The dogs at the Gray's Papaya on 72nd and Broadway are, in fact, superior. Plus, it was in The Warriors.

This weekend’s Financial Times has an excellent article on how, in these tough times, the humble hot dog is back in favor. There’s one serious error, however: the omission of the Papaya King on 86th and 3rd, home of the best hot dogs (“tastier than filet mignon”) anywhere, particularly when washed down with a delicious papaya 'tropical drink'.

Sean Penn has been complaining that he’s losing work for his stance on Iraq. The (un-named) producer quoted in this week’s New York Observer makes this response:

“Sean Penn has a constitutional right to speak out about the war. Good for him. But don’t whine about the repercussions. I have a constitutional right not to go bankrupt hiring him. If there’s a black list, it’s not going to be created by the studios; it’s going to be created by the American public.”

Secretary Rumsfeld has, as the New York Times notes, been hinting that some American units should leave South Korea. He’s right. South Korea is wealthy, well able to pay for its defense and, apparently, increasingly unappreciative of its US military presence. The withdrawal of some its American military support might be just the sort of wake up call that the country needs.

While Rumsfeld is thinking about such matters he should also look at the US bases in Germany. With Germany effectively no longer an ally, it might well make sense to start redeploying those forces in Poland. The Poles could do with the economic boost that this could mean and something tells me that it is they, not the Germans, who are likely to be better friends to the US in future.

Designer weasel Dominique de Villepin is profiled in today’s New York Times. As a picture of arrogance, incompetence and intellectual pretension it is hard to beat, but the following extract made truly remarkable reading:

“Describing Napoleon’s philosophy as “Victory or death, but glory whatever happens,” Mr. De Villepin added, “There is not a day that goes by without me feeling the imperious need to remember so as not to yield in the face of indifference, laughter or gibes” in order to “advance further in the name of a French ambition.”

And they call George W. Bush a cowboy?

According to a report in today’s New York Times, the North Korean MIGs that intercepted an American plane over the Sea of Japan were trying to force the aircraft to land in North Korea and seize its crew. At one point, apparently, one of the MIG pilots “made internationally recognized hand signals to the American flight crew to follow him, presumably back to his home base.” The Americans correctly (and bravely – their plane was unarmed) ignored the gestures.

Lets hope that they also made a few “internationally recognized hand signals” of their own.

Nurse Bloomberg is a coward as well as a bully. It turns out that his ludicrous new anti-smoking law is going to be enforced selectively. The New York Post is reporting that health inspectors will issue tickets to the owners of bars and restaurants that ‘permit’ smoking, but not to the smokers themselves. This is nonsense, and it puts the proprietors of these businesses in an untenable position. Why should they be solely responsible for enforcing this law? Either smoking is illegal in such places or it is not. The law should be enforced properly, and that means by police, not barmen. Bloomberg has championed a grotesque, intrusive and expensive piece of legislation. He should now be made to enforce it.

And if that makes him a laughing stock, that will be exactly what he deserves.

The contradiction at the heart of Tony Blair’s foreign policy lies in its combination of firm support for the US with an obsessive desire to take the UK deeper into the EU. Such an entanglement with ‘Europe’ would make a repeat performance of Britain’s current stand alongside this country quite impossible. The shambles of the last few weeks should have led Blair to realize that the EU was not all that he had hoped. Unfortunately, this may not be the case. Here are some comments from Peter Mandelson, the individual most often credited with the rise of ‘new’ Labour and the creation of ‘Tony Blair’. Mandelson, by many accounts still a confidant of Blair, is now suggesting that the Prime Minister should use any post-war popularity to propel Britain into the Euro. Such a step would be a disaster, a defeat stolen from the jaws of victory. Blair should know better than to listen to his old friend.

Perhaps his new friend, George, could have a few words.

I'm so happy to hear TBL is cancelled. I'm very happy with my relationship with CNN but I loathed Talk Back Live. As Ramesh once said "it's the black hole of the intellect." He should know he was once on to talk about the pros and cons of breast-feeding in public.

Meanwhile, the EU’s dodgy and disreputable constitutional convention continues its deliberations, briefly summarized in this Cato piece. There have been efforts to suggest that the document that emerges will be comparable to the US constitution. Over at Airstrip One, Blogger Philip Chaston reckons that this is like comparing Kumbayah with The Battle Hymn of the Republic. He’s too kind to the Eurocrats. Kumbayah is an inoffensive, if insipid, tune. The proposed EU constitution is altogether worse. If it were a piece of music it would need to combine menace, incompetence and a self-important tinpot grandeur.

Perhaps the boys of Spinal Tap have written something appropriate.

Mark Steyn says he's running out of things to say about the coming war with Iraq. Of course, he's full of it; Steyn's as sharp and witty as ever. Here, from his newest column, is Steyn on certain anti-war nincompoops:

Even more telling than the human shields scramming out of town is the alarming failure of recent "naked protests" to get naked. Many of my fellow warmongers have mocked the nude protests mounted by the women of California's Marin County, cruelly pointing out that many of the bits on show are excessively saggy. But I'll take what I can get. If we have to have an incoherent, anti-Western "peace" movement, then women showing off their hooters in support of a culture that would stone them to death for showing off their ankles is about as good as it's gonna get.

I wrote a column.

I can't even begin to tell Cosmo about the beagle story, not when Cosmo is still in a purple rage over this story.

The Russian Army held a beauty contest for women in the military, aimed at attracting women to the forces. "Beauty in Epaulets" judges rated women on firing kalashnikovs, singing, ballroom dancing, and cooking. "'Woman are a decoration,' said Vitaly Gusak, spokesman for the Moscow Military District. . . . After reading out the results of the shooting contest, Nuzhdin handed out the prize, a small, white pennant, saying 'Take this pennant and hang it in the kitchen so that the food for your husband will be very tasty.'"

[A]n FBI agent named Gamal Abdel-Hafiz seriously damaged the investigation. [FBI Agent Robert] Wright says Abdel-Hafiz, who is Muslim, refused to secretly record one of al-Kadi's suspected associates, who was also Muslim. Wright says Abdel-Hafiz told him, Vincent and other agents that "a Muslim doesn't record another Muslim."

"He wouldn't have any problems interviewing or recording somebody who wasn't a Muslim, but he could never record another Muslim," said Vincent.

Wright said he "was floored" by Abdel-Hafiz's refusal and immediately called the FBI headquarters. Their reaction surprised him even more: "The supervisor from headquarters says, 'Well, you have to understand where he's coming from, Bob.' I said no, no, no, no, no. I understand where I'm coming from," said Wright. "We both took the same damn oath to defend this country against all enemies foreign and domestic, and he just said no? No way in hell."

Far from being reprimanded, Abdel-Hafiz was promoted to one of the FBI's most important anti-terrorism posts, the American Embassy in Saudi Arabia, to handle investigations for the FBI in that Muslim country.

From Reuters:

WASHINGTON - Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said on Thursday the stationing of U.S. troops near the border with North Korea has become intrusive to South Korea, and said forces could be moved southward or out of South Korea altogether.

Rumsfeld said Army Gen. Leon LaPorte, commander of U.S. forces in South Korea, and others are considering ways to realign American forces on the Korea Peninsula. This comes as the United States is engaged in an increasingly tense crisis over North Korea's nuclear ambitions.

This is huge news and I've been convinced for a while now this is the right call. Our troops have made South Koreans lazy about their own self-defense. I don't think we should abandon our commitment to South Korea, but we could certainly make them a security guarantee the way we do with Taiwan. Stationing 37,000, increasingly unwelcome, troops just so we'd be committed to fight if they were slaughtered strikes me as, at least, a doctrine which has outlasted its usefulness.

(Actually, I'm off to the shower) Doing an 8:30 AM (EST) segment. Haven't figured out what G-File will be about yet. You'll know when I do.

There's a method to his somber somnolence. Maybe this was a press conference for foreign consumption -- signaling to the French, Chinese, Russians et al that he's made his mind up about this. That's still the best way to get the Security Council Gang Who Couldn't Vote Straight to go along. He certainly seemed resigned to the idea that he's going to go ahead and do this. One of the main messages here, after all, was: Saddam's a threat to the US and therefor the UN can suck eggs if it's not going to get our back.

And...it's the best way to put the fear of God in Saddam Hussein and his generals.

But with the exception of a few lines -- "we like freedom and we're not changing" -- I don't know that he's moving any numbers here. He seems very tired and he seems like he hasn't had to justify his plan to a critic in quite a while.

But his response to Jim Angle's question about "what are you waiting to hear to declare war" and what do you think of the protests, was pretty awful. Trade? I get the point he was trying to make, but it sounded awfully rambling.

Andrew - I certainly endorse your Euro-skepticism, but I'm not sure I see it the same way. If you asked an American to name the greatest Europeans he'd probably name Galileo, Newton, Churchill, Descartes, Voltaire, (boo hiss!) etc. I doubt the suggestions would be contingent upon the ethnicity of the American being questioned. What's necessary to remove the bias is to remove the person from his sense of nationality. That's not creating memories, it's abolishing one sense of identity and nationality and replacing it with another. That is outrageous, but I'm not sure it's Orwellian. In a sense its Stalinist. He loved playing games with nationalities in order to encourage a "Soviet" identity among the populous.

Opinion pollsters have been asking Europeans to identify the greatest
Europeans in history. To the obvious disappointment of the organizers,
the Brits have chosen Brits, the French French and so on.

According to the London Independent, the historian due to lecture on the findings has explained that the results were the product of the teaching of history and culture, which (the horror!) tended to start from a national, not a European, viewpoint. "Most people went for figures from their own countries," he said. "But there is no reason why a European collective memory should not emerge in time, if you consider how little has been done to create one."

Creating memories? George Orwell would have had something to say about that.

For the record, I've had readers suggest Derb is a Watcher a la Buffy the Vampire Slayer, a Time Lord a la Doctor Who and one of various characters from Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy.

Derb, Kathryn and I were just in her spacious, oak-paneled office looking through the advance copy of your book, and we've decided that it's flat-out witchcraft. I refer you to the equations on pp. 104-05. Come on, admit it, those are incantations in an ancient tongue, which, if uttered backwards by the light of a candle burning in Whitaker Chambers' pumpkin, have the power to turn Noam Chomsky into a Dittohead.

Actually, your grimoire inspired K-Lo and me to hold a ranking contest to see which one of us is dumber in math. It was a disedifying spectacle. As a matter of fact, I was pretty good in math when I went to high school here. Then I went off to this smarty-pants academy, a great school where, tragically, I found myself sitting in trigonometry class with supergenius kids who are probably now working on time travel devices in secret underground CIA labs. The effect of this on my fragile math ego was, to borrow a phrase, "shock and awe." I curled up in a ball and quit going to class.

I flunked, but managed to graduate anyway, thanks to summer tutorials. But I was never the same again, and to this day, can be reduced to a quivering pot of goo by the very word "cosine." I am literally not kidding when I tell you that at age 36, I am still haunted by dreams that my Permanent Record has been discovered to have been falsified, and I am now required to go back and re-do my math classes.

I wasn't going to say anything about the tone and content of last night's Nightline feeding into anti-Semitic conspiracy thought. Some of the leading lights of the Project for a New American Century happen to be Jewish. As I was watching the show, I thought, "Oh boy, the Jew-haters are going to go wild with this." But I didn't say anything about it, not wanting to overreact.

Well, a reader wrote a short time ago:

I just heard a caller to the Diane Rehm show this morning spin out the same theory, with an ugly edge. He noted most of the neo-cons were “Jewish Americans” and implied that their unwavering support for Israel was the prime source of their motivation.

The reader went on to say that last week he was having a beer at a his regular watering hole in Old Town, Alexandria, when he struck up a conversation with a woman who was born and raised in Marin County, California. When Iraq came up, the woman started in with the usual America-bashing. Then things turned ugly.

What eventually caused me to walk away within seconds of punching her lights out was when she said the U.S. got what it deserved on 9-11 because we are a terrorist state, and that you can’t believe anything in the news media “because everyone knows the Jews control this country.” What shocked me was this wasn’t some skinhead from northern Idaho but a cosmopolitan, educated woman from Marin County. Have I been leading a sheltered life?

Yes sir, you have. But then again, we all have. I have heard the same thing recently come out of the mouths of some intelligent, sophisticated, educated people -- the kind of people who should know better. I'm not talking about merely disagreeing or criticizing the policies of the Israeli government. This goes beyond that.

Yes, yes, yes. I know about nakednews.com.

I've always had strong opinions on this subject. If you ask news execs why news personalities have to be good-looking, you'll get lots gobbedygook at first. But after that, they attempt to justify having underwear models read the news by noting -- accurately -- that people like to look at beautiful people (It's a fact, look it up. We tend to trust good looking people more than ugly people). They then say that this is ultimately a public good because, at the margins, it attracts more people to the news, which is socially redeeming because we need an informed citizenry. Fine, fine, I say. But if that's the case, why not have topless anchors? (Just to clarify, I mean anchorettes. Nobody wants to see Dan Rather's pecs every night). Or, if that's too much, why not have a naked woman in a little screen in the corner, like they used to have for sign language translators? That would certainly get teenage boys to watch the news more -- a demographic we desperately need to educate. The naked women could do jumping jacks.

Interesting email from readers regarding yesterday's G-File. Among the thoughtful responses two objections keep coming up. First, that dictatorships are inherently antithetical to an open society and the rule of law. The second is that God is the author of all things and therefor he did create the Buick.

There's a lot of stuff tied up in here and we could get into the nitty gritty of a lot of theology and poli sci if we wanted to. But I'm not over-qualified in this arena and, besides, I've got a syndicated column to write. So let me just make a couple quick points. I agree entirely that as a practical matter, dictatorships have proven to be hostile to open societies and the rule of law. And in no way do I want to live under a dictatorship -- unless I am the dictator, of course. But then I wouldn't be living under it, now would I?

But at an abstract level, I'm not so sure there's anything inherent to dictatorship that would automatically preclude an open society and the rule of law. After all, God is an unelected and absolute dictator. This is particularly so in the Hebrew bible. But I would guess that most Christians would concede that when Christ returns and rules on earth -- I hope I'm getting this right -- he won't be running a democracy. I mean would Tom Daschle require the King of Kings to get sixty votes in the Senate? Surely, if the rule of law and open societies are good things, it would be hard to believe that God would oppose them.

This leads to the second point. Yes, God is the author of all things. But we do have free will -- at least as far as I'm concerned. It is the free will of dictators which tends to make dictatorships unpleasent forms of government and it is the free will of citizens which causes us to favor democracy (in part because we don't trust the free will of others).

I've never been able to reconcile the notion that God wills every single human action with idea of sin. I've read plenty on the subject (so please, no long essays on Calvinism etc) and it always seems to me that if God wills every human action, then God has no right to get angry at people when they mess up. It sounds to me like yelling at a remote control car you made hit a tree.

Note: Nothing in this post should be interpreted as an assertion of authority or expertise on these issues. Whenever I write something about religion or theology I get all of these emails from people who say I should keep my mouth shut etc.

I guess they'd have to change the lyrics to the Iron Man cartoon:

Tony Stark
Makes you feel
He's a cool exec
With a heart of steel.
As Iron Man,
All jets ablaze,
He fights and smite'n
With repulsor rays!
A blaze of power!
Iron Man!
Amazing armor!
Iron Man!

A military chaplain friend writes from the Gulf:

"As a chaplain, this is another of those 'where else but America?' moments.
There's a Muslim chaplain here, an immigrant from Pakistan. The other
day, he and one of the Jewish rabbis made the rounds of the outlying
camps over a Friday and Saturday to visit troops, specifically those who
were Muslim or Jewish but not exclusively so. Nowhere else, but here on
American military camps in the Middle East and on American ships is
there such a spirit of cooperation,mutual respect and collegiality among
these starkly different faiths of Judaism, Islam and Christianity. It
reminds me of the time on the ship when we had the chapel set up for
Hannukah and the Catholic priest and Muslim lay-leader were in there to
say their prayers. Everywhere else adherents to these faiths barely
tolerate each other at best and most often try to kill each other, but
not on an American warship, not in an American military camp. How can
you not think this is a great country when things like that happen?"

For Byron York. He's been following the Estrada brouhaha for months. I watched six minutes of Chuck Schumer piously prattling on and I nearly went on a three state killing spree.

I picked that one up as well, and it *is* an alternate reality, so I just assumed that either Rich had undergone sex-reassignment surgery or that you had ruthlessly seized control of NR, leaving only despair and ruin in your wake, much like Tony Stark (Iron Man) had done for the rest of the world.

The latest issue of the comic "Exiles" (issue #23, on the stands now, by Marvel Comics) features a story about an alternate future wherein the hero Iron Man rules the Earth as "President for Life". During an exchange with some of his staff, he not only mentions National Review but even orders the murder of the editor. She has to be killed, he says, because "...the media is supposed to be our tool, not a soapbox for that woman's damn opinions."

Anybody see Nightline tonight? The show was about a "conspiracy" among neoconservative intellectuals at the Project for a New American Century, who have been pushing for a war with Iraq since 1997. Some of these "conspirators" are named Cheney, Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz. The spin being put on this among hysterics in Europe, and which ABC was rather too eager to play up, is that these sneaky right-wingers have long been plotting American global domination, and now that they're in power, are instituting their nefarious plans. "A blueprint for global domination," as one European newspaper called it.

What rot. This group has been public about its geostrategic vision and objectives since its inception. There's nothing secret about it. What are they guilty of? Having foreseen that America cannot live with the status quo in the Middle East. The Pearl Harbor on September 11 vindicated this view. And we're supposed to think there's something wrong with the fact that some Washington insiders have been thinking boldly and creatively -- and openly -- about this problem for years?

Kathryn, on the program tonight, I looked tonight for an opportunity to point out how odd it is that Kissling is all in favor of us listening to the Pope now, when she has built her entire career on saying that Catholics don't have to listen to the Pope on the matter of abortion. (N.B., it may not be clear to non-Catholics or ill-informed Catholics, but on the matter of abortion, Catholics cannot in good conscience dissent from the Church's teaching that it is evil; on the matter of war, however, the Church does not have the same level of moral authority with regard to the bind it can put on a Catholic's conscience. Don't take my word for it; look it up in the Catechism).

Anyway, I wanted to point out that Kissling has been active in an effort to get the Holy See kicked out of the United Nations, where it has official observer status. But now she's a big defender of the Church and its influence! Hypocrite.

Here's the Daily Telegraph on Stalin's legacy. British 'historian' Eric Hobsbawn
makes his traditional inglorious appearance:

"In his widely praised Age of Extremes: The Short Twentieth Century 1914-1991, the historian Eric Hobsbawm denies that Stalin's Soviet Union was totalitarian and compares it with America, concluding that "the second was probably the more dangerous.""

It speaks volumes about the state of academic life that Hobsbawm was awarded a honorary degree by the University of Pennsylvania last year. The citation described him as somebody "generally considered to be the most influential historian alive", a claim no less absurd than their praise for his "profound erudition and cosmopolitanism, piercing insight, and...limpid, elegant prose."

"Limpid?" Grotesque would be a better word.

David Frum makes a good point about the possibility of al Quaeda and Iran working together undermining the glib skepticism from some quarters that the Axis of Evil wasn't really an Axis. People who say it's inconceivable that fanatical theocrats like al Quaeda would work with secular Iraq's Baathists need to take a look at the Hitler-Stalin Pact to understand that common enemies make for common bonds.

Regardless, I have this weird feeling that there may be a whole lot of Axis-ing going on. Here's one entirely unsubstantiated theory: North Korea is hassling us because Saddam has asked it to. We've heard all sorts of punditry about how Saddam is trying to undermine Western resolve by encouraging the anti-war crowd. Well, it's certainly true that the "North Korea is a bigger threat" talking point is used in Congress, the UN and the op-ed pages every day. The more provocative Nort Korea's behavior, the more compelling that talking point is.

So why not offer North Korea a few million in hard currency and maybe some promises of cheap or free oil assuming Saddam can stay in power? Perhaps Saddam is offering to pay top dollar for North Korea's new nukes when they come on line and North Korea wants to make sure the US doesn't take out its best customer.

North Korea, with its nuclear deterrence and a supine South Korea, might reason it can challenge the US quite a bit without risking an attack. Besides, it's strategy to shake down the US is still operative. It just has more than one incentive for its misbehavior, because common enemies create common friends.

My syndicated column.

The British public is coming around. (See Murray on NRO, too.)

I was wrong, there's absolutely no anti-Americanism among the celebrity anti-war crowd. From a story about Chrissie Hynde (Via Drudge):

Between songs, the pugnacious Hynde, in a classic black T-shirt and jeans, bantered and battled with the crowd. She dedicated "You Know Who Your Friends Are" to "all you junkies and f--," gave a shout-out to the late Joe Strummer, opined that she hopes the United States loses if it goes to war with Iraq ("Bring it on! Give us what we deserve!"), and introduced the song "Fools Must Die" with the self-deprecating quip, "I'll show you how it's done."

I hope I can speak for the others around here when I say that The Corner will be very reluctant to participate in the sort of marketing described here, especially when associates of that sinister Dr Pepper appear to be to blame.

Perhaps the Dr was feeling the pressure from this.

I haven't fact-checked this, but it's pretty funny if true. From a reader:

East St. Louis makes anybody's short list. In the mid-70's, an arsonist was arrested....he just happened to be the Chief of the city Fire Department. City Hall was privately-owned in the 1980's--the city used it as collateral in a lawsuit over an accident in the Drunk Tank and lost. The Mayor of East St. Louis at one time lived not far from the riverfront.......across the river in St. Louis, MO. How bad is that? They've got river boat gambling, but that's the only safe attraction on the river. During a campaign several years ago for Mayor, one of the candidates was shot at by opposition supporters at a speaking engagement. Like he told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch:"This is is East St. Louis. This ain't Disneyland."

But, Derb, how far did you live from the Hobbits?

Drudge and Lucianne are linking to a South Korean newspaper story claiming that that country's Parliament has been told that a North Korean nuclear warhead has been discovered in Alaska. I'm not going to give a link because I've been trying for an hour to connect to the story; the server must be overwhelmed. Let us all hope this story proves false. That warhead in Alaska, if indeed it exists, puts the world at once in the most dangerous place it has been in since the Cuban missile crisis.

Finally, I've found my sport!

New York blogger Patrick Sweeney, a pro-war Catholic, has some worthwhile comments on his site regarding the Vatican's opposition to the Iraq war (scroll down to read them). I especially liked this observation about the visit this week of papal envoy Cardinal Pio Laghi, who is coming at the Pope's instigation to try to talk President Bush out of attacking Saddam:

Imagine if the current President were Catholic. Could there even be the merest thought that the Pope would make a great public show of sending a Cardinal to influence the Catholic President on a matter of national security and war?

The images of Thomas Nast's alligators transforming themselves into bishops as they climb out of the Atlantic. It would trigger a Gangs of New York nativist moment -- from Bob Jones University to the editorial room of the New York Times.

Great news on the no-veto news, if it's true. Maybe my Buffy the Vampire Slayer Theory of Geopolitics will be proven true in the end after all. Meanwhile, Sofitel has decided to fold-up its flag out of respect to Americans.

CNN is now reporting that the United States has "temporarily" halted recon flights over international waters off North Korea, following Sunday's intercept by Dear Leaders MiGs. This is understandable, I suppose, because if we sent that plane back into the air with fighter escort, we'd better be prepared to shoot down any MiGs that threatened our aircraft. And if we did that, it would give the North the casus belli it so clearly -- and insanely -- craves.

Now, if we're taking the temporary break to steel ourselves for the possibility of imminent war with North Korea, fine. But as Joshua Muravchik's sobering article in the current issue of Commentary details, American policy toward North Korea has been one long list of communist bullying, and American backing down, hoping to avoid confrontation. Ultimately, they cannot be allowed to get away with it. Where is the condemnation from governments around the world against the North for acting illegally and provocatively? The North Koreans are bringing the world ever closer to nuclear war -- and we hear not a peep from the French, the Germans, the Russians, or anyone else.

I'm working on a syndicated column on the whackos. Here's one thought worth sharing. I wonder if the outrage would be any greater if instead of their "Holocaust on your plate tour," they ran a slavery in your barn tour. Why not show pictures of horses and dogs on leashes or pulling carts alonside pictures of African-Americans bound in shackles? Philosophically, the logic is the same.

Maybe it's me, but it does seem like Jews have now been fully exiled from the Coalition of the Oppressed and so it's less costly for groups like PETA to offend their sensibilities.

Howard Kurtz has a good column about how the media is obsessed with George W. Bush. When you think about it, it's hard to recall a president who has so dominated the public debate in terms of substance in the last few decades. Sure, there was often equal media obsession with Clinton, but that was as often as not about the man or the slick politician.

Horst Buchholz -- one of the Magnificent Seven -- has died.

Derb: I wouldn't dare show such disrespect to Cleveland. First of all, as we all know, Cleveland rocks. Second, I've always had a special respect for Ohio. I've always thought of it as America's Rhineland. Maybe I spent too much time hanging out at the Toledo Lounge in Washington DC. Maybe I picked the wrong week to stop sniffing glue.

From the Prowler:

"We don't want people who just read the New York Times," says a New York-based MSNBC producer. "We've got plenty of those types. We want people who read and understand National Review, the Drudge Report and Lucianne.com." Understand?

"Just because we put a conservative like Savage on the air doesn't mean we're going to win any more ratings points," says the producer. "We have to develop stories and issues-coverage that a right-leaning viewer wants to watch."

USA Today has a story on the difficulty some Americans are having in Europe. From the actor Vince Vaughn:

"Man, it was bad," says the Rat Pack-y star of Swingers. "These girls saw us and were kind of flirting, and they kept asking us if we were American. Finally we said, 'Yes,' and they just took off.

"One girl turns and says, 'We were hoping you were Canadian.' Canadian? Since when was it cooler to be Canadian?"

This thing reminds me of one of those "what's wrong with this picture?" games. I particularly like the casual mockery of the idea that cracking down on terrorists who blow up our buildings is merely our own male-oriented concept of "national interest."

Sign up for Professors for Peace.

From Dennis Miller:

"I’d like to have allies, too, but what’s happening in this world right now is we’ve got a competency chasm – we’re getting really good at what we do, and the whole rest of the world is going to hell in a handbasket. As that gap gets wider, they’re going to hate us more, and more, and more. You have to remember, we are simultaneously the most hated, feared, loved and admired nation on this planet. In short, we’re Frank Sinatra – and the chairman didn’t get to be chairman lying down for punks."

Whoever wins the nomination, Pelosi said, "he or she will make us very proud." Wait a minute, I asked the minority leader afterward:

That "she" -- is it former Sen. Carol Moseley-Braun of Illinois, who was courting labor leaders in Hollywood, or is it U.S. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, a name riding high in opinion polls but still resting squarely on the sidelines?

"I'm saying," Pelosi replied with a playful smile, "I think we haven't seen the whole field."

John, DP-J really did say "ass over t*t" to me -- I suspect he Americanized it for the benefit of my understanding! I've learned quite a few British locutions from him. "In the event" -- we never say that. (We would be more likely to say, "as it happened.") David will say something like, "Indonesia looks like blowing up." We would say, "It looks like Indonesia's about to blow up," or something like that. I do love this stuff. A break away from the grim business of worldwide war, etc.

By the way, in my family back in Michigan, we used to say "ass over elbow." Forgot to include that in my remarks, for some reason.

My mom told me last night that the hottest song on the Baton Rouge country radio station they listen to is a war-themed ballad called, "Have You Forgotten?" Turns out that song is burning up the country airwaves everywhere. Sample lyric: "I hear people saying we don't need this war / I say there's some things worth fighting for / What about our freedom and this piece of ground / We didn't get to keep 'em by backing down."

This is great. Let Sheryl Crow, David Byrne, Russell Simmons and all musical members of the Appeaser-American community stew. Once again, country music gets it right, and provides the soundtrack for Red America.

I keep getting email from anti-war folks touting the example of
John Brady Kiesling, the career diplomat who resigned in protest over a war with Iraq. Most of the emailers say "I guess he's 'pro-Saddam' too you fascist SOB" or some such. I don't think he's pro-Saddam. I don't think he's anti-American. I just think he's wrong. Who's surprised that some State Dept. folks are against a war with Iraq? Maybe I should list all of the people who haven't resigned over the war?

If you don't want to know how the number finder thing works. From a reader (several got it):

I will admit, and my wife will certify, I'm a geek. This thing bothered me, so I had to figure it out. If you take any two-digit number, sum its digits together, and subtract the sum from the original number, you always get a multiple of nine. If you look at the chart, all of the multiples of nine have the same symbol. Now it wouldn't be impressive if the same symbol appeared after each guess; that's why the symbols change each time you hit the back button. I hope I haven't ruined the magic for you.

Rod - He also looks like the Slavo-Turkic NYC street vendor who gives Homer Simpson the choice of buying Mountain Dew or clam juice (Homer chooses clam juice).

A reader found this upchuckable "Prayer to End the War Against Iraq" on the literature table at his Catholic parish in Cincinnati. It was distributed by Pax Christi USA, the Catholic leftie group:

Loving God,

We beg your forgiveness for the war the U.S. is waging against the Iraqi
people, for destroying Iraq’s infrastructure by massive bombings, for the
use of highly toxic weapons that contaminate Iraqi land and water and cause
major increases in cancers among children. Forgive us for imposing economic
sanctions that have killed over one million Iraqis, mostly children. Forgive us for placing oil interests above human welfare. Heal us of our moral blindness and fill our hearts with love. Help us to renounce all killing, to stop demonizing our adversaries, to value all life as sacred, and to see the Iraqi people as our brothers and sisters. Empower us to engage in nonviolent action to end this slaughter of the innocents.

O God, make us channels of your peace and reconciliation. Amen.

Another loyal reader gets on the right side of history.

I just ordered a Cosmo baseball shirt. I cannot wait until my wife hops into
bed and sees me in the shirt and asks:

"what the hell are Jacobin squirrels?"

so I can reply "what the hell is Victoria's damn Secret?"

Jonah: I'm stocking up on Cosmo gear. I'll be the only attorney in my office with a cool coffee mug. And the shirts, what a great way to torment my wife's cat and the damn squirrels that steal from the bird feeder.

A dismaying number of readers have pointed out to me that Ron Jeremy and Khalid Mohammed resemble each other. You be the judge.

The hedgehog and the terrorist.

From a reader who gets it:

Jonah,

Just plunked for the baseball jersey. Having a piece of clothing that says
"Jacobin squirrels" is the perfect reminder for Why We Fight.

Cheers!

And there's nothing like having a cup of coffee out of my brand new Cosmo® Stainless Steel Travel Mug.

If you're wondering why it has an endorsement for Glenlivet on it, that's because the first sponsorship of the Goldberg File was provided by Glenlivet. If you're wondering why it's on all the T-shirts and other items in our new Cosmo Gear section, well, Cosmo does take after his "father" in his affection for the brown liquors from across the pond.

Now, if you're at all interested in helping me make Cosmo the It-Dog of the American Right, I cannot implore you enough to snap up all the Cosmo gear you possibly can. If this stuff sells, I can get the suits to come up with more and better products, slogans, pictures, etc. How'd you like a picture of Coz saying, "Illegitime non carobundum" (Cosmo spells his Latin phonetically)? Or maybe a 70's style poster of an adorable cat hanging from a branch with Cosmo underneath it saying sarcastically, "Hang in there, baby."

Get in on the ground floor now. These will be collector's items one day. Run, don't walk. No wait, don't do either, because you're already at your computer. Just click fast!

I heard from a kind reader who was grateful to read the interview I did with Prof. David Cook, on the subject of Islamic apocalypticism. The reader believes Americans won't really grasp what kind of enemy we face until we become conversant with concepts like the "Dajjal" (Islam's version of the Antichrist), and how fervent belief in this vision of the End drives those who hate the West the most. He sent along a couple of interesting links, from Free Republic, for those who want more information (try here and here).

One the second thread, which is a discussion of my Islamic prophecy interview, I found a fascinating link to an article about eclipses during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan. Apparently eclipses during Ramadan are interpreted by many of the Muslim faithful as significant. Two total eclipses during Ramadan is a very rare phenomenon. The last time it happened was 200 or so years ago. It's going to happen again this November. There is speculation that pious Muslims may view this phenomenon as a sign from heaven that Something Major Is Going to Happen.

Remember, folks, it doesn't immediately matter whether these people are right or wrong about the way history is going to unfold. We have to pay attention to this stuff, because somewhere, there are Islamic zealots now plotting their own violent role in what they see as the apocalyptic drama, in which the forces of Islam clash for the final time with the forces of the Dajjal (that is, non-Muslims).