More Lileks screedy goodness:

Same link. Same reaction as my own to John Kerry:

God no. Please no. I think I speak for millions when I say that I am deathly sick of the counterculture sixties. The music, the war, the protests, all the hagiography - it's not a reflection of the era?s importance but the self-importance of the generation who hung on the bus as it trundled along down the same old rutted road of history.. I?m tired of hearing about the boomers? days of whine and neuroses; I?m weary of ritual genuflection to their musical icons; I?m utterly disinterested in most of the pop-cult trivia they hold so dear. We?ll probably be better off when that demographic pig has been excreted from the python so we can see the era clearly without choking on the smoke.

Listen, Kid, I'm one of those boomers, and I lived through that era, except for serving as a Mormon missionary in Germany from 1967 to 1969, and I'm here to tell you that it was depressing as hell to realize that one's whole generation had lost its marbles. Yet it's even more disturbing to realize that those same idiots are in control of a major national party, indeed the one that led us through World War II, and are busily at work trying to win the election they lost in 1972.

James Lileks mourns the loss of Captain Picard

I feel it, man. Just as I did when the actor we loved as Aragorn spoke at an anti-war rally and read something he called poetry. I guess we all have to grow up someday.

How does the "New York Inquisitor" sound?

Or The Washington Partisan; The Chicago Leftwing; The L.A. Liberal; The San Fransisco Anti-Republican.

How about a little truth in advertising.

Go here and read the whole thing.

Then send copies to everybody you know.

Should the Saudis contract the Hajj out to Disney?

I'm sure, as Instapundit remarks, Disney would do a better job. The linked quote makes the Hajj sound like a thoroughly tedious, even dangerous, third world ordeal.

Disney would build a ride and use nerf rocks in the stoning ritual. Of course, even Disney has a few accidents from time to time (There was one recently in California on the Thunder Mountain ride.), but at least, Disney would be liable for wrongful deaths. They don't have the status of a world religion . . . yet.

Real women don't need implants (borg or otherwise)

All they need is a snug tee shirt.

Then there's this item:

The difference between Star Trek's Borg and the Jackson family? One is a collective of grotesque, mindless automatons dedicated to the destruction of human civilization, while the other is a fictional alien race.

The Kay Report

Reading this piece by Justin Katz, it occurred to me once again, that this narrow focus on WMD ignores many other reasons for removing Saddam, including humanitarian and strategic reasons.

Saddam had shown himself to be unpredictable and dangerous by declaring war on Iran and invading Kuwait. He had used WMD on Iranian troops and on Kurdiish Iraqis. He had murdered tens of thousands of his own civilians and caused the death of more than a million. He was funding terrorists attacking Israelis and paying the families of Palestinian "martyrs" a bounty for their sons and daughters.

In addition, Iraq occupies a strategic position in the heart of the Middle East. As we continue to prosecute the war against terrorists, regime change in Iraq eliminates an important source of funding, training and shelter for such groups, and provides a clear example to neighboring dictatorships of what they may face themselves if they continue such practices. That, together with the fact that none of Saddam's neighbors were likely to come to his aid, made it a good move. As far as WMD is concerned, the truth is that we went to war not because of what we knew for certain, but because otherwise we couldn't be sure that this nutcase wouldn't repeat his past behavior. Bush made that clear from the outset, but you won't hear that from the mainstream media. Saddam was the best candidate for making the point that America was done with half-measures in responding to terrorism and those who collaborate with it. For that reason alone, the war made sense.