Manhattan Transfer

I'll get around to doing a longer post on the trip to conquer the west later. For now, here's a couple of pictures from the first days in Wyoming.

I'll be hiking and fishing out west for the next week or so. After that I'll be in Vegas facing what all my commenters assume will be my complete destruction. In the meantime, I think Miss Anna will be around to post in my absence.

I'm planning on taking my first trip out to Vegas next weekend. Drop me an email or a comment if you have any advice on where to stay, eat, drink, gamble and be merry.

One of the astonishing things about our President and the people who work for him is how little they understand about foreigners. Specifically, the administration doesn’t understand the resistance of foreigners to reforms that would make them more like Americans. Iraq is the most obvious example. Immigration is another. I don’t buy that these people are dumb or motivated entirely by corruption, so what’s going on?

The operating theory seems to be that being an American is somehow more natural than being any other kind of person so that once we remove the chains that bind people to their un-American cultures, they’ll just start acting like ordinary American folk. Americans values don’t stop at Persian Gulf or the Rio Grande because they aren’t just American values. They are human values.

Unfortunately for the lads and lasses sent to test this theory in Iraq, it seems that a lot of foreign-types disagree. After our massive failure abroad, is it really a good idea to test a theory at home by encouraging more immigration?

If you're wondering why I haven't called you or checked in on dodgeball lately, it's because I lost my phone. In a fight. At 4:30 in the morning. Five guys against me. Somehow I'm pretty much alright because they were even drunker than I was. Also I'm apparently very good at fighting. The phone, one fingernail, about 20% of my dignity and a few random bruises were my only injuries. The real first rule of fight club is: don't get into fights after your ninth glass of whiskey.

Email me [manhattantransfer(at)gmail(dot)com]your phone number or take this opportunity to wrap up our friendship.

And while we're at it, let's buy them a drink as well. Steve Sailer is having a fund-raising drive. If you haven't clicked through the link on my blogroll before, now would be a good time to do it. Steve's been amazingly productive this past year, using his sharp mind to come up with ground-breaking statistical analyses that explain much about our confusing world. Among other accomplishments, he produced the best analysis of what exactly is going on with this Red State v. Blue State business. Steve enjoys a great advantage over much of the other pundit class, which is more or less statistically illiterate and afraid to look too closely at the results of human biodiversity. If you like what you see, click on his paypal donation link.

The landlord dropped off the new lease yesterday. I opened it with trepidation. New York real-estate continues to soar beyond the comprehension or income of mortals so the prospect of renegotiating my rent was not a welcome one. Fortunately, they've offered me the apartment at the same rent I've been paying since 2002, which is actually less than what I was paying when I moved in 2000 (I took advantage of the post-9/11 fears of people fleeing downtown Manhattan to ask for a rent reduction). Since I earn a bit more than I did when I moved in, I can almost afford this place. Hoo-ah. It's celebration time.

This was going to be the weekend where I tried to begin the recovery from a summer of decadence. TIme to cut down on the drinking, eating and spending. The score so far: drinks at Drunk vs. Sober, dinner at Diablo Royale, lunch at BLT Steak, drinks at the Cooper-Hewitt museum, dinner at Crispo, more drinks at Employees Only and giving up going to the gym today in favor of a beer soaked BBQ. Ah, well. There's always next week.

Mitch McCabe is a break-up addict.

Somehow I find her sadness seriously hot.