The American Spectator

The Spectacle Blog

Yesterday's Nascar crash day extravaganza at the sublimely named Talladega Superspeedway in Alabama provided more thrills, wrecks, and flips per rpm than any Hollywood disaster flick could ever match.

It also reminded me of a classic letter I saw the other day in the New York Times regarding how the nation might cope with the hurricane and Bush-caused gasoline crunch. A fun-loving Kyle M. Medley of New York City wrote in:

A suggestion to President Bush on how to limit gasoline consumption: no more Nascar circuit, which is a complete waste of gasoline on the race cars themselves and on the large motor homes that the fans drive to follow the circuit.

Nascar is the quintessential example of nonessential driving.

In his weekly column today Jed Babbin writes about how media like the New York Times drive the Democratic Party's agenda. A letter like Mr. Medley's, in turn, offers a kind of preview of the Times' coming cutting-edge arguments. As everyone knows, the Times is now charging Internet users big bucks to access such nonessential columnists like Maureen Dowd and Paul Krugman. If there were intelligent design at that paper, its publisher would instead by charging for access to its Letters page. That's where real liberal thinking is hatched.

topics:
Sports, Hollywood