I'm back

Just spent several days in Philadelphia, where I arrived to a party and left a morgue. Oh well. Wait 'til next year.

I thought the President's SOTU address was intellectually dishonest, particularly on the subject of Social Security. His barnstorming tour doesn't seem to be gaining any traction for privatization either, so the Repubs are reduced to sending out a poison pen letter to the media about Harry Reid (who rocks, incidentally), calling him an "obstructionist" in a clear attempt to remind Reid of Tom Daschle, which presumably will send him prostrate in a bee line for the ass of Bill Frist, asking which cheek to kiss. I think the senator from Nevada is made of stronger stuff (plus, he's safe for 6 years).

You also need to go to Juan Cole and look in on his ongoing bitchslapping of Jonah Goldberg, which is hilarious in its own right, but also really crystallizes a lot of thoughts I've had about the pundit class in general. His assertion that pundits merely apply their ideological template to situations about which thy know zilch is salient. It makes it easier to argue if you're unburdened by facts in this way.

OK, more later.