Well, last night's event went off quite well (Ken Mehlman, RNC chairman, at the local chapter of the Federalist Society). They had to keep bringing in more seats. At first I thought it'd just be a stump speech, but he ended up being quite in depth, focusing on judges- because it's a lawyer's organization, after all. (When did this male/female thing at the political parties get started? Just wondering.)

The questions weren't bad either, and it got interesting when one kook arose and started screaming about gays in Jerusalem and Pat Buchanan and "Israeli-occupied" territory and how the FBI should be investigating all the Zionists in the US. I guess he thought he was at a Democratic meeting; fortunately, the largely upper-crust WASPy audience was having none of it and booed him down. We conservatives and Republicans don't go for that garbage, thankyouverymuch. Try Howard Dean next time. Mehlman, meanwhile, had a nice snappy response: "Well, if the FBI's going to investigate Zionists, I hope they start with me."

The guy said that he was a "proud Jew" and that he had been foreign correspondent for the Manchester Union-Leader. That state is so full of extremes, and yet we flatter them, making that paper the most important in the country every four years. Ah well. And...but I'm spending far too much space on what was a tiny part of the event. Good times.

Professor McGinnis was there (I welcomed him back to New York), as was Deroy Murdock. I actually spoke to the latter about the new tower design- we agreed it was better than before. He was giving out a list he compiled of Islamic bombings of mosques, along with this excellent piece. Alas, I didn't get to ask the Fabiani honcho what was up with that.

Speaking of the tower, the Times critic doesn't like it. As if I needed more reason to be happy.

Speaking of the Times, this story is...well, interesting. I'd say "funny," but it's not really, especially when you see who Bloomberg called to kowtow to.

As long as I'm linking articles, here are two nice ones: One from the Times of London on Bush, and one from Peggy Noonan on politicians.

In his latest, Mugger really puts the latest "takings" case in perspective. I've seen this attitude ("We'll [re]compensate you! Why not?") elsewhere, but in private industry. You don't like it, leave. Here, you don't have a choice. Seriously, you shouldn't need a reason. "I don't want to" should be good enough for the government. Yuck. (Another NY Press piece on this here. Looks like some people are finally waking up as to which party is on the side of the "little guy".)

Nicest part of getting a haircut is how nicely your tefillin fits after. (Speaking of tefillin, see my comments here.)