The Main Event

President Bush has nominated conservative judge Samuel Alito to replace Justice Sandra Day O'Connor on the Supreme Court. By all accounts Alito is sharp and distinguished judge who has admirers in both the conservative and liberal camps (though the latter admire the man more than his judicial decisions).

This is the huge fight for which both sides have been waiting. Some have waited with keen anticipation; they live for the battle. Others have resigned themselves to a very unpleasant political season. And the Miers nomination is now relegated to a vaguely-remembered distraction.

Democratic Senator Harry Reid evidently told Bush in advance that he best not stir the pot with an Alito nomination. I'm sure that went over well.

Over at the The Huffington Post blog and Daily Kos the foot soldiers are ready for battle. Is the Bush administration ready? The Republicans? Conservatives? I don't usually agree with the manic liberal tendency to view all political conflicts as the mother of all fights, but I think they are right on this one. This battle will have to be fought on every level: in congress, in the press, on TV ads, through grass-roots activism, and in the back rooms where arms are twisted and ultimatums are issued through gritted teeth. The loser may be the party who cannot get their "independents" in line.

Jonah Goldberg, over at National Review Online, had this memorable call to arms:

"The seventh seal has been broken, the goat entrails point toward gotterdamerung, it's on."

Let's hope the goat entrails speak the truth this time.

Campaign money comes out of my mouth

How bad a blunder/betrayal was President Bush's signing of the unconstitutional McCain-Feingold campaign spending bill? Ask talk show hosts in Seattle, Washington.

According to the Seattle Times:

"Comments made by radio talk-show hosts this past summer supporting anti-gas-tax Initiative 912 should be considered in-kind political contributions, a Thurston County Superior Court judge reaffirmed Wednesday."

So now speech, when directed toward one side of a political fight in a looming election, can be treated like an envelope full of money.

I'm just curious, does anyone who watched billionare George Soros, Moveon.org, and a virtual infestation of 527 groups (exempt from McCain-Feingold) spend money in the last election really thing that we've removed filthy lucre from the political process?

Why couldn't we have had a Miers-like rebellion on that issue?

Hat tip to Michelle Malkin.

What Congress Did Is Disgusting

I was tempted to do the blogosphere version of dancing a jig, in celebration for Harriet Miers withdrawing her nomination to the Supreme Court. But I'm all about substance, as you faithful readers (all six of you) know, so I'll submerge my glee and instead focus on the negative; always an easy task when dealing with Washington.

One of the reasons the Miers controversy became so toxic is that it opened the Pandora's Box on the many other disapointments of the Bush administration. I say this as someone who voted (proudly) for W twice.

Among those disapointments, which include signing McCain-Feingold and ignoring our perforated borders, is this administration's tendency to spend like a sixteen-year-old with daddy's credit card. Writing in RealClearPolitics, John Stossel notes the response to a Senator's attempt to rein in this feasting at the public trough.

"How do [Senators] live with themselves?" Stossel asks.

They live quite confortably with our money is the real answer.

In his book After Liberalism: Mass Democracy and the Managerial State, Paul Edward Gottfried argues that we now live in a society organized around the handing out of spoils. Forget the supposed differences between Republican and Democratic governments; the reality, according to Gottfried, is that all politicians obtain and retain power by handing out the booty collected from you and I (and sometimes handed to you and I). While on the surface this may not be an original thesis, the mechanics of this process, as well as cultural change that influences the political process, are nicely ellucidated in this book.

Is Gottfried correct? One thing is certain: the second Bush term is not a convincing argument against Gottfried's thesis.

...but Miss Moneypenny Carries a Glock

It seems the new James Bond, Daniel Craig, doesn't like guns. He doesn't discriminate; he hates them all. He evidently makes no distinction between a gun in the hand of a robber, rapist, or terrorist, and a gun used by a law-abiding citizen to fend off or kill said robber, rapist, or terrorist. Sample the wisdom:

"I hate handguns. Handguns are used to shoot people and as long as they are around, people will shoot each other."

We are generally accustomed such sterling sociological analysis from the likes of Rosie "My Body Guards are Armed" O'Donnel or Michael More-on, whose body guard was recently detained for having a handgun in an airport. Yes, Daniel, handguns are used to shoot people. Many of those people are among the thousands of armed intruders who each year are shot or simply detered because a homeowner chose to not subject his family to the predations of the criminal class. In Britain, however, you can be arrested for using deadly force against an intruder on your own property.

"Bond" continues:

"Bullets have a nasty habit of finding their target and that's what's scary about them."

I think another movie icon said it better. From Dirty Harry:

"I don't mind shooting. As long as the right people get shot."

Amen, brother.

But Craig is rich and British. It is doubtful he goes home each night to anything other than top-notch security. Moreover, people like Craig can usually count on extensive police coverage in the areas in which they live. I wonder if the new 007 realizes that his precious London is now known for two things: draconian laws against self-defense (including pepper spray and knives) coupled with one of the highest crime rates in the civilized world? Curiously, reports from London would have us believe that the criminal class IS NOT following the laws against possession of knives and guns. Imagine that.

But then again, Daniel Craig probably doesn't spend a lot of time riding the tube.

UPDATE: (well, not really an update; more of an aside). Over at the No Treason blog, there is a related story on Brazil's attempt to ban handguns. The proposed measure was rejected firmly by 64% of Brazilian voters. It must be tough to be a socialist man of the people, only to have the people throw your authoritarian, statist nonsense back in your face.

I suppose this means that Daniel Craig will have to forgo using his Bond money to buy that Summer home in Brazil.

TIME Magazine: Best 100 Novels in English

I normally hate these lists. They either pander to modern political correctness or pander to the masses. This one is a bit different. There is no ranking, so there's no controversy over what criterion determined that Finnegans' Wake should out-rank Lolita, or similar such mysteries.

Arranged alphabetically, the list is a paragon of egalitarianism. All stand equal before the list. Unless, of course, your favorite work of literature did not make the list.

Most of my candidates are here: Lolita, Brideshead Revisited, Lucky Jim, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, Deliverance, and even The Big Sleep. All good choices, in my humble opinion.

Interestingly, C.S. Lewis' The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe made the list while Harry Potter did not. This is interesting only because the inclusion of Harry Potter on any list that doesn't avoid all children's literature has become obligatory.

Any outrages? Yes, of a sort. "Modern lit" is represented by the usual suspects, including Toni Morrison, Magaret Atwood, and Jonathan Franzen. I cannot comment on Franzen, whose The Corrections is weighty tome I have not even tried to read. But Morrison and Atwood are over-rated hacks who wear their weltanshaung on their sleeve (and in their text). Their inclusion is unsurprising, but particularly annoying given the outrageous exclusion of Mark Helprin, whose work -- both fiction and non-fiction --I have praised on this blog.

And finally, there is included in this list of the best novels, a work by Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons called Watchmen.

Isn't this a comic book?

The Pitfalls of Celebrity

Reality shows have given the common man (or woman) an opportunity to behave like Cameron Diaz or George Galloway. In other words, the opportunity to make an ass out of yourself in public. One of the exceptions to this egalitarian trend is "Extreme Makeover," the show that takes the truly needy and gives them a new house and a new lease on life. If you've seen the show you know it is one of the few reality shows that doesn't make you feel like you need a shower after viewing it.

There's a certain celebrity that comes from being rescued, but unlike some other reality show contestants, the "contestants" on Extreme Makeover seem to handle their new fame and fortune well.

However, Doug Goodale of Portland, Maine may be the exception. The recipient of a half-million dollar log house on an upcoming episode, Doug had a secret and now it's out: he's a felon. Which wouldn't be so bad if Doug had been convicted of passing bad checks or braiding hair without a license, but Doug's felony was of the armed and dangerous kind.

It seems that in 1982 (well before Doug lost his arm in a boating accident) Doug robbed a fast food restaraunt and forced the employees back into the cooler. Did I mention he was armed?

The interesting thing about this is not that a future 15-minute celebrity has a conviction from twenty-three years ago. Can you guess the punchline? Here it is: for the heinous act of armed robbery, Doug received from the state of Maine a 60-day sentence.

People forget how soft on crime this country was in the 1960's and 1970's; how long it took to even begin to turn the criminal justice system toward sanity; and how these liberal attitudes on crime hung on like grim death in the North East until the last decade or so.

No doubt Doug will now be raked over the coals. I mean, does a felon really deserve a $500,000 log cabin?

A more interesting exercise might be to seek out those who bestowed upon Doug 60-day sentence, which is roughly what you'd get if you refused to move your Nativity Scene off of public property, and subject their lives to a little scrutiny.

Now THAT would be a good reality show.

Mandela For Pres! Chomsky for VP!

File under "Proof Democracy Doesn't Work." From the BBC NEWS: Mandela wins BBC's 'global election'. Scroll down and read the other "winners," including Noam Chomsky, George Soros, and Kofi Annan.

Monarchy, anyone?

Spanish Judge Issues Warrants for Three U.S. Soldiers

Why am I surprised? A Spanish Judge Issued Warrants for Three U.S. Soldiers in connection with the accidental death of a Spanish journalist in Iraq. American soldiers, who claim to have been fired upon from the "Hotel Palestine," returned fire, "killing a Spanish reporter and Ukranian cameraman" according to Fox News (Now how could anything named after "Palestine" be a source of hostility?).

Of course, the deaths of these two men are tragic. As are the other deaths of non-combatants in a war. But journalists know there is an assumption of risk when you enter a war zone. No one seriously claims that the US soldiers were targeting journalists...

Oop! I forgot. The former head of news for CNN and all around piece of garbage, Eason Jordon, did just that at a forum of Euro-socialists and Scandinavian nut-jobs. This is after Easy Eason confessed that CNN had given Saddam Hussein, the Butcher of Bagdad, favorable coverage in exchange for reporter access (and speaking of favorable coverage for Hussein from CNN).

Now this Spanish judge, unhappy that the U.S. didn't hand over our soldiers in shackles, has called for their arrest, and presumably, their extradition to Spain.

Spain has a history of this. A Spanish judge issued an arrest warrent for Augusto Pinochet when the old Chilean dictator visited a British doctor.

I wonder: if a Cuban exile asked a Spanish court to issue an arrest warrent for Fidel Castro, do you think the judge would oblige? Given the pro-Castro slant of Spain's left-wing intelligencia, it is unlikely. In fact, Castro has visited Spain more than once, I believe, since the first poet was thrown in the dungeon in the early days of the Cuban revolution.

Assuming an imprisoned Cuban librarian ever gets out of the ALA's favorite gulag, perhaps he or she could take up residence in Spain and test my theory.

For now we can only marvel at the transparent agenda of the Spanish court. And I thought we had problems with judges.

Would it be too much to ask that our President say something about this? Yeah, I guess it would.

Castro's Library Pass (Part I)

If you are a regular reader of the conservative library blogs (and why wouldn't you be?), you have seen many words dedicated to exploring the hypocrisy and duplicity of the ALA's near-manic regard for "free speech," coupled with an old-fashioned fellow-travelers defense of the Cuban dictatorship. A systematic exploration of this spineless servitude to Castro is welcome.

Writing in FrontPage magazine.com, Walter Skold begins a four-part autopsy on the ALA's integrity.

My humble suggestion? Let us keep all four parts close at hand, until next years Banned Books Week, whereupon we should print out the full analysis and put it on our Banned Books table, along with the updated list of books that the Castro regime has consigned to the fire.

Many thanks to Tomeboy's Takes for alerting us to this article.

Mother Leaves 3-Year Old to Die in Hot Car

This is the kind of story that strains the limits of my blood pressure medicine. From South Carolina: Three-year-old Dominic Moody met his death in his mother’s hot car where she left him for five hours while she worked at a Blockbuster store.

If you think there are mitigating circumstances, think again. Her upstairs neighbor said he would've been happy to watch the child, but was not asked. When she found her child unconscious in the back seat of her sweltering car, she drove around for twenty minutes!

The "mother," Olivia L. Rozier, claims she was trying for twenty minutes to find someone who would dial 911. I guess the phones at Blockbuster Video are not equiped for 9-11 calls.

Here's the punch line: thee-year old "Dominic was wearing long pants, a shirt and a sweater."

It sounds like the mom -- no dad, of course -- was attempting to rid herself of the "burdon" of childrearing. Of course, it's quite possible the woman is just dumber than dirt. Either way, she should receive the harshest sentence possible, which I assume is Life Without Parole. What do you bet there's a whole gang of bleeding-heart pukes ready to proclaim this a horrible accident and plea for no jail time?

The blog Old Controller gets it just right:

"There isn't a penalty stiff enough for this moron. She should be sentenced to life in a cell wallpapered with photos of her son."

Or we could just bring back stoning...

Thanks to Old Controller for bringing this story to my attention. Although there's part of me that wishes I had never read about it.

PETA Commits Genocide Against Animals

Please excuse the hyperbolic, over-heated headline. I thought that some PETA-esque language was in order here. The meat-is-murder and animals-are-human crowd have been caught killing animals and disposing of them in a supermarket dumpster. The PETA workers have been charged with 25 felony counts in North Carolina, according to the Virginia Pilot.

Although a conservative (reactionary?) with a libertarian streak, I am a bleeding heart when it comes to animals. Animal cruelty is, for me, the mark of a base and souless person. I've always felt that the self-righteous inquisitors of the "animal rights" organizations make preventing cruelty to animals more difficult, not less. That members of PETA's materialist cult should be caught doing the very thing they supposedly abhor is not surprising. Much like the unions who hire temp workers to walk their picket lines for low wages and no benefits, or the organic farmers who treat their field hands like share-croppers from a hundred years ago, these wild-eyed militants embrace that which they allegedly despise because their philosophy springs not from an embracing of the natural order, but rather, from the rebellion against that order. Given the opportunity, they would put a guillotine in the public square and announce an end to cruelty.

Lest you think that these two indicted PETA felons are just bad apples spoiling the barrel, note please that PETA, rather than expelling the felons, is paying their legal fees.

Too, too sick-making.

When There Is No Law

I'm certain there are many stories from New Orleans that conveniently slip through the cracks in the main stream media because they do not reinforce stereotypes so precious to our guardians of information.

One of those taboo topics is self-defense.

Over at Civilian Gun Self-Defense Blog there's an interesting story from early September: a group of citizens who stayed during Hurricane Katrina found themselves a prime target for looters in the aftermath of the storm. Law enforcement, for obvious reasons, was not around. So rather than subject themselves to the mercy of the criminal class, they armed themselves, formed a militia, and deterred potential predators by firing shots in the air and letting all who approached know that failure to identify oneself could result getting shot.

They all survived the looting.

We've all heard stories that the original reports of rapes and murders among the victims of Katrina were greatly exaggerated. Examples such as this one suggest that the number of people robbed, raped, and murdered might be less than originally expected for a variety of reasons, one being self-defence.

Unless, of course, you are at a FEMA camp rather than your own home, in which case FEMA may try to ban your gun at their camp. No word from FEMA on whether hardened criminals or predators are complying with the firearms ban.

#%!!& Pinter wins $%#!! Nobel Prize

Please excuse the fake obscenities, but I thought it only fitting to celebrate Harold Pinter's Nobel Prize for anti-American politics with some potty mouth.

However, if you are bothered by ACTUAL obscenities, do not read further, as I reprint below one of Pinter's poems in protest of the Iraq war. As you finish each stanza, you should imagine those cartoon guys from the Guiness commercials yelling "Brilliant!"

[Mea culpa: I am a huge fan of the film of Pinter's play Betrayal. The three leads -- Jeromy Irons, Ben Kingsley, and Patricia Hodge -- actually are BRILLIANT. Hodge, particulary, has not gotten the credit she deserves on this side of the Atlantic]

Hallelullah!
It works.
We blew the shit out of them.

We blew the shit right back up their own ass
And out their fucking ears.

It works.
We blew the shit out of them.
They suffocated in their own shit!

Hallelullah.
Praise the Lord for all good things.

We blew them into fucking shit.
They are eating it.

Praise the Lord for all good things.

We blew their balls into shards of dust,
Into shards of fucking dust.

We did it.

Now I want you to come over here and kiss me on the mouth.

"Brilliant!!"

Remembering the U.S.S. Cole

Today is the five-year anniversary of the bombing of the USS Cole. Michelle Malkin and Catholic Friends of Israel both have news and some thoughtful insights on that terrible act of murder by Islamofascists.

Seventeen sailers were killed. Afterwards Yemeni Muslims danced the night away in celebration. Our response, as both Malkin and CFOI note, was "measured," which is another word for tepid and unlikely to deter.

Spend a moment today remembering the sacrifice of these seventeen patriots.

"Turn back the crop dusters"

I never intended to blog on a TV show, prefering to concentrate on books, libraries, politics, and other sundry topics. But I just cannot resist saying something about the brain damage I incurred last night while viewing COMMANDER IN CHIEF, a show that puts Geena Davis in the Oval Office.

President Davis (I cannot remember her character's name) got the job of VP after the real VP died. Then the President died, so she got the top slot. SOME people question whether she is up to the task. Because she's inexperienced? Because she got the job after two legitimate politicians spontaneously combusted? No, because of...sexism. (You know, the REAL reason why some of us question Harriet Mier's nomination).

One staffer talking to another staffer: "She's not a woman, she's the president."

Well, that's half right.

She won't let her kids attend private school (even though they obviously did before she became Pres.) because "Your father and I went to public school."

Mother of God! Even Bill Clinton knew better than to subject his daughter to the hellish underworld of the District of Criminals publik skool sistem.

In last night's scintillating tale, nine DEA agents are murdered by the dictator of San Pasquali (or something like that), a Latin American country which, until recently, had a democratically-elected president (who now conveniently lives in the DC area).

President Davis wants El Dictator arrested. Unable to do that without an indictment (I'm sure Austin, Texas DA Ronnie Earle would have obliged), Davis decides to eliminate the crops that are the source of dictator's drug-fueled tyranny. So she goes on TV and tells the American people of her intent to eradicate San Pasquali's chief export if the murderers of the DEA agents aren't brought to justice. Since everyone believes that the El Dictator is responsible, I'm not sure how this is supposed to work.

But then, in a dramatic move that defines this cutting edge drama, President Davis departs from her scripted remarks and calls upon the people of San Pasquali to rise up and arrest their dictator. It may seem to you utterly ridiculous that an American President would think her pleas could mobilize a country to do something extremely dangerous that they heretofore had shown no interest in doing. I certainly felt that way as my jaw continued in its free-fall.

Off go the planes to CROP DUST San Pasquali (bombers are actually engaged in such a situation, but this Pres practices non-violent military intervention). But before the pacifist crop dusters can arrive, the people of San Pasquali rise up, march on the capital city, and demand El Dictator's arrest (I'm imagining Dora the Explorer's "We did it!" dance).

President Davis, breathless with love for all of humanity, turns to her advisor, and says, "Turn back the crop dusters."

I was laughing so hard I fell off the couch.

Like its (much better written) predecessor, WEST WING, COMMANDER IN CHIEF is basically political pornography. It creates a fantasy world in which certain ideas and policies prevail, independent of their failure in real life. I was most astonished by the consequence-free policy: Female, independent (read:liberal) Pres locks horns with dictator, stands fast against tyranny, and never has to fire a shot in anger (or drop a bomb). Is this how creator Rod Lurie envisioned a Kerry or Gore presidency? He might want to confer with ex-pres Bill Clinton on that. Or perhaps ask anyone within ear-shot of that aspirin factory in the Sudan that Clinton bombed. Should Clinton have sent crop dusters to Somalia?

Rumor has it that creator/producer Lurie has been replaced by Steven Bochco (NYPD Blue, Hill Street Blues, Over There). This is virtually unheard of, as the creator of a certified hit is rarely given the shove. Bochco would certainly be the one to purge this show of its laughable storylines.

But then again, if millions of Americans are watching and enjoying this drek, why should they change it?

You Can Have My Internet When You Pry It From My Cold Dead Fingers

The moonbats at the Guardian are hoping that the moonbats at the UN will take regulatory control of the internet. This has to be read to be believed. The guys who gave us the Oil For Food Program, non-action on an impending massacre in Rwanda, full-time bashing of the Jewish state, and coddling of Islamic Fascism, are now going to regulate the United State's gift to the world.

There were evidently eleven days of hearings at the UN on this subject. According to the Guardian report:

"The issue of who should control the net had proved an extremely divisive issue...".

What evidently was NOT divisive was the question of whether the internet should be controlled or regulated at all.

Over at The Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiller, they are certain this will never take place:


"Isn’t it fun watching a bunch of incompetent, impotent idiots fighting among themselves over something that isn’t theirs and never will be theirs? We think it would be more productive for them to figure out just how they’re going to accomplish the hostile takeover before they start fighting over the spoils but hey, we’re as enamored of a retard cage match as the next Emperor, so by all means do continue."

'Nuff said.

"Lost in a Town of Books"

I'm reading Paul Collins' Sixpence House: Lost in a Town of Books. This memoir straddles two sub-genres of books: "Books About Books" and the "My Life in a Strange/Fascinating Place" books. The former category is a small, but stubborn sub-genre that still has its own section at your local Barnes & Noble. The latter is most represented by Peter Mayle's wonderful A Year in Provence, although I believe something called A HOUSE IN TUSCANY recently made a small, literary splash.

I happen to enjoy both of these sub-genres, so I was particularly keen on reading about a couple with young son moving to Hay on Wye, that famously bookish town on the border between Britain and Wales, dominated by Richard Booth, the owner of the town's largest (and most chaotic) bookstore, who is the self-declared "King of Hay." Although a former antiquarian myself, I never made the bibliophile's journey to Mecca. I live vicariously through those like Collins who find the place as fascinating as I no doubt would.

Hay on Wye is a town dominated by bookstores, all save one of which are antiquarian bookstores. In the words of Richard Booth: "A town needs a reason to live. (...) This town's reason to live is books." Collins wades into this rural, biblio-culture with a love of all things bookish and the skeptical eye of someone fed on non-fat lattes and mass transit.

Collins is writer who thrives on contrasts. Britain vs Wales, London vs Hay, America vs Britain or Wales, the suburbs vs the small town, chain bookstores vs the independents, all provide fuel for his often witty and occasionally profound observations. Being of a liberal bent, it is not surprising that Americans and conservative Britains come out of the comparison looking somewhat intellectually dessicated.

Example number one was a British game show during which the host departed from the script to make the case for Britain returning the Elgin Marbles to Greece. Collins is not certain the average Britain has ever heard of the Elgin Marbles, but is struck by the fact that in Britain you can get away with such a speech. "You are not allowed to do any of these things with the chimp's tea party that is the American audience, as it might interfere with their swinging their forearms about and yelling hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo-HOO!"

I confess to similar feelings when viewing American game show audiences, but why limit one's critical gaze to the pursuit of filthy lucre? Has Collins ever seen the cult-like rapture of the Oprah audience? Or the Koolaid drinkers who line up to see some America-hating starlet walk the red carpet with her enhanced boobs hanging out? Of course, Oprah and the starlet are cast from the same liberal political mold, so they might seem less egregious to the lefty writer/observer.

Myself, upon reading about the "brave" game-show host pontificating about cultural artifacts, I was reminded that the insufferable, politically-correct, psuedo-intellectual blather that has replaced real political discourse in Britain is not limited to the Anglican Church and the BBC.

Are Americans less well-read and cultured than their British counterparts? There was a time when one might have said yes, due in part to the differences in state schools in each country. Of course, the American public (state) schools are notoriously mediocre. They are also firmly under the yoke of the liberal ethos, and have been for at least thirty-five years. Could it be that those Americans who share Collins' worldview are also the same Americans who have turned our schools into the culture-free zones that Collins so dislikes?

Ten years ago I visited London. Walking through a Waterstones bookstore at lunchtime I was struck by a group of Londoners crowded around the "Classic Literature" section. With an hour to spare before rushing back to work, these hearty Brits were pawing over Jane Austin, Leo Tolstoy, and George Gissing. In America, the "Classic Literature" section has disapeared from most bookstores.

But does this mean anything?

Woody Allen once made a movie with references to Vincent Van Gogh and Rembrandt. The studio complained that no one would know those references. Allen had his staff go out into the streets and quiz New Yorkers, who, to their credit, knew all the famous names.

Does this prove anything other than that Londoners and New Yorkers are similarly exposed to at least the vestiges of Western civilization and culture?

An episode of the old John Cleese show, FAULTY TOWERS, provides an example closer to what Collins is trying to say. In the sitcom, Basil Faulty, the owner of the hotel, is berating the Spanish hotel porter, Manuel, over the latter's inability to accomplish a simple task. Frustrated, Faulty says, "This is not a proposition from Wittgenstein!" Laughter followed from the audience. Now I'm quite certain that the average British viewer of that sitcom is not conversant with the philosophy of Wittgenstein. But they got the joke: what Basil was asking the hotel porter to do is hardly the stuff of a dense, German, philosopher!

There is a cultural sense that is passed down from generation to generation. Your average Joe or Jane doesn't remember the details of Plato, Rembrandt, Mozart, or Henry James, but can count exposure to those people among their educational memories. Or they could until "education" became dominated by a frantic scramble to cram for the latest government-sponsored academic test, and increasingly interrupted by Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgendered tolerance day; Islam appreciation; and various other education-free indoctrination schemes devised by those education "intellectuals," who, like Collins' culturally-sensitive game show host, know what's best for all of us.

None of this detracts from Collins' wonderful tale of living in Wales amidst barns, books, and bibliophiles. You don't have to share Collins' good-natured elitism toward common folks to appreciate his love of lost treasures among the stacks and warehouses of the world's preeminent book town.

Besides, the last time I turned on British television, there were three men in a hot tub having a farting contest. I shan't view it again! I shan't!

Is Harriet Miers Trustworthy?

From Southern Methodist University, via National Review Online's blog, The Corner, here is a list of speakers invited to opine by the Raggio Lecture Series, an endowed feminist forum started by Harriet Miers, Bush's nominee to the Supreme Court. The embattled Miers, and her sponsoring president, face a torrent of criticism from conservative groups that seems to grow in strength and ferocity with each passing day.

The speakers from (Miers') Raggio forum:

1998: Gloria Steinem

1999: Patricia Schroeder

2000: Susan Faludi

2001: Gwen Ifill

2002: Geraldind Laybourne

2003: Ann Richards

2004: Colleen Barrett & Herb Kelleher

The speakers are supposed to be women, so I can only assume that Herb Kelleher is a pre-op transexual. Hopefully when "Herb" is invited back to opine, s/he will come sans the phallus that radical feminists find so offensive. After all, we have to keep the standards up.

But while I don't know anything about the comedy team of Barrett and Kelleher, I'm fairly certain that Steinem, Schroeder, Faludi, and Richards are all fanatically pro-abortion, including the partial birth kind. I'm sure this will go over well (not!) with those cultural/Christian conservatives whom Bush is trying to mullify with constant, if subtle, assurances that "Miers will vote our way; I promise!"

For myself, Miers' phobia of the conservative Federalist Society (she reportedly freaked when she found some of them on her staff) and her almost sexual attraction to the American Bar Association, a repugnant licensing organization (aren't they all?), says volumes about her future prospects on the court. To put it bluntly, Justice Breyer will eat her conservative lunch.

Miers' conservative supporters seem to honestly believe that her party allegience (Republican for many years) can just wash away any lingering doubts about her competency and commitment.

Paul Cella wonders if the Miers nomination is not part of a larger problem, one that is at least 40 years old, but has only come to fruition during this administration. A frustrating problem to be sure, especially for those of us who support the president (and voted for him twice) and appreciate everything he's done for this country.

The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe: Christian Propaganda?

Mea Culpa: I actually looked forward to the launching of the Huffington Post blog. While the head dominatrix, Ariana Huffington, had made a switch from right to left, I always thought she was fairly intelligent and more coherent than your average lefty moonbat. I thought -- as incredible as it may now seem -- that she might be attempting to re-establish intelligent liberalism, as opposed to Michael Moron liberalism, which is actually warmed-over radical chic, minus even the pretense of seriousness that Marxists have toward a subject.

I have been underwhelmed with the results. Every has-been, fruitcake, aura-cleansing freak of the left coast has found the Huffington Post a suitable bathroom wall onto which they scrawl their barely-coherent screeds. From the insufferable self-importance of Harry Shearer to the lunatic ramblings of Deepak Chopra (who really should be medicated, for his sake and ours) to the apocolyptic, superstitious psuedo-science of Robert Kennedy ("Sign Kyoto, or face the wrath of Katrina!!"), to view the H-Bomb is to enter a kind of left-wing blog asylum.

Recently, Michael Schaub of The Huffington Post took his turn at being head infant. According to Shaub, when Florida's Just Read, Florida program picked C. S. Lewis' THE LION, THE WITCH, AND THE WARDROBE as its latest book pick, this was a massive conspiracy between Bush, a billionaire republican doner, and the forces of darkness to "push Christian dogma on Florida schoolchildren." And to help out a rich Republican doner who evidently has a stake in the upcoming movie.

Yes, Michael, we all know how Hollywood and those movie-tie-ins benefit the right-wing cabal that has stolen American and turned it into Amerikkka.

Here is Michael Shaub's bio:

"Michael Schaub is the associate editor of Bookslut, a literary webzine, and coauthor of its blog. His work has appeared in the Washington Post Book World and The Austin Chronicle. He lives in Austin, Texas."

I have not had the pleasure of reading "Bookslut," but it sounds both charming and intelligent, not like those right-wing sites that are corrosive to intellectual discourse.

I notice that he hails from Austin, Texas. I did a little research. Austin had its own "Let's All Read A Book Together" love-in a while back, though not connected with their school system. The book "chosen" was THE HANDMAID'S TALE, a truly silly pro-abortion book by the vastly over-rated Margaret Atwood. In the futuristic tale the United States is taken over by pro-life militants who force women to procreate for the state. People like Shaub must flee to the utopian shores of Atwood's Canada, where you can still get a non-fat latte and an abortion at the same tax-payer-funded building.

Ah, if only the booksluts of the world would go to Canada. Or maybe "Palestine."

Bainbridge on more than wine

I have a link to Professor Bainbridge's wine blog, mostly to show how cultured I am while I secretly watch NASCAR and plot the elimination of all our civil liberties. I am, after all, a conservative librarian.

But Professor Bainbridge knows more than wine. A law professor at UCLA, he also has a political blog. This is a nice sample of his blogging prowess. Here Bainbridge defends those conservatives, like myself, who are supremely disapointed in Bush's pick for the SCOTUS, Harriet Miers.

I think the professor is on target here (when was the last time you said that about a professor?).

Don't kid yourself. The sky is falling.

But what if you're allergic to dust?

Were I not blissfully happy in my job as a private school librarian, I might like to make the move back to my first love, the Special Collections Library. I would need to brush up on my Latin. A refresher course in bibliographic notation might also be in order. Why the allure, you might ask, of a stuffy room with old books semi-sealed in protective boxes that must be "checked out" only for use in the immediate area after enduring some byzantine forms and rules?

There are many reasons, but one of them is artfully explained in RICHARD W. ORAM and EDWARD L. BISHOP's article The Sweet Smell of Provenance.

Most people in the book and library world have heard of The Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin. It is legendary for both the scope of its collection and the means by which it acquired some of its early treasures. Here, Oram and Bishop relate how the smell of a particular book, T.E Lawrence's copy of James Joyce's Ulysses, can tell us about the author, the owner of that copy, and the time in which the owner lived. This copy is especially valuable and coveted, because it is an "association copy," or one that adds to our knowledge of the book and its world by virtue of who owned it. T.E. Lawrence was, of course, the famed "Lawrence of Arabia."

"...Lawrence's copy of Ulysses is remarkable for its smell. The book has been shown to many visitors and students over the years. When it is carefully removed from the shelf and ceremoniously divested of its acid-free box, which helps preserve the volume, even from several inches away you can smell a sweet, somewhat smoky aroma that suffuses every bit of paper and leather. Many people assume it must be the residue of pipe tobacco, perhaps the fruit-scented variety. The aroma is a spur to the imagination, summoning up romantic visions of Lawrence by his fireside, puffing reflectively on a meerschaum, immersed in the drama of Leopold Bloom."

It would be easy to read too much into this. Indeed, the various "experts" who attempt, in an unscientific manner, to divine the source of the aroma wafting from this copy of Ulysses never to come to a definative answer. Pipe smoke, the article points out, was the accepted verdict, until some emminent Joyce fans reminded them that the author did not smoke a pipe. Deteriorated leather? Exhaust from Joyce's motorcycle? Licorice? The experts cannot agree.

Of course, the most telling comment about Ulysses came from Arnold Bennett, who claimed that with this book Joyce "had made novel-reading a form of penal servitude."

Then again, perhaps Bennett had never taken the time to really sniff the book.

No Retreat, No Surrender

Criminals, predators, and other products of the welfare state might want to reconsider living in Florida. This NRA Press Release celebrates the good news: Florida Governer Jeb Bush has signed the "Castle Doctrine self-defense law. This law repeals the old rule that stipulated that when attacked outside the home, the victim had to retreat rather than use deadly force to defend himself. In other words, what was good enough for a person's home is now good enough for a person's car, or "any place you have a right to be."

Mmm. Will this apply to a person's place of employment as well? The NRA press release sums up the new doctrine:

"The "Castle Doctrine" simply says that if a criminal breaks into your home, your occupied vehicle or your place of business, you may presume he is there to do bodily harm and you may use any force against him."

It gets better:

"Furthermore, this law provides protection from criminal prosecution and civil litigation for those who defend themselves from criminal attack."

At this point I would like to announce a new addition to the Pennyfeather family. In about a week we will become the proud owners of a new handgun, the Glock 9mm. We haven't selected a name yet. If it's a boy, we'll call him "Ocean," or maybe "Peace." If it's a girl, we'll name her after either Geena Davis or Cameron Diaz (Geena Diaz Pennyfeather?).

This Glock model 19 will be equiped with a flashlight/laser, mounted underneath the barrel. One can choose the light, or the laser, or both (I'm very pro-choice when it comes to firearms). I'll be getting my "carry permit" soon.

At that point I can honestly say that the Pennyfeather family will be as well-armed as anti-gun activist Rosie O'Donnel, who evidently has armed security gaurds at her house/compound.

Any planned protests on my property by Code Pink should be reconsidered in light of our new addition.

If you have better name suggestions please send them to me. I'm all about listening.