Category: Imported

EDITORrnThomas FlemingrnMANAGING EDITORrnTheodore PappasrnSENIOR EDITOR, BOOKSrnChilton Williamson, ]r.rnEDTTORIAT ASSISTANTrnChristine HaynesrnART DIREGTORrnAnna Mycek-WodeckirnCONTRIBUTING EDITORSrnJohn W.Aldndge, Harold O.].rnBrown, Katherine Dalton, SamuelrnFrancis, George Garrett,rnE. Christian Kopff, Clyde WilsonrnCORRESPONDING EDITORSrn]anet Scott Barlow, Bill Kauffman,rn]ohn Shelton Reed, David R. SlavittrnEDn ORIAL SECREIARYrnLeant! DobbsrnPUBLISHERrnAllan C CarlsonrnPUBLICATION DIRECTORrnGuy C ReffettrnCOMPOSTTION MANAGERrnAnita FedorarnCIRCULATION MANAGERrnRochelle FrankrnA pulilication of The Rockford Institute.rnEdik)rial and Advertising Offiees:rn934...

legitimate area of inquiry. The “Borking”rnof Clarence Thomas was done forrnpolicy reasons, but it had to proceed underrnthe guise of “character” inc]uiry.rnWhat, then, are my and others’ concernsrnabout Reno’s character? First,rnthere is the question of her “sexual orientation.”rnIn our campaign, Reno categoricall}’rndenied, without refuting thernevidence, that she is a “closeted lesbian.”rnNOW President and outcd-but-former-rnIv-closcted-lesbian Patricia...

John Bliss, a Republican investigatorrnon the Senate Judiciary Committee whornreports to Colorado Senator I lankrnBrown, told me and another person on arnconference call at six o’clock p.m. onrnFebruary 18 that the Committee hadrnpreliminary evidence nnexpectedh fallrninto its lap that Reno has been pulledrnover five times while “driving under therninfluence” in Dade County. The contactrnwith the...

scliolars claim that onh’ tlicy can interpretrnthe “black experience,” they mayrnbe forfeiting their academic status, butrnthe are staking a claim on the more solidrnground of authenticity. Oi course,rnwe are all human beings, and we can allrnmake educated guesses as to what it isrnlike to be black or Chinese or SouthernrnProtestant, but the natiyc knows thingsrnfrom...

Principalities & Powersrnby Samuel FrancisrnPaths of GloryrnAs I write this column (in late January),rnthe United States has deployed 30,000rntroops in Somalia, has just launched newrnbombing strikes against Iraq, has announcedrna naval blockade of Haiti, andrnis debating whether it should send combatrnforces into the Balkans. By the timernyou read this column (in late March),rnthere is literally...

fined to self-defense, unless they enjoyedrnspecial authorization for largescalerncollective enforcement action, asrnin Korea in 1950 or Kuwait in 1990. Underrnthe new proposal, the U. N. arnryrnwould be virtually independent of thernstates whose troops actualh’ composedrnits force and whose money financed it,rnand the Security Council itself wouldrndecide when and against whom thernarmy under its exclusive control...

interest has eeascd to determine when,rnwhere, and why “we” deeide to sendrntroops, why sliouldn’t the United Nations,rncomposed of delegates for whomrnno American ever voted, decide such affairsrnfor us? For that matter, since thernUnited Nations as yet has no soldiersrnunder its own command nor any moncvrnof its own with which to recruit and armrnthem, why shouldn’t...

Clinton’s Amm^^rn• Freedom of Choice Act, guaranteeing abortion on demandrn• Lifting the ban on homosexuals in the militaryrn• Raising taxesrn• Increasing funding for blasphemous artrn• Legalizing RU-486, fetal tissue research and abortions atrnfederally funded facilitiesrnThe OfAer AmericarnNow, MORE THAN EVER you need a conservative voice on the changing Washington scene, on thernHollywood elite and New...

PERSPECTIVErnTrollopes in the Stacksrnby Thomas FlemingrnNineteen ninety-two, if not quite an annus mirabilis, was arnyear “crowded with incident,” as Lady Bracknell wouldrnsay. The repercussions of Gorbachev’s fall, the hot war inrnBosnia that took the self-congratulatory edge out of the end ofrnthe Cold War, and the rise to power of Flem Snopes’ grandsonrnilluminated American television sets...

‘I’hat public libraries were established as educational institutionsrnmeant to elevate public taste above both Henry Millerrnand Pat Boone is almost never mentioned.rnI had several discussions with Christians who did not wantrnSex in the librarv. (It is hard not to repeat Tiny Tim’s retort tornJohnn’ Carson, that he wanted to get sex out of the moviesrnand...

culture bv vva of au;ilogy. There are dozens of anthropologicalrndefinitions, beginning with that of E. B. Tvlor, who introducedrnthe word from German. Reaching not quite at random,rnone might use Paul Bohannan’s lucid and elegantrnformula to illustrate this usage. Bohannan calls culture “arnsummary of behavioral phenomena” and later elaborates onrnthis theme: “Culture, as it is acquired...

wiiat became the United States were the hymns composedrnb Moravian musicians for their religious communities.rnBut tlic most powerful tool of Christian indoctrination,rnfrom the verv beginning, has been the collection of texts wernstill call, in English, the Bible. One of the earliest Christianrnconersion stories is the account of the Ethiopian eunuch whornhad gone to Jerusalem to...

I have the impression that it is here that our world has lostrncontact with what was taken for granted by our civilizationrnfor so many centuries. Physical reality has proved to be muchrnmore complex and enigmatic than our habits of speaking andrnthinking had presupposed; correspondingly, in our more andrnmore refined debates on linguistics, hermeneutics, or semiology,rnplain...

them with the one hand while keeping the other on the wheel.rnThe hand groped, and as he straightened up in the seat hernsaw through the frosty blur a red round light overhead. Hernjammed his foot on the brake, and felt an impact like a dullrnblow to the head. By the time he had the door...

but that’s why I was so slow in getting here.”rnThe eyes closed while he touched her forehead and handsrnwith the oil and recited the prayer for the sick. When he hadrnfinished, they opened again and resumed their steady gaze.rn”No one anointed Our Lord when He was dying,” Rosa Corellirnsaid.rn”But He died innocent of sin. There...

saddle but, for all that, a bold and enterprisingrnsoldier. Porgy—Robin Hood,rnFriar Tuck, and Falstaff rolled into one—rnis probably the most original character inrn19th-century American literature andrna gauge of defiance against anyonernwho thinks Simms “conventional.”rnSimrns’ most enduring legacy is hisrnuneven series of novels written on thernRevolutionary W4ir as it was plaved outrnin South Carolina; it is...

I’m her slave if she cottons to me.rnBut this cursed sobriety everrnUndoes every chain of delight.rnAnd my memory, by daylight,rnhas neverrnAny sense of what takes placernby night.rnIf I did not know better, I should declarernthis poem the source of the popularrnsong, “I went to bed at two with arnten and woke up at ten with...

such as voyeurism and homosexuality—rnhave been reclassified as “normal.”rnMoreover, people who are clearly out ofrntouch with reality and are at best barelyrnable to function have been tossed outrnof the mental hospitals to fend forrnthemselves.) The result, intended or not,rnis vast empire-building by real or supposedrntherapists. A notable example isrnthe spread of the all-purpose concept ofrn”addiction”...

I had metrnand my destination, the west, France.rnA few jerks, a junction, switch points,rnrepercussions on the seat back and on the occiput,rna few calls to the landscape of the waking world,rnas if the unexpected loneliness of new spacernleft me naked and muffled, and armless too,rnand instead of names I named syllables,rnthat stood watch, by the...

Then July, the age between primary and secondary school,rnlike the millennia of void and waitingrnbefore the planet’s transmutations.rnl.oria, Ferri, and Dalmasso,rnto what streets, what cities in the worldrnafter graduation, the diasporarnthat July of growth and leave-taking?rnI remember the empty desks in the bright sun,rnthe schoolroom door shut by the caretaker,rnthe teacher now with his back...

expenses-paid trip later yielded Thompson’srndisappointing book The Curse ofrnbono. Perry’s hours spent trying to eoaxrna printable text from Thompson hadrnresults, too: they gave him an up-closernlook at the writer, as well as a meansrnof discovering—burst by incoherentrnburst—a few details about the man behindrnthe druggy mask, the man who refusedrnto cooperate with Perry while providingrnabundant material.rnBorn...

CORRESPONDENCErnLetter From thernLower Rightrnby John Shelton ReedrnCapture the Flag, Part IIrnWe have it on good authority that thernpeacemakers are blessed, and that’s onlyrnfair, because we sure catch hell in thisrnworld. Not long ago I suggested thatrnmost Southerners who display the Confederaternflag are not bigots and got somernhate mail to the effect that only a bigotrncould...

Old Flag, but it will certainly take arnmighty effort, which has to start withrnsome recognition of what the flag nowrnmeans to many of our fellow citizens.rnMeanwhile, attempts to universalize thernConfederacv’s svml)ols (by includingrnthem in state flags, for instance) implyrncither that those svmbols are black folks’,rntoo, or that black folks don’t count.rnGiven that, shouldn’t the flag’s...

When we arrived, the high sehoolrnband was still rehearsing and colorrnguards from the American Legion andrnVFW posts, the Marine Corps League,rnthe Navy League, the retired officers’rnassociations, the Disabled Veterans, andrnthe Amvets had gathered in a semicirclernaround the flagpole, under the blazingrnsun. Various dignitaries chatted under arnsmaller marquee, waiting for the ceremonyrnto begin, and red-coated MarinernCorps...

Throughout the land, Memorial Dayrnis kept up by a group of institutionsrnthat are so much a part of the sceneryrnthat few people even notice them anyrnmore: primarily the veterans’ clubs, thernLegion, and the VFW, whose posts nationwiderndecorate veterans’ graves, providernbugle and rifle teams for veterans’rnfunerals, support Little League and SeniorrnLeague baseball and Softball teams,rnand tend...

VITAL SIGNSrnSx “^KU ^ErnII ^^^^ 1 a S ‘^Ji ^V MS < ‘^ KrnH i’ 1rnn ^wHHHrnH ‘^^’^!^HBrnwjy wn’_^’ , K Srn1rnIrnMrn^ ‘^ 1rnr -iml’iilfijrnm*rnThe Quest for BijournO’Conorrnby Jeffrey MeyersrnF. Scott Fitzgerald’s MistressrnLives AgainrnIn 1975 an eccentric old lady whornlived near Brighton, England, with arnPekinese gave a taped interview aboutrnher affair in 1930 with Scott...

Vladimir Molokhovcts (the spelling isrnuncertain), who had a studio on WiltonrnStreet in Belgravia. Hoping his familyrnmight have letters from or a photographrnof Bijou, I searched for his name in referencernbooks and rang the photographicrndepartment of the National PortraitrnGallery, but was unable to find any tracernof him.rnWhen I telephoned Sir WilliamrnYoung the following day to thank...

ed by Augustus John in 1938 wearing anrnelegant smoking jacket and bow tie, withrna long face, creased cheeks, full lips, andrna prominent oval chin.rn”Practically the whole damn [story]rnis true, bizarre as it seems,” Fitzgeraldrnsaid. “Lord Alington and the famousrnBijou O’Conor were furious at me forrnputting them in.” In real life, in aboutrn1918, careless with a...

resented, rightl’ or wrongly, a continuationrnof Woodrow Wilson’s democraticrniniperialisui. Not anti-Semitism, butrnopposition to an expansive, centralizedrnregime la- behind this conservativernprotest to what has since been namedrnthe “welfare-warfare state.” Though itrnmay be argued that conservative isolationistsrnunderestimated both Hitler’s aggressivenessrnand his capacitv for meanness,rnthe’ did foresee long-range politicalrntrends at home.rnBut, in point of fact, not all pre-50’srnconservatives...

lobby, rattling Norman Podhoretz, quotingrnthe ancient Jews to approve alternativernlifestyles, and having been on thernAmeriean right before Midtown Manhattanrntook it over.rnThere are three, partly overlappingrngroups that have suffered in particularrnfrom charges of anti-Semitism. In allrnthree cases, these groups have had thernsame disadvantage: little access to thernmedia and therefore a lack of opportunityrnto present their views...

mantical and historical framework hasrnbecome the new foundation for what isrnintended to be a respectable Americanrnconservatism. Rockwell’s spoof may alread’rnbe the catechism for young conserrnatics.rnPaul Gottfried is a professor ofrnhumanities at Elizabethtown College inrnPennsylvania. His most recent book isrnThe Conservative Movement: RevisedrnEdition (I’waync Publishers).rnJack Kemp’srnMistaken Identityrnby Jeffrey A. TuckerrnPresident Bush suffered fierce attacksrnfrom conservative quarters...

training and anti-drug counseling. Morernpointedly, Mr. Kemp’s enthusiasm forrncommunity organizing bears a striking, ifrnunconscious, resemblance to the Warrnon Poverty.” In fact, the Great Societyrnrepresented a compromise position thatrnrejected the most extreme dreams of thernleft. More than welfare checks, the latterrnsector said, the underclass should get restrictedrnhome and business ownership.rnRejected by Great Society liberals at therntime,...

didate.rnWhether or not the self-styled “billionairernpopulist” eonsciously sought thernrole, he has inherited the mantle of leadershiprnfor disaffected Middle Americans.rnThev had first appeared as a powerfulrnforce on the nation’s political landscapernwith the 1968 presidential candidacy ofrnGeorge Wallace, who managed, withoutrnanv formal organizational structure,rnto attain 13.5 percent of the total nationalrnvote.rnIn 1992, Middle Americans reappearedrnon the center...

persons defined by Times-Mirror.rnWhen the Perot campaign peaked inrnlate spring of last year, it seemed indeedrnto have moved nonvoters out of a quiescentrnstate of disaffection. Whilernprotest voters have on occasion punctuatedrnpresidential races (evidenced byrntheir lukewarm support for JimmyrnCarter and certainly for George Bush),rnthey then appeared on the verge ofrnbeing formed into a massive socialrnmovement involving...

IrnIrnIrnbyBiirtoiiW.Foisoni.JrrnMrnfi^i^-f^ArnBURTDN W FOLSOM. JR.rnTHE MYTHrnOF THErnROBBERrnBARONSrnIrnANEW’LOOKrnAT THE RISErnOF BIG BUSINESSrnIN AMERICArnForeword by FORREST McDONALDrnn Please send mernn Please send mernM’Liblishi’d in 1S! Add to Favorites

8TH ANNOALrnMISESrnUniversityrnAUSTRIANrnECONOMICSrn”In my classes at Harvard,rnthe answer is always morerngovernment. But not at thern’Mises University!'”rn—Liam Ford, Harvard UniversityrnFrom the media to the classroom, we’re told that thernfree market has failed, and that statism is the answer.rnFor another view, consider the economics of the Austrianrnschool taught at the 8th annual “Ludwig von liisesrnUniversity.” This unique program,...

EDITORrnThomas FlemingrnMANAGING F;DIT0RrnTheodore PappasrnSENIOR EDITOR, BOOKSrnChilton Williamson, Jr.rnEDITORIAL ASSISTANTrnChristine HaynesrnARTDIRKCTORrnAnna Mycek-WodeckirnCONTRIBUTINC; EDIlORSrnlohn W. Aldndge, Harold O.J.rnBrown, Katherine Dalton, SamuelrnFrancis, Ceorge Garrett,rnE. Christian Kopff, Clyde WilsonrnCORRESPONDING EDITORSrnJanet Scott Barlow, JohnrnShelton ReedrnEDITORIAL SECRETARYrnLeann DobbsrnPUBLISHERrnAllan C. CarlsonrnPUBIJCATION DIRECTORrnGuy C. ReffeftrnCOMPOSITION MANAGERrnAnita FedorarnCIRCUI .ATION MANAGERrnRochelle FrankrnA publication of The Rockford Institute.rnEditorial and Advertising Offices:rn934 North Main Street. Rockford, IE...

King’s plagiarisms “laborious.” To setrnthe record straight, the task is nothingrnof the sort; the plagiarisms are so blatantrnthat their detection is easy.rnRumors of King’s plagiarisms andrneven of his prime source, Jack Boozer,rnhad circulated in scholarly circles forrnmany )ears. The London Telegraph liadrnwritten about them two years earlier, inrn1989. But even if Jon Westling didn’trnknow about...

CULTURAL REVOLUTIONSrnSWITZERLAND has resisted thernforecs of eentrahzation that seem to bernsweeping Europe. Last December 6, inrna referendum that was widely consideredrnthe country’s most important sincernit established its confederation in 1848,rnSwiss voters rejected a plan to help formrna 19-nation European Economic Arearnin which people, goods, capital, and servicesrnwould ha’e moved freelv as of Januaryrn1, 1993. The...

Switzerland toward the EC: “It is ofrncourse necessary, and it will not be easy,rnto restore the confidence that all therncountries of Europe accorded our countryrnon the path to the interdependentrnconstruction of the Europe of tomorrow.”rnSwiss politicians and businessrnleaders had contended that their countryrncould not afford to remain outside a unifyingrnEurope, and they remained hopefulrnup until...

the heels of one of the most infamousrnproducts of modern-day legislation: NewrnJersey’s law forbidding restaurants fromrnserving runny eggs. While public scornrncaused the Runny Eggs Law to be repealed,rnthere is no word yet on whetherrnNew Jersey intends to mandate chewingrnfood properly and eating all of one’srnpeas.rnBut don’t be surprised if New Jerseyrnpasses some such thing as...

There the matter will linger forrnawhile, hi the meantime, it’s questionablernif the laws are any more than feelgoodrnresponses to a soeietal problemrnthat is rapidly getting out of hand. Almostrnhalf of the police officers who patrolrnbeats or work with juveniles in thernstate’s largest city told a pollster that thernPhoenix ordinance was ineffective. Onernthing’s for certain: the...

PERSPECTIVErnRag and Bone Shops of the Mindrnby Thomas FlemingrnI dislike museums, even good ones, and I positively detest thernculture warehouses of Paris, London, and New York—thernso-called encyclopedic museums, in which I have spent somernof the least edifying moments of adult life. I have waited inrnline, more than once, to get into the Uffizi. I manage...

I .caning Tower or St. Mark’s, but tour operators have come uprnwith the solution: a list of notable attractions to be signed atrnthe end of the day by each weary pilgrim. Why do they go?rnThe footsore group sprawled at the foot of the Spanish Stepsrnlooks about as happy as 13-ycar-old boys at their first dance.rn”Am...

the expense of importing art. Our plain republican ancestorsrnwere, for the most part, fully employed in building their ownrncivilization on classical models. Let the Europeans worshiprntheir ancestors. Our aristocrats were investing their energiesrninto descendants. The connoisseurs among them were gentlemanrndilettantes who did not confound private taste withrnpublic good.rnOne of the first American promoters of connoisseurship,rnJames...

The Generations of the Leavesrnby John SeniorrnTime, at thirty, turned us rightside out.rnOh, kept a memory that still could squeezernsome Housman from the school anthologies,rnaccommodating ills, as hopes delayed,rnto settle for the ways that things are made,rnagainst the rowdy Beatific routrnof those who took the journey down and out,rnrutting with the pigs in Circe’s cavernrnand...

National Gallery, in the Louvre, or in the Friek in New York,rnmany of his greatest works remain in small Tuscan towns,rnhenee the need for a pilgrimage.rnI don’t know what the motives of these pilgrims mightrnbe—the desire to eommemoratc an anniversary or to performrnhomage to fashion or even to see beautiful pictures—but lastrnSeptember I ran into...

VIEWSrnRomantic RealismrnVisions of Valuesrnby Alexandra Yorkrn” ‘/Jrn’V ‘-^ ^’^f^ ^g^^rn^iS%rn’* war _Mrn••AT -^rnWhen we recall the great artists of the 19th century,rnperhaps the vibrant and theatrical images of Delacroixrncome to mind. Or do scenes of daring and struggle fromrnHugo flood our memory instead? Or the ebullient audacity ofrna Schunrann song resonate in our ears? Perhaps...

sical” Realism, “Photo” Realism, “Political” Realism, “Social”rnRealism, the straightforward mimesis of “Realist” Realism,rnplus a hundred more modifiers. Simply put, all forms of realismrnin the visual arts present recognizable images of objectixernreality, meaning the physical world, including mankind.rnThe “realisms” important to our present examination arern”Classical” Realism and “Realist” Realism, for to some degreernboth are employed by...

pose in order for it to both absorb new ideas and communicaterneternal verities in contemporary terms. The strength of realismrnas a form derives from its integrative power and elasticity,rnboth of which enable it to stretch into an infinite variety ofrnshapes and contain that power surge which is content electrifiedrnbv temperament. In his 1863 obituary of...