On Tuesday night, Steph Curry set a record: most three-pointers of all time. (Made three-pointers, that is.) By consensus, he is the greatest shooter ever. On Inside the NBA, Charles Barkley was saying that Steph’s record will never be broken.
Sir Charles cited a couple of other records: Wilt Chamberlain’s 100-point game; Joe DiMaggio’s 56-game hitting streak. Ernie Johnson chimed in with Cal Ripken Jr.’s consecutive-game record.
Ah — this allows me to make one of my pet points. I have made it in this column before, but maybe it’s been ten or 15 years.
Anyway, when I was growing up, the great unbeatable record in all of sports was Lou Gehrig’s 2,130 consecutive games. Other records might be in reach — but not that one. Sports experts told you exactly why Gehrig’s record couldn’t be broken: The game was different, etc.
And when Cal Ripken Jr. was closing in on Gehrig’s record, they pivoted — they turned on a dime. “Actually, the great unbeatable record is DiMaggio’s!”
Listen, I would bet all of your money that Steph Curry’s three-point record will never be broken. Still: Be careful before you say “never.”
• San Francisco has been under assault by crime and degradation for years. There comes a time, I think, when people say, “Enough.” Maybe that time has come.
Mayor London Breed launched an emergency police intervention in San Francisco’s crime-ridden Tenderloin neighborhood Tuesday, targeting a pipeline of illegal drugs that has been fueling a surge in gun violence and deadly fentanyl overdoses.
Breed’s anger and frustration over the crime surge in the city were on full display at her noon news conference.
(I have quoted from this report.)
You know what the mayor said? “It’s time the reign of criminals who are destroying our city — it is time for it to come to an end. And it comes to an end when we take the steps to be more aggressive with law enforcement. More aggressive with the changes in our policies, and less tolerant of all the bullshit that has destroyed our city.”
Straight talk — a clear acknowledgement — at last.
No one likes being afraid — I don’t care how “progressive” you are. No one likes being afraid. In the absence of public order, there is no liberty, no pursuit of happiness. I think of two slogans from my college days: “Take back the streets” and “Take back the night.”
May San Francisco — arguably America’s most beautiful big city — get on the road to livability.
• Lately, I’ve been thinking about the young, for reasons I could detail. By “young,” I mean people in their late teens and twenties.
When I was coming of age, young people on the right tended to be libertarian. Libertarianism was attractive to the young. Some of them stayed libertarian, but many of them became conservative.
(“Within every conservative,” said Bill Buckley, “is a streak of libertarianism.” This always struck me as true.)
Today, young people on the right seem to be attracted to nationalism, populism, integralism, and illiberalisms of various kinds. Some of them will stay this way, no doubt. But what will the others become? It will be interesting to see.
Many young people, in my observation, have a Year Zero mentality: “Nothing really mattered until I came along. My comrades and I. No one in the past ever did anything. No one in the past ever understood anything. They all sucked. History starts with us, now.”
On the left, you have wokistas, who have the smell of French revolutionaries — the Robespierre kind.
Illiberals of various stripes — red and black, pink and brown — think they are the future. They are convinced, to borrow an old lyric, that tomorrow belongs to them.
I think of one of my favorite Reagan stories. When he was governor, a student mob surrounded his car. They chanted, “We are the future! We are the future!” The Gipper reached into his briefcase, withdrew a legal pad, and scribbled something on it. He held it to the window. “I’ll sell my bonds.”
• The January 6 committee — a lot of people tried to prevent it from coming into being. People in politics, people in the media. When you hear Liz Cheney read those text messages — you can certainly understand why.
• In the old days, we teased certain Democrats about SDI: “Do you oppose it because it will work or because it won’t work? Could you please have a meeting to decide?” In the same spirit, I ask, “Was January 6 a righteous stand by patriots? Or the foul deed of Antifa, BLM, and the FBI? Could you have a meeting to decide?”
Choose your line!
• I recommend a piece by Tim Alberta — our former colleague at National Review — on Peter Meijer, the freshman Republican congressman from Grand Rapids, Mich. I did a Q&A podcast with Meijer last March.
Here is Tim, writing about January 6:
When the Capitol was finally secured and members returned to the House chamber, Meijer expected an outraged, defiant House of Representatives to vote in overwhelming numbers to certify the election results, sending a message to the mob that Congress would not be scared away from fulfilling its constitutional obligations. But as he began talking with his colleagues, he was shocked to realize that more of them — perhaps far more of them — were now preparing to object to the election results than before the riot.
For sure.
On the House floor, moments before the vote, Meijer approached a member who appeared on the verge of a breakdown. He asked his new colleague if he was okay. The member responded that he was not; that no matter his belief in the legitimacy of the election, he could no longer vote to certify the results, because he feared for his family’s safety.
Meijer puts it this way: “Remember, this wasn’t a hypothetical. You were casting that vote after seeing with your own two eyes what some of these people are capable of. If they’re willing to come after you inside the U.S. Capitol, what will they do when you’re at home with your kids?”
A lot of people — a lot of people — would rather look away from political violence or sweep it under the rug. But the subject is critical. Bless all those who will tackle it head on.
Speaking of which: Mona Charen’s column from earlier this week is a must-read, or should-read: here.
• So is this Jonah Goldberg column. It begins, “Screw it.” He wants to talk bluntly about Fox News — the partnership of Fox News and the GOP. What some people say off the air, they don’t say on the air. What they say on the air, they don’t say off the air.
Beware of getting played — by politicians and media personalities alike. Be as savvy a shopper as you can.
By day, in private, they might say, “Trump has got to tell his people to stand down! They’re hurting us all!” By night, on the air, they might cry, “Antifa!”
What Jonah has to say about a parade of pols and pundits is — damn damning.
• Speaking of pols, let’s check in on Josh Mandel, the frontrunner for the GOP Senate nomination in Ohio. “General Flynn is a patriot, Adam Kinzinger is a traitor,” he tweets. He wouldn’t do it if this sort of thing weren’t popular among GOP voters. Mandel isn’t stupid.
Or could he possibly be wrong about the voters? One can hope.
• I happened upon an article from a South African publication — about Sewsunker “Papwa” Sewgolum, a golfer who lived from 1928 to 1978. I would like to quote just one passage, please:
In 1963, Papwa was allowed to compete in the Natal Open, going on to win the tournament — the first non-white to ever win a South African Open Tournament. But that’s not all. Papwa had to receive his trophy outside in the pouring rain because non-whites weren’t allowed into the club house under apartheid laws . . .
A trophy in the rain. What a moment. What a player. I’d like to peg it up with him right now, or simply follow him around, in a round.
• Another golf item? Every day — maybe every hour — you can see something at the range. Two people are practicing together. They are taking turns, hitting balls. One of them hits a good one. The other happens not to be looking (because he has gone to the pop machine, let’s say). The hitter is upset, to some degree. The non-looker is very apologetic.
Funny to observe.
• A little language? I’m going to paste a tweet from Lauren Boebert, the GOP congresswoman, but only for language purposes.
365,348 children went missing in 2020.
You haven’t heard a word from the media about it.
There enlies the problem.
The ear hears things, incorrectly — we have our favorite examples from song lyrics. Not “Round yon Virgin” but “Round John Virgin.” How about this one? “God and sin are reconciled.” No! “God and sinner reconciled.”
Well, evidently, some people hear “There enlies the problem” rather than “Therein lies . . .”
• Let me close with a slice of Christmassy, majestic New York:
Have a great weekend, my friends. Merry pre-Christmas, if that’s the phrase.
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