Tilting at Windmills

...Charles Peters...

...As things stand now, a gay has to be in the closet to get into the military, which means he is a security risk...

...If you have even the sketchiest knowledge of our criminal justice system, you are aware of how serious the offense must be for the prosecutor to actually take a drunk driving case all the way to conviction...

...Furthermore, the program barely hinted at the liberal core curriculum that we advocate...

...Because Brown had purchased nonrefundable airline tickets...

...Here I was all wound up...

...from the Right I'm Pat Buchanan"—do not seem promising...

...However, Mr...

...Did you see that Admiral William Crowe called Abrams's proposals for military intervention in Panama "naive in their formulation and reckless in their casual commitment of our military men and women"?— a recklessness that, Crowe noted, "is not unknown among young appointees who have never served in uniform...

...Certainly not all women are fit for combat roles, but neither are all men...

...But the AARP lobbyists have now been rebuked for that concession...

...The cost to the republic will be immense...

...Perhaps Elliott Abrams and his friends have some explanation...

...I'm delighted to see that George Shultz has come out for drug legalization...

...Just in case your knuckles aren't white enough the next time your jet zooms down the runway, consider a few facts that have emerged in recent studies...

...His intellectual distinction is based on a willingness to seek truth outside the well-trodden paths of conventional liberalism and conservatism...

...Thousands of black teenagers are being murdered...

...Several years ago we asked our readers to write us about outstanding bureaucrats they knew...

...She said she had NBC's approval...

...It was that way under FDR in Washington during the same years...

...It will be taken care of...

...Maybe Bush is a wimp...

...Hardened regulars merely recycle their usual boilerplate, automatically applying it to Zimbabwe...

...If, unlike the Maryland Court of Appeals, which accepted this reasoning, you find her claim to the protection of the Fifth Amendment less than compelling, be sure to read Paul Savoy's article on page 36...

...No one will argue, as The Washington Monthly does, that while abortion should be a legal right, it is often morally wrong...

...When Vartan Gregorian, the president of Brown University, was trying to give the impression that his school's distribution requirements produced the same educational result as a rigorous core curriculum favored by conservatives, MacNeil did not ask the questions that would have revealed how little can be learned under the Brown system...

...I don't recall reading about any comparable group of conservatives going to the aid of the contras in Nicaragua...

...She refused on the grounds that compliance would amount to compelled self-incrimination...

...If that's true, what does it say about NBC and its owner, General Electric...

...Thus MacNeil-Lehrer viewers were left totally unaware of the intellectual inadequacies of the distribution approach that were explored in the October issue of this magazine...

...The respectable liberal position, for example, is seldom challenged by Robert MacNeil...

...Come to think of it, can you recall a Calvin Coolidge Brigade fighting for Franco...

...Don't you think you have an obligation to figure a way out of the current mess...

...I hope that Kinsley will not fall into the trap of being the house liberal...

...The government is not going to work very well if the president's principal aide hesitates to say what he thinks to his boss...

...In other words, if she were ordered by the court to bring her son in and did so, the child's physical condition might reveal that she was guilty of continued abuse...

...Years ago my wife and I noticed this in domestic strife...

...Also, be sure to read Fiorello H. La Guardia by Thomas Kessner...

...Of course, some suggestion that neither of the conventional ideological positions has a corner on the truth could come from the interviewer...

...There should be a lot more...

...Do you realize that the National Archives accepted a $600,000 payoff to allow the use of its name in these commercials...

...Then they took a risk...

...Abortion, for example, will be discussed by prochoice and pro-life guests...

...Perhaps, we thought, because we're so critical of bureaucrats, people don't believe us when we say we want to recognize the good ones...

...And nominate him for the award by writing Box 15700, Chevy Chase, MD 20815...

...TILTING AT WINDMILLS If you have doubted my contention that bureaucracies are run for the bureaucrats rather than for the public, please consider the case of Jerry M. Brown, medical coordinator for the Office of Mobilization Preparedness of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, who left for vacation the day after the California earthquake...

...A conference on the Catholic Church and the Environment was held at Georgetown University in October...

...A premature, "You're absolutely right, dear, I'm sorry," could deprive the moment of the satisfaction that only a full airing of the complaint can provide...

...And it was that way when I came to Washington under John Kennedy...

...That may be true if they are in the closet...

...But just as she launched into the presentation of her case, Darman interrupted to say: "You're not going to write the First Lady's speeches...

...We have the blood of honest Colombian judges on our hands...

...This is bad news...

...Could it be that liberals are more courageous than conservatives...

...The question concerned catastrophic care...

...The same is true, I have found, of negotiations with the writers, artists, businessmen, and public officials I deal with in the course of putting out the Monthly...

...The military now excludes women from combat roles, and it tries to exclude gays altogether...

...All those brilliant people who are wasting their lives in the huge law firms and on Wall Street could make a major difference in the way this country is governed if they would forget about getting rich and would instead devote their lives to public service...

...Prohibition of drugs has not proven any wiser than the prohibition of alcohol...

...It will remind you that big city government really can be honest and efficient and caring...

...Or, if she did not bring him in, despite having been ordered to do so, the authorities might suspect that she had killed or seriously injured the child, and this suspicion might eventually lead to her arrest and conviction...

...So we desperately need people of Shultz's stature to speak up and give politicians the courage at least to consider the possibility of legalization...

...But I recall the thousands of American leftists who joined the Lincoln Brigade and fought at the side of the Loyalists in the Spanish Civil War...

...As for gays, the worry has been that fear of exposure could make them vulnerable to blackmail by spies...

...Legalization will certainly have its unhappy consequences, probably including some rise in addiction...

...I was taken aback, and a little disappointed," writes Noonan...

...I know that the usual assumption of the John Waynes and Charlton Hestons is the reverse...

...Abrams raised it to an art form...

...How many times did you read in the papers or hear on the radio or television a figure of more than 200 used to describe the number of fatalities caused by the California earthquake...

...In her new book about her career as a White House speech writer, Peggy Noonan tells of the time she went to Richard Darman prepared to fight a major battle to avoid having to write for Nancy as well as Ronald Reagan...

...But now comes a man named Matthew Lesko who is sponsoring a "My Favorite Bureaucrat" contest, offering an award of $5,000 for the winner...

...It could be that way again if talented people would enter public service today...

...In the absence of presidential leadership, the extremists have won and every other lobbyist in Washington will take heed...

...But it rarely does...

...But it is the only way to end the terrible epidemic of corruption and murder that is the result of illegal drugs...

...I wanted to have to insist...

...If one of us had built up a full head of steam about some grievance, it was wiser for the other to let it all blow off before conceding the validity of the grievance...

...Speaking of Philip Morris, have you seen those revolting ads that try to clothe this international dope peddler in the moral armor of the Bill of Rights...

...I wonder, for example, how much Deborah Norville of NBC's "Today Show" was paid by Philip Morris to serve as "anchor" for a corporate sales presentation in Hawaii...

...But if they're willing to acknowledge their homosexuality publicly, why shouldn't they be soldiers or sailors...

...But the show's current closing lines—"from the Left I'm Mike Kinsley...

...asked a reporter at George Bush's press conference on October 13th...

...It was a reasonable and fair-minded concession...

...Even one who believes, as I do, that public service in America has deteriorated seriously in the past 25 years has to acknowledge that there are still some dedicated people left in government, people who deserve recognition and emulation by their colleagues...

...According to a report in Newsweek, she interviewed tobacco executives, introduced videos on new tobacco sales equipment, and read "news" of sales-force reorganization...

...When John Sununu was asked during an interview this fall if he speaks his mind to the president, he replied: "Not very often and only when asked...

...If they are angry—and especially if they feel they have a good case, give them plenty of time to lay it out before you agree...

...If you've ever been on one of those McLaughlin Group-type television shows, you know that one of the things wrong with them is that they demand that you appear to be an expert on whatever subjects are dominating the news the week you're on the show...

...It was that way under La Guardia in New York in the thirties and forties...

...The correct figure was less than 100, but the temptation to hype the story was so great that almost everyone in the news business yielded to it and persisted in using numbers in the 200 range, well past the point that reasonable wariness should have flashed a yellow, if not red, light...

...Why was this permitted, especially since we were told that Hurricane Hugo had already severely strained the agency's resources...

...The silence appeared to have been motivated by a fear that discussion of environmental problems would lead to identifying overpopulation as a possible cause, which in turn would lead to calls for birth control...

...Lobbyists for the American Association of Retired Person (AARP) had not been an exception to this trend...

...They conceded that the affluent elderly, because of the other benefits they were getting from the government, should pay for the catastrophic care program...

...Even when you disagree, you may find that all they really wanted was ample opportunity to rake you over the coals...

...Thousands of law enforcement officials are being corrupted...

...If you know one, write us about him...

...It is crucial for this reason: As the politics of selfishness has come to dominate this country over the past 20 years, Washington lobbyists have increasingly imitated the National Rifle Association by following the lead of their own most extreme members, the ones who refuse to concede any weakness in the lobby's position or any virtue to arguments from the other side...

...The conventional liberal and conservative pattern tends to be repeated by the interviewees selected to discuss controversial issues on the network news programs, and, most maddeningly, on MacNeil-Lehrer...

...Most drunk driving charges are reduced or dismissed before trial...

...No," said the president...

...Earlier this year, Randolph wrote about another practice that deserves much more attention—journalists who accept speaking fees (or honoraria, as they are politely called) from organizations that have an interest in the stories the reporters write...

...When are news organizations going to come up with some standards governing the acceptance of the honoraria...

...He could probably use that $5,000...

...Conscientious participants devote their Friday mornings—the shows often are taped on Friday afternoons—to frantic phone calls to friends who happen to know something about Zimbabwe, which has suddenly become the center of the news this week...

...Until last year...

...We were dismayed when we didn't get a single letter...

...I think both policies are wrong...

...A Baltimore woman who was known to have abused her infant son in the past was ordered to produce the child in court...

...It will also remind you of what a great and noble enterprise government can be, of how exciting and proud a life of public service can be...

...I have seen only one article—by Eleanor Randolph of The Washington Post—about this absurdity...

...It was an important first step because the silence of the church on environmental issues has been scandalous...

...Any other problem...

...One by the GAO shows that two-thirds of the federal inspectors who check airplane pilots' ability to fly safely were not qualified to fly the planes themselves...

...His reluctance to take on catastrophic care represents a truly crucial moral failure...

...Another by the Milwaukee Journal found that 302 licensed Wisconsin pilots had been convicted of drunk driving, 47 were convicted of two or more alcohol-related driving offenses, and 10 had at least three such convictions over the past five years...

...This tendency is especially marked in the case of two-person panels such as "Crossfire," which for many years featured conservative Pat Buchanan and liberal Tom Braden, who was recently replaced by my friend, Michael Kinsley...

...And if you do no more than watch the Olympics every four years, you know that some women have all the physical skills needed for combat...

...Shouldn't they at least make public disclosure of the fees received by their employees...

...So these 302 are the tip of a very large iceberg...

...Although his offer has been publicized on several national television shows, Lesko has received exactly one nomination in the four months since the award was announced...