What does one make of the sequential embarrassment of President Obama's armored limousine ("The Beast") conking out, and now a sudden sandstorm disrupting his travel to Bethlehem? "A violent sandstorm that kicked up in Jerusalem on the last day of Mr. Obama's trip grounded President Obama's helicopter Friday, making it unsafe for Mr. Obama to fly to Palestinian-controlled Bethlehem." (Susan Crabtree, Washington Times) Hmm, the skies were sunny that morning when he visited Yad Vashem, the Holocaust memorial. But the afternoon sandstorm forced him to motorcade ("at a crawl") to visit the Palestinian-held city, holy to Jews and Christians. Now it is a certitude among modern intellectuals that only rubes believe in signs and portents. Mere superstition, worthy of scorn, especially when it involves Christians raising their eyebrows at events that seem a little biblical (Lucianne Goldberg quipped that it could have been frogs or locusts) when they involve the sites that are more...(Read Full Post)