Wherever you stand on the great British foxhunting controversy (Tony Blair’s government is forcing through legislation to ban it, for motives that owe little to animal welfare but much to class hatred), there’s no doubt that the debate itself has thrown up an entertaining range of characters for the rest of the world to enjoy.

Here’s an interview with one of the principal activists on the pro-hunting side, one Otis Ferry, the youngest master of fox hounds in the country and, incredibly, the son of Roxy Music’s Bryan Ferry (their first two albums were among the greatest ever recorded, but as Kathryn once told me their music was ‘ancient history’, I had better not continue with this digression).

The interview makes for great reading, not least for this description of what happened (initially) to Otis after he stormed the chamber of the House of Commons:

“Instead of being killed, he was tackled to the ground by attendants wearing knickerbockers and tights, then taken off to office of the Serjeant at Arms. “It was actually quite comical as they tried to grapple us with their swords. Afterwards, they were charming and very polite, giving us their chairs. They brought us chicken chow mein and shepherd’s pie to eat, and let us watch the football. It was all very civilised.”

A sense of civility, alas, that is doomed by the times in which we live.

Skydiving?

"The explanation used to be simple: jumpers were crazy! Some psychologists talked of Freudian death wishes while others believed in fear displacement or denying one fear in their lives by directing their attention to another more manageable one. Others theorized that participants in high risk sports were acting out psychopathic fantasies in an attempt to make up for feelings of inadequacy or to demonstrate omnipotence."

or

"Fortunately, in the last 25 years, the shrinks have decided that pursuing a high risk sport is not all that bad... Bruce Ogilvie, professor emeritus of psychology at San Jose State University conducted a study of 293 high-risk competitors including skydivers, race car drivers, fencers and aerobatic pilots in 1973 using psychological batteries and personal interviews. Ogilvie found risk-takers to be success oriented, strongly extroverted, above average in abstract ability and superior in intelligence when compared to the general population. He found these athletes are rarely reckless in their risk taking; their risk-taking is cool and calculated. He estimates that 6% of the athletes compete out of anger or out of deep feelings of inferiority or because they are trying to prove something about themselves. The other 94% are emotionally stable."

I report. You decide.

In a new introduction to the updated edition of this "story of one young American's Vietnam War odyssey," eminent historian Brinkley makes his position on recent campaign maneuvers clear: "A group called Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, aided by Republican money, formed to challenge Kerry on everything from whether he deserved his first Purple Heart to whether he committed treason when he testified about atrocities in front of J. William Fulbright's Senate Foreign Relations Committee in April 1971. But it was too late. The reality of Kerry's 'Band of Brothers' on the campaign trail . . . had already seared itself on the American imagination. The only question that remained following the Democratic Convention in Boston was whether Kerry's moving Vietnam-era patriotism would help send him to the White House."

From a reader:

Ever just think how the rest of the mainstream media would be acting now if say Foxnews had used obviously forged documents from a Kerry- hating lunatic to run an attack on John Kerry. The laid-back journalistic snipes that CBS has endured and the all but nonexistent calls for Rather's and his producers' firing would be a dim flickering candle next to the supernova intensity of the effort to discredit Foxnews and have anyone remotely connected to the story, including the cameraman working that fateful day fired immediately. god only knows they never would have tolerated Rather's stonewalling and would certainly be making more of his use of "unimpeachable source" now.

Every American now knows that there's something really screwy about George Bush and the National Guard, and they know that John Kerry was not the war hero we thought he was," said Douglas Brinkley, the historian and author of a friendly biography of Mr. Kerry's war years, acknowledging that Mr. Kerry's opponents had succeeded in raising questions about his service.

In between speculating on an October surprise, Teresa Heinz Kerry tells a fundraiser that she was 'embarrassed' to receive the George Bush tax cuts. Ah, I see. Perhaps that is why she has been so reluctant to release her full tax returns.

Oh, the shame of it.

Richard Cohen makes some fair points today. This is not one of them:

The bloggers who were quick to spot the typographical discrepancies in CBS's tainted documents did their job. But it is only a piece of the larger job, which is to report the news. This is what Rather and CBS did -- not well enough, I grant you. But what animated them was good old-fashioned lust for the scoop. Believe me, those of us who have known such lust know it is blind. Rather would have done the same story on Kerry. It as, as Mario Puzo once pointed out in a somewhat different context, nothing personal. Just business.

I have no doubt that lust for a scoop was part of the story, part of the equation, one of the motives. But the motive wasn't simply for a scoop, it was for an anti-Bush scoop. And, frankly, I am flummoxed that Cohen or any of the other journalistic bigwigs circling around Dan or attacking Bush are incapable of admitting this. The race for the scoop and the race to nail Bush are not incompatible theories of the case; they are mutually reinforcing.

EJ Dionne complains about Bush's soft treatment by the press. That's right. He runs through a list of "distortions" and lies that Bush supposedly gets away with. The weird thing: None of them seem that bad or outrageous. Here's his biggest complaint:

At the top of my personal hit parade of Bush Distortions is a statement the president has made over and over, notably during his speech at the Republican National Convention. "If you say the heart and soul of America is found in Hollywood," Bush said to loud cheers, "I'm afraid you are not the candidate of conservative values."

Bush has repeated variations of that sentiment so often that I bet you didn't know that Kerry never said that the heart and soul of America is found in Hollywood.

What Kerry actually said, after a fundraiser in which a group of stars performed on his behalf (and, yes, during which some of them said distasteful things about Bush), was this: "Every performer tonight, in their own way, either verbally or through their music, through their lyrics, have conveyed to you the heart and soul of our country."

And by the way, Kerry didn't even make those comments in Hollywood. The fundraiser was held in New York.

Maybe it's me, but who cares? That was a who's who of Hollywood types -- from whom Kerry raises vast sums of money. The real distortion was that Kerry ever said he was the candidate of conservative values in the first place. His other examples don't stun me either. I'm not saying there isn't a kernel of truth to EJ's complaint, but he surely knows that none of these things are even remotely outside the norm of presidential elections.

Besides, I don't recall any rage from him about the press not sufficiently clarifying the accusation that the Contract with America would destroy All Human Life. Okay that is a distortion too. But some did call it genocide or compare it to the Holocaust. And Clinton et al did say Newt wanted to eradicated Medicare etc etc. And during this campaign how many distortions have flowed forth about Bush "lying," hatching this scheme in Texas etc etc.

New York Times' media bias continues to worsen, even without Howell Raines. Check out today's front page article by Edmund Andrews, titled "Deal in Congress to Keep Tax Cuts, Widening Deficit". You would think the bill was titled the "budget deficit expansion act," as the actual policy enacted -- extending the lower- and middle-income tax cuts from 2001-- is virtually ignored. You have to wade through four paragraphs and two Charles Rangel quotes before Andrews even bothers to tell us which taxes are being cut!

Its funny, I can't recall this obsessive deficitphobia when Congress created a Medicare drug benefit or increased education, health research and foreign aid spending (imagine "Deal in Congress to Hike Education, Widening Deficit.") Who knew that only tax cuts created budget deficits?

My favorite part of the day was in the Rose Garden when the reporters kept asking Bush about how horribly things were going and Bush finally said (paraphrasing here) "because I ask him and talk to him," referring to Allawi, "and I believe him," he said looking right at the reporter. It was great. Similarly, another reporter asked Bush another question about how the conditions in Iraq, he was flustered and said "why don't you ask him" referring again to Allawi, "you have the Prime Minister of Iraq here, why ask me?" Again, great point. You could see that the reporters didn't care a bit about what Allawi had to say about what his firsthand impression of Iraq was, they just wanted to hammer Bush over and over. I don't think they succeeded. It was pretty obvious they were desperate to ignore Allawi and the positive message he was bringing.

Actually, in all seriousness, if either Mrs. Bush or Mrs. Kerry wore this how badly do you think their husbands would lose the election?

Michael: I think one of the original arguments for the Earned Income Credit was that it was an offset to payroll taxes. Conservatives have tended to argue that tax credits, if they should exist at all, should be applied only against income taxes and not against payroll taxes. I can see some arguments on both sides of that question. What I don't get is why conservatives have tried to make this into a huge point of principle.

And now I really will get going.

Russ Meyer, "king of the nudies", dies.

From the Guardian:

"In 1970 Meyer made a rare foray into the Hollywood mainstream when he directed Beyond the Valley of the Dolls for 20th-Century Fox. In later years he would remember this as his career high point. "That's the best film I ever made," he said. "Don't talk to me about art and all that crap. That movie made me a ton of money."

Refreshing.

John Kerry went after President Bush on Social Security today. Here's what his press release says: "In his West Palm Beach town hall meeting, Kerry referenced a new study by Chicago Business School Professor Austan Goolsbee that focuses on Bush’s plan to privatize Social Security. Goolsbee finds that financial institutions, not seniors, stand to gain from Bush’s plan.

"According to the study, the 45 million Americans who count on Social Security will see up to a 45 percent cut in their benefits, while Bush’s biggest backers – the financial services industry – will reap billions as part of the largest windfall in Social Security history."

The study does indeed find that administrative costs would amount to a huge windfall for Wall Street. Proponents of private accounts are sure to argue that Goolsbee's estimate of those costs is too high. But the study says nothing about benefit cuts for current retirees (or even future retirees). Goolsbee tells me he's surprised the campaign is citing him to predict a 45 percent cut for 45 million people. "That's weird," he says. "I don't know how they got that." His paper, he says, didn't deal with benefit levels.

For the record, I am deleting ALL email with this subject header because some annoying people are spamming around letters to folks like me pleading for the libertarian candidate to be allowed in the presidential debates. I think it'd be hilarious to have a libertarian up there and I'm all for it. But if you guys keep sending me this junk I'm going to shred my copy of Our Enemy, The State and revive my support for free urban wireless networks at the taxpayers' expense!

I think this is probably unfair to Sullivan in parts, but the history is interesting. From a reader:

I've long come to regard Sullivan as a total defeatist, but some more ammunition for him if you want:

Churchill presided over numerous military disasters. The Greek campaign in 1941 resulted in so many New Zealanders being captured that the Kiwis became gunshy - and still brame British callousness for their losses.

The fall of Singapore was an unmitigated calamity, so was the surrender of Tobruk in 1942. The raid on Dieppe was also massive fumble for the Allies.

Churchill faced several attempts to break up his government and skillfully put them down.

Churchill did however have one advantage over George W. Bush, at least as far as maintaining unity: the Wehrmacht 20 miles across the English Channel.

Sullivan has got a lot of nerve to throw stones at Bush's leadership. He is demanding a standard of perfection that is unattainable. We've lost less soldiers in Iraq than in one afternoon of WW II fighting, yet Andrew's ready to fly the white flag and throw Bush overboard.

It seems to me Andrew's real hero is Stanley Baldwin, who achieved a huge majority for his party, got on good terms with the opposition - and did nothing to stop the rise of Nazi Germany.

But at least he didn't make any mistakes.

Again...

"Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Monday signed into law what some advocates describe as one of the state's most important public health policies in two decades - a five-year experiment to reduce the spread of AIDS and other diseases among intravenous drug users by making needles and syringes available without a prescription."

A co-worker and I were on that flight from London. We had no idea what the issue was until we got home. The first story from the crew about a half hour before scheduled landing was that weather was forcing a delay which didn’t sound plausible from the forecast I had checked just before departure. Then we break out of the clouds and I couldn't match anything on the ground with what I know about Dulles from living next door for three years. As we crossed the runway threshold I saw a building with a Maine Air National Guard sign, knew it wasn't Dulles, and couldn't understand any reason why we weren't told of this change unless there was a major national security problem underway. Suspicions were reinforced when we were told to stay in our seats and not use cell phones. In due time the captain informed us it was a TSA/FBI issue, and we were going to disembark to go through Customs/Immigration in Bangor, and then back through TSA to get on the airplane. I guess this was the plan to nab the Cat-man. After disembarking, my colleague and I decided to bail on the flight and drive home (Newport, RI) to avoid possible RON (remain overnight) at Dulles. I arrived home sometime after 11 p.m., and my son looked up the news in Google to discover it was Heathrow/United not figuring out that Cat Stevens was on the watch list. I'm thankful that our worst fears were not realized. Though it was a surreal/awkward experience, I can tell you that everyone in Bangor was extremely courteous and helpful, and quite military friendly (bonus points).