From the WSJ Opinion Archives
Anti-American
Marketing
A
few months ago Former Enron adviser Paul Krugman published a collection of his
screeds from the New York Times op-ed page, titled "The Great Unraveling:
Losing Our Way in the New Century." The cover
is a rather dull affair: The author's name and subtitle appear in black letters
against a white background, while the title is in white on an orange background.
One corner of the orange rectangle appears to be dogeared, which we guess is
supposed to be symbolic of the book's title, though it doesn't look like much
of an "unraveling."
The British edition of Krugman's book, however, has a lurid cover, one that appears designed to appeal to a virulently anti-American readership. (Click on the nearby thumbnail to see a bigger copy.) It shows a picture of the president of the United States holding a wad of money. His mouth is stitched shut, and the word ENRON is written on his forehead. Over to the right is the vice president, with a somewhat Hitlerian mustache drawn on his upper lip and the words GOT OIL? scrawled on his forehead. In the middle is a picture with a caption referring to Krugman's former boss: KENNETH LAY WEF ALUMNUS THEY ARE ALL LOOTING THE WORLD.
The British edition also has a far more confrontational subtitle: "From Boom to Bust in Three Scandalous Years." The funniest thing about it, though, is the blurb that appears under the author's name: " 'Everything Krugman has to say is smart, important and fun to read.'--The New York Times Book Review." We guess the Times has more credibility over there, where people are less familiar with it and don't know that it routinely publishes wacko screeds by former Enron advisers.
The
Three Pillars
President Bush is in London, amid what Reuters
inevitably calls "a groundswell of protest over the Iraq war." The
pro-Saddam demonstrators who took to the streets of London proved a useful foil
for the president, who in his speech at Whitehall Palace cited them in celebrating
the freedom they would deny Iraqis:
Americans traveling to England always observe more similarities to our country than differences. I've been here only a short time, but I've noticed that the tradition of free speech--exercised with enthusiasm--is alive and well here in London. We have that at home, too. They now have that right in Baghdad, as well.
"The peace and security of free nations now rests on three pillars," Bush said:
First, international organizations must be equal to the challenges facing our world, from lifting up failing states to opposing proliferation. . . . The second pillar of peace and security in our world is the willingness of free nations, when the last resort arrives, to [restrain] aggression and evil by force. . . . The third pillar of security is our commitment to the global expansion of democracy, and the hope and progress it brings, as the alternative to instability and to hatred and terror.
Who could oppose these noble goals? In National Review Online, Amir Taheri looks at the composition of the "antiwar" protests in Britain:
The demonstration is organized by a shadowy group called "Stop the War Coalition," part of the Hate-America-International, which has orchestrated a number of street "events" in support of the Taliban and the Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein since 2001. . . .
The coalition has a steering committee of 33 members. Of these, 18 come from various hard left groups: Communists, Trotskyites, Maoists, and Castrists. Three others belong to the radical wing of the Labour party. There are also eight radical Islamists. The remaining four are leftist ecologists known as "Watermelons" (Green outside, red inside).
Radical leftists, Islamists and environmentalists, united in a common hatred of freedom. As Mark Steyn describes it:
The fanatical Muslims despise America because it's all lapdancing and gay porn; the secular Europeans despise America because it's all born-again Christians hung up on abortion; the anti-Semites despise America because it's controlled by Jews. Too Jewish, too Christian, too Godless, America is also too isolationist, except when it's too imperialist.
David Warren is slightly more charitable:
In their own subjective world of illusions, the demonstrators demand not surrender, but an unobtainable "peace." However, in the objective world of cause and effect, they are the reliable allies of the people who flew airplanes into the World Trade Centre, who blow up Jews in synagogues and supermarkets, who tortured and murdered hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqis and bulldozed their bodies into mass graves.
The New York Times' Warren Hoge reports that London demonstrators "plan to unveil and then topple an 18-foot papier mache statue of President Bush, mocking the action of American soldiers who helped bring down a statue of Saddam Hussein in central Baghdad." Hoge might have added that the action also mocks the Iraqis who've been freed from Saddam's rule, but we suppose that's a bit much to expect from an American who thinks, as we noted last week, that his own country is "something of a rogue state, a pariah nation."
London's Guardian yesterday published a series of open letters to the president from various Englishmen and Americans. Many were hostile--the Guardian is a left-wing paper--but we like this one from novelist Frederick Forsyth (ellipsis in original):
You will find yourself assailed on every hand by some pretty pretentious characters collectively known as the British left. They traditionally believe they have a monopoly on morality and that your recent actions preclude you from the club. You opposed and destroyed the world's most blood-encrusted dictator. This is quite unforgivable.
I beg you to take no notice. The British left intermittently erupts like a pustule upon the buttock of a rather good country. Seventy years ago it opposed mobilisation against Adolf Hitler and worshipped the other genocide, Josef Stalin.
It has marched for Mao, Ho Chi Minh, Khrushchev, Brezhnev and Andropov. It has slobbered over Ceausescu and Mugabe. It has demonstrated against everything and everyone American for a century. Broadly speaking, it hates your country first, mine second.
Eleven years ago something dreadful happened. Maggie was ousted, Ronald retired, the Berlin wall fell and Gorby abolished communism. All the left's idols fell and its demons retired. For a decade there was nothing really to hate. But thank the Lord for his limitless mercy. Now they can applaud Saddam, Bin Laden, Kim Jong-Il . . . and hate a God-fearing Texan. So hallelujah and have a good time.
Bush seems to have taken Forsyth's advice. Good for him--and good for America.
The
Best Correction Ever
From yesterday's Cleveland Plain Dealer (ellipses in original):
Because of an editing error, a story on the front page yesterday misattributed a quote from the speaker on an audiotape purportedly of Saddam Hussein as coming from Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota. It was the speaker on the tape, not Daschle, who said, "The evil ones now find themselves in crisis, and this is God's will for them." The only solution for Iraq was for "the zealous Iraqi sons, who ran its affairs and brought it out of backwardness . . . to return . . . to run its affairs anew," the speaker on the tape said, referring to the Baath leadership.
Shouldn't it have been a giveaway that the man on the tape didn't describe himself as "deeply saddened"?
Troops?
What Troops?
Now here's something interesting. When you go to the homepage of the Senate
Democrats' Web site, your screen is taken over by the following announcement:
It has been 168 Days Since the Passage of the Child Tax Credit Restoration Bill.
Republican Leadership Continues to Delay Tax Relief for Families of 12 Million Children.
This refers to an effort to expand the Earned Income Tax Credit, which, because it is "refundable"--that is, you don't actually have to pay taxes to receive it--actually amounts to a welfare program. Anyway, the Senate Democrats' Web site also has a page called "Daily Tribute to the Troops." It was pretty active for about two weeks there, but the most recent item, "Senator Levin Offers Tribute to Troops From Michigan" is dated April 9--the day Saddam's statue fell. That's 224 days the troops have been waiting for their "daily tribute" from the Dems--56 days longer than the Dems have been waiting for the EITC bill.
Saudi
Progress?
"A Saudi cleric well known for his hardline views has repented on national
television," the BBC reports:
Sheikh Ali al-Khudair said he has withdrawn his support for Islamic militants suspected of having links with al-Qaeda. He condemned the recent bomb attack on a residential compound in the capital, Riyadh, which left 18 dead.
In a string of fatwas--or religious edicts--he had given legitimacy to their violent struggle against the Saudi state. But in a TV interview on Monday, the sheikh withdrew the fatwas and urged militants who are still on the run to give themselves up.
Meanwhile, the Arab News carries a report titled "Saba Did the Right Thing, Say Many." That would be Saba Abu Lisan, a Saudi woman wounded in the Riyadh bombing, who "rescued seven people, including her two sisters," and "transported the victims to King Faisal Specialist Hospital in her father's Mercedes."
Some, however, argue that a woman driving is too high a price to pay for saving lives. The paper quotes one Hamad Muhammad:
"What was she thinking? It's not her role to save others. She exposed herself and those with her to grave danger," he said. "She had no right to risk the lives of others. What if she had been involved in another accident on her way to the hospital? She should have waited for professional help. If we approve her action and applaud it, then we are encouraging other Sabas out there. I agree with the Arabic saying 'Close the door through which the wind blows and relax.' "
At least most of the people the Arab News quotes don't agree. Such is what passes for progress among our friends the Saudis.
Henry
Ford's Legacy--II
Under congressional fire for funding anti-Semitic hate groups, the Ford Foundation
"says it is changing its grant-making process and auditing methodology
of grant recipients," the New York Sun reports:
The allegations stemmed from reports by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that some Palestinian grantees at the 2001 U.N. World Conference Against Racism in Durban, South Africa, advocated for an end to the Israeli state and its "racist" behavior.
"We deeply regret that Foundation grantees may have taken part in unacceptable behavior in Durban," the president of the Ford Foundation, Susan Berresford, wrote in a letter to Rep. Jerrold Nadler, a New York Democrat.
"Although some Ford-supported grantee organizations repudiated the bigotry they witnessed in Durban, questions remain about others. More troubling still is the fact that many organizations among the large number at the conference did not respond at all," she said.
Sen. Chuck Grassley, chairman of the Finance Committee, has called for an investigation to determine "whether the tax code adequately punishes tax-exempt foundations that give to terrorist organizations." We noted the Ford scandal last month.
Is
Our Children Learning?
"Presidential Hopeful Kucinich Keeps Eye on House Seet"--headline,
FoxNews.com, Nov. 19
You
Don't Say
"Gay Marriage Unlikely for Idaho"--headline, Idaho Statesman (Boise),
Nov. 19
The
Never-Ending Quest for 'Diversity'
Lisa Tuntigan of Astoria, N.Y., weighs in with a letter to the editor of New
York magazine on a cover story about gay couples adopting children (fourth letter):
As Michelangelo Signorile correctly points out, having kids is often a "luxury, not a mandate" for many gays and lesbians. David Usborne's story would have benefited from some economic diversity, perhaps by profiling a gay dad who has to work two jobs to support his child, or a lesbian mom who manages to care for her baby without the help of a nanny or au pair. The only thing that "Gay With Children" illustrates is that rich gays and lesbians now feel comfortable enough to be every bit as obnoxious and self-involved as the straight couples who shuttle their kids from private Manhattan schools to their Hamptons beach houses. This is progress?
Tuntigan's not alone. Margaret Moore of Manhattan (third letter) writes, "I invite you to also consider how working- and middle-class black and Latina gay women are searching for and experiencing family life."
What
Would We Do Without Blackout Probes?
"Blackout Probe Finds Blame in Missteps"--headline, Associated Press,
Nov. 19
We'd
Say It Doesn't Have Much
"Justices Consider Large-Farm Manure Appeal"--headline, Associated
Press, Nov. 18
Not
Too Brite--CXXIV
"A vodka-drinking competition in a southern Russian town ended in tragedy
with the winner dead and several runners-up in intensive care," Reuters
reports from Moscow.
Oddly Enough!
Hare
Today, Gone Tomorrow
"Which is faster, the riverine rabbit or the Galapagos snail? Conservationists
say both are racing toward extinction at the same breakneck speed," the
Associated Press reports.
Now, if you're like us, you're probably wondering what a snail is doing racing a rabbit. The way we remembered the story, the race was between a tortoise and a hare. The hare was faster but got lazy, allowing the tortoise to catch up, win the race and become extinct. Advantage: Hare!
So where did the snail come from? We hear a gang of snails mugged the tortoise so that their comrade could take his place. Police arrived on the scene and asked the tortoise what the suspects looked like. "I don't know," he said. "It all happened so fast."
The
Second-Best Correction Ever
Those jewels the New York Times reported missing last week have now been accounted
for. Today's Times carries the following "Editor's Note" (last item):
An obituary last Wednesday about Marvin Smith, a leading photographer of Harlem who worked with his identical twin, Morgan, described the closeness of the two men--it was said that they never used the pronoun "I"--and recounted an anecdote about Marvin Smith's response to the illness that caused his brother's death, in 1993.
The article said that Morgan Smith died of testicular cancer and that his brother, in response, had his own testicles removed. That account was given to The Times by a friend of both men. It should not have been published unless it could be verified and attributed.
After the obituary appeared, Monica Smith, the daughter of Morgan Smith, told The Times that her father had had prostate cancer and that her uncle did not have his testicles removed.
It's good to know there really are some things too weird to be true. On the other hand, we'd say that business of not using the pronoun "I" is still pretty darn freakish.
(Elizabeth Crowley helps compile Best of the Web Today. Thanks to Andrew Bono, Barak Moore, Tom Linehan, Hampton Stevens, Josh Logan, Sasha Eysymontt, Rosanne Klass, William Specht, Andrew Crowe, Joel Goldberg, Alex Wang, Jeffrey Bergman, Gregory Taylor, H.J. Farmer, Peter Cummings, Jim Orheim, Lee Yoakum, Tim Hoffman, Hiawatha Bray, Michael Segal, Raghu Desikan, Don McKinney, C.E. Dobkin, Paula Simmonds, Monty Krieger, David Albersheim, Judie Amsel, Sol Horwitz, Chris Field, Chris Hayes, Skip King, Mark Schulze, Robert Brooks and Robert LeChevalier. If you have a tip, write us at opinionjournal@wsj.com, and please include the URL.)
Today on OpinionJournal:
- Review & Outlook: In Saddam's hometown, the Army copes with the challenge of intelligence.
- Claudia Rosett: Is Iraq like Vietnam? The Vietnamese should be so lucky.
- Terry Teachout: The National Endowment for the Arts honors Jim Hall, jazz master.
