Dec
31
Happy New Year
December 31, 2008 | 2 Comments
Looking forward to a happy and healthy 2009, with the arrival of the bundle of joy only a bit more than a month away.
Dec
31
A stopped clock
December 31, 2008 | 3 Comments
I have many issues with Christopher Hitchens, but he basically said what I’ve always thought as regards Bill Maher and the sycophants in his audience. “This [Bush IQ jokes] is now the joke that stupid people laugh at”” Bravo. It really is true. It doesn’t take a creative genius to come up with the same [...]
Dec
30
History for Dummies (II)
December 30, 2008 | 2 Comments
Historical illiteracy is bad enough, but even more infuriating is encountering someone who thinks they have a good grasp on history but who in fact really knows nothing more than a few good quotes that they’ve heard mentioned somewhere else. Like biblical fundamentalists picking out pieces of scriptures divorced from all context, these would-be professors [...]
Dec
29
The attack of the beta male
December 29, 2008 | 1 Comment
The other McCain – Robert Stacy McCain – has very quickly become my favorite blogger, and with posts like this one, I think I know why. A “liberal beta male” — to use Allah’s tag — ponders his reproductive fitness: Can it really be right to have children when they’ll grow up in a world [...]
Dec
29
Apologies to Pennsylvania
December 29, 2008 | 6 Comments
It has long been my belief that Pennsylvania drivers are, bar none, the worst drivers known to humanity. I have not driven much in my old hometown of Ridgewood, Queens in a while, so I either forgot or never truly appreciated just how awful my hometown’s drivers are. The problem with Ridgewood-ites is that they [...]
Dec
23
Merry Christmas
December 23, 2008 | 1 Comment
I am leaving for New York in the early morning. Merry Christmas to you and all of your families.
Dec
23
Ouch
December 23, 2008 | Comments Off
I guess it’s a good thing we moved to the other side of the county. Merry Christmas, Montgomery County. I’m sure the rich folk in Bethesda are really happy they’re spending as much as they are in taxes.
Dec
23
Festivus for the rest of us
December 23, 2008 | Comments Off
Dang it, I somehow missed this happy celebration, a few blocks from my office. Well, in the other direction from where I usually walk.
Dec
23
History for Dummies
December 23, 2008 | 7 Comments
In the comments thread bemoaning the historical illiteracy of Americans, inspired by a poll showing that 25% of Americans deem Cheney to be the worst VP in history, a few fellow conservatives seem intent on imparting their own historical knowledge – or lack thereof. 3 yrs into the war, when France was about to ally [...]
Dec
22
He was
December 22, 2008 | Comments Off
I somehow missed the news of Conor Cruise O’Brien’s passing. His The Long Affair is one of the works that most closely resembles my own take of Thomas Jefferson. For a funny anecdote about O’Brien, here is Rick Brookhiser. I remember one editorial dinner at Van Galbraith’s (WFB must have been out of town). Much [...]
Dec
22
Same old Jets. Same old (and better) Giants
December 22, 2008 | Comments Off
Greg at Faith and Fear in Flushing encapsulates how I feel right about now. It sounds like I’m more of a Jets fan than Greg, but I’m eternally grateful that I also root for the other New York football team, because I’d be despondent right now if I only could fall back on the Jets. [...]
Dec
22
Good deed = bad politics?
December 22, 2008 | 3 Comments
Gateway Pundit talks about an under-reported aspect of the Bush presidency. For much of the past seven years, President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney have waged a clandestine operation inside the White House. It has involved thousands of military personnel, private presidential letters and meetings that were kept off their public calendars or sometimes [...]
Dec
22
I’m your huckleberry
December 22, 2008 | 1 Comment
John J. Miller pens this plea: Somebody should take on this important conservative project: a new, popular biography of Burke for the 21st century. Okay. Sounds like as good a follow-up to my dissertation as any. Of course, I wouldn’t exactly mind someone throwing a little advance or grant money my way for the project.
Dec
19
Rant of the week
December 19, 2008 | 2 Comments
This will be of absolutely no interest to anyone that is not a wrestling fan, so, basically one guy from Douglaston might appreciate this. If the critical acclaim that “The Wrestler” has been receiving teaches us anything, its that a well told story — yes, even one that claims most unapologetically to be about WRESTLING [...]
Dec
19
That’s an impressive biological trick
December 19, 2008 | Comments Off
I’m admittedly not the world’s most scientifically minded human being (and please let’s not rehash that conversation), but I am relatively certain that it is difficult to give birth – or at least have a due date – eight months after giving birth. But questions will no doubt persist.
Dec
19
You’re a complete idiot! Hey, why aren’t you responding to my comment substantively?
December 19, 2008 | 3 Comments
Is there anything funnier in the blogosphere than when someone posts a trollish, ad hominem attack in the comments section, but then whines when people don’t respond to the “substance” of their comment? I’m not singling out any particular comment, because the examples are legion. I just find the phenomenon to be one of the [...]
Dec
19
Real or fake?
December 19, 2008 | 4 Comments
Laura Ingraham is talking about the real vs. fake tree debate. When I was groiwing up, not only was our tree fake, but it was pitifully small. It wasn’t until I was a teenager did I realize, man, that is a tiny tree (roughly three feet). We eventually graduated to a seven footer, or, actually, [...]
Dec
19
The things I’ve done
December 19, 2008 | Comments Off
Via Mrs. Darwin comes this internet meme. The things I’ve actually done are in bold. 1. Started your own blog 2. Slept under the stars 3. Played in a band 4. Visited Hawaii 5. Watched a meteor shower 6. Given more than you can afford to charity 7. Been to Disneyland (I’ve been to -world, [...]
Dec
18
The anti-gift
December 18, 2008 | 1 Comment
If anyone decides to get this for our child, I will immediately get a restraining order – not only because dressing an infant girl as a cheerleader should be criminal, but because you’d be scarring them for life by associating them with the Lions. These and other “gifts” couresty of the Sports Guy.
Dec
17
Anglophile? Moi? Si.
December 17, 2008 | 2 Comments
I can no longer deny it. It is time for me to fess up. I am unrepentant anglophile. I just finished Moonraker and the short story collection Quantum of Solace, which completes, for me, the Ian Fleming Bond collection. This is on the heels of reading biographies of Wolsey and Thomas Moore, as well as [...]