The new National Affairs has launched and it looks like a serious, interesting book–worth a subscription.

Thoughts from the first week:

* Dent-Navarro may have been the best match I saw. Both guys coming in behind nearly every serve. Dent serving in the 140s for much of the match. (His average was 121 mph. The stats are pretty gaudy. And the fifth set tie-breaker, 11-9, was great drama.

* Clijsters-Venus was the first time I can remember seeing two high-level players trade 6-0 sets. Really weird.

* Zvonareva’s meltdown against Pannetta was the strangest choke-job I’ve seen in a while. Zvonareva lost 6 match point, but played each of them very well. (She might have been the tiniest bit tentative, but not by much. She just got outplayed on them. But the strain of having blown 6 of them caused her to have a total freak out. She took a bathroom break and was crying. She came back out and started talking to herself. She smashed her racquet. She tore bandages off of her knees. At one point she sat on the ground hitting herself. I was a little worried she’d take her shoes off, Bomber-style.

* That Melanie Oudin is something, isn’t she? Her game reminds me a lot of Hewitt’s. Short, fast, good counter-puncher. Very mentally tough. If she adds a stinging serve, that’ll help her a lot down the road. Hard not to love her. Although–and I may be wrong–something about her vaguely puts one in mind of Tracy Flick.

* Am I now ready to reverse myself about Federer? Pretty close. He looks like he did two years ago–totally dominant, firing on all cylinders. Nadal still isn’t himself, but if Federer keeps rolling like this, I’ll take it all back.

All resignations are unconvincing and dishonest, but is this the most ridiculously dishonest resignation ever?

“I have been inundated with calls — from across the political spectrum — urging me to ‘stay and fight.'”

It’s the “across the political spectrum” qualifier that gets the gold. What’s so wonderful about it is that it’s entirely unnecessary. He doesn’t believe it; you don’t believe it; he knows that you don’t believe it. And the statement would have been perfectly serviceable without it.

Exit question: How long before the Mossad/Likudniks/etc. are blamed for his persecution? That’s an explanation people “from across the political spectrum” could get behind!

Galley Friends K.B. and K.E. have set up the blog around the corner. Come for the charming ambiance, stay for the pumpkin muffin recipes!

Except in Russia. And China. And the U.S. . . .

A lot of techno experts insist that movie studios, record companies, book publishers, etc. should stop fighting piracy because the internet makes the spread of information unstoppable. Yet when people really want to stop the spread of information (even in as small-scale a case as the Erin Andrews video), it seems pretty easy to lock it down and disappear it.

That Steve Sailer is a dangerous racist!

The question of whether Obama is for or against affirmative action is moot. He is not for affirmative action – he is affirmative action. When he gets up in the morning and works out to Jay Z’s music, he is already telling you that he is for affirmative action.

Oh, wait . . .

In advance of her coming appearance with Oprah, Galley Crush Czabe has been airing two Erin Andrews conspiracy theories, which are variations on his original conspiracy theory:

(1) That the hotel peep-cam was actually done by Andrews on purpose in order to raise her profile in advance of contract renegotiations with the Four Letter. The operating principal here being that in modern America, any fame that does not kill you only makes you stronger.

(2) That the hotel peep-cam was actually done by Andrews as a gift for a boyfriend/significant other. The operating principle here being that sex tapes are like velociraptors–once you create them, they inevitably escape into the wild.

If the first theory were true, it would be sort of tragic. Andrews is America’s sports girlfriend and we would hate to learn that deep down she’s like Paris Hilton.

But if the second theory were true, wouldn’t it make us love her more? It would mean that America’s sports girlfriend is actually the dream girlfriend in real life. Who wouldn’t stand up and salute that?

P.S.: I have not seen the aforementioned video and wouldn’t watch it even if you sent a link to it to the email address just over there on the right-hand side. Yes, that one, right there.

“Mr. Obama’s young aides are hardworking, humorous and bright as pennies, but I wish they had an arthritic ache or two, I wish they told old war stories because they’d been in old wars, I wish they knew what it looks like when an administration goes too far and strains the ties between itself and the bulk of the people.”

Translation: “Why didn’t they call me!“