Category Archives: Foreign
The Great Mandela Selfie
I wasn’t that upset by the Great Mandela Memorial Selfie. In fact it was a relief to see the president finally getting along well with others.
World leaders haven’t been so relaxed together since W rubbed down Angela Merkel.
The Pope is not a Supply Sider
I learned more about Pope Francis yesterday. He is not a supply sider, but he used to be a bar bouncer.
His latest message, “The Joy of the Gospel” or “Evangelii Gaudium”, if you prefer dead languages, has created a stir. It’s about 80 pages long and I haven’t read it. Ok, I admit I haven’t read the Affordable Health Care Act either.
But I have read about it. It seems to be mostly about – the Gospel. The pope wants the church to get its hands and feet dirty spreading the good news.
Pope Not a Supply Sider
He’s also doesn’t like poverty and inequality and he’s skeptical of the free market. The president feels the same but that gave us ObamaCare.
If you would like to actually read Evangelii Gaudium, in English, here it is. Or if you just want to read about it, you might like to go here, here, or here.
JFK and a Silly Little Communist
Kennedy Week was a very good week for Ira Stoll’s book Kennedy, Conservative. He makes the case that JFK was an anti-communist supply sider and would be a conservative today.
Maybe. Most of the other 11 year olds I knew in those days were anti-communist too. Not so sure about the supply side part – my peer-group wasn’t up to speed on tax policy. A quick look at Youtube, however, does show Kennedy was for tax cuts to increase employment and cut the deficit.
He was also in favor of civil rights. At least his wife thought so:
“He didn’t even have the satisfaction of being killed for civil rights. It’s — it had to be some silly little Communist.”
Which brings us to this piece by Rich Lowry. He complains that James McAuley, in a NYT oped, pins the murder on “Dallas, a city of hate with a death wish in its eye”. (Now we know who shot JR.) Manny Fernanez, also in the NYT, blames it on an “angry anti-Washington culture”.
I think President Kennedy was swell but where can I sign up for this Angry Anti-Washington Culture?
JFK and A Silly Little Communist
The real conspiracy about the Kennedy Assassination is the myth built by the left that sinister right wing forces cut down the young president – when it was really just a silly little Communist.
Iran Sucker’s Deal
The U.S. negotiated a deal with Iran that would have eased sanctions without requiring them to stop moving toward an atomic bomb. Netanyahu freaked out and hit Kerry on the nose with a rolled up newspaper calling it a “very very bad deal“. The French went a step further calling it a sucker’s deal and killed it.
Big Fat Bully Boys
Americans, as usual, are holding up our end of H.L. Mencken’s grand bargain that “we get the government we deserve, and we deserve to get it good and hard”.
But what have the polite people of Toronto done to deserve Mayor Rob Ford?
His poll numbers went up when he was caught smoking crack but his latest video rant may be a rage too far. Here’s a nice retrospective of his top then videos.
More Big Fat Bully Boys
As for the other big fat bully boy in the news, things may not be exactly as they seem either. Here’s a view from Lydon Murtha in SI. He’s a former Dolphin teammate of Richie Cognito and Jonathan Martin. Murtha says it was Martin who violated the NFL code of conduct and he sounds convincing.
If you doubted that 300 pound men who smash into other 300 pound men in a high speed collider – just the way we like it – can be bullied, you may be right.
We get the NFL we deserve – good and hard.
