The other day, I was looking at President Bush, and noticed how gray he had gone — white, even (somewhat). And I am certain of one thing: He will never reach for the Clairol (or whatever).

I was reminded of something someone told me in 2000, when Bush was first running for president. He had dismissed Al Gore, his opponent, with: “Man dyes his hair.” That’s all you needed to know, according to GWB: “Man dyes his hair.”

I’ve always liked that.

‐And I always liked that his mom did not dye her hair (despite turning prematurely white). I always thought this said something about her character.

Not that there’s anything wrong with dying — some of those I’ve admired most have!

‐Here’s an easy question to toss out to NRO readers: Don’t the French make you sick sometimes? The United States, I would wager for good reasons, has declined to sign a treaty that “bans governments from holding people in secret detention.” I am quoting from this AP report. And here’s what the French foreign minister said, when signing in Paris: “Our American friends were naturally invited to this ceremony; unfortunately, they weren’t able to join us.” Snigger snigger snigger.

Why is it that the United States is always made out to be a human-rights bad guy? In this world of rotten, illiberal, rights-denying, torturing, mass-murdering regimes, why is the U.S. made to wear the black hat? Has any other country done as much for human rights in the last century? I like to quote Donald Rumsfeld: “America is not what’s wrong with the world.”

Back in Cold War days, leftists — all my teachers, all those around me — made a big deal out of the fact that the Soviets had pledged “no first use”: They would never use nuclear weapons first. And America would not pledge the same. Therefore, Moscow was more humane and enlightened than we.

Tell us another one . . . (and they did!).

‐A reader sent me the following, from the Sacramento Bee TV columnist Rick Kushman:

Marc Cherry, the creator of ABC’s “Desperate Housewives,” and a man who put in plenty of time in the mills of show business before hitting it big, told TV critics how the network censors can get, shall we say, lost in the small things.
He talked about an episode in which Eva Longoria was in bed after a tryst with her 17-year-old gardener. He got a request from the network.
“The censor looked,” Cherry told critics, “and said, ‘Does she have to smoke?’
“And I went, ‘So you’re good with the statutory rape thing?’”

A truer tale of modern American, I don’t know.

‐May I pause for a job ad? I will quote copy you have perhaps seen on this site before:

National Review is looking for an associate editor, a position with a year-long term. Applicants should have a talent for editing, a knowledge of public affairs, and an enthusiasm for National Review. Please send a letter of interest and résumé to Erica Stalnecker at [email protected].

Thank you much!

‐Now for something grimmer: This is a story that tells us what we’re up against, in this general world struggle. It is a gruesome story, and I wish it weren’t representative — but I fear it is:

“A Jordanian man fatally shot his 17-year-old daughter whom he suspected of having sex despite a medical exam that proved her chastity.”

And if you have the heart or stomach for the remainder of the story, you will find it here.

‐In Monday’s Impromptus, I cited an interesting observation, which had come from a reader: The media seem very keen to call what’s happening in Iraq a civil war. Why do they not say the same about the PA, where they’re killing one another left and right?

Lo and behold, I saw this headline yesterday: “Palestinians Try to Stave Off Civil War.” It appeared over this AP story, which begins, “Palestinian factions on the brink of civil war . . .”

‐British people — even the brightest — not infrequently get America wrong. I’ll give you a couple of examples. In a recent Spectator, Boris Johnson wrote,

It is one of the great mysteries of modern geopolitics. How the hell has Condoleezza Rice got away with it for so long? There she is, Secretary of State of the United States and one of the most powerful people on the planet. It is Condi Rice who leads on behalf of you, me, the entire Western world, in waging this deepening Cold War with Iran. She is the girl who threatens Ahmedinejad with Armageddon, or whatever our policy is. And yet if you read State of Denial by Bob Woodward (as you must) it is clear that she was the most stupefyingly incompetent National Security Adviser in the history of that office.

Oh, BoJo, don’t you know about Bob Woodward books? All that tells me is that Condi didn’t talk to him, and her enemies did.

Also, I was speaking in London last week with a very, very distinguished historian — knows more than I ever would in five lifetimes. He says to me, “I don’t understand your country, how religious it is. How can it be so religious? I myself am an atheist. I mean, think of the Founders — Jefferson and so on. They wanted separation of church and state, and here you have a born-again Christian in the White House!”

Um — what do you say to something like that? That we live in a democracy, and cast votes? That even born-again Christians can stand for office? That the Founders wanted to protect religion from the state, not the state from religion? That it is Britain, actually, that combines church and state?

Anyway . . .

‐You have read, surely, what George Soros said at Davos: “America needs to follow the policies it has introduced in Germany. We have to go through a certain de-Nazification process.” My only comment is: It is unsurprising, it is sickening, and it is utterly consonant with our age. I believe Soros is the chief funder of the Democratic party, or one of them. This is the party of FDR, Truman, and JFK. This is not an especially good time in America, and you might even call it a frightening one.

‐Um, not sure whether you look at New York Times CD reviews, but you may be interested in this:

“The Jewish Communist composer Hanns Eisler, a student of Schoenberg, was an outcast in both Nazi Germany and McCarthy-era America.”

Nice, huh?

‐Speaking of music, have a review from the New York Sun: here. It covers the New York Philharmonic under Esa-Pekka Salonen, with the pianist Yefim Bronfman, soloist. And have a recordings roundup, here. It gives you a little Jonathan Biss, a little Rolando Villazón, and a little Pierre Monteux — go crazy.

‐Finally, an e-mail from a reader:

Dear Mr. Nordlinger,
I don’t know if you heard, but one of your favorites, Vern Ruhle, died in Houston on January 20. He was only 55. You might remember that I wrote you when he was named pitching coach of the Cincinnati Reds.

I do remember. And it was Vern Ruhle, then a young Detroit Tiger, who taught me to throw a curveball at a baseball camp. I must have been 13, something like that. He was wonderful with me — not his fault that my curveball was never very good.

Thanks for joining me, guys, and I’ll see you later.