A Useful Politician
Most persons don’t like to be used unless the answer to the question “What’s in it for me” meets the standard of “fair use.”
Anyone who watched Senate confirmation hearings in which Judge Robert Bork was “borked” by then-Senator Joe Biden would know that fairness, knowledge of the Constitution and prudence are not aspects of President Biden’s character.
Judge Bork was as good a Supreme Court nominee as they come and presented an opportunity to recognize principle over partisan politics, an attitude one cannot find in Joe Biden the politician.
Biden at age 78 reveals visible signs of mental decline yet willingly accepted being used by his Party because the price was right:
Become President of the United States and appease radicals who would make the District of Columbia a State, shift from fossil fuels to wind and electricity, add additional seats on the U.S. Supreme Court and seat far-Left jurists, admit Muslim refugees fleeing disarray in Syria, tax the rich, blow up the financial integrity of the U.S. dollar, reward State politicians whose pension funds are bankrupt and advance democracy, by military intervention—i.e. war—with nations that haven’t a clue about its meaning or value.
That price was right for this useful politician who never had a principle he couldn’t put aside for personal gain.
True Nobility
Article I, Section 9, Clause 8 of the United States Constitution prohibits the national government from granting titles of nobility. The Anti-Federalists who authored the Eighth Amendment knew what they were doing also when they prohibited cruel and unusual punishments.
Among the cruel punishments banished were blinding and castration not only of the guilty but of male offspring.
None of that cruel and unusual punishment is permitted here but I wonder whether Americans have a lingering affection for titles of nobility.
Even before the death of Britain’s Prince Phillip, I was curious that at least three magazines found at my supermarket checkout this week featured British royalty.
Also what are all those boutique license plates on automobiles or diplomas we place on our walls but a sign of our specialness, our nobility?
Only the Vietnam Memorial confers official noble status, but to earn that you must have died for your country. That is true nobility.
The Decadent New York Times
For $4 a month I access The New York Times online, though I cancelled my subscription to the Sunday Times years ago. For $4 I get access to news reporting and “breaking” news of interest even to a political conservative.
The reporting about Matt Gaetz is of interest since I once met with Gaetz when he was a member of the Florida legislature and also because the sexual relations of elected officials tend to the bizarre.
In modern America a 17 year old female may be presumed to be a sexually experienced adult, and Gaetz’s behavior is not unusual.
Another story of interest is The Time’s reporting on former president Donald Trump.
Today’s report titled “How a Defeated Trump Is Making a Muddle of the G.O.P.” is so biased that I checked to see if The Times still had an opinion section.
Offended by this report by Jonathan Martin and Nicholas Fandos, I decided a rebuke was necessary and looked for Mr. Martin’s contact information.
A first attempt took me to Mr. Martin’s Twitter page, but when I found his email address I was required to download safety software. By then I simply gave up, but I was told that Mr. Martin has a husband.
How perfect and so decadent!
Harvey and Michael Pack
“Dad, let’s go to the track” were the last words I said to my Dad after he suffered a stroke and was in a nursing facility near Gulfstream racecourse.
I went to my first horseraces at age 13 with my Dad and have visited as many racecourses as feasible including Gulfstream, Del Mar, Hialeah, Santa Anita, Belmont, Laurel, Pimlico, a track in Northfield, Minnesota and even a track in Warsaw. Poland.
I share the love for a good horserace with Michael Pack, son of Harvey Pack a legendary handicapper for the New York Racing Commission. Harvey Pack tells the story of thoroughbred racing in his 2007 autobiography titled May the Horse Be With You.
How the son of an Armenian oriental rug merchant and the son of a thoroughbred handicapper got into the “Conservative Movement” is a different story. But Michael Pack and I have begun to talk about possible documentary based on the lives of ten conservative leaders.
That story titled Ennobling Encounters has been written and will be published by En Route Books.
I met Michael and Gina Pack in Santa Barbara, CA about thirty-eight years ago. I would stay with a friend from my days at Arlington House Publishers who was working for a wealthy businessman and I was seeking donations for a TV news venture I started called World News Institute.
My friend, Paul Weyrich, had started Empowerment Television about ten years after I met Michael Pack and I remember discussing that venture with Michael.
Among Michael’s many documentary credits are a documentary about the Supreme Court justice Clarence Thomas and RICKOVER: The Birth of Nuclear Power
Rediscovering Alexander Hamilton
Rediscovering George Washington
The Rodney King Incident: Race and Justice in America
Inside the Republican Revolution:
The First Hundred Days
Campus Culture Wars: Five Stories About Political Correctness
America’s Political Parties:
Power and Principle
Part One: The Democrats, 1960 to 1992
Part Two: The Republicans, 1960 to 1992
Fire From the Sun:
The Search for Fusion Energy
