The war in the Middle East is so big, it’s slightly hard to talk about. There is a blizzard of facts, events, impressions. I sometimes find it helpful to fasten on a single detail.

In that spirit, I offer you the following, from the news the other day: Nasrallah “signaled Hezbollah’s intention to step up attacks, calling on Israeli Arabs to leave the northern city of Haifa so Hezbollah could pound it with rockets and not worry about killing fellow Muslims.” People like me have contrasted the attitude of Israel to the attitude of its enemies so many times, we’re apt to grow weary. We keep making this point, and much of the world keeps resisting it. But I guess that’s no reason to stop. ‐And you’ve heard me complain about weariness regarding Cuba! I have been especially weary, and irked, lately, because Cuba is in the news, and ignorant people keep blabbing about it. Friends and acquaintances — especially Cuba experts — keep sending me e-mails saying, “Can you believe this? Would you look at this?” I can only reply, I know, I know — it’s been going on since 1959 and presumably will never stop. Anyway, want to say a couple of things, Cuba-wise. Anita Snow, the AP’s beauty of a Cuba correspondent, wrote this the other day: “Castro, 79, is famous for wanting to have a say in virtually every area of the island’s governance.” What a sweet way to describe absolute dictatorship! And I love that “virtually”: In what area does Castro back off? When does he decide to be a good ol’ federalist? And don’t you love that word “governance”!!! Apply it to Stalin, Hitler, Pol Pot . . . Look, the word is giggle-inducing even when applied to the first Mayor Daley. (Incidentally, for Snow’s article, go here.) Oh, and the other Cuba item. Reader wrote me to say that he’d heard Daniel Schorr on the radio — NPR, of course — and he had said that Castro was hated by Cuban exiles and “conservatives” in America. Which leads me to make a very old point of mine: If conservatives talked that way, they’d be accused of being the worst McCarthyites. You mean, American liberals don’t hate tyranny, repression, persecution — the denial of rights, the crushing of dissent, dictatorship? Moving on . . . ‐The other day, I saw a cartoon in The New Yorker that I regarded as perfect — in that it distilled today’s liberalism. See if you agree. Two men (congressmen, presumably) are on the steps of the Capitol, and one says to the other, “Of course, it would be a different story entirely if we could extract crude oil from stem cells.” Don’t you think that’s perfect, in a nauseating way? They think that we lust after oil while scheming to deny the sick their cures. ‐Peter Beinart has a column in the current New Republic, defending Joe Lieberman. It’s a good column. But there’s something in it that absolutely flabbergasts me. Beinart writes, “To be sure, Lieberman’s record in the ’90s was not flawless. Some of his aisle-crossing — his support for capital gains tax cuts, for instance, and opposition to the expensing of stock options — was indefensible.”

I concede that I don’t know much about the expensing of stock options. But I know a fair amount about capital-gains taxes, and the cutting of them. I think such cuts are eminently sensible, and stimulative of the economy, for all. But I understand there are arguments against them.

Still, “indefensible”? What a word to use, to describe cuts in the capital-gains tax. Indefensible!

I mean, I could imagine one of us — one of us NR-niks, and lifers — describing Lieberman’s votes for abortion as indefensible. But his view that these tax cuts are helpful? Not just unwise, or ill-considered, or even wrong, but indefensible?

I just don’t know why people write the way they do. (They write the way they do because they think the way they do, and I can’t understand that, either.)

(For Beinart’s column, go here.)

‐Was on the Statue of Liberty’s website the other day. Read the following: “The park is open daily except Dec. 25th.” Dec. 25th? Why Dec. 25th? Why is the park closed Dec. 25th? Is that the day they give the old girl a massive cleaning or something? I’m confused. (BTW, if you care to revisit my article “December’s C-Word,” go here.) ‐Reader writes,

Dear Jay:
I was reading a Reuters story on the Lebanon conflict today and came across this expression from an Israeli general: “Crushing Hezbollah is not like ordering a pizza. It takes time.” Knowing that you like colorful and apt expressions, I thought you’d like that.

‐Writes another reader,

Jay,
I know you like interesting names, in the political arena and elsewhere. Well, we have a Republican candidate for Congress — Arkansas Second District — named Andy Mayberry. How could anyone in the South not vote for Andy Mayberry?”

(Note to the untutored: Mayberry R.F.D. was a television show in the ’60s, starring Andy Griffith as Andy Taylor. “R.F.D.” stood for “rural free delivery.”)

CORRECTION: I’m the one who’s untutored. As readers have reminded me, Mayberry R.F.D. was a continuation of The Andy Griffith Show (and a lame one). Andy Griffith played Andy Taylor on his own show, and appeared in a few episodes of Mayberry R.F.D. to ease the transition. Class dismissed.

‐I wonder if you’d like some music criticism, from the New York Sun. All these reviews relate to the Mostly Mozart Festival at Lincoln Center. For the Festival Orchestra conducted by Douglas Boyd, with Alexei Lubimov, pianist, go here. For Gidon Kremer and his Kremerata Baltica, go here. For the Festival Orchestra conducted by Osmo Vänskä, with Sergey Khachatryan, violinist, go here. And for the Festival Orchestra conducted by Louis Langrée, with Garrick Ohlsson, pianist, go here.

‐You may recall that, in a couple of columns — here and here — I talked about Mel Gibson, booze, and “f***ing Jew.” After citing a couple of instances in which people had drunkenly exclaimed these words, I made the mordant joke that someone should market a wine or something called F***ing Jew.

Well, a reader reported to me that he had been to a beer festival where he bought a “He-Brew.” It was dubbed “The Chosen Beverage” or something. He also once saw a booth peddling “Cheeses of Nazareth”!

‐Let’s play bumper stickers:

Dear Jay:
I recently saw a car (Honda Civic), the back of which was plastered with liberal bumper stickers, including these two beauties: Meat Is Murder and Pro-Child/Pro-Family/Pro-Choice.
I was disgusted. I’d love to respond with a pair that said: Abortion Is Murder and Steak or Chicken — That’s a Choice.
I’d probably get my windows knocked out.

You got that right.

Jay,
A neighbor of mine has all the usual anti-Bush stickers on his cars. You know: all the No Blood for Oil claptrap. Walking home the other day, I noticed a new one: “I’m already against the next war.” And if that war directly involved his very survival?
Also, last summer, I followed a car in New Jersey. It had a sticker that said, “No hide in my ride: This vehicle is leather-free.” And right above it? You guessed it! Keep Abortion Legal.

(Insert sighing sounds.)

More bumper stickers: “Bush is listening. Use big words.” They’ll never drop the Bush-dumb thing, will they? What a stupid belief. A nicer one: “What if the hokey pokey is what it’s all about?” A sticker advertising a tattoo parlor: Making More White Trash — One Tattoo at a Time.

Three more: Good Cowgirls Keep Their Calves Together. And (really amusing) “Jesus is coming — look busy!” Finally, the greatest bumper sticker in the history of the world: George W. Bush — Saving Your A** Whether You Like It or Not.

‐Friends, I have a piece in the next issue of NR, which I hope you’ll read. (The entire issue, of course, not just my piece!) Last week, I visited Lynn Swann, who is running for governor of Pennsylvania. An exceptional man, Swann: bright, talented, versatile, charismatic. He can really campaign. I have much to say about Swann in my piece, and will have more to say on the web later. He’s trailing the incumbent governor, “Fast Eddie” Rendell, and political pros say he’s unlikely to win. But I wouldn’t count him out. You could be embarrassed, come November.

‐And may I say a quick word about Pittsburgh (where I met up with Swann)? What a wonderful city, hard to tire of. Have you ever noticed they have more than their fair share of rivers and bridges? And cool sports stadiums, to boot? And some of the most glorious architecture in the United States? Not to mention the delicious food, and not necessarily of the expensive variety, either.

You’re lucky, Pittsburghers, to hang your hat there.

‐As for me, I don’t think I’ll scribble this column again for a while. Not till the end of August, something like that. If you happen to be at the Salzburg Festival, come to the seminars — English-language seminars — and say hello. (I serve as moderator.) Otherwise, I’ll see you when I see you.