William F. Buckley Jr. on Iraq on National Review Online

For the second time in a year or so I find myself quoting and praising William F Buckley for his clarity and candor (scary but true!). This time, he's addressing the war in Iraq:

"One can't doubt that the American objective in Iraq has failed."... and "Our mission has failed because Iraqi animosities have proved uncontainable by an invading army of 130,000 Americans. The great human reserves that call for civil life haven't proved strong enough. No doubt they are latently there, but they have not been able to contend against the ice men who move about in the shadows with bombs and grenades and pistols."

Blogging the Oscars

It was a weird, sometimes wacky, personal and political year in the movies and yet somehow the Oscar telecast still managed to be pretty snooze inducing. Jon Stewart's restrained and only intermittently amusing performance seems to definitively prove that there's more that needs to be fixed about this show than the host. Like the endless montage madness for starters.

For blow-by-blow commentary courtesy of Entertainment Weekly PopWatcher Josh Wolk and miscellaneous other bloggers (including yours truly) see: Popwatch