Check out Camilla Belle's ultra-glamorous gown for Oprah Winfrey's Evening With Ralph Lauren. Camilla Belle's Art Deco Elegance
Check out Camilla Belle's ultra-glamorous gown for Oprah Winfrey's Evening With Ralph Lauren. John Burns' Pessimism on Iraq
John Burns of the New York Times is one of the real reporters left at the newspaper, and his reporting on Iraq over the past ten years has been essential. He was interviewed last week by Hugh Hewitt about the Obama Administration's decision to withdraw American troops by the end of the year, and his assessment on Iraq's future was dire, to say the least:
We are still in Germany and Japan sixty-six years after the end of World War II. We are still in South Korea fifty-seven years after the end of the Korean War. We fled Vietnam in 1975. The countries where we stayed are democracies and allies. the country we fled is still communist and authoritarian to this day, and holocausts occurred in our wake (the killing fields of Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge). Now we are proposing to flee Iraq. God help them.
HH: Do you see a potential for the return of the hot war of 2006, a civil war at least as brutal as that period of time, John Burns?
JB: I do. I do see that potential. I just noticed this evening a piece on the New York Times website saying that one of the Iraqi groups, insurgent groups, al Qaeda-linked groups, is claiming that they killed 60 people in Baghdad in the last ten days. The tempo of atrocities is on the rise again. And I think a lot of guns have been holstered, waiting for Americans to go. Everybody knew that they were going to go. The fact that they’re not going to leave a residual presence behind now, of 3,000-5,000 troops that the Iraqis had been talking to Washington about keeping, a sort of tripwire presence, it was certainly a question of time. Even they would have to come out, you know, 12 months, 24 months, 36 months down the road. So a lot of groups of ill intent have been waiting for the Americans to go. And it seems to me that yes, there is a real, real risk of a resumption of widespread violence. And I think American have to brace themselves, and I’m a bit pessimistic about this, for the possibility that the American period in Iraq, which has accomplished some good things, it’s also been a source of, of course, a great deal of unhappiness, and certainly a great deal of resistance within the United States, not to mention Iraq. I think that Americans have to brace themselves for the possibilities that the accomplishments that the United States will be leaving behind, which is a natant constitutional system, may in time suffer the fate that, for example, the British did after their period in Iraq during and after the First World War. The sands of Iraq will simply blow over them, and the American presence in history will amount to, to have accomplished, sadly, rather little.
We are still in Germany and Japan sixty-six years after the end of World War II. We are still in South Korea fifty-seven years after the end of the Korean War. We fled Vietnam in 1975. The countries where we stayed are democracies and allies. the country we fled is still communist and authoritarian to this day, and holocausts occurred in our wake (the killing fields of Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge). Now we are proposing to flee Iraq. God help them.
Birthdays Today
Two great artists have birthdays today, one who is very famous, one who is not. The famous one is Pablo Picasso, born in 1881. The date surprises me... that means that Picasso was very young when he started creating great art in the early years of the 20th Century. Here is one of Picasso's most beautiful early works, called "Motherhood," from 1903, when he was only 22. It's a work from his "celebrated Blue Period":
The great jazz guitarist of the 1920s, Eddie Lang, was also born today, in 1902, which also means that he was quite young when he was making his revolutionary music in duets with the violinist Joe Venuti. Here's a great cut from 1927, "Four String Joe," which I think also features Frankie Trumbauer on the sax:
It interests me that both Picasso and Lang were creating their greatest works in the 20s as very young men. The Regular Son is already a remarkable artist (as you'll see this year on our Christmas card). And he's also a tremendous guitarist for his age (more inclined toward Bruce Springsteen and Mark Knopfler than jazz). I'm not sure I'm too thrilled with him trying to make a career in either art or music. But if you don't try when you're young, you end up a blink or two later in your 50s wondering what happened.
The great jazz guitarist of the 1920s, Eddie Lang, was also born today, in 1902, which also means that he was quite young when he was making his revolutionary music in duets with the violinist Joe Venuti. Here's a great cut from 1927, "Four String Joe," which I think also features Frankie Trumbauer on the sax:
It interests me that both Picasso and Lang were creating their greatest works in the 20s as very young men. The Regular Son is already a remarkable artist (as you'll see this year on our Christmas card). And he's also a tremendous guitarist for his age (more inclined toward Bruce Springsteen and Mark Knopfler than jazz). I'm not sure I'm too thrilled with him trying to make a career in either art or music. But if you don't try when you're young, you end up a blink or two later in your 50s wondering what happened.
Mugged By Reality II
Here's another example of how the Occupy Wall Street protesters are getting mugged by reality. You might think that young students, including a lot of young women, living in a commune in the middle of an urban area sharing food and beds wouldn't attract... well, let's just say an unsavory element. You might think that... if you somehow reached adulthood with no common sense and not even the most rudimentary understanding of human nature. Yet it seems to be a surprise for some of the Occupy Wall Street organizers that their little protest camp is being infested by homeless and ex-cons:
"We have compassion toward everyone. However, we have certain rules and guidelines," said Lauren Digioia, 26, a member of the sanitation committee.
"If you're going to come here and get our food, bedding and clothing, have books and medical supplies for no charge, they need to give back," Digioia said. "There's a lot of takers here and they feel entitled."It's just a guess, but I'd say that 100% of the "99%" at the Occupy Wall Street protests are "takers" who "feel entitled."
Occupy Wall Street Gets Mugged By Reality
Here is a quote from an Occupy Wall Street protester that captures for me the utter naivete of these children (whatever their ages might be). It comes from a 38 year-old man who is upset that the "rich" bankers he wants to protest aren't available at convenient times:
It’s weird protesting... You get there at 9 a.m. and the rich bankers who you want to hurl insults at and change their worldview have been at work for two hours already. And then when it’s time to go, they’re still there. I guess that’s why they call them the one per cent. I mean, who wants to work those kinds of hours?One might comment that an intelligent observer, thinking logically, could conclude that there was a connection between working "those kinds of hours" and becoming "rich," just as there's a connection between sitting outside protesting at age 38 and not being rich. But it's all too easy, isn't it?
Girls of the Day - Anniversary Edition
Today is the one-year anniversary of The Regular Guy Believes. And, although I often have offered "cheesecake" photos of actresses or models as my girls of the day -- OK, so maybe I have a little bit of the dirty old man in me, so sue me -- the most important girls in my life are, of course, the Regular Wife, the Regular Daughters, and the Regular Mom. Here they all are together last summer on vacation at a wonderful Beaches Resort in Turks & Caicos. Man, do I wish those little girls could stay little forever.
Kick a FRESH corpse, why don'tcha? Dan Wheldon didn't have to die!
Publication: National EnquirerDate: 31 Oct. 2011
The Enquirer, classy as always, picks over the freshly buried bones of Indy 500 champ Dan Wheldon, who died this month in a horrific accident on a track in Las Vegas. Here are the headlines.
- Tragic Indy ace didn't have to die!
- Dan Wheldon's chilling warning
- Dramatic photos inside
- Terrified Danica quitting
Bundle of Joy Alert: Mariska Hargitay adopts second child in six months.
Publication: PeopleDate: 31 Oct. 2011
Mariska Hargitay, seen here with Amaya Josephine, the baby she adopted earlier this year, has adopted a baby boy she and her husband Peter Hermann have named Andrew Nicholas. There is no slew of bad publicity Ms. Hargitay is trying to get off the front page of the gossip rags, so this does not count as "pulling a Bullock".
Nice names and nice babies. Best wishes to all concerned.
Clint Eastwood under attack by FBI!
Publication: GlobeDate: 31 Oct. 2011
Welcome to gossip hell, Mister Clint Eastwood! The iconic actor is now on nearly everybody's list of the greatest American directors working today, and according to the Globe, his latest movie, a biopic of J. Edgar Hoover starring Leonardo DiCaprio, has him in hot water with the FBI.
I almost gave this a "planted crap" label, but there is no point in planting a story in the Globe and while Clint may be a Republican, I still think he is way too classy for a stunt like that. I am eagerly looking forward to this film and wish Mister Eastwood every success.
The Religion of Global Warming
Michael Barone says something that many of us have said before, but says it so well that it deserves quoting:
Global warming alarmists have an unshakable faith that man-made carbon emissions will produce a hotter climate causing multiple natural disasters. Their insistence that we can be absolutely certain this will come to pass is based not on science -- which is never fully settled, witness the recent experiments that may undermine Einstein's theory of relativity -- but on something very much like religious faith.
All the trappings of religion are there. Original sin: Mankind is responsible for these prophesied disasters, especially those slobs who live on suburban cul-de-sacs and drive their SUVs to strip malls and tacky chain restaurants.
The need for atonement and repentance: We must impose a carbon tax or cap-and-trade system that will increase the cost of everything and stunt economic growth.
Ritual, from the annual Earth Day to weekly recycling.
Indulgences, like those Martin Luther railed against: private jet fliers like Al Gore and sitcom heiress Laurie David can buy carbon offsets to compensate for their carbon-emitting sins.
Corporate elitists, like General Electric's Jeff Immelt, profess to share this faith, just as cynical Venetian merchants and prim Victorian bankers gave lip service to the religious enthusiasms of their days. Bad for business not too. And if you're clever, you can figure out how to make money off it.
Believers in this religion have flocked to conferences in Rio de Janeiro, Kyoto and Copenhagen, just as Catholic bishops flocked to councils in Constance, Ferrara and Trent, to codify dogma and set new rules.
We're Not Going to Lose, But If We Do...
I won't be too sorry to lose to the Texas Rangers, whose manager, Ron Washington, is both a character and has character. Last night's video of Washington giving his young pitcher, Derek Holland, a pre-game pep talk, ought to bring tears to the eyes of anyone who's ever coached baseball from Little League on up:
Beautiful stuff. That's what makes sports so great.
Beautiful stuff. That's what makes sports so great.
Listen to People Who Know
General John Keane (Ret.) has this to say about President Obama's decision to withdraw all American troops from Iraq by the end of 2011:
Are we safer today than we were on January 19, 2009, the day before Obama was inaugurated? That's the key question for 2012. Are we safer today? Is the Middle East more stable? Are we more or less respected (and feared) around the world?
I think the answers are obvious.
***
UPDATE: Fred Kagan of the American Enterprise Institute, the scholar of the Middle East who is often credited with being the architect of the "surge" strategy in Iraq under President Bush, has this to say on Hugh Hewitt's blog about Obama's decision to cut-and-run from Iraq:
A sad day and a scary portent of things to come.
I think it’s an absolute disaster. We won the war in Iraq, and we’re now losing the peace.... Forty-four hundred lives lost. Tens of thousands of troops wounded. Over a couple hundred thousand Iraqis killed. We liberated 25 million people. There is only one Arab Muslim country that elects its own government, and that is Iraq. We should be staying there to strengthen that democracy, to let them get the kind of political gains they need to get and keep the Iranians away from strangling that country. That should be our objective, and we are walking away from that objective.
Are we safer today than we were on January 19, 2009, the day before Obama was inaugurated? That's the key question for 2012. Are we safer today? Is the Middle East more stable? Are we more or less respected (and feared) around the world?
I think the answers are obvious.
***
UPDATE: Fred Kagan of the American Enterprise Institute, the scholar of the Middle East who is often credited with being the architect of the "surge" strategy in Iraq under President Bush, has this to say on Hugh Hewitt's blog about Obama's decision to cut-and-run from Iraq:
I think all of our enemies will conclude from this that pressure on us and waiting us out is the way to go. And that’s been the message for a long time, and it’s something that we started to reverse with President Bush’s decision to fight for success in Iraq, and honestly continued with President Obama’s decision initially to reinforce in Afghanistan. But now, we will reinforce the narrative that we will ultimately leave. It will embolden our enemies.
A sad day and a scary portent of things to come.
Girl of the Day - Joan Fontaine
It was Joan Fontaine's birthday over the weekend. Her best work was arguably her earliest work as the heroines in Alfred Hitchcock's Rebecca and Suspicion, for which she was nominated twice in 1941 and 1942 for the Academy Award for Best Actress, winning for Suspicion. Fontaine, of course, was the actress Olivia de Havilland's sister, and, sadly, the two were estranged throughout their adult lives. Here's the trailer for Suspicion, which is a great, great movie, and probably Cary Grant's best dramatic role:
Fontaine is also the only classic Hollywood actress memorialized in a Bruce Springsteen lyric, from his first album:
File This Under "Be Careful What You Wish For"
The Arab Spring isn't quite turning into a democratic autumn. Let's recap where we're at in October:
The world is a dangerous place. It's even more dangerous when naive liberals are in charge. Sure, Qaddafi is dead; sure, bin Laden is dead. Good riddance to them. But that doesn't mean that radical Islamist ideology isn't still moving forward around the world. We ignore it at our long-term peril.
- Tunisia appears to be moving toward becoming a radical Islamist state.
- Libya, post-Qaddafi, appears to be moving toward adopting sharia as the founding principle of its new state.
- The leader of Afghanistan, Hamad Karzai, says that he would side with Pakistan in a war against America.
- President Obama's negotiations with Iraq to permit American troops to remain in the country as a hedge against further encroachment by Iran broke apart, and Obama has decided to declare victory in a cynical political move, and bring all Americans home.
- Egypt... well, just by way of example, it's not a crime punishable by three years in prison to speak ill of Islam.
“When I see the spirit of liberty in action, I see a strong principle at work; and this, for a while, is all I can possibly know of it. The wild gas, the fixed air, is plainly broke loose; but we ought to suspend our judgment until the first effervescence is a little subsided, till the liquor is cleared, and until we see something deeper than the agitation of a troubled and frothy surface. I must be tolerably sure, before I venture publicly to congratulate men upon a blessing, that they have really received one.”
The world is a dangerous place. It's even more dangerous when naive liberals are in charge. Sure, Qaddafi is dead; sure, bin Laden is dead. Good riddance to them. But that doesn't mean that radical Islamist ideology isn't still moving forward around the world. We ignore it at our long-term peril.
Fussin' and Feudin' Alert™: Kelly calls Christina fat!
Publication: Weekly Life & StyleDate: 31 Oct. 2011
When we get a headline like "Kelly calls Christina fat!" it helps to have pictures. Too many Kellys and Christina's on the field, don'tcha know.
The Kelly is the rudest Kelly, Kelly Osbourne.
The Christina is Christina Aguilera, who doesn't currently look as good as this.
Who is pregnant and who is just fat!
Publication: OK!Date: 31 Oct. 2011
OK! is one of the mags who is claiming Jessica Simpson is pregnant, and they had a sub-headline this week stating "Who is pregnant and who is just fat!" The three women on the cover were Christina Aguilera, Fergie of the Black Eyed Peas and Holly Madison, pictured above.
Demon Drugs Alert™: Whitney Houston goes berserk!
Publication: GlobeDate: 31 Oct. 2011
Last year and early this year, if there was a story about Whitney Houston in the tabs, it was in the Enquirer. Ever since she lived through her expiration date, stories about her have been fobbed off onto the low rent Examiner and now to the Globe. Here are the headlines.
- Whitney Houston goes berserk!
- Is she back on drugs?
Where Albert Pujols Proves Everyone Wrong
I've written many times before (here and here and here and here and here) about the decision the Cardinals will have to make in the upcoming months about whether to resign Albert Pujols at the price he will command ($25-27 million for 8 years), or to let him go to another team in free agency. My general view has been that Pujols is entering his decline phase, that his productivity will inevitably decline going forward (he's 32 now), and that the Cardinals will be better off in a purely objective baseball sense if they let Pujols go and replace him with Allen Craig in right and Lance Berkman moving to first base. (In other words, unleash the Craigen!)
That being said, baseball is not a purely objective sport, at least from the fan's perspective. Pujols had a down year, but he's lifted his game to a special territory down the stretch, and he's lifted the Cardinals to the point where now they are within two games of winning a World Series. Last night bordered on the mythical: three straight home runs, five hits, six RBIs, in a 16-7 rout of the Rangers. How much is a power-hitting firstbaseman worth? Not $27 million. How much is a mythic baseball figure being the face of your franchise for the next fifty years worth? Priceless.
No Bun in the oven alert™: Beyonce's pregnancy a hoax?
Publication: StarDate: 31 Oct. 2011
There is no nicer story in the gossip rags than a happily married celebrity having a child, but Star is doing everything they can to piss in Beyoncé's punch bowl, so to speak. Last month, they wrote Jay-Z had a secret love child. In this month's "exclusive", some family member says Beyoncé is not actually pregnant.
Fussin' and Feudin' Alert™ and On the Rocks Alert: Oprah incensed as Gayle steals Stedman!
Publication: National ExaminerDate: 31 Oct. 2011
The Oprah/Gayle/Stedman triangle has been an unstable situation for some time now according to the gossip rags, but how about a curveball to throw it completely out of whack? Yes, Stedman is seeing Gayle according to the low rent Examiner. They call this "breaking news", the latest fad in these slow moving publishing dinosaurs, and of course, Oprah is furious.
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