SOBRAN'S -- The Real News of the Month December 2001 Volume 8, No. 12 Editor: Joe Sobran Publisher: Fran Griffin (Griffin Communications) Managing Editor: Ronald N. Neff Subscription Rates. Print version: $44.95 per year; $85 for 2 years; trial subscription available for $19.95 (5 issues). E-mail subscriptions: $39.95 for 1 year ($25 with a 12-month subscription to the print edition); $65 for 2 years ($45 with a 2-year subscription to the print edition). Address: SOBRAN'S, P.O. Box 1383, Vienna, VA 22183-1383 Fax: 703-281-6617 Website: www.sobran.com Publisher's Office: 703-255-2211 or www.griffnews.com Foreign Subscriptions (print version only): Add $1.25 per issue for Canada and Mexico; all other foreign countries, add $1.75 per issue. Credit Card Orders: Call 1-800-513-5053. Allow 4-6 weeks for delivery of your first issue. {{Material dropped from features or changed solely for reasons of space appears in double curly brackets. Emphasis is indicated by the presence of asterisks around the emphasized words.}} CONTENTS Features -> The Moving Picture (plus Exclusives to this edition) -> An Anniversary -> Ring for Jeeves Letters to the Editor Nuggets (plus Exclusives to this edition) List of Columns Reprinted FEATURES The Moving Picture (page 1) Since we can all use a bit of comic relief, this month's cover boy is P.G. Wodehouse. He is the subject of a short piece on page 6, and I trust that a few scattered quotations from him will provide levity elsewhere in the issue. (Here and there I have quoted from memory, but most selections are guaranteed verbatim.) * * * "Patriotism or Nationalism" (page 7) has been reprinted in a Moscow newspaper you may have heard of: PRAVDA.It's been under new management in recent years, of course. Still, I'm tickled to note that after beginning my career with a journal founded by Bill Buckley, I've moved on to one founded by Joe Stalin. * * * The aforementioned Bill Buckley has just written a column arguing that the United States should not use nuclear weapons in the current war. This puts him at odds with NATIONAL REVIEW's senior editor Jeffrey Hart, who has already produced two columns urging nukes. Neither man seems to have thought of the obvious reason not to: that it would mean mass murder. * * * The defamation campaign against Pope Pius XII continues, with yet another attack in COMMENTARY magazine. There's a simple answer to the charge that Pius didn't condemn Nazism strongly enough: by that standard, he didn't condemn Communism strongly enough either. Yet nobody doubts that Pius hated Communism, the mortal enemy of his own Church. Being neither a journalist nor a politician, he didn't go into detail, and never publicly excoriated either Hitler *or* Stalin by name. Even the most severe papal judgments are expressed in diplomatically general language. That's just how popes talk. Compare John Paul II's recent comments on the 9/11 attacks. He deplored them firmly, but didn't mention Osama bin Laden. Will we one day hear that he was "bin Laden's Pope"? * * * Sad that Rush Limbaugh is losing his hearing, and revolting that his enemies are jeering about it. I do like Rush, and I hope he can carry on even with such a handicap. At the same time, he does go overboard as a Republican apologist. He's straining to blame even bin Laden on Bill Clinton and the Democrats! * * * A really great World Series this year, with Arizona beating the New York Yankees in the bottom of the ninth in the seventh game. Just my luck -- I'd dozed off two innings earlier and missed one of the most exciting moments in baseball history. * * * Farewell to our old friend Willie Casagranda, who died in October at 75. Some of our charter subscribers may recall him from our annual dinners, which were always enlivened by his presence. He was also a loyal friend and fierce supporter of Pat Buchanan, who will vouch that they don't come more lovable than dear Willie. Exclusive to the electronic version: The best witness to the Catholic Church, I always feel, is the unique hatred she still inspires. Why should this be, unless she is a threat to what man cherishes most -- his pride? * * * An honest liberal should respect and value the Church for providing this violently unstable world with some moral ballast. Is it really desirable that masses of men should throw over ancient traditions overnight?. An Anniversary (pages 3-5) The 9/11 attacks have so far failed to shake the American conviction that every religion is at bottom a "religion of peace." The tangled conflict among Christians, Jews, and Muslims, rooted in the Middle East, has now come to North America. Maybe it will someday soon sink into the American skull that credal differences are still taken seriously in some parts of the world. The date of the attacks -- September 11, 2001 -- just happened to be the 60th anniversary of another notable moment in American history, one that didn't cause quite as much shock or make quite as many headlines, but did reverberate for quite a while, and does have certain thematic links to recent events. On the night of September 11, 1941, the world-famous aviator Charles A. Lindbergh gave a speech in Des Moines, Iowa, that caused a national controversy and tainted Lindbergh's name for the rest of his life. Lindbergh, adored by millions as an American hero, had already put his reputation on the line for what he saw as the patriotic cause of keeping the United States out of World War II. He was a leader of the "isolationist" America First Committee, and in Des Moines he was addressing an America First rally. In his speech Lindbergh named the three chief groups that were "agitating for war": "the British, the Jewish, and the Roosevelt Administration." Guess which one caused the uproar. The next day, Lindbergh was denounced coast to coast as an anti-Semite and Nazi sympathizer. He is so described to this day. The striking fact is that Lindbergh said nothing derogatory about the Jews; on the contrary, he spoke about them briefly and with sympathy: It is not difficult to understand why Jewish people desire the overthrow of Nazi Germany. The persecution they suffered in Germany would be sufficient to make bitter enemies of any race. No person with a sense of the dignity of mankind can condone the persecution of the Jewish race in Germany. But no person of honesty and vision can look on their pro-war policy here today without seeing the dangers involved in such a policy, both for us and for them. Instead of agitating for war, the Jewish groups in this country should be opposing it in every possible way, for they will be among the first to feel its consequences. Tolerance is a virtue that depends upon peace and strength. History shows that it cannot survive war and devastation. A few far-sighted Jewish people realize this, and stand opposed to intervention. But the majority still do not. Their greatest danger to this country lies in their large ownership and influence in our motion pictures, our press, our radio, and our Government. I am not attacking either the Jewish or the British people. Both races, I admire. But I am saying that the leaders of both the British and Jewish races, for reasons which are as understandable from their viewpoint as they are inadvisable from ours, for reasons which are not American, wish to involve us in the war. We cannot blame them for looking out for what they believe to be their own interests, but we must also look out for ours. We cannot allow the natural passions and prejudices of other peoples to lead our country to destruction. This is the only public statement Lindbergh made about the Jews. He treated them realistically and with the same understanding he extended to the British. By contrast, he excoriated the Roosevelt administration for seeking to involve the United States in war by "subterfuge" -- an entirely accurate charge. Whereas, in his view, the Jews and the British were merely pursuing their own legitimate interests as they saw them, Roosevelt was betraying his own people. The bulk of his address was an attack on Roosevelt's policy. Yet the violent reaction to the Des Moines speech didn't accuse Lindbergh of being "anti-British" or even "anti-Roosevelt." He was accused of "anti-Semitism," "Hitlerism," of being "un-American," and (by Reinhold Niebuhr, no less) of seeking to incite "racial and religious strife." Lindbergh himself had expected this. The first draft of the speech included words he deleted in the actual delivery: "I realize that in speaking this frankly I am entering in where Angels fear to tread. I realize that tomorrow morning's headlines will say 'Lindbergh attacks Jews.' The ugly cry of Anti-Semitism will be eagerly, joyfully pounded upon and waved about my name." It was, and is. Yet Lindbergh hadn't attacked or even disparaged the Jews. He had merely said that, aside from a "far-sighted" minority, their own *perceived* interests were at odds with the real interests of the United States, a fact he regarded as tragic. But that was enough. For six decades Lindbergh's reputation has been defined by the distorted and defamatory reporting of his Des Moines speech. To this day, Lindbergh is vilified for telling the truth by the same sort of people who praise Franklin Roosevelt for lying. Roosevelt backed the huge smear campaign against Lindbergh and even publicly insinuated that he was a "Copperhead." When war broke out, he rejected Lindbergh's offer to serve as a pilot; Lindbergh managed to fly 50 combat missions anyway (without publicity, of course). Say what you will, he never ran out of courage, and by any measure he was a truer patriot than the cynical fox in the White House. Lindbergh was a hero. The real thing. Today it's hard to remember how much courage it had taken, in 1927, to fly across the Atlantic alone. But at the time he was easily the most admired man in America, and maybe the whole world. The enormous public adulation he received embarrassed him, because he treasured his privacy. That privacy was further insulted by press coverage of the kidnap-murder of his little son in 1932, the most sensational crime of its time. By 1941 Lindbergh could have enjoyed his success, his privacy, his reputation, and the love of his country for the rest of his life if he had simply retired from public view. Instead, he chose to put it all at risk by speaking out in defense of his country against its own president. He became the leading light of the America First movement. But his Des Moines speech shook the movement itself. Many of its leaders, including its president, John T. Flynn, disapproved of his mention of the Jews, regarding it as encouragement to the Jew-hating types they had tried to dissociate America First from. Some thought it horrifying; others saw it as perhaps true enough, but still a regrettable and needless distraction that would embroil the movement in a bitter controversy over a secondary issue. Lindbergh himself, a man who feared no thunderbolts, thought the Jewish question had to be faced. To him it was not a matter of prejudice or hostility, but an objective reality. Even granting that Jews could not be blamed for seeking war with Germany, he insisted that this Jewish interest was distinct from, and opposed to, the American interest in avoiding war. And the Jewish interest was powerful, especially in the media. Looking back, what seems remarkable is how strong, even in 1941, was the taboo against any public mention of this interest. Most of the angry condemnation of Lindbergh came from his own people, the Protestants who still dominated America (though some prominent Catholics as well as Jews joined the attack). His books were pulled from library shelves; streets and public monuments that had been named for him were renamed, even in his hometown. But as far as I can tell from this distance in time, nobody directly denied what he said. Nobody contended that American Jews were as strongly opposed to war as most other Americans. (When Patrick Buchanan referred to Israel's "amen corner in this country," none of his furious detractors denied that there was such an amen corner: after all, they were it!) Lindbergh's recent biographer A. Scott Berg, a Jew who is both sympathetic and fair-minded, comments, "Lindbergh had bent over backward to be kind about the Jews; but in suggesting the American Jews were 'other' people and that their interests were 'not American,' he implied exclusion, thus undermining the very foundation of the United States." But what if a sizable number of Jews -- not necessarily a majority, but the practically preponderant number -- regard *themselves* as "other"? What do the many Jewish organizations, publications, lobbies, et cetera, signify, except that there are distinct Jewish interests -- interests not necessarily shared by most Americans and therefore requiring concerted Jewish efforts for their realization? And why should these interests (unlike those of farmers, labor unions, corporations, industries) be not only exempt from criticism, but barred from any public mention? It's as if we had to discuss the current war without mentioning Islam. Islam, however variously understood by both Muslims and non-Muslims, obviously has *something* to do with the conflict, and we can never grasp what that may be unless we can talk about it. Set aside the question of theological truth, though it is the most basic question of all. In order to understand recent events and to cope with the near future, we have to form some idea of how Islam defines the interests of the people we have to deal with. You can't play chess unless you can figure out how your opponent is thinking. Like Islam, Judaism is counted among what we call the great religions. Even Jews who neither believe nor practice their ancestral religion have been formed by it and are conscious of belonging to an ancient nation, compared with which the United States of America is a very recent (and probably temporary) upstart. If I were a Jew looking at this country, I think I would say to myself: "Here today, gone tomorrow." In key respects this country isn't even what it was two centuries ago; it has lost its original character. How can such an ephemeral and mutable thing command the deepest loyalty of a man whose memory spans millennia? To me the wonder is that American Jews are patriotic at all, though many of them certainly are. I can imagine how this country seems to a serious Jew or Muslim because I know how it seems to a serious Catholic -- that is, one who judges it by something outside itself, and more permanent than itself. The reason to raise the Jewish question is not that Jews are suspect; it is that they are presumably sane. Not that they don't make plenty of errors of their own; Lindbergh, who made his own errors, rightly predicted that the war would be disastrous for the Jews. And Israel, as a new Jewish state, may have seemed like a refuge in 1948, but today it is the one place on earth where Jews are least secure. And now this country is implicated in its fate. The negative stereotype of the Jew is that he is a double-talker who can't be trusted; and like most stereotypes, this one contains some truth. As Raymond Chandler once remarked, the Jews want to be Jews to themselves but not to others; they are like a man who refuses to give his real name and address but insists on being invited to all the best parties. But the modern Jew is an ambiguous figure even to himself. Israel's Knesset holds bitter debates over the question of "who is a Jew." In the old days this was no question at all. A Jew was one who observed the Law of Moses, or at least acknowledged his hereditary duty to do so. The ancient charges against the Jews were precisely the opposite of the modern stereotype: that the Jews were misanthropic, proudly and visibly aloof from the rest of the human race, thornily self-segregated. They weren't accused of stealthily blending into the general population while concealing their true loyalty to their own. Far from it. Their refusal to mix with pagans caused the pagans to resent their rude hauteur. Shylock wasn't trying to "pass." But in modern times, the possibility of assimilation has resulted not only in real absorption, with many Jews virtually ceasing to be Jews (as in the old joke about the Jew who becomes a Methodist, is invited to give a sermon, steps into the pulpit, and begins: "Fellow goyim ..."), but also in feigned assimilation and "dual loyalty." This may not even be "dual": an ostensible loyalty to the gentile majority often masks an actual loyalty to Jews and Israel. The older I get, the less I am inclined to blame Jews for their loyalty to their own; in fact, I am disposed to honor them for it -- but only up to a point. I like it to be out in the open, and I reserve the right to talk about it and take it into my calculations without being called a bigot. Of course this is the same right Charles Lindbergh thought he enjoyed 60 years ago. The bitterest quarrels occur when people are in full agreement. There was no real disagreement about what Lindbergh said. It was because he refused to engage in the prevailing tacit hypocrisy that all hell broke loose. He recognized the Jews as a remarkable race, but he also drew logical conclusions from their distinct status. It was obvious, it was *self-evident,* that the interests of Jews might clash with those of non-Jews, not because Jews were treacherous, or worse than other people, but because they were *comparable* to other people. You may even believe that the Jews are right and the gentiles wrong; but you can hardly deny that they are different. Why was it, and why is it still, so shocking to say the self-evident? Are we to sacrifice lives -- perhaps many, many lives -- to a false delicacy about profound differences between human groups? Whatever the reason, Doublethink, defined by Orwell as the ability to believe mutually contradictory propositions simultaneously, has become a civic duty. America is still a more or less Christian country, and Christianity and Judaism remain profoundly different religions, issuing in profoundly different cultures and interests. The specific interests of Israel and America are also very different. The existence of the pro-Israel lobby and "amen corner" of supporters in this country means not that the two countries' interests are the same (this is mere propaganda, Doublethink), but, on the contrary, that American interests are being sacrificed to Israeli interests. An honest reckoning of the price for Americans is long overdue; we got a glimpse of it on September 11. There have to be limits. It defies reason to suppose that the two countries always have identical interests, or that Americans aren't bearing most of the burden; after all, there is no pro-American lobby in Israel, and Israeli politicians aren't for sale to Americans. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was recently quoted as boasting: "We control America." It certainly would appear so. Such plain truths need to be said. It's a pity you can only say them at your own risk, 60 years after Lindbergh learned this lesson the hard way. Or does American support for Israel depend entirely on the maintenance of Doublethink? Ring for Jeeves (page 6) I've found only two cures for the post-9/11 blues: Mozart's operas and P.G. Wodehouse's Jeeves stories, featuring two great comic characters, Bertie Wooster and Jeeves. (His first name is technically Reginald, but nobody ever calls him anything but "Jeeves.") Jeeves is Bertie's valet, or "gentleman's gentleman," and also, fortunately for Bertie, his polar opposite. In every story Bertie, a brainless fop, gets into an embarrassing scrape, and Jeeves rescues him with some brilliant stratagem. No writer since Sophocles has so fully exploited the dramatic potential of social embarrassment as Wodehouse does, though Bertie's mishaps tend to revolve around broken engagements rather than Oedipal marriages. The comedy lies in the total contrast between these two characters. Bertie, though good-natured, is vain, foolish, and rash, given to absurd overstatements; Jeeves is impeccably proper and reserved, full of savoir-faire to the gills, as Bertie might say. Bertie is forever ascribing phrases from Shakespeare to Jeeves, from whom he has heard them; sometimes Jeeves tactfully corrects him. Bertie regards Jeeves as a genius, though he also clashes with him over Bertie's fondness for loud attire -- purple socks, yellow cummerbunds, even a moustache. Bertie is also immensely proud of his noble ancestry; he often repeats that the Woosters broke all records for valor and chivalry during the Crusades, and he boasts of the Wooster blood, despite his own thorough cowardice (he is intimidated by everyone he meets, especially women). He considers his relation to Jeeves to be one of feudal fealty on both sides. One of his compliments for a job well done is "Very feudal of you, Jeeves." In JEEVES AND THE FEUDAL SPIRIT, Jeeves returns from a vacation to find that Bertie has grown a moustache; anticipating a "clash of wills," Bertie gets drunk, or, as he prefers to say, "suave": "I cannot put it better than by saying that, as the fire coursed through my veins, Wooster the timid fawn became in a flash Wooster the man of iron will, ready for anything." Servant and master confront each other at last: "Something appears to be arresting your attention, Jeeves. Is there a smut on my nose?" His manner continued frosty. There are moments when he looks just like a governess, one of which was this one. "No, sir. It is on the upper lip. A dark stain like mulligatawny soup." I gave a careless nod. "Ah, yes," I said. "The moustache. That is what you are alluding to, is it not? I grew it while you were away. Rather natty, don't you think?" "No, sir, I do not." I moistened my lips with the special, still suave to the gills. I felt strong and masterful. "You dislike the little thing?" "Yes, sir." "You don't feel it gives me a sort of air? A ... how shall I put it? ... A kind of diablerie?" "No, sir." "You hurt and disappoint me, Jeeves," I said, sipping a couple of sips and getting suaver all the time. "I could understand your attitude if the object under advisement were something bush and waxed at the ends like a sergeant-major's, but it is merely the delicate wisp of vegetation with which David Niven has for years been winning the applause of millions. When you see David Niven on the screen, you don't recoil in horror, do you?" "No, sir. His moustache is very becoming to Mr. Niven." Despite his stupidity, Bertie is a fountain of inspired phrases. He lives in dread of his formidable Aunt Agatha, who "chews broken bottles and wears barbed wire next to the skin." His speech is a farrago of cliches (often botched), big words he's unsure of, crazy similes, and school slang. Here is his account of a friend's violent attack on a mouthy brat: Just what occurred then I couldn't exactly say, but the next few minutes were a bit exciting. I take it that Cyril must have made a dive for the infant. Anyway, the air seemed pretty well congested with arms and legs and things. Something bumped into the Wooster waistcoat just around the third button, and I collapsed on the settee and rather lost interest in things for the moment. When I had unscrambled myself, I found that Jeeves and the child had retired and Cyril was standing in the middle of the room snorting a bit. Later, when the brat mouths off again, Cyril "started to get pink in the ears, and then in the nose, and then in the cheeks, till in about a quarter of a minute he looked pretty much like an explosion in a tomato cannery on a sunset evening." Such is Wodehouse: a writer who wrote only to delight. Chided by critics for portraying a world that no longer existed, he retorted cheerfully that he was "a historical novelist -- like Sabatini." Letters to the Editor (page 2) (TEXT OMITTED FROM THE PRINT EDITION BECAUSE OF SPACE LIMITATIONS IS INCLUDED HERE IN DOUBLE BRACKETS [[ thus ]].) Mr. Sobran -- I will ask you, as I have asked every pundit/student of history who has commented on America's decline into empire: Are you aware of any empire in history that reverted to its republican roots, without civil war, collapse, or secession? What gives you any cause to hope that you or anyone else who detests the current state of "our" government has any power to reverse the course of events? There are not enough of us remnants. America has us, the ones who understand her founding principles, but are we enough? I am an optimist. I believe that Liberty is the inevitable destiny of human society. All civilizations progress toward that end, at greater or lesser rates of speed. Nevertheless, I suspect that the Republic is too far gone to save. The Romans had Cicero, and Cato, et al., and look what happened to them. Bob Lallier Lodi, California REPLY I can't say I'm an optimist; rather, a hopeful pessimist. At times -- and this may be such a time -- all the lover of liberty can do is keep his head and refuse to give up that last sanctuary. If a certain number of us can at least keep the memory of freedom alive, it will remain a possibility. What has existed before (however imperfectly) may exist again -- unless men forget that it could, and did, once exist. The only thing that really scares me about this country is its amnesia. Most Americans have lost touch with their own ancestors. JS Mr. Sobran -- What you say in your October 30 column (see page 10) about the deceit (and naivete) of FDR in bringing the United States into World War II, and in developing the atomic bomb, is sadly all too true. Also true is your dictum that when a nation goes to war it can never know what the ultimate result will be and that it is usually far different from what anyone envisioned. But you seem to say that if America (a) had not entered World War II, and (b) had not developed the atomic bomb, that particular threat would not now haunt us. You cannot mean to imply this. For you know that Nazi Germany was itself working on developing the atomic bomb and might have done so in time -- time they would have had in plenty if the United States had not entered the war. [[ Some people argue that the Nazis were not even close to developing the bomb. Maybe, maybe not. But the point is, ]] even if Nazi Germany didn't develop the atomic bomb, somebody would surely have developed it sometime. [[ So how that would have played out in time is a fearsome guess. But come out of its bottle this diabolical genie surely would have in time, ]] whether it took another 20 years or 50. And the most likely nations to develop such weapons of horror are always those with the most malevolent designs. Thus it would have loomed over us today in any event -- if we had not already been obliterated by it by some other nation that did develop it. Further, whether the United States entered the war or not, it had been going on for more than two years before Pearl Harbor. And it would have continued to go on with or without America. [[ Just how it would play out 60 years later no one could then foresee. ]] All that men of goodwill -- in America and across the globe -- could do was try to make it play out for the best, by the best lights such men might have. However it played out, the world was going to be very different when it ended. And America would still be a part of that world, atomic bomb and all, whether we like it or not. The sand of this world is shallow and hard. We cannot bury our head in it no matter how much we might like to and no matter how hard we try. James Minarik Annandale, Virginia NUGGETS PGW: My dear, you look like Helen of Troy after a good facial. (page 7) PGW: It was one of those clear evenings you get in summer, when you can hear a snail clear its throat a mile away. (page 8) PGW: I felt so darned sorry for poor Bingo I hadn't the heart to finish my breakfast. I told Jeeves to drink it himself. (page 9) PGW: As far as the eye could reach, I found myself gazing on a surging sea of aunts. (page 9) PGW: Unseen, in the background, Fate was quietly slipping the lead into the boxing glove. (page 10) PGW: In this life it is not aunts that matter but the courage which one brings to them. (page 10) PGW: Jeeves was in the other room hanging holly, for Christmas would soon be at our throats. (page 11) PGW: He, too, seemed disinclined for chit-chat. We stood for some moments like a couple of Trappist monks who have run into each other by chance at the dog races. (page 11) PGW: Our host, the young Squire, was none too chirpy. The brow was furrowed, the eye lacked that hearty sparkle, and the general bearing and demeanour were those of a body discovered after being several days in the water. (page 12) Exclusive to the electronic version: PGW: Freddie had mooned about with an air of crushed gloom that would have caused comment in Siberia. PGW: I dislike Long Island. There are 48 hours in the day, there is nothing to do, and you can't sleep at night because of the bellowing of the crickets. PGW: I don't know if you've ever been alone in a houseful of aunts, all of them glaring at you with their red eyes and lashing their tails. PGW: It is never difficult to distinguish between a Scotsman with a grievance and a ray of sunshine.. REPRINTED COLUMNS (pages 7-12) * Patriotism or Nationalism? (October 16, 2001) http://www.sobran.com/columns/011016.shtml * Weighing the Costs (October 23, 2001) http://www.sobran.com/columns/011023.shtml * Belloc's Prophecy (October 25, 2001) http://www.sobran.com/columns/011025.shtml * Roosevelt's Ultimate Legacy (October 30, 2001) http://www.sobran.com/columns/011030.shtml * What Is "Defense"? (November 6, 2001) http://www.sobran.com/columns/011106.shtml * The Lesser Evil (November 8, 2001) http://www.sobran.com/columns/011108.shtml ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ All articles are written by Joe Sobran You may forward this newsletter if you include the following subscription and copyright information: Subscribe to the Sobran E-Package. See http://www.sobran.com/e-mail.shtml or http://www.griffnews.com for details and samples or call 800-513-5053. Copyright (c) 2001 by The Vere Company -- www.sobran.com. All rights reserved. Distributed by the Griffin Internet Syndicate www.griffnews.com with permission. [ENDS]