On the menu today: Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi is now a dark spot on a tall mountain. Raisi’s sudden death isn’t expected to lead to any dramatic changes in the policies of the Iranian government, but it may well have narrowed the options for who will succeed the 85-year-old Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Meanwhile, you’ve probably noticed a lot of commentary about Kansas City Chiefs placekicker Harrison Butker around here and a lot of other places. I don’t begrudge anybody their opinions about Butker’s commencement address, but I do fear that Americans have forgotten the fine art of not giving a hoot about what somebody else thinks or says. Finally, there was a detail about the man who attacked Nancy Pelosi’s husband that no media organization wanted to mention.
It’s Not America’s Fault That Iranian Pilots Decided to Fly through Fog
Make no mistake, Iran is really run by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. It’s not that the office of the president in the Iranian theocracy is powerless, but the buck stops with the ayatollah.
With that said, Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi was seen as a potential contender to be Ayatollah someday. His ambitions ended in a helicopter crash in Iran’s East Azerbaijan province this weekend:
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi was confirmed dead Monday more than 12 hours after reports first emerged Sunday that his helicopter had gone missing in the country’s northwest.
First Vice President Mohammad Mokhber quickly assumed the duties of president Monday, according to a statement from Iran’s Guardian Council that aired on state media. Iran’s cabinet also appointed Ali Bagheri Kani, previously the top nuclear negotiator, as the country’s acting foreign minister.
“The Iranian nation shouldn’t be worried. There will be no disruption to the operations of the country,” said Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, according to the report.
With Raisi out of the picture, Khamenei’s son Mojtaba is considered a front-runner to be the next ayatollah.
The Financial Times, just six days ago:
Within private circles, two names have long been mentioned as potential candidates to become the next supreme leader.
The first is Raisi, who has stood out among his predecessors for his unconditional loyalty to Khamenei. His government runs the republic’s daily affairs, but Raisi has also refrained from challenging the guards in their regional policies in particular during the latest Hamas-Israel war since October. . . .
The other name spoken about as a potential successor is Khamenei’s son Mojtaba.
The 54-year-old has little public profile but has been a target of protesters since unrest in 2009 following the re-election to president of the hardliner Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad. Demonstrators said the vote had been rigged against reformist candidate Mir-Hossein Moussavi to pave the way for Mojtaba to succeed his father.
Good thing the Iranians went through all that trouble to get rid of the shah, just to get another hereditary monarchy, huh?
It will probably not surprise you to learn that some Iranian officials blame the United States for the crash:
In a phone interview on Monday with the state TV news program, former Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said the U.S. sanctions on Iranian aviation were one of the main reasons for the crash.
“On the cruel American sanctions, the United States is one of the main guilty ones in the catastrophe of yesterday’s crash because, despite the decision of the International Court of Justice, it has sanctioned selling airplanes and aviation spare parts and doesn’t allow Iranian people have access to good air transportation,” Zarif said. “These will be recorded in the list of the U.S. crimes against Iranian people that how they treated Iranian people.”
Right, right. Helicopter flying in mountains is inherently dangerous, with downdrafts, crosswinds, frequent turbulence, and little or no margin for error, and the Iranian president’s team chose to fly through fog as thick as pea soup. You could have the best-trained pilots and a helicopter as advanced as Airwolf and still crash in those conditions. There’s about a 99.9 percent chance this was an accident caused by terrible weather conditions, difficult terrain, and a bad decision to fly in those conditions.
Still, a Hamas-affiliated Telegram account “took seriously an Israeli joke about a Mossad agent named ‘Eli Copter’ being responsible for the crash, repeating the claim before deleting the post.” Also, the word “gullible” is not in the dictionary.
No, no, there’s little chance that Raisi’s helicopter crashed because of foul play. But if it had, my thriller-novelist mind always asks, “cui bono” — who benefits?
Face it, the person who benefitted the most was . . . the ayatollah’s son.
Nobody Ever Turns to Justin Tucker for Theological or Cultural Guidance
Here at National Review, you can read Rich on how Kansas City Chiefs placekicker Harrison Butker is right about men and women, and how CNN’s Jim Acosta is wrong to denounce Butker; Haley Strack arguing that Butker missed the point — excellent word choice! — on several issues; Caroline Downey writing that Butker’s remarks shouldn’t be considered all that controversial; assistant projects manager Samantha Lehman, a graduate from Benedictine College, emphasizing, “His speech was not given to evangelize or to change minds, but rather to encourage Benedictine students on their paths forward’; Natan Ehrenreich on Butker’s brief but unfortunate comment about the Crucifixion of Jesus and the Jews. Dan McLaughlin arguing we should let Butker be himself; and Michael Brendan Dougherty contending that Butker should be saluted for defending the Traditional Latin Mass, and that Butker was correct to affirm masculinity.
But there’s an angle that is being missed in all this.
That angle is that last year, Butker succeeded on 33 out of 35 field-goal attempts, was a perfect 38 for 38 on extra-point attempts, and was five for five on field-goal attempts from beyond 50 yards. He went six for six on field goals in the team’s win over the Cincinnati Bengals, including a 54-yarder. Also, more than 87 percent of his kickoffs were touchbacks. In his career, he’s scored 900 points and kicked more field goals of 50 yards or longer than anyone else in team history. At one point, he succeeded on 24 field goals in a row, another Chiefs team record. In 2022, he connected on a 62-yard field goal, the longest in Chiefs history. In 2020, he made two 58-yard field goals in the same game. He also holds the team record for most field goals kicked in a single season. Earlier this year, he kicked the longest field goal in Super Bowl history, a 57-yarder.
In just seven years, he’s become the third-highest scorer in the history of the Kansas City Chiefs. If he’s not the best kicker in the league right now, he’s up there in, say, the top five.
I can hear you asking, “Jim, what does any of this have to do what Butker said?”
First, it means that if a guy kicks my team to three Super Bowl victories in five years, he can give a commencement address declaring the moon is made of green cheese for all I care.
Second, I’m asking why so many people are so emotionally and intellectually invested in the theological and political beliefs of an NFL placekicker. Chances are, you’re never going to meet this guy. What this guy thinks and says has absolutely zero impact on your life. The Benedictine College graduates might follow his advice, or they might not. How many people make major life decisions — when do I want to get married? When do I want to have children? — based upon what their commencement speaker recommends? As Bonnie Hammer wrote in the Wall Street Journal a few weeks ago, most commencement speeches give terrible advice.
More than 214,000 people signed a petition demanding the Kansas City Chiefs cut Butker. I’d love to know how many people signing this petition knew his name or could pick him out of a lineup before they heard the news coverage and commentary — often inaccurate — about his commencement speech. (I presume a healthy portion of those people demanding Kansas City cut him are fans of the Las Vegas Raiders, Denver Broncos, and Los Angeles Chargers, who play the Chiefs twice a year.)
You know what will get Butker fired? One of two scenarios. The first is if he misses three chip-shot field goals in a game. That’s what’s unacceptably offensive to the Chiefs organization!
The second way Butker will get canned is if he proves unable to work with any of the five people who effectively run the Kansas City Chiefs organization: Owner Clark Hunt, coach Andy Reid, quarterback Patrick Mahomes, tight end Travis Kelce, or pop star Taylor Swift. Okay, that’s a joke. The place isn’t really run by Kelce.
We have lost the fine art of not giving a hoot about what somebody else thinks or says. And a whole lot of people who insist that they value “diversity, equity, and inclusion” want everyone to think the same way, will refuse equity or fair treatment for those with different beliefs, and prefer to exclude those with different beliefs!
Guess what? This is America, a land of roughly 330 million people. There are tons of people who think differently than you. You’re gonna have to live with that. We’re going to have people who think marriage and having children are a trap or punishment or reflect some antiquated belief system. And we’re going to have people who believe it’s the single most rewarding, consequential, and meaningful thing you can do with your life. But if somebody thinks the exact opposite of you . . . that’s okay! That’s part of living in a free society. People are free to be completely wrong, or at least completely wrong in your eyes.
It doesn’t matter if you think Butker’s words show signs of commitment, or a sign that he should be committed. It doesn’t matter if you think his words should be etched on a stone tablet or should be quoted on an indictment for crimes against the zeitgeist. When Butker boots it through the uprights this fall, every feminist woke atheist Kansas City Chiefs fan is going to succumb to the impulse to applaud, and then tell themselves they were only clapping for the long snapper and holder.
The Serenity Prayer asks, “God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference.” You cannot change the religious, cultural, or political beliefs of the placekicker for the Kansas City Chiefs, and I don’t like your odds of changing the religious, cultural, or political beliefs of the graduating class of Benedictine College, either. And you really shouldn’t expect your column urging the Chiefs to cut Butker and sign a female placekicker to be taken seriously by anyone.
I have no idea what the religious or political beliefs of Greg “The Leg” Zeurlein are. I do know that in two years with the Jets, he’s made 65 out of 75 field goal attempts and he’s hit a 60-yarder. That’s all I need out of my team’s kicker! I don’t know what Baltimore Ravens kicker Justin Tucker’s views are on abortion, working moms, or the Latin Mass. And I suspect few Ravens fans care! I do know he’s made 363 of his 401 field goal attempts, making him the most accurate kicker in NFL history. That’s all anybody in the Ravens organization or fanbase needs out of him.
And I sure as hell am not asking Aaron Rodgers for geopolitical advice.
ADDENDUM: In case you missed it over the weekend, David DePape, the man who attacked Nancy Pelosi’s husband, was sentenced to 30 years in prison. I’ve got no gripe with that; I do have a gripe with the fact that the judge declared that a man who had lived in the country illegally for 14 years had no previous criminal record. Eh, only because the government’s lackadaisical about enforcing immigration laws, and this was probably helped by the fact that DePape lived in a sanctuary city for so long. It’s even worse that the New York Times described DePape as “a Canadian citizen who moved to San Francisco in his 20s,” and the Associated Press labeled him “a Canadian who moved to the U.S. more than 20 years ago.” Those descriptions are really misleading.
Almost every other major news organization didn’t find it relevant that DePape had been in the country illegally for 14 years. Of course, if DePape had been caught and deported at any time in that 14-year period, he wouldn’t have been around to assault Paul Pelosi!