liberalism | The Weekly Standard

You are here: Archives / liberalism

The left wing of the Supreme Court votes against the Children's Internet Protection Act.

11:30 AM, Jun 24, 2003 • By CLAUDIA WINKLER

THEY'VE DONE IT AGAIN. This time liberals have backed themselves into the position of defending library patrons' right to view pornography at federal expense.

They've landed there by way of excoriating the Children's Internet Protection Act, which the Supreme Court yesterday upheld 6-3. This law requires obscenity-blocking filters on computers in public libraries where the computers are paid for with federal grants or the Internet access is subsidized by Washington.

From the June 30, 2003 issue: Powerlessness corrupts.

Jun 30, 2003, Vol. 8, No. 41 • By DAVID BROOKS

ACROSS THE COUNTRY Republicans and conservatives are asking each other the same basic question: Has the other side gone crazy? Have the Democrats totally flipped their lids?

There's nothing wrong with having been spectacularly wrong on Iraq. It's what the antiwar crowd has done since April 9 that's unforgivable.

12:48 AM, Apr 24, 2003 • By JONATHAN V. LAST

SOMETIMES it's necessary to beat a dead horse. Many recriminations pieces have been written since the end of the war (here, for starters) and while they may seem like simple gloating, they're not. It's crucial to keep score on public commentators because if you bat .115 in the bigs, you get canned.

From the April 28, 2003 issue: Mass destruction of mistaken ideas.

Apr 28, 2003, Vol. 8, No. 32 • By DAVID BROOKS

GEORGE ORWELL was a genuinely modest man. But he knew he had a talent for facing unpleasant facts. That doesn't seem at first glance like much of a gift. But when one looks around the world, one quickly sees how rare it is. Most people nurture the facts that confirm their worldview and ignore or marginalize the ones that don't, unable to achieve enough emotional detachment from their own political passions to see the world as it really is.

Now that the war in Iraq is over, we'll find out how many people around the world are capable of facing unpleasant facts.

Calling for "regime change" in America is only one of the Democratic candidate's problems.

Apr 21, 2003, Vol. 8, No. 31 • By NOEMIE EMERY

IT'S NOT OFTEN that you see an American commit hari-kari in public, but that's what John Kerry appears to have done. In one thrill-packed day--April 2--in New Hampshire, he managed to (1) blame George W. Bush for the train wreck in the U.N.

Amitai Etzioni on his life and times.

Apr 21, 2003, Vol. 8, No. 31 • By ARNOLD BEICHMAN

My Brother's Keeper

A Memoir and a Message

by Amitai Etzioni

The left wants to ignore the Iraqi celebrations at Firdos Square, some Arabs are saddened by them, and the foreign press keep rolling at CENTCOM.

9:45 AM, Apr 10, 2003 • By JONATHAN V. LAST

FIRST, SOME STIPULATIONS: The war is not over yet. There is still much fighting to be done and many things could go wrong. Chemical weapons could still be used. More allied soldiers will die in fighting. There will be more civilian casualties. Yesterday's collapse of the regime in Baghdad was a decisive moment, but not the endpoint of the war itself.

For much of the antiwar left, civilian casualties only count when they come as a result of American mishaps.

6:00 AM, Apr 4, 2003 • By HUGH HEWITT

HAVING MADE the mistake of agreeing to "debate" the war before a college campus audience, I ought not to have expected much beyond emotional appeals from the antiwar participants. But I did, and of course, I was disappointed.

The Rev. George Regas was one of three antiwar voices, the others being the Rt. Rev. J. John Bruno, Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles, and my colleague and friend Professor Don Will of Chapman University's Peace Studies program.

From the April 1, 2002 Dallas Morning News: In a word, no.

5:20 AM, Apr 2, 2003 • By TERRY EASTLAND

BOUNCING AROUND the Internet is a photo of a huge banner that was carried in the recent "peace" demonstration in San Francisco. The banner says, "We support our troops when they shoot their officers."

Now, the calm response to that banner is that "our troops," were they to shoot "their officers," would be violating the oath they take upon enlisting, which obligates them to obey "the orders of [superior] officers," which don't include shooting or otherwise committing acts of violence against those officers.

San Francisco's demonstrators--disobedient, but not civil.

Apr 7, 2003, Vol. 8, No. 29 • By DEBRA J. SAUNDERS

San Francisco

From the April 7, 2003 issue: American liberalism is in a dangerous predicament.

Apr 7, 2003, Vol. 8, No. 29 • By WILLIAM KRISTOL

WE'VE LEARNED at least two things in the first nine days of the Second Gulf War. The American people are fine. American liberalism is not.

Here's the good news about the American people: They're not affected by the silly mood swings of much of the media. Americans outside newsrooms and TV studios understand that wars are often difficult and usually unpredictable. They know that totalitarian regimes do not fall easily. They grasp the fact that lots of military decisions are judgment calls, and that there's not much point paying attention to instant second-guessing.

As antiwar protests spread in California, the largest state in the Union becomes more and more politically irrelevant.

6:00 AM, Mar 28, 2003 • By BILL WHALEN

IF YOU ASSUMED California's antiwar fetish crested the moment Michael Moore thanked the Academy, dissed the president, and took his Oscar home, guess again.

Politicians here in America's dream factory have made breaking with the majority on Iraq a reliable source of amusement and amazement--as much a daily staple of the California Experience as the tanning index, surf reports, and the Lakers.

Consider these two latest installments:

The morning after Moore's stunt at the Academy Awards, Los Angeles Mayor Jim Hahn dropped by the Florence Nightingale Middle School in nearby C

Do protesters have the right to assail the war during hostilities? Of course. Are they morally responsible for the consequences of their protest? You betcha.

2:25 PM, Mar 26, 2003 • By HUGH HEWITT

UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA Law School Professor Erwin Chemerinsky has been my colleague in the commentary business for a decade, and for the past three years a weekly guest, along with Chapman Law School Professor John Eastman, on my radio program. Together we try to make the issues of constitutional law entertaining and accessible.

Could it be that the arts community lacks sufficient imagination to comprehend the horrors of Saddam's Iraq?

6:00 AM, Mar 25, 2003 • By HUGH HEWITT

SINGERS WITH ENOUGH TALENT can overcome their politics, and Judy Collins has enough talent. So on Oscar night, the wife and I dragooned a younger couple, like the time my parents dragged us to hear Perry Como, and off we went to an auditorium on the campus of Claremont College to hear Judy and David Crosby in concert.

The largest quarter of CSNY played the opening set, an hour long display of guitar mastery and a surprising command of the higher vocal ranges. Crosby was a miser when it came to familiar tunes, though, and his time onstage left the audience a little restless.

It's the last valid argument against war, it's the budding core of a new international coalition, and it's still wrong.

11:00 PM, Mar 16, 2003 • By JONATHAN V. LAST

OVER THE COURSE of the last few months, every respectable argument against war in Iraq has fallen apart. In December the peaceniks insisted that inspections would work; even Hans Blix now admits that they have not. In January the peaceniks insisted that the United States was acting unilaterally; then a group of European nations stepped shoulder-to-shoulder with America and the ranks of support have since swelled.

‹‹ More Recent