DanHan: Comes A Point When You Run Out Of Track...

OS watched in horror a few years ago as Clarkson and the boys undertook their ill-advised journey through Florida, across the Gulf Coast, terminating their travels in NawLeenz. It got so ugly, so quickly.

There was, however, a truly funny moment when the boys were told they were to engage in the classic timed quarter-mile straight sprint in their junker cars, on a track that was only a quarter-mile plus about fifty yards. At yard fifty-one lay the ditch full of alligators.

Fahr-'em-up boyz!! And off they went, with brakes that were definitely not up to the task. No one was injured, blessedly, but things ended badly for one of the cars, if memory serves.

This episode is not unlike what we now see happening in both the United States and Europe. February 2012 was the highest monthly deficit this nation has ever recorded, in over two hundred years since the Constitution was ratified. The Senate will not pass a budget. The White House is a runaway freight train.

This can only end badly, and OS, in his darker moments, wonders if perhaps folks in the White House have some sort of train-over-the-cliff moment in mind for us all. It explains their behavior, when nothing else will.

Meanwhile, DanHan (as always) states the case succinctly. OS does wish we could lease this gent for a couple of decades. Sort of a reverse Lend-Lease back to Great Britain. We'll even give them Puerto Rico in the bargain, since we took some islands from them in the 1940's.

A Few Nice Words About Jeremy Clarkson, Top Gear Host And Curmudgeon

His Grace, Archbishop Cranmer, intended to perform a public service today by publishing an essay that he believed the Sunday Times had spiked and toss down the Memory Hole--turns out not to have happened, apparently. But it's still a great read.

Not surprisingly, Cranmer didn't endorse his views, but that wasn't the point of the exercise.

Clarkson is grumpy, opinionated, often irritating, and OS has a sort of continuing 'beef' with him about his disdain of things American. When he visited with his Top Gear crew a few years back, driving from Miami to New Orleans, he really made a total ass of himself, and the producers pulled stunts that put the trio into harm's way more than once. It was not a shining moment, we'll say, and leave it at that.

But, he is honest, candid in his opinions, memorable, a wonderful entertainer as host of Top Gear, and Monday nights are made so enjoyable by watching him, Richard the Honorary American, and Captain Slow on their travels across the globe. The 'Celebrities Behind The Wheel of A Sensible Car' feature never fails to amuse, and every appearance of The Stig is the greatest fun.

In short, Clarkson has something so many people have lost: a lively sense of humor.(Or, is that spelled 'humour'?)

And, the man can bleeping express himself clearly in English, a skill the humorless girly-men of Fleet Street and Oxbridge long ago lost. Those people use words to obscure. Clarkson, whether you approve of him or not, at least attempts to illuminate and make the reader chuckle at the same time.

Go get 'em, Mr. Clarkson! Burn some more fuel for us all, the polar bears will be just fine. And, come pay a visit with an open mind. We're not all that bad!