Harry has a killer response to the Girls Outperforming Boys meme. He manages to turn David Brooks into a champion of the welfare state, which made this egghead giggle.
Next week, I'll give you all the update on making Jonah into a book-lover and treading that line between subtlety influencing and squashing enthusiasm in kids. We had a major victory last night.
In today's Times, Maureen Dowd writes about that private conversation between Bush and Blair that was caught on tape. Dowd mocks Bush for his frat boy ways and for carelessly crashing through history. He treats the presidency as a hindrance from pumping weights and clearing bush, she says. She particularly ridicules Bush for complaining about the length of the speeches of some of the other heads of state.
I'm no fan of Bush, but I have to admit that I sympathized with Bush on this point. Good Lord, has anyone been to an academic conference? Hasn't anyone ever redlined a speaker's speech? Hasn't anyone ever felt like that guy in Airplane who hangs himself, because he's trapped in his seat next to the babbling old lady?
I don't know. I really enjoyed hearing the relaxed Bush go on. He's so much better when he's not trying so hard, even if it's in a grating Pledge Master sort of tone. That formal, unblinking, stick-up-his-ass, deer-caught-in-the-headlights Bush really scares me.
Dowd seems to think that politics doesn't happen in informal chats and private phone calls between heads of state. She says that the only way to stop the horror unfolding in the Middle East is through long speeches and orchestrated diplomacy. I think she's wrong on this one.