I love what this guy writes. Two reasons, mainly because he's a bit of a nonconformist for the conservative camp and he's got that great British wit. Also what he says always appears fresh for some reason. Here are some samples dealing with several current issues I thought you people would find entertaining:South of the border:
"Mass illegal immigration from Mexico is a safety valve for the rickety, corrupt, and unproductive Mexican economy.
In my more charitable moments, I wonder whether this isn’t the unspoken (because unspeakable) assumption behind the administration’s insouciance towards the issue. A serious economic or political collapse in Mexico would create horrible problems for the U.S. — not the least of them, a flood of refugees that would make current cross-border flows look inconsequential. Perhaps a million or so illiterate Mexican peasants coming over the border every year is a cheap price to pay for Mexican stability. Or perhaps it isn’t, but someone in the administration thinks it is. Look, I’m just trying to figure out why the administration is so deaf, dumb, and blind about illegal immigration."
On China:
"Most recently the ChiComs have put out a policy paper on national defense. Naturally, the aspect of “defense” they are most concerned with is defending their corrupt, unelected tyranny from the infections of democracy, liberty, and representative government that threaten them from across the Taiwan Strait. Hence: “Should the Taiwan authorities go so far as to make a reckless attempt that constitutes a major incident of 'Taiwan independence,' the Chinese people and armed forces will resolutely and thoroughly crush it at any cost.” The policy paper goes on to say that separatist activities on Taiwan have become the “biggest immediate threat” to China's sovereignty and to peace and stability in the region.
Taiwan has been functioning as an independent nation for 55 years. In all its previous history, the place was governed by China as a Chinese province for just twelve years. Exactly why the open declaration of what everyone knows to be the case should be a “threat” to anyone at all is a mystery to me. The threat to peace and stability in the western Pacific is not posed by the Taiwanese, who just want to get on with building up their country in peace and independence. The real threat arises from the unrestrained aggressiveness of the Chinese Communists.
Why is no U.S. official saying this out loud? Where is all our bluster about “spreading democracy” when it comes to East Asia? It seems, to the contrary, we are meekly kowtowing to those who are determined to extinguish democracy and enlarge their own brutish, lawless despotism. How I long to see someone of importance verbally slap down these loathsome, arrogant bullies. Why will nobody do so?"
His office Christmas party(love the quote by Wilde):
"If your conception of the cultural Right is a bunch of old dotards in celluloid collars brushing the snuff from their lapels while grumbling about modern art, well, let me tell you, this crowd seems to get younger every year. There was in fact a Woosterish element at the other end of the table getting quite rowdy. They went well beyond the throwing of bread rolls. I could swear I saw someone — a lady! — swigging Jack Daniels from the bottle.
The best thing, though, was the talk. Within my zone of hearing we covered immigration, education, rat-catching, Pushkin, Meredith, the New York art scene, music lessons for kids, the Last Times, and the decline of the handkerchief. And of course lots of politico-cultural gossip. That silly Oscar Wilde quip about how “third-rate people talk about things, second-rate people talk about people, first-rate people talk about ideas” is complete horse manure, like most of what Wilde said. I spent a happy evening with a room full of first-raters, and they talk about everything."
Christmas shopping fun:
"Speaking of ugly: We did some last-minute Christmas shopping at the humongous Smith Haven Mall out here on suburban Long Island. What a depressing experience! I have heard about the teenage pastime known as “hanging out at the mall,” but I had never really witnessed it in all its full ugliness and pointlessness. The male teenagers were all trying to look like ghetto toughs; the female ones like whores. Neither effort was very convincing. Eavesdropping on their talk, I got a strong impression that this was the left-hand side of the Bell Curve that I was seeing. Even so, it’s hard to imagine why suburban kids from nice homes would disport themselves in these unsightly and degrading ways. What on earth is happening to us? Parents of America, please do not let your teenage kids hang out at the mall."
Iraq:
"Among my more esoteric reading these past few weeks has been the math-history classic Mathematical Cuneiform Texts, by Otto Neugebauer and Abraham Sachs. It’s a survey of some cuneiform tablets, mostly from around 1700 or 1800 B.C., dealing with surprisingly advanced mathematical topics. There are algorithms for solving some quadratic equations, and the ancient Mesopotamians even took a stab at the cubic equation.
Never mind why I am reading this stuff. I just want to note the odd, rather melancholy, sensation I get when I set down this book and put on the TV news. There is the same place, the place I am reading about, nearly four thousand years later. Humanity doesn’t seem to have learned much in the interval. So far as the inhabitants of Mesopotamia are concerned, in fact, things have gone backwards. Back in Hammurabi’s day they had an innovative code of laws and were wonderfully creative in mathematics. Nowadays lawlessness and cultural stagantion are the rule in Mesopotamia and throughout the Arab world. Four thousand years, to get from Hammurabi to Saddam Hussein! Why did they bother?"
Great stuff! Aside from his articles for a couple different mags, he's also a novelist.
posted December 31, 2004 09:41
