Thursday digest

- Something that is supposed to resemble the original lineup of Van Halen is going out on the road this summer.

I predict it's going to be a disaster. A 15-year old bassist, a lead singer that will make Vince Neil look articulate by comparison, and a hopeless drunk on lead guitar in front of rock's biggest yes-man on drums? This has bloody mess written all over it.

- Ever get tired of the doom and gloom crowd, who are beyond convinced that everything in Iraq is going to hell in a handbasket despite clear evidence of progress?

- Speaking of optimism, here's an excellent story that makes the case that Rudy Giulani's conservative bona fides are without question. His career reads like a tour de force of common-sense social policy, an infusion of which could be just what the moribound "party of ideas" could use right now. The only question remaining is whether or not he'll go for it.

- On the other side, I find it troubling that Democrats would rather talk about issues like credit card debt - despite the strong economy, it's the government's job to help people rein in their undisciplined spending on new clothes and vacations? - than the need to defeat terrorism.

It seems the President is being opposed these days more for who he is than for any coherent, competing vision, unless you consider the abolition of envy to be a worthy public policy goal.

- I'm a democrat, but if you listen to fools, the mob rules. Is the job of a leader to follow the wishes of the people or to inspire them to a vision? And at what point do you reconcile the two?

Food for thought.

- What gives with Syria? They are near impossible to figure out.

- The other day, I blogged about Russia selling weaponry to Iran. Here are more reasons they ought not to be trusted.

- Take a look at this glaring example of the politically correct crowd using intimidation tactics to prevent competing points of view from being aired.

- The host of City-TV's 80's video show "Toronto Rocks!", John Major, has died.

I was sorry to hear that.