A view of the banner on the balcony above the second floor room where the shindig was held. This particular place is actually hosting a few RNC-related events this week. The balcony looks empty now...

Here's Rich Lowry, the Editor-in-Chief of National Review (the Dead Tree version). He was standing by the door greeting everyone, and I even had a few words with him. The NR crew is rather young, cu ne? (A bit of Esperanto there.) Not that there's anything wrong with that...else this wouldn't have happened, perhaps.

Ah, the reason I came. (Well, a big one of many.) Me and Derb, the great John Derbyshire. Derb was the first of a few who not only allowed me to take a picture, but offered to take one with me. He was patient enough to wait for the guy to figure how to work the camera, which, of course, figures- he's a gentleman. He even said he remembered our correspondence. Made my evening. 

Jim Geraghty, who writes "The Kerry Spot" for NRO. Jim is worried, rightly, that people might lose their jobs because they spend all their time at work reading him. Yes, he's that good. And younger than me, I think. 

Kathryn Jean Lopez, editor (editrix?) of National Review Online, who I think set the whole thing up. Hurrah for K-Lo! (As she's called.) The guy with her had some role in setting it up too, I believe, but I'm afraid I don't know him. 

Me and Ramesh Ponnuru, an NR senior editor and all-around nice (and brilliant) guy. Alas, I didn't get to compliment him on any specific pieces, but they're all great.

Me and Jonah! Yay! Another unexpected offer of, "Why not take one of us together?" I look a bit poleaxed here. Chalk it up to hero worship. Jonah may not have gotten onto the LOTR DVD. Sniff. 

This is another view of the balcony- by this point, it had even gotten crowded up there. And no, I don't think the woman in pink is waving to me. 

Here's a view of only some of the crowd, taken from the stairs to the balcony. It's something, huh? The place was packed even at 4:30, and only got more so. The guy in the hat is Roger Simon, who I believe is Someone Important. 

Here's a view to the bar itself, again to show a bit of the crowd. When I turned around after taking this one, I saw Lindsay Young of the Manhattan Institute and Fabiani Society, and we had a few friendly words- I thanked her for emailing a list of events, and asked about her plans for the year.

This is John J. Miller, the NR political reporter. He seemed a bit surprised someone would want to take his picture- they're a modest bunch that way. 

I was on my way out when a few more people with yarmulkes came in (there had been a few before- I think I even saw a chassid). One was Rabbi Daniel Lapin, the famous Jewish conservative. Maybe they'll call me that one day- a guy can dream, can't he? Or maybe I should aim for "the famous conservative." (That's K-Lo behind him, who'd just greeted him, which is how I knew who he was.)

Well, this is the place where it was held, Turtle Bay on 2nd Avenue between 52nd and 53rd. I took this on my way out, going to the train. (K-Lo assured me there'd be no speeches, or I'd have stuck around even longer.) Note the large crowd even outside.

As a test for the above (posted in reverse order), a picture of my brother Sam and his friends M. Hirschman, M. Gombo, and Z. Zelingold, after the wonderful aufruf we had this past weekend. (Obviously, no pictures from the Sabbath day itself, which rocked. Everyone and his brother came to the davening, and my old friend and poster to this site, M. Sussman, stayed for the meal as well.) Great guys, great time.

Grrr

So this morning, I only had a twenty with which to pay for the one dollar Forward at the stand I always get it. Guy wouldn't take it. So I went to the office, got change, and bought it from a machine. Guy's lost a customer, I think. Although I will miss the dog.

So speaking of the big story in the Forward, I don't see how it extends further than the schvuntz it's about. How does it touch on any organization? And what could they do? He wasn't doing anything illegal.

Meh, is what I say.

Outrage of the day? I've learned that Charedi papers give female author's only first initials, so nobody will know it's a woman. (Of course, if some people have first names, you gotta wonder about the rest. Unless there's a more misogynistic point being made here.) This is disgusting. At least if they didn't hire women, it would be consistent, if also wrong. But this...

Feh, is what I say.

I choked up a bit watching this video. I think the anchor did too.

Here's a question to John O'Neill from a discussion at The Washington Post:

Mr. O'Neill, you are questioning the validity of medals awarded to John Kerry by the U.S. government. Aren't you also by implication questioning the competency of the medal eligibility determinations made by U.S. military brass? If so, aren't you in reality calling into question the authenticity of every medal awarded to every U.S. serviceman? If so, how do we differentitate the "good" medals from the "bad" medals?

"You can say what you want, but I won't stand here and let you insult the United States of America! Gentlemen!" [Walk out, humming "The Star Spangled Banner."]

It's a sad state of affairs when Jews don't realize that "Episcopal" and "Catholic" are two separate things.

Call me jingoistic, but reading something like this makes me proud to be an American. O brave new world that has such people in't!

Meanwhile, today's Times has an article about the soon-to-open National Museum of the American Indian. (Well, it's always been in New York- now it's moving to Washington.) Oddly, this article, too, stirred up some good ol' patriotism in me. And then came this:

But not only the sunny side of Indian history will be on display. Some of the
knottiest topics will be addressed, Mr. West said.

Actually, I was waiting for this. Will the museum talk about tribal warfare? Bloodthirsty practices? Scalping? Oh, no: They mean how badly the Indians were treated by the Europeans. Well, that's all well and good. But honesty is honesty.

Jonathan Rosenblum has really crossed a line with this piece. You want to talk shunning, Jon? (I hope that's all you want- but if you do, you're quite naive.) Decent people should shun you.

Speaking of indecency, the Jewish weeklies seem to be having a treif-fest. Last week, the crown jewel of Anglo-Jewish journalism (monkey*) saw fit to devote the major cover story and two whole pages within to Jews who participate in eating contests (non-kosher, of course). So not only is it treif, it's gluttonous treif. Lovely.

Oh, but the Forward will not be left behind. This week's number includes a recipe for- I kid you not- mealworm latkes.

OK, people, I know you don't keep kosher. But a little sensitivity? And leaving kashrut aside, a little, well, taste?

Finally, National Geographic, predictably (and ignoring my vote against) made its latest global warming fright-piece its cover story. (It seems on the newsstand version, too.) The editor freely acknowledges that controversy exists in his introduction- so why, in a huge three-part piece, isn't there the slightest hint of that? Not one dissenter interviewed? Not one word? (The insults in the online forum are precious.)

One letter in the issue is quite funny- a woman demanding that US troops pull out of all places they supposedly aren't needed. Of course, now that the President has proposed just that, I imagine it still won't make her support him. Hell, John Kerry called for it only a week or two ago, only to reverse himself once Bush declared for it. Yolds.

I'm back to ranting, baby!

*A TWoP term meaning "not."

Life imitates art

A little while back, I shared a bus ride with a graduate of Morehouse College (he was wearing a T-shirt). Today, as part of my job, I looked into Ralph's. Name the works of fiction these bring to mind.

Some light stuff

Don't worry, the serious stuff will follow soon:

Cleo strikes again, with another masterpiece.

The Washington Post gets in on the act.