I'm having trouble with the NY Times. Not just Maureen's extended vacation, or the fact that I couldn't compete for the Nick Kirschof trip to Darfur because I'm a part time university teacher, or even because they seem to not be able to review anything vaguely interesting these days. No, it's because of the editorial pages. Robert Wright is a guest columnist, and he wrote a marvelous piece about what the military, specifically the Army brings to the nation.
"In one sense, I was well positioned to enjoy the summer of love. In
1969, I was living in San Francisco, epicenter of hippiedom, antiwar
fervor and utopian hope for perpetual peace.
"Circumstances
kept me from sharing the spirit. The part of San Francisco I lived in
was the Presidio, which was then a military base. I was 12, and my
father was an Army officer. I remember my family once driving toward
the Presidio’s Lombard Street gate past tens of thousands of protesters
who seemed to think my father was part of a very bad outfit.
"I
was sure they were wrong, and I still am. In fact, the whole, larger
stereotype — that the military is a right-wing institution, best viewed
with skepticism if not cynicism by the left — is way off. Growing up
in, or at least amid, the Army helped make me a liberal — not because I
reacted against my environment, but because I absorbed its values. If
all of America were more like the Army, it would be a better country.
"People think of the Army as hierarchical, but compared with the private sector it’s a bastion of egalitarianism." Emphasis added... As I said, excellent article. See continuation. The reason for that is that they didn't let me save it or share it...it's one of those Times Select things. Absurd...
Part of the issue a lot of folks have with the Times, the Washington Post and so on is that they really never have anything positive about national institutions. Well, of course, there are some pretty good reasons for that. Most of our institutions have been degraded by the clowns running them or running the country. However, there are some great things happening in some of them. We don't hear about them because the dweebs who talk about them do so with blinders on -- Abu Grab Ass is just the night shift; there is no Gulf War syndrome, and so on. Ad infinitum, ad nauseam. So, when the moderate to left side say something good about the Army, they can't believe it. So, they hide it...
See the continuation. It's worth it. The Times is run by Hobbits. So, what else is new...
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