'Speed, Style, and Beauty': Critics of the MFA's Ralph Lauren classic car exhibit are nuts. Hub Blog attended the exhibit last night and had a blast. My favorite: the 1938 Bugatti Type 57SC Atlantic Coupe. It was so strangely ugly, it was beautiful. ... But where was the Chevy Cobalt? (That's a personal joke between Carpundit and moi. Let's see if he takes the bait.) ...

... In the MFA gift shop, they were playing the mesmerizing 9-minute 'C'était un Rendezvous' DVD over and over again. Everyone watching had a dumbfounded smile on their face. I hadn't seen or heard of the cult film before. Now I know why it's a cult film.



'We now know the truth': OK, the Downing Street Memo is now entering the Hub Blog Fascination With Arugments Zone. ... So antiwar activists say they've uncovered the 'truth' about the administration's intent to go to war in Iraq via the memo. How about the known fact that administration members were talking about war with Iraq hours after 9/11? How about the known fact that war plans were being drawn up in late 2001? How about the President's very public 'Axis of Evil' speech before Congress in early 2002? How about the heavy pounding of the war drums throughout 2002 -- a pounding that was so loud and ham-handed that the German election of August 2002 turned on the issue of war in Iraq? The list goes on and on. The memo is old news, lefties. Old news. ...

Bottom line: The administration was intent on war and everyone knew it at the time -- even though the administration now oddly defends itself by citing Colin Powell's now discredited WMD report to the UN in early 2003. What's up with that? Other bottom line: both sides are trying to win arguments that have absolutely nothing to do with the 'truth.'

... Speaking of the German election, here's Der Spiegel's recent recap of Herr Schroeder's 'political masterstroke' of using the impending war and anti-Americanism in the August 2002 German elections. What did Schroeder and the German voters know nearly three years ago that antiwar activists are only now grasping? ... Hub Blog has long contended that the 2002 German election is Exhibit A in the case against the Bush administration's bungled pre-war diplomatic efforts. Without Herr Schroeder in office, there was no way France's Chirac would have led the pre-war antiwar charge alone. Without French and German pressure, Turkey probably would have allowed U.S. troops to invade from the north. With troops invading from the north, we probably would have had enough troops to crush any upstart insurgency. The U.S. is now paying the price for the administration's prewar contempt for allies and world opinion. ...

Update -- Great story by the Monitor's Dan Murphy, future film star, on his role in a film about the Iraq war.  ¶ 5:07 AM