On your right

Any number of topics vied for attention this week, but then William F. Buckley Jr. up and died. I recently read, and was tickled by, his latest book, Cancel Your Own Goddam Subscription, a collection of his correspondence with National Review readers and others. (I once wrote to compliment him on one of his newspaper columns, of which he wrote more than 5,600. He promptly sent back a note in reply.)

Most of the obituaries focused on how in the 1950s and '60s WFB singlehandedly cohered and made respectable a political movement: conservatism. With National Review he created the most influential political journal of the last century. He also "invented TV punditry" (TNR) when he created Firing Line, the debate program that ran on PBS for 30 years.

But he once said he only talked about politics when he was paid to do so, and labels are no good for WFB. He was a polymath and a contrarian, even within his own movement, the sort of man of whom it is said we will not see his like again, and I was a great admirer.

He wrote more than 50 books, including detective fiction and books about faith and music and sailing. His writing was marked by a sometimes ridiculous floridity, to the point where you thought he might be putting you on. (He often was.) He was an accomplished sailor and a concert-level harpsichordist. (He wrote that he hated "rock and roll." No one's perfect).

When senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan (liberal, also not worthy of labels) passed away, columnist and Buckley protege George Will wrote that Moynihan's senate seat should be draped in black velvet and never occupied again. Something—I'm not sure what—should be draped in velvet in memory of WFB.

---

Word comes this week that employees at the IRS are prohibited from accessing the St. John's Hoops blog. I haven't been this proud since learning we were banned in China. (True fact: Can't access SJH inside the Middle Kingdom.) Still waiting to hear whether the ban affects the entire Treasury Dept. I've always suspected I have a following at the ATF.

Let me know if you will or will not be playing hoops at St. John's this weekend. We tip off at 9:00 a.m. Saturday, as usual.

Unplugged

Just got back from a week in Hawaii, where our condo had cable. I don't have cable TV at home. Or satellite. Rabbit ears, that's what I've got. See, I used to have a cable TV problem, and by "problem" I mean the same thing an alcoholic does when he talks about a drinking problem.

It started during my freshman year of college, when I lived at home, and my folks got me a year of cable TV (read: ESPN) for Christmas. I planted my behind on the couch and stayed there until approximately five years after graduating. Mind you, this was when cable TV meant ESPN, MTV, WGN, and TBS, years before ESPN Classic, the Food Network, and Paige Dawson.

When I got my own place I vowed to live cable-free. Things changed when I got married, though. The Missus couldn't stand how I jumped up in the middle of every show to fiddle with the antenna.

I called our local monopol-- er, provider and asked about the various packages available. Each time the operator would describe an offering I'd ask, "Do you have one that's less than that?" She worked her way down through Premium Plus, Premium, Enhanced Standard, Standard cable, and Basic Plus. Sensing her already paltry commission slipping away, she dispiritedly described Basic cable, just $9.95 per month.

Purely for sport I asked, "Do you have one that's less than that?"

I could tell she didn't want to answer. Finally, and flatly, she said "Yes." She told me about a package she was no doubt heavily discouraged from selling, a package the company was probably required by law to sell and that offered exactly what I was looking for: The broadcast channels, without the static, for five bucks a month.

"Basic Minus!" I said.

A few days later, after the installer left and I started flipping through the channels, I discovered that in addition to the broadcast channels we were also getting Turner Classic Movies and the Cartoon Network. For a few glorious months before we moved to a higher elevation I got the very package I would have designed if ordering channels a la carte had been an option.

But back to Hawaii. Boy, cable TV sure has changed. Lots of people SHOUTING and YELLING about stuff. Even ESPN seems to air mostly programs with two talking heads ARGUING about the day’s news.

It was Super Tuesday week, and seemingly every channel featured a roundtable of people shouting about the presidential primaries. One channel had a fellow I've since came to know as Glenn Beck. Arguing his candidate's merits he actually characterized John McCain with this red-faced claim: "John McCain is AGAINST THE BORDER." I turned off the TV and went to bed.

I still don't want cable in my house, but for different reasons.

---

Please let me know if you will or will not be playing hoops at St. John's this weekend. We air at 8:00 a.m. Saturday, as usual.

Protection

Freedom is on the march. In Saudi Arabia the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice (this is where Dave Barry would write, "I am not making this up") is clamping down on shops that promote Valentine's Day. Each year shortly before Feb. 14, the country's religious police mobilize, heading out to hunt for—and confiscate—red roses, red wrapping paper, hearts, gift boxes, teddy bears and other scandalous items.

In one school last year, girls lining up for daily morning prayer were inspected head to toe by teachers looking for violations of rules that ban wearing or carrying any red item on Valentine's Day. Ribbons, shoes, clothing, bags and other items with a even hint of red or pink were confiscated and thrown on a pile.

But of course, you can't outlaw love. Florists are reported to be delivering bouquets under cover of darkness.

In a related story, the co-inventor of Scotchgard passed away this week. Patty Sherman went to work for 3M in 1952. Years earlier she had taken a high school aptitude test. It said she should be a housewife. In the 1940s girls and boys took different tests, so Sherman asked to take the boys' test. It said she should be a chemist.

Please let me know if you will or will not be playing hoops at St. John's this weekend. We tip off at 8:00 a.m. Saturday, as usual.