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We are hearing anecdotal evidence from around the country that a massive audience is developing for The Passion of the Christ consisting of, in some cases, traditionalist Christians who have not been to a theater in decades. In the suburbs of Seattle, Washington, an 85-year old retired aerospace worker who rarely attends movies and whose last foray to the Cineplex was to watch the Omega Code five years ago is ready for a return visit. In Dallas, a 78-year-old social worker who last visited a movie theater in 1985 is also eagerly anticipating her return to her local theater. And...

Mel Gibson, Feminist One of the truths in The Passion of Christ. by Kathryn Jean Lopez Mel Gibson might be my favorite feminist. If he's not number one on my list, he's pretty close, in competition with Pope John Paul II. As you probably suspect, I don't have in mind the usual definition of "feminism." I can guarantee you there'll be no fawning Ms. magazine cover story on Gibson (or JPII). But give me a few minutes to fawn a little. I, like others, have now seen an in-progress version of Gibson's remarkable film. There is so much to be...

London TimesAugust 26, 2003The sandal? Roman Britons put a sock in it tooBy Dalya Alberge, Arts CorrespondentWHAT did the Romans ever do for us? Well, they may have started us on a fashion crime for which we are mocked in the rest of Europe to this day: wearing socks with sandals. An archaeological discovery in London suggests that the sartorial solecism was afoot almost 2,000 years ago. A life-size bronze foot, unearthed last month and dated to the 2nd century AD, clearly shows that Roman Britons wore socks with their sandals. No doubt their excuse was the cold. The historian...

Meet Warren Buffett’s DaddyBill KauffmanFrom The American Enterprise, July/August 2003, p. 48Warren Buffett, the legendary investor whose taste for hamburgers and life in Omaha, Nebraska gives him a reputation for Middle American eccentricity in the world of high finance, is just another colorless gray-pinstriper when compared with his father: Rep. Howard Buffett (R-NE), who half a century ago was perhaps the most radical and principled Republican member of Congress. The Buffetts were pillars of Omaha. Howard Buffett was a stockbroker, "gentle and sweet-natured," in the words of Warren's biographer Roger Lowenstein. His politics, though, were to "the right of God,"...

TO HECK WITH LIBERIA!Howard Dean falls into the liberal 'humanitarian' trap Of all places for the U.S. to intervene militarily, why oh why does it have to be Liberia? I'll tell you why: political correctness. Liberia, you see, gives us a chance to "liberate" a country populated by blacks, and, furthermore, one that was supposedly founded by "freed slaves." So, you see, America is the "mother country," in this case, and we have an obligation to bail out the Liberians, who are really, in a sense, long-lost Americans. Except that none of these assertions are true.Liberia was founded, not by...

Deconstructing RowlingBy Dave Kopel J.K. Rowling is an Inkling. That's the well-argued thesis of John Granger's fine book The Hidden Key to Harry Potter. Granger demonstrates the absurdity of the claim that Harry Potter is anti-Christian. And even if you've never worried about charges brought by misguided fundamentalists, The Hidden Key will substantially augment your understanding of what's really at stake in Harry's adventures.The Inklings were originally a group of Oxford dons who wrote Christian fiction. The most famous of them are J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis. Lord of the Rings and the Narnia series never mention...

May 16, 2003 BLOWBACK IN RIYADHIraq war sows seeds of Saudi revolution I knew there was something awfully suspicious about the announcement, a few weeks ago, that most U.S. troops were going to be withdrawn from Saudi Arabia. After all, since when does the Empire hail a major retreat? And now my suspicions have been confirmed....The close, almost symbiotic U.S.-Saudi relationship dates back to the World War II era: FDR was the first American Arabist. American troops have been stationed in the Kingdom since Gulf War I, and the numbers were doubled during Gulf War II. Although the visibility...

May 7, 2003, 10:30 a.m.Bennett’s Real ProblemWas he thinking? As NRO readers are fully aware, William Bennett has received the Big Flak over revelations that he's a high roller, so much so that he's sworn off the dice. "It is true that I have gambled large sums of money," Bennett announced Monday. "I have also complied with all laws on reporting wins and losses. Nevertheless, I have done too much gambling, and this is not an example I wish to set." There is much pain here. Being chased away from your pleasures, after all, is no one's idea of...

May 7, 2003 MAD DOGS OF WARNeocon pit-bulls snarl at Syria: 'You're next!' The mad dogs of war, unleashed by George W. Bush, are baying and barking up a storm. The War Party isn't resting on its laurels. The conquest of Iraq had hardly been celebrated by our President, as he landed on an aircraft carrier in a fighter jet and bounded out to meet his cheering Praetorians, when the cry for an encore was heard: "President Bush is committed, pretty far down the road. The logic of events says you can't go halfway. You can't liberate Iraq, then...

May 5, 2003 WHOSE 'ROAD MAP'?George W. Bush has a 'road map' to peace in the Middle East – and so does would-be ethnic cleanser Benny Elon An Israeli newspaper, Ha'aretz, is one of the few media outlets worldwide to focus on the Israeli far-right's effort to undermine the much-touted "road map" that Bush is throwing like a bone after a banquet to the family pet. The administration is touting its peace plan to give the appearance of the U.S. as an honest Middle East broker, but there's just one problem: that dog won't bark. The reason it won't...

April 28, 2003 THE FINAL SECRET OF 9/11Everything you've always wanted to know about 9/11 is 'classified' – and the Bushies want to keep it that way How did 19 hijackers manage to decimate the Pentagon, destroy the World Trade Center, and plunge us into a war without end? That is the question we still don't have an answer to, two years after the worst terrorist attack in American history, and, if the Bush administration has anything to say about it – and they do – we won't have an answer any time soon. An 800-page report written by...

Wall Street Journal November 28, 2001 Crosby and Clooney, Together Again By NAT HENTOFF When I was not yet a teenager, Bing Crosby had a 15-minute radio program broadcast after my bedtime. He -- along with the florid Arthur Tracy ("The Street Singer") -- were my mother's favorites. I'd surreptitiously stay awake, alert for Crosby's theme, "When the Blue of the Night Meets the Gold of the Day," and I'd welcome into my room this unfailingly relaxing presence. I had not begun to define categories or styles of music. He just made me feel good. Very few current releases ...

More Chaplains Minister at Offices Following Sept. 11 Terrorist Attacks By RACHEL EMMA SILVERMAN Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL LAKEWOOD, N.J. -- When employees at Herr Foods Inc. felt anxious after the Sept. 11 attacks, many found someone at work to turn to: a chaplain. At least once a week, Protestant chaplains roam factory and warehouse floors in various buildings of the Nottingham, Pa.-based snack maker to talk with some 1,300 workers. Recently, they've listened to employees voice newfound fears about terrorism and the Sept. 11 attacks. But the company's 35 outsourced chaplains also lend an ear ...

Al-Qaeda Terrorists Might Try to Enter BosniaSARAJEVO, Nov 26, 2001 -- (dpa) Bosnia has stepped up security measures after receiving information that members of the Al-Qaeda terrorist organization might try to enter the country. The State Border Service (SBS) said it had received intelligence indicating that some Al-Qaeda members could use Bosnia as a station on their way to Western countries, the Sarajevo daily Dnevni avaz reported Saturday. According to SBS director Tomislav Mihalj, Al-Qaeda members were believed to be leaving Afghanistan as a result of the U.S. military operation there. They were then planning to move into Central Europe ...

October 18, 2001 Wall Street Journal Banks and Regulators Drew Together To Calm Rattled Markets After Attack By ANITA RAGHAVAN, SUSAN PULLIAM and JEFF OPDYKE Staff Reporters of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL The stock markets bent, but they didn’t break. After huge losses in the week after the terrorist attacks, several stock indexes stand just a shade below their Sept. 11 levels. Despite some initial fears of a crash, there was no wholesale dumping of stocks. There are many reasons the market stabilized, ranging from companies’ stock buybacks to ordinary perception of value by investors. Part of it was ...

Investor’s Business Daily October 2, 2001 Government Trust Grows Despite Its Inability to Protect by JAMES BOVARD Like a phoenix rising from the ashes, Americans’ trust in government is soaring after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. The number of people who trust the government to do the right thing has doubled since last year, and now is more than three times higher than in 1994. According to a Washington Post poll released on Sept. 27, 64% of Americans now "trust the government in Washington to do what is right" either "just about always" or "most of the time." Ronald ...

Wall Street Journal Europe October 1, 2001 International Commentary Switzerland Needs Less Gun Control, Not More By John R. Lott Jr. After a heavily armed man named Friedrich Leibacher entered a regional parliament in central Switzerland and killed 14 people Thursday, the question on everyone’s lips is, What can be done to stop similar attacks in the future? Not surprisingly, a raft of new security legislation is being proposed. But the opposite may be what’s needed here; to wit, rescinding new gun-control laws that make mass murders of the sort seen last week more, not less, likely. The slew ...

September 28, 2001 Wall Street Journal Commentary Only Guns Can Stop Terrorists By John R. Lott Jr. Mr. Lott is a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute and the author of "More Guns, Less Crime" (University of Chicago Press, 2000). President Bush yesterday unveiled a plan to tighten airline security, ranging from employing the National Guard at airports to place more marshals on flights. Those are important steps, but they won’t be enough, especially since no one knows where the terrorists will strike next. The only adequate response is to encourage more ordinary, responsible citizens to carry guns, ...

September 19, 2001 Wall Street Journal Don’t Rebuild the World Trade Center By HOLMAN W. JENKINS JR. The first time the World Trade Center came under attack, a bunch of new faces popped up in the Dow Jones cafeteria in the World Financial Center. They were bond traders from Cantor Fitzgerald, knocked out of their offices next door by a truck bomb in the parking garage 107 floors below. We had an agreement with them at the time to distribute bond-pricing data, so they were bunking with us as guests of this paper’s publisher. Now everybody knows the name ...

Macedonia Blasts "Demonic" Forces of TerrorismSKOPJE, Sep 12, 2001 -- (Agence France Presse) Macedonian President Boris Trajkovski sent condolences to the American people Tuesday and blasted the "demonic" forces of international terrorism. "This shows the need for a very decisive fight against terrorists, to completely destroy it. Those who continue with terrorism and only be described as demonic," he said in a letter to U.S. President George W. Bush. "If the United States is not protected from terrorism, then no-one is safe," he added. NATO forces including U.S. troops, are currently in Macedonia to implement Operation Essential Harvest, to collect ...