I didn't suspect it, but the usual suspects appear to have usual suspects of their own. We do seem to be entering a time of tribal identifications. Like Obama and the naturally innocent of Rousseau against the evil Kochs.

Beldar has posted his endorsement of Ted Cruz for Senate. There are going to be 2 debates in March on successive Thursdays at 5:30 PM at the Belo Mansion on Ross Ave in Dallas for the candidates. I have wanted to be inside the mansion and plan to take a little vacation and go. The notice was in the Dallas Morning News.

The Century of the Icons

Obama was elected because people saw his struggle as, Keynesian and Democratic, preserving the icons of America, of GM. He himself is an icon of our goodness, our support of the Other in the black struggle. Even in California a cause wins supporting the icon of marriage. The Catholic Church is being attacked. Ad Deum qui laetificat juventutem meum, 'To God who is the joy of my youth,' an icon of our youth, shall it be taken away? No, an America which responded to the attack on the icon of New York to begin the century will struggle with Rick Santorum to preserve it.

On one visit, Kennedy was embroiled in one of the most defining moments of his presidency, the Cuban Missile Crisis. For 13 days in October 1962, the United States and the Soviets were at a nuclear standoff.
Although historians have dissected Kennedy’s actions, none was privy to what he confided to Mimi.
“I’d rather my children red than dead,” he told her.

Link

This from the story of the intern seduced by JFK. How about all of our generation that went to VN? We were terribly used. I guess you can argue the counter-factual and wonder if the counter-revolutionary Cubans had had air support at the Bay of Pigs, would they have won, would we have gone in after them. However it was pursued, if we lost in the action, would it have devolved later to a nuclear war, were Nixon president. He would more likely have bombed on discovery of the missile sites and nuclear armed missiles, unbeknownst to us, were already in Cuba, but he was good calculator of chances, a good gambler. I can remember waking up at about 2 AM the night of Kennedy's election and hearing Nixon optimistic about returns, and he did probably win except for fraud in Illinois.

Polish poet dies

Wislawa Szymborska and references in the Atlantic. The cat one and statistics are my favorite; she wrote a weekly coumn in Polish called not required reading.