David Axelrod said something interesting after the terror in Boston. (He is the president’s chief political strategist.) He said the president was connecting the bombing to Tax Day.
Friday night, I was sitting in a concert hall. The critic sitting behind me was saying to his friend, “I assumed this was right-wing domestic terror. It happened on Tax Day.”
The other week, a U.S. Army instructor issued a list of threats — a list headed “Religious Extremism.” At the top of the list was “Evangelical Christianity (U.S./Christian).”
Two years ago, Mayor Bloomberg in New York guessed that the Times Square terrorist was opposed to Obamacare.
I thought of something last week (and if you heard me say it on my podcast with Mona Charen, forgive the repetition). When Kennedy was assassinated, the speculation was that this was right-wingers. John Tower’s family had to be evacuated. He was leading the Goldwater operation, I believe, and there were death threats against his family.
Then it transpired that the killer was a Communist. And a prominent liberal said, “Now our grief can be pure.”
In my view, American education — the weight of the culture — has done something sick to many American minds. If the country cannot recognize the threats against it — specifically Muslim extremism — it probably can’t defend itself.
‐I saw a link on Drudge: “Cuomo Connects Boston Bombing to ‘Climate Change’ . . .” There is nothing that can’t be linked to climate change. In previous writings, I have cited an article published in The Journal of Affective Disorders: “Global warming possibly linked to an enhanced risk of suicide: Data from Italy, 1974–2003.”
‐I was interested to see that Stephen Harper, the prime minister of Canada, attended Mrs. Thatcher’s funeral. Canada is a Commonwealth country, of course. But Harper is a great admirer of Thatcher, and of Reagan. He is also a firm believer in Anglo-American culture.
I direct you to a speech he gave in London in 2006. (I read it when I was preparing a piece on Harper for National Review.) He quoted a speech that Churchill gave in Ottawa in 1929. It is “the golden circle of the Crown,” said Churchill, “which links us all together with the majestic past that takes us back to the Tudors, the Plantagenets, the Magna Carta, habeas corpus, petition of rights, and English common law . . . all those massive stepping stones which the people of the British race shaped and forged to the joy, and peace, and glory of mankind.”
“How right he was,” Harper remarked. The new prime minister — he was elected earlier in 2006 — continued, “Britain gave Canada all that, and much more — including parliamentary democracy; a commitment to basic freedoms; the industrial revolution; and the entrepreneurial spirit and free-market economy. Not to mention Shakespeare, Dickens, Kipling, Lewis, and Chesterton.”
If Canada keeps elevating men such as Harper, it’ll be all right.
‐I received a bulletin from my friends at Women’s Rights Without Frontiers. It spoke of “gendercide” — the killing of girls through “sex-selective” abortion.
I don’t believe the term “gendercide” will catch on. The reason is, feminists, and the Left in general, prize abortion more than they object to the singling out of girls for abortion. Indeed, if abortion is not killing — if it’s more like an appendectomy — how can it be wrong to single out baby girls?
At best, we have a “clash of pieties” — a clash of liberal pieties: Abortion, good (or at least necessary to be legal); discrimination against girls, bad. Uh-oh.
‐I was interested to see this news story, which begins, “A college professor has been arrested for a profane rant at pro-life students at the University of Buffalo.” About the professor’s profane rant, I was not surprised. About pro-life students at the University of Buffalo, or anywhere — refreshing.
‐A reader writes, “For the past month or so, I have been suggesting that a Socratic legislator introduce a bill guaranteeing the right of dog owners to abort gestating puppies. The response would be enlightening, I suspect.”
Hmmm . . .
‐The administration is furloughing air-traffic controllers, which may result in serious flight delays. The administration is saying this is necessary, owing to sequestration. Other people are saying, Not so fast: You’re doing it because you want to do it, not because you have to. Sort of like White House tours. You’re trying to prove a point.
I know which side I lean toward. For a news article, go here.
‐Is Suzy Lee Weiss the most delightful girl on earth? I think a case can be made. She is the author of the now-famous op-ed piece in the Wall Street Journal headed “To (All) the Colleges That Rejected Me.” Her piece begins,
Like me, millions of high-school seniors with sour grapes are asking themselves this week how they failed to get into the colleges of their dreams. It’s simple: For years, they — we — were lied to.
Lied to how?
Colleges tell you, “Just be yourself.” That is great advice, as long as yourself has nine extracurriculars, six leadership positions, three varsity sports, killer SAT scores and two moms. Then by all means, be yourself! If you work at a local pizza shop and are the slowest person on the cross-country team, consider taking your business elsewhere.
So, what could Suzy have done differently, leading up to college?
For starters, had I known two years ago what I know now, I would have gladly worn a headdress to school. Show me to any closet, and I would’ve happily come out of it. “Diversity!” I offer about as much diversity as a saltine cracker. If it were up to me, I would’ve been any of the diversities: Navajo, Pacific Islander, anything. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, I salute you and your 1/32 Cherokee heritage.
If that’s not delightful enough, check out her appearance on the Today show: here. She parries a sniffy interviewer almost perfectly. Suzy has offended our national religion, you see — that religion being political correctness. And the heretic must be burned. But Suzy is not for burning.
Hope for America, thy name is Suzy Lee Weiss.
‐Speaking of the Wall Street Journal, I’ll tell you what I told Bret Stephens: There’s joy in Mudville. Why? Because Bret won the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary. He is a crackerjack columnist indeed. No one is more clear-eyed about the Middle East. And those clear eyes work on other matters as well. Moreover, Bret is something a lot of conservatives aren’t: cool. Coolness is not the most important thing in the world. I often find it a demerit. But sometimes it’s a bonus.
In September, he had a column called “Muslims, Mormons and Liberals.” I called it “possibly the greatest column in the history of columns.”
Anyway, joy in Mudville indeed.
‐Care for some music? For my latest piece in CityArts, go here. It’s about two “rock stars” of the classical world: Gustavo Dudamel (Venezuelan conductor) and Dmitri Hvorostovsky (Russian baritone).
When I first heard Hvorostovsky, he was known for liturgical music. This was in the mid-1990s. Indeed, I first heard him in Washington’s National Cathedral. He had made an album called Credo. Very soon, though, he became a star of the wicked operatic stage. And he is a hell of a recitalist, always has been.
‐Everywhere I go on the Internet, I see ads that say, “Top Ten Signs You’ll Get Cancer,” “Top Ten Signs You’ll Get Alzheimer’s,” “Woe Betide You,” etc. I’m surprised the country isn’t in a state of medical panic 24/7. Well, better than porn, I guess.
See you!
To order Jay Nordlinger’s book Peace, They Say: A History of the Nobel Peace Prize, the Most Famous and Controversial Prize in the World, go here. To order his collection Here, There & Everywhere, go here.