Week of September 6, 2010

I was surprised to see in reading about the Korean War that South Korean President Syngman Rhee gave the United States government the same kind of fits that Afghan President Hamid Karzai does now.

At one point in the spring of 1951 Rhee was demanding that the U.S. give him enough weaponry and other gear to equip 10 divisions -- which, by coincidence, was approximately the amount of equipment that the U.S. calculated South Korean troops had abandoned in running away from North Korean and Chinese forces.

Sitting here in my den, I have two ways that I can call you and two ways that I can get a call from you. One of them has been around since the late 1800s and still does pretty much what it did when it was invented. The other is virtually magic in a box — and that box isn't much bigger than a deck of cards.

On the eve of the Depression, Andrew Mellon, President Hoover's Treasury secretary, said that rising unemployment would be good for the nation because it would"purge the rottenness out of the system" and force people"to work harder, live a more moral life." Few would dare utter such words today, but the actions — or inactions — of Washington and Wall Street indicate that respect for work and workers is again approaching that dismal level.