It’s pretty chilly here in the land of perpetual summer (LA) and I could only nod when I checked out this link from PJ about record cold weather all over the place. It also includes news the Russian Academy of Sciences is predicting a new Ice Age. I wonder if my fellow Academy members will pick this up when judging this years’ documentaries – Al Gore’s global warming extravaganza is among the Oscar favorites in that category. [Stop being disingenuous. You know they'd still believe in Global Warming if Palm Springs turned into Antarctica. -ed. You're right. They'd think it was a "Happy Feet" promo.] But meanwhile, what is really going on here? Are we supposed to worry about global warming, hurricanes, tsunamis and bird flu (remember that?)? Or are they all just temporary aberrations in the great glide of time? I’ve decided I’m going to try to be happy for ten minutes and ignore the whole thing. The good news is, we’ve booked a nice hotel for cross country skiing in the Methow Valley over Christmas and there’s going to be plenty of snow! [Barring sudden global warming.-ed. Right, right. I forgot about that.]

… the one-eyed is king.

Kind of reminds you of “Gable’s back and Garson’s got ‘im,” doesn’t it? Anyway, Crazy Ahmad is back with another letter to the American people, to be released later today. [With another Harry Potter?-ed. Spiderman.] Those highbrows at the AP inform us: “Average Iranians were disappointed by the cold response to the May letter, the first official communication between the two countries’ presidents since the Islamic Revolution of 1979.” [Well, they would know, wouldn't they?-ed. Who better?]

Meanwhile, an interesting debate is taking place on Pajamas, sparked by Paul Belien’s criticism of Ralph Peters’ column skeptical of “Eurabia”. Peters has logged in himself in the comments (alas, with a rather pompous…defensive?… opinion of blogs). Belien has informed me he will reply later in the day. Perhaps they would like to factor in this report.

… and knock some sense into her head about Alcee Hastings? I don’t know and I don’t care. I’m just glad we don’t have a demagogue as chair of the House Intell Committee. And speaking of demagogues… well, ideologues … I was watching Dick Morris discuss the potential Hastings nomination on Hannity & Colmes last night. (Yes, my Lord, I have sinned. I have watched Hannity & Colmes … and after telling my daughter not to watch so much television or she would get “mushy brain.” ) He made great sport of Colmes’ pathetic defense of the onetime Florida jurist who apparently let a lawyer friend languish in prison so he (Hastings) wouldn’t be sent up for corruption himself. The pundit then went on to eviscerate his own former friend, Bill Clinton, who, as one of his parting gestures in the Oval Office, pardoned this same lawyer who rescued Hastings. Morris – who is, as we know, er…. no saint himself – is so much more fun to listen to than either Hannity or Colmes you wonder why they don’t give him the show. I wouldn’t feel like such an idiot for watching.

It’s hard to believe this bozo is actually a professor at UC Irvine, but he is. What fascinates me about fellows like this is how little attention they pay to the actual news from the area of their supposed expertise. That there have been other recent assassinations in Lebanon similar to Gemayel’s (Rafik Hariri – maybe he thinks Israel is behind that one too) and that Syria has been implicated (by the UN!) means nothing to them (unless it fits their propaganda purposes).

What is the cost of an education at UC Irvine? Oh, never mind.

Ralph Peters is more cynical about Europeans than I am. In his article “The ‘Eurabia’ Myth” he brands the Euros as “world-champion haters.” (”The notion that continental Europeans, who are world-champion haters, will let the impoverished Muslim immigrants they confine to ghettos take over their societies and extend the caliphate from the Amalfi Coast to Amsterdam has it exactly wrong.”)

Well, I’m no Nostradamus, but Peters’ use of the word “exactly” makes me scratch my head. How does he know “exactly”? Predicting the future in such matters is iffy at best. My personal observations are different from his, but still they are only personal. Europe was once, of course, substantially Islamic. Why couldn’t it be again? The demographic trends are certainly running that way, especially among the young. And if things turn violent, who does the fighting?

BTW, Paul Belien of the Brussels Journal will be writing a response shortly to Peters’ article for Pajamas.

My review of “The Queen” is up on Pajamas.

One of my favorite actors – Philippe Noiret – has died. Among the films of his I remember are Bertrand Tavernier’s Coup de torchon (from a Jim Thompson novel) and The Watchmaker of Saint Paul (from a Simenon novel), the amusing My New Partner and the art house classics Il Postino and Cinema Paradiso. What a career.

Perhaps Charles Krauthammer was just playing the contrarian for attention (we all do), but considering his background as a psychiatrist, I was surprised at the columnist’s latest piece “Why We Should Let O.J. Speak.” He thinks letting Simpson on the air would have “put this matter to rest.” Au contraire, Doctor Krauthammer, it would have reawakened it. In fact it already did to some extent.

Let’s start here: Almost anyone who would think OJ is guilty already does. Those who are racist or just plain nuts enough to believe him innocent are hardly likely to change because of a television show or book. They are thinking with their limbic systems. Rationality will not get through. After all, it is now years since the crime and not the slightest hint of an alternative theory or culprit has been brought forward either by OJ – who was supposedly devoting himself to “solving” the murders – or anyone else. [You mean Faye Resnick is still walking around free???-ed. So it seems.]

No, rationality is not at play here and is unlikely to appear suddenly from a television show. Very few people will change their minds. As one who attended the trial (and attended many other trials during my crime writing days) I cannot imagine a more open-and-shut case short of someone shooting the judge in cold blood in front of the jury. And other than the jury at the OJ trial, almost everyone in the room knew Simpson was guilty, including his own defense team, several of whom, like Barry Scheck and Peter Neufeld were willing to distort the very things they stood for for a few moments in the sun. (I have noticed neither of these two gentlemen on TV during this recent incarnation of the case. Small wonder.) Johnnie Cochran must have thought he was getting some kind of “racial justice” by getting his man off. Actually, Johnnie was making a large contribution to racism in America.

So Krauthammer is way off base here. He seems to forget his McLuhan (”The Medium is the Message”). Simply putting OJ on the tube renders the murderer more powerful. The former shrink also, oddly, forgets his Freud. OJ would be even more of a sexualized celebrity (He already is to some. He has girlfriends!). But most of all the columnist displays a serious lack of compassion for the Goldman and Brown families. That is out of character for Krauthammer and I wonder if he already regrets what he has written. If he had a blog, he could correct himself.

MEANWHILE: The Ghost Writer has been outed (talk about “Six Degrees of Separation”).

When I was a kid (4-8 or so), I had the good fortune to live on Central Park West with a front row view of what was then called the Macy’s Day Parade. To the consternation of my mother, I can remember being perched on the radiator leaning out the window as far as I could to try to touch one of the giant balloons. We were on the second floor. It was fabulous fun. Some years Thanksgiving even fell on my birthday and we would have a gang of kids in. Then my mother would go mad thinking someone was going to fall out the window. Anyway, never happened. Happy Thanksgiving. Be sure to take your Zantac or whatever and have a look at The Pajamas Media Shopper. It’s also fun. And you won’t fall out the window.