Spoils Of War

The Washington Examiner’s Byron York reports today that Senator Arlen Specter, formerly of the Republican party, relinquished Senatorial seniority in jumping ship of late. Democrats, to whom Senator Specter gave a filibuster-proof Congressional majority with his defection, will effectively give up 28 years of seniority in the Senate.

The move makes it hard for Senator Specter to argue “clout” as a campaign tool; any Democrat successor elected in his place will have as much pull in 2011 as the Senator would himself. It also makes it hard to argue Specter was courted by Democrats; it appears more likely now his jump was a surprise to both sides of the aisle. Or at least was meant to look like it.

Watering Holes: The Union League Club

38 East 37th Street, New York, New York 10016

(212) 685-3899

Founded in 1863 as part of a movement of men’s clubs dedicated to preserving the Union, the Union League Club of New York (other Union League clubs are in Philadelphia and Chicago) is a highly-regarded social club in Manhattan’s Murray Hill neighborhood.

Library, The Union League Club.

The Club’s civic involvement is legendary: its members helped build Grant’s Tomb, the Statue of Liberty, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. During the Civil War, they organized a fighting unit of freed slaves; during Reconstruction, they organized armed member-militias to defend black voters from the Ku Klux Klan. Theodore Roosevelt and Chester A. Arthur were members; so were Ulysses S. Grant, J.P. Morgan, and J.D. Rockefeller. Honorary members include U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, General Norman Schwarzkopf, and former President George H.W. Bush.

The Club’s amenities are equally legendary: facilities include 60 guest rooms, a distinguished art collection, one of the largest club libraries in New York City, and top-flight squash courts. And, of course, the Main Bar and the Club Room, both well-known for their traditional decor and relaxed ambiance in city that is anything but relaxed.

Here, God Makes Men

Daniel Webster wrote, “men hang out their signs, indicative of their respective trades; shoe makers hang out a shoe, jewelers a watch, and the dentist hangs out a gold tooth. But in the mountains of New Hampshire, God Almighty has hung out a sign to show that there He makes men.”

Webster would know: famous for arguing Dartmouth College v. Woodward, he was also a Senator and two-time Secretary of State, three-time Presidential candidate, staunch Unionist, and such an orator that legend holds he out-argued the devil. “Black Dan” was known in Boston, where he practiced law, to eat 60 oysters a day at the Union Oyster House, and wash down every sixth one with a glass of whiskey. The Oyster House still stands, and is America’s oldest restaurant. 

The Granite State will become home again to another renowned jurist, U.S. Supreme Court Justice David Souter, when he retires this summer to his hometown of Weare, New Hampshire, where he keeps a 200-year old farmhouse. In addition to the granite mountains from which its name comes, and from which Webster claimed God made men, New Hampshire also boasts Hampton Beach, its beautiful seaside shore, which fills with Boston weekenders ever Friday evening. It’s also known for antiques, stone architecture, covered bridges, farming communities, abundant woodlands, and skiing.

Red barn, New Hampshire.

Not So Fast! Part II

Swine flu, or whatever we call it now, has been disappointing in its inability, despite all the build-up, to amount to much at all. Luckily, past epidemic let-downs (SARs, the avian flu, mad cow, LinkedIn) have cushioned the blow, but not before some really silly things happened:

Egypt ordered a country-wide inspection of its 400,000 pigs, despite their inability to transmit the disease. Russia banned pork, but only from Spain and Canada. And Vice President Joe Biden avoided planes and subways.

The Swine Flu.

While any deaths are regrettable, so is creating a panic via false alarm: the avian flu killed 257 people in 2005 and SARs killed 774 in 2002. Mad cow outbreaks were expected to kill at least half a million Englishmen; about 150 actually got sick. To put things in perspective, the old-fashioned flu kills almost 30,000 Americans every year.

Our health professionals should know better than to yell “Fire!” in a movie theatre. They should also, as health professionals, know that their panicky references to influenza outbreaks of years past, notably the Spanish Flu, are ill-founded: the Spanish Flu was born into a perfect storm of circumstances. World War I’s Western Front was not “all quiet” with respect to germs, and became a flu laboratory. Add to that thousands of men crowded around both sides of a 400-mile long military line, dirty, starved, and exhausted, and it’s easy to see how a flu can be born and spread, especially when those infected men start getting shipped back home by the boatload. 

Luckily, we no longer believe mustard baths kill the flu. Nor do we have conditions anywhere in which so many men are packed so closely together, for so long a time, as the Western Front.

What we have instead is a new perfect storm, made of a non-discerning public, alarmist researchers, sensationalist journalists, and a slow news day, perfect for breeding a new infectious disease: irrational outbreaks of hysteria.