HELP: My nightmare is becoming My Reality!

So what's my problem? It's nothing monumental, like Bill Clinton's moved in next door and he shows up at odd hours (and little clothing) asking if I can spare a couple of eggs. No, it's far simpler, and thank heaven, far more likely to happen than that nightmare scenario.

It's that my beloved New York Yankees may well end up playing my hometown favorite, the Chicago White Sox. Some might look at it as a win/win either way, but I will find it torturous to root against Joe Torre and the Bronx Bombers. Nevertheless, I've got to go with the White Sox. Chicago needs the so much more, if only to get the media to start paying attention to the only club in town that actually plays a decent game of baseball, rather than the ubiquitous Cubs.

God, the Cubs really bite! And no, they're not cursed, at least not by the commonly assumed source - the Billy Goat Diner's aggrieved mascot. Nor is The Almighty's seeming animosity to blame. No -- the curse of the Cubs is Wrigley Field.

Why Wrigley? It's elementary. Wrigley Field is the "world's nicest beer garden", one that just happens to have a baseball diamond in it's locale. "People will come", not because of Ray Kinsella's prophecy, but because it such a lovely spot wherein to drink to excess. A Little League team could play there and still the people would come 38,000 strong. I honestly believe that. The Tribune Company, which owns the Cubs, is able to fill that stadium to capacity as is, and therefore has no reason to field a winning team. Why spend more money to get the same result, with a smaller profit margin? If I were them, I wouldn't.

Back to the Yankees/White Sox: I thought someone had slipped LSD into my beer Friday night when I saw Tino Martinez at First Base for the Yankees. How cool is that? Now, if only we could get Paul O'Neill back in the outfield, my dreams would be fulfilled!

As of this writing, Game 5 in Anaheim has yet to take place.

Do Democrats Have a Message?

One of the most ubiquitous phrases in politics is the concept of "Message". One is either "On Message" or "Off Message", meaning that you are successfully articulating the party's unifying theme or position. But what if you haven't any "message" at all?

The Denziens of D.U. might quibble with him, but Howard Fineman of Newsweek & MSNBC makes a strong case for how not having a "big idea" can render a party impotent. I agree with his contention that the Dems aren't articulating anything right now, but I'll carry it one step further by saying the Democrats haven't had a "message" for some time, and this has allowed the extremists within the party to take to the public stage. Combine this with the habit of establishment Democrats to simply and reflexively obstruct any and all Republican proposals, and you have a party that is in big trouble.

Why can't the Democrats capitalize? With the White House on the ropes after Katrina, Dems waffle and wheeze

Conservatives can (and should) fight like Liberals

Brendan Miniter's piece in the Wall Street Journal online brings up a topic I have admittedly mixeed feelings about. The rules of political discourse have changed. The media deals in "soundbites": terse and shrill, they are designed to make the biggest point with the fewest words (not my forte, I know). Soundbites have evolved, or devolved IMO, into the verbal equivalent of smashmouth football. Execution of ones politcal opponents should be swift, powerful and certain to cause maximum damage.

Many Democrats believe this era began with the persecution of President Clinton, and its' progenitors were Newt Gingrich and Trent Lott. Granted, the Far Right did jump all over Clinton. But let's be honest: it isn't as if Clinton didn't open the door and invite them in. The Democrats gave it back as good as they got it, so no one comes out clean when looking back on the 1990's and the "politics of personal destruction". Americans have a long tradition of enjoying political sport. With the advent of terrorism, however, the stakes have been raised, and our tolerance for political sport is dwindling. Personal attacks, or character assassinations, are acceptable amusements available to the power class in times of plenty. Should they be acceptable in times like ours?

One of my complaints about the Bush administration is that they don't argue their point very well. Lacking skills in persuasion and P.R., they allow their opponents to frame the argument, and this has damaged their ability to convince the American public to stay the course in Iraq. I'd like to see them communicate their position clearly and forcefully. I'm just not sure I want them to come out swinging. To me, mean-spirited political discourse is the handmaiden of The Left (*I know this statement could go both ways. I'm merely expressing my opinion*), and I hate the thought of stopping to their level.

Evolving Tactics: Conservatives learn to fight like liberals.

Christopher Hitchens on Cindy Sheehan & A.M.A.

From last week comes Christopher Hitchens' assessment of "Gold Star Mom" Cindy Sheehan, courtesy of Slate. A.M.A., if you are unfamiliar, isn't the American Medical Association. Our newest acronym comes via lush extradinaire, Maureen Dowd, who unilaterally conferred upon Mother Sheehan "Absolute Moral Authority" by dint of having lost a child in Iraq. Somehow, I don't think MoDo would have been quite as generous had the Mom been a continued supporter of the war in which her son had given his life.

In his essay, Hitchens conveys why summary judgments such as Dowd's are off the mark, and the danger of painting people with too broad a brush. The killer paragraph, as only Hitch can write 'em:

I am at a complete loss to see how these two positions (ed.: that of Dowd & Sheehan's supporters) can be made compatible. Sheehan has obviously taken a short course in the Michael Moore/Ramsey Clark school of Iraq analysis and has not succeeded in making it one atom more elegant or persuasive. I dare say that her "moral authority" to do this is indeed absolute, if we agree for a moment on the weird idea that moral authority is required to adopt overtly political positions, but then so is my "moral" right to say that she is spouting sinister piffle. Suppose I had lost a child in this war. Would any of my critics say that this gave me any extra authority? I certainly would not ask or expect them to do so. Why, then, should anyone grant them such a privilege?

In my mind, Christopher Hitchens is the only person who can write the expression "I dare say" and not sound like a pufftah.

Can long-term addicts truly be rehabilitated?

Quite frankly, I don't think so. It's entirely unrealistic to think that long-term substance abusers/adicts can be rehabilitated. Anyone who makes a lifestyle out of alcohol, drugs, or other self-abusive behaviors is an addict, and many if not most addicts move on to something else once they have stopped using. People who know addicts know what I mean. Too often they can tell therapists, the court, the friends and family exactly what they want or need to hear.

Addicts should be judged on their actions, not their words.

Which brings me to the "inspiration" for my post: Courtney Love.

Tearful Courtney Love ordered into rehab facility

A judge ordered a tearful Courtney Love into an in-patient substance abuse facility on Friday after the troubled rock singer admitted to violating the terms of her probation by using drugs.

Love broke down in quiet sobs as Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Rand Rubin warned that he was prepared to send her to jail because he felt she needed "to hit rock bottom" before she was ready to overcome her drug addiction.

But Rubin said the performer's lawyers persuaded him to give her one more chance to avoid incarceration by placing her immediately into a "chemical dependency center."

"I'm convinced that you need either a long-term (treatment) program or a long-term stay in the county jail," Rubin said.

Forgive me for my lack of pity for the addict/victim, but hasn't Courtney had enough chances?

Granted, Courtney Love can afford to pay for her own rehab. But what about those men and women who are given as many chances as she? Each chance an indication of prior failure, I might add. Is it right that the city, county or state government should pay for repeated incidences of willful failure to abide by sobriety?

I feel the same way about the meth addicts profiled in the 8th August 2005 Newsweek cover story America's Most Dangerous Drug. The human toll of this drug is clearly illustrated in this anecdote about a suburban Chicago mom:

Kimberly (Fields) tried drug rehab but failed, and she couldn't care for her children, according to divorce papers filed by her husband, who moved out last year. She was arrested three times for shoplifting—most recently, police say, for allegedly stealing over-the-counter cold pills containing pseudoephedrine, the key ingredient used in making meth. By the time cops came banging on her door with a search warrant on June 1, Kimberly, now 37, had turned her slice of suburbia into a meth lab, prosecutors allege, with the help of a man she'd met eight months earlier in an Indiana bar, Shawn Myers, 32.

Fields, the article goes on to mention, lived with her two young children in her home-turned-methlab, and lest I go off on a tangent about what sort of scumbag would expose their children to meth's known proclivity for spontaneous explosion, I'm going to focus on what I saw as the article's *largely ignored* revelation: the fact that Kimberly Fields and every other current or former meth addict profiled had already failed at rehab, many numerous times. Combine this with the unprecedented number of people requiring advanced life support and plastic surgery due to their careless handling of the drug during it's "cooking" process.

The print issue details how many areas are having trouble coping with the financial burden these accidents create, and venerable institutions like Vanderbilt University's Burn Center are finding themselves unable to collect from Medicaid the full cost of treating meth-related burn injuries. Lesser institutions are considering closing down their burn units, as they are going broke. What this means for a child burned in a house fire is clear: the "critical hour" (during which a person might, receiving treatment in 60 minutes, have a chance of surviving traumatic injury) becomes "hours". With the local burn unit closed down, that critically-burned child will likely die. All because habitual drug abusers choose to use, no matter the risks.

Is it time to start talking about whether or not we begin to say "No more?" I think so.

What issue will be the undoing of Tony Blair?

Iain Murray: "Europe Adds Headache to Blair's Post-Election Hangover"

I like Tony Blair. He's young, bright, earnest and articulate in ways many of us hoped the younger "new guard" within the Clinton administration would be. I also feel oddly indebted to him: his support of the United States in our efforts to dismantle terrorism and prevent another September 11th is not to be dismissed as political opportunism. He's paid a price for his standing fast with the United States, and as an American I want somehow to reward that loyalty. But I'll be damned if he doesn't make me crazy - not sometimes, but most of the time.

I could talk about the appalling lack of foresight towards the rising immigration problem, and Britain's partiality towards Muslims. His patently silly belief in the value of the EU and it's revolting Socialist Manifesto/Constitution defies explanation. Same goes for the degree to which Britons are taxed: just because the exchange rate is skewed towards the dynamic Pound Sterling does not mean that Britons have more money than they could possibly spend at home. Housing prices are on the verge of collapse: they question is "when" not "if" Britons will find themselves owing more to the lending society than their home is actually worth. Each of these issues was put to the public on 5 May, and the public has made their choice.

None of these points bother me nearly as much as his continued devotion to pseudoscience. In making the defining issue of his G8 Chairmanship the legitimization of further ratification of "The Kyoto Protocol", Blair has decided that he wants to be the Euro Al Gore. It boggles my brain.

Enough, however, of my rant: read Iain Murray's piece about how Blair's Euro-Kyoto affectations may in fact be his undoing, not his partnership with George Bush. He's says it far more aptly than I.

Kyoto and it's undoing of the EU

Iain Murray: "Europe Adds Headache to Blair's Post-Election Hangover"

I like Tony Blair. He's young, bright, earnest and articulate in ways many of us hoped the younger "new guard" within the Clinton administration would be. I also feel oddly indebted to him: his support of the United States in our efforts to dismantle terrorism and prevent another September 11th is not to be dismissed as political opportunism. He's paid a price for his standing fast with the United States, and as an American I want somehow to reward that loyalty. But I'll be damned if he doesn't make me crazy - not sometimes, but most of the time.

I could talk about the appalling lack of foresight towards the rising immigration problem, and Britain's partiality towards Muslims. Same goes for the degree to which Britons are taxed: just because the exchange rate is skewed towards the dynamic Pound Sterling does not mean that Britons have more money than they could possibly spend at home. His niaive belief in the value of the EU and it's revolting Socialist Manifesto/Constitution defies explanation. Housing prices are on the verge of collapse: they question is "when" not "if" Britons will find themselves owing more to the lending society than their home is actually worth. Each of these issues was put to the public on 5 May, and the public has made their choice.

None of these points bother me nearly as much as his continued devotion to pseudoscience. In making the defining issue of his G8 Chairmanship the legitimization of further ratification of "The Kyoto Protocol", Blair has decided that he wants to be the Euro Al Gore. It boggles my brain.

Enough, however, of my rant: read Iain Murray's piece about how Blair's Euro-Kyoto affectations may in fact be his undoing, not his partnership with George Bush. He's says it far more aptly than I.

"Dave Matthews Apologizes" for $100, Alex ...

Correct Response: "What was the tour bus dump onto a Chicago River architectural boat cruise!"

Snarky 'Daily Double' Response: "What is his band's music!"

Terry Armour: Band is Sorry for the Mess

Dave Matthews finally comes clean.

In his first public comments since his tour bus driver dumped 800 pounds of raw sewage onto a sightseeing boat on the Chicago River last August, Matthews apologized to fans and to the city during an interview on WXRT-FM 93.1 Tuesday.

"We're just so embarrassed and we're truly, truly sorry about what happened in Chicago," Matthews told WXRT's Bobby Skafish. "We will keep doing things to try to help keep that river clean . . . we want to do our best to turn this thing around."

Last week, the eco-friendly band agreed to pay $200,000 and to keep a log of when and where its tour buses empty their septic tanks to settle a suit. The settlement followed last month's guilty plea by bus driver Stefan Wohl to charges of reckless conduct and discharging contaminants to cause water pollution.

One for the "Perpetuating the Stereotype" files

Yes, I am familiar with Pvt. Jessica Lynch. I have great respect for women
like Specialist Shoshanna Johnson, one of the 1st female Iraq POW's. They are a tribute to the kind of women we want fighting alongside (if not on the frontlines) the men of our Armed Forces. It must be said, however, the I have always had a great deal of reservations about women in combat.

It's not the idea that we are the "weaker sex". It's not that we aren't capable of heroism and sacrifice. It's just that we can make such asses of our selves, with little or no help from "the guys". After all, it's not unusual outside of wartime to read newspaper accounts of drill sergeants who sleep with their recruits. It is also not unusual to have several enlisted female Navy personnel return from extended tours-of-duty pregnant by one of their shipmates. In the case of the drill sergeant, the enlisted women said that they slept with him not out of romantic interest, but as a means of obtaining favors and being able to opt out of some of the more rigorous requirements of basic training.

All too often it seems that women act less like Shoshanna Johnson, and more like lazy, juvenile opportunists.

Case in point: The Sun's headliner. US girls' muddy shame.

American girl soldiers have been shamed in a mud-wrestling scandal.

Photographs taken by colleagues showed them grappling and exposing their boobs at a party in an Iraqi PRISON.

Some of the 30 pictures reveal male soldiers cheering on two women in bras and panties in a mud-filled paddling pool.

In others, military policewomen bared their breasts or flashed thongs for male comrades with cameras.

Investigators probing a breakdown of discipline at the US Army’s Camp Bucca jail were told sergeants also lent their rooms to squaddies for sex.

Ironically, the soldiers had been assigned to guard Iraqi inmates being transferred there from scandal-hit Abu Ghraib jail.

Blonde prison guard Specialist Deanna Allen, 19, was demoted to private after being pictured grinning as she flashed her boobs.

Most of the soldiers pictured in the audience wear T-shirts emblazoned with Army logos, but at least one appears on snaps in full uniform.

The morning news shows were -- of course! -- practically twitching over the story this morning, showing a slew of pictures (including a blurred shot of the aforementioned Pvt. Allen doing her best 'Girls Gone Wild' impersonation).

To Pvt. Allen: I "get" that blowing off steam is a necessary part of the process of coping in a war-time environment. But do you have to make yourself the star of a burlesque revue? How is this appropriate behavior for a soldier ... any soldier? And when are you going to realize that that you represent all women in the military, who must now work far harder than the requisite "110 %" in order to earn our respect?

Pvt. Allen's demotion is sure to be decried by so-called feminist groups, but isn't equal rights concurrent with equal responsibility, and thus equal consequence?

If not, it certainly should be, so as to not sully the reputations of enlisted women, who follow the code and conduct themselves with courage, self-awareness and battle-tested skill.

Dems' Cynicism in the Face of Democracy's Triumph

NY Post: Democrats' Depressing Denial

In this morning's online edition of the Post, the editors rightfully take Sens. Kerry & Kennedy to task for their openly cynical (if not outright derrogatory) attitude toward the Iraqi elections. In so doing, not only are they pandering to the lunatic fringe of the party, they deny the courage and commitment of the Iraqi people to exercise their newfound right to vote, and their joy in doing something we Americans take for granted. I'd like to see Massachusettes voters come out to vote if mortar fire, suicide bombs and Al Qaeda terrorists might be waiting for them outside the local public school or police station.

"Kerry, in his first broadcast interview since losing last November, suggested that there was something illegitimate about the election because the turnout in some areas wasn't even larger.

And, he warned, "no one in the United States should overhype this election."

Which makes you wonder just what — short of the kind of craven U.S. bugout he prescribed for Vietnam — Kerry would deem an important development.

After all, the point of the war was to begin pushing the Arab Middle East out of its dead-end rut of tyranny and the export of terror. And Iraqis made a huge step forward in that regard Sunday — in an election that many on the left predicted (and, no doubt, privately hoped) would be a failure.

Kennedy, meanwhile, stuck by his pre-election demand for immediate U.S. withdrawal — and even refused to term the voting a success, saying Bush "must look beyond the election" and "demonstrate to the Iraqi people that we have no long-term design on their country."

Even after the most significant political development in Iraq since the invasion, Kerry and Kennedy couldn't summon the grace to acknowledge progress.

Millions of Iraqis, many at grave personal risk, turned out to vote. That is, a clear majority of the Iraqi people on Sunday endorsed America's vision of their future — and in so doing sanctified the sacrifices so many young Americans have made on their behalf.

This was a stunning repudiation of the terrorists — and a signal moment in the eternal quest for human freedom. The Kerry-Kennedy failure to recognize that illustrates their personal moral myopia — while the Democratic Party's failure to celebrate it demonstrates its institutional lack of ethical bearings.

Day-uhm! Well said.

Oh, this is just too funny!

Well, at least it is to me. You see, I don't think much of people who can't enjoy a night out (whether at the local or a nightclub) without snorting a line. From Britain's Sky News comes the most amusing story 've seen in quite a while:

WD-40 USED TO FIGHT COKE

"A new weapon is being launched in the war on drugs - WD-40.

The household lubricant, usually used for such challenges as loosening rusty screws or stopping creaky doors, is being deployed by pubs and clubs. They are spraying it onto lavatory cistern tops to stop punters going into the toilets to snort a line of cocaine.

The oil-based, colourless WD-40, disssolves cocaine so when the user spreads it on a surface that has been sprayed, the drug turns into a mush and is unusable. If the taker does try to snort it and it gets up the nostril they will end up with a bad nose bleed.

The use of WD-40 is the brainchild of PC Graham Pease, a liquor licensing officer, who first launched the idea in Bristol. He said: "When the drug comes into contact with the WD-40 it becomes unusable. "It congeals into a mess then semi-dissolves and prevents it being sniffed."

Carl Brown, landlord of the Mailcoach Inn, Swindon, said: "It makes the blood vessels in the nose bleed; at first I found tissues and pools of blood. It's proving very effective."

Ingenious, innovative & cheap. You gotta love it!

Good timing, Mr. Environmental Editor

Just as Al Gore chose New York City's coldest day in decades to deliver his fire & brimstone Global Warming diatribe (at a moveon.org environmental conference last year), The Independent has chosen to sound its' own eco-alarm nearly one year from the day when Al Gore's base realized he was certifiably insane (speaking in tounges tends to do that to us secular folks). As to the logic of environmental editor Michael McCarthy playing Cassandra on the heels of record snowfalls both in the UK (last week) and the US (this past weekend), let's just say the envirophants are their own worst enemy:

Countdown to global catastrophe

"[The report] breaks new ground by putting a figure - for the first time in such a high-level document - on the danger point of global warming, that is, the temperature rise beyond which the world would be irretrievably committed to disastrous changes. These could include widespread agricultural failure, water shortages and major droughts, increased disease, sea-level rise and the death of forests - with the added possibility of abrupt catastrophic events such as "runaway" global warming, the melting of the Greenland ice sheet, or the switching-off of the Gulf Stream.

Unfortunately, the article divulges that one of the champions of the report is none other then Senator Olympia Snowe (R-ME), a RINO (Republican In Name Only) of the first order, as well as the UN. With friends like this, who needs enemies? Ah well, perhaps she can still be 'saved': Sen. Snowe is now on my list to receive a copy of Bjorn Lomborg's The Skeptical Environmentalist: Measuring the Real State of the World, courtesy of courtesy of Amazon.com

A little common sense can do a girl a world of good!

The Chairman of Nokia wishes to return to the cooperative days of his youth ...

The Chairman of Nokia, the mobile phone giant, is criticizing The West, citing a direct link between conservatism and the so-called "individualism" threatening to disintegrate community values. Of course, the United States comes in for the major portion of Jorma Ollila's disdain:

"What I'm worried about is that if this disintegration of values continues and develops further, we'll get a conservative counter-reaction precisely like what has actually happened in the USA," he said.

"This ultraconservatism, coupled with the elements of the church ... which, as we well know, has also supported the current (U.S.) administration, is a powerful counter-reaction to a longtime vacuum of values in society," Ollila said.

Come again? The U.S., and our President, has been roundly criticized by the Catholic Church, which has called the Iraq situation and unjust and immoral war. The Presbyterian church has chosen to divest itself of all Israeli investments, citing the U.S. and Isreal as the true villians in a "war" against the Palestinians. I don't know what "Church" he's talking about, as it doesn't exist. And BTW, Jorma, one of the things we must realize as we become adults is that the ideals of our childhood were contructs our parents created in order to protect us. Childlike ignorance is bliss, they believed, and in time we would be ready to face the realities, often harsh, of life. To continue to yearn for them far into one's adulthood is a bit naive, n'ect-ce pas? Obviously, the adult world hasn't been too rough for you, and you can thank the U.S. for the fact that Finland is a free nation able to capitalize on its' technological prowess.

From the "Yeah ... Right!" files

Say this along with me in your best Elmer Fudd impression:

"Poo wittle Senat-uh Barbara Box-uh"

According to The Washington Times' headline Sen. Boxer takes victim role after hearing for Rice, the B*tch from Berkeley is claiming, in essence, that "Condi started it!" Behavior like this is so petty, so unbecoming of a person of her stature, that I am completely at a loss to explain her continued presence in Congress.

Can any Californians explain to me what qualities this shrill woman brings to the Senate that you would continue to elect her again, and again, and again? Because, like the people of Massachusettes who elect anyone with name Kennedy, you're beginning to get on the rests of the country's nerves. Could you at least think before you vote?

Oh What a Circus! Oh What a Farce ...

"Oh what a circus, oh what a show
The Beltway has gone to town
Over the rise of a woman named Condoleezza Rice
They've all gone crazy
Mourning all day and mourning all night
Falling over themselves, to get all of the misery right!"

You'll have to forgive my bastardization of the song sung by Che, the protagonist anti-hero of Lloyd-Webber's "Evita". I'm feeling more than a bit peckish after the display in Senate chambers yesterday.

It is with true sadness that I continue to see the Democratic Party attempt to define what it means to be black, and move to punish those who don't adhere. The 'Festival of Lies' that has been the Senate Confirmation of Dr. Condoleezza Rice is a shameful, racist episode, one that is is especially troubling when one considers that just two days ago we were celebrating the legacy of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. I do not profess to know what political affiliation Dr. King would hold if he were still alive today, but I do believe he would be horrified by the social and political bigotry Dr. Rice has bravely faced this past week.

When Dr. King spoke of being judged by the content of one's character, he was speaking directly to those who would seek to impose on black men and women what qualities of thought, word or action they could possess. In the actions of his life he sought to expand the opportunities of his 'sons and daughters'; to give them the chance to succeed or fail based on their own efforts; to allow them the breadth of experiences and associations that, until then, were the privilege of the white majority.

Whether or not one agrees with Dr. Rice's neoconservative political slant (and I will admit that I do), she is inarguably the living fulfillment of Dr. King's dream. The America of today is a meritocracy, and Dr. Rice's ascension confirms this fact. She is almost unfathomably bright. She is appreciated by the President for speaking her mind. She is respected for the discernment of her mind, and she ably manages crises during a time of extreme political and socioeconomic uncertainty. Each of these qualities is remarkable, and Dr. Rice is being granted the ultimate reward for her loyalty and service. She will be the first black female Secretary of State, the person whom Kings, Prime Ministers and Presidents the world over will receive in the grandest palaces and statehouses the world over. It is a remarkable moment in our country's civil rights movement, one that is being stripped of its' significance by those who claim to hold civil rights paramount.

Rather than celebrating the heights to which a black woman, the daughter of sharecroppers, has risen, so-called civil-rights leaders like Jesse Jackson and the NAACP have criticized Dr. Rice for her lack of liberal points of view. Democratic political leaders such as Senator John Kerry - MASS and Senator Barbara Boxer - CA castigate Dr. Rice as an obfuscator, a turncoat, a liar. Sen. Kerry, as you may recall, spoke during his campaign of his desire to be the "Second black President". Amazing.

The point of these Senate hearings is to query a nominee on his or her positions, and to discern the direction in which said nominee intends to deal with the US's unique foreign policy challenges. It is right and it is proper that any nominee, woman or no, minority or no, be made to sit for questions from our elected officials.

Yesterday's antics, however, were engaged towards no such goal.

Kerry and Boxer, having divested themselves of their responsibilities at the hearing chamber's door, played more for the edification of bitter Democrats than to determine how Dr. Rice may act once she is Secretary of State. Yesterday's dog-and-pony show illustrated the petty, malicious games career Liberal obstructionists will stoop to in order to strike at President Bush, and any black man or woman disloyal enough to think for themselves and ally themselves with a conservative political philiosphy. What we witnessed yesterday was Kerry and Boxer participating in the most condescending form of racism: you will think like we tell you to, or you will be treated as one underserving of dignity and respect.

Blast! I wish I could write like Mark Steyn ...

Steyn is the British expat living in Toronto whose 'wit of write' makes the average columnist read like a fifth-grade grammar student. In today's column for the Telegraph he exposes the chattering journo-boobs who are piling on Prince Harry (of whom I hardly approve) for making the witheringly stupid decision to wear a swastika-emblazoned version of Rommel's desert kit.

While I think the young royal is simply reflecting the nascent anti-semitism inherent in the "Hooray Henry" contingent that constitute his circle of friends, the swiftness to which his detractors engaged in condemning him reveals far more about the lack of perspective, let alone history, the supposedly well-educated have made about this essentially teenage boy. Of course, he does it with far better humor and panache than I ever could:

"It's a good rule of thumb that, no matter how big an idiot someone is, he can never compete with the political class's response to his idiocy. Thus, whatever feelings of unease I might have had about Prince Hitler were swept away the moment the rent-a-quote humbugs started lining up to denounce him.

I say to Harry: you go, girlfriend, you Reichstone Cowboy you. It's uniforms night at my pad every Thursday and you're more than welcome, Your Royal Heilness."

Unlike many Democrats, I'll assume you have a healthy sense of irony and will 'get' that Steyn's having fun. The meat of the column comes a moment later:

"The French sports minister suggested the 'scandal' would undermine Britain's bid to host the Olympics. Londoners should be so lucky.

But, if I understand the concern of the sporting world correctly, being a totalitarian state that's killed millions is no obstacle to hosting the Olympics, but going to a costume party wearing the uniform of a defunct totalitarian state that's no longer around to kill millions is completely unacceptable."

Ouch. Read it all, but if you lack humor I'd suggest doing so with a tincture of topical iodine at the ready as Steyn's words sting.

Kudos to Essence magazine ...

Stanley Crouch: "At last, women lash out at hip hop's abuses"

Stanley Crouch, the NY Daily News' music and cultural critic, focuses on the campaign Essence is fighting Hip Hop's continued degradation of women, and the effect gangsta and pimp-centered rap has had on the self-image of young black women and girls. The campaign, as Crouch in no way exagerates, "could have monumental cultural significance", and it is unfortunate that Essence, in a period where more mainstream magazines than ever before are catering to affluent black men and women, appears to be waging this campaign alone.

The magazine is the first powerful presence in the black media with the courage to examine the cultural pollution that is too often excused because of the wealth it brings to knuckleheads and amoral executives.

This anything-goes-if-sells attitude comes at a cost. The elevation of pimps and pimp attitudes creates a sadomasochistic relationship with female fans. They support a popular idiom that consistently showers them with contempt. We are in a crisis, and Essence knows it.

When asked how the magazine decided to take a stand, the editor, Diane Weathers said, "We started looking at the media war on young girls, the hypersexualization that keeps pushing them in sexual directions at younger and younger ages."

I enjoy a lot of Hip Hope music, but I hate the videos. Same old bimbos in thong bikins peeling grapes for low-life thugs. Outkast has moved further away from these images in video, but Andre 3000's CD artwork (as well as his lyrics) can pretty erotic. But misogynistsic? No way.

Their stance is a far cry from much of gansta rap, and it would serve Hip Hop well to dissociate itself from those who would produce the likes of "Bitch Better Have My Money" and "I'm Gonna Beat That Bitch with a Bat".