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....

water, country heritage. At least I havernknown such a life.rnI am grateful that I was not raised likernsome hothouse flower, living in air-conditionedrnisolation from the naturalrnworld. I was never belted into a minivanrnand catapulted down a highway at 75rnm.p.h. to be delivered by a stressed-outrnand preoccupied driver to the childcarerncenter so both parents could go...

dent with a vendetta against R.J.rnReynolds and other free enterprisers. Myrnpurpose is not yet apparent to me, butrnhas something to do with history andrnpolitics. I am addicted to historical nonfictionrnand neglect housework and otherrnresponsibilities to read. And since I quitrnsmoking, I have come out of the closet. Irnam now proud to call myself a conservative.rnThere...

hardly advances the story. What they dornnot understand is that the story line berndamned; the cameo appearance advancesrnthe portrait of the times and thernnovel. An editor could take a blue pencilrnto this, bat the loss would be the reader’s.rnAnd consider, O’Hara once remarkedrnthat he had invented Frank Sinatrarnin Pal ]oey, written when Sinatra wasrn18, and...

EDITORrnThomas FlemingrnMANAGING EDITORrnTheodore PappasrnSENIOR EDITOR, BOOKSrnChilton Williamson, ]r.rnASSISTANT EDITORrnMichael WashburnrnART DIRECTORrnAnna Mycek-WodeckirnCONTRIBUTING EDITORSrnHarold O.J. Brown, Katherine Dalton,rnSamuel Francis, George Garrett,rnPaul Gottfried, Christine Haynes,rnE. Christian Kopff, /.O. Tate,rnClyde WilsonrnCORRESPONDING EDITORSrnBill Kauffman, William Mills,rnJacob Neusner, John Shelton Reed,rnMomcilo SelicrnEDITORIAL SECRETARYrnLeann DobbsrnPUBLISHERrnAllan C. CarlsonrnPUBLICATION DIRECTORrnGuy C. ReffettrnPRODUCTION SECRETARYrnAnita CandyrnCIRCULATION MANAGERrnRochelle FrankrnA publication of The Rockford Institute.rnEditorial and Advertising...

restrained and scholarly piece” in a collectionrnon teen suicide that “noted thernscholarly consensus that homosexualsrnwere two or three times more likely to killrnthemselves than heterosexuals, a wellsubstantiatedrnfinding.”rnNo doubt Mr. Jenkins’ two sentencesrncan be made vaguely concordant (or atrnleast not so obviously discordant) byrnsome fancy footwork. He could, for example,rnargue that his acknowledgmentrnthat homosexuals have a...

its report on the Defense of MarriagernAct, “Gay couples lose bid for recognition.”rnIt smirked at the impassionedrn”oration” of Senator Robert Byrd ofrnWest Virginia, sounding like a countryrnpreacher in defending the wisdom of fivernmillennia, and commented, favorably itrnseems, on Senator Edward Kennedy forrnsaying that the attached gay rights provision,rnwhich narrowly failed, is the lastrngoal that needs...

bestowed on me and others lifelongrnideas; and once while he was complimentingrnme for something I had published,rnI joked that he was only noticingrnwhat I had cribbed from him. “Go aheadrnand crib more!” was his jovial response.rnThose of us who learned from his genialrnmind will inevitably take that advice, calcandornpassus gigantis.rn—Paul GottfriedrnTERRORISM in France has usuallyrncome—in...

PERSPECTIVErnCabbages and Wormsrnby Thomas FlemingrnUmberto Bossi does not like journalists. His stock epithetrnfor the gentlemen of the press—applied to them almostrnas regularly as “swift-footed” precedes Aehilles—is vermirn(worms), although he sometimes falls back on servi sciochi (idiotrnservants). Not too long ago, at a Lega Nord meeting, Bossirncaught sight of the press corps covering the event and,...

day in western Lombardia, in the south visiting Vigevano andrnthe great Cistercian abbey of Morimondo, and driving north,rnanother day, I go through Gallarate and must have passed by,rnwithout knowing it, the little village of Cassano Magnago, thernhometown qf Umberto Bossi. The land here was once allrnfarms, and all over this part of Lombardia, there are...

In Torino, at the Lega Nord’s headquarters in Piedmont, Irnask the leaders if Maroni—now ostentatiously sporting a neckrnbrace—was not overreacting. On the contrary, I am assured,rnthey have it from friends who were present that the police, afterrnknocking him to the ground, kicked Maroni repeatedly in therngroin, but Bobo is too proud to admit how badly...

They are good kids, mosdy in their 20’s: hardworking, energetic,rnand refusing to accept their nation’s slide into the ThirdrnWodd. For them being a Celt or a Lombard is a means of makingrnKarl Schmidt’s friend/enemy distinction, and they feelrnthemselves more and more alienated from the national regimernand the coalition of gangsters and welfare-dependents who supportrnit. For...

has been estimated at between 30,000 and 40,000. Among thernbeneficiaries of Polish heroism is the American Jewish liberalrnadvocate Abe Foxman. Despite the work by Polish Catholics tornsave his life, I have never seen Foxman or the Anti-DefamationrnLeague he heads challenge the equation of Poles with Nazis.rnThis charge has come from one of Foxman’s close associates...

should be expected even with the current Polonophobia. It wasrnthe Soviets who openly encouraged the brutal revenge on thernGermans, after moving territorial Poland to the west and grabbingrnits eastern lands. Moreover, the Western allies gave in tornthe Soviet plan for a reconstituted Poland, including getting ridrnof Germans from what had been German lands, in the...

radical reeducation.rnA large segment of the left intelligentsia made no bones of itsrnsympathy for the “German Democratic Republic,” which atrnleast did not enslave its subjects to consumerism and thern”elbow society” prevalent in the West. Naturally, there wererncertain excesses, but these could be explained by the pressuresrnissuing from Bonn and Washington. For these intellectuals, thernGDR dictatorship—kept...

lie consciousness?rnMoreover, there is an aspect of Stalinist atrocities that is veryrnpertinent to the “Goldhagen debate.” In their history of thernSoviet Union, Utopia in Power, Mikhail Heller and AleksandrrnM. Nekrich touch on the issue of whether the German peoplernhad full knowledge of the Nazi crimes. They state no opinion.rnBut regarding the Soviets’ murderous war on...