Author Archive E-mail Author Send to a Friend <% dim printurl printurl = Request.ServerVariables("URL")%> Version

June 20, 2002 9:00 a.m. How WWII was won. Ma Cherie. Who you callin’ “unsportslike”? And more.

ou want to start with something crabby and angry-white-male-ish? Okay.

A couple of days ago, I read a very nice article on the WWII Navajo “codetalkers,” or “windtalkers,” as they were also known. Very nice article. And I figured: This is maybe the 9,000th article I’ve read on the Navajo codetalkers. And I’ve read about 13,000 articles on Sen. Dan Inouye and those marvelous Nisei soldiers. And about 21,000 articles on the Tuskegee airmen.

So now I’ve got it straight: World War II was won by the Tuskegee airmen, the Nisei, and the Navajo codetalkers.

Is that an awful thing to say? This is not lack-of-admiration, mind you; it’s just enough-already-ness.

I have to tell you, I’m somewhat pleased about Cherie Blair’s comment, following the murder of 20 or so Israelis by the latest suicide bomber. Britain’s First Lady said, “As long as young people feel they have got no hope but to blow themselves up, you are never going to make progress.”

Why am I pleased? Because she said what countless members of her class think, and say to one another — when they’re being their most moderate. They think of Palestinian terrorism as a response to desperate circumstances. It’s their own form of rationalization.

Did you like that, “no hope but to blow themselves up”? The main problem, of course, is not that they blow themselves up — it’s their nickel. The problem is that they blow up innocent others.

Mrs. Blair made her comments while pal-ing with the latest queen of Jordan. That’s perfect, too.

And, by the way, if the Palestinians have “no hope,” why doesn’t Jordan — which controlled that sliver of land, until yet another Arab war of annihilation against Israel — step up to the plate, with money, hospitality, and other things?

Such questions are never asked. The burden of Palestinian well-being is on Israel, and on America. So strange — given the 22 Arab states, in particular Jordan.

A quick media comparison: The 6/19 headline of the New York Sun: “SUICIDE BOMBER KILLS 19, WOUNDS 70 IN JERUSALEM.” Then, underneath, in small letters: “Israel Moves to Retake Territory / Bush Considers Sending Powell.”

That’s the way I myself would’ve played it.

And here’s the New York Times: “ISRAEL ACTS TO SEIZE ARAB LAND AFTER BLAST; BUSH DELAYS TALKS.” In small letters: “Jerusalem Toll 19 / Sharon Says Area Will Be Held ‘as Long as Terror Continues.’”

Again: “ISRAEL ACTS TO SEIZE ARAB LAND AFTER BLAST.” What a difference a newspaper makes.

I have an e-mail from an athletic director in the Midwest. Apparently, the term “unsportsmanlike” (along with its companion “sportsmanlike”) has been banned. Why? Well, there’s the problem of those letters m-a-n. The Big Ten Conference has printed a Code of Sportslike Behavior (that’s right, “sportslike” — the new word for “sportsmanlike”). It reads, in part, “Unsportslike conduct shall subject the individual to disciplinary action.”

But who will subject the destroyers of our language to disciplinary action?

Want to hear about the newspapers in ultra-politically correct Seattle? I didn’t think so, but you should check this out. I’d heard that the Times and the Post-Intelligencer refused, in its real-estate ads, to print the names of churches and religious schools, as in the sentence, “Within walking distance of St. Jerome’s Elementary” (which would be banned). It seemed incredible.

But, of course, it isn’t. Rachel Zabarkes of NR reports the following: “According to Linda Charles, who works in classified real estate at the Seattle Times Company, real-estate ads in the Times and Post-Intelligencer may not give the proper names of religious institutions. Only generic names like ‘the church’ or ‘the school’ may be used. Curiously, this applies only to organizations with a religious affiliation. One could certainly refer to the ‘Ginzu Sushi Palace.’ Yet ‘First Baptist Church’ and ‘St. John the Divine Middle School’ are verboten. Ms. Charles was not aware of the reason for this policy, though when pressed she suggested it exists to avoid targeting particular readers and thus appearing discriminatory.”

Got it. This relates, somewhat, to our story about the business in England that couldn’t advertise for a “friendly catering manager” — lest it discriminate against the unfriendly.

And then we have “scenic views” discriminating against the blind, etc.

In an editorial yesterday, the Wall Street Journal mentioned a Palestinian mother, Naima al-Obeid, one of whose children had gone off to be a suicide bomber. She was thrilled, of course. And she told CNN that “she has eight more children to sacrifice to the struggle.”

Here’s a question I’m just weird enough to ask. The one son — the first bomber — managed to kill only two Israelis. Not a particularly glorious day’s work. But the other eight are lined up. Let’s say that they, like the now-virgin-enjoying brother, kill two Israelis each. That’s 16 more dead Israelis (isn’t my math impressive?).

The weird, barely allowable question: Would a government be morally justified in apprehending those eight bright-eyed kids, on the grounds that they intend to take lives, or that others intend it for them? Would a government be thus honor-bound — conscience-bound — to protect its citizens?

As I said, a strange question — just a little experiment. And the supply of would-be bombers is endless, of course.

The Journal editorialist also wrote this eye-catching line: “Suicide has been a universal taboo in every civilized culture as far back as anyone knows; Islam itself explicitly forbids it. But in Mr. Arafat’s Palestinian Authority, suicide-homicide has become, pardon the expression, a way of life.”

Pardoned indeed!

You may remember the case of Christine Pelton, out in Piper, Kansas, whom I nominated for Teacher of the Year (in a figurative way). There’s a coda to that story, as explained by NR’s Jason Steorts:

“When Pelton, a biology teacher at Piper High School, discovered that 28 of her students had completed a botany assignment with material plagiarized from a website, she did what any sensible teacher would do: She failed them. The students had even received fair warning, as the syllabus for Pelton’s course informed them that plagiarized work would receive a failing grade.

“One would expect school administrators to hold academic honesty in high regard — and many, including the school’s principal, defended Pelton’s decision. But when the plagiarizers’ parents complained to the school board, it reduced the weight of the assignment and declared that students would receive credit for unplagiarized portions of the project. That meant the cheaters would pass the class — and the honest students would receive less credit for their work.

“Her authority eviscerated, Pelton resigned in protest, and the school’s principal and vice-principal announced that they would follow suit. Mike Rooney, the district superintendent, says that this year Piper will lose seven teachers and two counselors from its staff of 31.6. One wonders which is more bizarre: that Piper’s staff includes six-tenths of a person, or that Rooney downplays the resignations by saying, ‘I wouldn’t tie it all to what happened with the botany project.’”

The Cubans continue to shine in baseball — even in Canada. By which I mean that the Blue Jays’ new manager is Carlos Tosca, who, as the Toronto Star explained, “was born in Cuba, emigrating to Tampa with his mother and three siblings . . . in 1962. Tosca’s father stayed in Cuba and was jailed as a political prisoner by Fidel Castro’s regime for nine years before finally joining his family in Florida.”

Needless to say, Carlos Tosca does not have Jimmy Carter’s understanding of Cuba — or Pierre Trudeau’s.

(Bear in mind, please, that Castro extended his invitation to Carter at Trudeau’s funeral in October — when they were both pallbearers. Perfect, huh?)

Here’s a funny little fact, sent in by a reader. He did so under the Subject line, “Castro as Marketing Chic,” a continuing theme.

The New Yorker Hotel, at Eighth Avenue and 34th in Manhattan, is using Castro’s image in a newspaper ad. Castro is shown young, smoking, and pensive, and the headline is, “Fidel Castro / Pitcher. Lawyer. Dictator. / Room 3822.” Underneath, it says, “C.I.A., Room 3821 / F.B.I., Room 3823.”

Cute, huh? The idea — or one of them — is that the hotel has a long, rich history in the city. At least the ad said, along with “pitcher” and “lawyer,” “dictator.”

Vaclav Havel and the other Czech democrats — the makers of the Velvet Revolution — have always been notably good about Cuba’s democrats and human-rights activists. So it’s unsurprising that the Czech group People in Need has nominated the dissident Oswaldo Payá Sardinas for the Nobel Peace Prize, with Havel’s backing.

There’s someone else I’d love to give a Peace Prize to — and this is really dreaming: He’s the incredibly brave and principled Oscar Biscet, who has been imprisoned and tortured for years, and who continues to be full of love and inspiration. The main website dedicated to him, by the way, is www.biscet.org.

Further by the way, I might mention that he’s an “Afro-Cuban” — black. Why do I bring this up? Because the Castro apologists like to claim, not only that the Communist regime is a friend to black Cubans, which is an obnoxious lie, but that there are no black opponents of the regime (the two false claims are related, of course).

Another interesting fact — which I included in my 3/6/00 piece for NR, “In Castro’s Corner: A Story of Black and Red” — is that Castro’s predecessor dictator, Batista, was, in fact, black: an “Afro-Cuban.” According to Servando Gonzalez, whose book The Secret Fidel Castro: Deconstructing the Symbol, has just been published, Castro would refer to Batista as the “negro de mierda” (which is not, be assured, a nice phrase).

In Tuesday’s Impromptus, I hailed the insight — into Muhammad Ali — of Mark Kram, the sportswriter who recently died.

A reader wrote to say: “I’ve never heard of Mark Kram, but anyone whose name is a palindrome deserves such a eulogy.”

I hadn’t thought of that.

I also happened to mention the Whoopster, Whoopi Goldberg, who apparently said on Hollywood Squares — of which she’s star — that she wished John Ashcroft would be struck by lightning. Not a very comedic sentiment — maybe you had to hear it.

A reader wrote to say that Miss Goldberg’s production company is called “One Ho.” Hmmm. That wouldn’t be merely the first part of Santa Claus’s laugh, would it? Or a reference to the Hawaiian entertainer Don?

I must reprint a note that I positively love. If I were the tearing-up kind, I’d tear up:

“My 85-year-old Italian grandmother came home from church on Sunday and purposefully sat down and turned on the TV to watch the U.S. Open — to watch Tiger Woods. As she said to me, she knows absolutely nothing about golf but just had to watch Tiger play, because he is amazing.

“Now, she lives in Chicago, and she knows of famous athletes like Michael Jordan, Walter Payton, and Ernie Banks. But never, ever — in the 35 years since my birth — had I ever known her to stop one of her opera tapes to turn on the TV in order to watch sports. I’d venture to say that, given a choice to meet Pavarotti or Tiger, she just might choose Tiger. This is scary.”

Wonderful.

Finally, you may know that Saudi Arabia’s King Fahd is in Geneva, to be medically cared for. There is a fine mosque there. He asked the city fathers for permission to build another one. They replied: Yes — when it is possible to build a church in Riyadh.

Helps one get through the day.