Programming note: Today, Wednesday, I'll be back on the air north and south of the border. First up, please join me for another three hours of substitute-host-level Excellence In Broadcasting on America's Number One radio show starting at 12 noon Eastern/9am Pacific. You can dial us up either via the iHeart Radio app or on one of over 600 Rush affiliate stations across the fruited plain - such as our old friends at WNTK New Hampshire, where you can listen to the full show from anywhere on the planet right here.
After Rush, and a quick break to reorient myself, I'll be on air with the great John Oakley at Toronto's AM640 live at 5pm Eastern. Hope you can join me.
~You can find a few moments from my Tuesday guest-hosting stint here. We were preoccupied, as we will be today, by the Senate "hearing" into Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. We didn't actually hear from Judge Kavanaugh yesterday, because by the time the Democrats had moved to adjourn, moved to object to not being allowed to move to adjourn, moved to adjourn their motion to object, had a few ceremonial baying moron protesters admitted and ejected, and begun the first half of Dick Durbin's opening remarks, it was 9.47 in the evening. But maybe the poor old judge will get a word in today.
I noted yesterday all the senatorial braggadocio about how many judicial notches they had on their escutcheons. Dianne Feinstein said that this was her ninth Supreme Court nomination, so she's picked an entire SCOTUS bench all by herself. Then Chuck Grassley said it was his fifteenth nomination, so he's picked one and two-thirds Supreme Courts. And Pat Leahy topped them all by declaring it was his nineteenth nomination, so he's picked two full Supreme Courts and is starting on his third. I wonder if this is what the Founding Fathers had in mind.
I also mentioned one of the odder aspects of US Senate etiquette - the way Democrat staffers get to smuggle in protesters to disrupt the proceedings. I recalled that, when I'd testified there a couple of years back, various goons had been let in to intimidate witnesses. My compatriot Laura Rosen Cohen dug up this clip of some Greenpeace wanker ambushing Professor William Happer just as I arrived:
In a supposedly tight-security legislature, there was nobody in the room minded to stop witness-tampering. As Laurence Jarvik wrote:
Seated a few rows behind the confrontation, I noticed a young man standing oddly, pressing his chest firmly against Steyn's. They looked like two wildebeest in a National Geographic nature documentary. The straining duo were soon separated by a policewoman. After watching the video, it turned out that Steyn had been trying to prevent fisticuffs, interposing his person between the outraged witness and his Javert. Steyn was acting as bodyguard.
I confess, as a meek mild-mannered wordsmith and notorious Canadian showtune queen, I'm sick of all this physical intimidation by the left and occasionally think it might be quicker and psychologically healthier just to get the hell on with full-scale civil war.
~Speaking of Canadian showtune queens, the star of La-La Land has somehow wound up playing Neil Armstrong in a new Hollywood biopic of the space pioneer. As you know, the makers of First Man have decided not to show the moment when Armstrong planted the US flag on the moon on the grounds that he was doing it for "humanity" rather than America and it could just as easily have been some Sudanese chap up there. On Rush, I said that I was struck by a comment made by Mark Steyn Club member Raymond Swenson a couple of days ago, and read it out on the show. Here it is:
Armstrong flew 78 combat missions over Korea as a Navy pilot and was awarded the Air Medal. As a civilan test pilot, he helped develop a bunch of fighter jets at Edwards AFB. I am sure that placing the US flag that he had fought under, onto the surface of the moon, evoked strong emotions for Armstrong. Purposefully omitting that moment is censorship of American patriotism. Ryan Gosling defended the omission because "Armstrong did not think of himself as an American hero." But he damn sure thought of himself as an American.
Raymond Takashi Swenson
Lt. Colonel, USAF (Retired)
That flag still flies on the surface of the moon. In the urge to tear down everything, to topple every statue, burn every history book, hollow out the national anthem, it may one day be the last symbol of America left standing.
~I also mentioned that Phelim McAleer and Ann McElhinney's film on Kermit Gosnell, America's biggest ever mass murderer, will be released next month. Here they are talking about Gosnell last year on The Mark Steyn Show. Click below to watch:
Ann and Phelim will be among the guests joining me on the very first Mark Steyn Club Cruise at the end of this month, and I believe we'll also have a screening of Gosnell as one of a couple of seaboard editions of Mark at the Movies.
I'm thrilled to see that so many nautically minded readers, listeners and viewers have already signed up for this inaugural Steyn cruise. We leave Montreal on September 29th and sail aboard the beautiful ms Rotterdam, flagship of the Holland America fleet, down the St Lawrence via Quebec City to Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia and Maine at the height of fall foliage (with a brief passing glimpse of the two hundred yards of New Hampshire seacoast) before landing at Boston on October 6th. I'll be doing double-duty, hosting the cruise, and also hosting live seaboard editions of many favorite features along the way - Tales for Our Time, Song of the Week, Steyn's Sunday Poem, and The Mark Steyn Show. I don't have to carry the load single-handed, of course. I'll be assisted by various special guests and old friends from round these parts - not just Ann and Phelim, but also one of my favorite presidential candidates of recent years, Michele Bachmann, and Canadian musical royalty Tal Bachman - no relation to Michele, because he's not one of the Minnesota Bachmanns but one of the Manitoba Bachmans. And John O'Sullivan, Mrs Thatcher's speechwriter and a doughty Brexiteer, will be bringing us up to speed on the foreign-policy scene. We'll address all the heavy geopolitical stuff but we'll also kick loose in the evening with dinner, convivial receptions, some late-night laughs and a little live music.
There'll also be plenty of time for relaxation and revelry and getting to know your fellow Steyn cruisers and our guests. And every day we'll enjoy world class service from Holland America, and the spectacular beauty of the Canadian Maritimes and the New England coastline at the height of leaf season.
We've reserved the best cabins throughout the ship - and in all of the various categories so that you can make accommodation arrangements that suit you best. We're excited to welcome you aboard for the first ever Steyn at Sea cruise - but tempus fugit, so don't leave it too long! (As with most travel bookings, the price is better the earlier you book.)
So picture yourself on Holland America's lovely ms Rotterdam, along with your fellow Steyn Club members and me and my guests, enjoying seven full days and nights of shipboard fun as we ponder the collapse of western civilization. There'll be:
*Live editions of The Mark Steyn Show, including your participation in our Clubland Q&As;
*Plenty of chances to meet, schmooze and hector me and my guests;
*Exclusive Club cocktail receptions and dining with yours truly, our guest speakers, and your fellow Steyn cruisers;
*Accommodations and all meals included;
*Port charges, taxes, fuel surcharges, and government fees all included;
*Most shipboard activities included;
*A fully escorted cruise by Steyn Club staff and the best cruise organizers in the business;
*And a few surprises along the way...
If you're one of those people who have always wanted to come on a cruise but have yet to take the, er, plunge, well, there's never been a better time to stop procrastinating. You don't have to be married, or even going steady: Nearly thirty per cent of our cruisers are single, so, if you fancy your chances with a Steyn Club member as the moon hangs over the Bay of Fundy and the sound of me singing "Cat Scratch Fever" wafts up from below deck, give it a go.
Any questions? Cindy, our cruise manager, can help with most of them, including flight and hotel bookings: If you're calling from beyond North America, she's on +1 (770) 952-1959; if you're calling from this side of the Atlantic, it's toll-free on 1-800-707-1634. Or you can email your query here.
TO RESERVE YOUR CABIN OR STATEROOM, CLICK HERE.
See you on the radio at noon Eastern - and do give me a call.
