Category: Access

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Wednesday’s Child: The Rotten Thread

For the better part of the last ten years, in the California town of Perris – which is probably how you pronounce “Paris” if you’re a child molester, though this conjecture is, I admit, of little relevance to the larger argument here – a couple enslaved and abused thirteen persons of various ages, allegedly their own biological offspring, keeping them in chains and starving them in ways that would make Mr. Bumble take pity on poor Oliver Twist. This is all happening in America, in 2018, yet the only reaction to the madness, apart from the grinding of the wheels...

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Wednesday’s Child: The Driving Fail

If one cares to understand something about the South of Italy, I suggest spending four minutes of one’s time viewing this masterpiece of daily life on YouTube.  It has all the truthfulness, spontaneity, and absurdity of an early Chekhov story, and it explains something central about individual liberty – something missing in Burke on the right as well as in Mill on the left.  In short, it’s a good illustration of why this is still the best place to live in Europe. Neither I nor my wife drives, so we’re well placed to observe disinterestedly, without the bitter rancor that...

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Real Haitian Story: The Clintons Destroyed It in 1994

It shows the immaturity of American politics that a vulgarity a U.S. president used in private becomes a mediastorm for weeks. But let’s look at the real reasons why one country at issue, Haiti, is such a mess: Co-presidents – as they fashioned themselves – Bill and Hillary Clinton destroyed Haiti’s economy in 1994 to put back in power a communist priest, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, who had been defrocked in 1990 by Pope John Paul II. That was just two more years after communism fell in the Soviet Union and the Communist Party was abolished on Christmas Day 1991, so the...

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The Haiti We Shall Always Have With Us

This is from a web piece posted in 2004 When will there be peace and stability in Iraq? When will the United States be able to sign off on an Iraqi democracy and bring the troops home?” Many Americans have been asking these question over the past six months. The obvious answer to both questions is: “Never.” The foreign-policy leaders of the Bush administration know that Iraq, like Afghanistan, has no cultural or historical basis for a democracy. They also know that we are increasingly hated by all parties, and that the rising resistance to U.S. occupation will invite more...

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Liberals Freak Out Over Fictional Anti-Trump Book

Although far from perfect – such as continuing the Obama-Bush Wars – one of the main benefits of electing President Trump is laughing at the liberal commentariat’s freak out, as we said in the ’60s. Pat Buchanan pointed out the attacks on Trump are worse even than those on Nixon. For an old conservative like me, what’s heartening is how Trump never takes it lying down. Attack him, and you can expect a response. That’s so different from almost every Republican in my lifetime, current examples being Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Speaker Paul Ryan. An amusing specimen...

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Wednesday’s Child: A Truth that Bears Repeating

I overdid it at Christmas, which for the Russians was this past Sunday, remaining incapacitated – catatonic is the usual term – and incapable of writing anything new this week.  So here are some old jottings.  Through the fog of champagne and grappa there dimly glimmers in them, I trust, a truth that bears repeating in the New Year. Reading all the various, though scarcely varied, opinions on the “crises” that Moscow throws the West’s way – after 100 years of Russian misrule one might think the word would be safely devalued, but no, they use it like St. James’s...

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A Summary and a New Beginning

It was Twelfth Night this weekend, the end of the Christmas season for Christians who are too enthralled to restrict the celebration of the Incarnation to a single day preceded and followed by shopping, the modern form of worship.  Our happiness commenced at midnight December 25th and was only tempered as the Wise Men of the East brought their gifts to the King of Kings. So too does Season 1 of our podcast series finally end as well.  I am happy to admit on behalf of all the Foundation staff that we bit off more than we could chew last...

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Trump Trolls ‘Climate Change’ Fanatics

If you don’t know the term, “trolling” on the Internet means “sowing discord… with the intent of provoking readers into an emotional response.” President Trump long has been the master of it. One of his latest is a special New Year’s End gift to us, on Twitter: “In the East, it could be the COLDEST New Year’s Eve on record. Perhaps we could use a little bit of that good old Global Warming that our Country, but not other countries, was going to pay TRILLIONS OF DOLLARS to protect against. Bundle up!” Obviously, one day of record cold temperatures doesn’t tell the...

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Wednesday’s Child: The Coffee Mill

Like many great men, Signor Baldo, whose skills with the ancient San Marco espresso machine recall the illustrious surgeons or perhaps even the famous generals of history, is used to adulation.  The morning bar crowd here is what in marketing is called a quality-conscious clientele, and these people are cognizant and appreciative of the fact that the machine is entirely manual, with nobody but its operator to be either blamed or applauded for the result.  None of that press-the-button stuff for Signor Baldo’s customers. Once in a while a tourist wanders in, and though I can see that the coffee...

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Media Misread Trump Foreign Policy Moves

A good example of how the media are misreading President Trump’s foreign policy comes from the Los Angeles Times. Headlined in the Dec. 26 print edition of the paper, “Trump claims he’s boosting U.S. influence, but many foreign leaders see America in retreat” was pecked out by no less than three top-flight Timesies: Tracy Wilkinson, Alexandra Zavis and Shashank Bengali. This really isn’t “news,” but an opinion piece masquerading as reporting. It gets wrong just about every policy, beginning, “China has now assumed the mantle of fighting climate change, a global crusade that the United States once led. Russia has...