Wednesday, October 30, 2002

[Colin Glassey 5:40 PM] Looks like Napoleon wasn't poisoned after all. Look at this article. The poison theory looked good for a while when it was found that Napolean's hair, at the time of his death, contained high levels of arsenic. But then studies were done on his hair from 1805 and 1814 and they also had very high levels of arsenic. So much for that theory. 5:43:11 PM     [Colin Glassey 5:30 PM] Here is an essay that makes me angry. I can easily imagine being in the same position as the author. Political correctness means you get called a racist these days if you mention Huckleberry Finn favorably? Huckleberry Finn is an important work of art that tries to come to terms with slavery in the United States. Its not my favorite piece of fiction but it is important and, to my mind, morally good. 5:32:45 PM     [Colin Glassey 3:30 PM] A very good essay by Micky Kaus of Slate.com on why he expects Fifty-Fifty Forever. Summary: very fine-tuning of the political messages of the two parties has resulted in very close elections. And, in fact, this was predicted back in 1957 by Anthony Downs. See the comment by Jacob Levy. Bottom line: expect more, not less, votes like we got in Florida in 2000 (hopefully with fewer hanging chads though...). Vodka Pundit has an interesting essay that defends Henry Kissinger. Here is a good quote: There’s also no denying that Secretary of State Henry Kissinger is a very, very bad man. And I’m awfully glad we had him on our side when we needed him most. His point: there was a period of time (1968-1983) when thing weren't going that well for the United States. Kissinger helped keep the United States afloat and, in fact, the China card was a brilliant move which neutralized the U.S.S.R. My response: The more I learn about President Nixon, the less I like about him. He was a man who rejected the basic ideas of our government, who tried to run everything out of the White House. Kissinger, to my mind, is fundementally not the guy to praise or blame for the major policy initiates of the Nixon administration, it was Nixon, all the way. The Pentagon actually placed a spy inside the White House because they didn't trust what was said publicly, and Nixon didn't talk to them privately either. So, this whole crimes of Kissinger ruckas (started in no small part by Chris Hitchens), is a red herring. I blame Nixon for running the Vietnam war stupidly. I praise Nixon for the detante with China. I blame Nixon for appointing people to his cabinet and then ignoring their advice. I blame Nixon for the crimes committed during his 1972 re-election and the subsequent cover-ups. 3:27:50 PM

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