The Hundredth Meridianrnby Chilton Williamson, ]r.rnThe Alternative CandidaternSeveral thousand feet below a smokerncloud 20,000 feet thick and 1,500 milesrnin diameter, the American West looks sornpeaceful, so at ease, so normal, no matterrnthat over a million acres of it are on fire.rnThe fires, most of them started by dryrnlightning strikes and burning out o’ermaturernforests thickened with...

ing the better part of two days. I askedrnhim what he knew, and he said nothingrnmuch, except for a report he’d had of hikersrnwho had started up the Tobacco LakernTrail a mile southeast of our old camp arnfew days earlier hearing strange howlsrnand roars on their climb up to ConejosrnPeak. As the remainder of the...

CHRONICLES’ BACK ISSUES, TAPES, AND BOOKSrnOn Immigration, Trade, and the ElectionrnSOVEREIGNTY FOR SALE? THE FREE TRADE DEBATE—July 1998—rnThomas Fleming on trade and treason, Patrick J. Buclianan sketches a course of action.rnJohn O’Sullivan explains the limits of Buchananism, and Alfred E. Eckes draws somernlessons from the Asian meltdown. Plus William R. Hawkins and Justin Raimondo debaternPat...

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 de Mattei andrnreactionary political insider, Marco RespintirnforrnThe Rockford Institute’s first Convivium of the (real) new millenniumrnJanuary 4-10, 2001rnto explorernThe Eternal...

EDITORrnThomas FlemingrnEXECUTIVK EDITORrnScott P. RkhertrnSENIOR EDITOR, BOOKSrnChilton Williatnson, Jr.rnASSISTANT EDITORrnJeffrey Thomas KuhnerrnART DIRECTORrnH. Ward SterettrnDESICKERrnMelanie AndersonrnCONTRIBUTING EDITORSrnKatherine Dalton, Samuel Francis,rnGeorge Garrett, Paul Gottfried,rnPhilip Jenkins, J.O. Tate, MichaelrnWaslihum, Clyde WilsonrnCORRESPONDING EDITORSrnJanet Scott Barlow, Bill Kauffman,rnDonald Livingston, William Mills,rnWilliam Murchison, AndreirnNavrozov, Jacob NeusnerrnEIEM EDITORrnGeorge McCartneyrnFOREIGN AFFAIRS EDITORrnSrdja TrifkovicrnEEGAL AFFAIRS EDITORrnStephen B. PresserrnREEIGION EDITORrnHarold O.J. BrownrnEDITORIAE SECRETARYrnLeann DobbsrnGIRCUIATION...

hewn brand of salvation” is now availablernto save the Church, or failing that, to providernan Anglican gathering point in thernUnited States. This new witness, he tellsrnus, is provided by hvo “stoudy orthodox”rnEpiscopal priests recently consecrated tornserve as missionary bishops to America.rnHe does not raise the c[uestion of howrnthese men might be more effective thanrnthe orthodox...

be imploding. The sad collection ofrncranks and would-be party bosses whornwalked out of our convention have morernof a following in the CNN newsroomrnand on the editorial page of the New YorkrnTimes than they have in the Reform Party.rnFortunately, Judy Woodruff is not goingrnto decide who gets to carry the bannerrnof Reform in this election —and...

grain of truth in it. He is a ferocious criticrnof globalization and its faceless corporaternculture, and a staunch opponent ofrnNAFIA, the Wl’O, the IMF, and thernWorld Bank. Nader argues that the greatestrnthreat toda’ to “traditional values”rndocs not come from Marxism or evenrncountercultural leftism; rather, he insistsrnthe most revolutionary force is that ofrnglobal capitalism, which undermines...

bels paces back and forth across the stagernbehind a large glass podium, often deliveringrnhis sermon in khakis and a polornshirt.rnThe seeker service is designed to getrnyou in the door. I’hen, you can be introducedrnto the cultural life of WillowrnCreek—the food court, the health-andfitnessrncenter, the singles groups, and thern”New Communit)’.” The “New Communib,”rnis the “real” church...

dents committed to its care.” Apparently,rnhe finds it irrelcant that the parents ofrnthose minority’ students helped elect thisrnboard; the court must retain control untilrnthe voters become more enlightened.rnWhile the riding mentions the possibilit}’rnof ending the case by 2006, everythingrnis conditioned on “good faith,” asrndetermined by the magistrate. Localrnbusiness leaders and polihcians are tryingrnto claim that...

PERSPECTIVErn-rn//^MrnrfimrnM ‘•’imrnimtArn’mrni^fWirniilP^^MiMurndi^^i ^SSSSmk. m – ~. • ..”‘^^>^^Bu^rnw4^ ^.-‘-L^B^rnM> .^i^^K^^^^mi-rnW&^^^^M ^^^^^SttS^KfjrnaS^i^M^S^BS^^^Mhrn^mlirnf%fjffflf^rnOur Constitutional Covenant With Deathrnby Thomas FlemingrnI he compact which exists between the North and thern± South,” proclaimed WilHam Lloyd Garrison in an abolitionistrndeclaration of 1843, “is a covenant with death and anrnagreement with hell.” When the Southern states concludedrnthat they were no longer bound...

dence with the practical safeguards against centrahzation insertedrninto the first ten amendments. No o n e ^ a s fooHshrnenough, in the early days of the republic to reau the D&clarationrninto tlrie Constitution (as one sect oiphilosophes has claimed torndo), but demagogues like Webster and Lincoln, in their constantrnharping on the themes of the Declaration,...

cy rests. Does anyone believe that?rnIn protecting political speech from federal control, thernframers of the First Amendment did not intend to diminish thernanthority of any state or corporate body. From the perspechvernof the First Amendment, the state of Wisconsin, the city ofrnMadison, and the UniversiU of Wisconsin are free to imposernspeech codes. Only federal legislation...

that the Constitution would prevent consolidation.rnFor most of the founding generation, “consolidation” was arndevil term. The ratification debate swirled around not only thernpowers expressly delegated to the federal government by thernConstitution, but also the fear that even those few powers wouldrngive the government such a toehold that it could usurp otherrnpowers and eventually become tyrannical....

tiition but its alleged “penumbras” and “emanations” to rulerntliat state laws limiting abortion were unconstitutional. (ThernCourt has never found “penumbras” or “emanahons” in, say,rnthe Second Amendment, or any other clause that might limitrnfederal power. It plays the Constitution like an accordion, expandingrnits favorite clauses and squeezing out the inconvenientrnparts.) Few scholars deny that the reasoning...

blood-soaked Yugoslav flag. Woidd I have been engaging in politicalrn”speech,” een diough I never uttered a word nor put penrnto paper? Undoubtedly I would hac been, and die courts havernlong recognized that. All they have questioned in recent yearsrnis the extent to which such speech needs to obey customaryrnrules of etiquette, and whether it incites...

fought a long war to prevent the spread of various encryptionrnprograms, to the extent that posting them on the hiternet hasrnbrought charges of exporting mihtar}’ technolog}’. hi 1995, thernFBI and other federal agencies demanded that so-called “clipperrnchips” be installed in all computers, fax machines, and otherrnforms of electronic communicaHon, giving federal agenciesrnthe capabilitv’ to examine...

enough to make nie take up smoking in protest. Yet the posihonrnthat commercial speech is no different from other fonns ofrnspeech remains verv much a minoritv’ viev’—altliougli it mavrnbe on the ascendant.rnUntil ver- recently, the Supreme Court took the position thatrncommercial speech was not speech at all. The theorv’ seemedrnto be that “commercial speakers” were...

generally demands.” Whenever there is an attempt to ban eommercialrnspeech, the Court asks a series of questions, including,rnto quote from the official syllabus of the 1999 commercialspeechrncase involving advertising of casino gambling: “(1)rnwhether the speech at issue concerns lawful activit)’ and is notrnmisleading and (2) whether the asserted governmental interestrnis substantial; and, if so, (3)...

“All the NewsrnUnfit to Print” ignsJ of tlie tlimesJrnVol. 2 No. 10 October 2000rnThe anti-Christian and anti-Europeanrnbias of the United States’ ehte is nowherernmore apparent than in its decades-long,rnlove affair with Turkey. President CUntonrnargued in Ankara last November thatrnTurkey will not only bridge “the gulf betweenrnthe West and the Islamic World” butrnis also slated to...

Yugoslav presidential election scheduledrnfor September 24. The speed and seriousnessrnwith which the democratic oppositionrnin Serbia has managed to get its act togetherrnis both surprising and impressive,rnin view of its chronic divisiveness in thernpast. Its leaders have agreed on a jointrnpresidential candidate who will standrnagainst Milosevic. Dr Vojislav Kostunicarnof the Democratic Party of Serbia is theirrnchoice,...

OPINIONSrnPope Garry the Great: Bare Ruined Choirs?rnby Thomas F. Roeserrn”He that is proud eats himself up; pride is his own glass,rnhis own trumpet, his own chronicle.”rn—William Shakespeare, Troilus and CressidarnPapal Sin: Structures of Deceitrnby Gam’ WillsrnNew York: Douhkdav;rn304 pp., $25.00 ‘rnWhat shall we say of Garry Willsrnwho, with a doctorate in the classics,rnonce purportedly showed...

not \ riting about Roman law but his ownrnsins against Christian morality, and of hisrnconversion.rnThe most recent example of Wills’rnmethod of politicizing a subjectrnwhile undermining his own claim to intellectualrnindependence is found in hisrnorgy of polymorphous perversit)’, PapalrnSin: Structures of Deceit. Wills pays tributernto two ex-priests (one of whom, JamesrnCarroll, is a regular contributor to...

opposed to each other on the issue ofrnwhether Christians should follow Jewishrnlaw that their followers turned in the twornmen to Roman authorities. This speculationrnis based entirely on Peter’s silence afterrnbeing reproved by Paul, which meansrnto Wills that Peter did not accept the admonitionrnto dine with gentiles! No biblicalrnscholar would even venture this absurdity.rnWith this ridiculous...

were imprisoned by the Nazis at war’srnend. “By May, 1943 in the German Reich,rn8,000 Catholic clergy were imprisonedrnin Dachan and 1.400 monasteries hadrnbeen closed,” states Martin Doohrv’, who,rnas professor of histor)- at DePaul Universih’,rnspecialized in Nazi atrocities.rnWills’ tireless efforts to politicizernhistory are defeated by the facts.rnNevertheless, liis book will be of nse tornanti-Catholic radicals, who...

with its apparent concentration on thernproblems of others (minorities, the poor,rngays, even criminals), convinced ForgottenrnMajority voters that government wasrnmore part of this values-experience disjuncturernthan its solution. The direct residtrnis the sour and skeptical attitude towardrngovernment we still see today.”rnThis “sour and skeptical” view of governmentrnis very close to, if not identical with,rnthe distinctive MAR view...

Got Here is not an echo of the neoconrnparty line, aUhough the author doesrnthrow some bones to his patrons. Tornthose who feel nostalgia for the llnitedrnStates of 50 years ago, Frum offers the establishmentrnretort: “It is not true thatrnthings in general were better half a centuryrnago, things in many respects werernworse —more militaristic, less innovative,rnmore...

CORRESPONDENCErnLetter FromrnCaliforniarnby Roger D. McGrathrnThe Reconquista of CaliforniarnOn February 6, 1998, the Mexican consulrngeneral in California, Jose AngelrnPescador Osuna, spoke at the SouthwesternrnSchool of Law in Los Angeles as partrnof a symposium on the 1848 Treaty ofrnGuadalupe Hidalgo, which gave thernSouthwest to the United States. Osunarnproclaimed, “And even though I am sayingrnthis part serious, part...

year-round; by 2006, all of the highrnschools are slated to be year-round.rnTo say that Los Angeles schools are inrna crisis is to understate the case. Morernthan 50 percent of the students are doingrnfailing work at their grade level. Unbeknownstrnto the general public until recently,rnthe school district has been followingrna practice of “social promotion”rnfor more than...

Mexican immigrants. When you lookrnaround at so-called cheap Mexican labor,rnremember that your tax money is payingrnfor it.rnAnother increasing cost is crime. Althoughrnmost Mexican immigrants comernhere to work, not to engage in illegal activities,rnthere has been an ominous trendrntoward criminality since the early 1990’s.rnHispanic gangs in Los Angeles used to bernhomegrown. Now, several of them havernlarge...

sidewalk where Edgar Cruz and AndresrnMorales stood talking. Gunfire erupted,rnand Cruz and Morales crumpled to thernground. Cruz died on the spot; Moralesrnsurvived. Cruz’s uncle, Pedro CaballerornCruz, said he would return his nephew’srnbody to their hometown, Hidalgo, Mexico,rnfor burial. On Sunday, gunfire eruptedrnagain when bullets from a speedingrncar were sent in the direction of mournersrnon their...

fans in attendance. The U.S. plaversrnnaively assnmed that they were the homernteam. Their education commencedrnwhen the huge crowd began wavingrnMexican flags, then whistled, blew horns,rnand booed when the American nationalrnanthem was played but cheered wildlyrnduring the playing of the Mexican nationalrnanthem. Then things got worse:rnWhen a group of U.S. fans raised anrnAmerican flag, they were...

uniquely flattering to the beauty of thernwatcli face, with which the hands arernthen in perfect harmony, and one mayrnwell ask wh) anybody needs to have anyrnsort of movement inside in the first place,rnif Hi is is the way time is supposed to look.rnThis is a political question, more subversive,rnin fact, than the question ofrnwhether the...

iiendo flourish, which seems apt andrnmore than a little funny. Mv friendrnGusov rang up a few weeks ago, to reportrnthat he had spoken with a woman fromrnthe recording compan)-, “I asked themrnwhat they thought of the Bocelli photos,”rnhe said, already chuckling in anticipation.rn”‘He is delighted!’ the woman said.rnI said, ‘How do you mean, he is...

Pig Man Brewer, who earned his nicknamernby pretending to slop hogs near thernstockade. Wlicn no one was looking, hernwonld throw scraps of food to the hungryrnprisoners. Others tried to supply the menrnwith conntr}’ hams, but the Yankees confiscatedrnthose delicacies. A gendeman inrnFlorida wrote to me that his grandfather,rnafter his stay at Point Lookout, was so...

tive Party was torn asunder; Westernersrnabandoned the Conservatives to joinrnwhat was then a fringe Western partyrncalled Reform, quickly making it Canada’srnsecond-largest federal party. All tenrnof the premiers who signed Meech Lakernarc now out of politics. Wlien Mulroneyrnproposed revisions to the accord to helprnget it passed, Lucicn Bouchard, an environmentalrnminister in his government,rnbolted and formed the...

The American Interestrnby Srdja TriflioYtcrnMexico Under NewrnManagement: Wish ThemrnWell, and Build That FencernBecause of illegal immigration, there isrnno other countr that affeets America’srn\a’ of life as profoundl}’ as does Mexico.rnIts politics should he followed, therefore,rnwith the same attention to detail thatrncharacterized Krcmlinolog)’ at the heightrnof the Cold War. Instead, there was anrnair of unrealit}’ to...

VITAL SIGNSrnRELIGIONrnDare to Be a Danielarnby Harold O.J. BrownrnI n early July, the United States SupremernCourt, acting on a plea brought by hvornunidentified families, one Mormon andrnone Roman Catholic, ruled the practicernof prayer at high-school football gamesrnunconstitutional {Santa Fe School DistrictrnV. ]ane Doe). Although the prayerrnwas delivered by a girl designated by herrnfellow students, Justice...

gay lobby.rnAn angr’ rally by the Methodist Federationrnfor Social Action, the church’s oldestrnliberal caucus group, featmed thernRev. James Lawson, a retired Methodistrncleric and one-time colleague of MartinrnLuther King, Jr. (Lawson organized thern1968 Memphis garbage collector’s strike,rnwhich summoned King to his impendingrnassassination in that city.)rnStill a fiery orator, Lawson excoriatedrnthe conservatives who are taking o’er hisrndenomination....

There are some extraordinary circumstancesrnwhen a normal (non-Christian)rnwoman might seriously consider killing arnchild—to save her own life, to save thernchild from suffering or disgrace —butrnthose circumstances do not come up onernout of a thousand times in abortion cases.rnAsk an elderly obstetrician how manyrntimes he has had to advise a family tornchoose between the mother’s life...

and David Souter? Justices Breyer andrnGinsburg we can blame on Bill Clintonrn—although it was that staunch prolifernRepublican, Orrin Hatch, who wentrnto bat for the latter in the Senate. I’hernrest are Republicans. Justice Stevens is arnFord appointee; Justice O’Connor is arnReagan pick; and that “confirmed bachelor,”rnJustice Souter we owe to CeorgernBush (although he had been vetted...

grave, who was unfamiliar with thernevents of 1799 in Naples until she was offeredrnthe part in the opera, told the InternationalrnHerald Tribune that she blamedrnthe British educational system for continuingrnto pass over the “extremely reactionar}-rnrole of Nelson in the whole businessrnof the Bourbons.” The politicallyrncorrect view holds that the man responsiblernfor the merciless repression of...

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...