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.

Random Thoughts for Monday

Random thoughts for Monday:

I know you don't click over to this blog for a daily heath report but for those that have been keeping up with my ailment over the past month (this began March 22), let me just say that I'm calling another doctor today for a second opinion.  (Bride would be proud).  There's no reason that I can see at this late date in this deal that I should continue to spend sleepless nights because of chest pain.  I know - it's pleurisy and it hurts and it takes a while to go away.  But shouldn't it be abating by now?  And in this day and age of miracle drugs isn't there something somebody can give me or do that will make this better?  I'm not usually a complainer, or a hypochondriac, really.  I know that's hard to believe at this point.

Speaking of complaining, if I had the energy and the ability to focus on anything beside myself, I'd tackle the Bill Clinton Op Ed in the NYT comparing the Oklahoma City attacks to potential attacks of violence by Tea Party partipants.  Clinton and Rush have been exchanging words about this over the past few days and Glenn Reynold links to Byron York who weighs in on how Clinton and Dick Morris exploited the Oklahoma City bombing for Clinton's own political gain.  Not wanting to be left out, E.J.Dionne offers his two cent on the Tea Party movement.

I was also intrigued by the kerfuffle over Obama going golfing instead of to the funeral in Poland.  Granted, the Canadians didn't go either, and we know it was because of the safety issues of flying through the volcanic ash.  But would it be too much to ask that Obama at least put on a pretense of dignified behavior during such an event?  Some have suggested that he should have gone to the Polish embassy to offer condolences.  We don't really know what he did to mark the somber event, but we do know that he hit the links.  Since libs are so intent on drawing comparisons to BHO and GWB, let's remember that Bush quit playing golf out of respect to those serving and risking their lives in Afghanistan, thinking that it was a bit frivolous for him to be chasing a golf ball while Americans were dying abroad.  No such class from Obama.  Not surprised.

Okay.  I'm dragging myself to work today.  We're starting medieval literature today.  I'm calling doctor number two.  She might laugh at me, tell me to take 800 mgs of ibuprofin three times a day (like the last doctor did) and get over it.  But I won't know unless I call.

Have a happy Monday.

Random Thoughts for Thursday

Random thoughts for today:

The WSJ has the story on Obama's backup plan should his larger health care initiative fail. It includes things like expansion of current programs and keeping your kids on your policy until they're 26 years old.

The summit starts at 10:00 ET and will run the entire time I'm at school so I'll miss every bit of it. Keep an eye on Potluck - probably somebody over there will be updating things. If you can't watch it, Twitter is usually the fastest way to find out anything, though! I'll have something on it this evening.

Today is Steve's birthday! I can't tell you how old he is, but he's older than he was in this picture, but still just as handsome.

On the reading table, be sure to catch Andy McCarthy's piece at NRO today about Guantanamo. It couldn't be more clear that closing the joint is a lame move.

There's a lively discussion going on at The Shreveport Times in the comments regarding the Hummer deal falling through; Hummers are manufactured here.

Stacy McCain is endorsing J.D. Hayworth over John McCain for Senate and did I mention Stacy and Smitty were featured in GQ and NOT for his Speedo. Seriously. He's even a thread at Potluck, now. God help us.

Off to work now, kids. Check back later.