Girl of the Day - More Pride and More Prejudice

Okay, so I generally don't think Keira Knightley's all that and a bag of cherries.  A little too angular for my taste, shall we say.   But she makes a nice Elizabeth Bennett, and I also liked her in a small part in Love, Actually.   (I have to confess I've never seen a minute of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies.)  

Jobs, Jobs, Jobs.... Where Are The Jobs?

Forget about Weinergate for a minute.   And forget about Osama bin Laden.   The next election (perhaps the most important election in our lifetimes) hinges on the economy and unemployment.   It's the jobs, stupid.   That's the mantra Republicans ought to be repeating.

Today the Bureau of Labor Statistics released May numbers, and they're not good.   Unemployment up to 9.1%, and the economy created only 54,000 new jobs.   To put that in perspective, you have to create 150,000-200,000 jobs a month just to keep up with the growth in the population.   So we're losing ground.   After the stimulus, QE2, Obamacare, financial reform, etc., if we have a double-dip recession it's going to be tied around Obama's neck like a millstone.

As you can see here, the S&P futures market didn't like the announcement:

How Would Weiner Have Responded If He Wanted Weinergate To Go Away?

I'm not sure there's a way out for Congressman Anthony Weiner after five days of lies and increasingly implausible stories surrounding the obvious truth that, on a Friday night, at home with his computer, he sent a picture of his "Member of Congress" to a 21 year-old college girl.   But, if had chosen to, he might have mitigated the damage to his career by saying something like this:

It has come to my attention that a picture that I sent through Twitter on Friday night that I had intended to be a private message was accidentally made public by me.   The picture was intended to be sent to a private citizen, a young lady whom I have never met in person, but with whom I have had occasion to correspond privately over the Internet via Twitter.   The nature of this correspondence, to my mind, has always been innocent flirtation between two adults; I never intended it to be anything more than that, and I do not believe it should be viewed as anything more than innocent flirtation.   It so happens that, in the Internet age, flirtation often takes place over vehicles like Twitter, and, with the advance of technology, can sometimes involve the exchange of pictures.   But, with the advance of technology, unfortunately, it becomes easier to make mistakes that can, with the push of the wrong button, reach tens of thousands of people.   The picture in question here, I understand, will be viewed by some as salacious, and I apologize to anyone who may have been offended.   Naturally I am personally embarrassed by these events being made public.   I also regret very much the embarrassment this has caused by wife.   Finally, I regret very much the embarrassment this must have caused the young lady in question, and I would ask that all of you respect her privacy, since none of this was her fault.   Thank you. 

I think if he'd said something like this on Saturday, this would all be over by now.    He'd have come off as honest, human, gracious and concerned about the young lady's reputation, apologetic to his wife, and he also would have identified himself with the vast numbers of Americans who engage in virtual relationships  and virtual flirtation on the Internet, via email, via texting, etc.

The problem, of course, is that, if you're the type of creep who wants to send pictures of your Johnson to young girls, you're also unlikely to be the type of guy who can stand up, say mea culpa sincerely, and ask for forgiveness for your sins.    It's a Catch-22.   If you're not a stand up guy, it's hard to be a stand up guy.   No pun intended.  

Girl of the Day - Carey Mulligan

Sometimes watching movies that have been out for awhile you see small characters who later became big stars.   For instance, if you watch the great Steve McQueen movie, Bullitt, an unnamed cab-driver who drives the detective played by McQueen around San Francisco during a scene is played by Robert Duvall; and a thug on the subway in the Woody Allen movie, Bananas, was played by Sylvester Stallone.   Watching Pride and Prejudice with my son this week, I thought it was interesting that one of the Bennett girls is played (mostly for laughs) by Carey Mulligan, who has since gone on to be a somewhat big star.   Here she is in the P&P movie:

And here she is in real life:

Pujols and The Decline Phase of Hitters Redux

I have in the past on this blog commented, with some sadness, that the Cardinals should not re-sign Albert Pujols to a long-term deal after this year, as he has clearly started his "decline phase."   Here is a chart from the blog "Beyond the Box Score" on "runs above average" that summarizes the data on hitters through their career that clearly shows that betting on Pujols to remain, well, Pujols from age 32 to 41 (the span of the new 10-year deal he is seeking) would be a loser's bet.

Not good.   Next year's Cardinals' lineup for my money would have Allan Craig at 1st Base and Jon Jay in Right Field, both of who can be had for near the minimum.   Then I'd take the extra $20 million or so we'd save by not signing Pujols and get myself a major league starting pitcher and a major league shortstop with some pop.   But I wouldn't pay Pujols $25-30 million a year for 10 years.   No way.   Sorry, Albert.  

Birthdays Today

Today, somewhat astonishingly, would have been the 85th birthday of Marilyn Monroe.   I always think it's bittersweet to recall, as I often do on this blog, great beauties of earlier eras, particularly when they died young, like Monroe.   You can't help thinking that, if she had had a more supporting family, or a more loving husband, or children she could love, or, perhaps most important, a spiritual life in her church, her life might not have ended in senseless tragedy.   Now all we have are the pictures:

Today is also the birthday of John Marshall Harlan, the famous Justice of the Supreme Court, who was born in 1833, and who was the lone dissenter in Plessy v. Ferguson (1896), the case that enshrined "separate but equal" as the legal principle justifying the South's Jim Crow laws and segregation throughout America, until reversed in Brown v. Board of Education (1954), three generations later.    Here is the most famous passage from Harlan's dissent:

The white race deems itself to be the dominant race in this country. And so it is in prestige, in achievements, in education, in wealth and in power. So, I doubt not, it will continue to be for all time if it remains true to its great heritage and holds fast to the principles of constitutional liberty. But in view of the constitution, in the eye of the law, there is in this country no superior, dominant, ruling class of citizens. There is no caste here. Our constitution is color-blind, and neither knows nor tolerates classes among citizens. In respect of civil rights, all citizens are equal before the law. The humblest is the peer of the most powerful. The law regards man as man, and takes no account of his surroundings or of his color when his civil rights as guaranteed by the supreme law of the land are involved...

Words to live by.

Finally, it's also Andy Griffith's birthday, who is 85 today himself.   Griffith is, of course, best known for his own TV show in the 1960s, playing Sheriff Andy Taylor of Mayberry, but he burst on the scene as a serious actor in the drama A Face in the Crowd in 1957, playing "Lonesome Rhodes," a ne'er-do-well country boy who rises to become a political demogogue.   Here's a clip:

What's Going On In the World That Doesn't Involve A Weiner

Scandal distracts us from what ought to be our priorities.   Our prurient reactions to a Congressman being caught with his hand in the candy jar (or, in this case, with his dingus on Twitter) keeps us from focusing on what else is going on in the world that could be crucial.   For instance, there's this story:

Yemen appeared to tip closer to all out civil war on Wednesday as government troops and opposition tribesmen battled to control key positions in the capital and foreign diplomats boarded planes to flee.

 And this one:

The International Atomic Energy Agency last week presented a report to its board that laid out new information on what it calls “possible military dimensions” of Iran’s nuclear program, clarifying the central issue in the long clash between Tehran and the West over nuclear technology.

 

 

The nine-page report raised questions about whether Iran has sought to investigate seven different kinds of technology ranging from atomic triggers and detonators to uranium fuel. Together, the technologies could make a type of atom bomb known as an implosion device, which is what senior staff members of the I.A.E.A. have warned that Iran is able to build.

And then there's always this, which needs no explanation:

Congressman Anthony Weiner is, well, a weiner, but he's sort of right (albeit in a ridiculously self-serving way) that we ought not get distracted by trivial scandals about Congressmen's twittering proclivities, and ought to remain focused on the big issues that are threatening our country.   On the other hand, the same argument suggests that men like Weiner ought to have better things to do with their time than sending pictures of their dongs to college girls.   Just sayin'.  

Girl of the Day - Jennifer Ehle

Since my large son is reading Pride and Prejudice, I guess it's a good time to revisit the splendors of Jennifer Ehle:

Spring!

Spring comes late to Milwaukee, and this year we have been colder and wetter than usual.   So a day like today, sunny, warm, a nice breeze, and a Little League game later, is like heaven.   Bon appetit!

Weinergate

The big story in the blogosphere over the weekend is actually a small story -- a liberal Democratic Congressman, Anthony Weiner of New York, apparently accidentally sent a picture of his schlong over his public Twitter account to 40,000 followers, when he meant to send it secretly over his private Twitter account to a 21 year-old coed.   He has since claimed that he is the victim of "hacking" and a "prank."   No one believes it.... this is a story that cries out for Occam's Razor.   The simplest explanation is... a horny middle-aged guy gets attention from young girls because of his political position, and he likes it so much that he goes overboard.   The going overboard, of course, is exacerbated and complicated in modern times by technology.... the ease of relatively anonymous communication on Twitter, Facebook, email, texting, etc. makes this kind of illicit contact too tempting for jerks like this guy who apparently never grew up and never developed a moral sense.   (Important to note: I am confident that most men actually aren't like this, that most men actually aren't doing this sort of thing.   There is a moral silent majority out there who would recognize that sending a picture of your dong over the Internet to a 21 year-old girl is way-out-there creepy.)   Here's a good timeline/summary of the story to date.  

But other than the embarrassment factor, what exactly is the story?   Did he make a false police report?   I don't think so.   Did he defame Twitter and hurt it's business reputation (by putting a hokey story out there that suggests that Twitter accounts can be easily "hacked")?   Maybe; this is a closer call, but I doubt that Twitter wants to sue a sitting Congressman and get more publicity out of this, and frankly I think this will end up actually being positive publicity for Twitter once they are able to make the case that their security is strong.   So what is the story?

Two things, I think, make this marginally more interesting:

1.   What if it had happened to a Republican?   What if it had happened to Todd Palin, for instance?   So this is more a story of mainstream media bias and willingness to spin to help a liberal Democrat.   But we knew that anyway.  But still....

2.  The name of the guy.   Anthony Weiner...   you can only imagine what fun the headline writers are having.

Weiner Shows His Weiner
That's Not A Gun in His Pants, That's Weiner
Could I Have Some Kraut With That?

I could go on, but I guess I ought not.  

What a doofus.

On the Other Hand... President Duffer Strikes Again

I hadn't heard this because, of course, it wouldn't be reported by the mainstream media.   But President Obama apparently chose yesterday, Memorial Day, to play yet another round of golf:

The business of memorializing our war dead done, President Obama headed out to the Fort Belvoir golf course today, finding his way onto the links for the ninth weekend in a row.

Obama earlier today laid a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and met with families of those killed in battle. But he emerged from the day’s solemnity to go golfing for the 12th time this year and the 70th time of his presidency.

The decision to golf on Memorial Day invites comparison with President George W. Bush, who gave up the game early in his presidency and said he did it out of respect for the families of those killed in Iraq.

Look, I get it.   He works hard, he needs to relax, he likes golf.   Fine.   But lots of us work hard and can't find the time to golf.   And lots of us have kids and do things with the kids on the weekends, because we don't have time during the week.   12 rounds of golf?   Nine straight weekends?   Really?

This is shameful stuff for the "Commander-in-Chief."  Frankly, it would be shameful stuff for any father of relatively young children. 

Memorial Day

Yesterday in Milwaukee was glorious -- mid-80s, pushing 90 degrees, sunny all day, not a cloud in the sky.  After a truly dismal spring of weather in the 40s and 50s (we haven't had a Little League game yet where the parents weren't huddled under blankets), it was like a get-out-of-jail-free card.   So we swam and we played Indian ball (a baseball game we play where the hitter tries to get hits between a short outfielder and a long outfielder -- we play with a tennis ball and the outfield is the lawn of the rectory across the street) and we cooked out and drank beers on the patio with neighbors.   We did just about everything except look at a computer screen and do any blogging.   So here is a belated Memorial Day shout out to all of the servicemen and families of servicemen (like ours), and particularly to my late Dad, 1st Lt. Richard H. Bauer, and my nephew, currently in Afghanistan with the 101st Airborne, Sgt. Jason McCullough.   Thank you for all that you've done and all that you're still doing for our country.   Via con dios.   

Also, continuing on a Memorial Day theme, something that the Internet allows you to do is to get access to information and history that you couldn't get very easily.   For instance, one of the things I've enjoyed and been awe-struck by are the citations for Medal of Honor winners, which are available here.    Here is one from 101st Airborne in Vietnam:

FITZMAURICE, MICHAEL JOHN

Rank and organization: Specialist Fourth Class, U.S. Army, Troop D, 2d Squadron, 17th Cavalry, 101st Airborne Division. Place and date: Khe Sanh, Republic of Vietnam, 23 March 1971. Entered service at: Jamestown, N. Dak. Born: 9 March 1950, Jamestown, N. Dak . Citation: For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty. Sp4c. Fitzmaurice, 3d Platoon, Troop D, distinguished himself at Khe Sanh. Sp4c. Fitzmaurice and 3 fellow soldiers were occupying a bunker when a company of North Vietnamese sappers infiltrated the area. At the onset of the attack Sp4c. Fitzmaurice observed 3 explosive charges which had been thrown into the bunker by the enemy. Realizing the imminent danger to his comrades, and with complete disregard for his personal safety, he hurled 2 of the charges out of the bunker. He then threw his flak vest and himself over the remaining charge. By this courageous act he absorbed the blast and shielded his fellow-soldiers. Although suffering from serious multiple wounds and partial loss of sight, he charged out of the bunker, and engaged the enemy until his rifle was damaged by the blast of an enemy hand grenade. While in search of another weapon, Sp4c. Fitzmaurice encountered and overcame an enemy sapper in hand-to-hand combat. Having obtained another weapon, he returned to his original fighting position and inflicted additional casualties on the attacking enemy. Although seriously wounded, Sp4c. Fitzmaurice refused to be medically evacuated, preferring to remain at his post. Sp4c. Fitzmaurice's extraordinary heroism in action at the risk of his life contributed significantly to the successful defense of the position and resulted in saving the lives of a number of his fellow soldiers. These acts of heroism go above and beyond the call of duty, are in keeping with the highest traditions of the military service, and reflect great credit on Sp4c. Fitzmaurice and the U.S. Army.

Wow.   A 21 year-old kid did this.   We can't thank these guys enough.  

Girl Tuesday - Rosamund Pike

My 14 year-old son, who plays football, basketball, baseball, runs track, and generally exudes testosterone, is reading Pride and Prejudice.   He actually chose the book from a list of suggestions from his English teacher, because he had heard his mother and father talk about it many times over the years as one of our favorites.   Weirdly, the class is supposed to read a novel and then also watch the movie version of the novel, and then write a comparison.   Hard to imagine that most kids won't be skipping right to the movie version.   anyway, he's about 100 pages into the book, so we watched the movie version up to that point.   Keira Knightley, of course, plays Elizabeth Bennett, but to me the more beautiful (and it's not close) actress plays Jane Bennett, the older sister.   Her name is Rosamund Pike.   Here she is in the movie:

And here she is in civvies:

The Palin Bus/The Palin Movie

Sarah Palin is apparently starting a multi-state tour of the Northeast, going to famous patriotic sites in a bus that, somewhat unsubtly, looks like this:

She describes the tour as follows:

SarahPAC is proud to announce the One Nation Tour!   This Sunday, May 29th, Governor Palin and the SarahPAC team will begin a trip through our nation's rich historical sites, starting from Washington, DC and going up through New England.   The "One Nation Tour" is part of our new campaign to educate and energize American's about our nation's founding principles, in order to promote the Fundamental Restoration of America.

Hmmmm.... up through New England?   Could she possibly be planning stops in New Hampshire?

Meanwhile, Palin is also scheduled to release a full-length movie about herself.   Where, pray tell, will the premiere be?   In Iowa.   Hmmmm.

Look, I've said all along that I don't think she's running for President.   I also, if pushed, would say that she can't possibly win the Presidency with her negatives, and with a relentless media attacking her every day.   But there's a chance that she's the opposite of what everyone thinks.   There's a chance that she came down to the Lower 48 in 2008 and decided that she could play the game better than the professional pols and the supposed elites.   All she's done since then is parley her fame into, arguably, leading the GOP to a huge victory in 2010; becoming the Queen of the Tea Party, the wing of the GOP where the most energy (and campaign funding) exists; and make herself untold millions through TV, books, and speaking engagements.  

In short, there's a chance that, contrary to popular opinion, she's really really smart, and has figured out, better than the professional pols, that modern politics consists of keeping your name recognition out there through Twitter and Facebook and FoxNews and movies and reality TV, etc., all of which she has mastered faster and better than any other politician working.   Can you get to the top of the polls in Iowa and New Hampshire with a movie and a bus tour and a FoxNews show without ever declaring your candidacy and campaigning in the traditional way (the way that Romney and Pawlenty are using right now)?   I think that she may think that she can.

Girl of the Day - Lauren Bacall

One of the coolest femme fatales from the late 1940s and early 1950s, with one of the greatest voices every, Lauren Bacall, who is probably most famous for her early roles as the girl in Humphrey Bogart movies (and, of course, as Bogart's wife from 1945 until his death in 1957):

Krauthammer on Obama's Idiocy on Israel

Krauthammer doesn't call it idiocy in his article from yesterday.   Not quite.   But he criticizes Obama's fecklessness on the Israel-Palestinian conflict, and in particular his call for a return to the 1967 borders, about as harshly as he can:

Note how Obama has undermined Israel’s negotiating position. He is demanding that Israel go into peace talks having already forfeited its claim to the territory won in the ’67 war — its only bargaining chip. Remember: That ’67 line runs right through Jerusalem. Thus the starting point of negotiations would be that the Western Wall and even Jerusalem’s Jewish Quarter are Palestinian — alien territory for which Israel must now bargain.

The very idea that Judaism’s holiest shrine is alien or that Jerusalem’s Jewish Quarter is rightfully or historically or demographically Arab is an absurdity. And the idea that, in order to retain them, Israel has to give up parts of itself is a travesty.

Krauthammer goes on to criticize Obama's apparent willingness to consider negotiations on the Palestinians' so-called "right of return":

Obama didn’t just move the goal posts on borders. He also did so on the so-called right of return. Flooding Israel with millions of Arabs would destroy the world’s only Jewish state while creating a 23rd Arab state and a second Palestinian state — not exactly what we mean when we speak of a “two-state solution.” That’s why it has been the policy of the United States to adamantly oppose this “right.”

Yet in his State Department speech, Obama refused to simply restate this position — and refused again in a supposedly corrective speech three days later. Instead, he told Israel it must negotiate the right of return with the Palestinians after having given every inch of territory. Bargaining with what, pray tell?

Krauthammer then asks the $64,000 Question:  Is Obama simply feckless in the way that an amateur in foreign policy matters might be when thrown in over his head?   Or is he truly anti-Israel and, hence, for my money anyway, anti-Semitic?   Again, Krauthammer doesn't use the word "anti-Semitic."   That's me.  But the implication is there, and it's scary for America and for Israel:

The only remaining question is whether this perverse and ultimately self-defeating policy is born of genuine antipathy toward Israel or of the arrogance of a blundering amateur who refuses to see that he is undermining not just peace but the very possibility of negotiations.

The Storm of War

I have begun Andrew Roberts' The Storm of War, a one-volume history of World War II.   The first chapters focus, perhaps inevitably, on the prelude to war in Europe and the appeasement of Hitler as he ramped up the German military and annexed Austria, the Sudetenland, and Czechoslovakia.   Roberts is a very good writer, and is very clear-eyed about the source of the war in the weakness and naivete of the British leadership in the 1930s.   This is all a story that has long been told, but Roberts does a good job on it, without being too much in a rush to offer a "revisionist" version. 

There are, of course, lessons to be learned for today, as we continually appease the ambitions of Iran in the Middle East.   But, then, if we didn't repeat prior mistakes, what would history be about?

Girl of the Day - Diana Rigg

As a kid, one of the shows we watched in reruns was the British spy spoof, The Avengers.   The girl spy on the show was the great Shakespearean actress, Diana Rigg.   About all I recall from the show is Rigg in these types of outfits:

In some ways, the 60s weren't so bad.  

"Don't You Know Who I Am?"

Supposedly the head of the International Monetary Fund/rapist, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, said this to the maid at the Sofitel in New York as he attempted to sodomize her.   Two things:

1.  I have stayed many times at the Sofitel on business.   It is hard to imagine a more genteel hotel.   The staff there is tremendous, very professional, and very nice.   The hotel is beautiful, even the cheaper rooms, where I stay.   I imagine the $3000 a night suite this Euro-bureaucrat was in was truly marvelous.   It's simply hard to imagine this sort of thing happening there.

2.  Could anyone invent something that more precisely captures the mindset of the Western elites who claim to be uniquely qualified to govern us?   I mean, you can't write this stuff.   "Don't you know who I am?" said by a powerful man as he attempts to rape a maid.   Man, do I hope he goes to jail and has some cell-block boss tell him "Don't you know who I am?"

Mark Steyn has a great column up about Strauss-Kahn and the elites in America and Europe who want to run everything and think they are the new aristocracy:

The arrest of a mediocre international civil servant in the first-class cabin of his jet isn't just a sex story: It's a glimpse of the widening gulf between the government class and their subjects in a post-prosperity West. Neither Geithner nor Strauss-Kahn have ever created a dime of wealth in their lives. They have devoted their careers to "public service," and thus are in the happy position of rarely if ever having to write a personal check. At the Sofitel in New York, DSK was in a $3,000-per-night suite. Was the IMF picking up the tab? If so, you the plucky U.S. taxpayer paid around 550 bucks of that...

Read the whole thing.  

Birthdays Today

Other than the Right Curmudgeon/Regular Guy himself, who turns LII today (seems better in Roman numerals), there are only a couple of interesting birthdays, both of female singers of different vintages.   The first is Rosemary Clooney, born in 1928, who had a great deep voice, perfect for smoky ballads of the 50s.   Here she is singing one from her only big starring movie role, in White Christmas:



The second is Jewel (no last name), born in 1974 (can she really be 37... eek!).   Here is her debut single, "Who Will Save Your Soul."   Very cute girl, somewhat marginal career since then (although that's true for most of us who never have a hit in anything):  

Fluidity or Coalescence?

The Republican presidential field seems to still be a bit fluid, particularly in the aftermath of Mitch Daniels' decision not to run, although perhaps that is wishful thinking.   Maybe it just seems "fluid" because we can't see the patterns clearly, even though they are emerging below the surface.   Here is a useful summary from Michael Barone:

In, in alphabetical order: Herman Cain, Newt Gingrich, Gary Johnson, Ron Paul, Tim Pawlenty, Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum.

Of these, the only serious candidates I see who could make a significant run are Pawlenty and Romney.   Hugh Hewitt agrees with this.   Cain took a step backward with his flummoxed response on the Palestinians and their "right of return."   Gingrich imploded with his comments about Paul Ryan's budget plan.   Santorum is a fringe candidate of the pro-Lifers; Johnson and Paul fringe candidates of the libertarians.   So it's Pawlenty and Romney.   Both are flawed, Pawlenty by prior support for cap-and-trade, Romney for Romneycare.   Both have executive experience as governors and, for Romney, extensive high-level business experience.  I think Pawlenty could win Iowa because he's more of a social conservative, but Romney will come back and win New Hampshire big, and Romney's money and organization will likely give him a big win on Super Tuesday.  

Probably in: Michele Bachmann, Jon Huntsman.

Bachmann could siphon off Iowa votes from fellow Minnesotan Pawlenty, and could score big in conservative South Carolina.  But I see her run as a borderline vanity candidacy, designed to raise money for her PAC going forward and keep her name in front of the public, but not to win.   Huntsman, on the other hand, could be a decent candidate, but I think he lacks name recognition, and will seem like Romney-lite (fellow Utahan) when all is said and done.   Working in the Obama Administration (ambassador to China) didn't help, although the China knowledge (he speaks fluent Mandarin) is an interesting added value.

Probably not in: John Bolton, Sarah Palin.

I'd be surprised if Palin runs.   There's just too much money to be made being Sarah Palin, and running for President now would interfere with that.   I don't blame her; after 2008, who needs another year or so of media piling on.   She's tough, but living well is the best revenge.   Bolton, meanwhile, should be on the short list for Secretary of State in the next Republican administration, but lacks the executive experience and presence to be a real Presidential candidate.   And he probably knows it.

Out: Haley Barbour, Mitch Daniels, Mike Huckabee, Mike Pence, John Thune.

Daniels dropping out surprised many, but his wife's story (leaves him to marry another man, comes back three years later to remarry Daniels) seems a little too weird for primetime.  I can see why neither he nor his wife would want to spend a year explaining that.  

Declared out but still being wooed: Chris Christie, Rick Perry, Paul Ryan.

Christie is not running.   Get it out of your heads.   He's been governor of New Jersey for what?  Two years?   He's not ready and he knows it.   Ryan is only 40.   He's also not ready, and he knows it too.   Both are well-served by staying out for now, possibly getting drafted as VP candidates, although if I were Ryan I'd stay away from that too.   He can do better as the de facto head of Republicans in Congress.  

As for Perry, well, I think he's making moves that suggest he's going to come into this thing late.   Then there will be three ex-governors, from Massachusetts (Romney), Minnesota (Pawlenty), and Texas (Perry).   If he can get his organization in place in time, I think Perry as a Southerner can win that race with a late surge beginning in South Carolina.  

Netanyahu Schools Obama

Here's the money clip:





And now, for extra credit, compare and contrast... see if you can pick out who the serious young man with real responsibilities is:

Prayers for Joplin

Joplin, MO in my erstwhile home state, got hit yesterday with what appears to be about the most devastating tornado that I can remember.   Please pray for all of the people who lost their lives, and their families, and for all the rescue teams that must be working round the clock in the town to try to find and save more people.   Just a horrible, horrible tragedy.  

Wisconsin Supreme Court Update

The recount demanded by liberal loser Joanne Kloppenburg in the Wisconsin Supreme Court is now over, and conservative justice David Prosser maintained his 7,000+ lead, as expected, winning reelection.   Now, also as expected, Kloppenburg will likely bring a court action to challenge the election results.   Can she win?   Not if she gets a real judge.   But, then again, she will likely bring the action in Dane County (liberal Madison), where you never know what happens.  

So what's the real goal?   Delay.... delay Prosser getting seated (normally his term would start August 1st), so that a divided Supreme Court, 3-3, will not be able to decide on Scott Walker's budget reform bill, leaving whatever a lower Court of Appeals decides to stand.   Second goal:  to delegitimize any decisions Prosser makes going forward that hurt the Left.    Third goal, and maybe the most important:  keep the issue alive so the Wisconsin Dems and their union cronies can keep raising money.   

Kloppenburg's fast becoming the Wicked Witch of the West for Wisconsin conservatives:

Girl of the Day - Rita Hayworth

A couple of days ago when I did Fred Astaire's birthday, I featured a dance with Astaire and Rita Hayworth.  Her dancing, which I had never really known before (because I always focused on the Ginger Rogers-Astaire classic 1930s movies), knocked me out.   So I thought I'd better bring her back for an encore:



I mean it.... wow!   She is all of that, and then some.

And, of course, there's this:

Heat Is On

As much as I hate to say it, if the Miami Heat now win all of their remaining home games, they will be Eastern Conference champions in the NBA.   Then they will have home-court advantage for the NBA Finals over either Dallas or Oklahoma City, because of a better regular season record.  Which means that if they win seven straight home games from here on out, these guys will be the NBA champions:

Eeek!

Birthdays Today

Today is the birthday of Honoré de Balzac, the great French novelist, born in 1799.   Balzac is one of my wife's favorites, and I've always meant to read more of his works.   The one I read, which was great, was Pere Goriot, which centers, like so many 19th century novels, on a social climber, this one named Rastignac, who has eyes for Old Father Goriot's married daughter, Delphine.  

The picture of Balzac above, by the way, reminds me of the Rodin sculpture of Balzac, which I had always thought was abstract, but which apparently was pretty accurate.   Not a handsome guy:

It's also the 65th birthday of Cher.   Wow!   Tempus fugit, again, and again.   Here she is back before Botox, when she was pretty cute in a weird 60s sort of way:



Finally, leaving the best for last, today is the birthday of Jimmy Stewart, Princeton '32, who was born in 1908.   Stewart was, of course, one of our greatest actors, but my favorite thing about Stewart is the fact that, at age 33, in March 1941, nine months before Pearl Harbor, he quit Hollywood, and enlisted in the Army Air Force.   During the war, Stewart, already a fine pilot, flew more than twenty combat missions over Germany in a B-24 unit, and rose from Private to Colonel, receiving along the way two Distinguished Flying Crosses, the Croix de Guerre, and the Air Medal with three oak leaf clusters, and served as group operations officer to the 453rd Bombardment Group and, later, as Chief of Staff of the 2nd Combat Bombardment Wing of the Eighth Air Force.    Later, after the war, he continued in the Air Force Reserve, rising to the rank of Brigadier General.  

Here is Stewart in one of my favorite movies, The Shop Around the Corner, with Margaret Sullavan:

Girl Friday - Does This Make Me Bad?

I don't know.  Does it?

Hard to overestimate what this Herb Alpert album cover did to teenage boys in the 1960s.  

Here is the one hit song from the record, "A Taste of Honey"... now it sounds like "A Taste of 1966":

Media Bias or Mass Stupidity?

This was a draft post from last week, I think.   Not sure if I ever pressed the "publish" button.   So here it is:

Recently President Obama said in a speech in El Paso on immigration something on the order of "Texas has always been Republican."   Many have pointed out that Obama here demonstrated a spectacular lack of historical accuracy, since Texas was heavily Democratic through most of its history up until very, very recently.  (The Texas House, for instance, didn't go majority Republican until 2005; George W. Bush as a Republican Governor of Texas had to deal with a Democratic legislature.)

This is not an atypical rhetorical move, however.   Liberals are constantly obfuscating the fact that the Democratic Party, and not the Republican Party, was the party of slavery and segregation and Jim Crow laws.  Remember the furor when Trent Lott lauded Strom Thurmond (a Democrat) at his funeral for having run for President in 1948 (as an avowed segregationist)?   Big deal, right?   Remember any similar furor about Senator Robert Byrd of West Virginia having been a leader of the Ku Klux Klan?   I didn't think so. 

Here is another example, from a recent article by Richard Cohen of the Washington Post on the topic of "American exceptionalism" (note: he's against it):

The huge role of religion in American politics is nothing new but always a matter for concern nonetheless. In the years preceding the Civil War, both sides of the slavery issue claimed the endorsement of God. The 1856 Republican convention concluded with a song that ended like this: “We’ve truth on our side/ We’ve God for our guide.” Within five years, Americans were slaughtering one another on the battlefield.
Therein lies the danger of American exceptionalism. It discourages compromise, for what God has made exceptional, man must not alter.

See what he did there?  He talks about slavery, then he talks about the Republican convention, and then he talks about the Civil War, then he talks about a failure to compromise.   How many readers educated in American schools will know that the Republican Party was the party of abolition and Abraham Lincoln, while the Democratic Party was the party of slavery and secession; that the Democratic Party and the South caused the Civil War; and that it was the Democratic Party and the South that wouldn't compromise to give up slavery in the territories?

Cohen surely knows better, so his mistake is calculated bias.   But many of his readers simply equate -- because the media has drilled this equation into their heads -- Republicans with racism.   They just don't know any better.

Catching Up

Haven't blogged this week due to the press of work and too many Little League games.   Anyway, here's my quick thoughts on a few of the main things I see happening out there:

1.   Obama on Israel.   President Obama gave a speech this week at the State Department, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in attendance, in which he basically told Israel that the 1967 borders with Syria, Jordan and Egypt would be just fine with him.   Netanyahu calls those borders "indefensible."  

Wow.   Who could have predicted that if you elected a President with a Muslim father, who grew up in the hard Left where support for the Palestinians was a requirement for ideological purity and criticism of Israel as a colonialist, racist "occupier" is de regueur, and who made his political bones in the Chicago of Louis Farrakhan.... who could have predicted that he would throw Israel under the bus?   That he does so with complete confidence that liberals in America won't desert him, even though siding with anti-Semites, simply shows the decadence of the American liberal conscience, and, in particular, of liberal Jewish communities in New York, Chicago, and other major urban centers, who apparently believe fealty to the DNC trumps support for Israel.   Sad.  

2.  Gingrich Implodes.   Couldn't have happened to a nicer guy.   Maybe it's me, but the three wives is both a disqualifier for me, and also a clear sign that this guy doesn't get it.    If you don't stand with Paul Ryan and the House Republicans in wanting to reign in entitlements, what will you stand for.   Profile in Courage?  Not so much.

3.   Mitch Daniels Catches Heat.   Mitch Daniels, who hasn't even declared for the Presidency yet, is catching some heat from conservatives about having once said less than damning things about the idea of an individual mandate to buy health insurance as part of health reform.   I don't know.   I obviously don't like Obamacare, but not because of the individual mandate (although I think it's unconstitutional), but rather because there's just too much government involvement in what should be a private insurance market.    And I don't like Romneycare, for the same reasons (although a state law individual mandate is constitutional), because I again think there's too much government involvement.   But, while in general I don't really like the idea of any government telling any citizen they have to buy X, we do it all the time.  For instance, we mandate in Wisconsin that drivers have liability insurance as a prerequisite to getting a driver's license.   The idea is that deadbeats shouldn't be able to shirk the social costs of car accidents, shifting them onto responsible people who have purchased automobile insurance.  

What's so different (ontologically?) about health insurance?   Isn't the problem the same... deadbeats without insurance still want health care (just like they still want to drive), but they want to shift costs onto the rest of us who are responsible enough to buy health insurance?    Frankly, I could live with health care reform that simply said, I don't care how you get it, but everyone has to have catastrophic health care insurance.   And that's all.... after that, get out of the way and let the free market figure out how to provide it.

Maybe I just like Mitch Daniels... he's a short guy who went to Princeton.  

4. Cornel West Disses Obama.   On the other hand, Princeton doesn't always produce the best and the brightest.    For instance, this week a prominent African-American "academic," Princeton professor Cornel West, laid it on Obama pretty hard:

The well-known Princeton professor and author, who has released rap albums and starred in Hollywood films, supported Obama in the 2008 presidential campaign but now calls the president a “black mascot of Wall Street oligarchs and a black puppet of corporate plutocrats.”

Focusing on Obama and race, West said: “I think my dear brother Barack Obama has a certain fear of free black men . . . It’s understandable. As a young brother who grows up in a white context, brilliant African father, he’s always had to fear being a white man with black skin. All he has known culturally is white. He is just as human as I am, but that is his cultural formation.”

Really offensive.  As much as I dislike Obama, this is reprehensible race-baiting, particularly coming from a Princeton professor.   My alma mater should be ashamed. 

That's all for now.... back to work.