You know Bernard Lewis, the historian who is the dean of Middle East scholars, and a friend of National Review, and an NR cruiser. But did you know that he was leading a plot to divide Egypt into four separate states? Oh, yes. MEMRI — the invaluable Middle East Media Research Institute — has the story, here.
It is not only the Muslim Brothers who are peddling this lunacy: It’s the official Egyptian press. Lewis is the “Jewish-Zionist Orientalist,” alternatively “the Zionist conspirator historian” — etc.
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I have said it for decades, ever since being exposed to the Arab world while in high school: The region will never, ever progress until the fever breaks — until the culture of the lie, the culture of nutty paranoia, dies or weakens. More than poverty or anything else, it’s lunacy and lies that hold the Arab world back.
Many Arabs will tell you this, when they think it’s safe to do so.
Quick story — a repeat: On 9/11 or 9/12, I received an e-mail from an Egyptian acquaintance, who lectured at the university in Alexandria. Very well-educated, Westernized woman. She said (in essence), “I hope you’re okay. And please know it couldn’t have been Arabs who did this — it must have been the Jews.”
If she could do no better than that — what hope was there for the man who emptied her trash at the university?
This story begins, “U.S. nonprofit organizations under investigation in Egypt say an old ally of Hosni Mubarak is behind an Egyptian campaign against pro-democracy groups.” The headline: “US groups point finger at Egyptian minister.”
I know which finger I hope it is.
The chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, General Martin Dempsey, has described Iran as a “rational actor.” (Story here.) Really? Hope he’s right. A lot hinges on that . . .
Hugo Chávez has hit on a line of attack to use against his opponent in the October election, Henrique Capriles: “Jew, Jew, Jew!” With a dose of “Fag!” thrown in.
Wonder what our Chávez-supporting “progressives” — Kevin Spacey, Sean Penn, Naomi Campbell, et al. — will say.
(For a news article on Chávez versus Capriles, go here.)
Ho-hum — another Falun Gong practitioner being tortured to death. Hope I can stay awake long enough to tap this item.
This one’s name is Zhou Xiangyang. For a report on him, go here. Amnesty International has said, “His family saw him a few days ago and say that he is in very bad physical condition. During the visit, he told his family that the suffering inside the prison was beyond people’s understanding and that he could no longer take the torment.”
Do you suppose our leaders will think of Zhou and the countless Chinese like him, as these leaders cajole and fête the Communists in charge of this torture? I don’t either.
This anti-Romney article from the Associated Press was rather amazing. It began, “The world according [to] Republican presidential front-runner Mitt Romney: Europeans are socialists. The Chinese are currency manipulators. Russia can’t be trusted to abide by nuclear agreements. The Palestinians are out to destroy Israel. And the U.S. is too generous with humanitarian aid.”
All right. But I especially loved this: “[Romney] takes aim at European allies, who are seen as slipping the capitalist leash.” Funny, but I think of socialism as having a leash — a leash of varying length and tightness. And capitalism? Not so much of a leash, you know? Which is one reason socialists hate it so much.
When my mom was a school teacher, the kids and way too many adults didn't understand why February was Black History Month when Martin Luther King's birthday was in January. As she explained, BHM evolved from Negro History Week, established in 1926 based on the Abraham Lincoln's and Frederick Douglas's birthdays. If the Kings had known that their son was going to become as I port ant as he did, they might have planned his birth a little differently--three years later. (One of her favorite trivia questions for use during Black History Month was "Who was the first African American to be awarded a Nobel Peace Prize?")
“The world according [to] Republican presidential front-runner Mitt Romney: Europeans are socialists. The Chinese are currency manipulators. Russia can’t be trusted to abide by nuclear agreements. The Palestinians are out to destroy Israel. And the U.S. is too generous with humanitarian aid.”
Actually, I think it was Dennis Rodman who made the comment about Bird. When Thomas was asked if he agreed, he said something like, "Well, basically, yes."
"Europeans are socialists. The Chinese are currency manipulators. Russia can’t be trusted to abide by nuclear agreements. The Palestinians are out to destroy Israel. And the U.S. is too generous with humanitarian aid.”
Bernard Lewis is splendid, and of course is generally recognized as a great scholar/historian. Fewer may appreciate, however how funny he can be:
Here's a statement of his that could just as well have been uttered by P.J. O'Rourke:
“There are some who think that Arabs are born for dictatorship, that they can never know the freedoms that people elsewhere enjoy. This is known as the pro-Arab view.”
"It is now revealed what he said right before that: 'Remember, John, this [the rocket] was built by the low bidder.'"
Jay has a soft spot for pat, Reader's Digest-worthy one-liners (to be fair, the Gipper did too), but actually, this "low bidder" line is an ancient space-program joke. Also attributed to Alan Shepard and Glenn himself over the decades.
Indeed, the line is even in "The Right Stuff", certainly in the movie version. Although I can't remember to which astronaut the line is given in that version of events.
It loses almost none of its black humour with the millionth retelling, but it is still almost an obvious thing to say- who in a major aerospace program run according to US government methods would not be thinking the exact same thing?
Sir I beg to differ with you. Today is not President's Day it is DEAD President's Day. According to the law which set this holiday in place, it was to honor all the past (deceased) presidents, NOT the current one or ones still living. On that note may I add that I pray Obama lives to 150 so I don't have to honor him on this day for a long time.
Well it's good we can recognize all the president's on President's Day, in the spirit of which, I recall this fascinating fact that I read on Drudge a couple of weeks ago: that President John Tyler, the 10th U.S. president (1841-1845) has two living grandsons today - grandsons, not great-grandsons but actually the children of one of his sons!
I read that too, and it is fascinating. A friend of mine had a baby and I had expressed a belief that this baby must be one of the last grandchildren of a WW2 vet, but this article sort of undermined that idea. Maybe one of the last who MATERNAL grandfather was a WW2 vet.
"When I was growing up, people said that the Chinese, when they talked, always sounded mad, even when they were expressing tender sentiments."
As someone who has spent a long-time with Mandarin Chinese-speakers from Taiwan (Mandarin has been the language of instruction for Taiwan ever since the occupation began in the 1940s), I can confirm that they do sound angry a lot.
It comes from the fact that the language is tonal. Mandarin has 4 tones, one of which sounds angry, as if you were scolding your dog by saying "No!". If you take a perfectly normal conversation and use that angry "No!" every 4th syllable or so, to English speakers it will sound like people are arguing.
I don't know how many times I asked people what they were arguing about before I finally got used to it.
There's no doubt that much of the attention devoted to Jeremy Lin attaches to him being book smart, not black, and (apparently) culturally conservative. Everything that most NBA players are not.
As for his staying power in a league dominated by much taller men, that remains an open question. For the time being, it's a very good thing to be able to root for the Knicks again.
Quick story — a repeat: On 9/11 or 9/12, I received an e-mail from an Egyptian acquaintance, who lectured at the university in Alexandria. Very well-educated, Westernized woman. She said (in essence), “I hope you’re okay. And please know it couldn’t have been Arabs who did this — it must have been the Jews.”
