Swift Boat To Nowhere
Topic: politics
The new LA Times poll is out, which shows Bush ahead (by 3) for the first time in what has been a Kerry-leaning poll all year (Kerry was up by 9 not so long ago). It includes this incredible stat:

Asked how Kerry's overall military experience would affect their vote, 23% said it made them more likely to vote for him, while 21% said it made them less likely; the remaining 53% said it would make no difference.

That is, Kerry's Vietnam record is now a wash. Take away Vietnam and what's left? Mickey Kaus:

Unfortunately, it's more or less all Kerry's got. It wouldn't be so important if Kerry had a) a discernable ideology; b) a political message; c) a record of achievement; or d) an appealing personality!

Marc

Thank You Very Much, Mr. 19th Amendment
Topic: politics
Liz reports from a "Women For Kerry" rally at Lawyer's Mall in Annapolis:

Several thousand dollars worth of expensive sandals (my own Birks included)...one braless woman breastfeeding (not hippie braless--rich Annapolitan)...two dogs with various anti-Bush/pro-Kerry memorabilia on them...no members of the press...some very unfortunate outfits...four purses worth more than my car...one hippie folk-singer who was given the honor of opening AND closing the rally

Marc

Stick To Selling Soup
Topic: sports
Just getting myself warmed up for a season of Donovan McNabb bashing - from TMQ:

The Cincinnati offense was decent in 2003, but in the offseason Lewis decreed that Carson Palmer would replace Jon Kitna as quarterback. Kitna's been the butt of a lot of cheap jokes (certainly none by me!), yet in 2003 finished as the ninth-rated passer -- higher rated than Tom Brady and Donovan McNabb, to name a couple gentlemen who are pretty good.

What will be McNabb's excuse this year, now that he has Terrell Owens to throw to? And for that matter, what will be Terrell Owens' excuse, now that he doesn't have Jeff Garcia to kick around? Putting those two jerkoffs on the same team is enough to make me root for the Skins.

Marc

What I Did On My Summer Vacation
Topic: LEGO
The lone Jerk single-handedly battles the silence...

So how was Brickfest, you ask? Madness:

About 1500 people showed up for the public expo on Sunday, and while they were impressed with our LEGO nerd skillz, they had little to say for our personal hygiene:

Speaking of public day, the .space room was quite popular and without proper ventilation, prompting me to remark to Teddy "This place smells like a men's locker room." Overhearing me, a soccer mom had this to say. "This is nothing, you should go to the robot-room, I don't think those people bathe."

Going to Brickfest is always a nice reality check for me. Sometimes I think my preoccupation with LEGO is a little nutty, but at Brickfest you meet people who need trailers to bring all their creations, or who are having archive-sized tracked shelving installed in their homes to store their LEGO collection. And sometimes, you see things like this.

If you would like to learn more about Brickfest, you can check out my pictures here; read a Post article about the event; or watch a Danish news segment (it's story #7).

Marc

Today, I Am A Man
Topic: foolishness
I successfully tied my first half-windsor knot this morning:

Now I just need to work on my cravat-tying skills.

Marc

Frank Herzog Rides Again
Topic: sports
Wow, you can tell football season is coming when you start seeing the Frank Herzog posts. Anyway, you have one last chance to hear the aforementioned Mr. Herzog call a Skins game:

He plans to provide the call for a preseason telecast on Aug. 21, but after that his broadcast future is uncertain. His contract with WUSA expires at the end of November, and the station has said it is not renewing the pact.

Marc

Dead Men Tell No Tales (But Their Wives Won't Shut The Hell Up)
Topic: politics
So I was listening to C-SPAN Radio on my way home from work (as is my custom), and I caught part of the congressional hearings on the 9-11 commission report. I turned on the radio in the middle of a long, detailed question from a Congressman to a witness about national ID cards. The answer seemed a bit vague and ill-informed, so I was trying to figure out what kind of dumbass "expert" had managed to get to testify in front of Congress. Turns out this was no expert all, but one of the sainted 9-11 families:

Family members have said they will maintain a watchdog list tracking who does and doesn't co-sponsor legislation implementing the commission's recommendations.

"We will be pushing you as well, we promise," said Robin Wiener, whose brother, Jeffrey Wiener, died in Tower One.

I feel safer already, now that our national security in the hands of a gynocracy of rich, bored housewives from New Jersey.

Can you imagine this pathetic scene taking place in any other era of American history? Could you see FDR lavishing praise on the "inspiring" deeds of the families of Pearl Harbor dead, before asking them to pick a spot for the Normandy landing? Or McKinley thanking the USS Maine families for their courage while seeking their advice on how best to whip the Spaniards?

This kowtowing to the 9-11 families by our supposed "leaders" in Washington is just the latest and most disgusting example of the cult of victimization that has gripped our country. But unlike most of the gag-inducing episodes brought on by this trend, this spectacle has serious consequences.

President Bush, the leader of the goddamned free world, has been buffaloed into swallowing the recommendations of 9-11 commission almost unaltered - partly as a result of the unassailable moral authority bestowed upon the 9-11 families. People a lot more well-informed than I have pointed out the flaws in the commission's recommendations:

Okay, America, here's our intelligence reform agenda: The CIA recognized six years ago that America was at war with al Qaeda, so let's demote it. . . . Pentagon officials dragged their feet on dealing with terrorism, so let's give them more power. . . . The White House politicized the intelligence process, so let's create a new intelligence czar in the White House and give him control over domestic spying, too. The intelligence community suffers from too many fiefdoms, so let's create a few more.

But the odds of having a reasoned debate on the 9-11 commission's recommendations is close to nil, because the American people have decided that the death of a loved one in an especially tragic or public fashion confers wisdom unavailable to you and I.

Marc

Dennis Lucey And Patrick Ewing: Separated At Birth?
Well, they both sweat a lot, but Dennis doesn't quite have the same game.

More wedding pics here.

Marc

Convention-al Wisdom
Monday:
- It seems like the cornerstone of the Democrats' foreign policy message is: we're the party that's endorsed by France. Every speaker who mentioned foreign policy trotted out the old "unilateral" smear, and boo-hooed about the "allies" (France, Germany and Belgium) that we've offended. David Brooks raised a good point when he asked when one of these people was going to mention all those Muslim animals who are trying to kill us.

- Old Hillary was practically licking her chops talking about John Edwards. Man, oh man, is she going to tear that poor bastard a new one in 2008.

- How hilarious was it hearing Bill Clinton piling praise on Kerry's military service? By the way, I'll bet a bottle of Glenlivet that buffoon will be the next ambassador to the U.N. if Kerry manages to sneak his way into the White House.

Tuesday:
Well, the networks didn't give the convention any coverage last night, and by and large they didn't miss much.

- Well, they did miss Barack Obama's speech, which was the best of the convention so far. He was the first to really talk about winning the war on terrorism as opposed to wishing it away. He also decried black anti-intellectualism, saying that a black child should be able to open a book without being accused of "acting white".

- Evita Heinz Kerry was a big letdown. She started her speech by boasting of her legendary opinionation, but turned out to have the opinions of a Bethesda PTA mom.

- Deano was pretty sad. This is pretty much the end of the line for him, even if Kerry loses (which might not be such a bad thing, says the SEIU chief). It's Edwards vs. Hillary in 2008, with Dean as Bruce Babbitt if he decides to get in.

Wednesday:
Well, you can't keep the crazy aunt in the attic forever, I guess:

I suggest to you tonight that if George Bush had selected the court in '54, Clarence Thomas would have never got to law school.

Good ol' Al Sharpton. Here's another winning issue for Democrats:

You said the Republican Party was the party of Lincoln and Frederick Douglass. It is true that Mr. Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, after which there was a commitment to give 40 acres and a mule.

That's where the argument, to this day, of reparations starts. We never got the 40 acres. We went all the way to Herbert Hoover, and we never got the 40 acres.

We didn't get the mule. So we decided we'd ride this donkey as far as it would take us.

You want to know why the Democrats lost Congress and are about to be out of the White House for four more years? Maybe because you're more likely to hear someone calling for reparations at a Democratic convention, than say, a pro-life Democrat, or an anti-gun control Democrat. Putting Al Sharpton on stage at the Democratic convention is like the Republicans putting Ann Coulter on stage. Sweet Jesus.

As for the main event, I wasn't terribly impressed by Edwards' speech. His tired old fable about the poor kids who can't afford a coat is the Democrats' answer to Reagan's "welfare queens". I live in a pretty poor neighborhood, but I've never seen kids walking around in rags like it's fucking Bangladesh or something.

I give Edwards some credit for at least trying to sound tough on the Islamists:

And we, John and I, we will have one clear unmistakable message for Al Qaida and these terrorists: You cannot run. You cannot hide. We will destroy you.

But I wasn't buying it. Still, Edwards' personal magnetism (he's like the hero in those sad romance novels that center around swell-husband fantasies) cannot be denied, especially when compared with the guy at the top of the ticket.

Speaking of which, Kerry's speech is being reported to last 55 minutes. If I don't post tomorrow, you can assume I strangled myself with my own intestines at about the 35-minute mark (right about at the 17th "So I say to you...").

Friday:
Well, I made it.

It's amazing that someone could make a 55-minute speech and leave something out of it, but Kerry found a way. I'm talking about that splendid little war in Mesopotamia, maybe you've heard something about it? How in God's name could Kerry give the most important speech of his life, the one that is supposed to explain why he should be president, and not put forth an Iraq policy?

I know what we have to do in Iraq. We need a president who has the credibility to bring our allies to our side and share the burden, reduce the cost to American taxpayers, reduce the risk to American soldiers. That's the right way to get the job done and bring our troops home.

"Because foreigners love me, I can harness the military might of France and Belgium, thus making this war less expensive". That's it? Are you shitting me? This is a "serious man for serious times?

A few sentences later, in the middle of a stretch of tough talk, Kerry reveals the core of his foreign policy:

I defended this country as a young man, and I will defend it as president. Let there be no mistake: I will never hesitate to use force when it is required. Any attack will be met with a swift and a certain response.

The key word is response - not preempting, or disrupting, or slaughtering terrorists - responding to them. This guy combines the foreign policy wisdom of Jimmy Carter with the charm of Richard Nixon (speaking of Nixon, did you notice Kerry sweating like a hog? I actually changed the channel to watch him sweat from different angles).

The other barf-bag moment in Kerry's speech was the disgusting appeal for stem cell research:

What if we find a breakthrough to cure Parkinson's, diabetes, Alzheimer's and AIDS?

What if we have a president who believes in science, so we can unleash the wonders of discovery like stem-cell research and treat illness for millions of lives?

Is he running for president or Messiah? What a desperate, desperate candidate to run on such a bogus issue. I thought that the Democrats couldn't stoop any lower after putting Ron Reagan on the other night, but I guess I was wrong.

The whole issue of research using embryonic stem cells (which is legal, just not subsidized by Uncle Sam) is an attempt to shore up unlimited abortion rights by tying them to a bunch of live-forever promises. And if this research actually led to a bunch of miracle cures, who would be selling them? That's right, Public Enemy #1 - the drug companies! Or, as Vice-Dreamboat John Edwards would say, "Big Pharma".

I'm starting to think that this election isn't going to be as close as it looks right now. Not that Bush is going to win 45 states or anything, but I'll think he'll have about a 2.5-3% margin of victory, with a comfortable electoral win. Kerry had his chance this week to tell us why he should be president, but he didn't seize it. The GOP's motto this fall will be "They didn't define themselves - we will". Start stamping those Hillary buttons.

I'm Marc Nelson, and I'm reporting for duty.

Steakbag On Rye
Following up on my first post extolling the virtues of rye whiskey, I can now recommend another brand of rye - Old Overholt.

First, the smell (or nose, as they say) is outstanding and very unique. Before I actually tasted the stuff, I spent about two minutes inhaling from the bottle. The smell is kind of like a rye bread-flavored cough drop. Trust me, it's better than it sounds.

Old Overholt has a more intense flavor than Pikesville, very spicy/herbal and drier than Pikesville. Jim Murray says:

Old Overholt has a creamy nose and flavor, with citrus notes. When the rye makes its mark, it is moist and sweet before going on to perfect the driest finish of its genre.

And again, rye is an amazing bargain. I got my 750ml bottle of Old Overholt for $11! So, drink up - and ask for rye at your favorite watering hole. If those Philistines can stock 18 different kinds of schnapps, they stock one more kind of whiskey.

Marc

Calling Ken Shepherd
Check out this subheadline in the Post:

Documentaries Still Turn Left

It's the one form of media that liberals continue to dominate.

Well that's good to know. I had mistakenly thought that the right-wing conspiracy still had a lot more forms of expression left to silence. Just one to go!

Marc

Librarians: America's 17th Line Of Defense
Looks like the library police were on to Sandy Berger (from Byron York at the National Review):

Third, it appears that Berger's "inadvertent" actions clearly aroused the suspicion of the professional staff at the Archives. Staff members there are said to have seen Berger concealing the papers; they became so concerned that they set up what was in effect a small sting operation to catch him. And sure enough, Berger took some more. Those witnesses went to their superiors, who ultimately went to the Justice Department.

So THAT'S why you have to go to grad school to be a librarian.

I am too revolted to try to make any kind of serious comment about the Berger affair, except to say this: Is there anyone out there who still misses the Clinton years?

Marc

ADDENDUM: Billy Jeff says, "Aw, shucks" to the spectacle of a former National Security Adviser stealing secret papers from the National Archives:

Former president Bill Clinton defends his embattled national security advisor as a man who "always got things right," even if his desk was a mess.

"We were all laughing about it," Clinton said about the investigation into Sandy Berger for taking classified terrorism documents from the National Archives. "People who don't know him might find it hard to believe. But ... all of us who've been in his office have always found him buried beneath papers."

I rest my case.

Still Life, With Beef Fat

Marc

Truly, King of Kings
Marc, Jerk, hero.



For more pictures from Nathan and Freda's wedding you can check my website in a coupla' days.

Draper

p.s. There will be pictures of food.

Bad Bounce
From a Washington Post poll, via Mickey Kaus:

The survey also found that Kerry's choice of Sen. John Edwards (N.C.) as his running mate did little to change the overall character of the race. Although the Edwards selection was greeted warmly by many voters, particularly Democrats, Kerry and Bush remain in a tight battle -- with each candidate claiming 46 percent of the hypothetical vote of registered voters. In June, the Massachusetts senator led Bush 48 percent to 44 percent.

Ah, but think of the bounce the Democrats will get after the convention - provided they dump Kerry, that is. Actually, Kerry will get the Torricelli treatment much later, probably after the Republican convention.

Edwards/Dean '04. Believe it.

Marc