If you must know, the politician I admire the most was nevertheless wrong about most issues: William Jennings Bryan. So sticking up for Lincoln is not something I do from ideology, or if it is ideology, it’s only in the broadest possible sense. The country we have now, if there is something to preserve, we owe it to Mr. Lincoln.
Nuclear war was invented 80 years ago today. It was tried again three days later. Perhaps unfortunately, it worked.
NHK, Japan’s equivalent to our PBS, makes much of the American atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. As you would expect, it is unreservedly condemned.
One of the things I find most appealing about the Japanese anime art form is that you often hear characters encourage others by saying “Do your best!” Or characters who have been worried recover their courage and with renewed resolve lift a fist into the air and declare, “I’ll do my best!” Some of us remember when you didn’t need to watch a cartoon from overseas to find that sentiment expressed. In fact, it wasn’t all that long ago when it was expected of each of us, all the time. No longer.