Sobering Thoughts |
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Comments on politics, the culture, economics, and sports by Paul Tuns.
I am editor-in-chief of "The Interim," Canada's life and family newspaper, and author of "Jean Chretien: A Legacy of Scandal" (2004) and "The Dauphin: The Truth about Justin Trudeau" (2015).
I am some combination of conservative/libertarian, standing athwart history yelling "bullshit!"
You can follow me on Twitter (@ptuns).
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Monday, February 28, 2005
Quote of the day "I support movies but I don't support celebrities." -- Rush Limbaugh on his radio program today on why he doesn't watch the Oscars. Everything Old Labour is New again Perry de Havilland at Samizdata notes: "The Labour Party continues its retreat from being 'New' Labour by offering to force companies to give new mothers more maternity pay. Quite apart from the folly of making British business ever less competitive since they took office (making Blair a true 'European' it must be said), it is morally revolting the way the state interposes itself into contractual relationships and forces one group of people to give money to another in the hope of getting a net increase in votes for itself (not that the Tories are much better, it must be said)." SDA on BMD Small Dead Animals on Paul Martin's Ballistic Missile Defense policy: "To repeat something I've said earlier - Canada's role in the world has been reduced to serving as a warning to the US." MJ is the new MKL From a Reuters list of notable quotes: "They did this to Malcolm X and Martin Luther King. They're trying to do this to Michael. This is the way they bring him down. They don't want him to be powerful." So said 23-year-old Susie Mumpfield on why she stands vigil outside the courthouse. And here I thought it was about Jackson's alleged pedophilia. John Tory, Idiot Ontario Progressive Conservative leader John Tory: "Don't look to it to be a replay of the solutions we offered in ... the 1995 election or the 1990 election. They're going to be what we need for 2007." Just a minute. Didn't the 1995 election work out for the Tories? Biden on 2008 Senator Joseph Biden (D, DE) said on Meet the Press yesterday that 1) Hillary Rodham Clinton will be almost impossible to beat for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2008 and 2) he is considering running for the nomination, 20 years after failing to secure the nod against such heavyweights as Michael Dukakis, Jesse Jackson, Paul Simon, Gary Hart and Al Gore in 1988. Quotidian "Imagination without skill gives us contemporary art." -- Tom Stoppard, "Artist Descending a Staircase" Nobel Prize Toronto Sun columnist Peter Worthington endorses Wall Street Journal's Daniel Henninger's idea of giving the Nobel Peace Prize to the Iraqi people: "The preamble to the UN's 1945 Charter reads: 'to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war ... to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person, in the equal rights of men and women . . . to promote social progress and better standards of life ...' and so on. Did not Iraqis demonstrate this ideal to the world on Jan. 30? And, more significantly, to their totalitarian and/or theocratic neighbours (Syria to the west, Iran to the east) and others of the 40 Islamic countries that deny the beginnings of democracy to their people?" Worthington concludes: "Professor Bernard Lewis, a world expert on Islam, calls the Iraq vote 'a momentous occasion in the long history of that cradle of civilization.' To preserve their regimes, he notes that the 'tyrants are doing all they can to undermine and destroy the new, attractive, and therefore threatening democracy in Iraq.' This is why the Nobel committee should seriously consider awarding the voters of Iraq the Peace Prize, if only to inspire and encourage other unfree people." The Iraqi people have certainly done more for peace, now and in the future, than all the talk that Bono has done. An entire people have never been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize before. It's time to break with tradition. Fund on flat tax nations John Fund at Opinion Journal that several former communist countries lead the way in implementing a flat tax. Way to go Estonia, Georgia, Latvia, Lithuania and Slovakia. Barnes on Cheney 08 I have long thought that if Jeb Bush doesn't run for the GOP presidential nod in 2008, Vice President Dick Cheney was the best choice for the party and best person for the job. Both are solid conservatives, although Jeb has greater domestic policy credentials and Cheney has foreign policy experience. Not that it works this way, but the GOP should nominate Cheney if the War on Terror is the issue for 2008 and Jeb Bush if it is domestic concerns. Fred Barnes, too, thinks that Cheney should run. Barnes says Cheney is not too old, he hasn't had serious health problems for several years and he has gobs of foreign policy experience. All true. But I think that the most important reason for running is that he and Jeb Bush are the two best chances to keep the White House in the hands of the Republicans. George W. Bush won re-election last November because the 2004 election was a referendum on Bush; it wasn't about the economy or Iraq but the president. I think that the best chances for the GOP to retain the presidency is to make '08 about Bush, too. The best way to do that is to nominate his brother or his vice president. Barnes notes that Cheney doesn't want the distractions of a presidential campaign, that he would now have to focus on precinct captains in Iowa rather than the battlefield in Iraq. But I think that Cheney has enough stature that he could wait until a few months before the Iowa caucuses to throw his hat into the ring. Let's hope so. Good news from Iraq Chrenkoff's latest and really long news that doesn't make the top of the evening news or front page (or any page) of the New York Times. Reports on the election, the economy and national security. Of note on the economy, I particularly liked this two items: "USAID is also helping the Iraqi authorities to establish a government department to deal with the issue of privatization of state-owned enterprises (link in PDF). And USAID is encouraging women's participation in the economy (link in PDF)." (Lots of other interesting reads at the USAID pages.) John Paul II's wordless sermon Newsweek's Christopher Dickey doesn't like the fact that Pope John Paul II didn't leave a living will: "... this same pontiff who continues to assert his will in the daily life of the church has given his doctors no instructions about how to sustain his life, or not, should he slip into a persistent coma." Perhaps that's because he has the will to live -- and, more importantly, something to teach the faithful about dying and suffering. (Cross-posted at The Shotgun) Time for UN reform in now, not tomorrow Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen begins an article in NRO thusly: "In these days of corporate scandal, the U.N. should be grateful that it is not incorporated. If the United Nations were a company, and its secretary general its CEO, both would be in trouble and their investors would be angry. Fortunately for Kofi Annan and the U.N., there are no complicated corporate filings to fret over." Great point. Where are all those corporate responsibility types now. What are they missing: "Let us examine the tally sheet: First there's the Oil-for-Food scandal. Add to that the awful story of sexual predators in the U.N. peacekeeping ranks in Africa and perhaps elsewhere. Sexual harassment at the main headquarters building seems to have gone unchecked. Finally, financial mismanagement in the U.N. is rife, including the recent revelations about corrupt weather forecasters at the U.N.'s World Meteorological Organization in Geneva. Add this scandal to its overall record of fiscal-management practices and the rank incompetence is obvious. Money goes unaccounted for, is wasted, misspent, lost through miscalculation, and is otherwise lost in the bureaucratic morass that is the U.N. When we assemble these stories, we see a pattern evolving: The U.N. is adrift, mired by scandal and mismanagement." Of course, none of this is new to readers of this blog. Why is this allowed to happen? "These problems are the result of management drift and ignorance, unchecked self-perpetuating bureaucratic growth, and a general lack of concern for follow-up." Ros-Lehtinen says that the UN will not reform on its own, that the pressure must come from the outside. Without Ros-Lehtinen saying so, that must be the United States. No more carrots, no more reforming on its own schedule and according to its own blueprints. A big stick is now necessary. If I was the President of the United States I would sit down with Kofi Annan, tell him what needs to be done and ask if he was willing to do it. If not, let them know the United States is leaving the UN within six months. If Annan agrees, let him know he has to have a realistic time-table within three months and perceptable progress with one year or the US is out of the UN. If there are undue delays, let the UN know that the American financial contribution to the world body was going to be cut and that payments would be delayed until reform has been achieved. The time for talk has long ended. The UN must be saved from its self. Shocking I don't what's more surprising: that Iran admits nosing around about acquiring nuclear weapons or that the New York Times reported it. Blogging the Oscars Libertas, the group blog of the Liberty Film Fest, has some observations on the politics of the show. Money line(s): "And what’s with awarding Oscars to people in the aisles? I suppose this is part of their on-going effort to “loosen up” the Oscars, but it’s just plain awkward - and rude to the winners. The Academy is only doing this to the awards in the various crafts categories (while actors and actresses still get their moment on stage), which is just another example of how liberal Hollywood is more snobbish and elitist than the conservative Hollywood it’s replaced." Small Dead Animals live blogged the event and Kate's observations/reactions are worth reading. Of note: "Roger L. Simon is liveblogging too, and doesn't like Rock any better than I do. Maybe there is something to the f-word being funny, after all." So, too, there was Roger Simon. Early on he notes: "Oprah is not laughing. I don't blame her. This is endless and stupid." Sunday, February 27, 2005
Time is up for Syria The Chicago Tribune has a hard-hitting editorial on Syria: "Whether or not it is ultimately linked to the murder of Hariri, Syria's regime is a toxic force, for its own people and the other nations in the region. Its actions cannot be ignored. In an unusual display of cooperation, the U.S. and France in September pushed a resolution through the UN Security Council that demanded an immediate and complete Syrian withdrawal from Lebanon, so that nation could freely shape its own future. Nearly seven months later, Syria still ignores the resolution. Either through the UN or independently, Western nations need to telegraph Syrian President Bashar Assad two clear messages: Syria must get out of Lebanon and it must stop underwriting terrorists. All economic and diplomatic sanctions should be in play to get those two points across. Other alternatives must not be ruled out." The UN's moral authority Tim Blair links to a story about the sexual abuse committed by UN peacekeepers: "U.N. officials fear the sex-abuse scandal among peacekeepers in Africa is far more widespread and appears to be a problem in each of the global body’s 16 missions around the world. Rocked by widespread abuse of women and girls, including gang rape, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the United Nations also has found sexual exploitation cases in at least four other missions—in Burundi, Liberia, Ivory Coast—as well as more recently in Haiti, they added." Blair concludes: "Abu Ghraib might have been a whole lot worse if the United Nations had run the place." Goodbye Gates Alan Bromley writes in the Wall Street Journal about Christo's hubristic The Gates which, from all accounts that matter, wrecked Central Park. "After five blocks, I couldn't wait to leave Central Park--for the first time since I was almost mugged during the Dinkins administration. Central Park has always been a special place for me. I attended antiwar rallies and concerts, played softball, took my daughters on the carousel, rode bikes with my wife or simply walked my dog. I always left with a sense of calm, thankful that this oasis existed, whether it be green in summer or gray in winter. One would, or could, view and admire the splendid architecture of Fifth Avenue, Central Park West, Central Park South and Harlem, and be thankful for being in a place of trees with roots that seemed to reach out to you, of nature still being able to take its course amid the demands of city life; a place of momentary peace. That was the idea, the dream of Frederick Law Olmstead and Calvert Vaux; a place to let your soul be regenerated by the beauty of nature, to stroll, let your eye and mind wander past the demands of the day, to relax, play with your family, or lament and to regain your spirit. But this day, I realized that Christo and his wife had hoodwinked us all and forced us into their monotone vision, one that is anti-American and certainly anti-New York. What we have here are a man and a woman who, enamored by themselves, have neither a sense of New York City and nor a sense of history. It is but an announcement of arrogance, absent knowledge--an equation that has always caused human doom, albeit this time visually so." I love New York. One reason I enjoy watching The Apprentice is that it is a weekly, hour-long commercial for that city. (And every Thursday evening I long to return to the Big Apple for even a weekend.) The primary reason I love visiting New York is to spend mornings and afternoons in Central Park. I enjoy grabbing breakfast from a street vendor in the morning and reading the day's papers near the southwest corner of the park. Or grabbing fruit at a supermarket or the Recession Special at Gray's Papaya and enjoying lunch along Literary Walk, reading a novel and, if you're lucky, listening to some musician performing for spare change along The Mall. Or sometimes its fun just watching the people at Bethesda Terrace (instantly recognizable to anyone who has ever watched Law and Order). As much as I enjoy all the other great entertainments and shopping the New York has to offer, Central Park is an oasis in the bustle of the city that never sleeps. From the pictures I've seen and comments I've heard, Christo wrecked that and it is unforgivable; this charlatan has robbed millions of visitors in recent weeks of an authentic experience of Central Park. Barone on 2004 election Long, unexcerptable article on the 2004 election (actually, the electorate) in the National Journal by Michael Barone. If you have any interest in American politics, this is a must read. Drezner on Swank Daniel W. Drezner on actress Hillary Swank from his pre-Oscar coverage: "Hilary Swank has become the Florida Marlins of acting. For the first nine years of their existence, the Marlins were an under .500 team for seven of those years. The two years they were above .500, they won the World Series. So it is for the first nine years of Ms. Swank's career and her acting choices -- mostly stinker roles (The Core, anyone?) with the occasional jaw-dropping performance. This year yielded a way-above average performance for her." Pol Pot The New York Times and Washington Post both have reviews of Philip Short's Pol Pot: Anatomy of a Nightmare. The book definitely has its flaws (especially in explaining the "whys" -- why Pol Pot was a homicidal tyrant, why any fellow Cambodians took part in his genocidal rule) but is excellent in describing the cruelty and stupidity of the regime. Everyone knows that as a percentage of population, Pol Pot killed more of his own people than any other 20th century leader. But my favourite fact from Pol Pot's three-year rule is that he banned the use of the pronouns "me" and "I", as well as last names, and that the use of such words and tribal identifiers were cause for enrollment in a re-education camp, which for most people meant death. Short does history a favour by providing a highly readable account of Pol Pot's atrocities. Absolutely true David Adesnik at Oxblog notes: "It wasn't supposed to be funny, but I couldn't stop smiling. Because let's face it: Weathermen just can't be hip, fly or cool. They harder they try, the sillier they look." Quotidian "Poor honest lord, brought low by his own heart, Undone by goodness! Strange, unusual, blood, When man's worst sin is he does too much good! Who then dares to be half so kind again?" -- Shakespeare, Timon of Athens 'A cattle rancher at a vegetarian convention' The Boston Globe has a longish story on Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney as he tries to balance governing a liberal state at the same time he is sewing the seeds of a presidential nomination run within the Republican Party. Worth reading. More good news from Iraq The Sunday Telegraph reports on a "big catch" (number 36 on the US military's list of the 55 most wanted people in Iraq), Sabawi Ibrahim al-Hasan al-Tikriti, the half-brother and former advisor to Saddam Hussein. He was one of two former Baathist regime officials thought to be directing the terrorist attacks in Iraq in the last year. It's now Sunday so here's another Mark Steyn quote of the day "There are millions of Muslims living in Scandinavia but there aren't a lot of Scandinavians living in Saudi Arabia." (From Steyn's C-SPAN interview) Saturday, February 26, 2005
Mark Steyn quote of the day II "I'm not here to defend the New York Times. I find it a largely unreadable newspaper." (From his C-SPAN interview) Mark Steyn quote of the day "As far as I concerned, there is never a bad reason for toppling a dictator." (From his C-SPAN interview) Hear and see Mark Steyn Here at C-Span. It's very cool although he sounds nothing like I thought he would. Several interesting points: no university education ("barely made it through high school"), he only planned to be a journalist to get through a financially difficult period and he holds (solely) Canadian citizenship and left every indication he always will. ... And in this corner, Tony 'The Liability' Blair The Observer reports that Tony Blair is reconsidering his plan to run a "presidential" style campaign focusing on the Labour leader in the upcoming British elections because "private Labour polling reveal[s] that one of the most important sections of the electorate - married mothers - are deserting the Prime Minister and the Tories closing the polling gap" and "Blairite figures are urging a change in Labour's faltering election campaign." It's never a good sign when the party wants to hide its leader. Brooks quotes everyone he has read recently I don't recall a column in the New York Times quoting as many sources as David Brooks does in his Saturday column: Thomas Kuhn, the Washington Post's David Ignatius, "the head of the Syrian Press Syndicate," Saeb Erakat as quoted by Alan Cowell of The Times, Danny Rubinstein writing in Ha'aretz, Reuel Marc , Claus Christian Malzahn from Der Spiegel online and Stephen Sestanovich of the Council on Foreign Relations. Aint' that Brooks smart. The difference between government and business Gods of the Copybook Headings relay this classic joke: Two friends meet shortly before Christmas. One works for UPS, the other for the Post Office. Post Office guy: "How are things at work?" UPS guy: "Great! Things couldn't be better! Business is way up! How about you?" Post Office guy: "Terrible! Too many people! Quotidian "I reached the grave the conclusion during the mass that I am nothing but a pencilled marginal note in the Book of Life. I am not in the main text of life." -- Diary entry of D'Arcy Osborne, British envoy to the Vatican during World War II, quoted in Owen Chadwick's Britain and the Vatican during the Second World War. Democracy in the Middle East The Bush administration has been mocked and attacked for its "simplistic" view that if you plant the seeds of democracy in Iraq and the Palestinian Authority that free elections (and presumably, eventually, some semblance of liberty) would grow in the Middle East. Now there is this from Egypt: "Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak ordered a revision of the country's election laws Saturday and said multiple candidates could run in the nation's presidential elections, a scenario Mubarak has not faced since taking power in 1981. The surprise announcement, a response to critics' calls for political reform, comes shortly after historic elections in Iraq and the Palestinian territories, balloting that brought a taste of democracy to the region." It is not full-fledged democracy but its a start. Good news from Iraq Talib Mikhlif Arsan Walman al-Dulaymi, also known as Abu Qutaybah, a top aide to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, was captured in Iraq last Sunday. According to the AP, the official announcement of the arrest said "Al-Dulaymi was responsible for finding safe houses and transportation for members of the terrorist group." The coffee break is over Despite all the talk about talking peace, a suicide bomber kills four in Tel Aviv. Whatever papers might be signed by Israel and official Palestinians, as long as terrorists are killing civilians, there is no peace. Glassman on the lessons of Hotel Rwanda James Glassman has a great column at TechCentralStation on the movie Hotel Rwanda and how it encapsulates western officialdom's and the UN's thinking about Africa: "Yes, there are well-meaning and hard-working relief workers making sacrifices, but too many officials of developed countries -- and of the U.N. -- still act as though Africans were dirt." The significance of not joining the US on BMD Burkean Canuck notices something peculiar about Paul Martin's decision not to make Canada part of America's ballistic missile defense that I haven't seen mentioned anywhere else: "The decision not to participate in BMD under the North American Air Defence (NORAD) bilateral, Canada-U.S. treaty is historic. Make no mistake: this is far different from Canada's decision not to cooperate in Iraq. Canada's decision impinges on the defence of the continent Canada calls home and shares with the United States. This has implications for Canada's domestic defence and, as outgoing U.S. Ambassador Celucci points out, Canada's sovereignty. That is, Canadian commanders at NORAD headquarters will not participate in decisions to shoot down missiles they track . . . Yes, you read correctly: Canadian commanders will participate in tracking down missiles incoming to North American air space, but they will not participate in decisions to intercept and shoot them down!" But Canada will want to be notified when America is forced to defend itself. Friday, February 25, 2005
Quotidian "Civil liberties shit! Are you with us or are you against us?" -- John Dos Passos, Chosen Country Free Lebanon -- and Syria Writing in the Los Angeles Times Danielle Pletka, vice president for foreign and defense policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute, says it is time to get Bashar Assad out of Lebanon and while the West is pressuring him, free the people of Syria, too: "Syria and the pro-Syria Beirut government have hung tough, refusing to accommodate demands for a fully independent investigation of the assassination, a caretaker government and international observers for upcoming parliamentary elections. Rather, there have been ominous threats from Damascus, and from Hezbollah, about a return to 'instability' in Lebanon. Yet the sine qua non of a truly stable Lebanon is in fact the withdrawal of Syrian troops, the disarmament of Hezbollah and the removal of Syria's unofficial Beirut ambassadors, such as Rustom Ghazali, the head of Syrian military intelligence. But liberty for Lebanon should not be the endgame for the United States, France or the United Nations. Syria itself must be freed from the Assad dictatorship, with its legacy of poverty, corruption and death, including the 1982 murder of up to 20,000 opponents of the regime in the city of Hama." Celebritydom makes the papers dumb Los Angeles Times says Bono, the lead singer for U2, should become president of the World Bank. Seriously. Here's some of the rationale: "Bono may not have a PhD in economics, but he'd have plenty of real economists around the bank to consult. Bono is the most eloquent and passionate spokesman for African aid in the Western world." Seriously. If you love curling, here's another reason to hate the CBC Adam Daifallah is on top the CBC not being on top of curling. Global warming because its cooling? From The Meatriarchy: "Record cold thins northern ozone Cold is thinning the ozone? Wait wait wait. RECORD cold?" Thursday, February 24, 2005
Robson(s) on the budget Because John Robson doesn't have permalinks, you have to scroll down to February 24 to read his reaction to Stephen Harper's reaction to the budget: "The federal budget is a farrago of dubious or harmful new programs, pleasant but unreliable promises of big increases in defence spending later, a few small tax cuts and more than anything else a huge projected increase in the size of government. The C.D. Howe Institute (in the person of my brother) calls the projected increase in program spending 'alarming' and other commentators are even more harsh. Uh, except Stephen Harper, formerly leader of something called the Opposition ... So if you don’t like really big government getting bigger with ambitious new social engineering programs you should vote for um yes well that’s a puzzler. Did Joe Clark win the Tory leadership contest in disguise?" C.D. Howe Institute Senior Vice-President and Director of Research William Robson examines the spending side of the budget and the gap between budget projections and actual costs. Sundry items Washington Post columnist George F. Will describes how police are taking back the mean streets in Chicago. OGIC unveiled and explained. If you have to ask, you won't care. Just in time for Terri Schindler-Schiavo's execution, a classic piece by Nat Hentoff in the Village Voice (hey, you don't see that source here very often) on the theory that her injuries are the result of her estranged husband trying to kill her. Irish Elk (where I was reminded of the Hentoff column) summarizes the issue very nicely: "A brain-damaged woman is about to be starved to death in what the papers keep referring to as a 'right to die' case, or an 'assisted suicide.' That she wants the 'right to die' is asserted solely by the man who may well have been responsible for her injuries in the first place." The New York Times reports on Kansas Attorney General Phill Kline's attempts to enforce the law on abortion and statutory rape in his state. It is telling that in a story about possible prosecution of doctors who may be breaking the law pertaining to late-term abortions, the Times doesn't mention either of the two women that late-term Wichita, Kansas abortionist George Tiller has killed in the past month. Explaining the light blogging Three UEFA Champion's League games on TV last night. Light today, too -- I have to watch the games I taped on Tuesday. One stop budget analysis page Burkean Canuck has links to every non-blogger reaction you need for the Canadian budget. Great work, Russ. Budget analysis The CBC reports: "Finance Minister Ralph Goodale delivered a broad-ranging and balanced budget Wednesday, including almost $13 billion for the military, $5 billion for a national child-care program and another $5 billion for the country's cities. The budget also accounts for billions of dollars promised to the provinces and territories in two agreements signed in the fall: the $41.3-billion health care deal, and the $33.4-billion agreement on equalization payments." Five year plans, a billion here and a billion there. See today's Quotidian. Quotidian "There is, indeed, no genuine disposition among American public officials, or indeed among public officials anywhere, to reduce public expenses." -- H.L. Mencken, On Politics, edited by Malcolm Moss Wednesday, February 23, 2005
Bloomberg is a jackass According to the New York Sun, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg had this to say about critics of New York hosting the 2012 Olympics and critics of Christo's ghastly The Gates: "There are a handful of people who don't want change, but, like 'The Gates' show, it is fun to criticize, fun to find fault, but when it comes together, New York welcomes everyone, and celebrates it." "Fun"? Does he not understand that people can have serious criticism of, say, the Olympics (and its expenses and inconveniences) or the defiling of beautiful Central Park. Here are just two of the worthy criticisms of The Gates: Roger Kimball in The Spectator and Myron Magnet in the New York Sun. At the UN, scandal time is all the time Claudio Rosett begins her Wall Street Journal column thusly: "So prolific in scandal has the United Nations become that it's getting hard to keep tabs." This week she exposes the failure of the UN High Commission on Refugees failure to help those fleeing North Korea. Rosett reports: "For years now, the U.N. policy in dealing with North Korean refugees in China has been one of what its spokesmen call 'quiet diplomacy.' The hushed implication is that behind the scenes, the UNHCR is in deep and earnest discussion with the Chinese authorities. No doubt. And there has been some help for a small number, mainly by way of easing them quietly out of the country once they have risked their lives by storming foreign compounds other than the UNHCR's. But the broad picture, for the hundreds of thousands, is a quiet but dire absence of any help whatsoever. Ask the U.N. to explain its procedure for processing North Korean refugees in China. There is none. The UNHCR's Beijing representative referred me to the organization's Geneva headquarters. There, a spokeswoman in the midst of dealing with the Lubbers sex scandal wondered why it would be of interest at this moment of crisis to discuss North Korean refugees. 'Why today'?" After all, the UNHCR has its priorities: damage control over helping actuall refugees. Still looking for the cloud with the silver lining You can tell that the New York Times can't wait to say I told you so when you read this editorial suggesting that the Iraqi election will ultimately fail. The paper, a glass-is-half-empty kind of publication, notes all the challenges Iraq faces. Yes, democracy is hard work and yes, things could take a turn for the worse. But does the Times really have to relish its role as a nattering nabob of negativism? The Times concludes their editorial thusly: "The election in January, heroic though it was, will not be enough to make Iraq a functioning democracy or even ensure its future as a unified country. The next few weeks will help determine whether the optimism generated by January's vote can be sustained." Of course, that the optimism of the Iraqi people, the Bush administration and friends of democracy around the world. The Times, I do not recall, ever shared that optimism. It's too bad that they are so eager to rain on democracy's parade. The Los Angeles Times has a much more balanced editorial outlining the very real challenges without the anticipation that the paper's warnings will be proved correct. Tuesday, February 22, 2005
Quotidian "If you don't know how to die, don't worry; Nature will tell you what to do on the spot, fully and adequately. She will do this job perfectly for you; don't bother your head about it." -- Montaigne, from "Of Physiognomy" in Essays Blaming the primary This New York Times editorial blames the Democratic loss in November on the early and condensed primaries in which Democratic voters were denied the opportunity for a sober second look at the early winner. I guess that's an admission that Senator John Kerry sucked as a candidate. Queue ZZ Top and toss a nickel into their hat And what a hat it should be. South Korean homeless are certainly now the best dressed street people in the world after the government distributes confiscated designer rip-offs to the needy. The Oscars Chris Rock's outrageous unpredictability almost make the Oscars worth watching. Yesterday he was on the Tonight Show and said: "The awards don't really affect anybody's lives in the crowd. Meanwhile, the Nobel Peace Prize, there's no one there. Nobody cares what the scientists are wearing. What are you wearing Professor Allen? 'Pants!'" More on Thompson I read only a little Hunter Thompson but I read only a little because I quickly realized that it wasn't going to be any better. Here are some dissenting views on the "great" American writer Hunter Thompson. Rich Brookhiser in The Corner: "Hunter Thompson was the druggie Jerry Lewis, trying soo hard to be funny. His Colorado home, from which he made late night phone calls to his movie star friends, was his Sands Casino. On a point of craft, I once compared how three writers handled an arcane maneuver at the 1972 Democratic Convention. The McGovern forces had to win a procedural point by losing a substantive vote; such was their discipline that they succeeded. NR's James Jackson Kilpatrick explained the paradox in a paragraph. Theodore White, in The Making of the President 1972, took six pages. Hunter Thompson, in Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail 1972, took 22 pages, and didn't explain it all that well. They weren't funny either." Relapsed Catholic: "Thompson is one of those teenage boy obsessions, like Escher prints, scribbling pentagrams into Hilroy notebooks, and finding weird new things to smoke. I feel sorry for his family, but really don't get what the big deal is, especially if my suspicions are correct and he killed himself because Bush got re-elected and/or he thought: 'Shrewd career move! Great final chapter!' Regardless, I doubt anyone will remember Hunter S. Thompson 20 years from now." Stephen Schwartz writing at the Daily Standard on Thompson as a "counter cultural" icon: "'Counter' it was, as an expression of defiance toward everything normal and reliable in society. 'Culture' it was not, any more than Thompson's incoherent scribblings constituted, as they were so often indulgently described, a form of journalism." More Schwartz: "His enablers included lefty journalist Warren Hinckle III, who first published Thompson's experiments in incoherent "reportage" in a forgotten magazine called Scanlan's, and pop huckster Jann S. Wenner, the grand ayatollah of Rolling Stone, a tabloid which began as a pop music paper, then tried to make itself over as a serious journal, and is now read by . . . who? For some commentators, the greatest compliment paid to Thompson was the incorporation of a dishonest, heartless figure modeled on him, and named Uncle Duke (after Raoul Duke, the narrator of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas) into Doonesbury. But that strip is generally known for its tone of dishonesty and heartlessness, and, like the writings of Thompson, seems extremely dated, increasingly unread, and finally irrelevant in its mean-spiritedness." For another view, Tom Wolfe considers Thompson one of the great 20th century comic American writers, a worthy heir to Mark Twain. Unfortunately, Wolfe just isn't convincing. Send Gandy some flowers Okay, lame title but this story of NOW Prez Kim Gandy calling for Harvard head honcho Lawrence Summer's head reminds me of the story about Washington Post columnist George F. Will, who was castigated by Geraldine Ferraro, the Democratic vice presidential candidate in 1984, for grilling her on This Week with David Brinkly about some disclosure issue regarding her husband saying that he, Will, would never ask her such questions if she was a man. Will responded by sending flowers to Ferraro's home with a note to the effect that she was cute when she was angry. Her reaction, unfortunately, is not recorded for posterity sake. The blogging threat to MSM oldsters Jim Boulet notes that The Daily Show had this to say about those damnable bloggers: Stephen Colbert, Senior Media Correspondent: "I draw the line with these 'attack bloggers.' Just someone with a computer who gathers, collates and publishes accurate information that is then read by the general public. They have no credibility. All they have is facts. Spare me." Tories close polling gap British Tories that is. Labour now leads the Conservative Party 37% to 34% with the Liberal Democrats at 21%. Prayer requests A family friend, Fr. Tim Devine, is in serious condition after his appendix ruptured yesterday. He is in desperate need of your prayers if you are so inclined. Likewise, my wife is on doctor-ordered bed rest until the delivery of our fourth child, due in about six weeks. Although of a less urgent nature, she too would appreciate being kept in your prayers. Monday, February 21, 2005
Paul Martin, foreign policy dunce Writing in the Calgary Sun, Ezra Levant concludes his column on Prime Minister Paul Martin's approach to foreign policy thusly: "Syria, a rogue, terror-sponsoring state, has announced an alliance with Iran, another rogue, terror-sponsoring state building nuclear weapons. Syria killed Hariri. Syria's illegal occupation of Lebanon continue. And Martin think's it's all OK, in the name of 'peace.' Remember, this is the same PM who, while in China, claimed he sat next to 'opposition politicians' at a state dinner. He actually thought the hand-picked stooges the Communist Party introduced him to were real dissidents, allowed to sit in that country's legislature." Natan Sharansky says in his book The Case for Democracy that he and his fellow Soviet dissidents never thought that the world was divided between communists and capitalists but rather between those who were willing to confront evil and those who weren't. Paul Martin plants himself firmly in the latter category. (Cross-posted at The Shotgun) Ledeen interview Chrenkoff has an interview with Iran expert Michael Ledeen. Worth reading but here's the end of the interview: AC: "You've worked as an advisor and consultant on security matters in the Reagan Administration. What do you think are the lessons from that period that are applicable to our war on terror?" ML: "First of all, speak the unvarnished truth, often and forcefully. Help your friends, go after your enemies (sounds easy, but diplomats have a very hard time with that). Believe that most people want to be free, and support them in their struggle. And as Churchill said, never, never, ever give in to tyranny." KMG on Harper In case you missed it (and you probably did), Kevin Michael Grace predicts Stephen Harper will be gone as leader of the Conservative Party by July 1 and be replaced (eventually) by Bernard Lord. John Robson blogs! My fave Canadian -- that is that works and lives in Canada -- columnist now blogs. Genuine conservatives will be happy. Only complaint: no links. Tsk, tsk. (Hat tip to Trudeaupia) Quotidian "For my part I would much sooner spend a month on a desert island with a veterinary surgeon than with a prime minister." -- Somerset Maugham, in the semi-autobiographical The Summing Up. Brave letter to the editor Harry E. Adamson writes to the New York Times: "I am a gay man living with H.I.V. who tested positive in 1985, and who survives thanks to the drug cocktail. Two quotes in the article leave me appalled. A Lambda Legal Defense spokesman, Jon Givner, finds 'public health vigilantes ... pretty scary.' Why doesn't he find the sexual terrorists infected with H.I.V. and behaving with murderous disregard as scary? Walt Odets, a psychologist and AIDS author, calls public health intervention 'a witch hunt.' Why doesn't he recognize the demons of self-destructive sex practices and drug use that are devastating lives and fueling the perception of gay men as dangerous to society? Larry Kramer is right: enough with excuses and ditching responsibility. Gay men have no one to blame but themselves for this evolving health mess, and no one who deliberately risks the lives of others has the right to confidentiality. The drug-resistant strains of H.I.V. are not the problem. It is amoral indifference that is virulent and scary." Hillary, look over your shoulder WorldNetDaily is reporting that Condi Rice may replace Vice President Dick Cheney as the veep sometime next year because of the vice president's health. This would give Rice an incredible advantage if she were interested in running for the Republican presidential nomination in 2008. Hunter S. Thompson, RIP Another over-rated writer bites the dust; Hunter S. Thompson killed himself. I find one part of this news report odd and it is a stylistic quirk not unique to AP. The writer says that the sheriff, a "personal friend" of Hunter blah, blah, blah. Are there any other kinds of friends? Any impersonal friends out there? I have never liked anything Thompson has written but I know people who literally have not gone a week in their adult lives without taking a dip into one of his works. None of these people are my friends, personal or otherwise, just people I know but don't want to know any better, in part because there has never been a week of their adult lives in which they haven't read Hunter S. Thompson. Interesting idea I think that this from Info Theory is worth discussing but I don't know where I stand on this as a way of saving Terri Schindler-Schiavo's life: "It seems clear to me at least that the motivation of the 'husband' was originally monetary and is now both monetary and pride. If offered enough money (something over $50,000), would the 'husband' relinquish custody of Terri to her parents? I will put forward $100 myself to test this idea." Sunday, February 20, 2005
Mr. Bush goes to Brussels And the best editorial on the issue comes from Down Under. The Australian says: "This week's visit is about fence-mending, and Mr Bush will turn on the Texan charm – but not budge an inch on any issue of substance, especially Iraq. Neither should he. While the leaders of Germany and France continue to pay excessive attention to internal anti-American elites and drag the EU chain on assistance with Iraqi reconstruction, more than 8 million Iraqis showed last month they intend to take full advantage of the democratic opportunity afforded them by the US-led overthrow of Saddam Hussein. Among the collateral benefits of that overthrow are democratic openings across the Middle East that promise new pathways towards a settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The apparent determination of French President Jacques Chirac and German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder to deal the EU out of the biggest game in town will appear increasingly anachronistic." You knew there had to be a but there ... Lynn M. Paltrow, executive director of National Advocates for Pregnant Women, begins a column in the Boston Globe thusly: "Howard Dean is not wrong to say that his party ought to make a home for prolife Democrats. People committed to a country that truly honors women, mothers, and families can and will disagree about abortion." The very next paragraph begins with "But" ... and the explanation why Democrats can't really do anything to "make a home for prolife" voters. The reaching out part does not include any bit of pro-life legislation but rather enlarging the welfare state (such as through measures to expand medical benefits for pregnant women, environmental protection and maternity leave). Indeed, it is apparent that what Paltrow believes to encompass the pro-life position is essentially modern, statist liberalism: "While President Bush was signing the Unborn Victims of Violence Act into law and declaring his commitment to a culture of life, he was also deregulating coal burning power plants." Regulating coal burning power plants is the new partial birth abortion, or something like that. Paltrow concludes: "Democrats must start defending pregnant women and families rather than abortion." Great words but every time they are uttered there is a caveat. I can't imagine this will fool American voters. SDA on MSM & blogs Small Dead Animals has some ideas on how talk radio can make itself relevant in Canada again -- follow the bloggers and cover stories in a timely fashion, for starters. Of course, this is not entirely disinterested advice. SDA thinks that one way in which Canadian bloggers could eventually have more influence in public debates is through talk radio. Worth reading and thinking about. Blogging baseball The Washington Post is covering the Washington Nationals spring training by blog. That's kind of neat. Quotidian "Lippman cared about social justice, but it was not an emotional issue for him." -- Ronald Steel, Walter Lippman and the American Century Idiot Hall of Fame It's been a while but here are two inductees, Tim Adams and Rufus Wainwright -- the interviewer and interviewee: "Wainwright has also, of late, by necessity, become a protest singer, in a suitably blowsy fashion. When we meet he has spent the past couple of days, on and off, watching the unsettling spectacle of the inauguration of his President, and it has left him a little shaky. 'It really is so sinister looking, it's so very Shakespearean,' he says. He talks of preparing an escape route from America, of the powerful forces within the new government that would like to see homosexuality criminalised again. 'I think that the Americans who elected Bush into office are probably worried about terrorists, but enemy number one, the source of all evil, is gay people.' The previous day, he says, a German journalist had asked him if he felt like a Jew in 1933. If anything, he said, he felt like a homosexual in 1933." No comment necessary. One way of looking at it Julian Sanchez over at Hit and Run relates one young lad's description of the Conservative Political Action Conference: "[It's]my Woodstock, except the drugs are better and the women are classier." Ahmad Chalabi defends himself Ahmad Chalabi, one of the final contenders for the Iraqi premiership and an endless target of both the anti-Iraq war side and the US State Department, is finally defending himself against politically motivated attacks. Adam Daifallah is, as usual, on top of this development. CTV's idea of balance While most in the media bemoan the involvement of American religious and pro-family organizations in the Canadian same-sex marriage discussion, homosexualist groups have also had US aid. While the first 19 paragraphs of this CTV story focused on the typical story line, the last paragraph did inform readers that there is another side of the story: "CTV's Rosemary Thompson says it isn't just religious groups involved. Gay rights groups are also looking to their U.S. counterparts for support." Should the bridge between Europe and America go through Africa? Bono seems to think so. The New York Times has about a half-dozen people to respond to this: "name the single most important thing President Bush could do to reinvigorate trans-Atlantic relations." Bono, who when he is not instructing politicians and the Pope on how to solve the world's problems, is the lead singer for U2, writes that the United States and Europe can come together by focusing on Africa. I give Bono credit for acknowledging the good part of President George W. Bush's "tough love" approach even if Bono criticizes him for lack of funding. What I have a problem with is the idea that working on humanitarian projects in Africa will repair the damaged relationship between "Europe" (read: France, Germany, Belgium and post-Aznar Spain) and the United States; it certainly might be a good thing to work together on battling AIDS and poverty in the Dark Continent but it is not going to fix what is wrong, namely that Europe and America approach the world in very different ways. Saturday, February 19, 2005
Harper's stupid speech A couple quick points about Stephen Harper's speech on Thursday, you know the one during the same-sex marriage debate in the House of Commons in which he brought up a bunch of historical wrongs in Canada. Some Conservatives and conservative bloggers thought it was great and the Toronto Star predictably panned it. (Read Political Staples' dissection of the Star story's sources here.) So did it work or not? I don't think so. First, he had to know that the race hucksters in Canada were going to jump all over him. The Toronto Star has a list of those indignant groups that immediately fired off press releases condemning Harper's ploy of mentioning refusing Jewish refugees from Hitler's Germany and the internment of the Japanese during World War II: National Association of Japanese Canadians, the Chinese Canadian National Council, the Canadian Race Relations Foundation, the Canadian Buddhists Civil Liberties Association, the World Sikh Organization, the British Columbia Unitarian Church and the Muslim Canadian Congress. The media would duly give these groups a bullhorn through which to condemn the Conservatives' exploitation of historical wrongs. Harper should have seen this coming; so instead of appearing to be the champions of minority rights, especially when juxtaposed with the Liberal record, Harper comes off as insensitive. Second, I talked to a Conservative senator on Friday who wisely noted that Canadians do not want to be reminded of these dark historical episodes. You can't reach out to people or otherwise engage them when they are recoiling from your message. Harper's problem is that he, like almost everyone involved in the same-sex marriage debate is entirely unwilling to discuss what same-sex marriage is. I discussed the problem of heat, no light in the SSM debate last week at The Shotgun. When Mr. Harper told the House of Commons this -- "My position on the definition of marriage is well known, because it is quite clear. It is not derived from personal prejudice or political tactics, as some Liberal MPs would have us believe with their usual air of moral superiority. My position, and that of most of the members of my party, is based on a very solid foundation and time tested values" -- he should have explained what those time-tested values were and from where they are derived. I don't think he did so adequately or convincingly. When Harper said "Our proposal is that the law should continue to recognize the traditional definition of marriage as the union of one man and one woman to the exclusion of all others, but at the same time we would propose that other forms of union, however structured, by appropriate provincial legislation, whether called registered partnerships, domestic partnerships, civil unions or whatever, should be entitled to the same legal rights, privileges and obligations as marriage," he essentially is admitting that the SSM issue is a debate over a word, not over an institution. Harper's speech had a lot of relevant material, but it was too political and legalistic. None of this stir's the nation's soul and little of it will be reported to the public. Instead, and predictably, the media would sensationalize the couple lines that mentioned turned away Jews and imprisoned Japanese, which allows the Liberals to bring up the Conservative Party's connection to Reform and Canadian Alliance MPs and candidates and their insensitive comments about minorities. I don't think that Harper's speech will change on MPs mind on how to vote on C-38 or change on voters mind come the next election. And what has the mainstream media done lately? LifeSiteNews.com has a story on how some pro-life bloggers may be saving Terri Schindler-Schiavo's life. Quotidian "His perception of art is not, I think, naturally keen; and Concord can't have done much to quicken it." -- Henry James on walking through the Louvre with Ralph Waldo Emerson, from the Henry James Letters NCC blog NCC vice president Gerry Nicholls had a good week of topical blogging: Svend eyes a return, Dalton v. Martin, Kyoto, bilingualism, and the G-G and a HS suppressing dissent. All worth reading. Martin Mr Dithers or scheming genius? Yesterday morning Adam Daifallah noted that The Economist has called Prime Minister Paul Martin Mr. Dithers and said "The opposition is surely going to pounce on this new monicker." Very prescient. Later on Friday, Conservative MP Monte Solberg noted the Economist referencein the House of Commons: "Mr Speaker, the Economist Magazine has noted that our Prime Minister has earned the nickname Mr. Dithers. Sadly its true Mr. Speaker and now he's taking his dithering global ... Mr. Speaker I know it's hard being the Prime Minister, what with having to make all those decisions. But if making a decision is too difficult for him, I have a solution. Instead of urging the Syrians to withdraw from Syria, maybe it's time for the PM to withdraw from the PMO." Funny enough. But I wonder if it all matters. Daifallah says that "Because of the source, it could be a hugely damaging story for the Prime Minister." I just don't believe The Economist matters to most Canadians although several journalists might pick up on it for a while. But does the dithering matter? Daifallah wonders "Could this be to Paul Martin what the fumbled football was to Robert Stanfield?" before answering "Impossible to know at this point." A visual image versus a magazine description, hmmm? I'd say it isn't even the same ballpark ... er, football field. Daifallah continues, "Any Liberal I talk with says the man simply cannot make a decision. That's a terrible quality in a leader." Theoretically it is a terrible quality but I think Canadians view it as pondering; recall the Democratic criticism of President George W. Bush that he was too certain of himself. Canadians probably appreciate that Martin appears to be considering his options; there is a fine line between decisiveness and conceit. Anyway, I offer another theory that I heard from a Liberal MP not friendly with Martin: dithering and apparent incompetence is a deliberate strategy. Having worked beside Jean Chretien for almost nine years and having watched the misunderestimated George Bush for several years now, Paul Martin believes that his superior intellect and incredible sophistication would not be appreciated by Canadians and that his dithering is really condescending to the common folk. I find this theory appealing because it fits with the overbearing arrogance of the average Liberal, but somehow I just doubt that Martin is that smart. Thursday, February 17, 2005
Daifallah on Chalabi There is a lot of misinformation and wrong impressions of Chalabi. Over at The Shotgun, Adam Daifallah explains why it's nice to see his re-emergence in Iraqi politics: "Chalabi's latest comeback has really surprised his enemies, especially the Arabists in the U.S. State Department and the CIA, who've worked to sideline the man for years. It has also irritated to no end the elders of the Arab world's ruling Sunni clique such as Jordan's King Abdullah, the Saudi royals and other Gulf region potentates. The reason they hate him is simple: he's a Shiite, he's pro-American, and he's a western-style democrat. Chalabi being in charge of Iraq would be a positive thing for that country's future. I have been a fan since I covered him as a reporter in Washington and spent him with him in Iraq after the war. I have never seen another actor from the Arab political world like him. Those who care about creating a real democracy in Iraq should be pulling for a Chalabi victory." More UN scandal The Independent reports: "Ruud Lubbers, the UN's high commissioner for refugees, was found guilty of misconduct involving sexual harassment by an official investigation carried out by the UN's watchdog, it can be revealed. The secret document has never before been released."The Independent has some of the details: "Woman A told the OIOS she was invited to Mr Lubbers' home with others to discuss work. She said, instead, she was alone with him, and he wanted to discuss only personal matters while sitting close to her and touching her in a sexual way. She left quickly because she felt he was trying to go further and she became afraid. Woman B described an incident at a UNHCR function at which Mr Lubbers grabbed and embraced her, pulling her body against his. She was shocked and embarrassed, and pushed him away. Woman C said Mr Lubbers had attempted to grope her. She had pushed him back, and threatened to slap him if he attempted to do the same again. Woman D said Mr Lubbers twice made unwelcome advances and asked her to come to his hotel. She said Mr Lubbers told her he was 'feeling lonely'." Insert your own former U.S. President Bill Clinton becoming the Secretary General joke here. Quotidian "I am quite ready to respect another man's faith; but it is too much to ask that I shoudl respect his doubt, his worldy hesitations and fictions, his political bargain and make-believe." -- G.K. Chesterton, What's Wrong With the World And the streets were filled with blood Not quite. Still, here's abortion's ugly side revealed, from this LifeSiteNews.com story: Sewage Spill near Abortion Clinic - Baby Body Parts Seen on Street Eyewitnesses reported seeing baby body parts mixed in with sewage after a broken line caused a sewage spill near a north Houston abortuary Tuesday. A car dealership employee working next door to the clinic said she saw what she is convinced were baby body parts. "Whether it's legal or not, it's not right," Maribeth Smith said, as reported by click2houston.com. "This whole area is nothing but raw sewage and bloody pieces. There were little legs coming out from one side." Smith said she took pictures of the body parts, but local health inspectors denied seeing them. Inspectors did report evidence of blood and human tissue, but nothing they would not expect in sewage." To footage from the scene, click here. A reminder If there are any Sobering Thoughts readers in Ottawa on Friday, February 18, you are invited to a book signing event in room in 356 S in the Senate Building from 12-2:30 in the afternoon. Just drop by. And I'll have copies of Jean Chretien: A Legacy of Scandal on hand if you haven't purchased your copy yet. Also, if you want to save yourself $5 when your purchase Jean Chretien over the internet, you have to do so by Sunday. Freedom Press (Canada) Inc., will refund S&H charges this week only when you order Jean Chretien: A Legacy of Scandal; Order by mail and don't bother adding the $5 shipping and handling fee but please do send a note to the effect that you are taking advantage of the February special. If you order at the website, Freedom Press will reimburse you with a cheque when they send the book. CCD calls on Ottawa to stop funding tyranical and imperialist power The Canadian Coalition for Democracies issued this press release in advance of Ralph Goodale's budget, asking that Ottawa stop giving aid to Red China. Here's how it opens: "The Paul Martin government is on the verge of providing $50 million in aid to China in 2005 and even more in 2006. This is in addition to over $100 million provided between 2000 and 2004. In 2003, China had a GDP of $1.4 trillion, military spending in the tens of billions, and exports to Canada totaling over $20 billion. 'The Canadian Coalition for Democracies (CCD) is calling on Prime Minister Paul Martin and Finance Minister Ralph Goodale to end foreign aid to China in next week's federal budget,' said Rochelle Wilner, Senior Vice President of CCD. 'While many of the projects being funded by Canadian foreign aid are laudable, China is a wealthy nation, more than capable of supporting these internal initiatives. Aid to China is aid denied to those truly in need.' 'China's expansionist foreign policy and its denial of democracy and human rights at home should disqualify it from Canadian aid,' added Wilner." A challenge to the NDP, Bloc and most Liberals Apropos of my comments on the lack of real debate on same-sex marriage at The Shotgun (Heat, no light), Fighting on the Beaches has a challenge to pro-same sex marriage MPs: "I have a little challenge to the 130+ MPs who support the bill. Let's see if you can make the case for same-sex marriage without using the words Charter, rights, progress or bigots. Perhaps then we can have a truly civil debate. Well it's a dream at least." Canada's new flag? Considering that Trudeau remade Canada in his image (socialist, billingual, liscentious), it is only fitting that the Maple Leaf be replaced by his likeness. Right in Canada has a sample. (Scroll down to last flag.) (Hat tip to Trudeaupia) Wednesday, February 16, 2005
Quotidian "This is not the age of reformation but of defence, when every man of good will should devote all his powers to preserving the few good things left to us from our grandfathers." -- Evelyn Waugh, from his review of the Dictionary of National Biography Be bold Mr. President David Gratzer, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute (and a friend of mine), writes in the Weekly Standard about the need for President George W. Bush to bring his ownership society to the realm of healthcare policy. Bush will have to face down governors, including those in his own party, who enjoy the block grants for Medicaid. Blogging first Kathryn Jean Lopez posts an email she received from Senator John Cornyn's office noting that he was the first senator to use the word "blog" on the Senate floor. Yeah, Senator Cornyn. "The news media is of course the main way people get information about government. The media pushes government entities, and elected officials and bureaucrats and agencies to release information that the people have a right to know, occasionally exposing waste, fraud and abuse. And hopefully, more often than that, letting the American people know what a good job their public officials are doing. But we've also seen in recent years the expansion of other outlets for sharing information outside of the mainstream media - to online communities, discussion groups, and blogs. I believe all these outlets can and do contribute to the health of our political democracy." Tuesday, February 15, 2005
Universities suppress independent thought and dissenting views From FIRE's blog The Torch: "Perhaps it is just that FIRE is becoming better known and we are receiving more cases, but it seems to me that the climate for free speech is actually getting worse on campus. In the last 12 months I have seen many of the worst cases of my career. Take, for example, today’s press release: Le Moyne College in Syracuse, N.Y., dismissed an education student for writing a paper recommending strict (and some would say 'traditional') discipline for younger students. He got an 'A-' on the paper, but then was dismissed from the program by another administrator who cited a 'mismatch' between his views and those of the college. How could a college that claims to respect academic freedom not realize that dismissing a student for dissenting is an outright and total rejection of free speech and academic freedom? Are colleges so terrified of debating that they would rather dismiss a student than challenge his opinions?" Football for Hope I just watched the Football for Hope game, taped earlier today from Barcelona. Essentially an international all-star game played for charity (FIFA/AFC Tsunami Solidarity Fund), the action demonstrated why soccer is "the beautiful game." Ronaldinho's XI beat Shevchenko's XI 6-3. The team I was cheering for lost (Shevchenko plays for AC Milan, my favourite team), but who cares. Fantastic, fun game to watch and all for a great cause. Quotidian "How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives." -- Annie Dillard, from her essay "Schedules" Stuff Later tonight, I will be adding a new daily feature. Drop me a line to let me know what you think about it. Send comments about that or anything else to paul_tuns [AT] yahoo.com. Blogging will be light for the next few days -- production week for The Interim and a day trip to Ottawa will intrude on my blogging time. And lastly, two items about my book Jean Chretien: A Legacy of Scandal. First, if any readers will be in Ottawa on Friday, February 18, I'm going to be signing books in room in 356 S in the Senate Building from 12-2:30 in the afternoon. It is an open invitation so I hope to meet a few of you there. Second, Freedom Press (Canada) Inc., will refund S&H charges this week only when you order Jean Chretien: A Legacy of Scandal. If you order by mail, don't bother adding the $5 shipping and handling fee but please send a note to the effect that you are taking advantage of the February special (marking Chretien's performance before the Gomery Inquiry last week). If you order at the website, Freedom Press will reimburse you with a cheque when they send the book. (Why not just take it off the price? Apparently the way Paypal is set up, such promotions are not easy to do.) And while must of us vividly recall that Chretien was a sleaze bag, the book makes a great gift for those who need reminding about the arrogance of the Liberal Party. The (Gingrich) Revolution that Failed The New York Times demonstrates in graphic form how the class of '94 turned from budget cutters to big spenders. Only two Republican Congressman (Steve Chabot and Sue Myrick) first elected in that year still have that revolutionary small government zeal. Thomas Woods's American history is factually/morally incorrect Max Boot puts the boots to Thomas Woods's Politically Incorrect Guide to American History, in the Daily Standard and deservedly so. He concludes: "Conservatives looking to inoculate themselves or their children from liberal indoctrination would be well advised to steer clear of Woods's corrosive cornucopia of canards. Shame on Regnery, a once-respectable publishing house, for lending its imprimatur to such tripe. Woods' book is politically incorrect, all right. It's also morally incorrect. And factually incorrect." I'm glad a conservative, even one of the neo variety, called Regnery on this one. Woods's work was a disappointment and unsuspecting readers will be misinforming themselves about American history by reading his book. Read Boot's review for ample examples of Woods's errors. Last words on Arthur Miller From Richard Schickel's essay on Miller in Time: "Maybe history will finally judge Arthur Miller a one-masterpiece writer." I wouldn't use the word masterpiece, but I think that he was precisely one work that deserves to be in the American Canon. And lastly, Terry Teachout's appraisal of Miller in today's Wall Street Journal: "I recently described "After the Fall," the 1964 play in which Miller first made fictional use of his unsuccessful marriage to Marilyn Monroe, as 'a lead-plated example of the horrors that result when a humorless playwright unfurls his midlife crisis for all the world to see,' written by a man 'who hasn't a poetic bone in his body (though he thinks he does).' For me, that was his biggest flaw. He was, literally, pretentious: He pretended to have big ideas and the ability to express them with a touch of poetry, when in fact he had neither." Amen. Other than his novel Focus which was a neat idea poorly executed and Death of a Salesman which is a fairly good play, Miller's work was mediocre at best. So why is he held in such esteem? Again, Teachout: "I wonder how much attention would now be paid to Miller if he hadn't married Monroe, and if the House Un-American Activities Committee hadn't made the mistake of subpoenaing him in 1956 to testify about his Communist ties (which were extensive, though he always denied having been an actual party member), thereby bringing about his citation for contempt of Congress when he refused to 'name names.' The one made him a pop-culture footnote, the other a liberal icon." Exactly. And lastly, Teachout on why Death of a Salesman will endure: "I expect that 'Death of a Salesman' will continue to hold the stage, though not because it is beautiful or intelligent or provocative. It is, rather, sentimental, and sentimentality always goes over big in the commercial theater, so long as it's disguised as realism." Monday, February 14, 2005
When is a bribe not a bribe Political Staples notes the hypocrisy of NDP MP Judy Wasylycia-Leis complaining that calls for tax cuts are a form of political bribery, buying the support of voters, when the NDP supports massive spending increases. As Staples says, perhaps it's all a matter of political perspective. SSM won't hurt Tories So says Calgary Grit: "Everyone in the media has been slamming Harper’s stance on SSM. But consider a few things: 1. The country is fairly split on the issue 2. Bloc and NDP voters overwhelmingly support equal marriage 3. The Conservatives are the only party opposed to it 4. There are more Liberals than Conservatives out there Do the math in your head and it becomes clear that Harper stands to gain a lot more votes than he’ll lose on this issue. The Globe & Mail yesterday mentions an internal Conservative poll that said the party could gain 6 percentage points from the Liberals on the issue and only lose 2 percentage points. Given the Liberals only won by 7% last June, that’s quite significant. It won’t help Harper break Quebec or the GTA but those seats in rural Ontario and the Maritimes are ripe for the taking." Some good news from Iraq that you might have missed Chrenkoff links to this piece of news from Fallujah: "An unexpected measure of success came on election day last week. Nearly 8,000 people here defied insurgent threats and voted, according to US military officials. That figure accounts for 44 percent of all votes cast in Anbar Province, which includes the Sunni triangle, where antielection feeling was so strong that less than 7 percent voted at all. Iraqis say the result shows how secure Fallujahns are beginning to feel, and note with added surprise that more than a few said their ballot was for Iyad Allawi, the US-backed interim prime minister who ordered the Fallujah invasion. 'It's better that the Americans are here,' says Abdulrahab Abdulrahman, a teacher who carries a folder containing a compensation claim for the damage to his house. 'I have the freedom to be a student, or whatever I want to be.' The mujahideen 'are gone,' he says, clearly pleased, standing on a street strewn with rubble. 'They are finished.' Children wave at the marines, and accept candy that the men keep in cargo pockets, alongside stun grenades and extra rifle magazines. Many adults wave, too, though some look sullenly past." Or this piece of positive news: "Inhabitants of an Iraqi village killed five insurgents who attacked them for taking part in the country's historic election..." The Iraqis will not be bowed. The benefits of a United Nations job Mark Steyn in The Daily Telegraph on the corruption at the UN: "If you don't want to bulk up your pension by skimming the Oil-for-Food programme, don't worry, whatever your bag, the UN can find somewhere that suits - in West Africa, it's Sex-for-Food, with aid workers demanding sexual services from locals as young as four; in Cambodia, it's drug dealing; in Kenya, it's the refugee extortion racket; in the Balkans, sex slaves." Paul Wells has a real insight Paul Wells has an astute observation regarding Dalton McGuinty playing the role of Oliver Twist asking Paul Martin for more: "The more I think about this McGuinty thing, the more I realize the genuinely new twist in Mr. Crabby-Pants Canadian Federalism: whereas the provinces are always mad at Ottawa, they're suddenly mad at each other." I'll never admit this again Hacks and Wonks links to the BBC's list of the top 20 tear-jerker movies and notes that Field of Dreams well deserves its high ranking. This might be the only movie that girls do not cry at but guys do. It is sad to admit, but I cry near the end every time. Thrice in the past two months I have come across the movie within a minute of the point at which Doc Graham walks off the field to save the choking child and every time I tear up. In fact, my 14-year-old son bought me the movie for Christmas just so he can make fun of me while we watch it together. Other than The Passion of the Christ, I have never cried at another movie and Field of Dreams would not be in my top 20 favourite movies. But it chokes me up every time. I bet they won't think through to the logical conclusion on this one New York Times headline: "Gays Debate Radical Steps to Curb Unsafe Sex." Here's an idea: how about not engaging in it. Words are not meant to obscure Wesley Smith on the changing terminology in the human cloning/embryonic stem cell debate: "Remember, the pro human cloning side has been continually shifting the terms of the debate and changing definitions. Only 4 years ago, they were proclaiming loudly that ALL they wanted was access to leftover IVF embryos that were going to be tossed out anyway. As soon as Pres. Bush made his 'compromise' funding decision, that story began to change. Soon, 'therapeutic cloning' was touted as the key to curing Uncle Charlie's Parkinson's. When that didn't sell, advocates dropped the 'C-word' and started calling it 'somatic cell nuclear transfer for stem cells,' being careful to continue to call the same procedure 'cloning' when referencing using the technology to bring a baby into the world. Then, SCNT became simply embryonic stem cell research. Thus, Ron Reagan touted cloning at the Democrat Convention, but called it embryonic stem cell research. Now it is just stem cell research. And now, they claim that SCNT does not make a human embryo. It just makes a bunch of cells. This could be blown away in the flash of an eye, except the media is like a dancing partner following the lead of the biotech ideologues." Sometimes proponents of human cloning are moving the goal posts but at other times they are simply calling the goal posts something different hoping we won't notice that the net is empty. More on Arthur Miller Let's beat a dead horse, so to speak. In a comment to an earlier post on Arthur Miller, P.J. Jaworski commented (at The Shotgun): "Miller was a great playwright, even if you and Teachout don't think so. Unless you have some very good reasons to think otherwise, the rest of us might prefer to accept the general consensus amongst those who would know about such things. In this case, Miller is considered a great playwright. And I don't think you've offered good reasons to think otherwise." Here are some reasons, then, and none of them are political. I think that Death of a Salesman is a good play but not a great play. It is over-rated perhaps because two generations of students have read it in high school and remember it nostalgically as their first serious play other than Shakespeare. I also believe that a good many people think they like Death of a Salesman because they have been indoctrinated to believe they should. But even at that, the literary critic Harold Bloom doesn't even include Death of a Salesman in his Western Canon. My bone of contention is with the idea that Miller was a great author/playwright. One good play does not a great playwright make. Consider his other works (if you can name one). Miller's novel Focus is the story of Lawrence Newman, an anti-Semite living in Brooklyn in the 1940s. Later in life he begins to wear glasses and, looking Jewish, becomes the victim of anti-Semitism himself. It has a wonderful plot and interesting characters but it is written as if rendered by a high school student and one wishes that Bernard Malamud had instead written this story. Incident at Vichy has been rightly criticized as nihilistic and is more Sartrean than Sartre. But aside from its ideas, Incident at Vichy is lousily written; it doesn't have characters, it has stereotypes. While Vichy is more existential than I would like, I acknowledge that it explores important concepts of moral responsibility. Unfortunately, like Focus, it is not well executed. Let's consider The Crucible, ostensibly about the Salem witch trials. Miller denied at the time that it was about Senator Joseph McCarthy but in recent years told The Guardian that it was all about McCarthy. It might have been but the research for this play involved reading two (large) volumes of the Salem witch trials. Some historians have criticized parts of The Crucible for being little more than edited versions of the trials. That is not to say that The Crucible may be partly plagiarized, but is that the mark of a great writer? Take the criticism, though, for what its worth. Neither do I have a problem, as some critics at the time of The Crucible's release did, with Miller raising the age of Abigail Williams or reducing the number of women facing trial for witchcraft. Such liberties and condensing is sometimes necessary in art. In fact, I think it can help one understand the story. But by injecting a romantic (and adulterous) subplot to the story, Miller stands in the way of better understanding of why the Salem witch trials took place; it wasn't about revenge by a jealous lover. Indeed, Miller never seriously explores why the witch hunts occurred. One liberty I don't appreciate is Miller's misrepresenting why Massachusetts moved away from executing suspected witches. It was not an act of moral clarity but a legal question about the reliability of "spectral evidence." That said, The Crucible is perhaps Miller's most consistent work; but unlike Death of a Salesman or even Incident at Vichy, it is dull. Whatever interest this play has stems from its subject and not in anything Miller adds to it. Or take All My Sons (please), considered among Miller's better works. I'm sorry but the denouement is unconvincing; Joe Keller kills himself because "a man can't be a Jesus in the world" but Keller doesn't believe Jesus is relevant to his life. Too much of Keller's character is unrevealed to make the ending credible and thus it is unsatisfying at worst, dishonest at best. Furthermore, like Philip Roth and Portnoy's Complaint, I'm not sure that Miller understood his own artistic creation. The conflict in All My Sons is not Joe Keller's but his son Chris' as he tries to reconcile who he is and who he wants to be. Keller's suicide is dramatic but pointless; this may be tragedy but it is tragedy for tragedy sake and the result is that All My Sons is terribly unrealistic. Then there is The Fall and After, considered by some critics to be better than Death of a Salesman. The only surpassing that The Fall and After does in comparison to Death of a Salesman is that Quentin rises to the heights that Willy Loman aspired to -- and beyond. Miller makes some valid observations about man's longing for acceptance, although I think Miller went beyond that and implied acceptance was a human necessity as much as food and shelter. But Miller has trouble turning this deeply personal story of Quentin's self-actualization into anything resembling art. This autobiographical play has trouble becoming anything other than Miller's autobiographical play; no art, just Miller. (That said, Timebends: A Life, is one of the finest and least self-indulgent literary autobiographies I have ever read even if he skirts the issues surrounding being a communist sympathizer.) I could go on specific work by specific work but won't. But one must consider two more general criticisms of Miller before pronouncing him among the great, both of which ultimately disqualify him as such. 1) I think it was Joseph Epstein who once said that the big problem for Miller is that he seldom establishes the credibility of his protagonists; with the exception of Death of a Salesman, this is true. Keller's motivation in All My Sons is unconvincing; Quentin's pretentious language in The Fall and After seems more Miller than the character and is incredibly self-indulgent. Second, consider Epstein's observation on enjoying books: "Part of the pleasure of reading is in the splendor of language properly deployed." Miller lacks that splendor. Harold Bloom said that Death of a Salesman did not hold him and he found himself reverting in his mind to the play rather than the book. That is, Miller isn't a great read. Furthermore, there is the question of Miller's usage. He was among the first serious authors to verb nouns (i.e. researching) which has been a terrible development in language over the past half-century. Also, Roger Shattuck complained that the playwright employed language much as the illiterate of children of the 1960s did (using depart as a transitive verb or using hanging out instead of hanging around). No "language properly deployed" around here. What did Miller do well? Not that this is all that important, but what great line did Miller provide eternity? I would suggest just one: "Each man has his Jew; it is the other. And the Jews have their Jews." (Incident at Vichy) But even this was a rip-off of Albert Camus. Of Death of a Salesman, it's greatest achievement is to offer the obvious observation that tragedy can happen to plain folks as easily it can happen to kings and nobles. Thanks for the insight, Arthur. But it is an insight he wrote about masterfully in an essay, "Tragedy and the Common Man." At least Salesman was well-written and works well on stage. But other than Death of a Salesman, nothing in Miller's oeuvre could possibly pass what is the elemental test of good literature; Proust said he would rather spend time with a good book than a friend. Miller doesn't pass the test of putting any friend on the back-burner. Abortion is not just wrong, its bad for the economy Steve Marr, a former CEO of a large import-export company, writes in the Lincoln Tribune, "As politicians scramble to posture on Social Security reform, a key element is being ignored: the effect of abortion on the Social Security shortfall." How, you ask, does abortion contribute to the Social Security shortfall? Marr explains: "Since Roe vs. Wade legalized abortion, creating an abortion industry, we've seen 45 million unborn babies aborted in this country. An estimated 17 million of them would be contributing to the economy today, paying taxes, and paying into Social Security; but they will not be there." Marr says that Social Security is based on faulty premises but that abortion is " helping to speed up the inevitable shipwreck." |