2015 - Page 3 of 5 - Richard M. Langworth

Ripka — “Peace for our time.” Chamberlain arrives from Munich after the Sudeten agreement. (Wikimedia Commons)

“Iran is Not Nazi Germany…

23 July 2015 Comments 1 Comment

…And Mark Steyn is not Winston Churchill,” writes Tim Reuter in Forbes.

—a rather thoughtful piece, though a bit harsh on Mr. Steyn, who offered exactly the right take on Neville Chamberlain. He was “an honorable man who believed he was acting in the interest of his country.” That was also how Churchill eulogized him after Chamberlain’s death in 1940.

It is reassuring to know that Iran is (thank goodness) not Nazi Germany; and that the Iran nuclear deal and Munich are not analogous. But some of Mr. Reuter’s sentences rest uneasily next to each other.…

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Viking’s Danube Waltz (5): Salzburg and Linz

19 July 2015 Comments 0 Comments

June 5: Linz, Salzburg and Viking Cuisine

continued from part 4… Visiting Linz and Salzburg….

The quality of Viking’s Danube Waltz cuisine is uniformly high. There is always a choice of three or four first and main courses, nicely balanced between meat, fish and vegetarian, with excellent soups (and again, there’s no reason why you can’t order both a starter and soup). At dinner, several staple items always accompany the choices: Caesar salad, sautéed salmon fillet and rib eye steak. Meats tend to be overcooked, so specify medium-rare if you mean medium—and some are tough, for which there are two solutions: send it back and ask for another (never a problem), or bring your own steak knives (unless they’ve accepted our suggestion that these be provided.)…

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Churchill on Socialism

14 July 2015 Comments 5 Comments

This quotation is now going around the web, broadly attributed to Churchill. Is it accurate? “Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery.” —M.S. via email.

It is more or less correct, but it’s a truncated version of two separate comments, run together to make them more interesting (in the eye of the drafter).

“Socialism is the philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy.” —Perth, Scotland, 28 May 1948, in Churchill, Europe Unite: Speeches 1947 & 1948 (London: Cassell, 1950), 347.…

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Viking’s Danube Waltz (4): More Austria

13 July 2015 Comments 0 Comments

June 4: Durnstein and Melk, Austria

Cruising Austria …continued from part 3… Viking encourages you to buy local wine and beer and stash it in your stateroom cooler. In practice this is superfluous because there is so much of it aboard, especially with the premium drinks package. You only have to lift a finger or a wine list, and it’s there 24/7.

However, if you’re serious about wine or cocktails, the premium “Silver Spirits” package is worth $300 per cabin. (It also includes espresso and other specialty coffees, juices and mineral water.)

Acceptable house wine and beer are poured freely, but not the premium stuff, and mixed drinks cost extra.…

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Viking’s Danube Waltz (3): Vienna

11 July 2015 Comments 0 Comments

Vienna, Austria

continued from part 2….

June 3:

Viking’s cuisine is generally first-rate, highly varied, and the breakfasts lack nothing we could think of except the odd blintz. For example, there were three different styles of yogurt, eggs any way you want them including custom-made omelets, smoked salmon, fish, cheese, cold cuts, champagne by the glass, a dozen or more varieties of bread and rolls, pastry galore, all the usual things you find under hot plates, and everything of uniform high quality. For items you order from the table, like Eggs Benedict or pancakes, servings are small, but this is a plus for two reasons: it gives you more room to try different things, and if you want more of anything, a waiter will happily bring you a second serving.…

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Churchill on July 4, 1918

4 July 2015 Comments 0 Comments

Happy 4th from Hillsdale College.

“The Third Great Title-Deed of Anglo-American Liberties”

Winston S. Churchill, Liberty Day Meeting, Central Hall, Westminster, July 4, 1918. Excerpted from Robert Rhodes James, Winston S. Churchill: His Complete Speeches 1897-1963, 8 vols. (New York: Bowker, 1974), III 2613-16.

I move that the following resolution be cabled from the meeting as a greeting to the President and people of the United States of America: This meeting of the Anglo-Saxon Fellowship assembled in London on the 4th of July, 1918, sends to the President and people of the United States their heartfelt greetings on the 142nd anniversary of the Declaration of American Independence.…

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Viking’s Danube Waltz (2): Bratislava

2 July 2015 Comments 0 Comments

Bratislava

continued from Part 1….

June 2: Bratislava, Slovakia

If the Viking Legend is any example, you don’t need to worry about table service. The wait staff, mostly Filipino, could not have been more attentive, but at the same time never struck us as fawning or gratuitous. Our favorite waiter’s name tag read “Neri.” It turned out that he’d opted for that because his real name wouldn’t fit: Aldefonso Neria. He and his colleagues were gems, always looking out for us, and soon began to save a nice place for four by throwing napkins over chair backs at a well-situated table.…

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Viking’s Danube Waltz (1) Budapest

30 June 2015 Comments 1 Comment

We Cruising alternative

If your idea of a cruise is floating around the sea with thousands of people and 24/7 entertainment, food and drink, a Viking River Cruise is not for you. Which is exactly why we took one, with two congenial friends and 180 fellow passengers, from May 31 to June 7 aboard Viking Legend, starting in Budapest, with three days’ optional side trip to Prague, staying at the Hilton. We came away highly satisfied and impressed with the crew and organizers, even though organized leisure is not our thing. We like to get out into a country and nibble the grass, as Churchill said, going where whim and the road take us.…

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Winston Churchill: Not Much to Say Today?

28 June 2015 Comments 2 Comments

Every turn of events has its unique features. Understanding them, and applying principles to them today, is still the challenge. The challenge for leaders today is to judge whether discretion should take priority over boldness, whether diplomacy is a feasible option, and when and where to deploy a bluff. In these areas, Churchill’s experience is an invaluable guide, because human nature is unchanging.

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Churchill, Troops and Strikers (2): Llanelli, 1911

27 May 2015 Comments 3 Comments

Llanelli in Context

Llanelli and the Railway Strike: concluded from Part 1…

Throughout the August 1911 railway strike, troops stood by. Their orders were to interfere only against threats to public security. But there was another reason why anxiety ran high at that time. A few weeks earlier, the Germans had sent a gunboat to Agadir, French Morocco. Rumors of war with Germany were rampant. David Lloyd George said the Agadir Crisis was a threat to peace. The Germans, he warned, “would not hesitate to use the [strike] paralysis,,,to attack Britain.” Paul Addison, in Churchill on the Home Front, described the public mood.…

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