Stepping Back from Death’s Door

I had much to blog this weekend, but the flu had other plans for me. This was no ordinary flu. This was a tossing, sweating, clogged-up assault on every nerve ending in the body, the kind that makes you feel as if your pillow is bruising your face. I’m somewhat better today, although this bug seems to specialize in false recoveries. Thanks in advance for any good wishes.

I will leave you with just a few thoughts before I lay down and try to sleep again.

Daniel Henninger has a very good piece on OpinionJournal about the information revolution as a solvent for dictatorships. It’s too bad that he doesn’t read this blog, because his citation of OhMyNews–and if dictatorships and their European coddlers ever had a mouthpiece, it’s OhMyNews, whose only consistent value is a hatred of America–is contrary to his denunciation of just such empty rhetoric in his first paragraph. Would the North Koreans’ discovery of cell phones be a better one? If technology is breaking the information blockade around the world’s most isolated regime, Henninger’s argument seems to get even stronger.

Our poet laureates become less relevant to the ordinary people of this nation every year. Are there still poets who speak to more than a few detached, self-hating academics, who represent the struggles and hopes of Americans? Powerline has a nomination, which I second enthusiastically. As an ex-poor redneck from South Dakota, I can tell you this one still tears me up and brings back vivid memories of collecting pennies and nickels to buy a quart of milk:

If we make it through December
Everything’s gonna be all right I know
It’s the coldest time of winter
And I shiver when I see the falling snow

If we make it through December
Got plans to be in a warmer town come summer time
Maybe even California
If we make it through December we’ll be fine

The reformed ex-con who spoke to generations that strugged to survive poverty, and inspired others to fight their way out of it. Merle Haggard for poet laureate!