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Thank you for your kind (and unkind) letters from the Canada, America, Ireland, Britain, and Norway. 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
NORWAY: AMERICA’S FUTURE
Just wanted to let you know that your new article on the Europeanization of America really struck a chord with me. I'm a Canadian, and have been living in Scandinavia for the last 15 years - with plenty of working time spent in London and around Continental Europe. I can pretty much confirm the "facts on the ground" as described
by your good self. Scandinavia, in particular.
As an employee in Norway, I have 7 weeks of paid holiday per year!! Just don't know what to do with all that time... And, get this, if I don't take the time, then I get paid for it at the end of the year. It's so funny, because the Americans and Canadians who work here all take way less than the statutory 7 weeks and get a nice little bonus payment at the end of the calendar year. Whereas all the Europeans who work in the office always take the maximum 7 weeks (plus numerous "sick" days/weeks) and simply cannot understand why anyone would not take the max. There is a huge cultural difference within the office.
One of the reasons why work ends so early over here (besides slothfulness) is because the schools shut down so early - schools usually close between 1:30 and 2:00 pm (they start at 8:30 am). Norway, by the way, was recently ranked second worst education system in (Western) Europe, just above Greece. So, I have transferred my four kids out of the public school and into an "IB" school, just in case they ever actually need an education... i.e. return to North America. Nevertheless, and as you say, this will become a smaller and smaller problem in the coming years, as the schools empty out (the area I live in has closed three schools in the last six years). Norway is barely hanging on in terms of demographics, but will no doubt slip down to German/Swedish/Spanish/Italian levels in due course.
As for pensions, you are bang on target. By way of example, the company I work for has always had a generous pension system, which is based mostly on the state pension, plus a 25% topping up from the company. No need to invest in anything. No 410K's, no mutual funds, etc... The state takes care of everything and you just take your measly pay check each month and try to make it until next pay day. Well, well well, suddenly this January the company calls us all in for a meeting and says that
from January 2009 all new employees will not receive this comfy little deal, called a "Defined Benefit Plan". They will have to go into a "Defined Contribution Plan" instead - where they will have to contribute their own funds - to be placed into various investment schemes (mutual funds essentially) and pray to God that the market will grow in the coming years. By the way, I looked at some of them and they are mostly Euro mutual funds - so you can imagine where these companies are going to
be in 30 years when the newly recruited employees retire.
Oh, and the company also reserved the right to change all of the existing Defined Benefit Plans into Defined Contribution Plans in the future if they chose to. In other words, if the Norwegian Government further erodes its contribution to the overall pension amounts (which could easily happen given current demographic rates), the company reserves the right to pull out completely. In which case those of us in the old scheme are screwed, because the "nest egg" for investment will be so small
and the time remaining for maturity will be so short that the final pay outs will not cover the cost of living in this ridiculously expense country (taxes taxes taxes).
What is happening here? Well, it seems plain to me that the Government of Norway has run the numbers and realized that they will not be able to maintain the pension system "as is". They must - ironically - move to a more "American style" pension
system where the risk is placed on the individual rather than on the state. So, the great pull back has already begun in Europe. And it is going to accelerate in the years to come. Does anyone in the Obama Administration know this?
By the way, it is important to know that Norway is by far the richest country in Western Europe per capita (indeed, in the world) because of its oil revenues. So, all of this is happening in a country where there is still no technical deficit or debt, but rather a surplus budget year after year. Imagine, then, what it is like in neighbouring Sweden and Denmark, where there in no oil revenue to pad the lining of the coffin. Where the governments are running deficit after deficit. It's going to be grim. Very grim.
And if you think that is bad, try Continental Europe where matters are even worse. The storm has already arrived and hard decisions are already being made and implemented. I see the headlines in the European newspapers daily. Dutch immigrants are flooding into Norway, desperate to get to a country which at least has hope for the time being. German doctors and nurses are also flooding into Norway. Even Danes and Swedes are trying to get in. The Poles and the Lithuanians are driving across the Swedish border at night and are now doing the manual labour jobs as well under the table.
Even schmucks like me. I may have got here early (1994), but I'm staying on now, because it is one of the last few ships floating in Europe. Only we all know, deep down, that even this ship cannot sail forever on this course and speed.
I feel very sorry for my kids.
Chris,
Oslo, Norway
Re: Home and abroad
OBAMA IS TRUDEAU
YES! Finally, you brought it up!
Horowitz seemed to be saying that anyone who thought that the stuff Obama was doing was radical and dangerous, that the messianic stuff was real and creepy, was comparing Obama to Hitler or Lenin. Finally, someone brought up the real comparison. Obama is Trudeau. I have called him Pierre Elliott Obama to anyone who would get the reference. He wants to turn America into an Southern Trudeaupia, and that's just wrong. It's not Obama Derangement Syndrome to want to prevent the American Trudeau from doing to American what the Quebecois Trudeau did to Her Majesty's Frosty Dominion.
It's the best comparison I can come up with, Obama and Trudeau, and I wish more conservatives would use it. It may short-circuit some of the mealy-mouthed crap coming from guys like Frum, and may deflect ill-considered criticism coming from guys like Horowitz.
Colin Mulloy
A GOOD THING?
I thought it interesting that David Horowitz suggests that conservatives shouldn't succumb to Obama Derangement Syndrome because he has done some good things. But the best thing that he can think of that Obama has done is to drive conservatives into ODS so "there isn't a conservative left who will vote Democratic in the next election."
Eric
SILVER LININGS
Doesn't this paragraph, the penultimate one in Horowitz's essay, rather support the transformative analysis offered by you and other purported sufferers of "derangement syndrome"?
"Once conservatives do that, they will find some silver linings in the first moves of the Obama administration. Through a combination of ineptitude and zeal, Obama has in two short months locked down the conservative and Republican base. On fetal stem-cell research, on borders (e-verification), on spending, on unions, on shutting down talk radio, Obama has flexed the leftist muscle so nakedly and unmistakably that there isn’t a conservative left who will vote Democratic in the next election (and there were many who did so in the last)."
Isn't this the transformative zeal that you and others are pointing to? It is Mr. Obama's increasingly evident desire to remake America in his own image that spurs the warnings by conservative thinkers and that, in turn, might help defeat his wrongheaded leftism.
Thanks very much for your valuable efforts on the printed page and as a Limbaugh stand-in.
Jon Hill
Carrboro, North Carolina
Re: Song of the Week
DEEP
Regarding your request for a lyric with the word "undertow", there's a lovely bluegrass song called "Beneath Still Waters" by the Osborne Brothers. The first verse:
"Beneath still waters
There's a strong undertow --
The surface can't tell you
What the deep waters know.
Darling, I'm saying,
I know something's wrong.
Beneath still waters
Your love is gone."
JP Ellis
A DRUG THAT MAKES YOU DREAM
Here's one from your fellow expatriate Canuck, Neil Young. Great HUGE sounding song, however
sketchy the lyrics. Probably not your cup of tea, though.
"I'm not present
I'm a drug
that makes you dream
I'm an aerostar
I'm a cutlass supreme
In the wrong lane
Trying to turn
against the flow
I'm the ocean
I'm the giant undertow"
Jeff Cook
TEA AND SYMPATHY
“Undertow” is used in a song I'm reasonably sure isn't your cup of tea: “Sit Down” by James.
“Drawn by the undertow
My life is out of control.”
Sean French
United Kingdom
BILLIE’S VERSION
Hi, Mark. Billie Holiday also did a nice version of the song [“All or nothing at all”].
Kevin Peet
Albany, California
HUNG UP
Hello Mark: Loved your column re: "Spring Can Really Hang You Up The Most." Add to your list of great interpretations of the song Irene Kral's version with Alan Broadbent on solo piano. No other musicians appear on the album. The album ("Where is Love") was released in the in late 1973-1974, a few years before her death.
Peter Zappa
ERR… KINDA
Actually my grandmother was indeed Lillian Gish but not the actress. See Song of the Week, Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy. She was about 6 years younger. The actress never married nor had children. BUT Decca Records sure did everything to encourage the confusion with statements like "We can't confirm the rumor".In reality the actresses were distant cousins.
My mother had a pretty decent career as well including being "staff" at KWKH in Shreveport (the Louisiana Hayride" station and the pianist-accordionist for the Hotel Peabody in Memphis (the one with the ducks in the fountain in the lobby). Her band included Memphis legends like Pee Wee Womble, Pappy Graves and Sid Manker. Sid was coauthor and did the guitar on Raunchy.
Harry Gish
Re: A little hate, but mostly violence
FIRE THE NET NANNY
Interesting topic you're pursuing. I am a devotee of Safe Eyes for all my company and home computers and am able to view NR in all its glory on a daily basis. Perhaps a change in service is in order for your Net Nanny users. (Alas, Sports Illustrated is "denied" for "swimsuit" content.)
Bill Smith
Whitefish Bay, Wisconsin
DON’T DISS THE UNDERLINGS
Regardless of the content of your post (which I won't comment on), I think it's inappropriate to give someone's real name when you are dissing them. This is especially true when they are some technical flunky who is probably paid only slightly more than minimum wage. Yeah, what you say about Wendy's language skills is true, but she is a 'non-combatant' and attacking her constitutes 'collateral damage'. Target the ones making the policy, not the underlings who do the scut work.
Jim
TECH SPEAK
I carry no brief for Net Nanny, but, I must suggest in their defense by "they didn't support blocking of Arabic language sites" they most likely meant their product was INCAPABLE of blocking them (a technical constraint), not that they had ideological objections to blocking them (objective pro-dhimmitude, of which they may or may not be guilty).
Tom
BLOG BLOCKING
Regarding your post about getting site blocked at Marriot and Courtyard: I've seen hotel computer filters that block all blogs, left, right, and center. It may not be about your content itself. But it'd probably be a good idea to move your Jonah Goldberg Erotic Fan Fiction archive to a different site. Just in case.
John
The Zeray Gazette
THE FILTER FILTER
You might want to let your readers know it is laughably easy to get around most of those filters by using an internet proxy. Something like proxyblind will allow someone to bypass any filter, assuming the proxy itself isn't blocked (and there are thousands of new ones everyday.) Great for high school students who want to view myspace and other people concerned with free speech.
Alex
HATEMONGERS ANONYMOUS
That is so retarded. It's not like a real hate monger is going to have the word "hatemonger" on their website.
Nathan Lassig
MARRIOTT NOT
From vdare: This isn't a Marriott issue, it is a Sitecoach issue. Granted, Marriott should probably ditch them for doing things like this.
Geoff Matthews
Re: If Only
THE DEATH OF THE RECORD INDUSTRY
I worked in record shops in the late 80's and early 90's.
Soundscan turned the record industry on its ear because for the first time sales numbers were correctly represented.
Let me tell you, back in the late 80's a record store was a good place to work because record company reps would make sure we had really good concert tickets, free records, etc in exchange for making sure "that new Heart album's selling real well, right?" (that's a direct quote - and I got tix to the Billy Idol show from him for responding "oh, yeah, everyone's crazy about that new Heart album")
Soundscan is the reason for the rise of Nirvana and the "independent" direction music took in the early 90's.
Anyway, I can go on and on - point is, Mellencamp is way off. Soundscan was the first tool that put some degree of accountability and auditability into record sales.
Dan
SELL OUT
First, I am a big fan of John Mellencamp's music and was a fan of Mellencamp the person back in the '80s. I grew up in a small town in Indiana about 150 miles from Seymour. I rushed out and bought Johnny Cougar's first album after a friend of my brother saw him performing in a bar in Bloomington. In his early days, John did a lot of good things like a free concert in Fort Wayne for the people that volunteered making sand bags during a big flood and his initial Farm Aid concerts.
This was the John Cougar that skewered Bob Segar when he retired and sold his "Like a Rock" to Chevy. Mellencamp said that Segar had sold out and that if he had need the money so bad that Segar should have asked him (Mellencamp) for some. Well, "Like a Rock" had a pretty good run for Chevy and I'm sure that it made Segar much more than Mellencamp had ever intended to pay him. And when it finally was retired recently, what replaced it? A Mellencamp song.
So what was that quote in your post? Oh, yes: "Of course, the artist does not want to 'sell out to The Man.' " Well in John Cougar's eyes, John Mellencamp did sell out. Hypocrite!
Carey Dietz
MORON MUSICIAN
With regard to your Corner post - John "Cougar" Mellencamp makes me ashamed to be a native Hoosier.
I can't get anyone else in this state, including my wife, to understand that he's (a) a moron, and (b) a lousy musician.
So it goes.
Nathan
REAGONOMICS WASN’T TRICKLE DOWN
Your Corner quote from Mr. Mellencamp repeats something that has been driving me nuts ever since Obama did it over and over in the debates last year without rebuttal: describing Reagan's economic plan as "trickle down." Reaganonmics was not trickle down, it was supply side. There is an enormous difference: "trickle down" is big government that favors the rich, while "supply side" is limited government that rewards all producers.
Trickle down is demand-based economics. It says if you give money to the rich, they'll spend it in societally beneficial ways: investing in new factories, buying things from poorer people, etc. Trickle down assumes government is controlling the economy and argues that it should give money to the rich because they'll spend it more effectively than the poor folks. Trickle down would firmly favor Obama's policies of subsidizing auto makers or "green" technologies to create jobs. But Reaganomics was about the supply side of the equation: if you want people to produce, unleash the natural incentives of the free market. Rule #1 is reducing marginal tax rates because high marginal tax rates punish achievement and discourage productive activity. Cutting tax rates spurs economic growth regardless of whether you are reducing them for billionaires or low-end workers. And get rid of intrusive regulation that makes it harder to produce things.
Eric C. Bohnet
Indianapolis, Indiana
CORPORATE ROCK
Corporate Rock was in full bloom long before Reagan took office. How else do you explain the Eagles and Starship?
Vincent Flynn
Re: Government health care
BUMMER
But Mark, don't you think "botched" colonoscopies represent an eerily appropriate metaphor for what we'll be getting from the government? How apt.
Keith
OUTSOURCING
Mark, re your comment: "One day every American will be able to experience for himself all those wacky government hospital stories that turn up in the British and Canadian papers every week. But for now you have to join the military."
I served in the USAF for 28 years. Based solely on my own experiences, I maintain the only thing that allows the military medical system able to function is the civilian medical system that surrounds it. When the military doesn't have enough medical resources, it "outsources" its care requirements to the civilian doctors.
Unfortunately, when the entire national medical system becomes socialized, that option will go away, and we'll all suffer as a result.
Jeff Tschida
CMSgt, USAF (Retired)
ENFORCED SOCIALIZED MEDICINE
We have two Doc's in the family. Daughter is an OB/GYN and son-in-law a Family Practice Doc. They have to pull ER duty at their hospitals. One example. Last year a 4&1/2 month pregnant illegal came into the hospital ER. No pre natal care whatsoever. Fourth or fifth pregnancy, not sure as story changed. Mother and fetus in distress. Proper care dictated total bed rest till birth. 4 months later and tens if not hundreds of thousands of dollars in care from hospital and our daughter (if you admit the patient she is yours for the duration) a healthy child was born. Mother and child leave hospital never to be seen again as they never showed for scheduled appointments. Hospital and our daughter are out all the time and bucks spent caring for this felon (and that is the proper term for she stole the services from the Doc's, nurses and hospital). No reimbursement whatsoever to our daughter and her partners in practice.
Of course this is OK as our daughter is one of the "rich" and the poor illegal needed to be cared for. We already have forced socialized medicine in this country. If the Doc's won't treat these cases they are liable. (By the way, that liability extends till the kid is 18 years old for OB/GYN doc's.)
If we just cut out serving illegals we would have significantly reduced health care costs in this country.
George Hawks
Southlake, Texas
TAKE THE VOUCHER APPROACH
I am a big fan of your writing (and I disagreed so much with what Froma was writing that I stopped reading what she wrote).
Having said that, Froma has a point that there is a big difference between socialized medicine and socializing paying for the medicine. For example, the government could provide insurance vouchers that the needy person could use to pay whatever insurance provider he wants to use. There is no reason that you could not pick whatever doc/insurance company you want to use.
It is true that what the insurance company will pay for will affect the doc's treatment choices but this has been true for many years.
Republicans should focus on devising the best approach for extending medical support to the people who are uninsured. Those people are going to get medical insurance during Obama's presidency. The question is do we just scream about the Democrats' (inevitably) stupid plan or do we propose something that is intelligent.
A voucher approach to insurance (and schools, of course) works for me.
Steve Koch
Re: Cry me a toxic river
FLATLINING THE ECONOMY
I see that Obama the Wunderkind wants to do away with "boom and bust" economic cycles. To anyone who understands the first thing about economics, that's sort of like getting rid of those troublesome spikes and valleys in your EKG. A flat-lined economy might look good to a government planner, but if you understand the internals, it's not a sign of economic health, any more than a flat EKG (telling you that your heart has moved beyond all those nasty contractions and expansions)
indicates physical health.
Ezra Marsh
Baltimore
WHO NEEDS IT?
You've remarked on the inability to staff the Treasury department.
I'm one of those types that might in the past have been asked to take some kind of deputy-undersecretary type job at the Treasury or an assistant economist for the Council of Economic Advisors (or other similar body) in a Republican administration. (Mid 40's. Professor of economics at top 15 economics department, Research done in areas that might be close enough to Treasury work ...). Mind you, I've never been asked, but I know enough people that fit this type who have been asked and are being asked now for the Obama administration.
And I would advise anyone not to touch this with a ten foot pole. First, it is a pay cut. Gov't positions near the top probably pay about $150K. Not chump change, but less than anyone qualified for these jobs is currently making. Second, you either have to move your family, or say goodbye to them or a few years, visiting on the weekends and so forth. Finally, the public perception is that everyone else is doing you a favor by allowing you to have this job, as opposed to your doing everyone else a favor by taking it. Thus the press and Congress feels entitled to asking for 10 years of tax returns and scores of pages of background checks.
No thanks. Government service is now unappreciated charity work and at my age, I get enough prostate exams at the doctor.
(Don't use my name)
MEDIOCRE ASSETS
I used to be in "the business". Your comment "mostly mediocre assets that got used to being ludicrously overvalued as a permanent feature of life." caused me to pause. I immediately thought of my "assistant", who in the last several years of my career was making low six figures for doing primarily secretarial duties. Why did I pay her so much when I probably could have gotten a better product for half the price? The word "probably" is key. Why take the chance of screwing things up for what was, in the scheme of things, an insignificant amount of money.
But is it any different in any successful industry? It is only when things start going bad that "probably" gains value. A recession causes companies to take a much closer look at who gets paid for what and adjust accordingly.
Jim Sitlington
p.s. My wife (Carol) treasures the copy of your book "America Alone" you signed for her. I appreciate the effort.
INTEREST CUT
I work for one of those "evil financial companies." And no I don't have to worry about the bonus provision, though I earn a pretty good income and got a pretty good bonus compared to most people I'm sure.
I wanted to point out an unintended consequence of the "AIG" bonus law, that of course would apply to more than AIG. As this article notes, Goldman Sachs is now looking to repay the TARP money by the end of April instead of the end of the year as they initially had planned. So if they repay 8 months earlier, this alone will cost the government $200 million in net interest income on the TARP money. This is more than the entire AIG bonus payout and is just one company. I have no inside knowledge, but I would bet that our senior management is going to want to prepay the TARP as soon as possible, too.
I love your writing and listening to you on Hugh's show or guest hosting for Rush. Keep up the fight. Your happy warrior attitude is one of the few bright spots right now.
Cary Starnal
Westerville, Ohio
DOLLAR AMOUNTS
Why is it that when the AIG retention bonuses are mentioned, it is always in absolute dollars, $742,006.40 after taxes in the case of Jake DeSantis, but when it comes time to talk about the national debt it's relative dollars, as in, "the deficit is cut in half"? This is exactly backwards. The absolute dollars of bonuses are determined as a percentage of salary (actual dollars), whereas the absolute dollars of the national budget are relative to nothing. The relativity calculation for the deficit is based upon comparison of actual red ink. If the size of the deficit means bankruptcy, the concept of cutting it in half is moot.
Tim Goodfellow
Glen Allen, Virginia
THE FIX IS IN
When the President says he wants to "Fix" the economy...does he mean the way the 1919 Black Sox "Fixed" the World Series or the way my veterinarian "Fixed" my Labrador?
Just wondering
Joe Ebert
BE AFRAID
Mark - This has really got me spooked. About 2 years ago I left a company that was part of US Bancorp to join a startup - merchant services, credit card processing. I play golf with a few of my friends still there. They received bonuses this year because this division is very profitable and makes a lot of cash for USB and upper management has been getting bonuses for years because they make the company a lot of money and know how to do their jobs a well or better than anyone in the merchant services business. Now just because Nancy and others want to cover their ass, these hard working employees may have their bonuses taken away. The yearly salary increase is usually around 2% so bonuses are how they are rewarded for making their numbers. Please tell me why anyone would want to continue putting forth the effort to make the company more profitable when that effort could cost them not only their hard earned bonuses but possible legal ramifications in the future. It's actually good for me because we can pick up some good people, but we will be next. I took a big yearly hit in income to go with the startup because I knew the players and we had the funding to make the dream come true. But with the atmosphere in Washington my future earnings are now questionable and I feel like I'm on steroids - the bad kind, shrunken balls and a bad attitude... Our long term plans were to either go public or sell out to a bigger corporation - the American dream - work hard and make it happen, cash out and retire to the golf course... What do we do now? Is the dream over?
If this is made law - Congress will be able to destroy any company, person or entity they don't particularly like. If you thought what you went through in Canada last year was bad, just wait until Nancy decides Steynonline.com isn't helpful to the National Dialog, "Mark Steyn doesn't conform to our standards of proper discourse so any profits he makes on his endeavors, including books, columns and sales of any materials related to his writings will be taxed at 90%, and by the way here is Mr. Steyn's address -please see that he is properly castigated by the community..."
Be Afraid - Be Very Afraid
Gene Budd
RAHM EMANUEL’S BIG BONUS
Will the MSM ever notice the hypocrisy of Rahm Emanuel's tens of millions of dollars in bonuses after he left the Clinton White House? He makes the AIG traders look like pikers.
Several links provided at this Free Republic thread. I'm writing you because this story seems right up your alley.
Reading that NY Times article again, I noticed this timely paragraph:
Mr. Emanuel’s annual salary was not especially large but his hefty paydays came from bonuses for the business he brought in , as is customary in investment banking , along with the company’s sale in 2001 to the German Dresdner Bank, which allowed him to benefit from an equity stake, as well a large retention bonus paid to him based on his prior performance.
No indication of how "large" that retention bonus was. But the previous graph tells us: "...$6.5 million in 2001, when he left the firm in midyear to run for Congress. He collected $9.7 million more from the firm in deferred compensation in 2002".
The hypocrisy is truly breathtaking.
Jeanne
Re: Worse n’ Gerson
UNHINGED
From your astonishing, if not unhinged, dismissal of Gerson's piece as "all hooey," it is apparent that you want to be on record as opposing presidential use, not merely of teleprompters, but of prewritten remarks in any form whatsoever. I don't recall you expressing that sentiment during the previous eight years despite the fact that Mr. Bush routinely used prewritten remarks both with and without teleprompters. We all know what happened when he didn't and, as much as I detest and abhor the prolonged Bush assault on American values, I do appreciate the fact that he was not always insensitive to the embarrassment he would have subjected himself and our once great nation to had he been prescient enough to follow your belated advice.
John Mallinckrodt
Professor Emeritus of Physics
Cal Poly Pomona
MARK REPLIES: You're a professor, right? People pay for the privilege of your wisdom? So tell me by what tenured logic or law of physics do you get from my dismissal of Gerson's "hooey" to the assertion that I oppose "prewritten remarks in any form whatsoever"?
Re: Healing the planet
AN EDUCATED IGNORAMUS
I used to work for a non-profit called Jews For Judaism. Staff members would routinely have to speak publicly, at syngagoues, schools, organizations, about the work of JfJudaism and about the cults and missionaries we dealt with. My first outing was off the cuff and not real satisfactory, I didn't make all the points I wanted to, I rambled and it didn't flow well, so I worked hard writing a stock speech and honed it into a solid, punchy 20 minutes. In time though, I used it more as notes than a script, riffing off the themes I was covering.
When "Messianic Jewish" (i.e. Christian Evangelical organizations that have attracted a lot of Jews) umbrella groups would have their national conventions, we'd book rooms in the same hotels and try to do outreach to the people that would talk to us despite the organizers' harassment, as well as our own outreach in the Jewish community where the convention was being held. In time, we got pretty good at advance work so eventually all of us would have some kind of speaking engagement that most of our colleagues could attend and critique. One of my co-workers told me that I delivered a great speech, but that I was even more effective speaking from the cuff.
Like good improvisational jazz or jamband rock, in public speaking there has to be some structure or framework over which you can improvise. Improvising, though requires not just being articulate or glib, but also a ready grasp of the facts.
Obama's problem is that he's a very smart, educated ignoramus, with little factual knowledge outside of politics and his legal field.
Ronnie Schreiber
PRESIDENT OBA-ME
I was listening to the press conference last evening while driving home (yes I am one of those misguided individuals who still works late trying to start a small business while working a "real" job). I decided not to listen to specific details but rather style, pacing etc. I think I noticed something. Has any recent President used the first person singular pronoun as much as Saint HopeyChange does? My memory certainly may be faulty - after all I still have a fleeting 'memory' of an obviously fictional document called a 'Constitution' - but didn't even the great B. J. Clinton use the "we" construct more than the "I" form of self reference. A small point - but I think it may be somewhat telling of how our new "Blessed Leader" thinks of his regime err administration.
Thank you for your thoughts, writings and guest hosting on Rush et al. All of those things make me think.
Herman Price
Re: Earth hour
FIVE EARTH HOURS A DAY
So it's almost April and it hasn't stopped snowing for four months. It's Saturday morning and my oldest wants to watch Ninja Turtles at the same time as my youngest wants to watch Dora, at the same time as I want to watch SportsCenter. But we all watch The Weather Network because my wife says there's a snowstorm advisory, the third in three weekends...another foot of snow coming by tomorrow... at least Mother Nature is kind enough to schedule our worst shovelling for the weekend.
Anyway, as we're waiting for the advisory, there's Chris St. F**k yapping about Earth Hour and how there are still so many of us who still don't know it's coming... it's on today... it's on tonight... it's on right now in certain parts of the world... the Australians were the first to turn their lights off, to do their share for climate change.
And I'm thinking, supreme irony: I'm listening to this c**p because I'm waiting to find out about the worst winter in my recollection, and the smug little p**ck is telling me to turn my lights off for global warming.
And I'm thinking, back in Communist Romania where I grew up, we used to have five Earth Hours a day, three in the morning and two at night, except they weren't optional... and that was on a good day, when the water was still running.
And I'm thinking, I am so tired of this, I could almost wish it on them. Let it come, let them get what I know is in store for them, screw this, screw everything, screw my kids' future, let them grow up like I did, let them do their homework under candle light, let it all fall apart... just so I can see those retarded little smiles wiped off those retarded little faces of Weather Network anchors. Let's see how you feel, Chris St. F**k, when you wake up in the morning with no electricity and no running water because the Party says so.
The Hypotrochian Transquaestiator
Calgary, Alberta
Re: Three wheels on my Wagoner
GOVERNMENT-RUN CAR BUSINESSES
Two words come to mind: British Leyland. And we all know how well that worked.
John Burtner
Blacksmith
Sylva, North Carolina
GOVERNMENT-DESIGNED BUSES
Back in the early eighties, or even late seventies, the federal government decided it knew better than GM how to design buses. The results were predictable. Among the problems: the windows were tinted so noone outside could see if the bus was full, they were extremely ugly, and were the first buses to have no back window. I can't remember the details of the business disaster, but the upshot was the crumbling of the great Grumman Company of Long Island, makers of the Hellcat and Tomcat naval aircraft. (Somehow Grumman began making buses.)
Chuck
BUY A FORD INSTEAD
If you had told me ten years ago that I would one day swear to buy nothing but Fords, I¹d have laughed, but right now, wouldn¹t it be wonderful if the one ³Big Three² auto manufacturer to decline government money were to recover and outperform the other two without bailout money?
I¹m going out to look at a new Mustang this week...
Tim Williams
TREE HUGGERS AS CAR BUILDERS
Glorious. Key sections:
"With almost no experience in the car business, the team's dozen core members..."
"Several team members, such as Brian Deese, a 31-year-old former Obama campaign aide, are on loan from the White House's National Economic Council. Three others specialize in climate change. The rest come from agencies such as the Energy and Labor departments. Backing them up are about 30 accountants and advisers."
Who better to make GM viable than tree-huggers?
David Ditch
A RETURN ON THEIR INVESTMENT
I saw your comment in The Corner about the quid-pro-quo of government "investing" in business. (This follows my Rule One of Life: "Take someone's money, take the crap that comes with it.")
So what's your take on the quid-pro-quo that the Communist Chinese will want as the result of their (far more literal) investment in US government? How long before they start dictating governmental policy to America?
...Or has it already begun?
Scott R. Lucado
Fort Worth, Texas
THE CROWN FAMILY
You may be more prescient than you know regarding your Corner post about a Crown corporation.
The billionaire Crown family of Chicago (owners of Aspen Ski Corp, a large % of General Dynamics Corp, board representation at GD and JP Morgan Chase bank, and who knows what else) were/are big supporters of Obama.
So I think we can expect Crown to benefit immensely over the next several years due to their access to the One. How much of the toxic bank assets that prove to be worth a fortune as time goes by do you think they will take down? In how many other ways will their coziness pay off?
Love your contributions to NR, etc.
Bob Hoinghaus
Austin, Colorado
Re: Change of wind
LIVE FREE … YEAH, RIGHT
My wife and I moved out to North Hampton, NH from San Francisco about 4 years ago. All I can say is the state's motto should be changed to “Live Free or shrug”.
I can't walk my dog on a state beach. I have to buy liquor from the state. My property taxes are higher than in SF. We have a small business and so taxed at the state level corporate tax -- we pay more
taxes living in NH than we did in SF, CA! I can't find a good burrito!!
Rob
Re: The Death of England and The Death of England (cont)
THE RIGHT TO BE DUMB
A Special Forces friend gave me the ultimate, perfect definition of freedom:
"Freedom is the absolute right to starve to death if you fail to plant enough corn."
I've never found one to beat it.
Regards, use as you wish,
Mary McLemore
Pike Road, Alberta
“DONCASTER”
They stood by,
The men who fought at Passchendaele,
At Marston Moor,
Claimed oceans as their private paths,
Grabbed whole continents,
Banished and killed their kings,
And invented modern liberty;
Stood by and let their neighbors burn.
Where was honor?
The fine contempt for danger?
The trained band? The shield wall?
The fierce rush of instinct?
Who tore the web of neighbors?
Who surrendered in their name?
Ray Gagner
Laupahoehoe, Hawaii
DON’T HURT THE PERPS
You mention that the story reminds you of the Saudi Arabian fire...It also reminds me of the various British cases in which victims who defend themselves from burglers/muggers are subsequently prosecuted by police for having injured the perps. It seems that trying to eliminate our right to self-defense is not enough. The nanny state no longer wants its citizenry to even save each other from life threatening situations. All such actions must be left to state actors who, of course, know better than we, whether they ever appear, or not, or whether their decisions are correct, or not. I am embarrassed for the British.
Mark Fitzgerald
Cambridge, Massachusetts
OFF DUTY, OFF LIMITS
I'm writing you because I think I have another good example of what you have called recently "the death of England". In Spain, a firefighter was fined with 700 euros because he decided to extinguish a fire while he was off-duty and failed to identify himself to the police. You can check it here.
The translation is awful but, hey, it's automatic.
I'm a Spanish computer nerd and journalist, and I've edited translations of your articles for Libertad Digital. Never an easy job, because your writings are very creative with the English language, so to speak. But the results were great enough to feel rewarded.
Daniel Rodríguez Herrera
STIFF UPPER LIPS NO MORE
Ever listened to "Living on a Thin Line" by the Kinks. Seems apropos at the moment, given your latest post on NRO.
I always remembered the English by their "It's just a Flesh Wound" motto, maybe not any more.......
Zach
JUST AN EXCUSE?
So, I have to wonder, seeing as this was England, it is unlikely that "her majesty's constabulary" was armed with much more than a billy club, why didn't the potential saviors just say something like "sodder off" or something like that, you get the drift. I mean if they really wanted to go in there and save them where four unarmed "bobbies" real going to stop them ? Exactly how would they do that ? Just seems like if they really wanted to get in there they would have. Do you think the police would have run back to their hybrid vehicle, unlocked the shotgun, and shot them?
Seems the difference here is deeper, it’s not just the police. In the unlikely event that a police officer here tried to pull a similar stunt here, I think they would have been told to bugger off(and our police would have been armed). So it not just the police that are the culprits here.
Eugene M Rooney, Manager
Skylights of Hawaii
ONE GUY WITH GUTS
Perhaps it has gone unnoticed precisely because it should be unremarkable, but in the recent nursing home shooting in Carthage North Carolina a lone police officer, Justin Garner, stopped the shooting by rushing in, finding the shooter, and trading gunfire with him. In the process he was wounded in the leg. Now let us go back to the Columbine "tragedy".
The first police arrived within minutes of the calls for help, and as I understand it did move into the school and bring out some wounded, but then the SWAT team arrived, cordoned off the building, and hours after the shooters had killed themselves, finally entered the building to aid those bleeding to death. I'd rather have a lone police officer with some guts come to my aid than a highly trained SWAT team from the sounds of it.
David M. Hall
C S LEWIS PREDICTED THIS
Sort of neighbor (on the MA/NH border), big fan.
On the "death of England," C.S. Lewis called this one. Perfectly. Back in 1943...
“The practical result of education in the spirit of The Green Book must be the destruction of the society which accepts it.”
Lyfordiii
NOT YET COMMON IN THE US
The police not helping in that UK fire reminded me of the Columbine shooting (where a dear friend of mine happened to be a student teacher that day). Cops arrive at 11:30 am, when the shooters were just entering into the school library for the next phase of their execution extravaganza. Cops wait outside because of concerns that doors might be booby trapped, etc, officer safety, etc. What the hell are they there for? There are minor children being executed a few feet away and the cops are concerned that their own safety might be in question. Thank God this is not common in the US yet, but I found their behavior appalling. I always said “imagine the fire department seeing a pregnant woman trapped in a burning building and saying, wow, that looks like I might get hurt. Let’s see if this thing will burn itself out.” because it seemed so absurd. And yet here you have UK officers who not only refuse to help (can anyone envision a Texas State Trooper not jumping in to save these people?) but block others from doing so.
Michael James Barton
Sugar Land, Texas
CONKERS BONKERS
A friend of mine who immigrated from England a few years ago says they've banned conkers and British bulldog on health and safety grounds. With its lethal combination of sharp pointy objects and alchohol, will darts be next? By the way, my friend (no right winger by any stretch) once joked that maybe the only thing left for England would be to make it a prison colony. Hmm. Worked for Australia.
Steve
THE LAST BRAVE BRITS
Shortly after my father's death in October of 2007, you linked to his obituary in the Daily Telegraph which told the story of Dad's career as a colonial officer in Nigeria, and of his successful detention of a local tribal leader during a United Nations visit in the early 1960's. Not a notable story in and of itself, except that Tigwe, the gentleman in question, was rounded up and detained because he had eaten the local tax collector, thinking that if he did so, he would take on the tax-collector's power and people would start to give him money too.
I think you called your mention of Tigwe's gastronomic experiment "a practical solution to big government."
Perhaps there's a lesson in there, somewhere, for the present time. Let me think what it might be . . .
Anyway, lest you think that Dad is or was the most eccentric or interesting member of my family (I'm excluding 87-year old Aunty Pat and Uncle Arthur, who will be 102 this July), I offer you this small piece from the BBC detailing the epic Battle of the Droitwich Wheelie Bins and featuring my 97-year old Aunty Jenny Mapson and my sister Mandy Boswell.
Just thought that you should know that not all residents of the sceptre'd isle have succumbed, and that there are still a few holding up the side. I'm proud to say that most of them seem to be members of my family.
Louise Zbozny
Re: Knock-knock, it’s the gag police
AN IRISHMAN WALKS INTO AN ART GALLERY....
Appropos your piece about self-censorship of humour in the media ("No Laughing Matter"), I wonder if you are aware of the recent case involving Brian Cowen, our beloved Taoiseach (prime minister) over here in Ireland, better known as Portraitgate.
Conor Casby, a 35-year-old school teacher and hitherto unknown artist, sneaked into Dublin's two most prestigious art galleries, the Royal Hibernian Academy and the National Gallery, where he hung these unflattering portraits of "Biffo" as he is known, in the nude, complete with knickers, bogroll and moobs, in an act which is the reverse of an art robbery. They remained there for some hours until staff removed them.
That evening, RTÉ, Ireland's version of the BBC, ran a jocular item on the main evening news, adding that the Taoiseach "was not thought to have sat for the portraits".
All hell broke loose.
1. The Taoiseach's office rang up RTÉ, demanding
a.. a grovelling apology, which was broadcast next evening, and
b.. the removal of the video clip from its website, which it also got.
2. It sent An Garda Síochána (the police) round to a radio station that had broadcast the artist's viewpoint, demanding that it hand over his contact detail (which it refused)
3. When Mr Cosby later for some reason gave himself up, the Gardaí interrogated him under caution, no less, and submitted a file to the Director of Public Prosecutions.
The crimes which Gardaí have been instructed to investigate comprise, incredibly and mysteriously, indecency, incitement to hatred and criminal damage (by hammering a nail into a gallery wall), for which Mr Cosby potentially faces imprisonment. He, meanwhile, plans to auction the paintings for charity, the bounder.
Strangely, Mr Cowen - who is no, er, oil painting - is regularly lampooned via cartoons but never seems to raise a rumpus.
Nevertheless, hailing from County Offaly, the generously proportioned gentleman is doing everything he can to warrant his wonderful nickname, Biffo (Big Ignorant F***er From Offaly).
What we really need is an Irish Human Rights Commission to properly punish Mr Casby, RTÉ and the rest of the media for their unwarranted displays of disrespect for their betters. I heard your Jennifer Lynch and Barbara Hall may shortly become available so you may wish to put forward their names.
Tony Allwright
Dublin, Ireland
tallrite.com/blog.htm
Re: The upside down family tree
SIXTEEN CHILDREN AND COUNTING
When you're building a great nation, encouraging the people to "go west" you are not encouraging only children. Just last night I was blogging about a photo of my 3rd great grandmother, Obedient (yes Obedient) Wright Jeffries who moved from Tennessee to Arkansas with her Rev. husband, James Jasper Jeffries and with him bore sixteen living children who grew up into productive Americans. Someone encouraged the welfare recipients to go west in Britain and it wasn't unfortunately to build a great nation, it was to tear it down. Sad. More than Sad.
Laura Lee Donoho
INCENTIVIZING THE LEAST ABLE
I just filed my tax returns and then checked into The Corner. This sequence led me to a not so amusing aside I thought I'd share with you.
As it turns out, the tax credit for having children is reduced with increasing income. "So, the super rich can certainly afford their children" you might suggest. Well, I'm certainly not super rich. My income of about $120K is above the nations average and I'm thankful for my lot in life but I hardly qualify as wealthy nor do my children and I live a lavish lifestyle. Nonetheless, my net tax credit was reduced to $100 for the 3 children I claim as exemptions. Additionally, I paid $73 in alternative minimum taxes. Apparently, without any off-shore holdings and with only home mortgage and real estate taxes as significant deductions, I must be exploiting some "loop-hole" and not paying my fair share save the AMT.
I suspect we'll soon be seeing the upside-down tree here too. The tax incentives will play a part for some. Why on earth would a responsible government only incentivize those least able to afford children to have them? I suppose some idiot liberal would suggest that the credit is the government's means to being charitable but I would counter that giving money back that was withheld at gun point is hardly charity to begin with!
Thanks for your work, I always enjoy reading it. Even if it reminds me of the horrible path the current administration is taking, I'm hopeful that the path to correction is being illuminated.
Jerry Boyenga
Re: Brits to change succession rules?
BRING BACK BONNIE CHARLIE
I noted your exchange on Royal succession in the Corner. Is Gordon Brown not unpopular enough and with full enough plate that he has to tackle this? Also, if we are not going to discriminate how about opening the throne up to the House of Stuart so wrongfully ejected 300 years ago? Usually, succession rules are changed to adapt to a crisis. This is just ridiculous.
John J. Vecchione, Esq.
Fairfax, Virginia
Re: America Alone
I’M NOT A BELIEVER
Did you see this story? Everyone's going atheist...except the Muslims.
Tom
theredhunter.com/
THE FLAG OF ISLAM ON DOWNING STREET
Mark, I expect you are aware of this . Wonder what the CHRC would make of it.
“'Since then our brothers in Bethnal Green, Whitechapel and other places have had eight or nine children each. Eight children here, ten children, 15 children. There must be at least six million people.
'It may be by pure conversion that Britain will become an Islamic state. We may never need to conquer it from the outside.'
Chaudary also said during the 'debate' on whether the West had 'learned the lessons of 9/11' that Britain would eventually be ruled by Sharia law, adding: 'The flag of Islam will rise over Downing Street.'”
Warm-monger
NOT TONIGHT DEAR, I HAVE A NEW VIDEO GAME
Plunging birth rates in the UK caused by video games
Eric Mylonas
BROKEN CHINA
This blog says China is on the edge of some serious upheaval, and demographic decline is part of the reason why.
Aaron
ER, NO
A radio story (NPR?) I listened to about 7-10 years ago reported, if I remember correctly, that Norway allowed no immigration whatsoever. Wrong?
Liza Toombs
Uvalde, Texas
MARK REPLIES: Absolutely wrong. Why would even the NPR tossers say such a thing? On the night of 9/11, Norwegian Muslims cheered outside Oslo City Hall. And no-one objected to them so doing. Does that sound like a culture that permits no immigration?
BULLSHIT ADVERTISING
As mundane as this may seem , the constant bombardment of bullshit advertising on your web site sucks. Why do you not write with less self aggrandizement and constant peripheral diatribe and focus on telling us something new ok slick, otherwise your articles are pretty good reading.
Michael Naughton
MARK REPLIES: Er, well, because I have to make a living. Especially these days. You say "other wise [sic] your articles are pretty good reading". Gee, thanks. That and $4.95 will get me a decaf latte. Still, if you're dissatisfied with the service you're getting, you could always cancel your subscription.
Oh, and what you call "bullshit advertising" is our current promotion of Ezra Levant's Shakedown. The success of this book will ameliorate the six-figure legal bills Ezra has run up defending fundamental rights too few of his fellow Canadians seem to value these days. I know what Ezra's doing in the cause of liberty. It's less clear to me what you, Michael Naughton, are doing. So in the "bullshit" stakes your letter comes way ahead of Ezra's book.
Maybe you'd be happier with public radio. No "bullshit advertising" there, right?
THE SOUND OF EUROPE
I strongly disagree with you on Europe's artistic output – from suburban hip-hop to electronic music, the sound of European decay is absolutely awesome. On one side you have intoxication, promiscuity and narcissism. On the other you have rage. Brutally beautiful.
Mathieu Lalonde
Montréal
CHUNKY
When all else fails, blame the family doctor.
Jgrig
LAST WORD
It is hard to replace an arrogant hate-filled pain in the ass like Limbaugh...but God, maybe you are the man! I didn't listen to your show..for I didn't want to get sick and listen to Rush or any replacement ...but read a Media Matters print-out of one of your hours and you seem to be as wrong and sickening as he is! What a pitiful life ....are you in Canada? If so..go deep into the woods and perhaps a pack of wolves will adopt you and you will find your true setting. Otherwise, leave our great president alone.....he is admired and trusted and all of you conservatives hate it. Good! Eight years of Bush and all-conservative radio is enough torture for people with common sense, intellect, and a strong sense of right and wrong to put up with. Goodbye...forever..I hope.
M.C. Perry
MARK REPLIES: Gotcha. You don't listen to Rush or Rush's guest hosts in case you "get sick". So instead you go to a website where someone who dislikes Rush and Rush's guest hosts as much as you but, unlike you, gets paid by George Soros to listen every day provides hour-by-hour play-by-play commentary (without the commentary). And then after reading a "print-out" of one such hour you excitedly Google around until you find an e-mail address for the guest host, so you can tell him he's "wrong" and "sickening" and a "hate-filled" wolfman, and then you send off the e-mail but not before requesting that he doesn't publish your name, which request you apparently expect the "sickening", "hate-filled" wolfman to honor.
But I'm the one with the "pitiful life".
Oooo-kay. See you next time I'm on! And happy listening! Or happy email responding to the transcript of the non-listening!
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