Ramesh Ponnuru:Ponnuru: Thethe Casecase Forfor Mittmitt

2011_12_19_B_cover61404-postal.qxd 11/29/2011 7:57 PM Page 1

December 19, 2011 $4.99 RAMESHRAMESH PONNURU:PONNURU: THETHE CASECASE FORFOR MITTMITT

GreedGreed 2.02.0 The Wall Street–Washington Nexis $4.99 51 KEVIN D. WILLIAMSON

0 74820 08155 6 www.nationalreview.com base_milliken-mar 22.qxd 11/28/2011 12:45 PM Page 2

Gutter

Trim

: 2400 45˚ 105˚ 75˚ G

base_milliken-mar 22.qxd 11/28/2011 12:45 PM Page 3

Best-Of-Boeing Capabilities

Cost Reduction Through Innovation

High-Efficiency Processes

Model Program Management

Best-Of-Industry Partners

www.boeing.com/value

TODAYTOMORROWBEYOND

105˚ 75˚

toc_QXP-1127940144.qxp 11/30/2011 1:33 PM Page 4 Contents

DECEMBER 19, 2011 | VOLUME LXIII, NO. 23 | www.nationalreview.com

COVER STORY Page 39 Andrew Stuttaford on Europe Repo Men p. 18 Wall Street wants an administration and a BOOKS, ARTS Congress—and a country—that believe what & MANNERS is good for Wall Street is good for America, whether that is true or isn’t. Wall Street 51 SCHOOL FOR FIGHTING Victor Davis Hanson reviews doesn’t want free markets—it wants Conquered into Liberty: Two friends, favors, and fealty. Kevin D. Williamson Centuries of Battles along the Great Warpath that Made the American Way of War, COVER: HO/RTR/NEWSCOM by Eliot A. Cohen.

ARTICLES 52 BE NICE! John Derbyshire reviews The EURO MELEE by Andrew Stuttaford 18 Better Angels of Our Nature: It’s Europe vs. the Europeans. Why Violence Has Declined, 20 JUSTICE FOR LIBYA by John R. Bolton by Steven Pinker. It requires blocking the world court’s overreach. 54 THE GONZO FILES 24 RETREAT—BUT WHOSE? by Jamie M. Fly Kyle Smith reviews Fear and Now is no time for more force reductions in Afghanistan. Loathing at Rolling Stone: The Essential Writing of 26 THE STATE CAN BULLY, TOO by Robert VerBruggen Hunter S. Thompson, A well-intentioned New Jersey law does more harm than good. edited by Jann S. Wenner.

30 FAST TRACK TO NOWHERE by Samuel Staley 56 IVY LEAGUE LOVE China’s experience with high-speed rail provides a cautionary tale. Randy Boyagoda reviews The Marriage Plot, by Jeffrey Eugenides. 32 REGULATED UNTO DEATH by Travis Kavulla How the EPA is killing America’s energy industry. 58 FILM: MISCASTING PEARLS Ross Douthat reviews THREE WINNERS 36 by Jay Nordlinger The Descendants. The Nobel peace committee divides its 2011 prize wisely. 59 CITY DESK: BUYER’S REMORSE FEATURES Richard Brookhiser tours his stores. 39 REPO MEN by Kevin D. Williamson Beware Wall Street efforts to reoccupy the Republican party. 42 ROMNEY’S THE ONE by Ramesh Ponnuru SECTIONS Why the former Massachusetts governor deserves the GOP nomination. 4 Letters to the Editor 44 BUCKEYE FOR PROMOTION by John J. Miller 6 The Week A 34-year-old GOP star eyes an Ohio Senate seat. 49 Athwart ...... James Lileks 50 The Long View ...... Rob Long 46 IRANIAN END GAME by Michael Rubin 56 Poetry ...... Len Krisak The U.S. must settle for nothing less than checkmate. 60 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., 2011. 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. base_milliken-mar 22.qxd 11/28/2011 12:02 PM Page 1

Basic Math Taught by Professor Murray H. Siegel IM ED T E O 1. Introduction and a Review of IT FF E Addition and Subtraction IM R L 2. Multiplication and Division 3. Long Division 70% 4. Introduction to Fractions

O 7 5. Adding Fractions 1 R off 6. Subtracting Fractions D Y E R 7. Multiplying Fractions R A BY FEBRU 8. Dividing Fractions, Plus a Review of Fractions 9. Adding and Subtracting Decimals 10. Multiplying and Dividing Decimals 11. Using the Calculator 12. Fractions, Decimals, and Percents 13. Percent Problems 14. Ratios and Proportions 15. Exponents and the Order of Operations 16. Adding and Subtracting Integers 17. Multiplication and Division of Integers, and an Introduction to Square Roots 18. Negative and Fractional Powers 19. Geometry I 2 0 . G e o m e t r y I I 21. Graphing in the Coordinate Plane 22. Number Theory 23. Number Patterns I 24. Number Patterns II The Basics of Math— 25. Statistics 26. Probability Made Clear 27. Measurement 28. Problem-Solving Techniques Basic Math introduces students to the fundamental concepts of 29. Solving Simple Equations mathematics, as well as those of more complicated areas. These 30 30. Introduction to Algebra I engaging lectures provide students with an understanding of arithmetic and prepare them for the challenges of Algebra I and beyond. Professor Murray H. Siegel—honored by Kentucky Educational Television as “the best math teacher in America”—has a gift for explaining mathematical concepts in ways that make them seem clear and obvious rather than arbitrary and murky. Basic Math These lectures are arranged sequentially to allow for a logical Course no. 104 | 30 lectures (30 minutes/lecture) development of the material and cover topics such as: whole numbers, fractions, decimals, integers, percents, exponents, the order of operations, and square roots. In addition to learning how to perform various SAVE $175 mathematical operations, students discover why these operations work and how they can be used practically. By the conclusion of Basic Math, DVD $254.95NOW $79.95 students will have improved their understanding of basic math, will +$15 Shipping, Processing, and Lifetime Satisfaction Guarantee have cleared away the mystery behind mathematics, will be able to face Priority Code: 51037 their studies with more conﬁ dence than they ever imagined, and will have strengthened their ability to accept new and exciting mathematical Designed to meet the demand for lifelong challenges. learning, The Great Courses is a highly popular series of audio and video lectures led by top professors and experts. Each of our O er expires 02/17/12 more than 350 courses is an intellectually engaging experience that will change how 1-800-832-2412 you think about the world. Since 1990,

../5 © Mopic/Shutterstock. over 10 million courses have been sold. letters--ready_QXP-1127940387.qxp 11/30/2011 2:01 PM Page 4 Letters

What Is Progressivism? DECEMBER 19 ISSUE; PRINTED DECEMBER 1 For Yuval Levin to point to Teddy Roosevelt’s J. P. Morgan–financed 1912 Bull

EDITOR Moose party as the original progressivism (“What Is Constitutional Conservatism?” Richard Lowry November 28) does a serious injustice to the authentic progressives of that Senior Editors era. Richard Brookhiser / Jay Nordlinger Ramesh Ponnuru / David Pryce-Jones The quasi-fascist “progressivism” of the centralizing, elitist, Jefferson- Managing Editor Jason Lee Steorts despising Teddy Roosevelt and Herbert Croly was a far cry from Bob La Follette’s Literary Editor Michael Potemra Executive Editor Christopher McEvoy authentic Wisconsin progressivism, which preceded it. It was also different National Correspondent John J. Miller from the short-lived Conference for Progressive Political Action–endorsed Political Reporter Robert Costa Art Director Luba Kolomytseva independent La Follette candidacy of 1924 (whose elderly candidate refused to Deputy Managing Editors run on the sponsoring organization’s socialist platform), the Communist-backed Fred Schwarz / Kevin D. Williamson Associate Editors Henry Wallace Progressive campaign of 1948, and the current “progressive” Helen Rittelmeyer / Robert VerBruggen Research Director Katherine Connell irruption based on Marxist redistributionism. Executive Secretary Frances Bronson By far the best of these “progressive” offerings was La Follette’s of 1900, built Assistant to the Editor Christeleny Frangos on private property, small business, fair competition, the rejection of crony capi- Contributing Editors Robert H. Bork / Shannen Coffin / John Derbyshire talism, and expertise in the service of the people. Ross Douthat / Rod Dreher / David Frum Roman Genn / Jim Geraghty / Jonah Goldberg Florence King / Lawrence Kudlow / Mark R. Levin John McClaughry Yuval Levin / Rob Long / Jim Manzi Kirby, Vt. Andrew C. McCarthy / Kate O’Beirne David B. Rivkin Jr.

NATIONALREVIEWONLINE YuvAL LevIN RePLIes: I pointed to the Bull Moose party only as an example of the Editor-at-Large Kathryn Jean Lopez Managing Editor Edward John Craig progressives’ simultaneous appeal to both populist and technocratic ideas, and in News Editor Daniel Foster that respect (as in many others, including their attitude toward the restraints of our Editorial Associates Brian Bolduc / Charles C. W. Cooke constitutional system) there was little distance between the Progressive party of Brian Stewart / Katrina Trinko 1912 and La Follette’s progressivism. Indeed, La Follette’s “Wisconsin Idea” was Web Developer Gareth du Plooy Technical Services Russell Jenkins the epitome of technocratic populism, and clearly informed the Progressive party’s advocacy of both expert rule and direct democracy. There were, to be sure, EDITORS- AT- LARGE Linda Bridges / John O’Sullivan different varieties of progressives, but they did not differ much on the point raised Contributors in my essay—and La Follette and the Bull Moose platform did not differ at all on Hadley Arkes / Baloo / Tom Bethell that point. James Bowman / Priscilla L. Buckley Eliot A. Cohen / Brian Crozier Dinesh D’Souza / M. Stanton Evans Chester E. Finn Jr. / Neal B. Freeman Swearing in Style James Gardner / David Gelernter George Gilder / Jeffrey Hart Kevin A. Hassett / Charles R. Kesler Robin e. Black (Letters, November 14) wonders whether there is any governing David Klinghoffer / Anthony Lejeune principle behind NATIoNAL RevIeW’s asterisk use in “f*****g”, “mother****er”, D. Keith Mano / Michael Novak Alan Reynolds / Tracy Lee Simmons “p****y a*s,” and “muthaf***in’.” Terry Teachout / Taki Theodoracopulos In lexical forms of simple nouns, NR omits all but the first and last letters. Vin Weber “Mother****er” is a compound noun, so the entire profanity can be expunged, as Chief Financial Officer James X. Kilbridge Accounting Manager Galina Veygman the intact modifier and suffix make explicit the meaning without further diffi culty. Accountant Zofia Baraniak Business Services The typographically unorthodox “muthaf***in’” is a phonetic rendition of a spo- Alex Batey / Elena Reut / Lucy Zepeda ken colloquialism. The second syllable of “mother” is obscured to a quick grunt Circulation Manager Jason Ng WORLD WIDE WEB www.nationalreview.com in speech and assimilates to the following consonant, making the word syllabi- MAIN NUMBER 212-679-7330 cally mu-thaf-f*-kin. The second element of the compound is censored as in the SUBSCRIPTION INQUIRIES 386-246-0118 WASHINGTON OFFICE 202-543-9226 more usual “mother****er” as a kind of courtesy accidental. ADVERTISING SALES 212-679-7330 Executive Publisher Scott F. Budd Advertising Director Jim Fowler Stephen Twentyman Advertising Manager Kevin Longstreet Alexandria, Va. ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER Paul Olivett

PUBLISHER Jack Fowler THe edIToRs RePLY: But note the difference in spelling between your “mu-thaf-

CHAIRMANEMERITUS f*-kin’” and our “muthaf***in’.” The crucial point is that the absence of “er” Thomas L. Rhodes requires the presence of “f” for clarity.

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

4 | www.nationalreview.com DECEMBER 1 9 , 2 0 1 1 base_milliken-mar 22.qxd 11/28/2011 12:05 PM Page 1

Unwrap a new language. Open up the world.

This holiday season … Give them everything they need to learn a new language. FAST.

Language. A gift for life.

GIVE THE GIFT OF LANGUAGE RosettaStone.com • (877) 283-5443

n The case for Newt is that he’s nothing like that guy who used to be governor of Massachusetts. The case for Romney is very similar.

n After having been written off last summer when most of his aides quit, Newt Gingrich is rising in the polls and has won the Manchester Union Leader’s endorsement. If he goes on to win the nomination, the parallel to John McCain’s 2008 campaign will be uncanny. The Union Leader argued that Republicans should look not just for a candidate who can beat Obama but for one who has innovative ideas. Primary voters may place more weight on electability. But it’s certainly true that Gingrich does not need to prove that he is a creative thinker. What he needs to prove is that he is capable of a maturity and steadiness that he did not show either in his time as Speaker or in the early days of this campaign. Admirers of his intellect and energy must certainly hope so.

n Rep. Michele Bachmann, among others, has assailed Gin - grich for saying that the only “humane” policy toward illegal immigrants is to give legal status to those with deep roots in their communities—those who have been here “25 years,” he said illustratively. But none of the candidates has categorically excluded offering a limited amnesty after we are sure that the inflow of illegal immigrants has largely stopped. Bachmann herself has been open to the idea. The real flaws of Gingrich’s Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and as one half of the defective policy lie elsewhere. His proposal for a program to import “tem- duo behind the Dodd-Frank financial-reform legislation. If they porary workers” assumes, implausibly, that we will not grant were seeking a symbol of normality, gay Americans could have U.S. citizenship to their children and that we will maintain a done better: Representative Frank was reprimanded by the large legal labor force with no right to vote. His amnesty would House after it was discovered that a male prostitute he patron- be administered, he says, by local community boards deciding ized was running a prostitution ring from congressman’s home. which of 11 million illegal immigrants should stay. We await the But Representative Frank’s sexual shenanigans cost the nation day when Gingrich’s thoughts turn as serious as his instincts are little; his role in protecting the government-sponsored mortgage humane. giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac from the restraint and oversight they so obviously needed contributed to a financial melt- n When Bachmann walked onstage to greet Jimmy Fallon on down and recession that have cost us trillions. (The fact that he NBC’s Late Night, the house band played a 26-year-old pop was dating a Fannie Mae executive while enabling the agency song whose title suggested that she was a spiteful or lewd does not look good, either.) His last hurrah in the House was the woman, dishonest to her fundament. Memo to conservatives: Dodd-Frank bill, which meddles with the pettiest of issues but They hate you, and this will happen forever—not every time, does little or nothing to address the underlying causes of the maybe, but every so often. We have four options: Avoiding their mortgage bubble, meaning that the same congressman who shows is self-ghettoization; appearing and saying nothing is played a role in creating the last financial crisis may end up play- self-dhimmitude; fighting snark with snark is the high-wire ing a role in the next one. His retirement is welcome. act, perfected by WFB but open to few of us. Option four is to do what Bachmann did: protest, which prompted apologies from n Occupy Wall Street was cleaned out of Zuccotti Park in Fallon and an NBC veep. N.B.: Kudos to Bachmann colleague lower Manhattan, not with a bang, but with a whiff. “I pick up Rep. Nita Lowey (D., N.Y.), who called the musical ambush garbage” for a living, one sanitation man told the New York “insulting and inappropriate.” Post, “and these were some of the worst smells I’ve ever experienced.” But the aroma followed the encampment into n Barney Frank will be remembered as the first House member memory. The Occupiers were becoming a drag on their own to reveal voluntarily that he was gay, as the man who demanded movement, hence their tacit willingness to be moved along. The

ROMAN GENN that we “roll the dice” on the housing-market shenanigans of gropes, the disease, and the disorder will linger in the minds of

6 | www.nationalreview.com DECEMBER 1 9 , 2 0 1 1 base_milliken-mar 22.qxd 11/28/2011 12:16 PM Page 1

Gift delight.

Give the Bose® Wave® music system. It is a delight to give as well as receive – because once received, it keeps right on giving. In the living room, it delivers all the pleasures of lifelike sound from a system that easily fits on a shelf. In the kitchen, it barely takes up any counter space, yet adds enjoyment to family gatherings and evening cleanup. In the bedroom, it creates a soothing ambiance at night and, with a gradually rising alarm, gently ushers in the day.

Watch their face when they turn it on. Risk-free trial. Simply choose from three designer Murray Hill of Postmedia News Service says, “Everyone colors: Titanium Silver, Graphite Gray or Platinum is astonished at the sound…you can hear every nuance.” White. And use our 30-day, risk-free trial to make sure And they can use that sound to bring new life to all their the sound is everything we claim. Order now and you’ll music. There’s a built-in CD player and FM/AM tuner, save $50. Also be sure to ask about using your own plus it comes with a slim, credit card-style remote that major credit card to make 12 easy payments, with no conveniently operates every feature. Give it with the interest charges from Bose*. optional Multi-CD Changer to let them play their music This holiday season, give for hours uninterrupted. Or with the optional Connect the Wave® music system. Kit that lets them hear their iPod® or iPhone® like never Delight them with Bose, the before. Their iPod or iPhone automatically charges while most respected name in sound. they listen. Shown in Platinum White with optional Multi-CD Changer.

SAVE $50 when you order the Wave® music system by January 2, 2012.

Last chance for the holidays. Order by December 20 for delivery by December 23†. 1-800-295-2073, ext. TX605 www.Bose.com/WMS †In-stock items only. Not responsible for delivery service delays. Some exceptions may apply. *Bose payment plan available on orders of $299-$1500 paid by major credit card. Separate financing offers may be available for select products. See website for details. Down payment is 1/12 the product price plus applicable tax and shipping charges, charged when your order is shipped. Then, your credit card will be billed for 11 equal monthly installments beginning approximately one month from the date your order is shipped, with 0% APR and no interest charges from Bose. Credit card rules and interest may apply. U.S. residents only. Limit one active financing program per customer. ©2011 Bose Corporation. The distinctive design of the Wave® music system is a registered trademark of Bose Corporation. Financing and savings offers not to be combined with other offers or applied to previous purchases, and subject to change without notice. Offers are limited to purchases made from Bose and participating authorized dealers. Offer valid 11/20/11-1/2/12. Risk free refers to 30-day trial only, requires product purchase and does not include return shipping. iPhone and iPod are registered trademarks of Apple Inc. Delivery is subject to product availability. Quote reprinted with permission. week_QXP-1127940387.qxp 11/30/2011 2:10 PM Page 8

THE WEEK the impressionable as rites of passage, like the brown acid at n The Supreme Court has agreed to decide several constitution- Woodstock. The hard Left enjoyed a national two-minute drill al questions concerning Obamacare. Justice Elena Kagan ought (remember the shutdown of the Port of Oakland, and the sit-in to recuse herself from the case. As a member of the Obama at the Israeli consulate in Boston). After two years of casting administration, Kagan was involved in planning the legal about, liberals finally have a tea party of their own: unsatisfac- defense of the law, even if we do not know, thanks to adminis- tory in many respects, but capable of being revived as the tration stonewalling, just how involved. As Carrie Severino unions or the 2012 election require. And underlying all is notes in a memorandum for the Judicial Crisis Network, a con- America’s economic malaise, which Obama doesn’t under- servative group, what we already know requires recusal under stand, congressional Republicans alone can’t fix, and drum- existing case law—and, we would add, requires it for good rea- ming or ending the Fed won’t solve. son. Her impartiality is in doubt. Worse, it appears quite possible that Obama nominated her in part because her involvement n The day after a Republican debate, CNN reporter Dan in the case made it likely she would uphold the law. Liberals Lothian had a question for President Obama: Are the Repub - have responded to calls for her recusal by saying that Justice licans “uninformed, out of touch, or irresponsible?” Funny, Clarence Thomas is obliged to recuse himself as well because that’s our question about the mainstream media. his wife, a conservative activist, has opposed the law. But

Correlating the Candidates

OR months, pundits have been eyeballing poll num- Gingrich, but not of Romney. The chart also suggests that bers and spinning the story that Mitt Romney has a a number of candidates live in an alternative reality, far F solid, unchanging base of support, and that the other removed from the real action. Support for Ron Paul, Jon candidates are taking turns being the “Non-Romney” of Huntsman, and Rick Santorum is uncorrelated with sup- the day. This consensus view is based on a faulty premise. port for anyone else. If eyeballing of the data were enough, God would not have There are currently two frontrunners, and the correla- given us econometricians. tions help clarify the likely future scenarios. To an econometrician, the consensus is testable. If it is First, if Gingrich and Romney stay strong, and others correct, then changes in poll numbers should be highly drop out, then it looks as if Gingrich would gain the most negatively correlated among the Non-Romneys: If Newt support, since Romney stands to gain only from Perry, Gingrich goes up, Rick Perry goes down. But the changes who barely has a pulse. should be uncorrelated with movements in Romney’s poll In the second scenario, Gingrich goes down in the polls, numbers. and his supporters spread out to many candidates. This The nearby chart explores these links. It is based on would redound to Romney’s benefit, but not necessarily every poll reported by the website RealClearPolitics since decisively. the beginning of June 2011, and analyzes how the ups and Finally, if Romney goes down, most of his supporters will downs of the different candidates correlate. To make the fan out between Gingrich and Perry. Given his large lead large amount of information digestible, the chart identifies over Perry, that could be enough to put Gingrich over the for each candidate the relationship between changes in his top quickly. poll numbers and changes in those of his competitors. A —KEVIN A. HASSETT negative and statistically significant relationship is denoted by an arrow, and no significant relationship by a zero. There were no cases of a statistically significant positive Correlation Between the Poll Standings of 1 correlation between two candidates. Presidential Candidates For example, the first row of the table reveals (reading across) that Gingrich’s support has come at the expense of Gingrich Romney Cain Perry Bachmann Santorum Huntsman Paul Romney, Cain, Perry, and Bachmann, but is not related to Gingrich ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ 0 0 0 the swings for Paul, Santorum, and Huntsman. Romney ↓ 0 ↓ 0 0 0 0 The table is filled with interesting information. Perhaps Cain ↓ 0 ↓ ↓ 0 0 0 most interesting, the data suggest that support for Rom - Perry ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ 0 0 0 ney is related to support for Perry and Gingrich but not to Bachmann ↓ 0 ↓ ↓ 0 0 0 support for the others. Romney is not on an island: His vot- Santorum 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Hunstman 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 ers seem willing to jump to other candidates, provided that Paul 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 the alternative has ample political experience.

Among the Non-Romneys there does appear to be a SOURCE: REALCLEARPOLITICS 2012 REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL NOMINATION POLLING DATA bit of a game of musical chairs going on. Bachmann, for 1 A “↓” DENOTES A NEGATIVE AND STATISTICALLY SIGNIFICANT RELATIONSHIP; example, rises and falls at the expense of Perry, Cain, and NO SIGNIFICANT RELATIONSHIP IS DENOTED BY A “0”.

8 | www.nationalreview.com DECEMBER 1 9 , 2 0 1 1 base_milliken-mar 22.qxd 11/29/2011 3:32 PM Page 1

MINIMIZE YOUR TAXES. MAXIMIZE YOUR CHARITABLE IMPACT.

hen you work with DonorsTrust, you immediately Wreceive the highest charitable tax deduction allowed by law. You can further maximize your tax savings by donating appreciated stock, before you sell it, and avoiding the capital gains tax. Freed from tax deadlines, you can thoughtfully choose charitable organizations that best fit SmartSmart giving.giving. your philanthropic goals and realize your dream of making ConvenientConvenient giving.giving. a lasting impact. PrincipledPrincipled giving.giving. DDonorsTrustonorsTrust wwasas ccreatedreated ttoo ssupportupport oonlynly tthosehose ppublicublic ccharitiesharities tthathat ppromoteromote llibertyiberty tthroughhrough llimitedimited ggovernment,overnment, ppersonalersonal ForFor moremore details,details, visitvisit ourour WebWeb sitesite rresponsibility,esponsibility, aandnd ffreeree eenterprise.nterprise. IIff tthathat rreflectseflects yyourour iintentntent oorr callcall usus forfor a freefree informationalinformational bbrochure.rochure. aandnd wwishesishes aass a ddonor,onor, yyouou wwon’ton’t ffindind a mmoreore rreliableeliable aally.lly.

Ask us about our wide variety of accounts and foundation- style services. They’re all designed to give you convenient, DDonors onorsTTrustrust flexible options for reducing your taxes while increasing BUILDINGBU I LD ING A LEGACYLE GA CY OFO F LIBERTYL IBE R T Y your charitable impact. 703.535.3563703.535.3563 | www.donorstrust.orgwww.donorstrust.org

DTDT PPhilanthropichilanthropic Services,Services, Inc.Inc. week_QXP-1127940387.qxp 11/30/2011 2:10 PM Page 10

THE WEEK Mrs. Thomas is not involved in the case, as the recusal standards give great advantages to one side or the other. So NLRB mem- require. Liberals have not found a real parallel, just a way to bers are chosen for naked political reasons (e.g. Craig Becker, a sidestep the question of judicial integrity. former SEIU and AFL-CIO lawyer who was recess-appointed by Obama), and policy swings back and forth with each new presi- n The science of climatology has always involved a consider- dent. Under George W. Bush, the five-member board dwindled to able amount of art. To determine temperature trends over a peri- two, as the Democratic Senate refused to consider his nominees. od of decades or centuries, raw data (in many cases deduced While it now has a bare quorum of three, Republican member from ice cores, tree rings, and the like) must be adjusted to Brian Hayes has threatened to resign in order to keep it from enact- account for assorted variables and run through computer mod- ing new rules easing the path for unions to be certified; at press els. Even small differences in the relevant parameters can affect time, at least a temporary compromise appeared to be in the the results greatly, so they must be chosen with scrupulous works. Such tactics show that the NLRB is often merely a short- impartiality—but scientists wouldn’t slant their data to prove cut for the dominant party to write its labor wish list into law, a point, would they? Sorry, stupid question. The latest batch often to be undone when the White House changes hands. A of leaked e-mail exchanges among climatologists, dubbed better solution would be to leave these important decisions to Climategate 2.0, shows members of the discipline’s inner circle the people’s elected representatives. discussing how to fudge calculations to achieve the desired results by, for example, selecting the most favorable time peri- n Robert and Patricia Haynes of Macomb Township, Mich., ods for comparison and adding correction factors to smooth over receive monthly Medicaid payments to help them provide in- Somebody should send the Federal Housing Administration the telephone number for Gamblers Anonymous; admitting you have a problem is the first step.

inconvenient results. When some researchers expressed uneasi- home care for their adult son and daughter, who have cerebral ness (“the figure you sent is very deceptive,” “the science is palsy. As far as the Service Employees International Union being manipulated to put a political spin on it”), they were shout- (SEIU) and its Democratic allies are concerned, that is sufficient ed down or threatened. Real progress on climate science to classify the Hayneses as “government workers.” Accordingly, requires that charlatans feel a little heat. the Hayneses and others like them are forced to cough up $30 a month in “dues” to the SEIU, one of the largest public-employee n Housing interests are cheering a bill passed by Congress that unions in the country, even if they have no interest in joining. would empower the Federal Housing Administration to insure This special arrangement, which began in 2006 under former mortgages as high as $729,750, up more than a hundred grand governor Jennifer Granholm (D.), has allowed the SEIU to rake from the current level. The Obama administration, per usual, is in an extra $6 million to its coffers annually, which it uses to help talking out of both sides of its mouth on the issue: first saying elect labor-friendly Democrats eager to enact policies like this that the government should ease back from such loan guaran- one. Before we know it, the SEIU will be insisting that the mil- tees, and then protesting that, because the housing market lions of Americans who receive the child tax credit are merely remains weak, it may go along with the increase. We prefer the “government child-care providers.” first side of the administration’s mouth: The decision to finance a house costing nearly three-quarters of a million dollars should n If the Solyndra scandal showed that the Obama administration turn on the value of the property and the borrower’s ability to values the chimera of “green energy” more than it values tax- repay the loan, not on a federal guarantee. And what is true of a payers’ money, the Keystone XL Pipeline scandal shows that, house costing $729,750 is true of a house costing $72,975 or for the administration, environmentalist fantasies trump even $7.29: The federal government is not a bank and ought not to American jobs and energy security. The State Department was insert itself in the consumer-finance business. The ineducable expected to okay a permit for the pipeline—a $7 billion project classes in Washington helped to create a worldwide financial that would bring in 700,000 barrels of oil per day from Canada, calamity with their attempts to manage the American real-estate in addition to creating about 20,000 jobs in the U.S.—by the end and mortgage markets but remain convinced that, if we will only of 2011. Instead, the department delayed the permitting decision increase their credit limit, they’ll get it right this time. Somebody until 2013, conveniently after the elections, ostensibly to give should send the FHA the telephone number for Gamblers itself time to evaluate a route for the pipeline that avoids a major Anonymous; admitting you have a problem is the first step. aquifer in Nebraska. Never mind that an environmental report commissioned by the State Department itself downplayed the n As Robert VerBruggen has written in these pages, the National risks to the aquifer, estimating (based on a 1979 oil spill into an Labor Relations Board is a systemic force for instability and end- aquifer in Minnesota) that even if a spill occurred in Nebraska, less litigation in dealings between unions and management. It it “would affect a limited area of the aquifer around the spill site. writes and interprets rules for union organization and collective In no spill incident scenario would the entire Northern High bargaining—supposedly a technical function, but one that can Plains Aquifer system be adversely affected.” But the report did

1 0 | www.nationalreview.com DECEMBER 1 9 , 2 0 1 1 week_QXP-1127940387.qxp 11/30/2011 2:10 PM Page 11

not cover the spillover effect on the president’s reelection, which his term in office, and said he would do the same for everyone is clearly what was uppermost in the administration’s mind. else on death row, based on his “personal convictions about the morality of capital punishment.” Those convictions seem to us, n While Congress was busy parceling out a measly $700 billion as to most Americans, to be mistaken. But even if they are cor- for the 2008–09 bank bailouts, the Fed was acting on its own, on rect, the governor’s actions are improper. The governor of Or e - an even larger scale. This has been known for some time, but gon, like most American executives, has an unreviewable power documents recently released after a Freedom of Information Act to exercise clemency at his discretion. But he also has a duty to request show the true scale of the intervention: The cash infu- faithfully execute the laws. To use the power of clemency to nul- sions, guarantees, and other support proffered by the Fed add up lify the law is to abuse it. Opposition to capital punishment loses to $7.77 trillion—half of the country’s GDP. A single infusion on its honorable character when it is allied to lawlessness. Dec. 5, 2008, totaled $1.2 trillion—nearly twice what was put up under TARP. While we are inclined to believe that an indepen- n In a provocation that once would have brought British gun- dent Fed is preferable to a Fed under congressional manage- boats steaming up the Iranian equivalent of the Yangtze River, ment, the scale of the Fed’s freelance operations during the thugs stormed the British embassy in Tehran. These “students” financial crisis is troubling. Even more troubling is the secrecy must be pursuing advanced studies in international incidents, with which these operations were conducted, and the Fed’s courtesy of the Basij militia. The regime wanted to take revenge attempt to keep them secret—the Bloomberg news service had for the new sanctions London just instituted on Tehran’s central to fight in court to get the documents. The Fed should remain bank, and besides, Iranians tend to harbor quaint fantasies about independent of political management in its role as the executor how their former colonial master still controls the world order. of monetary policy, but both democratic values and prudent A week before the embassy attack, French president Nicolas oversight require a significantly greater level of transparency Sar kozy called for further sanctions, freezing the assets of the in its operations. We simply cannot have Ben Bernanke betting Iranian central bank and ceasing the importation of Iranian oil. 50 percent of GDP on struggling banks without openness and These are measures that would significantly increase the eco- accountability. nomic pressure on Tehran, and we should be urging their adop- tion forthwith. The action against the embassy is more evidence n John Kitzhaber, the Democratic governor of Oregon, granted that the Iranian regime stands outside of and opposed to the a temporary reprieve to a death-row prisoner for the duration of international order—if we needed any. O JAY, CAN YOU SEE? And does he ever see in his acclaimed collection — you will, too!

ou simply must have this popular and praised collection from National Review senior editor Jay Nordlinger: Here, There & Everywhere. This handsome 528-page hardcover is a must for your library, and makes a wonderful gift. Here’s what Ysome leading lights have to say about Jay, his remarkable talents, and this long-awaited, wonderful array of essays, reports, speeches, and ruminations:

/&)# %) *&%&$) 4*$&*+-)*+ #%',%%+.) +)* *+ &$ %&'&# + *%*& &#&/ %*'&)+% $,* %# +)+,)%+&##+ *+&' * ) %*% %(, ) %$ %'"%&.#%%% % *+/# *&##+ &%* &.* $+ * . )% %*+

"##)+)'&)+)*%**/ *+*&)# %)* 0*,'&%+ **%+ #+ #*+ + -*+&)/# %+ ')*%+%/)* +) + *$&*+*+) " % &,++ ***/* *%&++ ) %+) +/)#**%**. +*,'))+*$%* '%+ #&%- .+ /)-#,++ + &)# %) *$% %,## % .) +*2 &)$+ ')*&%#+)%*%*+ %+ &%# *+&) #%'&# + #3/&,"%&. $$ +#/ &. *'&)+) +&&,) *+)%*%&%+$'&))/ )*+&) # " *+&)/%+ &, #./*.) ++% %',)*, +&+ %,) %%+ +), *' *)*&%* %+%*')"# %%&++ ++&)+ $ *# "&'% % &%')*%++)%&+ )&&$% * )+& % &, -&,% $

&$++)+ *,!+1%. +*,!+ * %&++&, ,'&%1/&)# %).) +*# "+ )+&%-) *+ &%# *+ * */ %&)$# +/& **+/#%-) #*+&%%# ++ . )% %,#+ -+ &% + )#+*%-) #*+&%# +%%+ %)/+ +')&'#* +%-) #*+&$0 National Review 215 Lexington Avenue New York, NY 10016 %# "$&*+&,*'&# + #',% +*/&)# %) *$%/&+ )*+) %*+& *&. %+$&*+&,*&%4+ -% -&.,+/&*&,4)*# "#/ +& % $+ /),+ &)#0,)*+'&# + #&%-%+ &%)+,,*+ ' & ()$ +(! PAYMENT METHOD: + &%# *. + ) + * '&# + %*+)$2 %+)#%31-*+))/& %+)*+*/&%'&# + *+ +$&*+%&)$#'& '###2# 3 .) +*) ## %+#/&,+$,* %')&&,%#/&,+&#%-)/')'+ -#/&,++ &**+)%# ++# National Review Check enclosed (payable to ) # %, *+ + *+ +*$+&'&','&,+&%&. )%+ + *' ) +&+ &) *%*+ *#&%&-),&)# %) Bill my MasterCard Visa )) *- )+,&*& *'#/& *))-)*+ # +/&%*,!+*)&$,$$/+&&* ,+&&$/ + % #%* % % )( / (+, $+ +&2)&+ -)%/3 % &##/.&& */&##+)*%$*+)&.###$&*+##. -.$,* )%-+ ('%/ !(* # Acct. No. # )%* $,$('% ()/ $'%- + +# '%(+ ,(,% )/& ', (! Expir. Date /&)# %) *% **%$%%+ *&&"')&-* + +4*. ++/) %%,%&)# %) ' ,( +"#*%))/& **,* %*$##. + )) ,$&)% %* + #*&*/*% + %*&,+$1. &,%+*&) Signature #&+ &,#%4+',+ +&.% & Here, There & Everywhere is available for only $24.95 (additional copies are just $19.95 each), which includes shipping and handling. And if you’d like the book personally inscribed by the author, just say so. It’s free. * ++

$,/,,

0,, * +$ ',+&-+, +% +,.(* $"'(* *+ ) *(* *

1 1 week_QXP-1127940387.qxp 11/30/2011 2:10 PM Page 12

THE WEEK n We have long been in a state of quasi-war with our quasi-ally Qaddafi’s, and more flagrant. In the course of this year, Syrian Pakistan. It harbors our enemies and works to undermine our goal security and military forces have killed at the very least 3,500 peo- of a reasonably stable and decently governed Afghanistan. In the ple (about 250 of them children) and arrested some 30,000, many latest flare-up in a relationship that has been increasingly tense of whom have disappeared and some of whom survive to testify since the bin Laden raid, U.S. troops called in an air strike on a of the extreme physical torture they have suffered. The Arabs had Pakistani military post near the border—almost certainly because plans to send observers to Syria and to devise a political solution they were being fired upon. In response to the incident, which for what is becoming civil war. Sanctions followed the flat rejec- killed two dozen Pakistani soldiers, the Pakistanis forced us to tion of all such proposals. Syria is considered the center of Arab shut down a base on their territory that we were using to fly nationalism, but its barbarities are converting pride in this identi- drones, and cut off our supply route into Afghanistan. In public, ty into shame. Members of the Arab League are also fearful that we’ll have to be contrite; in private, we should tell the Pakistanis the West might intervene. Even so, the sanctions are pro forma. that such accidents are the inevitable consequence of their perfidy. Once again, the verbiage of the Arab League outweighs its deeds. Pakistan is a bad seed of a country, built on grievance from the beginning and deeply dysfunctional. We don’t have much choice n Spain’s conservatives, after almost eight years in the wilder- but to stay engaged with it, since the alternatives to the current ness, beat the socialists. They not only beat them, they crushed government are even worse. But we should have no illusions them: It was the conservatives’ best showing, and the socialists’ about the treachery and malevolence of our so-called friend. worst, since the return of democracy to Spain in the late 1970s. The conservatives now have unchallenged control of the govern- n During the president’s Asia trip, the administration managed to ment. And they have some serious work to do: The Spanish econ- tweak Beijing on its territorial disputes, deepen security ties with omy is a mess, with unemployment over 21 percent. Voters, in Jakarta and Manila, announce the deployment of Marines in their distress, turned to the conservatives, while delivering a “pun- northern Australia, and advance an Asian free-trade deal including ishing verdict” on the socialists. (The words come from the New Japan. These moves have left the Chinese leadership flat-footed, York Times.) Margaret Thatcher liked to say, “The facts of life are and convincingly demonstrated to the region that we have no conservative.” The facts of life seem to have pushed the Spanish intention of letting China become a hemispheric hegemon. Most wearily home. of Asia’s fence-sitters have little desire to see an unbound China, but they will not risk coming into the U.S. fold if our regional n Elections to parlia- commitment is half-hearted. President Obama’s diplomats seem ment and the presidency to grasp this clearly. Credit where due. have begun in Egypt, and will be repeated at n A German bond auction failed in November, meaning that intervals in a complex investors simply do not want new debt issued by the government process until next June. of the country with Europe’s most productive economy unless There are dozens of par- yields go up significantly. Elsewhere in Europe, the situation is as ties, thousands of can - bad or worse: A few days after the failed German bond auction, didates, and millions of Italy was forced to pay record yields on an issue of new bonds: voters, whose inky fin- 7.56 percent on the ten-year bond, up from 6 percent just a month gers are evidence that before. Three-year Italian bonds are going for 7.89 percent. they are responsible cit- Europe’s problems are compounded by the presence of the izens. The variety and Field Marshal Tantawi unwieldy single currency, which necessitates that a highly pro- the novelty notwithstanding, the likely winners have always ductive exporter such as Germany share a monetary policy with been the Freedom and Justice party, recruited from the Muslim low-productivity Greece, to the ultimate advantage of neither. Brothers, a political body of Islamist militants hostile to every- They also are compounded by the undemocratic, unaccountable one else. Controlling the whole electoral experiment, however, regime in Brussels, which has been eating away at the sovereign- is the council of senior army officers that got rid of the former ty of Europe’s nations for many years. But Europe’s present prob- authoritarian president Hosni Mubarak and took his place. This lems otherwise are very much like those that the United States will council claims to be willing to devolve power to the people, but be forced to confront soon enough: spendthrift governments, large in the days prior to the election many voters became suspicious. deficits, and increased competition from emerging global com- The young, the secular, the educated, and the activists went to petitors disturbing the present economic order. And with the protest in central Cairo, suspecting that the army council and national debt at $15 trillion and rising, the United States cannot the Freedom and Justice party had reached some agreement to afford to be paying Italian rates on its bonds. keep power between them. In violent scenes, at least 40 people were then shot, and hundreds wounded. The council’s top offi- n The Arab League has taken a long time to follow the United cer, Field Marshal Tantawi, declared that “the position of the States and the European Union in imposing economic and travel armed forces will remain as it is—it will not change in any new sanctions on Syria. The Arab League was ostensibly founded to constitution.” In that case, the new parliament may have no promote Arab nationalism, but in reality it is a forum in which more legitimacy than previous parliaments in Egypt, all of them the separate interests of the 22 Arab states clash and no common rigged. Whether it proves politically skillful, popular, or mere- AP position can emerge. Extraordinarily, the Arab League gave its ly intimidating, the Freedom and Justice party could plunge the / approval to the campaign against Libya. The brutality of the country into the Islamist wave now sweeping the Muslim

Syrian regime of Bashar Assad is far worse than Moammar world. AMIR NABIL

1 2 | www.nationalreview.com DECEMBER 1 9 , 2 0 1 1 base_milliken-mar 22.qxd 11/28/2011 12:28 PM Page 1

= GUARANTEED LOWEST PRICE!

Actual size is 40.6 mm This is What REAL MONEY Looks Like If you believe in the yen, the euro, and the dollar... stop reading. Because this is a story about the silver coin EVERYBODY wants.

his is not an ad. It’s a warning. You read the headlines. You know customers have known since 1984— GovMint is the place to find Tthat troubled economic times put global currency on a rollercoaster the world’s finest high-grade coins. That’s why we’re offering you ride. Governments panic and they print paper. You can buy your ticket this brilliant uncirculated 2012 U.S. Silver Eagle for just $46.87**— and buckle up. Or you can opt out of the Wall Street amusement park to prove that GovMint offers the best money you can buy. and follow those who have found a smarter way to build long-term value with high-grade collectible silver. And right now those people Timing is Everything are lining up for the first release of 2012 U.S. Mint Silver Eagles. Our advice? Keep this to yourself. Tear out the page if you have Today you can graduate to the front of that line. Buy now and you to, because the more people who know about this offer, the worse can own these brilliant uncirculated Silver Dollars for only $46.87!* it is for you. Demand for Silver Eagles in 2011 broke records. Experts predict that 2012 Silver Eagles will break them all over again. Due to Not Even the U.S. Mint Can Help You Now rapid changes in the price of silver, prices may be higher or lower and In 2012, global demand for silver will surpass supply. That’s why banks are subject to change without notice. Supplies are limited and there is around the world are buying millions of ounces, snatching up silver a strict limit of 40 per household. Don’t miss out. Call immediately faster than mining companies can pull it out of the ground. That to add these elusive Silver Eagles to your holdings before it’s too voracious appetite for silver guarantees fierce competition for the brand late. Your change has come! new 2012 U.S. Mint Silver Eagles. Millions of collectors, investors and dealers from Europe, China and India are ready to strike. If you Coin Specs: Denomination: $1 Grade: Brilliant Uncirculated want to claim the highest-graded versions of America’s newest Silver Purity: .9993 Weight: 31.101 Grams Dollar before they do, this is your chance. Diameter: 40.6 MM Our first ever release of one of the most beautiful coins in the world Offer Limited to 40 per household today, gives you one full troy ounce of silver (featuring Miss Liberty draped in a U.S. flag) at our lowest price. Remember, the U.S. Mint 2012 American Silver Eagle Coin does not sell uncirculated Silver Eagle Dollars direct to the public. Your cost $46.87 + S&P You can only obtain them through an authorized distributor. And the clock is ticking. For fastest service, call toll-free 24 hours a day A Coin Flip You Can’t Afford to Lose 1-888-201-7056 Why are we releasing this coveted silver dollar for such a remarkable Offer Code FER150-02 14101 Southcross Drive W., Dept. FER150-02 Please mention this code when you call. price? Because we can. And because we want to introduce you Burnsville, Minnesota 55337 to what hundreds of thousands of smart collectors and satisfied www.GovMint.com

*plus a nominal shipping and handling charge Note: GovMint.com. is a private distributor of government and private coin and medallic issues and is not affiliated with the United States Government. Prices and availability subject to change without notice. ©GovMint.com, 2011 **Price based on spot market silver price of $35.00. =Call for details. week_QXP-1127940387.qxp 11/30/2011 2:10 PM Page 14

THE WEEK n In Moscow, a Russian badly beat an American in “mixed n That glow is no pep-rally bonfire—it’s the Penn State foot- martial arts,” a fancy phrase for fighting without rules. ball program incinerating. Reports that former assistant coach Hardly was the bout over when someone jumped into the Jerry Sandusky sexually assaulted boys, including an eyewit- ring and began speechifying about Russian strength. ness account of a shower-room rape, were minimized by Vladimir Putin! He loves to play the sportsman, out hunting coaches and administrators alike. When the story went public, bears or deep-sea diving, in a display of biceps and pecs. the trustees fired the morally obtuse, including the university Perhaps this Russian victory made him proud to have president and longtime head coach Joe Paterno. Students riot- suspended Russia’s participation in the 1990 Treaty on ed in the streets of State College after Paterno’s dismissal; the Conventional Forces in Europe, an arms-limitation treaty new regime at Penn State should expel all the rioters it can that had stabilized the continent up to 2007. But what is this? identify. The football program should also be suspended for a Boos and whistling and catcalls greeted Putin in the ring, year. (Accusations have also been leveled at Bernie Fine, a and this put-down was shown that evening on national tele- Syracuse basketball coach; they seem as of this writing to vision. Everyone already knows that his party has won the have been better investigated.) College football had a near- upcoming parliamentary elections, and many are saying that death experience a century ago, when Pres. Theodore the ringside crowd of 22,000 was showing what it thinks Roosevelt purged it of brutish violence and defended it of this fix. against puritanical critics. A new intervention may be needed. Big-ticket college sports field professional teams of unpaid underage players, who learn no more than they would at an n Ali Abdullah Saleh has been president of Yemen these OWS drum circle. Could it be a job for former president 33 years, and what a mess that country has become. Saudi George W. Bush? Arabia and Iran, otherwise Sunni and Shiite, have been fighting a proxy war in the mountains, with al-Qaeda and n On the last Sunday in November, English-speaking the late Anwar al-Awlaki mobilized alongside. The tribes Catholics heard something new and refreshing: a revised are at each other’s throats. The Arab Spring caught on. Huge Mass translation that is more literal in its fidelity to the orig- protests calling for Saleh to step down were answered inal Latin texts. The change was greeted by predictable with gunfire. Last June a bomb in Saleh’s palace almost squawking from church liberals: The new translation is killed him, and he had to go abroad for treatment. (To give “awkward,” suffers from the “linguistic infelicities” of a bit of local color: Anyone walking up the street toward “alien verbal flatulence,” represents a “slap in the face of the that palace will be shot.) Three times Saleh agreed to people of God,” etc. etc. On literary matters, de gustibus est, sign a deal to abdicate, and three times he revoked it. Ex - in fact, disputandum. What is more significant is that the pected to stay abroad, perhaps in New York, he returned new translation amounts to nothing less than a reassertion of to Sanaa, the capital, and agreed yet again to step down. one of the central tenets of Roman Catholicism: that the The vice president is supposed to take his popes and their advisers have a distinct charism of leader- place. (More local color: The two men are ship. From this premise follows the idea that it is desirable relations from the same tribe.) Saleh has that worship throughout the Catholic world strive to be faith- granted himself immunity from prose- ful to the thinking of these leaders. The new translation, cution for ordering the killing of hun- therefore, offers welcome encouragement to those Catholics dreds of demonstrators. Thousands are who strive to “think with the Church” on these essential now out in the streets demand - matters. ing the prosecution of this wily and tenacious old n When Karen Royce signed up for a course in human sexu- dictator. ality at Western Nevada College, she knew the content would get a bit racy, but she never thought she would be ordered to masturbate. In fact, the professor assigned enrollees to dou- n The Pakistani government is on top of what seems to be ble their normal masturbation frequency (when did they ever the country’s No. 1 peril: rogue texters. The communica- find time to study?), take notes, and then turn in a journal tions ministry has told cellphone providers that they will be documenting it all. Royce, age 60, explained that this expected to filter words and phrases deemed indecent out was not one of her hobbies, and begged off the assignment of all text messages. According to an unofficial list being on the grounds that twice zero is zero—whereupon the circulated, the banned lexicon includes numerous anatom- instructor demanded that she give it the old college try and ical, sexual, and excretory terms (in English and Urdu), as report to him on the results. Now she has filed a federal com- well as “Jesus,” exotica such as “monkey crotch” (why plaint, and while just dropping the class might have been a anyone wants to ban this is as mysterious as why anyone simpler option, the larger question remains: In what way wants to text it), and puzzlers such as “mango,” “taxi,” does pursuing a voyeuristic obsession with students’ sex “hobo,” and “athlete’s foot.” Also on the forbidden list lives benefit the taxpayers and further the college’s stated is “Wu-Tang Clan,” a rap group that seems to have gotten mission to “cultivate creativity, intellectual growth and tech- on the regime’s bad side with its lyric “Terrorize the jam / nological excellence”? Nevada’s leaders should work Like troops in Pakistan,” though whether the objection is to instead on reducing the nation’s highest unemployment rate; Inspectah Deck’s geopolitical views or his slant rhyming is then the state’s residents would not have so many idle hours

YEMENI PRESIDENCY OFFICE unclear. to fill.

1 4 | www.nationalreview.com DECEMBER 1 9 , 2 0 1 1 base_milliken-mar 22.qxd 11/28/2011 12:18 PM Page 1

Imagine living pain free... VERSOSHOCK REVERSE TRAMPOLINE SOLE Imagine feeling younger and being ﬁ lled with energy...

ENERGYNERGY ABSORB SHOCK RELIEVE PAIN BOOST ENERGY IMPROVE POSTURE HAVE MORE ENERGY ABSORB

ID E OL D WORLD -W OVER 500,000 S Designer Styles Secureecure Heel and ColoColors Counters

ABSORB SHOCK Remoemovablevable Eliminate pain from Comfort-Fitomfort-Fit every step. Insolesole

WideW Toe Box Smartmart Spring Master Shock Absorber REBOUND PROPELS YOU FORWARD Twin Stabilizers Reduce fatigue. Be more active. AVS3 Ventilation System

Verso TM reverse trampoline technology EVA Rocker Midsole Now You Can Stop Imagining

Want to walk and run faster; jump higher without fatigue or pain?

Gravity Defyer banned from it will adjust to your activities improving “I recommend Gravity Defyer Athletic Competition? your overall comfort by taking the “hard” shoes to my patients and friends. They are considered an unfair ad- out of hard surfaces like concrete and tile. They are such high quality shoes. vantage. Every scientifi c breakthrough They ease stress on your muscles, joints, I even wear them myself!” meets opposition, but if you want to and back while walking, running, or jumping. You’ll feel like you are walking Dr. Arnold Ross, DPM. elevate your game to the next level, Private Practice, West Los Angeles, CA you need to own one pair of Gravity on clouds. National Lecturer and Board Certifi ed Defyers. Feel the drive, the inspira- Non-Invasive Relief for Joint Pain! in Podiatric Biomechanics tion, the energy as you slip your feet You will notice immediate relief of com- into the most exhilarating footwear in the mon pain during exercise as the Ver- world! Go from the weekend warrior to soshock™ Trampoline sole absorbs the s%ASEFOOT ANKLE KNEEHIPPAIN the daily champion at your gym and on impact of every step --instead of your s"OOST%NERGY the street. body-- Give your whole body a break from Advanced Technology Footwear the stress of your high impact life and s"EMOREACTIVE by Impact Research Technology experience breakthroughs in your athletic s!PPEARTALLER Gravity Defyer is the only shoe company lifestyle. Be in action. Be unstoppable. Be s(AVEINSTANTCOMFORT comfortable and live pain free. that can offer the VersoShock™ Reverse s#OOLYOURFEETREDUCEFOOTODOR Trampoline sole. It’s a special combination TRY THEM FREE IN THE COMFORT s%LEVATEYOURPERFORMANCE of space age polymers and lightweight, OF YOUR HOME FOR 30 DAYS durable “Smart Springs” that form the You’ve got nothing to lose but your pain— foundation of the fi rst biomechanical GUARANTEED. shoe. Within your fi rst 10 days, 97% a $129.95 value EXCLUSIVE LIMITED OFFER Don’t miss out! A+ MEN (Shown above) -OST TRY THEM FREE* - PAY IN 30 DAYS 90% TB902MWBS %XERCISE 87% #OMFORTABLE Take advantage of this exclusive offer at 3HOE)(AVE sizes 7 - 14 85% 20% OF Med/Wide www.GravityDefyer.com/MJ4LCG3 or by phone, dial ,ONGER %VER/WNED !NKLE 0URCHASE! WITH./ WOMEN (White/Silver) (800) 429-0039 & mention the promotional code below. &OOT0AIN 3ECOND0AIR &ATIGUE TB902FWBS 'ONE 7ITHIN -ONTHS sizes 5 - 11 Promotional Code: MJ4LCG3 Med/Wide Gravity Defyer Customer Survey Results *Offer not available in stores. Shipping & Handling not included. G3 ORDER ONLINE OR BY PHONE ORDER ONLINE OR BY PHONE week_QXP-1127940387.qxp 11/30/2011 2:10 PM Page 16

THE WEEK n Readers of this magazine will not have to be persuaded that the 1980s were a critical time for America and the world. And a critical player in the Reagan administration was Fred Iklé, an official in the Pentagon. He was both a thinker and a doer, a strategist and an implementer. Like many great Americans, he was an immigrant, coming to this country from Switzerland after the war. He was in his early twenties. He earned a Ph.D. in sociology at the University of Chicago, and held a string of positions in academia and government. Like Reagan, he thought that we could do better than détente: that we could actually push back the Soviet Union and free large portions of the world. Like Reagan, he hated MAD, which is to say “mutual assured destruction.” He wrote that this concept “rests on a form of warfare universally condemned since the dark ages—the mass killing of hostages.” Therefore, he supported anti-missile defenses, derided by Ted Kennedy and the rest of the Left as “Star Wars.” Iklé did all he could to help Central Americans and others who were struggling against tyranny. This Cold Warrior, and warrior for liberty, died last month at 87. What a valuable life. R.I.P.

n Tom Wicker was the archetypal white southern liberal, using PUBLIC POLICY the sins of his region and race as the fuel of his own righteous The Real Tax Fanatics indignation. Born in a small town in north Carolina, he served in World War II, studied journalism in college, and worked for n a development that surprised nobody but was treated by state newspapers, when the Sixties gave him two breaks: being the Washington media as a grave crisis, the congressional hired by the New York Times in 1960, and being the only Times I “supercommittee” has failed to identify $1.2 trillion in man in Dallas on nov. 22, 1963. He made his name thereafter as deficit reduction that could gain bipartisan support. In the an opinionator and a holder forth: writing an op-ed column, absence of such an agreement, automatic spending cuts are attempting to mediate the Attica prison riot, flaying Richard scheduled to go into effect starting in January 2013, half in nixon. As blacks represented holiness, so nixon incarnated cor- defense and half in domestic discretionary programs. ruption; Watergate, wrote Wicker, was the “beginnings of a In another development that stuns no one, the parties are police state.” Tell that to the Syrians. A 1991 book offered a two- blaming each other’s rigidity for the deadlock. The Democrats edged reassessment of his nemesis: nixon was, as the title claim that Republicans’ refusal to contemplate tax increases declared, One of Us—which also meant, we’re all like him. on the wealthy prevented any compromise. But the available Dead at 85. R.I.P. facts contradict this claim. Republicans apparently offered to scale back tax breaks that disproportionately benefit high n In an age like ours, when every earners in order to get pro-growth tax reforms and spending part of life is thoroughly suf- cuts. The effect would have been a net tax increase. fused with irony, the only thing Democrats refused to take yes for an answer. They wanted that’s stronger is sincerity. no one a larger tax increase. The Republicans say, and the Democrats proved this better than Bil Keane, do not deny, that the Democrats wanted $1 trillion in tax who drew the Family Circus comic increases—the vast majority of the deficit reduction that the strip. His oval-headed scamps supercommittee was charged with finding. Democrats also made Dennis the Menace seem wanted the tax increase to take the form of increased tax rates edgy, yet the strip (actually just a rather than just decreased tax breaks. So it did not matter that panel), now drawn by Keane’s son revenues would increase, or that most of the increase would Jeff, has hung on for more than half a century and is still going come from higher payments by high earners. The top tax rate

strong, having achieved the ultimate ironic accolade by becom- had to increase as well: the type of tax increase most likely to GETTY / ing a favorite target for hipster parodies. He was a leader in the harm incentives to work, save, and invest, and therefore national Cartoonists Society and maintained warm personal undermine long-term prospects for growth. This position friendships with such sardonic artists as Stephan Pastis (Pearls makes no sense except as the stroking of an ideological totem. WASHINGTON POST

Before Swine), Bill Griffith (Zippy the Pinhead), and Scott Sen. Pat Toomey (R., Pa.) distinguished himself on the : Adams (Dilbert). William Aloysius Keane was also a devout committee through his patient negotiation, displaying just the Catholic who gave generously to religious schools, institutions, right mixture of flexibility and firmness and explaining the and causes and, according to one obituary, “illustrated the 1992 Republican position in the media with clarity and calm. book ‘Holy Hilarity’ from the Fellowship of Merry Christians.” Republicans should now work to promote growth, reform He often recalled how Sister Ann, in the sixth grade at St. William entitlements, and make sure that any reductions in defense NEWSCOM KERRY AND TOOMEY School in Philadelphia, launched him on his career path by spending are consistent with an intelligent national-security / RTR starting a class newspaper, making him the cartoonist, and pray- strategy. If the supercommittee could not accept a center-right :

ing for his success. Dead at 89. R.I.P. proposal, perhaps the electorate of 2012 will. KEANE

1 6 | www.nationalreview.com DECEMBER 1 9 , 2 0 1 1 base_milliken-mar 22.qxd 11/28/2011 12:22 PM Page 1

years40 A Liberating Education

“Learning from masters such as St. omas and Aristotle has helped free me from the assumptions of our time and the need to accept opinions as fact. It has given me condence in what I know and the means to tackle what I do not.” – Jorge Guardado Class of 2011

quinas A C s o a l m l

Thomas Aquinas College e

e T California

C 1 al 7 if 19 ornia - www.thomasaquinas.edu 3col_QXP-1127940387.qxp 11/29/2011 9:27 PM Page 18

alone or in the company, say, of the frugal Dutch, remains off limits, and there is absolutely no prospect that Germany’s voters will be given any direct say on that topic. They never wanted the euro, but they got it. Now they are stuck with it. And that’s how the EU, born out of a distrust of nation-states and their voters, was always meant to work. The difficul- ty for Brussels is that this system is now being tested as never before: The eurozone has become the site of a dangerous, chaotic, and half-hidden power struggle between its political and bureaucratic leaderships (which are themselves deep - ly divided on how far to take deeper integration, but that’s mainly a tale for another day), nervous financial markets, and increasingly riled-up voters. This wasn’t on the program. To the extent that Brussels had any strategy at the time of the single currency’s launch beyond finger-crossing and prayer, it was that the eurozone’s inherently flawed nature (very different economies joined in monetary, but not fiscal, union) would Euro Melee eventually lead to an over-by-Christmas “beneficial crisis.” Financial markets It’s Europe vs. the Europeans would force through the closer fiscal union that politics could not deliver. BY ANDREW STUTTAFORD Once that had been achieved, the zone’s individual nation-states would count for very little, and their voters for even hE euro may not have brought the fury of those German taxpayers less. Europe together, except in shared bailing out a nation they see as idle, dis- That’s not how it has worked out. The misery, but it has divided it in honest, ungrateful, and—old prejudices mechanics of currency union (more on T previously unimaginable ways. bubble up—a little too swarthy to be that later) have combined with irrespon- Votes can now be won in Finland by trusted. sible sovereign borrowing and the eco- bashing faraway Greece, a place hitherto It’s time to calm down. The financial- nomic horrors of recent years to foment a thought of in helsinki (if at all) as a help- transaction tax is a thoroughly bad idea, financial storm that may be too devastat- ful supplier of beaches. Europe being with a dose of old-fashioned national ing to be harnessed in quite so “benefi- Europe, the troubles of the single curren- nastiness thrown in (Britain would pick cial” a way. The crisis could yet work out cy have also given a boost to more tradi- up a huge percentage of the tab), but (in that cynical Eurocratic sense), but the tional antagonisms and, Europe being Merkel’s demands for better budgetary terrible damage it has already caused has Europe, revived plans for a nasty new discipline within the eurozone are, in driven home the real costs—political, tax. theory, rather more easy to justify. If economic, and financial—of the mone- That tax, the financial-transaction tax, Germany is, one way or another, to under - tary union to electorates that have long is now being pushed by Germany (with write the common currency, insisting that been denied an effective say in its future. France scampering behind). Britain, its money is not frittered away is good Now that they know what they now al ready in the doghouse for allegedly housekeeping, not empire-building. Not know, it will be more difficult to keep not doing enough to help out the single an empire in any traditional sense. them on the sidelines. currency it had rejected, is talking veto, But Merkel is pfennig-wise but mark But over in the PIIGS they are still while Germany, being Germany, is threat - foolish (or she would be if such splendid- huddled there for now. In the last few ening to proceed regardless. Fleet Street ly sound money still existed). She is set weeks, Prime Ministers Berlusconi and being Fleet Street, there are warnings of a on defending Germany’s interests, but Papandreou have been forced out with “Fourth Reich.” Many Greeks are saying only within the parameters of the EU’s shocking ease, replaced by technocrats (and shouting) the same thing, much to transnationalist, post-democratic agenda, bearing the Brussels stamp. Italy was to which, it seems, she subscribes. The issued a former EU commissioner, and Mr. Stuttaford is a contributing editor of appealing idea that Germany should, for Greece a former vice president of the

DARREN GYGI NATIONAL REVIEW ONLINE. its own good, quit the eurozone, either European Central Bank. Neither man had

1 8 | www.nationalreview.com DECEMBER 1 9 , 2 0 1 1 base_milliken-mar 22.qxd 11/29/2011 3:38 PM Page 1 3col_QXP-1127940387.qxp 11/29/2011 9:27 PM Page 20

previously been elected to anything. Who of a Scrooge-style fiscal union, this may cares? The message to Italian and Greek actually strengthen her hand as the euro- voters was clear—beggars cannot expect zone’s bad cop. That’s something that Justice for to be, so to speak, choosers—and so far alarms another key participant in this surprisingly few of the beggars have drama: the financial markets. Market Libya objected. So long as it is seen to be better players are fond of a quick fix. They are to be in the zone than out, hairshirts and not very interested in the plight of the It requires blocking the world all, this argument will fly. Underlining eurozone voter. Most are pushing for court’s overreach this, Spain, Portugal, and Ireland have all closer integration (preferably Santa- held elections, and, in each case, the elec- style) as the only way to make the single BY JOHN R. BOLTON torate supported austerity. But if virtue’s currency work. Merkel has not appreciat- reward is too long delayed, that consen- ed this pressure, or the turbulence that has IBYA’S interim government made sus could easily shift, and if that change come with it, and she is not alone. The a correct, startlingly independent in sentiment is not addressed by those in currency union echoes with the rage of a judgment just before Thanks - charge, there could well be serious disor- European political/bureaucratic class that L giving, announcing that Libya, der. prefers to blame the crisis on wicked not the International Criminal Court A kinder, gentler eurozone, fueled by “Anglo-Saxon” speculators rather than (ICC), would try Saif al-Islam Qaddafi, the printing presses of a looser, laxer on overspending and the shortcomings of Moammar Qaddafi’s favorite son and European Central Bank and, once fiscal a gimcrack currency union that should once-likely successor. By rebuffing the union has been safely set up, signifi- never have seen the light of day. aggressive efforts of the ICC’s prosecutor, cantly higher transfers from the frugal And it’s in the operation of the latter Luis Moreno-Ocampo, to keep control of “north” to the PIIGS, might be one way that the immediate danger lies. As Paul the case, the National Transitional Council of smoothing the path to some sort of de Grauwe of Belgium’s University of (NTC) surprised many in the international recovery. But the rise of the populist True Leuven has noted, if markets panic about “human rights” community, including the Finns, the collapse of the Slovak gov- one of the eurozone’s members, euros ICC itself. ernment, and the continuing success of will pour out of that country (let’s call it While an arcane jurisdictional battle Holland’s Euroskeptical Geert Wilders Greece), and unless that flow is somehow over trying and punishing Saif Qaddafi all suggest that growing numbers of reversed, that country (unable to print its may not be headline material, this mini- northern voters are in not such a generous own money) will simply run out of cash, drama has significant implications for the mood. The only fiscal union they would and it will go bust. As I said, let’s call it United States. Since the ICC’s inception, be likely to support would be more Greece. it has been cautious in asserting its juris- Scrooge than Santa. These voters are That gives markets the whip hand, and diction, hoping to deny ammunition to signing checks, not receiving them. Their that does not play well on a continent that its opponents. This strategy is part of an concerns ought to count for far more than has never really shaken off its command- intense but quiet effort to seduce America those of the pauperized periphery. And and-control traditions. So long as fi- (and other key countries still outside, in - they just might. nancial markets bought into the euro cluding Russia, China, India, and Israel, Even in Germany, there is some evi- dream, their exuberance was welcome as well as Libya) into acceding to the dence that portions of the overwhelm- and, indeed, encouraged in Brussels, Rome Statute, the ICC’s foundational ingly Eurofederalist political class are Frankfurt, and elsewhere. There were treaty. Indeed, the relationship of ICC becoming unnerved not only by popular few complaints about ratings agencies, authority to national judicial systems discontent (as a proxy for that, nearly 80 banks, or speculators back then. Now remains a critical, contentious issue even percent of German voters are opposed to the bubble has burst. The markets have for states that are already members. the issuance of Eurobonds guaranteed by woken up, and, as we all know, the results When the Rome Statute was finalized all the eurozone’s members) but also by have not been pretty to see—and they in 1998, its advocates blithely contended clear signals of unease from the country’s are visible to all. that America need not fear an assertive, powerful constitutional court over the This has not pleased the eurozone’s jurisdiction-expanding ICC because the liabilities Germany may be taking on. leaders one bit. They have responded treaty enshrined the principle of “com- Merkel’s grudging responses to the bail- with an onslaught of measures—from plementarity.” Article 17 provides that a out requests of the last two years may bans on certain kinds of short sales, to the case is generally inadmissible before have been an attempt to maintain finan- financial-transaction tax, and, even, an the ICC if a state has investigated and cial discipline, but they are also a recog- aborted plan to censor the ratings agen- already made a decision whether to pros- nition that her domestic voters once again cies—all designed to throw sand in the ecute. But there is a kicker: The ICC may count for something. And maintaining gears of the free market, cut financiers assert jurisdiction if that state “is un - that tough stance is playing well at home. (whose pay, even higher than that of the willing or unable genuinely to carry out According to a new ZDF poll, the per- Brussels elite, has long been a source of the investigation or prosecution.” Most centage of German voters who approve irritation) down to size, and, in particular, of Merkel’s handling of the crisis has give those semi-detached Brits, arrogant Mr. Bolton, a former U.S. representative to the risen sharply (from 45 to 63 percent) over Yanks, the greedy City, and even greedi- United Nations, is a senior fellow at the American the last month. er Wall Street a very good kicking. Enterprise Institute. He is the author of Surrender To the extent that Merkel is a fan too To be continued . . . Is Not an Option.

2 0 | www.nationalreview.com DECEMBER 1 9 , 2 0 1 1 Page 1 base_milliken-mar 22.qxd 11/28/2011 12:26 PM Page 1

The simplest, most accurate watch on the planet! You never have to set this watch… in fact you never even have to look at it. This new Talking Atomic Watch is the ultimate in simplicity, accuracy, and practicality. It’s accurate to within a billionth of a second… and it talks! just threw my watch in the trash. I got it as a gift a while back—and it was something else. It had four different “Ten-ten AM, Idigital displays, about a dozen buttons, was waterproof Thursday, to about a thousand feet, and I think it could even tell me December 1st, the weather. I’ll never know, though, because, like I said, it’s in the trash. Turns out it couldn’t do the one thing I want 2011” a watch to do… tell me the correct time. It always ran a little slow, which was bad enough, but there were so many displays and they were so small that I couldn’t tell the time even if it was accurate. When I tried to reset it, I pushed the wrong button and set it on military time, and I couldn’t figure out how to switch it back. That was the last straw. Now, I’ve got a great watch, the Talking Atomic Watch from firstSTREET. It’s super-accurate, easy-to-read, and it will even tell… yes tell … me the time. Best of all, I’ll never have to set it! This is the watch I’ve been waiting for. Whether you travel or not… this watch is a necessity. Genuine Leather This Talking Atomic Watch from firstSTREET maintains its (shown) or Stainless Steel Expansion phenomenal accuracy because it is designed to receive a band available signal from the US Atomic Clock in Fort Collins, Colorado. This clock is the standard for time measurement world- sure to know the exact time. Press the button again and it wide… it can go 20 million years without gaining or losing will even tell you the day and date if you want. There’s even a second! It never needs to be set, because it automatically an automatic hourly chime. adjusts itself for daylight savings time and leap years. Try it for yourself… it’s risk-free. Easy to read, even easier to hear. The US Atomic Clock cost billions to build and maintain, The most accurate watch in the world is of no use if you but you can have the next best thing for less than one can’t read it. This timepiece is designed to tell you the correct hundred dollars. Thanks to a special arrangement with time… anytime. It features a clear, uncluttered analog display the manufacturer, we can offer you this watch at a special that you won’t need reading glasses to see. Best of all, you price with our exclusive home trial. If you are not completely can press a button and it will tell you the time in a clear, amazed by the accuracy and quality of this product, simply easy-to-understand voice. So whether you’re driving to an return it within 90 days for a “No Questions Asked” refund appointment or dining in a candlelit restaurant … you are of the product purchase price. Call now.

“I bought the Atomic Talking Watch for my father, who is 95 years old Talking Atomic Watch was . . . $89.95 and can barely see. The "talking" feature was the main reason I got it for him, since he can no longer "see" a regular watch. I was attracted NEW LOW PRICE ...... $49.95 + S&H to the "atomic" feature because all my father has to do is to place it in a window to update, if necessary. 1-888-852-1376 He uses the watch all of the time and shows it off to all of his friends Please mention code 43478 when ordering. - more than once... and has come to heavily rely upon it. So much so, that I bought him a "backup" talking watch just in case it would happen to fail. However, it has been running strong for the past 2 years.”

R. Humphreys 1998 Ruffin Mill Road • Colonial Heights, VA 23834 50069 3col_QXP-1127940387.qxp 11/29/2011 9:27 PM Page 22

important, it is the ICC that makes the wrinkle. The “human rights” crowd im - “because,” it said, “of the changed cir- key decision, without further review, mediately concluded Libya couldn’t be cumstances caused by his death.” In fact, about whether the particular state is un - trusted to provide fair trials for Saif and Moreno-Ocampo pressed for DNA evi- willing or unable to proceed. Senussi, doubtless thereby helping condence to confirm that Qaddafi was dead, Moreover, the concept of complemen- vince the ICC it had to retain jurisdiction. rather than accept the continuously recy- tarity, deferring to national judiciaries, is Moreover, Libya provides for the death cled visual evidence and the NTC’s state- an entirely hypothetical protection for sov- penalty (a no-no for the International ments.) ereignty. Other global tribunals, such as High-Minded), which is not available In short, Libya is far from off the the International Court of Justice, de cide under the Rome Statute. ICC hook. But it remains entirely correct disputes between states, not within them, Saif’s November 19 apprehension for the NTC to take responsibility for and no other has prosecutorial powers brought matters to a head. Moreno- Qaddafi’s depredations, committed as directly against individuals. Thus, com- Ocampo immediately departed for Tripoli they were in the name of Libya’s people. plementarity has been chimerical from the to pressure Libya to defer to ICC juris - The NTC could do so in several ways, outset—an unproven assertion, designed diction. One possible “compromise” such as prosecution or creating a “truth to entice America into believ ing it is safe retaining ICC primacy, reported in the and reconciliation” process as in post- to join the ICC. Libya is a test case on press, was to try Saif at The Hague for the apartheid South Africa. Libya’s decision whether the ICC will continue to proceed crimes alleged in the ICC’s warrant, then could well be a cornerstone for a legiti- warily. While the still-inconclusive out- return him to Libya for prosecution for mate successor regime, encouraging in - come is not as threaten ing as it might have all other crimes he was assumed to have stitutions representative of its people. been, the ICC’s performance has nonethe- committed in the years prior to Resolution Asserting that Libya can’t be trusted to less been disturbing, auguring danger 1970. deal with its past, or lacks the compe- ahead for the United States. Nonetheless, the Libyans stood firm. tence to do so, reflects an unacceptably Because Libya is not a Rome Statute Moreno-Ocampo retreated, but only par- supranational mindset. Political maturity party, the Security Council had to autho- tially, saying: “If they prosecute the case, does not arise by taking decisions away rize ICC involvement, which its Reso - we will discuss with them how to inform from a country and its citizens. Precisely lution 1970 did unanimously on Feb. 26, the judges, and they can do it, but our the opposite is true: Maturity grows from 2011. Four months later, with hostilities judges have to be involved.” There is no citizens’ confronting their own past and in Libya still intense, the ICC issued Rome Statute or Security Council basis resolving it through democratic choice. arrest warrants for Moammar and Saif whatever for the prosecutor to insert ICC The NTC or its successor may fail at Qaddafi, and for Abdullah al-Senussi, the judges into Libya’s judicial process, and this task, or not fully meet international head of Libyan intelligence. All three how this will play out remains uncertain. “human rights” standards, but those are were charged, under Rome Statute defin- Moreover, slapping Moreno-Ocampo’s Libya’s mistakes to make. Obviously, itions, with crimes against humanity, wrist, the ICC’s judges did not accept creating competent, independent courts namely murder and persecution of the Lib- even his partial retreat, issuing a com - is a key NTC responsibility, and some yan people. (As of now, despite reports peting press release on November 23. worry that trying Saif too speedily will that the NTC had captured Senussi, he Making the technically correct point that, not afford Libya time to do so with ade- apparently remains at large.) under the Rome Statute, they, not the quate due process. But this too is some- The Security Council’s action (with prosecutor, decide whether the ICC will thing Libya should measure for itself; it full Obama-administration support) and defer to Libya, the judges proclaimed: can hardly be in the NTC’s interest to the ICC decision to issue warrants during “Therefore, contrary to what has been have anything but a fair and transparent the fighting were mistakes demonstrat- reported in the media, [the ICC’s pre-trial trial, lest it simply sow the seeds for ing two major problems with legalistic panel] remains seized of the case and the renewed civil war by alienating and approaches to international conflicts. Libyan obligation to fully cooperate with angering Qaddafi’s clansmen and other First, contrary to ICC proponents’ argu- the Court remains in force.” (The ICC’s supporters. ments, there is no evidence that the ICC propensity to overextend itself is evident The West obviously wants the NTC to warrants in any way deterred Qaddafi or even in a relatively small, almost bizarre function as a legitimate government. To his loyalists from continuing to commit matter. The ICC took a month to can - rebuff it here and force it to accept ICC atrocities and abuses. Threat of ICC cel Moammar Qaddafi’s arrest warrant jurisdiction would be most unwise, and arrest hardly constituted “shock and perhaps impossible given Saif’s notoriety awe.” Second, the warrants made it hard- in Libya. Accordingly, the ICC’s hesitan- er if not impossible for the Qaddafis to cy to press for full control of the case is find an exit strategy that wouldn’t leave consistent with its existing wariness of them vulnerable later to being turned stirring up U.S. opposition. Nonetheless, over to the ICC. If anything, therefore, the prosecutor’s efforts to keep insert - the Council and the Court may have con- ing the ICC into Libya’s processes, and tributed to extending and intensifying the the ICC’s own frosty press release about Libyan bloodshed. its equities, demonstrate the expansive Moammar Qaddafi’s post-capture views that lie just under The Hague’s killing on October 20, conspicuously “Who do you think is the greatest person who ever quiet surface. These still-unresolved lacking in due process, created another lived—Barack or Michelle?” cases provide ongoing examples of ICC

2 2 | www.nationalreview.com DECEMBER 1 9 , 2 0 1 1 base_milliken-mar 22.qxd 11/30/2011 11:01 AM Page 1

You deserve a factual look at . . .

Despite all efforts by President Obama, the Palestinian Authority (P.A.) has rejected U.S. diplomatic efforts and a negotiated peace with Israel by requesting a unilateral declaration of Palestinian statehood at the United Nations. The P.A. also announced a merger with the Islamic terror group Hamas. Currently the U.S. sends some $600 million dollars annually in direct aid to the P.A., plus an additional $225 million in funding through the U.N. Is this the best use of American tax dollars? The Palestinian Authority did indeed reject requests by the Since 1979, the United States has expended untold United States not to form an alliance with Hamas terrorists in diplomatic capital to forge an Israeli-Palestinian peace. Yet May, 2011, knowing full well that it is against U.S. law for every time peace has seemed at hand—including the U.S.- Congress to fund any organization with terrorist ties. brokered Oslo accords in 1993, and Israel’s historic Camp David Remember that Hamas stands openly by its goal to conquer offer in 2000 of a Palestinian state with a capital in East every inch of Palestine, cleanse it of Jews, and establish a Jerusalem—the Palestinians have refused to make peace. In fundamentalist Islamic caliphate. Above all, Hamas refuses to 2008, following the Annapolis summit, Israeli Prime Minister accept the state of Israel and condemns any efforts to negotiate Olmert again offered the peace. Palestinians a state based on 1967 “If a Palestinian state were declared today, it Most recently, in September, borders and a capital in Jerusalem, would be neither democratic, nor peaceful nor 2011, President Abbas rejected pleas but P.A. President Mahmoud Abbas by the Obama administration and walked away without a counter willing to negotiate with Israel.” the European Union to return to offer. In 2010, in order to bring the U.S. Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen negotiations with Israel and refrain parties together for new peace talks, from a bid for unilateral recognition President Obama convinced Israel to enforce a moratorium on of a Palestinian state at the U.N. Instead, Abbas proceeded to the building in Jerusalem suburbs for 10 months. Yet for eight U.N. and made his defiant request. months, P.A. President Abbas refused to take part in talks, and Time to stop aid to U.S. enemies. Hillary Clinton stated in when the moratorium expired two months later, Abbas walked April, 2011: “We will not deal with nor in any way fund a out and has refused to return to negotiations ever since. Palestinian government that includes Hamas unless and until In addition to its diplomatic investment, the U.S. has over the Hamas has renounced violence, recognized Israel and agreed to decades given the Palestinian Authority more than four billion follow the previous obligations of the Palestinian Authority.” In dollars in aid. Today, the United States provides some $825 fact, annual U.S. foreign operations appropriations bills million annually in direct aid and funding through the United expressly forbid funding for “assistance to Hamas or any entity Nations. effectively controlled by Hamas or any power-sharing Yet despite this generous diplomatic support and financial government of which Hamas is a member.” largesse, Mahmoud Abbas and Palestinian Authority officials In July, 2011, both houses of Congress overwhelmingly passed have verbally attacked the United States and snubbed U.S. aid. resolutions that threaten withdrawal of aid from the Palestinian In June, 2011, 28 Palestinian Authority municipalities in the Authority if it persists in efforts to circumvent direct West Bank announced a “boycott of the American consulate, its negotiations with Israel by turning to the United Nations for diplomats, and the American institutions in Jerusalem,” adding recognition—which it has done—and if the Palestinian that Americans “cannot extort the Palestinian people and Authority shares power with a recalcitrant Hamas. According to humiliate it with a bit of aid.” Referring to these huge U.S. the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Rep. financial grants, Abbas said, “This does not mean that they [the Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, “Despite decades of assistance totaling U.S.] dictate to us whatever they want . . . They demanded that billions of dollars, if a Palestinian state were declared today, it we should not sign the Egyptian reconciliation agreement [with would be neither democratic, nor peaceful nor willing to Hamas], but we sent Azzam Al-Ahmed to sign it.” negotiate with Israel.” By allying with the terrorist group Hamas, abandoning peace talks with Israel, and taking its case for statehood unilaterally to the United Nations, it’s clear that the Palestinian Authority has no respect for the interests of the United States in the Middle East. In this time of financial crisis and soaring budget deficits, isn’t time for Congress to stop spending nearly a billion American tax dollars annually supporting the rogue Palestinian Authority?

This ad has been published and paid for by FLAME is a tax-exempt, non-profit educational 501 (c)(3) organization. Its purpose is the research and publication of the facts regarding developments in the Middle East and exposing false propaganda that might harm the interests of the United States and its allies in that area of the world. Your tax- deductible contributions are welcome. They enable us to pursue these goals Facts and Logic About the Middle East and to publish these messages in national newspapers and magazines. We P.O. Box 590359 San Francisco, CA 94159 have virtually no overhead. Almost all of our revenue pays for our educational Gerardo Joffe, President work, for these clarifying messages, and for related direct mail. 130 To receive free FLAME updates, visit our website: www.factsandlogic.org 3col_QXP-1127940387.qxp 11/29/2011 9:27 PM Page 24

overreach that Washington must watch would have been unsafe for them (or us) carefully. to venture outside. More seriously, however, it is not sim- Retreat—but Spending time with America’s soldiers ply the risk of ICC jurisdictional creep, or and Marines in Afghanistan, I recalled the ICC’s other manifest imperfections, Whose? Winston Churchill’s words to the British that should disturb us. Instead, it is the desert Army in 1943: “And when history Court’s fundamental illegitimacy: the Now is no time for more force is written and all the facts are known, your multilateral creation of a potentially enor- reductions in Afghanistan feats will gleam and glow and will be a mously powerful instrument of govern- source of song and story long after we who mental authority without any democratic BY JAMIE M. FLY are gathered here have passed away.” accountability. Like a roving global ver- the recent achievements of our armed sion of America’s now-discredited “in- MIdSt spiraling deficits and forces in Afghanistan are nothing short dependent counsel” concept, the ICC scandals such as those involv- of extraordinary. Signs of the progress prosecutor is responsible to no one except ing Solyndra and Fast and enabled by the surge in forces President the ICC judges. In the United States, by A Furious, it is sometimes easy Obama announced in december 2009 contrast, the attorney general, as the to forget what the United States is capa- were everywhere we visited—from Kan - Supreme Court has put it, is “the hand of ble of achieving. this is something that da har, where the soldiers of task Force the President” in executing the laws. repeatedly struck me during a recent Spartan have cleared away the taliban; to Since the president is elected, he and his week-long trip to Afghanistan with other remote sites in contested areas, where subordinates are constitutionally and po- national-security experts at the invitation Army Rangers live among the Afghan litically accountable both to citizens and of International Security Assistance Force people; to Helmand Province, where we to Congress, and not to the judiciary. commander Gen. John Allen. spent time with the 3rd Battalion, 6th Our system of both separation of pow- In late October, as we witnessed a Marines, who have stabilized towns such ers and democratic accountability exists medal-pinning ceremony under a clear as Marjah and are giving the people a precisely because our founders feared blue sky in a desolate corner of Kandahar chance at a better life. untrammeled power, a lesson that the Province, just miles from taliban leader the surge has created the space for ICC, floating out there in the inter - Mullah Omar’s hometown, it was impos- these gains, but to consolidate and main- national clouds, simply ignores. ICC sible not to be amazed at what America’s tain them, we should ensure that troop proponents say the Court is ultimately men and women in uniform are bringing levels are not decreased again until the subject to the Rome Statute’s member about, with great personal sacrifice, more planned transition to Afghan forces in states, now numbering 119. But as any- than ten years after the start of Operation 2014. Success in the south of Afghanistan one familiar with large multilateral bod- Enduring Freedom. is already being put at risk because of the ies knows, oversight by 119 countries is the three soldiers being honored so-called surge recovery that President tantamount to no oversight whatever. were lined up in front of rows of their Obama announced in June, which will It follows that we should reverse the comrades at a small combat outpost sur- result in the drawdown of 33,000 troops incremental decisions of the Bush and rounded by Hesco barriers. their lieu- by the end of September 2012. the risks Obama administrations, however mini- tenant colonel outlined their feats in were summed up by Gen. James F. Amos, mal they appear, to assist the ICC and combat. two had displayed courage as commandant of the Marine Corps, who thereby provide it some measure of legit- their unit was ambushed, putting them- told the Associated Press, “Will it work? I imacy. Simply not joining the ICC is selves at risk as they dragged their don’t know. But I know we’ll do our part.” insufficient. We should implement a wounded comrades and the bodies of the these reductions will make it more diffi- policy I once called the “three noes”: no dead to safety. the third was severely cult eventually to shift the campaign’s financial support, directly or indirectly; wounded in a different incident and sent focus to areas in the east that are increas- no collaboration; and no further negotia- back to the United States, only to recover ingly restive, as the military has planned to tions to “improve” the treaty. and insist that he be allowed to return to do. Our commanders are doing their best Much more could be done to weaken his unit. to limit the impact of the drawdown, but the ICC and protect American sover- In recent months, despite suffering it will be essential that we maintain the eignty. After the ICC began operating in significant casualties, the members of post–surge recovery force level of 68,000 2002, for example, we negotiated over task Force Spartan from the 3rd Brigade, troops until 2014. 100 agreements under which countries 10th Mountain division, have cleared Unfortunately, recent press reports sug- agreed to return U.S. citizens accused by taliban-infested areas of Kandahar. gest that, at a NAtO summit to be held in the ICC to our custody rather than sur- Villagers are now free to walk the streets Chicago in May, the White House may render them to the prosecutor (with a of Omar’s hometown as he likely cowers announce that further troop reductions are reciprocal U.S. obligation to do the across the border in Pakistan. Young chil- to take place, in 2013. President Obama same for their citizens). Such a strategy, dren ran up to our group, roughhoused hinted as much during his October 21 of course, is exactly the opposite of what with U.S. forces, and posed for pictures announcement that all U.S. forces would a second-term President Obama would in an area in which, just months ago, it be withdrawn from Iraq by the end of doubtless pursue, thus providing another 2011, saying, “We’re beginning to bring reason why the stakes are high next Mr. Fly is executive director of the Foreign Policy our troops home from Afghanistan, where November. Initiative. we’ve begun a transition to Afghan

2 4 | www.nationalreview.com DECEMBER 1 9 , 2 0 1 1 base_milliken-mar 22.qxd 11/28/2011 12:29 PM Page 1

2500 respondentsLimited to the first “I’m a bit sad that my fiance and I didn’t know about Stauer before we got engaged. This ring is so much more clear and sparkly than my real diamond!” — P.T. FROM BALTIMORE, MD

URGENT: Diamond Ring Recall Experts warn that millions of rings may be “romantically defective” when compared to the spectacular 4-Carat DiamondAura® Avalon he loves natural diamonds. She loves you even more. But deserve better. Order now and we’ll include the matching 1-Carat Swhen even the skimpiest solitaires sell for as much as DiamondAura Avalon Earrings and $300 in Stauer Gift Coupons... $1,200, it’s time to reconsider your relationship... absolutely FREE. That’s right, 5 total carats of DiamondAura in with diamonds. Have you recently overpaid only to be sterling silver for under $100. Plus, one dozen $25 coupons that underwhelmed? Send it back. You can do bolder. You you can use at Stauer every month for a full year. Talk about money can do brighter. You can own the Stauer 4-Carat EXCLUSIVE in the bank! DiamondAura® Avalon Ring for under $100. BONUS OFFER! Order today to get Your satisfaction is guaranteed. If for any reason you don’t When “cute” is a four-letter word. If you want to make a these 1-Carat absolutely adore your DiamondAura Avalon Ring, return it within romantic impression, go big. Cute doesn’t cut it. Your love DiamondAura® 30 days for a full refund of your purchase price. But we promise deserves to be wowed. If you’re a billionaire with money sterling silver studs that once you get a look at the Avalon up close, you’ll see love in a to burn, turn the page. Everyone else? What you read next PLUS whole new light. $300 in Stauer just might change your love life. There’s only one way to DiamondAura® Avalon Ring (4 ctw)—$295 $99 + S&P Gift Coupons!* find out... Specify ring whole size 5-10 when ordering. We rewrote the rules of romance. Only Stauer’s exclusive lab-created Receive FREE earrings with purchase of the Avalon DiamondAura gives you the luxury look of large-carat diamonds for a DiamondAura® Ring *PLUS receive $300 in Stauer Gift fraction of the price. The ingenious DiamondAura process involves the Coupons per order FREE—$25 to use every month for 12 months, the use of rare minerals heated to incredibly high temperatures of nearly with NO MINIMUM PURCHASE REQUIRED. 5000˚F. After cutting and polishing, scientists create a faultless marvel Call now to take advantage of this extremely limited offer. that’s optically brighter and clearer with even more color and fire than a Promotional Code AVR214-03 “D” flawless diamond. Please mention this code when you call.

Our exclusive DiamondAura jewelry features all of the classic Stauer has a Better Business specifications, including color, clarity, cut and carat weight and is hard Bureau Rating of A+ enough to cut glass. You get the look of natural stones, without the outrageous cost. For fastest service, call toll-free 24 hours a day Experience the luxury of money in the bank. We “built” our own mined 1-800-721-0357 diamond version of this ring online at a popular jewelry site and the grand ® total was $77,767! Today you can wear this 3 ¾ carat lab-created 14101 Southcross Drive W., DiamondAura solitaire, accented with 32 gleaming DiamondAura Dept. AVR214-03 Stauer Burnsville, Minnesota 55337 rounds in fine .925 sterling silver for only $99! That’s good, but you www.stauer.com 3col_QXP-1127940387.qxp 11/29/2011 9:28 PM Page 26

security and leadership. When I took gents and their sponsors, and regional office, roughly 180,000 troops were de- allies such as India. ployed in both these wars. And by the end The best way to address our perception The State Can of this year that number will be cut in half, problem is to ensure that the soon-to-be- and make no mistake: It will continue to concluded U.S.-Afghan Strategic Partner - Bully, Too go down.” ship Agreement includes a strong and clear There is no military reason, only a polit- commitment to a post-2014 U.S. military A well-intentioned New Jersey law ical one, for an announcement of addition- presence in Afghanistan. But it seems that does more harm than good al troop drawdowns next year. Afghan the White House intends to reprise in and U.S. officials with whom we spoke Afghanistan its dangerous decision to com- BY ROBERT VERBRUGGEN suggested that such a drawdown would be pletely withdraw U.S. forces from Iraq. disastrous to our effort. They also em- “We have been very clear that we do not n September of last year, Rutgers phasized that a more robust and assertive seek permanent bases in Afghanistan or a University freshman Tyler Clementi U.S. policy toward Pakistan is essential. long-term military presence that would be a jumped off the George Washington Pakistan’s harboring of insurgents, and in threat to Afghanistan’s neighbors,” a White I Bridge and fell to his death. The reason some cases its explicit support for the House spokeswoman recently told the Wall for his suicide, it quickly became clear, insurgency, will make it difficult, if not Street Journal. was the relentless bullying he had suffered impossible, for the nascent Afghan securi- Given Afghanistan’s location—border- at the hands of his college roommate— ty forces to maintain the hard-fought gains ing key Central Asian states as well as bullying that included surreptitiously achieved by U.S. forces as nATO contin- Iran, Pakistan, and China—a long-term videotaping Clementi’s kissing another ues to transition areas of the country to U.S. presence in the country is in Amer - man in the dorm room and then streaming Afghan control in the run-up to 2014. ica’s strategic interest. And the Obama the video online for others to see. Parents Additional drone strikes against insurgent administration’s obsession with limiting of other bullied students, as well as the groups such as the Haqqani network and long-term U.S. commitments to Iraq and gay-rights group Garden State Equality, Quetta Shura, as well as cross-border Afghanistan is completely out of character pressured the new Jersey government to Special Forces raids targeting factories with how America has fought previous do something. And so it did, with the Anti-Bullying Bill of Rights. The idea was to force ad - Given Afghanistan’s location, a long- min istrators at K–12 public and charter term U.S. presence in the country is in schools to take bullying seriously. Repub - licans and Democrats alike loved it: It America’s strategic interest. passed the state’s house and senate with a total of one “no” vote and a few absten- that produce IED components and other wars. The United States has consistently tions, and Gov. Chris Christie signed it on elements of the insurgent support net- sacrificed greatly “in the interest of pre- January 5 of this year. But between the works inside Pakistan, should be con - serving the rights of people,” as former law’s vague language and public schools’ sidered. If Islamabad does not heed our secretary of state Colin Powell famously penchant for bureaucratizing small mat- warn ings, more extreme action may need put it, because “that is the kind of nation ters, the act has turned into a case study of to be taken, including suspension of U.S. we are.” how not to combat bullying. Other gov- military aid. It is morally questionable for I witnessed this quiet, selfless deter - ernments should take note of new Jersey’s us to fund the military of a country that mination repeatedly during my week in experience—and be mindful of the pit- is involved in killing our men and women Afghanistan—from the special operator falls of taking over duties that have tradi- in uniform as a matter of state policy. on his fifth combat tour since 9/11 who tionally resided with local governments. Islamabad needs to realize that continued emotionally spoke about the four com- The law went into effect only in Sep - support for groups that are killing Amer- rades he had lost this year, to the Marine tem ber, but already the local papers are icans and destabilizing Afghanistan will who said that his fellow warriors were filled with anecdotes about schools’ over- be considered an act of war. interested only in answering the questions, reacting to minor incidents and being Part of Pakistan’s posturing in Afghan - “What did you do? Where did you go? required to take costly measures. When istan is driven by its generals’ questioning What did you achieve?” one teacher overheard a student call his of America’s will to succeed—which Our soldiers, airmen, and Marines have friend a “retard,” school officials launched brings us back to the question of whether much to be proud of. The question now is a full investigation that included meetings troop drawdowns are wise. Despite the whether a lack of political will at home with both students’ parents. A principal Obama administration’s implementation will undermine their victories and prevent reports dealing with ten to 15 “bullying” of the surge, its repeated talk of timelines them from completing their mission. We incidents every day, very few of which are and drawdowns has sent the message that owe it to these modern-day equivalents of serious enough to result in actual discipli- U.S. patience is limited, and that there Churchill’s Desert Army, as well as the nary measures. Another administrator says is limited commitment to Afghanistan’s Afghan people, to get this right. The stakes that an investigation into a bullying inci- stability beyond 2014. This message has in Afghanistan and the broader region are dent that happened over the summer, off of been received not only by Pakistani gener- too high for political considerations to school grounds, took nine hours. als, but also by our Afghan allies, insur- trump sound strategy yet again. Reading the law and the official guide-

2 6 | www.nationalreview.com DECEMBER 1 9 , 2 0 1 1 base_milliken-mar 22.qxd 11/28/2011 12:32 PM Page 1

©2011 Media Services S-9127 OF24535R-1 Advertisement EdenPURE® ranked #1 in North America Save $192 - biggest savings ever Never be cold again How it works: Bob Vila, America’s Favorite Home Improvement Expert, North Canton, Ohio I know why millions of Americans are saving on their heating bills with the Eden- PURE® Infrared Portable Heater. And now you can save up to $192, our lowest prices ever on the new 2012 Eden- PURE® Personal Heater. The heater I personally rank #1 in Heats floor to the CUTAWAY VIEW North America. same temperature 3. The soft heat “rides” And now I’m proud to add as ceiling. the humidity in the the new and improved Eden- room and provides PURE® is made in the U.S.A. even, moist, soft heat here in North Canton, Ohio. 1. Electricity ignites powerful SYLVANIA infrared lamps. ceiling to floor and For over 30 years as your wall to wall without home improvement television 2. The quartz infrared lamp gently warms reducing oxygen and host, I have reviewed and ex- the patented copper heating chambers. humidity. perienced thousands of prod- SYLVANIA is a registered trademark of OSRAM SYLVANIA Inc. used under license. ucts. I have an EdenPURE® in my Massachusetts home cally cut heating bills; in some the return shipping. There is discount ever. This special and found it to be a very safe Firemen and safety professionals choose EdenPURE®. We all read instances, the savings may be absolutely no risk. And Eden- offer expires in 10 days. If and reliable source of portable substantial. PURE® is the only portable you order after that, we re- about space heaters and the danger of fire. The EdenPURE ® has heat. This is one of those few The EdenPURE® will pay heater with a National Service serve the right to either accept comfort investments I can rec- no exposed heating elements that can cause a fire. And your pet for itself in weeks. It will Network. or reject order requests at the ommend for your home that may be just like my dog that has reserved a favorite spot near the keep a great deal of extra How to order: discounted price. See my at- will truly pay dividends. EdenPURE®. – Bob Vila money in a user’s pocket. Be- During this special 10 day tached Authorized Discount We all know heating costs cause of today’s spiraling gas, offer we can deliver to your Coupon to take advantage of are expected to remain at duce humidity or oxygen in the house to as low as 50 degrees, oil, propane, and other energy home our Personal Heater this savings opportunity. record levels. The cost of heat- room. These imitators use ce- but the room you are occupy- costs, the EdenPURE® will pro- which comfortably covers an The EdenPURE® carries a ing our homes will continue to ramic plates instead of our ing, which has the Eden- vide even greater savings as area up to 350 square feet. 60-day unconditional, no-risk be a significant burden on the patented copper. Cheap ceram- PURE®, will be warm and time goes by. During our special, you guarantee. If you are not total- family budget. The Eden- ic plates reduce humidity, dry comfortable. The EdenPURE® Personal are eligible for a $175 DIS- ly satisfied, return it at our ex- PURE® can cut your heating out your sinuses and make your Your EdenPURE® easily Heater comes with a compre- COUNT PLUS FREE SHIP- pense and your purchase price bills, pay for itself in a matter skin dry. With other heating moves from room to room. hensive three year warranty PING AND HANDLING FOR will be refunded. No ques- of weeks, and then start putting sources, you'll notice that you Using zone heating keeps you and a 60-day, no questions A TOTAL SAVINGS OF UP tions asked. There is also a 3- a great deal of extra money in get sleepy when the heat comes comfortable and reduces your asked, satisfaction guarantee – TO $192 on the EdenPURE® year warranty for the Personal your pocket after that. on because they are burning up heating bills. This can drasti- EdenPURE® will even pay for Personal Heater. Our largest Heater. With over one million sat- oxygen. isfied customers around the The advanced space-age BOB VILA’S AUTHORIZED DISCOUNT COUPON world, the new EdenPURE® EdenPURE® also heats the The price of the EdenPURE® Personal Heater is $372 plus $17 shipping and handling but, with this Authorized Discount heats better, faster, saves room evenly, wall to wall and more on heating bills, and floor to ceiling. Other heating Coupon, you will receive a $175 discount, free shipping and handling and be able to get the EdenPURE® Personal Heater for runs almost silent. sources heat rooms unevenly only $197 delivered. The Personal Heater has an optional remote for only $12. After 10 days we reserve the right to either accept or reject order requests at the discounted price. A major cause of residen- with most of the heat concen- •To claim your discount and order by mail: fill out and mail trated high and to the center of Check below the number you want (limit 3 per customer) tial fires in the United States in this Authorized Discount Coupon. is portable heaters. Fire and the room. And as you know, I Personal Heater, number _____ safety professional, Captain portable heaters only heat an ______I I am ordering within 10 days, therefore I get a $175 NAME Mike Hornby ranks Eden- area a few feet around the discount, free shipping and handling and my price is ® ______PURE #1 for safety and re- heater. With the EdenPURE®, only $197 for the Personal Heater delivered. ADDRESS liability. The EdenPURE® the temperature will not vary ______has no exposed heating ele- in any part of the room. I I am ordering past 10 days, therefore I pay full price of CITY STATE ZIP CODE ments that can cause a fire. How can a person cut $372 plus $17 shipping & handling for the Personal Enclosed is $______in: I Check I Money Order The outside of the Eden- their heating bill with the Heater. (Make check payable to EdenPURE) or charge my: PURE® only gets warm to the EdenPURE®? First, the Eden- I Optional Remote $12, number _____ I VISA I MasterCard I Am. Exp./Optima I Discover/Novus touch so that it will not burn PURE® uses less energy to cre- children or pets. And your pet ate heat than many other •To claim your discount and order by phone: calltoll- Account No. ______Exp. Date ____/____ may be just like my dog who sources, but that is just part of free 1-800-366-1315. Operators are on duty Monday - Signature ______has reserved a favorite spot why it will cut a person’s heat- Friday 6am - 3am, Saturday 7am - 12am and Sunday MAIL TO: EdenPURE® near the EdenPURE®. ing bill. The EdenPURE® will 7am - 11pm, EST. Give operator your Offer Code on Accept no imitations. heat a room in minutes. You this coupon. Offer Code EHS5231 The EdenPURE® can also help will immediately notice the •To claim your discount and order online: visit 7800 Whipple Ave. N.W. you feel better. Unlike Eden- difference! Therefore, you can www.edenpure.com and enter Offer Code EHS5231. Canton, OH 44767 PURE® imitators, it will not return the heat down in your 3col_QXP-1127940387.qxp 11/29/2011 9:28 PM Page 28

lines provided by the New Jersey govern- gation turns tragic. Supporters of the ini- this year, the president endorsed the idea ment, one is hardly surprised that officials tiative aren’t entirely wrong when they say of federal anti-bullying legislation; Sen. Al have been going overboard with their that the administrators who are having the Franken (D., Minn.) has introduced a bill efforts. All in all, schools’ anti-bullying most trouble should head to the English that would make this a reality and includes programs must satisfy an 18-page “com- department for lessons in reading com - specific protections against bullying based pliance checklist” of “required compo- prehension. “We used terminology that on sexual orientation. nents.” The legislation requires a lengthy says ‘substantially disrupt or interfere’— Which raises another issue: When a and ridiculous process following every that doesn’t mean a child says your shirt’s single policy governs all behavior at all alleged bullying incident. a bad color,” says state senator Diane public schools, it risks violating the free- Schools are required to adopt a defini- Allen, a Republican cosponsor of the law. speech rights of students and being struck tion of bullying at least as strict as the “We’re talking about the kind of bully- down in court. In most schools, if one stu- state’s own: ing and harassment that disrupts the func- dent calls another a “fag,” the teacher will tioning of a school or creates a hostile reprimand the bully and perhaps send him any gesture, any written, verbal or physi- environment.” to the principal’s office; but if a student cal act, or any electronic communication, Further, despite requiring school dis- expresses the view that homosexuality is whether it be a single incident or a series tricts to take costly measures—from di - wrong, the teacher might encourage a of incidents, that is reasonably perceived verting precious teacher hours to the class discussion. When a single law gov- as being motivated [by any real or per- “school safety team” to training all per- erns both cases, its wording must help ceived characteristic including race, dis- sonnel who interact with children, includ- teachers make the same commonsense ability, etc.] . . . that takes place [on or, when “appropriate,” off school grounds], ing bus drivers—the state government distinction—if it protects bullying, it has that substantially disrupts or interferes gave no extra funding. Allen points out failed, and if it infringes free speech, it is with the orderly operation of the school that the required personnel can be drawn unconstitutional. Michigan’s bill has been or the rights of other students and that: from current employees, and that while held up thanks to a debate over a provision a. a reasonable person should know, schools have to implement new programs, protecting alleged bullying that stems under the circumstances, will have the the materials for those programs are avail- from “a sincerely held religious belief or effect of physically or emotionally harm- able for free online. “Some schools are try- moral conviction.” Liberals’ assertion that ing a student or damaging the student’s ing to make this into something of great “religious tormentors” don’t deserve an property, or placing a student in reason- expense and great time spent, with more exception has some merit—but an explic- able fear of physical or emotional harm to jobs and so on, but I think that if you it recognition of free speech is most defi- his person or damage to his property; b. has the effect of insulting or demean- decide to make it work and put children nitely needed, considering the damage to ing any student or group of students; or at the center, you can do it without great free speech that “hate speech” laws, the c. creates a hostile educational environ- expense,” she says. That may well be adult version of anti-bullying laws, have ment for the student by interfering with a true—but given how cash-strapped all lev- done in Canada and Europe. student’s education or by severely or per- els of government are, not to mention how There is also the question of whether vasively causing physical or emotional much public-school teachers love any centralized state control, let alone federal harm to the student. excuse to call for “more [union] jobs,” it involvement, is even needed in this area— seems more than a little unfair for the state yes, some schools do a poor job of polic- If an incident meets that definition, the government to give additional tasks to ing bullying, but it might be better for official who learns of it has to inform the school employees without funding to parents to take their concerns directly to principal the same day and file a written match. their school boards than for distant legisla- report within two school days. Once a The Garden State’s experience is espe- tors to impose a policy on every district in report has been filed, it goes to the “school cially noteworthy because statewide anti- the state. Allen says that schools ignored safety team,” a group chosen by the school bullying efforts have swept the nation and New Jersey’s previous anti-bullying law, district to review complaints and recom- are only becoming more forceful. While which gave schools guidelines but did not mend disciplinary action. This team in- New Jersey’s recent efforts are widely force any policies on them. But nonethe- vestigates the incident and releases a final considered the strictest in the nation, all less, is that not a problem to be addressed, report within ten days. The results are then but three states have some kind of anti- by parents and other local residents, in reported to the superintendant, the board bullying law, and one of the holdouts, each school individually? of education, and the parents of the chil- Michigan, is considering one. California In New Jersey, there’s plenty of blame dren involved. The board makes the call as and Colorado enacted new legislation this to go around: At the very least, state law- to the proper response, but its rulings can year. makers should have used clearer language be appealed to the commissioner of edu- Unsurprisingly, the federal government and required a less elaborate investigation cation. increasingly sees a role for itself in stand- process, and school administrators should As the anecdotes recounted above ing up to bullies as well. As I write this, read the law much more narrowly. But show, in addition to being imprecise with Obama-administration officials are meet- for the rest of the country, the lessons are their language, the law’s drafters underes- ing with concerned citizens at a bullying- simple: Schools should make more of an timated public-school administrators’ love prevention summit in Manhattan to effort to combat bullying, and higher-level of bureaucracy—or at least their fear of dis cuss new statistics showing that Asian governments should tread lightly when the lawsuit that will ensue when a bullying and Muslim students are disproportionate- taking over duties that have traditionally incident that didn’t receive a full investi- ly likely to be targets of bullying. Earlier been handled locally.

2 8 | www.nationalreview.com DECEMBER 1 9 , 2 0 1 1 base_milliken-mar 22.qxd 11/29/2011 2:37 PM Page 1

This Holiday Season, Give The Gift Of A Smile.

Free cleft surgery which takes as little as 45 minutes and costs as little as $250, can give desperate children not just a new smile—but a new life. “...one of the most productive charities — dollar for deed — in the world.” Z11121080ZFBY28 —The New York Times Donate online: www.smiletrain.org or call: 1-800-932-9541

According to the U.S. Government, women should take sufficient levels of folic acid (400 micrograms/day) during pregnancy to help prevent neural tube defects and reduce the risk for cleft lip and palate. When folic acid is taken one month before conception and throughout the first trimester, it has been proven to reduce the risk for neural tube defects by 50 to 70 percent. Be sure to receive proper prenatal care, quit smoking and drinking alcohol and follow your health care provider’s guidelines for foods to avoid during pregnancy. Foods to avoid may include raw or undercooked seafood, beef, pork or poultry; delicatessen meats; fish that contain high levels of mercury; smoked seafood; fish exposed to industrial pollutants; raw shellfish or eggs; soft cheeses; unpasteurized milk; pâté; caffeine; and unwashed vegetables. For more information, visit www.SmileTrain.org. Smile Train is a 501 (c)(3) nonprofit recognized by the IRS, and all donations to Smile Train are tax-deductible in accordance with IRS regulations. © 2011 Smile Train. 3col_QXP-1127940387.qxp 11/29/2011 9:28 PM Page 30

ferent from those that faced large infra- benchmarks increases these risks, with structure programs rushed to completion potentially catastrophic results. Fast Track to in more mature economies. Second, China’s enthusiasm for high- The scale and rapidity with which speed rail outpaced the ability of its engi- Nowhere China invested in its high-speed-rail net- neers to adapt technology safely and work is breathtaking. Annual spending efficiently. in 2004 China, acting in China’s experience with high-speed on high-speed-rail projects by China’s partnership with foreign firms, began rail provides a cautionary tale ministry of railways tripled between to modify standard technology to fit the 2007 and 2010 as the government rushed particulars of its system. As problems BY SAMUEL STALEY to build the world’s most extensive net- became apparent (none seeming particu- work of high-speed trains. Borrowing by larly significant at the time), the gov - reSiDeNT OBAMA may have tele - the railway ministry rose from 77.1 bil- graphed an important theme for lion yuan to 1.7 trillion yuan to support next year’s presidential election this spending frenzy. High-speed track P when he attempted to steamroll now makes up 8,358 kilometers of the his new stimulus program through Con - nation’s 91,000 kilometers of rail lines. gress by invoking the spec ter of falling Moreover, China still plans eventually to behind China. “Building a world-class build another 17,000 kilometers, boost- transportation system is part of what ing high-speed rail’s share to almost one- made us an economic superpower,” he quarter of the nation’s rail system. claimed. “And now we’re going to sit Under any circumstances, keeping back and watch China build newer air- track of spending on this scale would ports and faster railroads?” be a challenge, and the rail ministry China’s experience with public infra - has been criticized within China for its struc ture does hold important lessons for impenetrable accounting practices and the U.S. But they aren’t necessarily the lack of transparency in contracts. Be - ones many Westerners, including the cause adequate accounting procedures current U.S. president and his advisers, weren’t in place, tracking revenues has seem ready to embrace. been especially difficult, according to As high-speed-rail projects move for- extensive investigative reporting by ward in California, Pennsylvania, and the Chinese business magazine Caixin. Washington State, and regional high- This is especially alarming given that the speed-rail associations go ahead with high-speed-train agency was supposed plans in the Midwest, the Southwest, and to run like a business (not unlike pro- the Atlantic Coast, it’s prob ably a good posed projects in California and Texas). time to revisit the rail debacle now un - Unlike “social,” or subsidized, invest- folding in China. ments, it was supposed to make deci- We’ve already had one glaring warn- sions based on profit and loss. But now ing sign that the Chinese experiment has the Chinese system faces a real risk of The scene near Wenzhou, July 24, 2011 a few flaws. A high-speed rail collision default, as revenues fail to cover operat- near the city of Wenzhou killed 40 peo- ing and debt-service costs. ernment imposed even more ambitious ple and injured more than 200 last July, What lessons should U.S. policy - objectives on its engineers. instead of exposing systemic and institutional fail- makers draw? 120-mph trains, the original specifica- ures to the world. The accident forced First, technology still can’t overcome tion, they were now expected to achieve the Chinese to put high-speed-rail de - human foibles when schemes are rushed speeds of 150 mph, then 180 mph. velopment on hold for reassessment, into implementation. While software Technology never really caught up, a while authorities reduce speeds on exist- failure was the proximate cause of the factor compounded by the uniqueness ing tracks and reevaluate signaling tech- Wenzhou train disaster, the real problem and vastness of the Chinese system. The nology. was human error. Dis patch ers had not Wenzhou accident was one particular - These events portend that a similar been adequately trained to use the sys- ly tragic result of forcing a system to future might await the U.S. if we rush to tem, which had been hastily scaled up to change too much, and too fast. adopt the Chinese “model” for infra- higher speeds and greater complexity, so Third, large-scale programs, particu- structure development. The problems when a hardware malfunction created larly those serving national goals and that China’s high-speed-rail program ever-spreading dangers, the dispatchers aspirations, risk growing too quickly encountered were not significantly dif- did not recognize the extent of the situa- and requiring vast sums of money, tion until it ended tragically. Complex, resulting in a lack of accountability and Mr. Staley is associate director of the DeVoe L. Moore one-of-a-kind systems carry inherent transparency while breeding corruption. NEWSCOM /

Center at Florida State University and a senior risks in adapting, applying, and imple- The Beijing–Shanghai high-speed-rail RTR / research fellow at the Reason Foundation, where he menting new technologies. Cutting cor- route alone nearly doubled in cost as

manages the China Mobility Project. ners to achieve politically determined expenses went from an estimated 12.3 ALY SONG

3 0 | www.nationalreview.com DECEMBER 1 9 , 2 0 1 1 base_milliken-mar 22.qxd 11/28/2011 12:34 PM Page 1

A Safe Step Walk-In Tub oﬀ ers independence and safety right in the convenience of your own home: • Less than 4-inch step up Safety • Lifetime warranty on the tub and door seal • Hydro-Jet and Gentle Jet™ Therapy System never felt • Ozone Sanitizer ™ • In-Line Heater so good Installation is included and installers are insured and certiﬁ ed in walk-in tub installation. All work is 100% guaranteed. N THE U.S E I .A D . A M LIFETIME Call Now Toll-Free LIMITED WARRANTY W E ITH PRID 1-888-914-4523 for more information and for our Senior Discounts Financing available with approved credit.

Call Now! 1-888-914-4523

$750 OFF www.safesteptub.com WHEN YOU MENTION THIS AD for a limited time only 3col_QXP-1127940387.qxp 11/29/2011 9:28 PM Page 32

billion yuan to over 21 billion yuan. Many Chinese officials, including the minister of railways and the chairman of Regulated a major logistics company, have been removed from their positions because of Unto Death We have remained profoundly corruption that may have led to billions influential for over five decades. of dollars of waste. Obtaining lucrative How the EPA is killing America’s Why? Because of the greatness construction contracts during the mid- energy industry of our founder? Because of the 2000s appeared to be more about having connections than about doing high- BY TRAVIS KAVULLA talent of our exceptional writers? quality and cost-efficient work, and Because of our determination to middlemen were handsomely rewarded neRgy is a factor in everything articulate conservative principles for “mediating” services. And there is we do, an input in everything and expose liberal platitudes? reason to think the American experience made in the modern economy. will be similar: Cost overruns and con- E When energy prices rise, so in ‘Yes’ to all. But also true is this: cerns about fraudulent forecasts and tandem does the cost of virtually every- Our historic influence is due in financial accounting are already plagu- thing; and if energy prices rise only for ing high-speed-rail projects in the U.S. America or a particular state, as is the large part to the many good (particularly California). case when cost is tied to a new environ- subscribers and friends who Fourth, Chinese travelers, it turns mental regulation rather than anything have generously and freely out, aren’t that different from Amer i cans fundamental in an energy resource’s sup- contributed to National Review (or other Westerners), and when their ply, the difference between the cost of annually to support and sustain incomes increase, they become less like- production in our nation or a state and our operations, and to those ly to ride trains. the cost for an economic rival elsewhere thoughtful few who have In ongoing studies sponsored by the grows. remembered National Review in Reason Foundation that will be present- So at a moment when national comed in Hong Kong this month and before petitiveness, middle-class wages, and their wills, estates, and trusts. the Transportation Research Board in the U.S. economy in general are points January, researchers from the Highway of worry, the extravaganza of rules lately Please consider this: When you College at Chang’an University are unleashed against electric utilities by are gone, will National Review examining travel behavior among high- the environmental Protection Agency is . . . remain? If not, then who will way and train users. In earlier stages of pro foundly inopportune. Among the reg- fight for those principles that you development, Chinese travelers opted ulations the ePA has decreed during the wished dearly to bequeath to for buses, bicycles, and walking. But Obama administration, there are rules to address mercury, sulfur, and particulate your country, your family, and they increasingly prefer more flexible and adaptable travel modes, particularly emissions, the intake of water, and the future generations? the automobile. So high-speed train ser- disposal of coal ash, as well as vaguer vice is probably an upgrade for existing matters such as “visibility.” The rules Can you trust National Review? train riders, instead of a new alternative overlap with one another and, with im- Yes. Please do so when planning for travelers seeking faster ways to get plementation dates clustered in the next your estate. Keep us standing from Point A to Point B. Indeed, even as few years, they will unleash a cascade athwart history, yelling Stop. China invests in its intercity rail pro- effect leading to the decommissioning of gram, it plans to add 45 civilian airports many low-cost power plants, the spendy to the nation’s air-travel network by retrofitting of around a hundred more, By remembering National Review 2015. This shows that China’s trans- and a crunch on utilities, which will in your will, estate, or trust, you portation investment is aimed more at struggle to get all of this done at roughly will leave a legacy of continued building the infrastructure for a wealthy the same time with the little specialist support for those conservative economy than at trying to change travel labor that exists to do it. causes and beliefs that will be as behavior. The cost of complying with this pan - vital to future generations as they These lessons are important for infra- oply of rules is considerable. A paper by are to ours. Please contact: structure visionaries in the U.S., apart FBR Capital Markets predicts an all-in from the question of whether high-speed cost potentially exceeding $80 billion, rail makes economic sense. After the most of it hitting the electric-utility in - Jim Kilbridge Wenzhou accident, China is now step- dustry. That number does not count the National Review ping back and pausing, in an admirable cost in stranded or impaired investments 215 Lexington Avenue effort to take stock of the implementa- New York, NY 10016 tion failures that have put the safety of its Mr. Kavulla, a former associate editor of 212-679-7330 ext. 2826 entire national high-speed-rail network NATIONAL REVIEW, is chairman of the in question. Let policymakers on this Montana Public Service Commission, the state’s side of the Pacific take note. utility-regulating body.

3 2 | www.nationalreview.com DECEMBER 1 9 , 2 0 1 1 base_milliken-mar 22.qxd 11/28/2011 12:42 PM Page 1

The invention of the year is great news for your ears NEW Omnidirectional Perfect Choice HD™ is easy to use, hard Microphone Rocker Switch to see and costs far less than hearing aids… Volume Adjustment it’s like reading glasses for your ears™! New Personal Sound Amplification Product is an affordable alternative Over the years, technology has thanks to the efforts of the doctor made the way we live easier, who leads a renowned hearing safer and more convenient. In institute, there is Perfect Choice HD. many cases, it’s even made It’s designed to accurately amplify many products more affordable… sounds and deliver them to your (remember how much the first ear. Because we’ve developed an VCRs used to cost?). Unfortunately, efficient production process, we the cost of hearing aids never can make a great product at an seemed to come down. Now, a new affordable price. The unit has alternative has been invented… it’s been designed to have an easily called Perfect Choice HD™. accessible battery, but it is small and lightweight enough to hide “Reading glasses for your ears” behind your ear… only you’ll know Perfect Choice HD is NOT a you have it on. It’s comfortable and hearing aid. Hearing aids can won’t make you feel like you have only be sold by an audiologist. In Perfect Choice HD vs Traditional Hearing Aids order to get a Perfect Choice HD Traditional Hearing Aids Lightweight and YES Some hearing aid, you Inconspicuous Easy Toggle had to go to the Few Switch Adjustment YES Affordable, Simple to use, doctor’s office for a Intelligent Setting Few Virtually impossible to see battery of tests and Memory YES Tests and Fittings Yes numerous fitting Required NO satisfied with this product, simply appointments. Affordable YES as much as $5000 return it within 60 days for a refund Once they had you Friendly Return of the full product purchase price. YES rarely tested and fitted, Policy Don’t wait… don’t miss out on you would have to pay as much as something stuck in your ear. It another conversation… call now! $5000 for the product. Now, provides high quality audio so sounds and conversations will be Are you or easier to hear and understand. a loved one frustrated in these situations? Try it for yourself with our exclusive home trial. Some people Call now for • Restaurants • Dinner parties need hearing aids but many just the lowest price ever. • Outdoor conversations need the extra boost in volume that Please mention promotional code • Lectures • Sermons a PSAP gives them. We want you to 43477. • Meetings be happy with Perfect Choice HD, …and other times where you so we are offering to let you try it 1-888-591-7075 Perfect Choice HD is not a hearing aid. need to turn up the volume for yourself. If you are not totally If you believe you need a hearing aid, please consult a physician. 80324 3col_QXP-1127940387.qxp 11/29/2011 9:28 PM Page 34

for plants that will be shut down before miles” in the West, meaning that “many power plants that supply the northwest- they have reached the end of their useful visitors aren’t able to see the spectacular ern United States, you would have only life—which in total are estimated to have vistas they expect.” This is pretty rich to three black ping-pong balls. Put in a around 45 gigawatts of generating capac- those living in the West, whose “spec - more scientific way, the cleaner varieties ity, enough to power between 20 and 30 tacular vistas” are more likely to be of coal produce less than one pound of million homes. When Montana-Dakota obstructed by wildfires of natural origin mercury for every trillion BTUs. At Utilities, which serves four states, re - than by man’s emissions. Does a norm this rate of occurrence, it is difficult even leased its biennial planning forecast this that the EPA has proclaimed cease to be to measure mercury emissions—let year, its business-as-usual case projected meaningful if Mother Nature routinely alone control them. Yet the EPA says it a plant-in-the-ground value of $3.723 bil- negates it? will finalize the rule by the middle of lion, which will be recovered over time in The rule neatly demarcates what’s im - December. electric rates. But add the retrofitting or portant to the EPA, with “spectacular The EPA is also steaming ahead with plant replacements required by mercury vistas” on one side and, on the other, the the Coal Combustion Residuals rule, and coal-ash rules, as well as a carbon usual culprit: manufacturing and power another pillar of the agency’s regulatory tax, to the mix, and that value soars to plants, in this case those that emit par - overkill. This rule has been written and $5.317 billion—over 40 percent more ticulate matter that blows willy-nilly awaiting the EPA go-ahead for a year. It than the status quo, all of which will have into parklands. On balance, one would threatens to treat the ash produced when to be recovered in rates. think—one would hope—this would be coal is burned as a hazardous material Pres. Barack Obama in the past two a clear victory for what is called in EPA that may be deposited only in certified months has been sending mixed signals parlance “the emitter.” But don’t hold hazmat landfills. Coal ash does not meet about the EPA’s rules bonanza. The your breath. Rather than treating matters any existing EPA definition of a haz- administration suspended an EPA ozone like this as a balancing act of environ- ardous material, and hazmat landfills rule, equivocated about the Cross-State ment versus economy, the rote assertion are in short supply (and in some coal- Air Pollution Rule, which affects 31 of green-jobs ideology has become that burning states, such as Montana, they are states and has led Texas regulators to the environment is the economy. That a nonexistent). Coal plants produce a lot of Were there an award for the regulation most laughably out of whack with the moment’s national economic priorities, the winner would be the Regional Haze Rule, often called the Visibility Rule.

forecast blackouts, and delayed the re - generator or engine or boiler will always ash—10 million tons of coal produce lease of greenhouse-gas rules to next be to some degree at odds with nature 1 million tons of ash when burned. If ash year. Yet there are plenty of varyingly seems a concept lost on this adminis - is to be treated as a hazardous waste on ineffectual, grandiose, and economically tration. The EPA is scheduled to take par with battery acid, there is simply no damaging regulations President Obama action this or next year to force recalci- way coal plants, which still account for could walk back were he serious about trant states into compliance with the half of America’s electrical generation, convincing America that his love affair Visibility Rule. can remain online. The rule was issued with the regulatory state was all just a An even more harmful rule that is ripe this spring, but Obama, if he chose to, thoughtless swoon. for revision and delay is the mercury could save ratepayers billions by with- Were there an award for the regulation regulation effected by the Utility Maxi- holding final approval. most laughably out of whack with the mum Achievable Control Technology The Visibility, the Utility MACT, the moment’s national economic priorities, (MACT) standards. This, at least, is a Coal Combustion Residuals, and other the winner would be the Regional Haze rule intended to mitigate a real pollutant, rules in the EPA’s regulatory bouquet are Rule, often called the Visibility Rule. and is in part being implemented by fed- ostensibly about public health, but their Resurrected from rulemaking purga - eral court order. But the Utility MACT is coalescence at this particular moment tory in 2009, after the financial crisis, overzealous. Modern coal-burning tech- is enough to inspire justified suspicion it requires that visibility in “national air- nology produces a small amount of mer- that, really, they are a subterfuge to take sheds” such as national parks, wilder- cury. If you filled up the Astrodome with coal-fired generators offline or, at least, nesses, and certain Indian reservations 30 billion ping-pong balls, representing make it much more expensive to use coal be improved on bad days and not deteri- the parts emitted when low-sulfur sub- to produce electricity. Indeed, Steven orate on the days with the greatest visi- bituminous coal is burned, and painted Chu, before he became energy secretary, bility. black those balls that represented mer- declared that “coal is my worst night- Why is there a visibility rule in the first cury, then you would have only 27 black mare.” place? As the EPA’s website explains, the balls. Many states have already adopted Greens have long been annoyed that rule was necessary because “visual range stringent controls, so that, at Montana’s coal and coal-fired electricity are so cheap, has decreased from 140 miles to 35–90 large Colstrip facility, which hosts four and that renewable forms of energy are so

3 4 | www.nationalreview.com DECEMBER 1 9 , 2 0 1 1 base_milliken-mar 22.qxd 11/28/2011 12:43 PM Page 1

What Stauer Clients Are Saying About Our Hybrid Watches “Great watch... an impressive piece straight out of the box.” — C. FROM COLORADO

No More Mr. Nice Watch Forget sleek and subtle, the Stauer Colossus Hybrid is one tough timepiece. ever underestimate your competition. Just ask Demetrius, quartz movement, the watch is doubly accurate in analog and Nthe unfortunate Greek general who set out to conquer digital mode. And it’s packed with plenty of handy extras Rhodes in 305 BC. He assumed that a massive force of 40,000 including a bright green EL back-light for enhanced nighttime men, a fleet of Aegean pirates and an arsenal of wall-smashing visibility, a tachymeter along the outer dial and a full comple- war machines would be enough to crush the tiny Greek island. ment of alarms and split-second countdown timers. The He was wrong. The Rhodians were tougher than he thought. Colossus Hybrid secures with a folded steel bracelet that And so is this watch. If you’ve always believed that the biggest, highlights a row of striking dark center links. It’s a rugged baddest watches had to cost big, bad money, the $79 Stauer watch that’s more than ready for your daily grind. Colossus Hybrid Chronograph is here to change your mind. Your Satisfaction is Guaranteed. Wear the Stauer Colossus A monument to toughness. The people of Rhodes were Hybrid for 30 days and if you are not 100% thrilled with your ready for Demetrius and repelled his attack. To celebrate, they purchase, return it for a full refund of your purchase price. But built the Colossus of Rhodes, a 107-foot bronze and iron giant once you get a taste of more watch for less money, it’s likely that towered over the harbor like a ten-story trophy. It warned you’ll be back for more... and we’ll be waiting. future invaders that “Rhodes is tougher than you think.” You WATCH SPECS: -Easy-to-read analog/digital modes -Back-lighting & give the same message when you wear the Stauer Colossus. luminescent hands - Tachymeter, countdown timers & alarms The timepiece that works twice as hard. In designing - Folded stainless steel bracelet fits a 6 3/4"–9" wrist the Colossus Hybrid Chronograph, our instructions to the A Stauer Exclusive watchmaker were clear: build it as tough as a battleship and fill Colossus Hybrid Digital/Analog Watch—$395 it full of surprises. Make it a hybrid, because it should work Now $79 +S&P Save $316 twice as hard as a regular watch. And make it look like a Call now to take advantage of this limited offer. million bucks, because when you put it on, you should get Offer Limited excited about rolling up your sleeves. Mission accomplished. 1-888-277-8380 A toolbox on your wrist. It will keep you on schedule, Promotional Code CHW272-02 to First 5000 but the Colossus Hybrid is about much more than time. The Please mention this code when you call. Respondents imposing case features a rotating gunmetal bezel that frames Stauer has a Better Business the silver, black and yellow face. You’ll find a battalion of digital Bureau Rating of A+ displays on the dial arranged behind a pair of luminescent 14101 Southcross Drive W., Dept. CHW272-02 ® hands and a bold yellow second hand. Powered by a precise Stauer Burnsville, Minnesota 55337 www.stauer.com Smart Luxuries—Surprising Prices 3col_QXP-1127940387.qxp 11/29/2011 9:28 PM Page 36

expensive. Renewables already are made was honoring them for a process begun artificially cheaper through mandates to in, and named for, the committee’s own buy green energy such as the Renewable Three city, Oslo. Never mind that Arafat and his Portfolio Standards, which 29 states PLO would quickly shoot this process to have adopted, as well as direct subsidies Winners hell. such as the federal Production Tax Credit More than a few say, “When they gave for Renewable energy, which pays pro- The Nobel peace committee divides the Nobel peace prize to Arafat, that’s ducers $22 per megawatt-hour of green its 2011 prize wisely when I gave up on the prize.” But one energy (regardless of whether it is de - might remember that the two Israeli states- livered at a peak-demand time on a hot BY JAY NORDLINGER men were happy, or at least willing, to summer afternoon, or in the dead of appear with Arafat in Oslo. And one of night). he Oslo Freedom Forum is an them, Peres, went out of his way to say, even with the mandates and subsidies, annual human-rights confer- in his Nobel lecture, that Arafat’s share in renewables in many places are not com- ence, held in the Norwegian the prize was “fitting.” petitive. So has come a push to make T capital. There are always brave Until this year, twelve women had won conventional forms of generation more and admirable people among the speak- the peace prize. The first was Baroness ex pensive. Greens have long argued that ers. One such at the conference last May Bertha von Suttner in 1905. She was a coal-generated electricity would not be was Leymah Gbowee of Liberia. And she veteran peace campaigner, a novelist, and cheap if only all of the negative externali- was surely the most colorful: colorful in a friend of the testator. Other women to ties were reflected in the price the end- her dress and colorful in her presentation. win include Jane Addams (1931) and user pays for electricity or manufactured She joked about her pleasantly plump Mother Teresa (1979). In one fell swoop, products. That’s a difficult thing to bring figure. And she had a serious message the committee boosted the total of women about, of course, because when you push to impart: “The road to freedom is long. to 15. In its announcement, the committee up prices of electricity, a particular energy- The cost of freedom is high. The fight said, “We cannot achieve democracy and using process merely will migrate to lo - for freedom is not for the fainthearted or lasting peace in the world unless women cales where externalities are still external the pessimistic.” obtain the same opportunities as men to and energy is cheaper. These rules cer- On October 7 came big news out of influence developments at all levels of tainly will certainly abet that trend. Oslo: The Norwegian Nobel Committee society.” The fate of the rules is unclear. There announced that Gbowee would receive the Leymah Gbowee and ellen Johnson is reason to believe some will be de - 2011 peace prize. She would receive it Sirleaf have done their best in Liberia—a layed, or never implemented, because of along with two other women: another country whose recent history is not for the fierce political opposition in swing states Liberian, ellen Johnson Sirleaf, who is squeamish. On the night of April 12, 1980, such as Ohio, Indiana, and Pennsylvania, in fact president of the country; and a Master Sergeant Samuel K. Doe entered home to large coal fleets. But more than Yemeni, Tawakkul Karman. The women, the bedroom of Pres. William R. Tolbert being a sword of Damocles hanging over said the committee, were winning the with 17 other soldiers, and bayoneted the the heads of utilities with existing coal prize “for their non-violent struggle for the man to death. Doe met his own end on plants, the rules are an embodiment of safety of women and for women’s rights the night of Sept. 9, 1990. The president, regulatory uncertainty, rightly a watch- to full participation in peace-building as he had become, was tortured to death word of our ailing economy. The mere work.” The ceremony will take place on by Prince Johnson and his crew. Johnson threat of the rules has rendered nearly December 10, as it does every year: On drank Budweiser as the crew cut off both impossible the construction of new coal that day in 1896, the man who willed of Doe’s ears, forcing the president to eat plants in the United States. Ironically, the prizes, Alfred Nobel, passed away. one. this keeps older and dirtier coal plants In that will, he says that a “person” The two civil wars were no nicer. The online and suspends many investments. shall win one of his prizes, not “persons.” first lasted from 1989 to 1996, and the sec- Society is kept in limbo, courtesy of the But the statutes of the Nobel Foundation ond from 1999 to 2003. These wars were ePA. in Stockholm say that up to three people so savage, so depraved, so annihilative, If the ePA is going to kill off the indus- may share a prize. Only once prior to this they defy human description. They fea- try, then it ought to dispense with the tor- year was the peace prize divided between tured child soldiers, who were drugged tuous waiting game and just get it over three people. (The Nobel prizes are now up; the hacking of limbs; and rape after with. The status quo is the worst of both 110 years old.) That was in 1994, when rape after rape. Any female from child- worlds. Industry is paralyzed and, mean- Yasser Arafat won along with two Israeli hood to old age who escaped rape was while, plans for what to do with the statesmen: the prime minister, Yitzhak lucky. There was a total breakdown of clean, low-sulfur coal deposits of the Rabin, and the foreign minister, Shimon civilization and moral order. Powder River Basin, America’s most Peres. The Norwegian Nobel Committee Gbowee, who was 17 when the wars promising coal play, now revolve around started and 31 when they ended, decided exports to China, a nation every bit as Mr. Nordlinger is an NR senior editor. He has a to do something about it. Fed up, des - determined as our ePA is ambivalent. In book coming out from Encounter in March: Peace, perate, and fearless, she organized other effect, the ePA is not lessening pollution They Say: A History of the Nobel Peace women in a peace movement: a “mass- in the world; it is merely exporting it, and Prize, the Most Famous and Controversial action campaign,” as they called it. In our economy along with it. Prize in the World. every way they knew, they pressured the

3 6 | www.nationalreview.com DECEMBER 1 9 , 2 0 1 1 upmann ad 2011_upmann ad.qxd 11/29/2011 5:51 PM Page 1 THANKTHANKToTo OurOur YOUYOUGoodGood H.H.FriendsFriends UPMANN UPMANN atat H.H. UpmanUpmann—n—THANKTHANK YOUYOU

For the past decade, National Review’s wonderful cruises have beenAS W madeE PREP AallRE FtheOR TmoreHE NA Tfun,IONA Lenjoyable, REVIEW 201 2and POS spectacularT-ELECTION CR UthanksISE . . . to the delightful, later-night “smokers”—always featuring world-class H.N aUpmanntional Rev cigars—thatiew’s acclaime dhave cruis ebecomes are all thstandarde more sp eaffairsctacula onr b eourcau ssea-e of their delightful social events—in particular the “smokers,” which for 17 faringyears adventures.have exclusiv ely featured the world-class cigars of H. Upmann. The relaxed and convivial atmosphere, the pleasant conversations, the Theren erelaxedwal of o landd fri econvivialndships, t atmosphere,he beginning o thef ne wpleasant ones, th econversations, warmth and theca mrenewalaraderie— ofth aoldnks tfriendships,o H. Upmann , Ntheati obeginningnal Review cofrui snewe sm oones,kers ar ethe warmthtruly sp eandcial ecamaraderie—thanksvents. Why not find out fo rto y oH.urs Upmann,elf? To lear nNR morcruisee abou tsmok- our ersfor tarehco mtrulying vspecialentures events.of conse rvatism on the high seas (soon we’ll be showcasing our November, 2012 “post-election” sailing!)—please visit www.nrcruise.com, or call 800-707-1634.

e thank the good people of W Altadise thank U.S.A.—homethe good people ofof theAltadis H. Upmann U.S.A.—home brand andof the a varietyW of H.superior Upmann cigars, brand such and as Montecristos,a variety of superior Romeo cigars,y Julietas, such as TrinidadsMontecristos, and Onyx Romeo Reserves y Julietas, and so manyTrinidads more—for and Onyx their Reserves generous and con- tributionsso many tomore—for National their Review generous, and forcontributions the enjoyment to National they have Review, broughtand for to the thousands enjoyment of they revel- have brought to thousands of rev- rous conservatives upon the elrous conservatives upon high seas since 1995. the high seas since 1995.

PLEASEPLEAS EVISIT VISIT WWW.ALTADISUSA.COMWWW.ALTADISUSA.COM FORFO RMORE MORE INFORMATION INFORMATION ABOUT ABOUT H.H UPMANN. UPMANN AND AND OTHER OTHER QUALITY QUALITY CIGARS.CIGARS. 3col_QXP-1127940387.qxp 11/29/2011 9:28 PM Page 38

combatants to stop fighting. They wreaked committee said, “In the most trying cir- Lech Walesa told me that his Solidarity “peaceful feminine havoc” on them, to cumstances, both before and during the movement in Poland could never have quote Gbowee. The women’s story is told ‘Arab spring,’ Tawakkul Karman has succeeded without the prize. On the other in a 2008 documentary, Pray the Devil played a leading part in the struggle for hand, the prize to Aung San Suu Kyi Back to Hell. women’s rights and for democracy and didn’t make a dent in Burma. In 2005, Johnson Sirleaf was elected peace in Yemen.” Karman, age 32, hap- How have you been feeling about the president: becoming the first democra - pens to be the youngest-ever winner of Nobel peace prize lately? Personally, I tically elected female head of state in all of the Nobel peace prize. At one time, Martin find that I can’t quite write it off. I feel Africa. Gbowee called this “the icing on Luther King was the youngest winner: He the same about the literature prize. For the cake”—the icing on the cake of the was 35 in 1964. Karman cites him as her ten straight years, they’ll give it to a far- peace movement and the wars’ end. number-one model. Left hack. (I exaggerate just a little.) Then America’s first lady and secretary of Like Johnson Sirleaf, she is the daugh- they’ll give it to Bellow, or Naipaul, or state, Laura Bush and Condoleezza Rice, ter of a prominent politician. It stands to Solzhenitsyn—or Vargas Llosa, who attended the inauguration. George W. reason that women who rise in Third won last year. In the space of seven years, Bush gave Johnson Sirleaf the Presidential World countries (as we used to call them) 2002 to 2009, the peace committee gave Medal of Freedom in 2007. should be the daughters of leading politi- the prize to three American Democrats: Born in 1938, she was the daughter of cal men. They have familiarity with poli- Jimmy Carter, Al Gore, and Barack a pioneering politician in Liberia. In tics, and they have self-confidence. One Obama. I think all three prizes are dubi- her years as president, she has restored a thinks of Indira Gandhi in India. If she had ous. Besides, Bill Clinton must be miffed, semblance of civilization to the country, sprung from a farmer’s family, would any- being the only top Democrat uncrowned (so far). But the 2010 prize was a bold stroke, going to a Chinese prisoner of conscience, Liu Xiaobo. For over 60 years, China’s democrats had been waiting for a Nobel, and they finally got one. Cuba’s democrats are still waiting—and will probably wait forever. Be that as it may, the Norwegian Nobel Committee did very well in 2010, and they did well again this year. About the three laureates to be crowned, or bemedaled, on December 10, you can raise a number of questions. For example, President Johnson Sirleaf has made Leymah Gbowee, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, and Tawakkul Karman many compromises, as she has tried to although Liberia’s problems are still hor- one have heard of her? Instead, she was keep her tribalistic and explosive coun- rendous. Rape is still a constant. And cor- the only child of a founder of the modern try together. Last month, she was cam- ruption in government is terrific, clean as state. Essentially the same can be said of paigning with Prince Johnson, once just Johnson Sirleaf may be personally. Two Aung San Suu Kyi of Burma—who won another tor turing warlord, now a sena- years ago, I talked to a Liberian official. I the Nobel peace prize for 1991. tor. Gbowee points out that, in Liberia, asked him whether foreign aid was, on Karman has been agitating for freedom every villain is a hero in some com - balance, helpful or harmful. He said, “Do and democracy in Yemen since at least munity. As for Tawakkul Karman, she ZUMA

/ you know the difference between AID 2005. In that year, she started a group belongs to an Islamist party—and yet [as in the U.S. Agency for International called Women Journalists Without Chains. she is a liberal, certainly in the Arab Development] and AIDS?” I said no. He Last January, inspired by the uprising in context. She maintains that “things like PANORAMIC : said, “The letter S.” Tunisia, she led a similar uprising in her extremism and terrorism, which have Johnson Sirleaf pledged to serve only own country. The government detained grown under dictatorship, will fade away one term but, in the manner of politicians her for a day and a half. The dictator in a free Yemen.” GETTY KARMAN / everywhere, changed her mind: She was warned her brother that, if she kept it up, Almost never are Nobel peace laureates AFP / reelected last month, shortly after her she would be killed. She kept it up, and has saints (an exception being Mother Teresa).

SANOGO They are human beings, working in messy : Nobel prize was announced. Her cam- survived. On the day the Nobel prize was paign slogan was, “Monkey still working, announced, she said, “This is a victory for human situations. Each of the 2011 laure- let baboon wait small.” What it meant was, Arabs around the world. And it will end ates has stuck her neck out. Each has “The president needs more time to accom- the dictatorship of Ali Abdullah Saleh.” risked a great deal for the betterment of plish her mission; the opposition can just After 33 years—more than Karman is her country and her fellow man. Further- GETTY JOHNSON SIRLEAF

/ cool it for a while.” Running for reelection old—Saleh has promised to leave power more, we in the West should remember AFP / in 1864, Abraham Lincoln had a similar at the end of this month. Is the Nobel peace that, while female empowerment is old hat here, it is new hat, or no hat at all, in many BROWN slogan: “Don’t change horses in mid- prize responsible? Surely not, but neither : stream.” could it have hurt. Sometimes the prize of the world’s places. So, for the 2011

GBOWEE About the Yemeni laureate, the Nobel makes a difference, sometimes it doesn’t. Nobel peace prize, hats off.

3 8 | www.nationalreview.com DECEMBER 1 9 , 2 0 1 1 2col_QXP-1127940309.qxp 11/29/2011 9:29 PM Page 39

Repo Men Beware Wall Street efforts to reoccupy the Republican party

BY KEVIN D. WILLIAMSON

F you’re making money on the Wall Street scale—which is trillion-dollar U.S. deficits as far as the green-shaded eye can see, nothing like your boring, middle-management in the Fortune let’s hear it for Obama’s first National Economic Council director, 500, Hamptons-and-Mercedes, barely–a–1 percenter type Lawrence Summers (of hedge-fund giant D. E. Shaw and venture- I money—then you can buy basically anything. When real- capital firm Andreessen Horowitz), who has had some nice paydays estate investor Robert Rosania put part of his storied champagne courtesy of Lehman Bros., JPMorgan Chase, and Citigroup. Let’s collection up for sale in 2008, the auction was predicted to fetch hear it for Citigroup’s Michael Froman, deputy assistant to the pres- $5 million—couch-cushion change to Rosania, who had not yet ident and deputy national-security adviser for international eco- reached his 40th birthday, making him a good deal younger than nomic affairs, for Hartford Financial’s Neal Wolin, deputy Treasury many of the vintages in his cellar. (Known in the wine world as Big secretary, for JPMorgan’s William Daley, Obama’s chief of staff, Boy, he brandishes a special saber designed for decapitating head- and for his predecessor, Rahm Emanuel of Wasserstein Perella. clutchingly expensive bottles of champagne. Bespoke vintage- Let’s hear it for Fannie Mae’s Tom Donilon, national-security champagne cutlery: That’s how you know you’re rich.) Not far from adviser. (No, seriously: One of the luminous interstellar geniuses Zuccotti Park, where Occupy Wall Street was fragrantly encamped, who brought Fannie Mae to its current aphotic state of affairs, I noticed a young man wandering into a store to buy a pack of cig- upside down to the tune of trillions of dollars, is running national arettes on a bright Saturday morning, wearing blue jeans, a T-shirt, security, and the former director of the White House Military and a $237,000 Vacheron-Constantin watch. In a world of $600,000 Office, Louis Caldera, was on the board of IndyMac when it cars (consult your local Maybach dealer) and $4,300-a-night finally went toes up—sleep tight, America!) And, lest we forget, whores (consult Eliot Spitzer), it’s no big deal to buy a president, let’s have three big, sloppy cheers for economic-transition team which is precisely what Wall Street did in 2008 when, led by invest- leaders Robert Rubin (Goldman Sachs, Citigroup) and folksy tax ment giant Goldman Sachs, it closed the deal on Barack Obama. enthusiast/ghoulish billionaire vulture Warren Buffett. For a few measly millions, Wall Street not only bought itself a That’s a pretty fantastic lineup, from Wall Street’s point of view, president, but got the start-up firm of B. H. Obama & Co. LLC to but the real bonus turned out to be Treasury secretary Tim Geithner, throw a cabinet into the deal, too—on remarkably generous terms. who came up through the ranks as part of the bipartisan Robert President Obama, for a guy prone to delivering prim and smug lit- Rubin–Hank Paulson–Citigroup–Goldman Sachs cabal. Geithner, tle homilies denouncing greed, greed, greed—the only of the seven a government-and-academe man from way back, never really deadly sins that truly offends Democrats (though Mrs. Obama has worked on Wall Street, though he once was offered a gig as CEO done some desultory work on gluttony)—is strangely comfortable of Citigroup, which apparently thought he did an outstanding job among the Gordon Gekkos of this world. Shall we have a partial roll as chairman of the New York Fed, where one of his main tasks was call? Beat the drum slowly and call out the names: With unemploy- regulating Citigroup—until it collapsed into the yawning suckhole ment still topping 9 percent, the catastatic world economy teetering of its own cavernous ineptitude, at which point Geithner’s main job

on the brink of another, even larger financial catastrophe, and became shoveling tens of billions of federal dollars into Citigroup, ROMAN GENN

3 9 2col_QXP-1127940309.qxp 11/29/2011 9:29 PM Page 40

in an ingeniously structured investment that allowed the govern- Some of the highlights: Nancy Pelosi and her husband were ment to buy a 27 percent share in the bank, for which it paid more parties to a dozen or so IPOs, many of which were effectively off than the entire market value of the bank. If you can’t figure out why limits to all but the biggest institutional investors and their favored you’d pay 100-plus percent of a bank’s value for 27 percent of it, clients. One of those was a 2008 investment of between $1 million then you just don’t understand high finance or high politics. and $5 million in Visa, an opportunity the average investor could But high finance is not the only corporate mystery to be unrav- not have bought, begged, or borrowed his way into—one that eled here: President Obama’s repetitious denunciations of Big Oil made the Pelosis a 50 percent profit in two days. Visa, of course, have not stopped his man David Axelrod’s firm from setting up had business before Speaker Pelosi, who was helping to shape Astroturf campaigns on behalf of Exelon subsidiary ComEd, or credit-card-reform legislation at the time. Visa got what it wanted. stopped the president from appointing GE chief executive/tax- The Pelosis have also made some very fortunate investments in minimization engineer/offshoring guru/bailout baby Jeff Immelt to gas and energy firms that have benefited from Representative his risible White House jobs commission, or choosing former Kraft Pelosi’s legislative actions. and Duke Energy board member Mary Schapiro to run the SEC. The Pelosis made a million bucks off a single deal involving When President Obama opined during his 2011 State of the OnDisplay, the IPO of which was underwritten by investment Union speech that a corporate tax-rate cut might be just the thing banker William Hambrecht, a major Pelosi campaign contributor. for America after a year of record corporate profits, his left-wing Writes Schweizer: “The same Bill Hambrecht went before the base was shocked and dismayed. Heck, some conservatives were House Finance Committee, chaired by Barney Frank, a Pelosi ally, caught offguard, too. Perhaps they hadn’t noticed who was running to push for a change in the registration process for stock IPOs, an the Obama administration: In large part, the same guys who plan exemption called Regulation A. Under current law, a company that to be running the next Republican administration. plans an IPO of less than $5 million in stock gets an exemption from detailed reporting. Hambrecht wanted the exemption raised to $30 million, which would greatly benefit his business, making ARACK OBAMA (Nasdaq: BHO) has been a pretty good buy IPOs easier, quicker, and far less expensive. As the hearings began, for Goldman Sachs et al. Sure, the Frank-Dodd financial- Congressman Frank said, ‘I should note also that it was Speaker B reform bill is going to be a sharp pain in Wall Street’s pin- Pelosi who first called this to our attention earlier in the year. It is striped posterior, and it’s going to cost some moneymen some something that the speaker has taken a great interest in.’” money, but not enough that anybody’s going to be out a champagne Besting Nancy Pelosi, Rep. Gary Ackerman (D., N.Y.) got in on saber. Mostly, Big Business has got just what it wanted from the the pre-IPO action, without putting up so much as one rapidly Big Government guys in the Obama administration: Frank-Dodd depreciating U.S. dollar of his own assets, when a political support- did not do much of anything to lift the cloud of opacity over the er—who just happened to be the biggest shareholder of the firm in world of structured finance, which is what the investment bankers question—lent him $14,000 to buy shares in the private company, feared most. President Obama has made some noises about ending which he then sold for more than a hundred grand after the firm the carried-interest treatment that allows the fine fellows who run went public. There wasn’t so much as a written loan agreement. private-equity funds to pay 15 percent in taxes on their gazillion- On and on and on it goes: Sen. John Kerry invested aggressive- dollar take-homes instead of 35 percent, but the private-equity ly in health-care companies while shaping health-care legislation. guys know that isn’t going to happen, mostly because they’ve Rep. Spencer Bachus (R. Ala.) was a remarkably apt options heard this story before, from Senator Schumer, and they recognize trader during the days when he had a front-row seat to Congress’s it for what it is: an inelegant appeal for campaign donations. deliberations on the unfolding financial crisis. The Obama admin- Beyond Wall Street proper, your Fortune 500 types are looking at istration poured billions of dollars into solar companies, of which the many-splendored tax credits and subsidies and grants and stim- the failed Solyndra is the most infamous. But a lot of that money ulus dollars lavished upon firms such as the now-defunct Solyndra went to other firms, including First Solar, which is owned by bil- and the really-should-have-been-defunct General Electric and lionaire Obama supporter Ted Turner and by Goldman Sachs. wondering: How do I get me some of that? Goldman Sachs is omnipresent. And during the financial crisis, a What’s worse is that much of official Washington is looking at big piece of Goldman Sachs was bought by Warren Buffett, who Wall Street and asking the same question. The answer: Easy. If stacked up a lot of cash when the government poured money into Wall Street has done pretty well by investing in Washington, the that struggling investment bank with the support of Barack Obama. more despair-inducingly germane fact is that Washington has done When the federal government bought into Goldman Sachs, it nego- pretty well by investing in Wall Street. A catalogue of recent con- tiated for itself a 5 percent dividend. Warren Buffett got 10 per- gressional insider-trading, self-dealing, IPO shenanigans, and cent—on top of the benefit of having Washington inundate his inexplicably good investment luck would fill an entire volume, and investment with great rippling streams of taxpayers’ money. in fact it has: The book has the Tea Party–bait title Throw Them All Republicans are no saints, either, but Democrats were running the Out: How Politicians and Their Friends Get Rich Off Insider Stock congressional show during such crucial episodes as the imple - Tips, Land Deals, and Cronyism That Would Send the Rest of Us to mentation of the bailouts and the health-care debate—which were Prison, by Peter Schweizer of the Hoover Institution. That’s a lot big investment opportunities for political insiders with access to of title for a fairly slim book (176 pages of reportage, plus end market-moving information. Congress has effectively exempted notes), but, despite its relatively slender dimensions, it cost me an itself from insider-trading rules, not that the SEC would have the entire night’s sleep: I spent half the night reading it in a single sit- guts to go after a Senator Schumer or a Speaker Pelosi for these ting and the other half having nightmares about it. It’s the most exploits. And that—not campaign contributions, not lobbying—is offensive and disturbing thing I’ve read since sampling the oeuvre the really stinky petri dish of festering corruption at the nexus of of the Marquis de Sade as an undergraduate. Washington and Wall Street. You want a case for limited govern-

4 0 | www.nationalreview.com DECEMBER 1 9 , 2 0 1 1 2col_QXP-1127940309.qxp 11/29/2011 9:29 PM Page 41

ment? That’s it. And Wall Street is on the wrong side of the argu- Tim Geithner laid in their lap? Romney’s ten biggest donor blocs ment, which is one reason free-market conservatives should not include Goldman Sachs (his biggest—No. 1, as always), Credit romanticize the lords of finance. Suisse, Morgan Stanley, Barclays, Bank of America, and JPMorgan Say this for them, though: Gordon Gekko at least was an honest Chase. Bain’s thrown a little goodwill money his way, too. social Darwinist. He made a lot of money and declared that “greed So, what does Wall Street want? is good.” Michelle Obama (2007 household income: $4,238,165) made a whole lot of money and then lectured a bunch of blue- collar women in Zanesville, Ohio (median household income: eRe’S what Wall Street doesn’t want: It doesn’t want to $28,854) that they had a moral obligation to forgo high-paying hear from Sarah Palin or Michele Bachmann or even jobs in “corporate America” (which, notice, is not exactly HQ’d H Newt Gingrich, or suffer any sort of tea-party populism. It in Zanesville, Ohio, poverty rate: 26.3 percent) in order to “work wants you rubes to shut up about Jesus and please pay your mort- for the community.” Like Gordon Gekko, she’s a carnivorous gages. It doesn’t want to hear from such traditional Republican competitor at the top of the socioeconomic food chain, but she’s constituencies as Christian conservatives, moral traditionalists, telling us to eat our veggies, like good little herbivores. pro-lifers, or friends of the Second Amendment. It doesn’t even want to hear much from the Chamber of Commerce crowd, be - cause those guys are used-car dealers and grocery stores and for the ALL STReeT can do math, and the math looks like this: most part strictly from hick, so far as Wall Street is concerned. Wall WALL STReeT + WASHINGTON = WILD PROfITABILITY. Street wants an administration and a Congress—and a country— W free enterprise? entrepreneurship? Starting a business that believes what is good for Wall Street is good for America, making and selling stuff behind some grimy little storefront? whether that is true or isn’t. Wall Street doesn’t want free mar- You’d have to be a fool. Better to invest in political favors. As kets—it wants friends, favors, and fealty. Schweizer points out, until fairly recently the Blackstone Group, Also, the princes of finance don’t want to be hearing the name the world’s largest private-equity manager, had spent only about “Jon Corzine,” king of the Wall Street Democrats, former senator $250,000 a year on lobbying, which to me sounds like one part- from and governor of New Jersey, legendary former CeO of time K-Streeter and a lot of lunches. After a friendly encounter Goldman Sachs, echoing throughout the corridors of power too with Senator Schumer, the firm saw the scales fall from its eyes much in the near future. The too-big-to-fail banks want Corzine and began to spend millions of dollars a year on lobbying—and crucified, but they want him crucified quietly, because they are hired Senator Schumer’s former staff counsel, along with dozens looking to wring a little cash and preferential treatment out of his of other Democratic staffers, to do its lobbying. (Senate Repub - richly deserved crucifixion. And that may be the real reason the licans will get their chance, don’t you worry, as soon as they’re Wall Street gang is giving Republicans a second look. back in the majority.) You’d think that the Blackstone Group, Take a little trip down Bad Memory Lane back to 2008 and the along with the rest of Wall Street, would be happy with its invest- ignominious death of Lehman Bros. A particular Lehman maneu- ment. But the pinstripes gang is suffering from a collective case of ver, infamous in the financial world as “Repo 105,” is worth taking buyers’ remorse: Sure, the insurance guys got the keys handed to a look at. (WARNING: Very light and totally digestible financial gob- them with Obamacare, and the structured-finance guys still are bledygook ahead.) “Repo” is short for “repurchase agreement.” A sitting securely behind their fortifications of impenetrable com- repurchase agreement is something that is used when a big insti - plexity and staggering leverage, and the investment banks got to tution that has a lot of assets, like an investment bank, needs some underwrite a lot of “Build America Bonds” and nonsensical cash, as all such big institutions do from time to time, to run its stimulus financing. But they want more—that is their nature. And daily operations while waiting for various deals to mature and they’re sizing up a cozy little investment in Mitt Romney, a fact unwind. Investment banks don’t usually sit on a lot of cash, that should give Republicans pause. because cash just sits there. A repo works like this: I give you a Blackstone’s boss, Stephen Schwarzman, will hold a fundraiser whole bunch of securities and you give me a whole bunch of cash, for Romney at his Park Avenue apartment in December, and he’s on the condition that I agree to buy back those securities from you encouraging his fellow pirate captains to climb aboard the USS in the near future, along with a fee. You get a little profit and I get Willard. Romney is himself a Wall Street guy, hailing from a firm the liquid cash I need and, if I’m a gold-plated Wall Street name, with the cartoonishly villainous name of Bain (say it out loud) like Lehman Bros. once was, you probably don’t worry all that Capital. Bain, charmingly, is not really backing its founding partner much about the securities I’m giving you to hold, since you expect or his party, its donors thus far preferring to channel most of their me to be able to repay that short-term loan. If the Mister Magoos political contributions to President Obama. But Bain, currently the at Standard & Poor’s or Moody’s say it’s Triple-A, that’s good No. 2 political donor bloc among moneymen, is a tiny minority enough for you. Unless the day comes when you actually have to among the major financial-sector political players in that it is cur- sell them because I can’t pay you back. rently leaning Democrat. The top dog—Goldman Sachs, as though Repos are a really good and totally legitimate tool for raising you needed to be told—is backing Republicans by a wide margin at short-term cash. But Lehman noticed something interesting about the moment. So is practically every other major Wall Street player: the way repos are regulated: If the ratio of the value of the securi- Donors associated with Bank of America, Paulson & Co., the ties lent out to the cash received is anywhere between 98 cents and American Bankers Association, New York Life, the National 102 cents on the dollar, then it goes on the books as a loan. But if Association of Realtors, JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, Credit the ratio is, say, 105 cents on the dollar, then the deal is booked as Suisse, UBS—all are go ing Republican. At this point in the cycle, a sale—even though the lender is getting his money back and the only Citigroup’s donors have joined Bain in staying Democratic— borrower is getting his securities back. If the deal is booked as a and, really, how could you blame them, given the sweet deal that sale, then you can, if you can find a willing counterparty, get a

4 1 2col_QXP-1127940309.qxp 11/29/2011 9:29 PM Page 42

whole bunch of bad assets off your books and a whole bunch of cash onto them, which makes your firm look like it’s in a lot better shape than it is—bonus time! That is true even though there is a Romney’s repurchase agreement in place, meaning that the deal is going to get reversed and unwound at some point. You’d think that after the Lehman debacle, all that would have changed. In fact, you’d think that would be practically the first THE ONE thing to be changed—not credit-card swipe fees or executive- compensation rules or any of the rest of it. But it wasn’t. Corzine’s Why the former Massachusetts governor firm, MF Global, used something called “repo to maturity”—basi- deserves the GOP nomination cally Repo 105 with a facelift—to accomplish the same goal: making the books look better by hiding bad assets, in this case a bunch BY RAMESH PONNURU of losing investments in european government bonds. The bigger problem is that while MF Global was both acting as a broker for its customers and making its own bets, it failed to keep the customers’ ven though nobody has yet cast a vote in the primaries, money segregated from its own, which is why some $600 million Republicans are increasingly resigned to Gov. Mitt in customers’ money went missing. now there’s a whole bunch of Rom ney’s winning the party’s presidential nomination. people wanting to get paid back and not enough money for every- E every week he gets a few more endorsements from body to get made whole, and the big Wall Street banks want to Republican officeholders. He has never had a commanding lead make sure that they’re first in line, with the government rewriting in the polls, but one by one the other candidates who have occu- the rules of bankruptcy to put them ahead of the local-yokel cus- pied the top tier with him—first Rep. Michele Bachmann, then tomers out in the sticks. If you don’t think that the government can Gov. Rick Perry, then Herman Cain—have fallen back out of it. just arbitrarily rewrite the bankruptcy rules to suit its political pref- The current surge for newt Gingrich looks like one last fling erences, revisit the General Motors bailout, when it did just that, before Republicans settle down with Romney. shortchanging bondholders in favor of the union goons who act Republicans should not be gloomy about this prospect. Rom - as Democratic footsoldiers and dues-collectors. ney isn’t merely the candidate who is likely to win the Republican “At the risk of oversimplifying it,” one Wall Street insider primaries. He’s the candidate who should win them. That’s why explains, “imagine a bank went bankrupt. Then the regulators he’s likely to win. came in and cracked open all the customers’ safe-deposit boxes, We all know the knocks on Romney. His health-care plan in even though they knew for certain that none of the contents Massachusetts was Obamacare in one state. He’s a flip-flopper. belonged to the bank. Then they tossed those assets into the pile for Inauthentic. His conservative detractors say he’s the establish- the creditors to pick through and told the box holders to get in line ment/moderate candidate—or worse. (Actual Thanksgiving as well. That’s what folks are saying is happening here. And in a conversation in the Ponnuru home: Conservative brother-in- situation like that, who wants a safe-deposit box?” law: “So, which of these characters are you supporting?” Me: “I think Romney’s the best of the bunch.” Him: “I didn’t know you were a Democrat.”) O there you have it: hedge-fund titans, i-bankers, congres- It’s true that Romney took a sharp right turn when he moved sional nabobs, committee chairmen, senators, swindlers, from state to national politics. But it’s also true that in 2008 he was S run-of-the-mill politicos, and a few outright thieves (these the candidate behind whom Rush Limbaugh and Mark Levin, categories are not necessarily exclusive) all feeding at the same among other conservative notables, said that the conservative trough, and most of them betting that Mitt Romney won’t do any- movement should rally in order to stop John McCain from getting thing more to stop it than Barack Obama did. If anything, the fact the nomination. He has not moved left since that time. His posi- that Romney is having the least luck with the firm that knows him tions on policy questions are almost all the same as they were then. best speaks better of him than does the enthusiasm he apparently On a few issues he has moved right: He now favors a market- inspires in Goldman Sachs et al. oriented reform to Medicare, for example. either way, the last thing Wall Street wants is for the Corzine If Romney was to McCain’s right then, he is still. He’s to scandal to launch a new round of frenzied outrage out there on the George W. Bush’s right, too. Bush never came out for the Medi - fruited plains where dwell people who don’t know an IPO from a care reform Romney has endorsed. Bush never said that Roe v. CDS, and who might suspect that something here is not entirely on Wade should be overturned, either. Romney has. Romney’s long the up-and-up. They’re hoping that conservatives can be buffaloed list of policy advisers includes people who are, within their fields, with a bit of cheap free-market rhetoric into not noticing that some- roughly in sync with the politics of the Bush administration or thing is excruciatingly amiss here. They are the repo men, head- to its right; almost nobody is significantly to its left. piece filled with subprime-mortgage derivatives, and they are If Mitt Romney becomes president, he will almost certainly be looking to repossess the Republican party they abandoned in 2008 dealing with John Boehner as speaker of the House and Mitch (see “Losing Gordon Gekko,” nATIOnAL RevIeW, March 9, 2009). McConnell as Senate majority leader. While they, too, have their Free-market, limited-government conservatives should be none conservative detractors, they are the most conservative congres- too eager to welcome them back, nor should we let our natural sional leaders Republicans have had in modern times, and they sympathy with the profit motive blind us to the fact that a great will exert a rightward influence on the Romney administration. If many of them do not belong in the conservative movement, and they send him legislation to repeal Obamacare, cut taxes, or that more than a few of them belong in prison. reform entitlements, he will sign it where Obama would veto it.

4 2 | www.nationalreview.com DECEMBER 1 9 , 2 0 1 1 2col_QXP-1127940309.qxp 11/29/2011 9:29 PM Page 43

If at some other point in his presidency a liberal-run Congress realistic sense of what public opinion, and the political system, sends him tax increases, he will veto them where Obama would will bear, a sense cultivated by the habit of calculation. And there sign. Compared with President Obama, a President Romney is a limit to how much political risk conservatives should want a would do more to protect the defense budget. president allied to them to take. Most of the time conservative A President Romney’s judicial nominees would be superior to activists should be trying to reduce the risks of advancing conser- President Obama’s simply because he would not be trying to stack vative initiatives rather than to goad elected officials to political the bench with liberal activists. But they are likely to far exceed recklessness. Conservatives should, that is, point the way for that low bar. Each Republican president since the Nixon-Ford era ambitious politicians to advance good ideas that can command the has nominated a higher percentage of conservatives as justices to support of a national center-right majority. the Supreme Court than his predecessor. That’s mostly a testament Governor Romney’s political career may not reflect the ideal to the growth and development of the conservative legal network. balance between conviction and calculation. But a presidential Romney is likely to look for nominees whom conservative primary offers a choice among imperfect alternatives, not embod- lawyers like—Robert Bork is a top adviser—who are profession- ied ideals. Weighed against the available alternatives, Romney ally accomplished, and who cannot be portrayed as extreme. If comes out ahead—way ahead—because he is the only one of the Republicans hold the Senate they will almost certainly be con- primary candidates with a good shot at achieving a prerequisite for firmed. If they do not, they will probably be confirmed. advancing a conservative agenda as president: namely, actually Romney’s regulatory agencies will be relatively restrained. His becoming president. appointees to the National Labor Relations Board will not punish Huntsman is highly unlikely to win the nomination because Boeing for locating a plant in a right-to-work state. He will act, Republican voters divine in him a disdain for them, and return within the limits of his legal authority, to keep the Environmental it. The others, even if they got the nomination, would be almost- Protection Agency from imposing expensive restrictions on certain losers in a general election. They are either too out of sync carbon emissions. He will reinstate conscience protections for with the electorate, too personally erratic, or both. pro-life health-care workers. Representative Bachmann says that President Obama is certain to lose reelection, so Republicans should feel free to nominate the candidate of their dreams, without regard to electability. The pres- T’S true that almost any Republican president, not just ident certainly looks beatable. But writing him off is unwise. His Romney, would do these things. But that’s the point. The approval numbers are weak but not disastrous, the Republican I Republican party now features a remarkable degree of pro- party remains unpopular, incumbency almost always carries grammatic consensus. The entire field wants to cut corporate tax advantages, and the composition of the electorate is likely to be rates, convert Medicaid into block grants, and (the asterisk candi- much more Democratic than it was in 2010. If the bottom drops dacy of Gary Johnson aside) protect unborn human life. Even Jon out of the economy, perhaps as a result of Europe’s disorders, then Huntsman, the candidate positioned farthest left in the field, maybe even Gingrich or Perry could win the race. But the stakes favors these policies. None of them enjoyed such uniform support are too high for that kind of gamble. in previous primaries, and some of them had none. Even if one of them did win the White House, what we have When the candidates differ, it is typically on issues that are seen of their campaigns suggests that his presidency would be a unlikely to matter during the next presidency. Representative bumpy ride. In Perry’s case, the problem would be an apparent Bachmann may, unlike some of the others, wish to abolish the unfamiliarity with national issues that looks good only in com- EPA, but no conceivable Congress within the next eight years will parison with Herman Cain’s proud ignorance. Gingrich, mean- grant her wish. while, is a constant reminder that political leaders can have too The narrowness of the candidates’ differences on pertinent much, as well as too little, imagination. His recent proposals on issues militates in favor of picking the one who can best imple- immigration are classic Gingrich: innovative-sounding, accompa- ment the sensible agenda they largely share. It also reduces con- nied by high-tech gadgetry, and wholly absurd. Local community servatives’ need to worry about candidates’ sincerity. If President boards will decide which illegal immigrants to expel! We will be Romney were to do an about-face on carbon caps, the right to life, “humane,” while denying temporary workers the vote and strip- or taxes, he would be going to war with the vast majority of his ping their children of citizenship! party. The fact that conservatives do not regard him as the leader The last time Gingrich held office, he reached a depth of unpop- of their movement tightens this constraint on him. A Republican ularity that suggested that the public did not merely disagree with president with more capital among conservatives would be able his policies but disliked him as a person. Memories have faded, to deplete it. and his current fans say he is a changed man. But he still has the Romney’s public positions and his political interests both sug- rhetorical style—by turns incendiary, grandiose, and abrasive— gest he would govern as a conservative, albeit a cautious one. that turned off middle-of-the-road Americans then. (November Many conservatives want more than that from a president, more 16: “Because I am much like Reagan and Margaret Thatcher . . .”) than executive experience and public agreement with them on the And he does not seem to have learned that aspiring presidents issues. They want a president who shares their convictions and should weigh their words carefully. Recall the events that led to instincts, who will actively seek occasions to advance their views, his campaign’s meltdown this summer, in which he first praised and who will take political risks for them. They are right to want Paul Ryan’s plan for entitlements, then condemned it as “right- these things, for the most part, and there is no guarantee Romney wing social engineering,” and finally apologized to Ryan for the will deliver them. comment. On the other hand, there is also something to be said for calcu- There is another issue with Gingrich, the broaching of which lation in a politician. Successful political leaders need to have a risks cruelty but cannot be avoided in the cold analysis Repub -

4 3 2col_QXP-1127940309.qxp 11/29/2011 9:29 PM Page 44

licans have to perform. We don’t know whether Gingrich’s mari- tal history will weigh heavily on voters, but we know it won’t help. The contrast to President Obama’s family will tell against Buckeye for him. Gingrich’s election would represent several firsts. He would be the first president with multiple ex-wives, and the first president with any ex-wives who speak negatively about him on the Promotion record. He would bring with him the first first lady who could be labeled a “home wrecker.” President Obama would not have to A 34-year-old GOP star eyes say a word about any of this for the press to make it an issue. an Ohio Senate seat

OvernOr rOmney has his weaknesses as a candidate, too. BY JOHN J. MILLER In the past only high-income voters have demonstrated a G natural affinity for him. His flip-flops are well document- Hen Josh mandel showed up at a College repub lican ed. He won’t be able to take full advantage of the unpopularity phone bank in Independence, Ohio, he looked like he of Obamacare. A significant number of voters will hold his could sit down behind a fold-up table and join about mormonism against him, although republican voters in recent W a dozen students who had been making calls all after- surveys seem likely to look past this misgiving in the interest of noon. yet the purpose of his visit on november 6 wasn’t to enter retiring Obama and most Democrats who oppose mormon candi- their ranks. Instead, he meant to rally these GOP troops two days dates won’t be available to any republican nominee. But he is before a statewide election. So he stood before them, ramrod also reasonable, articulate—phenomenally articulate, by the stan- straight, and gave a short speech on why hard work pays off in dards of recent republican presidential candidates—and reas - politics. As mandel finished, Gary Joseph Wilson, a law student suring. Democrats will try to make him into a scary figure, but at Case Western, raised his hand. “How old are you?” he asked. they will have less to work with than if republicans nominated mandel turned the question around: “How old do you think I am?” Bachmann, Cain, Gingrich, Perry, or rick Santorum. He has Wilson thought about it for a second. “Twenty-four?” he guessed. improved as a campaigner, and now usually projects an air of Wilson was wrong by a decade. mandel is 34—and as state trea- command that eluded him in the last presidential race. surer, he is one of Ohio’s senior republican officeholders. He just To romney’s conservative critics, this assessment is all wrong. doesn’t look it. About an hour earlier, as he canvassed a neighbor- romney cannot win in november 2012, they say, because con- hood in the Cleveland suburb of rocky river, he introduced him- servative voters will lack the motivation to cast ballots for some- self to Crista moeller as she watched kids run around her backyard. one so uninspiring and moderate. Thomas Sowell and George “Do you get carded all the time?” she asked, with a smile. mandel, Will are among the conservative heavyweights who have made experienced at this kind of banter, gave one of his stock replies: this case recently, with Sowell noting pointedly that the conserva- “By the time I’m 35, I hope to be shaving.” tive reagan won two presidential elections where moderates such He also hopes to be a U.S. senator. mandel is running against as Bob Dole and John mcCain have lost them. first-term Democrat Sherrod Brown in what promises to be one of yet George W. Bush won two elections, albeit close ones, with the most watched Senate races of 2012—a contest that may deter- positions to romney’s left and rhetoric that attempted to distance mine which party controls the chamber. Democrats currently hold him from the bulk of conservatives. (He was the compassionate a 53–47 advantage, but they must defend more than twice as many one, you may recall.) The truth is that republicans have never lost seats as republicans at a time when voters probably will be in the a presidential election because an otherwise viable nominee could mood to pink-slip a few incumbents. The GOP expects to win in not get conservatives to vote. The exit polls from the 2008 election north Dakota, where a Democrat is retiring, and to make strong show that the race was lost in the center of the electorate. If romney bids in Florida, nebraska, and virginia. But republicans also is anywhere near Obama in the polls in October 2012, conservative will have to play defense in massachusetts, where Scott Brown is voters will show up to help him. To win, though, he will also need up for reelection. Ohio voters have determined the fates of some votes from people who voted for Obama in 2008—and he has presidents—they made the difference for George W. Bush in a much better chance of getting them than his rivals do. 2004—and their verdict on mandel vs. Sherrod Brown in 2012 So far the republican primaries have been a testament to the could prove decisive in the Senate. common sense of the party rank-and-file. As candidates and near- When mandel talks about why he’s running, he speaks of his candidates have enjoyed their bursts of publicity, republican vot- campaign as an obligation: “I’ve never been one to say no to ers have greeted them one by one with an open mind and high answering the call, whether it was to serve my community as a city hopes, only to reject them as their flaws became apparent. Sarah councilman, serve my state as a legislator, or serve my country as a Palin, Donald Trump, Bachmann, Perry, and Cain have all gone marine.” He’s going to find himself using this line a lot. Despite his through this process. In reacting this way, republican voters have boyish appearance, mandel has engaged in the manliest of activi- disproven the caricatures that liberals and too many conservatives ties: military service. He enlisted in the marine Corps reserve right have indulged: that they care only about attitude and volume, not out of college. Then came two tours in Iraq, first along the border knowledge or judgment. with Syria in 2004 and three years later as a part of the surge. The right thing for republican voters to do now is to make Along the way, he went to law school, served as a city council- romney undergo the rigors of a competitive primary and then man in Lyndhurst, and won election to the state legislature. yet the grant him the nomination. my bet is that’s exactly what they’re marine experience left the deepest impression. Stateside, he per- going to do. formed funeral duty, meeting caskets as they came off planes and

4 4 | www.nationalreview.com DECEMBER 1 9 , 2 0 1 1 2col_QXP-1127940309.qxp 11/29/2011 9:29 PM Page 45

standing guard at wakes. The most memorable part of the job, he says, was notifying the next of kin: Mandel drove the colonel who performed the grim task. “It makes your stomach ache, having to go to a home in a town like Painesville and watch parents open the front door and learn that their son has been killed by a roadside bomb,” he says. “It taught me that because we’re Americans, we can debate and disagree and have opinions without getting shot, hung, or stoned to death—all because young men have paid the ultimate sacrifice to preserve these freedoms.” Last year, following his election as Ohio’s treasurer, he was planning to serve a full four-year term. By the start of 2011, however, conservatives were scrambling for a challenger to take on Brown. Their top choice, Rep. Jim Jordan, had bowed out, citing family concerns. So Mandel began to think it over. In April, he started raising money.

IS decision bore all the marks of a young man in a hurry, but Ohio conservatives seem satisfied with the choice. H “As soon as I knew Josh was in, I was for him,” says Josh Mandel Jordan. “He has the energy and the intensity it takes to win.” In 2010, Mandel impressed Republican leaders with his fundraising The Plain Dealer story that touted Mandel was prescient in prowess: For the treasurer’s race, he raked in more than $4 million, identifying a future leader, but its first sentence was laughably almost three times as much as his Democratic opponent, who was mistaken: “Josh Mandel may act like a politician and sound like the incumbent. “I’ve never seen anyone work so hard at it,” says an a politician, but he does not want to become one.” By 2003, as a Ohio Republican. “He’s so persistent.” third-year law student at Case Western, Mandel was running for an Last spring, after Mandel had committed to the Senate race, at-large seat on the city council of Lyndhurst, a Cleveland suburb. an adviser to Jim DeMint, the Republican senator from South “I knocked on every door and told voters that I wanted to roll back Carolina, called Mandel and proposed a meeting. Mandel’s re - their property taxes,” he says. Mandel won the election and sponse stunned him: “Josh was like, ‘I’ll be there tomorrow.’” And persuaded the council to pass the cuts. “The other members didn’t he was, after driving through the night with an aide. They arrived want to do it,” he says. “But at the meeting, hundreds of people in Washington at dawn and checked in at a hotel so they could turned out. Normally, we got about eight.” shower. A few hours later, Mandel was meeting with DeMint. In 2006, a Democratic-leaning seat in the state legislature “When I looked at his résumé—the Marines, city council, and so opened up. “I was told I couldn’t win,” says Mandel, noting that a on—I thought an older guy would walk through the door,” says chunk of the district overlapped with the one represented in DeMint. “It didn’t take me long to decide we need Josh in the Congress by left-wing Democrat Dennis Kucinich. Mandel be - Senate. We need his youth and we need his willingness to fight came a candidate anyway, relying once more on his old-fashioned against the culture of spending.” DeMint’s Senate Conservatives approach: “I started knocking on doors in February, in the snow Fund, a political-action committee that helped several conservative and with my nose running.” By Election Day, he had rapped on insurgents to victory in 2010, made Mandel one of its first endorse- 19,679 doors and had worn out three pairs of shoes—and again he ments for the 2012 election cycle. The Club for Growth also has won, even though plenty of other Republicans fell in a rotten year gotten behind Mandel. for the GOP. Today, Mandel carries around the third pair of For Mandel, the hard work began years earlier, at Ohio State, shoes—Aldo brand, faded brown leather, holes in their black where he was twice elected president of the undergraduate student soles—and uses them as a prop during his stump speeches. government—a feat so unusual that it made the front page of the Mandel served two terms in Columbus, calling for expansion of Cleveland Plain Dealer’s metro section in 1999: “OSU Student school choice, elimination of the death tax, and drilling for oil and President Wins Election for Rare 2nd Term,” said the headline. His gas on state lands. These proposals went nowhere, due to the campaigns were unorthodox. Mandel rented a King Kong balloon, opposition of Democratic governor Ted Strickland. Following the stuck a banner with his name on it, and inflated the beast to its 30- elections of 2010, in which John Kasich beat Strickland and foot height on the Oval, which is OSU’s central gathering area. His Republicans gained full control of the state legislature, each one most creative tactic involved a student cafeteria. “There were these has made advances. “Sometimes you’re in power and sometimes ethnic buffets in the dorms and right before the election they were you’re not,” says Mandel. “It’s important to fight on critical issues planning to have Chinese day,” says Mandel. “So we offered to even when you know you won’t win right away because it makes supply the fortune cookies.” When students cracked them open and success possible later on.” received their fortunes, they read a traditional saying on one side Mandel’s next big success was his election last year as state trea- and “Vote Mandel” on the other. His proudest accomplishment surer. He collected over 2 million votes—more than any other at OSU, says Mandel, was getting the school to invite J. C. Watts, statewide office seeker, with the exception of Rob Portman, a AP / the former Republican congressman from Oklahoma, as its com- Republican who won an open Senate seat. Mandel hasn’t had mencement speaker in 2000—an event that Mandel missed much time to develop a record in this post, though his office has

JAY LAPRETE because he had shipped off to Marine boot camp at Parris Island. maintained Ohio’s credit ratings, published the salaries of all state

4 5 2col_QXP-1127940309.qxp 11/29/2011 9:29 PM Page 46

employees, and cut its own operating costs. He likes to talk about how he canceled plant-watering contracts, saving taxpayers $2,000. IRANIAN Although Mandel has never lost a political race, he will discover that the 59-year-old Brown presents a tough challenge. Brown won election to the Senate in 2006, forcing out Republican moder- END GAME ate Mike DeWine. It was his third statewide victory, following a pair of wins in the 1980s, when he was Ohio’s secretary of state. The U.S. must settle for nothing less (He ran for a third term in 1990 and lost.) From 1993 until he became a senator, Brown served in Congress, representing the than checkmate Cleveland area. Earlier this year, National Journal rated Brown as one of ten “most liberal” senators. He voted for Obamacare, but not BY MICHAEL RUBIN before expressing disappointment that it didn’t go far enough. He also supported stimulus spending and the Environmental Pro - OR almost a third of a century, the Islamic Republic of tection Agency’s bid to regulate greenhouse gases. “Brown is Iran has confounded American presidents. It has taken seasoned and he works really hard,” says Greg Lashutka, a former hostages, conducted terrorism, undermined the Middle Republican mayor of Columbus and a Mandel supporter. “This F East peace process, and worked unrelentingly to become will be a close race.” a nuclear power and develop missiles with global reach. Tehran might frustrate American officials, but its tactics and its efforts to bolster its strategic position are both predictable and reflective of ITH so much possibly on the line in Ohio, both for the Iran’s sense of its history and culture, as well as the late Ayatollah state and for the nation, resources will pour in as groups Khomeini’s revolutionary ideology and his profound disdain for W try to boost turnout and sway independent voters. As the United States. an aggressive protectionist—he’s the author of a book called Every president since Jimmy Carter, with the exception of Bill Myths of Free Trade—Brown is a favorite of Big Labor. Mandel Clinton, has faced Iranian hostage-taking, either in Iran or in will try to paint his rival as an out-of-touch career politician who Lebanon. Even the reformists with whom Clinton and President was first elected to public office before Mandel was born, but Obama have sought to engage unapologetically endorse this prac- Brown almost certainly will counter by portraying Mandel as too tice. Mohammad Khatami, best known for his rhetorical calls for young, inexperienced, and radical. a dialogue of civilizations, penned an article in the hard-line daily Up to now, Mandel has proceeded with caution. He has his Kayhan praising the embassy hostage-takers. Upon becoming favorite targets: He wants to repeal Obamacare, cancel the Dodd- president, he appointed their spokeswoman, Masoumeh Ebtekar, Frank financial regulations, and put a leash on the EPA. Yet he to be his vice president. won’t say how he would have voted on a Brown-sponsored bill to During President Obama’s term, Iran has seized and released punish China for currency manipulation, even though the Senate Roxana Saberi, a former Miss North Dakota working as a freelance approved it in October. Nor will he talk much about entitlements, reporter, and three naïve American hikers as well. Retired FBI except to offer that he was against the debt-ceiling increase and agent Robert Levinson, who disappeared in Iran almost five years favors a balanced-budget amendment to the Constitution. About ago, is alive; he remains America’s longest-kept hostage. the budget proposals of Republican congressman Paul Ryan of Every president since Jimmy Carter has also faced a terrorist Wisconsin, he’s equally vague: “I like parts of the Ryan plan but challenge from Iran. Long before a Drug Enforcement Ad min is - disagree with parts as well.” Mandel promises to put forth specifics tra tion informant blew the whistle this year on an Iranian plot to next year. He also refuses to criticize Obama for a hasty withdraw- kill the Saudi ambassador in Washington, D.C., the Iranian al from Iraq. “It’s about time to wind things down over there,” he embassy hired the radical black nationalist Dawud Salahuddin, says. an American convert to Islam, to kill a Shah-era diplomat in On November 8, Ohio voters sent mixed signals about their pos- Bethesda, Md. When President Reagan ordered peacekeepers into sible intentions for 2012. Sixty-one percent rejected Issue 2, a bal- Lebanon, Tehran responded by ordering an attack on their bar- lot initiative pushed by Governor Kasich that would have limited racks, killing 241. In 1996 Iranian-trained Saudi terrorists deto- the collective-bargaining rights of state workers. Yet two-thirds nated a truck bomb at the Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia, killing also voted for Issue 3, which seeks to exempt Ohio residents from 19 U.S. airmen billeted there. And while critics say George W. federal health-care mandates—which may not in fact achieve Bush exaggerated the Iraq‒al-Qaeda link, the 9/11 Commission anything, but nevertheless sends a strong political signal. Report details considerable Iranian assistance to the militant The Sunday before the voters went to the polls, when Mandel Sunni group beginning in 1991. In the decade since 9/11, Iran’s visited the College Republican call center in Independence, he Quds Force has been responsible for the deaths of hundreds of spoke to volunteers who were focused on passing Issue 3. Two American troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. weeks later, he ruminated on their success: “This is the untold story Neither the Islamic Republic’s behavior nor its defiance should of the 2011 election in Ohio,” he said. “Republicans voted over- surprise. While Obama hopes that the Islamic Re pub lic will whelmingly against the government takeover of health care. So unclench its fist, Iranian behavior simply reflects the worldview did thousands of independents, Democrats, and union members.” underpinning the regime. The Islamic Republic cannot reform and For his own race, Mandel will need to stitch together a similar become a responsible member of the international community, coalition—and persuade a narrow majority of the Buckeye State to vote for a Brownout. Mr. Rubin is a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute.

4 6 | www.nationalreview.com DECEMBER 1 9 , 2 0 1 1 2col_QXP-1127940309.qxp 11/29/2011 9:29 PM Page 47

because the ideology that defines its revolution places it in perpe tual defend your Islamic and national honor! Defend fearlessly and opposition to Western notions of liberal democracy. unhesitatingly the peoples and countries of Islam against their ene- The Islamic Revolution is inseparable from Ayatollah Kho mei - mies—America, international Zionism, and all the superpowers of ni. Its roots lay in his radical reinterpretation of Islamic juris - East and West.” Shortly after, Khomeini inaugurated a constitution prudence. While traditional Shiites dismissed clerical rule as a that required Iran to support and protect “the just struggles of the usurpation of the messiah’s role, Khomeini had, since 1970, oppressed and deprived in every corner of the globe.” Indeed, the argued that an ayatollah could act as the deputy on earth of the constitution cites the Koranic call to “prepare against them what- Mahdi—Shiism’s messianic figure. ever force you are able to muster, and horses ready for battle, strik- Many American diplomats welcomed Khomeini’s Feb. 1, ing fear into God’s enemy and your enemy, and others beyond 1979, return to Iran. As national-security adviser Zbigniew them unknown to you but known to God.” Brzezinski explained in his memoirs, “The lower echelons at In effect, Iranian leaders interpret the call to export revolution as State, notably the head of the Iran Desk . . . were motivated by an endorsement of violence. When, in 2008, Khatami suggested doctrinal dislike of the Shah and simply wanted him out of that Khomeini had sought only to transform Iran into a soft-power power.” Journalists took Khomeini at his word when he assured Mecca, and that Iran should therefore refrain from the more violent them that he had no interest in personal power. aspects of revolutionary export, 77 members of parliament demand- When a referendum two months later overwhelmingly con- ed that the intelligence ministry prosecute him. Ayatollah Mahmoud firmed the Iranian people’s desire for an Islamic republic, Heshemi Shah rou di, the head of Iran’s judiciary and a close associ- Khomeini declared it to be “the first day of God’s government.” He ate of the current supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, quashed any fur- defined the new system to be radical in every way: “It should trans- ther debate when, against the backdrop of the controversy, he form our education and judicial systems, as well as all the min- emphasized that the export of Iran’s revolution was a military strat- istries and government offices that are now run on Western lines or egy, telling the Revolutionary Guards, “You are the hope of Islamic in slavish imitation of Western models.” national and Islamic liberation movements.” Iranian rejection of the West was not Khomeini’s creation. In To understand the Islamic Republic’s mentality, it is important to 1962, Iranian writer Jalal Al-e Ahmad condemned the Iranian asso- understand Iran’s sense of its place in the world. Iranians have inter- ciation of the West with modernity as “West oxi fi cation,” a sickness. nalized the notion that, as their kings once declared, they are the Khomeini’s xenophobia therefore appealed not only to a religious pivot of the universe. In a region replete with 20th-century nation- constituency, but also more broadly to Iranian intellectuals. states that rose from the ashes of the Ottoman Empire, the Great Today’s most prominent Iranian dissidents reflect this paranoia. Game, or European colonial endeavors, Iran has a near-continuous Such dissidents as Akbar Ganji, upon whom the Cato Institute last history going back millennia. Perhaps only China can compare with year bestowed its Milton Friedman Prize for Advancing Liberty, Iran in its self-perception as the inheritor of a great empire. Yet the may condemn the Islamic Rev o lution’s excesses, for example, but 19th century did not treat it kindly, and today Iran is only half the they reserve their true vitriol for the United States, which they size it was at its 17th-century apex. view at best through the writings of Noam Chomsky, and at While perhaps only a quarter of Iranians still believe in the cleri- worst through the same conspiratorial lens as Pres. Mahmoud cal system that Khomeini inaugurated, most are fiercely nationalis- Ahmadinejad. The Iranian regime cheered when, in 2006 and tic. Iranians look at their lost territory as a “near abroad,” in much 2007, Ganji thumbed his nose at White House invitations and the same way Russian nationalists see Ukraine, Georgia, and per- American efforts to help Iranian civil society. haps even Poland. Iran’s clerical leaders often try to rally Iranians Ahmadinejad, for his part, reflects the thinking of the Rev o lu - around the flag by playing to their nationalist heartstrings. tion ary Guards when he repackages the Westoxification obsession Hence the Iranian leadership encourages outrage at what it inter- into dire warnings about a “Cultural NATO.” The deep-rooted prets as Western attacks on Iran’s legacy. Tehran scuttled the George belief that Western culture reflects a deliberate military strategy W. Bush administration’s efforts to establish a “red phone” hotline targeting Muslim youth may sound bizarre, but it has theological in the Persian Gulf, for example, after the State Department referred consequences. Within the Sunni world, it was this same notion that to the Persian Gulf as simply “the Gulf.” And whenever public dis- Palestinian theologian Abdullah Azzam, mentor to Osama bin content grows inside Iran, Iranian leaders embrace expansionist Laden, embraced. Scholars may assure us that jihad is defensive in rhetoric. On July 9, 2007, for example, Hossein Shariatmadari, the nature, but Azzam preached to bin Laden that the Islamic world had editor of a hard-line daily widely seen as the voice of the supreme suffered a preemptive attack. Bin Laden, therefore, saw 9/11 as an leader, raised regional anxiety when he penned an editorial sug- outgrowth of legitimate, defensive jihad. gesting that the island nation of Bahrain—home to America’s Fifth Unlike such revolutionaries as Gamal Abdel Nasser, however, Fleet—should return to Iranian control after almost five centuries of Khomeini would not allow Iran to be a Cold War battlefield. “We separation. Two decades after Arab leaders unwisely ignored are at war with international Communism no less than we are strug- Saddam Hussein’s description of Kuwait as Iraq’s 19th province, gling against the global plunderers of the West, headed by America, none are willing to shrug off Iran’s description of an independent Zionism, and Israel,” Khomeini explained. “Neither East nor Arab state as merely a renegade province. West—Islamic republic!” became Iran’s defining slogan. The Iranian leadership interprets Iran’s conflict with the United States in Iraq and Afghanistan through the lens of religious warfare as well as a perverse Persian-nationalist Monroe Doctrine. EvER did Khomeini envision a revolution contained with- Hence the Tabnak News Agency, most closely affiliated with in Iran’s borders. Addressing pilgrims in Qom just 40 days “pragmatist” former president Ali Ak bar Hashemi Rafsanjani, N before the seizure of the American embassy, he thundered, accuses the United States of seeking to transform Afghanistan “Dear sisters and brothers, in whatever country you may live, into a “new Andalusia,” a reference to the expulsion of Muslims

4 7 2col_QXP-1127940309.qxp 11/29/2011 9:29 PM Page 48

from Spain, by “converting the Afghans to Christianity . . . and reformists brag about how they dupe Western diplomats. On June corrupting the Afghans mor al ly.” 14, 2008, for example, during a debate with an Ahmadinejad aide, While both Bill Clinton and Barack Obama extended olive Khatami’s former spokesman Abdollah Ramezanzadeh criticized branches to entice Iran to the table, the Iranian regime filters all Iranian hard-liners for their defiant rhetoric. The content was not American actions through Tehran’s deep-rooted sense that it is the problem, but rather the result. The purpose of dialogue, he locked in a proxy war with the United States. Hence, when argued, was not compromise, but avoiding sanctions. “We had Clinton’s secretary of state, Madeleine Albright, apologized for the an overt policy, which was one of negotiation and confidence- CIA-sponsored coup in 1953 against Prime Minister Mohammad building, and a covert policy, which was continuation of the Mossadegh, the Iranian regime responded by demanding that the [nuclear] activities,” he said. United States pay reparations. The irony here, of course, is that the On Oct. 24, 2011, Hassan Rowhani, Khatami’s nuclear nego- clerics opposed the left-leaning premier as much as the Eisenhower tiator, bragged to Iran’s largest reformist daily about how he used administration did. More recently, when Obama lifted Bush-era diplomacy with the West to run down the clock to Iranian nuclear preconditions on direct dialogue, Khamenei responded by impos- capability. “When I was entrusted with this portfolio, we had no ing conditions of his own, first and foremost the withdrawal of U.S. production in Isfahan,” he explained. But by the time negotiations forces from the Middle East. broke off, Iran had completed not only its uranium-enrichment It was in the context of proxy war that Khamenei, upon hearing facility, but also a heavy-water plant in Arak that can produce that American forces would withdraw from Iraq, declared, “Today plutonium. Rowhani bluntly bragged that Tehran offered talks America has been defeated in Afghanistan and Iraq, and it has to European leaders as a way of delaying U.N. sanctions. “The no choice but to leave these two countries.” Two weeks later, on Islamic Republic acted very wisely in my view and did not allow November 16, Mohammad Reza Naqdi, the commander of the the United States to succeed,” he explained. “It managed to paramilitary Basij, elaborated. “The result of the heavy casualties oppose the United States and did not allow the nuclear case to be and disgrace the United States experienced in Iraq led to the emer- submitted to the Security Council” immediately, he said, adding, gence of a pro‒Islamic Republic government,” he explained, “This was my objective.” adding that American forces would face the same fate in Afghan - Iranians famously quip that they play chess while the Americans istan. “I say with certainty that the United States is so weakened play checkers. As the Islamic Republic expands its influence and that if we attack them today, they not only will lack the ability to nears nuclear capability, it certainly appears that they seek to counter us, but they will also beg Iran for negotiations,” he con- checkmate America. cluded. It is possible to turn the tables on Tehran, however. The Iranian leadership has twice before staked out ideological positions that it later abandoned, vowing during the initial host age crisis that it RAN’S current overconfidence is reflected in other ways. No would not compromise on myriad anti-U.S. demands, and swearing longer do its leaders describe the state merely as a regional during the Iran–Iraq War that the Iranian military would not stop I power; rather, against the backdrop of their growing presence fighting until it ended Saddam’s rule. In both cases, Khomeini sud- in Latin America and the dispatch of ships to the Horn of Africa and denly reversed course. In 1981, after more than a year of fruitless the Mediterranean, they call Iran a “pan-regional power.” The diplomacy, he agreed to release the American hostages. The reason Iranian leadership believes that the nation is on the threshold of an was not any new diplomatic initiative, but rather the outbreak of war Iranian century. with Iraq: As the late national-security expert Peter Rod man point- While Iran embraces a uniquely Persian worldview, it also mas- ed out soon after the hostages’ release, the cost of Iran’s isolation terfully games Western diplomatic culture and the Amer i can desire had become too great to bear. Likewise, it was economic pain that to strike deals. Shortly before he was taken host age in Iran, Bruce forced Khomeini to accept a ceasefire with Iraq in 1988, with Iran’s Laingen, the American chargé d’affaires in Tehran, outlined the war aims unfulfilled. Declaring his decision as if he were drinking Persian approach to negotiations. “Perhaps the single dominant a chalice of poison, he agreed to a ceasefire. The cost of pursuing his aspect of the Persian psyche is an overriding egoism. . . . The prac- revolutionary agenda had simply become too great to bear. tical effect of it is an almost total Persian preoccupation with self If the next administration aims to make Tehran reconsider its pur- and leaves little room for understanding points of view other than suit of nuclear weapons, it must raise the cost of Iran’s nuclear pro- one’s own.” In practice, this meant that “one should never assume gram beyond the breaking point. Instead of ratcheting up sanctions that his side of the issue will be recognized, let alone that it will be bit by bit—an approach that plays to Iran’s strategy of running down conceded to have merits.” Indeed, never have Iranian authorities the clock—Western authorities should impose massive and crip- recognized the legitimacy of any American or European negotiat- pling sanctions upon every aspect of the Iranian state. These should ing position. While American diplomats may seek concession for include actions against all Iranian banking and rial transactions; oil concession, Iranian authorities interpret concessions as an admis- exports and gasoline imports; aviation; and weapons and technolo- sion that Washington’s previous position was illegitimate, and sim- gy sales. At the same time, the White House should increase rather ply readjust the baseline from which to talk. than decrease America’s military presence in the Per sian Gulf. Hence, when Obama waived, as a precondition for talks, the Only when the Islamic Republic truly links the decisions it makes demand that Iran cease uranium enrichment, Iranian authorities to the pain it feels can the White House dictate the formula for interpreted the move as an acknowledgement that all previous Tehran to earn the easing or lifting of sanctions. Washington should U.N. Security Council resolutions condemning Iran’s enrichment simultaneously prepare for all military scenarios and encourage were unjust. regime change. Unless Khamenei is forced to drink from the same Because Iranian authorities deny any legitimacy to Western chalice that neutered Kho mei ni, the Islamic Republic will triumph. concerns, they see no reason to negotiate sincerely. Even Iran’s Compromise is not possible—only checkmate.

4 8 | www.nationalreview.com DECEMBER 1 9 , 2 0 1 1 lileks--READY_QXP-1127940387.qxp 11/29/2011 9:30 PM Page 49

Athwart BY JAMES LILEKS Comply and Fall

HE NATIONAL REvIEW cruise was great, except for chided a bottled-water company for making a health claim the part when the ship got lost. We left Fort unsupported by science. Makes you taller? Smarter? Even Lauderdale, sailed into the yawning maw of the more egalitarian? No, the company made a claim of jaw- T North Atlantic, and couldn’t find our bearings. dropping audacity: The water was useful in preventing Terrifying at first, but then we learned why: Someone left an dehydration. electronic device in the “on” position, and it completely There was some technical explanation about absorption scrambled all the navigation equipment. It’s not rare—last rates and cellular integrity, but no one cares about the ratio- month the Allure of the Seas, the world’s largest and most nale, because it’s ridiculous. Find any marathon, stand at the technologically sophisticated cruise ship, set sail for the finish line, and offer the runners a choice between a) water, Bahamas but went halfway up the Mississippi River because and b) a glass of sand. Wager on which one they’ll take. You someone forgot to turn off a Kindle. Rumor says the captain could say, “Sure, they’ll take the water, because they’ve found the offender and beat the e-reader into pieces with a been conditioned by a lifetime of ads from Big H2O,” but sextant. So tired of this happening. most people would take water because they’re—what’s the Well, no. I made that up. But it makes you wonder why you word?—thirsty. For water. The EUcrats’ next step will prob- have to turn off everything when an airplane takes off. No ably be a stern demand to reedit all those French Foreign pilot ever says, “Man, the stick was just buckin’ up and down Legion movies, so the drama no longer hinges on the last as we tried to climb, thanks to some dang precious drops in a canteen as they stagger fool who didn’t turn off his pacemaker.” So across the trackless desert. While you’re what’s the rationale? at it, edit out the cigarettes, so everyone Safety! If something happens during take- appears to be putting their fingers to their off, they want your total attention. The sud- lips, thoughtfully. den banging sounds, the shuddering of the It’s the crisis of Western Civ in a snapshot: fuselage as if it were a snake attempting to On one hand, a populace so affluent they buy shed its skin, the screams, the acrid smoke, fancy tricked-up water, as if they were Third the oxygen mask in front of your face—if Worlders whose municipal water supply was you’re listening to Haydn on the way up, you a chunky broth of gut-gripping microbes; on might miss these subtle cues. If you’re read- the other hand, an overeducated, overpaid, ing a Kindle, you might be so engrossed in nomenklatura remora hanging on the body the story you ignore your seatmate’s punches as he attempts of energetic capitalism, spending three years to study whether to clamber over your lap. But what if I’m reading the in-flight water has hydrating properties— and then handing down magazine? you say. What’s the difference? The in-flight mag- diktats to private enterprise to force them to change their ads. azine is designed so you’ll constantly turn the page looking Expand the example a thousandfold, and you have the en - for something more interesting than “six don’t-miss burger tire European experience with regulation on the molecular joints in Spokane” and won’t be too distracted in the event level. Everyone understands that the government doesn’t of a water landing. This is a safety feature. approve of the wording of a bottled-water advertisement. No It’s easier to ban everything, and we comply because we one cares. Authority without authority; acquiescence without don’t want our picture in the paper next to a story headlined respect: That’s where the Western world is today. When times “Man Removed from Airplane over Refusal to Stop Playing are good, who cares—but after a while people note that the Angry Birds.” So we shut everything off, feign sleep, con- teeming armies of Brussels busybodies are obsessing over template mortality, consider how the miracle of flight is now these wee teeny issues while flaming roof timbers of the post- commonplace, then flip open our devices the moment it’s war economic system crash down on the marble floor. Europe “safe.” O glowing rectangle, how I have missed you. All is is burning, and they’re regulating water. They exist in a fan- forgiven and forgotten. tasy world that’s 99.999 percent perfect; some fine-tuning is It’s a feature of modern life: compliance with the Author - needed here and there, and then things will be so magnifique ities because there’s no point to objecting. It’s annoying they can take a year off before they tackle the last issue enough when you’re led by the wise, but when you’re led by vexing Europe: the typeface for the regulations governing a pack of jackanapeses and dunderheads, well, to quote Plato, the state subsidies for conversion of empty churches into hoo boy. mosques. Some say Helvetica, some say Times New Roman. Which brings us to the bureaucrats of Europe. This time One meeting about that issue almost came to blows. it’s the matter of the improperly advertised water. From the America isn’t there yet, but we’re close. If the West bulging file of “Only in Europe! (Until It Happens Next doesn’t get a sudden infusion of leadership, brash claims Year in San Francisco)” comes this story: EUcrats have by water bottlers will be the least of our concerns. As the flight attendants might put it: Put away your toys. We have Mr. Lileks blogs at www.lileks.com. begun our descent.

4 9 longview--ready_QXP-1127940387.qxp 11/29/2011 9:30 PM Page 50

The Long View BY ROB LONG Both seem to feel that great progress he says, “using the word ‘trans- has been made. Patient is able to speak formed’!” extemporaneously for less than eleven Patient is pleasant and relaxed. He minutes, and has modeled normal hu - exhibits great cheerfulness and regu- man behavior so effectively that he is lated, socialized ego-strength. When Bethesda now within a few percentage points of Doctor speaks, Patient is clearly listen- Mental Health the current Republican frontrunner. ing, and even makes responses that are They credit Doctor, which is gratify- based on and build upon what Doctor Clinic ing, though Doctor is aware that this has just said, reflecting a true “conver- could also be flattery strategically sational exchange,” which Patient has Behavioral Modification Unit delivered in order to obtain a more been unable to do for the past decade. Doctor’s Notes powerful prescription for Ziprasidone Recent polls have Patient showing Patient: N. Gingrich or even Quetiapine. Patient has nego - great strength as a candidate. When Insurance Number: Blue tiated serious social challenges with Doctor asks about increased anxiety Cross/College Health A7YXX great skill and grace. Doctor has ob - levels, or episodes of reversion to past Group: 107 served his behavior in many debate delusional, psychotic behavior, Patient settings, and can report that he is cur- smiles, laughs loudly, and proclaims Nov. 11, 2011 rently displaying immense and impres- that he has found a “technological sive self-control for a person suffering solution.” Patient arrives on time—this is starting his level of mental illness. Answering Patient rolls up his sleeve and dis- to be a habit with him. When questioned, questions, acknowledging the physical plays on his bare forearm a coil of he insists that he has made such progress presence of others, making wry and copper wire attached to a small trans- on his egocentric issues—grandiosity, self-aware comments, all suggest that mitting device. He then reveals a messianic complex, automatic talk - the current dosage is correct. tiny microphone placed beneath his ing, Baron Mun chau sen—that he has On the other hand, Patient is dis- shirt. come to realize that showing up late so playing hostility toward all members “Watch this,” he says. And he then consistently was an ego-driven power of the press corps, which suggests proceeds to tell Doctor about the “his- choice. Doctor compliments Patient chemical imbalance in the behavior- torical destiny of a transformational on his insight. Patient requests more modulating functions. Patient is fixat- figure called Newt Gingrich,” but be - Ziprasidone. He feels that he’s on the ed on the false solution of increasing fore he finishes the sentence, the coils brink of making “a big move” into the the anti-psychotic medications and spark, and a powerful electric shock top tier of the Republican primary can- does not respond well to Doctor’s sug- surges through his body. didates, but when he says this, he smiles gestion that the meds will be more Doctor is dumbfounded. This is the sheepishly. This suggests great progress effective with increased exercise, med- root of Patient’s recent progress? Sim - on the part of Patient. For the first time itation, and light therapy. ple aversion therapy? in over a decade of treatment, he shows Patient then launches into what Patient nods happily. Patient’s wife, signs of self-awareness. Will consider promises to be a long disquisition on Callista, enters carrying a large laptop upping the Ziprasidone and perhaps alternative medicines, dinosaurs, and computer with a transmitting device sup plementing with another anti- Alvin Toffler’s Third Wave principles, attached to it. Patient tells Doctor that psychotic without weight-gain side but catches himself in the middle of the laptop is programmed to recognize effects. saying the word “Pachycephalo saur- any “weird” behavior or “off-putting” us” and smiles slightly. language from Patient, and will auto- Patient still has a long way to go. matically trigger a shock response. Nov. 18, 2011 “Got me through the debates. Got me to right behind Mitt.” Patient again arrives on time. Is ebul- Nov. 25, 2011 Doctor is forced to admit that he’s lient and upbeat. Accompanying him impressed. is his wife, Callista, which is of course Patient arrives on time, in semi- “I developed the algorithm myself,” a violation of the therapeutic frame. euphoric state. Reports to Doctor that Patient says. “I am actually a self- When Doctor mentions this break from he has “transformed” himself from taught genius in the areas of—” convention, Patient and wife both in - an also-ran in the campaign for the And the coils spark again. The faint sist that “as a team” they need to be in Republican presidential nomination. scent of burned flesh hangs in the air. total sync with Patient’s treatment. Patient then laughs loudly. “Get me,” Patient smiles happily.

5 0 | www.nationalreview.com DECEMBER 1 9 , 2 0 1 1 books12-19_QXP-1127940387.qxp 11/29/2011 2:51 PM Page 51 Books, Arts & Manners

americans were late inheritors of that to new challenges, but was also able to hallowed tradition. In their two centuries persuade both subordinates and superiors School for of warring, american youth have shown to follow its new military paradigm. In a special knack for mobility, speed, and short, it soon became very american to Fighting reliance on equipment—usually attrib- draw new tactics up on the fly to fit an uted both to the uniquely vast spaces of ever-changing war—and not to worry VICTOR DAVIS HANSON the american continent and to the citi- much about who had figured out what zenry’s broad familiarity and comfort worked best. with industrial machines and, later, rails Cohen believes that this legacy en- and cars. It was far easier for George S. dures, with the result that, today, the U.S. Patton to race across France in the sum- military still puts great reliance on the mer of 1944 in easily serviced and plen- folk wisdom accrued on the battlefield tiful Sherman tanks and GM trucks by its captains, majors, and colonels, because tens of thousands of hot rodders especially in non-conventional theaters, in his army had been tinkering with where Special Forces and other light, souped-up cars since their early teens. but highly trained, contingents fight all that, at least, is the conventional pic- wars of insurgency not conducive to the ture of the genesis of the american way use of traditional american artillery, ar - of war. mor, and infantry assets. he also argues Cohen does not necessarily disagree. that americans did not inherit sacro - Conquered into Liberty: Two Centuries of Battles But he adds that there is more to the sanct borders, but learned to protect along the Great Warpath that Made the American american military heritage than the themselves from all sorts of northern Way of War, by Eliot A. Cohen (Free Press, U.S.’s conventional war-fighting and its in vaders, at first French and Indian, later 432 pp., $30) European antecedents. We should ex- Canadian and British. Our determination pand the concept of “american” to not to have others at any cost cross into hat does the “Western include pre-revolutionary times, and so our land is thus another artifact of Way of War”—or its sub- include nearly 200 years of frontier mostly forgotten preemptive northeast- set the “american Way of fighting, when the sustainability of an ern skirmishing. W War”—mean? Most have English-speaking New England was not Cohen provides an evolutionary narra- inferred from the phrase a dynamic mili- guaranteed. In a careful examination of tive of the Great Warpath that, over two tary tradition of some 2,500 years that 18th-century warfare along the north- centuries, saw fighting become more dates back to the dawn of the Greek city- eastern seaboard—in the rugged 200- vicious, lethal, and frequent. Britain may state. Despite frequent detours and oc - mile corridor of mountains, forests, and have landed more settlers in northeastern casional dead-ends over the centuries, lakes from albany to Montreal dubbed North america, but, during the later 17th it bestowed on Europeans—including the “Great Warpath”—Cohen sees two century, the French absorbed Indian tac- alex ander the Great, the Successors, less-appreciated sources for the way tics and strategy better than the British Roman legions, hernán Cortés, and the americans currently fight. First was the did, and were more successful in enlist- 19th-century British imperialists—innate birth of a unique strain of raiding, am - ing indigenous tribes to keep English- advantages over their non-Western ene- bushing, subversion, living off the land, speakers confined to the south and east. mies. ad hoc alliance-building with indigenous the resulting strife was horrific and best On any given day, a greater commit- peoples, long-range reconnaissance, and typified by Louis de Buade de Fronte - ment to decisive battle, discipline (as patrolling behind enemy lines. nac’s vicious Indian and French raiders, defined by drill and solidarity of rank), Second, writes Cohen, was the very who swarmed the area around Schenec - superior technology (made possible fact that these non-traditional tactics tady killing and burning out English- through devotion to the rational tradi- were rooted in the distinctiveness of colo- speaking settlements. tion), plentiful supply (which is a divi- nial society. they were not strictly man- Yet only a half century later, during the dend of free markets), the more frequent dated from on high by officers steeped in equally savage French and Indian War, civic audit of consensual government, formal military science. Instead, most of the British and their american allies had and emphasis on freedom and indivi - the novel ways of defeating savage ene- become masters of irregular Last of the dualism might, on the battlefield, trump mies arose from the ground up—among Mohicans frontier warfare, and they even enemy advantages in manpower, observant Vermont militiamen, New gradually pushed the French and their logistics, location, and generalship. York tradesmen, New England farmers dwindling Indian partners ever farther turned fighters, and local-community northward. and while British firepower Mr. Hanson is a military historian and senior fellow defense forces. these all formed the and supply finally overwhelmed the at the Hoover Institution, and the author of the just- “middle” stratum of the military, which French, the Crown’s forces increasingly released The End of Sparta. not only was in the best position to adapt relied on a group led by Robert Rogers

5 1 books12-19_QXP-1127940387.qxp 11/29/2011 2:51 PM Page 52

BOOKS, ARTS & MANNERS known as “rangers” (the forebears of our was as long a period as was that between modern Army Rangers), and on other the Declaration of Independence and the colonial regiments that had learned Korean War. Be Nice! from the French and Indians how skilled Cohen has given an accessible but JOHN DERBYSHIRE skirmishers could stymie conventional detailed narrative of a strangely forgot- col umns. ten chapter in American military history. By the time of the Revolutionary But his chief purpose is didactic, as he War, Ethan Allen, Richard Montgom - warns how uninformed most criticism of ery, Philip Schuyler, and Benedict Ar- the American way of war can become. nold had incorporated 150 years of We are accused of having become, all of colonial-frontier experience, and they a sudden, paranoid, juvenile, and exces- quickly sought to win a war of subver- sively bellicose in responding to attacks sion against their former British leaders. on our homeland, and of lashing out like Cohen has an original revisionist por - “cowboys and Indians.” Cohen agrees trait of a pre-traitorous Benedict Arnold, that our way of war is connected to whose inspired leadership and often Indian-fighting, but notes that this is not unconventional generalship proved as a deviant behavior on our part: It is an The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence vital to the Americans as he was unap- act of adherence to our military roots Has Declined, by Steven Pinker (Viking, preciated by them. While the Revolu - that gives us advantages sometimes not 832 pp., $40) tionary War was not won by skirmishing found in the conventional Western mili- along the Great Warpath, American ir- tary tradition. N this, his most ambitious book to regulars kept thousands of British tied In short, Americans have always liked date, Steven Pinker describes, and down and ensured that New England Rangers, and liked even more winning attempts to explain, a curious histor- would not be severed from the other through unconventional means. Surging I ical phenomenon: the decline in all colonies, given its vulnerable proximity into Anbar Province required not only kinds of violence among human beings, to the British stronghold in Canada. classical mastery of firepower, logis- from pre-civilized times to the present. And during the War of 1812, imagina - tics, communications, and discipline, The first thing one wants to ask is: Has tive American freelancing officers once but also street smarts about outfoxing there actually been such a decline? Given more fought the British with an inten - terrorists at close quarters and in shift- the tremendous wars and political mas- sity sometimes absent to the south; this ing alliance with local militias—all best sacres of the 20th century, can it really be not only resulted in the safety of New done ad hoc by American captains, ma - the case that man is less of a wolf to man England, but almost led to the annexa- jors, and colonels. Colonels, not gener- in our own times than in Charlemagne’s, tion of parts of Canada. Throughout the als, laid the groundwork for success in or Agamemnon’s? later 19th century, during periodic flare- Iraq in 2007, when the top brass thereto- Beginning with homicide, Pinker takes ups with England, there was never much fore had not, and that is likewise typi - a broad statistical view, with humanity chance of British-inspired invasions of cally American. at large as the divisor in his calculations. the northeastern American border, given That Cohen, in the course of a tradi- What, he asks, were a person’s chances of the deterrence long established through tional history of early colonial warfare, dying at the hands of another person, centuries of savage non-conventional has advanced a new thesis about how rather than from natural causes, in any fighting. our 18th-century forebears taught later given era, over any given broad geo- Sometimes, in the final paragraphs of Americans how to fight fire with fire is graphical area? This approach, though it his chapters, Cohen makes wide leaps in all the more to his credit. Or, as he puts would offer little comfort to survivors of comparing the Great Warpath to modern it: “The American way of war remains a Verdun or Auschwitz, is the only way to American military dynamism. These hybrid of European modes and some- take the measure of homicidal violence in assertions are often too cursory and thus thing far more improvisational, far less the generality. beg for more evidence of unambiguous rule-bound. When Navy SEALs killed The first thing it shows is a huge drop continuity. How does one, after all, cali- Osama bin Laden in Pakistan in 2011, in one’s probability of being killed by brate colonial skirmishing—in which they took part in a tradition of ‘cross- someone else as humanity passed from relatively few fought and were killed— border operations’ stretching back cen- pre-state—that is, hunter-gatherer or early alongside the role of the Western her- turies.” agricultural—societies to those organized itage, the Industrial Revolution, the Civil in cities and nations. Archeological sites War, and two World Wars in examining and studies of surviving hunter-gatherer America’s military origins? But his lar ger peoples tell the tale. In a pre-state tribe, point, that America had developed a your chance of a violent death averaged tradition of irregular fighting, is surely 15 percent. By contrast, even in pre- convincing. Many of us have not fully Columbian Mexico, a rather crude state appreciated the legacy of fighting In - structure, your chance was a mere 5 per- dians, Canadians, French, and British cent. Some similar figure applied to the amid the woods of New England. Too first Eurasian civilizations. frequently we forget that 1600 to 1776 “Okay—who leaked?” What Thomas Hobbes called Levia -

5 2 | www.nationalreview.com DECEMBER 1 9 , 2 0 1 1 books12-19_QXP-1127940387.qxp 11/29/2011 2:51 PM Page 53

than—organized state power—was there- same periods, in a multitude of phenomena of them forms the first of the two human- fore the first agent to damp down the from capital punishment to spanking, from science chapters. In the second he exam- violent-death rate, even as it allowed great racial persecution to boxing. I was amused ines the other side, those “better angels” of increases in population. If you go from the to learn that early episodes of Sesame his book’s title: self-control, empathy, rea- early civilizations to recent centuries, the Street are now deemed unsuitable for chil- son, respect. numbers drop further. Even under moder- dren, as they show such dangerous acti - It is necessary to his thesis to show that nity at its worst, in the 17th century and the vities as the riding of tricycles without the better angels have been gaining ground first half of the 20th, the overall rate of helmets. over the inner demons across the centuries. death during Europe’s wars was no more Pinker, whose statistical sense is very Why this should be so is beyond the pre- than 2 or 3 percent. Homicide rates in the keen, points out that some of these move- sent scope of scientific inquiry, so Pinker largest American cities today match those ments have long since passed the point of puts the relevant speculations into a sepa- in the least violent pre-state societies. diminishing returns. When a child is hit by rate, concluding chapter. It was civil-homicide rates that first a moving automobile nowadays, the driver The Better Angels of Our Nature is a caught Pinker’s attention. The seed that is usually a parent chauffeuring her own rich and argumentative book containing a grew into this book, he tells us, was a graph kids to school for fear they might be kid- wealth of empirical analysis seasoned with produced by political scientist Ted Robert napped. Pinker’s usual complement of anecdotes, Homicide rates in the largest American cities today match those in the least violent pre-state societies.

Gurr in 1981. Gurr had combed English After seven chapters of working over wit, and felicitous turns of phrase. (I had records going back to the early 13th centu- history and prehistory, Pinker offers two on never before heard the term “percussive ry in order to plot the change in homicide the science of human nature. Here he is on maintenance”—the most abrupt way of rates over time. The results were striking. his home ground and writes most fluently dealing with a malfunctioning electronic By the 20th century, homicide in England and knowledgeably. Psychology, neuro- device.) It seemed to me, though, that had fallen by 95 percent from the earlier science, and genetics have added tremen- Pinker is, in this book, noticeably less suc- figure. Similar data sets have since been dously to our understanding of ourselves cessful than formerly in keeping his own compiled for other European countries. this past 50 years. As robot space probes They show the same decline, from high have transformed the planets from fuzzy double digits per 100,000 people per year blobs to landscapes with oceans and vol - around A.d. 1300 to low single digits today. canoes, researchers in the human sciences (The averages for pre-state societies are in have made comparable advances in our high-ish triple digits.) Following the pio- knowledge of thought, behavior, and per- Tommy Thompson neering German political scientist Norbert sonality. Elias (1897–1990), Pinker claims this Among the best known of these re- decline as part of the “Civilizing Process” searchers was Stanley Milgram, who that came with the consolidation of modern showed 40 years ago that in obedience to Grover Norquist states—Leviathan 2.0, as it were—and the an authority figure, there was almost no spread of literacy and “gentle commerce.” limit to the pain his research subjects Overlaid on the later stages of the Civi - would inflict on fellow participants shriek- lizing Process was, Pinker tells us, a “Hu- ing in (bogus) agony. Milgram’s experi- manitarian Revolution” in which cruelty, ments have since been repeated hundreds slavery, and the more horrid kinds of judi- of times with dozens of variations, always cial punishment came to be seen as un- revealing human nature as containing acceptable. He tracks this Humanitarian more darkness than we would have cared Revolution back to the abolition of human to know. More capacity for justifying and sacrifice in Eurasia during the last cen- moralizing away our misdeeds, too: One of turies B.C., but argues that it got truly air- the recurrent themes in the modern science borne only in the 17th-century Age of of human nature is that our brains are tire- Reason and the following Enlightenment. less spin doctors. “By 1776 the American revolutionaries drawing on the latest research in brain had defined ‘despotism’ down to the level functions, Pinker works up a typology of of taxing tea and quartering soldiers.” our inclination to violence. That inclination An acceleration principle then kicked has, he says, five distinct origins: cold Tools for Teaching Conservative Thinking in, with downward steps in interstate vio- predation (“the shortest path to something lence during the “long peace” (since 1945) you want”), dominance within groups, re - and the “new peace” (from 1989). Civil venge, sadism, and ideology. These are the violence declined in parallel during these inner demons of our nature, and discussion

5 3 books12-19_QXP-1127940387.qxp 11/29/2011 2:51 PM Page 54

BOOKS, ARTS & MANNERS biases under control, and less skillful at The new volume, which contains some negotiating his way through the minefield of the crazed, misshapen glories of imagi- of political correctness. The Gonzo nation that turned into the ecstatically His prejudice against nationalism, for weird, rampantly funny books Fear and example, leads him into a logical lapse. Of Files Loathing in Las Vegas and Fear and Woodrow Wilson’s doctrine of national Loathing on the Campaign Trail ’72, is in self-determination, Pinker notes that “one K Y L E S M I T H part a chronicle of exhaustion—of the of [its] dangers is that there is really no writer, of the reader. Read at a single such thing as a ‘nation’ in the sense of go—in a rush, as it were—the tics and an ethnocultural group that coincides with tricks become loudly repetitive. For the a patch of real estate.” That would be most part, Thompson wasn’t a Path- news to, for instance, the Japanese or the Breaking Journalist or a New Journalist or Hungarians. Then, 20 pages later, we read a Gonzo Journalist, because he wasn’t a that “some of Europe’s peaceful borders journalist. Journalists talk to people and demarcate countries that were convenient- write down what they say. Journalists add ly homogenized by the massive ethnic to the global stock of knowledge. Pursuant cleansing of World War II.” That echoes to these aims, journalists very often leave Jerry Z. Muller’s 2008 essay “Us and the hotel. Thompson provides a running Them: The Enduring Power of Ethnic transcript of an ongoing conversation with Nationalism,” in which Muller argues that Fear and Loathing at Rolling Stone: himself. a peaceful system of neighboring nations is The Essential Writing of Hunter S. Thompson, The lengthy Ali piece, written just after usually the result of violent ethnic separa- edited by Jann S. Wenner (Simon & the Champ’s embarrassing defeat by the tion. Muller does not appear in Pinker’s list Schuster, 592 pp., $32.50) little-heralded Leon Spinks, relates almost of references. nothing of what its highly charismatic and Probably it is Pinker’s distaste for reli- FEW months after Richard unusually quotable subject said until the gion that will most vex NATIONAL REVIEW Nixon was reelected in 1972, end (and even then, sticks to routine sports- readers. On Europeans’ valuing human life Hunter S. Thompson sat in a page chatter about Ali’s weight and condi- more highly after the Wars of Religion: A bar with Paul Scanlon, his edi- tioning). Thompson was on chummy terms “Part of this newfound appreciation . . . was tor at Rolling Stone. “Hunter looked like with George McGovern, had (or claimed an intellectual and moral change: a shift hell and was clearly not in great spirits,” to have had) a long one-on-one with Nixon from valuing souls to valuing lives. The Scanlon writes in the introduction to this about football, and spoke to then–presiden- doctrine of the sacredness of the soul . . . is lively new anthology. Scanlon gently won- tial candidate Jimmy Carter for some six highly malignant.” There are of course dered aloud whether it might be wise for hours—yet shares little of what these fig- forceful arguments on the other side. In- Thompson to cut back a bit on his heroic ures said. (Thompson said he lost the tapes deed, later in the book Pinker backs off consumption of drugs and booze. The of his Carter interviews.) Thompson was somewhat from that stern Hitchensism to writer’s reply, Scanlon says, was this: “He ungenerous with the spotlight. allow, in the tradition of earlier Whiggish gave me a look; nothing nasty, just a look. Thompson went to Vietnam and was historians, that “in zones of anarchy, reli- He extracted a tab of Mr. Natural blotter stationed in Saigon when the North Viet - gious institutions have sometimes served acid from [his] pocket, stared me in the na mese overran the city. He wrote nothing as a civilizing force.” (Macaulay did this eye, and swallowed it. I got the message.” except (to borrow Thompson’s idiom) a much better: “A society sunk in ignorance, Thompson was 35, and about to publish couple of thousand words of rancid gib- and ruled by mere physical force, has great the last of his three great books. After berish about the feeling inside his hotel. reason to rejoice when a class, of which Nixon’s resignation the following year, Sent to Zaire in 1974 to report on the the influence is intellectual and moral, rises Thompson would deliver only five more Ali–Foreman fight, he delivered only to ascendancy.”) first-rate magazine articles (in the view silence. He whiffed on the invasion of These are, however, editorial asides in a of Scanlon, whose grading is generous) Grenada, too. Included amusingly in this densely argued work of empirical inquiry. before he rejoined his body with his talent volume are letters to and from Rolling Pinker has things to say, backed by sound by shooting himself in 2005. If he had Stone founder Jann Wenner, who, in an numerical evidence, that should be of inter- been buried under a tombstone (instead of excited March 1973 missive, suggests half est to any educated person. The facts and having his ashes fired out of a cannon in a dozen story assignments, from the L.A. numbers are skillfully woven into a story the presence of celebrities), it might have mayoral race to professional wrestling. At that belongs ultimately to the mystery been inscribed with these words, which the bottom of the page arrives the punch- genre. In Pinker’s closing words: “What he wrote in a 1978 profile of Muhammad line: “Editor’s note: None of these assign- do we make of the impression that human Ali that was mostly about Thompson’s ments came to fruition.” history contains an arrow? Where is this practical jokes and misadventures: “Some Nor was Thompson a pundit or social arrow, we are entitled to wonder, and who people write their novels and others roll critic; he made no attempt to persuade and posted it?” As with all the best mystery nar- high enough to live them, and some fools very little to weigh or analyze. “Contribu - ratives, we are left pondering at last, each try to do both.” ting some of the clearest, most bracing and of us according to his own inclination and fearless analysis of the possibilities and fail- understanding. Mr. Smith is a film critic for the New York Post. ures of American democracy in the past

5 4 | www.nationalreview.com DECEMBER 1 9 , 2 0 1 1 books12-19_QXP-1127940387.qxp 11/29/2011 2:51 PM Page 55

century” (in the words of the Chicago Tri - Crosby, Stills, and Nash, didn’t float awaysplendid childish isolation to activist bune about him) is exactly what he did on artful clouds of angst like Lou Reed or engagement—and then back out again, not do, and we can all be grateful that George Harrison. He was a Dada heavy-into the clean sunshine of pure mockery. Thompson wasn’t Ralph Nader. What con- metalist, a screaming showman who thun- Approvingly quoting Mencken—another servative would want to read that? dered absurdly for the hell of it. Before conservative—he wrote, “The only way a Thompson’s fans include Pat Buchanan Ozzy Osbourne snacked on bats, Hunter S. reporter should look at a politician is (who, in a Thompson piece on the fall of Thompson, during his drug orgy on the down.” His absurdism was as much a Nixon, has a few beers with Thompson road to Las Vegas, conjured forth storms rebuke to Very Serious Journalism as it and tells him Fear and Loathing on the of them. Both men styled themselves was to pols or police. Campaign Trail was “one of the funniest “Doctor.” (Osbourne’s latest book: Trust Rarely did Thompson stoop to dis- things I’ve ever read”), Tom Wolfe (who Me, I’m Dr. Ozzy.) Each served as engineer pensing wisdom, but when he did so, he

If Thompson was ideologically of the McGovernite Left, he was temperamentally pure Rooster Cogburn.

called Thompson “the great comic writer and sole passenger on his own custom- could make a success of it. Anyone who of the 20th century”), and P. J. O’Rourke designed crazy train. Their intent was not has ever spent much time covering big-

(who said he thought Wolfe “could’ve to instruct for our education, but to self- time political campaigns will understand made a better case, at least in bits and destruct for our amusement. why Thompson felt the need to veer pieces, that Hunter was the best writer of We read Thompson because his work madly away from the speeches and “on the late 20th century”). was itself a drug, a merry intoxicant: HST. background” gossip, free as a bat. “A If Thompson was ideologically of the His typewriter howled and he set the night sense of humor is not considered manda- McGovernite Left, he was temperamental- on fire. For those readers who are (unlike tory for those who want to get heavy into ly pure Rooster Cogburn (hence, perhaps, his editor Scanlon in that bar in 1973) presidential politics,” he wrote in July his John Wayne–ish pseudonym of Raoul unable at a glance to identify a specific 1972. “Junkies don’t laugh much; their Duke). Clean-shaven in tennis shoes and street brand of LSD, his prose enables a gig is too serious.” Hawaiian shirts and mirrored aviators, his safe, hangover-free visit to a place of deep diminishing hair closely cropped, he looked and jangled weirdness. Here’s my favorite like an off-duty cop who got lost on his paragraph in the book, from a rare moment “Rated One of New York City way to the lido deck. He was a Second of post-Nixon-administration clarity when ‘Best Value’ Hotels.” ... Zagats Amendment freak who fantasized about Thompson was covering the hilariously being a sheriff (as he wrote in his hilarious sordid divorce trial of newspaper heir Pete piece about running for chief lawman of Pulitzer and his wife, Roxanne, in 1983 Aspen in 1970), served in the military (the Palm Beach: Air Force—as a sportswriter), and adored football. Thompson was a wandering mas- The servant problem is the Achilles’ heel of ter of alcohol, tobacco, and firearms—the the rich. The only solution is robots, but we are still a generation or so away from that, New York’s all suite hotel is located in regulatory holy trinity. The same man the heart of the city, near corporations, and in the meantime it is just about impos- theatre & great restaurants. Affordable who called Nixon “a Cheapjack Punk and sible to hire a maid who is smart enough to elegance with all the amenities of home. a Lust-Maddened Werewolf, whose very make a bed but too dumb to wonder why it exis tence was (and remains) a bad cancer is full of naked people every morning. The 149 E. 39th St. (Bet 3rd & Lex) New York, NY 10016 on the American political tradition,” could gardener will not be comfortable with the Reservations 1-800-248-9999 also note, of Generation Woodstock—his sight of rope ladders hanging from the Ask about our special National Review rates. readers!—that “nobody guessed, back master-bedroom windows when he mows then, that the experiment might churn up the lawn every morning, and any chauffeur with the brains to work a stick shift on a this kind of hangover: a whole subculture of Announcing The 2012 Robert Novak Rolls will also understand what’s happen- frightened illiterates with no faith in any- Journalism Fellowships thing.” Of a McGovern campaign movie ing when you wake him up at midnight and send him across the bridge to a goat rint or online journalists with less than ten years experience that he called “a flat-out masterpiece,” in Pmay apply for the 2012 Robert Novak Journalism Fellowship farm in Loxahatchee for a pair of mature Program offering $50,000 full-time and $25,000 part-time which “the characters and the dialogue billys and a pound of animal stimulant. fellowships. Winners undertake a one-year project of their made Turgenev seem like a punk,” he nev- choosing focusing on journalism supportive of American culture and a free society. In addition, there are separate fellowships ertheless concluded, “Wonderful. No doubt Thompson is best discovered at about for topics on the environment, on the beneﬁts of free-market about it. My only objection is that I disagree age 17, when the reader begins to notice he competition, and on law enforcement. Fellowships commence September 1. Must be a U.S. citizen. Application deadline: with almost everything he said.” (it is almost always a he) has grown up February 21. For applications and more information, visit our It’s a commonplace that Thompson was in more comfort than 95 percent of the website or write: -R*OHN&ARLEY 4HE0HILLIPS&OUNDATIONs/NE -ASSACHUSETTS!VENUE .7 3UITEs7ASHINGTON $# a kind of rock star, but what kind? We must human race will ever know, and is looking 0HONE s%MAILJFARLEY THEPHILLIPSFOUNDATIONORG get the subgenus right. Thompson didn’t for someone to blame for this. Thompson sWWWNOVAKFELLOWSHIPSORG wreathe himself in hippie idealism like is the Virgil who guides the passage from Deadline: February 21, 2012

5 5 books12-19_QXP-1127940387.qxp 11/29/2011 2:51 PM Page 56

BOOKS, ARTS & MANNERS words, that respectively dealt with a Afghani novels, Indian novels. You had devoutly Catholic family of youthful, to go, literally, back in time. Ivy League unmarried sisters successively killing themselves according to a set of mysteri- We’ll assume this East Coast academ- Love ous reasons, and a sweet, smart, trans- ic has somehow never read John Updike gendered Greek-immigrant kid’s life in and let his complaint stand, because it so RANDY BOYAGODA suburban Michigan following his eccen- obviously serves as the author’s apologia tric family’s coming-to-America saga, for what he’s trying to do with this novel, Eugenides both exposed and fulfilled including, incidentally, going back in an upscale reading public’s voracious time to find a historical moment and set- appetite for literary fiction that’s moti- ting apparently more amenable to a vated by progressive-minded sentiments traditional, marriage-plotted story than and traffics in themes and issues that are is America, circa 2011. Revealingly, as easy-to-swallow-as-difficult. we’ll see, he chooses Brown University, His new novel, by comparison, is os- and the local and international circuits tensibly difficult-to-swallow because, frequented by Ivy League graduates in by its linked premises—a love triangle the early 1980s. that’s constantly threatening and promis- We enter this world through the story of ing to break into a marriage pairing—it an intelligent and beautiful young woman The Marriage Plot, by Jeffrey Eugenides seems too easy, and even passé. In fact, named Madeleine, who’s uncertain about (Farrar, Straus, 416 pp., $28) Eugenides signals his awareness of this what to do with her life following gradu- likely reaction early on, through the ation. She must decide between two suit- oY meets girl. Boy likes girl. com plaints of a cranky old literature pro- ors she’s been involved with at Brown, Girl likes boy, maybe. Girl fessor about the late-Western literary Mitchell and Leonard, who are both very meets new boy. Girl really indifference to a core feature of human intelligent but temperamental opposites. B likes that boy, she thinks. experience and of the Western tradition: At the same time, she has to figure out Now what? By its very structure and how to transform her successful under- elements, the love triangle promises ten- In the days when success in life had graduate career as a dutiful student and sion, longing, secrecy, betrayal, hopeful - depended on marriage, and marriage incorrigible lover of 19th-century English ness, and reversal: It’s no great surprise, had depended on money, novelists had novels into a viable professional life. then, that it’s long been a conventional had a subject to write about. The great (Spoiler alert: Deciding between compet- premise for storytelling. What might be epics sang of war, the novel of marriage. ing offers from Columbia and Yale for Sexual equality, good for women, had surprising, however, is novelist Jeffrey graduate school proves easier and more been bad for the novel. And divorce had Eugenides’s decision to use a love trian- undone it completely. . . . As far as [the enjoyable for Madeleine than deciding gle as one of the two primary premises cranky old professor] was concerned, between Mitchell and Leonard.) for his latest novel, The Marriage Plot; marriage didn’t mean much anymore, Books such as this one are usually the other premise, which is obviously and neither did the novel. Where could marketed as “tender coming-of-age” sto- related and still more conventional, is you find the marriage plot nowadays? ries (as far as the contemporary publish- evident in the book’s title. The source You couldn’t. You had to read historical ing industry is concerned, no one comes of surprise is the radical departure that fiction. You had to read non-Western of age except tenderly). But more im - this novel ostensibly represents from its novels involving traditional societies. pressively, at least initially, Eugenides predecessors, The Virgin Suicides and Middlesex. The first, a critical darling that was made into a precious Sofia FOYER Coppola film, could be described, in bare terms, as follows: Girl has to grow up. What are the houses of the old? Girl gives up instead and kills herself. Last vestibules we enter, Repeat, for all of her sisters. Eugenides’s second novel, a Pulitzer Prize–winner Small vastnesses. They smell of mold, that has sold 3 million copies, could like- Of camphor, and of must, wise be described in simple terms: Girl And of necessity, their center meets self. Self is also boy. Boy-girl lives Cannot hold. out in-between life. Moth-eaten are their rooms With a pair of earlier novels, in other Where merely breathing dooms Us to incorporating dust, Mr. Boyagoda, a novelist and critic, is a professor of And to the anterooms that take us in. American studies at Ryerson University in Toronto. Penultimately cold, He is writing a biography of Richard John Neuhaus, We wait there to begin. and his second novel, Beggar’s Feast, was recently published in Canada. —LEN KRISAK

5 6 | www.nationalreview.com DECEMBER 1 9 , 2 0 1 1 books12-19_QXP-1127940387.qxp 11/29/2011 2:51 PM Page 57

has attempted a novel of vocation, or demonstrate the admirable virtues and the Eyre, inadvertently exposes the fun - what he insightfully describes at one admirable vices of the late-American mer- damental problem with The Marriage point as a young person’s desire and itocracy. Plot: By her station, her origins, and her struggle to realize a “cohesive self.” The Mitchell’s tired of traveling through prospects, Jane really is a misfortunate novel’s main characters—Madeleine, Europe with his increasingly gay friend, for the entirety of Brontë’s novel, until, Mitchell, and Leonard—spend the en - but should he go on to India and volun- wondrously, she’s not; whereas Made - tirety of the novel in search of just such teer with Mother Teresa on his own? leine, by her station, her origins, and her cohesion, discerning, individually and Leonard is fighting with his Boston doc- prospects, is remarkably fortunate ex - with and through and sometimes against tor over the dosage of his antidepressants cept for those moments she’s not, and each other, the relationships and profes- while falling behind on his Cape Cod while these are moments that cause sions to which they are called by their research-fellowship gig, so why doesn’t immediate and extensive emotional tur- talents and time and place in the world, he just administer an experimental clini- moil and threaten to misdirect her trajec- while simultaneously confronting prob- cal trial to himself? Madeleine is upset tory permanently, they never really do. lems of religious faith, crippling psycho- and confused about the nature of her At base, it seems, Eugenides likes his logical disorder, and crippling parental commitment to Leonard, but why can’t characters a little too much. In this way, expectations. the waiters in her Paris hotel leave her to he’s on the far side of a novelist like To reveal his characters’ vocations to sip wine in peace while she thinks things Jonathan Franzen, who at times doesn’t themselves and to us out of such a through? Finally, most ridiculously, at seem to like his characters enough. Un - complex of concerns, Eugenides makes long last Mitchell momentarily gets his fortunately, as a result of their author’s smart use of chance encounters, mis - girl, but he’s confused: “Was this really overweening affection for them, the understood intentions, unread letters, Madeleine’s breast he was taking into characters in The Marriage Plot suffer breathless departures and arrivals, timely his mouth, or was it something he had through difficulties that feel, from start coincidences, and other such stock dreamed, or was he dreaming now?” to finish, remarkably cosseted. To be features of 19th-century fiction. These This might be the least manly line in all sure, the highly privileged have souls moves—which take form, for instance, of American literature. too. It’s just hard to be ultimately moved as a sudden marriage proposal late in the Close to novel’s end, Eugenides has a by the experiences of people whose life- novel, and then an unexpected reunion character describe Madeleine as a “lone- crises tend to be, in the end, the rough later still—are enjoyable, indeed excit- ly misfortunate, and inward as a gov- equivalent of learning that the J. Crew ing to come across regardless of their erness.” The obvious invocation of a catalogue is out of the hairshirt they’ve obvious artifice, but they are unfortu- canonical marriage-plot novel, Jane ordered. nately submerged in a book that’s far too much taken with its apparent charms. The Marriage Plot features many play- by-play passages about sex, whether e United States once again can establish with oneself or with someone else, that made me long for the taste and decorum a stable dollar worth its weight in gold. of a damp Harlequin novel. (“Leonard’s girth filled Madeleine up in a way that felt not only satisfying, but breathtaking. “The True Gold Standard -- Every millimeter of movement, in or out, A Must Read for Policy Makers” was perceptible along her inner sheath.”) The book also wears its learning far “Lew Lehrman’s most recent book on why we need to adopt a new gold standard comes at just the too proudly, whether the subject is 19th- right time. The book makes the constitutional and century fiction, postmodern literary theory, policy arguments for the gold standard as a means microbiology, Christian theol o gy, manic of allowing economic growth that will generate the depression, European casinos, Manhattan UHYHQXHZHQHHGWRHOLPLQDWHGHÀFLWVDQGDYRLGD future debt crisis of our own.” real estate, or India. To be sure, the range of material that Eugeni des draws on is “Anyone familiar with modern monetary policy impressive, but the consistent effect is and bank regulation in the United States knows we curiously flat: Whether the subject is the face the same dual perils today. The book proposes concrete steps to transition the world economies to a reproductive behavior of yeast cells or the WUXHJROGVWDQGDUGDVZHOODVVSHOOLQJRXWWKHVSHFLÀF theological implications of caring for the means of establishing it.”

lame and sick or the m.o. for getting an — Former Congressman David McIntosh, apartment with good light and close prox- Indiana’s 2nd District (1995-2001) imity to Cen tral Park, it all feels the same. These are matters of interchangeable sig- Available now on Amazon.com nificance; they serve less as an array of in Paperback and on Kindle. discrete, packed realities for the playing out of intensely lived lives than as occa- Visit eTrueGoldStandard.org for more information. sions for author and character alike to

5 7 books12-19_QXP-1127940387.qxp 11/29/2011 2:51 PM Page 58

BOOKS, ARTS & MANNERS turned Jack Nicholson into a Midwestern Cary Grant in a part meant for Jack Film sad sack. In Sideways, he made an unlike- lemmon. ly leading man out of Paul Giamatti, let It’s too bad, because the story in which the B-movie queen Virginia Madsen he finds himself (taken from a novel by Miscasting finally prove that she could act, and Kaui Hart Hemmings) is a perfect show- mined comedy and pathos from the sit- case for Payne’s distinctive tragicomic Pearls com star Thomas Haden Church. style. Payne is both a satirist and a hu - The lillard-Clooney combination, manist: In his movies, film critic David ROSS DOUTHAT though, is a bridge too far. or rather, cast- Edelstein has noted, “mockery and empa- ing Clooney as a hapless cuckold is a thy seesaw, the balance precarious,” and ou’ll believe a man can bridge too far. The Descendants asks him we can find ourselves laughing at a char- fly!” ran the ad campaign to play Matt King, the well-meaning but acter one moment and crying for him the for the original Chris - weak scion of an old Hawaii clan, who’s next. ‘Y to pher Reeve Superman. modestly successful as a lawyer but inef- The source of the tears in The How quaint that sounds today, when fectual as a husband and a father. While Descendants is the jet-skiing accident that movies try to make us believe in far he manages the disposition of the 25,000 throws King’s wife into a coma, forcing wilder things: in planet-killing asteroids, unspoiled acres of Hawaiian coast that he Clooney’s character to take real responsi- in automobiles that transform into giant co-owns with his cousins (all of whom bility for his children, face the possibility robots, in a hundred kinds of super- trace their ancestry, and their wealth, that he’s about to become a widower, heroes—and now, with Alexander Payne’s back to a Victorian-era marriage between and—after his older daughter (Shailene The Descendants, in the idea that a wo - a native princess and an Anglo-Saxon Woodley, beautiful and brilliant in the man would cheat on George Clooney arriviste), his daughters, 10 and 17, are part) blurts out the real reason she was with Matthew lillard. growing up bratty and dysfunctional, and fighting so much with her mother—real- If the latter name doesn’t ring a bell, his vivacious wife is planning to leave ize that he’s been betrayed by a woman who’s now at death’s door. The source of the laughter is the element of farce in King’s subsequent attempt to reclaim his manhood, which requires him to contend with his wife’s bullying dad (Robert Forster), his older daughter’s insufferable stoner boyfriend (Nick Krause), his various grasping cousins (including Beau Bridges as a long-haired tropical sleaze), and finally his wife’s lover, who of course turns out to have a wife (Judy Greer, res- cued from a lifetime of romantic-comedy supporting roles) and children of his own. As funny as they are, these misad - ventures are a bit rambling and a bit predictable, and there were times when I thought that Payne needed a little more acid and a little less generosity. “Paradise can go [bleep] itself,” Clooney’s character says of Hawaii at the beginning of the Shailene Woodley and George Clooney in The Descendants movie, but in the end a sunnier and more then you probably weren’t a teenager in him for lillard’s grinning real-estate uplifting spirit wins out over the hints of the late 1990s, when lillard—long of agent. spiritual torpor and tropical decay. body and rubbery of face, like a faintly This is the sort of role that a more Still, uplift has its uses, and The demonic Gumby—played supporting rumpled, lived-in thespian—think Philip Descendants takes its tragedies seriously roles in the Scream franchise and various Seymour Hoffman, as an ex am ple—could enough that the concluding harmonies Freddie Prinze Jr. vehicles. But one detail inhabit in his sleep. Clooney is a game feel earned rather than forced. This is not should tell you everything you need actor and a good one, and he does his best Payne’s best film: I’d rank it slightly to know about his sex appeal (or rather, to bury his charisma for the part, clatter- below Sideways and well below Election. lack thereof): His career peaked when he ing around in boat shoes and a bad hair- But there’s a lot of talent at work here, played Shaggy in 2002’s live-action cut, letting his kids walk all over him, and and the finished product is very much Scooby-Doo. doing his best impersonation of a well-off worth seeing. You’ll just need to suspend Payne, the man who gave us the peer- beta male. But he’s still George Clooney, your disbelief, or else close your eyes less Election, has made a habit of re - with the chin and the smile and the from time to time and imagine that Matt purposing underappreciated actors and movie-star sheen, and no matter how hard King isn’t being embodied by George

FOX SEARCHLIGHT casting against type. In About Schmidt, he he works, it feels like we’re watching Clooney.

5 8 | www.nationalreview.com DECEMBER 1 9 , 2 0 1 1 books12-19_QXP-1127940387.qxp 11/29/2011 2:51 PM Page 59

greeted the incarnation with a window cheery as Hitler’s. next to it, the first City Desk filled with red and green balloons. More of several, a vacancy: fOr renT. 2 shoes—boots this time. duane reade— dollar Jewelry is still holding on. A sec- they are everywhere! Chain drugstores ond eyeglasses store also advertised Buyer’s are the new 5-and-10s, heavy on snack dental groups, laser aesthetics, and chi- food and cosmetics. A dry cleaner, ropractors. read their fine print. A Remorse run by Orientals (the old-fashioned clearance sale (eVerYTHinG $10 Or mon iker matches the old-fashioned LeSS), a mattress store, more luggage, venue). China bids to overtake us as a a serious if homely effort at holiday superpower, but its children still come cheer: artificial Christmas trees, toys in here and become dry cleaners; their boxes, dolls. The gym was not yet mine. children go to Yale. A threading salon A vast party store, with literal thought will fix your eyebrows, and wax your balloons: Get Well, Congratulations, skin. Where? Let Leporello sing the Happy Birthday, Thank You. Two run- catalogue: Half face, full face, full ning mannequins wear more running arms, under arms, half legs, full legs, shoes. A cute poster blonde shills outer- bikini line, deep bikini, Brazilian. A wear. Then the economic gradient drops: man imagines the geography, even as We BUY GOLd & diAMOndS, RICHARD BROOKHISER he flinches from the pain; women know and offer nOSe & eAr PierCinG. allure involves suffering. Two fast-food Between two empty stores, “Get your friend from out of town places follow, one promising to be HOT holiday fashion—naughty or nice” complained about shopping ’n JUiCY, just the thing after your deep (you know which one she’ll choose). in the city: Wasn’t it all chain bikini. More shoes. Then a store of Between two shoe stores stood the lone A stores now? Although i snort- jeans. There is actually a chain, i learn, building of distinction: symbolic ladies, ed, i felt secretly ashamed, for i had seen called OMG. “Thou shalt not take the scrolls, curves, cornices. no sign what neighborhood after neighborhood go name of the LOrd thy God in vain; for it was built for and no occupants now. from emptiness to luxuriance to bland- the LOrd will not hold him guiltless that Starbucks, Urban Outfitters, and a ness. i looked for refutation. Three times takes his name in vain.” That seems quilted-aluminum breakfast cart end a week i walk 600 yards to my gym, down pretty plain, even without the repetition, this block. a street between the sleekness of midtown but what does the LOrd know about Half a block to go. Pizza slices, then and the funkiness of downtown. it is jeans, He doesn’t even have legs. More a gold & diamonds store that frankly the artery of average; when God gives us shoes, a second bank, and a vast hole, says, We PAWn. The window is filled this day our daily, this is the way it awaiting a new building, round out that with crosses. Candy, cigar, soda, tobac- comes. What could i acquire there if i block. co all fill one awning and one store: paid attention? next block is longer. it begins with a Where is Mayor Bloomberg? renT. i could begin by acquiring money. store selling eyeglasses, and—sign of The promise of fASHiOn is slightly The first building on the first corner was the times—a sign advertising the insur- undercut by nUrSeS UnifOrMS a bank, with its girdle of ATMs fore- ance it takes: a blizzard of names, from reGULAr & PLUS. More cellphones, most. next was something that would big companies (Oxford, Aetna) to labor another spa, more gold, this time partic- appear again and again, a shoe store, unions (Local 1199, UfT). Last month, ularized: wedding bands, engagement this one devoted to running shoes. Why the pita store next door was decorated rings, name rings, charms: all the bro- so many running shoes? Because they with turkeys. eat at the melting pot. A ken hopes. dVds, more shoes, more are not just for running, but also for rarity, a bookstore, owed its existence luggage. Back and foot rub incongru- youth fashion display. An African to specialization: wisdom of the east, ously share space with an international working a sidewalk table advertised including astrology readings, “Vedic Christian fellowship. More dVds: $3 sweaters, then, dropping his price and Western” (can you comparison- Conan, samurai, porn. Office supplies im mediately, sweaters for $1.50. A shop destiny?). A nails spa offered and UPS. Almost the last, the biggest computer-game store was the first to attention to the feet, with a chart of space on the block, the Salvation Army. make a dramatic pitch for attention. i reflective zones, explained however in General Booth makes his pledge: have never played a computer game, Chinese, so not aimed at my demo- “While women weep as they do now, but i have respected them ever since i graphic. A hair salon, more shoes, a i’ll fight. While little children go hun- read that games make as much money model-management company. Another gry, as they do now, i’ll fight. While annually as Hollywood. What the game - cellphone store (for that call from your men go to prison, in and out, in and out, sters of America are getting, if these agent). An electronics store had set out as they do now, i’ll fight. While there display windows were any indication, a display, oddly, of luggage; above the is a drunkard left, while there is a poor is apocalyptic violence. ASSASSinS roller bags, TVs played a movie of lost girl upon the streets, while there Creed reVeLATiOnS said one some helicopter chase scene. Then a remains one dark soul without the light poster, over a hooded figure; CALL long and forbidding storefront: nYC of God, i’ll fight. i’ll fight to the very Of dUTY answered its mate, featur- Human resources Administration. it end!” ing a futuris tic grunt. A cellphone store was built like a bunker, and seemed as Then i come to my gym.

5 9 backpage--ready_QXP-1127940387.qxp 11/30/2011 2:14 PM Page 60

Happy Warrior BY MARK STEYN Headlines

HEADlInE from the Daily Telegraph of london: United States to preside over the world’s dominant economy, “IMF Drawing Up £500bn Package to Save and he’ll end his term back where Grover Cleveland was: a Italy, Spain and the Euro.” Insofar as most of us global runner-up. My colleague Jonah Goldberg thinks all A give any thought to the International Monetary this talk of Beijing’s economic might is nutso: He points out Fund, we vaguely assume it’s there to help developing that China has 40 million people who live in caves, etc. nations. But it’s now bailing out First World advanced That’s all true. Back in the heyday of Fu Manchu and Charlie economies. Indeed, Italy is a member of the G7, which is Chan and Oriental stereotyping, Erle Stanley Gardner wrote supposed to be the super elite of the developed world. But en passant in the course of a non–Perry Mason yarn: “The it’s angling for a 600 billion–euro rescue package. Chinese of wealth always builds his house with a cunning So it’s a good thing we’ve got this IMF thingy to hand simulation of external poverty. In the Orient one may look when we need someone flush enough to prop up soi-disant in vain for mansions, unless one has the entrée to private European economic powerhouses. But where exactly does homes. The street entrances always give the impression of the IMF get its money from? Ah, well. America provides congestion and poverty, and the lines of architecture are care- 17.7 percent of the IMF’s funding, which is more than the fully carried out so that no glimpse of the mansion itself is next three biggest contributors (Japan, Germany, and the visible over the forbidding false front of what appears to be United Kingdom) combined. So, in a 600 bil- a squalid hovel.” In a sense, the Com munists lion–euro bailout for Italy, 106.2 billion have simply inverted the “false front”: Behind euros—or about $143 billion—will come Who among the glittering skylines of the coastal mega- from the United States. Which is to say, you. lopolises lies a vast peasant hinterland in But don’t panic. You’re pretty much tapped us hasn’t which not even the non–cave dwellers are in out. The United States recently bust through borrowed danger of being mistaken for a consumer the $15 trillion debt ceiling to set a new all- society. time world record as the Brokest nation in money from But that’s the point: China’s newfound sta- History. So another $142 billion barely rates a tus is unsettling because it’s so weird. In the line item. his loan late 19th century, Britain may not have liked Oh, by the way, the IMF itself has spent shark in the rise of Germany and the United States, but most of the last few years operating with a it could look at its economic rivals and see $400 million budget deficit. So a broke G7 order to buy newer, nimbler versions of itself. By contrast, economy is being bailed out by a broke China is on course to become the world’s transnational organization funded by a broke his loan leading economy without ever having been a hyperpower. That seems likely to work. shark a developed economy. The fact that it’s full of The jig is pretty much up for the post–World cave dwellers and has no genuine market War II global order. It’s becoming increasing- hybrid? shouldn’t be cause for scoffing, but for a bit of ly hard to avoid the thought that, when it quiet introspection on the crazy world we’ve comes to the Western world, there’s no there there. There may ushered in. From Reuters: “China Blasts U.S. for Ignoring be a there out there somewhere else, but chances are you’re ‘Ticking Debt Bomb.’” paying for that, too. The put-upon taxpayer of an industrial Consider how utterly incomprehensible that headline nation accepts that the bulk of his contribution to the “inter- would seem to an American from a mere 30 years ago. Back national aid” budget is entirely wasted: The traditional quip, then, the smart guys assured us that economic liberalization made by many people, from the great Peter Bauer to Ron Paul would force political liberalization upon China. Instead, we more recently, is that it’s poor people in rich countries fund- helped them come up with the only economically viable ing rich people in poor countries. But that bon mot doesn’t form of Communism. So economically viable, indeed, that seem quite to cover the revelation that the U.S. Agency for Agence France-Presse reports that the People’s Republic has International Development gives foreign aid to China. agreed to “purchase infrastructure assets from debt-plagued That’s to say, we borrow money from China to give to nations” in the European Union. Pace the CFR, not only is China. Oh, don’t worry. It’s only a few million, and most of it China still Communist, but Europe would rather mortgage goes to “promote clean energy.” It sounds so reasonable when itself to the Politburo than attempt to wean itself off its un - you put it like that. Who among us hasn’t borrowed money sustainable welfare regimes. from his loan shark in order to buy his loan shark a hybrid? But hey, relax. According to the Washington Post, “Black The IMF, meanwhile, predicts that China will become the Friday and Other Holiday Weekend Shoppers Set Spending planet’s leading economy by 2016. In other words, the guy Record.” Hard to know what’s sadder: debt-laden “con- elected next november will be the last president of the sumers” snapping up the latest trinkets from China, or expert “analysts” interpreting their stampede as a portent Mr. Steyn blogs at SteynOnline (www.steynonline.com). of recovery.

6 0 | www.nationalreview.com DECEMBER 1 9 , 2 0 1 1 base_milliken-mar 22.qxd 11/28/2011 12:44 PM Page 1

base_milliken-mar 22.qxd 9/26/2011 11:34 AM Page 1

Two companies controlling this much wireless industry revenue creates a one-sided conversation.

77.6% AT&T and Verizon (Post T-Mobile Takeover)

Wireless

24% 18% 36.3% 27.5% 36.8%

Oil Airline Banking Auto

AT&T’s proposed takeover of T-Mobile would result in two companies controlling more than 77% of wireless industry revenues. In other major industries, the two top ﬁ rms control much less. Two wireless industry giants would marginalize the ability of other providers to keep prices competitive for consumers and inﬂ uence the pace of wireless industry innovation. This is a bad idea for consumers, competition and our country.

Wireless industry source: Individual company annual fi nancial reports for 2010. Oil source: www.alacra.com/acm/2042_sample.pdf, page 22. Note: data includes oil refi ning and gas. Airline source: DOT, form 41, Schedule P-1.2. Banking source: DATAMONITOR’S “Banks in the United States” and www2.fdic.gov/sdi/main.asp. Auto source: SEC 10-K fi lings, (includes cars and trucks and may include other revenue streams). Foreign currencies converted to dollars using prevailing exchange rates.