Mortimer Adler 1902-2001
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6-42_Jul23_Hi 7/24/01 3:06 PM Page 1 AS THE WORLD VOTES MICHAEL BARONE JULY 23, 2001 $3.95 ConditCondit Unbecoming SAMUnbecomingDEALEY • NOEMIE EMERY • STEPHEN F. H AYES Iss42/Jul23 TOC 7/24/01 3:08 PM Page 1 Contents July 23, 2001 • Volume 6, Number 42 2 Scrapbook . 2008 Olympics in Beijing, and more. 6 Correspondence . On OxyContin and Allen Iverson. 4 Casual . J. Bottum, mourner. 11 Editorial. No Defense Articles 14 Where Were the Adults? They sure weren’t being judgmental. BY NOEMIE EMERY 16 Condit Unbecoming A study in Washington, D.C., creepiness.. BY SAM DEALEY 18 Dear Abbe orld Photos Can the Democrats’ top ambulance chaser help Gary Condit?. BY STEPHEN F. H AYES 20 No Salvation for the White House Congressional progress but a PR setback for Bush’s faith-based initiative. BY TERRY EASTLAND 21 Is It Time for Arafat to Go? Cover photos: AP/Wide W More and more Israelis think so. BY TOM ROSE Features 23 As the World Votes The era of big government does seem to be over. BY MICHAEL BARONE 27 “Futile Care” and Its Friends They want to decide when your life is worthless. BY WESLEY J. SMITH Books & Arts 31 The Great Bookie Mortimer Adler, 1902-2001. BY JOSEPH EPSTEIN 36 Soldier and Citizen Thomas Ricks’s novel of civil-military relations.. BY MACKUBIN THOMAS OWENS 37 Writing Dangerously Journalism when it matters. BY ALEXANDER C. KAFKA 40 Parody . What Nexis turns up on Gary Condit. William Kristol, Editor Fred Barnes, Executive Editor David Tell, Opinion Editor David Brooks, Andrew Ferguson, Senior Editors Richard Starr, Claudia Winkler, Managing Editors J. Bottum, Books & Arts Editor Christopher Caldwell, Senior Writer Stephen F. Hayes, Matt Labash, Staff Writers Victorino Matus, David Skinner, Assistant Managing Editors Lee Bockhorn, Associate Editor Jonathan V. Last, Online Editor Beth Henary, Editorial Assistant Katherine Rybak Torres, Art Director Jan Forbes, Production Manager Kent Bain, Design Consultant Tucker Carlson, John J. DiIulio Jr. (on leave), Noemie Emery, Joseph Epstein, David Frum (on leave), David Gelernter, Brit Hume, Robert Kagan, Charles Krauthammer, Tod Lindberg, P. J. O’Rourke, John Podhoretz, Irwin M. Stelzer, Contributing Editors Terry Eastland, Publisher David H. Bass, Deputy Publisher Nicholas H.B. Swezey, Advertising & Marketing Manager John L. Mackall, Advertising Sales Manager Lauren Trotta Husted, Circulation Director Carolyn Wimmer, Executive Assistant Tina Winston, Finance Director Catherine Titus, Publicity Director Ian Slatter, Special Projects Taybor Cook, Angel Jones, Elizabeth Royal, Staff Assistants THE WEEKLY STANDARD (ISSN 1083-3013) is published weekly (except the last week in April, the second week in July, the first week in September, and the second week in January) by News America Incorporated, 1211 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10036. Periodicals postage paid at New York, NY, and additional mailing offices. 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THE WEEKLY STANDARD is a trademark of News America Incorporated. www.weeklystandard.com Iss42/Jul23 scrapper 7/24/01 3:07 PM Page 2 The Beijing Games People Play ate last week, as expected, the or two during the marathon, for exam- None of this caused anyone in Wash- Lworld’s largest dictatorship was ple. And IOC aides acknowledge in pri- ington to blink. There was Clinton awarded the honor of hosting the 2008 vate that China’s housing and trans- administration national security adviser summer Olympic games. Friday in portation problems make the 2008 Sandy Berger on the op-ed page of the Moscow, the International Olympic Games a potential disaster. And some Washington Post, for example, urging us Committee made quick work of bids people continue to fuss about that, you to understand that the “world looks dif- from Toronto, Istanbul, Paris, and Osa- know, human rights stuff. ferent from China.” A “bifurcated poli- ka, and voted instead to hold the event But that’s all small potatoes. To have cy of economic engagement and politi- in Beijing. lost the games, Canadian Olympic offi- cal hostility is unsustainable,” Berger Sure, there’d been some concern cial Paul Henderson explained, “Bei- concluded. So we should never be hos- about China’s plan to stage the beach jing [would’ve] had to make a major tile, in other words. No matter what the volleyball competition in Tiananmen mistake.” Chinese do. Square, right where the bodies fell dur- Like antagonizing the United States Incidentally, the author of this little ing 1989’s massacre of pro-democracy into actively opposing its Olympic bid? appeasement essay, besides his govern- demonstrators. But—see how reason- Would that such a thing were possible. ment service, is a high-dollar adviser to able they are?—the Beijing organizing Amnesty International reports that corporations doing business in China, committee agreed to relocate the artifi- China has summarily executed nearly just back from a trip to Beijing. Repub- cial sand pit. 2,000 “undesirables” in the past three lican leaders of the House of Represen- True, too, there remain a few health months. Falun Gong representatives tatives, who last week blocked a vote on nuts among Olympic track and field report that China has recently mur- a non-binding resolution condemning athletes who worry that Beijing’s noto- dered several dozen of their colleagues. Beijing’s Olympic bid, do not get paid rious air pollution—more days than And Beijing itself announced that it will by the China lobby, of course. So THE not, you can hardly see a hundred yards try several falsely accused Americans for SCRAPBOOK wonders, What’s their in the smog—might, oh, collapse a lung the capital crime of espionage. excuse? ♦ its dedication to this goal in its efforts to Are you now, or have strengthen the labor movement, combat you ever been, from the critical situation of poverty, hunger, Milwaukee? unemployment and racial discrimina- tion as well as its efforts to save our ast week, the city that’s home to environment.” Lsome of America’s greatest symbols Yeah, right. The crowd of nearly 500 of capitalism and freedom (Miller beer, gave a standing ovation. Harley-Davidson) hosted the annual Steve Filmanowicz, Norquist’s convention of the Communist Party, spokesman, is eager to clarify. The wel- USA. The commies were pumped as come, he says, was written by an overen- they kicked things off with a spirited thusiastic staffer, and Norquist “wasn’t rendition of “Solidarity Forever.” The around to sign off on the letter.” excitement peaked when Daisy Cubais, Norquist is often to the right of most an aide to Milwaukee mayor John Democrats on issues, Filmanowicz con- Norquist, read to the gathering a wel- tinues, and the letter was basically sent come letter from Norquist. Wiscon- to recognize “work that some members sinites, Norquist writes, are “widely of the party have done on labor issues.” known for our socialist traditions.” decent life for working families.” Besides, he says, Norquist can’t be a And, he continues, “in that sense, we What’s more, “if we, the people, work commie-sympathizer because he wrote share many things in common with the together, we can win the struggle to bet- a book in which “he quotes Milton long history of the Communist Party ter the lives of ordinary working people. Friedman four times and Karl Marx not and all those engaged in the fight for a The Communist Party, USA has shown once.” ♦ 2 / THE WEEKLY STANDARD JULY 23, 2001 Iss42/Jul23 scrapper 7/24/01 3:07 PM Page 3 Scrapbook appears in the ad. This is what disin- genuousness looks like in the debate over embryonic stem cells. If you’d pre- fer that stem cells were obtained non- destructively from adults, if you think that there’s something creepy about cre- ating human embryos for the purpose of destroying them to extract their stem cells (the kind of research, according to the Wall Street Journal, that the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation has already given $650,000 to support in Spain), why, then, you must want little Samantha to suffer forever. Funny, the usual watch- dogs of political advertising haven’t barked on this one. ♦ Nightmare on Pennsylvania Avenue n the most recent impartial contribu- Ition to human knowledge to emerge from Berkeley, California, a new study has found that Republicans have more nightmares.