The Galvin Opinion has more on NYC's "sinister, deep and dark secret."

There are Republicans in New York. Shhh, not so loud! Okay, not close to a majority, but the GOP is not an endangered species like the do-do bird is in Central Park. The fact is that 544,359 votes were cast for President Bush in New York City. That is more than votes cast for Bush in the entire states of Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, South Dakota, West Virginia and Wyoming. Those 10 states accounted for 39 electoral votes.

. . . Bush dramatically increased his vote total in the New York metropolitan area. John Kerry did not even garner as many votes that Al Gore did despite the diminished presence of Ralph Nader. Bush increased his vote total in all 8 counties. Kerry suffered a net loss from 2000 in all 8 counties except for Manhattan (Ralph Nader got 5.5% of the Manhattan vote in 2000 but about 1% in 2004, helping Kerry get a slight bump).

A few of the LGF blogger circle got together on Saturday to see Voices of Iraq, playing at a local art house. Favorite scenes: the Iraqi rock fans who learned English from heavy metal CDs, and said things in American-accented English like "Dude, you're a rocker!", and the group of Iraqi men tortured by Saddam in Abu Ghraib, waxing incredulous at the fuss Americans were making about a few miscreants with panties on their heads. Also, all the "gloom and doom" American newspaper headlines juxaposed with scenes showing completely the opposite ("Iraqis cower in their homes! - Washington Post" superimposed over a bustling street scene).

You can now rent the film through Netflix; do it and invite all your "quagmire, quagmire! We're oppressing the poor Iraqis!" friends over for a viewing.

Sunday was the great chili cook-off at Karol Sheinen's. I'm surprised her apartment on the Upper East Side didn't explode from the pressure of a critical mass of chili-producing bloggers in such a tiny space (actually it's a decent size for a Manhattan apartment, and it has a balcony big enough for a picnic table). This is a NYC bloggers' crowd about 20 years younger than me. I had met most of them before at various Republican thingys, but the only one which overlaps my social circle significantly is one of my "Three Muskateers," Eric the Young Curmudgeon.

Others present were: Eric's girlfriend Kim (creator of the killer chocolate pecan pie), Jessica, Ken, Ari, Oschisms (who also stood up under the hot C-SPAN lights at the Conservative Book panel in September), Experimental Insanity, Communists for Kerry co-founder and Fearless Leader icon Ivan Lenin (BTW check out how the Communists handled the crushing defeat of their Manchurian candidate), Peter, Smurfette, and the NEW Steve Silver (an old pal from the Upper West Side davening scene) (probably the only Kerry voter in the room, but he wasn't frothing at the mouth or anything).

I thought my chili was almost as good as Ken's, being constructed along the same lines, i.e. a mole-inspired base. Ken's had cocoa powder and coffee as well as real chili peppers. Mine had a paste of ancho, pasilla, and chipotli peppers in canola oil, with cumin and half a bar of dark chocolate I had lying around (the taste of which is completely drowned in the massive amount I made). (The rest of the ingredients: ground beef, yellow onions, garlic, celery, tomato paste and whole canned tomatoes, fresh cilantro, canned black beans, and frozen sweet white corn.)

So now I have chili in the freezer for most of the winter. Yum.