The new players of the 1990’s, on thernother hand, possess Httle sense of lyricalrncomposition, turning out derivative garden-rnvariety hard-bop numbers writtenrnfrom chord changes without regard forrnmelody and harmony and often played inrnthe same up-tempo 4/4 meter, thereby illustrahngrnthe old insiders’ joke that therntwo scariest words in jazz are “originalrnmaterial.” Even when they lend themselvesrnto the...

among liis comrades, Wales refuses tornsurrender and take a lovaltv’ oath. Tliisrndecision saves his hfe, for, as lie watchesrnfrom the hush, his disarmed compatriotsrnare trcaclicrously massacred by federalrnforces acHng under the orders of Kansas’rnradical Republican senator, James Lane.rnLearning of Wales’ escape, Senator Lanernsends a detachment of Kansas cavalryrnknown as “Red Legs” to track and killrnhim....

of his film, for it jars both with Woodrell’srnbook and the fihri itself. In an essayrnfound on the website for the movie, Leernadmits that he both identifies and sympathizesrnwith the Southerners. However,rnhe goes on to argue that it was necessar)-rnfor progress that the North w in the war.rnHe starts by noting that manv peoplernthroughout the...

things only have instrumental value. Yournean sec this in the slots, the gaming tables,rnthe S3.95 all-you-can-eat buffets, therncall girls, the sports books, and the videopokerrnmachines. Outdated Las Vegasrncasinos (e.g., Dunes, Sands, Hacienda,rnLandmark) are demolished and replacedrnbv new and more elaborate facadesrnwhich can separate the tourists from theirrnmoney. Casinos, of course, do not giverncustomers anything in...

In The Darkrnhy George McCartneyrnThe Best RealityrnMoney Can Buy?rnWith few exceptions, there is an inversernrelationship between a film’s special-effectsrnbudget and its artistic imagination:rnCall it the Jurassic Law. When StevenrnSpielberg sicced his computerized dinosaursrnon us, he proved unequivocallyrnthat the more money spent on makingrnthings look dazzlingly real, the slackerrnthe plot and the flatter the characterization.rnThe Perfect...

teenager. Screenwriter Robert Rodat andrndirector Roland Emmerich have createdrnas honest a vision of war as one can imaginern— its wild mix of horror, stupidity, andrngrandeur—at least in the early scenes.rnThe film’s impressive attention to periodrndetail is more than merely picturesque.rnTake Emmerich’s decision tornilluminate his interiors with 18th-centuryrncandlelight. This enables him to presentrnMel Gibsorr’s character, Benjamin...

The Hundredth Meridianrnby Chilton Williamson, Jr.rnA Cowboy at CaramoorrnIt’s a long ride to hear Andrea Mareovicci,rnthe Maria Calks of cabaret, in concertrnafter I missed her in Billings a conplernof years ago. At Katonah, New York, Irnchecked into the first motel I saw, snubbingrnthe horse between a Lexus and arnVW bus covered with flower decals, leftrnover...

wraparound skirt and sleeveless black toprnwith a loose-knit white shawl over it, metrnme on the eneloscd porch. She carriedrnthe wine to the kitchen, and Mrs. Carrollrngave me a tour of the house, graciouslyrncalling my attention to what she calledrn”your lovely flowers” ensconced in a vasernin one of the public rooms. From thernkitchen, Andrea could be...

from below rises to cool the entire house.rn”And it doesn’t cost her a cent!” Andrearnfinished admiringly.rnThe conversation turned briefly tornshow business, for me a well-timed reminderrnthat Andrea Marcovicci, whom Irnknow almost entirely so far as a singer andrnmusician, is in addition a distinguishedrnactress whose life and career remainrndeeply embedded in the theatrical andrnfilm worlds. (Bringing...

CHRONICLES’ BACK ISSUES, TAPES, AND BOOKSrnOn Constitutionalism, and Judicial TyrannyrnDECONSTRUCTING JUSTICE—July 1999—Thomas Fleming on justice andrnthoughtcrime, Philip Jenkins on the presumption of innocence and other fairy tales,rnStephen B. Presser on the living Constitution and the death of sovereignty, and AntonyrnFlew on the mirage of John Rawls. Plus Justin Raimondo on Matthew Shepard and thernthought police...

Four Romes: One Eternal Cityrn-•^fe^.rne^MMf^rn^^Km^%%M?^^rnSi’fc…rn^>9CJpUrn^H^”^ ^O^BF – ‘ .^^flUft^rn^IHff^ ‘>^£’ ^^UBIBQ ^ K ^ ^ i r – ^ ^ i ^rn^ ^ ^ H r i n^^f^^ii ***’Ir^nMr^F^rn^ ^ ^ • u | g H | w | ^ a^yHi^j^^^^rn'”‘–p’rn•rn4Jrn**#rn/o/nrnChronicles editors Thomas Fleming, ChiltonrnWilliamson, Jr., Srdja Trifkovic, and Andrei Navrozov,rnalong with architectrnDr. James Patrick,...

EDITORrnThomas FlemingrnEXECUTIVE EDITORrnScott P. RichertrnSENIOR EDITOR, BOOKSrnChilton Williamson, Jr.rnASSISTANT EDITORrnJeffrey Thomas KuhnerrnART DIRECTORrnH. Ward SterettrnDESIGNERrnMelanie AndersonrnCONTRIBUTING EDITORSrnKatherine Dalton, Samuel Francis,rnGeorge Garrett, Paul Gottfried,rnPhilip Jenkins, J.O. Tate, MichaelrnWashburn, Clyde WilsonrnCORRESPONDING EDITORSrnJanet Scott Barlow, Bill Kauffman,rnDonald Livingston, William Mills,rnWilliam Murchison, Andreirnhlavrozov, Jacob NeusnerrnFILM EDITORrnGeorge McCartneyrnFOREIGN AFFAIRS EDITORrnSrdja TrifkovicrnLEGAL AFFAIRS EDITORrnStephen B. PresserrnRELIGION EDITORrnHarold O.J. BrownrnEDITORIAL SECRETARYrnLeann DobbsrnCIRCULATION...

raelite socieh’, below the pure Israeliternstock, even into Rabbinic times—a phenomenonrnthat attests to the importancernof bloodlines throughout Jewish histor)’.rnWhile the marriage practices of the Kohanimrnare indeed stricter than those ofrnother Jews, there is no question that marriagerninto the Jewish gene pool was veryrninfrequent until quite recently, and modernrnpopulation genetic studies show ver}’rnlittle genetic admixture between...

dencc, I assume that the reason for thisrnlag is cultural. Protcstauts who wallow inrnsocial guilt and hac lost the Puritanrnvirtues are headed for self-destruction.rnBut they ha’e certainly not been cognitirncly shortchanged. Nor have the otherrnscions of a rich European ci’ilization,rnw hich has been indispen.sablc for the intellectualrnand artistic enrichment of Jewsrnand other groups.rnA final point:...

candidate. Exeryone knows the list —rnTraxelgate, national health care, campaignrnfinance scandals, the bombing ofrnYugoslavia.rnBut despite her chic radicalism, Mrs.rnClinton is not the political operator thatrnher husband is. She is cold, rigid, andrnself-righteous. The notion that she couldrnbecome a serious force in American politicsrnis an illusion of both the left and thernright.rnFor all of Mrs. Clinton’s...

gyman who actually bears arms againstrnthe foe.rnA reviewer in National Review complainedrnthat Gibson’s character “does notrnfight for principle or country—at leastrnnot at first—but for vengeance. The relevantrnpolitical institution is not South Carolina,rnbut the family. This seems like arnpretty serious cop-out for a film calledrn’The Patriot.'”rnBut maybe that’s a point that few peoplerntoday (especially at National...

ing moralit}’ and religion from the publicrnsquare, and, in general, carrying out thernextraconstitutional, policymaking legacyrnof die Warren Court.rnMany of those on the Court who seemrnnot to care about their constitutional rolernwere Republican appointees, but it is thernDemocrats who want to make the futurernof Supreme Court policymaking a campaignrnissue. Al Gore was quick to declarernthat the...

PERSPECTIVErnBurn This Bookrnby Thomas FlemingrnWhy do we send our children to school, much less to a collegernor a university? I have put this question to anyrnnumber of parents, teachers, and headmasters and only rarelyrnreceived a better answer than “So they can get a good job.”rnNever having had what most people would call a good job,...

his essay on the “Educahon of Children,” Montaigne wanted torndebunk the French schooHng of his da’, and in writing al)outrnthe proper subjects of study, he puts moral studies first, addingrnthis curious aphorism: “Among the liberal arts, let us begin withrnthe art that makes us free.” (“Entre les arts liberaux, commen^rnons par I’art qui nous fait...

to some other nation.”rnThen how do we choose? Montaigne has no difficulty in decidingrnthat other nations and cultures are superior to his own.rnWhile French legal insdtutions “by their lack of rule and formrnencourage disorder and corruption,” China is a “kingdomrnwhose government and arts, without having any intercourse orrnknowledge of our own, surpasses what we have...

and histon,’.” Only 32 percent of those polled considered thisrnlast goal essential.rnNone of the top goals of those surveed wonld have beenrncounted among the primary purposes of collegiate learning beforernthat sudden frost ElvcK n Waugh called, in Brideshead Revisited,rnThe Age of Hooper, histead, these goals suggest a culturernpopulated by what C.S. Lewis called trousered apes...

adding, “It was an advantage when there was one common discipHnernand ever}’ nation studied the doings of hvo states. Now,rnthe}’ learn how to mend motor cars.”rnOf all the differences between the old college and the new,rnthe most obxious is the absence of Jesus Christ from the presupposihonsrnthat underlie academic life. Thomas Arnold, thernemblematic English schoolmaster,...

Community/Local College. In recent years, homeschoolingrnfamilies have found that two plus two costs less than four. Attendingrna community college for two years enables their 16-rnyear-old student to live at home, saves them lots of money, givesrnthe student practice in going to college, and results in creditsrnthat can be transferred to a more prestigious institution. Therndownside...

em thinkers: Thomas Jefferson, Patrick Henr)-, George Mason,rnSt. George Tucker, John Randolph, Abel Upshur, John C. Calhoun,rnWilliam Gilmore Simms, Albert Taylor Bledsoe, RobertrnLouis Dabney, Basil Gildersleeve, the Nashville Agrarians,rnRichard M. Weaver, M.E. Bradford, and many others.rnThe cultural elites goerning America today have embracedrnthe very intellectual and spiritual pathologies against which thernSouthern tradition has consistentl) inveighed....

“All the NewsrnUnfit to Print” ignsJ of tl^e QDimesfrnVol. 2 No. 9 September 2000rnThe parking lot of a shopping mall inrnBiloxi, Mississippi, was packed withrnyoung blacks in town for an event calledrnBlack Spring Break. Suddenly, a shoutrnwent up from several male voices:rn”There’s a white girl! There’s a whiterngirl!”rnSeconds l a t e r , the...

the Serbs:rnMr. B l a i r ‘ s worst crime to daternhas been his cruel and pointlessrndecision to wage warrnagainst the Serbs, but thernblame for t h i s must also attachrnto the Government and the wholernHouse of Commons, which encouragedrnhim to t r y [and nowrnsays] that the bombing had beenrni l l...

OPINIONSrnAn Empire^ If You Can Bear Itrnby Justin Raimondorn’The mission of the United States is one of benevolent assimilation.”rn—William McKinleyrnBlowback: The Costs andrnConsequences of American Empirernby Chalmers JohnsonrnNew York: MetropoUtan Books;rn268 pp., $26.00rnI n his classic shidy of “isolationism,”rnNot to the Swift, Justus Doeneckerntakes note of a phenomenon called “AsiarnFirstism” — the view of conservativernpoliticians...

their subsequent o’ereapacit’. Japan is arncase in point. During the Cold War, thernconntrv’s strategic ahie outweighed—inrnthe eves of U.S. poHtical leaders and economicrnplanners — its growing role as anrneconomic competitor. Americans providedrnopen access to their markets withoutrndemanding reciprocitv, while thernJapanese supinely accepted Hicir role as arneunuch state, disarmed but kept fat andrnhapp b their American...

China, where the media is openly controlledrnby the state, is an example of “softrntotalitarianism”; Johnson contrasts thernChinese system with the Japanese modelrnof speech control, wherernsuch freedoms exist on paper butrnare attenuated in part by cartelizationrnof the news media—pressrnclubs in Japan can impose collectivernor individual penalties on journalistsrnwho report news that irritatesrnthe state.rnElections are formally held...

FMANCIPATION, PRIMmVISM,rnINDMDIL^LISM, SEI .F-CONSCIOUSNESS,rnABSTR,^CTION, ANALYSIS,rnSPECIALISM, SCIENTISM, SECULARISM.rnREDUCTIONISM.rnHa ing been a wallflower all mv life atrndances and of die male persnasion intornthe bargain, I ean onlv imagine that diernexperience of reading this book might berncomparable to dancing with a partnerrnwho fails to exert what nsed to be called arnsufficiently strong lead. While Barzunrnleans heavilv on die...

With its deft rhymes and dazzlingrnturns of phrase, “Praise in Summer”rnseems at first glance a confection ofrnwords as airy and elusive as the poems ofrnWallace Stevens, who had a substantialrn(and perhaps unfortunate) influence onrnWilbur’s youthful work. Readers ofrnWilbur’s early books tended to regardrnhim, in the words of the Oxford Companionrnto American Literature, as “classic, urbane,rnoften...

Four Romes: One Eternal CityrnJoinrnChronicles editors Thomas Fleming, ChiltonrnWilliamson, Jr., Srdja Trifkovic, and Andrei Navrozov,rnalong with architectrnDr. James Patrick, founder and provost of thernCollege of Saint Thomas More,rnand Italians . . .rnjournalist Alberto Carosa,rntheologian Roberto di Mattei andrnreactionary political insider, Marco RespintirnforrnThe Rockford Institute’s first Convivium of the (real) new millenniumrnJanuary 4-10, 2001rnto explorernThe Eternal...

Principalities & Powersrnbv Samuel FrancisrnProcessions of the Damnedrn”Well, fellow, who are you?” demandsrnthe Earl of Warwick of a character whornappears on stage for the first time at thernend of George Bernard Shaw’s play Saintrn]oan. “I,” huffs the man who has justrnburned Joan of Arc at the stake, “am notrnaddressed as fellow, my lord. I am...

cence in some cases, in others it ought tornprove guilt, an impHcation that blows thernargument about “certainty” out of the water.rnThe argument is that, as GovernorrnRyan says, until we “can be sure, withrnmoral certainty,” that no innocent personrnis being executed, we should have no executions.rnBut what if we are certain he isrnguilty? If the “conservative...

CORRESPONDENCErnLetter From Venicernby Andrei NavrozovrnAbout the TouristsrnSummer in Venice means tourists. Do Irnhate them? No more, I assure you, thanrna patient strieken with a mortal ihnessrnhates the individual viral agents, or virions,rnwhieh are draining the nueleie-synthesizingrnenergy of his body eells to replieaternthemselves. He hates the disease,rnwhich is making him weak, old, and uglyrneven as he...

man Empire, Gibbon wrote of the nonconformistrnwho, in escaping from Rome,rncould once hope to find:rna secure refuge, a new fortune adequaternto his merit, the freedom ofrncomplaint, and perhaps the meansrnof revenge. But the empire of thernRomans filled the world, and,rnwhen that empire fell into thernhands of a single person, the worldrnbecame a safe and drear)’...

dangers, and “each case [is] to be judgedrnon its own merits by medical and rabbinicalrncounseling.” But Riskin is explicit:rn”When no mitigating circumstancesrnexist, and the proposed abortion proves tornbe only a desire to get rid of an inconvenience,rnJewish law . . . clearly forbids therntaking of potential life.”rnThat is, pure and simple, the view ofrnJudaism on...

grv readers ridiculing the ludicrous proposal.rnAnother bill sought to make organ-harvestingrnmandatory. Even the director ofrnHawaii’s organ bank was appalled. Again,rna flood of letters protested the bill. If thernstate can take your body parts, what can’trnit claim? Does liberty mean anything tornwould-be lieart and eye grabbers?rnApparentiy not. hi that same session,rnthe Hawaii legislature was filled with...

says baseball’s sellout is only about money.rnDeeper forces are at work in the glassrntowers that house the offices of professionalrnsports. There is a conscious desirernat the highest levels of these organizationsrnto take their sports global; to thinkrnnot just of the fans in section AA of thernupper deck but also those living in yurtsrnin the Gobi...

The American Interestrnby Srdja TrifkovicrnThe InternationalrnCriminal Court: Clinton’srnFrankenstein’s MonsterrnFor ears, the Clinton-Gore administrationrnhas been in the forefront of efforts torncreate international judicial bodies —rnsuch as the Yugoslav war-crimes “tribunal”rnat The Hague —that could bernused as auxiliarv’ tools of diplomatic decisionmakingrnin Washington. MadeleinernAlbright liked the fagade of legality- (hatrncould be invoked to jushf’ their policies.rnAll along,...

VITAL SIGNSrnEDUCATIONrnUncle Sam’srnClassroomrnby B.K. EakmanrnYolanda and Raul Salazar of Miami,rnFlorida, naturalized citizens who escapedrnCastro’s Cuba, are finding out thernhard way that Uncle Sam’s classroomsrnare not about proficiency at anything, orrnliteracy, or basics. America’s schoolsrnaren’t extensions of the home, wherernfamilies are held sacred and parents arernvalued, histead, American education isrnabout “mental hygiene,” defined b’ psychologistsrnas “preventive...

expert witnesses for the Salazars, broughtrnin to testify on a variety of relevant legalrnand professional issues, finally had to returnrnhome. What should have been arnclear-cut case of parental rights became arncircus orchestrated by educrats who arguablyrnhad a greater stake in the outcomernthan either Daniel or his parents. If thernSalazars managed to overturn the “emotionallyrnhandicapped” determinationrnand...

their children’s lessons.rnOn June 2, 2000, the judge handedrndown a precedent-setting decision in thernSalazar case. She determined that thernpsychiatric examination of Daniel was invalidrnsince it was not conducted bv arnmedical doctor, which is illegal underrnstate law. She agreed that the parents hadrnbeen misled as to the nature of the “specialrnclass” in which the youngster hadrnbeen...