Momentum?

From the New York Times:

The spotlight on the two entertainment icons was just the latest flurry of attention for Hollywood backers of presidential candidates. Though Mr. Obama made a splash by picking up the support of David Geffen and Jeffrey Katzenberg of Dreamworks early this year, their partner, Steven Spielberg, and Peter Chernin of News Corp. came out for Mrs. Clinton soon after, scotching any notions that her Hollywood base was deserting her.

Since then Rob Reiner has added his name to Mrs. Clinton’s camp, while Jackson Browne and Bonnie Raitt have come out for John Edwards.

Which only goes to confirm that old political maxim: As goes Bonnie Raitt, so goes John Hiatt.

A Little Matter Of Truthiness

QandO notes the UN's "revised" HIV/AIDS infection numbers. What are the chances they were originally exaggerated for political effect? Probably one hundred percent. But, of course, in this day and age that is fine if your heart is in the right place. And when you are shown to be wrong you can always file a press release which will be covered by the MSM in the following manner:



Gee, it is nice to know we are being looked out for.

Giving Thanks

Well, you may have noticed that this blog is prone to fits and starts. A look at the blog archive will show 2007 to be, by far, the most productive in terms of outright blog postings, with nearly ten times (!) the posts I got around to in all of 2006. Still, it has been quiet around here of late, and there is a good reason for that: Employment. Being unemployed does wonders for my ability to post timely criticism on national and world events. I cannot fathom how a blog like CQ could have been kept up by one person holding down a full time job. I suppose it helps if the blog becomes your only true hobby and all consuming passion. For me that could never be, so this one man dog & pony show will continue to rev up and down as fortunes wax and wane. That's okay as this is a blog after all. Just consider it a "bloggy" blog and it will help you deal with my absences.

Anyway...in the spirit of those dumb classroom exercises where my Catholic grade school teachers had us come up with what we were thankful for, I figured The Iconic Midwest should give it a go as an adult (of a sort.)

I'm thankful for the loyal readers of this blog - some old friends, others I've never met - who check it out just to see what I'm up to. The answer is almost always "Not too much." but you still check and that is the important part.

I'm thankful for my blog friends, particularly the gangs at The Van Der Galiën Gazette, Blue Crab Boulevard, and Stubborn Facts. The IMW have always been humbled by the good company we keep.

I'm thankful to Andrew Sullivan for quoting, in a positive vein no less, one of my efforts earlier this year.

I'm thankful for the improved play of the St. Louis Blues.

I'm thankful that my inner muse was sufficient to get me to write:

It says something about our society that even after all of this time the internet can still give so many folks the screaming heebie jeebies. You cannot swing a nice four-letter expletive around without hitting a main stream media lament about the state of American discourse. The culprits, we are told, are various bloggers of the left and right, anonymous commentors with dubious language skills, and assorted other evil doers who add to the near certain ruination of our fine republic. For the most part, bloggers react to such criticism by stomping their feet and shouting, “You don’t understand me! You’ve never loved me and you never will! I hate you!” If there was an internet equivalent of running up to their room and slamming the door, I’m sure they would add that as well.

Yes, I still chuckle at my own writing. Sue me. :-)

I'm thankful that I'll get the chance to do it all over again next year.

Honesty Will Get You Everywhere

From Reuters: It's official: you don't have to live in France

Ask most Britons if they would rather live in France and they'd probably answer "oui." But British judges have ruled that two English boys who hate living there don't have to.

The boys, 11 and 16, who have a French mother and a British father, were taken to live in France after the parents' marriage broke down. But during a visit to England they asserted their "Britishness" and refused to return to live with their mother.

The mother took the case to court, arguing that she had a right to decide where they should live and that the father had put the children up to it, the Times newspaper reported.

But three of Britain's most senior judges decided the boys had an inherent right to refuse to live in France, where nearly 300,000 Britons have chosen to live.

Describing the case as "not just exceptional but very exceptional," the chief judge said it was clear the children really disliked the country and hadn't settled in.

They preferred England because, apparently, they could "walk to school, could have their own key and would not have to do as much homework."

Teenagers not wanting to do homework? Who would have guessed?