At this point there have been more days of ceasefire than of military action since the Feb. 28 start of Operation Epic Fury. And today we hear that a Memorandum of Understanding (an MOU) is almost complete between Iran and the United States.

Details are still coming out and are probably not even agreed to by the signatories yet, but what we do know is that there will be a 60-day extension of the ceasefire. This will include an opening of the Strait of Hormuz and a lifting of the blockade on Iranian ports.

This will bring relief to Iran’s economy and probably the economy of so much of the world that relies upon shipments coming through the Strait. But it is hard to say. The economy hasn’t acted the way most economists predicted.

When the “military action” began in February, the most common and historically precedented expectation was that four things would happen:

1. Oil would at least double in price;

2. The stock market would crash;

3. Government bonds would rise in value;

4. Gold would soar in price.

These expectations followed what happened in other wars, especially in the areas of oil production. But that’s not what happened this time.

Oil was $67-$72 per barrel before the attack on Iran in February. Today it is $87-$92 per barrel. It was over $100 for much of that time, but even that was not near the $150-$200 prices some people were expecting. For those of us who have to fill our cars, we notice the rise in prices. That’s real. But this is nothing like what people legitimately expected.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was 48,977.92 on Feb. 27 and could reach over 51,000 at the close of trading today. The market has gone up over this period!

Bonds are up about half a percent (48-50 basis points) from 3.95%–3.97% to 4.44%–4.45%. Not huge.

But gold is the real surprise. Usually in times of economic uncertainty and especially times of war, gold rises in price because it is a secure investment, as are bonds. Gold dropped in price from $5,184 per ounce to $4,520–$4,550. What?

There has certainly been a lot of economic havoc wrought by the war, and especially more in other countries, but it hasn’t been what was expected. I point this out because this MOU seems to be intended to have an impact on the economy. Who knows if it will?

As I said, the ceasefire has lasted longer than the fire, so there isn’t much “war” going on at the moment. Yes, there have been some missiles and drones out of Iran. And some of the Gulf states have attacked sites in Iran as a response. But the US has not reengaged in anything like the fashion it did at the beginning. The real “fight” now is economic, and most of that is about which side can hold out longer.

Almost everyone was wrong about the economic effects of the bombing of Iran. How do we know what the extended ceasefire and opening of the Strait will do? Of course, it seems logical to assume that allowing all those tankers to move freely through the Strait will be good for the economy. But it was also logical to think a major war in the Middle East would be really bad.

If the intention of the MOU is to jump start the economy and it doesn’t work, what happens then? We just assume it will work, but what if we’re wrong? Given how poorly economists predicted the results of war, I’m not sure we can be confident about the results of peace. If it doesn’t have the desired effect, that raises a whole lot of questions about what to do next.

As I went Down in the river to pray

Studyin’ about that good ol’ way and who shall wear

The starry crown God Lord, show me the way

O Fathers let’s go down

Let’s go down come on down

O Fathers Let’s go down, down to the river to pray

One by one they head into the river where they are greeted by a pastor who baptizes them, leaning them back and dunking them underwater. They emerge, process back to shore and continue to sing. As the dozens of figures pass around our trio in song, Delmar, Pete, and Everett look on with varied reactions. Pete is stunned. Everett is confused. Delmar is taken. He can’t look away.

Everett has the group figured out, he thinks, “I guess hard times flush the chumps. Everybody’s lookin’ for answers.” This is the second time Everett has brought up this idea of “looking for answers.” It was also his explanation for why Mrs. Hogwollop up and “R-U-N-N-O-F-T.” The need to find “answers” in the world (or outside of it) will come back again later as well.

Delmar has no such skepticism. Before Everett has finished reducing the event to athiestic snark, Delmar darts into the water lurching with wild arms (in a clear homage to Buster Keaton), stepping to the front of the line and receives his baptism. The moment is the most decisive act by Delmar in the film. Earlier, when confronted with a conflict between Everett and Pete, he astutely avoids picking sides and indicates, “I’m with you fellas.” Now, he breaks away from the trio as if drawn by a power beyond himself. We hear the pastor utter the proper form of the baptism as he approaches, “ . . . Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.”

In this critical moment, just after the preacher says “Holy Ghost,” the camera breaks free from the stability it has had so far in the film. Cinematographer Roger Deakins allows the camera to take a God’s eye view, far above the action. The lens flies down from directly over Delmar as he sinks under the water, providing a first person view of the Holy Ghost’s descent to join Delmar through the sacrament.

Pete (the Rock) immediately recognizes what has happened, “Well I’ll be . . . Delmar’s been saved.” Delmar is converted by the experience. He tells us so, “it’s the straight and narrow for me from now on” and he implores his friends to join him, “Come on in boys, the water is fine.” He has become an evangelist. Pete takes him up on the invitation and scrambles in to be baptised too. Later we will see additional evidence that Delmar has taken this conversion seriously and is attempting to live up to his Christian promises (see the upcoming post on “I’ll Fly Away”).

The song continues to tell part of the story we are watching, a story sinners called to prayer and repentance. This moment sets up an important conflict in the film, the conflict between Everett and God. He calls the congregation “chumps,” and calls Delmar and Pete “dumber than a bag of hammers” for thinking baptism has any kind of merit.

The song reminds us again of the title with a verse that begins “O Brother”

O Brother let’s go down

Come on down, don’t you want to go down

O Brothers let’s go down

Down to the river to pray

After cycling through fathers, mothers, sisters, and brothers, the song concludes with an appeal to all, “O Sinners lets go down . . . “ an appeal to conversion, calling all sinners—all people—down to the river to pray. This includes Everett, but he does not respond to the call. In fact, he leans into his skepticism. This critical conflict is established here, Everett vs. God, or Everett vs. Faith in God. Everett is a thoroughly materialistic man with no need for the backward “ignorant” “superstition” of Delmar and Pete. It also provides the background for the second great conflict in the film, man vs the law. The use of this song and the characters reaction to this moment creates a kind of dramatic triangle between God, man, and the law. Shortly after their baptism, Delmar and Pete need correction on this point. They believe that their redemption through baptism should also absolve him of their worldly crimes. Pete says, “The preacher said it absolved us” and Delmar says, “There was witnesses that seen us redeemed!” Everett corrects them, “Even if it did put you square with the Lord, The state of Mississippi is a little more hard-nosed.” Everett is right about the state of Mississippi, and—unknowingly—about the wages of sin. There are temporal punishments ahead.

As the scene concludes, we get a final paradoxical summation of the situation from Everett: “Baptism! You two are just dumber than a bag of hammers” but his rejection of their faith is punctuated with an invocation of Christianity again, “I guess you’re just my cross to bear.” Everett accidentally invokes the most Christian of images in his attempt to reject God and the importance of faith in the world. The call to prayer and call to conversion has brought Everett to consider taking up his cross and following Christ—even if he doesn’t realize it.

This encounter with a preacher, baptism, and a literal discussion of the merits of baptism brings them to a crossroads, a literal crossroads where they will pick up a man who has sold his soul to the devil to learn to play the guitar “real good.” The echoes of the call to conversion, the call to go “down to the river to pray” will hang heavy in the air as their adventure proceeds.

Next up, “Man of Constant Sorrow.”

China presents extra complications. All people traveling with the President will have to leave all their electronic devices at home. China hacks all phones the moment they are turned on in their country and take all information into their spy services.

There are several big issues on their agenda.

Economy and Trade

China and the US are the two most important economies in the world and both are under pressure from the war military engagement in Iran. China is officially a Communist country, but it has had a somewhat free market since Deng Xiaoping opened its market economy in 1978.

This has accelerated remarkably under Xi Jinping, the current leader. His legitimacy is bound up with the amazing rise in the Chinese economy. The problem is that the economy is slowing down. Part of this is a feature of current events, but much more has to do with intrinsic issues within the Chinese economy.

China’s economy jumped to world prominence because it could provide American and European corporations very cheap production facilities. China was willing to build any factory under any conditions, ignoring environmental regulations we impose on ourselves. They have a highly educated and disciplined workforce that has been developed over thousands of years of Chinese culture. The Communist regime is also indifferent (as all Communist regimes have been) to the working conditions of their people. China became the sweatshop of the world.

But Xi has been trying to transition the economy to higher profits and higher-end products. The most important of these at the moment are its electric vehicles. They are being produced well below the price of any others in the world and are flooding markets in Europe. The US is trying to keep them out of the country, not only to protect its own car manufacturers.

Electric vehicles are among the most sophisticated machines ever made. Part of their sophistication is the array of sensory abilities and video recording, both used in self-driving capabilities. But to make self-driving work, they have to send this information back to the home company. That means every Chinese car is recording full time every road, every light, every person walking down a street, every business, police car and every piece of infrastructure in the country. You don’t have to be paranoid to get suspicious.

Much of China’s rise has come at the expense of the US economy and the economies of other western countries. Almost everything that was once made in the USA is now made in China. Trump wants to reverse that, so there is an inherent tension between the two countries. His promise to his voters has been that he would undo the offshoring of industries that have hollowed out the industrial center of the country. There has been a little progress in that regard, but not a lot.

Strait of Hormuz and Iran

President Trump is under pressure to get the war over with and get gas prices down because he is facing a midterm election in November. The bombing of Iran has not been popular with the American people and the polls show that. How much longer can he hold on to this policy? That’s the question for Trump.

Premier Xi isn’t under any electoral pressure, but most of his country’s oil and gas comes from the Middle East. To keep the economic miracle of China going, which is his only claim to legitimate rule, requires that he gets the spice gas flowing. As a key ally, perhaps the key ally, Xi will have a lot of influence with Iran. If China abandons the mullahs, they have no one to turn to.

Diplomacy between China and the USA could end the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz. That would be a great economic relief to both parties, but probably a bigger diplomatic win for Trump than Xi. Opening the Strait would mean abandoning another Chinese ally. After the uncontested arrest of Maduro from Venezuela, China would not look like much of a friend.

But does Xi care? In an era of power politics when nations are sorting themselves out into regions, what does friendship mean? Survival is the question.

Russia and Ukraine

The US and China are allies to the opposite sides in this war, but each in a tepid way.

The US abandoned Ukraine to its own devices when Russia was preparing to attack in 2022. Pres. Biden removed all Americans from the country, more or less giving his go ahead to Putin to invade. (He should have sent Harris over there and dared Putin to attack a country with a sitting vice president visiting.)

China hasn’t done much to help Russia except buy its oil at a discount. Not really huge support. More like taking advantage of the situation.

So in a way the two major powers on earth are spectators of this conflict, and it is easy to see why. Would China want to go to war with Ukraine and, theoretically, Europe to fulfill Putin’s historiographic argument about where the people of the Rus began? Unlikely.

And the American position has traditionally been to allow Russia to wear itself out. Both China and the US are also gaining invaluable information about new ways of war, especially drone warfare.

Europe has the real interest in all of this, but it is hard to see what outcome would be best for it. A Russian victory would not be good and would scare them. But a Ukrainian victory (whatever that might look like) is hardly better. When Europeans can barely field a few tanks on a weekday, do they really want over 100 battalions of battle-hardened Slavs taking a victory lap?

Taiwan

The elephant in the room—or the dragon—is Taiwan. In 1949, the losing side in the Chinese Civil War fled to the island of Formosa. The leader of the Nationalists, Chiang Kai-shek, set up his government on the island and changed its name to Taiwan. It was officially recognized as “China” at the United Nations until 1971, even sitting as the permanent member of he Security Council. Martial law was in effect on the island until 1987 and it did not have its first presidential election until 1996. In the meantime, it became the most important semiconductor manufacturing center in the world. (Don’t ask me how.)

It has always been an ambition of the Communist Chinese to take back the island and reunite the Chinese people. As with all Communist revolutions, China quickly changed its way of motivating its people from visions of worldwide revolutions to blood and soil patriotism. Taiwan stands as affront to these ideas.

The US has held an ambiguous position towards Taiwan. The US won’t call it “China” and it won’t declare that we will go to war to protect the island, but we have troops stationed there and a whole lot of naval assets hanging around. Will we or won’t we? That’s the question.

The Taiwanese are in an awkward place. China and the US get their most sophisticated chips from them. That’s another reason why China wants it and one of the main reasons America protects it. But as the US returns industry to the country (and there is a big Taiwanese chip manufacturer setting up here), Taiwan become less important to Americans.

Xi could be thinking about letting more factories return to the US to make Trump happy but also weaken American ties to the island. Would he abandon Iran for this? Could his economy sustain the hit? This is what statesmanship is about.

The Virginia Supreme Court ruled that the referendum on redistricting violated the Virginia Constitution. The “lobster district” is no more.

Republicans took the referendum to court earlier this year and the state (under the instruction of the newly elected Democratic governor) argued that there was no point to hearing the case because if the referendum failed, there would be nothing to consider. They argued that the Court is only supposed to rule on actions of the state, not on proposed actions that might not even happen.

That argument prevailed, but they lost the case after the referendum passed. And so the referendum was overturned and VA will not have any changes to the Congressional districts.

The left has not taken this well. One proposal is to lower the mandatory retirement age of Supreme Court justices to 53. (The youngest of the justices who ruled that the referendum was unconstitutional is 53 years old.) Everyone would be forced into retirement and the governor could appoint new justices.

Redistricting and the Midterms

The reaction is all because of two features of the modern House of Representatives. First, the House race in November is so close. Second, so few seats are competitive.

The Republicans are currently in control of the House, but with only the slimmest of majorities. There are 435 seats in the House, so a majority should be 218. But the Republicans have only 217 seats. How are they the majority? There are currently 5 vacancies, so the effective majority is 216. That’s close! A couple missed flights or a bad casserole and the Republicans could lose a vote.

What about competitiveness? Well, most House seats aren’t at all competitive. Only 10-15 are currently listed as “tossups,” meaning that either party has a similar chance of winning. If you really stretch the definition you might get as many as 40 that are competitive. But there’s really only a small number of the 435 that could go to either party.

That’s why redistricting is so important. It is easier for Virginia Democrats, for instance, to gerrymander their way to a House majority than win elections. Or so they thought.

The irony is that the high profile efforts of Virginia’s redistricting referendum (Obama campaigned for it, which is a highly unusual thing for a former president to do) led to counter-efforts in Republican states, which actually worked. Virginia made it a lot easier, although far from guaranteed, for the Republicans to retain control of the House in November.

As we have mentioned before, the Supreme Court ruled that gerrymandering for racial outcomes is illegal. There are several districts that were established for this very purpose, and Tennessee, Florida, Louisiana, and a few other Southern states have immediately redistricted with the purpose of undoing these districts.

Again, we are talking about a very small number of seats. A few changes here and there could change the election. Of course, there are some limits to gerrymandering. For instance, the smallest states have only one member of the House, so the state is the district and those boundaries can’t be changed. Others, such as Massachusetts present a different problem.

Although 40% of Massachusetts citizens voted for Donald Trump in the last election, there is not a single Republican member of the House from the Commonwealth. Has it been gerrymandered? Hard to say. Republicans are scattered throughout the population, with no single area coming up with enough people to form a congressional district. Getting a Republican district in Massachusetts would require efforts that old Elbridge Gerry couldn’t imagine.

Redistricting is demanded by the Constitution because the population is counted every ten years in the census, so it can’t be avoided. And there is no non-partisan way to carve out districts. You can’t drop a grid on a state and expect to get each square to contain an equal number of citizens. Someone has to move the lines.

Get used to it.

The history of science sections include a few vignettes that highlight the lengths to which some of the most renowned scientists have gone to avoid the conclusions that most obviously result from their work, that there is a mind behind creation. Einstein’s use of a manufactured “cosmic constant” that he would later declare his biggest blunder (after being shown his error by a Catholic priest). Stephen Hawking’s “workaround” to avoid the most obvious conclusion to draw from his own work, that the universe had a beginning. As Meyer shows the mind-boggling complexity of even the simplest cells, he reminds us of Darwin’s statement that his theory would fall apart if evolution requires large complex changes, and not small simple ones.

More than challenging many popular views about the origin of the universe and of life, the film does a great job of rejecting the idea that science and religion are opposing concepts or pursuits. Meyer poignantly quotes Romans 1:20:

For the invisible things of him, from the creation of the world, are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made . . .

Looking at the world and finding God is part of God’s plan for how we may know Him. This includes looking at the world through high powered telescopes and with electron microscopes. We shouldn’t be surprised if our study of the world provides compelling evidence that He exists and created that world for us.

There were many new insights in this film, but my favorite may have been in the section about the miraculous “fine tuning” of the universe to exist and support life. The fine tuning concept is that if any small conditions were changed—even a tiny amount, things just wouldn’t work. If gravity were operated differently by a tiny fraction, life could not exist. The existence of the large gas planets in our solar system—Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune—are a part of that fine tuning as well. They provide a shield for the earth, catching comets that could otherwise demolish the Earth. Without those planets, who knows how many times the earth would have been pummeled with space debris large enough to end the possibility of life. It’s like the earth is the quarterback and these giant planets are the offensive line.

There is a lot in this film, much more than I could absorb in one sitting. Using a series of different experts, examples, and visual depictions, this two hour lecture is an enjoyable watch. The film is distributed through Fathom Events and has been extended for an additional week. It is worth the trip.

Content Warning: None. Younger kids would probably struggle with the level of intellectual discussions.

Strait of Hormuz

Deja vu all over again. Some ships are getting through. Some aren’t. There are conflicting words and actions coming out of Iran, so it’s unclear who might be running things there. Iran even suggested they have trained dolphins ready to engage in suicide bombing raids. OK.

Oil and natural gas stockpiles continue to decline in Europe and Asia. Without their own sources, self-inflicted on the part of Europe, things are only going to get worse there. Some countries in Asia are cancelling internal flights, closing schools and universities early, and imposing curfews because they cannot light their streets at night. Australia is said to have only 30 days of jet fuel left in the country. Without it, they will be cut off from the rest of the world

Midterm Elections

Because the US is energy independent, the effects of blockages in the Strait of Hormuz are largely muted. We might be seeing gas well above $4/gallon, but we won’t have to impose any of the measures being contemplated in other countries. So the real point of pressure is the election in November. Will Pres. Trump try to find a way to get out of the Hormuz problem before people start voting in just a few months?

To recall, all seats in the House of Representatives will be up for election and about one third of Senate seats. The House is significant because if Democrats gain control they will almost certainly spend the remaining two years of Trump’s presidency impeaching him and every member of his administration. The Senate is the place where an impeachment trial would take place, but the swings there are less dramatic.

Economic problems continue to pull down Pres. Trump’s approval ratings and the chances of the Republicans retaining the House. They might even lose the Senate. But never underestimate the ability of political parties to sabotage themselves. The Democrats as a party are polling below even Pres. Trump. And they are not hitting the high notes with some of their nominees.

In Maine, the longstanding Republican senator is Susan Collins. She is generally on the furthest left end of the Republican spectrum. She has been a thorn in Pres. Trump’s side for years. But as a Republican in a rather liberal state, she is vulnerable. The Democrats, however, have seen fit to push forward on their side an avowed Communist with a Nazi tattoo, Graham Platner. He has the very same image that is at the center of the Mitchell and Webb skit, “Are we the baddies?”

The popular and un-tattooed current governor of Maine challenged Platner but could not get traction. So this is the man Collins gets to run against.

Meanwhile, in Michigan, Abdul El-Sayed is tied in the Democratic nomination race for senate. He is a very open supporter of Palestinian causes and anti Israel. At a time of war in the Middle East and active antisemitism in the Democratic party, this could be a real risky move.

Redistricting

Both parties are trying to squeeze out as many seats for themselves as they can in continued redistricting in a number of states. California, Texas, and Florida have all made changes to their maps to benefit the party currently in power.

Virginia passed a new map that added heavily Democratic parts of the DC suburbs to rural districts in an attempt to flip them. The most notorious is the “Lobster District.” Elbridge Gerry would be proud.

The new map is being challenged in court, so it might not go through. But if it does, it would take a state that currently has 6 Democrats and 5 Republicans in the US House to one with 10 Democrats and 1 Republican (assuming voting patterns remain constant).

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court ruled that district lines drawn with the intention of producing a particular racial makeup are unconstitutional. While the Voting Rights Act dates from 1965, the provisions about majority-minority districts (districts drawn so that the majority of the population is black, for the most part) was added in 1982.

Would eliminating these districts make much of a difference? That is disputed. Take, for instance, Tennessee’s 9th district. TN-9 is a heavily black district in Memphis, but it has elected a white man, Steve Cohen, every election since 2007. He is being challenged by a black man running on the Republican ticket. So is this about race or party? That’s important, because the Court says gerrymandering with racial intent is unconstitutional, but gerrymandering for political or partisan intent is not.

Rudy Giuliani

Rudy Giuliani, I hope, will go down in history as one of the greatest mayors of the greatest city in the country. He was mayor of New York City from 1994 to 2001, during a period of remarkable transformation. He is currently in hospital in Florida and looks likely to pass soon.

New York, along with many American cities, became ravaged by crime from the 1970s through the 1990s. Giuliani, who was a US Attorney and prosecutor before becoming mayor, took a tough on crime position. In effect, this meant arresting and prosecuting criminals rather than looking for “root causes” of crime. The transformation of New York was amazing.

He was also the mayor of the city during the World Trade Center terrorist attacks of 9/11. His strong leadership during this time earned him the title of “America’s Mayor,” and added to his reputation. He was talked about as a presidential candidate for a while. The current mayor of NYC could not be more different.

His subsequent history was not so kind to his reputation. He worked for and with Pres. Trump, then turned against him, then back again, and again. As with many who have tried to publicly spat with Trump, Giuliani suffered far more than his target, regardless of his personal merits. Sic transit gloria mundi. We can pray for him and thank him for what he did for New York.

Part of this year’s history curriculum included the American Civil War era. I return frequently to Shelby Foote’s three volume Civil War: A Narrative, but assigning 3,000+ pages seems excessive. The audio version read by Grover Gardner is terrific too, but 150 hours is also, um, excessive. The Gettysburg chapter from Volume Two, “Stars in Their Courses,” is a terrific stand alone read, but we usually rely on Michael Shaara’s novel, Killer Angels for a single volume account of Gettysburg. This year I discovered an excellent audio version of the Lincoln-Douglas Debates featuring actors Richard Dreyfuss (Jaws, Close Encounters of the Third Kind) voicing Stephen Douglas, and David Strathairn (he played Seward in Speilberg’s Lincoln) as Lincoln. It makes for an engaging way to dive into the debates, although each of the debates has some content now that feels like inside baseball arguments about who said what at which meeting etc. That said, Debate Five at Galensburg gets my nod for the one debate to use if I have to pick just one.

The new discovery and the subject of today’s Dad News Review of Books book review is Fletcher Pratt’s Civil War in Pictures (1955, Garden City Books). In this case the DNRB acronym fits as I did not read this book, but have perused it thoroughly enough to see that it is terrific.

Pratt’s book has the subtitle: “From the drawing boards of the newspaper artists who recorded the conflict.” It is full of amazing line drawings, woodcuts based on drawings made by artists there on the ground. Men with sketch books and pencils traveled with the armies and documented the action. Their drawings would be sent back to the home office, where woodcuts would be made from the drawings and then printed. Weekly publications dispatched dozens of “special artists” at different times to document the action, and the renowned American painter Winslow Homer was among them (famous for paintings like “Snap the Whip” and “Veteran in a New Field.”)

Most of the pictures and a lot of the text is pulled from Harper’s Weekly and Frank Leslies’ Illustrated Newspaper. Pratt offers commentary and reflections along the way, putting the reports in context and addressing errors. The pictures each have a descriptive caption, so the book is informative and a joy to flip through while only looking at the pictures. They capture a remarkable level of detail in a simple, elegant, black and white format including even early moments from the war:

As the war proceeds, it is clear the artists are not far from the action.

The book includes hundreds of images like this. At times the artists break the third wall and show how they became a part of the very conflict they were covering. Here’s one with the caption, “The Vigilance Committee at Memphis Tennessee robbing our special artist of his sketches.”

There are also a number of illustrations of nautical battles as well, including the Merrimack and the Monitor.

In addition, Pratt includes additional details from the publications of the day, including advertisements for employment, watches, and the zoo—which features a hippo, or as you might know it, a “river horse.”

Eventually, and more ominously, the pages include many ads for prosthetic limbs.

There are also ads for medical solutions for various ailments, including dyspepsia tablets, beard growth formulas, and most impressively the “aesthetico-neuralgicon” which Pratt describes as a “homeopathic … cure for everything.” I need to learn more about this one.

In Pratt’s introduction, he acknowledges that the book is decidedly a story told from the Union perspective. He says “the story is necessarily one-sided, [because] there were no illustrated weeklies published in Richmond.” A 1955 New York Times review calls out and contradicts Pratt on this claim, pointing out “that The Southern Illustrated News, a weekly issued [from] 1862-65, was published in Richmond.” It seems the Times—in 1955—was worried about getting a better presentation of the Confederate point of view (NYT is known to lean Democratic in its politics). That said, It would be interesting to see what was published in those journals at the time.

There is no doubt that the book is a period piece, drawing most of its content directly from original sources during the war years with commentary from 1955. It is a thorough history of the war with amazing pictures and accounts provided from the field. Definitely worth requesting from your local library or acquiring your own copy.

For context, the WHCD is an annual event that started in 1921. The journalists host a dinner with the sitting president where the atmosphere is meant to be light and humorous. Presidents usually make funny speeches, often written by professional comedians.

Pres. Trump refused to attend during his first term because of his tense relationship with the press. It should also be remembered that in 2011, Pres. Obama used much of his speech to make fun of Donald Trump. Many have suggested that this was the moment The Donald decided to run for president. So he has a history with the event.

It is hard to get a sense of the size of the event. There were over 2,500 people gathered for a sit-down dinner with many of the most famous and powerful people in the country. Security was tight, but clearly not tight enough.

It takes place in the Washington Hilton, which is an active hotel and has a massive ballroom in the basement. It is also the hotel Pres. Reagan was leaving when he was shot and almost killed in 1981. The assassin was able to book a room in the hotel soon after the President announced that he would be attending the dinner. This gave him access to most spaces in the hotel. He traveled by train from California, apparently doing so to avoid TSA because he was carrying several guns with him.

Do you remember the problem with funding for the Department of Homeland Security? Still going on. TSA and the Secret Service are both funded through DHS, so the agents that subdued the assassin are getting paid (we hope!) on an emergency basis only. This ongoing funding problem will no doubt become a point of contention when talking about this security lapse.

What we know of the shooter so far is that he was a 31 year old SAT tutor and teacher, highly educated, and of mixed race. In something of a manifesto, he cited the usual charges against the President that one might find in the New York Times, on CNN, or anywhere on social media. It is important to note that his ideas are not particularly out of the mainstream of even the moderate left. His actions were, but…

Look at the survey result below:

The younger and more liberal the respondents, the more accepting they are of supporting violence. 1/4 of young liberals is not yet a majority of the population, but as we’ve seen with this and the other two assassination attempts, it does not take more than a small number of radicalized (and radicalized by “mainstream” ideas, if that makes sense) to try to kill a president.

As the saying goes: they don’t kill you because they call you a Nazi, they call you a Nazi so they can kill you.

From I.C.E to N.I.C.E

There is a meme on the internet in which a science fiction author writes a novel about some world-destroying machine as a warning to everyone, only to be followed by an announcement by engineers who are proud of having made this same world-destroying machine. It’s funny because it keeps happening. And it’s not funny.

Now, for fans of C.S. Lewis, he is getting caught up in this. That Hideous Strength is one of my favorite novels, but as a warning not a how-to document.

In steps Pres. Trump.

In an effort to change the image of immigration officers, he has suggested adding “National” to the name of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency. He said he wants to force journalists to use the word “nice” when they refer to it.

There is another meme on the internet, inspired by a photo of an exhausted and discouraged Ben Affleck standing outside smoking a cigarette. That’s as background to the image below. If you’ve read the Lewis novel, you get the joke.

This is a compelling story and despite its Christian title and tag line (“Believe in the Hail Mary”), it does not bring a heavy handed “message” even while it lionizes the act of laying down one’s life for one’s friends. The movie is part swashbuckling adventure, part slapstick comedy, part buddy movie, and it is all good fun. There are many references to other iconic sci fi films, including 2001: A Space Odyssey, Arrival, and a moment where Grace sings the tune from Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Beyond all that, the film is fun to look at with artful cinematography and production design interesting enough to merit multiple viewings just to catch the details. I brought five children from 9 to 17 years old and we all enjoyed it. I would certainly watch it again sometime.

Content Warnings: High anxiety with lives at risk. A couple jump scare moments. Confrontation of death (including dead bodies), and some discussion of suicide. I left my six year old at home and am glad that I did. Also, it is over two and half hours long.

Spoilers below here: Some comments and critiques

I enjoyed and recommend this movie, but it has a few shortcomings. One is that it is nearly three hours long, a bit much for a playful space adventure, so it feels, well . . . long. The resolution of the film is unsatisfying in a few ways. When on earth, Ryland Grace has almost no meaningful human connections. We see him connecting with his students as a science teacher and making one profound connection, it seems, with Eva Stratt, the director of the international project to save the earth—that is until she forces him to join the mission against his will. He feels betrayed by Stratt but leans into the mission once the decision has been made for him. He does not return to earth and reconcile with Stratt, however, and instead opts to live on an alien planet among the rock creatures, a resolution that falls flat. The other element of the film that rings hollow is the lack of real sacrifice in a movie that is importantly about sacrifice. Grace is on a mission that he “knows” will end in his demise, and yet he has the opportunity (two actually) to return to earth after all. The most dramatic sacrifice in the film, however, comes from Rocky when he exposes himself to deadly human air in order to save an unconscious Grace. The act reads as a moment of profound sacrifice—and it is—but he survives, a development that feels like a cop out. It is hard to imagine, however, how a film as committed to a light tone as this one would handle such a dark moment.

Lastly, the final beat of the film shows Grace settling in to his life among the rock creatures on a faraway planet, leading class full of enthusiastic rock students, all raising their “hands” and jumping up and down, eager to answer his question about the speed of light (the same question we saw him ask his human students on earth). The moment is campy and worse, it suggests Grace is in the same place he was at the beginning of the film, a successful teacher, but profoundly alone. He is even more alone than he was on earth given the more profound gap between him and his companions who cannot even breathe the air he breathes. On the movie’s own terms, this ending is presented as a genuine celebratory moment, but when observed as part of Grace’s character arc, it suggests he hasn’t traveled that far after all. Lastly, as a committed homeschooling dad, I object to the presentation of school-life as a viable substitute to real human connections, even if it is school life in a galaxy far far away.

This invention—along with the bass drum pedal (circa 1909)—completed the modern drum-set and created the conditions for drummers to thrive as the creative center of jazz and rock and roll music.

At all times humans have known that the world is a drum. Bang something, it makes a noise and other humans react: they move, they march, they dance and Voila! You are a musician! But these simple machines, pedal operated percussion tools, created a new world of possibilities for drummers. They allowed the modern drummer to operate all four limbs potentially playing different elements of the drum set, creating much more than time-keeping, but a sonic palette that allows for the contribution of color to the music, elevating the craft to new heights. Complex drum kits were assembled and popularized in large part to support the film industry that needed in-house soundtracks (and sound effects) for silent films. “Talkies” would drive drummers out of the movies and train their focus on jazz and, eventually, rock and roll.

Sitting here, nearly 100 years after the invention of the bass drum pedal and the hi-hat, who are the best drummers of all time? As a long time hack rock and roll drummer, I have been asked this question many times. My answer is long and varied and changing all the time, so I will limit my selections here to five favorite drum parts from the history of rock and roll, not virtuoso drum solos or blistering, ground breaking drum parts (necessarily), but some of my favorite moments from musicians behind this thoroughly modern instrument, the drum kit.

Levon Helm (The Band)

“The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down” from 1978 album The Last Waltz

Not a technical master and largely self-taught, Levon Helm sits atop my list for bringing sheer joy to the instrument and playing just what is needed, nothing more. He’s a master of feel, creating a groove that serves the music. “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down” provides a clinic on how a drum part can serve a song. From the buzz roll to cymbal crash at the beginning of each chorus to the rollicking ride cymbal work, to the deep tom hits at the beginning of each verse, Helm is carrying and coloring the song. Add to that the fact that he sings the heartfelt lead vocal while playing this part, and it is certainly an all time great.

John Bonham (Led Zeppelin)

“When the Levee Breaks” from the 1971 Album Led Zeppelin IV

Bonham is on many “best rock and roll drummer” lists for many reasons (not that this is one of those), his mastery of the hi hat and the bass drum pedal among them. On “When the Levee Breaks,” he creates and irresistible pulse featuring alternating double bass drum beats followed by syncopated 16th notes creating an irresistible groove funky enough that any young drummer might spend countless hours attempting to recreate it—a worthy exercise. This track highlights the degree to which a hi-hat, bass, and snare drum groove can define a song.

Stevie Wonder

“Don’t You Worry ‘Bout a Thing” from the 1973 Album Innervisions

Wait! Stevie Wonder is a piano player, you may be thinking. This is true but despite that (and his blindness) he played most of the instruments on the album Innervisions, including the drums. Like Levon Helm, he is not on lists of “greatest drummers of all time,” but here he puts on a display of hi-hat artistry and drum set mastery nonetheless. This is a funky, fun, and celebratory tune and this is a song and an album that can’t help but generate awe for the seemingly effortless level of greatness on display. It is also somehow topical as it begins with a bit of bizarre conversation about “speaking fluent Spanish” and worrying about “Iraq” and “Iran.” Our worries haven’t changed much since 1973 and this track remains a worthy antidote to those anxieties.

Neil Peart (Rush)

“Tom Sawyer” from the 1981 Album Moving Pictures

This selection could be dismissed as too obvious. Every aspiring rock drummer is supposed to go through a phase of inordinate attachment to Neil Peart’s playing as part of the iconic Canadian progressive rock (Prog-rock) band, Rush—and “Tom Sawyer” is their greatest hit. But this song cannot be dismissed. From the opening space invaders sound to the hyper 16th note hi-hat groove and evolving bass drum patterns, this song draws listeners into its grasp. Layer in the mysterious lyrics—written by Peart—that reference classic Americana, “today’s Tom Sawyer” whose “mind is not for rent” and you have a rock masterpiece.

It took forty years to go from the Wright brothers first flight at Kittyhawk in 1903 to a B-29 Superfortress carrying an atomic bomb in 1945. It took more than that to go from the initial popularization of the drumset to its apotheosis in 1974 when Neil Peart Joined Rush, and six more until he played his most famous fills in “Tom Sawyer.” From a drumming perspective the hi-hat and the bass drum both achieve near critical mass in this performance. At one minute thirty seconds, Peart drops into a groove in seven, accentuating the hi hat as the figure turns around each time culminating in the iconic “Grand Fills” at the 2 minute 30 second mark—probably the most air-drummed moment in rock and roll history. An obvious Selection? Yes—but also necessary.

Sean Kinney (Alice in Chains)

“No Excuses” from the 1994 Album Jar of Flies

You can take the Gen X Dad out of the 90’s but you can’t take the 90’s out of the Gen X Dad. Sean Kinney kicks off this track with a stand alone drum part so infectious you will hear it as an intro and outro of various radio and television programs today. It highlights bass drum and hi-hat accents as well a complex inter play with toms, chimes and cymbals, culminating in an accented flam crack on the snare drum signaling the beginning of something significant. This virtuoso drum intro leads into dark verses and chorus from Layne Staley and Jerry Cantrell lamenting something for which they have “No Excuses.” The drums bring levity to this track and pull it out of typical 90’s grunge fare into all time great territory.

Here is the playlist of Five Songs with Great Drum Parts. Feel free to suggest others in the comments.

Source notes:

For further reading, check out Vinnie Sperraza’s “History of Drumming,” a book he is publishing as he writes it on Substack.

Other sources:

Bass drum pedal inventions: https://paularchibalddrums.wordpress.com/2015/10/28/early-bass-drum-pedal-patens/

History of drumming from Vic Firth: https://ae.vicfirth.com/education/history-of-the-drumset/history-of-the-drumset-part-07/

Negotiations between the US and Iran are on again and then off again. I haven’t revisited this issue because every time something seems to have happened (either starting talks or ending them) someone plays the Uno reverse card and the opposite happens.

Even as I was writing this, the President texted a reporter suggesting that the talks may be on again. Who knows? The problem is that, having killed most of the Iranian political leadership, we and probably they have no idea who is actually in charge of the country.

Another update while writing: Trump asked the Iranians to halt the scheduled execution of eight women protestors. It seems they have complied. Four will be released and the other four held in prison for a month. Does this mean the Iranians are responsive? Or is this one part of the remaining pseudo-leadership that will be reversed by the other part? I hope we hear soon that the woman are OK.

Meanwhile, the blockade continues and very little oil and gas is getting out of the region. Europe is reporting that it has only 7 weeks of jet fuel remaining and is already cancelling short flights for commercial airlines. I have a personal interest in flights to and from Austria, as many of you know, so I’m watching this very closely.

At this point the whole thing hangs on who can hold out longest.

The US has a lot of domestic oil, so Trump might be worried about the midterm elections but gas probably won’t go up too much. Oil is currently trading between $90-$96 per barrel. And the stock market is a little up and down, but certainly not in a bad way at the moment. Dow Jones Industrial Average is around 49,000, S&P 500 is around 7,000, and the Nasdaq is about 24,000. Historically, these are huge numbers.

Iran is missing out on something like $500 million a day. That’s got to hurt. But do they care? They would probably be happy to let the entire population starve to death if they could only fulfill their Islamic ideology. But they will run up against the fact that oil wells, once stopped or paused, are very hard to start up again. The inability to export their oil will, very soon, impose a huge cost on their ability to have an oil export industry at all. Unless they really do plan on blowing themselves up, this has to be a constraint on their actions.

The rest of the world is caught in between. China gets a lot of oil from Iran, as does most of Asia. Australia is almost dry. Europe also relies on oil and gas from the Middle East and Russia, which makes things awkward. Pres. Trump and Premier Xi of China are supposed to meet in person sometime soon. (It keeps getting rescheduled.) Will they want this all settled before their meeting?

The Europeans don’t have many cards to play. They need American support for the war in Ukraine and they don’t have the military resources to play any role in the Middle East. They gave up their oil and nuclear (except France) resources within the last few years and can’t turn that around quickly. And yet they are insisting on policies meant to frustrate the American war efforts, such as denying access to their airspace and even American bases in their countries.

DHS Still Unfunded

Remember the whole partial government shutdown thing? It’s still a thing. DHS has been limping along after the President moved money from one budget line to another as an emergency stopgap so employees could get paid. That’s coming to an end, but no one seems to be talking about it. Are both sided bluffing? I don’t know what happens under these circumstances.

Religion and Politics

For years there has been an effort to separate religion and politics, as if they have nothing to do with one another. There were times when this might have worked, but those times were characterized by a broad consensus on both religion and politics. That consensus, if it ever really existed, no longer holds.

We have considered the contretemps between the Pope and the President already. It seems to be receding into the background. There is still a great deal of distance between the two men, but they seem to have each come to the realization that open hostility is in neither one’s interests.

Recently, however, an Israeli soldier was photographed (by another IDF soldier who posted the image in apparent approval) destroying a crucifix in Lebanon. The image received swift condemnation from the American Ambassador to Israel and was condemned by the Israeli president and prime minister. The soldiers involved have been arrested. But it is a stark reminder that hostility across and between religious groups is real and can become very ugly.

Those soldiers were in Lebanon because Israel is currently attacking Hezbollah. Lebanon was a Christian country for the first half of the 20th Century, but Muslim immigration (including Palestinians) led to a civil war from 1975-1990 that saw the emigration of many Christians. Hezbollah formed in 1982 after Israel invaded the country in order to remove the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) from its position in Lebanon. The very next year they used suicide bombers to kill 307 American Marines and French soldiers.

After the civil war, Hezbollah increased its political influence, even having a role in parliament and the cabinet. But its purpose was always to use Lebanon as a staging ground for attacks on Israel. Most of its funding and support came from Iran and it was seen as a proxy of the Islamic Republic. Their ties were very close because both are part of the Shia branch of Islam. Until Oct. 7, Hezbollah was considered far more dangerous than Hamas.

Back home, Israel and Islam are the centerpiece of politics in the Democratic party. As primary races continue in advance of the midterm elections this November, the party is making a hard shift. Several nominees for Senate races are embracing hard anti-Israel positions, and one is a Muslim. Polls also show that young Democrats have a worse opinion of Israel than they do of China or Iran. This is a big shift for a party that was supported by the vast majority of Jews in the US.

You can throw nature out with a pitchfork, but it always comes back (Naturam expellas furca, tamen usque recurret - Horace). When religion comes back into politics, it wields the pitchfork.

Christian Persecution in Nigeria

The most tragic and horrifying persecution is continuing in Nigeria. Thousands of Christians are being killed in this one country, where the vast majority of all crowns of martyrdom are being won on the earth today. Pray for them.

What to watch with the family? Ideally, we can find a film that is entertaining for everyone, adults, older kids, and the littles. This doesn’t always happen, of course. But I am compiling a list of films that can pull this off, and here are three for consideration.

The General (1926)

Directed by Buster Keaton and Clyde Bruckman

We just watched this for the first time and it will be a recurring favorite, I am sure. Buster Keaton plays an engineer attempting to rescue a locomotive stolen by Union forces during the Civil War. The story is outlandish and yet based on a real event known as the “Great Locomotive Chase” from 1862. A silent film with a jaunty piano soundtrack, the film has the look and feel of its period, including awkward frame rates and title cards for the (limited) dialogue. Plan to assign a designated dialogue reader for the family viewing. It will only take a few minutes for everyone to be fully invested in the world of Johnny Gray and his quest to recover his true loves, Annabelle Lee and his train, The General. Delightful physical comedy including dramatic stunts (performed by Keaton on actual moving trains) and impressive set pieces. Two standouts include an amazing sequence with a train water tower and a train bridge explosion worthy of Bridge on The River Kwai which involved the destruction of an actual train (that remained demolished in the river until it was salvaged for scrap metal during World War II). It all makes this a terrific whole family selection. Be warned, however, as the family may demand more and more Buster Keaton films after this one.

Content Warnings: None

My Neighbor Totoro (1988)

Directed by Hayao Miyazaki

This is classic, mysterious, beautiful, and delightful Miyazaki. If you aren’t familiar with his films, this is a great place to start. Do not file this film under whatever you may think of “Anime”. This is not that. This is a story of a family facing situations that would be potentially terrifying, the critical illness of a parent and the appearance of a larger than life otherworldly creature. In Miyazaki’s hands, these are both handled with gentleness, care, and wonder. This film is a marvel to look at as well as a fun story for all ages.

Content Warnings: None

The Adventures of Tin Tin (2011)

Directed by Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson

Ripped not from the headlines but from old time comic books (1920’s era) and an animated series (1990’s era), Steven Spielberg (and Peter Jackson!) have created a world of adventure that is thrilling from the start to finish. A young reporter is pulled into an international adventure that traverses oceans, deserts, cities, and mansions. It’s got amazing action movie set pieces, swashbuckling sea antics, genuinely comic moment and a heart. It is intense at times—it has its exciting moments—so the younger viewers need to be on the tougher side for this one. Everyone will delight in the recurring bumbling—yet surprisingly competent—twin brother detectives, however.

Content Warnings: Lots of cartoon violence and peril: fist-fights, gunfights, and even ship-to-shore crane fights. There is also a depiction of alcoholism and drunkenness that is presented with care and comedy.

Feel free to add your suggestions for this list of films worthy of viewing for the whole family in the comments. More to come . . .

As you will recall, the term “Avignon Papacy” refers to the period of 1309-77 during which seven popes established their court in France rather than Rome. It was the result in part of French influence over the papacy, legitimate fear of the German emperors invading Rome, and the very involved politics of the period. (Just to give a taste, the Crusades were still going on, the Hundred Years War between France and England was beginning, and Dante was writing his Divine Comedy.) St. Catherine of Sienna was influential in personally convincing the pope to return to Rome.

Probably unfairly to the seven popes, the period was also characterized as the “Babylonian Captivity” and it was assumed that the popes were the puppets of the French kings. That didn’t really happen until after the popes returned to Rome and “pretender popes” were elected in Avignon. And this doesn’t even give you a hint of how complicated it all was.

Anyway, the reference was certainly intended to suggest that the Church could be controlled by the most powerful government on the planet. Wow! And given that the Renaissance started during this period, it could be a good time for artists. (Pres. Trump’s heavy-on-the-gold renovations of the Oval Office are now looking really on point.)

Well, it didn’t happen. The Avignon Papacy did happen, but the Vatican confirmed that there was no such heated conversation and certainly no threat about moving the Pope to Florida. (Although his brother does live there and is a big supporter of the President. So don’t count it out.)

Everything smoothed over and cooler heads prevailed.

BUT NO!

You guessed it, Pres. Trump took to Truth Social.

Rather than go through it all on my own, I’ll leave it to two of my friends who are much more qualified to deal with the details.

Phil Lawler's Substack

Who started the Trump 'feud' with the Pope?

Responding to my analysis of confrontation between Pentagon officials and Cardinal Pierre, @MarkSimonHK wrote on X that “Lawler is more open than I am about the role of @Pontifex…” (This was before Trump’s personal assault on the Pope on Truth Social.) Actually I…

Read more

2 months ago · 24 likes · Phil Lawler

and

The Sayable

Behind The Headlines

Pope Leo’s comment on the plane today, “I have no fear of the Trump administration,” stuck out at me because it is unusual for a Pope to call out a politician by name…

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2 months ago · 2 likes · Delia Buckley Gallagher

In short, Pope Leo expressed his (not surprising) position that the war in Iran is wrong and that diplomacy and discussion should have continued. Responding with the presence of mind and self-control of a honey badger that had been dropped into a nest of fire ants, Donald Trump took to Truth Social and has doubled-down in subsequent statements to the press. (The Pope’s side has also been out with an interview on 60 Minutes with three, shall we say, controversial Cardinals. And Pres. Clinton’s political advisor met with the Pope just before all this began.)

Trump’s lack of equanimity surprised everyone, everyone, that is, who has been living under a rock for the past ten years. At this point had he responded in a statesmanlike manner the world would have stopped on its axis.

Statesmanship

From the moment he descended the golden escalator to declare his intention to run for office, The Donald’s seeming indifference to the words he uses has caused nothing but confusion. Is he really that crazy? Half the country says he is, and the other half says he isn’t. (The rest of the world, by the way, is certain that he is.) He seems intent on driving people mad.

To make the contrast more clear between his words and his deeds, let’s sum up a number of events that, in hindsight, start to make sense:

1. In April 2025, the Trump administration formed a security agreement with Panama after threatening to take it over by force. This effectively removed Chinese influence from this important waterway, an influence that was growing quickly.

2. On January 3, 2026 American forces captured the Venezuelan (not recognized by most countries) president and his wife to face trial in New York. The surviving government is now working very closely with the US. This after China was getting oil from Venezuela at below market prices because the country was sanctioned and could not sell on the open market. Venezuela is estimated to have the largest oil reserves in the entire world. China was able to buy this oil in its own currency and not US dollars.

3. Subsequent pressure and blockade of Cuba has led to negotiations and the release of several thousand political prisoners by the Communists.

4. The February 28 attack on Iran and now blockade of its ports has shut down oil exports from the Gulf, which China relies on. China was also able to buy this oil at below market rates and in its own currency rather than in US dollars.

5. Both the operations in Venezuela and Iran have shown the hollowness of Chinese defense systems, resulting in the demotion, disappearance, and death of many top military officials and defense engineers in China. This significantly reduces the potential of an attack on Taiwan.

6. An agreement between the US and Indonesia was announced this week (although signed in February, interestingly) that strengthens trade and military ties between the two countries.

Here’s a map that might start to make sense of the moves above:

The Trump administration has secured for itself or rendered impassible almost all the major trading chokepoints in the world (Panama, Hormuz, Malacca, Mindoro, Makassar, and Lombok), and certainly the most important ones for China. It has undone the efforts at “de-dolarization” of the oil markets, securing the US dollar as the sole means for trading the most important commodity in the world. (There are some significant economic advantages to this that I won’t get into.)

I could just be reading into these events, but they do seem intentional. They do seem coordinated. But I’ll agree that they don’t seem compatible with posting AI generated memes of oneself as Jesus and then saying, no, I just thought it was a picture of me as a doctor working for the Red Cross. (No, really. This happened.)

Trump at Canossa?

In 1077, the Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV knelt in the snow at the castle of Canossa in northern Italy, begging for pardon from Pope Gregory VII. Their dispute was over who was allowed to appoint bishops. (A secret agreement with China—yes, them again—was made under Pope Francis regarding this very issue.) Gregory had excommunicated Henry, which brought him to repent.

Again, only those living under a rock could imagine Donald Trump asking forgiveness from anyone. By all measures he should, however. His words were intemperate and unbefitting a man of his position. But it won’t happen.

Perhaps this is another job for Marco Rubio.

Until last Friday everything has more or less been on the same trajectory as the last few weeks. But then the pilot and weapons office of an American F-15E were forced to eject deep in Iran. (Details of why are largely restricted because revealing how it was shot, if it was shot, would or could help other countries learn of its vulnerabilities. That’s why I’m being vague. [Not that Chinese spies are reading DNN. I don’t know what happened.])

The pilot was rescued quickly, but the other airman was not. His parachute took him further away. The process of getting him back was immense. They flew two cargo planes onto a disused Iranian airstrip. Secured the area. Unloaded helicopters from the planes. Flew them to rescue the officer. He, meanwhile, followed his training and scrambled several miles from his landing site, climbed steep terrain, and contacted help. All this while being hunted by Iranians.

So his rescue was a real achievement.

Meanwhile, Pres. Trump was on Truth Social. I wish I could stop there, but duty requires that I press on.

The President truthed (?) several threats to the Iranians using the kind of language I can’t reproduce here. It was vulgar in the extreme. He also threated to “bomb Iran back to the stone age” and destroy their civilization, promising that it would never recover. He even wrote, “Praise Allah” in one of the threats. Huh?

Our friend Phil Lawler has been writing about just war principles. You don’t need to do a deep dive into Vittoria to know that what Pres. Trump was threatening crosses the line.

While some have pointed out that these threats are the kind that Iran has thrown at the US and Israel for years, it does sound different coming from the one country in the world that could actually do it. [Apologies to the Chinese spies, but the performance of their weapons systems in Venezuela and Iran suggest they remain a few steps behind the US.]

Others suggest that this is all part of his “madman” approach to negotiations. There is a lot of evidence that because no one knows how far he will actually go, foreign leaders take his threats very seriously. So he set an 8:00pm Tuesday deadline for the Iranians, after which he would destroy every bridge and power station in the country.

We now have a two week ceasefire.

Perhaps years from now we will know if his public threats worked to broker the agreement. But we don’t know if the Iranians even have access to the internet at this point. They might not have known about the Truth Social threats. We have no idea.

Nevertheless, the ceasefire is going to allow the two sides to negotiate a more permanent solution and, very importantly, tankers will be able to sail through the Strait. There is still a lot to be worked out, but this is a very positive development.

One question in all of this is whether the Iranians doing the negotiations (brokered through Pakistan) have control of the military. Can they keep their men from firing missiles? Do they have a way to even get orders to the guys hidden in bunkers? We hope.

The other question is whether our allies agree. Not just Israel, but several of the Gulf states are now at war with Iran. I read this morning that the United Arab Emirates bombed positions in Iran. Does that break the ceasefire?

Let’s hope the ceasefire holds and a solution can be reached. The latest “truth” from the President says the Iranians have agreed to allow the US to extract all their nuclear weapons materials from the country. Big if true, as the kids say.

Let’s say a real Hail Mary for this one.

First impressions: This is a terrific title. Three simple words that evoke a range of profound associations and reactions. Let’s consider them. We will deal with “Project” last. First we consider, “Hail Mary.” This powerful choice hits home. It is a phrase with grand cultural and spiritual significance. Here in deeply Catholic Massachusetts, when people hear those words in that order, “Hail Mary,” they immediately elevate their minds to reflect on…Doug Flutie.

In 1984, with less than ten seconds to go in their football game, the Boston College Eagles were down 45 to 41 to the Miami Hurricanes. Facing swirling winds and positioned just past midfield, diminutive Boston College quarterback Doug Flutie, dropped back another 15 yards and launched the ball 60 plus yards through the air where it fell into a crowd and ended in the hands of his roommate, Gerard Phelan, who—fortunately for the Flutie—was also on the Boston College Eagles football team, resulting in an improbable victory for BC and an enduring memory for many of what may be the most iconic “Hail Mary” pass in college football history.

The concept is simple. This situation is so bad, and a good outcome so improbable—perhaps even impossible—that your only option is to turn to God for help. Years of elite athletic training, countless hours of practice, coaches’ agonizing study of game film are all worthless at this moment and you must turn to—Gasp!—Prayer. “Hail Mary” has come to mean attempting to overcome a hopeless situation. The phrase was often deployed when describing these plays at Catholic colleges, like Notre Dame and Boston College.

But it is not simply throwing up “a prayer” but specifically a “Hail Mary.” Wouldn’t throwing a prayer be enough? Asking for the intercession of St. Jude, Patron saint of lost causes, for instance, would also be appropriate in these situations, so the desperation pass play could be called the “St. Jude,” but we have the “Hail Mary.”

There is no better model for participating in the impossible than Mary. The first two lines of the Hail Mary describe the most impossible thing that has ever happened, God becoming Man:

Hail Mary, full of Grace, the Lord is with thee

Blessed are thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.

Ripped from the headlines of the year zero as reported in the Gospels, this singular fact of life, that God came to dwell on earth as a baby Mary’s womb, is the most profound and singularly inexplicable thing to have ever happened. One could charge that applying it to a football game walks the fine line between homage and blasphemy, but I think we can embrace the enduring power and cultural relevance of this distinctively Christian (Catholic) prayer. Long embraced by football fans, the term “Hail Mary” now has cultural relevance outside of football, often used to describe any desperate attempt to accomplish something with a low chance of success.

This brings us back to the title of the new film directed by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, who are known for their previous work on the surprisingly terrific Spider Man Into the Spiderverse, the bafflingly good product placement film The Lego Movie, and the inexplicably amazing adaptation of the nonsense children’s book, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. Here they are adapting a novel by the same name, Project Hail Mary, written by Andy Weir (who also worked on the screenplay for the film). I do not know if there is an explicit reference to the actual prayer in the film (as I have not seen it). While I suspect a character will say the words “Hail Mary” in the movie, I highly doubt that there is a moment when a character gives voice to the subsequent words “full of grace” or “fruit of thy womb, Jesus.” There is an even slimmer chance that anyone says the second half of the prayer, “Holy Mary Mother of God, Pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death.” The title, nonetheless, stands as a cultural marker of the enduring importance of this most powerful of prayers. This film could have been “Project Long Shot,” “Project No Chance,” or a cringey “Project Dream Big,” or “Project Never Give Up.” Weir could be accused of having conceived of the title by trying to think of synonyms for “Mission Impossible.” Weir landed on “Hail Mary.” The filmmakers doubled down on that, and I am grateful for that. Since the Angel Gabriel uttered those words and ever since Christ performed his first miracle at the request of Our Lady at Cana, there has been great power and mystery carried by those words, “Hail Mary.” This major motion picture is both reminding us of (and capitalizing on) that power and mystery. We could take a cynical read on that decision, but I’m going the other way. Three cheers for continuing and expanding the presence of the Hail Mary in the popular consciousness. The producers are leaning into this association with the latest movie poster in fact, which has made “Believe in the Hail Mary” the tagline for the film. Adding “believe” to the mix further suggests a genuine connection to the prayer.

What about the first word of the title: “Project”? As a word, it is a loser. Few like a project. It invokes work, long effort, and . . . planning. No thank you. “Project” also contradicts our typical expectations for a situation requiring a “Hail Mary” on or off the football field. Doug Flutie’s Hail Mary was an emergency. No time for planning and preparation, just drop, pray, and chuck. A “project” that requires the Hail Mary is something else, a kind of contradiction—so bonus points for mystery. Finally, we should note that “project” also means to send out far and wide, as in “project” your voice to the audience. Perhaps the double meaning was intended? Is the film here, in part, to “project” the Hail Mary further into our popular imagination, memory, and practice? That would be a long shot, I know. Some might even call it a Hail Mary.

Birthright Citizenship

The Supreme Court heard oral arguments today on the case of Trump v. Barbara. The Court has had written arguments from both sides and from amici curiae (literally friends of the court, legal opinions from people not directly involved in the case). Today is the one chance for both sides to present their arguments in person and for the justices to ask questions. It can (sometimes) give an indication of what the members of the court are thinking.

For the first time in history a sitting president will also be there to listen. There is, of course, no reason for him not to do so. The justices are not the kind of people to be intimidated.

We have discussed the issue of birthright citizenship before and its relation to the Fourteenth Amendment. What is interesting is just how far the argument has moved from only a year ago.

Almost no one would have thought this issue was up for debate. But now it is a tossup. The Court really could rule either way. It is an astonishing development.

DHS Funding

It looks like there is a deal to completely fund the Department of Homeland Security. Large parts of it (ICE has been funded separately) have been without funding for six weeks. Travelers needing to go through TSA at airports should be very happy.

Politicians on both sides, Republicans and Democrats, will claim victory and their party members will probably claim defeat. It is a victory insofar as something actually got done. The Democrats didn’t get ICE defunded or abolished, so large parts of their party will be upset. The Republicans didn’t get the country to blame the Democrats for the shutdown, so their party will complain that it was a missed opportunity to cause them pain.

Moon Shot

Tonight NASA launched a rocket to take American astronauts further into space than ever before. They won’t land on the moon. That will come later. But they will go around it and prepare for the next few missions that will eventually land back on the moon.

For anyone born after 1972, this will be the first time in your lives that anyone will have made this trip. The last mission was Apollo 17 on Dec. 7, 1972.

There should be some amazing pictures. Here is a visual of their ten day (10 day!) mission:

Iran

OK, so this is the big one. Everyone is wondering what is going on there. As before, more of the same.

Israel is racking up a long list of Iranian officials they have killed. We really haven’t seen anything like this before, where the military and political leadership has been eliminated in such numbers.

The only other historical analogy, and it is imperfect, is from the Anabasis of Xenophon. This tells the story of 10,000 Greek mercenaries stranded behind enemy lines after their employer, Cyrus the Younger, is killed in battle. Their generals were called to a treaty with the Persians where they were all killed. Leaderless, the 10,000 had to fight their was back to Greece.

OK, I said it was an imperfect analogy, but you have to like the fact that I get to mention Xenophon and that all this took place in the same location as the war right now.

Some ships are getting through the Strait of Homuz, which suggests there are no mines. Some ships are paying Iran $2 million for safe passage. This suggests that there are Iranians in control of the military forces stationed to shut the Strait. Someone is asking for the money. Someone is getting the money. And someone has enough control to make sure nothing happens to the ships that paid the money.

All this brings us to the reports, claims, counter-claims, and denials about talks between the US and Iran. There might, or might not, be conversations about either ending the war, opening the Strait, neither, or something else entirely.

The President is scheduled to speak to the nation at 9:00pm Eastern time tonight. I’m going to try to post this before the address so I don’t have to change everything I’ve written. Then I’ll probably post again tomorrow when we know what he said.

Iran Implications

Since I can’t report on what the President is going to say, I may as well bring you up to speed on the implications of the Iran bombing. And all we’ve done so far is drop bombs, fire missiles, and use drones. That is significant.

Here at home the President’s approval has been dropping like a stone. There has not been a “rally ‘round the flag” effect. MAGA still loves him. Democrats are tearing their (pink) hair out. And lots of people in the middle are frustrated with rising gas prices.

Countries in Asia are desperate for oil. None of the major countries in Asia have oil or natural gas, so almost every bit is imported from the Middle East. Australia does have both but has stopped all extraction for environmental reasons. They even shut their one refinery, which means they have to import even more expensive refined oil. They have enough left in the country for only a few weeks, if that.

Europe is in a similar situation. France has a lot of nuclear power, so it can at least produce electricity. This is not true of much of the rest of the continent. There are calls for people to reduce their driving, stay home, and even work from home. Rationing and enforced closure of businesses is likely if things continue.

Europe is not happy, and they are not keeping that a secret. Spain has refused to allow American military planes to use its airspace. Italy has refused to allow them to use bases there.

In response, Pres. Trump has threatened to withdraw the United States from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), which has bound the nations of the West together since the beginning of the Cold War. Its purpose has been described as keeping the Russians out, the Americans in, and the Germans down. It doesn’t seem to be doing any of those things at the moment. But the President can’t do anything about this. Congress passed a law expressly forbidding presidents from removing the country from NATO.

With all this going on the speech tonight is going to be interesting. If there is some sort of quick resolution the economy could get back on track quickly. If, on the other hand, the President will announce further escalation and maybe the landing of ground troops on Iranian soil, it is hard to think of many people who will be happy with that. But if it works…

Everyone loves a winner. And depending on the way it is resolved, if it is resolved, one of the largest oil producers in the world and most strategic sites on the planet (between China and the Mediterranean) will be taken out of the Chinese and Russian orbit and placed firmly in the American.

High risk. High reward. And let’s not forget that this is all in the context of a midterm election this year.

Washington Hogwallop is a loaded name that signals political elements of this film are about to unfold. “Washington” calls to mind George Washington as we observe a slice of America in the midst of the depression. The set design of Wash’s house is modeled on the 1941 photograph by Eudora Welty, “House with Bottle Trees,” part of her collection of photographs depicting the Southern poverty.

Welty’s Photo:

Wash’s House in O Brother:

Wash’s wife, Cora (“heart”), has left him. Remember the title, O Brother Where Art Thou? Is taken from Preston Sturges film Sullivan’s Travels about a filmmaker attempting to make a film about the plight of the poor. Washington Hogwallop presents America as the poor, bereft of heart (“good riddance” he says of Cora) and reduced to physical and moral degradation, eating his horses and betraying his kin.

Like “Po Lazarus,” and “Big Rock Candy Mountain, “You Are My Sunshine” tells another version of the story we are watching, here it is the tale of a lover who has been left behind. The full lyrics could apply to Wash, as his wife up and “R-U-N-N-O-F-T.” Everett knows why she left, “She must have been looking for answers.” Perhaps this is projection, however. The story of “You Are My Sunshine” could be Everett’s as well. We will soon learn he is trying to reunite with his wife before she marries another:

The other night dear, as I lay sleeping

I dreamed I held you in my arms

When I awoke I was mistaken

I hung my head and I cried . . .

You told me once dear you really loved me

And no one could come between

But now you’ve left me to love another

You have shattered all my dreams . . .

In all my dreams dear, you seem to leave me

When I awake my poor heart pangs

So won’t you come back and make me happy

I’ll forgive dear, I’ll take all the blame

Despite the sad tale, the familiar chorus repeats the persistent feeling that this love is still treasured and eternal:

You are my sunshine, my only sunshine

You make me happy when skies are grey

You never know dear how much I love you

Please don’t take my sunshine away.

These lines provide a glimpse inside Everett’s head, but we don’t hear them in the film—only on the soundtrack album. While watching the film, we only get the chorus once from Wash’s radio before the song concludes and we hear the voice of Pappy O’Daniel, host of the “Pappy O’Daniel Flour Hour,” the owner of Pappy O’Daniel Flour, and—we later learn—the current sitting Governor of Mississippi. We also later learn that his first name is Menelaus, a name pulled from The Iliad and The Odyssey—the man who launches the Trojan War. In the film he is part of a great conflict between political factions in the form of his campaign for re-election. The “civil” political war that serves as the backdrop of Everett’s adventure brings the stakes of the film out of the spiritual and strictly personal, and into the political as the future of Mississippi is at stake.

Earlier, we were alerted to watch for names when the trio got a ride from the blind “seer” on the railroad pump car.

Delmar: “Work for the railroad old timer?

Blind Seer: “I work for no man.”

Delmar: “Got a name do ya?”

Blind Seer: “I have no name.”

Everett: “Well, that right there might be the reason you’ve had trouble finding gainful employment. You see in the mart of competitive commerce–”

Everett knows that names matter. He will later have to fight to preserve the name of his daughters and his wife who are about to become “Warvey gals.” What of the other names in O Brother?

Ulysses Everett McGill (George Clooney), our main character, gets the unlikely name Ulysses, pulled from the world of The Odyssey even as he stomps around Mississippi. “Ulysses” is the Latinized version of the name Odysseus used in England and Ireland. It was adopted by James Joyce as the title for his twentieth century adaptation of The Odyssey set in Ireland. Clooney’s character is not called Ulysses, however, only “Everett,” with Old English roots meaning “Wild Boar,” capturing something of the madcap persistence and courage required for his journey. “McGill” is perhaps the most interesting. From either English or Irish, the name means either, “son of a stranger” or “son of a servant.” He will later sing that he is just a “stranger” in “Man of Constant Sorrow,” and he is a man of several disguises like Odysseus himself.

Peter Hogwollop (John Turturro) and Delmar O’Donnel (Tim Blake Nelson) form the pair with whom Everett must navigate this adventure. Rough (very rough) stand ins for Scylla and Charabidis, Peter—like Scylla–means “The Rock” and Delmar (Del = “of the,” Mar = “Sea”) references Charibyds, the deadly whirlpools. But there is nothing deadly about Delmar. In fact, he seems pure and innocent (except for that PigglyWiggly he knocked over). “Of the sea” calls to mind Mary, the star of the Sea, and Delmar’s demeanor is much more like Our Lady than that of a deadly whirlpool. Similarly, Peter “The Rock” is not like a sea monster set out to destroy Ulysses, but he is a devoted, loyal follower, like Peter from the Gospels, and one who—like Peter from the Gospels—will betray his promises before the film is over. It seems Everett, then, is not threatened by a sea monster and a whirlpool, but aided by Mary (Delmar) and a Disciple (Pete). Everett is on a personal quest that places him in the center of a political conflict and it all seems to carry cosmic weight.

“You Are My Sunshine” is a sentimental, personal song, but it appears in the film as the stage is being set for a more-than-personal story. The song itself had political associations in real life. “You Are My Sunshine” was first published by Jimmy Davies who became “The singing” Governor of Mississippi in 1944. There was also a real life flour-selling “Pappy” O’Daniel who was governor (and later Senator) of Texas in 1939.

At this point in the film, our trio has been freed from their chains, fed, cleaned up, and ready for a night’s rest. Their slumber will be disturbed however, after Washington turns them in to the “thora-TAYS!”

“They got this depression on. I got to do for me and mine!” Wash justifies himself. Everett and crew—now in a “tight spot”— must go on the run again, from the law and from an otherworldly pursuer without a name, a menacing figure with fire in his eyes—and a mean old hound dog.

Next up, “Down to the River to Pray”

But in plain shock and even play of battle,
Was ever known so great and little loss
On one part and on th’ other? (Henry V, IV.8 113-15)

But this is not over and terrible things can still happen.

What We Know

As I’ve already said, the military campaign is very lopsided. Iran seems to be running our of missiles while American and Israeli planes and drones can do whatever they want.

The tactic of decapitation, that is to say, killing the entire Iranian leadership in targeted strikes, is unprecedented. Usually, the top political and military ranks are not in direct danger. This is reflected in the concluding lesson of John McCutcheon’s song about the Christmas Truce in WWI, “Christmas in the Trenches”: “That the ones who call the shots won’t be among the dead and lame/ And on each end of the rifle we’re the same.”

Pres. Trump has even pointed out one of the ironies of this policy, namely, that there is no one left to negotiate with. Each time someone is appointed to a leadership role, he dies in an Israeli attack. What does this mean? We really don’t know because we haven’t seen anything like this in military history. [This point probably shouldn’t be in the “What We Know” section, obviously.]

A Wall Street Journal piece this week revealed another feature of Israeli penetration into the Iranian regime. The paper reproduced a transcript from a telephone call where Mossad (the Israeli military intelligence agency) called the personal cell phone of a mid to low level Iranian soldier and spoke to him in Farsi. Apparently, they have the numbers (literally and figuratively) of almost everyone in the country. They are also getting targeting information from Iranian civilians. This is also unprecedented.

That’s the good news. There’s also bad news about what we now know.

Iran fired two missiles at the American base on Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean. Remember this island? It is part of the Chagos Islands that Prime Minister Starmer of the United Kingdom was going to pay Mauritius to take off his hands. Everything is connected!

The thing about the missiles targeting Diego Garcia (one of which crashed into the ocean on its own and the other destroyed by the US Navy) is that Iran wasn’t supposed to have missiles that could reach a target that is 2,631 miles from Tehran. Everyone thought that they didn’t have the capacity for that.

A missile that can go that far is known as an Intermediate Range Ballistic Missile (IRBM). If it can reach Diego Garcia, it could reach Berlin (2,200 miles or 3,540KM away), Paris (2,610 miles or 4,200KM) and almost London (2,750 miles or 4,400KM). And Tehran isn’t the closest part of Iran to Europe. European countries do not have anti missile systems that can protect them from IRBMs which can reach descent speeds of up to Mach 10 (that’s ten times the speed of sound!).

Knowing that Iran has missiles of this capacity puts the decision to attack them three weeks ago in a new light, but doesn’t resolve the issue. Some might say that it justifies the operation because they were certainly trying to develop missiles that could threaten Europe. Others might say the operation is even more reckless because they have those capabilities already and might, therefore, have other things we thought they didn’t have, such as nuclear weapons.

New light tends to make opposing interpretations only more clear to the beholder. It comes down to how one feels about being held hostage by apocalyptic fanatics with a death wish, by which I mean the Islamic Republic not, in this case, European environmentalists.

What We Don’t Know

The big unknown is when the Strait of Hormuz will open to tanker traffic and get the oil flowing. A lot depends on this, and not just the price we pay to fill our cars.

The Americas are pretty shielded from the blockage of Hormuz, at least directly. Canada, Venezuela and the US have more oil than they use and other byproducts, such as fertilizer, are sourced from within the hemisphere, too. (California, however, does get gas from across the Pacific because shipping it from the Middle East is somehow more environmentally friendly than producing it locally, which they could and did do.)

Europe and Asia are in trouble, but what can they do? Japan, for instance, has no sources of oil within its territory. This lack of oil was, I’m afraid to point out, one of the reasons it expanded into its “Co-prosperity Zone” prior to WWII. Not really days of blessed memory. Japan and South Korea apparently have several months of reserved oil, but others like India certainly do not.

Most European countries have shut down their domestic supplies of oil and gas for environmental reasons. Much like California, they’d prefer to ship it half way around the world and through some very tricky bottlenecks than pull it out of the ground beneath their feet. (What was I saying about fanatics?) A closed Strait of Hormuz makes them even more dependent on Russian sources. And this is especially true for fertilizer, which they will need very soon as planting season begins.

Oil isn’t just for cars, although that’s were we see most of it. Somehow it is also involved in the production of helium, which is used in the making of computer chips. Don’t ask me how. And the Middle East provided most of Taiwan’s helium. Taiwan is where most of the chips are made for the whole world.

Other News

The Department of Homeland Security remains unfunded. Some airports are seeing five hour waiting times to get through security because TSA officers are not showing up to work if they aren’t getting paid.

Two solutions have been suggested (apart from the obvious one of enough Democrats voting to release the funds). First, Elon Musk has offered to pay the employees, himself. While he has he money, he couldn’t actually do this. He could give as much to the Treasury as he wants, but Congress would still have to pass a bill or continuing resolution to allow DHS to draw money to pay its employees.

The other suggestion, which Pres. Trump seems likely to do, is help staff TSA with ICE officers, who are getting paid. Whether or not that solves the problem, it might be enough to get the Democrats to concede and do what is necessary to fund the rest of DHS. The question is how the part of the party that is fanatically opposed to deporting illegals will respond to this suggestion. Is funding DHS worse than ICE agents in airports?

In other news, the Trump Administration has submitted its petition in the birthright citizenship case. Their argument is that “under the jurisdiction” does not apply to aliens, whether legal or illegal.

Remember that this all hinges on an interpretation of one clause in the 14th Amendment. So there is a lot of work going on to build arguments around how “under the jurisdiction” would have been understood at the time of passing the 14th Amendment. But because no one really wrote down what they thought it meant, probably because they assumed everyone understood, we are trying to trace the history of the concept.

As if the news is conspiring to let me tie everything back to Henry V, one of the arguments used in this case goes all the way back to the Salic Law.

The New Digest

The Salic Law of Our Republic

“In surveying the general structure of the constitution of the United States, we are naturally led to an examination of the fundamental principles, on which it is organized, for the purpose of carrying into effect the objects disclosed in the preamble…

Read more

2 months ago · 24 likes · 12 comments · Adrian Vermeule

You will remember that Henry’s claim to the throne of France rested on the Salic Law’s understanding of who is eligible to inherit sovereignty. Well, in a republic, citizens inherit sovereignty. So we have a well-developed history on this very issue. Of course, the fact that the last time we had to turn to the Salic Law was the middle of the Hundred Years War isn’t a great source of comfort.

This question is rarely asked in the War Room.

That hasn’t stopped them from weighing in through the years. Their guidance is usually straightforward, “War is bad, please avoid.”

Why do they keep saying this? After all, who thinks war is good? Is an anti-war song just a predictable refrain, not saying anything particularly relevant?

General Robert E. Lee, while watching his Confederate lines repeatedly repel Union advances (resulting in some 12,000 casualties on the Union side to 5,000 on Lee’s) at the battle of Fredericksburg, turned to General James Longstreet and said: “It is well that war is so terrible, or we should grow too fond of it.” He had seen it all, and yet he was aware of the grim attraction of the whole enterprise, smoke, fire, sound, fury, life, and death.

There is a risk of forgetting the stakes of a military operation. The fact is that the results—at the micro-personal level—are always bad. And not only bad for those who are injured, killed, lost, and left behind during the events. Even when you are safe and victorious, as Lee was at Fredericksburg, there is a mortal risk—at the soul-u-lar level—of taking delight in the process.

These songs are not about the present operation and they are not protest songs, exactly, but they offer a reminder, in their own way, of what is at stake. They are also terrific songs that find their way back into my listening rotation regularly.

Life During Wartime

Talking Heads on the 1984 Album Stop Making Sense (Live) and 1979 album Fear of Music

This energetic and deceptively upbeat song documents the trials of life under siege and on the run during a war. The lyrics read like moments from a spy thriller. “I got three passports, couple visas, don’t even know my real name.” It paints a desperate portrait of life after the bombs while fighting for survival. There is excitement and even hopefulness in this adventure (“we make a pretty good team”), but what is lost grows more profound, as we go from “no party,” “no disco,” “no speakers, no headphones, no records to play,” to “can’t write a letter” and “can’t write nothin’ at all.” David Byrne’s vocals grow in their manic anxiety until all that is left is the drive for survival:

Burned all my notebooks

What good are notebooks?

They won’t help me survive

My chest is aching

Burns like a furnace

This burning keeps me alive

16 Military Wives

The Decemberists on the 2005 album Picaresque

“16 Military Wives” is a zany, searing, critique of the role of propaganda in wartime and begins with the cost up front—military widows and the children left behind. Likely written to target the Bush administration specifically, they have written a song that pushes the problem of war mongering to an absurdist breaking point, and created something more timeless than an topical opinion-piece as a result. By zeroing in on the military wives, the ones who will be left behind, the song grabs a hard moral center. Through and a series of increasingly bizarre number plays, (16 military wives, 32 softly focused eyes, 32 gently clutching wrinkled little hands, 15 celebrity minds, 14 cannibal kings [an homage to Swift’s “A Modest Proposal”?]), the song sets its sights on the media (and others) who choose to see no evil like “The anchor person on TV who goes ‘Laa dee-da dee-da dee-da-dee-da-de-daaaaAh!’” A great horn section and improbable drum fills complete the arrangement of an all time great track.

Us and Them

Pink Floyd on the 1973 Album Dark Side of the Moon

We talked about Dark Side of the Moon and Pink Floyd and Parenting earlier. In the song “Us and Them,” Roger Waters, Pink Floyd’s chief lyricist and creative powerhouse, has written a reflection on war from many perspectives through a series of simple word pairings, “Us and Them, Me and You, Black and Blue, Up and Down, etc.” No Dr. Seuss rhyme here, however, Waters has his sights set on bigger game, “Down and Out, it can’t be helped, but there’s a lot of it about. And who’ll deny its what the fighting’s all about.” OK, maybe not that profound, but it’s a great song with a terrific organ intro, soaring backing vocals, and a terrific saxophone solo.

Goodnight Saigon

Billy Joel on the 1982 album The Nylon Curtain

After an erie introduction featuring the sound of an approaching Huey helicopter, Billy Joel unfurls a tale from the Vietnam war, from training, to deployment, to seeing friends fall in the fight. Through a series of brief vignettes, “Goodnight Saigon” manages to bring home the struggle and remember the cost. No anti-war screed here, Joel’s song is a tribute to the men who fought (Joel did not) and a lament for those who did not come home, culminating in the stirring chorus that brings home the pull of camaraderie, “We said we’d all go down together.”

Fort Hood

Mike Doughty on the 2008 Album Golden Delicious

Mike Doughty’s irresistibly funky reflection on wartime is named for the Army base in Texas, although “Fort Hood” does not appear in the lyrics of the song itself. Doughty’s song is an uncomprehending look at those who have chosen to fight—the soldiers themselves. He just doesn’t get it: “I’d rather clank on the bass in a cold basement. I’d rather keep the fire and the frenzy out of my mind.” But he fears for the veterans he sees traumatized upon return, “I see them coming back, motionless in an airport lounge.” He wants these young men to be out with “a prom dress girl” and to “still believe in an endless world” and ultimately appeals—in his hard-to-believe-this-is-a-professional-singer tone—in desperation (and in reference to a Vietnam Era 5th Dimension song) to “Let the sunshine in.”

Are there any pro-war rock songs out there? None come to mind. Vince Vance and the Valiants famously parodied the Beach Boy’s “Barbara Ann” with “Bomb Iran” amid the 1980 Iran hostage crisis, but that was just that, a parody. This seems right, too. There would be something grim about popular music celebrating the reality of war. Rockers are not statesmen, and they are not sources of wisdom when it comes to foreign policy or military strategy, but they may have something to offer. I share these songs not as a position on the current conflict, but as a reminder—one that even Robert E. Lee might have found worthwhile.

Here’s the link to the playlist.

We can use stasis in both meanings to describe the world around us. The military action in Iran is continuing, but we are seeing very few changes. The US and Israel continue to bomb various sites and, last I heard, five Americans were injured and one died [in the last 24 hours — ed.] . Things are changing and yet nothing is changing since last I wrote. Is this “stasis” or “stasis”?

Here at home the meaning is less ambiguous, unfortunately. On the same day, two different acts of Islamic terrorism occurred in the country. In one, a Lebanese man drove a car filled with explosives into a synagogue and Jewish school in Michigan. He was shot and killed by the armed guards that are, alas, all too necessary at Jewish centers around the world. The second involved a Muslim man from Sierra Leone, a naturalized American citizen, who was previously convicted for aiding ISIS (the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, a terrorist group that has killed Americans and other around the world). He attacked an ROTC class at Old Dominion University in Virginia where he shot and killed Lt. Col. Brandon Shah. Students fought back, unarmed, and killed the terrorist.

All of this comes just days after two Muslim Americans threw bombs into a demonstration in New York City. A small group was demonstrating against Muslim influence in the city in front of Gracie Mansion, the official home of the mayor of NYC who is a Muslim. A larger group formed to protest the demonstrators, calling them fascists and white supremacists. As one of the (white, liberal) demonstrators was chanting on his bullhorn, a young Muslim man climbed over his back and threw an improvised explosive device (a small bomb filled with nails) into the demonstration. Fortunately, it and another similar bomb did not detonate.

There was also an attack on a bar in Austin, TX on March 1 where four people were killed and fifteen wounded. The terrorist was, again, Muslim. And, like all the above cases, was a US citizen. The two young men from New Jersey who had their pleasant trip to the City disrupted (see below) were born here to immigrant parents. The others were all immigrants who became citizens. Is there a part of the government that should be looking into this?

You might remember that the Department of Homeland Security is currently going unfunded by the government. DHS is a counter terrorism office as well as the home of TSA, the airport security division. There is pressure on Democrats to resume funding it during this time of increased terrorism, but bills to do so have failed in the Senate as recently as yesterday. This means that everyone checking your bags at the airport is not getting paid, nor are those looking for terrorist networks. Some are quitting so they can find jobs that will pay their rent.

We can hope that those charged with oversight do not overlook this.

Suicidal Empathy

The term “suicidal empathy” is gaining traction and is popping up in discussions throughout the English speaking world. It was coined by Gad Saad, a Canadian evolutionary psychologist who has moved to the United States because, being Jewish, he is no longer safe in Montreal.

The term captures the idea that some people feel so empathetic that they are driven to actions that will bring about their own demise. The photo above of a liberal American demonstrating in support of increased immigration of Muslims, only to be used as a launch pad by a Muslim terrorist is almost too perfect an example of suicidal empathy. Had the bomb detonated, there is a good chance Mr. Launchpad would have been injured or died. Since the incident, he has publicly stated that he still supports mass immigration and does not think that Muslim terrorism is a real danger. You can’t make this up.

Speaking of making things up, CNN’s initial story (since deleted) cast the softest light on the NYC terrorists:

“Two Pennsylvania teenagers crossed into New York City Saturday morning for what could’ve been a normal day enjoying the city during abnormally warm weather. But in less than an hour, their lives would drastically change as the pair would be arrested for throwing homemade bombs during an anti-Muslim protest outside of Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s home.”

This CNN article was written after it was already known that the suspects told authorities that they wanted to cause more damage than the Boston Marathon bombers and wrote out statements pledging their loyalty to ISIS (yes, the same organization as the Old Dominion terrorist joined). If this isn’t suicidal empathy, I don’t know what is.