Sunday morning roundup

"Henry V" was excellent--the best I've seen out of the STC for at least a year. The audience was pretty well-behaved, too (less so than the one at "Alice in Wonderland," more so than the one at the ballet last weekend), although there were one or two people who thought that what they had to say was worth distracting those around them from the words of Stacy Keach (who was not Henry V--maybe that's why).

Great article on the vague art of political and ideological labels, although the might have brought up the Fox News proclivity toward the 'socialist/fascist' label. I suppose he opted to limit his analysis to actual journalism.

Speaking of labels: Toles on "procedural mechanisms" and conservative heroes.

The vindication of Ulysses S. Grant.

Gorbachev takes a break from hawking Louis Vitton to tell us nothing we don't already know.

Rich on Rove/Cheney revisionism. David Cole on why we really ought to thank them.

Girls in Chile grow up knowing they could be president.

Will Japan allow itself to go multi-ethnic to survive?

People won't buy an "abortion rider" for the same reason many people are pro-life--they don't think unwanted pregnancy can happen to them.

Ah, horrendous customer service. Which reminds me: ADT wants to charge me $140 to take a service that I never use (and never asked for) off of my account. They said if I didn't want it I should have thought of that at the time I signed up for my service. Because when I was buying a house, moving, and fighting with every other utility, I was thinking about the fine print of my ADT agreement. Jerks.

As someone who bought when the world was ostensibly going to hell, I'm glad I didn't listen to the "great time to buy" mantra of the preceding years. But yes, my realtor did always say it was a great time to buy.

On the topic of domestic matters: go easy on dishwasher and washing machine detergent.