…and boy is it crowded with newbies in here. Maybe us old-timers should stand on the top tiers and yell “fresh fish!” over and over again — like the cons in Shawshank Redemption — as Peter Robinson, Terry Teachout, et al carry their clothes and toothbrushes to their cells? Or maybe we should just all clap and spit? (like in every other (male) prison movie)
Anyway, welcome aboard everybody. Yesterday, I visited the DC office of National Review for the first time in years. It hasn’t changed too much. Grandeur and opulence like that never fades. In the afternoon I spoke to the America’s Future Foundation “DC-7″ group (why they call it that I don’t know). It was mostly a bunch of interns from the Hill and various think tanks. Smart bunch. Then, later that evening, I spoke on a panel organized by Margaret Carlson. The audience were members and supporters of something called “Project Children” and the panel was part of a program which brings Protestant and Catholic Irish college students to DC for internships. Generally a very nice, earnest bunch of folks, but the most resolutely (and occasionally sanctimoniously) liberal and lefty bunch of people — the American Irish especially — I’ve spoken to off-campus in a very long time. Kate O’Beirne tells me that Irish Americans tend to be liberals. I never thought about it before, but golly it appears to be true.