Penn Jillette wuz robbed!

I guess there's no choice but to admit that "Dancing with the Stars" is one of my guilty pleasures. My wife absolutely loves it, and I actually enjoy it. Which is the introduction to the headline. Of course I'm rooting for Penn Jillette, not only because his magic-comedy is entertaining, as is his and Teller's Showtime show, but because it's pretty well known that he's an enthusiastic and articulate libertarian. The last time I went to the Freedom Fest in Las Vegas a couple of years ago, he was in the audience, listening intently to the speakers, including John Stossel and Ron Paul, and trying not to draw attention to himself, which isn't all that easy considering how big he is.

Is that tribal of me, who is supposed to be a consummate individualist? Guilty as charged.

Anyway, he actually did better than I expected, bringing lots of energy to a cha-cha, and showing himself to be a natural entertainer. Of course, he wasn't exactly light on his feet, which are suitably huge. But I thought he deserved better than the 5-6-5 the judges gave him. I think because he went first they started with low scores to have room for better scores if others were better.

Actually I think Jason Taylor, the football player, could very well turn out to be the best male dancer this year. Still, Penn was better than the judges gave him credit for.