I am not a student of this mortgage-relief bill, and therefore won’t comment (much). But I noticed something: Many of the senators I most respect were in the small minority (13) who voted against the bill. These included Kyl, Grassley, Coburn, and Hatch. Also Jim DeMint. I was impressed by something he said — and I’ll excerpt an AP article:

Conservative Republicans were vehemently opposed to the bill, particularly the help for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Critics charge the companies enjoy lavish profits in good times and wield their outsized political clout to resist regulation while depending on the government to bail them out should they falter.
Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., delayed the final vote because Democrats refused to allow him a vote on a proposal to ban the companies from lobbying or making political donations to lawmakers.
“We can’t have the people who are supposed to watch over these organizations getting money from these organizations,” DeMint said. “At least if we’re going to ask the American taxpayer to be on the hook for billions, possibly trillions of dollars, let’s stop this.”

“Let’s stop this.” Yes, I like the sound of that.

‐There is reason for hopefulness in Cuba — Raúl might be bowing to reality (and looking for a way to save the regime from its inevitable demise). I will quote the BBC:

Cuba is to put more state-controlled farm land into private hands, in a move to increase the island’s lagging food production. Private farmers who do well will be able to increase their holdings by up to 99 acres (40 hectares) for a 10-year period that can be renewed. Until now, private farmers have only been able to run small areas of land. . . . [T]his is one of President Raul Castro’s most significant reforms to date.

(For the rest of the article, go here.) First you try a little reform, and then, le déluge. (But not in the PRC, huh?)

‐Did you see this little item about Israeli air safety? “The Federal Aviation Administration could soon cut back the number of flights from Israel to the United States after finding Israel’s aviation safety to have ‘severe security shortcomings,’ according to a report by the Israeli newspaper Haaretz.”

But Israel was always a model of air safety — because, of course, it had to be. Now, whassup? A very puzzling item. If Israeli air safety goes south — what next? No coal from Newcastle? No macadamia nuts from Hawaii? No beautiful girls in Brazil?

I mean, Israel does air safety. Or did . . .

‐In recent columns, I’ve been talking about “Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing,” the song composed by J. Rosamond Johnson and James Weldon Johnson in 1900. My friend Michael Walsh, the polymath and writer, sent me to a quite interesting website: here. And I would like to relate to you two facts about James Weldon. He founded a newspaper called the Daily American — I was talking about his intense identification as an American. And, in New York, he managed the black Republican club.

‐I don’t address the state of the automotive industry much in this column — but would like to do so now. Would like to do so through an extraordinarily knowledgeable reader who works in that industry. He says,

There’s been a lot of talk about the bad shape the auto industry’s in, and it’s true. President Bush has proactively come out and said, “There will be no bailout of the auto industry” several times over the last few years. He has said this preemptively, without anyone’s even asking for a bailout. Now, I’m not for a bailout either. I don’t think the taxpayers should foot the bill. But there’s a very easy solution.
What’s killing GM and Ford right now is the inability to provide highly fuel-efficient vehicles. Both Ford and GM make a lot of very fuel-efficient vehicles in Europe — but, thanks to differences in regulations, it takes a lot of cost and time to modify European designs to bring them to the U.S. This makes no sense at all. Europe is a sophisticated region and their vehicle regulations are roughly equivalent to our own as far as safety and other things go.
I see no reason that we can’t simply have a waiver that says U.S. companies can import any model that meets European standards and sell it in the U.S. We should just recognize their regulations. Mexico does this: Any car that meets either European or U.S. regulations can be sold in Mexico.
I think National Review should offer this up as a no-cost solution that involves no corporate welfare, enhances trade and consumer choices, reduces fuel consumption, and makes Ford and GM fully competitive in fuel-efficient cars almost immediately. There’s no downside to this except some bureaucrat somewhere would have to accept the regulations promulgated by some other bureaucrat somewhere else.

My friends, you can take that to the bank — I know this correspondent.

And he adds a coda:

I should emphasize that we want to bring in “gasoline”-powered vehicles as opposed to “diesel” — the reason being that the environmental standards for diesel engines vary greatly between the U.S. and Europe, with Europe allowing highly polluting diesel engines that the U.S. would not allow. The gasoline ones are much more similar. Also, the vast majority of Americans want gas-powered vehicles, not diesel, whereas Europe is about 50-50.

As Oliver North once said (about a not-neat idea), a neat idea.

‐Would like to comment on an article published a month ago — an article by Garry Kasparov. (“How Putin Muzzled Russia’s Press.”) Two things, in particular, popped out at me. One:

The elite circle of oligarchs surrounding Mr. Putin have much greater power and riches than did Yeltsin’s entourage. They dominate the media, and thus very little is known about how they amassed their fortunes. In 2000, there were no Russians on the Forbes magazine list of the world’s billionaires. By 2005 there were 36.

That’s kind of a jump. And this:

Western fantasies about Russia’s situation don’t serve anyone in the long run, least of all the Russian people. The Politkovskaya documentary [a documentary about the slain journalist Anna Politkovskaya] will hopefully help bring attention to the reality of censorship and corruption in Russia. At the film’s appearance in Prague last March, former Czech President Václav Havel stated, “It would be good if many people could see this film. Especially politicians who kiss and embrace Russian politicians, almost dizzy with the smell of oil and gas.”

That Havel — priceless. And speaking of the Czech Republic . . .

‐. . . I received this letter from a Czech intellectual:

Last Tuesday, Czech prime minister Mirek Topolánek announced that he would not take part in the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics (because of the Chinese Communists’ suppression of human rights) but that he would later visit the Games to support Czech athletes. However, what was really funny — and maddening for the ChiComs — was the fact that, during the press conference announcing this, he wore a Tibetan-flag lapel pin. (You can see this in the photo here.)
Then, all Chinese hell broke loose: China’s Madam Ambassador in Prague personally visited the Czech Foreign Ministry to issue a protest, and Beijing announced that no Chinese official would meet Topolánek during the Olympics. Perhaps they think that will be punishment for him, but I’m sure he doesn’t give a damn and will only be glad to be left alone by them to hoist a few with the Czech athletes.
There is something nobly “irritating” about these Czech politicians: Former president Havel was a pain in the neck of Castro, Burma’s junta, etc.; incumbent president Klaus is a pain in the neck of the Euro-fanatics and the global-warming nuts; and now Prime Minister Topolánek has announced his position on the Chinese Olympics while wearing a Tibetan-flag lapel pin.
Hope you enjoy this!

Do I ever.

‐In Thursday’s column, I was on a usual subject: the fine racial chopping that Americans are always engaged in. I mentioned that a major Democratic politico had described herself as a “two-fer” — being both Hispanic and female. How could anyone think of himself this way?

A lawyer wrote me to say that he had seen the résumé of a colleague. “In addition to schools attended, awards received, and professional accomplishments was the following bit of critical information: ‘1/2 Japanese, 1/4 Korean, 1/8 Chinese, and 1/8 Native Hawaiian.’ I’m still puzzling over how this information bears upon his ability to draft motions.”

How very, very American — modern American. Kind of sick, huh?

‐But here’s some good news — provided by my friend Duncan Currie, who is managing editor of The American. He was responding to something I’d said about foul rap and other lowlights of our culture.

I wrote a few pieces on race relations and racial progress this past spring (pegged to Obama’s candidacy and big race speech). And here’s the most interesting fact I came across: In a 2007 Pew Research Center poll, 71 percent of blacks said that rap music was having a “bad influence” on society; 74 percent of whites thought so. Sixty-one percent of blacks (and 64 percent of whites) said the same about “hip hop” music.

Excellent. (Long as they don’t take away Sir Mix-a-Lot, of course.)

‐Want to see a writer really, really, really going off on his editors? Really, really, really? A real treat.

‐Care for some music? For a review of the pianist Philippe Entremont in recital — published in the New York Sun — go here.

‐A letter from a reader:

Jay,
Living in San Francisco, I thought I had seen every disgusting, vile, pretentious, and preening sentiment that could be put on a bumper sticker, but going to work about a month ago I saw (on a Prius, natch) one that has stuck with me ever since: “Support the Iraqi Resistance.”
I’ve tried to put into words how this has made me feel since I saw it, but I simply cannot. I know there are probably plenty of people out here in this crazy place who share the driver’s sentiment, but I simply cannot fathom how someone could, even in a rash moment, say such a thing out loud, let alone permanently affix the statement on his car. This person is effectively calling for the deaths of U.S. servicemen. Scum.

Scum.

‐End on something lighter?

Jay,
You talked about how the New York Philharmonic changed the name of The Italian Girl to The Italian Woman. Well, I recently passed a marquee announcing the (local college) staging of “Twelve Angry Jurors”!

Well, could have been worse, I suppose: They could have called it “Twelve Angry Persons.” “Of Mice and People”? The Three Wise Persons?

Anyway . . .

P.S. I know — the production probably has female actors in it. Still . . .

P.P.S. I know — female actors are “actresses” (although the word seems to have been banned, along with “stewardess”). Anyway — see you!