By almost any objective standard, the institution of the U.S. Presidency is a failure. Certainly at a moral level as well as by the intent of the founding fathers, who worried collectively about creativity a “foetus of monarchy,” no right-minded person could defend the institution. Generally, it has been led by incompetents, many of them immoral or incapable of moral agency toward the good.

Even a cursory glance at Article II of the U.S. Constitution reveals that the framers worried most about a presidency getting out of hand. Hence, the office originally had next to no power, with restrictions on almost everything. Yet, today, the office possesses the greatest amount of power ever entrusted to a single person. At the tips of the president’s fingers reside not only the largest and most lethal military arsenal ever assembled by humanity, but also access to the most intimate information about every single American citizen.

There is nothing in the 1787 Constitution that allows for a “national emergency” to be declared by the president, nor does it allow for “executive orders.”

Yet, we take each of these things as a matter of course.

To my mind, only five to seven men have been worthy of the office–and I speak here from a constitutional standpoint, not a policy one–Washington, Jackson, Lincoln, Cleveland, Coolidge, Eisenhower, and Reagan.

And, yet, we have a federal holiday dedicated to the failure and horror of the whole thing. Sickening.

In a move that garnered significant media attention, the Association for Library Service to Children, a division of the American Library Association, voted at the ALA Annual Conference in New Orleans to remove the name of children’s book author Laura Ingalls Wilder from a popular award. The decision came months after a task force set out to consider the long-running scholarly discussion around “anti-Native and anti-black sentiments” in Wilder’s work. And predictably, the change touched off a chorus of critics who portrayed the move as political correctness run amok.

“Stripping Wilder’s name from this award,” Dedra McDonald Birzer wrote in the National Review, “creates a slippery slope for excising all literature that doesn’t adhere to a strict definition of ‘inclusivity,’ whether or not that inclusivity accurately reflects American history.”
Even William Shatner weighed in, getting into a Twitter beef with librarians over the change. Yes, Captain Kirk himself.
— Read on www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/libraries/article/78830-the-top-10-library-stories-of-2018.html

My beautiful wife, Dedra, quoted in Publisher’s Weekly!

At 3Arena, the music of Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith sounds as pristine as ever
— Read on www.irishtimes.com/culture/music/tears-for-fears-review-sad-bangers-from-a-brilliantly-gloomy-band-1.3778833

Only better with age!

Is Your Heart Full of Joy?
— Read on www.ncregister.com/blog/elliott/is-your-heart-full-of-joy

Winston Elliott continues his brilliant streak of writing. Enjoy and be filled with joy.

February 13th & 14th were the 68th anniversary of one of the cruelest allied acts of World War II, which most Americans still consider our Good War. On Tuesday evening, February 13, 1945, and for much of the next day, British and American heavy bombers pulverized the defenseless city of Dresden, Germany. The destruction was complete, worse even than the firebombing of Tokyo and the atomic devastation of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. There is till much dispute over the number killed in Dresden, and why it was ordered, and how it can or could be justified. Winston Churchill, who must take responsibility for the bombing, if not necessarily for its extent or precise timing, himself called it an act of terror a little over a month later, and then tried to minimize it in his memoirs of the war.
— Read on theimaginativeconservative.org/2013/02/willson-bombing-of-dresden.html

One of America’s horrific crimes.

An abandoned airport terminal at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport has been reborn as the TWA Hotel, a stylish stay channeling the jet age. While the once-groundbreaking Trans World Airlines ceased operations in 2001, and the terminal closed in October of that year, the luxe hotel pays homage to the original architecture of the 1962 building designed by architect Eero Saarinen
— Read on www.dwell.com/article/twa-hotel-jfk-airport-eero-saarinen-open-for-reservations-d4ac1649

Yes, they were. Yes, we were. There were some rotten choices to be made in Latin America, from the point of view of the U.S. government, and there were often not many democrats on offer. But the Reaganites’ record is honorable, even laudatory, and this silly, ignorant House freshman, though she did not intend so, has given us the happy opportunity of lauding them again.

— Read on www.nationalreview.com/2019/02/the-honor-of-elliott-abrams/

I must admit, when I read recently about some advice-giver on Netflix claiming that a home should have no more than thirty books, I was horrified. I suppose there are people who grow up with few books around them, and, frankly, I pity them. Not only is the art of making a book sacred, but, when done well, the words within those books are sacred as well. After all, Christ came as the Word, and words, when properly understood, reflect His eternal glory and dignity, even if confined to ink on a page.
— Read on theimaginativeconservative.org/2019/02/on-loving-words-bradley-j-birzer.html

Depending on several factors, Hulu could potentially give Marvel’s Netflix shows a new lease on life.
— Read on www.cbr.com/hulu-open-to-reviving-marvel-netflix-series/

How is the faithful Catholic to respond to the disturbing signs of the time? What is the “solution” to the problem of reigniting lukewarm Catholics and stoking the fires of those who wish to dedicate their lives to Christ and his Church? Pope Benedict XVI said “we are in need of a new evangelization—if the art of living remains an unknown, nothing else works… this art can only be communicated by [one] who has life—he who is the Gospel personified.” We must rely upon Christ, the one who has life.
— Read on www.ncregister.com/blog/elliott/lord-to-whom-shall-we-go

My great friend, Winston Elliott. Stunning piece.