|
Thank you for your kind (and unkind) letters from the Canada, America, Spain, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland. Mark reads all the letters, but especially enjoys the vicious ones. Drop a line to Mark's Mailbox and if you're chosen to be the one and only Letter of the Week you'll join our roll of winners from four Continents and receive a copy of Mark Steyn From Head To Toe. It would help if you could indicate your city or town, or, at least, your state, province or country. Failing that, your continent or hemisphere would do. For letters on The Rush Wars, see Mailbox Extra.
Letter of the Week
WHO’S THAT MAN?
Who's the guy with the cigar on the billboard about Obama?
Mike Welch
Re: Don’t read all about it! and I am ye neocon
CHARACTER ASSASSINATION
When I read
"plumb the depths of dishonor and indecency and include character assassination, selective misquotation, the willful distortion of the record, the fabrication of falsehoods, and an utter disregard for the truth"
I thought that the email was from Sarah Palin's hacked mailbox. But no. Sarah has more class.
Steve O'Brien
Portsmouth, New Hampshire
SERVANT OF THE SAUDIS
“There was ever any question of his impartiality”. Of course there was, and is, but not the one they wish to have discussed.
The question is: "Will he continue as the paid servant of Saudi Arabia, or will he merely advance their interests to the detriment of ours?"
Victory
COVER UP
As I say to acquaintances (frequently), I'm old enough to remember when the media covered the news rather than covered up the news.
Donald E. Burton
Dayton, Ohio
ZIP
Before I go forward may I grovel and say I enjoy your writing immensely and especially enjoyed my purchase of "America Alone".
That being said, please add my daily screed, the Baltimore Sun, to your list of newspapers that have no, zero, zippo stories about Mr. Freeman altogether.
Fortunately for myself, as a loyal NRO reader, I have been aware of Mr. Freeman's issues (shall we say) almost from the time he was nominated. WSJ also provided exemplary coverage of this story.
Paul N. Jackson
Baltimore, Maryland
PATRICK’S DAY
Why not quit messing around and just appoint Pat Buchanan?
Darryl Boyd
Re: How now kowtow
BEANS, BEANS
There they go again, those liberals and their unintended consequences. First, it was CFL's using less energy but also producing less heat. Now they want to put a flatulence tax on cows. That will just make the price of beef go up, so that people will have to seek vegetarian sources of protein. Like rice and... beans...
Cliff
SMACKING DOWN THE NINNIES
As a devoted listener to Hugh Hewitt (I am almost a DiMaggiati) and other prominent and obscure (like Rush) AM shock-jocks, I have appreciated your insights and humor as both guest and host.
This inflated concern over bovine flatulence begs the question: "Are all farts created equal or are some more equal than others?" When will the Angus and Brahman pick up their cow licks and stampede the Bastille?
Keep up the great work. Be bold and courageous, knowing that millions of free people - Yanks and Canucks, alike - are on your side. We are sick and tired of the PC-BS we've endured for 30+ years and rally around a well-reasoned, humor-laced smack-down of the liberal ninnies.
Dr. Dan Ulseth
Sacramento
DON’T COW-N’T ON IT
I love your work.
Would the EU call this "crap and trade" or simply a new "gas tax"? Thank you for what you do.
Andrew Molnar
Hopkins, Minnesota
WHAT’S HIS BEEF?
Even by your sloppy standards, an unacceptable error is apparent in your latest Corner post. You wrote:
"I asked White House press secretary Robert Gibbs if the Obama Administration was also considering taxing cows, but he said only those cows earning over $250,000 a year. The Cow Jones fell 700 points on the news."
...when you clearly meant to write "...fell 700 points on the "mooos". ...
….crickets……..
No need to call security. I'll show myself out.
Michael Gleeson
OH VEAL
Don't tax their flatulence, simply fit the cows with cattle-lytic converters....
Sank you, I'll be here all the veek. Try the veal....
J G Petruna
Re: Mental arithmetic
THE WAGES OF SIN
Wow...psychiatrists have discovered sin is harmful to your health. Obviously we must outlaw anything which causes: Envy, Lust, Greed, Gluttony, Sloth, or Pride. They better not publish anymore, because their articles apparently cause Wrath.
Richard
PERFECT IN PYONGYANG
Regarding that "Inequality Is Bad For Your Health" report: I think the report writers should immediately get on a plane to Pyongyang or Havana to survey the mental health of the lucky denizens of those fair (and uniformly equal) nations. Maybe they could even visit their mental hospitals and prisons and inquire why, amidst all the equality, there is any mental illness left there.
A NRO Reader
OBAMANIA
The Guardian report you cited is correct! I can conclusively prove at least 52% of the American electorate is, to some degree, mentally ill!
Tim Thrush
Concord, North Carolina
MADNESS IN THEIR METHOD
So countries that are wealthy enough to afford psychiatric services report more mental illness than poorer countries with less access to mental health services?
Good heavens! Next, they'll determine that hospitals are bad for you as evidenced by the undeniable link between hospitals and sick people!
Seriously, I ASSUME the study tried to correct for the effect of richer nations having more psychiatric patients precisely BECAUSE THEIR CITIZENS COULD AFFORD TO BE psychiatric patients, but I've been wrong in the past to make such assumptions.
I don't know the study's methodology, but the investigators seemed to look at "rich" and see "inequality"; Look at "poor" and see "equality". Isn't it possible that the relevant characteristics were actually "rich" vs "poor"?
Love your work!
Steve
MONEY MAKES YOU SICK
Another brilliant stab by the left to make capitalism a sign and source of mental illness. Of course they mean envy is a source of stress. I somehow doubt that Bill Gates was suffering from "inequality stress." To your point about the Dow, the hundreds of thousands I lost haven't soothed my stress levels.
Mike Coe
Re: A Hoffa you can’t refuse
TOWN MEETING MANNERS
Your comments on Jimmy "the Constitution" Hoffa were appreciated and hilarious. One thought I had, however, on his invocation of the New England town hall meeting: At most town hall meetings, the debate is between fellow citizens and neighbors, free from the intimidation of strangers promising the moon, giving bribes for support of their ideas, and creating a "your-either-for-us-or-against-us" atmosphere. Having a spirited and honest debate between friends and fellow denizens of a village is one thing, but trying to talk honestly when some of those friends have made other friends who have no real interest in the town itself, but have an interest in getting dues from you so that they can (supposedly) represent your interests at future town hall meetings. Well, that's another thing.
Steve Blakemore
ONE-PARTY STATE
Hoffa: “Elections in the Soviet Union were by secret ballot, but those weren't democratic.”
When only one party is on the ticket it don't matter if you have a secret ballot.
Charles Neely
Carrollton
TEAMSTER TYPES
"This business about the Employee Free Choice Act taking away the secret ballot is nonsense spread by front groups for corporate fat cats who don't want to give up their $16,000 wastebaskets," Hoffa said.
"Since when is the secret ballot a basic tenet of democracy?" Hoffa said. "Town meetings in New England are as democratic as they come, and they don't use the secret ballot. Elections in the Soviet Union were by secret ballot, but those weren't democratic."
"The day Jimmy Hoffa shows up at my Town Meeting is the day we move to paper ballots."
Well, no wonder that Hoffa mentioned Town Meetings - you can certainly see how ECFA will work just by participating in one. Ever wait until 1am for when the Special Interest Mob has decided to Out Last / Out Wit / Out Play the normal people that have jobs and kids to take care of to leave?
NH's version of ECFA.
Me? I suggest moving to SB2 for ALL warrants. Maybe wouldn't hurt for unions too....
Skip Murphy
Gilford, New Hampshire
www.GraniteGrok.com
IN MASSACHUSETTS, MAYBE
Just read your blurb about Hoffa-
Mr. Hoffa is right about the openness of New England town meetings. However, he did leave out the parallel fact that just about every Town Meeting in New England is preceded, in the case of Concord, MA, or followed, in the case of my town Carlisle, MA, by a Town election/ballot - which is secret.
This secret ballot is used by citizens to vote for the usual liberals running for town elected offices - confirming, or not, spending any new override funds approved at a Town meeting -voting for the issuance of new bonds etc.
Yes, it's lonely being a conservative in Massachusetts, but we toil on.
Tony Allison
Carlisle, Massachusetts
Re: The Madrid Bombings, five years on
MONSTROUS MEMORIAL
Yesterday you wrote about the anniversary of the Madrid Bombings, and the guy who requested it is presumably living in Barcelona, so am I, although, like him, I'm not a local.
My father suggested me this article appeared on the newspaper ABC (we both learned Spanish for fun, well, I guess he learned it ‘cos his son lives in Spain):
You MUST take a look at the article, it's about the UNSPEAKABLE monstrosity the Socialist Nomenklatura pushed down the throat of the "Madrileños" to commemorate the bombings.
In the middle of the interview that you can watch on the page, there is a guy with a baseball hat who apparently has some witty things to say about it, at the beginning, like others he's shy to say what he thinks but a few seconds later he admits that it's like a big dull grey garbage can!
I guess this says it all about Zapatero and what his administration thinks about those victims!
Marco Dal Moro
Barcelona, Spain
Re: The Girly Man Governor
STICK UP FOR FISCAL CONSERVATIVES
The fact that Arnold Schwarzenegger and George Pataki were political opportunists who didn't turn out to stand for much of anything hardly proves that it isn't possible to be both socially liberal and fiscally conservative. I'm not sure why it has suddenly become fashionable for you and a number of other "conservative" pundits (Rich Lowry, the Weekly Standard, etc) to question the intellectual integrity of the large number of voters who do hold conservative views concerning the appropriate size and scope of the government yet tend to be liberal and/or libertarian with respect to social issues. Is It not possible to be in favor of, say, gay marriage and limited government? Have you identified some sort of genetic link that prevents a person from honestly opposing pork unless he is a Southern redneck dick?
Karen Shapiro
CUT OUT THE MIDDLEMAN
I was planning to let my subscription to National Review lapse until I just read your Happy Warrior column about the Governor of Collyvornya. Absolutely hilarious and right on the mark.
Can I just send the $60 to you and you email me your Happy Warrior column every 2
weeks?
Bryan Rose
Lutherville, Maryland
WISH WE STILL HAD WELD
I wish you hadn't grouped Willian Weld in with some of the other, ineffective governors. As a resident of Massachusetts, I thought he was actually quite effective, considering what any governor of Massachusetts is up against--particularly a Republican.
Weld was quite wise when summing up the opposition. He didn't waste energy trying to force through legislation when it was clear the opposition was overwhelming. He acknowledged that he didn't have the votes, and moved on to other issues.
When liberal groups proposed new government spending on a pet project, he had a little technique he used on them: he would say "you tell me that your proposed program will accomplish "x" [change the world, help the poor, etc]. Suppose we fund the program, for only one year, at 10% of what you're asking. A pilot program. If you can show real results at the end of a year, then we'll discuss larger and more permanent funding." Since most of the programs were failures, in this way, he managed to put kill many well-intentioned, poorly conceived liberal projects.
Weld was so successful as the Republican governor of an overwhelmingly Democratic, liberal state, that voters approved two more Republican governors. Mass voters saw an "R" governor as a useful check on the "D" legislature.
Unfortunately, Weld's pick for his successor was weak and ineffective (Paul Celluci) and Celluci's pick for his successor was even weaker. We now have a typical, wishy-washy, Democratic governor.
Weld's two failures were picking a weak successor, and frankly, getting bored with the job after succeeding at it fairly well. He has a bunch of daughters, all of whom he wants to send to good, expensive colleges. So he moved to NYC, to make serious money, and a do a crash program of college fund savings.
I, and many Mass residents, wish he was still our governor. Not many Caliifornians would say that about Schwarzenegger.
“aranov”
Re: Rive Gauche
ROBBIN' HOOD
First off, big fan of America Alone and I am a regular/obsessive reader of your columns! I am a college student in smalltown Iowa and I've been noticing this kind of "we didn't expect this from Obama..." talk coming from the so-called moderates on campus. I, of course, then point out exactly what your post on the Corner says but I am promptly ignored. After all, I'm just the crazy Republican on campus. What do I know? I could chalk it up to ignorant college students and move on, but really it is harming of our country. I was at brunch today with my parents at a small family owned restaurant in town and the our server happens to also be the owner. She told us that she recently found out her taxes for her business were being doubled. All the idiots on my campus run around talking about raising taxes on the evil rich people but none of them realize that this woman is hardly rich. She and her family work hard, provide good food at a reasonable price. How dare they! What greed! For those of us who live in the real world, the Robin Hood fantasy is growing more and more stale as the days go on (which is really too bad since Robin Hood is one of my favorite Disney movies!).
Thanks for always using a little humor in your columns and posts to make the infintessimaly dreariness of our current state a little more bearable!
Rebecca Zierke
WHAT’S OBAMA’S EXCUSE?
In assigning motives to Obama everyone seems to assume that he is a well intentioned guy on the left, who is a little misguided in his core beliefs, and possibly educable. I didn’t attend an Ivy League school, but in between running a small business, raising children and caring for a husband who refused to talk politics or economics, I managed to find time to keep current on economic theory. Even people who have never heard of Friedman or Hayek understand supply and demand, (certainly Rush’s listeners do). What’s Obama’s excuse? It’s terrifying: He’s either a little dopey, or he knows exactly what he’s doing.
Melissa Dawdy
A QUESTION OF FAIRNESS
Remember the "controversial" debate during the primaries? The one moderated by Stephanopoulous and Charles Gibson? Gibson pointed out to The One that when you raise the tax rate on capital gains, revenues from the tax go down, and when you lower the rate, revenues go up. Therefore, said CG, doesn't it make sense to lower the rate? (I'm paraphrasing).
Obama replied that "it's not a question of revenue, it's a question of fairness". He doesn't care what happens as long as those nasty people who have capital gains (and similar nasty people) get what's coming to them.
The signs were all around Taylor, C Buckley, and the rest; they just chose not to see them.
Gregory A. Clark
Somers, New York
MY STUDENTS GET IT
I am sorry, but if you listened to Obama during the campaign, none of his actions should be a surprise. He very clearly explained who he was.
I know I am just a humble teacher, but I understood the Marxist principles he espoused. Brooks, Taylor, and Buckley are fools.
On a positive note, my seniors (high school students) are starting to question the wisdom of the president. They fear the tax rate when they get older. While this younger generation is more conservative, socially and economically, even they will admit, they got caught up in the image of Obama. They do not want to be punished for being successful.
Keep up the good fight. I print your columns for my seniors to read. There are more conservative voices teaching in CA than you are led to believe.
Kimberly Weir
California
LIKE GERMANY IN ‘34
It amazes me how anyone could be taken in by Obama's flurry of Potemkin rhetoric during the campaign. How is it that presumably intelligent people could blandly disregard everything he has said and done and everyone he has associated with for the last twenty-five years or more? Are the great masses of people, and apparently a significant portion of the so-called conservative commentariat, really so naive as to believe that a raving leftist suddenly metamorphosed into a bipartisan moderate? It is as though a virulent psychological pathology swept through an immunologically deficient population. If I hadn't actually witnessed the wholesale derangement of millions of people I would never have believed it possible. Is this how sensible Germans felt in 1934?
Jon R Brenneman
SAME OLD, SAME OLD
During the election you guys were screaming that Obama was the most leftist senator in congress. Now you break news that he's "turned left". Ever think of learning a second tune? This one is getting kinda
same-y.
Bill Harpin
MARK REPLIES: If you were to read the piece before firing off reflex emails, you would see that the allegation that the President has "turned left" is not mine but that of Stuart Taylor, who voted for Mr Obama and is a supporter of the Administration, albeit an increasingly alarmed one.
My point is precisely the one you make - that he hasn't "turned" left because he's always been left. Or as I put it:
“What left turn? He's chugging in the same direction he has since he decided to become a "community organizer".
Hope that helps.
CRIME SOFTIES
Since you seem to take a panoramic view of Obama's failings, I thought you might find a random thought of mine to be of interest. Of the many aspects of renascent liberalism that have reappeared since Obama was elected, the libs soft on crime policies have yet to bob up from the deep. I think it is inevitable, given everything else they are doing, that the get-the-root-causes-less-cops-more-jobs-and-education approach will soon come out of the closet with the predictable result of a rise in crime. I just don't see how they will be able to resist their instincts on this, and it will give the Republicans a real opening.
Thus another political lesson may have to be learned the hard way, both by society who elected a liberal as president, and by the Democrats, who will end up being creamed once again on this issue.
Will Pickering
AS GOES AMERICA, SO GOES CANADA
As long as Mr Obama continues to prove to be completely economically inept, any worries over American protectionism are mute. The American economy is the engine that powers the world economy, note that with profits and markets crashing everywhere, the American dollar continues to gain strength as people recognize it is the last bastion of hope. But if Mr Hopey / Changy continues with his current plan (?) to destroy the American economy by taxing and regulating business to death, we will all suffer. Here in BC, our forest industry exports over 80% of their output to the US, and surprise surprise, it is now an industry on its death bed. Leaders in this sector now see no sign of recovery in the US housing market till sometime in 2011!!! in other words, maybe never. And there is little doubt that as the Dow and other US markets continue their downward spiral, Baucus and others of his ilk will grow even more protectionist in their sentiments and actions, further exaggerating the worldwide difficulties. I fear for our future and hope and pray that the current Republican (and some clearly intelligent Democrats) fight like hell to reverse this socialists policy ideas. Continue to enjoy your work Mark, and Its is more important than ever that your voice is heard loud and clear.
Dale Byford
Kamloops, British Columbia
MY SOUL IS HEAVY
Things are getting rosier each week in our new historical year. Birds are chirping their greetings to spring, butterflies are fluttering between blooms, puffy clouds look like unicorns backed by rainbows in the era of Hopenchange. The Dow is falling and all is right with the world:
A well-connected Washington figure, who is close to members of Mr Obama's inner circle, expressed concern that Mr Obama had failed so far to "even fake an interest in foreign policy". Well, isn't this reassuring and comforting to know that all hands are on deck now that the War on Terrorism is over! I am serene in my lotus position. Not.
I have nothing else to say in my current fugue state, and will leave you with a quote by Thomas Paine from his pamphlet of The American Crisis on December 23, 1776:
"These are times that try men's souls."
Amen, brother. My soul is heavy. I am making an attempt to read Thomas Paine's Common Sense and Rights of Man, as unlike the present administration, I think we can learn from history.
Keep fighting, Mark, and may God bless you always. As Thomas Paine also said: "when opinions are free, either in matters of government or religion, truth will finally prevail."
Sign me,
Sybil Ludington
OBAMA BARBIE
This week was the 50th anniversary of Barbie. A decade or so back Mattel got in trouble for releasing a talking version, which originally included "math is hard!" and "let's go shopping!" as part of its repertoire.
We now have a White House where the figure behind the plastic wrap says "governing is hard!" and "let's buy stocks!"
Where do we apply for a refund?
G. Miller
Re: Gordon Blue and
Obamiam Rhapsody
READ THE DAMN BOOK
Mark & Jonah, While I think you guys are great - why the blue hell is wrong with you two? I cannot believe how lazy the right is on deducing this issue. I expect it from some, but not either of you. Sweet Lord Almighty.the answer was in his damn book!
Now, I know I'm not some distinguished author writing for the Post, so I'll let you two argue over who should crib my Google work to distinguish themselves as the Wile E. Coyote of Obama's British diplomacy. No personal offense.
Martin Sarafian
REVENGE
An African blogger thinks it might be revenge related to Kenya:
NJ Steve
JUST SILLY
“He represents a cooler post-western "hybridity."
He's just too narcissistic.”
With all due respect, this is just gossip and psychobabble over a non-story.
There was no humiliation. And the idea that Obama can only have a cartoonish view of Churchill because of his Kenyon roots is silly.
Tomas
BABES
“If you’re into leftie babes”. Who isn't?
Sam
UNSCRIPTED, UNPROMPTED, UNINTELLIGBLE
I'm a little late to the conversation, but has anyone speculated that there was no joint press conference simply due to a reluctance to let Obama out there facing unscripted questions, including those from a foreign press, with no teleprompter,
Gary Frank
NAUSEATING PHOTO-OPS
I agree with your reasons for the dissing of Gordon Brown. I would like to add another factor: Germany. Steienmeier the Sycophant gets a grin like a Cheshire cat whenever he talks about his relationship with Obama. To the extent that he can be seen to bring Obama to the kumbaya course, he improves his chances in this fall's election. Expect some nauseating photo-ops during Obama's Berlin visit at the beginning of April. Steinmeier has really played up the resumption of the NATO-Russian talks that were suspended after the Georgia invasion.
Obama probably sees the special relationship of Steinmeier/Schroeder to the flawless democrat in the Kremlin and the whole concept of a multipolar world as the key to everlasting world peace, to say nothing of their shared interest in halting the rise of the oceans. He won't get too upset about the continuing trade with Iran. Nor will he care about the gloating Steinmeier who visited Iraq to talk about German nvestments there to help rebuild the country ("destroyed by George Bush" is left unsaid). The hopeful TV reporter who mentioned that business leaders might soon be travelling to Bagdad if it was safe enough to do so would not make BO want to puke, as it did me. Of course, German businessmen were not particularly endangered by Saddam's meatgrinders, but they suffered greatly under both the UN sanctions and the violence of the last seven years. What our brilliant sophisticated CiC does not fully realize is that Germany will never risk more than a verbal snub from the bad guys of the world.
As you observe the downgrading of the traditional special relationship, cast an eye a bit to the southeast of the Channel and watch who is getting BO's attention. I don't think you'll see Poland or Estonia. They are definitely in the Ten Best American Movies DVD gift category.
BTW, I live in Germany.
Vickie Koogle
Germany
CHINA SYNDROME
I am surprised that Obama did not give them all Commemorative Inauguration Plates...
Larry Frederickson
STUFF
This incident reminded me of one of my favorite old Saturday Night Live sketches, from 1987. The skit starred Victoria Jackson and Paul Simon trapped on a desert island. She gives him amazing handmade gifts (a watch and telescope) that took months to make, while he gave here stuff he found on the beach. Transcript here.
Eerily similar, no?
Zachary J. Foreman
Re: The Polytechnique
THE Q WORD
I appreciated your fresh take on the Polytechnique massacre, and agree wholeheartedly with your point. It's difficult not to think of the men on United 93, who took a far more "alien" situation in hand against far greater odds. In defense of Canadian men, however, I must ask why you pulled an obvious punch in refusing to name the specific national group in question. I think it's worth pointing out that it may be a not-so-long hop from chronic restaurant-bill-splitting and rejection of marriage to allowing your womenfolk to be massacred. I write this as a native of Quebec with much affection for its people, but one who has long observed the unfortunate consequences here of a gender-relations pendulum swung too far.
Elizabeth Wasserman
Re: In Defense of Hillary
THE SWEDE SMELL OF SUCCESS
Ever heard of Scandinavia? Perhaps from the other side of the pond, Norway, Sweden and Denmark (unbroken democracy since 1848) looks like Central-European states?
Anders Raahauge
Denmark
VERY VICHY
Only because the Nazis conquered the country and who elected the Vichy government in over the Third Republic?
Eastern and Central Europe had dictatorships imposed on them for the most part by Stalin. Again outside influences, self-determination be damned.
Bill Jempty
ALLTHING GOES
As far as I know, there is only one currently democratically structured nation with a longer run (contiguous with peaceful transitions of power and or governmental structure) than the U.S. That would be Iceland with their very coolly named "Allthing".
Dan Ruch
DeWitt, Michigan
DON’T FORGET THE BRITS
You don’t mess up often, but…
The UK is a European nation, unless they've been cashiered. Britain has been continuously democratic since 1688, and longer.
Steve Hilton
ENDURING
"Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure."
How about 233 years?
JimT
SWISS MISS
How about giving Switzerland a favorable mention when you discuss long-running democracies (republics?) like the US, UK, etc? They are 700+ years old.
Dan McGuire
New Hampshire
FOURTH OLDEST
Just one observation on your above-referenced item on The Corner.
Politically speaking, the United States is the fourth-oldest country in the world ranking right behind Sweden, Denmark and Britain (once Great) and when (no ifs about it) the first three become provinces of Eurabia, we'll be #1 and won't they just hate it.
By the same token, the United States Army is the third-oldest standing army in the world ranking right behind Sweden (all 6,000 of them) and Britain (formerly Great).
Finally, the U.S. dollar is, as of this moment, the oldest currency in the world, but how long that'll last is anyone guess.
E David Litvak
Re: The case against daylight savings time
LET’S PUT THE CLOCKS BACK
In recent years haven't we moved Daylight Savings Time back repeatedly as a stimulus to the economy? Seems that President Obama might want to move it back 45 weeks to make sure he doesn't waste this current crisis? Yeah, back to where it was during the beginning of Ronald Reagan's first term. Oh for the good ol' days...
Keep up your grand work.
Dan Hirsch
Waukegan, Illinois
Flyoverlandia
THE RICH GET TIREDER
I propose that people who make more than $250k a year should lose an hour and those who are on welfare or foodstamps should be given an extra hour. Everyone else stays the same.
Rob Northrup
Re: Song of the Week
REPRISE
Just in Time-one of my favorite songs, and I love the Judy Garland arrangement, which I first heard on her TV show, accompanied by Mort Lindsey on piano. Don't know if he did the arrangement or if Mel Torme did during his brief stint. Anyway, another great SOTW column. Wish you'd reprise some of the early ones.
Sandra J. Damron
Colorado Springs, Colorado
PATRONISING LOVELY BEGGARS
I agree that the song is wonderfully evocative with the neat 1960s continental jet-set references and everything - but I have also always been extremely irritated by the patronising assumption that the narrator makes right through the song every time he sings lines like that - 'Now why exactly would you not want to remain a penniless Neapolitan beggar for the rest of your life?'
Honestly, if you have to ask . . .
Guy Reid-Brown
Kent, England
NOW I KNOW
Where do you go to my lovely by Peter Sarstedt has been a favorite of mine for decades now so your article on this song was of special interest to me.
I am a displaced Montrealer, living in the northern suburbs of Houston in the Great State of Texas. I left Montreal 24 years ago last Christmas when the temperature was 40 below zero. We drove from Montreal to Raleigh, North Carolina in three days and settled down there for several years as I worked in the Research Triangle Park. In 1990, we moved to Houston and settled in the northern suburbs.
As you can probably tell by my name, I am French-Canadian by birth; my mother like to watch something on the French CBC channel called "Le Sacha Show," in the 1960s. So I was familiar with Sacha Distel fairly early in life. Thankfully, the English CBC started carrying "The Monthy Python Show" in 1970, on Wednesday nights, if I remember correctly. Pierre Balmain was quite the hot item in shirts and ties and other such things in Montreal in the early 70s, and I thought they were pretty crappy, but they were very popular, with the Jet Set.
I remember CFQR (93.5FM??) playing that song on Saturday mornings and I enjoyed listening to it. But I forgot about it and as life progressed, I moved on, out and away. Peter Sarstedt is unknown in NC and in TX and I never heard it on radio or anywhere else. That is until 1994 in a small restaurant in Hamburg. Since it was on a CD that the restaurateur was playing on his sound system, probably illegally, I was able to get a copy, which I have since lost somewhere. While I had it, I played it a lot and always wondered who Marie Claire was. About whom was Peter signing was going to remain an unanswered question, until I read your article. And for that I thank you. Now I have to find a CD of that song.
Denys Beauchemin
Spring, Texas
BILLY’S HOMAGE
Okay, it may just be me, but after listening to the original version of the 1969 Peter Sarstedt release, I noticed that the descending chromatic bass-line that leads directly into the chorus sounds a lot like another song that also happens to be a story-song that happens to be in 3/4 time, that has phrasing that exactly mimics, "Where Do You Go..."
What are the odds that the 21-year old Billy Joel would have heard this song in 1970?....or that, after his first failed album, he might have, possibly, needed a hit?
Who's to say? But as a bonus, try singing the verses of "Piano Man" to the music of "Where Do You Go, My Lovely?".....the fit is parfait.
Not Christie Brinkley...Seriously
Toby Marcell
Re: The Dow Jones limbo dance
FIVE YEARS TILL THE NEXT BULL MARKET
From a trader's standpoint, having done it for ~ 15 years and looking largely at technical indicators to be successful, here's how I see it... I have a more short-term time horizon, so I'm more concerned with the next level that is hit rather than the final level. For instance, based on support and resistance levels, I've been telling those who would listen that once we broke 7400, we'd go to 6700. Now, that's happened, and I would say if we close below 6500, the market will likely see the 5800 level, although it may bounce back to 7200-7400 before it gets to 5800. If we break 5400 to the downside, chances are we could see 4000 (as there's hardly any support from 4000 to 5400, it was pretty much a straight rally between those levels from early 1995 to mid-2006), but I'd view that as the worst-case scenario.
I would suggest that we've got until 2014-2015 until we see another real bull market start based upon the roughly 16 year cycles the Dow tends to run in - but, if the Dow should hit 4000, it'd be a good time to build a diversified long-term portfolio. Unless there is a major war or total economic collapse, I can't imagine the market coming 90% off its highs like it did during the Great Depression, but I don't think a 60-70% decline is out of the question.
Great work on NRO and filling in for Rush!
Ben
NO MAGIC FLOOR
With all due respect, there is no magic floor below which the Dow will not sink.
As many have pointed out, the crisis is fundamentally based on an overestimation of value -- the value of certain securities (credit default swaps, etc and their purported collateral) that at one time had an accepted value, the current value of which is unknown. When the government intercedes, it does many things, but importantly, it unfocuses the market on re-establishing what that "value" is. The government's policies add another layer (or five) of contingencies that must be taken into account in establishing a correct value. The more the government gets involved, the more contingencies come into play, the longer it takes the market to determine what the value is.
Until sufficient time has passed after the government has stopped acting to allow the market to re-establish a value, there will be no floor. Because the government is still responding to this situation, that day keeps getting pushed further and further out.
In any event, a DJIA of 5000 is just as illusory a benchmark as 7000 was or 10,000 used to be. Sure, they are round numbers, but only Tony Monk and certain other individuals ever get hung up about round numbers.
Jim Bercaw
New Orleans, Louisiana
OUT OF HIS DEPTH
There is no floor. That is one good lesson to learn from the New Deal. The market will reflect whatever the economic realities are - and there is no limit to how much government can screw things up.
Obama is obviously way out of his depth, and every instinct he has is to do the wrong thing.
FDR had no clue either but he did at least understand there was a crisis and it was to be taken seriously. Obama and his Congressional cohorts don't see it that way: to them it's party time. It is shocking to see how 'unserious' they are about the whole matter.
Obama can't possibly believe that anything he is proposing is going to help the economy; but perhaps the economy doesn't interest him and that's why he punted the stimulus bill to Pelosi.
This is why the markets are plunging, and they won't stop until Obama says OK, guys, I was just kidding, now here's the real plan.
Mark Lake
WHERE NEXT?
I read (and thoroughly enjoyed) America Alone. I am a right of center conservative, entrepreneurial (unfortunately having launched but not succeeded in two service related businesses), 34 years old with my MBA, a wife and 3 young children. I live in the Northeast (Massachusetts of all places!) and am terrified about where the country is heading under Obama. Question is - where to go? I was fortunate enough to sell my home last year and have my equity and nominal savings...if I were to move my family at this juncture, I am seriously wondering where? Australia? (might not sit well with in laws and parents)
I know all of the 'producers' (the well over 250K set) will be leaving the country...but I am not able to go somewhere to retire on interest from savings in a Channel Islands account. In your opinion, where does someone with many good years of work ahead of him go to escape the socialist future of the US?
Feeling uneasy.
Matt Healy
Andover, Massachusetts
Re: Man, he feels like a woman
A RARE LEGIT CASE
I could not agree with you more concerning the Ontario human rights brouhaha and the "transsexual". I use the quotes advisedly, as I am a medically-indicated transsexual who has completed her treatment. Unfortunately, most of the "transsexuals" in the press are not such, they are crossdressers with an agenda.
Good sense tells one that there are things that one does NOT do. I can assure you that I never publicly adverted to my case, nor did I ever try to enlist the government on my side. Today, I don't advert to it either, save to my GP, who has a medical "need to know". As for the rest of you perspiring minds out there... (Mr Steyn, are you thinking of the old Dubliners song, "Bugger Off"... the perfect riposte, nicht wahr?).
You needn't worry... there aren't many of us legit cases out there (my specialist says 1 in 30,000 is a good ballpark figure). As for the freaks, that is simple. If your "lucky charms" are male, honey... you do get the picture.
Have a good one, Mr Steyn, and do pass me the jug... it's on your right, over there... it's my dad's own homebrew cherry brandy... good stuff, and do take a swallow, if you will. Cheers!
In friendship,
Name withheld on request
FORM FOLLOWS FUNCTION
I have a very close friend whose name I cannot share for obvious reasons.
She works in the HR division of a HUGE, international financial institution (yes, she is hurting).
Anyways, years and years ago, there was an employee who was in the process of transgendering. His boss needed a policy decision on whether this transgender person could use the women's room before he had his "final" operation as his physician recommended it to help the transition. After due deliberation, my friend's answer was until the penis comes off, he is physically a man and can not use the women's room.
Since then (and the issue has come up), this rather "practical" policy has been the norm. Form follows function don't you know.
K. Murray
OK TO OFFEND MORMONS?
Mormonophobia! It is rampant in North America. Here's the proof: HBO is running an episode this week that is deeply offensive to Mormons. Where is the media outcry! Where is the thought crime police of the Canadian "human rights" Commission to levy their "hate crime" charges? Where is Babs Hall and Jennifer Lynch-Mob to protect us from this obvious hate being thrust upon us by the evil American imperialists? Where are the radical Mormon clerics calling all Mormons to arms to riot and burn HBO flags? I don't get it - Mormonophobia is running wild and we need sensitivity! We must have
everyone boycott HBO! Salt Lake City will be turned into one giant boiling cauldron of anti-HBO hatred! Just you watch!
Seriously - what the hell. Why do all the left-wing nutters trip over themselves calling for "sensitivity" over some stupid cartoons and yet are silent when some of the most religiously sensitive rituals of the Mormon faith are put on display all for the sake of the ratings of a TV show? I am not a Mormon, but I would be seriously pissed.
Some guy in the Okanagan
MODERATE TALIBAN
At last, our government in the person of President Obama signals a willingness to negotiate with moderate Taliban in Afghanistan.
I expect the State Department is rushing to create a five page definition of "moderate" in this context...
A few ideas, Moderate Taliban:
Use only clean and well sharpened blades for beheadings
Blow up Buddha statuary but allow the faithful to retain the rubble
Refrain from blowing up Christian infidels on Sunday mornings
Require martyrdom cadets to apologize before pushing the button
Michael Lee
Abbotsford, British Columbia
A CONVERSATION ON PROCESS
Please write a wonderful column on “process” - I have just finished watching Gibbs press conference and if he said 'process' once, he must have said the word 40 times...
Nancy Smithson
MINNESOTA DIRTY TRICKS
Just found out my credit card number and personal information is all over the internet because I made a $50 donation to Norm Coleman last summer. Seems like the dirty tricks bureaus of the DNC, in cooperation with Wikileaks, hacked Coleman's fundraising data base. I hope the FBI spends more time on this than on Sheriff Joe. I wasn't informed by Citibank (surprise!), read about it on the internet, checked my account online to find out they already assigned me a different card number and
the new ones are in the mail. Looks like Minnesota is going to have a Senator Al Franken thanks to International identity theft hackers and thugs.
Karen Mango
THE SMOKING GUN
The following link takes you to a very troubling youtube clip captured off CSPAN. In it a 550 billion dollar run on the banks last September is described as the trigger for this whole mess. Why isn't this being
discussed more, and why isn't it being investigated?
Thanks for all you do, Mark, I enjoy your humor and your steadfastness
Chris Appel
Longmont, Colorado
I NEED AN EXTENSION
More hope, change and transparency in the Prez cabinet
Edward Rohrback
STAY ON OUR SIDE
You just keep getting better and better. I feel safer with you on our side. Please, never pull an Andrew Sullivan on us!
Scott Slotterbeck
THE BUS KEEPS TURNING LEFT
To the Honorable Mark Steyn,
Thank God for you and your words, which keep me laughing until I get sent to the desert. Stay safe; there are people in the world who need you. (Like me.)
I read your book, I've kept up with the news, and everything seems pretty much f***ed. In all seriousness, what do we do? America has elected a bus driver who turns left at every opportunity, in a bus that always drifts to the left.
Remember that Lenin line about selling the rope, et cetera? Now, it's more like:
"The west will bail out the rope company and contract the unionized executioner with which we will hang them, while Nancy Pelosi's $30 million dollar monkey throws shit everywhere."
Your demographic wisdom suggests that the west's time is over. I cannot accept that. We need a course of action.
What do we do in the face of all this, sir? What do we do? Make babies and stockpile guns?
LCpl Stephen Wildermuth
(your biggest USMC fan)
LAST WORD
America has nothing to fear but nothingness itself:
NOTHING left of "American exceptionalism".
NOTHING left of the rich and noble 233-year-old Anglo-American alliance.
NOTHING left of the self-reliant meritocracy that blessed America, and
the world, with so much essential and far-reaching innovation ...in
industry, science, medicine, agriculture, and so on.
NOTHING left of the "nation which has a government", with original
ownership soon to be replaced ... in a bloodless role-reversal.
(bloodless indeed!)
NOTHING left ( well, not much anyway) of workers' take-home slice of
their paychecks.
-...take it from there, Mark...I gotta run.
John Gross
Quebec
|
