Commencing the Diary

Most of the commentary in this and similar future posts wil be found on Arts and Letters Daily (.com), for which I thank that wonderfully generous man, Jordan Beck, M.A. Chicago '09. May he and Rebecca be living a hard-working, blissful life and eating plenty of homemade kugel.

John Harris's Survivor: Bill Clinton in the White House is aptly named. A comprehensive but not mind-numbing chronicle of the 42nd presidency, Harris's thesis is that Clinton earned popularity, re-election, and the staving off of being forced out of office during the impeachment trials by a leadership style which wasn't truly bold or visionary...he tempered his vision after two years of clashing with Republicans. Rather, Clinton "survived" by not seizing control of situations but reacting to them, carefully deliberating and seeking a consensus in decisions. With perception and fairness, Harris credits this learning process and its results with Clinton's successes (foreign policy, Kosovo above all, and the balancing of the budget by adopting many different plans following the defeats of his economic stratagem and health care bill) and his failures (the aforementioned early plans, his reaction to Whitewater. his inability to handle Bin Laden). Harris also fills the book with lively biographical portraits from Clinton to the shadowy Dick Morris to the troubled Vincent Foster, and in the end comes out just ahead for the Clinton style...the implication in one of the final chapters is that the greatest chance ever for Middle Eastern piece was lost when neither Barak nor Arafat could stomach the bargain Clinton labored for in 1999. The book even convinced me that Bill and Hillary were meant to be together for life. I can't remember where I read it was the best book of his presidency, but it's a fine one for any politico to peruse.

What Jane Austen Ate and Charles Dickens Knew is another must-have for a certain audience, as Daniel Pool explains everything the lover of Victorian lit might be confused over--money, titles, government structure, servants, etc. There is a subtle exploration of the coming of modern society after 1830, and it also left me with a new perception on Trollope, who for all his realism never stooped as well as Dickens did to documenting the lower classes.

I cooked chicken and biscuits for the family today...an absolutely delicious and much-praised meal. Warmed my heart to finally be able to cook for them, and to stick to my guns when Mom and I differed on a technique I had in concluding the recipe. (Turns out we were both right, but I was distracted enough to make the wrong vegetables.)

Hugo Chavez has something of a point when he accuses the Israelis of getting closer to the status of those who almost slaughtered them. But his reaction to the Tiferet Israel synagogue desecration removes every last shred of credibility he had as a revolutionary. You CANNOT preach democratic socialism while practicing anti-Semitism, anti-homosexuality, and religious intolerance, toadying to corporations, and controlling the media. Say what you will about Berlusconi (another media maven in charge), he has not yet stooped to blaming problems on ethnic and religious minorities.

Lenore Skenazy is called "America's Worst Mom" because she let her nine year-old take the NYC subway alone. I call her an optimist who thinks we are being overly protective by forgetting common sense...and as someone who finally got to leap across a river on stepping stones, I wish I'd had the days when children could roam free until dark having somewhat troublesome adventures and no fear on either side.

AND TO LAY DOWN WITH DREAMS IN MY HEAD...Bjorn Lomborg of Copenhagen has this brilliant point when responding to Paul Krugman's assertion that those against Al Gore's plans for controlling carbon in the name of global warming are as treasonous as McCarthy accused those he baited of being in the 1950's. Their pet project, Waxman-Markey, will cost current taxpayers billions upon billions, with NO RESULTS VISIBLE for ANOTHER CENTURY, and that will be a 0.11 degree Celsius drop!. I'm all for environmental saving and live as green as possible, but for projects like this, we need to keep a free exchange of voices going to find the best solution, and somehow, bickerin over 0.2 degrees in the F which our grandchildren may never even see is not enough to be accused of disloyalty over.