E's MOVIE ROUNDUP

I watch about one movie a quarter, so there's not much to round up. Yesterday I didn't have any work to do and my family was at the community pool so I took in BATMAN BEGINS at the 12:30 matinee.

It was 45 minutes before Bruce Wayne considers becoming the crimefighter later known as Batman, and for me that was the best part of the film. That is the best part of the Batman story, the foundation without which the character cannot make sense except as another gadget-laden superhero. It was long past due for a big-screen treatment.

I liked how neatly and concisely the filmmaker presented Bruce's complicated inner turmoil and provided anchor points for subsequent flashbacks and lines.

Mixed reviews on the casting. No real quarrels over Bruce Wayne - he was passable in both the Kevlar bat-suit and the tuxedo. Good choice of Gary Oldman for Jim Gordon and well played. Rutger Hauer was sturdy and steely as CEO of Wayne Enterprises, a fine choice. Michael Caine was polished and credible as Alfred. Falcone the crime boss was great. Thankfully no Robin. On the other hand I found the Rachel character completely ridiculous - at her age she would not even be out of law school, much less be Gotham's powerful and threatening Assistant D.A. It was equally absurd that she would not recognize the lower half of Batman's face, which includes his distinctive mouth, as her childhood friend whom she is also in love with. I guess the gravelly voice threw her off. Likewise, the sinister Dr. Crane was much too young to be a Ph.D. or an accomplished supervillain.

Liam Neeson was okay but I wasn't sold on his motivations.

Morgan Freeman was fine but he and the police commissioner were black just to be black.

The effects of Dr. Crane's evil potion on multiple victims at once contradicted the uniquely personal effects as explained earlier in the film.

Most of the joke lines fell flat. "Didn't you get the memo?" was not funny. Twice.

Batman cannot fly. Take your liberties in the big-screen adaptation, but don't change the fundamental elements that make the character great. Batman is such a compelling character because he's just a man, with no X factor or special radiation-induced gift. All the ninja training in the world can't teach you to fly.

I think I'm just too old for car chases, every conceivable fight sequence, and then everything exploding. I used to delight in it, now it's just loud and kind of silly. I thought the same thing when I saw the last Bond movie. There was no payoff for me. I just bought a Volvo, maybe that explains things.

Mostly what I took away from Batman Begins is how critical I am, and a reinforcement of why I don't watch movies, don't read fiction, and am no fun at parties.

DIANA'LL PAY YOU

Isn't the obvious hole in this theory that he had to fatally crash the car with himself in it?

The theory British royal DIANA, PRINCESS OF WALES was murdered has been boosted by the recent discovery her chauffeur received mystery payments amounting to $142,000 (GBP75,000) - just weeks before she died in the car he was driving.

Chauffeur HENRI PAUL died alongside Diana and her lover DODI AL FAYED when the Mercedes he was driving crashed in an underpass in Paris, France in August 1997.

And British detectives investigating the tragedy have fuelled speculation Paul was being paid by British secret service agents, by revealing the staggering sums he received from British banks just before the fatal accident.

Financial investigators have also revealed Paul had staggering amounts of money in 13 bank accounts around the world, despite earning just $38,000 (GBP20,000) a year as a driver for Paris' Ritz hotel, reports British newspaper the DAILY EXPRESS.

A source close to the inquiry explains, "Money was drafted over to Paul from accounts in England. As far as the investigation is concerned, this is a crucial breakthrough.

"Many thousands of pounds arrived from Britain in the weeks leading up to the tragedy. It arrived via a banker's draft and was converted into French francs from sterling.

"We have always wanted to get to the bottom of who was paying Henri Paul all this cash and now we're getting close."

13/06/2005 13:46

JUST DO IT (more from Jeff Jarvis at buzzmachine.com)

Actually, people want you to lead

When he got the job, I said that Howard Dean could resist himself. He hasn't gone to anger-management class. Today, he says:

"People want us to fight," Dean told the national party's executive committee. "We are here to fight."

No, Howard, that's what lost you the primaries.

Both sides are role-playing into each others' hands. Dean is acting like the rabid underdog and the Republicans are acting like cornered kitties and both are ridiculous. See John Cole, Republican, on the Republican act:

And while we are at it, can we conservatives please stop this laughable cult of victimology? We have the Presidency (for the second time in a row and the fifth time in the last seven elections). We control the Senate by a ten seat margin. We control the House by a larger margin. We have dismissed or dismantled virtually every institutional check in order to limit opposition debate and increase institutional control, regardless how short-sighted that might be. We are ramming through just about every judge we wanted, and are about to reload the Supreme Court with Antonin Scalia at the helm.

We control dozens of governors offices and an equal number of state legislatures. We have hundreds of think tanks, hundreds of talk show hosts, hundreds of conservative columnists, millions of bloggers. We have dozens of partisan magazines and pundits, legions of 527's and grass-roots organizations, and dozens of think-tanks. We have, ostensibly, our own damned cable news channel and so many right leaning editorial boards of newspapers I can't even begin to count them. Memes that start in obscure blogs find their way onto the front page of allegedly liberal newspapers in the matter of two days.

We may be a lot of things, but persecuted victims we are not. To assert otherwise is to engage in a self-defeating flight of fancy that should be met with nothing short of outright ridicule.

JACKO NOT GUILTY - WHO GIVES A RIP?

This post by Jeff Jarvis sums it up nicely.

This one headline from the AP says it all.

2,200 Journalists Await Jackson Verdict

It's wrong not because the story is tacky but because the news is a commodity:

There will be one bit of news that comes out of the end of this trial: Guilty or not guilty. It takes one person to report that and today that word can spread around the world in no time and every news site and every TV and radio station and every blog can know it without sending 2,199 journalists to sit there and wait and repeat the exact same news.

Oh, you want to see how ridiculous Jackson looks under his umbrella as he gloats or mopes? Fine, give that one person a camera and hook it up to the internet. We'll all see it. We'll all be able to comment on it just like the chippies before the camera.

Guilty or not guilty.

You certainly don't need legal analysts to explain that verdict to you. But you'll have them.

Why are those 2,200 journalists there? Ego, pure institutional ego. The Daily Blatt thinks its readers give two hoots that its own reporter is there instead of running the AP's story. MSCNNFOX news worry that without their own reporter and camera there, you'll watch the other guy. But which one you watch is really just a multiple choice question in which all the answers are wrong: You'll hear no newer, better, extra news on this story on one channel or another.

Those 2,199 extra journalists could be off reporting real stories we don't all already know about. Or they could be fired, saving their employers money and saving us their moaning about the state of the news business today.

SLOW AND STEADY WINS THE RACE

While Dean is busy mouthing off and firing up the zealots, his counterpart Ken Mehlman is quietly bolstering the majority party. Mehlman was well received by Jewish leaders in Pittsburgh last week.

Hugh Hewitt explains why Dean gets copy and Mehlman gets controversial presidents elected to second terms.

THERE ARE THREE MEDIA ANALYSTS who command wide readership and deserve their influence--Jay Rosen of NYU, who writes PressThink, Jeff Jarvis of BuzzMachine and now the New York Times, and Howard Kurtz of the Washington Post.

Of the three, Kurtz commands the largest audience because he has managed the old media-new media divide admirably, writing for both audiences with humor and spark. But even the best stumble, and Kurtz did so on Tuesday in his Media Notes column, and in a very telling way. Wrote Kurtz about Howard Dean and Ken Mehlman:

"On the other hand, journalists should thank their lucky stars that they have a colorful chairman [Dean] to cover, as opposed to another strictly-on-message Ken Mehlman type."

This is a give-away, a truly candid aside that tells us a great deal about mainstream media. That the media love an easy story is no big surprise, but that they love a loudmouth, vulgar, and easily excitable small-state pol is interesting. But what is really revealing is Kurtz's contempt for Mehlman, who along with Karl Rove is one of the few political geniuses to come along in the past generation.

Mehlman is never not full of facts, and facts of the sort that political reporters ought to love. Mehlman can quickly and accurately summarize every key race in 2006, and update you about the state demographics of the battlegrounds. He's a volcano of facts, just not the sort of facts that interest many in the mainstream media. In short, Mehlman's a great source, but Howard Kurtz thinks journalists are better served by Dean because he's "colorful."

Most Americans can skip the "color" and prefer the facts. But not journalists interested in their own careers and in stirring the pot. Dean is a Godsend to them for the same reasons Dean is a nightmare for the Democratic party: Dean is all about Dean, a celebrity who frees the political press from the dreary work of having to figure out what is happening in the country and reporting it without embellishment.

Dean makes great copy. Mehlman makes majorities.

DUDE'S MOVIE ROUNDUP

THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE
Very good updating of a classic. Smart and compelling. I have never been a big fan of Denzel Washinton, but with this performance, I get why he is a star. I very much like the Liev Schreiber character and how he comes to understand his role rather than simply dismissing Denzel as a crank. Impressively shot and directed.

SHOW ME LOVE
Swedish film recommended by Swedish friend. Nice tone and good moments, but I didn't buy one of the characters - she didn't seem real to me. The pretty girl who succumbs to lesbianism in the third act was not pretty or rich enough to have the personality that she began the film with. We know by the end she will be kissing the girl, so the internal change in her seems overly manufactured.

SKY CAPTAIN AND THE WORLD OF TOMORROW
Great visuals, and good blue-screen acting, and some nice camp appeal, but overall, it didn't hold my interest.

INTOLERABLE CRUELTY
Like a lesser Beatles song, this Coen Brothers joint is better than most movies without remotely approaching their own best work. Clooney gives a good performance.

WHAT THE FUCK DO WE KNOW?
Quantum physics goes mainstream, but not as good as nightly on the Science Channel. The film-makers present quantum randomness for two acts then attempt to impose a message in the third act that falls flat. I used to think that Marlee Matlin was a good actress and kind of cute, but after this outting, I have changed my mind on both accounts. Watch the online-archived THE ELEGANT UNIVERSE for a much better presentation of quantum physics.

CASTLE IN THE SKY
Japanese animation master, Hayao Miyazaki, of SPIRITED AWAY fame, cranks out thoughtful family fare. I have seen nearly all of them, and this is the only one that failed to hold my attention through to the end.

MAN WITH MOVIE CAMERA
A classic of the silent era, from Russia with love. I think I speak for all film lovers everywhere when I declare that silent movies just don't hold up several decades later. Maybe Chaplin is the lone exception, but so much has been done with film since its inception that these old "experimental" films are interesting only for archival purposes. The most interesting aspect of this film today is the snapshot of everyday life in the Odessa of 75 years ago which it provides. It surprised me how European the city looked. If you want to know why, RUSSIAN ARK is a must-see.

THE GIFT
Sam Raimi has made several overrated films, but none have been outstanding save for A SIMPLE PLAN, in my humble opinion. I have yet to see SPIDER MAN 2 so I will withhold judgment on that one. I found this film watchable but fairly pedestrian.

THE CORPORATION
This is a great documentary on the history and "personality" of the multi-national corporation. The filmmakers use a clinical checklist of personality disorders to indicate that the corporation as prescribed by law is a psychotic institution. This is a really great film that I highly recommend.

THE STEPFORD WIVES
Every bit as weak as you have heard. I thought there was potential in the first act, but I was confounded by Act III. After spending the first two acts convincing us that the women have been replaced by robots, suddenly in the third act, the women merely have brain implants which can be deactivated. How could they possibly think we could miss that? It is not even mentioned in the Frank Oz commentary. Maybe I'm the only one who noticed. I did like how there was one gay couple in which the flamboyant partner was Stepfored into a log cabin Republican.

KICKING AND SCREAMING
Standard Will Ferrell vehicle, very poorly written, shot and directed, but with a winning Will Ferrell center stage. I was amazed to find that Mike Ditka's role in this film was not merely a cameo, but a full supporting role as himself. He is very good and funny playing Robert Duval's spiteful neighbor.

MADAGASCAR
Kids liked it, adults found it tedious. Skip it unless you've got young ones hungry to catch up with their peers.

TEAM AMERICA: WORLD POLICE
Amazing puppetry, funny gags, and a good lampoon of both sides of the aisle. The film would be even better if it wasn't so unneccessarily crass, although the seemingly endless sequence of puppet sex was pretty choice. A good use of obsenity was the rousing final scene in which our hero describes the whole world as consisting of three kinds of people - dicks, pussies, and assholes. I recommend this film to all but the easily offended.

PRIMARY COLORS
Too long, meandering and boring - at least there were no token evil Republicans. Good performances by all, but what is the message of this film - that it is okay to be a scounrdrel, so long as you acquire power with the intent of doing good later?

Cheney should have remained above the fray.

LOCAL WOMAN STRUCK BY LIGHTNING

A good friend of a good friend was struck by lightning while putting a load of laundry in the washing machine in her basement during a fierce storm here last week. Her husband died recently of a brain tumor. Life may not be short, but it can end suddenly without notice. Not that that's news, but it kind of brings it home.

CASHING IN ON TOTALITARIANISM

from the Financial Times via Roger Simon

Microsoft's new Chinese internet portal has banned the words "democracy" and "freedom" from parts of its website in an apparent effort to avoid offending Beijing's political censors.

Users of the joint-venture portal, formally launched last month, have been blocked from using a range of potentially sensitive words to label personal websites they create using its free online blog service, MSN Spaces.

Attempts to input words in Chinese such as "democracy" prompted an error message from the site: "This item contains forbidden speech. Please delete the forbidden speech from this item." Other phrases banned included the Chinese for "demonstration", "democratic movement" and "Taiwan independence

It's surprising how many people get rich in this country without understanding the element of freedom that got them there. A number of rich liberals are more than willing to defend monsters like Castro without considering what their life would be like in such a country. Now Gates is helping China deny people information that would help foster their natural right of liberty. What have greedy capitalists of the Right done that has caused more harm in the world than this?

IN MEMPHIS WITH SIR SAUNDERS

I tagged along with Steve for two days as he met with lawyers and ultimately testified before federal court as an expert witness in the sentencing phase of a University of Alabama football booster.

The actual trial was over in February and it involved a Memphis areas businessman, Logan Young, who was approached to help convince a low income family to send their star athlete to 'Bama to play pigskin. A good way to convince them is to present large coarse bank notes, and Logan will now go to jail for the pleasure.

The worst kept secret in sports is the fact that college athletes are paid under the table to play. It's no longer a matter of whether they'll get money to play, but who gets to be the token example every now and then when someone has to be caught. As long as the NCAA makes periodic suspensions and Johnny Law makes the occasional arrest, we who watch college sports are to think that everything is clean again.

The defendant, Logan Young, is the latest token. The charges against the poor guy include racketeering which I think is a good example of how dangerous vague laws can be. Legislation intended to end such things as organized crime can easily be manipulated to go after, in this case, an overzealous fan. The Feds case boils down to this: a poor student athlete was a victim of adults that exchanged money in order for him sign with a certain football program. He was called a slave by the prosecution. No slave in this history of this union was victimized with this kind of payoff. The best they can figure, this kid and his family got a minimum of $60,000.

Logan is also charged with bribing a public official. It’s a stretch, but since the coach of Alabama works for the state of Alabama and since that University accepts money from the federal government, Logan is just as corrupt at Don Corleone.

Anyway, that's over. He's guilty. We're ready to bring the guillotine. Wait. Logan Young has Kidney problems and needs a transplant. Steve is called as a defense witness to describe the bureaucratic nightmare in getting an inmate a transplanted organ.

It began with smooth waters as the defense witness asked Steve to explain the procedures. Having roomed with Steve for two years he would frequently share funny stories about how the federal government operates. Just listening to the chain of command is enough to convince you that inmates would better use their time constructing their own coffins.

The prosecution began piping in with objections. Steve is just a psychologist, what does he know about medical procedures? Ah, but Steve knows the bureaucracy as well as anyone and a number of his psych inmates also needed medical help. He was involved with both. The prosecutor hammered home the fact that Steve wasn't a medical doctor and that he had never known anyone trying to get a kidney transplant from a federal prison. The prosecutor then shared with the court that only one person had ever gotten a kidney transplant in federal prison. The point was to prove that Steve didn't know anyone who had, but it really proved Steve's point that it would be impossible to get.

The prosecution's next witness, a nurse who works as a regional medical director with the federal prisons would tell us that so many people are on the list for these transplants that someday soon we'll have a whole hell of a lot of examples of kidney transplants. I think they were trying to show that a system is in place to help all of these people, but Steve's advance testimony that the bureaucratic machine would ruin those plans hurt the prosecutions argument. Add that to the prosecutor stating that only one such transplant has ever happened, and wala, you put enough doubt into the judge’s mind that such procedures really happen. You have a lot of people waiting on one side and only one completion on the other.

The prosecutor spent most of his time with the nurse establishing him as the real expert. The nurse is a regional health director with 17 years of bureau experience and his testimony was making Steve look like a guy outside of his field of knowledge. Steve was sitting next to me at this time and he would whisper when the guy had it wrong. I felt bad for Steve like he couldn't do anything to defend himself.

It was 3:30pm by now and we were expecting to catch the 5:30 back to Orlando when at recess the defense attorney asked Steve to stick around for a possible rebuttal.

After the recess, the defense attorney got up there and tied the nurse into knots. Steve had brought along with him a bunch of policies straight from the bureau's website. Those policies not only contradicted the prosecutions star witness, but made him look less than an expert. It only took a couple of questions until you realized that the nurse didn't even know the written policies. With not too much work, the defense lawyer had built Steve back into an expert and turned the nurse into a guy licking his wounds in the back row. Steve felt bad for this nurse because bureau people don't even get paid to testify in court whereas Steve was doing it as a freelance job. The nurse was less than hospitable when Steve approached him later. The lesson is that it's easier to be charitable when you turn out to be the credible witness.

Steve never got back on the stand, but we stayed and heard a number of character witness tell us that Logan was a generous guy and nonviolent. He has a lot of ties to the community and isn't a danger to flee.

At some point Steve turned and said, "There goes the plane."
I said, "Who cares. This is more fun."

When it looked like the judge would finally decide the sentence, the oldest of the defense lawyers, an ex-prosecutor that indicted G Gordon Liddy, got out a copy of the Memphis paper and used the words of another defendant to postpone the sentencing. He made the argument that quotes attributed to the ex-high school coach, Lynn Lang, contradict the case made by the prosecution against Logan Young. So now the whole circus begins again on Monday with Lang summonsed to court.

At 6:30pm or so Sir Saunders and I were bunny hopping it over to the Memphis airport in the rain with a car to return off site and no idea whether or not a later flight even existed. Steve was unsure of his performance. The defese lawyer said. "Well you told the truth you couldn't do any more than that."

I was right there and understood the lawyer to mean that the prosecutor had done the best he could to discredit Steve by pointing out Steve's status as a psychologist and not a physician. Steve couldn't pretend to be a doctor. He had to be honest.

It was Steve’s first time as an expert witness and he really needed more feedback from the attorney, but it was obvious that the attorney was already three pages later trying to make his next point about a different subject.

I was particularly impressed with two things that Steve did on the stand. The first was Steve had never had an inmate who needed a kidney transplant, but Steve did have a number of inmates that needed medical procedures that were identical in process to asking for a kidney transplant. The defense lawyer never directly asked this question and from the audience I kept waiting for it to be asked. Finally Steve, who was thinking the same thing, got the information in through the backdoor. Second, I thought the prosecution was harsher with Steve than any other witness we saw. He really talked down to him and tried to belittle his experience. It was obvious that the prosecution was afriad of him. Steve really kept his composure. I’m sure he felt rattled, but he kept the kind of confidence he needed to be credible.

Steve’s most important contribution wasn’t his testimony but a greater understanding of bureau policy and procedure. Steve handed the defense a packet of policy papers the day before and that packet allowed the defense to contradict the nurse as any kind of expert on policy. The audience wouldn’t have known, but the psychologist with half as much time in the bureau knew more about the workings of medical procedure than someone who works as a regional medical director.

We were lucky enough to get another flight and still make our connection in Atlanta. I hope this poor Logan Young gets his kidney and the government gets off his back. If poor kids want money to play football in college I’m not sure why the government thinks they need to step in and keep it from happening. When liberals complain that the war in Iraq is keeping the government from doing their real job here at home, is this what they want, more prosecutions related to college athletics?

The government as a mechanism grows without thought to productivity. One result of such growth is the need to do something proactive about the real or perceived injustices of life. Soon the quest for correcting grand wrongs reaches the margins of inequity until some day people are prosecuted simply for wanting a better defensive lineman at their alma matter. The lesson is that anything can be made illegal if enough people are offended by it, but do we really prosper as a nation that spends its time getting into everyone else's business?

A judge, his staff, a team of federal prosecutors, court reporters, bailiffs, defense attorneys and private citizens will gather again on Monday, spending a bunch of tax payer money to decide whether or not an ardent football fan will be allowed to get his new kidney. Is the taxpayer served by this circus? Isn’t the real problem with budget deficits and high tax rates related right back to how the government is willing to waste taxpayer money on non-violent state-created criminals?

Logan Young didn’t bribe a public official in order to get the government to do his bidding. That’s the point of such a law. You don’t want private citizens buying the strength of the government so that they can break the law with impunity. Logan just wanted a winning season. If he were to die in prison for such a desire, will our country be well served?

MARK FELT CAN'T BE DEEP THROAT

Ann Coulter explains. I've read in the past about all the fictional devices Woodward used to spin his tale. I guess he ushered out truth in reporting and gets permanently grandfathered. The important thing is he got a conservative president removed from office in disgrace.

WITTY ONES

Received this among today’s spam…

Those who jump off a bridge in Paris are in Seine.
A backward poet writes inverse.
Dijon vu - the same mustard as before.
A hangover is the wrath of grapes.
Does the name Pavlov ring a bell?
Reading while sunbathing makes you well red.
When two egotists meet, it's an I for an I.
A bicycle can't stand on its own because it’s two tired.
What's the definition of a will? (It's a dead giveaway.)
Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.
In democracy your vote counts. In feudalism your count votes.
A chicken crossing the road is poultry in motion.
If you don't pay your exorcist, you get repossessed.
With her marriage, she got a new name and a dress.
When a clock is still hungry, it goes back four seconds.
The man who fell into an upholstery machine is fully recovered.
Every calendar's days are numbered.
A lot of money is tainted - It taint yours and it taint mine.
A boiled egg in the morning is hard to beat.
He had a photographic memory that was never developed.
A plateau is a high form of flattery.
A midget fortune-teller who escapes from prison is a small medium at large.
Those who get too big for their britches will be exposed in the end.
Once you've seen one shopping center, you've seen a mall.
Acupuncture is a jab well done.
Santa's helpers are subordinate clauses.

GRADES AREN'T EVERYTHING

During last year's presidential campaign, John F. Kerry was the candidate often portrayed as intellectual and complex, while George W. Bush was the populist who mangled his sentences.

But newly released records show that Bush and Kerry had a virtually identical grade average at Yale University four decades ago.

In 1999, The New Yorker published a transcript indicating that Bush had received a cumulative score of 77 for his first three years at Yale and a roughly similar average under a non-numerical rating system during his senior year.

Kerry, who graduated two years before Bush, got a cumulative 76 for his four years, according to a transcript that Kerry sent to the Navy when he was applying for officer training school. He received four D's in his freshman year out of 10 courses, but improved his average in later years.

And Bill Clinton refused to release his medical records although Dole and Bush 41 had no problem doing so.

COMMENCEMENT WISDOM

I just read Michael "Moneyball" Lewis's commencement address to Tulane University's graduating class. Terrific! Following are a few excerpts.

I didn't go to Tulane but I feel as if I did. Like every New Orleans boy I had an important decision to make: Tulane or LSU? Even as a boy I could tell there was a difference. LSU people told jokes about Tulane people. Tulane people told jokes about LSU people. The difference was that Tulane people didn't think of them as jokes. They thought they were true stories. I remember one of these. It was about halftime at the old Sugar Bowl Stadium, during a Tulane-LSU football game. Two guys - one from LSU, the other from Tulane - stand side by side in the bathroom. The Tulane guy finishes, zips up, and walks out. The LSU guy finishes, washes his hands and runs after him. "Excuse me," he says, "but at LSU they teach us to wash our hands after we pee." The Tulane guy turns to him and says, "At Tulane they teach us not to pee on our hands."

My book tour came to New Orleans. When I arrived at my parents' house my mother asked me to go buy her a carton of milk at Lagenstein's. And so there I was walking down the aisle. I was, to put it mildly, pleased with myself. I'm thinking: I've been on Letterman. I've arrived! I'm thinking, even though I was just on Letterman, here I am, still humble enough to buy groceries at Lagenstein's. Just then an elderly woman stops and points. Then she's pushing her cart towards me. And just before I could say, "Ah yes, I'm that guy from Letterman," she says, "You're Malcolm Monroe's grandson, aren't you?" I'd never met the woman. But she pointed to my eyes, and she said, "I see your grandfather in here." I never felt so recognized.

My father's third and final piece of advice came right on the heels of the first two pieces, and more or less contradicted them. Money, he explained, is very important. All by itself it may not make you happy. But it won't make you sad either.

Your parents want you to make them proud. And you should. But you've got to do it yourself. And to do it yourself you may have to ignore their advice. Do what you love before you figure out how much love will cost you.

The commencement address is a sort of art form. The basic formula is to validate having gone to college, assuage the graduates' fear of "real life," tell a few jokes, and encourage them to dream big and follow their hearts. This was a good one. Speeches by writers are so often better than speeches by speakers.

EURO NO VOTE

The Times of London has a good analysis.

WHATEVER YOU think of European integration, there is something inspiring about 20 million people who, having been told what to do by their most respected politicians and after listening attentively, then do the exact opposite.

This week’s referendums in France and the Netherlands are probably the most significant event in European history since the end of the Cold War. As in Germany after its citizens found that they could smash symbolic chunks out of the Berlin Wall with impunity, everyday life in Europe may go on as before, but nothing will ever be quite the same. But don’t expect to hear much serious debate about the significance of this popular revolt against “the idea of Europe” for many months. The first reaction will be to pretend, or even to believe sincerely, that nothing much has happened.

The single market and the merging of foreign trade policies did genuinely create prosperity, but every subsequent project of European integration not only failed to deliver the results politicians promised but also made conditions worse. The single currency has been the most egregious. In exchange for giving up the basic tenet of sovereignty — the right to mint a currency and thereby manage the national economy — the EU promised economic prosperity and full employment. Instead the single currency has condemned the eurozone to stagnation and mass unemployment.

DANIELS/CHENEY: DC08

Don't count out Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels as a presidential contender in 2008. Former director of the OMB, former advisor to Reagan, former chief of staff to Sen. Lugar (R-IN), former corporate executive (Eli Lilly), straight talker, problem solver, action taker, from a down-home, industrial, traditionally Republican state.

He calls The Godfather "the best business textbook I ever read" and you can see its influence in his direct approach to thorny problems.

His Inaugural Remarks (1/10/05) and State of the State Address (1/18/05) are candid, blunt, sober, action-oriented, and refreshing. This guy has definite red state appeal.

UNDISCIPLINED DEAN NOT MAKING DISCIPLES

Dean was such an astoundingly stupid choice for this position. Not that I'm complaining.

Dean wowed the faithful in '04 with his Web-based fund-raising magic. But major business donors still count, and in his new role as party honcho, the feisty doctor seems to be struggling to connect. After achieving money parity with the GOP in 2004, Democrats have fallen far behind. According to the Federal Election Commission, the DNC raised $14.1 million in the first quarter of 2005, vs. the Republican National Committee's $32.3 million. Dean drew about 20,000 new donors, while his rivals picked up 68,200. The bottom line: Republicans have $26.2 million in the bank vs. $7.2 million for the Dems.

THE TEN MOST HARMFUL BOOKS OF ALL-TIME

according to Human Events


1. The Communist Manifesto
2. Mein Kampf
3. Quotations from Chairman Mao

etc.

Border Volunteers Not So Welcomed in Texas

by Democrats. . . This is so misleading. They couldn't get a single quote from someone in the majority party in that state.

The controversial civilian patrol group that helped capture hundreds of illegal immigrants along the Mexico-Arizona border and won praise from California's governor is getting a pre-emptive cold shoulder in Texas.

But although Minuteman organizers said nearly 1,000 volunteers from around the country were ready, Texas civil rights groups, clergy, newspaper editorial boards and politicians are folding up the welcome mats.

The headline should read: Liberals Pander to Illegals and other Hispanics?

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

NEWSPAPER NEWS 1

Harrisburg Patriot launches tabloid-style edition. Strange place for one. Harrisburg has no mass transit to speak of is not known is a bastion of innovation. But with 0% population growth and declining sales, they have to do something.

NEW YORK It all started over ketchup. Some editors at The Patriot-News in Harrisburg, Pa., were joking around last September about a New Yorker article that mentioned how misguided restaurants used to be when they only offered one condiment option. Then someone realized: The newspaper only gave readers one option.

"Whether you're a loyal reader with plenty of time or an occasional reader who's time starved, you've got to take the same package," John Kirkpatrick, the Patriot-News' president, publisher, and editor, said of the broadsheet-only model. Eight months later, the paper launched The Patriot, the first regular compact edition of an ongoing U.S. broadsheet. This one's aimed at busy readers of any age who weren't reading the broadsheet during the week.

So far, with no advertising, the new paper is selling about 1,900 copies a day. (The broadsheet's weekday circulation was 102,710 in the last reporting period.) "We started it here without any promotion at all ... and in a week or so we start full promotion so we expect that number to go up," Kirkpatrick said. He said advertisers have gotten on board without much convincing, excited at the prospect of reaching added or new circulation.

"We knew there were a lot of people who read us religiously on Sunday but don't read us during the week," Kirkpatrick told E&P Thursday, one week after the unannounced launch of the new tab. "The other thing that happened was, although we've done very well in our ABC reports, we don't think we're immune from the same forces striking everyone else."

...Feature-heavy front pages and a roundup of bite-sized news and gossip on pages two and three also got the axe. "The younger they were the more hypersensitive they were to anything that made them look not smart," Kirkpatrick said. Readers wanted hard news, but "no micronews," he said, emphasizing the biggest, most substantive news of the day.

Also banished were stock listings and some comics, and the "Living" section only appears on Thursdays in the compact.

The Patriot's news mix cuts some stories to fit without jumps (which brought negative responses in focus groups), and ends up with roughly half of the broadsheet's news coverage. Sports, which is already a special tab in the main paper, is just re-placed for the Patriot edition. The classifieds, which remain a broadsheet, are tucked inside.

Readers also liked color, Kirkpatrick said, so the compact has color throughout, with pages even color-coded by content.

NEWSPAPER NEWS 2

Detroit Free Press and Detroit News sell out, replace page 1 with giant ad. Personally that does not bother me as long as the ad is tasteful. I wonder what it does to daily sales.

Detroit Newspapers, which oversees the joint operating agreement between Knight Ridder's Detroit Free Press and Gannett's The Detroit News, sold the entire front page of both papers to Marshall Field's on Wednesday, triggering some protests from readers.

Ford told E&P that Marshall Field's approached Detroit Newspapers -- the retailer was shopping the idea around to newspapers in other cities as well -- and that the agency gave the idea “thoughtful consideration” before agreeing to run the ads on Wednesday. “It just seemed like nothing far off field from a gatefold or a wrap,” he said.

The ads featured a gigantic American flag touting a Memorial Day sale under the banners of both papers. The real Page One started on the next page.

As the advertising environment remains soft, newspapers are looking for innovative ways to attract revenue. The idea of selling the front page, and putting the publication's logo on top, is known in the magazine industry as a “false cover.”

MACK JACKED - AND WE WERE THERE

A year ago at PNC Park, Dude and I caught 3 games, Pirates hosting the Cubs. Rob Mackowiak's wife had delivered their first child earlier that day. The light-hitting superutilityman jacked a walk-off grand slam in the first game of Friday night's doubleheader, jacked a 9th-inning, game tying 2-run homer in the second game, followed by Craig Wilson's leadoff game-winner in bottom 10, and mashed a go-ahead homer on Saturday for 11 RBIs and three wins on the weekend. The crowd was chanting "Have more babies! Have more babies!" Mackowiak's performance was voted the Pirates' highlight of the 2004 season. (And there weren't many. The Cubs won just about every other game in their head-to-head series and I lost my annual wager, or should I say annuity, to my buddy James in Chicago.)

And we were there. As the fan of a team that hasn't even sniffed at postseason play since Bonds left in 1993, that is heading for its 13th consecutive losing season, and that is best-known for its garish yellow polyester uniforms and pillbox caps, it was a magical couple of days that made you feel lucky to be there. Baseball is funny that way.

NEW YORK TIMES TO CUT 190 JOBS



Presumably in the fact-checking department which was not being used very heavily.

QUESTION AUTHORITY

The report confirms a chilling fact that was widely covered in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks. After both buildings were burning, many calls to 911 resulted in advice to stay put and wait for rescue. Also, occupants of the towers had been trained to use the stairs, not the elevators, in case of evacuation.

Fortunately, this advice was mostly ignored. According to the engineers, use of elevators in the early phase of the evacuation, along with the decision to not stay put, saved roughly 2,500 lives. This disobedience had nothing to do with panic. The report documents how evacuees stopped to help the injured and assist the mobility-impaired, even to give emotional comfort. Not panic but what disaster experts call reasoned flight ruled the day.

In fact, the people inside the towers were better informed and far more knowledgeable than emergency operators far from the scene. While walking down the stairs, they answered their cell phones and glanced at their BlackBerries, learning from friends that there had been a terrorist attack and that the Pentagon had also been hit. News of what was happening passed by word of mouth, and fellow workers pressed hesitating colleagues to continue their exit.

This is good advice in general. Micro-managers and central planners usually ignore local knowledge because they see it as unruly. They're certain they can make the decisions from far away. The Soviets thought so too.

STOCK

ERHE might be ready for a jump if you have an online stock account and some free cash.

.699 at 2pm EST.

DO THE MATH: FEWER ZYGOTES = FEWER KIDS

With a headline like this, do you really need a story?

Child Population Dwindles in San Francisco

San Francisco has the smallest share of small-fry of any major U.S. city. Just 14.5 percent of the city's population is 18 and under.

That compares to 24 percent in New York, for example.

AP's aptly named Lisa Leff unlocks the secret:

It is no mystery why U.S. cities are losing children. The promise of safer streets, better schools and more space has drawn young families away from cities for as long as America has had suburbs.

Oh, of course. And well, there's that other reason too, but:

San Francisco's large gay population — estimated at 20 percent by the city Public Health Department — is thought to be one factor, though gays and lesbians in the city are increasingly raising families.

The disarming caveat, while technically true, is tremendously misleading, and has little to do with the premise.

Isn't there any news out there that does not carry an agenda?

THE WINDY CITIES

A new map highlights spots where there is enough wind to provide electricity to the whole world - and then some.

In putting together a global and U.S. map, researchers found wind power could provide 40 times more electricity than is needed worldwide.

Scientists gathered wind speed data from about 8,000 locations on the planet - 7,500 surface stations and 500 balloon-launch stations. They measured the wind speeds 260 feet (80 meters) above the ground surface, which is the height of a modern wind turbine's hub.

They found that 13 percent of the 8,000 spots were capable of averaging Class 3 wind speeds throughout the course of the year. Class 3 winds are greater than 15.4 mph (6.9 meters per second), which is considered strong enough to be economically feasible.

"We would be fools not to use it," Archer said.

About 2.5 million wind turbines -- together capturing about 20 percent of what's available based on the new maps -- would be needed to produce all the world's electrical needs, Archer said.

The wind doesn't blow constantly, however, and it cannot be adjusted to follow electricity demand. Archer hopes that one day the bulk of our electricity will come from green energies, like wind power, with the gaps being filled by more reliable and traditional energies, like the burning of fossil fuels.

Is it merely coincidence that all the windiest places are solidly Democrat?

I see that the Cleveland-to-Buffalo corridor is quite windy, but a couple Browns-Steelers games and a winter in Ashtabula could have told you that.

VANITY, VANITY, ALL IS VANITY

A black 2002 Audi tooling around Seattle's streets has a vanity license plate that appears to have gotten in under the radar of the state licensing police.

The inscription, C9H13N, is the chemical compound for methamphetamine — not that the general public would know that.

The plate appears to violate state law that bans vanity plates making reference to alcohol or illegal substances.

Last night there was a car parked in my neighborhood bearing the vanity plate HEATHEN. Which is fine, anyone is free to be a heathen (although advertising the fact may be redundant), but what exactly are the standards? My guess is that BIBLEBOY would not get past security. NO GOD, okay, personal freedom of expression. KNOW GOD, denied, religious proselytizing. A curious interpretation of what Thomas Jefferson and friends had in mind.

Personally I can't complain. I had IS.40:8 on my convertible in North Carolina.

ISIKOFF AND NEWSWEEK

Michael Isikoff, addressing the furor in an interview broadcast Monday night on "The Charlie Rose Show," said he regretted the possibility that his article, which has been blamed for violent protests in Muslim countries, may have spurred riots.

"It was terrible what happened," he told Rose. "Even if it was just a little bit that we contributed to the violence that went on over there, that was awful, terrible."

"I got to tell you, as somebody who has reported for a long time on the intelligence and law enforcement field, that's going to be tough," he told Rose. "Some of the best stories that I've gotten, that others have written about this administration, about the previous administration, you have to rely on anonymous sources."

This story is not the fault of Isikoff, but the editors of Newsweek Magazine. Isikoff was behind the original Monica Lewinsky story that Newsweek spiked because of anonymous sources. They weren't prepared to error when a Democrat like Clinton was at stake, but when Bush and the reputation of the United States was on the line, why not?

MORE CONVENTIONAL WISDOM TURNED ON ITS HEAD

Scientists are excited about a vitamin again. But unlike fads that sizzled and fizzled, the evidence this time is strong and keeps growing. If it bears out, it will challenge one of medicine's most fundamental beliefs: that people need to coat themselves with sunscreen whenever they're in the sun. Doing that may actually contribute to far more cancer deaths than it prevents, some researchers think.

The vitamin is D, nicknamed the "sunshine vitamin" because the skin makes it from ultraviolet rays. Sunscreen blocks its production, but dermatologists and health agencies have long preached that such lotions are needed to prevent skin cancer. Now some scientists are questioning that advice. The reason is that vitamin D increasingly seems important for preventing and even treating many types of cancer.

In the last three months alone, four separate studies found it helped protect against lymphoma and cancers of the prostate, lung and, ironically, the skin. The strongest evidence is for colon cancer.

The thinking is this: Even if too much sun leads to skin cancer, which is rarely deadly, too little sun may be worse.

In other news, I have lost 7 pounds in 7 days eating eggs and meat every day on the South Beach Diet. Eggs were never bad, we just thought they were.

MARIANO RIVERA BLOWS LEAD FOR CBS

But in explaining why CBS would narrowly lose an important ratings title to Fox this season - viewership among those between the ages of 18 and 49 - Mr. Moonves fixed at least partial blame on a seemingly unlikely villain: Mariano Rivera, the relief pitcher for the New York Yankees.

Mr. Moonves's logic went something like this: The race between Fox and CBS was so close that if the ratings for a major sporting event carried by Fox - such as one of the seven epic playoff games between the Yankees and the Red Sox in October - were subtracted, CBS would have beaten Fox for the year. That series went to a seventh game, at least in part, because the ordinarily infallible Mr. Riviera squandered several Yankee leads.

"Mariano Riviera cost us more money than the Yankees," Mr. Moonves said.

YOU DON'T HAVE TO BE A VEGETABLE

In England

THIS WEEK Leslie Burke sat in court in a wheelchair and listened while lawyers argued whether he should be starved and dehydrated to death. The lawyers arguing in favour of the proposition were egged on by the Secretary of State for Health, who deemed it too expensive to feed and water the ailing patient.

I emphasise again that the issue here is food and fluid, not some esoteric and complicated medical procedure. We are not talking about assisting someone to breathe but merely refusing to starve him. Throughout the passage of the Mental Capacity Bill in Parliament the argument was put forward strongly in both Houses that it should be made explicit that food and fluid do not constitute treatment. The Government adamantly refused. We can now see why, but none of us could have predicted the speed with which the effects would be realised: the Bill was passed immediately before Parliament dissolved for the election and now, less than a month later, a minister says that it is too costly to administer basic sustenance to the dying.

Eliminating "out of pocket" costs does not limit scarcity. Imagine spending your life paying those insane tax rates without the benefit of food and water in your dying day. I bet that guy wishes he had the money back now.

THE HUFFINGTON POST

This group blog is a lot like The New York Times in that it's full of wild eyed liberals with a token conservative or two for spice. I like reading blog entries by people outside of politics. Who knew sportcaster Jim Lampley was a flaming liberal to the point that he's sure that Karl Rove stole the election in 2004?

Harry Shearer is funny when he chimes in.

I even saw Evans on there once.

SENATE DEMOCRATS LOOKING FOR AN IDENTITY

One of the problems of the media, I think, is their inability to actually explain the meaning of the words used in politics. On Wednesday during the beginnings of the Senate fight Democrats left the floor and walked down the Senate steps to a pre-set podium with a sign that read, “Save our Democracy.”

Is that what Senate Democrats are fighting for, democracy? They’re trying to prevent democracy by preventing a vote. What they’re fighting for is the Senate precedent of filibusters. What precedent they’re fighting for is vague. No longer can a single Senator drone on like we saw in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. Now you have to have 41 people willing to go along with the delay. What a filibuster is has changed many times in the past and changing it now isn’t going to hurt the Senate anymore than the last time those rules were altered.

But more importantly, Senate Democrats are hitching their wagon to precedent and thus the rules of the Senate, and therefore the consistency of the rule of law. The rule of law is the basis of a republican form of government not a democratic one. The bill of rights and the constitution in general is a republican document because it states what a majority cannot do to a minority.

The U.S. Constitution use to mean something in this country before the New Deal and the Supreme Court led by Earl Warren began re-inventing America. What Democrats learned in the 20th century is that they could gain power by buying people’s votes through government largesse. Since income redistribution is unconstitutional according to the 14th amendment’s “Equal Protection” standard, well they just got the right judges to say it wasn’t.

The problem that Democrats have found so far in this century is that people aren’t as anxious to be bought, so the only way Democrats can maintain their ideology is to have judges force it down voter’s throats. It’s funny that as they lose grasp of the one institution that will mandate their minority views, they cite democracy as the virtue in danger.

Now they can no longer win by democratic means, they try republican principles. It won’t be long until they crave a return of the king. But, I guess, they already have the king back or at least an oligarchy, in the form of Federal judges. If they can’t save that, they’ll have to re-invent their entire opposition party much like Tony Blair did in Great Britain.

It’s a shame that the media isn’t interested in the principles behind these fights. It’s also a shame that public schools aren’t teaching these principles. It seems like my property taxes and cable bill could be promoting a smarter America, but we’re getting a louder America instead.

SHAKY FOUNDATION

The San Andreas Fault, which snakes uncomfortably close to Los Angeles and other large cities along much of California's length, has been relatively quiet for the past 148 years.

This could end soon, scientists said today.

Researchers have calculated a 20 to 70 percent probability that southern California will be hit by a large earthquake in the next 30 years. The forecast is based on the frequency of past events.

Geologists stress, however, that earthquake prediction, in its infancy, is notoriously difficult. Forecasts tend to be very general, specifying a range of decades rather than years or weeks for possible activity.

The last really big quake to hit southern California was the Fort Tejon Earthquake of 1857, which was estimated to be around magnitude 8 from the 186 miles (300 kilometers) of rupture along the San Andreas.

Bet you wouldn't guess that California ranks only 10th on the list of the strongest earthquakes. So far Gov. Ahnold has done a good job keeping the earthquakes at bay.

Strongest US Earthquakes (source: USGS)

Rank Locale Size

1 Prince William Sound, AK 9.2
2 Andreanof Islands, AK 9.1
3 Rat Islands, AK 8.7
4 Shumagin Islands, AK 8.2
5 New Madrid, MO 8.1
6 Yakutat Bay, AK 8.0
7 Andreanof Islands, AK 8.0
8 New Madrid, MO 8.0
9 Cape Yakataga, AK 7.9
10 Fort Tejon, CA 7.9

BREAK ON THROUGH TO SOUTHERN OREGON

NEW YORK (Wireless Flash) – Here’s news that will light the fire of Jim Morrison fans: A filmmaker claims The Doors’ frontman is alive and raising horses on a ranch in southern Oregon.

Rodeo photographer Gerald Pitts insists Morrison didn’t die in July of 1971 and he has current photographs and film footage of the rocker to prove it.

Pitts, who met Morrison in 1998, says the rocker staged his death because of a French conspiracy to kill him, Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix with narcotics because they were all Vietnam war protestors.

These days, Morrison isn’t the drug user he once was, although Pitts says when he goes over to Jim’s house he’ll “maybe have an occasional beer.”

Now Pitts claims that Morrison is announcing he’s alive, in part, to promote his recent agreement to star in a rodeo shoot-out movie based on events that actually happened to Pitts.

Pitts’ whole story airs on A Current Affair tomorrow (May 20).

T.O. MUST G.O.

Terrell Owens has always been a Keyshawn, whining and crying about how great and misunderstood he is and behaving like he's more important than the team. The Eagles gambled on him and cut him some slack because he produced. No longer. McNabb has turned on him, his teammates want him gone, and the adulation and respect he earned with fans by sucking it up and overachieving in the Super Bowl is rapidly disappearing if not gone. He could have reversed field at any time and all would have been forgiven. It is really a shame when immaturity or ego costs you millions of dollars, not to mention endorsements and your life after football. What's worse is that another team will pick him up and pay him. But the price tag of having a T.O. on your team is steep indeed.

No doubt Owens, in his infinitely infantile worldview, is feeling persecuted by the public criticism he has been getting. It probably doesn't occur to him that he created this mess for himself. That would require a sense of accountability. Instead, he lashes out at McNabb, who is everything Owens will never be.

There is nothing inherently wrong with a player's trying to improve his contract. Owens' first mistake was in making it public and squandering the immense goodwill he had earned from Eagles fans. His second mistake was dragging McNabb into it with that first ill-advised insult. Now he has made a third, more serious mistake.

If Reid is as concerned with team chemistry as he says he is, the coach will make sure this is Owens' last mistake as an Eagle.

This whole situation also argues against using NCAA Division I football as the NFL's minor league system. Not that I have a better suggestion, but how can somebody this stupid have earned a college degree? Oh, but I forget - he probably didn't.

NO MEDIA ACCOUNTABILITY

I happened to watch a few minutes of the CBS Evening News last night before I realized what I was doing. I usually avoid CBS News and CNN because they make me angry. Last night was no exception.

I saw four stories -- each political, each anti-Bush administration. First, the Newsweek story. More on this below. Second, a story about how the right wing wants to end the filibusters and get an up-or-down vote so they can revoke women's constitutional right to abort a fetus. Third, some story on how badly the war in Iraq is going. I forget the fourth because I was lecturing the TV.

I have not followed the Newsweek story very closely but I get the gist that Newsweek reported that a Koran had been flushed down a toilet at a military base in Afghanistan, which caused riots which caused 16(?) deaths, and that the report was apparently false, based on one shaky secondhand source, and that Newsweek has written a one-line retraction. The obvious logic is that another incident of overzealous anti-Bush reporting has caused damage to the US as well as the loss of human life. But the story at CBS is the White House's "unprecedented" suggestion that Newsweek do its part to undo the damage that the magazine itself created. The press is aghast at the suggestion, citing freedom of the press -- presumably (again) the freedom to publish wrong stories that, while technically false, ring true.

Here is what McClellan actually said. He suggested (gasp!) that the people who made the mess should contribute to cleaning up the mess. Only a liberal could object to that.

Q With respect, who made you the editor of Newsweek? Do you think it's appropriate for you, at that podium, speaking with the authority of the President of the United States, to tell an American magazine what they should print?

MR. McCLELLAN: I'm not telling them. I'm saying that we would encourage them to help --

Q You're pressuring them.

MR. McCLELLAN: No, I'm saying that we would encourage them --

Q It's not pressure?

MR. McCLELLAN: Look, this report caused serious damage to the image of the United States abroad. And Newsweek has said that they got it wrong. I think Newsweek recognizes the responsibility they have. We appreciate the step that they took by retracting the story. Now we would encourage them to move forward and do all that they can to help repair the damage that has been done by this report. And that's all I'm saying. But, no, you're absolutely right, it's not my position to get into telling people what they can and cannot report....

Q Are you asking them to write a story about how great the American military is; is that what you're saying here?

MR. McCLELLAN: Elisabeth, let me finish my sentence. Our military --

Q You've already said what you're -- I know what -- how it ends.

MR. McCLELLAN: No, I'm coming to your question, and you're not letting me have a chance to respond. But our military goes out of their way to handle the Koran with care and respect. There are policies and practices that are in place. This report was wrong. Newsweek, itself, stated that it was wrong. And so now I think it's incumbent and -- incumbent upon Newsweek to do their part to help repair the damage. And they can do that through ways that they see best, but one way that would be good would be to point out what the policies and practices are in that part of the world, because it's in that region where this report has been exploited and used to cause lasting damage to the image of the United States of America. It has had serious consequences. And so that's all I'm saying, is that we would encourage them to take steps to help repair the damage. And I think that they recognize the importance of doing that. That's all I'm saying.

Q As far as the Newsweek article is concerned, first, how and where the story came from? And do you think somebody can investigate if it really happened at the base, and who told Newsweek? Because somebody wrote a story.

I guess the last line argues that because somebody felt confident enough in their source to write a story, then the story must be true. Forget that its own author and publisher have retracted it. Has the press learned anything from Rathergate? Or is its bias so complete that it is utterly impenetrable?

And then there's the related point that we spend tax dollars to remove the ten commandments from the public square but the purported flushing of a Koran is some sacred headline-making violation. But I leave that for another day. Matthew 10:16-42 explains this to my satisfaction.

BORDER PATROL POLITICS

U.S. Border Patrol agents have been ordered not to arrest illegal aliens along the section of the Arizona border where protesters patrolled last month because an increase in apprehensions there would prove the effectiveness of Minuteman volunteers, The Washington Times has learned.

More than a dozen agents, all of whom asked not to be identified for fear of retribution, said orders relayed by Border Patrol supervisors at the Naco, Ariz., station made it clear that arrests were "not to go up" along the 23-mile section of border that the volunteers monitored to protest illegal immigration.

The Minutemen volunteers are a great example of citizen government. The media wants to find something about them to dislike, but it's not just because they are making Illegals think twice about crossing the border. Their effectiveness sheds light on the abhorrent job being done by government. Their continued success could create copycats on other issues to the point that some government agencies would have to scramble to justify their existence.

Government agencies need problems to thrive. Their budgets are based on problems not effectiveness. Bureaucrats learn early on that you don't solve problems to increase your power. Instead you invent new problems that need to be funded. The Illegal alien subject is touchy in Washington so these citizens decided that they'd battle the problem themselves. Their success is now exposing the waste and fraud going on in a Federal Government with a different agenda. It's no surprise that the border patrol is intentionally trying to discredit their project. They'd love things to just get back to normal.

WWII - WORTH IT?

Pat Buchanan is taking heat for remarking in a speech that World War II was "not worth it."

When one considers the losses suffered by Britain and France – hundreds of thousands dead, destitution, bankruptcy, the end of the empires – was World War II worth it, considering that Poland and all the other nations east of the Elbe were lost anyway?

If the objective of the West was the destruction of Nazi Germany, it was a "smashing" success. But why destroy Hitler? If to liberate Germans, it was not worth it. After all, the Germans voted Hitler in.

If it was to keep Hitler out of Western Europe, why declare war on him and draw him into Western Europe? If it was to keep Hitler out of Central and Eastern Europe, then, inevitably, Stalin would inherit Central and Eastern Europe.

Was that worth fighting a world war – with 50 million dead?

The war Britain and France declared to defend Polish freedom ended up making Poland and all of Eastern and Central Europe safe for Stalinism. And at the festivities in Moscow, Americans and Russians were front and center, smiling – not British and French. Understandably.

For Buchanan, it comes down to how tight your definition of "national interest" is. He would probably characterize the Revolutionary War and the Spanish-American War as "in the national interest," the World Wars, Vietnam, Korea, the Gulf War, and Iraq as outside it. He has a viable and important argument, an argument he has been consistently voicing for years, an argument that repeatedly fails to be heard and debated because the cries of anti-Semitism prevent anyone from discussing the logic of it.

The question of what is in our national interest is at the root of major foreign policy decisions. Buchanan makes a reasonable argument that messing around in other nation's sovereign business is what drains superpowers of their economic and military might, that the essence of power is maintaining it by not wasting it here, there, and everywhere. Nations that fight, wear down and eventually get beat.

His argument is that 50 million dead soldiers and 6 million dead Jews is not better than 6 million dead Jews. That is not a crazy argument. It might not be right, and it might not be politically correct, but it's not crazy. I guess his crime is that he's not nuanced enough. And not socialist.

DEAN MAKES HIS SOCIALISM OFFICIAL

Breaking party lines, former Gov. Howard Dean said Monday he supports Rep. Bernard Sanders' bid for the U.S. Senate, saying the Independent makes a "strong candidate."

"A victory for Bernie Sanders is a win for Democrats," Dean said in a telephone interview Monday.

Sen. James Jeffords, I-Vt., announced last month he would not seek re-election, clearing the way for what's expected to be a crowded race in fall 2006.

"We've got a few things to work out with Bernie," he said, adding, "Bernie's not a Democrat."

Jeff Weaver, Sanders' chief of staff and campaign spokesman, said the congressman won't formally announce his candidacy until "much later this year."

But Weaver said Dean's support is natural in a political atmosphere dominated by conservative voices.

"I think Gov. Dean and Congressman Sanders share an interest in beating back a very aggressive reactionary agenda of President Bush and congressional Republicans," Weaver said. "We intend to win this seat and Bernie will be a strong voice against the Bush agenda."

No where in the article does it mention that Sanders is a socialist. If Bush were endorsing a fascist do you think that might get ink?

NR examines the British Elections

rom the standpoint of a foreign-policy conservative, Blair’s loss is a sign of weakening support for the U.S. across Europe, even in America’s most reliable ally. Blair is generally reckoned to have lost a large number of “middle-class progressive” votes (i.e., Guardian-reading, muesli-eating, electric-car-driving voters) to the Liberal Democrats because of their hostility to the Iraq war.

Blair’s Labor colleagues will draw the appropriate lesson. Britain will not soon support the U.S. in any future U.S. crisis and may gradually be absorbed by the anti-American political culture of continental Europe. And from the standpoint of a philosophical conservative, the upsurge of Liberal Democrat support in university towns in opposition to Blair's modest free-market proposal of “top-up” university fees flags the difficulty of reversing even the most indefensible free lunch offered by the welfare state.

In confusion there is profit, however, as Tony Curtis’s character says in Operation Petticoat. There are signs of conservative opportunities in the current situation — in the form of voters, issues, and readiness.

First there are a lot of voters now in play after the election results. Labor lost six percent of its 2001 vote. Many more voters — about 40 percent — did not vote at all. Some of Labor’s missing voters went to the Lib-Dems, but not all. And the Lib-Dems themselves lost some voters who finally recognized that they were a left-wing party rather than a centrist one. What has gone unnoticed is that almost eight percent of the voters — a very large percentage in the British system — chose small protest parties such as Veritas, the fascist British National party, and the eccentrically Euroskeptic UKIP. Most of these voters are right-wing in some sense or other. They might once have voted Lib-Dem but not now. And they are open to persuasion over the next few years.

Second, the upcoming issues in this parliament are likely to be conservative ones that drive people to the right — for instance, the referendum on the European constitution. Left-wing issues such as Iraq are likely to fade from the public mind. And the biggest issue of all will be the fiscal crises against which the IMF warned during the campaign. Whether Blair or Brown is prime minister, the government will be unable to finance large injections of public money into failing public services from “stealth” taxes that nobody notices. On the contrary, massive bills for previous expenditures and regulatory costs will become due shortly. So Labor will either have to raise taxes sharply or cut back on spending, and in either event they will have to bring serious market reforms into health and other public services.

However such choices go, they would tend to split Labor, antagonize the Lib-Dems, and benefit the Tories. And in all cases they will clarify political choices for the voters in a way that New Labor has confused them.

Third, the Tories are more ready than any other party to take advantage of these two opportunities. Their vote rose, albeit only slightly, rather than fell. They fought a hard-hitting and focused campaign that won back some of their core. (Australian Lynton Crosby earned his fee and then some.) The issues they emphasized, notably immigration, are those likely to win over the voters newly in play.

The world is more than willing to look the other way to dictators and genocide. You'd think Europe would have learned their lessons after World War II.

What have you done for me lately?

THE LINGERING EFFECTS OF WWII

Sixty years after the end of the Second World War in Europe, British people are still obsessed with Nazism, and ignorant about Germany, said the German ambassador to London, Thomas Matussek.

"The British behave as if they had conquered Hitler's hordes single-handedly. And they continue to see us as Nazis, as if they have to refight the battles every evening. They are enchanted by this Nazi dimension," he said yesterday.

A recent survey showed that when British 10- to 16-year olds were asked what they associated Germany with, 78 per cent said the Second World War, and 50 per cent mentioned Hitler.

"Like the conquering of the West is part of the American myth, so it is the same with the British and the defeat of Nazism," Mr Matussek told The Observer.

"We Germans confront the guilt and shame of our past daily, and more thoroughly and obsessively than probably any other nation on earth."

Parts of the United States were still fighting the Civil War 100 years later. The Germans would love to forget World War II just like Putin wants us to forget the cold war. The people who lived through those events will have to die before all wounds are fully healed. Lesson to the next dictator.

THROW HEAT

You're throwing a ball for a toddler to smack with a plastic bat. You toss it gently, slowly, to make it easier. He just can't hit it.

It's because you throw too slowly, a new study finds.

Kids' brains aren't wired for slow motion.

"When you throw something slowly to a child, you think you're doing them a favor by trying to be helpful," said Terri Lewis, professor of psychology at McMaster University. "Slow balls actually appear stationary to a child."

Add a little speed to the pitch, Lewis and her colleagues suggest, and the child is able to judge its speed more accurately.

"Our brain has very few neurons that deal specifically with slow motion and many neurons that deal with faster motion," Lewis said. "Even adults are worse at slow speeds than they are at faster speeds."

Kids' neurons are immature, making the task even more challenging for them.

The study will be detailed in the July issue of Vision Research.

I found this out by accident. Ben was whiffing at the underhand lobs and starting spraying line drives when I started throwing overhand heat.

BAD NEWS: EARTH'S AIR IS CLEANER

The air is cleaner, which should be good, right? No, it could increase the greenhouse effect. It is interesting to note the headlines the editors apply to reframe good news in a negative light.

Bush's opponents use his opposition to the Kyoto Protocol to label him as pro-big business and to hell with the environment. His actual position is that the regulations already in place are cleaning up the environment and that it will be cheaper to respond to the eventual real impacts of environmental change than to throw money into the wind trying to keep the environment from changing.

More bad news: the water is cleaner too, and has been for many years. We hear so much squawking about the environment, most people don't realize the environment is in much better shape today than it was when the squawking started. But the truth never stands in the way of a useful argument.

BOOK REVIEW: The Visual Display of Quantitative Information by Edward Tufte.

Major takeaways included the Ink-to-Data Ratio, meaning that as high a percentage of a chart's ink as possible should be dedicated to conveying data, and its corollary The Eraser Rule, which mandates erasing all parts of a chart that do not convey data. The goals are simplicity, elegance, and ease of interpretation.

I was invited to my client's retreat in Baltimore and asked to deliver a 25-minute presentation discussing the kind of work I've been doing for the firm and what I'd like to do going forward. The ideas in the book led me to organize my remarks around the chart shown above, discussing the relative amounts of work each partner has given me, the different kinds of work I've been doing for each, and the various applications for other partners in the room. It led directly to a massive influx of work of the type I suggested. Normally I may have 1 or 2 projects open at any given time, 3 if I'm very busy. At the moment I have 10. At the break, a partner who is not on the chart told me he wants to be the tallest bar on the chart next year. I'm all for it.

LAUGHS FOR LAURA

Monday night I was listening to Michael Savage in the car. He was going off on the Bushes for demeaning the presidency, alienating the base, pandering to Hollywood, and handing a free gift to the Islamic propaganda machine in the form of Laura Bush's self-deprecating humor at the White House Correspondents Dinner.

The left also jumped on it, calling the Bushes hypocrites and so forth.

Settle down, everybody. It's just a little comedic monologue at an event that calls for a little comedic monologue. Watch it here - it's pretty funny.

I thought last year's routine was quite funny also - Bush looking under his desk for WMDs and so forth. Everyone got all bent out of shape over some very funny jokes. Touchy, touchy.

BRITISH ELECTION

The BBC has a wonderful interactive map if you're following the returns like me.

MAD LIBS

The thing I like best about terrorist-takedown reportage is the before and after shot. It is the classic mug-shot mien. Hair mussed, clothes rumpled, downcast — nothing remotely heroic about it.

The message is that we are winning. We're winning well. That stated, al Qaeda remains a threat because, despite all the hardships they face, many of these people refuse to give up. Most of them are ideologically motivated and committed sociopaths. They have a need to kill. Our civilization and their organization cannot coexist in this world — they will be the first to admit it. So the Coalition is forced to wage war on them, to track them down, capture, or kill them, one by one. It takes time, but gradually the job is getting done.

The daily life of an al Qaeda leader is an endurance test for survival. They spend their time moving from safe house to safe house, in constant fear of discovery, attempting vainly to organize large-scale attacks on their enemies and speculating when they will be betrayed by their friends. It is not a rewarding existence, not even by terrorist standards. This cannot be the jihad they signed up for. Even the most committed among them may be wondering when Osama's master plan is going to kick in and they will start winning a few rounds.

Al Qaeda's failure to achieve any of its strategic goals or to conduct operations against the U.S. homeland is discouraging to some of its members. Recently Abu Musab al-Zarqawi complained about the lack of "willing martyrs" for attacks on the United States. Several days ago, U.S. Central Command posted a letter to Zarqawi from one of his underlings that revealed low morale and lack of trust within his organization. Zarqawi is not exactly safe either; he recently narrowly evaded capture during a hot pursuit by bailing out of a pickup truck under a highway underpass. Coalition forces captured his laptop and a trove of documents. Now he being reported allegedly wounded, or maybe sick, frequenting a hospital apparently for treatment. His insurgency controls no territory, and apart from being able to inflict some casualties, Zarqawi does not seem to be making much progress in his area of responsibility.

The war on terror has been tremendously successful. Two regimes deposed, Iraqis voted, and a popularly elected goverment is being installed, all in a few years' time, which by historical standards is absolutely incredible. But liberals can't get past their own simplistic stereotypes.

Do you really think the president is sheltered from those he’s pitching his plan to?

Rep. Jim Moran (D-VA): The only actual news that he reads is the sports section. All the national news, all the opinions that he gets have been filtered, and it goes to his daily briefing that has already been pre-screened to give him what he wants to read. He doesn’t read any books, and he doesn’t talk with people that don’t already agree with him. He’s surrounded himself with ideological sycophants. And the biggest ass-kisser of all is Dick Cheney.

I am still not hearing anything from the minority party that sounds like a reason to elect some of them to Congress in 2006. The UT incident with Ann Coulter is just the latest example of libs with nothing to say just saying it louder. Forget civility, that's gone, I'd just like to hear one coherent argument from one liberal. I'm reasonable - just one. No screaming, no arm waving, no ranting, no insults, no pies, just one coherent argument, in complete sentences, on any subject.