February 22, 1732

King George III asked his American painter, Benjamin West, what George Washington would do after winning independence. West replied, "They say he will return to his farm."

The King replied, "If he does that, he will be the greatest man in the world."

December 7

June 6, 1944

Missing Donald Rumsfeld

In this clip of the first part of an interview by Andrea Mitchell of the former Secretary of Defense, Mitchell's faith-based "everybody knows" assumptions repeatedly conflict with Rumsfeld's reality-based responses. The interview becomes almost surreal, as Mitchell eventually seems to be channeling Roseanne Roseannadanna.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Mexico Seizes Drug Catapults On U.S. Border

Except it's a trebuchet, you ignorant buffoons.

Best. Sketch. Ever.

April, 1970: "Houston . . . We've Had a Problem"

St. Crispin’s Day -- Oct. 25, 1415

Once Upon a Time

That is, in 1981:

The Truth Will Set You Free II

Don't get me started on the ignorant, unctuous, and credulous Phil Donahue.

One of the advantages of Truth over posturing, rhetorical flourish, and lies is that it's always true. And so the thoughts of Milton Friedman, 30 years ago, remain true today:

Who Knew?

That Iran's First Lady, Ms. Ahmadinejad, was such a babe? Story HERE, complete with photo. Don't lie, you'd totally hit that.

June 27, 1951

Ahh, Peggy . . .

Tell us what you really think:

We will hear a lot of tasteful tributes this weekend to Hillary Clinton's grit and fortitude. The Washington-based media may go a little over the top, but only out of relief. They know her well and recoil at what she stands for. They also know they don't like her, so to balance it out they'll gush.

But this I believe is the truth: America dodged a bullet. That was the other meaning of the culminating events of this week.

Mrs. Clinton would have been a disaster as president. Mr. Obama may prove a disaster, and John McCain may, but she would be. Mr. Obama may lie, and Mr. McCain may lie, but she would lie. And she would have brought the whole rattling caravan of Clintonism with her—the scandal-making that is compulsive, the drama that is unending, the sheer, daily madness that is her, and him.

We have been spared this. Those who did it deserve to be thanked. May I rise in a toast to the Democratic Party.

Peggy Noonan.

April 15

[BUMPED to stay aloft throughout this cursed day.]

1985?!

Can it possibly be that the classic music video of a-ha's hit "Take On Me" is nearly a quarter century old?

The adorable girl, by the way, is the English actress/model, Bunty Bailey. Of course she has a MySpace page. And she's still adorable.

Yes O Yes, me little droogies, we know perfectly well who Bob Moog was and, in point of fact, we owned this record in 1962, the first #1 hit in the United States by a British group (the B side was "Jungle Fever"):

Happy Birthday . . . .

Your proprietor has once again decamped to Fauquier County, where connecting to the interwebs is like eating chili through a soda straw. We expect to be gone three days, what with Monday being a Federal Holiday and all. Although we're a tad confused as to what this holiday is all about.

Inasmuch as Monday is February 18, we know that this is not a celebration of Mr. Lincoln, whose birthday (as any schoolboy knows) is February 12.

Similarly, the Father of His Country was born February 22 (of course, on the day he was born it was thought to be February 11, but what did people in those days know?). Thus, next Monday is no celebration of his nativity.

But a little research has revealed that Monday is Cybill Shepherd's birthday. For what it's worth, Cybill (almost exactly our age) had us with The Last Picture Show. So happy 58th Cybill, and remember that we still love you.

February 11, 1988

Happy Birthday, Dave.

How You Gonna Keep 'Em Down on the Farm?

From the indispensable Charles Krauthammer:

Dr. King's dream began to be realized when President Lyndon Johnson passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964. ... It took a president to get it done. — Hillary Clinton, Jan. 7

So she said. And then a fight broke out. That remarkable eruption of racial sensitivities and racial charges lacked coherence, however, because the public argument was about history rather than what was truly offensive — the implied analogy to today.

[SNIP]

Forty years ago, that arrangement — white president enacting African-American dreams — was necessary because discrimination denied blacks their own autonomous political options. Today, that arrangement — white liberals acting as tribune for blacks in return for their political loyalty — is a demeaning anachronism. That's what the fury at Hillary was all about, although no one was willing to say so explicitly.

The King-Johnson analogy is dead because the times are radically different. Today an African-American can be in a position to wield the emancipation pen — and everything else that goes along with the presidency: from making foreign policy to renting out the Lincoln Bedroom (if one is so inclined). Why should African-American dreams still have to go through white liberals?

Is it time?

Do we really have to start thinking seriously about the presidential election? Are you sure?

Islamophobophobia

John Derbyshire:

And the more exposure I get to the Islamophobia phenomenon, the more I dislike it. It is now quite an industry. Huge numbers of Americans, people who would not have been able to spell the word "Islam"seven years ago, now spend their leisure hours poring over the Koran and its supplements looking for evidence that Islam is root-and-branch evil. Some of them have gone to the trouble to learn Arabic, or at any rate enough Arabic to be able to discourse confidently on the difference between a mawla and a halif. There's something unpleasantly autoerotic about the whole enterprise—something of seeking for glee in the contemplation of other people's misbehavior. Something defensive, too, as I said in my Islamophobophobia column: some fear (in my opinion justified) that the Islamo-crazies are giving all religion a bad name and thereby fortifying the ranks of unbelievers—who, in the minds of many Islamophobes, are the real enemy.

On the other hand, Islamophobes, though I think unintentionally in some cases, are making a contribution to the much larger cause of undermining the multiculturalist myth: i.e. that peoples from any place, in any numbers, can be settled in a Western society without causing dramatic changes to that society in directions likely to be undesirable. To that degree I think they are doing useful work. I therefore part company with them with goodwill and a cheery wave, and, while I continue to think that they are a bunch of crankish obsessives, remain ready to join with them in matters of common interest.