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Thank you for your kind (and unkind) letters from the Canada, America, Ireland and Denmark. 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 Mark's post "What's so wrong with Obama motors?", please see Mailbox Extra.
Re: Letter of the Week
THE NEW CHEVY LADA
I am with you ("What's so wrong with Obama motors?"). My husband is a lifelong Chevy man who decided that he will nurse his 20 year old GMC pick up into oblivion before he would even contemplate buying Government Motors car. I drive a 6 year old Jeep which I bought new. Last summer I toyed with the idea of purchasing convertible Firebird (my first car in high school) as my middle life crisis car. Lucky for me (and not for GM) the stock market's precipitous drop has redirected my crisis musings into a whole different direction (soup kitchens in retirement?). And now that GM decided to kill Pontiac, I won't have to worry about it. If I really want to go back to my childhood memories I will just wait for the newly created Chrysler's version of Fiat 124 which, under the name of Lada, was the car of my youth in USSR. Hooray for hope and change!
Janna Blanter
Re Empathy vs activism
and The limits of Sotomayoran empathy
IT'S NOT EVEN SIGNED
I don't understand why you say that Sotomayor "simply announce[d] [her] bias" in the Ricci case. The opinion (copied in its entirety below) is only one page, and doesn't announce anything. And it's not even signed; we don't even know that Sotomayor wrote this paragraph. There are some troubling opinions of hers out there--notably Correctional Services Corp. v. Malesko, 229 F.3d 374 (2d. Cir. 2000), rev'd. 534 U.S. 61 (2001)--which provide plenty more insight into what sort of justice she might be. But you're not going to get any insight into a summary disposition like this, because you
don't even know who wrote it.
Justin Ellis
FULL DISCLOSURE
As an old securities lawyer I am often tempted to apply the full disclosure rules to politics. In this case the Times endorsement of Sotomayor should have included a disclosure that she had ruled in their favor in the past. I
am sure the Times would have made that point if one of her critics had lost a case before her.
Merv Benson
Washington, Texas
PrairiePundit.blogspot.com
PRETTY GOOD ON COPYRIGHT
I saw your post on Sotmayor and Tasini this morning. I can certainly understand your displeasure with her opinion there. In fairness, though, she has generally been pretty good on copyright. Here's one example.
And as an attorney in private practice, I think she demonstrated pretty admirable zeal in protecting her clients' IP rights:
I enjoy your work very much. Best,
Ben Sheffner
JOB FOR LIFE
It's wrong to nominate sexist bigots for a life appointment to SCOTUS. It flies in the face of everything good about America and is the clear definition of everything that was bad.
It is just plain wrong. It is ... dare I say it, Un-American.
Jim Hill
Sudbury, Massachusetts
Re: Song of the Week
THE UR-BAND
Great column, perfectly timed! We (my husband and I) just got back from a weeklong road trip, and we each brought along CD's for those long radioless stretches of the Great American Southwest. One of my choices was the Benny Goodman Carnegie Hall concert, and while it played, we had a terrific discussion about the various big bands. My husband is a trumpet player, so he's big on Harry James and Ziggy Elman. We honestly couldn't think of another band that had so many key players go off on their own and form successful bands. Doesn't that make Benny Goodman
sort of an ur-band? Anyway, Sing, Sing, Sing is a pretty irresistible toe-tapper, especially in the middle of the desert.
Sandra J. Damron
Colorado Springs, Colorado
Re: Stimulating statism
READY TO BE WEANED
SEVCA has been in business since the war on poverty was initiated by Lyndon Johnson. Even to a cynic like you this must be seen as an impressive piece of community activism, living off of the government tit for 43 and counting. One wonders how there could be any poverty left at all in southeastern Vermont, or better yet how my community has survived in southwestern Maine without an SWMCA. I am truly dumbfounded to learn that a war on poverty program from 1965 is still alive and kicking today. How much of the current stimulus will live and grow forever in the future?
Robert J. Grillo, P.E.
Kennebunk, Maine
PARALLEL UNIVERSE
I am a reporter for a weekly newspaper in a small town in California. I cover the ebb and flow of the local economy. I have become convinced that the politically driven government economic stimulus programs (and the heavy-handedness of the federal government in general) have triggered a parallel universe of development, creativity and investment. People of energy, vision and integrity are simply, and legally, bypassing the numbingly dumb and achingly useless community organizing programs and jobs, as described in your column. They are shrugging off the fear and doom emanating from the nation's capital and moving forward.
Five new businesses opened in my town in the past two weeks, coming on the heels of several other new businesses in the preceding weeks, as well as the re-location and expansion of other businesses. A young start-up company is designing the coolest recreational vehicle and is looking for a place to manufacture (most likely not California, with our idiotic anti-business legislature). The local independent banks are in great shape, as are most small town newspapers. The government has succeeded in making itself redundant. Don't look now, but the administration has been left behind.
T Foreman
Small town, California
LOVING NANNY BEST
Andrew Potter has the most ridiculous column in the June 1, 2009 issue of Maclean's, "Tax freedom? What a lot of rubbish" (it's not posted online yet, so no link). I think it exemplifies a lot of what you go on about, creeping statism, that somehow the government is better at looking after me than I am. I think one of the flaws in Mr. Potter's argument is that somehow life expectancy (and presumably the other improvements in our health and standard of living that have occurred over the years) are somehow related to the increasing number of tax dollars paid to the government. But you are so much better at skewering these yobs than I am, so I would be grateful if you could have a go at Andrew Potter for me.
I love your work and so does the rest of my family. Thank you.
(please do not use my name)
VOTERS REWARDED
Dead people get the stimulus. Why the surprise? Isn't the stimulus being used to reward others who voted for the Democrats?
Love your stuff, keep it coming.
Evan Grant
Re: New mantra
BLAST FROM THE PAST
How exactly is the requirement to bring a passport along when going from one country to another "a major hassle?" It's utterly trivial.
By the way, I was listening to my CD set of LES MISERABLES recently, and what did I see in the included booklet but commentary from 1985 (IIRC) by Mark Steyn! Fun.
Win Schaeffer
Flossmoor, Illinois
WHO’S BEHIND THE CURTAIN?
Pardon me, but I'll bet even most dimwits can learn to read with Obama-dazzling fluency from a teleprompter. That is a point that should be made - over and over and over until all the liberal dimwits "get it."
A question to be raised is: Whose language is it anyway? Obama spends so much time traveling around giving campaign speeches, I can't believe he has any hand in writing the speeches he gives. Who is really behind the curtain?
Frederick Smith
Norwell, Massachusetts
THE UNBEARABLE DIMNESS OF BEING
The mistake Canada and the EU made was not that Bush was dim and Obama brilliant. Their error was they believed in their own brilliance, and they are only dimly seeing how mistaken they were.
Joseph Shier
Toronto
Re: The lift and separate biological clock
BRAS AND MARRIAGE
How wonderfully charming and old-fashioned for the Japanese to make a connection between marriage and reproduction.
Few westerners do.
POK
SINGING JOCK STRAP
I have a jock strap that plays "Don't Fear the Reaper" when exposed to direct sunlight. The cowbell part tickles.
Richard Goad
Dayton, Ohio
GOING UNDERCOVER
And you were looking at The Lingerie Post for research purposes only..
Ben Grasmuck
Re: The taxman takes two-thirds of your virginity
VALUE ELIMINATED
I don't know what's worse: 1) that VAT touches everything (however, one wonders what value she added to the "product" when, by definition, the "product" has no value, having been eliminated by the Italian fellow); or, 2) that the Eurocrats don't seem to know what tantamount means?
Now, where I come from, you know, the sticks, "tantamount" is defined as, "equivalent: being essentially equal to something," and prostitution is defined as, "offering sexual intercourse for pay ." I don't see how what the young woman did could be defined as anything other than prostitution. Perhaps this is why I'll never be president of the EU.
Greg
TOXIC ASSETS
I regret to inform that you apparently misspoke in stating that Mr Geithner has purchased a 55% stake in your virginity "as a toxic asset bailout."
You were instead part of the auto bailout, and the UAW now owns a majority interest in your behind, in keeping with the overall effect on all the rest of us.
Sorry to bring the bad news, but a clarification seemed in order.
C. A. Brittain
BRING BACK BRON
The late Auberon Waugh used to say buying a British car was just giving money to the Labour Party.
PR
United Kingdom
Re: Foreign language
FUNNY IF NOT SO SAD
Your column on NRO today may be the best you have ever written. It would be hysterically funny were it not so very upsetting. Keep on.
Noel Shinn
Decatur, Alabama
Re: The trouble with social conservatives
NEVER CAME CLOSE
Dead-on comments on the politics of Social Conservatives.
Three years back Ralph Reed ran in the GOP primary for Lt. Governor here in Georgia. He had a great Christian Coalition Rolodex of names of people who would come to anti-abortion rallies, write letters to congressmen, sign petitions, give money to fight liberals in other places (no liberals to fight in Georgia). His primary opponent, Casey Cagle, was a long-time state senator who had every blacktop paving contractor and cement pourer in the state of Georgia on his Rolodex. Reed never came close to winning the nomination here, and in any state where he could have won the primary, he would have a hard time topping 40% in the general election.
Dave Taggart
ANY IDEAS?
From your comments at NRO's Corner:
"But, like the gay guys do, they also need to win the broader cultural space,"
Great idea, and I'd love to. Now... how? Cultural conservatives are scarcely represented in entertainment and journalism, and that's where the gay lobby won their battles over the past decade, and with one demographic: young people. Older people haven't changed their minds on gay marriage, but young people have been bombarded with a decade of Will & Grace and Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, the purpose being to convince them that "oh, you sillies, there's nothing to be afraid of from gay people, they're just like us". Churches used to be a bulwark against this sort of thing, but now you've got younger evangelicals saying that Christians should "re-think" their stand on homosexuality... as if the Biblical tenets against homosexuality were negotiable or something.
Not only have we had no offense in this game, people on our own side are trying to cripple our defense. Further, Libertarians are generally on the side of the left on this, which is yet another front to defend. We're losing our kids in a campaign for hearts and minds, because the entertainment folks have succeeded in painting their parents as un-hip, out of touch old bigots. So if you have an idea on how to effectively fight this without selling our souls, hey, I'm all ears.
Doug Stanley Jr.
Prattville, Alberta
CHAMPIONS WHO ACTS AS CHAMPIONS
While I agree with most of what you and Maggie Gallagher said, I think that there is an important point overlooked here. "Join with others in the GOP to elect a godly man to office" only works if the Godly man is an skilled and courageous politician. GWB was neither. He seemed very uncomfortable any time he had to take up the mantle of social conservatism. He seemed painfully aware of how uncool the cool people thought he was whenever he tipped his toe in the social conservative waters. What we need to do is elect champions who will actually act as champions. We need champions who will try to move the public debate in the right direction, not hid from the public debate because they're embarrassed by the whole issue.
Joe Cor
State College, Pennsylvania
Re: Hugh Hewitt
AND NO ONE CAN HEAR YOU SCREAM
I've long admired your moxie (or is it chutzpah?), so I think you'll appreciate this suggestion (Jonah will also probably like it for the SciFi angle): send the Gitmo detainees into space. I'm sure there are all sorts of legal loopholes for detention in space, and if, by chance, life-support systems should fail then I'm sure we'd all just feel awful about that...
After all, worse things happen at sea!
Joking (but only half-way).
Bill
Re: Over and out
WITNESS TO CALIFORNIA'S DECLINE
I'm a fan, and also a retired California state employee with 32 years of service, mostly in higher education policy and fiscal analysis. I started working in 1965, took a few years off to work in the private sector, then returned to the state to complete my career.
When I started, California was prosperous, fiscally prudent, boasted a robust and modern infrastructure, and was governed by a largely bipartisan legislature. It was also a state with no public employee unions. There were associations like the California State Employees Association (CSEA, now a union), which encouraged membership and offered benefits such as discounted term life insurance policies. We were a happy state then, with moderate taxation, highly rated bonded debt, all of which was used for capital projects like schools, highways, and the California Water Project.
Under Ronald Reagan, elected in 1966, we prospered further. He did raise taxes, both sales and income, but the rates were still moderate, and they served to ensure a balanced budget and a reasonable array of services. Then came the 1970s, when it all began to fall apart.
Jerry Brown was elected in 1974, serving until 1983, and was the person primarily responsible for the current state of affairs. He succeeded in unionizing the state workforce, a wholly unnecessary move, and one opposed stringently by Republicans, but by that time, due to the fallout from Vietnam and Watergate, we had become a liberal Democrat state, and the Dems understood fully that unionization would guarantee the funding of their campaigns forever. A side effect was to turn virtually every state employee into a Democrat and union member, thus destroying what had previously been a highly professional and nonpartisan civil service workforce. When Brown strongly applied Affirmative Action principles to the civil service, all professionalism was abandoned. There was no political litmus test in hiring, but there didn't need to be. It soon became apparent that few white males needed to apply, and all the rest were inevitably liberals.
Over the years, we had some Republican governors, notably George Deukmejian and then Pete Wilson. They generally held the line on the worst impulses of the Democrat legislature, but there were always compromises that slowly advanced the agenda of welfare statism. Then came Gray Davis, and the floodgates opened.
Davis was elected in 1998, and immediately put through very substantial pay increases for state employees. Previously, Governor Wilson had been at war with the unions, and refused any cost-of-living pay increases for state employees for six straight years, even for those who were in managerial positions, like me, and not members of the union. From Davis, we made up lost ground in a hurry. But the real problem was the pension plan. Davis came to power during the dot.com boom, and capital gains revenue from the state income tax flowed like a river at flood stage in both 1998 and 1999. Davis saw this revenue, thought it would continue forever, and put in massive increases in our retirement plans, plans that allowed me to retire a few years early, but which now are bankrupting the state.
Previously, the Public Employees Retirement System (PERS) provided that regular state employees could retire at any time after age 50 with at least 5 years of service. If we waited until age 60, we could retire with 2% times the number of years of service times our highest salary earned. Thus, an employee earning $60,000 with 30 years of service at age 60 could receive a lifetime pension of $36,000, a pension that would increase 2% each year to account for inflation. Employees in "Safety" categories, like Highway Patrol officers, could retire with 2% at 50.
Davis and the Democrats increased our pensions to 2% at 55, and increased the Safety categories to 3% at 50, also greatly expanding the number of people who fit into those categories, because that was what the unions wanted. He also granted pay raises to the unions that funded his campaigns, particularly the prison guards, who got annual pay increases of 15-20% for several years. Many local jurisdictions then followed suit. In Sacramento, where I live, the average firefighter earns $120,000 per year with a lavish pension waiting for him after only 20-25 years of service.
As you pointed out, the unions now run this state, and every attempt at reform brings out a campaign war chest in the tens of millions of dollars to defeat that reform. They are fabulously wealthy, and masters of propaganda. They also benefit, as do all Democrats, from a compliant and supportive media.
Occasionally, the people rise up and protest. We recalled Davis in 2003 and elected Schwarzenegger. Initially, he tried to bring about reform, but when three initiatives failed, he gave up and went over to the Dark Side of the Force. Now, he's just as bad as the Democrats. I should add that reforming the legislature is now impossible, as the state has been gerrymandered to within an inch of its life; the Dems will be in power forever.
It is easy to develop a list of reforms that would return us to prosperity and decency. Abolish all public employee unions, roll back the pension benefit plans, drill for oil off shore, improve the business climate (the environmental regulations here are obscene), eliminate useless agencies, commissions, and programs. It's a long list of things that could and should be done. But there is no chance of any of this happening. It's more than a little depressing.
Anyway, I love your writing, and I just wanted you to know that there are a few of us still left here in the formerly "Golden State" who haven't gone complete insane.
Bill Storey
Rancho Murieta, California
TROLLOPS
"It's as if California and New York have burst their bodices like two corpulent gin-soaked trollops and rolled over the fruited plain to rub bellies at the Mississippi."
What a great image. What a great line. You deserve the Pulitzer for that line alone.
Keep up the good work, my brave friend.
Robert Howe
THE BRIGHT BLUE YONDER
The saddest part of the California saga is that the tax "rebels" continue to vote for the same politicians that put the state into to this mess, as if office holders have absolutely nothing to do with tax policy.
I live in the San Gabriel valley, a Los Angeles suburb that used to vote Republican but has (due to changing demographics) become bright blue. My Congressional district (32nd, Hilda Solis' seat) was up for grabs on Tuesday and the front runner after the balloting was Judy Chu, a left-wing Democrat Board of Equalization member: the tax collector! At the same time district voters overwhelmingly rejected the tax propositions, apparently oblivious to the connection between tax collector and taxes.
Needless to say, the sole Republican candidate (who wouldn't identify herself as a Republican during the campaign) didn't break 20% of the vote.
Jeff Powell
MEWLING MARSH RATS
Pooor cry babies in Sacrapamento -- perhaps they should allow oil drilling and quit worrying about marsh rats, frakkin' seals sunning themselves, etc. then they might be able to pay the payroll for critically inportant personnel and services.
Thanks for the post.
Kent Book
Texas
WE'RE LOOKING GOOD IN COMPARISON
Michigan is considered the weak man of the United States, and it is facing a budget shortfall, but in terms of % of the budget, it puts Michigan in the bottom quartile of states. Michigan is actually well run in terms of fiscal responsibility thanks to Mitt's dad, George Romney, who spearheaded a new state constitution in 1963 that requires Lansing to balance the budget. Also ironic in light of Michigan's reputation as a union stronghold is the fact that we don't have nearly the problem with public employee costs here as in some other states. Perhaps Michigan's frequent economic setbacks have kept a lid on the growth of government here.
In any case, though our major businesses are in the toilet, I think we have fewer issues with unsustainable state expenditures than California or New York. While California's problems have been well known for a while, New York's budget issues are only going to get worse. Wall Street and its salaries generate a good deal of New York state's revenue. The layoffs, mergers and meltdowns on Wall Street will continue to ripple through the NY state budget.
Bottom line is that there are already too many public employees with too much political power and too generous compensation. Obama's "stimulus" plan and expansive growth of the Federal gov't is only going to make things worse.
Ronnie Schreiber
SPITTLE-FLECKED RAGE
This: "...burst their bodices like two corpulent gin-soaked trollops and rolled over the fruited plain to rub bellies at the Mississippi..." was NOT what I needed to read whilst partaking of a morning cup of java, thank you very much.
You DO know that MacBook keyboards are not liquid-proof, right?
I will say this tho: the more I think about your image, the less I think I'm going to want to eat today. Might just shave a couple of pounds off in the next day...
Seriously, Mark, as a former resident of CA, I can tell you this: the rest of the west knows that what you speak of is 100% true. And when you talk to people in the west giving advice to people from CA moving out of CA to any one of the other western states, you should see the vehemence and spittle-flecked rage as residents of other western states tell Californians moving into their intermountain communities to leave their socialist politics back in California - or they can pack up and go back there themselves. People in the west know full well that the California model is a failure. What compromises the efforts of these conservative residents of other states is the massive influx of Mexicans, with their "Si se puede!" nonsense and their outstretched palms for alms. Already Nevada and Colorado are screwed, likely to never recover their former fiscal soundness.
When I'd tell people in CA that their budget was growing at an unsustainable rate (in the mid 90's!), they'd just look at me with an expression of "You poor, deluded, conservative fool.... we educated and so much more compassionate liberals know oh-so-very-much-more than you..." Well, exactly what I saw back then is coming home to roost now. Of course, they want to raise taxes... which will send another flood of gin-soaked trollops out upon the land, spreading the California fiscal venereal disease as they go...
It isn't merely the dysfunction that annoys me about Californians. What really pisses me off is their endless stream of unctuous treacle as justification for every new spending excess -- and this is why residents of other states are so vehement and furious when the California ex-pats wash up in other states.
dave
IT CAN’T GO BANKRUPT
Mark: Rather than follow Ms. McCardle whose expertise gets very thin outside the area of economics, I thought you'd like to know that the Bankruptcy Code of the United States (and bankruptcy is governed exclusively by federal law) makes no provision for a State (as opposed to a county or municipality) to go bankrupt. It can't happen; California cannot go bankrupt in the legal sense of the word as opposed to the popular usage meaning "out of money". There is only one possible solution I can see to the present imbroglio short of the pitchforks: Sacramento will make a few little cuts, it will increase some "fees" in lieu of taxes, and it will float some enormous bond issues guaranteed by the federal government. If Ms. McCardle were paying more attention to her area of economics, she would have noted that the price of California GO bonds has been trending steadily upwards for the past several weeks as the market anticipates the inevitable federal backstop.You do outstanding work and you're a unique combination of Will Rogers, Mark Twain and Charles Krauthammer.
Mike Brennan
Re: When Barry met Bibi
COLD
Bret Baier had a clip on "Special Report" last night that was heartbreaking: Bibi turning to Barry at the press conference and pleading "but Iran has sworn to annihilate us, and that is not acceptable" and Barry
booming back in response "Well, I think if we can just resolve the Palestinian state issue that position will change." I felt as though I were watching a judge coldly release a violent offender in the face of the pleas
of a prior victim.
Alysia Lucas
NO FRIEND TO ISRAEL
It is my conviction that being a man of the left, The Obama Administration has essentially the same goal as the mullahs in Iran. They just want plausible deniability. Israel has to realize that while Obama rules the US is no friend to Israel. They just have to survive for the next four years. Being part of that oogidy Boogidy faction of the right, I think they will. But will we? "all our pomp of yesterday is one with Nineveh and Tire".
Duane
North Dakota
THE JOHN BOLTON SOLUTION
For years this agenda is on the table, for many presidents and prime ministers tried to settle the arab-israeli conflict, The only viable solution was Mr John R. Bolton's 3 state solution: Egypt - Israel – Jordan. There are 2 Arab states, one Jewish, the territories should be divided among them, the population's choice can be considered, where to live, where to go.....what is the problem?????
Otto Bleuer
NO PROBLEM!
"It's in the grand tradition of delusional leaders to inflict ever goofier "linkage" on the Zionist Entity: Only solve the Palestinian problem and [INSERT CRISIS DU JOUR HERE] will go away!"
Why is this obvious to regular people and so lost on experts (diplomats, geopolitical strategists, intelligence experts, etc.)? Simple game theory (e.g., prisoner's dilemna) would point out that if you want the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians to go away, you need to sever all the links to other issues. The US needs to help de-couple the Israel-Palestinian issue from every other problem in the Middle-East. Once the fate of the entire world no long hangs in the balance on peace between Israel and the Palestinians, progress can be made. Right now, every king, dictator, terrorist, and terrorist puppet-master has a vested interest in perpetuating the crisis. Think of all the NGO's and UN programs that would have to go away if there were real peace. Imagine how the spotlight would shine on the backward economies of Jordan, Syria, or Egypt if the press were no longer reporting the status of every rock thrown in the West Bank. What would Amnesty International have to say about human rights in Iran or Saudi Arabia if it stopped accusing the IDF of all sorts of atrocities? Would NOW notice how women were treated in Saudi Arabia if it no longer had to support the liberal platform on the Palestinians?
If you don't care for game theory, the laws of thermodynamics might suffice. To build order out of chaos requires energy. It will take less energy to correct the issues between Israel and the Palestinians than it will to re-order the entire Middle-East.
Finally, we could go with common sense. Only the Israelis would benefit from peace with the Palestinians. The Palestinians would be accountable for themselves after a peace agreement. Every other Middle-Eastern country would no longer be able to say it will address its issues once the matter of Israel has been dealt with.
James Keller
SAVING THE SUNNIS
By Europe, and now the U.S., allowing for a nuclear Iran the remaining middle-eastern countries will have to submit to Iran or go nuclear themselves; unless the Jewish state of Israel takes care of Iran themselves. How ironic that the Sunni Muslims will saved by the Jews.
Jim Murphy
Gibsonia, Pennsylvania
Re: Last Call
THE TEXT GENERATION
I'm assuming that when you saw "14-year old slatterns face down in pools of vomit outside the local supermarket," they were accompanied by Ipods or were in the act of texting at the time of ejecta. That is precisely the reason nobody needs to go to the pub any more--young people don't socialize in person, and old people don't socialize in the pubs because they haven't yet gotten the message that young people no longer go there.
Les Barker
Reading, Pennsylvania
DRINK UP
It's actually quite a big story here in the UK, the traditional British Pub is terminal decline. The last figure I saw was 27 pubs closing every day. A national smoking ban, cheap prices in supermarkets are all contributing. I'm afraid that if you were in Britain today you'd notice a lot of boarded up pubs.
CNN has a report on it
Andrew Corlett
www.conservativecabbie.com
DRIVING WHILE MINT EATING
A motorcyclist has told how he was electronically tagged for four months and given a 36-hour community order - for dropping mint imperials while riding.
PR
PRAYERFUL POSTURE
I haven't read that novella, but when I was doing my part as an American expat in England, I did drink at The Saracen in Nottingham? Sometimes to the point that I'd assume the posture for prayer (though I am not sure if it was Mecca I aimed at.)
“claysills”
SMOKED
Anything to do with the smoking ban, ya think???
Jens Sorensen
Re: A Long-Shot Appeal
LAME EXCUSE
First, big fan...
Second, IMO this story nails shut the coffin on the Dubya-as-man-of-great-character meme. "I don't pardon well-connected folk"... what a lame excuse not to do the right thing. Stubborn doesn't equal brave.
Paul Ritchie
Burlington, Massachusetts
FINGERS CROSSED
Long shot? It takes four justices to grant review and those four rarely vote to accept unless they intend to reverse. That's why about 75% of cases taken result in reversals. By no means a certainty, but keep your fingers crossed.
Eric Twelker
THE EMPATHY TEST
It strikes me in reading your post about Conrad Black that President Bush's refusal to "pardon well-connected folks" is a perfect application of the Obama empathy test. While a President is not a judge, the act of executive pardon can be considered a jurisprudential event. And what W seems to have been getting at is that being well-connected precludes a level of empathy sufficient to inspire a pardon. What if a young, unwed mother (or other more empathy-worthy individual) were in prison for six years for the same offense as Mr. Black?
And yet, I doubt that President Obama will appoint Bush to replace Justice Souter...
Robert E. Heiler
WORK OF ART
Have you read Miquel Estrada's Petition for Cert? It is a work of art. He combines the sheer injustice of the matter with one of the things SCOTUS likes to correct: conflicts between the circuit courts. Worth a column all by itself.
John Schedler
Seattle, Washington
ESCAPE FANTASIES
Good to know that I wasn’t the only one...constructing elaborate prison-escape fantasies involving Conrad
Black. The fun part about mine was getting you, Kathy Shaidle and David Frum to sort out your differences and work together as sort of a Canadian super-pundit crime team. With Charles Krauthammer offering wise counsel right before the third act, of course.
Joe
JUSTICE AT LAST?
What a disgrace. Is this the same man who appointed John Roberts? Remember Roberts saying that if the wealthy litigant was legally right, he would rule for him and if not, not? (or some such).
I followed your coverage of Conrad's trial daily (pardon the familiarity, but it seems I know him through you), and was very disappointed in the outcome. Hopefully, he will get justice at last.
Matt Crapo
DUBYA CAVED
GWB was good on the international front, but he stank the joint out at home. He who cannot MAKE a good "argument" ...can't understand one either. He should have given Conrad the swing vote of his "compassionate" nature, since there was enough doubt there to drive a tank through.
Libby's case is even MORE egregious: here there was NOT EVEN the slightest aroma of "a crime", but Dubya caved to the Dem's pressure to name a special prosecuter. ( No surprise there...Dubya was always kissing Clinton and Teddy's asses, even when they were ripping him at every op.). Shame on Bush in both these instances. If he had any "domestic" guts, he would have pardoned these two good men.. ( Holder was a key player in Clinton's pardon of Marc Rich, and look how he was "punished". AG,
baby.)
John Gross
Quebec
Re: Escalating control
SUBWAY STRANGLERS
Traveling in Washington DC last weekend, I saw in the Metro large advertisements cautioning people that clothes can get caught in escalators. Maybe if America and Canada unite, we can stop all escalator-related harms throughout the world!
On the other hand, I suppose that the Mexicans might then claim an entitlement to emigrate north on the basis of their fundamental right to a safe escalator-riding experience. And the Europeans might add a provision in their 600-page constitution on the matter.
Are there any escalators at Gitmo?
Your concerned escalator-riding friend
Re: To non-boldly go
‘TORTURE’ IN TREK
Since you already "went there" by mentioning Nancy Pelosi and the CIA in your brief review of the new Star Trek, I'm surprised you didn't remark on what I took to be a rather naked reference to waterboarding. Did I misunderstand, or was Nero sloshing through a large tub of water (on a star ship!) as he interrogated a prone and strapped down Captain Pike? I guess the message was also implicit that waterboarding doesn't work because Nero was obviously still angry and frustrated (Give me THE CODE!) as he moved on to the next technique--a vicious snappy scorpion like creature to the brain. I don't recall if that finally yielded up THE CODE, but at least we found out how Captain Pike ends up disabled, though in better shape than he was for his one appearance on the original series.
Being charitable, the water may have been the scorpion thingy's habitat... But in Wrath of Khan, a very similar looking varmint, which also rendered the victim susceptible to suggestion, lived in an arid sand pit. As I believe nothing is accidental in Hollywood, the presence of water during the interrogation scene cannot be.
Name withheld
AFFIRMATIVE
As a kid, I liked the spaceships, the explosions, and Kirk getting action from every female whatever in the universe. He famously interfered in every planet's goings-on every chance he could based on his "human-centric" ideals of right and wrong (versus today's "all cultures are equally worthwhile" bullshit philosophy).
Then came Star Trek: The Liberal Generation, where the expression "there's no money in the future" was actually uttered by Captain Picard in the Borg movie.
So the person complaining that Star Trek's ALWAYS been socially progressive/liberal must've never watched the original series. Frankly, I don't know why politics needs to be in a Star Trek movie one way or the other--can't we have a movie liberals AND conservatives can love? One where Kirk makes things explode, defends humanity, and nails hot alien chicks while Spock looks on disapprovingly from the wings? Beam me some of THAT!
Scott B
TOO HUMAN-CENTRIC
Forgive me if you've already heard enough on this. But in one scene of Star Trek VI, a Klingon tells Kirk that the phrase “human rights” is racist. At the end of the film, when Kirk's voiceover says that it will now be for his successors to pursue the ongoing mission with the famous three-point remit, he says '...to boldly go where no man - no one - has gone before.' So one could argue that the change was not due out of deference to women on earth, but to other species. Or they are becoming more adventurous, going where no space traveller from any planet has gone before. I don't know if this explanation makes the change any more palatable for you.
Hopefully this email won't make me seem like another obsessive Trekkie. I am also a keen reader of your writing and enjoy it even when I disagree, and as a Canadian was embarrassed by the 'human rights tribunal' nonsense of last year.
Duncan Sutherland
PLANET ZIP
I don't dislike the line for its inclusiveness (I don't particularly care) but I hate the line for its complete inaccuracy. If no one had gone there before, it'd be empty. No aliens, no nuthin. Clearly with all the beings that Picard on forward rescued, SOMEONE had gone there before, or else there wouldn't be anything to do on the damn show.
Jeremy Kareken
THE DOWD TEST
Stick to you guns on the "where no man/one has gone before" business. You are absolutely right. Even in 1987 it was a "pitiful capitulation to political correctness" to change that pronoun. The trouble is that there was always something a little too "PC" about Gene Roddenberry. I fully believe that if he had gotten all his way in 1966 then Star Trek would now be completely forgotten. Fortunately he didn't and, among other complications, the casting of Shatner injected more testosterone into the series than was probably planned. Also the old series had very eccentric collection of outside writers contributing who didn't know what TV was supposed to do and not do. Subsequently, Roddenberry was responsible for a series of sci-fi pilots in the '70s which were all flops. When he got chance to "redo" Star Trek in the 80's he was able to make it conform more to his original plan - which is why, in spite of superior production values, generally excellent actors and a more sophisticated idea of television drama - it is still a duller show. Changing "where no man has gone before" to "where no one has gone before" tells you all you need to know of the difficiencies of Star Trek Next And All Subsequent Generations.
And don’t buy that critic who says that Star Trek's politics "political underpinnings have always been liberal and progressive." Maybe "progressive" if Truman is still considered progressive. Go and watch "The Balance of Terror," one of the best examples of late 60's TV (airdate Dec 16 1966). A taut piece of Cold War thinking based on old WWII submarine flicks. Ask yourself is this a tale Maureen Dowd or Dick Cheney would appreciate? For what it's worth, I consider myself an appreciator of good sci-fi, which Star Trek, for its time, was a good example. A true Trek Fan is a lunatic in a house of mirrors.
Edward Wagner
Boston
GO KLINGONS!
“Frankly, Trek's political underpinnings have always been liberal and progressive.”
Mark, it's Trekkies saying things like that which have always made me root for the Klingons.
Vince (Federation-Hater) Moneymaker
Los Angeles, California
GIRLY MAN GESTURE
I see I'm late to the "no one" point, so I'll spare you jumping on that bandwagon; the real failure of nerve on the part of the filmmakers was having Nimoy do the voiceover rather than Chris Pine, whose performance is the great triumph of the film and fully justifies his taking the reins, especially in the final spoken words.
On your very perceptive point re body language, I must register one qualification: Pine does well in the captain's chair at first, with one leg crossed over the other, but then -- he twists his ankle! A clear girly man gesture, which you will not find Shatner ever doing. I'm hopeful this momentary lapse will be corrected in the next film (and for that matter that Abrams will decide that it's as important to tell a story as to restore a franchise to marketability; but I'm not very hopeful).
Jeff Peterson
HONORARY TREKKIE
First, I still have the Doohan obituary you wrote (“Great Scott” ). To me, anyone who can write something like that has to be an honorary Trekkie at least.
Second, the strange thing is that in the series "Enterprise" (2001-2005), set before the original, the word "man" was used, in both the first and last episodes. That makes the change here even stranger.
The Next Generation also changed the reference to the ship from "her" to "its." Eh. (Klingons- and Russians, I think- refer to their ships as "he.")
You can read more than you probably want about this here.
Nathan Lamm
THAT’S ALIENIST
So shame on Neil Armstrong when he landed on the moon and said "One small step for MAN........." Maybe if humans ever land on Mars, the astronaut, cosmonaut, or whatever, can say "One small step for earthlings..................."
L. McClure
San Jose, California
SPLIT IN TIME
Why, oh why, couldn't they have fixed the split infinitive and make the tag line "To go boldly where no one has gone before"?
I know people will argue that the split infinitive taboo applies to Latin, not English, but I'm a purist.
Robyn Bailey-Orchard
WAKE ME UP BEFORE YOU BOLDLY GO GO
Many will note that the change to "no one" has been around for some time. I guess they could have said "no Homo," but then, maybe not.
But at least they had the courage not to knuckle under to the grammatically correct police and to leave in the so-called split infinitive "to boldly go," while many a Miss Thistlebottom would have corrected it to "to go boldly" or "boldly to go." Linguists dispute such prescriptive grammar rules as "thou shalt not split thine infinitives," and even whether it is a true infinitive and thus capable of being split.
WH
OH MAN
It may be of interest to Mr. Steyn that the English pronoun "one" is taken, not from the number “one” (from “unus”), but from the French pronoun “on”, which is descended from the Old French "om", or "omme", meaning “home”, from homo, man. In other words, the pronoun "one" is actually a latinate synonym of 'man'. 'One' as a pronoun comes from an Old French idiom of saying things like "What would a man do", or "A man could cross that river". So there's nothing inhuman in the new phrasing of the old Trek mission statement. By contrast, the OED suggests that “man” may come from the same route as "mind' - suggesting that the word “man”, may have originally meant a "thing that thinks", and consequently, have embraced Romulans and Klingons.
Lesson of the day: never take for granted that an effort to expunge gender from communication has been successful.
Dan Cowper
YOU BOLDLY WENT
Way to step into the weeds, Mark. You've just learned that Star Trek people are not only nerds. They're lefty nerds. (Jonah notwithstanding.)
Bill Carroll
Jonah's Funeral Guy
One of Derb's Gun Guy's
SATURATION POINT
As you have just discovered, it's dangerous to mess with an icon unless you have SATURATION KNOWLEDGE of the subject matter.
I kinda agree with you, for whatever that's worth.
Dick
Re: Live Free or Die
INTO THE ABYSS
I read your piece, "Live Free or Die," dated, April 2009, in the Imprimis, Hillsdale Collage. Excellent excellent lecture. I hope America wakes up soon before fall into the abyss of socialism.
Martin Konigsdorffer, CPT, USA, (Ret)
WHAT NOW?
I read your March 9th address, entitled "Live Free or Die" , presented at Hillsdale Collage as it was presented in the Hillsdale Imprimis. Your points are clear. Your premise is supported and of concern to me.
But, I have a question I have begun to ask with recurring frequency. What can I do? What action do you recommend I take to resist or preferably reverse this trend toward European style socialism?
Your web site informs the reader that because of all of the mail you receive questions will not be answered. While I somewhat understand this, without an answer to the above question your concerns and comments may strike a cord of agreement in your audiences but leave them with a stoic resignation and hopelessness.
Steve Segal
STARK CONTRAST
I have just read "Live Free of Die" and also "Washington Crossing" about the 1776-1777 battles. One difference: On page 239 of the latter there is the following: "He was devoted to the Revolutionary cause and wrote to his wife that he was determined to 'live free or die', a phrase that his state later made its motto." This indicates the timing of the Trenton battles. A source was the memoirs of Major James Wilkinson. This would predate the reference you relied upon in your article.
Arthur Bryant
EVEN WORSE THAN CANADA
First of all , thank you for your level headedness, I so enjoy hearing and reading about your perspective on so many matters. Today, I read your article in Imprimus 'Live Free or Die". It was an amazing article and truly the best analysis I have read. You structured it so that it is easy to follow and your points are so clear as well as scary. I will do my part to spread your word and continue to wake up people in my life that seem to still be asleep or unaware of what is happening to this great country of ours. I became a citizen on the United States in 2007...just in time to vote and needless to say I was disappointed with the outcome. I spent most of my life in Canada (emigrating from England with my family when I was 4 years old). From my perspective the road that the United States is now racing down with President Obama will result in a worse scenario than Canada (because Canada can be what it is in part because of its proximity to the US and due to the strength of the US). Needless to say I am disappointed that the United States is losing touch with the values and principles on which it was founded Please keep doing what you are doing....we need all the sane voices we can get .
Elisabeth Peabody
Scottsdale, Arizona
Re: Superheroes are starting to bug me
NOT SO INCREDIBLE
Enjoyed your article in Macleans about the peculiar proliferation of movie superheroes, and the way that these days they never encounter bad guys who resemble any actual bad guys like, for example, the ones that Daniel Pearl or Theo van Gogh met up with.
But at the end you erroneously attribute to The Incredibles that famous epigram, "/when everyone?s special, nobody is/". In fact it was WS Gilbert who coined the original in The Gondoliers back in 1889 when he has Don Alhambra del Bolero, the Grand Inquisitor of Venice, convincing gondoliers Marco and Giuseppe Palmieri to sing along with him that:
"When every one is somebodee,
Then no one's anybody!"
Tony Allwright
Dublin
Re: America Alone
BUT WHAT CAN EUROPE DO?
I am writing from Denmark, I have watched some of the videos on Youtube with you, and I must say that it’s a joy to see, someone who is not afraid to speak the lefties and radical Muslims against, and defending our western civilizations dearest right "the freedom of speech".
But I have been thinking, what should we do in Europe to ensure our civilizations survival against radical Islam and multiculturist socialists, so our children and grandchildren can grow up in a free society ?
Greetings from Denmark.
Lars Jorgensen
NOT AN ACTUAL INTELLECTUAL
I love the suggestion that you're boring your readers and colleagues with an excess of real social science, as if you were an actual scientist or intellectual instead of a rabble-rousing comic writer with an axe to grind. Now that is funny.
Nice try.
Tom Castle
WALKER COMMENT
What do you think of Martin Walker's article about Europe's population in the Wilson Quarterly?
Thanks
Nick Hill
MARK WRITES: See here.
GETTING WINDY
The carbon-credit zealots have all kinds of new quirks up their sleeves. Consider this: they are vigorously trying to block the building of windfarms in the US. and the UK as they simultaneously argue for wind energy. But wait, there's a rationale behind this now. . . it's called the "rebound effect".
According to the carbon-credit crusaders, if, for instance, you get the country driving fuel-efficient cars, you might actually increase the use of energy, since people will drive more. Therefore, let's be careful about jumping into green technology without weighing the potential "rebound effects."
Just keep complaining and sending your dollars to Al Gore and waiting patiently for the massive carbon taxes soon to be installed. And you don't have to actually do anything about energy efficiency. Nice make-believe work if you can get it.
Bob Strauss, Jr.
Greenwood, South Carolina
JOINING UP
I was a Democrat and Clinton supporter last year. Today, I am a registered Republican and I read NRO daily. America Alone is a shockingly good book, particularly how you connect the welfare state to mass immigration. You and Jay Nordlinger are my favorite conservatives. I think you're brilliant.
Scott
SWINGING SEXISTS
When you make your "swinging sexists" album, why don't you expand it into a general "politically incorrect" album? Then you can throw in "Ahab the Arab," and "Tie me Kangaroo Down" (incorrect for its verse, "Let me aboes go loose").
Then again, you have PLENTY of material just concentrating on "sexist" songs. "Johnny, Get Angry." "I Wanna Be Bobby's Girl." And on and on...
Larry Eubank
LAST WORD
I'm sitting here at my computer looking at the Kappa Tau Alpha medallion, Journalism's National Honor Society's highest accolade presented to me in my final university year. It hangs on a blue ribbon over the edge of the framed certificate that symbolizes I must be worth something. Why was I chosen? I returned to school at 44 and graduated four years later with a BA and two AA's in Journalism and Photography. It wasn't because I was young. I wasn't young . . . and just being buxom wouldn't do it either. I've learned a lot since graduating, and I've learned the answer to that why.
And now another "why." In a few sentences tell me why I should spend the money and time reading your book AMERICA ALONE.
Elaine
MARK REPLIES: Gee, I sat down all ready to write out my answer. And then I thought: Why? Your turn.
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