Current Wisdom

...The 7:3o staff meeting in the White House is the most powerful drug I've ever experienced...

...The most he can hope— provided he beats the rap on selling foreign policy—is to emerge from it all as First Dupe...

...We have to say this, though: Silverstone is the first actor we can recall who exaggerated her educational accomplishments downward...

...I did not know when the meeting would occur...

...Albright is displaying an energy, practicality and cosmopolitanism that senior career diplomats find refreshing...

...He appeared to be devastated to learn during one of his imprisonments that his wife had accepted employment in a Ministry of the Batista regime...

...There is a force that goes with that...

...Nonetheless columnist Clarence Page will not be restrained in his urge to pontificate: But, at least, in the middle class and mostly white suburbs of America, new ideas are given a chance to prove themselves...

...You can't do anything about that...

...It has nothing to do with me, but people treat somebody who has talked to the president in the past 48 hours differently from the way they treat everybody else...

...CURRENT WISDOM The Lynn Samuels Show (WABC 770 AM, New York City) Another example of the new civility that our liberal progressive friends are bringing down on us, good and hard: Samuels: She waited—what—three years after the incident until The American Spectator —that R. Emmett Tyrrell was on C-Span this morning...

...Whatever added pleasure power brings, the addition, so long as it isn't coerced, isn't outrageous...

...Castro's integrity, sincerity and calm...

...There's a name for such a false debate...

...Every time I read about another one, I am shocked — exactly as I am supposed to be...

...I was struck with what I felt to be Dr...

...I in turn had many questions about Cuba...

...For security reasons Dr...

...I sensed that his views were based on thorough thought and a great deal of scholarly pursuit and investigation...

...Our meeting ended in the unpretentious manner in which it began...

...Ron Klink broke his silence Tuesday on the ethics problems plaguing Newt Gingrich by sharply rebuking the House speaker and the alleged Republican Party attempts to sweep his troubles under the mg...

...But when someone defecates on your plate over and over again, you can only turn the other cheek so often," Klink said...

...23 —As she prepares for her visit to China, the last and most sensitive test of her grueling, 9-nation, 11-day tour of the world, Madeleine K. Albright shows every sign of having a wonderful time...

...I have not spoken previously of this meeting in a public way because of the political sensitivities of my former role as a member of the Ontario Legislature...

...It just is...

...I had the impression of a man of tremendous self-knowledge and personal integration who had dedicated his life to his country and to the goal of social justice...

...FEBRUARY 20, 1997] Los Angeles Times Investigative journalism at its best...and most pitiless: Alicia Silverstone, the star of Clueless, held a news conference at Beverly Hills High, where she urged students to refuse science assignments that require dissecting an animal...

...We discussed a wide range of subjectsincluding my psychotherapy teaching program and issues pertaining to Canadian and Cuban history and society...

...We spoke for nearly two hours...

...There was absolutely no glad-handing salesmanship with which many North American politicians attempt to charm their guests...

...I have never met a better listener...

...Castro's attitude and manner were matter-of-fact, thoughtful, quite disarming and conveyed the impression of a man thoroughly at peace with himself...

...I rapidly lose interest in the media's and the legal system's endless pursuit of detail...

...JANUARY 4, 1997] New Republic Someone going by the pen name of Michael Walzer in praise of short attention spans: Since the beginning of political time, politicians have used power to build their bank accounts and satisfy their libidos...

...What a pig, what a vile, obnoxious, nasty human being he is...

...However, Silverstone seemed to be playing a partly fictional role here...

...He takes matters of revolutionary loyalty and altruistic commitment very seriously...

...Castro conducted himself more like a thoughtful professor emeritus than a revolutionary politician and world statesman...

...FEBRUARY 1, 1997] The American Spectator • April 1997 89...

...I know that sort of thing is wrong...

...He walked down the hall with me, embraced me warmly at the elevators and wished me well...

...One evening I and my delegation's guide and interpreter were whisked to the Palace of the Revolution...

...FEBRUARY 1997] Nation A half dozen years after the peaceful defeat of Communism, with Washington aid now flowing to the countries of the former Soviet Union and the American military pounding its swords into plowshares, the anti-Cold Warriors are still at it, intoning their Marxist patois: While increased funding was the bright underside of cold war government-university relations, there were also overt liaisons between researchers and the neo-imperial state...

...JANUARY 26, 1997] Pittsburgh Tribune-Review The Hon...

...We adjourned to his spacious and tastefully though modestly furnished office...

...Castro's whereabouts and schedule are a closely guarded secret...

...Castro is extremely well-read and well-informed...

...Whether chatting in good French and being kissed by France's President, plunging into surprised crowds at Rome's forum, uttering the cadenced sound bite for television or even getting her talking points exactly rightin her brief visit to the anxious South Koreans, Ms...

...It's all fake...

...I knew enough of Cuba and its problems that I would have easily recognized scripted or propagandized responses and there were none...

...JANUARY 13, 19971 Vogue Party hack George Stephanopoulos offers a glimpse into the high-grade intellect that earned him his ABC News post, a faculty appointment at Columbia University, a $2.85 million book contract, and who knows, perhaps a seat on the Supreme Court: I like to joke about how much better-looking I seemed to get on November 4, 1992...

...It's the coolest thing ever...

...I call it "idiotics...

...And she said she received an F in middle school for refusing to carve up a frog...

...The sex is too uninteresting, and in any case sexual pleasure is one of the more equally distributed goods in our society...

...MARCH 10, 1997] Chicago Tribune The school system of the District of Columbia costs, roughly speaking, twice that of the nearby suburbs...

...He is a very private man who from time to time withdraws to a self-imposed retreat when he feels himself to be at a crossroads or at a personal or philosophical watershed...

...It's the ultimate Gold Card...

...I knew only that I had been approved for a meeting with the Comandante...

...But the real story is not so funny...

...But for the moment, at least, I'm not marching...

...On the several occasions when he was imprisoned for revolutionary activities he used the time to read and study works as diverse as Immanuel Kant's Transcendental Aesthetics of Space and Time, Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal, four complete volumes of the collected works of Freud, writings of Einstein and of course, the works of Marx, Engels and Lenin...

...I am speaking out now because I believe it is time to break silence on matters that, though politically sensitive, are important to a fuller understanding in First World nations of the enormous vision, compassion, commitment and altruism of one of the greatest revolutionary leaders of the zoth century and human history...

...And the man who began it all is Dick Morris, the reptilian consultant who bullied Clinton into raising all the money in the first place...

...But they published the name, Paula, and then she got all in a snit, and it's like she wants Clinton to apologize...

...FEBRUARY 2+ 1997] Toronto Globe and Mail A classic compendium of all the glassyeyed drivel devoutly believed by progressives about one of the century's foremost opponents of freedom, tolerance, science, humanism...

...The same holds true for the school systems of New York and Chicago and most other large American cities...

...He sought my views about Quebec separation...

...The teacher said that not only did Silverstone not receive an F but that students in the class were not required to dissect animals...

...And that's going to go away when I leave here...

...Still, I haven't fully internalized how difficult it's going to be to give up my White House pass...

...Well, Clinton doesn't publish that scurrilous publication, now, does he...

...The San Francisco Chronicle tracked down her science teacher at Crocker Middle School in the Bay Area...

...It's a bleak prospect, any way the president looks at it...

...I was impressed with his quiet and unpretentious manner and I found myself curiously relaxed and at peace in his presence...

...Let indignant citizens organize against personal corruption, financial and sexual—I am sure they are doing the right thing...

...I was relieved briefly of my briefcase but subjected to no other security checks before being led into a large room where we waited for about 45 minutes until Fidel, accompanied by two aides, walked in casually...

...He was interested in knowing more about our system of government, about the welfare of our native people and he was very interested in the James Bay Hydro Electric project...

...I felt that for the nearly two hours I had enjoyed the undivided attention and total presence of a historical giant who has given hope and a sense of dignity to oppressed people in Cuba and elsewhere...

...It is a story about urban school districts whose black students are so starved for educational resources that some officials will try to tap another shrinking pie, bilingual education funds...

...Still, the cases don't excite me...

...Israelite kings and Roman senators provide early examples (though I am sure there are earlier ones), and the cases multiply over the centuries...

...FEBRUARY 1, 1997] New York Times Love at first sight, and on the news pages of the venerable Times, of all places: Tokyo, Feb...

...Part of the reason, linguists told Specter's subcommittee, is that just about every time word gets out that a program is getting started, local controversy causes it to be shelved...

...Numerous columnists, commentators and radio talk show hosts have gotten a good laugh out of the Ebonics story...

...That's a tough story to discuss, so we talk about a side issue like Ebonics, instead...

...I mean, we sit there for 45 minutes, and sometimes it's boring, but more often than not, you just can't believe that you're sitting there, picking up every single issue that's come into play that day and thinking about how the president is going to fight it...

...The meeting occurred about three years ago...

...At a media briefing yesterday at the Hilton Hotel, Downtown, Klink, a Democrat from Murrysville, said he had avoided interviews on the ongoing controversy because he didn't want the appearance of promoting "partisan wrangling...

...He would pause and reflect in a very respectful way before providing a thoughtful and comprehensive response to every question I posed...

...Like Henry Kissinger, she has star quality...

...in sum, one of the century's foremost opponents of progressivism...

...FEBRUARY 17, 1997] 88 April 1997 • The American Spectator Washington Post Mary McGrory explains how the fiend Morris took advantage of our big lovable lug of a president: Still, the McDougals and their ilk are nothing compared to the White House fundraising cast, a collection of hustlers and con men who bought their way in and paid to come back...

...Klink discoursing on Evil in the impassioned style that has made him Capitol Hill's true heir to the late Stephen A. Douglas: U.S...

...And this idiot esteems himself an intellectual: This year I have chosen to describe a meeting I was granted with Fidel Castro...

...I've written a book to explain why...

...So far, after almost 3o years of debate, we still don't know whether black English instruction works in helping students leam standard English...