Author: The Archive (The Archive)

CORRESPONDENCErnLetter From Londonrnby Derek TurnerrnPeking-on-ThamesrnCross Shaftesbury Avenue going southrntoward Leicester Square, and you leavernhomosexual London for Peking-on-rnThames. Decorative oriental-style ironrngates, like in some 18th-century pleasurerngarden, mark the various entrancesrnto the small area which is officiallyrndesignated “Chinatown.” Orientalrnshops, restaurants, hairdressers, travelrnagents, and apothecaries selling Chinesernmedicines are crammed along and spillrnover Chinatown’s permeable borders,rnlike a medieval city...

Thames. In stark contrast, in Goldsmith’srnThe Citizen of the World, LienrnChi Altangi, is portrayed as an urbanernWestern gentleman, albeit with a slightlyrnflowery turn of phrase, and Burke’srnshort story characters are at least as gentlernand sensitive as other people, likernCheng Huan, the poet who attempts tornrescue a Cockney girl from her brutalrnand drunken father in The...

The political reason for this is no mystery.rnBringing about the necessary structuralrnchanges will be painful for somerntime. It’s much like asking someone torngive up cocaine for the future rewards ofrna drug-free life; sacrificing the illusion ofrnthe free lunch of communism for thernmore realistic economic rewards tied directlyrnto individual work is not a sermonrnany politician wants...

Archaeologist Ivan Ivanov and arnThracian burial in Varna.rnrecently gone into operation and has anrninteresting beginning. Just before WorldrnWar II, Ivan Stanchov came to the UnitedrnStates, where he worked for IBM andrnthrough business became well off. Hisrnfamily had their property confiscatedrnwhen the communists took over. Afterrnthe “changes” of 1989 in Bulgaria, veryrnslowly some of the property...

Slipper Award for the recent Louisianarnlegislative session and had to choosernbetween Representative John Travisrn(Democrat, Jackson) saying, “I can’t believernthat we are going to let a majority ofrnthe people decide what is best for thisrnstate,” and Representative CynthiarnWillard-Lewis (Democrat, New Orleans)rndeclaring, “This amendment doesrnmore damage than it does harm.” Keeprnworking at it, Bulgaria.rnWillidm Mills is a...

er, following the strike, tests showed thatrntheir performance had actually deteriorated.rnSoon thereafter, the practice of socialrnpromotion and race-based hiring tookrnhold in the city’s schools. As school performancernplummeted, ever more dollopsrnof racial self-esteem were demanded. Illiteratesrngraduated from high school, andrncontinued on to the City University ofrnNew York, which in 1970 switched fromrna selective to an “open”...

additional sacrifices to reenroll the childrnin private school for the third grade,rnwhere she thrived anew.rnDuring the early 1990’s, the citvrnplanned an Afrocentric Ujamaa Instituternrestricted to black (and Hispanic, i.e.,rnhonorary black) boys, and hiring exclusivelvrnblack men. The threat of a courtrnchallenge caused the Board to allow forrnblack and Hispanic females, as well. Officiall}’,rnthe school does not...

Letter FromrnProvencernby Geoffrey WagnerrnPeter Mayle andrnAll ThatrnEleven years ago an Englishman calledrnPeter Mayle followed in so many of hisrncountrymen’s footsteps and, tired of rainrnand taxes, bought a house in sunnyrnProvence. The book he wrote about hisrnlife there, truly no more than a bundle ofrnanecdotes about funny foreigners andrntheir enviable gastronomy, did remarkablyrnwell, despite duplications. The...

VITAL SIGNSrnFOREIGN POLICYrnAu Revoiiy Boutrosrnby Frank RuddyrnBoutros Boutros-Ghali, for all his hauteurrnand condescending ways, hadrnan absolute genius for driving peoplerncrazv, as if there were an InspectorrnClouseau within him trying to get out.rnhi 1993, he went to Sarajevo and toldrnthose who had lost their families andrnhomes to stop their bellyaching. Hern”could name 10 places in the...

At a more fundamental level, the administrationrnought to grasp that Serbs,rntoo, have legitimate interests which cannotrnbe permanently violated with impunity.rnThose interests can be given fullrnexpression only by true democracy, andrnby its corollary, the right of BosnianrnSerbs to self-determination. These arernreasonable demands, based on thernpurest notion of liberty, and thereforerneminently American in character.rnThe people of Serbia...

side Clinton’s bathroom.rnTwo weeks before Christmas, NewrnYork Post columnist Liz Smith interviewedrnSharon Stone. It turned out thatrnone of Ms. Stone’s “big fantasies” duringrnthe holiday season was visiting thernWhite House, where she’d like to runrnfrom room to cavernous room, “twirlingrnBill Clinton’s boxer shorts above mvrnhead.”rnWe’re a long way from 1988, whenrnDemocratic hopeful Gary Hart wasrnforced out...

shrewdly, with an eye to practical economics.rnThe fact remained, however,rnthat even if there were no economicrnneed in a given location, cultural and administrativernexigency might force an urbanrnfoundation. Thus it was that fromrnthe beginning, man- Roman cities, especialK’rnin the Western portion of the Empire,rnmay well have been economicrnfreeloaders.rnCitv governments began to developrncurious deficiencies in the area...

The Hundredth Meridianrnbv Chilton Williamson^ Jr.rnHobbles and a BiidlernNeither Art Antilla nor 1 felt like gettingrndrunk. We stood away from camp on therncliff edge above Devil’s Hole canyon,rndrinking black coffee while the CommissaryrnCommandos huddled around therncampfire with their whiskey bottles andrnsomeone pitched a bowling ball over therntalus slope to the creek bottom 800 feetrnbelow for...

the loop over the saddle horn. Then Irntied the ropes to the snaffle bit rings andrnran them back through the D-ringsrnabove the saddle skirts until I had betterrnthan ten feet of free rope to work withrnfrom behind her rump. Finally I untiedrnher from the post, took the rope ends inrnone hand, and the whip in...

Chronicles: A Magazine of American CulturernandrnThe Lord Byron Foundation for Balkan Studiesrninvite you to an international conferencernAMERICA’S INTERVENTION IN THE BALKANSrnThe Moraine Hotel, Highwood (on Chicago’s elegant North Shore)rnFriday, February 28 • Sunday, March 2,1997rn• Has Dayton brought real peace? Or is Washington still pursuing an explicitly pro-Muslim agenda, whilernalienating America’s traditional European allies along...

How TO GET AHEADrnIN BUSINESS ANDrnSAVE ON YOUR TAXESrnAT THErnSAMErnTIME.rnFree 128’page tax guidernwith your paid subscription.rnSubscribe to The Wall Street Journal. Every businessrnday, the Journal gives you the latest business,rneconomic and financial news – news that couldrnhave an impact on your career and your financialrnfuture. From the latest trends in marketing to thernnewest developments in...

PERSPECTIVErnHere Come the Judgernby Thomas FlemingrnIt is the worst kind of nightmare, to wake from a bad dreamrninto a worse one, with the sickening realization that you arerncondemned to run, like the incredible shrinking man, throughrnan infinite regression of worlds, each more terrifying than thernlast. My first dream last night was elegiac: a visit to...

complain, but they are quickly put in their place by the authoritiesrnin this one-newspaper town: the mayor, the newspaper,rnand the local business and community leaders who do not carernwhat happens, so long as word does not leak out into the press.rn(A local committee of prominent citizens, after studying thernschool problems, concluded that the district needed...

ping and became one of the last of the mountain men. Accusedrnof poaching and bullied by the government agents whorncame to drag him off to jail, he shot and killed one of them andrnevaded capture for months. Even after his arrest and conviction,rnClaude Dallas escaped from prison, and with the help ofrnpeople who must ha’e...

der: they were his family. As Michael Hill relates in his magisterialrnaccount (Fire and Sword), Sorley Boy watched as Elizabeth’srncommander, the Earl of Essex, slaughtered the Mac-rnDonnell women and children who had been left on RathlinrnIsland. Writing to his bloody mistress, Essex gloated: “Sodeyrn. . . was likely to run mad for sorrow, tearing and...

been appointed. Columnist Nat Hentoff published a columnrnabout some of the abuses detailed in the letter in the WashingtonrnPost on January 28, 1995, and a few months later I also publishedrna column about some of them, as well as others that hadrncome to my attention, in the Washington Times (March 28,rn1995). Gun rights activist and...

over the carpets. The Lamplughs also say that one of the ATFrnagents seemed deliberately to step on one of their pet houserncats and then picked it up and slammed the animal into a tree,rnkilling it. Throughout the raid, the Lamplughs say, the ATFrnagents used abusive language, calling Harry Lamplugh arn”motherf—ker” and threatening Mrs. Lamplugh with...

tivates our agents to protect the law-abiding citizens of this Nationrnagainst those who choose to live by another standard.”rnNo doubt there are many ATF cases in which really dangerousrncriminals are storing, smuggling, or selling weapons illegally,rnand no doubt in such cases busting down doors in the middlernof the night, pushing people to the floor with...

Many believe that a Dixie Mafia is the enforcer against anyonernwho knows too much about the Clintons or the drug dealsrngoing down at Mena Airport. Talk show callers make it theirrnbusiness to report anything unusual at the airport—any tidbitrnthe might have picked up on the Internet, like when a runwayrnis being lengthened. It is surprising...

The story of Craig Livingstone, we presume, will become anrnincreasing part of talk radio lore, given Livingstone’s role as therncreator of Chicken George, and his place in the center ring ofrnthe controversy over Vince Foster’s missing car keys. Indeed,rnupon hearing some of these stories, it is difficult to decidernwhether to laugh or cry.rnOn the morning...

by the sales tax percentage, added penalties and interest, andrnsent me a bill for about $30,000.rnThus began my pilgrimage through the courts. I had landedrnsmack in the middle of Legal Never-Nevedand: monetary law.rnOf course Article I, Section 10 of the Constitution says, “NornState shall make any Thing but Gold and Silver Coin a tenderrnin payment...

way to charge me under state law. (You’re not paranoid if somebodyrnreally is persecuting you.) I was charged with violating arnstatute that had been on the books for 19 years: TCA 67-1-rn1440(d), “delaying and depriving the state of revenue to whichrnit was lawfully entitled at the time it was lawfully entitled thereto.”rnIn all those 19...

whatever official line the U.S. Attorney’s office gave him. Butrnour jury was more open-minded. On July 9, 1991, the juryrnreturned its verdict: 17 defendants not guilty on all counts. ButrnI still had to face a state trial. I no more than caught my breathrnwhen I had to dive back down into the sewage of the...

to politics, the Chronic Campaignerrntakes fewer risks.” He adds astutely, “Forrnyears the Chronic Campaigner has beenrnhanding over power to bureaucrats, tornjudges, to anyone who will protect himrnfrom having to make a potentially unpopularrndecision so that elected officialsrnno longer have the power that they oncernhad.” Perhaps George Will has this developmentrnin mind when he refers to...

fessional women who were formerlyrnamong the First Lady’s greatest admirers,rnBrock makes a particular point ofrnstating his belief that Hillary Clinton isrnno phony. “Hillary has been nothing ifrnnot up-front about what she stands for,rnbut the mainstream press has been unreliablernin reporting on her real views andrnalso in explaining the extent to whichrnHillary is the ideological engine...

able surroundings, and the friendship ofrnthe rich and powerful—many of whomrnhe’s already met at school, that beingrnone of the emoluments of an upper-classrnprivate education.rnSo far this could be the life story of anyrnaesthete-as-hero in a 20’s novel, but thernstory Clive Fisher tells is more peculiar,rnmore surprising than that. Cyril Connollyrnhad a capacity for imposing himselfrnnot...

CORRESPONDENCErnLetter FromrnInner Israelrnby Jacob NeusnerrnChristmas, ThatrnWinter FestivalrnWhen the Supreme Court declaredrnChristmas a secular occasion, to be celebratedrnfor its lowest-common-denominatorrncultural value in the public schools,rnI expected serious Christians to protest.rnHere a powerful public body officiallyrnsecularized what for the history of Christianityrnhas represented a most sacredrnmoment. But so deeply have the forcesrnof secularization, organized and otherwise,rnpenetrated the...

precisely what today succeeds so well, forrnthose for whom it works? The sociologist’srnanswer is, because the synagoguernworks for those for whom it works, wernshould make it work better by attractingrnthose presently not engaged by the practicernof Judaism. This we do by practicingrnless Judaism and more community—rnless religious celebration, prayer, andrnstudy, and more joshing and noshing.rnSo...

Jackie Robinson as saying that Schott isrn”one simple-minded woman standingrnup to a mike and saying it’s all right tornhate Jews,” which Ms. Smith let standrnwithout correction.rnIn Cincinnati, which has long toleratedrnMrs. Schott’s eccentricities, the argumentrnof Marge’s detractors has beenrndecidedly more aesthetic than moral.rnThose who want her out see her as anrnembarrassment to Cincinnati whose lackrnof...

ability to report faithfully the reactionsrnof the offended (Bill Clinton and thernFraternal Order of Police, in a strangernpairing) while sanctimoniously refusingrnto call into question the “artistic” right tornself-expression. Poor Marge, fated tornbaseball and Chevrolet sales rather thanrnvinyl or the cloth.rnSchott has undoubtedly benefited inrnall of this by her partial claim, as a woman,rnto victim status....

but worship him?rnHis core values were discipline, duty,rnsacrifice, and honor—four words that arernseldom heard today. If the draft is unpopular,rnburn your draft card. Look outrnfor Number One in what Tom Wolferncalls the “Me Too generation.” This isrnthe Age of Entitlement. If you don’t getrnyour share, sue. With only five percentrnof the world’s population, the UnitedrnStates...

VITAL SIGNSrnPOLITICSrnJudicial TaxationrnWithoutrnRepresentationrnby Congressman Don ManzuUornThere is an unattributed quotationrnthat says, “The average taxpayer isrnthe first of America’s natural resources tornbe exhausted.” The American peoplernhave turned away from a big, activist federalrngovernment because they feel theyrnhave been forgotten; in fact, taxpayer resourcesrnhave long been exhausted.rnToday, average Americans, forgottenrnby the bloated bureaucratic culture ofrnWashington, get up...

Chairman Bijur announced that hernwould “ensure discrimination is wipedrnout.” (Why do so many of Bijur’s obiterrndicta sound like Hitler’s Tischgesprache?rnMust everything involve “wiping out”rnand “eradication”?)rnPaying the marauding Dane his Danegeldrnhas become an established part ofrnAmerican life. It is a pleasant fantasy tornimagine a public figure calling the racial,rngender, or sexuality bluff, and tellingrnprotesters and community...

was Hawarden, Iowa, on the border ofrnSouth Dakota. When a beef packer proposedrnto locate there, recalls Hawardenrnresident Richard Younie, it promised tornhire only local people. But within a fewrnyears, most of the workers were LatinrnAmerican immigrants.rnYounie is angry about the breach ofrntrust. He has a right to be. In 1995, twornillegal aliens murdered his son...

ular plantings are in violation of the sectionrnof the Code. . . . Please trim thernplantings.”rnNow my wife and I were both furiousrnand fighting mad. Who, we wondered,rnwould complain about our forsythia?rnWhen they were in bloom, many peoplernwalked by to admire them. People drivingrndown the street stopped to look.rnSome even took pictures of them. Wernbegan...

thodox) Romania and Bulgaria shouldrnnever be allowed in—and Greece shouldrnbe ejected!rnhem: The Sunday magazine of a leadingrnnational newspaper depicts, in appropriaterniconographic style, with thernKremlin looming in the background,rna mounted Saint George as a black-shirtedrnmember of the extremist Pamyatrn(“Memory”) organization.rnReviewing American media coveragernof a series of ethnic conflicts in EasternrnEurope—Ukrainian Uniates vs. UkrainianrnOrthodox, Hungarians vs. Romaniansrnin...

Western Christians have a fairly positivernattitude toward Orthodoxy. (Protestantsrngenerally regard Orthodoxy as superiorrnto Roman Catholicism and vice versa.rnWe’re everybody’s second-favorite religion.)rnA few vears ago, I had the opportunityrnto discuss this matter, in the context ofrnthe current Balkan war, with His Grace,rnBishop Atanasije (Jevtic) of Herzegovina,rnone of the infamous, supposedly “nationalist”rnbishops close to the BosnianrnSerb leadership....