Tobacco for the soul

When I ran across this, I also ran across a brilliant essay from First Things by Michael Foley, first printed back in 1997 and now on the Monarchist Blog. Don't take it too seriously; the author obviously has his ulcerated tongue a little way in his cancer-ridden but tranquil cheek:

Most significantly, however, the relative rarity of pipe-smoking in America is a telling sign of its current intellectual crisis. If the pipe epitomizes the intellectual way of life, then is it any surprise that it cannot be found where schools substitute politically correct ideology for real philosophy, or where the intelligentsia, instead of engaging in serious thought, pander to the latest activist fads? Is it any surprise that America’s most famous pipe-smoker in the last thirty years has been Hugh Hefner, pajama prophet of the trite philosophy of hedonism? No, the age of the pipe-smoker is as far from us as the day when philosophers will be kings and kings will philosophize, a sad reality to which the thick blue haze of non-pipe smoke is only too ready to attest.

The whole thing is worth a Sunday afternoon read.

Oh, just because I can--one of the few cool things about the 1970's:

Incidentally, that's where teh Ferd can put his call to rally behind McCain, and smoke it. I'll get right on that, with all the relentless never-say-die enthusiasm Fred himself has demonstrated in the recent campaign. Wooooo-wee! I got that fire in my belly for McCain! Or intestinal cramps.

As I said below, I'll take a look at Johnny Mac. I might even end up voting for him. But seeing as I'm probably not a contender for a cabinet position in the McCain administration, I'm not sure why I'm supposed to pretend he's going to save the Republican Party. I may buy the product, but it's a little presumptuous to expect me, the customer, to feign enthusiasm for it.

And to have teh Ferd tell me how great Johnny Mac is? That's like when you talk to a really pretty girl and you think you hit it off and you get her phone number and then you call her to ask her out--and you find out she really just wants to set you up with her dumpy grouchy friend, and tells you how great she is, and how you and Dumpy will be just perfect together.