1. http://www.uso.org/pubs/93_325_1391.cfm

2. Just looking around on the USO site see that they need $$ for phone cards. In most forward areas there are phone centers for the soldiers and Marines to call back to the US but they need phone cards (which they typically pay for at the PX). The PX is always out of phone cards though for some reason. Anyway the USO has come up with 'Operation Phone Home' to get phone cards to these guys so they can...phone home.

3< a href="http://www.soldiersangels.com/">www.soldiersangels.com is a good one if people want to 'adopt' an individual soldier/Marine/sailor. The only thing is, packages need to be sent by this Saturday to make it to either Iraq or Afghanistan by Christmas.

4. www.operationgratitude.com is another good one- just send $$, they send packages. Their holiday drive is already completed but it doesn't mean the guys in the field don't still need stuff.

5. www.ustroopcarepackage.com also sends packages to the wounded soldiers at Walter Reed, and in Germany and Kuwait. The guys especially need underwear, socks and sweats.

I'm looking at the Catholic University of America's website and for prominent alumns it lists Maureen Dowd and Susan Sarandon but no K-Lo!! This is an outrage! To whom must I speak to rectify this.

I've been reading K-Lo's discussion over what wine to have with Thanksgiving dinner.

I would suggest instead of wine, have a good Apple Cider (alcoholic or non). It fits the season perfectly, and usually compliments all the different flavors found at the table.

Happy Thanksgiving!

This weekend Charles Murray questioned whether Universities are really as leftwing crazy as rumors suggest. And today we learn that a department chair at Columbia doubts Osama was really in on the 9/11 attacks (and that CNN should be tried for war crimes for its coverage. Makes you wonder what he thinks of Fox!).

What I particularly like about this story is that Osama Bin Laden recently confessed to the 9/11 murders in a video tape released in the waning days of the presidential election. Who are you going to believe? Prof. Hamid Dabashi or your own lying eyes?

First email. Received about 2 minutes after post:

Dear Jonah: A beer and Bar B Q tour WITHOUT TEXAS!!!! GET A ROPE!!!

Over at the EU Referendum Blog, Richard North is less charitable: "if the commission decribes presiding over a £2.5 million illegal party funding scam [as] a "minor" offense, one really does have to wonder what you would have to do for it to be considered "major".

But then he adds this: " But there again, [by] commission standards, this probably is a minor offense."

Indeed.

Yeehaa!!!
All aboard. I'm a homebrewer in Ohio.
You guys go ahead and charter a bus. Set up several stops nationwide.
Have an NROnics brewing and wine making festival.
We will allow you all to judge our creations.
I defy Jonah to operate heavy equipment after a couple of glasses of my 'Demotivator Stout'.
We'll have a bonfire and consume all the evidence.
Derb can regale us with sea chanties.
Local hospitality will be offered.
The regional winners are invited to the NRO National Consumables Championship.
Winner gets Buckley's book.
Bring it.

On the cruise -- which had a lot more young people than ever before -- several folks came up to me and begged, pleaded, implored for more NRO meet-ups, get-togethers and modified, limited hang-outs. I have to assume the suits got the same message. I for one think it would be great if we could have more such events.

In the meantime, I think the NRO bus trip is still sheer brilliance.

Johann Hari has a very interesting, often disturbing, interview with G Gordon Liddy (Link via Andrew Sullivan). I'm still reading and processing it. But one part interests me in part because I've been researching it for my you-know-what which rhymes with hook. Hari refers to Charles Lindbergh as a "notorious anti-Semite." Now, perhaps Hari is being overly clever in his choice of words with his use of "notorious." Lindbergh may have been notoriously anti-Semitic in the sense that it is and was widely believed he was anti-Semitic. But the facts are more complicated.

In his public speeches and comments during the run up to WWII, Lindbergh mentioned Jews in just three paragraphs in just one speech in Des Moines. In that speech he noted that Jewish and British Americans (and capitalists) were pushing for intervention. Lindbergh treated the Jewish position as entirely rational -- even if it was against what he thought to be American interests. Lindbergh's attitude toward Jews was, again, complex. But the basic point is that he saw them as an unmeltable ethnic group for the American melting pot. I think Lindbergh was wrong on several fronts, of course. And -- as Lindbergh biographer A. Scott Berg has argued -- I think one could call him an anti-Semite but only if you define anti-Semitism not as hatred of Jews but as the belief that Jews are "different" or "the other."

Indeed, the historical evidence that Lindbergh was a typical, virulent, anti-Semite is wanting, to say the least. Lindbergh's own daughter credibly corroborates this. I've only just started Phillip Roth's "The Plot Against America," but on this score I think Roth starts from an unfair, flimsy and even childish premise given the dangers of real anti-Semitism out there (as opposed to a half century ago in an alternate universe). But as I am very interested in getting to the bottom of this point for the book, if anyone cares to correct me (preferably with facts and evidence), I'd love to hear from you.

Some of us NRO/Corner fans can even multitask. I for one, am a Home Brewer, and a Hardware store owner. So I could not only get you drunk (on premium beers you would have a hard time matching with the store bought variety), I could help you repair the furniture when Jonah fall down and breaks someting.

Kudos to the Corner and have a Happy Thanksgiving.

I appreciate your effort to focus on good wines from the Anglosphere, but most of your recommendations came from California, Oregon and Washington. Ohio produces some great wines in the region along the Lake Erie shore. Ferrante Winery probably is the best I've tried. The specialty for the region is ice-wines (dessert stuff) which is not really my thing, but there are some very good Ohio reds.

Also, for Jonah-- Ohio produces some great beers-- notably Great Lakes Brewing Company (try the Edmund Fitzgeral Porter, and Burning River Pale Ale).

All these places have web sites- and the products are available, if not nationally, at least in the industrial midwest. (Although I hear that Great Lakes is available in New York).

After all, shouldn't everyone be a little thankful for Ohio this year?

From Poppa Goldberg:

An excellent site. The most famous of all Russian folk singers, incidentally, was a woman named Ruslanova. She made hundreds - thousands - of Soviet folk recordings and appeared in many movies, usually playing a collective farm worker, smiling broadly while singing at the top of her lungs, her voice carrying across several miles of the farm, all the while lifting a hundred pounds of hay with her pitchfork. She had a remarkable, throaty voice, and was so popular that villagers would stop the train she was on if it passed through their village. She sang for troops all over the front during World War II. She probably was - by far - the most popuilar entertainer in Russia duriing the 'thirties and 'forties. After the war, Stalin had her arrested for treason (!) and she was sent to the Gulag for several years. I think after Stalin died she was reeleased and died soon thereafter. I saw several of her clilche movies and have several of her records.

Port, and some Zinfindels, can both be amazing and delightful with chocolate.

Just to set the record straight.

I like some of Morin's stuff, but this strikes me as a childish outburst more than a thoughtful comment:

But rather than flog the bloggers for rushing to publish the raw exit poll data on their Web sites, we may owe them a debt of gratitude. A few more presidential elections like this one and the public will learn to do the right thing and simply ignore news of early exit poll data. Then perhaps people will start ignoring the bloggers, who proved once more that their spectacular lack of judgment is matched only by their abundant arrogance.

Hi K-Lo --

Add another "amen" to the beer-for-Thanksgiving idea. As a bartender in a craft brewery, I can attest that beer is head-and-shoulders above any grape beverage with dinner. Beer goes with more foods - - there is no wine that goes with chocolate, for example, but several stouts are great with most chocolate desserts.

For turkey, try an ale instead of a lager. The yeast in ale brings out the flavor in mild-tasting foods, while lagers attenuate spicier meals.

Cheers!

The Fair Jessica and I watched this documentary on PBS last night. It's about two mountain climbers who got into a lot of trouble in the Andes. It's really a gripping, if disturbing story. These guys were reckless, but they certainly faced the consequences . Anyway, it's worth watching if you get the chance.

Today's syndicated column (written while cruising) addresses the current hullabaloo about how George Bush is a fool, a traitor or tyrant for not appointing more "dissenters" to his second term cabinet. I certainly agree that getting honest advice and opposing points of view is worthwhile. But this whole mini-scandal strikes me as complete bad faith. If Bush needs more dissenters, why isn't anyone clamoring for cabinet secretaries who are more hawkish, not less? More free market, not less? The answer is that the New York Times and New Republic don't think Bush should hire more dissenters, he should hire more people who agree with the New York Times and the New Republic.

By the way, where was the clamor for more dissenters in the Clinton administration? I don't recall it. I do recall that when Donna Shalala timidly mentioned that she was troubled by Clinton's behavior with Monica Lewinsky, she was browbeaten by Clinton. I do recall Clinton bullying Abigail Thernstrom, too. I do remember that Bill Clinton refused to meet with the head of the CIA because Jim Woolsey "dissented." If you read Rich Lowry's book, you'll know that Clinton basically avoided working with the FBI because he couldn't stand Louis Freeh. Yes, this was the more mature and sensible way of dealing with subordinates.

"Thank goodness Jonah's back from the cruise! Otherwise I might never have found this link to a storehouse of Soviet era music!"

After reading all the comments about what wine to serve at Thanksgiving, I have a better suggestion - serve beer. You don't have to worry about supporting the French (as the former importer of Heiniken is rumored to have said, French beer is the reason the French drink wine), and there are a ton of great American microbrews to choose from.

Besides, you will be historically accurate, as the Pilgrims drank beer - and some even say that they landed at Plymouth Rock because they were running out of beer on the Mayflower.

National Review, having done so much to make government safe for subsequent generations, has now turned its attention to making those rising generations suited to self-government. These treasuries of children's literature will delight young readers, and improve them without making them aware that anything so annoying is going on.

The guy who shot the video of the Marine shooting the Iraqi has spoken up.

Kathryn,

From the self-proclaimed world capital of the world's greatest Zinfandel’s, CA's Amador County's Shenandoah Valley this will trump any and all pretenders.

Mike Daley

Spiced Cranberry & Zinfandel Sauce

Ingredients:

2 cups Zinfandel
¾ cup sugar
5 (2 inch) orange rind strips
½ cup fresh orange juice
6 whole cloves
4 slices, peeled fresh ginger
2 (3 inch) cinnamon sticks
1 (12 oz) package fresh cranberries

Instructions:

Combine first seven ingredients in a medium saucepan; bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat to medium and cook 15 minutes or until mixture begins to thicken and sugar dissolves, stirring occasionally. Strain the mixture through a sieve into a bowl & discard the solids. Return mixture to pan.
Add cranberries to pan; cook over high heat 10 minutes or until berries pop. Reduce heat to low; simmer 30 minutes or until mixture is slightly (?) thick. Pour into a bowl; let cool.
Can be made up to two days ahead and refrigerated.

Dear K-Lo,

(Writing as a longtime veteran of the trendy New York restaurant/club business)

It's traditional in some circles to drink Beaujolais Nouveau for Thanksgiving, being the season and all. (Even though B.N. is rarely very good.) But my opinion of France has declined enormously in recent years and I no longer buy French products on purpose.

My happy new discovery: Little Penguin from Australia. Here's a link to a six-pack variety.

I like red wine with poultry especially when it's got gravy, stuffing, cranberries and potatoes with it. My choice this year is Little Penguin Merlot (the one with the blue label). The red and purple labels (Shiraz and Cabernet) are also wonderful and if you like white wine their Chardonnay (yellow) has got to be one of the best values available anywhere.

I also recommend Blackstone Merlot, a nice pan-Californian blend.

All of these are very inexpensive and taste way beyond their price. Plus, they're 100% steadfast-Anglosphere purchases, not a small consideration for me at least.

If you're looking for something fancier, don't forget our Italian friends--you can't possibly go wrong with a fine Barbera but be prepared to pay a premium.

Pinot Noir is probably the best wine to go with Turkey, cranberry sauce, etc. However, Food & Wine's recent issue ran an article arguing for Chardonnay at Thanksgiving. Truth of the matter, my advice is: Drink what you like best (or what your guests like).

I am not an expert, but just an educated amateur with a decent palate, so be warned. The problem with a typical Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner is the mix of flavours--from fairly bland white turkey meat, through probably slightly musty gravy, to tart cranberries, and strong vegetable flavours such as brussels sprouts. No wine can really match it all. I favour something fairly fresh and fruity but with some depth. If you want red wine, try a gamay. A good pinot noir can just about manage [heck, a good pinot noir goes with almost anything]. Strong flavoured whites such as gewurtztraminers and rieslings are very good options--if the bottle has food pairings on it, look for those that will go well with spicy Asian cuisine. The whites I just mentioned plus a pink zinfandel [very celebratory] or similar vivid blush are my usuals. However, there is also something to be said for a decent very dry champagne--it's very daring, but you'll be suprised at how well it holds up.

Love The Corner, love NRO, love you!

My liberal friends seem to be having a tart, presumptuous little white whine with a lingering bitter aftertaste.

"Is it DONE yet????"

For a white wine with turkey, I have always enjoyed a good Alsatian Gewurztraminer (Trimbach is widely available for about $15 to $17 per bottle; try a Zind-Humbrecht if you're splurging). For the red, try a good Cru Beaujolais, like a Morgon or Juliénas. The 2003 Beaujolais is out and it's supposed to be spectacular. They can be found for $14 to $20 per bottle. Avoid at all costs the faddish Beaujolais Nouveau!.

If you're boycotting France, as I suspect many Cornerites are, then I'd go with a Pinot Noir from Oregon for the red (Rex Hill and Benton Lane are two of my favorite producers). Domestic whites are tougher. There are some good Gewurztraminers and Rieslings from the Northwest (Canoe Ridge from Washington state is nice), but in general they lack the power and finesse of their Froggy or German counterparts.

The most popular U.S. varietals, such as Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Merlot just don't work with turkey (which is very lean) and the wide variety of tastes in the typical Thanksgiving spread (cornbread stuffing, cranberries, sweet potatoes, etc.)

KJL-

For this American holiday, stick with an American wine. A fruity, youthful California Pinot Noir is what I like best with the bird. And the 2002 vintage is spectacular in every California region. Some mid-range (40-50 bucks or so) to look for are Martinelli, Dumol, Siduri, Loring, Failla, Kosta Browne, and Testarossa. For something in the $20 and under range, Chalone, Chateau St. Jean, Hitching Post and Sebastiani are good bets. If you really want to splurge look for Kistler, Paul Hobbs, Brewer-Clifton and Williams Selyem. These may cost north of $100. If you do splurge it may be better to get an older vintage as many of the more expensive Pinots will improve with a little age. A red Zinfandel is also a decent pairing and great quality in this uniquely American varietal can be found for $25 an under.

Last tip- don't eat cranberry sauce until you are finished with your wine. It will ruin your palate.