From the L.A. Times blog on the Spector murder trial:

Prosecutor Alan Jackson said that if forensic expert Michael Baden came to conclusions contrary to the defense his wife was presenting on Phil Spector’s behalf, “you’d probably be sleeping on the couch for several months, right?” The courtroom dissolved into laughter. Defense lawyer Roger Rosen objected. “Sustained, it calls for speculation,” Judge Fidler deadpanned. The laughter rose to deafening proportions.

Who says a murder trial can’t be fun?

A while back, I wrote a post titled John Williams: Thief which accused Williams of stealing the E.T. theme from Dvorak’s “Dumky” Piano Trio.

But I didn’t have any audio clips to post for you, so it didn’t mean a lot to most of you.

Now that I have learned to use Windows Moviemaker to manipulate video and audio clips, I thought I’d let you compare the two with your own ears.

To remind you, here is Williams’s E.T. theme (click here):

And here are the final few bars of Dvorak’s Dumky Trio, which I have clipped and uploaded to YouTube:

P.S. I should add that a friend of mine who is a music expert says that borrowing themes is common in classical music, and that I should go easy on John Williams. Fair enough.

P.P.S. I have altered the title to reflect this view.

UPDATE: Everyone knows the love theme from Superman:

Here is a 9-second passage from Richard Strauss’s Tod und Verklärung. See if it reminds you of anything:

Rudy Giuliani promises that he will end illegal immigration.

“We can end illegal immigration,” Giuliani vowed to an audience of roughly 300 at a community center in Aiken, S.C., Tuesday morning. “I promise you, we can end illegal immigration.”

Very impressive. There’s just one little tiny problem . . . how he behaved in New York. I’ll yield the floor to Michelle Malkin.

[T]he record is clear. New York City’s sanctuary policy was created in 1989 by Democrat Mayor Ed Koch and upheld by every mayor succeeding him. When Congress enacted immigration reform laws that forbade local governments from barring employees from cooperating with the INS, Giuliani filed suit against the feds in 1997. He was rebuffed by two lower courts, which ruled that the sanctuary order amounted to special treatment for illegal aliens and was nothing more than an unlawful effort to flaunt federal enforcement efforts against illegal aliens. In January 2000, the Supreme Court rejected his appeal, but Giuliani vowed to ignore the law.

So, we’re better off with Romney? Nah. The linked article explains how three cities in Massachusetts declared themselves sanctuary cities during Romney’s tenure, and he never said boo. He instituted a program to have local authorities help the feds identify criminal illegals, but the deal

was reached in the closing days of his term, in December 2006, and was immediately rescinded by his replacement, Democratic Gov. Deval Patrick. The 30 state troopers initially assigned to receive specialized training from the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency never received their training.

Face facts: no candidate is going to change the situation in any significant way. I’ve said before that this is a battle we have already lost. We lost it long ago. There are too many Hispanic voters who will harshly punish any party that tries to do anything major and meaningful about illegal immigration; therefore, no party will risk it. If you wonder why nothing ever seems to happen, that’s why. Pure and simple.

Plus, the Democrats are winning in 2008 anyway.

The best we can do is try to find solutions that are obvious and should appeal to both parties, such as identifying and deporting criminal aliens. This is a simple step that would have saved lives in Newark and across the country. I’ve spoken to liberal friends about this idea and haven’t found anyone yet who objects to the basic idea. The only objection I’ve encountered is that it won’t happen because it makes too much sense, and government doesn’t work that way.

I’m not that cynical. I think we can make that change.

But end illegal immigration?

Don’t insult our intelligence, Rudy.