And he's supposedly the "serious" candidate on the left

Mark Steyn spanks Bill Richardson on his Pakistan comments.

Me, me, me

BG wrote up his Vegas trip report and calls our 2-hour political argument his favorite part of the weekend. Also, I'm intelligent and accomplished. So there.

Who told you so?

McCain leads in latest national Rasmussen poll.

Let's go, NY!

UPDATE: Awwwww, lemon.

A very Jew-y Christmas

Is it just New York Jews who have some sort of movie-going/Chinese-food-ordering tradition on Christmas? I don't Jew it up that well, though. We opted for Thai and the movie (Persepolis) was sold out.

Other than a last-minute passport renewal panic (great success, I leave for Aruba on Sunday), this week has been a whirlwind of wine, food and movies. Some quickie reviews are below. Please add your own recommendations in the comment section.


Eat:

Ilili-I mentioned this restaurant in my "things I want to do in NY" list (though I've only done #4 so far, I have a bunch of new things to add to a future such list). We checked it out on Christmas Eve and I liked it a lot. I recommend the Kubbeh and the brussel sprouts.

Stone Park Cafe in Park Slope, Brooklyn- This was merely ok. It's a little overpriced for Park Slope, and the menu isn't all that exciting. The risotto appetizer was pretty good, though.

Earthen Oven- Is it just me being an Anglophile or does Indian Food in America pretty much suck? Earthen Oven is my favorite Indian Food in NY, and therefore the country. It's consistently delicious; almost as good as the Indian food in Britain.

Atlantic Grill, Brooklyn- This place used to be competitive with the powerhouses of Russian dining, Tatiana and Rasputin. Not. No. More.

Balthazar- I haven't eaten at Balthazar in forever, because I think their food is pretty mediocre, but I stopped by their bakery today and picked up their signature chocolate bread as well as a baguette and a couple of tarts. They are incredible. I wonder if they still do that thing where they give away all of their unsold baked goods at the end of every evening. I used to have a friend who lived on that.

See

Juno-This movie was funny and cute. And I think the pro-life movement should appreciate a movie like this which has a pro-life theme without beating you over the head with it.

Beautiful Girls- I've seen this a million times and I just love something about the "coming home to figure things out" plot line.

Devil Wears Prada- Awful. Really, really awful. Worst of all,a guy made me watch it.

Cymbeline at Lincoln Center- Cymbeline is one of Shakespeare's lesser known plays. And now I sort of understand why. It had a good cast, with Phylicia Rashād and Martha Plimpton, it just wasn't that compelling a story.

Drink:

Mille e Una Notte- My father gave me this bottle which translated means "A thousand and one nights". It's a little fuller than I tend to like my reds but it's a great wine.

Massaya- I thought this Lebanese wine was pretty good. My date, a wine snob, did not.

Siete Leguas Tequila- In general, I despise tequila. I'll drink it in Margaritas or other mixed drinks, but it takes a lot to convince me to do shots of Petron when they're being passed around. Leguas, though, wow. It's so good it's sipped!

La Zollo Barolo- I don't think it's an exaggeration to say this is one of the best wines I've ever had. I randomly picked it up at the wine shop across the street from my apartment and I got an approving comment from the owner. Even the aforementioned wine snob enjoyed it.

Again, please leave your own recommendations on things to eat, drink and see in the comment section. I love the suggestions.

Back Soon

I've had a busy few days but hope to be back to something resembling regular blogging this afternoon.

Word is she was shot twice before the "suicide attack"

Pakistan Opposition leader Benazir Bhutto has died after a suicide attack at a political rally.

Message

From the Associated Press:

Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton on Saturday made her closing argument to female voters in a message that could be reduced to three words.

You. Go. Girl.

Actually, it's more like "Republicans hate families":

Clinton, standing in a lobby of a YWCA, told undecided mothers and their daughters that her agenda for families and children is the most aggressive to help them. She touted her family care and child care tax credits designed to lessen the burden on working women.

"We can do a better job in supporting families than we do right now," Clinton said. "We give a lot of lip service to family values, but we've never really valued families in a way that we can."

Or, the slightly lengthier, "Vote for Me, I'm a Chick":

One voter, a self-described feminist, asked Clinton later in Keene if she thought it was acceptable to support her based solely on her gender.

"Of course I do," Clinton said with laughter. "I'm not asking you to vote for me because I'm a woman. ... But the fact that I am a woman gives this election extra significance."

It's Christmastime in the city

Though, as it's John Kerry, he may change his mind soon

"I’m even more deeply troubled to see that today we find ourselves in a place of division when we could have been united – so much promise threatened by President Bush’s threat to veto a bipartisan bill that funds stem cell research."- John Kerry on Stem Cell Research.

"Senator Kerry is deeply troubled by the numbers of people - and particularly the number of children - that are wounded or killed by gunfire each year and he supports stricter gun control measures in order to prevent children and adults from misusing any of the approximately 192 million firearms currently in circulation in the United States." -John Kerry on guns.

But, most deeply troubling of all (Via Hot Air Headlines):

“As a Bostonian, I couldn’t be more pleased that in just five days, the New England Patriots will attempt to become the first NFL team in 35 years to finish the regular season with an undefeated record,” Kerry wrote. “But as someone who represents all of Massachusetts and not just those in the Boston media market, I remain deeply troubled that today as many as 250,000 Massachusetts households, and millions of Patriots fans nationwide, may be denied access to this historic sporting event. …

Happy Christmas

Stupid NFL network

Watching the game unfold on Yahoo isn't quite the same.

UPDATE: Via Hot Air, turns outs you can watch the game here.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Oh. No. T.O. is injured and in the locker room.

Why Hollywood celebrities should never speak in public

Will Smith: Hitler not so bad.

Via Hot Air Headlines.

Question

How come I got about a million emails from pro-life groups about the film Bella but none about the movie Juno? I didn't see Bella, so I can't speak to its quality, but Juno was a great movie that happened to have a great "choose life" message running all the way through.

Don't hate the album, hate the idiot who made the album

When asked why my boyfriend 50 Cent's album Curtis lost the sales battle to Kanye West's Graduation, I say that it's because Kanye put out the superior album by far.

Graduation is the album of the year. Every song is incredible. It will be a classic.

That's why it's a damn shame that Kanye West is such a moron.

Over/under on Mitt's Tancredo bump?

Tancredo drops out of race, endorses Romney.

Question.

Why am I getting Joe Biden comment spam?

Leave my Terrell Owens alone

By now, most sports-fans have heard that Terrell Owens, obviously the most charismatic and interesting player in the NFL judging by the amount of coverage his every comment receives, made the same joke as everyone else about Jessica Simpson being responsible for Tony Romo's sluggish performance last Sunday. Of course, I make the joke, you make the joke, we're funny, no problem. T.O. makes the joke and he's being a distraction, an attention-whore and generally just slightly better than Osama bin Laden.

T.O. has now apologized for people taking his joke seriously. And "insiders" have told me that this was not Jessica Simpson's first Cowboys game, something confirmed in this article, so she's not actually a jinx or a distraction.

Great. Terrific. Now can the 'Boys focus on Romo's thumb healing and kicking some Carolina butt on Saturday night?

Tripping with Dawn

As it should be obvious to anyone that has read this blog for awhile: Dawn Summers is not awesome. But, what the hey, I'm mentioned a lot in her "I'm awesome" fairytale so here's the link.

Song of the Day

"All You Need is Love"- The Beatles

My family has had a tradition of going away together for New Years ever since I was a little kid. We'd take a cruise, the five of us when my grandmother was still alive and my parents were together, and spend New Years at sea.

In my entire life, there have been only two exceptions to this. In 2003, my grandmother was dying and so we spent New Years 2004 in NY with her. The only other time was New Years 1997.

My parents were big travelers and in 1997 they planned to take an extensive trip through Asia. My brother and I simply couldn't take that time off from school and so my father told us to make alternate New Years plans. I had lived in Scotland the previous year for the first time, in a small town called Forres, and had been back in the U.S. for about 6 months. There was only one place I would want to spend New Years. I was 19, my brother was 14, and we decided to take a 3-week trip through England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland, ending up in Forres for New Years.

It was an incredible trip. My brother wrote his college essay about the experience. He had his first beer on that trip in a Pizza Hut in a London, stayed at his first youth hostel, discovered that hotels in Ireland close on Christmas and you have to make a run for Britain to find shelter, got trapped in Bangor, Wales for 3 days because trains don't run on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day OR Boxing Day (the 26th of December) and generally experienced a kind of freedom that most 14-year olds probably never get. Maybe too much freedom. I kept telling him to go explore on his own but he would invariably just follow me around, two or three blocks behind.

One of our stops was Liverpool, England. We were only there for the day because we had really liked Manchester and ended up extending our stay there by another night. We had to be in northern Scotland by New Years eve and we were running out of time.

We took the Magical Mystery Tour of Liverpool. My brother and I had always disagreed on music. He took to hip-hop at a very early age and I never could understand it. It was a constant battle between us to get him to listen to something other than rap. He did the Beatles tour with good spirits, though. There's a picture of us holding hands and giggling outside Strawberry Fields and of him pointing at the sign at Penny Lane. He even sang along with some of the songs they played on the bus.

That night, when we settled into our Dublin hotel to spend the night, he paused his Biggie-listening and said "hey, do you have any Beatles CDs with you?" I was so happy. I remember rifling through my bag, eager to introduce my brother to some Beatles, happy that the tour seemed to have changed his musical perspective a little.

"Yeah," he continued, "I noticed on the bus today that their music makes me really sleepy."

My brother sent me this video today and reminded me of that trip. You can see Mick Jagger in it about two and a half minutes in.

Comment of the Day

"Oh sweetie... the men that we're looking for, the MEN not the current crop of 30 year old guys, are our dad's ages. They just don't make marlboro men anymore. Now Pete Wentz (who wears more eyeliner daily then I do yearly) is cough cough gag choke... hot. Our moms got Paul Newman and Robert Redford and we get Jude Law and Ashton Kutcher. That's fair."

For the record, I have no quarrel with boys who don't approach girls on a subway, mostly because I don't like being approached when there is nowhere to run and hide. Though, I think I'd die of embarrassment if the shy boy then went on to make a website to find me. Yes, there's really no winning here.

UPDATE: Ace blogged about this a few days ago and has some advice for wussy guys. It's Ace so if salty language offends you, better not to click.

What do you want for Christmas?

I'll accept much of this list.

And it's got Brad in it

It could have been about 40 minutes shorter, and I don't ever need to see it again, but I watched Babel last night and quite enjoyed it. I generally think the "all the stories are connected" cinematic theme is pretty cheap; it's just been done to death in the last 15 years. And Babel ran this corny plot device into the ground. Still, it kept me entertained more than the rest of the terrible movies I've seen lately. Which, I guess, is saying something.

Sick.

This is Unicef's Photo of the Year :

It's Mohammed, 40, with his new 11-year-old wife, Ghulam.

That's not nothing

Fred Thompson third in Iowa?

I would've lost more than just the video game

Waaaaah:

A Canadian man who said he sold his 15-year-old son's prized video game, a Christmas gift, on eBay after catching him smoking marijuana has sparked an online debate on who is wrong--father or son.

The unidentified man decided to punish his son by selling the popular and hard-to-find Guitar Hero III video game he had bought him for Christmas for $90 on the auction site, where an Australian buyer bid $9,100. It was not known if the sale at that price actually proceeded.

"I had finally got the Holy Grail of Xmas presents pretty much just in the nick of time. I couldn't wait to spread the jubilance to my son," the father said in a letter accompanying the posting on eBay. "Then, yesterday, I came home from work early, and what do I find? My innocent little boy smoking pot in the backyard with two of his delinquent friends."

We live in such a luxurious world that something like this can be up for "debate". Apparently, some people feel the father embarrassed the son. Boo freaking hoo.

Song of the Day

"Of Minor Prophets and Their Prostitute Wives" by Pedro the Lion

I work from home and generally have music playing all day. Today, I had a busy day, was feeling sort of sick for most of it, and didn't have the itunes open at all. When I was done with my work and was feeling a little better, I opened the music player and hit random. This was the first song. David Bazan's voice and lyrics were so comforting on this cold, tough day. Listen below (he talks for the first 1:55 so feel free to fast forward):

Abortions are not a crime-fighting policy

"Freakonomics", a book that looks at the economics of everyday life, came out in 2005, and, in testament to its quality, I find that it's still a frequent subject of discussion in so many social situations. I loved the book, despite disagreeing with two of their main premises: the one about drug dealers earning minimum wage and the one about abortions cutting crime.

Steve Sailer had written the definitive takedown on the latter subject several years ago but apparently the governor of Rio De Janeiro doesn't read isteve:

Sergio Cabral -- the governor of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil -- on Wednesday said that legalizing abortion could help reduce violence in the city, AFP/Independent Online reports. Abortion is banned in Brazil except in cases of rape or to save the life of the pregnant woman.

According to Cabral, wealthy women in Rio de Janeiro are able to undergo abortions at clandestine clinics, but low-income women -- many of whom reside in the city's overpopulated slums, which have high rates of crime -- have no way to end unintended pregnancies. Cabral said that it is "madness" to not offer low-income women a way to end unintended pregnancies.

Cabral added that in affluent areas of Rio de Janeiro, the number of children per woman is similar to that of Sweden, whereas the number of children per woman in impoverished areas of the city is similar to that of Zambia or Gabon. "That's a factory for producing marginal people," Cabral said. According to AFP/Independent Online, Cabral based his argument for legalizing abortion on the book "Freakonomics" by economist Steven Levitt and journalist Stephen Dubner, which links a decline in criminal violence in the U.S. to the legalization of abortion in 1973.

Perhaps someone send him a different book, maybe one on implementing some kind of preventative measures to limit the number of pregnancies without looking at abortion as some sort of salvation.

Hat-tip SMVP.

Trusting the Russians and Iranians doesn't make a lot of sense

Bush supports Russia sending enriched uranium to Iran

And upon closer inspection, nope, still makes no sense:

U.S. President George W. Bush said on Monday he supports Russia sending enriched uranium to Iran for civilian power use because it meant that Tehran did not need to pursue their own enrichment capabilities.

"If the Russians are willing to do that, which I support, then the Iranians do not need to learn how to enrich," Bush said. "If the Iranians accept that uranium for a civilian nuclear power plant, then there's no need for them to learn how to enrich."

Russia has delivered the first shipment of nuclear fuel to Iran's Bushehr atomic power station, which Moscow and Washington say should convince Tehran to shut down its disputed uranium enrichment program.

In 13 days

I will be here:

(It's Aruba, I'm going for New Years).

And this is the second time in my life this has happened to me

Your tax dollars at work:

I just got pulled over for not wearing my seatbelt. I was wearing my seatbelt at the time.

Someone explain how, exactly

'Palestinian state in Israel's interest'
-Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni at Paris talks on Palestinian statehood.

I blame Jessica Simpson

And her stupid pink jersey.

Quote of the Day

"If I don't finish in the top 50 in Iowa, I'll still stay in the race."

- John McCain

Hat-tip Hot Air Headlines.

I'm not just rooting against the Patriots

I'm also rooting for my second favorite team:

"Why am I wearing a Jets santa hat?"-Me
"Oh! I'm going to tell everyone! I'm posting that picture on Alarming News!"- Frank White

Our partners in peace

Hamas at Gaza rally: We will never recognize Israel

Hamas warns Israel its ready to launch intifada

When they come with the bullets, you prepare with the bomb

A man walked into a Kennesaw, Georgia bank and robbed it yesterday afternoon. He claimed he had a bomb in his briefcase and, when he left it behind, the bank had to be evacuated. This is a particularly interesting story because Kennesaw is a town which requires every head of household to own a gun. I'm sure most of the people in the bank were packing. It's a wonder he walked out of there. And, no, I'm not advocating a right to carry bombs, DAWN. I'm just marveling that he's still alive.

So, who do you think Huck will choose for VP?

Ed Rollins joins Huckabee campaign as national campaign chairman and senior adviser.

My claim to fame with Mr. Rollins is that he called me his "little rightwinger" when we worked on the KT McFarland campaign together.

Tonight in NY

I am 65% going to that Dorothy Parker Christmas Party at the Algonquin tonight, 7-9pm. Anyone else?

It ain't no "Old School"

Blades of Glory was the suck.

I like dumb funny movies, I do (Old School, Anchorman, Wedding Crashers). But why is the bar set so low lately?

More Huckabee pile-on

But at least the Fred Thompson campaign has a sense of humor about it.

Question of the Day

By Joe Grossberg.

I'm not

Is anyone sad that we might not get to run against Hillary?

We have ourselves a race

The Republican primary is getting real dirty, no doubt about it, but I have a feeling the Democrats are about to show us how dirty is really done.

I love the internet

Walter Olson is giving me tips on making asparagus and wild mushroom risotto on Facebook.

Who saw the southern white guy tearing the Republican party apart?

Philip Klein has a damning piece on Huckabee's penchant for releasing violent criminals. I think Huck's problem at this point is that he will be seen as a softie: on taxes, on immigration and now on crime.

Ace of Spades, meanwhile, says he will vote for Hillary over Huck. THAT'S CRAZY TALK. Also, Ace writes that National Review is seen by many conservatives as "meddlesome yuppie RINOs" which, again, is just insane. NR is the conservative gold standard. If we're taking shots at them, our movement is in serious trouble.

There's something wrong with the world today

Dad Allegedly Kills Girl Over Head Scarf:

A Canadian teenager who was said to have clashed with her father about whether she should wear a traditional Muslim head scarf died of injuries late on Monday, and her father told police he had killed her.

Regret

I might've decided that $145 on a ridiculous splurge purchase was too much. But I wonder if I would've thought about it as much as I've been thinking about not buying those beautiful gloves.

"Our guiding principle has always been to select the most conservative viable candidate."

National Review endorses Romney.

Venezuela hearts President Bush

I read this in the Economist on the plane home and found it quite satisfying:

AT HIS final rally before a referendum on constitutional reform on December 2nd, President Hugo Chávez warned tens of thousands of his red-shirted supporters, many of them bused in from across the country to fill Caracas's Avenida Bolívar, that voting yes to the reform was a vote for him whereas a no vote would be “a vote for George W. Bush”. So one reading of the referendum's result is that in nine years in power it has been Mr Chávez's signal achievement to turn Venezuela into the only place on the planet nowadays where the American president could win a popular vote.

Vegas recap

I was in Las Vegas over the weekend for a very fun poker blogger gathering. The following not-so-random thoughts are not poker-related, though poker bloggers are linked and mentioned, so I figured I'd post them here instead of over at I Had Outs.

**I won $20 (off Iggy) and a breakfast (off Dutch) in two separate games of Roshambo (Rock, Paper, Scissors).

**I placed my first sportsbook bet (Ricky Hatton to win) and then my second sportsbook bet (Pittsburgh to cover against NE) and lost them both. I also placed a $20 bet on the Cowboys to win the Superbowl.

**I ate the world's smallest pear. And also the world's largest fruit salad.

**I got carried away watching football on Sunday with other Dallas Cowboys fans like STB and Mary (as opposed to with a bunch of people rooting for whomever the other team happens to be like I do in NY) and almost bought a $55 Dallas Cowboys baseball hat with rhinestones before remembering I don't wear baseball hats. I may get a T.O. specific item to add to my collection.

**In other sports-related news, I agreed to become a Buffalo Sabres fan. Vinnay had heard my previous "get me a shirt, make me a fan" tale and has promised Sabre paraphernalia when next we meet.

**I thought I was going to argue politics with BG of the blog Verbosities but then we ended up agreeing on a whole bunch of stuff while getting our drink on at the Imperial Palace Geisha bar. On a sidenote, if Ron Paul isn't cultivating poker players for support, he should be. I heard a lot of Ron Paul love out there.

**Pauly is the man. He knows why.

**I think Dawn and I have ruined the life of an adorable twenty-something pre-med student. Mostly her, obviously. She found him in Atlantic City and now he's joining her in playing 18 hours of poker a day. Someone call his family.

**I finally went to Rao's, like we were supposed to last year, though, obviously, not the impossible-to-get-into one in East Harlem. It was very good. I also ate at B&B, Mario Batali's new restaurant at the Venetian and I loved it. Don't listed to Dawn, Batali is not a hack.

The whole package

Jennifer Rubin at AmSpec writes on Huckabee's rise:

I do agree that the mostly urban fiscal conservative pundit crowd( including me I admit) have next to zero impact on those who are finding Hucakbee as their guy. And indeed the barrage from Club for Growth I think is largely ineffective, if not counterproductive, as he plays the Mainstreet vs. Wall Street tune.

I disagree. I remember very well the Club for Growth ad against Howard Dean in Iowa (disclosure: At the time, I was an intern at the PR firm that handled press for CFG). It played directly to Main Street and radiated the kind of down home values that Huckabee has been pushing. I have a feeling that when push comes to shoving Huckabee out of the race, Club for Growth can do some damage.

There are no gays in Iran

Or, there won't be as they keep killing them.

Back soon

My internet access while in Vegas is very limited (like $7.50 for 15 minutes at a business center a half hour walk from my room kind of limited) so posting will be sporadic. I thought I'd have a laptop with me or I would've lined up some guest-bloggers for you all. In any case, I'll check in as often as I can.

Is there a better song to be listening to as your plane lands in Las Vegas?

Listen young people I'm 74
And I plan to live 60 or 70 more
Yeah I've been all around I've done a few things
And I spent a few nights on the floor, oh!

Did everything wrong but I never got caught
So of course I would do it all over again
I surprised many people who'd written me off
Years ago now they're way underground

Nobody asked me but here's my advice
To a young man or woman who's living this life
In a world gone to hell where nobody's safe
Do not go quietly unto your grave
Do not go quietly unto your grave

Learned a few tricks and I'll learn a few more
And I got enough bullets to fight a small war
Nobody asked me so here's my advice
To a young man or woman who's living this life
In a world gone to hell where nobody's safe

Do not go quietly unto your grave
Do not go quietly unto your grave
Do not go quietly unto your grave
Do not go quietly unto your grave

"Do Not Go Quietly Unto Your Grave" by Morphine

Not only the hottest first daughter...

....but also the funniest and sweetest.

Previous Jenna-is-hot discussion is here.

What I saw at the Writers Guild Strike

I'm not sure what to quote from Shawn Macomber's awesome piece about striking writers in Washington Square Park. All of it is hilarious. But also sad. Because it is a strike.

Why random anything is always bad government policy

"In the war against drunk driving, setting up roadblocks is like expecting the enemy to walk into your camp and surrender. It would be laughable if it weren't so tragic."

This was essentially my argument against the dumb random searches on the subway.

Song of the Day

"What a Bum" by Lady Saw.

Generally, being in Dawn's car is a complete nightmare. She's a terrible driver, I mean can't-park-on-the-left-side-of-the-street-can't-merge-on-the-FDR-Drive kind of terrible. She pumps the heat all the way up. She gets lost in her own neighborhood. She drives 4 miles an hour and has no defensive skills whatsoever. And the worst part of it all, she listens to the Backstreet Boys, Avril Levigne and just atrocious country singers as she drives, singing along at the top of her lungs with the silliest lyrics ever written ("hey, hey, you, you, I don't like your girlfriend, hey, hey, you, you, I think you need a new one"). Kill me, kill me quick.

There is one thing, and one thing only, that can make the trip better: if I drive. Driving Dawn's car means that one can take the convenient 79th street FDR exit instead of the completely out of the way 92nd street one because, well, I learned how to merge in Drivers Ed. It also, more importantly, means I get to choose the music.

For several weeks, Dawn has been Ms. Gimpy with a bad foot, and unable to drive. Those were good days. I would get in her car, plug in my ipod, and we'd drive at normal speeds while listening to Jay-Z, Biggie, Bright Eyes or, recently, Mase (I don't know how I missed it the first time around but "Tell Me What You Want" is such a good song).

The other day she told me she was well enough to drive. I guess I had forgotten just how bad her music could be. She was playing one awful cd after another when, listening for the third time to some country song about a woman turning to Jesus in the middle of a trip to Cinncinnati and telling him to take the wheel, I couldn't take it anymore. "Make it stop!" I screamed. I started hitting buttons and changing the song, changing the cd. And then clear as day I heard it: the first few beats of Lady Saw's "What a Bum". "HEY! This is good! Is this my cd?" Turns out, it was. I had made a "stuck in Dawn's ca