Cooter Jess Says "No"

Ben "Cooter" Jones is urging fans to stay away from the upcoming Dukes of Hazzard movie:

"Basically, they trashed our show," said Jones, who read a script of the Warner Brothers movie, which is scheduled to be released next month. "It's one thing to do whatever movie they want to do, but to take a classic family show and do that is like taking 'I Love Lucy' and making her a crackhead or something."

Yeah, family values. That's the ticket. Like many boys who hit their teen years in the late 70's, I've still got retinal damage from staring at Catherine Bach's legs in those cut-offs. As far as "family" went, my chief feeling towards mine was a wish that they'd all go away so I could ogle in peace.

UPDATE: Science proves I can take the Dukes or leave them alone -

I am 25% White Trash.

The white trash in my blood will not keep me from becoming a doctor or a lawyer, but it will keep me from a good haircut and any sort of fashion sense.

Take the
White Trash Test
@ FualiDotCom

Yips! to slightly more trashy Bryan of Spare Change.

'NUTHER UPDATE: Yeeee-haaaw! Looks like James Joyner was Daisy-goggling in them days, too!

Gratuitous Cheese-Eating Surrender Monkey Bashing - Bastille Day Edition

Och! Ya kin keep yer bloody frogs' legs, ya beret-headed bastards!

Yes, it's Bastille Day and the celebration of the ol' French Revolution. And like Lady Bracknell, I presume you know what that unfortunate movement led to? The Terror and the rise of the Corsican Tyrant come to mind.

I read somewhere of an incident during the Terror that was as chilling, in its own way, as any of the other atrocities committed in the name of liberty, equality and fraternity. A young woman came to Paris from the country and was immediately arrested. On further investigation, it was discovered that her arrest had been a mistake - she happened to have the same name as someone else the authorities were hunting. The poor woman went to the guillotine anyway on the grounds of having an anti-revolutionary name.

And don't think the modern French are any better. Not only did Vichy France roll over under the Nazi onslaught, in the summer of 1940 when things were looking very bad for Britain, there were those in Vichy actively interested in joining in the Nazi attack, partly to get in on the distribution of spoils and partly through pure Anglophobia. Fortunately, Churchill (together with FDR) was able to put sufficient diplomatic pressure on the Vichy government to prevent it from doing anything foolish. A memo written by Churchill on November 14, 1940, sums up his view of the French situation nicely:

Although revenge has no part in politics, and we should always be looking forward rather than looking back, it would be a mistake to suppose that a solution to our difficulties with Vichy will be reached by a policy of mere conciliation and forgiveness. The Vichy Government is under heavy pressure from Germany, and there is nothing that they would like better than to feel a nice, soft, cosy, forgiving England on their other side. This would enable them to win minor favors from Germany at our expense, and hang on as long as possible to see how the war goes. We, on the contrary, should not hesitate, when our interests require it, to confront them with difficult and rough situations, and make them feel that we have teeth as well as Hitler.

It must be remembered that these men have committed acts of baseness on a scale which have earned them the lasting contempt of the world, and that they have done this without the slightest authority from the French people. Laval is certainly filled by the bitterest hatred of England, and is reported to have said that he would like to see us "crabouilles," which means squashed so as to leave only a grease-spot. Undoubtedly, if he had had the power, he would have marketed the unexpected British resistance with his German masters to secure a better price for French help in finishing us off. Darlan is mortally envenomed by the injury we have done to his Fleet. Petain has always been an anti-British defeatist, and is now a dotard. The idea that we can build on such men is vain. They may, however, be forced by rising opinion in France and by German severities to change their line in our favor. Certainly we should have contacts with them. But in order to promote such favourable tendencies we must make sure the Vichy folk are kept well ground between the upper and nether millstones of Germany and Britain. In this way, they are most likely to be brought into a more serviceable mood during the short run that remains to them.

A few years back, I recall reading an article about the superiority of dogs over cats as pets. The author said something to the effect that cats look at one with a supercilous sneer that says, "The only reason I don't eat you is that you're bigger than me." I think the French Government is very cat-like. And although Winnie went out of his way to champion the virtues of the French people, as opposed to the Vichy Government, the fact remains that Vichy could not have existed without, if not popular support, at least popular resignation.

No, I haven't forgotten the disgraceful way France has behaved towards us since 9/11. France is not our ally.

UPDATE: Here's the classic Bastille Day Goldberg File, written by Jonah in his prime.

UPDATE DEUX: Here's Jonah's 2001 Tribute.

UPDATE TROIS: Okay, I will give the French credit for one thing - they think Tom Cruise is a crackpot.

UPDATE Le FOUR: The Irish Elk posts the words to La Marseillaise.

Random Commuter Observations

A woman in front of me at the Metro station this morning was carrying a big, tinfoil-covered baking dish. At the top of the escalator, the transit cops swooped down on her.

Message to terrorist bastards - don't try the stealth casserole technique because we've got that one covered.

Gratuitous Domestic Posting (TM) - Outdoor Division

Image borrowed from Hawks Nursery.

In the next few days I'm going to have to stake up my gladiolas, which are just now starting to bloom.

I don't know why I planted them, I really don't. There's plenty of other bright color in the garden, but glads are somehow too garish, too over the top. It's as if the rest of the flowers are holding a nice afternoon garden party and the glads are the guests who show up not having got the message that the vicars and tarts fancy-dress has been cancelled.

Dee Cee is right on the borderline in terms of gladiolus winter survival. Anywhere north of here the bulbs have to be treated as annuals, dug up and stored every fall to avoid the cold. Anywhere south and they'll make it all the way through the winter. Here, it's a year to year coin-toss. I didn't bother to dig mine up last fall because I was rayther hoping the cold would finish them off for me. However, we had a relatively short and mild winter, so they came back. This year, I suppose I'll have to dig them out.

Gratuitous Musickal Posting (TM)

The Missus and the Llama-ettes were prowling about the Southampton Library this morning and picked up this nifty-looking opus for me from their used book sale:

Handel by Christopher Hogwood.

While I have a fair number of Hogwood's recordings of various composers (including Handel), I've never read any of his writings on the subject of music. Needless to say, I'm looking forward to reading this. If you're good, I'll write a review. If you're very good, I won't.

We were purple sharks once, and young

It's Wednesday in July, so tonight is swim meet night at Rancho non Sequitur.

Tonight, the 8 yr old is going to swim butterfly in a race for the first time, which should be cool. She's going to swim backstroke in the medley relay, than the 25 free, back, and fly.

The 6 year old is doing his second meet, and it will be a resounding victory simply for getting to the other end of the pool.

Their favorite part is when they do their team cheers at the beginning, and I've begun to mark the progress of the summer by when I get to hear them yell "I SAID A BOOM-CHECKA BOOM!"

Results later.

REHNQUIST WATCH

The Chief is not doing well. This is beginning to look like the coverage preceding John Paul II's demise.

It Is OFFICIALLY A Slow Day...

How do I know? Because over in the Corner, K-Lo is linking to articles about monkey gambling and prostitution.

UPDATE: Speaking of frivolity, have you met our cousin the Naked Dancing Llama?

UPDATE DEUX: Then, of course, there's always Llama Bondage. Not that we're into that kind of thing.

UPDATE TROIS: Then again, there's Disco Stewie. He's kind of a dork. Anybody out there know a nice girl? We're sorta desperate.

UPDATE Le FOUR:

Yes, it's Store Wars. Go on over and watch. The thing's put together by the Organic Trade Association so it's slightly screedy, but they're at least hippies with a sense of humor.

Yips! to Cake-Eating Kathy.

UPDATE NEXT:

Speaking of such things, it happens to be Harrison Ford's birthday, so what better time to point out again that Han shoots first?

Some Completely Random Thoughts

I throw these out for what they are worth:

- Bill Cosby's brain-damaged children routine gets funnier and funnier every time I see it. Come here! Come here! C'mere! C'mere! C'mere! C'merec'mere'c'mere!!!

- If you're thinking of investing in some Jos. Banks lightweight wool khakis, you might want to reconsider. They don't hold up very well, they wrinkle at nothing and they are surprisingly uncomfortable in the heat.

- Richard Sharpe and Horatio Hornblower are entertaining heroes, but dang do they spend a lot of time bitching and binding and agonizing. Reading too many of their adventures on end has a cumulative depressing effect. I think this is one of the things that makes Jack Aubrey so refreshing by contrast, his being such a Jovian personality. (How anybody got the bright idea that Russell Crowe could pull this off is beyond me. Crowe is broody and moody. He would make a good Richard Sharpe. But Jack Aubrey? Fuggedaboudit!)

- If Elastigirl is so maliable, why would she ever be concerned about starting to look dumpy in her Mrs. Incredible suit? Couldn't she simply sculpt the ol' hips and backside any way she wants?

UPDATE:

The Impenetrable One has this to say in the comments about Elastigirl:

As a never-recovered superhero geek, my take on the Elastigirl shape issue (not having yet seen the movie) is that using her powers to look all Kate Moss-ish (or whatever) would be a mental distraction/drain of superpower resources/what-have-you that she didn't want to devote to vanity when (one presumes once one is in 'the suit') she would likely have other more important things to occupy her mind about...

Ha! says I. Since in the movie she uses her superpowers to, among other things, a) vacuum under furniture, b) discipline squabbling children and c) pinch Mr. I on the bottom from long distances away, I have to assume there's no limit on her powers. And if that's the case, why wouldn't it be easy for her to give herself whatever figure she wants?

Just askin'.

Beetlemania

Our good pal Chan the Bookish Gardener is normally a calm, cool, refined writer. However, I've been reading her long enough to know and relish the one topic that brings out her Inner Fiend, the one subject that frees the Mr. Hyde behind her Dr. Jekyll, the Hulk inside her Dr. Banner.

That topic is, of course, the annual attack of the Japanese Beetles. Go on over and see Chan cut loose.

Random Commuter Thoughts

Dayum it's hot and humid this morning. I know it's technically impossible to have humidity greater than 100%, but I believe Dee Cee has nonetheless managed it today.

Walking up from the Metro reminded me irresistably of my old high school gym locker room. I kept expecting fuhball players to leap out from behind corners and thwok me with rolled up towels.

Geh.

UPDATE: My office is supposed to knock off and spend the afternoon having a picnic in some park or other today. Think I'm going? Not bloody likely.

UPDATE DEUX, INSULT TO INJURY DEPT.: What made this morning even more infuriatingly awful was the memory that when checking in yesterday afternoon from eastern Lon Gyland, the Missus noted how the Llama-ettes only spent a little while at the beach because the breeze coming off the ocean was "a little chilly". Grrr.

UPDATE TROIS: Iced latte. Ahhh. Ambrosia ain't in it.

The LLamas can reveal: Karl Rove IS the Half-Blood Prince!

And be sure to kick them when they are down

Man, days like today Granny's advice sure comes in handy.

What with all the hype attending the new Willy Wonka movie, I thought I'd go back to the LLama files for this classic:

And I will not give up my fight, until every Oompah-loompah can have great health care, and be respected in the world again. And won't be discriminated against or defamed because they are mistaken for those terrorist Marshmallow Peeps. Man, I hate those things---I always get Jeeves to pre-chew mine for me.

THIS is CNN...?

We report, you decide.

Somewhere at a roadhouse in Altoona, James Earl Jones is crying dramatically into his beer, while Ted Turner is getting the shit kicked out of him in the back alley.

Howard Dean was rendered speechless for a whole two minutes....

while Jacques Chirac attempted the international sign for "Don't shoot! We surrender!"

Congrats, Rusty!

But do let us know when you've arrived!

"Effete Slack" Indeed

I thought I would just take this opportunity to state again my theory that Kurt Russell and Patrick Swayze are, in fact, the same person.

I say this for no purpose other than to needle Steve-O.

That is all.

YIPS from Steve: It's quite simple, really: The Kurt is able to stink up a movie a new way each time. The man is a genius, an avatar of schlock, a true artist of the mediocre.

Whereas Swayze was always one to many Haagen Dazs from obscurity.

Gratuitous Llama Re-Run Posting

This past weekend, I found out that Dad had not seen a long article I linked awhile back about golf course architecture.

Well, Dad - here's the post. Go on over. And enjoy.

Gratuitous Musickal Posting (TM)

A.C. Douglas is musing about the closing scenes of Mozart's Don Giovanni.

First, he argues that the Commendatore, in dragging the Don to his fiery fate, is engaged in a bit of free-lance vendetta and is not, as is sometimes thought, on a mission from God:

But to question further, why does the Commendatore repeatedly command Giovanni to repent? It's simply too much to imagine that the Commendatore has any interest whatsoever in saving Giovanni's soul (or whatever), or that the Commendatore is, for reasons hidden, an instrument or agent of God or heaven sent to accomplish that task. The idea is just too absurd, and effectively given lie to directly by the inscription on the Commendatore's graveyard statue.

No, the Commendatore is no-one's instrument or agent, and acting entirely in his own behalf and interests in the matter of Giovanni. And for the Commendatore, it's a win-win proposition. If he secures Giovanni's repentance for his crimes and way of life, he will have secured a confession from Giovanni that he wrongly killed the Commendatore, which in turn will secure for the Commendatore's unquiet spirit the release it requires, thereby permitting it to go to its eternal rest. If he fails to secure Giovanni's repentance, then the Commendatore's vengeance will be satisfied by Giovanni's descent into everlasting torment (which is also tacit confirmation of his guilt), which descent will also release the Commendatore's unquiet spirit from its earthly roaming, and permit it to go to its eternal rest. For the Commendatore it's a heads-I-win, tails-you-lose deal, and the Commendatore doesn't give one fig how the coin lands.

I've got no problem whatever with this view and furthermore I don't think Mozart or Da Ponte went out of their way to camouflage it in any way. Nonetheless, Mr. Douglas posits that this interpretation went sailing right over the heads of many of Mozart's own audience and continues to do so today. Perhaps. I frankly don't know.

Mr. Douglas also has some excellent staging suggestions for the concluding sextet, in which the surviving characters wrap up their affairs and reflect on the lesson of the Don's demise. But he also suggests that Mozart is using this finale to slyly thumb his nose at the audience:

My take on that sextet is that, as I've above remarked, it's an extended, sardonic, and slightly malicious Mozartian joke; one targeted at the bourgeois sensibilities of the audiences of the time, and perpetrated at their expense by Mozart whether those audiences were made up of aristocrats, the middle-class, or the proles, all of which classes Mozart held pretty much in equal contempt (although for different reasons). Mozart knew precisely how those audiences would understand Giovanni's fate: as just recompense and divine retribution for his profligate, sinful, and even criminal life, and would understand it in that way not least because those audiences needed the comfort of knowing that Giovanni had met his end in such a morally decisive manner because of the threat such a one poses to the moral, social, and cultural status quo of the prevailing order. In that closing sextet, Mozart, with a sly and slightly malicious off-stage grin undetectable by most of his audiences, assures those audiences that Giovanni has been dealt with fittingly, and now everything is once more restored to proper bourgeois order with nothing of consequence left to threaten or disturb their good and just bourgeois sleep.

I dunno - if there is a joke about the "proper bourgeois order" there, it sure doesn't start with the final sextet, because it's been demonstrated time and again throughout the opera that all of the characters have flaws and imperfections of some kind or another: Don Ottavio is a hey-you. There is a good deal of ambiguity about exactly what the Don was doing in Donn'Anna's room at the beginning of the opera and what she actually thought of it at the time. Donna Elvira is a crackpot ("e pazza, amici miei"), Zerlina an opportunistic minx, Masetto a hot-headed dolt and Leporello a mercenary. If these are the pillars of the bourgeois world, Mozart's shown us the cracks in their plaster long before they start singing the old song about bad things coming to bad people. But perhaps I misunderstand the point.

Anyhoo, go read the rest.

Gratuitous Bachelor Llama Posting

Again, sorry for the lite posting. As I say below, I am pretty busy at the moment. Furthermore, this kind of nasty, hot, sticky weather positively filets me.

Of course, the other big factor is the continued absence of the Missus and the Llama-ettes at the beach. As tired as I might get of the continuous demands on my time and energy when the house is full up, the truth of the matter is that once everybody leaves, I quickly start to drift aimlessly. There are any number of things I could be doing with my free evenings that I've been meaning to get around to, but damme if I haven't wound up reading listlessly and repeatedly glancing at my watch, wondering when I can legitimately just go to bed.

I suppose that's a round-about way of saying I miss them.

*sigh*

UPDATE: Okay, okay. I haven't spent the entire time since Saturday morning simply moping around. In Weekend Medieval News:

The British longbowmen obliterated a hostile neighboring community of Saracens. Having first taken control of a key ford between their respective lands, the Brits slipped a raiding party of several peasants and archers deep into enemy territory and successfully captured several critical deposits of gold and stone, thereby accelerating the attrition caused by the Saracens' repeated suicidal attempts to storm the ford. A Saracen spokesman could not be reached for comment because they were all dead.

Picking up the effete slack of Robbo the LLamabutcher

Yesterday was EB White's birthday. Sheila has the commemoration.

Yips! from Robbo: Uh-huh, Uh-huh, effete slack? Hello, kettle? This is pot. Anyhoo, sorry for the lite posting but, as Cole Porter would say, it's too darn hot. My brain goes into vapor lock in this kind of weather. Plus, what few amps it is cranking I need for some work projects that are, er, heating up.

I will say this about White - that time and again as I've been reading Charlotte's Web to the Llama-ettes, he has demonstrated that he's absolutely dialed-in on their wavelength. Example (inaccurately quoted, I'm sure, but you'll see what I mean):

Charlotte: "You'll be absolutely incandescent!"
Llama-ette: "What's 'incandescent'?"
Wilbur: "What's 'incandescent'?"
Charlotte: "It means to shine a lot."

You can imagine what kind of kick the gels get out of this. And it also says something about White's skill as a children's author.

Cleanup on Aisle Five!

Doing whippets when you're 16, working the produce aisle at the Stop n' shop? Dumb-ass move, lose your job and have to pay the store for the cans. (I'm NOT speaking from personal experience here, so hush). $3.95

Doing whippets in the Stop n' Shop when you are 49 year old prominent pyschologist with a practice specializing in the stupid things kids do? Priceless.

Why I love Australia, part MCMLVII

And it's not just because of the serene wisdom of Pixy Misa, benevolent Meister Burger Burger Meister of the domain of Moo-Knew.

It's because, along with the Brits, they are our true allies in the world.

Case in point, the editorial in today's Australian about last week's attack This is not a war of our own making:

But there will be more attacks. That is beyond debate or doubt. And the brutal truth is there is nothing the West could or can do to appease the terrorists. They will strike wherever they can, whenever they can. And any rag-bag argument in support of slaughter will do them. If the allies fled in fear from Iraq tomorrow attacks around the world would continue, only the excuse would alter – to revenge for past wrongs. Bin Laden has denounced Australia for helping East Timor win independence from Indonesia – another foreign policy blunder we have "paid the price" for. His allies threaten France for its ban on head scarves in public schools. And the Islamists talk of punishing crusader states, as if Australians, of all ethnicities and religions, are to blame for wars fought a thousand years ago. And it is false comfort to assume that the bombers are interested in improving the lot of ordinary Muslims. As with the appeasers who urged Australia to bow before the Nazi or Soviet empires, commentators who say we can cut a deal with evil, that Islamic terrorists will leave us alone if we only give them a little of what they want, do not understand what we confront. This is a war with people who believe murder is not a means to an end, but is an end in itself.

Read the whole thing, for a concise statement of what this is all about.

UPDATE: Here's the Sydney Morning Herald echoing the theme.

Ah, le perfidy of zee French

Remember how, the day after 9/11, the French were united with us, and we had their moral support and fraternite?

And how Amerikan lefties screamed bloody murder at our own leaders when mere weeks later, France was back to acting in their own interests, which means regularly crapping on les Etas-Unis?

And remember how the French were in solidarity with the Brits last week, with the Socialist Mayor of Paris declaring how "we" were all Londoners?

Surprise, surprise, surpise! Right on schedule.

And I'd be willing to bet that he gives the same interview to al-Jazeera, but blames it on the JOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOZ.

Public Service Announcement

Kathy's got the info on a great cause.

SEKRIT MESSAGE TO THE CAKE EATER: Kiss the ring? Hell no. You're from the old neighborhood.

Just climb into the front seat---no, don't mind that the LMC is sitting right behind you.

And to your commentator, Bill isn't our Moe Green, he's our Johnny Fontane.

McCAIN ON JUDICIAL FILIBUSTERS

Drudge is carrying this post, quoting the senior senator from Arizona as saying that there will be no filibuster on Bush's SCOTUS appointments. This could be McCain's way of signalling to Bush he will support pedal-to-the-metal nominees and an attempt to mend fences with the conservative base with the '08 primaries in mind. In any event, the Gang of 14 deal is looking more and more inconsequential.

Thanks, France

This just sucks.

Consensus? No!!!!!!!!!!!

This disturbing news about the Supreme Court popped up today:

Key GOP and Democratic members of the Senate met this morning with President Bush for a first discussion of the upcoming nomination of a new Supreme Court justice, with Minority Leader Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) declaring afterward that he was confident that a "consensus" candidate satisfactory to both parties would emerge from the process.

Several in the meeting said as well that they had urged Bush to appoint a justice who is not sitting on any U.S. court of appeals in the interest of getting someone with practical experience.

Reid, the minority leader, said that while Bush "didn't give us any names, there were names mentioned in the meeting."

Reid, reflecting the comments of others in attendance as well, said he thought there has been "enough contention on judges."

Someone with practical experience, eh? How about a solid conservative son of the South with extensive experience heading the district attorney's office in NYC?

There's no other word for it: I'm......(wait for it, wait for it) OUTRAGED!

"Consensus" of course means delaying the all-out legal/political/ideological war we've been promised! Talk about your coifus interruptus! All our dancing around the severed head of Robert Bork on a pole gone to naught! All our secret conferences on the "constitution in exile," all our toasts commemorating the retirement of Justice Brennan, all our Federalist Society meetings spent learning the Illuminati handshakes----nothing!

The horror.....the horror.....

UPDATE: I was wondering how long it was going to take for George Mitchell to insert his ugly mug and razor sharp elbows into this fiesta.

Yet another reason to boycott Disney.

The Midsummer Classic

The All-Star Game is always bittersweet for me, as it seems to be the point in which the rest of summer becomes a blur and the next thing you know the garden's dormant, leaves are falling......

I've already had three students email me to get the syllabus for a class this fall: weenies!

Anyhoo, one of my first baseball memories was when I was five, when Reggie Jackson hit the homer on the roof at old Tigers Stadium. Somehow that made a real impression on me. Irish Elk has a roundup of the like that can only be found at the Irish Elk, which includes his (decidely premature) rooting for a White Sox/Nationals World Series.

Other vivid All-Star game memories: when we were kids, we used to play Stratomatic constantly through the summer. We played lots of board games: Monopoly games that would last 2 weeks, Risk games that would inevitably end in backyard brawling, but Stratomatic was the King. I remember we tried playing a 160 game schedule with four teams that we created (I think we just shuffled, we didn't have a "draft"), but I can't remember whether the whole season got played. But the All-Star game was always fun because we'd listen on the radio on the back screened porch, but lie on the floor and play our own game. My older brother Lou would keep score of both games, and we'd pore over the score sheets for weeks.

Anyhoo, I haven't watched or listened to the All-Star game in eons, but I always note its passage, and with it the passing of Summer in a hazy blur.

A Link-whoring festa that not even I could ignore

Skippy the Kangaroo takes it all to the next level, and we bow before a master of the genre---Skippy is certainly the Mr. Miyagi of link and traffic whoring, which I guess would make Rusty be Daniel LaRusso and INDC Bill Ali Mills.

Funny, I Didn't Notice The Severed Head Of A Llama Next To Me When I Woke Up This Morning

Well, we seem to have misplaced the new site design.

Perhaps those copyright lawyers move faster than I had supposed. Can you say "cease and desist"? Sure, I knew you could.....

INSTANT UPDATE: Never mind. Found it.

The Impossible Dream

Sheila reminisces.

More on Caddyshack

The LMC's posting the other night on Caddyshack produced a nice tide of comments, including in the comments section a link to carlspackler.com

And if you don't know who Carl Spackler is, well, you must be below the age of 33 or above the age of 46.

Or you're a regular viewer of The Bachelor/ette series.

License to kill gophers by the government of the United Nations. Man, free to kill gophers at will. To kill, you must know your enemy, and in this case my enemy is a varmint. And a varmint will never quit - ever. They're like the Viet Cong - Varmint Cong. So you have to fall back on superior firepower and superior intelligence. And that's all she wrote.

Lincoln's generation relied on the Bible and Shakespeare for metaphorical language to describe their world view: mine has the entire oevre of Bill Murray.

I mean, come on, how many times have you stood at the practice tee and had this baby go through your mind:

What an incredible Cinderella story, this unknown comes outta no where to lead the pack, at Augusta. He's on his final hole, he's about 455 yards away - he's gonna hit about a two-iron I think. Oh he got all of that one! The crowd is standing on its feet here, the normally reserved Augusta crowd - going wild - for this young Cinderella, he's come outta no where, he's got about 350 yards left, he's gonna hit about a five-iron, don't you think? He's got a beautiful backswing - that's - Oh he got all of that one! He's gotta be pleased with that, the crowd is just on its feet here, uh - He's the Cinderella boy, uh - tears in his eyes I guess as he lines up this last shot, he's got about 195 yards left, he's got about a - its looks like he's got about an eight-iron. This crowd has gone deathly silent, the Cinderella story, outta no where, a former greenskeeper now - about to become the Masters champion. It looks like a mirac - It's in the Hole!

Yips! from Robbo: I'm going to slip the head into the ol' noose here and suggest that Bill Murray is, in fact, the only real reason to watch this movie.

Predictable

Of course, the you-know-who's are to blame.

And by that, I don't mean Voldemort.

(Sarcasm alert)

Operation REd Wing update

The search for the missing SEAL is over. Matthew at Froggy Ruminations has all the information.

The Return of the Deaniacs

An unintentionally humorous story in the WaPo today about local MoveOnistas and Deaniacs getting all fired up for action on the Supreme Court confirmation front.

Somehow, I get the feeling that they'll be about as effective as they were last time.

Guns, Germs, and Steel: The tee-vee show

PBS has made Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs, and Steel into a three part series.

This is one of those instances in which a "no-brainer" turns out to be, well, evidence of no brains. Don't get me wrong: GG&S is an outstanding work of theory. I've used it quite a number of times in different courses (often in conjunction with Victor Hanson's Carnage and Culture, where VDH puts forward a contrary theory that focuses on cultural organization) to put forward different meta-theories for the development of societies. Diamond's thesis, revolving as it does around the significance of ecological development and the uneven distribution of natural resources, presents a compelling way to understand what drives societal change over the long haul. I teach at a women's college, so I'm spared the rounds of snickering that would inevitably come from college boys noting Diamond's fascination with, um, farm animals

But that doesn't explain why this book was a bestseller. My theory on this comes from seeing this book advertised over the past 5 years in airport bookstores: in the larger airport bookstores, you can almost always find a large display of this one book within 15 feet of the cash register.

Why?

My theory is that this is the greatest book of all time to completely foreclose any possibility that the person sitting next to you will attempt to even look at you, let alone think of trying to talk to you. Better than an iPod, better even than The Economic Consequences of the Black Plague, alas, even better than my previous favorite for this role The Road to Serfdom, pulling out Jared Diamond is the best way for people to take one peripheral vision look and think to themselves, "pyscho." Which is a shame really, because it is a good book.

Anyhoo, the review of the show is pretty vicious, as far as these things go:

Unfortunately, there's also no contest between this television series and Diamond's book. Part of the problem is Diamond himself. The producers put the professor at the center of the story, and we watch him traveling the world, in a dugout canoe in New Guinea, walking along a railroad track in Zambia, paging through a book in a Spanish library. But the scenes are static and Diamond is no Carl Sagan. Even the supposed emotional climax of the series, which comes when he visits a facility for African children with malaria, has almost no punch.

The show compounds its difficulties by relying on a set of hokey techniques that call attention to themselves. Granted, the beginnings and spread of agriculture aren't the easiest things to dramatize. But there's enough time-lapse photography of clouds in this series to last a lifetime. And the historic reenactments look like animatronic versions of the dioramas that used to populate natural history museums. Indeed, those of a certain age might feel they're watching the modern equivalent of a school filmstrip: ponderous in pace, with its didacticism guaranteed to be 100 percent sugar-free.

For anyone truly interested in Diamond's ideas, there's a better piece of real estate than in front of the tube. It's a comfortable chair, with his book open in your lap.

The bit about Carl Sagan is going to leave a mark.

Anyhoo, I think they really blew it here, as GG&S would have made the basis for a great reality/game show, kind of like Survivor meets Age of Empire. You'd divide them up into teams on their different islands, but give them access to different types of things which could be parlayed into technology. I'd love to see those boneheaded coffee baristas and disaffected lawyers try to figure out how to smelt bronze.

Personally, I'll pass on this one and wait for when they make a series out of Steven Levitt's Freakonomics, if only to see the Mick Jagger of American academics crown pass from the obsequiously ubiquitous Brian Greene.

COMPLETELY USELESS JUDICIAL TRIVIA

Since Steve-O started the random judicial trivia, I cannot resist throwing an item of completely useless knowledge. Retirement for any justice does not prevent them from hearing cases in the lower federal courts. Lewis Powell periodically sat on panels of the Fourth Circuit after his retirement from the Supeme Court. Byron White did the same for the Ninth Circuit, lending some sanity to a court of appeals that is often out of control.

J. Harvie Wilkinson for the Supreme Court

George Will has an excellent piece today laying out the case for Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson for the chief justiceship. Judge Wilkinson was until recently the chief judge of the reliably conservative Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals.

Overcoming my instinctual bias against someone named "J. Harvie" I can think of no person more qualified to be the Chief. If merit---integrity, legal acumen, and judicial temperament---was the sole criteria, it would be Judge Wilkinson, hands down.

But then again merit hasn't been the sole criteria since Hoover appointed Benjamin Cardozo.

Conservatives who are hoping against hope for the reincarnation of Cotton Mather, or of the intellectual heir of Willis van Dervanter, can forget about it. But those who've replaced the old concern with geographic balance with the real estate of ideology---ie that some seats are the "moderate" seats in much the same way there was a "southern" seat and a "Massachusetts" seat for a long time---should also not double down their bets.

COMPLETELY RANDOM SUPREME COURT GEEK FUN!
At the magnificent Oyez website that Jerry Goldman runs out of Northwestern, on the pages for the individual Supreme Court justices it has a feature that lets you see who the previous occupants of that seat were. Interestingly enough, O'Connor occupies Owen Roberts' seat, he of the famous vote switch from the New Deal era.

I'm such a nerd for that type of stuff.

CADDYSHACK

It is a hot summer afternoon, the kids are napping, Mrs. LMC is out doing girl stuff--the perfect afternoon for a stroll down trivia lane. What are your favorite lines from one of the funniest movies ever made? Mine is Lacey Underall's favorite recreational activities: "Skinny skiing, going to bullfights on acid."

AMPUTEE TRYING TO GET BACK IN THE FIGHT

This comes courtesy of BlackFive. Read it.

FLASH IN THE PAN MOVIE BABES OF THE NINETIES

This weekend's feature: Rachel Ticotin, the present Mrs. Peter Strauss and the former Mrs. David Caruso. Best flick: as Arnold's sidekick in Total Recall. Best attributes: dark, good looks; no pretensions that I know of to opine in public on global warming, nuclear weapons, foreign policy, or poverty in Africa. Co-starred in a string of forgettable flicks since TR, including that cinematic epic, Con Air.

Never Go Against the Llamas

Capiche?

YIPS from Steve: So are we giving Robbo his long overdue props or what? After having his LLama dressed as the Statue of Liberty, Robin from Batman, Princess Leia, the Easter Pimp Bunny's chief Ho, and Missus Klaus, he gets center stage in the new look. Well deserved for a good sport!

Of course, he probably won't like the Hermione Granger LLama makeover for the impending Harry Potter Week Coverage.....

THE TOMB OF THE UNKNOWN WARRIOR

The Tomb of the Unknown Warrior in the nave at Westminster bears this inscription:

Beneath this stone rests the body of a British warrior
Unknown by name or rank
Brought from France to lie among
The most illustrious of the land
And buried here on Armistice Day
11 Nov: 1920, in the presence of
His Majesty King George V
His ministers of state
The chiefs of his forces
And a vast concourse of the nation
Thus are commemorated the many
Multitudes who during the Great
War of 1914 - 1918 gave the most that
Man can give life itself
For God
For King and country
For loved ones home and Empire
For the sacred cause of justice and
The freedom of the world
They buried him among the kings because
He hath done good towards God and His house.

Four smaller inscriptions are on it, one on each side:

No greater love than this
Unknown, yet well known - dying, behold, we live
The Lord knoweth those that are his
In Christ all shall be made alive.

In The Last Lion, William Manchester wrote that upon becoming prime minister, Churchill said he "thought long and hard these last few days about whether it is part of my duty that I should enter into negotiations with that man [Hitler] and I have concluded that if this long island story of ours is to end at last, let it end when each of us lies on the ground choking in his own blood."

This is the stuff of which the British are made. Such spirit may sleep and some may think they have gone soft but once awakened they will do whatever it takes to defend their island home and their way of life. Ask the Romans, the sailors of the Spanish Armada, Napoleon, the Kaiser, Hitler, Mussolini, Hirohito, Galtieri, and Saddam.

REHNQUIST WATCH

Drudge is carrying a note in red that the media is "on standby" amidst "growing reports" the Chief is hanging up the cleats.

UPDATE: Drudge has goosed up the bells and whistles to include a flashing light. Watch the libs twist themselves into a lather with calls for "balance," "consultation", "advice and consent," etc. The more paranoid types on our side will fret that Bush will screw them with a "moderate." BTW, for all those that call for Bush to replace O'Connor with a "moderate" or a "pragmatist" to preserve "balance"--where where you when Clinton replaced Byron White with Ruth Bader Ginsburg?

YIPS from Steve: Our old pal everyone's favorite Commie is speculating about returns far ahead of the Five Year Plan, fanning talk that Ruth Bader Ginsburg is going to go soon.

I'll only add this, that the last time I saw her at the Court she looked almost spectral, and seemed to almost float into the room.

Boy, Rehnquist and O'Connor sure were clever, waiting five years and one presidential election to leave the bench after delivering the election to the Chimperor so they could retire.

And look for Netanyahu to get advance notice of the next two resignations....

Here's an idea: since people are already floating the Fred Thompson for the Supreme Court idea, why not, if Rehnquist and Ginsburg go this summer, appoint Diane Weist and Steven Hill to the other two spots?

That way, instead of the "Oyez oyez" crap, the Marshall could gavel in each session of the Court by saying

In America's war on the Constitution
The people are "protected" by two sets of judges:
Liberal activists who want to let local governments seize their homes and property, but let them play hokey-pokey with their pie-hole,
and conservative originalists who want to preserve your right to carry a brown bess and twisted knickers, but get completely screwed by the modern state.
These are their stories.

Followed, of course, by the Law & Order "BWONNNNNNNNG" noise.

The New Llama Look....

...is on its way this weekend. Do not be alarmed. Do not attempt to adjust your computer.

That is all.

UPDATE: I unveiled the new design to the Missus just now. She laughed and called it great. Good enough for me.

YIPS from Steve: YEAH, BAY-BEE!!! Let it rip, Phin!

Man, are WE going to get sued!

Lite Posting Notice

A day of domesticity here at the Butcher's House as we get things ready for the Missus and the Llama-ettes to head off to the beach.

Tomorrow, of course, begins the annual Llama Bachelor Week. The ideal for this week usually involves buckets of range balls, cigars, Guy Movie marathons, good Scotch, heavy workouts, playing the piano well into the evening and just generally revelling in peace and quiet. The reality usually consists of me aimlessly rattling around an empty house longing for the return of the familiy.

Well. We'll see.

Speaking of Llama time-wasters, the other day, I noted how reading a book about the Battle of Britain seemed to improve my WWII air combat computer gaming skills. I wonder if rereading Henry V would improve my British Longbowmen's performance against the Teutonic Knights in Age of Kings.

Not that they really need any help. (Yeah, I'm talkin' to you, Steve-O.)

More later.

More Gratuitous 80's Pop Culchah Stuff

The Missus was out having a birthday drink with a friend last evening, so I sat down to watch Silverado, which I had never seen before.

My friends, let me just tell you here and now that this movie is conclusive proof that a heavy-weight cast does not, repeat not, guarantee a good movie. I actually found myself feeling sorry for Kevin Kline, who is normally one of my favorite actors.

Discuss amongst yourselves.

Gratuitous 80's Pop Culchah Stuff

I was on the treadmill last evening jamming along to one of my favorite running CDs - Duran Duran's "Decade". (The fact that I feel compelled to work out at home to get in sufficient shape to show myself at the gym is, of course, a side issue.)

Anyhoo, I found myself asking the same question I always do: In "Is There Something I Should Know", there's a bit with a slow harmonica doing the same couple of notes over and over. This sounds to me very much like Charles Bronson's "Harmonica" character's playing in Once Upon A Time In The West. I've always wondered whether that was a deliberate reference or just a coincidence.

(Okay, okay. But give me a break - half an hour into a run my brain is usually in vapor-lock. These delusional questions will come up.)

And as long as we're on the subject of 80's bands, I also found myself reaching hard to try and remember the name of a flash-in-the-pan duo who had an MTV video that seemed to play endlessly during my college days. The song was called something like "She's Got The Look" and the band was a guy and a girl. He had rectangular steel-rimmed glasses and one of those bushy 80's hair styles. She played bass. That's all I remember. Ring a bell for anyone else?

SUPER SEKRET MESSAGE TO BILL: Next time you think I'm overdoing the Mozart blogging, just remember this post. And count yer blessings. Heh.

"We Are All Brits Now"

The Bull Moose: "We are all Brits now." Fly the Union Jack today.

(Detached from previous post and moved to the top of the page for the day.)

UPDATE: A good idea whose time has come again:

(Image lifted from Rich Lowry.)

FLASH IN THE PAN BABES OF THE EIGHTIES

Mrs. LMC had "Dirty Dancing" on a little while ago which I had never seen as my existence for the period 1981 to 1991 was spent here and here. Apparently, I did not miss much on the large screen during my extended stays in the boonies of America, but I digress (or regress?). In any event, Jennifer Grey's claim to fame was she co-starred with Patrick Swayze in DD and was in "Farris Bueller's Day Off." A short clip this evening of the "where are they now" variety had Jennifer going on and on about what a big moment it was for her and how great it was that DD was made into a musical. This woman is on the ropes. Poor Jennifer, gone and forgotten but at least she did not do the skin mags and movies on the estrogen channels.

UPDATE: A faithful reader corrected me on the spelling of poor Jennifer's name but even that will not save her from obscurity, richly deserved. Mrs. LMC, the Final Authority on all Manner of Popular Culture, thinks Jennifer had cosmetic surgery. Colossus inquired if we have ever done a feature on the babe from Flashdance. We have, and here it is.

MORE REHNQUIST RUMORS

Robert (not Michael) Novak has this piece predicting the Chief's retirement as early as tomorrow.

UPDATE: once again, a faithful reader gently corrected me on the appropriate Novak. If this keeps up, Robbo and Steve-O will take away my keys to the super-secret Llama server farm. However, unlike Dan Rather, I will not hide behind "false, but accurate" or any other such nonsense.

Vacation Posting

Chatting with Red in the post about Robert McCloskey's books below got me dreaming again about vacation time and this place: Popham Beach State Park. We make a point of spending some time there every summer when we go up to Maine. It's a very large, very uncrowded beach, with beautiful scenery and very good sand. The only drawbacks are that the water is cold as hell and you have to keep your eyes open for the riptides.

Sigh......Another month to go before I make my exodus from this steam-bath known as Dee Cee. But it'll be worth the wait.

Chutzpah Watch

In this article about Middle Eastern reaction to this morning's London bombings, we find Hamas, of all people, shaking their collective heads:

The Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, responsible for many suicide attacks on Israelis, condemned the London bombings.

"Targeting civilians in their transport means and lives is denounced and rejected," Moussa Abu Marzouk, deputy chief of the group's political bureau told Reuters in Damascus by telephone.

Yeah, uh huh, right. Hi, Kettle? This is Pot.

Yips! to Mr. Evolution, who has lots of other links as well.

Seeing Orange

I suppose that DHS really had no choice but to raise the terror alert level for mass transit here in the U.S. after this morning's bombings. But really - God help any idiot fool enough to try a stunt today of all days. If half the people around here are feeling as flat-out angry as I am about the bad guys hitting us, anybody found carrying what the Metro authorities delicately like to call a "suspicious package" probably would be set upon and torn to shreds long before the transit cops could get anywhere near him.

A Little More Mid-Afternoon Mood-Lightening Frivolity

Separated at Birth?

Similarities are being noticed between Johnny Depp's Willy Wonka and a certain recently-acquited Hollywood freak. And lest you think I'm making all of this up just because of my own prejudices, I'll have you know that no less a Blog Eminence than Laurence Simon his own self is the one who brought it to my notice:

"It's very scary," laughs Houston-based blogger Laurence Simon.

Like other moviegoers, Simon made the Depp-Jackson-Wonka connection almost instantly when he saw the Chocolate Factory trailer. An offhanded remark last month on his blog, This Blog Is Full of Crap (IsFullofCrap.com), about how much he wasn't looking forward to Burton's film led one commentator to crack, "What's the problem...? Don't have the stomach for Michael Jackson and the Chocolate Factory?"

[Insert sound of sniggering here.]

Yips! to Ith.

BTW, for those of you interested, I've now read the original Roald Dahl novel to the Llama-ettes, who thoroughly enjoyed it. We're starting in on Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator, which doesn't seem half as good, at least from the early chapters. The whole "Spaceship U.S.A." bit with the cardboard paranoid Amuricans had me tapping my foot with some impatience. I hope Dahl gets over this kick quickly, but experience suggests that I shouldn't let this hope get too high.

UPDATE: Rechecking the comments to my previous post, I see that Fausta scooped the lot of us on the whole Depp/Jackson thing. Well done.

UPDATE DEUX: In a story related to today's events, Evil Glenn reports that the Gloved One stands ready to whip out his support for the Brits. N'yung-chuk! Oooh, Hooo!

Blogging in Berryland - Updated

A little lite mid-afternoon relief for this bad day. (And isn't this Why We Fight, after all?)

Following up on my post about blueberries and the Llama-ettes the other day, long time Llama commenter Sarah recommended this book:

Blueberries for Sal, by Robert McCloskey.

I've never read it, but we've long enjoyed some of McCloskey's other books including Make Way for Ducklings. Given that, of course I immediately went to the Devil's Website and bought the thing.

Thankee much, Sarah - I'll let you know how it goes!

The Storm of the Century Of The Week

Hey, Dee Cee! Forget the terrorists - Mother Nature is coming for ya:

... Threat for heavy rainfall and isolated severe thunderstorms heads toward the region...

The remnants of Tropical Storm Cindy will move across the region
later today and tonight. This will bring significant rainfall to
the region.

Scattered showers and thunderstorms will be possible today. The
rain will become widespread and heavy at times after 5 PM and
continue overnight. A Flash Flood Watch remains in effect from
midnight through Friday afternoon. Total rainfall of 3 to 5 inches
will be possible. This amount of rainfall could cause flooding of
river systems and flash flooding of localized areas.

There will also be a risk of isolated tornadoes... this evening and
overnight... as the remnant circulation moves across the region. The
tornado threat area is from Charlottesville northeast to the
District of Columbia and Baltimore... and points further east to the
Chesapeake Bay. The threat for tornadoes should be from about 5 PM
and continuing overnight.

Quick! To Giant! Buy all the batteries, toilet paper and bottled water you can! Well? Why are you still sitting there? Run!

UPDATE: Yes, and milk too! Buy lots. Pour it in your bathtub. Toss in a few ice cubes. It'll do fine for days and days. (Thanks to our brainy commenter LB Buddy. He's a scientist, ya' know, so he knows what he's talking about.)

Perspective

James Robbins at NRO:

According to the MIPT Terrorism Knowledge Base, there have been 126 terrorist incidents in London since the late Sixties, making it among the most targeted European capitals. (Note: There have been 309 attacks in Paris over the same period.) London has been attacked not only by the IRA, but also the Popular Front for the Liberation, Hamas, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the Abu Nidal Group, and now al Qaeda. Not to mention the Blitz during World War II. If Hitler's Luftwaffe could not break Britain's will, what chance do the terrorists have?

Wizbang has more.

What a difference a day makes

Andrew Sullivan, July 6, 2005

THE OLYMPICS: I'd comment but I find the entire event a crashing bore. I'm glad that Britain beat France. But I'd be glad if Britain beat France in a turtle race. I just hope London isn't crippled by the wrong kind of development. But if they survived the Millennium Dome, I guess they can survive anything. Even the tedium and cant of the "Olympic Spirit." Grouchy enough for ya? Bah: humbug.

This followed a screed on banning male circumcision.

I guess Andrew's been stuck in that July 6th mindset for over a year now.

Yips! from Robbo: Unless your name is George Galloway (MP, Vichyshire), in which case things never change:

We extend our condolences to those who have lost their lives today and our heartfelt sympathy to all those who have been injured by the bombs in London.

No one can condone acts of violence aimed at working people going about their daily lives. They have not been a party to, nor are they responsible for, the decisions of their government. They are entirely innocent and we condemn those who have killed or injured them.

The loss of innocent lives, whether in this country or Iraq, is precisely the result of a world that has become a less safe and peaceful place in recent years.

We have worked without rest to remove the causes of such violence from our world. We argued, as did the Security Services in this country, that the attacks on Afghanistan and Iraq would increase the threat of terrorist attack in Britain. Tragically Londoners have now paid the price of the government ignoring such warnings.

We urge the government to remove people in this country from harms way, as the Spanish government acted to remove its people from harm, by ending the occupation of Iraq and by turning its full attention to the development of a real solution to the wider conflicts in the Middle East.

Only then will the innocents here and abroad be able to enjoy a life free of the threat of needless violence.

UPDATE: For all your Moonbat Reaction needs, go check out Michelle Malkin's round-up.

IRA or AQ? Worstall has the answer

Our old friend Brit ex-pat Tim Worstall:

There is no way that this is the work of the IRA. Sky News is reporting that the bus was blown up by a suicide bomber. Irish people don't blow themselves up. There is no Guiness in the afterlife.

UPDATE: That was Tim quoting Tigerhawk. My bad.

UPDATE DEUX: So far, no one is pinning this on the imminent return of Lord Voldemort, which is odd given one of the attacks was at Kings Cross Station, home of Platform 9 3/4.

That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day

WESTMORELAND. O that we now had here But one ten thousand of those men in England That do no work to-day!

KING. What's he that wishes so?
My cousin Westmoreland? No, my fair cousin;
If we are mark'd to die, we are enow
To do our country loss; and if to live,
The fewer men, the greater share of honour.
God's will! I pray thee, wish not one man more.
By Jove, I am not covetous for gold,
Nor care I who doth feed upon my cost;
It yearns me not if men my garments wear;
Such outward things dwell not in my desires.
But if it be a sin to covet honour,
I am the most offending soul alive.
No, faith, my coz, wish not a man from England.
God's peace! I would not lose so great an honour
As one man more methinks would share from me
For the best hope I have. O, do not wish one more!
Rather proclaim it, Westmoreland, through my host,
That he which hath no stomach to this fight,
Let him depart; his passport shall be made,
And crowns for convoy put into his purse;
We would not die in that man's company
That fears his fellowship to die with us.
This day is call'd the feast of Crispian.
He that outlives this day, and comes safe home,
Will stand a tip-toe when this day is nam'd,
And rouse him at the name of Crispian.
He that shall live this day, and see old age,
Will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbours,
And say 'To-morrow is Saint Crispian.'
Then will he strip his sleeve and show his scars,
And say 'These wounds I had on Crispian's day.'
Old men forget; yet all shall be forgot,
But he'll remember, with advantages,
What feats he did that day. Then shall our names,
Familiar in his mouth as household words-
Harry the King, Bedford and Exeter,
Warwick and Talbot, Salisbury and Gloucester-
Be in their flowing cups freshly rememb'red.
This story shall the good man teach his son;
And Crispin Crispian shall ne'er go by,
From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be remembered-
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition;
Make him a member of the gentry, even if he is a commoner.
And gentlemen in England now-a-bed
Shall think themselves accurs'd they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day.

The Price of Greatness is Responsibility

The last time I attended a ceremony of this character was in the spring of 1941, when, as Chancellor of Bristol University, I conferred a degree upon the United States Ambassador, Mr. Winant, and in absentia upon President Conant, our President, who is here today and presiding over this ceremony. The blitz was running hard at that time, and the night before, the raid on Bristol had been heavy. Several hundreds had been killed and wounded. Many houses were destroyed. Buildings next to the University were still burning, and many of the University authorities who conducted the ceremony had pulled on their robes over uniforms begrimed and drenched; but all was presented with faultless ritual and appropriate decorum, and I sustained a very strong and invigorating impression of the superiority of man over the forces that can destroy him.

Here now, today, I am once again in academic groves - groves is, I believe, the right word - where knowledge is garnered, where learning is stimulated, where virtues are inculcated and thought encouraged. Here, in the broad United States, with a respectable ocean on either side of us, we can look out upon the world in all its wonder and in all its woe. But what is this that I discern as I pass through your streets, as I look round this great company?

I see uniforms on every side. I understand that nearly the whole energies of the University have been drawn into the preparation of American youth for the battlefield. For this purpose all classes and courses have been transformed, and even the most sacred vacations have been swept away in a round-the-year and almost round-the-clock drive to make warriors and technicians for the fighting fronts.

Twice in my lifetime the long arm of destiny has reached across the oceans and involved the entire life and manhood of the United States in a deadly struggle.

There was no use in saying "We don't want it; we won’t have it; our forebears left Europe to avoid these quarrels; we have founded a new world which has no contact with the old. "There was no use in that. The long arm reaches out remorselessly, and every one's existence, environment, and outlook undergo a swift and irresistible change. What is the explanation, Mr. President, of these strange facts, and what are the deep laws to which they respond? I will offer you one explanation - there are others, but one will suffice.

The price of greatness is responsibility. If the people of the United States had continued in a mediocre station, struggling with the wilderness, absorbed in their own affairs, and a factor of no consequence in the movement of the world, they might have remained forgotten and undisturbed beyond their protecting oceans: but one cannot rise to be in many ways the leading community in the civilised world without being involved in its problems, without being convulsed by its agonies and inspired by its causes.

If this has been proved in the past, as it has been, it will become indisputable in the future. The people of the United States cannot escape world responsibility. Although we live in a period so tumultuous that little can be predicted, we may be quite sure that this process will be intensified with every forward step the United States make in wealth and in power. Not only are the responsibilities of this great Republic growing, but the world over which they range is itself contracting in relation to our powers of locomotion at a positively alarming rate.

We have learned to fly. What prodigious changes are involved in that new accomplishment! Man has parted company with his trusty friend the horse and has sailed into the azure with the eagles, eagles being represented by the infernal (loud laughter) - I mean internal -combustion engine. Where, then, are those broad oceans, those vast staring deserts? They are shrinking beneath our very eyes. Even elderly Parliamentarians like myself are forced to acquire a high degree of mobility.

But to the youth of America, as to the youth of all the Britains, I say "You cannot stop." There is no halting-place at this point. We have now reached a stage in the journey where there can be no pause. We must go on. It must be world anarchy or world order.

Throughout all this ordeal and struggle which is characteristic of our age, you will find in the British Commonwealth and Empire good comrades to whom you are united by other ties besides those of State policy and public need. To a large extent, they are the ties of blood and history. Naturally I, a child of both worlds, am conscious of these.

Law, language, literature - these are considerable factors. Common conceptions of what is right and decent, a marked regard for fair play, especially to the weak and poor, a stern sentiment of impartial justice, and above all the love of personal freedom, or as Kipling put it:

"Leave to live by no man 5 leave underneath the law" - these are common conceptions on both-sides of the ocean among the English-speaking peoples. We hold to these conceptions as strongly as you do.

We do not war primarily with races as such. Tyranny is our foe, whatever trappings or disguise it wears, whatever language it speaks, be it external or internal, we must forever be on our guard, ever mobilised, ever vigilant, always ready to spring at its throat. In all this, we march together. Not only do we march and strive shoulder to shoulder at this moment under the fire of the enemy on the fields of war or in the air, but also in those realms of thought which are consecrated to the rights and the dignity of man.

At the present time we have in continual vigorous action the British and United States Combined Chiefs of Staff Committee, which works immediately under the President and myself as representative of the British War Cabinet. This committee, with its elaborate organisation of Staff officers of every grade, disposes of all our resources and, in practice, uses British and American troops, ships, aircraft, and munitions just as if they were the resources of a single State or nation.

I would not say there are never divergences of view among these high professional authorities. It would be unnatural if there were not. That is why it is necessary to have a plenary meeting of principals every two or three months. All these men now know each other. They trust each other. They like each other, and most of them have been at work together for a long time. When they meet they thrash things out with great candour and plain, blunt speech, but after a few days the President and I find ourselves furnished with sincere and united advice.

This is a wonderful system. There was nothing like it in the last war. There never has been anything like it between two allies. It is reproduced in an even more tightly-knit form at General Eisenhower's headquarters in the Mediterranean, where everything is completely intermingled and soldiers are ordered into battle by the Supreme Commander or his deputy, General Alexander, without the slightest regard to whether they are British, American, or Canadian, but simply in accordance with the fighting need.

Now in my opinion it would be a most foolish and improvident act on the part of our two Governments, or either of them, to break up this smooth-running and immensely powerful machinery the moment the war is over. For our own safety, as well as for the security of the rest of the world, we are bound to keep it working and in running order after the war - probably for a good many years, not only until we have set up some world arrangement to keep the peace, but until we know that it is an arrangement which will really give us that protection we must have from danger and aggression, a protection we have already had to seek across two vast world wars.

I am not qualified, of course, to judge whether or not this would become a party question in the United States, and I would not presume to discuss that point. I am sure, however, that it will not be a party question in Great Britain. We must not let go of the securities we have found necessary to preserve our lives and liberties until we are quite sure we have something else to put in their place which will give us an equally solid guarantee.

The great Bismarck - for there were once great men in Germany - is said to have observed towards the close of his life that the most potent factor in human society at the end of the nineteenth century was the fact that the British and American peoples spoke the same language.

That was a pregnant saying. Certainly it has enabled us to wage war together with an intimacy and harmony never before achieved among allies.

This gift of a common tongue is a priceless inheritance, and it may well some day become the foundation of a common citizenship. I like to think of British and Americans moving about freely over each other's wide estates with hardly a sense of being foreigners to one another. But I do not see why we should not try to spread our common language even more widely throughout the globe and, without seeking selfish advantage over any, possess ourselves of this invaluable amenity and birthright.

Some months ago I persuaded the British Cabinet to set up a committee of Ministers to study and report upon Basic English. Here you have a plan. There are others, but here you have a very carefully wrought plan for an international language capable of a very wide transaction of practical business and interchange of ideas. The whole of it is comprised in about 650 nouns and 200 verbs or other parts of speech - no more indeed than can be written on one side of a single sheet of paper.

What was my delight when, the other evening, quite unexpectedly, I heard the President of the United States suddenly speak of the merits of Basic English, and is it not a coincidence that, with all this in mind, I should arrive at Harvard, in fulfilment of the long-dated invitations to receive this degree, with which president Conant has honoured me? For Harvard has done more than any other American university to promote the extension of Basic English. The first work on Basic English was written by two Englishmen, Ivor Richards, now of Harvard, and C.K. Ogden, of Cambridge University, England, working in association.

The Harvard Commission on English Language Studies is distinguished both for its research and its practical work, particularly in introducing the use of Basic English in Latin America; and this Commission, your Commission, is now, I am told, working with secondary schools in Boston on the use of Basic English in teaching the main language to American children and in teaching it to foreigners preparing for citizenship.

Gentlemen, I make you my compliments. I do not wish to exaggerate, but you are the head-stream of what might well be a mighty fertilising and health-giving river. It would certainly be a grand convenience for us all to be able to move freely about the world - as we shall be able to do more freely than ever before as the science of the world develops - be able to move freely about the world, and be able to find everywhere a medium, albeit primitive, of intercourse and understanding. Might it not also be an advantage to many races, and an aid to the building-up of our new structure for preserving peace?

All these are great possibilities, and I say: "Let us go into this together. Let us have another Boston Tea Party about it."

Let us go forward as with other matters and other measures similar in aim and effect - let us go forward in malice to none and good will to all. Such plans offer far better prizes than taking away other people's provinces or lands or grinding them down in exploitation. The empires of the future are the empires of the mind.

It would, of course, Mr. President, be lamentable if those who are charged with the duty of leading great nations forward in this grievous and obstinate war were to allow their minds and energies to be diverted from making the plans to achieve our righteous purposes without needless prolongation of slaughter and destruction.

Nevertheless, we are also bound, so far as life and strength allow, and without prejudice to our dominating military tasks, to look ahead to those days which will surely come when we shall have finally beaten down Satan under our feet and find ourselves with other great allies at once the. masters and the servants of the future. Various schemes of achieving world security while yet preserving national rights, traditions and customs are being studied and probed.

We have all the fine work that was done a quarter of a century ago by those who devised and tried to make effective the League of Nations after the last war. It is said that the League of Nations failed. If so, that is largely because it was abandoned, and later on betrayed: because those who were its best friends were till a very late period infected with a futile pacifism: because the United States, the originating impulse, fell out of line: because, while France had been bled white and England was supine and bewildered, a monstrous growth of aggression sprang up in Germany, in Italy and Japan.

We have learned from hard experience that stronger, more efficient, more rigorous world institutions must be created to preserve peace and to forestall the causes of future wars. In this task the strongest victorious nations must be combined, and also those who have borne the burden and heat of the day and suffered under the flail of adversity; and, in this task, this creative task, there are some who say: "Let us have a world council and under it regional or continental councils," and there are others who prefer a somewhat different organisation.

All these matters weigh with us now in spite of the war, which none can say has reached its climax, which is perhaps entering for us, British and Americans, upon its most severe and costly phase. But I am here to tell you that, whatever form your system of world security may take, however the nations are grouped and ranged, whatever derogations are made from national sovereignty for the sake of the larger synthesis, nothing will work soundly or for long without the united effort of the British and American peoples.

If we are together nothing is impossible. If we are divided all will fail.

I therefore preach continually the doctrine of the fraternal association of our two peoples, not for any purpose of gaining invidious material advantages for either of them, not for territorial aggrandisement or the vain pomp of earthly domination, but for the sake of service to mankind and for the honour that comes to those who faithfully serve great causes.

Here let me say how proud we ought to be, young and old alike, to live in this tremendous, thrilling, formative epoch in the human story, and how fortunate it was for the world that when these great trials came upon it there was a generation that terror could not conquer and brutal violence could not enslave. Let all who are here remember, as the words of the hymn we have just sung suggest, let all of us who are here remember that we are on the stage of history, and that whatever our station may be, and whatever part we have to play, great or small, our conduct is liable to be scrutinised not only by history but by our own descendants.

Let us rise to the full level of our duty and of our opportunity, and let us thank God for the spiritual rewards He has granted for all forms of valiant and faithful service.

Mayor of London: "F*ck, YEAH!"

"Red" Ken Livingstone, who can usually be counted on to say something completely asinine, gets it today:

"I want to say one thing, specifically to the world today - this was not a terrorist attack against the mighty and the powerful, it was not aimed at presidents or prime ministers, it was aimed at ordinary, working-class Londoners, black and white, Muslim and Christian ... young and old ... that isn't an ideology, it isn't even a perverted [faith], it is an indiscriminate attempt at mass murder."

"They seek to divide London, they seek Londoners to turn against each other ... this city of London is the greatest in the world because everybody lives side by side in harmony. Londoners will not be divided by this cowardly attack."

Yips! to Warren Bell in The Corner.

Never Give In, Never, Never, Never

October 29, 1941

Almost a year has passed since I came down here at your Head Master's kind invitation in order to cheer myself and cheer the hearts of a few of my friends by singing some of our own songs. The ten months that have passed have seen very terrible catastrophic events in the world - ups and downs, misfortunes - but can anyone sitting here this afternoon, this October afternoon, not feel deeply thankful for what has happened in the time that has passed and for the very great improvement in the position of our country and of our home? Why, when I was here last time we were quite alone, desperately alone, and we had been so for five or six months. We were poorly armed. We are not so poorly armed today; but then we were very poorly armed. We had the unmeasured menace of the enemy and their air attack still beating upon us, and you yourselves had had experience of this attack; and I expect you are beginning to feel impatient that there has been this long lull with nothing particular turning up!

But we must learn to be equally good at what is short and sharp and what is long and tough. It is generally said that the British are often better at the last. They do not expect to move from crisis to crisis; they do not always expect that each day will bring up some noble chance of war; but when they very slowly make up their minds that the thing has to be done and the job put through and finished, then, even if it takes months - if it takes years - they do it.

Another lesson I think we may take, just throwing our minds back to our meeting here ten months ago and now, is that appearances are often very deceptive, and as Kipling well says, we must "…meet with Triumph and Disaster. And treat those two impostors just the same."

You cannot tell from appearances how things will go. Sometimes imagination makes things out far worse than they are; yet without imagination not much can be done. Those people who are imaginative see many more dangers than perhaps exist; certainly many more than will happen; but then they must also pray to be given that extra courage to carry this far-reaching imagination. But for everyone, surely, what we have gone through in this period - I am addressing myself to the School - surely from this period of ten months this is the lesson: never give in, never give in, never, never, never, never-in nothing, great or small, large or petty - never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense. Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy. We stood all alone a year ago, and to many countries it seemed that our account was closed, we were finished. All this tradition of ours, our songs, our School history, this part of the history of this country, were gone and finished and liquidated.

Very different is the mood today. Britain, other nations thought, had drawn a sponge across her slate. But instead our country stood in the gap. There was no flinching and no thought of giving in; and by what seemed almost a miracle to those outside these Islands, though we ourselves never doubted it, we now find ourselves in a position where I say that we can be sure that we have only to persevere to conquer.

You sang here a verse of a School Song: you sang that extra verse written in my honour, which I was very greatly complimented by and which you have repeated today. But there is one word in it I want to alter - I wanted to do so last year, but I did not venture to. It is the line: "Not less we praise in darker days."

I have obtained the Head Master's permission to alter darker to sterner. "Not less we praise in sterner days."

Do not let us speak of darker days: let us speak rather of sterner days. These are not dark days; these are great days - the greatest days our country has ever lived; and we must all thank God that we have been allowed, each of us according to our stations, to play a part in making these days memorable in the history of our race.

Be Ye Men of Valor

I speak to you for the first time as Prime Minister in a solemn hour for the life of our country, of our empire, of our allies, and, above all, of the cause of Freedom. A tremendous battle is raging in France and Flanders. The Germans, by a remarkable combination of air bombing and heavily armored tanks, have broken through the French defenses north of the Maginot Line, and strong columns of their armored vehicles are ravaging the open country, which for the first day or two was without defenders. They have penetrated deeply and spread alarm and confusion in their track. Behind them there are now appearing infantry in lorries, and behind them, again, the large masses are moving forward. The re-groupment of the French armies to make head against, and also to strike at, this intruding wedge has been proceeding for several days, largely assisted by the magnificent efforts of the Royal Air Force.

We must not allow ourselves to be intimidated by the presence of these armored vehicles in unexpected places behind our lines. If they are behind our Front, the French are also at many points fighting actively behind theirs. Both sides are therefore in an extremely dangerous position. And if the French Army, and our own Army, are well handled, as I believe they will be; if the French retain that genius for recovery and counter-attack for which they have so long been famous; and if the British Army shows the dogged endurance and solid fighting power of which there have been so many examples in the past -- then a sudden transformation of the scene might spring into being.

It would be foolish, however, to disguise the gravity of the hour. It would be still more foolish to lose heart and courage or to suppose that well-trained, well-equipped armies numbering three or four millions of men can be overcome in the space of a few weeks, or even months, by a scoop, or raid of mechanized vehicles, however formidable. We may look with confidence to the stabilization of the Front in France, and to the general engagement of the masses, which will enable the qualities of the French and British soldiers to be matched squarely against those of their adversaries. For myself, I have invincible confidence in the French Army and its leaders. Only a very small part of that splendid Army has yet been heavily engaged; and only a very small part of France has yet been invaded. There is a good evidence to show that practically the whole of the specialized and mechanized forces of the enemy have been already thrown into the battle; and we know that very heavy losses have been inflict upon them. No officer or man, no brigade or division, which grapples at close quarters with the enemy, wherever encountered, can fail to make a worthy contribution to the general result. the Armies must cast away the idea of resisting behind concrete lines or natural obstacles, and must realize that mastery can only be regained by furious and unrelenting assault. And this spirit must not only animate the High Command, but must inspire every fighting man.

In the air -- often at serious odds, often at odds hitherto thought overwhelming -- we have been clawing down three or four to one of our enemies; and the relative balance of the British and German Air Forces is now considerably more favorable to us than at the beginning of the battle. In cutting down the German bombers, we are fighting our own battle as well as that of France. May confidence in our ability to fight it out to the finish with the German Air Force has been strengthened by the fierce encounters which have taken lace and are taking place. At the same time, our heavy bombers are striking nightly at the tap-root of German mechanized power, and have already inflicted serious damage upon the oil refineries on which the Nazi effort to dominate the world directly depends.

We must expect that as soon as stability is reached on the Western Front, the bulk of that hideous apparatus of aggression which gashed Holland into ruin and slavery in a few days will be turned upon us. I am sure I speak for all when I say we are ready to face it; to endure it; and to retaliate against it -- to any extent that the unwritten laws of war permit. There will be many men and many women in the Island who when the ordeal comes upon them, as come it will, will feel comfort, and even a pride, that they are sharing the perils of our lads at the Front -- soldiers, sailors and airmen, God bless them -- and are drawing away from them a part at least of the onslaught they have to bear. Is not this the appointed time for all to make the utmost exertions in their power? If the battle is to be won, we must provide our men with ever-increasing quantities of the weapons and ammunition they need. We must have, and have quickly, more aeroplanes, more tanks, more shells, more guns. there is imperious need for these vital munitions. They increase our strength against the powerfully armed enemy. They replace the wastage of the obstinate struggle; and the knowledge that wastage will speedily be replaced enables us to draw more readily upon our reserves and throw them in now that everything counts so much.

Our task is not only to win the battle - but to win the war. After this battle in France abates its force, there will come the battle for our Island -- for all that Britain is, and all the Britain means. That will be the struggle. In that supreme emergency we shall not hesitate to take every step, even the most drastic, to call forth from our people the last ounce and the last inch of effort of which they are capable. The interests of property, the hours of labor, are nothing compared with the struggle of life and honor, for right and freedom, to which we have vowed ourselves.

I have received from the Chiefs of the French Republic,and in particular form its indomitable Prime Minister, M. Reynaud, the most sacred pledges that whatever happens they will fight to the end, be it bitter or be it glorious. Nay, if we fight to the end, it can only be glorious.

Having received His Majesty's commission, I have formed an Administration of men and women of every Party and of almost every point of view. We have differed and quarreled in the past; but now one bond unites us all -- to wage war until victory is won, and never to surrender ourselves to servitude and shame, whatever the cost and the agony may be. this is one of the most awe-striking periods in the long history of France and Britain. It is also beyond doubt the most sublime. Side by side, unaided except by their kith and kin in the great Dominions and by the wide empires which rest beneath their shield - side by side, the British and French peoples have advanced to rescue not only Europe but mankind from the foulest and most soul-destroying tyranny which has ever darkened and stained the pages of history. Behind them - behind us- behind the Armies and Fleets of Britain and France - gather a group of shattered States and bludgeoned races: the Czechs, the Poles, the Norwegians, the Danes, the Dutch, the Belgians - upon all of whom the long night of barbarism will descend, unbroken even by a star of hope, unless we conquer, as conquer we must; as conquer we shall.

Today is Trinity Sunday. Centuries ago words were written to be a call and a spur to the faithful servants of Truth and Justice: "Arm yourselves, and be ye men of valour, and be in readiness for the conflict; for it is better for us to perish in battle than to look upon the outrage of our nation and our altar. As the Will of God is in Heaven, even so let it be."

Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep

Froggy has all the information on Operation Red Wing, including the addresses to help support the families through the Special Forces foundations.

London Bombings

Bloody hell.

I've got nothing at the moment, so I gladly defer to the heavyweights. Yes, we all make fun of the Puppy Blender, but you can't help admitting that at times like this Glenn is the central source for, well, Insta-linkage. Go on over.

As for the report that the Dee Cee Metro is being searched, I came in on the Orange Line this morning to Metro Center per usual and didn't notice anything. I admit I'm usually three quarters asleep, but I'm pretty sure I'd have spotted dogs or machine guns.

More as the day goes on, I'm sure.

FWIW, forget the G-8 protesters. They're just a bunch of loud-mouth hippies. This smells of Al Qaeda to me.

UPDATE: SOOPER SEKRET MESSAGE TO THE MISSUS: No, that's okay. I'm sure the Metro is perfectly safe for getting home.

UPDATE TWO: The Command Post is posting some links revising upward initial casualty figures - now something between 40 and 45 dead, with up to 1000 wounded.

Bastards.

UPDATE THREE: Some people get it. Some don't. K-Lo over in the Corner posts this email from a Londoner:

I'm writing this sitting in my office in London working as normal.

As I look out the window I see no buses, very few cars but lots of people walking on the streets; however, these are not the images of Sept 11 - people walking in one direction out of the city. These are Londoners walking left, right, up the street, down the street, going about their normal lunchtime business.

We have faced terror before - Nazi terror, Irish Republican terror - and have not been beaten. This will not beat us either.

The overwhelming feeling round our office is "Is this best they can do?" - it looks and sounds much worse on 24hr news channels than in person.

Meanwhile, the discussion thread over at DU is consumed with a debate over whether Tony Blair had his G8 speech this morning fed to him via an earpiece. And one commenter named "John" has this to say:

These attacks were clearly the result of Blair's willingness to take part in Bush's war in Iraq. What happened in Madrid last year has happened again in London today. I hope people in Britain take the opportunity to bring pressure to Blair's government and bring their troops home from Iraq. If he does not, then Labour should make an effort to remove him from 10 Downing Street.

MORE: Tim Worstall, our favorite Brit ex-pat, has an ongoing roundup of links and reactions, plus this sensible advice:

[F]or now, save the anger until we really know who did it, keep the political posturing until we’ve buried the bodies and if it’s one of the things you do, pray for those who have been murdered and those they’ve left behind.

Amen to that.

Why the Kelo Decision Stinks

Will Collier digs into the dirt on emminent domain development and campaign donations to the Democratic Party. No wonder Nancy Pelosi liked the decision so much.

The human side of the story: Susette Kelo speaks to a large property-rights demonstration in downtown New London.

I've said it before but I'll repeat myself: of all the corrupt to the core one party muncipalities in New England, New London is probably one of the worst. The irony here is that they have a gem of a public asset in Ocean Beach Park, which the city government has run into the ground.

I'm all in favor of having Justice Stevens' Florida estate seized to make way for a museum of judicial arrogance, incompetence, and stupidity.

Guilty As Charged

From the Impenetrable One, I came across this mini-meme:

If, as you live your life, you find yourself mentally composing blog entries about it, post this exact same sentence in your weblog.

Yeah, well, isn't that what any author or diarist might do? Why should we electronic bloviators be singled out?

Of course, it's not as if it's a constant thing. Most active times of mental post composition: mowing the lawn, walking to the office. Least active times: never you mind.

We were Purple Sharks Once, and Young

If it's Wednesday night in the summer, it's swim meet night at stately LLamabutcher Manor. This is our second year for our 8 year old daughter, who is going to be swimming in the 25M free, 25 breastroke, 25 back and probably the freestyle relay. This is also the first meet for the six year old boy, who will be doing the 25 free (and hopefully making it the length of the pool without having to be fished out by the Coast Guard).

The kids love the whole ritual and structure that the swim team creates for the summer, and boy does it take the edge off.

I'll have the wrap-up later.

UPDATE: We didn't get home until 1050, and the meet never really finished: they had to call off the freestyle relays because it was too durn late. The teams were just too big.

Anyhoo, the results: the little man swam his first meet, coming in 21st (out of 21). What mattered was that he finished---he got to the proverbial other end of the pool, and within a minute had a smile bigger than Christmas morning on his face. He whispered to me, "Daddy, I just pretended I was swimming for Gryffindor, and FairView was the Slytherins!" Whatever works to motivate the 6 year old crowd, eh?

The eight year old did great: in the 25 free she was flat and off her seed time by 1.5, but, more importantly, finished right ahead of one of her friends from school, who swam for the other team. Much dancing around ensued. She kicked butt in the backstroke, and did smoothly in the breaststroke. Personally, I was quietly relieved they had to cancel the freestyle relay, as she was pretty beat. This was her first meet swimming three discplines, so she had the delightful combination of elation and exhaustion. Needless to say, I carried her in from the car.

Hallmark doesn't make a card for that.

Further evidence that the LAwhd Gawhd is a Tar Heel

I was over at UVa today to spend a glorious 4 1/2 hours in the stacks doing research on the Barbary Wars and Jefferson's foreign policy for a lecture I have to do in two weeks. Walking across by the Rotunda was like navigating an obstacle course left by a petulant 3 year old Jolly Green Giant who was tired of playing with his train set. A large thunderstorm blew through town yesterday afternoon and sprouted a mini-tornado, which cut a very narrow swath about 15 yards from the University Avenue side of the Rotunda, before disintegrating right before the Old Medical School building. There were a number of very old trees which looked like someone had strapped a couple of sticks of dynamite to about 20 feet off the ground. I've never seen trees blown up like that. In the schadenfraude department, there was a really nice Porsche roadster convertible that had a very large tree dropped along its keel line.. Of course, it had New Jersey plates.

Of course, I'll be stripped of my Sekrit Decoder Ring and membership in the "Glenn Reynolds is Clapton" Fan Club, as I didn't have my digital camera with me, so no pics.

SECOND THOUGHTS: Hmmm, evidence of the over the top use of explosives within the sacred perimeter of Jefferson-land? I wonder if our own LLama Military Correspondent was in town and didn't look me up.....

Bastard.

Sooper Sekret Message to Steve-O

Ead-ray In-Phay's email-ay about-ay e-thay emplate-tay anges-chay.

I-ay ike-lay em-thay.

Ip-yay! Ip-yay!

YIPS from Steve: In-nay e-thay mortal-imay ords-way fay-ay Uckwheet-Bay, "Oh-Tay"-ay.

I think he's refering to the Top Secret New LLamabutchers Design Template that our old pal Phin has been working on lo these many weeks.

UPDATE: Alia iacta est. Stand by.

Happy Birth-Day, Mister Puh-resident....

Yes, today is Dubya's birthday. It also happens to be the Missus' birthday. This is a matter of keen interest to the Llama-ettes.

Happy Birthday to both of my bosses, indeed.

IS ANYONE SURPRISED BY THIS?

Drudge is carrying this story on Charles Schumer overheard on a call "going to war" over nominees to SCOTUS, busting on the Gang of 14, and kissing up to Lindsey Graham (who looks more and more like a lightweight every day).

The Stuff To Give The Troops

Sheila posts a wonderful letter of advice that F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote to his then 11-year old daughter Frances while she was at camp. I am strongly inclined to print it out and nail it to the Llama-ettes' foreheads. (Like Fitzgerald, I even have a cat I can whack if the gels don't pay attention to me.)

A sample:

Worry about courage
Worry about cleanliness
Worry about efficiency
Worry about horsemanship...[Robbo - But not yet. Not yet.]
Things not to worry about:
Don't worry about popular opinion
Don't worry about dolls
Don't worry about the past
Don't worry about the future

Now go read the rest.

THe LLama Plug

You know, one of those things that sounds nasty but isn't.

Anyhoo, Robbo linked to this post by Wuzzadem lighting a Roman Candle up the skirts of the Fox News Nooz Babes. But let me just say this for the record: for my money, Wuzzadem is the funniest, wickedest blogger out there. Hands down---it's like watching Allahpundit on the way up, before he went all Tony Montana on us so to stay up on three day Testors and meth benders playing Sonic the Hedgehog until his fingernails fall off.

Methinks Wuzzadem just might win the Coveted LLamabutcher Award for the Funniest New-ish Blog in the Universe----and with it the One Day Supply of Tender Vittles Flavored Rice-a-Roni, the San Francisco Treat.

Zoot Alors, I'm busted!!!

You Are 10% American

You're as American as Key Lime Tofu Pie Otherwise known as un-American! You belong in Cairo or Paris... Get out fast - before you end up in Gitmo!

Yikes! I hope they forward my subscription to the New Yorker to my cell!

Yips! from Robbo: Get the damn toga and tiara off me and I might just raise the bail money.

YIPS from Steve: Hey, watch it! That's not the type of mouthyness we come to expect from Lady Liberty, now, is it?

Yips Back! from Robbo: "That's why the Lay-dee is a tramp..."

Further "For The Honor Of The Llamas" Yips! from Robbo:

You Are 77% American

You're as American as red meat and shooting ranges. Tough and independent, you think big. You love everything about the US, wrong or right. And anyone who criticizes your home better not do it in front of you!

Wine and Bleu cheese for me, please. Also, the escargot and tete de veau bit was a beanball - I'd much rather have good French food than the other options. The song "Proud to be an American"? I've had more than enough of it.

YIPS from Steve: Everyone wants to know how I was able to score lower than Kos: well, you had to email them to ask for it in metric, and as I outed myself as a Sekrit Metric user already, it was the icing on the cake.

Shelby Foote, RIP

I don't know how I missed this last week. Over the weekend I did my annual re-reading of Stars in their Courses, his unequaled account of the Battle of Gettysburg that is just a small part of his epic three volume history of The War. It was Ken Burns that turned Mr. Foote into a star as the co-narrator of the 1990 Civil War documentary series. Heck, I'd pay good money to listen to Mr. Foote read the phone book. There was something magnetic about him. He will be missed.

Summertime and the Readin' Is Easy

While I am currently plodding through Edmund Morris' Theodore Rex and savoring the preparations for the Defense of Britain in Churchill's Their Finest Hour, it struck me that it's high time to inject some new, lighter reading into the list. Thus, I am launching out on some new books by old favorites:

A Good Clean Fight, by Derek Robinson. This is the continued story of Hornet Squadron, last seen fighting off the Nazi Blitz in Piece of Cake, now sent to North Africa. I've been meaning to get this for quite some time, but was put off a bit after reading Robinson's Goshawk Squadron, a story about a WWI fighter squadron that I didn't think anywhere near as good as P of C. But I still have high hopes for this one.

Sharpe's Battle, by Bernard Cornwell. The only infuriating thing about Cornwell's Richard Sharpe series, set during the Napoleonic Wars, is trying to sort them out chronologically. Cornwell keeps writing new ones and sticking them in between older novels. I have Sharpe's Rifles, Sharpe's Company and Sharpe's Eagle and it seems as good a time as any to plunge back into the Wars.

Flying Colours, by C.S. Forester. The eighth in the Horatio Hornblower series. The last one I read was Ship of the Line, which immediately proceeds this chronologically. Forester can't possible match Patrick O'Brian for the richness of his writing, but he still cranks out ripping good sea stories nonetheless.

SUPER BONUS BOOK RECOMMENDATION

In Their Finest Hour, Winnie mentions the "riddle of the sands", i.e., the question of German naval activity among the sandbars and shifting channels of the Southern Baltic. What he is referring to is, in fact, this:

The Riddles of the Sands, by Erskine Childers. It is, essentially, a very early spy novel, and tracks the adventures of two Brits in a small sailboat poking about that stretch of water in the early 1900's, slowly realizing what the Kaiser is up to.... A very entertaining book with much fascinating material on the art of sailing.

Take that, you cheese eating surrender monkeys!

London beats out Paris to host the 2012 Olympics.

You heard it here first: Sir Stephen Redgrave will light the cauldron in the opening ceremony.

SUPER SEKRIT MESSAGE TO ROB THE LLAMABUTCHER: Field trip?

JAMES B. STOCKDALE-R.I.P.

The local paper reports that retired Vice Admiral James B. Stockdale, USN passed away at age 81 of Alzheimer's. While he known best to the public at large as Ross Perot's running mate in the 1992 election, he was revered in the Navy for his courage and leadership as the senior naval officer in captivity in North Vietnam for which he earned the Medal of Honor. (Anyone interested in a good account of Stockdale and his fellow POWs in the infamous "Hanoi Hilton" should read Rear Admiral Jeremiah A. Denton's book, When Hell was in Session.)

Yips! from Robbo: Poor guy. To think that he went through all of that in Vietnam just to be remembered nowadays for his public humiliation in the '92 vice-presidential debate. (I still use the expression "Having an Admiral Stockdale Moment" myself. [Ed. - Perhaps you ought to cut that out.]) I never thought much of Perot to begin with, but after seeing the Admiral saying, "Who am I and what am I doing here?" in front of the entire nation, I had an overwhelming urge to hunt H. Ross down and punch him out.

UPDATE: Elizabeth at Daily Inklings posts on Stockdale's Vietnam heroism.

UPDATE DEUX: James Joyner has more links, information and tributes.

THE QUICK AND THE DEAD

Watched The Quick and the Dead last night with the Chief of Staff after our offspring went to bed. Good brainless action movie. Gene Hackman showed the talent that keeps him coming to work, cranking out movies, and never complaining. Sharon Stone was good without having to bang everyone in sight or show much skin--she looked particularly fetching in the last scene strolling down the street in leather, spurs clanking amidst the fire and explosions.

REHNQUIST PREDICTION-RELOADED AND SANDY'S SUCCESSOR REVISITED

The Fourth Circuit Judicial Conference has come and gone without an announcement from the chief justice about retirement. I am inclined to agree with one of our readers that the Chief will leave the courthouse feet-first with a sheet over his head.

As far as the retirement of SDOC is concerned, the President may be using the excuse of the G8 conference to let the Left get hysterical without even a nominee being put up. The outrageous soundbites over the weekend can be worked into a media campaign for the midterm elections down the road. However, waiting much after his return from Scotland will look like indecision so expect an annoucement shortly after his return. The nominee will a pedal-to-the-metal conservative. Bush is not the type to play it safe and won't this time.

Blogging in Berryland

(With apologies to Bruce Degan.)

We harvested our first blueberries over the weekend ("harvested" in this case meaning "scarfed right off the bush"). This comes on top of the appearance of the first raspberries last week. The bulk of the blueberries will come and go in the next two weeks or so, but the raspberry crop is more spread out, several of the bushes continuing to produce berries until the first frost. Around the Butcher's House, this is a sure-fire sign of High Summer.

There is nothing more pleasant to me than lounging in the hammock and watching the Llama-ettes work their way up and down the rows on a lazy summer afternoon, enjoining each other to only pick "the nice juicy ones". The sentimentalist in me hopes that as they grow older, this will be one of those happy memories they associate with their childhood. The pragmatist in me hopes that their continued fondness for raspberries will aid me in getting them to take charge of weeding the bed.

Speaking of fruits, our grapes are coming along nicely this year as well. I've got an arbor of five or six big vines of, I think, Concords. For some reason, though, every year it seems that just as the grapes are about to fully ripen, something happens to them - they shrivel up and turn odd colors. I don't know the first thing about viticulture, so I don't know if I'm doing something wrong with them to cause this. (Or more accurately, since I don't do anything, whether I'm not doing something I'm supposed to be doing.) Dad suggested that perhaps they're infected with botrytis cynerea, a mold that causes grey rot in unripe grapes, but causes something called noble rot in ripened grapes, a condition that leads to a concentration of sugar and flavor and allowing for the production of dessert wines, including Sauternes. One of these days, I'll figure it out.

UPDATE: Super-sekret message to Steve-O - Better start talking about your tomato crop, or I'll have to start talking about mine......

A perfectly reasonable thing to ask any nominee to the US Supreme Court

"What exactly is your position on the controversial issue of llama rescue?"

Because, like, we've got that part of the blog market covered.

We Few. We Happy Few.

Heh. It looks like we Llamas and our good pal Lintenfiniel Jen have a Harry and Westmoreland lock on Google-searches for P.J. O'Rourke's description of Henry David Thoreau as a "sanctimonious beatnik".

I hope those of you remaining a-bed while we fight this field are busy thinking yourselves accursed and holding your manhoods appropriately cheap.

"Hello and welcome to Target. My name is Satan. Can I Tempt You With Anything?"

We had the neighbors over for a 4th of July barbeque. They recently had their second child and we got around to talking about car trips with small kids. It was then that they mentioned this: the Kawasaki portable DVD system.

Oooooooh.

In the matter of teevee in the car, the Llama-ettes live under what we call the Four Hour Rule: If the trip is longer than four hours, we bring along a portable tee vee that plugs into the cigarette lighter and plays videotapes. Frankly, the thing is a pain in the arse - it sits on the armrest between the two front seats and hampers one's freedom of movement. Also, the speakers are built into the sides, so most of the audio goes right into Mom and Dad's ears.

But this, this may be a different matter. Screens hang off the seatbacks and, most importantly.....headphones.

We're coming up on Big Trip season here. The Missus heads off to the beach with the Llama-ettes next weekend and a month from now we all pile into the car for the annual trip to Maine.

Ooooooh.

Lawd knows I'm something of a Luddite when it comes to electronic gadgetry, but I can feel the sweet seductive power of this one.

UPDATE: Walmart does, indeed, have a cheaper one, with three headphone jacks instead of two. On the other hand, I've never heard of Durabrand.

Oooooooh.

This Is How The 19th Century Robber Barons Operated

John at Wuzzadem, in a single, masterful stroke, is cornering the entire Fox News Babe google-search market.

Bang goes half our traffic.

Thanks, John.

What "They" Said

"Chip" and the rest of the crack staff of the Hatemonger's Quarterly take on this past weekend's Live 8 extravaganza:

As those who diligently followed the vicissitudes of Live 8 well know, the concerts weren’t even indebted to raising money for Africa. Rather, they were intended as a kind of sub-musical passive-aggressiveness aimed at the world’s G-8 nations. It’s Bjork’s way of bitching.

Yep. Go read the rest.

UPDATE: Read Villainous Cassandra. What she said, too.

Coincidence? I Think Not.

Readers of a certain age may remember an episode of Fantasy Island that involved a librarian who could, despite his nerdy appearance, do all sorts of wonderful things like sword fighting because he'd read about them in books. I happened to remember this because it may a distinct impression on my mind: even in my tender youth, I thought the notion was preposterous.

Well, age and wisdom may have a few things to say about my long-held notions. I recently reread one of my favorite pieces of military fiction:

Piece of Cake, by Derek Robinson, that tells the story of a British Hurricane Squadron from September, 1939 to September, 1940. (Before you ask, yes, I saw the dramatization Masterpiece Theatre ran a few years back. I thought it was rubbish.)

Anyhoo, having finished the novel, I dashed upstairs, popped in my WWII Air Combat game and immediately scored a Victoria Cross for successfully defending Bristol against an attack by a gang of ME-110's. (And this in a Spitfire, mind you, a plane I consider inferior to the Hurricane in close combat.)

So, message to you kids out there: keep reading. Someday, you might just save the world from an imaginary enemy!

Moo-Knew Kerchoo

Munuviana has been suffering some sort of access issues this morning. The problem seems to be fixed at the moment, but I don't know if this is permanent or temporary.

If you've been having trouble dialing in to Llama Central, now you know why.

Har Har

The Missus sends in this amusing bit o' language fun:

The Washington Post's Mensa Invitational once again asked readers to take any word from the dictionary, alter it by adding, subtracting, or changing one letter, and supply a new definition.

Here are this year's winners:

1. Intaxication: Euphoria at getting a tax refund, which lasts until you
realize it was your money to start with.

2. Reintarnation: Coming back to life as a hillbilly

3. Bozone (n.): The substance surrounding stupid people that stop bright
ideas from penetrating. The bozone layer, unfortunately, shows little sign of
breaking down in the near future.

4. Foreploy: Any misrepresentation about yourself for the purpose of getting
laid.

5. Cashtration (n.): The act of buying a house, which renders the subject
financially impotent for an indefinite period.

6. Giraffiti: Vandalism spray-painted very, very high.

7. Sarchasm: The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person who
doesn't get it.

8. Inoculatte: To take coffee intravenously when you are running late.

9. Hipatitis: Terminal coolness.

10. Osteopornosis: A degenerate disease. (This one got extra credit.)

11. Karmageddon: its like, when everybody is sending off all these really
bad vibes, right? And then, like, the Earth explodes and it's like, a serious
bummer.

12. Decafalon (n.): The grueling event of getting through the day consuming
only things that are good for you.

13. Glibido: All talk and no action.

14. Dopeler effect: The tendency of stupid ideas to seem smarter when they
come at you rapidly.

15. Arachnoleptic fit (n.): The frantic dance performed just after you've
accidentally walked through a spider web.

16. Beelzebug (n.): Satan in the form of a mosquito, that gets into your
bedroom at three in the morning and cannot be cast out.

17. Caterpallor (n.): The color you turn after finding half a worm in the
fruit you're eating.

And the pick of the literature:

18. Ignoranus: A person who's both stupid and an asshole.

Death to Woody!

I find this little story to be amusing because I spent the better part of Sunday slapping a new coat of preservative on the Llama-ette's swingset/treehouse and counting the holes punched in it by the furshlugginer woodpeckers, which holes I am going to have to putty up, sand down and paint.

I know it's the local pileated woodpeckers doing the damage and not the ivory-billed variety, but the sentiment is fully transferable.

SCOTUS-WATCH

The Colossus has CNN dialed in on his bias-radar.

I had two thoughts upon hearing the news of Sandy Dee stepping down.

The first was a sudden weariness. "Aw, Jeez, here we go. Sisyphus, meet Rock." It doesn't matter who Dubya taps - Solon, King Solomon, Yoda - there's gonna be one hell of a fight. This weekend's Pravda on the Potomac was busy setting up the same "Right Wing One Short Step Away From Completing Construction of Death Star" meme as is CNN and, I suspect, most of the rest of the MSM. (All political considerations aside, it livens up the summer doldrums and sells papers.) Importantly, I believe the fight is going to be characterized by the same level of tongue-swallowing histrionics on the part of the Left as has recently dominated their attacks on Iraq, Gitmo and other hot-button issues.

The second was the thought that, given the inevitability and character of the approaching storm, Dubya should simply chuck any "consensus calculation" and go with exactly who he wants. If he wins, he wins. And if he loses, he rolls into the midterms with a potential kick-butt campaign issue: For the Donks, there is a subtle line between being perceived as defending the Republic from the maraudings of the GOP Juggernaut and indulging in obstructionism for its own sake, but there is little evidence that those in charge have the faintest idea where this line is. A betting man would be sorely tempted to see if he could draw the Donks over it.

Air Llama Roundup

Well, I can say this about my trip down to the Florida Gulf Coast on Friday - I'm reasonably sure I was the only man in the greater Tampa-St. Pete area actually wearing a tie. (Mom remarked rather dryly that she was surprised I wasn't the only one wearing a shirt.)

I flew out on an airline called "Ted" . That's it - just "Ted". "Ted" was remarkably happy to see me. "Ted" thought it was a great day to fly. "Ted" was glad I was aboard. Just so there wouldn't be any confusion, "Ted" even slapped his name on the side of the plane in twenty foot high letters. "Call me 'Ted,'" he kept saying. "This 'United Airlines' nonsense is so formal for buddies like us, right?"

Message to Edward: Sir, you presume too much. Your over-familiarity is unwelcomed and your faux casualness, a hideous example of corporate groupthink if I ever saw one, is not appreciated. I would prefer very much if we kept our relationship on a strictly professional level. You just concentrate on driving the damn plane. I don't want to be your buddy.

(FWIW, I was sitting up near the bulkhead and overheard a lot of the stewardess' talk. They were snickering about the whole "Ted" idea themselves and consoling themselves with the fact that at least they weren't unfortunate enough to be flying on Delta's subsidiary "Song".)

Gratuitous Masthead Griping

How is it that when Steve-O tinkers with the portrait, I'm always the one who ends up in drag?

Must. Get. Photoshop.

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. --That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. —Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain [George III] is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us, in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by the Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

The signers of the Declaration represented the new states as follows:
New Hampshire

Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton
Massachusetts

John Hancock, Samual Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry
Rhode Island

Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery
Connecticut

Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott
New York

William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris
New Jersey

Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark
Pennsylvania

Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross
Delaware

Caesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas McKean
Maryland

Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton
Virginia

George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton
North Carolina

William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn
South Carolina

Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton
Georgia

Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton

The one he forgot:

Bill's parody is priceless, except that the next strand of debate would be as to whether blue was Hitler's favorite color, and whether it has any relationship to the Israeli flag and Halliburton.

And yes, this is my way of trying to put my big toe back in the pool.

PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT

Contrary to vicious rumors, Fort LMC is not being considered for closure during the current proceedings of the Base Realignment and Closure Commission. This should come as a relief to my two year-old son, the future ROTC Scholarship Recipient and heir to the vast real estate holdings that comprise Fort LMC, and his little sister. Mrs. LMC, the post Chief of Staff, will no doubt be disappointed. This was my bachelor pad before we were married and she pines for a home she helped pick out, whatever that means.

SUPREME COURT PICKS

The speculations in print over who is on the short list for the Supreme Court reminds me of the buzz over papal prospects. In any event, they are worth reading if for no other reason than to glean the MSM's longing that Bush will appoint a justice to their (liberal) liking. The Virginian Pilot ran a front-page article on favorite-son J. Harvie Wilkinson, III, a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, former editorial page editor for the paper, law school professor, and Reagan appointee to the court of appeals. The Pilot longs for a nominee in the O'Connor/Lewis Powell mold, baby-splitters whose decisions often wound up promulgating a three-part test to whatever the issue at hand happened to be. Such jurisprudence inevitably fails to produce settled law and too often puts the courts in the position of making policy decisions better left to the political branches. As for Judge Wilkinson, he is in the Powell mold only in the sense that he is the consummate Southern gentleman. His published decisions reflect a consistently conservative judicial philosophy closer to Scalia than O'Connor. Wilkinson has the added benefit of being a Virginian, which makes it a bit more difficult for Gang of 14 sellout John Warner to oppose the "nuclear option" should it come to it.

DISSENTING OPINION FROM JUDGE STEVE DE LLAMABUTCHER: If merit were a factor, Judge Wilkinson would be Chief Justice of the United States. He's a great jurist.

And The Tempting of America was a flaccid piece of post-hoc rationalization.

REBUTTAL: Thank you Steve-O. I agree that Wilkinson should be chief justice but must repectfully disagree with your characterization of Bork's book. While his account of the nomination is important, the real value of the book is his treatment of original intent and the importance of it in judicial philosophy. Original intent is a prudential doctrine every bit as important as standing, ripeness, mootness, actual case or controversy which operate as checks on the exercise of judicial power. Judging without any anchor in the intent of the framer or the legislator is little more than exercise of judicial fiat. (Too few people realize "fiat" comes the Latin meaning "I will it.")

THE COMING STORM

Anyone who thinks that there is a Supreme Court candidate that Bush will nominate that will somehow avoid the coming storm over confirmation should read the chapters in Robert Bork's book The Tempting of America: the Political Seduction of the Law devoted to his nomination to the Supreme Court. The Gasbag in Winter's speech in the Senate after Reagan nominated Bork sounded alot like the remarks made by Kennedy on Friday after the announcement of O'Connor's retirement with the same references to abortion and civil rights. The only notable difference was that Bush has not even put up a nominee. The libs in the Senate and the media will savage any nominee sent up to Capitol Hill so the president might as well go petal to the metal. It is gut-check time for the Sellout Gang of 14. The safe bet is that the Democrats will cry "extraordinary circumstances"-rookies such as Lindsey Graham will be shocked that his fellow senators reneged on a deal so quickly. McCain will not be but will use the opportunity to go where he always likes to be: in front of a camera.

REHNQUIST PREDICTION

If the chief justice is going to annouce his retirement any time soon, it will not be until after the annual Fourth Circuit Judicial Conference, a confab in the mountains where all of the federal judges in Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, and the Carolinas gather. It is part business and part social, with the chief justice playing the piano and leading a sing-along. The conference is typically in mid- to late June and he has a particular interest in it because he is the Circuit Justice. Since the federal judges here have not been around for most of the week, my guess is that the conference got rolling a few days ago and wraps up today.

SHOW YOUR TRUE COLORS

Fly the flag this weekend for our country, for all in uniform in harm's way, and for their families. Play a little Cyndi Lauper while you do it. It will drive the wackos nuts.

ALTERNATIVE DISPUTE RESOLUTION ALERT

Alternative Dispute Resolution or ADR (meaning usually mediation) has been a fad in the law schools for at least the last twenty years, judging from my own experience and that of one of our summer clerks. It has been hailed as a means to keep down litigation costs and bring global harmony, etc. The cold hard reality is that a matter in litigation or headed that way will not settle by mediation or some other method of negotiation until both sides see it in their self-interest to do so and each understands the strengths and weaknesses of their positions. Mediation/negotiation for the sake of negotiation is a waste of time. By the way, the same applies in the diplomacy and foreign policy context. What is generating this rant? A fruitness, all-day mediation yesterday that ended with the parties half a million dollars apart.

MOVIE BABES TO WATCH

Today's feature: Rosario Dawson who was one of the babes in Men in Black II. This fan site borders on cyber-stalking but has a great pic at the bottom with Rosario Dawson, Jessica Alba, and Jaime King. No movies with Tom Cruise or anything on the estrogen channels in the offing so it seems that her career is not in danger of going off the tracks anytime soon.