The Latest(ish)
“We walked into an almighty ambush,” sighed a senior Tory aide to the London Daily Telegraph, “it was a stitch-up that came right out of the blue.” Well, he was half-right, at least. The latest blow to hit Britain’s embattled Conservative opposition was indeed the result of an ambush, but to suggest that it came “out of the blue” shows a disturbing level of naïveté in a party that will likely have to contest a general election within the next few weeks (the current speculation is that the vote will be held on June 7th). The origins of this new [...]
In PC England
April 23, 2001
Shrines should be for saints, not killers, but no one seems to have told them that at Gorki Leninskiye. There, twenty miles outside Moscow, a holy place still stands, a tribute to a tyrant, and an insult to his victims. It is paid for by a state unable to cope with the truths of its terrible, barely acknowledged past. Its citizens have a better understanding. They know what is celebrated there and they prefer to avoid it. “Why would you want to go there?” I am asked, “there is nothing to see.” “I’m interested in Soviet history.” There is a [...]
Lenin’s Last Stand
April 22, 2001
Lenin Museum, Gorki Leninskiye; published originally in National Review Online
If you thought that the million moms were bad, just wait until you hear from the six hundred thousand docs. Next time you go for a check-up, you just might. Doctors Against Handgun Injury (a new coalition of organizations representing two-thirds of this country’s physicians) is suggesting that “health professionals and health systems should ask [patients] about gun ownership when taking a medical history or engaging in preventive counseling.” By itself, intrusive questioning is not enough, of course. The interrogation has to be followed by a lecture. “Patients should be provided with information about the risks of having a gun [...]
Doctor’s Orders
April 15, 2001
Medical science used to be about test tubes, dissection, and ugly moments in the mortuary. Not any more, it seems. At New Hampshire’s Dartmouth Medical College, researchers had a very different project. They sat through 178 movies, and it wasn’t fun. For, doubtless to their disgust, these selfless men and women of science were forced to witness something that they would probably prefer never to be shown on the silver screen. It was a spectacle more repulsive than Hannibal Lecter’s skillet, a freak show more sinister than Freddy Krueger’s grin. Yes, they had to watch cigarette smokers at play. Lots [...]
Big-Screen Smoke Screen
April 8, 2001