Soul Mates

I was really worried about President Obama.   He seemed to have no real friends in the world.  One commentator picked that up and talked about how Bush had Blair and Reagan had Thatcher.  Clinton  had good personal relationships with many foreign leaders.  But President Obama was aloof and distant, and had almost none that shared his worldview.  In fact, promptly after entering office, he sent the bust of Winston Churchill back to Great Britain and recently declared us neutral in the Falklands dispute with Argentina.  With Israel, our other close ally, Obama publicly abandoned Netanyahu at dinner and, wagging his finger, told him to retreat back to his 1967 borders.  Our new friends in Eastern Europe, the Czechs and the Poles were treated to a midnight call telling them that the political capital they expended to become part of a missile defense system was for naught, because hitting the reset button with Russia was a higher priority.  None of our old friends or new friends seemed to hold the same values, values deep enough to forge a lasting partnership.

All that is better now as a result of the victory of Francois Hollande over Nicolas Sarkozy in France last week.  Mr. Hollande is vowing to "initiate a change in society in the long term" and explicitly tells the world that he "does not like the rich" and that "his real enemy is the world of finance."  He vows to reverse fiscal responsibility and instead push the accelerator on "growth creating spending."

Does all this have a familiary ring to it?  Of course it does.  Our enemy is not totalitarian regimes, terrorism or fundamentalist Islam (Eric Holder can't even utter the phrase).  It's the world of finance and the rich that threaten the West.

After 3 1/2 years adrift without any real close ties abroad, I see potential for a whole new Franco-American alliance, so badly damaged by the tension between George Bush and Dominique de Villepin over Iraq.  These two are blood brothers, soul mates.  I bet they can even complete each other's sentences. 

As Humphrey Bogart once famously proclaimed to another Frenchman, "Louie, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship."



A Critical Look At Ayn Rand

"Her popularity far outstrips her contributions." That was the upshot of the critical assessment of her work by Donald DeMarco, professor of philosophy at Holy Apostles College and Seminary at a luncheon presentation sponsored by the Lumen Christie Institute, the center for Catholic thought at The University of Chicago.

I continue to attempt to reconcile Catholicism and capitalism. William F. Buckley evidently was able to do so easily, but I have struggled with it at times. I had hoped that Mr. DeMarco's remarks would enlighten me. They didn't. In fact, there were several times during his presentation when I found myself wishing that I sat at the other end of the table so that I could debate him.

Mr. DeMarco was completely dismissive of Rand's thinking and writing, writing it off as "incomplete" and "cartoonish." He derided her black and white thinking and judgementalism. He was harshly critical of her personal life (she was unable to sustain personal relationships and died a lonely person). At one point, he compared her to Karl Marx, stating, "there are elements of Marx's thinking that has validity (without bothering to mention that, unlike Rand's philosophy of Objectivism, Marxism has been responsible for the deaths of tens of millions of people over the last century).

What I found most disappointing about Mr. DeMarco's critique was his inability to give Ms. Rand credit for any of her views whatsoever. Her popularity did not arise out of simply clever marketing; she remains popular because in a century in which totalitarians attempted to smash individual sovereignty, Ayn Rand picked up the banner and fought back. Her thinking is even more relevant today, as government once again is attempting to undercut individual liberty.

Today, we have a government that rails against the 1%, demonizes business leaders and entrepreneurs, and threatens to choke them off with a plethora of rules and regulations. Nearly half of our citizens pay no income taxes and continue to demand more and more of the producers. Ayn Rand is as relevant today as she was half a century ago.

Yes, Mr. DeMarco raises legitimate issues about her thinking. Ayn Rand could be doctrinaire, inflexible, and detached. Her personal life was, indeed a catastrophe as her black and white thinking doomed her relationships when they ran afoul of her limitations. She failed to grasp that an important part of life rests in mutually rewarding relationships and that philanthropy is an essential part of a civilized society.

But Ms. Rand celebrated the resourcefulness, energy, intelligence and contributions of the individual. In Soviet Russia, she saw first hand what tyrants could do in the name of the collective. To a certain degree, that struggle continues today.

Ironically, Mr. DeMarco dismissed Rand's work entirely, while condemning her because of her black and white thinking. Especially in our current climate, it would be wise not to simply dismiss Ayn Rand's continued popularity.

Between Shades of Gray

Men, women and children herded into cattle cars with no food, water, or sanitation. Lice. People shot on sight for slight transgressions. "Snitches" granted favors by guards for betraying friends. Brutal cold, long workdays, scurvy, beatings, malnutrition. Death.

Auschwitz? Bergen Belsen? Dachau? No. The atrocities of the Holocaust have been well documented and memorialized in books, film, plays, and museums. The Illinois Holocaust Museum is here in Skokie. We have all seen Steven Spielberg's masterful film Schindler's List. More recently, there have been films about Hitler's accomplices, like Sarah's Key. And, of course, just about every teen has read the heart wrenching Diary of Anne Frank. The crimes of the Nazis were hideous and provide context to our foreign policy to this day as we close ranks with Israel to confront an Islamo-fascist regime in Iran that promises a second Holocaust.

But while all this was going on, there was a second "silent" Holocaust in places like Lithuania, Latvia and the Ukraine perpetrated by Josef Stalin. While Hitler murdered 6 million Jews, Stalin and his henchmen murdered almost 3 1/2 times as many.

"Between Shades of Gray" by Ruta Sepetys reminds us that as bad as Hilter was, there was a second monster brutalizing, torturing and killing millions. While Stalin did not single out a group or industrialize his death machine as Hitler did, the scale of death and dislocation was, in fact, greater. Between Shades of Gray tells the tale of a family forced from their home, separated and shipped to a work camp in Siberia. Like Anne Frank's diary, the story is told through the eyes of a teenaged girl, and tells the story of survival and death under the cruelest, harshest circumstances imaginable. It is a story of courage and strength and sometimes betrayal and death.

For me, the Ms. Sepetys's novel brought to life the culture and people I grew up with. I was raised in an Eastern European community on the Southwest Side of Chicago and attended a Lithuanian Catholic grammar school. Many of the kids I went to school with were sons and daughters of D.P.'s (short for displaced persons) and this book reminded me of exactly what that meant. As a youngster, I failed to grasp what these people experienced. One of my best friend's parents were school teachers in Lithuania and escaped one of the work camps where they surely would have been killed. After reading Ms. Sepetys's book, I now understand the terror they must have experienced as they tunnelled under the fence and ran through the woods with guard dogs on their heels. The father of another friend of mine witnessed the KGB shooting his best friend in the head when he was a young man in the Ukraine. Such were the stories in my neighborhood.

Ms. Sepetys's book had special meaning for me. It was a vivid reminder of where I came fro and what a special place America has been for peoples of all nationalities and religions that have escaped from out-of-control, unchecked state power. It was also a reminder of why I am such a fierce defender of individual liberty for my peers were descendants of people that ran from authoritarianism.

As another authoritarian state, China, rises, Islamo-fascism threatens the West, and our own country elects a president that clearly values "fairness" over liberty, Ms. Sepetys reminds us of the horrible consequences of extreme state power.

Between Shades of Gray is a compelling read, and if you are of Eastern European extraction, it is an essential one.

Voting With Your Feet

My mama used to say, "The apple doesn't fall far from the tree." She correctly observed that often out-of-control kids had families that were dysfunctional. That aphorism is particularly true in politics. If you want to understand President Obama, just take a peek at the state that provided him his training and background.

Illinois is an absolute fiscal catastrophe. One survey had it rated the 2nd worst run state. A Forbes survey just ranked Chicago as the 6th most miserable city (but evidently committed to being number 1.

It's an open secret that Illinois is in the top ranks of corrupt state, lavishing state workers and unions with fat paychecks and even fatter retirement benefits. The Chicago Tribune has had several investigative articles about favored individuals being put on payrolls for minimum periods simply to get retirement benefits. And, if you lose and election, like Dan Seals (an unemployed guy before losing to Robert Dold in the 2010 congressional election), not to worry. Quinn put him on the Illinois payroll at a six figure salary to be an assistant director in the Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity, a position for which I'm sure Mr. Seals is well-qualified.

All this largesse has come at a price. The state's pension funds are only 45% funded and Illinois is teetering on the brink. But, instead of addressing its spending binges, Governor Quinn and the Illinois legislature elected to crank up the tax man, increasing the state income tax by nearly 50% on indivuals, businesses and nearly doubing tolls. Increase taxes by 50% and you get 50% more revenues, right?

Well pols seem to forget that humans respond to incentives. The selfish beings that they are, they fail to respond to measures taken for the "common good" (translated: Democratic supporters). I don't have a full survey of the damage that the tax increases have done, but I have a bit of anecdotal evidence:

• Aon Corporation announced that it was moving its corporate headquarters to London. Think about that. A major corporation is going to undertake the expense, trigger a tax liability for its shareholders, and make some people move, to change its headquarters to London? When Great Britain is a tax haven compared to you, you're in real trouble.
• The Chicago Tribune has reported that people are taking all kinds of circuitous routes to avoid the tollway system. The Trib calculated that the increase in tolls will cost an average driver $750 per year. Again, the Dems smack the working man, the guy they claim to help.
• A friend of mind who has been working part time out of his Florida home office changed the proportion of time he spends there to comply with requirements to change his domicile to Florida. "F**k Illinois," he said flatly, "I'm not giving them any more. I work too hard and I have to think about MY retirement, not some union guy." I can only guess that there are thousands of people like him- smart, hardworking, industrious that will simply leave.
• At a roundtable of business executives recently, I posed the question to the group, "Assuming that you wish your children to be happy and prosperous, would you counsel them to stay in Illinois and if not Illinois, where would you suggest that they move to give them the best chance of that happening?" The answer to this two part question was unanimous--- NO! and Texas.

Quinn's response last week was to propose even MORE spending, leaving the Illinois legislature (not the most frugal bunch) scratching their heads. Similarly, in his State of the Union address, President Obama promised to use 1/2 of the money spent in Iraq to pay down the debt.

Democrats never stop their spending addiction. That's why raising taxes doesn't work. Tax $100 and they spend $125. And they forget that people change their behavior in response. They stop investing. They move. They avoid the roads. They buy less. They stop working. Economic activity dries up.

Quinn and Obama. Same guys. Same program for growth.

Best (and Worst) of 2011

As 2011 closes, a summing up is a necessary compulsion for all commentators, just as the resolve to lose those 20 pounds. Last year, I limited my list to the best fiction and nonfiction books of the year, but this year, I thought I'd expand my list a bit beyond the literary.

• Best Nonfiction: Empire of the Summer Moon by S.C. Gwynne. There were several strong contenders in this category, including two great biographies of great American competitors: Endgame by Frank Brady, a masterful biography of the enigmatic Bobby Fischer and Wonder Girl by Don Van Patten, the captivating story about Babe Didrikson Zacharias, who may be America's greatest all time athlete. Empire of the Summer Moon, however, tops my list. It is about the Comanche tribe and the American West. It brings to life the difficulties of life on the frontier and the clash between the European settler and the warrior culture of the Comanche. The book dispels the mythical image of the Comanche as the "noble savage" and there are strong parallels between the Comanche and today's Islamic jihadists and the brutality of the conflict on the Plains.
  
  
• Best Fiction: State of Wonder by Ann Patchett. This was the best of a weak field this year. Patchett's book was part mystery, part science fiction, part autobiography. The book centers on the journey of Marina Singh, a scientist that travels to the Amazon jungle to attempt to find the cause of the sudden death of her lab partner. She confronts an uncivilized local tribe, the hostility of the jungle and a rogue scientist along the way. Patchett is at her best describing the stifling, buggy and remoteness of the Amazon jungle.

• Best Album: 21 by Adele. Adele blows the field away. Her rich, soulful, strong voice reminds me of a refined, trained and modern version of Janice Joplin. This woman sings from the heart and her hit "Rolling in the Deep" may be the best work I've heard in years.
  
  
• Best Film: Okay, I admit that I don't go to as many films as I should. But of the films I did get to see, "Of Gods and Men" was clearly the best. The film is based on a true incident that occurred in Algeria in 1996 where Islamic militants murdered several Christian monks. In the film, the monks, leading a quiet, Christian life in which they tried to help the local Islamic community (but did not try to convert them). The movie raises important questions of what it means to lead a good Christian life, the extent of Christian courage, and the clash between jihadism and Christianity.

• Best News of the Year: In 2011, we had a trifecta. Three bad actors were removed from the world stage-- Osama bin Laden (by the U.S. Navy Seals), Mohamar Gaddafi (by his own people), and Kim Jong Il (by God). Hugo Chavez, Vladimir Putin and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad are still around but 2011 put a good dent in the bad guys' starting lineup.

• Worst News of the Year: Tough call. We had the Euro crisis and the bankruptcy of MF Global (led by super-Democrat Jon Corzine, who proved that he could do to shareholders what he did to the taxpayers of New Jersey. The Obama Administration served up the downgrade of the credit rating of the U.S., Solyndra and Fast and Furious along with the hasty retreat from Iraq. But my vote goes to the Penn State scandal, in which an administration, much like the Catholic Church, permitted young people to be violated in the most despicable way.

• Best of America: Steve Jobs. The announcement of his death brought a tear to my eye. Jobs was an American icon and embodies what is best about this country. A self made man. A maverick. An entrepreneur. A paradigm buster. A quirky guy that would have failed in a large company. He rewrote rules and turned industries upside down. He took products that didn't exist and made them an indispensable part of the landscape. Probably the most creative mind since Thomas Edison (whose lightbulbs the liberals are trying to ban, by the way).

• Worst of America: Occupy Wall Street. Sure, no one was happy about the fact that some people had their wealth unjustly protected in the financial collapse by the government bailouts. That was an unfortunate by-product of keeping us from bread lines. However, the OWS crowd-- that gross, unhygenic, gaggle of rabble rousers wanted more than that. Their demands basically amounted to a bunch of free stuff--- free education, free health care, free this, free that. One of America's most famous slogans, "Give me liberty or give me death," gave way to "Where's mine?" and, like their British counterparts earlier this summer, disrupted the lives and businesses of many small entrepreneurs and shop owners. On full display for all to see was the ugly reality that the term "economic justice" is code word for "government guaranteed middle class lifestyle."

For all that, the economy showed slow but steady signs of improvement, no major international crises broke out (other than the "Arab Spring" and that has yet to play itself out), and Barney Frank announced his retirement. In the end, on balance, 2011 wasn't all bad at all.

Nice Shot, Mr. President

This blog has been critical of President Obama's administration since its beginning. His wrongheaded handling of the economy has contributed to a European style high unemployment, no growth economy. His inverted approach in foreign policy has emboldened our enemies (see recent Iranian moves to put warships off our coast) and left our friends, particularly Israel, adrift. After castigating the Bush administration for its handling of the post invasion phase of Iraq, we are now left wondering where 20,000 surface to air missles went after our participation in the Libyan civil war.

But I give credit where credit is due. Despite hand wringing and caterwauling from quarters, we bagged another big one. Drones took out Anwar al-Awlaki, the leader of al Qaeda in Yemen and the person from whom the "underwear bomber" and the Fort Hood killer drew their inspiration. This blog congratulates this administration for persevering despite his putative status as an American citizen. The message now is clear, almost Bushian, "No matter what jersey you wear, no matter where you are, no matter how hardened you think your security circles are, we will find you and we will turn you into a little charred spot in the road if you plot or encourage others to kill our citizens."

Osama bin Laden, Anwar al-Awlaki, Atiya Abd al-Rahman (al Qaeda #2 guy). No hesitation. No long legal process. No appeals. No media circus. Just a buzz in the sky and a smoking hole in the road.

Nicely done.

Musings

*The Left has been blasting Rick Perry's affinity for evangelical Christianity. But did you notice that a short time after announcing his candidacy, Washington, D.C. was hit by an earthquake, and a hurricane is now bearing down on the capital. I'd be fidgity if I saw locusts starting to gather. Fortunately, Obama has no first born sons to worry about.

*My liberal friends are gloating and giving each other high fives over the fall of Libya, which they assert is a vindication of the wisdom and judgment of President Obama. Would someone remind them of the dangers of unfurling the "Mission Accomplished" banner too soon? And, by the way, I haven't seen any kudos bestowed on George W. Bush, for paving the way by incenting Qaddafi to give up his nuclear weapons program.

*The Left has attacked Rick Perry's "treasonous" remark about Bernanke and his attendance at a public prayer revival. Fair enough. But they needed to be reminded that in addition to the downgrade of U.S. debt on his watch, job creation under Obama would have been downgraded from "miserable" to "catastrophic" without Rick Perry's Texas.

*Can someone tell me where those Green Jobs are?

*Am I the only one to see the irony in President Obama's charge that the Tea Party Congresspeople are "ideologically rigid?"

*Has anyone ever actually heard President Obama use the word "liberty" in a speech?

*The EPA has put forward new regulations that will effectively shut down 20% of the nation's electrical capacity within a couple of years. In the interest of debt reduction and fairness, maybe we could reciprocate by shutting down 20% of the EPA. That, by the way, would take us to about 2007 levels at that bureaucracy.