Come, Sweet Deathnby Harold O.J. BrownnCulture of Death:nThe Assault on Medical Ethicsnin Americanby Wesley /, SmithnSan Francisco: Encounter Books;n•244 pp., $23.95nI n the spring of 1975, C. Everett Koop,nM.D., addressed a conference of Christiannlajinen in New Orleans on the topicnof abortion—more specifically, on the implicationsnof Roe V. Wade. Among thenchanges he foresaw were a growing...
“Yes, Ma’am. And Will There Be Anything Else, Ma’ma?”
dures that will not benefit them. Whenn”futile care” first appeared, many of us whonare interested in medical ethics tliought itnmerely a convenient way to state an oldntruth: Useless care is not required andnshould not be given. But in the interval betweennthen and now, as Smith shows, fiitilencare has taken on a dramatic new significance.nThe term...
“Yes, Ma’am. And Will There Be Anything Else, Ma’ma?”
nistic toward another; it is something elsento dismiss your antagonist as having nonvalid claim to a group identit}’ and needing,ntherefore, to form a bogus “collectivit)’.”nThe willingness to accept such a contemptuousndefinition of white Christiannsociet}’ is what per’ades multiculturalismnand its multicultural conser’ative progeny,nall of whom expend great effort tonfind some middle ground between thenWASP self-loathing essential...
Principalities & Powers
The New Meaning of “Racism”nThe tedium tliat descended upon the nation’snpolitics last winter when Bush II ascendednthe presidential throne was relievednbriefly in the waning days of thenClinton era by the bitter breezes that waftednaround some of the new President’snCabinet appointments. After repeatedlynmuttering his meaningless campaign slogan,n”I’m a uniter, not a divider,” Mr.nBush suddenly found himself...
Principalities & Powers
ly what happened. “Apartheid” endednthe day Nelson Mandela and his CommunistnPart)’-dominated African NationalnCongress came to power, and not anmoment before.n”Racism,” concisely redefined, isnmerely opposition to nonwhite power ornto any measure that promises such powernor support for any measure or institutionnthat thwarts such power. The rationalenbehind the new meaning of the word isnthe claim that in...
Principalities & Powers
Free at LastnI’lie Rockford school-desegregation lawsuitnis finally over—or at least it will be,non Sunday, June 30, 2002. Yesterday—nWednesday, April 18 —the United StatesnCourt of Appeals for the Seventh Circuitnoverruled federal Magistrate P. MichaelnMahoney and granted tlie school districtn”unitary status” (the legal term for being,nin the court’s words, “sufficiently desegregatednto recjuire the dissoluHon of the decreenand...
Letter From Venice
Letter From Venicenby Andrei NavrozovnUp With PrejudicenI have been a Eurocentric, heterosexual,nwhite male ever since 1 was a little baby.nAn unreconstructed Marxist would saynthat this accident of birth — carelessly amplifiednof late by the sybaritic sojourn in anpalazzo on the Grand Canal whose windowsnwatch the West decline over thencampanile of Santa Maria Gloriosa deinFrari —is...
Letter From Wisconsin
one leaky roof, sharing a bath and a telephone.nBut Bombay does not suffer fromnpovert}’; it suffers from besHalit}’. If younare a Russian living under Brezhnev onntwo rubles a day, as often as not you willnfind a bucket of paint to make your cornernof a hopeless universe slightly morenhabitable; if you are an Italian living innthe...
Letter From Wisconsin
only distinction is the bar and the fact thatnit is ahnost the terminus of the Mid ContinentnRailway, a line used and maintainednby a steam-railway museum innNorth Freedom. The train will stop innLaRue if someone flags it down, but normallynit runs into the deserted limestonenquarry, nearly a mile further down thenline. There, the little engine, either...
Letter From Wisconsin
But the Mellotones are impervious,nand the dancers are not critical of theirnstage habits. Nor is the crowd concernednwhen they modify a rendition of “Innthe Mood.” The Cordovox player hasnslipped over to pick up a tenor sax. He’snplaying about a c|uarter-tone sharp, and itnsets my back teeth dancing in sync withnthose on the floor. The valve-trombonenman...
Letter From Arizona
pass of stars, we strike tlie equipment andnreturn to our hotel for a few hours’ sleep.nWe’re up in time for a 9:00 A.M. breakfast.nAll the tapes from the shoot are nestlednsafely in the van, and we’re on ournway home. A five-day road trip, a projectndepicting this fine obsession, producednby a compulsion of our own.nMy great-grandfather...
American Interest
Robert Hanssen and the NewnMeaning of TreasonnA year ago, Robert Philip Hanssen apparentlynfelt the need to explain to the Rnssiansnhis motives for supplying them withnthousands of top-secret U.S. intelligencendocuments over the preceding decadenand a half The veteran FBI agent wrotenthem a letter, confessing that he is neitherninsanely brave, nor merely insane,nbut “insanely loyal” to his...
Politics
POLITICSnBilly in thenLowgroundnhy ]anet Scott BarlownV/ou may look bad, Bill, but wenX look just plaiu stupid.” That wasnthe wounded and furious summation ofnWashington Post columnist Richard Cohennupon Bill Clinton’s inglorious exitnfrom the presidency. Many cjuestions arenraised by that single sentence from a lonenwriter, the first being: Who is the “we”nCohen referred to? His answer: We...
Politics
and varied (facile) talents of our first babyboomernpresident—are now, when observednin an ex-president {ex: Has therenever been a more powerful prefix?), not ansource of fascination but a source of chagrin.nThe people who believed that BillnClinton made the presidency interestingnare finally confronting their 180-degreenmistake: To the extent Bill Clinton wasninteresting, it was the presidency thatnmade him...
Politics
icans understood tinat character was central,nthat what a politician espousedncould not take precedence over his personalnlife, that the policies he favoredncould not be the final yardstick for judgment.nThese days, the worst kind of peoplencan retain popularity simply becausenof their political stance. This, of course,nis what happens in a totalitarian society,nwhere moral judgments are replaced bynpart)’...
Religion
Duke Chapel,nThen and Nownby Mark TooleynI n December, tlie dean of the chapel atnDuke University in North CaroHna,nalong with the school’s president, announcednthat same-sex “weddings” couldnbe celebrated at Duke’s imposing Gothicnchapel. The announcement came asnsomewhat of a surprise: Duke is affiliatednwith the United Methodist Church,nwhich officially disapproves of same-sexnunions. Moreover, the dean is WilliamnWillimon, a...
Art
chapel would help to determine whethernthe common culture would be “inspirednby Chrishan or pagan conceptions of thenmeaning and purpose of human life.” Asnthe “heart of the university,” it would proclaimn”eternal verities” and insist thatn”Thou shalt have no other gods.”nLynn Hough, then-dean of Drew TheologicalnSeminary in New Jersey, deliverednthe main dedicatory sermon:nThe cathedral on the campus...
In the Dark: Fearful Symmetry
Fearful SymmetrynOne of my favorite films is Carol Reed’sn1960 adaptation of Graham Greene’snnovel Our Man in Havana, which tellsnthe tale of James Wormold, an ordinarynEnglishman somehow marooned in pre-nGastro Havana, where he manages a vacnumnshop.nThis most unadventurous of fellowsnsuddenly finds himself seduced into spyingnfor British military intelligence by thenpromise of big money. Wliolly unsuitednto the...
In the Dark: Fearful Symmetry
thetize himself against any vestiges of humannfeeling. For others, he can only affordnto feel contempt. Yet, as repellent asnhe is, he’s nonetheless fascinating. Youncannot help wondering how he becamenthis moral cretin. Is it his rottenness thatndraws a certain kind of woman to him?nDoes he somehow inspire a paradoxicalndesire both to enjoy and to tame hisncrude...
The Hundredth Meridian
Getting Out of DodgenThe Founding Fathers intended then”Enumeration” (Article I, Section 2) notnonly as a means of assuring representationalnequality among the states but as angraph displaying the growth of the Americannnation in size and prosperity. For almostn200 years, the decennial censusncould plausibly be accepted as doingnthat. The last three censuses (those ofn1980, 1990, and 2000),...
The Hundredth Meridian
choice, “because you can’t beat the qualit)’nof life” in small-town America, as onenyoung woman explained to the (probablynflabbergasted) AP. If Lusk isn’t enoughnfor you, you can move to Fort Collins,nDenver, or Colorado Springs; when Uticangets wearisome and you can no longernpay for the upkeep on your grandparent’snhouse, the humming, unconstrainedncities of Wichita, Topeka, and Manhattannare...
The Hundredth Meridian
American Outlook, a bimonthly anthologynof the world’s best writing on the future,nexamines the ideas, people, trends, andntechnologies at work shaping the futurentoday.nThe quarterly publication of the Hudson InstitutenAmerican Outlook is realistic and optimistic,nbelieving that any problems human beingsncan create, people can solve. Each issue isntailored to readers’ personal intersts:n• Business and the Economyn• Social Concernsn•...
The Hundredth Meridian
Louis BromfieldnHamlin GarlandnBooth TarkingtonnGlenway WescottnLaura Ingalls WildernSherwood AndersonnErnest HemingwaynOle RolvaagnSinclair LewisnSterling NorthnEdgar Lee MastersnVachel LindsaynHart Crane,nTHE ROCKFORD INSTITUTE’SnFOURTH ANNUAL SUMMER SCHOOLn”The American Midwest”nJuly 24-28, 2001nDr. Thomas FlemingnPresident of The Rockford Institute and editor of ChroniclesnWilliam MillsnAuthor of The Arkansas: An American River and the forthcoming Black Sea SketchesnJustin RaimondonFounding editor oi Antiwar.com, author of Reclaiming...
Polemics & Exchanges
EDITORrnThomas FlemingrnEXECUTIVE EDITORrnScott P. RichertrnSENIOR EDITOR, BOOKSrnChilton Williamson, ]r.rnASSISTANT EDITORrnAaron D. WolfrnART DIRECTORrnH. Ward SterettrnDESIGNERrnMelanie AndersonrnCONTRIBUTING EDITORSrnKatherine Dalton, Samuel Francis,rnGeorge Garrett, Paul Gottfried,rnPhilip Jenkins, ].0. Tate, MichaelrnWashburn, Clyde WilsonrnCORRESPONDING EDITORSrnfanet Scott Barlow, Bill Kauffman,rnDonald Livingston, William Mills,rnWilliam Murchison, AndreirnNavrozov, Jacob NeusnerrnEILM EDITORrnGeorge McCartneyrnFOREIGN-AFFAIRS EDITORrnSrdja Tn/ioviernLEGAL-AEFAIRS EDI TORrnStephen B. PresserrnRELIGION EDITORrnHarold O.J. BrownrnCIRCLILATION MANACiERrnCindy LinkrnPUBLISHERrnThe Rockford...
Polemics & Exchanges
On Finding a RefugernChronicles is by far the best political/culturalrnjournal in America today and, unfortunately,rnthe only consistent voice ofrntraditional, rooted conservatism. Yourrnunapologetic defense of Christianity andrnWestern civilization offers some hopernthat both might enjoy a rebirth before it isrntoo late.rnI am a refugee from the “mainstream”rnconservative press. I had known aboutrnChronicles for some time but did...
Cultural Revolutions
CULTURAL REVOLUTIONSrnN E D FLANDERS- t h e gregarious,rneffeminate, Bible-thumping next-doorneighborrnof Homer J. Simpson —hasrnbeen canonized bv Christianity Today.rnthe leading voice of American evangclicalisni.rnOn the February 2001 cover,rn”Saint Flanders” is depicted in a By/anhncrnicon, holding a jewel-covered bookrnin hi,s left hand and making the sign ofrnthe HoK’ Trinifv with his right. Margernand Honrer (who holds...
Cultural Revolutions
erence on tlie relationship betweenrnChristianit}-, money, and economics, itrnbecame evident that ahiiost everyonernshared M. Conrtial’s impression of thernnew President and of what his presidenc’rnmight mean. The’ seem to derive theirrnknowledge chieflv from a eombinahon ofrnDemocrahc Parh’ press releases and thernleading U.S. media, such as the NewYorkrnTimes. The major French dailies {Le Figarornand Le Monde] have...
Cultural Revolutions
Moldovan Dniester republic, a largelyrnSlavic region that had long sought Moscow’srnprotection from a pro-Rumanianrngovernment.rnMeanwhile, Ukraine also appears tornbe moving closer to Russia —and awayrnfrom NATO. Ukrainian President LeonidrnKuchma, accused of ordering thernmurder last fall of journalist GcorgyrnGongadze, who had chronicled Kuchma’srncozy relations with the Ukrainianrnand Russian oligarch/mafia class, is nowrnunder pressure to resign. The Russiansrnjumped...
Cultural Revolutions
CHRONICLES’ BACK ISSUES, TAPES, AND BOOKSrnThe Rockford Institute’s Rome ConviviumrnLEGENDS OF EARLY ROME; ROMAN MYTHS AND RITUALS—Audiotape—rnF-rom the earliest iron-age seltlemenis on the Palatine Hill through tales of Romulus andrnRemus and Aeneas, classicist Thomas Fleming describes how the legends of the Romansrninspired their greatness for 500 years, while art historian Gail Fleming explains their religiousrnpractices...
Two Rooms With a View
PERSPECTIVErnTwo Rooms With a Viewrnby Thomas FlemingrnIt has been the usual 56-hour da- spent in airports under siegernfrom CNN and mierovvave-burued pizza, eramped into buses,rntaxis, and the midget seats of American Airlines steerage withrntwo varieties of imdriukable \ine-produet to wash down thern”looks-like-chieken” alternative to the ine’itable “pasta” theyrnserve on flights to Italv, but now we...
Two Rooms With a View
sense of wlicre lie stood. When one Cambridge stndent makesrnthe ease for having loalh’ to “the great world,” his friend tellsrnhim thatrntnral; it was also moral. As a conventional radical, Lue’ hadrnbeen leariring to despise the suburban bourgeoisie and anonernoutside the charmedrn’I’liere is no great world at all, onl a little earth, for e’errnisolated from...
Whirling Dervish
Whirling Dervishrnby Charles Edward EatonrnGreen is whirling, whirling—who can stop it?rnEcstasy is health, but has some aspects of disease:rnKeep turning like the dervish—you fall or vomit.rnWhat an odd figure this may seem for spring! —rnThe daze of green makes you dizzv as a wobbling top:rnGreen is in the air you breathe—the pollen and thernpoisoning.rnThe dervish...
Rome As You Find It
VIEWSrnRome As You Find ItrnAmerican and British Writers in the Eternal Cityrnby Chilton Williamson, Jr.rnFor Englishmen, the Roman Forum was nearly as much arnpart of their polihcal heritage as the Tower of London orrnWestminster Abbey. Since Colonial America was a part ofrnBritish culture, educated American colonists shared in thernBritish reverence for antiquity. Eighteenth-century EngHshnienrn(and those...
Rome As You Find It
A fes- d;is after his arrival, he wrote to his father in F.ngland;rnI am now Dear Sir at Rome. If it was diffieult before torngi’e ‘ou or Mrs. Gibbon anv aeeount of what I saw it isrnimpo,ssil)le liere. I have ahead) found sueli a fund of entertainmentrnfor a mind somewhat prepared for it bv anrnaequaintance...
Rome As You Find It
‘lliat spring, the Revolution of 1848 broke out all over Europern—Paris, Berlin, and finally Milan, wliose citizens drovernPrincc Radetzky’s troops out of the citv’ and, for a while, out ofrnI,onihard. Ossoli and Margaret were overjovcd by thesernevents; as Fuller wrote, “I ha’e seen the Austrian arms draggedrnthrough tlie streets of Rome and burned in the...
Rome As You Find It
found an array of classical backdrops for his characters, includingrnRoderick Hudson, the protagonist of his first book, DaisyrnMiller, and Isabel Archer. For both, the Colosseum providesrnthe setting for their greatest scenes.rnAt some point early in the 20th century, foreign visitors —rnAmericans in particular—began arriving in Rome with the aimrnof observing the future at work, rather...
Faith in the Hour of Trial
Faith in the Hour of TrialrnLessons From Rome in the Age of Martyrsrnby Aaron D. Wolfrnthe I J ehold,” said the Lord, “I send you forth as sheep inrn- U midst of wolves.” With tliis statement and bv the Testamentrnof His Own Blood, Christ inaugurated the Age of Marhrsrn—the first 300 vears of the Chrisfian...
The Spring That Was Not Forthcoming
pointed for him,” while St. Paul endured for but a little whilernlonger, before “departing thus from this world.” Peter was crueifiedrnupside down on Vatican Hill, where his bones now r e s t -rnHie place where Constanhne located his “trophy.” St. Paul vasrnbeheaded —”poured out like a drink offering” —having “finishedrnthe course” and “kept the...
The Spring That Was Not Forthcoming
for the Lord Jesirs Christ: for this gies us salvation and joyfnlncssrnbefore his dreadful judgment seat, at whieh all the woddrnmust appear.”rnSeptimius Sexerus (A.O. 193-211) restored order after the folliesrnof Marens’s son Commodus and the civil wars that followedrnhis murder. Seerus issued the first ediet that aetualh forbaderneonersion to Christianih”. Leonidas, the father of Origen,...
Roman Spies and Spies in Rome
Roman Spies and Spies in Romernby Srdja TrifkovicrnIn the summer of 1943, as Allied forces reached Italy, U.S.rnArm)’ counterintelligence warned GIs, “You are no longer inrnKansas City, San Francisco, or Ada, Oklahoma, but in a Europeanrncountry where espionage has been second nature to thernpopulation for centuries.”rnThat “second nature” extends all the way back to early...
Roman Spies and Spies in Rome
luded with the officials who could pay them off or promoterntheir careers. Upright cidzens could be falsely accused of treason,rnwhile real plotters remained unhindered.rnFor centuries after the Goth “immigrahon,” Rome declinedrnin size and importance. Throughout medieval times, rivalsrnfor the papacy and Roman noble families employed cloakand-rndagger techniques against each other, but the first figure ofrnJames...
Roman Spies and Spies in Rome
or former fascists. The passionate debate oer the future of therniiionarcliy in Ital}’, which followed the defeat of Nazi Germanyrnand the P’ascist Republic in Northern Italy, affected the ItalianrnRoyal Navy, which Angleton himself described as “the strongholdrnof Monarchism.” Angered by the militant monarchism ofrnhis superiors, a voung republican in the naval intelligence sectionrntook matters into...
English Tracts
OPINIONSrnEnglish Tractsrnby Derek Turnerrn”England, with all thy faults, I love thee still.”rn—William Covvper, The Task, 11rnThe English: A Portrait of a Peoplernhy jeremv PaxmanrnUmdon: Penguin; 309 pp., £7.99rnEngland—An Elegyrnhy Roger Scndonrnlondon: Chatto & Windus;rn270 pp., £16.99rnF or the last ?00 ears, “England” andrn”Britain” liave been largely synonvnious.rnWhen Glasgow-born General SirrnJohn Moore lay dying at Corunna,...
English Tracts
presenter who has hosted such flagshiprnprograms as Newsnight and UniversityrnChallenge. Famous for his acerbity withrnpoliticians, he now wields his cynical talentrnagainst the English, whom he admiresrnfor their tolerance, individualism,rnsense of fair play, and “cussedness,” butrnwhose illusions he seeks to examine andrnundermine.rnHis tone is part supercilious, part affectionate.rnLike his television persona, ThernEnglish is often dismissive of...
English Tracts
He may be overstating the case: If the Puritansrndid not do as much damage as theyrnmight have done, it was not for want ofrntrying.rnBut such sallies are made consciously;rnScruton is perfectly aware of the chasmrnbetween principle and practice. For example,rneen in the midst of rhapsodizingrnabout Anglicanism —”robed choir boysrnsang in procession, leading the RevrnVaughan-Wilkes to...
Collision Course
REVIEWSrnCollision Coursernhy Thomas FlemingrnPioIXrnhy Roberto de MattelrnCasale Monferrato: Piemme;rn253 pp., £30rnThe polemics engendered by the beahficahonrnof Pope Pius IX are un-rnHkely to go away. When all the falserncharges of anhscmitism arc set aside, thernfact remains that diis one man may haerndone more to stem the tide of liberalismrnthan all the great English and Americanrnconservatives of...
Fighting the Big War
coopt Catholic rituals. On Easter, a renegadernpriest served “Mass” in a mockrnCatholic cereinon’ in St. Peter’s, completernwith republican symbols, histead ofrnthe Pope, Maz/ini appeared on the balc()rnn- beside the priest. Mazzini’s governmentrnfined the canons of the cathedralrnwho refused to take part in the blasphemy.rnin later years. Pope Pius IX—still anrnhumane reformer—watched as the PiedniontesernKingdom of...
Two Between the Ribs
joined by more troop ships and seeralrndestroyer escorts. This armada had beenrnassembled for “Operation Olympia” —rnthe invasion of Japan.rnWilHs powerfully conveys the reliefrnthat he and his fellow Marines felt whenrnthe dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshimarnand Nagasaki—not the plannedrnamphibious invasion — ended the Pacificrnwar. Had the bomb not been dropped,rnthe invasion of Japan woidd...
I Am Not Ashamed Either
hveen the ribs! Intellectualism—the cultrnof ignorant indignation—amounts to thernseeking of sainthood by revolting againstrna societ)’ that is, supposedly, ignorant andrnclueless. For Wolfe, however, the self-appointedrnsaints have missed the real point:rnHow could they not notice and give creditrnto America’s astounding successes —rnthe innovation, the democratic spirit, thernfreedom, the unimaginable affluence ofrnthe common people?rnHilaire Belloc, who hated...
The Janus Faces of War
been forgotten.” If that is so—iind I don’trndoubt that it is —then Hfe is too short notrnonly for viewing that movie, but also forrnreading about it.rnNevertheless, Death on the Cheap isrngood to have for its exposition regardingrnB movies and the eitations of some goodrnnoirs that man people toda are inrnsearch of. Lyons has succeeded in...