Quote

“The trouble with fighting for human freedom is that one spends most of one’s time defending scoundrels. For it is against scoundrels that oppressive laws are first aimed, and oppression must be stopped at the beginning if it is to be stopped at all.”

--H.L. Mencken

Reads

Last year I essentially superglued myself to the idea that I was going to read as much about early American history as I could. It started early last year when I saw historian Joseph Ellis talking about his book, "His Excellency", which was a biography on George Washington. The talk was compelling (thanks C-Span!) enough for me to spirit away the book out of my father's library (I don't think he missed it; it was returned in due time) and dig in. Ellis mentioned that despite the fact that though Washington is the most well-known of the Founding Fathers, he is also one that people know the least about, save the apocryphal stories about chopping down the cherry tree and that he had wooden teeth. (He didn't; he wore dentures made of others human teeth...a story in and of itself.) After reading his book, I found out that I, too, knew very little about Washington the man. Thus started a cycle of non-stop reading about our Founding Fathers: John Adams by David McCullough, 1776 by David McCullough, Alexander Hamilton, American by Richard Brookhiser, Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow, and to finish off, The History of the American People by Paul Johnson. In between I managed to squeeze in Neil Peart's Traveling Music just to take a break in the American history theme, as well as How To Think Like Da Vinci(which was interesting)...and Keith Emerson's autobiographical Pictures of an Exhibitionist. A good year for reading!

This year it is all about Rome. I started off the year with Rubicon: The Last Years of the Roman Republic, seguing into Suetonius' Twelve Caesars. And how did I wind up reading about this Roman stuff? Believe it or not, HBO's series of the same name. What has struck me about the death of the Roman republic is how terribly its demise set back the progress of republican democracy for a thousand years. Granted, Rome was more of a plutocracy than democracy, but it still had democratic leanings, coming as it did after the rise of the Athenian democratic model. But with Julius Caesar's single act of crossing over the Rubicon and entering Rome under arms (a predecessor, Sulla, had done the same thing, but he in the end relinquished all power and retired), he destroyed republicanism as a means of government for close to fifteen hundred years, leading to a Roman imperium, then with the collapse of the Western Roman Empire, feudalism and monarchies that dovetailed into the whole "divine right of kings" concept fostered by the Roman Catholic Church. Not until the Age of Enlightenment did European thinkers take up the cause of democratic republicanism, and not until the founding of the United States as a republican entity did the concept once again take hold.

One thing about history. You never know where it will find its relevance to today's world.

Not Exactly "Miracle On Ice", But....

Switzerland beat Canada in Olympic hockey today by a score of 2-0. Hard for a lot of people who don't follow hockey (much less international hockey) to understand the magnitude of, but in the hockey world, this is a big deal. Canada doesn't really have a lot that it can hang its hat on culturally, so Canadian dominance in hockey is a point of pride for them. When they lose in international competition, its a painful national experience. When the Team Canada failed to win the gold medal in the Nagano Winter Olympics a few years back, Wayne Gretzky (then still playing) described himself as "devastated". When the Edmonton Oilers won the Stanley Cup for the first time in 1984, one Canadian hockey writer after another insinuated that the Cup was "back in Canada, where it belongs". I guess there was some pride lost to Americans when the Toronto Blue Jays won the World Series of baseball, but if there was, I didn't read about it or talk to anyone who felt it. Conversely, Canadians feel simply awful when they don't win in hockey, acutely when there's no Canadian-based teams competing for the Stanley Cup, and significantly more when they lose in international competition.

Switzerland has never been considered a hockey powerhouse in any way, shape, or form. The traditional European hockey powerhouses are Sweden, Czechoslovakia (now Czech Republic and Slovakia), Russia (formerly USSR), and to a lesser extent, Finland. The Swiss, Germans, Danish, Norwegians or Italians rarely figured into the equation, and were considered "also-rans". Not so with the Swiss in these Olympics. The Swiss, sporting a 2-1 record in the round-robin tournament, have on their wall the scalps of two hockey powerhouses: Czech Republic and Canada.

There's still an opportunity for the Canadians to climb back into it and win the Olympic tourney. But their loss to the Swiss has made things a lot more interesting.

There has been a shift in power in the hockey world.

Happy Valentine's Day...I Want To Talk About Al Gore

And now that we've gotten that out of the way, I'd like to talk about Al Gore's speech in Saudi Arabia this weekend. I'll let the exact quotes speak for themselves, and I'll weigh in in brackets:

"The thoughtless way in which visas are now handled, that is a mistake...the worst thing we can possibly do is to cut off the channels of friendship and mutual understanding between Saudi Arabia and the United States."

[Gore is talking about, get this, the fact that the United States made the student visa application process for Saudi students appreciably more difficult after 9/11. Gore either obviously forgot that a.)fifteen of the nineteen hijackers on 9/11/01 were here on student visas, and b.) that they came from Saudi Arabia. Or not. Either way, I fail to understand how a rational, thoughtful, and informed man could make this statement. I guess if you're not rational, thoughtful, and/or informed you could. Glenn Reynold's put it best: "Only Al Gore could come up with the idea of criticizing Bush for not sucking up to the Saudis enough."]

Associated Press wrote this:

"Former Vice President Al Gore told a mainly Saudi audience on Sunday that the U.S. government committed 'terrible abuses' against Arabs after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, and that most Americans did not support such treatment.

Gore said Arabs had been 'indiscriminately rounded up' and held in 'unforgivable' conditions."

[I'm all for knowing if this is true. But this is the first I've heard of it, and if it did happen (and in all likelihood, it did), I'd like to know who was "terribly abused", and whether they were held in "unforgivable" conditions. More to the point, if Gore were so concerned about this, why is he saying this in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, and not in the United States (which essentially means his comments will get played all over the Arab world, which already spouts dangerous agit-prop to begin with)? As I previously said, that there was mass round-up, I do not doubt. How many of these people were on illegal work or student visas? According to Bill O'Reilly (who I don't always agree with, but I believe his research on this point), all of 70 people were rounded up, with all of 13 having been falsely detained, though quickly released. O'Reilly called Gore's people about THEIR source material, but was told, in essence, to stick it. This is an Eason Jordan moment for Gore, in my opinion. Jordan, if you recall, said at a conference in Europe last year (Davos?) that the United States Military was deliberately targeting journalists. At first he denied he said it, but when an audio of his speech was produced, he couldn't produce any evidence of his contention. He soon lost his job as head of CNN News. Execrable though Gore's charge is, as he said it on foreign (enemy?) soil, he can redeem himself somewhat if he backs up his claim. I doubt he can.]

Snowstorms, Gretzky's Wife, Emergency Rooms, And An Emotionally Co-Dependent Cat Named Bob

Pardon the lack of posting these last few weeks, folks. A combination of ill health and mental exhaustion due to overwork had rendered me bereft any thoughts on anything, save sleeping, eating, taking codein-based cough suppressant (which, by the way, gives a pretty decent buzz), and a nasal steriod. I'm appreciably better now, but it was tough going for a few days there, as I tried to work through my sickness and wound up checking into NYU Downtown Medical after resultant bronchial difficulties at work. I've noticed a tendency in my outlook when I'm sick, which is that I can't remember what it was like to be healthy. Conversely, I've also noticed that when I'm healthy I forget what it is like to be sick, and thus fail to take care of myself enough to avoid getting sick. Strange.

So here we are, in mid-February, with one humdinger of a snowstorm on our hands. Winter has been pretty mild in these parts, but in my bones I knew it was too good to last for the whole season. I used to love winter, but I find my dislike for it growing with every passing year. I won't be leaving New York any time soon, but I am looking forward to the spring.

As for the burgeoning gambling scandal in hockey, I'm still monitoring it closely. I've always loved hockey, not just because of the sport itself, but also for the way in which those in the game have conducted themselves. Unlike the other three major (and more popular) sports, pro hockey players typically don't get in trouble with the law, and eschew the brash, arrogant behavior that one sees in other sports, particularly in football and basketball. I still think this is by-and-large true, but this gambling scandal has certainly tarnished the game. That Wayne Gretzky's wife was implicated in this cannot be construed as a non-issue, as some have said. It is reported that Gretzky has been caught on tape conspiring to protect his wife from the public relations fallout that he knew would inevitably ensue. Understandable though his sentiments are, Gretzky lied to the press a day before, saying he knew nothing of his wife's gambling. The day after his denials, the news broke that he knew about his wife's gambling vis-a-vis the wiretaps, as he was caught talking to asst. coach Rick Tocchet about the situation.

I can't think of anyone who has carried themselves with more poise during their playing careers than Wayne Gretzky. In the entire 20 year professional career that he had, I can recall Gretzky saying only one controversial thing. (He said in '82 that the New Jersey Devils were a "Mickey Mouse franchise", which, needless to say, blew up in his face.) For a man who carried himself with such grace and class for so long to get busted lying to the press, it certainly doesn't look good for Gretzky, his wife, or The Game.

As I write this blog-entry, I'm being harrassed by my cat (Bob), who absolutely refuses to not be the center and object of my attention. Just figured I'd let you all know of his existence. Little bastard.