201501223_postal:cover61404-postal.qxd 2/3/2015 10:34 PM Page 1 February 23, 2015 $4.99 HILLEN on PONNURU: OBAMA’S FABLED BIPARTISANSHIP Geopolliittiics COOKE on WILLIAMSON: THE UNBEARABLE WHITENESS OF NPR Frree SSpeech The End of The University w w STEVEN F. HAYWARD www.nationalreview.com base:milliken-mar 22.qxd 2/3/2015 9:29 AM Page 1 e Best Two Weeks of Your Summer! Great Books • Engaging Conversations • Authentically Catholic July 19–August 1, 2015 High School Great Books Program at Thomas Aquinas College See the video: thomasaquinas.edu/summerprogram quinas A C s o a l m l e o Thomas Aquinas College g h e T C 1 Truth Maers al 7 if 19 ornia - TOC:QXP-1127940144.qxp 2/4/2015 2:17 PM Page 1 Contents BOOKS, ARTS FEBRUARY 23, 2015 | VOLUME LXVII, NO. 3 | www.nationalreview.com & MANNERS 37 LABOR WITHOUT ROMANCE ON THE COVER Page 27 Vincent J. Cannato reviews Government against Itself: Grievance School Public Union Power and Its Consequences, by Daniel DiSalvo. Gradually coming into focus is the plain fact that today we have 39 GOVERNMENT-SPONSORED MELTDOWNS two universities—the traditional Kevin D. Williamson reviews university, which, while mostly Hidden in Plain Sight: What Really Caused the World’s left-liberal, still resides on Planet Worst Financial Crisis and Why Earth, and the grievance university, It Could Happen Again, by Peter J. Wallison. mired in the morass of postmodern obsession with oppression and 42 MIDCENTURY MORES M. D. Aeschliman reviews privilege. Steven F. Hayward Moral Agents: Eight ntieth-Twe Century American Writers, COVER: ROMAN GENN by Edward Mendelson. 44 REVIVING FEDERALISM ARTICLES John O. McGinnis reviews Saving Congress from Itself: 16 A HAND WITHHELD by Ramesh Ponnuru Emancipating the States and Tales of President Obama’s bipartisanship are fictional. Empowering Their People, by James L. Buckley. 20 SORRY, CHARLIE by Charles C. W. Cooke In Europe and elsewhere, free speech is often illegal. 46 FILM: BLOODY CROSSROADS REDUX 22 THE TIME-CARD APP by Danny Crichton Ross Douthat discusses Selma and Technology can reduce wage theft while making work more flexible. American Sniper. THE DYNASTY QUESTION by Jay Nordlinger 47 CITY DESK: THE CITY, 23 FROM AFAR Thoughts occasioned by Jeb Bush. Richard Brookhiser, out on the road, talks about home. 25 THE UNBEARABLE WHITENESS OF BEING NPR by Kevin D. Williamson On the strange power of linguistic stereotypes. SECTIONS FEATURES 2 Letters to the Editor 27 GRIEVANCE SCHOOL by Steven F. Hayward 4 The Week Universities are divided between activists and educators. 35 Athwart . James Lileks 36 The Long View . Rob Long 32 FOREIGN POLICY BY MAP by John Hillen 44 Poetry . Lee Oser What geopolitics is, and why we need it. 48 Happy Warrior . David Harsanyi NaTIONal REvIEW (ISSN: 0028-0038) is published bi-weekly, except for the first issue in January, by N aTIONal 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., 2015. address all editorial mail, manuscripts, letters to the editor, etc., to Editorial Dept., N aTIONal REvIEW, 215 lexington avenue, New York, N.Y. 10016. address all subscription mail orders, changes of address, undeliverable copies, etc., to NaTIONalREvIEW, Circulation Dept., P. O. Box 433015, Palm Coast, Fla. 32143-3015; phone, 386-246-0118, Monday–Friday, 8:00a.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., NaTIONalREvIEW, 215 lexington avenue, New York, N.Y. 10016 or call 212-679- 7330. POSTMaSTER: Send address changes to N aTIONal REvIEW, Circulation Dept., P. O. Box 433015, Palm Coast, Fla. 32143-3015. Printed in the U.S.a. RaTES: $59.00 a year (24 issues). add $21.50 for Canada and other foreign subscriptions, per year. (all payments in U.S. currency.) The editors cannot be responsible for unsolicited manuscripts or artwork unless return postage or, better, a stamped, self-addressed envelope is enclosed. Opinions expressed in signed articles do not necessarily represent the views of the editors. letters:QXP-1127940387.qxp 2/4/2015 2:12 PM Page 2 Letters FEBRUARY 23 ISSUE; PRINTED FEBRUARY 5 EDITOR Richard Lowry Senior Editors Contraception, Continued Richard Brookhiser / Jonah Goldberg / Jay Nordlinger Ramesh Ponnuru / David Pryce-Jones Managing Editor Jason Lee Steorts Robert VerBruggen agues that pro-lifers should support the promotion of con- Literary Editor Michael Potemra traceptives that sometimes may act as abortifacients (“On a LARC,” December Vice President, Editorial Operations Christopher McEvoy Washington Editor Eliana Johnson 31). The death rate for unimplanted embryos is high, he points out. He then Executive Editor Reihan Salam Roving Correspondent Kevin D. Williamson posits that if we had a moral imperative to prevent an embryo from being killed, National Correspondent John J. Miller Art Director Luba Kolomytseva we would have an equal duty to try to prevent its natural death. But the lengths Deputy Managing Editors Katherine Connell / Nicholas Frankovich / Fred Schwarz to which we would have to go to prevent its natural death would be “absurd Production Editor Katie Hosmer Assistant to the Editor Carol Anne Kemp enough to call into serious question the premise that unimplanted embryos must Research Associate Alessandra Haynes be protected” at all. Contributing Editors Shannen Coffin / Ross Douthat / Roman Genn No, what is absurd is the notion that, if we forgo heroic measures to save a Jim Geraghty / Florence King / Lawrence Kudlow Mark R. Levin / Yuval Levin / Rob Long human life from natural death, we have no moral ground to stand on when we Mario Loyola / Jim Manzi / Andrew C . McCarthy try to save it from death by artificial means. Here VerBruggen backs into the Kate O’Beirne / Andrew Stuttaford / Robert VerBruggen NATIONAL REVIEW ONLINE “Oxfam argument,” formulated by Peter Singer: Every dollar you spend on a Editor-at-Large Kathryn Jean Lopez Managing Editor Edward John Craig cup of coffee is a dollar you don’t send to a charity that could provide food or Opinion Editor Patrick Brennan medicine to people for whom it is all that stands between them and death. Drink National-Affairs Columnist John Fund Staff Writer Charles C. W. Cooke your coffee, but know that you have just killed someone. So there’s no sound Political Reporter Joel Gehrke Reporters reason for trying to stop Boko Haram from finishing the job for you. Andrew Johnson / Katherine Timpf Associate Editors As many of us know who have had to give directions to doctors reporting that Molly Powell / Nat Brown Editorial Associates an elderly family member was dying, sometimes heroic measures would not Brendan Bordelon / Christine Sisto Technical Services Russell Jenkins even be for the better, although the difference between when they would be and Web Developer Wendy Weihs when failure to take such measures amounts to a sin of omission is never clear Web Producer Scott McKim EDITORS- AT- L A RG E and certain. Always clear and certain, however, is the difference between letting Linda Bridges / John O’Sullivan someone die and hastening her death. VerBruggen’s blindness to this distinction NATIONAL REVIEW INSTITUTE BUCKLEYFELLOWSINPOLITICALJOURNALISM is the weak link in his argument, which otherwise is careful, fair-minded, and Ryan Lovelace / Ian Tuttle free of rancor. No small achievement, given the strong emotions surrounding Contributors Hadley Arkes / Baloo / James Bowman this issue. Eliot A. Cohen / Dinesh D’Souza M. Stanton Evans / Chester E. Finn Jr. Neal B. Freeman / James Gardner David Gelernter / George Gilder / Jeffrey Hart Melissa Klimchock Kevin A. Hassett / Charles R. Kesler David Klinghoffer / Anthony Lejeune Brecksville, Ohio D. Keith Mano / Michael Novak Alan Reynolds / Tracy Lee Simmons Terry Teachout / Vin Weber ROBERT VERBRuggEN RESPONDS: My argument is not quite the Oxfam argu- Chief Financial Officer James X. Kilbridge Accounting Manager Galina Veygman ment: I am not saying that causing the death of X and failing to save X are Accountant Lyudmila Bolotinskaya Business Services morally equivalent. I am saying that if we value X and Y equally, not only will Alex Batey / Alan Chiu Circulation Manager Jason Ng we give X and Y the same protection from artificial harm, but we will go to the WORLD WIDE WEB www.nationalreview.com same lengths (whatever those are) to save them. MAIN NUMBER 212-679-7330 SUBSCRIPTION INQUIRIES 386-246-0118 That said, Ms. Klimchock is correct that sometimes it can be best, if heart- WASHINGTON OFFICE 202-543-9226 ADVERTISING SALES 212-679-7330 breaking, to let loved ones die of natural causes. But we allow this only in cer- Executive Publisher Scott F. Budd Advertising Director Jim Fowler tain situations—specifically, when there is little hope that medical intervention Advertising Manager Kevin Longstreet Assistant to the Publisher Emily Gray would do more than delay the inevitable. So this analogy might apply in certain Director of Philanthropy and Campaigns Scott Lange cases where a woman’s body keeps an embryo from implanting (such as when, Associate Publisher Paul Olivett Director of Development Heyward Smith due to a genetic disorder, her child would be destined to have a painful and very Director of Revenue Erik Netcher Vice President, Communi cations Amy K. Mitchell short life), but it wouldn’t hold up in others (e.g., if her body were aborting a PUBLISHER healthy embryo, or an embryo with a genetic problem more akin to Down syn- Jack Fowler drome). CHAIRMAN John Hillen CHAIRMANEMERITUS Thomas L. Rhodes FOUNDER Letters may be submitted by e-mail to [email protected]. William F. Buckley Jr. 2 | www.nationalreview.com FEBRUARY 2 3 , 2 0 1 5 base:milliken-mar 22.qxd 2/3/2015 4:10 PM Page 1 Just Released OFFICIAL GOLD AND SILVER COINS OF THE UNITED STATES BRAND NEW BRAND NEW 2015 $5 Gold Eagle (coin enlarged to show exquisite detail) 2015 $1 Silver Eagle 1/10 oz.