The Daily Top Five

December 22, 2006.

1. When I went to college at teh University of Maryland, there were some courses that were a little strange and for my money a little too narrow to be of any practical use or even intellectually stimulating. But the Young America Foundation has a list of 12 bizzare and odd courses, courses paid for in part with our tax dollars.

2. Lots of talk about Virgil Goode's letter. Dan Riehl has what I think is a solid take on the matter. I will have more later.

3. Book banning has a long history in this country and each instance (save child porn) is wrong. But the crusade of Laura Mallory in Atlanta against Harry Potter is more than a little distrubing. The woman is seeking to ban books she has never read. La Shawn Barber has the full story, lots of links and solid research and writing.

4. Nancy Pelosi is planning a four-day coronation, sorry celebration, for her installation as the first female speaker. Besty Newmark has a reminder for Pelosi's Party Girl image:

She seems to be falling into the trap of thinking that the Democratic victories in the Fall were all about putting her into power rather than a repudiation of Bush and the GOP Congressional leadership. I think she's deluding herself if she thinks that the vote represented a positive affirmation of the Democrats and her personally rather than a negative vote on the Republicans. And now she's taking a big risk making herself the very public face of the Democratic Party. She will be very vulnerable to all sorts of targeted attacks and a few galas in Baltimore and churches isn't going to erase the fact that she is indeed a Democrat from San Francisco. She's making some of the same mistakes that Newt Gingrich made after the 1994 elections thinking that it was all about him and that the American people wanted to see him all over the place. And she just doesn't come off all that impressively when she is interviewed personally on a Sunday show.

Saturday Night Live is all ready to go with the Pelosi impersonators and the more gaffes she makes, the more fodder for late night. Makes me want to watch Saturday Night Live again.

5. I went to London two years ago with my family just after Christmas. The city was fantastic and they certain know how to do New Year's. While I am definitely going back, I am not sure this time of year would be safe or smart. While I appreciate the realism of the government, the fatalism is another thing.