Gerald Ford: Not Who You Thought He Was

In reading Jeffrey Toobin's over-rated book on the Supreme Court, "The Nine" (which essentially argues that liberal judges are in the real tradition of the Founders), I was suprised to discover that Gerald Ford had come out as a vocal defender of Michigan Unviersity's system of massive racial preferences during the bro-ha-ha over Grutter v. Bollinger, the Michigan Unviersity Affirmtive Action case. But even more eyebrow raising was this quote from a New York Times Op-Ed former President Ford penned entitled, "Inclusive America: Under Attack",

"A pair of lawsuites would prohibit Michigan and other unviersitys from even considering race as one of many other factors weighed by admision counslers such a move would condemn future college students to suffer the cultural and social impoverishment that inflicted my generation"

Perhaps I was wrong to affix this kind of liberalism to only those under 65 years of age. Ford is dead ofcourse. I thought his generation, that of the WW2, was proud of themselves and there nation and there culture. I didn't know they scorned the wholesome, united social and cultural atomsphere of the 1940's as "cultural and social impoverishment" inflicting them? If only Gerald Ford had turned on a TV in the last 20 years of his life and seen what a rap video is he probably wouldn't have written such nonsence. So according to Ford, we should scorn and throw away the culture of the American army on D-Day in favor of the American culture of 2009 when the chart topping refrain on the radios of the nation is "Move Bitch, Get Out the Way!"? Hmm.
This is a phenmonon in Modern America. Those who have spent little to no time in a black ghetto, never seen a hip hop video, never gone to school with African Americans in signfigant numbers, and who have, overall, the least knowledge of black or latino ghetto culture are consitantly the very ones speaking about how they know that increased spread of latino & black ghetto culture is not just good but "essential" at any Unviersity and know that Michigan Univiersity student will sufferer tremendously in the absence of black and latino culture on their campus. These people who have spent the least time in the black or latino communitys and who have the least knowledge of either, have the highest opinion of both and claim for a fact that the academic underachievment, chronically high rates of violence, crime, illegitimacy and poverty among both latinos and blacks in America is the result of white racism & white oppression.
However, those white people who actually know black hip hop culture, who actually know blacks and latinos, go to school with them, work with them, live in the same neigborhoods, have a radically different more modest view of blacks and how much they "deserve" the racial preferences that Ford supports. Those whites that have the most exsperience with and knoweldge of black Americans have a much less grandiously positive view of the African American community compared to those whites like Gerald Ford who have virtually zero familiarity with the black community that Ford claims he was deprived of as a young man at Michigan Unviersity. Those whites who actually know and live with or around black culture do not complaim like Gerald Ford about the lack of it (especially at the places they send there children). They don't rejoice it the fact that there kids who go to the diverse schools Ford loves, schools that are 60 or 80 or 90 percent African American and latino. No, they want, more than anything, to send there kids to the least "diverse" schools possible, the whitest, most asian schools. They don't think there kids are suffering from any lack of black aka hip hop culture (which is the exact kind of "diversity" Ford is writing about whether he knows it or not). To the contrary, the parents of white children who have real knowledge of black (and latino hip hop) culture, who live in mostly minority neigborhoods, think there children are suffering from the presence of viscerally anti-academic black/hip hop culture, which Ford thinks Unviersitys must have as much as possible of.

Books Acquired Recently

1. Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! (Adventures of a Curious Character) by Richard Feynman
2.Democracy in America by Alexis De Tocqueville
3. The Book of Basketball by Bill Simmons
4. Have You Seen My Country Lately? by Jerry Doyle
5. Captilism: The Unknown Ideal by Ayn Rand
6. Kipling: Everyman's Poetry Collection
7. How to talk about Books you haven't Read by Pierre Bayard
8. Anti-Illectualism in American Life by Richard Hofstadter
9. Intellectuals and Society by Thomas Sowell
10. The Nine by Jeffrey Toobin
11. Bright Star by John Keats
12. Longfellow: Poems & Other Writings
13.Woodrow Wilson by John Milton Cooper Jr.
14. Samuel Johnson by Peter Martin
15. American Orginal:The Life and Constuition of Sumpreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia by Joan Biskupic
16. Warlord: A Life of Winston Churchill at War by Carlo D'este
17 "Only the Super-Rich Can Save Us!" by Ralph Nader
18. Andrew Carnegie by David Nasaw
19. Bright-Sided by Barbara Ehrenreich
20. Snoop by Sam Gosling
21. Albion's Seed: Four Folkways in America by David Hackett Fischer
22. Washington's Crossing by David Hackett Fischer
23. American Nervousness by George Miller Beard
24. The Best Short Stories of J.G. Ballard by J.G. Ballard
25. My Dark Places by James Ellroy
26. On Classical Economics by Thomas Sowell
27. The Quest for Cosmic Justice by Thomas Sowell
28. Basic Economics by Thomas Sowell
29. Applied Economics by Thomas Sowell
30. The Housing Boom & Bust by Thomas Sowell
31. A Man of Letters by Thomas Sowell
32. The Ascent of Money by Niall Ferguson
33. On The Wealth of Nations by P.J. O'Rourke
34. The Six Pillars of Self Esteem by Nathiniel Branden
35. The Collected Poems of A.E. Housman by A.E. Housman
36. Swann's Way by Marcel Proust
37. Lost Illusions by Honoré de Balzac
38. Avoid Boring People by James D. Watson
39. Lords of Finance by Liaquat Ahamed
40. Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand
41. The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand
42. Anthem by Ayn Rand
43. Goddess of the Market: Ayn Rand and the American Right by Jennifer Burns
44. Ayn Rand and the World she made by Anne C. Heller
45. The Virtue of Selfishness by Ayn Rand
46. Philosphy: Who Needs It? by Ayn Rand
47. For the New Intellectuals by Ayn Rand
48. Ayn Rand Answers by Ayn Rand
49. The Autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini by Benvenuto Cellini
50. "They Have Killed Papa Dead!" by Anthony S. Pitch
51. The Broken Compass by Peter Hitchens
52. Encounters by Paul Gottfried
53. A Country of Vast Designs by Robert W. Merry
54. History of the United States: 1801-1809 by Henry Adams
55. TR: The Last Romantic by H.W. Brands
56. Start-Up Nation by Dan Senor & Saul Singer
57. A Time to Speak by Robert Bork
58. Booknotes by Brian Lamb
59. The Quatable Calvin Coolidge by Calvin Coolidge
60. The Autobiography of Calvin Coolidge by Calvin Coolidge
61. Ex-America by Garet Garret
62. The American Civil War by John Keegan
63. A Patriotic History of the United States by Larry Schweikart and Michael Allen
64. The Oxford History of The United States by Admiral Samuel Eliot Morison
65.The Age of Reagan: The Fall of the Liberal Order by Steven F. Hayward
66. The Age of Reagan: The Conservative CounterRevoultion by Steven F. Hayward
67. Empire of Liberty by Gordon S. Wood
68. We Are Doomed by John Derbyshire
69. Waking Giant: America in the Age of Jackson by David S. Reynolds
70. The Conservatives by Patrick Allit
71. Founding Brothers by Joesph Ellis
72. What Hath God Wrought?: The Transformation of America, 1815-1848 by Daniel Walker Howe
73. What Would the Founders Do? by Richard Brookheiser
74. 33 Questions about American History you're not supposed to ask by Thomas Woods
75. What The Dog Saw by Malcolm Gladwell
76. Profiles in Courage by John F. Kennedy
77. His Excellency: George Washington by Joesph J. Ellis
78. The Conservative Mind: from Burke to Eliot by Russel Kirk
79. The Almanac of American History by Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr.
80. Forge of Empire by Micheal Knox Beran
81. A Conservative History of the American Left by Daniel J. Flynn
82. The Education of Henry Adams by Donald Hall
83. Who Killed the Constuitition? by Thomas Woods
84. Alexander Hamilton, American by Richard Brookheiser
85. "I Can't Believe I'm Sitting Next To A Republican" by Harry Stein
86. Revoultionary Charcters by Gordon S. Wood
87. The Vision of the Anointed by Thomas Sowel
88. A Conflict of Visions by Thomas Sowell
89. The Victorians by A.N. Wilson
90. Dutch by Edmund Wilson
91. Titan by Ron Chernow
92. Star Money by Kathleen Winsor
(and more to come.....)

Ralph Nader: The left-wing Ayn Rand

The fictional mirror opposite of Ayn Rand's 1957 masterwork ,"Atlas Shrugs" has been written by Ralph Nader and the name of the novel is "Only the Super-Rich can Save Us!". The similarities between the two novels are abundant,
1. Both novels are very large and have distinctive covers that include the world and a group/indivual holding up the globe or dominanting/ruling it.
2. Both novels are fictional accounts of what could happen in the US poltically, economically and so fourth.

3. Both are accounts of a utopian revoultion occuring (that reflects each others ideology).

4. In both both books, a group of rich and influential people get together and plot to make great changes within American socsiety occur.

However, the difference is that in Nader's new novel his ultra-affluent cabal are radical leftists guilty about there wealthy and organize to fight, essentially, against themselves and there businesses, they fight the evil mulitinationals that have made Buffet wealthy, they agaitate for huge taxes, massive regulation, and for goverment take over of huge parts of the American economy and other similiar liberal ends. Ofcourse in Rand's novel, the rich get together to make a ungratful nation that not ridicules there work that has helped society so much appreciate the gifts the selfish have given society by going on strike.

Most think that the title of Nader's novel is sarcastic but "Only the Super-Rich Can Save Us!" isn't sarcastic at all of course. In the book, Warren Buffet outraged over the ineffectual reaction to Hurricane Katrina by the Bush Adminstration, assembles a group of leftist billionaires & celebrities (who are ofcourse friendly with Nader in real life) including George Soros, Bill Cosby, Paul Newman, Ted Turner & Yoko Ono who decide to save America by putting there billions into fighting against the evil corporations, raising taxes, regulation & the like.
"Only the Super-Rich Can Save Us!" is essentially a leftist version of "Atlas Shrugs" in which the John Galts of America go masochistic.

Although this novel is wrong about so much, I think it's an intresting book, the kind of un-pretenious accesible novel that more publishing houses should put out in favor of garbage by the many forgettable testerone deficient hipster American novelists like Micheal Chabon.

I wonder how Yoko Ono and Warren Buffet feel about it especially since Yoko Ono has a love scene around page 700.

Nader is a terrible writer to be honest. And the book reads like some kind of joke. Its a ridiclous fantasy as Rob Long points out in his review of the book in the Wall Street Journal,

"In fact, "Only the Super-Rich Can Save Us!" reads less like a novel or "practical utopia" than a dream journal. At the Maui summit, for instance, Phil Donahue rises to address his fellow do-gooders: "Phil pulled a letter from his jacket pocket. 'This is an offer from the head of NBC. He wants to give me a national talk show, and get this—he specifically wants me to deal with injustice, hard solutions to the nation's problems, bold doings among ordinary people, and the plight of millions of Americans who get pushed around or shut out while they do the essential, grimy, everyday work that keeps the rich and famous sitting pretty on top. He says NBC wants a "new Dr. Phil" for the new burgeoning civil society.' "

And that's only page 68! (There are 700 pages total, in case I forgot to mention that.) The spine is barely creased and already there's a sensational parrot, a new TV talk show . . . oh, and a movement to change the national anthem to the more peaceful, labor-friendly "This Land Is Your Land." But even a first-time novelist like Mr. Nader knows that the story would begin to drag if he simply narrated a tale of how the country seamlessly eased into an idyllic state of pure Naderism, in which Ralph Nader's vision is finally realized and everyone sounds like Ralph Nader.

And so he throws a few hurdles in the way of the Meliorists. Following the unionization of Wal-Mart, there's some predictable push-back from corporate fat cats and power brokers. You know the type: the ones who force decent Americans to use energy-hogging lightbulbs and to sing a complicated national anthem. But then there's push-back against the push-back, which is eventually (spoiler alert!) successful, thanks to Yoko Ono's deployment of her ravishing personal beauty to dazzle and distract the guy leading the corporate opposition. His name, by the way, is Lancelot Lobo. It may be a blessing that Mr. Nader populated his book with so many famous people.

By novel's end, American society is thoroughly Naderized. Warren Beatty sits in the governor's mansion in Sacramento; the president has signed on to the Meliorist program; and Americans have embraced a new life that is dimly lit by awful fluorescent curlicue bulbs. But curiously, for a futuristic utopia, it all seems so tired. So old. So Jimmy Carter. This is a novel that should have been written in 1976. Honestly, though, it's feeling more like 1976 every day."

"Only the Super Rich" reads as if it could have been written by Rob Long or a consravative for it ultimately just shows what terrible and hopefully, untenable, ideas modern liberalism has for America. All this novel manages to show, amazingly, is how ungrounded Nader and the lefts ideas are. In Nader's world economics doesn't even exists as anything more than a after thought. Companys don't leave America after there taxed to death, the unemployment rate doesn't rise. It shows a lot about how unserious the liberal mind is. They see wealth in America as a pie that is simply cut up. The size of the pie never changes and it can't be decreased by high taxes and onerous regulations, it merely is cut up. America, in there eyes, doesn't compete with other nations for businesses at all. Prosperity is automatic in the world that liberals imagine.

"Can i call you Joe?"

Hopefully, yet another nail in the coffin of Sara Palin's poltical career has come with the realse of the new book "Game Change" by Mark Halperin, a tell-all about the 08' campaign packed full behind the scenes goodies like the below snippets. There is a upcoming 60 minuetes episode devoted to the book. Check out these juicy details that exsplain why Palin asked Joe Biden "Can i call you Joe?" before the VP debate from a DrudgeReport.com article on the book (something which seemed so innocous when she asked it as she and Biden shook hands at center stage),

"In the McCain-Palin camp, Schmidt says that when he was told by a campaign staffer prepping Palin for her debate with Biden that the vice presidential candidate was doing very poorly in her preparation, it was a crisis moment. Watch an excerpt. “He told us the debate was going to be a debacle of historic and epic proportions…she was not focused…not engaged,” he tells Cooper. “She was not really participating in the prep.” Schmidt confronted Palin and, he says, “She said, ‘You know, I think that's right.’”

If that wasn’t enough for deep concern, Palin had a reflexive tendency to refer to Biden as “O’Biden,” says Schmidt, something that had to be fixed before the debate. He says others in the campaign came up with a solution. “It was multiple people -- and I wasn't one of them-- who all said at the same time, ‘Just say, Can I call you Joe,’ which she did.” Schmidt says he took over the prepping, simplified it, and says she “more than held her own” in the debate. But not without one “O’Biden” slip on national television.

Palin declined to be interviewed for this story, saying she had dealt with many of the allegations in her own book."

My take on this devolpment is 1. i'm going to skim or read this book when it comes out on audiobook and 2. If you had any doubts about wheather McCain staffers where lying about what a joke/diva Palin was to work with, i think this is pretty much conclusive.

good bye, Sara

you'd make a good elementrary school Principle.