Jonah, does this mean Hank Paulson will have unreviewable discretion to determine what Aaron Heilman, Pedro Feliciano, and Scott Schoenweiss are worth? Man, I bet they’re glad Paul O’Neill left Treasury to go back to the Yankees!

BTW, Cornerites, greetings from London. We had a great conference on free speech & jihad Monday (I spoke on libel tourism — I’m going to post the speech when I have time, but if interested, see my article in this month’s Commentary — subscription required I think). NR favorites all over the place — Frank Gaffney, David Price-Jones, John O’Sullivan, and Mark Steyn (who pulled double duty by doing a great job on our first panel then hitting it out of the park in a riotous, poignant and stirring speech at lunch). Other stellar participants included Roger Kimball, Douglas Murray, Melanie Phillips, Daniel Johnson, Judy Miller, Anthony Daniels (aka Theodore Dalrymple), Ayan Hirsi-Ali, and Herb London. It was just a privilege to be here among them.

Heading for another conference tomorrow. Back in time . . . to get to the Big Shea for the last time on Saturday to check on my cratering investment.