Bobby!

Bobby Jindal was on Jay Leno last night and while he’s personable, smart, well-spoken and generally awesome, he completely doesn’t work on late-night.** And I love that about him. Anyone who works a little too well on late-night shows, cough Huckabee cough, risks coming off clownish. I hope Jindal goes far.

**Jindal did get off one really great line when Leno asked “your father wanted you to be a doctor, how did you get into politics, the sleaziest profession of all?” and Jindal responded “that and Hollywood.” Stick it, Leno.

That’s my Bush

The president breaks with a State Department directive and uses the word “jihadists” to describe jihadists.

China and Tibet

Chinese Students in U.S. Fight View of Their Home

Though I’m an immigrant to the U.S., I have no loyalty to Russia, the country where I was born. I see it for what it is, a country with a strong heritage that can produce great beauty in the form of literature, art, dance and so on, but also that can impose a system of destruction on their people for generations and not think twice about it.

I wonder about these Chinese students. They have to know the truth about their home country. They live here, after all, and they see that we don’t kill baby girls or lock up critics of the state. And yet they feel defensive in the face of criticism of China. Is it loyalty or denial?

On a separate note, the popular Facebook program Superpoke recently added this poke:

“Love China with _____”:

Of course, you can also Free Tibet:

Loving love

I usually despise the people in the New York Times Vows section but the story of this couple, best friends who fall in love, made me smile.

Oh Snap

Joe Bruno (majority leader of the NY State Senate and head Republican in the state) is so mean, I love it. On Eliot Spitzer:

“The previous governor didn’t get it. So he’s not here anymore. He got some things, but he didn’t get away with it. And that is not a good thing, O.K. That’s why he’s in psychiatric care.”

Quote of the Day

“There are … issues that quite simply do not have two sides.”

-Arianna Huffington on her belief that “the political world is made up of right opinions and wrong ones” in a piece by Ana Maria Cox.

This woman is the Paris Hilton of political commentary. Accidental wealth+exhibitionist [corrected from "voyeuristic"] tendencies=we have to see her more than any of us would like. Though, at least Paris isn’t giving us her opinion on global warming. Yet.

Obama stunned by Wright’s comments

…despite the fact that the new comments are not all that different the old comments.

Allahpundit says it best:

The bottom line: After 20 years of friendship, if Obama didn’t know Wright held these beliefs he’s a moron and if he did know he’s a fraud.

Get what you give

James Taranto on the Wright story:

Wright himself resurfaced last week, sitting for an interview with PBS’s Bill Moyers. It was an embarrassing softball affair in which Moyers at times was even less sensible than Wright. At one point Wright rightly observed that “we have the freedom here in this country” to denounce our government, “whereas [in] some other places, you’re dead if [you] say the wrong thing about your government.” To which Moyers replied, “Well, you can be almost crucified for saying what you’ve said here in this country.”

Which is true, if being “almost crucified” means being subjected to harsh criticism. By that definition, Wright has almost crucified America on many a Sunday.

Song of the Day

“There was a time” by Guns-N-Roses.

The latest news about “Chinese Democracy” seems so promising. Could it be that we’ll be listening to it soon?

This is the leaked studio version of the song:

And this is the live version:

Wright on

Everyone is blogging up the latest Reverend Wright comments and Jennifer Rubin at Commentary points to this exchange:

MODERATOR: What is your relationship with Louis Farrakhan? Do you agree with and respect his views, including his most racially divisive views?

WRIGHT: As I said on the Bill Moyers’ show, one of our news channels keeps playing a news clip from 20 years ago when Louis said 20 years ago that Zionism, not Judaism, was a gutter religion.

Except, of course, that “Zionism” is not a gutter religion, it’s not a good religion, it’s not a religion at all. Everyone knows what Farrakhan said, the fact that Wright is in denial about it is purely defensive.

Wright goes on to say that Farrakhan didn’t say anything different than the U.N. or Jimmy Carter, or Desmond Tutu. He concludes with:

Louis Farrakhan is not my enemy. He did not put me in chains. He did not put me in slavery. And he didn’t make me this color.

Does Wright know he was never slave or does that need to be clarified to him? His last sentence, though, that Farrakhan didn’t make him “this color” is particularly weird. It sounds like he’s calling being black a bad thing. Wouldn’t it be G-d who made Wright that color?

Love shrugged

The NY Times profiles extremely specific dating sites. Did you know that there’s a dating site for Ayn Rand fans?

Best. Election. Ever.

How fun will it be if Hillary wins the nomination?

UPDATE: “Remarkable as it may seem we now have Clinton calling for debates on issues and Obama name-calling.”

Global warming is a crock

“For the last ten years, we have, in fact, been not warming but slightly cooling, which is why the eco-warriors have adopted the all-purpose bogeyman of “climate change.” But let’s take it that the editors of Time are referring not to the century we live in but the previous one, when there was a measurable rise of temperature of approximately one degree. That’s the “war”: one degree.”

-Mark Steyn

I can’t find a link but Ann Coulter had a funny comment along these same lines: “Global warming means a 1 degree increase every few hundred years. So, you’re sitting on a beach and it’s 80 degrees and then oh my G-d, it’s 81 degrees!”

I hate modern life

Why is this guy congratulating himself on staying faithful to his wife? And he’s embarrassed by that when he’s around his guy friends? Honestly.

Food

I am so ready for matzoh-sandwich days to be over, who’s with me?:

I miss bread, pizza and pasta desperately and I’m not even that big into those things (with the exception of pizza) the rest of the year.

In other food news, I made baby back ribs and fries last night. I’m really critical of the food I make so it means something that I’m letting the world know these ribs were off the hizook. The fries were super good too.

I used this recipe (minus the orange zest) for the dry rub but then cooked both types of ribs according to this recipe. I used this recipe for the fries.

IC’s comment after we ate “I feel like I should call people and tell them about this” made me giggle and blush. Learn to cook, ladies, turns out it’s true about that stomach-heart connection.

Last year, this time

I’m reading old blog posts (don’t ask) and it’s so funny to see what a difference a year makes:

*Bruce Bartlett says there’s no chance a Republican will win in ‘08 and conservatives should just go ahead and support Hillary.

*Fred Thompson was lighting my fire.

*I would regularly stay up till 7am. These days I go to bed by midnight.

*The most embarrassing thing we knew about Eliot Spitzer was that he wanted American Idol reject Sanjaya’s autograph.

*New Yorkers thought we’d get to choose between Rudy Giuliani and Fred Thompson. Of course, by the time the primary actually reached us it was Romney, McCain, Huck and Paul left standing.

*I linked to this Esther Kustanowitz article about Jews making the upper west side their home. I wrote that I’m a Brooklyn-ite first and an upper east sider second. And now, well, not so much.

Song of the Day

“Your Woman” by White town.

It is well documented that Dawn Summers has the worst taste in music. Ever. Ever. So it’s always a pleasant surprise when her MySpace song isn’t Backstreet Boys or Clay Aiken, and today it’s this. And yes, Fisch, I am aware she stole it from you.