For the past several years, I have run the classic Ralph Wiggum Valentine's card, "I choo-choo-choose you." This year I decided to mix it up and use the other Valentine's card he got from Lisa in that episode: "Let's Bee Friends." And it's got a picture of a bee on it! Happy Valentine's, BTQ readers!

1. I saw that the price of stamps is going up, from 41 to 42 cents. Of course the "Forever" stamps will still be good after the rate change. You can buy them for 41 cents now and use them as 42-cent stamps after the change. I had some thoughts regarding this and the time value of money, but then I started confusing myself so I dropped it.

2. I'm trying to decide whether to give up on Friday Night Lights. I adored the first season; I called it one of the best tv shows ever made. But I haven't gotten into season two. I have recorded all the episodes, but I haven't watched any yet. And some of the reviews I've accidentally allowed to slip through my spoiler net have been fairly negative, as if the show lost something that made the first season so magical. And now it's doubtful the show will even survive for another season.

I guess I won't make a final decision (on whether to erase the saved shows from my dvr) until after I know for sure if the show has been renewed. But I'm curious if anyone who has been watching this season could give me some advice. No spoilers, please, but is it worth watching? Or will it just taint the memory of season one? Thanks.

3. In a similar vein, I'm thinking of letting my Rolling Stone subscription lapse. I've been subscribing for years. I think it may even be my longest currently-held subscription. And it's pretty cheap -- the rate is about 50 cents an issue. But I just don't get much out of it I can't get elsewhere (including the magazine's web site). Anybody care to defend RS?

3. I saw that Steven Spielberg resigned as artistic director of the 2008 summer Olympic Games in Beijing. His reason was the Chinese regime's refusal to put pressure on Sudan, a big Chinese trading partner, to end the genocide in Darfur. That's great, of course, but two thoughts. First, as noted by Richard Just at TNR's The Plank, it's not as if its support for Sudan is the only thing wrong with China. Second, maybe I'm cynical, but my guess is that the Olympic folks have already gotten some "artistic" ideas from Spielberg before now. It's not like they haven't been planning this event for a while. So I wonder if this will be of any practical detriment to the Chinese. It reminds me of the Simpsons episode "A Star is Burns," when Mr. Burns tries to rig the Springfield Film Festival with a hagiographic biopic:
Burns: Get me Steven Spielberg!
Smithers: He's unavailable.
Burns: Then get me his non-union Mexican equivalent!
[later] Listen, Senor Spielbergo, I want you to do for me what Spielberg did for Oskar Schindler.
Spielbergo: Er, Schindler es bueno, Senor Burns es el diablo.
Burns: Listen, Spielbergo, Schindler and I are like peas in a pod: we're both factory owners, we both made shells for the Nazis, but mine worked, dammit! Now go out there and win me that festival!

4. After briefly surrendering its long-held title for best names in college football to Virginia's D'Brickashaw Ferguson, LSU is back with a fantastic crop for its new recruiting class. Two words: Barkevious Mingo.

5. Finally, I saw BTQ co-founder Fitz-Hume the other night. He's doing fine. He wishes you all well. Or, he would, if he could remember what a "blog" is.

So I can't help but notice my newly adopted church is in the news these days. I will never be a preeminent blogger, because during the time I've procrastinated posting about this much of what I was going to say has already been covered. Given that my association with the church is in it's infancy, I can't speak to Dr. Williams' history on big issues and/or his penchant for stirring up controversy. However, I do have a few thoughts to throw out.

First, I think that a great deal of the outraged response has come from people who read the news headlines about the lecture, and didn't bother to actually read, you know, the lecture. One of those who did came away with a calm and reasoned view. Over at Instapundit, Prof. Reynolds claims such reasoned response does not take into account the explosive context. My thinking is perhaps Dr. Williams did take it into account and either A) held the naive believe that those reporting on it would actually read his words before crafting explosive headlines or B) counted on the resulting media storm to actually get a conversation started on the topic. A man who has risen to that level probly had a good idea what was going to happen.

Second, I've been reading a great deal of the outrage over at The Corner. Dr. Williams' remarks are being universally condemned there. However, this is the same group that heaped praise upon their own Mark Steyn and his book America Alone, when he argued that just such an Islamic take over of Europe was underway and largely unstoppable. I find it interesting that when their own journalist points out cultural and demographic changes, he is praised. When a clergyman does essentially the same, he is a traitor to his faith/England/the West.

Third, no one to date (that I've seen) has said a peep about the fact there is exactly they same type of thing in Britain already for Jews and Catholics on certain matters, as Dr. Williams was kind enough to point out. If the issue is religious courts operating separately from the civil courts, why isn't there an outcry to abolish these?

The key element of the lecture is found in the opening paragraphs:

This lecture will not attempt a detailed discussion of the nature of sharia, which would be far beyond my competence; my aim is only, as I have said, to tease out some of the broader issues around the rights of religious groups within a secular state...

For the record, I'm on the fence about whether or not I agree with all of Dr. Williams' points. However, it seems a shame that the Archbishop is seemingly the only one interested in the broader issues, while everyone else appears content to kill the messenger.

Sometimes my Dad and I will call each other "Bob," even though neither of us is named Bob. The reason goes back to a car commercial from about fifteen years ago. In the commercial, the narrator, Bob, talks about how his life would be a dream if only he had that certain kind of car. It would be as if he has his own lane on the highway. The signs would say "Yield to Bob" and the green lights would say "Go Bob." And of course, he could pull up to the curb in a lane marked "No Parking Except for Bob."

In the commercial, Bob parks the car and a cop eyes him and then realizes, "Oh, it's you, Bob!" When this commercial was running, sometimes my Dad and I would run into each other and say, "Oh, it's you, Bob!" We kept it up for a long time. We don't do it much anymore, but every once in a while one of us will drop a "Bob" reference.

Anyway, I got to thinking about this today, and wondered if that commercial was on YouTube. I took a guess that it was a Nissan ad, which turned out to be right, and sure enough, here it is: