Tuscany’s Castello di Gabbiano Estate was established in 1124—the year Alexander I was buried at Dunfermline.  And yet here I sit in my underwear nearly 900 years later, drinking the very same wine that had Pope Benedict VIII slurring his way through apostolic constitutions—and finding myself every bit as shitfaced as the old coot must’ve been before ordering some hill country hooker drowned as a witch, or some posse of

To Terry Hindshaw for both the Alfred Hitchcock Signature Collection DVD set (Strangers on a Train; Foreign Correspondent; Mr and Mrs Smith; The Wrong Man; Dial M for Murder; North by Northwest; Suspicion; I Confess; Stage Fright), as well as for Hitchcock’s Lifeboat.  I’m a big Hitchcock fan, and I look forward to seeing several of these films for the first time. Thanks also to Michael Evans for the great

From the Jerusalem Post: The Lebanese Minister of Defense warned Israel Thursday that if IDF ground forces are sent into southern Lebanon, Lebanese troops will fight along with the Hizbullah against Israel. So wait—if Lebanese troops join the fight by defending Hizbullah (and wasn’t the Lebanese story up until now that they couldn’t control Hizbullah in southern Lebanon?), does this not mean that the Lebanese government will have in fact

Annan:  “I repeat:  Hostilities in Lebanon must stop. But while they continue, it is imperative to establish safe corridors for humanitarian workers and relief supplies to reach the civilian population.”** mallrat: “Whatever, bro.  You forgot my straw.  And that’s my 83 cents change you just slipped into your apron pocket, too.”

From All Headline News: According to South Korean reports released Wednesday, North Korea has issued an order of high readiness to its armed forces following the launch of its missile tests two weeks ago. Citing the South Korean government sources in Seoul, the Yonhap news agency reported that the alert was issued to North Korean forces on July 5 as the country fired seven missiles into the Sea of Japan.

In a post I did a last Wednesday taking Glenn Greenwald to task for being such a disingenuous hack, a chap named “Wilson” showed up and wrote the following in response to another commenter’s curiosity about why so many “on the extreme Left consider Greenwald some kind of great constitutional authority”: Lets see, a New York Times bestselling book on executive authority.  Breaks a story on his blog about wiretapping

So I’m pushing the stroller down Tejon this morning—keeping a brisk pace in order to optimize my calorie burn and sculpt my calves—when suddenly I’m confronted by a pair of vicious chihuahuahs who’d managed to free themselves by digging a tiny tunnel under a municipal fence. Their being little more than bald and noisy rats, I was able to fight them off easily with a handful of decorative landscaping stones

Sometimes, when I don’t feel much like posting, I simply don’t.  Whereas other times?  You get crap like this. One of us is going to have to learn to deal with it.