Ward on Words

Was startled by the photo that appeared on the front page of today's WSJ. It seems strangely plopped into the general news of the day: showdown on fund taxes; incumbents in danger of losing; poor South Africans protest against government neglect. And in the middle of the page, a striking photograph of two men in a moment of intimacy. Click on that link and you'll see the image of one soldier comforting a seriously wounded comrade. This is a picture of man at his most vulnerable. A soldier wounded in Afghanistan. A man far from home. Surrounded by enemies in a foreign land. Sent there to protect his country. A friend holds a Bible and offers a cigarette to comfort the wounded man. He is reading the wounded soldier's favorite Psalm, Psalm 91. It appears as if someone else not in the picture is holding the wounded man's hand. In a moment of horror, a wounded soldier finds solace from God and men. This picture haunts me. It reminds me that in our time of need,

Peggy Noonan wrote a terrible column in last weekend's Wall Street Journal. "He was supposed to be competent" is the headline, and it's about how Obama's incompetence is the reason the Gulf Coast is soaked in oil right now. Come again? Peggy Noonan was Reagan's songbird. Her speechwriting for the man who named a revolution was elegant, eloquent and inspirational. Does she forget that her boss considered government the problem? That businesses were dying under the yoke of regulation? That for America to succeed, a bloodless revolution needed to take place that severed the government from the responsibility of regulating much of American business? Because untethered, according to the Reagan Revolution, businesses could fly high and soar. And their profits would trickle down into the pockets of all of us on Main Street. Which would have been great, since salaries have remained stagnant since Reagan was in office. That trickle down money could have meant