Friday Sift - Williams, Noonan, and More

It's Friday morning and the end of a wild work week; not to go into too much detail here, but it's homecoming week and, well, things are a little out of order during homecoming week which always presents new challenges.  It seems students do best with structure and things during homecoming week are, well, shall we say a little less structured, so I think we're all actually looking forward to getting back to normal next week even though it's all been a lot of fun taking part in the various homecoming activities.  I've got to get to school a little early today so I'm in a rush this morning.  I'll share a Happy Friday picture with you of Milly's cute dogs for our Friday sift:

Here are some quick Friday links:

Be sure to catch Peggy Noonan's column; this makes two weeks in a row I've pointed to her work.  The woman that waxed rhapsodic over Obama seems to be coming back to the light, but let's not get our hopes up yet.  She does, however, correctly assess the role of the tea party, I think, when she writes:

The first: the tea party is not a "threat" to the Republican Party, the tea party saved the Republican Party. In a broad sense, the tea party rescued it from being the fat, unhappy, querulous creature it had become, a party that didn't remember anymore why it existed, or what its historical purpose was. The tea party, with its energy and earnestness, restored the GOP to itself.

snip

The tea party did something the Republican establishment was incapable of doing: It got the party out from under George W. Bush. The tea party rejected his administration's spending, overreach and immigration proposals, among other items, and has become only too willing to say so. In doing this, the tea party allowed the Republican establishment itself to get out from under Mr. Bush: "We had to, boss, it was a political necessity!" They released the GOP establishment from its shame cringe.

There's more; read it all.

Charles Krauthammer is in classic form this morning:

Opening a whole new branch of cognitive science — liberal psychology — Obama has discovered a new principle: The fearful brain is hard-wired to act befuddled, i.e., to vote Republican. 

He seldom misses the mark and he is, this morning, discussing Obama's explanation for his falling numbers.

Emilio Karim Dabul has a nice defense of Juan Williams:

Anyone who cares about freedom of speech should protest what has been done to this decent and fair man. And even if that were not the case, even if Mr. Williams' views made him a detestable ogre to most, he still has the right to voice them. For many Americans, NPR's consistent tilt to the left has caused them to reject it as a viable source of news. 

That conversation got some lively play in the comments on this blog yesterday.

In a "got to see it to believe it moment," here is Harry Reid claiming to have saved the world.

Finally, would someone go down to The Keys and poke Bride of Rove?  She's too quiet and I'm getting worried about her. 

Have a Happy Friday; the weather is gorgeous here and I'm going to enjoy some of that this afternoon, then Steve and I are off for Prime Rib at the Barksdale Club tonight ... and then over to Hangar 2 to visit our mugs.