Lately, I’ve had occasion to think about what is cool and what is not. And by “cool” I mean admired, thought groovy, especially by the young. And do you know what is cool — or rather, who is cool? The late-night-comedy people. I don’t mean the Jay Leno types, I mean the Jon Stewart types — the comedians-cum-pundits. The cynics, the sneerers, the sideline jeerers.
That type of journalist is cool too, for some reason. (The New Republic and Vanity Fair are two publications that specialize in such people.)
Anyway, here’s my question: Why is Capt. Ivan Castro not cool?
FORT BRAGG, N.C. (AP) — When Capt. Ivan Castro joined the Army, he set goals: to jump out of planes, kick in doors and lead soldiers into combat. He achieved them all. Then the mortar round landed five feet away, blasting away his sight.
“Once you’re blind, you have to set new goals,” Castro said. [Is that the most strangely matter-of-fact statement you’ve ever heard?]
He set them higher.
Not content with just staying in the Army, he is the only blind officer serving in the Special Forces — the small, elite units famed for dropping behind enemy lines on combat missions.
The rest of the story is here. I ask again: Why isn’t Ivan Castro a twentieth as admired as — not to single him out, but . . . — Jon Stewart? How did the whole country become Lenny Bruce-ified?
There is a lot right with America, sports fans, but — as I say repeatedly in this column — a lot wrong, too. And what’s wrong is not necessarily what Ralph Nader and Michelle Obama think is wrong . . .
One more thing, before moving on: I think of something Bob Dole said in that marvelous, Helprin-penned convention speech (1996): “the elite who never grew up, never did anything real, never sacrificed, never suffered, and never learned.”
It is the phrase “never did anything real” that particularly haunts me.
‐Like you, perhaps, I’ve read about Israeli prisoner swaps all my life. And it’s always, the Israelis give up 400 Palestinian terrorists for two Israeli soldiers. Or it’s Israel gives up prisoners for bodies — dead Israeli bodies. In other words, live Arab bodies for Israeli corpses.
Well, this is from yesterday:
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — Gaza’s Hamas rulers said Monday they would stick to their tough line in talks over a captured Israeli soldier, emboldened by Israel’s decision to trade a Lebanese prisoner convicted in a brutal attack for the bodies of two other Israeli servicemen.
Hamas-affiliated militants captured Sgt. Gilad Schalit two years ago in a cross-border raid. Three weeks later, Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon burst across Israel’s northern border and seized Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev, touching off a monthlong war between Israel and the militant group.
After nearly two years of German-brokered negotiations, Israel’s Cabinet overwhelmingly agreed Sunday to trade Goldwasser and Regev’s bodies for Samir Kantar, a Lebanese man convicted of an attack that Israelis perceive as one of the cruelest in their nation’s history.
Kantar is serving multiple life sentences for infiltrating northern Israel in 1979 and killing three Israelis — a 28-year-old man, his 4-year-old daughter and an Israeli police officer.
Witnesses said Kantar smashed the little girl’s head against a rock and crushed her skull with a rifle butt. Kantar denied killing the girl or smashing her skull. Her mother, while trying to silence the cries of her other daughter, accidentally smothered the 2-year-old.
Sure, sure. Same old stuff. The rest of the article is here.
Anyway, can you imagine a swap involving Israeli prisoners and Arab corpses? No? I may be wrong, but — me neither.
‐Sometimes it’s hard to tell whether you’re reading the Middle Eastern press or the right-wing American press — for example, on the subject of Jews in Hollywood. I thought of this when reading a recent bulletin from MEMRI.org (which bulletin is found here).
An Iranian film critic — chew on that! — is pronouncing on Zionist cunning: “Moreover, names may be selected for their rhyming value. ‘Zion’ sometimes becomes ‘Ryan,’ as in Saving Private Ryan. They exploit even the similarity of names.”
Oh, yes.
‐Here’s something hopeful: Jordan (which is to say, King Abdullah) has appointed a new ambassador to Iraq. Before, the security situation was judged too bad. This is not huge news; it is maybe not even medium-size news; but it is news — and it is good. Iraq is moving toward normalcy, one of the most cherished conditions that nations can aspire to.
America may want to be exceptional (and it is). But for most countries, or many, mere normalcy is a golden dream.
(Of course, normalcy has featured in our own campaigns. Remember Warren Harding? “Not nostrums, but normalcy”?)
‐I wonder if you saw the picture yesterday of Billy Graham, his son, Franklin Graham, and John McCain: It is here. One thing about the 89-year-old Reverend Graham: That is still an impressive mane of hair (on an impressive man).
‐John Kerry has an opponent, you may have heard — I mean, an opponent in the relevant Democratic primary. That’s news. The opponent has one issue: He is even more anti-Iraq War than Kerry. He is blasting Kerry for “voting for the war.” Obviously, he is not my kind of candidate.
But I enjoyed reading this about him: “O’Reilly put himself through law school at night while working as a firefighter and also has worked as a commercial lobsterman.”
Not bad, huh? (And the article I have quoted is here.)
‐This is a story that just may beat all. And if it doesn’t, it beats a lot. I don’t believe I’ve ever seen a story that involves both race claims and farming claims — and you know those claims can really add up. So . . .
WASHINGTON (AP) — Lawmakers budgeted just $100 million for damages when they reopened the government’s discrimination settlement with black farmers. They probably should have handed over a blank check.
With more than 70,000 potential claimants, the liability could exceed $3 billion — three times what was paid out in the original 1999 agreement.
Oh, yeah. (Full story here.)
‐A little language? The word “led” — past participle of “lead” — is constantly spelled “lead” (as in the noun). Because of this error, a news article yesterday was mighty hard to read. Took me a minute to figure it out. The story said, “The Bellman lead his crew across the ocean, guided by a map that was just a blank piece of paper. He rallied and reassured his crew simply by repeat[ing] himself.”
Anyway . . . (For the full story, go here.)
(It’s funny we have “lead” and “led” — as verb and past participle — but “read” and “read.” I bet “read,” as past participle, is one reason people write “lead,” as past participle. But if we get into the inconsistencies of English . . . )
‐
Montesinos, at the time a lawyer defending drug traffickers, was brought in to torpedo the probe using contacts in the justice system. He did the job in just three days, delighting the candidate, said Francisco Loayza, a former intelligence analyst and campaign adviser who introduced the men.
Loayza said Montesinos “crept in like gas under the door” and became a key operative overnight.
Crept in like gas under the door — creepy and memorable.
‐I swear this is true. It’ll sound like a joke, but it’s true. Last week, I was looking at some sports news, and saw this headline: “Gay Breaks Greene’s US Record in 100 at Trials.”
And I’m thinking — boy, that’s kind of bold. I mean, isn’t that taking “identity politics” a little too far? Isn’t that like saying, “Hispanic Breaks Greene’s Record,” or “Chinese-American Breaks Greene’s Record”? Is homosexuality that central in America now?
Only when reading the article itself did I learn that the headline meant a sprinter named Tyson Gay . . .
‐A little music? For a review of a newly issued Fidelio (the opera by Beethoven), conducted by Herbert von Karajan in 1962, go here. For a review of the pianist Alberto Urroz, go here. And for a review of the New York Philharmonic, with Bramwell Tovey, conductor, and Joyce Yang, piano soloist, go here. These pieces were published in the New York Sun.
‐A letter?
Jay,
As a CPA I am required to take a number of “continuing education” classes. Today I sat through a class aimed at investing for retirement led by a lady CFP from Boston. From her I found out that there are such things as “sin stocks” and that this genre includes companies that deal in alcohol, tobacco, and defense!
It seems to me that I recall something about “We the people of the United States of America, in order to . . . provide for the common defense . . .”
To think that we have been sinners all of these years.
Amazing.
‐Another letter?
Jay,
You’ve been writing about Tiger Woods and race — specifically, his eschewal of race, or at least his fantastically clear thinking about it. Reminds me of what Jimmy Cannon wrote about Joe Louis: “He is a credit to his race — the human race.”
A comment that is ever fresh.
Thanks, guys, and see you.