Incredibly Moving Experience  Dear Weekend Jolters, The week past has been colored darkly by an act of evil in Las Vegas. So the author of this epistle is in no mood to make light. Also, we are moving, and steeped in melancholy. NR and National Review Institute have been ensconced at 215 Lexington Avenue for 20 years, and for over six decades have made NYC's Murray Hill neighborhood our home (mostly at the famed 150 East 35th Street). Yesterday, Friday, was our last day there. Starting Monday, NRHQ will be found on 19 West 44th Street. A little part of me feels we are leaving behind the memories of our friends -- gone before us, we hope, marked with the sign of faith. Bill and Priscilla, Dorothy and Warren, Arthur and Alex, and dozens upon dozens more. If you are in our new environs, do visit. To the old neighborhood, to the Murray Hill Diner, and Guy and Gallard, and Brother Jimmy's, and the ghosts of many a vanished place (Third and Long! The Guardsman! Paone's! OTB!) we say goodbye and, along with Bob Hope and Shirley Ross, we say, and sing, "Thanks for the Memories." Yes, we did have fun, and no harm done. Except to the friggin' commies!!! Editorials 1. A grim week includes this reflection, "Blood on the Strip," about the immediate "dispiriting" liberal response to carnage. From the editorial: And then there was the inevitable firearms panic. Lydia Polgreen, editor of the Huffington Post, demanded to know why automatic rifles had not already been restricted. When she was informed that automatic rifles had been severely restricted for decades, she explained that she meant "semiautomatic" rifles, but did not seem to know the difference. That is about par for the course in the gun-control debate. 2. As the WJ was submitted last week, it just missed including a link to this powerful editorial on the deception of Illinois Republican Governor Bruce Rauner, who pretty much turns out to be a fanatic pro-abortion advocate. From the editorial: The bill Rauner has signed into law was advertised as a measure to ensure that abortion would remain legal in Illinois in the event the Supreme Court should strike down Roe v. Wade. But it does a great deal more than that: It secures a longtime goal of the abortion lobby by putting state taxpayers on the hook for funding abortions throughout all nine months of pregnancy. Under this law, not only could a child be put to death an hour before it would otherwise be born -- which is monstrous enough on its own -- the people of the state of Illinois would be implicated in that crime by underwriting it with their tax dollars. 3. More on abortion. The U.S. House of Representatives has passed the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act. In our editorial, NR urges the Senate to do likewise. Here's our argument in part: Abortion is an ugly business, and it gets uglier the later in the pregnancy it occurs. We will not rehearse the horrors of late-term abortion here beyond noting that there was a compelling reason the Born-Alive Infant Protection Act was signed into law. A 20-week limit would represent the most meaningful federal restriction on abortion since Roe v. Wade -- indeed, the inevitable legal challenge to the law might very well provide the Supreme Court with the opportunity to revisit that grievously ill-considered and constitutionally groundless decision. Every advance against this barbaric and needless practice is to be welcomed. We urge Republicans not to let up until this bill is law. Eight NR Pieces You Really Ought to Read 1. Did we really not expect Jimmy Kimmel to engage in immediate political exploitation of the Las Vegas Massacre? Ben Shapiro takes him on, charging: Here are the facts: Kimmel's monologue was wrong in significant and important ways. He misled his audience. And his specific policy prescriptions weren't just wrong, they were misinformed. 2. On the same matter, David French says the not-so-funnyman is "sincerely wrong": But when you truly examine his claims, you'll see that he's spreading more than a little misinformation, his "solutions" won't solve the problem, and his fondest ideals fundamentally violate the Second Amendment. 3. More on Bruce Rauner's deception: Mary Hallan Fiorito predicts bad times ahead for IL's Big Kahuna, saying: [He] took an action so shocking in its duplicity and so out of step with the views of Illinois voters that many political watchers say it has likely ended his career in electoral politics. 4. Seems like the Tories are adrift and directionless. Michael Brendan Dougherty looks through the political fog and sees. . . fog. 5. KLO is thundering from Fatima in Portugal: She sees the legacy of Hugh Hefner as little more than "misery disguised as freedom." 6. As usual, Andy McCarthy puts things in very clear perspective: About the NFL's angering of its fan base, he says it's the league that's at fault, not Donald Trump. I heartily agree. 7. And here is Andy again, making with the wisdom, this time on why Trump needs to keep his campaign promise and decertify the Iran Deal. From his piece: Iran has never, not for a moment, been "transparently, verifiably, and fully implementing" the JCPOA. The Obama administration knew this all along -- and knew it would go this way. The Trump State Department, which is chockablock with Obama holdovers and has heavily lobbied the new president to stand by the deal, has known it from Day One. 8. Back to the NFL. Amen Victor Davis Hanson! From his column: The National Football League is a glass house that was cracking well before Donald Trump's criticism of players who refuse to stand during the national anthem. Podcasts 1. And before you could say "debut," Episode Two of The Remnant with Jonah Goldberg is ready for you. Held hostage so Jonah can have a conversation is "egghead extraordinaire" Yuval Levin, one of the nicest guys in human history. If you missed Episode One, don't hesitate and watch it now -- especially if you are into pranks involving corn ears and wee-wee. I kid you not. Ben Sasse stars. It's a lot of fun. 2. The new episode of Radio Free California has David and Will jawing about the "problem" of free speech on college campuses; what's behind the rising cost of going to the state's public universities; and the possible impact of the Trump tax plan on overtaxed California. 3. The Great Books is a huge hit. Find out for yourself. This week John J. Miller discusses John Milton's Paradise Lost with Hillsdale Professor Dwight Lindley. 4. JNO and KLO! Jay Nordlinger has the wonderful Kathryn Jean Lopez on the new episode of QandA. 5. You should listen to this week's episode of The Editors, if only to hear Charlie Cooke's soliloquy on the need for an armed citizenry. Really, it's a thing of beauty. Elsewhere in the program, Rich, Reihan, Charlie, and MBD discuss the massacre in Las Vegas, the White House's outline for tax reform, and the efforts to restore Puerto Rico. 6. A fresh Mad Dogs and Englishmen is ready for you. Charlie and Kevin discuss the Las Vegas massacre. It's a sharp and wise conversation. Listen here. The Francification of America NRO published a powerful series of essays by French writer Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry on America's "Francification." The NRO editor's note at the series outset explained: France and America are countries linked at birth and have always seen in each other funhouse-mirror visions of the other, and they have used the other to try to understand themselves. Writers such as Alexis de Tocqueville in the 19th century and Jean-Jacques Servan-Schreiber in the 20th wanted France to be more like America; today, Gobry argues, America is turning into France, and in the wrong ways." Here is the seven-part series, in order: 1. The first piece in the series, "The American Le Pen and the French-style Realignment," looks at how "A Trumpified American politics" may lead to Euro-ish "class-based parties." 2. "Part Deux" looks at how, like in France, America's elite, central institutions (Congress, the Ivy League) grant status and dole out resources to the favored few. 3. "Part Trois: Secularism" considers the growth of Godlessness on these shores. Writes Gobry: America is not secularizing in the same way as France has, in a centuries-long and sometimes bloody divorce between altar and a throne turned secular; but its own path toward a watered-down religious middle, led by an aggressive and resourceful secular minority, may lead to the same outcome. 4. Could America's loneliness epidemic have a French accent, with authoritarian political outcomes? 5. On the economic malaise endured by so many Americans, Gobry explains how this "New Normal" is France's enduring "Old Normal." 6. A la Paris after the war, America's increasing centralization of power and politics in Washington is creating an "American Desert" and threatening our civic cohesion. 7. In his final essay, Gobry suggests America may have something to learn from France on family policy, and maybe even on teaching philosophy. He has a point (a damn good one): And yet, it's hard to think of an idea that the Founders would more ardently subscribe to than that the success of the American experiment depends on the mass of citizens understanding "the American idea" and what makes it tick. (Abraham Lincoln would also vehemently agree.) Indeed, the decline of philosophy in American life would surely be among the things that would appall the Founders most about the country in 2017. For millennia, philosophy has been understood in the West as one of the necessary fields of study for any life well lived, but the issue is all the more crucial for America, a nation built on ideas. Such a nation cannot long endure if neither its citizens nor even its elite have the literacy required to be able to truly understand those ideas. It is impossible to understand the Constitution and America's civil order without understanding The Federalist Papers, and it is impossible to understand that without understanding the philosophers -- Locke, Montesquieu, and the rest -- who inspired the work's authors, and so on down the precious unbroken line all the way to Aristotle and Plato. (And yes, there are ways of making this material accessible and engaging to the average high-school student without dumbing it down.) From Our Friends: A Few Suggested Readings 1. In Commentary, Tevi Troy explains how the GOP's legislative failure might bring about single-payer health care. 2. Not only readings -- here's a welcome video from Prager University with Ashley McGuire discussing "Gender Identity: Why All The Confusion?" 3. At The Federalist, Daniel Payne sends Jimmy Kimmel a letter urging him to stay out of the gun debate if he is incapable of being honest. 4. Diversity Big Bucks: Washington State University is going to spend close to $300,000 to hire a "vice president of community, equity and inclusive excellence." The College Fix's Daniel Payne (yes, the same one!) files that report. Book 'Em NR / NRI amigo David Bahnsen has penned The Crisis of Responsibility: Our Cultural Addiction to Blame and How You Can Cure It, which will be in print in early 2018 (David French has written the foreword). What's it all about? Cribbing from the publicist notes, let's ask a question with questions: What happens after all the bogeymen have been vanquished? What if opposing the incompetence of the European Union, the biases of the American media, the corruption of crony capitalism, the arrogance of political power brokers, and allegedly unfair global trade deals is not enough? David's answer is this: The key to American prosperity in this new era of populism is for moral people to make responsibility matter again by renewing personal virtue and form lasting, mediating institutions that will trump the elitist bogeymen and scapegoats for generations to come. Looks like this will be a very important tome. Check it out at the link above. And next week, the new (brilliant!) VDH book hits the stores. For the time being, find out more about The Second World Wars: How the First Global Conflict Was Fought and Won at its Amazon page. Follow, follow, follow Without a hurt, the heart is hollow. That aside, here are some Twitter accounts that you might want to follow: Tom Fitton, Kings College president Greg Thornbury, AEI's Toby Stock, former Congresswoman Nan Hayworth, Acton Institute, National Review Podcasts, NR summer intern Tiana Lowe, Old Ballparks, Old Baseball Photos, Scott Pruitt, Hillsdale's Scot Bertram, the great historian Andrew Roberts, Heather Mac Donald, Craig Shirley, George Gilder, and Old Time Hardball, Baseballery We'll let the playoffs speak for themselves and America's Pastime these next couple of weeks. But let's note an almost-classic performance that occurred 90 years ago today, when the Yankees' Herb Pennock pitched a perfect game into the 8th inning against the Pittsburg Pirates in Game 3 of the 1927 World Series. The great Pie Traynor broke up the magic with a one-out single. By the time Paul "Big Poison" Waner popped out to end the game, the Yankee ace and future Hall-of-Famer had given up a measly three hits and one run. The Bronx Bombers prevailed, 8-1, and their victory the following day (earned when Tony Lazzeri scored the winning run in the bottom of the ninth on a two-out wild pitch by the Bucs' Johnny Miljus) would lead the Murderers' Row squad to a four-game sweep and baseball immortality. Let's Break Bread Join me in New York City on October 25 at the William F. Buckley Jr. Prize Dinner. It's the big annual fundraiser for NRI. I need you to reserve your ticket now. Get complete information here. A dios No lectures or tips this week except: Remember the dead. They may need your prayers. For you I hope for God's blessing and graces on you and all those you hold dear. Elvis has left the building, and the neighborhood. Jack | 
Comments
Post a Comment