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Letter of the Week
THE FUTURE OF HEALTHCARE
The Walter Reed story - particularly the part about the labyrinth that is out-patient care - had a certain familiarity to me. Ah yes, I've got it. It was a dead-ringer for the only existing form of government health care in the US , aka the Veterans Administration. There's a pretty good chance that your doctor(s) did at least part of their training in a VA. (It's a good deal for the doctors who hone their skills on the vast array of patient pathology, and a good deal for the VA, who get's doctors working twice the hours of a nurse at half the pay, not counting the insurance and retirement savings.) Ask them what they think about what the VA says for the efficiency of government-directed health care, and after the laughter dies down, it's a good guess that they'll say something like "Steyn, you ARE a funny guy."
"Outpatient Clinic" at a VA medical center is the model of inefficiency, and given the number of years that they've had to work out the kinks, it is the current pinnacle of US Govt health care. Re-run the Walter Reed story in a few years - after Hillary-Edwards, or Romney for that matter - and it will still generate buzz. Except this time, people will say, "Man, why can't I get stream-lined care like they do at Walter Reed?"
G. Miller
Spokane, Washington
Re What’s this case about?
PAJAMA GAME
Your blogging on the Conrad Black case is first rate. What kind of pajamas
did you decide were appropriate for the courtroom?
Ezra Marsh
Baltimore
THE PRICE OF CRIME
I should identify myself as a big fan and no enemy of Conrad Black. I felt, and still do, that he did a great job with the Post and got shafted by Cretch on his peerage. I have no argument with your take on Breeden or corporate governance either. The situation you describe is appalling.
I am though a little uncomfortable with an implication I take from your article. In listing the economic fallout from all this, it comes across that you might think Black shouldn't have been prosecuted because of it. If so, I have to disagree. It is doubtful that any prosecution for theft, be it large or small, would be less expensive than the monetary value of the crime. It would cost a lot more than 10k to prosecute someone who stole that amount from a bank. It is almost certain that a wake of financial trouble follows anyone put on trial or in jail. In Mr. Black's case, it couldn't have been anything but enormous.
Neither of these sad realities however should stand in the way of prosecution. Mr. Black does not stand accused of petty theft, but for allegedly taking considerable millions to which he wasn't entitled. It's sad, but collateral damage can't be a consideration.
God speed to Mr. Black, may his innocence be demonstrated in court.
Bob Collins
Toronto , Ontario
Re: The warm mongers
POURING COLD WATER ON BOILERS
Phil Petersen of Wisconsin wonders about the waste of energy melting snow. One mustn't jump to conclusions. The reality is, what could one say, more nuanced.
It goes like this. Boilers are efficient if they burn the fuel completely and transfer a large percentage of the energy to the water that is circulated through the house for heating. The colder the flue gases, what goes up the chimney, the more efficient. If you can condense the water vapor in the flue gases, even better. The only problem is that if that the flue gases can only do all these wonderful things if the water coming back into the boiler is cold. This is where the snow melt comes in. If you melt the snow, producing cold return water, you can have an extremely high efficiency boiler. If you don't melt snow, the boiler is not that efficient.
I know this from a friend who works for the local school board. He sees these cockamanie ideas all the time.
So at the dinner party with all your enlightened friends, the conversation goes like this:
"Nice house"
"Yes, and very environmentally friendly. Organic flooring, R-30 insulation. The boiler is extremely efficient"
"Did you hear what Hillary said about the size of Obama's...."
The everyone get pissed on the organic wine, guests stay the night in the extra rooms (one needs a large house to display social justice), sleep late and assume the drive was shovelled by the Mexican guest worker.
I guess you could say I'm agnostic when it comes to global warming. One thing I know for sure is we will see more snake oil in the coming years that we would ever imagine. I work in this industry and it is already starting. Very little energy, if any is being conserved. It makes everyone feel good though.
Derek
CONSERVATIVES SHOULDN’T SNEER
You need to sort of watch what sort of nonsense appears in your mailbox. One of your readers wrote this:
“I just wanted to point out on the very simple experiment that can be conducted in the kitchen. This experiment demonstrates the fact, that even if all ice mass of Greenland or any other ice masses that are submerged in oceans suddenly melted, the oceans' levels would stay at the original levels, i.e., as before the melt;
1.Fill up a clear glass of any size with water.(To 3/4 level)
2.Add any amount of ice cubes
3.Mark the existing water level
4.Let stand at the room temperature until the ice melts
5.Observe the water level mark.”
The ice of Greenland sits on land. If it melts, the sea level will indeed rise. It won't rise by Noah's Flood levels, but it'll rise enough to finish off New Orleans and Venice and quite a lot of Florida and a tragically large slice of Bangladesh, and the Dutch will have to have more than fingers to keep their dikes from being overwhelmed. It won't be good.
The sneering tone ill befits conservative commenting. Scientists, honestly, know about how melting water works.
There is enough nonsense, and then some, coming from the other side. Conservatives stand to lose the whole shooting match if proven wrong on the point of global warming, and for what? Aren't we the `face the facts' folks? So, if the facts are that glaciers are retreating, winters are warmer than they used to be, tropical disease ranges are moving out from the equator, etc. etc., then those facts too have got to be faced.
“dahensley”
BBC TOP DOC SHOCK
Have you seen the BBC documentary on Global warming swindle? It’s fantastic. I am shocked that the BBC allowed this production. Here's the link in case you have not seen it:
Rocco Racioppo
www.investingforincome.com
Canada
THE ZERO THAT GOT AWAY
I usually enjoy your articles and my enjoyment derives in no small part from the interesting facts and figures with which you sprinkle them. However, you might want to have your fact checkers check some of your numbers in, "Pouring Cold Water on Capitalism," aka, "Environmental Despotism," as it appears that you might have lost a zero or two somewhere. U.S. GDP is currently about $13.5 trillion, a wee bit more than the $494 billion assumed by your article (according to the Federal Reserve). The latter figure is probably less than the budget of the Department of Defense, not including the war in Iraq . The $97 billion figure cited in your article would almost cover that. I sympathize with your sentiment, but your numbers are way off.
Darrell Hougen
Fullerton , California
WHAT'S LEONARDO GOT TO DO WITH IT?
Your reply to my comment is an example of what I had stressed in the first place, i.e. that everybody on either the left or the right fights furiously "to be morally correct" and will bend logic and rhetoric to prove their point - humility be damned.
First of all you insert Leonardo Di Caprio's name, a fellow whose name I hadn't mentioned at all and whom I doubt I would pay any attention to. Al Gore is another matter altogether, regardless to what extent he might be right or wrong he has indeed done plenty of research in this area and this is a lot more than what you can say for yourself in this connection; he and many economists (e.g. Paul Zane Pilser) state their conviction that this focus on the environment will actually be good for business as a whole in the long run. - You simply follow the party line.
Secondly, when someone on the right does not do so you scold them for "go-along-to-get-along types" - aside from this being unfair, just as the stupid idiocy of the left is in some parts of the world in describing Harper or Blair as Bush's poodles just because they happen to believe that he is on the right track (or let's say the lesser evil). Schwarzenegger really believes we need to make a change in this area, perhaps Mulroney did too simply because it makes sense on a gut level, period - regardless of what other corrupt tendencies we might ascribe to him and I don't know that it was his doing to render conservatism inviable for a generation (a la Richard Nixon).
Thirdly, I hadn't mentioned Kyoto as being the best solution - and it does not matter - it will play itself out amongst the lesser lights as democracy will have it.
And finally do you really believe that it is only "our" side that is always correct and the "others" are always wrong ? (This is the same as the behaviour of parties in parliament - and particularly so in Canada , but I nevertheless believe this to be the problem of Western democracies in general).
As a whole we could perhaps surmise that politicians on the right at the moment are somewhat less prone to corruption than on the left - but this would be a slippery road to travel. Too bad, but I like your writing anyway for your other good stuff - and I suppose it is human nature to get caught up on one side. But even so, it is not right to use a holier than thou attitude in using Al Gore's electricity bill as an attack issue - even if we could wish that he ought to be doing better in this direction - we all could! I just meant to say this isn't worthy of you.
I am generally supporting measures that used to be best described as Progressive-Conservative, i.e. change where change is deemed to go in the direction of good progress and stay conservative in areas that are only liberal-socialist pandering to the masses at the lowest common denominator.
Peter Staniek
Montreal , Canada
Re: America Alone
DEFENDING MARK AGAINST HARI AND SULLIVAN
[1] I was curious to see that Mr Hari had requested that Mr Steyn please change his link to a longer, and therefore presumably more devastating, version of Hari's review. "Dear Herr Hitler, I have a longer and better review of your filthy racist tract 'Mein Kampf' at my own weblog. Do be a dear and change your hyperlink, ta? Love, J." "Ja, ja, Herr Hari, I will that do."
Johann Hari accuses Mark Steyn of racism because, in America Alone Steyn uses "white" as shorthand for "non-Muslim Western". How does this differ, though, from Hari himself speaking of "natalist policies be[ing] launched from [sic] European governments"? Muslim Europeans don't need "natalist policies" to encourage them to have children. Does Hari think only non-Muslim (which 90% of the time equates to "light-skinned") French, Dutch, etc citizens are "Europeans" proper? Let's be charitable, and assume not. So why do people use non-exact terminology? Because it's convenient shorthand, and because readers (unless they're determined to convict
regardless of the evidence) understand this. If a book on World War II uses "the Germans" and "the Nazis" interchangeably, this doesn't mean the author really thinks Bonhoeffer was a Nazi but Moseley or Lord Haw Haw weren't.
So are Steyn's warnings against Islam being imposed on Europe (by law or by lynch mobs) really just a cloak for fear of demographic dominance by the brown folk? Anyone who reads Steyn with an open mind knows that he is also concerned about light-skinned Europeans converting to Islam. See his comments on Yahya Birt, Emma Clark, the Earl of Yarborough, et al
and on Robert Ferrigno's novel "Prayers of the Assassin". Steyn and his supporters would be less worried by the idea a Europe populated by dark-skinned, Arabic-speaking Christians, Jews, Buddhists or Confucians than by the idea of a Europe populated by blonde, blue-eyed converts to Wahhabism - a la John Walker, Richard Reid and Don Stewart-Whyte. Given Mr Hari's lifestyle choices, I doubt he would want to live in a Wahhabised Europe either... so how about Mr Hari drops the easy "racism" and "Muslim hordes" jibes and get to the real issues.
It seems Steyn is now a would-be genocidaire, as well as a chickenhawk. Translated: he hasn't killed enough Muslims in Iraq to justify listening to his warnings about Serbs and French killing Muslims in Europe . Whereas if he'd gone to Iraq or Afghanistan himself and shot hisself a few Islamics, Hackett-style, then his opinions would carry weight with the progressive-minded. Or something like that.
[2] Re Andrew Sullivan's post "Steyn and Genocide" where he writes:
“That pesky thing called "democracy." You cannot force people to breed in a free country. But you can ‘cull’ a minority group whose values threaten yours?...”
What does he mean? That "democracy" stops governments from offering a Breeders 150% Tax Rebate or Fourth Child Forty Thousand Euros bonus (keeping in mind that many libertarians can't distinguish governments that offer such incentives from a governments whose police strap you down so Robert Duvall can impregnate you with his wife watching but "democracy" won't
stop governments from ordering soldiers (or allowing militias) to murder large portions of the populace? Clarify, Andrew.
Rod Blaine
Australia
SAVE THE SAFETY NET
Totally agree with your analysis on the global situation, especially European welfare implosion. One question: why are you so adamantly against some form of public medical coverage? Surely when a person is sick - perhaps with a long-term problem - that is when they are least likely to be able to earn money to keep up medical insurance payments. Living in Canada for most of the 90s I was appalled at the over-servicing that OHIP encouraged doctors to indulge in. Now , safely back in Oz I pay for private health insurance, but value a system which has a safety net for those who cannot afford it. Our mixture of private & public ensures that people think twice about whether they really need to go to the doctor.
Nicola
Tasmania
THE NEED TO BREED
Considering the dire predictions you make in your tome of hordes of Muslims reproducing like rabbits on Quaaludes, I'm driven to ask exactly how many children you are raising. Or, like Ann Coulter, are you yet another defender of traditional marriage and child-rearing who is neither married or a parent?
Sacco Vanzetti
SEVEN KIDS AND NO REGRETS
I'm reading your book “America Alone” and have ordered more copies to give as gifts to friends and family. Thank you for speaking boldly about the present and future.
It feels somewhat strange to read a book by a major political commentator extolling large families. I have seven children, 24 grandchildren and several great-grandchildren. I was for nearly twenty years a social worker for the state of Oregon , in child protective services, foster homes supervision and adoption placements. My mostly-liberal co-workers considered me (a non-Catholic) a joke for having a large family. Frankly, my children were not “planned” but I never regretted them, difficult as raising them was. For much of the time I was divorced and the sole support of them. Deliciously, after they were grown I was able to fulfill a life's dream - to get my private pilot’s license.
All of my children are married-with-children, hard workers and Christians who enjoy their churches. I see my task at this time in life to stay as healthy as possible and continue to plan for an independent old age (whenever that starts), while pursuing what interests me. I'd like to get a college degree in the English language while also studying a couple of foreign languages, probably of Eastern European countries. Czechoslovakia and Poland especially intrigue me.
I find your political books and columns inspiring, and they make me more hopeful of the future because I believe more Americans agree with you than do not. It really amazes me that you speak with such intelligence and common sense and with such delightful humor! God bless you and thank you!
Margaret (Peggy) Whitcomb
Kansas City , Missouri
WORTH THE WAIT
I waited for three months to read your book (library hold). It was worth the wait. Incredibly funny, but painfully truthful. Your book was so far my favorite on this very serious subject. I will buy this one for my four children to read! Thank you.
Mrs. Laura Fernandez
Yorba Linda , California
DON'T DISH ON DINESH
I hate writing in to these things, because I'm sure you guys probably don't read them. I felt like I had to, though considering it seems like two of my favorite authors are not getting along. I just read Mr. Steyn's article about Dinesh's newest book, and I don't think Mark gives him enough credit. I'm an Iraq war vet, and a lot of what Dinesh had to say rings true. I think there are a lot of things that we can find in common with normal Muslims. Let's be honest, the VAST majority of them in Iraq are on our side (no matter what CNN tells us), I know it from personal experience. I know Mark said that the whole "making common cause with moderate Muslims" over liberal neighbors would be a hard sell, and he is right to say so. But Mark can admit the logic behind Dinesh's belief that domestic liberals are openly siding with Islamic radicals against Bush (who they see as the figurehead of traditional America ). This seems to me to be an honest assessment of our current situation, and a perfect target for my favorite rapier sense of humor: Mark Steyn 's. Please focus on liberals' collaboration against traditional America !!! Name it, and call it out. This needs to be done. Anyway, sorry if I took up space in your in-box.
Dan Franck
HOW DIFFICULT IS DIFFICULT?
Your book, America Alone, makes the point that many people are happy to sneer at America while relying on its products and its cash. I recently heard a radio interview (in Johannesburg) where a young-ish South African script writer explained that early on in his career (a few years ago) he had hoped to tell fresh South African stories to South African audiences. He very quickly realised his scripts would never be made; no financial support, no obvious local interest in these stories. In his words: "I decided to Americanise the story", which involved writing a story set in the US . He soon received financial support (from the US ) and found someone (in the US ) interested in filming his script. I think he was placed third or fourth in a US script-writing competition that he entered. The theme of the movie? America 's general hostility to outsiders.
My own brief contribution to the argument about whether “The West Still Has What It Takes” is this: There has been a misunderstanding of the term “difficult”, as in “This will be a long, difficult war”.
Many people (including most NYT editorial writers) seem to think this is just a matter of intensity, or endurance. Like Paul Newman, we just have to eat all 50 eggs and we will have won. Eating those eggs is not easy, I'll admit, but this is the wrong view. “Difficult” also means making hard choices, and then living with the consequences, at the same time as enduring the intensity of the struggle. The missing dimension of 'difficult' is a bit like the situation Joe Buck faces in Midnight Cowboy. Jon Voight has to put up with the shame of his mistakes, the bitter cold, and the annoying Dustin Hoffman. It's not just about endurance.
Andre S
Johannesburg, South Africa
MY SPEED READ RECORD
I've been a fan for a while. Friday on the way home from work I picked up "America Alone." I finished it Sunday morning, which is an all-time speed record for me. Last night I purchased copies through Amazon and had them shipped to my parents, who live in different cities. I've been trying to convince my non-political junkie wife to read it as well.
I don't think I'm overstating it in saying that it is one of the most important books of our time. Thank you.
Michael Chamberlain
Las Vegas , Nevada
TOO TRUE
Mark Steyn you rule! You should have your own TV show like Glenn beck or O'Reilly!
Keep your books coming! I live in Europe and loved your "America Alone". Very accurate. Very funny. Very tragic.
Henrik Larsson
AB FAB
Subject: Just finished your book...Fabulous. Thank you for putting your ideas in print!
Great book! Your book was given to me by my 73 year old father-in-law. He is an avid reader of you from your Chicago Sun-Times column. My wife and I are Chicago born and raised...now live in Atlanta . I loved the book!
Michael E Schaefer
Roswell, Georgia
THE POLISH PRESIDENT AND PROCREATION
I don't know if you heard about the furor in Dublin this week over comments made by the Polish President that "widespread promotion of homosexuality would lead to the disappearance of the human race". You touched a similar vein in AA (excellent book, I gave a half dozen copies for XMAS) that homosexual liaisons, while pleasurable to the individuals involved, don't result in procreation, therefore, the society will suffer demographically the more prevalent the level of same sex activity. For making this point, the Polish President Lech Kaczynski was excoriated by the usual suspects: gay rights groups, politicians, et al; his more serious offense underlying the criticism is that he is a Eurosceptic and distrustful of anyone outside of America (sounds like your kind of guy!)
Enjoy your work very much: "4 Jills and a Jeep", "Bleating Hearts" (the sheep column} and "Not Exactly a Malthusian Crowd" articles stand out in my mind in particular.
Marty Scanlon
Alexandria , Virginia
STALIN BANNED ABORTIONS
It probably does not matter in the context of the discourse, but it should be noted that your example regarding abortions in Russia is not quite accurate. Abortions were banned in the Soviet Union from 1936 till 1955; any attempt to limit or ban abortions there would inevitably be associated with yet another sign of return to Stalin’s policies.
LL
Re: Living the pacifist dream
NPR NIRVANA
Hi Mark – With regard to your piece on “Keeping Calm, Living the pacifist dream,” I wondered if you knew of any links to any of the NPR shows that you were on, so we could hear these wonderful, kind peaceful Eloi, I mean, NPR folks talking to you. It might be good for a laugh, along the “ethnomusicologist” line.
But, then again, maybe “Conan the Barbarian” is on TV, and I could hear him talking about “crush(ing) your enemies, see(ing) them driven before you, and hear(ing) the lamentations of their women.”
Oh well! Thanks!
Mike H
Irvine , California
Re: Come fly our friendly skies – or else
PLANE STUPID
As a retired fighter pilot and retired airline Captain I could never figure this aircraft out! Boarding and disembarking from one of these things would be torture. The poor schlubs in coach would have to watch a movie while first and business class unloaded. I bet it would take at least one to two hours to unload! Then wait for another three to four hours for your bag! Insane. This was conceived by the descendents of the Maginot line architects. I certainly wouldn’t ride on the thing for those reasons alone. Then you have runway capacity. The only city fathers dumb enough to buy into this idiocy and build a runway for it are the nutsos in L.A. That tells you something. The only other runway big enough for it is the old runway in Salina , Kansas used for B-36s and B-58s! I’m sure that will be a tourist Mecca when it starts flying!
George Hawks
Southlake, Texas
AMERICA STOOD BACK
Standin' In The Corner...watchin' all those A-380s fly by.
Funny, America is often rapped for its supposed pathological NEED to be the biggest...the fastest, in everything they undertake (Amer-ego??). Yet, America did not even enter the race for the FIRST supersonic transport plane a few decades ago....so the Anglo-French egos won by default with the Concord - the most UN-GREEN transportation concept EVER.
And how 'bout Frances Oldham Kelsey who, back in 1962, and although she'd been at the FDA for only a month, put a hold on the Euro-developed "morning sickness" drug, Thalidomide. Wow!
Americans ain't perfect....but there ain't nobody smarter (or more noble).
John Gross
Beloeil, Quebec
$15 BILLION AND COUNTING
Be grateful. Airbus is basically an American conspiracy to get all that Marshall Plan money back from Europe in the form of the cheaper airfares that result from subsidized aircraft. Boeing spent the last five years building the next generation of jets, with composites, digital tech and RFID parts. Airbus spent $15 billion reinventing the 747, 40 years later. A little pity, please.
Chiz,
Henry Canaday
SHELLFISH BEHAVIOR
First off, I got America Alone for Christmas and absolutely loved it. Finding it, however, was a challenge for my wife as it was buried deep within the bowels of our Borders Books here in “True Blue” Rhode Island .
As for the Airbus A380, The Scotsman had a wonderful little story on it a couple of years ago on how the EU was trying to shake down Thailand (right after the tsunami, mind you) with threats of shellfish tariffs if they didn’t buy. Nice fellows, don’t you think?
Jason Case
Cranston , Rhode Island
FIRST PAST THE POST
Come Fly Our Friendly Skies -- or Else: That may be my favorite post ever in The Corner, and I have been a loyal reader since the beginning.
Dan
FUNNY GUY
Thanks for your piece on the A380. I am always amazed how you generate one great humorous line after another. "Child brides"....."Evacuations"..... That is so caustic, and so funny.
Steve Zerbst
Bellevue , Washington
Re: The Lion sleeps tonight
NASTY STINK OVER POOH
I really enjoyed your piece on The Lion Sleeps Tonight. It was much more info rmative than the NY Times piece (from last year I think, though maybe it was 2005) on the same subject.
Just one point: I'm no lawyer, but a recent decision (of the federal district court in LA) might contradict your point about British copyright law and the claims by Solomon Linda's heirs.
Briefly: In the 1930's, A A Milne, sold all rights to Winnie-the-Pooh to American literary agent Stephen Slesinger. In the 1960's Slesinger's estate entered into an exclusive licensing arrangement with Disney. At some point the Slesinger heirs discovered that Disney had failed to pay royalties on a significant amount of Pooh merchandise.
In the early 1990's the Slesinger estate sued Disney. The litigation has continued ever since - with some fairly dramatic developments: Disney shredding sales records; the Slesingers investigator finding “smoking gun” documents in a dumpster; the Slesinger's winning their case, then seeing that decision overturned because of the “criminal” manner in which the documents were obtained, etc.
Anyway, Disney's latest attempt to cut out the Slesingers was to sponsor a lawsuit by the granddaughters of A.A. Milne seeking to revoke the Slesinger rights by invoking the British copyright law you cite. (Disney had long ago covered itself from claims by the Milne heirs by reaching a separate agreement with Christopher Robin Milne). However, the LA district court rejected these arguments and in the process terminated any further claims by the Milne family.
So who knows? If Disney had fought the Lion case they might have won. [Actually the whole Winnie-the-Pooh legal saga would be a great topic for an article]
Mark Lake
Redding , Connecticut
MONK'S HOOD
US could take or leave the song, but your column was an absolute gem. I'm eagerly awaiting the collection that you'll someday publish.
Your passing reference to TOO CLOSE FOR COMFORT reminded me that pianist Herbie Nichols covered the song wonderfully in his final album. You owe it to yourself to hear it. It reminds me of Thelonious Monk's cover of APRIL IN PARIS or Ahmad Jamal's cover of PAVANNE in that you know the song, but it has just become something else.
Nichols was a product of the Harlem jazz scene and had a modest recording career in the 50's, beginning when he and Monk each recorded a handful of songs for a joint album and ending with his final album for Bethlehem (the delightfully named LOVE GLOOM CASH LOVE). Bracketed
between those two efforts were three albums that Nichols recorded for Alfred Lion of Blue Note, who was seeking the next Monk in Nichols. The problem with the Blue Note relationship, however, was that the pressure to record caused the quality of Nichols's output to deteriorate from album-to-album. He was fortunate that Bethlehem considered the totality of his work and gave him a last chance, and we are fortunate that this last chance gave us his cover of TOO CLOSE FOR COMFORT.
Nichols was a musician's musician; he played with everyone and his meager recorded output attracted such sidemen as Shadow Wilson, Art Blakey, Max Roach, and George Duvivier. If he is famous for anything today, it is for having provided Billie Holiday made famous his LADY SINGS THE BLUES. As an amateur who knows enough to be dangerous, I'd go out on a limb and say that Nichols's ten best recorded efforts are as enjoyable as Monk's ten best. If you have your assistant send me the number of your PO Box, I'd be pleased to send you a CD compilation that
I made for my jazz-loving daughter from his five albums.
Mark M Feldman
Re: Cry God for Harry , England and St George!
I APPLAUD HIS DECISION
I am a former US Army infantryman, paratrooper and combat veteran. More significantly, I am currently the father of an active duty US Army infantryman, paratrooper and combat hardened Ranger. In the years since leaving military service I have had the good fortune to become, well,
financially secure. As such, my son had many choices in life that did not include kicking in the doors of safe houses in Falluja and dragging jihadis from their holes. Nevertheless, he enlisted in the US Army and volunteered for Ranger training just as the first soldiers were crossing the berm between Kuwait and Iraq . He has served over a year in Iraq and six months in Afghanistan . He intends to complete his tour of duty, attend college and pursue a civilian career. He is a perfect example of the Founders image of a citizen soldier. He makes his father proud.
Prince Harry the Spare would also like to serve in combat and I applaud his decision. I have to believe that the concept of citizen soldier holds some appeal among the blue-bloods of England and, as you point out, Harry's life is certainly no more precious than the life of my son. Having said that, I suppose his presence in Iraq will result in every ambitious bomb maker and shahid-wannabe in Mesopotamia making plans to hit a grand slam and take the prince out with a bang. No doubt the Brits have already considered this and will task some unfortunate company or
battalion with Prince-Harry-guard-duty. If this be the case, Harry's presence can hardly be considered a net gain for the combat effectiveness of the British Army in Iraq .
Or have I misread the situation?
Rob Smith
Ely , Iowa
PRINCE AGAINST PRINCE
Kudos on your takedown of the "Please Harry, Don't Go" crowd.
Regarding your use of the "heir and spare" phrase as shorthand for the current dynastic situation, there's an excellent sci-fi take on what would happen if a nation took this attitude to its logical extreme: a world in which excess princes and princesses are known as "wastlings" and are forced to fight and die to avoid a dynastic struggle. You'll find it in Kathy Tyers' Firebird , first of the Firebird Trilogy.
Also, thanks for reminding us of the glories of Broadway Past with your Broadway Babies Say Goodnight!
Keep up the good work, worldwide!
Mark Edward Soper
www.markesoper.com
PARASITE ON PARADE
It has less to do with risking vituperation from the "anti-war" crowd than a sentiment expressed by many Americans of the general worthlessness of the nobility who literally exist only by virtue of feeding off the public trough. What do the people of England who support these parasites feel about the Royals?
Fred Kaiser
THE BLOOD OF HIS FATHER
Prince Harry must have the blood of his father, the former Royal Marine Major, pumping through his veins. Seriously, if anyone thinks this lad won't have his own fricking line of defense between him and the enemy, they are nuts. I am glad that the lad is willing to do something. It is about time someone from that family show some leadership.
Patrick J Griffin
GO HARRY!
While I still think young Harry favors Di's ex riding instructor than he favors Charles, I applaud him for demanding a combat role while he is a serving officer and his country is at war. 2LT Wales looks like an aggressive young officer who wants to kick ass and take names. Good for him. OT, America Alone is a masterpiece. Thanks on behalf of Conservatives everywhere.
Michael W Hamilton
FOR HOME, HEARTH AND GRANDMOTHER
Regarding your most recent post on the Corner, I agree that Prince Harry should be lauded for his devotion to his men and his mission. I write only to point out that Harry's devotion to his duty is doubly-understandable. While young Lieut. Wales's men as "soldiers of the Queen" are surely motivated by the once-universal and still-noble drive of defense of home, hearth, and history embodied by Her Majesty, Harry himself when marching under that banner is fighting not in defense of the Queen as symbol of the Kingdom, but to protect and further his grandmother's honor. I am sure that his uncle felt the same way, if not more so, while flying combat missions against the Argentine junta.
Leif Olson
Re: The Old Devil
INSTANTANEOUS AGEING BY ALCOHOL
I was struck by the passage in your piece on his instantaneous aging, viz:
“I read The Life in the British edition, which has Amis as a young man in profile on the cover—svelte, crinkly-haired . . Luxuriously upholstered. Turn the page and there in the endpapers is old Kingsley—the tweedy buffer with feet up surrounded by mounds of books and nothing but. There seems to be no intervening stage. In a volume with many illustrations, he goes in nothing flat from a dapper, sveltish man about town to a portly rheumy old soak.”
I have always been struck by the same phenomenon re: Frank Sinatra – where is the point of transformation in the sixties from the super-slim Rat-Packing Frank beaming with the Kennedys and the Lawfords, to the chubby hubby of Mia Farrow? It just is not there. Did Amis and Sinatra ever meet each other? Taking the instantaneous aging phenomenon along with other things they held in common – a tranformation from 50s communist to Thatcher/Reagan admiring 80s Conservative, a propensity for booze (whisky over wine in both cases), a love of the era’s popular music, a cavalier (i e brutally promiscuous) attitude to women lapsing into resigned impotency in later life – well, one could hardly say that the world missed what could have been a ‘beautiful friendship’ but the Amis-Sinatra correspondence would surely have trumped the Amis-Larkin letters as bedside reading.
Guy Reid-Brown
Kent , England
Re: Blair is right on troops
DEMOCRACY DEFICIT DOWN UNDER
You may feel that John Howard is a reliable ally of sorts, perhaps a man of steel. The majority (64 percent) of his constituents feel that he is wrong, and want Australian troops withdrawn from Iraq without delay.
If you can cope with the double-speak of promoting democracy by defying it you have a skill that the people John “represents” do not.
I think perhaps that you do not have it, and see clearly the crime, the criminals and the unfortunate victims, although you failed again to mention them.
Stephen Wallace
Ps. Kindly stop insulting the French lest they begin to insult you.
KEEP UP THE FROG BASHING
Thanks for keeping a flicker of frog-bashing alive. The other day at The Corner Jonah was going on about how he's given it up because it's clichéd, boring, and turning into catch-phrasey shtick. Well yeah, he's right: the jokes are past their use by date. But in the real world French back-stabbing has the opposite strength: the longer it goes on, the more infuriating it is. It's not genetic either; it's a deliberate choice endorsed by a majority of the residents. Next door to Texas , Louisiana is infested with Cajuns many of whom still speak English as a second language. You won't find a more dependable, loyal, tough, and fun-loving bunch. And while the Quebecers can be irritating at times, they are infinitely more desirable than their cousins back on the continent. It's good to be reminded from time to time about the myth of French friendship.
Steve Slick
Texas
Re: Julius Caesar Coolidge
HUN IN THE SUN
I see one of the hypersensitive crowd took exception to the word Julius Caesar.
"committed to small government? are you mad? caesar destroyed the roman republic and founded the roman empire, the progenitor of the modern totalitarian state. think darth vader in a toga."
Well. My Plutarch is a mite rusty, but I seem to recall some "variant views" on who and which groups destroyed the Roman Empire . Actually, if you read Gibbon, you'll be proud to note that it was we Theocrat Christian Storm Troopers that weakened and disembowelled Rome .
(Please hold the applause)
Anyway, it’s an Inconvenient Truth that Caesar not only didn't single handedly destroy Rome (it was quite a ways along by then) nor did he cause Global Warming. I think your correspondent has recently escaped Planet Gore and is having trouble adjusting to the barometric pressure.
The Raving Papist
CONSERVATIVES OF YORE
A good conservative might prefer to honor the memory of Lucius Cornelius Sulla rather than that of Julius Caesar. Both, of course, were dictators, but Sulla was a conservative reformer, who resigned his dictatorship when he had finished his work. He calmed the great civil strife that preceded his dictatorship, and thus preserved the Republic until Caesar's time. Caesar,
on the other hand, was a populist usurper, whose example set the pattern followed by Buonaparte and countless Latin American caudillos.
A better exemplar of conservatism than either Caesar or Sulla is Xenophon, who in his "Hippike" (De re equestri) argued that any nation that would be successful at war should have a governing class that loved field sports. The British proved the truth of this observation for several centuries, but, alas, their present decline is well marked by the recent ban on fox-hunting. Xenophon would not have been surprised. In chapter 13 of the "Cynegeticus," Xenophon criticised the sophists (the academics of his day) in terms that would not be unfamiliar to NRO's Phi Beta Cons. He was a man of personal courage, military skill, a patriot, pious to the gods, and a lucid and
sensible writer.
For my part, I prefer Xenophon Cleveland to Julius Caesar Coolidge.
Mike Swisher
FELLOW COOLIDGE FAN
This is probably coals to Newcastle, but there's an excellent short essay of praise for Coolidge in one of Paul John son's books - "Modern Times," or his history of the US - I can't remember which just now. John son praises him for all of the reasons you would expect and appreciate.
Rob Ripperger
CALIFORNIA HERE WE COME
Gov. retirement at age 56? That's nothing.
In Orange County, CA firefighters and other "public safety" workers can retire at age 50 at 100% of salary.
.. and then there is San Diego ..
Greg Ransom
STATELY PENSION PLANS
Mark, Really enjoy your work. The subject of the post is fascinating. First, there is the disparity of increasingly generous pensions for government workers in defined-benefit plans compared to the transition to defined-contribution plans in private firms wherein risk is borne by the employee. Second, government pensions appear to be off-limits when discussing government ability to pay pensions (and many/most government workers are exempt from social security taxes), whereas anyone with two quarters to rub together in the private sector will be lucky to see any social security from the government. I don't see how the public will tolerate this once the government starts actually cutting promised social security benefits.
Ken Seaver
SPARE ME THE WHINERS
When I was out of work several years ago (early 2001, after separating from the Air Force), I saw a sob story on the news in the Seattle area. It was about a man who had suffered because the tech bubble burst. He had retired at 45 (IIRC) from Microsoft, and was having to go back to work because his investments (I'm assuming a 401k) had tanked - every last dollar had been in Microsoft stock.
Of course, I had little enough sympathy as it was - living on unemployment, with my two "sure thing" jobs surely gone, not a terrible amount younger than the poor sap. But, he had invested everything in one stock (no mutual funds for this brilliant guy!), which was also his old employer (so, the company would be unlikely to take him back if he needed it because it would be suffering if the stocks tanked), which he didn't convert to a steadier income stream (like bonds) when he retired; his wife didn't go to work when he retired, because she still wanted to take care of the two elementary school aged kids, and he probably took a penalty when he converted his retirement funds at such an early age, to boot!
I am of the firm belief that I will never be able to retire. We live on one income because we have made the decision to home school our son, and I can never seem to put as much in my 401k as I would like. We can't save up money to buy a new car because the old car keeps sucking it out of our wallet, and I have to choose to fix the furnace or the water heater in the near future (both would be too much). I can't even afford to take my vacation time. All that said, you won't find me whining about my lack of pension (I couldn't make 20 in the Air Force), or wailing about "How will I live?!", or anything else of that sort. You also won't find me clamoring to protect Social Security - give me some of my money back, dump me from the system, and stop taxing me for it is my position. My monthly mortgage payment (fixed interest rate) has gone up a couple of hundred dollars in the last five years as my taxes keep going up - and, of course, I don't even use the public schools....
God has blessed me and mine with living in the greatest country on Earth in these times, and I just want the whiners to go away and leave me alone. Sartre was right - Hell is other people, at least if they're sucking on the public teat.
Gerald W Brown
THE LAMEST OF ALL SUPERVILLAINS
Any reference to Captain Boomerang is a great way to start the morning! As lame villains go, he was truly one of the lamest, and therefore, the most fun. However, if you get the chance, read Identity Crisis, the graphic novel which kicked off the major restructuring of the DC universe these past few years. Writer Brad Meltzer wrote a story that actually made me care about this lamest of all supervillians.
Joe Huenke
TRASHED ANY GOOD MOVIES RECENTLY?
Love your stuff, both media and political (which is why the Night Owl session at the NR conference was so great - still waiting for them to post the video).
Anyway, I have noticed for some time that you seem to dislike most of the movies that you review. I'd imagine that conservative magazines and the like most typically assign the more (overrated) liberal films to be reviewed (and that they are often near-total krep), but I was
wondering if you could perhaps offer a few pics from recent history that you found enjoyable. In particular, I noticed your comment that "That's why the Oscars are important: they can shine a light on undeservedly neglected art-house jewels that might otherwise get overlooked."--any particularly good ones this year?
Tom Abella
Short Hills , New Jersey
WHERE’S STEYN WHEN YOU NEED HIM?
Dear Mark, I switched on this morning to my daily “Steynofix” and it suddenly struck me. Topping the list most days is your latest appearance date and place and I got to thinking.... why does he never appear here? In fact, why do we never hear a voice raised in defiance of the Islamic threat on our teles and radios? Where are the Steyns, the Spencers and Wynns? American radio and tele appear to ship them in at the drop of a hat, whereas we never see a one opponent. What's your angle on it?
Art Walton
Manchester , England
LAST WORD
I know you are tired of all of these compliments. Nevertheless, here goes: my compliments, sir.
John , in Jacksonville
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