On Sir Charles and San Francisco; Dem machinations; the Texas GOP; Clarence Thomas and Sonia Sotomayor; Mitch Daniels; Mark Shields; and more
San Francisco is the most beautiful city — big city — in America, many of us think. And surely one of the most beautiful cities in the world. But don’t look down. San Francisco is pretty . . . well, sh***y, not to put too fine a point on it. Better to look up in San Francisco than down. The people there have let the streets of San Francisco go to pot.
That was the name of a popular TV crime drama, young people might like to know: The Streets of San Francisco. It ran in the mid-’70s.
Charles Barkley, the retired NBA great and ubiquitous public commentator, has been flinging truth about San Francisco lately. The Western Conference championship was played between the Golden State Warriors and the Dallas Mavericks. (Golden State went on to win the whole thing.) One night in Dallas, it rained. Rain leaked through the roof of the arena, delaying the game.
Commented Barkley, “You know what the bad thing is about all this rain? It’s not raining in San Francisco, to clean up those dirty-a** streets they got there.” He continued, “San Francisco, you know — it’s a great city. All that dirtiness and homelessness, y’all gotta clean that off the streets.”
Later, Barkley said, “Let me tell you something: What has happened to that city is a travesty and disgrace.”
A blurter-out of truth, is Barkley, and a hoot, and a joy.
• Below is the opening paragraph of an Associated Press report out of Alabama. The last words got to me:
The 70-year-old visitor had previously attended some services at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church before police say he showed up for a potluck dinner, pulled out a handgun, and fatally shot three of the elderly participants, one of whom died in his wife’s arms as she whispered words of love in his ear.
• America is boiling over, and this affects youth-sports officials, too. They are being subjected to violence as never before. I have spoken to several of them. Games are being canceled, on account of no refs, or umps. People are quitting, saying, rightly, “Who needs this?” In April, I penned an Impromptus headed “Punching the ump, &c.”
Here is a report out of New Jersey:
A 72-year-old youth baseball umpire was left with a fractured jaw after an ejected coach leveled him with a sucker punch at a 13-and-under tournament . . .
Thirteen and under. Again: Who the hell needs it?
• A headline from the New York Times: “Democrats’ Risky Bet: Aid G.O.P. Extremists in Spring, Hoping to Beat Them in Fall.” The subheading reads, “As Democratic leaders warn loudly of right-wing threats to democracy, their campaign arms are meddling in Republican primaries, betting they can help pick easier opponents in November.” (Article here.)
In my view, these Democrats are playing with fire. What they are doing is also reprehensible. And unpatriotic.
• Yesterday, I noted the Texas GOP, which has a new platform. One of the things the new platform does is call for the repeal of the 1965 Voting Rights Act. For years, Democrats have accused Republicans of wanting to “turn back the clock.” Well . . .
• At the convention of the Republican Party of Texas, one of the state’s U.S. senators, John Cornyn, was viciously booed. Reason: He is working with Democrats on gun-control measures, following the massacre in Uvalde, Texas. Let me share a longstanding opinion of mine: A politician who is moved by boos, or applause, is one to be wary of. This goes double — no, quadruple — for writers. A writer owes you his best judgment, and so, heaven help me, does a politician.
• Also at that convention, Congressman Dan Crenshaw was set upon by his opponents, who called him “Eyepatch McCain.” An honor, in my judgment — to be compared to McCain, who was a stubborn, cranky, idealistic, tough-as-nails American hero.
• Some people are allergic to the concept of equality. On Truth Social — a Trumpian alternative to Twitter — Mehmet Oz, the Republican senatorial nominee in Pennsylvania, wrote, “Our country is better because of our freedoms, our unity, and our equality.” Apparently, Republicans freaked. So Oz deleted the message and posted a new one, eliminating mention of equality.
I think of an old, musty document: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal . . .” I still like it.
• I really like Matt Fitzpatrick and Will Zalatoris. These two youngsters — 27 and 25 — dueled down the stretch of the U.S. Open (golf) last week. I would have been happy for either of them to win. Both of them are breaths of fresh air. Do you know that Zalatoris, at his tender age, has finished second in three of the four majors? (The U.S. Open, the Masters, the British Open, and the PGA Championship.) All great players finish second or third a ton of times. Zalatoris has not won a major yet. But his wins will come, I feel sure.
• If I could recommend one piece, published in recent days, it would be “Two Fathers,” by Tom Nichols. It is about an uncle of his and a teacher of his, who guided him, or set an example, at critical times. Very, very candid. And moving.
• The weirdest piece I’ve read in recent days is this news report — which begins,
A suburban Seattle city will pay more than $1.5 million to settle a dispute with a former assistant police chief who was disciplined for posting a Nazi rank insignia on his office door and joking about the Holocaust.
• I had a judge friend, a conservative Republican, who worked in the same court as Sonia Sotomayor. He liked her very much. I thought of him when I read this news story. It’s headed “Sotomayor praises Clarence Thomas: ‘He is a man who cares deeply about the court as an institution.’” The article makes for a very interesting read. Said Sotomayor, “Justice Thomas is the one justice in the building who literally knows every employee’s name, every one of them. And not only does he know their names, he remembers their families’ names and histories.” Etc.
• Mitch Daniels is stepping down as president of Purdue University. He began in January 2013 and will leave in January 2023. That’s a neat ten years. In that time, Daniels has been a model university president. He has frozen tuition for a decade (his decade). At the same time, Purdue has boomed, expanding in all sorts of ways. Also, he has championed free speech, in an era of stifling conformity. Daniels has a long résumé. He has been a political aide to Reagan, budget director under George W. Bush, governor of Indiana, and so on. Evidently, he will never be president (of the United States). But he has been a splendid public servant all the same. One of the last of the Reaganites.
• In a tweet, National Public Radio used the phrase “people who menstruate.” “People who menstruate are saying it’s hard to find tampons on store shelves across the U.S. right now . . .” I wonder: Are words and phrases such as “people who menstruate” a passing fancy? Like the hula hoop, the pet rock, or the lava lamp? Or swallowing goldfish? Or are they here to stay?
I vote for passing fancy.
• For the latest episode of Music for a While, a music podcast I do, go here. Also, here is a piece called “Music for a While Longer,” by Haim Shweky. It is an appreciation (of me). It’s jerk-like to circulate an appreciation of oneself. But my rationale is this: The “non-appreciators” get around, plenty; once in a blue moon, it’s all right for an appreciator to get around.
• Mark Shields has passed on, at 85. He was a liberal Democrat — a politico, columnist, and TV talker — who was appreciated by many a conservative Republican. His love for America, and accompanying love of people, was obvious. What’s more, he had an excellent, often wicked, sense of humor.
Young people may not know there was a televangelist named Jim Bakker, married to a woman named Tammy Faye. This was kind of a shady pair, though entertaining. When Jim was sentenced to prison, Shields quipped, “The judge offered him 40 years, or 20 with conjugal visits.”
Though Shields was a partisan, he was not a blind one. He once told a story, or joke, illustrating a certain mindset on crime. Two liberals come across a man in a ditch. He is bleeding, moaning. He has been beaten to a pulp and left for dead. One liberal says to the other, “Quick, we have to find the people who did this. They need help.”
We could use more Mark Shieldses around. Anyway, I’m happy to have you, my dear readers, and I wish you a pleasant day.
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