May you have an honorable transition

Tonight I spent a few minutes reading weekly news magazines while waiting for a haircut. One change struck me as very odd. The "Transition" section within the Periscope page of Newsweek magazine -- which lists celebrity births, marriages, some divorces, and mainly deaths -- no longer labels these events by category. On the printed page it is just a box labelled "Transition" with notes this week on Ismail Merchant and Eddie Albert, but neither note mentions in any way that this person has just died.

How delightfully Victorian.

French Voters Sound Like Johnny Paycheck

Sunday the French said “Non”. Verbal interpretation of next Wednesday’s Dutch vote will likely be unprintable.

Hooray for that, say I. Giscard wrote a long constitution (300+ pages with 448 articles!) because he couldn’t write a short one. The length and detail are nothing but an artful bureaucratic dodge around what a constitution should truly be: a brief recitation of the highest principles that will govern the content of law and the separation of powers in a state. This document was nothing of the kind.

The Globe’s Monday story (written by Charles Sennott) completely misses the democratic angle of this rejection, especially in these most curious 2 paragraphs:

In the end, analysts said, it was a grave miscalculation by Chirac to hold the referendum. Under French law, the treaty could have been approved by parliament and almost certainly would have sailed through.

But Chirac fatefully chose to put it to a referendum out of confidence that the French voters would see the merits of the document. Instead, it bitterly divided the country.

“It bitterly divided the country”, huh? Where have we heard that old chestnut before (November 2000 and November 2004)? The purest of horse manure.

Chirac chose a referendum because he wanted the ratification of the constitution to have a semblance of legitimacy, which could not be provided by a rubber-stamp from the weak French legislative branch. Credit him with that much integrity or political common sense (which the Globe account does not mention). That the French people’s rejection of this constitution may cause chaos for the EU political class is merely another good reason for their voting “non”. I saw plenty of “non” stickers in Paris a couple of weeks ago. The above one was pasted in the Paris Metro.

There is certainly hope for a European constitution, provided its drafting includes significant participation of the governed, unlike the present attempt. Mark Steyn captures the anti-democratic spirit of the EU apparatchiks, but offers little hope that they will respond to the rebuff they have just received. I hope he is wrong, but he is usually not.

I laughed until I cried

Opus is the male everyman, befuddled by the other gender and by any cutting edge trend. This week he blunders because in today's world intimate conversations are sometimes only semi-private.

It is one of my all-time faves.

How does he come up with this?

Lileks has had it with the north:

I jumped once before, left in haste, and that was the move to DC. Can’t do that again. I have to move up in every way. DC was a move sideways or down; from ease of mobility to living conditions to the aroma of the grocery stores to the weather to the civic services to the crime, it was all for the worse. It had its compensations, and had I been in my 20s it would have been a great adventure. But my life kept getting smaller and smaller, and after a point the promise of a new Tibetan / Peruvian fusion tapas restaurant in Adams-Morgan seemed to be insufficient compensation.

Which reminds me of Frost (surprise!):

When I left Massachusetts years ago
Between two days, the reason why I sought
New Hampshire, not Connecticut,
Rhode Island, New York, or Vermont was this:
Where I was living then, New Hampshire offered
The nearest boundary to escape across.
I hadn't an illusion in my handbag
About the people being better there
Than those I left behind. I thought they weren't.
I thought they couldn't be. And yet they were.
I'd sure had no such friends in Massachusetts
As Hall of Windham, Gay of Atkinson,
Bartlett of Raymond (now of Colorado),
Harris of Derry, and Lynch of Bethlehem.

Cover for Red-State Democrats

Today's OpinionJournal/WSJ pegs the recent Senate compromise on judicial nominees for what it truly is -- political cover for a few Red-State Democratic Senators who now hope to move Bush's future Supreme Court choices leftward toward people they can support (Byrd-WV, Landrieu-LA, Pryor-AR, Nelson-NE, Salazar-CO). Money quote:

Mr. Bush is under no obligation to reward Senators who have mistreated his nominees in this fashion. He owes far more to the supporters who helped him win re-election and his party pick up five Southern Senate seats last year. To vet his nominees with this Gang of 14 is a virtual guarantee of judicial mediocrity--of a lowest-common-denominator choice or a philosophic cipher.

Yes. Now that the logjam is broken,I suspect they will send nominees whose ideology threatens to break up this "Axis of Wobblers" so that it falls apart before a contest over the Supreme Court.

Peace in our time

There are three articles in today's Boston Globe that stood out in my mind. The first was this little gem entitled "suits argued churches owned by parishioners". It describes lawsuits filed by parishioners of parishes which are being closed in accordance with the archdiocesan reconfiguration plan. Here's the money quote:

Mary K. Ames and John M. Galvin -- the lawyers representing the parishioners in Framingham, Scituate, and Weymouth -- said they will try to convince the courts that the archbishop of Boston holds parishes in trust for a group of beneficiaries, local Catholics. They will argue that although O'Malley can terminate the standing of congregations as parishes, he cannot seize the land or buildings.

I wonder for whom I hold MY property in trust?

What a perverse idea and what utter contempt it shows for the property rights of an unpopular institution. Really, the contempt shown here for property rights is simply astounding. I guess to find someone who profoundly disrespects the law, one could not do much better than some plaintiff lawyers, with the possible exception of parts of the Massachusetts judiciary, who seem impatient with the obstacles to Utopia imposed by the laws of our elected representatives.

Second is a delightful column by Joan Vennochi documenting an interview held yesterday by John Kerry with Globe editorial writers and columnists. In the interview Kerry claimed to already signed the form SF 180 that he promised to file months ago. Of course this had to be clarified through numerous telephone calls and e-mails between the Boston Globe and Kerry’s aides during the rest of the day, and nobody could produce a copy of the document. But now they claim the process has started and we shall see. Joan is charitable to the former Democratic presidential nominee when she refers to his problem as a "candor gap". That reminds me of an old Down East story:

“What do you think of that new man out your way?"

"Oh, I don't know."

"What do you mean you don't know? Would you call him an honest man or would you call him a liar?"

"Oh, I don't know that I’d go so far as to call him a liar, but I've heard tell by them that know that he has a candor gap you could drive a bus through."

Finally, this story of the compromise crafted by 14 senators to avert a showdown over the use of the filibuster by Senate Democrats to block the Bush administration's judicial nominees. These senators waving around this document remind me of another leader in another time, but equally without backbone, who also waived a document and promised "peace in our time". I suspect the senators have arranged to shorter period of peace than did Neville Chamberlain, and his lasted barely a year. I would be astonished if this agreement does not fall apart in less time than that.

Of course if it does, it will be Bush's fault, not McCain's. John McCain now has this wonderful piece of work to add to his resume, along with the McCain-Finegold Free Speech Supression Act. Thanks again, John.

Jacoby Flames

In Friday’s Boston Globe Jeff Jacoby reacts against all the Newsweek brouhaha of the past week, noting that a far greater share of the outrage might better have been directed at Islamic fanatics.

…the real desecration of Islam is not what some interrogator in Guantanamo might have done to the Koran. It is what totalitarian Muslim zealots have been doing to innocent human beings in the name of Islam. It is 9/11 and Beslan and Bali and Daniel Pearl and the USS Cole. It is trains in Madrid and schoolbuses in Israel and an ''insurgency" in Iraq that slaughters Muslims as they pray and vote and line up for work. It is Hamas and Al Qaeda and sermons filled with infidel-hatred and exhortations to ''martyrdom."

True enough. But neither a Jew, like Jacoby, nor a Christian can give direction to followers of Islam on the basis of their religion. Better, I believe, to place this behavior out of the context of what will be tolerated in civil and pluralistic societies. Many on the left do not see things that way, but they are so accustomed to living in a situation of religious tolerance that they have some difficulty imagining the many places where this does not exist. But see this quote from Ayaan Hirsi Ali. She is a classic case of the old saying that “A conservative is a liberal who has been mugged.” (and while we are on the subject, the other side of that same saying is that “A liberal is a conservative who has been arrested.”).

Which is the party of Hollywood?

These juxtaposed pictures of the Senate majority and minority leaders which are being used at CNN.com makes one wonder which party has all the traction with Hollywood -- and why?

Senators Frist and Reid (AP Photos)

A Dutch Liberal Voice

"I am not against migration. It is simply pragmatic to restrict migration, while at the same time encouraging integration and fighting discrimination. I support the idea of the free movement of goods, people, money and jobs in Europe. But that will only work if universal human rights are also adopted by the newcomers. And if they are not, then you run of the risk of losing what you have here, and what other people want when they come here, which is freedom."

-- Imperiled Dutch MP Ayaan Hirsi Ali in a story in the Guardian
(hat tip: PeakTalk)

Welcome to Boston

Massachusetts and the City of Boston have spent hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars to develop a large convention center at the difficult-to-reach location of Fan Pier, which is about 3/8 of a mile from the closest public transportation stop. Of course along with the Convention Center comes a public sector convention center authority which can serve as an opportunity to practice our local core competence – patronage.

However due to the dot-com bust and a general malaise in the convention business (and perhaps also due to certain forms of entertainment offered in places like Las Vegas that are banned locally) our huge investment of public funds has not booked very many large conventions. MacWorld came once, but that has been about the best of it.

This week the Boston Convention Center hosts Sapphire '05, the annual user/partner meeting of SAP, the world's leading ERP software company and the world’s 2nd largest software company of any kind. Outside the convention center the line for cabs was long by 5:00PM. By 7:00PM there were over 200 people in line. Here is what it looked like, and the end of the line is not visible in the photo. Meanwhile the cabs dribbled by in ones and twos, forcing a very long wait for convention visitors and making them late for their dinner appointments.


Convention visitors queued for cabs at 7:00PM

Perhaps part of “getting the job done" in Boston might be to give higher priority to providing large conventions with appropriate numbers of cabs, rather than placing the Mayor’s name on every new greeting sign that welcomes visitors to Boston.

Just a thought.

UPDATE: Colleagues report that on Thursday afternoon the Convention Center entrance was chocablok full of cabs. No word on who is to thank for that: Menino, SAP, or others.

Caution

Don't drink any hot beverages when you read this. Gotta love Iowahawk.

Disposition of "leftovers"

Today's Boston Globe has a page 1 story about a local lab that is holding thousands of human embryos frozen in liquid nitrogen, some of whom are in legal as well as existential limbo due to lapsed payments and legal agreements between the lab and the biological parents.

Two years ago, a study by the American Society for Reproductive Medicine found that there were about 400,000 frozen embryos in storage in the United States, and that only a small percentage were deemed 'abandoned'. Dr. David I. Hoffman, who led the study and is former president of the society's reproductive technology group, said situations like [lab owner]Rizza's are likely to become less common. As in vitro fertilization technology has improved, fertility centers have created fewer embryos, resulting in fewer leftovers, he said. The centers also have become more adept at obtaining instructions for the disposition of unwanted embryos.

None dare call it racism

Cathy Young’s column in Monday’s Boston Globe explores the labyrinthine logic of folks who excuse violent behavior among Dutch immigrants – even incidents of outright gay-bashing – because of their minority status. She hits the nail on the head when she says:

“acts that would merit unequivocal condemnation if committed by white males are viewed in a very different light when the offenders belong to an ‘oppressed group’.”

Yes. That attitude is what was commonly referred to in Dr. King’s era as “racism”.

A Laugher in Lowell

National commentators bewail the state of the Democratic party as increasingly out of touch with the voters it must attract to reverse its declining fortunes. The convention of the Massachusetts Democratic party helps to make this point. Two of the three Democratic candidates for Governor dodged the party platform's endorsement of gay marriage in Massachusetts, imposed by judicial fiat.

While Howard Dean's convention speech was immediately rebuked by the aptly named Congressman Barney Frank for over-the-top rhetoric regarding the House Speaker. Said Barney:

"I think Howard Dean was out of line talking about DeLay. The man has not been indicted. I don't like him, I disagree with some of what he does, but I don't think you, in a political speech, talk about a man as a criminal or his jail sentence."

The partisan Globe headline to this news item reads "Dean rips DeLay at convention". They believe that is the news content of this story?

Day Job

Thanks for coming.

My day job is taking me way out of town, so I cannot post until 16 May.

Sorry. See you then.

Not your father’s Irish Pub

Today’s Boston Globe has another story that could only happen in Boston. It concerns South Boston – Southie – Boston’s hardscrabble Irish neighborhood and former realm of fugitive killer Whitey Bulger (and also the district of Whitey’s brother, our former state Senate and UMass President, William Bulger). Confused? You’re not from around here, are you?

Southie was the seat of resistance to busing in the 1970s and seemed to cherish its reputation as a local center of ignorance. Now Southie is being gentrified, and the natives are uneasy that Southie’s old-time bars are going yuppie, complete with accordion doors that allow them to be open to the street in nice weather. Most of these places in their former state looked like something straight out of Angela’s Ashes, with a small door and tiny high windows – a front as inviting as a Times Square peep show. But at least in such a place the children walking by couldn’t see inside to where people, and sometimes even women, were (!) drinking. Now the townies want such radical improvement (excuse me, conversions) to require zoning appeals board approval and “neighborhood input”.

Same as it ever was, I guess.

The best sound in the best place

What better way to spend a beautiful spring night in Boston than listening to the Michigan Men's Glee Club performing in Fanueil Hall?
What could be better?

Counting and remembering the cost

There is a touching story here in today's Globe about a WWII soldier who died at the end of the war. The print edition has a picture with a fragment of his obit, which brings the story more to life, but it is worth a read regardless.

Last year I saw a soldier's dog-tag for sale on eBay, which the seller (a German) said had been found in Normandy. Reading the name off the picture of the tag and doing some research, I went to the same sites mentioned in the column above, and found that this soldier was also part of the 82nd Airborne Division listed as a casualty of D-Day, dying on June 6, 1944 and buried in France. And somebody was selling his dog tag on eBay. So much for respect.

I emailed his regiment to let them know.

A Surprise Agreement

Somebody must have gotten up on the wrong side of bed today if I find myself agreeing with Derrick Jackson, but I do. In his column today Derrick gripes about how rap lyrics which denigrate women are less acceptable socially than lyrics which describe black men using the socially unmentionable n-word.

Derrick has a point. He might take some grief for writing this column. Good for him that he did.

Another unspoken point is that art matters, whether high art or low art. That is why people have gotten into brawls over aesthetics. Art does not have to be high to make a valuable contribution to culture, but the “pimp” aesthetic in rap music elevates nothing of value that I can see. It does not merely glorify wealth or prosperity. Rather it seems to idolize wealth obtained through personal corruption and vice, and power employed for the sake of the ego and for purely personal gratification. Groups like the Nazi SS would buy into that view whole hog.

Letters score again

Today's Boston Globe highlight was once again a letter in which a reader makes a telling point about the diversity fixation in public education:

NANCY NOLAN'S May 1 letter chiding David Parker and extolling the virtue of teaching diversity leaves out one important observation (''Embrace the world's diversity"). I don't know the Lexington public school curriculum, but the Westwood social sciences curriculum features an entire quarter about Judaism, and another quarter on Islam, but Christianity gets barely a footnote in the Judaism unit.

I endorse and encourage learning about the major religions in the public schools, but it seems that Christianity has gotten the boot. That's what's wrong with our public schools. They don't teach diversity; they teach the intentional exclusion of Christianity. That's not diversity. That's harmful and non-productive.

If the public schools were truly interested in teaching diversity, they would do an entire quarter on Christianity, too. I doubt that will happen.

ANNA DEMARINIS
North Attleboro

Well said. In our Commonweath's history we find Catholics founding their own schools in order to prevent their children from being effectively taught Protestantism in public schools. Today the fashion in public school administration has switched to militant secularism and religious indifferentism. Parents who wish to avoid this climate will have to search outside the public school systems.

W: A beacon of cultural sensitivity?

I didn't find much of interest in Sunday's Boston Globe,except for this letter to the editor which pointed to the cultural significance of Bush's recent hand-holding with the Saudi Prince.

Did I just miss it or or were we not informed by the MSM about the underlying cultural reason for this public hand-holding?