Sense and Nonsense

Mitt Romney: Prevaricator

Mitt Romney likes to boast about his willingness to "tell people what I actually believe."  That's utter nonsense.  He's the artful dodger.  Here's his "straightforward" explanation in 2005 of his position on abortion:

“I can tell you what my position is, which is — and it’s in a very narrowly defined sphere — which is, as candidate for governor and as governor of Massachusetts,” Romney said, “what I said to people was that I personally did not favor abortion, that I am personally pro-life. However, as governor, I would not change the laws of the commonwealth relating to abortion.

“Now I don’t try and put a bow around that and say, what does that mean you are? Does that mean you’re pro-life or pro-choice? Because that whole package, meaning I’m personally pro-life but I won’t change the laws, you could describe that as — I don’t think you can describe it in one hyphenated word.”

See the wonderful opinion piece by Ruth Marcus at The Washington Post, in which this quote appears.  Yup: Mitt Romney, straight talker. 

Romney's Inanity, Redux

                           Cartoon: Dan Wasserman in the Boston Globe.

Two posts below, I commented on Mitt Romney's inane performance on his recent foreign trip.  Tom Friedman had a column in this morning's New York Times that perfectly summarized what's wrong with the long pattern of American politicians cozying up to Israel (and Jewish voters here at home) and what's wrong with Mitt Romney's recent behavior in Israel.  Good reading.  You might as well read Maureen Dowd's delightful mockery of Romney, too.

It's pretty funny to see in today's news that Romney also praised Israel's health care system while he was there.  The Israeli system has far more government control than the new American system, which Romney says he deplores.  Romney will say anything to curry favor with an audience.  

UPDATE:  On what's wrong with Romney's emphasis on culture as the primary explanation for the difference between Israeli prosperity and Palestinian impoverishment, see this excellent piece by James Fallows.

 

Spencer Tunick's "Architecture of Flesh"

See some of Spencer Tunick's incredible photos of large groups of naked people here.  One wonders how he gets so many people to volunteer to do this. 

Romney's Inanity

I've enjoyed watching Mitt Romney stumble his way through his foreign trip.  This was supposed to be his big chance to show off his foreign-policy chops, his opportunity to impress Americans by his abiility to navigate global waters.  Epic failure.

I loved his foolish performance in London, where he insulted the British on their Olympic preparations.  But it was his vapid eagerness to curry favor with America's Jewish community that floored me the most: calling Jerusalem the "capital of Israel," and blaming low Palestinian GDP on culture rather than the oppressive Israeli occupation. Disgusting.

Of course, Romney is only part of the unfortunately long line of American politicians over many decades standing in blind support of Israel.  But his words show him to be one of the most craven and absurd of them.

Incredibly Dull Campaign

David Brooks has an excellent op-ed piece in this morning's New York Times.  He complains that the 2012 presidential campaign is one of the dullest ever, symptomatic of the general decline in American politics. 

Tips for Surviving Freshman Year of College

Over the last few years, I've discovered that the single most frequently read post on this blog (FAR outnumbering any other post or topic) is this item from June of 2008 that contained advice for college freshmen, offered a couple years earlier by Ben Jones, an assistant director of admissions at MIT, to the incoming class of 2010 there.  I think the post was picked up by sites like StumbleUpon, because it gets dozens of hits a day.

Recently, I received an email from a woman who came across that post in the course of doing some research for a piece she was editing, which she wanted to call to readers' attention.  It offers tips for surviving freshman year of college. You can find it here.  It's commonplace fare, not as interesting or fresh as the advice from Ben Jones.  But I offer it to you for what it's worth.  Cheers. And good luck. 

Skip Teaching Algebra

Andrew Hacker, a political scientist at Queens College (CUNY) published a cogent piece in the New York Times on Sunday, suggesting that it makes no sense for high schools to teach algebra to most kids.  I agree.  What's your view?

Jurisprudence 101

Chief Justice John Roberts, in his historic opinion today upholding the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act, wrote:

“It is not our job to protect the people from the consequences of their political choices.”

Amen, brother.  Now, if you would only convince Scalia, Alito, and Thomas of that. 

Two Good Books

Looking for an engaging summer read?  Here are two books I've recently read that I can recommend without any hesitation.

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn.  Oh, what a fine book.  I've read Flynn's other two books, each of which was very good; this is the best of the three.  This is a clever, ingenious suspense novel about a marriage gone bad.  I don't want to say too much about the plot because the joy in this book is in the pleasure of uncovering for yourself what's going on.  It's a dazzling, richly layered story.  If you want to read more about it, here's Janet Maslin's review from the New York Times.  You also can click on the book title to go to the Amazon reviews of it.

 

I also recommend Seating Arrangements by Maggie Shipstead.  It's a character study, playing out over a weekend at a wedding set at a Nantucket-like locale. Exceptionally well done.   See the review today in the NYT Book Review.

And Now the Days Start Getting Shorter

My family mocks me for always making this gentle reminder on the summer solstice.  But the truth wins.

Credit: Photo by Kieran Doherty. An amazing shot…. For more incredible Solstice shots by Doherty, visit his site.