Correspondence
Correspondence LAUGHABLE COMMISSION I HAVE JUST FINISHED READING Jennifer Braceras's article condemning the U.S. Civil Rights Commission as led by its chairperson, Mary Frances Berry ("Uncivil...
...TIM BARTLETT JERSEY City, NJ WIVES AND TAXES WHILE ALLAN CARLSON and David Blankenhorn proclaim themselves to be "marriage buffs," their criticism of President Bush's marriage penalty reduction proposal indicates a better moniker would be "non-working wife buffs" ("Marriage Penalties," Feb...
...Reynolds is quite correct that our tax code, as currently structured, reduces welfare by providing a work disincentive to millions of women...
...Berry and some others on the commission in the televised Tallahassee hearings...
...26 issue, "Why Move On...
...It made the headlines and dominated press coverage, as this experienced propagandist knew it would...
...yet the attitude of far too many scholars towards them," J.G.A...
...Which of the disincentives is stronger is ultimately an empirical matter, but the fact that a majority of women are working and a majority of female high school graduates are enrolling in college (presumably intending careers) suggests that the tax code's current disincentive for marriage is larger than that which would be created by the Bush plan...
...This is regrettable, in that it reinforces the mistaken notion that the early modern explorations of democratic theory were made possible only by a self-conscious attempt to ignore the theological topics that had long influenced political thought—an assessment for which the recent studies of Hobbes's (and Locke's) thought provide much counter-evidence...
...That office has few clerical staff and is unable to service the many states in its charge, whatever the goodwill and effort they display...
...when the tax code causes women who would otherwise work to drop out of the labor force...
...No economist with even a modest level of sophistication, which I know includes Milton Friedman and presumably Alan Reynolds, claims that non-working wives are "economic non-contributors...
...Bush's proposal allows couples to deduct 10 percent of up to $30,000 of the lower-earning spouse's income...
...STEPHEN JOYCE Rochester, NY I HAD TO CHECK THE DATE of the issue in which James Higgins's cliché-ridden piece contrasts George W. Bush's much lauded managerial skills with "C-stu-dent" Al Gore's nerdy obsession with policy details...
...The article deals chiefly with the commission's actions in Florida in connection with an effort to prove discrimination against blacks and Hispanics in the 2000 election...
...Exceptional MBA programs teach skills that are extremely relevant to the presidency—namely, the ability to run a large organization, hire competent people, see the big picture, improve efficiency, and think strategically...
...Likewise, the president should adjust the thresholds in the marginal tax rate schedules so that the brackets for married taxpayers are double those of single taxpayers...
...Yet Ormsby-Lennon chooses not to mention this important discussion of the philosopher's very public interest in religious matters...
...It suggests more than that one can be devoted to beauty (and luxury) without morality...
...Taking their logic to the extreme, it seems that Carlson and Blankenhorn would simply have the government confiscate any income earned by a woman...
...Clinton's perennial shamelessness is not fun for those of us who love our country, not to mention truth or justice...
...We lay plans, only to nearly forget their substance by the time we get to meet again...
...I'm not suggesting that President Bush fails to possess these skills...
...For some time I have been at my wits' end to decide whether to resign and forget it, or to protest, perhaps to Oregon's senators and representatives...
...It is now possible for a typical state advisory committee to meet maybe once or twice a year...
...The directors of such offices seem to lack funds and personnel (and the confidence of the national staff and commission), so that they have little incentive to further the work of the state advisory committees...
...The character of Hannibal Lecter is more than the absence of morality, he is pure evil...
...This is too much fun," disturbed me...
...A solid analytical, theoretical, and quantitative background enables a manager to understand and dissect data and problems...
...It's not true...
...According to Carlson and Blanken-horn, these second-income earners, primarily women, would then feel less dependent on their spouses for financial support and thus the institution of marriage would be weakened, not strengthened...
...E. FRANK STEPHENSON Mount Berry, GA...
...I write as a member, since 1987, of the advisory committee of the U.s...
...The Weekly Standard, of all publications, should be glad the election is over...
...so little money is left for us that we have little or no logistical support at all...
...What economists do claim, however, is that economic welfare is reduced (but not eliminated...
...By reducing the tax penalty for couples in which both spouses would work regardless of marital status, the Bush proposal reduces their incentive to divorce or to cohabit without marrying in the first place...
...JOEL MARK SOLLIDAY Maple Grove, MN THE NATURE OF HOBBES HUGH ORMSBY-LENNON did a fine job of informing us of the current "Hobbes boom" ("Hobbes's Nature," Feb...
...I was disappointed, though, that his discussion reinforces the long-standing habit of downplaying Hobbes's treatment of religious topics...
...There is little of this...
...Rather than needlessly adding another deduction to the complexity of the already unfathomable tax code, Bush should instead adjust the standard deduction for married couples (currently $7,350) so that it is double that for single filers (currently $4,400...
...But Hannibal, book and film, suggests that cannibalism is just another alternative lifestyle, like pedophilia or sex with animals...
...I think, in light of your truly excellent article—with which I totally agree, especially as to the gross bias exhibited by the Berry com-mission—I will begin with your fine publication, forwarding this informal letter of comment and protest...
...Because this deduction reduces the taxation of second-income earners, it would encourage some of those who have been driven out of the labor force by high marginal tax rates to return to (paid) work...
...Indeed, the national commission chairperson seems to have little confidence in the state bodies, much less in their work...
...What offends me is his endorsement of the idea that "devotion to beauty can exist without morality...
...Finally, I should note that, like Carlson and Blankenhorn, I would also prefer that the Bush plan take a different form...
...Her calculated repeated use of "laughable" immediately after the close of the hearings to describe the testimony of Katherine Harris, done when the witness had left the building, was disgusting...
...In at least one of the books reviewed by Ormsby-Lennon, A.P Martinich's Hobbes: A Biography, Hobbes's theological views are discussed in careful and sympathetic detail...
...ALLEN S. THORPE Castle Dale, UT HARVARD HODGEPODGE AS A CURRENT MBA STUDENT at the University of Rochester, I took great joy in reading James Higgins's article highlighting the skills an MBA alum can bring to the office of the presidency ("What Bush Learned at Harvard," Feb...
...Pocock observed, "has traditionally been, first, that they aren't really there, second, that Hobbes didn't really mean them...
...Similarly, the high level of taxation on first incomes may reduce welfare by inducing some women to work when they would otherwise prefer not to be in the labor force...
...Your cover gives Clinton's sycophants cover for their attacks on our motives...
...I have been fascinated by Harris's other books because of the way they looked into the face of evil and revealed how it can dominate human beings...
...I am just as disgusted by The Weekly Standard's movie review by Michael Long, even if he notes that the film isn't very good ("Home Cooking," Feb...
...If we hold hearings, have them transcribed, and edit them into decent form, they will go to the regional offices and disappear forever...
...morality can exist without beauty...
...While Carlson and Blankenhorn are correct that Bush's plan is a marriage disincentive for women who do not currently work, they ignore the fact that the current code is a marriage disincentive for working women...
...in the years before Berry, I used to get magazines, printed reports, and communications from Washington with some regularity, so that I and other members remote from the capital had some feeling of being educated on the activities of the national commission and the other state committees...
...However, Harvard Business School takes a unique approach to MBA education by revolving its entire curriculum around case studies and placing a high percentage of a student's grade on classroom participation...
...While he allows that "the Atheist of Malmesbury" owed some of his thinking about the social contract to Reformation theology, and that he may have privately held to "some heterodox version of Anglicanism," Ormsby-Lennon is content to relegate these matters to Hobbes's private life— "for public appearances, he chose the cool line of geometry...
...Several other prominent business schools do not necessarily endorse this style of instruction...
...Civil Rights Commission as led by its chairperson, Mary Frances Berry ("Uncivil Commission," Feb...
...While I generally agree with Higgins's article, the notion that an MBA-educated CEO or American president does not need an appreciation for quantitative analysis or policy is misguided...
...The concept that it is so simple and understandable for Clarice Starling to switch sides at the end is reprehensible...
...The Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and other Northwest bodies are "served" by a branch office in Los Angeles, upwards of a thousand miles away...
...Your magazine gave wings to their accusations...
...Under Berry's leadership, the commission has hogged the appropriations made by Congress for civil rights investigations, and has seen to it that most of the funds stay in the hands of the national body at the expense of the 50 state advisory committees and branch offices...
...VAUGHN DAVIS BORNET Ashland, OR CLINTON COVER-UPS THE COVER OF YOUR FEB...
...Carlson and Blankenhorn's caricature of economic thought also requires comment...
...The reports formerly prepared by state committees used to be printed and distributed...
...Hardly a piece of printed material has come in a year or more...
...The left has long presumed our gleeful cynicism with the Clinton scandals...
...It implies that good and evil are simple constructs with no independent existence...
...This ignores the fact that books III and IV of Leviathan are roughly equal in length to the much discussed first two books, and they are devoted to an in-depth discussion of biblical-theological matters...
...I thought I had mistakenly picked up an issue from the fall...
...No more...
...RICHARD MOUW Pasadena, CA THE ROOT OF EVIL I WAS PROFOUNDLY DISGUSTED by Hannibal, the book...
...Let's hold off from reviving it, at least until the real election results come in...
...Civil Rights Commission for Oregon...
...Apparently, so has Thomas Harris, who, in the book's acknowledgments, tells us that the evil is all his own...
...He has given himself over to evil completely...
...As one affiliated in a limited way with the commission's work through the minor office I hold, I felt shame at the enormous rudeness and bias exhibited by Dr...
Vol. 6 • March 2001 • No. 25
