SO THEY'VE FALLEN FROM TRIVIAL TO WHAT?:

US troop fatalities in Iraq drop sharply: The toll is falling in the most dangerous provinces, not just in the Baghdad 'surge' zone. (Gordon Lubold, 8/01/07, The Christian Science Monitor)

As a single measure of success or failure in Iraq, the rate of American fatalities has its own limitations. But it does reflect the ability of the US to reduce insurgent-led violence. Two months ago, US fatalities climbed to 128, making May the third deadliest month for US troops in Iraq since the war began in 2003. But since then, as the surge of 30,000 new US forces has arrived, fatalities have fallen sharply. At press time, the toll for the month of July stood at 74, a decrease of 42 percent compared with May. That's the lowest fatality rate since last November.

When the surge was announced earlier this year, critics said adding more troops in one area would simply force insurgents to provoke violence in other areas. But according to an analysis by Pentagon officials, fatalities are down in July in all four of the most violent provinces of Iraq: Baghdad, Anbar, Salahaddin, and Diyala.

A DAY WITHOUT MEXICANS:

Finding a Polish plumber is no joke in Warsaw (Patryk Wasilewski, 7/31/07, Reuters)

In western Europe, the Polish plumber has become the cliche of a low-paid immigrant who has profited from the European Union's eastward expansion.

In Poland, it is no joke.

The former communist country is short of everything from plumbers to pilots and that is pushing up wages dramatically and encouraging inflation, which threaten to choke off Poland's own economic boom.

WELL, THEY ARE ANGLOSPHERICAL:

Kenya wants to grab piece of outsourcing pie (Helen Nyambura-Mwaura, 8/01/07, Reuters)

Instead of Bangalore, could it be Nairobi that banking customers from rich countries talk to next year?

Kenya -- impeded in the call centre industry to date by poor communications links to the rest of world -- is banking that the first fiber-optic cable in east Africa to be laid by mid-2008 will boost its status as the region's top economy.

Many Kenyan entrepreneurs hope that this, plus cheap labor, clear accents, and customer fatigue with Indian call centers could help the African country hook into the burgeoning call centre and outsourcing industry, worth $130 billion worldwide.

Once the technology is in place they hope Kenya's industry can take on established hubs in India and the Philippines.

GEE, YOU WONDER THAT THEY THINK THEY NEED NUKES?:

Tehran the target of huge arms deal, says Rice (Ewen MacAskill, August 1, 2007, Guardian)

The US secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, increased pressure on Iran yesterday when she identified it as the biggest strategic challenge to America and the target of a proposed $63bn (£31bn) arms package.

US officials portrayed Iran as a growing spectre that was engaged in aggressive expansion and destabilising the region.

The Bush administration announced on Monday the huge arms sales package to Saudi Arabia and other Gulf state allies aimed at creating a bulwark against Iran. Speaking before a Gulf state conference at the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, Ms Rice said: "There isn't a doubt that Iran constitutes the single most important single-country strategic challenge to the United States and to the kind of Middle East that we want to see."

BAD NAME, GOOD BAND:

Dappled Cities perform in the Current studio (Barb Abney, July 31, 2007, Minnesota Public Radio)

Their new album Granddance was released stateside less than two months ago, and it's garnering raves all through the indie media. [...]

They dropped in the morning after their first date along with The Fratellis. While they were here they also discussed the first time they saw the Mississippi River, moving to the USA for six months, and life on the road.

DO THE IRAQI PEOPLE FIGURE IN ANYWHERE?:

Clyburn: Positive Report by Petraeus Could Split House Democrats on War (Dan Balz and Chris Cillizza, 7/30/07, Washington Post)

House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-S.C.) said Monday that a strongly positive report on progress on Iraq by Army Gen. David Petraeus likely would split Democrats in the House and impede his party's efforts to press for a timetable to end the war.

Clyburn, in an interview with the washingtonpost.com video program PostTalk, said Democrats might be wise to wait for the Petraeus report, scheduled to be delivered in September, before charting next steps in their year-long struggle with President Bush over the direction of U.S. strategy.

Clyburn noted that Petraeus carries significant weight among the 47 members of the Blue Dog caucus in the House, a group of moderate to conservative Democrats. Without their support, he said, Democratic leaders would find it virtually impossible to pass legislation setting a timetable for withdrawal.

"I think there would be enough support in that group to want to stay the course and if the Republicans were to stay united as they have been, then it would be a problem for us," Clyburn said.

NOTHING COSTS...:

Core inflation rises moderate 0.1% in June (Rex Nutting, 7/31/07, MarketWatch)

Core consumer inflation increased 0.1% for the fourth consecutive month in June, pushing the yearly gain in core inflation down to the lowest level in three years, the Commerce Department said Tuesday.

The core personal consumption price index rose 1.9% in the past year, the lowest inflation since early 2004, and just within the Federal Reserve's unofficial comfort zone of 1% to 2% for core inflation. Core inflation excludes volatile food and energy prices.

DEATHDAY CAKE:

Cake de Cuba Libre (Contra Costa Times, 07/25/2007)

3 cups cake flour, sifted

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

4 eggs

1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened, plus more for greasing

2 cups brown sugar, lightly packed

1 cup Classic Coca-Cola (not diet)

1/4 cup dark rum

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 cup whole milk

FOR SAUCE:

1 cup Classic Coca-Cola

11/2 cups white sugar

1 tablespoon light corn syrup

12 tablespoons butter

1/4 cup dark rum

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Sift together flour, baking soda and salt. Set aside. Liberally grease and lightly flour a standard bundt pan.

2. Beat the eggs with an electric mixer in a large mixing bowl. Gradually add the 2 sticks softened butter and the sugar and beat until creamy. Beat in the 1 cup Coca-Cola, 1/4 cup rum, vanilla and milk. Use only fresh, bubbly Coke, not "flat" Coke as called for in some recipes. The bubbles actually make a honeycomb effect in the finished cake.

3. Gradually add the flour mixture to the mixing bowl, beating constantly until you have a smooth batter. Pour the cake batter into the prepared bundt pan. Bake approximately 45-60 minutes, or until the cake tests done. Let the cake cool slightly, use a knife to work around the sides and center of the cake, and then invert the cake on a serving plate.

4. Bring the 1 cup Coca-Cola, sugar and corn syrup to a boil in a 2-quart saucepan. Continue cooking at medium-high heat, stirring frequently, until syrup thickens. Remove from heat and immediately stir in the 12 tablespoons butter and the 1/4 cup rum.

5. Serve the cake warm, spooning plenty of sauce over each individual serving. Yes, we sometimes double the syrup recipe when we are feeling especially decadent and our wives aren't looking!

MERDE, HE WROTE:

Stephen Clarke can find humor in messy situations: The British author's humorous insights into life in Paris have translated into bestsellers. Hey, it happens. (Marjorie Miller, 7/31/07, LA Times)

So many writers come to France to write, and so many of them make la merde out of their careers, but British author Stephen Clarke is the only one I know of who has made a career out of la merde. Three books worth, to be precise: "A Year in the Merde," "Merde Actually" and, published in Britain this month, "Merde Happens." (It's scheduled to be published in the United States next May, according to his agent, although the impatient can order it through Amazon UK). These humorous novels are a hit in French airports and have made it onto various bestseller lists, giving Clarke a reputation as an outsider who actually, more or less, gets the French.

His first two titles are knockoffs of "A Year in Provence" and "Love Actually," but the excrement part is his alone, taken from the ubiquitous dog droppings on the sidewalks of Paris and the fact that his main character, Paul West, is constantly stepping into it, literally and figuratively.

West is a 27-year-old Brit who comes to Paris in the first book to help his French boss open a chain of tearooms. He runs up against the French "work culture," with a lot of cheek kissing and long meetings that result in very little. He experiences the fine art of stalling, encounters world-class French bureaucrats and has a few liaisons dangereuses, including one with his boss' daughter, before striking out on his own.

IT WASN'T THE RAIN, BUT THE REGIME:

A violent tempest in New Orleans: As the city struggles to control crime, cases have been bungled, and Dist. Atty. Jordan has become a lightning rod for dissatisfaction. (Miguel Bustillo, July 31, 2007, Los Angeles Times)

The district attorney of this bloodstained city dropped murder charges this month against a man alleged to have massacred five teenagers, saying the sole witness was nowhere to be found.

A day later, an angry New Orleans police chief, who had not been warned that one of the city's most sensational criminal cases was being abandoned, trotted out the supposedly elusive witness at a news conference. He said it took his investigators three hours to locate her by calling a phone number sitting in the case file.

The bungling of the quintuple-murder case — which has outraged New Orleans and led some officials to call for the head of Dist. Atty. Eddie J. Jordan Jr. — illuminates the city's continuing inability to bring even high-profile suspects to justice.

Nearly two years after Hurricane Katrina, it has become clear that New Orleans' failure to control violent crime presents an obstacle to the city's repopulation every bit as big as the shortage of affordable rental housing and the slow disbursement of government aid to rebuild homes.

Yet the criminal justice system continues to be plagued by political backbiting, inexplicable communication breakdowns and, in some cases, outright incompetence.

JOIN IT OR BE THE TORCH?:

World's hairiest man wants to join Olympic torch relay (AP, 7/31/07)

The world's hairiest man is applying to take part in the Beijing Olympic torch relay, state media reported Tuesday.

Yu Zhenhuan, who has hair covering 96 percent of his body, told the official Xinhua News Agency that he would be an ideal candidate to take part in the event.

"First, I am a celebrity inside and outside of China and, secondly, I think my experience in coping with a disfigurement ties in with the notion of the Olympic spirit," he said.

IF YOU TAX THEM THEY'LL DO THE RIGHT THING:

Congestion charge increased public transport use (The Local, 31st July 2007)

More people in Sweden used public transport last year than in previous years, and congestion charging in Stockholm is being singled out as the reason.

The number of people using public transport increased by five percent across the country. The rise is equal to 58 million journeys, according to statistics from the Swedish Institute for Transport and Communications Analysis Swedish Institute for Transport and Communications Analysis (SIKA).

IF ONLY IT WERE IN PASSBOOK SAVINGS WE'D BE CONSIDERED THRIFTY BY OUR BETTERS:

401(k)'s Grow for 4th Straight Year (DAN CATERINICCHIA, 7/31/07, AP)

[T]he average amount saved in a company- sponsored 401(k) account rose by 17 percent in 2006, the fourth straight year of growth. Since 1999, workers who contributed to these accounts saw their average savings grow by 79 percent to $121,202—despite the market downturn between 2000 and 2002. [...]

As expected, older savers had accumulated more in their accounts than their younger colleagues. The average balance for participants in their 60s was $157,727; in their 50s, $148,927; in their 40s, $108,262; in their 30s, $61,368; and in their 20s, $28,248.

"401(k) participants are a very hardy and committed group," Holden said. The plans have evolved from supplementary retirement accounts when they were introduced in the early 1980s, she said, into the primary or only one for many participants.

HERE'S AN IDEA...:

Getting Busted for Pot Can Cost Your Right to Vote (Silja J.A. Talvi, July 31, 2007, In These Times)

So, don't.

YOU'D OPPOSE AMERICAN FOREIGN POLICY TOO...:

Behind the Arab street's anti-American facade (Hussain Abdul-Hussain, 7/30/07, The Christian Science Monitor)

During my years as a reporter in Beirut, whenever I covered an anti-U.S. protest, I saw most of the protesters trying to hide their faces from cameras. Ask any of them about the reason for doing so, and they will tell you that they do not want to jeopardize getting a visa to the U.S. or to other Western countries.

But those who don't want to risk their visas are the same ones who fear retribution of their ruling regimes, or even their militant peers, if they express any support of the West. These people walk a tightrope. On the one hand, they want to keep their visa prospects high. On the other hand, they want to look as anti-Western as their oppressors want them to look.

The double-face theory explains a good deal of the social behavior of many Arabs. It explains why, even though the majority of Arabs appear to hate America, American multinational franchises are booming in Arab countries.

Whether it is Starbucks, McDonald's, Burger King or KFC, they are all in high demand in the Arab region. Hollywood movies are widely watched. American pop culture is as widespread in the Middle East as it is here in the U.S. Most Arabs know Ross and Rachel from the TV sitcom "Friends." Many of them know the rapper 50 Cent and often sing his tunes. Many of them strive to enter the U.S. universities mushrooming across the region.

If you ask these Arabs about the dilemma of loving America and hating it at the same time, the most common answer would be: We love America, but we hate its foreign policy.

American foreign policy, however, does not always work against what many of these Arabs want to see. Only a few would oppose the removal of their tyrant.

DON CORYELL, BUT FOR DAN FOUTS'S KNEES:

Bill Walsh, 75; legendary 49ers coach reshaped football (Sam Farmer, July 31, 2007, LA Times)

Bill Walsh, known in football circles as "The Genius" for taking his San Francisco 49ers to three NFL championships and designing the "West Coast offense" that has countless devotees in both college and professional ranks, died Monday. He was 75.

Diagnosed with leukemia in 2004, Walsh had been in failing health for several months and died at his home in Woodside, Calif., according to Stanford University, where he had been a coach and athletic director.

Cerebral, introspective and innovative, Walsh had an uncanny eye for scouting players and designing refined game plans. His offensive scheme — predicated on short passes that depended on timing — fueled a dynasty in San Francisco with Super Bowl victories after the 1981, '84 and '88 seasons.

George Seifert, Walsh's defensive coordinator, who retained the same offensive system after Walsh retired, led the 49ers to two more Super Bowl victories after the 1989 and 1994 seasons.

John Madden, the Hall of Fame coach and longtime NFL broadcaster and analyst, said Monday that "Bill's legacy is going to be that he changed offense. Offense before Bill Walsh was run, run defense, establish the run. Run on first down, run on second down, and if that doesn't work, pass on third down. Bill Walsh passed on first down, passed on second down and used that to set up the run.

"People use the word genius and we usually scoff at that. In his case, I don't think you can scoff at it."

MORE:
Behind 'genius' tag was another Walsh: Football writers recall surprising and off-guard moments with the coach away from the game. (Sam Farmer, July 31, 2007, LA Times)

When Walsh died Monday, I called some of my sportswriter friends in the Bay Area to reminisce.

Ira Miller, who for years covered the 49ers for the San Francisco Chronicle, used to butt heads with Walsh on a daily basis. Miller is a bulldog, who, in the most contentious of times, was barely on speaking terms with the coach.

Yet, after Walsh announced his retirement in 1989, the coach stepped away from the podium and made a beeline for Miller in the front row, throwing his arm around the cantankerous reporter.

"It's been 10 great years," Walsh said.

Miller was speechless.

"I wouldn't have been more surprised if Eddie DeBartolo said I was the new coach," Miller recalled with a laugh. "If those were 10 great years, I was thinking to myself, I must have missed some of them."

Seventeen years later, when Walsh wanted to let the world know about his cancer, Miller was one of the two reporters he called. The other was Lowell Cohn, formerly of the Chronicle, who's now a columnist for the Santa Rosa Press Democrat.

No reporter knew Walsh better than Cohn, who spent the better part of a year with the coach in writing, "Rough Magic — Bill Walsh's Return to Stanford Football."

The night before every Stanford home game, Walsh and Cohn had a routine. Walsh would work late at his office, scripting the first 15 to 20 offensive plays of the game, then would meet the reporter at the now-defunct Rickey's Hyatt House for one margarita — always one.

One night, as Walsh and Cohn were walking in, former Washington Redskins coach Joe Gibbs was walking out. Gibbs was in town to watch his son, Coy, play linebacker for Stanford.

Cohn couldn't believe his luck. He'd get to see how two giants of the game would interact in a casual setting. Would Walsh give Gibbs a hug, or just a hearty handshake? Would he invite the Redskins legend to join them for a margarita? Or, better yet, dinner?

Instead, the coaches passed each other with barely a nod.

Later, while sipping his margarita, Walsh offered a simple explanation: "When we were coaches, he was my biggest rival."

For all his success, Walsh could be incredibly insecure at times. He was tormented by losing and forever haunted by the fear that his empire was on the decline. One of his biggest regrets was that he retired too early.

Cohn remembers leaving Stanford early one night while Walsh prepared for a game. But as the reporter walked through the parking lot toward his car, he got a creepy feeling someone was following him.

And someone was — Walsh.

"Lowell?" the coach said, startling him, "Do you think we can win?"

"Yeah," Cohn said, composing himself. "I'm sure you can win."

"Good. Good."

Imagine that, a three-time Super Bowl champion — a coach headed for the Pro Football Hall of Fame — pleading for reassurance from a newspaper reporter.

Walsh was that way. Just like us.

KNOWING WHICH SIDE THE NAAN IS GHEED ON:

Himalayan chill over Sino-Indian relations (M. D. NALAPAT, 7/30/07, UPI)

When the Congress Party took over the governance of India in 2004 with the support of India's two major communist parties, Beijing had hoped for a policy more attentive to Chinese interests. After all, Congress President Sonia Gandhi was known to be an "old friend," and the Communists were even more deferential toward Chinese interests than they were toward Indian.

Three years on, optimism has faded. Recognition has arrived that India may indeed be on the threshold of a transformational relationship, not with China but with the United States -- a country that has a finite chance of going to war with Beijing over Taiwan.

Unlike U.S. President George W. Bush, King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia or even Prime Minister G. P. Koirala of Nepal, India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh did not go to the airport to either receive or see off Chinese President Hu Jintao. Hu received a tepid reception on his recent visit to India, and reciprocated by issuing boilerplate soporifics that were flowery in language but severely limited in substance.

Comments

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WHEN HISTORY ENDED:

RISE AND SHINE - Urban, industrial and commercial India since 1991 (S.L. RAO, 7/30/07, The Telegraph)

A Kumbhakarna waking in India after sleeping since 1991, would have rubbed his eyes in disbelief. In the shops are apples from Fiji and China, Swiss chocolates, almost all the latest models of cars, cell phones, television, hi-fi equipment, and many consumer products including designer clothes, bags and other such luxuries. Most urban middle-class young men and women go to work, earning good salaries. So do the young from lower socio-economic strata with little education, in malls, multiplexes, fast food restaurants, supermarkets and hotels.

Housing loans at 10 per cent interest, the Sensex at 15,000 and rising, over $200 billion of foreign exchange reserves, the rupee rising every day in relation to the dollar and even other currencies, Indians welcomed as immigrants in most developed countries, India labelled as the new superpower of this century and sharply declining poverty levels make India a different country from what it was in 1991.

The rich and the middle classes are very much better off. But the over-fifty-fives of 1991 are now dependent on the generosity of their prosperous children because their savings are too small for the new higher prices of almost everything. The unorganized sector has more employment than before, but incomes remain low while agriculture has become an uncertain occupation for the many small land-owners.

Many industrialists in 1991 did not recognize that India had joined the world and would never again be an insular economy. Our opening the economy coincided with the revolution in telecommunications, information technology, travel and the growing shortage in the developed countries of people and of skills at affordable costs. Those Indian businesses that did not seize the new opportunities died or disappeared. There were many who did change and developed significant businesses. Some of them became the new barons of the Indian and the world economies.

WHAT DO THEY KNOW THAT MICHAEL MOORE DOESN'T?:

More Cubans leaving by sea again, many to Mexico (Anthony Boadle, 7/30/07, Reuters)

After a lull following Fidel Castro's illness last year, Cubans once again are taking to homemade boats or powerful speedboats manned by smugglers on a trip to the United States that often includes a detour through Mexico.

Since May, the U.S. Coast Guard has been intercepting more boat people in precarious craft crossing the Straits of Florida in the calm summer waters. The U.S. Border Patrol also has been processing rising numbers turning up at the U.S. frontier with Mexico.

Cubans coming across the 90-mile gap with Florida try to make it in anything that floats and has a motor -- from a hijacked fishing boat to an array of inner tubes tied together with a weed whacker for propeller.

TOUGH TO LECTURE WHEN YOU BIFF THE CORE TERMINOLOGY:

Plugging the democracy gap (Anne-Marie Slaughter, July 30, 2007, International Herald Tribune)

Critics of current American strategy make several valid points. First, democracy really cannot be promoted, but only supported. By its nature, democracy requires the people of a particular country to actively want to govern themselves. Where that drive exists, external support can help it grow and flourish, but it cannot be implanted, much less imposed from the outside.

Second, promoting elections around the world often seems to empower governments or parties that don't like the United States - Hamas in the Palestinian territories, the Sadrists in Iraq, Hugo Chávez in Venezuela. How then does promoting democracy enhance the security of America and its allies?

The problem lies not in the strategy but in its execution. Democracy is not an end in itself, but a means to the end of securing individual liberty. To see the point, Americans would do well to look to America's own history. The framers of the Constitution wanted a republican government that would represent the people, but represent them in a way that protected against mob rule and maximized opportunities for careful deliberation in the best interests of the country as a whole. They insisted on a pluralist party system, a Bill of Rights limiting the power of the government, guarantees for free speech and a free press, checks and balances to promote transparent and accountable government and a strong rule of law enforced by an independent judiciary.

These rules and institutions are as essential to sustained government by the people as elections are. Without them, democracy would be nothing more than a recipe for tyranny of the majority or simply a stop on the road to renewed dictatorship.

We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

EV...:

In Opposing Tax Plan, Schumer Breaks With Party (RAYMOND HERNANDEZ and STEPHEN LABATON, 7/30/07, NY Times)

June was a busy month for Senator Charles E. Schumer. On the phone, at large parties and small gatherings around the nation, he raised more than $1 million from the booming private equity and hedge fund industries for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, of which he is chairman.

But there is another way Mr. Schumer has been busy with hedge fund and private equity managers, an important part of his constituency in New York. He has been reassuring them that he will resist an effort led by members of his own party to single out the industry with a plan that would more than double the taxes on the enormous profits reaped by its executives.

Mr. Schumer has considerable say on the issue. In addition to being the third-ranking Democrat in the Senate leadership, he is the only Democrat serving on both of the major committees, Banking and Finance, that have jurisdiction in the matter.

He has long been a pro-business Democrat and a fund-raising machine for the party, as well as a vociferous supporter of Wall Street issues in Washington, much the way Michigan lawmakers defend the auto industry and Iowa politicians work on behalf of corn farmers.

SO SCARCE YOU BURN IT:

Malthusian misery's comeback: With the world population growth outpacing food supply, say goodbye to the era of unlimited improvement. (Niall Ferguson, July 30, 2007, LA Times)

Malthus' key insight was simple but devastating. "Population, when unchecked, increases in a geometrical ratio," he observed. But "subsistence increases only in an arithmetical ratio." In other words, humanity can increase like the number sequence 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, whereas our food supply can increase no faster than the number sequence 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 We are, quite simply, much better at reproducing than feeding ourselves.

Malthus concluded that there must be "a strong and constantly operating check on population." This would take two forms: "misery" and "vice," by which he meant not only alcohol abuse but also contraception and abortion (he was, after all, an Anglican minister).

I wish I could have a free lunch for every time I've heard someone declare "Malthus was wrong." Superficially, it is true, mankind seems to have broken free of the Malthusian trap. The world's population has increased by a factor of more than six since Malthus' time. Yet the global average daily supply of calories consumed has also gone up on a per capita basis, exceeding 2,700 in the 1990s. In France on the eve of the revolution it was just 1,848.

WITHOUT A MONOPOLY ON FORCE THERE CAN BE NO SOVEREIGN:

Haiti debates a homegrown army: The country today is patrolled by U.N. troops. 'We should be doing this for ourselves,' some say. (Carol J. Williams, July 30, 2007, LA Times)

"In this land, we are the only masters," the Haitian national anthem proudly boasts of this country that in 1804 overthrew slavery and colonization.

But for more than a dozen years, Haiti has been without an army, dependent on a politicized national police force and foreign troops of the United Nations who protect its leaders, respond to natural disasters and quell violence in some of the hemisphere's most wretched slums.

That galls Joseph Alexandre, a 49-year-old lawyer who saw his military career and family heritage of service abruptly end in 1995 when then-President Jean-Bertrand Aristide disbanded the army that had been complicit in his 1991 ouster.

"We should be doing this for ourselves," Alexandre, who holds the rank of major, said of patrols here by U.N. military units from Nepal, Croatia, Bolivia and more than a dozen other countries.

WHAT HOLLYWOOD CAN TEACH LOU DOBBS:

Filmmakers put their faith in the Gospel: Producer Jeff Clanagan and 20th Century Fox are teaming up to make several movies for the Christian market. (Lorenza Muñoz, July 30, 2007, Los Angeles Times)

Jeff Clanagan wants to ride Tyler Perry's coattails.

So does 20th Century Fox.

They are pairing up to make several Gospel-inspired films that are much like the ones that have made Perry a sensation. Perry, a 37-year-old producer, writer, director and star, has shown Hollywood the gold to be mined from Gospel-infused entertainment.

Fox and Clanagan are pinning their initial hopes on a movie version of the popular play "Mama I Want to Sing." Scheduled to come out in March, starring R&B singers Ciara and Patty LaBelle, "Mama" is the first of several films that Clanagan will make under a deal with Fox Home Entertainment division FoxFaith.

Clanagan's goal is to build a full-fledged studio that makes, markets and distributes theatrical movies for African American and Latino audiences. His company, Codeblack Entertainment, already has seen success by making an eclectic group of low-budget movies and distributing them on DVD, such as Steve Harvey's comedy series. He's made a couple of faith-based films on DVD, including "Preaching to the Choir."

"These movies are not really recognized by the Hollywood elite," Clanagan said. " 'Mama' takes it to another level."

After "Mama," Clanagan will release "A Good Man Is Hard to Find," which has grossed $10 million as a stage play. Clanagan will begin production on several faith-inspired novels by ReShonda Tate Billingsley, such as "Let the Church Say Amen" and "Blessings in Disguise."

"Tyler was a pioneer in showing that gospel entertainment was more commercial than anyone had ever thought," Clanagan said. "Faith-based product will be our bread and butter."

LOSS LEADER:

Gas-station owners' profits hinge on thirsty customers (Ángel González, 7/30/07, Seattle Times)

Convenience-store owner David Malik earns about as much on a can of Coke as he does on a typical 10-gallon purchase of gas.

Malik's gross profit on gasoline is roughly 3 cents a gallon after paying for supplies and credit-card fees, but he earns 30 cents on the soft drink.

DO PEOPLE THINK THE BABE WAS BORN WITH A PAUNCH?:

Sultan of Swat, reprise: Great-grandson of Ruth a slugger (Brian MacQuarrie, July 30, 2007, Boston Globe)

The brow and broad cheekbones look vaguely familiar as Chris Herrlein steps into the batter's box. But there is no paunch, and Herrlein is hitting right-handed, instead of left, as a peeling number 3 hangs to the back of his jersey.

It is the number that Babe Ruth, his great-grandfather, wore as the most famous player in baseball history. Three generations later, Herrlein does the Bambino proud by rocketing a softball high and deep for a three-run triple.

"There he goes," yelps Steve Wilson, co-manager of the Blues Maniacs, as Herrlein, 38, lugs a rebuilt right knee and two injury-prone shoulders around the bases in short, choppy, dust- raising strides.

Standing on third, catching his breath, Herrlein flashes a wide smile as the Maniacs chop away at the wrong end of a 9-0, first-inning deficit. Although the ready grin is also reminiscent of Ruth, only a few teammates knew of Herrlein's connection to the Bambino before the game last week.

"I want them to know me as me," says Herrlein, a Hewlett-Packard software salesman from Millis.

What they know, Wilson says, is a big-hearted first baseman with a .350 average in this modified fast-pitch league.

"I'm just in total awe," said second baseman Jason Malloy, 26, of Stow, as he waited to bat beside Framingham High School. "If you watch enough history stuff, you can see absolutely that he resembles Babe Ruth, just the way he looks at you."

YOUR PLATES DON'T FACE INTO THE CAR, DO THEY? (via The Other Brother):

Plate reader draws objections of ACLU (AP, 7/30/07)

Police in this Cincinnati suburb have turned to a mechanical watchdog that scans license plates on passing cars to try to snare fugitives, a practice that has drawn the attention of those who say it’s an infringement on a driver’s right to privacy.

The Mobile Plate Hunter 900 — two cameras mounted atop a cruiser — can read up to 900 license plates an hour on vehicles driving at highway speeds. [...]

Since the patrol began using the scanners in 2004, it has recovered 95 stolen cars — valued at $740,000 — and made 111 arrests, said patrol spokesman Lt. Shawn Davis. The plate hunter has made roads safer, he said.

The scanner’s gaze is too wide and it’s an infringement against the innocent drivers whose plates get captured, said Jeff Gamso, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio.

THE GOOD 911:

Boeing predicts $42bn India orders (Jul 30, 2007)
India will likely need 911 new passenger jets over the next 20 years to meet the growing demand for air travel, Boeing said, announcing an upward revision to its earlier forecast.

India's demand for new planes over the next 20 years could result in orders worth 86 billion US dollars ($42.5 billion) at current list prices, making it one of the world's largest markets for new jets, Boeing said in its latest market outlook for India.

India's rapid economic expansion in recent years, coupled with policies to break the monopoly of state-run companies in the airline sector has driven demand for air travel and new planes.
It's that breaking of state-run companies that sounds Airbus's death knell.

WE ARE ALL INTELLIGENT DESIGNISTS NOW:

Repugnant Markets and How They Get That Way: Q&A with: Alvin E. Roth (Martha Lagace, 7/30/07, Working Knowledge)

Unfair. Undignified. Inappropriate, unprofessional, distasteful—and most of all, repugnant.

To the wonder and surprise of Alvin E. Roth, a Harvard economist, these harsh words are often hoisted to describe an important task of his: designing and building new markets. As Roth writes in a new working paper, he and fellow economists have found themselves handicapped by a problem just as real as any technological barrier or requirement of incentives and efficiency: the downright distaste that some people feel for particular transactions.

Roth's paper, "Repugnance as a Constraint on Markets," looks at a wide range of practices, legal and illegal, from dwarf tossing to slavery to California's ban on the human consumption of horse meat, and asks how economists can find a common language, if not a common point of view, with the winds of society. According to Roth, "We need to understand better and engage more with the phenomenon of ‘repugnant transactions,' which, I will argue, often serves as an important constraint on markets and market design." [...]

Roth recently elaborated on repugnance for HBS Working Knowledge.

Martha Lagace: How did you arrive at the subject of repugnant markets?

Alvin E. Roth: I started thinking about them while talking with kidney surgeons and learning about all the things they found repugnant. Meanwhile, a group of economists, particularly around Nobel Laureate Gary S. Becker at the University of Chicago, was quite perplexed that we just don't have a market.

As an economist who wants to understand things as they are, I wondered why we don't have some of the markets that economists like. Economists have the point of view that voluntary transactions should always be fine. If two people engage in a voluntary transaction, it must be because they both want to, and it makes them better off. The kinds of things I'm calling repugnant are transactions that some people don't want other people to engage in.

Repugnant is different from, say, disgusting. There are no laws against eating cockroaches in California, because nobody wants to eat cockroaches. The law of supply and demand takes care of that. But the reason there's a law against eating horse meat in California is because some people would like to eat horse meat, and others think that they're doing something repugnant.

That's similarly the story about kidneys: why I can't buy yours, although I could accept it as a gift.

Repugnance is different in different places and at different times. I feel a little bit like a sociologist when I look at these things.

WOTANY, BOTANY, WHAT'S THE DIFF?:

The Cross Still Stands: Sacred Causes: The Clash of Religion and Politics, from the Great War to the War on Terror by Michael Burleigh (H. W. Crocker III, June 2007, The American Spectator)

IF YOU WANTED TO SUMMARIZE the history of the West, you could do worse than say it's the story of the conflict between Church and State. That was true in Rome, true in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, true in the Protestant (and kingly and princely) revolt against the pope, true in the period of the French Revolution, true in the secularizing regimes of the 19th century (and in Bismarck's Kulturkampf), and certainly true in the 20th century, which is the taking off point for historian Michael Burleigh's Sacred Causes, a breathtaking examination of how the age of the dictators was an age of political religion trying to exterminate the real thing -- and how the real thing, one would almost say miraculously, not only survived but was crucial to bringing down its longest-lived oppressor, the Soviet Union.

Burleigh covered the period from the French Revolution to the Great War in his previous book, the highly acclaimed Earthly Powers. Sacred Causes is just as powerful -- written as it is by a professor spilling over with erudition, entertaining arcana, magisterial summary judgments, and sarcastic asides, in a style that is both rococo and shot full of adrenalin. It has the additional fillip of closing with the battle we're in now: the clash of militant Islam versus the West.

But first things first, and first things here are what Burleigh deems "the political manifestations of what could be called mass spiritual need in deranged times" -- those times being the years following the First World War. And the focus, in this period, is not on Britain, but on the Continent. Europe (particularly Germany and Italy) found itself awash with prophets, preaching new gospels, some truly bizarre, others that seem less so only because we know they succeeded.

A Franciscan friar writing from Germany in 1924 remarked that the "war of Christianity against Teutonic paganism" had never ended, "the battle continued as a guerrilla war in the souls and the beliefs and religious customs... and there were always men who preferred Wotan to Christ. Today it seems as though this century-old skirmish will again become an open battle."

So it did.

FUNNY HOW THAT WORKS...:

A War We Just Might Win (MICHAEL E. O’HANLON and KENNETH M. POLLACK, 7/30/07, NY Times)

VIEWED from Iraq, where we just spent eight days meeting with American and Iraqi military and civilian personnel, the political debate in Washington is surreal. The Bush administration has over four years lost essentially all credibility. Yet now the administration’s critics, in part as a result, seem unaware of the significant changes taking place.

Here is the most important thing Americans need to understand: We are finally getting somewhere in Iraq, at least in military terms. As two analysts who have harshly criticized the Bush administration’s miserable handling of Iraq, we were surprised by the gains we saw and the potential to produce not necessarily “victory” but a sustainable stability that both we and the Iraqis could live with. [...]

In addition, far more Iraqi units are well integrated in terms of ethnicity and religion. The Iraqi Army’s highly effective Third Infantry Division started out as overwhelmingly Kurdish in 2005. Today, it is 45 percent Shiite, 28 percent Kurdish, and 27 percent Sunni Arab.

In the past, few Iraqi units could do more than provide a few “jundis” (soldiers) to put a thin Iraqi face on largely American operations. Today, in only a few sectors did we find American commanders complaining that their Iraqi formations were useless — something that was the rule, not the exception, on a previous trip to Iraq in late 2005.

The additional American military formations brought in as part of the surge, General Petraeus’s determination to hold areas until they are truly secure before redeploying units, and the increasing competence of the Iraqis has had another critical effect: no more whack-a-mole, with insurgents popping back up after the Americans leave.

In war, sometimes it’s important to pick the right adversary, and in Iraq we seem to have done so. A major factor in the sudden change in American fortunes has been the outpouring of popular animus against Al Qaeda and other Salafist groups, as well as (to a lesser extent) against Moktada al-Sadr’s Mahdi Army.

These groups have tried to impose Shariah law, brutalized average Iraqis to keep them in line, killed important local leaders and seized young women to marry off to their loyalists. The result has been that in the last six months Iraqis have begun to turn on the extremists and turn to the Americans for security and help. The most important and best-known example of this is in Anbar Province, which in less than six months has gone from the worst part of Iraq to the best (outside the Kurdish areas). Today the Sunni sheiks there are close to crippling Al Qaeda and its Salafist allies. Just a few months ago, American marines were fighting for every yard of Ramadi; last week we strolled down its streets without body armor.

Another surprise was how well the coalition’s new Embedded Provincial Reconstruction Teams are working. Wherever we found a fully staffed team, we also found local Iraqi leaders and businessmen cooperating with it to revive the local economy and build new political structures. Although much more needs to be done to create jobs, a new emphasis on microloans and small-scale projects was having some success where the previous aid programs often built white elephants.

WHAT CAN A FOCUS ON ETHNIC IDENTITY PRODUCE BUT HATRED?:

What kind of discipline would nurture a hate-filled academic such as fired professor Ward Churchill? (Gregory Rodriguez, July 30, 2007, LA Times)

Rather than targeting Churchill and making him a martyr for academic freedom (the American Civil Liberties Union has chimed in on Churchill's behalf), university officials should have been more self-reflective and asked themselves how someone as intellectually irresponsible as Churchill got to be head of a department at their esteemed institution in the first place. Sure, Churchill might be gone, but that doesn't solve the problem that his notoriety brought to public attention: the presence of activists posing as scholars on college campuses, particularly in colleges supported by taxpayers' money.

For years now, conservatives have been railing against what they consider the leftist takeover of elite U.S. universities. And many of their complaints are not without merit. But I buy the self-selection argument -- those who pursue a career in academics tend to be more liberal to begin with -- so I don't think surveys showing that a majority of professors are Democrats proves there's discrimination against talented GOP PhDs. Efforts to create ideological -- or at least partisan -- balance on campus would only lead to the creation of a new form of affirmative action. Furthermore, despite arguments to the contrary, Democrats are at least members of a mainstream political party.

What should concern us all, however, is academia's nurturance of loons like the hate-filled Churchill. No, they are not many, but they shout louder than their numbers would suggest. And though their influence is minor in American higher education overall, they can be very influential in particular fields, such as comparative literature and gender and ethnic studies. That's because the problem on campuses isn't rigorous Marxist materialists, as conservative stereotypes would have you believe, but craven emotional warriors in the arena of identity politics.

Ethnic studies departments, such as Churchill's, may be the worst offenders. Created in the wake of the ethnic pride movement in the early 1970s, many simply never had the same kind of academic oversight as more established and prestigious fields. Those professors generally toiled with little funding in isolated intellectual ghettos. Their scholarship wasn't tested in the high-stakes, high-profile competition that hones other academics and other fields. They earned their "psychic income" -- a phrase coined by former Gov. Jerry Brown -- trying to turn minority undergraduates into activists. (Meanwhile, the quality work on ethnicity was being done in more traditional disciplines.)

But by most accounts, today's undergraduates of all backgrounds tend to be in search of good jobs rather than ideological causes.

STANDING WITH WEINER & NADS:

Saudis 'destabilising Iraq' (Press Association, Jul 30, 2007)

The US ambassador to the United Nations has accused ally Saudi Arabia of undermining efforts to stabilise Iraq.

Zalmay Khalilzad's comments follow word from a senior defence official that a planned US weapons sale to Saudi Arabia and other moderate Gulf states was expected to be a topic this week when US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice and defence secretary Robert Gates visit the Middle East. [...]

On their trip, Ms Rice and Mr Gates are expected to ask Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah for greater co-operation in Iraq. The United States says it will push for writing off millions in Iraqi debt dating to the Saddam Hussein era and security help for the government of Iraq's prime minister Nouri Maliki.

Two House Democrats, Representatives Anthony Weiner and Jerrold Nadler of New York, said they would introduce legislation to block the Saudi arms deal. "We need to send a crystal clear message to the Saudi Arabian government that their tacit approval of terrorism can't go unpunished," Weiner said in New York.

Weiner and Nadler noted that that 15 of the 19 hijackers on September 11 2001, were Saudi citizens.

CHECKMATE:

Ingmar Bergman, Famed Swedish Film Director, Dies at 89 (THE ASSOCIATED PRESS, 7/30/07)

Swedish director Ingmar Bergman, an iconoclastic filmmaker widely regarded as one of the great masters of modern cinema, died Monday, the president of his foundation said. He was 89.

''It's an unbelievable loss for Sweden, but even more so internationally,'' Astrid Soderbergh Widding, president of The Ingmar Bergman Foundation, which administers the directors' archives, told The Associated Press. [...]

The son of a Lutheran clergyman and a housewife, Ernst Ingmar Bergman was born in Uppsala on July 14, 1918, and grew up with a brother and sister in a household of severe discipline that he described in painful detail in the autobiography ''The Magic Lantern.''

The title comes from his childhood, when his brother got a ''magic lantern'' -- a precursor of the slide-projector -- for Christmas. Ingmar was consumed with jealousy, and he managed to acquire the object of his desire by trading it for a hundred tin soldiers.

The apparatus was a spot of joy in an often-cruel young life. Bergman recounted the horror of being locked in a closet and the humiliation of being made to wear a skirt as punishment for wetting his pants.

He broke with his parents at 19 and remained aloof from them, but later in life sought to understand them. The story of their lives was told in the television film ''Sunday's Child,'' directed by his own son Daniel.

Young Ingmar found his love for drama production early in life. The director said he had coped with the authoritarian environment of his childhood by living in a world of fantasies. When he first saw a movie he was greatly moved.

''Sixty years have passed, nothing has changed, it's still the same fever,'' he wrote of his passion for film in the 1987 autobiography.

But he said the escape into another world went so far that it took him years to tell reality from fantasy, and Bergman repeatedly described his life as a constant fight against demons, also reflected in his work.

The demons sometimes drove him to great art -- as in ''Cries and Whispers,'' the deathbed drama that climaxes when the dying woman cries ''I am dead, but I can't leave you.'' Sometimes they drove him over the top, as in ''Hour of the Wolf,'' where a nightmare-plagued artist meets real-life demons on a lonely island.

Bergman also waged a fight against real-life tormentors: Sweden's powerful tax authorities.

MORE:
-Ingmar Bergman Foundation
-INTERVIEW: Ingmar Bergman - The Legendary Playboy Interview: A candid conversation with Sweden's one-man new wave of cinematic sorcery (Playboy, June 1964)
-TRIBUTE: Ingmar Bergman (The Guardian, 7/30/07)
-ESSAY: Operation Ingmar: One Bergman film is undoubtedly a good thing, but 38?: Joe Queenan watched the director's entire oeuvre - from callow, depressing early efforts to sophisticated, depressing masterpieces (Joe Queenan, March 22, 2007, Guardian Unlimited)

Bergman, whose heyday stretched from the mid-50s to the mid-70s, but who made a film as recently as 2003 (Saraband), is renowned as a staggeringly gifted auteur given to directing uncompromisingly depressing motion pictures in which God's existence is brazenly challenged and the notion that life has any meaning is ceaselessly questioned, and oftentimes ridiculed. This is a reasonably accurate representation of his overall worldview, particularly in the mid-career films that define him as an artist, but the emphasis on God and life's ultimate meaning is somewhat misplaced. The 16 motion pictures he made before achieving international fame with The Seventh Seal in 1957 do not deal with God at all, and this is also generally true of the films he has made in the 35 years since Cries and Whispers was released.

The central theme of the movies that bookend his career, and at least a secondary theme of his mid-career films about God, man's place in the universe and the meaning of life, is that human existence is hell on earth, not because of supernatural forces who are either malicious or indifferent, but because of the cruelty men and women routinely inflict upon one another, usually in marriage. This is the theme of his early movies, including the ones featuring the cuddly-wuddly puppy and the self-incinerating oven; it is true of his classic films The Virgin Spring, The Magician, Through a Glass Darkly and Winter Light; it is true of his gorgeous, hysterically pretentious Cries and Whispers, true of his ambitious television series Scenes From a Marriage, and equally true of his over-the-hill clunkers From the Life of the Marionettes, Autumn Sonata, After the Rehearsal and Saraband. It is even true of his comedies - yes, Ingmar Bergman made several lighthearted comedies (Smiles of a Summer Night, The Devil's Eye) and one out-and-out knee-slapper - All These Women, which was also his first colour film.

No one who ever ventured behind a camera has adopted a more unapologetically bleak view of the relationship between men and women than Ingmar Bergman. With a handful of exceptions (The Seventh Seal, The Serpent's Egg) where the director goes in somewhat different directions, Bergman's movies break down into three broad groups: the ones where men torment women, the ones where women torment men, and the ones where men and women torment each other. Not terribly surprisingly, Bergman's first movie (as an actor) is entitled Torment.

In his native Sweden he was often accused of portraying the country as a nation of neurotics though this softened in the last decade of his life.

Ernst Ingmar Bergman was born in Uppsala, Sweden, on July 14, 1918, the second of three children.

His father Erik was a Lutheran minister who imposed a strict upbringing on his children. Family relationships influenced Bergman profoundly and were reflected in all his work.

Bergman recounted some episodes of his childhood in "Fanny and Alexander," which won four Oscars in all and was his last major film for the cinema.

At Stockholm University, the young Bergman discovered his vocation when he chose the drama society, which put on plays by Strindberg and Shakespeare, over literature and art history classes.

He directed his first film "Crisis" in 1945 and for more than three decades produced on average a movie a year. He did not earn international acclaim until 1956 when "Smiles of a Summer Night" was shown at the Cannes Festival.

Known in Sweden mainly as a dramatist, Bergman obtained poor reviews for work that was considered dark and incomprehensible, with its focus on love, loneliness, existential angst and relations with God.

Women occupied a central role in his work. He had loved his mother intensely as a child and when a doctor advised her to put more distance in their relationship or he would be damaged for life, he felt the loss deeply.

Bergman's actors behaved, under the disciplined eye of his camera, with an unusual empathy for their rôles. They were not film-stars, pouting out their good looks, nor were their features adjusted to some predetermined repertoire. In Bergman's hands they were entirely reimagined, immersed in the story and guided by its inner meaning. And Bergman was not merely a master of the camera: he was a great storyteller, who knew how to cut the fabric of a tale, so that not a line or an image was superfluous.

Like Shakespeare or Wagner (and the comparison with the latter is irresistible), he entered into each of his characters, finding their words and gestures out of a true dramatist's abundance of sympathy. Evil enters the world of his films only metaphysically, as it were, as part of the human condition. He has no stage villains, or Hitchcock-like destroyers. For the most part he finds in his characters, whatever the degree of their loneliness and anxiety (and they are all suspended at some point on the scale of metaphysical solitude) the aspect which can be loved. He has given us some of the most tender images in all cinema - the reminiscences in Wild Strawberries, the death-scene in Cries and Whispers, the Shakespearian flowering of young love in Smiles of a Summer's Night - and, by bringing words and images together with the kind of exactness that unites the words and music in Wagner, he has shown what the cinema can do, by way of ennobling human sympathy.

Music was important to Bergman, and his lifelong fascination with The Magic Flute culminated, first in the strange puppet show version in The Hour of the Wolf, and then in his own realisation of the opera. This fascination was continuous with his love of symbols, Mozart's masterpiece achieving its effects only because we see its protagonists as symbols, without knowing what they symbolise or why. Each of Bergman's films follows that pattern, being organised on two dimensions, as drama, and as myth. For we live our lives, in Bergman's view of things, both as individuals and as archetypes. Much that happens to us enacts the universal myths that describe our pilgrimage through this world.

Hence, even at his most humorous, Bergman takes a religious view of human beings, as creatures who are not merely in the world, as animals are, but also aspiring to make sense of it. Wild Strawberries shows that we achieve that aspiration when we look upon all that has happened to us, and accept it in a condition of forgiveness. That very Christian theme constantly recurs in Bergman's most important films. It may be one reason why he has fallen out of fashion; but it is also a reason why he will very soon be in fashion again, and appreciated for what he was: the man who brought cinema into the fold of western art.

Of course, Bergman specialized in the depiction of certain kinds of familial affliction — infidelity and divorce. To borrow from Diane Keaton’s line, Bergman never “got over it.” In his inability to get beyond the gravity of infidelity and the searing tragedy of divorce — as much as in his unvarnished style and his preoccupation with life’s big questions — Bergman set himself apart from contemporary filmmakers. As his script for Faithless — a telling line has it, “Divorce is no common failure . . . with one cut it slices more deeply than life itself.”

Why does infidelity matter? Why should we be plagued with guilt over past misdeeds, over harms caused to others? Why be burdened with a need to confess, to put into words and to come to see clearly where things went wrong? Why the insatiable desire for forgiveness? Despite his claim that, after the faith trilogy, he simply dropped the religious issue, these questions are as prominent in Bergman’s last artistic creations as in his earlier films.

Bergman’s inability to shake these terrifying questions, his direct and supple depiction of the strains, sorrows, and pains of infidelity, distinguish him as a master craftsman who will remain worthy of our attention for many years to come. Comparing himself to the craftsmen who built medieval cathedrals, he accurately observed in an interview with Andrew Sarris: “Whether I am a believer or an unbeliever, Christian or pagan, I work with all the world to build a cathedral because I am artist and artisan, and because I have learned to draw faces, limbs, and bodies out of stone.”

LET MY PEOPLE GO:

Havana Mojito (Cox News Service, 7/29/07)

1 teaspoon powdered sugar

Juice from 1 lime (about 2 ounces)

4 mint leaves (plus 1 sprig of mint)

Premium white rum (2 ounces)

2 ounces club soda

Place the mint leaves into a long, tall Collins glass and squeeze the juice from a cut lime over it. Add the powdered sugar, then smash the mint into the lime juice and sugar with a muddler (a long wooden paddle device -- or the back of a fork or spoon if a muddler isn't available). Add crushed ice, then add the rum and stir, and top off with the club soda. Garnish with a mint sprig.

ALTHOUGH THERE IS NOT YET A FUND TO GIVE THE PROSECUTORS A KNUCKLE SANDWICH...

Swat somebody's butt, and yours belongs to the the D.A. (Mark Steyn, 7/28/07, Orange County Register)

Do you know Cory Mashburn and Ryan Cornelison?

If you do, don't approach them. Call 911 and order up a SWAT team. They're believed to be in the vicinity of McMinnville, Ore., where they're a clear and present danger to the community. Mashburn and Cornelison were recently charged with five counts of felony sexual abuse, and District Attorney Bradley Berry has pledged to have them registered for life as sex offenders.

Oh, by the way, the defendants are in the seventh grade.

Messrs Mashburn and Cornelison are pupils at Patton Middle School. They were arrested in February after being observed in the vestibule, swatting girls on the butt. Butt-swatting had apparently become a form of greeting at the school – like "a handshake we do," as one female student put it. On "Slap Butt Fridays," boys and girls would hail each other with a cheery application of manual friction to the posterior, akin to a Masonic greeting. [...]

[U]pon being caught butt-swatting, Mashburn and Cornelison were called to the principal's office, where they were questioned for several hours by vice principal Steve Tillery and McMinnville Police officer Marshall Roache. At the end of the afternoon, two boys who'd never been in any kind of trouble before were read their Miranda rights and led off in handcuffs to spend five days in juvenile jail.

Tough, but I guess they learned their lesson, right?

Ha! The state of Oregon was only warming up. After a court appearance in shackles and prison garb, the defendants were charged with multiple counts of felony sexual abuse, banned from school and forbidden any contact with their friends.

...There is, happily, a fund to help with legal expenses. As Mr. Steyn goes on to note, the families of these boys are in financial trouble due to legal fees but have so far refused a plea-bargain, instead opting to contest the charges. A guilty verdict could mean jail time and lifelong registration as sex offenders. According to Dennis Prager, you can make donations in the following manner:

If you have a Wells Fargo account, you can contact the Wells Fargo bank in McMinnville, OR 503-474-3501 and make a direct deposit to the Cory Mashburn and Ryan Cornelison Defense Fund. The account # is: 8785915359.

If you don't have Wells Fargo account, you can mail a check to the Cory Mashburn and Ryan Cornelison Defense Fund. Mail it to:
Wells Fargo Bank
1335 NE BAKER ST,
MCMINNVILLE, OR 97128

or

Lawrence Law Firm
235 NE 3rd St. Suite #1
McMinnville, OR 97128

Let them know you heard about it on The Dennis Prager show.

MEXICAN IS THE NEW CHINESE:

Witnesses to Persecution: DRIVEN OUT: The Forgotten War Against Chinese Americans By Jean Pfaelzer (PATRICIA NELSON LIMERICK, 7/28/07, NY Times Book Review)

In “Driven Out: The Forgotten War Against Chinese Americans,” she tells the story of the “thousands of Chinese people who were violently herded onto railroad cars, steamers or logging rafts, marched out of town or killed,” from the Pacific coast to the Rocky Mountains. Despite the forceful adjective of Pfaelzer’s subtitle, this burdensome history has not been entirely “forgotten.” Scholars have written comprehensively and memorably about it. But it is surely accurate to say that a majority of Americans live without a recognition of the degree, scale and extent of these chilling undertakings.

Most know even less about the extraordinary record of the Chinese people’s responding to persecution with boycotts, petitions, lawsuits and demands for reparations. In Wing Hing v. City of Eureka, 53 Chinese men and women joined together in asserting that the Northern California city had a duty to protect its residents and in demanding reparations and financial compensation for the violence that drove them out in 1885. Confronted with the requirement, in the Geary Act of 1892, that Chinese immigrants carry an identity card proving they were in the country legally or else face deportation, thousands refused to submit to what they called the “Dog Tag Law,” thus undertaking what Pfaelzer says was “perhaps the largest organized act of civil disobedience in the United States.”

Altogether, Chinese immigrants filed more than 7,000 lawsuits in the decade after the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, “and they won the vast majority of them,” Pfaelzer writes. In truth, these efforts to claim the protection of American law should require historians to come up with a whole new understanding — in geography, chronology and cast of characters — of the civil rights movement.

To a surprising and heartening degree, some white Westerners championed the Chinese in their assertion of rights.

THEY AREN'T MEDICINES, THEY'RE COSMETICS:

They won't cure cancer, but might get rid of cellulite: 'Aesthetic medicine' firms hope vanity has its price (Scott Kirsner, July 29, 2007, Boston Globe)

Looking good is about to get a lot more expensive.

A cluster of New England companies is developing drugs and medical devices that will reduce wrinkles and cellulite, grow hair where you want it and remove it where you don't, and help you manage your impulse to overeat.

And while keeping you young and slim may not be as socially redeeming as, say, devising a vaccine for the next flu pandemic, millions of dollars in venture capital funding are flowing into the sector dubbed "aesthetic medicine," puffing up local start-ups like a shot of collagen injected into a pair of lips.

In 2005, the US market for aesthetic devices and therapies was $2 billion, according to Windhover Information -- a number that is expected to grow to $4.2 billion by 2010.

Much of this will be driven by the vanity of aging baby boomers. "They are determined that they're not going to get old, and they're willing to spend the money to keep looking good," says Concord biotech consultant Michael Kobos.

NUKES DON'T FILL YOUR GAS TANK:

Oil-rich Iran turns heat on President over petrol rationing (Anne Penketh, 29 July 2007, Independent)

In Tehran, petrol queues have become a frequent sight. Last Friday night, as Tehranis returned to the city after their weekly day off, cars were backed up at midnight outside one petrol station in northern Tehran, home to the city's wealthy, Hermes-wearing elite, which has never been a fan of the populist President. Here, restaurant diners don't even look up from their lamb kebabs when a creature in a red scarf drives her matching red sports car along Valiasr Avenue, the tree-lined road that cuts through the city from north to south.

It's a different story in the working-class southern districts, where voters turned out in their hordes to elect the Tehran mayor as President in June 2005.

Impoverished Iranians who supplement their income as unofficial taxi drivers have been particularly affected by the petrol rationing, which was introduced with only three hours' notice on 27 June, prompting motorists to burn down a dozen petrol stations around Tehran.

Although pockets of rioting were also reported elsewhere in the country, the effects of the rationing are considered to be worst in the capital, a city of 14 million. Private motorists are allowed only 100 litres a month, or three litres a day, while official taxis get 800 litres a month. In the popular Iranian resort of Kish, an island on the Gulf, travellers say it is impossible to get a taxi because of the rationing. [...]

The question now is the extent to which the President's declining popularity will be further damaged by the rationing, which comes at a time when inflation – officially 13 per cent but estimated to be at least double that – is rising.

IF THE BLOODY BUSINESS WAS LONG ENOUGH AGO IT DOESN'T COUNT?:

Monarchy is the key to our liberty: The institutions that attract the keenest scorn are actually what protect our democracy today (John Gray, July 29, 2007, The Observer)

Liberal opinion clings to the ideal of self-determination as an article of faith, but the truth is that constructing nation-states is nearly always a bloody business. The US became a modern nation-state only after a savage civil war, and France only after Napoleon. China is pursuing a similar path today - with consequences that in Tibet are not far from genocide. Nation building is a prototypical modern project, and yet the result has often been to undermine modern values of personal freedom and cosmopolitanism.

Look at those successful countries with borders that enclose different 'nations': Spain with its Catalans; the United Kingdom with Scots, English, Welsh and Northern Irish; Canada with the Quebecois. It is worth pondering the fact that the few genuinely multi-national democracies that exist today are mostly monarchies and relics of empire. Except in these irrational relics, democracy has nowhere managed to flourish at a multi-national level. Multi-national democracy has been most enduringly embodied in pre-modern constitutions.

Happily, we do not face in Britain any of the horrors that have accompanied the building of nation-states in other parts of the world.

WHAT CHOICE DID HE HAVE?:

Brown hails alliance with America (Nicholas Watt, July 29, 2007, The Observer)

Gordon Brown today flies to Washington for his first summit with President George Bush, after issuing a ringing endorsement of Britain's 'special relationship' with the US.

As he prepares the Labour party for a possible election next spring, the Prime Minister attempted to neutralise the divisive issue of the transatlantic alliance with a declaration of where Britain's interests lie.

'It is in the British national interest that the relationship with the United States is our single most important bilateral relationship,' the Prime Minister said in remarks that are designed to make it clear that Brown will not abandon the Atlantic alliance for cheap electoral gain.

Brown's unequivocal declaration, as he prepares to hold his first talks as Prime Minister with President Bush over dinner at Camp David, is a strong signal of his determination to maintain the Atlantic alliance, after Washington had been alarmed by what it saw as mixed messages from London.

THERE IS NO BRITAIN:

Scotland exempt from flag plan (Breitbart, Jul 28, 2007)

As part of a new scheme to increase a sense of Britishness, Gordon Brown said he wanted the national flag flown year round on Government buildings, and eventually on police stations and hospitals across the UK. [...]

Justice Secretary Jack Straw assured First Minister Alex Salmond that the new policy would not apply north of the border when he visited Scotland earlier this month, an SNP spokesman said.

He added: "Jack Straw agreed there are different considerations in Scotland than there are in England.

MARKETS WOULD TRANSFER THE WHOLE COST :

Workers are told to shape up or pay up: To hold down medical costs, some firms are penalizing workers who are overweight or don't meet health guidelines. (Daniel Costello, July 29, 2007, Los Angeles Times)

Looking for new ways to trim the fat and boost workers' health, some employers are starting to make overweight employees pay if they don't slim down.

Others, citing growing medical costs tied to obesity, are offering fit workers lucrative incentives that shave thousands of dollars a year off healthcare premiums.

In one of the boldest moves yet, an Indiana-based hospital chain last month said it decided on the stick rather than the carrot. Starting in 2009, Clarian Health Partners will charge employees as much as $30 every two weeks unless they meet weight, cholesterol and blood-pressure guidelines that the company deems healthy.

"At first, I was mad when I thought I would be charged $30 for being overweight," said Courtney Jackson, 28, a customer service representative at Clarian. "But when I found out it was going to be broken into segments — like just $10 for being overweight — it sounded better."

Jackson said she was going to try to slim down before the plan took effect. "If I still have weight to lose when it starts," she said, "I'll deserve to pay the $10."

IF YOU DON'T WANT TO DO ANYTHING AS PRESIDENT IT NEEDN'T BE A POWERFUL OFFICE:

Executive privilege touchy for presidential hopefuls: Openness sounds good, but some candidates act as if they might use such a power in the future. (Peter Nicholas, July 29, 2007, LA Times)

[T]he steady expansion of presidential power in recent decades, as well as the histories of Clinton and Giuliani, suggest that the 2008 election might not bring drastic change.

Clinton was widely criticized for secrecy when she led her husband's effort to design a new healthcare system. A task force she headed ran afoul of federal law when it tried to hold closed meetings. "The public has the right to know what information is being presented," U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth wrote in 1993.

President Clinton used executive privilege in an attempt to shield the first lady from questioning about Whitewater real estate deals and the Monica S. Lewinsky affair. On both issues, courts overruled the claim.

"The Whitewater and Lewinsky assertions [of executive privilege] were indefensible," said Stephen Gillers, a New York University law professor.

"It's doubtful that the president would assert the privilege for conversations between [White House aides] and Mrs. Clinton without her acquiescence," Gillers added. "So that's something she has to explain."

The senator learned from the experience and would be more open as president, a campaign spokesman said.

Giuliani resisted outside efforts to evaluate municipal programs and review city records when he was mayor. As he was leaving office in 2001, he had thousands of mayoral records hauled to a private warehouse — a move that gave rise to a city law barring such action.

"He simply backed up a truck and filled it up with his papers as if they were his private possession and took them off to this warehouse in Queens," said historian Mike Wallace of New York's John Jay College of Criminal Justice. The files are now back in public hands. But critics said it was impossible to know whether records were purged.

In another case, when the state comptroller tried to evaluate city programs, he was turned away. City agencies, newspapers and watchdog groups had to sue to look at city records. A state judge cautioned the Giuliani administration that the law called for "maximum access, not maximum withholding."

In one incident, Giuliani objected to an ad for a New York magazine that appeared on city buses, and the transit authority removed the displays. The ad had said the magazine was "possibly the only good thing in New York Rudy hasn't taken credit for." Citing freedom of speech, the courts ordered the ads restored.

A Giuliani campaign spokeswoman, Maria Comella, declined to comment.

CLASS CLASS:

A Hall of Famer as sweet as his swing (Bill Plaschke, July 29, 2007, LA Times)

This is a Tony Gwynn story. But, as with every Tony Gwynn story, it is about somebody else.

It was 20 years ago in Cincinnati. I was covering the San Diego Padres for this newspaper. My little brother Andrew had joined me on the trip.

It was the early evening hours after a day game. I was in the hotel room finishing work. Andrew was in the hotel lobby waiting impatiently for dinner.

As you may remember from a column several years ago, Andrew suffers from cystic fibrosis. At 13, the terminal illness kept him thin and small.

Swallowed by an overstuffed chair in an elegant hotel lobby, Andrew wasn't easily noticed.

Tony Gwynn noticed him.

Tony Gwynn didn't even know him, and he noticed him.

Upon returning from the game, Gwynn saw him sitting alone, looking lost, so he walked up, sat down, and started talking.

He talked hitting, he talked life. Andrew eventually introduced himself and they talked some more. At one point, Andrew wondered why one of the best players in baseball was hanging out in a hotel lobby on a Saturday.

That's when the pizza arrived.

Keeping with his nightly ritual, Gwynn had ordered a pizza that he would eat in his room while watching videotape.

Only this time, he opened it up on the expensive lobby furniture and shared it with Andrew.

By the time I got downstairs, Gwynn was waving goodbye and disappearing up the stairs, leaving Andrew with crusts and memories.

The next day I thanked Tony, and, typically, he shrugged.

"Thanks for what?" he said. "For eating dinner?"

TNSTAAPP:

No Such Thing (Joe Sheehan, August 12, 2003, Baseball Prospectus)

There's no such thing as a pitching prospect.

I probably use that phrase a couple of times a week. It comes up a lot around trade-deadline time, as teams swap known quantities for unknowns in Double-A or lower and make a big deal about how those guys will be throwing 200 innings and saving 30 games in a few years' time. It doesn't happen that way.

What does it mean, though? Clearly, hundreds of young men pitch for baseball teams below the level of the major leagues, and many of them have the chance to become major-league pitchers. They're prospective ones, so literally, the phrase is untrue. Pithy, but untrue.

"There's no such thing as a pitching prospect" (TNSTAAPP, for short) is actually a shorthand way of expressing the idea that minor-league pitchers are an unpredictable, unreliable subset of baseball players. The concept isn't mine, although I'm probably the most dogmatic BPer on the subject. Gary Huckabay was the first to use the phrase; some Googling turned up credit to him in the late 1990s on rec.sport.baseball.

The principles behind TNSTAAPP are pretty simple. Pitchers are unpredictable. They're asked to perform an unnatural act--throw baseballs overhand--under great stress, thousands of times a year. They get hurt with stunning frequency, sometimes enough to cost them a career, more often just enough to hinder their effectiveness. (Modern medicine has dramatically changed what a pitcher can do to his arm and still have a career.) Even the better ones--Andy Pettitte, for instance--have wide year-to-year variations in their performance. It's only the very top 0.1% of pitchers who are consistently good year-in and year-out over substantial careers.

That's major-league pitchers, who have proven themselves to be the best in the world at what they do, and are physically mature. Minor-league pitchers have all of the inconsistencies of the class, and are still developing in significant ways: physically, mentally and emotionally. If you can't predict where most major-league pitchers will be two years out, it's quite a conceit to think you can predict where any minor-league pitcher will be even one year out.

Within the baseball industry, placing outsized expectations on boys too young to buy a drink after their game is a time-honored tradition. Every night in small towns across America, scouts get worked up over the physical attributes and ability shown by 19-, 20- and 21-year-olds. What they don't see, however, is the stress and strain placed on developing shoulder muscles and elbow joints. They don't see the third pitch so essential to major-league success, because that third pitch often doesn't exist. They certainly don't see that dominating a game in the Eastern League or the Florida State League is absolutely nothing like doing so in even the high minors, much less the major leagues.

TNSTAAPP, to a certain extent, means throwing up your hands and admitting that there's no way of knowing which pitchers are going to come through that wringer intact. The irrational exuberance that develops over teenagers who can propel horsehide at high velocity is one of those inside-baseball things that, as an outsider, I just don't get and don't want to. The path from dominating teenagers in states with two-word names to being a successful major-league pitcher is long and difficult. One-hundred forty years into the baseball industry, how to navigate that path is still an open question, and while there's been progress, I see no one turning teenagers into rotation starters on a regular basis.

THE GREATEST OF THESE:

The Gospel According to J.K. Rowling: The magic world of Harry Potter begins yielding to a 'deeper magic.' (Bob Smietana, 7/23/07, Christianity Today)

I first met Harry Potter when my grandmother was dying.

On New Years Day 1999, she had a massive stroke from which she would never recover. Not wanting her to die alone, we took turns sitting by her bedside, round the clock. The night I spent with her, I brought along my Bible, the biggest cup of Dunkin Donuts coffee I could find, and a new novel, picked up from the bookstore on the way to the hospital: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.

Both the Bible and the "Boy Who Lived" proved good company during the watches of the night. Both pointed the way to hope in the face of death.

And there was at least one echo from the Scriptures in the Sorcerer's Stone: Lord Voldemort, the Hitleresque dark wizard in J.K. Rowling's fictional works, was defeated not by power but by love—by a young mother who sacrificed her life to save her young son. In Rowling's world, that kind of love is stronger than any magic. It can even conquer death.

By the time Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows opens, however, it seems that death finally has the upper hand. Albus Dumbledore, Voldemort's greatest enemy, lies buried on the ground of Hogwarts. Lord Voldemort's Death Eaters have launched a reign of terror and are on the verge of replacing the Ministry of Magic with a Nazi-style government that will enslave muggles and "mudbloods" alike. Anyone who stands in their way will be eliminated.

The body count starts early—on page 12, to be exact—and the hunt for Harry and his friends doesn't let up for the next 700 pages. [...]

When the Dark Lord broke into their house, James Potter rushes to defend his wife and son, but it was hopeless. Caught without a wand in hand, he was no match for Voldemort.

Lily, on the other hand, had a choice. Voldemort wants to kill Harry, not her, and tells her to step aside. She could live and let her boy die. Instead, she lays down her life to protect him. The act of substitutionary sacrifice saved her son's life, just before the opening of the Sorcerer's Stone.

As Rowling said in an online interview (mugglenet.com/jkrinterview.shtml), the "caliber of Lily's bravery was, I think in this instance, higher because she could have saved herself. Now any mother, any normal mother, would have done what Lily did … but she was given time to choose. James wasn't. It's like an intruder entering your house, isn't it? You would instinctively rush them. But if in cold blood you were told, 'Get out of the way,' you know, what would you do?'"

One should always be careful before guessing an author's intentions, but J.K. Rowling has definitely hinted that her religious views strongly influenced her stories. It is therefore worth noting that the most moving and memorable parts of the Harry Potter series -- including the final chapters of the last book -- read like creative narrative commentaries on 1 Corinthians 13.

THE GLASS MENAGERIE:

They Don't Really Support the Troops: The latest from the New Republic and the Nation. (William Kristol, 7/30/07, The Weekly Standard)

With the ongoing progress of the surge, and the obvious fact that the vast majority of the troops want to fight and win the war, the "support-the-troops-but-oppose-what-they're-doing" position has become increasingly untenable. How can you say with a straight face that you support the troops while advancing legislation that would undercut their mission and strengthen their enemies?

You can't. So those on the cutting edge of progressive opinion are beginning to give up on even pretending to support the troops. Instead, they now slander the troops.

Two progressive magazines have taken complementary approaches in this effort. In its July 30 issue, the Nation has a 24-page article based on interviews with 50 Iraq veterans. The piece allegedly reveals "disturbing patterns of behavior by American troops in Iraq"--indeed, it claims that the war has "led many troops to declare an open war on all Iraqis." Needless to say, the anecdotal evidence in the article comes nowhere close to supporting this claim. [...]

The New Republic, in its July 23 issue, takes a different tack. Its slander of American soldiers appears to be fiction presented as fact, behind a convenient screen of anonymity.

A column entitled "Shock Troops" is said to be the work of "Scott Thomas"--"the pseudonym for a soldier currently serving in Baghdad." "Thomas" colorfully describes three sets of alleged misdeeds he and his buddies committed in Baghdad: They humiliate a woman in a military dining hall who has been disfigured in an IED explosion (the woman "wore an unrecognizable tan uniform, so I couldn't really tell whether she was a soldier or a civilian contractor"); they discover human remains and one private spends a day and night playing around with a child's skull ("which even had chunks of hair"), amusing his fellow soldiers; and one private routinely drives a Bradley Fighting Vehicle recklessly and uses the vehicle to kill stray dogs.

My colleague Michael Goldfarb raised questions about this account in a July 18 post on THE WEEKLY STANDARD website, asking for assistance from soldiers and veterans in assessing the truth of the stories told by "Scott Thomas." Within a day, dozens of active duty soldiers and veterans had come forward to point out errors, implausibility, and indeed the well-nigh-impossibility (in the case of the Bradley) of what was claimed. The editors of the New Republic provided to Goldfarb a couple of allegedly corroborating details--for example, the name of the Forward Operating Base, FOB Falcon, where the taunting of the badly disfigured female IED victim was said to have taken place. Soldiers who served at the base have come forward to say no such woman has been seen there. As we go to press on July 20, the New Republic has said they are investigating their own story, and the mainstream media seem to be hoping against hope that they won't have to cover yet another embarrassing episode of journalistic malpractice.

Comments

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THERE'S A NAME FOR A RABBI WHO DOESN'T BELIEVE IN GOD...:

Sherwin Wine, 79, Founder of Splinter Judaism Group, Dies (DENNIS HEVESI, 7/25/07, NY Times)

Rabbi Sherwin T. Wine, founder of a movement in Judaism that says there is no reason to believe in God but that the religion’s highest ethical traditions and the value of each person should be revered, died on Saturday in Essaouira, Morocco.

He was 79 and lived in Birmingham, Mich.

Rabbi Wine was killed in a car accident while on vacation with his companion, Richard McMains, said Rabbi Miriam Jerris, president of the Association of Humanistic Rabbis.

WE ALL KNOW THEY HATE W, BUT FEW GET HOW MUCH THEY HATE BILL:

Democrats dis DLC convention (David Paul Kuhn, Jul 28, 2007, Politico)

It's a Democratic prom without a king, a queen or really any of the popular kids, only the star quarterback of yesteryear. Three hundred and fifty politicians will be present, key governors to ambitious state legislators, from almost every state.

But none of the eight Democratic contenders for the White House are making time for the Democratic Leadership Council convention Sunday and Monday in Nashville, although DLC staffers sought for weeks to woo the candidates. [...]

The DLC may have reached its heyday in 1992. Two of its founding members, Bill Clinton and Al Gore, won the White House. In subsequent years, Clinton stacked his staff with third-way centrist Democrats like Bruce Reed, now president of the DLC.

Fifteen years later, Bill Clinton is attending the national DLC convention this weekend, sans wife and those who wish to overtake her as the Democratic front-runner.

The DLC is counting on the eventual Democratic nominee to speak next year.

Centrist Democratic governors like Kathleen Sebelius of Kansas and Brian Schweitzer of Montana will be attending. Still, for some the gathering feels like a concert without the lead acts.

"We invited the candidates. We would have liked to have had them," From said, before claiming his glass was half-full: "President Clinton is not chump change."

THERE IS NO INDIA:

One Man's Vision for Peace in Long-Troubled Kashmir: Separatist Leader Puts Ideas in Book (Emily Wax, 7/28/07, Washington Post)

Sajad Lone perused the tattered, yellowed pages of a book he salvaged from his father's library. Written nearly 60 years ago during Kashmir's prosperous but brief heyday of self-rule, the book detailed some of the region's successes and failures, and his father referred to it often.

"When I look at this book, I remember my father's thoughts and hopes," Lone, 41, said on a rainy afternoon as he glanced at shelves in his library filled with tomes outlining peaceful solutions to the world's endless conflicts. "It was a time when Kashmir flourished."

His father, Abdul Gani Lone, a popular, moderate separatist leader, was gunned down in May 2002 by unidentified attackers.

Like his father, Sajad Lone has pushed for an end to the conflict in Kashmir, a stunningly beautiful mountainous region that once was a tourist wonderland where Bollywood movies were filmed but is now a heavily militarized war zone claimed by both India and Pakistan. [...]

Last January, India's prime minister, Manmohan Singh, asked Lone to help develop a plan for Kashmir with Indian negotiators during talks in New Delhi, the capital. Lone said that the opportunity pleased him but that he told Singh he needed time to respond with a well-thought out proposal.

Lone returned to Kashmir, rented a hotel room in the Gulmarg ski area and wrote his own book, a kind of hopeful sequel to the one from his father's library, that offered a fresh road map back to peace in Kashmir.

The 266-page book, titled "Achievable Nationhood," is the first of its kind to be presented by a separatist leader since the latest round of hostilities began in Indian-administered Kashmir in 1989. In the book, released several months ago, Lone proposes a unified Kashmir that would be administered by autonomous leaders.

Under Lone's plan, which he calls a "vision document," the Indian- and Pakistani-held parts of Kashmir would share a wide range of institutions. The creation of an Economic Union would allow tax-free trade between the two sides of Kashmir and allow a free flow of people and goods. Kashmir's defense could be the joint responsibility of Kashmiri, Indian and Pakistani authorities, Lone said.

"There was always confusion over what we want in Kashmir," said Lone, a hulking man who speaks slowly and often appears to be deep in thought. "This is just my idea put down on paper. And I hope it will spark more interest in Kashmir."

AND YET THE RUGRATS SHRIEK WHEN YOU REFILL THEIR BOTTLES FROM THE TAP:

It's aqua, but is it fina? Pepsi's bottled water same as tap (VINNEE TONG, 7/28/07, The Associated Press)

So you thought that water in your Aquafina bottle came from some far-away spring bubbling deep in a glen?

Try the same place as the water in your tap.

PepsiCo is the latest company to offer some clarity about the source of its top-selling bottled water as it announced on Friday it would change the label on Aquafina water bottles to spell out that the drink comes from the same source as tap water.

GIVING PINKY A RING:

Musharraf and Bhutto 'secret talks' (Press Association, Jul 28, 2007)

Reports of the meeting come amid intense speculation that Musharraf would seek Bhutto as an ally in his plans to seek reappointment from legislators for another term.

The plans face constitutional hurdles, weakening the hand of Musharraf, an army general who seized power in 1999 and who is a key US ally in the fight against terrorism.

The talks faltered when Bhutto, who leads the Pakistan People's Party from self-imposed exile in London, refused to agree to support Musharraf if he did not resign from the military, Geo television reported, citing unnamed sources.

A potential deal would include changing part of Pakistan's constitution that blocks Bhutto from becoming prime minister again, The Nation and other newspapers reported.

ADDING TO THE VALUE OF THE DEAL...:

Indian officials hail nuclear accord with U.S. (Somini Sengupta, July 28, 2007, International Herald Tribune)

After a year of negotiations, India and the United States announced completion of a civilian nuclear accord Friday that Indian officials hailed as preserving India's national security interests and as a testament to its emerging strategic importance to the United States.

The Indian national security adviser, M.K. Narayanan, called it "a touchstone of a transformed bilateral relationship between India and the United States."

In Washington, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called the agreement a "historic milestone" that would enhance relations with India.

The agreement, forged during five rounds of negotiations, requires India to separate its civilian nuclear power reactors and open them to international inspections.

SO CLOSE TO AN EPIPHANY:

Two Trillion Spent on Healthcare Each Year: A Sick Way to Prop Up an Ailing Economy (Joshua Holland, 7/28/07, AlterNet)

As Michael Mandel wrote in Businessweek last September, "Without [the health sector], the nation's labor market would be in a deep coma." Between 2001 and 2006, 1.7 million new jobs were added in the healthcare sector. Meanwhile, the rest of the private sector added exactly zero new jobs (net) during that period.

(The conventional wisdom is that the economy needs to add about 150,000 jobs per month to keep up with the growth of the working-age population.)

If current trends continue, 30 percent to 40 percent of all new jobs created in the United States over the next 25 years will be in the healthcare business. Mandel argued that this trend is partly responsible for the United States' low overall unemployment rate. "Take away healthcare hiring in the U.S.," he wrote, "and quicker than you can say cardiac bypass, the U.S. unemployment rate would be 1 to 2 percentage points higher."

One could argue that this is precisely how a vibrant economy should work. A dynamic industry takes off and compensates for weaknesses in other sectors. When it cools, another field will explode, perhaps one we can't even conceive of today.

What's more, healthcare jobs have increased at the same time as we've shed millions of relatively high-paying manufacturing jobs. Wages in the health sector vary widely, but the average is slightly higher than the average income in the private sector as a whole. Healthcare is labor-intensive, so a lot of the more than $2 trillion we'll spend this year in the Unites States will end up in healthcare workers' pockets. It's also an industry in which offshoring and outsourcing are uncommon; you might be able to schedule your colonoscopy with a guy at a call center in Mumbai, but ultimately your [butt] has to be in the same country as the personnel who do it.

So, is a healthcare economy a bad thing?

It is, and for three reasons in particular. The most obvious is that these jobs are coming at a cost that the United States can't continue to pay without facing severe consequences (especially as the baby boomers get into their Golden Years). According to government data (PDF), healthcare costs exploded between 2000 and 2005 -- increasing by a whopping 47 percent. Over a longer period, from 1995 to 2005, per capita healthcare spending increased by 77 percent. That's slowed a bit, but not by much; total costs are projected to reach $2.25 trillion dollars this year, up 14 percent just since 2005.

That kind of growth outpaces the overall growth in the economy by a mile -- the share of America's total economic output being sucked into healthcare has increased from just under 14 percent in 2000 to over 16 percent this year, and is expected to equal one fifth of the total economy in 10 years.

Now, it is certainly the case that the Left has historically claimed that it knows better than ordinary citizens how money should be distributed, so it's perfectly consistent for the author to want to take that money and do with it what he wishes, rather than what 300 million other people want to do with it, but that's inconsistent with the basic principle of republican liberty.

As to his fretting about the jobs that the industry is creating, that's just one of the reasons that immigrants are going to have so much power vis-a-vis developed nations in the coming years. Aging populations are going to require many more nurses and caretakers and the failure to reproduce at a high enough rate means that the folks to fill those jobs will be imported. The contest for those imports will give them economic and political leverage, allowing them to pick and choose among destinations and perqs upon arrival.

Meanwhile, one notes Mr. Holland's anger that healthcare workers are pocketing too much of his money and wonders what ever became of the sensible Left. What he's observing is precisely the sort of redistribution of wealth that his ilk supposedly favor. Can there be any other source for his ire than the fact that this redistribution is happening without being consciously directed by the state--as his ideology requires--and that healthcare providers are generally private businesses?

There is, however, one valid point here. The rising costs of procedures, medicines, etc, within the sector is problematic. It is also, of course, a function of 70 years of trying to remove healthcare from the operating of normal market forces. The emphasis of healthcare reform efforts needs to be on returning what is really just another sector of the consumer economy to the same basis that the rest of that economy operates on: competition for the consumer dollar.

SHOP 'TIL YOU DROP:

Open-Heart Surgery--90% off (Steve Forbes, 08.13.07, Forbes)(

A fast-growing phenomenon--"medical tourism," which will be a $40 billion industry by 2010--is showing how we can "solve" the health care financing crisis.

More and more Americans are choosing to go abroad for elective and/or major surgeries. What entrepreneurs began more than a decade ago by constructing world-class facilities to lure patients from the U.S. and around the world into traveling for cosmetic surgery has now blossomed into freshly built foreign hospitals offering a wide array of other types of medical procedures. India, Thailand and Singapore are among the countries heavily involved. Panama and others are just entering this arena.

The hospitals and physicians are usually first-rate and, amazingly, can provide operations at 10% to 30% of the cost in the U.S. For instance, knee replacement surgery that might cost $16,000 here can be done for $4,500 in a top-tier (by U.S. standards) Indian hospital. Dr. John Helfrick, president of the International Society for Quality in Health Care, and Dr. Robert Crone, CEO and president of Harvard Medical International, tell of one dramatic example: A patient was in need of complicated heart surgery. His hospital said the cost would be $200,000 and wanted $100,000 up front. The patient's son, a medical student, knew of the medical tourism industry and arranged for his father to have the operation overseas. The complicated surgery was a success. The cost: $6,700.

How is this possible? Excellent hospitals can be built overseas without the bureaucratic red tape found in the U.S., thereby saving construction time. Construction costs are lower, as are nursing, physician and administrative expenses. Expat doctors who have trained here and in Europe are returning home, where money goes considerably further than in, say, New York or California. More and more these foreign hospitals--currently numbering about 120, and growing--are not just mirroring the best U.S. practices but are emerging as innovators. They are certified by Joint Commission International, a not-for-profit subsidiary of the Joint Commission, which accredits U.S. hospitals. The international accreditation process is as rigorous as it is in the U.S.--but without the unnecessary bureaucratic paperwork.

The delivery of health care in the U.S. could become an innovative, infinitely less costly business than it is today. How? By fundamentally changing our third-party-based payment system, which fosters bureaucracy and crushes innovation and productivity. Health Savings Accounts are the answer--but they won't be able to truly revolutionize health care unless obstacles are removed.

COULDN'T YOU INJECT IT INTO THE FILLING OF A TWINKIE?:

The daily 3-in-1 super pill all men over 50 should take to avoid heart attacks (FIONA MACRAE, 28th July 2007, Daily Mail)

All men over 50 should take a "polypill" to cut heart attacks and strokes, says the Government's leading cardiac expert.

It would contain a cholesterol-busting statin, aspirin and drugs to cut blood pressure.

Professor Roger Boyle, the Department of Health's national director for heart disease and stroke, said it would transform the nation's health and relieve pressure on the NHS.

WHERE DO WE EVEN START POKING FUN AT THIS ONE? :

Stacking the Court (Jean Edward Smith, 7/26/07, New York Times)

When a majority of Supreme Court justices adopt a manifestly ideological agenda, it plunges the court into the vortex of American politics. If the Roberts court has entered voluntarily what Justice Felix Frankfurter once called the “political thicket,” it may require a political solution to set it straight.

The framers of the Constitution did not envisage the Supreme Court as arbiter of all national issues. As Chief Justice John Marshall made clear in Marbury v. Madison, the court’s authority extends only to legal issues.

When the court overreaches, the Constitution provides checks and balances. [...]

But the method most frequently employed to bring the court to heel has been increasing or decreasing its membership. The size of the Supreme Court is not fixed by the Constitution. It is determined by Congress. [...]

[T]here is nothing sacrosanct about having nine justices on the Supreme Court. Roosevelt’s 1937 chicanery has given court-packing a bad name, but it is a hallowed American political tradition participated in by Republicans and Democrats alike.

If the current five-man majority persists in thumbing its nose at popular values, the election of a Democratic president and Congress could provide a corrective.

ON WINGS OF EAGLE:

Strong U.S. economy helps slow drop in world markets (Reuters, The Associated Press, July 27, 2007)

Global financial markets endured a rollercoaster ride Friday as investors struggled to balance robust corporate earnings and signs of strong economic growth against fears of a global credit crunch.

Data showing the U.S. economy grew at a faster-than-expected pace in the second quarter pulled stocks up from deep losses earlier. Bonds pared gains and the dollar rose against the yen.

IF HE WERE IN ANY FURTHER OVER HIS HEAD HE'D BE JOE DELANEY...:

Strike Two (Charles Krauthammer, July 27, 2007, Washington Post)

For Barack Obama, it was strike two. And this one was a right-down-the-middle question from a YouTuber in Monday night's South Carolina debate: "Would you be willing to meet separately, without precondition, during the first year of your administration, in Washington or anywhere else, with the leaders of Iran, Syria, Venezuela, Cuba and North Korea?"

"I would," responded Obama.

His explanation dug him even deeper: "The notion that somehow not talking to countries is punishment to them -- which has been the guiding diplomatic principle of this administration -- is ridiculous."

From the Nation's David Corn to super-blogger Mickey Kaus, a near-audible gasp. For Hillary Clinton, next in line at the debate, an unmissable opportunity. She pounced: "I will not promise to meet with the leaders of these countries during my first year." And she proceeded to give the reasons any graduate student could tick off: You don't want to be used for their propaganda. You need to know their intentions. Such meetings can make the situation worse.

Just to make sure no one missed how the grizzled veteran showed up the clueless rookie, the next day Clinton told the Quad-City Times of Davenport, Iowa, that Obama's comment "was irresponsible and frankly naive."

NOT A STANLEY SORTA STELLA:

Sublime Frequencies: The Field turns Lionel Richie and the Mac into thundering, florid ambient triumph (Rob Harvilla, July 24th, 2007, Village Voice)

Though he's got the laptop and the 'stache, no one at the broiling Greenpoint spot Wednesday night mocks Swedish minimal-techno maven Axel Willner, a/k/a the Field. He ain't laughing either. Or smiling. But that laptop burps forth monstrous bass whumps, visceral and violent, with mastodon-heartbeat regularity, each powerful enough to cause its own midtown volcano. Such brute force contrasts wildly with the placid, almost playful trance inducements and ethereal chopped-and-screwed vocals that have helped make the Field's full-length debut, From Here We Go Sublime, metacritic.com's most glowingly reviewed record of 2007. (Eat it, Patty Griffin!)

Describing music of this ilk is notoriously dangerous, a trapdoor into the kind of florid nature writing that anyone who has somehow found themselves describing glaciers in a Sigur Rós review knows all too well. Put simply, Axel specializes in extracting tiny portions of (semi-)beloved pop songs—a split-second, a single beat, a yearning vowel—and looping them ad nauseam into gorgeous ambient Frankensteins that hiccup incessantly until time and pressure hammers those blips into a purring pastoral blur. (For the analog version, turn on VH1 Classic, crank the volume, then stick your finger in your ear and shake vigorously.) Consider Sublime's most sublime moment, "Everyday," which mounts a handful of microscopic moments from Fleetwood Mac's "Everywhere"—mostly snatches of Christine McVie's sonorous soprano, as preserved on the Mac's Tango in the Night, 1987, do yourself a favor —into a rhapsodic, hyperventilating slide show, skipping so joyfully and forcefully it glides.

At times, a song's source material is tougher to pinpoint, unveiled in the last few seconds in its original, umolested form as a magician's reveal. Or a punchline. "A Paw in My Face" dices up a handful of plucked guitar notes, runs them on a melodramatic synth-pop treadmill for five minutes—a sweeping sense of urgency and unease—and, as the track fades, casually flips over its cards: You've been listening to a repurposed snippet of the guitar solo in "Hello," by Lionel Richie. The one with the video where the blind lady sculpts a bust of Lionel's head, yes.

Not sure whether Willner intends this as passionate homage (lookit how beautiful the original is) or a tongue-in-cheek rescue mission (lookit how beautiful this track I made from a butter-slathered ear of '80s corn is). He doesn't strike the Studio B crowd as a hotfooting prankster type, in any event, meekly tipping his bottle of Stella to the few soused revelers who approach the DJ booth.

MORE:
-MP3s: "The Field" (Hype Machine)
-REVIEW: of The Field: From Here We Go Sublime (Dominic Umile, April 5, 2007 , Phoenix)
Is It Too Early for the First Great Post-Rave Album of the Century?: Axel Willner has spun a golden, hypnotic web of new music from the threads of yesteryear's pop songs (Rachel Shimp, Seattle Weekly)

As the Field, Willner has spun a golden, hypnotic web of new music from the threads of yesteryear's pop songs—if you can figure out which they are. After he submitted a demo tape to Cologne's inimitable ambient/techno label Kompakt (yeah, that method still works), Willner's first 12-inch appeared in 2005, followed by last year's Sun & Ice EP, which rippled through the global music underground like an electric eel. The subsequent full length, From Here We Go Sublime, was released this March to probably more acclaim than any album as unusual—even indie bastion Pitchfork gave it a 9.0 rating. "I could never expect anything like this at all," says Willner of the critical response.

He's still employed by the Systembolaget (Sweden's government-owned liquor stores), and had to work it out with his boss before accepting a near-headlining slot at this summer's Pitchfork Music Festival, according to Pitchfork Editor in Chief Ryan Schreiber. Willner says he isn't recognized as a local celebrity in Stockholm and rarely hears himself on the radio. Here, KEXP has put Sublime into regular rotation, with interesting results. Seemingly because of the songs' abrupt bookends, DJs often halt their sets to announce and explain a Field song, unsure of how to segue it. The album's 10 tracks range from four to 10 minutes long. Each is a riff on a song from Willner's past, from the Flamingo's "I Only Have Eyes for You" (the title track) to Kate Bush's "Under Ice" ("Over the Ice"). Willner locates an element or three in the original song and transforms them into a continuous series of loops and edits that bury the original, creating hazy, trancelike meditations out of material as comfortingly familiar as a baby blanket. They're manipulated on fairly ancient editing software and mixed live, allowing quirks and mistakes to stay in. Hints to the songs' origins are in their re-worked titles, and moments such as the four-second vocal snippet in "Everyday" that lets you know it's Fleetwood Mac (previously "Everywhere").

"It always sounds to me like someone bumped the turntable and there's some pop single that's just skipping back on its peak moment," says Schreiber, who considers Sublime one of his favorite electronic albums of the decade. Playing it during prime time is an adventurous move for KEXP, which is sponsoring the Field's appearance at this month's Broken Disco party at Chop Suey.

"I think the indie scene wouldn't like it, though it seems that a lot of people do," says Willner. "But there are no parallels to rock and roll. There's no chorus, verse—nothing at all. Perhaps it's because the samples that I use are often from artists, so they can understand it on another level."

LEAGUE OF EXCEPTIONAL NATIONS:

U.S. to announce nuclear exception for India (David E. Sanger, July 27, 2007, NY Times)

Three years after President George W. Bush urged global rules to stop additional nations from making nuclear fuel, the White House will announce on Friday that it is carving out an exception for India, in a last-ditch effort to seal a civilian nuclear deal between the countries. [...]

[I]n an interview Thursday, R. Nicholas Burns, the under secretary of state for political affairs, who negotiated the deal, said, "Iran in no way, shape or form would merit similar treatment because Iran is a nuclear outlaw state."

He noted that Iran hid its nuclear activities for many years from international inspectors, and that it still had not answered most of their questions about evidence that could suggest it was seeking weapons.

Because India never signed the treaty, it too was considered a nuclear outlaw for decades. But Bush, eager to place relations with India on a new footing, waived many of the restrictions in order to sign the initial deal. It was heavily supported by Indian-Americans and American nuclear equipment companies, which see a huge potential market for their reactors and expertise.

Representative Edward Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat who opposed the initial deal and said he would try to defeat the new arrangement, said Thursday, "If you make an exception for India, we will be preaching from a barstool to the rest of the world."

MASTERS OF UPPER WEST SIDE SOWETO:

Dracula in Disneyworld: Vampire Weekend's goofy charms (Kevin O'Donnell, July 24th, 2007, Village Voice)

As fresh-faced Columbia grads, the four guys in Vampire Weekend are aiming to perfect the smartest brand of party rock since David Johansen moonlighted as Buster Poindexter. Not to mention the weirdest. Crying out for a record deal, they're unlike any other band going in New York, offering up a killer blend of funked-up Afrobeat, slick '80s pop, and polite punk. And their lyrics--mixing references both low- (Peter Gabriel, Louis Vuitton) and highbrow (Oxford commas, mansard roofs)�are by turns goofy and whip-smart. Their musical influences are symptomatic of just how much stuff people can absorb these days: Cuts like "Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa" mix Radio Disney bubblegum with the diluted world music of Paul Simon's Graceland, whereas "APunk" could be a toss-off from the Clash's Sandinista. Still, doesn't their band name sound like a black-metal group from Scandinavia? "It fits the music," guitarist Ezra Koenig explains. "Although, once you get past the 'vampire' part and you realize it's more about 'vampire-plus-weekend,' then it kind of makes sense." Sure.

MORE:
MP3s: "vampire weekend" (HypeMachine)
-PROFILE: Vampire Weekend (Mike Powell, 2007-06-25, Stylus Magazine)
-REVIEW: Preppie Afro-Pop and Other Odd Blends (KELEFA SANNEH, 6/18/07, NY Times)

QOM BY HERE:

The verdict of Qom (The Economist, 7/19/07)

Why suppose that Qom of all places might become an agent of change? Conventional wisdom from afar saw the success of Khomeini's revolution as Qom's victory too. Didn't the revolution stop modernisation in its tracks and jerk Iran back to the Middle Ages, delivering political power to turbaned clerics in thrall to an unfathomable theology? And does it not follow that the turbaned clerics of Qom have a strong belief, buttressed by a strong vested interest, in preserving the theocratic principles of that revolution?

As a matter of fact, no. Khomeini's central idea, the doctrine of velayat-e faqih, gives the Islamic Republic its theological underpinning. This holds that until the appearance of the Shias' “hidden imam” (of which more below) society should be governed by a supreme leader, the clerical judge best qualified to interpret God's will and the meaning of Islamic law. It is this doctrine that makes Ayatollah Khamenei supreme leader and all others subordinate to him. But Qom itself has never felt completely at ease either with Ayatollah Khomeini's idea or Ayatollah Khamenei's succession. Indeed, many of the most revered clerical minds in Qom see this doctrine, and especially the way it has been implemented since Khomeini's death, as negating their tradition.

To understand why requires a digression into theology. The quarrel between Sunnis and Shias is about succession. Shias believe that the last rightful imam to follow Muhammad was his son-in-law Ali, but that he and his ten successors were murdered by Sunni caliphs. The twelfth imam therefore went into hiding, promising not to return until the end of time. Most Shia clerics have long held that during this period of “occultation” there can be no lawful political authority. Until the emergence of the hidden imam, politics must be inherently invalid and men of religion should be careful not to implicate themselves in it.

Velayat-e faqih seems to turn this long-standing assumption upside down, especially when it is interpreted as implying that the faqih derives his authority from God and is not answerable to the people. Many of Qom's clerics flatly repudiate this idea. They say that there exists no blueprint for government during the time of occultation, and that nobody has special authority to guide society during this period.

It is not clear exactly how the theological arguments of Qom travel from the seminary into Iran's politics, but they do. President Khatami's reform movement drew heavily on the views of clerics, some of whom were astonishingly outspoken. One, Hojatoleslam Mohsen Kadivar, began to argue in the 1990s that Iran could not have clerical rule and claim to be a democracy at the same time. He was jailed for saying that the freedom Iranians had sought through their revolution was being replaced by a new clerical despotism. From house arrest, Grand Ayatollah Ali Hossein Montazeri, a revered cleric who was Khomeini's designated successor before complaining too much about the mass execution of political prisoners after the war with Iraq, supported Hojatoleslam Kadivar. “What the conservative leaders are practising today is not Islam, and I oppose it,” he said.

Such criticisms are especially damaging to the present supreme leader. Ayatollah Khomeini was not just the father of the revolution but also a charismatic scholar of immense learning. In the eyes of Qom, Ayatollah Khamenei is by contrast a clerical lightweight (but effective politician) whom Khomeini prematurely fast-tracked to ayatollahdom when he was looking for a successor. What was acceptable in the charismatic is not necessarily acceptable in the apparatchik.

Although the government has tried to stifle dissent, Qom remains an argumentative place, continuing to exert a potentially disruptive influence on politics. Even during the present crackdown, the visitor to its seminaries quickly encounters a spectrum of clerical opinions on everything from velayat-e faqih to the wearing of the hijab to relations with Israel and America. “Qom's seminary is like an ocean in which you can find anything you desire,” Hojatoleslam Kadivar told a recent interviewer from Asharq Al-Awsat, a pan-Arab daily.

In an ironic sense Karl Marx was right. We are witnessing today a great revolutionary crisis, a crisis where the demands of the economic order are conflicting directly with those of the political order. But the crisis is happening not in the free, non-Marxist West, but in the home of Marxist-Leninism, the Soviet Union. It is the Soviet Union that runs against the tide of history by denying human freedom and human dignity to its citizens. It also is in deep economic difficulty. The rate of growth in the national product has been steadily declining since the fifties and is less than half of what it was then.

The dimensions of this failure are astounding: A country which employs one-fifth of its population in agriculture is unable to feed its own people. Were it not for the private sector, the tiny private sector tolerated in Soviet agriculture, the country might be on the brink of famine. These private plots occupy a bare 3 percent of the arable land but account for nearly one-quarter of Soviet farm output and nearly one-third of meat products and vegetables. Overcentralized, with little or no incentives, year after year the Soviet system pours its best resource into the making of instruments of destruction. The constant shrinkage of economic growth combined with the growth of military production is putting a heavy strain on the Soviet people. What we see here is a political structure that no longer corresponds to its economic base, a society where productive forces are hampered by political ones.

The decay of the Soviet experiment should come as no surprise to us. Wherever the comparisons have been made between free and closed societies -- West Germany and East Germany, Austria and Czechoslovakia, Malaysia and Vietnam -- it is the democratic countries what are prosperous and responsive to the needs of their people. And one of the simple but overwhelming facts of our time is this: Of all the millions of refugees we've seen in the modern world, their flight is always away from, not toward the Communist world. Today on the NATO line, our military forces face east to prevent a possible invasion. On the other side of the line, the Soviet forces also face east to prevent their people from leaving.

The hard evidence of totalitarian rule has caused in mankind an uprising of the intellect and will. Whether it is the growth of the new schools of economics in America or England or the appearance of the so-called new philosophers in France, there is one unifying thread running through the intellectual work of these groups -- rejection of the arbitrary power of the state, the refusal to subordinate the rights of the individual to the superstate, the realization that collectivism stifles all the best human impulses.

As the article above lays out, an identical opportunity exists for President Bush to indict Khomeinism as both a failure in its own terms and, devastatingly, inconsistent with Shi'ism. He could then, rather easily, draw out the similarities of Shi'ism, as regards temporal government, to Judaism and Christianity, though Reformers might prefer that he leave that to them.

IT'S THE ECONOMY, AYATOLLAH:

Khomeini's children: Not happy, but probably not eager to become Westernised either (The Economist, 7/19/07)

[M]any of the smartly dressed young people of Tehran seem quite unmoved (some are amused) by the official hate-mongering. They do not admire George Bush. But to judge by dress, behaviour, viewing and consumption habits—and even more by the regime's terror of a creeping “Westoxification”—they do admire at least some of America's ways.

Not surprisingly, the attitudes of the young are a source of anxiety to the revolution's managers. Young people and especially university students played a significant part in bringing down the shah, and now there are many more of them. The population has doubled since 1979, which means that two out of three Iranians are under the age of 30 and fewer than one in three can remember the revolution. Young Iranians are also much better educated these days: literacy is near-universal and the student population has soared. The demographic surge has been accompanied by rapid urbanisation: seven out of ten Iranians now live in cities.

The young suffer disproportionately from the regime's failures. In 2006, by the government's own reckoning, nearly every other Iranian between the ages of 25 and 29 was unemployed. A lack of jobs is no doubt one reason for the prevalence of heroin addiction and other social ills. In this nominally austere society, alcohol is consumed widely, even though it is illegal for Muslims. Prostitution is widespread.

Will the disaffection of the young bring down the regime? That is what those outsiders who see the Islamic Republic as a crude despotism lacking popular support sincerely hope. But how many Iranians see their regime that way? It seems highly likely that if the government continues to thwart the aspirations of young voters, they will punish it at the next election. Yet it would be a terrible mistake to assume that every youthful, fast-urbanising country facing economic hardship must be eager to throw off its regime and embrace Western values.

Iran remains a strongly religious society. Though the proportion of city-dwellers has soared, they are different from the atomised individualists of Europe or North America: the extended family and traditional social networks have survived even in teeming Tehran. And though the government is not popular, most Iranians seem to accept its right to govern. One sign that millions continue to have faith in the country's institutions is that more than 60% of eligible voters turned out in the presidential elections of 2005, at a time of deep cynicism following the blocking of President Khatami's political reforms.

A year ago an American firm, Zogby International, polled Iranians on a range of issues by phoning in from abroad. At that time 41% of those polled said the country's top priority should be the economy, 27% thought developing nuclear weapons was more important and only 23% put more freedom at the top of their list. Those who wanted Iran to become more religious and conservative (36%) outnumbered those who wanted it to become more secular and liberal (31%). However, in a similar poll last month by “Terror Free Tomorrow”, an American think-tank, 88% saw the economy as the top priority, compared with 29% who listed nuclear weapons. And 79% said they would prefer a democratic system in which all leaders, including the supreme leader, were elected by a direct popular vote.

Given that Iranians are naturally wary about what they tell strangers on the phone, these are striking results. They underline the regime's economic vulnerability.

YOU COULD HARDLY ASK FOR A BETTER ILLUSTRATION THAT HE DIDN'T UNDERSTAND THE REVOLUTION THE LEFT INSISTS HE LEAD:

Russia's Gorbachev says U.S. is sowing world disorder (Guy Faulconbridge. 7/27/07, Reuters)

Former Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev criticized the United States, and current President George W. Bush in particular, on Friday for sowing disorder across the world by seeking to build an empire.

Gorbachev, who presided over the break-up of the Soviet Union, said Washington had sought to build an empire after the Cold War ended but had failed to understand the changing world.

"The Americans then gave birth to the idea of a new empire, world leadership by a single power, and what followed?" Gorbachev asked reporters at a news conference in Moscow.

"What has followed are unilateral actions, what has followed are wars, what has followed is ignoring the U.N. Security Council, ignoring international law and ignoring the will of the people, even the American people."

DON'T LIKE THE RULES? DON'T TAKE THE STATE'S LUCRE (via Glenn Dryfoos):

Burke has residence far removed from her constituency: The L.A. County supervisor is living in Brentwood despite laws requiring that she reside in her South L.A. district. She has a townhouse nearer her constituents, but acknowledges she spends little time (Jack Leonard and Matt Lait, July 27, 2007, LA Times)

Los Angeles County Supervisor Yvonne B. Burke, who was elected to represent some of the county's poorest neighborhoods, is living in a gated Brentwood home, despite laws requiring her to reside in the predominantly South Los Angeles district she serves.

In an interview with The Times two weeks ago, Burke said it was only on weekends and special occasions that she used her Brentwood home — a 4,000-square-foot residence with a swimming pool and tennis court that she and her husband have long owned. She said she lived at a 1,200-square-foot townhouse in Mar Vista, on a busy street just inside the border of her district.

But over a three-week period in which she was observed by Times reporters, Burke spent every weekday evening at her Brentwood house, in the district of Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky. When confronted by reporters Wednesday, Burke changed her story and acknowledged that she has rarely slept in the Mar Vista townhouse, which she has declared as her primary residence since she purchased it more than a year ago.

THE ANGLOSPHERE FINDS ITS OWN LEVEL:

‘Constitutions are created by revolutions, not jurists’ : In our era of nitpicking over dull charters of rights, the republication of the Declaration of Independence should make your heart beat faster. (John Fitzpatrick, July 2007, spiked review of books)

It is refreshing...and very instructive, to have the opportunity to look again at a constitutional document that should make any heart beat faster.

‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.’

Take that. It is all there really, in those few lines – if you throw in the fact that this Declaration of Independence, written by Thomas Jefferson, was part of the successful institution of a new government in a new country. For the first time in human history, a government was established on the explicit basis that all men are equal, that sovereignty lay with the people, and that unjust governments were there to be overturned. Women and negroes had to wait, but the crucial point is that they came to be included very much more because of this statement of principles, than despite it. Even in the doldrums and alarums of our world today, it is hard to envisage the catastrophe that would see humanity falling back again to a point before this moment in our history – although undoubtedly without vigilance a catastrophe is ever possible. [...]

The American revolt, which inspired the French, had itself been inspired by earlier developments in England. When Jefferson penned those words that still resound across the world, he was of course leaning on the philosophy and phrases of men such as Thomas Paine (his Common Sense was published in January 1776) and John Locke (his Second Treatise of Government was published in 1690). He was also leaning on the struggles of men such as the Levellers who fought in Oliver Cromwell’s New Model Army during the 1640s.

The Levellers and their supporters in the Army drew up a document which was proposed by ‘five regiments of horse’ and read to the General Army Council at Putney on 29 October 1647. It was entitled An agreement of the people for a firm and present peace upon grounds of common right and freedom and it set out some ‘principles or rules of equal government for a free people’. It declared that the people (nearly all males, that is) were the sovereign power and should choose a new parliament every two years composed of representatives from constituencies of equal size, that there should be equality of all under the law, that every person (without qualification) should enjoy freedom of religion and freedom from conscription, and so on. It was subject to furious debate, and amendment, and eventually it was headed off by Cromwell and the grandees. But it left a mark, and set an example.

In each case, a group of human beings had consciously articulated a set of demands about how society should be organised on the basis of the equality of all, and had struggled to make those demands real. The democratic principles that survive in constitutional form today from these attempts are important both as a standard to be fully realised or transcended, and also as a lesson in how we might go about achieving such things again.

TARGET ACQUISITION MADE EASY:

Protesters occupy Red Mosque in Pakistan (The Associated Press, July 27, 2007)

Hundreds of religious students occupied the Red Mosque here Friday, raising a black flag and demanding the return of its pro-Taliban cleric, two weeks after a bloody army siege left more than 100 people dead.

Security forces stood by as protesters clambered onto the roof of the mosque and daubed red paint on the walls after forcing a government-appointed cleric assigned to lead Friday prayers to retreat.

The protesters demanded the return of the mosque's pro-Taliban former chief cleric, Abdul Aziz - who is in detention - and shouted slogans against the country's president, General Pervez Musharraf. Later a cleric from a seminary associated with the mosque led the prayers.

BLAME W:

The U.S.economy grew 3.4 percent, best rate in a year (The Associated Press, July 26, 2007)

The U.S. economy snapped out of a lethargic spell and grew at a 3.4 percent pace in the second quarter, the strongest showing in more than a year. A revival in business spending was a main force behind the energized performance.

The new reading on gross domestic product, released by the Commerce Department on Friday, marked a big improvement from the first three months of this year, when economic growth skidded to a near halt at just a 0.6 percent pace, the slowest in more than four years.

CAN'T WAIT TO HEAR THE PORK BUSTERS DENOUNCE THIS EXTRAVAGANT BUDGET-BUSTING PROJECT:

Senate presses border security: A $3-billion amendment for enforcement is added to a spending bill that exceeds Bush's budget. (Nicole Gaouette, July 27, 2007, LA Times)

After a day of partisan feuding over illegal immigration, Senate Republicans and Democrats agreed Thursday to commit $3 billion to gain "operational control" over the southern U.S. border within two years.

The money would be used to build more fencing, vehicle barriers, and camera and radar towers, as well as hire additional border and immigration agents.

The decision to attach the funding to the Homeland Security spending bill puts President Bush — who has said he would veto the overall legislation — in the uncomfortable position of opposing a popular initiative to improve border security.

THANKS, MOOK:

Chasing the Mahdi Army through Baghdad's hall of mirrors (Joseph Krauss, 7/26/07, AFP)

On a searing summer afternoon the streets of the Al-Hurriya neighbourhood in western Baghdad are bustling, the shops are open, the people are smiling and chatting and lounging outside in the shade.

Ask anyone and they will tell you there is complete security in their corner of central Baghdad -- no militias, no insurgents, no worries.

But no one calls this a victory for the five-month-old Baghdad security plan, and the US soldiers who police Al-Hurriya are convinced that most of its people are in the grip, or on the payroll, of a shadowy militia.

"The reason they say it's safe is that all the Sunnis they worry about -- neighbours they lived with for generations -- are dead," Lieutenant William Cone of the 1st Battalion, 325th Airborne said.

WHERE SEPARATION EXISTS BETWEEN TWO BRANCHES IT EXISTS WITH THE THIRD:

Bid to punish Bush aides may fail: The House and Senate have escalated efforts in the US attorneys case, but the White House may delay a resolution (Gail Russell Chaddock, 7/27/07, The Christian Science Monitor)

[E]ven if lawmakers approve these contempt citations, President Bush can tie up the matter in legal red tape until the end of his term. Moreover, both sides have a lot to lose if the issue is finally settled in court, rather than through political compromise.

"We're talking about a matter that is at the heart of executive power: the president's ability to receive confidential advice on an executive power that is indisputably his," says Douglas Kmiec, a professor of constitutional law at Pepperdine University in Malibu, Calif., and former Reagan administration official. "But this constitutional principle has always existed in a quiet, untested tension with Congress's ability to investigate. If the law courts pronounce in a black-and-white fashion, they will advantage one side or another going into the future."

TWO-PART HARMONY WITH PERSIA:

U.S. officials voice frustrations with Saudis, citing role in Iraq (This article was reported by Helene Cooper, Mark Mazzetti and Jim Rutenberg, and written by Ms. Cooper., July 26, 2007, NY Times)

During a high-level meeting in Riyadh in January, Saudi officials confronted a top American envoy with documents that seemed to suggest that Iraq's prime minister could not be trusted.

One purported to be an early alert from the prime minister, Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, to the radical Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr warning him to lie low during the coming American troop increase, which was aimed in part at Mr. Sadr's militia. Another document purported to offer proof that Mr. Maliki was an agent of Iran.

The American envoy, Zalmay Khalilzad, immediately protested to King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, contending that the documents were forged. But, said administration officials who provided an account of the exchange, the Saudis remained skeptical, adding to the deep rift between America's most powerful Sunni Arab ally, Saudi Arabia, and its Shiite neighbor, Iraq.

Now, Bush administration officials are voicing increasing anger at what they say has been Saudi Arabia's counterproductive role in the Iraq war. They say that beyond regarding Mr. Maliki as an Iranian agent, the Saudis have offered financial support to Sunni groups in Iraq. Of an estimated 60 to 80 foreign fighters who enter Iraq each month, American military and intelligence officials say nearly half are coming from Saudi Arabia and that the Saudis have not done enough to stem the flow.

One senior administration official says he has seen evidence that Saudi Arabia is providing financial support to opponents of Mr. Maliki. He declined to say whether that support was going to Sunni insurgents because, he said, "That would get into disagreements over who is an insurgent and who is not."

Senior Bush administration officials said the American concerns would be raised next week when Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates make a rare joint visit to Jidda, Saudi Arabia.

DR. CATVORKIAN:

For whom the cat's bell tolls: feline 'knows' when death nears (Ray Henry, 27 July 2007, Independent)

Oscar the cat seems to have an uncanny knack for predicting when nursing home patients are going to die, by curling up next to them during their final hours.

His accuracy, observed in 25 cases, has led the staff to call family members once he has chosen someone. It usually means they have less than four hours to live.

MUMMY DASH:

Today's cooks can rediscover an ancient mix (Heather McPherson, 7/26/07, Orlando Sentinel)

I sampled dukkah (DOO-kah), an addictive mixture of ground nuts, seeds and spices, years ago. But at a recent dinner, a friend presented me with a jar. [...]

Essential elements include peppercorns, coriander, cumin and sesame seeds, but nothing is set in stone. I like the way fresh thyme and rosemary leaves enhance the subtle flavor of coarsely ground pistachios. [...]

For those who must have a road map, consider this recipe from cookbook author Claudia Roden: Roast 1 cup sesame seeds, 13/4 cups coriander seeds, 2/3 cup blanched hazelnuts (skinned) and 1/2 cup cumin seeds in 350 F oven. Cool. In food processor, pulse nuts and seeds with 1/2 tsp. sea salt 1/4 tsp. black pepper. Don't overdo it, or you will end up with paste. Dukkah should be a dry mix.

Now you can walk like an Egyptian, and dukkah like one, too.

NOT ONE OF THE TECHNOLOGIES GENERALISSIMO RUDY PICKED, IS IT?:

Microbe Makes Energy From Light (Associated Press, July 26, 2007)

he wonderland known as Yellowstone National Park has yielded a new marvel — an unusual bacterium that converts light to energy.

The discovery was made in a hot spring at the park where colorful mats of microbes drift in the warmth.

ALTHOUGH, IT WOULD BE A REAL COUP TO GET AQ TO SHOW UP FOR THE TREATY SIGNING (via Kevin Whited):

War Crimes and the White House: The Dishonor in a Tortured New 'Interpretation' of the Geneva Conventions (P.X. Kelley and Robert F. Turner, July 26, 2007, Washington Post)

The Supreme Court held in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld last summer that all detainees captured in the war on terrorism are protected by Common Article 3 of the 1949 Geneva Conventions, which prescribes minimum standards of treatment for all persons who are no longer taking an active part in an armed conflict not of an international character. It provides that "in all circumstances" detainees are to be "treated humanely."

This is not just about avoiding "torture." The article expressly prohibits "at any time and in any place whatsoever" any acts of "violence to life and person" or "outrages upon personal dignity, in particular, humiliating and degrading treatment."

Last Friday, the White House issued an executive order attempting to "interpret" Common Article 3 with respect to a controversial CIA interrogation program. [...]

It is firmly established in international law that treaties are to be interpreted in "good faith" in accordance with the ordinary meaning of their words and in light of their purpose. It is clear to us that the language in the executive order cannot even arguably be reconciled with America's clear duty under Common Article 3 to treat all detainees humanely and to avoid any acts of violence against their person.

WHICH HAS TO BE A RECORD:

Nationals' Lannan ejected in first career start (AP, 7/26/07)

Washington's John Lannan was thrown out in his major league debut after hitting Philadelphia's Chase Utley and Ryan Howard in consecutive at-bats in the fifth inning Thursday.

WHERE'S CHIEF TANEY WHEN YOU NEED HIM?:

Pa. Immigrant Law Voided (MICHAEL RUBINKAM, 7/26/07, AP) - A federal judge on Thursday struck down the city of Hazleton's tough anti-immigration law, ruling unconstitutional a measure that has been copied around the country. [....]

In a 206-page opinion, Munley said the act was pre-empted by federal law and would violate due process rights.

"Whatever frustrations ... the city of Hazleton may feel about the current state of federal immigration enforcement, the nature of the political system in the United States prohibits the city from enacting ordinances that disrupt a carefully drawn federal statutory scheme," Munley wrote.

"Even if federal law did not conflict with Hazleton's measures, the city could not enact an ordinance that violates rights the Constitution guarantees to every person in the United States, whether legal resident or not," he added.

WHY SINGLE HER OUT WHEN IT'S THE WHOLE CONGRESSIONAL PARTY?

Boxer life support to be turned off (Press Association, 7/26/07)

POTEMKIN VICTORY ON THE POTOMAC:

Minimum Wage Hike Means Tax Breaks: Congress softened the bite of higher wages with a raft of tax deductions for small biz that take effect this year (John Tozzi, 7/27/07, Business Week)

Workers earning the federal minimum wage enjoyed a boost from $5.15 to $5.85 an hour on July 24, the first of three annual hikes that will bring the rate to $7.25 in 2009. But along with the raise, Congress passed a package of $4.8 billion in tax breaks for small businesses that go into effect this year. While employers in 30 states and the District of Columbia won't be hit directly in the first year of the raise because state laws already mandate wages higher than the new federal rate, those businesses can still take advantage of the new tax breaks.

The biggest boon for most small-business owners is an expanded deduction for new purchases. Any firm making purchases of pretty much anything from livestock to software, real estate excluded, can take advantage of this so-called Section 179 deduction.

SOMETIMES IT'S NOT JUST RACISM, IT'S HATRED OF ALL MANKIND:

Courage About Population Needed (Froma Harrop, 7/27/07, Real Clear Politics)

"Population Explosion" was a call to arms for American environmentalists 40 years ago, amid fears that baby boomers would have big families. That didn't happen, but hyper-population-growth is occurring now due to large-scale immigration.

California has just projected a population of 60 million by mid-century, up 5 million from its forecast of only three years ago. We're talking about a 75 percent leap between 2000 and 2050 -- by any measure, a population explosion.

That's the truth, but one that has sent many environmental leaders into hiding. Most of California's population growth will come from immigrants and their relatively high birthrates, but the Sierra Club refuses to touch the matter. Once a tiger on U.S. population growth, it has retreated behind calls for a global approach that, it contends, will reduce the demands to immigrate to the United States.

Problem. Despite great strides in reducing birthrates in many poor countries -- Mexico is one of the success stories -- the world's population is still expected to jump to 9 billion from 6 billion by 2050. Mass immigration to the United States, if anything, eases the pressure on other governments to promote family planning.

Not a few Sierra Club members have challenged the group's spineless response to a spiraling American population.

THE BUREAUCRATIC MIND (via Gene Brown):

Leading America Toward Energy Independence,/a> (Rudy Giuliani, 7/27/07, Real Clear Politics)

America needs to become energy independent.

We should have started to move toward energy independence back in the 1970s, when oil prices spiked and there were the long lines at gas stations. Presidents Nixon and Carter talked about energy independence, but not a lot got done. The next President of the United States is going to have to make it a major goal of their administration. Most people will say it's impossible, we've tried before. I'm running for president because I know how to get things done.

I will move America toward energy independence. It will require setting goals, sticking to them and energizing the American people to achieve them. It will require expanding our reliance on a much more diverse range of energy sources that America can control. It's in the nature of his officious personality to want to be the one picking and choosing among the technologies, rather than letting the market do so, which is why he'd be an awful president.

Comments

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WHICH IS WHY THEY USED TO RULE THE WAVES (via Genevieve Kineke):

Captain 'Pug' Mather (Daily Telegraph, 26/07/2007)

On January 5 1953 Mather was a member of 801 Naval Air Squadron, flying from the carrier Glory, when his Hawker Sea Fury was struck by flak and blew up. His wingman watched the aircraft go into a vertical spin without engine or tail, and saw Mather thrown from the cockpit, apparently lifeless.

But Mather recovered consciousness in freefall to pull his parachute ring and float downwards while the Koreans continued to shoot at him. He was so incensed that he fired back with his pistol.
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On hitting the snow he threw away the gun, and stood up to surrender to the waiting soldiers. This was "unwise", he recalled, as they were still firing, and he had to fling himself to the ground.

Months of imprisonment in appalling conditions followed. Although his first guards were "reasonable fellows", when he was force-marched 50 miles to Pyongyang, he was locked up with 10 others in a room so small they had to take turns to lie down to sleep.

They were fed only a bowl of rice at dawn and dusk. There was no medical treatment for those suffering burns, frostbite or gangrene, and no washing facilities. Mather soon became lousy.

The Koreans tried to extract operational information from him, but he refused to give more than his name and rank (naval officers did not then have numbers). During the interrogation, he was made to stand outside, lightly clad in freezing weather, and placed in solitary confinement before being passed on to the Chinese to be "re-educated".

Mather protested that he wanted to go to a prisoner-of-war camp but was told that he did not qualify as he was an enemy of humanity and would be treated as a war criminal; this meant that he would not be subject to the Geneva Convention until he renounced the Queen.

After refusing to oblige, he was kept in a cell six feet long and five feet high so that he could not stand upright; and he was not allowed to sleep. On several nights he was taken out to dig his own grave in the frozen ground.

But on being moved to a new cell Mather found a pile of old airmail copies of The Daily Telegraph. On being given tobacco, he found the Telegraph made better cigarette paper than the Communist newspapers he was given to read.

JUST WAIT 'TIL THE FOURTH "I" GETS ADDED:

India embraces US, Israeli arms (Siddharth Srivastava, 7/27/07, Asia Times)

here is also a school of thought emerging that most recent deals cleared have either involved Israel or the United States.

Even with the US entry into India's defense market, no decline in defense trade between India and Israel is expected, as the US generally sells complete major systems such as fighter jets and naval ships, while Israel specializes in compatible ancillaries.

India's importation of military hardware and software will reach $30 billion within the next five years, the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry said recently.

India's cabinet committee on security, under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, recently cleared a joint venture between India and Israel for the co-production of missiles. The medium-range surface-to-air missiles with the capability of hitting aerial targets up to 70 kilometers away will be produced at an estimated total cost of Rs100 billion ($2.5 billion). Defense officials say the missile will be an extended version of the Barak-8, also called Barak NG, a naval missile under development.

India has also procured electronic warfare systems and advanced radars from Israel.

MORE:
Washington's befuddling line on Iran (Gareth Porter , 7/27/07, Asia Times)

[The] administration line ignores the fact that Iran's primary ties in Iraq have always been with those groups who have supported the government of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, including the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council and Da'wa Party and their paramilitary arm, the Badr Corps, rather than with anti-government militias. That indicates that Iran's fundamental interest is to see the government stabilize the situation in the country, according to Professor Mohsen Milani of Florida International University, a specialist on Iran's national-security policies.

Milani argues that Iran's interests are more closely aligned with those of the US than any other state in the region. "I can't think of two other countries in the region who want the Iraqi government to succeed," said Milani.

He believes the Iranians are so upset with the efforts by the Saudis to undermine the Shi'ite-dominated government that they may try to use the talks with the US on the security of Iraq to introduce intelligence they have gathered on Saudi support for al-Qaeda and Sunni insurgents.

Trita Parsi, author of a new book on Iranian-Israeli security relations, agrees that Iran's support for the Maliki government stands in contrast to the attitude of the leading US Sunni ally in Middle East, Saudi Arabia. "Look at what the Saudis are calling the Maliki government - a puppet government," he observed. "You're not hearing that from Iran."

James A Russell, a lecturer in national-security affairs at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California, and a specialist on security affairs in the Gulf region, agrees that Iran and the US do indeed share common strategic interests in Iraq, at least in terms of rational, realist definitions of strategic interest.

The problem, Russell said, is that the history of the relationship and domestic political constituencies pose serious obstacles to realizing those common interests.

ASTUTE? TRY STUPID:

Reagan the Astute: a review of THE REAGAN DIARIES Edited by Douglas Brinkley (Edward N. Luttwak, Times Literary Supplement)

Memoirs, biographies and policy studies gradually replaced the bungling-bumbling caricature with more realistic depictions, but it is only now, with the publication of his diaries, that we encounter a shrewd and watchful Reagan determined to have his way not only with political opponents and evil or misguided foreigners, but also with his own officials and bureaucracies – the greater challenge in many cases, for diversions can be very subtle, and obstructionism is so easily disguised.

Reagan’s policy towards the Soviet Union of replacing coexistence with de-legitimization had been proclaimed right through the 1980 campaign in which he defeated President Carter’s re-election attempt, but it was so shockingly revolutionary that many in Washington and around the world took it for granted that it was mere talk, destined to be quietly set aside once the new Administration took office. When State Department officials came to brief his transition officials on policy towards the Soviet Union, they did it by listing the inter-agency issues that would have to be resolved to prepare for the next “ministerial with Gromyko”. They focused on process, incidentally noting that there would be close consultations with Anatoly Dobrynin as usual, because in their eyes the only possible policy was to pursue coexistence. That Andrei Gromyko had held his office as Foreign Minister since 1957 and Dobrynin his Washington post as Ambassador since 1962 underlined the stolid continuity of the Soviet Union, which those senior State Department officials assumed would simply continue, as did most people around the world. It followed that any attempt to de-legitimize the Soviet Union was utterly unrealistic in their view, and very dangerous of course, for the recent invasion of Afghanistan had showed that Soviet leaders were willing to use their vast military forces very boldly. (These days it is widely assumed that the decrepitude of the late Soviet Union extended to its armed forces, but that is simply not true. For example, by the time US Intelligence detected and assessed that the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan had started, five army divisions and four assault regiments had already secured Kabul and seized key locations throughout the country.)

Nor could the State Department satisfy Reagan by calibrating the normal coexistence policies in a hardline direction, because the Carter Administration had already done that in response to the invasion of Afghanistan, imposing a grain embargo among other things. It was only with considerable difficulty that Reagan’s first National Security Adviser, Richard Allen, managed to explain to the State Department diplomats who met the transition team that policy towards the Soviet Union would have to be defined in an entirely new way, with aims very different from the preparation of the next meeting with Gromyko, which was duly “de-scheduled”. The only concrete result of that session was the revocation of Dobrynin’s unique privilege of entering the State Department directly from the garage. When his car swept into the garage entrance as usual, it was stopped and sent back to park in the street, forcing Dobrynin to enter on foot like all other diplomats. More substantively, Dobrynin lost his famed access to the White House under the new Reagan policy of minimizing instead of maximizing communications as well as inter-state relations with the Soviet Union, which overturned decades of conventional wisdom because its aim was not to domesticate the Soviet leadership but rather to undermine and indeed overthrow the entire regime.

On Wednesday, February 4 1980, during his fifteenth day in the White House, in the context of a Cabinet discussion of the grain embargo, Reagan wrote in his diary: “Trade was supposed to make Soviets moderate, instead it has allowed them to build armaments instead of consumer products. Their socialism is an ec[onomic] failure. Wouldn’t we be doing more for their people if we let their system fail instead of constantly bailing it out?”. This was no mere outburst, because policies of economic denial and de-legitimization were quickly implemented, beginning with the previously sacrosanct sphere of arms-control negotiations. The new policy alarmed European leaders to the point of panic in some cases, and evoked furious reactions from détente enthusiasts, but it was not much resisted by the State Department because Alexander Haig was the Secretary, and he had just enough personal contact with Reagan himself to realize that nothing would change his mind. It was an opposite problem that emerged, because Haig loyally set out to achieve Reagan’s purposes strategically, and therefore wanted to turn the new entente with China into a veritable alliance – there was even talk of combining infinite Chinese manpower with US military technology across the board, and not just the long-range radars already secretly installed in Xinjiang. There was a price, however: the abandonment of Taiwan, starting with the denial of arms sales.

But Reagan’s outlook was ideological, not strategic. He was not just anti-Soviet power but anti-Communist, and therefore would not abandon Taiwan.

IT'LL BE $99 BY XMAS:

Microsoft cuts Xbox DVD player to $179 (Reuters, 7/26/07)

Microsoft Corp. (MSFT.O: Quote, Profile, Research) said on Thursday it would lower the price of the high-definition DVD player accessory for its Xbox 360 game console in the United States to $179 from $199, and add five free movies to anyone who buys the machine in August or September.

BLAME W:

Jobless claims fall 2,000 in latest week (Reuters, 7/26/07)

The number of new claims filed for U.S. jobless benefits fell unexpectedly in the latest week, dropping 2,000 to the lowest in more than two months, the government said on Thursday. [...]

The four-week moving average, a more reliable gauge because it irons out most of the weekly fluctuations, fell to 308,500 from 312,500 the prior week.

WHY PUT OFF FOR A YEAR WHAT YOU COULD DO TODAY?:

Abbas Hopes for Agreement With Israel (KARIN LAUB, 7/26/07, Associated Press)

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said Thursday he hopes to reach a peace deal with Israel within a year, after reportedly receiving a promise from President Bush to push hard to conclude a Mideast agreement before the end of his term in 2008.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert wants to start by formulating a "declaration of principles" with Abbas on the contours of a Palestinian state in Gaza and most of the West Bank, Olmert's aides said, confirming a report in the Israeli daily Haaretz.

AND FOLKS WONDER WHY THE NATION DIDN'T MIND LETTING HIM AND PEDRO WALK?:

YANKEES BUZZ (Dan Graziano, 7/26/07, Newark Star Ledger)

The Yankees have been calling a few teams to see if they'd be interested in taking center fielder Johnny Damon off their hands. One of those teams is the Braves, whose answer (according to an official with one of the teams involved, who requested anonymity because he was talking about deals that weren't completed) was that they liked Damon, "but not at that price." Damon is signed through 2009 at $13 million per season, and if the Yankees were to trade him, which they technically could if they believe Jason Giambi is coming back soon from his foot injury, they'd probably have to chip in a good chunk of that salary.

ONE MUST LOOK LONG AND HARD FOR A SURPRISE HERE (via Brandon Heathcotte):

But let's go with the real premium placed on being a professional pol.

WANT TO SEE CRITICS TURN ON A DIME?:

Pentagon Study Sees Threat in Guantánamo Detainees (WILLIAM GLABERSON, 7/26/07, NY Times)

Accelerating the public relations battle over terrorism suspects held at Guantánamo Bay, a new study of detainees in 2004 and 2005 requested by the Pentagon argues that many were a proven threat to United States forces. They included fighters of Al Qaeda, veterans of terrorism training camps and men who had experience with explosives, sniper rifles and rocket-propelled grenades, it said.

The report, by a terrorism study center at West Point, is essentially a rebuttal by the military of growing assertions by advocates for detainees that the American naval station at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, is filled with hapless innocents and low-level cooks and other support personnel who pose no real threat.

It paints a chilling portrait of the detainees, asserting that publicly available information indicates that 73 percent of them were a “demonstrated threat” to American or coalition forces. In all, it says, 95 percent were at the least a “potential threat,” including detainees who had played a supporting role in terrorist groups or had expressed a commitment to pursuing violent jihadist goals. The study is based on information from detainees’ hearings in 2004 and 2005.

BLACK FLIGHT:

Shifting Migration Patterns Alter Portrait of Pr. George's (Philip Rucker and Avis Thomas-Lester, 7/26/07, Washington Post)

[T]he changes are visible in northern parts of the county, where several communities such as Bladensburg, Edmonston and Langley Park have become heavily Latino.

Also, the migration patterns are transforming several of Maryland's outer suburbs, notably Charles County. With 140,000 people, the county has one the nation's fastest-growing black populations, census data show.

The patterns detailed in the census data and the Brookings report confirm a trend suggested for years by anecdotal evidence: On the whole, upwardly mobile African American families who have left Prince George's for bordering suburbs are being replaced by people with lower incomes.

"It's quite common for urban economies to routinely lose many of their middle- and higher-income households and watch as they're replaced by newcomers that are less well-heeled," said Anirban Basu, a Baltimore-based economist who studies demographic trends.

But in Prince George's, it was middle-class black homeowners who transformed the county a generation ago as they replaced the working-class white residents moving out.

THE ANSWER TO THE PALESTINIAN QUESTION HAS ALWAYS BEEN PRETTY SIMPLE:

Palestinians to Blair: We want a state (Ali Waked, 07.24.07, Israel News)

Chief Palestinian negotiator Dr Saeb Erekat said the meeting dealt with the need to establish a Palestinian state.

"We made it clear that we are no longer interested in talks, declarations or even initiatives. We are interested in the creation of mechanisms in order to implement all the ideas for the establishment of a Palestinian state."

NO COUNTRY WAS EVER IMPROVED BY DITCHING THE MONARCHY:

Shah's mourners recall a golden era: Iranian monarchists make their trek to Mohammed Reza Pahlavi's Cairo tomb and share memories of parties, discos and peace. (Borzou Daragahi, July 26, 2007, Los Angeles Times)

Stylish in tiny black dresses and tailored suits, the mourners gathered in the lobby of an upscale downtown hotel. They filled the air with expensive perfume and cologne, their handbags and sunglasses gilded with the logos of Chanel, Armani and Dolce & Gabbana.

On Wednesday, as they do every year, scores of Iranian monarchists from around the world were visiting the Egyptian capital to pay homage to the late Mohammed Reza Shah Pahlavi and dreamily recall the long-lost Middle Eastern belle epoque he represented — to them.

Before Al Qaeda and the Taliban and Saddam Hussein, at a time when Sunnis and Shiites intermarried and there were no American warplanes scouring the region, the shah and his wife reigned over a land where, for the well-to-do, local currencies traded as high as skirt hemlines and the future shone brightly.

"It was the greatest era of my life," said Shahareh Shirvani, a Houston real estate agent who left Iran as a teenager but comes to the memorial each year.

Most historians don't share that gauzy view of the shah's reign.

OUR THEOCRACY GOOD, YOURS BAD:

Marriage wall pains new Israelis: Citizenship's a snap for Jewish immigrants, but Orthodoxy's strict qualification standards won't let many wed. (Vita Bekker, July 26, 2007, LA Times)

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's Kadima party has promised a law to help those unable to wed because of Jewish religious rules. Israel Our Home, a party in Olmert's coalition that largely represents Soviet immigrants, has proposed a solution resembling a civil marriage, which does not exist in the country.

But the ultra-Orthodox Shas party, also part of the coalition, stands in the way of altering the status quo. Such laws "would hurt the Jewish image of the only Jewish country in the world," party spokesman Roei Lachmanovich said.

Jews account for more than three-quarters of Israel's population, with Muslims, Christians and Druze making up most of the rest. Each religious authority has exclusive control over marriages within its community.

Those without religious classification, or those who wish to marry outside their religion, cannot wed within the country. Israel recognizes marriages conducted abroad for such couples, however, and Cyprus, less than an hour away by plane, is a popular destination for civil wedding ceremonies.

EV...:

Democrats shift approach on abortion: As lawmakers and candidates appeal to religious voters, their language and policy goals on the issue have a ring of conservatism. (Stephanie Simon, July 26, 2007, Los Angeles Times)

Sensing an opportunity to impress religious voters — and tip elections — Democrats in Congress and on the campaign trail have begun to adopt some of the language and policy goals of the antiabortion movement.

For years, the liberal response to abortion has been to promote more accessible and affordable birth control as well as detailed sex education in public schools.

That's still the foundation of Democratic policies. But in a striking shift, Democrats in the House last week promoted a grab bag of programs designed not only to prevent unwanted pregnancies, but also to encourage women who do conceive to carry to term.

The new approach embraces some measures long sought by antiabortion activists. It's designed to appeal to the broad centrist bloc of voters who don't want to criminalize every abortion — yet are troubled by a culture that accepts 1.3 million terminations a year.

POLICE DOMESTICALLY, REGIME CHANGE ABROAD:

Normal policing 'can thwart terror' (Breitbart, Jul 24, 2007)

Suicide bombers can be thwarted by the same methods used to combat ordinary crime, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner said.

Sir Ian Blair said moves to counter terrorism must not be separated from mainstream policing.

He said the terrifying threat of suicide bombs can be stopped through patrols, intelligence, forensics, and detective work.

But he added that, even with the best police work, it will be ordinary people who uncover terrorists and defeat terror.

ONLY THE NATIVISTS ARE INEPT ENOUGH TO HAND THE DEMOPCRATS WINS:

Senators trade jabs over border security bill: $3 billion legislation gets bogged down in political wrangling (MICHELLE MITTELSTADT, 7/25/07, Associated Press)

The tensions over illegal immigration, which dominated Senate debate in May and June, erupted anew as Republicans sought to offer an amendment to the homeland security spending bill adding $3 billion for enhanced security at the U.S.-Mexico border and reviving proposed restrictions such as mandatory jail time for visa overstayers.

With Republicans seeking to toughen enforcement before dealing with other immigration issues, Democrats fired back with their own plan: A $3 billion border security increase paired with a huge guest worker program for the agriculture industry and a fast track to citizenship for undocumented immigrants who came here as children and are in good standing in college or the military.

THE COMMON INTEREST:

US-Iran dialogue on a tortuous path (Kaveh L Afrasiabi, 7/26/07, Asia Times)

Coinciding with a new low in Iranian-Saudi relations, reflected by Iran's intense reaction to a religious decree by two prominent Saudi clergymen sanctioning the destruction of revered Shi'ite shrines in Iraq, this second round of US-Iran talks is supposed to enhance the initial contact between Washington and Tehran in late May. Yet an important prerequisite for a successful breakthrough in the talks is missing: a common recognition of the reasons for the chaos in post-Saddam Hussein Iraq.

Increasingly, Iran's officials and media pundits have focused on the negative role of Saudi Arabia, wondering aloud why the US government and US public are quiet about the irrefutable evidence of the Saudi role in fomenting the instability in Iraq, this in light of the US military's latest report that more than 60% of the foreign fighters are Saudi nationals and several thousand of them are in US custody in Iraq.

"What would happen if, instead of Saudis, these suicide bombers were from Iran?" an Iranian parliamentarian recently asked reporters when he accused the US of duplicity and double standards in turning a blind eye to Saudi Arabia's subversive role.

Hence it is expected that at their meeting with the US diplomats in Baghdad, Iran's delegation will raise the issue of US laxity vis-a-vis Saudi Arabia and, indeed, the whole Wahhabi and Salafi movement, which, per a recent Tehran daily editorial, is "opposed to the security talks between Iran and the US government".

Most Iranian political analysts are in agreement that the Saudis are afraid of democracy in Iraq and the empowerment of Iraqi Shi'ites, which they believe would inflame the situation of the long-oppressed Shi'ite minority in Saudi Arabia. "It is not just the Saudi kingdom, the whole Gulf Cooperation Council [GCC] states run by oil sheikhs are wary of an Arab democracy blossoming in Iraq," a Tehran University political scientist recently said.

FIRST YOU BREAK THE UNIONS:

Maverick Leads Charge for Charter Schools (SAM DILLON, 7/24/07, NY Times)

Steve Barr, a major organizer of charter schools, has been waging what often seems like a guerrilla war for control of this city’s chronically failing high schools.

In just seven years, Mr. Barr’s Green Dot Public Schools organization has founded 10 charter high schools and has won approval to open 10 more. Now, in his most aggressive challenge to the public school system, he is fighting to seize control of Locke Senior High, a gang-ridden school in Watts known as one of the city’s worst. A 15-year-old girl was killed by gunfire there in 2005.

In the process, Mr. Barr has fomented a teachers revolt against the Los Angeles Unified School District. He has driven a wedge through the city’s teachers union by welcoming organized labor — in contrast to other charter operators — and signing a contract with an upstart union. And he has mobilized thousands of black and Hispanic parents to demand better schools.

Educators and policy makers from Sacramento to Washington are watching closely because many believe Green Dot’s audacious tactics have the potential to strengthen and expand the charter school movement nationwide.

“He’s got a take-no-prisoners style,” said Jaime Regalado, the director of the Edmund G. “Pat” Brown Institute of Public Affairs at California State University, Los Angeles. “He’s channeled the outrage of African-American and Latino parents into the public space in a way that’s new.”

SO THEY'VE GOT THAT GOING FOR THEM...:

Simple sun-cooker takes off as a way to help Darfuris: Grass-roots giving for the solar cooker, donated to women who fled Darfur, takes root in the US. (Daniel B. Wood, 7/26/07, The Christian Science Monitor)

Some 200,000 women and children live in refugee camps across the border from Sudan. More than 6,000 cookers have been distributed in the Iridimi refugee camp, that has almost no vegetation but sunshine 330 days a year. Another 10,000 are expected to be supplied in the Touloum camp nearby over the next year. [...]

Two solar cookers can save a ton of wood per year, according to JWW. They free women from tending fires to do other tasks, and provide income for female refugees because the cookers are manufactured on-site. Envision foil-covered cardboard (about four feet by two feet) folded upward to direct sun's rays on a black pot, placed in the center, and covered in a plastic bag. Millet, rice, eggs, and other ingredients are put in the pot, surrounded by the water-moistened plastic bag that provides softening condensation.

THE CONTINENT WILL DESECULARIZE EVEN FASTER THAN IT SECULARIZED:

In Europe, skylines reflect the rise of Islam: After decades of worshiping in basements and courtyards, Muslims are building hundreds of new mosques across the continent. (Isabelle de Pommereau, 7/26/07, The Christian Science Monitor)

In the Rhine Valley city of Mannheim, the glittering minaret of Germany's biggest mosque overshadows what was once the region's most vibrant church, testifying to Muslims' new confidence as Christian churches are closing down.

Years ago, 180 sisters of the Catholic order of the Sisters of the Divine Savior were the pulse of the city. Today, eight remain. Every weekend, roughly 150 Roman Catholics attend mass at the Liebfrauen Church, while up to 3,000 Muslims throng the Yavuz-Sultan-Selim mosque. Since the mosque was opened in 1995, Muslim shops and youth centers have become a magnet for the Muslim community.

OH, NO, THEY HAVE TO TO CONGRESSIONAL GITMO?:

House panel votes for contempt of Congress citations for 2 Bush aides (The Associated Press, July 25, 2007)

The Judiciary Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives voted for contempt of Congress citations Wednesday against the White House chief of staff, Joshua Bolten, and President George W. Bush's former legal counselor, Harriet Miers.

The 22-to-17 vote, which would sanction the pair for failure to comply with subpoenas on the firings of several federal prosecutors, advanced the citation to the full House and opened up the possibility of a fine and prison sentence for the two.

THE DEBT TO MEXICO:

Pepper-Mint Limeade (Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 7/25/07)

4 limes, juiced

1 cup white sugar

2 sprigs fresh mint

1/2 gallon water

1 fresh jalapeno pepper, sliced

In a large pitcher, stir together the lime juice and sugar until dissolved. Stir in mint sprigs, and mash with a wooden spoon to release some of the oils.

Pour in water, and mix well. Mix in jalapeno slices. Put a lid on the pitcher, and refrigerate 8 hours, or overnight.

IF SCIENCE WERE USEFUL THEY'D BREED PIGS WITH COWS:

Put bacon inside the burger (J.M. HIRSCH, 7/25/07, The Associated Press)

Bacon is such a wonderful accompaniment to burgers that it’s a must. But slapping slices of cooked bacon on top of a burger is never satisfying; it doesn’t provide enough bacon to ensure plenty for each bite of burger.

A better technique is to cook the bacon in a skillet, then chop it up and add it to the raw beef. This method infuses the hamburger with a more uniform bacon flavor. [...]

BACON CHEESEBURGER

Start to finish: 20 minutes.
Servings: 4.

½ pound bacon
1 small yellow onion
1 roasted red pepper
1 pound ground beef (85 percent lean)
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 cup Parmesan cheese, grated

Heat a large skillet over medium-high flame. Add the bacon and cook until crisp, about 3 to 5 minutes. Drain and set aside.

Coat the grill rack with oil or cooking spray. Preheat the grill to medium-high.

Place the onion in a food processor and pulse until finely chopped. You may need to scrape down the sides several times. Add the bacon and roasted red pepper, then pulse again until just chopped. Transfer the mixture to a large bowl.

Add the ground beef, salt, pepper and cheese to the bowl, then use your hands to gently combine until just mixed. Divide the meat into four equal, patties.

Grill the burgers for 4 to 5 minutes per side. Do not press the burgers during cooking.

BEGINNING THE BEAUTIFUL FRIENDSHIP:

Indian cabinet okays U.S. civilian nuclear pact (Y.P. Rajesh, 7/25/07, Reuters)

India's cabinet approved a bilateral agreement for civilian nuclear trade with the United States on Wednesday but the landmark deal still faces hurdles before it can be finalized, officials and analysts said.

The deal aims to give India access to U.S. nuclear fuel and equipment for the first time in 30 years to help meet its soaring energy needs, even though it has stayed out of non-proliferation pacts and tested nuclear weapons.

NOTHING GOES WITH SOCIALISM LIKE NATIONALISM:

Russian youth: Stalin good, migrants must go: poll (Reuters, 7/25/07)

Russia's youths admire Soviet dictator Josef Stalin -- who presided over the deaths of millions of people -- and want to kick immigrants out of Russia, according to a poll released on Wednesday.

STORIES OUGHT TO BE HEARD:

AUDIO INTERVIEW: The Voice of Harry Potter - Jim Dale (Diane Rehm Show, 7/25/07) MP3 Podcast

The award-winning actor describes how he found, created, and kept track of over 200 voices in order to narrate the seven books in the Harry Potter series.

NEXT THEY'LL FIND A CACHE OF SCHLITZ BOTTLES:

Ancient Egyptian Ball Game Discovered (Rossella Lorenzi, July 25, 2007, Discovery News)

Throwing stone balls along a lane might have been a popular game in ancient Egypt, according to evidence unearthed some 56 miles south of Cairo by Italian archaeologists.

A mixture of bowling, billiard and bowls, the game was played at Narmoutheos, in the Fayoum region, in a spacious room which appears to be the prototype of a modern-day bowling hall.

The room was part of a structure, perhaps a residential building, which dated from the Roman period, specifically between the second and third century A.D.

"We first discovered a room with a very well-built limestone floor. Then we noticed a lane and two stone balls," Edda Bresciani, an Egyptologist at Pisa University, told Discovery News.

VALETUDINARIANISM--SILLY IN EITHER LANGUAGE:

Britons' assets worth 'four times debt' (Press Association, July 25, 2007, Guardian Unlimited)

Britons have nearly four times as much money in their savings and homes as they owe in debt, research shows today.

People's homes are collectively worth £4.3 trillion, while consumers have also set aside £820bn in savings accounts, according to research carried out by Alliance & Leicester (A&L).

The value of people's assets dwarfs the £1.1 trillion they owe in mortgages and the £200bn debt they have racked up on credit cards, loans and overdrafts.

The total value of assets that Britons hold is further boosted when you take into account the £1.8 trillion they have in pension funds and property investments.

BLAME W:

Haiti tastes peace under Preval: The president, who shies from the spotlight, nudges his traumatized nation slowly forward -- too slowly for some (Carol J. Williams, July 25, 2007, LA Times)

A year into his second tenure as president, Rene Preval has broken ranks with two centuries of despots and demagogues.

Preval has eschewed the politics of brutality and confrontation, quietly achieving what only a year ago seemed unimaginable: fragile unity among this country's fractious classes.

Allies and adversaries alike credit the reclusive president with creating a breathing space for addressing the poverty and environmental devastation that have made Haiti the most wretched place in the Western Hemisphere. Preval has taken small steps to crack down on crime and corruption, and improve Haiti's infrastructure and food supply. But he largely holds fast to the strategy he used in defeating more than 30 rivals in the presidential race last year: Make no promises, raise no expectations.

Observers say Preval's low-key approach may be what Haiti has needed, but they worry what will happen if his shaky health takes a turn for the worse or if the country's 8 million people start to lose patience with his go-slow approach.

NO REGRETELS:

Apple Crumble (ELIZABETH PUDWILL, 7/25/07, Houston Chronicle)

* 5 tart apples, such as Granny Smith, peeled, cored and sliced thin
* 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
* 1/2 cup granulated sugar
* 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
* 2 teaspoons grated orange zest
* 1 1/2 cups Kroger 100% Natural Cereal With Raisins
* 1/2 cup flour
* 1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
* 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
* Vanilla ice cream or whipped cream, for serving

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Combine the apples, lemon juice, granulated sugar, cinnamon and orange zest in a large bowl. Mix gently.

Place the apple mixture in a 9-inch baking dish. Mix together the cereal, flour and brown sugar. Cut in the butter with 2 knives or a pastry blender until crumbly. Top the apples with the cereal mixture. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, until the topping is golden brown and the apple mixture bubbly. Serve with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream.

MEN WOULD GIVE WOMEN MONEY IF THEY'D JUST COVER THEIR MID-RIFFS:

More Girls Go 'Mild' in Modesty Revolution (Audrey Barrick, 7/23/07, Christian Post)

More young women want to return to modesty – the no-tank-tops-without-a-shirt-or-sweater, the not-too-short-shorts, and the modest-neckline (no lower than four fingers below the collar bone) type of modesty. And that also includes the curfew and abstinence-until-marriage pledge.

It's what Lucky magazine's special projects director, Allyson Waterman, calls a "backlash" to what is being seen in Hollywood. Being modest, as opposed to the barely dressed pop icons, isn't about being frumpy, Waterman told ABC News.

"This is about embracing a woman's body in an elegant way."

BAD FOR SECULARS = GOOD FOR US:

A watershed in Islamic history: Victories for the rule of law and moderates in Pakistan and Turkey will marginalise the Islamists in the region (Whit Mason, July 25, 2007, The Australian)

LAST weekend brought a double dose of that rare commodity, great news from the Muslim world.

First, in Pakistan, a resounding triumph for the rule of law; then in Turkey, a thundering victory for temperate, thoughtful democracy over fearmongering and jingoism.

On Saturday in Pakistan, the Supreme Court demonstrated true judicial independence virtually for the first time in the country's 60-year history when it reinstated Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry, nemesis of Pakistan's "progressive" military dictator, General Pervez Musharraf.

Then on Sunday, Turks delivered the biggest electoral triumph in 50 years to the Justice and Development Party, a political movement that demonstrates the possibility of transcending the apparent tension between being devoutly Muslim in private and progressive and democratic in politics.

These two events mark a watershed in the modern history of the Islamic world: both are principled popular rebellions against military elites whose will has traditionally gone unchallenged.

The impressive re-election victory by Turkey's conservative Muslim ruling party is a tribute to the growing maturity of that country's politics and an inspiration for the cause of democracy in the broader Muslim world.

Voters rightly rejected the claim asserted by the traditional military-secular establishment that there is any fundamental incompatibility between democracy and Islam. Instead, they rewarded a party that has given the country its most competent and successful government in recent decades. That is exactly how democracy is supposed to work.

MORE:
Feminism, Turkish-style: Opportunities for women in Turkey have expanded under the conservative AKP party )Senay Ozdemir, July 25, 2007, LA Times)

[S]ince 2001, Turkey has undergone enormous political and social improvement. There is plenty to criticize about Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, but more feminist organizations have been founded under the AKP than during any part of Turkey's 80-year democracy. These women's organizations were smart: They got their issues on the national agenda just as Turkey needed to show the EU that it was making progress on human rights.

As a result, finally, men and women in Turkey have equal rights concerning marriage, divorce and property ownership. For the first time, the law says explicitly that women have autonomy over their own bodies. Before this change, women belonged to their male relatives or husbands. Turkish feminist Duygu Asena, the granddaughter of Ataturk's personal secretary, died a year ago but, happily, lived long enough to see this profound change in the law. Her women's magazines and newspaper columns were an inspiration to a generation of Turkish women. She was the first to dare speak the word "orgasm" in public, and she shocked Turkey with her 1987 book, "The Woman has No Name," excoriating marital oppression.

While Westerners wring their hands about secularism, they miss the larger point: Turkey is getting more and more democratic. The lively public debate leading up to the election illustrates the progress that was already visible in legislation, media, employment and politics. Fifteen years ago, few people argued politics or took a public stance for one party or another. Now everybody is free to do so.

Yes, a party led by religious conservatives remains in power. But my expectations of progress for Turkish women remain high. The mentality is changing there -- across the secular-religious spectrum. Religious women may not be associated with feminism, but they now use the same laws to gain access to schools, universities and the media. Even if they wear head scarves, shouldn't we encourage them in these pursuits? Aren't religious women allowed to be ambitious? Isn't that pure democracy?

I see similar changes in mentality among men, who want to benefit from the nation's economic boom. Economic necessity and the desire for more freedom (mobility, property) are bringing men around to the idea that women can work and earn their own income. Highly educated Turks in particular are proud of their successful wives and supportive of their careers. They're learning about successful women from the source: 50% of Turkish professors are female. So are 57% of senior managers, those who run banks, private industry and museums.

Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair met Tuesday with Palestinian and Israeli leaders in Jerusalem and the West Bank but avoided Hamas officials on the second day of his initial visit as the new Middle East envoy.

"I think there is a sense of possibility, but whether that sense of possibility can be translated into something, that is something that needs to be worked at and thought about over time," Blair told reporters.

BUT THE WAVES MUST INTRERACT WITH VACCINES TO CAUSE AUTISM, ADHD, OBESITY, WARTS, BACK HAIR...:

Phone masts 'pose no health risks' (Press Association, Jul 25, 2007)

Radio waves emitted by the masts appear to be harmless both to vulnerable and normal healthy individuals, at least over short periods of time, scientists found.

One of the largest investigations of its kind found that sensitive volunteers appear to feel genuinely unwell when they know they are being exposed to radio waves.

But carefully designed experiments showed that their symptoms are likely to be psychosomatic and probably originate in their heads.

ONE STEP CLOSER TO JOINING NAFTA:

Iran-Mexico-Joint Commission (IRNA, 7/22/07)

Iran and Mexico reached an agreement to set up a joint economic commission next year.

In a meeting between Iran's new Ambassador to Mexico Mohammad Hassan Qadiri-Abyaneh with Mexican Deputy Foreign Minister Lurdes de Aranda the agreement was achieved.

Qadiri also invited Mexico to attend the Non-Aligned Movement foreign ministers meeting in Tehran on human rights and cultural diversities.

MORE:
US, Iran will cooperate on Iraq security: Agreement marks major shift in policy (Farah Stockman, July 25, 2007, Boston Globe)

During a tense seven-hour meeting in Baghdad yesterday, the United States accepted an Iranian proposal to set up a joint committee on security in Iraq, marking a major shift in US policy toward engagement with the Iranian regime.

The committee will provide the first direct, sustained forum for dialogue between the United States and Iran in 27 years. The group, which will include Iraqi officials, is expected to focus on fighting Al Qaeda in Iraq, securing Iraq's borders, and controlling violent militias, according to Ryan Crocker, the US ambassador to Iraq.

Iran made the proposal for such a committee in May at a landmark meeting between Crocker and Iran's ambassador to Iraq.

HOW LONG UNTIL McDONALD'S IS SERVING THEM?:

Dugh (The Associated Press, 7/24/07)

1 cup whole-milk yogurt

1 teaspoon chopped fresh mint (or a dash of dried mint, crushed)

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1 1/2 cups club soda or spring water, chilled

In a small bowl, whisk the yogurt for about a minute, then transfer to a pitcher. Add the mint, salt and pepper, then stir well.

While stirring, slowly pour in the club soda. Add 3 to 4 ice cubes and stir again. Chill before serving.

...AND CHEAPER...:

$100 Laptop Goes into Mass Production: The One Laptop per Child group says the first XO laptops for use in schools will be manufactured by Quanta in October (Tom Espiner, 7/24/07, Business Week)

The One Laptop per Child (OLPC) organisation has announced that its ruggedised laptop, the XO, is going into mass production.

The laptop will be manufactured in Shanghai by Quanta. The production line will be turned on in August for testing procedures, and the first mass-produced laptops for use in schools will be made in October.

The XO laptop, which OLPC plans to sell eventually for $100 per machine, is designed to improve the educational opportunities of children in the developing world. The costs of manufacture are currently estimated by OLPC at $175 per laptop.

NOTHING COSTS...:

TiVo to sell trimmed down premium TV video recorder (Reuters, 7/24/07)

The company said its TiVo HD model, capable of recording up to 20 hours of high-resolution TV signals, would sell for about $300, starting in August.

That contrasts with the nearly $800 price tag of its TiVo Series3 HD Digital Media Recorder, which holds about 30 hours of HD programming and has more high-end audio and video features.

GORE '08--BECAUSE SOMEONE HAS TO TRY TO MAKE THE WORLD POORER AND COLDER!:

Electing Gore - Non-Linear Climate Change Politics (Bill Henderson, 24 July, 2007, Countercurrents.org)

A Gore run for president will only happen and be successful when this true appreciation of danger from climate change pushes far ahead of more immediate economic and security electoral concerns.

SHOW THEM THE MONEY:

Germany mulls opening job market to eastern Europeans (AFP, Jul 24, 2007)

The German government said Tuesday it was considering loosening its employment restrictions on workers from EU member states in eastern Europe to plug a yawning labour gap in key sectors.

"If we continue to suffer from a labour shortage in Germany, we could consider lifting the limits on eastern European labour before 2009," Gerd Andres, state secretary at the labour ministry, told the daily Hanoversche Allgemeine Zeitung.

He said Germany lacked staff both in high-qualification fields such as engineering as well as in the low-wage sector.

MORE:
More than 700,000 immigrants given right to work in just one year (JAMES SLACK, 25th July 2007, Daily Mail)

More than 710,000 foreigners were given the right to live and work in Britain last year - including 321,0000 Eastern Europeans.

It takes the total number of National Insurance numbers handed out to immigrants to more than two million in the past four years alone.

Yesterday's figures reveal that - despite Labour's promise to switch to a policy of "controlled" immigration - the number of people being handed the right to work here is still increasing.

STILL BANKING ON BRAZILIAN AVIATION?:

Delays mount at Brazil airports (Todd Benson, 7/24/07, Reuters)

More than half of all flights in Brazil were delayed or canceled on Tuesday for the third straight day as the country's air crisis deepened following a deadly crash last week and a major radar outage.

Brazil's airports authority, Infraero, said 590 flights were delayed nationwide and 298 more were canceled by the evening, further angering travelers who have already been subjected to repeated disruptions in the past 10 months.

SURE, HE DIED A COWARD...:

Senior Taliban militant kills himself during raid in Pakistan (Salman Masood, July 24, 2007, International Herald Tribune)

One of the most wanted Taliban militants in Pakistan killed himself when troops raided a hideout in Baluchistan Province, government officials said Tuesday. [...]

[Abdullah] Mehsud, who was 32 and was missing a leg, was known for his daredevil personality and bravado. He spent 25 months in American custody at the detention center in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, before being released in March 2004.

THERE IS NO TURKEY:

How to Save Iraqi Kurdistan from Itself (Morton Abramowitz, July 2007, Foreign Policy)

As if disaster in Baghdad were not enough, Washington has largely stood by as Iraq’s Kurds have become embroiled in a fierce dispute with Turkey that threatens to explode into violence, destabilize northern Iraq, and further embitter relations between the United States and Turkey, a vital strategic ally for 60 years. With parliamentary elections out of the way, Turkey may well invade northern Iraq, a move that—to put it mildly—would complicate an already complicated situation in the Middle East.

There is still time for the United States to prevent such a catastrophe, but this season’s bloody offensive by the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, a separatist guerrilla group labeled a terrorist organization by the United States, has brought tensions to a near-boiling point. Turks are enraged that PKK forces can launch bombing attacks in Turkey and then find safety and sympathy in the mountains of Iraqi Kurdistan. The Turkish military increasingly warns that it needs to attack these safe havens, and it has massed tens of thousands of troops at the border.

Turkish concerns over northern Iraq, of course, run deeper than the PKK. The mostly autonomous Kurdish entity next door is the threat to Turkey’s territorial integrity that its leaders long feared—potentially deepening Kurdish nationalism among its 12 to 15 million-strong Kurdish minority.

ROME DIDN'T EVOLVE INTO AMERICA IN A DAY:

In 10-nation poll, Africans see a better future (Lydia Polgreen and Marjorie Connelly, July 24, 2007, International Herald Tribune)

Despite a thicket of troubles, from deadly illnesses like AIDS and malaria to corrupt politicians and deep-seated poverty, a plurality of Africans say they are better off today than they were five years ago and are optimistic about their future and that of the next generation, according to a poll conducted in 10 countries in sub-Saharan Africa by The New York Times and the Pew Global Attitudes Project.

The poll results offer an unusual and complex portrait of a continent in flux, a snapshot of 10 key modern African states as they struggle to build accountable governments, manage violent conflict and turn their natural resources into wealth for the population.

It found that in the main, Africans are satisfied with their national governments and a majority of respondents in seven of the 10 countries said their economic situation was at least somewhat good. But many said that they face a wide array of difficult and sometimes life-threatening problems, from illegal drug trafficking to political corruption, from the lack of clean water to inadequate schools for their children, from ethnic and political violence to deadly disease.

Face-to-face interviews were conducted in April and May in Ethiopia, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Mali, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania and Uganda. The survey sampled nationwide adult populations except in South Africa, which was completely urban, and the Ivory Coast, which was disproportionately urban. The margins of sampling error were plus or minus either 3 or 4 percentage points.

The data reveal that the struggle for democracy and good governance in Africa is more like a patchwork of gains and setbacks than a steady tide of progress across a continent that has suffered some of the worst instances of misrule. While all of the countries surveyed are nominally democracies, half of them have suffered serious rollbacks of multiparty government in recent years. A majority in each country said corrupt political leaders are a big problem.

BORLAUG VS. THE BORG:

The Most Important Person You’ve Never Heard Of (Pejman Yousefzadeh, July 24, 2007, American)

Last week, Dr. Norman Borlaug won the Congressional Medal of Honor. He wasn’t broadly famous, so the well deserved award was a quiet event by modern standards. But it’s still a shame that the award ceremony didn’t get more publicity, because Norman Borlaug has saved more lives than any person currently living. Indeed, he may have saved more lives than anyone who has ever lived.

Shocked and changed by the scenes of starvation he witnessed as a young man working in the Depression-era Civilian Conservation Corps, Dr. Borlaug devoted himself early in his life to the task of ending hunger. As a research scientist in Mexico in the 1940s, Dr. Borlaug used his expertise in plant pathology and genetics to develop varieties of wheat that were both high-yield and resistant to diseases. These new strains of wheat were introduced to developing countries along with modern production and farming techniques. Thanks to these innovations, Mexico became a net wheat exporter in the early 1960s. Over that decade, both Pakistan and India saw their wheat crop double, and they became self-sufficient wheat producers by 1968 and 1974 respectively. Because the wheat crops Dr. Borlaug cultivated have shorter and stronger stalks (“semi-dwarf”), they are able to prosper even in environments where the soil is poor and where longer stalks would wilt under the weight of extra grain. Dr. Borlaug’s contributions have been credited with saving the lives of over 1 billion people and are the key ingredient in what is popularly known as the “Green Revolution.” His work won him the Nobel Peace Prize in 1970.

The Green Revolution helped avert the Malthusian vision of people like Paul Ehrlich, who famously predicted the onset of mass starvation and famine during the 1970s and 1980s (Ehrlich famously lost a bet on this score with Julian Simon). Dr. Borlaug’s methods are now at work in Asia and Africa, and if they meet with the same success that they did in Mexico, India and Pakistan, starvation and famine in these places will be made much rarer, if not wiped out altogether.

But no good deed goes unpunished.

BECAUSE BRIGHT NO MORE MEANS SMART THAN STUPID MEANS DUMB:

Obama’s Bad Night: At the Democratic debate, the Illinois senator’s experience gap was showing. (Byron York, 7/24/07, National Review)

Sen. Barack Obama’s closest political adviser, David Axelrod, wants you to know that Obama did not say what he appeared to say at Monday night’s Democratic debate here in Charleston. A questioner, speaking via debate sponsor YouTube, asked whether, in the spirit of “bold leadership,” the candidates would “meet separately, without precondition, during the first year of your administration…with the leaders of Iran, Syria, Venezuela, Cuba, and North Korea, in order to bridge the gap that divides our countries.” Obama had a ready answer.

“I would,” he said without hesitation. “And the reason is that the notion that somehow not talking to countries is punishment to them — which has been the guiding principle of this administration — is ridiculous. Ronald Reagan and Democratic presidents like JFK constantly spoke to the Soviet Union at a time when Ronald Reagan called them an evil empire. And the reason is because they understood that we may not trust them and they may pose an extraordinary danger to this country, but we had the obligation to find areas where we can potentially move forward.”

With those words, Obama seemed to commit himself to talks with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Bashar al-Assad, Hugo Chavez, Fidel Castro, and Kim Jong Il — separately, without precondition. He even said it was “a disgrace that we have not spoken to them.” But after the debate, speaking to reporters in the spin room, Axelrod claimed Obama didn’t mean any such meetings would actually take place.

THE TRIP TO THE GROCERY STORE JUST GOT A WHOLE LOT LESS EXCITING:

UFO sightings bring town to a standstill (Daily Mail, 24th July 2007)

A crowd of 100 stunned stargazers brought a town centre to a standstill when five mysterious UFOs were spotted hovering in the sky.

Drinkers spilled out of pubs, motorists stopped to gawp and camera phones were aimed upwards as the five orbs, in a seeming formation, hovered above Stratford-Upon-Avon for half an hour.

The unidentified flying objects lit up the otherwise clear night sky above Shakespeare's birthplace in Warwickshire on Saturday.

THE SAVINGEST PEOPLE ON EARTH:

Retirement Accounts Climb to $16.4T (EILEEN ALT POWELL, 7/24/07, AP)

Americans have accumulated a record $16.4 trillion in retirement accounts, with about half of it in company-sponsored plans like 401(k)s and in Individual Retirement Accounts, according to a study by the Investment Company Institute.

HARRY POTTER'S DEATHLY HOLLOWNESS:

Missing from 'Harry Potter" – a real moral struggle: Without inner conflict, the hero's tale was hollow. (Jenny Sawyer, 7/25/07, CS Monitor)

Successful storytelling rests on a few basic principles. One of them is this: A story is about someone who changes, who grows through a moral struggle. What is Harry's struggle? Exactly. [...]

The truth of the matter is that Harry the character had nowhere to go. And thus, the overarching moral dilemma of the series, the compelling inner crisis that begged resolution, had nothing to do with our beloved hero.

MORE:
Rowling Pulls It Off: The Harry Potter finale is magical, even for Muggles (MEGHAN COX GURDON, July 24, 2007, Opinion Journal)

Every reader, and Harry too, knows that events must end with the death of either the boy-wizard or his snaky, red-eyed nemesis. There can be no survival for the both of them. This ominous understanding has been building in faithful readers for a decade, and makes the final quarter of the book a heart-stopper.

It has been widely observed that J.K. Rowling owes a creative debt to Christian fantasists J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis (apart from their fondness for initials). It's odd now to remember that, at the same time, some parents have objected to the magic depicted in the Harry Potter books as a glorification of satanic practices. For "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" confirms something else apart from the well-thought-out-ness of Ms. Rowling's moral universe: It is subtly but unmistakably Christian.

The principal Hogwarts holidays have always been Christmas and Easter, but it took five books before Ms. Rowling really began tipping her hand. In Book Six, "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince," she addressed concepts of free will, the power of love, and the sanctity of the soul. But in the final volume she gently lays it all out. The preciousness of each human life; bodily resurrection after death; mercy, forgiveness and redemption; sacrificial love overcoming the powers of evil--strip away the elves, goblins, broomsticks and magic wands and these are the concepts that underpin the marvelously intricate world of Harry Potter.

There are clues throughout. At one point, Harry is led to a weapon that will enable him to destroy the Horcruxes when he finds them: "The ice reflected his distorted shadow and the beam of wandlight, but deep below the thick, misty gray carapace, something else glinted. A great silver cross . . ."

Two unattributed New Testament quotations recur in the story after Harry sees each on a tombstone in the village where he was born and his mother and father died. He discovers on the Dumbledore family tomb "Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also," from Matthew. And on the grave of his own parents, he finds this, from I Corinthians: "The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death." On seeing it, Harry feels momentary horror: Does it imply a link between his parents and Voldemort's followers? Hermione gently sets him straight: "It doesn't mean defeating death in the way the Death Eaters mean it, Harry. It means . . . you know . . . living beyond death. Living after death."

And it goes on.

PLUS, YOU LOOK COOL:

Start wearing sunglasses early, and they may help to preserve your sight in later life (Jeremy Laurance, 24 July 2007, Independent)

Age-related macular degeneration affects about 500,000 people in the UK. It occurs when cells in the centre of the retina at the back of the eye become damaged. Symptoms are the loss of central vision and visual distortion. Both conditions are most common in the elderly – and as we live longer, the numbers affected are growing. The eyes, in common with other organs, need protection if they are to last. Some eye specialists say that protecting the eyes of children is the most effective way to prolong 20-20 vision into old age.

Ian Anderson, an optometrist and the chairman of the Eyecare Trust, a charity devoted to promoting eye health, said: "Your eyes can be damaged by ultraviolet light. There are two types in sunlight – UVA and UVB. UVA sunlight penetrates quite deeply and can damage the lens and the retina. People should be aware that they need to wear dark glasses and do more to protect their eyes."

People who have fair skin are at greatest risk. They have less pigment and their eyes are thus most vulnerable to UV light, while dark-skinned people are better protected.

But it is a myth that blue-eyed people are more sensitive to light and therefore more vulnerable to eye damage. The iris is almost opaque, although there are differences in the amount of pigment in the retina, Anderson said.

Children are worse off because their eyes are young and the lens and vitreous – the fluid behind the lens – are clearer, so the light goes straight through and goes on to hit the retina.

"Children need sunglasses, but parents need to be careful that they are not toys with tinted lenses. That causes the iris to open and let more light through. Parents need to be very careful to buy sunglasses with the right CE marking to show that they filter out UV light. It is more important to wear sunglasses when young to protect the eyes."

THERE'S ALWAYS SOMEONE WHO'LL DO THE SAME WORK CHEAPER:

Outsourcing the Picket Line (Keith L. Alexander, 7/24/07, Washington Post)

The picketers marching in a circle in front of a downtown Washington office building chanting about low wages do not seem fully focused on their message.

Many have arrived with large suitcases or bags holding their belongings, which they keep in sight. Several are smoking cigarettes. One works a crossword puzzle. Another bangs a tambourine, while several drum on large white buckets. Some of the men walking the line call out to passing women, "Hey, baby." A few picketers gyrate and dance while chanting: "What do we want? Fair wages. When do we want them? Now."

Although their placards identify the picketers as being with the Mid-Atlantic Regional Council of Carpenters, they are not union members.

They're hired feet, or, as the union calls them, temporary workers, paid $8 an hour to picket. Many were recruited from homeless shelters or transitional houses. Several have recently been released from prison. Others are between jobs.

WHICH IS TO SLANDER AMERICAN VOTERS:

Via video, voters bluntly query Democratic field (Susan Milligan, July 24, 2007, Boston Globe)

Democratic presidential candidates were pelted last night with scores of questions from the people who will decide which of them becomes the Democratic nominee: American voters posed unapologetically blunt queries about race, gender, Iraq, and gay marriage.

The debate -- a first-of-its-kind forum that had voters framing questions through the Internet video site YouTube -- featured often anguished questions and equally passionate responses from the candidates, who for the first time spent two hours together contending with the frustrations and worries of ordinary voters.

Shedding the formality and deference often shown to the prominent office-holders on the stage at the Citadel military college in Charleston, S.C., men and women from Boston to Darfur were direct in their questions sent in the form of grainy, homemade videos: How can the United States pull out of Iraq with the situation there so unstable? Should women be subject to the draft? Do African-Americans deserve reparations for the enslavement of their forefathers? [...]

Senator Joe Biden of Delaware, after viewing a video from a gun owner who called his gun his "baby," appeared horrified before he reiterated his commitment to strong gun laws. "If that's his baby, he needs help," Biden said. "I don't know if he's mentally qualified to own that gun."

Dodd, asked if the Hurricane Katrina response would have been better if the affected region had not been heavily populated by poor and African-American people, said he believed the federal government response would have been quicker if the storm had hit a predominantly white area.

Global warming was also on voters' minds, with one questioner doing a voice-over for a snowman, who asked if his son -- a small snowman -- would survive climate change.

The candidates expressed their commitment to reducing global warming, but nearly all sheepishly raised their hands when asked if they took private jets to attend the debate. Kucinich said he did not; Gravel said, "I took the train."

OOPS, MISSED A STEP:

In Iraq, liberals flip on genocide: In the 1990s, they argued for humanitarian foreign intervention where there was little U.S. interest. (Los Angeles Times, July 24, 2007)

Barack Obama says preventing genocide isn't a good enough reason to stay in Iraq.

"By that argument you would have 300,000 troops in the Congo right now -- where millions have been slaughtered as a consequence of ethnic strife -- which we haven't done," he told the Associated Press. "We would be deploying unilaterally and occupying the Sudan, which we haven't done. Those of us who care about Darfur don't think it would be a good idea."

It's worth at least pointing out a key difference between the potential genocide in Iraq and the heart-wrenching slaughters in Congo and Sudan: The latter aren't our fault. But if genocide unfolds in Iraq after American troops depart, it would be hard to argue that we weren't at least partly to blame. Yes, the mass murder would have more immediate authors than the United States of America, but we would undeniably be responsible, at least in part, for giving a green light to genocide. Obama offers precisely that green light in his proposed Iraq War De-escalation Act.

"I RECOMMEND IT" (via Glenn Dryfoos)

Ex-Brown pitched against Babe Ruth (Rick Hummel, Jul. 23 2007, ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH)

Rolland Mays "Lena" Stiles, the oldest living former major-league baseball
player, died Sunday morning in his sleep at the age of 100 at Bethesda
Southgate nursing home in St. Louis. [...]

While with the Browns, Mr. Stiles often was matched against Philadelphia
Athletics Hall of Famer Lefty Grove. He also recalled facing the great New York
Yankees' teams, including Hall of Famer Babe Ruth.

"I had a great game against him," Mr. Stiles told the Post-Dispatch's Derrick
Goold last November. "I held him to three hits."

Besides winning the service award from the baseball writers, Mr. Stiles also
had received the lifetime achievement award from the St. Louis Amateur Baseball
Association.

Of his playing career, Mr. Stiles told the Post-Dispatch last year, "It was
good. It was nice. A baseball career — I recommend it."

HARD ENOUGH JUST TO TURN THE SHIP:

Winds of Reform in France: The French Parliament is making big changes, thanks to a philosophical shift at the top. (Jurgen Reinhoudt, July 23, 2007, American)

The French House approved a 10 to 13 billion Euro per year tax cut package on July 16th, while the Senate is set to review it starting the 25th. And while the House was busy reviewing the tax cut package, the Senate reviewed ways to make it more difficult for unions to organize paralyzing strikes.

The Senate’s measure would force workers, on an individual basis, to declare themselves in favor of a strike to their employers 48 hours before beginning any strike. In addition, the Senate voted to mandate that, if employers so wish, a secret ballot vote must be held among workers on whether or not to continue a strike beyond an 8-day period. The bill also mandates that a minimum level of ground transport (rail and other) service be maintained throughout the duration of a strike, making full paralysis much more difficult for unions to achieve. The House is set to review this set of reforms, the so-called “minimum service law”, starting July 30th.

Needless to say, this package of reforms has angered the left, in and outside of Parliament. Unions have already announced a protest day, July 31st, to express their anger at the reforms, with an alphabet soup of major national unions all participating. Their anger doesn’t mean that the right to strike has been fatally wounded; to the contrary, it would emerge unscathed. The change concerns what effect those strikes can have: implicitly, Sarkozy’s cabinet and his Parliamentary majority want to remove the de facto veto that unions currently hold over decisions taken by democratically elected legislators. The right to strike is one thing, but bringing the country—including those who are not striking—to a standstill is quite another.

Also in store: much-needed reforms to France’s stale system of higher education, proposals for which have already angered leftist student organizations.

Yet what matters as much as the measures themselves is the fundamental change in attitude that Sarkozy and his team bring to the table.

THE THOUGHT OCCURS...:

Socialism - what is it? (Zain Sardar, 23 July 2007, New Statesman)

Socialism, for me, is not merely a socio-economic/political system, but way of looking at the world. [...]

Its main conceptual principles correspond to this; equality, cooperation and community. Socialism, a primarily egalitarian system, has as its central point equality of outcome. We all require certain basic material things in life- food, a home to live in, clothes...etc, and these things should be had by everyone. Hence, if people had the basic needs that human beings require at least to live a reasonably comfortable existence, the gap between the rich and poor would be greatly reduced. To push up the standard of living of those in utmost poverty (by ensuring they have basic needs); money needs to come from somewhere; one of the most popular forms is through a redistribution of wealth from the rich to the poor.

NO COUNTRY WAS EVER IMPROVED BY DITCHING THE MONARCHY:

Last King of Afghanistan Dies (JASON STRAZIUSO, 7/24/07, AP)

Afghanistan's last king, a symbol of unity who oversaw four decades of peace before a 1973 palace coup ousted him and war shattered his country, died Monday. He was 92.

Mohammad Zahir Shah's demise ended the last vestige of Afghanistan's monarchy and triggered three days of national mourning for a man still feted as the "Father of the Nation" since his return from exile after the 2001 ouster of the Taliban.

Though he was not always effective during his 40-year reign, Zahir Shah is remembered warmly by his conflict-weary countrymen for steering the country without bloodshed.

When the fall of the Taliban in 2001 offered fresh hope for national reconciliation, many clamored for Zahir Shah's return—not only to his homeland but to the throne.

YOU NEVER HAD IT SO GOOD:

Traffic Deaths Decline, NHTSA Says (BETSY TAYLOR, 7/23/07, Associated Press)

Traffic deaths in the United States fell to their lowest total in five years in 2006, and the rate of deaths per miles traveled dropped to a record low, a federal safety official said Monday. [...]

The fatality rate of 1.42 deaths per 100 million miles traveled in 2006 was the lowest rate recorded by the Department of Transportation, she said.

SIOMETIMES LOLA DOESN'T GET WHAT LOLA WANTS:

Stem Cell Movement Faces Setbacks in Mo. (ANDALE GROSS, 7/23/07, Associated Press)

Some researchers even fear the techniques known as therapeutic cloning could still be outlawed in Missouri.

Scientist Kevin Eggan had once considered packing up his lab at the Harvard Stem Cell Institute and moving to Missouri. Now he's reluctant.

"I couldn't possibly come to a place where I thought the potentially lifesaving research I want to do could become illegal," said Eggan, who works on degenerative nerve disorders like Lou Gehrig's disease.

The setbacks began when conservative Missouri lawmakers stripped funding for some prominent life sciences projects, including a $150 million research center at the University of Missouri in Columbia.

Then in June, a medical institute in Kansas City announced it would halt its $300 million expansion project because of controversy over the research. The founders of the Stowers Institute of Medical Research had financed most of the $30 million campaign to pass the amendment.

Critics of embryonic stem cell research are opposed to the process because it requires embryos to be destroyed to harvest their cells.

"I think stem cell research is extraordinarily promising and exciting and that we ought to move forward on it. But Missouri does not need to clone human embryos in order to become a leader in life sciences," said state Sen. Matt Bartle, a Republican who wants to repeal November's vote.

Opponents were also encouraged when three teams of scientists announced last month that they had produced the equivalent of embryonic stem cells in mice without destroying embryos.

Two weeks later, President Bush vetoed a bill that would have permitted human embryonic research—a clear signal to like-minded Missourians who saw November's vote, 51 percent to 49 percent, as anything but a clear mandate.

IN LEGALESE, WE'RE AN ATTRACTIVE NUISANCE:

Castro blames U.S. for new athlete defections (Reuters, 7/23/07)

Ailing Cuban leader Fidel Castro deplored the defection of three athletes and a coach during the Panamerican Games in Brazil, saying on Monday they had betrayed Cuba for dollars.

Cuba's Olympic and world amateur boxing champion Guillermo Rigondeaux and teammate Erislandy Lara failed to appear for their scheduled bouts in Rio de Janeiro on Sunday.

A member of the Cuban handball team, Rafael Dacosta, and gym trainer Lazaro Lamelas defected earlier, Castro lamented, accusing the United States of luring Cuba's best athletes.

GIVEN THE 100% MARKUP, THAT'LL FALL QUICKLY:

Nonprofit may launch $350 laptop by Christmas (Jim Finkle, 7/23/07, Reuters)

A nonprofit group that designs low-cost computers for poor children may start selling $350 laptops on the commercial market by Christmas, an executive said on Monday.

NOTHING COSTS MORE...:

XM, Sirius promise low cost packages, more choice (Franklin Paul and Rachelle Younglai, 7/23/07, Reuters)

U.S. satellite radio companies Sirius and XM promised on Monday a variety of subscription packages that cost up to 46 percent less than current plans if their merger is approved.

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THE SOONER IT'S FUNCTIONAL THE SOONER WE MANDATE THEM:

Nissan to test auto Breathalyzer (Kyodo News, 7/24/07)

Nissan Motor Co. said Monday it will join local authorities Aug. 1 in testing an onboard Breathalyzer designed to curb drunken driving.

The system, which measures alcohol in the breath, disables the ignition when the driver is deemed to have consumed more than a certain level of alcohol, the carmaker said.

The device will be installed in vehicles used by local government staff in Fukuoka, Tochigi and Kanagawa prefectures, according to Nissan.
No one is so naive as not to concede they'll be required in our Puritan Nation.

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NOTH...:

Wal-Mart to Cut Prices on 16,000 Items (ANNE D'INNOCENZIO, 7/23/07, AP)

Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world's largest retailer, set the stage for price wars Monday as it announced it's cutting prices on more than 16,000 items starting this week in a bid to turn around sales for the critical back-to-school season.

SO THE NET EFFECT OF IRAQ IS...NOTHING:

Brown Won't Rule Out Action Vs. Iran (AP, 7/23/07)

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said Monday that tougher sanctions are likely against Iran over its contested nuclear program and declined to reject outright the prospect of future military action.

IN WHAT CONCEIVABLE SENSE IS IT SURPRISING?:

An Unusually Effective Minority: Bush and the congressional GOP embarrass the Democrats (Fred Barnes, 07/30/2007, Weekly Standard)

The biggest surprise in Washington in 2007 is who's turned out to be the strongest force in town. It's not Democrats, though they control the House and the Senate. It's not a bipartisan alliance of moderates, who often imagine themselves as pivotal but never are. And it's certainly not a conservative coalition, if only because there aren't enough conservative Democrats in Congress to fill a closet at the Heritage Foundation. The most powerful group is President Bush and congressional Republicans.

But of course, you say. A Republican president and Republican legislators are a natural coalition. Except not in this case. After the calamitous 2006 election, there was no love lost between the White House and Republicans on Capitol Hill. Republicans blamed Bush for losing Congress, while he and his aides felt congres sional Republicans had largely brought disaster on themselves. Full-scale cooperation seemed unlikely. But it's happened.

True, Bush and the Republicans aren't dominant. They're a minority, but an unusually effective one. One measure of this: At the end of 2007, there will be more American troops in Iraq than when Democrats took over Congress in January. Another: Democrats have momentum on no domestic issue, not even health care. A third: Senate Republicans last week defeated an amendment urging Bush not to pardon former White House aide Scooter Libby and won overwhelming passage of another that says terrorists jailed at Guantánamo shouldn't be transferred to U.S. soil.

There's more, much more.

JUST ANOTHER VOTE AGAINST THE E.U.:

Election results in Turkey a snub to the old guard (Sabrina Tavernise, July 23, 2007, International Herald Tribune)

The Islamic-inspired governing party of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan celebrated a larger-than-expected victory in the nationwide parliamentary elections, taking close to half the total vote in a stinging rebuke to Turkey's old guard.

With all the votes counted, Erdogan's Justice and Development Party won 46.5 percent of the vote, Turkish elections officials said Monday, far more than the 34 percent the party garnered in the last election, in 2002.

The secular state establishment had expected that voters would punish Erdogan's party for promoting an Islamic agenda. But the main secular party, the Republican People's Party, received just 20.9 percent, compared with 19 percent in the last election. The Nationalist Action Party, which played on fears of ethnic Kurdish separatism, won 14.3 percent, officials said.

The result was a broad mandate for Erdogan's party, with large numbers of voters sending the message that they do not feel it is a threat to Turkish democracy.

NOW HERE'S THE INTERESTING QUESTION...:

Monetarism: Dead at Last?: If the economy decides to demand more money, how then does money supply matter? (Thomas E. Nugent, 7/23/07, National Review)

The Journal piece also included this revealing Laffer paraphrase on inflation: “The ‘velocity’ of money is soaring as the world demands more of it (money), [Laffer] says, so there is no inflation threat.” In other words, Laffer is implying that the demand for money is dramatically increasing, even though the Fed deserves high marks for controlling the growth in the money supply as measured by the monetary base.

Now here’s the point. If the economy decides to demand more money, as reflected by the “soaring” demand for it, how then does money supply matter? The Fed’s supposed tinkering with the monetary base as reported in the weekly data from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis is meaningless. In fact, its tinkering has everything to do with maintaining the fed funds target rate and nothing to do with attempts to control the money supply. The “demand side” theory of money creation, or the “quality of money” theory, is in essence liquidity created by the system since the structure demands that liquidity. Effective money supply is determined by money demand, or velocity.

The idea that central-bank increases to the money supply are inflationary is debunked by the modern Japan example. The Bank of Japan (BOJ) lowered its policy interest rate to zero, without regard to controlling interest rates, in order to pump money into the economy. This surge in money supply was enormous, yet inflation in Japan was non-existent. In fact, the problem in Japan was deflation, even though central-bank-induced money supply was exploding.

The reason why the increase in money supply didn’t increase inflation was that money demand also was non-existent. No matter how much money the central bank “printed,” the liquidity wasn’t demanded by the private sector. Wayne Angell accurately described this phenomenon as the money-demand equation, or what Laffer calls the “velocity,” or rate of turnover, of money. (For more on the Japan example, and monetary demand, see my article: “Print More Money, Create Higher Inflation?”)

The primary implication of the extinction of monetarism is that the U.S. Federal Reserve is marginalized by the ability of the markets to function efficiently as reflected by the changing velocity of money.

THE DREAD SPRING OFFENSIVE ROLLS ON:

U.S.-led forces kill dozens of militants in Afghanistan (AP, 7/23/07)

Dozens of suspected Taliban militants have been killed in battles with Afghan-Coalition forces in southern Afghanistan, the U.S.-led forces said Monday.

Afghan and Coalition forces routed a large number of Taliban fighters during a patrol in the northern province of Helmand in an overnight battle, the U.S.-led Coalition said in a statement.

"More than four dozen insurgents had been confirmed killed by Afghan army at the scene, including what intelligence suggests were two mid- level Taliban commanders," it said, adding there were no Afghan or Coalition casualties.

NOTHING COSTS MORE THAN IT USED TO:

Netflix cuts prices of two more rental plans (Gina Keating, 7/23/07, Reuters)

Netflix Inc. cut monthly subscriptions for two of its most popular plans by $1 on Sunday, a day ahead of a quarterly earnings report that will show whether rival Blockbuster Inc has further dented the online DVD rental company's growth.

Netflix now has cut prices on its four most popular plans this year, bringing them in line with the prices of Blockbuster By Mail plans.

The two companies are locked in a price war for the second time since Blockbuster launched its online service in 2004.

THE COURSE THAT EATS CONTINENTALS:

Harrington Outlasts Garcia To Win First Major (TONY DEAR, July 23, 2007, NY Sun)

Allowed this time to look after itself with the help of an ever-present, albeit gentle, breeze, Carnoustie offered one of the best Open Championships in living memory, and one that will still be celebrated in Ireland long after Padraig Harrington has left for the great links in the sky. Sixty years after Fred Daly won the Open at Hoylake, the Emerald Isle has its long-awaited second Claret Jug and one which will no doubt need a thorough cleaning before heading to Royal Birkdale next year, in order to get rid of all the Guinness stains.

For Harrington, the moment is long overdue. An ungainly swinger of the club and considerably less gifted than a number of his peers, he has nevertheless ranked among the world's top dozen or so players for most of this century thanks to a work ethic that would impress Vijay Singh and a desire to succeed that only Tiger Woods might call moderate.

It's fitting perhaps that Carnoustie should be the scene of his first major triumph. Itself slightly ungainly and often overlooked in discussions of the world's best courses, it has worked hard in recent years to re-establish its reputation after the nightmare of 1999.

Long, superbly designed, and exposed to numbing North Sea winds, Carnoustie needed the forest of rough it got for protection in '99 like Fort Knox needs another padlock. Reaction to what happened eight years ago was probably over the top, but how much better it was to see a handful of world-class golfers chasing birdies around a course that certainly proved testing, but not overwhelming. In '99, the object was to shoot the least high number and get to the safety of the clubhouse without humiliating yourself or even crying in your mother's arms. Whereas this year, players had the chance, at least, to go low. And how ironic that Sergio Garcia, the man, or rather boy, who shot plus-30 for two rounds in '99 and then sought solace from his mommy, should go lower than anyone except, of course, for Harrington.

HISTORY IS EVEN OVER IN TED'S BACKYARD:

New insurance chief goes beyond expectations: Auto deregulation shocks industry (Bruce Mohl, July 23, 2007, Boston Globe)

James Harrington , executive director of the Massachusetts Insurance Federation, said former Governor Mitt Romney had championed auto insurance deregulation. By contrast, Governor Deval Patrick had said almost nothing about auto insurance on the campaign trail and [Nonnie S. ] Burnes, his pick for commissioner, had a blank slate.

"We viewed the incoming Patrick administration with some degree of trepidation," he said.

But Burnes last week shocked almost everyone. She not only mastered the minutiae of auto insurance regulation in a matter of months, but also set out to break a 30-year-old industry stalemate on deregulation. She said she planned to usher in "managed competition" next year, allowing automobile insurers to set their own rates under the close supervision of state regulators.

The decision, which will end Massachusetts's distinction as the only state where regulators set all auto insurance rates, will probably have a major impact on the wallets of the state's four million drivers.

YOU'LL NEED THE JAWS OF LIFE TO PRY IT FROM THE BOY'S HANDS:

'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows' is a literal page-turner (Jacqueline Blais, 7/22/07, USA TODAY)

Fans adore it. Critics love it. It's flying out of bookstores at a record-setting pace.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the much-anticipated final book in J.K. Rowling's fantasy series, sold 8.3 million copies in 24 hours starting Friday at midnight, U.S. publisher Scholastic reported Sunday. First printing: 12 million, the most ever for a Potter book.

MORE:
The end: Final Harry Potter book triumphs as it flies to a spellbinding close (Liz Rosenberg, July 23, 2007, Boston Globe0

'Is Little Nell dead?" rose the cry along America's wharves in 1841, from readers awaiting the last installment of Charles Dickens's "The Old Curiosity Shop." Perhaps not since the fate of Little Nell hung in the balance has a book been as hotly awaited as "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows," the seventh and last in J.K. Rowling's series.

We are lucky to live in the time of a novelist as gripping, unpredictable, and wildly popular as Dickens himself. Though there is plenty about the book to critique, I won't go so far as to give crucial plot elements away. Unlike every age that will follow ours , we read the Potter books for the first time, and the freshness is part of their charm.

Rowling once described these books as being, in a deep sense, all one work. Is this last volume a good book? In many ways, yes. There are thrilling chase scenes, glowing tableaus ("moths began to swoop under the canopy, now lit with floating golden lanterns"), new magical effects (the Thief's Downfall, a cataract of water), and revelations by the dozen. Rowling still has a brilliant ear for dialogue and knows how to evoke dark, complicated emotions, as when "Harry felt as though a brick had slid down through his chest onto his stomach. He remembered. . . ."

No author since Dickens has been able to conjure so completely both the eerie and the ordinary genius that resides in places.

LIKE millions of people throughout the world, I spent most of Saturday curled up in a chair, racing through the latest, and last, Harry Potter novel, not only because of the breakneck pace of the story but because my 17-year-old son was due home on Sunday and there would be dire consequences if I didn't hand over the book immediately.

Six enchanted hours after beginning, I re-emerged, exhilarated, both as a reader and a writer. She had done it. She had pulled off an intensely satisfying end to what has been the most extraordinary literary success story of our time. [...]

Rowling's work is sometimes unfavourably compared to the books of other great fantasy authors, such as Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien and Philip Pullman, and the quality of her prose and artistic vision questioned. Often critics appear not to have read the works but rely on the sanctification of time or literary awards to persuade them that Rowling's work is inferior to the others'. But I've read all the authors in question, and I disagree.

All of these books share the great themes of good and evil and the quest for wisdom and love. Their authors also share a strong background in classical literature, myth and fairytale. They are all great storytellers. Rowling shares with Tolkien a glorious gift for what the old ringmaster called "the art of subcreation, the power to give fantasy the inner consistency of reality" and also a good eye for a satisfying ending, but thank heavens she doesn't share with him a taste for tedious genealogies, over-solemnity or ghastly dwarf songs.

She shares with Lewis a spring-like freshness, sense of fun, broad satire and a marvellous inventiveness but, unlike him, she finished her series well: the final book in the Narnia series, The Last Battle, was a bitter disappointment to me as a child as it's far too polemical and theme-driven. This is also true of Pullman's much-admired His Dark Materials, which begins magnificently with Northern Lights, starts to falter in The Subtle Knife and falls in a heap in The Amber Spyglass which, mirroring the final book in the series of his bete noire, Lewis, fails to trust its characters and story and descends into preaching (of the opposite viewpoint). With Pullman, however, Rowling shares a happy talent for names, and terrific pace and timing.

As to the quality of her prose, I reckon Rowling pretty much matches Lewis: engaging, bright and child-oriented, with a great clarity and playfulness of expression, mixed with some clunky bits and some cliched moments. (Pullman and Tolkien are perhaps more consistent, more adult-oriented prose stylists, though they too have their flaws.) Her characters are archetypal but so are all the others': fantasy thrives on the archetypes which live deep in all of us.

Rather than appealing to "the lowest common denominator", the Harry Potter books, like the great fantasy novels, fairytales and myths, appeal to the deepest common denominator.

BRITISH OPEN CONTEST:

Memories of '99 British Open Haunt ‘Carnasty' (TONY DEAR, July 18, 2007, NY Sun)

Early indications are that the course dubbed Carnasty eight years ago is considerably more playable this time round, with some players even saying it's actually gone too far the other way and will be too easy. "I think the fairways are very wide, and there's no rough," South Africa's David Frost said yesterday. "It's too lenient. I just think it should have been tighter."

K.J. Choi, who played with Lawrie in 1999 was also surprised to see how different the course looks now. "You can hit the ball anywhere and find it," the Korean said. "You can still see the ball."

The wind, however, will make the course extremely challenging said Choi, who hit a wedge to the green on the 499-yard 18th hole in practice on Saturday and a 5-wood on Sunday when the wind had shifted 180 degrees.

Really, a decent breeze is all that Carnoustie needs to challenge the best, and failing to recognize that was perhaps the R&A's biggest mistake in 1999. Jack Nicklaus, who finished joint-runnerup there in 1968 and tied for third seven years later regards Carnoustie as the hardest course on the Open Championship rotation. He said it's plenty tough enough without any help from a malevolent greenkeeper. Likewise Ernie Els, who tied for 24th in 1999 at 14 over par, says it's the toughest of the lot. "It's got length and it's got great bunkering," he said. "You've really got to have your wits with you to play this golf course, and it seems like the wind always blows here."

Equally impressed are Tiger Woods, who thought the conditions in 1999 took away from the course's status as one of the best in the world, and Mickelson who made three visits last week and came away very pleasantly surprised. "I didn't realize what a wonderful course it is," he said. "It's terrific."

Woods, with two runners-up finishes in the majors so far this year, will be desperate to win and reestablish his dominance over a chasing pack that has seen one or two glimpses of vulnerability from him recently and which seems better equipped to take advantage of those vulnerabilities than it did in 2000, when the world no. 1's brilliance was met with little resistance.

Mickelson, who has shown typically extravagant unpredictability in recent weeks, certainly can win, but he'll have to forget his terrible record in this championship (one top-10 finish in 14 starts) and the disappointment of losing the Scottish Open last weekend in a playoff with France's Gregory Havret.

THE FUNDAMENTALS ARE MODERATE:

The Fundamentalist Moderate: Religious scholar Javed Ahmad Ghamidi has become a popular figure in Pakistan for his strict reading of the Koran -- which, he says, dictates against gender discrimination, terrorist jihad, and other favorites of modern Islamists (Shahan Mufti, July 22, 2007, Boston Globe)

AFTER THE SUICIDE bombing in Islamabad last week that killed 17 civilians, I picked up a slick hardbound book called "The Islamic Shari'ah of Jihad" in a local bookstore. As I read through the first few pages it became clear to me that this was no apology for Islamic holy war. The book analyzed every verse of the Koran that mentions the word "jihad" and related it to its precise social context in seventh-century Arabia in order, it said, to "remove some grave misconceptions."

I opened to the chapter titled "Suicide Bombers." I was disturbed by the events in the city -- the joyous mood of a pro-democracy rally, with thousands swaying to anthems, snuffed away in a moment of scattered body parts -- and I wondered about the Islamic basis for what I had witnessed.

The chapter was brief, barely two pages long, and it focused on one verse (5:32) of the Koran: "He who killed a human being without the latter being guilty of killing another or being guilty of spreading disorder in the land should be looked upon as if he has killed all mankind."

There was little else left to say.

The book was written by Javed Ahmad Ghamidi. Like anyone who has spent time in Pakistan or even watched Pakistani television, I recognized the name of the slightly built, graying Muslim religious scholar, or alim. It is typical of Ghamidi to speak -- at conferences, on television, on the radio -- about the most politically charged issues with calm religious authority. The popular media gravitates to him for his impeccable oratory and the ease with which he makes common sense out of millennium-old religious texts. Of late he has become a bit of a rock star -- adored, hated, popular, and notorious all at once -- thanks to his extraordinary interpretation of Islamic Law.

At a time when many pin their hopes on "moderate" secular Muslims to lead the charge against radical militant Islam, Ghamidi offers a more forceful and profound deconstruction of the violent and bitter version of Islam that appears to be gaining ground in many parts of the Muslim world, including Pakistan. He challenges what he views as retrograde stances -- on jihad, on the penal code of rape and adultery, on the curricula in the religious schools, or madrassas -- but he does so with a purely fundamentalist approach: he rarely ventures outside the text of the Koran or prophetic tradition. He meticulously recovers detail from within the confines of religious text, and then delivers decisive blows to conservatives and militants who claim to be the defenders of Islam.

JUST LIKE YOUR FAMILY, ONLY MORE SO:

Immigrant parents struggle to keep their children bilingual (Maria Sacchetti, July 22, 2007, Boston Globe)

After a lunch of hot dogs and rice, Jordy Berges blasted a ball off the wall of the lunchroom at his mother's office, his stomping grounds for the summer.

"No juegues aquí," Yovanna Berges scolded her 7-year-old son, telling him in Spanish to stop.

"Sorry," he answered her, in English.

Berges, an immigrant from Peru, is growing accustomed to such conversations with her son. She is struggling to raise him to speak English and Spanish fluently, which might not seem like a big challenge in the city with the highest proportion of Latinos in Massachusetts. But researchers say Berges and immigrant parents nationwide are confronting a difficult truth: Their children are losing their languages.

According to research presented to Congress in May, even the children of immigrants prefer to speak English by the time they are adults.

Rubén G. Rumbaut, a sociologist at the University of California at Irvine, and his team of researchers looked at 5,700 adults in their 20s and 30s in Southern California from different generations to see how long their language survived. A key finding centered on 1,900 American-born children of immigrants. The shift toward English among them was swift: While 87 percent grew up speaking another language at home, only 34 percent said they spoke it well by adulthood. And nearly 70 percent said they preferred to speak English.

"English wins, and it does so in short order," said Rumbaut, who presented his findings to the US House Judiciary subcommittee on immigration in May. "What we're talking about is a real phenomenon."

It is difficult for children to sustain their parents' languages amid the tidal wave of American pop culture, including movies and television, coupled with societal pressure to speak only English.

MORE:
By a twist of fate, he found his passion early: A young Temecula man hopes to win the world championship of Rubik's Cube solving. Where from there? He'll see what he can line up. (David Kelly, July 22, 2007, Los Angeles Times)

They met at a mall and Ryan Patricio sensed the chemistry immediately. He was drawn to it, called by it and he knew — perhaps they both did — that he would ultimately possess it.

"You know when you meet someone and really click with them?" he asked. "Well, that's what happened."

And click he did. And click some more.

The possibilities — all 43 quintillion of them — seemed endless.

Then, after months of manipulation, he broke down its defenses, and the rest is Rubik's Cube history.

Patricio didn't just crack the maddening puzzle, he became a star "cuber" in the process. He could do it fast, do two at a time, do it one-handed, even do it blindfolded.

He performed at high school pep rallies and at 16 broke the world record by outwitting the cube in 31 seconds.

Last month, the 18-year-old Temecula resident did it in a mere 14.17 seconds to win the U.S. Open Rubik's Cube Championship in Chicago, making him national champion. His trophy, a Rubik's Cube enclosed in a bigger, transparent cube, now sits in his living room beside other cube-within-cube awards. His next stop is Budapest, Hungary, for the world championship in October.

THANKS, MAVERICK, OR, HOW THE GANG SAVED THE RIGHT FROM ITSELF:

Constant filibuster threat is tying Senate in knots (Margaret Talev, 7/22/07, McClatchy Newspapers)

Democrats have trouble mustering 60 votes; they have fallen short 22 times this year. That's largely why they haven't been able to deliver on campaign promises.

By sinking a cloture vote last week, Republicans successfully blocked a Democratic bid to withdraw most combat troops from Iraq by April, even though a 52-47 Senate majority voted to end debate.

Republicans also have blocked votes this year on immigration legislation, a no-confidence resolution for Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and major legislation dealing with energy, labor rights and prescription drugs.

Nearly one in every six roll-call votes in the Senate this year has been a cloture vote. If this pace of blocking legislation continues, this 110th Congress will be on track to roughly triple the previous record number of cloture votes — 58 each in the two Congresses from 1999-2002, according to the Senate Historical Office.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., forced an all-night session on the Iraq war last week to draw attention to what Democrats called Republican obstruction.

"The minority party has decided we have to get to 60 votes on almost everything we vote on of substance," said Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo. "That's not the way this place is supposed to work."

NEXT:

Rowling poised to work her magic on classic tale of underworld hero (MARC HORNE, 7/22/07, scotlandonsunday.com)

JK ROWLING'S next major project is set to feature a charismatic hero who uses magic powers to overcome diabolical and grotesque adversaries.

Yet the next chapter of the author's literary career is expected to focus on Orpheus rather than Harry Potter.

Edinburgh-based publishing firm Canongate has offered Rowling the chance to retell the adventures of the legendary Greek hero, who is best known for attempting to rescue his wife Eurydice from the underworld.

Rowling has already expressed an interest in covering the classics after her studies in Greek and Roman mythology at Exeter University in the 1980s, and now Canongate has invited her to become its latest celebrity writer to contribute to its best-selling Myths series.

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REVIEW: of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: SPOILER ALERT: DO NOT READ IF YOU WANT TO KEEP THE ENDING SECRET (STUART KELLY, 7/22/07, SCOTLAND ON SUNDAY)

The plot was pretty much outlined in the previous book. Voldemort has sequestered his soul in seven artefacts, or horcruxes, and these leave him vulnerable. There are, however, over two hundred inconsequential pages before the quest to eliminate the horcruxes gets underway; and even then it is conflated with another "search and succeed" mission to find the eponymous Deathly Hallows. By the time that Harry is wondering if his friends "had only agreed to come on what now felt like a pointless and rambling journey because they thought he had some secret plan", the reader can only concur.

Deathly Hallows does have its virtues. As usual, the set piece battles and chases are carried off with verve and pace, even on an overcrowded canvas. Especially well done is a daring heist on Gringotts Bank, which is well balanced between nervous anticipation and rollicking action. The reader learns more about Dumbledore’s youth, which introduces an element of moral complexity and ambiguity to the narrative; and, in one instance, this is truly shocking - far more Certificate PG than UC. The plans of the Death Eaters are genuinely sinister, and their slogans (such as "For the Greater Good") and schemes (such as the "Muggle-Born Registration Commission") effectively give meaning and depth to their wickedness.

Rowling has taken care to develop characters that might have been - or indeed, previously have been - stereotypes. There is room for generosity, not only towards Harry’s Muggle tormentors but to the misguided villains, the Malfoys. There are also moments of weakness for the heroic, and heroism from the weak. If part of growing up is seeing the world in shades of grey, then the Deathly Hallows succeeds, despite its black and white moral universe.

But the problems that have been with the series from the outset are in plentiful evidence as well. The prose is sometimes risibly clichéd: take, for example, "she was kissing him as she had never kissed before, and he was kissing her back, and it was blissful oblivion, better than Firewhiskey; she was the only real thing in the world". Sentences are clotted with adverbs - "milkily pink" seems particularly inelegant, a snake "rose, seemingly endlessly" - why not just endless? The dialect is straight out of ’Allo ’Allo at times: Fleur says "whezzer" for "whether", Krum says "vunce" for "once". It is hardly the subtlest form of dialogue. Rowling may be waving her wand, but no-one is wielding a blue pencil.

Rowling is a story-teller rather than a plotter, and towards the end, the narrative stalls as she provides copious back-story and needless reams of explication. The critic Michiko Kakutani has referred to Rowling’s "magpie talent", which is a euphemistic way of saying that originality was never her strongest suit. In this volume, there are nods at Obi Wan Kenobi, the Arthurian sagas and Bedknobs and Broomsticks. Even the horcrux thread seems indebted to video games. Even the animalistic Patronus Charms seem a little too close to the daemons of Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy.

Fans will indubitably be delighted by the Deathly Hallows, and sceptics will find incontrovertible proof to sustain their position. For critics of a more psychological persuasion, the importance of motherhood in the Potter-verse takes a place tellingly centre-stage.

BACK TO THE 70s!:

Obama Says He Would Walk Picket Line (MIKE GLOVER, 7/21/07, Associated Press)

Democrat Barack Obama told union activists Saturday night that he would walk a picket line as president if organized labor helps elect him in 2008.

SCIENCISM BEGINS WITH HATING HUMANS:

Science chief: cut birthrate to save Earth: New museum head says lower population would cut CO2 at a fraction of renewable energy cost (Robin McKie, July 22, 2007, The Observer)

The new head of the Science Museum has an uncompromising view about how global warming should be dealt with: get rid of a few billion people. Chris Rapley, who takes up his post on September 1, is not afraid of offending. 'I am not advocating genocide,' said Rapley. 'What I am saying is that if we invest in ways to reduce the birthrate - by improving contraception, education and healthcare - we will stop the world's population reaching its current estimated limit of between eight and 10 billion.

WHY DO YOU THINK THEY HATE MARKETS?:

Fair and balanced radio? (Derek Hunter, July 21, 2007, Politico)

If there is one thing everyone (I hope) could agree on it is that corporations want to make a profit. If there were a demand for more than one liberal station in a market, it would be filled. Simply because one liberal station stays afloat doesn’t mean a second one would. It may imply it, but it doesn’t mean it. Why would any company decide to scrap a successful lineup on the off chance a new one might work as well? While that might make sense to groups funded by Hungarian billionaires, it doesn’t fly in the market.

Ratings are the most important factor in determining which shows stations program. The only exception being Air America, the failed all-liberal talk network that was supposed to take on conservative talk radio but has burned through money, management and hosts like it’s an Olympic event and Air America is going for the gold.

The fact that ratings don’t factor into this “study” exposes either a fundamental lack of understanding of how markets work or a wanton disregard for truth on the part of its authors.

To cover this glaring omission, they lay blame for conservative dominance at the feet of corporate station owners. Well, in a bizarre and twisted way that has nothing to do with their argument, they are correct -- but only in the sense that those corporations choose shows based upon each show’s ability to bring in an audience. Where free-market forces exist they see bias and an agenda. If a liberal host could draw in and hold an audience on a regular basis, that host would also be successful.

In fact, liberal talk is becoming more common every year, a trend that will probably continue. But it should earn air space through the normal marketplace of ideas.

That’s not good enough for liberals, who want a government that bullies station owners into “balancing” their lineups. Instead of competing, they prefer mandates.

IT'S BEEN AWHILE NOW...:

Looking to close the deal: With three-shot lead, Garcia on the verge of his first major victory (Jim McCabe, July 22, 2007, Boston Globe)

[I]f it is Sergio Garcia's tournament to win, being in possession of a three-stroke lead, Steve Stricker is at peace with that, because after a passionate soul search, he is where he belongs.

"This is what I'm meant to do," said Stricker, 40, who a few years ago reassessed the doubts he had about his PGA Tour pursuits and recommitted to the game. On several occasions over the last two seasons, flashes of his once-upon-a-time promise reappeared, but it was under the glare of yesterday's third round that it shined brightest.

He mastered these majestic links hard by the North Sea, and in doing so equaled the course record with a 7-under-par 64 to hurdle 18 players and pull into second place at 6-under 207. Splendid stuff, for sure, but for an encore he'll be asked to take on Garcia, and that projects to be a formidable task.

At least it will be if the young Spaniard has turned a page in his career and has, as he insists, learned to keep calm and close the deal. If so, he would become just the seventh player in the illustrious history of this championship to own the outright lead after all four rounds.

"I can't wait to start," said the precocious 27-year-old after he shot 68 to get in at 9-under 204, his closest pursuer Stricker, though there's a seven-player logjam six back at 210 that includes Ernie Els (68), Padraig Harrington (68), and Chris DiMarco (66), while Tiger Woods (69) labors well back, tied for 15th at 1-under 212.

THE SWITCH FROM THE FRENCH TO THE ANGLO-AMERICAN MODEL...:

New leaders say pensive French think too much (Elaine Sciolino, July 21, 2007, International Herald Tribune)

France is the country that produced the Enlightenment, Descartes's one-liner, "I think, therefore I am," and the solemn pontifications of Jean-Paul Sartre and other celebrity philosophers.

But in the government of President Nicolas Sarkozy, thinking has lost its cachet.

In proposing a tax-cut law last week, Finance Minister Christine Lagarde bluntly advised the French people to abandon their "old national habit."

"France is a country that thinks," she told the National Assembly. "There is hardly an ideology that we haven't turned into a theory. We have in our libraries enough to talk about for centuries to come. This is why I would like to tell you: Enough thinking, already. Roll up your sleeves."

Citing Alexis de Tocqueville's "Democracy in America," she said the French should work harder, earn more and be rewarded with lower taxes if they get rich.

WANT TO REALLY MESS THEM UP?:

Getting Hezbollah to Behave (NICHOLAS NOE, 7/21/07, NY Times)

[W]ithout widespread public support from Lebanese of all religious persuasions, Muslim and Christian alike — especially now that the Syrian enforcers have ostensibly left Lebanon — violent operations would not only be extremely difficult, Hezbollah leaders acknowledge, but also domestically hazardous for their Shiite base.

This is precisely the reason that Hezbollah, since the 2000 Israeli withdrawal, has reduced its overt military presence and taken part in Lebanese politics in ways that it once would have avoided as corrupting or unnecessary, including a cabinet portfolio in 2005 and a surprisingly sturdy alliance in 2006 with the main Christian leader, Gen. Michel Aoun. This may be also why Hezbollah has been so uncharacteristically quiet in the confrontation between the Lebanese Army, which is enjoying a surge of public support at the moment, and Qaeda-inspired militants at the Palestinian refugee camp Nahr al Bared in northern Lebanon.

Undermine the rationale for violence directed at Israel — a rationale which, like it or not, is accepted by a great many Lebanese — and you have gone a long way toward reducing Hezbollah’s ability to act violently both along the border and even farther afield (that is if the American assertions of Hezbollah involvement in Iraq are to be believed).

In the meantime, you will have also pushed Hezbollah further into the muck of “normal” Lebanese politicking — an unflattering arena in which the Party of God is already uncharacteristically flip-flopping a- round, hurling accusations of “collaboration” at one moment while at the next suggesting the formation of a “national unity” government with some of those same “collaborators.”

For this oblique form of containment to work, however, the United States must first address what Hezbollah’s leader, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, has long termed the “four bleeding wounds” that engender public support for his party’s use of violence against Israel.

These are the handing over of maps of the land mines the Israelis left in South Lebanon during the occupation; the return of all Lebanese prisoners; an end to Israeli overflights of Lebanon (which are arguably unnecessary in any case); and, finally, Israel’s relinquishing of the disputed Shebaa Farms area, which, according to a report last week in the Israeli daily Haaretz, the United Nations may declare as Lebanese by the end of the month.

As Mr. Nasrallah put it shortly after the last successful prisoner exchange with Israel in 2004, “These fools do not learn from their past mistakes: when they withdrew from Lebanon, they continued to occupy the Shebaa Farms and kept our brothers in custody.” By doing that, Mr. Nasrallah said of the Israelis, “they opened the door for us.”

AS HER AMBITIONS ARE DINGELL-BURIED:

Veteran House Democrat Guards Turf on Energy,/a> (EDMUND L. ANDREWS, 7/21/07, NY Times)

He just turned 81, his voice has become frail and his hands often shake uncontrollably. In recent weeks, he has walked with crutches because of leg pains. But make no mistake: Representative John D. Dingell of Michigan has not mellowed.

As chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, first elected to Congress in 1955 when Dwight D. Eisenhower was president, Mr. Dingell has probably fought more fights, intimidated more adversaries and pushed through more legislation than any other Democrat in the House.

But House Democratic leaders, hoping to pass an “energy independence” bill this month, have had to delay taking the measure to the floor for weeks. Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her allies want a hefty increase in fuel-economy requirements for cars, light trucks and S.U.V.’s, but they are finding that it is not easy to maneuver around Mr. Dingell, who wants a smaller increase that would be less painful for Detroit automakers.

The power struggle pits a towering committee chairman, long accustomed to running his own show, against the first female House speaker, who has her own ambitious agenda.

THE FOO ON THE OTHER SHOET:

Fight Over Documents May Favor Bush, Experts Say: Contempt Charge Precedents Cited in Firings Case (Dan Eggen and Amy Goldstein, 7/21/07, Washington Post)

The Bush administration's vow this week to block contempt charges from Congress could prove to be a successful strategy for protecting White House documents about the multiple firings of U.S. attorneys, Democratic legal scholars and legislative aides said yesterday.

The experts cautioned that complaints by Democratic lawmakers about the administration's legal stance are undercut by a Justice Department legal opinion issued during the Clinton administration. It contended, as the Bush administration did this week, that Congress has no power to force a U.S. attorney to pursue contempt charges in cases in which a president has invoked executive privilege to withhold documents or testimony.

THE AUDACITY OF BAGMEN:

PAC tries new tactic to boost Obama run: Sees way around spending limits (Michael Kranish, July 21, 2007, Boston Globe)

The group sponsoring the Web page is not Obama's campaign, but an independent political action committee called Vote Hope 2008, which says that its goal is to help Obama become president and that it will spend $2 million to get out the vote for him.

Federal law prohibits political action committees, or PACs, from spending more than $5,000 in support of a candidate.

But Vote Hope's founders argue that this restriction does not apply to their group because they do not plan to coordinate their spending with Obama's campaign. Thus, there's no limit to what they can spend promoting him, they said.

What's more, the group said contributors who have given the maximum $2,300 individual do nation to Obama's campaign can give $5,000 to Vote Hope 2008, the maximum individual donation to a PAC.

Vote Hope then would spend these donations promoting Obama, giving donors a way to nearly triple their maximum contribution to Obama's cause.

The implications are potentially dramatic, according to campaign finance specialists, especially if other PACs follow Vote Hope's example for Obama or other candidates.

"I haven't seen another one like this," said Kent Cooper, a former Federal Election Commission official and co founder of PoliticalMoneyLine, a nonpartisan group that tracks money and politics.

If the group is able to raise money successfully, it could be copied by others and that in turn "would create a wide new avenue for campaign-related cash."

...AND CLOSER...:

Mariners inch closer to Angels: Batista escapes early trouble; Seattle one game out in AL West (JOHN HICKEY, 7/21/07, SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER)

Kenji Johjima held his right thumb and right index finger about half an inch apart.

"This is how close we came," Johjima said.

The words he didn't have to use at the end of that sentence were "to losing." That's because Gregg Zaun's bases-loaded ground ball down the first base line didn't go for a three-run double.

By the margin Johjima indicated, or even less, the ball was foul. Moments later, Zaun grounded into a double play. One run scored, but Seattle starter Miguel Batista got two badly needed outs.

A three-run double versus a double play. It was a lopsided trade for Batista, who went on to become the Mariners' first 10-game winner of the year as Seattle beat the Blue Jays 4-2.

And, although he didn't know it at the time, Johjima's approximation could stand for the Mariners' position in the American League West race. With the Angels losing to the Twins on Friday, the Mariners come into Saturday one game out of first place in the division.

STRANGE TIME TO PANIC:

An Iraqi's progress report: Baghdad's national security chief lists the advances and argues for more time. (Mowaffak Rubaie, July 21, 2007, LA Times)

The military force increase by the United States called "the surge" is only one element in the Iraqi and coalition strategy. The other elements are the political/diplomatic initiatives and economic progress — and the reality is that the strategy is working in spite of the monumental obstacles presented by international terrorists and difficult conditions inside Iraq.

Iraqi and coalition security forces are having major success against Al Qaeda and some of the other groups that are the principal sources of the violence that aims to overthrow our young democracy. From Al Anbar to Diyala, from Nineveh to Basra, the atrocities of the terrorists against our people are backfiring, and our citizens are coming forward to offer themselves to counter them.

Increasingly, Iraqis are showing confidence in our steadily improving security forces by leading them to hidden weapons and terrorist locations.

Iraq is continuing to increase the size and capabilities of its forces in the expectation that soon it will be able to decrease its reliance on coalition forces for direct combat functions. In no other modern country has the creation of new forces been as rapid and effective as in Iraq.

We also recognize that we have a long way to go.

MORE:
The American leap of faith -- and ignorance (George H. Rosen, July 21, 2007, Boston Globe)

It is a truism that Americans have always been interested -- seriously, deeply interested -- in building heaven on earth. From John Winthrop's "city on a hill" to Brigham Young's Utah, and through the clusters of Fruitlands, Amanas, Zions, and towns called Hope, we have always followed millenarian dreams.

Though, to call them millenarian is perhaps misleading. The millenarian paradise comes at the end of time, and Americans have always believed -- in fact, insisted -- on their right to build heaven immediately, right now and right here. It is why political figures have always spoken so easily and often about the American Dream as an inalienable birthright. One doubts if the Uruguayan or Albanian dream comes as readily to the political tongue, and it would be understandable if the Iraqi dream right now is not heaven on earth, but merely the prospect of going to the market without being blown up.

There can be an instability to millenarian certainty, our American expectation of paradise now: a dangerous impatience. It is one thing to cherish a vision of earthly paradise and work for it, best exemplified in our modern history by the civil rights movement, where the heavenly visions of gospel anthems gave sustenance for the real world of struggle. It is quite another to have a rigid vision of the perfect, which when the world doesn't live up to one's expectations, deteriorates into scorn for one's fellows and a desire to run off, to escape the fallen world into a dimly understood somewhere else.

Living between ecstatic hope and black despair, we sometimes have a short fuse before our frustrations lead to flights that can harm, not only ourselves -- like the suicidal sea cook's -- but the real people who inhabit what is, for the escapees, a dim and imaginary refuge.

The foremost cautionary tale of such a disaster in our history is the story of William Walker, the Tennesseean who led a band of American fanatics and mercenaries south of the border in 1853 to take over a country -- any country -- as a haven for English-speaking rulers and the institution of slavery. Walker first tried seizing a chunk of northern Mexico, failed, and then moved further toward the equator.

In bloody encounters, he momentarily became the master of Nicaragua, where he repealed the country's 30-year-old emancipation proclamation, only to be driven yet further from home and sanity in repeated attempts to retake the country. Walker died before a Honduran firing squad in 1860 with a trail of pointless carnage behind him, quickly forgotten in his own land, but long remembered in the Central American countries that suffered at his hands.

Sadly, this peculiar strain in our national character may shed some light on our Iraq disaster.

IS IT WORTH WINNING IF YOU PLAY FROM THE RED TEES?:

Garcia holds his two-shot lead: He plays a steady round with an even-par 71, two shots ahead of Choi. Woods fouls up his first shot and shoots a 74, leaving him seven behind. (Chuck Culpepper, July 21, 2007, LA Times)

Note the wizened old hand who clung to his perch Friday. He persevered when Carnoustie ramped up its surliness. He rescued himself right off the bat on No. 1 with a daydream of a chip. He held on for his toilsome, even-par 71. He played the role of grizzled sage in his 36th major tournament while others foundered and floundered.

Well, if it isn't Sergio Garcia, still 27 after all these years, and the 136th British Open somehow has become all about him. He's still hunting his first major title, just days after the retirement of his pioneering countryman Seve Ballesteros. [...]

All this, after Garcia missed the first two major cuts this year and arrived at Carnoustie with a new belly putter.

DRAT, WE WERE SURE THE FRENCH MODEL WOULD WORK THIS TIME:

In Brazil, an air of outrage over crash (Reed Johnson, July 21, 2007, LA Times)

As with the energy crisis, the aviation crisis appears to have raised doubts among many Brazilians about their government's ability to deal rapidly and effectively with an ongoing problem, hold officials accountable for their decisions and punish those responsible for failure.

While much of this week's indignation has been directed at the government of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, some say the problem goes beyond his administration and reflects more fundamental flaws in Brazilian society.

Lula and other top officials this week have avoided making public pronouncements about the crash at Sao Paulo's central city Congonhas airport that killed at least 190 people. However, they have been advancing theories that it might have been caused by mechanical failures with the plane rather than more systemic failures, and some here perceive what they say as an age-old tendency by Brazil's ruling classes to shirk blame.

"The Brazilian state does not acknowledge to any extent the notion of accountability," said Roberto Romano, a professor at the Institute of Philosophy and Human Science at the State University of Campinas in Sao Paulo state. "This happens again and again, and it has been worsened by two dictatorships of absolute power."

FINAL COUNTDOWN:

Harry Potter review: Is all well in the end? (Tibor Fischer, 21/07/2007, Daily Telegraph)

The mythology, jargon and cross-references that Rowling has built up makes Deathly Hallows nigh-on impossible to follow for the newcomer, despite the fact that Rowling has the characters discuss and regurgitate the plot at several points for easier reading.

Rowling has always insisted she had spent a long time mulling the story and she's always (like a good magician) had some surprising cards up her sleeve. The books have always gone as much backwards in time as forwards, and there are more revelations about the past of the Potter family, the now deceased Dumbledore, and my favourite character, Severus Snape.

There are very sound reasons why the Potter books have sold so well.

Rowling is extremely adroit at twists. The comic element that was so prominent in the earlier volumes (Rowling even indulged in a little political satire with the Ministry for Magic) nearly entirely evaporates here.

There is a huge set-piece battle between good and evil at Hogwarts as Voldemart's hordes besiege the school.

It's Armageddon. Ragnarok. But of course, it all boils down to single combat between Harry and Voldemort.

This part of the novel is far darker than anything in the other books and (although I doubt many of Rowling's readers will pick up on it) draws on the heroic stereotype from Achilles through to Christ.

MORE:
Harry and the final party: As midnight strikes around the globe, fans line up for the seventh and last installment of the magical J.K. Rowling story. (Josh Getlin and Martha Groves, July 21, 2007, LA Times)

If ever there was a global party, this was it.

The lines began forming outside London and Paris bookstores early in the morning Friday — hours before Los Angeles readers woke up — and the scene was repeated across the United States as Harry Potter fans gathered for midnight bashes to celebrate the release of J.K. Rowling's final installment in the blockbuster series: "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows."

In England, at 12:01 a.m. Saturday, Rowling began reading excerpts to an exclusive group of 1,000 invited children in London's imposing 19th century Natural History Museum, a suitable substitute for Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

A mile down the road in Piccadilly, several thousand fans besieged Waterstone's, the London bookshop that has become the focal point for sales of the book. Flourish and Blotts, where Harry bought all his school books, was never so crowded.

The fans came from all over: Australia, Israel, Italy and Spain. A group from Turin, Italy, appeared dressed as a Quidditch team. Some readers came from America.

"We're going to grab our copies and rush back and read and read all night, then get together and talk," said Rita Gill, 18, of Laguna Beach. Gill, dressed in wizard's robes, had been waiting since 6.30 a.m. Thursday.

She was joined by Bri Sanders of San Clemente. The friends are sad that the Potter saga is ending but, as Sanders said, "It's so exciting too."

"Yeah, I'm sad but I think it's right it ends now; everything needs closure," Gill said philosophically.

In Australia, a man had to be rescued from a freezing lake after jumping in to retrieve his receipt for a pre-ordered book. In Bangkok, the British Ambassador was to present the first of 10,000 pre-ordered copies.

In Britain, the children's counselling service ChildLine said it had enlisted extra volunteers to field calls from distressed fans.

Senior ChildLine supervisor Kate Trench said: "For many children, Harry Potter and his friends have become a major part of their childhood. Death and loss of any kind can make children feel upset, angry and afraid."

A supermarket price war saw the book selling yesterday for a third of its recommended price, with Asda selling copies for £5 and Morrisons undercutting it by one penny.

The internet marketer Amazon said global pre-orders had hit 2.2 million. That was a 47 percent increase on the previous record for Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, the last book. The Waterstone's chain said it expects to sell three million copies.

Edinburgh became a Mecca for British and international fans yesterday. Outside Waterstone's branch opposite the Balmoral Hotel, where Rowling reportedly finished the book's last words, the queue began at 11am.

New Zealand sisters Brittney and Steffi Silk were first in line. They had saved for two years to fly over for a four-day Potter tour in London and Edinburgh.

"It's the final Harry Potter book," said Brittney, 16. "I've been a fan for half my life, so I thought we would come and experience it where it started."

WEREN'T THE DEMOCRATS GOING TO RESTORE CORDIALITY ON THE HILL?:

Senate erases Libby vote (Ken Strickland, 7/20/07, NBC: First Read)

Last night, the US Senate erased a page of history -- literally. The body agreed to permanently remove from the constitutionally mandated Congressional Record a vote they'd taken earlier in the evening on a measure saying the president should not pardon Scooter Libby. The vote failed 47-49, but any reference to the vote itself was expunged as though it never happened.

The Senate was in the process of finishing up an education bill, when various Republican senators called for votes on measures having nothing to do with education, like Gitmo and the Fairness Doctrine. After apparently getting annoyed, Democrats countered with the Libby amendment. "If you are going to shoot this way, we have to shoot that way," said Sen. Ken Salazar (D-Colo.) on the floor.

Republicans were besides themselves. "Until this last amendment, I haven't seen politically inspired amendments before this body," Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) said in opposition. There was so much audible grumbling from senators in reaction (and disbelief), that Kyl had to pause for it to subside. After the Libby vote failed, Republicans struck back hard, offering a amendment condemning about a dozen previous pardons by President Clinton. As one GOP aide put it, "we brought our gun to the knife fight." But cooler heads prevailed when both party leaders decided not to have the Clinton vote, and the Majority Leader Harry Reid simply asked that the Libby vote "be vitiated and stricken from the record."

FETCH REWRITE... (via Brian Boys):

Tiny Brain No Problem for French Tax Official (Der Spiegel, 7/20/07)

The commonly spouted wisdom that people only use 10 percent of their brain power may have been dismissed as a myth, but one French man seems to be managing fine with just a small fraction of his actual brain.

In fact the man, who works as a civil servant in southern France, has succeeded in living an entirely normal life despite a huge fluid-filled cavity taking up most of the space where his brain should be. [...]

"The case is extreme, but there are other cases of patients with incredibly little brain matter," Florian Heinen, a brain development expert at the Dr. von Hauner's Children's Hospital at Munich University, explained to the Süddeutsche Zeitung. "Obviously these few nerve cells can achieve just as much as the millions more cells that other people have."

TIME FOR HIS COME TO JAMES MOMENT:

Has the Religious Right Found Its Man in Thompson? (David Domke, 7/20/07, Real Clear Politics)

Here's what Richard Land of the Southern Baptist Convention had to say in early April: "Fred Thompson reminds me of a Southern-fried Reagan. To see Fred work a crowd must be what it was like to watch Rembrandt paint."

In June Southern Baptist executive committee president Morris Chapman, who said he hasn't settled on a candidate yet, nonetheless added: "Another Southern Baptist called Fred Thompson the Ronald Reagan of the South, and I think he has some of that appeal. He is a magnetic personality. He seems to articulate his opinions clearly. He seems to be unflappable." [...]

In late March, Focus on the Family's James Dobson said he doubted that Thompson was a Christian. But Gilgoff--whose 2007 book The Jesus Machine documents the rising political influence of Dobson--reported that Dobson is now "rumored to be reassessing Thompson." Indeed, a Dobson spokesman laid out the political pathway for Reagan, er Thompson, telling CNN that "Thompson hasn't clearly communicated his religious faith, and many evangelical Christians might find this a barrier to supporting him."

Translation: show us a sign--a public sign--and we'll believe. Expect Thompson, therefore, to deliver a high-profile speech about values and faith in the coming months, perhaps even before he kicks off his campaign (now rumored to be set for just after Labor Day).

OVERBEARING MOM? CHECK; DISTANT FATHER? CHECK; RECRUITED? CHECK...:

Born gay? No Way! (Richard Cohen, 20 July 2007, New Statesman)

“Born gay? No way.” That’s what I said to the therapist who tried to convince me that I was born with the homosexual feelings I so deeply wanted to overcome. I experienced unwanted same-sex attractions (SSA) since I was in grade school. In middle school and high school those desires intensified. As my male friends became increasingly interested in girls, I became increasingly interested in them. In my undergraduate years of college, I had a male partner for three years. But, with all my heart, I wanted to marry a woman and have a family.

Fast forward to today. My wife and I just celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary. Our three children created a beautiful celebration. Our oldest son is in medical school, our daughter is a high school English teacher, and our youngest son is in the seventh grade. It was a monumental moment for our family.

So how did I finally fulfill my dream to marry and create a loving family? I searched long and hard to find those who could help me understand the meaning of my homosexual feelings. “Born gay?” I knew in my gut that was not true, at least not for me. I learned there were several contributing factors which led to my unwanted SSA: 1) I had quite a sensitive temperament which led me to experience people and situations very deeply; 2) my dad and I didn’t connect, our characters were so different; 3) my mom and I were too close, our characters were very similar; 4) my older brother was deeply hurt by our dad and took his pain out on me; and 5) a friend of the family sexually abused me when I was five years old. When I worked through the pain of each relationship and grieved the losses of my past, literally, my unwanted SSA left my body and soul. It took quite a long time, and today I am living my dream.

A COMEDIAN, NOT A TRAGEDIAN (via mc):

Bush's Cognitive Dissonance (Eugene Robinson, July 20, 2007, Washington Post)

Last week, George W. Bush invited nine conservative pundits to the White House for what amounted to a pep talk, with the president providing the pep. Somehow I was left off the list -- must have been an oversight. But some columnists who attended have been writing about the meeting or describing it to colleagues, and their accounts are downright scary.

National Review's Kate O'Beirne, who joined the presidential chat in the Roosevelt Room, told me that the most striking thing was the president's incongruously sunny demeanor. Bush's approval ratings are well below freezing, the nation is sooooo finished with his foolish and tragic war, many of his remaining allies in Congress have given notice that come September they plan to leave the Decider alone in his private Alamo -- and the president remains optimistic and upbeat.

Bush was "not at all weary or anguished" and in fact was "very energized," wrote Michael Barone of U.S. News & World Report. He was "as confident and upbeat as ever," observed Rich Lowry of National Review. "Far from being beleaguered, Bush was assertive and good-humored," according to David Brooks of the New York Times.

Excuse me? [...]

One of the more unnerving reports out of the president's seminar with the pundits came from Brooks, who quoted Bush as saying: "It's more of a theological perspective. I do believe there is an Almighty, and I believe a gift of that Almighty to all is freedom. And I will tell you that is a principle that no one can convince me that doesn't exist."

MEANWHILE, WE HAVE THE ANGLO-AMERICAN MODEL:

Southwest orders 25 Boeing 737s (JAMES WALLACE, 7/20/07, Seattle Post-Intelligencer)

Southwest Airlines, which announced Thursday that its legendary chairman and co-founder, Herb Kelleher, will resign in May, has ordered another 25 Boeing 737s.

The order is worth about $1.7 billion at the list price of the 737-700. Southwest said it exercised options to buy the jets, which will be delivered starting in 2013.

The Boeing Co. said the Southwest jets were among 36 new orders that it won in the past week, raising its total for the year to 616 net orders. Other new orders included six 787s and two 777s.

WHICH IS WHY SCOOTER NEEDN'T HAVE STOOPED TO CRIMINALITY:

Plame's Suit Against Top Officials Dismissed (Carol D. Leonnig, 7/20/07, Washington Post)

A federal judge yesterday dismissed a lawsuit filed by former CIA officer Valerie Plame and her husband against Vice President Cheney and other top officials over the Bush administration's disclosure of Plame's name and covert status to the media.

U.S. District Judge John D. Bates said that Cheney and the others could not be held liable for the disclosures in the summer of 2003 in the midst of a White House effort to rebut criticism of the Iraq war by her husband, former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV. The judge said that such efforts are a natural part of the officials' job duties, and, thus, they are immune from liability.

"The alleged means by which defendants chose to rebut Mr. Wilson's comments and attack his credibility may have been highly unsavory," Bates wrote. "But there can be no serious dispute that the act of rebutting public criticism, such as that levied by Mr. Wilson against the Bush administration's handling of prewar foreign intelligence, by speaking with members of the press is within the scope of defendants' duties as high-level Executive Branch officials."

JUSTICE IS JUST PART OF THE EXECUTIVE:

Broader Privilege Claimed In Firings: White House Says Hill Can't Pursue Contempt Cases (Dan Eggen and Amy Goldstein, 7/20/07, Washington Post)

Bush administration officials unveiled a bold new assertion of executive authority yesterday in the dispute over the firing of nine U.S. attorneys, saying that the Justice Department will never be allowed to pursue contempt charges initiated by Congress against White House officials once the president has invoked executive privilege.

The position presents serious legal and political obstacles for congressional Democrats, who have begun laying the groundwork for contempt proceedings against current and former White House officials in order to pry loose information about the dismissals.

Under federal law, a statutory contempt citation by the House or Senate must be submitted to the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, "whose duty it shall be to bring the matter before the grand jury for its action."

But administration officials argued yesterday that Congress has no power to force a U.S. attorney to pursue contempt charges in cases, such as the prosecutor firings, in which the president has declared that testimony or documents are protected from release by executive privilege. Officials pointed to a Justice Department legal opinion during the Reagan administration, which made the same argument in a case that was never resolved by the courts.

PLEASANT PEASANTS:

Band of the Week: Los Campesinos! (Eric Lach, 15 Jul 2007 , Paste)

Los Campesinos! are a typical college band. First, a bar-stool conversation about The Decemberists inspires a few fellow students to start playing music together. On Wednesdays, they pack into a dorm room and jam out. Then they add a violin. They play some shows. Then they record an EP with a respected producer and get picked up by a label. Following graduation, they get ready to play Lollapalooza. Yeah, typical school-kid stuff.

“We were making these noises but we had no idea what it sounded like all together,” says Gareth Campesinos! (like the Ramones, Los Campesinos! have all adopted the band’s name as their own) about the group’s formation as a septet in early 2006. “It wasn’t until probably about our sixth or seventh gig that we had a decent set [and] we could actually hear what the songs sounded like all together.”

From the start, the group’s mission was to have fun and keep things loose. Both the music and the band show a sense of humor that undercuts pretension. Gareth, who sings and plays keyboards, brought a glockenspiel to his first rehearsal. “I owned a glockenspiel," he recalls, "and I thought, ‘How can I show everybody else that I’m the man they want to sing in their band? I know, I’ll take a glockenspiel; nobody else will have one.'”

For Los Campesinos!, the past 12 months have sped by in a way that justifies the exclamation point at the end of their shared moniker. In September, the band recorded four tracks with producer David Newfeld (Broken Social Scene). Initially, they planned to release the songs “We Throw Parties, You Throw Knives,” “It Started With A Mixx,” “Don’t Tell Me To Do The Math(S),” and “You! Me! Dancing!” as singles. But when respected Canadian label Arts and Crafts signed the group, Los Campesinos! decided to add two more tracks, including a cover of Pavement’s “Frontwards,” and package the songs as an EP.

WHERE'S JANET RENO WHEN WE NEED HER?:

N.H. couple evade death and taxes: The Browns have been holed up, refusing to pay the IRS or go to prison. It's a battle that might end in bloodshed. (Erika Hayasaki, July 20, 2007, LA Times)

The Browns stopped paying income taxes in 1996. They say the Constitution and Supreme Court decisions support their claims that ordinary labor cannot be taxed. But a judge ruled against them in January, convicting the Browns of conspiring to evade paying taxes on $1.9 million in income from Elaine's dentistry practice.

Now, the Browns say they're in a battle for freedom, and it just might end in bloodshed right here, in a towering turreted house with 8-inch-thick concrete walls and an American flag fluttering over the double-car garage. They have garnered national support, with blogs devoted to news about the standoff and supporters regularly showing up on the couple's doorstep with groceries.

Government and law officials have cut off power, Internet, house phone, cellphone, television and mail service to the couple's 110-acre compound. But their house is equipped with solar panels, a watchtower, a satellite dish and a stockpile of food.

"We are self-sustained like a ship," Ed says. "We don't need power from the shore to run the ship."

FBI agents are trying to avoid a deadly shootout reminiscent of Waco, Texas, or Ruby Ridge, Idaho.

THE LAST BASTION OF WESTERN CULTURE:

America’s Opera Boom (Jonathan Leaf, July/August 2007, American)

Lakmé is one of five operas that the Minnesota Opera will present this year, and the success of the production illustrates one of the most unexpected developments in American life today: the burgeoning popularity of live opera. Even as symphony attendance declines and movie-theater admissions stagnate, opera-going has blossomed. The U.S., believe it or not, is one of the global leaders.

The U.S. now has 125 professional opera companies, 60 percent of them launched since 1970, according to the trade group OPERA America. The U.S. has more opera companies than Germany and nearly twice as many as Italy. In the most comprehensive recent study, the National Endowment for the Arts found that between 1982 and 2002, total attendance at live opera performances grew 46 percent.

Annual admissions are now estimated at 20 million, roughly the same attendance as NFL football games (22 million, including playoffs, in 2006–07). In part, this reflects a shift toward seeing opera domestically. “Foreign opera destinations like Salzburg and Glyndebourne are more expensive, and more Americans are staying home—and probably feeling safer for it,” says Richard Gaddes, general director of the Santa Fe Opera in New Mexico.

Consequently, opera travel within the U.S.—even by foreigners—is booming. The Opera Theatre of Saint Louis drew attendees last year from 42 U.S. states, in addition to France, Germany, Britain, and Canada. Likewise, the Seattle Opera gets loads of Germans eager to see its highly regarded productions of Wagner’s operas. Gaddes says his company is “the major economic engine of tourism in Santa Fe.”

And the number of American opera productions continues to increase. As of 2005, OPERA America included companies under its aegis in 44 states. They put on 3,012 performances (up by one-third in just four years) of 420 different opera productions. Opera companies, moreover, are raising large amounts of money: $387 million in private contributions in 2005 alone.

VERIFY:

Deals in Iraq Make Friends of Enemies: In Tactical Shift for U.S., Informal Amnesties Win Some Insurgents' Cooperation (Thomas E. Ricks, 7/20/07, Washington Post)

Despite a White House report last week concluding that a formal amnesty initiative would be "counterproductive" for Iraq today, U.S. military officials in Iraq believe that successful counterinsurgency campaigns almost always involve some form of forgiveness as a means to ending the fighting and achieving political reconciliation.

Though no formal arrangement exists for granting amnesty to insurgents, the current deals amount to a kind of don't-ask-don't-tell pardon system. U.S. forces cooperate with former enemies in exchange for information about roadside bombs, weapons caches and sanctuaries of al-Qaeda in Iraq, the mainly Iraqi group that has sought to intensify the country's low-level civil war.

"Our engagement efforts with groups who were once adversaries is about getting them to point their weapons at al-Qaeda and other extremists," Army Lt. Gen. Raymond T. Odierno, the No. 2 U.S. commander in Iraq, said in a briefing yesterday, offering the most extensive public comments on the subject thus far. "We are ready and willing to engage with key leaders of any groups opposing AQI [al-Qaeda in Iraq] or other extremist groups." He said that U.S. forces have reached deals with a variety of groups, both Sunni and Shiite, "throughout Iraq," citing Baghdad, the provinces of Anbar and Diyala, the towns of Taji and Iskandariyah, the Arab Jabour region, and southern Iraq.

"They're all very different; they're all very localized," Odierno said of the arrangements. But, he added, they tend to follow three basic steps.

First, the leaders of the groups agree to stop attacking U.S. and Iraqi forces. Then they pledge to fight al-Qaeda in Iraq. Finally, U.S. and Iraqi officials try to get them to become part of Iraqi security forces, usually the police.

"There are no signed agreements," Odierno added. "They are . . . handshake agreements."

TRY NOT TO THINK OF A KING:

The Case for the Strong Executive: Under some circumstances, the rule of law must yield to the need for energy. (HARVEY C. MANSFIELD, May 2, 2007, Opinion Journal)

The case for a strong executive should begin from a study, on this occasion a quick survey, of the American republic. The American republic was the first to have a strong executive that was intended to be republican as well as strong, and the success, or long life, of America's Constitution qualifies it as a possible model for other countries. Modern political science beginning from Machiavelli abandoned the best regime featured by classical political science because the best regime was utopian or imaginary. Modern political scientists wanted a practical solution, and by the time of Locke, followed by Montesquieu, they learned to substitute a model regime for the best regime; and this was the government of England. The model regime would not be applicable everywhere, no doubt, because it was not intended to be a lowest common denominator. But it would show what could be done in the best circumstances.

The American Founders had the ambition to make America the model regime, taking over from England. This is why they showed surprising respect for English government, the regime they had just rebelled against. America would not only make a republic for itself, but teach the world how to make a successful republic and thus improve republicanism and save the reputation of republics. For previous republics had suffered disastrous failure, alternating between anarchy and tyranny, seeming to force the conclusion that orderly government could come only from monarchy, the enemy of republics. Previous republics had put their faith in the rule of law as the best way to foil one-man rule. The rule of law would keep power in the hands of many, or at least a few, which was safer than in the hands of one. As the way to ensure the rule of law, Locke and Montesquieu fixed on the separation of powers. They were too realistic to put their faith in any sort of higher law; the rule of law would be maintained by a legislative process of institutions that both cooperated and competed.

Now the rule of law has two defects, each of which suggests the need for one-man rule. The first is that law is always imperfect by being universal, thus an average solution even in the best case, that is inferior to the living intelligence of a wise man on the spot, who can judge particular circumstances. This defect is discussed by Aristotle in the well-known passage in his "Politics" where he considers "whether it is more advantageous to be ruled by the best man or the best laws."

The other defect is that the law does not know how to make itself obeyed. Law assumes obedience, and as such seems oblivious to resistance to the law by the "governed," as if it were enough to require criminals to turn themselves in. No, the law must be "enforced," as we say. There must be police, and the rulers over the police must use energy (Alexander Hamilton's term) in addition to reason. It is a delusion to believe that governments can have energy without ever resorting to the use of force.

The best source of energy turns out to be the same as the best source of reason--one man. One man, or, to use Machiavelli's expression, uno solo, will be the greatest source of energy if he regards it as necessary to maintaining his own rule. Such a person will have the greatest incentive to be watchful, and to be both cruel and merciful in correct contrast and proportion. We are talking about Machiavelli's prince, the man whom in apparently unguarded moments he called a tyrant.

The American Founders heeded both criticisms of the rule of law when they created the presidency. The president would be the source of energy in government, that is, in the administration of government, energy being a neutral term that might include Aristotle's discretionary virtue and Machiavelli's tyranny--in which only partisans could discern the difference. The founders of course accepted the principle of the rule of law, as being required by the republican genius of the American people. Under this principle, the wise man or prince becomes and is called an "executive," one who carries out the will and instruction of others, of the legislature that makes the law, of the people who instruct or inspire the legislature. In this weak sense, the dictionary definition of "executive," the executive forbears to rule in his own name as one man. This means that neither one-man wisdom nor tyranny is admitted into the Constitution as such; if there is need for either, the need is subordinated to, or if you will, covered over by, the republican principle of the rule of law.

Yet the executive subordinated to the rule of law is in danger of being subordinate to the legislature. This was the fault in previous republics. When the separation of powers was invented in 17th-century England, the purpose was to keep the executive subordinate; but the trouble was the weakness of a subordinate executive. He could not do his job, or he could do his job only by overthrowing or cowing the legislature, as Oliver Cromwell had done. John Locke took the task in hand, and made a strong executive in a manner that was adopted by the American Founders.

Locke was a careful writer, so careful that he did not care if he appeared to be a confused writer. In his "Second Treatise of Government" he announces the supremacy of the legislature, which was the slogan of the parliamentary side in the English Civil War, as the principle that should govern a well-made constitution. But as the argument proceeds, Locke gradually "fortifies" (to use James Madison's term) the executive. Locke adds other related powers to the subordinate power of executing the laws: the federative power dealing with foreign affairs, which he presents as conceptually distinct from the power of executing laws but naturally allied; the veto, a legislative function; the power to convoke the legislature and to correct its representation should it become corrupt; and above all, the prerogative, defined as "the power of doing public good without a rule." Without a rule! Even more: "sometimes too against the direct letter of the law." This is the very opposite of law and the rule of law--and "prerogative" was the slogan of the king's party in the same war.

Thus Locke combined the extraconstitutional with the constitutional in a contradiction; besides saying that the legislature is "the supreme power" of the commonwealth, he speaks of "the supreme executive power." Locke, one could say, was acting as a good citizen, bringing peace to his country by giving both sides in the Civil War a place in the constitution. In doing so he ensured that the war would continue, but it would be peaceful because he also ensured that, there being reason and force on both sides, neither side could win conclusively.

The American Constitution adopted this fine idea and improved it. The American Founders helped to settle Locke's deliberate confusion of supremacy by writing it into a document and ratifying it by the people rather than merely scattering it in the treatise of a philosopher. By being formalized the Constitution could become a law itself, but a law above ordinary law and thus a law above the rule of law in the ordinary sense of laws passed by the legislature. Thus some notion of prerogative--though the word "prerogative" was much too royal for American sensibilities--could be pronounced legal inasmuch as it was constitutional. This strong sense of executive power would be opposed, within the Constitution, to the rule of law in the usual, old-republican meaning, as represented by the two rule-of-law powers in the Constitution, the Congress which makes law and the judiciary which judges by the law.

The American Constitution signifies that it has fortified the executive by vesting the president with "the executive power," complete and undiluted in Article II, as opposed to the Congress in Article I, which receives only certain delegated and enumerated legislative powers. The president takes an oath "to execute the Office of President" of which only one function is to "take care that the laws be faithfully executed." In addition, he is commander-in-chief of the military, makes treaties (with the Senate), and receives ambassadors. He has the power of pardon, a power with more than a whiff of prerogative for the sake of a public good that cannot be achieved, indeed that is endangered, by executing the laws. In the Federalist, as already noted, the executive represents the need for energy in government, energy to complement the need for stability, satisfied mainly in the Senate and the judiciary.

Energy and stability are necessary in every form of government, but in their previous, sorry history, republics had failed to meet these necessities. Republican government cannot survive, as we would say, by ideology alone. The republican genius is dominant in America, where there has never been much support for anything like an ancien régime, but support for republicanism is not enough to make a viable republic. The republican spirit can actually cause trouble for republics if it makes people think that to be republican it is enough merely to oppose monarchy. Such an attitude tempts a republican people to republicanize everything so as to make government resemble a monarchy as little as possible.

Although the Federalist made a point of distinguishing a republic from a democracy (by which it meant a so-called pure, nonrepresentative democracy), the urge today to democratize everything has similar bad effects. To counter this reactionary republican (or democratic, in today's language) belief characteristic of shortsighted partisans, the Federalist made a point of holding the new, the novel, American republic to the test of good government as opposed merely to that of republican government.

The test of good government was what was necessary to all government. Necessity was put to the fore. In the first papers of the Federalist, necessity took the form of calling attention to the present crisis in America, caused by the incompetence of the republic established by the Articles of Confederation. The crisis was both foreign and domestic, and it was a crisis because it was urgent. The face of necessity, the manner in which it first appears and is most impressive, is urgency--in Machiavelli's words, la necessità che non da tempo (the necessity that allows no time). And what must be the character of a government's response to an urgent crisis? Energy. And where do we find energy in the government? In the executive. Actually, the Federalist introduces the need for energy in government considerably before it associates energy with the executive. To soothe republican partisans, the strong executive must be introduced by stages.

One should not believe that a strong executive is needed only for quick action in emergencies, though that is the function mentioned first. A strong executive is requisite to oppose majority faction produced by temporary delusions in the people. For the Federalist, a strong executive must exercise his strength especially against the people, not showing them "servile pliancy." Tocqueville shared this view. Today we think that a strong president is one who leads the people, that is, one who takes them where they want to go, like Andrew Jackson. But Tocqueville contemptuously regarded Jackson as weak for having been "the slave of the majority." Again according to the Federalist, the American president will likely have the virtue of responsibility, a new political virtue, now heard so often that it seems to be the only virtue, but first expounded in that work.

"Responsibility" is not mere responsiveness to the people; it means doing what the people would want done if they were apprised of the circumstances. Responsibility requires "personal firmness" in one's character, and it enables those who love fame--"the ruling passion of the noblest minds"--to undertake "extensive and arduous enterprises."

Only a strong president can be a great president. Americans are a republican people but they admire their great presidents. Those great presidents--I dare not give a complete list--are not only those who excelled in the emergency of war but those, like Washington, Lincoln and Franklin Roosevelt, who also deliberately planned and executed enterprises for shaping or reshaping the entire politics of their country.

This admiration for presidents extends beyond politics into society, in which Americans, as republicans, tolerate, and appreciate, an amazing amount of one-man rule. The CEO (chief executive officer) is found at the summit of every corporation including universities. I suspect that appreciation for private executives in democratic society was taught by the success of the Constitution's invention of a strong executive in republican politics.

EVENTUALLY THE REACTIONARIES EVEN REACT AGAINST DECENCY:

Obama: Don't stay in Iraq over genocide (PHILIP ELLIOTT, Associated Press)

Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama said Thursday the United States cannot use its military to solve humanitarian problems and that preventing a potential genocide in Iraq isn't a good enough reason to keep U.S. forces there.

Suppose, for example, that China decided to murder every Tibetan. Easy enough to argue that we have no political or economic interest in such a matter, but to then argue that the moral interest we'd have is not good enough to justify intervention is profoundly unAmerican.

FOLLOW THE MONEY:

Al Sharpton on the Return of Imus (RADAR, 7/19/07)

Imus buddy Bo Dietl dropped heavy hints on a radio show over the weekend that the aging shock jock will be back at WFAN no later than September. That would mean a mere five months of wandering in the wilderness for the I-Man, who was fired in April by CBS Radio and MSNBC after calling female college basketball players "nappy-headed hos."

Sharpton, of course, played no small part in Imus's downfall, even inviting the man onto his radio show to apologize to viewers only to declare his apology inadequate. Yet the Rev. tells Radar he would not oppose Imus's return this fall.

DIPLOMATS DON'T DETERMINE BORDERS, PEOPLES DO:

The Old World Order (ADAM KIRSCH, July 18, 2007, NY Sun)

Like the peace-makers at the end of every great war, the powers who assembled at Vienna promised the world that its sacrifices would not go for nothing. Napoleon had redrawn the map of Europe according to his own wishes, erasing a country here and creating one there, turning monarchs into paupers and his relatives and henchmen into kings. But the Allies, led by the moralistic and self-mythologizing Tsar Alexander, had vowed that they were fighting to return the principles of justice to international affairs. Mr. Zamoyski, who finds Alexander a repellent but irresistible subject, writes that the tsar "had come to view his struggle with the French Emperor not only as a personal contest, or as a clash between two empires, but as a veritable Armageddon between good and evil."

The problem was that good did not defeat Napoleon; the armies of three monarchs did, and each of those monarchs had his own vision for postwar Europe. Combining impressive scholarship — "Rites of Peace" cites sources in English, French, Russian and German — and a gift for clear narrative, Mr. Zamoyski unravels the tangle of motives and propaganda to show just what was at stake for each participant in the Congress. France, ironically, had the least to gain or lose. Her borders had been decided on months earlier, when the allied armies entered Paris. Instead, the major problems had to do with Poland and Germany, whose political arrangements had been thrown into complete chaos by the war.

Geographically, the problem at Vienna was roughly the same as the one facing the Allies at Potsdam in 1945. Russia, which bore the brunt of the war against Napoleon, had marched its armies across Europe and was now effectively in control of Poland and much of Prussia. Alexander, who had a messianic dream of restoring Poland to the map as a kingdom under his control, refused to give back the parts of Poland that had formerly belonged to Prussia. As a result, Prussia sought compensation to the west, demanding to annex the independent kingdom of Saxony. Austria, meanwhile, under the wily conservative Metternich, hoped to maintain a balance of power, to rein in Alexander's ambitions, and to keep Prussia from dominating the smaller German states. It was a thoroughly unedifying spectacle, in which the great powers swapped cities and provinces like horse-traders, while the claims of small nations were ruthlessly ignored.

By the time the Congress produced its Final Act, in June 1815 — after a hiatus for Napoleon's Hundred Days, a romantic episode to which Mr. Zamoyski devotes little attention — no one could still believe that a fairer world was in the offing. "We are completing the sad business of the Congress," wrote one diplomat, "which, by its results, is the most mean-spirited piece of work ever seen." As in 1945, power trumped justice, especially in Eastern Europe. Mr. Zamoyski has little patience for the argument, made by Henry Kissinger in his 1957 study "A World Restored," that at least the Congress established a workable international system that could guarantee peace.

In fact, he insists, the settlement of Vienna — which frustrated national aspirations in Germany and Italy, and installed "legitimate" autocrats in Spain and elsewhere — guaranteed an endless cycle of repression and revolution, which finally issued in the cataclysmic wars of the 20th century. "The peacemakers of Vienna," Mr. Zamoyski concludes, "had attempted to reconstruct a European community in total disregard of the direction in which the Continent was moving," and rulers and peoples alike paid the price.

WHO CAN AFFORD TO BE OUTSIDE THAT RELATIONSHIP?:

Growing links for US and India (Xenia Dormandy, July 19, 2007, Boston Globe)

Defense cooperation is booming, with many potential acquisitions on the line. India is modernizing its military, putting out large bids for aircraft, with US companies as some of the front-runners. This past year, the US Navy transferred its decommissioned ship the USS Trenton to the Indian Navy. We are close to deals on large transport aircraft. Also, joint military exercises are expanding, to include the participation of Japan alongside the United States and India.

In science and technology, cooperation continues, whether through a new "green revolution" that is being jump-started with large financial commitments from both nations, or space cooperation recently promoted by the announcement of US instruments being placed on an Indian lunar shuttle. People-to-people links have multiplied: For the last three years, India has sent more students to the United States than any other country including China. At the same time, the number of American students in India has doubled over the past year. More and more Indian entrepreneurs are returning to India after some years in America in a "reverse brain-drain."

Notwithstanding lack of progress on the Doha negotiations, trade and investment between the two countries have also multiplied. While it has not achieved the intended "doubling of bilateral trade in three years" that was announced in March 2006, trade is growing by over 20 percent per year with steady advances as Indian markets open up and tariffs are removed in both countries. Niche market it might be, but after 18 years of disputes, Americans can now buy Indian mangos.

The links keep expanding, whether in counterterrorism where the two countries are working ever more intimately, to disaster relief, pandemics, health, energy, and the environment.

WHICH INCIDENTALLY POINTS OUT WHY AL-QAEDA CAN'T WIN:

Hamilton: Time for US to get tough on war-on-terror allies: The former co-chair of the Iraq Study Group said the US's relationship with Pakistan needs to be reevaluated. The US also needs to be firmer with Iraq's prime minister on meeting deadlines for benchmarks (David Cook, 7/19/07, CS Monitor)

"I think that our relationship with Pakistan needs to be reconsidered, reevaluated.… What has driven our relationship with Pakistan has been the fear that the alternative to Musharraf would be a radical government with a nuclear bomb. I think that fear is overstated…. I believe it is necessary for the United States to be able to go after the sanctuaries in Pakistan," [Lee Hamilton] said.

When he was asked whether such action could cause the Musharraf government to fall, Mr. Hamilton responded, "It is a risk, and it is a risk I would be willing to take."

ALWAYS LET THE BIG DOG HUNT:

Curtis LeMay: Bombing To Win (CARL ROLLYSON, July 18, 2007, NY Sun)

"Whatever other names arise," Barrett Tillman writes in "LeMay: A Biography", General Curtis LeMay and Admiral Chester Nimitz "were the two commanders most responsible for defeating the Japanese Empire." Nimitz rebuilt the Navy after Pearl Harbor and at Midway delivered a blow to the Japanese carrier force from which it could never recover. Similarly, LeMay took the air battle to the Japanese homeland, perfecting the B29 on bombing missions that may well have won the war even without the atomic bomb.

Not that LeMay opposed the bomb. He was certain it would shorten the war and minimize the huge losses an American invasion of the Japanese homeland would entail. Indeed, World War II confirmed LeMay's military doctrine of stipulating the use of maximum, overwhelming force to defeat an enemy. He deplored the gradual escalation of firepower in Korea and Vietnam, and as soon as he heard of plans for the Bay of Pigs invasion, he pronounced the invasion force doomed, especially when air cover was withdrawn, leaving the invaders easy targets for Castro's army.

LeMay was the quintessential Cold Warrior who gave no quarter. He was called a Neanderthal because he favored a first strike against the Soviet Union. But to LeMay it made no sense to absorb the deaths of millions of Americans and then retaliate.

TAXING SIN:

Busted! Red-light cameras nab 13,966 drivers in a rush (Roxana Popescu, 7/19/07, Seattle Times)

Red-light cameras installed at four Seattle intersections last year have resulted in nearly 14,000 traffic citations and brought in just over $900,000 in revenue, according to a preliminary report to be issued today.

But their real value, the city says, is they have led to a marked drop in violations for running red lights and in the severity of traffic collisions at the intersections.

At the intersections, red-light violations dropped by a third over the course of the year, after a brief initial spike, according to the report. Weekly citations per camera went from about 90 in July 2006 to just under 60 in May.

There also was a reduction in the severity of accidents at the intersections, though only a slight drop in frequency.

THE DISCIPLINE OF DEMOCRACY:

Iranian Public Ready to Deal on Nuclear Weapons, But Not Uranium Enrichment: The Iranian public is ready to support a deal committing the Iranian government to renounce the development of nuclear weapons and allow full inspections. Iranians are not willing, however, to support giving up the enrichment of uranium for nuclear energy. (World Public Opinion, 7/19/07)

A new poll by sponsored by Terror Free Tomorrow and conducted by D3 Systems shows that a slight majority of Iranians (52%) believe their country should develop nuclear weapons. Nonetheless, overwhelming majorities support a deal under which Iran would provide “full inspections and a guarantee not to develop or possess nuclear weapons” in exchange for incentives, including:

• trade and capital investment overall to create more jobs (favored by 80%)
• trade and capital investment in energy refineries to lower the price of gasoline (79%)
• medical, education and humanitarian assistance to Iranian people in need (80%)
• technological assistance for developing peaceful nuclear energy (80%)

A slight majority (51%) would also be willing to offer “full transparency by Iran to assure there are no Iranian endeavors to develop or possess nuclear weapons” as part of a process of normalizing relations with the United States.

Iranians are not ready to negotiate away their nuclear energy program, however. In the Terror Free Tomorrow (TFT) poll an extraordinarily high 92 percent approves (78% strongly) of Iran’s effort to develop nuclear energy. [...]

Polls from other organizations also suggest that though Iranians support nuclear energy, they do not put a high priority on developing nuclear weapons. A WPO poll conducted in the fall of 2006 found that two thirds approved of Iran being part of the NPT, even when reminded that this meant Iran was prohibited from developing nuclear weapons. Only 15 percent favored Iran withdrawing from the treaty while 60 percent were opposed.

The TFT poll shows that only 29 percent of Iranians consider “developing an arsenal of nuclear weapons” to be a “very important long-term goal” for the government of Iran. In contrast, “improving the Iranian economy” is considered very important by 88 percent and “seeking trade and political relations with Western countries” by 47 percent.

STATISM IS JUST A FUNCTION OF WOMEN'S SUFFRAGE (via Glenn Dryfoos):

Who's Your Daddy? (Michelle Cottle, 07.18.07, New Republic)

To watch Thompson work a crowd like this is to glimpse the primordial roots of the Fred Fever currently gripping the GOP. Part of the appeal is obvious: A well-known actor, Thompson carries with him an inherent star quality that cannot be overestimated in our celebrity-obsessed culture. Moreover, after years of portraying a particular type of folksy authority figure, Thompson gives voters the sense that they already know who he is and what sort of leader he would be. Conversely, as a still relatively unknown political commodity, the candidate has a touch of the blank-slate phenomenon working for him, allowing savior-hungry Republicans to project onto him whichever personal and ideological traits they most desire. Underlying all of this, however, is an even more primal allure: In any given situation, Fred Thompson fundamentally seems like more of a man than anyone else around him.

If there's one thing conservatives are obsessed with these days, it's manliness.

SORRY, SARDAR, NO CIGAR:

Democracy has never been an idyll (Ziauddin Sardar, 19 July 2007, New Statesman)

Presented by the historian Bettany Hughes, Athens: the Truth About Democracy argues that the Athenian model was rooted in military adventurism and the economic exploitation of slave labour. This democracy was not inclusive: it veiled women in public and excluded them from public life. Deeply rooted in superstition, it labelled all objectors "idiotes". In short order this newfangled democracy destroyed itself through endemic warfare, enthusiastically supported by the select voting populace.

In other words, democracy is no idyll; it is what people make of it. It is no good looking at an idealised model. What Athenians did with it is at least as relevant. Socrates, who gave us our noble ideal of free speech, was condemned to death for upsetting the established moral order. The political ideas of his student Plato were eulogised by Stalin and Hitler.

Rather than being true to the xenophobia that was a defining quality of the classical Greek world-view, we would do well to consider their achievements in context. This is one of two opportunities missed in the Channel 4 documentaries. Their focus is on an Athens detached from its vibrant, Middle Eastern contemporaries. The Greeks did not emerge from nothing. Their thought, art and science derived from the sophistication of the Middle Eastern civilisations with which they contended for dominance.

The second missed opportunity is the failure to explore properly the suggestion that there are explicit parallels between the histories of Athenian democracy and the United States, the country that most resembles the classical model. Like Athens, the US is an imperial power based on a war economy. Like Athens, America exploits the people and wealth of other nations. Like Athens, American democracy is elitist. And like Athens, America needs to be judged not by its claims, but by what it makes of its high ambition.

THERE'S A BEACH READ FOR YA:

Onward, Christian Soldiers: God's War is the new standard in the field; a review of God's War: A New History of the Crusades by Christopher Tyerman (Alfred J. Andrea, 7/19/2007, Christianity Today)

Tyerman takes pains to point out that the old moralistic reductionism does violence to the complexities of history. He ends his book on a subtle note: "[T]he internal personal decision to follow the cross, to inflict harm on others at great personal risk, at the cost of enormous privations, at the service of a consuming cause, cannot be explained, excused or dismissed either as virtue or sin. Rather, its very contradictions spelt its humanity."

Adjectives for God's War almost fail. "Comprehensive," "monumental," and "epic" come to mind, and they are appropriate but scarcely adequate.

In brief, this is a work by a master historian that will replace Runciman's classic as the standard survey in the field. The spirit of Sir Steven constantly pops up throughout its pages, often as a foil for Christopher Tyerman's assertions and conclusions that run counter to those of his great predecessor.

Among the other misconceptions that Tyerman attacks head on is one that Runciman did not articulate but which has become fashionable today. It says that medieval holy wars between the Cross and the Crescent led directly to such phenomena as Western imperialism and contemporary Islamic anger over a presumed millennium-long assault on it by the Christian West.

Tyerman dismisses such putative connections as nonsensical inventions. In doing so, he mirrors an emerging consensus among Crusade historians that the Islamic world largely forgot about the Crusades after 1300. After all, it had been the victor, and under Ottoman leadership, it put Christian Europe on the defensive for about 400 years. All of this changed around 1900. At that time, Muslim anger over European imperial designs on the Middle East provided sufficient context for it to create the image of the "crusading Christian West."

A book that runs more than 1,000 pages (including notes) might be ponderous and unreadable. It is not. Tyerman's touch is light, his prose sparkles, and his delightful wit gives it spice.

YET DECOLONIZATION THERE WAS A GREAT GOOD, NO?

The unruly end of empire: An epic tragedy brought about by hubris, confused thinking and lack of planning: a review of The Great Partition: The Making of India and Pakistan
By Yasmin Khan (The Economist 7/19/07)

SIXTY years ago this August one of the greatest and most violent upheavals of the 20th century took place on the Indian subcontinent. It was an event whose consequences were entirely unexpected and whose meaning was never fully spelled out or understood either by the politicians who took the decision or the millions of Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs who were to become its victims. In 1947, faced with irreconcilable differences over the demand for a separate state for India's Muslims, Britain decided, with the consent of a majority of India's political leaders, to partition the country and give each bit its independence. Tragedy followed.

The break-up of Britain's Indian empire involved the movement of some 12m people, uprooted, ordered out, or fleeing their homes and seeking safety. Hundreds of thousands of people were killed, thousands of children disappeared, thousands of women were raped or abducted, forced conversions were commonplace. The violence polarised communities on the subcontinent as never before. The pogroms and killings were organised by gangs, vigilantes and militias across northern, western and eastern India. They were often backed by local leaders, politicians from Congress and the Muslim League, maharajahs and princes, and helped by willing or frightened civil servants.

Yasmin Khan, a British historian, has written a riveting book on this terrible story.

THE UNSERIOUS PARTY:

The Democratic Wimp-Out (Cal Thomas, 7/19/07, Real Clear Politics)

Senate Democrats, who had announced an all-nighter Tuesday to reiterate their anti-war positions, packed it in shortly before midnight, surrendering to a greater desire for a few hours sleep. Only a handful of stalwart senators kept the Senate -- technically -- in session. We know that Senate Democrats don't have the staying power to win the war in Iraq, but can't they even make it through the night without some shuteye?

"Harry, sweetheart," said Sen. Barbara Boxer of California, who led a group of Democrats in pleading with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid for a delay in voting, "5:30 or 6?" Reid complied and senators abandoned the chamber so fast you would have thought it was on fire. This was not a demonstration of the strength needed to strike fear in the hearts of those who can tough it out in caves while plotting new ways to destroy us.

Eliza Doolittle could have "danced all night," but the prospect of staying awake all night was too much for the aging bodies and weakened spirits of most senators. Having surrendered to the loony left and having sent signals to our enemies that they are no longer in the fight to win it, most went to sleep.

THE FRENCH MODEL LIES SMOKING ON A BRAZILIAN RUNWAY:

The meaning of EADS: In the end, it was a fight between globalisation and nationalism—and globalisation won (The Economist, 7/19/07)

A MEETING at the Airbus head office between Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy on July 16th was due to bring the drama of EADS to a climax. But the expected face-off in the battle for control of European Aeronautic Defence and Space, the parent company of Airbus and Eurocopter, never happened. For even before the German chancellor and the French president sat down together, the company announced that the dispute had been satisfactorily resolved.

In some ways the story of EADS has been a one-off. No firm has ever been so bitterly fought over by two governments. No company has ever been saddled with such a daft management structure in consequence. No corporate saga has ever demonstrated quite so conclusively that politics and business don't mix. But the tale illustrates a general point too: that even the maddest manifestations of economic nationalism give way in the end to the pressure of globalisation.

The United States is fundamentally dependent on the rest of the world and the present financial and trade architecture. The US imports 64% of the world's savings and increasing portions of its food, energy, appliances, clothing, toys, vehicles and inputs to production. Foreign nationals, funds, firms and governments have been literally supporting US households, firms and the government with credit.

At present 52% of marketable US Treasury debt obligations are foreign-owned. More than $1 of every $3 lent to Uncle Sam is lent by a foreign government, and 35% of marketable US Treasuries are owned by foreign government institutions. Foreign entities own 20% of US corporate bonds and 14% of US equities.

You would never know it from the political rhetoric and debate in the US. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is currently terror-baiting numerous firms - disproportionately foreign - on its official website. The United States is fast becoming the worst offender in terms of political policy, statements and actions that ignore interdependence and offer nasty hyperbole. Real tensions with Russia are seen in a mini-cold war light as US pundits and politicians just cannot seem to fathom divergent opinion.

Blocking deals with Middle Eastern and East Asian firms proliferates as US private-equity firms, hedge funds and investment advisers look offshore for growth opportunities. Massive tariffs against Chinese goods are regularly debated in Congress. Some are beginning to refer to rumblings and restrictions with China as a trade war.

A rapidly growing portion of America's goods and services are imported. A rising percentage of American workers are employed in foreign enterprises or in export industries. More than 5% of US private employment is in foreign multinational affiliates operating in the United States. Investment flows into foreign mutual funds have topped the charts for the past several years. Leading US firms operate in more and more foreign lands and are growing and shifting operations offshore.

US multinational enterprises and their affiliates employed more than 31 million offshore workers in 2004. The foreign component of reported corporate earnings has been rising more rapidly than gross domestic product. US corporations earned a reported US$292 billion from offshore activities during the first quarter of 2007. Leading American politicians, pundits and business leaders preach to the world about free trade and unfettered market efficiency.

MORE:
The cross of gold: The Democratic candidates have veered to the left (The Economist, 7/19/07)

AT LEAST no one will be able to say that they were not given a clear choice. It is 15 months to election day, and the identity of the nominee on each side remains shrouded in uncertainty. But it is already pretty clear that whoever the two candidates are, the Democrat will run well to the left of the Republican. The 2008 presidential election is shaping up to be a battle over nothing less than America's attitude to globalisation. [...]

The Democrats who, in the 1990s, gave America the Uruguay round, the North American Free-Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and permanent most-favoured-nation trading status for China have changed. Alas, none of the leading candidates, and precious few Democrats of any stripe, would now call themselves free-traders.

Even Hillary Clinton, the most centrist of the leading Democratic contenders, whose husband signed all three of those big trade deals, has found it politic to project herself as a trade sceptic. She opposes a free-trade deal with South Korea, America's seventh-biggest trading partner, and voted against the Central American Free-Trade Agreement. She has said that America needs a “little time out” before making any further trade deals. The two leading candidates to her left have gone further. John Edwards and Barack Obama have both denounced NAFTA and called for its renegotiation. None of the three supported moves to extend the president's “fast-track” trade negotiation authority, which expired last month.

The Economist, naturally, does not take this view. It would be naive not to recognise that many middle-class Americans feel that the huge burst of globalisation since the 1990s has not benefited them much: real average wages have been flat and perceived job insecurity has increased. But globalisation is a scapegoat; many economists argue that rising inequality has far more to do with technology (which Mrs Clinton, strangely enough, is not condemning) than with trade. And what happens to American jobs when foreigners start retaliating with trade barriers of their own?

A DISTURBING thought is gently dawning on the French. What if President Nicolas Sarkozy really means it about working hard in the new France? How, but how, in the land of the 35-hour week, are the French to cope?

Worrying signs that he may be serious abound. At a time when the French usually head off on their long summer break, the president has ordered deputies to attend a special session of parliament until August 3rd. The “hyper-president” is setting the pace with his own whirlwind schedule. At his White House-style briefing last week, his spokesman, David Martinon, had already lost his voice.

Christine Lagarde, the finance minister, has unveiled a new “law in favour of work”. “France is a country that thinks,” she declared. “But enough thinking now! It's time to roll up our sleeves.” Mr Sarkozy campaigned on the slogan “working more to earn more”, lauding “the France that gets up early”. Ms Lagarde intends to put this into action. It was time, she said, to break with a French “tradition of contempt” for work “that reaches back to the ancien régime.”

The culture shock promises to be brutal.

The world has become normal again. The years immediately following the end of the Cold War offered a tantalizing glimpse at a new kind of international order, with nations growing together or disappearing altogether, ideological conflicts melting away, cultures intermingling through increasingly free commerce and communications. But that was a mirage, the hopeful anticipation of a liberal, democratic world that wanted to believe the end of the Cold War did not end just one strategic and ideological conflict but all strategic and ideological conflict. People and their leaders longed for "a world transformed." Today the nations of the West still cling to that vision. Evidence to the contrary -- the turn toward autocracy in Russia or the growing military ambitions of China -- is either dismissed as a temporary aberration or denied entirely. [...]

When the Cold War ended, it was possible to imagine that the world had been utterly changed: the end of international competition, the end of geopolitics, the end of history. When in the first decade after the Cold War people began describing the new era of "globalization," the common expectation was that the phenomenon of instantaneous global communications, the free flow of goods and services, the rapid transmission of ideas and information, and the intermingling and blending of cultures would further knit together a world that had already just patched up the great ideological and geopolitical tears of the previous century. "Globalization" was to the late twentieth century what "sweet commerce" was to the late eighteenth -- an anticipated balm for a war-weary world.

In the 1990s serious thinkers predicted the end of wars and military confrontations among great powers. European "postmodernism" seemed to be the future: the abandonment of power politics in favor of international institutions capable of managing the disagreements among nations. Even today, there are those who believe the world is moving along the same path as the European Union. John Ikenberry recently described the post-Cold War era, the decade of the 1990s, as a liberal paradise:

NAFTA, APEC, and the WTO signaled a strengthening of the rules and institutions of the world economy. NATO was expanded and the U.S.-Japan alliance was renewed. Russia became a quasi-member of the West and China was a "strategic partner" with Washington. Clinton's grand strategy of building post-Cold War order around expanding markets, democracy, and institutions was the triumphant embodiment of the liberal vision of international order. 22

Perhaps it was these grand expectations of a new era for humankind that helped spur the anger and outrage at American policies of the past decade. It is not that those policies are in themselves so different, or in any way out of character for the United States. It is that to many people in Europe and even in the United States, they have seemed jarringly out of place in a world that was supposed to have moved on.

As we now know, however, both nationalism and ideology were already making their comeback in the 1990s. Russia had ceased to be and no longer desired to be a "quasi-member" of the West, and partly because of NATO enlargement. China was already on its present trajectory and had already determined that American hegemony was a threat to its ambitions. The forces of radical Islam had already begun their jihad, globalization had already caused a backlash around the world, and the juggernaut of democracy had already stalled and begun to tip precariously.

After the Second World War, another moment in history when hopes for a new kind of international order were rampant, Hans Morgenthau warned idealists against imagining that at some point "the final curtain would fall and the game of power politics would no longer be played. " But the world struggle continued then, and it continues today. Six decades ago American leaders believed the United States had the unique ability and the unique responsibility to use its power to prevent a slide back to the circumstances that produced two world wars and innumerable national calamities. Although much has changed since then, America 's responsibility has not.

IN OTHER WORDS...:

The riddle of Iran: Iran's leaders think a nuclear weapon could rejuvenate their tired revolution. How can they be stopped? (The Economist, 7/19/07)

After the false intelligence that led America into Iraq, and the mayhem that followed, it may seem hard to believe that America or Israel are pondering an attack on a much bigger Muslim country. But they are—and they are not mad. This time, after all, there is no question of false intelligence: the world's fears are based on capabilities that Iran itself boasts about openly. Nor would there be another invasion: this would be an attack from the air, aimed at disabling or destroying Iran's nuclear sites. From a technical point of view, launching such an attack is well within America's capabilities (America has lately reinforced its carrier fleet in the Persian Gulf) and perhaps within Israel's, too.

Yet such an attack would nonetheless be a huge gamble. Even if it delayed or stopped Iran's nuclear programme, it would knock new holes in America's relations with the Muslim world. And if only for the sake of their domestic political survival, Iran's leaders would almost certainly hit back. Iran could fire hundreds of missiles at Israel, attack American forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, organise terrorist attacks in the West or choke off tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, the world's oil windpipe. How could any Western leader in his right mind risk initiating such a sequence of events?

The succinct answer of Senator John McCain is that although attacking Iran would be bad, an Iran with nuclear weapons would be worse. He is not alone: most of America's presidential candidates would consider military force.

IF WE HAD INTELLIGENCE SERVICES...:

Army Plans Offensive in Pakistan's Northwest: Pitched Battles Follow Killing Of 17 Troops by Insurgents (Griff Witte and Kamran Khan, 7/19/07, Washington Post)

The Pakistani army fought pitched battles with militants Wednesday in a restive tribal area bordering Afghanistan following an insurgent assault that killed 17 troops.

The fighting in North Waziristan, an area where the al-Qaeda leadership is believed to be active, went on late into the night, residents said. A local official confirmed that at least six loud explosions were heard in the hills that surround Miram Shah, the main town in North Waziristan. It was not immediately clear who or what had been targeted.

The fighting came during a period of deep turmoil in Pakistan, with radical fighters carrying out a string of deadly attacks after a government raid against a mosque in Islamabad last week.

MORE:
AUTHOR AHMED RASHID ON PAKISTAN'S CRISIS: 'The Umbilical Cord between the Military and Mullahs Must Be Cut' (der Spiegel, 7/19/07)

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Mr. Rashid, the battle over the Red Mosque is over and the government in Islamabad has prevailed. But can Pakistan's president, General Pervez Musharraf, also win the greater struggle against the Islamists?

Rashid: The key to winning the greater conflict will be whether Musharraf is finally able to cut the umbilical cord that connects the army to these extremist groups. The lesson of the Red Mosque is that the nexus between the military and the mullahs has to be broken. Now is the right time to do that.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: How much power do the extremists have within Pakistan's army?

Rashid: Generally, extremists aren't strongly represented in the higher command. But lower down in the ranks there is a lot of sympathy for Islamic causes. Many in the army have been brought up with the philosophy of jihad and the idea that defending Islam can at times trump defending the nation. The real issue is a political one: During the Cold War, the army depended on extremists to project its support for Kashmiri insurgents and the Taliban. These extremist groups were used as cannon fodder in those wars. Today the military even allows Pakistanis in large numbers to go and fight at the side of the Taliban. Of course, the blow back effect of this is what we are seeing in the tribal areas on the Pakistani side of the border. Today, there is a new phenomenon called the Pakistani Taliban, which has become a major threat to the state.

NEEDS MORE NUTS:

Spicy, garlicky cashew chicken (Seattle P-I, 7/19/07)

1 cup roasted, salted cashew nuts

6 tablespoons chopped cilantro, with some stems

1/4 cup canola or safflower oil

4 garlic cloves, roughly chopped

2 tablespoons soy sauce

2 teaspoons brown sugar

1 to 2 jalapeno peppers, sliced (discard seeds or not, to taste)

Juice of 1 lime, plus lime wedges for garnish

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

3 pounds chicken thighs and/or drumsticks.

In a blender or food processor, combine nuts, 2 tablespoons cilantro, oil, garlic, soy sauce, sugar, jalapeno, lime juice and 2 tablespoons water. Blend until smooth. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Season chicken with salt and pepper. Smear on enough cashew mixture to thoroughly coat pieces. (Set aside any remaining mixture.) Let marinate at room temperature while you heat grill or broiler. Or refrigerate for up to 12 hours before cooking.

Preheat broiler or grill. Grill or broil chicken, turning frequently, until it is crisp and golden on outside and done on inside (cut a small nick to check), 20 to 30 minutes.

Sprinkle chicken with remaining cilantro and serve with lime wedges and remaining cashew mixture.

ROCK YOURSELF TIL THE BOOK DROPS:

Hypeful About Harry Potter (and Wizard Rock!) (Hypeful, 7/19/07)

Wizard rock?

SURE, WE LIBERATED THE SHI'A, BUT WHAT DID THE REST OF US GET?:

Stocks Close Above 14,000 For First Time (CBS News, 7/19/07)

Wall Street moved soundly higher Thursday, sending the Dow Jones industrials to their first close above 14,000 as investors kept jitters about the economy at bay and focused on a string of upbeat earnings reports. [...]

The catalyst? A global boom that's sending stock prices soaring for multinationals like the airplane manufacturer Boeing (+15 percent), Caterpillar (+41 percent), which makes farming equipment, and the technology company Honeywell (+35 percent), adds Mason.

THERE IS NO PAKISTAN:

How to squeeze jihadi culture out of Pakistan: Putting faith in President Musharraf hasn't worked. But here's what the US can do (Vali Nasr, 7/20/07, CS Monitor)

Afghanistan has always been a strategic concern for Islamabad. Pashtuns make up 40 percent of Afghanistan, but there are more Pashtuns in Pakistan, where they constitute 15 percent of the population. Afghanistan has never recognized the border (Durand line) between the two countries, and for most of Pakistan's existence, Pashtuns in control of an independent Afghan state have been allied with India and laid irredentist claims to Pakistan's Pashtun Northwest Province.

It was only when Pakistani-backed Afghan mujahideen or the Taliban ruled Kabul that Pakistan felt secure in its relations with Afghanistan. Pakistani generals counted on the "strategic depth" that their neighbor to the northwest would provide in a war against India.

These days, they see Afghanistan as an adversary. They are irked by Afghan President Hamid Karzai's strong ties to Delhi and the mushrooming of Indian consulates across Afghanistan. The territory that they "owned" until 9/11, thanks to the Taliban, is now at best neutral and at worst the playground of their arch rival, India. Pakistan does not view Afghanistan through the prism of the war on terror, but in the context of its own vulnerabilities in the competition for power and influence with India. That's why Islamabad has everything to gain by playing the Taliban card, giving its fighters and their Al Qaeda allies a lair in Pakistan's border region, to keep Kabul weak and southern Afghanistan free of Indian influence.

WELCOME TO THE CLUB:

In Africa, an island of democracy asks: Where is US help?: Somaliland, a breakaway republic of Somalia, considers itself a model for the region. (Ginny Hill, 7/19/07, The Christian Science Monitor)

During the last 16 years, as Somalia has torn itself apart, Somaliland's leaders have disbanded a guerrilla movement, drafted a constitution, and held multiparty elections.

Development consultant Mark Bradbury, who monitored parliamentary elections in 2005, says the republic performs as well as, if not better than, other countries in the region, such as Ethiopia and Eritrea, on public participation in the democratic process and freedom of speech. Said Noor, the foreign minister, goes one step further: "We have created a modern, African parliamentary system. It's a model for the region."

ROTTEN OYSTER:

A Country Of Sex & Kleptocracy (OTTO PENZLER, July 18, 2007, NY Sun)

A few years ago, John Burdett was searching for an exotic locale that hadn't been the background for other thrillers. He had been to Thailand many times but had no serious interest in its sex industry, famous in every corner of the world.

His research, both in the bars of Bangkok and in a Buddhist monastery, paid off wonderfully with his outstanding first crime novel, "Bangkok 8," the police district of his series character, Sonchai Jitpleecheep, a detective in the Royal Thai Police.

Sonchai was again featured in the second novel, "Bangkok Tattoo," a little disappointing after the stunning first novel, and now he's back for a third time in "Bangkok Haunts" (Knopf, 305 pages, $24.95) and returns to the heights of the first book.

Certain elements of Thai life permeate all three novels: the sex trade, Buddhism (which comfortably includes an unquestioning belief in ghosts, the memory of former lives, and other manifestations of spirituality shared by few in the West), and complete corruption, so ubiquitous that it is good-naturedly accepted without question.

THE MOST GRATIFYING PERP WALK:

17-year-old scandal catches up with Chirac (James Sturcke, July 19, 2007, Guardian Unlimited)

Jacques Chirac, the former French president, was today being questioned by a judge over a party financing scandal dating back to when he was mayor of Paris.

Judge Alain Philibeaux was interviewing Mr Chirac as a material witness, judicial officials said, meaning the possibility of criminal charges remained open. The meeting was taking place at the Paris office of Mr Chirac, whose presidential term ended in May, in the presence of his lawyer.

Mr Chirac's presidency was dogged by sleaze allegations from his tenure at Paris city hall but, as head of state, he enjoyed immunity from prosecution and could not be questioned by investigators. That protection ran out after he left office.

WE EAGERLY AWAIT...:

Another US nudge for Pakistan (Jim Lobe, 7/18/07, Asia Timnes)

According to the report, which represents a consensus judgment of Washington's 16 intelligence agencies, the group's resurgence has been made possible primarily by the "safe haven" it has enjoyed in the tribal areas of western Pakistan and also by its association with al-Qaeda in Iraq, which has helped to "energize the broader Sunni extremist community, [to] raise resources, and to recruit and indoctrinate operatives".

Those conclusions were immediately seized on by critics, including the Democratic leadership in Congress, of the administration's anti-terror strategy.

EVEN THE GRAY LADY RAVES:

Last 'Potter' book has convincing inevitability: a review of HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS By J.K. Rowling (MICHIKO KAKUTANI, 7/18/07, THE NEW YORK TIMES)

J.K. Rowling's monumental, spellbinding epic, 10 years in the making, is deeply rooted in traditional literature and Hollywood sagas -- from the Greek myths to Dickens and Tolkien to Star Wars -- and true to its roots, it ends not with modernist, Soprano-esque equivocation, but with good old-fashioned closure: a big screen, heart-racing, bone-chilling confrontation and an epilogue that clearly lays out people's fates.

Getting to the finish line is not seamless -- the last portion of the final book has some lumpy passages of exposition and a couple of clunky detours -- but the series' conclusion and its determination of the main characters' story lines possess a convincing inevitability. [...]

Harry's journey will propel him forward to a final showdown with his archenemy, and also send him backward into the past, back to the house in Godric's Hollow where his parents died, to learn about his own family history and the equally mysterious history of Dumbledore's family. At the same time, he will be forced to ponder the equation between fraternity and independence, free will and fate, and to come to terms with his own frailties and those of others.

It is Rowling's achievement in this series that she manages to make Harry both a familiar adolescent -- coping with the banal frustrations of school and dating -- and an epic hero, kin to everyone from the young King Arthur to Spider-Man and Luke Skywalker.

In doing so, she has created a world as fully detailed as L. Frank Baum's Oz or J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle Earth, a world so minutely imagined in terms of its history and rituals and rules that it qualifies as an alternate universe -- which may be one of the reasons the Potter books have spawned such a passionate following and such fervent exegesis.

PRETTY GOOD READING LIST RIGHT THERE:

An interview with Jim Brosnan (David Davis, 7/17/07, LA Observed)

Soon after I graduated from the John R. Tunis school of sports literature, I began reading through my dad's collection. He had some cherce books: James T. Farrell's My Baseball Diary, Lawrence Ritter's Glory of Their Times, Roger Kahn's Boys of Summer, Ring Lardner's You Know Me Al, the works of Roger Angell and George Plimpton (though my dad thought Plimpton a snob), Jim Bouton's Ball Four, Pat Jordan's A False Spring, and Robert Coover's Universal Baseball Association, Inc.

Two of the best – and most literate -- were written by an obscure relief pitcher named Jim Brosnan: The Long Season (1960) and Pennant Race (1962). Before their publication, sports books by and/or about athletes were one-dimensional and hagiographic. Both Long Season and Pennant Race were season-in-the-life diaries that gave readers an insider's peek into the daily toil of a ballplayer: how they prepare for spring training, what they talk about in the bullpen, what it feels like to be traded.

Here's Brosnan on Dodgers ace Don Drysdale: "When Drysdale is fast -- on some days a pitcher throws harder than on others -- his fast ball pops the leather of the catcher's mitt. Like a sledge hammer slamming a fence stump. The very sound can numb a batter's hands, even before he gets out of the on-deck circle. 'Got to get out in front -- got to be out in front on the pitch,' he says to himself. Of course, Drysdale also throws a fast curve ball. If the batter sets himself to get way out in front on the fast ball, and the pitch turns out to be a curve ball, he may suffer the embarrassment of looking like he's chasing bumblebees with a butterfly net." [...]

LAO: You're known more for your books than for your pitching. How would you characterize your playing career?

JB: I got better at it. I never was able to throw the Tommy Bridges curve ball. [Bridges threw what was considered to be a nasty curve.] I just wasn't getting that break. It was years later, when [coach] Howie Pollet taught me how to throw a slider, that I began to understand it.

I once threw a Tommy Bridges curve ball to Ken Boyer, after I had gone to Cincinnati from St. Louis. Boyer was a good friend, and the pitch had a break that went almost straight down and was a strike. He just stood there and stared at me. Later on, he said to me, "If you'd only been able to throw that pitch when you were with us, we would have won."

LAO: You faced Hank Aaron, Willie Mays, Roberto Clemente, Duke Snider, among others. Who was the batter you feared the most?

JB: Mays hit a ball off me over the top of the roof at the Polo Grounds. And, just to prove that he could do it on the West Coast, he hit one clear over the left-field stands [at Candlestick Park]. As far as I'm concerned, he was the best opponent that I couldn’t get out. Well, I once struck him out three times in a game that I started. It was all over the papers the next day -- it was me saying, "I just struck out Willie Mays three times."

SISTER/SITAR:

At Least One of Shankar's Girls Followed Papa's Lead: On her latest recording, Rise, Anoushka Shankar infused ancient raga melodic forms with subtle keyboards, electronic effects, and other non-traditional instruments. (Sam Prestianni, 7/17/07, Seattle Weekly)

Unlike her snoozy superstar half-sister Norah Jones, Anoushka Shankar is very much her father's daughter. Which is saying something when your pops is the pioneering sitar player Ravi Shankar. The hippest Beatle, George Harrison, once called Ravi "the godfather of world music" for his revolutionary East-meets-West fusions, which boldly transformed American pop, jazz, and dance grooves in the '60s and '70s. His work continues to resonate in the hybrid soundtracks of the 21st century—a genre-elusive space where Anoushka has recently emerged as a leader.

On her fourth and latest recording from 2005, Rise, the follow-up to the Grammy-nominated Live at Carnegie Hall, Anoushka Shankar infused ancient raga melodic forms with subtle keyboards, electronic effects, and other nontraditional instruments (both acoustic and electric). As she explained in an NPR interview at the time, she created "an album that's hopefully more accessible but still retains the actual heart of the music." Indeed, Shankar's compositions serve as a refreshing contemporary portal for Western listeners to experience the hypnotic sounds of northern India.

This is new territory for the 26-year-old London-born sitarist, whose previous efforts focused exclusively on the classical modes first gleaned from her father when she was just 7. It seems that once she had proved herself a devoted adept of the old school—even receiving a rare award (the House of Commons Shield) from the British government for her skills as "a pre-eminent musician of the Asian Arts"—she felt confident to explore her voice as a modern composer-improviser. "I've played this beautiful classical instrument, done this ancient musical style that is a huge part of who I am," Shankar told NPR, "but there's so much more. And it just makes sense that they should come together."

MORE:
-ALL SONGS CONSIDERED: George Harrison's "Inner Light" performed by long-time friend Jeff Lynne and Ravi Shankar's daughter, Anoushka Shankar (NPR)
-AOL: Music: Anoushka Shankar
-INTERVIEW: My father, my hero; my daughter, my joy: Ravi Shankar and his daughter Anoushka top the bill next week at the first main Prom dedicated to Indian music. (Peter Culshaw, 7/28/05, Daily Telegraph)
-PROFILE: Anoushka Shankar: An Indian Classic (Aryn Baker, October 4, 2004; TIME Asia)

MORE LIKE A NEEDFUL GAMBLE:

Democracy Doesn't Come First (Thomas Sowell, 7/18/07, National Review)

[W]e tried to create democracy in Iraq before we created the security — the law and order — that is a prerequisite for any form of viable government.

Having made democracy the centerpiece of the reconstruction of postwar Iraq, Americans have been hamstrung by the inadequacies of that government and the fact that our military could not simply ignore the Iraqi government when its politicians got in the way of restoring law and order.

People will support tyranny before they will support anarchy. Both can be avoided by creating an interim government based on competence, rather than on its being an embodiment of democratic ideals.

Neither in Europe nor in Asia did today’s democracies begin as democracies. As late as 1950, no one could have called Taiwan or South Korea democracies.

Even today, Singapore does not have the kind of freedom that Westerners regard as democratic. But it is a decent and prosperous society, vastly superior in every way to what it was at the end of World War II.

Trying to create democracy in places where it has never existed — and where the prerequisites for democracy may not exist — has been a needless gamble.

MIGHTY BIG MUSTARD SEED:

Christianity sparks China's new cultural revolution (Robert L. Moore, July 15, 2007, Orlando Sentinel)

The driving force behind these conversions is a sense of spiritual emptiness. China's new dominant ideology is not communism but consumerism, a consumerism that leaves many middle-class Chinese feeling somehow empty. It is these newly prosperous Chinese who are most strongly drawn to Christianity.

A story typical of the many I heard this summer is that of a professional woman who works for China's government-owned television network. She told me that she became interested in Christianity after getting to know an American with whom she practiced English. Later, influenced by a Chinese Christian professor at her school, she joined an underground Protestant church. He introduced her to a "sister" in his congregation whose kindness very much impressed her.

She had felt that her life was rather empty at that point. "So you get good grades," she said, "so what? So you can buy things, so what? So you have a good husband and a child, so what? Christianity offers something more in life, something of value. The people in the church are like a family to each other. They are also a source of comfort."

She had some difficulty with her parents, who were staunch Communists, but eventually they came to accept her religious conversion and even welcomed her Christian husband into the family.

China's contemporary churches come in various forms, both Catholic and Protestant, officially sanctioned and "underground." The government, for example, recognizes the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association as the official Catholic Church. But this church, with its estimated 5 million members, is dwarfed by the underground Catholic congregation, which some say includes 8 million to 10 million members. In fact, the secrecy necessary for the survival of the underground churches makes their size difficult to ascertain.

Raymond Huang, an anthropologist at People's University who has been researching China's churches, calculates that the official figures drastically underestimate church memberships. He believes that the Chinese government estimate of 20 million Protestants should be raised to 30 million or 40 million. Others, less systematic in their research methods, would put this figure even higher.

SO SOFT ON DEFENSE THEY WON'T FUND ONE?:

Breaking: Reid Yanks Defense Authorization Bill To Force GOP's Hand (Greg Sargent , 7/18/07, TPM Cafe)

Ratcheting up the stakes in the wake of the GOP's successful blocking of a vote on Iraq withdrawal just moments ago, Harry Reid just announced on the Senate floor that he won't allow a vote on the entire Defense Authorization bill until the Senate GOP drops its filibustering of votes on Iraq.

YOU THINK MAYBE IT'S TIME FOR THE DEMOCRATS...:

Senate Republicans defeat Iraq withdrawal bill (AP, 7/18/07)

Senate Republicans on Wednesday scuttled a Democratic proposal ordering troop withdrawals from Iraq in a showdown that capped an all-night debate on the war.

The 52-47 vote fell short of the 60 votes needed to cut off debate under Senate rules. It was a sound defeat for Democrats who say the U.S. military campaign, in its fifth year and requiring 158,000 troops, cannot tame the sectarian violence in Iraq.

EV...:

Democrats Kiss Up to K Street (David Sirota, July 18, 2007, In These Times)

[I]n a certain sense, Republican corruption is the purest form of honest graft. The Republican Party does not pretend to be anything other than the party of Big Money. Take the famous K Street Project: designed by Republican congressmen to use the promise of access --and the threat of no access --to force corporate lobbying organizations in Washington to fire Democrats and hire Republicans, so that those new Republican lobbyists could siphon as much corporate campaign contributions as possible to Republican political candidates.

Had this operation performed its work in secret, one might be able to say Republicans at least tried to pretend they were something they were not. But the K Street Project actually had its own public website, bragging to the world about its pay-to-play scheme.

This is "honest" graft -- that is, being open and honest about what the American Heritage Dictionary defines as the "unscrupulous use of one's position to derive profit or advantages." The Republican Congress didn't make any serious effort to pretend to be anything else. [...]

Democrats rode their populist, anti-corruption platform to victory in 2006. But as we are now beginning to see, what we may have with the Democrats is merely a transfer fr