First there was her assertion that Knocked Up features “nonexistence of abortion as an option,” which was, on its face, an absurd notion. Then this, on The Dark Knight:
In short, Chris Nolan does more nuanced thinking about the war on terror than we’ve seen from the Bush administration in seven years. And despite a falsely [...]

Over at CNN’s entertainment blog, Audrey Irvine is complaining about children at the theater:
So consider this. You’ve paid $9 (or more) for the ticket, $4 for the popcorn and you’ve threaded your way to the seat your friends have been fighting to save for you. You get settled to enjoy the movie, one you’ve been [...]

Freedom of speech? Banned. The air? Unbreathable. Segregation? In full force:
Bar owners near the Workers’ Stadium in central Beijing say they have been forced by Public Security Bureau officials to sign pledges agreeing not to let black people enter their premises.
“Uniformed Public Security Bureau officers came into the bar recently and told me not to [...]

So, Matt Yglesias posts this pic about the “walkability” of DC neighborhoods and thinks it proves some grand point about poverty and mobility (or lack thereof). The red areas, particularly that area east of the Anacostia river, are very unwalkable. The business core of the city (the office buildings; the federal government; the tourist traps) [...]

Here’s my take over at the Washington Times. The movie is, in a word, brilliant. It was almost difficult to review–this was the first masterpiece I’ve seen whilst on the job. If I could add one thing to my review, it would be to praise Heath Ledger’s amazing, AMAZING performance as the Joker. Terry Gilliam [...]

Can someone explain to me the point of the “fairness” doctrine? Over at The Weekly Standard, Jaime Sneider notes
Democrats like Sen. Durbin and Sen. Kerry are eager to resurrect the so-called Fairness Doctrine, whereby radio stations will be required to give equal time to liberal talking heads. They know this would kill talk-radio, a traditionally [...]

Via JVL, I see this article from the National Post:
Happy as a clam, rich as a minor Rockefeller, Will Smith turned up recently on a 60 Minutes update of an item from last December. He was there to promote his current movie, Hancock, but his main theme was his huge success and the way he’s [...]

The laws have only been on the books for one day! How did this carjacker get his handgun registered in DC? How would he purchase one from a licensed dealer when the licensed dealers aren’t up and running yet and zoning restrictions remain in place? That is one speedy criminal. I sure am glad the [...]

So, have you seen this interrogation video of Omar Khadr, a teenager being held at Guantanamo Bay? Kind of brutal stuff. Look at him weep! It’s very sad.
Of course, what that BBC clip doesn’t tell you is why he’s being held at Guantanamo: for chucking a grenade that killed one special forces soldier and blinded [...]

That’s the only reasonable explanation for this asinine move by the Council and the mayor. As DCist wrote, the council is requiring that “Firearms in the home must be stored unloaded and disassembled, and secured with either a trigger lock, gun safe, or similar device. The new law will allow an exception for a firearm [...]

Megan responds to my post; as I said in her comments section,
I would say this: of course I have sped before. I’ve also been pulled over before, one time, for (wait for it) speeding.
Now, did I get sanctimonious because a state trooper pulled me over at 1:00 in the morning on an empty byway on [...]

Does anyone else find this controversy over the New Yorker cover a tad bit silly? Silly, and perhaps a little revealing? Apparently, there’s only one acceptable way to portray Barack Obama at this point in the campaign, and it is staring thoughtfully off into the distance, preferably with a halo somewhere near the top of [...]

Via Peter and Matt, I see that there is some discussion over hiring practices. Says Freddie:
The last couple of years have seen my friends begin to start their honest-to-goodness careers, as opposed to jobs that were by design short-term. I’d say that among people I would call friends, a good two dozen have gotten long-term/serious [...]

So, you might remember me condemning bikers, pedestrians, and car drivers equally for their poor road skills last week; if you read the comments, you might get the sense that I am especially annoyed with people who bike to work and feel that they are the superior brand of citizen. That sense would be correct. [...]

Dana Stevens:
But over the course of two Hellboy movies (based on the comic by Mike Mignola), Mexican director Guillermo del Toro has started to look like a legitimate successor to Ovid.
Here’s the thing about that statement: there’s a grain of truth to it. The Hellboy films promise a grand narrative arc, one I’ll talk about [...]

I mean, is there anything to really disagree with in this post? Money quote:
Stop and consider this in detail: someone afraid to even use their real name asks for an analysis of an extremely complex situation, decades in development, merely because Yglesias spent a few days in the west — and in airy Aspen, at [...]

So here’s my take on Hellboy II. I feel like this movie is getting a pass from most critics, and it shouldn’t: it’s not nearly as good as the original. Some of this is blind Guillermo Del Toro love, some of it is a hangover from the critical success of the first movie.
Speaking of Del [...]

The guys over at South Park Studios have already renamed this clip “Cut His Nuts Off.” Fantastic.

1.) Commenting on my post about bourbon, James has compiled an excellent list of his own. You should check it out.
2.) Well well well…that Federer post sure kicked up a firestorm, didn’t it? It’s an interesting thing about the blogosphere: nuance gets you nowhere, bold predictions/statements, meanwhile, produce beaucoup traffic. And if a bold statement [...]

So I’m reading Christopher Hitchens and His Critics: Terror, Iraq, and the Left; it’s a fascinating book. A collection of his essays from immediately after 9/11, it’s quite interesting to see his movement away from the Nation and other left-wing outlets, and towards a more militarist point of view when it comes to foreign policy. [...]

Sorry for the light posting today. Trip to the dentist. In lieu of substantive thoughts, here’s Eels’ best known song.

I’m not sure how many of my readers are DC-based, but every summer there’s an annual food fight between those who drive to work, those who bike to work, and those who walk to work. This year’s was sparked by the tragic deathof Alice Swanson, a biker run down by a garbage truck; over at [...]

Via Noam and Andrew, I see Time has published a very intriguing look into the gambling styles of our nominees. As Noam summarizes:
Short version: McCain is a high-stakes craps player who loves the pure, adrenalin-pumping, rush of the game. Obama is an exceedingly low-stakes poker player who sizes up his odds methodically and rarely loses [...]

I have one true love when it comes to booze:* bourbon. My Kentucky spirit of choice is Wellers. I love all the varieties therein, but my absolute favorite is Old Weller Antique, a 7 year old bourbon that goes down smooth despite the fact that it’s 107 proof. Vanilla and honey waft around the nostril, [...]

I’d like to make one last point on film criticism, and then I’ll let the topic rest for a day or two. Over at Ennuipundit, we see this:
Recently, I read a comment on Hancock penned by Ed Morrissey of Hot Air. Captain Ed is a wonderful political commentator but his review of Hancock stunningly missed [...]

Like everyone else with even a modicum of appreciation for tennis,* I found the Federer-Nadal match thrilling and place it high in the “Best. Match. Ever.” pantheon. JVL has some thoughts worth reading, and I’d like to touch upon one note he attributes to me:
Ten months later, Federer hasn’t won another slam. If he doesn’t [...]

So last week, there was this Slate piece in which the author, Erik Lundegaard, opened:
It’s almost a given these days that movie critics are elitist, while moviegoers are populist. When the highest-grossing films get panned by critics, what good are critics? As publishers across the country dump their reviewers, this is not exactly a rhetorical question.
Believe it or [...]

Much discussion to that effect in the wake of the shooting of liberal blogger Brian Beutler. I think Ezra sums up the feeling that most of us yuppie types have in this post:
On the other hand, things are getting better. In 1991, DC’s homicide rate was 81 per 100,000 residents — the highest in the [...]

Not too much to say today…have a happy (and safe) Fourth of July. I’ll be enjoying it in the most American way possible…watching Maury Povich tell promiscuous women who their baby-daddy is! Three cheers for DNA testing! Good times.

After finishing Ross and Reihan’s book, I was struck by the notion that they want to change the Republican party less than American society: restructuring farming; reimagining education; rebuilding (and expanding) the highway system–these (and many more) are their goals. Lofty stuff.
Leaving aside the obvious questions (namely, how do they pay for all the new [...]

…because reducing emissions isn’t feasible. Matthew Yglesias is enjoying his time in Aspen, taking breaks from the conferences to lecture the auto/gas industry about how they perceive the future. He says:
At a panel on “Climate and Sustainability: Fueling the Future: Sustainable Choices for a New Transportation Landscape” neither the guy from Mercedes-Benz nor the guy [...]

Yeah there is, chief. Check out this audio file over at Film Drunk. It’s like a real life version of the series of messages that Mikey leaves in Swingers…a/k/a, the most awkward scene in the history of cinema (seriously, check out the clip below…it’s horrible). Note to self: don’t ever do this.

I have to say: I don’t understand the conservative reaction against Wall*E. The pro-environment message may not be subtle (I mean, the Earth is literally covered under garbage), but it’s not offensive, either. There’s one line of Bush-bashing, but you really have to be looking for it (and what’s the point of trying to get [...]

I finished the first half of Grand New Party last night…an excellent example of pop-political history. One note, one quibble, one tip for the GOP.
The note: To say that Falling Down is the representative movie of the early ’90s is an interesting idea, insofar as its main character’s frustrations are representative of white, working class frustrations (rising divorce [...]

An odd comment at /Film:
I came across this quote from George Lucas in The New York Times:
“I mean, why do we have to make another Indiana Jones? There was no point to it, other than, gee, this might be fun.”
I’m not even going to comment on the quote, because it already says everything I would [...]

So, Hancock opens up on Wednesday. I’m reviewing it for the Standard’s website, thoughts’ll be up on Wednesday. But I would like to touch on something Kyle Smith posited in his review, namely the idea that Hancock the character is an allegory for America. It’s certainly not an outlandish idea–while taking notes during the preview [...]

The Weekly Standard’s summer reading issue is out now: pick it up! You’ll love it!
Two recommendations of my own:

Grand New Party, by Ross and Reihan. Very good. More thoughts later this week.
The Girl on the Fridge, by Etgar Keret. A new collection of old short stories from the Israeli author of The Nimrod Flipout. Very [...]

Interesting and smart column by Kyle Smith over at the NY Post:
Twenty percent of Americans say the U.S. economy is doing well. That’s hearsay. Seventy-one percent say they, personally, are doing well. That’s their expert testimony. The Perception Gap of Americans on the economy is 51 points.
These are numbers from Pew, and not terribly surprising. [...]

At this point in the summer I’m basically in Batman-blackout mode. I’m not reading any of the reviews; I’m not clicking on any of the links to the viral games; I’m not even reading this supposedly awesome Wired piece about the making of the movie. I want to go into this movie fresh when I [...]

Though not a surprising one. /Film reports that a sequel (or possibly a prequel) is in the works for 300. Now, I loved 300–it’s one of the few martial films in the last few years to do huge business while simultaneously putting forth an unapologetically pro-West POV. Great stuff. But Frank Miller’s track record of [...]

OK, banner week: three movie reviews for you. Wanted and War, Inc. over at the Washington Times, and the new direct-to-DVD Futurama movie, The Beast with a Billion Backs over at the Standard. A quick additional comment on each…
War, Inc. was kind of a tough movie for someone like me to review; virulently anti-war (almost [...]

At Slate’s Convictions blog, Phillip Carter lays out the crux of the court’s ruling in Heller:
So, if I understand this right, Scalia’s got no beef with “felon in possession” statutes like those at the heart of the Justice Department’s Project Safe Neighborhoods strategy. And he’s got no beef with states banning assault rifles, machine guns, [...]

So, the Supreme Court has overturned the ban on handguns in the District of Columbia. I’ll update later with more thoughts (read: I’ll let experts deconstruct the ruling and then link to them), but I would like to point to one especial case of stupidity…that’s right, I’m linking to Matthew Yglesias!
I also doubt that conservatives [...]

This is what we do. Just walkin’ the halls all day, baby. F–k class, that s–t’s for clowns man. [Laughter from his friends] We don’t go to class ’round here. Man, f–k academics. That ain’t me, dawg. Academics, we gonna leave that to them nerd-ass mahf–kers. We gon’ keep s–t straight hood up in here.
–9th [...]

Over at Crunchy Cons, guest blogger Erin Manning links to this story about an unruly, uncontrollable toddler who caused a flight to be delayed. This is the passage she quotes:
As the American Eagle flight headed down the taxiway, two-and-a-half-year-old Jarett Farrell wasn’t a happy traveler.
His mother says she was doing all she could to calm [...]

As this is the week we prepare the annual Summer reading issue at The Weekly Standard, and I am the assistant editor for books and arts of that august publication, I am a wee bit busy this week. For example, I had planned on penning an appreciation of Reihan Salam and Ross Douthat’s new book, [...]

I jest, of course; principle often bends to reality. And I’m actually really sympathetic to James’s larger point, specifically
If some bunch of idiots (this is not a derogatory pun directed at my bloggy colleague) puts American officials on international trial, international law will crack. And if that happens, Europeans and Americans lose, and autocrats and [...]

Jack Goldsmith has a pretty solid roundup of the valid conservative critiques on Boumediene over at Slate.
The bad:
On my own first reading of the case, I was drawn to Justice Scalia’s view. The majority opinion by Justice Kennedy (for whom I clerked in the 1990 term) is extraordinary in its claims of judicial power during [...]

By the way, I called Libertas “newly reconstituted” because it appears their all-star blogger, Dirty Harry, has struck out on his own. If I had to guess, I’d say there was a falling out between Apuzzo and Harry, though both sides are being (relatively) polite.
Anyway, you should check out the new site. Along with Kyle [...]

At the reconstituted Libertas, Jason Apuzzo makes the argument that independent, conservative filmmakers should eschew the Hollywood system and distribute films on their own with the aid of the Internet. He writes
If you’re the sort of person who doesn’t need the validation of the Hollywood system, can generate a little publicity on your own, and [...]

I’m a little surprised at James’s full-throated defense of international law. In response to my suggestion that Americans would disapprove of American nationals being seized while traveling abroad, James writes that the Euros should back down because
the cost of ’securing justice’ would be so heavy as to bankrupt, probably forever, the entire fund of institutional authority [...]

For the record: I’m a firm believer in the right of every man to gamble on anything he sees fit for whatever stakes he wishes. Gambling is both fun and profitable, if you know what you’re doing.
But if you don’t know what you’re doing, it can be disastrous. Consider my friend who, when last in [...]

Two quick items for your Monday afternoon reading pleasure. First up is Erin Wildermuth’s piece on the Lisbon treaty and just how ridiculous it is. Secondly, Yuval Levin has a pretty funny takedown of Obama’s latest campaign ad reinforcing the fact that Obama has done nothing at all in the Senate. Check them out when [...]

Megan links to this piece over at TNR about the possibility of American officials being seized and tried for war crimes if they travel to Europe after Bush leaves office. I think she’s on track when she writes
The liberals who think it can have spent far too much time in the Bat Cave telling each [...]

Apparently, Keith Olbermann has gone (more) insane, and is threatening to quit MSNBC if he doesn’t become the new anchor at MSNBC. According to the always-reliable Page Six:
Meanwhile, Matthews’ MSNBC cable cohort Olbermann, who was also at the memorial, is “threatening to quit if he isn’t installed as Russert’s replacement,” another insider said. “I know, [...]

So, I pretty much hammered Mike Meyers and The Love Guru over at the Washington Times. Not out of spite, or anything…unlike all of Hollywood, I actually like Meyers. I think he’s a funny guy, loved the Wayne’s World movies and the first Austin Powers. But I think Christian is right when he says the [...]

Things are getting way too serious around here, what with all the global warming talk. I’d like to get back to my roots, if I could, and offer Barack Obama a piece of advice: if you want to win in the general, you have to move back towards the center. Just like Killface:
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For those of [...]

James, I think, is both right and kind of naive when he writes this:
[W]e badly need to restore Europe and Japan to security independence, and we need to continue to advance the interests of India, and we need maybe above all not to make enemies of the Russians.
I can’t think of anything in that sentence [...]

James raises the excellent point that
big proponents of diversity resort or revert to culinary metaphors. The liberal utopia often appears to be the food court in the Beverly Center, where buyers and sellers of high-end sushi coexist peacefully beside a Nathan’s Hot Dogs, a Panda Express, a Del Taco staffed by authentic Mexican-Americans, and a [...]

I’ve been following Jim Manzi’s series of posts on global warming over at the American Scene with some interest, mostly because I think it’ll get liberals in a tizzy. It is now socially irresponsible, the left would have us believe, to not do absolutely everything we can to ensure global warming doesn’t take place. Emissions [...]

Never, ever pen an article condemning another writer’s/publication’s poor copy editing skills. Within the first five paragraphs you are guaranteed to make a grammatical error of your own. Today’s example? Jane Black’s piece in the Washington Post complaining about typos on restaurant menus. The offending paragraph?
Caesar, not “caeser.” Shiitake, not “shitake.” Riesling, not “reisling” (though [...]

At least, the second half was. Celtics in six, led by their stifling defense. It’s a shame the final game was a blowout, because the rest of the series had been ridiculously close–flip two baskets at the end of games two and four, and the Lakers win in five instead of losing in six. All [...]

But black presidents play basketball like this!

*This is another one of those jokes that would be 100 times better if I could find the Simpsons clip where the stereotypical black comedian is doing stand up and says “White people drive like this [while hunched over a fake steering wheel], but black people drive like this! [...]

Well, cripples probably isn’t the right word. But for all the lavish (and deserved) praise my coworker Dean Barnett heaps upon Tiger, it’s probably worth mentioning that Tiger’s 18 hole playoff with Rocco Mediate on Monday contributed to a 9.2% decline in trading volume at the New York Stock Exchange.* Says Darren Rovell:
With action starting [...]

When people protest detainee treatment at Guantanamo Bay, I assume they all have visions of Abu Ghraib dancing in their heads: beatings, torture, mock executions, constant humiliation, etc. That’s simply not the case. From Kyndra Miller Rotunda’s new book Honor Bound: Inside the Guantanamo Trials:
In Guantanamo Bay, where there had been over 24,000 interrogations sessions, [...]

I want to follow up on that Hanna Rosin piece I’ve been touting for the last couple of weeks with two very disheartening stories, both of which reveal the deeper problems Rosin’s piece hint at.
The first is this story from the LA Times about Jose Munoz, an Anaheim gang member who won $2.5 million from [...]

It’s easy to make jokes about the publishing industry being full of liberals, or churning out books about liberals for liberals. I think the bigger problem is probably region bias. Consider this title that I just found on my office’s “free books” shelf: How the Other Half Hamptons, by Jasmin Rosemberg. Now, I get that [...]

Over at the Weekly Standard’s blog, I write up the four big Sunday morning talk shows each weekend. It’s not exhaustive, typically not too much more than brief summaries of the big issue of the week or a quote I find to be interesting. This week’s is shorter than usual, but pretty representative if [...]

Of the five new movies I saw this week (War, Inc., The Happening, The Promotion, Kit Kittredge: An American Girl, and Mongol), I can say without reservation that The Promotion was by far and away the most delightful surprise.* I believe it’s in limited release right now, but if you happen to live near a [...]

Starting in 2002 during the war with Afghanistan, the United States began capturing large numbers of combatants on the battlefield. The State and Defense departments were unsure what to do with these people; they weren’t soldiers in any sense of the word (they didn’t proclaim loyalty to a nation; they didn’t fight in uniforms; they [...]

So, in my review of The Happening, I mention that Mark Wahlberg “regresses to the novice we saw in Boogie Nights.” His performance is just that bad. I didn’t blame him; rather, I attributed his poor work to M. Night Shyamalan’s shoddy direction. But as my girlfriend points out, “He sort of has Keanu Reeves [...]

James is pretty much right on Guantanamo and this ruling: the problem isn’t Gitmo itself but holding people without trial (or coming up with a charge) for the better part of a decade. What I find most ridiculous about this ruling (and I could be misinterpreting it terribly), is that “enemy combatants”–i.e., terrorists–now have more [...]

Like most art, film can be interpreted any which way you please. All you have to do is make the case. So I’m relatively sympathetic to James’s argument that the Western genre doesn’t led itself to neoconservative allegory. “There’s trouble,” he writes, “in the contention that the moral duties of political action that exist in [...]

So, last night I watched the Roman Polanski documentary on HBO. Interesting stuff. A tragic figure, clearly done an injustice by a judge not looking out for the interests of the American legal system. And his wife was a victim of Charles Manson; I feel nothing but awful for Ms. Tate, and I can’t imagine [...]

That Hanna Rosin piece I blogged about last week is on the web now. I don’t have anything new to add to my previous post, but it’s so worth your time I’m posting this solely so my tens of readers have an easy link to it.

What’s the saying? “Correlation does not imply causality”? Keep that in mind when reading nonsense like this:
Women have made less progress toward gender equality in the Middle East than in any other region. Many observers claim this is due to the region’s Islamic traditions. I suggest that oil, not Islam, is at fault; and that [...]

On the last day of May in 2002, the Los Angeles Lakers defeated the Sacramento Kings in the sixth game of the Western Conference Finals in one of the worst officiated games in recent memory (the Lakers shot a whopping twenty-seven free throws in the fourth quarter alone, and Kings guard Mike Bibby was whistled [...]

What I find most amusing about this post at Passive Aggressive Notes is that the person submitting the note complained about the foul language in a couple of the notes and NOT the fact that some poor dude’s scooter keeps getting broken by would-be thieves. Well-played, idiot neighbors. Well played.
(I’d include the picture that inspired [...]

No, seriously. I’m glad Kyle Smith wrote this essay, because it’s something that has bothered me for a while but I’ve never been able to put into words. As a student of film, you’re always taught that High Noon is a brilliant allegory for McCarthyism and the evils of the blacklist. But I’ve never been [...]

I’m kind of tired of writing about how much Newsweek loves Obama. So I’ll just link to Mark Hemingway’s takedown of their most recent puff piece:
Well, if the Obama campaign says he’ll get Jewish voters, that’s good enough for Newsweek. No need to factcheck. It’s not like Obama lost the Jewish vote by 24 percent [...]

JVL points us to a (completely unscientific, as far as I can tell) survey of how newspapers would react to their people having a personal blog. Apparently, 44% of newspaper editors “required disclosure of the blog, issued caveats over what subjects couldn’t be covered, or had outright bans on having personal blogs at all.” The [...]

I saw the new documentary about steroid use in America, Bigger, Stronger, Faster this weekend. I must admit to being somewhat flummoxed by the film; on the one hand, I feel like it’s intellectually dishonest, suggesting steroid use is okay because it’s not as bad for your health as some argue while basically ignoring the [...]

Interesting piece in DC’s City Paper this week about a museum of modern art in Maryland that’s not open to the public. I say interesting because I’m not at all sure how I feel about it.
On the one hand, Angela Valdez is suggesting that Mitchell Rales has a moral duty to open the doors of [...]

At least as far as Leo’s concerned. It was something of a question, as I noted in that piece for the Washington Times I wrote last week:
At least we know where Mr. Nicholson stands; another traveling star is something of a mystery. Leonardo DiCaprio, a Staples Center fixture for the past decade or so, has [...]

As a younger type trying to break into the world of film criticism, I have to say I find it disheartening that magazines and newspapers are cutting back on the number of critics working today. But l find it doubly disheartening to hear opinion journalists supporting the same thing. Says Matt Yglesias:
“Michael Phillips did a [...]

Unless you’re in Detroit and it’s being offered by Kwame Kilpatrick. Gee, I wonder why they dislike him so much…

h/t deadspin
 

Ed Driscoll raises an interesting point while commenting on my appreciation of Anthony Lane. Says Ed:
Geez, at least at the apogee of the 1980s, Miami Vice managed to combine glitz and conspicuous consumption with car chases, shoot-outs and a bitchin’ soundtrack.
This made me think about just how different Miami Vice, the 2006 movie, was from [...]

Ezra points to an article in the American Prospect on socioeconomic (rather than race-based) affirmative action that I find annoying for several reasons.
1.) The subhed declares: “A bad Supreme Court decision overturning race-based integration programs in Louisville, KY, and Seattle, WA, has produced a positive result. A new initiative in Louisville does something even better [...]

Ross points us to Michael Moynihan’s takedown of the “Google pundit,” that species of blogger who opines on a topic while knowing very little about said topic.* Which makes me think of a second article from this month’s issue of the Atlantic that is also not online: “Is Google Making Us Stupid?”**
I would argue no, [...]

Unlike Reihan, I have absolutely no qualms with shameless self promotion. The key to quality shameless self promotion, however, is adding value to the post. I don’t think it’s enough to say, “hey, I just wrote this review of the abominable Andromeda Strain remake. You should read it.” Rather, I’d like to expand on something [...]

There’s a fascinating piece in the July/August issue of the Atlantic by Hanna Rosin about the failure of programs designed to move poverty-stricken families out of the projects and into the suburbs. It can be summed up thusly: “You can take the family out of the ghetto, but you can’t take the ghetto out of [...]

Lord knows I love both shameless self-promotion and the NBA; as such, here’s a piece by me in today’s Washington Times about the Lakers, Celtics, and celebrity fans.
Official prediction: Celtics in 6 or Lakers in 5. I have no idea what will happen, but the outcome will be one of two: The Celtics will dominate [...]

As promised to commenter Will, an answer to this question: “What policies do you think would have salvaged the situation in Iraq circa 2003?”
That answer is almost certainly more troops. There was far too much concern in the leadup to the war about being seen as aggressive imperialists as embodied by sending a huge number [...]

I’m glad Reihan penned a defense of my once and (probably) future colleague Michael Goldfarb and his hiring by the McCain campaign over at the Scene. Lefty reaction has been hyper and vitriolic, and the libertarian reaction has been annoying and longwinded.* Gee, a conservative politician would hire someone with knowledge of the conservative blogosphere [...]

After Kathleen Parker noted the same thing I noted over at the Corner, Jeffrey Toobin shot Kathryn Jean Lopez an email apologizing to Labash and the Standard for his discourtesy. Good for him. Though, you know, he might want to send The Weekly Standard an apology and NOT NR. But whatever.
The full email:
I just saw [...]

Literally:
I didn’t know it would feel this bad. I didn’t know it would feel this personal. I’m all for a united Democratic party. But losing my last chance to see a woman in the White House feels like shit. And the gloating by the press is even worse. It sounds like “I told you so.” [...]

I’m sure I’ve said this before, but if you’re looking for a reason to subscribe to the New Yorker, look no further than Anthony Lane. The smartest, wittiest critic out there, Lane’s reviews drip with wit and, almost as importantly, knowledge about the film industry and the history of cinema. Truly an amazing writer. His [...]

I’ve long been a Clinton apologist on this site and at the Standard’s blog (sue me, I love seeing discord on the left), but this post by Chris Orr about Clinton refusing to get out is the best thing I’ve ever read on any subject ever. I totally LOLed. A taste:
Some in the media [...]

From a real scientist! Freeman Dyson took to the pages of the New York Review of Books to castigate global warming fanatics on their more evangelical tendencies. He was reviewing two new books, A Question of Balance by William Nordhaus and Global Warming: Looking Beyond Kyoto, and what they mean for the global warming movement [...]

If there’s no such thing as the singularity, just kill me now. Ray Kurzweil promised me ever-lasting life (as did Our Lady Peace!)*…If I find out he lied to me (just like Willy Wonka…ever-lasting gobstopper my…) I don’t think I can go on.
h/t Will Wilson
*I promise to never, ever mention Our Lady Peace again