We’re here! And, I just finished Chapter 18 (page 396).

We’re at a rest stop in Maryland now… and I’m on page 335. :)

I rather like my “live coverage” of the Harry Potter book release last night, particularly the second and third audio posts. (You can view all my posts in the Harry Potter category.

By the way, I read the first three chapters of Harry Potter last night, even though I was only going to be able to get a few hours sleep. I couldn’t help myself. :) It’s very good so far!

Now I’m off to Silver Spring, Maryland, for my high-school friend Josh Rubin’s wedding to Joanna Katz. Mutual friend Kate Harbeson and her mother Natalie are driving me down to Maryland; they should be arriving at my house any minute (hence my having to get up early this morning). So, yet again, I will be mostly if not entirely limited to posts from the cell phone this weekend. I’ll be returning on Monday.

Have a good weekend!

Got my book!

We’re in line!

The first people are now getting their books! Here they are when they were first allowed to go up to the counter.

audblog audio post

audblog audio post

audblog audio post

At Borders, waiting for Harry Potter

Lest anyone conclude that I really have become a pro-Bush Republican, rest assured, this still really, really ticks me off.

My dad correctly noted the other day that I haven’t been doing my job of hyping the big Harry Potter book opening, which is now less than 12 hours away. Sorry. I’ve been too busy (and, more importantly, computer-deprived) to post much about it. But, I do plan to buy my copy tonight shortly after 12:01 AM at Borders in Newington, and I’ll try to post some cell-phone pics from the festivities there, if there any good photos to be had. (I’ll probably read the book en route to and from my friend Josh’s wedding in Maryland.)

While we’re on the topic of the anti-war left, Glenn Reynolds and Meryl Yourish are right: Where’s the love for the Iranian pro-democracy protesters over on IndyMedia?

Craig Stern, a frequent commenter on this website and my ideological colleague-turned-nemesis at the USC Daily Trojan (well, I did the “turning,” really — a sharp right turn somewhere in downtown New York about 21 months ago), thinks he’s scored a zinger against me over on his revamped website, Craiggie.net. Unfortunately for Craig, his logic is fatally flawed.

In an attempt to discredit my criticisms of the anti-war crowd (see corrections here), Craig dredges up what appears to be a horrible, racist pro-war website, and writes the following:

I just recently came upon a web site that fills me with delight: AmericansForWar.com. After witnessing a number of liberals I respected inexplicably defecting to the pro-war camp over the past six months, and after hearing my former compatriots tear so bitterly into the defenseless mass of simple and good-hearted peace protestors, it gives me great pleasure to be able to point definitively and irrefutably to Joe Shmoe Pro-War and brand him an ignorant shmuck.

At a quick glance, it appears to me that AmericansForWar.com might be at least partially satirical, but I’m not sure. For the sake of argument, I’ll take its contents at face value, and assume that it really is a straightforward, racist, pro-war site, as Craig believes.

Anyway, in his post (by the way, you need permalinks, dude), Craig cites various awful quotes from the website, including a call for “the death and destruction of [Iraq] and other Muslim nations” and a statement, referring to Arabs and Muslims generally, that “We need more bombing to teach these people a lesson.” From this racist garbage, Craig concludes:

So, the moral of the story is: the next time some smug neoconservative talks about how stupid and uninformed the peace protestors are, or a disaffected liberal in favor of the war demands “intellectual honesty” and a renunciation of the protestors from the liberal intellectual community, tell him about AmericansForWar.com. He’ll find that he too is in awfully good company. Compared to the fools who shop at and run sites like these, our somewhat underinformed mass of neohippies is a great group of people to be allied with.

There’s a serious problem with Craig’s comparison, however. My criticisms of the peace protesters attacked the mainstream of the anti-war camp. AmericansForWar, if it’s for real, is on the racist fringe of the pro-war camp. Whereas my Joe Shmoe Anti-War was actually a fairly representative sample, your Joe Shmoe Pro-War is an extremist who represents no one but his fellow racists.

Yes, there are plenty of pro-war racists. (There are anti-war racists, too, though their racism tends to be much more closeted — along the lines of “Iraqis are incapable of democracy.”) But the views of such uneducated idiots do not constitute the mainstream train of thought that underlies the pro-war movement.

…the next time…a disaffected liberal in favor of the war demands “intellectual honesty” and a renunciation of the protestors from the liberal intellectual community, tell him about AmericansForWar.com…

Okay, Craig. I’ve been told. You wanted a renunciation? Well, I thoroughly, fully, and unconditionally renounce and condemn all racist pro-war sentiments and the racists who feel them. And so, I believe, would the vast majority of people who supported the war.

I’m still waiting for you (and fellow members of the “liberal intellectual community”) to renounce the aspects of the anti-war left that I criticized.

My computer works again! Yay! (No phone line yet, though.)