Letters
Letters Journals of truth I'm not about to argue with Bill Gifford's central contention that the Wall Street Journal's editorial page has devolved into a screechy, hysterical parody of itself...
...are at least as plausible as most liberal ideas about welfare...
...At an average of 250 square feet the total space is 50 million square feet, not 500 million...
...But I am stunned by the raw contempt she shows for young people from low-income backgrounds...
...Gifford doesn't mention immigration in his piece, but he does mention the first two issues, casually lumping them with the paper's attacks on Lani Guinier and Vincent Foster as yet more examples of why the page has become a joke...
...All rights reserved...
...This means that savings could come from selling buildings as well as from having fewer private landlords to pay...
...A few additions, if I may: Gifford leads off with the Journal's typically disingenuous treatment of the case of Bill Ellen, wetlands despoiler extraordinaire...
...Leslie Kaufman's criticism ["P.C...
...should have suspended all other operations by late 1944 and waited patiently for Japan to sue for peace...
...Instead, America's myopic and bloody-minded military leaders—and its supine political leaders—condemned more than 50,000 Americans and more than a million Japanese to death, usually in quite gruesome ways, during the final months of the war...
...Sure, some of the programming could have been better planned and better executed...
...it's pretty evident to any regular reader...
...The second is welfare reform, where the Journal's, Jack Kemp-like solutions (enterprise zones...
...And then, of course, less than half a decade later, America's leaders turned around and rushed to rearm and reindustrialize the former enemy...
...Published monthly except combined January/February and July/August issues by The Washington Monthly Company, 1611 Connecticut Ave...
...1993 The Washington Monthly Co...
...The SoS young people from inner cities that I met were all people who had beaten the odds, who had declined to take up violence as a way of life, who were staying in school and going on to college, whose families had their deep respect and love...
...Send correspondence concerning subscriptions, undelivered copies, and changes of address to Box 587, Mount Morris IL, 61054...
...This cultural and economic nonsense is also at the heart of our opposition to performance standards and testing in education...
...Joseph Nocera Northampton, MA Gags Rule Bill Gifford's reflection on the foibles of the Wall Street Journal editorial page mines a practically inexhaustible vein of hypocrisy and ignorance...
...Clifford Adelman Kensington, MD You Mean Mamie Regarding your comment about General Eisenhower's being at Ashford General Hospital in White Sulpher Springs in West Virginia in 1945 ['Tilting at Windmills," November]: I was a 2nd Lt...
...But these oversights are forgiven in light of his critique of one of the central fallacies of Total Quality Management that the initiative endorses: Systems, not people, fail...
...Back issues, $5.00...
...In my experience in government, 40 percent of the people do 80 percent of the work (and 95 percent of the quality work), and do a superhuman job in light of their burden...
...For that reason, we always have someone in the office check my figures...
...army nurse stationed at that hospital at that time, and you failed to mention that the General was not a patient at that hospital—Mrs...
...Eisenhower was the patient and was being treated for a heart condition...
...One out of five federal workers couldn't last a week in the private sector...
...What is even more ironic about this episode is the Journal's indignation "over a bureaucrat's interpretation of an ambiguous congressional law...
...The argument may be convincing at first glance, especially as developed in Paul Fussell's influential article, "Thank God for the Atom Bomb...
...Printed in U.S.A...
...At $15 per foot the potential savings is $750 million dollars, a far cry from $10 billion...
...With the stranglehold it had gained over Japan's lifeline, the U.S...
...By late 1944, Japan had already lost the war, and the continuation of hostilities for another year did nothing but compound the suffering on both sides...
...NW, Washington, DC 20009 (202) 462-0128...
...No one in this country wants to be judged...
...Stephen A. Goldberg Washington, DC Charles Peters replies: As Mr...
...Unsurprisingly, when the Supreme Court upheld (in Rust v. Sullivan) the Reagan/Bush Title X regulations—the so-called "gag rule" on abortion clinic doctors—the Journal took a decidedly different view of the powers of federal agencies to interpret statutes loosely...
...Another 40 percent find enough ways to attenuate their days so they cover the rest of the work...
...three years, $98...
...I guess being out of it is OK (at the Journal, anyhow) as long as you've got a good axe to grind...
...Ivra H. Henderson Lexington, KY The Washington Monthly Editor in Chief Charles Peters Publisher Mary T. Beiro Editors Jon Meacham, David Segal Contributing Editors Jonathan Alter, Thomas N. Bethell, Tom Bethell, Taylor Branch, Matthew Cooper, Gregg Easterbrook, James Fallows, Christopher Georges, Paul Glastris, Mickey Kaus, Phil Keisling, Michael Kinsley, Nicholas Lemann, Suzannah Lessard, Arthur Levine, Timothy Noah, Joseph Nocera, Leonard Reed, John Rothchild, Jonathan Rowe, Walter Shapiro, Scott Shuger, Steven Waldman Editorial Advisory Board James David Barber, Edgar Cahn, David Halberstam, Murray Kempton, Richard Reeves, Hugh Sidey Production Manager Carey Jones Assistant to the Editor Pam Matthews Advertising Director Seth Engel Interns Gavin Bowie, Leslie Caldwell, Alan Greenblatt, Adam Marcus, Halle Shilling, Ryan Walsh Proofers Gladys Banta, Elise Berkman, John Kalajian, Linda Mcintyre, Jack Shellenberger, Valerie Worthington Subscription rates: U.S...
...And on February 11, 1993, the Journal ridiculed Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt for his unfamiliarity with "the 'takings' clause of the 14th Amendment...
...Letters Journals of truth I'm not about to argue with Bill Gifford's central contention that the Wall Street Journal's editorial page has devolved into a screechy, hysterical parody of itself ["Journal Fever," November...
...Unfortunately for Messrs...
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...Reproduction by any method whatsoever without permission is prohibited...
...I can understand that argument because, like Fussell, I was scheduled for the Japanese invasion force after I thought I had already done enough work fighting Hitler's hordes...
...All of us who have served as supervisors have horror stories about the remaining 20 percent...
...For change of address, please provide six weeks' notice and include old address label...
...Mark Eckenwiler Brooklyn, NY Bombs Away In "The Wins of War" [October], Nicholas Lemann writes that William O'Neill "has little use for the liberal bromide that dropping the atomic bomb was unavoidable" because an immensely bloody invasion of Japan "was the only alternative to dropping the bomb...
...Reprints of articles are available to individuals or schools at $2.00 each (prepaid...
...Unwittingly, he has illustrated one of the most lamentable consequences of the editorial page's penchant for hysteria: Even when it is not being hysterical, one is inclined to dismiss its editorial positions simply because they appeared in a Wall Street Journal editorial...
...The Washington Monthly is indexed in the Book Review Index, Political Science Abstracts, Public Affairs Information Service, the Readers' Guide to Periodical Literature, the Social Science Index, and Ulrich's International Periodicals Directory and may be obtained on microfilm from University Microfilms International, Ann Arbor, MI 48106...
...Here ReGo Again There are some extremely powerful and positive features of the administration's Reinventing Government initiative that David Segal overlooks ["What's Wrong with the Gore Report," November...
...Bartley et al., the Takings Clause is found in the 5th Amendment, not the 14th...
...The page has lost its ability to persuade even in those handful of cases when it has something worth saying...
...There are at least three issues where the Journal has taken principled stands and argued for them lucidly and intelligently...
...Corps," October] of the effort, however, was seriously misguided...
...And the third is immigration, which the Journal has consistently and proudly championed, even as many conservatives have reverted to nativism and xenophobia...
...For reprint rights for all or part of an article call Carey iones at (202) 4620128...
...Postmaster: Send change of address to The Washington Monthly, Box 587, Mount Morris IL, 61054...
...The first of these is NAFTA, where the Journal has so consistently taken the high road that it has even praised—quite generously— President Clinton for his eloquent articulation of the free-trade-is-good arguments the Journal has always embraced...
...William M. Burke San Francisco, CA Corps Values As a team member in Oakland this summer, I readily admit that the Summer of Service was no smooth ride...
...As long as that principle reigns, we are doomed to mediocrity...
...Also, since the space is not all in the District of Columbia, the average rental is probably much lower...
...ISSN 0043-0633...
...Ironically, though, the assumption of Reinventing Government is correct here: The system has failed...
...privatization of housing projects, etc...
...But in this case, the checker's aptitude was, alas, similar to my own...
...The care of everyone was the same and the very best available at the time...
...They shouldn't last a week in the public sector, either...
...and possessions: one year, $38...
...Judy Karasik Washington, DC Lost in Space Your November "Tilting at Windmills" column contains a major error regarding the potential office space rental savings caused by the possible elimination of 200,000 government employees...
...Second class postage paid at Mechanicsburg, PA...
...Incidentally, readers should also know that most office space is not leased but is in government-owned buildings...
...A handful of American submariners, in just 140 submarines, had assured Japan's defeat by decimating its merchant shipping and cutting off its access to critically needed supplies, especially oil...
...air mail delivery add $32...
...The argument is faulty simply because there was absolutely no need for an invasion...
...two years, $72...
...Unsolicited manuscripts must be accompanied by a stamped, self-addressed envelope...
...These young people decided to give something back by helping younger friends and relations follow in their path, learning, contributing, aspiring to something better for themselves and their neighborhoods...
...Quite untrue...
...I do think it's worth pointing out, however, that not every Journal editorial stance is nutty...
...Goldberg rightly notes, math has never been one of my strong points...
Vol. 25 • January 1993 • No. 12
