Reihan and John Podhoretz have now discovered Rachel McAdams, who is becoming a breakout star.

Some of us were blown away by McAdams’ work in Mean Girls and believed at the time that it was her performance, not Lindsay Lohan’s, which made the movie work so well.

But here’s the real question: In ten years will we look back on Mean Girls and laugh about how strange it must have been on set to have Kirk Cameron as the star making Leo DiCaprio carry around his bags?

Bonus: The most recent–and satisfying–actress to be aflicted with the DiCaprio Syndrome is Jennifer Love Hewitt, who was quite the queen bee herself when she got her very own TV show, Time of Your Life. I wonder if she let her lowly co-star–Jennifer Garner–get her sloppy seconds from the snack cart.

This sort of fall from fame could happen to better people than LiLo.

Reihan has a very interesting post on the question of falling birthrates and quality vs. quantity of children in societies. His interlocutor asks him:

I don’t think I’ve ever seen you give any explicit arguments as to why birthrates are the end-all-be-all of cultural supremacy.

Why can’t lower birthrates be balanced out by citizens who are longer-lived, richer, and more productive? Isn’t it the case that one hundred thousand American kids who go on to have successful careers in science, business, the arts, etc., are worth more to a culture than a million ill-educated, ill-nourished, pissed-off would-be suicide bombers?

Reihan responds in full Brooksian splendor:

Why not sacrifice quantity for quality? Consider rapid economic development in Korea and China and elsewhere. Economic takeoff was preceded by steep declines in birthrates. And as industrial economies supplanted economies that centered on home production, childen became less of an economic asset and more of an economic burden. . . . That the birthrate has declined pretty consistently from the 1820s to the present in North America – leaving aside a few cultural blips, and even the Baby Boom can be largely attributed to the increased propensity of Roman Catholic families to rear four or more children – is thus not surprising in the least.

So what gives? Why do I think that this is a bad thing? . . .

Look at it this way – what are the qualities one needs to raise young children? Tolerance, kindness, forebearance – patience is one way of putting it. Having a decent regard for others is another. . . .

When I think about all of the things I consider most coarsening and tragic about contemporary life, I think they can be traced to this basic failure of empathy. I extend this to our indifference to extreme deprivation in the most benighted corners of the globe, and also to the breakdown of civility in neighborhoods, not to mention the dissolution of families.

Very sincerely, I don’t think of myself as a particularly patient or thoughtful person. Consumption is the organizing principle of my life, or at least it’s a close second to friendship and learning cool stuff (tied). . . . I figure there’s probably a better way to live, not for me necessarily (and not for you necessarily) but for a community or a culture. . . .

I detect sadness – and I mean the deep sadness of very successful, very sharp, appealing middle-class North Americans in their mid-twenties, possibly the most privileged creatures to ever walk the earth in large numbers – it’s about drift, basic mistrust, loneliness.

There’s more to Reihan’s response, which is deals with the X’s and O’s of why population growth is necessary, but this wonderful little bit of humanism ought to be appreciated on its own.

Have you noticed that The Superficial has been dating Fez recently? Me too.

The reason may be that Brendon Donnelly, formerly of The Superficial, has hung up his own shingle and is now blogging away at the terribly-named IDontLikeYouInThatWay.com.

However, you’ll forgive the bad name because Brendon’s got all the old mojo going. Don’t believe me? Try this on for size:

Even before the accident I was thinking about getting out of modeling, and stuff like this is the reason why. So much tawdry rumor and innuendo. My decision was made for me after the oil spill, and I knew I wanted to devote my life to helping the sea turtles. Big Oil will try to tell you that oil helps the turtles’ viscosity and makes them even better swimmers, and that may be true, I don’t really know, I just know I love helping these beautiful creatures. Some of the other models say that the turtles and the retarded kids I teach to surf are lucky to have me. But you know who the lucky one is? It’s me. It’s me.

You followed the link, right? Get it? “For size.” Really, this stuff just writes itself.

There’s a whole list of things I’ve sworn would never take place on this blog–no tip jar, no “indeed,” no rambling posts about my wife/boyfriend/pet parakeet, no “hat tip,” no “MSM,” no “blogiversaries,” and, most definitely no liveblogging.

But I kind of can’t resist. I’ve been at the Potomac Yard Barnes & Noble since 8:00 p.m., working, editing, and watching kids, parents, and other twentysomething nerds hanging out in anticipation of the new Harry Potter book. There’s a trivia contest, a make-your-own-wand station, balloons, and good cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory. My wife’s sitting across from me reading Agatha Christie with her adorable Harry Potter glasses on and there’s even a girl behind the Starbucks counter wearing a beautifully knitted wool scarf done up in the Gryffindor colors. Really, I don’t see how life gets better.

Well, that wasn’t so bad. My first liveblogging. I thought I’d feel dirty, but I don’t feel dirty at all.

And you, what are you snickering at? Sure, I’m the dork at the Harry Potter party, but you’re spending your Friday night reading the third-dumbest blog in Washington, so really, which one of us is sadder?

Update, 11:27 p.m.: All cynicism aside, the single most moving thing about the Harry Potter parties are the many, many families with hearing-impaired children milling around the store, signing to each other. I imagine that if you’re a deaf kid you miss out on a lot of the silly pop culture moments, like movies and TV shows. To have a book which is an event like this is something hearing-impaired children can totally and completely own. It’s a really wonderful thing to see.

After reading that John Hinderaker and Hugh Hewitt are both Yoda, I took the geek personality test.

The answer, on the off chance you’re curious, is Elrond. I know, I was shocked, too.

I mean, Elrond is a nominal good guy. What’s up with that? I kind of expected Grand Moff Tarkin or the Mouth of Sauron or Deslock.

Or even Severus Snape. Clearly, this test is bogus.

Dearn Barnett has one of the most persuasive pieces I’ve read (or edited!) on the question of whether or not the rise of the liberal blogs is good for Democrats.

Diana West has a very good op-ed in the Washington Times today. She confronts head-on what even the hawkish leaders in the war on terrorism are afraid of: The “Religion of Peace” problem. In the war on terror is the root cause a tiny, tiny sect or a brand of religion which has yet to undergo a reformation and is in many ways incompatible with modernity?

Most people dare not even raise this question. West does.

Warning: Today will be an extra-geeky day on the blog. This news item reports that Marvel and DC are creating multiplayer RPGs for the next-gen Xbox and Playstation consoles, respectively.