TrueNorth

Time: Photographing George Bush

Interesting look back by Presidential photographers.  The second photographer describes what he calls a "Cult of personality".  He is mistaken.  There was never a cult of personality about Bush.  (See Obama, B.)

The Changing of the Guard

Heritage Ranking for 2009

As usual, it is dominated by the Anglosphere countries.  With the exception of Denmark and Switzerland, the top 10 are all either English speaking or former British possessions.

Heroes (see previous post)

Joe Darby - Abu Ghraib whistleblower

Wesley Autry - jumped onto subway tracks to save someone's life

The origins of Abu Ghraib

Israel in the Gaza

Finish. Them. Off.

Poor George Bush, the Unlucky President

Poor old George.  He goes to Baghdad for a victory tour, and gets a shoe chucked at him.  He has been the most unlucky President.

Firstly, he had to follow eight years of mostly peace and prosperity during the Clinton years.  Clinton inherited both of these from Reagan and George Bush the Senior, but he got to take most of the credit for them.  (Truth be told, aside from his personal problems, he governed fairly competently...more so than Dubya).

Then there was the Florida debacle.  The Democrats never forgave him for that (even though an analysis of the ballots conducted after the election showed that Bush did indeed win the vote in two out of three scenarios).

Then there was 9/11, the most devasting terrorist attack in history.  For Bush, this was both a challenge and an opportunity for greatness.  Some think Bush overreached by going for Iraq.  I think it was the right policy, but Bush didn't have the skills needed to convince the American public, or virtually anyone else, that this was the case.  After Florida, the Democrats were not interested in giving him the benefit of the doubt.

Then came Katrina.  We had been warned for decades that New Orleans was at risk of catastrophic damage from a sufficiently powerful hurricane, but no one did anything about it.  Not Bush, and not any of the presidents who came before him.  But Bush was the one who got caught.  His response wasn't perfect, but it was better than the state and local governments (both Democrat); but Bush was the one everybody blamed.

Finally (one hopes), the financial meltdown of the century.  Again, Bush is not blameless.  The Clinton administration and congress are equally to blame, but Bush is the one who will forever be associated with this crisis.

Yes, Bush made his share of mistakes, but he has also been extremely unlucky.  When he came into office, everything was going great.  The economy was slowing, but not seriously.  There was peace.  The United States was the most dominant military power the world has ever seen.  As he goes out, two wars are still raging, the economy is in tatters and the United States looks worn out and past its prime. 

What else can happen in the few weeks left of the Bush administration?  If I lived in LA, I would be nervous about the Big One.  Then there is the possibility of an asteroid wiping out New York or a super volcano decimating the continent.  Keep your fingers crossed until January 20th!

The real Che

Stephane Dion: The NDP's sacrificial lamb

I like Mark Steyn's description of Dion, Layton and Duceppe as "a pantomime horse with three rear ends"

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The Secular Right

A group of conservative writers, including John Derbyshire of NRO, have started a new blog called "The Secular Right".  About time.  It has always seemed odd to me that the left wing seems to own the skeptic arena when I believe it is the natural province of the curmudgeonly conservative temperament (such as the one John Derbyshire exhibits most ably in the Corner).

Though a long-time National Review and Commentary reader, I have always felt that both publications presume their readers are mostly believers (though the secular are graciously welcomed).   I have never seen the connection myself between conservatism and religion.  To me, Christianity is a collectivist idea (like socialism) that sounds a lot better in theory than it ever works out in practice and a true conservative would be just as likely to mistrust the one as the other.

That being said, I have to definitely affirm that the guys at NRO are "my team", for better or worse.  They may have a lot of wacky ideas, but I would rather hang around with them than with the zealots at the Nation (or the snooty crowd at the New Republic, for that matter).  The most salient index of group solidarity is probably an affinity for the same kind of humour, and by that standard NRO, with the likes of Steyn and Goldberg, is definitely where I belong.

(C.S. Lewis fans may understand when I say that the character of his whom I most identify with, even allowing for the author's biases, is the atheist McPhee in "That Hideous Strength". )