Thursday, March 08, 2007

Think Tank Fuel   [John J. Miller]

Scenes from that black-tie AEI dinner: When the Cheneys entered the room, they received a standing ovation. ... Then there was a long moment of silence. I dared a friend to yell "Pardon Scooter!" but he said he hadn't been drinking enough. ... During the singing of "American the Beautiful," former senator George Allen looked at his program for the words to the second verse, but then again so did just about everyone ("O beautiful for pilgrim feet...") ... Bernard Lewis gave an interesting lecture on why he thinks we are at a turning-point moment of history. ... Lewis is the West's leading scholar of Islam, but even more amazing than his incredible knowledge is that he's 91 years old. He looks at least 20 years younger. ... He pointed out that when the Barbary Corsairs raided an Irish town called Baltimore in the 17th century, abducting its inhabitants and enslaving them in Algiers, they took away a family named Cheney. ... When Lewis was done, the first person to pop up from his seat for a standing ovation was Clarence Thomas.

03/08 05:46 AMShare