A Letter to the Editor of the Washington Post
A couple of weeks ago, there was a snarky little anti-Bush piece in the Washington Post about a visit to the nation's capital by Kevin Rudd, the new Labor prime minister of Australia ("The Coalition of the Unwilling"). Fatuous and shallow, the article was written by Dana Milbank. But we repeat ourselves.
Ross Terrill, the eminent sinologist and an occasional contributor to THE WEEKLY STANDARD, remembered that THE SCRAPBOOK used to open these pages to the frustrated authors of deserving but unpublished letters to the editor of the New York Times, and he copied us on a letter, provoked by Milbank's article, that he had written to the editor of the Washington Post. Terrill, a native of Melbourne, Australia, was gentler with the Post reporter than THE SCRAPBOOK would have been, but still the paper was unable to find space for his letter. We are delighted to print it here:
"Dana Milbank's notion that Kevin Rudd became prime minister because Australians wanted to prove Bush's admiration for John Howard misplaced is ethnocentric and false. But then Milbank's entire piece is an anti-Bush maneuver. He mentioned three 'Bush-friendly' foreign leaders 'voted out' recently. One of them, [Britain's Tony Blair], was not voted out. He omitted major pro-American leaders who were voted in recently, including the leaders of South Korea, France, and Germany. To suit his theme, Milbank unwisely drags in one of Rudd's predecessors as Labor leader in Australia, [Mark Latham].
"Latham is irresistible to Milbank because he called Bush incompetent and dangerous. But Howard thrashed Latham at the polls and the Labor party quickly had to replace him. Latham joined the 'retirement community' that Milbank falsely claims for pro-Bush foreign leaders only. Come to think of it, the Post never explained to its readers why Howard won four successive elections, going back to 1996--perhaps because he was a Bush friend?
"Milbank did not report that Rudd [in a speech at the Brookings Institution] commended Bush for his handling of U.S.-China relations or that Rudd did not criticize Howard throughout the speech. I happened to have lunch with Rudd afterwards and his conversation was thoughtful, centrist, and lacking any sign of the partisanship of Milbank and the chairman of Brookings who introduced the prime minister.
"It is disrespectful to a friendly foreign country--to any foreign country--to view the visit of its leader solely through the prism of anti-Bush politics."
Ross Terrill
One More Kennedy-water Link
THE SCRAPBOOK is a sucker for designer bottled water, particularly designer bottled water masquerading as social statement. There's the "Ethos Water" sold at Starbucks, which helps "children around the world get clean water" and raises "awareness of the World Water Crisis." And there's the new Deer Park in "eco-shape" bottles, which brag about using 30 percent less plastic because "less plastic, less impact." Of course, filling your own Nalgene bottle with tap water would have even less impact, but then passersby might not understand how deeply you care for our Mother Earth.
Our new favorite, though, is Keeper Springs, the bottle of which proudly proclaims it to be "an environmental project by Robert F. Kennedy Jr." In 1998, Kennedy teamed up with two other do-gooders, John Hoving and Chris Bartle, to launch the brand. Hoving came from the retail world while Bartle ran a company called the Evergreen Group, a business brokerage for "environmentally sustainable businesses."
Keeper Springs donates all of their after-tax profits to the Waterkeeper Alliance. As the bottle helpfully explains, "The first Keeper patrol boat was launched by fisherman [sic] and their friends who mobilized in 1966 to challenge polluters for control of the Hudson River. The Hudson's miraculous recovery has inspired the creation of dozens of Keepers on rivers, streams, lakes and bays across the country. Keepers patrol local waterways enforcing environmental laws, responding to citizens complaints and finding remedies. . . . Every American has the right to clean waterways. If you want pure water, fight for it!"
Nothing goes with vanity and self-satisfaction like an icy-cool bottle of Keeper Springs!
The Man Who Shot Saint-Ex
Put away those old maps and magnifying glasses--the case of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry is closed. On July 31, 1944, the author of The Little Prince and aviator extraordinaire flew his P‑38 Lightning from Corsica towards the French coast on an Allied reconnaissance mission. He never returned.
Was it an accident? Did someone shoot him down? Did he commit suicide? Theories abounded. But in 1998, fishermen off the coast of Marseille discovered in their nets a silver bracelet bearing the name of Saint-Exupéry and his publisher (Reynal & Hitchcock). A few years later, divers recovered the wreckage of Saint-Exupéry's plane. No body was ever found.
In 2006, one of the investigators, Lino von Gartzen, spoke to a Luftwaffe veteran who confessed to shooting down Saint-Exupéry. His identity was finally made public last month: 85-year-old Horst Rippert (who after the war became a German television sports-caster). According to the New York Times, "Rippert described in detail to Mr. von Gartzen how in the summer of 1944 German radar had alerted his fighter squadron at Marignane, near Marseille, to a group of Allied reconnaissance planes over the Mediterranean. Mr. Rippert, who was then 22, found a P-38 with French colors and shot it down.
"He described the odd, evasive loops flown by Saint-Exupéry, who at the time was 44, overweight and in pain from fractures sustained in numerous flying accidents. Several days later, when German radio intercepted American reports of a search for Saint-Exupéry, he suspected he might have shot down his idol." (In his youth, says the Times, Rippert "had idolized the aviator-turned-author and had devoured his books, beginning with Southern Mail, in 1929, an adventure tale written while Saint-Exupéry was flying the Casablanca to Dakar route" for the Aéropostale. He has regrets to this day and insists that had he known the identity of the pilot, he would not have fired on him.)
Other than the timing of the incident and Rippert's own account (which he kept secret except for his diary), hard evidence is still lacking and some critics in Germany are skeptical. Nevertheless, THE SCRAPBOOK is satisfied.
Now, about Amelia Earhart. . . .
Help Wanted
The Collegiate Network of Wilmington, Del., which supports 106 right-of-center publications at the nation's leading colleges and universities, seeks a professional development director to assist in the cultivation and expansion of its journalism internship and fellowship programs. The job will require periods of frequent travel. The ideal candidate will have some journalism experience. Please send résumés to Joe Lindsley, Executive Director, at jlindsley@isi.org.