Consciousness Reconsidered Trey Gowdy: The Prosecutor The Ad Man Goes to War Stop Looking for Reagans JOHN DERBYSHIRE AMANDA C. ELLIOTT JAMES LILEKS NEAL B. FREEMAN
JUNE 2014 A MONTHLY REVIEW EDITED BY R. EMMETT TYRRELL, JR.
e New Class Warfare French economist omas Piketty’s intellectual cover for con scation.
By James Piereson
PLUS:
The Gipper in Iceland Ken Adelman
Lessons from Mozilla? Lachlan Markay & Matt Cover
Colbert Wins Late Night Bill Zeiser
Back to Basics Sportswriters William McMorris sarkes.qxd 11/13/06 9:53 AM Page 84
Long-range radar protection you can trust:
“Pure range is the Valentine’s domain.” — Autoweek
Now Valentine One comes to a touchscreen near you. Three screens: analyze every threat three ways. You can see the arrows at work on the screen of any compatible iPhone® or AndroidTM device.
Frequency and Direction of Priority Alert Profi les Menu V1 Dark Mode
Mute Computer Modes Bogey Counter V1 Screen—shows Picture Screen—the List Screen—the all warnings including Threat Picture shows Threat List shows all arrows, Bogey Counter, the full width of all signals in range by and signal strength. activated bands and numerical frequency, Band ID Touch icons for Mute, arrows mark all signal each with an arrow Modes and V1 Dark. activity on them. showing Direction.
Threat Swipe for Check it out… The app is free! Strength V1, Picture You can download V1connection, the app for free. and List Screens Go to the app store on your device. When installed, the app automatically runs a Demo Mode. No Beyond Situation Awareness need to link to V1. You can analyze preloaded threat situations Think of V1connection™ as the Master on three different screens: the V1 Screen, Picture, and List. See Controller for your V1 system. You can how they work together to give a complete Threat Picture. Then adjust SAVVY® settings, change muting, when you’re ready to put advanced Situation Awareness on ® activate dark mode, revise programming, duty in your car, order the Bluetooth communication module, save custom programming profi les for V1connection, directly from us. different trips, and more, all from Ī For compatible Android devices...choose V1connection. your handheld. Ī For iPhone/iPad®/iPod touch...choose® V1connection™ LE. SEE at valentine1.com/mobile
Call toll-free 1-800-331-3030 { Valentine One Radar Locator with Laser Detection - $399
© 2014 VRI { Carrying Case - $29 { Concealed Display - $39 { SAVVY - $69 { V1connection - $49 { V1connection LE - $49 Valentine Research, Inc. Ph 513-984-8900 Plus Shipping / Ohio residents add sales tax Department No. YJ74 Fx 513-984-8976 Mike Valentine 10280 Alliance Road Radar Fanatic 30-Day Money-Back Guarantee Cincinnati, Ohio 45242 Valentine One is a registered trademark of Valentine Research, Inc. Bluetooth is a registered trademark of Bluetooth SIG, Inc. • iPhone, iPad and iPod touch are trademarks of Apple Inc. • Android is a trademark of Google Inc.
1072967 • American Spectator - July/Aug14 • 10 x 12 table of CONTENTS
June 2014 • VOL. 47, NO. 5
2 About This Month 35 Constitutional Opinions 48 Ben Stein’s Diary Coarse Correction Dis-United Kingdom? Making Friends and Enemies .
4 The Continuing Crisis 36 Economics 50 Conservative Tastes . , . e Growth Gap Requiem for the Chatterley Classes 6 Odds & Ends 38 Presswatch 8 The Bootblack Stand All You Need to Know ARTS & LETTERS 52 Le Capital 10 In the Colosseum Capital in the Twenty-First Century e Prosecutor By omas Piketty .
12 Ten Paces 54 Flash Noise Is donor disclosure good for the Right? Flash Boys: A Wall Street Revolt By Michael Lewis
FEATURES 56 Till Death Us Do Part Marriage and Civilization: 14 The GOP Needs Real Heroes How Monogamy Made Us Human Stop looking for redux Reagans. By William Tucker .
16 When the Cold War 58 Arguably Rides Again Cooled Down A Literary Education and Other Essays Reagan, Gorbachev, and a haunted house By Joseph Epstein in the Land of Fire and Ice. p. 30 20 Chasing Down the 39 The Nation’s Pulse 60 Public Nuisances Ghost in the Machine Saving Sportswriting e Press Never Calls / Up From Racism Losing consciousness in Arizona. . , . 41 Commie Watch 61 Current Wisdom 26 The Ad Man Goes to War Communist Day in New Haven Learning from the Life archives. 64 Last Call 42 Politics Music of the Trilobites Defunding the Democratic Party DEPARTMENTS . COVER ART: ANDY WATT
The American Spectator is published monthly, except for 30 Culture Vultures 44 The Great American Saloon Series combined July/Aug and Jan/Feb issues, by The American Spectator, LLC at 1611 N. Kent St., Suite 901, A Fake Newsman in Late Night? Burning Ring of Fryer Arlington, VA 22209. Printed in the U.S. Periodicals post- age paid at Arlington, VA, and additional mailing offices.
One-year subscription is $39 (new subscribers only). Publication number: 0148-8414. Vol. 47, No. 5. 33 Letter From Paris 45 High Spirits POSTMASTER: send address changes to The American Spectator, P.O. Box 171, Congers, NY 10920-0171. e Shocking Monsieur Shakespeare India’s Jekyll and Hyde © 2014 The American Spectator, LLC. All rights . reserved. Reproductions without permission are express- ly prohibited. To request permission to republish an arti- cle or for reprint information call 703-807-2011 ext. 32.
www.spectator.org THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR 1 about this MONTH
VOLUME 47, NO. 5
Editor-in-Chief R. EMMETT TYRRELL, JR. Editorial Director WLADYSLAW PLESZCZYNSKI Managing Editor K P by WLADY PLESZCZYNSKI Assistant Managing Editor M P Assistant Editor M W
Senior Editors W. JAMES ANTLE III, TOM BETHELL, F.H. BUCKLEY, H.W. CROCKER III, JOHN H. FUND, QUIN HILLYER, Coarse Correction NED RYUN, ROGER SCRUTON, BEN STEIN Chief Saloon Correspondent A B, J. Economics Editor S M Paris Bureau J A. H Movie and Culture Critic J B , anoth- Which is ne with him. He has other Senior Editorial Advisor R L. B ( - ) Kapellmeister er step in our public de- sanctions in mind, but of a domestic na- B V K generation. In his listless ture, even if buttressed by the nest French Contributing Editors performance before the intellectualism (see James Piereson’s sober DAVID AIKMAN, JED BABBIN, FLORENCE KING, HERBERT LONDON, JEFFREY LORD, White House Corre- assessment of omas Piketty—or “our lit- SHAWN MACOMBER, GEORGE NEUMAYR, spondents’ Association, tle Piketty,” as adoring progressives might GROVER G. NORQUIST, JOHN TRAIN, B S. W our president casually as well be calling him; p. 52). Presumably Art Direction/Production J P. M uses the verb “piss o ” without a moment’s our president won’t include his millionaire Advertising D M hesitation. No one notices, not that anyone brother-in-law among those designated for Lester Communications Inc. A 866-954-8168 would object. As the evening’s comedian con scatory treatment—after all, he’s un- F 877-565-8557 observed, he remains in the top fty of our employed now, a feature of our daily life www.lesterpublications.com nation’s greatest presidents. best led away under “the new normal.” Circulation C S , I.
Is his power waning? One sign it just Back in Cold War days, our progressives Editorial Interns might be is that his brother-in-law has been often spoke of convergence, as if the U.S. N M , R B -E red as head basketball coach at Oregon and USSR were becoming alike not just Editorial Office State University, a public institution reliant military but economically, socially, and The American Spectator on federal funds. ough he had a losing above all politically. Ronald Reagan put 1611 North Kent Street, Suite 901 record in a six-season run that coincided an end to such talk but under his current Arlington, Virginia 22209 703-807-2011 with this president’s tenure, the AP report successor it seems to be resurfacing if not [email protected] made sure to note that at 94-105 he is the yet articulated. But consider. Everyone www.spectator.org “fourth-winningest coach in school history.” knows who the oligarchs are in Russia, The American Spectator LLC e rest of his contract has been bought out and how they thrive so long as they kiss is a subsidiary of for $4 million. Good news for the taxman, Putin’s rings and worship at his feet. Now T A S F but can such buyouts also be applied to the left has taken to using the same term President S R winning politicians with losing records? in reference to America’s lthy rich, or at New Media and Visuals B B Our president took some cheap shots in least those who haven’t reached an accom- Office Manager P G New Media Associate P R his correspondents’ dinner remarks, includ- modation with the current administration. New Media Associate A H ing one at Pat Buchanan for saying some- In Russia, Putin has turned the media into thing nice about Vladimir Putin. is from his errand boys and he’s just honored those Legal Counsel S , P, N , the starry old droog who promised Vladimir who’ve spread his Big Lie campaign against B S he’d have “more exibility” in his second Ukraine. Our president meanwhile has SUBSCRIPTION REPRINTS BACK ISSUES term. Excuse the French, but it appears that launched his own campaign on behalf of an QUERIES: 703-807-2011 800-524-3469 exibility has become a carte blanche for Mr. administration climate change report that 800-524-3469 Putin. Were he more adept at holding a knife puts the UN’s to shame. Its launch includ- * * * ADVERTISING DEVELOPMENT and fork, Ukraine would already be carved to ed his meeting with national and local TV P.O. Box 171 Danny Macaluso Scott Russell Congers, NY * * * [email protected] pieces. And who knows what he’ll summon weathermen, just to remind them of how 10920-0171 866-954-8168 703-807-2011 for dessert. To read about Reagan-Gorbachev they are to report the weather, hint, hint. today, as in Kenneth Adelman’s masterful ac- People say Putin’s recklessness is a sign of e American Spectator was founded in 1924 by George Nathan and count (p. 16), is to step back not just a quar- irrationality. Our president’s Al Gore-ism Truman Newberry over a cheap domestic ale in McSorley’s Old Ale House. In 1967 the Saturday Evening Club took it over, rechris- ter century, but maybe to the time of Tur- is a more likelier case of bonkers. At this tening it e Alternative: An American Spectator; but by November genev. So how are those sanctions working point (p. 20), John Derbyshire is probably 1977 the word “alternative” had acquired such an esoteric fragrance that in order to discourage unsolicited manuscripts from orists, out for you, Mr. O? Working like clockwork best quali ed to assess what’s up with their beauticians, and other creative types the Club reverted to the maga- orange, one might say. brains. zine’s original name. Published remarkably without regard to gender, lifestyle, race, color, creed, physical handicap, or national origin.
2 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR June 2014 doing nothing more than exercising their funda- The Price of Citizenship mental, constitutionally-protected freedom not only to speak, but not to speak. ey are family business owners targeted simply for declining n April 7, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to is case was a “shot heard ‘round America.” to communicate messages and celebrate events Ohear Elane Photography v. Willock, the case But it is only one bullet downrange in the bur- against their will. of a young photographer told by the New Mexico geoning battle between freedom and repression. “Little by little, they are stripping us of any Supreme Court that abandoning her freedom is thought we might have, or any di erence of opin- “the price of citizenship.” By rejecting Elaine Hu- pposing forces are aligned. One side wants ion,” said Barronelle. “ is is our religious free- guenin’s appeal, the court let stand a ruling that Oto curb the power of the state and expand dom at stake.” says, essentially, that if the government demands individual freedom. e other side wants to ex- Barronelle has never refused service to a ho- pand the power of the state and curb individual mosexual customer. In fact, the man who is now freedom. One side stands with omas Je erson suing her is a friend and longtime customer for in saying we would “rather be exposed to the in- whom Barronelle created many arrangements. conveniences attending too much liberty than to But this faithful Christian woman just could not those attending too small a degree of it.” e other in conscience help celebrate a same-sex wedding. side insists on empowering the government to im- For that, the state says, she must be punished. pose ever-stricter strictures on freedom. At Alliance Defending Freedom we stand for liberty and against the intolerable intrusion of government into the lives, minds, and souls of American citizens. We are committed to James Madison’s true words that “conscience is the most sacred of all property” – and it must be protected if America is to be preserved. Even though Elaine’s remaining legal options are few, the remaining battles to ght are many. ey are going on all over America today – and more are coming. you celebrate an event, even if you disagree with the message of the event, you better do it – or arronelle Stutzman is a great grandmother brace yourself for severe consequences. Bwho works as a orist in a small town in Wash- Elaine is a quiet and humble young woman ington. Her state attorney general has accused her who hurt no one when she politely declined to use of unlawful discrimination in a case much like her photographic art – a personal creativity insepa- Elaine’s – and is personally denouncing her all rable from her deep religious beliefs – to “celebrate” over the state. Jack Phillips is a Denver-area cake a lesbian “commitment ceremony.” But Elaine her- artist threatened with jail time. Blaine Adamson is self has been irreparably harmed – personally and professionally. Indeed, as her state’s high court ad- mits, its decision le “a tangible mark on the Hu- guenins and others” who still cherish the freedom “Little by little, they are stripping us of any thought we to live according to their beliefs without fear of gov- ernment reprisal. might have, or any di erence of opinion. is is our Amid all the pundit thunder this case has gen- erated, let’s not forget one crucial detail: Elaine religious freedom at stake.” —Barronelle Stutzman. Huguenin is a real person who was dragged through the court system for nearly her entire adult life for doing nothing more than exercising a Kentucky T-shirt printer who’s been hauled be- As Americans, we should not be forced to her freedom not to communicate a message with fore a “human rights” commission in Lexington. choose between being punished for living accord- which she disagrees. Alliance Defending Freedom is representing ing to our beliefs and abandoning our freedom at e U.S. Supreme Court ruled mere months all of these law-abiding citizens, who are facing the command of the government. But more and ago that “at the heart of the First Amendment lies the terrible swi sword of a state obsessed with more of us are being confronted with this unlaw- the principle that each person should decide for avenging the imagined slights of some individu- ful dilemma. Real people with everything to lose himself or herself the ideas and beliefs deserving als by destroying the constitutional freedoms of are guaranteed a grim future if those who cherish of expression.” others. religious freedom don’t stand together and turn Wise words. A er all, the only thing more ese Americans are under legal attack for back this coercive tide. dangerous than government with the power to tell you what you can’t say is a government powerful To learn more about Barronelle’s story and how you can contribute to protecting enough to tell you what you must say. So what her rights of conscience and those of others experiencing the same injustice, visit about Elaine? We wonder. www.alliancedefendingfreedom.org/barronelle
ADF.Advertorial.Elane_v2.indd 1 4/17/14 4:17 PM the CONTINUING CRISIS
by R. EMMETT TYRRELL, JR.
April turns to May, and all of a sudden things have become very perilous for Vice President Joseph Biden. In the beginning of the month he was addressing the traditional Democratic groups—for instance the Wom- en With Splitting Headaches Internation- al and the Stupid Students Society of Bull Snort, Georgia—and joshing it up in his incomparable way. en inexplicably Presi- dent Barack Obama sent him to UKRAINE! Not to North Korea, not to Somalia, not even to Chicago’s South Side on a Saturday night. Joe Six Pack was sent to Ukraine, there to threaten President Vladimir Putin and to eat Ukrainian cuisine whether he likes it or not. All the time he was there Joe seemed edgy. No jokes about Indians working at the local 7-Elevens, not a word about Mrs. Sarah Palin. He shied away from open sec- ond-story windows. He kept his Secret Ser- vice detail away from strong drink. And one My presence here is proof of just how serious we are about Ukraine’s future. had to wonder: Why did the president send ga able Joe to Ukraine just as Russian troops were rumbling along the border and Russian the supervisor of one of the service’s largest president sent condolences, but could not goons were amok within its borders? divisions and reassigned two dozen oth- attend her services owing to a prior com- er agents in light of their recent mishaps mitment on the golf course. Is it possible that Our President had a involving abuse of alcohol. In an incident presentiment of trouble ahead? Is he a lit- during the president’s recent visit to the In Las Vegas, Nevada, a woman threw a tle uneasy about the increasingly ominous Netherlands, an agent was found sleep- shoe at Mrs. Hillary Rodham Clinton as the stories about him in the New York Times, ing in a fetal position outside his hotel former rst lady mesmerized an audience at stories about his bungling e orts in Rus- room. He had not even paused to put on the annual meeting of the Institute of Scrap sia, with North Korea’s boy president Kim his o cial Secret Service pajamas. What is Recycling Industries. No one knows why Jong-un, or the April 25 front page story it with these agents’ pathetic inability to the lady, identi ed as Miss Alison Ernst, 36, declaring, “Obama Su ers Setbacks in Ja- hold their booze? And can they not settle threw the shoe. It was a pretty nice shoe, and, pan and the Mideast”? By sending his vice on a designated driver? In Chile, lightning at least on this occasion, Hillary already had president to Ukraine was Our President at- killed more than sixty cows, and bombs two of her own. ere will be more on this tempting to ensure that the Democrat next continued to rock Afghanistan and Iraq as as news is available. Finally, after she survived in line for presidential succession was no both approached elections, Iraq at month’s the Scrap Recycling ambuscade Hillary was more? Ukrainian cuisine alone could do it. end and Afghanistan’s in June. Miss Zei- confronted by the most recent documents At any rate, all was for naught. By late April tuni Onyango, President Barack Obama’s from Benghazi. On the last day of April, Ju- Joe was back in the U.S. of A. and slipping aunt often described as “the spirit of the dicial Watch made public documents that it into a dry pair of socks. Obama family,” actually did become a spir- had liberated from the Obama administra- it. She passed away in South Boston after tion’s clutches. ey show that the White While on the matter of the Secret Ser- years of ghting deportation and other House and State Department response to vice, Director Julia Pierson has demoted charges. According to family members, the Benghazi was a political cover-up. As AmSpec SMI/Newscom 357/Icon SMI Icon Vakolenko/UPI, Ivan Photos:
4 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR June 2014 revealed three issues ago, Hillary and Our as the Mr. Edward Snowden of Russia and a President were both asleep for the proverbi- traitor to his nation’s cuisine. al “3 . .” telephone call, and Hillary had denied Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens’s In sports news, Mr. Jameis Winston of continual pleas for increased security. Florida State University, who won last year’s Heisman Trophy, was accused of shoplifting Nonetheless, Hillary has her supporters, $32 worth of crab legs from a Tallahassee and their numbers are growing. In Lufkin, Publix. He never actually admitted to the Texas, a 37-year-old single mom, indignant crime or even to being hungry, yet he will do by the low quality of marijuana she had pur- twenty hours of community service. ose chased, called 911 and gave the responders two students at the University of Hawaii who a piece of her mind. Miss Evelyn Hamilton were prevented from distributing provocative was promptly arrested. In Manhattan, Miss and lascivious literature on campus have de- Latima Brown, 22, (another single mom?) cided to sue the university for violating their became outraged when the manager of the First Amendment rights. “It’s not about your famed Malibu Diner told her that her loud rights in this case,” responded Ellen Kusano, and profane 5:10 . . telephone call was the director of student a airs, “it’s about the excessive, and she “went ballistic,” punch- University policy that you can’t approach peo- ing him, smashing bottles, and spitting in ple.” e students were “approaching” people his face. She too was arrested. Finally, in St. with the United States Constitution. President Petersburg, Florida, that woman who, naked George W. Bush apparently still haunts the save for a G-string, was lmed rampaging American economy six years after he gave up through a McDonald’s restaurant causing o ce. In the rst three months of this year the mayhem, has nally been identi ed. She is economy grew at a rate of merely 0.1 percent. Sandra Suarez, 41, and she too is mad as hell. Finally, there was this happy story: In Vatican She also is another single mom. What is it City, Pope Francis proclaimed as saints Pope with these single moms? Why can they not John Paul II and Pope John XXIII while Pope get along? Other angry women were in the Emeritus Benedict XVI looked on. All in all news, though they were fully clothed. One it was a very happy day for popes and no one was former health secretary Kathleen Sebel- was shot. — ET ius who stepped down from her lofty posi- tion in a Rose Garden ceremony at which she did not let us down. She appeared at the podium, having forgotten the last page of her speech. Another was Miss Sylvia Mathews Burwell, Mrs. Sebelius’s replacement and the next person to perpetrate Obamacare on the nation.
Egypt will hold its presidential elections on May 26 and 27, though 683 Muslim Brotherhood members will not be voting. ey have been condemned to death. DRINK In vegetarian news, an unidenti ed assailant attempted to rob two stores in Providence, Rhode Island, with a potato, or at least a gun carved out of a potato. He failed both UP! times, though on the rst try $39* buys you one year at a gas station the cashier handed over a fake $20 bill, — 10 issues — which is illegal. e secret to of America’s cleverest magazine! Russian cheese’s distinctive taste was revealed when some lout made a video of employees Call 800-524-3469 at the Trade House Cheeses dipping or visit their feet in vats of milk used for cheese. www.spectator.org In fact, some of the employees were ac- tually swimming in the milk buck naked. *New subscribers only. Whoever took the lm is being branded
www.spectator.org THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR 5 odds & ENDS
’ essay on “e Divided States of America” (TAS, April 2014) reminds us once again of the primordial dierences in attitudes toward government and freedom in this country. TIn his book Albion’s Seed, David Hackett Fischer outlined the cultural assumptions of the four main ethnic groups that settled the American colonies. What’s import- ant for our politics is their dierent ideas about freedom. e South had two groups intensely jealous of their own rights but rather blasé about the rights of others. Puritan New England was settled by people who be- lieved in controlling themselves and their neighbors, intricately regulating their com- munities, and cherishing the right of local government to do this. Between were the Quakers who were more mutual, believing that rights must be the same for all, and trying to govern by consensus. Today we see the cultural descendants of the Puritans and Southerners as blue and red states on our political maps. One might think that a pluralistic society like America could live in peace and mutual re- spect, following the example of the Quak- ers and seeking consensus—as opposed to simple-majority politics or judicial at— on divisive social issues. However, this for welcoming young Gutfeld respective souls drives them to embrace the approach is inconsistent with Evangelical to the Hall of Hilarious and Deep world’s worst ghouls”; or “if you swim in the Progressivism, which compels the descen- Tinkers at TAS. sewer, you’re going to come out stinky.” dants of the Puritans to impose their will e way Gutfeld pokes fun at the pin- Rock on, Gutfeld. Rock on. I like the dig on the whole country. heads and poseurs who mourned the death about Maroon 5 at the end of the piece. God save us from the Progressives’ lust for of Chavez (“Why Liberals Love Dead Com- But your line about how Chavez mourners power. mies,” TAS, April 2014) and praised the Sean Penn, Oliver Stone, Jimmy Carter, . passing of atcher is truly delightful. I’m and Joe Kennedy were the worst set of four , N not sure which is my favorite line: since the last Who reunion was misplaced. “Why do we have champions of tolerance C’mon, man! Send correspondence to [email protected] with asking that we tolerate those who trac in the subject line “Letter to the Editor.” intolerance?”; or “the obvious hole in their , Love Yogi Illustration:
6 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR June 2014 Flashback , , can the matter be? Editor’s Note: As John Pod- W e safest expla- horetz described him, Werner nation takes into account J. Dannhauser, the former the drink’s youthfulness. e spectator.org Commentary editor and martini was born in the nine- Cornell professor who died in teenth century and has our- Your daily source April at age 84, was a rar- ished—perhaps peaked—in of conservative wit and wisdom. ity—a deeply serious intel- ours. e occurrence of phe- lectual and life-loving party nomena necessarily antedates animal. their comprehension, as He- Recent Articles We were honored to pub- gel might have remarked, and lish him many time during no wise man tries to hurry Boehner Smartens Up the Reagan years, and per- history, as Adlai Stevenson on Benghazi haps nowhere so perfectly as did in fact maintain, so true by Scott McKay in this “unforgettable, un- e Metaphysical Martini understanding may have to Naming Trey Gowdy is his sharpest improvable” (as a knowing . await the fullness of time, to move in years. friend calls it) tribute to the November 1981 borrow Martin Luther’s felic- martini. Who can ever pour itous phrase. Fear and Loathing one and not think of him? e patience we need while hoping for of Rand Paul the appearance of the martini’s philosopher by Ross Kaminsky (not to be confused with the philosopher’s A response to our critics of martini) will surely be strengthened by a Ron Paul’s son. met a martini I did reading of Lowell Edmunds’ e Silver Bul- not like. Under no circumstances let: e Martini in American Civilization. The Left’s Sterling Standards would I assert that any martini is It can hardly be called the de nitive book by George Neumayr as good as any other; my mind may on the subject, but it is a pioneering work It has a selective understanding be soaked, but not in rampant egal- in the best sense. It abounds with informa- of justice. itarianism. I am willing to argue, tion, including the above tidbits about the however, that while the best martini age of the martini; it luxuriates in insights We Are All Charles Murray demands to be called “perfect,” the worst educing the shock of recognition; it pro- by Bill Zeiser Iis nevertheless passable, and far better than mulgates bold postulates demanding re ec- As long as the le continues no martini at all. tion and attempts at veri cation; in short, it to sti e dissent. Surprisingly enough, so wondrous a performs an invaluable service and puts all drink has failed to spawn much of a lit- of us in the author’s debt. Going Negative erature that celebrates its wonders. It may I learned a great deal from this book. on Affirmative Action well be that most sane men would rath- For example, I found out that Franklin by Matt Purple er drink martinis than read about them D. Roosevelt changed not only the face of Roberts teases out a narrow ruling. and would rather read about them than America, but the contents of the traditional write about them. Yet that tempting ex- martini—by adding fruit juice. I was taught The High Cost of Liberalism planation fails to satisfy, simply because almost more than I could absorb about ver- by omas Sowell martinis can be held in one hand, so that mouth, that most necessary of evils required Lots worth more than a spacious anyone who can talk and chew gum at the to make a good martini—it is a “forti ed middle-class home. same time can just as well teach himself wine.” I discovered poetry by Auden, New simultaneously to sip a martini and to Yorker cartoons, pictures of various permis- read or write about it. sible glasses, and a bibliography that will Nor will it do to contend that the ab- enable me to begin research on Scotch and sence of a library of works on the martini other estimable beverages should the spirit Be sure to check out constitutes an undisguised blessing be- ever move me to study spirits. The Spectacle Blog cause writing about them would resemble I mention the above matters to convey what Leo Strauss once called “the loath- something of this slender volume’s richness, spectator.org/blog some business of explaining a joke.” at not to suggest that Professor Edmunds de- was in another context and besides the votes himself primarily to the collection of great man’s imposing list of virtues did intriguing trivia. Nothing could be further not include a love of martinis. A mystique from the truth. After the briefest of introduc- surrounds martinis, to be sure, but it does tions, the author at once turns to the task of not su er from an attempt at articulation. giving an adequate account of the martini.… Indeed, for many of us the joy of drinking martinis is enhanced by talking about the joy of drinking martinis. www.spectator.org/martini
www.spectator.org THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR 7 the BOOTBLACK STAND
Dr. George Washington Plunkitt, our prize-winning political analyst, has recently retired from a sta position with the House Ethics Committee and is working on volume fteen of his memoirs, tentatively titled Nard Choices. But he has graciously consented to once again advise American statespersons in these times of trouble. Address all correspondence to e Bootblack Stand, c/o [email protected].
P— Dear Mr. Plunkitt— Miss Dunham— , a few weeks ago, I did tell the U.S. is yet unreleased, but at the Library ’ with giving away the Young America’s Foundation’s Hispanic Chamber of Commerce that the of Congress we’re debating where to shelve farm at the outset! You should have strung it president has basically put me in charge of Hillary Clinton’s forthcoming memoir, Hard out over multiple years: a ash of wrist in sea- the Western Hemisphere. And yes, I did Choices. Under class E for American history son one, a sultry lower calf in season two. By National Conservative tell the annual conference of the National or J for political science? Or if it discusses in the time you reached a backless dress in season Association of Dental Hygienists that in a depth her time as secretary of state, then class fourteen, you would’ve been an international past life I was a Mexican professional wres- D for world history? But if it involves her early phenom. Alas, now you’re just one of the many Student Conference tler named Trucho Graciarse. And yes, I life, then maybe subclass CT for biography? thousands of women hiding in the bushes in did announce on Meet the Press that Demo- . Central Park with no drawers on. — WP WASHINGTON, D.C. crats should abide by the line of succession ULY TO UGUST OST J 28 A 2, 2014 THE GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY C : $175* and recognize John Boehner as president Doctor— / / in the event that Barack and I get raptured. Mr. Billington— . I wanted the classic Dean Koontz And you know what else? You can’t stop belles lettres like these, the only thriller Strangers for my birthday, but my A ... me. Biden’s gonna say what Biden’s gonna solution is to buy a copy (or several) for each wife must’ve misunderstood. She bought me say. e DNC can set up a trebuchet and of those areas! Depending on how the book is e Stranger by Albert Camus instead. I was ing two hundred sweetlegs PR oozies written—and how far back Hillary trudges— trying to be nice, so I said what the hell, I’ll over the Naval Observatory fence, but you also might want to stock copies in sections give it a read. Big mistake. I was moved—too ain’t nothing gonna change one fact: e GR1-950 (folklore), RC952-954.6 (geriatrics), moved—by Meursault’s plight. Now I can’t Bidenmobile’s on a roll. Choo! Choo! Next and HQ31-64 (sexual ethics). Put one in the stop thinking about the futility of existence. Meet like-minded peers from Learn from top teachers and Explore ways to eectively stop, 2016-ville. Keep your arms and legs case next to the Gutenberg Bible, too. — WP I can’t eat. I can’t sleep. What’s the point? I inside the compartment. And remember: haven’t showered in four days. I just lie on the across the country. leaders in the Conservative push back against leftist, big In the event of a water landing, you can Mr. Plunkitt— couch in my o ce sucking ketchup straight Movement about how to government threats to your use me as a otation device, America. ’ to write major plot points out of a bottle, weeping and playing with my champion your principles at freedoms. for the next season of Girls, but things feel Slinky and listening to the faucet drip in the P stale. Well, not things. One particular thing. next room and feeling in every molecule of your school & beyond! SA I’m running out of awkward places to get my body the dull, aching passage of time. naked. I mean, once you’re on camera playing How do I get myself out of these doldrums Mr. VP— nude ping pong, where do you go from there? and nd meaning again? Sign up now at YAF .ORG or contact Katie Taran at that I’ve o en felt mysti ed by your Nude curling? Nude elephant polo? (By that I media strategy, but I always assumed there mean I’m nude. ough I guess the elephants .. was a method to the madness, that you and would be nude, too.) Nude dwarf tossing? 800-USA-1776 or [email protected] the president were playing good cop/bad cop (Ditto like with the elephants. But I’d point Senator— * Includes tuition, materials, lodging, and meals. Acceptance subject to approval. with the American people. I think I’m start- out that we’d be progressive and use dwarves for an existential funk is ing to realize now that your bad cop isn’t just of all body types, although I guess casting a little Existential Funk. at little-known pretending to be harsh to cajole the witness; would have to set some standard for dwarf- early ’70s supergroup, a collaborative he’s tweaked out from spending the morning dom to screen out actors who are just really project featuring George Clinton, James popping psychotropics pilfered from the ev- short. Sorry. Practicality requires limits.) Brown, Kool, and Earth and Wind (Fire idence locker, eating co ee lters, trying to I just worry the shtick is beginning to wear. couldn’t come to terms with the record la- open the trapdoor in his head, talking dirty Is there any shock value le ? I tried to test it bel), only put out one LP. But it’s a doozy. to a jelly donut he’s named Abigail. by going down to Central Park and taking my I defy you to be blue while listening to Are you quite well, Mr. Biden? Mental health sweatpants o behind the Balto statue, but not “Play at Funky Music (French Boy),” treatment has advanced signi cantly since your even the pigeons seemed to notice. “Brick House of Being,” or “Søren Over NEWT GINGRICH HERMAN CAIN ROBBIE GEORGE WALTER WILLIAMS BAY BUCHANAN last round of electroshock… — WP the USA.” — WP
@yaf Young America’s @yaf_ yaf.org The Reagan Ranch National Headquarters THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR June 2014 Foundation 217 State Street F.M. Kirby Freedom Center 8 Santa Barbara, CA 110 Elden St., Herndon, VA 1-888-USA-1776 1-800-USA-1776 *Includes tuition, materials, lodging, and meals. Acceptance subject to approval. Young America’s Foundation’s National Conservative Student Conference WASHINGTON, D.C. JULY 28 TO AUGUST 2, 2014 COST: $175* / THE GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY / A ...
Meet like-minded peers from Learn from top teachers and Explore ways to eectively across the country. leaders in the Conservative push back against leftist, big Movement about how to government threats to your champion your principles at freedoms. your school & beyond!
Sign up now at YAF .ORG or contact Katie Taran at 800-USA-1776 or [email protected] * Includes tuition, materials, lodging, and meals. Acceptance subject to approval.
NEWT GINGRICH HERMAN CAIN ROBBIE GEORGE WALTER WILLIAMS BAY BUCHANAN
@yaf Young America’s @yaf_ yaf.org The Reagan Ranch National Headquarters Foundation 217 State Street F.M. Kirby Freedom Center Santa Barbara, CA 110 Elden St., Herndon, VA 1-888-USA-1776 1-800-USA-1776 *Includes tuition, materials, lodging, and meals. Acceptance subject to approval. in the COLOSSEUM
by AMANDA C. ELLIOTT e Prosecutor Rising GOP star Trey Gowdy on his trademark style, suing the president, and respect for e Process.
can be move on. “So I had just heard about a fteen- er seen anyone in such a short period of a soul-crushing experience. In year-old who’d done nothing wrong who got time make such an impact on the national South Carolina’s Fourth Con- killed, I got an eight-year-old killed, I’m get- stage.” Indeed. When this article is pub- gressional District especially, ting ready to try a special-needs eleven-year- lished, Gowdy will have been in Congress the humidity traps still heat old who was beaten to death by her mother’s for roughly three years and ve months. and mosquitoes, made worse by boyfriend, and I’m telling you, after a while In that short amount of time, he’s al- the torturous proximity of cool it begins to take a toll on your soul,” he says. ready become a bona de regular on Fox mountains to the west, and breezy ocean to “You can’t watch that.” News—a coveted position among many Sthe east. But in July of 2009, Trey Gowdy Gowdy, now a congressman, is sitting at of his colleagues. He serves on four sepa- faced something far more malicious. A serial a corner table sipping an ice water at the rate committees, a hefty load for even the killer was on the loose in Cherokee Coun- Capitol Hill Club, a popular destination most seasoned of representatives. Gowdy’s ty—and the way Gowdy talks about it, the for thirsty Washington Republicans. He is rise was cemented last year during an in- memories still seem fresh. “at whole re- well-known here: On the way to our ta- famous hearing in the House Committee gion was paralyzed by fear, because{ you just ble, he and the maître d’ exchanged small on Oversight and Government Reform. don’t have serial kill- talk like friends, and By now, the story is well known. Former ers,” he says. “It’s our he points to a table on IRS ocial Lois Lerner had just given worst nightmare.” If you’re in the other side of the a lengthy opening statement about her e killer turned out room where he and innocence in the IRS targeting scandal, to be forty-one-year- court, you have fellow South Carolina and then switched to asserting her Fifth old Patrick Tracy Bur- about a second Senator Tim Scott eat Amendment right to remain silent. ris. Over the span of dinner together al- at didn’t sit well with Gowdy. six days he murdered to decide most every night. Hair ve people, including slicked back, he looks but raised in a fteen-year-old girl whether you’re the part of esteemed Spartanburg, Gowdy grew up, he says, and her father in their going to object esquire. It’s the early B“thinking I was the only poor doctor’s family-owned appliance morning, and the air is child who had ever existed.” His father, a store. Gowdy, then the or not. And if sharp with promises of well-known local pediatrician who never solicitor for South Car- you don’t, life spring. e ling dead- nished college, inspired the kind of work olina’s Seventh Judicial line in the Palmetto ethic in his four children that had thirteen- Circuit, was on his way has moved on. State’s Fourth District year-old Gowdy delivering newspapers and home from the press for the upcoming mid- later bagging groceries. But aer graduat-
conference announcing { term election has just ing from Baylor University with a degree Burris’s death in a shootout with police when passed, and only one lone third-party can- in history, Gowdy opted against “building he received a call alerting him to another didate has stepped up to challenge Gowdy. houses in New Mexico” in favor of going brutal slaying—this time of an eight-year- Barring disaster or loss of interest, it’s safe to law school at the University of South old girl—in another sleepy town under his to conclude he has a long future ahead of Carolina. ree years aer earning his J.D., jurisdiction. Gowdy began to feel the need to him in the House of Representatives—if Gowdy nally found his purpose. e thing that’s what he wants. that caused him to run from the prosecution Amanda C. Elliott is a writer in Washing- His state’s senior senator, Lindsey Gra- business was the very thing that initially ton, D.C. ham, recently said of Gowdy, “I’ve nev- drove him to it: senseless bloodshed.
10 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR June 2014 A family friend by the name of Je Adams did not know….How do you persuade? to say it rst. If you’re in court, you have was murdered outside an apartment complex Do you have the facts on your side? If you about a second to decide whether you’re go- in Charlotte, North Carolina. “I was driving have the facts on your side, how do you ing to object or not. And if you don’t, life home from his funeral,” Gowdy says, “and— present them in a way that makes people has moved on.” you’ll have one of these points in your life want to believe?” Did he get any responses from his col- as well, where you just kind of ask yourself, Take the initial Oversight Committee leagues after the outburst? “Yeah,” says ‘What am I supposed to be doing? Is this all hearing on the IRS scandal. For Gowdy, Gowdy chuckling. “How did you know that there is?’” e answer, it turned out, was who eschews the committee sta ’s re- that?” waiting for him at the U.S. Attorney’s o ce. searched questions in favor of his own, the Gowdy has also applied this knowhow Gowdy, a staunch conservative, launched his jury is the audience and his ve minutes to investigating the jihadist assault on an career at the age of twenty-nine under the with the witness is the cross examination. American compound in Benghazi. In early President Clinton-appointed, Democratic He’s become such a force in hearings, his May it paid o ; John Boehner appointed U.S. Attorney Pete Strom. him to head the select committee Gowdy, now known for his sharp that will probe the government’s re- prosecutorial style in congressional sponse to the attacks, which should hearings, says his performances weren’t put his pugnacity to good use. always so crisp. “It was painful when When he’s not busy interrupting I think back on my early trial days. committee proceedings or working I don’t know how I won a case; I’m on persuading the American people, glad there’s no video of that!” he says. Gowdy is looking for other ways to “But the judge would take me in the enforce the law. His aptly named back afterwards and say, ‘ is is what Enforce Act—which passed the you should’ve done. is is how you House, but faces certain death in can get better.’” And so he did. For the Senate—would allow members ve years, he worked within the sys- of Congress to sue the president if tem, prosecuting lawbreakers and they think he’s violating the law. In cultivating a deeply held respect for this, Gowdy the Prosecutor, who what he calls e Process. He left in argues neither the president nor his 2000 to run against, and ultimately attorney general is above e Pro- defeat, the incumbent solicitor, trad- cess, is on full display. ing tax evaders for serial killers. But “We do it all the time with sub- it wasn’t until 2010 that, after a life- poenas,” says Gowdy. “All this bill time of enforcing laws, he set out to says is we have standing—the legal make some. right to go to court.” A committee room may not be a “It’s the process by which we do courtroom, but that hasn’t stopped things,” Gowdy continues emphati- Gowdy from looking for someone or cally. “Go back to the courtroom. You something to prosecute. e point, he forget one tiny clause in [someone’s] says, is not to espouse party rhetoric; prophylactic Miranda warnings. You it’s to nd the cracks in the system, just forget to tell her one thing. Her the abusers of e Process, the can- confession will be thrown out. Why, cers on the body politic—and make because she’s innocent? No! She’s not wrongs right. He has also joined the lecture colleagues—both Democrats and Repub- innocent, but process matters!” circuit, traveling around the country (“wher- licans—have started asking him for tips. At this point, he pauses. See, Trey Gowdy ever I’m invited”), giving talks about whether “What I tell my colleagues is, you have to has spent a career making sure bad things the Republican Party’s biggest problem is the have a plan,” he says. “You have to know happen to bad people. But in Washington, “message, the messenger, or the method.” where you want to go with this witness.… D.C., it’s not that easy. Too many elude “ e most frustrating thing in life is to What do you want to leave the jury with?” punishment in between elections, and he’s be in the minority and think you’re the In other words, how will you, in ve angry. What’s more, he wants to convince majority,” he says. “We’ve won, what, one minutes, persuade the American public the members of his jury—the American popular vote of the last six? And two elec- and the media that your side not only has people—to be angry too. Angry at the lack toral colleges of the last six? And if you look the facts, but also the truth? In the hearing of the respect for the law. Angry at a pow- at the last electoral map, it wasn’t close. So with Lerner, Gowdy contends he was sim- er-hungry executive branch. Angry because are you in the majority and people are just ply drawing on courtroom experience. His e Process has been tarnished. Angry that staying home—which is what some people outburst, arguing that Lerner had waived too many people are getting away with do- believe—or are you in the minority and her right to the Fifth Amendment, wasn’t ing bad things. you need to persuade? I think we’re in the planned. “Only one of my colleagues had a ankfully, it’s only a matter of months minority and we need to persuade.” lot of courtroom experience, and he knew before the jury convenes and produces He continues: “So for sixteen years I had what was going on too,” says Gowdy, “so it a verdict. If Gowdy has been successful,
Illustration: Yogi Love Yogi Illustration: to stand in front of twelve people that I was only a matter of which of us was going they’ll throw the bad guys out.
www.spectator.org THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR 11 http://webview.upi.com/view/photos_upi/df0d68bcd55b8e38883d53fbaeb30838/?popout=1
ten PACES
Is donor disclosure good for the Right?
Sunlight Is Still the that money doesn’t cause it. Both contentions allowing the public to see which groups repre- Best Disinfectant are simply wrong. To assert that money doesn’t sent sizable constituencies and which speak for corrupt is to argue against millennia of human the interests of a few activist billionaires, the by MATT COVER experience. Disclosure prevents corruption in American people can better weigh the messag- the same way that locking your door prevents es sent out by these groups during elections. of Mozil- burglary. It won’t dissuade every schemer, but Should the interests of a wealthy few deter- la CEO Brendan Eich seems to have it acts as a deterrent and helps prevent govern- mine the results of elections that are binding Tcaused some conservatives to ip-op ment ocials and politicians from subverting on all? e Founders certainly thought not. their positions regarding the disclosure of po- the very law that is meant to restrain them. Madison wrote in Federalist 10 that a soci- litical donations. Most notably, Charles Krau- Money is the great enabler of modern poli- ety’s “interests” must not be allowed to become thammer has joined the anti-disclosure camp, tics, but it remains a distorting and corrupting unbalanced, and that the great advantage blaming left-wing “zealots” for making the force that shifts power away from the very peo- of the proposed government—our govern- conservative position untenable. “If revealing ple the Constitution was written to protect. A ment—was that each part could keep the oth- your views opens you to the politics of per- distinction must be drawn, however, between ers in check. Disclosure serves Madison’s pur- sonal destruction, then transparency, however donations to candidates for oce and do- pose by allowing citizens to see who is trying valuable, must give way to the ultimate core nations to outside activist and issue groups. to inuence the politicians who have the pow- political good, free expression,” Krauthammer Oceholders can potentially dole out favors, er to aect their daily lives and infringe their wrote in an April column in the Washington contracts, and money from the public sc liberties. Donation disclosure requirements in Post. It’s an elegant argument, one also ad- to friends, allies, and donors. For this reason fact help protect liberty by deterring the cor- vanced by Justice Clarence omas in his par- alone, campaign donations beyond the means ruption of politicians who would steal it from tial dissent from the 2010 Citizens United de- of most Americans must be disclosed. e case us and undermine the integrity of our union. cision. omas argued that disclosure would for knowing when and from whom large sums e best argument against disclosure is the empower bullies to target disfavored speakers are given to politicians is simply self-evident. one advanced by Krauthammer and Justice with public pressure and ridicule. omas and Activist groups are another matter entire- omas: that left-wing bullies have succeed- Krauthammer are obviously correct that po- ly. On one hand they do not hold political ed in making the price of disclosure too high. litical disclosure has armed left-wing lunatics power and so the argument for transparency Still, disclosure’s opponents abandon it too with the ammunition they need to persecute seems not to apply. On the other, these groups quickly. ey hasten the day when boosters those whose opinions they want scrubbed clearly inuence our politics, and not always of campaign nance regulations will use a from the public square. ey are wrong, how- for the better. Some would ban guns, others corruption scandal to enact a comprehensive ever, that the danger from these scoundrels expand the ongoing slaughter of the unborn, new bill like McCain-Feingold, creating a new outweighs the benets of disclosure. still others raise taxes astronomically. What morass of rules and regulations that will re- Political disclosure is a powerful tool, they advocate shouldn’t impact if they are re- strict speech miles beyond disclosure. Further, without which our system becomes more quired to disclose their donors, but conserva- they advocate a policy that invites corruption. corrupt and less democratic. We know tives should remember that not every outside We’ve seen far too often the nefarious and ty- this because we’ve seen it rsthand. Our group is a good actor. It is undeniable, too, rannical things government does when it can history is sadly riddled with examples: that these groups impact our politics by seek- act in the dark. Men aren’t angels, of course. the ABSCAM scandal, Leland Yee, Bob Mc- ing to sway voters—though they do so under But we shouldn’t give them any more incen- Donnell, the Keating Five, Jack Abramo— the thin veneer of “issue-based education.” tive to act like devils. and those are just from the past few decades. ere’s nothing inherently wrong with this; If the cost of disclosure is that zealots We shouldn’t forget the infamous Tammany in fact, it’s the exact type of political speech have access to information on political do- Hall, or the countless backroom bribes that the First Amendment was written to protect. nations—a bit more fuel for their rhetori- have been lost to history. Some would argue But requiring disclosure is not some uncon- cal Molotov cocktails—then so be it. e that disclosure doesn’t prevent corruption or stitutional restriction. Instead, it is an entirely bullies may have made engaging in political prudential move to give voters the informa- speech a bit more expensive, but it is still Matt Cover is a former editor at Rare. tion they need to fully evaluate that speech. By well worth the price.
12 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR June 2014 http://webview.upi.com/view/photos_upi/df0d68bcd55b8e38883d53fbaeb30838/?popout=1
Anonymity Is a Shield that right? Certainly the folks at Accountable abama, which struck down an Alabama law America would say that disclosure helps the requiring that the African-American civil rights by LACHLAN MARKAY left ensure that conservatives are less likely to group disclose all of its members on the grounds donate to independent political groups, an ac- that such disclosure would lead to harassment , the Hu ngton Post pub- tivity protected by the First Amendment. and intimidation. It would later establish, in lished a full list of donors to the campaign e Prop 8 campaign came up again McIntyre vs. Ohio Election Commission, that Isupporting Proposition 8, which dened this year after Mozilla CEO Brendan Eich the government’s “interest in providing voters marriage in California as a union between a was forced to step down because he donat- with additional relevant information does not man and woman, after a judge denied an in- ed $1,000 to the pro-Prop 8 eort. Never justify a state requirement that a writer make junction against the public release of that list. mind that some of Eich’s top critics them- statements or disclosures she would otherwise Prop 8 supporters brought the injunction af- selves employed executives who donated to omit.” Bottom line: e identities of individu- Is donor disclosure good for the Right? ter opponents published an interactive map of the same cause. Eich’s resignation came in als engaged in independent political speech are the home addresses of all donors to the group the midst of an unprecedented campaign by protected by the First Amendment. pushing the measure. leading national Democrats to vilify In the Hu ngton Post story’s comments conservative political donors for the section, user “John Bisceglia” wrote that all sole reason that they are conservative Prop 8 supporters “should fear retribution.” (hence the omission of any condem- Damage done to gay families by the initiative, nation of wealthy left-wing donors). the user said, “is reason enough to put a bullet Majority Leader Harry Reid has tak- through someone’s head.” Opponents of the en to the Senate oor virtually every measure sprayed swastikas and other grati day the chamber has been in session on pro-Prop 8 churches. Supporters had their this spring to mock and deride libertar- homes and cars vandalized. ian philanthropists Charles and David It is dicult to know whether the bully- Koch for having the temerity to exercise ing had a chilling eect on future political their First Amendment rights on a scale donations—that is, whether those who saw that Reid nds objectionable. Reid’s top this sort of harassment are now more leery of lieutenant, Senate Majority Whip Dick supporting controversial political measures Durbin, has undertaken a similar cam- that could earn them the wrath of similarly paign, attempting to use his position to determined and radical groups. But certainly intimidate members of the American that is the goal of some on the left. Account- Legislative Exchange Council, another able America, a now-defunct left-wing activ- left-wing bogeyman. Does anyone se- ist group, was formed explicitly “to create a riously doubt that Reid, Durbin, and chilling eect that will dry up contributions” other segments of the Democratic power to conservative groups, the New York Times re- base would similarly vilify other conser- McCain and Feingold discuss McCain-Feingold in 2000. ported in 2008. Accountable America at the vative donors, if only they could demon- time was targeting a conservative group called strate their support for groups the left dislikes? It is important to note here the distinc- Freedom’s Watch, whose spokesman assured We have already seen the lengths to which tion between donors to a political campaign potential supporters that, as a 501(c)(4) non- the Obama administration has apparently and donors to an independent group. e prot, “all of our donors are entitled to com- gone to silence conservative political groups court noted in its recent McCutcheon de- plete anonymity by law.” and their leaders. Just ask Catherine Engel- cision that the state has a valid interest in ere are forces on the left, and increasing- brecht, founder of conservative groups True regulating campaign nance in ways that re- ly on the right, that would strip independent the Vote and King Street Patriots. “In July duce corruption. But while politicians can policy and advocacy groups of that protection. 2010 she sent applications to the IRS for be (often are, some might say) corrupted, “Our democracy is strengthened when all of tax-exempt status,” the Wall Street Journal’s independent groups cannot be. ey have us participate openly in the political process, Peggy Noonan wrote in a 2013 column. no policymaking power that can be cor- and that when people are deciding to use “What followed was not the harassment, in- rupted. eir only tool is information. money to try and inuence voters’ decisions in trusiveness and delay we’re now used to hear- e dissemination of that information is, an election, voters have a right to know who’s ing of. e U.S. government came down on of course, protected activity, and any law that nancing those, and there’s a very important her with full force.” In the three years that “abridges” that dissemination is unconstitu- public interest and public good advanced by followed, she was called on by the FBI more tional. Whether it subjects speakers, dened those disclosure requirements,” Rep. Chris than a handful of times, audited by the IRS broadly, to retribution by their fellow citizens Van Hollen, the House Democrats’ leading twice (personal and business returns), audit- or their elected ocials, a law that compels the campaign nance reformer, recently said. ed twice by the ATF (her business had a li- disclosure of donors to independent groups “Disclosure doesn’t prevent any individual or cense to make rearms but didn’t do so), and leaves those speakers vulnerable to a political corporation or union from running a single audited by OSHA. backlash that will chill involvement in the political advertisement,” he insisted. But is Anonymity in political speech is a protected political process by individuals whose politi- right precisely due to the potential for this sort cal views are unfashionable. Disclosure is not Lachlan Markay is a reporter for the Wash- of harassment. e Supreme Court established harmless. Liberals recognize that fact. Conser-
Photo: Ian Wagreich/UPI Ian Photo: ington Free Beacon. that standard in the 1958 case NAACP vs. Al- vatives should too.
www.spectator.org THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR 13 e GOP Needs Real Heroes Stop looking for redux Reagans.
by NEAL B. FREEMAN
these superiority. To win a sitting ovation, days make conserva- it is recommended that you do so tives look like a fractious at the top of your lungs. Step three: bunch—as indeed we Chant the following phrases with sometimes are. I am deep- the rhythm of incantation: limited ly informed about grumpy government, free enterprise, indi- conservatives and paranoid vidual responsibility. Step four: Exit libertarians, bellicose neocons and navel-gaz- to a standing ovation. Ting paleocons. What I know as a matter of ba- ese speeches begged—and an- sic political arithmetic, however, is that we will swered—this question: To whom need all of these groups—and more—if we were the speakers speaking? To the are to restore some semblance of conservative national television audience? Or to governance. e path to that convergence, if themselves? not all the way to civility, is not only rhetorical Amid the several blessings of talk but also doctrinal. We should start with the ternative, any more than Meyer or Bozell, radio and Internet bloggery, we have created latter challenge, which lies, most consequen- standing alone, did in their day. for ourselves one very large rhetorical prob- tially, in the eld of international aairs. Our proximate political problem is that al- lem. We have learned to savor the many sat- When it comes to defense and foreign most all Americans—upwards of 80 percent, isfactions of talking to ourselves, while for- policy, we, the leadership of the conservative the polls suggest—agree with neither Paul getting how to talk to people who do not yet movement, have done a very unconservative nor Rubio. ey nd themselves somewhere agree with us. at is a luxury that Bill Buck- thing: We have spent down our intellectual in- in between, thus rendering our intramu- ley and the founding brethren never enjoyed. heritance. We have blown through the fusion- ral debate, in which we shout at each other Separated from the public by what were then ist bequest passed down to us by Frank Mey- across a vast chasm, all but incomprehensi- the monopoly media, Buckley could not get er and Brent Bozell. eir fusionism, which ble. What we need is some hard, doctrinal away with condemning and asserting. He conjoined Meyer’s freedom and Bozell’s virtue, work to fashion a new foreign policy perti- would have had the impact of a B-B bounc- was a ne piece of ideological cabinet-making. nent to these times, a foreign policy in which ing o the hull of an incoming drone. Rather, It stood handsomely in our front hall for a military power serves national purpose and he was obliged to beguile and persuade— half-century, a welcoming introduction to our not ideological abstraction. What we need, obliged, rst, to beguile the monopoly media conservative worldview. But even the nest I’m suggesting to our friends in academe, the into granting him access to their audience, piece of tongue-and-groove carpentry must think tanks, and the media, is some ne, fu- and then to persuade the audience to enter- be maintained or, over the years, it will begin sionist cabinetmaking. tain what seemed to be his eccentric views. to loosen, then crack at the joints, and then But we rst need to rediscover a splinter into pieces and panels. at’s where rhetorical path to civility. Conserva- we are now. tive rhetoric has lapsed into a state of We have only the two side panels—one disrepair. It is intended to rouse and represented by Rand Paul’s demobilization, unify, and today it does neither. the other by Marco Rubio’s intervention- e magnitude of the problem was ism. Both of those themes echo honorably manifest most recently at the Con- down through conservative history. Paul re- servative Political Action Conference calls Meyer’s freedom; Marco Rubio echoes in Washington, D.C., last month. I Bozell’s virtue. But they do not, either Paul’s diagrammed a few of those speeches. views or Rubio’s, represent in themselves ey were constructed along these a coherent or widely acceptable policy al- lines: Step one: Call your opponent names. I gather from CPAC, in fact, Neal B. Freeman is chairman of e that contemporary liberalism is just Blackwell Corporation. is piece is adapt- about equally divided between two ed from remarks made to the Philadelphia rival factions—the idiots and the Society. morons. Step two: Assert your moral
14 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR June 2014 If we hope to win national elections now new mayor of San Diego, has set California the tax-exempt Left to government work. He and then, we must acknowledge that “con- on a path to becoming a two-party state. will soon move seamlessly to a lifetime pension demn and assert” won’t cut it. We will have Bob Corker stopped the UAW from organiz- paid for by Julie and her peers after—after!—it to learn once again how to “beguile and per- ing the Volkswagen plant in Tennessee, and has been determined that they can no longer suade.” And those incantatory phrases: limit- thereby derailed the union’s plans to do for a ord to pay for their own. A pension for the ed government, free enterprise, individual re- Mercedes in Alabama, Nissan in Mississippi, government worker, a 401K for Julie. Because sponsibility? We conservatives love them. We and BMW in South Carolina what it had al- bureaucratic life is so…hazardous? can dance to them. But nobody outside this ready done for GM in room has any idea what they mean. ey are Michigan. And there’s We—the descendants of the Great limp and lifeless. All the juice has been sucked Tom Coburn, who, out of them by mindless repetition. if there is any justice, Communicator—have been losing the Hard as it may be to believe, we—the de- will soon be recog- scendants of the Great Communicator him- nized as the rst great rhetorical war. I think it’s because we self—have been losing the rhetorical war. senator of the twen- How could that possibly be? How have we ty- rst century. have spent far too much time looking for managed to make sodden and tedious the Why haven’t these most exciting story in recorded history, that heroes been cele- the next Ronald Reagan and far too little of human freedom? Why in our public dis- brated for their good course have we substituted Beltway wonkery and replicable deeds? time remembering what he taught us. for the plain and powerful speech of Main ey should be. But Street—the power of the concrete over the they are not classic Reagan heroes. Rea- After what we all hope will be many years abstract, the particular over the general? e gan had the quaint notion that politicians of pension payouts, Barack Obama will power, most refulgently, of the role model? were public servants and he thus saw little have spent a long life without ever once heroism involved when politicians served making direct contact with the real econ- ’ we have spent far the public. omy. A role model, indeed. In Obama’s too much time looking for the next Ron- Remember Julia from the 2012 cam- America, perhaps every child can grow up Iald Reagan—a fool’s errand, in my view— paign—the welfare-maximizing, bene- to be economically unproductive. and far too little time remembering what he t-gaming single mom featured in that e government worker may have the taught us. And at the heart of what he taught Democratic ad? She was an authentic power. But it is Julie who should have not us about political communication was this: Obama role model, making her way, with only our admiration, but our support. Can’t To revive the culture of opportunity, we must the help of omnipresent navigators, onto you see Ronald Reagan beaming that mil- bypass the bogus claims of group politics and multiple platforms of public assistance. lion-dollar grin at her up in the balcony at instead celebrate the heroism of individual But she shouldn’t be confused with our the State of the Union? accomplishment. hero, who we’ll call Julie. She’s the single We all know who Obama’s heroes are. He mom who runs the bakery in the middle of ’ is that our displays them as if in a trophy case in the First town. She has a tough battle on her hands, heroes should be the men and Lady’s box at the State of the Union. ere’s and not just against the onslaught from Wwomen who are emblematic of our the witness to the venality of corporate Amer- Safeway and Walmart. ere used to be two aspirations and symbolic of our values. It is up ica. ere’s the pioneer in some exotic form jobs at Julie’s Bakery: the guy who baked the to us to identify them and celebrate them— of separatism. ere’s the victim whose plight cakes and the guy who sold the cakes. Now or we will be trapped, inevitably, in the Le’s could have been averted by higher govern- there’s a third guy. He observes, tests, records, rhetoric of class, creed, race, sexual preference, ment spending. And there’s the rich guy who and second-guesses the cakes. He’s from the and whatever corrosive division comes next. thinks he isn’t taxed enough. I am tempted government and he’s there to help. Every Our heroes are all around us. Our job is to say, that’s the Obama coalition—the re- time there’s a sta meeting at OSHA, EPA, to pick them out, lift them up and install sentful, the aggrieved, the dependent, and the FEMA, FDA, IRS, DOJ, or the Labor De- them as the rst citizens of our shining city guilt-stricken. partment, a new directive utters down on on a hill. Just the other day I came across a at wasn’t Reagan’s coalition. No, his he- the desk Julie keeps in the back of her shop. new hero, Leonard Smith. I never met ol’ roes were ordinary men and women growing Her government is conducting an experi- Leonard, but I think I would have liked him. into their roles as free American citizens—the ment. It wants to know exactly which straw Here’s his obituary from the local paper: greatest role one could play upon the human will break Julie’s back. stage, in Reagan’s view. His heroes were us, and Much of Julie’s heroism lies in the fact that, de- Leonard Mason Smith, 86, a veteran of World for seeing us that way, we loved him. Today spite all obstacles, she is creating economic value, War II and Korea and longtime resident of Pine Reagan would see heroes all around us, even if out of which she pays herself, supports the fami- Island, Florida, passed away this week. Leonard we have trouble picking them out through the lies of her employees, and subsidizes, at progres- Smith hated pointless bureaucracy, thoughtless in- thickening socialist haze. Unlike the Obama sively higher rates, that third guy at the bakery. eciency, and bad ideas born of good intentions. coalition, our heroes make no claims upon Compare her economic life to that of her He loved his wife, admired and respected his chil- our attention, much less our resources. tormentor, Barack Obama, who is said to be a dren, and liked just about every dog he ever met. But they’re out there. Take the political role model for young Americans and especially He will be greatly missed by those who loved him. realm, where we seem to have a new hero minorities. Over the course of his career, he has In lieu of owers, the family asks that you cancel your subscription to e New York Times.
Photo: Molly Riley, Kevin Dietsch/UPI Kevin Riley, Molly Photo: popping up each week. Kevin Faulconer, the moved seamlessly from subsidized schooling to
www.spectator.org THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR 15 When the Cold War Cooled Down Reagan, Gorbachev, and a haunted house in the Land of Fire and Ice.
by KEN ADELMAN
ursday, October 9, 1986 Ke avik Interna- schooled in French literature. Nor did he make e airport road cut through monochrome tional Airport, Iceland, 7:00 P.M. a stab at pronouncing Steingrímur Hermanns- stretches of wind-battered black carbuncled son, the name of the prime minister standing lava, unrelieved by trees or vegetation. It was of an autumn beside her. As a wag put it, consonants more moonscape than landscape, ev- evening, Air Force One touched down were one of Iceland’s main products. ident from NASA choosing that area at Ke avik International Airport, on the Reagan wasn’t the rst American for astronaut rehearsals of their own coast some thirty miles west of Reykja- president to come there. Richard Nix- version of a moon walk. vik. Ke avik did double duty as Ice- on had made the journey in 1973, A half hour later, the president’s land’s main commercial airport and as with disappointing results. A local limo pulled up at the American em- an American-run NATO air base where photograph snapped Nixon’s arriv- bassy on Laufasvegur Street. A small three thousand airmen and women serviced al at Bessastadir, the o cial home of crowd, corralled behind yellow bar- Ijets ying north to track Soviet planes com- Iceland’s president, with the ever-awk- riers, watched as Reagan emerged ing over the Arctic Circle. Before going there, ward U.S. president being knocked from his car, waved, and entered the Eduard Shevardnadze quipped that Iceland over by a sudden gust of wind. After that aw- blockish three-story, stucco-fronted building. had been selected partly because its NATO ful moment was immortalized on lm, Nix- He entered into the basement, as the house base assured Russian leaders of their safety. on dismissed Iceland as “that God-forsaken sits on a slope with its main entry one oor A few years back, a large demonstration was place” and claimed that the stench of sh is up. All homes in that a uent neighborhood held to protest American military aircraft op- only relieved by its incessant winds. had been searched the day before, and each erating from there. While protests elsewhere neighbor given a special identity card for the were staged by peace demonstrators, those in Rea- duration of the president’s visit. Iceland were protesting the Phantom ights gan’s arrival live on nationwide television. e ambassador’s residence was attached to endangering “the wee folk,” the local elves. A I is was a distinct honor, since Icelandic the embassy. On the rst oor—as we were to University of Iceland poll found that 55 per- television, only one channel then, went black see the next morning—was a richly furnished cent of the population believed in elves and on ursdays, as the nanny-state’s way of fos- living room, a den with a replace, a dining spirits of sundry sorts. In his UPI ling on tering a more wholesome life for its citizens. room, and a covered patio. Ambassador Nick October 4, Rolf Soderlind described Iceland When people feared that having a ursday Ruwe was a serious hunter, and striking amidst as “one of the strangest places on Earth—a broadcast would spark an outbreak of permis- the residence’s classical European décor was windblown volcanic moonscape populated by siveness, the station manager pledged that the his overwhelming assortment of antlers on the sheep, ponies, elves, pagan gods and 241,000 weekly blackout would never again be violat- walls. On the second oor, which we were not bookish descendants of the Vikings.” ed. e Wednesday ban on all alcohol sales to see, the president slept in the master bed- Rain pelted President Ronald Reagan as he across the land, likewise imposed for public room with an adjoining dressing area, its own emerged from Air Force One. With his light tan wholesomeness, continued uninterrupted. bathroom, and a small study. e three other raincoat buttoned to the neck, he shook hands Because the summit would be brief, the need bedrooms and two baths were taken by the quickly with those awaiting him on the tarmac. for transportation around Reykjavik scant, the security and communications sta s and the For a long-time politician, Reagan was remark- population tiny, and the nearby U.S. military president’s physician. ably bad at recalling or pronouncing names. huge, the Secret Service decided not to y in While the president settled into Laufasve- So he did not even attempt to greet by name one of its nuclear-holocaust-survivable pres- gur Street, the rest of the cars continued the Vigdís Finnbogadóttir, Iceland’s president. She idential limos. Hence, twelve minutes after few blocks along to the Holt Hotel, where was the only elected female president in the stepping onto the tarmac, Reagan ducked into the senior sta would be housed in clean, world then, having been trained in theater and a locally rented armor-plated limousine. tidy, tiny rooms. A U.S. embassy information His motorcade then sped into town. e sheet admitted that the Holt’s rooms “are not Ken Adelman, President Reagan’s arms control thirty-mile route had been closed to all traf- furnished to the standards of the grand Euro- director, was at Reykjavik during the 1986 super- c, reminiscent of Gorbachev’s unimpeded pean hotels” and instead called them “well-ap- power summit. This piece is excerpted from his latest progress through Moscow. Part welcome ges- pointed.” Rooms in the rear of the hotel, like book, Reagan at Reykjavik: Forty-Eight Hours ture, part peace protest, hundreds of citizens Secretary of State George Shultz’s, looked out That Ended The Cold War, copyright 2014 by stood along the route holding candles. over the National Cathedral. ose in the Ken Adelman. Reprinted by permission of Broadside It was dark by then, but the president front, like mine, had a ne view of the min- Books, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers. wasn’t missing any picturesque countryside. iature downtown. e hotel lobby contained
16 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR June 2014 what was billed to be among Reykjavik’s n- onry with him, but it didn’t take. Prime Min- Wearing a black coat with a leather-trimmed est restaurants, which served horsemeat and ister Hermannsson later wrote that Reagan hat, she was ushered over to meet her week- whale chops along with other delicacies. was “a very likable person but somehow dis- end host. Being more adept with names than A block from the Holt was a grammar school tanced” since he “was not paying attention” Reagan, she greeted Edda Gudmundsdottir, which the government had seized under its to what the two Icelandic o cials said. the prime minister’s wife, by name. emergency powers to provide the U.S. delega- Evidently, the presi- tion with o ce space. Above the schoolhouse dent of the United States doorway someone pasted a sign “IEOB— didn’t much care about Iceland Executive O ce Building.” e real Iceland’s views on nucle- executive o ce building in Washington, “the ar disarmament. EOB,” being the ornate structure adjacent to Instead, Reagan told the White House that houses presidential sta . a series of jokes. As de- As the summit progressed, no one actually scribed later in a biog- worked in the cubicles assigned us in the IEOB. raphy of Hermannsson, e mail cubbies were constantly replenished the prime minister again with State Department cables that might be tried to “discuss nucle- skimmed and then tossed in the classi ed waste ar disarmament [and] bin. Anything important happening in the Reagan took a little note world that weekend was happening right there. from his pocket and re- plied, ‘Prime Minister, , a number of us I announce to you that met in the living room at the ambassa- Icelandair will get a land- Odor’s residence to brief the president. ing license for Boston.’” We sat under Ruwe’s impressive antlers in mas- While welcome, that was sive, ornately carved furniture most betting a surprising news to Hermannsson, who had Mrs. Gorbachev, fty-four, had become a rst-class salon of a nineteenth-century luxury “not known the airline had applied for that.” sensation after the Gorbachevs’ international liner. Reagan was so groggy from jet lag that it After twenty more minutes of agony, the debut in London. She was good looking and quickly became painful to watch him endure us. meeting ended awkwardly. Per his biography, dressed fashionably, especially for a Soviet His relief was palpable when our session to Hermannsson “something felt not right” leader’s wife—admittedly, a modest standard. was cut short, so he could head o to Bessas- and he later wondered whether “Reagan’s As with her husband, the contrast with her tadir. at was just as well, since we had little health problem [Alzheimer’s disease] was predecessors was sharp. As one wag then put to brief him about. perhaps a ecting him already in 1986.” it, Raisa was the only wife of a Soviet leader One of the earliest Viking sites, Bessastadir It was not an auspicious start to a critical who weighed less than her husband. Plus, was settled before the year 1000. Once the weekend. she was intellectually as sharp as she looked. home of its conquering rulers— rst Norwe- She had received a doctorate and lectured on gians, then Danes—it had become the home Friday, October 10, 1986 Ke avik Interna- philosophy, albeit of the Marxist-Leninist va- of Iceland’s elected leaders. It is a beautiful tional Airport, Iceland, 1:18 P.M. riety, at Moscow State University. compound south of Reykjavik, with a ceremo- nial manor house where Reagan was received, Mikhail Gorbachev stepped o Americans, the Soviets an ancient church, and several old farm build- his plane, a sudden gust of wind on had own in a bulletproof Zil limo ings. It is surrounded by pastures with Icelan- Wthat raw, blustery day made him grab Ufor the Gorbachevs’ use. As the mo- dic horses running free and, at that time of his gray fedora and falter a bit, almost Nixon-like, torcade pulled out of the airport, it passed year, loads of geese and swans uttering about. as he descended the ramp. At the bottom, he be- a billboard with “Welcome” written boldly Reagan wore a full-cut, fur-collared Ul- came the rst Soviet leader to ever visit Iceland across it in Russian. is kindly gesture was ster-like coat popular in the 1930s—which I and the rst to ever step onto a NATO base. marred only by the fact that the brief greeting never saw him wear before or afterward—as e Icelandic police formed an honor guard was misspelled. he strolled around the grounds with Vigdís along a red carpet but, as the Soviets had been e bulk of the massive Soviet delega- Finnbogadóttir, who had run the City eater sternly warned, Iceland’s top leaders were tion stayed at the Hotel Saga— the KGB’s before becoming the country’s fourth presi- elsewhere, leaving only a mid-level o cial of pre-announcement booking made this pos- dent. As they walked, she observed that since the Foreign Ministry to welcome the super- sible—with its hundred rooms, close to the there was no school to teach anyone how to be power leader. As if to compensate, the weath- university. A large billboard facing the hotel a president, “the best place you could learn that er favored his arrival, albeit briey. During had advertised the current hit lm Top Gun, was at the theater, where you were de ning life Gorbachev’s perfunctory remarks at the quick which glori ed the prowess of American and society all the time.” Reagan liked that no- arrival ceremony—“ e time has come for ghter pilots against threatening enemies. tion, and her, so much that he called her “my serious, decisive action…”—a burst of sun- But that billboard had been removed by the old colleague” afterward. shine broke through the cloud covering. time the Russians arrived there. After the stroll, President Reagan met with At Gorbachev’s side was a striking woman e Gorbachevs chose to stay aboard the the prime minister and foreign minister. He whom he referred to, Russian style, as Raisa Georg Ots in Reykjavik’s large harbor. e ve- wasn’t any better with them than he had been Maksimovna but who was known every- hundred-foot Polish-built vessel was named
Photos: Dennis Brack/Horst Ossinger/AP/Newscom Brack/Horst Dennis Photos: with us. ey tried to discuss nuclear weap- where outside the USSR as Raisa Gorbachev. for an Estonian singer nicknamed the “Sovi-
www.spectator.org THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR 17 et Sinatra,” whose signature song was tting- Finnbogadóttir returned from the Althing’s Horses are revered along with legends, there ly “ e Impossible Dream” from Man of La opening to meet Gorbachev, who would being sixteen Icelandic words for the proud Mancha. When asked why they had decided greet but not eat at Bessastadir. e week be- beast, frequently seen in odd positions—they to stay aboard the ship, Mrs. Gorbachev said fore, Gorbachev had told his sta to arrange sleep on their sides, looking dead—and in odd because it was “wonderful, very romantic.” “courtesy visits to the Icelandic authorities… places. “Along the steepest mountainsides, Docked alongside the Georg Ots was the but decline lunch politely” (according to notes small horses stick like burrs, grazing where no Baltika, a forty-six-year-old ocean liner that taken at the time by Anatoly Chernyaev). He American horse could maintain its balance,” had carried Nikita Khrushchev to the United instructed sta to tell the Icelandic o cials Meghan O’Rourke wrote in the New York States in 1959. ose Soviets not at the Ho- “that Raisa Maksimovna will be coming” and Times. “ e Icelandic horse, too, is unique tel Saga would stay aboard the Baltika. would like “a cultural program for her—ev- with its quick, short-steeped gait, so smooth Now full of Soviets, Reykjavik’s harbor was erything that they o er.” She would end up a rider wouldn’t spill a drink.” For centuries thus full of security. Phalanxes of KGB o - doing more than everything they o ered. horses were the main mode of transport, since cers—almost caricatures of themselves—wore Later that night, Ted Koppel devoted his the country never had a railroad and cars were long gray coats and black hats and carried box- Nightline broadcast to Reykjavik. At its close, not introduced until the 1920s. the anchor mordantly Iceland’s government-run tourist bureau es- observed that “Rarely tablished a clearinghouse to nd housing for President Reagan was not does the payo match journalists, but it was quickly overwhelmed. the pomp.” At that e government did better with its interna- interested in Iceland’s views on point, even the pomp tional press center, which opened ursday had been anemic. morning with celebrity speeches and a noisy nuclear disarmament. When they As the U.S. and So- brass band. A lottery was held with such priz- viet delegations were es as smoked salmon and woolen sweaters for met, he told the prime minister a settling in, members lucky winners. e center o ered journalists of the Fourth Estate local delicacies, including cod liver oil. “We series of jokes instead. were still streaming in. encourage you to take it,” the spokesman said. e Icelandic gov- “You will feel better, stronger, and live longer.” ernment was trying Outside the center there were six tan Icelan- like walkie-talkies. A local resident was quoted its best. It had hired Gray & Co., then dic ponies carrying U.S., Soviet, and Icelandic in one of the mini town’s four daily newspa- Washington’s top-drawer PR rm, to show ags. And for all four days, reporters could meet pers as saying, “ ey don’t have to be afraid. the country o to advantage. It printed up a and interview the newly crowned Miss World, ere’s no such thing as an Icelandic terrorist.” handout explaining that Iceland meant “is- Iceland’s own Hólmfríður Karlsdóttir, who had e KGB turned away the Sirius, a Dutch land” and not “ice-land,” and that Reykjavik been summoned back from an Asian goodwill ship that Greenpeace had recently acquired to meant “smoky bay” because the steam rising tour for the summit festivities. She wore a white hassle Iceland’s whalers. Some local o cials from its underground springs was mistaken T-shirt with sketches of Reagan and Gorbachev objected when the Soviets kept the colorfully by the town’s Viking founder, Ingolfur Ar- during her press availability. When not reign- re tted Sirius, its hull decorated with a rain- nason, for smoke. e handout boasted that ing globally, the blue-eyed, blonde Karlsdóttir bow and the dove of peace, out of the harbor. Iceland had more geysers than anywhere on taught nursery school. Also in the international But the locals objected more to the KGB earth, its hot springs supplying the hot wa- press center was Miss Young Iceland, who was and U.S. Secret Service packing high-caliber ter for all those above, that its capital lies available for interviews each day after her high heat in their weaponless land. e island na- midway between Moscow and Washington school classes ended. tion had no armed forces, its police carried and contains half of the nation’s 240,000 e onslaught of voracious journalists and no weapons, there was no hunting, and vir- population. probing photographers had descended on a tually no armed robbery (one alleged incident e Gray & Co. spinmeisters also pre- people unaccustomed to change and resigned had been recorded the previous decade). e sented material on the culture, especially Ice- to their fate. “In Iceland the geology is primary, prime minister’s response to such objections— land’s sagas. Written between AD 1200 and humans are secondary,” O’Rourke observed. “ ese men are so accurate that they can shoot 1300, the sagas are all but bred in the bones “In Iceland, you are aware at every turn of your a man between his eyes in every single position of every Icelander. ey chronicle epic bat- smallness, the irrational, slow forces at work.” imagined”—o ered little comfort. tles of gods, elves, and leprechauns through As in most cultures, language captures es- the centuries and across the land. Time’s es- sence. Icelandic is antique Danish ash-fro- , the Gor- sayist Roger Rosenblatt wrote that “the Ice- zen for the past thousand years. Hence, an bachevs headed out, with their big Zil landic sagas [were] populated by heroes with eleventh-century Viking suddenly returned Asurrounded by police cars and motorcy- unpronounceable names who made elegant to Reykjavik could understand what his cles. Dark-windowed KGB vans were trailed by speeches and went at each other with axes.” startled hosts were saying about the startling reporters and cameramen and emergency med- He summarized one: happenings in his ancestral land. ical vehicles, with an ambulance at the end, ca- Because of its lack of much happening and boose-like. Reykjavik had never seen anything like In Njal’s Saga, known to every schoolchild, the long dark winters, Icelanders can be fond of it, a huge motorcade speeding through its closed- hero is burned to death, and it falls to his son-in- drink. Visiting in 1872, the linguist and explor- down, closed-o narrow downtown streets. law Kari to avenge the family. Coldly, he knocks er par excellence Richard Burton found “more eir destination was Bessastadir, where o fteen of his enemies, but then suddenly the cases of open, shameless drunkenness…during President Reagan had made his call earlier. killing stops. He feels he has overdone it. a day in Reykjavik than a month in England.”
18 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR June 2014 e Reykjavik city administrator blamed this on the inhabitant’s heritage: “We are the de- scendants of the most boring people in Europe, the Norwegians,” Bjorn Frid nnsson told for- eign reporters, “and the drinkingest, the Irish.”
, Reykjavik summit,” intoned ABC’s Peter Jennings at the Atop of his evening broadcast on Friday, October 10. “President Reagan doesn’t begin to meet with Mr. Gorbachev until Saturday, but already on this island there is a very height- ened sense of anticipation.…ere was some indication…how [Reagan] felt about the pros- pects. ABC’s Sam Donaldson traveled with him.” e broadcast then cut to the intrepid Donaldson, who tried to eke some signicance out of Reagan’s anodyne arrival remarks. For television viewers around the world, Hof- di House became the signature site, practically the logo, of Reykjavik. Yet, it was not the govern- At the turn of the twentieth century, After the war, the British ambassador, ment’s rst choice to host the summit sessions. French shing crews began working the John Greenway, came to believe he had When, shortly after midnight on September cod-rich northern seas. e unpredictable company in Hofdi House since dishes fell 29, the prime minister received the call that weather and turbulent waters soon claimed o his shelves at night; framed pictures got Iceland had won the summit sweepstakes, the some four hundred French ships and four twisted or tumbled down; walls cracked; exact meeting place was undecided. He had an- thousand sailors. e French government and the whole house creaked. He felt the nounced and personally preferred the new Ho- established a hospital in Reykjavik to treat spirit of a young girl who had drowned, or tel Saga, or an old mansion downtown that had survivors and appointed a French consul to committed suicide, or both, when living on just been remodeled to host conferences. As oversee the operation. that land. Another legend had the spirits be- third choice was the rickety old Hofdi House. e rst consul, J.P. Brillouin, asked to ing Viking warriors, whose fort on that site e government hastily formed a Summit build his residence adjoining the new hospi- had burned down a thousand years before. Preparatory Committee to decide on arrange- tal, but his request was turned down. He was No matter where the spirits came from, they ments. e committee, like the summit itself, o ered land a mile away, on a forlorn hay- were there, according to the ambassador. He soon got bloated, with more than fty mem- eld on the bleak Felagstun Bay. Reluctantly, felt that the “bumps in the night” he heard bers from U.S., Soviet, Icelandic, and Reyk- he accepted. Brillouin hired a French archi- were because of spirits and not because of Hof- javik government agencies. Its rst agenda tect who admired Norwegian wood. di House’s being wooden and situated on lava item was the site where the superpower leaders Above Hofdi House’s living room en- soil which expands and contracts with tem- would actually meet. Iceland’s recommenda- trance is an inscription: “Anno 1909, J.P. perature changes in the springs below. Wooden tion was opposed by both superpowers. ey Brillouin, Consul Erat.” But Brillouin structures, unlike those built of brick or stones preferred Hofdi House solely because its phys- spent only a few years in his striking new (like nearly all other buildings in Iceland), react ical isolation o ered greater security. house. When World War I began in 1914, to such uctuations by moving a bit. Nonetheless, it was an inspired choice. A the shing lanes were closed, and he re- stunning art nouveau wooden structure in a turned home to join the army. of Reykjavik took the house land void of trees, Hofdi House was built with e house was then occupied by Ice- o the jittery ambassador’s hands in large wooden planks running horizontally on land’s foremost poet, Einar Benediktsson, T1958 and refurbished it for use on all sides. ere are symmetrical windows on who christened it Hofdi House after his ceremonial occasions, the zenith of which every side of the boxlike structure and a man- childhood home. In the late 1930s, it was was about to take place. Neighborhood kids sard roof with dark shingles. It is fairly small, rented to and then bought by the British still refer to it as “the ghost house.” On the each oor some twenty-two hundred square government for its ambassador’s residence. summit’s eve, NBC anchor Tom Brokaw feet. ere are six small rooms, a kitchen pan- Winston Churchill spent a night there interviewed the prime minister during his try, and a bathroom on the main oor. Up- in August 1941, after meeting President daily dip in the thermal springs. Standing stairs are an additional six rooms as well as one Franklin Roosevelt on the battleship Prince poolside in his skimpy bathing suit, Her- bathroom with a tub, ordinarily an unremark- of Wales, where they sang hymns together mannsson said that all his family believed able feature but one which would play its own and wrote the Atlantic Charter. in ghosts, so if any resided in Hofdi House, supporting role in the weekend’s drama. According to the Iceland government, they were most welcome there. Given more time, Hofdi’s history may when “the war between the British empire When the Foreign Ministry spokesper- have discouraged the committee, as the and Hitler’s ird Reich was at its peak, Hof- son was asked about that legend, in that striking white structure has a distinctly di became the nerve center of British opera- land lled with glorious legends, he re- dark side. Its construction was linked with tions in Iceland,” such as they were. Marlene plied: “We do not con rm or deny that the death, its history marked by spirits. Dietrich also spent the night there. Hofdi has a ghost.”
www.spectator.org THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR 19 Chasing Down the Ghost in the Machine
Losing consciousness in Arizona.
by JOHN DERBYSHIRE
e Princi- these things. Probably most have felt guilt- ness has of course been a topic in philoso- ples of Mathemat- ily, as I do, that there is something absurd phy since ancient times. However, in spite ics in the spring about such musing, unless one can support of the eorts of some pioneers like William of 1901, Bertrand one’s family by being paid to do it. James, consciousness has deed attempts Russell got stuck My own way of assuaging my guilt and to bring it within the scope of systematic on a simple prob- getting the topic out of my system for a few scientic inquiry. Its very subjective nature lem in the theory of classes (we would now- years at least is to attend one of the “Toward made objective observation and experimen- adaysW say “sets”): “Whether the class of all a Science of Consciousness” conferences held tation—the essence of science—impossible. classes is or is not a member of itself.” In his every other year by the Center for Conscious- A number of twentieth-century develop- autobiography Russell recalled: “It seemed ness Studies at the University of Arizona in ments oered some hope that this might unworthy of a grown man to spend his time Tucson. e rst such conference was held in change. First came quantum mechanics, on such trivialities, but what was I to do?… 1994, so for this year’s Trivial or not, the matter was a challenge.” event the organizers I feel the same way about my own inter- had some fun basing What is this inward, private state of est in Consciousness Studies. Surely I have their promotional ma- better things to do than ponder Philosophy terial on the Beatles’ awareness that ickers on with the of Mind, a topic only properly of concern to Sergeant Pepper album: salaried academics, and in which I am now “It was twenty years sound of the morning alarm clock and much too far along in life to acquire any real ago today…” expertise. Well, yes; but like the problem that ere I was, then, fades away on the late-night pillow? snagged Russell’s attention, understanding at the University Park consciousness is a challenge—a challenge, I Marriott in Tucson Is it made of the same stu as stars, should think, to any reective person. during the last week What is this inward, private state of of April. What fol- rocks, and esh—of atoms and awareness that ickers on with the sound lows are some random of the morning alarm clock and fades away notes on the confer- molecules—or of some di erent stu ? on the late-night pillow? Is it made of the ence. e randomness same stu as stars, rocks, and esh—of at- is unavoidable: ere oms and molecules—or of some dierent were sixty-odd sessions of various kinds, with its revelations about matter at the stu? Do chimps have it? Did our remote most of them concurrent, so I had to pick submicroscopic level behaving in deeply ancestors have it? Might a computer have and choose. I attended most of the plenary counter-intuitive ways—permitting, for it? Every thoughtful person has mused on sessions and such side lectures as I thought example, uncaused events. en there were would be especially interesting. the remarkable discoveries in mathematical John Derbyshire writes “Shelf Life,” a books First, some background on the origin of logic during the 1930s by Alan Turing and column, every other week for TAS online. these conferences: e nature of conscious- Kurt Gödel, seeming to show (the matter is
20 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR June 2014 disputed) that we can know abstract truths e Hamero -Penrose speculations have re- that are beyond the capacity of even the had mixed reviews from philosophers of mind. marks by Stuart Hamero the most carefully de ned systems of reasoning e common dismissal has been: “Quantum Aconference was opened by Austra- or procedure to demonstrate. mechanics is weird; consciousness is weird; lian philosopher David Chalmers, a super- Later in the century, advances in neurosci- therefore, say Hamero and Penrose, the two star in Consciousness Studies, famous for ence raised our understanding of brain pro- things must be related!” From the scienti c popularizing the phrase “the hard prob- cesses and our ability to observe them, sug- side the usual objection has been that the liv- lem of consciousness.” His talk was in fact gesting the hope of an end-run around the ing brain is “too warm and wet” for quantum titled “ e Hard Problem of Conscious- subjectivity problem. Medical science had mechanical processes to play a signi cant role. ness: 342 Years On,” referring to Isaac also accumulated a big Newton’s remark database of knowledge in a 1672 letter to about brains dam- Henry Oldenburg aged in various ways, that “to determine and about the conse- by what modes or quences for thought actions light produ- and behavior that fol- ceth in our minds lowed. Meanwhile the the phantasm of co- computing revolution lour is not so easie.” had occurred. Phi- at, according losophers and some to Chalmers, is scientists—notably the hard problem Francis Crick, co-dis- of consciousness. coverer of DNA— How do merely began rethinking the physical processes, issue of consciousness. interactions among With all this as di erent forms of prologue, two bril- matter, produce sen- liant researchers came sations—“the phan- up with the same tasm of colour,” speculation at about redness, Middle C, the same time, the the taste of garlic? late 1980s. e re- Or as Chalmers po- searchers were Stuart etically expressed Hamero , a profes- it: “How does the sor of anesthesiology water of the brain at the University of turn into the wine Arizona, and Roger of consciousness?” Penrose (since 1994 He took us Sir Roger Penrose), a through the histo- mathematical phys- ry of the topic and icist at Oxford Uni- categorized current versity in England. theories, including eir speculation the variant of pan- was that key features psychism towards of human thought which he leans. might be explainable Panpsychism—you by processes at the submicroscopic level Nothing daunted, the duo have pressed might want to sit down for this—argues where quantum-mechanical e ects occur. on with their biennial conferences, opening that consciousness is present in matter Both men published their speculations them to a very broad eld of inquirers, from of all kinds. Even electrons and photons as books: Hamero in 1987, Penrose in neuroscientists and experimental psycholo- may contain little specks of conscious- 1989. Hamero read Penrose’s book and gists to theologians, promoters of parapsy- ness. It sounds preposterous, but is phil- wrote to him about it. e two met to chology, and New Age types. osophically quite respectable, with some discuss their ideas, and the rst Tucson I attended the 2008 conference and live- persuasive arguments in its support. conference followed in 1994. at year blogged it. Following developments after- Next up was philosopher Daniel Den- also saw the publication of Francis Crick’s ward in a desultory way, it seemed to me nett, author of a 1991 book titled Con- book on consciousness, e Astonishing that progress was very slow, so I skipped the sciousness Explained. Dennett is a no-non- Hypothesis, and the founding of the Jour- 2010 and 2012 meetings. After six years, sense materialist. He sco ed at the hard nal of Consciousness Studies, making 1994 though, I thought the 2014 Tucson gather- problem as a “cognitive illusion” and a convenient marker year for the begin- ing might have something new to tell us, so wondered how we might tell the di er-
Illustration: John Folley. Photos: Dimitris Legakis/SplashDimitris Photos: Wenn/Newscom News/FS2 Folley. John Illustration: ning of modern approaches to the subject. I signed up. ence between a conscious photon and an
www.spectator.org THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR 21 unconscious one. What, he snickered, if we were to replace the adjective “conscious” by “nifty”? Might we then work up a pan-nif- ty-ist philosophy in which photons were gifted with teeny amounts of niftiness? Philosophers are ruthless debaters. If you remember your Introductory Philosophy course you will know that the opposite of materialism (there is only matter: mind is an illusion) is idealism (there is only mind: matter is an illusion). I had supposed philosophical idealism to have died out in this age of brain scanning and smart computers, but cognitive scien- tist Donald Ho man proved me wrong. In an astonishing presentation, Ho - man described his work on evolutionary game theory. Using a powerful computer he has modeled the evolution across thou- sands of generations of imaginary species with such-and-such characteristics in en- vironments with so-and-so characteris- tics. He wanted to compare evolutionary prompting—an ob- tness—how well an organism is adapted server making a mea- Daniel Dennett is a no-nonsense to its environment—with truth—how surement. Sir Roger accurately the organism perceives its en- denies this: His is a materialist. He sco ed at the hard vironment. In his words: “Does natural theory of objective re- selection favor veridical perception?” duction (OR). problem as a “cognitive illusion” and e answer from his models is no: ese moments of “Truth goes extinct every time except consciousness hap- wondered how we might tell the dif- when tuned to tness.” pen everywhere, all Not content with having thus disturbed the time; but mo- ference between a conscious photon us, Ho man then described his work on lecular-scale struc- a non-materialist theory of evolution, tures inside the cells and an unconscious one. inspired by Alan Turing’s universal com- of the brain can puter. He posits a network of conscious orchestrate them to produce the large- tesian eater, the Chinese Room, Witt- agents (CAs) interacting with each other scale consciousness we possess. Hence genstein’s Beetles, the Mary Problem…I and the world. As his theory develops, the Penrose-Hamero theory is known as have no space to explain these notions the world drops out and all that exists is OrchOR: orchestrated objective reduction. here, but curious readers can easily nd consciousness. “What we call the physi- If you can keep up with the physics and them on the Internet. cal world is a projection into CAs of oth- math, it’s quite a fascinating theory. It has One catch-phrase you hear a lot is er CAs…Spacetime is a species-speci c recently received some support from stud- “What is it like…?” with derived forms hack.” ies of photosynthesis, in which quantum like “what-is-it-like-ness” and “what-is-it- It was one of those talks that leaves you e ects play a part, refuting the “too warm like-ery” (both heard from the platform at undecided as to whether what you just and wet” objections. I do wish, though, Tucson). All this refers to a famous 1974 heard was profoundly brilliant or utter that these eggheads would pay a little more article by philosopher omas Nagel ti- nonsense. Reading through my notes and attention to presentational technology. tled “What Is It Like to Be a Bat?” Nagel re ecting, I lean towards the latter, but… I know, I know: Power corrupts and argues that there is something that it is like Sir Roger Penrose himself gave the key- PowerPoint corrupts absolutely. It sure to experience the world as a bat does; that note talk: “Consciousness and the Laws beats the old-fashioned transparencies this what-is-it-like-ness (there you go) is of Physics.” Here was panpsychism bol- Sir Roger favors, though, with complex a fact in the world; but that this fact is so stered by a great breadth of scienti c and mathematical formulas hand-scrawled on purely subjective it cannot be reduced to mathematical knowledge. ere is, said them and half-hidden by the shadow of a any physical phenomenon. Sir Roger, a moment of proto-conscious- hand at presentation time. Novelist Rebecca Goldstein, whose ness when the wave function (that is the doctorate in philosophy at Princeton was mathematical description of the state of a has a lexi- supervised by Nagel, gave a talk titled system in quantum mechanics) reduces to con of catch-phrases and parables “Consciousness and the Novel” in which a classical, deterministic state. Wave func- Cthat a cionados allude to casually she pointed out that while philosophers tion reduction has been generally supposed, in their speech, but which need explain- argue about the metaphysical status of or at least suspected, of needing subjective ing to outsiders: Leibniz’s Mill, the Car- subjective experience, novelists are busy
22 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR June 2014 TECHNOLOGY SIMPLIFIED – BIGGER AND BETTER “WOW! The perfect name for this amazing computer. Everything is so easy to use at the touch of my fingertips.” – Carol K., Benbrook, TX NEW Now comes with... Larger 22-inch hi-resolution screen – easier to see 16% more viewing area Simple navigation – so you never get lost Intel® processor – lightning fast Computer is in the monitor – No bulky tower Advanced audio, Better speaker con- figuration – easier to hear Text to Speech translation – it can even read your emails to you! U.S. Based Customer Service FREE Automatic Software Updates soon, my friends found out I was “surfing” describe the difference in this computer- you “WOW! The perfect name for this the Internet, getting emails and pictures have to try it for yourself. We’re so sure it will amazing computer. I have been using from my grandchildren, even playing games literally change your life that we are offering it for about a month and thoroughly and purchasing movie tickets online. Before it to you with our exclusive 30-day home enjoy the speed and ease in which I knew it, there we were, crowded around a trial. Our knowledgeable product experts are I am able to download pictures screen in amazement. Once again, I’m the standing by to answer any of your questions. from my camera and share them envy of all my friends.” There are no obligations and the call is with family and friends via email. Whether you have never used a toll-free, so why wait? Call now! computer, or have tried one and found it Everything is so easy to use at the • Send & Receive Emails too complicated… the WOW is for you. touch of my fingertips. To be able to • Have video chats with family and friends From the moment you open the box, you’ll chat with and see my grandchildren • Surf the Internet: see the difference. The components are all is as though they are here with me. Get current weather and news I haven’t begun to explore all the connected, all you do is plug it into an outlet and your high-speed Internet connection. • Play games on line: benefits of this computer. It has Then you’ll see the screen – it’s now 22 Hundreds to choose from! opened up a whole new world for inches. This is a completely new operating me. I love it, love it, love it!” system, without the cluttered look of the Call now toll free and find out – Carol K., Benbrook, TX normal computer screen. The “buttons” how you can get the new “I’ll never forget when my family got our on the screen are easy to see and easy WOW! Computer. first television. We were the first on our to understand. All you do is touch one of Mention promotional code 48007 block to have one, and all my friends knew them, from the Web or Email or Calender for special introductory pricing. about it. They’d show up at my house with or Games- you name it… and a new screen a friend, and next thing you knew we were opens up. It’s so easy to use, you won’t 1-877-767-5561 crowded around the set, amazed at what we have to ask your children or grandchildren were seeing. for help. A few weeks ago, I got my first computer– Don’t wait another minute… join the © 2014 by first STREET for Boomers and Beyond, Inc. one that’s designed for people my age. Pretty fun and call today! It’s nearly impossible to 80993 describing it. If you want to know What It Is Like to be an orphan, an adulteress, or an emperor, ask Charles Dickens, Gus- tave Flaubert, or Robert Graves. “Stream of consciousness,” Ms. Goldstein remind- ed us, is a term of literary art. She directed our attention to David Lodge’s 2001 novel inks as an illustra- tion of her arguments. I hadn’t read the novel. It deals with an a air between a lady novelist and a cognitive scientist. What is that like? Ms. Goldstein sug- gested we read the novel to nd out. She is married to cognitive scientist Steven Pinker. From my notes on her talk: “No objective account of a subject can capture its subjectivity.” As I said, the Tucson people cast their net wide, and there was a large contingent of Hindus at the conference. eir cham- pion was New Age entrepreneur Deepak Chopra, arguing that consciousness is prior to everything, that we occidentals were asking all the wrong questions, that “matter is congealed sensation,” and that wisdom consists in “transcending the sub- ject-object distinction.” at one glance (a ock It all sounded like woo to me. Philos- of birds, perhaps) New Age entrepreneur Deepak Chopra, opher John Searle, another materialist of and make instant the Daniel Dennett school, or at any rate inferences about its argued that consciousness is prior to a rigorous empiricist (and author of the gross properties (the Chinese Room parable), was of the same direction it’s mov- everything, that we occidentals were mind. To Chopra’s assertion that “con- ing in). Shown two sciousness is the ground of existence,” collections of orange asking all the wrong questions, that Searle countered that if consciousness blobs, children can were to disappear, the universe would go see at once which “matter is congealed sensation,”and that on existing nonetheless. When Chopra collection has the said “Gödel’s eorem [in mathemati- higher average size. wisdom consists in “transcending the cal logic] describes the universe,” Searle’s I asked Ms. Gop- facial expression was that of a man who nik how good is this subject-object distinction.” does not trust himself to speak. “inner statistician” ere are interesting questions about that we all seem to be born with. Can it is the doctrine that the universe contains how consciousness develops in the grow- estimate other statistics—standard devi- only one kind of stuff, in contrast to ing human person. Developmental psy- ation, perhaps? Yes it can; but, said the mind-matter dualism. Neutral monism chologist Alison Gopnik spoke about that, lady, there is evidence that the brain gets says that the one kind of stuff is nei- framing the issue as, of course, “What is it less good at instant statistics as we age and ther mind nor matter but some neutral like to be a four-year-old?” the “lantern” becomes a “spotlight.” substance that generates both.) I gave She contrasted the “lantern” conscious- As a sometime teacher of statistics, I these lectures a try, but the material was ness of infants, taking in everything marvel that what is so dicult to knock awfully dry and I snuck out after a few around them indiscriminately, with the into the heads of eighteen-year-olds seems minutes. “spotlight” consciousness of adults, which already to be present in the brains of four- Russell tells us that his grandmother, a can focus attention on limited regions of year-olds. It brought to mind the thought Victorian lady of stern rectitude but not its surroundings. “Children can’t not pay I had once while watching a friend’s dog much intellectual curiosity, reacted thus attention….As we know more, we see catch a thrown Frisbee: “How did the dog when he told her he was studying philos- less….Children are the species’ R&D De- manage to solve those chains of di eren- ophy: “What is mind? No matter. What is partment; we adults are Production and tial equations so fast?” matter? Never mind.” Marketing.” The shade of Bertrand Russell himself After a week of total immersion in Ms. Gopnik really got my attention with was present at Tucson, in the form of Consciousness Studies, I am at one with her account of “ensemble coding”: our some side lectures on Neutral Monism, Countess Russell. For six more years, at ability to take in a collection of objects the philosophy he developed. (Monism any rate, I have got it out of my system.
24 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR June 2014
The Ad Man Goes to War Learning from the Life archives.
by JAMES LILEKS
’ your TV a few months after 9/11 and seen a car ad that showed a man in a uniform, tossing the keys to his girlfriend while the announcer intoned the copy: “He’s been called up. He thought he might. He’s looking forward to the day when he comes home, knowing he did his part to make sure Islamist terrorism doesn’t threaten the world anymore. He’s imagining turning the key and hearing that motor purr. Sure, it’ll run. No doubt. Ford and America: Built for the long haul.” is would have caused cranial detonations in faculty lounges nationwide. Proof the Icountry had devolved into propagandistic fascism, a total militarization of civilian culture. Of course, that’s what the left concluded anyway. But advertising culture skipped merrily along throughout the aughts, ignoring the war on terror as if it was a movie playing in a theater on the other side of town. If a whiskey maker had put out an ad saying, “We’re pretty sure al Qaeda men don’t drink Chivas. at ought to tell you all you need to know,” they would have been excoriated for cultural insensitivity. If there’d been riots in Pakistan over the ad, well, we asked for it. Future anthropologists may well conclude the early twenty- rst century put its ngers in its ears and closed its eyes and hummed loudly, driving out anything that suggested an existential struggle with an ideological foe. Why, they might ask, did the ads pretend there was no war, when the ads of the 1940s were wholly devoted to patriotic exhortations to victory against a similar threat? Why, indeed.
of Google is the complete run of Life magazine, digitized for your perusal. Years ago they were rare Oprecious relics that turned up in a thrift store when a kid cleaned out Mom’s house. Now every page is online. e stories and photos are interesting, sure—but it’s the bright braying ads that fascinate, particularly the ones that stu ed the issues during World War II. Everything was devoted to war. You couldn’t sell a toothbrush without portraying them as marching soldiers: Back the Attack on Plaque! It’s one thing to watch a ’40s movie and note patriotic themes while rolling your eyes like a good modern at the musicals where men in uniform sing a song for a bond rally. Really, Leni would approve. But you have to look at the ads to un- derstand how the war consumed the popular imagination. e war was everything. e ads fell into several categories.
James Lileks is a colum- nist for the Minneapo- lis Star-Tribune.
26 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR June 2014 the Russians with their dependable pants 1. WE’RE PITCHING IN fasteners, and now this! is!” FOR VICTORY Most of the home-front ads were aimed between a product at women, assuring them that they were do- and the decisive defeat of fascism ing their part by not hanging out laundry Tsometimes seemed a bit tenuous. e during high winds because that could fray copy usually went like this: “Johnny’s got a the sheets and fabric was needed to Smash tough job—the Japs are dug in good, broth- the Axis. Or they could cook meals that er—but he knows the ammo’s safe and dry. kept everyone full of pep, which was good Making sure the bottom doesn’t come out for optimism, or kept you from slacking o of his ammo case is just one way Consoli- at the plant. Wasted food was unpatriotic. dated Luggage and Card Tables is helping him come home soon, but everyone needs to do their part. Buy Bonds!”
ink that’s an exaggeration?
scrap drive and my nephew is in the Paci c but can I choose a whiskey without wonder- ing whether my endorsement of these bea- vers gives Göring sleepless nights? I mean, I used a Mimeo machine at work the other day and didn’t think about the Marines at all. I’m sorry. But it was a ursday. I had a toothache. I’m in Des Moines.
3. THE HOME FRONT Another company proudly announced with the jaunty but- it was suspending its usual ads in favor tocks is going to help win the war by of home front hints. Here we see Johnny Tchoosing Wilson Brothers clothing. and Suzy not only getting good exercise, but helping contribute to the conveyance He says: “I’ve got to pay taxes, right? I want to buy of devastating incendiary devices dropped Copy: “You can tell by his eye and the set of his War Bonds, see?” And for my own part on the job from on high. jaw that he’s rugged and ready…able to take it at home, I’ve got to look good. So I’m buying all my e sponsor? Mennen after-shave. Oh, and willing to go wherever his orders send him.” clothes carefully from this point on…and maybe that but don’t look for any Mennen in the don’t hurt Hitler!” stores, because there isn’t any. It’s all going And that’s why he, like many Marines, to the troops. depends on Mimeograph Duplicators. For those moments when reading a fresh copy makes you clench your st with Steely Resolve. 2. UNLIKELY CONNECTIONS didn’t have a speci c war- time application, well, you could always Iwork it in somehow. Meet the Con- scious Production Beavers. What’s the ad for? Whiskey, of course. Just as the Beavers are a “happy blend of virtues,” so Calvert is a happy blend of vari- ous noble whiskeys. Ads like this make you suspect people tired of constant hectoring It’s unlikely der Führer was pacing the pe- about fats and gardens and tire drives and rimeter of his Alpine estate, shouting spit- the rest of it—for God’s sake I hate Hitler tle- ecked rants about high-quality Amer- and I want us to win and I buy War Bonds ican underwear: “First we were stymied by and we gave an old wheelbarrow to the the Swiss and their well-woven socks, then
www.spectator.org THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR 27 4. WAR SMOKING Don’t mail the cigarettes, bring them home. she was unnervingly bovine, walking on during You didn’t have to say much more then. is all fours, chatting away, naked to the the war, a small pleasure, a respite would not only mean nothing today, but world. But she soon stood up on her Sfrom work, worries, and incoming even if they could advertise cigarettes, the back hooves, donned an apron, and got projectiles. Chestereld gave us this fellow, Post Oce would protest the mention and hitched to Elmer, an ill-tempered bull who brings to mind the Simpsons episode rush out a series of stamps commemorating with whom she would have three calves. in which Homer discovers that the entire Revolutionary War anti-tobacco activists. Elmer held a day job in an oce some- steel industry has gone gay. e most curious ad to modern eyes comes where, but Elsie brought in the serious from the ill-named Spuds. money with her Borden work, and this Ad-man genius, right there. An en- must have explained the tensions the ads tirely new concept was involved: WAR displayed in a marvelous series of exqui- SMOKING. If frazzled nerves over Axis sitely rendered ads. advances have you pounding sixty nails a day, switch to Spuds. Say, Jane, you seem much calmer today! Aren’t you concerned about Monty’s setbacks as he pushes north through Italy? Not at all, Sally—I switched to Spuds, and now I understand that the give-and-take of the battleeld is part of war’s uid nature.
ere were celebrity pitches and remind- ers to send your ghting boy a carton, but the most poignant ads showed the soldier home on leave, with Mom and Dad beam- ing with pride and unspeakable relief as he sank into a chair and lit up. One ad makes the parental cigarette-supply mission a part of a surprise visit. To save gas and tires, Elmer must roll- er-skate to work! And he falls, painfully. Elsie chides him and switches the subject to Borden, which only enrages him more. In a department store, she terries every- one by calling a music box DYNAMITE, which almost gives Elmer a heart attack; he thinks it’s a booby trap. No, Elsie chirps, spur-of-the-moment needless purchas- es cause ination, which is dynamite to the economy. On and on it goes, until he strikes back. It was funny, because the idea that Elsie was a slacker—well, really. On the oth- er hand, slackers were bad. You weren’t a 5. ELSIE GOES TO WAR slacker. Were you? Just curious. had mascots that donned uniforms for the 6. POSTWAR DREAMS Mduration, but few had the per- of the war the ads sonality, and domestic diculties, of El- started to show houses in the clouds sie the Borden Cow. In her early years Tglowing like celestial dwellings.
28 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR June 2014 ere were imaginary electric kitchens, We can’t imagine an ad hope chests bursting with silver, picket that tells us what we can’t fences, and babies. have because the world is ere’s a quiet unspoken con dence in on re. We can’t imagine these ads. A few years back, a Nash-Kelvi- ads that say just wait, hold nator ad showed a dogface in a landing on, endure. is horrible craft, hard face accepting his fty- fty normal will pass, but just shot, the text laying out why he fought: to so you know: We are at go home and live in a fair place. By ’45 the war, and everything is at stark tableaus softened to the imminence stake. Everything matters. of victory and the boon it would yield— Even toothbrushes. not plunder, not triumphs, not humilia- It was an era in which the tion and subjugation, but just a train-ride entirely of American indus- home, a few words from the padre, and try not only acknowledged socially sanctioned intercourse. en kids: a war, but joined it, en- two, three, who knows. Everything would dorsed its goals, castigated be better on the other side, too. Sleek, the enemy, wished for vio- modern, maybe atom-powered. Hell, there lent victory, made gun-tot- might even be a TV set built into the wall. ing meat-eating smokers a One thing’s for sure, soldier—it’ll all be model of American man- worth it because you’re going to have a nice hood, praised the even- place with a radio and a push-button stove. tual goal of marriage and We snicker at this now because we have child-rearing, and declared radios and push-button stoves, and can’t fealty to national union and imagine why that was ever a big deal. stalwart American ideals. We can’t imagine opening up a mag- ey could also write o azine and seeing an ad explaining that the ads as business expens- chocolate is in short supply because it’s all es, but still. ose were going to the front. the days. Let Your Legacy Be One of Freedom!
have access to a powerful voice in conservative journalism is by including e American Spectator Foundation in your Owill. Many gis are easy to make and do not require legal assistance. For further information, please contact Scott Russell, Executive Vice President 703-807-2011 ext 25 | [email protected]
e American Spectator Foundation is a 501(c)(3) nonprot and the federal tax identication number is 23-7002632.
e American Spectator Foundation 1611 N K S , S 901, A , V 22209
www.spectator.org THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR 29 culture VULTURES
by BILL ZEISER A Fake Newsman in Late Night? CBS taps Stephen Colbert.
, host I smile when reading this today for two been allowed to watch anyhow. Still, I re- of the long running reasons. e rst is that I am highly amused call the sense of adult sophistication I felt on Late Show on CBS, an- by my stance on foreign policy, which as far those rare occasions. nounced his intention to as I can tell is uncharacteristically hawkish end his tenure in 2015. for a nine year old. As fate would have it, from those days After twenty-two years a research assistantship with the Kagans remain familiar. It wasn’t the last of dry wit and droll in- was not forthcoming, so I decided to stick Ctime our military forces would be terviews, Letterman will cede his desk to around and ride out the whole elementary deployed to the Persian Gulf, for example. DStephen Colbert, host of Comedy Central’s school experience. But the late night TV scene of today would e Colbert Report. is shake up, now so e second and more important reason be unrecognizable to the viewer of 1991. common in the late night television circuit, is that I doubtless did get special permis- Back then, Carson, whose show taped reveals America’s changing taste in comedy. sion to stay up with my mother to watch from NBC Studios in Burbank, was the Colbert, a political satirist popular with the the late news. I have vague remembrances undisputed King of Late Night, a moni- Millennial crowd, appears to be a natural of many world events from that perspec- ker he had earned by the late 1970s when successor for a show that caters to the tuned- tive. Not too many months prior to the it became clear that the other oerings in in. For decades, America has laughed along Gulf War, I had been rightfully scolded for the 11:35 p.m. time slot were so noncom- with dapper suits skewering shifting head- mocking the accent of a crying German petitive that Carson had only to host three lines into the early hours. For those like my- woman interviewed by a foreign corre- original shows a week, lling the rest of the self, love of the format started early in life, in spondent as the Berlin Wall fell all around airtime with guest hosts, including fellow a simpler era of television programming. her. “Be thankful you will never know the comedians Joan Rivers, David Letterman, e following is an entry from the writ- joy that woman is feeling,” my mother told Bob Newhart, and Jay Leno. ing journal that my third grade teacher, Ms. me, “because you live in a place that is free During his thirty-year tenure, Carson DiTommaso, required me to keep. Dated and will stay that way.” followed the now ubiquitous talk show for- February 2, 1991: As the hours ticked away on February 2, mat developed by his predecessor Jack Paar: 1991, I stared in awe into the face of our e host—usually joined by a house band Saddium Hussein [sic] is a mean man. He is old Sony Trinitron as it displayed graphical and often a comedic sidekick—opens with leaking oil into the water. He is shooting SCUD inserts ticking o the technical majesty of a topical monologue about current events, missiles at Israel. If he is not stopped, he will the F-16 Fighting Falcon and the Patriot runs through a few recurring sketches, in- take over America! He wants to destroy every- Missile. I did live in a place that was always terviews one or more celebrity guests, and thing. He has more power than Hitlor [sic]. e going to be free, didn’t I? Free, at least, from closes with a musical act or comedian. Mr. ground war may start. We are in trouble then! external threats. As policy-minded as I ap- and Mrs. America then turn o the lights He was very good ground weapons. I don’t parently was, I couldn’t have grasped the and drift o to sleep. know how much. I just know he has good weap- creeping encroachment of the administra- For the most part, little of the time-tested ons. If we catch him, we will punish him. A lot tive state. formula has changed in the years since Car- of people think we should pull the troops out But I did know one thing: If I was really son’s retirement in 1992. Behind the scenes, and drop a bomb. If it’s okay with my mom, I’m lucky, my mom would let me stay up after however, a series of interpersonal dramas going to stay up and watch the news. the news ended to watch e Tonight Show have occurred that vaguely resemble the Starring Johnny Carson. I don’t remember plot of Game of rones, HBO’s hit medie- Bill Zeiser is a communications consultant many of the jokes, nor would I have under- val fantasy show about duplicitous clan war- pursuing a Ph.D. in politics at Hillsdale Col- stood them. e guests were all Hollywood fare. Filling a time slot once reserved for test lege. Follow him on Twitter @BillZeiser. actors from movies that I wouldn’t have patterns has become surprisingly bruising.
30 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR June 2014 By the time of Carson’s retirement, Joan Rivers was long gone. She had been the reg- ular substitute host in the early ’80s until she caught a glimpse of a leaked memo written by NBC executives strategizing about Car- son’s anticipated departure. She was not in- cluded on a list of ten potential successors. Embittered, she left in 1986 to join the edg- ling Fox Network and host her own program, e Late Show Starring Joan Rivers. e move cost Rivers her dear friendship with Car- son, whose blessing she did not seek before launching a competing show. Worse, when Fox executives revealed the decision to re Rivers’s husband as producer of the failing show, her response was so acerbic that they red both of them. Her husband committed suicide three months later, a tragedy Rivers attributes to this humiliation. When Carson stepped o stage, Da- vid Letterman was considered the natu- ral successor, having dutifully served for ten years as the host of Late Night, which immediately followed the Tonight Show. Carson himself wanted Letterman to get the promotion. But Jay Leno, who had regularly substituted for Carson, was picked instead. e behind the scenes wrangling and the erce rivalry that developed be- tween former friends Leno and Letterman became the subject of a made-for-television movie aired on the aforementioned HBO. Snubbed, Letterman departed for CBS, a network that had previously conceded late night, airing mostly old movies and other low cost content instead. ey pulled out all the stops for their new foray into the time slot, e Late Show with David Letterman, repurchasing the Ed Sullivan eater, a for- mer television and radio studio where the Beatles made their rst United States ap- pearance and a de ant Jim Morrison sang the word “higher” to Sullivan’s ire. e two titans of late night battled back and forth for years. Letterman opened strong, but Leno usually secured the highest ratings from 1995 on. ere was no longer a reigning king, but two princes. But as I would tell my third grade self if I could travel back in time, this, too, shall pass. ABC intro- duced its own serious entry into the market in 2003 with Jimmy Kimmel Live! And in Roses that developed for Carson’s throne. Compounding the situation, the semi-re- 2004, NBC announced that the aging Leno, But it seems that there can rarely be co- tired Leno had been given a 10 p.m. show though at the top of the ratings game, would mity in comedy. O’Brien’s surreal brand by NBC, which hoped to score big in the be replaced in 2009 by the younger Conan of self-referential meta-humor played well ratings and avoid the high costs of the pro- O’Brien (who had been hosting Late Night, with the night owls who stayed up past cedural cop dramas that usually aired in the Letterman’s old show, since 1992). Leno, by Leno, but the Tonight Show audience was slot. announcing his decision to peacefully step older, more staid, and more mainstream. at failed too. rashing commenced. aside years in advance, said that he hoped to O’Brien opened strong, but his ratings soon NBC attempted to set Leno up with a
Illustration: Russ Tudor Russ Illustration: avoid circumstances similar to the War of the declined to abominable levels. half hour program at 11:35 and wanted
www.spectator.org THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR 31 to bump O’Brien back to 12:05, an op- much that many actually do get their news delivery seems to be in good fun. We are in tion that seemed to please neither par- from it. ere Colbert developed his perso- on the joke, if you will. ty. e rift was the gossip of the enter- na, a sendup of the loud, brash, political- Not everyone, though, is a fan. Just prior tainment industry for weeks, with many ly conservative, quick-re cable newsman. to the announcement of Colbert’s move to Hollywood insiders taking sides with the ink Bill O’Reilly on steroids. e joke, CBS, he became embroiled in a minor con- upstart O’Brien. In the end, Leno took which understandably o ends many con- troversy for an o color joke about Asian back the Tonight Show and O’Brien left, servatives, is that Colbert is severely misin- people, itself a parody of a news story about re-emerging with a new o ering on basic formed but sticks to his reexively “conser- the owner of the Washington Redskins cable network TBS when his contractual vative” viewpoints no matter the evidence refusing to change the name of the team. non-compete clause expired. to the contrary. Conservative blogger Michelle Malkin e long-running Daily Show had be- and a whole host of liberal activists called ’ ’ come a juggernaut for Comedy Central for Colbert’s head. Some correctly pointed the multitude of choices viewers mostly due to the biting wit of Jon Stew- out that a conservative in the same position Onow have, a far cry from simpler art—host since 1999—who has garnered would have been given the boot. days of Carson. Aside from broadcast net- sixteen Emmys so far for his writing and works, there are scores of cable networks, producing. e show itself has won two , C a much on demand services which allow viewers Peabody Awards for its coverage of the bigger platform. ere is no telling if it to watch programs the following day, web- 2000 and 2004 presidential elections. It Iwill work out. His typical audience is sites like YouTube and Hulu that circulate might be a fake news show, but its acclaim younger than the usual viewer of late night clips instead of entire shows, and streaming and cultural inuence is very, very real. So network TV. In May 2009, the median age content services such as Netix which en- it was no surprise in 2005 when Comedy of Colbert viewers was thirty-eight, whereas able them to watch something else entirely. Central execs decided to extend the brand for Letterman it was fty-four, and for Leno is audience fragmentation is a poi- by introducing e Colbert Report, a paro- fty-ve. And according to Pew Research, son pill for the networks. When Leno dy of the personality driven shows on Fox a large majority—80 percent!—of Colbert’s returned to the Tonight Show in 2010, News. audience is fty or younger. Colbert might he still posted the highest ratings in his e Colbert Report—the host pronounces pull a treasured younger audience back to time slot, but they fell by almost two mil- the name in a French fashion by dropping the network or, as seems to have been the lion viewers from his 2003 peak. In the the “t” at the end of both words—quick- case with O’Brien’s stint, his brand of hu- intervening years, ABC had shifted Kim- ly came into its own. In the pilot episode, mor might be too youthful and edgy for mel’s show from 12:05 to 11:35 to direct- Colbert coined the word “truthiness,” such a prime chunk of the airwaves. ly compete with NBC and CBS. Leno which means an argument made from the Further, the Colbert that fans know and retired in February, this time likely for gut without regards to facts or logic. is love is tied to his Comedy Central persona, good, with O’Brien’s replacement at Late was supposed to sum up the ethos of the which he has said will not convey to CBS. Night, Jimmy Fallon, taking over hosting then-recently expired George W. Bush ad- No one really knows what a show hosted by duties. In the few weeks the new incarna- ministration, and in turn of host Colbert the real Stephen Colbert will look like. tion has been on the air so far, it has been himself. Truthiness, voted the 2006 Mer- His actual political leanings appear fairly ob- a hit, with Fallon winning his timeslot riam-Webster’s Word of the Year, has since vious. He’s used his ironic character to launch and seeing ratings about 50 percent better entered the lexicon. (As I type this piece, my fake presidential campaigns, host facetious than Leno’s from this time last year. word processor does not correct it.) political rallies, and even testied in character Given Leno’s departure, it surprised no And that was just day one. Since then, before the House Judiciary Subcommittee on one when Letterman announced in early the show has become a must on the inter- Immigration, Citizenship, and Border Securi- April that he would pack it in sometime view circuit for policy wonks, authors, ce- ty. He formed a Super PAC to lampoon weak in 2015. What was surprising is that CBS lebrities, and politicos, in the process earn- campaign nance laws. Colbert’s real sister, drew his replacement not from within— ing its own Peabody Awards and Emmys, Elizabeth Colbert Busch, unsuccessfully ran in Craig Ferguson, the host of the show airing and in 2013 nally ending the longest the Democratic primary for a U.S. House seat after Letterman’s, wisely included a clause running streak in Emmy History—held by in their home state of South Carolina. in his contract through which he earned a its parent, e Daily Show—by pulling in ough most certainly a liberal, Col- boatload of cash for being passed over for the Best Variety Series Award. e joke, all bert is a devout Catholic and family man the promotion—but from the landscape of the while, has been that Colbert has nev- who said in a 60 Minutes interview that the cable networks which have been steadily er broken his “character,” the well-mean- he doesn’t let his children watch his show picking o viewers. ing conservative bu oon. is has earned because “kids can’t understand irony or sar- is brings us to Late Show’s new host, him praise from surprising places. O’Reil- casm, and I don’t want them to perceive me Stephen Colbert. For the uninitiated, the ly and Colbert have each appeared on the as insincere.” Anyone who has watched his actor and comedian Colbert rst rose to other’s program, and O’Reilly has said in show can attest that, despite his ostensibly prominence as a correspondent on e Dai- a Newsweek interview that it is a compli- insincere persona, there is an earnestness to ly Show, Comedy Central’s snarky, often ment to be lampooned by Colbert because his interviews that avoids the trademark lib- unapologetically liberal, take on cable news. his program is not mean-spirited. Many eral smugness of Jon Stewart—or of David e Daily Show is a curious hybrid, meant conservatives feel the same way. Stewart Letterman, for that matter. I will be giving to parody news with an irreverent, sarcas- comes across as nakedly contemptuous of the show a chance. At the very least, they tic delivery that appeals to young viewers so conservative viewpoints, whereas Colbert’s didn’t hire Saddium Hussein or Hitlor.
32 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR June 2014 letter om PARIS the strict Aristotelian unities of place, time, and action—sans violence, bad language, emotion, or any other resemblance to real life. Corpses, blood, brawling on the stage? A knight (a noble of the realm, mind you) named Falsta drinking, swearing, and whoring? Just too, too uncouth, mon cher. e verdict by France’s eighteenth-century by JOSEPH A. HARRISS bewigged cultural tastemakers: e man obviously was a vulgar barbarian who had never been exposed to true Culture. But what else could you expect of a playwright from a fog-bound northern island peopled e Shocking by boorish beer drinkers? It was Voltaire, an avid Anglophile who had lived in England for three years and Monsieur Shakespeare knew its culture well, who led the French discovery of Shakespeare. But even he was are enjoying a Even more painfully, they also had to digest decidedly of two minds. On the one hand, movable feast in this 450th the outrageous possibility that French cul- he had to admit that Shakespeare was “a ge- anniversary year of William ture might not after all be the pinnacle of nius full of strength and fecundity, of nat- Shakespeare’s birth. It began civilization. And that took the better part uralness and sublimity.” On the other, he appropriately enough in Strat- of 300 years. was “a drunken savage…without the tini- ford-upon-Avon last April Shakespeare was virtually unknown in est particle of good taste.” Just think: Mad with reworks, a giant horse- France until a century after his death, as royalty was openly portrayed, along with drawn birthday cake, and the beowering of John Pemble points out in his instructive, horrors like unwashed Roman plebeians ha- Bhis grave at Holy Trinity Church, after which highly readable book, Shakespeare Goes to ranguing high-born patricians, even a jeal- the Royal Shakespeare Company performed Paris: How the Bard Conquered France. A ous Moor strangling his innocent wife. Non, Henry IV, Part 1. London’s Globe eater is senior research fellow in history at the Uni- this would never do. Where was the exqui- undertaking no less than to stage his plays in versity of Bristol, Pemble asserts that even site, mincing renement of French manners every country in the world, from Bulgaria’s until the latter twentieth century—only Roman theaters of Philippopolis to Washing- fty years ago—the French warily regarded ton’s Folger Shakespeare Library and points Shakespeare “as the Other, the alien, the per- in between. New Yorkers can choose among sonication of everything that Frenchness eight Broadway and O Broadway produc- was not and could not be.” He was danger- tions, while China, ever striving to one up ous because of the threat his plays, especially the West, will stage nearly forty plays this the despairing tragedies, posed to “familiar year with the help of troupes from England, and reassuring assumptions about history, Scotland, and the U.S. about providence, about moral values and e Bard of Avon’s universal appeal ex- social order.” For Pemble, the slow, tortuous tends across the Channel even unto the French acceptance of the Bard was nothing French, usually accustomed to holding their less than “the other French Revolution….It noses over things British, with an exception signied changes in habits of thought and made for Scotch whisky. Paris will host a attitudes to life every bit as widespread and series of lectures, conferences, and exhibits, profound as those that decreed the abolition along with special productions of Macbeth. of the Old Regime.” A large claim, to be Newspapers are running supplements tell- sure, but he makes a convincing, and often ing readers more than they want to know very droll, case. about him, including the novel assertion Early French commentators scarcely that Julius Caesar holds a special place in knew what to make of Shakespeare. Nico- American hearts because actor John Wilkes las Clement, the Sun King’s royal librarian, Booth played Brutus before assassinating snied in 1684 that the Englishman was Lincoln. But to truly appreciate the French a uent, imaginative poet, but his merit commemoration of Will, you must under- was obscured by verbal ordures (garbage). stand that they have surmounted deeply He was an unheard-of aront to classical held prejudices to come to terms with him. French drama as represented by Racine and Corneille, who wrote only of noble senti- Joseph A. Harriss is our Paris correspondent. ments in rhyming six-foot Alexandrine His latest book is An American Spectator in couplets grandly declaimed by mostly im-
Illustration: Wikimedia Commons Wikimedia Illustration: Paris. mobile actors. Structure was dictated by
www.spectator.org THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR 33 and the Enlightenment? As Voltaire scath- fell on me like a thunderbolt…I recognized ingly told the Académie Française in 1777, true greatness, true dramatic beauty and French masterpieces were performed the dramatic merit.” In his diary he exclaimed, Re-Elected world over, but it would be a long time be- “ ou alone art the God worthy of artists.” fore the same recognition was accorded to Obama, “that abominable Shakespeare, who is noth- the obdurate prob- ing but a provincial clown.” lem of translation. e French lan- Re-Elected But such a towering writer could hard- Tguage was too smooth, its vocabulary ly be ignored. Translators cleaned him up, too limited, to convey the raw emotion and “improved” his earthy vocabulary, and gen- range of the Bard’s rough-hewn English, His Friends! erally tried to make him acceptable in polite while his iambic pentameter and frequent company. As late as the 1840s, they were still inversion of it were impossible to render. eliminating objectionable references to hum- Not to mention his allusions and word-play, H ble body parts. us Othello’s mention of which drove translators crazy. From the his sword on his thigh wouldn’t do, so they mid-eighteenth century to the mid-twenti- put the weapon in his hand instead. As for eth, the whole Shakespeare canon of thir- M. O ? Desdemona’s handkerchief, crucial to the ty-seven plays was translated no less than play’s plot, they struggled with the fact that ten times, while individual plays were tack- mouchoir was a word that well-bred people led even more often: thirty-nine times each More importantly, how much do never used in public. It became a tissue or for Hamlet and Macbeth, all with varying we know about his friends—the even a diamond headband. Just as prob- degrees of success. It was, John Pemble says, people who advise him daily, who lematic was that the object in question was “one of the most strenuous attempts ever embroidered with strawberries, because fraise made to transfer an author from one lan- shaped his political decisions, and was considered even lower and more ill-man- guage to another.” One breakthrough came helped get him re-elected? nered than mouchoir. So from euphemism to in 1946 with writer André Gide’s version of periphrasis, it took some 200 years for French Hamlet. And even he admitted himself baf- audiences to learn exactly what Desdemona ed and frustrated: “How is it possible,” he e American Spectator had lost, driving Othello mad. lamented, “to formulate a French text that is launched a special investigation Along the way, the plays were gutted of clear, easily understood straight away…and into Obama’s inner circle much of their lusty Shakespearean vitali- whose imagery is not too shocking for the ty—and meaning. In the name of bienséance, logical French mind?” that exposes their ties to or propriety, Hamlet was produced with no Today Shakespeare’s chaotic plotting and communism, corruption, ghost, no actors doing the play within the nihilistic themes clearly t a French mental- and terrorism. play, no gravediggers, and, at the end, no ity shorn of its cozy certainties and shaken dead prince. Friar Laurence and the balcony by existentialism and other contemporary scene were cut from Romeo and Juliet, which philosophical trends. e French cultur- Subscribe to was turned into a romantic comedy with a al elite accept that he is the most universal e American Spectator happy ending. ere were no witches in and, with his anguished questioning of life’s Macbeth, no fool in King Lear. No tragedy meaning, most modern of writers. “Because today and receive our here, either, since relieved French audiences his themes are so universal, Shakespeare is the FREE* special report, saw him regain both his sanity and his crown. only playwright staged all over the world,” Obama and Friends— But even such bowdlerized versions were admits Jean-Michel Déprats, director of the eventually enough for some in the audience complete works of Shakespeare for France’s Exposing the Inner Circle! to be contaminated with the notion that Bibliotheque de La Pléiade, a prestigious here was a new approach to theater, maybe book collection that consecrates the greatest www.spectator.org/obama even to their conception of life itself. While authors. “You can’t imagine a lm version of the French were mulling that, Germany was a play by Molière, but you can for Shake- *New subscribers only. (Book available for sale. $10. Call 800-524-3469) idolizing Shakespeare. Goethe, for one, pro- speare.” But it may be too soon to believe claimed, “When I rst read Shakespeare, I that the Bard’s troubles in France are over. was like one who, having been born blind, e latest version of Othello currently in Par- by a miracle is suddenly granted sight.” In is is judged a op by Le Figaro’s theater critic. France the budding Romantic movement of e protagonist is seen as a homeless black : H13P27 the 1820s made believers of cultural leaders immigrant trying in vain to assimilate, while like Victor Hugo and Hector Berlioz. An Iago becomes a slapstick bu oon, completely in amed Hugo attacked Voltaire’s denigra- avoiding the lancinating question of evil. “A tion of the Bard. “Shakespeare is a drunken catastrophe,” she rightly concludes. savage? Yes, he’s savage! He lives in the vir- Oh well. Give the doggedly ethnocentric gin forest. Yes, he’s drunk! He’s the drinker French credit for at least trying to under- of the Ideal.” Berlioz recalled the moment stand a barbarous foreigner, an Englishman of his conversion: “Shakespeare suddenly at that, named William Shakespeare.
34 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR June 2014 constitutional OPINIONS the Channel to deliver at Bruges, Belgium, one of the great speeches of the twentieth cen- tury. She didn’t use the word “constitution” in her speech. She did trace Britain’s roots in European history, reference Magna Carta, and note that she was speaking on the 300th anniversary of the Glorious Revolution on which the crown passed to Prince William of by SETH LIPSKY Orange and Queen Mary. It was also the speech in which atch- er spoke of “willing and active cooperation between independent sovereign states.” She kvelled about the American example and Dis-United Kingdom? warned that cooperation “does not require power to be centralized in Brussels or decisions Scotland eyes the exit. to be taken by an appointed bureaucracy.” She referred to the lesson of the Soviet Union. en the famous words: “We have not suc- cessfully rolled back the frontiers of the state op- ment elections that were set to take place at in Britain, only to see them re-imposed at a portunity for the end of May. As voters were preparing to European level with a European super-state America is decide, the Guardian characterized a recent exercising a new dominance from Brussels.” shaping up in poll as indicating that UKIP was “on course to A group of conservative intellectuals and the constitu- achieve an emphatic victory.” parliamentarians, known as the Bruges tional crisis in e British establishment, left and right, Group, came together in the wake of atch- Britain, start- tries to paint UKIP as “loonies” (to use er’s speech to stand as a kind of sentinel. But ing with the referendum that is going to be Prime Minister David Cameron’s phrase) in 1992 the Maastricht Treaty was inked, cre- heldW in September over independence for and UKIP’s leader, Nigel Farage, as an eccen- ating the European Union. In the years since, Scotland. It may not put entirely paid the Acts tric. e charges are proving hollow, though. it has seemed that all of atcher’s warnings of Union that, in 1707, were for naught. It was right placed two kingdoms, after Maastricht that the England and Scotland, UKIP was formed, and ev- under a single sovereign. erything that is happening But Queen Elizabeth has now can be seen as a kind of signed o on Scotland slow-motion constitutional going to its people on reckoning of all that atch- the independence ques- er foresaw. tion, and recent estimates e American president reckon the nationalists are ought to be all over this. Yet between three and seven President Obama seems to points away from victory. be at once oblivious to these “Week by week,” the Fi- issues, scared of change, and nancial Times has report- blind to the opportunities ed, “Scotland seems to this situation represents for slip away.” America. Obama likes to is strikes me as a talk about the need for Brit- major moment, and not ain to x what is wrong with just because England and Europe (talk about a job for Scotland have been unit- Alex Salmond, leader of the Scottish National Party. Hercules). He has actually ed for more than three warned Britain that leaving centuries. On top of that a separate referen- Farage, even in the estimation of his critics, Europe would hurt its relations with America. dum could be held as early as next year that keeps winning debates. e question seems e president has done this even while Eu- would lead to Britain leaving the European to be whether Farage can avoid the fate of, rope hangs on America’s own foreign policy Union. at campaign, led by the United say, Ron Paul. (at’s not to cast any asper- like an albatross. Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP), has sions on Dr. Paul, whose campaign for honest In April, the rst minister of Scotland, Alex been gaining its own ground. By the time money I have cheered for years.) Right now, Salmond, was in America. e leader of the this magazine reaches the news stand, we may Farage seems likely to do better at the polls Scottish National Party and a charming and have a sense of it from the European Parlia- than Paul ever did. crafty leftist and spokesman for the inde- is has been coming to a head since 1988, pendence cause, Salmond appeared on
Seth Lipsky is editor of the New York Sun. when Margaret atcher made her trip across Morning Joe. He also gave a particularly Commons Government/Wikimedia Scottish Photo:
www.spectator.org THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR 35 illuminating TV interview to the editor ECONOMICS of the Wall Street Journal, Gerard Baker. Sal- mond has previously said he is not seeking for Scotland to become an independent republic like America, but rather one of the common- wealth countries in Elizabeth’s vast realm. In his U.S. interviews he made it clear that what he wants is not independence per se but inde- pendence from England. by STEPHEN MOORE If he gets the divorce he wants, Salmond said, he will turn around and seek to have an independent Scotland made, in its own right, a full member of the European Union. is sets up the question: If Scotland joins Europe e Growth Gap and England leaves it, what does that mean for America? It strikes me as an opportunity Where is the economy today, and where should it be? to create a new alliance of countries commit- ted to the ideas of classical liberalism. Scot- tish secession would unburden England of a will be forever much about how the rich are doing, as largely leftist population, and set the stage for known as the “Great Communica- long as our own situation is improving. England to be governed by conservatives for, tor,” Barack Obama is on track to But when the economy isn’t growing, we conceivably, generations to come. go down in history as the “Great become like piranhas in a sh tank with a Canada, meantime, has emerged as a con- Divider.” His single-minded mes- dwindling food supply that start nibbling servative success story. Australia, too, is a po- sage over the last several years—and on each other. tential partner in a new arc of countries whose especially in recent months—has e big untold success story about gaps heritage is not so much a common language been highlighting the gap in wealth or in in the U.S. economy over the last half cen- but common ideas of liberty and economic Iincome between di erent groups of peo- tury is how much they have shrunk over freedom that formed in England and reached ple. One week he obsesses over the gap time. For example, let’s take the gap be- their greatest owering in our own revolu- between rich and poor. e next he talks tween men and women. In 1950, wom- tion. Yet President Obama doesn’t seem to about the gaps between races. And that is en earned about 60 cents for every dol- appreciate any of this. On moving into the followed by the gap in lar earned by a man, White House he famously removed the bust earnings between the Income Gains by mostly because they Race and Gender, 1981-2012 of Winston Churchill. sexes. What next? Tall on average had less At one point things got so bad between Brit- versus short? Lefties work experience, went 66.3% 2% 64.9% 0.9% 64.8% ain and America that the House of Commons versus righties? 17.3% into lower paying oc- Foreign A airs Committee issued a call for an ere’s a good pos- 60% cupations, and had end to the use of the phrase “special relation- sibility that this pre- fewer educational op- ship.” Britain’s current leadership seems to have occupation with our portunities. e gap 50% bought Obama’s notion that Britain would di erences is meant narrowed over the next lose in uence if it were to leave the European to divert attention fty years to about 85 Union. But Obama is all for the kind of Euro- from the real endur- 40% cents for every dollar, pean statist dirigisme that is the reigning ideolo- ing economic legacy with most of the rest of gy in Brussels. So where are the rest of America’s of Mr. Obama’s pres- 30% the di erential result- leaders, including the Republicans in Congress idency: Just about ing from skills and ed-
and those eyeing the presidency? everyone is doing 20% Males All ucation. Since women All Females All White Males White Black Males Black Black Females Black Britain is less than a year away from elect- worse. For the mid- Females White are now more likely to ing its fty-sixth Parliament. Prime Minister dle class, incomes 10% go to college and grad Cameron has promised that if he wins it, he’ll have fallen by almost school than are men, it hold a referendum on whether to leave Eu- $3,000 since Obama might be that they will rope. He’s gone so far as to say that if he is was sworn into oce 0% begin outearning men blocked by any coalition from ful lling his and almost $2,000 in the years to come. referendum pledge, he’ll quit. So the con- since the recovery began. e racial gap in America has shrunk stitutional question—here I speak of the Americans are not in normal times an even further and faster. In the 1950s, a possibility of disuniting the United King- envious lot, and polls show we don’t care black male earned about 40 to 50 cents dom—becomes a political and even geopo- for every dollar a white man earned. Now litical question. Time for America’s leaders to Stephen Moore is chief economist at the the typical black male earns 75 cents on join the fray and let England know that if it’s Heritage Foundation and co-author of the the dollar. Pretty much the same pattern is abandoned by Scotland and if it seeks to es- New York Times bestseller, An Inquiry true of Hispanics as well. e table above cape from European socialism, it will have a into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth shows what has happened to the income partner across the Atlantic. of States (Wiley). gains for each of these groups over the last
36 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR June 2014 thirty years. Blacks have done better than whites and women have done much better than men.
? Why don’t politicians and those in the media talk about Sthe greater equality in America and the decline in wage discrimination? It may be due to the old adage that in the media, good news is a contradiction in terms. But it is also true that the Left in America loves to accentuate all of our faults, while in European and Asian nations the custom is to celebrate even the smallest of advances. My favorite ex- ample was the scam story from several years ago that the U.S. had a higher in- fant mortality rate than not only most industrial nations, but that America was even in the league of some third-world countries. e press reported these sta- tistics alarmingly and uncritically as an indictment of the retrograde state of our average middle class family today lives What should be most disconcerting to health care. As it turned out, almost all better than did the rich of yesteryear. liberals is to look at what has happened to of the supposed problem was explained None of this is to say that all blacks and the earnings of the groups that were most by diering denitions of infant mortali- Hispanics and women are getting ahead. likely to have voted for the president in ty. A child that was born dead in America Clearly that isn’t the case, and some would the 2008 and 2012. I identify four prima- would be counted as an infant death in say the gaps aren’t closing fast enough. ry demographic groups that carried the the statistics, but ignored in many other But the most important gap is the one day for Obama: blacks, Hispanics, single countries. { between where the women, and young voters. ese groups Even the gap be- economy stands to- all voted for him at least 60 percent to tween the rich and day versus where it 40 percent, and blacks supported him by poor is overstated. If Why don’t ought to be. Accord- a margin of more than 95 to 5. Yet the we look at income and politicians and ing to the Joint Eco- earnings of these groups have fallen the wealth statistics, there nomic Committee most. is no doubt that the those in the of Congress, if the Americans seem to be getting all of top one percent holds economy had grown this. And the Great Divider’s message a far bigger slice than media talk as fast under Obama’s of classism, sexism, and racism is losing ever before, large- about the recovery as it did steam. An April Washington Post poll ly because of a new during the rst ve asked Americans whether it is more im- super billionaire greater equality years of the Reagan portant to have Democrats in charge of class that includes in America and recovery, American Congress to help pass Obama’s policies, the likes of Warren GDP would be more or to have Republicans in charge of Con- Buett, Bill Gates, the decline than $2 trillion larger gress to check them. Respondents sided Sergey Brin, and oth- in wage today. As long ers who are as rich as as we stay on Obama % of 2012 Vote & some entire nations. discrimination? the path to- Change in Household Income 2009-13 So today the top one ward only ane- percent earn about mic 2 percent Single women 67% –7% { 20 percent of all the GDP growth Blacks 93%% -11%% income each year, which is the highest per quarter, this gap will get wider Hispanics 71% –5% Under 25 years old 60% –10% share since the 1920s and the Gilded all the time. All Voters 51% –4% Age. But the living standard gap, which is By the way, $2 trillion is the * Obama vote % is for 18-29. based on what we can buy with our dol- equivalent, if spread to all house- lars, from health care treatments, to vaca- holds evenly, about $15,000 per year. with the GOP, 53 percent to 39 percent. tions, to cell phones and computers and These are big, painful numbers. It’s no at shows the country has heartburn air conditioners and dish washers and Air wonder that voters hate Congress, the over the growth gap, the one Obama re- Jordan sneakers is falling. ese items are Fed, the Obama administration, and fuses to talk about: the divide between nearly ubiquitous not just in middle class anything else that resides in Washing- what is, and what could have and should Photo: Tannen Maury/UPI Tannen Photo: but even in poor households today. e ton, D.C. have been.
www.spectator.org THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR 37 PRESSWATCH continue to be updated as events unfold, new research gets published, and fresh questions emerge. So if you have additional questions or comments or quibbles or complaints, send a note to…” followed by the name and email address of the author. e “card stack” turns out to be a Wikipedia entry with a byline. e next card in each stack poses the ques- by JAMES TARANTO tion: “What else should I read about [the top- ic]?” e answer is a linked list of references, like Wikipedia endnotes. e eect can be comical. e Benghazi card advises readers: “If you really want to understand the issue, read All You Need to Know the whole Senate Select Committee on Intel- ligence ‘Review of the Terrorist Attacks on US …is that Ezra Klein’s Vox is nothing special. Facilities.’” Even the Senate report—which runs eighty-ve single-spaced pages, consid- erably lengthier than Vox’s twenty cards— ” necktie in a dierent, clashing plaid pattern. withholds some information. Example: “On was for years the slogan “It’s good to see Herb Tarlek working again,” September 7, 2012, DIA [the Defense Intel- of KNX 1070, a CBS- tweeted marketing consultant Jon Gabriel, ligence Agency] produced a report entitled, owned and -operated referring to the bombastic sales manager from ‘[redacted]’ that stated: ‘[redacted].…’” news radio station in Los the 1970s sitcom WKRP in Cincinnati. All you need to know! Angeles. I was there, as a In the video, Yglesias college intern, when man- explained: “Success, in agement introduced the catchphrase in 1987. somewhat grandiose AIt met with wide derision from the newsroom terms, is that we want to sta, who were embarrassed by its condescend- create the single greatest ing, if not vaguely totalitarian, overtone. resource available for KNX abandoned both the slogan and the people to understand all-news format in 2003 and restored both in the issues that are in the 2007, but the station seems to have dropped news.” e site’s main the slogan again since then. Which is just as device for doing so is well, for this year a new website debuted that the “card stack,” a prim- uses a nearly identical tagline to promote what er on a given topic in its founders tout as a new kind of journalism. FAQ (frequently asked Vox—that’s with a V, not an F—is the questions) form. “We brainchild of Ezra Klein, familiar to readers of wanted to give this idea this column as the founder of the left-liberal of a digestible portion of email club Journolist (see Presswatch, TAS, the context of a story in Ezra Klein in the launch video for Vox, which cannot afford furniture. October 2010). In January, Klein announced each card, so it is not in- he was leaving the Washington Post for the new timidating,” Vox co-founder Melissa Bell told e hazard of appealing to readers who feel venture, and in March, Vox.com introduced London’s Guardian in April. “You don’t have stupid is that intelligent readers will get the itself in an online video. Klein presented the to read all 25 cards in the deck, you can read feeling that you think they are stupid. Con- new site as a cure for a peculiar neurosis from just one.” sider this gem, from Sarah Kli’s Obamacare which he once suered: “I remember, begin- Each virtual card presents a question and card stack: ning to follow the news, I remember the feel- answer; if you play with a full deck, the site ing of anxiety around opening a new article promises to teach you “Everything You Need Will Obamacare cover all of the uninsured? and knowing I was about to feel stupid, I was to Know About” the given topic. Subjects in- No. Despite what you may have heard, it’s a bit about to feel like I was outside the club,” he clude both the timely (Obamacare, Benghazi, of a misnomer to call Obamacare universal cov- asserted in the video. “is is a real problem!” the Heartbleed Bug) and the evergreen and o- erage. At the end of the day and when the law is An even realer problem is the fashion sense beat (gerrymandering, the Internet, marijuana, fully implemented, budget forecasters expect that of Matt Yglesias, another former Journolist librarians). 31 million people will lack insurance coverage. member, whom Klein recruited from Slate. But it turns out Vox dramatically over- irty-one million is a lot smaller than the Yglesias was widely mocked for appearing in promises when it says it’ll tell you “Everything 48.6 million Americans who currently lack in- the video wearing a plaid sport jacket with a You Need to Know About” a subject. Near surance coverage, but it’s also not nobody. the bottom of each stack you’ll nd a card James Taranto, a member of the Wall Street bearing a frustrated exclamation: “You didn’t Vox touts this sort of “explanatory journal- Journal’s editorial board, writes the Best of the answer my question!” e boilerplate answer: ism” as if it’s something new. In reality, it’s a Web Today column for WSJ.com. “is is very much a work in progress. It will dumbed-down version of a long-extant mode
38 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR June 2014 of reporting. Explanatory journalism has been the NATION’S PULSE a Pulitzer Prize category since 1985, awarded for work “that illuminates a signi cant and complex subject, demonstrating mastery of the subject, lucid writing and clear presentation, using any available journalistic tool.” Tradition- al explanatory journalism means deep original reporting, not the kind of simplistic synthesis that characterizes a Vox card stack. by WILLIAM Mc MORRIS But Vox isn’t all cards, all the time. e site also publishes opinion articles, and one of them quickly became the most talked-about piece in the site’s brief history. On April 10 Klein wrote a 467-word item titled “Kathleen Saving Sportswriting Sebelius Is Resigning Because Obamacare Has Won.” Fantasy reporters write about the game, not social issues. at seemed counterintuitive: “ is guy is not joking!” tweeted Fox News’s Brit Hume. And at the end of the post, Klein revealed that his standard of victory was a low one: is tired, exasperat- It’s a nice job if you can get it, and many “ e law has won its survival.” ed even. You can see it in his are trying to. It’s evident in how modern Along the way he touted the White House’s eyes—that is, if they aren’t sportswriters treat their subjects, their view- enrollment claims, which he couldn’t quite serving as a cautionary tale ers, and their readers. e desire to be on the bring himself to endorse: “ e evidence has about the dangers of Botox. “right side of history” has replaced the love piled up in recent weeks that the strategy He shrugs, he sighs, he shakes for the game. It’s easy to see why. worked. Obamacare’s rst year, despite a his head. e NBC sportscast- Sportswriters have always had something truly horri c start, was a success. More than er is tired of the “extreme” sports fans who of an inferiority complex. ey may have seven million people look to have signed up Btake umbrage with his monologues praising gone to the same journalism schools as their for health insurance through the exchanges” Vladimir Putin, condemning guns, and de- peers, but they’re treated with disdain by (emphasis mine). manding that the NFL eliminate aggressive the politics reporters, the metro desk, even A week later, the White House raised its tackling and inappropriate team names. He the style section gurus who declare annual- claim to eight million. An army of liberal made that much clear in April when late ly that men’s capris are the next big thing. journalists and commentators continued night neophyte Seth Myers asked him how Sports, according to these Very Important to hail Obamacare’s success, taking the ad- he deals with criticism for “talking about pol- Journos, are useless, a distraction. Costas’s ministration’s self-serving numbers at face itics when you should be talking sports.” NBC colleague Chris Hayes, who as far as value. In fact, Klein was right to distance “I think we live in a culture where people this writer can tell has never swung a bat, re- himself, if subtly, from the claim. To “sign who are angry are more apt to weigh in, or cently denounced those who criticized Mets up” for an Obamacare policy is not to ac- people who have an extreme view are more second baseman Daniel Murphy for taking quire one; that requires paying a premium. apt to weigh in,” Costas replied. “And they two games o for paternity leave. Ezra Klein in the launch video for Vox, which cannot afford furniture. e administration had no gures, or at have more ways than ever to do it, and peo- “I say this as a sports fan and someone who least none that would release publicly, on ple who approve of it or like it say, ‘Hey, that borders on obsessive at times about my sports how many had done that. was good,’ when they see you on the street.” love,” Hayes told MSNBC, earning Four Pi- In the end, apart from the provocative It all depends on the street. Costas owns nocchios from fact checkers right out of the headline, there was little to distinguish Klein’s a $10 million, three-bedroom apartment gate. “But the whole way that sports func- Obamacare cheerleading from that of legions in Manhattan’s Upper West Side (com- tions as a business is for everyone involved of other liberal writers. Many of them work plete with wine cellars, room service from to kind of suspend disbelief and everyone for more conventional outlets, including a private chef, and a prominent anti-gun collectively to create the ction that it’s im- Klein’s former employer, the Washington Post. neighbor, Sting). Costas, one of the four portant. When it is not important. It just is A few years ago the Associated Press in- highest-paid sportscasters in the country, simply not important. It doesn’t matter. It troduced “accountability journalism,” which reportedly earns $5 million each year for does not matter if the Mets lose three games.” turned out to be a fancy term for opinion delivering three-minute halftime vignettes Full disclosure: I’m a diehard Mets fan, masquerading as straight news (see Press- while most viewers are using the bathroom, and Murphy is my favorite player because watch, TAS, September 2007). “Fact check- and providing breathless commentary for of his superb line-drive rate and devout ing” used to mean reportorial due diligence, the Olympics, which is less a string of sport- Christianity. But Hayes has reason to feel but now refers to opinion pieces with a pre- ing events these days than a series of short self-conscious about his argument in front tense of objective authority (see Presswatch, docudramas about athletes overcoming per- of even the unbiased. First of all, he called TAS, December 2008/January 2009). “Ex- sonal hardship. into his own show on the network because planatory journalism” looks to be more of he was on paternity leave (an exploitive the same—a new package containing the William McMorris is a reporter for the photo of Hayes holding his newborn served same old liberal product. Washington Free Beacon. as the backdrop for the screed). ough a
www.spectator.org THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR 39 self-described “obsessive” sports fan who has vowed to the non-readers that future stories ed States, according to Alexa. Its popularity made a career out of bashing the “one per- would follow a style-guide prepared by gay cannot be solely attributed to the 32 million cent,” he failed to note that Murphy earns activists to a T. people who play fantasy sports each year. more than $18,000 per game and, more im- Sportswriters’ obsessive focus on “covering While Rotoworld enjoys more visits during portantly, didn’t actually birth a child. culture through the lens of sport (instead of football season—the most popular fantasy e facts of the case aside, imagine you’re a the other way around),” as media consul- sport—trac remains relatively steady for sportswriter and your blowhard co-workers or tant George Scoville put it, has damaged the the rest of the year, despite the fact that base- your old college buddies had no problem saying product. e focus on narrative over fact has ball is far more popular for fantasy players your life’s work “didn’t matter.” It hurts, doesn’t produced more sports pundits than sports than basketball and hockey. it? You have two options: a) defend yourself reporters much to the chagrin of fans. Out- ese sites are attracting more than just by, say, pointing out the ratings gap between spoken Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cu- fantasy team owners. Regular sports fans are MSNBC and ESPN; b) appease the blowhards ban won cheers the world over in 2012 when becoming regular readers because they are by synching your priorities with theirs at the ex- he slammed leading ESPN pundits Stephen looking for facts. Fantasy reporters oblige, pense of your audience, which anyway consists A. Smith and Skip Bayless for their shoddy providing readers with advanced statistics of nothing but apes obsessed with watching work. “My two-and-a-half year old will sit previously reserved for coaches and scouts: other apes hit a ball around with a stick. there and break down tape, so he knows batting average on balls in play, isolated pow- CBS college basketball correspondent more than any of you guys about the NBA,” er, rushing yards after rst contact, yards per Gary Parrish circled the latter choice. When Cuban told the talking heads. “You don’t middling UMass basketball guard Derrick ever use facts, you don’t ever use substance.” Gordon announced he was gay, Parrish dedi- Modern sportswriters aren’t used to speak- cated his Twitter account to calling his follow- ing truth to power. Every sports section that ers homophobic. He then penned an op-ed doesn’t belong to the New York Post is rife with about how homophobic fans don’t under- clichés—“110 percent!” “team e ort!”—from stand why sexuality matters to performance. coaches and players who spend as much time “It doesn’t matter whether you care or do not in media training as they do in batting prac- care if a player is gay,” Parrish wrote, adding tice. A sportswriter will do anything to pre- that “…these important stories deserve every serve access to a team or an outlet, even if it headline they can possibly get.” means becoming an extension of the PR de- Parrish’s column, you see, isn’t about partment. He now lies prostrate before a new sports. If it were, he would have mentioned set of masters: Mimosa-sipping Manhattanites that Gordon played for a ten-seed team and and liberal witch hunters whose sole interest shot less than 60 percent from the free throw in sports is purging football teams of o ensive line. His column is about Important Social names, obtaining equal screen-time for fe- Issues at Highminded Journalists Care males, and celebrating sexual diversity. About, you homophobic goons. “Anybody suggesting these stories aren’t stories is wildly , there is a new breed missing the point,” Parrish concluded. But of journalist emerging who is singularly the point is perfectly clear: Gary Parrish real- Lfocused on athletics: the fantasy sports- carry on turf versus grass, etc. ey don’t write ly wants to impress TV executives. writer. ese jobs didn’t exist a decade ago, about the “larger social importance of sports,” Not a peep, though, from Parrish or any but they are exploding across newsrooms nor do they walk the line to preserve access. other national sports reporter on the openly and the blogosphere each day. e Hanna We call such writers “wonks” in politics, gay Lindenwood University wrestler Michael Rosins of the world would have us believe but dismiss them as man-children in sports. Johnson, who was arrested for allegedly expos- that they owe their existence to the delayed Political pundits like Hayes may not realize ing ve men to HIV and secretly videotaping adolescence of men increasingly desperate to just how much these worlds intersect. Nate thirty-two male sex partners. Parrish hasn’t escape reality. But the proliferation of fantasy Silver, the polling “wizard” worshipped by touched the subject, of course, because homo- reporters is much simpler: sports fans actual- liberals for correctly predicting 99 out of 100 sexuality only counts when coverage is positive. ly want to read about sports. states in two presidential elections, honed One can forgive Parrish—and every other Not even all ESPN employees are as clueless his craft as a baseball statistician. ESPN pur- national reporter—for ignoring the story. as the empty suits it puts on primetime. e chased Silver’s Five irtyEight blog fourteen Writing critically about a sexual “Other” in- network has hired plenty of people to dissect months after the exchange with Mark Cuban. vites scorn from activists and apologies from game tape and obsess over statistics. All of them Grantland Rice, the legendary sportswriter editors. ESPN pet project Grantland created can be found at ESPN.com’s Fantasy section. whose name inspired the title of Bill Sim- a restorm in January for exposing golf club Fantasy sportswriters were mostly anony- mons’ blog, once said, “A wise man makes his designer Dr. V as a transgendered con art- mous bloggers at the turn of the century, but own decisions, an ignorant man follows the ist who duped investors and golfers. Dr. V they are quickly becoming marquee names. public opinion.” Fantasy reporters may be killed himself prior to publication, leading Matthew Berry, Tristan Cockcroft, and Eric the last wise men in sportswriting. ey don’t activists to blame the reporter for the sui- Karabell have emerged as rising stars on ESPN, yet carry the gravitas of Bob Costas, but they cide. Rather than sticking by the story—no garnering increasing screen time on television. respect their fans and readers. It might not be one disputed the facts of the case—Grant- Rotoworld, which is dedicated to fanta- a $5 million television contract. Hopefully, land founder Bill Simmons apologized and sy sports, is a top 600 website in the Unit- though, it will be enough. Photo: Jim Ruymen/UPI Jim Photo:
40 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR June 2014 commie WATC H because “this is an award from people who are the hard core of the movement.” No question about that. If you’re looking for the hardest of the hard-core, it’s tough to beat the comrades at People’s World and their acolytes. Speaking of whom, Vargas invoked the name of the great revolutionary saint by PAUL KENGOR and ghter for social justice, Che Guevara. Quoting the “progressive” icon, Vargas as- serted that “the true revolutionary is guided by a great feeling of love”—the sort that the beloved Che embodied. He said that justice Communist Day cannot be achieved without peace. To that end, one of Vargas’s goals in the Connecti- cut state legislature is to gure out how the in New Haven state can transition from an economy aid- ed by military production to some better are wreck- slide show and nale,” began the report in means of industry, one geared toward labor, ing this country!” a senior People’s World, successor to the Daily Worker, peace, and the environment. citizen shouts at me at an “an atmosphere of unity and optimism in- For years, this extraordinarily liberal event, as a bemused by- spired the entire multi-racial audience.” All state has beneted mightily from major stander looks on, rolling her the awardees, said the article, “praised the military contracts and manufacturing, a eyes, thinking the old geezer vision and work of the Communist Party in vital lift to its industrial base. Vargas and is out of his mind. “ey’re their communities.” allies hope to change that. in the Democratic Party! ey’re in the e Amistad Awards are presented annually Naturally, Vargas is a big supporter of Tunions! ey’re in the universities! ey’re in on the occasion of the { Barack Obama, for the public schools!” anniversary of Com- whom he organized e bystander stares in embarrassment at munist Party USA. is Latinos in 2008. He this modern incarnation of Joe McCarthy. was the 94th, if you’re Twenty years ago, was chair of the Hart- Please, sir. Go renew your membership to the keeping tabs. ford Democratic Party John Birch Society. “ey’re trying to redistributive and is involved with Too bad the doubter hadn’t been on stage turn the working class policies around the Democratic Na- at the auditorium of Cooperative Arts and into the working poor tional Committee. He Humanities High School in New Haven, and the only ones who the world were is a longtime member Connecticut. ere, People’s World, the house will stop it are people completely of the Democratic So- publication of Communist Party USA, held like you in this room,” cialists of America. its annual Amistad Awards ceremony, where rallied Senator Gomes, discredited. Rounding out the it honored three individuals: former state himself a former union Ronald Reagan trio was Yale’s Lau- senator Ed Gomes, a steelworker; state repre- organizer, specically for rie Kennington, who sentative Edwin Vargas, a teacher; and Laurie Local 2216 United Steel had relegated praised the work of a Kennington, president of Local 34 for cleri- Workers in Bridgeport. them to the ash- local group called New cal and technical workers at Yale. ey were It was enjoyable to have Elm City Dream and “cheered on,” said People’s World, by family, served in the Connecti- heap of history. of the Young Commu- friends, co-workers, elected ocials, and cut senate, he said, but nist League for their union and community leaders. ey were his best experience was “commitment to ght joined on stage by the previous award recip- union organizing. He { unemployment.” ient, who today is president emeritus of the urged everyone to keep the pressure on elected In truth, the Young Communist League Connecticut AFL-CIO. ocials to meet the needs of the masses. has long been committed to more than just “From the opening video and drumming State Representative Edwin Vargas had jobs. In the 1930s, it refused to waver one to the remarks of the awardees, songs, youth also been a union president prior to join- inch from the Stalinist party line. e young ing the state legislature. He had chaired the American Bolsheviks in the YCL were com- Paul Kengor is professor of political science Human and Civil Rights Committee for the pletely subservient to the Soviet Union. At the at Grove City College. His latest book is 11 American Federation of Teachers and be- Seventh World Congress in Moscow in 1935, Principles of a Reagan Conservative. His came president of the Hartford Federation smack in the middle of Stalin’s famines and other books include e Communist: Frank of Teachers. He spent thirty-ve years teach- mass purges, the Communist International Marshall Davis, e Untold Story of Barack ing in Hartford public schools. He said that described “the Young Communist League of Obama’s Mentor, and Dupes: How Ameri- although he had received many honors and the United States” as “a great success.” ca’s Adversaries Have Manipulated Progres- recognitions in those capacities, this commu- Unfortunately, the Young Communist sives for a Century. nist commendation was particularly fullling League didn’t die with the Comintern and
www.spectator.org THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR 41 USSR. Laurie Kennington considers it still a POLITICS great success. And this particular evening in New Haven, the comrades from the Young Communist League were gathered among the faithful. e young Marxists presented an inspiring slide show amid the singing, drum- ming, chanting, shouting, and howling. Also in attendance were Kennington’s par- ents. She recognized them as having traveled by GROVER G. NOR UIST all the way up from Durham, North Carolina, where they had been earlier marching in the Moral Monday protests against the Repub- lican governor and legislature. If you’re not Defunding the familiar with the Moral Monday movement, think of it as a southern version of Occupy Wall Street, though perhaps a shade further Democratic Party to the left. Kennington expressed pride that her parents had been arrested during a Moral Monday protest. and Demo- olutionary because it’s an authentic political If the Moral Monday cadre has its way, cratic parties are not mirror movement focused on reducing government perhaps with an in ux of tens of thousands images of each other. ey spending, and thus government workers and of more northerners, it might be able to fun- are built on radically di er- contractors. e rst tea party success was end- damentally transform the reliably conserva- ent foundations. e Re- ing the corruption inherent in congressional tive state of North Carolina. With some help publican Party raises mon- earmarks. Previously bene ciaries of millions in from the left-wing university community ey and volunteers from the earmark spending would kick back tens of thou- in Raleigh-Durham, perhaps just enough real economy. It cannot take anyone’s time sands of dollars in campaign contributions. e good-hearted, open-minded, “tolerant,” and Tor money by force. It has to ask. e Demo- outlawing of most earmarks has led to a dramat- enlightened “progressives” could nudge this cratic Party lives o government spending and ic decline in the reported amounts spent by lob- red state forward, saving it from its backwa- laws that force Americans to fund it. Much byists in Washington. Earmarks were the weap- ter, Bible-thumping roots—to become some- taxpayer money gets cycled through the orga- on of choice for liberal Democrats looking to thing perhaps along the lines of Virginia in nizations of the Left. Labor unions demand seduce the local Chamber of Commerce. Dem- 2012, or maybe even Maryland or Connecti- dues from workers as a condition of employ- ocratic politicians would vote to tax and regu- cut. One can dream. ment because Democrats have written laws to late businesses but then show up for the ribbon And dreams were indeed on display on that require it. Trial lawyers reap millions of dollars cutting bought by “free” federal dollars. Sound public school stage in New Haven. Just twen- thanks to rulings from Democratic judges. policy has since stopped this transactional cor- ty years ago, redistributive policies in America e political structures that inform, con- ruption on the Left and also forced Republican and around the world were completely dis- trol, and fund the American Left—labor congressmen to win hearts and minds through credited. Ronald Reagan had relegated them unions, trial lawyers, big city political ma- pro-growth policies, not the distribution of sto- to the ash-heap of history where they be- chines, and bene ciaries of government len loot. Banning earmarks, along with winning longed. Even Bill Clinton, a Democrat, was spending, contracts, welfare payments, and the 2011 budget showdown and enforcing the compelled to declare that big government was grants—all depend on government. With- sequester, has cut $2.5 billion in projected gov- nished. But then came Barack Obama. e out state power, their political muscle would ernment spending over the next decade. liberal left and “progressive” left and commu- atrophy. Now that Republicans have con- Big labor’s contribution to the Left’s war nist left rallied behind him and are now work- trol of twenty-four state governments—the chest is in jeopardy from reformers at the state ing together and riding high. No apologies, governorship and both houses of the legisla- level. is is no small feat. no shame, and no external criticism. ture—they should repeal laws that fund and Republicans scare their children with Capturing the spirit of the new zeitgeist perpetuate the Democrats’ political machine. bedtime stories about the overwhelming in New Haven was the Rev. Scott Marks. ere are three key principles to ensuring political power of organized labor. Some 14 Yes, as usual, the Religious Left was there. long-term political success for Republicans: million workers pay dues averaging at least It always is, despite communists’ open Spend less, remove the union bosses’ legal power $500 per year, and this brings more than $7 contempt for religion—which included to extort dues, and reform tort law so that trial billion into the co ers of public- and pri- murdering countless thousands of priests, lawyers cannot siphon unjusti ed billions from vate-sector union bosses. But the real cost of pastors, nuns, bishops, monks. e pastor the economy. If we want to reverse our present negotiating and managing labor contracts o ered up a closing benediction, bringing “road to serfdom,” we need a plan for each one. was estimated in the Beck v. Communica- the secular faithful to their feet as he called Republicans have always known that more tions Workers of America Supreme Court case for more vigorous community organizing to government spending breeds dependency and in June 1988 at less than 20 percent of dues. “move forward” the battle for a new, funda- Democrats. e tea party movement is rev- If true, American unions are now spending mentally transformed America. “I will not $1.4 billion on actual work and $5.6 billion go back!” assured the good reverend. And Grover G. Norquist is president of Ameri- is available for “other stu .” Like politics— neither will his comrades. cans for Tax Reform. speci cally Democratic politics. e twenty
42 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR June 2014 largest labor union PACs give 90 percent of Sherry Sylvester of Texans for Lawsuit Re- and Industry, is moving a series of six bills their contributions to Democrats. form wrote an article claiming that 80 that would make many of the same reforms. Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker’s dramat- percent of all contributions to the state But passing such laws is only part of the ic and successful reform of public-sector labor Democratic Party over the previous decade battle. For tort reform to stick, Republicans unions has shown Republicans in other states came from trial lawyers. e bean counters in every state need to win at least three ghts: not only that withdrawing abusive monopoly at Politifact weighed in to declare that she electing a pro-tort reform legislature, elect- powers from organized labor saves taxpayers was mostly right, but that the real fraction ing a pro-reform governor, and electing or millions in unfunded liabilities and gold-plated was closer to 75 percent. Read that again: appointing a majority of the state supreme bene t packages, but also that it helps defund ree-quarters of the Texas Democratic court that will not strike down tort reform. one of the pillars of the modern Democratic Party’s cash came from trial lawyers. Good reforms have been struck down in Party. Since Act 10, which prevents unions from Our bloated legal system, all the while, Texas, Arkansas, Illinois, Oklahoma, Wash- automatically skimming money o workers’ comes with real eco- { ington, Oregon, New paychecks, was signed into law in March 2011, nomic consequences, Hampshire, Kentucky, tens of thousands of workers have taken a pass hampering growth Missouri, Georgia, and on paying union dues. e Bureau of Labor and redirecting mon- The political most recently and out- Statistics reported a drop in total union mem- ey from productive rageously in Florida. bership, public- and private-sector, of 46,000 activities to parasitic structures that (Charlie Crist’s great- (339,000 to 293,000) in the state in 2011 and ones. e Paci c Re- inform, control, est betrayal was not 2012. During the late 2013 recerti cation elec- search Institute, in its switching parties, but tions, government workers rejected 81 out of 2007 report “Jackpot and fund the nominating pro-trial 408 collective bargaining units. And the per- Justice,” estimates that lawyer judges to the centage of Wisconsin public-sector employees America’s bloated tort American Left state supreme court.) represented by unions fell from 53.4 percent system wastes $589 bil- all depend on Passing anti-tort state in 2011 to 37.6 percent in 2013 (this includes lion each year—which laws without keeping employees who are counted as union members calculates to an excess government. an eye on the state Su- but who opt not to pay union dues). All this has “tort tax” of $7,848 on preme Court is a waste cost organized labor tens of millions of dollars. every family of four. of time and energy. Tri- Other states are following Walker’s lead. { al lawyers have spent Michigan and Indiana became the twenty-third ghts take place millions trying to elect friendly judges and and twenty-fourth states to enact right-to-work in Washington, D.C. But as Karl fought to isolate those judges from voters. laws that forbid unions from requiring dues as a M Rove, who was central to the ght Tort reform unites the entire business condition of employment. No more “pay dues against trial lawyers in Alabama from 1994 to community. Campaigns to elect pro-reform or no job.” Workers there are no longer forced 2000 and Texas from 1988 to 1998, tells me, judges do not su er from the business sector’s to nance Big Labor’s politics. “Most civil actions are led in state courts so self-imposed bipartisanship in campaign con- Yet there’s an even bigger threat haunting if the trial lawyers grab control of a state, then tributions to state legislators or congressmen. our republic: trial lawyers. A study by the Man- it runs the risk of becoming what Texas, Al- One hundred percent of a company’s or trade hattan Institute back in 2003 found that tort abama and other states were—a judicial hell association’s dollars can ow into the co ers costs in the United States were more than $200 where justice was for sale and the trial bar of solid judges. No hedging of bets here. Even billion annually, which was then more than 2 ran over business, the rule of law, and reason, the business community gets that there is too percent of the entire economy. e report states with huge implications for the business cli- much at stake. Victory reduces the deadweight that 19 percent of all tort costs go to plainti ’s mate and the state’s economy.” cost of litigation, creates jobs and opportuni- attorneys, meaning trial lawyers raked in $40 Texas took a great step in 2003 by passing ties, and, as a bene t to Republicans, defunds billion that year. at’s almost six times the $7 H.B. 4, a 96-page bill signed into law by Gov- a major source of money to the Left. at is billion that labor unions have to throw around. ernor Rick Perry, which contained many of key to understanding how Republicans can Shouldn’t rich trial lawyers support Republi- the most important potential reforms of tort do better in 2014 than simply playing out the cans? Obama’s ranting about the top one percent law: Only those individuals who cause harm advantages granted by Obama’s lack of success suggests this would be the case, but not a chance. are liable for damages and only to the extent and low popularity, and running GOP House e American Association for Justice, formerly of their own fault. Damages are limited to and Senate candidates who can win both the and more accurately known as the Association of what the plainti incurred—ending “phan- primary and the general elections. Trial Lawyers of America, gave 96 percent of all tom damages.” Medical malpractice “non-eco- e Democratic Party is the party of gov- its contributions so far this year to Democrats. A nomic damages” were capped. “Forum shop- ernment. at is key to understanding how uke? ey gave Democrats 96 percent in 2012, ping”—through which plainti s could choose Republicans can do better in 2014 than sim- 97 percent in 2010, and 95 percent in 2008. their own judge and jury pool—was eliminat- ply playing out the advantages granted by e Washington Examiner’s 2011 investigative ed. e Wall Street Journal named H.B. 4 the Obama’s lack of success and low popularity. reporting showed that, of political contributions “Ten Gallon Tort Reform.” Now is the time to choose the issues and pol- given in 2010 by the employees and partners at Now Louisiana’s Republican state legisla- icies we focus on and enact not to titillate the the top 110 plainti ’s rms in the United States, tors, Governor Bobby Jindal, and the state’s “base” but to change the correlation of forces 97 percent went to Democrats. business community are hoping to tackle the between the Right and Left. Democrats’ reliance on this legal gravy trial lawyers. e legislature, with the sup- Good policy is good politics. And vice train was highlighted two years ago when port of the Louisiana Association of Business versa.
www.spectator.org THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR 43 the great american SALOON SERIES the cool-down period, I talked with Weightman. He put Dthe Ring of Fire Challenge to- gether as an exercise in evil catharsis from dealing with bureaucracy, it turns out. He had smoldered enough. It was time to let others feel some of that burn. Since Will’O opened last September, by JEREMY LOTT Weightman has been battling the local Planning Department for the right to serve sh and chips in his authentic Brit- ish pub. He has been denied the right to install a vent anywhere on the premises Burning Ring of Fryer to accommodate fryers or large ovens. All the usual alternatives are not appealing. Can our correspondent vanquish the Diablo Burger? At this point, he explained in a fol- low-up e-mail, “We have been approved for a self-contained unit” that some bars , , being at least 18 years of burger inside of twenty minutes. In the use when they bump up against building age, and of sound mind, agree to waive interest of…let’s call it science, I took the restrictions. e problem is, “it prohibits any and all liability against the Will’O challenge one Saturday morning in April. us from using fresh sh and batter, as you Pub & Café, its employees or owners I came in, walked past the dartboards and have to put your product into a holding after taking the Ring of Fire Challenge. the Bobby hat over the replace and the bucket that dispenses into the basket.” I have agreed to take this challenge red London telephone booth, sat down, is makes an absolute “mess of the ma- knowing that symptoms such as aller- and announced my intentions. Will’O chine and grease.” gic reactions, nose bleeds, ulcers, vomiting, owner and cook Andrew Weightman tried Weightman would heartily like to avoid Inausea, temporary or long term heartburn, his best to talk me out of it. using “a frozen sh product from another thoughts of suicide, spontaneous combus- “It will ruin your day,” Weightman company,” because it would be expensive tion, crying, trouble breathing, soiling one- warned. He seemed a little shocked that and inferior to the great pub fare he is try- self, headaches, insanity, and profuse sweating, someone would try to do this challenge for ing to faithfully reproduce. e Will’O is along with many other side eects during or a late breakfast. Despite his advice, my John new here, but in Britain it has a history. It long after this challenge ends, may occur.” Hancock found its way onto the form, so he was a Liverpool restaurant and nightclub at’s part of the disclaimer one has to sign threw up his hands and went to the kitchen. started by his grandmother and run by his before the Will’O Pub in Birch Bay, Wash- “If at any point this gets too much for you,” family, which hosted such famous acts as ington, will serve up the infamous Diablo he said when he brought out the double Gerry & the Peacemakers and the Beatles, Burger. e form prods, “Do you still want burger, “just let us know and we’ll rush in the until they shuttered it in the 1970s and to go ahead with the Ring of Fire Challenge?? ice cream. And for God’s sake, don’t get any migrated to America. Are you sure?? Because if you are, I think we of this in your eyes.” His complaints against the Planning are pushing the ‘of sound mind’ bit now.” e next twenty minutes were a unique Department have a whi of “we crossed ose who still sign will nd the burger and eye-watering experience. And about a whole ocean for this?” e Weightmans is hot at every level: e two patties have the next day or so, the less said the better. left the UK at a time when the country spices rubbed in, they’re topped with ghost One must eat a Diablo Burger with care. was the sick man of Europe. Taxes shut- pepper cheese, peppers are heaped up on it, Best to use a knife and fork to avoid blis- tered businesses and sent people into ex- and the mayo is even hotter. e challenge tering around the mouth. You are going to ile. Strikes literally left bodies piling up is to nish all of that o, plus chips or fries, sweat a lot, and the air that comes out of in the streets. But even at the height of in twenty minutes. your mouth and nostrils will feel like it’s all that—with the taxes, and the staga- If you eat it all and hold it down for three escaping from an oven. tion, and the rotting corpses—at least a minutes, you get a “I Beat the Heat…in the In the end, your scientist failed, narrow- bloke could still get some decent sh and Will’O Pub’s Ring of Fire Challenge” T-shirt ly. ere was a way but not a will. With a chips. and your name and picture on the wall. In little over a minute left to go, I had eaten Weightman is not willing to admit either event, the restaurant’s sta stands ready the chips, the burger patties, the cheese, the defeat by the Planning Department and with a whole bowl full of vanilla ice cream, pickles, the peppers, and had gotten the top settle for sub-par deep-fried sh just yet. chocolate syrup optional, to help cool you o bun down. e only thing left was the as- To redress his grievances, he had cast his and blunt the dual olfactory and masticative sorted lettuce and the bottom bun, smoth- eyes Portland-ward, and he thinks he may traumas before the digestive system starts to ered in death mayo. I could force it down have found a solution. “We are also look- protest. in time and I thought I could keep it down, ing into a food truck to help make this Of the fty-seven people who have with great eort. But it was going to hurt, happen,” he explained. at’s right, he signed the waiver, six have nished the a lot, for a T-shirt and my picture on the may soon park a bus out front and use it wall. Not worth it. So I screamed for the ice as the restaurant’s very own portable sec- Jeremy Lott is an editor for Rare. cream instead. ond kitchen.
44 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR June 2014 ’’ sh-and-chipslessness doesn’t high SPIRITS seem to be slowing the customers Wdown. I returned on a ursday af- ternoon in May and had a hard time nding a seat. It was pub trivia night (sample ques- tion: “On the show Cheers, Sam was a former pitcher for which team?”), which creates seri- ous space issues. Weightman would spend the next few days throwing together a roped-o by JONATHAN AITKEN outdoor seating area to alleviate crowding. e sta did manage to nd a place for moi at the old wood-and-stained-glass bar in the back, bought and shipped over from a pub in Essex. e non-diabolical menu has India’s Jekyll and Hyde a few concessions to local taste. Customers can order the Captain Vancouver salmon Narendra Modi challenges his country’s caste-ridden elites. wrap and wash it down with Rolling Rock, if that’s how they roll. For the most part, however, the menu is genuine pan-UK food and drink: chicken dibley, bangers and mash, ’ in double-digit growth, soaring employment, lamb curry, beans on toast, eggs and bacon India, a marvel of modern deregulation of bureaucratic bottlenecks, butty, shepherd’s pie, on the food front, and a democracy with 815 mil- and a war on the notorious corruption large selection of UK ales, bitters, and ciders. lion eligible voters going of the long-ruling Congress party. Many In the interest of science, and hunger, I or- to the polls, has the poten- voters believe Modi will deliver because, dered the Irish beef stew, the potted shrimp, tial to change the country as chief minister of Gujarat, he has run a a Worthington’s Red Shield Blonde, a Wych- for the better economical- squeaky clean administration presiding over wood King Goblin, and good old Sam Smith’s ly, and for the worse spiritually. the highest economic growth and the lowest Extra Smooth Ale. For the stew, the menu TSimmering just beneath the surface unemployment of any state in the country. promised “Irish sausage, sirloin beef and veg- of the campaign lurks a real prospect of Narendra Modi also has a personal etables, slow cooked tender.” It didn’t disap- religious subjugation, persecution of mi- narrative that challenges the boundar- point, though the shrimp, herbs, and cheese nority groups, and serious communal vi- ies of India’s caste-ridden elites. He rose on toast were better and cheaper. e King olence. Yet much of the electorate is also from poverty, starting out as a tea seller Goblin went down sweeter than expected, Sam optimistic that the country’s economy at a railway station. He is a rebrand ora- Smith’s was smooth as advertised, and the Red could be revitalized. How will these con- tor. When he tilts his lance at the Gand- Shield was not too hoppy. Total bill: just north icting scenarios play out? hi dynasty the hits are palpable. Modi is of $30. A normal pub meal of the shrimp and a e hopes and fears of tomorrow’s India drink or two would run you $15 to 20. are focused on the election’s anticipated It may be worth that price just to peo- winner, Narendra Modi, leader of the BJP ple-watch some of the locals on a busy night. (Bharatiya Janata Party). He is the odds- Birch Bay is a weirdly wonderful place full on favorite to become the country’s next of trailer parks and summer homes. You prime minister. His party will certainly never know who you’re going to get. To wit, take the largest number of seats in the on that ursday night I met one man with Lok Sabha—lower house of Parliament— a Snidely Whiplash mustache, a cowboy although for regional reasons he may nar- hat, a vest, and a bolo tie, adorned with tur- rowly fall short of an absolute majority. quoise jewelry everywhere. One way or another, there is little doubt, e food business can be a funny thing. following the usual coalition horse trad- Ideas that work in practice can sound perfect- ing, that by the end of May, India will ly loco on paper. “Let’s have a pizza place that have a new political landscape dominated doesn’t deliver and doesn’t have any ovens to by Modi and the BJP. cook the food,” might sound like a loser, but At rst glance the BJP revolution has it’s Papa Murphy’s very successful model. So I much to commend it. e charismat- had to ask Weightman why he thought Birch ic Modi has run on a ticket that promises Bay, of all places, would be the right t for a reincarnated Liverpool mainstay. Jonathan Aitken is e American Spectator’s Short version: It just felt right. “Besides pur- High Spirits columnist and the author, most recent- chasing a home out here, I have been coming ly, of Margaret atcher: A Portrait in Personality to the area since I was four-and-a-half years and Power. His other books include John Newton: old. Plus it needed a good pub,” Weightman From Disgrace to Amazing Grace, and Charles
Photo: Narendra Modi/Wikimedia Commons Modi/Wikimedia Narendra Photo: shrugged. He is determined to give it one. W. Colson: A Life Redeemed.
www.spectator.org THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR 45 contemptuous of Rahul Gandhi, the forty- some 2,000 Muslims. e orgy of slaugh- CLASSIFIEDS three-year-old great grandson of India’s rst ter and rape was revenge for the killing premier Jawaharlal Nehru, the grandson of of fty-nine Hindu pilgrims on a train by Indira Gandhi, and the son of Rajiv Gandhi. Muslims. Modi was accused of aiding and PERSONALS Although his political abilities have been me- abetting the pogrom. diocre, Rahul now leads the Congress party e facts of this bloody episode are ATHEIST? CELIBATE? Me too! Tri-racial because he stands next in the hereditary lin- murky. Investigations by the Supreme poet/archaeologist seeks gentleman to eage of his forbears. Court have been inconclusive, partly be- share her non-athletic fun. Direct cor- At the election drew nearer, Modi was cause a great deal of evidence was lost or respondence to Kimora Kao, PO Box ridiculing his opponent as “the incompe- willfully destroyed. No charges were ever 1197, Berkeley, CA. tent owner of a failing family business.” laid against Modi, who has remained non- “ ese Gandhis have been giving us the chalant about the outrage. Last year he GROUCHY, FUN-HATING young man same story for forty years,” he bellowed to responded to allegations over his role in (29, 5’10”, 140, D.C. area), wearied the crowd. “ ey never guessed that this the violence by infamously saying that he to tears with dumb girls, desires the chai-wallah [tea boy] would come and regretted the su ering of the Muslims in acquaintance of a contentious young bring them to account.” the same way as he would regret the death woman with a laser-like mind (intense His ery speeches and his impressive of a puppy run over by a car in which he and coherent). Other welcome attri- track record in Gujarat have given Modi was a passenger. butes include musicality, some athletic big political momentum. On a recent visit Apologists for Modi point out that prowess, a severe contempt for psycho- to India, I was amazed by the cult-like en- the massacre happened more than a de- active substances, and an occasion- thusiasm for the BJP leader expressed in cade ago, that he has since been care- “ al obsessive desire to build stuff. Her settings as diverse as smart Delhi dinner ful to downplay tensions between faith appearance may fall between fairly parties, remote co ee huts in the foothills groups, and that all Indians, including pretty and sort of funny-looking, though of the Himalayas, business meetings with poor Muslims, would bene t from his ravishing knock-outs will be considered Mumbai millionaires, and conversations growth policies. is sounds plausible to if possessed of some compensating with taxi drivers around ve cities. Hindu voters who make up 80 percent virtue. Honorable intentions are assured If there was a common theme in these of the electorate. But to a huge swath of and expected. William, c/o TAS. discussions it was that Modi was the an- minorities, including Sikhs, Buddhists, swer to India’s unful lled aspirations. Christians, Dalits, and above all Muslims, MERCHANDISE “China is leaping forward. We are going Modi is a leader tainted by a history of backwards,” said one of my interlocutors. sectarian hatred. BULLET HOLES REWOVEN PERFECTLY “Look at the potholes in this road. ere’s Communal violence is a worry in twen- in damaged clothes—low prices. Also no money to repair them because Congress ty- rst century India. Despite a constitu- moth holes, burns, and cuts. Mail tex- party o cials have pocketed $20 billion of tion that enshrines the right to freedom of tiles to Secret Weavers, 150 N. 12th St., bribes in the last ten years alone.” religious belief, there is a pattern of riot- Knoxville, TN. A leader who can rebuild the nation’s ing and killings emanating from religious roads and send its growth rates climb- intolerance. Christian and Muslim com- TERRAPIN GIVEAWAY. Specimens dis- ing will be a force to be reckoned with. munities are the most frequent victims of covered in attic. No $ to buy separate But there may be a dark side to Naren- persecution by Hindus. A dispassionate tanks. Red Ear Slider, Mississippi Map, dra Modi arising from the spiritual part and detailed view of these on-going ten- & Eastern River Cooter available. Com- of his history. Some Indians who are in sions is fairly presented in the February monwealth shipping available gratis. sympathy with his secular policies fear his 2014 report “India: Communalism in Write 515 Concession Road, Punkey- militant Hindu nationalism. ey also an Election Year” by the human rights doodles Corners, Ontario, Canada. worry that the alleged persecution of mi- group Christian Solidarity Worldwide. norities that may have been a part of his e report gloomily warns that Narendra Lucky twigs from my lucky tree. Good past could be a part of his future. Modi’s electoral success “could give rise for capital formation, love, profits, vital- e most signi cant threat to plural- to worsening communal tensions across ity, virility. Take one on your date with ism and secularism in India derives from a many more areas of India.” that cute girl from accounting. Hold one Hindu nationalist ideology known as Hin- Many an opposition leader has soft- when you pick your mutual fund. Sup- davi. is ideology is espoused by a body ened a hard line stance upon reaching the plies limited. $250. John, c/o AmSpec. of organizations known collectively as the summit of power. But most informed ob- Sangh Parivar. Its chief organ is the ex- servers of Indian politics seem reluctant MISC. tremist Hindu Group Rashtriya Swayam- to give Modi the bene t of the doubt so sek Saugh (RSS). Modi is a lifelong mem- long as he remains an RSS member and SUNLIGHT on the water can inspire even ber of RSS in whose cause he made many an ardent Hindu nationalist. At best he a lawless beast to dance. Thrilling, is it speeches in his early career whipping up is seen as an economic Dr. Jekyll and a not? Spirit a self-addressed stamped Hindu hatred against Muslims. religious Mr. Hyde. If the latter side of his envelope to: SOCIAL CONTORTION. In 2002, a few months after he be- character comes to the fore, India’s tradi- PO Box 731, Youngstown, OH, 44420. came chief minister of Gujarat, a Hindu tional religious freedoms could be tested rampage swept through the state, killing to the breaking point.
46 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR June 2014 Judge Us By Our Enemies...
U.S. S C B
e key to Booker’s bipartisan appeal was, in large measure, his clinical insanity. e stories are now well known: As a freshman councilman he literally pitched a tent on a crack corner in Newark’s bowels “ and embarked on a 10-day hunger strike to draw attention to “open-air” dealing. He lived for eight years in the city’s blighted Brick City projects, often bathing in boiled water trickling down from a rub- ber camp shower, and subsisted on a “food stamp budget” as an act of solidarity with the persistently poor. Having drawn death threats from every two- bit collection of gangbangers west of the Turnpike, as mayor he donned a Kevlar vest on midnight ride- alongs with loyal Newark cops who served like so many Untouchables. In his spare time he shoveled constituents’ driveways, rescued stranded puppies, and even collected second-degree burns pulling a woman out of a burning building. […]
e reality of Cory Booker is that he’s a hyper-en- thused Good Samaritan with a municipal support structure and a national stage, who also happens to be, net-net, an okay mayor of Newark, and who probably won’t be more than okay as a United States senator.
Indeed, he could wind up being signi cantly worse. B D F , S ” , O 2013
If you love to watch The American Spectator skewer the enemies of liberty and tradition— thrasonical coxcombs like Cory Booker—then consider supporting the cause. The Spectator is a 501(c)3 non-profit that relies on reader donations to keep the lights on, the coffee hot, and the sabres sharp.
DONATE TODAY at www.spectator.org/donate ben stein’s DIARY I got a text from her saying that it so happens that she’s pregnant. She had been up in SFO having a romantic rendezvous with a young man, but she decided she didn’t like him and he didn’t like her. So they broke up. But, now she’s pregnant. “I really didn’t like him that much,” she tex- ted me. “I just wasn’t into him that much.” by BENJAMIN J. STEIN “Well, you must have been into him pretty much and he must have been very much into you because you’re carrying his baby.” “I know,” she said, “but I’ll just be a single mom. Will you help me out?” Making Friends and Enemies I am so pro-life that I can never say no in these cases but I am worried about it. So, that’s one little part of the many lives of Ben Stein. Thursday In that same week where I met Lucia, I also I run I spoke to her for at most—absolutely met a breathtakingly beautiful middle-aged into some kindly soul most—ve minutes. She told me she was woman—well, maybe younger than that—at who asks me if I am still half-Vietnamese and half-Dutch. She gave a bar. I was having a steak and she was having doing Win Ben Stein’s me her contact info and we have been in champagne. We talked and then we met the Money. e answer is no. touch almost every day since. next day for lunch and she talked a lot more. I haven’t been doing it Here’s her story, in brief. Father was a Viet- She’s thirty-two. She’s a wild mixture of eth- for about fourteen years. namese Army soldier captured by the Com- nicities and has a gure that is close to unbe- e kindly inquiring soul then usually asks munists in 1975. He was roughly handled at lievable. She works at a very high-end specialty Awhat I am doing if I am not doing a TV show. a re-education camp. But he got to leave and store in downtown San Fran. She is a divorcee. I say that I write for two magazines reg- he made his way to the American Midwest. She has a four-and-a-half-year-old daughter. ularly, appear every week on Fox News and ere, he married a sweet-faced woman of She wants to be a movie star. She wants me once every several weeks on CBS Sunday Dutch extraction. to help with her bills. I was almost speechless Morning, and write speeches and travel an ey produced my little pal, whom I will at her beauty, but I also could not quite be- astonishing amount to deliver them. Usu- call Lucia. e father died from the mental lieve how many boyfriends she’s had, includ- ally, I am extremely exhausted after I give a stress of the war and torture. e mother ing very famous movie, TV, music, and sports few speeches on the road so then I have to left Lucia with her aunt to marry a man who stars. If that’s her type—and God bless her if rest for a good long while. I lie in bed with then came back with the mother and molest- it is—she’s not really likely to see much in a Julie, and I am happy. ed innocent little Lucia sexually. en Lucia sixty-nine-year-old, overweight, nerdy econo- My destiny is to be in bed with Julie. But ran away from home and was homeless in mist/commentator who can barely put on his that’s not my point. When I am traveling, I Chicago for a period of time, and then be- socks. I told her that and she just laughed. She am extremely outgoing. I meet a lot of dier- came a call girl. said she wanted to come visit me in L.A. ent people. In my mind, I am a young South- en she stopped doing that and became a I said that would be ne and she could ern politician. I go up to each person who social activist and now she is working as a waiter meet my wife and we would take her out for looks at all interesting and say something like, and a stock clerk and also wants to be a writer. a lovely dinner. “Hi, I’m George Wallace and if there’s any- Specically, she wants Ben Stein to help “I want to stay at the Beverly Wilshire,” she thing I can do for you here in Clio, Alabama, her become a writer. She wants an agent— said. “at’s my hotel in L.A. It’s right in the just let me know.” I see each person I meet as bad news for her since my literary agent, Lois middle of Beverly Hills, which is where I like a door into that person’s world, often magical Wallace, just died. She wants me to teach her to be.” and mystical. how to be famous and successful as a writ- “Honey,” I said after a quick text to my Just a few examples: About ten days ago, er—as if I knew. For a while I was churning travel agent, “rooms there are about twelve I ew up to SFO and went on to the wine out bestsellers right and left, especially about hundred a night for when you want to be in country to speak to some fabulously smart nance. But now I mostly write opinion L.A.” and kind and attractive men and women from pieces about defense and right to life and tax “So?” she asked with a slightly hurt look. Wells Fargo. As I walked through SFO in policy. I also write this diary about my daily ose negotiations, like all negotiations in search of my driver, I came across a stunningly life in Hollywood, politics, North Idaho, and the age of Obama, got stalled. But just today, beautiful, absolute knockout young Eurasian Washington, D.C. I cannot teach Lucia how she sent me a series of photos of herself having woman. She was lying on a bench right next to write about her life the way I write about root canal surgery and then a screen shot of to where my driver was supposed to be, so I sat mine. her bill so far—$2,300. down next to her and chatted her up. Now, it may be that the young woman has “I still want to come see you,” she said. talent and will write beautiful prose about her “We’ll see.” Ben Stein is a writer, actor, economist, and compelling story. I hope she does. Certainly, ese two episodes are typical of my life lawyer in Beverly Hills and Malibu. she has interesting subject matter. Just today, when I am traveling. My main obsessions in
48 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR June 2014 my life are my wife, my dog, my son and his Sunday family, my secret gf from Mississippi, and any , from Augusta to beautiful girl I meet. I am like a teenager. I get Greenville to see my son, his beautiful mad crushes and they last about ten minutes. AKitty, and lovely Coco, our grand- Maybe less. en it’s o to do the next indi- daughter. She is not yet three but she can cated action. Usually that consists of getting reach out her hand and say, “Hi, my name on an airplane. is Cora.” FRAUD e next step is to say, “And if I can do any- Saturday thing for you while you’re in Greenville, just WARNING in Augusta, Georgia. What let me know.” a pretty town. I am here to speak. My en we have Cora Stein, future U.S. pres- H ight in from LAX to ATL yesterday ident in our household. was uneventful except that Delta served me Speaking of presidents, has anyone no- a “Philly Cheese Steak sandwich” that made ticed that in terms of foreign and defense me wildly sick to my stomach. Nightmare on policy, Mr. Obama is simply AWOL? His a plane. How can Delta have let itself go to initiatives about the Middle East have hell so terribly? It was once the best in the air. turned to ashes. His failure with Russia has here are fraudulent Now it is a ying slum, even in rst class. e been total. e Arab Spring has become an ONLY thing good about the ight was the actual catastrophe—egged on by Obama agencies soliciting your hilariously funny safety video they showed and Kerry. e United States is a laughing- American us. Made me laugh out loud but that was stock all over the world. ere is nothing— T not enough to overcome the wretchedly fet- and I mean NOTHING—to stop Russia Spectator subscription renewal id air, the cramped seats, and the criminally from taking over all of Eastern and Central sick-making food. Europe. But Obama continues to disarm, without our authorization. My great driver, Bob Noah, drove me continues to go to fundraisers and play golf, from ATL to Augusta, a distance of about acts as if he were in charge of anything. He Please reply only to American one billion miles through totally darkened isn’t. He is like a mayor of one of those de- countryside with no gas stations, no lights, caying Rust Belt cities where nothing can Spectator renewal notices or no fast food, nothing. Desolate. After about stop the rot—but he and Empress Michelle two hours we came to the charming town of continue to travel the world in Imperial bills—make sure the return omson and it was as if we were on the Las style at our expense. address is Congers, NY. Vegas Strip, as Bob Noah put it. en on to By the time Hillary takes over, we will have Augusta, where I simply collapsed from the nothing left in the way of power and prestige, Ignore all requests for renewal ill e ects of the food on the ight and the ex- and the world will either be total chaos or a haustion of the trip. Just to give you an idea Russo/China condominium or a combina- that are not directly payable to of how badly o I was, I went with Bob to a tion of both plus a goodly soupçon of Isla- Wa e House and could not even eat there. I mist terror from one corner of the globe to The American Spectator. did meet three adorable co-eds from Georgia the other. To think that Barack Obama inher- Regents University and they were the bright- ited an America that bestrode the earth like a If you receive any mail, email, est spots of the day by far. Pretty, enthusiastic, colossus o ering all the peoples of the world polite…I love Southern girls peace, opportunity, and the promise of secu- or telephone offer that makes Today, we had a tour of Augusta, a love- rity. Now it’s all gone. Mr. Obama—again— you suspicious, contact us at ly city on the Savannah River, and then a is AWOL. He is just pretending it isn’t hap- cocktail party at a golf course clubhouse. e pening at all. Truly appalling. Does he know [email protected] or call guests could not have been more pleasant. how badly he’s failed? Does he even think of ere was a staggeringly gorgeous woman rebuilding the defense establishment? Did 800-524-3469. working at the party. Just a super beauty. this happen by accident? I might add that if she had been any more We lawyers have a principle that persons Your cooperation is polite she would have been an impossibility. may be assumed to intend the likely and inev- But wow, where do these gorgeous Southern itable consequences of their actions. For Mr. greatly appreciated. women come from? What is it? Genetics? At- Obama to kowtow to the Russians, to bow titude? Something. low to Islamists, to be blind to the realities of e audience for the speech was great. Got the implacable rage of Hamas and Iran, and, all of my jokes. APPLAUDED AT THE above all, to refuse to defend the nation— RIGHT MOMENTS. Gave me a long even he, a true dope, must have known these standing ovation. We love Augusta. No sign actions and inactions would lead to disaster. of the beautiful cocktail party girl but the So, if he’s president and INTENDS the hu- three glorious co-eds were there, beaming, miliation of this country, what do we have? cheerful, lovely. I think I will bring them out And what kind of America will be left for to L.A. on granddad’s jet. our beautiful Coco Pu ?
www.spectator.org THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR 49 conservative TASTES obscenity of D.H. Lawrence’s novel Lady Chatterley’s Lover in 1960.” e obituarist added that Hoggart’s evidence “was widely regarded as having provided the key piece of evidence that persuaded the jury to nd the publisher Penguin not guilty of obscenity.” What everyone in Britain remembers about that trial are the words to the jury by JAMES BOWMAN of the prosecuting counsel, Mervyn Grif- th-Jones, when he asked: “Is it a book that you would even wish your wife or your ser- vants to read?” is, too, has become a meme or topos in the cultural lore of our times, es- Requiem for the tablishing beyond a peradventure that dec- orousness of speech or writing is something that only an old, out-of-touch, and dying Chatterley Classes elite could possibly care about. Naturally, the shame of the late Mr. Grith-Jones, a dec- ’ writ- least now I know what the rst line of my orated war hero and one of the prosecutors ten,” a tearful but obituary will be.” at the Nuremberg trials, at revealing himself paradoxical Eliot John Waters is said to have said that, “Even to be a stuy old rich guy who, no doubt on Spitzer told Vanity if I discover a cure for cancer, the rst line account of his personal “issues,” didn’t like Fair a year or two of my obituary is bound to mention that I literature that used obscene language, made after his forced once made a lm where Divine eats dog s--t. the inevitable subject for the rst lines of his resignation as Which would be OK with me.” Sometimes obituaries when he died in 1979. governor of New York, “and that is a very the prophecy can be defeated, of course. Four e trial itself has since become a meme Mhard thing to live with.” e obituary itself years ago, as the nal vote on Obamacare or topos of the liberationist account of cul- would presumably be a very hard thing to came down to the wire, Marjorie Margolies tural history, which is increasingly the only die with, but what he meant was that it was (as by then she was styling herself) wrote with account there is—a fact to which Hoggart’s hard to live with the knowledge—already, the aim of stiening the sinews of her fellow friend from his University of Hull days, the most likely decades { Democrats that, “I had poet Philip Larkin, was playfully alluding before his death—that no idea that when I when he famously wrote that he would be remem- voted for the Clinton bered principally for “Is it a book that budget [in 1993], I was Sexual intercourse began the prostitution scan- writing the rst line of In nineteen sixty-three dal that had forced you would even my obituary.” True (which was rather late for me) — him from oce. In wish your wife enough, it was the rst Between the end of the Chatterley ban doing so he was tak- line of her political And the Beatles’ rst LP. ing up what Richard or your servants obituary. Now she’s Dawkins would call to read?” This, trying to make a politi- Yet I think we have been slow to recog- a meme but which we cal comeback in Penn- nize that the Chatterley trial also marked the traditionalists prefer to too, has become sylvania’s irteenth end of the division between high and low call a rhetorical topos Congressional Dis- culture and, therefore, the beginning of the of our fame-obsessed a meme or trict, and she may, in process by which what the Russian literary culture. In the same topos in the any case, look forward theorist Mikhail Bakhtin called the “ocial way Bryan Cranston to being remembered culture” of the West, which had existed in calls Walt White of cultural lore of as Chelsea Clinton’s uneasy symbiosis with a bawdy, “transgres- Breaking Bad “the role our times. baby’s other grand- sive” unocial culture for centuries, was that will undoubtedly mother. Eliot Spitzer overthrown and replaced by the formerly be the rst line of my should be so lucky. unocial culture, now newly dignied as obituary” and the golf- { When the New York ocial. In other words, no Lady Chatterley, er Tom Kite said of his winning the U.S. Times headlined the other day that “Rich- no “Sir” Mick Jagger. Open at Pebble Beach in 1992, “Well, at ard H. Hoggart, 95, ‘Chatterley’ Defender, ere was a certain irony, therefore, in Dies,” it was because his book e Uses of the fact that the Obscene Publications James Bowman, our movie and culture crit- Literacy, which led all but one of the Brit- Act of 1959 under which Lady Chatterley ic, is a resident scholar at the Ethics and Public ish obits that I read, was not well-known was prosecuted had been brought in by Policy Center. He is the author of Honor: A in America. e British exception was the the British government as an enlightened History and Media Madness: e Corrup- Times of London whose lead, concurring measure to distinguish serious literature, tion of Our Political Culture, both published with its New York namesake, was about “A thought conducive of the “public good,” by Encounter Books. star witness for the defence in the trial for from mere trash and pornography, which
50 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR June 2014 in the fact that the book that appeared in the rst line of most of his British obitu- aries, e Uses of Literacy, published three years before the Chatterley trial, had been an act of cultural conservatism, a plea for the establishment to take seriously the working-class culture in which he himself had been brought up and a thunderous denunciation of the tide of trash that was even then beginning to undermine it. I’ve always had a bit of a soft spot for Hoggart, if only as that now-extinct breed, a culturally conservative socialist. “‘Progressivism,’” he wrote in e Uses of Literacy (originally intended to be ti- tled “Misuses of Literacy”), “assists living for the present by disowning the past.” He also took a strong line against com- ic books and fantasy and most popular music, though his almost mystical belief in high culture struck me as rather un- discriminating—hence his testimony in the Lady Chatterley trial. True, he had a bee in his bonnet about American pop- ular culture and “consumerism,” which he saw as the greatest threats to cultural authenticity, whether of the high or low sort. He was not to foresee that American pop culture was about to be remade, re- packaged, and re-exported as British—to America!—in the following decade. In a way he was a British equivalent of Irving Howe and Dwight Macdonald who at around the same time were blasting was banned. But of course what happened izing of art, how that helped foment an at- away at America’s “middlebrow” culture, was that the great and the good who tes- mosphere of permissible hatred and forged a as Fred Siegel explains in his fascinating ti ed for the defense—who, besides Hog- link between aesthetics and human disaster.” new book e Revolt Against the Masses, gart, consisted of a Who’s Who of the In other words, not just the modernist works discussed in these pages by Tom Bethell British literary establishment of the day, the Nazis hated but the very existence of any last month. But, unlike Hoggart, Howe including Aldous Huxley, E.M. Forster, such thing as “degenerate art”—or, in the and Macdonald recognized no genuine Graham Greene, and Rebecca West—suc- words of the Obscene Publications Act, art popular culture to set against the meretri- ceeded in persuading the jury not just that which was “such as to tend to deprave and cious kind. eirs was a pure intellectual Lawrence’s strange and even creepy view corrupt”—was something that only a Nazi snobbery, without any of his moral seri- of sex tended to “public good” but that all could believe in. And belief in it leads directly ousness, and born of an assumed aristo- vaguely literary sex must do so. ose em- to “human disaster,” if not a new Holocaust. cratic disgust for the amusements of the inences may not have intended it, but the e exhibition, I’m afraid, marks that plainly lower—and, indeed, the upper—middle jury was clearly right to see their testimony absurd point of view as yet another of our classes. By contrast, Hoggart was merely as the capitulation of the o cial culture to civilizational memes. nostalgic for the British working class cul- the long censored, suppressed, or stigma- Hoggart became what one observer of ture of his youth that was about to disap- tized but now triumphant uno cial one. the trial called “the man of the match” pear into the very dierent milieu of the , 1981 , for asserting, to the incredulous Mr. middle class, on the one hand, and the , it is doubtful if anyone Gri th-Jones, that Lady Chatterley was underclass on the other. At least they were could have written, as Holland Cot- “highly virtuous if not puritanical.” He very dierent then. Now they have gotten Ater recently did in the New York Times couldn’t see that that was precisely the back together in a single popular culture of the exhibition at the Neue Galerie in New trouble with it, representing as it did a that embodies everything Hoggart once York, “Degenerate Art: e Attack on Mod- conscientious inversion of the morality hated. If he didn’t foresee this, one might ern Art in Nazi Germany, 1937,” that “the on which a healthy society depends. Sex have hoped that it would have led him to show itself is one of the few in an American for Lawrence was as a new, secular sacra- a reconsideration of his view of obscenity. museum in the past two decades to address, ment: a truly dangerous idea, conducive at would have made a striking rst line
Lady Chatterley’s Lover Jaekin/ Just Photo: on a large scale, the Nazis’ selective demon- of the public bad. But a further irony lay of his obituary.
www.spectator.org THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR 51 arts & LETTERS
Le Capital
in April. “ e Amer- economies and lead inevitably to unsustain- Capital in the Twenty-First Century ican reception of the able concentrations of wealth. In this sense, By omas Piketty book has re-energized rather like Marx, he advances a single-minded (B /H, , .) interest in France. interpretation of the market system. Translated by Arthur Goldhammer Now the French edi- Piketty writes from a social democratic per- tion is sold out.” spective, one that is suspicious of free markets But the furor might and con dent that central governments can have been expected. manage economic a airs in the interests of all. doesn’t seem Liberals and progres- His book, ably translated from French by Ar- like a man at the vanguard sives of all stripes have thur Goldhammer, bears many features of that of a revolution. A professor hailed Piketty’s book ideological perspective, particularly in its focus at the Paris School of Eco- as the indictment of on the distribution rather than the creation nomics, he is unassuming free-market capitalism they have been wait- of wealth and in its decidedly negative view and soft-spoken, a clean-cut ing decades to hear. e market revolutions of the stock market boom of recent decades. forty-something who prefers of the last thirty years have placed them on e popularity of his book is perhaps another an open collar to a stu y tie. Yet for months defense in public debates over taxation, reg- sign that established ideas never really die but Tnow his name has been on the lips of seeming- ulation, and inequality, and Piketty provides go in and out of fashion with changing cir- ly every would-be reformer in America. them with the intellectual ammunition with cumstances. Liberals, progressives, and social Piketty’s new book, Capital in the Twen- which to ght back. His book reinforces their democrats were shocked by the comeback of ty-First Century, is a dense, data- lled 700- belief that inequalities of income and wealth free-market solutions in the 1980s after they page work of economic scholarship, yet it has have grown rapidly in recent decades in the assumed those ideas had been buried once climbed bestseller lists in both the U.S. and United States and across the industrial world, and for all by the Great Depression. In a sim- abroad, becoming a rallying point for those in and it portrays our era as a new “gilded age” of ilar vein, free-market and small-government favor of higher taxation. Paul Krugman calls concentrated wealth and out-of-control capi- advocates are now surprised by the return of it “magni cent.” e Washington Post’s Wonk- talism. It suggests that things are getting worse social democratic doctrines that they assumed blog suggests four ways to “stop the U.S. for nearly everyone, save a narrow slice of the had been discredited by the stag ation of the from becoming a Piketty-style oligarchy.” A population—the “one percent”—that lives 1970s and the success of low-tax policies in Financial Times columnist is calling this mass o exploding returns to capital. It pointedly the 1980s and 1990s. of commentary a “Piketty bubble.” And the supports an agenda of redistributive taxation. London Spectator helpfully o ers tips for those It recycles the old progressive idea that two , to give him his due, has written who want to blu their way to sounding smart things America holds dear, markets and de- an impressive book on the distribution about Piketty without actually reading him. mocracy, are fundamentally at odds such that Pof incomes and wealth in Europe and is success came somewhat as a surprise. governments must intervene on behalf of the the United States over the past two centuries. “We’ve printed and printed and printed, and majority to check the tendencies of capitalism He, along with Emanuel Saez, a colleague and the market soaks up whatever we print,” the to concentrate wealth and corrupt the political research collaborator at the University of Cali- book’s editor at Harvard University Press said process. fornia, has produced tax records to supplement Some have compared the book to Karl widely available census data on the subject. James Piereson is a senior fellow at the Marx’s Das Capital for its updated analysis of Piketty and his colleagues have tracked this in- Manhattan Institute and author of Camelot the historical dynamics of the capitalist sys- formation back to 1913 for the United States and the Cultural Revolution: How the As- tem. Piketty, though not a socialist or a Marx- (when the income tax amendment was adopt- sassination of John F. Kennedy Shattered ist, shares Marx’s assumption that high returns ed) and well back into the nineteenth century American Liberalism (Encounter Books). on capital are the driving force of modern for France and other countries where records
52 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR June 2014 Europe from late in Beginning in the 1980s, as tax rates were re- the nineteenth cen- duced on incomes and capital gains, especially tury to the present in the United States and Great Britain, those day. His analysis old patterns began to re-appear. yields a series of Piketty’s estimates of wealth and income “U-shaped” charts shares over the generations are probably as showing that the reliable and accurate as he or anyone else can shares claimed by make them, but even so they are estimates the top one per- based upon imperfect and inexact data. His cent of individuals estimates of wealth, for example, do not take or ten percent of into account assets held by pension funds households peak- and retirement accounts, which in the Unit- ed between 1910 ed States today add up to close to $20 trillion, and 1930, then or around one-third of the total value of U.S. declined and sta- stocks and bonds (some of these funds are held bilized during the in foreign assets). ese funds are typically not middle decades of owned by members of the “top one percent” the century, and but by middle-class workers. If we could throw then began to rise that $20 trillion into the pool of total wealth, again after 1980. In Piketty’s graph might look quite di erent. the United States in are available on estates and land values. No the decades before the Great Depression, the ’ , and one that is one else has done this kind of careful histori- top one percent received around 18 percent of largely overstated, is that the concen- cal work. Because the actual data on the nine- total income and owned about 45 percent of Ptrated ownership of wealth will create teenth century are sparse, Piketty draws upon total wealth. ose gures fell to around 10 a new form of “patrimonial” capitalism in the novels of authors such as Jane Austen and percent and 30 percent, respectively, in the ve which a small number of families control Balzac to give the reader a avor of what life decades between 1930 and 1980, at which the wealth of the society and pass it along was like under an economic regime in which point they started to increase once more. As of to their heirs. is idea con icts with the capital threw o far larger returns than labor— 2010, the top one percent in the U.S. received known tendency of wealthy families to dis- and to suggest that we are rapidly returning to nearly 18 percent of total incomes and owned burse their assets over generations and to be those bad old days. ere is much in this book about 35 percent of the total wealth. e replaced at the top by new entrepreneurs to digest and re ect upon, even for those who patterns are similar in the other Anglo-Sax- and owners of recently created capital. do not share the author’s point of view. on countries—Great { It also con icts with Piketty’s main point is that in capitalist Britain, Canada, and the dramatic rise in sala- economies left to their own devices, returns Australia—but quite ries for “super-managers” to capital inevitably grow more rapidly than di erent in continen- Liberals of all since the 1980s, which the economy as a whole. is makes intuitive tal Europe where the Piketty discusses. ese sense, and to a degree is something of a tru- wealthiest groups have stripes have are, as he writes, “top ism. e long-term returns on the stock mar- not been able to re- executives of large rms ket are said to be around 8 percent per year claim the shares of in- hailed Piketty’s who have managed to (minus in ation) while real growth in GDP come and wealth that book as the obtain extremely high in modern economies has averaged around they enjoyed before and historically unprec- 3 percent per year. In Great Britain in the World War I. indictment of edented compensation nineteenth century, government bonds paid ere is little mys- free-market packages for their labor.” 5 percent annual interest, with near zero in- tery as to the sources of e “rich” today are in- ation under the gold standard, while the the “U-Shaped” curves capitalism they creasingly salaried execu- overall economy expanded at a lesser rate. in income and wealth tives and managers rath- When such a pattern accumulates over many distribution. e two have been waiting er than owners of stocks, decades or generations, wealth tends to accrue great wars of the rst decades to hear. bonds, and real estate, as disproportionately to those who already have half of the century, was the case a century it. Financial assets, in addition, gradually claim combined with e ects ago. Piketty doubts that
larger shares of national wealth. According to of the Great Depres- { the new “super-manag- Piketty, this is the central dynamic of capital- sion, wiped out capital assets to an unprece- ers” earn these extravagant salaries on the basis ist systems—and it is one that re-asserts itself dented degree, while progressive taxes enact- of merit or contributions to business pro ts. He whenever governments relax economic con- ed during and after World War II (as high as points instead to cozy and self-serving relation- trols or reduce taxes on capital, as they have 91 percent in the U.S. during the 1940s and ships they establish with their boards of direc- done in recent decades. 1950s) made it dicult for the wealthiest tors. All that aside, the rise of “super-managers” ere are two central chapters in the book in groups to accumulate capital at earlier rates. should actually help alleviate intergenerational which Piketty traces the distribution of wealth Obviously, wars, depressions, and con scato- inequality, since people can pass on to heirs
Photo: Charles Platiau/Reuters/Newscom Charles Photo: and incomes in the United States and Western ry taxes are not bene cial to owners of capital. their wealth but not their high-paying jobs.
www.spectator.org THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR 53 To remedy the inequality problem, Piketty longer the case. e more citizens learn about advocates a return to the much higher mar- political life in Washington, D.C., or in the Flash Noise ginal tax rates of old. He thinks that marginal various state capitals, the more they become rates could be increased to 80 percent (from convinced that gures in both parties mainly Flash Boys: A Wall Street Revolt 39.5 percent today) on the very rich and to spend their tax dollars to nurture friends, sup- By Michael Lewis 60 percent on those with incomes between porters, and loyal constituent groups. Every- (W.W. N, , . ) $200,000 and $500,000 per year without re- one is now aware that the wealthiest counties ducing their incentive to work in any substan- in the United States (as measured by per cap- tial way. is might address the challenge of ita income) surround the nation’s capital, and the “super-managers” who earn incomes from workers with the most lucrative pensions tend is one of America’s high salaries but would not get at the owners to be government employees. most successful storytellers. But the of capital who take but a small fraction of their Mbombastic conclusions in his new holdings in annual income. He thus advocates the question of whether book, Flash Boys, a super cial one-sided dis- a global tax of between 2 and 5 percent on the Piketty’s central proposition is even true cussion of High Frequency Trading, and his “super-wealthy” levied against assets in stocks, Tor comes close to capturing the reality of repeated pronouncements that the stock mar- bonds, and real estate. Such a tax, he thinks, markets. He claims that the di erential returns ket is “rigged” and a “fraud,” are as harmful as would have to be global in nature to guard on capital versus labor are the driving forces of they are overstated. against capital ight and prevent the rich from the system, but that is a partial and misleading High Frequency Trading (HFT) is a term hiding assets abroad. It would also require view. e driving force of the capitalist system is widely used—and misused—by a new international banking regime under relentless innovation that improves productivity people who know little of - which major banks would be required to dis- and raises living standards. For millennia people nancial markets. It can describe close account information to national treasur- lived pretty much as they always did—on farms so many things as to be nearly ies. In the United States, he estimates that such and in local communities, growing their own meaningless, since almost any- a tax might today yield $200 or $300 billion food and making tools for local markets, and thing a trader can do with a annually, or enough to pay down a large share generally passing away before age fty. Over a computer is much faster than of the annual federal de cit. span of two and a half centuries, since roughly what traders (like me) did in is is a large argument, and it raises a basic 1750, the traditional regime transformed itself pits in years past. Compared question as to whether it is possible to return to through an accumulating process of technolog- to even recent trading history, the mid-century regime of high taxes and regu- ical innovation and widening circles of trade. nearly everything seems high fre- lation in an era of globalization, capital mobili- Workers and consumers have bene ted genera- quency these days. Among the ty, and falling trade barriers. It is not an accident tion on generation from less burdensome forms HFT strategies that can be im- that countries began to change their tax regimes of work and access to ever more inexpensive plemented by computer, some—such as “stat at precisely the time at which global competi- products that make life easier. Widely shared arb,” which involves crunching data to nd re- tion was increasing and tari barriers were fall- progress—not exploitation—is the story of the lationships between the movements of dozens ing. Nations—and even states and municipali- past two centuries. or hundreds of stocks—are unobjectionable. ties within nations—that raise taxes are likely to From one point of view, the contemporary Others are more controversial, such as see businesses and capital ee to more friendly era has been a “gilded age” of regression and using high-speed exchange data feeds to jurisdictions. Globalization is one reason why reaction due to rising inequality and increasing try to “front run” large orders in the stock wages for workers are not growing as rapidly as concentrations of wealth. But from another market. Lewis suggests that HFT rms see they were in the 1950s, and also a factor in the it can be seen as a “golden age” of capitalism your order coming down the pipe, outrun booming stock market of recent decades. No marked by fabulous innovations, globalizing you to the exchange, and buy the stock you one (including Piketty) wants to return to a re- markets, the absence of major wars, rising liv- want in order to sell it back to you seconds gime of tari s and protectionism. Yet in an era ing standards, low in ation and interest rates, later at a higher price. But this is mislead- of free trade, his tax policies are likely to prove and a thirty-year bull market in stocks, bonds, ing because it implies that a rm is trad- counterproductive for nations that enact them. and real estate. e maligned “rich” are mostly ing based on knowledge of an existing large He makes his case largely on the basis of people who work for a living, and the owners order. In fact, this strategy so detested by inequality and not on the grounds that gov- of large amounts of capital recycle it daily into Lewis and others involves no such knowl- ernments can deploy new revenues in a more new companies and innovative products. Nor edge, but rather the use of clever logic and e ective manner than the private sector. e are “the rich” of one mind about the great issues fast computers to guess whether a large or- reason why the old tax and regulatory regime of our time. Indeed, many, like Warren Bu ett, der exists, and then to try to pro t from collapsed in the 1970s is because voters lost Bill Gates, and George Soros, might even agree that guess. Other than the compressed con dence in the ability of governments to with the diagnosis outlined in this book. time frame, this is no di erent from what use resources wisely. As everyone saw, increas- John Maynard Keynes once remarked that has happened in markets throughout cen- es in government spending in the 1960s and the challenge in such a situation is to keep the turies of trading history. 1970s went hand in hand with the decline of “boom” going, not to bring it to a premature Flash Boys skims HFT like a surfer, thrilled schools, rising crime, welfare dependency, the end in the belief that those who have pros- by the ocean’s waves but not understanding collapse and bankruptcies of cities, and run- pered must eventually be punished. It is prob- away in ation. Prior to that time, most peo- ably inevitable that our golden age will end Ross Kaminsky is a self-employed trader ple entertained hopes that government could sooner or later—but much sooner if Professor and investor, and a senior fellow at the Heart- accomplish large objectives, but this is no Piketty and his friends have their way. land Institute.
54 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR June 2014 the depths or the cur- the parallel rents that really de ne stories in Flash it. Following the ca- WBoys are mod- reer paths of several estly interesting (modestly people involved on because very little of what the edges of HFT, par- Michael Lewis tells us is sur- ticularly programmers prising or particularly new), and other technolo- the real issue is the furor and gists rather than trad- fear being caused by Lewis’s ers, the book turns its repeated claims—in the primary focus on Brad book, on 60 Minutes and Katsuyama, whose CNBC, in front of myriad work in the brokerage other cameras—that the arm of the Royal Bank stock market is “rigged” (a of Canada (RBC) thought he attributes to caused him to con- Brad Katsuyama). clude that something On Wall Street, even out- nefarious was afoot: side of rms whose business “I realized the markets is HFT, the outlook is more are rigged.… at the sanguine. “ e SEC…was answer lay beneath the seeking a more democratic surface of the technology. I had absolutely no Most skeptics imagine that HFT o ers market. Now they’ve got it,” says Keith Ross, idea where.” large and consistent pro ts, a never-ending CEO of the PDQ Alternative Trading System Katsuyama’s team concluded that the ability skimming of billions of dollars from ongoing that competes with IEX. “ ey busted the of certain market participants to access stock trades—an entirely unreasonable assumption monopoly of NYSE specialists. ere are new price data faster than others allowed behavior in our intensely competitive nancial mar- market participants, and the costs of execution that he (and Michael Lewis) nd o ensive. So kets. Indeed, HFT pro ts were already mas- and bid-ask spreads are much lower. I would like Robin Hood and his Merry Men, claim- sively eroding while Lewis wrote his story and argue there is not a major problem in the mar- ing to seek justice for investors (and hopefully prepared to sell this old news as a breaking ketplace.” Executives at a large capital manage- pro t from it), Katsuyama and crew left RBC headline. Nearly a year { ment rm (which does to create a new exchange, now operating as before the publication not employ any HFT IEX, which aims to defeat such behavior of Flash Boys, trading strategies) stressed to and thereby o er customers lower execution rm Getco, which me something that Mr. prices. (Despite the persistent use in Flash Lewis calls “easily one of Michael Lewis Lewis casually breezes Boys and elsewhere of the word “exchange” the smartest” (and most has begun a witch over: e environment to describe IEX, it is actually an Alternative active) high frequency in which HFT became Trading System that arguably has as much in trading shops, reported hunt that could possible was created common with the demonized “dark pools” as a 90 percent drop in end up hurting by evolutions in both with a true exchange.) net income from 2011 technology and regu- e villains in the story include not just to 2012. In April 2014, tens of millions lation: “ e irony is the rms engaged in HTF, but also large in- analysts at the TABB of American that not by design but vestment banks and stock exchanges that, per Group reported that through a conuence Lewis, sacri ce the interests of investors for the HFT industry’s an- investors. of changes (electroni - their own gain. nual earnings plunged cation, signi cant new ere are legitimate questions here: It is from about $7 billion SEC market structure
one thing for a clever Russian programmer in 2009 to $1.3 billion { rules), HFT is unam- to try to guess whether there will be a buyer last year. e massive decline in pro ts is no biguously better for those trading in small size. of stock in the market, and then pro t from surprise, and Lewis was certainly aware of ere is no rational argument that it isn’t easier anticipating the demand. It is another thing the numbers. But the real story isn’t nearly as and cheaper to trade 100 shares of stock to- entirely for a brokerage rm to send orders good for book sales. day, though we can debate whether it’s easier into a system if the rm’s own pro ts can be Beyond its super ciality, Flash Boys con- to trade a million.” Yet the unintended conse- boosted by lowering the chance of its cus- tains errors that raise doubts about Lewis’s quences of the government regulation Lewis tomer getting the best possible price. We can reputation as a sage of his subject matter. seems to want are absent from the discussion. reasonably to wonder whether the many new For example, Lewis says that in 2008, “You Furthermore, HFT rms “have largely re- “order types” that Lewis describes as created could still buy and sell Intel on the New placed the function of specialists in a monop- solely to bene t HFT traders do indeed put York Stock Exchange, but you could also olistic environment,” the executives argued. exchanges knowingly opposite the interests buy and sell it on BATS, Direct Edge, Nas- “Because these guys are competing, that re- of many investors. Remember, however, that daq, Nasdaq BX, and so on.” In fact, Intel sults in lower spreads and lower costs for us.” HFT rms’ strategies rely on publicly avail- was never listed on the NYSE, and could us, once they gure out how to adjust to
Photo: Ryan Lawler/Wikimedia Commons Lawler/Wikimedia Ryan Photo: able information. not be traded there in 2008 or today. the new situation, the biggest players also gain.
www.spectator.org THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR 55 FILMS BOOKS AND POPE JOHN PAUL II FILMS ON This epic fi lm follows Karol Wojtyla’s journey from his Similarly, in 2012 a senior executive of clear” that monog- youth in Poland through Vanguard, the world’s largest mutual fund Till Death amy was widely ac- his late days on the Chair of company, while noting that certain HFT cepted among our St. Peter. It explores his life strategies were “abusive,” emphasized on hunter-gatherer an- behind the scenes: how he Us Do Part touched millions of people CNBC that “the bulk of them are creating cestors, polygamy and changed the face of the liquidity and reducing spreads for us, which Marriage and Civilization: How re-emerged with Church and the world. has dramatically reduced costs.” Monogamy Made Us Human the advent of early Starring Jon Voight and In other words, HFT is more likely ben- By William Tucker agricultural society. Cary Elwes. Spanish subtitles. JOHNS ints PAUL II PJPII-M . . . 180 min, $19.95 e ting investors than harming them, allow- (R , , .) For Tucker, monog- ing tighter spreads and lower commissions. amous relationships KAROL The Pope the Man e pro ts of HFT rms are now much were never innate to This movie on John Paul II, starring Piotr Adamczyk lower than the pro ts of the specialists and the human psyche; as the charismatic spiritual market makers they have largely replaced. is rather, the speci c JOHN XXIII leader who inspired youth, Again, Michael Lewis failed to mention often pegged as a primary source of context of various groups (herding, hunt- helped bring down Com- these things that he must have known. societal collapse in conservative cir- ing, farming) made one sort of relationship munism, and renewed the T life of the Church. e stock market is, over a long horizon, cles. While some may call this a religious more palatable than another. As agriculture KPM-M . . . 185 min, $19.95 generally the best investment available to or Christian notion, veteran journalist made wealth accumulation possible, in- the average American. So talking people William Tucker’s new book Marriage and equalities became more pronounced—and JOHN PAUL II The Man, The Pope, and out of investing, as Lewis seems intent on Civilization: How Monogamy Made Us “one obvious and readily available inequal- His Message — An in- doing, harms their nancial futures—and Human looks at marriage through a de- ity was that a man could take more than depth series on the life of harms the rest of us when federal welfare cidedly non-religious lens. Using a swath one wife.” Because of its roots in inequality, the history-changing Pope. spending is required to care for senior cit- of data on the anthropological evolution Tucker believes polygamy (whether among It features some of the most intimate moments with the izens who were frightened out of stock in- of humans, Tucker comes to a rather sur- primates or people) leads naturally to great- Pope ever captured on fi lm, vestment during their working years. prising conclusion: Monogamy is respon- er disruption and societal chaos, due largely allowing you to enter into Michael Lewis (like Al Gore) knows that sible for our evolution from primate to to the uneven pairing of couples and conse- an incredible journey of his screaming about crisis is a much better way human. Indeed, he views it as the founda- quent male ghting. ✦ THE LEGACY OF JOHN PAUL II ✦ ST. JOHN PAUL THE GREAT NEW! life. 4 DVDs, 5 hrs to reap pro ts and in uence than gently ex- tion of modern Western civilization. “ e Tucker goes on to trace monogamy and Pope Benedict XVI His Five Loves – Jason Evert JPMP-M . . . $49.95 plaining reality. Because attacking secretive unique social contract of monogamy—a polygamy throughout the ancient Egyptian, his is a glorious tribute by Pope iscover the fi ve great loves of St. THE JEWELLER’S SHOP organizations with scary-sounding strategies male for every female, a female for every Hebrew, Greek, and Roman cultures, not- TBenedict XVI, who honors his close DJohn Paul II through remarkable un- Based on the Pope’s book and lots of employees with foreign names is male—lowers the temperature of sexual ing the in uence monogamy had on their friend, Pope John Paul II. This book published stories on him from bishops, about love and marriage. unites these two great spiritual leaders, priests, students, Swiss Guards, and oth- Stars Burt Lancaster, a sure way to score cheap political points, competition and frees its members to work developments and collapses. Interestingly, with over 100 photos of many striking ers. Mining through a mountain of papal Olivia Hussey, Ben Cross. Lewis’s overwrought claims are causing the together in cooperation,” he writes. “It is he notes the importance of the “virtuous and poignant moments of the pontifi cate resources, Jason Evert has uncovered JS-M . . . 95 min, $19.95 of John Paul II. Illustrated. usual suspects, such as New York Attorney at this juncture that human societies— woman” in spreading monogamy—point- these gems, off ering a treasure chest with INE AYS HAT HANGED THE ORLD LJP-H . . . Sewn Hardcover, $19.95 $14.95 N D T C W General Eric “Shakedown” Schneiderman, even human civilizations—are born.” us ing speci cally to the Rape of Lucretia as an the jewels of the saint’s life. Rekindle Powerful documentary about John Paul’s fa- your own faith by learning what capti- to go after HFT rms. Tucker argues alongside conservatives that example of this idea’s advent and spread. He ✦ IRACLES OF OHN AUL mous 1979 trip to Poland that led to the Berlin M J P II vated the heart of this great saint. e city of Providence, Rhode Island, the breakdown of marriage has deleterious de nes the Virtuous Woman as “a woman Pawel Zuchniewicz Wall’s collapse and the end of the Soviet Union. SJPG-H. . . Sewn Hardcover, $21.95 Illustrated. his powerful book describes the life NDCW-M . . . 90 min., $19.95 whose connection to HFT is even more consequences for modern society, but he content with marriage to a male of similar ✦ unclear, has (no doubt egged on by con- derives his argument from more scienti c status to herself, who rejects the opportuni- Tand impact of Pope John Paul II as THE JEWELER’S SHOP TESTIMONY The Untold Story of John Paul II tingency-fee attorneys) led a class action roots than is the norm. ty to mate in an adulterous a air or in a po- told by individuals from all over the Karol Wojtyla (Pope John Paul II) Michael York narrates the untold story of John world who give moving personal testi- This play/meditation explores relation- suit against multiple parties, including ex- Marriage and Civilization begins by lygamous relationship with a higher-status Paul II. TUS-M . . . 90 mins, $19.95 monies on how they experienced heal- ships between men and women and the ✦ changes and trading rms, seeking a pre- studying sexual relationships amongst var- male.” Such women prevented wealthy soci- ings through the intercession of Pope mysteries of marriage. WITNESS TO HOPE Acclaimed docu- sumably enormous amount of money on ious primates, including chimps, gorillas, eties from descending into the polygamy of John Paul II during his lifetime. JSH-H . . . Sewn Hardcover, $14.95 mentary based on Weigel’s biography of John Paul II. Illustrated. MJP-H . . . Sewn Hardcover, $20.00 ✦ behalf of “public investors who purchased baboons, and gibbons. Tucker cites anthro- the past, ensuring a male suitor “could not COVENANT OF LOVE WTH-M . . . 116 min, $19.95 and/or sold shares of stock in the United pology professor Owen Lovejoy, who says have sex without making a commitment ✦ JOHN PAUL THE GREAT Pope John Paul II on Sexuality, Marriage, States between April 18, 2009 and the the transition from polygamy to monogamy to marriage and fatherhood.” Tucker nev- op Catholic writers present their and Family in the Modern World JOHN XXIII present” on the premise that they “em- “happened at the very beginning of homi- er fully explains why the Virtuous Woman unique insights on the extraordinary COV-P . . . Sewn Softcover, $16.95 The Pope of Peace achievementsT of the 25 years of John ployed devices, contrivances, manipula- nid evolution and that it was the key to all adopted such stringent views on sexuality, ✦ n inspiring movie star- tions and arti ces to defraud in a manner the evolutionary steps that came after it. In either from a scienti c or moral perspective. Paul II’s pontifi cate. Writers include Fr. JOURNAL OF ring Edward Asner in Aidan Nichols, Ian Ker, William Oddie, A SOUL - The Aan acclaimed performance as that was designed to and did manipulate other words, we never would have become Neither does he explain why human society John Saward, Rodger Charles, SJ, and Autobiography the beloved pontiff who was the U.S. securities markets…” human if we hadn’t adopted monogamy.” would nd such a woman appealing. e many more. of John XXIII known for his simplicity, joy, e winners in this uninformed feeding Humans, he says, are the only species in na- only explanation given—that the Virtuous JPG2-H . . . Sewn Hardcover, $16.95 he acclaimed and love for humanity. It tells frenzy will be attorneys, gullible reporters, ture in which males can work together in Woman’s self-denial and moral sensibility autobiography the whole life story of John XXIII from his youth ✦ LOVE AND RESPONSIBILITY T regulators, and Michael Lewis; the losers are the context of social monogamy: “ is is acted as a “lynchpin” in monogamous so- that presents the full, through his papacy, who surprised the world with Karol Wojtyla (Pope John Paul II) the Second Vatican Council. the rest of us. what makes us unique. It makes us human.” ciety—is a reiteration of the result, not an true and inspiring rawing on his own pastoral expe- story of the new J23-M . . . 200 mins, $24.95 Flash Boys could have been an interesting However, Tucker believes that social con- explication of the cause. rience as priest and bishop, Karol D saint, with wonder- POPE JOHN XXIII story. Instead, by his poor analysis and out- text largely controls humanity’s adoption of Tucker argues that monogamy gave Wojtyla (Pope John Paul II) shows the ful anecdotes and many insights into value and dignity of the human person, The Real Pope and Saint rageous public charges of a “rigged” market, polygamy or monogamy. ough it “seems rise to our current Western democracy, his personality and his spiritual life presentation by Fr. Mitch explaining the basis for the norms of and practices. Illustrated Michael Lewis has begun a witch hunt that and that the Victorian era, in particular, Catholic sexual morality. Pacwa, S.J., and James JOS-P . . . 520 pp, Softcover, $19.95 AHitchcock, Ph.D. could end up hurting tens of millions of Gracy Olmstead is an associate editor of the showcased “the triumph of marriage.” LRE-P . . . Sewn Softcover, $18.95 about the American investors. American Conservative. After Charles Darwin’s Origin of the Species life and papacy of John XXIII. The two historians give an www.ignatius.com in-depth overview of the life of the Pope who is often mis- 56 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR June 2014 understood , sometimes by those with their own P.O. Box 1339, Ft. Collins, CO 80522 1 (800) 651-1531 agenda for the church. PJ23-M . . . 36 min., $14.95 FILMS BOOKS AND POPE JOHN PAUL II FILMS ON This epic fi lm follows Karol Wojtyla’s journey from his youth in Poland through his late days on the Chair of St. Peter. It explores his life behind the scenes: how he touched millions of people and changed the face of the Church and the world. Starring Jon Voight and Cary Elwes. Spanish subtitles. JOHNS ints PAUL II PJPII-M . . . 180 min, $19.95 KAROL The Pope the Man This movie on John Paul II, starring Piotr Adamczyk as the charismatic spiritual JOHN XXIII leader who inspired youth, helped bring down Com- munism, and renewed the life of the Church. KPM-M . . . 185 min, $19.95 JOHN PAUL II The Man, The Pope, and His Message — An in- depth series on the life of the history-changing Pope. It features some of the most intimate moments with the Pope ever captured on fi lm, allowing you to enter into an incredible journey of his ✦ THE LEGACY OF JOHN PAUL II ✦ ST. JOHN PAUL THE GREAT NEW! life. 4 DVDs, 5 hrs Pope Benedict XVI His Five Loves – Jason Evert JPMP-M . . . $49.95 his is a glorious tribute by Pope iscover the fi ve great loves of St. THE JEWELLER’S SHOP Benedict XVI, who honors his close John Paul II through remarkable un- Based on the Pope’s book Tfriend, Pope John Paul II. This book Dpublished stories on him from bishops, about love and marriage. unites these two great spiritual leaders, priests, students, Swiss Guards, and oth- Stars Burt Lancaster, with over 100 photos of many striking ers. Mining through a mountain of papal Olivia Hussey, Ben Cross. and poignant moments of the pontifi cate resources, Jason Evert has uncovered JS-M . . . 95 min, $19.95 of John Paul II. Illustrated. these gems, off ering a treasure chest with INE AYS HAT HANGED THE ORLD LJP-H . . . Sewn Hardcover, $19.95 $14.95 N D T C W the jewels of the saint’s life. Rekindle Powerful documentary about John Paul’s fa- your own faith by learning what capti- ✦ IRACLES OF OHN AUL mous 1979 trip to Poland that led to the Berlin M J P II vated the heart of this great saint. Pawel Zuchniewicz Wall’s collapse and the end of the Soviet Union. SJPG-H. . . Sewn Hardcover, $21.95 Illustrated. his powerful book describes the life NDCW-M . . . 90 min., $19.95 ✦ Tand impact of Pope John Paul II as THE JEWELER’S SHOP TESTIMONY The Untold Story of John Paul II told by individuals from all over the Karol Wojtyla (Pope John Paul II) Michael York narrates the untold story of John world who give moving personal testi- This play/meditation explores relation- Paul II. TUS-M . . . 90 mins, $19.95 monies on how they experienced heal- ships between men and women and the ✦ ings through the intercession of Pope mysteries of marriage. WITNESS TO HOPE Acclaimed docu- John Paul II during his lifetime. JSH-H . . . Sewn Hardcover, $14.95 mentary based on Weigel’s biography of John Paul II. Illustrated. MJP-H . . . Sewn Hardcover, $20.00 ✦ COVENANT OF LOVE WTH-M . . . 116 min, $19.95 ✦ JOHN PAUL THE GREAT Pope John Paul II on Sexuality, Marriage, op Catholic writers present their and Family in the Modern World JOHN XXIII unique insights on the extraordinary COV-P . . . Sewn Softcover, $16.95 The Pope of Peace achievementsT of the 25 years of John n inspiring movie star- Paul II’s pontifi cate. Writers include Fr. ✦ JOURNAL OF ring Edward Asner in Aidan Nichols, Ian Ker, William Oddie, A SOUL - The Aan acclaimed performance as John Saward, Rodger Charles, SJ, and Autobiography the beloved pontiff who was many more. of John XXIII known for his simplicity, joy, JPG2-H . . . Sewn Hardcover, $16.95 he acclaimed and love for humanity. It tells ✦ autobiography the whole life story of John XXIII from his youth LOVE AND RESPONSIBILITY thatT presents the full, through his papacy, who surprised the world with Karol Wojtyla (Pope John Paul II) true and inspiring the Second Vatican Council. rawing on his own pastoral expe- story of the new J23-M . . . 200 mins, $24.95 rience as priest and bishop, Karol D saint, with wonder- POPE JOHN XXIII Wojtyla (Pope John Paul II) shows the ful anecdotes and many insights into value and dignity of the human person, The Real Pope and Saint his personality and his spiritual life presentation by Fr. Mitch explaining the basis for the norms of and practices. Illustrated Catholic sexual morality. Pacwa, S.J., and James JOS-P . . . 520 pp, Softcover, $19.95 AHitchcock, Ph.D. LRE-P . . . Sewn Softcover, $18.95 about the life and papacy of John XXIII. The two historians give an www.ignatius.com in-depth overview of the life of the Pope who is often mis- understood , sometimes by those with their own P.O. Box 1339, Ft. Collins, CO 80522 1 (800) 651-1531 agenda for the church. PJ23-M . . . 36 min., $14.95 was published in 1859 and faith in the Bi- behavior that…creates advantages at the ble and the church were shaken, “the shel- societal level. If we want a society that Arguably ter of ‘home and hearth’ took its place.” satis es everyone’s most individualistic Interestingly, it was around this time that desires, we will not stick with monoga- Rides Again Mormonism arose as a religious sect. Tuck- my for very long.” is parallels with his
er gives Mormonism a { earlier comments re- A Literary Education rather scathing review garding the re-emer- and Other Essays because of the polyg- gence of polygamy By Joseph Epstein amy encouraged at its among agricultural (A P, , ) outset (and indeed, “If we want a societies, but never still carried on by var- society that does Tucker explain ious fundamentalist how polygamy rein- sects). Tucker seems to satisfies serted itself into hu- . point to Mormonism’s everyone’s most man civilization after Most who appreciate the form “charismatic leader- the human species Wagree that Joseph Epstein turns ship” and “claims of individualistic had evolved through out the best essays—of the literary or fa- divine revelation” as monogamy. miliar kind—of any writer on active duty potential reasons for desires, we will It’s di cult to today. It would be false modesty if Epstein polygamy’s growth: not stick with make sense of this re- should deny this. So he jokes in the intro- these encouraged the gression. If we truly duction to this latest essay collection that inequality previously monogamy for evolved to be monog- he has so often heard or read, “Arguably pointed to as an ide- very long,” amous human beings, Epstein is the best essayist writing in En- al environment for if this is what makes glish,” that to cash in on the acclaim he’s polygamy. Tucker writes. us human, then considering changing his name to Argu- wouldn’t monogamy ably Epstein. (His friends, he says, may call does be the most natural him Arguably.) all this { state for the species as But let’s dispense with arguably, a hedge Wmean? In today’s culture, Tucker a whole? Even if it weren’t a mandatory fac- so popular in faculty lounges and oth- notes, “the ideal of a ‘patriarchal’ family and et of human behavior, would it not, at least, er rari ed and indirect precincts. For me middle-class respectability is something al- be a preferred or natural state for the human the argument is long over. I rst stumbled most everyone is rebelling against.” He sets psyche? And wouldn’t this make deviation across the Epstein byline in the early 1980s out to determine why this has happened, from monogamy, in a sense, “unnatural”? on a Saturday morning in the Arlington, and what its consequences will be. But If we believe monogamy is unnatural, yet Virginia, public library. I was looking for rst, he adds this rather important caveat: still try to impose it on the human soci- something to temporarily take my mind ety, we defy the very principles of human o of politics and Capitol Hill, where e rst thing to keep in mind—something liberty and volition that form the heart of I then worked for a conservative Flori- we have learned throughout these pages—is our civilization. We impose a sort of mar- da congressman. I can’t remember which that monogamy is, above all, a cultural con- ital socialism or utilitarianism, seeking the periodical it appeared in, but struct. It is an arti cial system that human greatest good for the greatest number, to Epstein’s essay, “ is Sporting societies impose upon themselves in order the detriment of the individual. Such a Life,”—a compelling defense of to create a more constructive social milieu. position seems antithetical to the claim the time spent watching com- It does not satisfy everyone’s individual de- Tucker made earlier—that marriage, in petitive sports and the delight sires. At its most demanding, it becomes a essence, gave rise to Western democratic they can provide—so charmed rigid moral code that stigmatizes all manner civilization. me with its wit, whimsy, and of deviation—homosexual inclinations, the However, Tucker could be di erenti- insight that I decided on the temptation to dally with your neighbor’s wife, ating monogamy from a “natural” (as in spot to be ever on the lookout pre-marital intercourse, having a child out of “hard-wired”) condition, and trying in- for the Epstein byline. Count- wedlock and so forth. ere is nothing com- stead to liken it to a superior evolution- less Epstein essays, short sto- pletely natural about monogamy, which is ary characteristic: perhaps, even now, ries, articles, and about twenty why it is so easy to undermine. monogamy requires us to transcend the books later, this decision still shortcomings of our primitive selves. Can looks good. is comment seemed rather puzzling, we exert the sel essness and faithfulness Readers would surely err in allowing considering that Tucker spent the entire necessary to save monogamy, even with the slightly stu y-sounding term “essay,” rst half of the book arguing monogamy its sacri ces and di culties? the reputation of which has been sullied is what makes us human. Yet here at the Tucker’s book o ers a fascinating look at by honored bores like Emerson, to warn end, he says it is not natural to humanity, the primeval origins of monogamous order them o of the lively, penetrating, and nor often bene cial to the individual. It and its ties to the emergence of Western amusing writer Epstein has been for de- is merely a social construct, rather than civilization. In the end, however, it may cades. Epstein turns a form, whose prac- a biological one—as he points out here: leave certain readers wondering: Ought we “Monogamy is the end point of civilized to embrace monogamy, or no? Larry Thornberry is a writer in Tampa.
58 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR June 2014 titioners have too often been leaden, into a small number of crude ideas—gender, in this one—I particularly liked the one gold. His work, including these previous- race, class, and the rest of it—and hence about life being “a ride from goo-goo to ly published essays, has appeared in such gave up their cultural birthright for a pot ga-ga.” But he can also be frank about the publications as Commentary, the Wall of message.” Just so. later decades: “ e rst time one cannot Street Journal, the New Criterion, Hudson In parsing life’s big questions and small make love twice in one night, I have heard Review, and the Weekly Standard, where pleasures, frequently in the same para- it said, is disappointing; the second time Epstein is a contributing editor. Happily, graph, Epstein nicely assigns politics its one cannot make love once in two nights his work has of late also appeared in e proper place. An important place, but not can be the cause for despair. Viagra and American Spectator. a dominant one. He took the same trip other aids have helped solve this problem, is latest collection is a mix of piec- many TAS readers, including me, took but pharmacology has yet to come up with es published since 2012’s Essays in Biog- from vaguely liberal in college years and a pill to make one physically appealing.” raphy, as well as older essays that have immediately thereafter, to more conserva- Showing o the breadth of his interest, not appeared in a previous collection. tive in the grownup years. In “A Virtucrat we get the Epstein slant on stand-up com- Epstein is a generalist in the nest sense. Remembers,” Chicago boy Epstein, who ics, the decline of Jewish delicatessens, Neither a wonk nor a casuist, his beat and our current obsessive child-rear- is nothing less that the complex and ing practices. ere’s a tribute to his endlessly fascinating Vanity Fair that friend, the late Hilton Kramer, who we call life. Epstein is a clear, delib- with music critic Sam Lipman found- erate thinker and graceful writer who ed the New Criterion. won’t be rushed. He is intellectual ose who’ve reviewed Epstein’s work slow-food. He knows his way around over the years, even those who don’t an idea, an anecdote, a philosophical fancy the unkind way he treats the pi- question. He creates intimacy, inter- eties of the political and cultural left, est, and not a little assent, without have been obliged to praise his humor, being the least polemical or didactic. his erudition, his vast learning, and his And he can be very funny. elegance. If there is a charge and spec- Epstein doesn’t concern himself with i cation against him that has lingered the daily grind of partisan politics, and it has been that of grumpiness. is is he certainly doesn’t retail any current puzzling. Why should a careful observer party line, though he is clearly of the of some years be gigged for grumpiness? conservative state of mind. He can be ere is much silliness and fraud about downright withering at plumbing the the contemporary landscape—much to vacuity of the leftish cultural phan- be grumpy about. And shouldn’t truth tasms that have held such a grip on the be a defense? Some sacred cows deserve academy, the media, entertainment, to have their udders stepped on. Saul the arts, the education industry, and Bellow and John Updike are overrated much of the clergy since the 1960s. In as novelists. Susan Sontag was an intel- essays with titles such as “ e Academ- lectual humbug, and Gore Vidal was ic Zoo,” “Lower Education,” and “ e foolish, arrogant, snobbish, and in love Death of the Liberal Arts,” Epstein with himself. surveys the ruin of today’s politicized If there’s such a thing as elegant and dumbed-down university. (Ep- grumpiness, Epstein has it. A ne ex- stein was in the belly of that beast for ample of this is his deconstruction of nearly thirty years, teaching writing and for a short time after Army days held a Walter Cronkite, a dull-normal newsread- literature at Northwestern University.) In minor executive position in the anti-pov- er who, against all available evidence, man- “What To Do About the Arts” and “Who erty industry in Arkansas, recalls that “as aged to convince much of the American Killed Poetry?” he performs the same ser- illusions most often do, mine decayed and public, and every journalism prize-giver in vice for contemporary art, which is now fell away, rather like baby teeth.” In due the Western world, that he was a seer. In nearly indistinguishable from politics. course, Epstein became anti-left, in fact fact, he was not very bright, couldn’t an- From the title essay, where Epstein lays anti any Big Ideas that claim to organize alyze his way out of a wet paper bag, and out his literary approach to understand- our lives. was a pompous, humorless bore into the ing the world, we learn: “One of the in- In lighter fare, Epstein gives charming bargain. Someone had to say it, accusa- adequately recognized functions of litera- portraits of his home town in “Coming tions of grumpiness be damned. ture is to show how reality always eludes of Age in Chicago” and “Toddlin’ Town.” Epstein’s writing, like most French des- too rmly drawn ideas… e world today He treats us to a more upbeat view of a serts, is very rich stu . So readers are ad- is perhaps more concept- and idea-ridden much-slandered decade in “My 1950s.” vised to take in only an essay or two at a than at any other time in history. One of He takes on the subject of advancing time. It probably wouldn’t do any actual the reasons for anger at the theory-ridden years (Epstein, like me, has left 70 in the physical harm to bolt the entire 636 pages English departments of our day is that rear-view mirror) in “Old Age and Other of A Literary Education in a day or two. But
Photo: CourtesyPhoto: Press Axios they sold out the richness of literature for Laughs.” ere are indeed some laughs why take a chance?
www.spectator.org THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR 59 public NUISANCES there was no conspiracy to bring down the Clintons. ey brought all their problems on themselves. All I had to do with the assistance of a few colleagues in the press corps was to report it. Today Hillary is thinking of running for her husband’s old job. She overcame eight years of scandal in the White House, many by R. EMMETT TYRRELL, JR. of them spent covering up for Bill’s shame- less womanizing. How will that play in a campaign featuring the Democrats’ con- temporary theme of a “war on women”? The Press Never Calls it would have been a pretty big story, es- More recently as secretary of state she bun- pecially as Hillary Clinton is prominently gled her “reset” button with Russia (among WASHINGTON mentioned as a presidential contender— other things confusing it with the Russian actually as the nation’s only presidential word for “overcharge”). She was apparently contender, unless, that is, the Republi- asleep at 3 .. when terrorists were killing o the hook. No intriguing or in- cans can nd a candidate suitably suicidal. the American ambassador to Libya. Do you Mquiring emails have arrived on my Moreover, Hillary actually coined the term remember in the 2008 election when she computer. Yet on Friday a document drop “vast right-wing conspiracy” and sent the asked candidate Obama what he would do from the Clinton Library revealed that years press out to investigate us. Friday her ev- at 3 .. in time of crisis? ago, in the 1990s, I was at the very heart of idence was revealed in a twenty-nine-page How long will the American press cover the “vast right-wing conspiracy.” Now here document. e original document con- for the Clintons, the shabbiest political dy- we are almost a week later, and still no jour- tained 331 pages before being expurgated. nasty since the Longs of Louisiana? nalist, much less a historian, has called to ask Yet a lot can be revealed in twenty-nine me if I really was actively conspiring with pages. ere I was, contacting the British Up From Racism the British press, select American newspa- journalist Ambrose Evans-Pritchard. He pers, obscure right-wing political operators, created with my wizardry something called WASHINGTON and, who knows, possibly foreign powers to “blowback” that spread everywhere. And create the gossamer of scandal over the Clin- certain shady political “activists” would decidedly odd ton White House. All this was reported in “feed” my magazine, e American Spec- about the use of racially loaded terms the documents. tator, steamy stories that eventually found Tin America today. It has always struck me as curious how their way into the mainstream media. Why Black personalities use these terms on news stories are reported in America or not is my telephone not ceaselessly ringing? occasion, and no controversy whatsoever is reported. What standards must be met to Why have I not even had a call from the attached to the event, even when the terms land a story on the front page or even to de- FBI? are enunciated in public for all to see and cide that it is a story worth reporting at all. Well, maybe now the press realizes that to hear. When whites—often old and over Consider this story involving me that the Clintons’ talk about a media food chain the hill—use these terms and ideas—often swayed tantalizingly on the threshold of and a vast right-wing conspiracy are a bit behind closed doors—all hell breaks loose. the public domain. Its subject was that fan- a- a. As I reported almost twenty years e latest occasion of this occurred tastical concoction that the Clinton White ago, this conspiracy nonsense revealed what when Donald Sterling, the owner of the House created in the mid-1990s, “the me- the historian Richard Hofstadter had called Los Angeles Clippers, a basketball team, dia food chain.” rough this “food chain,” the “paranoid style of American politics.” In was taped uttering racially divisive words the Clintons claimed, came all the bogus his day he identi ed it as occurring on the and ignorant ideas to his obviously dis- stories of scandal that they so stoically en- fringe right. In the 1990s it appeared on the gruntled lover. She handed over a tape dured. anks to my fellow conspirators liberal left, and not on the fringes of the lib- of the conversation, apparently surrepti- these stories eventually proved irresistible to eral left. e Clintons had brought it right tiously made, to the online scandal sheet the mainstream press, though there was not into 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Neither a TMZ, and kaboom. Suddenly Sterling a scintilla of plausibility to them. Far from conservative Republican nor a liberal Dem- became one of the most notorious men in being a serial womanizer, Bill was the virgin ocrat had ever brought the paranoid style America and of course a modern Amer- president. He never lied, never obstructed into the White House. e Clintons did. ican bigot. Of a sudden, the columnists justice, never blackened the reputations of Today, all these years later, I am identi- and talking heads commenced a new the personae mentioned in the news sto- ed as being at the heart of the conspiracy round of chatter about how racism is ries, for instance, Gennifer Flowers, Paula to scandalize the Clintons. Why does not still with us. After all, an eighty-year-old Corbin Jones, Monica Lewinsky, and, of someone give me a call and ask me why I billionaire is spouting racist swill in the course, my co-conspirators in the vast right- did it? How I got these other people to- comfort of his own home. wing conspiracy. gether. Or maybe I was just one of sever- Truth be known, racism is not still with Now one would think that the other day al conspirators. Why am I not asked who us. By every index I know of racial prejudice when the Clinton Library made public our leader was? Perhaps the answer is that is way down, especially among white peo- the Clintons’ evidence of this conspiracy mainstream journalism recognizes that ple. e vast majority of Americans want to
60 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR June 2014 put our racially charged history behind us. current WISDOM Yet Sterling was apparently taped by an angry lover in a private setting saying, among other invidious things, “It bothers me a lot that you want to broadcast that you’re associating with black people.” He also used profanity and sexually explicit terms. e tape was despicable and troglo- dytic. Yet now Sterling is being lumped in with another curiosity, Cliven Bundy, the New York Review of Books EdwardsKirby.com western rancher who is grazing his cattle NYR Blog Li ed om the website of ex-Senator John on government land. Bundy’s rant was in On the rant page of the revered NYRB, Garry Edwards’ new law bordello as a public service of public and more an example of innocent Wills sounds quite plausible for a change: this magazine, a magazine that stoutly believes old-fashioned bigotry than of anything that Senator Edwards erred in not using a more serious, but still it was wrong and Obamacare is now, for many, haloed with condom: when combined with Sterling’s tirade it hate, to be fought against with all one’s life. lent credence to claims of white racism. Retaining certitude about its essential evil is a Edwards Kirby is led by John Edwards, a Yet what about blacks? Do they ever speak matter of self-respect, honor for one’s allies in tireless proponent for social and economic crudely about race? As a matter of fact, some the cause, and loathing for one’s opponents. It justice. As a proven advocate who will ght do, and they go on and are given cable tele- is a religious commitment. for fairness, equality, civil rights and equal vision shows in the mainstream media—for (April 22, 2014) opportunity under the law, there is no instance, the Rev. Al Sharpton who has won attorney more dedicated than John a perch on MSNBC. He also has recently The Nation Edwards. had the president of the United States and Using the most esoteric readings of chicken roughout his national political ser- his attorney general appear at his meeting entrails and more advanced techniques of socio- vice—as U.S. Senator from North Caroli- of the National Action Network. Al should logical observation, Miss Astra Taylor, yes that na, 2004 Democratic Vice-Presidential never have gotten beyond his racial encoun- is Astra Taylor, discerns what some readers nominee and candidate for President of ters with Tawana Brawley and Jewish shop- might call A Great White Plot: the United States—John tirelessly fought keepers in New York City twenty- ve years for progressive social policies aimed at ago, but he has. Now he is admired, at least, e Web is regularly hailed for its “openness” eliminating poverty, reforming health by the American left, our president, and At- and that’s where the confusion begins, since care, safeguarding civil rights and protect- torney General Eric Holder. “open” in no way means “equal.” While the ing the environment.” He has been caught on tape using ra- Internet may create space for many voices, it (Spring 2014) cially charged words over and again, most also re ects and o en ampli es real-world recently by columnist Je rey Lord. Just the inequities in striking ways. New York Times other day Lord revived his 2012 column An elaborate system organized around e lugubrious Paul Krugman, who in wherein Sharpton, speaking of the black hubs and links, the Web has a surprising 1968 indubitably read Poverty Is Where politician David Dinkins, said, “David degree of inequality built into its very the Money Is (while taking notes) and who Dinkins….You wanna be the only ni--er architecture. Its trac, for instance, tends recently scampered away om Princeton on television, the only ni--er in the news- to be distributed according to “power University for the City University of New paper, the only ni--er to talk….Don’t cov- laws,” which follow what’s known as the York where he will be paid $250,000 for er them, don’t talk to them, cause you got 80/20 rule—80 percent of a desirable advancing that institution’s “inequality the only ni--er problem….” Lord is e resource goes to 20 percent of the initiative,” once again brings down the boom American Spectator’s Keeper of the Quotes. population. on the American “oligarchs” as opposed to He cites numerous instances of prominent In fact, as anyone knows who has followed the Russian oligarchs: blacks using racially charged language that the histories of Google, Apple, Amazon, and is barely distinguishable from the language Facebook, now among the biggest companies But who wouldn’t prefer modest in ation used in private by Sterling and in public in the world, the Web is increasingly a win- and a bit of asset erosion to mass unem- by Bundy. For instance he quotes President ner-take-all, rich-get-richer sort of place, ployment? Well, you know who: the 0.1 Obama’s friend and major donor Jay Z as which means the disparate percentages in percent, who receive “only” 4 percent of singing: “Yeah, I done told you ni--gaz, 9 those power laws are only likely to look uglier wages…. Now, I don’t think that class or 10 times stop f--in’ with me, I done told over time. interest is all-powerful. Good arguments you n--gaz….” en too there is Jesse Jack- Powerful and exceedingly familiar hierar- and good policies sometimes prevail even son using the N-word back in 2013. chies have come to de ne the digital realm, if they hurt the 0.1 percent—otherwise we But enough, you get the picture. Sharpton whether you’re considering its economics or would never have gotten health reform. and Jay Z and all these other black orators use the social world it re ects and represents. Not But we do need to make clear what’s going pretty vile language and they are honored. surprisingly, then, well-o white men are on, and realize that in monetary policy as Sterling uses vile language and is excoriated. wildly overrepresented both in the tech indus- in so much else, what’s good for oligarchs I have a better idea. Why not banish all try and online. isn’t good for America.” racially bigoted language from public life? (April 10, 2014) (April 6, 2014)
www.spectator.org THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR 61 Slate from Medicare, Social Security and the Veterans Meals. I expressed my frustration that McDon- In Slate’s imperishable “Dear Prudence” col- Administration to believe that government, as ald’s always asked if my family preferred a “girl umn an exchange between intellectual titans: Ronald Reagan put it, is “the problem.” toy” or a “boy toy” when we ordered a Happy Such cognitive dissonance enables white Meal at the drive-through. My letter asked if it Q. Kids: Over lunch the other day my brother conservatives to see themselves as victims of would be legal for McDonald’s “to ask at a job mentioned that he had taken his 2-year-old son the very government spending that sup- interview whether someone wanted a man’s job to buy a helmet so he can ride his tricycle out- ports their lifestyles. or a woman’s job?” side, and that my nephew’s rst choice was a (April 10, 2014) A few weeks later, I received a short response yellow and pink helmet covered with cartoon from a McDonald’s customer satisfaction rep- owers. My brother gently steered him toward Slate (yet again) resentative claiming that McDonald’s doesn’t a more “manly” helmet. is provoked a lively e makings of a pest, Antonia Ayres-Brown of train their employees to ask whether Happy (amiable) discussion around the table as to New Haven, Connecticut, who issues a public Meal customers want boys’ or girls’ toys, and whether little boys should be allowed to wear bull on the pages of Slate: my experiences were not the norm. pink and owers if they so choose. My immedi- is response was unsatisfying, so I began visit- ate response was that they should, but I suppose In the fall of 2008, when I was 11 years old, I ing more than a dozen local McDonald’s loca- I can see my brother’s point that allowing kids wrote to the CEO of McDonald’s and asked tions with my father to collect data. Ultimately…. to wear anything they please might get them him to change the way his stores sold Happy (April 21, 2014) bullied. What’s your position? A: If your brother’s 2-year-old daughter From the Archives: wanted the black helmet covered with spiders, Timeless Tosh from Current Wisdoms Past he surely would have laughed and gotten it for her, and not pushed her to choose the princess June 1994 helmet. I wish your brother had let his son pick the owers. Maybe it reminded this little boy of Associated Press an older girl—or female cartoon character—he An A.P. report on culture in Minneapolis, where art mixes with medicine and the gutter: admires. Maybe he just likes owers. In any case, it was a great opportunity for your brother An art center warned that a show it was sponsoring incorporated “erotic torture” and used to examine his reaction to gender stereotypes medical devices and bondage and discipline techniques. and let them be damned. While he didn’t, he But one audience member said he was not prepared to see one performer did bring up this incident and solicited other cut another, mop up the blood with towels and send them soaring above the opinion, which is all to the good. Also good was audience on revolving clotheslines. that your brother was not either alarmed or “I had no idea what I was in for,” said Jim Berenson, a Twin Cities sculptor punitive about this with his toddler. My posi- who called health ocials to ask whether spectators were at risk of contract- tion is that while letting his boy choose ower ing the AIDS virus if blood had dripped on them during the March 5 power would have been great, he’s the father performance. and his gentle steering was not out of line.” (March 25, 1994) (January 22, 2014) Yale Daily News BET.com How Guido Calabresi, dean of Yale Law School and Clinton nominee to the U.S. court of appeals, America as seen in black and white by Keith Boykin, won the minds and hearts of his students, boys and girls alike: who is for the purposes of this idiotic excursus black: Still, law students are more familiar with Calabresi’s non-administrative side, especially his But put aside all the racist vitriol directed at Pres- unabashed willingness to poke fun at himself. ident Obama in the past ve years. He’s actually Last year, students criticized Calabresi for issuing a memo in which he denounced as vulgar not the primary target of the right-wing hate posters one student had displayed in the Law School depicting a penis. In the annual Law machine. He is merely a symbolic placeholder Revue comedy show later that year, Calabresi ran up on stage and donned a penis hat as he who represents the way conservatives see govern- danced with the student impersonating him. ment as a tool for empowering undeserving peo- “Where else but Yale would you have a dean dance about on stage with a penis on his head?” ple of color at the expense of deserving whites. Chandra asked. “People thought he was so great for doing that.” Rank-and- le conservatives also hated Jimmy (April 20, 1994) Carter and Bill Clinton because they believed these two white presidents were redistributing McLaughlin Group their hard-earned tax dollars into the pockets of e complicated wit of Eleanor Cli , FOB and closet foreign policy adviser: Black and Latino welfare queens. e Republican Party has been playing with MR. KONDRACKE:… Now, the problem here is that the president is not interested in for- re on these issues since the 1960s, when the eign policy. He’s far more interested in health care. And he has not, as in previous administra- GOP’s “southern strategy” began consciously tions, assigned [anyone] as chief foreign policy-maker in his administration: ere is no John deploying race as a tool to scare working-class Foster Dulles. ere is no Henry Kissinger in this administration. whites. at’s how they convinced the very peo- MS. CL1FT: ank God. ple whose lives depend on government bene ts (April 15, 1994)
62 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR June 2014 “To you, it’s the perfect li chair. To me, it’s the best sleep chair I’ve ever had.” — J. Fitzgerald, VA Remote Controls for Heat, Massage, Recline and Lift
Separate Sit up, lie down — Heat and and anywhere Massage in between! Controls!
We’ve all had nights when we just can’t lie down in bed and spinal alignment, promotes back pressure relief, and encourages sleep, whether it’s from heartburn, cardiac problems, hip or better posture to prevent back and muscle pain. back aches – could be a variety of reasons. Those are the nights we’d give anything for a comfortable chair to sleep in, one And there’s more! The overstuffed, oversized biscuit style back that reclines to exactly the right degree, raises feet and legs to and unique seat design will cradle you in comfort. Generously precisely the desired level, supports the head and shoulders filled, wide armrests provide enhanced arm support when properly, operates easily even in the dead of night, and sends a sitting or reclining. The high and low heat settings along hopeful sleeper right off to dreamland. with the dozens of massage settings, can provide a soothing relaxation you might get at a spa – just imagine getting all that Our Perfect Sleep Chair is just the chair to do it all. It’s a in a lift chair! Weight capacity 375 lbs. Shipping charge includes chair, true – the finest of lift chairs – but this chair is so much white glove delivery. Professionals will deliver the chair to the more! It’s designed to provide exact spot in your home where you want it, unpack it, inspect it, total comfort and relaxation test it, position it, and even carry the packaging away! Includes not found in other chairs. It one year service warranty and your choice of fabrics and colors can’t be beat for comfortable, – ships in approximately three business days. long-term sitting, TV viewing, relaxed reclining and – yes! – The Perfect Sleep Chair peaceful sleep. Our chair’s recline technology Call now toll free for our lowest price. allows you to pause Please mention code 48006 when ordering. the chair in an
infinite number of 1-888-695-2617 46357 positions, including Tan Brown Burgundy the Trendelenburg position and the zero Long Lasting gravity position where DuraLux Leather your body experiences a Burgundy Cashmere Fern Chocolate Indigo minimum of internal and DuraLux II external stresses. You’ll love the This lift chair Microfi ber puts you safely other benefits, too: It helps with correct on your feet! © 2014 by fi rst STREET for Boomers and Beyond, Inc. last CALL
by EVE TUSHNET Music of the Trilobites
John Darnielle’s 2011 novel what could have been and would have been, Roger isn’t given to image and metaphor the Master of Reality under the unfamiliar if the world were dierent. ey’re the results way Darnielle’s lyrics are. His hardest-hitting constellations of Australia—which was of our dissatisfaction, which is Adam’s—the lines are often nearly monosyllabic (“I am not tting, since the slender book is about attempts to make something reminiscent of feeling any better”). But what matters in Rog- being both physically and spiritually a home out of the wrecked memory of Eden. er’s story is the rhythm and the timing. Master far from home. Master of Reality is an Sometimes all the things that happened of Reality is brutally suspenseful. Simple lines entry in Continuum’s “33 1/3” series of when I was drinking (friendships made hit hard when you feel like you know the cav- books about pop or rock albums. (e other during those slurry spangled nights—and ernous emotions behind them. Roger tries to Ibooks in the series tend to be straightforward then friendships lost, because I wasn’t really use his music to connect with his counselor. critical studies.) I’ve never listened to Black there) feel like they happened a million years ere’s this immensely poignant desire to let Sabbath’s Master of Reality, but Darnielle’s di- ago. I used to drink with the trilobites, among someone else in: “Rush is a band that you ary of a 1980s teenager locked in a residential the crinoids, when all the life in the world was might like,” he notes, conscientious and eager. psychiatric treatment facility, pleading with his undersea. And then other times it feels like (I tried to get my mom into Guns N’ Roses.) counselor to get his Walkman and Black Sab- all of that happened ve minutes ago, but to And he expresses so well the way that music, bath tapes back, captured some of the deeper somebody else. like intoxication, can open a door in the mind. and darker currents in my own relationship to A lot of Mountain Goats music deals with Sometimes someone walks through that music. that bizarre expansion and collapse of time. door. In the novel, as in my own life, some- Darnielle is the man behind the Moun- ere’s a lot in his songs about revisiting the times that uninvited visitor is God: Darnielle is tain Goats, an indie band I stumbled across past, trying to understand it and somehow one of the most Christ-haunted songwriters in in 2010. I fell for them hard and fast, and for reconcile with it, as if the past is a person to the indie world (and that’s saying something), about two years I listened to them constantly. whom we could make amends—or whom we and thwarted longing for the Christian God en I quit drinking. Since January 2012 I’ve could forgive. Songs about breaking into your pulses through Master of Reality despite Roger’s only listened to Darnielle’s music twice, right childhood home (“See how the people here bitterness toward the Christians he’s met. around Holy Week, always with a faint shud- live now/Hope they’re better at it than I was”) But there are other gods than Christ. Rog- der of longing and fear. I have to be careful or watching people pack up a dead friend’s er’s diary ends abruptly, picking up again about opening the door in my head that leads possessions. A lot of songs about the not-yet, when he’s an adult who has just found his old backward in time. the feeling of waiting for the moment when dusty box of tapes. He opens the box, just like Music and drinking—at least the kind of the wind will blow you, against your will, into somebody out of Stephen King, and tries to drinking I did, the kind I still care about— the future. journey back into the bad times to understand have a lot in common. ey’re a way of One thing Master of Reality gets right is the them. Opening the door back to his broken dissolving the self and silencing its constant simultaneous importance and silliness of lyr- adolescence lets the helpless rage of the past pointless chatter. ey accordion time; vodka ics. Roger, the kid in the psych ward, quotes ow into his adult life. e music which was is the poor man’s tesseract, bringing back all a lot of Black Sabbath lyrics in order to prove once his source of hope, comradeship, and es- those memories you only have when you’re various points, but he also says that the lyr- cape becomes the channel for something else. drinking, letting you touch the crowd of ics don’t always make sense. I could tell you And yet I know why he had to open the sharp-edged regrets and yet protecting you some of my favorite Mountain Goats lines, door. ere’s comfort—and a hope that from feeling their edges too painfully. Music but reading them can’t convey the point of someday maybe we can truly be reconciled and drinking are ways we try to live in the sub- them. “Blues in Dallas” conveys its battered with the past—in the thought that some- junctive. ey’re not about what is but about hope less through its lyrics than through its where in my skull there is a door, and behind dusty, fuzzy dive-bar sound, Darnielle’s light that door they’re playing the music I used to Eve Tushnet blogs for the Catholic chan- voice tripping across the notes in an almost dance to with the trilobites, in the lowest bar nel of Patheos.com. rinky-tink cadence. in the world.
64 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR June 2014 sarkes.qxd 11/13/06 9:53 AM Page 84 Don’t Let the Republican Establishment Pick another Loser in 2016 5 Reasons Dr. Ben Carson is our Best Choice for President… 1. Ben Carson is the only candidate who is sure to win! 2. Ben Carson is the only candidate who, like Ronald Reagan, can explain complicated issues in terms everyone can understand 3. Ben Carson is the only candidate who can heal and unite America 4. Ben Carson is the only candidate who is a citizen statesman 5. Ben Carson is the only candidate who is trustworthy when it comes to abiding by the Constitution and supporting traditional values Here’s why those statements are true… Reason #1: Sure to Win! National Debt. Cut government spending by 10% each If a Republican candidate for President receives just 17% of year, until the budget is balanced! the African American vote, Hillary Clinton loses every single Obamacare. Repeal it and replace it! swing state. In 2012 Presidential candidate Herman Cain Taxes. Make them flat. Make it fair. Everyone pays. polled more than 40% of the black vote. Surely Dr. Ben Abortion. It’s barbaric. End it! Carson, a man who is revered in the African American Illegal Immigration. Secure our borders. Now! community, would do even better than Herman Cain! Redistribution of Income. It’s morally wrong. Reason #2: Great Communicator II Welfare. Replace it. Enable those on welfare to share No other prospective presidential candidate has the wit, in the American dream. wisdom, and persuasive eloquence of Ben Carson. Like Ronald Judges. Appoint judges committed to the Constitution! Reagan, Ben Carson has the ability to explain complex issues in Political Correctness. It’s dangerous. End it. simple, commonsense terms that the average voter can Right to Keep & Bear Arms. Preserve it! understand. Like Reagan, Ben Carson will win in a landslide! Democrats/Republicans. Both are at fault! Reason #3: Will Heal America Freedom of Religion. It is the first freedom. Sadly, Barack Obama has divided us, not united us as a Will Ben Carson Run for President? people. Ben Carson has been a healer his entire life. He will Yes. Dr. Carson said …“If … there were a lot of people heal us and unite us as Americans. clamoring for me to do that… I would never turn my back Reason #4: Not a politician on the American people.” Both Democrats and Republicans created the current mess Dr. Carson will run if the American people “clamor” for we are in. We don’t need another politician, we need a citizen him to run. So let’s clamor! Please sign the petition provided statesman. We need Godly wisdom and commonsense in our below or go to www.RunBenRun.org today. Thank you. next President. Reason #5: A trustworthy Conservative Ben Carson courageously spoke directly to President John Philip Sousa IV, Chairman Obama about the danger of Obamacare at the 2013 National (great grandson of John Philip Sousa) Prayer Breakfast. Here is where he stands on the issues… National Draft Ben Carson for President Committee Sign the Petition! Go to… www.RunBenRun.org today! Petition to Dr. Benjamin Carson Urge Ben Carson to Run for President in 2016! Run, Ben Run! Or use this form to reply by mail to John Philip Sousa IV… Dear Dr. Carson Dear John, You said that if the American people were still “clamoring” for I am excited to be a part of this national effort to draft Dr. Ben Carson as you to run for President you would seriously consider doing so. the next President of the United States. I want a candidate who will win, Well, I’m clamoring for you to run for President of the United who will heal and who will restore America to greatness. I’ll sign the States. We need citizen statesmen to lead our nation, not just petition and I’ll contribute today to elect Ben Carson President of the politicians who see public office as a career. As you have said, five United States… physicians signed the Declaration of Independence and played instrumental roles in leading our nation, at great risk to $100 $50 $25 $15 $_____Other themselves and their families. Today America needs a President Please make your check payable to the National Draft Ben Carson for President who is committed to the US Constitution, who has solutions to Committee or simply NDBC and mail it to the address shown below. NDBC is a our debt crisis, who will end Obamacare, and who will bring SuperPAC and can accept gifts in any amount. harmony to our nation. I believe you are that person. Please run Name ______Street Address______AS-01 for President! You can count on my support and prayers. City, State ZIP ______E-mail address ______Signed ______National Draft Ben Carson for President Committee P.O. Box 1376, Merrifield, VA 22116-1376www.RunBenRun.org