Mar 13 2009
In January, when I wrote about the bizarre and preposterous idea that Rush Limbaugh had come to define conservatism, "Do We Want Rush Limbaugh to Fail?" I did not realize I was surfing ahead of the wave. This has become a big story - and the more Republicans defend radio's most infamous gasbag the more Democrats and the White House are delighted.
Why not? When you have a fat, intolerant, truculent former prescription drug addict as the face of your party, one moreover whom other leaders of the party are deathly afraid of, you have a huge problem. All the Democrats have to do now is stick a fork in the GOP because it's done. Not to boast, but all this I pointed out in that column in a more merry tone, although some conservative readers were left in no mood to share the joke.
(By the way, if you are Dittohead and you think I'm name calling, spare us your hypocrisy. Name calling is Rush's bread and butter. You guys like to see it handed out but you can't take it).
Rush, of course, is loving the attention and even if he doesn't quite own up to being the party fuhrer, he is obviously flattered by the idea. Look how he turned on RNC Chairman Michael Steele for daring to criticize him - and look how Steele subsequently groveled.
The truth is that many conservatives think there's absolutely nothing wrong with Rush defining conservatism for them, as I heard from dozens of them after that column. They haven't got a clue how toxic he is to the voters beyond the base whom they need to win future presidential elections.
If they are not going to take it from a liberal like me, who among conservative has the guts to point out the obvious folly of Rush adulation? David Frum for one. His cover piece in Newsweek this week - Why Rush Is Wrong -- a Conservative Case Against Limbaugh - says it all brilliantly. The section subheads scream the truth: "Rush is to the GOP now what Jesse Jackson was to the Democrats in the 1980s" and "Limbaugh's language is not that of politics. It's the language of a cult."
Don't want to believe it? Fine with me. For once, the road to hell is paved with bad intentions.
Mar 12 2009
Not being a businessman, I am not usually an in-depth reader of The Wall Street Journal. But I have always liked the way it looked - and I like the editorial page.
(I don't agree with the editorials but I admire the research that goes into them; they are intelligent pieces written for intelligent, conservative people This is a pleasant change from the offerings of certain conservative writers and commentators who do their best to appear stupid in the service of a dim-witted audience.)
But mostly I like the way The Journal looked - a paper that Mr. Scrooge might have read or at least an old-style tycoon with cigar and waistcoat. The antique type faces and somber layout gave a sense that dust might rise from each turning page and accountants in eyeshades might somehow be summoned by the very act of reading the paper.
Then, in 2007, Rupert Murdoch took over. Because he could, Australia's gift to journalism started to change things that didn't need to be changed. The paper quickly lost its uniquely dignified appearance.
It has reached such a stage that The Journal now has a Sports section of sorts. The paper advertises this addition every day in a garish banner over its nameplate. It's as if to say: Look at us, we are no different than anyone else, and never mind that our cachet was being different.
Sad.
The irony here is that those who want to read about free enterprise in a paper that spoke of tradition and continuity are made victims of the constant change demanded by the free enterprise system.
Mar 11 2009
A story on the Post-Gazette Web site today is provocatively titled "Pittsburgh May Ban Porch Couches as Fire Hazard."
It seems that Pittsburgh City Council has given initial approval - by unanimous vote no less - to legislation banning mattresses, box springs, sofas and upholstered chairs from the porches of city residents. It was done so that these items could not be burned in periodic public celebrations, such as was the case when the Steelers won the Super Bowl.
Apparently council expects Pittsburgh to win a Super Bowl every year - I say, dream on but don't dream on the porch sofa.
Oakland community groups are reported in favor of the legislation, with one organizer offering another novel theory for why upholstered porch furniture is today's public enemy number one - they harbor pests like rodents and bugs and such. That would explain why they squeak when you sit on them. Here's me, just thinking it was the springs!
Honestly, is this a plot to convert city residents to the Libertarian cause of less government interference? The fines being talked about for illegal sofa installation are no joke - $200 to $500, plus court costs, per day.
It seems to me that sitting on the porch (on whatever) is a long and sacred Pittsburgh tradition in the warmer months, not to be flung aside because some clowns in Oakland burned a few couches in the street recently. Are Pittsburghers mice who live in couches or men (and women) who rest their butts according to their choice of furniture in the highest tradition of freedom?
They came for the sofa on the porch and I did not complain because I did not have a sofa on the porch, they came for the mattresses and box springs on the porch but I didn't have those either and I said nothing. Then they came for my upholstered chair on the porch and I had nowhere to sit.
.
Mar 10 2009
A quote attributed to Sir Winston Churchill and much loved by conservatives for obvious reasons goes like this: "If you're not a liberal when you're 25, you have no heart. If you're not a conservative by the time you're 35, you have no brain."
Unfortunately, according to the Churchill Center in Chicago, which is dedicated to all things Churchillian, there is no record of anyone hearing Churchill say this. (I came by this information by looking up the quote and I confess that I was greatly surprised because I thought it genuine myself).
But inasmuch as conservatives believe that this maxim describes a great truth, they might consider the first part of its declaration as it applies to Jonathan Krohn, 14, of Duluth, Ga., who is missing something, although I don't know what.
He is the kid who in a three-minute speech to the recent Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington D.C. became a media sensation, not only among the right-wing crackpot community but also in the MSM (Mostly Sensible Media).
He is obviously very smart and seems like a nice kid. I am sure he is kind to dogs and grandmothers but there's something about precocious kids that gives me the creeps, something against the order of nature.
It's not just him - I am sure I would have the same reaction if some tyke enthralled the annual meeting of the Socialist Ratbags of America. I had the same reaction when I covered the Super Bowl in 1996 and found to my horror several kid reporters who had been given credentials. I had a severe case of skin creep in the face of such embarrassing precocity.
In the case of young Jonathan, I wonder what stardom coming this young will do to his ego and sense of proportion. The record of kid stars in the entertainment world growing up to be sad adults is not encouraging.
Jonathan probably does have a heart but his head may be hopelessly turned before he can use mature judgment and the lessons of life as a yardstick to measure his opinions against. Was any favor done to this kid by indulging him like this?
On the other hand, if he is to be anointed the new leader of the Republican Party, he's a better choice than the ever-rancid Rush.
Mar 09 2009
My colleague James O’Toole wrote an excellent Sunday analysis piece that described the revisionism that has gone on among conservatives concerning the New Deal "FDR’s Policies Get New Deal of Criticism from Revisionists."
We are hearing about it now because it is part of the effort to discredit Barack Obama’s stimulus package (which, by the way, is an extension of George W. Bush’s stimulus package — the way they go on about it you would think that only Obama thought of it.)
As it happens, my attitude to this was expressed very well by a letter writer to the Post-Gazette. As Gerald Schiller of Tarentum sensibly wrote in a letter published Feb. 23:
"It is amazing how many knee-jerk conservatives in both the Post-Gazette letters to the editor and the PG’s Open Letters blog claim that tax reduction stimulus plans are the only things that have been successful in reviving the economy in the past. They invariably cite the failure of FDR’s spending and make-work projects during his first two terms, and then, in the next breath, they incomprehensibly claim that our entrance into World War II was the only thing that brought the country out of the Great Depression.
"Huh? What do they think World War II was, if not a gigantic government spending project with no tax-cut stimulus? ..."
I can add to that wisdom only one other observation — and it is one that Mr. Schiller’s targets invariably ignore. Those work projects during the New deal restored dignity and kept body and soul together for tens of thousands of struggling Americans. Perhaps the Depression might have ended sooner had different policies been followed, but how many American families would have been around to see it?
Or to put it another way, throwing people life preservers might not help them learn to swim in the long run but it sure staves off drowning in the short term.
Mar 06 2009
Among signs of imminent spring, the paddle tennis season is coming to an end. I play my last league match this Monday night in Mt. Lebanon. Nero is said to have fiddled while Rome burned; I play paddle tennis (paddle for short) while the economy burns.
This is what keeps me sane during the winter months. Admittedly, I am not very sane, but I believe that is only because I am not very good at the game.
Paddle tennis - sometimes called platform tennis - is played all around the Pittsburgh area, although not in the city itself. It is played on a raised platform on a court perhaps not quite half the size of a regular tennis court. This court is surrounded by something like chicken wire, although the court is no place for chickens when the ball is whacked.
It is a doubles game only; no one has the speed to cover all the court in singles, not even me, the Grey Panther of the paddle fraternity, or so I fancy myself.
Players can play the rubber ball off the wire with the paddle, which is hard and has little holes in it. I suppose those with a taste for sadomasochism could use the paddle indoors or outdoors, depending on the occasion. Of course, to play paddle outside in the dead of winter is to be spanked seriously by the elements, so it's all the same really.
This is a game played in country clubs but also on municipal courts - Mt. Lebanon, Upper St. Clair - and other venues such as the Sewickley YMCA and North Park.
I play for a men's Division 6 team. There are only seven divisions and next year my team is a serious danger of being dropped to Division 7 due to general poor performance. If we fall any lower, we will play worms - and the worms may have a chance of winning.
Although I didn't win much this season, I had a grand time. Paddle, you see, is addictive. I believe it is a gateway drug to other odd sporting pursuits. In my case, the cricket season will start in May, so I should be sane during the summer too. In the meantime, there is always the duckpin bowling league to keep me sedated.
For some reason, some say I am eccentric but I make no apology for living a full and ridiculous life.
Mar 05 2009
I suspect several things about life that do not conform to logic but are informed instead by intuition and the evidence of my own eyes.
First, I believe that the devil tempts certain Christians to behave in ways that make Christianity look ridiculous, the better for the wicked one to promote disbelief among good and sensible people.
I personally do not think Christianity is ridiculous but there's plenty of people out there to foster that notion. All you have to do is turn on a TV to see them. Nobody could be that stupid unless the devil made them do it, or so I suspect.
I also believe that certain things happen in life for no other reason that the Almighty wants to give Ellen Goodman a column topic.
For example, the woman who had eight babies recently as a result of fertility treatment was acting, unbeknown to herself, as an agent for the mysterious cosmic force that gives Ellen Goodman suitable material. (I am jealous, of course, because no cosmic force gives me column topics - I have to come up with them the old-fashioned way, through desperation.)
In the case of the West Virginia lawmaker who wants to ban Barbie just before her 50th birthday, it seems to me that several of my beliefs come into play.
In the first place, no one could propose something so dumb without help - why, not even an illiberal liberal could be that stupid.
Although his bill has not a snowball's chance in Hades, West Virginia Delegate Jeff Eldridge provided rich fodder for every right-wing crank in the country to natter on about how liberal Democrats want to take your infant's doll away and next they will come for your guns, which, of course, have more sentimental value.
Surely the devil made him do it.
At the same time, the whole topic of Barbie turning 50 - and now some clown wanting to ban her in West Virginia - seems a blessing from heaven upon Ellen Goodman as she searches for a column idea. I will be greatly disappointed if she does not rise to the bait.
A note to Little Minx who left a comment on my last posting, concerning Bob Woodward and the famous line about "follow the money":
As it happens, someone at the PG asked him whether "follow the money" was still good advice for investigative reporters seeking to get at the truth. He agreed that it was.
But he also offered an interesting historical note: The phrase "follow the money" was never in the Watergate book "All the President's Men."
It was written by a screenwriter for the movie who wanted to encapsulate the process followed. Woodward didn't disagree with the characterization but the reporters never said it at the time.
Mar 04 2009
Bob Woodward, the Washington Post investigative reporter and author who became famous for uncovering the Watergate scandal, visited the Post-Gazette for a lunchtime session today at the invitation of Executive Editor David M. Shribman.
It was part journalism tutorial, part pep rally for discouraged reporters and editors in the era of the incredibly shrinking newspaper.
Woodward didn't offer much in the way of practical suggestions to solve the industry's current crisis - maybe charge for content on the Web, perhaps reduce the size of papers - but clearly such advice wasn't his thing. He is all about the reporting, the accumulation of empirical facts. His faith in the survival of the industry is that readers still needed to be told good stories. His fear (mine too, as I said in my column last week) is that absent such reporting, secret government will flourish.
He started off his presentation playing the professor, asking his students - that would be us - what was the fundamental story that needed to be wriiten to explain the economy's collapse? (He said that most of the stories dealing with the collapse had not adequately explained it).
Someone suggested that a lack of regulation during the Bush years had allowed excesses to flourish. But he pointed out that started under Bill Clinton. Someone else observed that European financial institutions were well-regulated but that had not saved them from trouble. And so it went on.
For Woodward, the source of the recession can be traced back to the banks. His advice for reporters was this: Find a typical bank and chart its business before and after and you would have the key to what went wrong and a way to explain it to readers.
Woodward is smart and engaging and clearly very at ease with himself. You can understand how he got people to talk to him. He talked about knocking on the doors of generals unannounced in pursuit of his reporting for a book - a tactic which would intimidate most people, if only because it would seem counter-productive (apparently it wasn't).
Interestingly, for all the books he has done on George W. Bush, he is not in favor of a witch hunt to prosecute him now that he has left office. The difference between Watergate and the controversy over the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, he said, was that what went on during Watergate was clearly criminal. By contrast, the wars began with the support of Congress and the American people. I have long thought that myself.
Elsewhere on the Post-Gazette Web site, you can hear Woodward in his own words.
It was a nice way to spend lunch: Food for thought for everyone.
Mar 03 2009
Nothing pierces the veil of gloom more than a timely visit to New York City, where my wife and I were on Sunday and Monday. This would be the last opportunity to see our daughter Allison before journeying to Costa Rica for her "destination wedding" in a few weeks.
We arrived just in time for the nor'easter that dumped six and more inches of snow on the New York City area. I didn't even know of the impending storm until we arrived at our hotel, the Algonquin.
The Algonquin is renowned, of course, as the meeting place for some of the great wits associated with The New Yorker magazine. I love that history. Some of these people were my literary heroes - Harold Ross, James Thurber, Dorothy Parker, Robert Benchley. Oh to be sitting at the famous round table back in the day.
The most amusing character now in residence at the Algonquin is a cat, Matilda. I saw Matilda jump on the reservation desk and present its rear end to a guest. You got to love a hotel with a cat with a superior attitude, which in truth, I suppose, is just about any cat.
The Algonquin is close to the theaters around Times Square. We saw "39 Steps," a vintage spy thriller that I actually had to read in high school. This version was played strictly for laughs and they milked many of them out of the unlikely story.
Only four people are in the cast - three men and a woman - and they play multiple parts, with the exception of the lead character. The staging was a wonder of creativity and the whole experience was highly entertaining.
(By the way, we went to the matinee at 3 p.m., having purchased our excellent seats at half price in the discount outlet right in the center of Times Square.)
That night, we went to an unusual restaurant that I had previously become intrigued with in a stroll around my daughter's neighborhood a couple of months ago. It was called Flex Mussels (178 East 82nd Street. between Lexington and 3rd Avenue). While it had other seafood offerings, this is a place for mussels, as the name suggests. It was excellent food and good value.
We came out to find the first of the snow. By Sunday morning, the nor'easter was well and truly upon the metropolis; it was blowing and cold. We assumed that our US Airways flight would be canceled but by lunchtime the storm had passed and the flight was still listed. I read that 900 flights were cancelled at New York's three airports but we got out of LaGuardia against all expectations.
Sometimes you get lucky. We returned to Pittsburgh on time to find no snow but the region as cold as an ice box.