Quote for Today

Sanctus Santorum in search of an act of God

“ I believe in acts of God.”

     -- Rick Santorum, Republican candidate for President, reacting to assertions it would take an act of God for him to win the GOP nomination.

Really, Rick? Considering the disastrous impact on life and property that acts of God have had in the last year or so, we probably would be a lot safer if God didn’t add a Santorum victory to a list that includes:

·      The most devastating tornados in known U.S. history – more than 300 of them that left 321 people dead and many more injured and property damage in the billions of dollars, including whole communities wiped of the face of the map.

·      Storms in the Philippines and Thailand that left more than 2,000 dead and tens of billions of dollars in damage.

·      Droughts and famine in Africa that the U.N. calculated left some 30,000 children dead.

·      The earthquake and tsunami that struck Japan, leaving 15,000 dead, many more injured and homeless and a deadly nuclear mess that will take decades to clean up.

 Please, God. Enough already.

FDR on Conservatives

Quote for Today

"A conservative is a man with two perfectly good legs who, however, has never learned to walk forward."

           President Franklin Roosevelt,
           in a radio address, 26 October 1939

Quote for today

"One ought, every day at least, to hear a little song, read a good poem, see a fine picture, and if it were possible, to speak a few reasonable words."
     -- Goethe

Quote for today

     "It is forbidden to kill; therefore all murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets."

     -- Voltaire

Digitus Impudicus at WYPR

 A man flipped me the bird this week!

 He did it in a place where one might least expect it. This was not an expression of road rage on a busy roadway; it was at the studio of Baltimore’s local public radio station, WYPR where I was participating in a discussion of conditions in Uganda and the astounding impact of the viral video “Kony 2012.” I was in the sealed interview booth. He was outside, on the other side of the large window looking into the booth. The gesture astonished me so much that I lost track of the first question posed to me by the host, Dan Rodricks.

At first I wondered why on earth this fellow, who actually is employed by WYPR, would give me the finger. Then I recalled that more than 20 years ago he was an employee of The Baltimore Sun when I was an editor at the paper. He had an exclusively-held high opinion of himself but management was unimpressed. They tried to fire him. The union representing reporters successfully intervened on his behalf, but eventually he left. I will not name him here because apart from his notoriously long-held grudges, he also is notoriously litigious.

 But never mind all that. The incident reminded me that the finger gesture appears to have lost the popular place it once held in the realm of silent anger expression. I have not used it in years and this is not because I have not been sufficiently enraged. It’s more because the gesture can get you a punch in the nose.

My favorite story about a confrontation in which I did use it takes me back to Jerusalem in the 1980s when I was The Sun’s Middle East correspondent. I was driving on the road near the Damascus Gate, the main entrance to the Old City, and an Israeli driver cut me off. I caught up with him at a traffic light and gave him the finger. He caught up with me at the next traffic light. I expected the worst. He rolled down his window and gave me a different hand gesture: A fist thrust forward with the index and small finger pointed forward. “No,” he said. “In this country, we do it like this.” And away he drove, clearly delighted to have had the last word.

The finger gesture is one of the world’s oldest. 2000 years before my Jerusalem experience, the city was occupied by Romans who called it digitus impudicus. Before them, the ancient Greeks called it katapugon, with certain, uh, back door implications.

It is a marvelous gesture with a rich history. I think I shall try to use it more often, preferably from behind the safety of a thick window with plenty of time to get away from the consequences.

Answer the question, please.

     Time spent these days watching most of the interview shows often is wasted because the people being interviewed do not really ever answer the questions put to them. This is especially true of political candidates, their supporters and surrogates, and these days very especially true of the candidates for the Republican Party presidential nomination. But it's also true of the other side. They're all afraid of wandering outside the circle of carefully programmed talking points.
     So here's an idea: After the interviewer asks the question, leave the question on the screen. Let the viewer decide if the question's being answered. What fun! Actually, after the question's asked, have a teleprompter facing the interviewed with the question, just to remind him what was asked and that we're all waiting for an answer. Even more fun!
 
   

Quote for today: America as Byzantium

       My friend David Mize has sent me this excerpt from Sir Steven Runciman’s prolific writings on the Byzantine Empire. This one belongs in the category of Santayana’s warning that “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

        "The finances reflected the disorder. Taxation was high but varied and irregular. Wealth was unevenly distributed. Many millionaires could still be found, but there were whole provinces sunk in poverty. Moreover, the Empire had long been suffering from an adverse trade-balance. Already imports exceeded exports, and the position was never righted."