Uncommon Commentary #48

The contents of the Army Field Manual (e.g., interrogation techniques) were never intended to apply to the CIA, or to anyone else in non-combat conditions; is this not why it’s called the Army Field Manual?

Miscellaneous Musing #12

If the Middle East comprises the states from Turkey and Egypt to Iran, and the Far East those such as Japan and Malaysia, where's the Near East? It would be more sensible to use the older term Near East for what's now being called the Middle East (which expression could be applied to the Indian subcontinent and a few neighbouring countries, or could simply become obsolete, since, if one has a Near and a Far, one doesn't really need a Middle)—but, then, what has common parlance to do with sensibility?

Uncommon Commentary #47

King Ahab—I mean, President Obama—said on his Near Eastern trip that "one of the great strengths" of the USA is that it does not consider itself "a Christian nation [sic] or a Jewish nation [sic] or a Muslim nation [sic]" but rather "a nation [sic] of citizens who are bound by ideals and [by] a set of values." Perhaps misconstruing the adage "When in Rome, do as the Romans do," he spoke like a turkey while in Turkey.

Uncommon Commentary #46: Those Who Cannot Remember the "Hope and Change" of the Past Are Condemned to Repeat It

The USA has probably never had any other President so ignorant of history as is Obama, as has again been demonstrated by one of his two remarks in Prague about "moral authority," this one being the rationale for slashing the US defense budget. Around the time of Obama's birth, Secretary of Defense McNamara puzzled over why it was so difficult to reach arms-control agreement with the USSR; he witlessly concluded that it was our fault, for being too far ahead in the arms race, and that we should therefore allow the Soviets to catch up to us. At the end of the 1960's they indeed caught up, but continued expanding their arsenal, until, by the time Reagan became president, it had numerical superiority over ours in nearly every category. Later in the 1980's, such politicians as Sen. Gary Hart didn't even want to see the USA catch up to the USSR, but instead called for another unilateral nuclear freeze, going on the assumption that the Kremlin would consequently feel morally compelled to halt its own buildup. In case my readers' memories are as deficient as those of my president: What actually ended the "Cold War" (by bringing about the end of the Soviet Union) was, as many of the Russians themselves have said, the reconstitution of the US military under Reagan, which challenge the Soviets attempted to meet by seeking to maintain their lead over our country; this placed an unbearable strain on an economy that was already crippled by left-wing mismanagement (politicians, please note). Perhaps Obama's campaign rhetoric ought to have invoked not the word "change" but "rehash."

By the way, how can a country ruled by Democrats have "moral authority" in regard to anything?

Uncommon Commentary #45: Happy April-Democrats' Day!

Today, the US Congress began consideration of the 2010 Obama budget, which, if approved in its present form, will produce a record $1,300,000,000 deficit; by contrast, the cumulative 1940-1944 deficit amounted to $1,650,000,000 in today's money, despite the fact that most of those five budgets included the expenditures necessary to wage the biggest war that the world has ever seen. Let's hope that it's all only an April Fools' Day joke.

Uncommon Commentary #44: People Who Dress Down Deserve a Dressing-Down

Styles of clothing come and go, but one constant applied throughout all history until just a few decades ago: people always wanted to look their best to be seen in public. Now, by contrast, the object in dressing seems to be to get away with as much slovenliness as is socially permissible. (The phenomenon is not confined to the sphere of clothing, but extends also to the tacky fad of going unshaven—I refer to men, not to women, although, if women are shaving their legs less frequently, this would explain why they also wear trousers so often these days—and to the degeneration of our language into what I call Vulgar English. To elaborate fully on the second point would require another uncommon commentary; let me say only that many of the best-educated persons of our day make syntactical and grammatical errors that would have embarrassed a college undergraduate in previous centuries.)

This doesn't mean that no sense of fashion exists, but the primary recent vogue (unless one counts the overdone casualness itself), i.e., the baring of more and more flesh, certainly is a shoddy substitute for what was considered chic in former times. This is a kind of low comedy that elicits no laughter, but it's also lamentable: after all, wearing modest but aesthetically pleasing clothes adds charm and grace to life, and those are two qualities in short supply these days.

Uncommon Commentary #43

As was true when Clinton was in the Oval Office, I find myself agreeing with much of what the President says, but none of what he does.