. it all. But then, less than 24 hours after I filed my column, it was —JONAH GOLDBERG AFP
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DAVID DUPREY/AP THE WEEK THE transaction. Piggly Wiggly without Ben Bernanke having to arbitrate the arbitrate to having Bernanke Ben without Wiggly Piggly you can use plastic to pay for your groceries down at the local central banking. This is the United States of America: Surely of America: States United the is This banking. central could make one sympathetic to Andrew Jackson’s views on views Jackson’s Andrew to sympathetic one make could in a first-floor apartment at 832 East 57th Street.57th East 832 at apartment first-floor a in building The mandate has been Fed’sso radically expanded the is the That sort of thing etc. that deployed, been have lobbyists expected, are Lawsuits dollars. of billions network debit-card the tain Ronald Reagan. At the age of three, he resided for about a year videos of Cuomo pushing granny off a cliff. Maybe only a only Cuomo cantakeon Maybe Albany’s publicsector. cliff. a off granny pushing Cuomo of videos no are there Krugman, Paul from screeching no in is There this. advantage Cuomo’s to worked doubt no has Democrat a could save New York $93 billion over the next 30 years. Being this estimates, some By days. taking sick accumulated of in advantage restrictions new have would and salaries, their of would be expected to contribute 6 percent rather than 3 62, percent of instead 65 at benefits full with retire could employees cessfully pushing pension reform. Under his plan, most public suc- is Cuomo press, to go we As Democrat. a is he because especially governors, green-eyeshades well-known other the police in general should be more reluctant to knock down knock to doors insteadofknockingonthem. reluctant more be should general in police and case, this on details more release to needs Education of Department The house. wrong the at up end cops years, for highlighted has Balko Radley journalist the er.as Sometimes, intrud- an was he officer, thinking police a kill to homeowner dead pets—and in at least one case, a raid inspired an innocent at the door. Paramilitary raids result in frightened families and tion that a suspect could destroy evidence when he sees police justifica- the with typically warrants, serve to raids dangerous on rely often too forces trend: police broader American a into fits case The necessary. was search, normal a to opposed as tant, the department has yet to explain why a paramilitary raid, reduce them to 12 cents, which will cost the firms that main- that firms the cost will which cents, 12 to to them reduce plans Fed the transaction; a cents 44 average fees cards. Swipe debit using for “swipe merchants charge on banks cap which price fees,” a of imposition the is example recent most The capriciously. and arbitrarily using are they which powers, capricious and arbitrary of range wide a with ulators president had ever lived within the city limits of Chicago: of limits city the within lived ever had president n n 0 1 The Dodd-Frank financial-reform bill invests financial reg- financial invests bill financial-reform Dodd-Frank The Before the inauguration of Barack Obama, only one U.S. one only Obama, Barack of inauguration the Before | .nationalre .com o c w. e i ev r l a n o i t a n w. w w o eevs oe among note deserves mo the answer is yes, and Cuo out, - turns follow it As through? establishment, public-sector the of ture politico, son of Mario, crea lifelong - this cal—would skepti- were conservatives but It rhetoric, pleasing was unions. to public-sector tough talked Cuomo natorial campaign, Andrew n In his New Yorkguber- New his In can rise from humble origins and that powerful ideas can ideas powerful greatness. to them that propel and origins humble from rise can ture would provide a fitting reminder that American presidents ges- a Milton Such professor. free-market of best-known its influence Friedman, the school’s through him the to recognizes connection that special plaque a with president 40th consider an appropriate commemoration, perhaps a bust of the to reason no should university perpetuity.is Yetthe in building there the preserve So Dixon. in home boyhood the and in birthplace the sites: Reagan important more of ple Tampico cou- a to home already is Illinois expansion. hospital a of part as down it tear may and property the acquired recently cago Chi of University The - long. for not perhaps but stands, still ence didnotcaretohear. speech—further this evidence that Gates report was saying what to his audi- bothered hardly media European The future.” otherwise this transatlantic alliance faced “a dim, if not dismal them. supply to defense, own their for resources the provide to had Europeans U.S. the requiring munitions, of short run to beginning were allies the regime, armed poorly a against operation an into weeks eleven only that point the made He right equipment. NATO’s other operation in Libya was worse. the have not did and ground the on boots get not could They will. political and capabilities military in particularly theless, never- exposed in been had shortcomings their but expected Afghanistan, he than better done had Europeans The words. his in scorn real of touch a was There Brussels. in meeting a defense, Robert Gates read the riot act to members of NATO at marches on. Liberalism asked. questions no bathroom, women’s a enter as or can woman a be to professes who man a history words, other tity.In medical as iden an such solid of assertion” uniform - and “consistent as as flimsy methods via identity” “gender-related his prove can person Alousy: are definitions bill’s effects are far-reaching, invading even restrooms. And its expression” by all purveyors of or “public accommodation.” The identity “gender on based discrimination prohibiting bill as a source of justice. of well source a as as injustice of source a be can system tort the that and stantial drag on the economy, sub- particularly on small businesses, a be can lawsuits unwarranted that the understand even lawyers but country, the in legislature state other any than lawyers of proportion greater a contains legislature Texas’s a court. to go establishing they before cases meritless and out screen to process cases medical-malpractice in damages against the trial lawyers, most notablyback bypushed cappinginsistently non-economichas Texaslegislature, conservative a apply.not does provision the tion, Gov.Under and Perry Rick litiga- full to proceeds case a if hand; of out dismissed is suit expenses. legal say,to is Which law- his if only pays loser the side’s other the for responsible is he then claims, his dismiss to motion a loses plaintiff a If tailored: narrowly is provision the but injustice, about howled lawyers The lawsuits. olous bar: It has adopted a “loser pays” provision to discourage friv- n n n The state of Texas continues to wage war upon the plaintiffs’ As a parting gesture before leaving his job as secretary of secretary as job his leaving before gesture parting a As Last month, the Connecticut General Assembly passed a passed Assembly General Connecticut the month, Last LY U J 4 , 1 1 0 2 week_QXP-1127940387.qxp 6/15/2011 2:05 PM Page 11
n Sixteen hundred men, women, and (often) children have been founding of the Chinese Communist Party in July 1921. The shot dead in Syria protesting against the regime of Bashar Assad. movie is being promoted as a prequel to the same directors’ The numbers are rising daily. Some 11,000 have been arrested 2009 blockbuster The Founding of a Republic, which cov- and usually tortured, while thousands more have fled into neigh- ered the years 1945–49, culminating in the Communist vic- boring Turkey and Lebanon. Those numbers are also rising tory over Chiang Kai-shek. Dealing as it does with an earlier daily. Assad has ordered the heavy shelling of at least two towns, period, Beginning will likely be less flagrantly mendacious Jisr al-Shoughour and Maarat al-Numan. What condemns the than Founding, which presented Mao Tse-tung as an avuncu- victims is that they are Sunni Muslims, like a huge majority of lar sage, and failed to mention (for example) the brutal 1947 the population, whereas Assad and his regime are Alawis, a Shia murder, on Mao’s orders, of Communist writer Wang Shiwei, sect that comprises so small a portion of the population that it who had criticized the Great Leader’s womanizing. It is, stays in power only by means of pure force. Embittered by though, sure to benefit from the same promotional advan- decades of tyranny, the Sunnis might very well establish a tages in China. Releases of new American films have been Muslim Brotherhood or Islamist dictatorship, and start with a delayed, block ticket sales have been pushed on schools and general massacre of the Alawis, and perhaps the Christian colleges, and theater operators know what is expected of minority too. Paralyzed by fear of any such outcome, those who them. might have influence are studiously standing aside. The United States imposes sanctions, but not on Assad, and leaves its n In Europe, not only humble citizens but cute animals can ambassador in Damascus although Assad refuses to see him. demand their rights through the justice system. An EU court Iran is reported to be supporting his troops in action. As the has ordered France to protect the habitat of the Alsatian ham- refugees pour across its borders, Turkey has begun to accuse ster, the last remaining wild hamster species in Europe. Assad of being “inhumane,” a euphemism in the circumstances. Proving that they’re no seed-eating surrender rodents, the Assad is left free to turn his country into a living hell, which is hamsters (represented by the considerably less appealing after all the family business. European Commission) won an order requiring France to reverse the destruction of their breeding grounds and plant n Recep Tayyip Erdogan, prime minister of Turkey since 2003, more crops that the finicky furballs like to eat; the court has just won a third term of five years. This came about mostly stopped just short of mandating exercise wheels. Bad enough because of his undoubtedly successful management of the that France faces chronic malaise, endless strikes, a loss of economy, but also because of the failure of the opposition to confidence in public institutions, and a continent-wide eco- raise a proper debate about Erdogan’s intentions. Carefully and nomic crisis; now the nation of Napoleon and Joan of Arc methodically he has been remaking Turkey, turning it into a is getting pushed around by a bunch of pets from a second- state that fits the contemporary Islamist model, in foreign poli- grade classroom. The weary French must wish they had lost cy engineering the break with Israel and starting a warm rela- another war or two, so the Alsatian hamster would be Ger - tionship with Iran. On a patently absurd charge of conspiring to many’s problem. overthrow the state, he has arrested hundreds of senior army and navy officers who were defenders of the old secular demo - n The novelist Mark Helprin once described consumers of cracy. The judiciary and the universities have been purged and ideological literature as readers who, “like self-basting chick- over 60 journalists are currently in prison for their critical writ- ens, read to propagandize themselves.” Ben Shapiro has just ings. In the recent elections, Erdogan hoped to gain a parlia- returned from the henhouse with a new book on Hollywood’s mentary majority large enough to allow him to rewrite the political-indoctrination campaign, Primetime Propaganda. constitution and create a presidency with virtually absolute He found his subjects surprisingly open about the injection powers. His critics accuse him of trying to set himself up on the of liberalism into entertainment and about Hollywood’s habit lines of a Muslim Putin. However, he and his party did not of policing itself ideologically through ruthless discrimination obtain the requisite majority and will need the consent of the against political nonconformists. Shapiro is making the inter- opposition to carry out a measure that has the potential to views he conducted for the book available online, and they replace Turkey as we have known it with the neo-Ottoman promise to be a hoot: Conservatives are described as “idiots” replica about which Erdogan appears to dream. and “medieval thinkers,” backward bigots, etc. The produ - cers of the defunct television series Friends confess that cast- n Vladimir Nabokov scoffed at ing Newt Gingrich’s lesbian sister as a minister was intended official Soviet literature as “ad - as “a bit of f*** you . . . to the right wing.” Shapiro’s truth is vertisements of a firm of slave considerably more interesting than many of Hollywood’s traders.” Much of the cultural fictions. output of the Chinese People’s Republic can be characterized n In September, Jill Abramson will ascend to the Olympus of in the same way. Consider for her world: the top editorship of the New York Times. She is example the movie Beginning of the journalist who, years ago, penned a book on the confir- the Great Revival, premiered mation hearings of Clarence Thomas, with Jane Mayer. The in Beijing on June 8. Produced book gave essentially the anti-Thomas side of the story. by a state-owned movie studio, When her elevation at the Times was announced, Abramson Beginning is a historical drama said, “In my house growing up, the Times substituted for reli- dealing with events that led to the gion. If the Times said it, it was the absolute truth.” We will
1 1 week_QXP-1127940387.qxp 6/15/2011 2:05 PM Page 12
THE WEEK get our religion elsewhere. From the Times, we would settle ties grouped together. Few could name any element heavier for simple accurate reporting. than number 94, plutonium. Since WWII, however, physi- cists have been beavering away at generating heavier ele- n Vivian Schiller was president and CEO of National Public ments. Numbers 114 and 116 have now been officially Radio, until she was forced to resign over a couple of contro- admitted to the table, with the regrettably graceless names versial incidents: incidents that revealed (redundantly) a deep ununquadium and ununhexium. Dull stuff? No, things might left-wing bias at NPR. Her resignation was supposed to show soon get interesting in this field. All known elements beyond a Republican House that NPR would try to do better. Before lead (number 82) are to some degree unstable, decaying rising to the top position at NPR, Schiller worked for the New spontaneously into lighter elements. However, many physi- York Times, as the general manager of its website. Now she has cists believe there may be an “island of stability” in the zone been hired by NBC News, to run its digital division. The above 110, some isotopes—same number of protons, differ- Times, NPR, NBC: It’s all one club, really. ent number of neutrons—lasting indefinitely, like normal calcium or iron. The isotopes of 114 and 116 so far spotted n According to researchers at North Carolina State University, are unstable, but physicists live in hope of one day presenting it’s drawl over but the shoutin’ for the southern accent in us with a coffee mug made of ununhexium. Just don’t drop it Raleigh. Hours of recorded speech were run through linguistic on your foot. software and revealed little trace of the city’s once-distinctive long vowel sounds (e.g. “bed,” two syllables), especially n Catholic University president John Garvey will reintroduce among younger generations. Is the southern accent dying? an old practice next fall: single-sex dormitories. On the pages Jack Kevorkian was paroled in 2007 after promising to kill no more. He was rewarded with an HBO biopic starring Al Pacino.
Don’t y’all fret. The same northern emigrants who give of the Wall Street Journal he defended his move as a “slightly Triangle suburb Cary the backronym “Containment Area for old-fashioned remedy that will improve the practice of virtue.” Relocated Yankees,” who helped tip the state to Obama in He pointed to studies showing that students in coed dorms 2008, and who sustain the local NHL franchise are probably have more alcohol binges, and sex; reverting to single-sex res- the ones responsible for this linguistic devolution. Out beyond idences, he argued, would combat the prevailing, alcohol- Research Triangle Park, the southern accent ain’t dead (two fueled hookup culture. Garvey is standing athwart history; syllables) yet. 90 percent of college dorms in the country are coed, and many are moving toward “gender-neutral housing” (i.e. coed bed- n June is Gay Pride Month. Private persons and institutions rooms). Improving the practice of virtue is regarded as a who wish to advertise their enthusiasm for gayness do so in var- quaint, archaic goal on all but the most religious campuses. ious ways, commonly by flying the gay flag. (For readers so The only hope for the rest is that progressive college adminis- benighted as not to know that homosexuality has its own flag, trators will realize that cohabiting coeds are unlikely to be the pattern is six horizontal stripes in the colors of the rainbow, gender-neutral in their behavior. top to bottom, indigo ignored.) Fair enough in the context of private activity by free citizens: but what was the gay flag doing n Jack Kevorkian was “part of the civil-rights movement,” on the flagpole of the Richmond Federal Reserve Bank, right said Alan Dershowitz, his sometime legal adviser. That is one under Old Glory? A bank spokesman told the press that the flag way to put it. A better way is to say that Dr. Death was a symbolized “values of being open and inclusive,” and showed publicity-hungry ghoul who brought medical murder to the that the bank is “a place that doesn’t discriminate.” As a edge of respectability. Kevorkian claimed to have helped 130 government office, surely the Fed is forbidden by law to dis- people kill themselves to relieve end-of-life suffering. In fact criminate. What need to advertise the fact? Ah, counters the he was obsessed with dying from his days as a pathologist, spokesman, but regional Federal Reserve banks are privately when he argued for performing experiments on the corpses of owned—which is true only in a very theoretical sense. We await criminals. Fame came to him after his first assisted suicide in with interest the event anticipated by Family Foundation presi- 1990; a conviction for second-degree murder came to him in dent Victoria Cobb: “We hope there would be an even hand 1999 when he filmed himself killing a patient for 60 Minutes. played when a Christian requests the Christian flag in Sep - A Detroit Free Press story on his victims found that 60 per- tember during Christian Heritage Month.” cent weren’t terminally ill, while some were not sick at all. Kevorkian was paroled in 2007 after promising to kill no n We learn in high-school chemistry that all the matter of the more. He was rewarded with an HBO biopic starring Al universe is made of a few score of elements; that the elements Pacino. Dead at 83. are numbered according to how many protons there are in the nucleus of one atom; and that the elements thus numbered n Giorgio Tozzi was one of the outstanding singers of our can be laid out in a periodic table, those with similar proper- time. A kid from Chicago—born George—he went to
1 2 | www.nationalreview.com JULY 4 , 2 0 1 1 base_milliken-mar 22.qxd 6/13/2011 11:26 AM Page 1
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FRANCES M. ROBERTS T restore—requires more than growth, as important as it is. it as important as growth, than more restore—requires growth economic of periods had have we decade last the During enough. be not will that Yeteven growth. economic the American dream that Republicans rightly say the rightly they want to dream that Republicans American of part big prosperity—a Middle-class growth. wage without of rate our trend to increase measures and long-term recovery eulcn ae ial gtig eiu aot wie wel- while prosperity. to about, us return themselves by not will serious that come, cuts getting finally spending are the But Republicans margin, economy. the the on weaken will, further promising are Washington in ocrats sight. The higher taxes and increased regulation that Dem - Dem that in regulation end increased no and taxes with higher The catastrophe sight. social a unemployment: term large blank space. Dead at 88. R.I.P. 88. aat Dead in space. blank filled large and own his of category a created Stern trips, car family of numbers untold on peace the keep helping by and imagination, their teaching and pencil a just By with fun have to children Droodles. inventing for known best humorist Smart been weak. We have had a persistently high level of long- of level high persistently a had have We weak. been passed away at 88. R.I.P. 88. at away passed has Tozzi Giorgio great The world. the in enjoyment and ty Enchanted beau- of total sum the “Some to added He it. or do could he Evening,” Godunov, Boris Verdi, Mozart, ing sing Whether - himself. onstage role the sing to on went He Pacific of version movie the in him heard many Agreat ders. shoul- on his head musical an excellent and bass, shining and rich, beautiful, a had He houses. important other the Opera all and Metropolitan the conquered and University, DePaul ubr lo wre eas te ao fre s growing. is force wages. are so and up, are sector labor private the in worked the Hours because worse the and look Japan, in numbers crisis the from suffering is say, they ket, are people prices. gas Most higher dreading downward. revised being are projections index has dence is taken a down. The hit. GDP manufacturing 4 1 PUBLIC POLICY PUBLIC Help We cannot claim to have a ready-made agenda to achieve to agenda ready-made a have to claim Wecannot The country needs short-term measures to accelerate the accelerate to measures short-term needs country The We’re not persuaded. Even at its best, this recovery has recovery this best, its at Even persuaded. not We’re mar- labor The optimism. for case a make analysts Some , h ivne te ae ln wt Rgr rc, a Price, Roger with along game the invented who ), : He sang Emil de Becque, acted by Rossano Brazzi. Rossano by acted Becque, de Emil sang He : HE prices have dropped to a new low. Consumer confi- Consumer low. new a to dropped have prices Housing percent. 9.1 to up ticked rate unemployment Wanted latest numbers on the economy are alarming. The alarming. are economy the on numbers latest iin rdcr ( producer vision since 1958, thanks to Leonard B. Stern, a tele- a Stern, B. Leonard to thanks 1958, since been providing hours of low-tech amusement low-tech of hours providing been of carefully crafted extracts, Mad Libs have Libs Mad extracts, crafted carefully of provide. 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will nurture new industries and thus raise our long-term economic prospects—that is, our growth rates. The other party sees these subsidies as a boondoggle. Even if everyone were to accept a growth target, it would do nothing to resolve this debate. Lawrence Kudlow, the economics com mentator for CNBC and NaTioNaL REviEw, is another supporter of the goal. indeed, he was advocating it before Pawlenty was. His case for it rests on the importance of what Keynes called the “animal spirits.” The target would send a signal to entrepreneurs that they will have supportive policies and a government that is firmly against declinism. But surely the actual policies would themselves be a more useful signal. if cutting the corporate tax rate by more than half does not com- municate sufficient enthusiasm for busi- ness, a growth target would probably fail to do so as well. a governmental growth target is bound to be politicized. if a president adopts one, what future president will want to set a lower target, even if the country’s achievable growth rate has fallen in the Growing Pains interim? That president would be accused of lacking confidence in his policies, his Pawlenty sets a bold but questionable economic target country, or both. The Pawlenty campaign has itself used this tactic against his BY RAMESH PONNURU critics. Even if the initial target were realistic, over time the practice of setting im PawLENTy, the former gov- Trillions of dollars in new wealth. Put us targets would become a charade. ernor of minnesota, is deter- on a path to saving our entitlement pro- if it has not already done so. Even if mined to be the presidential grams. and balance the federal budget.” setting a national growth target made T candidate for those conserva- But even those conservatives who are sense, 5 percent a year for ten years is tives who believe that Republicans have broadly sympathetic with the governor’s almost certainly too high a number. in his lately been concentrating too much on policies—even those conservatives who speech, Pawlenty pointed out that the cutting the budget and not enough on are sympathetic to his candidacy—should economy had come close to hitting the increasing economic growth. His new question some of the assumptions of this 5 percent growth rate from 1983 to 1987 economic plan is a very aggressive exer- quest for growth. and again from 1996 to 1999. Critics cise in supply-side economics. it cuts the The first assumption is that setting what instantly pointed out that neither period corporate tax rate from 35 to 15 percent— Pawlenty calls “a national economic saw the economy actually hit the target, lower even than Rep. Paul Ryan’s budget, growth target” is helpful. John Taylor, one or lasted a decade. which takes it to 25 percent. it reduces the of the few prominent conservative econo- Taylor argues that if we brought the top income-tax rate from 35 to 25 percent. mists to defend the goal, suggests on his proportion of the working-age population it abolishes the estate tax, the capital- blog that it “would focus policymakers that is actually working back to its 2000 gains tax, and the dividend tax outright. like a laser beam on the great benefits that peak over the next ten years, we would with these policies—along with spending come from higher growth and on the pro- get 2 of our 5 percentage points of eco- cuts, deregulation, and free trade—Paw - growth policies needed to achieve it. as nomic growth from increased employ- lenty believes that the country can reach with any goal, if you take it seriously, ment alone. He says, further, that we have his goal of 5 percent annual economic you’ll choose policies that work toward averaged 2.7 percent productivity growth growth for a decade. that goal and reject those that don’t.” each year since 1996. Keep that up at the He sketches a beguiling vision of the This seems like an over-idealized pic- same time as we get more people to work, results. “Growing at 5 percent a year— ture of how government policy gets made. and we would be close to Pawlenty’s rather than the current level of 1.8 per- Right now we have one party that insists goal.
cent—would net us millions of new jobs. that government subsidies to “green jobs” it would be a very tall order to do either ROMAN GENN
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one of these things, let alone both of them Security, for example, but they also mean together. nobody has a surefire way to larger benefits going out from it in the raise the employment ratio to its 2000 future. Worthwhile level. The middle of the last decade saw Like many other Republican seekers of both economic growth and tax cuts, but growth, Pawlenty is convinced that we Canadian the ratio did not climb back to that peak. need a much tighter monetary policy than and these two steps are to some extent in we have now. In his go-for-growth speech conflict. There is every reason to think he lamented “the continued debasement Initiatives that the people who are currently work- of the dollar as a result of the loose-money ing are, on average, more productive than policies of the Fed.” He said that “inflation All we need is a left-wing the people who are not currently working cruelly undermines the life savings and government and a debt crisis . . . hey! would be if they got jobs. life prospects of every american.” The Conservatives have repeatedly gone difference in yields between inflation- BY KEVIN D. WILLIAMSON astray by overestimating the impact indexed bonds and unindexed bonds im- of taxes on economic growth. The pre- plies a current market projection of 2.2 anada is a weird cold semi- dictions of economic doom when Bill percent annual inflation over the next ten socialist backwater pockmarked Clinton raised taxes in 1993 are a case in years, which is lower than the average with Francophonic hostility and point. So is the assumption that the right inflation the country has experienced in C saddled with a ridiculous mon - tax policies can bring the labor market any decade since the 1950s. ar chy, a national wheat monopoly, and the back to its condition in 2000. during the late 1990s, one of Paw - pinko health-care system that Barack Remember: Reagan cut the top tax rate lenty’s two examples of the high growth Obama really, really wants deep down from 70 to 50 percent. The after-tax value we should strive for, the dollar’s trade- inside. It’s basically a sprawling, low- of a dollar earned went from 30 cents to weighted exchange rate was at around the ambition Sweden with a miniature France 50 cents: an increase of 67 percent. same level as it is in these days of alleged growing like an udder out of its soft Clinton raised the top tax rate from 31 to debasement. The 1983–87 period, his underbelly. So why are les têtes carrées 39.6 percent, which reduced that return other example, saw a decline of the dol- doing so well in comparison with, e.g., us U.S.a.–type americans? Canada’s economy is growing roughly Even if Reagan’s tax cuts had twice as fast as ours, and we’re in a bug- eyed unemployment panic down here, a strongly positive effect on the one so severe that Obama’s economic economy, there was no reason to think team has fled the White House in a fash- ion that brings to mind unkind nautical- that Clinton’s tax increases would rodential similes. during the recent re cession, Canada’s unemployment rate have an equal and opposite effect. peaked at 8.7 percent—lower than ours today, during our “Recovery Summer” by only 12.5 percent. Even if Reagan’s lar. It is at the least unclear that the high sequel—and while U.S. unemployment is tax cuts had a strongly positive effect on growth Pawlenty wants and the monetary going up, joblessness up north has been the economy, there was no reason to policy he wants are compatible with each southbound and down for a year, clock - think that Clinton’s tax increases would other, let alone that they are in the easy ing in at 7.4 percent in the May report. have an equal and opposite effect. Taking harmony his speech would lead one to Washington is asphyxiating itself on debt the top tax rate from 35 to 25, as in the expect. Jimi Hendrix–style, with big investors Pawlenty proposal, would be a 15 per- Public policies that increase the coun- (really big ones like Bill Gross and Hu cent improvement in incentives. Rea - try’s long-term growth potential are very Jintao) dumping U.S. Treasury securities gan’s success has limited the potential for important. The difference between 3 per- and minimizing their long-term exposure further gains. cent average growth and 2 percent aver- to the dollar. But in real-GdP terms, Higher growth is also not quite the age growth, compounded over 30 years, Canada has cut its national debt in half panacea Republicans sometimes make it is a $9 trillion–larger economy. Several in the past 15 years, and its government out to be. We learned over the last decade of Pawlenty’s policies would likely in - ran surpluses for the decade before the that it was possible for the economy to crease the growth rate and deserve sup- 2008 crisis (which was less of a crisis for grow without increasing most people’s port on that basis. But there is no reason Canada). Ottawa has run up a little debt wages. Rising health-care costs swal- to expect them to have effects nearly as since then but will be back in the black lowed the raises workers would other- large as he suggests. with a balanced budget in 2014 and a wise have received. Pro-growth mea sures “If prosperity were easy, everybody debt-to-GdP ratio of less than 20 percent are not a substitute for tackling them. around the world would be prosperous.” by the end of the first Biden administra- and even if growth does yield wage The line has been a standard part of tion. It already has the lowest debt burden increases, it is not a substitute for en - Paw lenty’s stump speech for the last in the G7. and how’s this for national titlement reform. Higher wages mean few months. It’s one that policymakers shame? The almighty dollar is now more revenue coming in to Social should take to heart. worth less than the humble Canadian
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loonie: General Washington outgunned what Canada has been doing right. Not Global Misery Index and the Heritage by a duck. that it’s always obvious: Americans look Foundation’s Economic Freedom Index A conundrum, no? A mystery to be at Canada, with its swollen nanny state put the United States and Canada within a interpreted. And it may be even worse and its Obamacare-with-gravy-on-top couple of points of each other when it than it looks: Be skeptical of those GDP health-care system, and we say to our- comes to spending. Canada has a very big numbers. GDP has basically three pieces: selves: “Good God, look at the taxes these national government and relatively small private consumption, investment, and poor suckers pay.” And it’s true: Canada’s provincial and municipal governments. government spending. Guess which one total tax burden, at 32.2 percent of GDP, is (Relatively, I wrote. Visit Philadelphia.) of those has been getting jacked up in the a whole lot more than ours, at 26.9 per- The United States has a morbidly obese United States since 2009? When calculat- cent. Except recall as mentioned three Leviathan spilling its federal muffin-top ing GDP, government spending is valued sentences ago that they’ve been running over the borders of the District of Colum - at cost, meaning that if the government surpluses for a long time. There are kids bia into three other states, and ravenous goes and borrows $1 trillion, buys $1 tril- getting their driver’s licenses this year state and local governments, too. It about lion worth of water balloons, and has a who in all their born days have seen only a equals out, in terms of spending. massive national water-balloon fight on couple of non-surplus budgets adopted in This is where your annoying Euro-lefty the Mall, that’s another trillion bucks Ottawa. friend says: And at least the Canadians get added to the GDP, even though it’s made Our guys, our crazy right-wing free- something for it. And, as much as it hurts us poorer as a nation, not richer. And enterprise limited-government bootstraps to write this, Moonbeam has a point. Washington has been having a hell of a Republican guys, don’t give us surplus- Canada has honest government (more water-balloon fight since 2008. Ottawa, es—they give us deficits. If you run a honest than ours, Heritage finds) and on the other hand, has been cutting spend- deficit, the question isn’t how much you transparent institutions that work. As wel- ing. When the ’Nucks had their come-to- tax, but how much you spend—because, fare states go, Canada’s is pretty well run. Jesus moment about their national debt as I am confident the ghost of John Calvin (It does not follow that similar institutions back in 1995 (more on that in a second), has finally hammered into the ghost of would work well in the United States.) they cut government spending in real Jack Kemp, all debts eventually must be Canada’s success is part virtue, part terms by almost 15 percent over three paid. Hu Jintao is going to get paid. And vice. The virtue is the old-fashioned years. So, mentally back that out of those there’s where the U.S.-Canada thing gets a Anglo-Protestant stuff—thrift, honesty, GDP numbers. little counterintuitive: We’re basically the sobriety, savings, husbandry, etc. The vice Such deficit-hawking is a big part of same on the spending front. Both Forbes’s is the old-fashioned European stuff: free-
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loading off of the United States. The started in the 1970s, when Canada’s gov- United States spends 4.7 percent of GDP ernment, like the U.S. government and the SEARCH on its military, whereas Canada spends British government and many European about 1.5. Granted, the United States is governments, went totally Froot Loops on an outlier, but so is Canada: Relative to the fiscal front (kind of like we are right OUR the size of their economies, France, the about now). It started packing on the debt United Kingdom, Italy—hell, Norway (kind of like we are right about now). Then ARCHIVES spends more on defense than does came the recession of 1981, when a com- Canada, which barely outspends Japan, a bination of economic contraction and country that could be overrun by a crack accelerated spending sent Canada’s public HERE detachment of Girl Scouts. There’s a debt climbing all the way up to 40 percent reason that Canada and Japan make com- of GDP. Doc Keynes always prescribes parable economic commitments (1.5 per- deficit spending for a recession, but the AND OTHER LEADING cent of GDP and 1 percent, respectively) side effects of rampant sheikh-style out- to national defense: Both are U.S. protec- lays on top of economic collapse are JOURNALS OF torates. Canada gets to have its expensive pretty ugly (kind of like . . . but you keep OPINION ON THE welfare state and ready access, whenever getting the point). Things quieted down a needed, to the No. 1 warfighting machine bit for a few years after that as Canada PROGRESSIVE AND in the history of Homo sap., the latter rode the coattails of the Reagan recovery part pretty much gratis. That comes in and had a long, important national con - CONSERVATIVE SIDES; handy: Some of those old-fashioned versation about whether “aRRêT” or anglo-Protestant virtues—stability, for in - “SToP” would get top billing on stop- 1,000,000 PAGES stance—need a helping hand from na tional signs in Quebec. and they just kept OF HISTORY AND institutions. or the national institutions spending. Then came another recession, a next door. particularly bad one for Canada, lasting CULTURE. Likewise, Canada’s health-care system from 1989 until 1992. Debt hit 60 percent receives enormous implicit subsidies from of GDP. the United States. When Canada’s elites By the time Newt Gingrich (remember HARPERS are unhappy with Dr. ottawa, they can Newt Gingrich?) and his crew were plow- cross the border. and while they’re head- ing through the Contract with america THE NATION ed south, american innovations made and plotting a bold new course toward a possible by profits generated in what more enterprising america and NaFTa THE NEW REPUBLIC remains of our private health-care market was really coming into effect, Canada are headed north across the border. Phar - stepped onto the scales, no doubt feeling COMMONWEAL maceuticals, medical devices, techniques like a fat former cheerleader two weeks and technology: Those innovations make away from her ten-year high-school re - COMMENTARY their way around the globe, but it’s nice union, and took a hard swallow: Debt was for Canadians that the military-industrial 71 percent of GDP. The only G7 country in NATIONAL REVIEW superpower next door is a medical- worse shape was Italy. Italy. So the Grits, research superpower, too. led at the time by Jean Chrétien with Paul NACLA No sense in our being bitter about all Martin holding the finance portfolio, start- that: It’s not like Justin Bieber talked us ed cutting, with the salubrious results THE NEW YORK into fighting wars in Iraq, afghanistan, mentioned above. REVIEW OF BOOKS Pakistan, Libya, and Yemen at the same Notice that it was the center-left that time, or letting Lyndon Johnson and balanced the budget, not the Con serva - THE AMERICAN Teddy Kennedy structure our health-care tives. It wasn’t because they wanted to— system. Mistakes were made. and, in the as the debt piled up, interest rates went SPECTATOR main, Canada has thrived in the past 15 thermonuclear. Nobody loved them for years or so mostly because it has been dis- balancing the budget. Yeah, the Liberals ciplined and thrifty. It had to: It had no raised taxes, but they cut $6 in spending HTTP://METASEARCH. choice. for every $1 in new taxes, numbers that The United States has a fiscal crisis on would make Paul Ryan proud. When the OPINIONARCHIVES.COM the way, and you had better hit both knees sorta Conservative government sorta took and pray to the deity of your choice in power in 2006, Stephen Harper was the the manner prescribed that we have a heir to a decade of remarkable fiscal pru- Canadian-style crisis. Canada’s crisis was dence, and Canada reaped the harvest that the luckiest thing that had happened to Chrétien and Martin had sowed. Canadians since the Battle of Hampden. If all it takes is a left-wing government (Win some, lose some.) It came to a head and a fiscal crisis, maybe there’s hope for in the middle 1990s, but it really got us still.
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of world affairs. Normality seems some minister of Israel (having served in that far-off, high goal. role before, in the 1990s). Obama was Friends in Who is the aforementioned Aznar, and clearly the least Israel-friendly man to sit who are his friends? Aznar was prime in the Oval Office in a long while. The Need minister of Spain for two terms, 1996 to U.S.-Israel relationship, on which so 2004. He is something relatively rare much depended, was in question. And A cadre of worthies takes up in Europe (Western Europe, that is): a Netanyahu? As a conservative and hawk, the cause of Israel Reagan-style conservative. The friends he would be a target for political and we are talking about are, not only Aznar’s cultural elites around the world, and his BY JAY NORDLINGER friends, but friends of Israel as well— country would be more unpopular than members of the Friends of Israel Ini - ever. Aznar recalls what he told his friend OSé MARíA AzNAR and his friends, tiative, which Aznar started last year. The Netanyahu, right after the Israeli elec- when they talk about Israel, often purpose of the group is to counter what its tions: “Be careful, because the world is use the word “normal.” Israel is a members regard as a campaign of delegit- looking for a new George W. Bush to J “normal country,” they say, and imization against Israel. They are com- blame for everything.” And “Bibi” was ought to be accepted as normal, and mitted to a “relegitimization.” The cause the obvious candidate. defended as normal: a “normal democrat- of the West and the cause of Israel are one, With Israel looking increasingly friend- ic country,” or a “normal Western coun- they say. And the fate of the West and the less, Aznar decided to start his group. try,” with virtues and flaws like any other fate of Israel are the same. Aznar puts it He did so with the help of his onetime such country. This was a big Ben-Gurion bluntly, starkly: “If we let Israel go down, national-security adviser, Rafael Bardají, word, too, about Israel. The father of we all go down.” who would become the group’s executive modern Israel said some version of the The idea for the Friends, or FoII, as the director. The two of them approached following: “We will know we have be- group is often known, came in the first people they knew to be pro-Israel, along come a normal country when Jewish part of 2009. Two important things hap- with some they weren’t so sure about. By thieves and Jewish prostitutes conduct pened in that period: Barack Obama Bardají’s estimate, about 70 percent of the their business in Hebrew.” And they do. became president of the United States, people they invited to join, joined. Others But Israel is far from normal in the realm and Benjamin Netanyahu became prime were reluctant to take the risk of being
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associated with Israel. They did not want and Marcello Pera, an Italian philosopher explaining why such recognition, without to be “stigmatized,” as Bardají says. He and politician. a peace agreement, was a bad idea. The was disappointed in some of them, as When they started out, the Friends were movement toward region-wide recogni- happens in politics, and life. eleven in number, a small but potent tion was halted. Because of the Friends? The Friends are a diverse group, com- group. One writer, David Steiner, referred They cannot have hurt. prising statesmen, scholars, businessmen, to them as a “minyan of former legisla- One purpose of the Friends, to quote and others. Václav Havel is a member. tors, executives,” and so on. (A “minyan,” their literature, is to give courage to He, of course, is the Czech playwright, in Jewish law, is the number of persons “political leaders who are pro-Israel by dissident, politician, and hero. He has required to be present before a religious conviction, but feel stymied by the anti- service can be conducted.) One thing the Israel dispositions” around them. Another minyan does not have is many Jews: purpose is to “help all friends of Israel, There are maybe two of them (not that primarily in Europe but also elsewhere, counting is seemly). FoII is conscious of who currently find themselves isolated being a non-Jewish group. They think and disconnected.” they are more effective as such, or effec- FoII is not a “closed club,” as Bardají tive in a way that a Jewish group, or says: It will get larger. Most of the Jewish lobby, is not. “founder members” are from Europe, but They had their first meeting on June 1, there will be other recruits from Australia, 2010—the day after Israeli authorities Japan, India, etc. The West, in FoII’s view, stopped the appallingly named “Free- is not so much a geographical concept dom Flotilla,” which sought to break the as a political one, relating to values. One Israeli-Egyptian blockade of Gaza. The new member is another American, Friends of Israel were meeting in Paris, Donna Shalala, who served in President off the Champs-Elysées, and they heard Clinton’s cabinet. Since 2001, she has the anti-Israel demonstrations outside. been president of the University of That reinforced the need for their efforts: Miami. Her politics are very different the need to promote a greater understand- from, say, Bolton’s: She is a strong liberal ing of Israel and its predicament, plus a Democrat. But she is united with her greater understanding of the connection fellow members on Israel. (By the way, between Israel and the West at large. The she is the daughter of Maronite Christians Friends signed a thoughtful but firm who immigrated to America from Leba - “Statement,” their manifesto, making non.) their claims and taking their stand. The majority of the Friends are right- So, what does FoII do? Their activities leaning, although a figure like Havel, as are both public and private. In public, they Bardají points out, is “above politics.” speak, write articles, debate, and engage Bardají says that the group will seek a in what goes under the general heading greater political balance. And here we see of “advocacy.” They do this particularly how the world can take strange turns: well. You may not think that the world Who could have guessed, in the middle of needs another white paper, or another the last century, that a Friends of Israel speech. But these things count, embold- group would be predominantly conserva- José María Aznar ening friends, persuading the unsure, and tive, having to search out members on the long lent his support to unfashionable putting foes on the defensive. Also, the left? causes, including Cuban democracy. group arranges for people—parliamentar- FoII operates on a shoestring, support- Another member is Alejandro Toledo, the ians, judges, journalists, and the like—to ed by private donations. There is only one former president of Peru. Still another is go to Israel, to see the situation up close. full-time employee, and she is the only David Trimble, the Northern Irish politi- The Friends’ main activity, however, person paid. Aznar, Bardají, and all the cian who is now Lord David Trimble. takes place in private. This is “peer-to- Friends work pro bono. The group does With John Hume, he won the 1998 Nobel peer contact,” discussions with those in not have formal ties to Israel. Originally, peace prize, for the Good Friday Agree - power, or positions of influence, about says Bardají, key Israelis were skeptical ment, which brought an end to the Israel. Bardají says, “Thanks to the quali- of the initiative, which surprised him. “Troubles,” or seems to have done. ty of the network we have, we can slip They wondered whether the group was There are Americans among the into various capitals,” to see whoever sincere, whether it would have staying Friends. Former U.N. ambassador John needs to be seen, to make whatever case power, whether it would be effective. Bolton, for instance. And George Weigel, needs to be made. For example, Latin Now these Israelis appreciate what FoII
NEWSCOM the Catholic intellectual who is the pre- / American leaders such as Lula da Silva has been able to do, by Bardají’s account. EFE / eminent biographer of John Paul II. And began a movement at the end of last year Finally, we get to the question of moti- Robert Agostinelli, a financial maestro to secure a region-wide recognition of a vation: What causes men such as Aznar based in Paris. Other members include Palestinian state. Aznar and some others and Bardají (nice Christian boys from
ALBERTO MARTIN Andrew Roberts, the British historian, jumped on planes to tour the capitals, Spain) to put themselves out for Israel?
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Presumably, it is not for the popularity, or the world as represented in its “interna- the money. Both men say, of course, that tional bodies”—is prone to ganging up on they are putting themselves out, not only Israel. This is “morally disgusting,” Virtual for Israel, but for themselves: for Europe, among other things. Consider some statis- the West, and democracy. (Sounds almost tics from Eye on the UN. Last year, the Manhood like Henry V, true.) Bardají says that he United Nations took more “human-rights would be loath to get too “Huntingtonian” actions” against Israel than against any Of Anthony Weiner and about it, but he sees Israel “in the vanguard other nation: 145. In second place was Internet scandal of a civilizational struggle.” Europe, he Sudan, with a mere 50. Sudan’s govern- says, is not nearly awake enough to this ment is genocidal. In third place was the BY ROB LONG struggle. Aznar emphasizes that he has “Democratic Republic” of the Congo. always been for freedom and democracy, Then came Somalia. In fifth place was the ODNEy DANgERfIELD, the late and the preservation of those values. United States. (North Korea did 20 places comedian famous for his “No That’s why he got into politics in the first better.) Respect” routine, used to do a place. He says that, from Morocco to Against this kind of world, Aznar and R bit in his act about how to deal Pakistan, which is a very long stretch of his friends speak up. In a speech several with the awkwardness of the morning the earth, the only democracy, the only weeks ago, he recited a credo of sorts— after a one-night stand. A guy wants to country that safeguards human rights, is beginning a string of sentences with “I get out of there as fast as he can, but he Israel. That ought to matter. believe.” The first was, “I believe in doesn’t want to look like he wants to get When he was prime minister, Spain Israel. And I am not ashamed to say it.” out of there. was remarkably—to some, refreshing- Neither are those friends. One of Aznar’s According to Dangerfield, his method ly—pro-Israel in its policy. That has signature pleas seems terribly modest, was foolproof. you simply turn to the changed under Aznar’s successor, José and it relates to the concept discussed at young lady and say, in your best romantic Luis Rodríguez Zapatero. A keen So- the outset of this piece, normality: “All we voice, the following: “you know what’s cialist, this PM runs one of the most want is a normal and reasonable conver- great about today? It’s Wednesday. I don’t Israel-hostile governments in Europe. sation about Israel. Surely, that is not too work on Wednesdays, so I can take the Aznar is one to note that the “world”— much to ask.” whole day off. you and me, babe, are
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going out to a simple coffee shop for a the country. He brags about himself. He there are probably dozens of temptations classic New York breakfast. Then, we’re sends photos of his big gym muscles and all around him, and with a wife who going to stroll Fifth Avenue, go shopping, his toned belly and his shaved chest. He travels all the time, well, it’s wrong, of go to Tiffany’s, go to Saks, we’ll buy you tweets his ladies about the size of his course, but it wouldn’t be surprising, or something special. After that, a romantic manhood. He texts to them about how even newsworthy, if he had a little some- lunch at the Boat House in Central Park, handily he’ll satisfy them. He texts and thing on the side. He’d be a cheat and a with pink champagne. And a stroll though tweets and texts and tweets. liar and a bad husband—and I’m setting the park hand in hand, in the afternoon as And then he quits his Twitter app and aside the larger question of whether the sun dapples the leaves and the light goes off to masturbate. being any or all of those things makes turns golden. Then we’ll have a quiet In other words, Anthony Weiner is the one unfit to serve in the United States drink at the Oak Bar in the Plaza, and then lowest, least impressive kind of man. He House of Representatives—but he to the Rainbow Room for champagne and is a self-made eunuch. A bragging, swag- wouldn’t be a weirdo. He’d be just one dancing, and then to a little dive I know gering virgin. A pathetic joke of a man, more man who forgot his covenants. downtown for a romantic late dinner. unfit to wash Rodney Dangerfield’s (no He’d be one more man who broke the How does that sound?” doubt) sweaty and threadbare boxer faith of marriage. He wouldn’t be, as the And she’ll say, “It sounds wonderful. shorts. kids say, a perv. But today is Thursday.” Anthony Weiner may be the latest casu- At least John F. Kennedy, when he cheated on his wife, was physically pre- sent in the room. Even Bill Clinton— who seems more and more like a bridge figure, spanning the gap between the confident cad JFK and Weiner—seemed moderately attentive to the social re - quirements of having a mistress. He bought her gifts. They were stupid gifts, but they were gifts. What did Weiner give to his online squeezes? Pictures of his penis. It’s not news, of course, that the American male is becoming more nar- cissistic and body-conscious. Weiner liked to show off his muscles and his hairless chest in a way that suggests a genuine sex-role reversal: He’s doing the striptease, he’s doing the elaborate body maintenance, he’s the object of desire. Anthony Weiner was a porn freak, but he was the one making the porn! Aren’t I Aren’t I beautiful? beautiful? his texts and tweets seem to And he’ll say, “Thursday??!! I gotta alty in the skirmish politics of our day— say. Yes, yes, the gals replied. You are get out of here!!” you know what I mean: we get one of one beautiful congressman! LOL. He races out. She’s convinced he isn’t theirs, they get one of ours; one furious I’m surprised he didn’t try to charge really a cad, just a guy who loses track of blog post results in a barrage of furious them. the days of the week. Problem solved. tweets and comments; it’s all utterly irrel- But of course they never met. It was Notice, in this little story, what doesn’t evant to the political direction of the nation dirty talk, then private time. iPhone abuse, happen. No one tweets. No one e-mails at large—but in the great cultural sense, then self abuse. It may make him slightly or IMs or sends a Twitpic. No one does he’s created a new kind of male archetype: less morally corrupt. But it makes him anything that involves a smartphone or the Weiner Man. He was caught talking immensely less manly. an iPad or Web connectivity. Rodney about something naughty that he didn’t But that’s the problem with RL. Un - Dangerfield simply constructs a nice- have the courage to actually do. like in the Web space, IRL you have to sounding lie, which he then delivers to Somehow, it would be easier to take if come face to face with someone. You the woman in bed next to him, which Anthony Weiner had actually cheated on have to notice how they look and how men have been doing since the earth was his wife. In real life. Or, should I say, they smile. You have to accept that they NEWSCOM / lava. “IRL,” as “in real life” is known in on - have too many wrinkles or a braying You know where this is going, right? line communities. IRL, Weiner is mar- laugh or little patches of dry skin. IRL, Compare Dangerfield Man to Weiner ried to an attractive aide to Secretary of in other words, you have to see things SPLASH NEWS / Man: Anthony Weiner, the sad and smut- State Hillary Clinton. IRL, Weiner is a for how they really are. It’s a place MANGO
. ty congressman from New York, zaps trash-talking, aggressive advocate of lib- devoid of abstraction. No wonder a pictures of his privates (clothed and eral causes and positions. IRL, in other liberal like Weiner preferred the online
GREGORY P unclothed) to any number of gals across words, he’s got a lot going for him. IRL, version.
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Growth Formulas A symposium
With a near-freeze on spending and a competitive corporate- Cut Taxes tax rate to lift the economy, the ratio of spending to GDP would ALAN REYNOLDS wind back down toward the affordable historical norm. Will that policy mix boost economic growth? Yes, of course.
EDERAL spending is scheduled to remain above 24 per- Mr. Reynolds, a senior fellow of the Cato Institute, was NATIONAL REVIEW’s cent of GDP, five percentage points higher than the 19.2 economics editor from 1972 to 1976. F percent average of 1997–2007. Pushing the highest tax rates higher could not begin to finance such a spree. The indi- vidual income tax has never brought in much more than 8 per- cent of GDP, whether the top tax rate was 28 percent or 91 Consolidate Finances percent. KEVIN A. HASSETT Cutting the top corporate-tax rate from the current 35 percent to 25 percent offers a lot of bang for no bucks. Bruce Bartlett noticed that in the United States “corporate tax revenues as a .S. debt has climbed to a level not seen since the end share of GDP are the lowest among all major countries,” yet of World War II, and this means that uncertainty about corporate-tax rates averaged only 26 percent among the six U future policy is at a record high as well. Such uncer- countries with the highest revenues. The Cato Institute’s Chris tainty has a chilling effect on economic activity. Businesses are Edwards discovered that 19 major countries that cut corporate- sitting on their money because they have no idea how high tax rates from 45 to 29 percent between 1985 and 2005 saw their taxes will be tomorrow and even less clarity about the corporate-tax revenues rise from an average of 2.6 percent of rules of the game. GDP to 3.7 percent. What’s good for business is good for the Reducing that uncertainty should be policymakers’ main treasury. objective. The easiest way to do it is for the federal govern- I also like Edwards’s proposal to limit growth of government ment to pursue a sizable “fiscal consolidation,” a long-term spending to 3 percent per year, with automatic, across-the- economic plan for lowering the debt and deficits. Last year, I board cuts if spending gets off track. Exempting “mandatory” completed a survey of historical consolidations with my spending is inadvisable: It would be better to compel politi- American Enterprise Institute colleagues Andrew Biggs and cians to trim those programs incrementally than to rely on Matt Jensen. We reviewed fiscal reforms in 21 Organization
sweeping plans that might be undone, if ever actually enacted. for Economic Cooperation and Development nations over 37 ROMAN GENN
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years and found that only about one in five managed to reduce is on behalf of those unions that the president is holding up the their debt-to-GDP ratio by 4.5 percent or more in three years. trade deals that will contribute significantly to our nation’s In order to maximize the chances that the United States will economic growth. achieve such a reduction, Congress should copy the successful consolidations. Mr. Chocola is president of the Club for Growth. These nations, on average, drew 85 percent of their fiscal consolidation from spending reductions. Successful consolida- tors tend to find their cuts in longer-term obligations, with 38 percent coming from entitlement spending and 25 percent Ban Software Patents from government salaries. Reducing social transfers improves REIHAN SALAM incentives to work and save. A reduction in government pay leaves more resources available to the private sector. But perhaps more important, a focus on long-term auster- f Thomas Edison was right that genius is 1 percent inspi- ity demonstrates a commitment to fiscal solvency that finan- ration and 99 percent perspiration, one has to marvel at the cial markets will find reassuring, and businesses will find I perversity of our patent laws, which have become a seri- liberating. ous drag on innovation and growth. As the economists Michele Boldrin and David K. Levine argue in Against Intellectual Mr. Hassett is a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute. Monopoly, patents have, since the earliest days of the industri- al revolution, proven a drag on economic progress, shielding sluggish incumbents from nimble competitors. Open Trade Most of the great enterprises of our time weren’t built on a CHRIS CHOCOLA
f we want to create thousands of jobs, increase economic growth, I and make goods more affordable for consumers, we should pass the pend- ing free-trade agreements with South Korea, Panama, and Colombia. Economists often disagree on the macro economic effects of monetary and fiscal policies, but on trade they agree: When people are free to buy from, sell to, and invest with one another as they choose, they can achieve far more than when governments attempt to control economic decisions. free trade brings benefits to con- sumers in the form of lower prices and more choices. It brings benefits to busi- nesses in the form of more opportunities for expansion and economies of scale. It is good economic policy, and even President Obama has indicated that he supports the trade agreements. So what’s the hold-up? As a favor to his friends in organized labor, President Obama is withholding support for the pending trade deals until Congress passes an extension of ex - panded “trade adjustment assistance” included in the stimulus bill that expired earlier this year. That program pays money, on top of unemployment bene- fits, to workers who can claim to have lost their jobs because of competition as a result of free trade. Much of that money is paid to union members, and it
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great new idea; they were built on superior execution. Google borrowed heavily from Goto.com. SixDegrees.com, the pio- Seven Questions neering social-network service, was buzzworthy years before VERONIQUE DE RUGY mark Zuckerberg dreamed up Facebook. Fortunately for us, Goto.com failed to patent its core ideas, and the SixDegrees patents were owned by an early Facebook investor. Had conomiStS have studied the effects of regulation on eco- patents gotten in the way, there’s an excellent chance that nomic growth for many years. their main conclusion is Google and Facebook would have been killed in the crib, E that a heavier regulatory burden—particularly in product leaving us with inferior alternatives swaddled in the warm and labor markets—reduces growth and promotes informal mar- embrace of Johnny Law. kets. the implications are clear: Regulatory reforms, especially today’s leading technology firms invest vast sums in buying those that liberalize market entry, are very likely to spur invest- up software patents, almost entirely for the purpose of avoiding ment and growth. expensive (and usually meritless) litigation. i could give you a long list of regulations that need to be elimi - one good way to kick-start growth would be to ban software nated, such as the Securities and Exchange commission’s Fair patents. this would, among other very good things, allow tech- Disclosure Rule or any number of federal workplace-safety rules. nology firms to compete on the basis of which of them does the But a long list of individual regulations would not focus proper best job of meeting the needs of customers, and not which of attention on the problem that produces such a long list. them has the most aggressive legal department. We have tried reforms before, but the results have been middling at best. Agency rulemaking too often yields poor analysis and more Mr. Salam is the author of NATIONAL REVIEW ONLINE’s regulations rather than effective problem-solving, a fact visible in domestic-policy blog, The Agenda. the 165,000 pages of rules in the code of Federal Regulations, rules that are strangling U.S. businesses and making them less competitive. Before adopting a single new regulation, we should ask: 1. is there a significant sys- temic problem that is unlikely to resolve itself in the near future? 2. is the federal government in the best position to solve this problem? 3. Does the regulation in fact address the identified systemic prob- lem? 4. What is the range of potential solutions available? 5. Would a potential solution give rise to other significant prob- lems (e.g., in risk-risk trade-offs)? 6. Would the preferred solution solve the problem at a reasonable cost? 7. Will the agencies be able to recognize when the problem is in fact solved and eliminate the regulation when it becomes obsolete? currently, government agencies are focused on checking the procedural boxes and pushing new regulations out the door. We want them focused on solving prob- lems—which is not the same thing.
Veronique de Rugy is a senior research fellow of the Mercatus Center at George Mason University.
Don’t manage, Govern KEITH HENNESSEY
Wo years of twiddling the eco- nomic dials has not restored the t U.S. economy to a path of strong
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growth. Policymakers should recognize that government’s role Such a policy would not solve all our economic problems, but is not to create economic growth, but to create the conditions it would go a long way in fostering a more robust recovery. It under which employers, workers, and consumers create growth. would also provide a nice way for Congress to narrow the man- Conditions are bleak in part because government finances date of the Federal Reserve. are so out of whack. Short-term interest rates are low, but firm managers aren’t stupid. They know that once growth recovers, Mr. Beckworth is a professor of economics at Texas State University. sharp interest-rate increases are likely to afflict a federal gov- ernment that already owes 70 percent of GDP in debt and will borrow another 10 percent this year—a government that al - ready has received warnings from the three major credit-rating Human Capital agencies but so far has been unable to significantly slow the J I M M A N Z I growth of spending. And managers also fear that President Obama will insist that further big tax increases (on top of those enacted over the past n the short run, economic growth can be affected by pro- two and a half years) be included in a deficit-reduction deal. grams such as stimulus spending and TARP. But in the They know that in the past policymakers have often combined I long run, it is determined by a combination of institutions temporary reductions in Social Security, Medicare, and Medi- and human capital—the talents and habits of the population. caid spending with permanent tax increases, repeating this One practical thing we can do to improve human capital is to process every decade or so. improve our schools. This should have two key parts. First, the Rather than try to “fix” the housing market or goose short- federal government should establish a comprehensive national term growth, policymakers should fix the problem that it is exam by grade level to be administered by all schools that re - their job to fix. This means negotiating a short-term deficit- ceive any federal money. We should require each school to pub- reduction deal, as is typically done every five to seven years, lish all results, along with detailed data about school budgets, as well as enacting structural changes to the major entitlement performance, and so on, each year. Second, continued federal programs. Incremental tweaks to Medicare and Medicaid, with funding should be contingent on states’ passing model-schools no changes to Social Security or Obamacare, will buy America legislation that creates simple, uniform rules for establishing at most only another few years before fiscal trouble returns. new charter schools and introduces the principle that funding follows students. Mr. Hennessey is a research fellow of the Hoover Institution. The primary role of the federal government would be to ensure consistent high-quality information, provide normal market regulation to allow education providers to achieve effi- cient scale, and sponsor rigorous basic research on educational Mind the Money practices. The role of education providers would be to compete DAVID BECKWORTH entrepreneurially within this framework. This will not be a panacea. In a nation in which about 40 per- cent of all births occur out of wedlock, many children will be O understand why the recovery has been so anemic, one left behind. But better schools will create material improve- need look no further than our nation’s balance sheets, par- ment. And this method is not theoretical: Versions have already T ticularly those of households. Since the third quarter of been implemented successfully in Sweden and the netherlands, 2007, when household net worth was at its peak, households have and a similar program is being implemented in Britain now. lost around $7.6 trillion worth of assets. Despite these massive The United States is in a brutal international competition to losses and the subsequent slump in personal-income growth, raise productivity. We will improve our human capital, or we households have somehow increased their holdings of money will sink into mediocrity. and money-like assets by a staggering $1.4 trillion. Corporate balance sheets have added another $355 billion in money assets. Mr. Manzi is a senior fellow of the Manhattan Institute and the chairman of an In other words, households and businesses are sitting on their applied-artificial-intelligence software company. money. It is a key reason the recovery has been so weak. One of the reasons for the elevated demand for money is uncertainty about future income. Another is uncertainty about monetary policy, owing to the ad hoc nature of the quantitative- easing programs. The Federal Reserve could change all of this ‘Real Industrial by explicitly adopting a target for the growth of total current- dollar spending. For instance, the Fed could set a target of 5 Entrepreneurs’ percent nominal GDP growth, which probably would produce SAMUEL GREGG something like 3 percent real growth and 2 percent inflation. The mix might change as the Fed added or subtracted liq- IVEn America’s growing public debt, out-of-control uidity in response to economic conditions, but the target federal and state deficits, and forthcoming health-care would stay the same. That would relieve uncertainty about G and Social Security bills, it is understandable that future Fed actions while allowing for a brief period of catch-up much of the focus for getting America’s economy back on spending to reverse the present elevated demand for money. track is upon reducing government overreach. That is an
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important first step, but in a sense it is a mere preliminary to the main game. In the long term, the only way for the econ omy to grow is through wealth creation. That means America needs to be thinking about entrepreneurship. Entitlement It’s difficult to overestimate how much entrepreneurship marks America’s economic culture as different from, for exam- ple, what we find in most of Western europe. Survey after sur- BANDITS vey underscores that most Americans would prefer to work for themselves. Western europeans, by contrast, crave security. How the Ryan plan would curb Alexis de Tocqueville expressed his astonishment at “the spir- it of enterprise” characterizing 19th-century America. “Almost Medicare and Medicaid fraud all of them,” Tocqueville scribbled in one of his notebooks, “are real industrial entrepreneurs.” BY MICHAEL F. CANNON We must rediscover the moral, legal, institutional, and cul- tural settings that allow entrepreneurship to flourish. We must he budget blueprint crafted by Paul Ryan, passed by the also take practical steps, for instance liberalizing the labor- house of Representatives, and voted down by the market regulations that bind large-scale entrepreneurs with Senate would essentially give Medicare enrollees a inflexible union contracts. We should ease the process of hir- T voucher to purchase private coverage, and would ing and firing employees, allowing entrepreneurs to take more change the federal government’s contribution to each state’s and faster risks with new ideas, products, and services. An Medicaid program from an unlimited “matching” grant to a fixed entrepreneur in the european Union must always think long “block” grant. These reforms deserve to come back from defeat, and hard about hiring anyone, because once he has taken because the only alternatives for saving Medicare or Medicaid someone on, it is hard to remove that person, even for gross would either dramatically raise tax rates or have the government incompetence. With Obama’s National Labor Relations Board ration care to the elderly and disabled. What may be less widely growing ever more aggressive, we are moving in precisely the appreciated, however, is that the Ryan proposal is our only hope wrong direction for entrepreneurs. of reducing the crushing levels of fraud in Medicare and Medicaid. Mr. Gregg is research director of the Acton Institute. His books include The The three most salient characteristics of Medicare and Commercial Society and Wilhelm Röpke’s Political Economy. Medicaid fraud are: It’s brazen, it’s ubiquitous, and it’s other people’s money, so nobody cares. Consider some of the fraud schemes discovered in recent years. In Brooklyn, a dentist billed taxpayers for nearly 1,000 help Wanted procedures in a single day. A houston doctor with a criminal KEVIN D. WILLIAMSON record took her Medicare billings from zero to $11.6 million in one year; federal agents shut down her clinic but did not charge her with a crime. A high-school dropout, armed with only a lap- heN Washington talks about Social Security’s fund- top computer, submitted more than 140,000 bogus Medicare ing, the problem is usually stated thus: “With the claims, collecting $105 million. A health plan settled a Medicaid- W population aging, we have too few workers and too fraud case in Florida for $138 million. The giant hospital chain many retirees. The ratio of taxes paid in to benefits paid out is Columbia/hCA paid $1.7 billion in fines and pled guilty to more unsustainable.” Thinking like this is what gives Washington its than a dozen felonies related to bribing doctors to help it tap reputation for obtuseness: Politicians think workers exist to Medicare funds and exaggerating the amount of care delivered to pay taxes, but workers really exist to work—to build things, to Medicare patients. In New York, Medicaid spending on the create things, to provide useful products and services. If you human-growth hormone Serostim leapt from $7 million to $50 look at the historical growth rate of the U.S. economy, you’ll million in 2001; but it turned out that drug traffickers were get- see that GDP per capita has chugged along more or less steadi- ting the drug prescribed as a treatment for AIDS wasting syn- ly at 2 percent growth per year going all the way back to the drome, then selling it to bodybuilders. And a study of ten states Depression. But the real growth rate has averaged just over 3 uncovered $27 million in Medicare payments to dead patients. percent; that additional growth has come from a growing work These anecdotes barely scratch the surface. Official estimates force. If you have an aging population and a relative decline in posit that Medicare and Medicaid lose at least $70 billion per year the number of people available to do productive work in the to fraudulent and otherwise improper payments, and that about real economy, balancing the welfare books is not your biggest 10.5 percent of Medicare spending and 8.4 percent of Medicaid problem. You can cut those Social Security checks, but if that spending was improper in 2009. Fraud experts say the official money is going to be exchanged for real goods and services, numbers are too low. “Loss rates due to fraud and abuse could be somebody has to provide them. 10 percent, or 20 percent, or even 30 percent in some segments,” Immigration is not only an economic question, but to the explained Malcolm Sparrow, a mathematician, harvard profes- extent that it is, our system is counterproductive: We send the Ph.D.s and engineers home to Taiwan and India but keep the Mr. Cannon is director of health-policy studies at the Cato Institute and co-author illiterate Latin American farmhands, legal or illegal. At least of Healthy Competition: What’s Holding Back Health Care and one of those things should change, and probably both. How to Free It.
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sor, and former police inspector, in congressional testimony. Teva Pharmaceuticals recently paid $27 million to settle allega- “The overpayment-rate studies the government has relied on . . . tions that it had overcharged Florida’s Medicaid program by have been sadly lacking in rigor, and have therefore produced inflating its average wholesale prices, and the Department of comfortingly low and quite misleading estimates.” In 2005, the Justice has accused Wyeth of doing the same. Merck recently New York Times reported that “James Mehmet, who retired in settled a similar case. 2001 as chief state investigator of Medicaid fraud and abuse in Most ominously, how does the government know that people New York City, said he and his colleagues believed that at least punching numbers into the ATMs are health-care providers at all? 10 percent of state Medicaid dollars were spent on fraudulent In his testimony, Malcolm Sparrow explained how a hypotheti- claims, while 20 or 30 percent more were siphoned off by what cal criminal can make a quick million: “In order to bill Medicare, they termed abuse, meaning unnecessary spending that might not Billy doesn’t need to see any patients. He only needs a computer, be criminal.” And even these experts ignore other, perfectly legal some billing software to help match diagnoses to procedures, and ways of exploiting Medicare and Medicaid, such as when a some lists. He buys on the black market lists of Medicare or senior hides and otherwise adjusts his finances so as to appear Medicaid patient IDs.” With this information in hand, Billy strides eligible for Medicaid, or when a state abuses the fact that the right up to the ATM, or several at a time, and starts punching in federal government matches state Medicaid outlays. numbers. “The rule for criminals is simple: If you want to steal Government watchdogs are well aware of the problem. Every from Medicare, or Medicaid, or any other health-care-insurance year since 1990, the U.S. Government Accountability Office has program, learn to bill your lies correctly. Then, for the most part, released a list of federal programs it considers at a high risk for your claims will be paid in full and on time, without a hiccup, by fraud. Medicare appeared on the very first list and has remained a computer, and with no human involvement at all.” These there for 22 straight years. Medicaid assumed its perch eight schemes are sophisticated, so Billy might hire people within years ago. Medicare and at his bank to help him avoid detection. How can there possibly be so much fraud in Medicare and Last year, the feds indicted 44 members of an Armenian crime Medicaid that even the “comfortingly low” estimates have ten syndicate for operating a sprawling Medicare-fraud scheme. The zeros? How can this much fraud persist decade after decade? How syndicate had set up 118 phony clinics and billed Medicare for can it be that no one has even tried to measure the problem accu- $35 million. They transferred at least some of their booty over- rately, much less take it seriously? The answers are in the nature seas. Who knows what LBJ’s Great Society is funding? of the beast. Medicare and Medicaid, the two great pillars of Pres. And there are other forms of fraud. An entire cottage industry of Lyndon Johnson’s “Great Society” agenda, are monuments to the elder-law attorneys has emerged, for instance, to help well-to-do left-wing ideals of coerced charity and centralized economic plan- seniors appear poor on paper so that Medicaid will pay their nurs- ning. The staggering levels of fraud in these programs can be ing-home bills. Medicaid even encourages the elderly to get sham explained by the fact that the politicians, bureaucrats, patients, and divorces for the same reason. It’s all perfectly legal. It’s still fraud. health-care providers who administer and participate in them are Medicaid’s matching-grant system also invites fraud. When a spending other people’s money—and nobody spends other peo- high-income state such as New York spends an additional dollar ple’s money as carefully as he spends his own. What’s more, on its Medicaid program, it receives a matching dollar from the Medicare and Medicaid are spending other people’s money in vast federal government—that is, from taxpayers in other states. Low- quantities. Medicare, for example, is the largest purchaser of med- income states can receive as much as $3 for every additional dol- ical goods and services in the world. It will spend $572 billion in lar they devote to Medicaid, and without limit. If they’re clever, 2011. Each year, it pays 1.2 billion claims to 1.2 million health- states can get this money without putting any of their own on the care providers on behalf of 47 million enrollees. line. In a “provider tax” scam, a state passes a law to increase Medicaid payments to hospitals, which triggers matching money from the federal government. Yet in the very same law, the state Or providers, Medicare is like an ATM: So long as they increases taxes on hospitals. If the tax recoups the state’s original punch in the right numbers, out comes the cash. To get outlay, the state has obtained new federal Medicaid funds at no F an idea of the potential for fraud, imagine 1.2 million cost. If the tax recoups more than the original outlay, the state can providers punching 1,000 codes each into their own personal use federal Medicaid dollars to pay for bridges to nowhere. ATMs. Now imagine trying to monitor all those ATMs. As Vermont began preparations for its Obamacare-sanctioned For example, if a medical-equipment supplier punches in a single-payer system this year, it used a provider-tax scam to bilk code for a power wheelchair, how can the government be sure taxpayers in other states out of $5.2 million. In his book Stop the company didn’t actually provide a manual wheelchair and Paying the Crooks, consultant Jim Frogue chronicles more than pocket the difference? About $400 million of the aforementioned half a dozen ways that states game Medicaid’s matching-grant fines paid by Columbia/HCA hospitals were for a similar prac- system to defraud the federal government. tice, known as “upcoding.” Since 1986, the GAO has published at least 158 reports about And how does the government know that providers are with- Medicare and Medicaid fraud, and there have been similar drawing no more than the law allows? Medicaid sets the prices reports by the HHS inspector general and other government it pays for prescription drugs based on the “average wholesale agencies. In 1993, Attorney General Janet reno declared health- price.” But as the Congressional Budget Office has explained, the care fraud America’s No. 2 crime problem, after violent crime. average wholesale price “is based on information provided by the Since then, Congress has enacted 194 pages of statutes to combat manufacturers. Like the sticker price on a car, it is a price that few fraud in these programs, and countless pages of regulations. purchasers actually pay.” Pharmaceutical companies often inflate Yet federal and state anti-fraud efforts remain uniformly lame. the average wholesale price so they can charge Medicaid more. Medicare does almost nothing to detect or fight fraud until the
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You deserve a factual look at . . .
If that proverbial man from Mars came to visit and read the world’s newspapers, especially those in the Arab and Muslim world, he would be convinced that Israel was the most evil nation in the world and the source of all of the world’s strife. it is hard to believe that serious people can countenance it. The A nation to be emulated. The reality, of course, is that Israel exact opposite is the case. Israel is the only country in its is a nation, a society, that should be admired and emulated by benighted neighborhood in which people of all colors and many countries in the world. The very fact of how the State of religions prosper and have equal rights. Israel, expending Israel came into being is one of the most inspiring in history. substantial effort, rescued tens of thousands of black Jews from Born out of the ashes of the Holocaust, it has emerged as one of Ethiopia. And it has given assistance and absorbed countless the most advanced, productive and Christian expatriates from Sudan, prosperous countries in the world. who escaped from being The demonization of Israel, “As the prophet Isaiah presaged: Israel slaughtered by their Muslim assiduously cultivated by the is indeed a Light unto the Nations.” countrymen. Israel’s over one Muslim world, has reached a million Arab citizens enjoy the crescendo following Israel’s 2008 same rights and privileges as their defensive action in Gaza. Instead of being grateful to the hated Jewish fellows. They are represented in the Knesset, Israel’s Jews for having totally withdrawn, the Palestinian Gazans parliament, and are members of its bureaucracy, of its judiciary, showed their “gratitude” by almost daily pounding Israeli towns and of its diplomatic service. with close to 10,000 rockets and bombs. After countless All over the world, Leftists, including in the United States and, warnings, Israel ultimately decided to put an end to this travesty. sad to say, even in Israel itself, tirelessly condemn and vilify When Israel finally did invade Gaza it took the most elaborate Israel. Why would they do that? First, of course, there is good precautions not to hurt civilians. As a first in the history of old-fashioned anti-Semitism. Second, many of those who hate warfare, Israel dropped tens of thousands of leaflets, warning the the United States vent their poison on Israel, which they population and urging it to abandon areas in which military consider being America's puppet in that area of the world. But action would take place. The Israeli military made thousands of Israel should certainly get top grades in all areas important to phone calls urging people to leave areas that would come under the Left. In contrast to all its enemies, Israel has the same attack. But fighting in a densely populated environment is democratic institutions as the United States. All religions thrive difficult and loss of civilian life is hard to avoid. Hamas fighters freely in Israel. Also, in contrast to all of its enemies, women wear no uniforms. It is impossible to tell them from civilians. Is have the same rights as men. The Chief Justice of Israel’s a person who allows a rocket launcher in his backyard a civilian Supreme Court is a woman. One-sixth of the Knesset are or a fighter? And how about using schools, hospitals and women. Compare that to Saudi Arabia, a medieval theocracy, mosques as munitions depots and staff centers? The hue and cry where women are not allowed to drive cars, where they cannot of Israel’s demonizers in accusing it of “disproportionate force” leave the country without permission of a male relative, and is totally absurd. The ultimate insult, comparing Israel to the where they can be and often are condemned to up to 60 lashes if Nazis, is freely bandied about by Israel’s detractors. the “modesty police” deems them not to be properly dressed in Israel is not an “apartheid state.” Another familiar tack of public. Gays and lesbians are totally unmolested in Israel; in the Israel’s vilifiers is to call it an “apartheid state,” on the model of surrounding Muslim countries they would be subjected to the former South Africa. But that is so ridiculous, so preposterous, death penalty. In spite of demonization and vilification by so much of the world, Israel is indeed a Light unto the Nations. The State of Israel is the foremost creation of the Jewish enterprise and Jewish intellect that has benefited every country in which Jews dwell, certainly our own country, the United States. Second only to the United States itself, Israel is the world’s most important factor in science and technology, way out of proportion to the small size of its population. Israeli Jews are at the forefront of the arts, the sciences, law and medicine. They have brought all these sterling qualities to bear in building their own country: Israel. By necessity, they have also become outstanding in agriculture and, most surprisingly, in the military. What a shame that the Arabs opted not to participate in this progress and this prosperity and chose instead the path of revenge, of Jihad and of martyrdom. As the prophet Isaiah presaged: Israel is indeed a Light unto the Nations.
% &** #& !"!#$" & '& "! "$! ,& "! &% #'$#"% % & $%$ ! #' & "! " & &% $$ ! ( "# !&% ! & %& ! *#"% ! % #$"#! & & & $ & !&$%&% " & ! & &&% ! &% % ! & & $ " & )"$ "'$ &* '& "!&$ '& "!% $ ) " + ! '% &" #'$%' & % " % #" $# # "# ! &" #' % & % %%% ! !& "! !)%##$% ! , !% % ! " ( ( $&' + !" "($ "%& " "'$ $(!' #+% "$ "'$ '& "! !! !" # )"$ "$ & % $ + ! %%% ! "$ $ & $& 119A To receive free FLAME updates, visit our website: www.factsandlogic.org 2col_QXP-1127940309.qxp 6/14/2011 10:21 PM Page 32
fraudulent payments are already out the door, a strategy experts albeit in the name of preventing frivolous litigation, when they deride as “pay and chase.” Even then, Medicare reviews fewer oppose expanding whistle-blower lawsuits, where private citi- than 5 percent of all claims filed. Congress doesn’t integrate zens who help the government win a case get to keep some of the Medicare’s myriad databases, which might help prevent fraud, penalty. nor does it regularly review the efficacy of most of the anti-fraud Sparrow argued that when Medicare receives “obviously spending it authorizes. Many of the abuses noted above, such as implausible claims,” such as from a dead doctor, “the system those of the Brooklyn dentist, were discovered not by the gov- should bite back. . . . A proper fraud response would do what ever ernment but by curious reporters poking through Medicaid was necessary to rip open and expose the business practices that records. The amateurs at the New York Times found “numerous produce such fictitious claims. Relevant methods include sur- indications of [Medicaid] fraud and abuse that the state had never veillance, arrest, or dawn raids.” Also: “All other claims from the looked into,” but “only a thin, overburdened security force stand- same source should immediately be put on hold.” ing between [New York’s] enormous program and the unending Some of the implausible claims will be honest mistakes, such attempts to steal from it.” as when a clerk mistakenly punches the wrong patient number into the ATM. And sometimes the SWAT team will get the address wrong, or will take action that looks like overkill, as HE federal government’s approach to fraud is sometimes when the Department of Education raided a California home so inept as to be counterproductive. Sparrow testified that because it suspected one of the occupants of financial-aid fraud. T a defect in the strategy of How many times would federal Billy, our hypothetical criminal, agents have to march a handcuffed is that he doesn’t know which doctor past a stunned waiting room providers and patients on his stolen full of Medicare enrollees before lists are “dead, deported, or in - Congress prohibited those mea- carcerated.” But Medicare’s anti- sures? fraud protocols help him solve this “It seems extraordinary,” Spar - problem. When Medicare catches row said, that the HHS Office of those claims, it sends Billy a notice Inspector General recommends that they have been rejected. “From “weak and inadequate response[s] Billy’s viewpoint,” Sparrow ex - . . . to false claims and fake plained, “life could not be better. billings” and that Medicare “fail[s] Medicare helps him ‘scrub’ his . . . to properly distinguish between lists, making his fake billing scam the imperatives of process man- more robust and less detectable agement and the imperatives of over time; and meanwhile Medi - crime control.” Extraordinary? care pays all his other claims without blinking an eye or becom- How could it be any other way? Anti-fraud efforts will always ing the least bit suspicious.” be inadequate when politicians spend other people’s money. Efforts to prevent fraud typically fail because they impose Apologists for Medicare and Medicaid will retort that fraud costs on legitimate beneficiaries and providers, who, as voters against private health plans is prevalent as well, but this only and campaign donors respectively, have immense sway over drives home the point: Since employers purchase health insur- politicians. At a recent congressional hearing, the Department of ance for 90 percent of insured non-elderly Americans, workers Health and Human Services’ deputy inspector general, Gerald T. care less about health-care fraud, and have a lower tolerance for Roy, recommended that Congress beef up efforts to prevent ille- anti-fraud measures, than they would if they paid the fraud-laden gitimate providers and suppliers from enrolling in Medicare. But premiums themselves. even if Congress took Roy’s advice, it would rescind the new The fact that Medicare and Medicaid spend other people’s requirements in a heartbeat when legitimate doctors—who are money is why the number of fraud investigators in New York’s already threatening to leave Medicare over its low payment Medicaid program can fall by 50 percent even as spending on the rates—threatened to bolt because of the additional administrative program more than triples. That is why, as Sparrow explained in costs (paperwork, site visits, etc.). an interview with The Nation, “The stories are legion of people Politicians routinely subvert anti-fraud measures to protect getting a Medicare explanation of benefits statement saying, their constituents. When the federal government began poking ‘We’ve paid for this operation you had in Colorado,’ when those around a Buffalo school district that billed Medicaid for speech people have never been in Colorado. And when you complain therapy for 4,434 kids, the New York Times reported, “the Justice [to Medicare] about it, nobody seems to care.” Department suspended its civil inquiry after complaints from Senator Charles E. Schumer, Democrat of New York, and other politicians.” Medicare officials, no doubt expressing a sentiment HE Ryan plan offers the only serious hope of reducing shared by members of Congress, admit they avoid aggressive fraud in Medicare and Medicaid. Its Medicare reforms, anti-fraud measures that might reduce access to treatment for T especially if they were expanded later, would make it seniors. easier for the federal government to police the program, and its It’s not just the politicians. The Legal Aid Society is pushing Medicaid reforms would increase each state’s incentive to curb back against a federal lawsuit charging that New York City over- fraud. billed Medicaid. Even conservatives fight anti-fraud measures, To see how the Ryan plan would reduce Medicare fraud,
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imagine that the proposal really were what its critics claim it is: a full-blown voucher program, with each enrollee receiving a chunk of cash to spend on medical care, apply toward health- insurance premiums, or save for the future. Instead of processing Law and 1.2 billion claims, Medicare would hand out just 50 million vouchers, with sick and low-income enrollees receiving larger ones. The number of transactions Medicare would have to mon- itor each year would fall by more than 1 billion. Border Social Security offers reason to believe that a program engag- ing in fewer (and more uniform) transactions could drama - A Supreme Court victory for Arizona tically reduce fraud and other improper payments. As a and the nation Medicare-voucher program would, Social Security adjusts the checks it sends to enrollees according to such variables as BY KRIS KOBACH lifetime earnings and disability status. The Social Security Administration estimates that overpayments account for just 0.37 percent of Social Security spending. Overpayments are n May 26, for the first time in 35 years, the United higher in the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program (8.4 States Supreme Court issued an opinion on whether percent), a much smaller, means-tested program also adminis- states may take action to stop illegal immigration. In tered by the Social Security Administration. But total overpay- O Chamber of Commerce v. Whiting, the Supreme Court ments across both programs still come to less than 1 percent of upheld the Legal Arizona Workers Act of 2007 against multiple outlays. challenges claiming that it was preempted by federal law. This In reality, the Ryan “voucher” is much closer to the current act requires all employers in the state to use the E-Verify Internet Medicare Advantage program, through which one in four system to check the work authorization of new hires, and it penal- Medicare enrollees selects a private health plan and the gov - izes employers who knowingly hire unauthorized aliens by ernment makes risk-adjusted payments directly to insurers. suspending their business licenses. (E-Verify, run by the federal Skeptics will rightly note that, judging by the official improper- government, checks data supplied by immigrants against Home - payment rates, Medicare Advantage (14.1 percent) is in the same land Security and Social Security records to make sure they are ballpark as traditional Medicare (10.5 percent). Therefore, the eligible for employment.) Ryan plan should be seen not as a solution to Medicare fraud It was a 5‒3 decision, with the conservative justices, plus in itself, but as a step toward a vastly simplified, Social Anthony Kennedy, siding with Arizona. Justice Elena Kagan Security–like program in which the task of policing fraud is recused herself because the Obama Justice Department had less daunting. weighed in against Arizona when she was solicitor general. The Ryan plan would also vastly increase the states’ incentive The Justice Department urged the Supreme Court to take the to curb Medicaid fraud. Just as a state that increases funding for case and participated in the oral argument on the losing side. The Medicaid gets matching federal funds, a state that reduces Obama administration has made no secret of its hostility toward Medicaid fraud gets to keep only (at most) half of the money Arizona and other states that want to use state powers to restore saved. As much as 75 percent of recovered funds revert back to the rule of law in immigration. The Justice Department’s pending the federal government. In a report for the left-wing Center for lawsuit against Arizona’s SB 1070, a 2010 law governing police American Progress, former Obama adviser Marsha Simon noted procedures when officers encounter illegal aliens, is another that “states are required to repay the federal share . . . of any pay- example of this hostility. ment errors identified, even if the money is never collected.” The Arizona’s victory in the high court also gave an unmistakable fact that Albany splits new York’s 50 percent share of the spend- green light to the other states. A week later, the Alabama legisla- ing with municipal governments may explain why the Empire ture passed HB 56—the strongest law against illegal immigration State is such a hot spot for fraud: no level of government is that any state has enacted to date—and on June 9, Gov. Robert responsible for a large enough share of the cost to do anything Bentley signed it into law. This measure, known as the Beason- about it. The result is that states’ fraud-prevention efforts are only Hammon Act after its main sponsors, includes everything that a tiny fraction of what Washington spends to fight Medicare Arizona has done on the subject, plus a good deal more: prohibit- fraud. ing illegal aliens from attending public universities in the state, Ryan would replace Medicaid’s federal matching grants with a providing for civil forfeiture of vehicles used to knowingly trans- system of block grants. Under a block-grant system, states would port illegal aliens, prohibiting landlords from knowingly harbor- keep 100 percent of the money they saved by eliminating fraud. ing illegal aliens in apartments, and requiring public schools to In many states, the incentive to prevent fraud would quadruple or count the number of illegal aliens receiving a free K–12 education more. Block grants performed beautifully when Congress used at taxpayer expense. them to reform welfare in 1996. They can do so again. Behind Alabama and Arizona are a growing number of other The Ryan plan would not reduce Medicare and Medicaid fraud states that have taken significant steps down the same road, to tolerable levels, but neither would any plan that retains a role including Missouri, Mississippi, South Carolina, Geor gia, Okla - for government in providing medical care to the elderly and dis- abled. What the Ryan plan would do is reduce how much the Mr. Kobach, the secretary of state of Kansas, is a co-author of Arizona’s SB 1070 fraudsters—many of whom sport congressional lapel pins— and Alabama’s HB 56 and has defended numerous state and local laws concerning fleece the American taxpayer. And that is no small thing. illegal immigration in court.
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homa, and Indiana. And the list of states seeking to deter illegal Arizona officials that the Legal Arizona Workers Act was send- immigration is sure to grow in the future. ing too many Mexican nationals home too quickly, and that These states are motivated by two powerful forces: public Sonora could not handle the burden on its public services and frustration over lax enforcement of federal immigration laws, infrastructure. and the fiscal burden that illegal immigration imposes on tax- Although the Supreme Court’s decision in Whiting did not payers. The Federation for American Immigration Reform cal- directly address Arizona’s SB 1070, it greatly boosts the pros - culates that the net fiscal burden caused by illegal immigration pects of success not only for that law, but also for immigration- is $100 billion per year for all levels of government combined. enforcement bills in a number of other states. Realiz ing this, the That’s a net figure, taking into account any taxes that illegal ACLU, the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education aliens may pay. Fund (MALDEF), and other open-borders groups launched into About $80 billion of that total falls at the state and local levels— damage-control mode in the wake of the decision. They tried to meaning that state and local governments have to pick up the tab spin the Whiting opinion as an extremely narrow holding that has when federal immigration laws go unenforced. The biggest items no bearing on other laws or other states. are free K–12 education for children in illegal-alien households; This mischaracterization may have gotten a lot of play in press costs incurred through the arrest, trial, and imprisonment of ille- releases and cable-news appearances, but it won’t hold up in gal aliens who commit additional crimes; and medical costs court. The Supreme Court’s opinion made clear that state and imposed on public budgets by illegal aliens. In effect, the federal local governments have a significant role to play in deterring ille- government’s failure to enforce immigration laws is a massive gal immigration. unfunded mandate. And unlike the federal government, nearly all The ACLU’s challenge to such laws has rested principally on of the states have a constitutional obligation to balance their bud- the concept of “conflict preemption.” This concerns cases in gets, so these costs cannot be ignored. which a state or local law poses an obstacle to the accomplishment If a state can encourage illegal aliens to go home, however, of Congress’s objectives as spelled out in federal law. If that the fiscal burden can be reduced dramatically. State laws like happens, the state law is invalid. Alabama’s and Arizona’s are based on the principle of attrition The problem for the ACLU is that there is no federal law pro- through enforcement: If a state ratchets up the level of enforce- hibiting states and cities from taking steps to stop illegal immi- ment, illegal aliens will weigh the costs and benefits of remaining gration. On the contrary, there are numerous federal statutes unlawfully, and will leave. Using calculations from a study by inviting state assistance in the enforcement of immigration laws. Robert Rector of the Heritage Foundation, we can expect that for So the ACLU is reduced to arguing that the state and local laws every illegal-alien-headed household that returns to its country of are somehow in “tension” with federal law, even if there is no con- origin, on average, taxpayers realize a net fiscal benefit of $19,588 flict on the face of the statutes. per year. Arizona’s success in encouraging ille- gal aliens to self-deport has been impres- sive thus far. Between 2008 and 2010, National Review Institute is pleased to announce the appointment the population of illegal aliens in the United States decreased by 7 percent, but of Patrick Brennan as the 2011 William F. Buckley Jr. Fellow in in Arizona it decreased by 18 percent. Political Journalism. Mr. Brennan graduated with honors in This exodus is widely attributed to two law-enforcement efforts: the implemen- Classics from Harvard College, and was the managing editor tation of the Legal Arizona Workers Act, of The Harvard Salient, the conservative biweekly on campus. beginning Jan. 1, 2008, and the contem- His academic record, published writings, and strong poraneous enforcement of Arizona’s 2005 anti-smuggling law by Sheriff Joe recommendations make him ideally Arpaio of Maricopa County, which con- suited to take advantage of the tains the majority of Arizona’s population and is the hub of alien-smuggling opera- Fellowship’s opportunities. tions into the United States.
HILE it is undoubtedly true that some of Arizona’s illegal W aliens simply packed their bags and moved to states such as Cali - 233 Pennsylvania Avenue SE, fornia, where liberal laws welcome 3rd Floor them, it is also true that many left the Washington, D.C. 20003 United States altogether. This was dra- 202-543-9226 matically illustrated in early 2008, when www.nrinstitute.org legislators from the Mexican border NRI is a non-profit, 501(c)(3) organization. state of Sonora sent a delegation north to All donations are tax-deductible. Arizona. Their mission? To complain to
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The Whiting decision made clear that that argument will no illegal immigration looks very good—at least in court. Yet some longer fly: “Implied preemption analysis does not justify a ‘free- Republicans in Congress seem determined to snatch defeat from wheeling judicial inquiry into whether a state statute is in tension the jaws of victory. Treating the states as nothing more than a with federal objectives’; such an endeavor ‘would undercut the proving ground for “real” reform at the federal level, they are will- principle that it is Congress rather than the courts that preempts ing to sell out Arizona and the other states in return for modest state law.’” And that’s precisely the point. Congress has never acted improvements to federal law. to prohibit state and local laws that discourage illegal immigration, Specifically, they have approached the pro-amnesty U.S. so the open-borders Left is asking the courts to do it instead. Chamber of Commerce to see whether a deal can now be reached Their favorite argument to demonstrate “tension” with federal for a bill to mandate E-Verify usage nationwide. The Chamber, law is to declare that Congress intended for immigration laws to long opposed to enforcement of immigration laws in the work- be enforced uniformly across the land. They claim that aggres- place, has demanded a heavy price in return for its assent—the sively enforced state laws in places such as Ari zo na disrupt this removal of the states from the field. uniformity, and therefore the courts should throw them out. But H.R. 2164, drafted under the watchful supervision of the the Supreme Court emphatically rejected this argument, stating: Chamber and introduced on June 14 by Rep. Lamar Smith (R., “Congress expressly preserved the ability of the States to impose Tex.), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, achieves their own sanctions through licensing; that—like our federal sys- exactly that. It prohibits the states from suspending the business tem in general—necessarily entails the prospect of some depar- licenses of employers who knowingly hire unauthorized aliens. ture from homogeneity.” In other words, it stabs Arizona in the back right after the state’s Perhaps most important, the Court also endorsed the consti - victory in the Supreme Court. Nothing would please the Chamber tutional doctrine of concurrent enforcement, on which Ari zo na, and the Obama administration more. Alabama, and other states have relied in drafting their laws. If a The members of Congress who back Smith’s bill suffer from state prohibits an activity that is already prohibited by federal law, the same delusion that grips all too many politicians in Wash ing - then state and federal law are concurrent and no conflict can exist. ton: that the ultimate solution to any problem lies in passing a law The Supreme Court applied this doctrine and observed approv- in Congress. What they fail to grasp is that the political will to ingly that “the Ari zo na law . . . trace[s] the federal law.” enforce immigration laws, and the resources to do so, are far In particular, the Supreme Court gave Arizona high marks for more important. If the federal immigration laws that are already adopting the definitions and standards of federal law verbatim. on the books were adequately enforced, there would be no illegal- “Arizona went the extra mile in ensuring that its law closely tracks immigration problem. [federal statutory] provisions in all material respects. The Arizona Aliens have self-deported from Arizona not because they think law begins by adopting the federal definition of who qualifies as an U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) will start ‘unauthorized alien.’ . . . Not only that, the Arizona law expressly enforcing federal laws more aggressively, but because they provides that state investigators must verify the work authorization know state and local officials are very serious about enforcing of an allegedly unauthorized alien with the Federal Government, state laws. When Obama’s Department of Homeland Security and ‘shall not attempt to independently make a final determination began halting worksite enforcement raids across the country, on whether an alien is authorized to work in the United States.’” Arizona’s employer-sanctions law was kicking in. By the end of This was by design. The same deference to federal definitions 2009, Maricopa County officials had investigated and/or raided and federal determinations of immigration status also appears in more than two dozen businesses suspected of knowingly hiring Alabama’s Beason-Hammon Act, Arizona’s SB 1070, Missouri’s unauthorized aliens. Word gets around very quickly when a law is illegal-immigration act of 2008, Okla homa’s illegal-immigration being enforced, and many illegal aliens left the state on their own act of 2007, and just about every other properly drafted state or initiative. The same will happen in Alabama in September, when local immigration law on the books. It is therefore highly likely that state’s new law goes into effect. that these laws will withstand any legal challenge in the wake of To take the states out of the enforcement game would be the Whiting. height of foolishness. ICE has a mere 6,000 interior (i.e. non- border) enforcement agents to cover the entire country. In con- trast, state and local governments can bring nearly 800,000 UT perhaps the best indication of how sweeping the law-enforcement officers to bear on the problem. That is why the Whiting opinion was came eleven days later, when the Chamber of Commerce is so eager to pass Smith’s bill and end the B Supreme Court vacated the decision of the Third Cir cuit threat of state-level enforcement. That is also why the Obama in Lozano v. City of Hazleton. In that case, the Third Cir cuit had administration and the ACLU launched a legal jihad against struck down a municipal ordinance in Hazleton, Pa., prohibiting Arizona—to send a message to the other states. the hiring of unauthorized aliens by employers and the harboring With Whiting, the Supreme Court has dealt a decisive blow to of illegal aliens by landlords. The Supreme Court erased the Third the legal position of the Obama administration and the ACLU. Circuit’s decision and directed it to reconsider the case in light of Now is the time for the states to press forward and make additional Whiting. Importantly, the Su preme Court remanded the entire progress in reducing illegal immigration. decision, not just the employment part, for reconsideration. In Hopefully, after 2012, a new administration in Washington will other words, although the law at issue in Whiting specifically con- be interested in vigorously enforcing immigration laws and will cerned the employment of unauthorized aliens, the principles recognize that it is difficult, if not impossible, for the federal gov- enunciated by the Supreme Court were applicable to any state or ernment to achieve that goal alone. The only way to end illegal local law concerning illegal immigration. immigration is for both the federal government and the states to In summary, the road ahead for state and local laws deterring take to the field, working together to restore the rule of law.
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The Bent Pin BY FLORENCE KING It’s Complicated
POSTCARd from Upgraded America, our new so medical analogies are especially popular with image and improved country where everything that padders, hence the swarm of “interns” in every field all used to be simple has become as overcompli- training to enter a “profession.” If they need extra training A cated as possible . . . to qualify for a padded image they can take a two-year It began with reading glasses. I needed stronger ones course leading to a certificate at one of the many new but my old independent optician had retired so I made “Centers” and “Institutes” that used to be called “trade an appointment at a regional chain. The first thing they schools” until they padded their own image. asked for was an insurance card. I did a double-take; in Stressed out by my safari through the advanced field of my world you pay your optician the way you pay your optometry, I decided to put glasses on hold for a while and dentist—i.e., you pay them. I said I was self-pay. Next, learn the new, improved Windows 7 operating system on they asked for two picture Ids, and finally my “d.O.B.” my new laptop. to prove I was not an identity thief or a terrorist. If you I don’t care how much they “improve” the bells and rattle off the month, day, and year of your birth rotely, whistles I never use, but I am totally dependent on Word - without thinking, it must be yours. (P.S. Using it in Pad. I have used it through three versions now and it was reverse as the password for a bank account can slow you always the same: complete toolbar at the top with every up.) icon and every printed command in view at all times—you Every eye exam I’ve ever had consisted of the wall could do everything on one screen. chart, the cover-one-eye test, the set of which-is-better Now it takes three screens, or “ribbons.” You have to lenses, and the puff-of-air test for glaucoma. This new switch back and forth to do various tasks; cut and paste exam was taking longer; more machines and boxes to on one ribbon, size and font on another, Save and Save As look through, and the examiner kept putting drops in my here, italic and bold there. It’s the Microsoft version of eyes. “We’re testing for cataracts,” she explained. putting away their underwear. Instead of dumping it all in I already knew I had mild cataracts; my regular man had one bureau drawer, they put the jockeys in one bureau said they were a common problem of advancing age. I told and the boxers in another. Then they separate the jockeys the new examiner the only test I had expected was the puff- into regular and bikini and the boxers by whether they of-air, but she brought out her royal “we” again: “We don’t have little hearts or little teddy bears on them. On it goes, do that now.” Presently she said, “You have cataracts” and until they have beaucoup bureaux housing one simple went into an upbeat sales pitch. When she uttered the word garment. “surgeons” I exploded. “I came here for reading glasses, The software field already has the gold standard of not Lasik surgery!” images so we are overrun with “software engineers,” all Before storming out I got a big discount on the cost of seeking great careers with job security. They find them by the exam for paying cash in full. Outside, I saw a sign I making sure that everything that ain’t broke gets fixed any- hadn’t noticed before or I wouldn’t have gone in: BOTOX. way. The Computer Mafia knows it can make more money I bet they were going to pitch serial facelifts too. by discontinuing popular programs. They don’t just dis- I tried another, recommended place. The first phone call continue them, either; they go at them as Rome went at went well: no eyedrops, just “the camera,” and no Lasik Carthage: tear it down brick by brick, stone by stone, and pitch. I made an appointment, but the next day a second sow every acre with salt. Then they immediately rebuild woman called to remind me to bring “a list of the medica- it with new bricks, new stones, sow every acre with tions you are taking.” The drift into white-coatish doctor- horses**t, and call it “new and improved.” dom set me off again. Why did they need to know this? She I went into a blue funk. Usually I get mad but this time talked in general terms about allergies, side effects, and I got depressed. There was only one cure, and so, squint- drops. Finally she answered my main question: “I don’t ing a little, I reread it: John Galsworthy’s essay “Quality.” know of any ‘opticians’ who just do glasses anymore. The It’s about a bootmaker in a shabby shop who simply drew field of optometry is so advanced now.” I broke the an outline of a customer’s foot with pencil and paper and appointment. measured his leathers with an old piece of string, yet his Today’s latest white-collar sin is “résumé padding” but boots “fit so perfectly that the wearer might have thought what I ran into is the far more widespread “image he had forgotten to put them on.” He refused to advertise, padding.” designed to make a service-job future palatable insisting that the quality of his boots was self-evident. So in a Horatio Alger nation, image padding calls a clerk a was the quality of his character: At the slightest complaint, “sales associate” and a bookkeeper an “economic- he refunded the entire price and made another pair free. resources overseer,” and guarantees that a secretary will In the end, he’s driven out of business by advertisers and never be just-a-secretary. America’s only title is “doctor,” dies of slow starvation. In his day, had he made eyeglasses, he would have been Florence King can be reached at P.O. Box 7113, Fredericksburg, VA 22404. called a “lens grinder.” I wish he were here.
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The Long View BY ROB LONG
mine. It makes these things much the sandwich was smushed down in easier if you can fire the person ask- the oven, so that there are crusty bits ing the question. and cheesy bits, and then your teeth sink into the meatball part and the MITT ROMNEY: Religious tolerance. I whole thing just kind of melds in The Republican just want to add: Religious Tolerance. your mouth like it’s supposed to. Presidential For Muslims and, you know, anyone Why isn’t Pawlenty nailing that guy else with that sort of issue. with the terrific hair? What do you Debate think he weighs, that guy? What is he, NEWT GINGRICH: We need to talk a bit like a 44 Tall? That’s insane. He’s a Candidates’ thought-balloon about my importance. Is there time runway model. Oh, awesome. There’s transcript for that? crispy cheese in the wax paper which I didn’t see. I need a napkin. Is there Extract: MICHELE BACHMANN: I think I’m win- sauce on my shirt? ning this. (page 23) MITCH DANIELS: What’s great is that TIM PAWLENTY: Am I losing this? How I’m watching this in my underwear. MITTROMNEY: Hair? Check. Teeth? did that happen? This is a marathon, Just sitting in my underwear watch- Smiling. Upbeat, lofty attitude? right? There’s plenty of time to go for ing this and eating ice cream. The ice Done. Don’t look at Pawlenty. Mitt’s the tall dude. Right? Right? cream is delicious—it’s butterscotch, a fighter. Mitt’s a fighter. Mitt’s a which I love. And what’s great is that fighter. You’re about to mention RON PAUL: I don’t care if they roll their I can eat as much as I like. Here in my Obama. Look mad. Great. Okay. eyes. Go ahead and roll your eyes, Mr. underwear. Time’s up. That mean lady is about Rich Guy. Go ahead and roll your to talk. eyes Mr. Minnesota, or whatever. We DONALDTRUMP: Most times I don’t need to abolish the Fed and we need like getting pedicures, but this pedi- MICHELEBACHMANN: Smooth and to do it now. And I’m going to keep curist is top-notch. She’s a true artist. smile, just like Ed told me. Laugh a on saying it and saying it and saying Maybe the most superb pedicurist in little, and then when you talk about it. the U.S. and probably the world. But jobs, talk directly into the camera. she’s blocking the TV and it’s making Remember: The audience is out MITTROMNEY: Say something right it hard for me to see the thing that’s there, not in here. Just tell them now. Doesn’t matter what. Just say happening on the screen right now. you’re running for president. Even something that sounds reasonable. With the candidates. The discussion though you’re participating in a thing, which for my money is a joke presidential debate, they may not NEWT GINGRICH: I am very important. because, let’s face it, John King is a know that. This needs to be discussed and recog- joke and CNN is a network that nized by all who gather here. literally nobody watches. Literally NEWTGINGRICH: But I’m here. And nobody. And for that reason alone it’s that’s important. RICKSANTORUM: What just hap- not worth my time, which is worth pened? money, which is worth more money MITTROMNEY: I’m not going to ac - than CNN, let me tell you. Just buff. knowledge that you’re here. Because No gloss. She’s a world-class pedi- you’re short and you talk too much Non-candidates’ thought- curist. I can’t speak highly enough of and I don’t want to get into it. balloon transcript her skills. How much does Romney have? Liquid? I know those guys have HERMAN CAIN: You know what? I’m RICK PERRY: Boom. Boom. Boom. lots of it tied up in stuff, so when the going to say something right now that Could knock three of y’all off right time comes to write the check it’s a lot isn’t crazy, and you’re all going to now. Without even looking. Next of I-can’t-pay crapola. But how much have to nod and accept that I’ve said time, fellas. See you all next time. could he get his hands on if a guy something useful, and this character Adios. called him with a once-in-a-lifetime is going to bring up the Muslim thing, opportunity to invest in a luxury hotel- which I’m going to try to unwind. I CHRIS CHRISTIE: What I like the most and-casino property in Macau, which preferred it back when everyone I about this meatball sub is that the is exploding right now? Honey, hand encountered was an employee of cheese is all crusty on the side where me my BlackBerry.
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Athwart BY JAMES LILEKS Weiner’s Law
ANguAgE changes quickly, given the proper thing distressing. If you google “clay brick” you will get nudge. Three years ago the phrase “Weiner a picture of an “adult” star named Clay Brick. This might tweeted his schnitzel” would have made you be emotionally distressing, but it’s hardly government’s L think he’d invented a wind instrument out of a job to pat your hand and say “There, there.” On the other sausage; now we all know what it means. (given the hand: This means the entire country can sue the govern- Brooklyn rep’s flailing perorations, “wind instrument” ment for charts that show we spent $1 trillion on shovel- might describe the man himself.) We’re not here to add to ready cowboy poetry, or orange highway signs reminding the parade of puns and euphemisms for the congressper- us that the Orange Highway Sign Recovery Act saved or son’s idea of a stimulus package, but to note something created 28,945 jobs in the orange-highway-sign industry. all embattled politicians say: They want to get the matter It means that a parent who finds that his child posted a behind them—an anatomical impossibility in this case, Facebook picture of a trip to a Cancun tattoo parlor can you hope—and get back to the work of the people. sue the child, and then the child can sue himself when he No! Please don’t. It’s your work that got us in this mess realizes what he did. It means the government could sue in the first place. It’s your inability to clean your teeth you for a mocking picture of the president, since it is emo- without wondering if there’s a national standard for den- tionally distressing to many when they’re reminded that tal-floss diameter, and if not, why not. It could be your teabaggers doubt his ability to reduce ocean levels with name on that bill, you know. You could go down as the his steady, paternal gaze. fellow who brought order out of the chaos, established Of course, the law will be selectively enforced, used uniform codes for mintyness. Never mind that the bill only to add charges to people who’ve been texting an ends up so vague it exerts total federal ex 250 times a day. But it’s government at control over anything string-related, and its best: broad, vague, punitive, needless, leads to the demise of the tight-rope- It’s and useful in an election when a candidate walking industry because OSHA gets government says he took a strong stand against “cyber jurisdiction and bans acts more than two bullying.” It lacks only a name of a young feet off the ground. You did your part at its best: woman, such as “Ashley’s Law,” so we for dental health, and no one’s going to can take comfort in the belief that no one suffer from floss that breaks halfway broad, vague, else will suffer Ashley’s fate when she through while teasing last night’s ribs punitive, saw a picture online of Justin Bieber with from between two molars. You did that. his girlfriend. (Hate her hate her HATE You, you wonderful, selfless servant of needless. HER.) The law will join the billion other the people. And hey, after Congress? millstones hung around our necks, all Maybe a job with the Twine Council. Suddenly they because legislators had to do the work of the people—a need lobbyists. concept that rarely seems to aid such things as people, A fine example of legislators who simply cannot pass working. up a chance to Do the Work comes from Tennessee, where Not to drag it all back to Representative Weiner, but as the governor just signed a law making the entire Internet his sorry case limped into its last act, a new wrinkle: His a tort waiting to happen. As the website Ars Technica put car registration was expired, and he switched the plates it: “A new Tennessee law makes it a crime to ‘transmit or on his vehicles—both imports. Here’s a fellow you could display an image’ online that is likely to ‘frighten, intimi- expect to raise the cost of registering a car (to encourage date or cause emotional distress’ to someone who sees it. mass-transit usage), support increased fines for out-of- Violations can get you almost a year in jail time or up to date registration (to assist cash-strapped governments, as $2,500 in fines.” It’s an add-on to an anti-harassment law, well as take a Strong, Wide Stance against scofflaws), no doubt aimed at people who use the Internet to post support auto bailouts (to encourage a vital domestic in - Photoshopped pictures of their ex with a monkey’s head dustry), and wave off a cop who stopped him by deploy- grafted on the neck. But it’s a bit broad: “For image post- ing his congressional badge. You find yourself surprised ings, the ‘emotionally distressed’ individual need not be he can’t even get a staffer to send in the paperwork to the intended recipient. Anyone who sees the image is a get the registration tabs. The idea he’d take an afternoon potential victim.” So much for the websites devoted to off work—unpaid—to enter the labyrinth of the D.C. Lady gaga’s couture. motor-vehicle department doesn’t even enter your mind. For newcomers to the Internet, let’s explain how it These are our Tireless Servants, and they have Work to works: If you disable the safety filters in your google do. preference page, a search for anything will turn up some- Sign them all up for Twitter, give them a BlackBerry, and beg them to go pose in the gym. For the sake of the Mr. Lileks blogs at www.lileks.com. nation, work on your pecs. The people will be fine.
3 9 books7-4_QXP-1127940387.qxp 6/14/2011 8:10 PM Page 40 Books, Arts & Manners
and die by their ability to separate fools younger, attractive, British—is an actress A Hard from their money. these skills, as it turns who has sung plaintive indie-folk songs out, are also in great demand in the world at the dark-lit bars of Manhattan’s Lower of political punditry. So I admit that, East Side. And while he is able to evoke Man’s when I first heard of Mamet’s change of the Chicago of his youth as a rough-and- heart and plans for a book on politics, tumble place full of gangsters and fixers Witness part of me wondered whether it might where one is either the confidence man or be no more than a cunning play for a the mark, the majority of his references, DANIEL FOSTER slice of what has become the profitable his anecdotes and examples, are those of market niche of liberal apostasy. But if the haute bourgeois man-about-town: the The Secret Knowledge is a con, it’s a first-class cabin, the charity fundraiser, magnificent one. Mamet’s conversion the four-star hotel room, the university story scans sincere; his politics are well writing workshop. and widely read—and, what’s more, Perhaps the greatest rhetorical success wise. of the book, then, is that despite all this, the book also quickly dispelled another Mamet defuses any sense the middle- worry I had: that Mamet’s would turn out American conservative might have that to be a watered-down conservatism; that he is “not one of us” by representing him- he had arrived at Andrew Sullivan’s mud- self (or re-presenting himself) not as a dled middle from, as it were, the other celebrity but as an instance of that con- The Secret Knowledge: On the Dismantling of direction. this is the kind of conser- servative heroic archetype: the self-made American Culture, by David Mamet vatism abstracted from a set of firm prin- man. Mamet is a salesman, after all—a (Sentinel, 256 pp., $27.95) ciples first to a general outlook and then seller of scripts to producers and ulti- to a mere “disposition” before being mately to audiences—who drove a cab, t has been observed that there is no reduced, finally, to an indisposition—a among other odd jobs, before years of toil zealotry like the zealotry of the conservatism both vague and inert at a typewriter produced first a living and convert. But in the peculiar sub- enough to command, if not the respect, then a fortune. He sets himself apart from I universe of the political conversion than at least the well-intentioned conde- so many Sean Penns and tim Robbinses, story, there is an observable asymmetry scension of polite liberals in search of a then, by refusing to consecrate his cre- here. Far from being a proselytizer of his token. (“Oh, he’s one of the good ones.”) ative work as anything more venerable new sect, the man who publicly leaves the But the epic sham of “Diversity” for its than “entertainments,” and by refusing, Right will more often than not still cling own sake, and of Liberaldom’s byzantine not least via the very act of writing the to the appellation “conservative,” or else articulation of political correctness as a book, to be a hypocrite. In what might be cast it off only begrudgingly and with means of stifling dissent, are among the most elegant statement of his conver- great qualification. He’ll insist, as a mat- Mamet’s primary targets. And he holds sion experience, Mamet speaks of the ter of honor, that he did not leave the a number of strident positions—on the discovery, in “the waning days of my Right, but that the Right left him—that his inefficacy, on its own terms, of wealth belief in ‘Social Justice,’” that break from the group marks both a per- redistribution; on the righteousness of sonal tragedy and a crisis for the move- Israel; on the exigency of the traditional I was not living my life according to the ment. think Bruce Bartlett, David Frum, family; and, perhaps most of all, on the principles I professed, that I disbelieved Andrew Sullivan. silliness of global-warming alarmism— both in the probity and in the mechanical By contrast, the story of conversion that rank as the highest treasons among operations of those groups soliciting first my vote and then my money in the name from leftism is often told in the language the bicoastal elite that is Mamet’s milieu. of Justice, and that so did everyone I of escape, as if from an institution or a cult; And make no mistake, Mamet is a knew. those of us untroubled by this dis- or the language of awakening, as if from a member of the bicoastal elite. He is, after parity, I saw, called ourselves “Liberals.” dream, or the Matrix. think Whittaker all, a working artist—a playwright, for the others were known as Conserva - Chambers, David Horo witz—and now, goodness’ sake—and a millionaire, with tives. playwright David Mamet, whose new a sentimental love for what he still refers book, The Secret Knowledge, tells of his to as “show business” that is elegiac even Mamet’s politics are by and large those emancipation, after 40 years, from the when it is at its most critical. He’s a man of the mainstream American conserva- ranks of the “Brain-Dead Liberals” and known to wear linen shirts open at the tive: a government of enumerated powers into the light of conservatism. collar, a meticulously unkempt salt-and- that enforces contracts and adjudicates Many of Mamet’s protagonists (in, pepper beard, and horn-rimmed spec - disputes, provides for the common de - e.g., Glengarry Glen Ross and House tacles that might have been left by a fense, and maintains national infra - of Games) are silver-tongued double- second-rate intellectual at a coffeehouse structure, but steers clear of economic dealers and carnival barkers who live in Vienna circa 1927. His second wife— planning and ambitious redistributive
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schemes. He’s for tax cuts and sensible house settling, or is it the step of an Constitution, the latter “based not upon deregulation of commerce, against affir- intruder?), these countless accommoda- the philosophic assumption that people mative action, cap-and-trade, and Obama - tions, worked out over time, and without are basically good, but on the tragic con- care. the individual’s conscious knowledge . . . fession of the opposite view.” But Mamet But the articulation of a policy plat- demand energy, consideration, and re - brings to Hayek a bit of the hard-knocks sponse. The cultural cursor has been put form is not really what The Secret hustler, a touch of urine and of vinegar. back to zero, and the mind and spirit Knowledge is about. The subtitle of the complain, “I can’t do all these things at We get Hayek via Glengarry Glen Ross, book refers to “The Dismantling of once,” and indeed, we cannot. And the a master Chicago dialogician’s answer to American Culture,” and that is its defin- first nights in the new home are spent the “Keynes versus Hayek” rap battles ing preoccupation. Mamet knows that a without sleep, and longing for peace. that have become unlikely YouTube principal contribution of conservative sensations. thought to the conduct of politics is the The replacement of culture with the To a conservative, Mamet’s conver- understanding that culture predates law; legislation of social justice, writes Ma - sion story will no doubt offer confir - that law presupposes a robust, ready-at- met, brings about an effect not unlike mation and comfort, perhaps even an hand culture residing in the collective this, exacting “a great cost in bringing to occasion to gloat. Mamet’s sudden real- unconscious; that culture cannot be legis- the conscious (unprepared and unskilled) ization, after decades of paying lip ser- lated and that legislation is indeed impos- mind those decisions worked out over vice to the ends of “social justice,” that sible once a culture has become debased. time. . . . One cost is confusion: angry mass exertions of the state and its bureau- He understands that progressive liberal- feminists . . . grieving children, and a cracy often inflict a slow rot on the very ism’s great sin is the ignorance of these growing disbelief not only in the possi- groups that are their targets (and collater- facts, its folly the attempt to control by bility of domestic accord, but of the effi- al damage on so many others) will no bureaucracy that which was hitherto gov- cacy of the free market.” Quite. doubt elicit a tight nod and a “What took To a conservative, David Mamet’s conversion story will no doubt offer confirmation and comfort, perhaps even an occasion to gloat.
erned by unspoken, and indeed unspeak- Throughout, the didacticism in Ma - you so long?” from anybody who read able, rules of human intercourse evolved met’s prose gives it an element of the Hayek in college, or City Journal in the and elaborated over countless genera- Tao; its metaphysical muscularity and years since. tions. The result of the Left’s attempt to frequent (sometimes gratuitous) capital- But is not the true measure of the preempt culture with “multiculturalism” izations—“Justice,” “Security,” “Gov - conversion story its potential to bring and the other elements of “social justice” ern ment Control”—an element of the others into the flock—does not Whittaker is the bringing to an awkward conscious- Hegelian. Like another assertive Ger - Chambers’s Witness evoke not just a ness of that which had been previously man—Nietzsche—Mamet has the gift juridical but an evangelical vocabulary handled unconsciously. This makes liber- for writing almost entirely in epigrams, (as the born-again at the religious revival alism, among other things, exhausting. maxims, and barbs, and for leaving a is called upon to “testify”)? On this score, By way of example, he cites the stress reader feeling, at times, as though he has Mamet’s achievement is more uneven. that comes with our clumsy and self- been both enlightened and damned. A fla- Too often, Mamet breezes over the histo- conscious attempts to maintain gender vor: “The Good Causes of the Left may ry of policy outcomes—conservative vs. neutrality in our words—e.g., the ubiqui- generally be compared to NASCAR; liberal—in favor of generalization and ty of the slash between gendered pro- they offer the diversion of watching even bald assertion, content to direct the nouns. But the object to be re-engineered things go excitingly around in a circle, reader, via footnote, to some other work by beneficent tinkerers is not merely our getting nowhere.” “It is not the absence rather than giving arguments about, say, chit-chat but our entire socioeconomic of government, but the rejection of cul- the deleterious effects of welfare or for- order. In a clever variant of Friedrich ture which leads to anarchy.” eign aid the full rehearsals they require. Hayek’s Knowledge Problem, Mamet At its best, The Secret Knowledge is Such appeals to authority, while perhaps analogizes the dislocating effect of this the distillation of many important voices enough to inspire an earnest liberal or grand-scale “joyous extemporizing” of a that preceded it. Though Thomas Sowell’s two to follow up, are more likely to be “new social vision” to the experience of a is a close second, the loudest voice in simply dismissed. Too much of his dis- first night in a new house: Mamet’s book is that of Hayek, whom cussion of policy disputes in today’s Mamet credits with his “awakening,” as a America has this feel of the perfunctory, The myriad bits of information in our sexagenarian, to the “Tragic View” of of the sort of thing that will satisfy the possession of which we were unaware: politics, which for Mamet is given its choir, but won’t do as persuasion, or the location and operation of the light best transcendent expression in the proselytism—or even propaganda. switch, the steps-to-the-couch, the Torah and the Talmud, and its best im - But in other areas Mamet’s insights meaning of a creak in the floor (is it the manent expression in the United States are subtler and more edifying. His cri-
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BOOKS, ARTS & MANNERS tique of the arrested development of the He was one of hundreds of Ameri - perpetual student, and of an American cans—artists, writers, medical students— liberal-arts curriculum that produces Grand who went to a culturally dominant Paris in graduates who are literally good for the 19th century not to adopt the city as nothing, is a salutary revisiting, a gen - Tours their own, but to learn from it. Paris was eration later, of turf covered by Allan the model on which they would build Bloom in The Closing of the American BRIAN BOLDUC America into a great nation. Their moti- Mind (though neither book nor author, vation was Adams’s virtue: ambition to curiously, appears in Mamet’s index). excel. And their story is the subject of As with Bloom, in Mamet we have the Pulitzer Prize–winning author David aesthete and master critic applying his McCullough’s new book, The Greater instrument not to an individual piece of Journey: Americans in Paris. culture but to the culture at large. But In the 1830s, Americans’ educational unlike Bloom, who understood that a opportunities were scarce, especially in truly liberal education consists in enlarg- the arts and medical sciences. There were ing the youth’s understanding of his own only 21 medical schools—less than one tradition, and that a problem arises only for each state—with faculties of five or when that tradition itself becomes un - six professors each; and those professors’ worthy of study, Mamet has little time expertise was dubious at best. for a formal education that goes beyond The Greater Journey: Americans in Paris, by The artistic milieu was similarly bar- the Three Rs or instruction in a skilled David McCullough (Simon & Schuster, ren. Writer John Sanderson admitted in trade. Rather than help youth matriculate 576 pp., $37.50) 1835 that “we have nothing yet to show in into society, he says, “the privilege taught, the way of great works of art.” The coun- learned, and imbibed” by liberal-arts stu- n February 1825, a young graduate try’s tallest building, the Capitol, was 300 dents “drugged with self-indulgence . . . of Harvard College named Ralph feet shorter than the Rouen Cathedral, is the privilege to indict”: that is, to so - Waldo Emerson paid a visit to the which, teacher Emma Willard gushed, berly inform their cohort when their I 89-year-old former president John possessed an “inexpressible magic”—one behavior betrays a racial or gender insen- Adams at his home in Quincy, Mass. unknown in her country. sitivity; to laugh at all the right parts of Sitting erect in a large stuffed armchair, But there were young Americans who The Daily Show and Real Time with Bill Adams spoke with Emerson in his room “were ambitious to excel in work that Maher; to wag their finger at the exces- for about an hour. The subject was the mattered greatly to them, and they saw siveness of Wall Street pay. tenor of the times, which the aging states- time in Paris, the experience of Paris, Equally affecting is Mamet’s under- man found wanting in one crucial respect: as essential to achieving that dream,” standing, rippled throughout the text, of “I would to God there were more ambi- McCullough recounts. They came from the connection between Judeo-Christian tion in the country,” he exclaimed, speci- “nearly all of the twenty-four states that values and the success of the American fying, “ambition of that laudable kind, to [in the early 1830s] constituted their experiment. The “irreducible understand- excel.” country.” And they wished to study in ing,” he says, that is the precondition of Excellence, then as now, was an elu- Paris to win laurels not only for them- both Biblical and constitutional Law is sive quality; each generation had to earn selves, but also for their country. “My the idea “that all human beings possess it. And it was in pursuit of excellence country has the most prominent place both a conscience”—understood here as that the novelist James Fenimore Coo - in my thoughts. How shall I raise her our capacity to intuit our Divine, or at per, a year later, arrived with his family name?” Samuel F. B. Morse asked. least unalienable, rights and duties— in Paris, where his new bestseller, The Despite the size of the cast of characters “and that free will necessary to allow Last of the Mohicans, had made him the that McCullough enrolls, he develops them to either reject its dictates or to for- most famous American since Benjamin each one fully, and he uses the succession mulate them into habit.” In other words, Franklin. Enchanted by Cooper’s writ- of these vignettes to illustrate the cultural though man is neither perfect nor per- ing, the Marquis de Lafayette, the hero rise of the United States. To highlight the fectible, he is accountable, and that is of the Revolutionary War, feted M. significance of these changes, he focuses enough for justice: not a “social justice” Cooper Américain at his mansion on the on some of America’s most prominent that attempts to level the unequal distri - rue d’Anjou. A few years later, he pre- citizens: Hawthorne, Twain, Harriet bution of talent and fortune among men sented Cooper to King Louis-Philippe, Beecher Stowe. He also introduces us to by the continued accretion of power to who welcomed the rustic luminary some American heroes whom history has the state, but a rational, predictable sys- warmly. “The people seem to think it largely forgotten, most notably Elihu tem of laws that protects us from violence marvelous that an American can write,” Washburne, the American ambassador to and graft and that holds us, with respect Cooper observed. Yet for all the “tinsel” France and the only foreign diplomat to to one another, to our word. Such a sys- with which the Frenchmen decorated remain at his post during the heady days tem alone can give us the breathing his name, Cooper considered it “a point of the Paris Commune. room to maintain those norms of inter- of honor to continue rigidly as an Amer - One of McCullough’s most impressive course that we call a tradition, a civil ican author,” he told his British pub - sub-narratives concerns the close friends society, a culture. lisher. Cooper and Morse. Although history
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remembers Morse as inventor of the tele- entirely in French—and that neither of York City commissioned him to cast graph, he began his career in Paris as an them spoke the language before they an equestrian statue of Gen. William artist. “I was made for a painter,” he told arrived—didn’t discourage them. Nor, Tecumseh Sherman for the entrance of his parents. After settling in the city, he McCullough adds, did the screams of the Central Park at the corner of Fifth Avenue decided his magnum opus would be a patients—operated on without anesthet- and 59th Street. “giant interior view of the Louvre” on a ics—unnerve them. Although he had dedicated his life to canvas measuring six by nine feet. This These Americans’ efforts paid off. preserving the memory of American war feat would require Morse to render like- When Holmes returned to the city as an heroes, Saint-Gaudens found “the in - nesses of 38 world-famous paintings, old man, there were fewer American stu- fernal noise, dirt, and confusion” of his including the Mona Lisa. Every day, dents than there had been in his day. “Due native land inhibiting to his talents. So he Morse worked on his painting, and every in good part to what he and others had took his wife and shop to Paris. There, he day, his friend Cooper came to cheer him brought back from Paris, medical educa- tortured himself with his work. He on. The painter returned the writer’s tion in the United States had so greatly obsessed over Sherman’s cloak, recasting devotion. When Cooper received bad advanced that study in Paris was not nec- it several times. For his effort, he would re views for his work Notions of the essarily an advantage any longer,” Mc - later receive the Grand Prize from the Americans—an attempt to correct mis- Cullough writes. French government, and his country- conceptions about his country—Morse But McCullough saves the place of men’s gratitude. Yet for Saint-Gaudens, took to the pages of the New York honor, the grand finale, for Augustus Paris took on an even greater signifi- Observer to defend his compatriot. Saint-Gaudens. The preeminent Amer - cance. (Cooper’s European critics disliked him ican sculptor of the late 19th century, Just as his artistic success reached its because he refused to bow to their pre- Saint-Gaudens was known for his Civil apex, his health collapsed. His wife left tensions, Morse argued: “I admire War monuments, and in the 1890s, New for the U.S., depriving him of his emo- exceedingly his proud assertion of the tional ballast, and a tumor conquered his rank of an American . . . for I know no lower intestine. One day, he succumbed to reason why an American should not take depression and “decided that I would end rank, and assert it, too, above any artifi- DUCKTOWN it all.” He ran to the Seine, mounted a cial distinctions that Europe has made.”) bridge, and was about to end his life when The bond between the two men solidified It had its origins in the sandy past “I saw the Louvre in the bright sunlight when they braved a cholera epidemic in Of Atlantic City, the old boardwalk and suddenly everything was beautiful 1832. While hundreds were dying around to me.” He believed, concludes Mc - And the short blocks, the brief alleys them, Cooper and Morse stuck to their Cullough, that it was Paris itself that had work, and stayed in the city until the saved him. plague had passed. And small businesses with names At that moment, Saint-Gaudens real- McCullough doesn’t hide his charac- ized Paris’s true power, which Harriet ters’ faults: Morse’s nativist politics, Decalled over long empty windows. Beecher Stowe had described several Cooper’s stilted writing (the subject of Pepper Alley they called one Italian street; decades earlier: “One in whom this [sense one of Twain’s most lacerating essays). of beauty] had long been repressed, in Some of their failures were spectacular: coming into Paris, feels a rustling and a When Morse finished The Gallery of the The Church of St. Michael the Archangel waking within him, as if the soul were Louvre in 1833, he displayed it to the pub- Still stands, but across from a vast crying to unfold her wings.” A fuller sense lic, which showed little interest, and he Parking lot, of the kind Ducktown of beauty was Paris’s gift to these young was forced to sell it for $1,300 (he had ini- people, a gift they bequeathed to future tially wanted $2,500). It does help, how- generations of Americans. ever, to take the long view: In 1982, The Had no need for in the past, when houses Through all of these stories, Mc - Gallery of the Louvre was sold for $3.25 Were built for family use, small yet Cullough reminds us that these Americans million, at that time the largest sum ever didn’t love their country merely because it paid for an American work. Somehow roomy, facing the Atlantic wind; was their own, but because it was love- A much bloodier form of progress, ly—and they wished to add to its beauty. meanwhile, occurred across the Seine at Eventually demolished to make room By rescuing their stories from oblivion and the École de Médecine, where students telling them in his luminous prose, he adds Oliver Wendell Holmes and James Jack - For cars, and the extra space they require to the luster of history, a field in which, son learned from the city’s medical giants. And the nothing else they need. these days, a sense of beauty is sorely lack- At 6 A.M. every day, by candlelight, ing. McCullough succeeds because he sees they—with two or three hundred of their the greater significance of his work, and colleagues—began their rounds of the Ducktown Tavern Open 24-7: a neon the care with which he writes reveals that Hôtel Dieu. Their elbows raised, they Reminder that whatever the changes, greater purpose. He tells these stories so pushed their way to the front of the crowd It’s hard to kill a name, and you are in Jersey. as to inspire the current generation of to hear the instructor, Baron Guillaume Americans to the pursuit of excellence: a Dupuytren, inspect the patients. The virtue McCullough’s work both encour- fact that the lessons were conducted —LAWRENCE DUGAN ages and exemplifies.
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Sailing November 12–19 on THE NATIONAL REVIEW Holland America’s luxurious MS Eurodam 2011 Post-Election Cruise Join MARK STEYN, FRED THOMPSON, JOHN BOLTON, VICTOR DAVIS HANSON, James Q. Wilson, Bernard Lewis, S. E. Cupp, Andrew Klavan, John Sununu, Jonah Goldberg, John Yoo, Tony Blankley, Andrew McCarthy, Cal Thomas, James Lileks, Ralph Reed, Mona Charen, Elliott Abrams, Kevin Hassett, Jim Geraghty, Ramesh Ponnuru, Jay Nordlinger, Michael Walsh, Tracie Sharp, Rob Long, Rich Lowry, Charles Kesler, Sally Pipes, Kathryn Lopez, John O’Sullivan, Deroy Murdock, Bob Costa, Charmaine Yoest, Dinesh D’Souza, Kevin Williamson, John Derbyshire, John Miller, & Roman Genn
as we visit Grand Turk, San Juan, St. Thomas, Half Moon Cay, and Ft. Lauderdale
oin us on one of the most exciting seafaring adventures Hampshire governor John Sununu, political guru Ralph Reed, you will ever experience: the National Review 2011 social critic and humorist James Lileks, domestic-policy expert J Caribbean Cruise. Featuring a cast of all-star conservative Sally Pipes, bestselling conservative authors Andrew Klavan and speakers (that will expand in coming weeks), this affordable Michael Walsh, ace economist Kevin Hassett, State Policy trip—prices start at only $1,899 a person—will take place Network executive Tracie Sharp, Americans United for Life pres- November 12–19, 2011, aboard Holland America Line’s ident Charmaine Yoest, and, from NR, editor Rich Lowry, MS Eurodam, the acclaimed ship of one of the world’s Liberal Fascism author Jonah Goldberg, NRO editor- most respected cruise lines. at-large Kathryn Lopez, senior editors Jay Nordlinger From politics, the presidency, and policy to eco- and Ramesh Ponnuru, NRO “Campaign Spot” blogger nomics, national security, and foreign affairs, there’s so Jim Geraghty, NRO “Exchequer” blogger Kevin D. much to discuss. That’s precisely what our array of conserv- Williamson, “Long View” columnist Rob Long, “The ative speakers, writers, and experts will do on the Eurodam, your Straggler” columnist John Derbyshire, national correspondent floating luxury getaway for scintillating discussion of major cur- John J. Miller, former NR editor John O’Sullivan, political rent events and trends and the upcoming 2012 elections. reporter Bob Costa, and artist Roman Genn. We’ve assembled a crew of exemplary speakers to make sense The “typical” NR cruise alumnus (there are thousands) has of politics and the day’s top issues. We’re happy to announce that gone on four of our voyages and knows NR trips are marked by the revered writer and author, Mark Steyn, hasagreed to join our riveting political shoptalk, wonderful socializing, intimate dining tremendous lineup of confirmed speaker, which includes former with our editors and speakers, making new friends, rekindling old Senator Fred Thompson, former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton, friendships, and grand cruising. That and so much more are in Islam scholar Bernard Lewis, historian Victor Davis Hanson, store for you on the National Review 2011 Caribbean Cruise. esteemed academics James Q. Wilson, Dinesh D’Souza, and The best reason to come is the luminaries who will be aboard. Charles Kesler, foreign-policy expert Elliott Abrams, columnists This extraordinary gathering is one of the best-ever ensembles. Tony Blankley, Cal Thomas, Mona Charen, and Deroy We guarantee fascinating and informative seminar sessions. Murdock, Fox News commentator S. E. Cupp, terrorism and a Revel in Mark Steyn’s ruminations on everything from gag legal experts Andrew McCarthy and John Yoo, former New rules to demogrphics, and his tag-teaming with Jonah Goldberg and Rob Long for a fun-filled “Night JOIN U S FOR SEVEN BALMY DAYS AND COOL C ON SERVAT IVE N IGHT S Owl” humorfest. a Listen as Fred Thompson DAY/DATE PORT ARRIVE DEPART SPECIAL EVENT provides his sharp and informed take SAT/Nov. 12 Ft. Lauderdale, FL 5:00PM evening cocktail reception on life on Capitol Hill (and in SUN/Nov. 13 AT SEA morning/afternoon seminars Hollywood), and as John Bolton reflects on the standing of the USA MON/Nov. 14 Grand Turk 7:00AM 3:00PM morning/afternoon seminars as a world power. “Night Owl” session aSome of our primo past cruise TUE/Nov. 15 San Juan 1:00PM 11:00PM morning seminar experiences have been the informed late-night smoker interchanges between Bernard Lewis WED/Nov. 16 St. Thomas 8:00AM 5:00PM morning/afternoon seminars and Victor Davis Hanson on the evening cocktail reception struggle between Islam and the “Night Owl” session West. These academic giants, and THU/Nov. 17 AT SEA morning/afternoon seminars terrorism experts Andy McCarthy FRI/Nov. 18 Half Moon Cay 8:00AM 4:00PM afternoon seminar and John Yoo, will provide their evening cocktail reception razor-sharp insights on America’s SAT/Nov. 19 Ft. Lauderdale, FL 7:00AM Debark dealings in the Middle East and the Muslim world. caribbean 2-page spread June 20 issue_carribian 2p+application.qxd 6/1/2011 2:28 PM Page 3 MARK STEYN SIGNS ON! PRICES START AT JUST $1899! WE’RE HOLDING LAST YEAR’S RATES!
Superior service, gourmet cuisine, elegant accommodations, and great entertainment await you on the beautiful mS Eurodam. Prices are per-person, based on double occupancy, and include port fees, taxes, gratuities, transfers (for those booking airfare through Holland America), all meals, enter- tainment, and admittance to and participation in all NR func- tions. Per-person rates for third/fourth person (in same cabin with two full-fare guests) are: Ages 6 months to 17: $658 Ages 18 and over: $1,108 aWatch Tony Blankley, Ralph Reed, S. E. Cupp, Cal Thomas, DELUXE SUITE Magnificent luxury quarters (528 Mona Charen, Deroy Murdock, John Sununu, and Charmaine sq. ft.) features use of exclusive Neptune Lounge Yoest provide expert analyses of the the conservative movement, and personal concierge, complimentary laun- the GOP, and the day’s top issues. dry, pressing and dry-cleaning service. Large private verandah, king-size bed aEnjoy insightful social commentary on American culture (convertible to 2 twins), whirlpool from Andrew Klavan, James Lileks, and Michael Walsh, and an bath/shower, dressing room, large sit- honest look at the academy from James Q. Wilson, Dinesh ting area, DVD, mini-bar, and refrigerator. D’Souza, and Charles Kesler. Category SA aPicture Elliott Abrams and John O’Sullivan discussing for- DOUBLE OCCUPANCY RATE: $ 4,499 P/P eign relations, and Kevin Hassett and NRO “Exchequer” Kevin SINGLE OCCUPANCY RATE: $ 6,999 D. Williamson tackling the economy. That’s in store. So is Sally SUPERIOR SUITE Grand stateroom (392 sq. Pipes explaining the Obama administrationlatest domestic-policy ft.) features private verandah, queen-size bed machinations, while Tracie Sharp gives an informed rundown of (convertible to 2 twin beds), whirlpool what ideas are percolating at conservative state think tanks. bath/shower, large sitting area, DVD, mini- aThey’ll be joined in all the elucidating and analyzing by bar, refrigerator, floor-to-ceiling windows, and much more. NR’s editorial heavyweights, including Rich Lowry, Jay Nordlinger, Ramesh Ponnuru, Kathryn Lopez, Jim Geraghty, John Category SS J. Miller, John Derbyshire, Bob Costa, and Roman Genn. DOUBLE OCCUPANCY RATE: $ 3,499 P/P As for the ship: The Eurodam offers spacious staterooms and SINGLE OCCUPANCY RATE: $ 5,799 countless amenities. And it’s affordable—prices start as low as $1,899 a person. No matter what cabin meets your individual DELUXE OUTSIDE Spacious cabin (241 sq. ft.) features private verandah, queen-size bed (convert- tastes and circumstances, you can be assured the Eurodam and its ible to 2 twin beds), bath with shower, sitting stellar staff will offer you unsurpassed service, sumptuous cuisine, area, mini-bar, tv, refrigerator, and floor-to- roomy accommodations, and luxury. ceiling windows. And don’t forget the fantastic itinerary: St. Thomas, Grand Categories VA / VB / VC Turk, San Juan, and Holland America’s private island, Half Moon DOUBLE OCCUPANCY RATE: $ 2,999 P/P Cay (with a must-see-it-to-believe-it blue lagoon!). SINGLE OCCUPANCY RATE: $ 4,399 Our 2011 Caribbean Cruise will be remarkable—but then every NR sojourn is. With a winning program of seminars (we’ll LARGE OCEAN VIEW Comfortable quarters (190 sq. have ten), cocktail parties (three are scheduled—they’re great ft.) features queen-size bed (convertible to 2 twin opportunities to chat and have photos taken with your favorite beds), bathtub with shower, sitting area, tv, large conservatives), late-night poolside smokers (featuring world-class ocean-view windows. H. Upmann cigars), and dining with our editors and speakers (on Category D two nights)—it’s all something you really must experience. DOUBLE OCCUPANCY RATE: $ 2,399 P/P Take the trip of a lifetime with some of America’s preeminent SINGLE OCCUPANCY RATE: $ 2,899 intellectuals, policy analysts, and political experts. You can sign up now by visiting our dedicated website, www.nrcruise.com (which LARGE INSIDE Cozy but ample cabin quarters (185 sq. ft.) provides complete information about the trip), or by calling features queen-size bed (convertible to 2 twin beds), The Cruise Authority (M-F, 9AM to 5PM EST) bathtub with shower, sitting area, tv. at 1-800-707-1634. We’ll see you on the Eurodam this November! Category J DOUBLE OCCUPANCY RATE: $ 1,899 P/P SINGLE OCCUPANCY RATE: $ 2,399 REGISTER NOW: USE THE FORM ON THE NEXT PAGE, VISIT US AT WWW.NRCRUISE.COM OR CALL 800-707-1634 FOR MORE INFORMATION. 2011 caribbean application for magazine_carribian 2p+application_jack.qxd 6/1/2011 1:26 PM Page 1
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individual liberty and a disapproval of rassments, including sex-discrimination what the Court saw as special-interest or laws, racial-segregation laws, coercive Rights “class” legislation. He finds that most eugenics, and even an attempt to abolish Americans in 1905 likely agreed with the private education. In 1895, Illinois’s high- Revisited decision, and also that the fin-de-siècle est court struck down a law that limited Court—far from being representative of women’s working hours to eight; it was JOSEPH TARTAKOVSKY a laissez-faire “era,” as scholars today framed as a health measure to protect claim—actually upheld the vast majority physically frail females and their child- of regulatory laws it reviewed. Finally, bearing capacity. But in 1908, in the Bernstein argues that, even though it was Supreme Court, through the medium of later overruled, Lochner has progeny to attorney Louis Brandeis and one of his be proud of: other decisions that protected renowned, fact-filled “Brandeis briefs,” individual rights against state interfer- the Progressives won a victory in uphold- ence. ing a similar law enacted in Oregon. So how did the decision become People “cry Equality, Equality, where so hated? Bernstein blames the “fero - Nature has created inequality,” wrote cious” mischaracterization of it by the Florence Kelley, a leading Progressive Progressives. The Progressive movement feminist. By contrast, it was Lochner-like sought to use the power of the state to reasoning that carried the day in Adkins v. redress labor imbalances, redistribute Children’s Hospital (1923), which de - Rehabilitating Lochner: Defending wealth, enlarge bureaucracy, and other- clared that minimum-wage laws for Individual Rights against Progressive Reform, wise turn us into Wilhelmine Germany. women (often making them unemploy- by David E. Bernstein (Chicago, When Justice Holmes dissented in Loch - able) violated the 14th Amendment by 208 pp., $45) ner, asserting the “right of a majority to interfering with one’s right to work— embody their opinions in law,” even if his regardless of sex. N the 1890s, in Utica, N.Y., there fellow justices might personally find Liberal scholars have tried to connect lived a small-time baker named those laws “tyrannical,” he became (says Lochner to Plessy v. Ferguson (1896), the Joseph Lochner. In surviving pic- Bernstein) a “Progressive idol.” Holmes’s infamous “separate but equal” case. But I tures, he looks like a Bavarian famous quip—“The 14th Amendment Bernstein reminds us that Plessy, unlike Yosemite Sam, and he had a personality to does not enact Mr. Herbert Spencer’s Lochner, upheld the majority’s “embody- match. But his problem wasn’t rabbits; it Social Statics”—was later misread as ing” its opinions in the law. Progressives was baking unions. In 1895, the union an attack on Social Darwinism; in fact, excluded blacks from leading unions and boycotted him for violating its regula- Holmes was accusing the Court of forcing generally supported segregation, which is tions. He was defiant. In 1899, the union upon voters a form of laissez-faire eco- easy to do when you take your first prin- instigated a prosecution against him that nomics. It was the Progressives who were ciples not from philosophy but from led to costly fines. A second boycott led, Darwinists, and proudly so. Woodrow messes of statistics about “biology” and in 1902, to criminal charges. His crime Wilson wrote that the Framers failed to “race hostility.” The true heir to Lochner was to employ an apprentice for more understand that our government was in the race context, says Bernstein, is the than 60 hours in a week, in violation of “accountable to Darwin, not to Newton.” underappreciated Buchanan v. Warley New York’s Bakeshop Act. That law’s Natural rights, said Roscoe Pound, a lead- (1917), which held that a Kentucky law constitutionality was argued all the way ing Progressive theorist who, suitably prohibiting the sale of property in resi- to the Supreme Court, and finally the law enough, had been trained as a botanist, dential neighborhoods to blacks violated was struck down. Lochner v. New York worked to “obstruct the way of social the 14th Amendment’s protection of con- (1905) would become a hated symbol, progress.” tractual liberty: Sellers could deal in prop- perhaps the symbol, of judicial overreach: Some progress it was. Bernstein spends erty as they wished. Bernstein believes Why should nine well-to-do judges have a mere four pages on the actual Lochner that this decision “inhibited state and local power to tell a state that it cannot protect decision. The bulk of the book is devoted government from passing more pervasive its panting, toil-worn bakers against to showing that it was the forces hostile to and brutal segregation laws akin to those health-shattering employment practices? Lochner that produced the real embar- enacted in South Africa.” A student writ- David E. Bernstein, a law professor at ing in the Yale Law Journal attacked the George Mason University, has written on Court for putting an individual’s property the Lochner case for over a decade, and rights above the public interest in segre- this new book lays out his concentrated gation; in doing so, he was only emulating wisdom on the subject. His thesis is that the views of his Progressive professors. the Lochner decision was, despite its Bernstein writes in a plain, clear style, reputation, a defensible application of a and moves his story along at a brisk pace. long-standing natural-rights tradition of This is a slim volume (though the small type makes it appear slimmer than it actu- Mr. Tartakovsky is a fellow of the Claremont ally is), yet he manages to course through Institute. a century of shifting, complicated case
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BOOKS, ARTS & MANNERS law. He has also trawled through the “incorporation,” the Court regularly in - microfilm and carefully selected his validates state laws that touch in any Art evidence, especially from contemporary litigable way on speech, religion, crime, papers. (Both the New York Times and The property, and marriage—deciding the Nation cheered Lochner, this most “reac- question for the entire nation. Bernstein is An Eye for tionary” of opinions.) Bernstein’s very aware of this potentially antidemocratic title discloses his revisionist intent, but no power, but perhaps he should have had The Real axe is heard grinding in the background. even greater sensitivity on this point. For He writes in an open-minded, mild- one thing, the key “Lochner-line” cases ROGER KIMBALL mannered, and confident tone. he cites struck at far more egregious The key to Bernstein’s account of things than 60-hour workweeks. Meyer v. Jacob Collins: New Works, at Adelson Loch ner is the understanding that the law Nebraska (1923) undid a state ban on Galleries, 19 East 82nd Street, New York, in question was not a health regulation, instructing schoolchildren in foreign lan- on view until July 28, 2011 which the Court would have hesitated to guages; Pierce v. Society of Sisters (1925) upend, but a labor regulation. In technical rejected a statute that outlawed private HE English geneticist J. B. S. terms, Lochner held that the Due Process grade schools. Bernstein discusses how Haldane, though an incorrigible Clause of the 14th Amendment protected later Courts would refashion those hold- commie pinko, was a tart and what was called “liberty of contract,” the ings into a “right of privacy” that would T brilliant observer of life’s pan - broad right to sell your own free labor to undergird, most famously, the right of oply. “My own suspicion,” he wrote, “is earn a lawful living, for as many hours as abortion in Roe v. Wade (1973), but he that the universe is not only queerer than you wished, without arbitrary restriction. does so largely to show that even such we suppose, but queerer than we can sup- The Court saw in the Bakeshop Act a sus- conservative luminaries as Robert Bork pose.” picious exercise of power. It was modeled and Antonin Scalia still “channel” the Haldane was thinking primarily of the on an English predecessor, but with the Progressive critique of Lochner in their natural world, where oddity, like Falstaff’s union-urged addition of a maximum-hour dread of “unenumerated” rights. dishonesty, is “gross as a mountain, open, provision: no more than ten a day or 60 a On the other hand, this only shows why palpable.” But irremediable oddity in - week. The law was codified not under the Lochner still matters, and why Bernstein trudes in the intellectual and cultural world health section of the New York Code, but even bothers to revisit what is likely the as well. How strange, for example, that I among its labor provisions. Lochner’s “most disreputable case in modern con - should have been reading Irving Kristol’s counsel offered medical figures to show stitutional discourse.” His remarkable 1983 essay “Reflections of a Neocon- that bakers had mortality rates compar - achievement is to show that the logic of servative” the same day that I visited the able to those of cabinet makers. And “liberty of contract” is really the logic of Adelson Galleries to see the extraordinary if baking was so dangerous, he asked, unenumerated rights—rights not men- exhibition of Jacob Collins’s new paint- why didn’t the law also cover bakers in tioned in the Bill of Rights but whose ings and drawings. hotels, restaurants, pie shops, clubs, or existence we deduce from proper un - Perhaps, Kristol wrote, we were living homes? Bernstein believes the law was derstandings of liberty. If later Courts “in one of those historic conjunctures the product of lobbying by larger, union- ignored real rights and coined false ones, when inherited categories of thought, ized bakeries, which rarely had to work Bernstein will “leave it to interested read- dominant for some two hundred years em ployees more than ten hours. It was a ers” to sort it out. The New Deal justices now, have lost their creative vitality.” A way for them to squeeze their competitors distinguished “economic” rights from perception—or maybe it was only an in cellar-dwelling Jewish, Italian, and “preferred” ones like freedom of speech; assumption—of some such global loss French bakeries. later, the Warren and Burger Courts stood behind the great modernist upsurge The State of New York had arguments championed “civil liberties” without in culture. We had to have Picasso or to oppose Lochner’s, but the most power- acknowledging their Lochnerian roots. Duchamp (say) because no one who was ful one today is: So what? Prof. Felix The irony is that these Courts inherited anyone still found anything worth looking Frankfurter, corresponding with Learned their “Lochner phobia” from Progressives at in Ingres (say) or Veronese. The curious Hand about another due-process case, who disparaged any notion of “individ- thing, though, was the rapidity with which wrote that if a state legislature acted fool- ual” rights. By the end of his book, it is all those rebellions against “inherited cate- ishly, better to let voters correct the mis- clear that Bernstein uses the word “reha- gories of thought” became themselves take than fix it by “lodging power in those bilitation” in the Soviet sense, in which a dominant categories of thought, just as nine gents in Washington.” Learned Hand poor executed soul is declared to have imperious and conventional as the con- agreed; a state was perfectly entitled been not as guilty as supposed. He never ventions they had sought to replace. to make a “jackass” of itself, he said, and makes a full-throated defense of Lochner. A burgeoning perception of that devel- the blame ought to fall on that state, not Instead, he attempts the far grander task opment has begun to challenge the chal- the Supreme Court. Regardless of one’s of “correct[ing] decades of erroneous lengers and unsettle the unsettlers. The views on Lochner, the power Frankfurter accounts.” He succeeds with aplomb, and salubrious result has been a simultaneous foresaw has indeed become extraordi- notable timeliness. The story of how erosion and recovery: an erosion of those nary. By deflecting the Bill of Rights, in Joseph Lochner fought legislators and almost every particular, against the states, unions to bake his goods in freedom goes Mr. Kimball is publisher of Encounter Books, and co- through the impressive metaphysics of especially well with tea. publisher and co-editor of The New Criterion.
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Anna Nina, 2011 Glasses, 2011 angst-ridden challenges to tradition, and a Jacob Collins has gone from strength to gold. And that spot of light on the table- recovery—at least, the beginnings of a strength. Now in his late 40s, Collins has cloth to the right is a veritable rainbow of recovery—of precisely those canons of long been a fructifying force in contempo- refracted light. This is the real thing. thought, feeling, and practice that just yes- rary art, through both his pedagogy (he Traditionally in the West, portraiture terday had been consigned to the dustbin has founded and presided over at least two occupied the highest spot in the artistic of cultural history. Many of us, I suspect, art schools) and his practice. The label that hierarchy because capturing the humanity will find ourselves coming to the same is usually pinned on artists like Collins is of the human face and figure presented the conclusions Kristol did: “that Jane Austen “Classical Realism,” which is accurate greatest challenges to the artist, challenges is a greater novelist than Proust or Joyce; enough, as far as it goes, which, the closer that were as much moral and psychologi- that Raphael is a greater painter than you look at his work, isn’t very far. cal as technical. Here, too, Jacob Collins Picasso; that T. S. Eliot’s later, Christian Throughout his career, Collins has dis- demonstrates his mastery. There are a poetry is much superior to his earlier; that played astonishing technical prowess— dozen portraits, drawings as well as oils, C. S. Lewis is a finer literary and cultural that’s the “realism”—and his immersion on view in this exhibition. Those familiar critic than Edmund Wilson; that Aristotle in the Beaux Arts masters and the masters with Collins’s earlier work will not be sur- is more worthy of careful study than Marx; they studied is patent, which accounts for prised at the technical facility they exhibit. that Adam Smith makes a lot more eco- “classical.” What is new, I think, is the easy confi- nomic sense than any economist since; But there is something ghettoizing dence and steady concentration on the that . . .” Well, you get the picture. about the term “Classical Realism,” and sitter’s character. Consider Anna Nina, an I thought about Kristol’s observations the force and maturity of his new work oil from 2011. There are plenty of artist’s as I made my way through the Adelson renders it a pointlessly diminishing epi- touches to savor—the visual rhyming of Galleries and savored the thirty-odd pic- thet. “Classical Realism” was a name those climbing tree branches with the tures Jacob Collins had assembled for someone proposed to describe those wrinkles on the woman’s cheek, for exam- this exhibition. I was enthusiastic about (mostly) young artists who set out to rein- ple. But what grabs hold of you instantly an earlier exhibition of Collins’s work: habit certain traditional forms of painting is the quiet if sorrowful dignity of this “Collins,” I wrote in Axess magasin in and sculpture. Often, their ambition ex - remarkable face. 2007, “is part of a small but growing band ceeded their accomplishment: You could There are probably more artists— of artists who are revolutionizing art by see what they were trying to do, but you that is, more people calling themselves reinvigorating, reinhabiting the aesthetic couldn’t help but register the distance artists—per square inch in Manhattan canons and plastic techniques pioneered between effort and success. today than there have been anywhere at in the Renaissance and promulgated in There is none of that hesitation in any time in history. But as this remarkable the studios of the Beaux Arts.” What we Collins’s new work. Here is work in which work by Jacob Collins reminds us, there are witnessing here is the formation of a technical achievement and consummate are artists and then there are artists. He powerful aesthetic-moral current, one that taste unite in art that transcends the taxo- belongs to the smaller, more select catego- promises to sweep away a great deal of nomic labels of art-speak. This exhibition ry. In 2007, I ended by predicting that you quasi-artistic rubbish and transform large comprises a wide range of work: nudes, would be hearing a lot more about Jacob precincts of public taste. portraits, landscapes, and still lifes. Collins Collins in years to come. I’ll end now by The embryo transformation I discerned brings equal mastery to all. One of my fa - repeating and enhancing that prediction: ADELSON GALLERIES
/ is still under way and, alas, it has a long vorite works is a breathtaking still life We won’t be the only ones who will hear way to go, as anyone who looks around at called Glasses (2011). At first glance it about him. Our children and their chil- the contemporary art world will acknowl- looks like a grisaille study. But look again. dren’s children will as well. This is work
JACOB COLLINS edge. But as this exhibition demonstrates, Those eyeglasses glint and wink with for the ages.
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BOOKS, ARTS & MANNERS the way back again, and the sniping has loss, and whispering Job’s questions to the Film been replaced with hosannas. These are God who allows suffering and death. largely deserved, since The Tree of Life is This framing device opens, in turn, into a truly remarkable work of art—a kaleido- a much broader frame still, in which The Way of scope of joy and sorrow, a meditation Malick delivers a literalized version of on mysteries theological and familial, a God’s “where were you when I laid the Grace drama of intimate life whose scope widens foundations of the earth?” response to to embrace not only the entire human con- Job—a line that supplies the film’s epi- ROSS DOUTHAT dition, but the entire universe as well. But graph, and inspires an extraordinary tour as an entry in the Malick canon, it’s on its of time and space. We see the Big Bang, HEn Terrence Malick re - way to being ever-so-slightly overrated. the formation of galaxies, the birth of life turned to filmmaking in It’s far better than The Thin Red Line, but on earth. The springs of the sea churn and 1998 after a 20-year hiatus, it has enough of that film’s narrative weak- the morning stars sing, Leviathan (in the W no critic wanted to point nesses to fall just short of the standard set form of a plesiosaur) emerges from the out that the genius director’s re-entry had by The New World. deep and the treasures of the snow (the landed with a thud. So The Thin Red Line, Most of The Tree of Life’s running time is glaciers of an Ice Age, that is) spread out to his adaptation of James Jones’s Guadal - taken up by a long, semi-autobiographical cover the earth. Finally, the universal gives canal novel, received glowing reviews remembrance of a 1950s childhood in way to the particular, and we reach the and was nominated for seven Academy Waco, Texas, where Jack O’Brien (Hunter birth of Jack himself—a boy swimming Awards, and everybody pretended not to McCracken) and his two brothers grow up upward from underwater, and then emerg- notice that the film was a gorgeous, plot- with a domineering father (Brad Pitt) and ing as an infant in the Texas sunshine. less bore. a benign, goddess-like mother (Jessica All of this (I think) is part of the adult Jack’s epiphany, which carries forward to a mystical vision of eucatastrophic recon- ciliation on a beach, scored to the strains of Berlioz’s Agnus Dei. The trouble (as so often in Malick’s movies) is that the adult Jack has no story of his own: He’s a past without a present, a set of memories with- out a personality. Penn is stranded, like so many of the fine actors who thronged the cast of The Thin Red Line, with murmurs of dialogue but no character to play. And since he’s the movie’s Job figure, the character who’s supposed to mediate for us between Waco and eternity, Malick’s grand metaphysical vision sometimes seems to float untethered from the human drama at the movie’s core. Brad Pitt in The Tree of Life The New World, similarly, closed with When Malick came out with The New Chastain). She meditates, in voice-over, an epiphany, a kind of ecstatic vision of the World seven years later, though, the novel- on what she calls “the way of nature” ver- old world and the new. But there Malick ty of having him back had worn off, and sus “the way of grace,” which is an early was working with a story strong enough to the knives came out instead. His John sign that Malick is tempering his Tran- keep his visions rooted (almost in spite of Smith–and–Pocahontas epic wasn’t just a scen dentalist inclinations with a stronger- themselves) in the fertile soil of character better movie than The Thin Red Line; it than-usual dose of Biblical religion. His and plot. This time the visions are even was a genuine masterpiece, perhaps the Waco is an earthly paradise, but it’s also more ambitious and extraordinary, but the finest American film of the last decade. the site of an inevitable fall. Gradually, soil is sometimes too thin to sustain them. But reviewers who had given The Thin pride and anger creep in, followed by But this should be taken as a quibble, Red Line a pass seized the chance to gripe puberty and death—and, inevitably, ex - not a harsh critique. I don’t want The Tree about Malick’s weaknesses—his preten- pulsion, out of Eden into the fallen adult of Life to overshadow Malick’s previous tious voice-overs, his disdain for narrative world. (and greatest) film, but neither do I want to momentum, his pantheistic longueurs. All of this is told in fragments—scenes detract from the brilliance of this effort. Shorn of its natural constituency, The New and vignettes, one flash of memory suc- There is nothing like this in contemporary World died at the box office, and (in a year ceeding another, in a near-perfect recre- cinema, to put it mildly—nothing so beau- when the statuette went to Paul Haggis’s ation of the way that childhood comes tiful, nothing so God-besotted, and noth- execrable Crash) it wasn’t even nominat- back to us years later. The memories ing that so movingly captures how the ed for a Best Picture Oscar. belong to the adult Jack (Sean Penn), whole of time and space can be implicated With The Tree of Life, Malick’s latest an architect in a shining steel-and-glass in the joys and sorrows of a single human
FOX SEARCHLIGHT film, the critical pendulum has swung all metro polis, haunted by the memory of life.
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preda tory girls on a club crawl; its counter- day it ever blossoms in my gym is the day City Desk part was an earnest young man begging I let my body go to hell. I first encountered Don’t let me go. A quick Internet search it at another regular way station of mine, a would tell me who these singers are, but delightful upstate fish restaurant. the own- Other I prefer to let them brag and suffer in ers are purveyors to the Hudson Valley, but anonymity. It would be embarrassing to they have their own retail counter and their People’s make their acquaintance, like seeing in a own eatery, decorated with leaping sailfish hallway the people who were fighting in and sad prowling sharks. It was on their the next hotel room all night. sound system that I experienced a station Music My gym’s other alternative to rap is the devoted to Sixties covers. Eighties channel. this seems to me worse theft is one of the arts, and covering than dance music, probably because the was old when dirt was young. Handel songs, less sharply targeted, try (and most- covered; the Puff daddy eulogy I men- ly fail) to stand on their own as robust com- tioned above sampled “I’ll Fly Away,” the positions. the production tricks of the past classic white Gospel song (sampled it are always indistinguishable to the listen- without permission, in fact—in 2000, the ers for which they were made, obtrusive to heirs of Albert E. Brumley, composer of their successors. Eighties music sounds “I’ll Fly Away,” successfully sued Puff calculated and a little metallic, without daddy and his friends). What is so dis- even the pleasures of excess. Was this the turbing about the Sixties covers is their music that beat the Evil Empire? Most closeness to the originals. It was some- RICHARD BROOKHISER striking to me is the hostess, Martha Quinn, times hard to tell the difference at first, formerly with MtV. I think she inter- especially if you were not paying atten- don’t like earphones, I want to viewed me once, when MtV wanted com- tion. the producers seem to have sought hear what the world is sending my mentary on some political event. Michael singers with similar voices, and directed way. As a result, I hear a lot of other dukakis is a dot in history’s rear-view mir- them to follow the decades-old phrasing; I people’s music. ror, but she sounds as perky as ever. the arrangements are almost identical. My main venue for passive listening has been my gym. I’ve been through three in the last decade, following my trainer west Rock music has a death grip down 14th Street as one after the other closes. now we’re in a snug little base- on our lives. ment next to the Salvation Army temple. For the longest time the fare here, and in its the Eighties channel—like its friends, Which is to say, nothing like. they are predecessors, was rap, reflecting the tastes the Sixties, Seventies, and nineties chan- Madame tussaud songs—detailed, accu- of most of the body builders. I heard nels—illustrates a great truth: Rock music rate, and lifeless. Every corner has been diddy when he was Puff daddy, mourn- has a death grip on our lives. despite a blunted, every edge dulled; every little ing the notorious B.I.G. When I ask what thousand tiny developments and varia- twitch of energy has been muffled, rappers are out there now, my trainer tions, it does not change much, and it will doused, asphyxiated. the covers are nega- shrugs dismissively, but time rolls him never go away. do the subtraction: the tive exercises in performance and song- along as well as me; I wonder what his son Eighties were 31 to 22 years ago. I first writing. Just as Ezra Pound’s tweaks to would have to say. started noticing what was on the radio in “the Waste Land” show how to make For the last year or so different taste- 1965, when I was ten years old. the same something better, the little changes in setters have prevailed and the rap of my backward leap then would have taken you night of the Living Sixties show how to workouts has been replaced by two alter- to 1934–43. “Stars Fell on Alabama,” by make anything lifeless. natives. one is dance music—quick beats Guy Lombardo, was a hit in 1934, “Pistol Give me someone’s own voice, even with hooks as direct as vaccinations. the Packin’ Mama” by Bing Crosby and the when he is covering. My best friend in the affect of the vocalists is unmitigated yearn- Andrews Sisters was a hit in 1943. When country is a fan of Meat Loaf. I heard he ing. the men yearn to triumph; the big I was ten years old there was no place in was on Celebrity Apprentice; he could male hit of the last few months sounded the bowels of the Smithsonian Institu - have been Secretary of Commerce in a like Anthony Weiner, if he were a young tion, much less on the radio dial, where trump administration. I know from see- black man (Congress is where white geeks you could have unwound those songs ing a tV show on him that he was in the and freaks get to be young black men). from their shrouds. Yet the American casts of both Hair and The Rocky Horror the women in danceland yearn for self- Association of Rock Persons marches Picture Show—a man for all seasons. His abasement. If they express their abjection on—rockers with walkers. dear Martha, music is certainly distinctive. When my with enough fury, maybe Anthony Weiner will you still be doing your thing in friend comes barreling down the dirt will notice them. Why can’t you see me? 2033–42? driveway in his van, with Meat Loaf pour- I’m right over here, one song keened again Rock’s autoerotic necrophilia (there’s ing out of the windows, I know who has and again. occasionally for variety the something Anthony Weiner never thought arrived. the returning silence is sweet- sex roles switch: there was a track of of) has germinated a poisoned flower. the ened by contrast.
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Happy Warrior BY MARK STEYN Coffee Crash
hIS fall marks the centenary of William about the easy chairs looking up from their tweets as if to Mitchell. You may not have heard of him, but in scold: “What’s with the restless energy, dude?” his day he was a big cheese. Indeed, he was a I felt like the guy in Invasion of the Body Snatchers: T big processed cheese, with what’s now Kraft Everybody else in town had fallen asleep . . . and then Foods. Mitchell invented Cool Whip and quick-set Jell-O stayed asleep. This is a paradox for our times: the somno- and powdered egg whites for cake mix. he was in the lent coffee house. I had a strange urge to yell, “Wake up, grand tradition of American entrepreneurial energy: henry we’re trillions of dollars in debt! The powder keg’s about Ford made travel faster, Alexander Graham Bell made to blow!” but I could feel the soporific indie-pop drifting communication faster, Bill Mitchell made Jell-O even over the counter, so I took my espresso to go and worked faster. When he died, I wrote an appreciation and noted his off my torporphobic rage by shooting iPods off the tailgate one great miscalculation, late in life. he noticed the of a rusting pick-up in the back field for the rest of the day. dahlias growing on his daughter’s land, came up with the “You just don’t get coffee culture,” sighed a friend. idea of roasting their tubers, and created a brown substance What “culture”? The coffee houses of 17th-century En - with a coffee-like taste that he called Dacopa. gland were hives of business: They spawned the Stock It flopped. The fearless pioneer of convenience foods Exchange and Lloyd’s of London. The coffee houses of had failed to foresee that in his final years coffee would 18th-century Paris were hives of ideas: At Café Procope, become the ultimate inconvenience Voltaire, Rousseau, and the gang met food. Where once you’d say, “Gimme to thrash out the Enlightenment. The a cuppa joe, Darlene,” and the wait- coffee houses of 21st-century Amer - ress would slide it across the counter, ica have spawned the gingerbread now you stand around for 20 minutes eggnog macchiato and an accompa- as the guy juices the espresso, froths nying CD compilation. Unless, that up the milk, lathers on the foam, gives is, there’s something else going on: it a shot of caramel flavoring, sprin- One is mindful of Number Two’s re - kles it with cinnamon, adds a slice of port (in Austin Powers) to the recent- pepperoni and a soupçon of Eurasian ly defrosted Dr. Evil on what he’s milfoil, and instead of two bits charges been up to while the evil mastermind you $5.95. bent on world domination has been It’s getting on for two decades since in orbital cryostasis. “I seized upon I first did a world’s-slowest-coffee the opportunity to invest in a small routine on the BBC with the great Seattle-based coffee company several Bonnie Langford, West End child star and Doctor Who’s years ago,” he informs the doctor. “I believe if we shift our perkiest sidekick. Jackie Mason was also on the show, and resources away from world domination and focus on pro- asked me who our writer was. I felt it would make me look viding premium-quality coffee drinks, we can increase our like a loser to say I’d written it myself, so I promised to gross profits fivefold.” pass on any message. “Tell him he may be on to some- That’s not such a good bet these days—Starbucks has thing,” growled Mason. A few years later, I opened up The closed a thousand outlets since 2008—but, on the other American Spectator to find the comic genius had worked hand, world domination–wise, the espresso era does seem up a Starbucks routine all his own. to have presided over a transformation in the dominant At the time, I thought the ever more protracted java jive cultural aesthetic. Inertia has never been cooler. It’s seeped was an anomaly—the exception that proved the rule. Now out of the coffee house to stalk the land. I mean Barack I can see it was a profound insight: America’s first slow- Obama barely even bothers to pretend he’s got a plan for food chain was an idea whose time had come. Who knew debt “reduction” or Medicare “reform,” does he? you could make people stand in line (long lines at city out- I don’t go in for as much pop sociology as, say, David lets in rush hour) for a cup of coffee? Don’t tell me it’s a Brooks. But, for the sake of argument, let’s say he got it Continental thing. I like my café au lait in Quebec, and it right on the general sensibility of a decade ago in Bobos in takes a third of the time of all the whooshing and frothing Paradise: The New Upper Class and How They Got There. south of the border. Same in a Viennese kaffeehaus. But I Would you put money on his contemporary American was at a “fair trade” Vermont coffee joint the other day, and elites to rouse themselves before catastrophe strikes? Or there was no line at all, and it still took forever. And, as is somnolent, myopic complacency unto the end the way I began to get a little twitchy and pace up and down, I to bet? became aware of the handful of mellow patrons scattered Bit of a downer to end on, I know. But have a Dacopa. Unlike a soy peppermint chai frappuccino, it might perk Mr. Steyn blogs at SteynOnline. (www.steynonline.com). you up. CORBIS
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