Jonah Goldberg's forthcoming book, "Liberal Fascism," has generated plenty of commentary and criticism before most people have had a chance to read it. Joel and I plan to discuss it here at RedBlueAmerica.com just as soon as it comes out. (We'll buy it like everyone else because, well, we're not on the right mailing lists. Yet.)

Joel has some astute observations about this Mike Bloomberg ... what would you call it? Phenomenon? Boomlet? Media-generated apparition? I really don't know. But I was struck in particular by his last point:

Over on the home page, we're taking a look at Michael Bloomberg's potential run for president. A lot of the analysis -- once you get past the horserace stuff -- questions the rationale of a Bloomberg candidacy. Why, exactly, do we need Mike Bloomberg for president.

Well, we probably don't. But Bloomberg's presumably a smart man (he's a self-made billionaire, after all) and a businessman to boot. So I'm guessing he thinks he's spotted a niche in the market that's otherwise going unserved.

There's been crankiness among rank-and-file Democrats about the party's inability -- now that it runs Congress -- to force some kind of withdrawal from Iraq, or to challenge the Bush Administration on some other important topics.

Because of paragraphs like this:

(I have to admit that the asterisk that the New York Post slapped next to New England in the standings all year was pretty hilarious in and of itself, but the wit was only sharpened by the concept of Rupert Murdoch's tabloid's ascension to the moral high ground, where it no doubt set up a bookie joint and a gentleman's club.)

Michael Pollan's reportage about food started changing my eating habits even before "The Omnivore's Dilemma" introduced him to a wider audience.

Look, I'm not going to lie to you. I'm an Apple guy all the way. I've been an Apple guy since 1984 or '85, when I was but a child. My first computer was an Apple IIc. I had two -- count 'em, two! -- floppy disc drives! When I set off for UC San Diego in the autumn of 1989, I arrived with a Macintosh SE, fully equipped with a 20 mb harddrive and one -- count 'em, one!

The New York Times on Monday covers the demise of the Cincinnati Post. I was particularly struck by the two paragraphs at the very end of the piece:

Last Thursday, William Mallory Sr., a former state legislator and the father of Cincinnati’s mayor, paid tribute to The Post by passing out free copies on the steps of city hall, where he had sold it as paperboy in the 1940s.

My friends at Infinite Monkeys linked to one of those political quizzes that circulates in perpetuity on the Web. Where do you fall on the political compass? I found some of the questions to be a bit tendentious, but it's impossible to take such things too seriously. In any case, apparently I'm an Angela Merkel conservative. (OOOOOO-kay!)

Andy McCarthy's contention that the "real Pakistan" killed Bhutto has already gotten plenty of attention, but not for it's conclusion: