In case you've never heard of Canisius College, here's...
...what its website tells us:
Canisius College is the premier private university in Western New York, one of 28 Jesuit, Catholic colleges in the nation, and is consistently ranked among the top regional colleges in the Northeast.I know the Roman Catholic Church relentless march leftwards has accelerated under the egregious Pope Francis - but I didn't realise to what extent it had become hooked on Cultural Marxism-flavoured Kool-Aid (now with added MORAL RELATIVISM!). Or maybe Professor de La Pedraja is a rogue element among the college's teaching staff - in which case, perhaps Canisius should look at untenuring the nasty, florid-faced old clown ASAP before he makes it even more of a laughing stock.
If Castro is a symbol of freedom to people looking for opportunities, why aren't hordes of refugees from capitalism risking life and limb to get into Cuba - and why have so many Cubans risked their lives trying to escape the old freedom-lover's regime (unless, of course, we swallow the idiot professor's theory that thousands of Cuban men would rather face death than stay with their families - I mean, surely Cuban women can't be that horrible)?
I only became aware of Tucker Carlson when he started appearing as one of the three co-hosts on the Fox & Friends morning show. I thought he was the preppiest human being I'd ever clapped eyes on, what with that name (and that was before learning that his middle name was "McNear") and that hair-do. I assumed he was in his late twenties - but he's actually 47! Turns out he used to be the resident right-winger on those bastions of left-wing cant, CNN, MSNBC and PBS, before they turned full Stalinist and cancelled his shows (mind you, he used to wear a bow-tie, so they had just cause - I once overheard a BBC One O'Clock News editor tell a BBC financial journalist, "Listen, son - only c*nts wear bow-ties.")
Despite an inclination to dislike Carlson, I soon found myself warming to him: a smart cookie, and politically sound. He's recently been given a new daily show, Tucker Carlson Tonight, in the old Fox News On the Record 7PM slot, following the abrupt resignation of Greta van Susteren, and the retirement of her short-term replacement, the wonderfully gravel-voiced veteran newsman Brit Hume. As Carlson's new show airs at midnight here in the UK, I've been catching the first half hour quite regularly since its 17th November launch - and his decision to invite on various leftists to act as sacrificial victims is paying dividends. His guests need little encouragement to reveal themselves as deeply flawed, extremely unpleasant human beings whose much-vaunted "compassion" turns out to be entirely malign in origin - but Carlson is certainly adept at getting the very worst out of them.
Oh dear, Tucker might be what you term politically sound but he can't even mount a calm and rational argument against an easy target beardy from the soft and wet left, because he seems to be too busy thinking how his chops look on the telly.
ReplyDeleteCloser to home, you and I had a mutual friend who was a great admirer of Fidel and who also claimed that the Berlin Wall had been built to keep out the disillusioned capitalist hordes from access to the glories of the socialist state of East Germany. The world is full of them. They come and they go. Most are brighter than Corbyn which means that they occasionally grow up. I know you worry that the ranked multitudes of the left have captured the BBC, the public sector and other quangocracy but if the referendum vote is a reliable indicator, then your view ought to be that the good British people have seen them off for the next few years at least..
I wouldn't describe the professor as being a representative of the "soft and wet left", ex-KCS. Accusing Cubans fleeing a totalitarian thug of just trying to get away from their families sounds pretty damned hard-line to me. Our mutual friend was another hard-liner. I remember, when I brought up Robert Conquest's "The Great Terror" on one occasion, he snorted derisively, dismissing Conquest with "Everyone know's he's a CIA stooge". The sufferings of tens of millions of Russians dismissed with a glib lie. I often wondered in later years, when the full horrors of Stalin's tyranny had been fully, incontrovertibly exposed, whether our erstwhile chum ever experienced the slightest tinge of regret over his staunch support of possibly the worst monster the world had ever produced (quite a fan of Mao as well, naturally). Probably not.
DeleteUnfortunately, I very much doubt whether the British people really have "seen them off". All they've done is indicate that they're tired of the left-liberal establishment's nonsensical bullshit. I'm pretty sure that our betters are simply waiting for the fractious child ((as it views the electorate) to get over its little tantrum and drop off to sleep, before blithely carrying on much as before. Mind you, the sense of freedom is good fun while it lasts - a bit like being unexpectedly given a week off school. Please tell me I'm wrong - it would cheer me up no end!
Did our mutual friend ever visit East Germany?
ReplyDeleteIt was pretty dismal.
He hadn't visited it by the time we parted ways 40 years ago. He hadn't been to America by then either. Presumably, he was trying to keep his prejudices intact. Or maybe he was just nervous of being shot by West German border guards while trying to escape to Erich Honecker's workers' paradise.
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