Rainy day outside Moscow

I read the first volume of The Gulag Archipelago many years ago, when it was first published in paperback in the U.S. Now I've read that volume again, and find to my amazement that there are two more, each as large as the first. Solzhenitsyn, I find, is a bit like Wagner or Proust: one has a richer experience the second time around, when one has a better notion of what to expect. Here he is on the subject of western liberals, as seen by a slave laborer after a rainy day trying to meet the quota the clay pits on a starvation diet:

"Somewhere young men of our age were studying at the Sorbonne or Oxford, playing tennis during their ample hours of relaxation, arguing about the problems of the world in student cafes.... They railed against their own governments and their own reactionaries who did not want to comprehend and adopt the advanced experience of the Soviet Union.... They judged everything in the world with self-assurance, but particularly the prosperity and higher justice of our country....

"The rain drummed on the back of our heads, and the chill crept up our wet backs." (Harper & Row 1976, vol. 2, pp. 195-196)

Blue skies! -- Dan Ford

Happy Spring Sunday!

Today is Spring Sunday, according to the latest in loony political correctness. In Seattle, a teenager volunteering at an elementary school was instructed to use the term spring spheres when she wanted to hand out candy-filled Easter Eggs. (Last month, of course, the upset would have involved the candy! It must be terribly difficult, being a Good Person and keeping up with all the Good Thoughts demanded of one.)

The truly weird thing about this state of mind is that, like Christmas trees, Easter eggs have absolutely nothing to do with the religious holiday to which they have become attached. They already were a secularization of the sacred. Blue skies! -- Dan Ford

Why we can't abolish the National Endowment for the Humanities

“The mean-spirited bill, H.R. 1 … eliminates the National Endowment of the Humanities, National Endowment of the Arts. These programs create jobs. The National Endowment of the Humanities is the reason we have in northern Nevada every January a cowboy poetry festival. Had that program not been around, the tens of thousands of people who come there every year would not exist.” -- Harry Reid, U.S. Senate majority leader. Blue skies! -- Dan Ford

All you mosques look alike to me

According to CNN:

While there were "no identifiable or specific threats," an FBI official in Chicago said suspicious packages addressed to U.S. destinations found on cargo planes abroad warranted the precautions.

"Since two of the suspicious packages that were intercepted were addressed to religious institutions in Chicago, all churches, synagogues and mosques in the Chicago area should be vigilant for any unsolicited or unexpected packages, especially those originating from overseas locations," said FBI Special Agent Ross Rice.

CNN had the sense to headline the story, "Chicago synagogues warned to watch for suspicious packages," which might spare the local imams, ministers, and priests from rummaging too deeply through the junk mail. But it's scary to think that Agent Rice seens to believe that, even though the bombs came from Yemen, were put together by al Qaeda, and were addresses to synagogues, all "religious institutions" are equally endangered. Blue skies! -- Dan Ford

No pressure!

Posted without comment. Blue skies! -- Dan Ford

Bring me your poor!

Lately I've been bugged by this photo as a full-page advertisement in The New Yorker and the Wall Street Journal. On the left is somebody named Ali; on the right is the rock star Bono, who I am pretty sure is not the late Sonny Bono, who for all his faults at least had the decency to employ two names. The lightplane in the background looks like a contemporary update of the venerable Piper Cub.

It seems that Ali, Boni, the wannabe Cub, and the photographer were all in Africa for a photo shoot to help the poor and downtrodden. Yes! I found the photographer's website, which helpfully explains:

For the Core Values campaign, both Ali and Bono wear Edun clothing. Ali carries a Louis Vuitton/Edun collaboration bag. This collaboration bag is a brown Keepall 45 in Louis Vuitton’s embossed Monogram Révélation leather. The bag is accessorized with a Monogram charm hand-crafted in Kenya by Made, a fair-trade fashion accessory company which strives to provide employment and promote ethical trade in Africa. Made regularly partners with Edun. Both the charm and the inside of the Monogram Révélation bag bear a plaque with the inscription “Every journey began in Africa.” Along with his guitar case, Bono carries a waterproof Keepall travel bag in Monogram canvas.

Kinda makes your eyes water, don't it? How could any two individuals (well, three, counting the photographer) be so big-hearted? I feel like running right out and buying a Louis Vuitton billfold, or watch fob, or whatever they make in my price range. Blue skies! -- Dan Ford