7/14/22
I wrote a piece exclusively for the blog today, but I still
want to include my readers on letters I have written to the Wall Street
Journal on various topics. These letters,
if I can say so myself, are the paragon of pithiness, though some of my readers
may think that I am lisping in making that assessment.
On Uvalde…
6/4/22
In her brilliant 6/4/22 Opinion piece “The Uvalde Police
Scandal,” Peggy Noonan sees “a decline in professionalism in America” and “a
deterioration of our pride in concepts like rigor and excellence.” In a society in which every kid gets a
trophy and every task is considered successfully completed as long as even a
pathetic degree of effort is expended, it is no surprise that we have come to
this point. We just needed somebody of
Ms. Noonan’s insight to, figuratively, say it out loud.
Ms. Noonan writes further that we have become a “people
who loves to talk, endlessly, about sensitivity, yet aren’t sensitive enough to
save the children bleeding out the other side of the door.” Again, this is the logical consequence of a
society that encourages its children, and, saints preserve us, our adults to
talk endlessly about their feelings.
Thanks, Peggy, for playing Cassandra in the Greek tragedy
that is modern-day America.
On Ken Griffin’s much-overhyped departure from Chicago…
6/24/22
How upset can Governor J.B. Pritzker be about Ken
Griffin’s moving Citadel’s headquarters out of Chicago? (“Chicago Loses a Business Citadel,” Review
and Outlook, 6/24/24) Mr. Griffin was always ready to fulsomely bankroll opposition
to Mr. Pritzker and the initiatives the Governor backed, albeit with decidedly
mixed results. With Mr. Griffin moving
to Florida, the likelihood of his spending scores of millions being a nuisance
to Mr. Pritzker is very low. And what
matters more to a typical politician, the fate of the state he governs or his
own political future?
On the growing, and disturbing tendency to label more
and more crime as mental health incidents…
7/9/22
One would be a fool to argue with Peggy Noonan’s
contention (“Why Crime is Scarier Now,” Opinion, 7/9-10/22) that a large number
of our criminals are mentally ill.
However, while acknowledging and addressing that fact, we have to avoid
the slippery slope, which we have apparently already mounted, that leads to the
conclusion that all crimes are committed by the mentally ill, that there are no
evil people, only mentally ill people in need of treatment rather than
punishment.
Evil does exist in the world and it appears to be getting
the upper hand, largely because, by denying it or sugarcoating it, we have
enabled it.
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