I’m beginning to see that one of the sources of Obama’s appeal, especially to the young, is that he speaks their language. Although the man is forty-six, he comes across as much younger, with a certain “like, you know” improvisational attitude towards the Presidency, especially when speaking off the cuff.
Some no doubt find it refreshing. I do not. Continue reading →
Founding father and renaissance man Thomas Jefferson amassed a huge collection of books that became the basis for one of our early Libraries of Congress. Unfortunately, much of the collection was destroyed in a mid-nineteenth century fire, but intrepid librarians of the present Library of Congress have set about recreating his original 6000+ volume library.
It’s been a labor of love—and money, and sleuthing in the world of rare and antiquarian books—that has taken about ten years. Having visited Jefferson’s Monticello recently, and seen firsthand how his home and its furnishings reflect his unique and Apollonian mind as well as his remarkable esthetic sense, I’m not surprised that the new exhibit at the Library of Congress demonstrates the same. After all, look at any person’s bookshelves and you get more than a clue to his/her mind and interests.
With Jefferson, of course, the books themselves are just the starting point. Continue reading →
Our post-9/11 unity was fleeting, if not totally illusory. We are now bitterly divided on how to fight the war against Islamicist totalitarianism.
We are divided on whether there is such a war. We are divided on who our most important enemies in that war might be. We are even divided on whether we truly have what we might call enemies, or whether a nice friendly dialogue might not be enough to make us all get along better.
But on reading this article by Clfford D. May in National Review entitled “100 Years of War?”—a reference to Barack Obama’s distortion of John McCain’s remark that we might need to keep troops in Iraq for that long a time, similar to what we’re already doing in Germany and South Korea—it occurred to me that there is another division, and that this division might actually be the heart of the matter.
This split may have begun to occur as early as 9/11 itself, shortly after the towers fell. It has to do with the perception of how long we should expect this fight to take. The division is between those who always assumed it would be long and arduous, and those who did not. Continue reading →
For those of you who’ve been anxiously awaiting my “American Idol” updates this year (are you out there, anyone?), I actually have been watching the show (shh, don’t tell!) and plan to post something when the time feels right.
All those who have no interest are hereby allowed—nay, encouraged—to skip this post.
In the meantime, for the rest of you—all two of you—host Ryan Seacrest is accused of having been cruel last night to rocker hunk Michael Johns. He added insult—or rather, teasing—to injury by making it seem as though maybe no one would be eliminated, but then immediately saying “You’re out!”
I watched it. Yes, it was mean. Poor Johns was barely holding it together as it was, anyway, although he managed (as they almost always do) to belt his swan song with more vigor, and more real emotion, than he’d managed to muster during the competition itself.
But in defense of the cruel cruel Ryan: wasn’t he just following the script?
Of course, “I was just following orders,” although a time-honored defense, is not a good one.
Science and sport—and Speedo—(how’s that for alliteration?) march on. In the drive for human progress, the competitive swimsuit has undergone a remarkable transformation.
Some of us, of course, merely hope that our swimsuits will manage to hide rather than reveal our body’s cosmetic flaws. The price of swimsuits has been creeping up along with the proliferation of their magic underpinnings. Names like “miracle suit” let us know what sort of transformation is in store for us if only—if only—we would buy this product (those models don’t look as though they’re in need of any miracles, IMHO, but then again we haven’t seen their “before” photos).
Competitive swimming is another thing entirely. Long lean bodies on men and women, muscles built for speed rather than bulk, only a bit of fat in the right places, and every hair shaved in order to reduce drag. No need to hide anything.
But fashion is hardly the issue for serious swimmers, it’s winning. And in the race for the gold there’s a new weapon in the arsenal, the Speedo Fastskin LZR racer swimsuit. Continue reading →
Read this article in the Weekly Standard by Frederick Kagan. He counters the facile “experts” (who know a “bunch of stuff,” no doubt) on foreign policy, those who keep telling Petraeus the real battle should be in Afghanistan, not Iraq.
Then read this post of mine describing Obama’s revolutionary new foreign policy of “dignity promotion.”
Then try to put the two together. Continue reading →
I thought this comment by Tarnsman, at Belmont Club, worth pondering:
….both the Syrians and Iranians must be watching the emergence of an American-trained, American-equipped and American-supported Arab army [in Iraq] with great trepidation. Iraq could end up with an army that would have been Saddam’s dream and given its new found ally, it would become the regional powerhouse. Their only hope is to kill the “infant” in its crib, and thus they back the Sunni and Shia ”˜rebels’ in Iraq. The problem is the more they foment unrest in Iraq the larger the Iraqi Army will grow to meet the threat, the more they risk sparking the desire for payback from the Iraqis and the more they risk war with the United States. I have long wondered if the real reason for the liberation of Iraq was to pre-position the United States Army on Iran’s doorstep.
There have been huge difficulties in getting the Iraqi fighting forces up to speed. It’s no cakewalk, to be sure. But, if one is to believe General Petaeus, the trend is most definitely in the right direction.
Oh, but let’s just withdraw.
…it’s the public—and the facts—that are the great losers.
Tony Blankley has it right. The reporting on Basra was an excellent example of the decline of news coverage: practically no correspondents and no expertise, but no dearth of firm opinions and prognostications.
Blankley connects this problem to another story, concerning talks between CBS and CNN involving the former’s plan to cut back on news gathering sources, relying instead on the CNN feed.
It reminds me a bit of what Barnes and Noble has done in the bookselling world. News sources are collapsing in on themselves, and pretty soon we may be left with just the AP and CNN, and Al Jazeera. And then don’t be surprised if those three merge some day. Continue reading →
Shrinkwrapped attempts to connect some Middle East dots.
Dichotomies such as left brain vs. right brain are understood to be interesting concepts, but too simplistic in describing what is an unbelievably complicated and still very mysterious organ: the brain. Of course, it’s the brain itself doing the studying, in an ongoing “know thyself” effort that is profoundly human.
The left/right brain dichotomy is fun for games and parlor tricks, such as this test of the turning dancer. Do you see the silhouette revolving clockwise or counterclockwise? I always see it clockwise and cannot ever reverse it, no matter how hard I try.
Supposedly, this makes me strongly right-brained, intuitive and feeling and artistic rather than logical and and mathematical and linear. But most of the other facile internet tests I’ve taken—and I’ve taken quite a few—tend to put me squarely in the “in-between” category, evenly balanced between left and right brain, which feels just about right to me.
Oops, I said “feel.” Too right-brained. Continue reading →
Tonight. Eight PM. Here. Listen.
This NY TImes article by Frank Rich compares the recent fighting in Basra to an Iraqi “mini-Tet.” He thinks it’s a shame that today’s press—unlike the MSM’s behavior right after the real Tet offensive—hasn’t really played up what he sees as a big defeat for our side, and that so few Americans seem concerned:
That’s why it’s no surprise that so few stopped to absorb the disastrous six-day battle of Basra that ended last week—a mini-Tet that belied the “success” of the surge.
The real situation in Basra is much harder to read, of course. Continue reading →