"Toto, we're not in Europe anymore"

Or something like that. The Clemens household is all abuzz with plans for Halloween, mostly revolving around a 'Wizard of Oz' theme. Since I couldn't find a Winkie costume I am thinking of going to the annual History Dept. Gala Halloween Extravaganza and Costume Ball as ... Clemens.

To change the topic back to what the post is really about (what... where are my spectacles .... zzz ... oh!)

AMERICA!

It is not Europe. Andrew Sullivan, a non-American American wanna-be has a riposte to Pat Buchanan's latest declaration of the Unbearable Whiteness of Being America, has this to say (along with several other things worth reading):

The English, lulled by their marination in American pop culture from infancy, and beguiled by the same language, can live out their days in this country never actually noting that it is an alien land - stranger than you might have ever imagined, crueler than you realized, but somehow also more inspiring than you ever thought possible. This is the America I am trying to make my home, after 25 years. It is not the America of Pat Buchanan's or John Derbyshire's fantasies.

Derbyshire's latest controversy is due to his claiming giving women the right to vote was a 'bad thing.'