Say goodnight, Fred.  Last night, Saturday (5/12), in a huge ballroom at a hotel in Washington I can't name at a meeting of a group I can't mention, Fred Thompson was the dinner speaker to 500 of conservatism's crème de la crème. The energy in the room was crackling.  Here's the guy, everyone was either thinking or hoping - the big man who could fill Reagan's shoes, a true conservative who could electrify Republicans and sweep them to victory in 2008. There were cheers and yells when he was introduced, as everyone stood in sustained applause, then sat down in quiet excited anticipation. I'm not at liberty to reveal what he said, as this was a closed meeting, a private off the record address.  But I can tell you my reaction and that of the several dozen folks I talked to afterwards. What a bummer.

Well, I asked for it.  I'm the guy who chided the Chinese last week for ignoring the proverb about being careful what you wish for - then promptly proceeded to ask what you wanted the next TTP Nutshell History to be. You folks gave me enough assignments to keep me busy until there's peace in the Middle East. It's exciting, frankly, for it shows just how interested in the world TTPers are.  Yet where do I begin?  Here's a compendium of your requests, in no particular order:

I am so appreciative of the warm response to Sarkozy and History.  These "nutshell histories," as TTPers have dubbed them, are such a hit that I have a request.  I'd really like to hear from you as to what country or period of history should be the next nutshell. TTPer "Leebailey," for example, in our User Forum recently made an astute observation on the consequences of the fall of the Ottoman Empire on the entire Middle East.  Given that the Ottoman remnant of Turkey is so prominent in the news right now - a predominantly Moslem country engaged in a huge tug-of-war between secularists and Islamists - wouldn't that be a good candidate? But the world is so large, so much of import is going on within it, and history so long, that there is a plethora of such good candidates.  So I'd like to know what you guys n' gals consider your favorites. There's a lot to choose from.  I am really intrigued by what your choices might be.  Let me know.  Thanks...

One of the basic contributions of France to civilization was the salon, where the most intelligent and literate of Parisian society would gather in elegant relaxation to courteously discuss any matter of interest. The founder of the French salon was Catherine de Vivonne (1588-1665), known as the Marquise (for she was married to a French noble or Marquis) de Rambouillet.  In 1618, she began receiving guests in her salon bleu of the family home, the Hôtel de Rambouillet on the Rue St. Thomas-du-Louvre in Paris. There were nobles like La Rochefoucauld, cardinals like Richelieu, generals, scholars, poets, artists, wits, and the most cultured ladies of French aristocracy.  There was good cheer, good manners, discussion flourished, and erudite conversation became an art. I am in no way going to compare myself to the Marquise (or TTPers to Richelieu!), yet we may be witnessing the emergence of a salon that she might appreciate on To The Point.  I am referring to the massive response - 70 posts - to Beatles in Baghdad in our User Forum.

Okay, it's time for a fun story.  It is, of course, not fun when someone passes, as Kitty Carlisle did last week (4/17) at age 96.  But it prompts me to reveal how I met her, as it was pretty hilarious. She was a Broadway and Hollywood actress, but she became a household name as a panelist on the TV show To Tell The Truth, which first aired in 1956.  It was three years later, at age 15, that I was a guest on the show. You know the setup.  Three contestants, each claiming to be the same person;  four panelists interrogating them and guessing who's real.  Each wrong guess was worth $250.  When I met my two impostors before the show, I asked them: "Isn't the object of this game to fool the panel, fool all the panelists so we can win the most money, which is $250 times four or $1000?" I asked.  "So what would be the best way to do this?  I think it would be by my pretending to be dumb.  I have to tell the truth, the rules are that I can't lie, but I can pretend to stumble and be unsure.  You guys act confidant. If all the panelists fall for it, we get all the dough." They both thought this was a great idea.

Everyone "knows" that DDT -  Dichloro-Diphenyl-Trichloroethane - is a terrible poison.  It isn't, of course (see, for example, the Harvard Nurses Health Study).  Yet because everyone is so sure it is, some folks on the Republican National Committee figure it might as well be used to poison the Democrats. So don't be surprised if you hear the party of Lost Harry Reid and Pelosi Galore, of Shrillary and Barack Hussein being called The DDT Party - the party of Defeat, Death, and Taxes. Defeat - as in surrender, wanting America to lose, waving a white flag at America's enemies. Death - as in promoting a culture of death, of the murder of millions of unborn children, of hysterically opposing any attempt to prevent their murder. Taxes - as in always advocating more and higher taxes as the answer to any problem.

The news story headlined Canadian Military Reinforces Arctic Claim had a dramatic lede: "Battling high winds, 25-foot ice walls, mechanical breakdowns and whiteout conditions, a Canadian military team, including Eskimo reservists, last week completed a 17-day trek [across Ellesmere Island] designed to sustain Canada's claim to sovereignty over the high Arctic." Of course, the reporter then had to include a ridiculous global warming spin in a story on Canadian national security: "[Expedition leader Maj. Chris Bergeron] said old-timers among the Eskimos, who call themselves Inuit, told him they had never seen open water and bare rocks so close to the North Pole." Being quite familiar with Ellesmere, Canada's northernmost island, I can assure you the reporter, Barry Brown has never been there and is laughingly ignorant - like most glowarmers. Just as ignorant as the Eskimos - who live over 400 miles away from Ellesmere's northern shore on the Arctic Ocean (which is itself 550 miles "close" to the North Pole).  The only Inuit or Eskimo community on all of Ellesmere's 76,000 square miles is Grise Fiord on the far away south shore.  They have no knowledge at all of the Arctic Ocean. Which brings me to Mars... 

When I saw the news bulletin that Moslem terrorists had decapitated six hostages on the southern Philippine island of Jolo, I thought of the 1939 movie, The Real Glory, where Gary Cooper plays a US Army doctor trying to protect Christian villagers in the Philippines from a cholera epidemic and Moslem suicide killers - set in 1906!

The leader of the Moslem fanatics is named Alipang.  Cooper breaks Alipang's will by threatening to kill him and bury him wrapped in a bloody pigskin.  Afraid such defilement will result in his not going to heaven but Jahannam, Islamic Hell, Alipang commands his men to surrender.

I thought it ironic in the extreme that this news report about Jolo should appear three days after an obscure item in the business section of USA Today, Squeezing Diesel Out Of Animal Fat.

The story announced: "Oil company ConocoPhillips and meat producer Tyson Foods said Monday they're joining forces to produce diesel fuel for U.S. vehicles using beef, pork and poultry fat."

Biofuel from pig fat.  Does that ring a bell from say, a year ago (April 2006) when you read about Project Jahannam?

With the current spectacle of the corrupt World Bank trying to rid itself of its president who is trying to de-corrupt the place, based on politicized corruption charges against him, it is time to ask: Should the World Bank (WB), and indeed, its sister organization the International Monetary Fund (IMF), be abolished? Both organizations had their annual spring meetings in Washington this past weekend. It is obvious to everyone that both are in deep trouble. 

With evil day of April 15 nigh, it is time to demand of the various presidential candidates to show how they propose to lift the unconscionable burden of the IRS off our oppressed shoulders. As is well known, the current U.S. income tax system and the Internal Revenue Service are a huge and unnecessary drag on both the economy and individual liberty. The IRS code and regulations have become hopelessly complex and grown to about 7 million words. No one can possibly understand the present code, including even those at the IRS. Thus no matter how well-meaning, the taxpayer is always at risk for noncompliance -- such laws are characteristics of totalitarian, not free, societies. Such laws need to be abolished.  There are two serious proposals for doing so:  the "Flat Tax" and the national sales tax, better known as the "Fair Tax." (See Flat Tax Revolution by Steve Forbes, and  The Fair Tax Book by Neil Boortz and Congressman John Linder.)

I've never understood why people listen to smart-aleck jerks on trash radio like Don Imus and Howard Stern who get paid a lot of money to say nothing of substance but say it in a pseudo-clever, hyper-cynical, juvenilely outrageous way. But I sure am enjoying watching him squirm.  This is great karma.  His public persona, with the phony cowboy hat, the gravel voice, the wrinkled glower, was of a super tough guy, as tough as say, the British Royal Marines.  Turns out he's as much of a surrender pussy as they are. Imus should exchange his cowboy hat for a dhimmi head scarf like that worn by Pelosi Galore or Limey sailorwoman Faye Turney to best signify his submission to the gods of political correctness. Now, if that's all this teapot tempest is, yet another example of bottomless PC hypocrisy and Al Sharpton's unceasing effort to prey on white guilt, it'll soon be replaced by the next media frenzy.  The real question is whether the Imus scandal will wreck the presidential candidacy of Barack Hussein Obama, Jr.

If you knew how to make life better for your fellow Americans, would you? The political class in Washington constantly claims it "cares about you," but when it comes to policy many do just the opposite. Most people understand the Republicans messed up by allowing nondefense spending to grow faster than the economy. The Democrats ran against the irresponsible Republicans by claiming they would be "fiscally responsible." So, rather than present a budget that would reduce the growth rate of domestic spending, they have just proposed one that would increase it, even above Republican proposals, and require increases in taxes. You can only wonder if they are even more brain dead than the Republicans.

Though The Poison That Is Killing The West has only been up for a short while, there's already a discussion thread on the User Forum.  Dennis Turner, for example, is pessimistic regarding war with Iran (he's pessimistic that there won't be war - I'm optimistic there will be!):

Sad to say, but I don't think we'll take them on. I think we'll issue an ultimatum banning Iranian naval forces from the waterway, but won't shoot when they violate the ban. I hate to be so pessimistic but I see this happening in Israel, where the threat is existential, with Rice pushing for final status issues with the PA while they do not recognize Israel, accept previous agreements, agree to collect weapons and dismantle the terrorist infrastructure, renounce violence, etc.

Are you absolutely sure you paid the exact amount of income tax you owed last year -- not too much and not too little? I am willing to bet the vast majority of those reading this paid either too much or too little -- not because they intended to but because the tax code is so complex it is almost impossible to know precisely the right number. As Americans sit down to file their taxes before the infamous April 15 deadline, most will feel some anxiety and many will feel trapped - trapped in a system they cannot understand, nor can they obtain the help that will fairly represent them against the government or protect them against having their hard earned monies misspent. At this moment, some in Congress are on a rant about the unsupported claim that more than $300 billion in taxes due last year were not collected, and demanding even more coercive measures. Why is there not equal outrage in Congress about all the Americans who pay too much each year because they cannot understand, or the IRS has made it too costly to obtain, the deductions to which they are legally entitled?

I have just sent the following letter to a friend in the White House who asked for informed suggestions regarding Tony Snow's recurrence of cancer.  Many TTPers have expressed their concern for Tony and are praying for him.  Here is an initial series of suggestions for him.   Dear Tim, A close friend of mine for many years is a medical researcher whose IQ was unable to be measured by MIT as it was so far above 200.  Here is what he suggests for Tony, as supplementing the treatment from his physicians. Go to this website of the National Center for Biotechnology Information and the National Institutes of Health:  http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/.   In the PubMed search box, enter in the specific medical name of the type of cancer Tony has as determined by the pathology report, plus "treatment," plus "immune" or "immunity," plus "experimental" or "adjuvant."

The Jade Steps Chapter Thirty-One:  The Spanish Phoenix By nightfall, the expedition reached the town of Xaltepec on the far side of the valley.  It was deserted, and everyone had to forage for food.  Malinali tried to clean the bloody gashes on Cortez's head and the deep wound in his left hand, but Cortez shook his head.  "To a man, all of us are wounded, exhausted, and hungry," he told her.  "Organize help for them, tend to them... then you may have all night to tend to me." When Malinali returned, she found Cortez fast asleep.  At dawn the next morning, she tried to clean and bandage him as best she could, but he was anxious to get underway.  "Our only hope of safety lies in those mountains of Tlaxcala," he said, as he gazed at them looming above Xaltepec.  Slowly, slowly, the expedition trudged up into the mountains to the Tlaxcalan frontier fortress town of Hueyotlipan (way-oat-lee-pahn). There to greet them were King Xicotencatl, Chief Maxixcatzin, and Commander Chichimecatecle. "Malinche!  Malinche!" they cried out when they saw Cortez.  Chief Maxixcatzin threw his arms around him.  "How grieved we are at your misfortunes, and the number of our own people who have been killed with yours," he told Cortez through Malinali.  "We warned you not to trust the Mesheeka, but you went to their city and did not believe us.  Now all we can do is help with your wounds and give you rest and food.  Here you are home."

Why do non-Americans so dislike Americans or, at least, the American government?  Could part of the reason be because the U.S. State Department appears to think its mission is to be rude, insulting and condescending? This month, the State Department has set a new record by managing to insult the citizens of 123 different lands at one time in the International Narcotics Control Strategy Report: Volume II, Money Laundering and Financial Crimes. The 450-page report discusses what other countries are doing to reduce money laundering and financial crimes, which is fine. But then the authors go on gratuitously lecturing each of the countries by name about how they could do things "better." The Report, produced by the global nannies and nags at State, is filled with endless demands that other countries do a better job enforcing their laws, pass more laws, sign more international treaties and engage in some practices that would be illegal and unconstitutional in the U.S.    Some examples:

The Democrat Party is in thrall, we're told, of the mighty power of the Moonbat Left, with its millions of passionate adherents all ruthlessly organized via MoveOn.org to bring doom to any politician who dares oppose them. Their strength would literally be on parade, they boasted, in the nation's capital in a glorious resurrection of the left's finest moment of anti-war protest forty years ago.   More than a hundred thousand of them would march on the Pentagon, humbling their arrogant warmongering government over Iraq as their parents and grandparents once did over Vietnam. Why they chose March 17, 2007 as the "40th Anniversary" of the legendary-to-them March on the Pentagon is mysterious, as the latter took place on October 21, 1967. On that October day 40 years ago, well over 100,000 lefties, cheered on by Jane Fonda, Noam Chomsky, and Abbie Hoffman, marched from the Lincoln Memorial over Memorial Bridge and down to the Pentagon, where they were met by 2,500 armed Army soldiers. Lefty author Norman Mailer wrote a book about it, The Armies of the Night, which however poorly and egomaniacally written, won a Pulitzer Prize.  No one, not even as awful a writer as Mailer, is going to write a book about the pathetic fizzle of this last Saturday.  What a bust.