Wednesday Night Cigar

Karl smoked a Helix Wednesday night to celebrate his avoidance of the State of the Union speech the night before. Don't get him wrong - he is one of the loyal 35% of Bush supporters. But, it was no secret the Bush criticisms were going to precede and follow the speech. Another night of "global warming", "gas prices", and other bleating from the no-agenda tax-increasing, white-flag crowd was going to crimp future cigar outings. Karl, instead, turned to the Wall Street Journal Editorial page for a quick, objective post-speech summary. Thanks WSJ!

Karl is finishing The President, the Pope, and the Prime Minister, By John O'Sullivan. This is definately going on the Ushanka.us bookshelf. A great summary of the major events of the 80's with a well supported thesis that Ronald Reagan, Pope John Paul II and Margaret Thatcher independently and jointly brought the end of the Soviet Union.

The theory was once overheard that the reason for the Democrats' agenda of personal destruction is a distraction to the fact that conservative values and leadership won the Cold War. Agree?