Arthur I. Cyr's blog

‘Capitalism With A Human Face’ has been a term commonly used for more than a decade and a half, inspired in part by a book of that title by Samuel Brittan, influential journalist of the London ‘Financial Times’.

The Editor
The Wall Street Journal
1211 Avenue of the Americas
New York, New York 10036

To the Editor:

Mark Moyar provides a valuable service in critiquing ‘The Operators’ author Michael Hastings, but unfairly slams Vietnam-era journalists David Halberstam and Neil Sheehan as anti-military.

Iowa experimented with a primary, reflecting the broad initiative and influence of the Republican Party Progressives at the turn of the last century. A 1914 primary was deemed unsatisfactory, which led to the alternative of caucuses. Iowa now performs a distinctive as well as early role in presidential candidate selection in both parties.

‘The corn is as high as an elephant’s eye,’ a signature line from the musical ‘Oklahoma’, comes to mind concerning the importance of the Iowa caucuses for Republicans. The just concluded exercise has winnowed the crowded field of presidential candidates in that party, while underscoring the distinctive dynamics of standard bearer selection in that party.

Dr. Martin Luther King Day January 16 provides occasion for reflection as well as recognition. We honor his personal courage as well as political impact as catalyst for the civil rights revolution. Initially he was reluctant to assume leadership beyond his local community, concerned as well as insightful in seeing that might ultimately cost his life.

‘Nattering nabobs of negativism,’ is probably the most enduring of the many alliterative declarations of Spiro Agnew, Vice President in the Nixon administration until he was forced to resign due to corruption. This particular phrase, penned by Nixon speechwriter William Safire, was designed to put down media people who emphasize bad news over good.

The sudden death of North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Il adds even more uncertainty to the tense and unpredictable surviving totalitarian state. His designated successor, youthful third son Kim Jong Eun, has literally no experience at managing or leading anything. Dangers include seizure of power by North Korean army hardliners, or possibly the total collapse of the economically precarious state.

'Fog in channel, Continent cut off,’ is a very old British joke about an alleged newspaper headline regarding weather over the waterway separating them from Europe. Even a brief visit to the British Isles can readily confirm, sometimes in startling manner, the sense of distance from the European continent among the population.

‘A riddle, wrapped in an enigma, inside a mystery’ is how Winston Churchill described Soviet Russia. He was speaking in October 1939, right after World War II commenced in Europe, but his words have direct importance for current developments.

“We have to protect our own interests, not the other country’s,” said Pakistan Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar, testifying before the United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations. She was discussing the inadvertent killing of 24 Pakistani soldiers by NATO helicopters.