Recently in Culture Category

[In case you think you've accidentally stumbled onto some sort of frilly women's blog, you have have not; you are in the right place. As a public service to my wife's blog, which is experiencing technical difficulties, I am publishing a recent post of hers here to ensure the cause gets adequate public attention and to allow her to point to the images from her blog until it is fixed. WARNING: This post contains no vitriol, sarcasm, personality destruction or raucus hoo-hawism such as our readers have come to expect here, and therefore I will not be held responsible if you become dizzy and fall off your chair while reading it. If you find you enjoy this sort of thing, please remember there is absolutely nothing wrong with that, and I encourage you to spend more time at my wife's blog which, at the end of the day, is probably doing the world much more good than this one.]

First, the snowflake:

Check out the front:

And the back:

Next, the bio:

Matthew Cordell is an illustrator of children's literature, newspapers, magazines, and many things in between. Though he spent most of his life in small town South Carolina, in 1999 he migrated midwest to set up shop in Chicago. It was there that he met his soon-to-be bride, his passion for children's books and deep-dish pizza.

Matthew's children's books include: Toby and the Snowflakes, Righty and Lefty, and The Moon is La Luna. Currently he is working hard on forthcoming picture books with Candlewick and Feiwel and Friends. Matthew now lives in the burbs of Chicago with his exceptional wife, picture book author and YA novelist Julie Halpern, and their squeezably soft Siamese cat, Tobin.

And, the self-portrait:

Julie Halpern and Matthew Cordell (as illustrated by Matthew):

Now, onto the Q&A:

Sometimes I wonder if I'm crazy, but then sometimes I think that regardless of what people think of me, they need at least a seed planted.
What would it take to convince you? Convince you of what, would be a good question. The answer though is startling: What would it take to convince you that your pet view of the world is wrong? For some, it might be what would it take to convince you that what you think the Bible says is not what it says. For others, what would it take to convince you that your view of civil rights in not what the constitution says.
Many of the "pet views" of people can be challenged in many ways. I'm going to address two categories, and for one, I'll address two different radical points of view.

Here is another example of where we may lose...

One of the things as a country we generally approve is that competition breeds excellence. Competition between Firefox and Internet Explorer has made both better (well, okay, it has made IE better as the copy Firefox features and look and feel). Competition made Harley Davidson do better at making motor cycles; Japan finally got quality on the radar of American auto makers; telephone prices have come down, and telephone services have gone up (I remember $4 a minute for phone calls to California from Maryland before competition).

What about education? What choice do most people have for education? If you are rich, you can afford the taxes you already pay, and then the tens of thousands it costs for separate tuition. (Just one non-sectarian school charges upwards of $27,000/year Burke and there are others just as expensive.)

Another day, another rant. I'm getting frustrated with the concept that "we are trying to define ourselves". I can understand that whole-heartedly! We are a nation that pledges allegiance to a flag that law says can be desecrated as is our first amendment right. I see. If the flag means nothing to some of our citizens then an oath to it and the republic for which it stands also falls by the wayside. The logic follows that an oath of office holds no consequence as upholding the Constitution of the United States is just that....an oath that is hollow. So where do we focus on acceptability and accountability? Let's look.

Sounds like the tightening of border security is working! You know how you can tell? Just count the dead bodies!

This came to mind just before Independence Day and I was really feeling good about it. Then the computer went down for a week. Now I read a blog that elicited much comment and debate about God, liberals, conservatives, democrates, republicans, even the idiosyncrasies of our founding fathers. Although viewpoints are a wonderful thing and that free speech is one of our must cherished laws, I saw much disconnect and no commonality. Then I read a piece today from Ronald Maxwell and I felt good again. I think our commonality is civic duty.

I heard this term frequently growing up in the 50's and 60's but at the end of the 60's it seemed to die out. I would get it from scouting, teachers, parents, policemen, firemen, politicians; you name it. Now I never questioned my civic duty as it was told to me because common sense has always been my motivation (with God's help, of course). But recently I wondered why I don't here it anymore and I think it is because people don't understand what it is or how to perform it. If you don't know what your civic duty is, well, I'm going to tell you.

Can a homosexual change his orientation?

I'm sure the homosexuals, socialists, and atheists will say, "No, it's impossible; he's either lying, or was never really homosexual."

"Jesus replied, 'What is impossible with men is possible with God.'" (Luke 18:27)

The comic and tragic diverge on the point of whether the subject is I or thou.

Heh.

Congratulations to the current graduates from Loudoun County schools. I hope you continue in your pursuit for knowledge and obtaining a quality life. I am very concerned, though, for what is being taught to our children and whether we are creating a better environment for them to build upon. Let me explain to you why I am worried about this countrys' future.

Religious intolerance and bigotry here in Loudoun county? You have to wonder. While most of the time people think of this in terms of the KKK, I have to wonder if the pendulum has swung to the opposite extreme. I hope not, and I hope our friend Loudoun Insider is wrong about the people of Loudoun. I hope we are collectively not a bunch of bigoted sods that would look at someone's religious views as disqualification from office. I cannot believe we have become so intolerant that we would take someone who is sincere about their faith--someone that is consistent--and pronounce them as unqualified for political office.

I personally believe all people would appreciate integrity; all people would appreciate consistency of belief. One of the things presently so distasteful to so many is the inconsistency of those that have signed pledges as delegates or candidates for the Republican convention here in Loudoun, and then reversed their position when they lost. We have all rightly said that is not acceptable behavior to say one thing, then do another. Would someone that is outwardly that religious do this? It certainly would not be in character.

For example, suppose I had decided that Gary Clemens should not have another term, and that even though he beat me in the convention, I felt I could beat him in the election. If I had run as an independent, I would expect that just mentioning that my position was contrary to my stated Christian beliefs would have me turning back to what is truly important (honoring God with all I do!) I have to put the election in God's hands; I have to live by my principles.

It appears those who do not value their word as bond could change what they do, or at least allow others to persuade them. I still hope for repentance on their part, but I have to believe they are not the "outwardly religious" people that LI states cannot be elected. Perhaps instead of deriding those that have character as unelectable, he should be pushing for more outwardly religious people to be running. It would suit his views on honoring signed pledges at the very least.

As one of Jack's commenters noted the other day, it is absolutely sinful for anyone to make money on "health" related work.

It therefore warms the cockles of my heart to learn that leftist auteur-provocateur Michael Moore is finally able to put his money where his mouth is by giving away the fruit of his labors.

Some things are just too important to be sullied by the profit motive.

[Continuing Loudoun Insider's worst nightmare, we have another great post from Brian Withnell as a comment on this post about whether it is appropriate to be paid for work in religion, health or education.]

I have only one major disagreement with this. A pastor is someone that cannot do any other task because God has called him to be a pastor. If someone could do anything other than be a pastor, they should not be a pastor. If someone thinks of being a pastor as a way to make money, they need to leave that "job" and get out of the church. The worker may be worthy of his wages, but those wages should be the median wage of the people attending his church.

As to teaching, I can say only that while I agree in principle, I find that I am constrained in much the same way. When I ran for Clerk, I actually had a strong hope that I would not win. I love teaching. It doesn't pay. (I paid more in taxes as an IT Director than the gross pay I receive now as a teacher.) But there is a reward in getting nearly every one of my students to pass the SOL this year. There are students that I tutored long into the evening, and other I came early to help in the mornings. And when I see those students passing what they thought they would not pass, it makes my day, week, month and year! I am sure that if things were different, I would be back to IT in a heart beat, but as it is, as long as I can stand the negative cash flow of being in teaching, I will. (I'm hoping that the increases in my taxes will eventually stop outpacing the yearly increases in salary, and that could eventually make it a "break even" proposition.)
Money is fun to have, seeing a student grasp a difficult concept (that is, seeing "the light bulb go on") is truly rewarding.

While that is true, I also understand that I'm the exception. Not many of the teachers I meet are converts from industry. Few in fact. I've not met any successful industry "convert" that wasn't dedicated to teaching. Having pay related to subject has been done in some areas, and from what I understand, it has had success. That said, I am still in a place where I'm paying forward what was given me, and more satisfied doing it than what the obvious lack of money would explain.

-- Brian Withnell

One of our socialist readers from Across the Pond posted an interesting comment yesterday. He concluded:

Three things should be eternally free from commercial interests - religion, education and health. Making money from any of those is morally contemptible.
-- Har Noah Neemus

I would like to address these seriatim.

'"Put simply, the Constitution does not allow the President to order the military to seize civilians residing within the United States and then detain them indefinitely without criminal process, and this is so even if he calls them 'enemy combatants'," the court said.'

Article below the fold

I just had the great pleasure of spending a day with our own Kevin of Digital Camel fame.

More here.

Much more, here.

I never thought I would live to see the day when Larry Flynt is the class act in the crowd. Flynn is a social uber liberal, a smut peddler, a member of the Democrat party and about as partisan as they have come. I do not like him, one bit. I recall him threatening to 'out' Senators who voted to convict Clinton during his trial. Yet here we are today, and Flynt is the voice from the left that actually sounds reasonable:

I hated everything he stood for, but after meeting him in person, years after the trial, Jerry Falwell and I became good friends.

A statement that while recalling the differences still gave the recently deceased the due dignity. Which is in sharp contrast to the following ...

he was such an unctuous, smug, obnoxious blowhard that it's really difficult not to celebrate his death. I'm trying, but it's .... so .... HARD

or the following two ...

No loss. It came 20 years too late.

First class *ssh*le..now worm food...the world finally makes sense.

This, alas, could be trouble, but my previously very private wife has now launched herself into the blogosphere with her own web log. I do not know if this is a reaction to the hellstorm I have stirred up as a bona fide local troublemaker but by the "vows" I am compelled to support it.

Such is life, as the French among us say.

Click here to visit my wife's site.

I assume she won't spill any inside information about my continuing political black ops but will only talk about her girly writer stuff there.

UPDATE: Uh, yeah, upon further review my wife's blog IS probably a few notches higher than this one in terms of the "intellectual" factor. So we're obviously dealing with different audiences.

If you are not apprised of the free speech meltdown taking place at Tufts, click here for the whole story.

The Hot Air guys just did a serious, three-part interview with Stacy McCain and the good folks at the local paper of record. Enjoy.

'"I can't speak for white people, but that's crazy," said Adoma Adjei-Brenyah, a Columbia University student with college-educated parents from Ghana.'

The entire article by CARA ANNA, Associated Press Writer is reprinted below. It was published 4/30/07:

The Virginia Tech Corps of Cadets site has photos from Wednesday's funeral of Cadet Matthew La Porte, one of the students murdered last week.

Interesting linked article and opinion by the Times' Stacy McCain:

Social criticism cannot explain Cho's violence for the simple reason that such violence is so extremely rare. There are millions of American college students, and only one of them has ever committed such a horrific massacre..

In light of recent "discussion" regarding the inclusion of "Liberal" as a bonafide mental disorder, I'd like to point out that the Icarus Project is leaps and bounds ahead of NOVATownhall blog readers in their advocacy for inclusion of new diagnoses.

As a recent victim of online credit card theft and an overall scam aficionado, I take a special interest in the following note which just came across via e-mail from a friend.

Somehow, there's a way people are getting hold of credit card records minus one or two pieces of info. Maybe some careless Web site database was recently hacked? If so, the proprietors should be taken out and shot because you aren't supposed to store customer credit card info anymore unless you're using security and encryption measures out the wazoo. You're supposed to use a third-party like VeriSign to do the validation. In my case they had almost all of the needed info to place an order, and if not for the fact a flag went up when a large order of motorcycle parts under my name was getting "shipped to" Indonesia, I might not have known until long after my money had purchased some happy Indonesians a bracing ride through the Indonesian countryside. Which I hear is lovely this time of year.

But I digress. Get a load of the following. It would be VERY easy to be taken in by this one.

New Credit Card Scam

This one is pretty slick since they provide YOU with all the information, except the one piece they want.

Inside this little treat that showed up in the mail today from the Aquaculture Development and Seafood Marketing Program of Maryland are 7 recipes for Striped Bass, 4 recipes for Perch, and 1 recipe for Oyster Dressing. If I can figure out how to edit posts without deleting them, I'll list them all. For now, though, find the Free State Baked Stuffed Rockfish below the fold:

I don't know about you, but when our family went about the college search for our young'uns, we always kept a wary eye out for nefarious influences around campus: dope dealing, graffiti, toy dog clubs, and anything at all that reeked of Christianity.

So I had no small amount of sympathy for the College of William and Mary's brave decision to remove the terrible, anachronistic, 18-INCH Wren Cross from the property. Our children did not end up attending the school, but the wife and I occasionally enjoy a visit to the historic town. And heaven help me if I'm going to allow the missus to set foot in a place with actual CROSSES out in public display - and 18-inchers, no less!

And if I did have a kid enrolled in William and Mary, I sure as heck wouldn't want to mosey down there for the weekend expecting a nice ongoing tete-a-tete with the local reenactors, perhaps a spicy sex show or three, these types of things - and suddenly walk around a corner to have a friggin' cross arm poke us in the eyes. GHAA! Can you even imagine?

But lo and behold, the Christers launch another assault, and not only does the abomination of desolations return, but the College actually wins an award for the episode.

The College of William and Mary's removal of a cross from a campus chapel has won the Virginia school this year's "Campus Outrage Award" from a conservative student group...

William and Mary President Gene R. Nichol said he asked for the 18-inch cross to be taken from Wren Chapel in October because of concerns about offending non-Christians, and that he had received complaints about it. The removal of the cross -- to make the chapel "equally open and relevant to all," Mr. Nichol said -- made headlines and stirred protests by students, faculty and alumni of William and Mary, the nation's second-oldest college after Harvard.

An online petition to reinstate the cross garnered 18,000 signatures. Threats by an unnamed donor to withdraw $12,000 of funding from the college forced Mr. Nichol to change his decision on March 7. Mr. Nichol has established a committee to study the role of religion at public universities.

May Morgan have mercy on them all.

I hope regardless of all our squabbling over peripheral issues here we can join together and declare Vote For The Worst is the funniest thing so far in the current millennium.

When Fox created this seemingly bulletproof formula of cranking up millions of teenboppers and evening slackers to "buy in" and jam the telephone lines twice a week, they did not consider the gargantuan bounty of the free market was, well, free.

Free to do the opposite.

This episode presents a case study for ascertaining the precise timeline for onset of cynicism regarding truly silly stuff among the American populace. The time table for pop culture has been set, I think we can all agree, at just about four years.

The only big question now is how many millions of dollars will Fox throw at this guy to just make it go away.

This is what I call blogging. Seriously, these periodic posts by Kevin are excellent primers which truly add to the national discussion.

And a fine day it was! Daytime beer and a walk through the neighborhood are such agreeable concepts.

We had a bunch of the HelpSaveHerndon and HelpSaveLoudoun crew out at Potomac Green in Ashburn today for their first annual St. Patrick's Day parade.

Master of ceremonies Ed Brocke (L) with Sterling district supervisor Eugene Delgaudio.

Ok let's try it this way:

While most of you were still on the tail end of your Friday night festivities, trying to decide whether to go up to bed or just crash in the barco-lounger with a now-warm Budweiser and a colon-cleanser infomercial serenading, I was awake, relatively clean-shaven and on the road.

Photos at Digital Camel (click on each for larger images).

Sunday was the Paul Cebar show at Wolf Trap - another complete humdinger. Cebar manages the band like a conductor - which is important when the repetoire varies from 12-bar blues in 4/4 to zydeco to African- and Caribbean-infused funk in time signatures I am certain have Frank Zappa looking down from heaven with approval. He was in control. Cebar is one wild, funky dude, and when he smiles in the midst of some particularly intense section everyone present knows that all is right with the world. Such it was Sunday night.

Much of the material was from the latest album, "Tomorrow Sound Now For Yes Music People" (unfortunately not yet available at the online store, but here is a nice oldie if you want an immediate taste). Good stuff!

On top of that, our esteemed fellow blogger and culinary stylist Kevin of Digital Camel came down for the show (and he snuck a photo - HA!)

He brought down from B'more a generous supply of the legendary Superman Was Black batch from January and all I can say is WHOA people. That is one kick-butt brew. Kevin was already near the top of my list of favorite liberals, but this skill of his has pushed him toward the pinnacle.

If anyone out there has contacts in the brewing profession, perhaps with a highly-paid apprenticeship position available, you tell them they could do a lot worse than to give young Kevin a call. Superman, indeed.

The Ann Coulter remarks from Friday have created quite a to-do and resulted in some unfortunate confusion which I herewith intend to clear up.

Here is the exact quote from Ms. Coulter's address at CPAC:

I was going to have a few comments on the other Democratic presidential candidate, John Edwards, but it turns out that you have to go into rehab if you use the word 'faggot.' So I'm kind of at an impasse, can't really talk about Edwards, so I think I'll just conclude here and take your questions.

First, some initial points that need to be made:

Let me state for the record that I do not recommend anyone use the word "faggot" under any circumstances. It upsets people such as the folks at Equality Loudoun, who became quite agitated and unwittingly added to the confusion by making a number of misinformed claims - such as that this was Ms. Coulter's biggest applause line of the afternoon, when in reality it was about 5th. Furthermore, "faggot" is inarguably a pointed epithet which can evoke strong negative emotions from listeners and, as a general rule, for the sake of one's well-being, it is prudent to avoid doing this in the course of everyday life. It is also goes without saying it is a VERY rude thing to say in reference to gay people, in the same class as the n-word, although as will be noted I think such usage is about as common as the n-word nowadays.

Also, it is important to note that Ms. Coulter did not call John Edwards a faggot. The sentence structure is a combination of the pluperfect and future subjunctive forms and yields a hypothetical statement regarding both Mr. Edwards and the term in question. There is no reason to assume she did not choose her words carefully, because regardless of whatever else one might say about Ann Coulter few accuse her of being a poor writer. Her actual statement concerned what happens if you use a particular word. Considering that the public response to her statement has precisely confirmed what she said, there is a simple factual accuracy to the remark. In addition, as John Hawkins observes in the course of denouncing the remark, she was without doubt referencing an incident several weeks ago in which an actor went into rehab after publicly using the word 'faggot'. Ms. Coulter simply took a joke that was already half-made and plugged herself and Mr. Edwards into it.

Finally, before the false idea that Ms. Coulter's remark was representative of the outlook of "conservatives" in any degree goes any further, it must be noted that the universal "conservative" reaction has been negative. As noted in both the New York Times and Washington Post, the major Republican candidates have denounced it. In addition to Hawkins, every major right-of-center blogger I've found to have commented on the remark has denounced it: See Michelle Malkin, Ace, Captain's Quarters, American Mind, Right Wing Nuthouse, American Spectator, The Corner. I spoke with several bloggers at the conference and to a person they also denounced it.

The contention of this essay is that Ms. Coulter's remark is undeserving of the degree of opprobrium that has been heaped upon it and that conservatives, such as they are, do not need to be sprinting away from Ms. Coulter with such knee-jerk haste. In order to prove this point, we will focus on the word in question, Mr. Edwards, Ms. Coulter, and the context in which the word was used.

In another example of classic left wing hypocrisy, Ann Coulter is cited in the NYT, the SF Chronicler, and the Washington Post (WP) for her remarks regarding Edwards. Personally, I don't like the remarks. Comparing Edwards to gays via the old term 'faggot' is cruel to gays. The word 'faggot' was always used as a pejorative and the Edwards comparison is itself really nasty. Edwards is an opportunistic money grubbing, girlie-man, shyster-lawyer who claims to commune with the dead. The left wing mob (Dean, Kos, the DU) one and all denounce Coulter and demand that she apologize. If you go the the Kos, the DU or to any Democrat convention you will hear far more nasty things said about Republicans but MSM will simply not report it. How typical.

Note however the Bill Maher's remarks wishing that the vice president had died in the bomb blast has not received any attention from the NYT, or the WP. The SF Chronicler also has decided that Maher's murderous (and treasonous) death-wish is not news worthy. Nope, wishing the VP of the US to be killed by someone who is at war with the US is just a normal everyday occurrence. ABC understandably did not make a big deal out of this event and NBC did notice. Ann made the news on the three networks, but not Bill. UPI and Rueters carried the Coulter story, but not Mahers. No left wing bias here; its just what is news worthy. Nothing to see move along.

Our resident moon-bat, Zimzo, came out of his cave to denounce Coulter. We all were entertained by his usual spew. He is shocked and appalled that Ann could say such a thing; poor dear, hope he does not blow a gasket. I was worried he had 'movedOn'. But did Maher's wishing the enemy could score a victory in this war against us cause zimmzo any outrage? Nope.

Conservatives are a bigger threat in Zimzo's eyes than Al Qaeda. More tellingly the conservatives are a bigger threat in the eyes of the liberal press than is Al Qaeda. The enemies of this country are always given the benefit of the doubt. Note the interviews CBS had with Hussein, or with the Iranian President. On the other hand, the interviews Dan Rather had with either Bush, were hit jobs. No such clean slate for conservatives, their actions are always impugned with negative intentions.

Hypocrisy is on display. Bill Maher is given a pass, Ann Coulter is pilloried. She may need it. But some public scorn for Maher is way overdue. Will it happen? Don't hold your breath.

Joe,
This started as a comment in singleton's smoking entry. You are in part responsible, for I started off writing a reply to YOU. There, now that I have shirked responsibility in a manner that would make any Democrat Senator proud, I shall continue...

We need to go back to the slide rule. We went to the moon with the slide rule. We cannot even determine a spacecrafts altitude correctly with these confounded 'confusers' (a.k.a computers). Have you noticed that people today cannot do addition and subtraction WITH computers? In case you are wondering what am talking about, does the name Ken Lay ring any bells?

This is an ongoing trend. Have computers have made us lame? Maybe. Have spell-checkers made us lame? Probably. Does 'not' smoking stop us from being lame as a nation. Nooooo.

Have you noticed the playgrounds got real lame? What happened to the teeter totters, swings and monkey bars. We now have crap that causes kids to stay inside and play x-box, eat twinkies and get fat.

I see the general level of lameness is growing with each generation. Allow me to explain, we went from:

A. Possibly the greatest generation. They lived through the great depression. They fought and won WWII. They built the Hoover Dam. They created the foundation for all the wealth we have today. They took us to the Moon. They flubbed raising their children, which is why they only get the "possibly" appellation. In case you are wondering what I am talking about here, see sections B&C below.

B. The 'me' generation. These are losers who brought us hippies, Bill Clinton, and the leisure suit. They claim responsibility for the computer boom and the internet, a la' Al Gore, when all that came of the Apollo program (see part A above). This is the original bed-wetter generation. They are the bozos who started the cattle drive into the psychiatrist's office and made it a status symbol (Along with screwing your neighbors spouse). With the greatest generation dying off like flies, we are running out of adults in a hurry. The 60 something's from the 'me' generation don't qualify. Considering they invented 'Depends' it all becomes clear. Soon they all will be back in diapers, a fitting end for them.

C. Then there are the Gen-X-ers. Possibly an improvement over the hippie-yahoo generation, but, after you hit bottom where else can you go? Face it, these clowns wished they had been old enough to have gone to Woodstock, (so they could have done 'what' when they got there?). They have by and large lived by sucking off the tit of the land. No innovation with possible exception of "junk-bonds". They did not experience sacrifice with the possible exception of having been children under the reign of President James Earl Carter. In the old days any chief, of a tribe with any self respect, would have lost these guys in a dense fog (preferably near a deep crevasse).

D. The Y generation. They are also known as the 'Y-me' generation. Whiney little snot nosed buggers. These are the spawn of the hippies. Amazing how much damage weed and LSD will do to an embryo. This bunch is good for getting body piercings, tattoos and high on either ecstasy or crystal-meth. The Y-me generation actually believes the propaganda from Green Peace, and, PETA. Many pine for the 60's. When a generation of people is reduced to wishing they were the 'me' generation, it's time to drive the bus over a steep cliff and leave nothing to chance.

Can we start climbing back out of the primordial ooze now?

A good story in yesterday's Times by NVTH's favorite Times editor, Stacy McCain:

"The Republican Party was founded specifically to abolish slavery," says Mrs. May, a writer who lives in McLean. "The first nine planks for the Republican Party dealt with civil rights for blacks. Republicans fought for the 13th, 14th and 15th amendments ... [against] total opposition from the Democrats."

Her quest to bring that history to life has resulted in a documentary, "Emancipation, Revelation, Revolution," which will be shown at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at McLean Bible Church and is available on digital video disc in time for Black History Month.

Here is a portion of the seared-into-our-memory late night panel discussion with Jonah Goldberg, Mark Steyn and Rob Long, from the NRI Summit, January 27, 2007. Enjoy.

Steyn: "I was the Islamophobe of the year ... I believe it's the only journalism award I've ever won."

Long: "Piece of advice: Don't go the award ceremony."

UPDATE: Whoa - welcome Michelle Malkin readers! We'll have some audio from Michelle's session up later tonight, Jack Bauer permitting.

UPDATE II: And welcome visitors from John Hawkins' 'Conservative Grapevine'! This has been a fairly decent spike in traffic, I must say.

Just got back from the Vegas trip after a delightful day hosted by the fine folks at TSA and United Airlines, and I must say I have not experienced such wonderful customer service since being marched to the lunchroom in elementary school, circa 1968.

It was all capped by an even more sublime level of delight, almost an unbearable level, when we landed in Dulles tonight and I realized I'd lost the parking ticket for Daily Lot 2. In the end this only added a little time to the trip, because it turns out they have the license plate number digitally filed, and after you fill out some minor paperwork the person in the booth looks you up and you get charged the same amount you would have paid anyway.

But the upshot is I'm a bit worn out so all we'll be talking about here is dinner, and that not so well. Here's how it all went down: After eating nothing but pretzels since noon, we arrived home to an empty refrigerator except for some select items. "Honey," I said, "I think this meal will be of the bachelor pad variety."

The wife quickly found a frozen dinner, and left me a cooking party of one.

My priorities being A) to eat, and B) quickly, I efficiently assembled four key components, to wit: tortilla chips, goat cheese, canned chili and jalapenos. After baking at 350 for 15 minutes, the final result looked like this:

Click the link below for my official serving suggestion for this dish.

This is a really good post by A Moderate Voice. Please go read it.

Here in the midst of the road trip I need to take a moment to jot down some random observations before I fall asleep and they are lost to history.

--24 has now nuked Southern California twice (several seasons ago it was the Mojave desert, remember?) I read an interview a couple years ago where the writers were discussing how they realized they couldn't just sustain the ominous threat of "nuclear blast on American soil" forever, and that there would be many opportunities to play "small ball" in future plots. Small ball, I'm guessing, means something like nuclear explosions all over the place and then Jack Bauer chews off the head of Beelzebub while the heavens part and continents sink into the sea. Also, probably, a Death Star comes into the picture at some point. Or terrorists have managed to get control of a comet which will split the Earth in five pieces, which occurs within the first two hours, leaving CTU spread dangerously thin and without functioning comm between the five severed chunks of planet now in gravitational orbit around the moon.

--Possible new 24 taglines: "We don't diddle around talking about 'nuking LA.' We nuke LA, and so much more."

"24: Nuking LA repeatedly before most Americans have had their first cup of coffee."

--I went into a "bar" recently for the first time in quite a while. What struck me most, apart from the fact that bar talk has still not evolved to the Firing Line level, is the amazing proliferation of Absolut Vodka flavors. I tried "Absolut Jerky" - the martini is called the "Rawhide - and it was pretty zesty.

--Driving home from PA this afternoon I took a calculated gamble to take the "western" route rather than go back down I-95. Boy, was that a smart move. Apart from the fact the PA Turnpike to Route 15 is a pretty beautiful drive in parts, there was very little traffic. It's probably further as the crow flies, but the crow does not drive, now does he. The key trade off is, you might drive a little further, but at 4:00 pm on a weekday would you rather be just south of Frederick, MD going south on 15, or just south of Beltsville about to go west on 495. Heh. No contest. I highly recommend the western route.

--The hotel was nice but with no restaurant, so they give you chits to redeem at the Starbucks next door. I went over this morning and ordered a "large coffee" (I refuse to use their ridiculous terminology) and a tuna sandwich. As I'm paying I hand him the chit and the guy tells me, "Oh, this is for a "grande" coffee and a bagel or muffin" and sort of looks at me expectently to see if I would change my order to get the free items. "Ah, so it does not apply to these at all?" I asked ... and put it back in my pocket. I had a reason to order THOSE things. But maybe there are people who, faced with the prospect of losing out on the free lunch, would say "Yes, in that case I'll have the Orange Crush and Necco Wafers or whatever it is I get for free."

--Because this next trip is only three days and I only have to dress like a business person for two of the days, I am determined to go carry-on only. I roll up the shirts and ties and one pair of pants, wear the blazer and other pair of pants, and throw in sweatpants and a sweatshirt, and wear the shoes - and it all easily fits in a duffle bag. I should be able to cover for any accidents even if it involves spilling red wine over much of my torso and thighs (happened once). BUT: I'm bringing shaving cream, after shave gel, travel sized Head and Shoulders, and mousse. Will I get through security or end up in Guantanamo Bay? I honestly don't know, as I haven't tried this since the summer. If this blog goes dead for several days, it's safe to assume I will be expecting care packages, preferably containing nicotine gum and porn, and candlelight vigils whenever practicable.

--Reading for the trip is Steyn's America Alone (yes I'm very late to the game). I read Bruce Bawer's While Europe Slept last year on like the day after it came out and a friend said this new book gives the big picture of the same reality. I'm looking at about 12 hours in airports and planes so I should get through it unless I get sidetracked, as sometimes happens. I think I need a vacation.

--Sometimes I get no leisure time on these trips, but if I can the next venue might lend itself to some saucy, spirited photos, the kind that make you say "Yarrgh!"

This post and conversation were greatly in danger of being buried by my rantings about the finest television program the world will ever know, so I think it worthwhile to bring it back to the front page.

Stay Puft excerpted this article about the relative difference in mood between the major portions of the world. Read that and read General Gozer's commentary.

Here is my response:

You realize, of course, the Chinese were WAY ahead of us on the wall business ... I'm guessing if they had millions of people crossing over each year they'd simply mine the border (if they haven't done so already).

From my admittedly limited perspective I think the article is dead on.

Obviously, gauging the "mood" of a country or continent is a somewhat subjective undertaking: There is the risk of over generalizing. Having only really spent much time in, er, one of the areas discussed, it would be hugely presumptuous of me to contradict Moisi's observations about Europe, China or India.

But there are a couple observations we can make from our armchair of distant, exalted omniscience: