Category: Imported

Principalities & Powersrnby Samuel FrancisrnPoker on the TitanicrnIf any single act showed the essentialrnfraudulence of the ballyhooed “RepublicanrnRevolution” we were supposed to bernenjoying this year, it was the last officialrnvote of the previous Congress, less thanrna month after the 1994 elections, tornpass the General Agreement on Tariffsrnand Trade by a bipartisan majority. Ofrncourse, the GATT...

transnational corporations and those ofrnsociety.”rnThe dimensions of the new globalrnpower structure are more than economic,rnhowever, and the means by which thernemerging global elite seeks to extend andrnentrench its hegemony are only in partrneconomic. “The West,” Mr. Goldsmithrnwrites, meaning the dominant elites whornprevail in the nations of the West, “believesrnthat its destiny is to guide or...

PERSPECTIVErnLiterature Among the Ruinsrnby Thomas Flemingrn”M^ ‘ on cher, c’est notre metier, le vrai metier de chien . . .rnVousecrivezetvousecrivez.. .etpersonne,personneaurnmonde ne comprendra.” Joseph Conrad’s complaint to hisrnyoung collaborator, Ford Madox Hueffer, might have been putrnon Ford’s tombstone, when he died in 1939. You write, and yournwrite, and no one in the world understands. Although...

an traxcl, much less communication.rnFord was not uncritical of Rossetti et Co., except, perhaps forrnChristina, whom he regarded as a saint. Looking back to theirrngeneration, he blamed them for leading English poets astray.rnRossctti’s ‘The Blessed Damozel had the effect of “the numbingrnblow of a sandbag,” in convincing writers that “writing was arnmatter of digging for...

poems in English worthy to be set beside an average Horatianrnode. However, even the failures of English poetry are at a levelrnhigher than they might have been, if the only readers of versernhad been illiterate stockjobbers with degrees in economics orrnbusiness.rnFord wrote for that rarest of imaginary beings—more preciousrnthan the unicorn, more fatally mesmerizing than...

TORTURE AND EXECUTIONrnDEATH &TAXESrnn 4rn^^.•>rnjirna hard-hitting reinvestigation…” Derek E.ly, Varietyrn’…a devastating and disturbing P’^*’^^^,^^.^J^.’^J.VerL-don Fii^rnJeffrey F. Jackson’s shocking film expose tells the story of Gordon Kahl, a NorthrnDakota farmer who became America’s “most-wanted” fugitive.rnHow did a WWII hero become the target of one of the largest manhunts in FBIrnhistory? Was Kahl a gun-toting fanatic or...

st:o- and Solzlienitsn, whom thev regard as representatives of arndead and irrele’ant past. They have given up on hope, and theyrnthink the’ arc better off. One of the new Russian writers said ofrna oung man in Zurich who asked him to speak of hope: “I hadrnno idea what this man meant! For me, literature is...

cheap money. They wanted to be allowed to live their own livesrnwithout interference from government. They wanted no partrnof the foreign wars that the moneyed conservative Eastern classrnso much enjoyed and benefited from. The people knew thatrnthey were the ones who would do the dying while the friendsrnof Theodore and Franklin Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, andrnthe...

became chief of the editorial staff of the Omaha World 1 lerald;rntwo ears later he stirred the hearts of Demoeratie eonvcntioneersrnin Chicago with an address that, come the revolution, willrnbe read in the Senate eery July 9:rnAh, mv friends, we sa’ not one word against those whornlive on the Atlantic coast, but the hardy pioneers...

can fight it out among themselves.”rnFittingly, the deciding vote in favor of the 1941 draftrnextension, which passed the House 203-202, was cast by thernfox-hunting lord of the Genesee Valley, Congressman JamesrnW. Wadsworth, Jr., who for bucking his party and authorizingrnthe abduction of thousands of his farmboy constituents wonrnthe obscene sobricjuct “Conscience of the House.” ThernWadsworths...

to exist until joined symbiotically to a critieal text. Yet even arnpoem as aseptic as “PCOET” bears some relation to the poetryrnof the past: with some effort, you can read it or say it aloud. Itsrnorigin in the human body has not been fully eradicated. Consequently,rnthe avant-garde has already moved on to bolder,rnmore radical experiments....

rate. In this icw, the arts represent tlie liighest. most eoniplexrnand reflexixe lecl of a eontinuallv evolving hicrarchs. Evolutionrnthus becomes, for Turner, “the eentral paradigm of allrnknowledge,” one whieh, because of its ability to create unpredictablernnoveltv, “radically and totally refutes determinism.”rnEolution—not combustion, not deterministic Newtonianrnphsics, not quantum mechanics—provides the truest andrnmost efficacious model of human...

may be necessary. We all basically have the same worldview,rnas far as linguistic differences are concerned.rnBut the news of this correction has not yet seepedrnthrough to most contemporary pundits of aesthetic theory,rnand the old cliches of the thirty-four Eskimo words forrnsnow [there is no such thing] and the lack of a past andrnfuture tense in...

texts. “I like poetr)’ that brings out in me as reader the maximumrnawareness of as mueh as the mind can comprehend,”rnexplains Russell, who firmly believes that “a hidden vein ofrnintellectuality (genuine) needs to be present even in a comparativelyrnsimple lyric.”rnGiven his intense interest in music, and natural affinity forrnthe musical, it is not surprising that...

The cause of earthquakes; and the foree that makesrnOcean heavernBreaking its barriers now, now sinking in its allottedrnbasin;rnWh- it is that Winter’s suns hasten so to dip themselvesrnBeneath the sea; and what delay detains the tardy nights.rnThv countryside and all Thy running streamsrnBe mv delight, sweet Goddesses; and let me lovernTh waters and secluded woods.rnWhat...

Progressrnby Richard MoorernSlowly our lives are becoming intolerable, and before longrnmissiles may go and explodernmost of us. Some of us blamernCommunists, radicals; some curse unions, and othersrnpollution.rnCorporate insanity, sayrnsome, and the profits in arms. . .rnMaybe; but isn’t there some one obvious, odious villainrnthat we can boo at and hiss?rnFriends, I’ve a candidate rightrnhere for...

harm can a radio do?rnWliat harm comes to the souls of our TY-mesnrerizedrnchildren?rnShall thev not shine as the lube’srnbilious glow in the night?rnYet we arc healthy, you tell us, and plump with our plentifulrndinners.rnJunior executives spendrntriple the national wage,rnsending their dear ones, poisoned by fake foods, pale,rnto the doctors.rnHospitals blossom with illsrnstrange to a primitive...

opportunity to wander in relatively unhumanizedrnenvirons, rather than the ordinaryrnprocesses of socialization, thatrnforged his temperament.rnAs the consumerist society, inereasinglvrnconcentrated in megalopolises thatrndestroy wilderness and mask the heavens,rngrows, such a childhood becomesrnmore and more out of reach. Even duringrnthe 1930’s, a child’s life spent in closerncontact with nature was not the norm.rnMost children were caught up...

Help Us FightrnOur southern Â¥rn0 Saverneritage!rn”Civil Rights” groups have launched a campaign to eliminaternALL symbols of Confederate history and heritage, including thernremoval of all Confederate monuments from public property!rnIf you’re ready to fight back, then Join A Winning Team!rnThe Heritage Preservation AssociationrnHPA is a nonprofit, national membership organization thatrnutilizes educational, legal and political resources to...

CORRESPONDENCErnLetter From Italyrnby Andrea SciffornThe Gay Nihilism ofrnUmberto EcornSimone Weil wrote, with respect to literature,rnthat “nothing is more beautiful,rnwonderful, ever new, ever more surprising,rnmore sweetly and lastingly intoxicatingrnthan the good. Nothing is more arid,rnsad, monotonous and cranky than thernhad. Such are authentic goodness andrnevil. The fictional good and bad are opposite.rnThe fictional good is cranky...

Umberto Eco took Ileraclitus at his wordrnand perhaps “moved” some pages fromrnL. Pawel and J. Bergier’s Le matin desrnMagiciens (1960) to his Foucault’s Pendulumrn(1989), appropriating them (PartrnII. Chapter VII) in not too discreet arnmanner.rnThese arc not merely insinuations.rnOriginality moves to the second floorrnwhen the intent of artistic creation is tornreduce the multiplicitv of reality’s phenomenarnto...

ican left such as Telos. It is a display of intolerancernnot out of character for suchrnenlightened ironists as Eeo and Derrida.rnAndrea Sciffo is a poet and journalistrnin Monza. This article was translated byrnNino Langiulli, a professor of philosophyrnat St. Francis College in Brooklyn andrnauthor, most recently, of Possibility,rnNecessity, and Existence: Abbagnanornand his Predecessors {TemplernUniversity Press).rnLetter...

tempting to put out the fire and indulgernin an orgv of drunken looting.rnGiven the Soviet state’s initial effortsrnto destroy Russian identity and the immeasurablerndamage done to the Russianrnlandseape by foreed industrializationrnand collectivization, it is not surprisingrnthat environmentalist, conservationist,rnand preservationist efforts became anrnimportant part of the program of the nationalistrndissident movement thatrnemerged in the 1960’s. In...

VITAL SIGNSrnErato in the Throesrnby Ralph de Toledanornii The future of poetry is immense,rnbecause in poetry, wliere it isrnworthy of its high destinies, our race, asrntime goes on, will find an ever surer andrnsurer stay. . . . Our religion . . . has attachedrnits emotion to the fact, and nowrnthe fact is failing. Poetry...

istries of culture to take note. Howeverrnfew eopies were sold of these germinalrnworks, they were reviewed and discussed,rnmaking their impact on literary discoursernand the literary consciousness of theirrntime. No writer after that could ignorernEliot or Stevens or Conrad Aiken—orrneven Floyd Dell’s hijinks in issuing arnsatirical manifesto. They were injectedrninto the bloodstream of contemporaryrnliterature, were part...

characters—a character who was to berntied by her hair to a ceiling fan, tortured,rnmutilated, sodomized with a hot curlingrniron, and eventually killed in the story.rnAs for why he chose the name of this particularrngirl, with whom he shared arnJapanese class the previous term, Bakerrnhas only stated, “because she was anrnattractive young woman and I needed...

RELIGIONrnDescent into thernEpiscopal Churchrnby The Rev. FT.rnGene GeromelrnEffective January 1, 1994, the rightrnReverend Clarence Pope, EpiscopalrnBishop of Fort Worth, not only retiredrnbut left the Episcopal Church for Rome.rnHe is the highest-ranking Episcopalianrnto leave the denomination. Bishop Popernwas one of a handful of bishops willing tornstand against a liberal hierarchy. As isrntrue of many Episcopalians, he...

and promote the new policy. All this despiternthe fact that Scripture, tradition,rnand even the canons of the EpiscopalrnChurch are not value-neutral on the subjectrnof homosexual behavior. It is a sin.rnIndividual sin, however, is not part ofrntheir vocabulary (although “corporaternsin” is a popular term).rnOne cannot help but wonder if wernare not still experiencing echoes ofrnthe Chicago...

The Hundredth Meridianrnbv Chilton Williamson, Jr.rnPapagueria: IIrnPast Robles Junction where the roadrncoming north from Sasabe meets Highwayrn86 we crossed onto the Papago reservationrnheading west toward the Indianrncapital of Sells, no lights ahead save thernconstellation of the Kitt Peak Observatoryrnlifted high against the night sky byrnthe bulk of the Baboquivari Mountains,rnand almost no traffic. Saguaros stoodrnlike...

place. He disappeared into the night,rnand at once a tribal patrol car slippedrnfrom behind us and proceeded to thernend of the street, made a U-turn, andrndrove by the house again. Albert returnedrnempty-handed and got back inrnthe Land Cruiser. “Drive away now,” hernwhispered. “Hurry—hurryl” When wernhad gone a couple of hundred yards hernsaid, still whispering, “Now...

Subscribe to SOBRAN’SrnA MONTHLY NEWSLETTER BYrnJoe SobranrnJoe Sobran,..rn• former CBS ^’Spectrum”rnCommentatorrn• former Senior Editor,rnNational Review magazinern• Columnist for UniversalrnPress syndicate andrnThe Wandererrn• and America’s SharpestrnCommentatorrn12 pages ofuncensoredrnSobran with new material notrnavailable anywhere else! Don’t missrnhis insights on the collapse of thernChristian culture, Rush Limbaugh,rnNewt Gingrich & Company,rnNorman Podhoretz, Bill & Hillary,rnmarginalizing religion, and defendersrnof the...

W^ Mmmill _ _ _ _ _ p _ _rnNATIONAL CONSERVATIVErnSTUDENTrnCOHF£[<£Narn”The conference will send you back to your campuses better informed, motivated and trained. Your work isrnvital to the future of the nation.” — Ronald Reaganrn• Learn the Principles of Activismrn• Private Congressional Reception andrnBriefingrn• Meet Conservative Leadersrn• Conservative Academic Lecturesrn• Dinner Banquets with FamousrnConservativesrnFor...

EL)[TORrnThomas FlemingrnMANAGING EDITORrnTheodore PappasrnSENIOR EDITOR, BOOKSrnChilton Williamson, ]r.rnEDITORIAL ASSISTANTrnMichael WashburnrnART DIRECTORrnAnna Mycek-WodeckirnCONTRIBUTING EDITORSrnHarold O.j. Brown, Katherine Dalton,rnSamuel Francis, George Garrett,rnE. Christian Kopff, Clyde WilsonrnCORRESPONDING EDITORSrnBill Kauffman, ]acob Neusner,rnJohn Shelton Reed, Momcilo SelicrnEDITORIAL SECRETARYrnLeann DobbsrnPUBLISHERrnAllan C. CarlsonrnPUBLICATION DIRECTORrnGuy C. ReffettrnPRODUCTION SECRETARYrnAnita CandyrnCIRCULATION MANAGERrnRochelle FrankrnA publication of The Rockford Institute.rnEditorial and Advertising Offices:rn934 North Main Street. Rockford,...

the “gender gap.”rnCongratulations, Chronicles, you’verntextualized it. Even if you had made thernprudent decision to throw in an essay byrna token woman or two, your plans reealrnthe basic mentality at work. And it’srnthat mentalitv that the women I knowrnreally do not want.rnLike Chronicles, Freud had amplernopportunities to get good answers to hisrnfamous question. He ignored them,...

done several newspaper and radio interviewsrnby phone, they immediately faxedrnback; “We will pay all expenses for arnweek’s visit, to deal with you and yourrncritics.” (Evidently in their first invitationrnthey’d imagined that I would payrnmy own way!) Meanwhile, back at thernUniversity of South Florida, my mailboxrnand even my voice mail got crowdedrnwith letters, phone calls, and...

appear on Sixty Minutes in Auckland.rnNext case.rn—Jacob NeusnerrnTHE NEH has provided me with severalrnsubstantial (and highly coiTipetiti’e)rngrants, and so perhaps I should maintainrna discreet silence in the current debaternover the proposed abolition of the NationalrnEndowment for the Humanitiesrnand the National Endowment for thernArts. (Strictly speaking, I am not thernrecipient, but rather the Principal hivestigatorrnfor grants...

office, entitlements constituted 45 percentrnof the budget. Net interest wasrn11.1 percent. Now entitlements consumern47 percent of the budget, with interestrnon the debt pulling down anotherrn14.1 percent. “Mandatory spending” isrnnow 61.4 percent of the federal budget.rnBy 2030, according to one estimate, thernannual deficit will reach $4.1 trillion,rnthe size of the national debt today.rnScared for your kids...

BACK to the BASICSrn(Or, if you prefer, FORWARD with the BASICS)rnClarence Carson began his work on basic texts for history, politics, and economics in 1982. With the publicationrnof BASIC AMERICAN GOVERNMENT in 1993, the work has been completed for the coverage of the UnitedrnStates. The Basic History was completed in 1986. Even before then—as the...

Principalities & Powersrnby Samuel FrancisrnVoices in the AirrnBy the middle of the second month ofrnthe Repubhean Revolution, acute observersrnwere beginning to see that thernrevolution might actually go somewherernif only the Republicans were not inrncharge of it. Aside from such irritatingrncontretemps as the revelations of SpeakerrnNewt Gingrich’s book deal, his instantaneousrndumping of historian ChristinarnJeffrey when her...

eating out of a bucket.)rnIn the case of Republicans, almost allrnof the principal contents of the Contractrnwith America have to do with explicitlyrneconomic issues—the balanced budgetrnamendment, the line item veto, unfundedrnmandates, welfare reform, tax reform,rnand even the proposal to alter thernaccounting method by which the costrnof American participation in U.N.rnpeacekeeping missions is calculated.rnPopular discontent with...

PERSPECTIVErnWhat Do Women Want?rnby Thomas FlemingrnWas wollen die Frauen? Freud’s questions are always betterrnthan his answers, and even his questions usually betrayrnthe diseased mind which poisoned this century with itsrnsexual obsessions. In a healthier age, the question of whatrnwomen wanted would not have been asked, but as we look outrnacross the wreckage of human social...

Florence Nightingale, eager to console the sick at heart, and hernconfessed to her all his failures, weaknesses, and self-doubts.rnHe was neck-and-neck with his rival until Gargantua announcedrnthat his father had died. My friend resigned the field,rndeclaring one night in the graduate seminar room, “I can’t toprnthat.”rnI am not sure I know what it means when...

liberal—who sees both sides of the case, arguing first againstrnthe folly of letting the girl throw herself away on the tailor andrnlater against excessive severity, once it is clear she has made uprnher mind. The Countess is, undoubtedly, a harsh motherrnwhose obstinate pride has made matters worse, but the snakernin this garden is not a...

market of bestsellers had to be created—fast literature to bernconsumed along with fast food. Even hunting and fishing havernbeen almost completelv commercialized. The sign you see inrntackle shops says it all: “He who dies with the most toys wins.”rnWell, even I am not immune to the thrill of a well-made rodrnor the allure of a...

Iv dependent (as the Lady and the Woman never were) on therngood opinion of others. That is true even if you are at the toprnof a hierarchy, as a British prime minister discovered to her bitterrncost in November 1990, when her own party (mostly men)rnthrew her out, and as a French prime minister, Edith Cresson,rndiscovered...

not happening in many—possibly more than many—rninstances. Instead, something far more dangerous is afoot.rnIn almost all the cases receiving media publicity—and manyrnthat are not—the women bringing the complaints are in’okingrna clause in their schools’ sexual harassment policy that has torndo with the work (or study) place. If, in a woman’s opinion, arnmale superior’s behavior creates...

through the motions, anyway. And matters are usually handledrn”by the book,” even though the accused usually findsrnhimself completely alone and without reliable advice.rnVery few universities provide counsel or legal representationrnto an accused faculty member. It is more efficient to proceedrnfrom the point where the prima facie evidence is offered. It isrna reductive process: the faculty...

for as long as half a decade. The school does not mind waiting.rnIt has bags of mone’ to spend on defense and all the time inrnthe wodd.rnAnother Dallas attorney points out that most schools wouldrnfar rather risk a “wrongful dismissal” suit than “take a federalrnhit.” The former could cost the school hundreds of thousands,rnbut the...

spare the men their commute and the evening frustrations of arnhouseliold with children. If practicable, this would be fine, Irnremarked. “But since it is not,” I went on, “let us begin by clarifyingrnour problem in the starkest possible terms: it comesrndown to not getting enough sex and having to do too much ofrnthe work.” At...

When it came to the major role of women in society—rncaring for children—the rising divorce rate brought on by thernsexual revolution provided the opportunity to keep womenrnemployed. Many children now needed to be looked after inrngroups while their mothers worked. Who better to care forrnthem than . . . women? It was necessary only to...