April 25, 2005,
7:51 a.m.
King Roger, &c.
Shall we start with a little Roger Ailes? That’s always a good way to start a week. I was charmed, reading about his appearance at a conference in Beverly Hills. Jeff Greenfield mentioned that, according to a Pew study, “52 percent of Fox News viewers are Republican and only 13 percent are Democrats.” (I’m quoting from this report.) Ailes said, “I don’t know the relevance of a Pew study. I do know that 100 percent of the people who work there are liberals.” Greenfield — always quick — said, “What about Herb, the guy in maintenance?” Ailes — always even quicker — said, “He’s downstairs watching Fox.”
Perfect.
Al Gore was at the same event, and — again I quote that report — he “lamented, in hushed tones followed by thundering oratory, that the political dialogue is not in Congress as it has historically been but instead in ‘30-second television commercials that are not the Federalist Papers.’”
Um, since when did Al Gore and his kind of Democrat care about the Federalist Papers and all that Founding stuff? This country can’t be ruled by the hypocritical effusions of a bunch of Dead White Males who shackled slaves, can it?
Finally, more Ailes: “Freedom of press didn’t invent democracy; democracy allowed freedom of the press to flourish. We need to defend democracy.”
Damn right, Roger A.
Between Kimball, Scruton, and Ailes — what would we do without Rogers?
I give you my irrepressible friend Michael Walsh: He was revisiting the infamous L.A. Times story headed “Ceasing Food and Fluid Can Be Painless.” And the subhead? “Concerns for Schiavo’s comfort have galvanized the debate. But experts say dying of starvation and dehydration is a peaceful end for the ill.”
Says Michael, “Sounds like a tough break for the rest of us that we’re still dining.”
He then fixes on this paragraph, giving vent to his indignation within brackets:
“Doctors say that going without food and water in the last weeks of life is not traumatic [other than the fact that it kills you! But I suppose “trauma” is what you experience when John Bolton puts his hands on his hips and glares at you], and that the body is equipped to adjust to such conditions [yeah, by dying].”
Schiavo and Bolton in the same item? You betcha.
The Public Interest has published its last issue, and this issue — very good, by the way — leads with an essay by Irving Kristol (“Forty Good Years”). I was struck, not for the first time, by the excellence of Kristol’s prose. I believe this has been overlooked — in part because the quality of his thought is paramount, and in part because his is not a flashy, look-at-me style. The writing is natural, correct, easy. I have a feeling that the excellence of his prose is part of his success, part of his influence. That this has been ignored — to my knowledge — is a credit to that prose. It does not call attention to itself; it just is, like good technique in music, serving the score.
When I write about Cuba, I tend to receive nasty mail, much of it from university people. Something about oppression in Cuba touches a nerve — a lot of people don’t want to hear about it. Many of these want to hold on to their dreams about Fidel, and Che, and island socialism.
And I am continually amazed — although I shouldn’t be — by the abuse directed at the Miami exiles. (Last year, I wrote a piece for The Claremont Review of Books, touching on this topic.) Of course, the hard Left in America uses the Cuban Communist party’s word: gusanos, meaning worms. That’s what they call the exiles, the anti-Castroites, the democrats — the troublemakers, refusing to get with the program. Once, when I wrote about René Montes de Oca, a left-wing website denounced him as a “Batista stooge.” This is par for the course — René was born in 1963; Batista was deposed in 1959.
Just last week, I had a letter blasting me for being in league with the “sugar barons” — the letter was from a university, of course. That’s another term you hear, in this line of work: “sugar barons.” Barons, as you know, are businessmen you don’t like. And “barons” is a handy Communist word, used to connote the filthiest capitalism. You can almost see the top hats, tails, and diabolical grins.
Anti-Communists have had to put up with this abuse right from the beginning — from (at least) 1917. You will find it in R. Conquest, A. Solzhenitsyn, and other aware sources.
Frank Calzón is a man who has to put up with a lot — he is the (invaluable) executive director of the Center for a Free Cuba, in Washington. On his website, you will find this note:
Dear Friends,
King Juan Carlos I of Spain met with Fidel Castro’s foreign minister recently in Madrid. Castro’s envoy presented his government’s views to the King. In a plea now circulating, a thousand supporters of human rights in Cuba ask the King to meet with five Cuban former political prisoners to hear the Cuban people’s aspirations.
Please sign this petition to King Juan Carlos of Spain.
For more information, please go here.
You want a smidge of good news? Several readers e-mailed me a column appearing in the Yale Daily News, by a college junior, Keith Urbahn. Titled “Radical Chic: Think Before You Wear,” it is against Guevara, and Communism generally. That this should be remarkable says something about our higher education.
Incidentally, if you’d like to read my recent NR article on Che chic, in Italian, go here — to Ideazione.
Don’t all rush at once, now!
I was greatly amused by something in a New York Sun article, concerning a controversy at New York University. The school selected as its commencement speaker Shirley Tilghman, president of Princeton, and some NYUers were none too pleased with that: She works for another university, and is just a college president, after all.
According to the Sun, the student newspaper editorialized, “Instead of being honored by the presence of Maya Angelou, Jon Stewart, or Gabriel Garcia Marquez, the class of 2005 will be receiving Shirley Tilghman . . .”
I loved that trio, don’t you! Angelou, Stewart, and García! I’m told that One Hundred Years of Solitude is a fine book (although I don’t want to chance it) — but García is still a great friend of Castro, and an important apologist for him. Another Nobel Prize-winning novelist, José Saramago, gave up on Castro after the March 2003 crackdown (only 44 years into the regime): “This is my limit. . . . Cuba has lost my trust; it has damaged my hopes; it has defrauded my illusions.”
Not quite sure how Angelou and Stewart feel.
I had never heard of Liam Kennedy, but I have now, and he seems a great man — certainly one to root for. I quote from Charles Moore’s “Notes” in the current Spectator: “. . . Professor Liam Kennedy, who has made a study of IRA ‘punishment’ beatings, is bravely standing in the name of human rights against Gerry Adams in West Belfast.” This refers to the current election.
At last, a Kennedy I can support! (Even Anthony, on the Supreme Court, is little good.)
In these Notes, Moore also writes, “Two things which, if they appear in an article, disincline you to read on: 1) the words ‘I kid you not’; 2) the setting of a (usually unpleasant) scene followed by the phrase ‘Welcome to . . .’”
On No. 2, I couldn’t agree more. On No. 1 — no. One of the best beginnings of a column I ever read was by, of course, WFB: “Senator Lowell Weicker, I kid you not . . .”
I recalled it when I reviewed his book The Right Word years ago.
Just a few highlights from a weekend in Milwaukee: First, you know how I rhapsodize about milkshakes at Ronnie’s outside Savannah? Well, the frozen custard in Milwaukee ain’t bad — at all. Second, saw John Nelson (the conductor) on the plane, studying the score of Schumann’s oratorio Das Paradies und die Peri (very rare). (I realize that’s not directly related to Milwaukee, but stay with me.) And third, two beautiful girls at the airline counter were named Nettie and Hildie. You don’t see that just anywhere in the USA!
Oh, I almost forgot: I wanted to say something about last week’s Time cover story on Ann Coulter. Did you think the photo — the cover photo — was that bad? I didn’t. A little weird, a little arty — but not bad, not unflattering. Ann looked quite pretty, as she does in life.
And the article was, on the whole, favorable — Ann was basically unscathed. I think it was clear that the author liked her. Perhaps my favorite part of the article? The author — John Cloud — referred to the New York Times as a “temple of the secular left.” Now, to you and me, that’s obvious: like saying that Athens is the capital of Greece, or that John Bolton’s getting majorly screwed. But for Time magazine — very good.
Care for a little music criticism? For a review of the Metropolitan Opera’s new production of Faust — appearing in today’s Sun — please go here.
Care for some Atlantage? The NR/NRO crew, as you know, is going to Atlanta, on May 5. Please join us for the revels, and in an effort to further the prosperity of an enterprise we all value. Details here.
Care for a little mail? A reader was eager for me to know that Richard Cohen, in a column after 9/11, wrote, “Saddam and his bloody bugs have to go.”
Funny enough — they did!
From Virginia (the state, not a woman):
Mr. Nordlinger,
I recall that, in an Impromptus, a reader told a story about NPR’s offering a Michael Moore collection as a membership gift. Here in the Hampton Roads area, the two NPR stations are splendid. But in their pledge drive this week, they’re offering a choice of magazine subscriptions: either Newsweek or The Utne Reader.
What? No New Masses?
P.S. To be fair, what else are you going to entice NPR listeners with? National Review?
The other day, I wrote something admiring about Andre Agassi, and received several letters supporting this, including the below:
Jay,
Here in Las Vegas, we know all about Andre as a class act. But a personal story.
A local charity has a Magical Forest at Christmas, with Santa for the kids. I am normally Santa on opening night — Thanksgiving. It is a tradition for many families to get their family Christmas-card photo with Santa on this night, because the whole family has gathered for Thanksgiving.
On Thanksgiving 2002, Andre and Steffi brought their infant son and WAITED in line for an hour to get pictures. Andre and Steffi do not have to wait in line in Las Vegas. Jaden refused to sit on Santa’s lap and the wait was in vain. Andre agreed to pose with Santa so the charity could use the shot for publicity. I call that class.
P.S. Jaden was still afraid of Santa in 2003, but finally ran up eagerly in 2004 to tell Santa what he wanted, and his parents were able to get the pictures they wanted.
Finally, a little language and Times-bashing in the same letter:
Jay,
The chaps reporting for the NYT from Rome today seem to be having some language issues: “Cardinal Ratzinger, 78, spoke Italian in heavily accented German, his voice creaky at times and interrupted by coughs.” There’s probably a joke about fascism to be made out of that quote, but I can’t come up with it.
Oh, one more word: You’ll see that this column was headed “King Roger, &c.” I’m talking about Ailes, of course — but am also sort of thinking of the Szymanowski opera. Not that I needed to tell you that!
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