Sunday/Monday Double Bill

Did he, or didn't he? Republican congressional candidate Mike Erickson got caught with his metaphorical pants down. He took a little junket cum humanitarian mission down to Cuba during Cigar Week. According to the candidate, he took supplies to a medical center, the existence of which is in doubt. According to others on his tour, they picked up a couple of cases of supplies in Cancun to observe the legalities. Guy looks like a sanaco anyway.

Appearance versus reality. Here's yet another article/interview with Rachel Kushner about her Telex from Cuba. Raised in Haight Ashbury, graduate of Berkley and Columbia, Kushner seems stuck on the possibilities of the Revolution. Interesting, that. What almost all reviewers miss is that the novel may be set in Cuba, but it is not about Cuba.

Poet and prophet. At Townhall, Dinesh D'Souza marks the passing of Solzhenitsyn by highlighting not his opposition to Soviet oppression, a timely topic, but rather the criticism of Western society to be found in a 1978 address at Harvard. Thought provoking. Read it here. Speaking of appearances, there's something of the Tolstoy in that photo.

To be or not to be. Another interesting duo is to be found in Ben Shapiro's column about Obama vs. McCain. His point: Americans like their Presidents tough, ergo McCain's boots trump Obama's suits. From your computer to God's ears?

You say potato; I say potato. The Times (Brit) informs us that octopi do not have eight arms as was the general thought. No, the wily octopods have six arms and two legs.