Just Say No Deal
Just Say No Deal The Weekly Standard's raison d'etre was never so clear. Less than five days after the budget agreement was heralded, the May 12 issue was in my hands. Stephen Moore's "Why Make a...
...Cutting the regular tax capital gains rate will be a hollow victory if there is no corresponding Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) relief...
...In fact, Canada would be better off...
...The political power of a robust standard of living is our sword and shield...
...Constitutional republics are based on formal rights and liberties that are secured so that people can live free and peaceful lives...
...The deep red of the medieval painter Onufri is compared to that of Rembrandt and there is no unanimity as to whose is richer...
...And Kadare's roots grow from the very same soil...
...It would have been more honest if Schwartz had titled his article "Do Not Give the Nobel Prize to an Albanian...
...Probably the best thing to do is to encourage U.S...
...William E. Wentworth Dover, NH Iapplaud the theme of your "No Deal" editorial...
...The great pity of the budget deal is that Republican leaders, armed with impeccable economic principles, were outmaneuvered by adversaries living in a 150-year-old time warp...
...Stephen Moore's "Why Make a Deal...
...Does my activity as a board member of the Albanian Catholic Institute, as noted in the credit line of my article, suggest a desire to attack Albanians...
...The cuts should be larger and would be if Dole had won, but we haven't seen any cuts in a decade...
...Our time will be measured by its Indian baskets and other creative arts...
...Kadare is from a nation of barely 3 million people...
...Doing well in Quebec society depends on whether or not one is a member of the blood-line, or pure-laine (literally: pure wool...
...Al Blecher New York, NY Thank you to Fred Barnes for his contrary view of the current budget deal ("Fred Barnes Dissents," May 12...
...Eventually the day would dawn when the Nobel prize was awarded to a writer, albeit from a small country, whose work speaks to people around the world...
...Albania's roots go deep into ancient history...
...Ismail Kadare's books were translated into 40 languages because, and only because, the Communist regime paid for such translations...
...Hence our great concern...
...We Republicans sent our representatives to Washington to make changes...
...What can possibly be wrong with the mental processes of our country's leaders...
...Ekrem Bardha Mergim Korca Gjeke Gjonlekaj West Bloomfield, MI Stephen Schwartz responds: The bluffing comments of Bardha, Korqa, and Gjonlekaj could have appeared in Zeri I Popullit, the official party daily under Albanian despot Enver Hoxha...
...The editors are right, of course, but please don't underrate fiscal policy...
...Brooks never says what he supports, but I gather that he disapproves of public funding for the arts...
...The tall tale is that there is a major crisis in America, one that requires the intervention of the president and the collectivization of the national government...
...Insightful conservatives discern that the true contraposition to government programs is not tax cuts...
...Unfortunately, the federal government does not understand this...
...If it were, Hoxha or Sali Berisha, Albania's current semi-dictator, would also qualify...
...For this early warning of coming disaster, conservatives, especially the GOP leaders who made this strategic misstep, owe you...
...Robert A. Farquhar East Williston, NY The editorial "No Deal" was right on the mark...
...Why were his writings translated into more than 40 languages...
...The pro-slavery Democrats were wrong then, and they're wrong today when they think they can keep control by making us all beholden to government handouts...
...The party doesn't understand why those of us out here in the hinterland are upset...
...Could this be a case of the highest peaks attracting lightning...
...Would this include my significant other for 32 years, the painter Claire-Drita Fraschina, who is of Albanian origin...
...Citizens in the "Rest of Canada" (as Quebec's leaders have dubbed it) have long recognized that Quebec's political demands cannot be satisfied...
...investment in Quebec...
...Schwartz is not satisfied with attacking the literary merits of Kadare but insults the very culture of our nation that has in Kadare its most distinguished son, its "highest peak...
...It is the same sort of thing the FBI accused Richard Jewell of doing: planting a bomb in order to be the hero...
...Thus, the Right now has a huge advantage because of its predilection for freedom and market economics...
...As far as Kadare the man is concerned, the very fact that last year he was chosen as a member for life of the French Academy speaks to his ethical and moral values...
...The difference is that Jewell has been exonerated while Reich and the Clintons are still in business...
...had all the dirty figures before anyone else...
...Can they delude themselves into thinking that lofty postures and cliches during earnest meetings are apt to achieve anything at all...
...They will just be paying the top AMT rate rather than a capitalgains rate...
...Frum divines a dark and foreboding future for Canada...
...This is a result of the myth that the Quebecois are the descendants of the original families who first inhabited the region...
...Alexander Moissi is recognized as one of the greatest dramatic actors of the century...
...In Lincoln's time, people gave up on both parties and formed the GOP The party triumphed over the pro-slavery Democrats because it was right...
...Mother Theresa enjoys universal love and respect as one of the worthiest figures of our times...
...Unfortunately, Frum fails to mention any of this, and he gives his American readers the impression that Canada's future is full of doom...
...What went wrong...
...But let us come to what hurt us most...
...John Clark Salyer Sterling, VA Volunteer Madness By the time I read the last page of Matt Labash's devastatingly entertaining article on the Volunteerism Summit ("They Did it For the Children," May 12) I was helpless with laughter...
...According to Bardha, Korqa, and Gjonlekaj, my article was aimed against "all Albanians...
...What the Republicans should tell Clinton and the Democrats is "No deal...
...He skewers so many trendy left-wing platitudes with such wit that I wanted the article to go on and on...
...Otherwise, many taxpayers with significant capital gains will continue to pay a tax of up to 28 percent, which is identical to the present top rate on capital gains...
...He even sneers at Correspondence the Japanese for honoring their traditional artists...
...The "No Deal" editorial bemoaned the GOP's lack of courage on spiritual and moral issues...
...Promised cuts in the capital gains tax rate, with the multiplier effect from investment, hold the key to displacing government...
...Sharing roots with Mother Theresa is not enough to justify a Nobel prize, such as was awarded to her...
...This affliction involves the telling of a tall tale to get attention...
...The demands of the Quebecois are rooted in a peculiar form of pride, which is antithetical to constitutional republicanism...
...The new generation of Republican leaders taking over from Bush and Dole went to college after Marxist and Keynesian concepts peaked on American campuses...
...Timothy P. O'Neill Marco Island, FL Clintonian Conversation Andrew Ferguson's exquisite review of Robert Reich's Locked in the Cabinet ("Little Man, What Now?," May 12) has enabled me to identify the pathology that lights up Reich, the Clintons, and their fellow travelers: the Munchausen Complex...
...Because his work is of universal character and appeals to men and women throughout the world...
...This means encouraging the current premier of Quebec, Lucien Bouchard, to cut his bureaucracies and programs and to continue reducing the deficit...
...Joe Wilson Silver Spring, MD Breaking Up Is Easy to Do David Frum's hand-wringing about the future of Canada ("Maple Leaf Ragged," May 12) is pointless and irresponsible...
...It is too bad Nobel prizes cannot be awarded to Gjergj Fishta or Martin Camaj, who really were distinguished sons of the Albanian people, and truly deserved them...
...It might help if Brooks realized that no one cares who was the senior editor at the baloney mill in Cairo when the Pyramids were built...
...Take for example the Volun-teerism Summit...
...It will be in America's interest to ensure a stable Canada and an economically viable independent Quebec...
...Lowering the regular tax capital gains rate without AMT relief will be like receiving Ted Kennedy's liver in a transplant...
...Private opportunity is the way to solve the problems the programs were to address in the first place...
...We automatically attract leaders whose fiscal instincts are better than those of the people who are interested in leftist ideas...
...The people of Quebec, however, desire recognition, not for their pride as a republic, but for their nationalism rooted in ancestry...
...Harriet Vane Bloomfield Hills, mi New Measure for culture In "Hearings Impaired" (May 12), David Brooks jeers at Indian artists and their creations...
...Its major contributions in many fields are undeniable...
...As Americans realize, citizens feel pride for their achievement in securing those rights, and this pride provides the cement for their status as a republic...
...Statues of George Kastriota Skanderbeg can be found in most European capitals...
...With quick feedback from the grass roots, they can correct course and move more gracefully away from the abyss...
...I guess if they allowed themselves to recognize their own vacuousness they might not feel good about themselves...
...First, it is untrue that Canada would be worse off without Quebec...
...Perhaps we need to do the same thing today and elect representatives who won't back down...
...This would demonstrate to Quebec's powerful public unions, which currently oppose Bouchard's deficit reduction, that small government and a robust economy are necessary for a strong independent Quebec...
...Second, Americans may wonder what to do if their largest trading partner splits up...
...But the GOP retreated every time the Democrats lied or started name-calling...
...Deconfederation would benefit both sides, Canada and Quebec, if it is managed with sufficient prudence and statesmanship...
...John von Heyking South Bend, IN Albanians Defend Kadare Stephen Schwartz's article "Ismail Kadare's Prize Fight—Don't Give the Nobel Prize to an Albanian Party Hack" (March 24) left us aggrieved...
...Schwartz's arrows are aimed not only against Kadare but against all Albanians...
...Perhaps Frum spends too much time in Toronto where hand-wringing and shallow thinking rule the day...
...Such recognition has nothing to do with achievement or with liberty...
...Give it a rest, pessimists...
...Of course, the only crisis is that created by 40 years of liberal socio-economic policy...
Vol. 2 • May 1997 • No. 36
