Today's Bleat is exactly why I read James Lileks. Asked to comment on John Kerry's activities in the 1970s, he nails the issue: it is not important what Kerry thought when he was in his twenties, rather it is what he believe now and what perspective he has gained in the last thirty years. To defend that view, Lileks uses his own transition from '80s anti-Reaganite to his current libertarian-conservative self. As he puts it: "A great number of my [earlier] ideas did not survive contact with the real world." I have gone through a similar transition myself over the last 10 years, which is why his column speaks to me.