City of Champions

Though I'm not much of a hockey fan, I lived in Pittsburgh when the Penguins won their Stanley Cup championships in 1991 and 1992, and by happenstance, I'm in Pittsburgh the day they win it again, in 2009. It's the first time teams from the same city have won the Super Bowl and the Stanley Cup in the same year, so Pittsburgh is the City of Champions again. They were the City of Champions in 1979 when the Steelers won the Super Bowl and the Pittsburgh Pirates won the World Series. That World Series win was also the last time that a team in any major pro sport won the deciding 7th game of a championship series in the other team's city. The Pirates won in Baltimore--a night I remember well--and tonight the Penguins won in Detroit.

The local TV news is showing the celebrating crowds on the South Side and in the student quarter of Oakland. The police are out in force, trying to keep control. Out where I am, there were local fireworks and screams in the street. In a way it's too bad that it's a long weekend because the grownups have their fun when they go back to work.

Pittsburgh is surging in other ways at the moment. The downtown is full of construction projects, the city has been named the Most Livable again, and President Obama is sending the G 20 summit here in September, which will give the city an international spotlight. I saw the newly expanded convention center and it's pretty impressive. The North Side has the two new ballparks, restaurants, the Carnegie Science Center and children's museum. The downtown cultural district is pretty solid. As the hockey game began in Detroit, the Pittsburgh Symphony was playing its final concert of a successful season.

There are some not so wonderful things about this area. There is quite a bit of recessive racism that comes to the surface now and then. But the emphasis on family is not entirely fictional. The Steelers clearly draft for character as well as talent. The young star of the Penguins, Stanley Crosby, actually lives with the team's owner and his family--who happens to be Mario Lemieux, the star of those two Stanley Cups champions in 91 and 92. That's part of what Pittsburgh is about.

As for that other series--in a sport I actually understand--the Lakers took game 4 in overtime, in a kind of classic comeback. The Orlando Magic didn't distinguish themselves late in regulation and in overtime, leading to one of their key players issuing what has to be the quote of the year, when he said that one reason they lost was "our stupidness."

Kobe

I am currently in the land of the Penguins, and while I cheer for any Pittsburgh team, I know very little about hockey and can't get interested in watching it. So tonight I watched the first game of the NBA finals, and it's clear already that whatever some idiots have suggested (just don't look back too many posts in the past), the LeBron era isn't ready yet. This is still the Age of Kobe.

The Lakers used their height and a strategy based on it, that was successful in the last two games against Denver, to dominate the Orlando Magic, especially defensively. But it was the one superstar wrecking crew named Kobe Bryant who destroyed Orlando, leading the Lakers to a 25 point victory.

He played as if it was game 7, and strategically it was almost as important-- when Phil Jackson coached teams win the first game, they win the series. The Lakers took the Orlando energy and the surprise insertion of a great player who has been injured nearly all season, and absorbed all those punches. They maintained their own energy, getting defensive stops to match their offensive output in the second quarter, and then Kobe just took over the third quarter, scoring from everywhere and in every way. It was a classic performance.
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The Terminator vs. the Helpless:With this photo of a demonstration against health care cuts in Los Angeles by health care workers and patients, the New York Times story about the California budget cuts: "The cuts Mr. Schwarzenegger has proposed to make up the difference, if enacted by the Legislature, would turn California into a place that in some ways would be unrecognizable in modern America: poor children would have no health insurance, prisoners would be released by the thousands and state parks would be closed. Nearly all of the billions of dollars in cuts the administration has proposed would affect programs for poor Californians, although prisons and schools would take hits, as well."

NBA Dream--or Nightmare?

It was all set up to be Kobe vs. LeBron. The Lakers were the best team, the Cavs had the best record. But when Cleveland went undefeated through their first two rounds and the Lakers were taken to seven in the second, it seemed like it would be just the LeBron show in the finals.

And now...The Lakers go into game 6 against Denver 3 games to 2. It's at Denver, so a Nugget home win is more or less expected, unless.. the Lakers actually figured out in game 5 how to capitalize on their height advantage, and how to defend Denver. While Denver doubled Kobe, he and others found the big men inside, with some good 3 point shooting outside. Odum had a monster game but Bynum played well in his minutes, too. Now the adjustment for Denver would be to keep the ball from going inside, which would mean letting Kobe create and shoot. Can the Lakers still dominate with their big men? Will Kobe carry them in the fourth quarter? If not, it's back to L.A. on Sunday.

Meanwhile, the Cavs were down 3-1, lost most of a 20 point lead (again) and held off elimination with a major fourth quarter from LeBron. But they go to Orlando for game six.

So the NBA dream finals is still possible, and so is the nightmare: Denver vs. Orlando. A couple of emerging stars there, but not the likely audience. What's likely at this point? Half and half. I don't think the Cavs can beat Orlando twice more, or three games in a row. It's a good sign that LeBron hadn't exhausted himself by the fourth quarter, but he can't carry them against this level of competition. I think maybe the Lakers turned the corner in the fourth quarter of game 5. I like them in game 6, and if not, in game 7. So by next week, when I'll be "on the road," I expect LA-Orlando for the championship.

Update: Lakers dominated game six and will be in the Finals. They will likely be favored against either possible opponent. If it's Orlando, the Lakers will have home court advantage, which could be key. If the Cavs win two games they will have risen to another level and could be formidable, but they will also have more fatigue problems. The Lakers were incredibly sharp in the sixth game, and they had figured Denver out, so it's unlikely the finals will be as easy as this game suggests. But I like the Lakers in six against either the Magic or the Cavs.

Update 5/30: All the very well paid analysts at ESPN were sure Cleveland would push their series to a seventh game, but this unpaid analyst picked Orlando, and so it was. They were as dominant in their game 6 as the Lakers were in theirs, and that should get the Lakers attention. The matchups in the finals won't be easy. But even if the others play to a draw, the Lakers still have Kobe. And the Lakers have home court. If they get game 1, they're on their way. Anyway, it is a Lakers-Orlando series (already billed as Disneyland vs. Disney World), beginning late next week.

Next Round

The Lakers won their seventh game with a dominant performance, the kind that makes you wonder where they've been. Some of it is discernible--two of their "big men" (like they aren't all big), Bynum and Odum, were hampered by injuries. Odum looked quick again, and Bynum is getting more sure in his moves, though he still doesn't have a lot of lift--it may take off-season strengthening to recover fully from his knee surgery, but the Lakers are going to need him as close to 100% as he can get for the rest of the playoffs.

Gasol was also impressive today, but mostly it was the Lakers bench--Ariza, Luke Walton, etc. playing spirited and smart, and you can see how gifted they are physically. When you consider that the Lakers led by 30 and won by 20, with Kobe Bryant scoring just 14 points, then this has to be a confidence-builder. But once again they are favored to dispatch Denver, and we'll see what team shows up, especially for their first away games.

Meanwhile, Spike Lee's amazing film on Kobe was shown on ESPN, and for basketball fans it was once in a lifetime. Spike Lee had more than 50 cameras, many of them just on Kobe, for an entire game last season (an important one against San Antonio). Spike had access to the locker room before, after and at halftime. Kobe was miked the whole time (and never stopped talking.) Then after the video was cut into the finished film, this season Kobe sat down and watched it with Spike, providing a running commentary, and answering just a couple of questions from Spike. The film follows Kobe for the entire game--every play, a lot of bench moments and halftime. There's never been a more complete view of what playing in an NBA game is like, and ESPN ran it without commercials or an interruption. Fascinating.

What became clear pretty quickly is that Kobe, who has literally grown up as a Laker, is dedicated to every detail of basketball. He's already a coach as well. Also, NBA teams have become much more international in just the past five years or so, with players from all over Europe as well as Asia. So in communicating with some of his teammates, Kobe speaks Spanish and Italian (which he learned as a child in Italy, where his dad played ball). He says that everybody on the team now knows at least a little of 3 or 4 languages.

Pre-conference finals update: Asked what he learned about the Lakers from the Houston series, Kobe Bryant said, "We're bipolar."

The money is still on a Lakers-Cleveland championship series. But Charles Barkely is not only predicting that Orlando will beat Cleveland in the eastern conference finals, he predicts Denver wins over the Lakers in the west. Orlando-Denver finals, without Kobe or LeBron? It's the NBA's worst nightmare.

Not This Year Either

Last year, the Los Angeles Lakers got to the NBA playoffs where they were manhandled by a faster, tougher, hungrier Boston Celtic team. This year they entered the playoffs the favorite to win it all, even over their likely finals opponent, LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Ain't gonna happen, I'm afraid. While Cleveland has dominated their first two series, winning every game by double digits, the Lakers stumbled through the first round against Utah and have pretty much come apart in the current round, being taken to a game 7 by a Houston Rockets team that has no business even being in the building with them. They are without their center and dominant scorer, Yao Ming, as well as Tracy McGrady and other players. The Lakers are taller and more talented. But Houston has beaten them twice at home, and once in the Lakers' building.

Tonight the Lakers could have closed out the series but they failed to do it, losing by 15 points. There are only so many times they can say that they've learned their lesson and will exert more effort. Maybe that wasn't the problem, but at this point, confidence will be. They may win this series, playing game 7 at home. But they will have their hands full with a rested and now more confident Denver Nuggets team. Unless the Lakers sweep that series, by the time they face Cleveland, they will be wishing they weren't. Especially since they won't have home court advantage in the finals.

This looks more and more like Cleveland's year, and the official ascendancy of LeBron James as the best player in the NBA, dethroning Kobe Bryant. It's possible this won't happen. But the Lakers don't look like a championship team right now, and they can't be feeling like it, either.

Babies like him, too: President Obama is accumulating--and using--some immense political capital. See post below.

Capital

You wouldn't know it from watching cable news (even MSNBC shows are still possessed by Republicanitis) but our new President is doing pretty good, and Americans are pretty happy about it. Dana Milbank in the Washington Post leads his story today:

Yesterday's news was good -- almost supernaturally so.
The economy? Recovering.
The markets? Rallying.
Swine flu? Abating.
Drought? Ending.
The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff declared his confidence that Pakistan's nuclear weapons are well secured. The chairman of the Senate Finance Committee declared his confidence that a massive health-care overhaul will be accomplished this year. Warren Buffett declared his confidence that the economy is "out of the quicksand." And the Supreme Court was confident enough about the state of the nation to turn its attention to Janet Jackson's breasts.

He notes: The rapid improvement in the public's mood is without precedent in modern history. Last week's Washington Post poll found that 50 percent of Americans think things are generally going in the right direction, up from only 8 percent in early October. That's the quickest change in optimism since the question was first asked by The Post in 1980. Views of President Obama, in turn, were impossibly high: Ninety percent called him willing to listen to different views, and better than 70 percent called him a strong leader, honest and trustworthy, and understanding of people's problems."

Add to this the latest Research 2000 poll which shows President Obama has a favorable rating of 70%, versus 25% unfavorable.

So it is the perfect time for the Obama adminstration to start pushing for new regulations, because the blissfully unregulated are going to push back. He began Monday by honing in on tax havens that make it more profitable for big corporations to operate elsewhere, balanced by making tax credits permanent for research and development, leading to industries and jobs right here.

Tortured

President Obama wants the country to focus on the future, but there are a lot of voices who want the Bush torturers investigated and prosecuted. Some of this is fixation on the past--clinging to habits of obsession with the Bushites and rightist GOPers deepened over 8 years, and in some cases become part of identities--but there are also legitimate concerns over the rule of law and the necessity of judgment in order to make recurrences harder in any future administration.

And repulsion and frustration is a natural and worthwhile tortured response to recent revelations of the official sanction and frequency of torture in the Bush years, especially since much of that torture seemed not to be even an attempt to get information but an attempt to create the information the Bushites wanted: a connection between 9/11 and Iraq.

The Obama administration is not closing the door to investigation. And there are good reasons for not making this a public priority. But there may be ways to invesitgate this without making it a public spectacle. There are in fact ongoing investigations now--the Senate Armed Services Committee already issued its report and the Intelligence Committee is working on theirs. When that one comes out, and considering what it is likely to find, it would then be appropriate for the President to appoint a three judge panel to investigate criminal behavior and report to the Justice Department.

A panel rather than a single special prosecutor would be less likely to turn this into a circus that would distract too much from the rational debates needed on health care and the Climate Crisis for legislation this year. Eventually a catharsis will be needed on torture, but the most important action in the short term has been taken: the United States is out of the torture business.

Specter-graph

Arlen Specter's defection from GOPer to Democrat is the political buzzer button of the day. While it has positive psychological effect for Democrats, and the opposite for GOPer prospects, its ultimate effects are apt to be a lot more complicated, and won't be known for awhile.

Specter will get the Dem nomination in the primary for reelection to the Senate, since the support of Gov. Rendell (who was Specter's assistant when Arlen was Philly DA back in the day) was probably part of the deal, along with holding on to his seniority. With a big Dem majority in PA, he seems likely to win reelection. But...

Either he'll have to do it without organized labor or his candidacy is going to cause problems between Dems and Labor, owing to Specter suddenly backing off supporting the Employee Free Choice Act. Since Specter's primary concern is--as it has always been--his own political skin, he may find a face-saving way to support it with some minor molifying change in the legislation.

Specter's votes in the Senate are hardly in the bag for the Dems, especially on the big ticket items. He'll vote for the budget, but his effect on health care may be complicated. He's against using budget reconciliation to require only a majority on health care, and if the party moves in his direction, thinking that (with Franken seated) they have the 60 votes needed to neuter fillibuster, he's in better position to water down the legislation.

He's also not likely to vote for meaningful cap and trade or any climate crisis legislation. Since that's the most troubled area--partly because the Dem leadership says it isn't applying reconciliation to cap and trade--I don't see Specter's new-found Demhood as all that useful. He's just another quarrelsome conservative Dem.

There are significant unknowns in all of this. It's not an absolute given that the PA GOPers will nominate ultra-conservative Pat Toomey, currently polling so far ahead of Specter for the GOP primary that Arlen had to check out of the GOPer hotel. If Tom Ridge gets into the Senate race, then everything is shaken up, including Specter's reelection. Whereas if Specter had stayed a GOPer, he would have lost the primary, and Toomey would have lost the election to Any Democrat.

If the Dems are smart they will keep the pressure on Arlen, by letting someone run to the left of him for the primary, at least for awhile, until he's made a few meaningful votes. Similarly, the Dem party coffers should not open up to Specter until he's demonstrated that he is a Dem in more than name. Specter has a history of managing to find his principles flexible enough to do what is politically best for himself. The Dems need to use that kind of self-interest in the interest of the Obama agenda.

This is Realism

Realism in foreign policy is supposed to mean the equivalent of Social Darwinism: the struggle of all against all, nations red in tooth and claw. Bullshit.

President Obama is more of a realist than these knuckleheads grimacing in suits. Nations have interests, sometimes they conflict, but quite often they are best met by cooperation, conciliation and amity.

At Swampland, Michael Sherer reproduces President Obama's answer to a question asking him to define his foreign policy doctrine. It's worth reading in full (which is why he reproduced it in full) but here are some of the sentences that jumped out at me:

"Countries are going to have interests, and changes in foreign policy approaches by my administration aren't suddenly going to make all those interests that may diverge from ours disappear. What it does mean, though, is, at the margins, they are more likely to want to cooperate than not cooperate. It means that where there is resistance to a particular set of policies that we're pursuing, that resistance may turn out just to be based on old preconceptions or ideological dogmas that, when they're cleared away, it turns out that we can actually solve a problem.

And so we're still going to have very tough negotiations on a whole host of issues. In Europe, people believe in our plan for Afghanistan, but their politics are still such that it's hard for leaders to want to send more troops into Afghanistan. That's not going to change because I'm popular in Europe or leaders think that I've been respectful towards them. On the other hand, by having established those better relations, it means that among the population there's more confidence that working with the United States is beneficial, and they are going to try to do more than they might otherwise have done."

Now that's both sophisticated and simple, both well-informed and applied common sense. It's the new realism, if you like. Just as President Obama presented in his Georgetown speech--which I quoted and broke down in several posts over at Dreaming Up Daily--on the domestic economy.

Realism is seeing how things interrelate, and how the solutions to big problems may require lots of related small solutions, and sometimes the big solutions are to more that one problem (universal health care and clean energy being prime examples.)

Realism is understanding how to minimize barriers to agreements and solutions that just about everyone agrees will benefit them. Realism is seeing yourself as others see you, as well as how you want to be seen. Realism is avoiding costly and needless conflict, and resolving what can be resolved, to the benefit of all (but perhaps a few--the few who have been running things for themselves and their pals for far too long. In the guise of being realistic.)

Danger Signs

The tax day "tea parties" were easy to ridicule--as I did here. Organized by big lobbying firms and heavily promoted by Fox News and the largest media company in the world, they gathered "grass-roots" demonstrators protesting not only taxes but any of their right wing and lunatic fringe obsessions.

Rachel Maddow made a telling point in her coverage. She noted that tax day often brings out the lunatic fringe, but this time the Republican party embraced them and their causes--and their tone. I think you can go further and say the Republicans adopted their causes and their tone.

That tone is what really worries me. It was not only extreme but violent. Violently inflammatory images--of President Obama as Hitler, as Mao, and in various racist depictions--seemed to be common. President Obama was routinely called a socialist and a fascist--and not just by the rabble, but by Republican politicians and media. What fascists and socialists have in common certainly includes identification as a deadly enemy that Americans have taken arms and killed people to defend against.

Couple these inflammatory, emotionally charged images with another feature of these protests: they included those asserted not just their right to bear arms but their passionate love of guns, and their anger at the perceived threat from President Obama to take those guns away.

This is in a political climate where it is apparently impossible to suggest that assault weapons and automatic weapons that aren't meant to kill people--and in very rapid fashion, do kill people, in Pittsburgh, in Binghamton and elsewhere just in the past week or so--should be controlled.

Some argue whether these demonstrations were politically effective. They probably weren't. Because they were dangerous, and I don't hear this said enough. The Republican party and its media apparatus whipped up violent sentiments aimed at the President. They made common cause with people are may very well include the seriously deluded and unstable.

I watched some of President Obama's speech to delegates at the Latin America conference on Friday. He said what he has said in Europe, to Congress and the American people, on a bewildering range of issues in an amazingly short time: "I am not here to debate the past. I am here to deal with the future."

Despite whatever misgivings I may have about this policy or that decision, the more I see and hear him the more convinced I am of this: the future depends on Barack Obama. There is no one else with his intelligence, breadth, vision and ability to lead. There is no one else.

Those signs at those tea parties are danger signs. I don't know what else to do but pray for the Secret Service.

Alice Goes to A Grand Old Tea Party

Having followed the directions of the Cheshire Fox, Alice found herself at a grand old tea party. The outdoor table was set for hundreds, but there were only a few figures present. As the Cheshire Fox promised, the Mad Hannity, Duck Armie, Birdbill O’Really and several others huddled at the head of the table, all the better to look like a crowd on TV.

"No room!" they cried as they saw Alice approach.

[continued in posts below]

"But there’s plenty of room," said Alice.

"If you were carrying a sign, then we could invite you," Mad Hannity said.

"It should be handwritten," Duck Armie added, "because this is a grassroots tea party. One of my secretaries at my lobbying firm can make one for you if you like. Now that AIG isn’t paying us as much, they have so little to do."

"Thank you," Alice replied. "But I should like to know what the sign will say."

"Oh, something rash," Duck Armie said.

"Did someone call my name?" said a large badger who had been asleep on the table.

"Oh no, Chairman Rash," Duck quacked, " no one would be so disrespectful as to utter the name of Chairman Rash Limberger, without first bowing to you, the Head Cheese. I was merely suggesting that her sign should say something rash."


Rash nodded. "And racist," he added, "like a picture of President Obama with thick lips and a Hitler moustache, in a Mao uniform, shining somebody’s shoes." Then he nodded off again.

"You can stay," Birdbill O’Really said loudly, looking at Alice meaningfully. "Sit here beside me."

"Have some tea," the Mad Hannity offered.

"But there isn’t any," Alice said.

"Of course not," Mad Hannity sniffed. "It’s Wall Street tea. It's the proper tea for revolutionaries protesting against high taxes."

"But didn’t President Obama cut taxes for 95% of Americans?" Alice asked.

"Oh, that’s all right for them," Duck Armie said. "But what about us—the real Americans?"

"Socialists!" cried another voice. It came from an old man hidden behind a teapot. "There are seventeen socialists in Congress!"

"That’s Old Uncle Joe," Birdbill O’Really said reverently. "Isn’t he inspirational?"

Old Uncle Joe

"Are there really seventeen?" Alice asked.

"I have no idea," Birdbill said. "But ‘seventeen socialists’ is so much fun to say."

"Look at the deficit! Will this never end!" thundered Duck.

"We're 100% against government spending!" Mad Hannity cried.

"Except for big military contracts, in my state anyway" Duck Armie added. "Cutting useless military weapons systems is treason!"

"But didn’t you and the Republicans spend so much that the surplus became a deficit, under President Bush!" Alice asked.

"Shhh!" Bird O’Really warned. "We never say that name anymore."

"No and good riddance," Duck said. "We don’t need him. A Birdbill and a Hannity are worth two Bushes, I always say."

"But isn’t it true?"

"Not from where I’m sitting," Duck said. "You see, here in Washington it’s always feeding time, so there’s never a chance to clean away the tea things, and when we use up our cups and plates, we just move down a seat. Perhaps I was in Congress then but now I’m in a lobbyist seat. Let someone else deal with my old mess."

"There are sixty Socialists in the White House!" Uncle Joe suddenly cried.

"Ohh," Birdbill cooed. "That sounds even better."

"This Obama crowd is anti-American and anti-Christian nation!" snarled Mad Hannity.

"Off with their heads!" cried an imperious voice. Alice recognized the White
Queen Ann. "Use the second amendment! Remember the Alamo!"

"What does that mean?" Alice asked. "Are you advocating violence against political opponents, including the President of the United States?"

"What President?" Rash awoke and cried. "That pirate killer? He’s not legitimate!"

"But he was elected by a large margin," Alice noted.

"Exactly!" Mad Hannity said. "Was he appointed by the Supreme Court? Hah! He was not!"

"Did we have to send thugs to intimidate election officials and wait weeks to know if he got in? Did we even have to wait until the next day? And you call him a president!" O’Really shouted. "And look at the polls! He’s above 60%! When did the president have numbers like that? It’s mind control!"

Suddenly two figures dressed exactly alike came running breathlessly past the table. "Obama is a fascist!" one shouted. "Obama is a communist!" the other cried.

"I’ve seen you before," Alice said slowly. "You’re Tweedlebeck and Tweedlemalkin, though I confess I still cannot tell which is which."

"He’s taking away our freedom!" they both pouted. "He’s got the CIA and the NSA spying on our tea party!"

"Nonsense," Alice said firmly. "Besides, when I saw you before, you said that President Bush had every right to spy on anyone—that our civil liberties are worthless if we’re dead."

"You must be one of them!" Tweedlemalkin screamed. She formed a cross with her fingers and began circling Alice and chanting, "CNN, MSNBC, CNN, MSNBC!"

Tweedlebeck sank down into a chair and began to cry. "You just don’t understand. Nobody understands."

Now Alice heard someone singing—it was a large round figure perched on a narrow fence a few yards away.

"Pay him no mind," Mad Hannity muttered. "That’s Humpty Gingrich. He’s a newt, you know."

"Really?" Alice said, frowning. "He looks like an egg."

"He’s a newt egg, you ignorant girl," Hannity sniffed.

"But he’s such a big, round egg," she said.

"He fancies himself an egghead," Mad Hannity rasped. "Always inviting himself to our tea parties, and trying to take over—take our issues! And our ratings!"

"He’s the Gingrich who stole Christmas!" Birdbill O’Really said. "That was my issue—the liberals against Christmas! That was my Christmas bonus for years, now he wants it all for himself!"

Rash Limberger woke up. "Oh really, O’Really?" he shouted. "I’m the Big Cheese around here! All these issues are my issues! I give the orders! More chaos! More ratings for me!"

All the tea partiers commenced to quarreling, throwing cups and plates at each other until Alice had to escape from the table.

"You girl," said Humpty Gingrich as she approached. "Have you learned your lessons?"

"I’m not sure," Alice admitted. "I am rather confused."

"Why are you confused?" Humpty said. " We are very simple and clear, are we not?"

"You call yourself patriotic, and then you criticize the President’s efforts in saving an American in captivity while that man’s life was still in danger. You protest higher taxes when President Obama has just lowered taxes. You call for an end to government spending while you profit from government spending, and lobby to get more of it. You criticize the President for deficits that you piled up, and for wanting to regulate the people whose unregulated actions caused this painful economy. You want stimulus to end the recession, but not spending, which is what stimulus is. I simply don’t understand you."

"Oh you silly girl," Humpty said. "It is just the same thing as when I say that coal is clean energy, stem cell research is murdering children, the world is cooling and not warming, and this is the biggest grassroots tea party in the history of the universe. When I use a word, it means just what I choose it to mean—-neither more nor less."

But Alice found her attention wandering, as she noticed the many small cracks in Humpty’s shell. Fearing that he would explode at any moment, she curtsied and took her leave.

But not before spotting the Cheshire Fox at the edge of the wood. Not the whole Fox—just his smile.