Les Jones

> Link Fest at Red Lobster, Now With Cheesier Biscuits

ROGER L SIMON: I'm a Democrat, but the current Democratic presidential candidates are a bunch of low-rent losers. Hat tip to Bill Hobbs.

FRIENDS OF THE SMOKIES: 2003 Needs List for the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. I became a member this morning. You can earmark your donation for a particular project. Following the lead of Smoky Mountain Blog, my money's going towards study of ways to combat the balsam woolly adelgid, a pest insect that is destroying trees in the high elevations.

Tennessee has the southernmost spruce fir forest in the world, complete with flying squirrels. My old UTK forestry professor Ed Buckner used to say that driving a vertical mile to the top of Clingman's Dome is like driving two thousand horizontal miles to Canada, in terms of the forest type you experience. If you've been to Clingman's Dome in the last 20 years you've seen the damage done to the spruce fir forest by the adelgid. I'd like to save that forest if we can.

ROGER EBERT: "There are two things you can't argue in film: comedy and erotica. If something doesn't make you laugh, no one can tell you why it's funny, and likewise, it's hard to argue someone out of an erection."

ANDREW SULLIVAN: John Kerry is against gay marriage, saying "Marriage is an institution between men and women for the purpose of having children and procreating." Sullivan finds just one little tiny nit to pick: "Now, Kerry is in a second marriage to a woman also in a second marriage, with no apparent connection to the goal of reproduction or child-rearing. Like Pat Buchanan, he lives a marriage that is childless."

EUGENE VOLOKH: Update: related to the Andrew Sullivan post is Eugene's How Sweet: "What do we think when we hear that two 70-year-olds get married (usually because their earlier marriages were ended either by the spouse's death or divorce)? I take it that it's usually, "How sweet." Old love makes us smile just as young love does, and a desire to express lifelong commitment seems noble and worthy at any age. Sure, there likely won't be any pitter-patter of little feet coming from that marriage, but so what?"