Okay, I admit it, I'm a political junkie. I've been super busy preparing the next issue of The Journal of Ayn Rand Studies, but I have been unable to switch off the Democratic Convention, as predictable as it has been. Switching between network coverage, cable news coverage, and gavel-to-gavel C-SPAN coverage, I've been entertained.

But I have to say that the most riveting of all the speakers was fellow Brooklynite, Al Sharpton. Of course, I cringed over a lot of his political ideology, but, for my money, his speech proved that he is still Dem Dems' biggest firebrand and best comedian. You can read his speech here, but you still had to hear him and see him, because that's the only way to appreciate a performance artist. I know that rabble-rousing is not what one expects from a Presidential candidate, and I suspect that John Forbes Kerry (called by one delegate"John Fitzgerald Kerry") will induce a few yawns tonight. But I'll be watching nonetheless (even if I still agree with George Will that"you can't slip a Kleenex" between Kerry's and Bush's position on Iraq).