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Thank you for your kind (and unkind) letters from Canada, America, Britain, Iraq and Australia. 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.
Letter of the Week
A NECESSARY EVIL
In your conversation with Derb ("Pussyfoot conservatism") and your posting of the Canadian commenter on the difference between the "centre-left" and "centre-right", Conservatives do govern with an apologetic tone. We're inheritors of Locke and the belief that we are performing a necessary evil. Doncha think?
John Mark Hunter, Professor
Tennessee State University
Re: OK, so prove you didn’t say it
BOGUS-QUOTES SOURCE
As I am sure you are aware, the fake Limbaugh quotes have been traced to the Rush Limbaugh Wikiquote page, dating from July of 2005 (see the following link to see when the quotes were added). The Jack Huberman book that most people source for these quotes did not come out until the following year.
The quotes were added by a user with the IP address of 69.64.213.146. This address has been used mostly to make changes to the article about Rush, but also Karl Rove, Sean Hannity, Rush, James Dobson and Sara Palin from 2005 until earlier this year.
While others have noted this in various forums, no one seems to have made the connection that this IP address is used as a gateway by the law firm Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler LLP (see here, for example) that all users from that IP address come from the pbwt.com domain.)
Given the likelihood that Limbaugh will sue over this, I find it interesting that the source of these bogus quotes is probably a lawyer...
Trapdoc
PRESUMED GUILTY
I'm sure you already know this but maybe not in quite these terms. The reason Rush doesn't get the benefit of the doubt is because, when it comes to race conservatives are presumed guilty even if proved innocent.
The lefty assumption that conservatives hate black people is exactly equivalent to an assumption of the past that black folks loved watermelon and had rhythm. Conservatives are the new ... um ... people it's okay to be bigoted against and I don't mean Jews, although you could probably fill in that word in a pinch.
Keep on fighting Mark.
Dave Vandervort
www.chaosprg.com/blog/
JUST ANOTHER DAY
Here is something to write about on the subject of the NFL and Rush........If I recall the details correctly, Arizona was the only state to allow their citizens to vote on whether the gov't employees should get a paid day off or not, and call it Martin Luther King day. They voted it down. Not the recognition, just the idea of giving state employees another paid vacation.
The NFL yanked the Super Bowl from Phoenix as punishment.
Someone from Arizona called the NFL offices on MLK day on a hunch. Turns out the it is just another day for NFL employees . A spokesman said that it is a busy time of year for them, so they can't honor MLK by giving their workers the day off.
Dave Mikelson
Saint Paul, Minnesota
Re: When the lack of sh*t hits the fan
THE ENTIRE HYPOTHESIS IS THE OUTLIER
Isn't it intellectually dishonest to argue either that "[f]or the last 11 years we have not observed any increase in global temperatures" or "[i]f you’re 29, there has been no global warming for your entire adult life" based on these data.
1998 is clearly an outlier, and is not a valid baseline.
Josh Rosenbluth
MARK REPLIES: Well, if you think the BBC Climate Correspondent is being "intellectually dishonest" you should take that up with him. But nobody's using 1998 has an "outlier". Indeed, the entire "climate change" hypothesis is the "outlier", since it's always based on worst-case scenarios that never come to pass - see here . But here's the nub: From the Seventies to the end of the 20th century, there was an "increase in global average temperature" of about 0.45 of a degree. In the last decade, there has been an "increase in global average temperature" of 0.07 of a degree. That's nought-point-oh-seven of a degree. Isn't it "intellectually dishonest" to present nought-point-oh-seven in the course of a decade as an accelerating warming trend?
THIS SCIENTIST WON'T SETTLE
Have you seen Steve McIntyre's blog ? He's a sh*t disturber extraordinaire.
Paul Strain
EVEN HIGHER CO2 IN THE ICE AGE
And our climate models did not forecast it, even though man-made carbon dioxide, the gas thought to be responsible for warming our planet, has continued to rise.
Don't mean to pile on here, but yes, our CO2 levels have been rising. They're currently at a whopping level of 360 ppm, which is higher than they've been for some time now. But if we go back a few years, say to the Ordovician Period, which was but a mere 450 million years ago, the CO2 levels then were at 4,000 ppm. Funny thing is, this was during a major ice age. So how on earth did CO2 levels get so high back then when there was no "man-made" warming. Let me guess, the climate models were all wrong.
Jeff Talbot
Re: Right turn on main street
STICKING IT TO US
In your latest article (not column) in National Review, you say that in a couple of years 51% of Americans will pay no federal income taxes and will be able to stick it to the rest of us who do. While I'm sure this percentage is literally true, it misses the impact of the millions of government employees who, while they may pay federal income taxes, will support higher income taxes because that's how they get paid and that fact is not lost on them. Also, you've got to take into account the many millions more taxpayers who indirectly are paid with federal tax dollars: health care professionals, managers, janitors, etc. (Medicare and Medicaid), and hordes of others. My brother in law, who used to be a conservative Republican, now supports Obama. He owns a very successful company that is deeply involved in "green" technology and stands to reap huge dividends due to Obama's "green" commitment and the massive amount of federal dollars pouring into this "industry". Taking this all into account, it is an act of God every time a conservative is elected to anything. God save us!
Gary Whitworth
Redlands, California
Re: Who really won?
NOT TOO SHABBY
First Arafat and now Barack - two prizes for the PLO - not too shabby
Eric Waldner
Washington, DC
LET ME BE CLEAR….
You're a language guy, could you please explain what the President meant when he said:
"Let me be clear, I do not view it as a recognition of my own accomplishments, but rather as an affirmation of American leadership on behalf of aspirations held by people in all nations."
I mean holy cats; he had a team of speechwriters working on that one.
Also, take it easy on the million dollars, Mark. That's a million dollars. That's like two hundred bucks Canadian these days.
Doug
PINTER'S ACCEPTANCE SPEECH
if you ever needed proof that Nobel Prizes are sometimes given for anti-Americanism then all you need to do is listen to Harold Pinter's acceptance speech.
What a pathetic joke this award has become.
Tim Mills
ECONOMICALLY MORIBUND BACKWATER
This is such a fabulous line,
"Why squander your presidency on trying to turn an economically moribund feudal backwater into a functioning nation state when you can turn a functioning nation state into an economically moribund feudal backwater?"
That I had simply had to write you fan mail - Bravo! Bravo!
Corey
BEYONCE SHOULD HAVE WON
Where's Kanye West when we really need him?
"Mr President, Ima let you finish, but ..."
James Eckert
A FIEND IN HUMAN FORM
I loved your column on Obama and the Peace Prize today. I'm a college student in Georgia, and yesterday while doing some research for a paper, I came across a quote from George Bernard Shaw. In 1925, upon receiving the Nobel Prize for literature, he commented on the self-important, patronizing committee: "I can forgive Alfred Nobel for having invented dynamite, but only a fiend in human form could have invented the Nobel Prize." That great war-mongering, fire-breathing right-winger Shaw certainly saw the foolhardiness of the Prize, even back then. He gave his award money to a struggling writer friend of his, whom the grand, important Committee had no time for. I would imagine more and more people are thinking like Shaw now.
Andrew Hagerty
Dawsonville, Georgia
THE GREAT PYRAMID OF OBAMA
I read your piece on our Joke. It may be my distorted sense of humor, but when do you expect someone will propose putting all the unemployed to work building a Great Pyramid in Obama's honor to be built in the middle of the Washington Mall? All bets are off in the ridiculous department.
Tom G
Sandwich, Massachusetts
SPREAD IT AROUND
So, the prize includes $1.4M... will he be spreading that wealth around?
Fard Muhammad
SERVICES TO BASEBALL
Have you heard the latest great news for America? The American League has just announced its 2009 Cy Young Award Winner: BARACK OBAMA! The President evidently captured the award on the strength of that amazing first pitch he threw at the All-Star game this summer.
President Obama humbly said that he wasn’t sure if he deserved the award. However, he has decided to accept it as a “call to action” to get baseball reinstated as an Olympic sport. (As you know, baseball was removed as an Olympic sport because of George Bush and the Israelis.)
Having learned some hard lessons from his recent foray into Olympic politics, Obama vowed to work in close collaboration with his good friends Raul Castro and Hugo Chavez, two great allies of America who lead countries where baseball is very popular. Together they will forge a coalition that will peacefully persuade the rest of the world to restore baseball to its rightful place as an Olympic sport.
Tom Connelly
P.S. I love your stuff! Live long and prosper.
LYPSYNCHING
Obama Nobel Prize = Milli Vanilli Grammy
A Friend
THE NORWEGIAN OSCARS
I'm reminded of the Oscars When Ron Howard, accepting his award for "A Beautiful Mind", thanked Russell Crowe for his "incredibly brave" performance. I thought, after I cleaned the spittle off my face from spraying my drink, that these people take themselves seriously. The Nobel's are now little more than Oscars, and these pretentious people are actually expecting us to take them seriously. Funny, funny, funny.
Dennis Shaper
MATH PRIZE
Obama deserves a Nobel for math having taught the world what comes after a trillion.
C. Perrine
CAN'T GO WRONG BASHING ISRAEL
What would have removed Obama from the Nobel shortlist? Being less critical of Israel.
Jeffrey Diamond
Uniondale, New York
TOUGH AT THE TOP
Did you catch this AP story?
Apparently, being President means having to make difficult decisions, and sometimes choosing between bad options. Who knew? Still, there's some good news for the administration:
Iraq (timetable for bugging out is ahead of schedule)
North Korea (Dear Leader is talking nice)
China (relations are on an "upward climb")
Russia (they like us 'cause we got rid of those icky missile defense systems)
The whole thing reads like a high-school newspaper editorial. This is AP's idea of getting tough on Obama.
Brian Rehder
Re: Breast panel
YOUR SCANTY KNOWLEDGE OF BRA SIZES
You make a common error when citing a 48DD as an example of a preposterously large bosom. In actual fact, many merely obese women achieve this.
The 48 references ribcage size under the breasts. The DD references how many inches the actual mammary glands have over and above (so to speak) the ribcage.
Cup sizes go up to K, or something like that. A, B, C, D, DD, DDD, E, F, G...K.
So a 36K would be what is sometimes referred to as a prize rack. 48DD is just beefy.
For more info on this important and arcane art, see here.
Alexandra H
A Marylander who can't decide if it is more horrible to live in a blue state, or watch NH go blue
Re: A Carl Sigman centenary special
POD-U-LIKE
I loved the Song of the Week podcast. I have been a big fan of your scribblings and I always thought you were suited for the spoken word especially when you cover for Rush. More podcasting please.
Rob
AWESOME AUDIO
The audio SOTW on Carl Sigman was fantastic. I enjoyed it tremendously - all the good info with an audio soundtrack to boot. Keep it up!!
Howard Mednick
Toronto, Ontario
MASTERPIECE PODCAST
Just want to say - although I have followed your "Song of the Week" for a long time - the podcast on Carl Sigman was truly a masterpiece.
Bill Mc Cann
TOO HARD ON HILLIARD
Hi Mark, your Songwriter pieces are always fascinating but in your Carl Sigman piece seemed a bit dismissive of Bob Hilliard....apart from the songs you cite, he also worked with Burt Bacharach, before Burt teamed up with Hal David, and co-wrote some fine songs for the early-60s Drifters, including the beautiful Please Stay, since covered by many artists including most recently, Duffy.
Alan Lewis
Record Collector magazine
London
Re: The withering of free speech
POWER DOESN’T LIKE FREEDOM
Bravo to you and Ezra Levant, Mark. Both of you were clear and unwavering in your testimony. I watched the whole thing. And it even seemed that some of the Committee members might actually be listening. In my days as a lobbyist and regulatory lawyer, I came to be guided by two fundamental principles. The first was that it is possible to deal with either incompetence or bad faith, but not when they are combined in one person. The second was that to those who achieve some level of power (or at least believe they have), the concept of freedom becomes more and more elusive. Both of those circumstances were on display from Committee members, and your testimony and demeanor showed that you and Ezra Levant recognized it.
I hope your efforts will bring good results in Canada. Now, get back South of the border and tackle the same problem here.
John Primmer
South Ryegate, Vermont
IGNORANT MPS
Courtesy of YouTube, I watched you and Mr. Levant testify before the House of Commons Select Committee. Both of you were entertaining, enlightening and even edifying. However, the members of the committee struck me as being profoundly obtuse (not to say stupid) and appallingly ignorant of the issues. Or worse, willfully ignorant of the issues. It left me feeling angry and depressed. Personally, I would have been shaking them by the lapels after the first five minutes.
I applaud your patience and forbearance.
David C. Parsons
FREEDOM OF SPEECH SHOULDN'T HURT PEOPLE, YOU FASCIST
I viewed and reviewed your performance at the Justice Committee, all I can say is that Mark Steyn you are a charlatan! Again I can’t believe that Maclean’s would publish anything that you write after your little act of histrionics, for someone who believes in freedom of speech it appears from what you said at the Committee, that the only opinion that someone can have is yours! I believe in what Voltaire said “I will defend to the death your right to say it” the only provision to this is that as a Canadian the right to freedom of expression has a limitation not to hurt an individual with what you say.
You Sir are a cad! If you’re going to attack an institution as the CHRC and its employees, when you go into the House Committee on Justice, at least have the balls to tell the truth. I am disappointed in you, you have turned out to be nothing but a yellow journalist. If you want to be able to say everything and anything, then be prepared!!! No wait, better yet, MOVE TO THE USA – WE DON’T YOU!!!
How much do you want to bet the Americans wouldn’t take you!!!
I hope and pray that Ed Fast, M.P. the Chairman of the Committee, takes a close look at what you said on October 5th and sees the lies and sanctions you. You’re an outrageous manipulator and a pretentious BRATT! I can only hope that you and Izzy get your asses kicked severely, because that’s what you deserve. The best thing that can happen to Canada and Internet, is that your blog is pulled. If anyone is a neo-Nazi/fascist it’s you!!! Proof of this and the fact that you are a false freedom of speech crusader, is that nobody can post on your site. At least, the other neo-Nazi/fascist, Levant, lets people express their opinion openly!!! What is the matter Mark? Can’t take the heat or are you afraid that people might expose you for the charlatan that you are!
Jacob Ickmann
Canada
MARK REPLIES: "WE DON'T YOU!!!"? Well, I don't you, either.
GIVE US A GAME PLAN
Finally had a chance to watch the Canada HRC stuff you linked. Yikes. Benign language of multiculturalism is threatening. What ought the last best hope do? That is other than vote for Obama (peace be to him) for American Idol? Thanks for all you do. Loved America Alone! Give drones like me a game plan. We're not that dumb!
Charlie Lorensen
A HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION IN EACH CITY
I had been under the impression that Human Rights Commissions were primarily if not exclusively a Canadian creation. So I was taken aback last week when I happened to be in the city of Eugene in the state of Oregon and noticed a bumper sticker - Eugene Human Rights Commission. So I googled it and, sure enough, the city of Eugene has its very own commission and prohibitions under which it is against the law to discriminate on the basis of a long list of categories, including denying housing on the basis of the applicant being on public assistance. Isn't that one we were recently demanding be included here? How did we manage to fall behind little ol’ Eugene in inclusiveness and vigilance? They don't seem to have covered speech though so they have some catching up to do of their own. Still, if Eugene can have their very own Commission shouldn't Toronto? Or for that matter, New Market.
Glen Smith
COMING SOON TO THE US
After working for a few hours on my report on Justice Clarence Thomas for my online graduate classes at Sul Ross State (in West Texas...I am a Texas Sheriff's Deputy working on my MS in CJ), I came upon your and Ezra Levant's testimony in Ottawa on Youtube. I can only say that I am both very impressed with your articulate defenses of free speech and also somewhat concerned about similar laws potentially landing here in the U.S. I was very appreciative to hear about a Canadian professor's recommendation to disband Section 13, the worldwide support for free speech, and your historical examples of German laws prohibiting speech which only led to greater exposure of Nazi ideas. Thank you for your stance, and thank you for reminding me that the TRUTH should always be our ultimate measuring stick. Godspeed!
J. R. Hoyne
Kerrville, Texas
NOT A BIG DEAL IN GERMANY
One of Mark's columns on the HRC included a quote from an HRC staffer to the effect that freedom of speech was an American concept that had no traction in Canada (I paraphrase).
I came across this quote (below) which echoed that sentiment in a equally interesting context. I regret that it was not more timely.
“Germany had no tradition of the freedom of speech that Americans cherish so much, and we did not see anything unusual about people being sent to Dachau for ‘reeducation’- especially since it was helping to maintain stability.”
Siegfried Knappe (a high-ranking officer in the Wehrmacht) “Soldat: Reflections of a German Soldier”
1936-1949, Dell Publishing 1992 p. 374
Steve O'Brien
Portsmouth, New Hampshire
ONLY THE BEST
The travel expenses of Athanasios Hadhjis linked below. Are flights in Canada really that expensive or does he fly first class everywhere?
Jay Haws
Minnesota
WORKPLACE HARASSMENT
An Ontario truck driver has been fined $305 for smoking in his vehicle because it is also considered his workplace.
An Ontario Provincial Police officer noticed the driver of a tractor trailer was smoking a cigarette as he pulled up alongside the vehicle on Highway 401 outside Windsor on Wednesday. The policeman charged the 48-year-old trucker, who is from London, under the Smoke-Free Ontario Act, which prohibits smoking in enclosed workplaces and public places.
John Galvin
BLASPHEMY BANNED
This looks like the work of multiculturalists since it weirdly promotes and punishes a variety of religions all at once.
Craig
A CANADIAN SAM ADAMS
I must say, sir, I'm watching your testimony against the Orwellian hate-speech "witchhunters," and I must say, sir: you make either a Canadian or an American patriot proud! Mr. Steyn, you are the Canadian equivalent of Sam Adams, sir! I'm a guy who spent the last year (a year ago) in Iraq, and I'm sounding this out to you: HOOAAAH!! In the old days, warriors would have said, "Huzzah!" to such truth as you expounded in that committee.
Sir, thank you for your own fight for freedom on the home front. You have more b**** than most politicians that are supposedly "upholding" our democratic Republic.
HOOOAH, sir!
MSgt. Aaron Levisay
Sioux Falls, South Dakota
THE GREAT CRIMES WERE NOT MOTIVATED BY HATRED
"At any rate, the nearest thing to a laugh during Monday's proceedings came during an exchange about the CHRC's stated determination to ‘abolish hate’ - not ‘hate crime’ or even ‘hate speech’ but just plain old hate. I pointed out that hate is a human emotion and that it beats, to one degree or another, in every breast. And I suggested to the honourable members that I sometimes got the impression from her public remarks that even Jennifer Lynch harbours just a teensy-weensy itsy-bitsy soupçon of hatred for me and Ezra." (“Poor Jenny”)
Whenever I see a bumper-sticker avowing "Hate is not a family value," it takes all my self-control not to hammer on the driver's window and shout, "It depends on what you hate, you bloody, damned fool!"
If Ms. Lynch intends to abolish hate, she'll have to abolish love.
Does one who loves justice not hate injustice? Love peace and not hate war? Love mercy and not hate vengefulness? (or the respective inverses if one happens to be a slimy right-winger)
If a man does not hate his wife's cancer, how seriously should she take his protestations of love for her? (This, just incidentally, is why it is not possible to love the sinner without hating the sin . . . )
Like most modern deep thinkers, Ms. Lynch is undoubtedly convinced that it is hate that lies behind the many great crimes of history, especially recent history; precisely the sort of error only great thinkers can fall into.
Do the Janjaweed hate the Darfurians? Not at all; they simply want to occupy their land and enjoy their women. The Darfurians are in the way and the Janjaweed are able to slaughter them on whim, not because they hate them, but because they are indifferent to them. They hate them no more than a settler hates the trees and rocks he has to clear in order to occupy the land; rather less, actually, given that killing, looting and raping are a lot more fun than chopping, digging and dragging.
The really great crimes of the last century, the Shoah, the Ukrainian and Great Leap Forward famines, the Red Terror, the Gulag, the Killing Fields, literally ad nauseam, were not motivated by hatred at all; hatred played no part because love played no part.
All were committed in service to scientific theories; whether the fraudulent racial theories espoused by the Nazis, Marx's scientific materialism, or Lysenko's idiotic genetics. Hitler, Stalin, Mao, etc. did not hate Jews, Kulaks, or whomever; they were simply indifferent to the fate of human beings who stood in the way of establishing their respective theoretical paradises. (And behind all the bad science lies bad theology, precisely the same bad theology that lies behind all leftist schemes: the search for a secular eschaton, for the Thousand Year Reign of Christ without that spoil-sport Christ fellow hanging around.)
Yeah, the neo-Nazis and surviving Ku Klux Klanners are haters, no doubt; they are also hapless losers, who will spend their fruitless lives dreaming of the great crimes they will never commit, usually from the fetid dampness of their mothers' basements.
Michael E. Ehinger
Houston, Texas
THE TRUTH WILL NOT BE TOLERATED
Years ago, I read a piece entitled "Victoriosa Loquasitas: the rise of rhetoric and the decline of everything else." by Hugh W. Nibley who was a professor of Ancient Languages at BYU. It's included in his collected works in a volume called The Ancient State. His thesis was that when the Greek Sophists discovered that verbal tricks and word play could persuade people and entrance them, logic and truth were doomed. Like a Gresham's law of truth, bad logic drove out good. It marked the rise of persuasion as an art separate from discovering the truth and thus to the rise of lawyering, campaign management, public relations, advertising and post modernism. Your post, "The Withering of Free Speech," marks the ultimate extent of that destructive trend. We've reached the point where the truth will not be tolerated. As the Apostle Paul predicted: For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears." 2 Timothy 4:3
Allen S. Thorpe
Orangeville, Utah
Re: Allegedly convicted
ALLEGED CITIZENS
Regarding your 'Allegedly Convicted' piece at NRO. I was listening to our local public broadcasting radio station when the reporter referred to "Undocumented Citizens."
Rick Jacobs
ALLEGED ASSASSINATION
My favorite "alleged" occurrence.
I live in Plano, northern suburb of Dallas. On occasion, visitors want to go to the Sixth Floor Museum. The first time I went there, I saw the historical marker on the building which noted that "Lee Harvey Oswald allegedly shot John F. Kennedy...." (quoting from memory) OK, I can understand the lawyer language. Oswald was never convicted of the crime in a court of law.
However, inside over the ticket sellers was a big sign welcoming people to the museum and describing the museum. The text included the phrase, "the alleged assassination of John F. Kennedy". The alleged assassination?! Do they think Jackie killed him because she was tired of his philandering?
Mike Barnes
Plano, Texas
Re: Straight talk
CENTRIST CLAPTRAP
Brilliant, as usual. Of course the Lefty base knows that their candidates' centrist Kabuki is utter tosh.
Hate to give the Democrat base any credit, but they certainly see through clearer eyes than the independents, the Peggy Noonans and the David Brooks' of the world, who believe - because they wish to believe - that cynical claptrap is actually the dulcet tone of the mature centrist.
Ken Kurtz
San Rafael, California
POSTURING RIGHT, LEANING LEFT
You write: "Democrats win by pretending to be to the right of who they really are."
I agree completely. The tragedy is that far too many Republican politicians also pretend to be the right of who they really are.
Michael Sonby
THE REAL WORK
You miss one other thing liberals know: Obama will appoint judges and justices who will do the "necessary" work on most issues of importance, well beyond the reach of us knuckle-draggers.
Sean Egan
INSUFFICIENT LEVERAGE
Mark, agree that part of Democrat/elitist ruling concept of operations is to lie to the Neanderthals for our own good. So the One's gay base assumed he was posturing straight but would practice gay; question is why has Obama's centrist cloak come off on health care, etc., but he hasn't come out on gay issues? That's where the sense of betrayal comes from.
Given the cocoon that the administration is closeted within on most other issues, I would guess the answer would not be found in a realpolitik calculation but more that the LGBTXYZ activists haven't got enough leverage within the Rahm abacus.
Scott Crossley
Re: The torch has been passed over
HITLER'S GERMANY DIDN’T WIN OLYMPICS…
Actually Hitler did not win Germany the 1936 Olympics. The IOC picked Berlin as the site for the '36 Games on April 26, 1931 in a meeting in Barcelona. I assume that in the minds of the left-wing Obama hopeychangers this correction will further strengthen their conviction that Bushitler embarrassed The One. I guess this means we all have to do penance, which I'll do with some Scotch when I go home later today.
Tim Saunders
Half Moon Bay, California
…YES IT DID
The IOC actually did award an Olympics to Nazi Germany during Hitler's reign.
The 1940 Olympics were to be held in Tokyo in the summer and Sapporo for the winter games. (In those days the same country often hosted both events in the same year.) When Japan invaded Manchuria the IOC decided to move the winter games to St. Moritz where they had been held in 1928. However the IOC and the Swiss couldn't come to an agreement. In the spring of 1939 the IOC then decided to award the 1940 winter games to Garmisch-Partenkirchen, where Nazi Germany had hosted them in 1936. The
entire Olympics were scrapped after Germany invaded Poland later that year.
BTW, the 1940 summer Olympics were rescheduled from Tokyo to Helsinki before being cancelled completely. This is probably something that Jonah could add to, but during that period, the IOC had the curious habit of rewarding Fascist dictators with Olympiads: Tokyo, Sapporo, Garmisch-Partenkirchen, and Helsinki. (Finland never signed the Triparite Pact and therefore, was not a true member of the Axis, although she did fight on the side of the Germans against the Soviets.)
Bob
Camp Basrah, Iraq
LONG SLOW DECLINE
I believe abc's last Olympics was 1984, L. A. in the summer, I don't remember if they had the winter games that year).
It was nbc's awful coverage of Atlanta that made me swear I would never watch the Olympics again as long as they were on NBC.
Combine that with Tom Brokaw’s shameful treatment of Richard Jewel at those games and Atlanta may have been the beginning of the long slow decline that has culminated in msnbc.
I look forward to the next time you sub for Rush.
Gary Stratton
SOB STORIES
I have been quietly complaining about the US Olympic coverage for several years. I mean, they show lots of sob stories and almost no actual sports coverage. But I couldn't quite put my finger on why it all grated me so much. Then voila! Your column! It's the "Oprahfication" of the Olympics!
PS: As an Ohioan now living in Northwest Indiana for the past two years, I am glad Chicago lost the bid - the certainties from the graft and corruption of the Daley/Obama machine would have been "Olympian" in and of themselves!
Kathy Beeghley
Schererville, Indiana
AMERICAN INGENUITY
A very high percentage of the US swim team, maybe close to half, in Atlanta supposedly had asthma. Which also means that they were able to take certain drugs that were otherwise banned. In other words, the story here might not be a sappy one, but one about good old American ingenuity to get around meddlesome bureaucratic regulations.
But, I am very glad that Detroit is close enough to Windsor that we get CBC when the Olympics are on.
C. Thomas Ludden
Bloomfield Hills, Michigan
Re: Work, who needs it?
SOD ALL
I have been a fan of yours for years. I still am. I even have a signed copy of one of your books. I may not agree with all your ideas, but I truly cherish the way you express them. You often make me think and you always make me laugh, which often interrupts the thinking. And now, somewhat to my surprise, I have a bitch.
Your column - Work, Who Needs It? - that focused, amusingly as ever, on the lack of willingness of the Brits to work in such a bloated, welfare state - missed a crucial point.
The current recession has resulted in extraordinary pain for countless Brits. Dedicated, qualified, experienced men and women have gone to the wall - many with children halfway through their education, and mortgages half paid off. Many of these people, aged 35 to mid 50s - you could say at the top of their game - still have plenty of enthusiasm for the task at hand, much to offer and all blended with hard one reality.
The single man's benefit is 165 pounds a fortnight. That, in the cold light of expensive England, as you well know, is sod all.
And the last thing many Brits of my age - and yours - want to do is throw themselves on the mercy of the faceless state. Dignity is more powerful than we imagine. Most couples, who have never known unemployment, would rather dig into their hard earned savings than face the indignity of the "Job Assistance'' line. Lucky them, some might say. They have savings. Many don't.
My point is this, please don't lump those who don't want to work with those who have but can no longer do so, through no fault of their own. It not only gives a wrong, but an entirely false impression. The Brits are, and have been, a tight-pored and tough-grained people - and I know you like them.
The real concern is, many of this age group may never work again in their chosen professions. And why? Because despite whatever illumination and expertise they may bring to the table when this recession is over, if you pip 40-45 years-old, then forget it. The thrusting 24 yr-old will be chosen. They are cheaper. They can be trained. And they can be disposed of - just like the rest of us.
Still a very loyal fan.
Roger Beaumont,
Bhutan
INCURABLE SITUATION
This is not a modern phenomenon in the U.K. but probably one that is growing rapidly. As a university student in South Wales in the early 60's a group of students, me included, was hired during our summer break by the local town council to cut the grass in the area cemeteries. Also hired were the reluctant, permanent members from the Dole office. The foreman set us up in a long line, student on the right Dole recipients on the left. We all started at the same time, student laughing, cutting, telling jokes and having a thoroughly good time and getting paid . Unfortunately we raised the ire of the other group that barely cut any grass, stopped to smoke and only made half-hearted attempts at work. Needless to say a lot of antagonism developed with the student group bearing the brunt of a lot of hostility.
Some have no desire for work and this is an incurable situation in the U.K.
Roger Bethell
P.S. I do like your tongue-in-cheek sly digs at Wales.
THE ABOLITION OF STIGMA
Re your great "Work. Who Needs It?" column, I have a pertinent observation on this quote from the piece: The "abolition of want" starts with the abolition of stigma. And once you've done that, it's very hard to go back, even if you wanted to, which there's no indication Britain's millions of non-working households wish to do.
A quarter of a century ago, pre-Blair, I was an American exchange student at the Winchester School of Art, in, of all places, Winchester, Hamps. The other student with whom I shared a big studio space all became, before long, my "mates," and we got along famously- particularly at the local pubs. But I digress. As the end of term approached, we all began discussing what we would do when our "dear old college days" were over. To a one, my mates all said they would go on "the dole" and continue with their art. I told them that I would, upon graduation, have to get a job, and, if it didn't directly involve art, hope to continue it on my own. They all looked at me with shock, and it was with some difficulty that I let them know that going on "welfare," as we called it, carried a distinct social stigma (at least, in most strata of our society--I didn't dwell on that). I tried not to lay it on too heavily--I was, after all, only one Colonial surrounded by astounded Britons--and, in the end, I don't think I every really got through. I do remember detecting at least a few looks of pity, though.
Pat Hutchins
ONE STEP AHEAD OF THE LEGISLATION
I am a Brit and have read your erudite comments and columns for some years now.
A question for you and your readers for which I am seeking an answer. "In the western world, is it still possible to be law abiding?"
By which I mean that the sheer volume of law and regualtion pouring off the statute books in the UK, the EU, Canada the US etc, I am married (to a muslim actually), with children,I drive a car and I own a small manufacturing business employing 75 people and I am vaguely christian. I drive to work each morning, wondering if I have been caught on a speed camera. I enter my factory with a slightly dry mouth, knowing that somewhere one of my employees may be upsetting another, for which I am responsible, or doing something which puts us in line for a fine from the Health and Safety guys or the Enviromental Agency etc etc. Just yesterday, I learnt I must now have a TV licence for my business, because some employees may have i phones which allow them to watch live TV on breaks!
Outside my own little life, I note that a Scottish family had their two youngest children taken into care last week because the local authority believed them to be overweight!
So is it ever possible to live a law abiding life these days? If not and the chances are that on close inspection the state will always find means of making you an "outlaw", should we continue to support the current political ideology?
If you have time I would be interested in your views.
Bill
Leeds, England
Re: Mutha country
BOWLING FOR THE GUTTER
I must be even more of "a wee (-wee) sensitive soul" than you, Mark.
Last May - on Mothers' Day weekend, btw - I was disgusted when the U.S. president thought it appropriately funny to inform his sophisticated audience that his chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, has a big problem on Mothers' Day; seems he has a tough time saying "day" after "mother".
The POTUS tells a joke a joke which requires his audience to conjure up the ugliest street-epithet of them all...and we hear not a peep from our culture cops. BBC-level crap travels well, it seems. So does societal suicide, especially when it is top-down promoted. Bowling for the gutter in a new kind of mother****in' "Special Olympics"? We're all Obama-bound, apparently.
John Gross
Quebec
Re: Afghan elections mean everything
WHY I WORRY
Here is a principal reason I worry, worry, worry about what is Obama going to do with Afghanistan.
Last fall my three youngest children (my wife and I have five, and there's an anomaly for you right there nowadays) which we homeschooled K-12 (OK, now you know this is some deranged right-wing nut writing you) got the bug to join the Army, which they did. Incidentally their older brother served seven years in the Air Force, including a tour in Iraq. Well, you know what they say about us right wing types putting other people's kids out front.
So far this year I've attended three Basic Training graduations, two Advanced Training graduations (the third will be in January, 2010). At each, either informally at some point, or in one case as a parting remark at the close of the ceremony, one or more of the sergeants would say "See you in Afghanistan."
Obama campaigned on the premise this was the war that needed to be fought, now it's his. He seems to be in way over his head. Is he going to go in like Johnson into Vietnam, feeding troops into a meat grinder just quickly enough to ensure unending casualties, while the left flank of his party, having elected him, does everything they can to ensure defeat?
John Nixdorf
Re: Rush Limbaugh show
HOME-GROWN TOILET PAPER
Mark, I heard you on the radio today just before three o'clock. The Russian man that called about toilet paper and his solution for a better use for the New York Times. That would still require trees to be cut, the Greens would not be happy with that.
A better solution that will not require trees to be cut. It is a by-product of the farm that could help the solution of the necessary final job of a bowel movement. It is the lowly corn cob. In my child hood days on the farm if the urge that happens in the barn you picked up a corn cob. You make think that I am making this up, just ask some older farmers up in your country if that was not the way it was done. My grandfather often used that method as he had a constitution that kicked in early in the morning while milking. I know it is true because I have seen him use them. I have tried it and I will say I am sure it is better than the newspaper the Russian talked about. My grandfather passed the same constitution on to me - I am 78.
This could create a new industry for the "Greens" to collect the cobs in the fall when they are in good supply and sell them at the local Organic market. They would be sold in groups of three, two red cobs and one white cob. The instructions (they would certainly need them) would be to use one red and then the white one to see if you needed another red one. Suggest that industry to some of your "Green" acquaintances - they would get chills just thinking how they could make great strides to save the planet from further GLOBAL WARMING.
It is my hope that you will promote this timely suggestion to further reduce that "poisonous" Carbon Dioxide that has the "intellectuals" in a frenzy.
Shifting gears; I was in Kenya in the fall of 2006 and they had a big conference in Nairobi on Global Warming. They came from far and near to attend the conference. One evening one group was meeting at the inn that I was staying at, with nothing else to do, I joined them. The leader had come from Australia and other attendees from other faraway places. It was sad to hear the rabble rouser trying to get them to go home and stir up more rabble. The point that I am wanting to make is that I am reasonably certain he did not row a boat from Australia to Kenya to cut down on carbon emissions. It’s probable that many that came by those carbon-emitting jumbo jets. The one positive effect it helped the much needed economy of Kenya.
If you want to see the one that wrote this letter and learn why I am working in Kenya, go to my web page - .kenyamaasai.org I will be going back this fall or early winter. I am still dreaming of solving
problems.
James C. Opicka
Dayton, Ohio
TWO-PLY
The Goode Family had a hilarious bit where the dad had a hand-crank machine that separated two-ply toilet paper into 2 single ply rolls.
Peter Wilson
Cambridge, Massachusetts
YOU HATE THE UN, AND YOU’RE BORING
Listening to your lies on Rush's show - Saddam violated UN Resolution BUT Israel has violated or ignored 30 or 40 of the UN's resolution. Of course you are a hypocrite since to you Israel is our 51st state.
In addition, YOU HATE THE UN. You mock the UN. Why should you give dam if Saddam
ignores UN resolutions.
You and your fellows at NR give conservative a bad name. On top of that you are boring on the radio. Bring back Rush.
Mike Wallens
NICE COMPLIMENT
I am a long time Rush listener and as soon as I find out there's a guest host I switch off but today I gave you a minute or two just to see and you hooked me. Most Rush guest hosts just can't get close to holding the same level of interest as Rush does. But you can. A nice compliment to el Rushbo.
Bill
Re: Sorry, but US and Libya are different
TOO LATE
Just checking in as the 25,346th person to tell you that Cleveland already is a moribund, socialist swamp.
Clearly, you haven't been here in awhile.
D. Booth
Cleveland, OhioDETROIT WITHOUT THE CLASS
You've not been to Cleveland lately....like my nearby hometown of Youngstown, it is already a moribund socialist swamp. Obama's object is to make the rest of the US look like Youngstown & Cleveland, basically Detroit without the class.
John Hyre, Evil Attorney
Columbus, Ohio
Re: Pining for civil discourse
THE MSM'S BUSH-ASSASSINATION FANTASIES
"The left spent much of the 43rd presidency fantasizing about the assassination of Bush."
Did they? Other than a quickly-forgotten movie and a stray wish from a cuckoo or two, I don't recall any widespread wish of that sort from any faction over the course of that guy's eight-year bumblefest.
Fred Rossi
MARK REPLIES: No disrespect, but your recollection isn't dispositive. It failed to recollect, just off the top of my own head, “Checkpoint”, a novella by Nicholson Baker about the assassination of Bush; Craig Kilborn's network TV show on CBS, which featured a video of President Bush giving a speech over which were superimposed the words "SNIPERS WANTED"; a speech at Queens College by New York's comptroller Alan Hevesi at which he told students that his fellow Democrat Chuck Schumer would "put a bullet between the President's eyes if he could get away with it", which observation was intended and received as high praise; /The Guardian /newspaper plaintively demanding to know, apropos a second Bush term, "John Wilkes Booth, Lee Harvey Oswald, John Hinckley Jr - where are you now that we need you?"
These aren't what you call "stray wishes" from "a cuckoo or two", by which I suppose you mean the many "anti-war" protesters who marched through American cities with placards reading "HANG BUSH". No, the above are merely a highly respected bestselling novelist, a top-rated TV star, a senior New York Democrat, and one of the world's most influential newspapers. Speaking of failing memory, I can't seem to recall the Thomas Friedman column piously deploring such excesses, all far more explicit than anything said by any novelist, TV personality, senior Republican or mainstream newspaper about his successor.
"Bumblefest"? Cute. Maybe it'll catch on and improve our public discourse. You should be grateful your recollection is so patchy.
Re: Hollywood's moral compass
HOW DO YOU KNOW?
I have read the above article, as well as George Jonas' contribution in Saturday's National Post, with interest.
The point of difference between you and Mr Jonas appears to be, whether the rape was merely statutory or "violatory". He says, "unlike some pundits, who sound as if they'd been there, I wasn't".
and you, rather more vividly, "Roman Polanski knew she was 13 years old and, when she declined his entreaties, drugged her with champagne and a Quaalude and then sodomized her. Twice. "
Now, I have a great deal of respect for your factual precision, and, in this case, I am curious to know, how you did come into possession of these facts.
Victor Shulman
MARK REPLIES: From the grand jury testimony none of which was contradicted by the defendant before his guilty plea.
Re: Song of the Week
UP TO A POINT
In your column about Dame Vera Lynn and the song "We'll Meet Again," you refer to a Frank Sinatra record he made in the U.K. which you say is "...his only album ever to be recorded outside the United States..."
Perhaps you forgot this one?:
I value this recording in particular because it also is the only recording of his work with the Red Norvo Quintet and he was at the top of his vocal powers when it was done. For sheer novelty's sake it is worth the price just to hear him introduce his song version of "On the Road to Mandalay" with lyrics that seriously mangle the original poem, wherein he calls Kipling's daughter, who apparently objected to said mangling, as "an old broad." While the Australian audience can be heard tittering, their laughter seems a bit on the uncomfortable side, at least to my ears. Being a hipster isn't always pretty.
David "Dr. Zarkov" Sparkman
MARK REPLIES: Well, now, up to a point. Great Songs From Great Britain remains the only "album" recorded outside the US, if by album you mean a set of songs recorded in a studio. If you mean a great concert, recorded on tape and released decades later, the Oz CD is terrific. Re "Mandalay", apart from the odd switch - "a cat can raise a thirst" - he's relatively faithful to Kipling's text. It was swingin' that tune bigtime that Kipling's estate objected to, and for a while they succeeded in getting Sinatra's version banned throughout the British Empire. It wasn't on the original UK/Oz release of the Come Fly With Me CD. Eventually, wiser heads prevailed, not least because this is the biggest-selling version of "Mandalay" anyone's ever recorded.
BEST DOG BREED ON EARTH
Went to your website today. I knew I liked you for more than your wisdom. My wife and I have had Goldens for about 25 years now. We currently have 2 sisters a year apart. Best dog breed on earth.
Curt
COLES NOTES FOR THE CORNER, PLEASE
Hey there! I'm a freshman in college, which means I can't read as much about politics as I would like to with all the work. I try to read from a wide range of sources, and after a while I decided on National Review's The Corner as my "right wing" blog of choice. However, you guys simply post way too much. I can't handle it. Right now in my RSS reader there are 100 unread posts and 50 of them are from The Corner. I really don't want to lose the conservative voice in my reading, but I can't handle the amount of posts The Corner makes. Which other blog would you recommend I read that would give me a good overview of what's going on in terms of right-wing opinon?
Ben Lindsay
DEAL WITH IT, YOU FREAK
I can't understand your visceral hatred of President Obama; it is not only pathetic and juvenile, it also smacks of unadulterated racism. Get over it, my Canadian pal.... the "painful" reality for you and others of your ilk is that: you will have to deal with Obama for the next four years, and possibly, for eight years. Sharpen your wit, you freak......
Moses Yahaya
Jersey City, New Jersey
WHERE WERE YOU?
"When they came for the trade unionists........." They've come for Michael Savage....... where are you? You know they'll come for you, and then come for us all. Michael Savage is banned in Britain. I know he may be considered extreme. I realize he makes fun of everyone, but that's beside the point. He is your collegue and peer and you set a dangerous precedent when you say nothing at the outrage that is this ban. It makes me wonder if I should distrust the rest of the righteous right, whom I considered America's best hope at this precarious time in our history. "......I'll defend to the death his right to say it."
Where are you?
An American
MARK REPLIES: Where am I? See here and here and listen to the last portion of this interview with Milt Rosenberg in which I comment on the Michael Savage case.
Before you accuse someone of saying "nothing at all", you might first check the simpler explanation - that you've heard nothing at all. And then, before demanding in a big queeny huff, "Where are you?", why not try looking? They have this marvelous invention called Google.
Oh, and I don't need warnings about when they'll come for me. They've already done that - and in the land of my birth, not a distant country I had no plans to visit even for a short vacation. This is a politer response than the tone of your letter merits.
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