Federal Judiciary

Man bites dog in music, &c. -- By: Jay Nordlinger

Friends, I can?t tell you how unusual this is: A classical musician -- a very famous one -- has spoken out in behalf of a very unpopular cause: Israel. For a story, go here. I am speaking of Evgeny Kissin, the 38-year-old pianist. He was born and raised in the Soviet Union, and in 2002 became a British citizen. He was a child prodigy. When we first knew him, he played in his red Young Pioneers scarf. He ditched that scarf long ago.

Kissin sent a letter to the BBC -- a phenomenally eloquent one -- blasting the organization for its ?slander and bias? against Israel. He said that, listening to the BBC, you could hear echoes of ?the old Soviet anti-Zionist propaganda.? When he became a British citizen, he explained, he was ?inspired and proud to belong to the country of Winston Churchill,? whose contempt for anti-Semitism was total. He quoted a Churchill line: ?There is no anti-Semitism in England because we do not consider ourselves more stupid than the Jews.?

A profound comment, to be reflected on.

Anyway, Kissin said that the BBC ?had always been a beacon of light, of truth and objectivity to those of us behind the Iron Curtain, in the ?Evil Empire.?? Yes, a famous artist actually used the phrase ?Evil Empire,? without irony. Why wouldn?t he? He lived there (and in a privileged position, which is interesting). ?Reaching out to far corners of the world, [the BBC] was the voice of a country which for us was a model of democracy and human rights.? And now? The Beeb has disgraced itself, with scurrilous coverage from the Middle East.

In writing his letter, Kissin stuck his neck out. The classical-music world, like the arts and academia at large, is not exactly friendly toward Israel. An anti-Israel stance is de rigueur and chic. Some musicians -- I think I have spoken before about Nigel Kennedy, the British violinist -- actually boycott Israel. I wonder whether Kissin will suffer any professional setbacks for his speaking out. He is famous and well-established, yes. But the arts world can be ruthless. I know famous musicians who you might think would be perfectly protected. But they keep mum on certain issues, lest they run into difficulty.

In any case, I bow deep to Kissin, somewhat stunned by his clarity and courage.

You could write about a Falun Gong practitioner, abused or killed by the Chinese government, every day. I have not mentioned any names in a while. May I mention that of Gong Hui? She died last month, having been thrown into the gulag during the run-up to the Beijing Olympics. I wrote about this run-up -- and the terrible things that went on -- extensively. If you?re interested in a relevant series, go to my archive and look under August 2008.

Gong Hui was a typical case. This report gives us the particulars: ?In an effort to force her to renounce her faith in Falun Gong, guards at the camp placed Gong in solitary confinement for extended periods of time, deprived her of food and sleep, and forced her to stand for hours at a time. The guards also instigated non-practitioner inmates to beat her.?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. They?re all the same, these cases. The Chinese authorities are absolutely predictable and consistent in their brutality. Because of the sameness of the cases, we might turn away, lose interest. But that would be a shame, wouldn?t it? Individuals in cells depend on world interest.

In October, I had a conversation with Charles Krauthammer, in order to write a piece on him. (The article appeared in the November 23 National Review.) We were talking about political prisoners, and Krauthammer brought up his old editor, Meg Greenfield of the Washington Post op-ed page. Over and over, she ran pieces about Andrei Sakharov. Why? To keep him alive.

Dictatorships are hesitant to kill people in the international eye.

?Shhh . . . Mubarak is building a wall.? That is the title of an article by Khaled Abu Toameh, the great Palestinian journalist (and I do not use ?great? lightly). Go here. Yes, Egypt is building a wall, along the Gaza Strip. Will it be accused of being an apartheid regime, denying the suffering Palestinians their rights? I would not hold my breath.

Some weeks ago, I wrote about Mark Helprin?s book Digital Barbarism. He warns about an overreliance on -- and addiction to -- our BlackBerries and the like. Thinking about him, I was interested in this article, which is about Stephens College in Missouri. I quote:

Dianne Lynch wanted to give the students of Stephens College a break from the constant digital communication that pervades their generation. So she asked them to put their phones and computers away and revive the 176-year-old school?s dormant tradition of vespers services.

 

On a bitterly cold December night, with the start of final exams just hours away, about 75 of Stephens? 766 undergraduates grudgingly piled their cell phones into collection baskets and filed into the school?s candlelit chapel, where they did little but sit, silently. For an hour, not an iPod ear bud could be seen. There were no fingers flying on tiny computer keyboards, no chats with unseen intimates.

That was a remarkable hour. In Revelation, we read, ?And when he had opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour.? Half an hour. Hey, those Stephens kids did double that! (I would be proud of 15 minutes.)

Last month, I did a little writing about ?Merry Christmas,? and I noted that many non-Christians feel perfectly comfortable saying ?Merry Christmas? -- more than lots of Christians do. Readers sent in many examples, confirming this phenomenon.

Well, I was reading, in pre-publication form, Theodore Dalrymple?s book The New Vichy Syndrome, out in March. What a superb book, as you would expect from the author (who is the British doctor-writer also known as Anthony Daniels). I will say more about it later. Would you like an excerpt from a (long) footnote on page 44? Tony -- I mean, Dalrymple -- is talking about cultural ?spinelessness?:

One example is the odious and unctuous American Christmas greeting of ?Happy Holidays,? which seems to be prevalent in those parts of the United States with concentrations of intellectuals (a modern example of Julien Benda?s famous trahison des clercs). I doubt very much whether any Moslem, Jew, Buddhist, Hindu, Confucian, Parsee, or animist has ever been offended by the greeting of Merry Christmas, and if he had he should have been told to go and boil his head. Compare this supposed sensitivity to the religious susceptibilities of others with the behavior of the staff of the Bangladeshi restaurant, owned and run entirely by Moslems in the little town in England where I live half the year, who shortly before Christmas put up decorations and handed out Christmas cards to all their customers wishing them a merry Christmas.

Of course. There is more -- in the footnote, and in the book. You will want to get your hands on it, I feel sure.

I wonder if you noticed this curious fact: Remember Richard Mellon Scaife, the conservative philanthropist who poured money into anti-Clinton investigations in the 1990s? He is a donor to the Clinton Foundation. (See an article here.) Ah, the problems -- and decisions -- of the rich. I hope to have such problems, and to be able to make such decisions, someday . . . 

I think I?ve related, in this column, one of my favorite stories: Years ago, Greg Norman and Washington mayor Marion Barry were at a party. At the time, Norman was the No. 1 golfer in the world, and one of the most recognizable athletes. When they met, Barry said, ?What do you do?? Norman said, ?I play golf.? The mayor said, ?That?s great, I play tennis.? I adore that story.

And I thought of it when reading this article, which talks of one of my favorite golfers, Mark Calcavecchia. Last year, Calc played in a pro-am with Jerry Yang, the co-founder of Yahoo! He told his wife that Yang was a great guy. Yeah, said Calc, he?s like the chairman or CFO or whatever of Yoo-hoo. Calc was thinking of the chocolate drink, which he?s fond of. Was hoping maybe Yang would ship him a case or two.

Nice.

Care for a little language? You know how Yoo-hoo describes itself? As ?chugtastic.? A very good word, I think.

Some more language? I was a little startled to see this headline: ?Obama takes daughters for shave ice treat.? ?Shave ice?? Not ?shaved ice?? It makes sense, however. ?Ice cream,? of course, used to be ?iced cream.? A lot of us still say ?candied apple? -- but ?candy apple? is an evolution. Read a book from way book, and you?ll find ?armed chair? -- ?He retired to his armed chair? -- not ?arm chair.?

And so goes the language . . .

In Monday?s Impromptus, I offered a name -- suggested by a reader: Welshman Ncube. He is a government minister in Zimbabwe. Another reader countered with a different name, also from Zimbabwe: that of the late first president of the country, Canaan Banana. I believe the second name wins.

Okay, I?m sitting in a Cracker Barrel in Gaffney, S.C. Mouthwatering menu, of course, lots of things fried. On the back page is a section of ?Low-Carb? meals. And the second item, left-hand column, is -- I swear -- a half-pound bacon cheeseburger. Swear.

Gaffney is a lovable place. Its water tower is painted as a peach. (This is peach country. The water tower, like the Cracker Barrel menu -- but in a different way -- is mouthwatering.) The gun range in Gaffney is free. I mean, it?s a public service, like a library. You just bring your own guns and ammo. There is a person manning the range, keeping order.

Couple of more notes. Andie MacDowell, the actress, was born in Gaffney. And William Kincaid is buried there. Who?s Kincaid? He was principal flute with the Philadelphia Orchestra for 40 years. (From about 1920 to 1960.) He was one of the greatest orchestral players of the century. I?m told that his wife was from Gaffney, and was buried there. And he followed her.

Do visit Sadie Mae?s Café, if you get to Gaffney. The café is in a lovely old house. Sadie Mae is lovely too. She serves fried corn on the cob, fried green beans, other things. She?ll give you free samples of anything, called ?tasters.? Generous tasters, too. There is an item called Mooie Gooies. And they are: egg-roll shells filled with cheese. Mozzarella (melted), I think. Sadie Mae?s salad has a wonderful dressing -- her own concoction. She said, ?My husband calls it my ?goop.?? And long live her glorious goop.

With that -- are you hungry? -- I think I?ll say goodbye, till next time.

Full post as published by Bench Memos - National Review Online on January 06, 2010 (boomark / email).