But I Don’t Have Any Time For:

• Prayers for Bob Novak and his family.
• EU Rota reactivated about a week ago and its proprietor somehow forgot to send me a special announcement. Perhaps he was afraid I would have baked a cake or something. On Saturday, he expanded nicely on the Exxon and taxes post I put up on Thursday, showing that the other major oil companies are also paying more in taxes than they earn in profits.
• Republican Leader and Great American John Boehner live blogged from the House Floor today on the American Energy Act. We should be thankful, I suppose, that Nancy Pelosi didn’t arrange to have the locks changed over the weekend.
• John McCain’s Veep vetters are looking at Eric Cantor. That’s a really good idea.
• The only thing more inflated than the tires the presidential candidate I refer to as “Mr. BOOHOO-OUCH” (Barack O-bomba Overseas Hussein “Obambi” Obama – Objectively Unfit Coddler of Haters) thinks would eliminate the need to drill for more oil is the guy’s ego (check out the third picture at the link). This is what hopelessly underqualified people in all walks of life often do to compensate when they’re in way over their heads. Obama would be one of them.
• I suppose I could belabor the point with another longer post, but time is limited, and the overall point is short — I expect that any chance Objectively Unfit Mitt Romney had of being selected as Veep by the presidential candidate I refer to as JS3M3 (John Sidney the Mad Maverick McCain III) evaporated late last week when his gubernatorial successor in Massachusetts signed the repeal of the 1913 law Romney had used as a fig leaf to cover for how he imposed same-sex marriage in the Bay State. Now out-of-state same-sex pairs can “marry” in Massachusetts and create havoc throughout the US. Social conservatives won’t accept Romney on the ticket, and so-called social conservative leaders who up until now have been pretending that Romney is acceptable are now totally out of arguments.

It’s here.

The subheadline there is “The late dissident writer inspired those who worked to topple the Soviet empire.”

Solzhenitsyn also made it impossible for anyone to pretend that the Soviet Union was anything other than a historically unprecedented tyranny, and a source of unspeakable human suffering.

No one could credibly argue that Reagan, John Paul II (the original title I submitted had the pontiff in it), and Lech Walesa weren’t on the side of the angels in working to defeat it.

But of course, many did. Their arguments have been consigned to the ash heap of history, while many of them have “graduated” to making similar naive arguments about other tyrannies to this very day. May their next appointments with that same ash heap arrive soon.

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UPDATE: The New York Sun’s obit makes an all-important comparison (HT PJM’s Roger Kimball) –

Solzhenitsyn did not play the same kind of political role in that struggle as some of the other giants of the 20th century with whom his name should be remembered — Pope John Paul II, Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher. But as a writer and witness, his contribution was no less crucial.

For the first step in resisting evil is to identify it as such, and once Solzhenitsyn had written, no one could any longer doubt that the evil of Stalinism was comparable to the evil of Nazism.

UPDATE 2: Boring Made Dull –

(Solzhenitsyn hit) on one of the key features and failures of socialism – the fact to succeed, it is necessary to become a ‘yes man’. There is no room for the innovator, the man who seeks the truth, or the man who simply wants to be left alone.

This may seem trivial to some because it’s a sports story. I think not.

First, it’s a great example of the unconditional “I was wrong, I am sorry” statement that we need to see more of from people in all walks of life who mess up. Second, it’s an illustration of what we don’t hear nearly enough (that would include yours truly) — unconditional gratitude.

Here is Ken Griffey Jr.’s open letter (HT Mark at Weapons of Mass Discussion) to fans of the Cincinnati Reds after nearly nine seasons with the Reds, shortly after his trade to the Chicago White Sox:

I would like to thank the Cincinnati Reds organization for allowing me to fulfill a lifelong dream of playing for my hometown team. I will always value the lasting friendships I have with the Lindner, Castellini and Williams families.

While my nine seasons there were filled with personal highlights — like hitting my 400th, 500th and 600th home runs in a Reds uniform — and the negatives of having to fight through too many injuries, my biggest regret is that we were not able to win a world championship while I was there.

I also would like to thank my many teammates, managers, coaches and Reds employees for their help and support and to acknowledge the many friendly relationships I had with most of the members of the local media. I will miss the banter.

Last, but certainly not least, I would like to thank Reds fans for their support. I really do understand that the overwhelming majority of fans wanted so badly for me to succeed. Additionally, I would like to sincerely apologize to those fans offended by my wrongful actions last Saturday night. It was an overreaction on my part to what I felt was a series of public inaccurate and unfair remarks about me.

I wish nothing but success for the Reds both on and off the field.

Sincerely,
Ken Griffey Jr.

He didn’t have to do this. But he did.

Thanks, Junior.

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UPDATE: Also, there’s this –

It was an unexpected, but poignant, moment between two iconic figures with the Cincinnati Reds.

In the wee hours of Thursday morning, after the Reds’ charter flight arrived in Washington, D.C., from Houston, the team arrived at its hotel. Reds broadcaster Marty Brennaman found himself sharing an elevator with Ken Griffey Jr.

“When we got to my floor, [Griffey] put his briefcase in front of the door and said, ‘You got a minute?’” Brennaman told MLB.com. “He said, ‘I want to thank you. You’ve been very fair to me and I appreciated that.’”

A confused Brennaman didn’t know what was going on.

“What are you talking about?” he said.

“He said, ‘I’ve been traded,’” Brennaman said. “I said ‘Junior, it’s 5 a.m. and I don’t have time for this. I’m tired and going to bed.’ “He showed me the message on his iPhone from [agent] Brian Goldberg.”

Griffey apparently learned he was being dealt to the White Sox shortly after the Reds played the Astros. Because of his no-trade clause, he had until 1 p.m. ET on Thursday to approve of it, which he did sometime in the morning.

“It was almost sad,” Brennaman said. “He was very honest and it made me feel good with what he said to me, because we had our differences in the past.”