Newspaper Page Text
(51?e Ahuattce The ADVANCE, November 1, 2023/Page 7A
A free press is not a privilege but
organic necessity in a great society.
-Walter Uppmann
COMMENTARY
out of
CONTEXT
A compilation of quotations on a variety of
issues by national, state and regional writers,
well-known personalities, just plain everyday
people and from various publications
collected by the editors of THE ADVANCE.
Quotes for our Times:
"I would rather be governed by the first
2,000 people in the Boston telephone di
rectory than by the 2,000 people on the
faculty of Harvard University,"
William F. Buckley Jr.
Matt Vespa is the Senior Editor at Town-
hall.com: The US is racing to deploy anti-bal
listic missile systems across the Middle East.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netan
yahu now leads a unity government, where
a state of war has been declared with one
goal: the destruction of Hamas. This opera
tion has led to the mobilization of hundreds
of thousands of reservists deployed for a
campaign that could take years. Hamas is
said to have 40,000 terrorists hiding among
a vast array of tunnels in Gaza. In Lebanon,
Hezbollah has vowed all-out war should Isra
el invade, prompting Netanyahu to threat
en that terror group with total annihilation.
Tim Graham, executive editor of News-
Busters and director of media analysis for the
Media Research Center: No one needs for
eign policy run by Hollywood.
The (Alyssa) Milanos of the world should
encounter all the heartbreaking stories
about Hamas killing Israelis who sincerely
believed in a "two-state solution" and some
kind of Israeli-Palestinian harmony. All five
members of the Kutz family were savagely
burned to death inside their home just east
of Gaza. They were part of an annual kite-fly
ing festival promoting a message of peace
with Palestinians.
They in no way got "what they deserved,"
but wishing for peace and achieving peace
can be entirely different concepts. Some
times only war brings peace.
Byron York, chief political correspondent
for The Washington Examiner. Trump's lead
and GOP decision-making.
One thing that shows is that Trump's rat
ings are influencing, if not outright control
ling, many big decisions that are being made
in the Republican Party today, whether by
lawmakers in Washington or candidates out
in the states. And the most important thing
to remember is that Trump's poll ratings are
not abstract things. They represent real Re
publican voters. In the end, it is Republican
voters who are driving things. They are in
control, and so far, they are still with Trump.
Leah Barkoukis, online features editor
at Townhall.com: Trump issues warning to
Americans about the 'fight in Gaza'.
"The fight in GAZA is 'coming home' to
the USA," Trump wrote on Truth Social. "The
tens of thousands of strong young men from
the Middle East, that have already 'invaded'
our Country, and are continuing to come,
totally unchecked, will become a problem
the likes of which we have never seen be
fore."
Under President Biden, Customs and Bor
der Protection has already arrested 282 ille
gal immigrants on the terror watch list, but
there are more than 1.6 million known 'go-
taways,' or people who have evaded law
enforcement altogether and are currently in
the interior.
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The Trump Doctrine
RICH 1
LOWRY
COLUMN |
Luck is the residue of de
sign, they say. Might it also be
the residue of frightening and
confusing foreign adversaries?
Donald Trump’s relatively
crisis-free presidency in for
eign affairs has created a sense,
perhaps an accurate one, that
he cowed enemies into not
challenging the U.S.
As Sen. Tom Cotton has
pointed out, Kabul didn’t col
lapse on Trump’s watch, Russia
didn’t invade Ukraine and
Hamas didn’t launch a historic
terror attack on Israel.
Now this may have just
been good fortune. Four years
isn’t a large sample size. But
the argument that adversaries
feared him, and therefore acted
with a measure of restraint, is
quite intuitive.
No one is going to mistake
Trump for Cardinal Richelieu
or Henry Kissinger. His view
of the world was highly per
sonal and reflected a few ob
sessions, especially the notion
that we were getting ripped off
by foreigners. His trade war
with China was a waste of time,
and his commitment to NATO
was genuinely in doubt.
Yet, despite the feeling of
chaos created by his constant
shoot-from-the-hip bombast,
things basically stayed on the
rails.
The fact that Trump was
erratic and took perceived
slights so seriously made it dif
ficult to know how he would
react to any given provocation.
It was personal unpredictabil
ity elevated to the level of game
theory.
Maybe he was just bluster
ing. Maybe he was ready to
take it further. But who would
want to find out?
In other words, Trump
spoke loudly and carried a
stick of indeterminate size, and
this was perhaps as good as
carrying a big stick.
It’s worth noting, though,
that he followed through on
his promise to bomb ISIS into
near-oblivion, and when given
the chance to hit a committed
enemy of the United States,
the notorious Iranian opera
tive Qasem Soleimani, he tar
geted him for killing despite
the considerable risks.
The New York Times re
ported at the time:
“After initially rejecting
the Suleimani option on Dec.
28 and authorizing airstrikes
on an Iranian-backed Shiite
militia group instead, a few
days later Mr. Trump watched,
fuming, as television reports
showed Iranian-backed attacks
on the American Embassy in
Baghdad, according to Defense
Department and administra
tion officials.
“By late Thursday, the
president had gone for the ex
treme option. Top Pentagon
officials were stunned.”
If U.S. officials were
stunned, how must anyone
around the world with Ameri
can blood on his hands have
felt? And wouldn’t it have
made adversaries think twice
about doing anything to set
the president to “fuming”?
In an interview with Bret
Baier back in June, Trump
made vague reference to a
threat he issued to Vladimir
Putin about a prospective inva
sion of Ukraine that suppos
edly stayed Putin’s hand. Who
knows the accuracy of this?
But Trump characterized Pu
tin as believing his threat only
about 10%, and that gets at
what was probably a key ele
ment of the Trump deterrent
effect — a nagging sense that
he might not be bluffing, even
if it seemed likely he was.
We saw this dynamic out
in public regarding immigra
tion policy south of the border.
Trump rattled the cage of the
countries he needed coopera
tion from until he got it.
He threatened to close the
border with Mexico. “If they
don’t stop them,” Trump said
of illegal immigrants, “we are
closing the border. We’ll close
it. And we’ll keep it closed for
a long time. I’m not playing
games.” Actually, he was play-
Please see Lowry page 9A
GRITTY
We Must Restore
‘Veritas’ at Our
Universities
According to a
survey done by the
Harvard Crimson in
2022, 80% of the fac
ulty at Harvard Uni
versity self-identified
as “liberal.” Thirty-
seven percent self-
identified as “very
liberal.”
Only 1% self-
identified as conservative.
This snapshot of the politics of the fac
ulty at the nation’s oldest and leading uni
versity is not exceptional. Surveys of most
university faculties show them overwhelm
ingly on the left.
If we think about it, it can help us un
derstand why the president of Harvard,
Claudine Gay, had such a hard time making
a clear statement condemning the atroci
ties committed by Hamas against Israeli
civilians.
And it can help us understand demon
strations by students at Harvard, and other
universities, accusing Israel, the victim of
these atrocities, as their cause.
As one Wall Street Journal columnist
put it, one can hardly imagine demonstra
tions at Harvard against human brutality in
China, Iran, North Korea, Russia or Syria.
But somehow atrocities against Israelis
are not only justified in the eyes of these
left-wing university elite but caused by
their Israeli victims.
What is the sickness of the soul that has
captured America’s elite of higher educa
tion?
To start our inquiry, we must look at
Harvard’s founding. John Harvard, who
provided the college’s first endowment,
was a clergyman.
Read the language on Harvard’s seal.
“Veritas Christo et Ecclesiae.”
“Truth for Christ and Church.”
How many of Harvard’s administration
today, of those teaching at Harvard today,
Please see Star page 9A
By Star Parker
Dreamscapes
Days
later, it’s still
with me. It
was a good
dream — a
fun dream
— and when
I woke up the following morning, I
wanted to go back to it and dream it
all over again, but that’s not how the
dream world works.
From time to time, dreams in
vite us to sit down and talk to loved
ones who’ve crossed over. Other
times they force us to experience the
pressure of taking a difficult exam in
school — one in which we do not
know the answers to any of the ques
tions. Sometimes they throw us for a
loop and place us in a public setting
(like a football game or a Sunday
church service), but our subcon
scious mind puts us there with no
clothes on our bodies. We wake up
confused and terribly embarrassed.
This past week, the dream world
gave me a gift — the gift of flight, to
be specific.
In the dream, my husband and
I were standing in a long line that
wound up a staircase built onto the
side of a steep mountain.
“We haven’t done this in a long
time,” I said nervously in the dream.
“What’s it been? Ten years? Fifteen
years?”
“It doesn’t matter. It’s like rid
ing a bike — it’ll come right back
to you,” my husband said, squeezing
my hand.
We both had brochures in our
hands that explained the mystery
of the venue. It was one of only ten
places on earth where the gravita
tional force was unusually low, and
this missing “pull to earth” allowed
humans to experience the sensation
of flying.
When we got to the top, the
guide said, “Walk to the end of the
platform, then begin jogging. As you
carefully jog down the hill inside the
channel, you’ll start feeling a sense
of lift when you get to the red mark
ings on the ground. When you feel
almost weightless, propel yourself
upward and go. Don’t try to fly too
high — 10 or 15 feet at the most —
and don’t try to do tricks. Stay in the
channel. Fly all the way down the
mountain and into town, and then
land on the grass somewhere. Don’t
try and land on the street, because if
you don’t get your footing just right,
you can get hurt on the asphalt.”
My husband went first. I watched
him take off like an F-15 fighter jet.
He floated down the hill as if he was
being sucked up into Heaven during
the Rapture. I looked at the guide
and prepared myself to launch.
“When you get to the town and
land, you will still feel like you can
fly, but you won’t be able to,” the
guide explained. “So don’t do any
thing crazy, like jump off a building
or anything, okay? You may feel the
sensation for a couple of hours or a
couple of days. That’s normal. Okay,
take off when you’re ready.”
I nodded as I stared downward
at the channel cut into the moun
tainside, and then I started trotting
— a little faster and a little faster.
When I got to the red lines chalked
into the grass, I realized that I felt
light on my feet. I hurled myself
up and forward with all my might,
and just like that, I was soaring like
a hawk on a breeze. I didn’t have to
flap my arms or move my legs or feet
to levitate. I just had to concentrate
on keeping my body in a horizon
tal position parallel to the ground
beneath me. Two or three minutes
later, I landed in the little town at
the base of the mountain and started
looking for my husband. I found him
in an area that had ten or twelve pub
lic shower stalls. He had decided to
bathe — in public — after his flight,
and I found this odd.
Let me re-emphasize that I
didn’t find it strange that he and I
had both flown down a mountain
using nothing but our bodies. In my
dream, I found it peculiar that he
had opted for the free, end-of-flight
shower. It was a crazy dream — as
dreams often are.
Please see Amber page 9A
From the Porch
By Amber Nagle