Free Republic

On Sunday evening, Republican House Minority Leader John A. Boehner explained his considered opinion on the $700 billion Wall Street bailout plan: It's a "crap sandwich," he said, but he was going to eat it. Well, it turned out he couldn't shove it down his colleagues' throats. The bill failed on a bipartisan basis, but it was the Republicans who failed to deliver the votes they promised. Some complained that Democratic Speaker Nancy Pelosi drove them to switch their votes with her needlessly partisan floor speech on the subject. Of course Pelosi's needlessly partisan. This is news? The Republican complaint...

Shortly before John McCain suspended his campaign to help with the Wall Street bailout, his generals declared war on The New York Times. In a conference call this week, McCain senior aide Steven Schmidt bellowed: “Whatever The New York Times once was, it is today not by any standard a journalistic organization. It is a pro-Obama advocacy organization that every day impugns the McCain campaign, attacks Sen. McCain, attacks Gov. (Sarah) Palin. ... Everything that is read in The New York Times that attacks this campaign should be evaluated by the American people from that perspective.” Strong stuff. And, to...

One of my favorite writers, Jonah Goldberg (from the National Review), has a terrific article this week that is definitely worth your time. Entitled “Feminist Army Aims Its Canons at Palin,” it’s everything I wish I could have written about the constant barrage of attacks on Governor Sarah Palin by the feminist gaggle. Quoting his piece: Gloria Steinem, the grand mufti of feminism, issued a fatwa anathematizing Palin. A National Organization for Women spokeswoman proclaimed Palin more of a man than a woman. Wendy Doniger, a feminist academic at the University of Chicago, writes of Palin in Newsweek: “Her greatest...

Much of what I have posted recently has been about Sarah Palin. She is a national phenomenon, a virtual force of nature. My wife took an overnight trip to see Palin in Northern Virginia a few days ago. As Charles Krauthammer says here she has energized the Republican base just as Obama peaked and began his bumpy descent from Olympus. What is both fascinating and repellent is that her most hate-filled critics have been women. I have heard it said the women are more vicious than men, but, not being a woman I have never really seen the way women...

I just have to talk about Sarah Palin’s speech a little bit. She gave a really amazing speech, very strong, very strident and it gave the Republicans everything they wanted to hear. They know that she’s a tough chick and she’s a babe and she’s a mom and all those other wonderful things we should be celebrating — the first time I think we’ve ever celebrated all of these things in a woman. Maybe Hillary Clinton wasn’t such a babe but she was defiantly strident and strong and people lost their minds and said how rough she was and how...

“What is wrong with these people?” was the nigh-upon-universal reaction among conservatives at the GOP convention this week. Liberal reporters inquired of conservative journalists, Republican delegates, right-leaning janitors, free-market short-order cooks, even the guys walking around in elephant suits: Will Sarah Palin drop out? What about the Eagleton Option? For those who don’t know, the Eagleton Option refers to Thomas Eagleton, George McGovern’s first VP pick in 1972, who was forced to withdraw because allegations of mental illness. A hybrid of myth and deceit peddled by the chattering bandersnatches of the Democratic Party’s backup communications offices at MSNBC and other...

Thursday, September 04, 2008 McCain Speech Tonight   [Jonah Goldberg] Word is that McCain is going to announce to the Beltway establishment that their days of corruption and lawlessness are at an end. It's going to be an oddly choreographed speech as well. I've actually gotten  hold of a video run-through of one of the most stirring portions of the speech. It's very clearly very a rough draft.   Here it is for what it's worth.09/04 07:28 PM

In the wake of the fascinating forum hosted by Pastor Rick Warren at his Saddleback Church in Orange County, Calif., everyone is focusing on the contrasts between presidential candidates John McCain and Barack Obama. More interesting are the contrasts between the intellectual-theologian Obama and the political Obama. "Does evil exist?" Warren asked Obama. "And if it does, do we ignore it, do we negotiate with it, do we contain it, or do we defeat it?" Obama the would-be moral philosopher replied, accurately, that evil is everywhere, in Darfur, in our streets, in our own hearts. We cannot "erase evil from...

It’s an old story. Loving parents provide a generous environment for their offspring. Kids are given not only ample food, clothing and shelter, but the emotional necessities as well: encouragement, discipline, self-reliance, the ability to work with others and on their own. And yet, in due course, the kids rebel. Some even say their parents never loved them, that they were unfair, indifferent, cruel. Often, such protests are sparked by parents’ refusal to be even more generous. I want a car, demands the child. Work for it, insist the parents. Why do you hate me? asks the ingrate. Of course,...

At various points in my life I've read fairly extensively about Communism and Nazism. As a good Cold Warrior, I wanted to know as much as possible about the Soviet threat, as well as communist infiltration of the West. World War II was of great interest, and I studied not only the battles and weaponry but the Nazi leadership, ideology, and history as well. The twentieth century being in large part a great struggle between democracy and Orwellian totalitarianism, this seemed to me natural. Today I read about Jihadism, and try to understand our enemy and their infiltration of the...

Do not say black and white Americans live in the same world or you will feel the wrath of Whoopi Goldberg. That is what Elisabeth Hasselbeck discovered on the July 17 edition of "The View." Upon suggesting that, Whoopi reduced Elisabeth to tears. On the news of Jesse Jackson’s use of the "n" word, the conversation quickly developed into the double standard involved between a white and black person’s use of the word. Sherri Shepherd and Whoopi Goldberg admitted there is a double standard, but added there should be. Sherri Shepherd said she uses the word "as a term of...

McCain Should Play 'Pin Obama on the Donkey' Jonah Goldberg Hoping that the third time really is the charm, the McCain campaign has had yet another staff shakeup. As befits a press corps and Republican professional class always eager to gain favor and access to the newest man in charge, the accolades for the latest campaign manager, Steve Schmidt, are nothing short of superlative. The argument that Schmidt is the right man for the job centers on the fact that he's a no-nonsense type who enjoys taking the fight to the enemy. That's good news given how much nonsense has...

Is Barack Obama the Messiah? Lots of people have pon dered the possibility. There are Web sites dedicated to the question; Google "Is Barack Obama the Messiah?" and you'll get more than 35,000 hits. (Enter just the words "Messiah" and "Obama" and you'll get nearly 10 times that.) Since Obama declared his candidacy, there have been remarkably few biblical plagues. And lions and lambs seem open to bilateral negotiations. Obama's apostles are hard to dismiss. Oprah simply calls him "The One," because "we need politicians who know how to be the truth." (Jesus says in John 14:6 "I am the...

A Messiah in Our Midst? By Jonah Goldberg Friday, June 6, 2008 Is Barack Obama the Messiah? Before we answer that question, let me vent for a moment. In 2000 I was cruelly denied the Pulitzer despite being the only columnist in America to ask the pressing question: Is Al Gore an alien? The evidence was there for all to see. He was born nine months after the mysterious alien sighting at Roswell, N.M. His weird syntax and verbal rhythms are otherworldly. He often refers to "earth" or "this planet" as if he's just passing through, and he once angrily...

Jonah Goldberg's latest look at Barack Obama is both funny and frightening. Past candidates have been portrayed as the saviors of the nation. But Obama is portrayed, and portrays himself as the savior of something larger: not just the earth, but our very souls. Such claims of supernatural power is not the sign of a mere politician, it is the sign of someone with some serious mental issues who attracts people with serious mental issues. Lots of people have pondered the possibility that Barack is our Divine Redeemer. There are websites dedicated to the question “Is Barack Obama the Messiah?”...

Not since America’s most revered feckless crapweasel, former Vermont Sen. James Jeffords, switched parties have Beltway Republicans been more eager to sew a half-starved ferret into someone’s body cavity. In this case, the desired victim is former White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan, who has coughed up a time-honored hairball of capital culture: the “tell-all” memoir. This is a bit of a misnomer in that they usually tell little but claim much. It’s been rumored that McClellan was hired by the Bush White House to appeal to a specific sub-constituency: pasty middle-aged men with a thumbless grasp of the English...

'Lay off my wife." So says Barack Obama about his controversial spouse, Michelle. The Democratic candidate for the presidential nomination has a grating tendency to dismiss any inconvenient fact as a "distraction" and to label every stinging criticism as "divisive." So even if he didn't have a husband's natural desire to defend his wife, he'd still probably denounce criticism of Michelle as beyond the pale. Obama's comments came in the wake of a Tennessee GOP ad this month calling new attention to Michelle Obama's remark in February that she'd never in her adult life been "really proud" of America until...

John McCain needs to pick a running mate. He has a tough decision to make. A very old presidential candidate in a party that has lost the confidence of the American people, McCain will likely face a young, charismatic black guy who promises to “turn the page” away from the Clinton-Bush era, toward a new era of bipartisanship and unity. Meanwhile, the base of McCain’s party has serious and legitimate misgivings about him. Those misgivings have prompted some on the right, including my colleagues Ramesh Ponnuru and Kate O’Beirne, to argue that McCain should offer a one-term-and-out pledge. This not...

Iadmit it: I'm no environmentalist. But I like to think I'm something of a conservationist. No doubt for millions of Americans this is a distinction without a difference, as the two words are usually used interchangeably. But they're different things, and the country would be better off if we sharpened the distinctions between both word and concept. At its core, environmentalism is a kind of nature worship. It's a holistic ideology, shot through with religious sentiment. "If you look carefully," author Michael Crichton famously observed, "you see that environmentalism is in fact a perfect 21st century remapping of traditional Judeo-Christian...

God bless the Rev. Jeremiah Wright! After Barack Obama gave his big race speech in mid-March, many critics noted that the Illinois senator had thrown his own grandmother under the bus to defend his controversial pastor. Well, Wright proved over the last few days that he would not be outdone. He not only threw Obama under the bus, he chucked much of the liberal and mainstream media under there with him. If this keeps up, to paraphrase Roy Scheider in "Jaws," he's gonna need a bigger bus. For six weeks, Obama's biggest supporters have diligently argued that to so much...

Help Us Barack Obama, You're Our Only Hope, Cont'd [Jonah Goldberg] Check this out on Daily Kos: http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/4/26/83118/7371/654/503796 People have always regarded comets as "messengers of the gods". The meaning ascribed to a comet's appearance is comprised of many factors, including the mythological story of the constellation that the comet's path highlights. This past autumn (2007), a remarkable comet, Holmes, appeared in the nightime sky, as a huge blue sphere (larger than the diameter of our sun). It's path of maximal brightness carried it through the constellation of Perseus, crossing in front of two of that constellation's stars in particular-...

Violent chickens roost on candidates' shoulders: exploring the liberal/Marxist nexus Wes Vernon April 21, 2008 Last week's Clinton/Obama debate opened a new door on an old coalition: What is it about Marxists (violent or otherwise) that attracts liberals (well-meaning or otherwise) to their defense? What is their common goal (to the extent that they have one)? The counterculture sixties Here is the mantra of the Weather Underground, as enunciated by one of its leading disciples: "Kill all the rich people. Break up their cars and apartments. Bring the revolution home, kill your parents. That's where it's really at." Who said...

... Consider Barack Obama. The Democratic front-runner and former lecturer on constitutional law at the University of Chicago has explained his thinking toward judicial appointments thusly: “We need somebody who’s got the heart, the empathy, to recognize what it’s like to be a young teenage mom, the empathy to understand what it’s like to be poor or African-American or gay or disabled or old - and that’s the criteria by which I’ll be selecting my judges.” When defending his vote against Justice John Roberts’ confirmation, Obama explained that the standard for a justice must be “one’s deepest values, one’s core...

I finally found a supply of Jonah Goldberg’s book “Liberal Fascism” in a mall in Roanoke, Virginia and am halfway through reading it. It is a polemic and well written, but it’s also a good history of Fascism from the beginning of the 20th century to now. The problem for most people is that for them, history starts with the day they were born. To them, the “New Deal” was how the sainted FDR ended the Great Depression. To have lived through that period was traumatic, and people in their 80s and older will carry the memory to their death....

Liberal Fascism: The Secret History of the American Left from Mussolini to the Politics of Meaning by Jonah Goldberg (Doubleday, 487 pages, $27.95) In a certain sense, Jonah Goldberg's Liberal Fascism is long-overdue. The idea that Goldberg endeavors to debunk, namely that fascism was a right-wing phenomenon, has gone unchallenged for far too long. The Soviet propaganda that labeled any socialist not beholden to Moscow "on the right" has endured longer than the Soviet Union itself. In another sense, Goldberg's book has hit the shelves, and the bestseller list, at the perfect time. This election season illustrates just how much...

JONAH GOLDBERG, author of LIBERAL FASCISM, will be on FNC'S RED EYE (12AM PACIFIC/3AM EASTERN).

I LIKE Barack Obama. The Clintons, not so much. But the Clintons are right and Obama is wrong. The Obama camp has been trying to suggest, insinuate, whisper or wink that the Clintons are somehow racist. Obama's staff sent out a memo compiling some quotes that allegedly demonstrate the "racial insensitivity" of Hillary Clinton's campaign. The Obama folks are fanning the overreaction to her suggestion that President Lyndon Johnson was a more substantive agent of change on civil rights than the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. Obama is also fueling the flatly erroneous view that Bill Clinton called Obama's historic...

Liberal fascism sounds like an oxymoron – or a term for conservatives to insult liberals. Actually, it was coined by a socialist writer, none other than the respected and influential left-winger H.G. Wells, who in 1931 called on fellow progressives to become "liberal fascists" and "enlightened Nazis." Really. His words, indeed, fit a much larger pattern of fusing socialism with fascism: Mussolini was a leading socialist figure who, during World War I, turned away from internationalism in favor of Italian nationalism and called the blend Fascism. Likewise, Hitler headed the National Socialist German Workers Party. These facts jar because they...

"As pretty much everyone has noticed, the Republican race hasn't exactly followed any of the scripts laid out for it. Mitt Romney has been hacked apart like the Black Knight in "Monty Python and the Holy Grail." John McCain's fortunes -- which had been bouncing up and down like a printout of Dick Cheney's EKG -- have suddenly spiked northward after his victory in New Hampshire. Fred Thompson ran a brilliant "testing the waters" campaign from his front porch, but when he tried to walk on the water, he sank like a basset hound trying to swim. Pushing the poor...

Goldberg has marshaled a staggering amount of evidence to conclude, as the first chapter has it, that "everything you know about fascism is wrong." Mussolini was weaned on anarcho-socialism (his father Alessandro was a socialist and anarchist). Mussolini and the Italian Fascist party were, in the early years, not anti-Semitic—in fact, the party included Jews. As a young man, Mussolini had carried in his pocket a medallion of Karl Marx, whose influence—combined with the bizarre syndicalist philosophy of George Sorel and a Nietzschean contempt for Christianity—resulted in Italian fascism, a mix of myth-making, prophecy about the rise of the working...

January 11, 2008, 2:16 p.m. Debating Liberal FascismReviewing a review. By Jonah Goldberg On Thursday, I said that David Neiwert’s review of my book, Liberal Fascism, in The American Prospect was the sort of “shallow, cliché ridden, attack-the-messenger stuff that I would expect Ezra to find so persuasive.� But it turned out I’d misquoted Neiwert, for which I apologized. I also said I was bleary from the slog of promoting the book and maybe I was too harsh. Well, now — as they used to say of Nixon — I’m tanned, rested and ready (minus the tan). So with...

Liberal Fascism: The Secret History of the American Left from Mussolini to the Politics of Meaning Author: Jonah Goldberg Upcoming Schedule Saturday, January 12, at 10:00 PM Sunday, January 13, at 3:30 AM Sunday, January 13, at 10:00 AM Monday, January 14, at 1:00 AM About the Program Jonah Goldberg explores the political theories of fascism and contends that there are several colloaries between the politics of the left and fascist ideology. Jonah Goldberg presents his book at The Heritage Foundation in Washington DC. About the Author Jonah Goldberg is contributing editor for the National Review and a columnist for...

Monday, December 31, 2007 Hillary to Iowa Voters: None of Your Bees Wax   [Jonah Goldberg] So much for listening tours. From the Des Moines Register: Iowa Falls – Iowans have noticied that Democrat Hillary Clinton is not taking public questions from audiences during her final-push campaign rallies. After her 40-minute monologue ended shortly before 10 p.m. Sunday, Clinton immediately began to sign autographs, pose for photographs and listen to caucusgoers’ concerns one on one. Iowa Falls resident Alene Rickels, 51, when asked her thoughts about the event, said: “Her speech was really good, but it would’ve been interesting to...

by Justin McCarthyOctober 5, 2007 LifeNews.com Note: Justin McCarthy is a news analyst at Media Research Center, a watchdog group that tracks bias in the mainstream media. He is a marathon runner and graduate of St. Joseph's University in 2005. Is Whoopi Goldberg becoming the Rosie O’Donnell type bully? It appeared that way on the October 3 edition of “The View.” A discussion about Hillary Clinton’s $5,000 a baby entitlement plan quickly descended into a heated exchange between Elisabeth Hasselbeck and Whoopi Goldberg about abortion. When Hasselbeck noted that $5,000 a baby could lead to fewer abortions in the world,...

First Barry Manilow, Now Whoopi Goldberg Hassle The View's Hasselbeck over Conservative/Pro-Life Views Goldberg, who is said to have had at least 6 abortions, says, "Americans ought to 'revere' women, who have had abortions By Peter J. Smith NEW YORK, October 4, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Once again the pro-life views of Elisabeth Hasselbeck, the only conservative woman on ABC's "The View," have landed her in trouble after a heated exchange with Whoopi Goldberg, Rosie O'Donnell's replacement, on Wednesday's program edition. Hasselbeck noted her opinion that presidential Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton's proposal to give $5,000 for a new birth could help...

Keith Olbermann, MSNBC’s answer to a question no one asked, declared this week that I’m the “worst person in the world.� This is not as bad as it might seem. It’s sort of like being called uncool by the asthmatic assistant recording secretary of the high-school chess team. I’m the worst person in the world — the designation is apparently a nightly feature of Olbermann’s show — because during a Fox News interview about the current idiotic Rush Limbaugh flap, I said that conservatives don’t actually question the patriotism of liberals, they merely call attention to the statements of liberals....

This wisp of a notion is simply this: Maybe a Democrat should win in 2008. Personally, I don’t believe in this poltergeist, at least not yet. But every now and then, I must confess, I do shiver from its touch. The idea goes something like this: If you believe that the war on terror is real — really real — then you think it is inevitable that more and bloodier conflicts with radical Islam are on the way, regardless of who is in the White House. If the clash of civilizations is afoot, then the issues separating Democrats and Republicans...

Anyway, I do think my judgment is superior to his [Juan Cole's] when it comes to the big picture. So, I have an idea: Since he doesn't want to debate anything except his own brilliance, let's make a bet. I predict that Iraq won't have a civil war, that it will have a viable constitution, and that a majority of Iraqis and Americans will, in two years time, agree that the war was worth it. I'll bet $1,000 (which I can hardly spare right now). This way neither of us can hide behind clever word play or CV reading. If...

The Republicans were doomed. The cliches are no less true for being cliches. The GOP came to power in 1994 promising lean government, and it has become the party that needs to unbuckle its pants and loosen its belt two notches after every lobbyist-paid meal. The GOP once had the reputation of being able to run the government like a business and wars like a finely tuned machine. But under compassionate conservatism, government became a faith-based charity. Now, let's get back to the important business of pointing fingers and assigning blame. Conservatives have been sharpening their bayonets for months, just...

Jonah Goldberg: So what if Democrats win the House in November? By JONAH GOLDBERG Tuesday, Sep. 19, 2006 CONSERVATIVE Republicans have learned a painful lesson in recent years. It turns out power isn't all it's cracked up to be. Republican control of the White House and Congress hasn't resulted in lights being turned off in Cabinet agencies or enormous garage sales of office furniture. Instead, Uncle Sam is still looking like Marlon Brando at the end of his career: bloated, sweaty and slow-moving. The GOP has become a Brando-like parody of its former self, reading its lines about cutting government...

The Grand Inquisitor Confronts...Mr. Rogers? August 15, 2006 The Wall Street Journal Bernard Goldberg An old line that used to make the rounds at CBS News held that the last thing the CEO of a major corporation wanted to hear was "Mike Wallace on line one." Anyone who has ever seen my former colleague in action gets the joke immediately. But I'm guessing that Ayatollah Khomeini didn't watch "60 Minutes" very often back when he was leading the Iranian Revolution and holding Americans hostage. I'm also guessing he didn't know Mike Wallace from Kate Smith. Big mistake. The ayatollah was...

Longtime CBS News reporter Bernard Goldberg had a lot to say about Ann Coulter – some of it negative – during a radio interview promoting his book. Goldberg’s "100 People Who Are Screwing Up America (and Al Franken is #37)” was published last year, and an updated version – upping the list to "110 People” – recently came out in paperback. The book takes to task Michael Moore, Ted Kennedy, David Duke, Michael Jackson, Jimmy Carter and an array of others on the American scene. Goldberg now says he made a "mistake” in not including Coulter as one of the...

I just finished reading Bernard Goldberg's 100 110 People Who Are Screwing Up America (And Al Franken is #37). What a great book. I read it twice.I don't agree with everything he wrote, but I sure found out a lot about some really poisonous people in our country who are doing all they can to screw up our great country. Any suggestions as to whom any of you might add? I would add San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsome for his breaking of state law and allowing homosexuals to get married in San Francisco.

Our northern neighbor thinks being all multicultural and sucking up to the United Nations will keep the terrorists away. Think again. A FEW YEARS AGO I wrote a cover story for National Review with the subtle and nuanced title, "Bomb Canada: The Case for War." It caused quite a stir up there. My argument at the time was that Canada needed to be slapped out of its delusions and forced to stand up for itself in ways other than the Potemkin courage it shows in "standing up" to the United States. Had I thought of it at the time, maybe...

On a recent edition of "Larry King Live," liberal Republican Rep. Christopher Shays, eager to put some distance between himself and the president, explained what he thinks is George Bush's real albatross. "Let me just say that I think the thing that has hurt the president most is not Iraq. It's Katrina," Shays said. ... This sentiment is pervasive among Democrats and the press. Time magazine writes matter-of-factly that "the government's inept response to Hurricane Katrina" is a major liability for Republicans in '06. Howard Dean and other Democrats mention Katrina as a staple talking point. ...[I]t is worth reminding...

(Get ready for more Gay, Lesbian and Transgender High Schools in Los Angeles!) With Los Angeles Unified Superintendent Roy Romer nearing retirement, the game has begun to find his replacement, and the name bandied about town the loudest and most consistently: Assemblywoman Jackie Goldberg. The former school board and City Council member remains coy on the topic, but sources say she has been campaigning hard for months - even before Romer announced his intended early departure - to head up the second-largest school district in the nation. "It's not something I really want to do. However, depending on who they're...

Gold prices rose Monday, hitting fresh 24-year highs as investor interest in the yellow metal booms. On the New York Mercantile Exchange, spot gold was up $7.70 at $527 an ounce in morning trading. In European trading, spot gold rose as high as $541.30 an ounce. Spot gold is trading at levels not seen since 1981. Traders said the contract is testing resistance at $541.80 and $543.20, and that resistance would likely be a short-term top followed by a dip to $523.10 and $531.00. Long-term charts say that if the contract breaks through $543.20, however, it would be going for...

Chanukah came early for the Goldberg household last month. On November 23, Barbra Streisand wrote a letter to the editor complaining that the Los Angeles Times picked me up as a columnist. As gleeful as I was, I declined to respond. But now, just last night, Ms. Streisand chose to post to her website the "director's cut" of her original letter to the editor, which apparently had been edited for space and, no doubt, for content by the LA Times. I could resist no longer. As Streisand surely surmises, we in the warmonger and puppy-kicker community take it as a...

ITHACA—Outspoken liberal actor Whoopi Goldberg delivered an obscenity laden tirade to students and parents, bashing Republicans and joking about drugs and menopause, at Cornell University’s “family weekend” comedy show on Friday (October 28).“Tom DeLay in handcuffs made my week,”Goldberg reportedly said, referring to the arrest of the former House majority leader. “When they took his mug shot and fingerprints, I thought I’d died and went to heaven.”In addition to attacks on the Bush adminstration and FEMA, Goldberg also “shocked audience members with frank talk about bathroom humor, her marijuana use and aging,” the Cornell Daily Sun reported.“If you thought you...

This year marks the 50th anniversary of National ReviewThis year also launches the decade in which William F. Buckley Jr., the magazine's founder and guiding spirit, starts his career as an octogenarian. As one of the most productive and accomplished septuagenarians of the 20th century, observers feel he shows great promise as a rookie in his new career.The shock that these two anniversaries would arrive in the same year has caught some of us off guard. Who among the revelers celebrating the 40th anniversary of National Review and the 70th birthday of its founder could have guessed that the stars...