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Refections on Current Contentions

I borrow my headline here from William F. Buckley's generic title for his annual lecture tours, as it allows you to range widely over whatever is in the news at the moment.  Thus perfect for Saturday morning musings.  

About Juan Williams, I'll add just one more thought.  One thing that I always note when I see him on TV is that he is always smiling brightly when he is first introduced.  (He frowns soon enough when Bill Kristol baits him.)  But he looks like a happy person--and that fact, I suggest, is his ultimate sin for the perma-frowny folks at NPR.  My fearless leader Arthur Brooks has assembled the survey data showing that conservatives are generally happier people than liberals, and so Williams' ultimate sin is that he partakes of too much conservative cheerfulness, as well as absorbing conservative opinion from time to time.  Ask yourself a simple question: who would you rather sit next to at a dinner party: Nina Totenberg (or Dianne Rehm--kill me now, please), or Juan Williams?

Next topic. The Yankees, ousted from the playoffs last night by the Texas Rangers.  Bad enough to lose, but it must be really depressing to lose to a team from Texas.  Probably won't help the NY Times review of George W. Bush's forthcoming memoir.  Anyway, the Times covers the Yankees loss in this morning's national edition--on page B9.  (Heh.)

But the biggest laugh of the day comes from--wait for it--VP Joe Biden, who complained, more than once, in an interview on Bloomberg News yesterday about the "$200 billion" in secret campaign money that has flowed to Republicans in this election cycle.  Um, Joe, I think you mean "million" instead of "billion," but for the gang that throws around trillions without a blink you can understand why he'd botch this.  Now Joe--he's one person I would want to sit next to at dinner, just for all the laughs that you'd get.

Now the interesting question to have asked him would have been: so, if the donors were disclosed, what would you do then?  No chance any of those individuals or companies would be harassed by government agencies or lefty-media types?  (See: Koch brothers.)  Or boycotted by pressure groups?  (See: Target Stores.)  I used to be for disclosure, but I'm fast changing my mind.  With all the pressure points of the leviathan state and its attack dog client groups, I think I may favor less disclosure of campaign contributions.  

Finally, don't miss Gerry Baker's splendid takedown of Obama-miessiah-worship in this video that I somehow missed earlier.
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