Agreed, though I liked “her mother in the diamonds on the chaise lounge.”

Best line from the fun little movie “Bottle Shock,” about the emergence of California as a serious challenger to France, as a character savors the bouquet: “It's oaky... Oh, yeah, and smoky. I detect... bacon fat... laced with honey melon.”

Dana Perino commented on this Friday afternoon on The Five that the Bush communications team sometimes did this sort of thing when there was a lot of detail in a story and there was a need to “educate” reporters by walking them through a story with a complicated timeline, etc.   

Though while such a meeting may not be unprecedented. I have trouble imagining Jay Carney as an educator.

The apostle Paul never said charity would be fun.

Much as I enjoy mocking the Religion of Obama, on a charitable reading the intent of the tweet is to propose as our North Star “reigniting the true engine of our economic growth—a rising, thriving middle class.” Hard to argue with that, though of course our Lightworker in Chief has failed to achieve anything that might be mistaken for it.

“Gentlemen, you can't fight in here! This is the War Room!”

Among other scenes in “O Brother Where Art Thou,” the greatest interview/session ever. Also, the greatest escape. And the least auspicious conversion. And the worst family reunion. And the world’s premier hair treatment. And the lousiest picnic. And the only funny Klan rally ever. And the bank robber who most enjoys his work and exhibits the least tolerance for cows.

I rank with Bob and Layla. I blame Star Trek, which regularly refers to Earth-type planets as having an “oxygen-nitrogen atmosphere.”

With Podhoretz in the driver’s seat, maybe it should be called Podhoretzcast?

So at about 6:50 this becomes the Surrealist Ricochet Podcast Ever. Glad I was there for it.

Why wouldn’t the winning business model for CNN be to aim to revive Crossfire but infuse it with the tone of NPR? (Okay, a notch less effete.) Recruit the strongest commentators available, conservative and liberal alike, and put them in vigorous but civil conversation with each other. Sell the network as the place you go for healthy, open debate where the facts decide; the honest broker that lets strong advocates for both sides have their say but where conversations don’t routinely descend into shouting matches. You’d cede the people who just tune in to see their side victorious to Fox (where the conservative Globetrotters nightly score points against Fox’s liberal Washington Generals) and MSNBC (where panels of liberals declare all conservatives insane racists night after night). But you’d capture an audience of people who enjoy vigorous, substantive, civil debate. If anyone at CNN sees the promise in this, you can contact me through Ricochet. :-)

Handshakefulness — where’s handshakefulness?

On Ronald Reagan’s birthday, perhaps it’s appropriate to note on this interesting thread that his administration, while of course far from the Paulite libertarian revival of “Come Home, America,” was also much more measured in its use of force than any of its successors. Reagan armed and assisted the enemies of America’s enemies, he responded decisively to provocation, and he built up forces to a point that no other nation could challenge the US in military strength. The most conspicuous exception to this rule was the deployment of Marines to Lebanon, and while Reagan didn’t call that deployment a mistake (he said that about housing so many Marines in one barracks), it’s telling that within four months of the bombing he ordered the withdrawal of American troops. The Reagan administration was vigorous in its advocacy of American values and interests, but it’s a mistake to treat its approach to the use of force as continuous with the administrations that have followed. I don’t know whether Reagan ever played a cowboy who advocated keeping your powder dry, but along with the corollary “Stockpile a lot of powder,” that maxim nicely captures his military policy.

President Joe Biden — 'Cause How Much Worse Could Your Crazy Uncle Do in the Job?

“Return of the Jedi,” specifically the lame, saccharine redemption of Darth Vader. There’s no plausible buildup to his turning against the Emperor to save Luke, whom he himself was trying to drive to despair and slice in half moments before, and then we’re supposed to buy that saving Luke from death at the Emperor’s hand redeems DV’s having helped the Empire hunt down and murder the Jedi Knights and engineer galactic terror, so that he takes his place as a Jedi saint alongside Obi-Wan and Yoda at the film’s denouement. And to twist the knife and rob us of our innocence forever, we get as DV’s dying words, “Tell your sister she was right about me,” reminding us that the first act of this action-figure commercial masquerading as a film rendered forever creepy the Luke-Leia-Han romantic triangle that was such fun in the first two movies. Fie on you, George Lucas!

Great thread; but I'm left wondering what translations of 19th century Russian authors you'd recommend, Peter. Can you advise?

The Ricochet Subscriber.