European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - January 14, 1994, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Friday january 14, 1994 commentary the stars and stripes Page 17 action George f. Will in the mystery novel Trent a last Case there is a scene in Simpsons restaurant in London where Trent asks his companion to speak softly when ordering a Glass of milk in that p Josh place because the head waiter has a weak heart. Let us Hope that americans with hearts As weak As that head waiters did not notice their governments behaviour last week. The Clinton administration faced a crucial decision concerning a communist regime in Asia what to do about North koreans making a mockery of treaty obligations in route to becoming a nuclear Power by weeks end. The administration had dealt sternly with a communist regime in Asia. It had taken a a bold a we will come to the source of that adjective anon a action to protect americans from cheap chinese textiles. After the president said that a North Korea cannot be allowed to develop a nuclear bomb a aides said he misspoke and really meant that North Korea could not be allowed to become a a nuclear Power a meaning equipped with an unspecified number of weapons and an undefined delivery system. The Lack of detail expedites . Tempo izing. But last week the administration flexed its Muscles where it evidently thinks muscle matters most. It acted against the menace of cheap clothes. For years the United states has assigned quotas limiting textile imports in More than 3,000 categories from 41 nations. China allegedly is evading its quotas by Tran shipping through about 25 countries. Mickey Kantor the . Trade representative claims China shipped 3.6 million sweaters to Macao the portuguese enclave in China where they were labelled a made in Macao and shipped to America. Kantor also says 1.37 billion pounds of chinese towels for cleaning machinery were similarly shipped through Honduras. Hondurans did Cut the cloth into towels. Still the horror the horror. Even supposing the labels were honest How one wonders has our governments vigilance lapsed sufficiently to allow Loop holes for Macao made sweaters or Hon Duran towels never mind. Best not to give the bureaucratic beast ideas. The government asserts that China is Tran shipping $2 billion of textiles products. This seems implausible to citizen James Bovard a one Man truth squad who is More than a match for tendentious legions of protectionists in american government and Industry. He says the $2 billion figure is somehow derived from an investigation begun in 1991 a the customs service brought in two busloads of agents to raid importers offices in the Empire state building. Hundreds of thousands of documents were seized file clerks were held at gunpoint a drop that sweater or Well shoot a a and Many companies operations were severely disrupted. Yet after years of investigations the customs service has secured guilty pleas regarding the import of Only $2.7  a far cry from $2 billion. Kantor says the governments action barring More than $1 billion of chinese goods a will have a Little if any Impact on american Consumers and b will save Many thousands of american jobs. Proposition a seems patently absurd. And if there is a shred of truth to proposition a proposition a must be false. Impeding the import of inexpensive textile products will save some american textile jobs Only if the impediment by preventing . Consumers from buying the More than i billion of chinese goods they otherwise would have bought forces them to pay substantially higher prices for american made goods. Protic. Zionism advances beneath a fog of a care less or ideologically loaded language. Nations that open their markets to foreign goods Are said to have made  Why is it a a a concessions to give ones citizens an expanded Range of choices for cheaper goods that enlarge the reach of the citizens incomes and what of . A a retaliation against China we Are a a retaliating against China a ability to satisfy the preferences of american Consumers thundering headlines the Washington Post . Moves to punish China the new York times a a punitive move the los Angeles times . Cracks Down obscure the fact that the people being punished include american Consumers especially Low in come buyers of the cheapest apparel. However if North Korea Ever loads an 1cbm nose Cone with cheap sweaters it will be in deep trouble. Inc american textile manufacturers Institute is a lobby for an Industry whose record profits in 1992 were Bovard says five times higher than the average . Manufacturer s earnings on sales. The Institute issued a statement of rapture about the . Governments a a bold action. Boldly twisting bad Laws boldly fattening a prosperous interest group speak such nonsense softly out of consideration for people As sensitive As Simpsons head waiter. C Tho Washington Post saluting the my sex colleague Garry wills he was on the right Side for the first 10 years of his Public life whereupon he grew sideburns and took a doctorate in radicalization writes in the new York times about president Clinton in order to discover the meaning of the presidents first year. He does so with the enthusiasm of a discoverer who sets Eye for the first time on a new world and self Chi Dently does not heed the signs that warn that it would be both prudent and Wise to turn Back. He says it in a single paragraph. A the Republican hold on the White House was a cultural fact of Odd significance. It occurred at the very time when the country was undergoing a profound social revolution. A look today at the status of achieving women elected Black officials open homosexuals single mothers unwed couples women having Legal abortions uncensored movies and magazines. R., a there is no one who does not have friends or family members engaged in what a Quarter of a Century ago was a rare or embarrassing social activity. Yet term after term we elected presidents who tried to ignore or turn Back this Avalanche of social  the difficulty in this planted axiom a that the president of the United states ought to be acculturated by major trends within the country Over which he presides As chief executive a would appear to be obvious. Surely a nation Isnit really better off hospitable to social trends unless such trends Are wholesome. Wills dumps a great Deal into his Basket of social re some laity and by no Means should it be supposed that All of it is unwelcome or unwholesome. There is no Case whatever to be made against a achieving women a and it strains the memory to come up with any evidence that Nixon Reagan Bush opposed encouraging women a achievements. _ but two distinctions Are in order. The first is that we should not encourage a society in which Only women who work and who achieve Public recognition Are women who Are thought of As living admirable or full lives. Those who do riot choose to work and who live in families that do not require them to work should not be thought of As parasites or underachievers. And women who Are brought into office whether to Congress or the supreme court primarily because they Are women can legitimately be criticized As out of place. Elected Black officials Are Welcome a provided they exercise their responsibilities effectively and conscientiously. Exactly As much can be said for elected White officials. Is the a open homosexual a Welcome development it is probably too soon to pass final judgment on the Point. The events of the past 20 years reflect imbalances on both sides. One was the kind of Gay bashing one Asso William f. Buckley cites with the bullying instinct in human nature that once indulged itself with such revelry associated with the Kun flux klan. The complementary imbalance is the exorbitant demands Here and there of Gay lobbies e.g., insisting on their right to March As discrete units in the St. Patrick a Day Parade presuming to override a code generally accepted As rooted in biological nature. The handicapped ought to be treated with dignity and with compassion but it cannot be concealed that they Are handicapped. What exactly is it that one is grateful to Clinton for on the matter of single mothers unwed couples and women having Legal abortions the riot of illegitimacy is the capital disorder of modern times and it is not unrelated to the riot of crime. What is it that Clinton does or is associated with that Marks him As hospitable to this trend surely his enthusiasts do not mean to suggest that his own behaviour As a libertine makes him an integrated member of the new social order or is that what they Are saying that to be a modern convincing  Tuffy in Republican president one needs to be a disciple of the Playboy philosophy to expect the Leader of a country to be a Saint is an Gelisme dumb a waste of time unrealistic. But to Hail a Leader to the extent that he considers himself a part of the culture that disdains or ignores or flouts higher counsels of behaviour tells us Only something about the undeveloped thought of the enthusiast and the undeveloped morals of the intended honoree. C  Pross Syndicate