Bookworm on Apr 04 2008 | Filed under: America, Barack Obama
Barack Obama has had a weird life, but not a bad one. Yes, his father abandoned him, but he’s certainly not the only person, of any race, to experience that. His mother loved him, his grandparents loved him, he grew up in the mellow, racially-mixed world of Hawaii (barring his Indonesian stint), he [...]
Bookworm on Feb 27 2008 | Filed under: America
I’ve been mentally debriefing myself in the 36 hours since my return from a fairly intense Disney vacation and wanted to share some of those thoughts with you.
I’ve always loved Disneyland. When I was young, I was taken in by the apparent magic. I didn’t notice the motors and wires and paint. [...]
Bookworm on Feb 06 2008 | Filed under: America
I had noticed today, when I checked out the British paper the Telegraph, an article in which people were asked to summarize their lives in six words. What I didn’t realize is that there is something of a meme going on out there, not in the internet so much as in the MSM. [...]
Bookworm on Dec 09 2007 | Filed under: America, Israel
I did something fun tonight: I went to a moderated talk concerning Israel. The speakers were Dennis Prager, John Podhoretz and Mona Charen, with Michael Medved moderating. As you can imagine, the discussion was informed, vigorous, amusing, intelligent and opinionated. I enjoyed every minute of it and I gathered from the [...]
Bookworm on Sep 23 2007 | Filed under: America, Jihad, Muslim violence, World War II
Ken Burns’ new series about World War II is off to a good start although his stately pace can often be somewhat sleep inducing. It’s one of those slightly bizarre situations where it’s worth your while to force yourself to stay awake.
Part of the first episode includes a run-down of what Americans were watching in [...]
Bookworm on Sep 04 2007 | Filed under: America, Arabs, Iran, Israel, Muslim violence
With the resurgent charge that there is a pro-Israel lobby destroying U.S. interests around the world, I’d like you to read this essay, from George Friedman, of Stratfor, a geopolitical intelligence organization. I’m publishing it with permission of Stratfor, which included this message in the email I receive regularly with Stratfor articles:
This report may [...]
Don Quixote on Aug 27 2007 | Filed under: America, Anti-Semitism, Israel, Jews, Jimmy Carter
For six hours this Sunday I watched my TIVOed copies of Christiane Amanpour’s God’s Warriors specials. Amanpour’s biases clearly showed through, especially when she tried to portray Muslim radicals as some kind of a small fringe group, or when she spoke to fundamentalist Christian leaders in a tone dripping with disdain. But, it appeared, she [...]
Bookworm on Aug 18 2007 | Filed under: America, Europe
One of my favorite of the many conservative slogans printed on products sold at Protest Warrior is the one that says “Except for Ending Slavery, Fascism, Nazism and Communism, War Has Never Solved Anything.” To me, it’s always been self-evident that there are good wars, just as there are bad and pointless wars. [...]
Don Quixote on Jul 25 2007 | Filed under: America, Jihad, Leftist morality, Religion
Thank you as always for your insightful and thoughtful comments. I always love throwing out topics and seeing the wonderful places you take them.
Today, I’d like to ask another question that relates to faith. One thing that cannot be denied about the Islamists is that they have a deep faith. It is hardly surprising that [...]
Bookworm on Apr 08 2007 | Filed under: America, Britain, Iran
From Mark Steyn:
Tony Blair was at pains to point out that the hostages were released ”without any deal, without any negotiation, without any side agreement of any nature.” But he’s missing (or artfully sidestepping) the point: Tehran didn’t want a deal. It wanted the humbling of the Great Satan’s principal ally. And it got it. [...]
Bookworm on Mar 15 2007 | Filed under: America
I volunteer with a youth choral group. In music theory today, one of the boys, who is learning sight singing, laboriously sounded out several tunes, and was then asked to name each of them. He was able to name Frere Jacques, Happy Birthday to You, and even My Bonny Lies Over the Ocean. [...]
Bookworm on Jan 19 2007 | Filed under: America, Europe
One of the problems with oppositional behavior is that, while you may think you’re in control, you’re not — you’re just in constant reactive mode. Thus, if you ask me to sit down and I reflexively refuse to sit down (”you can’t boss me around”), I’ve ceded a form of negative power to you. [...]
Don Quixote on Sep 25 2006 | Filed under: America, Economics, Government
If Bookworm were here (she’s on a much needed mini-vacation and will be back tomorrow) she would surely mention that oil prices have dipped below $60 a barrel and are at a 6-month low. Also, the fed declined to raise interest rates for a change. Assuming the good news continues (always a dangerous assumption) what [...]
Don Quixote on Sep 24 2006 | Filed under: America, Uncategorized
I bought a new car the other day, a Buick Lucerne. My LeSabre has served me well for 150,000 miles so I looked forward to my new Buick. It is an excellent car, but one thing bothers me. The LeSabre has the old Buick logo of three shields — one red, one white & one [...]
Bookworm on Sep 21 2006 | Filed under: America, Islam, Religion
Being Jewish, I can’t reach Patrick’s ultimate conclusion that “Jesus is the answer,”* but I sure can agree with everything else in his post. He explains why we must support the Pope’s thesis that reason and religion have to take a role in public debate today because our enemies, using hatred and irrationality, are [...]
Don Quixote on Sep 02 2006 | Filed under: America
In my continuing review of bumper stickers I saw one yesterday that said, “You cannot win a war any more than you can win an earthquake.” Leaving aside the silliness of this comparison, it can be used to make a point quite different than the bumper sticker owner intended. You can react to an earthquake [...]
Bookworm on Aug 01 2006 | Filed under: America, Anti-war, Arabs, Hezbollah, Israel
[NGA, as opposed to the familiar NGO, is not a typo. I'll explain in a minute.]
I had lunch with DQ today and, at his request, gave him a run-down of Israel’s history, starting with Herzl and modern Zionism. I took him through the Eastern European pogroms; the declining Ottoman Empire; the ascendent British [...]
Don Quixote on Jul 21 2006 | Filed under: America, Military
I’m always stunned by the shallowness of liberal thinking about international affairs. Granted, it’s hard to be deep on a bumper sticker, but surely they can do better than the ones I’ve been seeing lately. “In an eye-for-an-eye world everyone will be blind.” Well, yes. Of course, if the other side starts plucking eyes anyway [...]
Bookworm on Jul 20 2006 | Filed under: America, Britain
I’ve already confessed to my weakness for chick lit, and expanded upon my disgust with the recent imports from Britain, which assure incompetent, drink-sodden women that the best looking guy in the room will see through the miasma of failure that hangs about them and sweep them off in a BMW. Thinking about those rather [...]
Bookworm on Jul 17 2006 | Filed under: America, Islam
While I work, I like to listen to talk radio in the background. (I use KRLA’s site, which has great streaming audio.) Today, however, I couldn’t stick with it. I was listening to Michael Medved talk about the very real possibility that the same portable missiles that are raining down on Israel [...]
Bookworm on Jul 12 2006 | Filed under: America, Crime and punishment
I used to date a man who liked to blame me when things went wrong. Sometimes, of course, the blame would be merited, but as often as not, the matter at issue would be his fault or, indeed, no one’s fault. I got tired of the arguments. Eventually, when the blame started, I turn to [...]
Bookworm on Jul 07 2006 | Filed under: America, Uncategorized
The title of this post is part of the title of an article Rick Perlstein wrote for The New Republic: “What is Conservative Culture? Mass Martyr” is the full title (and you can read it if you register). Although I no longer agree with its politics, TNR is, I think, one of the last honest [...]
Bookworm on Jul 06 2006 | Filed under: America, Britain, England, Europe
Are you tired of America bashing? If you are, refresh yourself by reading Edward Bernard Glick’s article explaining why you probably shouldn’t take it all that seriously:
When European intellectuals and their U.S. counterparts proclaim that the peoples of the world hate the U.S., they have it backwards. Americans are not the ones who are [...]
Bookworm on Jul 04 2006 | Filed under: America
I’ve been thinking a bit lately about America’s unique focus on the individual and not on the State. (I blogged about it here, when I was thinking about nations that turn on their own citizens.) The fact that power resides with the individual in America is one of the bulwarks we have against tyranny. Once [...]
Bookworm on Jul 04 2006 | Filed under: America
My internet got into the holiday spirit and shut itself down. So it’s only now that I’m able to do what I intended to do long ago: Wish all of you a very happy July 4th!
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