Kirby Enthusiasm

by Mark Steyn
Steyn on the Air
January 30, 2019

https://www.steynonline.com/9163/kirby-enthusiasm

Today, Wednesday, I'll be keeping my midweek date with the great John Oakley on Global News Radio 640 in Toronto, live at 5pm Eastern. Hope you'll tune in.

On Tuesday I had a very convivial start to the day with Webster & Nancy on 103.1 WILK News Radio in the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre area, where in a few weeks' time Dennis Miller and I will be taking to the stage at the Kirby Center, named for the co-founder of Woolworth's, although his name didn't stay on the storefront for very long (and thus didn't get mentioned in a certain favorite seasonal song of mine). Webster, Nancy and I chewed over topics great and small, from hate to haircuts. Click below to listen:

Dennis and I will also be appearing at the Santander Performing Arts Center in Reading, Pennsylvania (where tickets are selling fast) and also doing a couple of New York dates, at the Crouse-Hinds Theatre in Syracuse, and at the Kodak Center in Rochester, New York, where I hope to see a few friendly Ontarian faces in the crowd from up the QEW. And don't forget, at Syracuse and Rochester, as at Reading and Wilkes-Barre, with VIP seating you get to meet Dennis and me after the show. More details of the Miller/Steyn New York/Pennsylvania gigs here.

See you north of the border with John Oakley this afternoon.

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30 Reader Comments

tug • Feb 3, 2019 at 06:35

Some further thoughts, P GAO, several years ago the nations that provide "human skulls" to teaching institutions said they would stop the practice because it violated the dignity of the deceased, child skulls were found to be the most offensive. Throughout America wrecked cars are placed in front of high schools to "teach" the lesson to young people that Drinking & Driving can lead to death and life long trauma. Sex Education throughout America should have the film "Gosnell" shown to children to show how some of Basket Barry's "mistakes" have and are currently being handled in the medical field.
The higher institutes of learning who are purchasing the infant body parts should be exposed to the public, if Americans are shown how it's "unborn" are being butchered it might demand its banning similiar to banning the sale of skulls. One can pray

tug • Jan 31, 2019 at 07:27

Profile in Courage, Donald Trump's stating to the World that "third term abortion" is barbaric in his debate with Hillary Clinton. Crude, Crass, Vulgar at times TRUMPS barbaric killing of the defenseless. FOUR MORE YEARS!

P. Gao

tug • Jan 31, 2019 at 13:28

Also suggestion that a law to make any sale of any third term or after birth 'abortion' for body parts to be illegal, with prison. That'd stop all this in a hurry. Greedy ghouls. Isn't it all about harvesting the poor kids at birth? After listening to the VA Governor's radio interview, what's the 'conversation' he suggested is going to be between the mother and the 'medical provider' really going to be at minute five of looking at the defenseless newborn? "OMG! She's adorable! So cute, precious! Take her home and love her?" Nope, not by the VA governor's articulated point of view. More like bargaining the sale price?

tug

P. Gao • Feb 1, 2019 at 06:28

How frightening true P. GAO, Killer Cuomo has sanctioned "non-physicians" to be allowed to do the killing. The "poor", less educated girls and women are currently killing/aborting 300,000+ babies a year. Basketball Barry Obama termed the "soon to be aborted" as "mistakes". It isn't a stretch to imagine "the baby harvester" recommending the girl/woman being encouraged to let the "mistake" develop a little while longer so the "mistake" can be made profitable "for everyone" involved except the "MISTAKE"

P. Gao

tug • Feb 1, 2019 at 12:06

Yes. A glance at the going market prices for infant kidneys, livers, hearts, muscle, skin, blood is plenty proof that there's a huge corrupting monetary incentive to encourage as many women as possible to get pregnant and then take immediate possession of the live children - the fresher the organs the higher the price. Evil.

Walt Trimmer • Jan 30, 2019 at 17:09

There could be 200 candidates for the Democrats for 2020 because every narcissist thinks that if Trump can get elected then so can they and they could do a better job of being president. That number will get winnowed down pretty fast and during the primaries it will go down to just one. Because of Trump Derangement Syndrome the Democrats will rally around that candidate. My guess is that it will be a young(ish) attractive woman who is in the progressive wing. I think it will be a woman because the feminists tell us we need a woman President. No leadership or policy issues of importance, just we need a woman President. Enough of the independents will go along with this as they did with Obama's candidacy to at least make it close.
Trump on the other hand will find it difficult to keep all his base because of the sabotage of the Republican Party. The past Trump voters won't give him credit for trying, they will only know he didn't deliver on his promises. While The Donald crowed about his yuge victory it was really a narrow victory but running up the Electoral College votes based on slim margins in the upper Mid-West Rust Belts states. In 2020 the Democrats will not make the same mistakes and will have their vote stealing operations running at full steam in those states. Florida just approved voting rights for a million convicted felons. A Trump victory in 2020 will be an uphill fight.

Carl Branstetter

Walt Trimmer • Jan 30, 2019 at 22:22

President Trump was elected to build a wall. His future hinges entirely on whether or not there's a wall by 2020. If there's not, I myself very likely will sit the whole thing out, because I've got better things to do with my life than indulge false hope.

Roy A Crocker • Jan 30, 2019 at 15:23

Appearing before congress yesterday discussing national security issues were CIA directer Gina Haspel, Dir. of National Intelligence Danial Coats along with FBI director Christopher Wray. All three undermined Trump on virtually every one of his foreign policy initiatives. Iran is no real threat and the Iran deal is working just fine. If we pull out of Syria then Bashar Assad will "consolidate' his power. There are no real national security threats at the southern border. Kim Jong-un will never give up his nukes and on and on it went. While I agree that Kim isn't likely to give up his prized toys this public assessment destroys even the tiny chance of Trump ever succeeding with Kim. I imagine there are a lot of high-fives today in Pyongyang. The Syria assessment is beyond absurd. To drive Assad out would require a minimum of 100,000 troops along with a massive bombing campaign and would not just risk war with Russia and Iran but would for sure directly engage us in war with these two supporters of Assad. All three of these heads are of course Trump appointees. The only good thing I can say about Obama is that he had similar views as Trump about getting us out of the morass in the middle east. Eisenhower's prophetic warning back in '60 about the hidden power of the Military Industrial Complex now resonates more than ever. The 'deep state' is still firmly in control of our foreign policy no matter who occupies the White House.

Walt Trimmer

Roy A Crocker • Jan 30, 2019 at 16:45

We are in near perfect agreement on this. I am hard pressed off the top of my head to think of more than a handful of good appointments made by The Donald in the last two years. I think the reason for this is that on Election Day in November 2016 no one expected Trump to win, especially Trump. I think he was working on his excuse for defeat speech. As a result he had not been working on building a cadre of people who would help him implement his agenda. As a result he left enemies in place far too long (especially at Justice) and relied on never-Trumpers to suggest "really good people" to fill critical slots. It is my opinion that putting in bureaucrats like James Mattis at Defense,Kirstjen Nielsen at Homeland Security and Gina Haspel at CIA is the absolute worst thing a President can do. Well, maybe bringing in Jared and Ivanka was worse.

Roy A Crocker

Walt Trimmer • Jan 31, 2019 at 15:31

His appointment of Jeff Sessions - a good man in most respects - was the most catastrophic of all. All of the pressure to step aside in the nonsensical Russian probe came from the democratic party and the MSM along with holdovers in the justice and the intelligence community. Instead of standing his ground he scurried away like a frightened mouse. "Mad Dog" may have been his 2nd worst appointment. Although I admire John Bolton in some respects, he is a hard core interventionist and his appointment makes zero sense to me. Although I also admire Gina Haspel and Kirstjen Nielsen, as recent events prove beyond any doubt they function as little more than figureheads. Ditto for the president when it comes to foreign policy.

Josh • Jan 30, 2019 at 14:02

You mentioned the number of candidates and potential candidates for president among the Democrats. Sadly, two of the best-looking--a low bar, I grant you, but I would have watched them in the debates, with the sound down--might be out before they were fully in. Tulsi Gabbard has already lost two high-level campaign operatives, while somehow managing to be described as both "indecisive and impulsive" (a neat trick). Kamala Harris, meanwhile, is taking some heat for vowing to eliminate all private health insurance, period. Bad apple, good apple, Cox's orange pippin apple, doesn't matter--off with their headquarters! Or not: "As the furor grew, a Harris adviser on Tuesday signaled that the candidate would also be open to the more moderate health reform plans...". ObamaCare isn't even a decade old, and the Democrats are ready to scrap it (even more than the Republicans are) and start from (year) zero. Was President Trump born this lucky, or did he have to earn it?

Macedonian Content Farmer • Jan 30, 2019 at 13:30

I just listened to some idiocy from Bill Bye, the "Sciency" Guy on Chris Matthews show where he talked about having to move agriculture north into "nominally" Canada because of Global Warming. He opined that there wasn't enough infrastructure to get the crops down to the States. I guess AB and SK farmers will have to strap the their travois onto their dogs so they can drag all that hard wheat and canola down to the US. Could be a neat way of injecting some Canadian Content (yes, it's a thing, sadly enough) into the Deplorable tour.

Macedonian Content Farmer

Macedonian Content Farmer • Jan 30, 2019 at 15:10

That's Bill Nye.

P. Gao

Macedonian Content Farmer • Jan 31, 2019 at 15:34

Ain't he so priviledged to never-ever have to face anyone on media saying, "You don't know squat about any of this do you?" Don't want to clue the media claque that he comes off as creepier with every year, so that he's kept on as a really great advertisement to the innocent audience of what to avoid like the plague.

Robert Fox • Jan 30, 2019 at 12:11

I don't like to like to complain in the clubhouse, but you didn't ask Webster and Nancy about the pronunciation of Wilkes-Barre. After making a meal of it these past few weeks, I was shocked it wasn't brought up. Now we may never know. Other than that, great interview.

Sol • Jan 30, 2019 at 12:06

Along with the Jeff Flakes and John Kasiches not having a constituency, the constituencies don't have representatives. Virginia Democrat Kathy Tran has a bill to legalize a baby's murder during birth, but are her constituents clamoring for that? What would they have to gain?

I don't know if Democrats will start getting teardrop tattooes on their faces, but the Democrat Party, the party of abusers and victims, are in a frenzy to devour the ultimate innocent victim. Holding the power to go on killing, without righteousness being able to do a thing to stop it, I think, is the point. It's a perpetual source of power. No one much thinks about it, but it's the established undercurrent. This does not compute with most people because most people do not understand what it means that power is powerful.

It's not about the people purported to be represented; it's about a small group of people with a satanic lust for power being unstoppable in the replacement of God as the entity that decides who lives, dies, and everything in between.

Laura Rosen Cohen

Sol • Jan 30, 2019 at 12:43

Sol, your last paragraph-that's what people in the writing biz call the killer graf. You nailed it.

Sol

Laura Rosen Cohen • Jan 30, 2019 at 13:02

Thanks, Laura.

Babs from Cali

Sol • Jan 30, 2019 at 14:42

Great comment, Sol.

I also like that you rightly called it the "Democrat Party" and not the "democratic party". There's nothing democratic about them but there's a whole lot of satanic about them.

I will never ever, never ever, let me repeat, never ever vote for anyone who promotes abortion, regardless of when it would happen within or without the womb.

If one doesn't stand up for the truly innocent in society and value to the utmost what God creates within a mother's womb, then nothing much else matters. I pray that the American public on all political sides rejects the ungodly people who promote it, particularly their most recent outrageous actions and statements. God will not stand with a country that murders its own. I'm just surprised they haven't yet decreed the murder of all white boys under the age of 2, but maybe that's coming down the pike soon too.

Roy Koczela

Sol • Jan 30, 2019 at 15:23

They're afraid Roe is going away. So they're now out in the open, huge and monstrous.

If there is any justice at all in this world, one day Gov. Faubus will be seen as a minor footnote in evil compared with Andrew Cuomo.

David Wilson

Roy Koczela • Jan 30, 2019 at 16:53

The Democrats learned this lesson from 1994: strike fast when you have the votes. They did not pass Hillarycare in that first session and lost their majority. When they got back in power in 2008, they passed Obamacare (Senate Bill no. 1), despite it being incomplete, incoherent, and unconstitutional. They lost their majority, but they spent it on something. What did the Republicans spend their 2016 majority on? The Wall? Now, in state legislatures Democrats do the same: they got the votes to maximize abortion in November, and are moving immediately to spend their majorities on the thing they crave most: protecting abortion up to (or past) the moment of birth.

Fran Lavery

Sol • Jan 31, 2019 at 03:06

It's so true what you wrote here, and so gutwrenching a comment, Sol. I could not believe my ears today when I heard the Virginia Governor Northam, a pediatrician of all things, calmly explain what the procedure was for basically disposing of a human being. The heartless, ice-in-the-veins attitude towards ending the life of a precious, helpless, tiny, naked infant shakes one to the core and one thinks no, this can't be the country that was founded on the virtues promoting life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness for all individuals.

The Democrats have infanticide to add to their 2020 campaign platform. These disgusting excuses for protecting a mother's body must end especially when the baby is no longer even in the mother's body. A baby outside the mother has his or her own rights to have a life. So many poor unloved babies and grand babies are gone forever. There must be laws swiftly enacted in our land against this outrageous criminal action on a human life. It's beyond belief that any human being could conceive of doing anything this horrific.

Kate Smyth

Fran Lavery • Jan 31, 2019 at 07:18

As you noted, Fran: Northam described without hesitation "exactly what would happen", outlining a scenario involving a live newborn and ensuing discussion between the physicians and the mother.

He very explicitly and unambiguously rejected (twice!) a legislative framework, and said decisions such as these should be made by the mothers and their providers.

"We want the government not to be involved in these types of decisions."

Absolutely jaw-dropping!! A retrospective "review" must now be underway, surely.

Kate Smyth

Sol • Jan 31, 2019 at 07:38

A very good point, Sol. Whether it's abortion or assisted suicide, overseeing the regulation and practice of lawful killing *is* the ultimate source of power for legislators (and "providers", as Governor Northam referred to them).

Kathy Tran's constituents may not be clamouring for it (now), but incremental extension of such laws is as inevitable as it is intentional.

As is the eventual "uptake". From "The Spectator", 19 September 2015, by Matthew Parris:

"We who may argue for 'permissive' legislation must have the intellectual honesty to admit that the ending of a legal prohibition does act as a social signal... humans are social animals and one of the ways a society signals its attitudes is by criminalising behaviour it thinks very harmful, and decriminalising behaviour towards which its attitude has softened... The legal change would act as a cultural signal that society now approves."

"To alter the law in a permissive way would therefore be pushing (as it were) at an open door: legitimising a moral argument that has always been present (or latent) among humans. I would have every expectation that, given the extra push, the habit would grow... and if it does not lead, the law will follow."

His sentiments relate to assisted suicide legalisation and the UK debate, but apply equally to abortion (which Parris has also written about, with reference to the Irish referendum).

PS. The Governor's on-air description of "exactly what would happen" seem to indicate that the law in the US is "following", in this case.

Laura Rosen Cohen • Jan 30, 2019 at 11:16

The political left is against talk radio because they are against talking things through, against conversation and against civil discourse and discussion. As far as the political left is concerned the science is settled, the people are deplorable and as Kamala Harris just said in a speech, they need to use their "stick" to beat and lead the unwashed goober-faced flyover country, smirking, bitter clingers into submission. No need for talk, or to talk it out. It's all about the shut up for them.

Josh

Laura Rosen Cohen • Jan 30, 2019 at 12:49

While the Left is everything ugly that you describe, Laura, that is not why they are against talk radio. They are against talk radio because it's conservative. Remember Air America? Neither do I, but evidently it was a commercial enterprise to progressivism to the AM band. More like harangue radio. Liberal talk radio still exists, however: it's called NPR, and we pay for it, tote-bag or no tote-bag.

Roy A Crocker

Laura Rosen Cohen • Jan 30, 2019 at 15:47

Laura - There is really no end to this intolerance of opposing view-points. 'Meet the Press' is the most venerable public policy program in history going back to 1947 and there was barely a ripple of protest in the media when moderator Chuck Todd announced a few weeks ago that climate change skeptics would no longer be allowed to appear. You know, because it's 'settled' science. This left wing moron knows less about atmospheric science than I do about string theory. I thought he'd surely be called to task by NBC. I'm still waiting. Conservatives had little reaction either and so it goes.

Laura Rosen Cohen

Josh • Jan 30, 2019 at 16:25

Josh, of course talk radio is conservative. My point is that it exists and thrives because conservatives like conversation. Air America tanked because it sucked but also because there was no real conversation there. There's no "there there". There's no liberal audience for that. NPR isn't liberal talk radio, it's liberal monologue radio. And yah, tell me about it-I unwillingly fund the CBC.

Laura Rosen Cohen

Roy A Crocker • Jan 30, 2019 at 16:33

"Conservatives had little reaction".

This is how America got Trump. Lots of Professional Conservative yawning about regular, incremental breeches of freedom of thought, association, expression, the family unit, gender madness, lots and lots and lots of hills nobody was willing to die over. Lots of yawning about abortion rights and now we have elected members of the American polity comfortably writing, voting for and discussing bills that enshrine the right to "abort" (read: murder) babies that are actually being born-the mothers are dilated, and calmly discussing how after the right to that birth-abortion they could be resuscitated if the parents and health providers are good with that.

Lowell Walker • Jan 30, 2019 at 08:47

Great radio interview as usual. I live to far away to attend one of your shows with Dennis Miller.
All these people running for president is probably going to split the vote, especially with Shultz running as an independent. Great column in National Review online today, quoting Reagan's line about the Democrat party left him, applying it to Schultz. On another note, I came up with a idea years ago. If someone can't explain an idea or proposal to me so I can understand it, they are lying to me or they don't understand it either. AOC is working under the second half. She also has this habit of talking very fast hoping you won't notice she's a space cadet.