Roundup: Media's Take

Dec 10, 2004

Elizabeth Taylor Accused Of Owning Van Gogh Stolen By Nazis

Marcel Berlins, The Guardian (London), 12/07/04 On April 14, 1963 the London art dealer Francis Taylor, acting on behalf of an anonymous client, went to a Sotheby's auction and bought a Van Gogh painting, Vue de l'Asile et de la Chapelle de St Remy, for $ 257,000. It didn't take long for the identity of the real purchaser to be revealed: Elizabeth Taylor, his daughter. Her interest in the painting had, until the sale, been kept secret. If it became public, her fa

Dec 10, 2004

Ralph Nader Interviewed By The Guardian

Julian Borger, The Guardian (London), 12/7/04 [Editor's Note: This is a longer than normal post.] Fasten your seatbelts: He is one of the last true radicals in American public life and the man who single-handedly created the politics of consumer rights. But he is also, for many Democrats, the man who cost Al Gore the presidency in 2000 by running as an independent candidate and splitting the moderate vote. So, after a disastrous result this year, will Ralph Nader run f

Dec 10, 2004

Bush's Travels Considered, Compared To Past Leaders

Elisabeth Bumiller, The New York Times, 12/06/04 In between appointing new cabinet members, President Bush did a speedy 25-hour drop-by in Canada last week. It was a reminder that Mr. Bush travels as aerobically as he and his father play golf, and that a man whose critics called him an accidental president in his first term is showing clear signs that he will remain an accidental tourist in his second. Mr. Bush never lingers at much of anything, but he really doe

Dec 10, 2004

Hungary Divided On Extending Citizenship

Daniel McLaughlin, The Irish Times, 12/06/04 Hungary voted yesterday on whether to give citizenship to five million ethnic Hungarians living abroad, a move that many here hail as a way to heal historical wounds but which the government warns could stoke nationalism and cripple the economy... . Early results showed the vote in the balance, with 50.2 per cent against the move and 49.8 per cent in favour, on a turnout of 34 per cent. For a binding result, turnout ha

Dec 10, 2004

Assault On Poverty Would Secure Blair Place In History

Roy Hattersley, The Guardian (London), 12/06/04 Loyal to a fault, I persist in the belief that Tony Blair can climb up the league table, published last week, which placed him sixth in the pantheon of modern prime ministers. I am even prepared to offer him advice about how it can be done - even when his success is measured against the inadequate criteria used in the poll of historians and political scientists. They looked for leadership, judgment and courage, but forgot that t

Dec 10, 2004

Can Russia Replace Cold War Mindset With 'Liberal Empire'?

Julian Evans, Financial Times (London, England), 12/06/04 Sir, Philip Stephens' comment on Russian expansionism ("The dangers of dealing with the Russian Mephistopheles", November 26) is very much in line with the FT opinion pages' usually severe judgment of President Vladimir Putin. I too am disheartened by Russia's apparent interference in Ukraine's domestic affairs. However, we should at least briefly observe the situation from Russia's perspective. The key t

Dec 10, 2004

James Woolsey: The Long War of the 21st Century

James Woolsey, in a speech at Restoration Weekend, reprinted by frontpagemag.com (12-9-04):... Well, let me share a few thoughts with you this morning on what I have come to call the Long War of the 21st Century. I used to call it World War IV, following my friend Eliot Cohen, who called it that in an op-ed right after 9/11 in the Wall Street Journal. Eliot’s point is that the Cold War w

Dec 10, 2004

Peter Beinart: Liberals Need to Follow Truman's Example to Be Taken Seriously on Security

Peter Beinart, in the Washington Post (12-9-04): At the beginning of the Cold War, liberals had a national security problem. As the columnists Joseph and Stewart Alsop wrote in 1946, liberals "consistently avoided the great political reality of the present: The Soviet challenge to the West." Unless that changed, the Alsops warned, "it is the right -- the very extre

Dec 7, 2004

Bill Moyers: The Danger Ideologues Pose

Bill Moyers, accepting a journalism award from an environmental group, at AlterNet (12-4-04):... As difficult as it is, however, for journalists to fashion a readable narrative for complex issues without depressing our readers and viewers, there is an even harder challenge – to pierce the ideology that governs official policy today. One of the biggest changes in politics in my lifetime is that the delusio

Dec 4, 2004

Effort to Clear Out Old Blue Laws in Massachusetts

Jonathan Finer, in the Wash Post (12-4-04) : In the 17th century, this city's high-minded settlers labeled anyone a criminal who "willfully blasphemes the holy name of God," a crime perhaps punishable by an afternoon in the stocks being pelted with rotten fruit. Today, while the penalty for such an egregious breach of the social or

Dec 3, 2004

Scalia's Shocking Misrepresentation of Church-State Under Hitler

Thom Hartmann, at commondreams.org (12-2-04):[Thom Hartmann (thom at thomhartmann.com) is a Project Censored Award-winning best-selling author and host of a nationally syndicated daily progressive talk show. www.thomhartmann.com His most recent books are"

Dec 3, 2004

China 'Grey Lists' Intellectuals, Charges Them With 'Elitism'

Robert Marquand, Christian Science Monitor (Boston, MA), 11-30-04 In a move intended to muffle the voices of some of China's most prominent and independent scholars and activists, hard-line elements in the new Hu Jintao government are seeking to eradicate the concept of"public intellectuals" in China. A new"gray list" has been created, sources say, of historians, economists, writers, environmentalists, and other Chinese who have offered a critical voice or been i

Dec 3, 2004

Changes At The United Nations

Mark Turner, Financial Times (London, England), 11-29-04 [Warning: Long article.] In June 26, 1945, 50 world leaders gathered in San Francisco to sign a remarkable document. Born from months of painstaking negotiation, even as the second world war still raged, the charter of the United Nations called upon countries to"save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, which twice in our lifetime has brought untold sorrow to mankind". It sought a new worl

Dec 3, 2004

Retrospective on John Burton, Leader Of California's State Senate

Mark Sappenfield, Christian Science Monitor (Boston, MA), 11-29-04 Normally, this would seem to be the appropriate time for a poignant moment. Here is John Burton, as much of a California institution as the white granite of the state Capitol itself - a man who came back from cocaine addiction to lead the state Senate, a man who traded barbs with Gov. Ronald Reagan and exchanged German banter with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger - cleaning out his desk for the last time in a 40-yea

Dec 3, 2004

Freemasons Play a Stereotypical Role in the New Nicholas Cage Movie

Mark Hazlin, in USA Today (12-1-04): The Free and Accepted Masons, a fraternal organization whose roots may stretch back to the Middle Ages, has long been a popular target of conspiracy theorists. It figures prominently in the movie National Treasure. Nicolas Cage's character learns about a legendary treasure protected by the Freemasons, the location of which is hidden in a map etched on the back of the Declaration of Independence. The movie perpet

Dec 3, 2004

Robert J. Samuelson: The Absence of Inflation Explains the Prosperity of both the Reagan and Clinton Eras

Robert J. Samuelson, in the Wash Post (12-2-04)The Age of Inflation is finished. Over the past four decades, the rise and fall of double-digit inflation has been the most significant force affecting the U.S. economy. Inflation rose from a little less than 2 percent in 1960 to 13 percent in 1979 and then gradually descended to a little less than 2 percent in 2003. Going up,

Dec 2, 2004

What Makes an Inaugural Address Great?

Calvin Woodward, in an article released by the Associated Press: Ask not why so few inaugural speeches resonate long after they are given. History always will remember Abraham Lincoln's appeal to the "better angels of our nature." History probably has forgotten President Bush's flowery declaration four short years ago that an "angel still r

Dec 1, 2004

Ukraine: Straddling East and West

Ronald Roberson, in America: The National Catholic Weekly (5-14-01): [Ronald Roberson, C.S.P., is associate director of the Secretariat for Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs at the National Conference of Catholic Bishops in Washington, D.C.

Dec 1, 2004

Jeffrey Herf: The History Condi Rice Forgot to Mention to President Bush

Jeffrey Herf, in the New Republic (11-29-04): Condoleezza Rice will almost certainly be confirmed as Secretary of State shortly after President Bush's second inaugural in January. Rice, a former Stanford provost and political scientist, has always benefited tremendously from the perception that she is more scholar than politician--she is, after all, never "Ms. Rice" but rather "Dr. Rice." And

Dec 1, 2004

Lincoln Was Able to Talk About God ... Do Liberals Want to Banish Him to the Sidelines, too??

Claudia Winkler, in the Weekly Standard (11-30-04)... The mood of frenzied caricature of American religious believers hasn't entirely abated in the month since the election. Just last week the San Francisco Chronicle published several election cartoons sent in by readers. One featured a red-state person stabbing a blue-state person with a crucifix.Beyond the crud