A CONFUSION

Some polls have shown that people who are against abortion and also for capital punishment. I am confused. Why is abortion murder but executing criminals is not?

RIGHTS AT THE ROD AND GUN CLUB

As usual, there is a lot of paranoia out there in shooters-world. As soon as Obama was elected president, sales of rifles, shotguns, automatic rifles, pistols, and ammunition took off. What recession? Gun dealers never had it so good.

The rumors spread: no more sales of sporting guns, pistols would have to be micro-engraved, no more just stopping in to buy ammunition. It was as if the spectre of the NRA was hovering up there, warning us that the day of the citizen shooter was finished. Clusters of people at the rod and gun club huddled vowing to fight against the loss of ‘our gun rights.' That loss, of course, was just another step in the march of The Government, just aching to restrict our rights as citizens.

Well, something might happen, perhaps banning machine guns. And our rights as gun owner would still stand as rocks in the angry seas of The Government. But what about more important rights

What the gun club guys aren't worried about is the other loss. Even President Obama is slow in lifting the warrantless wiretappings, renditions of prisoners, and other bites in what is promised in the Constitution. Yes, an arrest of citizens without warrants is gone and we can now oppose Obama's policies without being traitors. But, even this new man cannot resist making government more ‘efficient.'

I wonder if gun rights are more important that ability to speak our minds or try to make governments more transparent and less corrupt. Could it be that concentrating so many people's minds on this side issue is a diversion? Is it possible that the NRA, the bastion of armadillos, really is in league with those who want to do end runs and sneak our liberty away while throwing the sop of owning a gun? Probably not, but who knows in this wild world.

And freedom of speech? If I said this at a gun club meeting, I would be shot at the stake. Very romantic, last cigarette, blindfold, one rifle with a blank cartridge. But I would rather live my life and vent my spleen here where nobody cares.

THE DUPLICITY OF HOPE

I remember reading a retelling of the Pandora story. You probably remember that she was given a box and told not open it. Of course she did.

Out flew all the ills of the world: disease, hunger, rage, death, all of them except one. That one, fluttering out at the very end was hope. The original story said that hope helped endure all of the ills. The retelling was that hope may have been the worst of the evils.

I agree with the new telling.

We are now in the middle of a terrible financial crisis. President Obama calls for hard work and hope. Hard work, yes; hope, not much. Hope can blind us to how serous our situation is. It can cause us to ignore that the hard times will probably last a long time, that this country may never regain its former place in the world. Being hopeless forces us to get on with our lives, to struggle on even if the struggle is difficult. It avoids the false joy when the stock market has a little positive blip. It allows us to accept the moments of joy without seeing them necessarily as real signs of improvement, of change. Hope forces us to look at the gray world, accept it, and push on. A little grim? Yes but realistic.

So, don't give in to hope (or to despair either). Soldier on and (without hoping for it too much) things might change. But the best advice is to abandon all hope and just get on with it.

TWO UNIVERSITIES

Beginning note. In a long life I have been an advertising man and an academic at different times. As an academic, I worked at Fordham and at Yale.

I went to NYC a couple of days ago. Fordham University held its annual convocation. Main reason for the event was giving medals for 20 and 40 years of service at the University. All quite pleasant. A friend received his 20 year gold bauble so I was glad to be there.

During the event, it struck me how different Fordham and Yale are. Most of the recipients at the Fordham convocation are mediocre academics (if you count publications as the sole mark of merit for an academic) but nearly all were commended for being good teachers, caring about their students. One of the nicest parts was the special award given to two people who had made noteworthy personal contributions. One was to a maintenance man from Poland, very competent, extraordinarily helpful, very friendly; apparently he was a human treasure. He now works at night to receive his BA from Fordham. Long applause. An American success story.

Yale would never recognize any of the Fordham people (with the exception of one biology professor). All the rest would have been regarded as not-quite-one-of-us, not quite first class people: the excellent teachers, the women's rowing coach, the administrator who worked her way up from being a secretary.

We need both kinds of places in this society. But as a place to be, Fordham wins handily.

The Bush Legacy

All right, he is gone. And, as he fades away, you can still hear his hope that the Bush legacy will be better to future historians than it is now.

Let's look at that Now. What has he left us?

• A country in a depression.


• Natural disasters still leaving three states bleeding three years later.


• Two wars, one winding down but the second growing more pustulant every day.


• There is the suspension of civil rights. We came close to a collapse of those rights when Mr. Bush called "traitors" anyone disagreeing with his war policy.


• The reversal of our language. Yes, there is torture and secret transportation of people called by other names. But there is also the complete reversal of language. Think of ‘compassionate conservatism'. But, even more was his oath to defend and protect the Constitution when he really meant to subvert it bit by bit. It's a little like Orwell's 1984. But Bush was always a little slow to learn.

And his legacy remains today. Think of those Republican Senators, none of whom voted for the stimulus package. Granted, that package isn't perfect and may not work, but we need to do something. Not those senators. They still haven't got used to being in the minority, no longer able to crush the opposition without even saying "thank you." No, they would like to sulk on their beds, not wanting to play any more. Now, that is a legacy: acting like children when you don't get what you want. Thanks, Mr. Bush