The Pendragon's Hall

Sometimes it is frustrating just how gullible people seem to think we really are. Here are a list of things the Pendragon does not believe, but the higher-ups are apparently hoping we all fall for.

1. That John McCain had an affair with a lobbyist. The episode is instructive, however, because one should be asking why the same paper that drooled over McCain all primary season is now itching to ditch him by digging up "facts" like this story and the fact that he was born on a military base outside the United States. It's the beginning of the end for the senator. Soon he can really identify with Bob Dole--an "also-ran" buried at the polls.

2. That Bill Bellichik and the New England Patriots are guilty of videotaping the Rams' practice sessions before defeating them six years ago in the Super Bowl. It's normal, I suppose, for proven wrongdoing, like Spygate, to cast a shadow over everything the team or person has done. But the Patriots beat the Rams because they played their hearts out and, like the Giants this year, wanted it more. While we're hovering around the subject, Congress should busy itself fixing the illegal immigration problem and let the NFL deal with its own issues.

3. That kids who were spanked will most likely engage in risky sexual behaviors. More bull from so-called intellectuals.

This is also a good response to the flap in sports. The Pendragon was annoyed to read this past week that members of Congress are asking for an investigation into whether Roger Clemens "perjured himself" when denying steroid use. I don't remember Democratic Congressmen being so ethically particular when one of their own perjured himself to save his butt from his own sexual misadventures (he must have been spanked as a child). What's good for the goose ain't good for the gander apparently, but with all the members of Congress getting caught up in sexual problems, drug-use problems, money laundering problems etc., they surely cannot throw any stones. One more instance of the uselessness of government.

I hope everyone is having a good President's Day. In the interest of continuing what has become a tradition on this site, the Pendragon is including a revised ranking of the Presidents based on new information learned this past year. This year I am even attempting to eschew blatant partisanship and evaluate each President on his ability to lead the nation and accomplish his own program, not whether or not I agree with said program. George W. Bush will not be included since it is too early to rank his presidency (truthfully, it's too early to rank anyone more recent than Nixon). I read Presidential Leadership: Rating the Best and Worst in the White House this past year and came up with a new way to order the rankings, by breaking them into categories--Great, Near-Great, Above Average, Average, Below Average and Failure. There are additional categories for Most Underrated and Most Overrated Presidents. I am this year attempting to emulate this process. As always, feel free to discuss. I am feeling particularly generous this year since I am sure my prediction of near-greatness for Bush II is going to be born out by the disaster coming in the next four years.

GREAT:
1. George Washington
2. Abraham Lincoln
3. James Monroe
4. Theodore Roosevelt
5. Franklin D. Roosevelt

NEAR-GREAT
6. Thomas Jefferson
7. Harry Truman
8. Andrew Jackson
9. John Adams
10. William McKinley
11. James K. Polk
12. Dwight D. Eisenhower
13. Ronald Reagan
14. James Madison
15. Woodrow Wilson

ABOVE AVERAGE:
16. Calvin Coolidge
17. Lyndon B. Johnson
18. Grover Cleveland
19. Ulysses S. Grant
20. Chester A. Arthur
21. Zachary Taylor

AVERAGE
22. John F. Kennedy
23. Rutherford B. Hayes
24. William Howard Taft
25. Gerald Ford
26. Richard Nixon
27. Bill Clinton
28. George H.W. Bush
29. John Tyler

BELOW AVERAGE
30. Martin Van Buren
31. John Quincy Adams
32. Millard Fillmore
33. Benjamin Harrison
34. Herbert Hoover
35. Franklin Pierce.

FAILURE
36. Jimmy Carter
37. Andrew Johnson
38. Warren G. Harding
39. James Buchanan.

MOST OVERRATED PRESIDENTS
1. John F. Kennedy (has rather questionable accomplishments to boast of in his term).
2. Franklin D. Roosevelt (deserves a "great" ranking but not the #1 or #2 spot that many historians give him).
3. LBJ (decently accomplished president, but contrary to Professor Hillary's completely false assertion had to be forced by electoral considerations into many of his accomplishments).

MOST UNDERRATED PRESIDENTS
1. William McKinley (deserves credit as the first president to bring America onto the global stage).
2. John Adams (kept the US out of war but made great preparations for the inevitable clash with Europe).
3. Ulysses S. Grant (helped unite the country when no one else could).

Once again terror strikes our midst. Regardless of what the PC-crowd wants you to believe, willing it away simply does not work. We have been strangely fortunate since 9/11 not to suffer another foreign terrorist attack on our soil yet crimes like this seem to abound. A year ago, I traced the horror at Virginia Tech to a cultural obsession with searching our inner being. When we come in contact with the Darkness Within, it is only a short step till it overwhelms us. My heart is with the wounded and the families of those slain, including the killer's family. I cannot begin to imagine what unbelievable sorrow they are experiencing tonight and for the past two nights. But with fear in my heart, the Pendragon sees the spread of this terrible disease running far beyond the influence of violent video games or gun ownership. We are a society hung up on social and psychological aberrations. It has become a point of pride to demonstrate how "in touch" with one's inner self one is by listing your own disorderly conduct. A coworker of mine proudly told me the other day, when explaining why he doesn't get along with anybody, "I'm just OCD." In exasperation, I asked him, "Do you know what the 'D' stands for in OCD?" Turns out he didn't. In case any of my readers are unsure, it stands for Disorder. It's what we used to call in technical terms "a bad thing." It's not something to be proud of. Only a clinical psychiatrist is capable of truly diagnosing such a system for example (being a pain in the rear is a symptom of OCD but not necessarily the clincher). Children who don't want to pay attention in school simply say, "I'm ADD," and nobody dares contradict them. Try, "I'm undisciplined and need structure." At the risk of incurring the wrath of the mainstream of western consciousness, let me just say this: Charles Schulz correctly identified the beliefs of this culture and psychosomatic when he had Lucy counsel Charlie Brown, "As they say on TV, the mere fact that you realize that you need help indicates that you are not too far gone. I think we'd better pinpoint your fears. If we can find out what you're afraid of, we can label it." But as funny and believable as that is, it's absolute rubbish. Pinpointing your fears was supposed to be the gateway to fixing them, not to accepting them. I am unsure, at this early hour, what the stressor was for this young man in Illinois. I am a graduate student. I am even a graduate student who works part-time for little money and less respect while trying to get good grades and provide for a wife and child. Yet I can honestly say I never felt the urge to shoot up a campus. Is this because the man involved was some kind of monster beyond the reach of human understanding? Of course not. But what should have been drummed into him was social responsibility. John Stuart Mills identified it as each human having perfect freedom to pursue their own happiness within the limits proscribed by the same rights of all other humans. In otherwise, yes, do what you need to do to make yourself happy, but your happiness ceases to be important the minute it becomes the source of unhappiness (particularly the fatal unhappiness we have demonstrated here) to others who have the same rights you have. Mills has been falsely used to justify many things in terms of happiness to the greatest number (more on this some other day perhaps) but this vital part of his teaching has vanished from his society. Nerdy kids on the playground are told, "Get your rights! The world owes you a living!" TV commercials talk about class disruptors now making good money as standup comics. Britney Spears spends an entire album ranting about herself and how persecuted she is yet there is apparently no pressure on her to change her way of living to avoid the "persecution" (if one can call it that) she has received. It's all about me. News flash: I don't care what happened to you. You have no right to mercilessly gun down innocent bystanders. You have no right to endanger the lives of children who look to you for guidance and protection. You have no right to become president because you were a prisoner of war thirty years ago (oops, a little politics slipped back in there). And you damn well have no right to a living if you're not prepared to work for one! I am sorry but we have had forty years in this country of being "the sympathetic listener" who lay their patients down on couches to analyze every little thought they've ever had and place the blame on the parents, the teachers, the bullies on the playground, the churches, the leaders of the churches, the genetic code or what not. What they need now is a good swift kick in the pants. You're not the center of the universe, now get over yourself!

Relive the greatest moments in NFL History.

In a unique illustration of the intersection of sports, culture and politics, as well as a last-ditch effort to convince the American public that they are in fact accomplishing something, Congress has adopted a Big Brother attitude towards professional sports. While they leave no stone uncovered in the supposed steroids scandal involving several Yankees stars, how many illegal immigrants are sneaking over the border? Now Arlen Specter wants to investigate "Spy-Gate." Congress needs to butt out. If they're so desperate for something to do they could try finding Osama bin Laden or even running for president. Steroids and spying didn't help either the Yankees or the Patriots. The humiliation should be enough. It's sad that we now live in a country where the government feels its input is wanted on every area of life.

The Pendragon is gleeful at the historic possibilities opening up in this election. As a partisan Republican, I might be expected to bemoan the division of the party ahead of November's election. As a newly-disinterested historian who just wants a good show, the prospect of both parties having to settle the nomination at the convention is delightful. It's been a hundred years or more since either party had a brokered convention with people making backroom deals and concessions to wring delegates away from another candidate. Huckabee defeated McCain in Louisiana last night but since neither received 50% of the vote, Louisiana's delegates are free to support whomever they choose at the Republican National Convention in September. On the Democratic side, it's still neck-and-neck and Howard Dean is threatening an "arrangement" if the voters can't decide. How democratic. But at the very least this year's election should be a spectacle of historic proportions, so it will be interesting to see how it plays out. Personally, I'm hoping for a repeat of the 1912 election where a popular third-party candidate actually garnered some electoral support in a three-way race. Deals are a part of political culture and it's a shame we've gone without them for so long.

I have for five years now claimed the title "Pendragon," a name shrouded in glory as the moniker of the great King Arthur. I have for some time been uncomfortable making it synonomous with politics. It seems to cheapen it. And with John McCain having all but wrapped up the Republican nomination for President, I am less inclined to give my support to one party or the other. McCain's positions aren't far enough from Hillary's to make the choice clear-cut. Whether I would actually vote for Hillary is not certain at this early point but so far I find myself in agreement with Ann Coulter's advice to conservatives: Write in a real conservative and if it's close, vote Democrat. With the economy seemingly about to tank, and the fiscal policies of McCain and Hillary practically identical, we might as well give up the fight now to win against President Hillary in 2012 when everyone is thoroughly disenchanted. It's easier to be the opposition when you're not opposing your own party. I will not campaign for Hillary Clinton or support her verbally but I am suspending the political nature of this blog. The Pendragon will restrict myself to things that matter: deeper issues of culture and history that transcend political distinctions. Hopefully it will be a way to get some self-respect back. I am, for the first time in my life, ashamed to be a Republican.

Stunning announcement from Ann Coulter on Fox! Consider a hearty amen from the Pendragon. I don't know that I would go so far as to campaign for Hillary, but with the rest I agree.

This story should be published far and wide and put on voting booths next Tuesday.