Tilting at Windmills

...Oil Shortages Predicted" — reminds me to make another plea for Congress to enact a standby gasoline rationing authority...

...It has also announced that it will distribute $169 million in bonuses to its executives...

...the Mercury Grand Marquis...

...It's an exciting story about how an American commando team rescues hostages held by terrorists who have hijacked an airplane...

...His reward was his commanding officer's request that he receive a psychiatric evaluation...

...The only reference to education is in this paragraph: "In Cancun, visit the ancient archeological Mayan ruins, which will prove to be an unforgettable educational experience—Or—Shop...

...If you're a student of how government executives get around town, you probably know that many of them do so in chauffeur-driven limousines...

...It involves the hundreds of smart Washington lawyers who secretly suspect they have wasted their lives and yearn to connect with the right presidential candidate so that in January 1989 they will be Mr...

...Our incompetence at Desert One was pathetic...

...If they haven't said yes by now, they're going to have to shell out $85 for an "inspection" to join later on...

...I don't think we are threatened by a long-time energy shortage—we have enough natural gas to prevent that—and I don't think it's probable that there will be any short-range shortage...

...The result has been that experiences like previous attempts to get help from Iranian "moderates" were not available to the Reagan White House either through documentary record or the recollection of colleagues...

...Now you understand why unions are still needed...

...This is an interesting idea...

...In addition to being allowed to sell hundreds of millions of dollars of stock before the case against him was made public, Ivan Boesky seems to have gotten away with secretly transferring control of an Oklahoma City television station to his wife...

...Army recruiters based in Minneapolis were discovered by the Minneapolis Star and Tribune to have "forged diplomas, concealed criminal records, and committed scores of other violations to meet recruiting goals!' And the culprits were not just one or two overly zealous recruiters, but 58 officers and enlisted men...

...The smiles were few, the thoughtful pauses long...

...In fact a recent recruiting scandal in Minnesota suggests that the good times may already be over...

...We noted in last month's issue that The Washington Post had placed an important story by Morton Mintz on page K-2...

...Does this not give us a faint hint that most of the other stations aren't following the rules either...

...This month you can ponder Preventive Medicine in Palm Springs, Anatomy for Attorneys in Las Vegas, Litigating Psychological Injuries in Hawaii, Psychiatry and the Law in Jamaica, Neurological Injury at Lake Tahoe, Anatomy for Attorneys (Part II) at Hilton Head...

...By the way, did you know that The New Republic killed an article critical of Boesky last fall...

...That doesn't mean he should escape trial and conviction...

...The Bird court found that his "intent" to kill her was not clear...

...Shop!—Or—Relax and enjoy the most incredible beaches with 10-foot breaking surf...

...Barrett's main example of this unfortunate situation was the University of Pennsylvania...

...A case in point comes from New York, where it was recently revealed that a housing project for the homeless had been delayed for months, and its cost increased more than one-third...

...I have been remiss in keeping you up-to-date on the schedules for those taxdeductible, continuing medical and legal education seminars...

...Of course anyone who commits a lot of crimes can be said to not know right from wrong...

...Usually, I can be found on the side of those favoring less civil service, not more...

...The details about no one really knowing how many nuclear weapons we have or where they are, not to mention our inability to monitor the Soviets' moves, carry the weight of Aaron's authority as a former deputy director of the National Security Council...

...But if you look closely, they're often Fords or Mercurys or equivalent makes, not the names you associate with luxury vehicles...

...One weak link described in the book is the personnel manning the Satellite Control Facility at Sunnyvale California...

...The loss is a personal one for me—he was one of my closest friends— and a possible tragedy for the state' of West Virginia...

...Although he had stabbed her, hacked off her hands, and cut off her head, the court held that "the victim might have been killed accidentally...

...But I do think it is possible that OPEC will get its act together sufficiently to cause a gasoline shortage in the next few years...

...Of the officers who kept them on, an army investigative report said that "production is the first priority of the command and integrity is almost out of the picture...

...A quadrennial Washington ritual is about to begin...

...Speaking of foreign aid, another GAO investigation is under way into charges by John Ferch, the former ambassador to Honduras, who is now diplomat-inresidence at Brown University, that U.S...

...The catch is they are the top of each line, e.g...

...The latest example is what the General Telephone Company of California calls "Linekeeper Service" to repair and maintain lines inside your home...

...Because of the refusal by construction unions to allow the use of fully prefabricated units...

...Recruiters retained their positions even though they were known to have forged diplomas and used ringers to take tests...

...He complained that they measure analytic skill only and do not recognize two other important forms of intelligence, the innovative and the practical...

...The Washington state legislature is considering a bill that would finance auto insurance through a tax on gasoline...

...If you wondered why California voters threw such a nice liberal as Rose Bird out of office, consider this decision by her court that overturned the sentence given Bernard Lee Hamilton for the murder of Eleanore Frances Buchanan...

...All he has to offer is his name, and that, sadly, seldom means much in Iowa or New Hampshire...

...Hard demographic realities—namely the decreasing pool of 18-yearolds— indicate that this happy situation will not prevail much longer...

...Reagan fired even the secretaries from the previous administration...

...Will's reply was, "No, I haven't spoken to them...

...While the Israelis demonstrated at Entebbe that it could be done, we have never been able to pull off such an operation...

...This could have the same devastating inflationary effect as the two shortages of the seventies...

...Ford is giving its workers a 1986 profit-sharing check, averaging $2,100 each...

...The Pentagon continues to assure us that it is having no problem recruiting highquality volunteers for the service...

...The ad contains six paragraphs of copy with not one word devoted to the substantive content of the gathering...

...The ad continues in this vein—f`Cozumel is a paradise for scuba divers and snorkeling"—and ends with "Remember—it's tax deductible...

...Others revealed that they signed time cards indicating they worked in pairs, while in fact only one was at his post as his colleague moonlighted in an outside civilian job...

...The problem is that when the moonlighters actually come on duty, they are often so tired that they put a pillow on their desk and go to sleep...

...Since they are both profitable, this hope is not necessarily unrealistic...

...Charles Peters...

...Last month there was this headline in The New York Times: Penn Ends Required Studies For the Premedical Student...

...The people give the doctor or lawyer a license to make money...

...His latest discovery is a management memo on labor relations that contains this edifying passage: "The purpose of corrective discipline is to demean the employee, in his eyes, in the eyes of his family, and the eyes of his fellow employees—make the demeaning stick with him by putting the reprimand in writing and mailing it to his home...

...What makes this interesting is that The New Republic's owner was one of Boesky's main partners, with an investment in excess of $8 million...

...Another recent Times headline—this one read "U.S...

...Following the hallowed principle of the American Bar that every accused criminal is entitled to the best defense he can pay for, Florida lawyers have been falling all over themselves seeking to represent Carlos Lehder, the alleged Colombian drug dealer and killer who also happens to be a billionaire...

...General's excuse is, "Today we know your inside wiring is fine, but six months from now, we don't know!' The fact is that if your phone is still working they won't know any less about the state of your wiring then than they do now...

...This helps explain why our society—as it seemed to become increasingly meritocratic in the post-war years, with people getting into the best schools and then landing the best jobs on the basis of test scores—gave decreasing recognition to the fellow whose imagination conceived good products or whose practical ability turned innovative ideas into reality...

...Often the motivating force is that the end of the fiscal year is approaching and AID is desperately searching for ways to spend this year's appropriation so that its current budget request will seem credible to Congress...

...Thus, what has been a glorious journalistic situation in Charleston, described in these pages just a few months ago, with a good liberal morning paper and a good conservative evening paper, is in danger...

...But when Congress asks what kind of car his agency uses, the bureaucrat can piously reply: "We use only Fords and Mercurys...

...One of Ned's last editorials was about intelligence tests...

...This was done on September 3 of last year—after Boesky knew he was being investigated but before the government's charges against him were made public on November 14...

...If the chief of staff makes sure that the subordinates know that the president will find out, or at least might find out, exactly what they have done, it is somewhat less likely that they will behave illegally or recklessly in carrying out instructions...

...The evening paper, the Daily Mail, is also being sold, because of the illness of its owner...

...Evidence that Aaron knows what he's talking about comes from the San Jose Mercury News which discovered that people in sensitive jobs at the facility have slept at their posts and disconnected an alarm system designed to warn them of important messages...

...Have you discussed this with them...

...He also received two anonymous phone calls warning that he would be killed...

...But conservatives don't want to criticize the military and too many liberals think all such operations reek of Rambo and therefore refuse to give any importance to figuring out how to do them well...

...That is why I favor having on the White House staff a small contingent of high-quality civil servants, whose function would be to preserve and transmit institutional memory...

...When the president says, "011ie, see what you can do to help the contras," or "Bud, can't we establish some kind of contact with the Iranian moderates...

...H ave you seen the movie Delta Force...

...It does appear that a few details got left out of the 1986 tax reform law...

...I am glad to report one sign that this may be changing...

...They were locked in what was obviously a very serious conversation...

...I 'm indebted to my friend, James Dent of the Charleston Gazette for the following story: It seems that a lawyer had died and gone to the place where lawyers usually go...

...Sheridan, Wyoming...

...Most places unplug the audible alarm because it's so annoying," one airman said...

...In "The Premed Machine" (May 1985) Paul Barrett wrote about the vicious competition among premed students that resulted in their taking gut courses in non-science areas so that they could concentrate on doing well in courses like organic chemistry that were required for admission to medical school...

...It would eliminate the cost of the agents who now sell the insurance and of all that "You're In Good Hands" advertising and, because the Washington plan is "no fault," of all the expense of the litigation...

...The arrived Washington lawyer frequently is over the hill in the sense of having the drive necessary to maintain his practice here and do enough work to really count in the primaries...

...We calculated your age from the number of hours you billed your clients, and those figures show you are 94...

...and later gets back the report, "Mr...

...But it would have been nice to have someone around to tell them...

...General gave its customers until this month to decide whether they want to pay for this service...

...pressure on foreign countries to request aid has not been uncommon...

...This story has a specific aroma to it, one that might be called Essence d'Elliot Abrams, but U.S...

...I'm sorry to report that Jim Dent's employer, Ned Chilton, who was the Gazette's publisher for 20 years and a great crusader for justice and fair play, died last month...

...Clearly they were not discussing the weather...

...But it is also true that unions must reform...

...It appears that the paper will have to be sold...

...S ince the breakup of AT&T, and the accompanying deregulation of the phone business, you may have noticed that you are having to pay for a lot of services you weren't charged for before...

...But what I fear is that a big chain, greedy for even more profit, will merge the two into one paper that will make more money but have no soul...

...The sad thing is that it's fictitious...

...It might conceivably bear on whether he should receive psychiatric treatment while he is being incarcerated, but incarcerated he should be, if not for vindictive punishment, to protect the rest of us from what he would do if he got out...

...Why shouldn't they ask for something in return...

...It is, of course, not clear that, had such information been available, McFarlane, Poindexter, or North would have had the wit to attend to it...

...If Boesky's associates had to benefit from his illegal activities, I'm delighted that at least part of the booty supports the work of the brilliant Michael Kinsley...

...The most troubling fact to emerge from this scandal was, when it was finally straightened out and the recruiters went back to following the rules, Minneapolis's "production" of new volunteers dropped from near the top to near the bottom of army recruiting stations throughout the country...

...Speaking of the White House, I should mention what I feel is one serious omission in the discussion of the chief of staffs role that we are publishing in this issue...

...OPEC is frail enough that rationing would quickly bring it to its knees, sparing us the evil consequences that can ensue when rationing is prolonged...

...We are right to want to give economic aid the nations of the Third World, but we have to face the fact, as Senator Kennedy is now doing, that such aid does no good if their leaders blow it on shopping trips to Paris...

...They are alone because now the other guy is moonlighting and the alarm is still turned off...

...The White House now has no institutional memory...

...Sitting at another table directly in my line of vision were Nancy Reagan and George Will...

...GM has announced that it will make no profit-sharing payments...

...The danger lies in the combination of the vagueness of the instruction and the zeal and bad judgment of the subordinates who carry it out...

...The Minneapolis story came out because a sergeant blew the whistle, reporting the violations to the recruiting command at Ft...

...In this regard the liberals are following their principle of Don't Say Anything Bad About the Good Guys, the "good guy" in this case being foreign aid...

...officials pressured Honduras to ask for $20 million in aid last March to strengthen the appearance of a threat from Nicaragua...

...I'm not so sure, however, that I'm equally delighted about the high salaries and fancy offices that have gone to his neo-conservative colleagues...

...Is it possible that education is not the primary motive of those attending the seminars...

...Our failsafe system in this story turns out not to be safe at all...

...President, I've taken care of that," someone has to find out what it was that 011ie did...

...The result, as James Fallows points out in this issue, is that we were ruled by Bob McNamaras, whose clever analysis could destroy both the designers and the engineers who might have produced the good car and the other quality products that the country needed to remain competitive...

...A hint as to the answer is provided by an advertisement in the Medi-Legal Journal for the Cancun-Cozumel symposium on Assessing the Head Trauma Case...

...The candidates would be much better advised to pursue bright young lawyers in their primary states, who have the energy and the local contacts needed to make a difference...

...One reason Mintz has often received such treatment during his long and distinguished reporting career is that he is an active union member who takes delight in tormenting the Post's brass with revelations about such embarrassments as their high salaries and generous perks...

...As for the president's papers, the law has been changed to make them government property, but, incredibly enough, they can all still be removed from the White House and sent to a presidential library...

...An unfortunate truth about foreign aid that liberals have been reluctant to face is that a very high percentage of it ends up in the pockets of high officials of the recipient countries...

...Another intriguing legislative proposal—this one from Oregon—would require doctors and lawyers, as a condition of keeping their license to practice, to give part of their time to providing service for the poor...

...Secretary of such and such or at the very least occupy a position of subcabinet rank...

...Why not...

...Shop...

...It concerns the need for the chief of staff to have some follow-up mechanism that will make sure he knows not only whether orders are carried out but how they are carried out...

...Among the strategies lawyers are considering to get Lehder off is the insanity defense...

...I hope there will be separate buyers who are determined to keep each of them alive...

...TILTING AT WINDMILLS On Wednesday February 25, the Tower Commission report had not been issued, but many of its findings already had been leaked to the press, and the White House and its scandals dominated the news that day...

...But in the case of the White House staff, my position is reversed...

...Another piece of fiction— the new thriller State Scarlett by David Aaron—suggests your worst fears about terrorists stealing a nuclear weapon and leading the superpowers to conflict are warranted...

...Not long thereafter, it made public a plan to buy back a substantial amount of its common stock, which will enrich its stockholders...

...I'm only 39 years old, and I've never been sick a day in my life...

...Thus the managers and owners are taken care of but not the workers...

...The next night on ABC News, I heard Peter Jennings discussing Irangate and the Tower report with Will: "George, you're very close to the Reagans...

...And Carter had removed all the White House files for his presidential library...

...When he arrived, he complained to the admissions officer, "Look here, I think somebody has made a mistake...

...How did we ever accept the bizarre idea that these files are the outgoing president's personal property and not that of the nation...

...Washington staff members for the candidates will be suitably impressed by the resumes the lawyers have to offer, and they will be willing, even eager, participants in the courtship dances of the next year that will determine which lawyer goes with which candidate...

...I happened to be lunching at a small Italian restaurant on P street called Galileo's...

...The result is that when negotiation, which should of course be attempted first, concludes with terrorist demands that are beyond what we could or should meet, we are helpless...

...It may be a fact," one lawyer told The Wall Street Journal, "that he can't tell right from wrong ." I submit this as Exhibit Number 193 in my case against the insanity defense...

...The admissions officer dutifully checked his computer and then looked up and said, "Ah, here it is...

...After receiving a GAO report indicating that our aid to Liberia was going to its president, Samuel K. Doe, and his cronies, Senator Edward Kennedy has proposed that aid to Liberia be suspended...