There will be always be an England no matter what those Europeans try

Charles Johnson links.

Cut in Gas Tax

There are a lot of things I like about John McCain, but today's proposal to impose a holiday from the (still laughably low) federal gas tax is not one of them. I think we see the worst of all three current candidates when they stoop to populist nonsense like this.

Great Invention

Here is a great invention. It's much like the lids that you get for your hot beverage at any coffee place except that the tea goes through a filter before it reaches your mouth. This way, the barista can simply put loose tea leaves in the cup and pour in hot water. The result: a cup of tea that even George Orwell (the coiner of this blog's name) would be happy to consume! Click here for Orwell's formula for the perfect cup.

Wind Farms

I'm very keen on wind technology and I am tired of all the nimby-type opposition to wind farms from the Kennedys and other vacation-home-owning people. Andrew Sullivan links to a story that suggests that this might not remain a problem any longer.

Another Rich Obituary

The film director Jules Dassin died yesterday. He was blacklisted and went to Europe to continue working.

Soccer Artifact of the Week #5

Remember that annoying jazz/pop/fusion artist Gil Scott-Heron
(of "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised" fame)? His father was the first black player to play for Glasgow Celtic.

Bad Baseball Writing

A sentence that should never appear in an article about baseball and the writer's youth: "That was the summer that my friends and I lost our innocence." There it is today in the Wall Street Journal. Ever since (and before) Roger Kahn's "The Boys of Summer," otherwise decent writers have tried to use baseball as a metaphor for... something or other. Biggest culprits: Donald Hall, Bernard Malamud, George Will, Philip Roth. What do these guys have in common? Great writers, terrible writers about baseball.