On the Road Again

Port of Savannah: The mighty engine of global commerce

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Here I am in Savannah, Georgia, lounging around while my wife endures the torments of a professional development seminar. We’re staying at a riverfront hotel, where from our seventh-floor balcony I’ve been watching a procession of mammoth container ships, chivied by tugs, enter and leave the port.

So what am I reading? Among other things, Paul Johnson’s magisterial history of modernity, Modern Times. I’m about two-thirds of the way through it and have concluded that its subtitle should be: Just About Everything You Think You Know About History Is Wrong. Such as: Francisco Franco was a fascist. (Johnson observes: Franco was a reactionary who hated everything that had happened to Europe and the world since 1914.) Such as: Higher education expresses higher values. (Johnson reminds us: At every stage of his ascent to power, Hitler benefitted mightily from the support of intellectuals and university students.) Such as: Imperialism was a monstrous evil. (Johnson advises: Compare the Gold Coast to Ghana.) On practically every page of Modern Times, conventional wisdom takes a well-deserved beating.

So what am I thinking? That while Joe Biden is an idiot, his fanboys and -girls are even bigger idiots. Or, since I feel almost—but not quite!— sorry for them, let these poor souls be more charitably characterized as radical self-deceivers. In their telling, Joe Biden is a great statesman who’s working hard to make life better for the American people. And their adoration for the President is such that reality just doesn’t register. The two most recent Washington Post/ABC national presidential polls had Donald Trump ahead of Biden by an eyebrow-raising 6% and an eye-popping 10%. On top of that, the President’s approve/disapprove numbers on every issue are lousy to dismal. A supermajority of Americans believe he’s just too old to run for reelection. A supermajority of Democrats wish he’d drop out of the race. No matter! The polls are wrong, the economy’s great, the border’s closed, Hunter’s a painter of genius and Joe’s fighting hard to reduce the price of…Taylor Swift concert tickets…

So what have I noticed? That the lunatic ideology of gender is losing the support of progressives who rely on votes to remain in power. California’s boy governor, Gavin Newsom, demonstrated that he for one has realized which way the wind is blowing: Last week he vetoed the horrific “gender-affirming” bill passed by the California legislature, which constituted a declaration of war by the state on parents and families. Newsom, who harbors presidential ambitions, decided that no, he wasn’t going there.

So what am I asking? Well, here’s a good question: Why was Senator Bob Menendez, Democrat of New Jersey, allowed to remain in his position as Chairman of the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee for fifteen months after the FBI raid that uncovered stunning evidence of corruption? That evidence indicates that he was, in effect, taking bribes from the government of Egypt. Yes, I know, innocent until proven guilty, etc. and so forth. But now that an indictment has dropped there’s a growing chorus of calls from other Democrats for Menendez to resign from the Senate. So why didn’t Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer remove him from a position of such sensitivity the instant that evidence of corruption came to light? That’s a good question indeed, wouldn’t you say…?

So what’s got me shaking my head? Well, up in America Lite—as I call Canada— Parliament recently honored a Ukrainian-Canadian veteran of the Second World War with a standing ovation. It’s nice to know that the Canadian Greatest Generation gets respect. There was one little difficulty, however, in that the veteran being honored had fought against the Red Army, Canada’s ally at the time, as a soldier in the 14. SS-Freiwilligen Division "Galizien." Apparently, nobody bothered to screen his paperwork! To be fair, there were many subject peoples of the USSR who had good reason to hate the Stalin regime, the Ukrainians prominent among them, and many took service with the German armed forces. One can understand, though deplore, why they did so. But for the Canadian Parliament to honor a veteran of the Waffen-SS, even by accident, is truly a disgrace…