P.J. O’Rourke comment: Alan, thanks for motivating us to write. Wow, UC Berkeley in the “Kent State Spring” of 1970! You had a real ringside seat at the circus of nonsense, but at least you had the good sense to remain in the audience. I was down in the sawdust jumping out of the tiny car full of clowns. On the other hand, I was a grad student (I’m a year older than you) at a school that was only tepidly political, Johns Hopkins, and the Baltimore police were too lazy to do anything but tear gas us. Even then, they’d take no account of the prevailing winds and usually wound up tear gassing themselves. So I was probably safer doing my pratfalls than you were as a spectator. As you point out, the only big difference between the destructive folly of then and the destructive folly of now is that 50 years ago no one with any legitimate influence or authority – in the media or in politics – was egging us on. Now (if you’ll excuse me for mixing my metaphors) every team in the league of vandals, no matter how lousy they play, has a large squad of official cheerleaders. Meanwhile, I’ll be sure to pass on your compliments to CRO X. He’s not only a great businessman but a great citizen and a great guy. Re: Have We Won the War? Kudos to American Consequences for another great addition to their staff, Sebastian Gorka. Right on the heels of the stellar Trish Regan signing up, American Consequences now has a true Murderer’s (Of Socialism) Rowwith Gorka, Regan and the American Consequences veterans Alice
a politician who combines all three is like finding a baseball player who can pitch a no-hitter, hit homeruns, and play first base. People like that do exist. (I count myself lucky to have lived long enough to see two of them elected president – Eisenhower and Reagan.) But if people like that are involved in politics at the moment, they’re still, politically speaking, playing in the minors. Re: The Joy of Rioting PJ, I read all your issues and both learn and am entertained – especially by your commentaries which I appreciate since a good amount of humor is needed in our present world. Your “Joy of Rioting” brought back memories of my years in UC Berkeley 1965-1970 (we are about the same age), and as a bystander I can’t forget the emotions and how crowd mentality takes over so quickly... especially since the Oakland Police in those days were anything but professional or knowing how to handle crowds and the rioters were of unified anti-Vietnam and People’s Park mentality! I suppose not much has changed in many ways except nowwe have “leaders” and pervasive media that exacerbate the phenomena. I also appreciated the Chief Risk Office X article because he tells it like it is and in our current siege of divisiveness in our country, we need to focus much more on the reality and facts and much less on the hyperbole and lies we get. Thanks for motivating me to write and I look forward to the next issue! – Alan
American Consequences
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