David Brooks, "The Art of Focus": Hocus-Pocus

"If you can't dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with bull."

- W.C. Fields

A couple of years ago, in a New Yorker article entitled "The Obama Memos" (http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2012/01/30/120130fa_fact_lizza?currentPage=all), Ryan Lizza wrote :

"On a frigid January evening in 2009, a week before his Inauguration, Barack Obama had dinner at the home of George Will, the Washington Post columnist, who had assembled a number of right-leaning journalists to meet the President-elect. Accepting such an invitation was a gesture on Obama’s part that signalled his desire to project an image of himself as a post-ideological politician, a Chicago Democrat eager to forge alliances with conservative Republicans on Capitol Hill. That week, Obama was still working on an Inaugural Address that would call for 'an end to the petty grievances and false promises, the recriminations and worn-out dogmas that for far too long have strangled our politics.'"

Ah yes, "an end to the petty grievances and false promises, the recriminations and worn-out dogmas that for far too long have strangled our politics." Five years later, where did that take us? Among those attending the dinner was Richard Lowry, editor of the National Review, who, as noted by Lizza, "grabbed Obama’s hand and said softly, 'Sir, I’ll be praying for you.'" Obviously, Lowry has not prayed hard enough.

But more to the point, also at the dinner with "right-leaning" conservatives was David Brooks, whom Obama asked in jest, "What are you doing here?" In fact, Obama's observation was dead on balls accurate. Lord knows where on the political spectrum Brooks lies or where his mind is wandering. Brooks often seems out of focus.

And so, at a time when Obama is being eviscerated by both left (see: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/29/opinion/president-obama-misses-a-chance-on-foreign-affairs.html) and right (see: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/05/28/krauthammer-obamas-west-point-speech-was-literally-pointless/) for his petty West Point speech foisting worn out dogmas and replete with recriminations, Brooks brings us his latest New York Times op-ed entitled "The Art of Focus" (http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/03/opinion/brooks-the-art-of-focus.html?ref=opinion&_r=0). After explaining how children are able to learn more effectively than adults, Brooks concludes his opinion piece by declaring:

"The information universe tempts you with mildly pleasant but ultimately numbing diversions. The only way to stay fully alive is to dive down to your obsessions six fathoms deep. Down there it’s possible to make progress toward fulfilling your terrifying longing, which is the experience that produces the joy."

Six fathoms deep I should seek my terrifying longing that produces joy? Indeed, the "stuff" that animates the cognitive processes of Times readers around the globe. Or as W.C. Fields declared in his immortal 1940 comedy "The Bank Dick," "Sounds like a bubble in a bathtub."

Perhaps, with a smidgen of luck, I can find an alternative "way to stay fully alive."

Gail Collins, "The Women Versus the Ted": The Men Versus the Nancy?

In her latest New York Times hyperpartisan fluff op-ed entitled "The Women Versus the Ted" (http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/25/opinion/collins-the-women-versus-the-ted.html?_r=0), Gail Collins begins by observing that the female population of the Senate "rose from 17 to 20 this year." Good news, but this is not enough. One day before I depart this earth, I hope that number will be closer to 50.

Collins concludes by attacking Senator Ted Cruz of Texas:

"So, people, who do you think has been more helpful in edging the Senate toward a pinch of progress? The women or Ted Cruz? One strives for collegiality by holding regular bipartisan dinners. One called his colleagues 'squishes' for opposing a gun control filibuster.

I’m sticking with the girls. “Women seem to know how to work in a way that at least moves the process,” said Senator Barbara Mikulski of Maryland, the new chair of Appropriations. If you can agree on how to proceed, then maybe someday you get some progress.

On the other hand, Ted Cruz has memorized the Constitution."

Well, I don't see eye to eye with Senator Cruz on gun control, but I also believe that there is nothing wrong with memorizing the Constitution, particularly when the First Amendment is under attack by the Obama administration.

I also believe that a Senate populated with 50 clones of Nancy Pelosi (even if her net worth was divided 50 ways, they would all still be wealthy), who has yet to say a disparaging word about any of the scandals besetting the Obama administration, would not work in America's favor.

As observed today by a Washington Post editorial entitled "The press must have the ability to ask questions" (http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-press-must-have-the-ability-to-ask-questions/2013/05/24/8e9ce4ba-c356-11e2-914f-a7aba60512a7_story.html?hpid=z3):

"The Obama administration already has pursued more criminal leak investigations than all of its predecessors. There is a worrisome trend here, also recently evident in the government’s pursuit of Associated Press telephone records in a different leak investigation. Yes, the government must have secrets in order to function. But overclassification is so rampant that to criminalize the disclosure of all secret information would come close to paralyzing the flow of information.

Perhaps prosecutors failed to read the Justice Department’s policy on this, which declares: “Because freedom of the press can be no broader than the freedom of reporters to investigate and report the news, the prosecutorial power of the government should not be used in such a way that it impairs a reporter’s responsibility to cover as broadly as possible controversial public issues.” That statement goes back four decades. The Obama administration should recommit to its spirit."

Meanwhile, as reported by Ryan Lizza in a New Yorker article entitled "How Prosecutors Fought to Keep Rosen’s Warrant Secret" (http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/2013/05/how-justice-fought-to-keep-rosens-warrant-secret.html):

"The Obama Administration fought to keep a search warrant for James Rosen’s private e-mail account secret, arguing to a federal judge that the government might need to monitor the account for a lengthy period of time.


. . . .

Yesterday, hours after President Obama said, in a speech at National Defense University, that he had asked Attorney General Eric Holder to review the Justice Department’s policies concerning investigations of the media, NBC News reported that the warrant to search Rosen’s e-mail account was personally approved by Holder."

Concern from Collins or Pelosi over this outrage against the First Amendment, perpetrated by Obama's Justice Department? Heck, no.

Which tells me that Ted Cruz also has a role to fill in the Senate.

As I said, I can't wait for the day that fifty percent of American senators are women; however, I also believe in the sanctity of the First Amendment, which is under siege by the administration of constitutional lawyer Barack ("I found out when you did") Obama.