KEVIN D.WILLIAMSON: the Swiss Miracle JIM TALENT

2013_09_16 A:cover61404-postal.qxd 8/27/2013 8:03 PM Page 1

September 16, 2013 $4.99

JIM TALENT: OUR DANGEROUS DEFENSE DEFICIT OTTO PENZLER ON ELMORE LEONARD FLORENCE KING KEVIN D.WILLIAMSON: The Swiss Miracle ON CHARLES MANSON

Rocky Mountain High A NEW PATH IN COLORADO POT COUNTRY

BETSY WOODRUFF

$4.99 37

0 74820 08155 6

www.nationalreview.com base:milliken-mar 22.qxd 8/26/2013 1:41 PM Page 1

HisHi RRevolutionaryRe evolutionary l tiy PoliticsP liti PutP t HimHi BehindB hi nd d Bars. GreatGreeat Conservative ative Thinkers rs Set Him Free.F

“. . . a heart-pounding book, a thing of beauty that kicks the mind with spur after spur.” — M i c h a e l N o v a k American Enterprise Institute

In the early 1980’s Joe Pearce was a leader of Britain’s racist National Front. He edited its newspaper, Bulldog. He consorted with terror organizations in Northern Ireland and neo- Nazi punk rockers in London. And before he was twenty-five, he was sentenced to prison twice. But in the confines of his jail cell Pearce discovered the great Christian and conservative writers of the 20th Century. Men like Chester- ton. Solzhenitsyn. Lewis. Belloc. And Tolkien. His life would never be the same. In this exhilarating memoir, Joseph Pearce shares his amazing journey from racist revolutionary to champion of Christendom. Order your copy today, and join Joseph Pearce as he recounts his thrilling Race with the Devil.

The author of almost twenty books and a frequent speaker and lecturer, Joseph Pearce is one of the foremost literary biographers writing today. He has chronicled among others the life and works of Shakespeare, Chesterton, Belloc, Solzhenitsyn, C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien.

Race with thet Devil . Joseph PearcePear rce Hardcover . 5.5 x 8.5 . 264 Pgs ISBN: 97819781618900654 618900654 TANBooks.comTANBooksANBooks.com com List $22.95 OrderOrdeer today! 800-437-5876 5876

National Review w Readers receive FREE SHIPPING with coupon code TANNR913TANNR913 offer expirese 10/31/13 TOC:QXP-1127940144.qxp 8/28/2013 1:59 PM Page 1 Contents

SEPTEMBER 16, 2013 | VOLUME LXV, NO. 17 | www.nationalreview.com Jay Nordlinger on Marko Feingold ON THE COVER Page 25 p. 22 Rocky BOOKS, ARTS Mountain High & MANNERS It’s been about nine months since 39 AMERICAN NIGHTMARE Coloradans voted to legalize the Florence King reviews Manson: recreational consumption of The Life and Times of Charles Manson, by Jeff Guinn. marijuana by adults over 21. Over the next few months, Colorado’s 41 E PLURIBUS BONUM John Fonte reviews America 3.0: marijuana purveyors—licit and Rebooting American Prosperity illicit—will keep a close eye on in the 21st Century—Why America’s Greatest Days Are Yet Denver as regulators try to craft to Come, by James C. Bennett and sensible policy for an industry Michael J. Lotus, and Native Americans: Patriotism, that, at least on a federal level, is Exceptionalism, and the New still lawless. Betsy Woodruff American Identity, by James S. Robbins. COVER: THE JIM HEIMANN COLLECTION/CORBIS 42 EGYPTIAN—AND ARTICLES ENDANGERED Paul Marshall reviews A THOUSAND LITTLE TYRANTS by John Yoo 16 Motherland Lost: The Egyptian Obama’s problems are a chance to rein in the bureaucracy. and Coptic Quest for 20 ARMED AND PROGRESSIVE by Charles C. W. Cooke Modernity, by Samuel Tadros. Vermont, Second Amendment paradise. 44 HAPPY ANNIVERSARIES 22 ÜBER-SURVIVOR by Jay Nordlinger Jay Nordlinger discusses the Salzburg Marko Feingold flourishes at 100. Festival. 24 A HARD-BOILED MUSIC by Otto Penzler 46 FILM: SMALL BALL Elmore Leonard’s contribution to literature. Ross Douthat reviews In a World . . .

47 CITY DESK: THERE’S A PLACE FEATURES Richard Brookhiser discusses how a place achieves placehood. 25 ROCKY MOUNTAIN HIGH by Betsy Woodruff Colorado experiments with marijuana. SECTIONS 28 THE STATUS OF THE DREAM by Stephan Thernstrom & Abigail Thernstrom Racial integration 50 years after MLK’s speech. 2 Letters to the Editor 30 THE ARMY YOU HAVEN’T by Jim Talent 4 The Week Why Washington is slashing the defense budget. 37 Athwart ...... James Lileks 38 The Long View ...... Rob Long 34 THE HELVETICA TYPE by Kevin D. Williamson 43 Poetry ...... William W. Runyeon Will Switzerland work if it’s no longer Swiss? 48 Happy Warrior ...... Mark Steyn

NAtiONAL REViEW (iSSN: 0028-0038) is published bi-weekly, except for the first issue in January, by NAtiONAL REViEW, inc., at 215 Lexington Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10016. Periodicals postage paid at New York, N.Y., and additional mailing offices. © National Review, inc., 2013. Address all editorial mail, manuscripts, letters to the editor, etc., to Editorial Dept., NAtiONAL REViEW, 215 Lexington Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10016. Address all subscription mail orders, changes of address, undeliverable copies, etc., to NAtiONAL REViEW, Circulation Dept., P. O. Box 433015, Palm Coast, Fla. 32143-3015; phone, 386-246-0118, Monday–Friday, 8:00 A.M. to 10:30 P.M. Eastern time. Adjustment requests should be accompanied by a current mailing label or facsimile. Direct classified advertising inquiries to: Classifieds Dept., NAtiONAL REViEW, 215 Lexington Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10016 or call 212-679- 7330. POStMAStER: Send address changes to NAtiONAL REViEW, Circulation Dept., P. O. Box 433015, Palm Coast, Fla. 32143-3015. Printed in the U.S.A. RAtES: $59.00 a year (24 issues). Add $21.50 for Canada and other foreign subscriptions, per year. (All payments in U.S. currency.) the editors cannot be responsible for unsolicited manuscripts or artwork unless return postage or, better, a stamped, self-addressed envelope is enclosed. Opinions expressed in signed articles do not necessarily represent the views of the editors. letters:QXP-1127940387.qxp 8/28/2013 2:00 PM Page 2 Letters

SEPTEMBER 16 ISSUE; PRINTED AUGUST 29

EDITOR Richard Lowry Persecution at the Polls Senior Editors Richard Brookhiser / Jay Nordlinger (In re “Laboratory of Islamism,” August 19) I have read several articles stating Ramesh Ponnuru / David Pryce-Jones Managing Editor Jason Lee Steorts that the Muslim Brotherhood actually threatened Coptic Christians into not Literary Editor Michael Potemra voting last year in Egypt’s election. Yet the election was called “democratic.” Executive Editor Christopher McEvoy Washington Editor Robert Costa Is this true that Christians and other non-Muslims were threatened with vio- Roving Correspondent Kevin D. Williamson National Correspondent John J. Miller lence if they voted, and if so, doesn’t that bring into question the issue of how Art Director Luba Kolomytseva Deputy Managing Editors “democratic” the election was of Mr. Morsi? Nicholas Frankovich / Fred Schwarz Frank J. Russo Associate Editors Patrick Brennan / Katherine Connell Port Washington, N.Y. Production Editor Katie Hosmer Research Associate Scott Reitmeier Assistant to the Editor Madison V. Peace DAvID PrYCE-JonEs rEPLIEs: on several occasions before the election, mobs Contributing Editors Shannen Coffin / Ross Douthat / Roman Genn shouting “Allahu akbar” killed Copts and burnt out or vandalized Coptic churches Jim Geraghty / Jonah Goldberg / Florence King and schools. Intimidation to prevent them from voting is only one aspect of the Lawrence Kudlow / Mark R. Levin Yuval Levin / Rob Long / Jim Manzi worst persecution the Coptic Christians have suffered in many centuries. Andrew C. McCarthy / Kate O’Beirne Reihan Salam / Robert VerBruggen

NATIONALREVIEWONLINE Editor-at-Large Kathryn Jean Lopez Managing Editor Edward John Craig The Secret Life of Walter White National-Affairs Columnist John Fund Media Editor Eliana Johnson Perhaps it is more than a coincidence that Breaking Bad’s Walter shares a first name Political Reporters Andrew Stiles / Jonathan Strong with another fictional Walter—Walter Mitty. Jonah Goldberg (“Life and Death on Reporter Katrina Trinko Staff Writer Charles C. W. Cooke Basic Cable,” August 19) mentions that Walter sells his share in a start-up for a Associate Editor Molly Powell pittance, but doesn’t give the rea- Editorial Associates Sterling C. Beard / Andrew Johnson son. The company becomes a Technical Services Russell Jenkins Web Developer Wendy Weihs love triangle, and when Walter

EDITORS- AT- LARGE loses the girl to the other guy, he Linda Bridges / John O’Sullivan skulks away, despite having NATIONALREVIEWINSTITUTE BUCKLEYFELLOWSINPOLITICALJOURNALISM invented the technology that Alec Torres / Betsy Woodruff makes the other two billionaires. Contributors Hadley Arkes / Baloo / James Bowman He marries a beautiful woman, Eliot A. Cohen / Dinesh D’Souza M. Stanton Evans / Chester E. Finn Jr. who then cheats on him with her Neal B. Freeman / James Gardner boss. His high-school students David Gelernter / George Gilder / Jeffrey Hart Kevin A. Hassett / Charles R. Kesler show him no respect, and then David Klinghoffer / Anthony Lejeune D. Keith Mano / Michael Novak life delivers the final insult by giving him terminal cancer. His entry into meth pro- Alan Reynolds / Tracy Lee Simmons Terry Teachout / Vin Weber duction begins from desperation, at first a way to obtain money for the advanced Chief Financial Officer James X. Kilbridge treatments his health insurance will not cover, then a means to provide for his Accounting Manager Galina Veygman Accountant Zofia Baraniak family after the disease finally takes him. But the drug business is nasty, and sur- Business Services vival forces him to put aside one moral scruple after another. over time, he be - Alex Batey / Alan Chiu / Lucy Zepeda Circulation Manager Jason Ng comes addicted to a drug just as powerful as his blue meth: power. For the first time Assistant to the Publisher Kate Murdock WORLD WIDE WEB www.nationalreview.com in his life, he is feared and respected. Mere survival is no longer enough. He wants MAIN NUMBER 212-679-7330 to be the unchallenged king of meth and derives further pleasure from the anonymi- SUBSCRIPTION INQUIRIES 386-246-0118 WASHINGTON OFFICE 202-543-9226 ty his “Heisenberg” street name provides. While this does not make his actions less ADVERTISING SALES 212-679-7330 Executive Publisher Scott F. Budd evil, anyone with a touch of Mitty can understand how he started down this path. I Advertising Director Jim Fowler Advertising Manager Kevin Longstreet am conflicted. Evil should not triumph, but I cannot give up hope that Walter’s end Associate Publisher Paul Olivett will provide some redemption for the good man he once was. Director of Development Heyward Smith Mark Lijek Vice President, Communications Amy K. Mitchell

PUBLISHER Anacortes, Wash. Jack Fowler

CHAIRMANEMERITUS Thomas L. Rhodes

FOUNDER Letters may be sub mitted by e-mail to [email protected]. William F. Buckley Jr.

2 | www.nationalreview.com SEPTEMBER 1 6 , 2 0 1 3 base:milliken-mar 22.qxd 8/26/2013 1:43 PM Page 1

Thinking about Capitalism Taught by Professor Jerry Z. Muller IM ED T E O IT FF 1. Why Think about Capitalism? E IM R 2. The Greek and Christian Traditions L 3. Hobbes’s Challenge to the Traditions 4. Dutch Commerce and National Power 70% 5. Capitalism and Toleration—Voltaire O 8 6. Abundance or Equality—Voltaire vs. Rousseau 2 R off D R 7. Seeing the Invisible Hand—Adam Smith E E 8. Smith on Merchants, Politicians, Workers R OB BY OCT 9. Smith on the Problems of Commercial Society 10. Smith on Moral and Immoral Capitalism 11. Conservatism and Advanced Capitalism—Burke 12. Conservatism and Periphery Capitalism—Möser 13. Hegel on Capitalism and Individuality 14. Hamilton, List, and the Case for Protection 15. De Tocqueville on Capitalism in America 16. Marx and Engels—The Communist Manifesto 17. Marx’s Capital and the Degradation of Work 18. Matthew Arnold on Capitalism and Culture 19. Individual and Community— Tönnies vs. Simmel 20. The German Debate over Rationalization 21. Cultural Sources of Capitalism—Max Weber 22. Schumpeter on Innovation and Resentment 23. Lenin’s Critique—Imperialism and War 24. Fascists on Capitalism—Freyer and Schmitt 25. Mises and Hayek on Irrational Socialism 26. Schumpeter on Capitalism’s Self-Destruction 27. The Rise of Welfare-State Capitalism 28. Pluralism as Limit to Social Justice—Hayek 29. Herbert Marcuse and the New Left Critique 30. Contradictions of Postindustrial Society 31. The Family under Capitalism Thinking about 32. Tensions with Democracy— Buchanan and Olson 33. End of Communism, New Era of Globalization Capitalism 34. Capitalism and Nationalism—Ernest Gellner 35. The Varieties of Capitalism As the economic system under which you live, capitalism determines 36. Intrinsic Tensions in Capitalism where you work, how much you make, and what you can buy. But capitalism is as much a social force as an economic one, and its impact on noneconomic life has drawn the attention of the Western Thinking about Capitalism world’s greatest minds. Course no. 5665 | 36 lectures (30 minutes/lecture) A learning experience that is a rarity among both economics and history courses, Thinking about Capitalism takes you beyond the SAVE UP TO $275 narrow focus of economic analysis. In 36 engaging lectures, you explore how over 300 years of thinkers—including Adam Smith, DVD $374.95NOW $99.95 Edmund Burke, and Joseph Schumpeter—have commented on +$15 Shipping, Processing, and Lifetime Satisfaction Guarantee capitalism’s moral, political, and cultural ramiﬁ cations. Award- CD $269.95NOW $69.95 winning intellectual historian and Professor Jerry Z. Muller’s +$10 Shipping, Processing, and Lifetime Satisfaction Guarantee Priority Code: 77839 accessible approach makes this course the perfect way to master the history, concepts, and personal applications of this vital economic system. Designed to meet the demand for lifelong learning, The Great Courses is a highly popular series of audio and video lectures led by top professors O er expires 10/28/13 and experts. Each of our more than 450 courses is an intellectually engaging experience that will 1-800-832-2412 change how you think about the world. Since ../7 1990, over 14 million courses have been sold. week:QXP-1127940387.qxp 8/28/2013 2:08 PM Page 4 The Week

n Whatever happened to the wholesome, respectable MTV we grew up with?

n In a recent interview, Senator Ted Cruz (R., Texas) said of defunding Obamacare that “if it doesn’t happen now, it’s likely never to happen.” That’s why he thinks Republicans have to use the threat of a partial government shutdown to achieve it. Other defunders have argued that to wait until Republicans have the Senate, House, and White House to repeal Obamacare is tantamount to abandoning the goal because winning so many elections is too improbable. All of this is much too defeat ist. It is true that liberal programs rarely get repealed once implemented. Obamacare is, however, much more perverse than most, and in ways that have made it unpopular and may continue to do so. Republicans should seek to build an electoral majority to replace it, not wallow in despair. A Cruz aide has said that conservatives who doubt the wisdom of his strategy are in a “surrender caucus.” The senator disavows this re mark, but he should take care, while making the case for his preferred course, not to announce his own surrender date.

n As more deadlines in the implementation of Obamacare approach, the stories of its costs keep piling up: UPS will drop health-insurance coverage for 15,000 spouses because of its increased expense; Delta Airlines says its health-care costs will increase by nearly $100 million next year, in large part because See page 13. of the new law; and cash-strapped municipal governments, which will be subject to the employer mandate to provide only in their transfer to other parts of Foggy Bottom. Four offi- health insurance, are cutting their workers’ hours so they will cials, three in the Diplomatic Security Department and one in be classified as part-time employees. The law’s supporters Near Eastern Affairs, were placed on paid leave. Secretary of contend that the plural of “anecdote” is not “data,” and that any State John Kerry says he has now personally reviewed the find- national evidence of the rise in part-time employment or the ings and restored these officials to duty elsewhere. In due time, dropping of health coverage is due to lingering economic no doubt, they’ll be promoted. weakness. So we guess the new strategy is to use one Obama failure to excuse another. n Army private Bradley Manning was an unstable malcontent who had to be restrained during a violent fit while serving in n President Obama is boasting that his administration has Iraq. Yet superiors looked the other way, continuing to permit achieved some of the fastest and steepest deficit reduction him broad security access, which he used to transfer hundreds since the end of World War II. It has, and it did so right after of thousands of classified documents to the rabidly anti- achieving some of the fastest and steepest deficit increases in American WikiLeaks operation, knowing that America’s American history. When a 250-pound man loses 50 pounds, enemies would profit from their publication. The leaked that’s something significant; when a 700-pound man loses 50 documents revealed intelligence assets, disclosed military pounds, that’s a start. Given that Obama’s spending plans would operations, exposed intelligence assessments about foreign return the deficit to the trans-trillion-dollar level in a few years, governments, and compromised diplomatic negotiations. A this is at best a respite. military court sentenced him to 35 years in prison—knowing that he could be released in less than a third of that time, owing n The State Department took its time in releasing its review of to parole rules and time served. If the Defense Department what went wrong the night that four Americans were killed in does not take preservation of the nation’s defense secrets seri- Benghazi, Libya, almost a year ago. When the report finally ously, who will? was released in May, it concluded that the events, and the mis- takes made in the facility’s security plans, shouldn’t end the n After his sentencing, Manning announced that he henceforth

ROMAN GENN careers of any State Department officials, but should result wishes to be known as “Chelsea Manning” and desires to have

4 | www.nationalreview.com SEPTEMBER 1 6 , 2 0 1 3 base:milliken-mar 22.qxd 8/26/2013 1:36 PM Page 1

Smithsonian Institution Confederate mystery reappears! $50 Civil War Banknote Released as Massive Silver Proof

n Sept. 2, 1861, during the early days of the Confederate American Civil War, the South printed $50 ban- Train Note knotesO from intricately engraved steel plates located Silver Gem 1 3 in New Orleans. Bearing the high denomination of Proof is the Actual size is 7 /4" x 3 /16" $50 and featuring an artistic engraving of a steam same size as locomotive, these impressive bank-notes were the original large bank-note and contains a massive intended to fund the Confederate war efforts. two Troy ounces of 99.9% pure silver. Each has been Today, however, experts estimate that less than certified by the respected Paper Money Guaranty 500 of these historic $50 notes still survive. company (PMG)—and each silver proof is protected Today, 150 years later, original paper notes sell in a clear archival sleeve bearing both the PMG Gem for upwards of $9,500 to eager collectors. Proof grade, as well as the Smithsonian authorization.

Civil War History Arrives at the Smithsonian Secure Yours Today—RISK FREE! When Northern troops regained New Orleans in This is a FIRST EVER 150th anniversary release. 1862, General Benjamin Franklin Butler took com- Call today to secure your gigantic two Troy ounce mand of the city. Amazingly, his troops discovered $50 Silver Gem Proof for only $199 each (plus s/h). the engraving plates for the $50 Confederate Train Discounts are available for quantity orders—call for Note. Gen. Butler personally mailed the plates back availability and pricing. to the Secretary of the Treasury, Salmon Chase, in Washington, to prove the North was in control, and Call today! commanded New Orleans. It remains a mystery Offer Code CWN150-01 how the plates, still wrapped in Gen. Butler’s hand- 1-800-222-0984 addressed package, made it into the collection of the Smithsonian Institution—but they reside Smithsonian Institution® there to this day. New York Mint, LLC., An American Treasure Reborn in Pure Silver 14101 Southcross Dr. W.,Burnsville, MN 55337 Now, as America marks the 150th anniversary A portion of the sales proceeds from your purchase of this licensed product supports the chartered educational purposes of the National of the Civil War, the Smithsonian Institution Numismatic Collection, housed in the Smithsonian’s National Mu- has authorized an exclusive striking of the $50 seum of American History. Prices and availability subject to change without notice. Past performance is not Confederate Train Note in gleaming proof silver a predictor of future performance. NOTE: New York Mint® is a private distributor to create a first-ever $50 Silver Collector’s Gem of worldwide government coin and other collectible numismatic products and is Proof. Struck from dies based on the original not affiliated with the United States government. This product was minted pri- vately and is not legal tender in the U.S. Facts and figures deemed accurate as of intricately-engraved banknote dies, each $50 August 2013. ©2013 New York Mint, LLC. week:QXP-1127940387.qxp 8/28/2013 2:40 PM Page 6

THE WEEK sex-reassignment surgery. What followed was an amusing a gun-permitting proposal that had passed the state legisla- modern take on the Maoist self-criticism session: Lefty writers ture by a significant margin. Killing the measure, Christie apologized for having been insufficiently quick to switch from ar gued bluntly that the affected weapons had “never been “Bradley” to “Chelsea,” NPR and other liberal organizations used in a crime in New Jersey.” This invited the inevitable were blasted for their “refusal to respect Chelsea Manning’s question as to why he’d proposed doing something about the name and pronouns,” the Wikipedia article on Bradley Man - wea pons in the first place. The answer is obvious. Christie is ning was retitled “Chelsea Manning,” and using Private Man - trying to move from the governorship of an anti-gun state to ning’s legal name or referring to his biological sex quickly the leadership of a pro–Second Amendment party. Have veto, came to be regarded as a hate crime. This is something between will travel. silliness and madness. Even if one is inclined to play along with the fiction that sex-change operations change a man’s sex, n Al Gore is still calling people who disagree with him about Mr. Manning has not undergone such a procedure, and is un - global warming “deniers”—in a clear and vicious parallel to like ly to do so while a guest at Club Fed. Bradley or Chelsea, “Holocaust deniers.” In a recent interview, he said that “the he is a criminal. Such damage as Private Manning intends to do ability of the raging deniers to stop progress is waning every to his body is a personal matter; the damage he has done to single day.” His side, he said, is “winning the conversation.” U.S. national security is a public one. “The same thing happened on apartheid. The same thing happened on the nuclear-arms race with the freeze movement. n As we go to press, a court-martial is hearing testimony in The same thing happened in an earlier era with abolition.” the death-penalty phase of Nidal Hasan’s murder trial. The Gore’s self-congratulation is unlimited. Let’s hope his cur- Army major has been convicted on all charges arising out of the rent crusade is just as successful as the nuclear freeze was. Fort Hood massacre: 13 counts of murder n House Democrats are still trying to claim that the Internal and 32 of attempted Revenue Service was politically evenhanded in reviewing murder. The 2009 ram- groups applying for tax-exempt status. Representatives Elijah page against U.S. sol- Cummings (Md.) and Sander Levin (Mich.) now point to a diers about to deploy tranche of documents showing that the IRS directed agents to to Afghanistan was the probe the applications of “ACORN successor groups.” What worst jihadist attack on they ignore is that ACORN had been embroiled in scandal, American soil since the which had led Congress to pull its federal funding. Tea-party 9/11 atrocities—in the groups had done nothing similar. Their offense was running eyes of everyone except afoul of a liberal bureaucracy. the Obama ad mini - stration, which contin- n The fact that our open-ended subsidization of higher educa- ues to regard it as a case tion is raising tuitions without improving student outcomes of workplace violence, may be slowly dawning even on President Obama. In a speech, the motive for which must not be uttered. Hasan de clined to play he proposed to link student aid to measures of college perfor- along with the charade. Acting as his own lawyer, he proudly mance, including the employment record of graduates: The maintained that he was and is an Islamic supremacist and that he better a college’s performance, the more aid its students would deliberately mowed down American troops in order to protect the get. There can be no objection in principle to setting conditions Taliban. Nonetheless, prosecutors charged it as a straight murder for the receipt of federal money. The obstacles to the plan do case, not a terrorism one. It is a sad comment that Hasan seemed not, however, seem to have been thought through. How, for to see the issues more clearly than they. example, can the federal government reward employment performance without in practice just rewarding collegiate selec- n Governor Chris Christie has signed a bill making it illegal tivity in admissions? A wrongheaded but bipartisan coalition for licensed psychotherapists in New Jersey to honor a minor’s has limited our ability to track these outcomes in the first place, request for help in becoming heterosexual. Citing mainstream even for the purpose of informing families about how well medical opinion, Christie argued that such therapy can lead colleges prepare students for work before they take out loans. to depression, substance abuse, and suicidal thoughts. But The president said nothing about this issue. Partial credit. presumably young people seeking to find or reinforce their hetero sexuality already suffer, and now therapists willing to n The Department of Justice is suing to restrict Louisiana’s work with them to reach their goals are forbidden by the state school-choice program, the theory being that choice might, as to do so. No one believes, of course, that this legislation is part the New Orleans Times-Picayune puts it, “disrupt the racial of a general campaign for higher standards in psychology: It is, balance.” Most studies have found that school-choice pro- instead, part of an effort to make a particular, contestable view grams promote racial integration, and the numbers involved of sexual psychology and morality the official policy of the here are trivial: The Justice Department cites a school system state. It is to Christie’s discredit that he has gone along. that has gone from being 29.6 percent white to 28.9. More to the point, the racial balance of a school should matter less than

BRIGITTE WOOSLEY n Banish any lingering doubts: Christie is preparing himself its educational effectiveness. That’s something neither the seg- / for a presidential run in 2016. In August, he vetoed a gun- regationists of old nor contemporary liberals seem able to

AP PHOTO control bill that he himself had proposed, and watered down accept.

6 | www.nationalreview.com SEPTEMBER 1 6 , 2 0 1 3 base:milliken-mar 22.qxd 8/27/2013 3:47 PM Page 1

3:40 PM Page 1

Direct from Locked Vaults to U.S. Citizens! Original U.S. Gov’t Morgan Silver Dollars

National Collector’s Mint announces a A message from the special limited release of 3,085 Morgan 37TH TREASURER OF THE Silver Dollars 92-135 years old at $29 UNITED STATES each. Several prominent national dealers charge up to $38.75 MORE for a Hello, I’m Angela Marie comparable Morgan Silver Dollar. These B u c h a n a n . Yo u m i g h t Morgans are among the last surviving know me as Bay Buchanan. originals still in existence, and each coin is I was appointed by Ronald Reagan to be the 37th Trea- guaranteed to be in mostly Brilliant surer of the United States… Uncirculated to Fine condition. Due to maybe you’ve seen my signature on volatile fluctuations in the precious metals some of the bills in your wallet. So, market, price can be guaranteed @ $29 each you can understand why our nation’s for one week only! coins per customer will be strictly coins are vitally important to me. MARKET CONDITIONS adhered to. Due to the extremely limited That’s why I’m so pleased to be able to The last time silver hit $50 an ounce, nature of this offer, mail orders cannot be announce this release of Morgan Silver Dollars by National Collector’s Mint. China was a poor, underdeveloped nation. accepted. THIS OFFER MAY BE Now, the Chinese are rich and using over WITHDRAWN AT ANY TIME Of all the coins ever struck by the U.S. three times as much silver! Will this drive the WITHOUT NOTICE AT THE SOLE Gov’t, none have so captured our imag- price of silver back to $50 or even higher? DISCRETION OF NCM. inations the way Morgans have. Per- haps it’s because Morgan Silver Dollars One thing is certain – dramatic increases in You may order 1 Morgan Silver Dollar are so much a part of our heritage – that silver investment have seen silver prices rise for $29, plus $4 shipping, handling and striking image of Lady Liberty has been over 129% in the last five years, and as much insurance, 3 for $94 ppd., 5 for $154.50 with us since 1878, a time when Amer- as 29% in one month alone! But you can still ppd., 10 for $303 ppd., 20 for $599 ppd., ica was only 38 states big, and much of get these Morgans for just $29 each! 50 for $1480 ppd., 100 for $2935 ppd. If our country was raw frontier. Morgan’s INVESTMENT you’re not 100% delighted with your pur- gleaming silver dollars saw us through Increasing prices of precious metals make chase simply send us your postage paid two World Wars. They fueled periods of every Morgan Silver Dollar more valuable. return within 60 days for a refund of your wealth and helped us survive the strug- purchase price. Don’t wait. ACT NOW! gle of the Great Depression. Of course, But acquiring your own private cache of they gained even more notoriety in the Morgan Silver Dollars is a long term casinos of the Old West and then again, investment in so much more... in in the casinos of the new Las Vegas. history... in American heritage... Most of all, they are a constant symbol in the splendid rendering of of America. Miss Liberty’s profile by So I invite you to sample some of these designer George T. Morgan, magnificent Morgan Silver Dollars. whose “M” mark on every Enjoy them. Protect them. Celebrate Morgan Silver Dollar identifies them. What better way to hold your his masterwork. And, of course, history, our history, America’s history Morgan Silver Dollars have not in the palm of your hand! been minted for 92 years and are Sincerely, no longer in circulation. Phone orders will be filled on a first- come, first-served basis and a limit of 100 Angela Marie (Bay) Buchanan 37th Treasurer of the United States of America National Collector’s Mint, Inc. is an independent, private corporation not affiliated with, Co-Director, NCM Board of Advisors endorsed, or licensed by the U.S. Government or the U.S. Mint. Offer not valid in CT. CALL TOLL-FREE 1-800-799-MINT ASK FOR EXT. 6416 (1-800-799-6468) © 2013 NCM, Inc. E1-E66 week:QXP-1127940387.qxp 8/28/2013 2:22 PM Page 8

THE WEEK n Al Jazeera, the news network owned by the Qatari royal n Rob Long has one of the hardest jobs in journalism: satiriz- family, launched its U.S. network in August, opening in parodic ing the shenanigans of the politico-media complex. Not more fashion. To discuss unrest in Egypt, they brought in a Har vard than a few weeks after he published a comedic fantasy about academic—but not one with expertise in civil conflict, Egypt, NSA snoops using the national-security apparatus to stalk or the Arab uprisings. Rather, their first guest was international- prospective love interests, it was revealed that members of the affairs theorist Stephen Walt, co-author of The Israel Lobby, a agency were doing precisely that. They called it love-int. tract that attributes much of American foreign policy to the About that, two things: First, come on, NSA, that’s what Face- work of a small group of influential individuals devoted to book is for. Second, these NSA operatives should be writing increasing U.S. support for the Jewish state. In his appearance, their next love letters from prison cells. Walt suggested that the U.S. would be uninterested in Egypt, the capital of the Arab world and home of the Suez Ca nal, were n Ever since Ted Cruz arrived in the Senate in January, the New it not for our loyalty to Israel. They don’t call Al Jazeera the York Times has been teasing him about his Canadian birth. The voice of the Arab street for nothing. senator was born in Calgary, but got to Texas as quick as he

Don’t Blame China

HE decline of employment in the manufacturing sector 2010, he made $5,287. Although Chinese compensation has been one of the most reliable trends in the U.S. would still look paltry to most American workers, it is much T labor market for decades. From a high of over 19 mil- more costly to employ a Chinese worker today than it was in lion employees in 1979, manufacturing employment slid 1998—about five times as expensive. slowly to just over 17 million in 2000 and then fell to a low of This shift will affect the flow of manufacturing jobs for 11.4 million in the first quarter of 2010, climbing back a bit to two main reasons. First, while Chinese labor is still 11.98 million at the beginning of this year. cheaper than U.S. labor, the gap is closing rapidly and will This decline has, of course, been driven by many factors. continue to close. A manufacturer planning a new plant will Automation has made it possible for U.S. manufacturers to have to factor future wages over the life of the plant into his massively increase the productivity of the workers they do calculus, and the U.S. will look increasingly attractive by employ. From 1979 to today, manufacturing output in the U.S. that measure. Second, because of the recent sharp in - has increased from $1.25 trillion to $1.64 trillion in inflation- crease, Chinese wages are much higher than wages in adjusted dollars, despite the decline in employment. In addi- countries such as Indonesia and Thailand. To the extent tion, workers have sensibly been drawn into employment in that labor-intensive U.S. activity is displaced by foreign other sectors, such as software, where the U.S. has a signifi- production, it is much less likely that China will be seen as cant comparative advantage. the culprit. Politicians of both parties have tended to bemoan the de - The rise of Chinese wages will, however, create one cline in manufacturing employment, treating it as a sign of fail- employment crisis in the U.S.: Politicians’ highly developed ure. This observation itself is questionable, as a dollar earned China-bashing skills may soon be obsolete. designing software is just as valuable as a dollar earned in manufacturing, but the worst part of the conversation has —KEVIN A. HASSETT been the blame game and the trade war it threatens. Listen to either party, and the entire swing is attributable to the evil Annual Compensation of actions of the currency-manipulating Chinese, who have apparently been running an organized-crime syndicate spe- Urban Workers in China cializing in job theft. (In 2010 U.S. Dollars) To be sure, low-wage and labor-intensive manufacturing activities such as product assembly have shifted to China $6,000 $5,287 over the past few decades. Chinese workers were so numer- $5,000 ous and so cheap that it was impossible for labor-intensive U.S. firms to compete. The latest research, however, suggests $4,000

that the shift toward China is likely to be a much smaller story $3,000 in the future. While it is true that wages in China are still lower than those $2,000 in the U.S., they are rising quickly. The nearby chart shows the $1,000 average urban wage in China, as calculated in a recent article $1,004 by Hongbin Li, Lei Li, Binzhen Wu, and Yanyan Xiong in the $0 Journal of Economic Perspectives. In 1978, a typical Chinese 1978 1980 1982 1984 1986 1988 1990 1992 1994 1996 1998 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008 2010 manufacturing worker made $1,004 in inflation-adjusted dol- SOURCE: “THE END OF CHEAP CHINESE LABOR,” BY HONGBIN LI, LEI LI, lars—a number that barely budged for almost 20 years. In BINZHEN WU, AND YANYAN XIONG

8 | www.nationalreview.com SEPTEMBER 1 6 , 2 0 1 3 base:milliken-mar 22.qxd 8/26/2013 1:38 PM Page 1

Technology Simplified FREE Automatic Software A simple to use Updates computer designed especially for Seniors.

George Bernard Shaw once said Why this operating system is NEW “Youth is wasted on the young.” different. From the second you turn Touch Screen Were he alive today, he might well say on your WOW Computer, you’ll see Technology that computers and the Internet the difference. Instead of “clicking are wasted on the young. The very and dragging and dropping” little people who can benefit most from icons, you simply touch the screen. the digital revolution are the ones The display is simple and easy to who are least likely to take advantage understand and the navigation of it. Computers seem to be designed couldn’t be easier. Just touch and go. for teenagers, and many older folks are intimidated by the complex All the fun, none of the problems. operating systems and complicated The WOW Computer is designed navigation. It’s gotten so bad to avoid the two biggest headaches that some people have to pay for in computer use–viruses and spam. instructional videos or go to classes It comes to you ready to use right just to use their computer. Now, out of the box, all you need is a the leader in finding products high-speed Internet connection.

® for Boomers and Beyond™ has designed for SENIORS developed a computer that’s designed Once you’ve experienced this Big Bright Screen just for people like you. It’s helping computer, you’ll wish you had One-touch “zoom” 200x magnification thousands of people get back into gotten one sooner. It comes to life by keeping them connected. you with firstSTREET’s exclusive I am having a great time risk-free home trial. Try it for on my WOW computer. I Let’s start with the computer yourself, and if you are not am learning something new itself. It features the latest touch completely satisfied simply return it screen technology, so if you can dial within 30 days for a full refund of the everyday. I am 79 years old a phone, you can use this computer. product purchase price. and cannot believe that I am If you’d rather use a keyboard and typing and sending e-mails a mouse, we’ve included those too. to all my friends now. My The keyboard features large lettering daughter and granddaughter and the trackball mouse is easy to are so excited now that I use. The speakers enable you to turn have a computer. They use up the volume if you have trouble computers on their jobs hearing, and there is even a built-in Call now for our special everyday, but they cannot camera for taking photographs believe what you can do of yourself and promotional price! on this computer. It is for video chat. Please mention promotional code wonderful... Thanks. 50719. – Johnnie E., Ellijay, Ga 1-877-794-5387 …”surf” the Internet Get current weather & news. …send and receive emails,

…play games Online and video chat 80754

THE WEEK could, to use an old saying. He was four years old. His mother house appropriations committee, has been leading the was always an American anyway (a native of Del a ware). vendetta. After NAtioNAl RE viEW began inquiring as to Recently, the Times observed that “Canada is not par tic u larly whether Representative Pitts was one of the texas pols who beloved by American conservatives.” NAtioNAl REviEW, you had leaned on the law school to admit his son, he declined to see, “memorably ran a cover in 2007 [actually 2002] depicting deny the accusations and announced that he would not be a group of Mounties with the headline ‘Wimps!’ the article seeking reelection. Mr. Hall, for his part, seems to be guilty inside complained about the country’s ‘whiny and weak anti- of the high crime and misdemeanor of being an acute pain in Americanism.’” true. But just last March, we ran a cover that the backside of the University of texas, and has made a series trumpeted “the true North!” We hailed “the best-governed of open-records requests with which the university adminis- country in North America and its exceptional leader” (Con - tration resents complying. Keeping an eye on managerial servative prime minister Stephen Harper). Don’t tell us that the practices is precisely what boards of trustees are there to do. Times has let its subscription lapse . . . it is not Mr. Hall but his tormentors who have been promis- cuous with the public trust. n North Carolina passed a voter-iD law that, the critics say, will all but reinstitute Jim Crow. the central provision is a photo-iD requirement that has passed, in one form or another, n Egypt’s new military ruler, General Abdul Fattah al-Sisi, in about 30 other states and is broadly popular with the pub- is pacifying the country at a fearsome cost in lives. Civil war lic, including blacks and latinos. there is no evidence that no longer seems to loom. No riots have erupted over the dia- such a requirement suppresses turnout. North Carolina is also metrically different fates of the two Egyptian presidents de - cutting back on early voting, reducing the period from two posed in the so-called Arab Spring: Hosni Mubarak was weeks to one, although the state will maintain more early- released from prison, while Mohamed voting sites that will be open for longer hours. it is ending Morsi is facing trial for murder. Ac - same-day registration, but it had been an outlier among states cord ing to reports from Egypt, the in allowing same-day registration in the first place. (New man on the street who may even York, home to the New York Times, which is predictably out- have voted for Morsi is now will- raged by all this, has neither early voting nor same-day reg- ing for the army to restore peace istration.) the NAACP is suing on behalf of Rosanell Eaton, and quiet—and cannot understand a 92-year-old black woman who first registered to vote why Washington doesn’t get the decades ago by completing a literacy test and claims the new point. Under the circumstances, our law would disenfranchise her because her birth certificate, best bet is to try to prod the military in driver’s license, and voter record all have different spellings the direction of decent, constitu- of her name. But her mismatched names could be easily tional government—without remedied by a trip to the local board of elections, an errand great hope of near-term she surely can take care of prior to 2016, when the law goes success. into effect. North Carolina’s changes are reasonable; the state’s critics are not. n three years ago, israel and Egypt had a joint blockade on n the New Mexico supreme court ruled that state anti- the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, and the world shook with discrimination laws obligate a photographer who objects to anger. turkey launched an international flotilla to condemn same-sex marriage to take pictures of a same-sex wedding and provoke the israelis. the eyes of the media were riveted. ceremony. that might be the right reading of the legal provi- Since Egypt’s military coup in July, Cairo has had a staunch sions involved, which means that the legislature ought to blockade on Gaza. A Hamas official complained that Egypt change its statutes. one of the justices, Richard Bosson, used had turned Gaza into a “big prison.” But as Khaled Abu the occasion to lecture the photographer that her loss of toameh, the invaluable Palestinian-israeli journalist, says, freedom is “the price of citizenship” in our “multicultural, there are no flotillas. the world averts its gaze: “the activists pluralistic society.” All of us must “leave space for other do not care about the Palestinians’ suffering as much as they Americans who believe something different. that compro- are interested in advancing their anti-israel agenda.” mise is part of the glue that holds us together as a nation,” etc. it does not appear to have occurred to Justice Bosson that n very large rock that it is at the entrance to the Medi terra - space for her beliefs is precisely what the photographer was ne an, Gibraltar is something like a small pebble in Spanish after. shoes. Exactly 300 years ago, Spain ceded it by treaty to Bri- tain, and ever since it has looked for one pretext or another n the texas legislature has taken the unprecedented step of to get it back. this time, the pretext is a reef of cement blocks beginning impeachment proceedings against University of placed underwater. the purpose, the British say, is to pre- texas regent Wallace Hall, an appointee of Governor Rick serve fish stocks, and they add that Spain has similar reefs. Perry who has brought unwelcome attention to such univer- No longer fishing at all, the British have long since aban- sity practices as political favoritism in admissions to the Ut doned their waters to Spanish fishermen, who now claim that law school, dishonest accounting, and the use of a slush fund the reef is a deliberate attempt to keep them out. Several fathoms to quietly supplement the salaries of favored professors. down, Spanish divers have been filmed fixing the Span ish Representative Jim Pitts, the powerful chairman of the texas flag to the reef. on land, the Spanish authorities hold up the

1 0 | www.nationalreview.com SEPTEMBER 1 6 , 2 0 1 3 base:milliken-mar 22.qxd 8/27/2013 11:46 PM Page 1 week:QXP-1127940387.qxp 8/28/2013 2:29 PM Page 12

THE WEEK border crossing for hours, inconveniencing, for the most part, next month. All friends of liberty should hope that this will put an the 7,000 daily Spanish commuters to Gibraltar. It’s an end to a disgraceful chapter. unusual way of winning hearts and minds on the Rock. A recent poll showed that 98 percent of the 30,000 residents of n Human-rights fashion is a curious thing. You never know Gibraltar see themselves as British and want nothing to do what will arouse the conscience of people. Thousands of peo- with Spain. Every British prime minister, including David ple have petitioned the Metropolitan Opera to dedicate its Cameron, has defended the right of these people to self- opening night to gay rights. The Met’s 2013–14 season will determination on sovereign territory. The current spat at least open with Eugene Onegin, conducted by Valery Gergiev, al lowed Boris Johnson, mayor of London and a columnist for with Anna Netrebko singing Tatiana. Both of those artists are the Daily Telegraph, to remind us how the King of Spain had friendly with Vladimir Putin. And the petitioners want the complained to the Queen of England when Prince Charles put Met to take a stand for gay rights, given that the Putin gov- into Gibraltar on the royal yacht during his honeymoon. She ernment is hostile to gay rights. The company’s general man- replied, “It’s my yacht, my son, and my Rock.” ager, Peter Gelb, said, “As an institution, the Met deplores the suppression of equal rights here or abroad. But since our n Although correctly regarded as the historical home of free mission is artistic, it is not appropriate for our performances speech, Britain has no equivalent of the First Amendment. In to be used by us for political purposes, no matter how noble August, a 49-year-old American police officer–turned–preacher or right the cause.” The Russian authorities have done any num- discovered this to his surprise when he was arrested for deliv- ber of vile, even monstrous, things. For example, they tortured ering a sermon about “sexual immorality” on a London street the lawyer Sergei Magnitsky to death. They have also killed corner. Discussing his ordeal, he complained that British author- journalist after journalist. Has anyone ever bothered a musician ities were “intolerant to the Christian point of view.” This isn’t or an opera company about that? Yes, human-rights fashion is a quite accurate. In truth, the British are equal-opportunity cen- curious thing. sors, allowing the “victim” to determine the severity of the “crime” and thus potentially punishing anyone who offends the n Lee Daniels’s The Butler stars Forest Whitaker as a black sensibilities of anyone else. Soon, that authority will be stripped: White House butler who witnesses civil-rights history from his Section 5, the part of the Public Order Act that gives British post in the corridors of presidential power. Notwith standing its police the capacity to punish speakers, will be formally repealed fertile historical source material—the real-life career of Eu -

You Are Invited to Attend the Human Life Foundation’s 11th Annual This Ye ar H ERIC and SUSANNEo noringMETAXAS

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

Please join us in honoring this most deserving couple. For more information and/or to purchase tickets online, visit our website at www.humanlifereview.com. You may also email us at [email protected] or call 212 685-5210.

1 2 | www.nationalreview.com SEPTEMBER 1 6 , 2 0 1 3 week:QXP-1127940387.qxp 8/28/2013 2:08 PM Page 13

gene Allen, who served every president from Truman to Rea - like death rays, flying cars, or even solar panels that generate gan—this “docudrama” from the director of Precious is more electricity at a reasonable cost? Nothing so implausible. of a paean to the current generation than a tribute to the past. Instead, the military set aside Area 51 for testing and develop- In hurried, choppy fashion, the film portrays the events of the ment of the U-2 and other spy planes, and there is nothing civil-rights movement—the sit-ins, the Freedom Rides, the other worldly going on there except the scenery. At least, that’s assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., and so on—as way sta- what they want you to think . . . tions on the road to its triumphant finale: the election of Barack Obama. Along the way, Daniels presents a familiar line-up of n Fifteen years ago, the University of Denver changed its ath- soft-Left presidential stereotypes: JFK is a saintly family man, letic mascot from Denver Boone, a coonskin-capped cartoon Nixon an evil paranoiac, Reagan a bumbling oldster, and so on. boy, to a half-hearted attempt at a hawk. No one liked the new It’s a fairly wearying tale; but it would have been more under- mascot who wasn’t paid to, so it was dropped, and DU’s Pio neers standable in 2008, when a combination of justifiable pride and went mascotless. Recently, though, students and alumni have gauzy invention made Obama a racial hero. Five years of high unofficially but enthusiastically revived Denver Boone—to the unemployment and one nasty reelection campaign later, The administration’s chagrin, since the lad has several flaws that Butlerfeels like a film whose time has come and gone. are fatal in today’s academia: He’s white, he’s male, and he’s presumably discourteous towards Indians. So, in typical aca- n In early August, Oprah Winfrey—who stars in TheButler— demic fashion, the university appointed a committee. As lucked out. Just days before the press interviews for the new movie, she found herself embroiled in a headline-grabbing inter national “racism” incident in which a shop assistant in Zu - rich, Switzerland, allegedly told the star that she couldn’t af ford a $38,000 handbag. The store’s owner, Trudie Goetz, protested to Reuters that her assistant, who doesn’t speak Eng - lish, was trying to give Winfrey multiple options; Winfrey told cameras that she had been racially profiled. Many would con- sider it a remarkable jump from “I was treated badly in a store” to “I was subject to racist stereotyping.” But Winfrey has prov en herself wholly capable of such movement before. Eight years ago, when turned away from an Hermès store in Paris af ter hours, Winfrey complained that the store’s refusal to let her in after it had locked up for the day was the product of the color of her skin. When the only tool you have is a hammer . . .

n Oberlin College’s long nightmare of “campus racism”— involving attacks on Black History Month and even a sighting Patricia Calhoun reports in Westword: “The 76-member Mascot of the KKK—ended with the predictable confession that the Steering Com mittee sent a survey to more than 78,000 members affair had been a hoax perpetrated by two progressive students. of the greater DU community, asking their opinion on three Less predictable was the revelation that faculty and police potential mascots—the Elk, the Jack alope, and the Mountain knew early on that the saga was a hoax but indulged it as if it Explorer—each of which had two po tential looks.” None of these were real anyway. In the meantime, the story went national, options was anywhere near as popular as the durable Den ver inviting much wailing and gnashing of teeth. One would Boone. If the DU administration wants a symbol of what the expect that, once caught, authorities would apologize and school is really about, why not call the mascot the Denver heads would roll. But this is a university: “These actions were Bureaucrat? real,” the administration said in a statement. “The fear and dis- ruption they caused in our community were real.” Well, as real n There are few things as dispiriting as an NFL exhibition as anything at Oberlin. game; even if your team is victorious, it’s like beating your wife at strip poker. So perhaps it was no great loss to John n At long last, the government has admitted the existence of Coulter of Arizona and his 15-year-old son when they were top-secret Area 51, a heavily guarded preserve down in the ejected last month from the Cardinals’ preseason contest pointy end of Nevada, and revealed some details about what against the Cowboys’ third string. Still, it was an indignity; in the area is used for (though it still has not explained where the fact, plainclothes agents actually threatened Coulter with ar- other 50 areas are). Area 51’s existence has long been rumored; rest—all for violating state liquor laws by letting his son hold it has been alleged to be a landing site for UFOs, and tales have his beer while he took a picture. Coulter understandably circulated of an eerie, secluded reservation bustling with in - deemed the suds patrol’s actions excessive, and he told them so ves ti ga tive journalists, flying saucers grounded for lack of loudly and profanely, at which point an ejection became in ev - spare parts, and little green men who look like Harry Reid. it able. While cursing out police officers is both unwise and un - DENVER POST

THE Why did the government break the secrecy? Is it all part of an civil, we do sympathize with the Coulters over the officers’ , amnesty plot for a new type of illegal alien, leading soon over zealous response to something that deserved, at most, a enough to the inevitable affirmative action for Martian Amer i - friendly caution. If only Arizona police could be this effective

KARL GEHRING cans? Has DARPA been developing futuristic technologies at enforcing immigration laws . . .

1 3 week:QXP-1127940387.qxp 8/28/2013 2:42 PM Page 14

THE WEEK

HISTORY SYRIA Marching in Time Crossing the Line he civil-rights revolution, like the American Revolution, S we go to press, President Obama is about to launch one was in a crucial sense conservative: It did not seek to of the most reluctant military strikes in U.S. history. T invent rights, but to secure ones that the government A he has been cornered into acting in Syria by his own already respected in principle. “In a sense we have come to our rhetoric and the criminality of the Assad regime, which in deploy- nation’s capital to cash a check,” said Martin Luther King Jr., a ing chemical weapons joins a select, fiendish club of governments “promissory note” signed in “the magnificent words of the willing to flout one of the most firmly entrenched international Constitution and the Declaration of Independence.” The speech norms. When it became clear earlier in the year that Bashar al- he gave 50 years ago this August is a thorough, if implicit, repu- Assad’s forces were preparing to use chemical weapons, President diation of all anti-Americanism. Obama issued a number of warnings about red lines, which he did The revolution was also a religious movement, overall he could to dance around and evade once Assad indeed whelmingly made up of Christians and Jews, unashamed to launched a chemical attack in April. emboldened, Assad has per- be led by a minister, willing to make an explicitly theologi- petrated a more brazen assault that killed hundreds in the cal argument for itself: “Now is the time to open the doors of Damascus suburbs. opportunity to all of God’s children.” The outrage of our allies and the logic of the president’s own Too many conservatives and libertarians, including the editors statements make it nearly impossible for him to escape acting this of this magazine, missed all of this at the time. They worried time. If he did somehow find a way out, it would dangerously about the effects of the civil-rights movement on federalism and erode the credibility of the United States. The president can’t limited government. Those principles weren’t wrong, exactly; repeatedly make threats that prove utterly empty without they were tragically misapplied, given the moral and historical inviting every bad actor in the world to laugh off whatever we context. It is a mark of the success of King’s movement that say in the future, in potentially much more dire and important almost all Americans can now see its necessity. circumstances. Another mark is the decrepitude of today’s civil-rights move- The administration seems inclined to a minimal, Bill ment. The evils the movement fought—state-sponsored segrega- Clinton–style attack from the air. This would be better than noth- tion, pervasive racial discrimination—have been vanquished. In ing, although not without its own risks. If it is too obviously sym- their place are evils that are, alas, less amenable to marches. And bolic, it invites the regime to conclude that there is no real price so King’s heirs flail about. Where he spoke of a “bank of justice,” to pay for using WMD, and continue to do so in defiance of us. they just trade in grievances. Today Al Sharpton, whose chief On the other hand, every military intervention—no matter how political success has been to foment enough racial hatred to yield limited—is unpredictable, and Damascus or its allies may lash out arson and murder, can present himself as a civil-rights leader in ways that demand our retaliation in an unexpected escalation. without much fear of contradiction. We will have to look else- Some of our friends urge going all the way and hitting Assad so where for answers to the evils that now afflict Americans, and as to shake the very foundations of his regime, tilt the balance of especially blacks: lousy schools, a thriving drug trade and a mis- the civil war decisively toward the rebels, and hasten his fall from guided governmental response, the collapse of marriage. power. In isolation, this is a manifestly desirable goal. Assad is not On anniversaries like this one, left-wingers sometimes lament just a monster but a cat’s-paw of our enemy in Iran. If he were to that King is not remembered in full. They say that he was hostile lose, it would be a strategic setback to Iran, Russia, and hezbollah, to capitalism and to the Vietnam War. It is a historically accurate which have done so much to support him as he wages a scorched- point, and it is a historically irrelevant point. King is a national earth campaign against his countrymen, and potentially change hero because of the American ideals he championed and brought the balance in the region. Iran would no longer have a strategic much closer to realization. It is the march of those ideals that we bridge connecting it with its terrorist proxies on Israel’s borders. commemorate this week. The reason to stop short of working to topple Assad is the nature of his opposition, dominated by Sunni extremists who are also hostile to our interests, if in different ways. This is why the crucial question in Syria is not what we’ll do from the air, but what we can do on the ground to shape an opposition in which we can have some confidence. After Assad’s last chemical attack, President Obama said he would arm more moderate elements among the rebels, but by all accounts he didn’t follow through. We should have covert forces on the ground arming, training, and advising the rebels with whom we can work, so we aren’t leaving the field to Arab governments with their own interests in influencing the nature of the rebellion. Both justice and cold-blooded calculation say that Assad should fall, provided he’s not replaced by something equally bad. To that end, we should be creating proxy forces on the CHIP SOMODEVILLA ground. Syria is a hellish problem, to be sure, but its difficulties / needn’t freeze us in perpetual indecision. President Obama’s

foreign policy of impotence is a choice, not an inevitability. GETTY IMAGES

1 4 | www.nationalreview.com SEPTEMBER 1 6 , 2 0 1 3 base:milliken-mar 22.qxd 8/26/2013 1:37 PM Page 1

MOON LANDS ON MAN! The skeptics said it couldn’t be done… but our Moon Phase proves that one small step for Stauer is one giant leap for watch lovers!

t has always taken scientific skill and artistic wizardry to Idiscover the Moon’s secrets. When Galileo Galilei turned his telescope towards the Moon in 1609, he relied on his knowledge of light and shadow learned as a painter to understand the movements of the heavenly orb. We relied on that same pairing of art and science to create one of our most complicated and beautiful movements yet… for an unbelievable price! Previously offered for $399, the stars have finally aligned to make the Stauer Moon Phase Watch available for ONLY $99! Our Moon Phase Watch continues a centuries-old tradition of unlocking the secrets of the Moon with scientific innovation. Many watches add extra functions, or complications, to display day and date. But we didn’t stop there. The Moon Phase Watch includes a separate window that showcases the current phase of the Moon. This beautiful addition to the face is no easy feat... Solving the mystery of Moon time. Since earthly time is measured at regular 12 month intervals, the Moon’s month is at odds with our calendar. A lunar month is 29.53 days, so a Moon-phase watch needs to keep time in two totally different ways. That’s why antique watch collectors are always quick to bid on this type of complex lunar movement. You'll find them among the rarest and most expensive vintage watches ever sold at auction. Not long ago, one of the most important moon- phase timepieces fetched an incredible $5.7 million! Our goal was to create a timepiece more accurate and affordable than its ancestors. As you can imagine, an offer this good on a watch this spectacular cannot last forever. How we captured the Moon. We put so much effort into perfecting the mechanics behind this watch, but we A Stauer Exclusive didn’t forget the aesthetics. The Moon Phase Watch boasts Limited to the First 2,499 respondents three different complications set in the guillochéed face: a to this ad only standard monthly calendar, a day of the week indicator, and the moon phase display. Its rose gold-finished case Stauer Moon Phase Watch $399 features a hobnail-pattern bezel and a crocodile-embossed, Now your Call-In only price $99 +S&P Save $300!* genuine brown leather strap adds the final luxurious detail. Call now to take advantage of this fantastic offer. Your satisfaction is 100% guaranteed. If you are not thrilled, simply return the timepiece within 30 days for a 1-888-277-8416 Promotional Code MPW203-02 Rating of A+ full refund of the purchase price. This offer is limited to the Please mention this code when you call. first 2,499 callers to this ad, so please don’t wait. This kind of watch only comes around once in a blue moon. ® 14101 Southcross Drive W., Dept. MPW203-02, Stauer Burnsville, Minnesota 55337 www.stauer.com Stunning little machine! "I am in love with this Smart Luxuries—Surprising Prices™ watch!" — R. M. from Asheville, NC * Price quoted is for Call-In Customers only versus the original Stauer.com price.

Fused rose gold case with hydraulic pattern dial • Day, date, and moon phase dials • Crocodile-embossed leather band fits a 63/4"–9" wrist • 3 ATM water resistance 3col:QXP-1127940387.qxp 8/27/2013 9:57 PM Page 16

operations are so vast, and its reach so sprawling, that it lies beyond the control or comprehension of any one man or group of men, making rational management impossible. Its dispersal of authority and dilution of responsibility produced the debacle in Benghazi, where no one felt responsible for the fates of American diplomats trapped in the consulate, nor would any decision, had it come, have been executed with the speed necessary to save them. President Obama does not know the full scope of his own health-care law, nor can he and his aides figure out how to make its many moving parts work on time. His Justice Department instead resorts to the passive non-enforcement of the laws— the very opposite of energy in the executive—to try to bring coherence to its schemes and advance its policies. This disease infects Obama’s handling even of national-security affairs, where the president’s virtues of “decision, activ- A Thousand Little Tyrants ity, secrecy, and dispatch,” as Hamilton Obama’s problems are a chance to rein in the bureaucracy described them, should be at their height. Defending the nation’s security is the president’s paramount duty. But where BY JOHN YOO earlier presidents stoutly defended their commander-in-chief power to protect the f there has been a unifying theme of power to regulate health care in the nation, Obama’s response to the demands Barack Obama’s presidency, it is Department of Health and Human Serv - of the War on Terror is to seek more judi- the inexorable growth of the admin- ices. Even the Supreme Court, with a cial control over everything from surveil- I istrative state. Its growth, across di - majority of Republican-appointed jus- lance to drones. At times, the Obama verse areas, has followed a pattern: first, tices, did not stand in the way. White House seems unaware of the sur- expand federal powers beyond their Woodrow Wilson, who introduced the veillance and killing being done by his enumerated constitutional limits. Second, administrative state, thought that it would intelligence agencies and shows little delegate those powers to agencies and allow experts to solve social problems interest in directing them. In a March 12, away from elected politicians in Con - scientifically and without the push-and- 2013, congressional hearing, for exam- gress. Third, insulate civil servants from pull of partisan politics. But it has had ple, Obama’s director of national intelli- politics so they can wield their discretion much the opposite effect. Unaccountable gence denied that the NSA was collecting without accountability. finally, force bureaucracy lacks both deliberation with “any type of data” on Americans. And the courts to defer unthinkingly to Con - accountability (the virtue of the Con - President Obama has been noticeably gress’s acts of delegation and agency reg- gress) and decision with vigor (the virtue absent in defending anti-terrorism sur- ulation. of the president). veillance, leaving the job to General Keith Obamacare represents the apotheosis “A feeble execution is but another Alexander, director of the NSA, and the of this administrative state. Congress phrase for a bad execution,” Alexander chairmen of the House and Senate intelli- claimed authority to take over one-sixth Hamilton argued in Federalist 70, “and a gence committees. It is difficult to imag- of the American economy. But instead government ill executed, whatever it may ine George Washington, Lincoln, or fDR of passing the rules for this massive new be in theory, must be, in practice, a bad responding to their national-security government program, the large Demo- government.” By contrast, “good gov- challenges with the diffidence that afflicts cratic majorities in Congress vested the ernment” requires “energy in the execu- Obama. tive,” in a vigorous president who is However much they may enjoy watch- Mr. Yoo is a law professor at the University of “essential to the protection of the coming Obama flounder, conservatives should California, Berkeley, and a visiting scholar at the munity from foreign attacks” and to “the seize his problems as an opportunity to American Enterprise Institute. He served in the Bush steady administration of the laws.” Presi - reform the administrative state. They Justice Department from 2001 to 2003 and is a dent Obama’s allegiance to the liberal should begin to develop a broader agen- co-author of Taming Globalization: administrative state guaranteed that his da to change the way government works. International Law, the U.S. Constitution, presidency would run aground on the Their previous approach unintention-

and the New World Order. very shoals that Hamilton marked out. Its ally exacerbated the problems. When ROMAN GENN

1 6 | www.nationalreview.com SEPTEMBER 1 6 , 2 0 1 3 base:milliken-mar 22.qxd 8/26/2013 1:33 PM Page 1

LongerSound BatteryBetter and Life No Finally, a cell phone FREE Contract Car NEW that’s… a phone Charger Introducing the all-new Jitterbug® Plus. We’ve made it even better… without making it harder to use.

All my friends have new cell phones. They carry them Basic 14 Basic 19 around with them all day, like mini computers, with Monthly Minutes 50 was 100 NOW 200 little tiny keyboards and hundreds of programs which Monthly Rate $14.99 $19.99

are supposed to make their life easier. Trouble is… Operator Assistance 24/7 24/7 my friends can’t use them. The keypads are too small, 911 Access FREE FREE

the displays are hard to see and the phones are so Long Distance Calls No add’l charge No add’l charge complicated that my friends end up borrowing my Voice Dial FREE FREE Jitterbug when they need to make a call. I don’t Nationwide Coverage YES YES mind… I just got a new phone too… the new Friendly Return Policy1 30 days 30 days Jitterbug Plus. Now I have all the things I loved More minute plans available. Ask your Jitterbug expert for details. about my Jitterbug phone along with some great new the problem with prepaid phones. Since there is no features that make it even better! contract to sign, you are not locked in for years at a time GreatCall® created the Jitterbug with one thing in and won’t be subject to early termination fees. The U.S. mind – to offer people a cell phone that’s easy to see based customer service is knowledgeable and hear, simple to use and affordable. Now, they’ve and helpful and the phone gets service made the cell phone experience even better with virtually anywhere in the continental the Jitterbug Plus. It features a lightweight, U.S. Above all, you’ll get one-touch comfortable design with a backlit keypad and access to a friendly, and helpful big, legible numbers. There is even a dial tone GreatCall operator. They can look so you know the phone is ready to use. You up numbers, and even dial them for can also increase the volume with one touch you! They are always there to help and the speaker’s been improved so you you when you need them.

get great audio quality and can hear every Call now and receive a FREE word. The battery has been improved too– Car Charger – a $24.99 value. it’s the longest-lasting– so you won’t have Try the Jitterbug Plus for to charge it as often. The phone comes to yourself for 30 days and if you with your account already set up and is you don’t love it, just return it easy to activate. for a refund1 of the product The rate plans are simple too. Why purchase price. Call now – pay for minutes you’ll never use? There helpful Jitterbug experts are are a variety of affordable plans. Plus, ready to answer your questions. you don’t have to worry about finding Available in yourself stuck with no minutes– that’s Silver and Red.

Order now and receive a Jitterbug Plus Cell Phone Call today to get your own Jitterbug Plus. FREE Car Charger for your Jitterbug – Please mention promotional code 50718. a $24.99 value. Call now! 1-888-671-8547 www.jitterbug direct.com We proudly accept the following credit cards. 47586 IMPORTANT CONSUMER INFORMATION: Jitterbug is owned by GreatCall, Inc. Your invoices will come from GreatCall. All rate plans and services require the purchase of a Jitterbug phone and a one-time set up fee of $35. Coverage and service is not available everywhere. Other charges and restrictions may apply. Screen images simulated. There are no additional fees to call Jitterbug’s 24-hour U.S. Based Customer Service. However, for calls to an Operator in which a service is completed, minutes will be deducted from your monthly balance equal to the length of the call and any call connected by the Operator, plus an additional 5 minutes. Monthly minutes carry over and are available for 60 days. If you exceed the minute balance on your account, you will be billed at 35¢ for each minute used over the balance. Monthly rate plans do not include government taxes or assessment surcharges. Prices and fees subject to change. 1We will refund the full price of the GreatCall phone and the activation fee (or set-up fee) if it is returned within 30 days of purchase in like-new condition. We will also refund your first monthly service charge if you have less than 30 minutes of usage. If you have more than 30 minutes of usage, a per minute charge of 35 cents will be deducted from your refund for each minute over 30 minutes. You will be charged a $10 restocking fee. The shipping charges are not refundable. Jitterbug and GreatCall are registered trademarks of GreatCall, Inc. Samsung is a registered trademark of Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. ©2013 Samsung Telecommunications America, LLC. ©2013 GreatCall, Inc. ©2013 by firstSTREET for Boomers and Beyond, Inc. 3col:QXP-1127940387.qxp 8/27/2013 9:57 PM Page 18

Ronald Reagan took office, conserva- Congress. Rather than persuade both the rethink their old hostility toward tives did not seek to radically downsize House and the Senate, all the interest Congress. and transform the administrative state. groups have to do now is capture the Another conservative revolution could Instead, they tried to tame it by making Federal Communications Commission or come in the area of individual rights. its decisions more rational. Led by Chris the EPA staff. It is unclear whether this Many conservative lawyers and judges, DeMuth (later head of the American outcome and the resulting state of our especially those who came to the fore Enterprise Institute) and Douglas Gins- republic should be the subject of an during the Reagan years, were taught that burg (later a judge of the U.S. Court of Elizabethan tragedy or of a comedy. Lochner v. New York (1905) was the great Appeals for the D.C. Circuit), conserva- If the White House does not care to example of the evils of judicial activism. tives created a powerful nerve center force the administrative state to act in a In Lochner, the Supreme Court struck within the Office of Management and unitary, rational manner, then agencies down a limit on the working hours of Budget that forced all new regulations to will be free to pursue their own ideo- bakers as a violation of their due-process survive cost-benefit review. Led by logical agendas. If the president be - right to make contracts. In doing so, the Antonin Scalia (later D.C. Circuit judge lieves government can make economic Court endorsed a view of constitutional and Supreme Court justice) and Robert decisions better than the market, then rights that had held sway since Recon - Bork (ditto—almost), conservatives officials can act without any effective struction. It was derived ultimately from sought to turn the agencies toward dereg- re straint. Conservative principles have the Framers’ concept of natural rights, ulation to spark economic growth. only allowed the welfare state to expand which the authors of the Reconstruction- Three legal doctrines sat at the core of its reach, ousting the private decisions of era constitutional amend ments shared. this campaign. First, the president must the markets and undercutting the institu- Nevertheless, conservatives endorsed have the authority to fire the heads of any tions of civil society. the New Deal Court’s rejection of and all administrative agencies. Without Conservatives can begin the process Loch ner, and distanced themselves the power of removal, a president could of reform only by moving beyond the from the defense of individual rights, not force the agencies to follow his dereg- policies of the Reagan Revolution. because the Founding-era understand- ulatory policies or to submit to the rigors Instead of making the administrative ing of natural rights had been distorted of cost-benefit analysis. Second, as ulti- state more efficient and effective, they into a license for the judicial activism mately codified in the Supreme Court’s should disable and hobble it in its of the Warren Court in the 1950s and 1984 decision NRDC v. Chevron, courts domestic (not national-security) opera- 1960s. were to defer to agency interpretations tions. First, conservatives should jettison Such activism continues to this day. of ambiguous laws, which had the effect some of the favorite legal doctrines of Often joined by a stray conservative, of locating even more lawmaking power the Scalia and Bork era. Rather than such as the ever-wandering Anthony in the executive. Third, courts were to defer to agency interpretations of the Kennedy, liberals do not hesitate to con- defer to agency regulations rather than laws, the courts should decide on their jure new rights out of the Due Process give them a “hard look” unless they were own whether regulations satisfy statutory Clause, from Roe v. Wade’s right to “arbitrary and capricious,” which meant requirements. Rather than give agencies abortion to U.S. v. Windsor’s right to that courts almost never overturned an wide running room to formulate regula- gay marriage. In their opposition to this agency decision on the merits. tions, courts should give the regulations kind of jurisprudence, conservatives For a time, this approach worked, a hard look or demand that they be based have embraced an impoverished, defen- because the Reagan and Bush White on scientific models and empirical evi- sive understanding of constitutional Houses focused their domestic policy on dence. Judges should also resuscitate the law. Instead, they should reclaim the cutting back regulations and freeing the pre–New Deal non-delegation doctrine, idea of natural rights that actually animal passions of the economy. The which once held that Congress could not informed the Framing, and give it ex - reforms clearly left the nation better off transfer true lawmaking power to the pression in a system of meaningful and pulled the economy out of a deep agencies but could only allow them to legal principles that judges can enforce funk. But conservatives also, inadver- fill in the details of policy decisions non-arbitrarily. tently, so insulated the administrative made by the legislature. Conservatives have correctly shared state from congressional and judicial A more aggressive rethinking of con- the Founders’ fear of excessive lawmak- influence that a progressive president stitutional law could reexamine some ing, but they have focused on the wrong could effectively free it from anyone’s classic separation-of-powers cases. Such source: Congress. They should shift their control. decisions as INS v. Chadha, which struck aim to the administrative agencies, which One ironic outcome of the Progressive down the legislative veto (which allowed are the greatest threat to our liberties era’s end run around the Constitution’s the House or Senate, or even a commit- today. Otherwise, our constitutional re - checks is that, in trying to remove policy tee, to overrule a regulation without an public might devolve into something akin from politics, it made the system signifi- overriding statute’s passing the full to the statist governments of Europe. cantly more susceptible to special inter- Congress), and Bowsher v. Synar, which President Obama’s efforts to encourage ests. And the Reagan Revolution, in limited the powers of congressional just such a devolution, and the problems trying to protect liberty from the exces- agencies, reduced Congress’s ability to his administration now faces in conse- sive lawmaking of Congress, increased oversee the administrative state. If con- quence, may ironically give conservatives lawmaking by agencies, which never servatives are going to put new con- a new opportunity to restore the original have to worry about voters or judges or straints on the agencies, they should vision of the Constitution.

1 8 | www.nationalreview.com SEPTEMBER 1 6 , 2 0 1 3 base:milliken-mar 22.qxd 8/26/2013 1:35 PM Page 1

Visit alphapub.com to read Natural-law Essays and eBooks FREE People tend to refer to Mother Nature as the provider of our weather conditions, and also that her assaults to the planet and its people are unavoidable.

Some think a possible scenario might be that this civilization “Just found your site. is outliving its opportunity to continue existing. Many previous I was quite impressed civilizations did disappear. Have you ever wondered why? and look forward to Decades ago Richard W. Wetherill identifi ed a natural law of hours of enjoyment behavior, requiring people to behave rationally, honestly, and and learning. Thanks.” morally right. Most people would agree that this present popula- - Frank tion certainly is not complying with that law of nature. Wetherill’s insight also revealed that this civilization would be the last if people continued failing to surrender to this created law of absolute right. But it would not include everybody for if a suffi cient number of individuals were making every effort to conform to this natural law, they would survive and advance into the next phase of human development. This is a message of optimism and hope, as it is the solution for an erring civilization: conform to nature’s behavioral law of right action just as people conform to nature’s laws of physics. Doing so ends opposition to creation’s plan for mankind and supports the creator’s purpose for having created mankind. In addition, people are released from the confusion of mak- “I have fi nished reading ing behavioral decisions based on what differing groups judge the book How To Solve to be good or evil, right or wrong. Problems. So simple, Support nature’s plan to create a truly civilized civilization! yet so profound and powerful. Thank you.” Visit alphapub.com for more information or for a free mailing - Alex write to The Alpha Publishing House, PO Box 255, Royersford, PA 19468.

This public-service message is from a self-ﬁ nanced, nonproﬁ t group of former students of Mr. Wetherill. 3col:QXP-1127940387.qxp 8/27/2013 9:57 PM Page 20

governments are hamstrung by it too. No ning of high-capacity magazines, and 75 county or city can pass gun restrictions percent supporting universal background Armed and into law without the permission of the checks. Proponents were also urged on by state government—and that permission is town meetings in strafford, Woodstock, Progressive never forthcoming. Indeed, even if it were Bradford, Thetford, Norwich, and Hart- to be granted, any limitations would likely land, all of which yielded resolutions be struck down by the judicial branch. pressing state lawmakers to pursue gun Vermont, Second The state’s supreme court has held that all control. Nevertheless, Waite-simpson re - Amendment paradise regulation of the manner in which arms grets, all efforts “were quickly shut down may be borne is flatly unconstitutional. In in the statehouse.” BY CHARLES C. W. COOKE consequence, Vermonters may not just To Evan Hughes of the Vermont state carry concealed weapons without a per- Rifle and Pistol Association, this is not mit, they may carry weapons openly on surprising. Hughes questions the now- sk an American to guess which their hips, too. short of a constitutional famous Castleton poll, arguing that it is is the most gun-friendly state amendment, lesser gun-control measures self-evidently ridiculous to suggest that in the Union and you’ll likely appear not to have a chance in the state. the people of his state are more in favor of A be treated to a whole host of wrong answers. Texas, which has a particularly strong reputation for inde- Vermont, since its establishment pendence, tends to come up first, with as a republic in 1777, has been Ala bama and Florida tied for second. Other questionees instinctively think of far and away the best place in the underpopulated areas: Montana? Utah? country in which to enjoy the right to “Oh, I dunno—Idaho maybe?” The correct answer might surprise keep and bear arms. them: It’s Vermont, land of gay marriage and legal marijuana, home to the only strong as they are, words written down gun-control legislation than is the coun- openly “socialist” senator in America, on a two-centuries-old parchment barrier try at large. Other critics point to the host to the only single-payer health-care cannot on their own explain why legisla- intensity gap, which is considerable. system in the United states, and the pri- tors are so wary of touching the issue. Gun Owners of Vermont grows quickly mary stomping ground of an electorally That comes down to politics. “Anti-gun every time new legislation is suggested. resurgent Progressive party. Odd as it may politicians get voted out in this state,” “We currently have 3,800 members,” sound, Vermont, since its establishment as Eddie Cutler, president of Gun Owners Eddie Cutler says, “whereas Waite- a republic in 1777, has been far and away of Vermont, tells me. “Even the liberals simpson’s group, ‘Gunsense Vermont,’ the best place in the country in which to have guns. Legislators don’t want any- has 100.” Waite-simpson readily con- enjoy the right to keep and bear arms. It thing to do with gun control.” Linda cedes the disparity: “The gun lobby has a turns out that you really can have guns Waite-simpson, a Democratic state repre- huge mailing list,” she allows. “When and butter. sentative who responded to last De - they hit ‘send,’ everything changes. And Most of the other gun-friendly states— cember’s shooting at sandy Hook by the legislature knows it.” including what are called “Vermont introducing a gun-control bill, has learned After he introduced a bill to ban carry” states, such as Arizona, Wyoming, this the hard way. “If a statute has any “assault weapons” in February, Demo - Arkansas, and Alaska, all of which have mention of firearms in it at all,” she cratic state senator Philip Baruth tells me, recently thrown out their rules in emula- explains, “it causes fear and trembling in he “received thousands of heartfelt and tion of Vermont—arrived at their present the legislature.” handwritten notes” against his proposal. condition after repealing restrictions that Indeed so. Despite Waite-simpson’s “This wasn’t a boilerplate effort or a tem- had been gradually added to their statute conviction that sandy Hook had “changed plate letter from the NRA,” he adds. “You books between colonial times and the everything,” her bill to limit magazine can tell when people are writing for 1990s. Vermont, conversely, has never size and expand background checks got themselves. There are a lot of people in had any gun-control laws. Its constitution nowhere. Now she faces a serious chal- Vermont who vote Democrat, but they see boasts a bluntly worded provision in lenge. “she won by a small margin before guns as part of their way of life.” Chapter I: “The people have a right to she took on the gun issue, and her oppo- I asked Waite-simpson why she bear arms for the defense of themselves nent from the last election is running thinks gun control is so unpopular in and the state.” This is backed up by a set against her next year,” Cutler says. “she such an ostensibly left-leaning place. of watertight statutes commonly referred might well lose next time.” After all, it’s easy to talk about the “gun to as the “sportsmen’s bill of rights.” Vermont’s gun-control movement, lobby,” but it doesn’t actually get a Together, the provisions have ensured that such as it is, drew much of its recent con- vote. “It’s a very libertarian state,” she gun control remains all but impossible. fidence from a Castleton state College says. “No body likes to be told what to Not only do anti-gun legislators in poll that purported to show 61 percent of do.” But, she suggests, “we’re living in Montpelier have their work cut out by the Vermonters favoring a ban on “assault truly crazy times: Nobody thinks that a state’s impenetrable charter, but local weapons,” 66 percent backing the ban- school shooting could happen to them,

2 0 | www.nationalreview.com SEPTEMBER 1 6 , 2 0 1 3 3col:QXP-1127940387.qxp 8/27/2013 9:57 PM Page 21

but it could. And the gangs and drug cials who enforce, or attempt to enforce, port me. There is an uneasy bargain cartels are on our city streets. Rural federal law purporting to regulate certain between conservative Democrats and Vermont needs to recognize that the firearms and firearm accessories in progressive Democrats in this state, and condition of urban Vermont requires Vermont.” the one recent thing that has got them that they be inconvenienced a little.” Rodgers, whose pro-gun rhetoric makes together is how much they hated my Cutler rejects this characterization Ted Cruz sound like Rosie O’Donnell, is bill.” wholesale. “We have never had a major a Democrat, and his take-no-prisoners And so, with nothing doing on the crime problem at any point in the state’s approach serves to demonstrate that— home front, pro-gun-control Vermonters history,” he claims. “Even back when unlike so many contemporary political look to Washington. Vermont does not the state was a republic we had almost issues—gun control does not break neatly prevent convicted felons from owning no gun violence. Some people don’t down party lines. Of the state’s 30 sena- firearms, which means that if state police even lock their doors here.” tors, only seven are Republicans, while 20 discover a felon in possession they can FBI statistics support Cutler. Invar - are Democrats and three are Progressives; do little more than inform the feds. “We iably, Vermont has the lowest murder in the house, there are 98 Democrats, four have very few ATF agents up here,” rate in the country: In 2011, there were Progressives, four independents, and Waite-Simpson tells me, “so nothing eight murders in the state, four of them 43 Republicans; the governor, another ever gets enforced. We don’t even have committed with firearms; in 2010, seven Demo crat, was endorsed by the NRA and anywhere we could store confiscated people were murdered, only two of them describes all changes to Vermont’s gun guns. We need the federal government to with guns; in 2009, there were seven regime as mere “feel-good legislation.” do its job.” murders, and not a single one was com- It’s not your typical pro-gun cast. Cutler, meanwhile, is “frustrated” at the mitted with a firearm. In an essay dis- So toxic is gun control that a proposed possibility that the status quo—and his cussing the abortive attempt at gun “assault weapons” ban introduced by group’s political success—could be over- control, Andy Bromage, of the Vermont Senator Baruth was, the senator tells me, turned at the stroke of a pen. “It couldn’t news website Seven Days, noted back in “unpopular to the extent that even gun- be much better here,” he says. “But if they February that “most Vermonters aren’t safety people were beginning their sen- pass new laws in Washington, we have to touched by gun crimes” and that “gangs tences by saying ‘Look, I’m not crazy go along with them. It’s extremely worry- don’t terrorize our neighborhoods.” like Baruth!’” “I expected minority ing.” For now at least, Vermont is as it has “Almost all of Vermont’s recent gun support,” he continues, “but I got zero always been, and the right to keep and deaths have been suicides,” he added. “In support—even from the Progressives. bear arms shall not be infringed—not the past two years, all but six of the 130 Not a single other legislator would sup- even the littlest piece. deaths caused by firearms were self- inflicted.” I suggest to Eddie Cutler that it doesn’t sound too much like they are suf- NEWNEEW FROM AC2 BOOKS fering through “crazy times” in Vermont. “It’s paradise!” Cutler responds. FREE PRICES NOW!NOW! FIXING THE ECONOMYECONOMY BYBY ABOLISHINGG THE FED The safety of Vermont goes some byby HunterHunter LewisLewis way toward explaining the citizenry’s onest prpricesices provideprovide both investorsinveestors and consumersconsumers with reliablereliable economicecoonomic signals.signals. But a ccorruptorrupt ececonomiconomicic sysystemstem does not wwantant honest prprices.icces. TThehe healthy suspicion of politicians who HUS FFederalederal RReserve,eserve, ccentralentral bankbanks, ks, and other secsectorstors of gogovernmentvernmennt hahaveve characterize gun control as a “crime- crcreatedeated a sysystemstem of ““liarliar loansloans”” aandnd false prprices.ices. IInn effect,effect, the regulatorsregulators on whomh wwee dependd d hahaveh ve becbbecomeome ddidis-rdis-regulators.egulal tors. FFrrreeee PPricesrici es NoNNow!w!! examiexamines ines ththe prevention” measure, as well as toward ccomplexitiesomplexities of this issue with a livelyliv vely and clear wrwritingiting stylestyle thatthat makess it easy demonstrating why the professional fforor anyoneanyone ttoo understandunderstand.. opinion of the law-enforcement estab- “In“In FreeFFrree PricesPricPrices Now!Now! HunterHunter LewisLewis shoshowsws whwhyy ending the FFederalederal Reserve’sReserve’s lishment carries so little weight. Even controlcontrol overover the monetarymonetary systemsystemm is key toto rrestoringestoring prprosperityosperity and rraisingaissing living standardsstandards forfor all Americans,Americans, and also layslays out a roadmaproadmap toto ending g the $. Cloth in liberal Burlington, the mere sugges- FederalFederal Reserve’sReserve’s destrucdestructivetive popowerwer ooverver the AmerAmericanican ececonomy.”onomy.” .”” x ” ISBN: tion by the Burlington Police Officers’ RON PAULPPAAUL, fformerormer chairchairman rman of House SubcSubcommitteeommittee on -------- MonetaryMonetary PPolicyolicy and fformerormer GOP prpresidentialesidential candidacandidatete SSeptembereptember ,  Association that the city should attempt to pass an “assault weapons” ban prompted CRONY CAPITALISMCAPITALISM IN AMERICA:AME ERICA: 2008–20122008–2012 rifle ranges across the city to ban police byby HunterHunter LewisLewis officers from joining or training at their hen privateprivate inintereststerests need a political fafavor,vorr,, or when politicians need money,moneyyy,, theyy knowknow whom ttoo call.call. ThisThis is cronycrony capitalism—thecapitalism—the talism the systemsystem thatthat facilities. Wprevailedprevailed inin Russiaa afafterter the fall of CCommunism—andommunism—and iitt isis increasinglyincreasingly AAmerica’smerica’s Conversely, a full-throated defense of systemsystem asas well.well. IIff wwee araree going ttoo solvesolve our currentcurrent economicece onomic problems,problems, wewe the right to bear arms is a way to make a will need toto elimineliminatenate crcronyony capitalism and restorerestore an honest ececonomy.onomy. CrCronyonnyy CapitalismCapitalism in AAmericamerriiccaa offersoffers solutions.solutions. ItIt addressesaddresses in clearar and simple termsterms whawhatt name for yourself. Freshman senator isis wwrongrong and whawhatt needs ttoo be done about it. John Rodgers, whose family has lived in “Exhaustively“Exhaustively researchedressearched and powerfullypowerfully written,written, CronyCronnyy CCapitalismapitalism in AAmericamerica the state for five generations, not only will be an instantinstan nt classicclassic.. ItIt ripsrips back the curcurtaintain on the e ccompetition-crushingompetition-crushing $.$. Cloth practicespractices thattthat emergeemerge when political and corporatecorporate croniescronies align.”align.” turns up at every pro-gun rally he can .”” x ” ISBN: --   -  -    --    -  -  PETERPETER SCHWEIZERSCHWE IZER, presidentpresident of the GGovernmentovernment AAccountabilityccountability IInstitutenstitute find, but went so far as to introduce an SeptemberSeptember ,  and authorautho or of the New YorkYork TimesTimes bestseller ThrThrowrow Them All OOutut almost certainly unconstitutional “state AC2AC2 books araaree availableavailable fromfrom leading booksellers everywhereeverywhere and aatt sovereignty” bill that would have im - AgainstCronyCapitalism.orgAgainstCronyyCapitalism.org | “The RealReal Problem with the EEconomyconomy” posed criminal fines on any “federal offi-

2 1

3col:QXP-1127940387.qxp 8/27/2013 9:57 PM Page 22

his brother ernst went down to italy, where life was sweeter. They were there Über- from 1932 to 1938. Feingold says those were his six fat years: his best years. in Survivor early ’38, he and ernst returned to Vienna, to get their passports renewed. Marko Feingold flourishes at 100 The anschluss took place on March 12. I M P O R T A N T They were nabbed by the nazis, and an BY JAY NORDLINGER unimaginable ordeal began. N O T I C E never believe, says Feingold, that Salzburg austria was the “first victim,” as propa- to all National Review arko Feingold has a very ganda once had it. That the country was good memory. His memories unwillingly occupied by the germans. subscribers! begin in 1916, when he was Most austrians rejoiced in the anschluss. M three. The Feingold family “The country welcomed the germans lived in Vienna. There were four children, with open arms,” says Feingold. He grew four boys, one of them a baby, emil. Their up with plenty of anti-Semitism, and was father was off at war. Their mother habit- discriminated against, like others. But did We are moving our ually rose at 4 to stand in line for milk and he ever suspect that his neighbors and bread. She took her ration card, and she countrymen would turn against the Jews, subscription-fulfillment took her baby. Women with babies got to murderously, genocidally? no. office from the head of the line faster. That was im - He and ernst were the first austrians to portant, because sometimes the city ran be confined at auschwitz. The camp was Mount Morris, Ill. out of bread and milk. still under construction. From auschwitz, to Palm Coast, Fla. it was cold in the winter, and the baby Marko was sent on to one camp after the Please continue caught pneumonia and died. The way other. about every day in these camps, he Marko Feingold puts it today is, “Three of says, “you could write a whole book.” He to be vigilant: us lived, because our brother died.” There has written his memoirs (available only in There are fraudulent was milk and bread for the children at german). Their title might be translated home because their mother took the baby. “When You’ve already died, You Feel agencies soliciting Feingold has vivid memories of that no Pain.” your National Review first war: and the deprivations of Vienna. needless to say, Feingold endured He remembers exactly what the bread much torture, starvation, and other evils. i subscription ! renewal looked and tasted like: it was all crumbs, will mention a single detail: He and other without our authorization. not able to hang together. He remembers inmates were forced to dig a canal with Please reply only to when his sister, rosa, came along in 1918. their bare hands. ernst died in 1942. The The other kids were put out of the house fates of the other two siblings—rosa and National Review while she was being born. their brother nathan—are unknown, renewal notices or Marko Feingold was born in May specifically. They can be presumed killed 1913—more than a year before the war in the Holocaust. Marko was still in bills—make sure the began. He would experience the next war Buchenwald on april 11, 1945, when the return address is too, of course. He survived four concen- americans came in. With other austrians, tration camps: auschwitz, neuengamme, he walked the few miles to Weimar, got Palm Coast, Fla. dachau, and Buchenwald. He has been on a bus, and headed home. Ignore all requests for known to quip, “i could write a Michelin How did Feingold survive the camps? renewal that are not guide to the camps.” Today, he is the Was it luck, bravery, cleverness, some president of the Jewish community here combination? He smiles and says—more directly payable in Salzburg. it’s hard to believe he’s 100. like sighs—one word: “Zufall.” That to National Review. He is fit, sharp, active. He walks at a means chance, coincidence, happen- good clip. The words come easily: He’s stance, amazing turns of events. For If you receive any mail or in full command of facts, names, dates. example, he was classified as “gassable” telephone offer that makes He seems not to tire. He has almost a full at neuengamme. But the crematoria at the head of hair, and much of it is dark. it camp were not ready yet. Meanwhile, he you suspicious contact doesn’t look dyed, either. He is a hand- was shipped to dachau ... [email protected]@nationalreview.com.. some, dashing gent, with a twinkle in his after the war, he could not return to his Your cooperation eye. With his mustache, he looks almost hometown, Vienna, because the authori- raffish. ties there would not allow Jews back in— is greatly appreciated. Before World War ii came the de - or anyone else who had been imprisoned pression, of course. in Vienna, people in the camps. These people would know were sleeping on bridges. Feingold and who did what, when. and the Jews might

2 2 | www.nationalreview.com SEPTEMBER 1 6 , 2 0 1 3

3col:QXP-1127940387.qxp 8/27/2013 9:57 PM Page 23

want their property back. By unlikely the Mediterranean. These bedraggled, was a time when no one, ever, admitted to twists and turns—Zufall—Feingold wretched Jews from Eastern Europe and a Jewish relative. wound up in Salzburg. Russia knew nothing about the Alps. Feingold says that he and the arch- Those guilty of war crimes got off Few had proper shoes or warm clothing. bishop of Salzburg are “like brothers.” lightly, he says. The Nuremberg trials They were afraid of heights. Feingold The archbishop calls him “my elder took care of a few, but just a few. He led them at night, so they would see less. brother”; he calls the archbishop “my says, with great specificity, that officials He told them to hug the mountainside younger brother.” Feingold is a very of the Catholic Church and of the Red and not look down. liberal-minded and ecumenical person. Cross helped Nazis escape to South He himself did not go to Palestine. “I work with Muslims, Catholics, atheists, America. In Austro-Germany, the stan- Why? With a smile, he shows me an old anybody,” he says. dard line was, “The SS men were bad, photograph: “That is why.” The photo In a typical day, he gets up at 5. “I check yes. But everyone else was merely swept is of himself and a blonde woman, his to see if anything hurts. If it does, I say, up in the madness.” first wife, Else. He met her two months ‘Okay, I’m alive.’” He has breakfast and Feingold spent the first three years after he got out of the camps. She was a reads the papers. He arrives at his office after the war—1945 to 1948—engaged Catholic Salzburger. They were married by 8—he works in Salzburg’s syna- in the Bricha. This was the movement to until she died in 1992. In 1998, he mar- gogue. He deals with his correspondence smuggle Jews into Palestine, soon to be ried his present wife, Hanna. Feingold and phone calls. He attends all sorts of Israel. (“Bricha,” in Hebrew, means “es - feels like an Austrian, by the way. He events: He is a pillar of the general com- cape” or “flight.”) The work was illegal always has, through everything. munity, not just the Jewish one. He has and dangerous. According to Feingold, Austrian though he may be, he knows a received many honors, local and national. there were about 250,000 Jews in the lot about Israel, and cares a lot about it. He There are about 70 Jews living in Greater Salzburg area: displaced persons. About scorns the world’s scorn of it. I ask a hard Salzburg. Feingold knows maybe 30 of 150,000 of them wanted to go to America, question: Does he believe Israel will sur- them. The rest? Many opt to keep their Canada, or Australia, where many had vive? He doesn’t really answer, instead heads down. relatives. The other 100,000 wanted to saying, “It has to survive.” Where else A believer in Holocaust remembrance, settle in Palestine. would the 6 million Jews there go? Feingold has returned to all four of the Feingold helped them get down to In Salzburg, he owned a clothing store, camps in which he was confined. At Italy, where they would take ships— then two: “Wiener Mode,” or “Viennese home, he has helped to lay “Stolper - leaky, barely seaworthy ones—across Fashion.” He retired more than 35 years steine”: little stones that commemorate ago, in 1977. But his other work—from victims of the Nazis—not just Jews but which he will never retire, I’m sure—has Gypsies, Jehovah’s Witnesses, homosex- been to tell people about the Holocaust. uals, and others. Since 1945, he has been to something like I ask Feingold whether he has ever suf- 6,000 schools in Austria and Bavaria. He fered from survivor’s guilt. No, he says. has been to other institutions too, includ- “Anyone who thinks like that is crazy.” ing prisons and churches. Most people Does he believe in God? Yes, but he is not are receptive to what he has to say. He especially religious, or observant. Does makes a common observation, however: he have any bitterness toward his perse- Germany has been more forthright in cutors? No. Does he forgive them? “It’s acknowledging the past than Austria has. difficult,” he says, “because those people Much more. In Austria, people are “still aren’t living anymore. How can I forgive lying,” says Feingold: lying about the them?” But then he says, “For myself, I Austrian role in Nazism. forgive. But for others, I have no right to I decide to ask a timeworn and unan- forgive.” swerable question: How do you explain His main concern is “never again.” He anti-Semitism? Why does the world hate warns incessantly against dictatorship. Jews? Feingold answers quickly and con- There must be no brainwashing of the fidently: “Envy. Jealousy.” He goes on to young, no dictatorship in any form: “not say, among other things, that Jewish from the left, not from the right, and not families were always close-knit. Family from religion.” members helped one another, and they Naturally, he does not have a wealth of prospered. This made others resentful. peers left. A Holocaust survivor in Bad “Slowly, slowly,” says Feingold, anti- Ischl, about 25 miles from Salzburg, died Semitism in Austria is lessening. It is recently at 106. Toward the end of our stronger in the countryside than in towns visit, I ask Feingold a boring, standard and cities. He makes an observation that question—one that every person of is somewhat lighthearted: These days, advanced age must face: “To what do you everyone says, “I had a Jewish great- attribute your longevity?” He smiles, grandfather,” or, “I had a Jewish aunt,” or, glances upward, shrugs a little, and says,

Marko Feingold, August 21, 2013 “My father was half-Jewish.” There once “Zufall.” JAY NORDLINGER

2 3 3col:QXP-1127940387.qxp 8/27/2013 9:57 PM Page 24

sound like anyone else, and I liked it. As characters genuine heroes. few of his vil- time went on, I recognized that the words lains were evil, just people who wanted an A Hard- on the page sounded like a set at the Blue easy buck, and it was often difficult to dis- Note. I’d always known that poetry could tinguish the good guys from the bad ones. Boiled Music sound like music; I had never made the I suggested rewriting the scene in leap to understand that prose could, too. which his protagonist went and got Elmore Leonard’s Just as jazz was the great American con- himself killed. He looked at me incred- contribution to literature tribution to the fullness of musical history, ulously. “No, you don’t understand,” he hard-boiled fiction was the quintessential said. “It already happened. He’s dead. BY OTTO PENZLER American invention that enriched the You can’t bring him back.” world’s literature. And no one more pro- One time I praised him for the extraor- BEAUtIfUL jazz riff, one that lifically embodied the form than Elmore dinary authenticity of a conversation be - had played irresistibly and pro- Leonard, and no one did it at such a con- tween black and Hispanic low-level drug foundly for more than six sistently distinguished level. dealers. Partial sentences, slang, vulgari- A decades, went silent on the Most readers of American fiction (in ty, rapid cadence, an undercurrent of vio- morning of tuesday, August 20. the thing the U.S.A. and around the world) know lence. It sounded exactly right, I told that is all wrong about that is Elmore the books, which so regularly won him. He said, “How do you know?” Well, Leonard—okay, he was 87—was meant awards and hit the bestseller lists. Glitz, I allowed, I guess I don’t know because I to live forever. He will, in a way, because Stick, Get Shorty, La Brava, Out of Sight, don’t hang out with guys like that. “Neither we all will be reading and rereading his Rum Punch, among so many others, are do I,” he said. “I make it up.” brilliant and original mystery and crime reliably mentioned among readers’ favor - He did make it up, and he made it up fiction for the rest of our lives—even if ites, and the people who made the movies the way no one else ever had. Of all his you’re just a kid now. But it is nearly from so many of the books were fre- works, including the novels and the impossible to think that he, the physical quently smart enough to pick up his dia- superb short stories, it may be that his person, won’t be around anymore. logue. Hombre (from back in the day greatest contribution to American letters I met him at my bookshop in New York when he wrote westerns) was the first one (and he would not have liked a phrase in 1981 when his novel Split Images came to get cinematic treatment, but there were quite so pompous) was his book on writ- out. I had been reading him for a while other good ones, like Jackie Brown and ing. Okay, it wasn’t really a book; it was a and been blown away by his previous Get Shorty, though too many that should list of his ten rules of writing, not enough book, City Primeval, so I called his pub- have had their screenwriters and directors to fill a page, but his publisher did get the lisher to ask if he would be touring and hauled straight to jail without trial, like bright idea to make it into a book, with could we have him for a reading. It turned The Big Bounce (made twice and de - some illustrations, printed on paper nearly out that he had never done a bookshop scribed by Leonard as the two worst as thick as another well-known list of ten event outside of his hometown, and the movies of all time) and Stick, for which he rules, though they were called command- publicist was surprised to get a request. never forgave Burt Reynolds. ments in another time. As an editor and Just before he showed up, I looked at It was his habit to have a vague idea of publisher now for nearly 40 years, I can the dust-jacket photo and saw this hard- what he wanted to write and then hunt for only wish that every MfA program in the eyed guy wearing a cap and squinting names for his characters (the Detroit United States will come to its senses and back at me. I wondered what I’d done, phonebook got plenty of use). Once they make this little handbook required read- confident that if it didn’t go well, he were named, he felt that they were real and ing for all its students. Not to be read would beat the living daylights out of me. he could get on with it. He gave them the once, but to be read every day for as long He looked just like the fellow on the dust words—the dialogue that readers came to as the dream of writing has hold of the jacket when he appeared at the top of the love and admire for its authenticity—and heart and brain of the student. spiral staircase that was the centerpiece of they provided him with the story, since While every one of his rules has value the store and asked, “You Otto?” Once I he rarely knew where the plot was going (“Never open a book with weather,” admitted it, he stuck one hand out while to take him. Oops. I meant to say where “Never use a verb other than ‘said’ to his other reached around my shoulder for the characters were going to take him, be - carry dialogue”), the two that are the a hug, and he said, “You got me to New cause by the time he had gotten to the keys to his own work are “try to leave York. thanks.” It was, as Rick Blaine said halfway mark, his guys, as he called them, out the part that readers tend to skip” and to Louis, the beginning of a beautiful had taken over, frequently surprising him. the general summing up: When writing friendship. He liked to talk about his books while starts to read like writing, get rid of it. that friendship began out of respect they were in progress and once was the mystery and crime community lost and affection for the books, for the origi- dismayed about an unexpected turn of one of the greatest of the great when nal sound of Leonard’s voice on the page. events. He was telling a story when he “Dutch” (the nickname came from a pop- I didn’t know exactly why it resonated said he didn’t know what he was going ular baseball pitcher of the 1930s, ’40s, so strongly for me, merely that it didn’t to do. He was up to page 130 and some and ’50s) Leonard put down his pen (he minor character had just shot the guy who wrote all his books in longhand) for the Mr. Penzler is the proprietor of New York’s was supposed to be the hero—or at least last time. If you don’t miss him, you Mysterious Bookshop and the publisher of the the most important figure in the book, as didn’t know him, or you didn’t read him. Mysterious Press and MysteriousPress.com. it was not Leonard’s style to make his I feel bad for you.

2 4 | www.nationalreview.com SEPTEMBER 1 6 , 2 0 1 3 2col:QXP-1127940309.qxp 8/27/2013 11:20 PM Page 25

Rocky Mountain High Colorado experiments with marijuana

BY BETSY WOODRUFF

Denver, Colo. here’s a stretch of Broadway that’s called Broad ster - that includes black-market dealers, drug-reform ac tiv ists, dam because of its medical-marijuana dispensaries. medical-dispensary owners, and countless oth ers—will watch, Just a block over, flanking Acoma and Ban nock wait, and carefully navigate the emerging regulatory terrain. T streets, is a warehouse district. It’s not hard to guess It’s a situation of nigh-unprecedented touchiness. And it’s a which of the squat drab buildings are grow-ops (marijuana- case study in the fallout of federal overextension. Under growing operations)—they’re the ones wound in razor or federal law, consumption of marijuana for any reason is pro- barbed wire, with protruding cameras, barred windows, and hibited. But D.C. has better things to do with its finite re - extra air-conditioner units (the lights needed to grow plants sources than go after adults who grow pot in their basements, make it hot in the warehouses, but the plants need cooler so the onus for keeping average Joes from smoking has been temperatures). sometimes when you drive by, you can smell on the states. And when the states of Washington and Colo ra do weed wafting in the breeze. And deep inside at least a few of decided to let nonviolent adults do as they please, using mari- those warehouses are vaults brimming with cash. Welcome to juana became de facto (though not de jure) legal there. Colorado’s marijuana industry. Good for them. Marijuana-legalization advocates have long It’s been about nine months since Coloradans voted to argued that prohibition is ridiculous because—among other legalize the recreational consumption of marijuana by adults reasons—anyone who wants to get marijuana can. If nothing over 21, and state lawmakers have until October 1 to figure out else, Colorado and Washington have given legislators in the how to regulate the nascent industry. retail stores are expected other 48 states a chance to see what happens when libertarians to be selling marijuana to anyone over 21 (including the have their way. And thus far, the case their examples make ED ANDRIESKI

inevitable marijuana tourists from out of state) by January for marijuana legalization is pretty compelling. In fact, some / 2014. And until then, the people whose livelihoods are inextri- of the weirdest hiccups in the whole process are the result of

cably linked to the marijuana industry—a burgeoning group federal policymaking failures. (Marijuana advocates are opti- AP PHOTO

2 5 2col:QXP-1127940309.qxp 8/27/2013 11:20 PM Page 26

mistic about the long game; Illinois just legalized medical who grow cannabis, but it doesn’t sell anything illegal. Among marijuana, which means that state’s sizable congressional del- close observers of Colorado’s so-called green rush, the consen- egation may feel pressure to reform federal policies toward the sus seems to be that it’s smarter to invest in stores that supply drug.) dispensaries and growers—stores like Burns’s—than in dispen- A big part of the problem is that the federal government saries themselves. has a law that it can’t enforce. It’s simply not possible for Ultimate Hydroponics & Organics is the kind of aboveboard Washington, D.C., by itself, to keep millions and millions of mom-and-pop shop you’d think business communities would Americans from smoking marijuana. Even when all 50 states welcome. It’s a clean, bright space that kind of smells like were on board with prohibition, it was impossible to keep weed Home Depot. Nobody breaks any laws, and two happy dogs from being about as accessible as organic arugula. Oppo nents greet customers. It could be from The Andy Griffith Show, if of legalization say—quite reasonably—that what Colorado Mayberry had lots of residents growing weed in their base- and Washington have done is detrimental to the rule of law. But ments. But Burns says that when she first started, she had sig- having laws on the books that are unenforceable is equally nificant trouble finding a bank that would let her business open A big part of the problem is that the federal government has a law that it can’t enforce.

detrimental. Voters in Colorado and Wash ington are just being an account. One banker, turning her down, said, “You’re just pragmatic. going to be selling to dope dealers!” That pragmatism is easier voted for than implemented; it’s Though Burns eventually found a bank that would take her hard out there for a marijuana entrepreneur. But there’s “light money, countless other entrepreneurs have to use unortho- at the end of the tunnel,” as attorney Brian Vicente puts it. He dox—and risky—methods to store the cash they earn. Some open shares an old mansion in downtown Denver with a few other holding companies, some use offshore accounts, some launder marijuana-legalization advocates. The building itself looks cash into bank accounts through pawnshops, and I even heard kind of like a really nice frat house run by anal-retentives; it’s that one banks with an out-of-state credit union that has an ATM clean and tidy, with a kitchen full of wine bottles and a front in Denver (two guys from the dispensary go to the ATM; one porch that houses plastic chairs and a bucket of cigarette butts. deposits thousands of dollars while the other watches his back). And it’s a nexus of sorts for Colorado’s anti-prohibition advo- Others just lock up the cash with the plants. “This is a night- cates. mare,” says Vicente. Mason Tvert of the Marijuana Policy Project has a first-floor And it’s a nightmare the feds could end without too much office that sports a framed copy of an essay he wrote in ele- trouble. According to Josh Kappel, a lawyer who works with mentary school explaining that drugs are bad. And in a gabled Vicente, D.C. could do one of three things: The Treasury could room in the top of the building, Betty Aldworth, dep u ty direc- specify in its banking regulations that banks are allowed to tor of the National Cannabis Industry Association, pushes the work with these companies; the DOJ could issue a statement IRS to make the tax code at least remotely coherent for the saying it won’t target banks for working with them; or Congress owners of medical-marijuana shops. She’s got a cartoon on her could pass a law saying it’s permissible for banks to work with desk from web comic Hyperbole and a Half that shows a stick them. Representative Ed Perl mut ter (D., Colo.) has a bill with figure under a rainbow with the caption “Maybe everything bipartisan support that’s intended to accomplish the third isn’t hopeless bulls***.” option. But its prospects in the House look bleak. That leaves Vicente, one of the primary authors of the measure legalizing business owners in limbo. recreational use in Colorado, works with numerous cli ents in the marijuana industry. The new regulations give current medical centers a few options, he explains: They can stay as is, they can HE new laws haven’t just changed life for those selling switch over to selling only recreational marijuana, or they can legally. Dealers who sell illicitly also have to adjust to get a dual license that would allow them to sell both. T the new landscape. I spoke with a dealer who’s been Light at the end of the tunnel, indeed, but there’s one big prob- selling illicitly for years—I’ll call him “Isaac.” Isaac lives in lem that Colorado legislators won’t be able to fix: the is sue of an upscale neighborhood in a suburb of Denver with his wife growers’ keeping cash in vaults. Most banks won’t let medical- and young children. Unbeknownst to his white-collar neigh- marijuana dispensaries open accounts with them, fearing that bors (and his kids), he cultivates a small forest of can na bis in federal officials might charge them with money laundering or a his basement. This in itself isn’t illegal; Isaac has a permit. And host of other violations. he says his wife is fine with it; growing and selling pot is his The problem doesn’t affect only dispensaries. Roxanne Burns full-time job. It’s not just work, though; it’s a passion. He was owns Ultimate Hydroponics & Organics, a small gardening- a troubled kid in high school, with violent tendencies and a supply store tucked into a little cranny of a storefront on burgeoning drinking problem. By age 17, he’d been arrested Broadway. It’s next door to the Colorado Alternative Medicine multiple times. Dispensary (and, conveniently, about a block from a Taco Bell; Then he started smoking pot. Before, he says, he wouldn’t feel farther down, you can find a head shop next door to a Starbucks). any remorse if he broke someone’s nose. But marijuana changed Burns’s business, which she runs with her son, caters to people that; he stopped getting in fights and getting arrested—weed

2 6 | www.nationalreview.com SEPTEMBER 1 6 , 2 0 1 3 2col:QXP-1127940309.qxp 8/27/2013 11:20 PM Page 27

evened him out. He went on to college, where he studied, among vices, in their sunny offices a few hours north of Denver, and other things, plant physiology, and he did graduate work in bio- they told me that they think recreational legalization will be chemistry, which comes in handy in his current profession. He better, in the long term, for public health. says weed has been an overwhelmingly positive force in his life Bates says he thinks marijuana could have less of a “gate- and in the lives of many others he has met. way” effect when it’s sold in regulated stores instead of by Isaac doesn’t expect his profit margins to change much in dealers who could also peddle heroin, cocaine, and other drugs January. That’s because he sells exclusively to people he with far more detrimental effects. knows. Much of his product goes to neighboring states (includ- “A lot of my clients are young guys—and they’re getting ing Wyoming, Utah, and New Mexico), where prohibition younger and younger every year—but almost without fail, they keeps prices—and profit margins—much higher than they are tell me it was easier to get marijuana than to get booze, because in Colorado. alcohol is so regulated,” Bate says. And he argues that if the Isaac argues that medical-marijuana legalization changed criminal penalties for use are reduced, it will be easier for the way Colorado’s black market works more than it changed recovering addicts to get jobs, become self-sufficient, and its size. That’s because medical licenses let patients cultivate move on with their lives. cannabis at home. There are essentially three steps to selling He thinks full legalization makes more sense than legaliza- marijuana: cultivation, processing, and distribution. Medical- tion just for medical use. “To me, the medical-marijuana thing marijuana legalization means two of those steps—cultivation is absolutely ridiculous,” he says. “All of a sudden you have a and processing—are now legal for many Colorado residents. town full of 18-year-old kids walking around with glaucoma.” But don’t think there’s a cannabis kingpin on every street corner. Others in the treatment industry take a less optimistic view. Many of these at-home cultivators—Isaac included—shy Scott Munson of Sundown M Ranch in Washington (which away from growing large numbers of plants, since cultivating legalized recreational marijuana use a few hours after Col o ra do 100 or more carries a mandatory minimum sentence of five did) thinks increased dependency will be the inevitable result years in prison. of legalization. He argues that as supply goes up, prices get It costs Isaac about $600 to produce a pound of weed (not lower, and legal consequences become less severe, the likeli- counting the cost of rent), and he can sell it for $2,400 to hood of abuse—especially among younger people—will rise. $2,600 in Colorado and $3,200 in neighboring states. For “And the consequences of that, I think, are going to be signif- years, he sold it for $4,800 per pound, and he can still get that icant,” he says. in some parts of the Deep South. Isaac says black-market prices started dropping in 2010, after the state legalized medical marijuana. Drug cartels have largely abandoned the mari- eOPle who sell marijuana legally have to deal with a lot juana business here, he says, as prices have fallen. of the same annoying, unsexy problems that other busi- Isaac estimates that about a third of all the cannabis grown P nesses face, including cronyism and incompetent in Colorado gets exported from the state. According to an bureaucratic oversight. For instance, the Denver Post reports August report compiled by a network of law-enforcement that a state audit of Colorado’s Medical Marijuana enforce - agencies, in 2012 highway police nationwide seized, in total, ment Division found questionable spending on furniture, vehi- about three and a half tons of marijuana being transported from cles, and BlackBerrys, as well as a host of other problems. Colorado to other states. As long as there’s prohibition in other Auditors also found that twelve doctors issued more than half parts of the country, and as long as there are Col o rad ans who of the medical-marijuana recommendations in the state, sug- prefer not to pay the mark-up that legal stores will have to gesting that maybe not everyone getting medical marijuana charge because of regulations and taxes, there will be illegal actually has a medical problem. And now unions are eagerly sales of marijuana in Colorado—perhaps comparable to the eyeing the industry. black market for cigarettes in New York City—and illegal Regulatory failures have hurt dispensaries that follow state sales and shipments to people living outside the state. Mari - law, according to Kayvan Khalatbari, co-founder of Denver juana advocates sometimes argue that legalization in a state Relief, Colorado’s second-longest-running medical-marijuana will eliminate its black market. That seems unlikely. But, Isaac center. “I guarantee there’s people that got away with things,” he argues, the state has a milder black market than it would have says, “and that made it tougher for legitimates, because they if marijuana were completely illegal. were selling out the back door, they were selling to people that “All the cartels want to do is make money,” Isaac says. “All didn’t have cards, they were selling to underage people, because I want to do is make good product, and make sure my friends they could get away with it.” have good product.” Selling a basement’s worth of weed for a Over the next few months, Colorado’s marijuana purvey- couple grand per pound is enough to make a decent living, he ors—licit and illicit—will keep a close eye on Denver as reg- says, but not enough to become fabulously wealthy. ulators try to craft sensible policy for an industry that, at least I heard the same thing—that the black market has evolved on a federal level, is still lawless. In some ways, Colorado’s because of lower prices—from Frankie Grundler, the execu- law is a radical change. In a few months, anyone over 21 will tive director of A New Path, a rehab center in Carbondale, be able to walk into a licensed retail marijuana store in the Colo. “What’s happened is that the price has gone down Centennial State and pick up some weed. In another sense, quick,” Grundler says. “So there isn’t this criminal component though, the new policy is just a codification of the state’s sta- to it of making outrageous amounts of money, huge profit mar- tus quo. even before legalization, Isaac had a maxim on the gins.” subject: “If you can’t get pot in Colorado, something’s wrong I met with Grundler and Stefan Bate, director of client ser- with you.”

2 7 2col:QXP-1127940309.qxp 8/27/2013 11:32 PM Page 28

employment, education, and contracting but also when local governments design housing policies. The Status of HUD’s directive betrays historical ignorance. Northern segregation 50 years ago was the product of a massive influx of blacks into northern cities. But over the past half-century, millions of African Americans have moved out of central-city The Dream ghettos into more racially mixed suburban neighborhoods, where today a majority of blacks reside. The famous 1968 Racial integration Kerner Commission report, which aimed to explain the black riots that had begun in Watts in 1965, described the United 50 years after MLK’s speech States as “moving toward two societies, one black, one white —separate and unequal.” This ominous division, the com- BY STEPHAN THERNSTROM & mission wrote, was rooted in a growing gulf between “white” suburbs and “black” inner cities. ABIGAIL THERNSTROM It was not a prescient prediction. The urban areas that were once overwhelmingly black now include significant numbers lACK voices of gloom are a staple in reporting on of whites, Asians, and Hispanics. They have become what one race. “Dreams unfulfilled” is how the Washington sociologist has called “global neighborhoods,” and the boom- post describes the racial landscape as the nation ing cities of the South are now much less residentially segre- B approaches the 50th anniversary of Martin luther gated than the urban areas of the North and Midwest. King Jr.’s electrifying address delivered from the lincoln Ongoing residential segregation is an important charge in the Memorial on August 28, 1963. The reporter found blacks who indictment of today’s America as a deeply racist society. But, as had witnessed the speech half a century ago. “I had hoped when one scholar has noted, most adults spend much of their waking I was a young man that we’d see a lot of progress by now,” said life not in their neighborhoods but at their places of employ- Donald Cash, a D.C. resident who is now 68. “But I think we’re ment, where members of all racial and ethnic groups are work- going backwards,” he declared. ing together. That contact surely affects interracial friendship There will be commemorative weeklong events, as there patterns. Surveys asking people to name their close friends should be. A march on Saturday, August 31, is billed as “National reveal that a high proportion of friendships in general were ini- Action to reclaim the Dream.” In retrospect, was Dr. King’s tially formed through contact on the job. dream just wishful thinking, bound to disappoint? “We cannot walk alone,” he said. The destiny of blacks and whites is inextri- cably intertwined. But how to walk together? Sobering numbers rIeNDSHIpS are also formed in churches. Dr. King from a recent pew research Center survey suggest an enduring famously said that “the most segregated hour of racial chasm. Seventy percent of blacks believe they are treated F Christian America is 11 a.m. on Sunday morning.” less fairly than whites in dealings with the police. Almost as Separate churches for African Americans had been the norm for many (68 percent) distrust courts. Fifty-four percent perceive most of American history, and the black church continues to inequality in places of work, and 51 percent in the public schools. play a central role in the black community. But today more than Forty-eight percent doubt the fairness of the electoral system, and 60 percent of blacks worship in racially mixed congregations, a 44 percent think the stores and restaurants they patronize are remarkable development that has attracted virtually no com- unfair to them because of their race. ment. racial optimists that we have long been, we find these num- It is, of course, true that whites might have substantial numbers staggering. evidently, blacks believe they don’t get a fair bers of black neighbors, work alongside black people, even break anywhere—a conviction hard to understand for those of belong to congregations that have black members, and still us old enough to remember the days of brutal subjugation of keep their distance in more intimate settings. Tolerating the blacks in the South and of a North where de facto segregation presence of people habitually regarded as different is not the was everywhere apparent. same thing as forming close personal connections. Actually, the claim that harmful segregation is still pervasive The earliest available direct evidence about the relationship today is the conventional civil-rights wisdom and has been between friendship patterns and race is from a survey taken in strongly endorsed by the Obama administration. In July, the U.S. 1964, the year that the first of the two great Civil rights Acts Department of Housing and Urban Development announced a dealt a fatal blow to legally mandated segregation. At that time, new plan to monitor the racial composition of every American a mere 18 percent of whites reported having any black friends. community and to make more strenuous efforts to engineer By now, 95 percent of whites tell the pollsters that they have neighborhood “integration.” A newly issued rule commits HUD black “close friends,” and 91 percent of blacks say they have to a program of “affirmatively furthering fair housing.” close friends who are white. This is another stunning change, Affirmative action has now become an obligation not only in and one that calls into question facile claims that the American people are still deeply divided into mutually hostile racial Stephan Thernstrom, the Winthrop Research Professor of History at Harvard camps. University, and Abigail Thernstrom, vice chairwoman of the U.S. Commission on If we narrow the definition of a “friend,” the numbers are Civil Rights, are the authors of America in Black and White: One Nation, lower but perhaps even more impressive. A 2006 survey asked Indivisible. about “people that you trust, for example, good friends, people

2 8 | www.nationalreview.com SEPTEMBER 1 6 , 2 0 1 3 2col:QXP-1127940309.qxp 8/27/2013 11:22 PM Page 29

you discuss important matters with, or trust for advice, or trust with money.” It found that a slight majority of whites (52 percent) did have at least one “trusted” friend who was black, and that over two-thirds of blacks considered at least one white person to fall into the “trusted” category. In 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. spoke of a future America in which it would no longer be taboo for people of different races to sit down “together at the table of brotherhood.” We don’t know precisely how common interracial dining was in 1963, but the figure was surely close to zero in the South and very low elsewhere. Today, 63 percent of blacks report having enter- tained whites in their home for dinner. The corresponding figure for whites is 48 percent. What was unthinkable in the southern states half a century ago, and relatively uncommon even in the North, is now perfectly commonplace. But entertaining guests of a different race in one’s home does not necessarily mean that parents will be comfortable when their son or daughter chooses to date someone of another race or even marry across racial lines. The March on Washington 50 years ago coincided with the first public-opinion survey of attitudes about dating someone of another race. The question had never been asked before because pollsters assumed that it was not an issue about which opinion was divided. They were apparently right, because in 1963 a mere 10 percent of Americans found it acceptable. Today, 83 percent of whites and 92 percent of blacks have no problem with it. A remarkable 97 percent of people of prime dating age (18–29) approve of it. Giving an approving answer when surveyed, of course, need not correspond closely with actual behavior. But recent surveys show that dating across racial lines is very common. A 2011 study found that 68 percent of black males had dated someone who was not black, and 50 percent of black females. For white males, the crossover figure was 51 percent; for white females, 40 percent. (These figures, it should be noted, are not confined to black-white pairings.) August 28, 1963 Dating is one thing, of course, marriage quite another. Fifty years ago, “Would you want your daughter to marry one?” was cousins. A recent survey asked Americans a broad question: not a sick joke. But attitudes about interracial marriage have Was “an immediate family member or close relative” married changed just as dramatically as those about interracial dating. to someone of a different race? More than a third (35 percent) When the first question about this matter was included in a poll of all respondents reported that they belonged to racially mixed in 1958, just 4 percent of the public approved. A decade later, a kin networks. Half of all nonwhites and 29 percent of whites small majority of blacks (56 percent) but barely a sixth of were in such networks. whites had come to find it acceptable. By 2011, 84 percent of Precisely how much of a departure this is from the pattern whites and 96 percent of blacks approved. of decades earlier cannot be determined; questions about this This transformation in racial attitudes has been accompanied matter were not included in any earlier surveys. But an inge- by profound changes in behavior. The number of blacks and nious estimate by a demographer for the period 1960–2000 whites who actually marry outside their respective racial groups suggests striking change. The fraction of whites belonging to has risen spectacularly. When Barack Obama was born to a mixed-race kinship networks, it estimates, rose from a mere black-and-white couple in 1961, interracial marriages were the 2 percent in 1960 to 22 percent four decades later. The figures rarest of exceptions. A mere 0.3 percent of all married couples were remarkably high for Asian Americans and American counted in the 1960 census involved people of different races. Indians as early as 1960—81 and 90 percent, respectively. By contrast, 15 percent of the Americans who married in 2008 These groups were not profoundly isolated from white wed across racial lines. (These numbers are not exactly compa- America even before the civil-rights revolution. By 2000, the rable to the 1960 figures, which refer to all married persons, extent of mixing with kin of another race was even higher— whatever their age. Marriages within a recent, brief time period 84 percent for Asians, and a figure that rounds off to 100 per- are more illuminating of current marital patterns.) cent for American Indians. The surge in marriages across racial lines has produced even The vast majority of blacks in 1960 had few such kinship more social mixing than might be thought—a lot more. That is connections. By 2000, the figure had risen from just 9.2 percent because marriages link two individuals and also two sets of rel- to 49.8 percent, and it is undoubtedly higher today, although

atives—parents, grandparents, siblings, aunts, uncles, even still below the levels for Asians or American Indians. AP PHOTO

2 9 2col:QXP-1127940309.qxp 8/27/2013 11:20 PM Page 30

These “mixed-race kinship” estimates do not include marriages in which one partner was hispanic and one was not. Official federal statistics classify hispanics not as a nonwhite The Army race but as a quasi-racial “ethnic group,” the only ethnic group considered to be “race-like.” When hispanics were considered as a separate group, a further study by the same demographer found that in 2000 nearly half of all non-hispanic whites had You Haven’t kinship bonds with someone who was either hispanic or nonwhite. Since the rate of interracial marriage has continued to Why Washington is slashing climb in the 21st century, it is highly probable that we have by now reached a remarkable point in our social development: A the defense budget substantial majority of non-hispanic white family networks include nonwhites, hispanics, or both. BY JIM TALENT Mixed-race kinship networks, of course, are not surefire sol- vents of long-held prejudices. It is certainly possible to feel racial aversion toward someone who has just become your hen Barack Obama assumed office in 2009, the relative through a marriage that you opposed. But interracial American military was already fragile. The last marriage has surely done more to reduce skin-color prejudices major military build-up had happened 25 years than to inflame them. If it had produced powerful backlash sen- W before, in the Reagan administration. Years of high timents and a heightened desire to guard the boundaries divid- deployment rates beginning in the 1990s, coupled with ineffi- ing one race from another, the recent trend toward interracial ciencies in the Department of Defense and underfunding of pro- marriages could be expected to grind to a halt or even reverse. curement and modernization projects, had caused the armed So far, at least, there are no signs of backlash. forces to shrink and rust. The navy and Air Force were too small, and all three services desperately needed to replace their ships, planes, and vehicles with new, technologically more advanced eSPITe these powerful trends suggesting the declining equipment. significance of race in social interactions, we can see In 2010, Congress created a national Defense Panel to review D plenty of what many call “segregation” in the national the status of the military. It unanimously concluded that under landscape. But defining segregation as any deviation from the then-current budget trends “a train wreck was coming” for the norm of random distribution, as is common in social science, armed forces. is deeply misguided. Some racial and ethnic clustering is a Since then, the situation has worsened: The government has normal feature of any healthy multicultural society. how can reduced defense spending on three occasions, making close to those who celebrate “diversity” call for a nation in which $1.5 trillion in cuts over the ten-year budget window. The every identifiable ethnic group is proportionally represented government currently plans to spend approximately $575 bil- in every neighborhood, every occupation, every church? Or in lion (adjusted for inflation) on defense in 2020, which is $100 which all groups have spent an equal number of years in billion less than it spent in 2010, and over $200 billion less school, and in which people show no tendency to have more than Secretary of Defense Robert Gates thought would be than a statistically correct proportion of close friends of the necessary in 2020. At the beginning of August, Secretary of same cultural background? That naïve expectation is what Defense Chuck hagel announced the result of a Pentagon study prompts some writers to raise such foolish questions as why on the effects of the sequester, which imposed the most recent very few black athletes are professional hockey players or cut, of $500 billion. The study was officially called the Strategic why, as a WashingtonPost reporter asked, black ballerinas are Choices and Management Review, or SCMR, and known (not rare. “Di versity” is an empty platitude if it is not embodied in entirely tongue-in-cheek) within the defense community as the distinctive subcultures, with functioning institutions and “scammer.” social patterns. Although we are unaccustomed to cite the The SCMR assumed three possible budget scenarios: one in views of Malcolm X in support of any conclusions we draw, which the sequester was repealed after this year, one in which it we think he was on the mark when he distinguished segrega- was not repealed, and an “in between” scenario in which there tion from separation. “Segregation,” he said, “is when your was a partial repeal. The study found that unless the sequester life and liberty are controlled, regulated by someone else.” were fully reversed, the military would have to cut either capac- Segregation is forced on people, but separation is the result of ity or capability. If capacity, the Pentagon would slash the Army choices made by free and equal individuals. to as few as 380,000 active-duty soldiers, eliminate as many as Is the clustering of African Americans that is still evident in three of the navy’s eleven carrier strike groups, reduce the many spheres of life a sign that they are being “excluded” from Marine Corps from 182,000 to as few as 150,000 personnel, and full membership in our society? It once was, and could then retire the Air Force’s older bombers. If capability, the military properly be called “segregation.” But today, such clustering is would take a modernization “holiday” for a decade, ending or largely the result of black people’s choices, driven by the same reducing the few current modernization programs. impulses that lead Koreans, Jews, Dominicans, and dozens of The SCMR had many shortcomings. For one thing, it never other groups to choose to concentrate in certain social niches and avoid others. The last thing we need is more social engi- Mr. Talent, a former member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, is currently neering to eradicate every racial disparity. a distinguished fellow at the Heritage Foundation.

3 0 | www.nationalreview.com SEPTEMBER 1 6 , 2 0 1 3 2col:QXP-1127940309.qxp 8/27/2013 11:20 PM Page 31

confronted the connection between “capacity” and “capability.” deficit smaller. Entitlement programs are consuming more and Numbers matter; at a certain point, technology cannot make up more federal revenues, inevitably squeezing the entire discre- for the deficiencies of a force that is too small. For another, its tionary budget, including defense. Cutting defense isn’t the solu- budget projections are probably too optimistic. Even without the tion to the budget crisis; it’s a symptom of it, and it’s becoming a sequester cuts, for example, the naval shipbuilding plan was not short-term political enabler of it too. adequate to buy the number of ships that the department says it But forget about the entitlement programs for a moment and needs. But whatever its deficiencies, the SCMR at least con- look only at the publicly held debt of the United States—the debt firmed officially what everyone already knew: If current trends attributable to accumulated deficits over the years. Currently it continue, the United States will within a few years no longer be a stands at $16.7 trillion, or about 105 percent of current GDP. The global military power, in the sense of having neither a consistent, defense sequester will save at most $50 billion per year, or about comprehensive global presence nor the ability to project power 0.3 percent of GDP; the total defense cuts from the last four years effectively and quickly throughout the world. will save at most about $150 billion per year, or about 0.9 percent My concern here is less with the effect of the cuts on the mili- of GDP. (They won’t actually save that much, because part of the tary—those are not surprising to anyone familiar with the planned savings comes from deferring training and necessary Defense Department—than with the reasons for them. Why is maintenance on vital equipment. That backlog will have to be the government, on a bipartisan basis, reducing America’s defen- reduced—even our government won’t keep large parts of its mil- sive capabilities at a time when the threats to the United States are itary sidelined indefinitely for want of training and mainte- so manifestly growing? It’s rare that any of our leaders directly nance—and when it is, the cost will be much greater than if the address this question. They made the cuts without any analysis of work had been done on time in the first place.) the impact and without giving any specific justification. But it is That means that our leaders are dismantling the finest profes- possible to discern the impulses behind their actions. Let’s con- sional military in the history of the world in order to reduce by sider them now, and provide some responses. less than 1 percent of GDP each year a debt that is already 105

We can’t afford to fund defense adequately. Reducing the debt is a matter of national security and justifies accepting additional risk to America’s national interests.

Concern about the debt has been selective, to say the least. At the same time as the defense cuts were beginning, the $800 billion stimulus package was going into effect. Not a dime of that was spent on our military force structure. The theory was that a vast increase in spending was necessary to get the economy moving. What ever the merits of that theory as economic policy, why couldn’t it have applied to defense spending? Was investing in Solyndra or state-government grant writers better for the economy than replacing aging military inventory with equipment produced by American workers in high-tech manufacturing plants? If the stimulus is counted—and there’s no reason it shouldn’t be—the only major category of spending that has been reduced in the last four years is defense spending. By any measure, defense spending has been reduced by far more than the rest of the budget. Yet anyone who looks at the federal budget can see that the real percent of GDP—in a world where problem is the growing structural gap between the amount the Iran is getting nuclear missiles, North Korea has threatened to government is collecting and will collect, and the amount it pays turn the United States into a “sea of fire,” China’s power is surg- out and will pay out, for entitlement programs. That gap, which ing, and al-Qaeda is strong enough to force the closure of 22 is currently estimated to range up to $85 trillion, hasn’t been American diplomatic posts across Africa and the Middle East for reduced at all. It’s likely to get even bigger as long as our leaders more than a week. The polite, Washington phrase for this is relieve the political pressure to reduce it by only taking steps— “accepting more risk.” In the House, Republican Paul Ryan and

ROMAN GENN such as slashing the defense budget—that make the short-term Democrat Jim Cooper call it putting the Pentagon “on a diet.”

3 1 2col:QXP-1127940309.qxp 8/27/2013 11:20 PM Page 32

Former secretary of defense Leon Panetta, who is at a stage in his its consequences so devastating, that it may create the political career in which he can afford to be more frank, called it “shoot- will to eliminate waste. That’s about the only good thing about ing ourselves in the head.” the current crisis. But no one should bet on its happening, and in any event it won’t come close to solving the problem. The United States can reduce waste in the Pentagon and use the savings to maintain defense. Our allies should bear more of the burden, and if we reduce our defenses, they will. There is waste in the Defense Department, and its costs aren’t just financial. For one thing, the compensation system is unbal- The short answer: They won’t. The Europeans have been cut- anced, so that younger members of the military are often cash- ting their defense budgets more than the United States, and for strapped while the retirement package is so generous, and the same reasons. The Australians announced an increase several retirement is permitted at such an early age that highly productive years ago, backed away from it, and are now spending less on senior personnel often feel as if they must retire because of the defense as a percentage of GDP than ever before. Taiwan has financial advantage to their families. Additionally, the acquisition been decreasing its military’s budget. Japan, which along with system is broken: Programs that should take five to seven years Taiwan is most threatened by China’s growing power, announced The current funding shortfall is so great, and its consequences so devastating, that it may create the political will to eliminate waste. to procure often take a decade or two, which has undermined this year that it will increase its defense spending for the first time confidence that the Pentagon could actually acquire the inven- in eleven years—by less than 1 percent. tory it needs even if money were available. Obviously, waste of Our allies can bear a greater share of the burden than they now this kind should be eliminated. But that’s not an answer to the do, particularly in Asia. But that will happen, if at all, over the current crisis facing the military, for three reasons. long term, and only if they have confidence in America’s com- First, the funding shortfall has now grown so great that it mitment and leadership. The smaller powers in the region won’t dwarfs any potential savings. The SCMR estimated that $10 bil- risk irking the Chinese with new defense capabilities unless they lion could be saved over the next five years by reforming the believe that America will be there to back them up. (Japan might Defense Department. That figure may be achievable, but it would rearm on its own, but that would bring with it a whole set of unde- represent less than one-tenth of the cuts in the last four years sirable complications. Ask the South Koreans how comfortable alone, not to mention the bill accumulated from years of under- they would feel about a Japanese rearmament that occurs outside funding military modernization. the umbrella of American power.) Second, much of what Washington calls wasteful Pentagon spending either isn’t waste or wouldn’t save money in the short From conservatives: The government is too big and should be term. For example, many claim that money could be saved by reduced. From liberals: The military-industrial complex is too eliminating foreign bases. But unneeded foreign basing has powerful. already been largely eliminated; the bases that remain are the cheapest way for the United States to project power and sustain a Conservatives are right to worry about the size of govern- global presence. Another round of closing domestic bases, even ment, but they should distinguish between activities that are if politically possible, would actually increase expenditures in the necessary and legitimate and those that are not. Forcing people short run (closing bases costs money); the savings, if any, come to buy health insurance isn’t the same thing as providing for only in the out years. the common defense. The Constitution creates a limited central Another example is compensation reform. Cutting active-duty government of enumerated powers; the chief function of that pay or retroactively reducing retirement benefits would be wrong government, and its only mandatory duty, is defense of the on principle and impair recruitment and retention. Military per- nation. sonnel are volunteers. They don’t have to serve, and they will be The Department of Defense operates the tools of hard power— less likely to if, after years of hard fighting, the nation shows its the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marines—against foreign gratitude by cutting their pay and benefits. The right answer is to threats. Its chief missions since World War II have been the fol- rebalance the compensation system over time, grandfathering in lowing: Protect the American homeland from direct attack (an most of the current personnel. That will produce significant sav- increasingly vital and difficult mission in an age of asymmetric ings as soon as eight or ten years down the road, but it is not an weapons); protect the rights of Americans to trade and travel in answer to the current crisis. the “common” areas of the world—the seas, the air, space, and Third, most of the solid ideas for waste-cutting reform have cyberspace; maintain presence and power in parts of the world been around for years. Nothing has happened, because real that are vital to American interests (chiefly Europe and Asia) so reform usually carries a political downside. President Obama as to deter or at least contain aggression; and anchor an interna- has been personally hands-off on the subject, and few in tional order within which disputes can be peacefully resolved and Congress relish laying off thousands of civilian employees or democratic institutions have the best chance to grow, in the belief cutting military-retiree health care. It’s much easier politically to that such a system provides the greatest margin of safety for the cut force structure. The current funding shortfall is so great, and American people.

3 2 | www.nationalreview.com SEPTEMBER 1 6 , 2 0 1 3 2col:QXP-1127940309.qxp 8/27/2013 11:20 PM Page 33

Those are necessary and fully constitutional functions of the consequences when civilian leaders who are weary of current federal government, and the part of the government that performs wars decide not to prepare them for future ones. them is not too big; if anything, it’s too small. In February, Senator Rand Paul (R., Ky.) gave a speech at the The “military-industrial complex” may have been formidable Heritage Foundation in which he essentially argued that the during the Eisenhower years, but not anymore. Years of under- United States has engaged in too many military adventures and funding procurement have caused the defense industrial base should prepare to contain rather than confront aggression, includ- to shrink. From 1990 to 2000, the number of major-surface- ing Iranian proliferation. Whatever the merits of the various combatant shipbuilders fell from eight to three. The number of options regarding Iran, Senator Paul was surely right that a mean- fixed-wing-aircraft developers also fell from eight to three. For ingful national debate on foreign-policy strategy is long overdue, the first time in 100 years, the military has no new manned air- and so far among conservatives only he (and Senator Kelly craft under design. Ayotte, of New Hampshire, in a more recent speech) have even There really is no powerful political constituency that fights attempted to begin one. for the “top line” of the defense budget—the total amount spent But how does America contain aggression except by preparing on defense each year. There are contractors who lobby to fund to defeat it? Intervention requires strength, but containment does their particular programs, governors who lobby for National too. Containing an Iran emboldened by the possession of nuclear Guard bases, and health advocates who lobby for Pentagon weapons would require a fully deployed missile-defense system, medical-research money—but no powerful special interest that constant and increased naval presence in the Persian Gulf and fights to increase total defense spending. Does anyone familiar Eastern Mediterranean, and reinforced American military bases with Washington believe that defense would have been singled in the Middle East. And all of this would have to be achieved out for budget cuts if there were? while maintaining enough deterrent strength to contain aggressive actors elsewhere, such as China. America has been engaged in too many adventures abroad. We have no business fighting long and dirty wars in behalf of people UR government has a poor record, to say the least, of pre- who often don’t even want us in their country. dicting world events. The top brass at the Pentagon have O no idea what the foreign-policy inclinations of future Or as President Obama likes to put it, we should engage in administrations will be. In fact, if recent history is a guide, the “nation building at home.” next president may not have any foreign-policy inclinations at The unspoken premise of this argument is that America’s capa- all: The last three were chosen despite the fact that they had vir- bilities might tempt it to engage in unnecessary conflicts, and that tually no experience in international affairs. The best that the if the armed services are unprepared for those missions, they Pentagon can do—if their civilian masters give them the won’t be ordered to do them. But when has that been true? The resources to do it—is to prepare all the tools that a future presi- United States has engaged in five major conflicts since the end of dent might reasonably need to deal with the crises that can be World War II: Korea, Vietnam, Operation Desert Storm in foreseen. There is no guarantee that future presidents will make Kuwait, and the engagements in Iraq and Afghanistan. The only good decisions, but depriving them of options will certainly not one of these operations for which America was prepared was prevent them from making bad ones. Operation Desert Storm. Read the story sometime of Task Force Ronald Reagan was arguably America’s greatest post-war Smith and the Battle of Osan, the first major engagement of the foreign-policy president. He was the only one who systemati- Korean War. Our government had cut the military so much after cally built up America’s armed forces while being very selective World War II that the American forces were poorly equipped and in their use. He declined to become involved militarily in the had no plan to defend South Korea. They were ordered into com- Lebanese civil war. He sent arms but not men to the Afghan bat anyway, and were overwhelmed in that early engagement. rebels. He used a low-risk operation in Grenada to dispel America never anticipated or prepared for Iraq or Afghanistan. Vietnam-era doubts about American resolve. He outflanked the In the mid 1990s, the working assumption of our defense policy Soviets’ strategic build-up by proposing global missile defense. was that the United States would not face an existential threat for Reagan was not uniformly neoconservative, neo-isolationist, at least a decade, and for the foreseeable future would not have to Wilsonian, or realist. But he understood the truth that tran- put large numbers of boots on the ground for extended periods of scends those divisions: While strength does not guarantee suc- time. As a result, the active-duty Army was cut almost in half, and cess, weakness guarantees failure. Without power, nothing the government failed to procure equipment necessary for America does will work. Our red lines will be crossed; our sov- counter-insurrectionary conflict, such as up-armored Humvees. ereign rights will be ignored; our diplomats will be insulted Within five years, the 9/11 attacks occurred, and two years after and attacked; our foreign aid will bring nothing in return; our that America was engaged in two conflicts that both required peaceful gestures will be seen as signs of decline; our friends large numbers of boots on the ground—despite our lack of pre- (and there still are many) will be disheartened; and our ene- paredness. The costs have been clear: Many of our soldiers and mies (they are still few in number, but real) will push harder Marines have had to engage in multiple tours of duty; even and harder—until finally America is confronted with unavoid- those who were not killed or wounded will be dealing with the able challenges for which it is unprepared, and in which the physical and emotional consequences for decades. stakes are higher than anyone would like. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld said at the time, “You Sound familiar? It’s exactly what is happening now. And it will go to war with the army you have.” He was right. And when the continue to happen unless our leaders shake off their malaise and military is unprepared for a conflict, it’s not the politicians who begin purposefully to restore the tools of power without which the suffer for it. It’s our servicemen and -women who must bear the country they are supposed to be protecting cannot be safe.

3 3 2col:QXP-1127940309.qxp 8/27/2013 11:20 PM Page 34

seemingly endless euro crisis. The Swiss lament the effect of the supercharged franc on their tourism and exports, but they The Helvetica lament a little smugly. And they seem to have a great deal to be smug about, rated first place on everything from the Legatum Institute’s rankings of best-governed countries to the World Economic Forum’s Global Compet i tiveness Index. Switzer - Type land’s per capita GDP is 5 percent higher than that of the United States, it’s in a three-way tie with Japan and San Marino for first place in life expectancy, its literacy rate is 99 percent, and its Will Switzerland work murder rate is one-seventh the American one. Challenged at a if it’s no longer Swiss? public forum by an admirer of Sweden who pointed out that the Scandinavian social democracy had very little poverty, Milton Friedman retorted that there were no poor Swedes in the United BY KEVIN D. WILLIAMSON States, either. Swit zer land brings up the same question: Is it successful because of the character of its institutions, or is it suc- Zurich cessful because it is full of Swiss people? Is it the federalism and WITzERLAND is an excellent place to see stereotypes direct democracy, or the buttoned-down, tidy, punctual, efficient, substantiated. If a train is scheduled to depart at 4:28 conservative, thrifty, German-speaking people without the P.M., it departs at 4:28 P.M., not 4:30 P.M. or 4:46 P.M., atavistic appetite for invading their neighbors? S and the passenger compartments and stations are as There is much to admire in Swiss political institutions. Former clean as the white tablecloths in restaurants at opening time. The Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul jokes that he’d like Tessinerplatz, near the Enge train station, is tidier than any com- to be the president of Switzerland—“Nobody would know who I parable public space in the urban United States, and the cross- was,” he says. And it is true that many Swiss, even those who walks that connect it to the train station do not have WALk/DON’T keep up with the political news, do not know who their president WALk signs—the ubiquitous commuter Audis and Mercedes- is, which is unsurprising inasmuch as the country does not Benz taxis serving the nearby hotels stop for pedestrians without really have one. Its head of state and national executive is a the need for a blinking light to tell them to do so. Conversely, seven- member council whose members rotate through one-year where there are crossing signals, pedestrians patiently wait for terms as “President of the Swiss Confederation,” a primus inter the light to change, even when there is no traffic in sight. You see pares office that carries with it no special authority or trappings. members of the national militia commuting to and fro with the Switzerland has a relatively sparse history of national aristoc- folding stocks of their SG550 assault rifles poking out of their racy, and its modern executive is in line with its democratic and baggage, but you might go days without seeing a police officer. republican heritage. American presidents spend tens of millions There are guns everywhere, and no sign of crime. of dollars or more every time they leave the White House; mem- A train conductor who missed me on her first go-round con- bers of the Swiss federal council get around on trams and com- fronted me, clearly in distress, wanting to know where I got on muter trains like everybody else. They are frequently seen in the train. I told her where and suggested that she must have over- public without special security precautions, and constituents are looked me. “It is not possible,” she said, a phrase I would hear in known to stop them on the street to discuss matters of interest. many contexts during my Swiss travels. I showed her my ticket. There is no Swiss Air Force One, a fact of which the Swiss peo- She exhibited tightly controlled distress, and then I was served ple should be proud. (Harry S. Truman, who presided over less coffee, which, along with the punctuality, is the only way in imperial times, got around in a presidential airplane called “The which Swiss trains are superior to their U.S. counterparts. Wi-Fi? Sacred Cow.”) The members of the federal council do have It is not possible. But in a country with relatively few destinations access to a handful of government airplanes: two Dassaults, a that take more than a couple of hours to reach by train, coffee and Beechcraft, and a Cessna. Rush Limbaugh has grander jets. punctuality are what really matter. When George W. Bush landed at Heathrow to visit with Tony In zurich, the received wisdom goes, everybody you meet is a Blair, he brought along 700 people—150 national-security banker who drives a convertible and wears a suit on Sat ur days, advisers, 50 political aides, four cooks, a team of doctors, 200 and that’s not entirely untrue, though the presence of Google’s assorted bureaucrats, and, according to London’s Telegraph, a European headquarters has loosened up the corporate culture a “15-strong sniffer-dog team.” Bush brought more sniffer dogs to little bit. The financial capital of the country is an eminently civ- London than the Swiss finance minister brought officials with ilized place, a city of only 400,000—approximately the popula- him to negotiate a trade deal with China. tion of Tulsa—but home to more than 200 bookstores and dozens of museums, theaters, concert halls, and other cultural venues. On a Friday night, there are many bottles of wine and $18 cock- P until the 1990s, the Swiss federal government tails being consumed in the bars and restaurants in the old city, employed about 2 percent of the country’s work force; but no sign of public drunkenness. There is a much more liberal U to day, after military cutbacks and the privatization of attitude about smoking than in New York City or Austin, but you some state-run enterprises, that number is closer to 1 percent, the can walk for miles around Lake zurich and hardly see a cigarette vast majority of them working for the railways and the post butt. office. Outside the workers in those national enterprises, the fed- It is shockingly expensive, in part because it is Switzerland and eral government employs only 32,000 people. Because tax rates in part because the value of the franc has soared in response to the must be set by statute and because all Swiss statutes are subject

3 4 | www.nationalreview.com SEPTEMBER 1 6 , 2 0 1 3 2col:QXP-1127940309.qxp 8/27/2013 11:20 PM Page 35

to public referendum, Swiss citizens essentially set their own U.S. citizenship, one of a record number of Americans to do tax rates. Taxes are imposed separately by the federal, canton- so this year. al, and municipal governments, so there is a great deal of vari- The economic environment and the Texas-style gun culture ation in tax burden depending on one’s place of residence, (see “Armed, Not Dangerous,” NATioNAl Review, February 11, from a top marginal rate of 32.3 percent in Jura to one of 12.3 2013) offer conservatives a great deal to like about Swit zer land. percent in Zug. According to a 2010 study by the consultancy The combination of peace, prosperity, independence, federalism, KPMG comparing effective net income taxes and social- and well-ordered democracy produces some very good results, insurance taxes across countries, $100,000 in income was though by no means utopian ones. Zurich recently installed a taxed at a considerably lower rate in Switzerland (about 16 series of publicly funded drive-through prostitution stations, new percent) than in the United States (almost 25 percent). The controls on executive compensation were a smashing success in Swiss pay other taxes as well—a modest vAT and a capital a national referendum, and while the presence of state-supported tax—but enjoy much lower corporate-income taxes, exemption churches would drive secular-minded liberals foaming mad, con- from double taxation in many circumstances, and, perhaps servatives must mourn the fact that the number of Swiss who most important, no national capital-gains tax. identify as irreligious climbed from 1 percent in 1970 to 20 per- That of course makes Switzerland very attractive to high- cent in 2010. The churches are mostly empty, though the church income people, especially to wealthy foreigners who benefit bells ring the hours—as though Switzerland, of all places, were The economic environment and the Texas-style gun culture offer conservatives a great deal to like about Swit zer land.

from certain special tax provisions in their favor, particularly the in need of expensive timepieces. Catholicism, the largest reli- ability to calculate one’s tax liability based on expenditures (in gious affiliation in Switzerland, is in decline, as are Protestantism practice, 30 percent of five times one’s annual rent or the rental and Judaism. No credit for guessing which religion has seen value of an owner-occupied home) rather than on actual income. powerful growth since 1970. That is, unless those foreign nationals happen to be subject to one when liberals point to the successes of Denmark, Finland, of two national tax regimes that attempt to seize their nationals’ Norway, and Sweden, conservatives habitually retort that ethno- income regardless of where in the world they earn it—the first is linguistic homogeneity plays an important role in those societies: North Korea, the second is the United States. Diversity, it turns out, is nobody’s strength, while a relative lack The tax climate makes Switzerland especially appealing to of diversity is associated with social trust and with more trust- non-American foreigners who are Swiss at heart, meaning peo- worthy institutions. People are less likely to cheat those who ple who make Donald Trump money but do not feel any par- remind them of their grandmothers, and public servants are more ticular desire to apply gold leaf to the millwork in the bou doir. solicitous of the well-being of people who remind them of them- The Swiss like to say that in Switzerland, everybody is middle selves. Beyond homogeneity, the Nordic countries have long and class; that’s more aspiration than fact, and there is a nouveau well-established traditions of social solidarity, honesty, and coop- riche demographic mad for diamonds and lambor ghi nis, but eration. Grafting Swedish institutions onto louisiana would not they are held in gentle scorn, the way old Silicon valley hands turn New orleans into Stockholm. So what about the admirable chuckle at newly minted millionaires having their “red-car year” Swiss institutions? would they long survive in a culture that is before settling into a sensible, grey Ger man sedan. oprah not Swiss? winfrey claimed to have been mistreated at Trois Pommes, a high-end boutique in Zurich, and her story reeks of a very non- Swiss odor of “Do yoU KNow who i AM?” i visited the boutique he first of the invaders came as infiltrators, holing up in in question, and i did not find the staff especially friendly—i cheap hotels and setting up camp in tents around lake found them especially Swiss, which is to say helpful and polite T Zurich. They began as a trickle, hardly noticeable, and and disinclined to chit-chat, especially in english. During her then turned into an army, 1 million strong, an occupying force travels at home, Ms. win frey complained of being denied admit- that would radically change Zurich in a matter of hours. They are tance to an hermès boutique that had closed for the day. i went the products of the American ghettos—the black ghetto and the by the hermès shop in Zurich and asked what would happen if i white ghetto—though few of them are Amer icans. The world- should try to enter the store to do a little after-hours shopping: “it bestriding thump of rap music starts in the early afternoon, and is not possible.” Ms. winfrey was in town to celebrate the nup- soon the smell of marijuana—that great global signifier of low- tials of Tina Turner, a longtime resident of the Zurich suburbs level miscreants—wafts through the mellow sunshine around the (she lives in a home picturesquely named the Château lake. Algonquin) who is said to speak fluent Ger man and who was The Zurich Street Parade, heir to Berlin’s love Parade, is a wed to a German music executive. while Ms. winfrey was non- global happening, one that brings more than twice as many visi- plussed by the etiquette of examining $35,000 handbags, she tors to Zurich as the city has residents. The global youth culture never got around to asking the more important question: why may be reflexively anti-American, but it is at the same time as does Tina Turner of Nutbush, Tenn., reside in Swit zer land? And American as a McDonald’s double cheeseburger, wrappers from why, a few months before her wedding, did she participate in which are soon strewn about the Tessin er platz as pools of vomit another civil ceremony in Zurich, one of an arguably more con- fester on the sideway in front of the nearby hotel Ascot. The sequential character? in January, Tina Turner renounced her Street Parade is a celebration of electronic dance music and the

3 5 2col:QXP-1127940309.qxp 8/27/2013 11:20 PM Page 36

subculture associated with it. Signs and fliers beg participants to crossings with explosives to be detonated in the event of an inva- forgo the use of drugs and other antisocial behavior, but these sion by the Germans, Soviets, or other adventuresome European attempts to encourage self-government are categorically ignored. powers. They should have blown them up before the Street Soon, the previously unseen Zurich police are engaged in heated Parade got under way, but instead they added 100 trains to the confrontations in the park, shouting first in German and then in schedule, facilitating the sacking of their city with efficiency and Italian at vandals about their business before the sun has even set. punctuality. An elderly gentleman goes to throw away his news- Revelers in front of the Enge train station pelt cyclists with bot- paper and is confronted by an overflowing trash can, which he tles, and the sounds of police and ambulance sirens soon are looks at as though it were an alien artifact. Trash piled in the drowning out the church bells. street? It is not possible. (But it is.) After dark, things get worse. The dancers follow around sev- “Dance for Freedom” is this year’s theme, but the freedom to eral dozen “Lovemobiles,” from which DJs play the mu sic that do what? The freedom to say no to a rabble intent on treating the million have come to hear. They are costumed, and living up Zurich like Keith Moon used to treat hotel rooms? That, too, to their costumes—stripper chic blending into hooker chic, biker apparently is not possible. chic fading into prison chic, sexy/slutty variations on hippies, Secular Zurich has nowhere to go on Sunday mornings, and Scotsmen, construction workers, soldiers, commedia dell’arte many of the city’s shops and cafés are closed. That gives the characters, lederhosen-clad Ger mans, and a psychedelic tribute municipal authorities an opportunity to clean up, which, judging by the state of the congealed vomit on the sidewalks, should take most of the day. In the contest between Swiss institutions and the ascendant world youth culture, the Swiss, descen- dants of fearsome mercenaries though they may be, don’t stand a chance. Con se quent ly, the Swiss are thinking, quietly and politely, about what makes them Swiss. More than 30 percent of the population today is either foreign-born or the children of immigrants, many of them from culturally related European countries such as Italy and Germany, many of them globe-trotting gazillionaires but many of them not. Switzerland’s health-care system, which has many admirable features, has long imposed price controls on doctors, which has meant that few er Swiss enter the medical profession and more immigrants take on those positions. Without quite saying as much, Swit zer land has recently launched a program to reduce the foreign-born share of its medical work force. In 2007, the Swiss People’s party, at that time the largest party in the to the Rubik’s Cube. A man dressed in a satyr costume, complete parliament, pressed for strong immigration reforms, including with furry white legs, relieves himself in front of a Prada shop. the deportation of the families of immigrants convicted of crimes. The only people wearing suits are members of the neighbor- For eign ers commit four times as much crime in Switzer land as hood’s Orthodox Jewish community. Trash fills the streets, bro- the native-born, and pointing out that fact earned the Swiss ken glass, fast-food wrappers, Heineken bottles, Stoli bottles. A People’s party an investigation by the United Nations. In 2013, fellow is having what looks to be a bad reaction to a class of Switzerland announced the imposition of quotas on immigration psychoactive drugs with which the electronic-dance-music scene from Western Europe in order to stem the tide of those fleeing has more than a passing familiarity. And, of course, everywhere ruined euro-zone economies for the safe haven in the Alps. the faces are painted blue—not the blue of William Wallace’s Back on the train, which takes off 28 seconds after its sched- bravehearts, but the inescapable blue of the iPhone screens uled time of departure, one sees familiar territory. Train travelers underlighting their visages. It is ugly, chaotic, menacing, and see the back end of everything, whether in Stuttgart or New thoroughly un-Swiss. Jersey, and the graffiti that begins a few blocks from the Zurich Except for the money part. Robert Soos, a spokesman for the station suggests that the barbarism of the Street Parade crowd is police department, says the “positive effect of the Street Parade not entirely imported. For all of its well-scrubbed prosperity, is undisputed.” He needs to take another look at the numbers: A there is a whisper of Matthew Arnold’s “melancholy, long, with- local newspaper estimates the economic impact of the Street drawing roar,” a sense that the peak of Swiss civilization may be AP IMAGES / DPA

/ Parade at about $200 million, or $200 per participant, about the in the past, and that what awaits is managing a gradual decline cost of a cheap hotel room and breakfast in Zurich. The ravers that still looks pretty good next to the rapid decline of the ALLIANCE - seem to be doing a fair amount of damage per capita, and it would European Union. Whether what comes next looks more like the not be surprising if the city in fact lost money on the event, espe- Street Parade or more like the French banlieues or more like PICTURE / cially once one accounted for the business lost by firms that something else cannot be known. The Swiss have a bit of time shutter their establishments for the barbarian invasion. and great deal of money to smooth things over as they figure it

PAUL MAYALL It is said that the Swiss wired their bridges, tunnels, and train out, but perhaps not as much of either as they would like.

3 6 | www.nationalreview.com SEPTEMBER 1 6 , 2 0 1 3 lileks--READY:QXP-1127940387.qxp 8/27/2013 10:04 PM Page 37

Athwart BY JAMES LILEKS Attack of the Acronyms

OMe cable show, some channel, some Sun - copper drains that led from the torture rooms to the day: another think-tank smart guy laying out sewer. (To be fair, that was in the guesthouse.) After- the risks for landing a right cross on Bashar action reports could tell whether they’d sufficiently S Assad’s chin. (If you could find it. SpecOps degraded Mrs. Assad’s capability to impress the media in might have to get close and paint it with a laser.) If the the future, or whether she still had enough Western-style United States does nothing, it will be accused of indiffer- rooms to mount a successful image-rehabilitation cam- ence to Muslim suffering. If it does something, it will be paign. “In the ruins of privilege, a widow struggles to accused of aggression against Muslim people. He might rebuild.” That sort of thing. have added that if the United States reduced its ethanol Perhaps she’s already out of the country, but her Insta - subsidies, or issued regulations about the acceptable gram feed shows her working soup kitchens for refugees. amount of airborne particles generated by sawing Really. Forty-seven people have probably been purged through drywall on construction sites, it would be seen by for not “liking” the pictures within three minutes of post- some people in the region as a proof of Jew-run perfidy ing. that brought down Morsi by bouncing lasers off the 2. Other dictators might pay notice. If there’s anything moon. they fear, it’s being dragged out by their heels and strung Hence a tepid national reaction towards intervention in up while people pelt them with rocks. But surely losing all Syria. even a “surgical strike,” which sounds odd. A doc- the creature comforts figures in their calculations as well. tor never says “That heart valve is weak, so I’m going to Take away the nice big house, and the other one, and the nail you in the sternum with a sledgehammer.” A surgical one outside of town, and the one on the lake, and oh by strike means a piece of ballistic wizardry that flies the way there was a fire at the Italian villa, they’re call- through the window and blows up some employees. You ing it suspicious—and the thug gets a sick realization that could just imagine Saddam Hussein weeping after cruise all that time spent arranging the DVDs just so (alphabet- missiles took out a ministry. I just had the place painted. ically? by genre?) was for naught. Worst of all, the U.S. New shrubs out front. All gone. Okay, I surrender. took out the house where he had the password for the Here’s a suggestion: Take it right to Assad’s house. Swiss accounts written on a Post-It note on the computer. Drop a MOAB on his crib. “MOAB” stands for Mother They’re hurt when they lose planes and airfields and of All Bombs or Massive Overhead Air-Burst or Mucho tanks, but it’s not personal. What do you do when your Overwhelming Awesome Boom or something; the name bed’s gone and you can’t remember your Sleep Number was probably chosen because it sounds Biblical. Yea, did on the high-tech adjustable mattress? Call up the Mossad the children of Moab lie down by the river and lament, and say “I know you probably had that bugged too; can a being sad and much besmitten by the Hittite minions of fella ask a favor?” Baal. For that matter, call the bomb “BAAL”: Big and Assad should realize he’ll spend his last hours in under- Awful Loud. Someone might want to call it the Big Old ground bunkers with dust raining down from the ceiling Matter Buster, but “BOMB” didn’t quite narrow it down. and a cheap fan going back and forth and squeaky chairs Speaking of acronyms: The U.N. has a particularly that get on everyone’s nerves. But that’s not enough. The euphonious moniker for the team intended to look for entire regime has to go, so the vacuum can be filled by all evidence of chemical weapons: UNMIAUCWSAR. the reasonable pluralists who are in the field right now. (Pronounced “UNMIAUCWSAR.”) Best to use some- Yes, yes, you’ve seen the horrible YouTube video of the thing honest, like POTSeD, or Parade of Toothless Syrian fighter who cut out his foe’s heart and ate it on Scowling european Diplomats; at least you know who’s camera, but there has to be someone who just cut out the showing up. UNMIAUCWSAR doesn’t incite fear in heart and gave it to a stray dog. The moderate element. anyone except the translator who’s trying to get the let- Once they’re in power we can send in some advisers ters in the right order. and diplomats, hire some locals to stand around with Nerf Anyway. A MOAB or BAAL or Kinetically Assisted guns, and wait for another Benghazi, spurred when some- Bashar-Oriented Ordnance Matériel (KABOOM) on the one posts a fake picture on Instagram of Mrs. Assad read- dictator’s house would have wide-ranging implications, ing the Koran in a bikini or an equally outrageous offense. as they say. After the administration has arrested the picture- 1. Vogue, which ran the lovely profile on Mrs. Assad poster, and John Kerry has issued a sonorous, droning when they named her hubby the Mideast’s “top dead- defense of the administration’s reaction, people will look eyed ophthalmologist reformer,” could offer up the pho- back to Hillary Clinton’s spunky performance at the tos of their elegant house with its tasteful furnishings and Benghazi hearings and marvel at what a fighter she was. stylish decorations, right down the verdigris patina on the Let’s elect her president. Warning: Some Muslims may regard this as indiffer- Mr. Lileks blogs at www.lileks.com. ence, or aggression. Possibly both.

3 7 longview--READY:QXP-1127940387.qxp 8/27/2013 9:58 PM Page 38

The Long View BY ROB LONG

Hey, Tweeps! Which noise-canceling Today’s discovery: cannot twerk while headphones are best for reducing wearing a jumpsuit. #lifelessons noise of starving millions? Going on a road trip and need to prepare. If you have your uncles executed and #newdaftpunk #nodistractions have the executioners send you #snapchats of the events, my advice Wait. Re: other Tweet. Just saw news. is, go into settings>preferences and From the Twitter feed Is @bradleymanning a dude or not a make sure you set the timer to 10+ dude? If not a dude, what can I say? seconds. Default settings too short to of Kim Jong Un, #hotness #getyourselftopyongyang really know which uncle is getting it when. Just FYI. @youthcaptain I know that internal and border security is important. I am not a six-year-old. @youthcaptain just checked into Kim If a person sends many Twitter But when I’m watching Pretty Little Jong Un Fitness Center Tuesday, @replies to another person and that Liars I prefer not to be disturbed by August 27, 2013 4:11 P.M. person doesn’t even have the cour- meetings. #unclebaeneedstogo tesy to follow back, that’s it, I’m done. @youthcaptain just checked out of Kim #overyoualreadyscarlettjohansson @youthcaptain just checked into Kim Jong Un Fitness Center Tuesday, Jong Un Fitness Center Monday, August 27, 2013 4:24 P.M. Tweeps! Get ready for a fitter and hotter August 26, 2013 11:30 A.M. me! About to get really into personal @edwardsnowden Love your message fitness. Here’s a totally nude “before” @youthcaptain just checked out of Kim and your activism. Would love to have pic: instagram.com/rd5f.jong #say- Jong Un Fitness Center Monday, you come to #pyongyang and hang goodbyetothefatboy A M August 26, 2013 11:45 . . with me. @youthcaptain just checked into Kim Hey! @mileycyrus! Haters gonna hate! Okay, @edwardsnowden, re last Tweet: Jong Un Fitness Center Saturday, Loved you at the #VMAs. Follow me hang = hang out. No hidden message August 24, 2013 10:23 A.M. back so I can DM you! (And yes! That is there! Just clarifying! Also, you’re a a euphemism!!!) dude, right? No worries if not, just ask- @youthcaptain just checked out of ing to avoid recent weirdness with Kim Jong Un Fitness Center Saturday, This: www.salon.com/whyasianmen- @bradleymanning, who isn’t going to August 24, 2013 10:35 A.M. makebetterlovers be a chick for another 10 years and I cannot wait that long. Questions for you, @anthonyweiner re Wishing @benaffleck all the luck in the lighting and depth-of-field issues, world as he tackles the role of Simply do not understand why some- also: how do you meet girls online in #thedarkknight. Don’t understand why the first place? Please follow me back my audition tape didn’t even merit a one who goes to the gym as much as I so I can DM you. courtesy callback, but doesn’t diminish do is not losing any weight. Have to my respect for my competitors. #nuke- rethink entire fitness plan. Can’t stand Trying to get along better with Uncles. hollywoodimserious smirking from @unclenoh when I’m Showed @unclebae my dream journal resizing my jumpsuits. #trainersfault from last year, with the dream Even I’m not watching MSNBC. And if sketches of the missile-bearing flying you can’t get the leader of the @mileycyrus Thanks for the follow horses. He rolled his eyes. Democratic People’s Republic of Korea back! Please PLEASE check your #tigeruncle #doesntanyonerespect- to watch Rachel Maddow . . . Hang. It. DMs. Media hype re: Pyongyang is creativityinthiscountry? Up. #evilgeniusrogerailes true! It is the “new hip destination for the young glitterati.” Check it out: Love that you spoke truth to power, Um, @basharassad, cannot fill most www.newkoreanworkerdaily.com/coolp @bradleymanning. Always welcome recent order for #wmd until ALL previ- yongyang here in #northkorea! Need to stick ous invoices have been paid. This is a together to bring about a new world. business here. Running a dot com, not Yesterday was watching old movies of a dot org, if you get my drift. #waiting- military executions and eating cold hot Just read @nytimes piece on the forbanktocall dogs dipped in mayonnaise. Does “recovering” economy under everyone eventually turn into their @barackobama. Man, if I could only Hey! @anthonyweiner! What do you parents? I sure am. #bigquestions get that kind of coverage around here! think of them apples?? #philosophicalfriday #onlyhalfkidding #barackhasitsoeasy Twitpic.com/4rrft6 #nohomo #dudes- canadmireotherdudes Only way to wipe the smug smile off of Agree with @alsharpton and others: personal trainer’s face, it turns out, is America is never going to heal until it Great leadership council meeting today. to set him on fire. “Give me one eradicates racism in ALL of its forms Feel like I’m finally getting the respect I more?” Can do, d-bag. #revenge and deals honestly with gun violence deserve. Generals have agreed to build #alwaysthefatkid #setbulliesonfire @piersmorgan me an Iron Man suit. #tideisturning #fightweightism

3 8 | www.nationalreview.com SEPTEMBER 1 6 , 2 0 1 3 books:QXP-1127940387.qxp 8/27/2013 9:51 PM Page 39 Books, Arts & Manners

exotic, because he was actually a white because you will have to spend too Anglo-Saxon Protestant blue-collar hick. much time propping them up: “Look for American Born in Cincinnati, across the river cracked but not broken. The trick is to from his family’s native Kentucky, he make them love you and fear you at the Nightmare grew up in McMechen, W.Va.: a small same time.” town immune to all change emanating Charlie imbibed this totally, just as he FLORENCE KING from World War II, a seedy, rancorous did the advice he got from the man he Brigadoon where men were men, women called his “personal guru,” Dale Car - were women, and blacks were you-know- negie, author of How to Win Friends and what. He was the product of a church - Influence People. He was not alone in his going grandmother and a dance-going enthusiasm; Carnegie was such a popular mother who got pregnant at 16 by an author among convicts that the prison alpha-male rake who promptly took off. system offered inmates a correspondence Somehow she inveigled another, tamer course from the Dale Carnegie Institute. man into marrying her to give the baby “There was always a waiting list of pris- a name, but this Manson (nothing is oners eager to sign up,” writes Guinn, known of him) soon left as well, and clearly savoring the irony. “Prison offi- Charlie’s mother turned to crime to cials believed Dale Carnegie’s positive support herself. She went to prison for outlook on life was just what the moody Manson: The Life and Times of Charles Manson, robbery and attempted kidnapping, and Charlie needed. He was jumped ahead of by Jeff Guinn (Simon & Schuster, Charlie went to live with her sister in everyone on the list and enrolled.” 495 pp., $27.50) McMechen. The how-to list that Carnegie provides A poor student, he showed some in How to Win Friends is merely a codified oMeTIMeS a book is so good that interest in music and liked to sing, even if version of the instinctive ways Charlie the reviewer does not know it meant going to church. Small for his had manipulated people since childhood: where to begin. It doesn’t hap- age, he burst into tears when the other “Begin in a friendly way. . . . Make the S pen often, but this is one of boys beat him up; his uncle, who would other person feel important. . . . Talk those times. I have tried out a dozen dif- tolerate nothing short of rawhide mas- about what he wants and show him how ferent ledes but they all seemed inade- culinity, called him a sissy and made him to get it. . . . Let him feel that the idea is quate to the task. I can’t sit here any wear a girl’s dress to school. He turned his.” No con man would argue with any longer staring at a blank screen or I’ll miss into a compulsive liar and stole anything of this. Later on, when police, judges, my deadline, so I’ll get right to it: Jeff that wasn’t red-hot or nailed down, until juries, and the entire country struggled to Guinn, a former investigative reporter he was shipped off to the first of many understand how Charlie got unquestion- with books on Wyatt earp and Bonnie and reform schools. (These included Boys ing obedience to his sanguinary orders, Clyde to his credit, has produced not only Town, from which he escaped after four they could have found the answer in Dale the best biography of Charles Manson, days and then stole a car.) Carnegie and the advice of the pimps. but the best study of American true crime The only thing that got him out of Charlie used the correspondence- since Victoria Lincoln’s A Private Dis - reform schools was his 21st birthday in course con again before he was freed grace: Lizzie Borden by Daylight. 1955, because they could not hold an in 1967. “Prison officials were always Manson makes a good test case for the adult. He married a girl named Rosalie glad when inmates embraced a faith that notorious American attention span. To and had a son, Charles Jr., supporting encouraged positive attitudes,” writes people who were adults in 1969, when he them fairly well for a time by stealing cars Guinn. “Faith helped boost potential for ordered his brainwashed female followers and unloading them in Florida until he parole.” And so, Charlie embraced one, to murder rich Hollywood celebrities, in- was caught and sent to prison. There he to the toe-curling delight of naïve prison cluding pregnant actress Sharon Tate, heard about an easier way to make a officials, who proudly noted in his he was considered the epitome of La-La living: pimping. Using his inborn gift for record: “He appears to have developed a Land decadence and hippie depravity. picking brains, he consulted the pimps certain amount of insight into his prob- Now, with the 21st century upon us, he is among his fellow prisoners and they, flat- lems through his study of Scientology. vaguely remembered as a cool outlaw in tered, responded volubly: “Look for the Manson is making progress for the first the Robin Hood mold by today’s college ones with Daddy problems,” they ad - time in his life.” students, who can buy T-shirts displaying vised. Keep them separated from family It is difficult to cite the best parts of his picture in their campus gift shops. and friends; make sure they have nobody such a consistently superb book, but one Both memories lean too heavily on the to turn to but their pimp; alienate them section stands out as an example of a from everything in their past; master them classic literary technique rarely seen in Florence King can be reached at P.O. Box 7113, sexually to establish dominance. Above the slush pile of mediocrity that American Fredericksburg, VA 22404. all, “stay away from the complete nuts,” publishing has become. This is the “over -

3 9 books:QXP-1127940387.qxp 8/27/2013 9:51 PM Page 40

BOOKS, ARTS & MANNERS view,” an intensified backdrop of time street preachers everywhere. It was pos- church because he could sing there came and place to give the biographical subject sible, within any few Haight-Ashbury to see himself as a rock star. The Beatles more “thereness.” William Manchester blocks, to be exposed to a wide variety of were hot and he was obsessed by them, did it and Tom Wolfe still does, but the proselytizers: Buddhists, Hindus, funda- convinced that he could win even greater gold standard of overviews has long mentalist Christians, Satanists, socialists, fame if the right people heard him per- been the opening chapter on the Whig anarchists, pacifists, isolationists, and form. That meant moving to Los Angeles Ascendancy in Cecil’s Marlborough. Jeff plenty of poseurs adopting guru guise for and worming his way into the heart of Guinn matches it with his vivid descrip- the purpose of seducing gullible young- somebody who could do him some good. tions of the San Francisco area in the late sters seeking someone to tell them what to It is at this point that the author, who 1960s, when Manson settled there after he do and how to think.” has already transfixed me with every was paroled: Hippies, unlike the Berkeley radicals, other aspect of his writing, does so yet believed in gentleness instead of revolu- again with his treatment of a subject in As student rebellion exploded in Amer- tion. They wanted to show the world that which I have absolutely no interest what- ica, Berkeley was Ground Zero. . . . Of all the places he could have chosen for a post-prison destination, Berkeley was In every sense, one theme runs the one guaranteed to plunge him straight into the deepest waves of national up - through and defines Charles Manson’s heaval. . . . Some of the young people he passed near the campus brandished life. He was the wrong man in the placards and chanted slogans about America waging war and Charlie must right place at the right time. have wondered what war, so isolated had he been. During his reform-school human nature was basically good by trust- soever: the rock-music recording indus- years from 1947 to 1954 he had no ing one another and sharing their posses- try. Although my favorite song is “Annie inkling of China’s fall to Communism or American troops in Korea. The reforma- sions until love was universal and evil Laurie,” I was soon into flip sides, album tories offered classes in shop and welding was no more. “It was ingrained in Charlie texts, musical plagiarism, uncredited but not current events. He could not have to take advantage of everyone that he composers, the troubles of Beach Boys found Vietnam on a map. could. The master manipulator could drummer Dennis Wilson, and the stalling not have found a more perfect hunting tactics of Doris Day’s son, Terry Melcher, Berkeley streets were a sea of protest ground. Reinventing himself as a Haight the boy-wonder music producer and the signs: Students for a Democratic Society, guru and gaining a flock of worshipful make-or-break king of rock-’n’-roll the Free Speech Movement, anti-war, followers was irresistible.” dreams. Charlie might not have had much anti-draft, civil rights, women’s rights, The pimps were right. In the two years of an ear for music, but his perfect pitch the environment. There were also signs leading up to the murders, Charlie fol- for human nature got him past doors to the celebrating free love, which wrecked the lowed their advice to the letter and put guys at the top. pimping business Charlie had envisioned. together a band of sycophantic hand - Jeff Guinn relates the details of the Drug dealing was also out; pot was maidens eager to do whatever it took for bloody events of August 1969 while cheap and easy to find. What else was the privilege of being allowed to serve avoiding the post-murder letdown usually there for him? “He had no interest in a him. There was no need to separate found in true-crime books (he even makes war overseas, anything that kept down them from familiar ties because they parole hearings interesting reading). Most blacks and women was fine with him, and had al ready run away from home, sev- satisfying of all, however, is his refusal to the only free speech he cared about was eral with credit cards that he used until find the slightest extenuating circum- his own. . . . Their focus was on changing their rejected parents caught on and can- stance for his protagonist. He rejects out the world, not on doing things for Charlie. celed them. of hand the “near-universal belief that He soon realized that Berkeley was not New recruits or anyone who seemed to Charlie is a product of the 1960s,” be - the place he was looking for.” be slipping from his grasp had to prove cause he is also a product of the 1930s, the Pimping and drug dealing were also they trusted him by letting him throw 1940s, and the 1950s. “Already a social unnecessary in another part of the Bay knives at them while they were tied to a predator and an opportunistic sociopath” Area, but this part was overflowing with tree. If they remained serenely motionless, long before the murders, he was instead people who were even more naïve than he praised them; if they flinched, he got “a horrific coincidence [because] the ’60s the prison officials. Ever since Paul mad. Soon enough they were all like Sweet made it possible for him to bloom in full, McCartney had visited the hippie enclave Alice of the old ballad “Ben Bolt”: They malignant flower. In every sense, one in the Haight-Ashbury district and pro- wept with delight when he gave them a theme runs through and defines his life. claimed it “colorful and fun,” misfit smile and trembled with fear at his frown. He was the wrong man in the right place teenage runaways had poured into San Charlie liked songs, but not this kind. at the right time.” Francisco from all over America, their He preferred the ones he wrote that he It’s Nature vs. Nurture, and about time, numbers rising to some 300 a day in the sang to the girls, accompanying himself too. No more blaming decades and cen- “Summer of Love.” Greyhound buses on a guitar he bought with somebody’s turies and regions or anything else big belched them out into “a virtual bazaar of daddy’s credit card. The incorrigible de - enough to hide in. Nature takes the hit in paths to true enlightenment. There were linquent who nonetheless had liked this flawless book, so don’t miss it.

4 0 | www.nationalreview.com SEPTEMBER 1 6 , 2 0 1 3 books:QXP-1127940387.qxp 8/27/2013 9:51 PM Page 41

scholarship in archaeology, anthropology, examinations of the Anglo-Saxon inheri- and historical analysis, particularly the tance in American institutions became E Pluribus work of French anthropologist emmanuel absorbed in 19th- and 20th-century racial- Todd, english anthropologist-historian ist theories, which were totally (and Bonum Alan Macfarlane, and english historian rightly) discredited. Bennett and Lotus James Campbell, the foremost modern and the modern scholars they cite make it J O H N F O N T E expert on the Saxons. clear that when discussing “Saxon roots,” “Our American culture today,” Bennett they are talking about culture, thoroughly and his co-author, Michael J. Lotus, tell distinct from race or ethnicity. us, “is part of a living and evolving organ- The bulk of America 3.0 is focused ism, spanning centuries.” At the center of on the future. America 1.0 started dur- that culture is the American nuclear ing the colonial period, took off during family. In the American nuclear family the Founding era, and began to fade away (as opposed to the traditional extended in the middle of the 19th century. It was a family), individuals are free to select their period of individual- and family-scale own spouses; grown children leave their farms and businesses. The Declaration of parents’ homes and form new households; Independence and the Constitution were women enjoy a high degree of freedom products of this era, which has “never lost compared with those in other cultures; its grip on the American imagination.” America 3.0: Rebooting American children have no legal right to demand The years between 1860 and 1920 Prosperity in the 21st Century—Why America’s any inheritance from their parents; par- proved to be a transition period between Greatest Days Are Yet to Come, ents have no legal right to demand support America 1.0 and America 2.0. Americans by James C. Bennett and Michael J. Lotus from their adult children; and people developed a new system of “big units,” (Encounter, 264 pp., $25.99) have no right to expect help from their large corporations, big cities, and eventu- relatives. ally bigger government and labor unions. Native Americans: Patriotism, Exceptionalism, and The consequences of the American By the New Deal, America 2.0 was the New American Identity, by James S. type of nuclear family, according to firmly in place. Its heyday came in World Robbins (Encounter, 250 pp., $23.99) Bennett and Lotus, are that Americans are War II and the two decades following the more individualistic, entrepreneurial, and war. Bennett and Lotus tell us that he mantra “We are a nation of mobile than other peoples. Suburbia is a America 2.0 was “great in its day. But it is immigrants” is repeated end- major consequence, as American nuclear over.” The government sector of America lessly, but this incantation is families prefer dispersed single-family 2.0—the “Blue Model” or “Welfare T essentially misleading. The homes over dense urban arrangements. State”—is failing. We do not know when addition of one adjective, “assimilated,” Despite what they admit are “chaotic” America 2.0 will end (parts of it will sur- as in, “We are a nation of assimilated changes in American family life, Bennett vive, just as parts of America 1.0 have immigrants,” would greatly clarify our and Lotus do not “anticipate a basic survived), but we are now in a period of understanding of American identity. The change in cultural attitudes” that are transition between America 2.0 and question then becomes, Assimilated to “shaped by upbringing, language, insti- America 3.0. what? Samuel huntington argued (cor- tutions, and unconscious patterns of The future America 3.0 is described, in rectly) that immigrants have, for the most behavior that take centuries to form.” a chapter titled “America in 2040,” as a part, assimilated into the culture, lan- Applying their anthropological- decentralized, networked era of pros- guage, and institutions formed by the historical analysis, the authors note that perity. Social programs have been original settlers who emigrated from the the nuclear family emerged among the stripped from the federal government and British Isles. Thus, we are a nation of set- english. Bennett and Lotus state explic- sent to the states. There are 71 states tlers and assimilated immigrants. Two itly that the english family type became (the larger ones—California, Texas, New new optimistic books from encounter the American-style nuclear family, and York—have subdivided) and some func- grapple with this issue of American iden- this “underlying Anglo-American family tions are performed by multistate com- tity. type was the foundation for all the institu- pacts. Cities, counties, and townships In a long bibliographical essay, the tions, laws, and cultural practices that have taken on more responsibilities. De - authors of America 3.0 explain that their gave rise to our freedom and prosperity centralization leads to a “big sort,” as book is the product of ten years of re - over the centuries.” families and individuals sort themselves search into the cultural foundation of America 3.0 contains two well- by communities, religions, politics, and America. Building upon co-author James researched chapters on the history of lifestyles. With the “big sort” and min- Bennett’s previous work on the Anglo - family structures and related cultural in - imized federal role, “the need for a sphere, this new book is buttressed by stitutions among the english and among national consensus on most issues is non- the earlier Germanic tribes (the Angles, existent.” This also means that (despite Mr. Fonte is a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute Saxons, and Jutes) that formed the cul- the continued existence of the red-blue and the author of Sovereignty or Submission: tural basis of the english nation. Thomas political split) a decentralized “social set- Will Americans Rule Themselves or Be Jefferson, among others, heralded the tlement” could evolve on the most con- Ruled by Others? Saxon roots of American liberties. But tentious social issues. Bennett and Lotus

4 1 books:QXP-1127940387.qxp 8/27/2013 9:51 PM Page 42

BOOKS, ARTS & MANNERS foresee more individual freedom and idea that he is an “Irish-American” or a material wellbeing, with the U.S. remain- “white non-Hispanic” American. “My Egyptian— ing the world’s leading political and eco- Americanism,” he declares, “needs no nomic power. prefix or suffix.” To help the country achieve the status In 1980, the Census Bureau began And of America 3.0, the authors offer a raft of asking questions about one’s ancestry, detailed policy prescriptions related to suggesting categories such as German, decentralization, including the following: English, Irish, African-American, etc. Endangered shifting political power to the states; Robbins traces how an increasing num- PAUL MARSHALL reducing public debt (a “big haircut,” or ber of people listed their ancestry simply the equivalent of bankruptcy); abolishing as “American.” In the 2000 census, the federal income tax and replacing it over 20 million people identified their with a consumption tax; and creating an ancestry as “American,” making this alliance for decentralization that would the fifth-largest ancestry group. place social issues beyond the power of Robbins has fun tracking down where the federal government and federal courts these “Americans” live. The highest and into the hands of state legislators proportion of “Americans” (over 50 and voters. In the end, the authors con- percent) live in southeastern Kentucky. tend, America 3.0 is possible because its “Americans” are the plurality in Ken - formation would be consistent with tucky, West Virginia, Tennessee, and America’s deepest cultural roots and insti- Arkansas. The most “Americans” live tutions. It is an updated version of the best (in descending order) in Texas, Florida, Motherland Lost: The Egyptian and Coptic Quest of America 1.0. North Carolina, Georgia, Ohio, Ken - for Modernity, by Samuel Tadros (Hoover Bennett and Lotus have produced a tucky, and Cali fornia. Institution, 262 pp., $19.95) very important evergreen book making Like Bennett and Lotus, and unlike a strong case for their myriad argu- many in America’s contemporary elite, EDIA reports on current ments. Interest among the conservative Robbins believes there is a distinct events in Egypt have called intelligentsia should be intense. There American culture. He cites data from a little attention to a fact have already been endorsements from the Bradley Foundation Project on M frequently ignored: that Glenn Reynolds, Michael Barone, National Identity that indicate that 84 there are millions of Christians in that Jonah Gold berg, and John O’Sullivan. percent of our citizens believe that there country. Rebuttals from our friends at the Clare- is “a unique American national identity These Christians are usually called mont In stitute are sure to come: As based on shared beliefs, values, and “Copts,” a word derived from “Egypt,” Straussians rather than Burkeans, they culture.” Further, writes Robbins, the and can claim descent from Pharaonic will insist that politics (the Declaration of American melting pot has formed a sin- and Ptolemaic ancestors. Their liturgical Independ ence) trumps culture (the nu - gle people “rooted in shared language, language, Coptic, derives from Egyptian clear family). foundational stories, history, experi- Demotic. The Coptic Orthodox Church, The other new Encounter book, James ence, culture, belief systems, national which embraces over 90 percent of Robbins’s Native Americans, is an opti- myths, and political culture.” Egypt’s Christians, traces its founding in mistic celebration of American identity, Robbins doesn’t quote a July 22, Alexandria to Saint Mark, the author of patriotism, and exceptionalism. Robbins 1966 letter from gubernatorial candi- Mark’s gospel. Their church calendar tells us that American identity is fighting date Ronald Reagan to former president dates from 284, the start of the reign of a two-front war against multiculturalists Dwight Eisenhower, but—in political their worst persecutor, the Roman emper- and globalists. This reviewer could not terms—the letter is more relevant today or Diocletian. They have produced some agree more. The federally imposed “di - than when it was written half a century of the greatest theologians of the church, versity” project assumes an oppositional ago. Reagan wrote to Ike: “I am in com- including Clement, Origen, Cyril, and, posture toward American culture, divid- plete agreement about dropping the most important, Athanasius, the major ing citizens into antagonistic ethnic hyphen that presently divides us into shaper of the Nicene Creed. boxes. Once in these legal categories, minority groups. I’m convinced this The churches in the West broke with individuals are labeled as members of ‘hyphenating’ was done by our oppo- the Copts because of the latter’s dis- either a “victim group” or the “oppressor nents to create voting blocs for politi- sent from the rulings of the Council of class.” cal expediency. Our party should strive Chalcedon in 451. They were accused of Robbins rightly rejects all of this. He to change this—one is not an Irish- being “monophysite”—that is, believing argues that we need a definition of American but is instead an American of that Christ had only one nature—and this American ethnicity that is based not on Irish descent.” race but on American culture and values. The coercive “diversity” project and a Mr. Marshall is a senior fellow at the Hudson Most of all, this means we should self- bloated welfare state have only gotten Institute’s Center for Religious Freedom. His latest identify as Americans. Robbins makes it worse in the years since. Bennett, Lotus, book, with Nina Shea and Lela Gilbert, is clear that he disdains the concept of and Robbins are pointing out a better Persecuted: The Global Assault on hyphenated Americans: He scorns the direction for our country. Christians.

4 2 | www.nationalreview.com SEPTEMBER 1 6 , 2 0 1 3 books:QXP-1127940387.qxp 8/27/2013 9:51 PM Page 43

led to their ongoing persecution by the Tadros links these often separated his- with modernity . . . [has] shaped the way Byzantines. After the Coptic and Roman tories to show how Egypt’s struggles have Copts were viewed and led to their ban- Catholic Churches issued a joint declara- shaped and been shaped by the Copts. In ishment from the public sphere as a com- tion in 1973 on their common views of the so doing, he wants to counter “two domi- munity, though not as individuals.” This is nature of Christ, the accusation of mono- nating narratives that have shaped the because Egyptian liberalism, such as it physitism has largely been dropped, understanding of the Coptic predica- has been, emerged “not from an indepen- although key theological differences re - ment.” The first is “eternal persecution,” dent bourgeoisie but from civil servants, main. However, the division at Chalcedon wherein the plight of modern Copts is men whose lives were tied to the state has rendered the Egyptian Church largely read simply as a continuation of their and whose conceptions were inherently unknown in the West. Its founding of suffering under Roman and Byzantine shaped by that. With no tension between Christian monasticism, its major contri- emperors, Islam, and Western colonial- the individual and the state, Egyptian lib- butions to theology and art (especially ists. This narrative underplays the Coptic erals’ ultimate dream would be a repeti- textiles), and its role in the shaping of elite’s own struggles with modernity, the tion of the story of Mohammed Ali, an Celtic Christianity are forgotten except by peculiar challenges precipitated by the autocrat imposing reforms from above specialists. arrival of competing Christian denomina- on a reluctant population.” In the modern age, Egypt’s major tions, the Church’s consequent internal Hence, the elites who rejected Islam as Christian presence, like that of the tens of conflicts, and its amazing renewal in the the basis for politics and the nation turned millions of other members of religious last half-century. instead to the state and to nationalism and and ethnic minorities in the Middle East, The second narrative is a “National embraced the myth of Egypt as a homo- continues to be hidden from the West by Unity discourse” that claims that at the geneous nation: “Diversity was neither the use of obscuring terms such as “the heart of Egypt, there has always been, acknowledged nor tolerated. . . . Either Muslim world” or “the Muslim-Arab between Copts and Muslims, an unbreak- one was an Egyptian or something else, world,” which elide their existence. able bond that has withstood the test of but not both.” This stress on homo- In the first two chapters of his excellent time. geneity was incoherently combined with new book, Samuel Tadros gives us a Marshall’s critique of this “National a portrayal of Egyptian history as the much-needed succinct survey of earlier Unity discourse” is the most pertinent cooperation of Muslim and Copt, and the Coptic history. (Full disclosure: Tadros is to current Egyptian politics, especially contradiction between the two claims a colleague of mine, though I have had no in his analysis of the foibles of Egyptian was never addressed. In this narrative, input into his book.) But this survey is liberalism: “The failure of liberalism in any complaint by Copts about their treat- only a prolegomenon to his two major Egypt did not result in the Copts’ current ment needed to be suppressed as a threat interrelated themes. One is Egypt’s strug- predicament. Rather, it was the very ap - to national unity and identity—a pattern gle with modernity, inaugurated by the proach that liberalism took that brought that continues to this day. traumatic shock of Napoleon’s invasion about this predicament.” A further feature of the liberal- and shattering of the Mamluk armies in Tadros argues that “the specifically nationalist ideology was that, while seek- 1798, and developed through Moham- Egyptian crisis of modernity, understood ing to borrow from the West, it remained med Ali’s subsequent attempts to mod- as a question of the compatibility of Islam fanatically anti-Western, an attitude it ernize Egypt’s state apparatus so that it shared with the pan-Arabists, the Is - could resist European militaries. Tadros lamists, the socialists, the Communists, concludes that “the answers developed by and the fascists. The fact that, in contem- Egyptian intellectuals and by state mod- NIGHT WISDOM porary debates over the deposition of ernizers to the challenge that modernity Face framed with a few President Morsi, all sides in Egypt now posed eventually revolved around the lonely wisps of gray, accuse the U.S. of backing their oppo- problem of Islam. How to interpret and the dark haired lady nents is due to more than incompetent deal with the apparent contradiction suggested gently, over coffee, American diplomacy: It is a deeply rooted, between Islam and modernity has been to the young mother, habitual political response. the key question.” The continuing strug- bone weary, with a babe Tadros’s historically informed descrip- gles, often bloody ones, over this question who had cried through the night, tion of Egypt’s ongoing failure to come unfold daily on our television screens. but now slept, as the mother to terms with modernity reveals the shal- The other major theme is the Copts’ could not, lowness of most contemporary American own struggle with modernity: “Copts commentary, rooted as it is in the cate- were faced with a separate crisis. . . . The that there was a deep voice gories of parochial Western modernity. onslaught of foreign missionaries, the within her little one, He shows how Egypt’s “Arab Spring” challenge of reforming an ancient institu- as the man he would become, has continued in the patterns of the coun- tion, the impact of the modernizing state, with a strength try’s history for at least the last century. and the clash between the clergy and the he could not have Similarly, although he finished his book without her weary devotion, laymen were hallmarks of that modern cri- long before Morsi was overthrown on provided as the gift of love, sis. The laymen’s rise to prominence in the July 3, his analysis shows why the time, and time again, state’s service and their attempts to answer through the lonely night. Muslim Brotherhood’s, the opposition’s, the overall Egyptian question in turn and the army’s actions repeat the same shaped their approach to the Church.” —WILLIAM W. RUNYEON dynamics. His depiction is not despairing,

4 3 books - NEW p44:QXP-1127940387.qxp 8/28/2013 1:06 PM Page 44

BOOKS, ARTS & MANNERS but it is acutely sobering. Meyerbeer. Indeed, Hans von Bülow He describes the growth of the Coptic cracked that “Rienzi is Meyerbeer’s best Church worldwide, but his conclusions Happy opera.” (Bülow was the conductor who concerning Christians in Egypt do seem was married to Liszt’s daughter Cosima, to be despairing: “A Church that has with- Anniversaries who soon took up with Wagner.) Others stood diverse and tremendous challenges have countered, “Actually, Rienzi is is now threatened in its very existence.” JAY NORDLINGER Meyerbeer’s worst opera.” Whatever our Political changes have altered the manner, opinion, Meyerbeer was a big influence on but not the fact, of persecution. Recent Salzburg Wagner, and a benefactor of the younger years have seen the massacres carried out HE music business loves an composer personally. Among many other by Gamaa Islamiya and Islamic Jihad in anniversary. If presenters didn’t kindnesses, Meyerbeer helped get Rienzi the 1990s, Mubarak’s ongoing failure to know who was born when, or staged. Wagner later repaid him by launch- defend Copts from attack or to punish T who died when, how would ing a campaign of vilification against him. their attackers, and the increased number they know what to present? This year is a Why? First, because Meyerbeer was of assaults since Mubarak was over- “Wagner year,” and also a “Verdi year.” another composer. Second, because he thrown, both under the military and under Both of those composers were born in had helped Wagner, including with the Brotherhood. 1813. So they’re celebrating their bicen- money (and beneficiaries often resent Even with the Muslim Brotherhood out tennials—or we are. In reality, every year their benefactors). But the third reason of power since July 3, the situation has is a Wagner year and a Verdi year: They is the most important: Meyerbeer was a worsened yet again. Brotherhood spokes- are staple composers. But, in 2013, they Jew. men and media have singled out the are receiving extra attention, if possible. We should talk about Hitler for a Copts as instigators of their downfall, and So is Benjamin Britten: It is his centen- second (but no more). It’s a sad fact Christians are now subject to daily vio- nial—the centennial of his birth. (He died that he adored Rienzi. He had the over- lent attack. Al-Qaeda leader Ayman al- in 1976.) Britten is a major composer, and ture played at his rallies. He possessed Zawahiri has waded in with videotaped you might even call him a staple. But he the manuscript. Apparently, he re - accusations that Copts are working to could probably do with a “year.” quested the manuscript for his 50th establish their own state in Upper In any event, the Salzburg Festival has birthday in 1939. The Wagner family Egypt—recycling a hackneyed accusa- been celebrating all three composers—in happily obliged. Rienzi, in Wagner’s tion that has been repeated for centuries, particular, Verdi, four of whose operas own hand, was with him in the bunker, even by Anwar Sadat in 1980 before he have been performed, or will be. Wagner at the end. confined the Coptic pope, Shenouda III, has had to settle for two. Fortunately, his That said, Hitler also adored The to a monastery for three years and ego can take it. Merry Widow, Franz Lehár’s operetta, arrested many bishops and priests. One of the Wagner operas is Rienzi, a and the best-loved operetta ever. Hitler Tadros fears that many Copts now rarity. More formally, the opera is titled saw it over and over. And there is no taint believe that their only hope for a livable Rienzi, der Letzte der Tribunen, or, Rienzi, on the Widow, so far as I know. future is through emigration, and many the Last of the Tribunes. This is a Roman Rienzi is Meyerbeer-like, for sure, and are fleeing to America, Canada, Australia, spectacle. It was Wagner’s third com- it also has dashes of Carl Maria von and elsewhere. It is the wealthier and pleted opera, and his first commercial Weber and Rossini. The music from the more educated who find it easier to leave, success. Its overture has long been a pop- overture wends its way all through the thus weakening those left behind. This ular piece—an orchestral staple. But few opera. Often, the score is blowsy or bom- will affect not only Christians: “When know the opera beyond the overture. bastic, full of forgettable rhetoric. But Copts leave Egypt, it is a loss not only to Wagner took the story from Edward now and then, Wagner peeps through: them and their Church. A country and Bulwer-Lytton, that much-mocked novel- We hear the genius who would go on to region will lose a portion of its identity ist (and poet, and politician, etc.). compose The Ring, Parsifal, and other and history.” As Egyptian-American Bulwer-Lytton opened, not his Rienzi, works. commentator Maged Atiya has said: but another novel with “It was a dark The Salzburg Festival presented “More painful than contemplating how and stormy night.” Peanuts made this Rienzi in a concert performance, which Copts might fare when shorn of Egypt is line famous. And it’s supposed to be is to say, unstaged. It also presented the the thought of how Egypt might fare the epitome of bad writing. There is a opera cut—sharply abridged—which is when shorn of the Copts.” Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest, in which no sin. The orchestra was the Gustav But, as Tadros notes: “Coptic history people compete with one another to Mahler Youth Orchestra, based in . . . has also been a story of survival, write badly. Bulwer-Lytton also came up Vienna, and the conductor was Philippe endurance in the face of persecution, with phrases and sentences that are as Jordan, a Swiss. He is the son of Armin and the courage and blood of martyrs natural to us as air: “the great unwashed, Jordan, the late, esteemed conductor. becoming the seeds of the Church.” “the almighty dollar,” “The pen is might- Philippe is now almost 40, but he still This is a Church that, despite the vicissi- ier than the sword.” looks like a kid—like he could belong to tudes of nearly two millennia, remains Beat that, as William F. Buckley Jr. this orchestra. the largest non-Muslim minority between would say. The overture, from these forces, was India and the Atlantic. It may survive Wagner’s Rienzi is composed in the weak, without the necessary sound, much more. grand-opera style, epitomized by Giacomo and without gravitas. Had Salzburg

4 4 | www.nationalreview.com SEPTEMBER 1 6 , 2 0 1 3 books:QXP-1127940387.qxp 8/27/2013 9:51 PM Page 45

employed a boy to do a man’s job (so as thin on the ground as heldentenors. He He scored the requiem for massive to speak)? But elsewhere in the opera, was Francesco Meli, a Genoa native in forces: soprano, tenor, and baritone the orchestra was plenty competent, and his early 30s. He sang with power, yes, soloists; chorus and boys’ choir; organ; admirably nimble. Jordan is a fine, alert, but also with control and some beauty. and two orchestras—a full orchestra and a polished conductor—as he proved when His hand gestures tended to the parodic, chamber orchestra. The specific soloists he made his Salzburg debut almost ten but he can work on those. he had in mind were a Russian, Galina years ago. In the baritone role, Giacomo, was Vishnevskaya (wife of the cellist Mstislav Singing the title role, Rienzi, was an one of the great tenors of our time: Rostropovich), an Englishman, the tenor Englishman, Christopher Ventris, who is Plácido Domingo. Once upon a time, Peter Pears (Britten’s lifelong partner), a bona fide heldentenor. They are thin on he was Carlo, and he recorded that role, and a German, the baritone Dietrich the ground. He had some struggles, but too. But these days, he is singing bari- Fischer-Dieskau. Salzburg, too, had a that is assumed, where heldentenors are tone roles—though he still sounds like Russian soprano: Netrebko. And an concerned. I might mention, too, the bass- a tenor who’s using his middle voice. English tenor: Ian Bostridge. Not a Ger - baritone in the small role of Kardinal When he sang a high F from Carlo, for man baritone, however, but an American Orvieto: the Chicago-born Robert Bork. example, he sounded like he could go one: Thomas Hampson. He sang judiciously. miles above it. The conductor was Antonio Pappano, The other Wagner opera here at the And, throughout the opera, he sounded whose nationality is multiple. He’s an festival is Die Meistersinger, that grand magnificent. Giacomo calls himself an Englishman—indeed, he’s Sir Antonio comedy. Salzburg also did Verdi’s grand “old man”; Carlo calls him a “bold old now. He’s Italian, thanks to his parent- comedy, his last opera, Falstaff. They are man.” Domingo is one, yes. How old is he, age. And he’s American, thanks to some doing Don Carlo too. And Nabucco, the exactly? Seventy-two, according to offi- formative years on our shores. He is also opera from which we get the beloved cial records. In reality, he may be older. one of the best conductors in the world, hymn “Va, pensiero.” For at least 15 years now, I’ve called him the music director of the Royal Opera Along the way, Salzburg presented a “the ageless Spaniard,” and I see no need House, Covent Garden, and of the Santa curiosity, a rarity: Giovanna d’Arco, i.e., to stop now. On the Salzburg stage, he Cecilia orchestra in Rome. It was that Joan of Arc. This is an early Verdi opera, was virile, magnetic, overwhelming. The orchestra that played in Salzburg, along seen and heard at least as seldom as longer the evening became, the stronger with the Santa Cecilia chorus, plus a Rienzi. It, too, received a concert perfor- he got. He seemed to draw energy from his Salzburg boys’ choir. mance. The story is based on Schiller’s exertions. Pappano conducted consummately: version of Joan, more or less. And about From all of these performers, Giovanna with efficiency, understanding, and musi- the music, I will say this: If Verdi d’Arco was, indeed, hair-raising. It was cal instinct. He gave a lesson in musician- depended on Giovanna for his reputa- opera in the raw, Italian blood and guts, ship. He allowed no fussiness—and tion, we might not have heard of him. sheer testosterone (and whatever the Britten, more than most composers, is But there is still Verdi in it—and a great female equivalent is). A Schubert string killed by fussiness. And he allowed no performance of this opera can make your quartet, it was not. But everything has its sentimentalism. The music-making was hair stand on end. place. pure, while scanting no emotion. In Salzburg, we received such a per- Benjamin Britten, the centennial man, Netrebko was scalding and imperious, formance. An Italian conductor, Paolo was represented primarily by his War rather like her predecessor, Vishnevskaya Carignani, conducted a German or- Requiem—a masterpiece, by almost (than whom no one has ever been more chestra, the Munich Radio Orchestra. anyone’s reckoning. Britten wrote it for scalding and imperious). Alternatively, Carignani was clear, authoritative, and the consecration of a new Coventry she was plaintive, according to the impassioned. Giovanna is a three-singer Cathedral in 1962. (The prior cathedral music’s shifts and demands. Bostridge opera, essentially, and those singers are was destroyed in the war.) The War sang with his usual thoughtfulness and as follows: a soprano, Joan; a tenor, Requiem mixes traditional Latin texts skill. He seemed an authentic, timeless Charles VII (or Carlo, here); and a bari- and poems of Wilfred Owen, the “war voice of England. Hampson, too, did tone, Joan’s father, called Giacomo. poet” (meaning, World War I poet). justice to his part, contributing, among Joan sounded dark and Slavic in this Britten was a pacifist, and a proud one. other things, beauty of sound. It is pos- performance, as she was sung by Anna In World War II, he was given a complete sible not to like the War Requiem, or Netrebko, the Russian star. Netrebko exemption from service by the British not to be wild about it. But it would be was scorching. At times, Joan sounded government—an exemption given to hard to imagine a better performance. less like the Maid of Orléans than like only a handful. Britten refused even to If there is such a thing as secular the Battle Axe of the Steppes or some- play the piano for the troops, holding that prayer, or prayerfulness, these forces, thing. Yet Netrebko did the necessary such an activity would feed the war along with Britten, achieved it. subtle singing as well. She had some machine. He said to the relevant authori- I began this report by knocking “anni - wayward notes, as she usually does, but ties, “The whole of my life has been versaryitis” (to use an old coinage of her musical and dramatic intelligence devoted to acts of creation (being by pro- mine): the habit of organizing music overcame everything, as it almost always fession a composer) and I cannot take around anniversaries. There are worse does. part in acts of destruction.” Because oth- organizing principles, however. And the Carlo was a real Italian tenor—a gen- ers would, Britten went on to have his Salzburg Festival has put on a very good uine, rugged Verdi tenor—and those are glorious career in the land of his birth. show.

4 5 books:QXP-1127940387.qxp 8/27/2013 9:51 PM Page 46

BOOKS, ARTS & MANNERS struck me as the kind of female per for - that’s about to hit a rough patch. Film mer—unconventionally pretty, well From this low point, though, carol suited to comedy, not a bombshell or an finds a way to rise. First, she swipes a Small athlete—who doesn’t have much of a voice gig out from under her father’s heir chance in today’s big-screen landscape, apparent, Gustav (Ken marino), a preen- and whose career tends to dead-end in ing pretty boy with pipes. Then, with the Ball gal-pal roles unless she leaps to television help of an audio technician (Demetri or catches an extremely lucky break. martin) whose devotion is apparent to ROSS DOUTHAT (The always-better-than-her-material everyone save her, she manages to put Judy Greer is an example of this type; so herself in the running for the trailer voice- complaIn fairly often in this is amy acker, the star of Joss Whedon’s over for Hollywood’s latest mega-budget space about the slow decline of recent shot-on-the-cheap Much Ado tentpole, The Amazon Games, whose pro- middlebrow entertainment—the About Nothing.) ducers have decided to resurrect the clas- I way superheroes and franchises apparently Bell felt much the same sic trailer opening line: “In a world . . .” have crowded out original storytelling, way about her own likely trajectory, This setup lets the movie take swipes at the way the economics of the blockbuster because she cobbled together the money Hollywood gender bias (“The industry has made it hard to get even a medium- to make a comedy whose story, set in the does not crave a female sound,” carol’s budget movie off the ground, the way it’s obscure corner of Hollywood where the dad lectures her), the emptiness of block- difficult to imagine today’s Hollywood men who do voice-overs on movie trailers busters (what we see of The Amazon greenlighting many of the classics of are treated as royalty, doubles as a protest Games looks like The Hunger Games my childhood and teenage years. (“Wait, against the priorities of the industry as a crossed with Clan of the Cave Bear and you’re saying he just learns karate from whole. then rewritten by a six-year-old), and some old guy and then goes on to win a She stars as carol, the underachieving, even the “sexy baby” voice that so many tournament? That’ll never justify our dorky, semi-hapless daughter of a sono - Southern california women seem to culti- marketing budget! Why can’t we make rous, self-satisfied, chauvinist voice-over vate. him a karate superhero instead?”) legend (Fred melamed). He’s awaiting But there’s much more to In a World . . . These are familiar complaints to any- than a series of industry-related barbs. one who follows the film-industry con- Too much more, sometimes: The movie is versation, and so it’s always good to have a little overplotted (too much time is spent a glass-half-full response; and recently on the sister and her marriage problems) the optimist’s case was supplied by my and Bell has assembled a great cast with- comrade in right-of-center movie criti- out always giving them great characters cism, the Washington Free Beacon’s to play. nick offerman, so great as Ron Sonny Bunch. He argued that, thanks to Swanson on Parks and Recreation, is technological advances that make it eas- wasted in a supporting part that never ier than ever to shoot and edit, and dis- really brings the laughs, and the script as tribution channels such as netflix and a whole is always about 20 percent less amazon that make it easier to catch up funny than it thinks it is. with obscure titles in your living room, Which is to say that this might have the decline of the $40 million movie may been a slightly better movie with, yes, a actually end up ushering in “a golden age somewhat bigger budget and the extra of small-budget cinema,” thick with inter- cooks in the kitchen that studio money esting small movies made “at $5 million a buys—with someone punching up the crack.” script, someone giving notes and feed- I won’t say that I was persuaded by back, someone worrying a little more Bunch’s argument, in part because I about what audiences would think, and so haven’t liked any of the recent small- on. budget titles (The Bling Ring and Only But then again it might have been God Forgives, among others) that his worse—and anyway it’s an academic Lake Bell in In a World . . . mini-essay mentioned. question, since a movie like this, with But his thesis crept back into my mind his lifetime-achievement award; she’s these stars and this story, would simply while I was watching In a World . . ., still living in his spare bedroom, making never have been made at even a slightly which stars lake Bell and also marks her ends meet by teaching movie stars how to higher budget. eccentric, entertaining directorial debut. do a cockney accent. or rather, she’s liv- The fact that it did get made, in defi- Bell is an actress you might recognize: ing there until he decides that it’s time for ance of Hollywood’s priorities, is not nec- She’s played supporting roles in a few his twentysomething girlfriend to move essarily a sign that small-budget movies middling romantic comedies (It’s Com - in, at which point she decamps for the are ready to fill the void left by the col- plicated, What Happens in Vegas, and apartment shared by her sister (michaela lapse of the middlebrow. But it is a reason the like) and showed up as a guest star Watkins) and her husband (Rob corddry), to be glad that such movies exist, and to

ROADSIDE ATTRACTIONS on several sitcoms. In those parts, she’s becoming a third wheel in a marriage root for them to prosper.

4 6 | www.nationalreview.com SEPTEMBER 1 6 , 2 0 1 3 books:QXP-1127940387.qxp 8/27/2013 9:51 PM Page 47

Stripes and the flag of the city, quaintly their kids. City Desk decorated with an Indian and a Dutch - These entrepreneurs have acquired man. neighbors—the phone scammers. They Every weekday during office hours, a are the best-dressed people on the There’s a stream of people come and go, while a block, and the most voluble (the food small crowd waits. Is there no place to vendors and booksellers don’t talk Place wait inside? Given my experience of much, perhaps because English is hospitals, post offices, courts, and other their second language). The phone public spaces, the answer is either that scammers are all-American, jive divi- there is no place, or that whatever place sion, and they want you to share their there is is jammed. (Or smoking is for- blessings. The most common initial bidden. Sidewalks—the last don’t-tread- reaction from their marks seems to be on-me space in the city.) puzzlement; they really have to work Clients and their companions are a to make their pitch. And yet there is diverse lot: blacks and Hispanics, always a new phone owner or two sign- Hasids and Muslims. (They arrive via ing on the dotted line. They are quick a big subway station nearby; the street amateur sociologists, as any good sales- signs aboveground are confusing; I man must be; I am never approached, often direct wandering newcomers to whether because I am tall, white, white- this location.) What unites them, and haired, or I otherwise radiate some aura RICHARD BROOKHISER distinguishes them from other pedes- of old-fart untimeliness (I still have a trians, is their pace. In a city of bustle, landline). vEry man has the place he they shuffle. If I were seeking relief What is most striking about the place hangs out. The employees of from a bureaucrat, would I shuffle too? outside the welfare office is how in - this magazine, at its old loca- At what x, if x is the percentage of my commodious it is. The building has a E tion, had the fancy Italian neighbors and ancestors engaged in few front steps, and a ramp for wheel- restaurant for editorial lunches and the same pursuit, does shuffling com- chairs, which narrows the sidewalk a dinners. But for daily use we went to mence? Discuss. Meanwhile the fore- bit. The carts and tables of the vendors the burger joint with military insignia court of the welfare office is a low-speed lined up along the curb narrow it still displayed over the bar (the owner had zone. more. In the remaining gap everyone fought at Imjin river) or the not-fancy A handful of small businesses have jams up, as on a subway platform at Italian restaurant whose owner had sprung up to serve the crowd. There is a rush hour. There is no place to sit, briefly been a yankee (with slight en- hot-dog vendor under a blue and yellow hardly even any place to lean; people couragement he would interrupt Dino umbrella. His rivals purvey a U.N. of make do with the railings of the ramp, or Frank to sample the play-by-play meats—gyros, Italian sausage, Philly or the wall of the building. This year account of his lone homer). Five con- cheese steaks, all guaranteed to be halal. the sidewalk needed repair, perhaps ditions must be fulfilled before any What a country—any believer can par- because chips might cause stumbles place achieves placehood. It must be take of our dullest food. which would create endless hassle. So close; it must be comfortably within Most interesting is the bookseller. foot traffic was rerouted into a narrow budget; they must know you; you must Literacy is in decline, everything is chute on the street, while the mer- know them; and anytime you go you going to youTube and Instagram. But chants and those they served simply must also know a number of the other the bookseller is there day in, day out. had to move their whole show 50 feet patrons, either because you all went His offerings are all for small chil- away. It seemed an endless process; there together, or you went separately dren, the pages stiff and bright. Kitties entire weeks passed when nothing but simultaneously, as if by pre- teach how to count; cows say moo. appeared to be happening and rain fell arrangement. your money is good, your Some of his stock is single-sheet: a dismally on temporary tarps. And yet a smiles are returned, you return all poster of the human body; placemats new sidewalk finally did appear, smiles, and you come and go on feet showing the presidents, or famous where upon the whole show moved not wheels. African Ameri cans (after 2008, I real- back to its wonted location. The sad- There is a welfare office a block ized the new editions would have a dest thing about the place is that it is no from my house and those who go there subject in common). When it drizzles place. At night the building goes dark, also have a place. Hillary Clinton’s he spreads a clear plastic sheet over the sidewalk is empty, except perhaps husband ended welfare as we know it, his wares to keep everything dry. One for a bum. but the city keeps its own programs day a gust of a summer storm snuck What goes on inside the building? going, like a Native State under the under the covers and sent books scur- Where is the place of the administrators raj. The building that houses the wel- rying down the sidewalk and across and personnel inside? I never see anyone fare office occupies almost half a the street. I re trieved one from under a wearing the insignia of office—a necktie, block. It is tall, square, old, and plain; parked car. He always finds takers; the a plastic ID badge—buying a hot dog, a the only ornaments are the flags hang- mothers here may not walk as fast as I halal cheese steak, or a kitty-counts book. ing over the front door, the Stars and do but they will get something for Mysteries down the block.

4 7 backpage--READY:QXP-1127940387.qxp 8/28/2013 2:01 PM Page 48

Happy Warrior BY MARK STEYN Party Politics

ROWLING my hotel room the other night, I dis- is overground and its Niagara-like roar the unceasing covered a copy of the latest Vogue, kindly pro- background din of daily life: A New York mayoral candi- vided by the management. So, after bringing date twitpics his penis. A putative successor to San Diego’s P myself up to speed on Jennifer Lawrence—a grope-fiend mayor is caught masturbating in a city-hall “girl on fire,” apparently—I turned to a profile of Susan men’s room. Miley Cyrus in her scanties “twerks”—or is Rice. She was the girl sent to put out the fire, dispatched twerked upon (I’m not sure I can reliably say which)—live by the Obama administration to slog through all the on TV. Yawn. Next . . . Sunday talk shows the weekend after Benghazi and blame No one could be further from the octogenarian Franz it on some video. In Sir Henry Wotton’s famous formula- Josef than our young emperor, but even hip courtiers draw tion, an ambassador is a man sent to lie abroad for the good the line at lèse majesté, and so rodeo clowns who disre- of his country. In the case of Susan Rice, a U.N. ambas- spect the sovereign are banned for life. On the distant hori- sador is a broad sent to lie to her country for the good of zon, the contours of the post-American world begin to her man—viz., Barack Obama. Happily, it worked. A year rise, but the preoccupations of our ruling class grow ever on, the director of the video is still in custody, and Miss more myopic. One of the world’s richest women flies all Rice is now national-security adviser. So she and Vogue the way to Switzerland in order to confuse a Zurich bou- were in party mood: tique selling $38,000 handbags with an Alabama lunch “It’s a warm evening in June, and guests are assembling counter 60 years ago, to the consternation of the poor for a party she’s throwing in honor of LGBT Pride Month at shopgirl who knows nothing of America’s peculiar the penthouse of the Waldorf Towers, the official residence parochial obsessions, has never heard of Trayvon Martin, of the U.N. Ambassador. Actress turned humanitarian and lives in a city where pretty much the only black activist Mia Farrow, wearing blue tinted glasses, is one of women around are the more fashion-conscious African the first to arrive. Within minutes she’s joined by The New dictators’ consorts in town to visit their safe-deposit boxes. York Times’s executive editor, Jill Abramson . . .” And soon But, as at the Hofbau, the ancient social rituals of our own things are swinging: “They mingle and sip sparkling wine in court permit no diversion from the program: If it’s the elegant living room next to a framed portrait of Oprah Tuesday, it must be racism. Winfrey and First Lady Michelle Obama resting their heads Alas, in the world beyond the penthouse of the Waldorf on Rice’s shoulders . . .” Towers, it’s harder to tell whom the A-list invites should Presumably Vogue subscribers are impressed by this sort go to: From Afghanistan to Egypt, a debt-ridden America of thing, but it would seem an odd opening paragraph for bankrolls its own eclipse, betraying friends, promoting a profile of even recent U.N. ambassadors. Hey, maybe enemies, despised by both. In the dog days of summer, the I’m wrong; maybe Vogue profiled cocktail soirées chez new national-security adviser tweets it in from her pad in John Bolton attended by Andie MacDowell or Valerie the Hamptons or wherever, even as the hyperpower readies Bertinelli, and with the great man photographed between for its next unwon war: After America’s slo-mo defeat in Phil Donahue and Barbara Bush, or Merv Griffin and the Hindu Kush, and its ineffectual leading-from-behind Mamie Eisenhower. Who knows? Out there, in a ram- in Libya, and its thwarted Muslim Brotherhood outreach shackle outpost somewhere on the fringes of the map, in Cairo, Obama is confidently dispatching the gunboats brave Americans abandoned by their government are to Syria. If you’re Bashar Assad, you must be as befud- dying on a rooftop. But here in the metropolis the dazzling dled as that Zurich handbag clerk: Hillary hailed you as a klieg-light luster of Mia Farrow and Jill Abramson plunges “reformer”; no senatorial frequent flyer courted you more all else into shadow. assiduously than John Kerry; the guys trying to depose If you’re not looking at the world through Mia Farrow’s you hate the Great Satan far more than you do, and are blue-tinted glasses, if you’re in Beijing or Moscow, the local branch office of the fellows who turned lower Ankara or Canberra, it’s the shadow that everyone sees, Manhattan into a big smoking hole. Yet Washington is very clearly—the sepulchral Habsburgian twilight of a readying to take you out—or at any rate, in George W. dimming power enjoying its last waltz. Like Vienna exactly Bush’s unimprovable summation of desultory Clinton- a century ago, America retains a certain creative energy, if style warmongering, readying to fire a $2 million cruise you’re willing to put Jay-Z up there with Franz Lehár. It is missile through a tent and hit a camel in the butt. The only at the forefront of therapeutic culture: If Freud had thought novelty with this latest of ineptly rattled sabers is whether to stick his couch on a TV set, he might have made as much Tsar Putin will stand by and let Obama knock off a dough as Oprah, or at least Dr. Phil. As Vienna sat on an Russian client. underground “river of sex” (as William Boyd calls it in his Putin, Assad, General Sisi in Cairo, and many others recent novel Waiting for Sunrise), so in America the river think they have the measure of Obama, Kerry, and Rice. Poor deluded fools. If only, like Mia, they could see them Mr. Steyn blogs at SteynOnline (www.steynonline.com). through blue-tinted glasses . . .

4 8 | www.nationalreview.com SEPTEMBER 1 6 , 2 0 1 3 base:milliken-mar 22.qxd 8/27/2013 12:03 PM Page 1

“Young America’s Foundation has been a refuge for students seeking an alternative to the ‘politically correct’ environment enforced on many campuses. I know the conference will send you back to your campuses be er informed, motivated and trained.” - President Ronald Reagan. Conferences at the Reagan Ranch

FOR HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS

High School Conference October 17 TO 19, 2013 Limited number of openings for only $100. Apply now! Includes tuition, materials, lodging for two nights, and meals

FOR COLLEGE STUDENTS

Fall Conference November 8 AND 9, 2013 Limited number of openings for only $50. Apply now! Includes tuition, materials, lodging for one night, and meals Santa Barbara, California At this one of a kind conference you will have the opportunity to: Meet like-minded peers from across the country Learn from top teachers and leaders in the Conservative Movement Discover ways to champion your principles at your school & beyond Walk in President Reagan’s footsteps as you visit The Reagan Ranch Rancho del Cielo—Reagan’s Ranch 217 State Street Receive a binder with 60+ pages worth of resources to help you get organized Santa Barbara, California 93101 on campus and a copy of our Conservative Guide to Campus Activism and more! National Headquarters For more information on these conferences F.M. Kirby Freedom Center visit YAF.ORG or contact conference director 110 Elden Street Katie Taran at 800-USA-1776 or [email protected] Herndon, Virginia 20170 1-800-USA-1776 base:milliken-mar 22.qxd 8/27/2013 10:42 PM Page 1

Savings.Savings. OurOur ttaxax aadvisordvisor ssuggesteduggested wewe ccouldould maximizemaximize ourour savingssavings byby openingopening upup a DonorsTrustDonorsTrust account,account, donatingdonating appreciatedappreciated stockstock beforebefore wewe sellsell it,it, andand avoidingavoiding thethe capitalcapital gainsgains tax.tax. SmartSmart giving.giving. Convenience.Convenience. AndAnd byby makingmaking justjust oneone transfertransfer ConvenientConvenient giving.giving. ofof stockstock toto DonorsTrust,DonorsTrust, wewe receivedreceived oourur charitablecharitable ttaxax deductiondeduction iimmediatelymmediately aandnd oneone ggiftift rreceipt.eceipt. NowNow wwee havehave ttimeime PrincipledPrincipled giving.giving. toto thinkthink aboutabout howhow wewe cancan promotepromote ourour valuesvalues throughthrough charitablecharitable giftsgifts toto variousvarious organizations.organizations. ForFor moremore details,details, visitvisit ourour WebWeb sitesite oorr callcall usus forfor a freefree informationalinformational bbrochure.rochure. Privacy.Privacy. AnyAny grantsgrants wwee recommendrecommend tthroughhrough oourur DDonorsTrustonorsTrust aaccountccount ccanan bbee ccompletelyompletely aanonymous—evennonymous—even ffromrom tthehe IIRS.RS. DDonors onorsTTrustrust Assurance.Assurance. DonorsTrustDonorsTrust providesprovides a protectiveprotective BUILDINGBU I LD ING A LEGACYLE GA CY OFO F LIBERTYL IBE R T Y bboundaryoundary tthathat ggivesives uuss cconfidenceonfidence tthathat oourur ccharitableharitable 703.535.3563703.535.3563 | www.donorstrust.orgwww.donorstrust.org iinvestmentsnvestments wwillill oonlynly ggoo ttoo ccharitiesharities tthathat ppromoteromote llibertyiberty aass llongong aass oourur aaccountccount eexists—evenxists—even bbeyondeyond oourur llifetime.ifetime. DTDT PPhilanthropichilanthropic Services,Services, IInc.nc.