Kinda Blah

Weekend Update… Well, the weekend was kinda-sorta a bust. Not that anything unusual or untoward happened, it was just…blah. The news seemed to be “All Biden – All the Frickin’ Time,” and that was much more than enough to put me off. And there were the usual hordes of Talking Heads swarming all over my teevee, telling me what to expect and what not to expect out of this week’s Dimwit Gathering in Denver… as if I actually gave a shit. As far as that goes, I really don’t care about NEXT week’s similar gathering in Minneapolis-St. Paul, for what that’s worth. Don’t get me wrong, Gentle Reader, I’m still paying attention. But it’s pretty damned hard to do, at this point. I’m burned out…nay, fried… on things political right now. I’m hoping something/anything will restore my interest, but I’m not all that hopeful.

The one bright spot in life, as I see it right now… the Olympics… are over. And what a bright spot it was! So many new world records; so many astounding feats of athleticism, beauty, and raw courage; so many individual moments of glory and crushing disappointments; such drama! And what a show it was, too, in both the technical and aesthetic senses. The Chinese definitely put their best foot forward and showed the world they are indeed a world-class player on the international stage… provided you don’t look behind the curtain, that is.

I watched last night’s Closing Ceremony twice… once during the prime-time tape-delayed broadcast, and then again when they re-ran the tape-delay during the overnight/late night broadcast. While the Closing Ceremony didn’t have the impact of the Opening Ceremony… I mean: how could it possibly?… it was certainly “good enough.” One got the inevitable “been there, done that” sort of feeling while watching the production, which is kinda an indicator of how rapidly we can become jaded these days. Or perhaps it’s an indicator of how rapidly I become jaded… I dunno. But here’s my take-away from last evening’s ceremony: brilliant. That, and Jimmy Page is old. Heh.

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Digital photography is easy, right? Think again! It’s a lot harder than it looks… especially if you happen to be a photographer for National Geographic Magazine, on assignment to photograph Stonehenge for the magazine’s cover. The cover shot of Stonehenge on the left is the product of hours upon hours of work, including 42 hours of night-time shooting that didn’t yield photos worthy of NatGeo’s cover. But, as you can see from the results on the left, the photographer was ultimately… and spectacularly… successful.

Here is the final formula for the cover shot: Hasselblad Flexbody with 15mm of drop dialed in to a Phase One P45 back, ISO was set at 100, the lens was a Hasselblad Distagon 40mm set at f11, there were 12 SureFire lights aimed at the stones which were on for about 12 seconds during the 15 minute total exposure. Dressed in black, I then walked through the scene painting additional light on the stones to create some of edge highlights.

The whole story… including a couple of false starts, lots of technical detail, and more great photos… is related in the story “Shooting Stonehenge,” on NGM photographer Ken Geiger’s digital photography blog. It’s fascinating stuff.

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Today’s Pic: Dipping into the archives for a picture of SN3 on an uncharacteristically gray and chilly day in Florida, in April of 2003. I took this photo at the east-bound rest area just across the Alabama-Florida state line on I-10. SN1, Grandson Sean, Bobby (who now demands to be called “Robert,” a sure-fire indication he’s growing up way too fast), and I were on our way to Cape Canaveral to attend the commissioning of the USS Mason (DDG87)… which happened to be SN2’s then-current ride. A Good Time was had by all, needless to say. The Navy knows how to throw a party!

Speaking of parties...

The locals loved the Mason, too. Or the money. One or the other... (insert Smiley-Face thingie here.)

Investigations, Private and Otherwise

Let's begin with 5:34 of guitar goodness from Mark Knopfler:



And now you know the inspiration for today's post title. This isn't one of Knopfler's better-known pieces, but I love the moodiness and semi-flamenco qualities of the guitar work (in places). Knopfler is simply one of the best...

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I think a copy change just might be in order… due to recent events in Beijing:

Winner of four World Beer Cup medals and eight medals at the Great American Beer Fest, Abbey Belgian Ale is the Mark Spitz of New Belgium’s lineup - but it didn’t start out that way. When Jeff and Kim first sampled the beer at the Lyons Folks Fest, reviews were mixed at best. One of founder Jeff’s first two Belgian style homebrews (along with Fat Tire), Abbey is a Belgian dubbel (or double) brewed with six different malts and an authentic Belgian yeast strain. Abbey is bottle-conditioned, weighs in at 7.0% alcohol by volume, and pairs well with chocolate (or boldly served by itself) for dessert.

Don’t you?

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I owe you an opinion about yesterday evening’s Happy Hour smoke, Gentle Reader. So: here it is.

What he said. The only significant difference in the review at the link and my experience being I had no problems whatsoever with the wrapper on my Titan. Nice photos in the review, too. The consensus opinion seems to be “great smoke, at a not-so-great price.” I’ll buy that…but not at $22.00 per.

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Further to yesterday’s Happy Hour… I mentioned in yesterday’s post that Trippel is now The Beer of Choice here at El Casa Móvil De Pennington. There’s just one small problema. Given Trippel’s 7.8% alcohol by volume (ABV) content, and my current lighter-than-usual body state (“emaciated” might be the word I’m looking for), two of ‘em will put me dangerously close to Stage Five. I felt the warning signs after finishing off my first Trippel yesterday but had The Answer at hand, said answer being one single, solitary bottle of Mothership Wit lurking on the bottom shelf of the fridge. Mothership, with its 4.8% ABV, was much more fitting for the occasion and my diminished weight. And thus dinner was saved.

So… I take it back. Mothership Wit will be in regular rotation.

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‘Bout time:

BEIJING (AP) — The International Olympic Committee said Friday it had asked gymnastics officials to investigate whether the Chinese women's gymnastics team that won the gold medal had underage athletes, saying "more information has come to light."

"We've asked the gymnastics federation to look into it further," IOC spokeswoman Giselle Davies said. "If there is a question mark and we have a concern, which we do, we ask the governing body of any sport to look into it."

The IOC, which also asked the Chinese gymnastics federation to investigate, would not give details on what new information prompted it to act now, three days after the gymnastics competition ended.

[…]

Chinese coach Lu Shanzhen told The Associated Press they gave the FIG new documents on Thursday to try to remove the doubts about He Kexin's age, including an old passport, a residency card and her current ID card.

He said all these documents were issued by various departments of the Chinese government and that he felt there was nothing more that they could do to put peoples' minds at ease.

The FIG has said repeatedly that a passport is the "accepted proof of a gymnast's eligibility," and that China's gymnasts have presented ones that show they are age eligible. The IOC also checked the girls' passports and deemed them valid.

[…]

Earlier this month, the AP found registration lists previously posted on the Web site of the General Administration of Sport of China that showed both He and Yang were too young to compete. He was born Jan. 1, 1994, according to the 2005, 2006 and 2007 registration lists. Yang was born Aug. 26, 1993, according to the 2004, 2005 and 2006 registration lists; in the 2007 registration list, however, her birthday has changed to Aug. 26, 1992.

If the FIG would find evidence supporting the questions that the gymnasts are underage, it could affect four of China's medals. In addition to the team gold and He's gold on bars, Yang won bronzes in the all-around and uneven bars.

As for the IOC and the FIG finding evidence of the gymnasts in question being under-age and actually doing something? I’m not holding my breath. What we have here are two sanctioning bodies, one of which (the FIG) is already on the record as verifying He’s age, going up against a big-ass state bureaucracy, perhaps THE biggest bureaucracy in the world. And the IOC has characterized the inquiry thusly:

International Olympic Committee spokeswoman Giselle Davies said today that while she wouldn't characterise it as a formal investigation, the IOC had gone back to the gymnastics federation and asked for further clarification on whether He Kexin was eligible to compete at the Beijing Olympics.

But it looks like the accusations are pretty well-founded, judging from the registration lists uncovered by the AP. If the IOC finds the Chinese gymnasts are underage (and thereby disqualified), then the US women’s team would be elevated to gold medal status, and Nastia Liukin would move up to gold from silver on the uneven bars. There would be additional medal status changes, as well… given that Yang won two bronze medals.

And who broke this story and put it “in the news?” A blogger by the name of Mike Walker. Good On Ya, Mike. You deserve your 15 minutes.

(photo: FanIQ)

(No, I'm not up early [or late, even, as in "all-niter"]. This is a scheduled post, thanks to Blogger's oh-so-groovy scheduling feature. I love it.)

Here and There

Kathleen Parker’s column at TownHall.com is VERY good today… and VERY funny. Titled “Vlad, You’ve got mail,” the column consists solely of three letters (e-mails?) to Putin from Dubya, The Obamanon, and John McCain. Ms. Parker has adopted the stylistic phrasing and mannerisms of the respective men, and herewith a couple of excerpts:

From President George W. Bush:

Dear Vlad:

Beijing is weird. First of all, you can't breathe the air. Second, how 'bout those drummers? Sure, they're perfect, but that's the point. A billion Chinese see 2,000 drummers in sync and say, "Well done, my little emperor son." I see 2,000 drummers all moving with one motion and I'm thinking: "Whoa." Can anybody say MIL-I-TAR-Y PRE-CI-SION?

Hey, which reminds me. What's up with Georgia? This is not good, Vlad. You and I have had our moments. And, OK, fine, your dog's bigger than mine. A lot bigger. Stronger and faster, too. We got it. But you can't just go invading democratically elected countries that are U.S. allies. You can't have everything, Vlad. If you don't stop, I'm going to have to do something and you know I don't want that. What I want is for you to not make me look like a fool.

[…]

From Sen. Barack Obama:

Dear (Former) President Putin:

I'm sorry to be writing this e-mail instead of meeting you in person, preferably in the Oval Office, where I belong. Soon, soon.

Nevertheless, and notwithstanding the foregoing, I felt it imperative that I express my deep concern about Russia's invasion of the tiny, democratically elected sovereign nation of Georgia. It would appear that you are not familiar with my platform for change and hope. War does not fit into this template and I am quite frankly at a loss for words to express my deep, deep distress.

[…]

Please picture me looking very serious when I say that I respectfully request you to calm down. Life is but a flicker in time and we're but actors strutting and fretting. That is to say, we're all on this planetary journey together and our karma is interrelated and interdependent. Thus, it would seem that our differences are best resolved through words, not bombs.

It is said that war is a failure of diplomacy. I would submit that it is also counterintuitive. If my Kenyan father and my Kansan mother and my multinational upbringing taught me anything, it is that we are all One. That said, I am The One the world has been waiting for -- and you are, quite frankly, blocking my chi.

I won’t give away the whole point of the column by posting McCain’s letter… which consists of only nine words… so there’s simply NO way to excerpt it and preserve the point. You just gotta go read it!

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I had a follow-up with Dr. Thompson (my dentist) yesterday and I’m going to have some additional artificial bone material added to my collection at the end of this month. There’s nothing abnormal or wrong in play here, just a bit of augmentation to the work previously done. This next procedure won’t be quite the production the last event was… just an incision in my gums that will be closed with a couple of sutures after the additional bone is added. And this impending procedure only requires a local anesthetic… no World Class Drugs this time, although that is an option. I declined when offered, but this morning I’m thinking “Wow. Those were some GREAT drugs. Maybe I shouldn’t have turned ‘em down!” (Jes kiddin’, Gentle Reader, jes kiddin’!) (Sorta)

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Michael Phelps celebrates his victory with a world record time of 1:54.80 in the men's 200-meter individual medley final at the US Olympic swimming trials in Omaha, Neb., Friday, July 4, 2008. (AP Photo)

I’ve often said I have an immediate grasp of the obvious… and that’s not a bad quality to have. So, it’s in that spirit that I’m offering the observation that Michael Phelps is THE story of the 2008 Olympiad, so far. The man has just been freakin’ awesome, in the fullest sense of the word. Or, as Joe Posnanski of The Kansas City Star puts it… “Phelps making the perfect look routine”:

The English language is running out of words to describe just how good Michael Phelps is at this swimming thing. Today (Tuesday night in Kansas City), he swam the 200 butterfly in 1 minute, 52.03 seconds, a world record, his fourth gold medal of this Games, the record-setting 10th gold medal of his Olympic career. Four others had won nine golds: Americans Mark Spitz (swimming) and Carl Lewis (track and field), Finland’s Paavo Nurmi (track and field) and the Soviet Union’s Larissa Latynina (gymnastics). That seemed like a good day’s work.

Then there was the relay. Almost precisely one hour later, Phelps led off the remarkable United States 800-meter relay team, which won gold by more than five seconds and blasted the world record by almost that much. Phelps swam the fastest 200-meter split in history (of course) and gave his teammates a 2 1/2 -second lead. This happened barely 10 minutes after he stood on the medal stand to collect his butterfly gold.

So, if you’re counting, Phelps has now won five gold medals at these Games (all in world-record time). He has now won 11 gold medals in his career. That’s two more gold medals, incidentally, than the entire nation of India, which has more than one billion people. He has now won 13 Olympic medals overall, an American record.

Un-bee-leeb-able. And such a joy to watch!

The American women gymnasts, on the other hand, provided the counterpoint to Phelps’ success last night with heart-breaking errors that cost them the team gold medal.

BEIJING — It came down to the last event, the last tumbling pass, the last landing, the last tilt of the head, the last smile.

For the U.S. women's gymnastics team, it came down to a few missteps, and, as is usually the case in a sport of precision and grace, those stumbles made all the difference.

The U.S. lost the gold medal to China 188.9 to 186.525. Simple but glaring mistakes were the Americans' undoing. They may have had prettier routines, but the Chinese were more consistent

[…]

It wasn't close.

Four years of training came down to the floor exercise, an event which the U.S. usually dominates with its high-flying routines and rhythmic dance moves. But all three Americans stepped out of bounds. Somehow, they could not do what they had done thousands upon thousands of times: Stay inside the white lines.

A silver medal ain’t nothing to sneeze at… but it’s a heartbreaker when you’re expecting gold. These Olympic Games have been supremely entertaining, and I’ve simply been mesmerized… all throughout the night and into the wee smalls, as it were.

(photo credit: Gymnasts – The Seattle Times)

Update: I'll quote an e-mail I received a few minutes ago from Deborah Hendrick: "Buck, the hand can be quicker than the eye. I think you put up a photo of Australian swimmer Eamon Sullivan, instead of Michael Phelps." And she was right... the photo of Sullivan I originally posted has been replaced with one of Phelps. Thanks, Deborah.

Stimulating...Kinda Sorta

One of the better things I’ve read today…written by Martin Feldstein in yesterday’s WSJ: “The Tax Rebate Was a Flop. Obama's Stimulus Plan Won't Work Either.” A few excerpts:

Congress enacted the tax rebate program earlier this year because it perceived a growing risk of recession. In addition, it feared monetary policy alone would not be effective because of the dysfunctional credit markets. As American taxpayers know, most of the rebate checks have now been mailed and cashed.

Those of us who supported this fiscal package reasoned that the program would boost consumer confidence as well as available cash. We hoped the combination would cause households to spend a substantial fraction of the rebate dollars, leading to more production and employment. An optimistic and influential study by economists at the Brookings Institution projected that each dollar of revenue loss would increase real GDP by more than a dollar if households spent at least 50 cents of every rebate dollar.

The evidence is now in and that optimism was unwarranted. Recent government statistics show that only between 10% and 20% of the rebate dollars were spent. The rebates added nearly $80 billion to the permanent national debt but less than $20 billion to consumer spending. This experience confirms earlier studies showing that one-time tax rebates are not a cost-effective way to increase economic activity.

These conclusions are significant for evaluating the likely impact of Barack Obama's recent proposal to distribute $1,000 rebate checks to low- and middle-income workers at an estimated cost of approximately $65 billion. His plan, to finance those rebates with an extra tax on oil companies, would reduce investment in refining and exploration, keeping oil prices higher than they would otherwise be.

[…]

The distinction between one-time tax rebates and permanent changes in net income is also important for the debate about Mr. Obama's proposal to raise income and payroll taxes. Because those tax increases would be permanent, they would cause a substantial reduction in consumer spending and aggregate demand. Moreover, as taxpayers begin to focus on the possibility of such a future tax hike, they will reduce spending without waiting for such legislation to be enacted. If Mr. Obama is looking for a way to stimulate the economy, he could begin by discarding his proposal to increase future taxes.

The recent trend of our congresscritters dispensing “free money” to us plebes really worries me. First of all: the money ain’t “free,” no way, no how. It’s our tax money, which should be spent buying boxes of 7.62 mm ammunition, F-22s, and repairing the nation’s infrastructure… which sorely needs it… much more so than you or I need an extra $600.00 ~ $1,200.00 (recently) or $1,000.00 (as The Obamanon has proposed). The recent “stimulus,” which I was never fond of, also smacks of “bread and circuses.” And “smacks” is far too kind, coz freebies are freebies, and they’re highly addictive… to a certain class of people. OK, so I didn’t send MY stimulus check back, and I could have… as the US treasury still accepts checks, as far as I know. Nope. I spent it. All of it. And more. And my money went to The JA Pan Company’s Canon subsidiary. The great portion of America’s recent unexpected and highly stimulating extra money probably went to China, or Taiwan, or India… by way of Wally-World and the like. So…what good did the stimulus checks do us? Precious little, I’ll submit… and Mr. Feldstein’s analysis seems to support my gut feeling on this subject.

I’m amazed and saddened that The Obamanon’s supporters seem to like his $1,000.00 “rebate” proposal. But I suppose I shouldn’t be. We’re looking more and more like ancient Rome…every freakin’ day… complete with barbarians at the gate and politicians who simply don’t care.

Interesting times. Still.

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Via Blog-Bud Barry… here’s an interesting lil diversion, or, “Using your browser URL history to estimate gender.” Here are my results:

Likelihood of you being FEMALE is 24%
Likelihood of you being MALE is 76%

Site Male-Female Ratio

youtube.com 1

washingtonpost.com 1.15

pbs.org 0.9

timesonline.co.uk 1.56

lavasoft.com 1.25

realclearpolitics.com 1.82

eons.com 0.85

That raised my eyebrows a bit. Specifically the results for PBS’ site (slightly more women than men visiting) and the eons site, which is one of those oh-so-lame Boomer sites that seem to be popping up like weeds of late. I subscribed to eons last year and then forgot about it… only to return earlier this week because the site notified me that I had a “new message,” which turned out to be spam. So. I get the feeling Mike’s algorithm isn’t comprehensive… coz I’ve been to WAY more sites (today, even) than the results would indicate. As for the gender probability itself? That makes me wonder, too, as Barry’s results were 98% male. I’m thinking I need to pay more attention to my macho-quotient… or something.

But Mike’s toy is fun! Go have a look.

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Today’s Pic: Is yet another re-run. This time it’s one of my favorite shots from my “on the road” days… taken just outside the lil burg of Point Blank, Tejas… which is near Livingston, my home of record in The Lone Star State. I have absolutely NO idea why the name of the town tickled my fancy, but it certainly did.

Somewhere north of Houston... November, 1999.

Now That's A Fine Mess... A Couple of 'Em, Actually

OK, it’s from the Daily Report… but it ain’t about the Air Force, as such.

For Those Who Love McPeakisms: The Oregonian has published an ode to retired Air Force Gen. Tony McPeak, a former USAF Chief of Staff, who has opted--against what some would say is conventional wisdom for a military man--to support Barack Obama vice Vietnam War veteran John McCain in the upcoming Presidential race. The article touches on anecdotes from McPeak's early life and on his days as a Misty FAC (forward air controller) during the Vietnam War. There's more about McPeak on the campaign trail with the Obama crowd, who he says calls him to make an appearance with "about' five minutes' notice" McPeak left the Republican party, but as he describes it: "I was tossed out. I was tossed out by foolishness in Washington." Of Obama, McPeak says, "He has gut-fighting sidewalk smarts that have allowed him to prevail when people said he couldn't."

I subscribe to the “conventional wisdom for a military man” and I most certainly don’t love McPeakisms. As a matter of fact, I think Gen. McPeak might just be USAF’s worst chief of staff, ever. But The Oregonian article was interesting, if nothing else. I think the best part was in the sidebar, however, and I’ll quote:

Political: "Veterans for Bush" Oregon co-chairman, 2000; foreign policy adviser to presidential campaigns of Gov. Howard Dean, Sen. John Kerry and Sen. Barack Obama.

Note the highlighted bits; I think that’s a good sign. Let’s hope Gen. McPeak goes oh-for-three in his foreign policy advisor role, eh?

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This is about the Air Force, and I think it’s a great idea:

Wynne, Rethink Split Tanker Buy: The Department of Defense should consider awarding both Boeing and Northrop Grumman contracts to build new tanker aircraft for the Air Force, former Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne told the Daily Report yesterday. Wynne said in an interview having each contractor supply tankers at a rate of about 15 per year--equal to the amount that the winning bidder would provide under the current winner-take-all scenario of the Air Force's KC-X tanker recapitalization program--would be worth the extra cost. And it offers a way past the current legal impasse caused by Boeing's successful protest of USAF's contract award to Northrop in February. "I think a split buy right now is something that we have to examine," said Wynne, who stepped down June 20 amid disagreements with Defense Secretary Robert Gates. Keeping two suppliers would strengthen the industrial base, replace the Eisenhower-era KC-135 tankers more quickly, and maintain competition "well into the future," he said. The latter point is not trivial since the Air Force intends to procure about 500 new tankers overall to replace the KC-135s. Wynne said, when asked, he would support applying some of the $5 billion in added procurement funds that the Air Force will reportedly receive in Fiscal 2010 to cover the higher costs of supporting two tanker lines. "I would be willing to do that provided that the Congress supports that," he said. (For more Wynne comments on the KC-X tanker program, read Come Together by Splitting)

This is an interesting potential solution with at least two benefits. First, one would think both Northrop and Boeing would be satisfied if USAF decides to buy tankers from both companies (I have NO idea what the Europeans—read as EADS— would think about this, nor do I particularly care). Second, USAF speeds up the tanker recapitalization program, which is already something like five frickin’ years behind schedule.

But… reality tells me SecDef Gates or John Young, the point guy for the tanker re-bid, are unlikely to take the advice of a recently sacked, newly-minted former Secretary of the Air Force. Especially given the fact it was Gates hissownself who fired Mr. Wynne. One can hope, though.

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Quote of the Month (so far): Kinky Friedman, on Bill O’Reilly last evening: “I’m too young for Medicare and too old for women to care…” Said pearl of wisdom was just a throw-away line Friedman used to describe himself as “an older American.” And Boy Howdy, is he ever correct on the “too old for women to care” bit. Painfully so, I might add.

I really, really like Kinky. So much so I actually voted for him when he ran for guv’nor of Texas a couple of years ago. Why? Coz I like his politics. Yeah, I know… I threw away my vote, and shame on me for it. Don’t go drawing any parallels between the Tejas gov’nor race and the current presidential election, though. It’s apples and oranges, if there ever was such a case.

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Today’s Pic: Something that didn’t make the cut last week: a right-royal mess. Pictured above is two pics of the aftermath of an exploding can of Dr. Pepper, and the clean up took me the better part of half an hour. You’d be amazed, Gentle Reader, at just how far pop/soda/coke can travel under pressure. I found Dr. Pepper inside my shower (how it squirted from in front of the fridge all the way into the bathroom remains something of a mystery) about a half an hour after I thought I’d finished the clean-up, and found a streak of same on the kitchen ceiling the following day. I previously cleaned the entire kitchen space but neglected to look up. Silly me.

So, how did that can explode, you may ask? I dropped it on the floor…the carpeted floor… while opening the 12-pack to put it in the fridge. I was holding the package on the back of the banquette (pic 001) while attempting to remove the perforated end of the box… and then…the package burst and ten of the 12 cans tumbled to the floor, one of which exploded. This was probably something of a freak accident, and it’s small beer in the general scheme of things. Which, of course, is why these photos didn’t make the cut last week when the event actually happened. This week, though, I’m scraping the bottom of the photo barrel. Lucky you, eh?

And now I think I’m gonna try and get some sleep. I’ve been up all night, yet again.

Inverted... And Other Complaints

Yesterday was a total bust for me. Mind you, nothing bad happened… nothing happened at all, actually. I’m in yet another one of my circadian rhythm upside-down periods. As a matter of fact, I’d be the quintessential out-of-time, off-the-beat White Boy if you needed circadian rhythm to dance. Wait… I AM the quintessential White Boy when it comes to dancing, so…never mind. So, there I was yesterday morning, watching the sun come up after being awake all night and trying to decide whether to (a) put the coffee on and blow this sleep thingie off altogether or (b) go to bed. I opted for Plan B and slept until 1300 hrs. The upshot of all this is the day was truly GONE after I’d finished my “morning” coffee, which was just after 1600 hrs (it takes me at least three hours to drink that whole pot, ya know).

And today? Only slightly better…awake until 0300 (or so) and up at 1100 hrs. The Boys tell me not to worry about this because I’m retired, aren’t I? I have nowhere to be, nowhere to go, no one to answer to, and all that (TSMP’s final words of the day to me… more often than not… were almost always spoken as I laid asleep on the couch: “Come to bed, Buck”). But I DO worry. Being out of phase with the rest of the civilized world isn’t a Good Thing, in my book. And it’s definitely raised havoc with my blogging. Which, of course, begs the question: “Well, if you’re up all night, why not blog?” The answer is similar to what any whiny, petulant two-year old would give: “Because I don’t want to!” (You may add a couple of imaginary foot-stomps to increase the street-cred of that statement, if you like. I did.)

{sigh} This, too, shall pass. I think.

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The weather has been strange over the last 48 hours, as well. The sky has been cloudy all day for the last two days, and that’s very unusual for my home on the range. Cloudy… as in a continuous, horizon-to-horizon cover of dark gray, low-scudding clouds that threaten rain but never deliver. The radar picture around Portales these past two days has shown lots of precip all around us, but not ON us. The constant cloud cover has made it unseasonably cool, too. Our high yesterday was only 80; today it’s supposed to be 74. The average temp for this time of year is 91. So, it’s nice to get a break in one respect, but it would be nicer yet if the coolness was accompanied by rain. It would be perfect, as a matter of fact.

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We seem to be on something of a bitch-moan-complain roll here, so let’s add one more thing. I finally received my Detroit Red Wings 2008 Stanley Cup Champions Locker Room T-shirt (yep, that’s the full title) last week, which was ordered from NHL.com the day after the Wings won The Cup. I’m not complaining about how long it took the shirt to get here… I expected some sort of delay, as the shirt was back-ordered the day I bought it. Nope, it’s the quality of the shirt, or lack of same. First of all, Honduras (where the shirt was made) must be a veritable Land O’ Giants, coz I’m swimming in my Medium sized shirt, which appears to be half again as large as other “medium” tee shirts I’ve bought recently. That’s bad enough, but the neck hole is also waaay too large, resembling a woman’s scoop-necked blouse rather than a tee shirt. And the shirt hasn’t even made its first journey to the Laundromat yet.

I have a feeling this will be one souvenir tee shirt that will last, mainly because I won’t be wearing such a poorly-made garment much, if at all. I hate it, and I mean really HATE it, when this happens.

OTOH, SN1 has no complaints about his shirt… which is different than mine. Maybe I’ll buy one of those.

―:☺:―

OK, enough personal bitching. Let’s get on to some bitching, nation-wide. The Obamanon’s widely-commented on “move to the center” continues apace. Now that Barack has pissed off the loony-left with his apparent reversal on the FISA Bill (MFC Greenwald has a new rant on this subject today), he’s trying to make nice with the entire US military. That’s all well and good, I suppose, but Barack is gonna have a long, hard road gaining the trust he needs after making statements like this:

Obama says he’ll call the Joint Chiefs in once he’s inaugurated and give them a new mission: “End the war.” Not WIN the war, but end it. Words mean something, and Obama’s word choice on this subject doesn’t give me a warm and fuzzy feeling. Obama also says his position has remained consistent over the last few months (and years) and I believe him on this one point, at least. He’s been consistent and wrong on the subject of Iraq for as long as I’ve been paying attention to him and his speeches. And he’s certainly not above mischaracterizing Senator McCain’s position, either… when he uses words that accuse McCain of wanting to perpetuate the war. McCain is quite clear: he wants to WIN. Obama is much less clear, but “ending the war” without mentioning (or apparently even considering) the outcome…whether we win or lose… is shallow and irresponsible in the extreme.

Good luck gaining that “trust” thing with the military, Senator O. You’ll need lots of it. Luck, that is.

Drilling

One of the things that bugs the Hell out of me about the current “energy debate” is how our loyal, patriotic, and oh-so-concerned-about-OUR-welfare Democrats distort… nay, totally misrepresent… the issue of domestic oil drilling. There IS a Democrat Party Line in this space and it goes something like this (from the Las Vegas Review-Journal, via The Obamanon’s web site):

Oil companies, he said, already have drilling rights to millions of acres of federal land, "and yet they haven't touched it," Obama said. "John McCain wants to give them more when they're not using what they already have."

The companies ought to pay a fine on drilling rights they're holding but not using, he said.

Well, now. That Las Vegas speech drew some attention from the editorial page of the Wall Street Journal Monday:

"I want you to think about this," Barack Obama said in Las Vegas last week. "The oil companies have already been given 68 million acres of federal land, both onshore and offshore, to drill. They're allowed to drill it, and yet they haven't touched it – 68 million acres that have the potential to nearly double America's total oil production."

Wow, how come the oil companies didn't think of that?

Perhaps because the notion is obviously false – at least to anyone who knows how oil and gas exploration actually works. Predictably, however, Mr. Obama's claim is also the mantra of Nancy Pelosi, Barbara Boxer, John Kerry, Nick Rahall and others writing Congressional energy policy. As a public service, here's a remedial education.

[…]

To deflect the GOP effort to relax the offshore-drilling ban – and thus boost supply while demand will remain strong – Democrats also say that most of the current leases are "nonproducing." The idea comes from a "special report" prepared by the Democratic staff of the House Resources Committee, chaired by Mr. Rahall. "If we extrapolate from today's production rates on federal lands and waters," the authors write, the oil companies could "nearly double total U.S. oil production" (their emphasis).

In other words, these whiz kids assume that every acre of every lease holds the same amount of oil and gas. Yet the existence of a lease does not guarantee that the geology holds recoverable resources. Brian Kennedy of the Institute for Energy Research quips that, using the same extrapolation, the 9.4 billion acres of the currently nonproducing moon should yield 654 million barrels of oil per day.

There’s much more at the link, and it's all good. Whenever I see or hear the Democrats’ arguments against domestic drilling, I naturally assume they’re both arrogant and insulting. Arrogant because they truly believe they have the only answer(s) to our energy problems, and they most certainly don’t. And they (Obama, Reid, Pelosi, Emmanuel) are insulting because they obviously expect me to believe this shit. Why else would they repeat the same erroneous, discredited crap over and over and over again? And they know they’re wrong, too. Further from the WSJ:

Yet companies are not allowed to explore where the biggest prospects for oil and gas may exist – especially on the Outer Continental Shelf. Seven of the top 20 U.S. oil fields are now located in analogous deepwater areas (greater than 1,000 feet) in the Gulf of Mexico. In 2006, Chevron discovered what is likely to be the largest American oil find since Prudhoe, drilled in 7,000 feet of water and more than 20,000 feet under the sea floor. The Wilcox formation may have an upper end of 15 billion barrels of recoverable oil and should begin producing by 2014 – perhaps ushering in a new ultradeepwater frontier.

Likewise, in April, the U.S. Geological Survey revised its estimate for the Bakken Shale, underneath the badlands of North Dakota and Montana. The new assessment – as much as 4.3 billion barrels of oil – is a 25-fold increase over what the Survey believed in 1995. Such breakthroughs confirm that very large reserves exist, if only Congress would let business get at them.

All of which has Democrats sweating bullets. The leadership is desperate to avoid debating a Department of Interior spending bill, because they know Republicans will offer amendments lifting the drilling moratorium that may peel off some Democrats. Last week, Chairman David Obey shut down the Appropriations Committee rather than countenance more domestic energy production. Given Democratic energy illiteracy, this is a fight the GOP can win if it keeps up the pressure.

Sweating bullets, indeed. Some Blue Dog Dems are already raising red flags to the House leadership. Like this (from yesterday’s The Hill):

Lampson penned a letter to House Democratic leaders last week asking them to chart a completely new course.

“The rancor and incivility with which this debate has been waged thus far has overshadowed the true policy concerns we must address and is unacceptable to the American people who look to us for leadership and solutions,” Lampson wrote. “We will not be able to accomplish anything, let alone lead our nation to energy independence, if we are unable to have a civil debate and are unwilling to allow all options on the table.”

But Lampson’s plea may have — at least for the time being — fallen on deaf ears.

The same day Lampson issued his letter, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) declared her caucus united and ready to fight against Republican efforts to open up more coastal areas to exploration.

Representative Lampson is from Texas, by the way, a Big Oil state. And he is vulnerable this coming November, too. So…some Dems get it, especially when there’s “enlightened self-interest” at work, eh? I mean… look at the tea leaves. The puzzlement is in the Dems steadfast refusal to change their policies. OTOH, it’s just that ol’ Democrat arrogance, ain’t it? They’re right and damn the facts or what Americans think.

Business as usual.

Shock...and A Cautionary Tale

Shocker: Tim Russert died yesterday… at age 58… and that’s waaay too young to leave this mortal plane. He died with his boots on, so to speak, collapsing at work while editing voice-overs for this Sunday’s Meet the Press. It was very clear yesterday just how respected…if not loved… Mr. Russert was. Both my “must-see” news programs (Special Report with Brit Hume and The News Hour) ran touching tribute segments on Mr. Russert, his career, and his considerable impact on American political journalism. Not everyone is conceding the media’s right to eulogize one of their leading-lights, however:

MSNBC has been running nothing but a 5 hour (and presumably it will go until 11 pm or beyond) marathon of Russert remembrance. CNN has done their due diligence, and Fox news has spent at least the last half hour talking non-stop about him.
But let’s get something straight- what I am watching right now on the cable news shows is indicative of the problem- no clearer demonstration of the fact that they consider themselves to be players and the insiders and, well, part of the village, is needed. This is precisely the problem. They have walked the corridors of power so long that they honestly think they are the story. It is creepy and sick and the reason politicians get away with all the crap they get away with these days.

Tim Russert was a newsman. He was not the Pope. This is not the JFK assassination, or Reagan’s death, or the Space Shuttle Challenger explosion. A newsman died. We know you miss him, but please shut up and get back to work.

Yeah, and MS-NBC’s tribute lasted only a few hours on the very day Mr. Russert died, too. You’re a small, small person to begrudge them their grief and their tribute, Mr. Cole. But that’s entirely in character for you. Frickin’ moonbat.

RIP, Tim Russert. You’ll be missed.

―:☺:―

Sound familiar?

WASHINGTON — Thanks in no small part to Justice Antonin Scalia’s dire warning that granting Guantánamo detainees access to habeas corpus “will almost certainly cause more Americans to be killed,” the Supreme Court finds itself on the verge of becoming something that it has not been for many election cycles — a campaign issue.

Senator John McCain, the presumed Republican presidential nominee, opened a town-hall-style meeting in New Jersey on Friday morning by telling the crowd of 1,500 people that the Supreme Court “rendered a decision yesterday that I think is one of the worst decisions in the history of this country.”

Mr. McCain’s initial response to the court’s 5-to-4 ruling in Boumediene v. Bush had been considerably milder. The decision “obviously concerns me,” he said on Thursday afternoon.

But overnight, the prospect of using the decision as a rallying point seemed to occur to many conservatives simultaneously. The ruling has “teed up the Supreme Court issue nicely for the G.O.P.,” Curt Levey of the Committee for Justice, a group that advocates for Republican judicial nominees, wrote on his blog. The Wall Street Journal’s editorial page quoted Justice Robert H. Jackson’s famous observation that the Constitution is not a suicide pact and added, with reference to the author of Thursday’s majority opinion, “About Anthony Kennedy’s Constitution, we’re not so sure.”

Well, it should…assuming you’ve been reading EIP for a while. The war on Islamic Fascism is the defining issue, as far as I’m concerned, in this year’s presidential election…or, to put it another way… who’s gonna bring me more dead terrorists, McCain or Obama? But filling Supreme Court vacancies is my second defining issue, for reasons that should be entirely obvious now, even to the clue-impaired. From the WSJ:

The court split along typical ideological lines, with Justice Kennedy, the maverick conservative, writing the majority opinion joined by the four liberal-leaning justices, Mr. Souter along with John Paul Stevens, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer. Chief Justice John Roberts dissented, joined by Justices Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito.

[…]

The two senators running to succeed Mr. Bush had different reactions to the ruling, reflecting the differences they have with the president's detention policies. The ruling may highlight to voters the president's role in appointing Supreme Court justices.

Republican John McCain, who supported the Military Commissions Act provision struck down Thursday, said of the ruling: "it obviously concerns me. These are unlawful combatants, they are not American citizens." He added that since the court had spoken, it was time "to move forward. As you know I always favored closing Guantanamo Bay and I still think we ought to do that."

Democrat Barack Obama praised the ruling as "an important step toward re-establishing our credibility as a nation committed to the rule of law, and rejecting a false choice between fighting terrorism and respecting habeas corpus." The Illinois senator said he had opposed the Military Commissions Act in part "because its sloppiness would inevitably lead to the court, once again, rejecting the administration's extreme legal position."

One of these two men… Obama or McCain… depending on the outcome of this November’s election, will nominate at least one, if not three, members to the Supreme Court. Justice Stevens is 88 years old, Justice Ginsburg is 75, and Justice Kennedy is 71. At least two of these three have mused about retiring in the very recent past. All three sided with the majority in Boumediene. If the tea leaves are correct and the congress becomes overwhelmingly Democratic, Obama’s nominations will sail through virtually unimpeded. We’ll survive a single-term Obama presidency, if push comes to shove. But will we survive a liberal Supreme Court that will last at least one generation, if not more? I’m not willing to roll the dice on that one.

Americans have a God-given right, enshrined in our Constitution, to vote for whomever they please. Americans have a God-given right to be stupid, too. I’ve read a LOT of stupidity...and there's no other word for it... emanating from the mouths of so-called “conservatives” of late…stupidity in the form of “I’ll vote Libertarian” or “I’ll vote independent” or “I’ll stay home, rather than vote for McCain.” Any one of those actions is nothing more than an Obama-enabler, coz that’s the way our system works… like it or not. And by enabling Obama, you enable a Liberal Court.

Think about that… long and hard. You have a God-given right to be stupid, but I hope you choose not to exercise it. To say “there’s a lot at stake in this election” belabors the obvious.

Further: Lex put up a good post yesterday on the impact of the Boumediene decision on the war and the military, specifically.

The fact that two co-equal branches of government co-operated to create the Detainee Treatment and Military Commission Acts does not in itself overthrow the principle of judicial supremacy. Justice Kennedy gets to be The Decider.

The fact that of the many detainees who challenge their detention in court, some will be released and some of those find a way back to the killing fields is neither novel, nor, really any barrier to those who interpret law: If you cannot prove forensically that a terrorist committed a crime, you may not legally restrain him for what he might do. So, tighten up those chain-of-custody procedures, soldier.

The fact that the Supremes have decided, having offered the President and Congress the opportunity to get it right, that they hadn’t after all does rather smack of a hubristic declaration that, “We don’t actually have a plan, we just know that we don’t like yours.”

It just sucks.

Good stuff.

A Few of My Sunday Reads...

Interesting, and offered without (much) comment… “Yes, Dear. Tonight Again.” Excerpt:

LET’S say you and your spouse haven’t had sex in so long that you can’t remember the last time you did. Not the day. Not the month. Maybe not even the season. Would you look for gratification elsewhere? Would you file for divorce? Or would you turn to your mate and say, “Honey, you know, I’ve been thinking. Why don’t we do it for the next 365 days in a row?”

That’s more or less what happened to Charla and Brad Muller. And in another example of an erotic adventure supplanting married ennui, a second couple, Annie and Douglas Brown, embarked on a similar, if abbreviated journey: 101 straight days of post-nuptial sex.

Both couples document their exploits in books published this month, the latest entries in what is almost a mini-genre of books offering advice about the “sex-starved marriage.” The couples, though, are hardly similar. The Mullers are Bible-studying steak-eating Republicans from Charlotte, N.C. The Browns are backpacking multigrain northerners who moved to Boulder, Colo. The Mullers’ book, “365 Nights,” is rather modest and circumspect in its details. The Browns’ book, “Just Do It,” almost makes the reader feel part of a threesome, sharing everything they used to stimulate sexual desire (it’s hard to visualize and even harder to explain).

I’m entirely serious when I say the article is interesting. What it’s not is titillating…it’s simply informative and illuminating in a clinical sort of way. Sex is probably everyone’s favorite subject, and there’s definite interest even if it’s not a fave, eh? After all, this story is today’s “most e-mailed” article from the NYT. It doesn’t crack the Top Ten in the “blogged” category though.

―:☺:―

Also from the NYT:

THE sandwich was perfectly executed: an overgenerous helping of fresh Dungeness crab meat, dressed in a gossamer coating of mayonnaise and piled between two warm slices of sourdough bread that had been scrubbed with garlic and griddled crisp. The drinks were excellent, too: a split of Laurent-Perrier Champagne for my girlfriend; a tall, ice-cold glass of hoppy Anchor Steam Beer for me. And the view at our walk-up, alfresco table was impossible to beat: palm trees swayed, sailboat masts bobbed and, in the distance, the Bay Bridge stretched out across foggy San Francisco Bay.

The service was unobtrusive, except for one thing: we were encouraged to put down our sandwiches and stand up when the national anthem came over the public address system. We were, after all, dining in the company of about 40,000 other people, at AT&T Park in San Francisco.

I spent a few weekends after opening day this year bopping around to 10 American cities, where I ate my way through 12 major league ballparks. My mission: to hoover down a shameful number of hot dogs and to sample the increasingly ambitious and occasionally delicious world of ballpark cuisine beyond peanuts and Cracker Jack.

Mmmmm! Sushi! But I digress... Great ball park food? Who’d a thunk it? I was hungry after finishing “Buy Me Some Sushi and Baby Back Ribs.” SFO and Seattle get kudos, NYC’s ball parks don’t fare so well.

―:☺:―

Lotsa folks are linking Fred Kagan’s “Voting for Commander in Chief” today… and I’ll pile on, too. The contrasts Mr. Kagan paints between Senators Obama and McCain are both stark and revealing. There are lotsa links and lotsa quoted sources that substantiate and re-enforce Mr. Kagan’s analysis. Excerpt:

For any voter trying to choose between the two candidates for commander in chief, there is no better test than this: When American strategy in a critical theater was up for grabs, John McCain proposed a highly unpopular and risky path, which he accurately predicted could lead to success. Barack Obama proposed a popular and politically safe route that would have led to an unnecessary and debilitating American defeat at the hands of al Qaeda.

The two men brought different backgrounds to the test, of course. In January 2007, McCain had been a senator for 20 years and had served in the military for 23 years. Obama had been a senator for 2 years and before that was a state legislator, lawyer, and community organizer. But neither presidential candidates nor the commander in chief gets to choose the tests that history brings. Once in office, the one elected must perform.

Those are the final two grafs in Mr. Kagan’s excellent article. The meat is in how he came to these conclusions, though. Do go.

―:☺:―

And finally… I was watching the Journal Editorial Report on Fox News Channel yesterday and did something of a double take when they got to the “Winners and losers, picks and pans, ‘Hits and Misses,’ best and the worst of the week (their words)” part of the program. One of the Talking Heads said “Winner…the Detroit Red Wings, for winning the NHL’s Stanley Cup. Detroit, and Michigan in general, have been losing a lot lately. The Red Wings winning the Stanley Cup makes them Number One in something, at last…and it’s a great morale booster for Detroit and all of Michigan.” Complete with video of a couple of Wings’ goals and Nick Lidstrom raising the Cup. How very cool. And very unexpected. I love it when that happens.

(Note: FNC hasn’t posted a transcript of yesterday’s show, yet. I’m quoting from memory, but I’m reasonably close.)

What Must Pass for a Post....These Days

In my second “Amazon Marketing E-Mail” post in as many weeks… I give you the Krups B-95 Home Beer-Tap System. This was but one item in the first of what I suspect…strongly suspect… will be many Fathers Day love notes from Amazon. If I were still living my old life I’d have me one of these. Or two. Coz it’s foolish to limit one’s self to just ONE brand of beer. OTOH, the reviews say it only works with Heineken “draughtkegs,” so mebbe not. Actually, most definitely not.

As it’s said: “So many beers, so little time.” And Dutch mass-produced beer, while better than Bud, Miller, or Coors (ptui!), is still mass-produced, lowest common denominator beer.

Yeah, I AM a beer snob. So sue me.

―:☺:―

Bo Diddley is dead…

Bo Diddley, a singer and guitarist who invented his own name, his own guitars, his own beat and, with a handful of other musical pioneers, rock ’n’ roll itself, died Monday at his home in Archer, Fla . He was 79.

[…]

In the 1950s, Mr. Diddley — along with Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis and a few others — helped reshape the sound of popular music worldwide, building it on the templates of blues, southern gospel and rhythm and blues. His original style of R&B influenced generations of musicians. And his Bo Diddley syncopated beat — three strokes/rest/two strokes — became a stock rhythm of rock ’n’ roll.

There’s lots more at the link, above… including some fine history if you’re a lil bit short in that space.

All those named in the excerpt above (and Elvis! who is strangely absent) were my heroes as I came of age back in the mid- and late ‘50s. And they helped me drive the Old Man nuts, too, which, of course, is one of the prime objectives of teen-agers anywhere and everywhere. My Mom, on the other hand, was (at the very least) an accomplice in driving the Ol Man nuts, if not a partner-in-crime. Mom took to rock ‘n’ roll like the proverbial duck to water. That fact didn’t raise my eyebrows until much, much later in life when I realized what an exception she was, as compared to most moms her age, and most especially where rock ‘n’ roll was concerned. Mom would have hated actively disliked Tipper Gore & Friends.

RIP, Mr. Diddley…and thank you.

―:☺:―

So… here we sit, a little over four hours from the time the puck hits the ice at Joe Louis Arena, wondering if tonight will really be THE night, or if we'll we have to wait another two, four, or more days until the Wings raise the Cup. (Don't even say what you might be thinking, Gentle Reader.)

As for yourself, Gentle Reader, you’re probably glad all this Cup Craziness is coming to an end. After all, hockey has been about the only thing on the menu here at EIP since mid-April. I can understand how non-fans might think it’s getting just a wee bit old. So… I’ll promise you this: if the Wings win tonight there will only be one more hockey post until October.

Well, OK… that’s a lie. There will be at least two. I’ll have to post pics of the parade, ya know.

Just Before the Game Starts...

Which city in the world has the most billionaires? The answer might surprise ya… I sure was (surprised). It ain’t Noo Yawk but you’d be close, if that was your guess. And Bill Gates is no longer the richest person in the world. He’s slipped to Number Three. Poor Bill, eh?

―:☺:―

Your elected officials (if ya live in Florida) at work:

TALLAHASSEE, Florida (Reuters) - Senate lawmakers in Florida have voted to ban the fake bull testicles that dangle from the trailer hitches of many trucks and cars throughout the state.

Republican Sen. Cary Baker, a gun shop owner from Eustis, Florida, called the adornments offensive and proposed the ban. Motorists would be fined $60 for displaying the novelty items, which are known by brand names like "Truck Nutz" and resemble the south end of a bull moving north.

The Florida Senate voted last week to add the measure to a broader transportation bill, but it is not included in the House version.

In a spirited debate laced with double entendre, Senate lawmakers questioned whether the state should curtail freedom of expression in vehicle accessories.

Critics of the ban included the Senate Rules Chairman, Sen. Jim King, a Jacksonville Republican whose truck sported a pair until his wife protested.

The bill's sponsor doubted it would succeed.

"It's probably not going to make it through the process," Baker said on Thursday. "It won't be much of story in a few days."

Yep, they got no balls, those guys… and they don’t want YOU to have any, either. Not visibly, anyway.

Don’t these guys have something better to do? Like change the date on the state’s primary election, or something? Anything?

―:☺:―

One of the downsides of the hockey play-offs is the games pre-empt things I would otherwise watch… for reasons various and sundry. A classic example: The Obamanon’s former pastor, Reverend Wright, was on Bill Moyers Journal (transcript here, which I haven’t read, yet. But I will. After hockey.) last evening for an extended interview, in case you missed all the brouhaha surrounding this very public event.

Fox News touched on Wright-Moyers lightly, but CNN had extensive clips from the show and waaay too much “analysis” on the subject, which devolved into both extended navel-gazing interspersed with moments of highly charged, partisan argument between Hillary and Obama supporters. But… I don’t have first-hand knowledge of the interview itself because, as noted, I was watching hockey all evening and late into the night. That said, Ann Althouse has a lengthy and quite good post up on the subject today… if you’re at all interested. Excerpt:

Moyers plays a long chunk of the sermon that ends "God damn America," and asks "What did you mean when you said that?"

Wright answers that governments can deviate from the will of God and says "you are made in the image of God, you're not made in the image of any particular government." What should follow is a statement about the degree of allegiance people owe to their country, but Wright jumps to an invocation of free speech: "We have the freedom here in this country to talk about that publicly, whereas some other places, you're dead if say the wrong thing about your government."

At this point, Moyers could follow up either with a question about the allegiance religious people owe to a country they think has deviated from the will of God or a question about how, while it's true that Americans have free speech, free speech includes criticizing the things people say. But Moyers observes, inanely: "Well, you can be almost crucified for saying what you've said here in this country." Moyers extends his heartfelt sympathy to Wright for the suffering — the suffering of Christ! — he's endured over mere words.

Wright accepts the comforting: "That's true. That's true. But you can be crucified, you can be crucified publicly, you can be crucified by corporate-owned media." You know, you could be nailed to a cross or you could be lambasted in the media. The corporate-owned media. (Getting criticized on independent blogs may not quite equate with crucifixion. Maybe we bloggers correspond to mere flogging or piercing with thorns.)

Moyers and Wright are fellow-travelers in my view. Moyers, as an über-lib, has never met anyone critical of America he didn’t/doesn’t like. That said, Moyers is usually standard Friday-night fare for me… “know your enemy,” and all that. I was gonna do the UCR strike-out thingie with “enemy” and replace it with “opposition,” but…nope. Moyers IS the frickin’ enemy, as far as I’m concerned. I have a serious dislike for that guy. That’s putting it mildly.

Anyhoo. If you don’t want to wade through Moyers’ puff-piece, Ms. Althouse has the salient points. Long, it is, but quite good.

―:☺:―

And now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a hockey game to watch in about 10 minutes or so. One must prepare, ya know.