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Letter of the Week
THE FREE WORLD IN FREE FALL
I just finished reading your book America Alone, and I was very interested in the demographic information you cited in the book. I am a lapsed weather forecaster for the US Air Force, and I still keep abreast of the debate concerning "Climate Change', or Anthropogenic Global Warming (AGW), or whatever the activists are calling it these days. While I was aware of the fertility problems in Europe and elsewhere, I was not aware that it had gotten so bad in places like Italy, Russia, Japan, and Spain. Even in the US with a fertility rate of 2.1 per couple, we need immigration in order to grow our population. The first thing I thought of when reading your book was the economic impact of the global economy if current trends continue. From there, it occurred to me that if current trends continue, the last thing people in the near future have to worry about will be AGW.
There is much in the AGW argument I find either scientifically incorrect, silly, or simply mendacious. But, for I moment I would like to assume for argument sake that everything in the IPCC 2007 Report for Policymakers is correct, and their assumptions for the future climate are also correct - that is, let's assume that the science is indeed settled. If you refer to the Feb report for policymakers (pages 16-18), you will see their likely scenarios for the future. Each one of their scenarios assumes either a future population trend, economic growth, or both. A1 is the "worst case" scenario (continued rapid economic growth, rising living standards, more people -ie more CO2, pollution, rising temps, melting ice, etc...) B2 is the "best case" scenario - slower population growth (within an increasing population globally), slower world-wide economic growth, less CO2 than scenario A1. In this case, the assumption is that our CO2 levels would remain at 2000 levels.
In each of one of these scenarios there are assumptions. Not one of these assumptions represent the current trends in population growth vis-a-vis the Industrial Nations (China, Europe, Japan, India, North America). The A1 scenario is totally unrealistic (Of course, this is the one used by ALGORE, the UN NGOs, MSM, etc...), for it extrapolates current economic productivity, consumption, etc... out 100 years. Even B2 is problematic as the majority of today's consumers and producers will not be around in 50 or 100 years, and their progeny and their progeny's progeny will be at best 60% of today's -in Japan and Europe's case it will be lower. I don't think China publishes its fertility info, but their one male child policy will certainly lead to reduced economic activity. As you stated in your book, India's most productive industrial regions are now seeing plunging fertility rates. So, the question that needs begging is where does the IPCC get their demographic data? Why isn't there a C2 scenario for a halving of the population of the most productive economic nations on earth?
In some of the rebuttals to your contentions, there seems to be an ignorant assumption that we can still continue to see rapid wealth creation while the most advanced, industrial nations disappear from the face of the world. I'm not sure where these people think all of the future wealthy consumers will be. Africa? Pakistan? Iran? Even with China's large population, they are totally dependent on the US for over 50% of their exports. Without Walmart, there would be no China miracle. China derives almost all of its wealth from exports. Without 300 million workers
willing to work at $2 per hour, and live 3 families to one apartment in cities like Shanghai, China would not survive as a superpower. India may be a little better off, but again, without a dynamic, wealthy, and advanced North America and Europe where would India be in 70 years? And in North America, we export over $2 trillion dollars of goods and services worldwide every year. Where will our future consumers come from?
How any of this can be glossed over by the IPCC is a mystery. Besides empaneling the world's best chemists, climate scientists, biologists, physicists, and botanists, the IPCC contracted economists to figure where our economic growth would be 30,50 and 100 years out. You would think the first thing these eggheads would have done is call the local census bureau.
If anything, our global economy is reaching a peak. Most boomers will be over 60 years old in just 10 years (Hillary turned 60 this year), and quite a few will be over 70. It's hard to believe that Paul McCartney will be almost 80 in another decade. For all of their faults, the boomer generation has been good at one thing: wealth generation. What happens when these people leave this world and take most of their wealth with them? I read the baby-boomers will be the first generation in US history that will leave nothing behind for their children (few) and grandchildren (fewer still); I imagine the last check a baby boomer writes will bounce. For now anyway, our global economy is thriving because the boomer generation worldwide is in the middle of their last spending spree. In a decade they will retire to their gated communities, Hampton town homes, and French villas. Besides listening to old Pink Floyd tunes, smoking Thai Stick, and patting themselves on the back for being such swell people, they will also require expensive health care, drugs, and when they die, expensive funerals, and more expensive wakes -which of course the grandchildren will have to pay for. Even if Medicare and Social Security will not be totally tapped out, the amount of money that will be pulled from Annuities, 401ks, IRAs, stocks, and bonds will over time be in the trillions. For those grand children and great grand children around in 2040, there will be a world of barren fields, empty villages, and less wealth. An MS NBC article from a few summers ago describes what is going on in many parts of Europe.
The amount of industrial activity in the year 2100 will probably be far less than today. I know, humans are industrious people, and it is impossible to predict future events; however, with the free world depopulating, I find it difficult to imagine a world where dynamic, free nations can freely produce, trade and consume goods at the levels we see today. If demographic trends continue, it is not difficult to say that the total amount of wealth we see in the world will be halved in 100 years. And I haven't even considered the rapidly changing geopolitical landscape that you mention in your book. A collapse of our global economy that rivals the one in 1929-32 isn't out of the question. If that occurs, Global Warming will the least of the world worries. As a matter of fact, using the logic of the IPCC, the world would begin to cool.
Jerome Koch
PS- I can't wait for your next book. My other favorite writer from New Hampshire is PJ O'Rourke. Did you two ever go out drinking together?
Re: No Bond
ENOUGH ZED
Sean Connery as 007, definitive you say?
I say "bah!" and point you his role in the 1974 Sci-fi Marxist dystopian opus "Zardoz" directed by John Boorman. I ask you sir, who but "The Great Connery" could play a grown man dressed in nothing but a red diaper and a pony tail and make it work, hmmm?
I tell you he was born for that role! Could Costner make that work? Heston? Ford? Hell anyone could play James Bond, actors like Barry Nelson, David Niven or even George Lazenby have played James Bond and gotten away with it. Let's just see those "actors" try to wear in red diapers and pony tails, shooting pistols into the air while worshiping a large floating head and looking good and perfectly normal while doing it. That sort of thing takes acting my friend, because no matter how much of slouch you are, everyone always looks good in a tuxedo.
Seriously, I never miss a chance to poke fun at Mr. Connery. This is the man who gave up the singature Bond role to play the unbelievably odd and incomprehensible character "Zed" in Zardoz. I've watched this movie several times, and I still have no idea just what the hell its supposed to be about, except as an excuse to see Charlotte Rampling topless.
Frank Martin
LOST AND FOUND
What about Connery in "Finding Forrester”?
You're the maaahn now, dawg!
Bjhippx2
LICENCE TO KILT
Don't forget Highlander!
K Waugh
EMPTY SUIT
Maybe there's some truth to the Saturday Night Live sketch that has a dumb-as-a-post Connery insulting and taunting Alex Trebec?
Keep up the outstanding work.
Alexander P Brackett
Louisville, Kentucky THE ONE AND ONLY
What? A great 007?
THE ONLY ONE!
Apart from that, I love your articles, Mark.
Vladimir Dorta
Issaquah, Washington
KING CON
Sean Connery is the only 007... the others are merely pretenders.
Dana Hess
Carmichael, California
P.S. Loved America Alone.
Re: Babes vs. the wood
ELIMINATE THE ANIMALS
Reading the article about John Guillebaud in your column got me thinking about some extra tips that could be employed to help reduce this irritating nemesis called Carbon Dioxide. These are very green solutions that were practised for millennia before the evil industrial revolution. This is just a sample:
1) Commence a massive international (sorry a multi-national it sounds more hip) hunt for whales, seal and walruses. Those fat bastards emit lots of carbon dioxide. They are oxygen pigs and should find a planet of their own to live on.
2) Swear off vegetarianism and increase meat consumption worldwide until we have reduced the worldwide population of cows, sheep, pigs, poultry, fish, hippopotamuses and whatever else people are eating out there by four fifths. With all of those animals gone the carbon dioxide nemesis will be reeling.
3) Commence hunt for bears, giraffes, caribou, foxes, wild cats, alligators and many other species. Using their skins for clothing will reduce our reliance on synthetic materials. This means less of a need to drill for oil. Also eliminating these animals helps in the war against carbon dioxide.
Those are just a few tips for combating 21st century scourge called Carbon Dioxide. Reading Professor John Guillebaud's ingenious suggestions on combating carbon dioxide got me in a creative mood. His students must be honored to learn under him.
Bartley Kulp
Safed, Israel
DO I GET A CREDIT?
When it comes to carbon footprints, I am Sasquatch. Nevertheless, I take heart from the idea that having more than two children contributes to eco-terrorism. My wife and I have just one child (now grown), so I figure I can make money from a carbon tradeoff with a larger family. Perhaps I should ask Al Gore. Doesn't he have four or five kids? Our one child doesn't even own a car or a house, which would no doubt please the New York Times. On the other hand, he is a straight, politically conservative security contractor in Iraq, so that probably reduces his value on the Left's scale of social and ecological saintliness.
I have to confess, also, that earlier in our marriage my wife and I thought about having more kids. I suppose that's now a hate crime.
Jim Rudolph
Boise, Idaho
ENDANGERED INTELLECTUALS
Exactly! That is another reason why we can't elect a Mormon president....for golly's sakes, he has five! And they are already making babies. I elect Hillary. She only had one and she obviously is using birth control. Gotta give those brightest intellectuals a chance before they go extinct.
Mandy
AFTER YOU…
Not sure if you're familiar with the Voluntary Human Extinction Movement , but thought I'd pass it along. Went to law school with more than a few of these fruitcakes here in Portland.
Think voluntary extinction is a good idea? Great! Please do start by making an example of yourself. I'm sure the rest of us will be along shortly.
K
THE EARTH’S YOUR MOTHER, AND SHE HATES HER KIDS
I'm sure you've seen this, but the juxtaposition of advocating for the citizens of Britain to have fewer children to reduce carbon emissions seems perfect for your area of expertise. I think your work is terrific.
Children 'bad for planet' by Sarah-Kate Templeton in London
David Hanson
GOOD NEWS IS BAD NEWS FOR ECO-NUTS
Regarding the "Babes vs. the wood" in the Times of London:
....If the west follows that advice, where will we outsource the production of children to??? (No doubt it will be somewhere where women are treated equally, trees are hugged, and the gay children respected.) Where oh where will the next generation of performance artists come from????
Does no one ever consider that humanity, particularly the advanced Western variant, is amazingly creative? What will all the eco-types say when fusion energy (completely unpolluting) comes on-line??? "Uh oh, we can all live modern comfortable energy consuming lives without thinking that we have to eat cold gruel in the tent to be virtuous". What then? I can only imagine that sort becoming another type of other ascetic misery. (What a shame that psychological type don't go into convents and monasteries like they used to, but now slope around haranguing the rest of us.)
I believe we have a duty to future generations, but the first duty is to create them!
Peter Brown
(Father of 3 little kids, studied Physics and Math and has no time for eco-nauts who have never passed a science course.)
GREENPEACE UNDER ISLAM
"And when the self-loathing westerners are gone how many Yemeni imams will want to
man the late shift at the local Greenpeace office?" That sentence says it all. Thank you.
J D Redwine
Re: Fortress America’s gate is open
THOSE CRAZY RELIGIONISTS ARE AT IT AGAIN
Do you think they debated, even for a few seconds, what the first word of the title should be?
Religion Guided 3 Held in Fort Dix Plot
Robert E. Alderson, Jr.
New York, New York
Re: Anything you can loathe I can loathe better
BEAN THERE
Great Horny Toads! Thanks for the laughs, Geez oh Pete, that's good stuff.
Thanks too for the ole bean reference.
I worked for my father, a construction company, years ago and when he said
"hey ole bean" you knew the day wasn't done.
"Hey ole bean take the truck and air compressor and go to..."
Doug N.
Ohio
HOW TO ANSWER THE IDIOTS
What about "bollox" as a candidate response to idiotic moderator questions.
Mark Newgent
Baltimore, Maryland
DO WE CARE?
Crikey. Does anybody care? Gee Whiz.
I really hate the way our campaigns avoid real issues. Golly.
Richard Reed
LITMUS TEST
Great, now part of the litmus test of U.S. Presidential politics is if, and then when, you did it with your wife before she became your wife. What's going on here? Doesn't "where" matter anymore?
Stephen Wood
SOMETHING STUPID
Mark, in The Corner, you said:
"In a spirit of bipartisan compromise, how about 'Thufferin' thuccotash'?"
My vote goes to the first candidate who upon being asked one of the painfully stupid questions that "moderators" appear to think are so clever or "tough" answers by looking into the camera and saying "What a maroon !"
Alan Bell
WHAT'S UP, MITT?
What an ULTRAmaroon!
That is the approved Bugs Bunny version....
Terry Teachout
WISE MAN
Clearly this candidate from Massachusetts is a Svengolly.
Keep up the great work Mark.
Brian Wollet
WHAT ARE YOU SAYING?
I'm not sure I understand your post yesterday at the Corner:
"Well, it is a strange question, Kathryn, but oddly enough a certain presidential candidate among the 2000 pool volunteered the information about 15 seconds after saying hello to me while campaigning in northern New Hampshire. I'm no Mike Wallace so I wasn't sure how to respond, and mumbled a question about his prescription drug plan while looking over his shoulder in hopes Alan Keyes would come and rescue me."
Are you saying McCain is spreading this rumor about Romney?
Now you can see trouble…before he arrives
Leo LeSueur
VOTING FOR GOVERNOR GOLLY
GohhLlleee! About the photo K-Lo posted of Governor Gollygamist...
Anybody remember "Gomer Pyle, USMC"?
Mitt's not Jim Nabor’s secret love-child, is he?
Shazam!
Wallace
(actually, once the Governor toned down the Wink Martindale bit in the debate, I liked him. Depending on how Fred Thompson turns out, I have no probs saying "Alex, I'll take Massachusetts governors for 2000 (and eight)"
POLLYWOLLY FOLLY
You do realize it's "pollywolly doodle all the day", not "pollygolly"? Plenty of MP3s online, lyrics, etc.
Sarah Yost
TWO GUYS NAMED MARK
You are the funniest guy in "the Corner." The "gollygamy" post was worthy of Mark Twain.
David Churchill Barrow
ENOUGH GOLLIES
I believe multiple gollies would be polygolly.
Dan Wiffler
Los Angeles
Re: Live free or die
THAT PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY THINGY
There can't be many men left in NH, but Mr. Floyd is certainly one of them. No doubt this troubles the powers that be. This sort of masculine courage thingy could lead to all sorts of unfortunate results if allowed to continue. Why before we know it, self-reliance and personal responsibility might rear their ugly heads. Victimology might be diminished as a governing principle. And the NH motto might again stand for something more than a smirk-worthy indication of New England redneckism.
Keep not letting the bastards get you down.
Stu
THE MASS MENTALITY
Back around the late 1970s and early 1980s, we used to joke that Massachusetts should be required to annex portions of southern NH.
They seemed to be over-running that part of the state and too much of the state legislature.
If the NH AG gave any thought to charging this Marine, then I must assume that a Massachusetts-mentality has taken over the state. Pity.
Lee Cole
Lebanon-Hanover-Lyme area, New Hampshire
DITCH THE D.A.
Rather than talking about “not pressing charges”, the state of New Hampshire ought to be thanking him for his bravery and improvisation.
I am disappointed that you did not find the more obvious question.
Why aren't the residents of that area talking about who is going to replace the DA who even considers pressing charges?
Look forward to reading more of your works, especially in my local Sun Times.
John Palmer
GUILTY UNLESS PROVED INNOCENT
When I lived in Arizona I had a concealed carry permit for my revolver. The law required 16 hours of training that included discussions on deadly force as well as how to fire and maintain one's weapon. One of the points they stressed was that if we ever shot anyone we would automatically become the suspect, have our weapon confiscated, and have to prove the shooting was justified. It sounds like that is what happened in the New Hampshire case you referred to.
Jim Bash
Forest Hills, New York
HE DESERVES A MEDAL
Hell, the guy deserves the Presidential Medal of Freedom for what he did, not scrutiny from the DA. I hope I can act with such bravery, if ever I find myself in a similar situation.
LTC Rick Vinas (US Army)
Arlington, Virginia
Re: Contempt of court
LOVE THE COVERAGE
Before you began covering this trial I had only the vaguest idea of who Conrad Black was and what this this case was about. I recently recomended to my wife that she should, like me, read your coverage of the trial every day. She asked what the case was about. I replied "I don't really know and it does not really matter - Steyn's coverage is too good to resist".
Also, I find myself pulling for Lord Black even though I have a feeling that while he may not be guilty of crimes deserving a hundred (or any) years in the chokey he is not entirely innocent.
Keep it coming.
Naozer Dadachanji
Lafayette, California
LET’S PLAY HUNT THE VICTIM
So, the prosecution isn't going to call any "victims" to testify. It seems to me that the defense would do well to do just that. Find some Hollinger investors, l’il ol’ gran’mas and hardworking single moms, if possible, and let them testify that their investments remained profitable and secure as long as Conrad Black was at the helm. Let them explain that they did become victims, losing their retirement savings and college funds, but only after Black was removed and the company turned over to the corporate governance types.
Bill Henderson
British Columbia
CAN CON
I’ve been following the coverage of the Conrad Black trial and it seems that the only thing Conrad is guilty of is being conned by David Radler. It’s a good thing that’s not a crime, and not just for Conrad’s sake, since the prosecutors are also guilty of being conned by Radler.
David Somerville
Kanata, Ontario
TARGETING THE BIG GUYS
Did you hear about the American cyclist who was stripped of his medal for winning the Tour de France for using drugs? I forget his first name, but his last is Landis. He was approached by lawyers working for the drug authority to testify against Lance Armstrong in exchange for a reduced sentence. Unlike David Radler he said no. I guess this normal legal business in the States. Pretty smelly to me.
Gary Feldman
PERSECUTION BY PROSECUTION
Thank you for your blog about Conrad Black's trial. This trial seems to be the next installment from the following series:
- Martha Stewart - for lying about the crime she did not commit;
- "Scooter" Libby - for lying about the crime apparently nobody committed; and finally
- Conrad Black - for being lied about by the liar who may or may not have committed the crime, but this also really depends on whether you believe the liar.
There was some mention about the "fascistic Nazis" in your blog in relation to the prosecution case. Well, I am not so sure, if this is fair. It seems that even at their worse Germans always maintained order ("three Jewish grandparents", no less). All the above cases are straight from the Stalinist show trials! Ok, nobody gets shot in the back of their heads (like my relations in Russia) - only 101 years in jail. And everybody with mouths agape: "Well I donno understand, but there must be something to it."
If things like this are done in public to the people mentioned above, I begin to wonder what horrors are being inflicted without any publicity upon the ordinary people, who happen to catch the eye of the prosecution zealots? I look at Fitzgerald and I see a great candidate to play the Stalinist persecutor Wyshinsky: - a dangerous man, actually proud of his lack of sense
of humour. "Give me a man and I will find the statute!"
Maybe there is a good answer to the question asked the Republican candidates: "What do you hate about the United States the most?" Let me try: "I hate it, when the Americans fear the layers and the IRS the way Russians feared the NKWD".
It begins to feel like it is not the "America Alone" any more. It might be just you and me and few others.
Jakub Ciring
Calgary, Alberta
PS. Sorry, but my egalitarian philosophy prohibits me from calling somebody a "lord", unless the title is reciprocated. So, perhaps you might mention to the "main accused" that his decision to stand the trial might help this atheist to understand the idea of "somebody sacrificing himself for other people's sins".
PERSONALLY MOTIVATED PROSECUTORS
Not a newspaper I usually look at, nor one much disposed to the defence of Lord Black, but searching for sthg else on Google, I thought this example was apposite in view of the stuff you said the other day about British English.
“he hosed down over-excited claims by his colleagues” [ In fact White’s use of English is poor here. Something about the use of transitive verbs, is it? Good English would have it that he ‘hosed down his overexcited colleagues’ as you can only hose the excitement of people, not of things.]
I was also struck by what you said about a good QC demolishing a man who declared he had had enough of giving evidence and would be catching his ’plane now, thank-you very much. I am presently training in hopes of doing exactly that job, but, having always been a very mild-mannered sort of chap, am not enjoying the prospect of, well, having to be embarrassing to people. Yet even I would have had no difficulty, I think, in reminding a witness who said that, that he might be asked to stay until he had answered all counsels’ questions. Presumably the learned judge, at least, if no one else, slapped him down for his presumption at that precise moment.
Many of us over here are also a little put out that people keep being extradited to face these, shall we say, “personally motivated” US prosecutors for things alleged to have happened, if at all, only on this side of the ocean, especially in the very grey area of so-called white-collar crime. You can criticize the lack of pluck of the Crown Prosecution Service, but turning over the right to decide to pursue someone in this manner to an elected politician who wants to use it to gain
name recognition before he runs for governor, seems contrary to the interests of justice to British eyes.
Of course it is mostly the fault of the spineless British government. They are used to handing over their own legal powers to the continent to the East, and so handing over their people to a foreign jurisdiction appears to come more easily to them. America is rather more impressive at defending its citizens from similar foreign adventurers.
N Johnson,
Cheshire, Great Britain
EXAMINATION CLARIFICATION
This was in one of your blog entries on the Conrad Black trial:
“Shortly thereafter, the prosecution's cross examination of Mr Radler expired. He's in for quite a ride this afternoon.”
I may not fully understand the situation, but it seems to me that if Radler was the prosecution's witness, the prosecution would have been engaging in "direct" examination, not "cross-examination." Usually the side that's calling the witness does "direct," the other side does "cross," and then there may be "redirect" and "re-cross." When you're filing a pleading with an appellate court, there's an initial pleading (motion or brief) and then an "answer" and then a "reply" to the answer and even, sometimes, a "surreply" to the reply to the answer to the original pleading.
Just a nit, and I may even be wrong since there seem to be multiple parties. Your coverage of the trial has been very entertaining.
Jim Christman
Virginia
THE PROPER USE OF ‘ESQUIRE'
Americans used to write Esq. or Esquire as in the title of Marquand's H.M. Pulham, Esquire.
Born 1929, this Canadian still often uses Esq. Most of the mail addressed to my father such as bills (presumably including though I can't remember specifically, Bell Telephone, Montreal Light, Heat & Power, the City of Outremont) used Esq. At Canadian Pacific where I worked 1956-63 all surnames (except of course women) were followed by Esq. even in long c.c. lists. Even in the 1980s I had a proper letter from the P.M. (Trudeau) I'm pretty sure also used Esq. and incidentally also definitely used the successive indentations of address lines.
The usage was as you describe for the UK but I think the practice is disappearing there. As you surely have noticed, the UK, despite Bushophobia and general anti-Yankishness, is adopting American usage, terms, expressions and even spelling at a great clip. It seems to be a kind of compulsion such as saying "glove compartment" instead of glove box"! But the one I wish they would adopt just sits on a shelf -- they still say "pavement" for sidewalk.
Lionel Albert
Knowlton, Quebec
P.S. I think your elucidations of the courtroom exchanges are brilliant.
LOST INTEREST IN IRAQ?
I haven't been writing much on the Iraq war recently. I guess other more important events like the Conrad Black trial have come up and your attention has shifted. That's understandable, I suppose. Most advocates of the war (our Vice-President the notable exception) have run off to other more important matters now that things haven't quite turned out as they planned. Rumsfeld is drinking wine and playing handball at one of his estates. Wolfowitz is preaching against corruption around the world with his lovely girlfriend. Tom Delay has gone back to bug-killing apparently, and you are spending all your energies and talents on the important matter of
convincing the world that your former boss is innocent. Iraq?
Eventually you'll probably get around to writing an article or two about Iraq and what has become of it. "It was a good idea that was poorly implemented." "The liberals and Defeat-a-crats want to cut and run before our mission is done." Or perhaps, "The press is manufacturing disaster. Baghdad is a lovely place full of green parks and colorful birdies, much like the neighborhood where I live and take leisurely strolls with my wife and children." Maybe you could use one of these ideas for your next Iraq piece and you and I and all your readers can get drunk on fantasies once again of how a "free" Iraq would bring peace and stability to the entire region.
I hope you don't get hemorrhoids from sitting on those hard courtrooms benches for so long.
James T Collins
WHAT’S RADLER GUILTY OF?
The only thing I don't understand is, if the non-compete agreements were all open and aboveboard, what did Radler plead guilty to, and why?
Also: why is "Contact us" under "Info" on Mark's site, and not under "Mark's Mailbox"?
Larry Eubank
Re: Tales from Inside the Beeb
RUBBERNECKING THE WRECKAGE
When I read in your article that the BBC Web site gets the third highest number of hits in the US I was stunned. How could a country as diverse and large as the United States give anything British, like the BBC, such a stellar position? But then I realized I am guilty as charged for I too pop into the BBC Web site a least once a week. Why? Well, it's like staring at a bad car accident. I can't resist looking although I know what I am seeing is gruesome. Reading the BBC's take on world events and how it effortlessly turns everything - and I do mean everything - into an American bashing fest is fascinating, if not pathetic. It's like staring into the abyss. I can't turn away, although I know what I am staring at is the end of humanity as we know it.
Mario Sanchez
Miami, Florida
CULTURE OF ENTITLEMENT
In reading your review of Robin Aitken's book regarding the BBC, I found myself wondering at the curiosity of the BBC's entitlement. Anti-monarchists that they are, they nevertheless assume the role as the "Royals" when it comes to broadcasting. And perhaps it speaks volumes that people who generally say they don't need royals still perk up their eyes and ears when said royals are available.
Brad Hansen
Mediapolis, Iowa
CLINGING TO MARXISM
It's clear why the BBC is such a staunch proponent of Marxism. If the BBC were left to the free market, it wouldn't last a month. The BBC clings to socialist ideology in the same way a drowning man clings to a life raft.
D Papaccio
MOST-POPULAR PUZZLE
Please publish (or respond to this e-mail with) the source of the statement that "the BBC is the world's most popular Internet news site". I cannot throw that statement around as fact (as I'd like to) without someone demanding "who says?". I cannot find a source anywhere (or rather, after about 20 minutes of googling with various hooks). Yes, the BBC is the most popular news website in the UK, but '"the world"?
Lee Hoffman
BLATANT BIAS
As a Brit who lives half time in the U.S. I just want to applaud your comments on the book about the BBC. Their blatant left-wing bias is a constant embarrassment to me and I am comforted by the fact that you have exposed it and helped to explode the myth of their “impartiality'”. Great stuff!
Mike King
WRONG FOR 75 YEARS
Not being a subject of Her Majesty, I'll defer to your conclusion that the BBC needs to be split up. But if I were, and you said abolished, we'd have to find something else to argue about because I didn't realize until recently how insanely pacifist the BBC has always been.
A couple of months back I bought a copy of "'Never Give In!' Winston Churchill's Greatest Speeches", ironically produced by the BBC. The first speech is the classic about St. George
and the Dragon from 1933. In the introduction, his grandson explains that the great gentleman was using the story as an allegory to avoid the BBC censors. He said that, at the time, the BBC unashamedly supported the appeasement policies of the government and would not allow broadcast of any other view. Of course, we all know how that worked out. Yet they still cling to the same tired ideologies that were so tragically wrong 75 years ago. How much more wrong today in a world of nuclear weapons and Islamofacists that make a Nazis blitzkrieg look like stoic humanitarianism?
I'm sure you're familiar with Churchill's speech. He told the story of St. George and the Dragon in a modern setting. St. George arrived, not on a horse, but rather with a secretariat. Armed not with a lance but several flexible formulas, he was welcomed by the local chapter of the League of Nations. Instead of slaying the dragon, he proposed a conference with, of course, a round table to accommodate the dragon's unwieldy tail. Trade agreements were worked out and loans were made. The maiden's plight was referred to Geneva with the dragon reserving all rights. At the conclusion a group photo was taken of the participants with an inset of the maiden.
How easy would it be for Churchill to give the same speech today, but instead of Cappadocia, set in Iran, Korea, Sudan, or any other Hitlerian wannabe stinkhole? The group photo of U.N. conference delegates would no doubt be taken on the beach at Banda Aceh to raise global awareness about... something, anything they never intend to actually do anything about. Sad to say but the world would be a better place if the BBC went into retirement where it belongs.
Steve Slick
Texas
Re: Song of the Week
THE LADY HAS STYLE
"I was sent your excellent article about HOW ABOUT YOU - and I'm glad about that for two reasons. First it is an excellent piece - well written with a real appreciation of both lyric and music - and secondly because Burton Lane was my husband."
What a classy intro! Gave my heart a little pang. In an e-mail world of F*** YOU MONEKYBRANE, it's nice seeing someone put a little style into an e-mail. I'm glad to know that the musician and his Mrs. made a lot of music away from the keyboard as well. Ah, even music was musical back then.
Ezra Marsh
Baltimore
RHYMES FOR ORANGE
Re: "Invited to come up with a rhyme for the famously unrhymeable fruit, Irving Berlin proposed "door hinge", which I always thought was pretty feeble. Berlin's fellow lyricist Sammy Cahn explained to me that "orange/door hinge" rhymes in a certain kind of dense Bronx accent, but I said I'd traveled widely in the Bronx interior and wasn't persuaded. "
Here's an excerpt from the Austin Lounge Lizards "Another stupid song about Texas"
"Our cows are the Long-horniest, our yodels the forlorniest,
Our cookoffs are the chiliest, our Waylon is the Williest,
Our sausage is the smokiest, our neighbors are the Okiest
From Texarkana to El Paso, Dalhart down to Orange
Every spot in Texas has got what you're looking for
Aren'cha glad that Texas put the stars up in the sky?
If heaven isn't Texas, pardner, I don't want to die"
Do you see how when you elide "looking for Aren'cha" you get a near-perfect rhyme for "Orange", in standard Texas locution? I've never heard a better effort, anyway.
Steve Pitts
Temporarily in Hastings, NZ, enjoying the birthrate. Permanent residence Atlanta, GA but a former and possibly future Texan, just getting into your book. In the 70s I used to want to be a member of ZPG because Austin was so crowded and the population bomb such a mathematical certainty; you’ve convinced me zero population growth is still a great goal, only now we'd do this by encouraging rather than discouraging fertililty.
HAVE YOU EVER DONE ‘TRAMP’?
I'm a big fan of all your work (already told Atlantic Monthly "No Steyn, no more subscription").
A question: Have you ever done a piece on the song "That's Why the Lady is a Tramp"? If so, I must have missed it, so could you please re-run it sometime (the questions I have on the song are the obvious ones).
Thanks, and keep up the good work- I always look forward to seeing what you've got to say.
Jeff Fraum
Bensenville, Illinois
Re: Just a wearyin’ for you
FIGURES
He probably got the 10,000 figure from the CIA, French intelligence, and the UN. Does that make him a liar?
Troy Hinrichs
Riverside, California
CRYPTO-RACIST
.... Mark Steyn indulging in crypto-racist mockery of a black candidate:
"He gets weary an' sick of tryin', he's tired of fig'rin' how many's dyin', but young Obama, he jes' keeps rollin' along."
It beggars belief. I can't imagine Mark Steyn doing something like that, what with his respect and deep feeling for the black experience in America. A veritable disciple of Dr. King, he is. That's why it so pains me to have to inform you that you have drifted further down my list of ill-educated DJs masquerading as serious political observers.
Plus, using "Show Boat" lyrics? Gauche, Mr. Steyn, tres gauche.
Ben Cronin
Boston, Massachusetts
MEANINGLESS DRIVEL
Your NR Corner posting "Just a-wearyin' for you" was great! Mark, doesn't Obama remind you of Chauncey Gardner with his vapid phrases and speechlets? He may as well say "You should always plant in the spring...." or "I like to watch..." and the crowd would still swoon, and find meaningful meaningness in it.
Lucy Gill
BUSH IS WAY WORSE
Funny post on Obama's error on the 10,000 dead tornado victims. Way to lay into him! But did it occur to you what a flaming f***ing hippocrite you are flaying Obama for his one mistake and ignoring Bush's 50 equally idiotic malapropisms per day?
You're a clown.
Tom Castle
Dayton, Ohio
TRY AND BE NICER
I just read your last post and it makes me sad. Why do you do this? I wish people in your position would try to find ways to unite instead of divide. Step it up!
Eric Thompson
THE LADY WEARS THE PANTS
Leave it to Obama to make Hillary look like the bigger man.
Alex
POOPED
No one mentioned how tired he will be after a gruelling week in an international crisis.
Hell, folks, I have been doin' 20-hour days. Give me a break you racists.
Joe O’Mara
NODDING HEADS
My question is: who are the two morons in the video standing behind Obama, sagely nodding their heads in agreement?
Michael Hertzberg
New York
CANDIDATES DO GET WEARY
Ok, so Obama may be weary
them young pols they do get weary
but, jeez...try a little tenderness!
ps..I wonder, although you probably know, what Bing's version sounded like.
Toby Marcell
ROLLING ALONG
Thanks a lot, Mark - now, I will always chuckle during Ole Man River - you are a treasure.
Where were you (and John Podhoretz) when I was single (said with a sigh and a smile)?
Kathleen Okray
JUST SILLY
Perhaps the early campaigning will have a hidden benefit. As all these candidates look increasingly silly just running for the job, Bush will look more sympathetic, since he actually holds the job.
Barry Dauphin
ANYONE BUT HILLARY
A relative in New Hampshire reports an Obamamania among independent activists like
nothing she has ever seen in the state. She reports that it comprises increasingly
persons of not just anti-Bush but anti-Clinton sentiment.
Dirk Coburn
Re: Think globally, submit locally
THE GARBAGE POLICE
In The Corner you mention: Among the examples she cites: $200 fines for poorly separated recycling and "microchips implanted in wheelie bins [trash cans] to weigh residential refuse - dragging Britain's surveillance culture to a new low".
A friend of mine is President of the local Sierra Club, and he thinks people should be forced to use clear plastic trash bags, so the garbage men can inspect the load, and surcharge those not recycling. And he's also worried about "creeping totalitarianism". I guess he's also irony-challenged.
Ed Tonry
PEEEE-UUUWW
I just moved to London in February from Northern Virginia (Vienna). Regarding garbage, it is a big issue here from what I can't tell and I've only been here a few months. The local elections just held last week confirm that the people hate them. I believe that basically everyone that enacted them was voted out.
However, there is a bigger problem in this eco-paradise. Every London men's room smells as bad as the worst men's room in some deserted park. You can't flush a single urinal. They all have timers for when they will run water through them periodically. It is absolutely disgusting.
On a side note, what is up with the Belgians? My wife and kids are in Luxembourg for a few months until she gets transferred to her companies London office. I've been doing the weekend trips and it's much cheaper to fly in to Brussels and take the train than to fly into Luxembourg (I don't know why more people don't come here for the weekend, it really is a beautiful city - I guess the locals don't care and just head back to France or Germany anyway). Every train I catch from the Brussels-Nord station is filled with the worst street-thug posers blaring music from their phones (as much as I hate hip-hop, French hip-hop is worse). I tried to avoid them by getting a first return ticket but they just keep re-appearing after the ticket-guy comes back. They really seem to be a miserable lot, and I don't mean the people are bad, but they seem so resigned to being in a "crappy" situation. They seem depressed. I'm no fan great fan of the French, but at least they have some life in them.
Anyway, I'm a huge fan and am thrilled to read you more and more in the Corner. You last book, which you were kind enough to sign to my two children, was outstanding.
Jorge A. del Rio
Re: Leno, Lileks and the law
IT’S ALL GREEK TO HIM
Correct me if I'm wrong but didn't the Good Reverend Sharpton say something to the effect of "Socrates and those other Greek homos" once?
I guess that still wouldn't prevent him from seeking reparations
Bryan Rose
YOU LOST ME
This devoted reader of yours with years of Benedictine/Jesuit education in Latin and Greek finds your remark about Zeus' beard and Al Sharpton opaque at minimum. Would you have the goodness to offer a gloss on the text? Have I been caught napping on something I should know? Will it be on the exam?
Bernard Hassan
DON’T SHOOT ME I’M ONLY THE PIANO PLAYER
The same goofs who booked the Captain & Tennille at the Whitehouse for the Queen's appearance must have been fired & rehired by Milwaukee. In Milwaukee's last big Harley Davidson anniversary (95 or 100 years can not recall exactly) they brought in ... ELTON friggin JOHN!
I like Elton John as a singer but is way out of character for that event.
Marcus
BIRTHDAY BOY
Toni Tenille’s...her " Come In From The Rain " has tenure on my All-Time Top 100 :
"Time has left us older....
Wiser...I know I am"
(Coincidentally, I'm 65... TODAY! I was kinda hopin' you'd remember, but hey...)
John Gross
Beloeil, Quebec
CERVICAL CANCER IS AN STD
Your Saturday morning Corner post on demographics contained this third party quotation:
"So we pump our young with pills, wrap them in condoms and, coming soon, jab them with vaccines hoping to prevent unwanted pregnancies, STDs and, now, cervical cancer."
Actually, cervical cancer has always been an STD, for all intents and purposes. It essentially never occurs in the absence of certain variants of sexually transmitted human papilloma virus (HPV). That's why nuns almost never get it (curiously, nuns have *higher* than average
rates of breast cancer, which suggests *that* disease is more common in women who have never had children). The gynecologists fairly deliberately downplayed the fact that HPV caused cervical cancer because they felt that if unmarried women knew that the Pap smear was essentially a test for an STD women would be *less* likely to have them for fear of revealing that they were sexually active. The argument, which is just a bit patronizing, was that if the public knew that HPV caused cervical cancer it would be less likely to screen for the disease and therefore more likely to die from it.
There used to be many such deceptions in public health, actually, which is not surprising considering how high-handed public health officials tend to be.
Jack (the anonymous blogger "TigerHawk")
NAME CHANGE
Only California would require special legislation to do something like this. When I married my second wife in the Commonwealth of Virginia we decided to concatenate our names, and since my original surname didn't hyphenate well I dropped it altogether and hyphenated her maiden name to my middle name. All it took was a trip to the local Social Security office with the marriage
certificate (which in Virginia does not list the all the names anyway). Of course after we divorced I dropped her name and simply stayed with my middle name as my new last name, which bolluxed up the State Department a bit when I went to reapply for a passport, but we cleared that up. Anyway, knowing now what a pain it is to do this I'm surprised that women haven't revolted
long ago against having to take their husband's name. Frankly I like the Scandinavian method where the child's last name is based on their gender and their last name becomes father's-first-name-son or mother's-first-name-daughter.
Craig Allen
A QUICK PIECE OF PAPERWORK
Wait a minute. This guy had to sue to change his name? It doesn't matter who has the surname in question, you can normally just go down to city hall and change it. As long as you're not doing something stupid (curse words, blatant anatomical references, etc.) it takes no more time
to do the paperwork than if you got married, I'm sure....
Gerald W Brown
THE INCREDIBLE LIGHTNESS OF BEING CANADIAN
From Jonah at the Corner: "If it seems Canadians weigh less than their American
neighbours, they do – but not for the reasons you might think. A large swath of
Canada actually boasts lower gravity than its surroundings."
Are we sure this is not merely Gaia's way of ridding herself of Canadians? If this keeps up, soon Canadians nationwide will be softly lifting up into the ether, drifting across the skies like their symbolic Maple Leafs. As they flutter across the border, American children will stop and point to the heavens, "Look, Mommy, its a Canadian!" Maybe they will migrate with the colorful loons. As flocks of geese spread southward from the Provinces, they will be accompanied by the occasional gravity-less Canuck, flailing his pasty arms and cawing in that incomprehensible yet delightful accent.
Perhaps, someday we will hunt them.
Jules Fenelon
HAVE A GO AT HITCHENS
Please, please do a review on Hitchens newest release. As one of the few who can match his wit, I am dying to see you wield your pen in the defense of God's good name. This is a request from me, not from God - He doesn't need your help.
Keith Falconer
Abbotsford, British Columbia
CROSSING THE ATLANTIC
I canceled my subscription to the Atlantic Monthly... After I learned they had dropped your post mortem column. The magazine has been going steadily downhill since the death of Michael Kelly. It was bad enough that they fired P.J. O'Rourke. Losing your column was the final straw.
For what it's worth.
Sean Higgins
HUNGRY FOR THE FEED
Can you arrange to have an RSS feed enabled for your website? It exists for your mailbox but not for your articles. Thanks.
Neil Gardner
Boston, Massachusetts
DEMOGRAPHY DATA BANK
I enjoy reading your works and many of the comments from readers in the mailbox. I would like to be able to search the mailbox and re-read some of the comments from the past but I've found that I can't do that as you don't seem to have a search function on the site.
Is that a planned design decision or something you felt that the site didn't need? Specifically, I'm looking to read some of the comments around population growth rates/ declines. I recall a fellow wrote in and pointed to some site or the other where I might find population growth charts, etc...
I have your book, but I also wanted some data from non-Steyn sources to bolster my arguments with "demography deniers". Please let me know if you can assist in getting the relevant information.
K Singh
Toronto, Ontario
LAST WORD
I must tell you that one of the reasons why I keep up my subscription to the Washington Times is because I look forward to reading your articles. They are so witty, often have me laughing until my cheeks actually hurt. And I'm not being sarcastic...you can be very informative and funny at the same time! Keep up the good work.
A retired teacher wo appreciates witty journalists and excellent author (I'm on page 180 of AMERICA ALONE...terrific book.)
Constance Falvo
Middletown, New Jersey
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