John Hinderaker at Powerline calls this blog, "There is no excuse whatsoever for this post".  I respectfully disagree.  I fell in love with her at age 13.  Great pictures of Marilyn at 25, never before published.  Focus on her mouth, her smile.  Thank you John.

George Washington on party unity:

It is too interesting not to be again repeated, that if principles, instead of men, are not the steady pursuit of the Federalists, their cause will soon be at an end. If these are pursued, they will not divide at the next Election of a President; If they do divide on so important a point, it would be dangerous to trust them on any other; and none except those who might be solicitous to fill the Chair of Government would do it.

A fitty homily for the primary season.

Front page in today's New York Times: 

Just in case you haven't seen the Farmer's latest, One People.

While reading this essay by Jaffa on whether or not there could be another Churchill, a good thing to do on the statesman's birthday, I came across a line that reminded me of something:

Amateurs (Georgetown students) and an old Pentagon hand beat the professionals at scoping out Chinese nuclear strategy. Professor Bill Rood, the late teacher of international relations, would have approved of this use of his quaint methodology of reading the newspapers and other open sources and speculating on how the evidence fit Chinese interests.  Of note as well, toward the end, is the outrage among the leftist disarmament lobby. 

As hundreds of millions of Chinese toil under the feudalistic conditions of Communist China, an elite few live in the type of wealth that is rare even in the West. This Chinese class of "Princelings" preach the humble poverty of Mao to their brethren while maintaining a monopoly on power and high-end luxury cars. The heirs of China's revolutionary leaders find themselves with unparalleled wealth, and as the wheels of power begin to turn and a new generation steps up, it appears that the Mao's communist creation is set to be politically and commercially controlled by a group of elite families--who already hold a great deal of economic power and sway with the military.

Looks like the Israelis are doing the West's work, according to this report from Oz, for at least the second time. 

Today is Twain's birthday and Google has done a clever thing.  It is also Churchill's birthday.  They both smoked cigars, by the way.  I always hesitate to say much about Twain, have the same problem with Shakespeare.  They are too big, too important, too capacious. The human condition demands a Shakespeare.  The new human condition, the American condition, demands a Twain.  Everyone in the world has always loved Tom and Huck and Jim and the big river and the possibilities.  Regardless of the problem, laughter was everywhere, and this is now known to be the American way.  (Lincoln of course was--essentially--a professional comic.)  Even Nietzsche recognized some of this virtue.  He wrote this after he read The Adventures of Tom Sawyer: "The American way of laughing does me good, especially this sort of sturdy seaman like Marc Twain. I have been unable to laugh anymore at anything German." Tom Sawyer appeared in 1876, as did Untimely Meditations.  The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was published in 1885, the same year as the final version of Thus Spoke Zarathustra.  

On the heels of commanders of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard--which, it is necessary to note, is controlled by the Ayatollah and not Ahmadinejad--saying that they will bomb NATO sites in Turkey should there be any move by another nation against Iran's nuclear facilities (a threat that they issued after a huge explosion damaged a missile site and killed their ballistic missile program's architect), the embattled Assad regime in Syria is turning its Russian-built SCUD missiles in Turkey's direction. Article V of the North Atlantic Treaty is still enough to terrify any non-suicidal entity not to attack a NATO member, right? As Iranian mobs assault the British embassy in Tehran, and as Assad continues his bloody crackdown despite the Arab League itself sanctioning him, one has to wonder if self-interest as we understand it is the guiding principle of these leaders or not.

It was about six weeks ago that the press was abuzz with news that legendary labor activist Lech Walesa, the man who, more than anyone else, was responsible for bringing down communism in Poland, was planning a visit to the Occupy Wall Street protesters.  The left-wing blogosphere erupted in paroxysms of joy; Brent Budowsky at The Hill summed it up best: "One of history's great leaders for jobs, workers and freedom is now supporting the Occupy Wall Street protest. Lech Walesa has now weighed in, big time, for the good guys."

I forgot all about this until just yesterday, when I learned that Walesa never did make that visit--a fact apparently overlooked by the mainstream press, although it was big news in the conservative blogosphere.  Walesa expressed his views more openly in mid-November in an editorial critical of the OWS movement in the San Francisco Chronicle:

I have lived under the heavy hand of communism, where the state controls virtually everything, and I've lived under freedom. While today's protesters have many legitimate concerns, let me assure them that instead of either cronyism or greater government control, it is dialogue and solidarity leading to freedom that we should all strive for.

In related news, Walesa last week unveiled a statue of Ronald Reagan in Warsaw.

Glenda Armand, a former MAHG student, has just come out with Love Twelve Miles Long, a gorgeously illustrated children's book about Frederick Douglass.  (Glenda wrote the text, Colin Bootman illustrated.)  We see young Frederick Bailey's mother explain to him how she manages to walk 12 miles to see him at night, after their separation.  She fills her son with love and hope.  Glenda explains her love of slave narratives at her website--it's family history, for one thing:

As a recent college grad, Glenda visited her grandparents in Louisiana.  While at their home, Glenda came across a Bible that had been printed in 1869. It had belonged to her great-great grandfather, Victor Jones, Sr., who was born a slave.  In one moment, one of the most tragic aspects of American history ceased being a chapter in a history book and became real, tangible, and personal. Victor Jones, Sr. died a free man in 1928. Later the Bible was given to Glenda and remains her most treasured possession.

After many years of teaching in the primary grades, Glenda decided to teach eighth grade.  In preparing to teach US history, Glenda read Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave. In those pages, Glenda met Harriet Bailey, the mother of Frederick Douglass. As the mother of two, Glenda related to Harriet's heartbreaking dilemma and could not get it out of her mind.  Glenda felt Harriet's guiding hand as she wrote Love Twelve Miles Long.

In the wake of Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's resignation, economist and former European Commissioner Mario Monti ascended to power. Monti's rise to lead Italy is remarkable in the fact that he has never won an election. As Berlusconi's rule came to a close, Italian President Giorgio Napolitano appointed Monti to parliament as a Senator-for-Life then asked him to lead the new Berlusconi-free government. Monti promised as premier a government of experts, a true technocracy tasked with solving the economic crisis threatening to sink Italy and tear down the rest of the Eurozone with it. So this unelected leader and his cabinet of other unelected officials were heralded by the powers-that-be in Europe as the saving grace for the Euro currency. It seems that technocracy needs to be made of sterner stuff, however, as the Italian economy continues to plummet and the Eurozone contagion is now starting to show drags upon the all-powerful German economy. Somewhere, probably in the midst of one of his depraved bunga bunga parties, Silvio Berlusconi--a man elected and reelected and, despite multiple opportunities, never voted out of office--is smirking at his technocratic replacements. Democracy was the last thing Italy had to sacrifice, and it appears to be failing miserably.

A commenter at Power Line writes astutely on the myth of a Wall Street bailout, noting that Wall Street banks were not the target of TARP and illustrating the vast differences between TARP and, say, the auto bailout. By way of introduction, John Hinderaker writes:

I used to think that revisionist history could be written only after lots of people who know better have died. Over the years, however, I have realized that this isn't true. It is common to see history rewritten before our eyes. Still, even in that context, the myth of the Wall Street bailout is remarkable.