Fight on, Condi!

Thanks to TrojanWire for this great picture!

An Honor To Share A Country With Him

A country that produces men like Bruce Crandall is a country worth living in. I am hardly worth enough to hold the medal the President gave him yesterday.

New Media, Journalism School

Ted Leonsis's blog, "Ted's Take," rambles on about a variety of the AOL and sports magnate's passions: media, the Washington Capitals, films. I think he's one of the most engaging sports owners around, and I wouldn't trade him for eight Mark Cubans (though I might take the Cubans instead of the Jagr debacle). Anyway, Leonsis may be right to point out that the lack of interest among young people in newspapers is a sign of the newspaper industry's pending demise, but he shouldn't have selected his alma mater as a place to illustrate it. Georgetown has no journalism school and few journalism offerings. A great university it is, but if you are a high school student with a passion for journalism, Georgetown is probably not your place. Instead, look here, or ring up my old boss and friend Doug Fisher, who is helping students at the "other" USC become the new media leaders of tomorrow.

Let's define petulant

I don't know Frank Bruni, and couldn't tell you whether he's a great restaurant critic. But the owner of New York's Kobe Club restaurant makes a huge mistake here in a defensive and snobby retort to Bruni's review.

I am sure that Bruni carries a great deal of influence in a city like New York. And perhaps he is wrong in his assesment of Kobe Club. The way to handle that, however, is to create a dialogue with your customers and ask whether they agree or disagree, take their input, and use their impressions to create a better restaurant and more customers.

That's a lot harder work than simply paying for an ad in the Times, however.

Without America

We can't say it, but these Brits can.
(HT: The Corner)

Congrats to the Dixie Chicks

Now let's play a game -- it's in the future, and a band with conservative or libertarian leanings blasts a Democratic president. Chances that band gets an armful of Grammys for their "courage?" Anyone guess more than zero? Anyone?

The Enemy?

I think my friend Bob McAlister has it about right here. It's so easy to explain away behavior that, in our hubris, we all assume we'd never engage in. I do not mean to dismiss mental illness, which is just as real as any physical illness. But isn't it also true that even people who appear to be "good" sometimes do bad things? We want to always understand people who do wrong. Sometimes that keeps us from condemning the real sin, as if understanding allows for an excuse. In 1994, after Susan Smith drowned her two children, Bob and I had a short chat. We agreed, as I recalled, that there is a powerful force, hidden but obvious, which sometimes grabs people and leads them astray. None of us are completley immune from the Devil's clutches, and who are we to say how the Devil would manifest himself in us. I hold that we only have one permanent saving grace to keep us from being fallen, and that's faith in Jesus.

Happy Birthday, Mr. President

His family and his fellow Americans were unfortunately unable to share each other for most of the last 10 years of Ronald Reagan's life. But as Margaret Thatcher said in her taped eulogy for his funeral, "he is himself again." Praise God for that. A reprise of National Review writing on the 40th President, whose birthday is today, can be found here.

Contrarian on Global Warming

I'm no expert on how much our climate is changing and whether any actions we take in the U.S. would make a real difference. But contrarians are always interesting -- especially when they say they'd vote for Al Gore if ran again. (Hat tip: former Daily Mail colleague Don Surber)