Happy Halloween everyone!

Nothing dusts off the brain's cobwebs like a strong dose of Eric Voegelin. (Metaphor alert!)

Gene Callahan offers forth this thoughtful critique of those who insist that our senseless and immoral invasion of Iraq was necessary if we are to "win the clash of civilizations."

Okay, am I the only one who'd like to see The Pope kick the Shi'ite out of a "mullah-to-be-named-later" on Celebrity Deathmatch? Or, at least, I'd like to see him walk out on the balcony of St. Peter's and raise the Super Finger toward Mecca.

Wouldn't the world be a better place if we resolved our religious and other disputes via classic playground methods? Who needs bombs when you can triple-dog-dare your opponent to stick his tongue to a frozen slab of unclean animal?

Remember when David Letterman had Rudy Giuliani get on the Jumbo-Tron in Times Square and say, "My city can kick your city's ass!"? That's what I'm talking about.

It appears that Time Is Running Out.

Why, exactly, is time "running out"? Will he taunt them a second time?

How many BROWN Zune players do you think Microsoft will sell?

Brown - it's the new, uh, Mustard...

This ain't good.

I don't know how many times we've brought this up, but Christopher Hitchens kicks ass. Why he would bother going on Bill Maher's show is a difficult question, but his willingness to go on and more than once directly insult the studio audience delights me to no end.

Poochucker and I grabbed a beer yesterday afternoon in San Diego while I was waiting for my flight home, and as we watched pre-teens play in the Little League World Series we also discussed how bad the grown-ups in the National League were playing.

Last time I checked the standings, right before the all-star break, there were only five teams in the entire National League playing above .500. Well, guess what? There are still only five teams in the NL playing above .500, and some barely so. Pitiful.

Am I complaining? Absolutely not. If it weren't for the generally poor NL play, the .504 Arizona Diamondbacks wouldn't be in second place for both the Western Division AND the NL Wildcard. Hurray for mediocrity!

This month's top eMusic Downloads:

1. The Spores - Imagine the Future
2. Hello Radio: The Songs of They Might Be Giants
3. Spoon - Telephono / Soft Effects
4. Neko Case - Blacklisted
5. Billy Bragg - Brewing Up With Billy Bragg
6. The John Doe Thing - For the Best of Us
7. Cat Power - The Covers Record
8. The Jazz Butcher Conspiracy - Rotten Soul
9. Praxis - Metatron (Bill Laswell, Buckethead, and Brain, oh my!!!)
10. Some Girls - Crushing Love (Juliana Hatfield...sigh)

Top CD Purchases:

1. Morrissey - The CD Singles '88-'91 [box]
2. The Wonder Stuff - Hup
3. Concrete Blonde - Concrete Blonde
4. The Clash - From Here to Eternity Live
5. David Sylvian - Dead Bees on a Cake

Well, H.L. has called me out. My last quiz wasn't "nearly snobby enough." Fine, then. It's still all rock and roll, but I'll throw some snobby at you:

1. Best ZTT and/or Trevor Horn-produced album.
2. Best album by a band with a former Bauhaus member.
3. Best all-covers album by a single band.
4. Best album by a group local to the town you were born/raised.
5. Best album from the Cracker/Camper Van Beethoven family.
6. Best album featuring Robert Fripp where Fripp was not a part of the band.
7. Best album featuring former member(s) of King Crimson.
8. Best Smiths 12" Single.
9. Best cover version of a Smiths song.
10. Best album featuring Johnny Marr OTHER than a Smiths album.

Monkey RobbL's answers:

1. Propaganda - A Secret Wish [runner up: (Who's Afraid Of) The Art Of Noise]
2. Tones On Tail - "Pop"
3. Trip Shakespeare - Volt [runner up: Siouxsie and the Banshees - Through The Looking Glass]
4. Gin Blossoms - New Miserable Experience
5. Camper Van Beethoven - Key Lime Pie [runner up: Monks of Doom - Meridian]
6. David Sylvian - Gone To Earth
7. Bruford - Feels Good To Me
8. Panic (b/w "Vicar In A Tutu" and "The Draize Train")
9. The Dream Academy - "Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want" [runners-up: Bobby Bare, Jr. - "What Difference Does It Make" and Mikael Erentxun - "Esta Luz Nunca Se Apagara (There Is A Light That Never Goes Out)"]
10. Kirsty MacColl - Kite

1. Favorite Beatles album
2. Favorite Velvet Underground album
3. Favorite Clash album
4. Favorite New Order album
5. Favorite Smiths album
6. Favorite Robyn Hitchcock album
7. Favorite Oingo Boingo album
8. Favorite U2 album
9. Favorite Echo & The Bunnymen album
10. Favorite Pixies (or related) album

Monkey RobbL's choices:

1. Revolver
2. Loaded
3. London Calling
4. Low Life
5. The Queen is Dead
6. Invisible Hitchcock
7. Good For Your Soul
8. Boy
9. Crocodiles
10. Doolittle

1. James Lipton or Elvis Mitchell?
2. Fender or Gibson?
3. Elvis or The Beatles?
4. Batman or Superman?
5. Red or green?
6. Red or white?
7. Irish, Scotch, Bourbon or Rye?
8. San Francisco or New York City?
9. AL or NL?
10. Cable or satellite?

My answers:

1. Elvis Mitchell
2. Fender
3. The Beatles
4. Batman
5. Green and extra spicy
6. Red, preferably from Italy
7. Irish
8. San Francisco
9. NL: If you've got a DH, you're not playing real baseball.
10. Satellite

Five "old" technologies that still amaze and mystify me:

1. Vinyl record players
2. Popcorn
3. Cold reading
4. Language
5. Gravity

Rep. Ron "Dr. No" Paul gives this explanation why he voted against the ridiculous "support Israel" resolution last week. Good for him.

Of course, the loonies in the comments section over at LGF think this makes him an anti-Semite.

Well, I'm off to Hawaii for 5 days. For work, of course.

No, really.

Yesterday I was listening to the Indiefeed podcast, and heard this fun song about the place where I bought all of my home office furniture. L

I will post later of my passionate hatred for this new Townhall.com monstrosity. Right now I'm too frustrated with it to post anything but words that would be removed by Townhall's obscenity filter. I mention it only to say that I FINALLY got part of the podcasting thing to work, and I listened to our pal Hugh's interview with Christopher Hitchens. Hugh spends almost 14 minutes fishing for support on this whole NYT-Swift thing, and Hitch gives him nothing but scraps. I also listened to the Doyle McManus interview, which I had previously read on Radio Blogger, just to see if Hugh's tone was different "in person" than it was "on paper." It wasn't.

Now let's say, just for the sake of argument, that the New York Times WAS wrong to publish information about this program. Even if that was the case, it is completely unfair for Hugh to target the LA Times and completely ignore the Wall Street Journal. The New York Times broke the story. According to Tony Blankley, both the LAT and the WSJ were performing parallel research, and as soon as the NYT announced to the administration that they were going to run with the story, the administration went to BOTH the LAT and the WSJ to make sure they had the full story and published it accurately. Referring to the "Times Two" as jointly responsible for this leak, while leaving the Journal free from criticism, just shows Hugh's shallow and partisan viewpoint.

McManus's interview, if anything, shows that the Los Angeles Times was trying to work with the government in determining the correct balance between national security and the public's right to know. Hugh's continued "quoting" of McManus's "admission" that the story might help terrorists just shows that he's more interested in tarring the Los Angeles Times with the same brush he's using on the New York Times than he is with finding the truth about this story.

This Month's Top 5 eMusic Album Downloads:

1. Frank Black: Fast Man / Raider Man
2. 50 Foot Wave: Golden Ocean
3. Cracker: Greenland
4. Gone: Let's Get Real, Real Gone For A Change
5. John Coltrane: Soultrane (Remastered)

This Month's Top 3 CD Purchases:

1. XTC: Transistor Blast (Box Set)
2. The Dream Academy: A Different Kind of Weather
3. Matthew Sweet: Altered Beast

Hip hip hurray for the NSA!

Well, it's the end of my trip to Minneapolis, and what better way can one end such a trip than by visiting Keegan's Pub with the fine gentlemen from Fraters Libertas for Trivia Night?

It was, of course, delightful. First of all, I should point out to JamesPh that the weather was wonderful (never got above 82 degrees, low humidity, no mosquitos) and he's crazy to purposely come here in the winter. Keegan's rules stated that no more than four people may join a team for trivia, and the Fraters bench was full, so I joined some crazy candidate for the state legislature and a guy who works for The Patriot radio stations in Minneapolis. The result? A tie between our team and the Fraters. If "Rocky" taught me anything, it's that a tie is a victory for the challenger, and I performed the appropriate victory dance. Okay, there was no dancing, but there was certainly celebration. Both teams got 24 answers out of 25, and we both missed the same question: What is a "peeler?" The answer? An Irish cop. Whodathunk.

Later in the evening, The Elder and I engaged in a spirited debate about freedom of the press, the aggressive use of force, and just a touch of just war theory. I don't believe either of us changed our minds, but it was a civilized and respectful interaction, particularly considering we just got done drinking at an Irish bar.

Atomizer gave me some smokes, and St. Paul was kind enough to pretend he remembered me after I told him who I was. At the end of the evening, I met several other bloggers from the Minneapolis area, including the friendly folks at Freedom Dogs, who gave me a t-shirt. Thanks, guys!

I'm coming back to Minneapolis in August, during the Minneapolis State Fair. I'll look forward to a trivia rematch at that time. Remember the second fight between Rocky and Apollo, guys. Next time, you're going down!

Oh, I almost forgot: The food and drink were great. Fish and chips were delicious and they had Power's Gold Label and Smithwick's Irish Ale on tap. Mr. and Mrs. Keegan hung out on the porch and chatted with us, and I got a free beer for winning (or, I guess, tying) at trivia. Thanks again to everyone!

Rhino Brian once again comes through with a great story about how British world cup fans are threatening to consume all of the beer in Germany.

Rhino Brian once again comes through with a