After the tumult of the First World War, noted Winston Churchill, only the intractability of the Irish Question had emerged unscathed:And so it is on Capitol Hill.
"Great Empires have been overturned. The whole map of Europe has been changed," he told the House of Commons. "But as the deluge subsides and the waters fall short, we see the dreary steeples of Fermanagh and Tyrone emerging once again."
If this were a Republican, I would hope that the Republican leadership and rank and file would have told him to pack up and go home. But, he is not, so I go with Luke 9:60.
Regards — Cliff
It would be a big deal (pun intended) if it wasn't so juvenile and pathetic. If THIS is the best NY state can produce as representative of its ability to contribute to the national welfare (well...other than the mavens of Wall Street), I submit that NY should be disowned and turned over to Canada.
ReplyDeleteSeriously, can anyone argue with a straight face that Weiner didn't send a weiner tweet to this girl who he was "following" like some sort of teenage stalker with sweaty palms (I won't elaborate).
What is even more discouraging than Weinergate is the abysmal lack of discontent, let alone outrage, from the Congress about the whole shoddy mess.
Or perhaps those who live in glass houses are fearful of throwing even sand pebbles, let alone stones.
IMHO, we've sunk to new lows....at least...below the belt line.
Ah, but the whole map had not changed. Because after that Great War--a war thought to have been fought, in part, for the right of self-determination--the "Irish Question" had not yet been answered. Not much help, Winston then sent over the Black and Tans to terrorize the people under those steeples.
ReplyDeleteOf course this twitter episode and the struggle for Irish independence are not at all analogous, and Mr. Steyn's commentary reveals itself as deeply and sadly a part of this kind of declining public discourse, rather than apart from it.
I think congressmen from both parties have a bad record on this class of a thing, so I'd go with Luke 12:48, and certainly without any puns intended.
I like the Luke 12:48 reference. Thanks
ReplyDeleteAs to Ireland, most of the Irish got some degree of independence in just a couple of years of that Speech. Churchill was one of those who negotiated the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921. It was a slow and twisting path to the Irish Republic, but Winston, the greatest Prime Minister the US has produced, was trying to work through his own prejudices and was looking at more war and death after four years of terrible slaughter. I see his point of view. I realize that the UK should have turned Ireland free earlier, but if the UK had thrown in the six counties it might have been a continuing revolution, with the Protestant Counties fighting the rest of the country for independence.
The March 1914 Curragh Mutiny wouldn't have inspired much confidence if I were then in the British Cabinet.
Regards — Cliff
Well...as long as we are quoting Biblical references...and since I thought the thrust of this was more about Weiner's weiner and the obvious toleration of his "exposure" I offer an explanation for the tenor of our times...
ReplyDelete2 Timothy 4:3-4 "For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth, and turn aside to myths.
I suppose de Valera, the greatest Taoiseach the US has produced, didn't make it easy for Churchill. But then that was not his brief. For as Dr. King notes in his letter from a Birmingham Jail, Ireland was not Winston's to turn free; it was their own, and up to them to free themselves.
ReplyDeleteAs for the government's response to the Curragh Mutiny, it didn't inspire much confidence in Irish republicans either that their desire for Home Rule would be so swiftly swept away on account of a vocal and potentially violent minority. It certainly didn't end the violence.
I guess I put myself in the shoes of the revolutionaries and not the cabinet members, and ask would we--in America--settle for "some degree of independence"? For the Canadian Steyn the answer would probably seem more trivial.