Latest Podcasts I did a podcast yesterday with Dr. John C. Green of the Ray Bliss Institute of Applied Politics at the University of Akron. The twenty-minute conversation is about the Blackwell victory and the state of politics in Ohio. It was a very good conversation, Green knows a lot and is articulate. Be sure to listen if you want to understand why the Blackwell victory was no surprise, and why he should become the next governor. Also, I failed to mention last week's podcast in our last Email Update. Last week, I spoke with Julie Ponzi about my article, "Born American, but in the Wrong Place", a biographical piece about my immigration from Hungary as a child and my love affair with my adopted country.
Posted by Peter W. Schramm
Peter's "Born American" If you haven’t yet found the time to read Peter’s grateful reminiscences on his life as a new American, find it soon. It’s a wonderful piece. My dad, a generation older, but only a few years older as an American, read it with great pleasure. For him, a Dutchman who came of age during WWII, the U.S. was the land of opportunity and freedom. In 1953, after three years here, he responded to his adopted country’s call, joining the Army for what turned out to be a 20-year hitch. He shipped out for Europe from Camp Kilmer, where Peter spent his first days in the U.S. When Peter and his family were making the trek for Austria (my mom’s home), my dad was a young soldier, beginning a family while stationed in Pisa, Italy. By the time the Schramms made it to southern California, the Knippenbergs were back in San Francisco, where I was born. While we never darkened the doors of Schramm’s Hungarian Restaurant, I’ve eaten my share of goulash and "stuffed garbage." Peter’s essay speaks to all of us, native and immigrant, who appreciate in our bones and in our heads, the American promise. Ashbrooks in Iraq Two former Ashbrook Scholars are currently serving as Marines in Iraq. These are the kind of guys who think that going to a "sandbox" (as one of them referred to it) like Iraq is "fun." The first of the two pictures is of Avi Zaffini. Avi was only at Ashland for one year before duty called. He will be back and perhaps after another few years with us he will be an educated man. The second picture is of Capt. Josh Kirk, a JAG officer and a graduate of UVA Law School. In the photo he is sitting on a throne that was found in the Al Jaw Palace. Apparently, the throne was a gift to Saddam from Yasser Arafat. Good men… Semper Fi. Bush: Our Worst President? Gerard Alexander is a bit critical of this Sean Wilentz piece on George W. Bush being the worst president in our history. I noted the Wilentz piece here. Gas About Ethanol There are a lot of proposals being bandied about on Capitol Hill for how to reduce America’s alleged petroleum dependence. Nearly all of them are silly, according to Alan Reynolds of the Cato Institute, but the silliest is the notion that ethanol is going to be the country’s saving grace. He notes that the production of eight gallons of ethanol requires no less than seven gallons of gasoline: Rumsfeld and Some Generals Mac Owens takes up the cudgels on behalf of the SecDef. His conclusion: Read the whole thing. What the Moussaoui Verdict Proves Two things: 1. The Jihadists are not without their reasons for thinking Westerners have become weak in the face of danger and 2. War Criminals do not belong in civilian courts. Terrorism on this scale is not a criminal act—it is an act of war. Trying Moussaoui as if he were an ordinary mass murderer guilty of breaking the law was as insane, if not more insane, than the persona he presented to that poor jury. And I am not without some sympathy for them. There was some talk about jurors fearing for their safety and that of their families as a result of their service. Who could blame them? They didn’t sign up for that job as do our brave fighting men and women. The military tribunal is the place that ought to have handled Mr. Moussaoui. Peggy Noonan writes nicely about the miscarriage of justice, but, I think, misses the larger point that no matter what happened to Moussaoui at trial, we made a grave error in giving him that trial in the first place. Still, of course, death would have been a better sentence. As a regular caller to the Hugh Hewitt show, Yoni (an American/Israeli citizen) pointed out, what we’re forgetting is that his living will inspire terrorists (foolishly, but nevertheless) to try and take hostages for bargaining. Every second he sucks air he endangers more American lives. The Age of Reagan Jonah Goldberg just got around to reading Steven Hayward’s The Age of Reagan and thinks it is "one of the best histories of recent American politics I’ve ever come across." I agree, but really Jonah, the darn thing was published five years ago! An Astounding Comeback: 1938 Andy Busch writes the fourth in a series on midterm elections in America. This one is on the 1938 elections, when things looked especially bad for the GOP. Yet, some things happened that demaged FDR and gave the GOP some hope. And the Republicans made an astounding comeback, gaining six Senate seats and 71 House seats. This was the end of the New Deal. Weigel on Europe's Two Culture Wars Stanley Kurtz recommends this article by George Weigel. I concur. My wife and I have been telling ourselves that, once the kids are old enough, we’ll take them to Europe. I’m getting gloomier by the day about that prospect; the Europe we want them to experience may not be there, unless the movements whose rationales are articulated in this book gain traction. To be clear about my meaning: Europe for me is not simply a tourist destination, but an essential part of my family’s heritage (intellectually, culturally, and personally—we still have family in Austria, the Netherlands, Germany, and Scotland). The great conversation in which I take part as an intellectual has been conducted on that continent for more than the past two millenia. Some of its most horrific practical fruits played themselves out there in the last century. And I fear that an insidious strain of that conversation will have an even worse effect in the future. Having failed to kill itself by killing all too many of its people (through war, genocide, and other means), Europe may euthanize itself, having lost the will to live. Jean-Francois Revel, RIP In the Wall Street Journal this week, the editors remember Jean-Francois Revel, one of the few European public intellectuals of the 20th century who refused to embrace totalitarianism of either the Left or the Right. Un Problema John Podhoretz thinks that the organizers of this week’s nationwide demonstration’s are secretly in the pay of the the anti-immigration lobby. Good argument. I saw an interview of a self-identified Hispanic fellow (can’t remember what organization he was with) yesterday in which he castigated the US for slaughtering the Indians (he didn’t say native Americans), being an empire, taking Mexico’s land, etc., and now he was demanding that anybody who wanted to come to such an awful place be allowed to do so. Period. Amazing. There Hangs a Tale I have been reading into Paul Johnson’s Creators: From Chaucer and Durer to Picasso and Disney this weekend. I like it. It is well written (no surprise), which makes some deeper thinking seem lighter than it really is, and I learn something from each page. Look at the chapters on Shakespeare (Falstaff and Hamlet), Jane Austen, Mark Twain, and also Bach; look not to agree, but to see into some of the great ones with Johnson’s eyes. Example:
Posted by Joseph Knippenberg 
Posted by Peter W. Schramm
Posted by Peter W. Schramm Unfortunately, there is much less energy in 8 gallons of ethanol than in the 7 gallons of gasoline-equivalent needed to produce it. The Energy Department estimates the highway mileage of a Nissan Titan drops from 18 mpg to 13 mpg by switching to E85 (85 percent ethanol). That is why lavish subsidies to auto companies to produce flexible fuel vehicles are useless—a disguised bailout at best.
Posted by Peter W. Schramm Retrospective criticism is easy. Rumsfeld’s detractors would be much more credible if they could point to an instance in which their ability to discern the future was substantially superior to that of the man they have attacked.
Posted by Joseph Knippenberg
Posted by Julie Ponzi
Posted by Peter W. Schramm
Posted by Peter W. Schramm
Posted by Joseph Knippenberg Revel’s judgments were not unfailing, and in retrospect he was overly pessimistic about the ability of Western democracies to muster the will and courage to defeat their existential enemies. But by sounding the right warnings about the nature of those enemies—and the places where our defenses were weak—he not only helped win the Cold War, but redeemed the reputation of public intellectuals everywhere.
Posted by John Moser
Posted by Peter W. Schramm Indeed, if there is one area in which Shakespeare lacks moderation. it is the world of words. Here he is, in turn, excitable, theoretical, intoxicated, impractical, almost impossible. He lived in a period drunk with words, and he was the most copious and persistent toper of all.
Posted by Peter W. Schramm
