… And they brought big cameras

The actual press arrived to swell the numbers

Free Speech in an Age of Jihad

I took this image [left] well after the conference.

My lovely spouse Julia and I just finished a fulfilling dinner at Shun Lee … a great Chinese restaurant near Lincoln Center … and were combing the streets of East Side Manhattan … when she looked up and pointed out the moon. Yes, we’re that type of couple.

I thought that the moon was beautiful, the building was gorgeous and the sky perfect so I snapped it.

Somehow, I also think the crescent moon juxtaposed against a part of the Manhattan skyline a highly appropriate image to cap the day.

I wasn’t able to get any video of this conference. The material I did get … Mark Steyn’s luncheon address … is probably copyrighted material and I’m awaiting permission to post. It’s about 45 minutes long and, sadly, only audio. But who wants to watch a talking head for 45 minutes anyway? And the fact is I want to use all of it, which would put me well beyond the bounds of fair use. Believe me, it’s well worth the wait.

I checked the audio and it’s highly entertaining and of OK quality. I didn’t have any problem understanding every word, though there are some crowd noises and some inevitable glass tinkling [it was a luncheon after all]. Mark Steyn’s people got back to me and have referred me to Roger Kimball of the New Criterion. I haven’t heard back from him.

The Conference took place at the Princeton Club on West 43rd Street. I guess the Columbia Club is only “In Residence”. I’m not sure I would have advertised that. It’s one thing to take second billing … quite another to do so “In Residence” I would think.

This is me with Robert Spencer, Director of Jihad Watch and author extraordinaire.

OK, you can’t really see me, but that’s my hand. I’m standing beside him. Really. I cropped myself out … as I’ll explain below.

I know, I know … I can almost hear my half-dozen loyal readers lament. “Again with the hand.” What’s with the hand?

The fact is … that that’s it … that’s all you’re gonna get. A hand. My hand. This time my right hand. Live with it.

Look, I meet a lot of pretty nefarious creatures at the “events” I normally cover. Some real head-choppers. I was even followed by some after an anti-Israel protest last year. Emes. Then there’s Code Pink. I’ve been followed by a couple of them, too … but for what seem to be highly different [but almost as deeply disquieting] motivations. [shudder]

Now, it’s true: both Code Pink’s Medea Benjamin and her tanless toady Brian Becker of ANSWER know me by sight, but I still like to maintain at least some anonymity.

Nice hand, though, huh?

Here’s the interior of the room the conference took place in. Nice.

I’m trying out my new Canon Rebel XTi, so if there’s a lack of consistency with these photos … that’s why. I did a lot of experimenting. Mostly I hate using a flash, so I tried a number of settings to avoid that. Not all the results were good.

The photo [above] is OK, I think.

I used the flash with this one. This is Roger Kimball, Editor of the New Criterion and the Moderator for the first panel.

I try to not miss an article by him if I can help it.

Ezra Levant was there, of course. He and I and my lovely wife had a very nice and somewhat lengthy conversation near the end of the conference … touching on many subjects; from the conference to raising kids.

Frankly, Ezra’s just about the most personable and agreeable person I’ve ever met.

I can see now just how angry he must have been during the Canadian “Human Rights” Commission kangaroo court for him to lose his cool to even the small extent that he did. He’s a real mench.

Here’s a nice photo of him speaking with some other attendees after his panel presentation.

Mark Steyn showed up about half way through the first panel and stood quietly near the back … very close to where my wife and I were seated.

I approached him and asked him if I could take a photo and he agreed … the photo didn’t turn out well, though, so I’m not including it. Blast.

This photo was taken during the luncheon before Mark spoke. I think this was the heavy-hitter table.

As I said above, I have his complete speech in audio. It’s about 45 minutes and I think the whole thing is worth hearing. However, this event was a private event and using all 45 minutes is well well beyond “fair use”, so I don’t feel comfortable posting it without permission. I contacted his people and they got back to me pretty quickly and referred me to Roger Kimball. I contacted him but by that time is was in the late afternoon, so I don’t expect to have any answer before Monday.

The fellow in the foreground Steven Emerson, Director of the Investigative Project on Terrorism. We sat at the same table.

Robert Bork was there for the final panel.

He is, of course, a firm defender of the First Amendment, but he reminded us that even Justice Holmes’ “Marketplace of Ideas” dictum has it’s limits. He reminded us that Holmes himself fought during the Civil War and was wounded four times. Holmes, more than many, knew that there are times when the civility of political debate breaks down and everyone needs to recognize that they are in a struggle … and like any struggle there will be winners and losers … and that we all need at those times to hunker down and do our duty and fight hard for what we know is right.

It’s time for us to recognize the struggle that we’re in and work for victory.

I had the opportunity to meet other bloggers at this event. Here’s Pam Geller of Atlas Shrugs. I also had the privilege of meeting Judith Weiss of Kesher Talk, though sadly I didn’t get a good photo of her.

An Army of Davids

I attended the lecture/debate/discussion

“An Army of Davids or the Triumph of Goliath?“

held at the National Press Club in DC.

Here are some initial photographs.

I’ll have a video up before long. It’s encoding as I type. I’ve still got a couple of hours to go. The entire file will be about 1.5 hours long … lots of great commentary by Glenn Reynolds (Instapundit), Joe Trippi (Howard Dean) and Barry Lynn (New America Foundation).

UPDATE: I’m still working on the video. The audio is very uneven and I’m trying to get it to an exceptable quality. It might be a while.

ANOTHER UPDATE: The video is up and streaming here.

Joe Trippi says some not so nice things about his party and their last candidate (as well as some iffy stuff about Dean) … oh well.

The file will have to be “streaming” as the size will preclude normal downloads that won’t task the patience of most users.

The video quality won’t be the best. I had to use the lowest video setting I could manage because of the time constraints. I asked the moderator before it all began how long it should last and was told 70 to 80 minutes, which put me way beyond the “standard” setting for the video given my storage capacity (1 GB). The audio seems to be OK.

And after all, they’re just a bunch of talking heads … not much action here … so we can ignore video to an extent I think.

I’ve lived in DC most of my life … this is the first time I’ve been in the Press Club. Very nice.

A bit old-school WASP country-club, etc. yet very much what one would expect. Well, what I would expect at least.
Here are the main honchos arriving. I got there early.Still about 3 hours of encoding to go … I’ll have this up first thing in the morning (EST). I hope you enjoy!
Here’s Glenn Reynolds signing my copy of “An Army of Davids“.

I’m jumping ahead a bit.

I’ll be back with more tomorrow.