A great coach, but an even better man: As many of you know, I have been, and continue to be, a huge fan of Tyrone Willingham. And I am, needless to say, disappointed that Notre Dame chose to fire him after just three short years. But I must confess that my admiration for Willingham goes far beyond the classy demeanor he exhibited throughout his tenure at ND, which merely gave us a glimpse of this great man's character. While there are many anecdotes that I could pass along concerning Coach Willingham's sterling character from my time in South Bend, I think one in particular sums up the measure of the man.

A friend of mine was fortunate enough to hear Ty Willingham speak at a fund raiser for a crisis pregnancy center in South Bend--that counsels women on alternatives to abortion--before the start of this season. After the dinner concluded, my friend approached the coach to commend him on his speech (which was, of course, pro-life in nature). During the course of his conversation with Coach Willingham, my friend remarked "I sure do hope you win a lot of games this year." To which Willingham replied (and I am paraphrasing here), "I do too. The more games I win, the more people will listen to me. And that gives me a platform to speak out against abortion, which will hopefully lead to innocent lives being saved."

I would have given him another year for that comment alone.

God speed, Coach Willingham. You will be sorely missed by many Irish fans.

Proof that my blog posts are not so the dullest in the world: Check out this blog.

My knee had a slight itch. I reached out my hand and scratched the knee in question. The itch was relieved and I was able to continue with my activities.

Or this entry.

I had a mug of coffee sitting on my desk. I reached out my hand and picked up the mug. I took a sip of coffee before returning the mug to it's former position on my desk.

And who can overlook the drama in this post?

I became aware that my spectacles were not sitting quite correctly on my nose. Using my hand I moved them slightly, thereby making them feel more comfortable. This adjustment completed I continued with my activities.

The King's Good Servant: Some Thoughts at a Crossroad: Archbishop Charles J. Chaput has an excellent piece in the November issue of Crisis about the need for Catholics to "center our lives on God," not on accommodating "the world" by assimilating into the "American mainstream." Here's a taste:

We can't give what we don't have. Too many of us claim to believe, but then we act like we don't. Too many very decent people pray the Nicene Creed every Sunday without really considering what it means for their lives. If we really mean it when we say, "I believe in one, holy, Catholic and apostolic Church," then how can we ignore her when she teaches in the name of Jesus Christ on issues like the sanctity of human life?

Reforming the Church, renewing the Church, begins with our own repentance and conversion, our own submission to God's will, our own humility and willingness to serve and that's the really hard work, which is why so little of it seems to get done.

If we're serious about our Faith, then our whole lives should be formed and guided by our Catholic convictions. All of our actions and all of our choices should be rooted in our Catholic identity and in our relationship with God. That means our choices at work, at play, within our families, and also the choices we make in living out our citizenship.

. . .

Faith without works is dead. We need to act on what we claim to believe. Vatican II teaches that "the political community exists...for the common good [that] embraces the sum total of all those conditions of social life which enable individuals, families and organizations to achieve complete and efficacious fulfillment" (Gaudem et Spes 74).

. . .

In living our Faith and in living our citizenship, we need to begin with the end in mind. Where do we want to spend eternity? Because we won't spend it here. We're citizens of God's kingdom first. That's our homeland. That's the citizenship we need to be faithful to, because if we serve God well then we serve our nation well. If we live as faithful Catholics, we live as faithful Americans.

But if we try to separate our Catholic convictions from the political and other decisions we make, then we're no better than thieves because we steal from American public life the most important gift we have to offer: The truth of Jesus Christ and the wisdom of His Church.

St. Thomas More, who knew exactly what he did and didn?t owe Caesar, said, "I am the king's good servant, but God's first." He had his priorities right. We should follow his lead.

George Orwell was an optimist, today's edition: God help us all.

A hospital in the Netherlands - the first nation to permit euthanasia - recently proposed guidelines for mercy killings of terminally ill newborns, and then made a startling revelation: It has already begun carrying out such procedures, which include administering a lethal dose of sedatives.

The announcement by the Groningen Academic Hospital came amid a growing discussion in Holland on whether to legalize euthanasia on people incapable of deciding for themselves whether they want to end their lives - a prospect viewed with horror by euthanasia opponents and as a natural evolution by advocates.

In August, the main Dutch doctors' association KNMG urged the Health Ministry to create an independent board to review euthanasia cases for terminally ill people "with no free will," including children, the severely mentally retarded and people left in an irreversible coma after an accident.

Update: For those people who said idiotic things like "Bush=Hitler," this is the kind of thing Hitler did.

More birthdays today:

Mark Twain, 1835 (For the Ken Burns website, click here.)

Bernard Mandeville, 1670

Two social satirists, come to think of it.

Larry Brown, R.I.P. The Mississippi writer died last Wednesday, apparently of a heart attack, at age 53. As the Mississippi Writers' Page puts it, Brown wrote "graphic, raw fiction about the rural South—stories featuring characters who are ordinary and poor, and struggling with such real-life issues as marital strife, alcoholism, suicide, and the traumas of war." In my humble opinion, Brown was able to capture the vibe of north Mississippi in an uncanny way. For tributes to Brown from friends in and around Oxford, see this article in the Daily Mississippian. The NYT obit is here.

Incredible "The Incredibles": In a much happier cinematic involvement than Joel's, the missus and I sacrificed two blissful hours this past weekend watching "The Incredibles." I have seldom been more pleased with a movie. It really is a full two hours long, although it doesn't drag at all, and the kids in the audience never lost interest.

What impressed me the most was the fact that Pixar took no shortcuts. Wherever it would have been easy to obscure the background, they piped in more detail. When a little action would have served as a representative microcosm of more action, they give you more action than a Jackie Chan marathon. Plus, the humor never devolves into poop or fart jokes, and there's no touchy-feely New Age garbage coming between you and a good laugh. Go see it, if for no other reason than to keep its box office take bigger than Oliver Stone's snorefest.

Dan Rather chats with the ghost of Edward R. Murrow: No, really. That's what it says.

"Ed Murrow's ghost is here. I've seen him and talked to him on the third floor of this building many times late at night. And I can tell you that he's watching over us."

Dontcha think that if ERM's were spirit were really watching over Dan, he'd have said something like, "Don't run with the National Guard stuff, Dan"?

Bad news for Steve: Ty Willingham out at Notre Dame.

Word o' the day: The dutch verb brouwen, "which means 'to pronounce one's r's in a throaty way as southerners do.'"

Thanks to Arnold over at Demagogue for this most excellent pointer.

Is there a C as in "Cowardly", Pat? Pat Sajak does a bang up job of calling out the creative community for its inexcusable silence over the butchering of Theo van Gogh. He also has a theory about the silence that's just crazy enough to be right.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY WINSTON CHURCHILL.
On this day in 1874 Winston Churchill was born at Blenheim Palace. It is no exaggeration to point out that Mr. Churchill was one of the greatest statesmen and leaders the West has ever produced. In recognition of this momentous occasion I will enjoy a fine cigar this evening. On a somewhat unrelated note, I am given to understand that the Marine Corps Hymn was one of his favorite songs and that he knew every line by heart. What a great man!

ALEXANDER THE NOT-SO-GREAT.
Saturday evening I sacrificed almost three hours of my life on the altar of mediocrity when I went to see Alexander the Great. This movie was mind-bogglingly boring, which is quite an accomplishment when you consider the subject matter. On a certain level I could have forgiven the historical inaccuracies if the movie had at least been entertaining. At almost three hours in length this movie, which neither informs nor entertains, represents a monumental waste of celluloid. Consequently, I would not recommend anyone see this movie. In fact, I would not even suggest renting this stinker when it comes out on DVD. Save your money. Victor Davis Hanson comes to a similar conclusion in his review of the film. Read it here.

Three Cheers for Randy Barnett and the Raich Argument

Mr. Solum over at Legal Theory Blog attended arguments yesterday in the Raich case and has this account of the verbal sparring. According to Solum, it sounds like Randy Barnett more than held his own.

This morning over at LewRockwell.com, I have an essay up on my thoughts about the Commerce Clause and Raich.

For those interested, I really recommend taking the time to read Randy's Brief. He does an excellent job of distinguishing Wickard and offering the Court a mechanism to rule for him while not upsetting the entire apple cart. Here is, in my opinion, the critical distinction made by Barnett:

Wickard, unlike this case, involved a quintessential economic activity – a commercial farming operation. Filburn’s farm produced substantial quantities of wheat for sale in the market and for use as an input to produce other agricultural products destined for sale. The farm’s "wheat acreage allotment" for 1941 under the AAA was 11.1 acres, which at a "normal yield" of "20.1 bushels of wheat an acre," Wickard, 317 U.S. at 114, yielded 221 bushels of wheat. A bushel of wheat weighs about 60 pounds,8 so the farm was expected to produce, and authorized to sell, 13,260 pounds – or over 6.6 tons – of wheat without penalty. Filburn actually planted 23 acres of wheat – twice the allotted amount. Id. The 11.9 excess acres produced 239 bushels of wheat, bringing the farm’s total wheat production to 460 bushels (or 13.8 tons). Id.

. . . .

Unlike Roscoe Filburn, Respondents are not engaged in commercial farming. The cannabis at issue is not sold, bartered, exchanged, or used as an input to produce any other product that Respondents sell, barter, or exchange. Diane Monson cultivates only enough cannabis for her own medical use. Angel Raich’s caregivers cultivate enough cannabis for her own medical use, without any charge, for compassionate rather than economic reasons. In contrast to Wickard, the quantities involved are minuscule and detached from any market. They are not part of a "home grown" crop principally intended for use in a commercial farming operation whose output will compete in the marketplace with, or enter into, interstate commerce.

This was Barnett's first argument before the Court, but I am sure it will not be his last. Let's hope the Court gives serious consideration to the fine arguments presented.

Not Falwell, but Stott: David Brooks has it right: the national media do everyone a disservice by treating folks like Jerry Falwell as representatives of evangelicals or even conservative evangelicals. (And Al Sharpton as a representative of liberal Christians is just about as stupid).

The power behind PlayStation 3?: I am not sure what all of this means, but I am looking forward to seeing the next big tech advance in video game systems.

But none of it, mind you, will ever be as cool as Atari!

Supreme Court Turns Down a Same-Sex Marriage Case: Well, color me thankful. The last thing this republic needs is another sweet "mystery of life" opinion from Justice Kennedy extolling the virtues of radical individualism.

Abortion as religion: O.k., can we all agree that this is, at the very least, exceedingly tacky:

Glorious! Judge Posner, along with Gary Becker....blogging!

Tragic news: I received the following emails today from co-blogger, Kay Daly:

Very sad news this morning. Miguel Estrada's wife, Laury, passed away suddenly on Sunday. Funeral arrangements are pending. No further information was available.

Our heartfelt prayers and condolences to Mr. Estrada and his family.

KRD

For those who haven't heard the news -- Miguel Estrada's wife, Laury, died suddenly on Sunday. Funeral service information is below:

KRD

Services for Laury Estrada will be held later this week with a viewing on Thursday December 2 from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. EST at:

Demaine Funeral Home
520 S. Washington St.
Alexandria, Virginia 22314

A memorial service will be held Friday December 3 at 2:00 p.m. EST at:

Christ Church
118 N. Washington St.
Alexandria, Virginia 22314

In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be made in Laury's memory
to:

Doberman Assistance, Rescue and Education
5471 Keyser Road
Hume, Virginia 22639
www.dobe.net

Please keep Miguel Estrada and his family in your thoughts and prayers.

I Want My 5k1.1: The benefits of cooperation. One would think that by doing such, then they might gain something in return. However, things don't always turn out as one would hope. Such is the case in the world of Federal criminal prosecutions and those who cooperate with the federal prosecutors. Particulary, those who cooperate in hopes of a lighter sentence may find that receiving such is, sometimes, based on the color of your skin as well as the district in which you are prosecuted.

Today's Wall Street Journal reports on the disparities among cooperation letters, or, 5k1.1. "In the legal world, a cooperation letter is known as a 5k1.1, after the provision in the guidelines that gives judges the go-ahead to depart downward from the usual sentence range." Just how and when these letters are given is an issue which has some up in arms. For example, in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania,over 40% of defendants received cooperations letters which resulted in a reduced sentence. By contrast, in the Eastern District of Virginia, only 6.3% of defendants received cooperation letters.

According to the Journal, a report, issued last week by the U.S. Sentencing Commission, warned that the "'unwarranted disparity'in cooperation letters may play a role in increasing sentence variation." You think? Moreover, the Journal reports that the sytem, of cooperation letters, might change based on a sentencing guideline case which the Supreme Court is currently hearing.

Check out the article, as the link should work for non-subscribers. Of note are the use of cooperation letters in the HealthSouth case here in Alabama.

"High Court Appears Hesitant to Endorse Medical Marijuana": The AP has this report of today's oral argument in Raich.

Poll: Americans Back Roe v. Wade [Alternative title: "The Culture of me"]: Assuming that this poll accurately reflects the opinion of the American people, this finding disappoints me on two levels. First, it demonstrates just how ignorant most Americans are when it comes to the federal constitution and constitutional jurisprudence (Roe is one of the most poorly reasoned Supreme Court decisions of all time). Second, it lends further credence to Judge Bork's observations in "The Tempting of America" regarding the politicization of constitutional jurisprudence.

So why is it that most Americans support the right of a woman to abort (read: kill) her unborn child as a matter of public policy? They do so, for the most part, because abortion allows men and women alike to avoid taking responsibility for their actions. Sadly, most Americans have bought into the idea that nothing matters more than their personal happiness. But embracing this form of radical individualism has a profound effect on society: It creates a culture of death and despair.

Let's kill the baby because we're just not yet ready to be parents.

Let's create life to destroy it (i.e., embryonic stem cell research)--completely ignoring the moral implications of doing so and taking attention and funding away from research that has actually generated positive results (i.e., adult stem cell research)--because it might prolong or save my life.

Let's kill grandma because she's become too much of a hassle for us to deal with.

Let's place the children that we do have in daycare (when we can afford for one of us to stay at home), and allow complete strangers to "raise" them, because we absolutely must live in the trendy area of town and drive BMWs.

Let's maintain no-fault divorce laws that denigrate the serious (and holy) nature of marriage by allowing one to leave their spouse/family because "I just don't feel like being married any more," and destroy the lives of non-consenting spouses and children.

Let's radically redefine "marriage" to include all sorts of alternative relationships, all the while ignoring what we all know to be inherently true: that traditional marriage is the bedrock of any civilized society.

Why not all of these things? It's all about you (and me), right?

Raich v. Ashcroft to be argued at 10 A.M. this morning

This morning the Supreme Court will hear arguments in the case of Ashcroft v. Raich (No. 03-1454). The issues in Raich touch on the fundamental concerns of federalism and individual liberty. The Court must decide whether the Constitution's Commerce Clause permits Congress, via the federal Controlled Substances Act, to prohibit the medicinal use of cannabis. My earlier post on the case can be found here. For those of you interested in the briefs, here are links to Raich's Brief and the government's brief.

America, land of the free, home of the homophobes: So says Britain's The Independent. And we're so homophobic that Oliver Stone's Alexander is tanking at the box office.

The three-hour, big budget epic, starring Colin Farrell, Colin Farrell's shockingly bad blond hair-do and Angelina Jolie has dared to suggest what most historians have long taken for granted - that Alexander was bisexual. And that gets rather different responses in different parts of the US.

Of course, the fact that the film has been roundly panned in the press has nothing to do with it. It's just us backwards Americans, once again turning down a fine movie because of our backwardness. It's sad, really.

The Drive-By Truckers: If you're not listening to this band that's largely comprised of Alabama natives, you have no idea what you're missing out on. Think of the smartest, hardest-rocking, most inventive Southern rock imaginable, and you'll have an idea of their work. Visit their website, buy a CD or two, and if you want to, you can read my review of the band's performance at Birmingham's B&A Warehouse Friday night.

What is Islamofascism?

I've often wondered this myself. The word is now in vogue when discussing the terrorist threat. Joe Sobran has taken a stab at defining the term, and has rightly concluded that it is but a synonym for "nasty." Here is a taste:

After all, nobody calls himself an Islamofascist. The original Fascists, led by Mussolini, called themselves Fascists, just as Communists called themselves Communists. The American Heritage Dictionary gives as its primary definition of fascism "a philosophy or system of government that advocates or exercises a dictatorship of the extreme right, typically through the merging of state and business leadership, together with an ideology of belligerent nationalism."

Not very helpful. It's more an expression of disapproval than a dispassionate and objective definition. And it hardly applies to al-Qaeda, which doesn't seem to combine "state and business leadership." What grounds are there for thinking al-Qaeda aspires to "dictatorship"? Its chief announced goal--which we have little reason to doubt--is to drive the U.S. Government out of the Middle East. You may reject both that goal and the methods used to achieve it, but that doesn't make it fascistic, unless you're using fascism as an all-purpose synonym for nasty.

While Al Qaeda certainly deserves scorn, my guess is that the new term is meant to link in the American mind the great struggle of WWII with the war on terror today. If Americans can be convinced that the dangers of Mussolini and Hitler have returned in another form, the leaders likely reason, then the people will support this war with the same fervor that they supported WWII. This is not to say that the fight against terrorism should not be vigorously prosecuted. It should. But must language be yet another casualty??

For the fruit-lover who has everything: That person who's so difficult to buy for would probably love one of these. If not, one of these. After all, you wouldn't want to give a crappy present.

Go Irish!: Beat USC!

My prediction: It depends entirely on which Notre Dame team shows up. If it's the team that beat Michigan and Tennessee, then look for a major upset. If it's the team that choked against BYU, Boston College, and Pittsburgh, then USC will trounce the Irish.







Update: The opening drive by the Irish was the best I've seen this season. Let's hope they can keep it up.

New Article Published in Christian Bioethics: "The Explanatory Power of the Substance View of Persons"

For those who are interested in the question of human personhood as it shapes our judgments about bioethics, you may want to take a look at my just published article, "The Explanatory Power of the Substance View of Persons." Appearing in the journal, Christian Bioethics, edited by Rice University philosopher and physician H. Tristram Engelhardt, Jr., it offers an argument as to why human beings are intrinsically valuable from the moment they come into being at conception. I highly recommend Patrick Lee's lead article in that same issue of Christian Bioethics, "A Christian Philosopher’s View of Recent Directions in the Abortion Debate." Lee's scholarship and philosophical arguments, in my judgment, are first-rate and ought to be mastered by any prolife advocate who wants to interact at the highest levels of scholarship.

You can find my article as an adobe file on my website here. Information on the journal, Christian Bioethics may be found here.

"What Would Reagan Do?" Republished in Human Life Review

I was surprised and honored to discover that Human Life Review chose to publish an essay of mine, "What Would Reagan Do?", that had originally appeared on National Review Online (July 27, 2004). The HLR isssue--30.3 (Summer 2004)--is a special one to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the journal. There is a special section on President Reagan's essay, "Abortion and the Conscience of the Nation," which HLR had published in 1983. The editor selected three pieces to follow Reagan's essay: mine, a commentary by John Muggeridge (Malcolm's son), and one by William P. Clark, Reagan's national security advisor and secretary of the interior. I have posted on my webiste the HLR version of my essay as an adobe file here.

Ronald Reagan shaped my thinking about politics, and as a result convinced me to switch parties in the summer of 1984. To have my essay placed alongside his in the Human Life Review is an honor that I will always cherish.

Shea takes a break: One of my very favorite bloggers, Mark Shea, is suspending operations over at "Catholic and Enjoying it!" while he finishes up a book. I will, of course, miss Shea's daily musings for the duration of his blogging hiatus, but I certainly understand his need (and perhaps desire) to take a break.

That's the nice thing about a group blog; you don't always need to be "on" as a blogger. And quite frankly, there are days when I just don't have the time or desire to blog (other than perhaps linking to a few stories that I find particularly interesting or noteworthy). Here at SA, the tenor of the blog fluctuates from an Instapundit format (pithy posts) to more substantive analysis (i.e, an ultra-conservative version of Legal Fiction) on a daily basis. I realize this may be a bit frustrating for some of our readers, but this sort of format is to be expected when most of the bloggers involved live in the land of billable hours or attend law school.

But I digress. Time to go grocery shopping with the family. I hope all of y'all are having a great Thanksgiving break.

Rehnquist Will Be Absent Again--No Specifics Given; Chief Justice Still Being Treated for Cancer: Please continue to keep the Chief in your thoughts and prayers.

Never mind
Hindrocket at Powerline makes an excellent point:

remember the al Qaqaa story? Ten days before the election, it was of vital importance that we find out what happened to a "missing" one-tenth of one percent of the munitions in Iraq. Since the election? Who cares?

Or how about the draft? Remember how just before the election, the Democrats were feverishly trying to convince college students and others that, should President Bush be re-elected, there was a secret plan to reinstate the draft? Well, now that President Bush has indeed won re-election, shouldn't the left be gearing up to resist this very real danger? Um, no. Forget about it. The draft rumor has served its purpose (or, rather, failed to serve its purpose). The left has Moved On.

Do you suppose, two years or four years from now, when the Democrats are again spinning fables, anyone will remember how quickly they abandoned some of the principal themes of this year's campaign?

You need some new websites: Even though I'm an information junkie of the highest order, like everybody else, I tend to become a little predictable in my web browsing. Drudge, SA, the Corner, Instapundit, Lileks and a few other sites are definite daily visits, and will continue to be, but there's a world of sites out there worth browsing. I just needed some help finding sites related to my interests. Which is where StumbleUpon comes in. It's a toolbar for the Firefox browser (if you're still using Internet Explorer, you might be interested in reading this, the latest in a long line of announced IE flaws). You set up a list of interests, and StumbleUpon recommends sites related to your interests. You can give the suggested site a thumbs up or thumbs down, and the more sites you rate, the more StumbleUpon learns. It's darned interesting, and it's cheap as free. Check it out.

Christian law schools? Christian lawyers?: Perish the thought!

You know, part of me--a very small part, mind you--wishes these blue staters would at least try to compete with us in the marketplace of ideas.

The Demography of Southern Catholicism: I found this interesting study while surfing the web late last night.

While you're at it, see if you can figure out a way for Blanton's Gold to be sold in Georgia: As if I needed another reason to admire Ralph Reed. :)

2004 Weblog Awards: If any of y'all are so inclined, feel free to cast a vote for SA in any of the following categories:

Best overall blog
Best group blog
Best conservative blog
Best election coverage
Best culture blog
Best online community
Best blog design (heh)
Best of the top 100-250 blogs

I've highlighted the categories I believe SA might (or should) do well in.

You know that you've hit the big time when . . . the lefties start penning hit pieces about you. Congrats Kay! Well done.

As Thanksgiving approaches, I think it is appropriate for every American to give thanks to almighty God for the many privileges and blessings we receive simply by residing in the United States. Wilfred McClay (over at the Touchstone blog) sums up my sentiments nicely:

The incarnational qualities of the Christian faith demand that we cherish what is here and now---the day-old bread on our table, the tangled families in which we find ourselves, the often-exasperating work of our hands, the disappointing churches in which we worship, and so on---even as we are called to remember, and live in the light of, what is beyond them.

And so the virtues of patriotism are secondary but real---as real as any of our loyalties, short of those to God Himself. We should be thankful for the peerless gift of this rich and abundant land. With all its faults, it has been a refuge for all of humanity—an island of prosperity and order and democracy in a cruel and violent world, and a place where the most vital of all liberties, the freedom to worship God in spirit and truth, has been cherished and enshrined in our fundamental institutions.

We constantly fail to appreciate the magnitude of this legacy---and the responsibilities entailed in it. We should live in gratitude and faithfulness to it, even as we built upon it in our own ways. We should strive to be worthy of our forebears’ hopes, their dreams, their sacrifices, and their love. We should pray for the strength and wisdom and discipline to be good stewards of this gift. And yes, we are obliged to improve and purify and preserve it, so that the generations to come will also have reason to be thankful that we were here.

. . . .

So Thanksgiving is a time to love our country for the right reasons. It is, on the simplest plane, where God has placed us. That alone makes it a gift we did not deserve. It also is a nation that does not---yet---put Caesar in God’s place, and is still---for now---a land where the knowledge of God's Word and Kingdom have been given a special protection. Indeed, it has been a bulwark to pilgrims and seekers through the years, and remains so today, despite many threatening clouds. Long may it prosper. But may we always seek His Kingdom first.

Indeed. And let us all say a special prayer for the courageous men and women of our armed forces, who sacrifice and put their lives on the line every day so that we may continue to enjoy the hard-fought freedoms our founders secured for us long ago.

Happy Thanksgiving, y'all. And may God continue to bestow his blessings on the United States.

That's gonna leave a mark: I don't exactly feel sorry for Dan Rather, since I consider his ignominious exodus to be one he set the stage for (and I don't care how much he and CBS couch this as just being an everyday retirement, I ain't buying it), but Lileks' take on Gunga Dan's departure is painfully accurate.

Hearing that Rather resigned is like reading an obit for the puppeteer who jerked around Topo Gigio; it brings back distant memories that don’t seem terribly relevant. I know, I know, Rather had great influence, inasmuch as there are people who still sidle up to the network news for the small ration of compressed ham loaf masquerading as a 12-course banquet. I stopped watching the network news when we left DC. Inside the Beltway, it was required watching, because it felt like closed-circuit information for the Inner Party regulars. Once you’re out of the loop, though, you wonder why anyone watched it. You get national news with the usual slant, a piece on the economy that always seemed to come from some place in Ohio where workers are Increasingly Concerned, a smattering of international news which always seemed to conclude with some meteorological anomaly in Europe, then a four-minute thumbsucker on granny drugs capped off with a gauzy tale of a sick girl, her horse, and the Community That Came Together to Help. Promo for the local news.

Just as a side note, I purchased both Lileks' The Gallery of Regrettable Food and Interior Desecrations, and they're both excellent. Of course.

A Conservative Revolution in Movie Making? Bridget Johnson has this article at Opinion Journal today where she highlights Hollywood's deafening silence on the Islamo-fascist hit on Theo van Gogh in Amsterdam and then segues into what she perceives as a blossoming conservative movement in film making. I'd be thrilled to see her projections come through, but judging by the people she still has to submit her scripts to, I'm not holding my breath.

Buh-bye, Rather. Tricky Dick became Tricky Dan.

I'm sure Rather's fall will be chalked up as another victory for Right Wing Nuts and those Crazy Evangelicals everywhere. Nevermind the bad journalism...

It's Cold Outside in Hollywood. Especially if you're Michael Moore. I love it when folks agree with me.

Speaking of weather, you just can't do much better than Florida. It's the day before Thanksgiving and I wore flip-flops and shorts to class today and still have yet to pull my jacket out of the closet this "fall".

Beckwith Elected Vice-President of Evangelical Theological Society
You can read about it here. I did not pursue this post. The leadership asked if I would be interested in the position.

As a result, in November 2005 I will become President-elect of ETS, which means that I will be program chair for the 2006 conference in Washington, D.C. The theme for that conference will be "Christians In the Public Square." I think a section on blogging would be appropriate!

Ukraine:
It's worth noting the upheaval in Ukraine. It appears that the pro-Moscow candidate has managed to steal the election from the pro-Western candidate. However, there are protests by the pro-Western candidate.

Bush has called on Ukraine not to certify the elections. The Yahoo report is here. The Window Manager also has reports from on the ground in Ukraine.

"Courageous Crooners: U2 Dismantle[s] an Atomic Bomb": Kenneth Tanner has an excellent review of U2's latest album over at NRO.

I purchased the album tonight, and will hopefully post my review of HTDAAB in the near future.

Young and Catholic: Tim Drake, author of "Young and Catholic," has a companion website for the book that is extremely well done and very encouraging.

Indeed, there is no question in my mind that the Catholic Church in America is--as Mr. Drake documents all too well--in the midst of a spiritual renewal. And it's nice to have someone like Mr. Drake confirm what many of us already know (or sense) to be true.

Oh, and there is a really cool page on the C&Y website that profiles several "Young Catholics".

So be sure to check Y&C out if you're young and Catholic. It's an excellent site that I am sure many of y'all will find to be of interest.

And so it begins: Well, it looks as though some of the lefties are already worried about Judge Michael Luttig being elevated the Supreme Court; hence this nasty and unsubstantiated comment over at TalkLeft

[T}he best nominee for the Democrats is J. Michael Luttig. According to the rumor mill, very, very shortly after leaving the Supreme Court as a Special Assistant to the Chief Justice, while working at the DC office of New York law firm Davis, Polk & Wardwell, Luttig participated in editing and drafting briefs on cases that were already before the Court when he was working there. The rules of the Court very explicitly set a time limit on exactly how long former clerks and employees have to recuse themselves from Court work, and Luttig ignored that rule. It might not sound like much to outsiders, but, if true, it is a first class and easily proven ethical breach. If the rumors are true, he violated a core ethical rule of the very Court he would be nominated for.

Also hurting Luttig is that his career owes more to connections and pull than to merit. Wilkinson, for example, was near the top of his class at law school at Virginia, and later taught there. Luttig was below the middle of his class at the same school, and only got a job at the White House counsel´s office through family connections. Once in the White House, he helped put Scalia on the DC Circuit with Scalia committing in return to hire him as Scalia´s first law clerk. Privilege and inside deal cutting are not the story the Bush team wants the critical Supreme Court nomination to focus on.

I seriously doubt that the rumor floated by this "courageous" anonymous poster is true, but I would still be interested in somebody in the know providing me with ammunition to shoot it down before Luttig is "officially" included in the short list leaked by the White House. This is going to be a nasty fight, folks, and we need to be prepared to go on the offense immediately any time the character of a potential Supreme Court nominee is called into question (especially when the person at issue is of Luttig's intellect and stature).

A new appellate blawg, Appellate Law & Practice. I've been really impressed with the AL&P gang thus far, and I encourage y'all (i.e., my fellow law nerds) to give them a look.

The tempting of the Federalist Society?: There is an interesting debate going on over at Legal Fiction in the comments section that some of y'all might be interested in reading or jumping into.

Must Read Book from Thomas Woods

Thomas Woods has a new book out entitled The Politically Incorrect Guide to American History. For those interested, a nice summary can be found over at LewRockewell.com. As a professor of history, Woods found that the standard textbooks left out key events in American history. Unable to find a suitable supplemental text, Woods wrote his own. Here is a taste from the LewRockwell summary:

Its treatment of the early republic recalls parts of American history that have vanished into the memory hole, including the crucially important Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions of 1798 and Thomas Jefferson's belief that only state nullification of unconstitutional federal legislation, rather than "checks and balances" among the branches of the federal government itself, had a chance of keeping the federal government in check.

Now, that is music to my ears. A professional historian emphasizing those sacred texts of 1798. Another portion of the book I am especially interested in deals with WWII and our government's policy of forcibly returning men and women to live under Soviet Communism:

The book also tells the little-known story of Operation Keelhaul, in which the West sent at least a million Russian POWs back to Stalin and certain death or enslavement. At Fort Dix, New Jersey, hundreds of Soviet POWs, who fought with all their strength when they learned that the American government was reneging on its promise not to send them back to the USSR, were drugged in order to calm them down enough for them to be shipped back.

Thomas Woods is a rising intellectual star in the ranks of conservative academics. We owe him thanks for his latest effort in keeping alive so many forgotten and ignored events in American history. This book should find its way onto your Christmas reading lists. It's already on mine.

More on the politics of academe: John Fund weighs in with a nice Opinion Journal column. The Columbia Spectator editorial he cites is online, here.

Sweet Redemption.
[For those tiring of the sports noise on SA of late, move along. There's nothing to see here]

Florida 20, Florida State 13. Lame-duck coach Ron Zook snapped the Gators' 18-year, 8-game winless streak to the 'Noles in Tallahassee - a streak that included every Spurrier trip to the panhandle - as Florida tallied their 7th win of an otherwise turbulent season.

Not only was the win itself big for the coach and the program which had fired him only weeks ago, but it was equally as devastating for the Gators' hated rivals. Florida State chose the Florida game to dedicate the playing surface at Doak Campbell as "Bobby Bowden Field" and unveiled a 20 by 30 foot stained glass window depicting Coach Bowden looking over the field. (Why they didn't do something like that before, oh, a Duke game is beyond me. It's like FSU was intent on sweetening the win if Florida managed to pull it out. They succeeded!)

On top of ruining the ceremony of what can only be called "Bobby Bowden Day", FSU is probably out of the running for the ACC title, leaving that distinction to the winner of the VaTech/Miami game. If FSU had won followed by a Miami victory over VaTech this weekend, the resulting 3-way tie would have gone to FSU - the ACC team with the highest BCS ranking at the end of the season. With the Florida loss, FSU will be behind Miami and VaTech in the BCS. So Florida might have cost FSU an ACC title, too.

People often wonder how much Florida fans really hate FSU (and how much FSU hates Florida). While we Gators take issue with all things Georgia and Tennessee, what we feel for FSU is simply unmatched. Ask Florida fans which game they want to win if they can only win one a year, and I'd venture 5 to 1 you'll hear FSU over Georgia or Tennessee. We love to beat both those teams when we can, but it's the FSU game that we carry with us through the offseason as either a badge or an albatross.