On the CIA at 75, Shinzo Abe, Boris Johnson, mass shootings, energy blind spots, Steph Curry, and more
The Central Intelligence Agency is one of the most controversial organizations in the world. There have been endless books about it. I have read my share, since my teenage years. Today, however, I’d like to cite a news article:
President Joe Biden lauded the CIA as the “bedrock of our national security” during a Friday visit to the agency . . .
Good.
The article continues,
Biden marked the 75th anniversary of the agency’s founding after World War II. While at the headquarters in Virginia, he thanked the CIA for its work in Ukraine and called America’s intelligence officers “the best in the world.”
I once desired to work for the CIA. I even had an exchange of letters with Richard Helms about it.
Today, I would like to record one more thing. When I was in high school, I read the memoirs of Vernon Walters: Silent Missions. Its dedication made an impression on me: “To the brave men and women who have laid down their lives on the invisible battlefield that we might live free.”
• Obviously, the world has been wracked by violence since time began. Violence is a permanent, daily, hourly feature of life. And yet news of individual instances of violence can still shock and sicken us. I must say, the murder of Shinzo Abe did this to me: shocked and sickened me.
He was a genuine statesman, Abe.
• About Boris Johnson, there are a great many things to say. I have said a good number of them, over the years. Today, I am going to confine myself to two things.
Lying is a malady. Some people are more tolerant of lies than other people. The Conservative Party in Britain seems to be less tolerant than the Republican Party in the United States. Boris Johnson has endless gifts. I used to say, “How is it that the mayor of London is, on the side, just about the best prose stylist in the English language?” There was no column I looked forward to more than I did Boris’s. And yet, people get tired of lies.
And that includes people who agree with him on the issues, and wish him well.
The second thing, re Boris: He understood — understands — the Ukraine war. The importance of Russia’s assault on that country, that people. And that is no small thing to understand. Indeed, it is a very important thing to understand.
I will always appreciate Boris Johnson for that.
• Germany, you may have seen, has decided to restart coal power but reject nuclear power. People all over the world have a blind spot about nuclear power. And about energy generally. About oil production, for example.
That is a lousy blind spot to have, if you’re going to have a blind spot (and don’t we all?).
There are myriad reasons that Americans should desire energy independence — or self-sufficiency, if you like. One of them, maybe not the most important, is this: It would have an effect on our foreign policy, and a positive one.
Do you feel like going hat in hand to Saudi Arabia? Or to Venezuela? I do not.
In recent days, I have seen a sickening photo: Mohammed bin Salman and Ramzan Kadyrov together, all jolly. Kadyrov is the Chechen brute, remember. He and MBS are two of the giddiest torturers on earth.
At a rally in Alaska over the weekend, Donald Trump said of his successor, Joe Biden, “He’s going to Saudi Arabia to ask for oil. He didn’t like Saudi Arabia. I did. I always liked him. But he didn’t like him.”
The “him,” one gathers, is Mohammed bin Salman.
Trump continued, “Now he’s going there, and he’s asking for oil. ‘Please give us energy.’”
One more thing, on this general subject. At the beginning of this month, Biden tweeted,
My message to the companies running gas stations and setting prices at the pump is simple: this is a time of war and global peril.
Bring down the price you are charging at the pump to reflect the cost you’re paying for the product. And do it now.
Populist baloney is a bipartisan affair. And when politicians get bossy with businesses — watch out.
• America has had another mass shooting — the one in Highland Park, Ill., during the Fourth of July parade. These mass shootings have become routine. It’s possible to get numb to them. This numbness should be resisted.
People speak of “new normals.” Some new normals are good, I suppose. But some ought to be combated, rendering them “abnormals.”
A lot of people don’t like it when you talk about mass shootings. They get annoyed. They want to change the subject to everyday violence, especially urban violence. Or to the media — the irresponsible media (as they see it).
Everyday violence, we certainly have with us. It is getting worse. Here is a report from last week: “First half of 2022 is deadliest in Baltimore history.” Urban violence is as familiar as the sky. But, you know? We have this problem elsewhere, too. Here is a report headed “Rural America Reels From Violent Crime. ‘People Lost Their Ever-Lovin’ Minds.’”
Okay, let’s talk about the media. We’re all annoyed at them from time to time — or regularly. A story such as this one is hard to take. It tells of a two-year-old boy, Aiden, who was wandering around without his parents, because they had been shot to death during the parade — the one in Highland Park, on the Fourth.
It occurs to me: No one is required to read, or hear, such stories. If you don’t want to read or hear them, you don’t have to. I myself have wanted to check out, from time to time. “Stop the world, I want to get off.” We can silo ourselves away. I have been sorely tempted to do it, and have done it, I think, for intervals.
But . . .
I believe that our mass-shooting problem — and I do believe we have one — should not be yawned away. Or what-abouted away. I highly recommend a column by my friend and colleague Mona Charen: here. She says that mass shootings — in supermarkets, at churches, during parades, in classrooms — are like acts of terrorism. I think she gets the issue exactly right.
In the early days of the War on Terror, a lot of people — a lot of people — didn’t like it when you talked about terror attacks. They said, “You have a better chance of being killed by slipping and falling in the bathtub! You have a better chance of being struck by lightning!” Statistically, this stuff was true (I assume). But, to some of us, it was not consoling, and beside the point — because terrorism was different.
• Something nicer? Something nicer. Steph Curry, the basketball star, has graduated from college. In 2009, he left college — Davidson — to go to the NBA. And now, these years later, he has graduated. Why? Why did he pursue his degree? Because he promised his mom and his coach, back in ’09, that he would. And he wanted to keep his promise.
So old-fashioned. Antique, practically. And great.
(For a story, go here.)
• I first learned of Davidson College — which is in North Carolina — when I was a high-school student, I think, reading about Woodrow Wilson. Wilson went to Davidson for college, before transferring to Princeton. I’m not sure I heard another word about Davidson until Steph rose in the NBA — and people noted where he had gone to college.
In my part of the world — southeastern Michigan — “Davidson” usually means Bill Davidson, the late, great businessman who owned the Detroit Pistons. Those were glory years for us.
• When you got it, you got it. Here is Steph Curry, holing a shot from the fairway at a golf tournament over the weekend. The distribution of talent is fabulously uneven.
• Let’s have a little language. At the Detroit airport last week, I heard a TSA agent say, “Geez oh Pete!” A man had forgotten to take his belt off, causing the metal detector to sound. She (the agent) was not happy about that. Unable to contain herself, she exclaimed, “Geez oh Pete!”
She did not do this with comic intent, mind you. She was flustered.
That’s what we say in Michigan: “geez oh Pete.” Not sure why. It’s a linguistic marker of our state.
• An old de Ville — gleaming, stately, solid — and a basketball hoop. What an American scene, huh?
• Saline is a small town just south of Ann Arbor, my hometown. The streets are decorated with banners of servicemen — local people who served in the military or are on active duty. I thought you’d like to see a sampling.
My very best to all readers. Hope the summer is going well. Talk to you soon.
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