Smart piece by Charles Krauthammer in the Post. He picks up on the demand by Ted and Caroline Kennedy that a private group stop broadcasting an ad that uses clips of JFK in defense of Bush’s tax cut. The Kennedys argue that JFK would never have backed Bush’s cut. (Full disclosure: I am good friends with the younger generation, and godfather to one of the youngest). Charles, however, points out that JFK’s view of George W Bush’s tax cut is unknowable and, besides, Kennedy cut the top rate by a third and W cuts it by a sixth. But the more important point is that John F Kennedy’s actions as president are not owned by his family. They are public domain – and belong to all of us, to interpret, rebut, praise, or use as we see fit. To use the term “indecent” as Ted Kennedy did to describe citizens using a former president’s words to defend a current president is too much. One can understand the family’s unique and special relationship with JFK – as brother, father, uncle and so on. But his words and actions belong to all of us. That’s the difference between monarchies and democracies. It was a difference JFK understood perfectly well. Pity, it seems, Teddy doesn’t.
IN DENIAL: Allegedly scientific evidence in the New York Times today that Freud was right and we can indeed repress memories that we find unpleasant – to the degree that we forget them altogether. It was Homer Simpson who once advised Bart that the way to deal with unpleasant reality is to mentally roll it up into a little ball, push it down as far as you can go, until it goes away and then you feel better! Or was that Bruce Lindsey advising Bill?
MGM: Two addenda to my circumcision item. No, I wouldn’t favor a ban on the procedure, just an end to its routine implementation. Obviously, Jews and Muslims perform this mutilation for religious reasons. However inexplicable the procedure is today, the right to do this to their baby boys should be upheld. And I concede my use of the term “child abuse” was excessive. I don’t want to minimize the existence of real child abuse, just to insist that this is a minor form of violence against a child’s body for which there is no good reason.
The Dish 