In response to continuing calls for troop withdrawals from Iraq, including from within his own party (see Sen. John Warner’s “bring them home for Christmas” plan), President George W. Bush made two major addresses — to the Veterans of Foreign Wars and the American Legion — and then made a surprise visit to Anbar province. … Read more
One of the most important controversies in constitutional law today arises out of the increasing tendency of some judges, and particularly justices of the Supreme Court, to use decisions of foreign tribunals as authority for interpreting the United States Constitution. In judicial opinions, published articles, television interviews, and public speeches, Justices Stephen Breyer … Read more
Every weekday morning, this nation enjoys a pretty consistent routine. We get up, prepare for work or school, and tune in to local networks for the morning weather, traffic, and news. What have also become routine are the gruesome headlines announcing the day’s latest terrorist attack. Given that these incidents show no signs of … Read more
Prominent writer, thinker, and Crisis Magazine co-founder Michael Novak sat down with Italian scholar Alia K. Nardini to discuss neoconservatism, Catholicism, and the future of the West. ♦ ♦ ♦ Alia K. Nardini: Professor Novak, generally people in Italy and the rest of Europe want to know how much American neoconservatives share with the Republican … Read more
Dinesh D’Souza knows controversy. The author of the bombshells Illiberal Education: The Politics of Race and Sex on Campus (Free Press, 1998), The End of Racism (Free Press, 1996), and What’s So Great About America (Penguin, 2003) — as well as a former editor of crisis — he is not afraid to stir things up. … Read more
One of the more remarkable transformations of party images in recent years is the sharp erosion in the number of Americans who believe that the Democratic Party is a friend of religion. This opinion shift is evident from the results of four religion and public-life surveys carried out by the Pew Research Center between July … Read more
For the past three decades, I’ve been blessed to travel to almost every continent. But particularly, I have always felt a pull to visit Egypt and to see—with my own eyes—its ancient history and impressive ruins, and to visit the people who continue this 3,500-year-old civilization. My longing became a reality recently when I made … Read more
If you know the name Huckabee, it’s probably from the popular movie or the highly publicized weight-loss campaign of the Arkansas governor. My wife is politically astute and very knowledgeable. When I told her I was meeting with Gov. Mike Huckabee of Arkansas, she quickly replied, "Oh, he’s the guy who lost all the … Read more
The record shows that as the need for medical experiments grew, many physicians and others treated institutionalized infants, dying patients, and mentally impaired individuals as not quite persons in the moral sense. Moreover, indigent patients in hospitals were often treated in a similar fashion. . . . Clearly, these ‘vulnerable’ individuals were thought of as … Read more
A recent New York Times article reported a Pew Forum poll showing that significantly fewer people view the Republican Party as "friendly" to religion. "The survey found that the proportion of Americans who say the Republican Party is friendly to religion fell 8 percentage points in the last year, to 47 percent from … Read more
In June 2000, the Los Angeles Times released a poll that found Americans “evenly split” regarding Roe v. Wade, one of the two 1973 Supreme Court rulings that created a constitutional right to abortion. Forty-three percent of respondents indicated that they approved of the decision, while 42 percent disapproved. At the time, the Times’s poll … Read more
Much has been made of pro-abortion politicians flaunting their Catholic identity and receiving the Eucharist. The U.S. bishops, in their June statement “Catholics in Political Life” and at their November meeting in Washington, D.C., backed away from confronting wayward Catholics like Senator John Kerry and Senator Ted Kennedy who clearly ought to remain seated at … Read more
A tip to travelers: Avoid Zekistan. It has crummy tourist amenities and lethal concentrations of lead. I found this out back in June, patrolling one side of a city street in the country’s capital. I was hunting for fedayeen with Alpha Team, a stick of four light infantry troopers. Across the street, Bravo Team … Read more
For over half a century, well-intentioned, well-educated people in the West were taught to dread an inevitable “population bomb,” caused by a worldwide explosion of births and a dearth of resources. Examples abound: • In 1946 Julian Huxley, first head of UNESCO, wrote, “War is a less inevitable threat to mankind than is population increase.” … Read more
“Pro-choice” Catholic politicians support abortion mostly for political reasons. The U.S. bishops say this is unacceptable. So why do they accept it? “Do you know what the Negro is?” Leander H. Perez once asked in 1965. “Animals right out [of] the jungle. Passion. Welfare. Easy life. That’s the Negro.” As a state judge and … Read more
Congress was out of session on January 22, but Representative Bart Stupak, a Michigan Democrat and coauthor of legislation to ban human cloning, had arrived at his office in the House Rayburn Building around 8 a.m. From his window, you could see morning commuters heading off to work on I-395. Stupak was here early to … Read more