National Review

Battered by a violent-crime rate, Americans were calling for a remedy prescribed long ago: "An eye for an eye!". . . And who can argue with this ancient wisdom. Well, I will. Thanks to several high-profile cases in which condemned men were exonerated, and thanks to the added tool of DNA evidence, the true horror of the death penalty has made itself plain. The right question to ask is whether the government should be in the business of executing people convicted of murder knowing to a certainty that some of them are innocent.

Never in history has television delivered such a relentlessly compelling antidrug message week after week [as The Osbournes]. Ozzy, who spent much of his life on drugs and alcohol, is a complete and total mess. . . . He can barely speak. Virtually every sentence comes out of him as if he'd been shot up with Novocaine. Indeed, he's so unintelligible that various reviews of the show quote the same lines of Osbourne's dialogue differently; not even journalists with a videotape can quite make out what he's saying.

National Review recently reported that the New York City Council would hold hearings on legislation seeking economic sanctions against the Soviet Union. The bill, almost identical to the disinvestment legislation passed by the council last year against South Africa, would severely restrict that city's dealings with any banks and companies that do business with the Evil Empire. Philadelphia City Council Bill 543, if passed, would prohibit city funds from being deposited in any banks lending money to South Africa.

The Republicans' strategy to force their own budget into law by shutting down the federal government failed because Republicans have been fudging the basic issue at stake in this large battle. They have done so to paper over their own differences. For many Republicans, a balanced budget is not and never has been the real goal. What they care about far more is changing federal policy, shrinking government and cutting back on a particular list of programs. The balanced budget, advertised publicly as what the fight was about, was only a means to this end. If you doubt this, just turn to the year-end issue of National Review, the conservative magazine founded by William F. Buckley Jr., which says honestly and in plain language what many Republicans actually think but don't want to say. "The balanced budget is more important as symbolism than as accounting," the magazine declared editorially.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - William A. Rusher, 87, a conservative strategist for more than 50 years who helped engineer Barry Goldwater's nomination as the Republican candidate for president in 1964, died Saturday in a nursing facility in San Francisco after a long illness. Mr. Rusher's influence was felt on decades of U.S. politics, from the 1961 stirrings of the "draft Goldwater" effort to opposing Richard M. Nixon's overtures to China in the 1970s to advising Ronald Reagan's administration in the 1980s.

The passing of William F. Buckley Jr., 82, yesterday leaves the world of ideas a little less gracious, not as much fun, and woefully lacking in vocabulary skills. Buckley went from being almost a lone conservative voice in the post-World War II liberal wilderness, to the intellectual heart and soul of a movement that brought to power Reagan, Gingrich and Bush. Though there was one run for mayor of New York City in 1965, his influence came mostly from outside the political arena.

Social Security and the twin medical entitlements have created a generation of seniors who aren't providing the political conservatism that the elderly typically contribute to a republic. The result is a growing entitlement mentality, which leads, too often, to the election of politicians who promise something for nothing.. . . At the local level, seniors are, in fact, the core constituency of fiscal conservatism. They populate taxpayer associations and complain loudly about property-tax hikes.

Once again, the Piltdown Men at National Review are ahead of the wave. It wasn't all that long ago that they were hyping a forgetful third-rate movie actor as the political hope of all America. Now new word is in from William F. Buckley's posh bunker. Their hope for America is a tubby talk-show host. This time, nobody's laughing. In fact, the thought is about as funny as a Rush Limbaugh routine about poor people, which, to be fair, might be funnier than a Bob Dole routine.

Samuel R. Slaymaker 2d, 66, a critic, historian and author who was an expert on such wide-ranging topics as private schools, European history and fly fishing, died Tuesday at Lancaster General Hospital. He lived in Gap, Pa. Mr. Slaymaker - or S.R. Slaymaker 2d, as his byline read in his frequent book reviews in The Inquirer and the New York Times - was a nationally recognized authority on fly fishing. He wrote two standard texts on the sport: Simplified Fly Fishing, published in 1969 and recently released in a new paperback edition, and Tie A Fly, Catch A Trout, published in 1976.

God help me, I'm starting to think like a conservative! It's an unnerving thing for a knee-jerk liberal. I used to be able to read conservative journals and never see anything to agree with. Now I pick up a right-wing rag and I find shards of reason. They seem to be getting smarter. For example, there was Charles Murray, of all people, writing in a recent issue of National Review. Murray is the fellow who gave us the idea that government anti-poverty programs cause more poverty than they cure.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - William A. Rusher, 87, a conservative strategist for more than 50 years who helped engineer Barry Goldwater's nomination as the Republican candidate for president in 1964, died Saturday in a nursing facility in San Francisco after a long illness. Mr. Rusher's influence was felt on decades of U.S. politics, from the 1961 stirrings of the "draft Goldwater" effort to opposing Richard M. Nixon's overtures to China in the 1970s to advising Ronald Reagan's administration in the 1980s.

The passing of William F. Buckley Jr., 82, yesterday leaves the world of ideas a little less gracious, not as much fun, and woefully lacking in vocabulary skills. Buckley went from being almost a lone conservative voice in the post-World War II liberal wilderness, to the intellectual heart and soul of a movement that brought to power Reagan, Gingrich and Bush. Though there was one run for mayor of New York City in 1965, his influence came mostly from outside the political arena.

Never in history has television delivered such a relentlessly compelling antidrug message week after week [as The Osbournes]. Ozzy, who spent much of his life on drugs and alcohol, is a complete and total mess. . . . He can barely speak. Virtually every sentence comes out of him as if he'd been shot up with Novocaine. Indeed, he's so unintelligible that various reviews of the show quote the same lines of Osbourne's dialogue differently; not even journalists with a videotape can quite make out what he's saying.

Social Security and the twin medical entitlements have created a generation of seniors who aren't providing the political conservatism that the elderly typically contribute to a republic. The result is a growing entitlement mentality, which leads, too often, to the election of politicians who promise something for nothing.. . . At the local level, seniors are, in fact, the core constituency of fiscal conservatism. They populate taxpayer associations and complain loudly about property-tax hikes.

Battered by a violent-crime rate, Americans were calling for a remedy prescribed long ago: "An eye for an eye!". . . And who can argue with this ancient wisdom. Well, I will. Thanks to several high-profile cases in which condemned men were exonerated, and thanks to the added tool of DNA evidence, the true horror of the death penalty has made itself plain. The right question to ask is whether the government should be in the business of executing people convicted of murder knowing to a certainty that some of them are innocent.

The Republicans' strategy to force their own budget into law by shutting down the federal government failed because Republicans have been fudging the basic issue at stake in this large battle. They have done so to paper over their own differences. For many Republicans, a balanced budget is not and never has been the real goal. What they care about far more is changing federal policy, shrinking government and cutting back on a particular list of programs. The balanced budget, advertised publicly as what the fight was about, was only a means to this end. If you doubt this, just turn to the year-end issue of National Review, the conservative magazine founded by William F. Buckley Jr., which says honestly and in plain language what many Republicans actually think but don't want to say. "The balanced budget is more important as symbolism than as accounting," the magazine declared editorially.

It was on the first question that William F. Buckley Jr. came out from behind the podium. He had answered a Swarthmore College student's question - a rambling, blunted commentary on why colleges don't encourage the pursuit of total knowledge - and finally cut the questioner off when he launched into an insistent follow-up. "Look," Buckley said, stepping vigorously to the front of the stage, "it's quite possible that the people who run this place know more than you do. " The laughter and knowing applause of the audience drowned out the student's reply, and Buckley lowered his head and strolled back to the podium.

Once again, the Piltdown Men at National Review are ahead of the wave. It wasn't all that long ago that they were hyping a forgetful third-rate movie actor as the political hope of all America. Now new word is in from William F. Buckley's posh bunker. Their hope for America is a tubby talk-show host. This time, nobody's laughing. In fact, the thought is about as funny as a Rush Limbaugh routine about poor people, which, to be fair, might be funnier than a Bob Dole routine.

Local United Way officials in Burlington, Camden and Gloucester Counties say they are not yet ready to resume their contributions to the national affiliate, despite the forced retirement of its president last week and the instigation of a probe. William Aramony, president of the United Way of America, resigned last Thursday amid allegations that he had used some of the charity's money to hire as chief financial officer a longtime friend with legal and financial problems, to provide himself with perks, and to help set up three independent corporations that employed his son. Alan S. Cooper, a senior vice president at the United Way, was named acting director on Friday.

God help me, I'm starting to think like a conservative! It's an unnerving thing for a knee-jerk liberal. I used to be able to read conservative journals and never see anything to agree with. Now I pick up a right-wing rag and I find shards of reason. They seem to be getting smarter. For example, there was Charles Murray, of all people, writing in a recent issue of National Review. Murray is the fellow who gave us the idea that government anti-poverty programs cause more poverty than they cure.