In The Darkrnby George McCartneyrnSentiment and SentimentalityrnThere’s a crucial difference between sentimentrnand sentimentality. The first is arndirect, emotional response to strongrnprovocation; the second, a self-conscionsrnpursuit of provocation in order to revel inrnemotion. One is spontaneous; the other,rnmanufactured. This distinction is a troublingrnone for the artist, whose business itrnis to fabricate occasions that elicit honestrnemotions. As...

veals his sentimentality: Innocence andrnniceness do not redeem; virtue does, andrnvirtue requires honing on the grindingrnwheel of hard experience. Betty mayrnlearn she’s not in Kansas anymore, butrnthis hardly equips her to defeat wickedrnwitches and save cowardly lions. LaButernis a talented fdmmaker, but he needs torntake some time off to ingest a healthyrndose of Nathaniel Hawthorne,...

The Hundredth Meridianrnby Chilton Williamson, ]r.rnThe End of DroughtrnSomewhere between Muddy Gap andrnthe old uranium town of Jeffrey City I becamernaware of my lungs, painfully expandingrnand contracting inside my denimrnshirt. Beyond Jeffrey City the smokerncloud was visible to the northwest, a pinkish-rngrey mass hanging on the mountainousrnhorizon and planed along its upperrnedge by atmospheric winds:...

ted into the thin topsoil. No sign of thernsheepherder riding him, either.rn”What’s wrong with Larki?” I asked,rnturning in the saddle.rn”She won’t move.”rn”Wliat do you mean, won’t move?”rn”You’re looking at what I mean, aren’trnyou?”rnOnly dudes and amateurs ever strike arnhorse. Fortunately, there are other formsrnof discipline available to the seasonedrnhorseman. When a couple of these hadrnbeen...

At Last!rnA book that exposes the true cuhural significance of the Clinton presidencyrnThe Nonpatriotic President: A Survey of the Clinton Yearsrnby Janet Scott BarlowrnWhitewater . . . Filegate . . . Monica LewinskyrnThe scandals are only the beginningrnIt )ou think that Bill Clinton’s influence will end when hernleaves office, ou need to read this book....

”A POWERFUL ANDrnMOVING NOVEL..rnA lANDAdARK EVENT.” “A powerful and moving novel of World War IIrnby one of Italy’s most acclaimed writers. Itsrnpublication in English is a landmarkrnevent. An unforgettablernnovel of the most catastrophicrnevent in history, written by onernwho lived through it.”rn—Carlo D’Este, AuthorrnPatton: A Genius For Warrn”A massive and massivelyrnimpressive novel in the finestrnand most...

Thomas I’lemingrnKXECUTINK IvniTOKrnScoff P. RicherirnSENIOR I’-.DI TOR, BOOKSrnChilton Williamson, jr.rnA s s i S T W i h ; n i i ( )RrnJeffrey’ Thomas KvhnerrnARI niRIXTORrnH. Ward SlerettrnDKSIOM’RrnMelanie AndersonrnOOMRIBl’TIXC; I’.niTORSrnKatherine Dalion, Samuel Traneis,rnCeorge Garrett, Paul Gottfried,rnPlulih Jenkins, ].(). Tate, KUehaelrnWashburn, Clyde WilsonrnCORRESPONDINC, i:ni’l’ORSrnJanet Scott Barhnv, Bill Kaidfnian,rnDonald Livingston, William Mills,rnWilliam Minvhison, AndreirniSavrozov, Jacob feusnerrnl;-|Ll...

CULTURAL REVOLUTIONSrnOUR FREE FEDERAL REPUBLIC,rnonce the env)’ of the world, is sinking everrnfurther into the decadence of empire.rnWe can scarcely call “republican” arnregime in which oligarchical judges contravenernlaw, common sense, and majority’rnwill, and yet are obeyed by 270 millionrn”citizens” with barely a murmm; inrnwhich the media of education and informationrncontract steadily into a uniformrnunthinking orthodoxy...

that over 70 percent of American otersrnbelicc that the “economy is in goodrnshape” and the “conntrv is on the rightrntrack.” More importantl, the publicrncredits the Chnton-Gorc administrahonrnfor the “booming economy.” Bnsh’s advisorsrnmistakenly assume that the nation’srndisgust with Clinton’s sordid sexual behaviorrnand the need to “restore moral integritv”rnto the Wliite f^ousc is enough tornconvince voters to...

creased spending (both public and private)rnis part of tlic problem of Americanrneducation, not its solution.rnThe September 2000 issue of FoimdationrnWatch, a publieahon of the CapitalrnResearch Center in Washington, D.C.,rnreveals diat private companies and foundationsrn—including the Walter F. AnnenbergrnFoundation, the Wallace-Reader’srnDigest Funds, the Bill and MelindarnGates Foundahon, the Carnegie Corporation,rnthe Soros Foundation, and thernWalton I^’amiK Foundation...

\c have willfulK’ accepted grinds on inexorabK’.rnThe American Civil LibertiesrnUnion of Massachusetts will, ot course,rndefend tlic North American Man/BoyrnLove Association against a federal lawsuitrnthat claims that the NAMBLA websiternand literature incited the murder of a tenyear-rnold bov. Two men are scning lifernsentences for that murder, but the ACLUrnbelieves that advocacy of pedophilia is arnFirst Amendment...

rRESIDENT CLINTON failed tornrestart the Middle East peace process atrnthe United Nations’ “millennial” summitrnin New York in September. In meetingsrnwith Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barakrnand Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, Clintonrnmade one final attempt to provide hisrnpresidency with a badly needed foreignrnpolicy success by brokering a deal.rnHis failure is not surprising, and it mayrnhave a silver...

PERSPECTIVErnVote Claudius: He’ll Leave Your Sons Alonernby Thomas FlemingrnWhen Edmund Burke ealled perfeet democrae’ “thernmost shameful thing in the world,” he was not referringrnto the mixed forms of popular government that had existed inrnancient Greece and Rome, much less to the ncwlv liberatedrnEnglish colonies that had been struggling to form “a more perfectrnunion” on the...

House. My experience of third-party candidates is not limitedrnto this qnasi-neighbor, who only showed up next door once orrnhvice to sell the propert) (which, to show his contempt for hisrnneighbors, he had allowed to become run-down and had rentedrnout to what some neighbors called a biker gang) and to complainrnabout my famous tall bushes. I...

ing anyone to pa’ them for not thinking. “Ignorance niakcthrnmost men go into a parh,” obscr ed the generons HaHfax, “andrnshame keepedi them from going ont of it.”rnIspeak from admitted!} limited knouledgc: M only real experiencernof presidential campaigning (apart from goingrndoor-to-door for Stevenson when I was 11) came in 1964. 1 wasrna college student and...

icv is going to be exposed, and when it is, tlie establishment villrnfind that there is nothing behind their commitments. ThernAmerican people don’t understand them, don’t know abontrnthem, and are going to be unwilling to pav for diem with thernblood of dieir sons. One of the stupidest things this countr c-rner did was to miss...

Folks who want to restore American independence, vhereverrnthey are on tlie spectrum, are welcome. Now some won’trncome to me because I’m pro-life. But that is simply who I am.rnAnd I am not walking away from those folks or that vision or thatrnideal or the idea that we ought to alter the Supreme Court andrndecentralize government...

leans.rnI’m not sure what Bill Gates did to me to be attacked by thernantitrust division of the Department of Justice. As far as I know,rnhe tried to give me a free browser. Microsoft is a national asset.rnIf they did something wrong, fine them, and tell them, “Don’trndo it again.” But don’t smash up this company.rn((/Chronicles...

and it should be returned to the states, I thiuk that’s a pro-Ufe position.rnK: Wliat do you expect will be your place in American politicalrnhistor}’? Harbinger, gadfly . .. ?rnB: I’ve had a phenomenal run in m- life. 1 came into polities atrnjust the right hme. I was on the Goklwatcr right, an editorialrnwriter, and...

tender currency has been funded into gold-bearingrnbonds, thereby adding milHons to the burden of the people.rnSilver, which has been accepted as coin since therndawn of history, has been demonetized to add to the purchasingrnpower of gold by decreasing the value of all formsrnof property as well as human labor, and the supply of currencyrnis purposely...

lace even less.rnA Senator Buchanan from Virginia or a Representative Naderrnfrom Connecticut would probablv fare better in November.rnBoth also face onerous ballot-access laws, which the major partiesrnuse to restrict polihcai compehhon. A considerable amountrnof a third part”s resources are spent on qualifying for the ballot.rnThis is money that is unavailable for advertising and get-out-thevotcrndrives in...

promising them that if elected, he will put a stop to the unconstitutionalrnaggrandizement of the welfare state, pursued aggressivelyrnby ever}’ Canadian government since Trudeau came tornpower in 1968. He has also promised to end social engineeringrnby the courts, which began when I’rndeau imposed a writtenrnbill of rights in 1982. To the horror of the elites,...

mitting (or encouraging) his supporters to defame Day as arndangerous “extremist.” (His campaign manager actually comparedrnDay to ]im Jones of Jonestown infam)-,) On the secondrnballot, Day humiliated Manning, winning 64 percent to 36 percent.rnManning was shocked by the result. So were the media,rnwhich had come to love Manning as the “conservative” whornplays by his enemies’...

“All the NewsrnUnfit to Print” ignsJ of tlje tItmesJrnVol. 2 No. 11 November 2000rnIn light of the vital importance of thernMiddle East to American interests, it is curiousrnthat our media have chosen not to reportrnArab reactions, which have beenrnuniformly negative, to Sen. Joseph Lieberman’srnvice-presidential candidacy. FromrnAmerica’s friends in the Persian Gulf andrnEgypt to its foes...

covering t h e i r self-confidencernby rebuilding their infrastructurernand resources.rnThe Irish Times also had harsh wordsrnfor U.S. pohcy in another conflict-riddenrnpart of the world. The leading Dublin dailyrnwarned that, far from bringing peace,rnChnton’s “war on drugs” will drag Colombiarndeeper into bloodshed (August 23):rnIronically, with Clinton keenrnto enhance the image of hisrnpresidency, Plan Colombia mayrnleave...

vices. “The Krell forgot one thing, monstersrnfrom the Id,” one of the fihn’s charactersrnexplains. It was not only their enlightenedrnintellects that wielded powerrnbut their unacknowledged self-will: Theyrncoidd not prevent themselves from unleashingrnthe destructive forces of their aggressionrnand lust.rnJones finds in this piece of popular entertainmentrnan allegory of the Enlightenmentrnand its aftermath. He argues that,rnsince the...

to a point, but Jones overreaches; unfetteredrnby considerations of authorial purpose,rnhis interpretations become overlyrningenious. Most glaringly, he willfullyrnmisreads Don Siegel’s classic. Invasion ofrnthe Body Snatchers, contending that thernstory’s aliens proliferate in response to thernhero and heroine’s divorced condition,rnthereby allegorically scolding them forrntheir sexual waywardness. But it is clearrnfrom both Jack Finney’s novel and thernfilm that...

tempt to lay the scientifie groundwork forrna Grand Unified Theor’ of human Hfe.rnProfessor Wilson’s enthusiasm reealledrnmy own, but it also reminded me that, afterrnone year and a change of majors, I hadrnre-read the sermon. Now, it struck me asrnhubristie. The idea that God could berncontained in a mathematical formula (orrna series of them) seemed a...

Are We Decadent?rnIf there is one premise that serves to uniternthe Old Right, it is that the West—orrnAmerica, or Christendom, or whateverrnlabel and identity they want to specify—rnis in trouble, has been in trouble for arnlong time, and is probably not going tornget out of trouble for quite a while, if ever.rnIn a famous but...

that truth is relative,” Bloom wrote in ThernClosing of the American Mind, and relativismrnwas to him the certain sign of thernuncertain future of civilization.rnRegardless of what Bloom’s studentsrnbelieved or said they believed, virtuallyrnno one other than professional philosophersrntruly espouses relativism, any morernthan anyone really acknowledges that hernis “decadent.” Students may profess relativismrnwhen they wish to...

CORRESPONDENCErnLetter FromrnMichiganrnby Greg KazarnThey Are Coming,rnFather AbrahamrnRepul)lican presidential nominee GeorgernW. Bush sa)s that immigration “is not arnproblem to be solved. It is the sign of arnsuecessful nation. New Amerieans are tornbe weleomed as neighbors and not to bernfeared as strangers.” In 1996, the Republicanrnplatform advocated an end to grantingrnautomatic citizenship to childrenrnborn to illegal aliens....

now held by a Democrat, not a Republican.rnBut that’s what Republicans thoughtrnwould happen after the 1990 Census,rnand it didn’t work out that way.” Backrnthen, the Michigan Republican Partyrnchair was Spencer Abraham.rnGreg Kaza served three terms in thernMichigan House of Representativesrn(J993-J998). He returned to his nativernMidwest recently after working onrnCapitol Hill analyzing the votingrnpatterns of members...

Halliwell has also made a video in whichrnshe appears dressed as a nun. But the formerrn”Ginger Spice” is no longer only arnsinger: She has been appointed rovingrnU.N. Population Fund Goodwill Ambassador,rnfrom which posihon she promotesrnsafe sex and the wider use of condoms.rnDoes Gore support her innovative approachrnto diplomacy, insulting andrnmocking the head of a sovereign...

dertoncs among themselves, lamentingrnthe barbarity of a country that allowsrnmeat and fish to be handled on the samernpremises. The natives were louder, butrnmore eurious than incensed: “What’srnthat you’re doing?” the’ would ask. “Oh,rnnothing,” Beppe vould reph’, relishingrnthe conflict between the individual andrnthe mass, “just some new kind oi octopusrnI got in. With feather on ’em.”...

square of tlie camp every 1 “^ minutes.rnThe true costs of maintaining Bondstcelrnarc not available —to all our inquiriesrnabout the price tag. Captain Berg’s responsernwas “a few million dollars.” Accordingrnto various estimates in the U.S.rnmedia, $’500 million has been spent onrnthe camp so far. Before departing, wernhad a snack at an enormous restaurantrnserving 25 kinds...

The American Interestrnby Srdja TrifkovicrnNational Missile-DefensernDeployment PostponedrnOn September I, President Clinton announcedrnthat he would leave to his successorrnthe decision on whether to movernfrom research and development to deploymentrnof the National Missile Defensern(NMD).rnThe announcement to shelve thernNMD was long overdue. The UnitedrnStates came very close to spending billionsrnof dollars—and risking a confrontationrnwith Russia and China, and...

VITAL SIGNSrnFOREIGN AFFAIRSrnarnThe Globetrotters:rnBush and Gore onrnForeign Pohcyrnby Jeffrey Thomas KuhnerrnIt’s the economy, stupid” is oncernagain the slogan of the Democraticrnpresidential campaign, but this timernaround it is also the Republican slogan.rnThe exclusive focus on domestic issuesrnmay reflect a general American contemptrnfor all things foreign, but there isrnanother reason for the lack of debate onrnforeign policy:...

casus), Russia poses uo threat to the vitalrninterests of the United States. But a Bushrnvictorv would continue the policy of humiliatingrnRussia, turning it from a vanquishedrnally into a resentful enemyrnseething with rage at the United States.rnhi i’^sia, Bush’s goal is to expand tradernwith China while constructing air anticommunistrnring of states around it, relyingrnon Japan as...

Fleetwood Mac’s apolitical “Don’t StoprnThinking About Tomorrow.”rnGeorge W. Bush, however, appears tornbe willing to learn from some of his father’srnmistakes: The clay he accepted thernRepublican nomination, his campaignrnreleased its original, official song, ‘I’herncoimtry song says nothing about Bush,rnbut it does extol working people. It is alsornone of the first presidenhal campaignrnsongs to have an original...

Not all the errors stem from anti-Americanism;rnsome are the result of ignorancernand sloppiness. Thus, the notes state thatrn”Jefferson’s first task as President was tornrepeal the Alien and Sedition Acts.” Actually,rnthe Acts were not repealed; theyrnsimply expired.rnLikewise, “In 1829, Andrew Jackson . . .rnwas decisively elected.” The election wasrnin 1828. During the Buchanan administration,rn”Mormons were threatening...

ing the floodgates to anyone who canrnfind a white ancestor who was an indenturedrnservant during the 17th or 18thrncenturies.rnTo decide who deserves reparations,rnthe government will have to accept thernlogical consequence of a generation of affirmahve-rnaction policy and acknowledgernthe official, statutory establishment of arnfederal system of racial classification,rnpreferably under a board with Cabinetrankrnstatus. Classification would be...

Many must have this affliction, sincernpaintings radiant with the beauty of thernartist and the model, pieces that prove Picassorncould really paint if he wanted to,rnwent for little money.rnAt the same time as the Paris sale, anrnAmerican gallery mounted a retrospectivernof Jackson Pollock, whose fanfarernone might have recited by heart: O thatrncourageous, refreshingly nose-thumbingrniconoclast! O so...

In The Darkrnby George McCartneyrnMaking Choices,rnTaking ChancesrnEer since Blaise Pascal made his wagerrnon the infinite, it seems the PVeneh havernheen gridlockcd at the intersection ofrnchance and choice. In a universe of incalculahlernodds, how should a personrnplace his het? hi his artful — hut neerrnarts—film, The Girl on the Bridge, directorrnPatrice Leconte takes up Pascal’srnchallenge and,...