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Index
Acknowledgments
Introduction By John Leonard
ONE — ASSAILING
—Twelve Targets
1 The So-Whatness of Nuclear Winter (Carl Sagan)
2 Jesse on My Mind (Jesse Jackson)
3 Cuomitis (Mario Cuomo)
4 Black Thought, Black Talk (Ted Kennedy)
5 Excavating the Titanic (Lowell Weicker)
6 The Birth of BuckPac (Lowell Weicker)
7 Lenny Explains (Leonard Bernstein)
8 Eight Down, ? To Go (Elizabeth Taylor)
9 Count Me Out (John Lennon)
10 The Perils of Perotocracy (Ross Perot)
11 It’s a Wonderful Life (John Kenneth Galbraith)
12 I Confess (Bob Dylan)
—Policy: Confusions Abounding
13 Religion Scorned (Can the ayatollah and Swaggart discredit religion?)
14 Terminological Right of Way (Label it a “civil right” and you’re in)
15 Sleaze, 18-Karat (Who hurts more, the pickpocket or the demagogue?)
16 Legal Legerdemain (The liberals’ veto on capital punishment)
17 The Professor Doesn’t Understand (Why his son, the Marine, must go to war)
18 Understanding “Fairness” (The planted axioms in redistributionist policy)
19 It Is Too Much! (The failure to understand Los Angeles)
20 His Supreme Preppiness (The snob’s attack on Bush)
TWO — ANALYZING
1 The Great Gorbachev Years
—1985: Gorbachev Comes In (The Soviet line on arms reduction)
—1988: So Long, Evil Empire? (Mr. Reagan visits Moscow)
—1989: Exiting Afghanistan (The war was a mistake)
—1989: Gorbachev Meets The Pope (Christianity and communism are the same)
—1989: Hallelujah! (The Berlin Wall comes down)
—1992: The Soviet Union Is Dead (Gorbachev writes to “Dear Ronald”)
2 The Academic Scene
—Hanover Blues (Stirrings at Dartmouth)
—The Great Purge (What happened at Dartmouth)
—Passion Among Ivypersons (The New Protocols of the Yale Daily News)
—The Indian at Dartmouth (Angela Davis is honored)
—The Protesters at Wesleyan (William Manchester tells them about war)
—Commencement Time! (Multiculturalism at Vassar, Columbia)
—On Learning From Other Cultures (Multiculturalists, beware)
3 Morals, Religion, and Censorship
—Playboy Needs Your Help (A problem or two for Hef)
—Sex And Paradox (What is the role of conscience?)
—The Strange Uses of Tolerance (Is tolerance always exactly the right thing?)
—Are You “Responsible”? (Some reflections on unwanted children)
—See No God? (Does politics exclude God?)
—The Surrender of the Corcoran Gallery (Political correctness in the art world)
—Understanding Mapplethorpe (The controversy, and the question of censorship)
4 The Nomination of Clarence Thomas
—The Resistance of Black Leaders (But is there black solidarity?)
—The Reasons Thomas Is Unfit (Given in the Aesopian mode)
—The End of the Affair (Thomas is nominated, and the process is disgraced)
5 The Gulf War
—The United Nations as Partner (Is our partnership binding? Wise?)
—Is It Worth Joey’s Life? (How to think about the dead soldier)
—Stop the U.S.S.R. Now (Reflections on D-day maneuvers by Moscow)
—George Bush Faces Down Institutional Christianity (At church on D day plus 1, the president faces down his preacher)
—The Abandonment of the Kurds (Bush threatens to lose his moral mandate)
—Causing Tears (The purity of a commander in chief)
Three — Commenting
—Oh, For the Simple Transaction (The big reminders, from small experiences)
—The Fight Against Ho-Hum Anti‑Terrorism (A briefing from a casualty of the Entebbe raid)
—Making Policy as the Crow Flies (Why not just hang the drug merchants?)
—More of the Same (Our leaders deplore drugs)
—The Exquisite Philanthropy of Mr. Lang (He will pay the poor kids’ college bills)
—Is There a Role for the Moralist? (It’s entirely possible that people who devote themselves to the discipline can better distinguish between right and wrong)
—Quick! Get Milton Friedman on the Line! (A conversation after the market crash)
—We’ll See You for $100 Billion (A fantasy: $$$ in exchange for bombs)
—The Slow Death of Princess Di (Maybe the Royals should just grin and bear it?)
—Restoration Time? (Maybe the Royals could actually serve)
—An Agenda for Conservatives (As published in National Review in January 1990)
FOUR — REFLECTING
1 Remembering Communism (Lest we forget)
—Ten Years After Vietnam (The perils of losing at war)
—What If They Were Nazis? (The immunities of communist leaders)
—Terrorism at the Expense of the Soviets? (How to handle one’s children)
—Ronald Reagan at the U.N. (The President dismays his audience)
—How to Deal With One’s Dissidents (Fidel Castroism)
—Killed in Nicaragua (By whom? For what?)
—The U.N. Turns to Human Rights in Cuba (Is it worth the effort?)
—Tiananmen: A Crack in the Concrete? (The golden moment)
—Tiananmen: So What Do We Do Now? (Wait)
—To Bind the Wounds (What Russia needs)
—Lenin’s Getting Old (60 Minutes looks back)
—A History of the Cold War? (What did we do?)
2 Combat Duty for Women ? (The expense is too great: Western priorities)
3 Three Critical Views of Democratic Fetishism (Featuring Chile, Colombia, Haiti, and the Philippines)
a) Democracy—A Cure-All?
b) Democracy in Haiti
c) Overtaxing Democracy
4 How Dangerous Is the Voters’ Ignorance? (Less so than that of the professoriat)
5 Poor Jim Baker (Secretaries of state need to ration their ambitions)
6 On Resisting Temptation (Alan Dershowitz will defend Deep Throat, but he won’t view it)
7 Can a Tax-Deductible Church Take Sides? (If those sides are politically correct)
8 On Having Fun with the Fundamentalists (The Reverend Jim Bakker requires us actually to examine Christian thought)
9 Opportunizing on Chernobyl (The Luddites made the most of every moment of it)
10 There Is Danger in Honoring Evil Men (Featuring Idi Amin)
11 The United Nations’ Fortieth Anniversary, 1985 (What was it appropriate to celebrate?)
12 As We Get Older, Do We See More? (Yes)
13 Can We Resurrect the Idea of Sin? Sinfulness? (If not, forget trying to shape a new ethos)
14 The West Has to Believe in Its Uniqueness (An address, at a testimonial dinner)
15 Redefining “Smart” (With information engulfing us, where do we draw the line between things we’d like to know and things we must know?)
16 Reflections on the Perils of the Holiday Season (Searching out one’s querencia)
FIVE — SNAPSHOTS
—Gop Convention Notes, 1992
—The KGB Exonerates Alger Hiss
—George Will Overboard
—Sever Diplomatic Relations with Nicaragua?
—Welcome to the Seven O’clock News
—Anthony Lewis, Reporter
S I X — CORRESPONDING
—A Dozen or So Letters Exchanged with Readers of National Review on Divers Subjects
—A Defense of the Use of Unusual Words and Foreign Words
SEVEN — PLAYING
1 See You Later (An envoi, before a sail across the Pacific)
2 Playing a Duet with Isaac Stern (The ordeal of a promoter)
3 An Attempt at Explaining (How did it happen that the author was playing a concerto with a symphony orchestra?)
4 The Indenture of the Dog Lovers (Remember “Ducky” and the perfidy of Rowley)
5 Down to the Great Ship (A visit to the Titanic)
EIGHT — APPRECIATING
1 A Brief Exposure (They thought I had a heart attack)
2 Happy Birthday to Malcolm (Forbes. A gentler view of his seventieth birthday party)
3 Theodore White, R.I.P.
4 The Perils of Baptism (The ordeal of Lewis Lehrman)
5 Sidney Hook, R.I.P.
6 Is Beethoven a “Monument”? (Wouldn’t the laissez-faire of Adam Smith protect Beethoven?)
7 Olof Palme, R.I.P.
8 Paul Weiss, Eighty-five
9 Nixon’s Penultimate Days (R.N. was wrong to take offense at this documentary)
10 A Tribute to Herbert Hoover (From an address at the Hoover Library in Iowa)
11 Nancy and Ronald Reagan (They dance together for the editors of Vanity Fair)
12 Evelyn Waugh (His correspondence with Diana Cooper)
13 Malcolm Muggeridge, R.I.P.
14 A Toast to William A. Rusher (He retires as publisher of National Review)
15 Clare Boothe Luce, R.I.P.
16 William Shawn, R.I.P
17 Reginald Stoops, R.I.P.
18 Christopher Columbus (Following in his track, on a sailing boat)
19 Gratitude
NINE — CELEBRATING
1 Happy Birthday to J. S. Bach
2 Fernando Valenti and the “Goldberg Variations”
3 A Storm: Afterthoughts
4 A Quiet American
5 Dedicating a Competitor for the America’s Cup
6 The Tribute to Jack Kemp
7 On the Thirtieth Anniversary of National Review
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