More from Steyn on Global Warming

Mark Steyn follows up on his recent column on global warming with a response to Ellen Goodman of the Boston Globe, who this week compared those who question global warming to Holocaust deniers.

Getting Around Proposition 209

Heather MacDonald has written a lengthy and interesting article on the effects of California's Proposition 209, which bans gender and race preferences, on the University of California. Much of her article is about how the UC schools are attempting to circumvent Prop. 209 and employ affirmative action in less obvious ways.

Among other things, she discusses UCLA's plans to implement "holistic" admissions methods due to all-time-low enrollment by blacks.

It would apparently be too much to ask (and too logical) to instead work on solutions for raising achievement by black students...

Meanwhile on the Giuliani Front...

John Podhoretz, posting at the Corner, follows up his column of last week with more thoughts on a Giuliani candidacy and the conservative right:

"...here is the profound problem facing us in 2008: If social conservatives decide to run a third-party candidate out of disgust with Rudy (or even John McCain, who could cause the same sort of schism on, say, immigration), they will ensure the election of Hillary or Barack or John Edwards.

"No one should surrender their deepest beliefs on the altar of political expediency. But American politics is most often a matter of choosing the lesser of two evils. That's the real choice social conservatives may have to make in 2008 — between a principled stand that leads to a terrible result or a more pragmatic stand that requires some real bending."

Who Is Obama and What Does He Believe?

I don't think anyone has much of an idea, other than the standard Democrat positions he's taken...

Ed Morrissey of Captain's Quarters: "He's rushing towards his destiny, instead of patiently building the experience that would make him irresistable. It's a mistake, but apparently one he refuses to acknowledge. The American electorate will hopefully see it more clearly."

Kathryn Jean Lopez suggests Hillary will ask Obama to fill her V.P. slot early.

Edwards Not Getting Any Smarter

Presidential hopeful John Edwards is standing by his foul-mouthed bloggers.

The bloggers have also bashed Christians, particularly Catholics, which Edwards excuses as they assured him "it was never their intention to malign anyone’s faith." All he has to do is read the words, which speak for themselves. References to Jesus as "Jeebus," references to Christofascists, rude comments about Jesus's conception...

Edwards says he wants to give the bloggers "a fair shake," yet he doesn't seem to realize how poisonous it is to have people with these "personal" views working as part of his campaign. His poor judgment continues to show that he's not Presidential material.

I don't think this is going to go away...

Hillary vs. Rudy?

That's Dick Morris's prediction. Morris is hardly a flawless prognosticator, but it's always fun to see what he thinks.

Morris also notes that Mitt Romney is fading in the polls, while Newt Gingrich is climbing, an interesting development. I've never taken Romney seriously, and it will be interesting to see how he fares over the long term. Newt has a great deal of personal baggage and the left loves to demonize him, but this may be the year of the "baggage" candidate...there isn't one major candidate who doesn't have personal "issues" to varying degrees, including Obama's past drug use and McCain's legendary temper. Philosophically, Newt is probably the man who most clearly articulates conservative political principles.

I don't believe John McCain can make it through the primaries. He's got too many negatives, as summarized here by Paul Mirengoff. McCain burned his bridges with conservatives a long time ago.

This week I'm feeling rather like Morris...and John Podhoretz, for that matter. I have an increasing feeling that Giuliani may be the only candidate with a real chance to beat the combined army of the Hillary machine and the mainstream media, who probably aren't any more likely to insist she answer tough questions than they were in her two campaigns for Senate. I believe when voters measure Giuliani's calm and thoughtful -- Presidential? -- demeanor versus Hillary's bug-eyed, vindictive screeches ("I want to take those profits...") the difference will be stark.

Giuliani is not going to win over everyone -- Ann Coulter, for instance, stated on Tuesday's HANNITY AND COLMES that she could not vote for Rudy -- but as others have pointed out this week, many Republicans want to like Rudy and are open to giving him a chance. We know he's a leader capable of handling a crisis, we know he's solid on the War on Terror; and he has a history as a tax-cutter who believes in school choice.

The big question for me is judges. As I wrote in November, if the law and order side of Rudy dominates his social liberal side, his judicial picks might be acceptable. He pledged this week to nominate strict constructionists, and surely he knows that if he fails to do that in a first term, he won't be elected to a second term.

As I recall, one of the things President Bush did his first week in office was withdraw federal funding for international abortion programs. Giuliani pledging not to restore that kind of funding would be a significant way to build bridges with pro-life conservatives.

After our experience with Governor Schwarzenegger here in California, I'm definitely wary of being burned by another pseudo-Republican. But I do want Rudy to give me reasons to believe, as conservatives may be faced with a California-style conundrum in 2008: socialist wannabe Hillary (with Bill: The Sequel hovering in the background), or gambling on Rudy? Not a difficult decision for this voter. If that ends up being the choice, conservatives will hopefully be happier with Giuliani as President than we are with Schwarzenegger as governor.

It will certainly be interesting to see where we're at one year hence. Wouldn't it be fascinating if these "hot" candidates fade and we find ourselves discussing completely different choices in February 2008?

Tonight's Movie: Bride By Mistake (1944)

BRIDE BY MISTAKE is an overlooked little romantic comedy gem. Norah (Laraine Day) is a never-photographed, billiards-loving, Santa Barbara ship-building heiress ("500 ships a month!") who is wary of fortune hunters and sends her best friend and secretary Sylvia (Marsha Hunt) to impersonate her at public events. Sylvia, however, is a newlywed whose husband (Allyn Joslyn) is anxious for the charade to end so Sylvia can accompany him to Washington, D.C., where he will be a Persian translator for President Roosevelt. Throw into the mix a captain (Alan Marshal) stationed nearby who would like to marry a rich woman -- but only if he really loves her -- and you have the recipe for some bubbly good fun.

The great Edgar Buchanan appears as Nora's exasperated guardian, while Slim Summerville plays the caretaker of her beach house who is mystified by the romantic goings-on.

The bright screenplay is by Henry and Phoebe Ephron, parents of Nora Ephron (SLEEPLESS IN SEATTLE). The story comes from Norman Krasna's script for the 1934 film THE RICHEST GIRL IN THE WORLD, which starred Joel McCrea and Miriam Hopkins. (Krasna also wrote the screenplays for BACHELOR MOTHER, THE DEVIL AND MISS JONES, and WHITE CHRISTMAS, among other classics.) Intriguingly, in the original film the title character's name was Dorothy, while the other lead characters' names remained the same in the remake. Is the character Norah of BRIDE BY MISTAKE named for the Ephrons' daughter Nora?

BRIDE BY MISTAKE is 81 minutes long and was shot in black and white. It was directed by Richard Wallace.

This movie is not available on VHS or DVD, but is part of the Turner Classic Movies library.

Update: Here's a review of the original version, THE RICHEST GIRL IN THE WORLD (1934).

February 2011 Update: Good news for fans of this delightful movie: it's just been released on DVD-R by the Warner Archive.

Star Wars Exhibit Opening in L.A.

Attention STAR WARS fans in Southern California: The California Science Center, located in Exposition Park across the street from USC, will soon be hosting a STAR WARS exhibit, STAR WARS: WHERE SCIENCE MEETS IMAGINATION.

The exhibit is described on the museum's website as "...the first exhibit of its kind that combines costumes and props from all six Star Wars films with real-world technologies, video interviews with filmmakers, scientists and engineers, and two large Engineering Design Labs, where visitors can build and test speeders and robots. Visitors will explore prototypes, learn about the engineers and designers who are creating new technologies, and discover intriguing similarities between how scientists and filmmakers think."

The exhibit opens February 11th and will run until the end of April. More information is available here.

Nanny State Republicans

Texas Governor Rick Perry, a Republican, has personally mandated that all 6th grade girls must be vaccinated against a sexually transmitted disease that causes some forms of cervical cancer.

Parents can "opt out" for philosophical or religious reasons, but otherwise the vaccinations are mandatory for school attendance.

In issuing his executive order, Perry has thus bypassed not only parents (an "opt in" program would be more appropriate), but the parents' locally elected state representatives, some of whom are very unhappy with Perry's decree.

This is not an illness which can be caught merely by attending school, and Perry has no business unilaterally weighing the risks and benefits of a relatively new vaccination in place of each child's parents. If Perry is allowed to mandate vaccinations for a disease that cannot be acquired in the classroom, it's a short step from there to Big Brother making countless other medical decisions in place of parents. It's "for the children," of course. It always is.

Governor Perry obviously thinks that he, rather than parents, knows what's best for the state's 11- and 12-year-old girls.

And that mentality is one of the things that's increasingly wrong with politicians (and, I might add, many educators) in the United States.

P.S.: Look out, Florida, this school vaccination requirement may be coming to your state, too.

On Global Warming Mythology

First, another gem from Mark Steyn (linked above). Among other highlights:

"About 1,000 years ago, the Arctic was warmer than it is now. Circa 982, Erik the Red and a bunch of other Vikings landed in Greenland and thought, "Wow! This land really is green! Who knew?" So they started farming it, and were living it up for a couple of centuries. Then the Little Ice Age showed up, and they all died. A terrible warning to us all about "unsustainable development": if a few hundred Vikings doing a little light hunter-gathering can totally unbalance the environment, imagine the havoc John Edwards' new 28,000-square-foot house must be wreaking."

On a more serious note, check out this article from Canada's National Post on the weak scientific "evidence" for global warming.

"Mexifornia, Five Years Later"

Must reading by Victor Davis Hanson, author of MEXIFORNIA. The article is quite lengthy but worth the investment of time; Hanson's overall conclusion is that the impact of illegal immigration on our state has been worse than he predicted half a decade ago.

One of the more shocking statistics Hanson cites is that "...almost one in three Mexican-American males between the ages of 18 and 24 recently reported being arrested, one in five has been jailed, and 15,000 illegal aliens are currently in the California penal system."

In my line of work as a proofreader I regularly read court transcripts, and am often struck, due to that reading, by how heavily our local area has been impacted by Hispanic gangs. I had no idea, however, that the crime statistics were this dire. The picture Hanson paints is sobering indeed.

Hanson closes anecdotally: "Ever since the influx of illegals into our quiet valley became a flood, I have had five drivers leave the road, plow into my vineyard, and abandon their cars, without evidence of either registration or insurance. On each occasion, I have seen them simply walk or run away from the scene of thousands of dollars in damage. Similarly, an intoxicated driver who ran a stop sign hit my car broadside and then fled the scene... Such anecdotes have become common currency in the American Southwest. Ridiculed by elites as evidence of prejudice, these stories, statistical studies now show, reflect hard fact."

I have such an anecdote to tell myself, as a couple of weeks ago I was the victim of a hit-and-run accident when I was rearended into another car; the driver who caused the accident, a young Hispanic man, fled the scene, leaving behind a few thousand dollars' worth of damage. (Thank God, no one was seriously injured.) In today's environment, it seems chances are fairly high the hit-and-run driver was illegal and uninsured. That's not prejudice, but simply "how it is" living today in Southern California. Our state's infrastructure is strained to the seams, while at the same time society is burdened with increasing crime and the breakdown of conventions which keep society running smoothly -- such as stopping at the scene of an accident.

Too Dumb to Be President?

John Edwards has hired a campaign blogger with a long history of "expletive deleted" posting. (See links above and here.)

In my humble opinion, anyone who would hire someone for such a role without spending five or ten minutes Googling their writing doesn't have the commonsense smarts to run the country...

And isn't it lovely that he wishes to raise taxes to pay for national healthcare?

Today at Disney's California Adventure

Since our Friday visit to Disneyland the temperature went up by at least 20 degrees. Today on our visit to Disney's California Adventure we enjoyed beautiful California winter weather, sunny and warm. Below, Paradise Pier this afternoon:


California Screamin' is temporarily re-themed Rockin' California Screamin'.


We took in the High School Musical Pep Rally and Aladdin, rode Monsters, Inc. and had an all-around lovely afternoon.

Giuliani and Judges

Rudy Giuliani in a speech yesterday: "On the Federal judiciary I would want judges who are strict constructionists because I am. I'm a lawyer. I've argued cases in the Supreme Court. I've argued cases in the Court of Appeals in different parts of the country. I have a very, very strong view that for this country to work, for our freedoms to be protected, judges have to interpret not invent the Constitution. Otherwise you end up, when judges invent the constitution, with your liberties being hurt."

A recent comment at Power Line's forum suggested that a January op-ed co-authored by Rudy Giuliani and Newt Gingrich could portend a future alliance. Between them they cover a lot of bases while doing an end run around the man many conservatives can't stand, John McCain. Intriguing idea.

Summer Movie: Becoming Jane (2007)

Jane Austen fans will be intrigued to learn of BECOMING JANE, in which Anne Hathaway plays the young Jane Austen.

The movie has an impressive cast, including James Cromwell, Maggie Smith, and Julie Walters.

The trailer can be viewed here. As is often the case with trailers for films which have not completed post-production, the trailer "borrows" its score; if I'm correct, in this case music from both Paltrow's EMMA and Thompson's SENSE AND SENSIBILITY is used. Can other Austen film fans confirm? (Update: I think the trailer soundtrack may include a bit of Ryder's LITTLE WOMEN as well...)

While the film will not be released in the United States until August 3rd, it will be out in Britain next month.

My Husband Makes YouTube

For the past few months my husband has been playing trombone with Bones West, a volunteer trombone group founded by the great George Roberts.

Roberts, it so happens, was the solo trombonist on my all-time Frank Sinatra track, "How Deep is the Ocean?," which appears on Sinatra's Nice 'n' Easy.

Last month Bones West played at the National Association of Music Merchants (NAMM) convention in Anaheim. My husband had quite a thrill when the group played an arrangement of "Blues in Hoss' Flat" which he'd transcribed for trombones, and trombone legend Bill Watrous soloed.

Lo and behold, but that number has turned up on YouTube. My husband is playing in the front row; he's got brown hair and glasses, a couple players to the right of the conductor.

YouTube contains at least one other clip from the show.

Technology is a wonder!

Today at Disneyland

It was a cold but sunny day at Disneyland today. The flowers greeting us on Main Street U.S.A. looked beautiful, as always:


The park is now decorated for the "Year of a Million Dreams" theme (click on photo to enlarge):


Some in our group tried out the temporarily re-themed Rockin' Space Mountain and really enjoyed it. I'm looking forward to visiting it on our next trip.

We also had an excellent dinner at the French Market and concluded the day with the fireworks show Remember...Dreams Come True, which still manages to bring a tear to my eye no matter how many times I've seen it.

It's Groundhog Day!

If you haven't read it in the past, be sure to catch Jonah Goldberg's 2005 column on the classic movie.

Happy Groundhog Day!

New Book: Service and Style

I came across a fascinating book while browsing in the USC Bookstore this afternoon: SERVICE AND STYLE: HOW THE AMERICAN DEPARTMENT STORE FASHIONED THE MIDDLE CLASS by Jan Whitaker. The book covers the history of the American department store and is filled with both color and black and white photos of department stores, department store advertising, and more.

It was published a few months ago, in August 2006. It was reviewed in The Washington Monthly. A bit more information can be found in the listing at Powell's Books.

The author herself had a column on this topic last fall in The Boston Globe.

This is just the kind of "slice of American popular history" I find interesting. The book has gone on my "future reading" list.

Today's Field Trip: American Girl Place

Today my youngest daughter and I made our first pilgrimage to American Girl Place at The Grove in Los Angeles.


It was a wonderful experience. Lunch in the cafe was charming. Chairs and a teacup and saucer are provided for each doll. They even have "loaner dolls" for any girl eating in the cafe without her own doll. And the food was truly excellent!

Below, Samantha enjoys her tea while cinnamon bun appetizers are served.


Dessert! Chocolate mousse in a flowerpot along with a heart-shaped miniature cake and a cookie.


The store was a veritable American Girl museum. We had such fun carefully perusing all the displays of the dolls and their outfits -- and of course, making a special purchase or two to bring home. :)

There are only three American Girl Place stores in the country; the others are in Chicago and New York. I highly recommend taking the time to visit if you know a young lady who enjoys American Girls; it is well worth the effort.