Bookworm Room

Many, many have written on this, but I like Keith Koffler’s summation the best, as I think he does a remarkably good getting to the core point about the latest twist in Fast and Furious.  He also manages to highlight why I like Rush:  Rush is not afraid to identify and accurately predict the evil [...]

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I don’t know who created this, but it’s clearly someone deeply familiar with San Francisco and its mindset (click on thumbnail for full size image):

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I’m working on a “deep” post, one full of meaning, with multiple citations.  I also have errands to run.  Until I get to the computer and have my post written out, consider this space yours (subject, of course, to the usual rules of courtesy, etc.).

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It’s been a long day, so I thought I’d go for something frivolous in this post.  What, I asked myself, are the top google searches, most of which I assume are frivolous.  So I went to Google Trends.  A glance at the list of the twenty top Google search terms confirmed something I’ve long suspected:  [...]

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I am not by nature a ministering angel.  If I had to describe myself, it would be as competent and reasonably kind, but also self-centered and lazy.  I’m therefore surprised every morning when I wake up and remember all over again that mine is the life of a caregiver:  a sick, aged parent; a tween; [...]

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America’s old Secretary of State is Hillary Clinton.  Although she still holds the job, Keith Koffler points out that there’s also a new sheriff in town: In the past couple of months, Biden traveled to Greece, Turkey, and Iraq, held an important call with President Saakashvili of Georgia, met with a Kurdish leader, spoke by video [...]

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For reasons unclear to me, myriad conservative sites are hosting an advertisement for Alan Grayson, a Progressive’s Progressive. You might remember Grayson from his last go-round in Congress.  This is not a guy who’s shy about sharing his convictions.  During the health care debate, he gave a quick and easy summary of the Republican position:  [...]

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Since Pearl Harbor happened 70 years ago this week, I consider this the Pearl Harbor edition of the Watcher’s Council (as does the Watcher himself).  Here’s all the interesting stuff I’m enjoying right now: Council Submissions The Colossus of Rhodey – Education Must Read The Noisy Room – Apocalypse Nowish Joshuapundit-Heart Of Darkness; Obama’s Campaign [...]

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I didn’t bother to read the entirety of an endless article about a bad thing happening in Mexico.  No, I’m not talking about drug cartels or about Mexican citizens being slaughtered by guns sent over courtesy of a Democrat Department of Justice attempting to prove that guns hurt people.  I’m talking about plants that process [...]

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Why, oh why, oh why can’t I get more excited about Mitt?  On paper, he’s a very good candidate.  Yes, there have been flips and flops, but it’s naive to expect perfect political purity from any candidate.  Aside from that, he’s straight out of Hollywood’s central casting, circa 1944:  well-educated, handsome, wholesome, loyal, intelligent, efficient, [...]

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Last night, I went to the Annual Pearl Harbor Memorial Dinner hosted by the San Francisco Commandery of the Naval Order of the United States.  It was, as I knew it would be, a significantly smaller event than the annual Midway Commemoration dinner.  That’s reasonable, because the latter celebrates a stunning victory, while the former [...]

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My mother’s heading to the hospital again today.  She’s not aging gracefully, in large part because of the damage done to her body and soul during WWII.  I thought that this would be a good day for me to reprint what I once wrote about her war (originally part of this longer post about Japanese [...]

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My morning just got a wee bit complicated, so I won’t write the long, elegant post I’d imagined in my head when I read that Obama was pledging U.S. dollars to making the world safe for gays.  There’s nothing wrong with making the world safe for gays.  I heartily approve.  What got my goat was [...]

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For years at this blog (and others) when we’ve written about Europe’s problems, we’ve focused primarily, not on the economy, but on those Muslim immigrants.  One of the things that we talked about a lot was the fact that these same Muslim immigrants subsisted largely on public benefits. This little tidbit emerged with force during [...]

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Seventy years ago today, America’s self-imposed isolationism, to which it had managed to cling for twenty years, ended when the Japanese launched their savage surprise attack against Pearl Harbor.  All told, 2,402 people died.  It was, until 9/11, the deadliest attack on American soil.  A mere six months later, the American Navy met the Japanese [...]

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Again, I’m not complaining.  I like being a strong supporting player, and my bridesmaid’s dresses have been surprisingly beautiful: Council Winners *First place with 3 1/3 votes! Joshuapundit–-Rats in the Kitchen: A Parable Second place with 2 votes – Bookworm Room-Minority employees and “making it” in America Third place with 1 2/3 votes – VA [...]

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I believe Obama is a textbook narcissist — probably malignantly so. The easiest way to think about a narcissist is to understand that each one of them is his own God. Theirs is binary world, with acolytes and enemies. They never lie, as non-narcissists understand a lie, because a narcissist’s truth is defined by the [...]

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Newt made a very good point about his earlier support for an individual mandate when it came to health care:  The Heritage Foundation, as reputable a conservative think tank as one can find, actually thought the idea was a good one.  Then, as Newt did, it backed off when it realized the ramifications: Scott Pruitt, [...]

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Was the chasm between the people in the field and the people in the Pentagon always so great?  Or has the air in Foggy Bottom become even more toxic? It’s hard to imagine the military 40 or more years ago making such a concerted effort to cover-up an investigation and promote a dubious person, just [...]

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Was it a surprise to you that Egypt went Islamist?  It wasn’t to me. Was it a surprise to you that Libya went Islamist?  It wasn’t to me. Was it a surprise to you that Tunisia went Islamist?  It wasn’t to me. Has it been a surprise to you over the last decade that Iraq [...]

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I own (or, rather, the bank and I own) a nice lot here in Marin County.  I’ve got a pretty back yard with views of hills and water.  When the trees at the back of my property get too tall, I hire a reputable tree trimming company to cut them down.  That sounds perfectly reasonable, [...]

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Sorry for the silence yesterday, but my mother needed me.  I’m regrouping even as we speak.  And speaking of regrouping:

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The great Walt Disney would have been 110 today.  Here’s his and my favorite piece of Disney animation:

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Since at least Reagan, the standard liberal trope is that Republicans, both voters and politicians, are stupid.  That trope has, of course, emerged again this year.  The joker in the deck is Newt Gingrich, a PhD and author who spokes with incredible fluency and has a masterful grasp of facts. With Newt as the frontrunner, [...]

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