Roundup: Media's Take

John Aravosis: How did the T get in LGBT?

[Mr. Aravosis is a longtime activist.] Like an ever-expanding mushroom cloud of diversity, every few years America's gay leaders and activists welcome a new category of member to the community. Wikipedia walks us through our complicated family history: "LGBT [lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered] or GLBT are the most common terms [to describe the gay community] ... When not inclusive of transgender people it is shortened to LGB. It may also include two addition

Paul Krugman: Same Old Party

There have been a number of articles recently that portray President Bush as someone who strayed from the path of true conservatism. Republicans, these articles say, need to return to their roots. Well, I don’t know what true conservatism is, but while doing research for my forthcoming book I spent a lot of time studying the history of the American political movement that calls itself conservatism — and Mr. Bush hasn’t strayed from the path at all. On the contrary, he’s the very mod

Mario Cuomo: How Congress Forgot Its Own Strength

SENATORS Jim Webb of Virginia and Hillary Clinton of New York are right to demand that the president go before Congress to ask for a “declaration of war” before proceeding with an attack against Iran or any other nation. But there is no need for this demand to be put into law, as the two Democrats and their colleagues are seeking to do, any more than there is need for legislation to guarantee our right of free speech or anything else protected by the Constitution. Article I, Section

Gregory McNamee: We're still banning books?

[Gregory McNamee is a contributing editor for Encyclopædia Britannica, for which he writes regularly on world geography, culture, and other topics. He is also literary critic for the Hollywood Reporter and a regular contributor to many other publications. An editor, publishing consultant, and photographer, he is also the author of 25 books, most recently Moveable Feasts: The History, Science, and Lore of Food (Praeger, 2006). His Web site is http://www.gr

WSJ Editorial: Reviving an LBJ golden oldie

Congressional Democrats have tried about every possible ploy to "end the war" in Iraq, albeit without having to take responsibility by cutting off funds. Now in their frustration, they're trying to revive an LBJ golden oldie -- a war "surtax." House Appropriations Chairman David Obey entered Congress in 1969, so perhaps he had a Vietnam flashback this week when he announced the new tax to "pay for" the war in Iraq. He was joined by fellow House spending

James Carroll: History and the drumbeat of war

[James Carroll's column appears regularly in the Globe.] ...The surprisingly hawkish Sarkozy, warning of Iran, told the United Nations last week that "weakness and renunciation do not lead to peace. They lead to war." That was a dangerous conflation of two distinct ideas, since renunciation can be more a signal of strength than weakness. Indeed, the lesson of the last half of the 20th century is that nations define their greatness as much by what they refrain

Kurt Campbell and Vikram Singh: History lessons from Eisenhower and Nixon on quitting a war

[Mr Campbell is chief executive and co-founder, and Mr Singh a fellow at the Center for a New American Security.] After all the reports, hearings and commentary on Iraq one truth is emerging: the next US president, Democrat or Republican, will take office with about 100,000 soldiers and marines in Iraq. A political transition during wartime is rare in US history. There are only two relevant examples of an unwelcome conflict being handed from one president to the next, n

Michael Ledeen: The Iranian threat

Frontpage Interview’s guest today is Michael A. Ledeen, a resident scholar at the American Enterprises Institute and a contributor to The Wall Street Journal. He is the author of Machiavelli on Modern Leadership and Tocqueville on American Character. His new book is The Iranian Time Bomb: The Mullah Zealots' Quest for Destruction. *** FP: Can you talk about some of the ways that the Clinton administration left us vulnerable to 9/11? Ledeen: Two main w

Marty Kaplan: Mr. Justice Whoop-dee-damn-doo

[Martin Kaplan, research professor at the USC Annenberg School for Communication, holds the Norman Lear Chair in Entertainment, Media and Society. He has been a White House speechwriter; a Washington journalist; a deputy presidential campaign manager; a Disney studio executive; a motion picture and television producer and screenwriter; and a radio host.] We're working our way backward through the '90s. With OJ Simpson again on the national stage, it was inevitable that Clarence Thom

Jim Castagnera: If Santa Claus doesn't own the North Pole, who does? Who should?

[Jim Castagnera of Havertown is the Associate Provost and Associate Counsel at Rider University and a 2007-08 Fellow of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.] No newspaper columnist or commentator --- whether as humble as yours truly or as famous as Andy Rooney --- fails to admire Francis Pharcellus Church. On September 21, 1897, the New York Sun published an editorial under the headline “Is there a Santa Claus?” Church’s piece, responding to an inquiry by a little gir

John Tamny: Didn't the Rich Help Make America Great, Too?

In a recent campaign speech, Sen. Hillary Clinton said, "It is not rich people who made America great, it is hardworking Americans." If you are rich, or know someone who is rich, this statement might strike you as extremely odd. When used in the same sentence, the terms "rich" and "hardworking" make for redundant prose. The rich are frequently driven by a relentless work ethic that causes them to toil extremely long hours in their chosen professions. S

Sidney Blumenthal: Dan Rather stands by his story

Dan Rather's complaint against CBS and Viacom, its parent company, filed in New York state court on Sept. 19 and seeking $70 million in damages for his wrongful dismissal as "CBS Evening News" anchor, has aroused hoots of derision from a host of commentators. They've said that the former anchor is "sad," "pathetic," "a loser," on an "ego" trip and engaged in a mad gesture "no sane person" would do, and that "no one in his right min

Andrew J. Weaver: Why SMU shouldn't host the Bush library

[Rev. Andrew J. Weaver, Ph.D., is a United Methodist pastor and research psychologist living in New York City. He is a graduate of the Perkins School of Theology at SMU. He has co-authored 14 books including "Counseling on Addictions and Compulsions" (Pilgrim, 2007), "Reflections on Grief and the Spiritual Journey" ( Abingdon, 2005) and "Connected Spirits: Friends and Spiritual Journeys" (Pilgrim, 2007).] "I'm gonna build a fantastic Freedom Instit

Peggy Noonan: Americans should not fear talking--and listening--to those whose views we loathe

... [H]ere in America we have reached a funny pass. People are doing and saying odd things as if they don't know the meaning of the thing they say they stand for. In particular I mean we used to be proud of whom we allowed to speak, and now are leaning toward defining ourselves by whom we don't speak to and will not allow to speak. This is not progress. Conservatives on campus are shouted down. A crusader against illegal immigration is rushed off the stage at Columbia University. Gr

Dilip Hiro: Greenspan's Oil Claim in Context

[Dilip Hiro is the author of Secrets and Lies: Operation"Iraqi Freedom" and After, as well as, most recently, Blood of the Earth: The Battle for the World's Vanishing Oil Resources, both published by Nation Books.] Here is the sentence in The Age of Turbulence, the 531-page memoir of former Federal Reserve chief Alan Greenspan, that caused so much turbulence in Washington last week:"I am saddened that it is p

P. David Hornik: Notes on an Outrage (Ahmadinejad at Columbia)

[P. David Hornik is a freelance writer and translator living in Tel Aviv. He blogs at http://pdavidhornik.typepad.com/. He can be reached at pdavidh2001@yahoo.com.] Some have said that during Monday’s event at Columbia, President Bollinger redeemed himself with his appropriately fierce harangue against President Ahmadinejad before the latter’s address. But—apart from the fundamental obscenity

Michael Currie Schaffer: Wait a Minute, Crocker: Iraq Today is America from 1776-1965?

[Michael Currie Schaffer is working on a book about the pet industry.] George Bush's acolytes have never been particular sticklers for accuracy when it comes to their analogies. Supporters have variously compared the president to such different personages as Theodore Roosevelt, Harry Truman, Abraham Lincoln, and Winston Churchill. They've been just as varied in evoking bygone parallels for Bush's mission in Iraq. The situation there has over the past four years been likened to post-

Fred Kaplan: Bush Isn't Truman and the next president won't be Ike

George W. Bush is reported to read many books about presidential history. Too bad he doesn't understand them. On Sept. 13, a few hours before his nationwide address on the surge in Iraq, the president called a group of TV news anchors and Sunday talk-show hosts to the White House family dining room for a chat. The conversation was off the record, but those attending were allowed to use the meeting to summarize his thinking. Peter Baker of the Washington Post talked with some of them and r

Alan Dowd: Ahmadinejad's Propaganda Coup

[Alan W. Dowd is a senior fellow at Sagamore Institute for Policy Research.] While people of good will and good intentions argue over whether it was right or wrong or neither to allow Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to take the dais at Columbia University, I have a simple way to resolve the debate: Just look at the news and tally up how many times Ahmadinejad is mentioned. What you will find is that Iran’s smirking strongman is, quite literally, everywhere. With a hint of admiratio

Bret Stephens: Exactly what would it have accomplished to "engage in a debate" with Hitler?

[Mr. Stephens is a member of The Wall Street Journal's editorial board.] On Saturday John Coatsworth, acting dean of Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs, made the remark that "if Hitler were in the United States and . . . if he were willing to engage in a debate and a discussion to be challenged by Columbia students and faculty, we would certainly invite him." This was by way of defending the university's decision to host a speech yesterday by