Correspondence

...The reader should himself consult Smith...

...But how could I resist attending a concert by a man who named an album Talking with the Tax Man About Poetry...

...Not exactly an endorsement...

...The questions raised in this article are merely things that we as human beings do not want to face because they are a drastic departure from everything we know, and challenge our core moral, religious, and philosophical beliefs...

...Colbert, who, notwithstanding his great abilities, seems in this case to have been imposed upon by the sophistry of merchants and manufacturers, who are always demanding a monopoly against their countrymen...

...Correspondence TOTAL CONTROL AS CHAIRMAN of a Senate committee with broad jurisdiction over national security (including export controls, the Defense Production Act, the Trading With the Enemy Act, among other matters), i want to set the record straight about the Export Administration Act of 2001, currently pending in the Senate ("Out of Control...

...The bill echoes recommendations from national security experts within and outside of the government, from the 1999 Cox committee on military and commercial relations with China and the 1999 commission on weapons of mass destruction, to the recent joint report of the Stimson Center and the Center for Strategic and International Studies...

...DONALD MCLAUGHLIN Granger, IN IT SEEMS AS IF J. BOTTUM is working under the premise that there needs to be a reason to make cloning legal...

...But it would have been wrong to cancel the procedures in their infancy because they weren't as successful as desired...

...RUSSELL ROBERTS The Library of Economics and Liberty Washington University St...

...But the same was true for pro-abortion forces, and look what they've wrought...

...Smith then discusses France's enthusiasm for the strategy: "In this consisted a great part of the policy of Mr...

...I'm hoping to soon find myself singing about the glories of property rights, individual liberty, and free trade...

...In March, I'm pleased to report, the Senate Banking Committee passed a revised EAA, which my administration strongly supports...

...I simply fail to see why people are so afraid of this...

...But Roberts avoids the troublesome question I raise: Are there times when free trade should play second fiddle to other national objectives and policies...

...PHIL GRAMM Chairman Senate Banking Committee Washington, DC THE CLONE WARS THANK YOU FOR J. Bottum's excellent article on the human cloning discussion and the need for a total ban ("Against Human Cloning," May 7...

...This is the pro-national security approach...

...Besides, for us to think that cloning research will not continue if the United States bans it is foolish...

...I would look exactly like he did at my age...

...The bill was drafted with national security concerns foremost in mind...

...This list does not include more recent, less successful productions like Big and Passion...

...Roberts says about the virtues of free trade, and the cost of erecting trade barriers, is correct, although he does err in saying that Adam Smith saw retaliation merely as a means of revenge...

...BRAGGING RIGHTS THANK YOU for David Skinner's "My Left Ear," in the May 7 issue...

...Ellen Bork, May 14...

...KRISTIE CONEYS KUHL Fairfield, CT...

...I think it is foolish to believe that just because the host mother did not contribute genetically to the baby, somehow that child will be treated any different or have any less rights...

...And it's not even as if I would look exactly like my dad...

...But how will we make an argument when the other side will all but ignore that logic to get what it wants...

...I am pleased that the Banking Committee's bill is backed by a formidable array of national security experts in government and in private life...

...Several policy analysts at the Cato Institute have formed a band called "Spontaneous Order...

...Finally, one could argue that My Fair Lady hews more closely to Anthony Asquith's 1938 film version of Pygmalion than it does to George Bernard Shaw's original play...

...All in all, that's not a bad track record for the translation of musicals from movies...

...The Export Administration Act of 2001 embodies the most frequently repeated reform theme: that we can protect our interests better by focusing efforts on the technologies we have a hope of controlling, building higher walls around them, with stiffer penalties for breaching those walls...

...When it comes to these kinds of agendas, ethical, moral, and legal barriers don't seem to matter, and that is where the battle will actually be fought...

...Today I've found myself singing "The Marriage" and "You Woke Up My Neighborhood," which is considerably more pleasant than when "Help Save the Youth of America" is stuck in my head...

...With enactment of this legislation, the unscrupulous will have a tougher job and will face longer prison sentences and higher fines...

...And while Smith did understand that retaliation could in theory lead to more open borders, he did not, as Stelzer claims, dismiss the argument that it was the equivalent of shooting oneself in the foot: "When there is no probability that any such repeal [of tariffs by the other nations] can be procured, it seems a bad method of compensating the injury done to certain classes of our people to do another injury ourselves, not only to those classes, but to almost all the other classes of them...

...I feel that the scientific positives outweigh the moral negatives...

...Their expertise may not sway the nameless "old hands at technology transfer" and the anonymous "national security official" cited in earlier articles, but they persuade me that we are on the right track to bringing our export controls in line with the reality of the world today...

...The recourse is to make an all-out offensive to educate the public...

...in the course of three years, the Banking Committee held nine hearings and heard from almost 40 witnesses, nearly all of whom were highly critical of the existing export control regime...

...he will find that the great Scot saw retaliation as a means of forcing the offending protectionist to call off his trade war...

...I would add On the Twentieth Century (in which I once acted), but it is in fact based on a play that was also the source of the John Barrymore film...

...The bottom line is, Americans need to pull their heads out of the sand and deal with the Brave New World of the 21st century...

...Pro-clone forces haven't an ethical, moral, or legal leg upon which to stand...

...What is the real difference of whether I look like my dad or I look exactly like my dad...

...Your argument that there are a high number of deformities in animals is well taken...

...We are in good company in advocating it...

...Every such law, therefore, imposes a real tax upon the whole country, not in favour of that particular class of workmen who were injured by our neighbours' prohibition, but of some other class...

...As a teenager in 1987, I was one of probably two Republicans at a Billy Bragg concert at the Roseland in New York...

...Last Wednesday, President Bush reaffirmed his strong support for the bill, "to strengthen both national security and our high-tech industry...

...Sincere's knowledge of the American musical, but I was expressing an opinion—and in my opinion, only The Lion King and Carnival are successes on their own terms...

...Just off the top of my head, I can think of several other artistically and commercially successful Broadway musicals based on movies, including Bob Fosse and Neil Simon's Sweet Charity (based on Fellini's Nights of Cabiria), Stephen Sondheim's A Little Night Music (based on Bergman's Smiles of a Summer Night), Nine (based on Fellini's 8-1/2), Shenandoah, and On the Twentieth Century (both starring John Cullum, the first based on a James Stewart movie of the same name and the second based on a John Barrymore movie called simply Twentieth Century...

...It's now time for the House to pass it, so I can sign it into law...

...RICHARD E. SINCERE JR...

...What is the true philosophical difference of having a baby from the genetic make-up of one person as opposed to two people...

...Charlottesville, VA JOHN PODHORETZ RESPONDS: I am impressed with Mr...

...PAUL BANZ Pittsburgh, PA THE SEARCH FOR ADAM IRWIN M. STELZER'S RECENT PIECE on trade issues tries to invoke Adam Smith in defense of tariffs ("The Limits of Free Trade," April 30): "And Smith even anticipated modern-day arguments that considerations of fairness justify retaliation 'when some foreign nation restrains by high duties or prohibitions the importation of some of our manufactures into their country.' Smith saw such retaliation as an instrument that just might induce the offending partner to mend its ways...

...You've articulated the case extremely well...

...That is why the bill is endorsed by the president's national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, and Secretary of State Colin Powell...

...The concert was held on April 15—the day of the year, even as a teen, that I most hate political philosophy that is even the slightest shade of pink...

...Smith did anticipate the modern argument for retaliatory tariffs...

...I think so—alas...

...RICK PRUETT Denver, CO I FEEL THAT WHETHER WE like it or not, human cloning is here to stay...

...And it needs to begin yesterday...

...In a free society, however, you need a reason to make it illegal...

...Organ transplants, no doubt, had a much lower rate of success at first than they have today...

...MOVIES TO MUSICALS IN HIS OTHERWISE EXCELLENT REVIEW of The Producers ("Mel Brooks Produces," April 30), John Podhoretz states a "rule" that "musicals derived from movies don't work," citing only two exceptions, Carnival and The Lion King...

...And never mind the economist's argument that such a move is equivalent to shooting oneself in the foot by denying consumers access to the goods of the protection-minded country...

...However, this is an argument of a lack of current technical ability, not an argument for banning the procedure altogether...

...Louis, MO IRWIN M. STELZER RESPONDS: Everything Mr...

...But Smith attributes it to a desire for revenge, not fairness...

...At the same time, we end the mindless regulatory paper chase for the law-abiding firms that every day are working on the new technologies that will guarantee that American soldiers and sailors remain the best equipped in the world...

...I agree with you: Ethical, moral, and legal logic all dictate nothing less than a full ban on any cloning...

...I personally would like to see human cloning as it would help us understand more about what nature or nurture factors truly control the outcome of our lives...

...That, I fear, is what will happen...

...There has been and will be debate on cloning in the ivory towers as well as in our living rooms as we try to come to terms with this issue...

...It is at present the opinion of the most intelligent men in France that his operations of this kind have not been beneficial to his country...