Thank you for your kind (and unkind) letters from the Canada, America, Colombia, Britain and Israel. Mark reads all the letters, but especially enjoys the vicious ones.  Drop  a line to Mark's Mailbox and if you're chosen to be the one and only Letter of the  Week you'll join our roll of winners from four Continents and receive a copy of  Mark Steyn From Head To Toe. It would help if you could indicate your city or town, or, at least, your state, province or country. Failing that, your continent or hemisphere  would do.  For letters on "God, Guns, Family and Trucks", see Mailbox Extra.

Letter of the Week
PERFECTLY POST-MODERN
Your Corner post on "A picture and a thousand words" raised an interesting comparison between Chamberlain (and Halifax) and the western Iran-enablers.  A point well taken.

But it is fascinating to see how perfectly modern (or post-modern) Chamberlain's words sound today.

“We should seek by all means in our power to avoid war, by analyzing possible causes, by trying to remove them, by discussion in a spirit of collaboration and good will.  I cannot believe that such a program would be rejected by the people of this country, even if it does mean the establishment of personal contact with dictators, and of talks man to man on the basis that each, while maintaining his own ideas of the internal government of his country, is willing to allow that other systems may suit better other peoples.”

It is all there.  The one stated purpose is “to avoid war,” not to protect the nation, and certainly not to defend democratic allies from aggression.  The spirit of collaboration and good will is to be offered to and expected from aggressive dictators.  There is the humble (and very modern) acknowledgement that democracy and freedom are not to be regarded as somehow better than dictatorship, along with the assumption that dictators will return our humility with a similar attitude toward their own Reichs.

In fact, the only part that sounds old-fashioned was his use of the term "dictators."  Today's sensibilities would never allow the use of such a judgmental term.  I have never heard Obama speak it.

I have more on this at my blog www.mistermoleman.com, including "Ahmadinejad and Munich Nostalgia," and "Appeasement Old and New."

Mr Moleman

Re: Obama and the Holocaust
WAKE ME WHEN THE SAVING STARTS
"It's grand to be a member of the Grade Ten ‘Save Darfur’ campaign, not so good to be back in Darfur wondering when the actual saving's going to start."

Reminds me of an excellent Onion parody:

"How Can We Raise Awareness In Darfur Of How Much We're Doing For Them?"

Dave Matthews

BULLSEYE
I have enjoyed your work for a long time now. I have never bothered to write you before, but this one is such a game-winning, double-cork bullseye that I couldn't help it.

“It's grand to be a member of the Grade Ten ‘Save Darfur’ campaign, not so good to be back in Darfur wondering when the actual saving's going to start. If ‘Never again’ now means ‘Bake sales against genocide’, we're all doomed.”

I had to add it to my favorite quotations on facebook.

Frank

ZINGER OF THE YEAR
I seldom agree with you, though I often enjoy your writing.

"If 'Never again' now means 'Bake sales against genocide', we're all doomed” might just be the zinger of the year.

It's always a pleasure to see excellence in a craft that's worth practicing, especially within the context of a shared belief that we do all appear to be headed to Hell in a hand-basket (though you and I perhaps have different reasons for that belief). Thanks for the hearty laugh in the face of the fates.

Doug Barber
Crisfield, Maryland

DISTURBED
Jesus, take a chill pill.  Have you ever considered therapy?  You seem so disturbed.

DZ

Re: Undocumented flu
HINEY FLU
H1N1 (aitch-one-en-one) flu is a mouthful.  I suggest we pronounce it as it (almost) looks:  HiNi (hiney) flu.

DCJ
St Louis

Re: Arra go on, he’s only joking
BELITTLING THEIR INTELLIGENCE
Vis-a-vis the arrogance issue, the line "I think that it is important for Europe to understand that even though I'm now president and George Bush is no longer president, al-Qaeda is still a threat" reflects an extraordinary amount of hubris.  False self-deprecation it isn't.  How could his more attentive European listeners not conclude that he was belittling their intelligence, essentially saying, "Well, we know that you all have thought that al-Qaeda was a threat only because Bush was President.  But no, my dear little Johann and Heidi, that's not quite how it is."  Obama oscillates between sounding stupider than we thought he is, and assuming that others are much stupider than he is.

Jeffrey S. Erickson
Davidson, North Carolina

EUROPE STILL HATES US
"I think that it is important for Europe to understand that even though I’m now president and George Bush is no longer president, al-Qaeda is still a threat.”

I'd say this is false self-deprecation — taking every opportunity to deny your spectacularity in order to promote it. (See Kathryn's post immediately below.)"

I think it might be an indirect message to his own party and the left - more than it is “denying his spectacularity in order to promote it'.

I think that American liberals' made the mistake of assuming Europe really believed that all the problems of the world - including al-Qaeda, were down to George Bush. And that its innate anti-Americanism and - continental - Europe's unwillingness to send Hans or Jacques to fight on the front line, with supposed allies, was linked to their recent (last 8 years) disapproval of W.

Obama's probably figured out that whatever he does or asks for he's going to be hated - and secretly - loathed by the post-national 'governments' on the continent, just for being an American president.

Jack Lillis

Re: Ukulele Arlen
WHAT TOOK HIM SO LONG?
I grew up on Philadelphia politics as a poll watcher and then Republican committeeman.  When Specter decided to run as a Republican he earned the nickname Darlin' Arlin for giving the GOP an actual candidate in a city election.  What I find astonishing is that it took him this long to change back.
 
Joe Mooney

SPECTER DEFECTER
I wonder if Specter's defection is all that bad.  Consider that Pennsylvania will be given a choice (potentially) between Arlen Specter and Pat Toomey.  It's as if the winner of the heretofore Republican primary becomes Senator.  At the worst, we get Specter.  Best case scenario, we get Toomey.  Surely Specter will continue to vote in conformity with his nominal principles if elected (just as he would as a RINO).  He can STILL vote against cloture (if he wishes) on hard-left liberal legislation. The bright side is that Republicans can wholehearted support Toomey in the election knowing that the default is Specter.  Sounds win-win to me.

Joseph

THE WHITE FEATHER
First time I've written you.  I love your columns.  Consistently my favorite part of my Saturday (once football season is over).

Most of my friends have been calling defector Specter a traitor.  I take a dimmer view: coward.  This is an elected official (responsible to the voters, right?) who is unwilling to have his "twenty-nine year Senate record judged by the Pennsylvania Republican primary electorate."  The same electorate that has sent him to Washington five times.  The same electorate at whose discretion he serves.  The arrogance (and, as I said, cowardice) of this act of self-preservation is truly appalling.

I think it deserves a campaign.  With the tea fad in full force to protest taxation, I suggest a new (read: old) symbol for protesting acts of political cravenness: the white feather.  As I'm sure you know, the white feather was a traditionally presented to those thought to be cowards in the British Empire, especially in the late Victorian era and during the First World War.  It would be grand if Senator Specter and his staffers were treated to thousands of letters containing only white feathers.  And I'm sure someone in the office, at least, will have seen "The Four Feathers" (since asking someone to read the 1902 novel might be just a bit too taxing, especially when that staff must still be reading the "War and Peace"-sized stimulus bill that Mr. Specter supported).

Any chance we can get NRO behind a white feather campaign?  It might take another European history grad student to appreciate this, but all the same, thanks for reading and writing.

Matt

ARLEN IN ORBIT
“Swine flew”. That sounds better to me for the Specter jump.

Greg Golling

Re: Maybe it’s an Arizona thing
IF AT FIRST YOU DON’T SUCCEED, TRY ARIZONA…
Sad to say but some folks move to Arizona in pursuit of a goal that they have been largely unsuccessful achieving anywhere else.  Napolitano bounced around New Mexico until they got rid of her and look where she ended up on her way to DC? That's right, Arizona!  McCain was also looking for a place to land (no pun intended) and launch his political career and you guessed it again, it was Arizona!  (Thanks, Cindy.)

Besides these two instances,   I live in a city in Arizona where Barry Goldwater announced his bid for the Presidency of the US in 1964.  Now that was authentically Arizona and damned proud of it.

By the way,  I listen to a local radio station that carries Rush Limbaugh's show and I enjoy it when you sub for him.  The local radio staff and announcers are mediocre at best.  I think they fit the criteria for success stated in my first paragraph above.  No offense.

Carolyn Bradshaw
Prescott, Arizona

p.s.  I write this with respect for the point you were making re: 9/11.

RAIDING ARIZONA
Mark, for the record. As a native Arizonan, Napolitano and McCain are not Arizonans. So, maybe we could say, "Maybe it's a thing that happens when someone uses Arizona politically." For my part, I truly love all your countrymen down here in the winter. I just wish they'd drive a little faster.

Mike

DAMMIT, JANET
Heck, I'm a 78 year old right-wing extremist, and even I know how those REAL terrorist got into the country.  But then, I never ran for Congress, nor was I a member of an administration.  I guess I'm too busy raising a family, working, and taking care of my spouse of 58 years.  Or is he now called petitioner "A",  thus making me, petitioner "B"?

Love you on Rush, Mark.  I need a few laughs these days. 

JB Davis

REALITY CHECK
Janet Napolitano is not "incurious" about the details of the 9/11 hijackers.  She deliberately fingered the Canadians as a matter of expediency. 

You have to remember: she's a liberal, and liberals' strategy has always been to 1) fabricate "facts" to support their argument when the actual facts are inconvenient, and 2) keep repeating those fabrications over and over -- with an intonation of authority -- knowing full well the majority of the American public doesn't have the necessary resources at their fingertips for verification. 

In the dictionary, under the definition of "perception is reality", you'll find a picture of Joe Biden at the 2008 VP debate, Al Gore accepting the Nobel Peace Prize, Nancy Pelosi quoting statistics, Hilary Clinton desperately claiming she's spent her entire life helping children, and a space where Janet Napolitano's photo is scheduled to be inserted.

Stephen Jacoby
St. Louis

Re: Closing notices
THEY FEEL MY PAIN
"Dream on. As I like to say about Obama's plans to raise taxes only on the rich, you'll be surprised what percentage of the population find themselves in "the richest five percent" by the time we're through. There are simply not enough of "the rich" to pay for what western governments are spending."

You are correct in this vein, but you don't go far enough.  I own a small company and I have explained to my employees that when the boss takes a pay cut, everyone takes a pay cut.  Whether it is a direct tax or indirect through lower wages and benefits, the other 95% are going to feel the pain. Most just won't ever know why.

Keep up the good fight.  I enjoy hearing you on Hewitt's show.

John Jenkins
Dallas, TexasMOVING UP, MOVING OUT
As the super rich (the top 0.1 to 0.5% move out) move out, their tax burden will need to get replaced by those below them.   It will take more of those below them to generate the same tax revenue, so the number of people that will have to have their taxes raised will increase.    This pattern will increase until you get to the level of folks that can't afford to move out, but eventually everyone will end up paying more to the gov't.
 
Ken Matuszak
Lindenhurst, Illinois

TOO MANY PAULS
You are spot on when it comes to taxation.  The following is worth remembering:  "A government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul."

George Bernard Shaw         

Unfortunately, we have far too many Paul's in this country now. 

George Hawks
Southlake, Texas

TEE’D OFF TAX BASE
"These proposals will only affect one-to-two per cent of the population."
 
Right, but that one or two percent of the population represents 40% of the tax base.  If a small fraction of them move to friendlier tax climates, then the national treasury takes a very real hit.

Carl Friddle

STAYING UNDER THE THRESHHOLD
In follow up to your post on the corner:

I am a US citizen who is turning around a UK company whose results put it almost at death's door.  We will get it turned around and heading in the right direction BUT the length of time I will dedicate to this project will be dictated by my ability to change normal compensation to long term in order to keep myself under the £150K threshold. I simply refuse to add 10% to my UK tax bill in order to save the jobs for our 1900 associates. This new tax the fat cats policy is pure unadulterated idiocy.

I read America Alone when it first came out. At the time I was running a company in northern Spain (another turn around). It provided tremendous fodder for jokes - "you Spaniards are so lazy you can't even f*********e properly," as well as some inspiring conversations on potential training programs to foster the common good. Surprisingly, within months we experienced an explosion of pregnancies or adoptions (Russia and China) for those women who had trouble becoming pregnant. Since your book came out, 90% of the women in our office who would be considered fair game for procreation (married and single) have had at least one child. Cause & effect?

Steve Macdonald
Northampton, England

LUNGES TO THE LEFT
There does seem to be a certain periodicity to these lunges to the left, both here and in GB.  Here are a couple of other articles I saw about Mr. Darling's proposed 50p tax:

•  Melanie Phillips in this morning's Daily Mail

•  William Rees-Mogg, also in this morning's Dailly Mail:

If this keeps going in the current direction, we'll all be looking for the exits.  Australia and New Zealand are looking awfully tempting about now.......  Remember the Bob Dylan lyric from Outlaw Blues?  It's been rattling round my head the last couple of days.  Maybe old Bobby is trying to give me a nudge?!

Ain't it hard to stumble
And land in some funny lagoon?
Ain't it hard to stumble
And land in some muddy lagoon?
Especially when it's nine below zero
And three o'clock in the afternoon.

Ain't gonna hang no picture,
Ain't gonna hang no picture frame.
Ain't gonna hang no picture,
Ain't gonna hang no picture frame.
Well, I might look like Robert Ford
But I feel just like a Jesse James.

Well, I wish I was on some
Australian mountain range.
Oh, I wish I was on some
Australian mountain range.
I got no reason to be there, but I
Imagine it would be some kind of change.
I got my dark sunglasses,
I got for good luck my black tooth.
I got my dark sunglasses,
I'm carryin' for good luck my black tooth.
Don't ask me nothin' about nothin',
I just might tell you the truth.

VBB

Re: Knowing your place
LIBERTY IS VULGAR?
Saint Margaret (Thatcher) vulgar? I think the liberal elites confuse a commitment to liberty with being vulgar. Texans get the same rap, but they do love liberty and they enjoy themselves defending it (while spoofing pompous critics).
 
For example, Kinky Friedman has opened an 'exploratory committee' to look into running in the Democratic gubernatorial primary......Kinky will enter and probably win the primary. I make no predictions about the general election, except that it will be very entertaining.

In other news you may not have heard, Texas Republicans (51-44%), think that it may be necessary to secede from the United States, in the most recent scientific poll (Source: Research 2000). Independents are divided (43-50%) and Democrats strongly opposed (16-80%) to the idea.

This poll disagrees strongly with initial 'mainstream media' polls, which seemed to have been designed solely to make Governor Perry look foolish (easy to do) and to stifle honest debate on the subject. Those earlier 'polls' claimed to show bipartisan disapproval of such an idea in the range of 10%-75%

We need to educate those Democrats.

Richard Reed
Bellaire, Texas

MRS T AND SARAH P
Charles Moore wrote:  "To its architects, such people were of no account. They were neither poor enough to attract romantic sympathy, nor grand enough to be entitled to power. They were expected to know their place." 

He just as easily could have been talking about the elitist's opinion of Sarah Palin.

Ben Grasmuck
Clovis, California

PROUD TO BE ORDINARY
I believe you have hit the nail on the head with this description of the tea parties.  I believe that reporter and others like her think that we ordinary Americans have no thoughts or ideas of our own.  That we are not capable of entertaining independent thinking and should be grateful for what the government "gives" us.  Praise the Lord she is  wrong otherwise there never would have been a country named America.  Without us "ordinary" people living and working and fighting and dying for her, America would not have been created.  It was our belief in her freedoms and opportunities that made the long fight worthwhile.  I, for one, am proud of the fact that I am an "ordinary", middle-class born and bred American.

Robin Lington

MSM VERSUS THE MIDDLE CLASS
I would say that in the US media portrayals of US lower middle suburban class are often/usually quite kind, such as in TV shows King of Queens, Everyone Loves Raymond, etc. etc. while the middle-middle  and upper middle suburban classes  come in for complete scorn and contempt, as in such shows as (the excellent) Weeds, any movie you might like to pick, such as American Beauty, etc etc. as, I believe, a  form of self-hate. I take it that in England the lower middle class is subject to ridicule much as our middle-upper-middle classes are. Not self-hate there, just pure class-ism.

This of course fits with the mainstream media contempt for the tea parties, populated by the terribly declasse not-on-the-edge-of-poverty people who probably too much remind the msm reporters of themselves, or of people who by all rights aught to be right-thinkers like themselves.

David N Levy

Re: Wish him well
RARE APPRECIATION
The article on Dick Cheney was the best thing on him I have read in a long time. You should have recommended or better yet, insisted for people to read the whole thing. It’s great to see a good man appreciated.

Roger Davis

MILLSTONES
Yeah, well "ballsy" Dick Cheney is F-U'ing the Republican Party into oblivion.
 
I think that was Ross's point.  Cheney getting hammered in a Presidential election would have been the purgative the party needs.  Sort of like how the McGovern debacle made the Democrats rethink who they were.
 
Steve Mack
P.S. Cheney, Gingrich, Limbaugh and the other discredited Republican dinosaurs are millstones around the party's neck.  Even when they are right about something, they are the wrong people to be saying it.
 
Re: Crossing the line on national security
INTERROGATION BY INSECT
Mark - Thanks for your wonderful and hilarious commentary on the torture debate last week on Rush's show.  "NO, NO YOU CAN'T GET OUT THE CATERPILLAR!"  Hilarious.

Todd

A LITTLE BOARD
What if Khalid Sheikh Mohammed wrote a rap about waterboarding?

Hey Mark - it's no match for My Sharia Amour, but I was a little “board” recently and after its custom my mind wandered into some satirical mire. Thought you might find a little amusement in a few of the lines that resulted, if you have any time to read them between free-speech saber parries and guest-hosting stints for Rush.

I lost thirteen pounds on
The day they booked me in
Cuz' they shaved off all my body hair
Then threw me in the pen'
Everyday my Muezzin's call
Was the voice of Bjork
Slangin' bad rhymes about whales and sporks
I been all around this world
From Peshawar to Manila
Fixed the dialysis machine
In Bin Laden's mountain villa
And they almost out of virgins
Up there in Paradise
Cuz' I known so many honeys
They call me Kuwaiti Vice

But girl when I saw you
Was like a slap to my face
Or maybe it was literally
A slap to my face
But either way baby
Can't get you out my head
When they freeze me in the ice box
My face just turns red

So take out that Aerosmith
Put on some Barry White
And strap me on my back
I won't put up a fight
Baby here's your boarding pass
It's good for one swim
Splash me with Apollinaris,
Or a bottle-a Hen'
And though it's been four years
Since I seen the sunlight
Mama you can waterboard me
You can do it all night

You'll have to speak a little louder
Babe I don't hear so well
From all the loud Metallica
And the Highway to Hell
If you come real close
Grace my lap with your ass
You might learn a few things
About the Khyber Pass

I was a pimp in the gulf
In my white leisure suit
The ladies didn't mind
That I was so hirsute
But I gave that life up
The day I spoke to al-Zawahri
With the mad skillz I got
Al-Qaeda really won the lottery
I'm a master planna' jamma'
My plots are so disturbed
But now they call me Mr. Cellophane
I'm drownin' in your curves

So throw out that Field Manual
With that Geneva Swiss cheese
And kiss me with your Glad wrap
I'm beggin' on my knees
Baby here's your boarding pass
And Bin Laden's business card
Libate me with Hypnotiq
Perhaps a gentle Chard'
Yes, I heard about Obama
Know his hopey-changey ways
But you can keep on boardin' me
Until the end of my days

Jason Michael Krause

HARSH INDEED
This just in:  President Obama has issued new terrorist interrogation rules.  From now on terrorist interrogators are allowed to use their "outside voice" when questioning terrorist suspects.  I suspect a backlash coming from the left over this.

M Peterson

COMPROMISING INFORMATION
Mark:  This debate over whether the Bush Torture/Harsh Interrogations bore fruit is tiresome.  Demonstrably, torture is not required to get someone to cough up compromising, secret information or betray his own side during war.  What's my proof?  Well, can you point to any evidence that Obama has been tortured?  Pat Leahy?  Arlen Specter?  Come On.

John Primmer
South Ryegate, Vermont

Re: One flu over the kosher nest
LEAVE PIGS OUT OF IT
"JERUSALEM ? The outbreak of swine flu should be renamed "Mexican" influenza in deference to Muslim and Jewish sensitivities over pork, said an Israeli health official Monday."

As an Orthodox Jew living in Israel (an American citizen, though), I think this guy is nuts.  We don't eat pork, we don't raise pigs, but let's not demand that the whole world make believe that pigs don't exist, ok?  Anyways, where was this guy when they made a gay pride parade through the streets of the Holy City?

Yehoshua Kahan

MARK SWINE?
Don't be so sensitive.  Just because this flu was named for pigs, doesn't mean they're talking about you in particular.

Bill Harpin

Re: Ukular fallout
GREATEST MOVIE THEME MUSIC
“Speaking of Clint Eastwood, here's the Ukelele [sic] Orchestra of Great Britain playing The
Good, the Bad and the Ugly.”

The greatest movie theme music from the greatest movie ever made. You've made my day.

David Moore

Re: A Fantasy Response
BEFORE MY TIME
Why doesn't Obama's response (“I was only three months old when that happened”) apply to the general denunciation America receives from its critics.  Colonialism, Slavery - hey we weren't even born yet! Affirmative Action - why, we weren't even born when the wrongs it's supposed to right happened.

Bob Evans

HE AGREES
In regards to Obama's reactions (or lack of them) to the diatribes he sat through, I couldn't help but think that he didn't object because, for the most part, he agrees with them.  This would also explain his narcissistic obsession with his own Presidency.  Nothing before him mattered because we as a country haven't really done much right (we're a basically mean country you will recall) before we elected him. Now it's clean slate territory.  God help us.

Tom Melvin

HERE WE GO AGAIN
Am I the only one who notices an eerie similarity between Daniel Ortega's diatribe and the sermons of Jeremiah Wright?  No wonder Obama was unaffected by the content of the Ortega speech - it was nothing he hasn't heard and sat through in the past.

Tom Geistkemper

THE COWARD’S APOLOGY
You talked about Obama's response (or lack thereof) to Ortega's screed - and how he was glad to not blamed for what happened when he was 3 months old.  Well he had no problem earlier taking a shot at the US having been the only one to use an atomic bomb, which, by my math he was negative 15 at the time.

He and Clinton are great at the coward's apology - apologizing for something someone else did.

Has it only been 3 months?  Ugh.

Ian
Atlanta, Georgia

Re: Teaching moment
SWATS AT COLLEGE
I am a university police officer here in the state of Georgia, so allow me to shine a light on the UGA SWAT team. 

GA law allows for colleges and universities to have their own police departments with a jurisdiction consisting of the campus grounds and 500 yards around the perimeter.  I don't know if you have ever been to UGA but the university is the size of a not so small city.

As UGA grew, due to the potential need to respond quickly to a possible hostage situation or such, they established a SWAT team. As far as I know, they are the only college or university in Georgia to have a SWAT team as most university PDs are simply too small or are located geographically close enough to a major city to be able to rely on that city's SWAT should a situation arise.

D Pruitt

SHRUB PROTECTION
It is common. The SWAT have to protect our hedges against GA Tech losers that take out their losing bitterness on our beloved shrubs.

Jeffrey Weaver

NO SWAT
We at the University of Notre Damedon't have a SWAT team, as far as I know, but we do have Segways, which with the addition of a riot shield could become a terrifying mini-tank.

Daniel Amiri

WELL-REGULATED MILITIA
I love your work, but you are blindly naive re: tactical warfare and the South. This University of GA SWAT team looks amateur. You give us an hour, and my father, brother, cousins, and I could make the University's SWAT team look like ballerinas. Gotta keep up that well-regulated militia.

Tim Johnson

READ 'REASON'
Randy Balko, who blogs at Reason magazine, has for years been writing about the increasing militarization of police in America.  Small town police departments form SWAT teams even though they never needed them before.  HOWEVER, once they have a SWAT team, then they start to find reasons to use them on no-knock raids and such.

It's depressing.

Arthur Kimes

ACTIVE-SHOOTER SCENARIOS
I am not surprised to see UGA with a SWAT team.  Most colleges don't have them, but I think it is a good idea.  The preventive nature of advertising that you have the ability to stop such an attack quickly might be enough to make a Virginia Tech attacker think twice about his plan.  Obviously, it has little effect on wing nuts or passion crime perpetrators, but every little bit helps. 

Since Columbine it has been routine for police departments of all sizes to prepare for "active shooter" scenarios.  The diamond formation has become standard, and is taught at even the smallest departments.  When I worked the street, I had my regular district patrol officers practicing in schools in the summer while the children were away.  We may be minutes away, so we better make every second count. 

While I believe in a quick police response to such events, I would rather get a 911 call saying the bad guy is already down, due to an armed private citizen putting him there to minimize the attack even more.

Love your writing and enjoy listening to you on Rush when I get the chance.

Michael Duke
Indianapolis, Indiana

CITIES WITHIN CITIES
What I suspect you will find is that many major college campuses, like UGA, have their own police departments because the municipality within which they are located are generally not that big.  The city of Athens, Georgia, has a population of about 100,000 residents, and the county in which it is located has about 185,000 total residents.

The enrollment of the Univ. of Georgia is 25,000 alone. 

So, the Univ. is a small city within a city.  To impose the costs of policing the Univ. upon the population of the City of Athens would be a significant burden.  As a result, the state government which operates the University also funds a police force for the campus.   The size of that force is probably larger than one might expect, since 25,000 college students probably demand a greater amount of police attention than would 25,000 residents of your average small Georgia town.

Given the events like those that happened at Virginia Tech, I'm not surprised the Univ. police force has its own version of a "SWAT" team.

Virginia Tech has an enrollment of +20,000, and the city in which it is located, Blacksburg, has an overall population of only of only 40,000. Same problem.

The police force of the Univ. of California, Los Angeles, is the third largest police agency in the greater Los Angeles area, behind only LAPD and the LA Sheriff's Office.  UCLA has better than 60,000 full and part time students, not to mention tens of thousands of others who are employed on the university grounds.

William Shipley

MIDDLE-SCHOOL DISRUPTIONS
As someone who works as a federal officer (US Border Patrol), training local law enforcement in firearm tactics and usage, I'd certainly state that the locals have "ramped up" their tactical capabilities in the past few years. As a mid-sized example, the San Diego School District has its own police force with an attendant tactical team, ready to deploy to the middle and high school disruptions that are inevitable when you shove the first and third worlds together. Is my bias showing? 

But, yes, such militarization comes with the territory.  Liberals who allowed the complete degenerate breakdown of US school systems have only themselves to blame, even as they ironically decry the advance of the "police state".  The precious little snowflakes are no longer disciplined, and as you know, since children aren't born with any sense of moral responsibility, they push authority until they meet resistance.  Well, with zero resistance from the school system comes zero responsibility or control from the snowflakes, ergo, the force necessary to restore order becomes more palpable, more authoritarian, more violent. Gotta love liberal logic.

Quite simply, the absence of moral control demands the police state.  Always has, always will...  Why they never connect the dots is beyond me.  Too educated for their own good, maybe. Loved "America Alone" by the way.  Please keep up the great efforts!

Rob
California

WEEKEND WARRIORS
U of G SWAT team look to me like they weekend warriors from Rambo First Blood. Not saying there is anything wrong with that, just saying. I wonder if they are saying "come on let’s get this over with I have to closing shift at the pharmacy tonight". "Damn, my vest it getting too small again, gotta cut out the Big Macs for a spell". And another " and my wife will kill me if I'm late for supper again".
 
Haha, just entertaining myself.

Doug Nathaniel

MEN IN BLACK
Round these parts we call those yahoos "Mall Ninjas".

Kevin Munden

Re: Who regulates the regulators?
MAXIMIZING CHOICE
Great comment.  Your argument points to something a few western members of Congress have been working on (apologies - still in draft form) over the last few weeks.  The gist of the idea goes something like this:

We believe that perhaps the best argument conservatives can make today both to differentiate themselves from liberals and to start winning elections again, is to clearly draw the political fault line between the concept of choice and top-down mandates.

Generally speaking, conservatives support options.  Generally speaking, liberals support top-down solutions.  Therein lies the rub.  Americans don't like being told what to do.  We want to be treated like adults, not children.

Why not base a conservative comeback on this idea?  We say, "elect us and we won't tell you how to live your life, rather, we'll do everything within our power to give individuals, states, and regions the power to make their own decisions."  We do it media and technology.  We do it with food and lifestyle.  I mean, there are more than 30 types of Eggo waffles.  The brand's motto is "You can have breakfast the way you want with Eggo Waffles."  So why in the world can't we have the federal retirement saving plan we want?  Why can't we have a tailored federal tax the way we want?  Why can't states have the environmental protections they want? Etc.

Indeed, the one area in life that has not kept pace with maximizing choice is government.  That should change and Republicans can make a winning case by arguing as much.  

Cody Stewart

THE IGNORED AMENDMENT
That's what the (often ignored) 10th Amendment is for. 

Ben Grasmuck
Clovis, California

WHAT’S THE COMMUNITY ORGANIZER SKILL-SET?
"The skill-set required to run a multi-trillion-dollar government is unknown to human history."

You underestimate The One. "The reason it hasn't worked before is because it's never actually been tried" -- we haven't tried giving the reins of government to a community organizer before. 

Joe Kestel

Re: A symptom …. or a root cause?
DO DO AS THEY DO
Enjoyed this rant - out here in flyover country near Hillsdale College we have a standard issue local columnist who is mildly interesting when talking about life in Kalamazoo, children, etc.  But you absolutely nailed her with this line: "smug East Coast upper-middle-class metropolitan condescension would hardly seem an obvious winner for second-tier cities".  Whenever she talks about anything grander than her immediate circle of knowledge she sounds like the drivel we get from the New York Times.

Terry Dehart

COPY CAT
I couldn't agree more about the need for someone to put that sorry institution out of our misery. I was fortunate enough in the past month to have been one of the longtime holdouts tossed from the fiscal lifeboat of a Top-30 daily. I say "fortunate" because I no longer must endure the nightly ritual of a content-strapped news editor asking, "What's the Times' budget showing on their front tomorrow?"

The absurdity of that mindset, played out night after night, was never more on display than when the good folks in Wichita, Kansas. a couple of decades back, zeroed in on a Times story about subway fares as a Page 1 candidate for the good people of America's breadbasket. The concept of playing a local story in that same space was lost on these editing types, whose default mode was: Well, it IS a local story -- in New York!

Arrrrrrgh.

Thanks for all you do, Mark. Please, keep up the fine work.

Boone

SOME NEWS WOULD BE NICE
The way for American newspapers to make money is to provide the paying customer with news.

Ray Dupuis

CANADA’S DOING SOMETHING RIGHT
I am curious to know if you have any explanation for the difference between the Canadian and American newspaper reading culture.

I live in Colombia right now and one of the things I miss from Toronto is that there are 4 daily newspapers to choose from (not to mention some freebies). All seem to be doing well..at least they're not on the ropes as are the Times/Globe/Post-Intelligencer/..the list goes on.

Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Ottawa, Montreal and others seem to support at least two dailies.San Francisco, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Minneapolis-StPaul and many other American cities seem hard pressed to support even one.

Why do you think this is? We have internet/TV news in Canada, so how can that be it?

Just curious about your opinion, if you have time.

R J  Blaise MacLean
Bogota, Colombia

THE SUN WENT DOWN
After re-reading your earthday column I thought about your Corner post yesterday. What a shame that the NYT is slated for extinction in the next few months: if its death had only come a few years ago, The Sun might have shone for many more years. What a great paper The Sun was.

Pinch could still save his paper by hiring Seth Lipsky as editor-in-chief. What an irony that would be - Seth blogged as "Not the New York Times" before starting The Sun. His blog took one NYT story per day a thoroughly Fisked it.

Chuck

TOO BIG TO FAIL
But Mark, the New York Times is too big to fail.

P.S.  And to think of the opportunities I had to land a good one on Pinch – then known as "Artie" - in Blue-White "Bull In the Ring" back in those summer camp days. Oh well, he's getting his now.

Bill Dooley
Pine, Colorado

A GREAT NEWSPAPER
Aren't you forgetting something? If you can get your hands on their new print weekly -- what a Breath of Fresh Air after TimeNewsweakUSSnooze and even the Economist.

Love yer stuff; keep punching (or pinching)

Gordon Imrie
Hinsdale, Illinois

CONSERVATIVE PAPERS CLOSE,TOO
Your post on the beneficial effects of shutting the NYT presupposes that great wit, iconoclasm and non-conformity are the keys to newspaper survival. If that were true, why aren't irreverent conservative newspapers more successful? Why doesn't the Washington Times turn a profit? Why did the New York Sun close? Why do so many conservative publications (not to mention many liberal ones) rely on  grants and benefactors just to survive?

Jeremy Manier

Re: Song of the Week
SONGS FOR SWINGING PLAYWRIGHTS
I think I love your Song of the Week columns most of all because, unlike your political and social commentary, they don't send me reeling with despair.

I just finished your piece on The Nearness Of You, with all the Shakespeare related songs. It was a great little tour, and there were some I didn't know. But, I felt sure you would include “Cheer Up Hamlet”, the theme of season 1 of Slings and Arrows, if not the ones about MacBeth [“I Don't Do Maccers”] and Lear [something like “It's Nice To Take A Walk In The Rain”].

For some reason, I find the lyrics
"Your incessant monologizing fills the castle with ennui,
Your antick disposition is embarrassing to see,
You're driving poor Ophelia insane...."

running through my head all too often. Perhaps it's the current political climate. The liberal show-biz goons are still bashing poor old Bush. Here's an idea - why not a production of Hamlet with Obama in the lead, as a Denmark-hating prince? Take the narcissism, add some veiled desire to destroy, and plug in the rest of the roles. Bill and Hillary as the King and Gertrude? Ophelia, a stand-in for the besotted fools who voted for him? Has Chris Buckley sobered up enough to write the book?

Well, I digress. Anyway, you did explain to me why I've never been quite satisfied with Sinatra's version of The Nearness Of You - the Riddle arrangement, which is very good, but doesn't in the end ring true. And Frank's great strength as an interpreter of songs is his singing the words, not the notes - his ability to make you believe it, to 'act' the song. And now that I say that, I wonder if seeing him perform that one live would tip in the belief that's just rimming the basket when one is merely hearing the recording. But, he does seem a bit too worldly wise and experienced to fit the song. I've never heard the young Frank version. The reverse of this might be his two versions of Violets For My Furs - I have one on an EP that must date from the early 50s, and the sense of the song is young and innocent. Later, in one of those TV retirement specials he did a version in a saloon song medley that is awash in heartbreak unspoken. Good stuff.

Once again - thanks for everything.

Keith Peterson
Chicago, Illinois

PEGGY LEE’S LYRICS
Thanks for the wonderful piece on "The Nearness of  You."

Particularly appreciated you noting the lyrics Peggy Lee herself added to the original version of “Fever”. You should note that mixed in with those "forsooths" was "afire" another old English-ism you don't hear too much any more, and that is how Peggy composed it - "afire," (not the contemporary "on fire" - Ms Lee was better than that!

What a brilliant lyricist (as well as my favorite Lady singer – the closest equivalent to Frank Sinatra in phrasing, vocal dynamics and timbre, etc.

So nice that the Disney Corp awarded her one or two million in late-in-life royalties for her masterful lyrics for 1952's LADY & THE TRAMP (my favorite old Disney animated film) set to great music by Sonny
Burke.

Thanks again from one of your fans who actually buys your great musical "stuff" here in the (usually) frozen North,

Mark Blackburn
Winnipeg, Manitoba

WHEN YOU MESS WITH PRESIDENT OBAMA
It's not Sinatra, and more than a bit ironic, but the Dead Kennedys were on to something

"California Uber Alles"

I am Governor Jerry Brown
My aura smiles
And never frowns
Soon I will be president...

Carter Power will soon go away
I will be Fuhrer one day
I will command all of you
Your kids will meditate in school
Your kids will meditate in school!

[Chorus:]
California Uber Alles
California Uber Alles
Uber Alles California
Uber Alles California

Zen fascists will control you
100% natural
You will jog for the master race
And always wear the happy face

Close your eyes, can't happen here
Big Bro' on white horse is near
The hippies won't come back you say
Mellow out or you will pay
Mellow out or you will pay!

[Chorus]

Now it is 1984
Knock-knock at your front door
It's the suede/denim secret police
They have come for your uncool niece

Come quietly to the camp
You'd look nice as a drawstring lamp
Don't you worry, it's only a shower
For your clothes here's a pretty flower.

DIE on organic poison gas
Serpent's egg's already hatched
You will croak, you little clown
When you mess with President Brown
When you mess with President Brown

[Chorus]

Don McGregor

Re: America Alone
HEALTHCARE FOR THE DEAD
I loved 'America Alone', many thanks for raising the alarms on demography.

Here is an article about a new nursing trend in Japan - "angel care" for deceased patients. It may or may not have some interesting tidbits for you.

Neil

MULTI-ETHNIC MALMO
I'm an opera fan and a long-time subscriber to Opera News.  Every spring, it publishes a travel issue.  This year's issue is on Scandinavia and the operatic scene there.  You've mentioned Malmo a few times lately, so I thought you'd enjoy deciphering this sentence:

"For centuries, farming and fishing were the mainstay of the inhabitants of this fertile peninsula, while a major influx of foreign nationals during recent decades has turned Malmo into a multi-ethnic, highly segregated city."

What on earth can the writer be talking about?

Larry S. Grady
North Brunswick, New Jersey

STEWARDESS SACKED
Sacked for refusing to wear an abaya

Royston Tichelli

DEMOGRAPHIC DETAILS
As the Corner's demographics guru you might be interested in this article (and this one) in this month's Wilson Quarterly.  The author both challenges and affirms some of your contentions.

David Whidden

GOING TO HELL IN A PC HANDBASKET
I thought you might be interested in this development. At a time when the Irish economy is going to hell in a handbasket it's nice to see that the government has it's priorities straight! The timing of this is interesting coming so soon after Durban II and the effort by Muslim nations to squash freedom of speech.

Paul

BIG BROTHER BRITAIN
Thought police muscle up in Britain

Philhhc

DEPOPULATION BOMB
More on Russian demography which I guess you've come across.

Brian Kelly

Re: Liberal facism
OR WELL
I think it’s called “Ingsoc”

Bill Richmond

Re: Regulatory despotism
WHY WAIT?
Here in The Peoples Republic of Maryland, our legislature recently approved legislation to address this issue.  Under one of the bills approved, a judge could order abuse suspects to give up their guns when served with a seven-day temporary protective order if the suspect had threatened violence or to use a gun. Another bill would require judges to confiscate guns from anyone issued a more serious final protective order. ...
The Canadians are just more pro active.  Why wait until a case comes before a judge?  If you answer "yes" on the renewal form and "explain", is that information verified by the significant other?

Rick Johnson

OBA-MAO
Obama (or the dark forces behind him) is working mightily to achieve the same cultural status as Mao had in China not too long ago.  Look at magazine covers, "HOPE" stickers stuck everywhere, daily adulation by the major media,...

By the time 2012 rolls around, we'll not dare to let him leave.  We'll let him pull an FDR (who he greatly admires, just as Mr Putin does) and become President-for-Life.  As befits a 3rd-world country.

Mike Zorn
Santa Ana, California

DE TOCQUEVILLE ON TARGET
Concerning the Canadian's gun permit application requiring love life questions, de Tocqueville saw what happens to societies with overweening regulation:

"After having thus successively taken each member of the community in its powerful grasp and fashioned him at will, the supreme power then extends its arm over the whole community. It covers the surface of society with a network of small complicated rules, minute and uniform, through which the most original minds and the most energetic characters cannot penetrate, to rise above the crowd. The will of man is not shattered, but softened, bent, and guided; men are seldom forced by it to act, but they are constantly restrained from acting. Such a power does not destroy, but it prevents existence; it does not tyrannize, but it compresses, enervates, extinguishes, and stupefies a people, till each nation is reduced to nothing better than a flock of timid and industrious animals, of which the government is the shepherd."

Plus ca change, plus la meme chose...

Lee Grantham

A JEWEL IN THE CROWN
"In Pakistan, a great jewel is within the barbarians’ reach, the  first of many."

A great, and frightening, turn of phrase. Keep up the good work.

Peter Semple

WORKING HARD IS BOLLOCKS
I'm a big fan, have bought books and had comments published at your site before. Generally in agreement with the Steyn POV. However, I'm not with you on one particular theme you regularly bring up and that's the European vs American lifestyle choice thing.

You enjoy your work, that's clear. And now you've reached such an exalted position and get to meet all sorts of bigwigs and movers and shakers etc. I'm sure at times it hardly seems like work. Good for you. You deserve it. And all the riches that may flow your way from dint of your efforts over the years have been well-earned. Another, totally 100% genuine, 'Good for you' from me.

But we're not all like that dude. Some of us, even libertarian, free-market, Steyn fans like me, think working more than 40 hours a week is bollocks. People like us apply a different philosophy to our time on this earth. Despite what the puritans may say, we were actually put on this planet to enjoy ourselves. Indeed, it's the whole reason for existence. And since we don't have groovy jobs guest hosting for provincial radio roustabouts etc. we make a rational calculation: this much work makes me X£s. That's enough to fund the wife, kids, house, beer and holidays. Deal.

Come 5.00pm on a Friday tools are downed and free-time ensues until Monday morning. Plus, we demand our 2 white weeks in the Alps en l'hiver, a decent Easter break, August beach hols and extended X-mas. Screw the Japs, Chinese, Yanks and whoever else is working harder than us. Great, you've got three cars, 2 acres of prime NH land and the best quality medical care money can buy, while I've got a banger gasping on its last month of MOT, a semi in Harlesden and the NHS creaking under the weight of delivering care to illegal immigrants. But I'm just as happy as you are AND I get approximately x4 more time off to enjoy that happiness than my non-European buddies in NY, Tokyo, or some industrial shit hole on the Mekong River.

We work smarter, not harder. Since we are, in comparison with our grand-parents, richer than  Croesus and our leisure time helps other parts of the economy, so what if we Europeans lose our place at the head of the table of nations? Let China become 'top nation'. They can fight Korea or Brazil or you guys in the provinces for the title. Frankly my dear, we don't give a shit. With the 1 exception of the immigration problem (which is a shocker - you're totally correct there - and I don't have an answer for that) we're sorted. We've got enough nukes to stop anyone invading, enough creativity, education and drive to keep generating profits, albeit small ones, and a lovely big sofa with a cup of tea on the side table waiting for us at home. So who's the real winner here?

Jez Booker

NOT MARK
Is Mark on Twitter?  There is a Mark Steyn but wasn't sure if it was you?

Thanks from a loyal reader,

Christine

LAST WORD
Ezra displays his serene, zen-like acceptance of reality.

Ezra Marsh
Baltimore