Assured of a Big Irish Welcome

We just spotted a busload of National Review readers on Westmoreland Street (they all alighted with their NR baseball caps on - you can't miss the fuckers) and it transpires that this "journal of conservative commentary" has organised a British Isles cruise for its readers, visiting Waterford (why?!), Dublin (today), Liverpool tomorrow, Belfast on Friday, then Leith, Edinburgh, and Guernsey.

The magazine's blurb for the cruise says:

"What an adventure it will be! Alongside National Review founder William F. Buckley Jr. for eleven days of unrivaled conservative revelry will be Lawrence Kudlow, the happy supply-side warrior and star of CNBC's Kudlow and Cramer; Robert Bork, the acclaimed jurist and legal scholar; Peggy Noonan, author, essayist, and commentator supreme; Paul Johnson, the renowned historian (his Modern Times remains a classic); David Pryce-Jones--NR's Senior Editor and renowned Middle East expert (his essential books include The Closed Circle: An Interpretation of the Arabs), as well as NR Editor Rich Lowry, Washington Editor Kate O'Beirne, Managing Editor Jay Nordlinger, and Editor-at-Large John O'Sullivan."

and

"The National Review 2005 British Isles Cruise launches July 10 from Dover, home of the famous White Cliffs. There you will board the luxurious Crystal Symphony and depart for ten days of unrivalled cruising, stopping at some of the most famous and must-visit ports in Europe."

Mmm. Not the way I'd describe Waterford, Liverpool, or Belfast, especially during marching season, but there you go.

What else?

"In addition to the seminars, there is all the hoopla and fun and revelry that mark an NR voyage: This trip will feature three wonderful cocktail receptions (always a great opportunity to talk directly with our guest speakers and get a photo or two or ten taken with them), two late-night, pool-side smokers (a world-class H. Upmann cigar, a snifter of cognac, new friends, delightful conversation--this is the life!), and finally, on at least two nights, intimate dining, over a gourmet meal, with our editors and guest speakers!"

Presumably these Upmann cigars will be the Dominican rip-offs, not the genuine Cubans.

The Crystal Symphony holds 1,080 passengers. God forbid that they have the whole ship!! (Does NR have that many readers, and how would such mental and moral pygmies accumulate the necessary cash? Of course, the race goes not to the swift, bread goes not to the wise, etc.)