Sunday, July 22, 2007

Recommended Reading

Christopher Caldwell gives us a nice overview and history of Ron Paul, a man who won't get any closer to the Republican nomination than you will...but might have some impact on how that party veers.

• Posted at 6:25 PM · LINK

More Faint Praise

The administration's war efforts in Iraq have had no more fervent supporter than Christopher "Kit" Bond, the senior senator from the great state of Missouri and the vice chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. He's one of the many pols who've been out there for years now, telling us how great it's going over there and how we only have to "stay the course" and continue to do exactly as George W. Bush directs.

So it was a little disconcerting to see him say the following in this letter to The New York Times...

While I agree that we had the wrong plan for three years, we now have the right one, and the right man to lead it.

We had the wrong plan for three years? Three years!!?? How is that possible? I mean, all that time, Kit Bond was telling us we had the right plan and he was impugning the courage, intelligence and/or patriotism of anyone who dared suggest otherwise. And now...here he is, telling us it was the wrong plan. Oh, well. At least, he still has utter confidence in the men who picked all those people who plotted out the wrong plan for us. I wonder how the families of all the soldiers who got killed in the last three years carrying out the wrong plan feel about this.

• Posted at 6:07 PM · LINK

Sunday Afternoon

Since shortly after the dark day of 9/11, to get on an airplane in this country has been to be subjected to more elaborate security procedures. You often have to tote your own luggage around to screening devices and wait while it's inspected by people wearing blue gloves. You have to take off your shoes. You have to throw away your bottles of water and buy new ones once you're past the checkpoint. (I think the folks who have the H2O concessions at the airports suggested that one.) You have to discard things like lighters and medicines and nail clippers and that most lethal of all substances, breast milk. You also have to get there much earlier and wait in long lines to be treated with cold suspicion by officials, some of whom seem to know their jobs and some of whom just seem to enjoy the sensation of power and the joy of ordering others around.

I wouldn't mind any of this if I thought there was the slightest chance that it was lessening the chance of another 9/11. But flying the last few years has convinced me — and I'm hardly the only person who thinks this — that all the new stuff is just for show. The metal detectors can still, I suppose, prevent most folks from bringing weapons onto the planes...but it strikes me that everything that's been added to the ordeal is just so someone can pretend that since that September day, we're doing more to prevent disaster.

This morning on Fox News Sunday, Department of Homeland Security Advisor Fran Townsend was asked to defend the new decision that lighters on planes pose no threat. Here's a link to a video of her justifying that change. But the question I'd like to see asked is: "What's changed?" If a terrorist could have used a Zippo to bring down a plane last month, why can't he now? The unspoken logical conclusion is that lighters were never dangerous, which leads us to the obvious follow-up question: "How did you come to this conclusion and why didn't someone decide it 5+ years ago?" I find it hard to believe that the C.I.A. has just now monitored some terrorists, overheard them saying they never use lighters in their schemes, and deduced from that exchange that no terrorist could or would.

Make no mistake: I'm all for doing whatever can be done to make our skies safer, especially when I'm flying them. But it seems to me that every dollar and man-hour you spend doing something that doesn't work is a buck and a man-hour not spent on doing something that might. One useful project might be to take the 50% or so of the airport T.S.A. crew that acts like they got promoted that morning out of working behind the Sbarro's counter and teach them to actually look at the passengers and talk to them like human beings. And maybe if they didn't devote so much time to looking for nail files and bottles of Crystal Geyser water, they might notice something that could actually do some harm.

• Posted at 3:01 PM · LINK

Solid Golddiggers

At this moment, the Vietnam Veterans of America is winding down its annual convention in Springfield, Illinois. Last evening, they had their big banquet, complete with entertainment. Among the performers scheduled to appear at the convention were country-rock singers Big and Rich, recording artists Lee Greenwood and Nancy Sinatra, and a historic reunion of — wait for it — The Ding-a-Ling Sisters.

You remember the Ding-a-Ling Sisters. Back in the days of the Dean Martin TV shows, there was a chorus line of 8-10 comely singer-dancers called The Golddiggers. They often appeared with Dean and also fronted their own series from time to time, including a terrific summer replacement show done in England that starred Marty Feldman. Golddiggers came in many permutations with ladies constantly being added and dropped from the ensemble. At times, they'd also take four of the more gifted Golddiggers and bill them as The Ding-a-Ling Sisters.

In 1970, when Bob Hope was doing his reknowned Christmas show tours, he took along the current Golddiggers group to entertain our soldiers. If I'm recalling this correctly from my research a few years later — back in my days of hard-hitting journalism, I did a couple of articles for magazines about Golddiggers and Ding-a-Ling Sisters — the whole troupe would do a couple of numbers and then the four who comprised the Ding-a-Lings would perform as a separate act. Or something like that. In the photo above, which is from one of those Hope excursions, the ladies are — left to right — Susan Lund, Tara Leigh, Michelle Della Fave and Wanda Bailey.

Last night in Springfield, three of them — Susan, Michelle and Wanda — reunited and performed together for the first time in thirty-seven years. (The word is that Tara declined but sent along her good wishes. Tara was the one with the operatic voice whose solos always caused Dean to do a cross-eyed take to camera.) I have no report on how the show went but I'll wager the audience loved them. If anyone was there or hears from someone who was, let me know. I'm fascinated by "second careers" and how someone who was on a series in the sixties or seventies can now make money off it — sometimes, decent and much-needed money — working the nostalgia circuit and conventions.

• Posted at 10:01 AM · LINK

Today's Video Link

It's another Paul Winchell clip. Here's the first six minutes of an episode of one of his many TV programs. In fact, I think it's the same episode that yesterday's clip came from. In any case, it includes a jazzy little musical number with Knucklehead. Click and enjoy.

• Posted at 12:21 AM · LINK