It must have been in 1983 or 1984 when someone at Lover's Lane United Methodist Church in Dallas included Michael Ledeen in a current events speakers series. After Ledeen defended some Reagan administration action in Central America, a member of the audience stood and began his question, "You're a so-called policy maker...", prompting Ledeen to interject, "No--I'm a FORMER policy maker."
Ledeen's wikipedia entry includes, "Ledeen was an accomplished contract bridge player, having won one American Contract Bridge League national-level tournament, the 2009 Senior Swiss Teams...:" In fact, I went to watch him play in a tournament in St. Louis some time in the late 1960s. His partner was Sam Stayman, a name every bridge player knows, who connects Ledeen to another era. I only got to kibbitz for one or two hands, when one of their opponents, about to suffer a disastrous score, said to me, "You know, there is a girl over there, and she has hardly any clothes on" as a not-too-subtle hint that she wanted me to get lost.
My father, who was a Dean at Washington U. when Ledeen was there, thought that Ledeen was quite a character. But he left the (non-) tenure decision up to the history department.
Thank you for the comments on Michael Ledeen. He was one of the greats of a great era that has definitively passed..
As for Qatar, well, they started back in the 90s buying influence with CAIR and a few Republicans like Grover Norquist. Then they hit the jackpot on elite campuses with BDS/SJP, even after their Holy Land Foundation was shut down after 9/11.
The shocking thing is that the mainstream media has largely avoided the topic, even during the rise of ISIS, which Qatar played a major role in sponsoring. I suspect that's not an accident. Until recently, the astonishing penetration of Qatari money has only made it to the pages of The Hill, Axios/Politico, and Tablet. Only now is it starting to go mainstream, with the new Free Press article.
I kept telling friends last summer that their assumptions about Trump remaining pro-Israel were shaky. I said then, what's to say Trump doesn't build a hotel in Doha, or now it's a golf course? Plus accepting the airplane? If he's going to write off the eastern hemisphere, except to make money, where will we be?
If anyone is concerned about the humanitarian issues in Gaza, I will remind them of the Palestinians dancing in glee around the coffins of the Bibas babies, the utterly inhuman treatment of their mothers remains and the ongoing mistreatment of the hostages. My sympathy for Hamas supporters is dried and long withered.
It must have been in 1983 or 1984 when someone at Lover's Lane United Methodist Church in Dallas included Michael Ledeen in a current events speakers series. After Ledeen defended some Reagan administration action in Central America, a member of the audience stood and began his question, "You're a so-called policy maker...", prompting Ledeen to interject, "No--I'm a FORMER policy maker."
Admirable spunk--and rare.
Ledeen's wikipedia entry includes, "Ledeen was an accomplished contract bridge player, having won one American Contract Bridge League national-level tournament, the 2009 Senior Swiss Teams...:" In fact, I went to watch him play in a tournament in St. Louis some time in the late 1960s. His partner was Sam Stayman, a name every bridge player knows, who connects Ledeen to another era. I only got to kibbitz for one or two hands, when one of their opponents, about to suffer a disastrous score, said to me, "You know, there is a girl over there, and she has hardly any clothes on" as a not-too-subtle hint that she wanted me to get lost.
My father, who was a Dean at Washington U. when Ledeen was there, thought that Ledeen was quite a character. But he left the (non-) tenure decision up to the history department.
Thank you for the comments on Michael Ledeen. He was one of the greats of a great era that has definitively passed..
As for Qatar, well, they started back in the 90s buying influence with CAIR and a few Republicans like Grover Norquist. Then they hit the jackpot on elite campuses with BDS/SJP, even after their Holy Land Foundation was shut down after 9/11.
The shocking thing is that the mainstream media has largely avoided the topic, even during the rise of ISIS, which Qatar played a major role in sponsoring. I suspect that's not an accident. Until recently, the astonishing penetration of Qatari money has only made it to the pages of The Hill, Axios/Politico, and Tablet. Only now is it starting to go mainstream, with the new Free Press article.
I kept telling friends last summer that their assumptions about Trump remaining pro-Israel were shaky. I said then, what's to say Trump doesn't build a hotel in Doha, or now it's a golf course? Plus accepting the airplane? If he's going to write off the eastern hemisphere, except to make money, where will we be?
If anyone is concerned about the humanitarian issues in Gaza, I will remind them of the Palestinians dancing in glee around the coffins of the Bibas babies, the utterly inhuman treatment of their mothers remains and the ongoing mistreatment of the hostages. My sympathy for Hamas supporters is dried and long withered.
I’m sorry you lost your friend.
The comments reported are murmurs compared to what we saw in 2023-2024 before the election
Think what Obama or Biden would have said and done in comparison .This is a repudiation of the isolationists