NO HABEAS CORPUS, HUH?:

How Britain put Nazis' top men to work (Stewart Payne, 31/08/2007, Daily Telegraph)

German scientists and technicians were abducted at the end of the Second World War and made to work in Britain as part of a secret programme to plunder the defeated nation's trade secrets and intellectual assets, declassified government documents have revealed.

An elite British Army unit captured hundreds of Germans in possession of Nazi scientific and technical know-how and transported them across the Channel to work in government ministries and private companies.

Others were forced to travel to Britain, where they were interviewed by commercial rivals and detained if they did not reveal trade secrets.

SING OUT, SISTER:

Laura Bush presses UN over Burma (Jonathan Beale, 8/31/07, BBC News)

US First Lady Laura Bush has urged UN chief Ban Ki-moon to condemn Burma's crackdown on pro-democracy protestors.

In a rare political intervention, she also called on the UN Security Council to act to prevent further violence.

Her direct intervention shows growing frustration in the White House with the UN's muted response to problem.

CREATURE CENTRAL:

Texas spiders' monstrous webs baffle scientists (Ed Stoddard, 8/31/07, Reuters)

A monstrous network of sheet-like webs covering several acres has been spun over trees in this state park 50 miles (80 kms) east of Dallas, baffling scientists who say it is an almost-unheard-of occurrence in the region.

"The dominant spiders here seem to be long-jawed spiders but this is unusual. Social spiders build communal nests in the tropics but the longjaws are not social," said Mike Quinn, a Texas state insect biologist.

"We still don't have a clear answer for what is going on here," he said as he stood beneath the ghostly canopy of webbing which shrouded a patch of oak and juniper trees.

Phylis Canion lived in Africa for four years. She's been a hunter all her life and has the mounted heads of a zebra and other exotic animals in her house to prove it.

But the roadkill she found last month outside her ranch was a new one even for her, worth putting in a freezer hidden from curious onlookers: Canion believes she may have the head of the mythical, bloodsucking chupacabra.

"It is one ugly creature," Canion said, holding the head of the mammal, which has big ears, large fanged teeth and grayish-blue, mostly hairless skin.

EVEN THE RIGHT CAN'T STOP THE MARKET:

New Cars Seen Raising Gas Mileage Levels (KEN THOMAS, 8/31/07, Associated Press)

New vehicles are expected to set records for average gas mileage in driven by improved technology and demand for fuel-efficient vehicles, the government reported.

Vehicles from the 2007 model year are projected to average 26.4 miles per gallon overall, a gain of 1 mpg over the previous year and above the previous record of 26.2 mpg in 1987.

The increases are attributed to higher demand for hybrids and more fuel-efficient vehicles with gas prices hovering around $3 for much of the year.

THE POLITICS OF STARVATION:

Ultra-observant Jews press trade with Gaza (Joshua Mitnick, August 31, 2007, Washington Times)

Israel faces pressure from ultra-observant Jewish communities to ease a blockade of the Gaza Strip so they can import food and thus remain faithful to the tradition of not growing or consuming food cultivated on Jewish land once every seven years. [...]

It is difficult to underestimate the importance of agriculture for Palestinians in Gaza, where more than half of the population depends on outside aid to survive.

Farms in the blighted coastal strip account for 10 percent of the territory's economy, supporting more than one in six of its 1.4 million residents.

Though Israel's army says opening Gaza's main commercial crossing is too much of a security risk, both Palestinians and Israelis acknowledge that managing trade with Gaza is ultimately a political decision.

WHICH RACHEL CARSON BLAMED ON DDT:

Reintroduced kite shot dead in Ireland (David McKittrick, 31 August 2007, Independent)

A rare bird of prey, released into the Irish countryside in an attempt to reintroduce the species after a 200-year absence, has been found dead with seven shotgun pellets in its carcass. Police are investigating the killing of the red kite, a species protected under European law. News of the death was received with dismay by environmentalists and ornithologists. Ironically, the bird was shot during the republic's National Heritage Week – and just six weeks after it was set free.

It is not yet known whether the shooting was deliberate or accidental. But the incident may highlight tensions between the environmental lobby and farmers, who fear that eagles and other birds of prey pose a risk to livestock.

THE DOMESTICATION CONTINUES APACE:

Skeptical Moroccans look hopefully to Islamists (Zakia Abdennebi, 8/31/07, Reuters)

Many members of the secular-minded elite that has ruled Morocco since independence hail from Fez, but the former imperial city has seen a surge in support for the [the moderate Islamist Justice and Development Party (PJD)] in the decade since the party was formed.

The PJD became the third biggest party and the main opposition in the Rabat parliament in 2002 and has built political capital by rounding on corruption and calling for more morality in public life.

It has also voiced strong support for the monarchy and condemned religious extremism.

Several PJD politicians hail from the same political class that has ruled the country for half a century and its policies seem to differ little in substance from those of its rivals.

But many ordinary Moroccans are hoping its religious grounding means that, if elected, PJD officials would strive harder against corruption than their predecessors.

"I will put my faith in this party and if it disappoints the people once again, may it assume its responsibility before God," said Abdulkrim, a 32-year-old clothing and perfume seller.

"All the political parties have plundered Morocco's riches," says Kenza Niyari, 52, a housewife wearing a headscarf and loose djellaba robe.

"I have no confidence in any party but if there's one that commits to enforcing true Islam, it'll get my vote because we have failed to follow Islam properly and ended up backward."

The PJD has said it would need to show quick results to avoid alienating its supporters, but says ambitious promises would be pointless before it knows how powerful a government under its command will be.

Morocco's electoral system discourages large majorities by political parties, forcing political groups to form coalitions after the elections. Even if a party wins the majority a lot still hangs on negotiations with the palace, where the king holds the ultimate veto.

MORE:
Transformation of Turkey (SOLI OZEL, 8/31/07, Japan Times)

The president obviously represents the state and is more than a mere figurehead. He sits in Ataturk's chair. He has wide-ranging powers, including the authority to make senior government appointments. He appoints judges to high courts and members to the Higher Educational Council (YOK). He selects the presidents of state universities from a list submitted by the YOK. In times of peace, he is the commander in chief of the armed forces.

This is why the crisis over the presidential election was actually a crisis of the constitutional order installed by the military when it ruled from 1980-1983. That constitution — unlike Ataturk's — was written by and for the military on the assumption that the Cold War would never end, and that the president would always be either a military person or someone close to the military.

But the Cold War is long over, and a lot has since changed in Turkey. An International Monetary Fund-supported program in 2001 unleashed rapid economic growth, based on Turkey's gradual but definitive transformation into a market economy. At the same time, Turkey moved decisively onto the path of political and administrative reform to start EU accession negotiations.

Moreover, Turkey's economic and social transformation brought forth a new elite. The AKP came to represent this new elite and its quest for political power.

Many foreign commentators described the presidential and parliamentary elections as a contest between Turkey's secular past and a putative Islamist future. However, the contest is more accurately seen as one between an open and an introverted Turkey; between civilian, democratic rule and military tutelage; and between a globalizing and a protectionist economy. The AKP's support came from both the winners and losers of globalization, from conservative middle Anatolia and cosmopolitan Istanbul, from the nationalist Black Sea region and the predominantly Kurdish Southeast.

TO: Mohammed Mahdi Akef
Supreme Guide
Muslim Brotherhood
FROM: Marc Lynch
RE: How to Talk to America

When you took over the reins as head of the Muslim Brotherhood in 2004, promising to put freedom at the top of your agenda, you probably couldn’t have imagined where your organization would be today. Although still technically banned, the Brotherhood has emerged as the leading opposition group in Egypt, with 88 seats in parliament. Your calls for governmental transparency and accountability represent an entirely new battle in Egyptian politics—and you’ve got the scars to prove it.

Since contesting parliamentary elections, you’ve seen the Egyptian regime aggressively tamper with the ballot box, launch a massive campaign of arrests of Brotherhood members, and alter the Constitution to prevent your participation in the political process. Many in the West are concerned about the way you’ve been treated by the Egyptian government. But your continued ambiguity about the Brotherhood’s core political commitments, your ambivalence toward Hamas’s attacks on Israel, and questions about your connections with Islamic extremism have left even your backers doubting your true intentions.

You recently complained that the United States “only knows the language of violence and blood and destruction and doesn’t even offer dialogue as an option.” But today you have a historic opportunity for such a dialogue. Americans now recognize they are losing the war of ideas in the Arab world, that Islamic extremism is on the rise, and that the promotion of democracy in the region has collapsed. A vigorous debate has ensued in Washington about the Muslim Brotherhood. Some now see you as a relatively moderate force and a potential partner in a common struggle for democracy and against Islamic extremism. But many others see you as an enemy to be confronted, your Islamist agenda as a major source of extremism and anti-Americanism, and your talk of democracy as a deception meant to fool gullible Westerners. How you engage with this debate will have long-lasting repercussions for your relationship with a United States that isn’t leaving the region anytime soon.

If you are sincere about seeking meaningful dialogue with the West, then you must tackle this debate now, while it’s hot. But repeating the same tired slogans isn’t going to cut it. Demonstrate that, despite many policy differences, you share two fundamental goals with the United States: democracy in Arab countries and curtailing the influence of al Qaeda. If you truly want to persuade Americans—and other Arabs and Muslims—of the value of engaging with you, here’s how to do it:

IF ONLY THE TORIES WERE CONSERVATIVE:

Former Europe minister calls for referendum (Aislinn Simpson, 31/08/2007, Daily Telegraph)

Keith Vaz urged Prime Minister Gordon Brown to allow a vote on the treaty, feared to be simply a rehash of the EU Constitution rejected by French and Dutch voters in 2005.

The Leicester East MP said: "As a former Minister for Europe, I believe the time has come for the Government to hold a referendum and decide once and for all Britain's place is at the heart of Europe".

In an open letter to The Sun, Mr Vaz said the referendum - promised by Labour in their manifesto but later rejected in favour of an MPs vote - should be held at the same time as the next General Election.

THEY PROBABLY GO TO CUBA, HUH?:

Swedes go abroad for medical care (The Local, 31st August 2007)

Swedes are increasingly looking abroad for medical treatment, according to new statistics.

The number of Swedish patients treated in other EU countries at the expense of the Swedish state doubled between 2005 and 2006, according to new statistics from the Swedish Social Insurance Administration (Försäkringskassan).

7 BRIDES FOR A BILLION BROTHERS:

Rise in India's female feticide may spark crisis (Nita Bhalla, 8/31/07, Reuters)

Increasing female feticide in India could spark a demographic crisis where fewer women in society will result in a rise in sexual violence and child abuse as well as wife-sharing, the United Nations warned.

Despite laws banning tests to determine the sex of an unborn child, the killing of female fetuses is common in some regions of India where a preference for sons runs deep.

As a result, the United Nations says an estimated 2,000 unborn girls are illegally aborted every day in India.

This has led to skewed sex ratios in regions like Punjab, Haryana, Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh as well as the capital, New Delhi, where a census in 2001 showed there are less than 800 girls for every 1,000 boys.

WELL, THE RESURRECTION WAS STATE RUN (via Jim Yates):

Reincarnate (Matthew Philips, 8/27/07, Newsweek)

In one of history's more absurd acts of totalitarianism, China has banned Buddhist monks in Tibet from reincarnating without government permission. According to a statement issued by the State Administration for Religious Affairs, the law, which goes into effect next month and strictly stipulates the procedures by which one is to reincarnate, is "an important move to institutionalize management of reincarnation."

SOUK OF DREAMS:

How life returned to the streets in a showpiece city that drove out al-Qaeda: An American ‘martyr’ is being hailed in the Sunni Triangle for restoring peace to a town where soldiers now fight only water leaks (Martin Fletcher, 8/31/07, Times of London)

In Ramadi last weekend I did things unthinkable almost anywhere else in this violent country. I walked through the main souk without body armour, talking to ordinary Iraqis. Late one evening I strolled into the brightly lit Jamiah district of the city with Lieutenant-Colonel Roger Turner, the tobacco-chewing US marine in charge of central Ramadi, to buy kebabs from an outdoor restaurant – “It’s safer than London or New York,” Colonel Turner assured me.

I listened incredulously as Latif Obaid Ayadah, Ramadi’s Mayor, told me of his desire to build an airport and tourist resort in Ramadi and talked – only half in jest – of twinning his city with Belfast and Oklahoma City. “I want it to be a small slice of heaven,” he declared.

I had met Captain Patriquin while embedded with US troops in Ramadi last November. He was a big man, moustachioed, ex-Special Forces, fluent in Arabic and engaged in what was then a revolutionary experiment for a US military renowned for busting doors down. He and a small group from the First Brigade Combat Team, part of the 1st Armoured Division, were assiduously courting the local sheikhs – tribal leaders – over endless cups of tea and cigarettes.

They were encouraging them to rise up against the hundreds of al-Qaeda fighters – Saudi, Jordanian, Syrian, Sudanese, Yemeni – who had arrived in Ramadi two years earlier, promising to lead the battle against the infidel Americans. What al-Qaeda actually did was recruit local thugs, seize control of the city, and impose a Taleban-style rule of terror. Mayor Latif said that they regularly beheaded “collaborators” in public and left the heads beside the corpses. Mischievous children would then put cigarettes in the mouths of the disembodied heads.

Captain Patriquin may have offered more than mere words. His main interlocutor, Sheikh Abdul Sittar Bezea al-Rishawi, told The Times that he gave them guns and ammunition too. The sheikhs did rise up. They formed a movement called the Anbar Awakening, led by Sheikh Sittar. They persuaded thousands of their tribesmen to join the Iraqi police, which was practically defunct thanks to al-Qaeda death threats, and to work with the reviled US troops. The US military built a string of combat outposts (COPs) throughout a city that had previously been a no-go area, and through a combination of Iraqi local knowledge and American firepower they gradually regained control of Ramadi, district by district, until the last al-Qaeda fighters were expelled in three pitched battles in March. What happened in Ramadi was later replicated throughout much of Anbar province.

Ramadi’s transformation is breathtaking.

SEE AMERICA:

Reform rollback or emerging ‘sane modernity’: Evangelical Catholicism triumphant, Vatican watcher states (John L. Allen Jr., 8/28/2007, National Catholic Reporter)

History always cuts deeper than headlines, a point that clearly applies to recent Vatican moves to dust off the old Latin Mass and to declare Catholicism the one true church. Beneath the upheaval triggered by those decisions lies a profound shift in the church’s geological plates, and perhaps the best way of describing the resulting earthquake is as the triumph of evangelical Catholicism.

Beginning with the election of Pope John Paul II in 1978, Catholicism has become a steadily more evangelical church – uncompromising and unabashedly itself. Evangelical Catholicism today dominates the church’s leadership class, and it feeds on the energy of a strong grass-roots minority.

Proposing a Catholic counterpart to evangelical Protestantism may seem the ultimate in apples-and-oranges comparison, especially since some evangelicals would view being lumped in with the pope as tantamount to fighting words. Yet in a secularized, pluralistic world in which Christianity is no longer the air people breathe, Protestants and Catholics face the same crucial question: Should the relationship between church and culture be a two-way street, as most liberals say, with the church adjusting teachings and structures in light of the signs of the times? Or is the problem not so much a crisis of structures but a crisis of nerve, as most evangelicals believe, with the antidote being bold proclamation of timeless truths?

Liberal Catholicism enjoyed a heyday from the late 1960s to the mid-1980s, and it’s not about to die off, overeager prophecies in some circles notwithstanding. During the last quarter-century, however, the evangelicals have won most of the fights in terms of official Catholic policy. Whether that’s a rollback on reform or the emergence of a “new, sane modernity,” as Pope Benedict XVI claims, is a matter for debate, but there’s no mistaking which way the winds are blowing.

PLENTY OF ROOM TO CUT:

Core inflation gauge up 0.1 percent (David Lawder, 8/31/07, Reuters)

Core U.S. consumer prices rose by a less-than-expected 0.1 percent in July, showing stable prices that held the year-on-year rate of nonfood, nonenergy inflation to 1.9 percent for the second month in a row, the Commerce Department said on Friday.

"It doesn't seem like pricing pressures are moving out of control," said George Davis, chief technical strategist at RBC Capital Markets in Toronto.

WHY CAN'T EVERYONE BE LIKE MOOKIE?:

Iraqi Government Calls on Other Militias to Follow al-Sadr's Lead, Freeze Activities (VOA News, 31 August 2007)

The Iraqi government has called on the country's armed groups to follow the lead of the Shi'ite Mahdi Army militia and freeze their activities.

In a statement issued late Thursday, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's office said Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's decision to halt militia activities provided "a good opportunity" for other militias to suspend their operations in order to maintain stability and sovereignty of Iraq.

MORE:
U.S. panel will urge broad overhaul of Iraqi police (David S. Cloud, August 31, 2007, IHT)

An independent commission established by Congress to assess Iraq's security forces will recommend remaking the 26,000-member national police force to purge it of corrupt officers and Shiite militants suspected of complicity in sectarian killings, administration and military officials said Thursday.

The commission, headed by General James L. Jones, the former top United States commander in Europe, concludes that the rampant sectarianism that has existed since the formation of the police force requires that its current units "be scrapped" and reshaped into a smaller, more elite organization, according to one senior official familiar with the findings. The recommendation is that "we should start over," the official said.

MEMO TO MAHMOUD:

'End of our international isolation of the past few decades' (Dr Manmohan Singh, August 31, 2007, Rediff)

Why do we place so much importance on nuclear energy? I have no doubt whatsoever that the sustainability of our long-term economic growth is critically dependent on our ability to meet our energy requirements of the future. When a country of the size of India begins to grow at the rate of 9% per annum, with the prospect of even higher rates of growth, energy becomes a critical issue.

A lot has been written and said on what our energy requirements will be. A few simple truths stare us in the face. First, our proven resources of coal, oil, gas and hydropower are totally insufficient to meet our requirements. Second, we do not enjoy the luxury of an either�or choice. India needs energy from all known and likely sources of energy. Third, the energy we generate has to be affordable, not only in terms of its financial cost, but in terms of the cost to our environment.

Nuclear power is recognised as an important and environmentally benign constituent of the overall energy mix. There is today talk the world over of a nuclear renaissance and we cannot afford to miss the bus or lag behind these global developments.

NOW IF THEY CAN JUST GET THE KRAUTS TO CRANK UP THE OVENS AGAIN...:

Swiss nationalists campaign to deport criminal foreigners evokes Nazi-era practice (The Associated Press, August 31, 2007)

The campaign poster was blatant in its xenophobic symbolism: Three white sheep kicking out a black sheep over a caption that read — "For more security."

The message was from no fringe force in Switzerland's political scene but from its largest party — the nationalist Swiss People's Party, which controls the Justice Ministry and shares power in an unwieldy coalition that includes all major parties.

The party is seeking to whip up enthusiasm for a deportation scheme that anti-racism campaigners say evokes Nazi-era practices.

THE PRO-TOTALITARIAN LEFT:

Hot Policy Wonks For The Democrats: The New Realists: See Ya, Dick Holbrooke! Neo-Liberalism Is Passé, Anti-Ideologues Surge (Jason Horowitz, August 14, 2007, NY Observer)

For years, top Democratic advisers on foreign policy have been drawn from the neoliberal or “Wilsonian” school. Its adherents at the Progressive Policy Institute, the Democratic Leadership Council and, of course, the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University advocate that a Democratic president project the country’s strength to spread American values. Most of the members of the school favor a careful withdrawal from Iraq, and they are, for the most part, committed multilateralists. But they also argue that the Iraq experience should not discourage future interventions or engagement in support of American values, especially in the Middle East. In an interdependent world, they argue, more democracy, liberty and rule of law will ultimately increase American security.

Ms. Flournoy, a 46-year-old former Department of Defense official in the Clinton administration, and her colleagues think the war in Iraq and the country’s plummeting reputation abroad changes the equation, and that the next president may have to reign in his or her ambitions when it comes to the projection of American power.

As Ms. Flournoy and CNAS co-founder Kurt Campbell wrote in an influential June policy paper called The Inheritance and the Way Forward, “First, U.S. strategy must be grounded in a common sense pragmatism rather than ideology. U.S. national security strategy must be based on a clear-eyed assessment of the challenges and opportunities of the new security environment as well as realistic objectives derived from our national interests.”

These self-styled realists feel chastened by the raft of problems inherited from the Iraq war and want to ratchet back direct American engagement, concentrate more on rebuilding America’s reputation and, not unlike the paleoconservatives who guided foreign policy under George H.W. Bush, let national interests be the nation’s guide.

MORE:
Odd Man Out: What Bayard Rustin Would Tell The Democrats (James Kirchick, 08.31.07, TNR Online)

Salad with Latin flavour: Tomato, Avocado & Grilled Corn Salad (Susan Sampson, 8/31/07, The Star)

3 ears corn, shucked

1 tbsp + 1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil

Sea salt + freshly ground pepper to taste

1/3 cup raw pumpkin seeds (pepitas)

2 small bunches arugula (about 1 lb...), large stems discarded, leaves torn in bite-sized pieces

3 ripe tomatoes, cut in 1/2-inch dice

2 ripe avocados, cut in 1/2-inch dice

1 large cucumber, peeled, seeded, cut in 1/4-inch dice

2 tbsp lime juice

1-1/2 tbsp sherry vinegar

1/4 tsp hot sauce

1/2 tsp granulated sugar

1/8 tsp ground cumin

1/4 lb ... queso fresco, crumbled (about 1 cup)

Preheat barbecue to 500F. Place corn on barbecue grill pan. Brush with 1 tablespoon oil. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Grill, turning occasionally, 20 to 30 minutes, or until browned. Let sit until cool.

Spread pumpkin seeds on small baking sheet. Roast in preheated 400F oven, stirring occasionally, 3 minutes or until lightly browned. Transfer to plate.

Cut corn kernels from cobs and transfer to large bowl. Add arugula, tomatoes, avocados and cucumber.

In medium bowl, whisk together lime juice, vinegar, hot sauce, sugar and cumin. Whisk in remaining 1/3 cup oil. Season with salt and pepper. Add to vegetables. Toss gently.

Place on serving platter. Scatter queso fresco over top. Scatter pumpkin seeds over top.

THAT'S MORE LIKE IT:

Bush blasts Myanmar's arrests of activists (AP, 8/30/07)

President George W. Bush lambasted Myanmar's governing military junta on Thursday for arresting pro-democracy activists on charges of protesting against recent fuel price hikes.

"I strongly condemn the ongoing actions of the Burmese regime in arresting, harassing and assaulting pro-democracy activists for organizing or participating in peaceful demonstrations," he said, using Myanmar's old name.

"These activists were voicing concerns about recent dramatic increases in the price of fuel, and their concerns should be listened to by the regime rather than silenced through force," Bush said in a statement.

The presidential statement came after Myanmar authorities arrested participants in a series of protests, and raided the homes of known activists and their friends.

Bush also reiterated that Myanmar's military leaders must free all political prisoners, including Aung San Suu Kyi, and lift restrictions on humanitarian groups in Myanmar.

THE MORE YOU KNOW, THE LESS CREDIBLE NATURAL SELECTION SEEMS:

Fruit fly parasite's gene invasion raises questions over evolution (Alok Jha, August 31 2007, The Guardian)

Scientists have found the genes of an organism fused wholesale into the genome of an entirely separate species, raising new questions over how evolution works. The discovery suggests that simple bacteria and animals might swap entire genes more often than previously thought. Such large-scale transfer of genes would allow species to acquire entirely new functions and abilities in a very short space of time, rather than the much slower sequence of random mutations that normally evolves species over several generations.

STRUCTURE SUFFICES:

Back to School: Could teachers become the new lawyers? (Ann Hulbert, Aug. 30, 2007, Slate)

It's back-to-school season, and students aren't alone in suffering from a case of nerves. Linda Perlstein, a former Washington Post reporter who spent 2005-06 embedded in Tyler Heights Elementary School in Annapolis, Md., opens Testing: One American School Struggles To Make the Grade with a snapshot of its anxiety-ridden principal. "You could not tell by looking that Tina McKnight was in pain," Perlstein writes of the woman desperate to make her all-minority school a success in the No Child Left Behind era. "Her back throbbed, sore from hours of bending over the toilet, possibly from food poisoning but more likely from stress." At the opposite end of the spectrum, Alec Klein spent the 2006 spring term in New York City's most selective public high school, Stuyvesant. In A Class Apart: Prodigies, Pressure, and Passion Inside One of America's Best High Schools, he introduces a principal equally wracked with tension. "Shaggy-haired, bearded, emaciated, and incredibly tired," Stanley Teitel "buries his head in his hands, uttering, 'God, I'm not going to get through these weeks.' "

Enter a schoolhouse door these days with a journalist or a screenwriter, and you'll find the grown-ups within looking like masochistic martyrs. The Hollywood glow of the educator-as-hero, a figure familiar from stump speeches and pop entertainment, has faded. Don't go to HBO's The Wire, set last season in the Baltimore public school system, for a dose of idealism. The much-praised independent film Half-Nelson is grim, too, with Ryan Gosling starring as a drug-addicted maverick trying—and failing—to teach history his own way in a New York City middle school. The Sundance Channel's documentary The Education of Ms. Groves, which aired this week, unsparingly exposes a new teacher's naive optimism, according to the New York Times. Freedom Writers is the exception: To watch Hilary Swank single-handedly create an oasis of harmony in a gang-ridden L.A. high school seems a throwback to a simpler narrative arc.

In the eclipse of the saintly teacher image by the hard-boiled scene in recent insider accounts, are we seeing yet another cause for educational alarm? The picture of beleaguered teams of educators, as doubt-plagued as they are driven, isn't pretty. Yet the new profile of teachers and administrators outlined in Perlstein's and Klein's books may, oddly enough, give a useful boost to the prestige of a profession in urgent need of cultural cachet. [...]

Strangely, perhaps, the spectacle of obsessive administrators and anxious teachers in the trenches presented by both Perlstein and Klein just might help buttress a field that could use some defeminizing. High-pressured and punishing—of such macho qualities is social cachet often built in the world of work. Nowhere in Tyler Heights or Stuyvesant, in Perlstein's and Klein's portrayals, do you hear anyone touting the familiar (female- and family-friendly) perks of the profession: the long summer months off, the seasonal breaks, the 3 o'clock dismissals, the heartwarming kids. Teachers' unions never get mentioned, nor do bonuses. The scene is more reminiscent of, say, the Union army, beset by struggles and squabbles within the ranks, yet striving to make slow headway on divisive home ground.

The conceit of Perlstein's book is simple: to reveal up close the effects on one elementary school, and, by extension, all public schools, of the testing and accountability culture mandated by the 2001 No Child Left Behind Act, President Bush's signature education initiative.

Statistical studies of this law abound, but an examination of its human effects is long overdue. "Tested" succeeds in filling this void on several levels, providing descriptions that, for many readers, will seem a stunning indictment of No Child Left Behind and the state and local policies it has engendered. The endless regimen of testing, drilling, report filing, student bribing and student berating that Perlstein describes could only have been conceived by politicians and ideologues who rarely set foot in actual public schools (and would never subject their own children to the Frankenstein classrooms their policies have created).

Perlstein chose Tyler Heights Elementary School in suburban Annapolis, Md., a campus of mostly poor and minority students surrounded by schools with far more affluent and academically prepared student bodies. But unlike troubled inner-city schools, suburban Tyler has considerable financial resources at its disposal with which to close the "achievement gap."

She begins with the announcement in May 2005 that, after years of poor scoring, Tyler Heights has dramatically improved its performance on the Maryland School Assessment, the annual testing mandated by No Child Left Behind. These questions set up the drama of the following school year depicted in "Tested": Was this a fluke, and Tyler a one-hit wonder? Or did the scripted lessons and ruthless teaching-to-the-test payoff, a worthy model for other schools? Or had the state lowered the bar so far on its tests that even failing students appeared to shine? Finally, there is the question that most haunts Tyler's principal and teachers throughout the book: Can we do it again?

In charting the answers to those questions, Perlstein depicts a school obsessed not so much with educating as with measuring education, and with doling out a kind of pallid simulation of knowledge. Stories, for example, are always analyzed for their structure, almost never for their actual content. Creative writing is discouraged in favor of repetitive paragraphs called "Brief Constructed Responses," or BCRs -- an acronym Tyler kids hear endlessly.

"They're learning to do the formula," one teacher laments midway through the school year, "and forgetting how to think."

The goal, Perlstein shows, is to limit teaching to ideas, skills and knowledge...

WHEN DID IT MATTER? (via Gene Brown):

Media Showers: Why would the public lose trust? (DANIEL HENNINGER, August 30, 2007, Opinion Journal)

[F]or the media ponderers there's a more troubling issue than the restoration of trust. It's the possibility that too many people now simply don't much care about the major media anymore. Normally the great media combines would overcome periods of lassitude by forming up focus groups to tell them what to do next. Hah! They want "Survivor"! Alas, living as we do now in a world of seemingly infinite choice, it is possible not to care for a seeming infinity of reasons, which is why the established media are having such a hard time knowing what to do.

Mr. Paxman identified one reason not to care: "In the last quarter century we've gone from three channels to hundreds. . . . The truth is this: the more television there is, the less any of it matters." Once there was a time when TV announcers used to say, "Stay with us." Now no one stays. They go surfing, endlessly seeking a five-minute wave of TV that will take them just a little higher than the five minutes they just watched.

More difficult are the I-don't-care revolutionaries, who argue that digitization has reversed the media world's authority and power. The old aristocracy of programmers and editors has been overthrown by average people who now blog new political priorities, download media and form themselves into clickable communities. The Snowman wins. Get over it.

One part of me likes this scenario. Some say we're living out Marshall McLuhan's long-ago forecasts, such as, "The circuited city of the future . . . will be an information megalopolis." Could be. If it is so that these new technologies are redistributing power into millions of liberated hands accessing "what I want, when I want it," then we are also cruising toward what another seer predicted in three words: "Free to choose." That seer, of course, was Milton Friedman.

SO, HE'S THE TICKET TO RIDE?:

Carpenters endorse Edwards (Domenico Montanaro, 8/30/07, NBC First Read)

LAPDOGLAND:

Running fast, but where is he going?: Pro-American, inspired by morals but pragmatic too: Nicolas Sarkozy sets out his ideas for a new foreign policy (The Economist, 8/30/07)

Some observers even suggest that Mr Sarkozy might be preparing for a return of France to NATO's integrated military command, which De Gaulle pulled out of in 1966.

For the moment, Mr Sarkozy has started to sound more muscular and supportive on some issues that America cares about. This week he described Russia as “playing its trump cards, notably oil and gas, with a certain brutality” and accused China of “transforming its insatiable search for raw materials into a strategy of control”. He talked bluntly of the risks of a confrontation between Islam and the West. He spelled out the stark choice over Iran, should sanctions fail: “an Iranian [nuclear] bomb, or the bombing of Iran.”

His second idea is to restore a moral dimension to French diplomacy. The choice of Bernard Kouchner, a former UN administrator of Kosovo and co-founder of Médecins Sans Frontières, as foreign minister was hugely symbolic. Mr Sarkozy says he wants to end French paternalism in Africa. There is nothing new about a French president insisting that his country carries a “message of values”, enshrined in its declaration of human rights. But, say his supporters, Mr Sarkozy wants to show concrete results. He pushed hard, for example, for the UN Security Council resolution on a new peacekeeping force for Darfur.

There is a third idea, not articulated, but which seems to be guiding this new diplomacy: a fresh pragmatism, based on a more realistic assessment of France's rank, and a touch of opportunism. In his entire speech, Mr Sarkozy mentioned neither French grandeur nor gloire, both staples of Chirac-era discourse, preferring less ambitious terms such as France's “influence” and “role”.

THE NEOCONS' OWN UDAY:

Iraqi Shiite heir steps into a tough role: Ammar Hakim, scion of a top clerical family, is set to lead a party that is the chief U.S. ally in Iraq, but has deep ties to Iran. (Alexandra Zavis, August 30, 2007, Los Angeles Times)

Ammar Hakim and Sadr are close in age, and both are the charismatic scions of clerical families that have long vied for leadership of Iraq's Shiite majority. But Hakim, a polished orator with a classical Arabic diction, is a sharp contrast to the gruff Sadr, who speaks in the colloquial dialect of the Iraqi poor. Hakim plays down the rivalry, noting that his mother is from the Sadr clan.

Hakim was groomed from an early age for a leadership role. The family home in Najaf was a frequent hide-out for men battling the Iraqi regime. In a recent interview with The Times, he said that from age 4, it was his job to pass food in secret to the fugitives. By the time he was 7, he was acting as a lookout to help his father elude Hussein's henchmen.

"I was able to spot the security men even if they were dressed in civilian clothing," he said, breaking into one of many smiles. His family fled to Iran in 1979 to escape persecution, and by age 9, Hakim was addressing thousands of Shiite faithful at mosques and religious festivals there.

Many here and in Washington are suspicious of Hakim's close ties to Iran, where he has spent more than half his life. Iran's Revolutionary Guard trained, equipped and at one point led the Badr Organization, which fought alongside Iran during the 1980s war against Iraq.

By contrast, Sadr is an Iraqi nationalist who routinely denounces both U.S. and Iranian influence, although he, too, has accepted assistance from Iran and spends considerable time there.

During constitutional negotiations after Hussein was ousted, some supreme council members advocated giving senior Shiite clerics, or ayatollahs, veto power over legislation. Hakim argued for changing the country's name to the Islamic Republic of Iraq, a proposal he now says was intended to recognize that most Iraqis are Muslim, not to exclude those who are not.

Hakim has alienated Sunni Arabs by pushing for greater regional autonomy and, until recently, resisting proposals to allow members of Hussein's ousted Baathist regime to take jobs in the government and military.

His tendency to travel in flashy convoys studded with gunmen have led some to dub him "Uday" Hakim, after Hussein's corrupt and violent son.

MORE:
Allawi Gets a Baathist Endorsement (BOBBY GHOSH, 8/30/07, TIME)

Iyad Allawi's bid to become Iraq's prime minister again has received an endorsement from an unexpected source: the Baath Party. A spokesman for the exiled leadership of Saddam Hussein's old party told TIME that Allawi "is the best person at this time to be given the task of ruling Iraq." He said he hoped that Allawi would pave the way for the Baath Party to "return to the political life of Iraq, where we rightfully belong."

The spokesman, known only as Abu Hala, said the Baath leadership under Saddam's deputy, Izzat al-Douri, were "more than willing to work with Allawi, because we see him as a nationalist and Iraqi patriot, and not a sectarian figure." He said the party didn't agree with all of Allawi's policies when he headed a transitional Iraqi government in 2004, but "we have no doubt that he would represent the interests of Iraq, not of Shi'ites or Sunnis or any other group."

PEOPLE OF THE TEXT:

Islam, the American way: Why the United States is fairer to Muslims than “Eurabia” is (The Economist, Aug 30th 2007)

IN PITTSBURGH, a Turkish group, pious but peaceful, decides to rethink its plans for an Islamic centre after an angry public hearing. In Clitheroe, a town in northern England, a plan to turn an ex-church into a mosque wins planning approval after seven failed bids. In Austria a far-rightist, Jörg Haider, grabs headlines by proposing that no mosques or minarets should be built in the province of Carinthia, where he is governor. In Memphis, Tennessee, Muslims manage to build a large cemetery despite local objections to their burial customs.

On the face of it, there is something similar about all these vignettes of inter-faith politics in the Western world. They all illustrate the strong emotions, and opportunistic electoral games, that are surfacing in many countries as Muslim minorities, increasingly prosperous and confident, aspire to build more mosques and other communal buildings. All these stories show the way in which whipped-up fears of a “clash of civilisations” can inflame the humdrum politics of a locality.

But there is a big transatlantic difference in the way such disputes are handled. Although America has plenty of Islam-bashers ready to play on people's fears, it offers better protection to the mosque builders. In particular, its constitution, legal system and political culture all generally take the side of religious liberty. America's tradition of freedom is rooted in the First Amendment, and its stipulation that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof...” Another recourse for embattled minorities of any kind is “Section 1983” of America's civil-rights legislation, which allows an individual who is deprived of a legal or constitutional right to sue the official responsible.

More important than the letter of the law is an ethos that leans in favour of religious communities which are “new” (to their neighbours) and simply want to practise their faith in a way that harms nobody. In America the tone of disputes over religious buildings (or cultural centres or cemeteries) is affected by everyone's presumption that if the issue went to the highest level, the cause of liberty would probably prevail.

IF THEY WEREN'T TRADITIONAL WHO'D READ THEM?:

The Youngest Brother's Tale: Harry Potter's grand finale: a review of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J. K. Rowling (Alan Jacobs, Books & Culture)

Nota Bene: Much that happens in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is revealed here.

A little more than a hundred years ago, a number of British educators, journalists, and intellectuals grew exercised about the reading habits of the nation's children. The particular target of their disapproval was the boy's adventure story—the kind of cheap short novel, full of exotic locations and narrow escapes from mortal peril and false friends and unexpected acts of heroism, that had come to be known as the "penny dreadful." Surely it could not be good for children to immerse themselves in these ill-made fictional worlds, with their formulaic plots and purple prose; surely we should insist that they learn to savor finer fare.

Then came riding into the fray a young man—twenty-five at the time—named Gilbert Keith Chesterton, who, though a journalist and an intellectual himself, repudiated the hand-wringing of his colleagues and planted his flag quite firmly in the camp of the penny dreadfuls: "There is no class of vulgar publications about which there is, to my mind, more utterly ridiculous exaggeration and misconception than the current boys' literature of the lowest stratum." Chesterton is perfectly happy to acknowledge that these books are not in the commendatory sense "literature," because "the simple need for some kind of ideal world in which fictitious persons play an unhampered part is infinitely deeper and older than the rules of good art, and much more important. Every one of us in childhood has constructed such an invisible dramatis personae, but it never occurred to our nurses to correct the composition by careful comparison with Balzac."

Nor should our nurses have done so, because what matters most about the penny dreadfuls is the soundness and accuracy of their moral compass, and their power of inspiring their readers to discern the significance of moral choice:

The vast mass of humanity, with their vast mass of idle books and idle words, have never doubted and never will doubt that courage is splendid, that fidelity is noble, that distressed ladies should be rescued, and vanquished enemies spared … . The average man or boy writes daily in these great gaudy diaries of his soul, which we call Penny Dreadfuls, a plainer and better gospel than any of those iridescent ethical paradoxes that the fashionable change as often as their bonnets.

And above all, what Chesterton loves about the penny dreadful is this: "It is always on the side of life."

I have been meditating on these thoughts in recent days, as I have scanned cyberspace for the many and varying responses to Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the final tale of the Boy Who Lived. It is a story full of exotic locations and narrow escapes from mortal peril and false friends and unexpected acts of heroism; it is a story which suggests that courage is splendid and fidelity noble. Of course, that's not enough for some people; and for others it's precisely the problem.

We already know that some Christians mistrust the Potter series because of its depictions of magic; we already know that some critics (Harold Bloom most prominent among them) deplore the books' lack of literary grace. But another and different set of critics has emerged here at the end of the series, for whom the evident traditionalism of the books is their greatest flaw. One of the participants in Slate.com's Book Club thinks that the novel, and its epilogue in particular, "feels awfully bourgeois in its concern with little other than our heroes' marriages and children." (I did not know that concern for marriage and children was the exclusive province of the bourgeoisie; but that's why I read Slate, to learn stuff like that.) And as I scanned the blogs I lost track of the number of people who complained that the epilogue, and indeed the whole series, is defaced by "heteronormativity." Not a gay or lesbian couple in sight—though, if it makes anyone feel better, I have seen that a few readers of the previous book, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, think that Harry's obsession with finding out what Draco Malfoy is up to marks a welcome homoerotic interlude.

What could one say in defense of these books, so unliterary, so unsophisticated in their morality and style, so bourgeois, so heteronormative? Perhaps only this: that J. K. Rowling has produced, in the vast, seven-book, thirty-five-hundred-page arc of Harry's story, the greatest penny dreadful ever written. [...]

It should be obvious at this point that the Harry Potter books amount to something more, far more, than your average penny dreadful. But they belong, firmly, to that moral universe, even as they expand it beyond what we might have thought possible. Many years ago Umberto Eco wrote that the greatness of Casablanca stems from its shameless deployment of every narrative cliché known to humankind: "Two clichés make us laugh. A hundred clichés move us. For we sense dimly that the clichés are talking among themselves, and celebrating a reunion." The Harry Potter books are like that: every trope and trick of the penny dreadful raised to the highest power and revealed in all their glory.

MORE:
Tolkien and the Gift of Mortality (Anna Mathie, November 2003, First Things).

[I] came upon what I still find the most exquisitely sorrowful moment in a book filled with exquisitely beautiful sorrow.

The wise and good Arwen, who has given up her elvish immortality to be the mortal Aragorn’s queen, is overcome at his deathbed and pleads for him to stay with her longer. He refuses, saying that it is right for him to go with good grace and before he grows feeble. Then he tells her:

I speak no comfort to you, for there is no comfort for such pain within the circles of the world. The uttermost choice is before you: to repent and go to the Havens and bear away into the West the memory of our days together that shall there be evergreen but never more than memory; or else to abide the Doom of Men.

Arwen replies that she has no choice:

I must indeed abide the Doom of Men whether I will or nill: the loss and the silence. But I say to you, King of the Numenoreans, not till now have I understood the tale of your people and their fall. As wicked fools I scorned them, but I pity them at last. For if this is indeed, as the Elves say, the gift of the One to Men, it is bitter to receive.

In this new and bitter knowledge, she goes away alone after Aragorn’s death, “the light of her eyes . . . quenched . . . cold and gray as nightfall that comes without a star.” She dies alone in the dead land of Lorien, where deathless Elves once lived.

For Arwen, otherwise infinitely wiser than we, death is the one unknown, a new and unexpected discovery. Aragorn knows better; he knows, as all mortals should, that comfort is impossible and even unworthy in the face of death. Yet he still holds fast to what Arwen has only known as an abstract theological tenet: that death is truly God’s gift.

I cry whenever I reread this passage; it haunts me like no other, though it’s hard to explain why. At the heart of it is the phrase “the gift of the One to Men.” Tolkien looks unblinkingly at “the loss and the silence” of death, but remains steadfast: death is our curse, but also our blessing.

He has hidden this particular tale away in an appendix, but the same idea of mortality permeates the whole book. The plot centers on a ring that gives immortality and corrupts its bearer. Much of the book’s character interest arises from the interactions between mortal and immortal races, who both mystify and fascinate each other. The structure of the work also echoes mortality itself.

THE SURLY WITH A LUNATIC FRINGE ON TOP:

Terrorism Policies Split Democrats: Anger Mounts Within Party Over Inaction on Bush Tactics (Jonathan Weisman, August 30, 2007, Washington Post)

A growing clamor among rank-and-file Democrats to halt President Bush's most controversial tactics in the fight against terrorism has exposed deep divisions within the party, with many Democrats angry that they cannot defeat even a weakened president on issues that they believe should be front and center.

The Democrats' failure to rein in wiretapping without warrants, close the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay or restore basic legal rights such as habeas corpus for terrorism suspects has opened the party's leaders to fierce criticism from some of their staunchest allies -- on Capitol Hill, among liberal bloggers and at interest groups.

HEY, ELIAN, CAN WE BORROW YOUR RAFT?:

Cuba Will Forgo World Championships (THE ASSOCIATED PRESS, 8/30/07)

Cuba will not send a boxing team to the world championships in Chicago in October, heeding Fidel Castro’s fears about future defections after two fighters abandoned their teammates during the Pan American Games last month in Brazil.

EVEN THE EUROS DON'T BUY EUROPEAN... (via Kevin Whited):

Boeing gets biggest European 737 order from Norweigan airline (AP, 8/30/07)

Norwegian Air Shuttle on Thursday announced a deal to buy 42 new Boeing 737-800 airliners worth $3.1 billion dollars, with an option to buy 42 more.

The low-cost airline, which operates under the name Norwegian, said the order is the biggest for 737 aircraft received by Boeing in Europe this year.

"These new aircraft will strengthen Norwegian's position in the Norwegian, Nordic and European markets," said the airline's managing director Bjoern Kjos. "These aircraft are also significantly more environmentally friendly than the ones we use today." ...]

Norwegian has rapidly expanded after changing its business model in 2002 from being a domestic commuter airline to a low-cost airline with destinations in Norway and abroad, challenging the Norwegian branch of the Scandinavian Airlines System, which then operated as SAS Braathens. Last year, Norwegian carried 5.1 million passengers.

THERE IS NO BELGIUM:

Belgium Taps Legislator to Defuse `Political Crisis' (James G. Neuger, Aug. 29, 2007, Bloomberg)

Belgium's king, warning of a ``political crisis,'' tapped the head of the lower house of Parliament to explore options for forming a new government after an 11-week standoff between French and Flemish parties spurred concerns that the country might break apart.

The head of the Flemish Christian Democrats, Yves Leterme, last week abandoned a bid to put together a coalition as French- speaking parties torpedoed demands for the transfer of more power to Flanders, the country's wealthier northern region.

With Belgium lacking a new government almost three months after national elections, the king described the deadlock as a ``crisis,'' and a poll showed that fewer than a third of Belgians are certain that the country will still exist in 10 years.

OTHER THAN THAT HOW DID YOU ENJOY SECULAR RATIONALISM?:

Eastern Europe faces generation crisis (Judy Dempsey, August 30, 2007, NY Times)

Just as the governments of Eastern Europe are grappling with the labor shortage caused by young, educated and skilled citizens moving West for higher wages, economists are warning of an even more serious crisis looming: The average age of those left behind is going up, and fewer are working.

The two trends are bumping up against each other in a way that will pose immense challenges, economists say. The labor shortage will make it hard to sustain the high economic growth levels of recent years, but without such growth, cash-strapped governments will be hard-pressed to pay for the demands of an aging population - especially with fewer and fewer people contributing to the pension and health systems.

"Eastern Europe, along with the former Soviet Union, will by 2025 have populations that are among the oldest in the world," said Arup Banerji, human development economics manager at the World Bank. "The heart of the matter is this combination of the skilled labor shortage and the demographic trends."

JUST ANOTHER WAY THE WARFARE IS ASYMMETRICAL:

Wanted Taliban leader killed in raid (Sayed Salahuddin, 8/30/07, Reuters)

A wanted Taliban insurgent leader in Afghanistan, Mullah Brother, was killed on Thursday in a U.S.-led raid in the southern province of Helmand, the Afghan Defence Ministry said, citing ground commanders.

Brother served as a top military commander for the Taliban government until its removal from power in 2001 and was a member of the movement's leadership council led by its fugitive leader, Mullah Mohammad Omar.

MISSING THEIR OWN STRONGEST ARGUMENT:

Getting Vietnam Right (Mark Moyar, 8/30/2007, American Spectator)

In the past week, the criticisms swirling around the President's VFW speech have provided much less insight into the President or the speech than into the critics. Rather than address the speech's central issue -- the 1975 debate over the ramifications of abandoning Vietnam -- these individuals have tried to push their own views on Iraq by mentioning other aspects of Vietnam. Emblematic of the attackers was Senator John Kerry, who said that the President's comparison of Vietnam with Iraq was "irresponsible" and "ignorant of the realities of both of those wars." Kerry explained that in Iraq, as in Vietnam, "more American soldiers are being sent to fight and die in a civil war we can't stop and an insurgency we can't bomb into submission." Senator Ted Kennedy, another opponent of both wars, backed this interpretation with the comment that the United States lost the Vietnam War because the South Vietnamese government "lacked sufficient legitimacy with its people."

Kerry and Kennedy missed key facts about Vietnam, some of them long obvious, others newly emerged from historical studies. The New York Times and NBC News and CNN and so on missed them, too, because they chose to rely on outdated historians or their own prejudices. The insurgency in Vietnam was dead by 1971, thanks to South Vietnam's armed forces, America's forces, and a South Vietnamese civilian population that overwhelmingly viewed the South Vietnamese government as legitimate. During 1972, after all American combat units had departed, South Vietnamese forces defeated a massive North Vietnamese invasion with the help of American air power. The so-called Christmas bombing of 1972 bombed North Vietnam into submission, resulting in a peace treaty. Had the antiwar Congress not slashed aid to South Vietnam and prohibited the use of American aircraft over Vietnamese skies, the South Vietnamese probably could have repulsed the North Vietnamese when they violated the peace treaty in 1975.

WAIT, WE'RE PRO-AMERICAN TOO!:

BJP's rethinking on n-deal isolates the Left (Amulya Ganguli, August 30, 2007, Rediff)

Perhaps realising that the Bharatiya Janata Party was unnecessarily alienating the middle class by opposing the nuclear deal, L K Advani has now decided to change tack. It's not full support to the measure yet. That would have been too much of a climbdown, which would have left Yashwant Sinha and Arun Shourie high and dry -- the fate of all those who try to be more loyal than the king. So, a few caveats have been entered, such as ensuring India's strategic independence and an assurance of uninterrupted fuel supply.

But, even then, there is enough of a turnaround to confirm that the BJP had initially opposed the pact without much thought. Evidently, it was something of a reflexive action common to virtually all Indian Opposition parties, which take their task of opposing the government far too literally. The BJP's earlier grouses against VAT are a case in point. In the present instance, the party practically joined hands with the Left to create the impression, which the comrades conveniently exploited, that a majority in the Lok Sabha was against the agreement.

The BJP might have taken this unwise step because it felt that if the government succeeded in pushing ahead with the deal without too much difficulty, it would run well ahead of its opponents by winning over nearly the entire middle and upper classes. It would thereby deprive the BJP of large segments of what it had come to regard as its natural constituency. It is a loss which the party cannot sustain, especially in its present state of disarray, where the old order comprising Atal Bihari Vajpayee and L K Advani, is refusing to fade away while the new order -- Rajnath Singh, Arun Jaitley, Venkaiah Naidu, Sushma Swaraj -- is yet to take its place. So, if it let the government clinch the deal, the BJP will have to say farewell to any hope of returning to power in the foreseeable future.

However, before it could inflict too much damage on itself, the BJP decided to change course by saying it was all right for India to be a strategic partner of the US. How far this latest stance will help it regain lost ground is difficult to say, but at least the party can no longer be accused of hypocrisy. If it had laid itself open to this charge, it was because of the fact that for long periods in its history, starting from the Jan Sangh days, it was regarded as pro-American.

THERE'S SOME GOLD AMIDST THIS PILE OF DROSS:

Top 100 Speeches of the 20th Century (American Rhetoric)

TWELFTH OF NEVER:

IAEA: Iranian Cooperation Significant (GEORGE JAHN, 8/30/07, AP)

The U.N. nuclear agency said Thursday that Iran was producing less nuclear fuel than expected and praised Tehran for "a significant step forward" in explaining past atomic actions that have raised suspicions. [...]

[T]he report confirmed that Iran continued to expand its uranium enrichment program, reflecting the Islamic republic's defiance of the U.N. Security Council. Still, U.N. officials said, both enrichment and the building of a plutonium-producing reactor was continuing more slowly than expected.

TOUGH LOVE:

'If he is a terrorist, kill him,' says Shahid's father (Sheela Bhatt, August 30, 2007, Rediff)

"Kambakhat bhag gaya hai (the wretched fellow has run away)," says Mohmmad Abdul Waheed , father of Shahid alias Bilal, while talking exclusively to rediff.com.

Shahid is suspected to be the mastermind behind the bomb blasts in Mecca Masjid in Hyderabad and, although it is not yet confirmed, investigators suspect his involvement in last Saturday's twin bomb blasts as well. [...]

Shahid's family has been living in Moosrambagh in the Malakpet area of Hyderabad for the last 40 years. It is a mixed locality comprising middle-class Hindus and Muslims. There are no ghettos here nor is there any sign of alienation of the minority community. People who directed this reporter to Shahid's home were not looking tense. Waheed's father was in the police force and for many generations the family lived in the Telangana area of Andhra Pradesh.

On seeing me, he did not try to avoid me nor was he reluctant to face questions.

He said, "I am a Sunni Muslim but I am neither a Tablighi (member of the conservative Tablighi Jamaat) nor linked to any other such outfits."

He says Shahid, like him and other family members, performed namaz five times a day. "I feel ashamed that I could not give my children better education, I made them study in Urdu schools. But you know how these Urdu schools are run." [...]

When asked what he would do if his son is found guilty, he says, "Then don't spare him. We are born here. We are happy to be Indian. We live in this land and we don't want anything done to this land. If he is a terrorist kill him."

THIS IS HOW CAPITALISM ENDS?:

U.S. 2nd qtr growth upgraded to 4.0%+ (AP, 8/30/07)

The U.S. economy grew an annualized real 4.0 percent in the second quarter of 2007, up from an initially estimated 3.4 percent and hitting the highest growth since the first quarter of 2006, the Commerce Department said in a revised report Thursday.

WHERE'S GEORGE?:

Myanmar junta fails to quell protests (Seth Mydans, August 30, 2007, International Herald Tribune)

Linking arms for mutual support, grim in the face of plain-clothes paramilitary gangs, small groups of protesters in Myanmar have staged street demonstrations for nearly two weeks in the most sustained defiance of the junta in a decade.

The protests have dwindled in size since they began on Aug. 19, but to the surprise of outside analysts, they have continued to erupt in several parts of the country.

They do not appear to be centrally organized and have continued despite the arrests of a number of activist leaders.

The authorities are hunting down opposition figures and have reportedly told hotels and guest houses to notify them of their presence.

"A week and a half ago people were saying the protests didn't have that much future," said Dave Mathieson, an expert on Myanmar with Human Rights Watch in Thailand. "But they are starting to spread, and they are continuing in Rangoon."

GOOD DOGGIE:

Sarkozy promises more tax cuts and labor market reform (The Associated Press, August 30, 2007)

President Nicolas Sarkozy promised Thursday to press for further tax cuts and labor market reform to create jobs and stimulate France's flagging economy.

The pledge from Sarkozy, who took office in May, amounted to a second round of proposed economic measures. Parliament approved a first set of reforms in a special session last month.

In a speech to French business leaders, Sarkozy called for reforming the unemployment system, urged changes in European Central Bank policy and criticized France's 35-hour work week law, which he said needs to be changed.

The 35-hour work week is an "immense economic mistake," he said.

MAGGIE WOULD RAM THIS DOWN LABOUR'S THROAT:

To vote or not to vote: Pressure grows for a plebiscite on Europe (The Economist, Aug 30th 2007)

IT WAS always assumed that Tony Blair's most troublesome bequest to his successor would be the war in Iraq. Serious competition, however, is coming from his promise in 2004 to hold a referendum on a proposed new constitution for the European Union. Buried after voters in France and the Netherlands rejected it, the constitution was replaced in June by a truncated draft reform treaty. Pressure is growing for a plebiscite on the new version.

Gordon Brown, anxious to avoid a referendum that he would probably lose, is strictly correct that Mr Blair's promise was to hold a vote on an EU constitution, and that the treaty is not a constitution. It amends, rather than replaces, existing EU treaties, hence the tortuous legalese with which it refers to particular articles of the older documents. But the content is little different. The removal of the preamble and references to the EU flag and anthem, as well as the relegation of the charter of fundamental rights to an annexe, are cosmetic changes. Furthermore, other European heads of government seem sure that the treaty is a constitution in all but name, as is the father of the original document, Valéry Giscard d'Estaing.

What should alarm the prime minister is that suspicion of the treaty is not limited to a small EU-bashing sect on the right of the Conservative Party. Ian Davidson, a backbench Labour MP, estimates that as many as 120 of his colleagues on the government benches want a referendum. Some ministers, including Jack Straw, the justice secretary, are thought to be sympathetic. Several large trade unions also favour a vote. On top of all this, some Liberal Democrat MPs, cross that the party is seen as impulsively pro-Brussels, are reportedly urging their leader, Sir Menzies Campbell, to back a referendum.

FINE YOUNG CANNIBALS:

Free Songs: Get Him Eat Him (Daytrotter Sessions, 30 August 2007)

MORE:
-BAND SITE: Get Him Eat Him
-MYSPACE: Get Him Eat Him
-Artist of the Day: Get Him Eat Him (Peter Gaston, August 1, 2005, Spin)
-REVIEW: Get Him Eat Him Arms Down (Dan Raper, 6/05/07, PopMatters)

SOMETIMES YOU OUGHT TO LEAVE WELL ENOUGH ALONE:

Dean Fearing's Queso Fresco Mashed Potatoes (JOYCE SÁENZ HARRIS, 8/29/07, The Dallas Morning News)

FEARING'S SWEET CORN AND QUESO MASHED POTATOES

6 russet potatoes, peeled

5 tablespoons butter (divided use)

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 shallot, minced

2 ears yellow corn (kernels sliced from cob)

3 ounces queso fresco or San Pedro Cheese (Lucky Layla Farms, Plano)

1 pint half-and-half (or less, to taste)

Salt, to taste

Place potatoes in large pot and cover with water. Bring water to boil. Reduce to simmer; cook potatoes for about 25 to 30 minutes, or until tender when pierced with a fork. Drain.

Place potatoes in large bowl and mash by hand for homestyle (slightly lumpy) mashed potatoes, or with an electric mixer for smoothness.

Bring medium sauté pan to medium-high heat and add 1 tablespoon butter. Add garlic and sauté until very light brown, about 1 minute.

Add shallot; sauté for 1 minute. Add corn kernels and sauté for 2 minutes.

Remove pan from heat and add mixture to mashed potatoes. Fold in cheese. Stir to combine well; taste for seasoning.

Melt remaining 4 tablespoons (1/4 cup) butter. Add melted butter.

Slowly add up to 1 pint half-and-half, stirring well so consistency is not too thin. Add salt to taste, and stir.

CHICKEN OF THE SEA:

Brining adds flavor to chicken breasts (Dallas Morning News, August 29, 2007)

4 boneless and skinless chicken breasts, each cut in half

4 cups cold water

1 tablespoon table salt

Nonstick cooking spray

Place the chicken breasts between sheets of plastic wrap and use a rolling pin to pound them to an even thickness of about 1/2 inch.

Combine the cold water and salt and stir until the salt is dissolved and the mixture is clear. Put the chicken breasts into a large zip-top plastic bag and pour the saltwater mixture into the bag. Seal the bag and refrigerate for 1 to 2 hours. Remove the chicken from the bag, and pat it dry with paper towels.

Prepare a medium-hot charcoal fire or heat a gas grill to medium-high. Have the grill completely heated as soon as the brining is done, and coat the grate with cooking spray.

Grill the chicken breasts for about 6 minutes, then flip them and cook them about 5 to 6 minutes more, or until a meat thermometer reads 165 F. Makes 4 servings.

JUST ANOTHER PORK DELIVERY SYSTEM:

Easy makeovers for the grilled cheese sandwich (J.M. HIRSCH, 8/29/07, The Associated Press)

The simplicity and speed with which this classic sandwich can be assembled makes it a natural for a low-labor dinner after a long day. On its own, it's great any time of year. Paired with a bowl of tomato soup, it's perfect comfort food. [...]

•Don't forget meat. Some thinly sliced deli meats, or shredded cooked chicken breast, go well with virtually any cheese, take no extra time and help turn the sandwich into a hearty meal.

•Bacon is divine. Cook a few strips in a skillet, then remove them from the pan, but don't drain the grease from it. Add the bacon to the sandwich and use the drippings as the fat for grilling the sandwich. Not healthy, but delicious.

•Even if bacon isn't your thing, don't automatically reach for butter. Experiment with oils such as peanut and sesame, which will lend savory, nutty flavors to the bread.

•Roll with this one: peanut butter and cheddar cheese. A little bit of each will create a warm, oozing delicious mess.

THIS JUST IN...:

Bitterness Lingers 2 Years After Katrina (MARY FOSTER, 8/30/07, Associated Press)

James Chaney spent the second anniversary of Hurricane Katrina doing what he's been doing since the killer storm crashed ashore—working on a damaged home.

"My house is pretty close to being done, now we're trying to get my sister home," said Chaney, 39. "Thank God for family and friends. If it wasn't for them nobody would ever get back here."

Two years after Katrina hit, a storm of bitterness and anger has yet to clear. While memorials were held to mark the day, residents fumed about the government's response and marched to demand help.

"We want people to know that nothing is being done to help people here," said Samuel Banks, 40, as he marched with about 1,000 other protesters Wednesday. "How can the city rebuild if nobody has money or jobs?"

THANKS, FRANK!:

Cities in the dust (C.B. LIDDELL, 8/29/07, The Japan Times)

The Fascist dictator Generalissimo Francisco Franco wasn't everyone's cup of tea — but he did manage the unusual feat of transcending time.

Franco's restoration of the old aristocracy and the Catholic Church in Spain effectively turned the clock back, while his restrictive economic policies helped preserve Spain as a timeless land of beautifully aged buildings and clear brilliant skies.

FIDDLE IN FINE FETTLE:

Anne-Sophie Mutter's Journey to Mozart (Fred Child, American Public Media, July 19, 2007 · Classical Sessions)

There's nothing quite like seeing and hearing a masterful violinist and pianist engaged in musical conversation right in front of you in a studio. Add to that the opportunity to talk with them about the music and their careers, and you've got a radio host's dream come true.

That was the case when violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter and pianist Lambert Orkis came by our studios to play Mozart. The two have been making music together for nearly 20 years and their long-standing musical relationship shows. [...]

Lately, Mutter has returned to Mozart. She's been rediscovering all of the composer's major works for the violin. With Lambert Orkis, Mutter has been on tour playing Mozart's Violin Sonatas. The two stopped by the Performance Today studio to play selections from some of their favorite sonatas.

MORE:
-Anne-Sophie Mutter (St. Paul Sunday)
-PLAYING BEETHOVEN (The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer Transcript, April 28, 1998)

DUH?:

Study: Democrats Get More A.M. Airtime (DAVID BAUDER, 8/29/07, AP)

A media watchdog organization charged Wednesday that the network morning news shows have spent considerably more time this year on Democrats running for president than on Republicans.

ISN'T IT SAFE TO ASSUME...:

The war against Iraq's prime minister: Sens. Hillary Clinton and Carl Levin are calling for Nouri al-Maliki's ouster as a way of attacking Bush's Iraq policy. But do they understand the consequences? (Juan Cole, Aug. 29, 2007, Salon)

Levin started the latest round of Maliki bashing a week ago Monday, saying, "I hope the parliament will vote the Maliki government out of office and will have the wisdom to replace it with a less sectarian and more unifying prime minister and government." Clinton piled on two days later, saying that the Maliki government "cannot produce a political settlement, because it is too beholden to religious and sectarian leaders." She added, "I share Senator Levin's hope that the Iraqi parliament will replace Prime Minister al-Maliki with a less divisive and more unifying figure when it returns in a few weeks."

By the time Clinton spoke, President Bush had worsened the situation with some injudicious, impromptu remarks, admitting, "I think there's a certain level of frustration with the leadership in general, inability to ... come together to get, for example, an oil revenue law passed or provincial elections." Journalists understandably thought he might be giving up on Maliki -- not at all his intended message, according to what I was told by someone with inside knowledge of the administration's Iraq policy. The president was constrained to clarify later that he thought Maliki a "good man" with "a difficult job" and said he supported him. He underscored his support with Tuesday's laudatory speech before the American Legion.

Some of the charges against the prime minister are true. Maliki had neglected to reach out to the Sunni Arabs in his national unity government. But Sunni demands, which included the rehabilitation of Baathists and the release of large numbers of detainees suspected of involvement in guerrilla actions, were often unpalatable to Maliki.

Some of the charges are based on a misreading of Iraq. Sen. Warner, for one, made several misstatements about Maliki during his appearance on "Meet the Press." "You've got to remember," he insisted, "that the Maliki government, Shia interests, are very closely aligned with Iran." He added that the Shiites, having gotten to the "top of the hill," are "[reluctant] to give up a fair share to the Sunnis, to the Kurds ... Unless you have a unity government between those three factions, Iraq will not become a strong sovereign nation."

Warner is wrong to imply that Maliki's Shiite government has bad relations with the Kurds. In fact, the Kurdistan Alliance is what keeps Maliki in power, given that two major Shiite factions have quit his governing coalition. Likewise, Warner doesn't grasp the role of Iran. Maliki is less close to Iran than his predecessor, Ibrahim Jaafari, was. Warner does not understand the Islamic Call Party or its history as an Iraqi nationalist organization with a Shiite emphasis.

And the pressure now coming from Congress to replace Maliki is also unlikely to produce positive change. Although any 55 parliamentarians may introduce a vote of no confidence, at this point it's hard to see how Maliki's Iraqi critics could overcome their own divisions to form the majority vote needed to unseat him. Nor is there an obvious, tested alternative who would have more chance of achieving Bush's benchmarks, which include provincial elections, changes in the harsh de-Baathification laws that have excluded many Sunni Arabs from public life, and a new law specifying equitable distribution of oil income. Former appointed interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi has hired a fancy Washington public relations firm and is among four politicians aiming to bring down Maliki and take his place. But Allawi, an ex-Baathist, Shiite secularist and old-time CIA asset, only has 25 seats in parliament and does not have the popularity to come to power by democratic means.

If parliament brought down Maliki, it would not choose his successor directly. By the constitution, President Jalal Talabani would have to go to the single largest bloc in parliament (still the Shiite fundamentalist United Iraqi Alliance) and ask it to choose a prime minister. The new choice would come either from Maliki's Islamic Call Party or from the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council of Shiite cleric Abdul Aziz al-Hakim. SIIC is much closer to the ayatollahs in Tehran than Maliki is, and much less likely to compromise with the Sunni Arabs.

NO, THERE'S THE RUB:

Barbecued Cowboy Steaks (Contra Costa Times, 8/29/07)

FOR COWBOY RUB:

2 tablespoons sea salt

2 teaspoons Ancho powder

2 teaspoons dried granulated garlic

2 teaspoons coarsely ground black pepper

2 teaspoons ground dried thyme

FOR STEAK:

Four 1-pound, 2-inch-thick, bone-in rib-eye steaks

1. Combine all the rub ingredients in a small mixing bowl and stir until thoroughly blended. Season the steaks with the barbeque rub by sprinkling it all over and then pressing it in. Allow the meat to sit for 30 minutes to come to room temperature.

2. Light charcoal or mesquite chunks in a starter chimney. Pour the hot coal into your grill. Maintain a hot fire (around 350 degrees) and place the meat as far above the coals as possible until it's nicely browned. Douse flare-ups with a squirt bottle.

3. When the steaks are nicely marked by the hot grill, move them away from the coals to a spot in your barbecue pit where they can cook indirectly until they reach the desired doneness. Remove them from the grill when they are slightly firm to the touch, or between 135-140 degrees for medium rare, 145 for medium, and 155 for medium well. The meat will continue to cook after it is removed, so allow it to rest before carving.

MORE:
How To ... Create meat rubs: As promised on Wednesday, here are more recipes to make your own meat rubs. (Seattle PI, 8/29/07)

CHILI POWDER

Makes: 1/4 cup

2 tablespoons ground ancho, New Mexico or other mild chili, or a couple of whole dried mild chilies

1/4 teaspoon cayenne, or to taste

1/2 teaspoon black peppercorns

2 teaspoons cumin seeds

2 teaspoons coriander seeds

1 tablespoon dried Mexican oregano

Put all ingredients in a small skillet and turn heat to medium. Toast, occasionally shaking pan, until mixture is fragrant, 3 to 5 minutes. Grind in a spice or coffee grinder until powdery. Store in a tightly covered container for up to several weeks.

WHAT CAN THAT "BUT" POSSIBLY BE DOING THERE?:

Potato skins retro, but great (TheStar.com, August 29, 2007)

6 large russet potatoes (about 3-3/4 lb), scrubbed
2 tbsp butter, melted
2 green onions, finely chopped
3 slices bacon, finely chopped
8 oz cheese, such as cheddar, gruyère or feta, shredded
Freshly ground pepper

PREPARATION: Prick potatoes all over with fork. Bake directly on rack in preheated 400F oven until cooked through and crisp on the outside, about 45 to 60 minutes.

When cool enough to handle, cut lengthwise into 4 wedges. Using spoon, scoop out most of flesh to form boat-shaped shells, leaving 1/4-inch to 1/2-inch potato lining. (Reserve excess potato for another use, such as mashed potatoes.)

Raise oven temperature to 450F. Place skins on baking sheet. Brush insides with butter. Bake 5 minutes or until browned.

Meanwhile, in small skillet, cook bacon over medium heat until crisp. Drain; discard fat. Transfer bacon to paper towel to drain.

To assemble, season skins with pepper. Top with equal portions cheese, onions and bacon. Bake 5 minutes or until cheese is melted and bubbly.

BECAUSE SOME CO-WORKER OR NEIGHBOR JUST DUMPED A BAG OF IT ON YOU:

Zucchini-walnut bread (Mara Zepeda, August 29, 2007, Boston Globe)

Butter (for the pans)
Flour (for the pans)
3 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 teaspoons ground cinnamon
2 cups sugar
1 cup canola oil
3 eggs
2 cups grated zucchini
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 cup chopped walnuts
1. Set the oven at 350 degrees. Butter two 8 1/2-by-4 1/2-inch loaf pans, then sprinkle them with flour, tapping out the excess.

2. In a large bowl, stir together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon; set aside.

3. In another bowl, combine the sugar, oil, eggs, zucchini, and vanilla.

4. Stir zucchini mixture into the flour mixture until well blended. Fold in the nuts.

5. Divide the batter between the two pans. Transfer to the middle of the oven. Bake the loaves for 1 hour or until a skewer inserted into the middle of the loaves comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack for 15 minutes, then turn out and set right side up to cool completely.

ONE ASSUMES THEY FROWN ON SMEAR THE QUEER TOO:

Red Rover, Red Rover, Tag's All Over (AP, 8/29/07)

An elementary school has banned tag on its playground after some children complained they were harassed or chased against their will.

"It causes a lot of conflict on the playground," said Cindy Fesgen, assistant principal of the Discovery Canyon Campus school.

WHAT DO CHRISTIANS HAVE...BESIDES THE FRANCHISE?:

Two Professors Fail To Clean Up Their Act (IRA STOLL, August 29, 2007, NY Sun)

In this latest iteration, the professors have tried to clean up their act — but only on the surface. The "Lobby" has been revised to the lowercase "lobby." Gone in this new presentation is much of the inflammatory rhetoric — the verb "manipulate," the term "stranglehold," the accusation that AIPAC is a foreign agent rather than an American interest group. The new version of this argument, with its stamp of approval from Farrar, Straus and Giroux, may be more acceptable for sale at a Barnes & Noble near you, for open discourse in the New York Times, on National Public Radio, and at the Council on Foreign Relations.

But from beneath the surface, try though the professors may have to suppress it, what Messrs. Mearsheimer and Walt themselves define as anti-Semitism manages to poke through. The professors write that "anti-Semitism indulges in various forms of stereotyping and implies that Jews should be viewed with suspicion or contempt, while seeking to deny them the ability to participate fully and freely in all realms of society." They are at pains to emphasize that "the lobby is defined not by ethnicity or religion but by a political agenda." Then they proceed to jump in and do exactly what they say anti-Semites do.

What are we to make of the professors' classification of the former governor of Vermont, Howard Dean, as a supporter of Israel in part on the basis that "Dean's wife is Jewish and his children were raised Jewish as well"? Or of the assertion that "Christian Zionists exert less impact on U.S. Middle East policy than the other parts of the Israel lobby do," because the Christians "lack the financial power of the major pro-Israel Jewish groups, and they do not have the same media presence"?

Instead of the charge that the Jews or the "Lobby" are "manipulating" the press, the new, cleaned-up, book version of Messrs. Walt and Mearsheimer asserts that, "If the media were left to their own devices, they would not serve up as consistent a diet of pro-Israel coverage and commentary." Left unexplained is exactly whose devices the press has been left to, if not their own.

ARCHETYPAL:

Liberty & Security for All?: a review of Security First by Amitai Etzioni (JEAN BETHKE ELSHTAIN, August 29, 2007, NY Sun)

One doesn't usually write a book on current affairs unless one is exercised about something and Mr. Etzioni is mightily exercised in "Security First" (Yale University Press, 338 pages, $27). He thinks America has gone off the rails with an excess of democratic enthusiasm; indeed, he pronounces the policy of pushing democratization abroad a failure. Liberal interventionism, he believes, misconstrues matters by equating the spread of democratization with enhanced prospects for peace and security. But democracy, Mr. Etzioni insists, "does not beget security."

By contrast, Mr. Etzioni's "Security First" foreign policy — and it should be noted that the architects of the foreign policy Mr. Etzioni opposes would cavil at the suggestion that they have not put security first — would require America to eschew officially any plan to overthrow rogue governments and to ignore relatively "minor" threats. At the same time, his plan would require us to take the lead headfirst in the Rwandas and Darfurs of the world where security needs were, and are, ignored and another of Mr. Etzioni's first principles, "Primacy of Life," is violated in systematic and egregious ways. Basic security for all, he claims, does not mean democratic or constitutional regimes for all. The world will resist our attempts to democratize it but happily go along with our efforts to "provide security for one and all." This is a rather amazing conviction and a formidable challenge: How on earth do you focus on security for all, assuming it is in America's best interest? And on what grounds can one proffer reassurances that the world will welcome our "security for all efforts" with open arms?

Mr. Etzioni subsumes American national interest under service to the common good of a global community. He construes this as the vehicle to move from a "pragmatic and realistic foreign policy into one that is also principled and legitimate." At present, American foreign policy suffers from what Mr. Etzioni calls "Multiple Realism Deficiency Disorder," which invites us to get many important matters backwards. Putting democracy before security is but the most glaring example. But I am hard pressed to think of an American president or administration that put democratic initiatives abroad before American security needs.

What does "Security First" entail? Mr. Etzioni answers: freedom from deadly violence, maiming, and torture. Where is this security lacking? Primarily in failed states, in newly liberated states, and in the Middle East.

The impulse towards both exists in every human being. Our differences are just about which is stronger and how much so.

In general, the problem with the security extremist vision (which Mr. Etzioni appears to advocate here) is that, for most people, the sacrifice of freedom it requires makes absolute security unattractive to most people. In particular, this vision is antithetical to Judeo-Christianity and, thus, to the American Republic. A foreign policy that would tend to prefer that, for example, the Poles be left in the grip of a totalitarianism that provided maximal physical security rather than seeking to help them emerge into an admittedly messy new liberation can never be sold to the vast majority of Americans, who remain faithful to Christianity on the religious front and the ideals of the Founding on the political.

PRETTY MUCH ANYTHING WITH GUNS OR SWORDS:

Books for boys (Linda Wilson Fuoco, August 29, 2007, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)

One of the keys to getting boys to read is to find books, magazines and newspapers that interest them.

There are many book lists on the Internet. One that comes highly recommended by many people, including Susan Claus, a librarian at Northland Public Library in Ross, is www.guysread.com. It was founded by Jon Scieszka, who is the author of popular children's books, including "The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales."

EVERYBODY BITCHES BUT NO ONE EVER LEAVES:

You hate being affluent? Then swap with us: A Ghanaian filmmaker who toured the UK with a documentary on debt relief was shocked to find so many Britons down on development. (De Roy Kwesi Andrew, 8/29/07, spiked)

I was particularly stunned by two big supermarkets called Tesco and Asda. I was amazed to see so many varieties of food from different countries at affordable prices, all in one shop and kept in hygienic conditions. In Ghana, one has to wander around every nook and cranny of local markets just to gather basic ingredients - and they’re expensive. There’s none of the convenience of readymade food, which is affordable for most people in Britain. Why don’t NGOs campaign for Ghanaians to have easy access to cheap and nutritious food?

In people’s homes in the UK there are washing and drying machines for dishes and clothes. There are freezers and widescreen televisions. Many Ghanaians trek daily for miles, scrambling for firewood, water and foodstuff, carrying heavy loads on our heads and our backs. Yet scientific, technological and industrial developments have given our peers in the West enviable and unparalleled freedom, choices and opportunities in life. The labour-intensive work in Ghana is intolerable.

Given all of the conveniences that exist, it is not surprising that people in London seem to sleep very little. The bars, pubs, clubs and cinemas fill up in the evenings. People wine, dine and dance through the night, enjoying themselves with their friends and loved ones. In Ghana we rarely have time for such entertainment. When our daily activities consist of so much unproductive manual labour, how can we have time over for leisure? I never saw my father taking a stroll with any of his four children, let alone going on holiday. It was not because he didn’t love us or did not desire to do those things, but because there was no money and there was no spare time for relaxing activities. Lack of development in Ghana has denied us the vital pleasures and comforts of life; our activities are geared towards survival.

Yet, as I started my speaking tour in British schools, colleges and universities to promote the WORLDwrite documentary Damned By Debt Relief, which was filmed in Ghana and which I worked on, it soon became clear that all that glitters is not gold. The great ideas that spurred on pioneers to make life easier, more bountiful and pleasurable for those in the West are now under attack. The culprits in the dock are affluence, ambition, science and technology - and strangely, the jury prosecuting these benefits of modern life are those who already have and enjoy them.

I was surprised by the views of some quite cynical audience members during a discussion of affluence at the Battle of Ideas, a festival of debate in central London at the end of last year. This was the first time I heard the suggestion that flying abroad should be rationed, or worse still, banned. The denunciation of material comfort is so widespread in the West that even schoolchildren seem to think affluence is an evil. Many people I met in Britain told me that there is less happiness and laughter in British society due to economic development. Some said that Africans are happier than Brits even though they are poorer. I thought that freedom from toil was the centrepiece of economic development, handing anybody the ability to unleash their potential and gain unlimited opportunities: most people in Britain have that freedom; we in Ghana do not.

If Westerners are not happy with such great things, perhaps they should swap with us Africans.

ACTUALLY, MOST WRITING. THESE DAYS:

The Death of Jazz: a review of Coltrane: The Story of a Sound
by Ben Ratliff (Ben Hughes, Esquire)

The jazz critic for the New York Times, Ratliff is engaging and opinionated throughout, picking up the loose strands of Coltrane's myth and weaving them back into the sturdy line of his music. But better yet, at 272 pages, he's a great editor. Whereas most jazz writing is like most jazz -- too long, too wanky, too dense -- Ratliff learned an important lesson from his subject: Sometimes a few well-chosen notes are more powerful than a barrage of impenetrable sound.

FEISTY FRIENDS:

That may even top the Pips.

BLACKSTOCK LIVES:

Many Soul Legends on Wattstax Soundtrack Reissue: Too damn many to cram into a headline, that's for sure (Pitchfork, 8/22/07)

In the early 70s, Stax Records boasted a roster that comprised a heaping portion of the important funk, soul, and R&B artists of the pre-disco era. And so, with all that talent under a single roof, they held a huge concert in the summer of 1972 right in the center of the then riot-torn Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles, an event that history often fondly remembers as "the black Woodstock."

Isaac Hayes, the Staple Singers, Carla Thomas, the Bar-Kays, Rufus Thomas, and oh-so-many others threw down on the stage of the Los Angeles Coliseum to a crowd numbering in the six digits. The concert became a film, and the film became a soundtrack, both entitled Wattstax. Now Wattstax is back, flipping the original two LPs into a jam-packed 3CD set featuring 47 tracks culled from the concert itself and select performances that took place in the week running up to the event.

BECAUSE BAD CHOICES SHOULD HAVE CONSEQUENCES:

GOP Senators Say Craig Should Resign (DAVID ESPO, 8/29/07, AP)

Idaho Sen. Larry Craig's political support eroded significantly Wednesday as three fellow Republicans in Congress called for his resignation and party leaders pushed him from senior committee posts.

The White House expressed its disappointment, too—and nary a word of support for the 62-year-old lawmaker, who pleaded guilty earlier this month to a charge stemming from an undercover police operation in an airport men's room.

THE CASH YOU SAVE MAY BE YOUR OWN:

Get Well Soon: A wellness program can help your company save money on health-care costs (Business Week, 9/03/07)

Skyrocketing health insurance premiums were ruining the bottom line of Coral Chemical, a $20 million, 90-employee company in Zion, Ill. "The only way to control costs was cut benefits or make the employees pay more," says CEO John Schueneman, who couldn't bring himself to do either. "I was in a horrible losing situation for years."

Schueneman eventually found a different fix. First he switched to a high-deductible health plan. Then he adopted his insurer's wellness program, offering free health screenings and group walks to his employees. Schueneman's premiums now are 4% below where they would be without the program. "We've been able to get employees thinking about health, offer really rich benefits, and still save money," he says.

Wellness programs run the gamut from employer-sponsored group fitness activities and healthy cafeteria food to formal activities linked to an insurance plan. Destiny Health, Schueneman's carrier, has offered a wellness program bundled into its high-deductible insurance plan since 2001. UnitedHealth Group is testing a high-deductible plan paired with a wellness program for companies with 100 to 1,000 employees and plans to offer it to smaller companies in 2008.

High-deductible health plans, however, have their critics. These programs pair deductibles of up to $11,000 for a family with lower premiums. Employees can pay their health-care bills out of individual health savings accounts (HSAs), to which they or their employer may contribute money tax-free. But unless a plan is linked to an active wellness program and proper education, an employee may end up with debt rather than savings. And wellness programs need significant incentives and active leadership to be successful.

Done well, though, the combination can sharply lower expenses. Companies sponsoring wellness programs saw a 30% reduction in medical and absenteeism costs within 3.6 years, according to a 2005 survey by industry publication The Art of Health Promotion. And the Wellness Councils of America (WELCOA) found a $24 return for every $1 a small company spent on a comprehensive program.

SAVES LOADING THEM INTO BOXCARS LATER:

Skilled Immigrants? No Thanks: Germany is lagging behind other major industrialized countries in its efforts to attract skilled workers. While other nations see highly qualified immigrants as a benefit, Germany regards them more as a threat -- and is setting the hurdles as high as it can. (Michael Sauga, 8/29/07, Der Spiegel)

Ironically, just as the German economy embarks on its strongest boom in years, the country is on the verge of spoiling its own future by making it difficult for German companies to hire foreign nationals. Every other major industrialized country in the world may be competing for a limited supply of highly skilled specialists, but in Germany -- which currently ranks as the world's leading export nation -- political parties are determined to satisfy the growing demand for highly skilled specialists mainly from a shrinking domestic labor supply.

The German government failed to make any significant changes to the status quo at last week's brainstorming meeting in the eastern German town of Meseberg. And while the administration plans to make a few adjustments to the new immigration act, which recently became law after years of heated debate, the changes are minor.

One of the changes is the coalition government's decision to make it slightly easier for Eastern European engineers and foreign university graduates to move to Germany. But, at the same time, the measures were tied to so many conditions and limitations that they will likely attract very few highly qualified workers to Germany in the future. The Association of German Chambers of Industry and Commerce (DIHK) called it merely a "small step in the right direction."

In principle, Berlin's grand coalition is holding fast to a failed immigration policy that has long made experts shake their heads in disbelief. For decades, many of the foreigners who were allowed to immigrate were barely literate in their native language -- let alone German -- and soon became burdens on Germany's social welfare system. At the same time, the government set high hurdles for eminently qualified would-be immigrants from Eastern Europe and Asia.

In the international technology race, Germany resembles a sprinter who decides to attach lead weights to his shoes shortly before the start. While other industrialized nations lure highly qualified foreign workers with tax benefits and recruitment incentives, and while tens of thousands of well-educated Germans emigrate each year, the country is doing its best to discourage qualified workers from even attempting to immigrate.

The regulations are so unrealistic that even the country's leading exporters are increasingly running into problems with German immigration law.

THELMA AND LOUISE:

Should We Be Worried About Russia and China Ganging Up on the West?: Probably not. Here's why. (Ian Bremmer, Aug. 29, 2007, Slate)

First, Russia is one of the world's leading exporters of oil and gas. China's demand for both has grown enormously in recent years—and will continue to rise as its economy expands. The two countries are building a solid buyer-seller energy relationship.

But the differences in their foreign-policy goals emerge when we remember that Russia needs high energy prices, while China would like to see them fall. So many international conflicts today have potential implications for energy prices that Russia and China will frequently find themselves on different sides of key issues. [...]

Second, China's economic and military expansion inspires dread among Moscow's military and security elite, which fears, among other things, that Russia's resource-rich Far East could eventually become a zone of intense Sino-Russian competition. There are some 18 million ethnic Russians in Siberia; there are now about 300 million Chinese across the border in China's northern provinces.

As Russians leave the sparsely populated eastern territories in search of opportunities in the country's increasingly prosperous cities, waves of (mostly illegal) Chinese migrants are moving in. The trend is likely to intensify, feeding an anti-Chinese xenophobia that has existed in Russia for centuries. The risk of interethnic violence is bound to grow, complicating relations between the two governments.

Third, state-owned Chinese firms have expressed interest in buying increasing volumes of Russian equities. Russia will happily accept the cash, but the Kremlin is loath to accept investment that gives any foreign power a stake in the so-called strategic sectors of the Russian economy.

THINK AND BE WRONG:

Through Analysis, Gut Reaction Gains Credibility (CLAUDIA DREIFUS, 8/29/07, NY Times)

Two years ago, when Malcolm Gladwell published his best-selling “Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking,” readers throughout the world were introduced to the ideas of Gerd Gigerenzer, a German social psychologist.

Dr. Gigerenzer, the director of the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin, is known in social science circles for his breakthrough studies on the nature of intuitive thinking. Before his research, this was a topic often dismissed as crazed superstition. Dr. Gigerenzer, 59, was able to show how aspects of intuition work and how ordinary people successfully use it in modern life. [...]

Q: O.K., let’s start with basics: what is a gut feeling?

A: It’s a judgment that is fast. It comes quickly into a person’s consciousness. The person doesn’t know why they have this feeling. Yet, this is strong enough to make an individual act on it. What a gut instinct is not is a calculation. You do not fully know where it comes from.

My research indicates that gut feelings are based on simple rules of thumb, what we psychologists term “heuristics.” These take advantage of certain capacities of the brain that have come down to us through time, experience and evolution. Gut instincts often rely on simple cues in the environment. In most situations, when people use their instincts, they are heeding these cues and ignoring other unnecessary information.

Q: In modern society, gut thinking has a bad reputation. Why is that?

A: It is not thought to be rational.

IT'S JUST NOT HARD BEING THE PINNACE OF FRENCH CULTURE:

Disney after dark: Aspiring performers used to be sniffy about working in shows at Disneyland Paris. Not any more. (Patrick Barkham, August 28, 2007, Guardian)

[W]hen Disneyland Paris was looking for a live production to celebrate its 15th birthday this summer, High School Musical seemed ideal. But this world created to satisfy the whims of six-year-olds is governed by its own rules: live musicals in Disneyland Paris are sung in a mix of French and English, and shrunk to fit the concentration spans of their young audiences.

The Legend of the Lion King has played in the Paris park since 2004, squeezing the tale of Simba into 30 minutes. With High School Musical, Disney does it in just 11 minutes. Though the TV movie's producer, Bill Borden, claimed the plot was a modern retelling of Romeo and Juliet, it does not plumb Shakespearean depths of complexity; nevertheless, it is still a challenge to distil its hit songs into such a short production, which is playing up to 10 times a day until next month. [...]

This kind of show might once have been seen as the kind of embarrassing first step that singers and dancers go quiet about when they make it to the West End. While most of these young performers, living in student-dorm style accommodation with the rest of the 12,200 staff, are keen to move on to bigger stages and full-length shows, many are increasingly proud of working at the resort, says casting manager Madeline Aveson-Gruber. "People who have performed in The Legend of the Lion King are proud of it and they are putting it on their biographies."

NATURE ABHORS A POWER VACCUUM:

Instant ayatollahs vie for power (Christoph Reuter, August 29, 2007, Record Online)

While Washington has been busy focusing on the divisions between Shiites and Sunnis that have led to nonstop sectarian violence in the country, the deep divisions within the Shia community itself have gone almost unnoticed. [...]

In addition, a new type of Shia leader has emerged: self-appointed clerics who combine the might of armed militias with an almost messianic sense of purpose.

Among these "instant ayatollahs" is Farqad al-Qazwini, who set up his own hawza after being dismissed from the Najaf seminary, and Dhia Abdul-Zahra al-Garawi, who headed a group called the Soldiers of Heaven before being killed during a confrontation with Iraqi and U.S. forces near Najaf earlier this year.

But the most powerful, and some would say the most dangerous, of these figures is Sayyid Mahmud Hassani al-Sarkhi

Many in Karbala regard him as a serious threat to security and stability, and accuse him of being behind several successful and attempted assassinations of Shia scholars and clerics who have criticized him.

Largely unknown before 2003, Sarkhi now presides over the Sadiq Hawza, with more than 500 students, leads the Wala (Loyalty) political party and commands between 15,000 and 20,000 followers in various southern provinces of Iraq as well as an armed militia.

His followers have clashed repeatedly with Iraqi security forces as well as with supporters of other ayatollahs.

IF SARKO'S THE POODLE, WHY IS PEPE THE ONE YAPPING?:

Bush's brand-new poodle (Pepe Escobar, 8/30/07, Asia Times)

With former British prime minister Tony Blair out of the picture, there's now a newer, leaner, meaner, adrenaline-packed "Made in France" version. Thanks to his unrelenting support for President George W Bush's war on Iraq, Blair used to be derided in all corners of the globe as Bush's poodle. Now the new self-appointed lap dog is French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

The hyperactive "Sarkozy the First" - as he is widely referred to in France - has just pronounced his first major foreign-policy speech, to an annual conference of 200-odd French ambassadors from posts around the world. He took no time to engage himself in the current White House and neo-conservative-promoted Iran-demonization campaign.

Neo-cons and their ilk in France, plus mostly sycophant media, obviously loved it, with instant geopoliticians raving about the "prudent" and "firm" stand behind Sarkozy's rhetoric.

THEY TRIED TO MAKE ME GO TO REHAB, I SAID, "YES,YES, YES":

Cleric Freezes Activities of His Militia (DAVID RISING, 8/29/07, AP)

Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr has ordered a six-month suspension of activities by his Mahdi Army militia in order to reorganize the force, and it will no longer attack U.S. and coalition troops, aides said Wednesday.

The aide, Sheik Hazim al-Araji, said on Iraqi state television that the goal was to "rehabilitate" the organization, which has reportedly broken into factions, some of which the U.S. maintains are trained and supplied by Iran.

"We declare the freezing of the Mahdi Army without exception in order to rehabilitate it in a way that will safeguard its ideological image within a maximum period of six months starting from the day this statement is issued," al-Araji said, reading from a statement by al-Sadr.

In Najaf, al-Sadr's spokesman said the order also means the Mahdi Army will no longer launch attacks against U.S. and other coalition forces.

IT USED TO BE AN ANTI-NAZI MAGAZINE:

The TNR Q&A: Of Dog Fights and Men: For insight into the reaction to Vick's case, The New Republic spoke with ethicist Peter Singer, the Ira W. DeCamp Professor of Bioethics at Princeton University. (Ben Crair, 08.29.07, TNR Online)

As regards their fake reports from Iraq, we're willing to accept that the editors of TNR were just dupes. But they can't pretend not to know that Peter Singer is a monster, who would see nothing wrong with feeding the infirm to those pit bulls. After all, the former have less utility as fellow humans than as food.

WHERE THE WAR ENDS:

Struggle for the Soul of Pakistan: The nation's efforts to straddle the fault line between moderate and militant Islam offer a cautionary tale for the post-9/11 world. (Don Belt, September 2007, National Geographic Magazine)

If there is an address, an exact location for the rift tearing Pakistan apart, and possibly the world, it is a spot 17 miles (28 kilometers) west of Islamabad called the Margalla Pass. Here, at a limestone cliff in the middle of Pakistan, the mountainous west meets the Indus River Valley, and two ancient, and very different, civilizations collide. To the southeast, unfurled to the horizon, lie the fertile lowlands of the Indian subcontinent, realm of peasant farmers on steamy plots of land, bright with colors and the splash of serendipitous gods. To the west and north stretch the harsh, windswept mountains of Central Asia, land of herders and raiders on horseback, where man fears one God and takes no prisoners.

This is also where two conflicting forms of Islam meet: the relatively relaxed and tolerant Islam of India, versus the rigid fundamentalism of the Afghan frontier. Beneath the surface of Pakistan, these opposing forces grind against each other like two vast geologic plates, rattling teacups from Lahore to London, Karachi to New York. The clash between moderates and extremists in Pakistan today reflects this rift, and can be seen as a microcosm for a larger struggle among Muslims everywhere. So when the earth trembles in Pakistan, the world pays attention.

Travel 8,000 miles (13,000 kilometers) across this troubled country, as I did recently, and it becomes obvious that, 60 years after its founding, Pakistan still occupies unsettled ground.

A MATTER OF VOLITION:

Big Decline in U.S. Poverty Rate (AP, 8/28/07)

The nation's poverty rate dropped last year, the first significant decline since President Bush took office.

The Census Bureau reported Tuesday that 36.5 million Americans, or 12.3 percent -- were living in poverty last year. That's down from 12.6 percent in 2005.

The median household income was $48,200, a slight increase from the previous year. [...]

The poverty level is the official measure used to decide eligibility for federal health, housing, nutrition and child care benefits. It differs by family size and makeup. For a family of four with two children, for example, the poverty level is $20,444.

WHAT A DISAPPOINTMENT TO THE LEFT AND FAR RIGHT:

The Decline and Fall of Declinism (Alan W. Dowd Tuesday, August 28, 2007, The American)

[T]he declinists were wrong yesterday. And if their record—and America’s—are any indication, they are just as wrong today.

Any discussion of U.S. power has to begin with its enormous economy. At $13.13 trillion, the U.S. economy represents 20 percent of global output. It’s growing faster than Britain’s, Australia’s, Germany’s, Japan’s, Canada’s, even faster than the vaunted European Union.

In fact, even when Europe cobbles together its 25 economies under the EU banner, it still falls short of U.S. GDP—and will fall further behind as the century wears on. Gerard Baker of the Times of London notes that the U.S. economy will be twice the size of Europe’s by 2021.

On the other side of the world, some see China’s booming economy as a threat to U.S. economic primacy. However, as Baker observes, the U.S. is adding “twice as much in absolute terms to global output” as China. The immense gap in per capita income—$44,244 in the U.S. versus $2,069 in China—adds further perspective to the picture.

America’s muscular economic output comes courtesy of the American worker, who is growing ever more productive. Matthew Slaughter of the National Bureau of Economic Research details in The Wall Street Journal how, beginning in 1995, U.S. worker productivity began to accelerate. “From 1996 through 2006 it doubled, to an average annual rate of 2.7 percent.”

Another recent analysis—surprisingly filed by The New York Times—notes that this technology-driven “productivity miracle” has not manifested itself in other developed economies. Citing research (PDF) by John Van Reenen and others at the London School of Economics, the Times concludes that when U.S. firms take over foreign firms, the latter enjoy “a tremendous productivity advantage over a non-American alternative…It is as if the invisible hand of the American marketplace were somehow passing along a secret handshake to these firms.” As Reenen and his colleagues conclude, it appears that the way “U.S. firms are organized or managed…enables better exploitation of IT.”

This should come as no surprise. As Derek Leebaert explains in The Fifty-Year Wound, the information technologies that began emerging in the late 1980s “forced decentralization and demanded the sort of adaptivity made for America.”

So what do these numbers and comparisons tell us? For starters, as historian Niall Ferguson points out in Colossus, they tell us that the U.S. share of global productivity “exceeds the highest share of global output ever achieved by Britain by a factor of more than two.”

They also serve to explain how the United States can withstand not just the human losses and psychological blows of a 9/11 or Katrina, but the sort of economic and financial blows that would have overwhelmed any other country on earth.

TWELFTH AND LONG:

Iran's people await their share of riches: Amid Ahmadinejad's promises, many find that the oil boom has failed to trickle down. (Kim Murphy, August 28, 2007, Los Angeles Times)

Hussein Alinejad earns just $217 a month selling fragrant kebabs of chicken and lamb in a steamy shop here, and he knew Iran's leader couldn't help but be moved by his plight.

So when President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad came to town in December, Alinejad wrote him a letter explaining his circumstances. He had three children, and a nice piece of land, but no money to build a house. Could he perhaps have a bank loan?

Twenty days later, he got a call from the Imam Khomeini Relief Committee, a charity linked to the government: "Come and get the answer to your letter." When he arrived, someone handed him an envelope with more than a week's salary inside, his to keep. And his loan application was under review.

But it's been eight months since the president came through, and Alinejad still hasn't heard anything about his loan. A friend got one, but couldn't afford to buy more than a small garden plot with the money.

Across this city and other areas of relatively prosperous Mazandaran province in northern Iran, one of many rural regions where Ahmadinejad has enjoyed enthusiastic support since his election in 2005, there are growing worries that the trickle-down oil revenue the president promised has trickled only so far. As the Islamic Republic increasingly struggles with deep-rooted economic problems, some here are starting to mutter about broken promises. [...]

In June, 57 economists issued an open letter warning that "government mismanagement is inflicting a huge cost on the economy," with the current high oil prices only "delaying the imminent economic crisis."

"What you need to understand is that every 1% increase in inflation means that 100,000 Iranian people go under the poverty line," said Saeed Leylaz, a Tehran-based business consultant. "And the most pressure of inflation is not over people in Tehran, it is over the poor people in the provinces. And they are much, much more under pressure than they were two or three years ago."

In his free-spending trips to the provinces, Leylaz said, "Mr. Ahmadinejad is trying to exchange the oil income of petrodollars into loyalty, in one sentence. But day by day, this is working less and less."

Ghaemshahr, a city of half a million people about 100 miles northeast of Tehran, was once one of Iran's most successful industrial towns. Its five textile mills once employed more than 6,000 people in decent-paying jobs, turning out fabrics, uniforms and industrial storage bags that were sold all over Iran.

The city's troubles long predate Iran's current government. Like those in failing textile towns around the world, Ghaemshahr's aging mills found themselves ill-equipped in a globalized world to compete with cheap labor and materials from farther east in Asia. Worse, eight years of war with Iraq in the 1980s saw much of the city's workforce deployed to the front; afterward, aging skilled workers were often laid off in favor of unskilled war veterans.

In the early years after the 1979 Islamic Revolution, the government was reluctant to import spare parts from Europe and the U.S. Instead, it insisted on manufacturing inferior replacements inside Iran and, later, on shutting down functioning equipment to provide spare parts for other machines.

Eventually, many of the remaining machines broke down too.

Now, only three of the original five factories are still open, and they are producing very little, said Aliasghar Moghaddesi, until recently manager of the Goni Bafi Bag Factory in Ghaemshahr.

"These factories need only two things, I can tell you. One, a healthy management, and two, to be updated," Moghaddesi said. "But politics and industry cannot be compatible, and slogans from politicians cannot do anything."

ONE OF US:

The Dianafication of Modern Life (Theodore Dalrymple, August 24th, 2007, Britannica Blog)

The legacy of public figures is not necessarily what they want it to be, but it is nevertheless the outcome of their lives. Her death was a great godsend to the British Prime Minister of the time, Anthony Blair, who coined, or at least first used in public a phrase, the ‘People’s Princess,’ that perfectly captured his own domestic political programme (whether he knew at the time what it was or not): namely, demagogic populism combined with pork-barrel elitism. He needed an Eva Peron, and Diana fitted the bill perfectly, even being obliging enough to die before age destroyed her icy and self-conscious coquettishness and her good looks. A Diana with wrinkles or a thickening waist would have been of no public interest whatever.

In the orgy of demonstrative pseudo-grief that followed her death, Mr Blair said that the people had found a new way of being British. Indeed so: they had become emotionally incontinent and inclined to blubber in public when not being menacingly discourteous. They had come to believe that holding nothing back was the way to mental health, and their deepest emotional expression was the teddy bear that they were increasingly liable to leave at the site of a fatal accident or at the tomb of someone who had died in early adulthood.

The death of the Princess could not by itself have been a cause of the shallowness and vacuity of modern life in Britain; the scenes that followed it were only a symptom of such shallowness and vacuity. But they encouraged further such scenes, as when, for example, a chronically alcoholic Northern Irish footballer, George Best, died of liver disease. (At least he was the originator of one bon mot: ‘I spent most of my money on women and drink,’ he said. ‘I wasted the rest.’) But in general, our heroes and heroines now are all as banal as the rest of us.

We worship ourselves in our celebrities.

This is the Dianafication of modern life.

N.B.: The Britannica Blog is well worth checking out, with original essays by real authors.

BLESS THE GREAT TRANSLATORS:

Thrillers and chillers: a review of The Draining Lake (Peter Guttridge, August 5, 2007, Observer)

George Steiner argued in After Babel that translation is reductive: 'ash is no translation of fire'. Perhaps because the language of crime fiction is functional rather than decorative, translations of international fiction can be pretty fiery. But however impressive the translations, too many international crime novels are simply not very good.

Icelandic writer Arnaldur Indridason, the first and last in-translation winner of the CWA Gold Dagger, is an exception. He is back with The Draining Lake (Harvill Secker £11.99, pp400), the latest Reykjavik Murder Mystery, ably translated by Bernard Scudder.

It's an atmospheric story that begins with the discovery of a skeleton half-buried in the exposed bed of a lake with a hole in its skull. It is weighted down with a Russian radio transmitter from the Cold War. Indridason's engaging police team, headed by Erlendur, sets off into the past to a time when idealistic Icelandic students studied in the 'heavenly state' of communist East Germany. Spying, murder and the dashed hopes of youth all figure in the narrative that follows. When the morose, troubled Erlendur first appeared, I thought he was a clone of Rebus, but he's definitely his own man now. A haunting, compassionate work.

HOT ROCKS, COOL MUSIC:

Geothermal rocks! (Brad Frenette, August 28, 2007, National Post)

It would be a challenge to find a city with a higher musician-per-capita rate than Iceland's capital, Reykjavik. Belying its relative small size (the city has fewer than 200,000 inhabitants), the planet's most northerly capital has produced critically hailed artists such as The Sugar-cubes, Emiliana Torrini, GusGus and Sigur Ros. Despite its remoteness, the city has long been a haven for culture, boasting renowned music and film festivals that draw international audiences. Even geologists refer to the city as a "hot spot" due to the number of geothermal springs that abound there. [...]

Q What's your favourite song penned by a Reykjavik-based artist?

LJ That's a tough one. The most beautiful music ever made in Iceland belongs to a guy called Johann Johannsson. He is in his late thirties. Remember this name.

MORE:
JOHANN JOHANNSSON - Viroulegu Forsetar (Boomkat)

Finally available again. We've been waiting for this second album from Iceland's Johann Johannsson with bated breath, anything even vaguely as majestic, original or beautiful as his massively acclaimed debut "Englaborn" would come as a much needed addition to this year's frankly astonishing collection of minimal music for home listening. "Viroulegu Forsetar" is all that and more, a breathtaking hour-long composition in four parts that reeks of all the majesty and grandeur of classical music as it seeps into the realm of imaginary soundtracking. Written for and performed by 11 Brass players, percussion, electronics, organ and piano, Johannson seems intent on making himself one of the most notable modern composers working in the field today.

Icelandic composer Johann Johannsson pits the string orchestra against the computer, a struggle also known as "man vs. machine." In 1971, Johannsson's father recorded the sound of the IBM 1401 mainframe computer, using a radio receiver and a reel-to-reel tape machine to capture the electromagnetic waves emitted by different computer functions. Thirty years later, the younger Johannsson rearranged the tape for choreographer Erna Omarsdottir, adding a string orchestra and a recording of the IBM instruction tape he'd found in his father's attic. Late last year, Johannsson released the result on CD — as IBM 1401, A User's Manual — with conductor Mario Klemens and the City of Prague Philharmonic.

EVEN THE SCENIC ROUTE GETS YOU TO HAMAS EVENTUALLY:

Hamas chief says Mideast conference doomed to fail (Reuters, 8/27/07)

"The American administration is fighting Hamas and working on isolating it," [Hamas chief Khaled] Meshaal said in the interview, which CNN reported was held in a heavily guarded Hamas safe house in the Syrian capital.

But Meshaal said Washington, which supports Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah, would eventually realize it would have to deal with Hamas for the sake of Israeli-Palestinian peace.

"I only want to tell them to take a short cut and not waste their efforts," he said, while acknowledging that a U.S. invitation to Hamas to attend the upcoming conference was unlikely.

Meshaal called on the international community to deal with "the reality of the Palestinian arena" -- an apparent reference to Hamas's strong influence -- and move the Middle East closer to "genuine peace" in which "the waterfall of blood will stop".

CROSSING THE CHANNEL:

From Iran to US, Sarkozy speech signals French diplomatic shift (Angelique Chrisafis, August 28, 2007, Guardian)

The French president Nicolas Sarkozy last night demanded a clear timetable for the withdrawal of foreign troops from Iraq; and said a nuclear-armed Iran would be "unacceptable".

In the first broad foreign policy speech of his presidency, Mr Sarkozy struck a notably more pro-US tone than his predecessor, Jacques Chirac, setting out his vision for a world "challenged" by a confrontation between Islam and the west.

He described the standoff over Iran's nuclear programme as "undoubtedly the most serious crisis before us today", saying a diplomatic push to rein in Tehran was the only alternative to "the Iranian bomb or the bombing of Iran." This broke with Mr Chirac, who had earlier suggested that a nuclear-armed Iran might be inevitable.

In the speech to 180 French ambassadors, Mr Sarkozy also appeared to soften his stance on Turkey, saying France would not block negotiations between the EU and Ankara over Turkish membership as long as a special consultation committee was set up to consider Europe's borders.

In another break with the Chirac regime, Mr Sarkozy hardened his tone against Vladimir Putin, saying Russia was using its oil and gas wealth with "brutality".

Stressing the importance of a French presence in the Middle East, Mr Sarkozy said he was prepared to hold high-level talks with Syria if it backed French efforts to end the political crisis in Lebanon.

Mr Sarkozy's speech comes as France attempts to reconcile itself with the US and carve out a role as a mediator in Iraq.

FINALLY, A JOB FOR CAPTAIN OZONE:

The Great Leap Backward?: : China's environmental woes are mounting, and the country is fast becoming one of the leading polluters in the world. The situation continues to deteriorate because even when Beijing sets ambitious targets to protect the environment, local officials generally ignore them, preferring to concentrate on further advancing economic growth. Really improving the environment in China will require revolutionary bottom-up political and economic reforms. (Elizabeth C. Economy, September/October 2007, Foreign Affairs)

China's environmental problems are mounting. Water pollution and water scarcity are burdening the economy, rising levels of air pollution are endangering the health of millions of Chinese, and much of the country's land is rapidly turning into desert. China has become a world leader in air and water pollution and land degradation and a top contributor to some of the world's most vexing global environmental problems, such as the illegal timber trade, marine pollution, and climate change. As China's pollution woes increase, so, too, do the risks to its economy, public health, social stability, and international reputation. As Pan Yue, a vice minister of China's State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA), warned in 2005, "The [economic] miracle will end soon because the environment can no longer keep pace."

With the 2008 Olympics around the corner, China's leaders have ratcheted up their rhetoric, setting ambitious environmental targets, announcing greater levels of environmental investment, and exhorting business leaders and local officials to clean up their backyards. The rest of the world seems to accept that Beijing has charted a new course: as China declares itself open for environmentally friendly business, officials in the United States, the European Union, and Japan are asking not whether to invest but how much.

Unfortunately, much of this enthusiasm stems from the widespread but misguided belief that what Beijing says goes. The central government sets the country's agenda, but it does not control all aspects of its implementation. In fact, local officials rarely heed Beijing's environmental mandates, preferring to concentrate their energies and resources on further advancing economic growth. The truth is that turning the environmental situation in China around will require something far more difficult than setting targets and spending money; it will require revolutionary bottom-up political and economic reforms.

For one thing, China's leaders need to make it easy for local officials and factory owners to do the right thing when it comes to the environment by giving them the right incentives. At the same time, they must loosen the political restrictions they have placed on the courts, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), and the media in order to enable these groups to become independent enforcers of environmental protection. The international community, for its part, must focus more on assisting reform and less on transferring cutting-edge technologies and developing demonstration projects. Doing so will mean diving into the trenches to work with local Chinese officials, factory owners, and environmental NGOs; enlisting international NGOs to help with education and enforcement policies; and persuading multinational corporations (MNCs) to use their economic leverage to ensure that their Chinese partners adopt the best environmental practices.

Without such a clear-eyed understanding not only of what China wants but also of what it needs, China will continue to have one of the world's worst environmental records, and the Chinese people and the rest of the world will pay the price.

SOME FOLKS NEVER GET TIRED OF BEING WRONG:

The New American Cold War (Stephen F. Cohen, 10 July 2006 , The Nation)

Contrary to established opinion, the gravest threats to America's national security are still in Russia. They derive from an unprecedented development that most US policy-makers have recklessly disregarded, as evidenced by the undeclared cold war Washington has waged, under both parties, against post-Communist Russia during the past fifteen years. [...]

Nor is the Kremlin powerless in direct dealings with the West. It can mount more than enough warheads to defeat any missile shield and illusion of "nuclear primacy." It can shut US businesses out of multibillion-dollar deals in Russia and, as it recently reminded the European Union, which gets 25 percent of its gas from Russia, "redirect supplies" to hungry markets in the East. And Moscow could deploy its resources, connections and UN Security Council veto against US interests involving, for instance, nuclear proliferation, Iran, Afghanistan and possibly even Iraq.

Contrary to exaggerated US accusations, the Kremlin has not yet resorted to such retaliatory measures in any significant way. But unless Washington stops abasing and encroaching on Russia, there is no "sovereign" reason why it should not do so. Certainly, nothing Moscow has gotten from Washington since 1992, a Western security specialist emphasizes, "compensates for the geopolitical harm the United States is doing to Russia."

American crusaders insist it is worth the risk in order to democratize Russia and other former Soviet republics. In reality, their campaigns since 1992 have only discredited that cause in Russia. Praising the despised Yeltsin and endorsing other unpopular figures as Russia's "democrats," while denouncing the popular Putin, has associated democracy with the social pain, chaos and humiliation of the 1990s. Ostracizing Belarus President Aleksandr Lukashenko while embracing tyrants in Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan has related it to the thirst for oil. Linking "democratic revolutions" in Ukraine and Georgia to NATO membership has equated them with US expansionism. Focusing on the victimization of billionaire Mikhail Khodorkhovsky and not on Russian poverty or ongoing mass protests against social injustices has suggested democracy is only for oligarchs. And by insisting on their indispensable role, US crusaders have all but said (wrongly) that Russians are incapable of democracy or resisting abuses of power on their own.

The result is dark Russian suspicions of American intentions ignored by US policy-makers and media alike. They include the belief that Washington's real purpose is to take control of the country's energy resources and nuclear weapons and use encircling NATO satellite states to "de-sovereignize" Russia, turning it into a "vassal of the West." More generally, US policy has fostered the belief that the American cold war was never really aimed at Soviet Communism but always at Russia, a suspicion given credence by Post and Times columnists who characterize Russia even after Communism as an inherently "autocratic state" with "brutish instincts."

To overcome those towering obstacles to a new relationship, Washington has to abandon the triumphalist conceits primarily responsible for the revived cold war and its growing dangers. It means respecting Russia's sovereign right to determine its course at home (including disposal of its energy resources). As the record plainly shows, interfering in Moscow's internal affairs, whether on-site or from afar, only harms the chances for political liberties and economic prosperity that still exist in that tormented nation.

It also means acknowledging Russia's legitimate security interests, especially in its own "near abroad." In particular, the planned third expansion of NATO, intended to include Ukraine, must not take place. Extending NATO to Russia's doorsteps has already brought relations near the breaking point (without actually benefiting any nation's security); absorbing Ukraine, which Moscow regards as essential to its Slavic identity and its military defense, may be the point of no return, as even pro-US Russians anxiously warn. Nor would it be democratic, since nearly two-thirds of Ukrainians are opposed. The explosive possibilities were adumbrated in late May and early June when local citizens in ethnic Russian Crimea blockaded a port and roads where a US naval ship and contingent of Marines suddenly appeared, provoking resolutions declaring the region "anti-NATO territory" and threats of "a new Vietnam."

Time for a new US policy is running out, but there is no hint of one in official or unofficial circles. Denouncing the Kremlin in May, Cheney spoke "like a triumphant cold warrior," a Times correspondent reported. A top State Department official has already announced the "next great mission" in and around Russia. In the same unreconstructed spirit, Rice has demanded Russians "recognize that we have legitimate interests ... in their neighborhood," without a word about Moscow's interests; and a former Clinton official has held the Kremlin "accountable for the ominous security threats ... developing between NATO's eastern border and Russia." Meanwhile, the Bush Administration is playing Russian roulette with Moscow's control of its nuclear weapons. Its missile shield project having already provoked a destabilizing Russian buildup, the Administration now proposes to further confuse Moscow's early-warning system, risking an accidental launch, by putting conventional warheads on long-range missiles for the first time.

In a democracy we might expect alternative policy proposals from would-be leaders. But there are none in either party, only demands for a more anti-Russian course, or silence. We should not be surprised. Acquiescence in Bush's monstrous war in Iraq has amply demonstrated the political elite's limited capacity for introspection, independent thought and civic courage. (It prefers to falsely blame the American people, as the managing editor of Foreign Affairs recently did, for craving "ideological red meat.") It may also be intimidated by another revived cold war practice - personal defamation. The Post and The New Yorker have already labeled critics of their Russia policy "Putin apologists" and charged them with "appeasement" and "again taking the Russian side of the Cold War."

BROTHER MALCOLM IS DEAD AND HOUSEHOLD NET WORTH IS $56 TRILLION:

Profit Of Doom (Jason Miller, 27 August, 2007, Countercurrents.org)

Capitalism, as Malcolm X suggested, is in its twilight. Under this egregiously malevolent and brutal system of economic organization, we have “evolved” to a point where corruption is so pervasive, the divide between the “haves” and the “have nots” is so vast, and the imperial wars for resources are so frequent and destructive that as it is imploding, capitalism may take most of us with it.

Despite the fact that he mixed his metaphors a bit, Malcolm drew an astute conclusion. With the United States as its nexus, the complex array of components and dynamics known as capitalism sustains itself in much the same way as did Bram Stoker’s Dracula and the vampires of Slavic folklore.

Like the bloodthirsty undead of Transylvania, capitalism is essentially parasitic. Contrary to the inane mythology that anyone who dreams, comes up with a novel idea, follows Oprah “wisdom,” and works hard will eventually sport a net worth north of seven figures, there is very little true upward mobility in the United States. High regressive taxes, low progressive taxes, de facto monopolies, nepotism, cronyism, bribery, a legal system blind to economic crimes of the highest order, and a host of other factors ensure that the rich stay rich and that those in the working class have just enough to ensure their continued existence as hosts for their parasitic masters.
Most capitalists -those who rest comfortably at the apex of humanity’s pyramid of wealth and power AND reside in the penthouses of the Park Avenues of the world–do not engage in the activity which is the staple of existence for most of us.

THEY FOUGHT THE LAW AND THE LAW WON:

Retreating Brits Cut Deal With Muqtada al-Sadr for Safe Exit (Sam Dagher, 8/27/07, Christian Science Monitor)

The last contingent of British soldiers based in the center of this southern city will leave by Friday, says a senior Iraqi security official, adding that a deal has been struck with leaders of Moqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army to ensure their safe departure.

BAD CHOICES SHOULD HAVE CONSEQUENCES:

Gay By Choice? The Science of Sexual Identity: If science proves sexual orientation is more fluid than we've been led to believe, can homosexuality still be a protected right? (Gary Greenberg, August 27 , 2007, Mother Jones)

That's the usual interpretation of reparative therapy—that to the extent that it does anything, it leads people to repress rather than change their natural inclinations, that its claims to change sexual orientation are an outright fraud perpetrated by the religious right on people who have internalized the homophobia of American society, personalized the political in such a way as to reject their own sexuality and stunt their love lives. But Aaron scoffs at these notions, insisting that his wish to go straight had nothing to do with right-wing religion or politics—he's a nonobservant Jew and a lifelong Democrat who volunteered for George McGovern, has a career in public service, and thinks George Bush is a war criminal. It wasn't a matter of ignorance—he has an advanced degree—and it really wasn't a psychopathological thing—he rejects the idea that he's ever suffered from internalized homophobia. He just didn't want to be gay, and, like millions of Americans dissatisfied with their lives, he sought professional help and reinvented himself.

Self-reconstruction is what people in my profession (I am a practicing psychotherapist) specialize in, but when it comes to someone like Aaron, most of us draw the line. All the major psychotherapy guilds have barred their members from researching or practicing reparative therapy on the grounds that it is inherently unethical to treat something that is not a disease, that it contributes to oppression by pathologizing homosexuality, and that it is dangerous to patients whose self-esteem can only suffer when they try to change something about themselves that they can't (and shouldn't have to) change. Aaron knows this, of course, which is why he's at great pains to prove he's not pulling a Ted Haggard. For if he's not a poseur, then he is a walking challenge to the political and scientific consensus that has emerged over the last century and a half: that sexual orientation is inborn and immutable, that efforts to change it are bound to fail, and that discrimination against gay people is therefore unjust.

But as crucial as this consensus has been to the struggle for gay rights, it may not be as sound as some might wish. While scientists have found intriguing biological differences between gay and straight people, the evidence so far stops well short of proving that we are born with a sexual orientation that we will have for life. Even more important, some research shows that sexual orientation is more fluid than we have come to think, that people, especially women, can and do move across customary sexual orientation boundaries, that there are ex-straights as well as ex-gays. Much of this research has stayed below the radar of the culture warriors, but reparative therapists are hoping to use it to enter the scientific mainstream and advocate for what they call the right of self-determination in matters of sexual orientation. If they are successful, gay activists may soon find themselves scrambling to make sense of a new scientific and political landscape.

WOMEN WITH A PURPOSE:

In Hanover, a Banner Achievement (Matthew McCormick, 8/27/07, Valley News)

Five hundred school houses down -- 16 White House hopefuls to go.

A group of Hanover women has led a statewide effort to see that an American flag is in every classroom of New Hampshire's 500-plus public schools.

Now the women -- Marisa Kraus, Becky Jones, Heidi Postupack and Caroline Tischbein -- have invited 16 Republican and Democratic presidential candidates to help celebrate the achievement at the State House in Concord on Sept. 3.

“We believe, as corny as it sounds, that the flag is the symbol of all that is best in America, of liberty and justice for all,” Kraus, chairwoman of Operation Old Glory, said yesterday.

“For a symbol to remain potent, you have to respect it,” Kraus said.

While the flag can at times be a sticky subject on Capitol Hill, particularly during the near-annual debates over the need to protect the Stars and Stripes with a Constitutional amendment, the organization's members say they do not want to politicize their work.

But they are hoping the star power of candidates like former Republican Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney --the only firm presidential RSVP -- will help broadcast their story and inspire similar efforts across the country.

Kraus said three Democratic contenders, Sens. Hillary Clinton of New York and Barack Obama of Illinois, and former Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina will not be in the state on Labor Day but have pledged to send remarks of support in time for the group's celebration.

“We want to expand this out to other states,” said Jones. “A lot of people assume there's a flag in every classroom. But when we started calling people, it was amazing how many classrooms didn't have a flag.”

Operation Old Glory began soon after the World Trade Center attacks; that autumn, Laura Bush called on the nation to recite the Pledge of Allegiance as a sign of national solidarity, and the organization's members-to-be noticed their sons and daughters at Hanover Middle and High Schools had to gather around an outside flag pole for the recitation.

“We asked the kids, why did you go outside to say the Pledge of Allegiance and they said ‘Well, we don't have flags in the classroom,' ” recalled Postupack. “We were like, you don’t have flags in the classrooms?”

“We were shocked,” added Kraus. [...]

In all, the organization found that nearly 90 Hanover classrooms were without flags. By February 2002, it had raised nearly $2,000 to purchase and install the Stars and Stripes and presented them to the school district in a ceremony attended by former Sen. Bob Smith, R-N.H., former U.S. Rep. Charlie Bass, R-N.H., five state gubernatorial candidates and the Norwich University Color Guard.

Then Operation Old Glory turned its attention to the rest of the state, beginning with a questionnaire sent to each of the New Hampshire's 70-plus school administrative units asking superintendents to identify how many classrooms were without flags.

When responses to the forms were skimpy, the group began calling -- and calling, and calling. Finally, in early 2004, they had a tally: about 4,000 New Hampshire classrooms were flagless.

Operation Old Glory then partnered with the state American Legion, which divided the state's school districts among its posts and charged them with raising the funds needed to purchase the flags, said Dave Victor, chairman of the state legion's Americanism Committee.

Each school that had a flag in every classroom received a certificate from Operation Old Glory. Kraus said the organization sent its last one out this spring.

“We saw a need and we filled it,” Postupack said.

MORE:

Operation Old Glory New Hampshire LABOR DAY CELEBRATION!

COME CELEBRATE THE COMPLETION OF OPERATION OLD GLORY NH ON SEPTEMBER 3, 2007 AT 10:00 am AT THE NH STATE HOUSE CHAMBERS (REPRESENTATIVE HALL) IN CONCORD. ENJOY MUSIC, FRESH APPLE PIE, DONATED BY NH'S " PIE GUY," AND ICE CREAM, DONATED BY BREYERS' ICE CREAM. HONOR OUR FLAG! LIST OF SPEAKERS TO BE ANNOUNCED!

The Operation Old Glory New Hampshire committee is pleased to announce that our mission to ensure there is an American flag flying in every public school classroom has been accomplished.

OOG NH is a statewide project that was launched in the fall of 2002 when we realized that our own Hanover, NH schools needed over 100 flags and that the elementary school lacked assembly flags. As a result of this discovery we raised the necessary funds from community members and local organizations, ordered flags and organized a Flag Installation Day ceremony to commemorate this event. We also decided to expand our efforts to the entire state of NH.

There are approximately 500 public schools in NH. In the winter of 2002 we mailed a letter to the 79 Superintendents of the NH schools who reported back to us that 4000 flags would be needed to achieve our goal. We then partnered with the NH American Legion and gave the eight American Legion posts the flag data. Each post was given a list of schools in their area and the number of flags that each school required. The American Legion provided the flags to the schools and oversaw their installation. The Commanders of the eight American Legion posts have now verified to us in writing that at the present time all the schools in their districts have a flag in every classroom.

OOG NH recently mailed a framed certificate to all the NH Superintendents acknowledging that all the classrooms in their schools are equipped with an American flag. At last, the goal of OOG NH has been realized!

For more information about OOG NH please contact Marisa Kraus, 603-643-6431, email: sandk@sover.net or Heidi Postupack at 603-643-3670, email: heidip@valley.net

PLEASE JOIN US AT THIS UNIQUE, PATRIOTIC OCCASION!

OOG NH Committee
Marisa Kraus, Chairman
Heidi Postupack, Becky Jones, Caroline Tischbein

OKAY, SO HE'S FINALLY GOT ONE RIGHT:

Ties with India top priority if elected: Obama (Aziz Haniffa, August 27, 2007, rediff)

United States Senator Barack Obama, Illinois Democrat, has become the first Presidential candidate to issue a detailed and comprehensive policy paper spelling out his agenda vis-�-vis addressing issues of concern to the Indian-American community and his vision for US-India relations.

Obama also seems to have recovered strongly from the faux pas by his campaign when it circulated a controversial document that disparagingly described his rival Senator Hillary Clinton's Indian links and had the Indian-American community up in arms.

On foreign policy, the new paper said: "Barack Obama is an advocate of strengthening US relations with India, the world's largest democracy and a growing economic power."

It noted that he had voted for the India civilian nuclear cooperation deal in 2006 and has since worked to ensure that the agreement is implemented properly.

The paper said: "Obama also believes that India is a natural strategic partner for America in the 21st century and that the United States should be working with India on a range of critical issues, from preventing terrorism and fostering economic development to promoting peace and stability in Asia."

TO DOUBT IS HUMAN...

The biblical world of Luis Bunuel (Spengler, 8/28/07, Asia Times)

Busloads of Baptists did not descend on theaters when Bunuel's film was released nearly four decades ago, and it is unlikely that its release on an electronic medium will do much to increase the film's limited audience. That is a pity, for it offers a sort of litmus test for faith: if you don't laugh at the jokes, you probably don't believe a word of what you profess. [...]

[W]hen The Milky Way appeared in 1969, the Vatican embraced it (the Jesuits more than the Dominicans, Bunuel observed with a connoisseur's accuracy) while the director's left-wing friends recoiled in horror. Argentine novelist Julio Cortazar left a private screening in high dudgeon, accusing Bunuel (falsely) of having obtained secret financing from the Church.

Doubt is the handmaiden of faith, for without doubt no faith is required. An impassioned doubter might not make the best priest or parson, but it takes an agony of doubt to produce a great narrative work of art on a religious subject. That is why outsiders often produce the most profoundly religious art - Faust by the "great heathen" Johann Wolfgang von Goethe comes to mind.

On the surface, The Milky Way is surreal. Two French hobos panhandle and hitchhike their way through the venerable pilgrimage route to the Spanish shrine of Santiago of Compostela in northwestern Spain, where the tomb of the apostle James was said to lie. The clochards encounter divine beings, including the persons of the Holy Trinity as well as the Angel of Death, and wander in and out of episodes of Church history. Episodes from the life of Christ are interspersed, including one that is not documented by the Bible (the Virgin persuades Jesus not to shave his beard).

Throughout, Bunuel emphasizes the difficulties, if not the absurdities, of Scripture and doctrine. A cloaked personage (who turns out to be the First Person of the Trinity) encounters the protagonists as they attempt to hitch a ride outside Paris, and quotes the injunction of the prophet Hosea to bear children with a prostitute, and to call their names "You Are Not My People" and "There Is No More Mercy". At the conclusion of the film, the hobos at last reach Santiago, where a prostitute informs them that the pilgrims have ceased to come and the city is empty, whereupon they go off with her to produce these children. Hosea's curse upon errant Israel tells us a great deal about Bunuel's opinion of us.

Various characters attempt to explain transubstantiation and virgin birth (God is in the host just as a rabbit is in a rabbit pate, offers an innkeeper), under improbable and often silly circumstances. Meanwhile, divine beings pass in and out of the story. The clochards meet a young boy who bears the stigmata of Christ, and make a desultory effort to help him. The boy holds out his hand and a limousine stops to pick them up; the clochards unthinkingly blaspheme, and the chauffeur kicks them back out. A bit later, one of the bums expresses the hope that a car that refused to stop for them will crash; a moment later it does so, and in the back seat they find the Angel of Death, who turns on the car radio as it broadcasts a description of hell by St John of the Cross.

The hobos try to panhandle at an elegant restaurant at which the headwaiter and his staff debate the nature of the Eucharist; when the headwaiter dismisses atheists as a lot of madmen, the camera takes us to a discourse by an elegant gentleman who denounces the absurdities of religion. This enlightened opponent of faith turns out to be the Marquis de Sade, who is torturing a young girl who protests the existence of God. So much for rational objections to faith, Bunuel tells us; absence of faith is not rationality but the hatred of God that stems from perverse impulses. [...]

There is not a flyspeck of spirituality in the dreary world of Ingmar Bergman, the Swedish filmmaker who died last month, except perhaps for the pagan spirits flying about in The Virgin Spring. The dour Swede placed his characters (or to be precise, a single character recurrently played by Max von Sydow) in an existential tantrum over God's remoteness. Bergman is the only major director whose actual work is inferior to the lampoons of it (for example, Monty Python's The Meaning of Life ). But God is not remote to Bunuel; on the contrary, God is frighteningly real, for all his inscrutability, even absurdity.

YOU MEAN THEY AREN'T JUST PLUMBERS?:

Poles top of UK class: Polish students have been performing so well at UK universities that their recruitment services have begun to scout for candidates from Poland (Krysia Kolosowska, 8/27/07, Polskie Radio)

Over 2800 Poles have been admitted at UK universities by July, which is twice as many as last year, and recruitment has not ended yet. Polish youths discovered the possibilities of studies abroad that opened to them after Poland entered the European Union in 2004 and were fast to explore and appreciate them. Pawel Walczak from Warsaw got enrolled at the University of Hull and found studies there a rewarding time.

“I decided to study in the UK because it’s easier to find a graduate job there, because there are more such posts available to university graduates compared to Poland. Once I graduate from a UK university it will be easier to find a job in Poland as well. I received an offer to study in UK at my institution in Warsaw from UK university and I accepted it.”

Polish students have already earned much praise as highly motivated and hard working. The University of Wales has even employed one of their Polish graduates to recruit students from Poland. Hywel Davis of the university recruitment department explains.

“Yes, we have someone who is a graduate of us, who is doing work for us. It is a matter of raising awareness that we do have these opportunities for students from all over the world, and we want students who are well prepared, well motivated. Students (from Poland) we’ve had so far have met these expectations.”

Pawel Walczak is not surprised that UK universities are encouraging Poles to come over for studies.

“I am not surprised because good universities require good students and we are definitely good students.”

ZIONISM WAS A FAILURE..:

The Kibbutz Sheds Socialism and Gains Popularity (ISABEL KERSHNER, 8/27/07, NY Times)

For much of Israel’s existence, the kibbutz embodied its highest ideals: collective labor, love of the land and a no-frills egalitarianism.

But starting in the 1980s, when socialism was on a global downward spiral and the country was mired in hyperinflation, Israel’s 250 or so kibbutzim seemed doomed. Their debt mounted and their group dining halls grew empty as the young moved away.

Now, in a surprising third act, the kibbutzim are again thriving. Only in 2007 they are less about pure socialism than a kind of suburbanized version of it.

On most kibbutzim, food and laundry services are now privatized; on many, houses may be transferred to individual members, and newcomers can buy in. While the major assets of the kibbutzim are still collectively owned, the communities are now largely run by professional managers rather than by popular vote. And, most important, not everyone is paid the same.

Once again, people are lining up to get in.

IT MUST BE THE LAST WEEK OF AUGUST:

Gonzales resigns as attorney general: official (Reuters, August 27, 2007)

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has resigned from office, an official confirmed on Monday.

PITY THE POOR REALISTS...:

The Lobby (David Remnick, September 3, 2007, The New Yorker)

Last year, two distinguished political scientists, John J. Mearsheimer, of the University of Chicago, and Stephen M. Walt, of the John F. Kennedy School of Government, at Harvard, published a thirty-four-thousand-word article online entitled “The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy,” a shorter version of which appeared in The London Review of Books. Israel, they wrote, has become a “strategic liability” for the United States but retains its strong support because of a wealthy, well-organized, and bewitching lobby that has a “stranglehold” on Congress and American élites. Moreover, Israel and its lobby bear outsized responsibility for persuading the Bush Administration to invade Iraq and, perhaps one day soon, to attack the nuclear facilities of Iran. Farrar, Straus & Giroux will publish a book-length version of Mearsheimer and Walt’s arguments on September 4th.

Mearsheimer and Walt are “realists.” In their view, diplomatic decisions should be made on the basis of national interest. They argue that in the post-Cold War era, in the absence of a superpower struggle in the Middle East, the United States no longer has any need for an indulgent patronage of the state of Israel. Three billion dollars in annual foreign aid, the easy sale of advanced weaponry, thirty-four vetoes of U.N. Security Council resolutions critical of Israel since 1982—such support, Mearsheimer and Walt maintain, is not in the national interest. “There is a strong moral case for supporting Israel’s existence,” they write, but they deny that Israel is of critical strategic value to the United States.

ONE DROP RULE?:

Is happiness enough?: Is personal happiness enough when there is so much suffering in the world, or is it selfish to focus on the misfortune of strangers to the exclusion of loved ones (Clive James, 8/24/07, BBC Magazine)

Not long ago I was in New York on business and the weather was getting hot enough to make you walk on the east side of the avenues in the morning and the west side in the afternoons, so as to keep in the shadow. If you're anywhere near Central Park, it's the ideal weather for a take-out deli lunch.

You don't have to eat fast food in America, because between every two fast-food emporia there's a deli full of good slow scoff. Armed with about 10 bucks worth of unimpeachable nutrition, I went into the park, sat on a rock, got started on my salad, and contemplated existence. I saw an old guy hobble past who was what I will be in about 10 years, if not 10 minutes. He looked happy and suddenly so was I.

For once I managed to hold back the thoughts of how few deli lunches had been eaten in Darfur that day, and I savoured the moment along with my slice of watermelon, which took me back to when I was kid in Australia. It was 60 years since I first had a slice of watermelon wrapped so far around my head that it chilled my ears.

That time, I hadn't questioned the legitimacy of my happiness, and I tried not to this time either. But I had to try, that was the difference.

I don't think it's true that the underdeveloped world starves because the developed world doesn't, but there's just no denying that you can't eat your fill without insulting a lot of people who have nothing to eat at all.

You find that out when you grow up. Finding that out is growing up. Life makes us melancholy, and the melancholy comes from the realisation that your moments of happiness are not only fleeting, but meaningless in the context of the sufferings of others.

I AM BECOME VISHNU, DESTROYER OF ARMS:

JOE'S BITTER AFTERTASTE (JOEL SHERMAN, August 26, 2007, NY Post)

THE Yankees have committed so thoroughly to young arms that even within the sweltering oven that is a pennant race, they have devised and are living by the restrictive Joba Rules.

They did this, in part, to protect Joba Chamberlain from Joe Torre's penchant for deploying favored relievers until their arms resemble overripe bananas.

ENIGMATIC IF YOU IGNORE HER FAITH:

Iron will: Twice as Good: Condoleezza Rice and Her Path to Power By Marcus Mabry (Steven Martinovich, August 27, 2007, Enter Stage Right)

Mabry’s research was thorough but throughout the book the reader can be forgiven if they believe that he failed to understand his subject. Given the subject, he probably can’t be faulted. Rice comes across largely as a vulnerability free person, someone who is so strong and focused that even a major setback is dealt with in a disconnected manner, someone so optimistic that failure is merely a chance to succeed at something else.

One incident in Rice’s life is telling in this regard. Rice, who learned to read music before she could read words, had been groomed from an early age to become a concert pianist and countless hours were invested in becoming a flawless player. At 17, however, Rice abruptly stopped playing the piano after a teacher determines that while her playing was “technically competent”, she wasn’t emotionally involved in the music the way the truly great pianists are. Faced with this hurdle, something that could have emotionally crippled another person, Rice simply decides to direct her energy into other avenues.

Given current events, it is likely Rice’s recent history that will be of most interest to readers and here Mabry does a better job of exploring the secretary of state. Mabry believes that Rice and George W. Bush are too close to allow her to play the role of doubting Thomas, and that adopting the Bush administration like a second insular family allowed her to ignore the dissenting voices over the Iraq war.

SHEER QUALITY:

Indispensable Encounters: a review of Counterpoints: Twenty-Five Years of The New Criterion on Culture and the Arts Edited by Roger Kimball and Hilton Kramer (Paul Johnson, July/August 2007, The American Spectator)

In general, and thanks certainly to the consistency with which Kramer and Kimball have conducted the journal, the New Criterion is notable for four qualities. The first is the belief that there are absolute standards, not just in literature and the arts, but in public conduct and philosophical treatment of fundamental issues. The review is suspicious of relativism in any form but especially of its moral manifestations. Secondly, the paper and its contributions avoid any commitment to ideology and party but have a general disposition or temperament inclined to recognize the merits of long-established cultural facts, and to subject all novelties to skeptical scrutiny. Genuine originality, provided it is combined with skill and experience, is always acceptable and applauded. But here fashion gets short shrift, and every kind of specious neologism and euphemious dodging is cracked down on hard.

A third and important propensity is an eagerness to rescue from oblivion writers, artists, and ideas that have fallen from favor but are still relevant to our needs, and enjoyable. This is a very important task which, so far as I know, is undertaken by no other periodical. It is one of the chief reasons why I always look forward with relish to opening a copy of the New Criterion.

Finally, there is the sheer quality of the writing. There is nothing formulaic about the journal, none of the emollient uniformity that made the New Yorker, even in its best days, so tiresome. One gets the impression that editing is minimal. The real control of quality is exercised by the selection of the writers, who are notable for their clarity of expression, their ability to organize their material, and their liveliness of idiom. They, like the journal that gives them the hospitality of its pages, form a wide but also intimate circle of civilized men and women who light wise candles in a world that often seems threatened by modernity's tenebrae.

MOST FRIGHTENING WOMAN:

Agatha Christie, the mistress of all mysteries (A N Wilson, 27/08/2007, Daily Telegraph)

Since this is the last of the Marple stories, Christie can be quite overt about the extent to which she is writing a redemption myth. Miss Marple is named Nemesis, divine justice, by Rafiel (itself the name of an archangel).

She is charged with bringing justice, with scriptural words, "Let justice roll down like the waters,/And righteousness like an everlasting stream".

The religious convictions of Miss Marple, which in most of the stories is implicit, is here overt. She tells someone, "In my own village, things do rather revolve round the church."

When she goes to stay in the Old Manor, where the three rather sinister (very sinister!) Sisters reside in a palpable atmosphere of evil, she unpacks from her suitcase "a small devotional book which she had been reading".

When Miss Temple the dying pilgrim asks her to find out the truth, Miss Marple replies, "With God's help I will."

When they are sitting around at the end of the story to establish the pardon of the wrongly imprisoned Michael (another angelic name), the Home Secretary says that Miss Marple is "the most frightening woman I ever met", in spite of the pink fluffy shawls and the twittery manner.

She really is nemesis, and is surely a more impressive creation than those old women such as Mrs Moore in the novels of E M Forster, who are somehow meant to carry quasi-mythic weight and hidden wisdom.

MARKET FUNDAMENTALISM:

Dunkin' Donuts Dumping Most Trans Fats (MARK JEWELL, 8/27/07, The Associated Press)

Dunkin' Donuts, the food-on-the-go chain whose name celebrates a treat that's symbolic of unhealthy eating, is trying to refresh its image by largely eliminating trans fat across its menu. [...]

The ice cream chain Baskin-Robbins, another unit of Dunkin' Brands Inc., plans to be zero grams trans fat by Jan. 1.

WAKING:

Another Iraqi "Awakening" (Jeff Emanuel, 8/27/2007, American Spectator)

THE FIRST SIGNIFICANT SIGN OF SUCCESS resulting from the Army's public relations campaign in the southern part of the region was seen very recently, in the area just north of Salman Pak, along the road known to 3rd Brigade as "Route Wild," between the villages of Wuerdiya and Ja'ara -- and it all began with a simple cell phone call. During the first week of August, an Iraqi man who lived in the area, whose brother was the sheik of their tribe (the "al Jabouri"), called Captain Rich Thompson, head of 3rd Brigade's Baker Company 1-15 Infantry and the local ground commander, and asked for a meeting. Tired of the persistent insurgent infighting in his area -- and of its effect on the people of his tribe and his village -- the man wanted information on starting his tribe's own "Concerned Citizens" brigade, to augment the National Police and to defend their land and their clan against terrorism.

Called "basically a thumb in the eye at a Maliki government that won't get its [act] together" by one officer I spoke with, the Concerned Citizens program, another brainchild of MNF-I commanding General David Petraeus, puts ground-level security in the hands of the individual tribes and groups who need it most. The program, which has been implemented in other regions of Iraq as well (like Diyala Province), allows for members of individual tribes to arm themselves and to conduct their own security operations and patrols, provided that they agree to wear easily identifiable (and coalition-acknowledged) uniforms, to work with and respect the authority of the National Police and coalition forces, and to submit to being entered into the coalition's biometric identification database.

"I hope they're really serious about [this]," Thompson, a former enlisted Army Ranger, told me, as he prepared to attend the meeting with the leadership if the al Jabouri tribe. "If we can get them going with their own security, and the other tribes around them can see what a good thing they have and decide that they want it too, then we could see a serious improvement in this area." Thompson's view on the insurgency in Iraq is a very simple one: "I don't want them in my AO (area of operations). I don't care where they go, as long as they're not here -- and, if everybody takes that attitude, Iraqis and soldiers alike, and works for that goal, then sooner or later there won't be any place for [the insurgents] to go."

The premise of the Concerned Citizens program is simply the belief that citizen empowerment, backed by the coalition, will lead to a rejection of the forces that terrorize the civilian population in a given area. While the sweeping change in Anbar Province that accompanied last fall's "Anbar Awakening" was in part a result of the tribal leaders in that area responding to the Marines' daily efforts to build trust and rapport in the region, it was much more a response to the insurgents' constant promise of no brighter future than the chaos that had become the norm in the area in recent years. Fed up with those who offered, in the words of one tribal sheik, "only death," the leaders of those tribes made the eminently rational decision to rise up against the terrorists, and to work with the coalition to build a free and independent network of tribes and clans that is rapidly becoming a relatively united province once again -- only without the iron fist of Saddam Hussein holding it together.

HOW MUCH DENAZIFICATION IS TOO MUCH?:

Baath party spokesman dismisses plan to ease ban on party members (The Associated Press, August 26, 2007)

A purported spokesman for Saddam Hussein's party Sunday dismissed draft legislation to ease the ban on party members from holding government jobs, saying his group would not deal with the Iraqi leadership until all U.S. and foreign forces leave the country.

Late Sunday, top Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish leaders signed an agreement which among other things endorsed a draft bill to relax rules preventing many members of Saddam's Baath Party from holding government jobs and elected offices.

IF IT'S NOT A CONSERVATIVE TAKEOVER, WHAT GOOD IS IT?:

College Trustee Fight Heats Up: Mailings, Advertisements Draw Attention to Dartmouth (Peter Jamison, 8/27/07, Valley News)

What is surprising to outside observers, perhaps, is the time and money Dartmouth's sons and daughters are willing to spend indulging that passion. And the extraordinary lengths to which alumni have gone in an intensifying blood-feud over a somewhat confusing set of procedural questions have led some to question whether the parties involved really care, as they say, about undergraduates' experience at Dartmouth -- or see the college as a battleground in a larger culture war between political conservatives and liberal academe.

The recently formed Committee to Save Dartmouth College has claimed it plans to pour up to $300,000 into a national advertising campaign to bring alumni's attention to potential changes to the college's Board of Trustees. The group -- whose organizers have remained anonymous, signing online communications with a moniker of combined Dartmouth dormitory names -- is opposed to the work of a new governance committee examining the board's structure and how trustees are elected. Former Chairman of Trustees William Neukom announced the committee’s formation in May.

Critics of the college administration say the governance committee is a thinly disguised means of diminishing alumni influence.

At present, alumni hold 16 of the 18 trustee seats (the other two are held by college President James Wright and New Hampshire Gov. John Lynch). Of those 16, alumni elect eight -- who are then formally approved by the board of trustees -- while the board itself chooses the other eight. The college's governing body is “unique” in the prominence it gives to alumni voices, according to Anne Neal, president of the American Council of Trustees and Alumni (ACTA).

In recent years, a string of maverick candidates, earning a place on the ballot through petition, have defeated the handpicked candidates of the Alumni Council, an organization that critics say is too cozy with college administrators. These dissident trustees, who are openly critical of the Dartmouth administration, say the move to re-examine the Board of Trustees' current setup is intended to prevent more like them from winning office.

“This is a group of election-losers who realize they're being outvoted, and want to change the rules and thereby ignore the will of the majority,” said Stephen Smith, a 1988 Dartmouth graduate who in May won a seat on the Board of Trustees in a successful petition campaign.

Smith, a professor at University of Virginia Law School who clerked for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, said he expects the governance committee to suggest either doing away with alumni involvement in the selection of trustees entirely or relegating trustees chosen by alumni to “ceremonial” status.

Haldeman acknowledged that the governance committee was created in response to the recent trustee elections, but denied that the board's motives were those of sore losers. He said trustee elections were becoming too divisive and costly -- Smith said he spent about $75,000 campaigning, as did one of his opponents -- and were creating a “reputational hit” to Dartmouth.

Haldeman, who is on the governance committee, would not reveal the committee's recommendations, which are due to be presented to the full Board of Trustees at a meeting on Sept. 7 and 8, but said that the board's size -- which he described as smaller than at many other colleges and universities -- would be one area of the committee's focus. The full board must approve any changes.

Some say the college administration's critics have a hidden agenda of their own. David Spalding, vice president for alumni relations at Dartmouth and a 1976 graduate of the college, said the petition trustees might be agents of an organized effort to bring politically conservative leadership to Dartmouth. In recent years, conservative media voices -- including the National Review and the editorial page of the Wall Street Journal -- have lent their support to the Big Green's outsider trustee candidates. Dartmouth itself has a reputation as a bastion of sometimes dubious collegiate traditions: The college has a strong Greek system, was the second-to-last Ivy League school to admit women, in 1972 (Columbia University did not go co-ed until 1983), and is home to The Dartmouth Review, an independent student newspaper that is arguably the most notorious conservative organ in American higher education.

“I think everybody ought to be very honest about what they're doing,” Spalding said. “I think if this is going to be a conservative takeover of the college, people should be very honest and open about that. It could be a coincidence that three out of the four (petition trustees) are strong conservatives, and it could be a coincidence that the only media covering them are conservative media. But these coincidences do pile up over time.”

EMULATING FAILURE:

Wanted: Latinos to fill federal jobs: Theirs is the only ethnic minority underrepresented in the government workforce. The U.S. is using media and other methods to try to change that (Claudia Lauer, August 27, 2007, LA Times)

[U]nless this program succeeds where others like it have failed, the end result may be no more than a fractional gain: Despite the government's efforts, Latino representation in the federal workforce rose just two-tenths of a percentage point from 2005 to 2006.

Historically, minorities have found federal employment a road to opportunity. The proportions of African Americans, Asian Americans and Native Americans working for the government all equal or exceed the corresponding percentages in the civilian workforce.

Latinos, on the other hand, make up 7.6% of the federal workforce, compared with 12.8% of the civilian labor force. But Latinos have made significant gains in federal internship programs at the agencies where they are most underrepresented. Because internships tend to increase the likelihood of a job offer, an increase in the number of Latino employees might be expected -- though it doesn't seem to be working that way.

HEY, THAT'S NOT THE PARTY LINE!:

'Critics' give Bush a 'surge' (Khody Akhavi, 8/28/07, Asia Times)

As usual, the Bush administration has been getting by with a little help - perhaps unwittingly - from its friends in the US mainstream media.

The most recent "information surge" to pulsate through US broadcast news outlets originated from the pens of Michael O'Hanlon and Kenneth Pollack, two so-called "critics" of the administration's "miserable handling of Iraq", who, in a July 30 New York Times op-ed titled "A war we just might win", wrote that US forces "are finally getting somewhere in Iraq, at least in military terms".

O'Hanlon and Pollack, who also work as fellows at the Brookings Institution's Saban Center for Middle East Policy, a Washington-based think-tank, were careful not to acknowledge the possibility of "victory in Iraq" - an oft-used phrase that, along with "stay the course", has been recently omitted from President Bush's rhetoric. But they wrote that they were heartened by the morale of US troops, surprised at the gains made by the "surge", and confident in its potential to produce a "sustainable stability that both we and the Iraqis could live with".

"There is enough good happening on the battlefields of Iraq today that Congress should plan on sustaining the effort at least into 2008," they concluded. In doing so, O'Hanlon and Pollack jump-started an information surge that would end up providing political cover for the administration's war policy.

TRANSITION TEAM:

Close aides to Musharraf meet with his opposition (Salman Masood, August 27, 2007, International Herald Tribune)

Close aides to Pakistan's president, General Pervez Musharraf, and the chief of the country's intelligence agency are in London to hold talks with Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif, the president's two main political opponents, two generally reliable Pakistani newspapers reported Sunday.

The high-level contacts with the two opposition leaders, who are planning to return to Pakistan to take part in elections, come at a time when government officials have said they are starting a dialogue with all the main political parties to seek "national reconciliation" and to ensure a smooth expansion of democracy.

THE PROBLEM IS THAT HE GETS AMERICA SO MUCH BETTER THAN THEY:

The elegant assassin: How an Englishman in Somerville is becoming the most feared man in American letters (Christopher Shea, August 26, 2007, Boston Globe)

THE BLOOD PRESSURE of some of America's leading novelists no doubt just shot up: James Wood, The New Republic's famously stringent book critic -- scourge of John Updike, Toni Morrison, Thomas Pynchon, Don DeLillo -- has jumped to The New Yorker, giving him a much wider audience for his coolly incendiary literary sermons.

For a hiring that followed a familiar pattern -- small, good magazine to big, good magazine -- Wood's move caused an extraordinary stir in literary circles. At The New Republic, his immensely learned, barbed essays, utterly unbowed by conventional wisdom, earned him an ardent following and the ire of novelists who failed to meet his standards.

Wood is controversial partly for his unusually clear (his detractors say crabbed) ideas about what a great novel is -- or, rather, isn't. He is especially set against "hysterical realism," his coinage for books that attempt to convey the raucousness of contemporary life through outlandish proliferating plots, allegory, bizarre coincidence, and high irony. In other words: Pynchon, Salman Rushdie, much of David Foster Wallace, the first two Zadie Smith books, and half of "The Corrections," by Jonathan Franzen. [...]

[W]hat does it mean that the most storied magazine in American history has aligned itself with a critic who essentially rejects the premises of a broad swath of contemporary American fiction?

"I think he just doesn't get America," says Lindsay Waters, executive editor for the humanities at Harvard University Press, invoking the argument that a messy, sprawling country demands comparable novels.

One of the best pieces he's written defended T.S. Eliot from an insipid charge of anti-Semitism.

THE RARE WORTHY NOBELIST:

From Poland with Love (Susitha R. Fernando, 8/26/07, Sri Lanka Times)

"In the Desert and the Wilderness" (Childrens film) directed by Gavin Hood is another film that is to be screened at the Poland Film Festival. Gavin Hood, a South African born director is a writer, producer and director, best known for winning the Academy Award for Foreign Language Film at the 78th Academy Awards for the 2005 film 'Tsotsi'.

He directed his first commercial short film, The Storekeeper, in 1998, which earned him his first Academy Award nomination. His first feature film, A Reasonable Man, followed in 1999. Hood then went on to direct the Polish language 2001 feature film 'In Desert and Wilderness' (Wpustyni i w puszczy) when the original director fell ill. This was followed by Tsotsi in 2005.

The film, based on a novel by Polish Nobel Prize winner Henryk Sienkiewicz (1905), tells the story of two children - a 14 years old Polish boy Stas Tarkowski and an eight year old English girl Net Rawilson raped by an Arabian leader Mahdi during their stay with their fathers - engineers in construction work on the Suez Canal in Africa. The fathers organise the chase but it proves extremely difficult due to the war conditions in the continent.

The children, abandoned to their own fate, wander across wild Africa with their black friend- Kali and Mea.

SIMILARLY, EVEN PAMELA ANDERSON HAS HAD COSMETIC SURGERY:

Even I Question The 'Truth' About 9/11 (Robert Fisk, 26 August, 2007, The Independent)

Gosh, he seemed so well-balanced otherwise....

...AND THAT'S HOW THE BARBIEMOBILE TURNED PINK (via David Cohen):

Out of the blue and in the pink (Ben Goldacre, 8/25/07, The Guardian)

I love evolutionary psychologists, because the ideas, like "girls prefer pink because they need to be better at hunting berries" are so much fun. Sure there are problems, like, we don't know a lot about life in the pleistocene period through which humans evolved; their claims sound a bit like "just so" stories, relying on their own internal, circular logic; the evidence for genetic influence on behaviour, emotion, and cognition, is coarse; they only pick the behaviours which they think they can explain while leaving the rest; and they get in trouble as soon as they go beyond examining broad categories of human behaviours across societies and cultures, becoming crassly ethnocentric. But that doesn't stop me enjoying their ideas.

This week every single newspaper in the world lapped up the story that scientists have cracked the pink problem. "At last, science discovers why blue is for boys but girls really do prefer pink," said the Times. And so on.

The study took 208 people in their 20s and asked them to choose their favourite colours between two options, repeatedly, and then graphed their overall preferences. It found overlapping curves, with a significant tendency for men to prefer blue, and female subjects showing a preference for redder, pinker tones. This, the authors speculated (to international excitement and approval) may be because men go out hunting, but women need to be good at interpreting flushed emotional faces, and identifying berries whilst out gathering.

Now there are some serious problems here. Firstly, the test wasn't measuring discriminative ability, just preference. I am yet to be given evidence that my girlfriend has the upper hand in discriminating shades of red as we gambol foraging for the fruits of the forest (which we do).

But is colour preference cultural or genetic?

WHO DO THEY THINK THEY ARE, TOM TANCREDO?:

Report: NKorea Begins Erecting Fence (AP, Aug 26, 2007)

Not that we're actually building one, Little progress on border fence (Richard Marosi, 8/25/07, Los Angeles Times)

Nearly a year after Congress passed legislation calling for the construction of 700 miles of new fencing along the U.S.-Mexico border, about 15 miles have been built, according to the Department of Homeland Security.

STRANGELY ENOUGH...:

India and the US-sponsored Pax Democratica (B. Raman, August 24, 2007, rediff)

In his address to Japanese Parliament, Dr Singh spoke of India's vision of an 'arc of prosperity' extending from India to Japan. Is there a well-concealed additional vision of an 'arc of democracy'? That is the nagging question in the Chinese mind. It will nag even more after they have read Dr Singh's positive reaction to the idea of 'closer co-operation among the major democracies of the region'.'

Indian leaders and policy-makers have been repeatedly stressing that India's developing relations with the US, Japan and Australia are not directed against China or any other country. This has not satisfied the Chinese because they see quite the opposite being said by analysts in the US. They saw and continue to see the agreement in principle on Indo-US Civil Nuclear Co-operation reached by President Bush and Dr Manmohan Singh during the latter's visit to Washington in July 2005, as an American quid pro quo for India agreeing to be a US surrogate against Iran and China. The expected role of India against Iran finds mention in the Hyde Act, but not its expected role against China.

Similar concerns are nursed by the military junta in Myanmar since Bush's visit to India in March 2006. This should explain their reported post-March 2006 decline in enthusiasm for the sale of gas to India from the gas fields in the Arakan area. It is even alleged by some sources that there has also been a decline in enthusiasm for energy co-operation with the military junta of Myanmar in New Delhi after Bush's visit to India.

The forthcoming joint exercise by the navies of India, the US, Japan, Australia and Singapore in the Bay of Bengal in the beginning of September has added to the concerns in China as well as Myanmar. The exercise has been projected partly as humanitarian to improve their co-ordination for disaster relief and partly to test their capabilities for joint or co-ordinated action against non-State actors such as pirates, maritime terrorists and maritime smugglers of weapons, including weapons of mass destruction material.

This projection has not carried conviction to Beijing [Images] and the Myanmar military junta. China tends to see it as one more step in the US designs to contain its naval power. Myanmar sees it as a US attempt to pep up the morale of the pro-democracy elements in Myanmar. For the first time in recent months, there were demonstrations by pro-democracy elements in Rangoon and some other parts of Myanmar on August 19 and 22, 2007. The demonstrations were ostensibly against the recent increase in fuel prices and the economic hardships of the people. The military junta seems to see a link between the recrudescence of unrest by pro-democracy elements loyal to Aung San Suu Kyi and the forthcoming naval exercise. Their fears may be imaginary, but may result in a further suppression of political dissidents.

ON THE OTHER HAND, WE DIDN'T SEND THEM TO GITMO!:

The Squall After the Whirlwind: A British historian takes Americans to task for their role in the post-World War II occupation : a review of AFTER THE REICH: The Brutal History of the Allied Occupation By Giles MacDonogh (Andrew Nagorski, August 26, 2007, NY Times Book Review)

There's a gruesome last chapter to World War II, the bloodiest war in history. During the forced expulsions of about 12 million Germans from the Reich's eastern provinces, mostly from territory that became part of the newly reconstituted states of Poland and Czechoslovakia, about 2 million died. Imprisonment in former Nazi concentration camps, death marches, starvation, beatings, rapes and outright murder were all commonplace. As the Red Army and many local inhabitants saw it, this was justifiable revenge for Germany's monstrous crimes. The Americans, Brits and French didn't engage in violence on anything close to that scale, but they, too, sometimes let their desire for revenge get the better of them.

For a long time, this record of retribution was a taboo topic outside of Germany. Even the Germans worried that emphasizing their suffering could open them to accusations of rewriting history to cast themselves as equal victims. But since the collapse of communist regimes in their countries in 1989, at least some Poles and Czechs have been confronting that history. (Don't expect anything of the sort from Putin's Russia, where Stalin is glorified once again.) And in the West, this is a painful subject that has been attracting more attention.

In After the Reich, Giles MacDonogh, a British author of several books about German history, chronicles the final weeks of the war and the occupation that followed. His ambitious mission: to offer a comprehensive, unsparing account of what happened to the German people when the tables were turned. MacDonogh works to assemble a massive indictment of the victors, and his array of detail and individual stories is both impressive and exhausting. But he's far less successful in navigating the tricky moral terrain that such a subject inevitably occupies. As a result, his is a deeply flawed book.

EVEN SAINTS ARE HUMAN:

Mother Teresa felt "emptiness": archbishop (Bappa Majumdar, 8/25/07, Reuters)

Mother Teresa experienced "emptiness" like any human, and the revealing letters she shared with her colleagues portrayed her humility, said the Archbishop of Kolkata, where the nun lived most of her life.

A book of letters written by Mother Teresa of Calcutta -- now Kolkata -- has revealed that she was deeply tormented about her faith and suffered periods of doubt about God.

"Despite facing the negative side of life, she remained steadfast on her way to holiness, such was her greatness," Reverend Lucas Sircar, who knew her for decades, told Reuters.

PROHIBITION ROLLS ON:

New law ups stakes for 1st DUI: Breath test required before starting car (Monique Garcia, August 24, 2007, Chicago Tribune)

First time drunken-driving offenders now will have to pass a breath test every time they get behind the wheel, under legislation signed into law Friday.

The measure, among the strictest in the nation, would require an estimated 30,000 first-time offenders whose licenses have been suspended to blow into devices that measure blood-alcohol content. If alcohol is detected, the car will not start.

EXCEPT THAT...:

Clinton draws Democrats' ire with remark (Associated Press, 8/25/07)

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton drew outrage from her opponents for the Democratic presidential nomination on Friday after saying that a terrorist attack in the United States would give Republicans an edge in the 2008 race.

Clinton raised the possibility of another terrorist strike at a small gathering in New Hampshire on Thursday, saying she would be the best Democrat to confront the Republicans in the wake of such an event. Her comments drew fire from not only her rivals but also the liberal blogosphere, with her detractors accusing her of seeking to use terrorism as a political weapon just as Republicans had in earlier elections.

LAZY NATIVES:

Help Wanted Ads Go Unanswered in West (MATT GOURAS, 8/25/07, Associated Press)

The owner of a fast food joint in Montana's booming oil patch found himself outsourcing the drive-thru window to a Texas telemarketing firm, not because it's cheaper but because he can't find workers.

Record low unemployment across parts of the West has created tough working conditions for business owners, who in places are being forced to boost wages or be creative to fill their jobs.

John Francis, who owns the McDonald's in Sidney, Mont., said he tried advertising in the local newspaper and even offered up to $10 an hour to compete with higher-paying oil field jobs. Yet the only calls were from other business owners upset they would have to raise wages, too. Of course, Francis' current employees also wanted a pay hike.

"I don't know what the answer is," Francis said. "There's just nobody around that wants to work."

WHICH WAS VOGUE'S POINT:

The dark secrets of Roman Polanksi (Christopher Sandford, 25th August 2007, Daily Mail)

Just before he returned to Los Angeles, however, the director accepted another commission to take a series of photographs - again of adolescent girls - this time for French Vogue's associate magazine Vogue Homme.

His idea was to "show them as they really are" - which meant "sexy, pert and thoroughly human" - and by adolescent, he meant girls of 13 or 14 years old.

When Polanski got to Los Angeles a friend suggested "the perfect candidate'" for these photographs - the younger daughter of an aspiring actress.

Samantha Jane Gailey was 13, but no innocent.

She would later explain that she'd had sex twice in the year before she met the director, that she'd drunk alcohol and that "once I was under the influence of Quaaludes [a sedative used as a recreational drug in the 70s] when I was real little".

But Gailey was also a schoolgirl who kept pet rats and had a Spiderman poster on her bedroom wall.

She was also four years under the age of sexual consent then required in the state of California - and 30 years younger than Polanski - but that didn't matter to him.

When a friend later asked about her age, he snapped: "She was about to turn 14."

Polanski set off to visit Gailey, and her mother, at their small, nondescript home in the western Los Angeles suburb of Woodland Hills on the afternoon of February 13, 1977.

The director was disappointed on first sight.

She was "a good looking girl, but nothing sensational", he said. Nevertheless he showed her the photographs he'd taken for French Vogue and she agreed to a shoot the following Sunday.

When Polanski arrived a week later he found Gailey waiting for him wearing a pair of jeans and a patchwork blouse.

The director proceeded to take the girl to an isolated spot half a mile away. Then, after a few shots, he asked her to remove her shirt.

The published photographs, he assured her, would be cropped so there would be no "boobies", as he called them. Polanski maintained later that Gailey was "entirely at ease".

The director didn't arrange to see Gailey again until Thursday, March 10.

This time Polanski first took her to actress Jacqueline Bisset's house and then to his friend Nicholson's mansion on Mulholland Drive.

The Oscar-winning actor wasn't there, but his then girlfriend, actress Anjelica Huston was.

On the way over Polanski was reported to have asked the girl whether she was "still a virgin" but the director insisted she said she started having sex "when I was eight".

When they reached Nicholson's house, Polanski gave the girl a glass of Cristal champagne and again asked her to pose topless, which he insisted she did "with great aplomb".

Shortly afterwards he also suggested she get into the Jacuzzi, and quickly produced a Quaalude, which she took.

"I can barely remember anything," Gailey told the Grand Jury later. "I was kind of dizzy, you know, like things were kind of blurry."

Polanski took more photographs, before taking off his own clothes and joining her in the Jacuzzi.

The girl asked to go home, and he told her "I'll take you home soon".

But when she repeated her request, he told her to lie down in a nearby guest house.

Polanski said afterwards that Gailey had quickly assured him she was feeling better - after which, he maintained, "very gently, I began to kiss and caress her".

But the 13-year-old girl's account was different.

She insisted that she told the director she wasn't feeling better, and when he kissed her she told him: "No" and "keep away".

In the next few minutes, according to the girl, Polanski raped and sodomised her.

He later described them as "making love" but Gailey violently disagreed.

When asked if she resisted, she said: "Not really - because I was afraid of him".

Eventually an unrepentant Polanski drove Gailey home.

When her mother and sister saw the topless shots, they were horrified.

But her mother was even angrier when she discovered that Polanski had actually had sex with her daughter - so angry that later that evening she made a formal complaint to the police.

The following evening Polanski was arrested in the foyer of the Beverly Wilshire Hotel, where he kept a suite.

Detective Philip Vannatter, a tenyear veteran, who 17 years later would go on to be lead investigator in the O.J. Simpson case, asked if Polanski had the slightest idea why he was being arrested. "I honestly don't know," the director replied.

Polanski's celebrity in Hollywood meant that he was never handcuffed.

Indeed one of the district attorneys called him a "great artist". Reality set in when the booking sergeant asked him: "What in hell do you think you're doing, going around raping kids?"

HEISENBERG SMILES:

Moth study backs classic 'test case' for Darwin's theory (Steve Connor, 25 August 2007, INDEPENDENT)

Now a Cambridge professor has repeated the key predation experiments with the peppered moth, only this time he has taken into account the criticisms and apparent flaws in the original research conducted 50 years ago. Michael Majerus, a professor of genetics at Cambridge University, has spent the past seven years collecting data from a series of experiments he has carried out in his own rambling back garden. It has involved him getting up each day before dawn and then spending several hours looking out of his study window armed with a telescope and notepad.

He wanted a definitive test of the idea that selective predation by birds really was responsible for the differences in the chances of survival among black and peppered varieties of B. betularia. His garden outside Cambridge is in an unpolluted area so in this setting it should be the typical or peppered variety of the moth that has a better chance of survival than that of the black or carbonaria form; it is unlikely to be seen by birds against the mottled background of the lichen-covered trees.

In a seminal description of his results to a scientific conference this week in Sweden, Professor Majerus gave a resounding vote of confidence in the peppered month story. He found unequivocal evidence that birds were indeed responsible for the lower numbers of the black carbonaria forms of the moth. It was a complete vindication of the peppered month story, he told the meeting.

"I conclude that differential bird predation here is a major factor responsible for the decline of carbonaria frequency in Cambridge between 2001 and 2007," Professor Majerus said.

"If the rise and fall of the peppered moth is one of the most visually impacting and easily understood examples of Darwinian evolution in action, it should be taught. It provides after all the proof of evolution," he said.

Criticisms of the 1950s experiments with the peppered month, carried out by the Oxford zoologist Bernard Kettlewell, came to the fore in a 2002 book by the American author Judith Hooper. Hooper's book, Of Moths and Men, suggested that the scientists at the centre of these experiments set out to prove the story irrespective of the evidence.

While the professor has also described drawbacks to Kettlewell's methodology, he was able to address all of these concerns and even tested an idea that Hooper had raised in her book - that it was bats rather than birds responsible for moth predation - a suggestion he dismissed altogether.

Professor Majerus compiled enough visual sightings of birds eating peppered moths in his garden over the seven years to show that the black form was significantly more likely to be eaten than the peppered.

SINCE THE BUREAUCRACIES WOULDN'T COME TO AL QAEDA...:

How Washington Missed 9/11 (Robert Baer, 8/24/07, TIME)

In January 2000 a CIA field station in East Asia found out that two known Qaeda terrorists, Khalid al-Midhar and Nawaf al-Hazmi, were on their way to the United States — and they weren't coming on vacation. But it wouldn't be until August 2001 that CIA headquarters finally would tell the FBI, too late for the agency to track the two down.

During the eighteen months between January 2000 and August 2001 50-60 people at the CIA were aware of al-Hazmi and al-Midhar traveling to the U.S. But no one did anything because the assumption was that someone else had told the FBI. And presumably the FBI was covering the two.

One problem was that communications between FBI and CIA headquarters is ad hoc — usually by telephone, sometimes by a classified telex. An FBI agent assigned to the CIA wrote a telex to the FBI about al-Hazmi and al-Midhar but for reasons that are still unclear it was never sent. There was no mechanism to register the lapse, or that the FBI in fact did not have al-Midhar and al-Hazmi under coverage. The ball was dropped.

The problems were easily correctible. For instance, had the CIA field station in East Asia been able to send a telex directly to FBI headquarters in Washington or FBI field offices in California, where al-Hazmi and al-Midhar ended up, the FBI no doubt would have launched a full field investigation and almost certainly found out about the other 17 hijackers. The chances are the FBI would have stopped 9/11.

The CIA IG's report says there was no "silver bullet" that would have prevented 9/11. I disagree; this was it.

Al-Hazmi and al-Midhar falling between the cracks is not the stuff of conspiracies or simple incompetence. The CIA and the FBI are Cold War institutions that have never shared databases. Their communications systems were never designed to interface. FBI and CIA cultures have never meshed. The FBI collects evidence for trial, the CIA collects information to analyze it. No wonder leads are dropped.

And that is not the only Achilles heel in the system. The CIA IG's report cites the National Security Agency's unwillingness to share raw intercepts with the CIA. Who knows what is in the NSA's raw data bases on al-Midhar and al-Hazmi?

A SPOONFUL OF SIGUR:

THANKS TO PETE WILSON, CALIFORNIA IS ALREADY WRITTEN OFF:

Would a Bush Bailout Save the GOP? (James Pethokoukis, 8/24/07, US News)

The last politician who took advice from the bond market was Bill Clinton. When he pushed for a tax hike back in 1993 to cut the budget deficit, it was under the assumption that bond investors would respond by bringing down interest rates. (The theory here is that deficits are inflationary. Inflation is bad for bonds.) Yet long-term interest rates surged from 6.45 percent when Clinton signed his tax-hike bill on Aug. 10, 1993, to 8.16 percent on Nov. 7, 1994, the day before the midterm congressional election where Republicans won back the House and Senate.

Now PIMCO's Bill Gross, perhaps the most well-known bond fund manager in the world, is giving President Bush and the GOP some advice. He wants the government to start cutting checks to struggling homeowners, as both good policy and smart politics. [...]

2) Talk about playing on someone else's home turf. Any Bush bailout idea, if he should propose one, would inevitably start a bidding war with Democrats. Hillary Clinton, for instance, has already proposed a billion-dollar fund to boost state programs that help at-risk borrowers avoid foreclosure. I don't see why the Republicans would get more credit than the Dems.

3) We're not talking about a very big constituency here. Research firm First American CoreLogic projects 1.1 million subprime-related foreclosures, spread out over a total period of six to seven years. And it's blue state California—which Democrat John Kerry won by 11 points in 2004—where most of the trouble is, with a reported 39,013 foreclosure filings in July, the most of any state for the seventh month in a row and up 289 percent from July 2006, according to RealtyTrac.

4) Not that politicians necessarily care, but the economics of a bailout are pretty iffy.

SURE...:

Early exposure to farm animals lowers IBD risk (Reuters Health, 8/24/07)

Infants who are regularly exposed to farm animals appear to be less likely than others to develop inflammatory bowel disease in childhood, according to the findings of a German study published in the journal Pediatrics.

...AND CHEAPER...:

U.S. teen unlocks the iPhone (The Associated Press, August 24, 2007)

A teenager in New Jersey has broken the lock that ties Apple's iPhone to AT&T's wireless network, freeing the most hyped cell phone ever for use on the networks of other carriers, including overseas ones.

George Hotz, 17, confirmed Friday that he had unlocked an iPhone and was using it on T-Mobile's network, the only major U.S. carrier apart from AT&T that is compatible with the iPhone's cellular technology.

While the possibility of switching from AT&T to T-Mobile may not be a major development for U.S. consumers, it opens up the iPhone for use on the networks of overseas carriers.

IS SEIF AL-ISLAM THE MOST IMPORTANT WORLD LEADER NO ONE RECOGNIZES?:

Libya's Berber minority begins to come in from the cold (AFP, Aug 24, 2007)

After decades of even denying the existence of a Berber minority, Libya has been lavishing new attention on a community that makes up around a tenth of the mainly Arab country's population.

A regime that since it took power in 1969 had derided Berber demands for recognition as a colonial plot to divide the Arab nation, this month allowed Berber activists to hold a congress in a Tripoli hotel for the first time.

Both Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi's son Seif al-Islam and Prime Minister Baghdadi Mahmudi have also made high-profile visits to the Berber heartland in the Jebel Nefusa mountains southwest of the capital to launch major projects to boost the local economy.

The sharp relaxation in official policy in a matter of months has impressed activists from the wider Berber community which stretches across north Africa from Egypt to Morocco and totals more than 25 million people.

WAS HIS PROBLEM REALLY THAT HE WASN'T SUFFICIENTLY A NAIVE DUPE OF THE TOTALIARIANS?:

Obama's Foreign Policy Reset (Michael Duffy, 8/23/07, TIME)

Once questions have been raised about your foreign policy judgment, it's not easy to put the genie back in the bottle.

But try you must, which is why Barack Obama's latest foreign policy offering, regarding how to open doors with Cuba as the Castro era ends, is at least as much about repairing his image for Democrtic voters as it is about reshaping U.S. relations with Havana.

IMPORTING THE SUPERIOR POPSICLE:

Icy, spicy, cool: Handmade paletas — Mexican ice pops — have traditional flavors and cutting-edge style (Betty Hallock, August 22, 2007, LA Times)

SUMMERTIME is paleta time. These Mexican ice pops -- chock-full of chunks of fresh fruit and available in a hypnotizing array of colors and clear, not-too-sweet flavors -- conjure images of hot afternoons in the park, time spent on a bench under a shady tree, clear blue skies dotted with red, white and green balloons.

That's not just some idyllic Latino-Rockwellian fantasy. On a recent 80-degree-plus weekend in the courtyard of Plaza Mexico in Lynwood, a family of five took advantage of a park bench and a view of a replica of the Ángel de la Independencia, each of them holding fast to summer by his or her Popsicle stick. Customers at the nearby Paletería La Michoacana, a small, often crowded shop tucked into a corner of the plaza, lined up for paletas in flavors such as tamarindo, hibiscus flower and mango con chile. (If summer in L.A. had a flavor, it might be mango con chile.)

But if you haven't yet visited one of L.A.'s many neighborhood paleterías, you most likely haven't experienced fresh, handcrafted made-on-the-premises ice pops. Really, you've never had Popsicles or ice cream bars like these -- a treat so idolized that one city in Michoacán has even raised a statue of a paleta at the entrance to the town. [...]

Cucumber-chile paletas

Total Time: 30 minutes, plus freezing time

Servings: 9 (3-ounce) paletas

Note: From recipe tester Noelle Carter. Popsicle molds are available at select Bed, Bath & Beyond stores and online at target.com and amazon.com.

2 pounds (about 2 large) cucumbers, plus an additional half cucumber, divided

1/3 cup fresh lime juice

½ cup sugar

1 dried New Mexico chile pepper, slightly crushed

1 teaspoon New Mexico chile powder

1 teaspoon cayenne chile powder

1 teaspoon salt

1. Place empty ice-pop molds in the freezer to chill. Dice 2 pounds of the cucumber into 1-inch pieces; do not remove the skins. Place the pieces in a food processor or blender and purée until smooth. Strain into a medium bowl through a fine mesh strainer, pushing out the juice with some of the pulp. You should have 2 1/2 cups juice and pulp. Set aside.

2. Peel the remaining half-cucumber and cut it into half-inch-by-one-eighth-inch pieces. Set aside in a small bowl.

3. Add the lime juice, sugar and crushed chile pepper to a small sauce pan. Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until the sugar is dissolved. Remove the syrup from the heat and cool slightly.

4. In a small bowl, combine the chile powders. Strain the cooled syrup into the bowl with the cucumber juice, discarding the crushed pepper. Stir in the salt and one-fourth teaspoon of the combined chile powders.

5. Pour some of the mixture into each mold, leaving about a half-inch of space at the top. Stir several pieces of cucumber into each mold. Place lid on the molds and fit with the wooden stick. Place the molds in the freezer and freeze until solid, 2 to 4 hours.

6. Remove the molds from the freezer and run them briefly under warm water to loosen the paletas. Gently pull them from the molds and sprinkle the tops lightly with the remaining chile powder mixture to taste, if desired. Wrap the paletas in plastic wrap and return them to the freezer if not serving immediately. They will keep 1 to 2 weeks in the freezer.

HAVING A TEAM:

Butch van Breda Kolff, 84, Fiery Coach, Dies (FRANK LITSKY, 8/24/07, NY Times)

Van Breda Kolff used to say that except for a chosen few, coaching basketball was a vagabond profession, and he was a prime example. He held 13 head-coaching jobs and for one season, when he was 61, he coached a high school team.

“I’ve had some good jobs that I’ve left, or they fired me,” he once said. “At the time, I thought it was the right thing for me to do. Whether it turned out right later, who cares?”

He coached Bill Bradley as a collegian and Wilt Chamberlain as a professional and never seemed fully satisfied with either player. When Bradley played for him at Princeton, he said, “Bill is not hungry.” He felt the same way about Chamberlain, who played for him with the Los Angeles Lakers.

In the final minutes of the seventh and deciding game of the National Basketball Association’s 1969 championship playoffs, Chamberlain benched himself during the fourth quarter with what van Breda Kolff considered a minor knee injury. When Chamberlain asked to return to the game, van Breda Kolff refused, and the Lakers lost to the Boston Celtics by 2 points.

“We played better when he was out,” van Breda Kolff said. “I have no regrets because in my mind at the time I thought it was the right thing to do. The only regret I’ll have would be if I don’t have a team.”

Shortly after, van Breda Kolff resigned, but as usual he soon had another team.

Carril grew up as a no-car-garage guy in a $21-a-month apartment hard by Quinn's Coal Yard in the hills of eastern Pennsylvania. His father, an immigrant from Castile, Spain, spent long days, weeks and years shoveling coal into an open-hearth furnace run by Bethlehem Steel. What Pete remembers most clearly about this Depression-era environment was the ethnic bonding prevalent among the Spanish, Polish and Italian inhabitants. "We always had food to eat," he says. "Families stuck together." The absence of material possessions was an advantage, Carril believes. "It made us innovative, creative," he says. Sometimes there were no ball fields and few balls, which led Carril and his contemporaries to improvise games. One involved dodging thrown rubber balls in a narrow culvert. It was not for the slow of foot.

More organized sports pointed the direction away from the furnaces. Too puny for his first love, football, Carril discovered hoops in the seventh grade. "It was the game I could play," he says. And how. Pete was a dervish guard at Liberty High School, leading the team to consecutive 24-3 records. That earned him a place at nearby Lafayette College, where a raffish free spirit named Willem van Breda Kolff came to coach and inherited Pete, then in his senior year. "I had my preconceived notions," says van Breda Kolff of his sawed-off, would-be star. "He threw up some weird shots." But van Breda Kolff, a former player in the National Basketball Association, recognized talent. "Pete was very, very quick," he says. And deceptive. Years later, when Princeton graduate Bill Bradley was a young player with the New York Knickerbockers, he came to Carril for mano-a-mano pointers. Carril, who had not coached Bradley in college, was then in his late 30s; Bradley was in his prime. "He was not bad at making you think he was going to take the shot, when what he was really going to do was drive past you," says Bradley. "I was a player," says Pete.

Too small for the pros by maybe 4 in. in van Breda Kolff's opinion, Carril embarked on a career as a high school government teacher and basketball coach. He won early and often. In 1966 he applied for the coaching job at Lehigh and got it by default. One year later, as van Breda Kolff was completing a five- year-long coaching tour de force at Princeton, he recommended Carril to succeed him. The incumbent thought his protege would be a hard sell. "Pete is not in Princeton's image," says van Breda Kolff. "He is not gray flannels and herringbone suits."

So much for the importance of image. But Carril actually did try, taking up orange-and-black bow ties at one point. That is Armond Hill's first memory of him, when Hill was a senior at Bishop Ford High School in Brooklyn. (Carrilism: Always recruit at schools whose names begin with Bishop or Monsignor.) "I saw this short guy with a bow tie and a big cigar lying down in the bleachers," Hill recalls. "After the game he came down and told me everything I did wrong and that he could make me a better player. It was that, more than the mystique of Princeton. I wanted to play for this guy." So he did, becoming the last great player Carril molded and then sent on to the N.B.A. Today Hill is surely the only alumnus of the N.B.A. who is a curator of an art museum.

TERROIRISM:

Funk's Not Dead: Not while a former Riker's Island corrections officer named Sharon Jones and a backing band called the Dap-Kings are alive and kicking. (Scott Frampton, 8/22/07, Esquire)

[I]mprobably, Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings are even better than the real thing.

Improbably, because the elevator pitch is almost insulting: A former Rikers Island corrections officer joins the Dap-Kings, the house band of Daptone Records, to form a classic-soul-and-funk band. Improbably, because you can't re-create a sound just by playing the right notes in the right kind of order. To make people believe in your music, it has to have what wine enthusiasts call terroir, a taste of the earth it was planted in. This is especially true when your band's back story reads like the premise for a Wanda Sykes midseason-replacement sitcom. But that's what makes the new 100 Days, 100 Nights so sublime: The grit in the Dap-Kings' eerily perfect restoration of the sound and feel of various '60s soul styles -- they can, as necessary, sound like the house bands at Stax and Muscle Shoals or James Brown's J.B.'s -- is more than matched by the brewing squall in the 51-year-old Jones's voice.

BIDDY BOP:

Charlie Parker, Uptown and Down (NATE CHINEN, 8/24/07, NY Times)

On a fundamental level...the festival pays homage to Parker and his footprint in the city. In many ways he was the quintessential New York hero: a maverick and bon vivant, a subject of notoriety and myth. He loved the city, and he toasted it outright with a tune called “Scrapple From the Apple” that was recorded in a New York studio 60 years ago this fall and almost immediately became popular with musicians. (Along with a catchy melody, it had a familiar harmonic progression, with elements of Fats Waller’s “Honeysuckle Rose” and George Gershwin’s “I Got Rhythm.”)

“Charlie Parker became a New Yorker,” said the jazz historian Phil Schaap, whose Parker-fixated weekday radio program, “Bird Flight,” has been heard in its current form on WKCR (89.9 FM) since 1981. “That was important to him, and he felt great about it, and he enjoyed New York nightlife as well as he dominated it for a while.”

Like so many celebrated New Yorkers Parker came from somewhere else. He was born in Kansas City, Kan., on Aug. 29, 1920, and began his musical career across the state line in Kansas City, Mo., during the waning days of its biggest nightlife boom. The depth of that experience will be a principal subject of “Kansas City Lightning: The Life and Times of the Young Charlie Parker,” a long-gestating biography by the critic Stanley Crouch due out from Pantheon next year.

Parker made his first foray to New York in 1939, on the heels of Buster Smith, his fellow saxophonist and Kansas City mentor. While crashing at Mr. Smith’s apartment, he hit jam sessions at Harlem spots like Clark Monroe’s Uptown House on West 134th Street.

“The only place he could really meet musicians who were going to help him realize his goals would have been New York, and specifically Harlem at that time,” the saxophonist and historian Loren Schoenberg said recently by phone from the National Jazz Museum in Harlem, where he is executive director. The museum’s August programming has been pointedly Parker-centric; next Tuesday the final lecture of the month takes place at the Harlem School of the Arts.

Lore has it that Parker’s initial Harlem sojourn included toiling as a dishwasher at Jimmy’s Chicken Shack, where the fearsome pianist Art Tatum held court. At another uptown spot, Dan Wall’s Chili House, Parker had what he later described as an epiphany, during one of many sessions with a guitarist named Biddy Fleet.

In an interview a decade later with Down Beat magazine, Parker recalled that he had tired of the stereotypical chord voicings then in use. “I kept thinking there’s bound to be something else,” he said. “I could hear it sometimes, but I couldn’t play it.” One night in 1939, improvising over the Ray Noble tune “Cherokee,” he brought his idea to life. “And bop was born,” Down Beat added, putting the kicker on a story so irresistible that Thomas Pynchon slipped it into his epic novel “Gravity’s Rainbow.”

LEARNING TO SPEAK SCIENCE (VIA BBOYS):

Fossil find pushes human-ape split back millions of years (AFP, Aug 24, 2007)

Ten million-year-old fossils discovered in Ethiopia show that humans and apes probably split six or seven million years earlier than widely thought, according to landmark study released Wednesday. [...]

The most startling implication of the find, the scientists agree, is that our human progenitors diverged from today's great apes -- including gorillas, orangutans and chimpanzees -- several million years earlier than widely accepted research based on molecular genetics had previously asserted.

WHERE ONCE THE LEFT DREAMED OF DESTROYING CAPITALISM...:

Smashing Capitalism! (Barbara Ehrenreich, 8/24/07, HuffingtonPost.com)

Somewhere in the Hamptons a high-roller is cursing his cleaning lady and shaking his fists at the lawn guys. The American poor, who are usually tactful enough to remain invisible to the multi-millionaire class, suddenly leaped onto the scene and started smashing the global financial system. Incredibly enough, this may be the first case in history in which the downtrodden manage to bring down an unfair economic system without going to the trouble of a revolution.

First they stopped paying their mortgages, a move in which they were joined by many financially stretched middle class folks, though the poor definitely led the way. All right, these were trick mortgages, many of them designed to be unaffordable within two years of signing the contract. There were "NINJA" loans, for example, awarded to people with "no income, no job or assets." Conservative columnist Niall Fergusen laments the low levels of "economic literacy" that allowed people to be exploited by sub-prime loans. Why didn't these low-income folks get lawyers to go over the fine print? And don't they have personal financial advisors anyway?

Then, in a diabolically clever move, the poor - a category which now roughly coincides with the working class -- stopped shopping. Both Wal-Mart and Home Depot announced disappointing second quarter performances, plunging the market into another Arctic-style meltdown. H. Lee Scott, CEO of the low-wage Wal-Mart empire, admitted with admirable sensitivity, that "it's no secret that many customers are running out of money at the end of the month."

I wish I could report that the current attack on capitalism represents a deliberate strategy on the part of the poor, that there have been secret meetings in break rooms and parking lots around the country, where cell leaders issued instructions like, "You, Vinny -- don't make any mortgage payment this month. And Caroline, forget that back-to-school shopping, OK?" But all the evidence suggests that the current crisis is something the high-rollers brought down on themselves.

On AOL.com this week, the Internet-based loan company LendingTree offered "Bad credit options" and a $425,000 loan for only $1,376 a month. And Countrywide Financial, the nation's largest mortgage lender, declared, "Bad Credit? Call Today. Refinance or Tap into Your Home's Equity" in an online ad from its Full Spectrum Lending Division.

No-money-down mortgages and subprime loans that cater to people with spotty credit are quickly disappearing as lenders tighten their standards in response to a rise in foreclosures. But you wouldn't know that if you looked at the ads that some banks and loan companies have placed on the Internet and in newspapers, including this one, often right next to the very stories chronicling the meltdown in the mortgage industry. So what's with the mixed messages?

"It's been a common feature of advertising," said Allen Fishbein, director of housing and credit policy at the Consumer Federation of America. "They offer their products not around interest rates but among monthly payments, ease of access, among 'you're more likely to get a yes with us than with others.' I don't think that has changed in this environment."

New orders for long-lasting U.S.-made manufactured goods surged a much bigger-than-expected 5.9 percent in July, the biggest gain since September, and a business investment gauge posted the first gain in three months, a Commerce Department report showed on Friday. [...]

U.S. stock index futures and the dollar rose on the strong economic news, while government debt prices pared gains.

Sales of new homes perked up, while factories orders took off in July, raising hopes that the economy can safely make its way through financial turmoil that has shaken Wall Street.

The Commerce Department reported Friday that new-home sales rose 2.8 percent in July, after falling 4 percent in June. The increase in July lifted sales to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 870,000 units. A second report showed that orders to factories for big-ticket goods jumped 5.9 percent in July, the most in 10 months.

Both reports were better than analysts expected. They were forecasting home sales to fall and were calling for a much smaller, 1 percent gain in factory orders.

OF COURSE, THE REALISTS ONLY CONSIDER THE NORTH ATLANTIC IMPORTANT:

'Confluence of the two seas' (Purnendra Jain, 8/24/07, Asia Times)

Once characterized by a low-key bilateral relationship with India, Japan today shows an extraordinary interest in the South Asian country, and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's three-day visit to New Delhi this week signifies this most strongly. [...]

In Indonesia, he signed a bilateral free-trade agreement, making it the sixth Southeast Asian country after Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand and Brunei to have an FTA with Japan. Indonesia is the largest supplier of liquefied natural gas to Japan, and in an environment where there is a strategic race for energy security, Japan has secured supplies through this agreement. In return, Japan will provide liberal access to a range of Indonesian products, including farm produce - rice exempted - into its market. After India, Abe was scheduled to visit Malaysia, where he is to meet with his Malaysian counterpart and is expected to sign a joint statement promoting bilateral cooperation in areas ranging from security to environmental issues.

The most important visit on his Asian tour was that to India, a country that for long remained on the periphery of Japan's Asia vision. But the old vision has changed significantly and swiftly, and further change is on its way as Tokyo is keen to engage India in a comprehensive way. Calling it a "paradigm shift", Japanese Ambassador to India Yasukuni Enoki stated that within the framework of Japan's Asian diplomacy, now "the Japan-India partnership is the most important".

WEST TO EAST:

Two Horns Against the World (WILL FRIEDWALD, August 24, 2007, NY Sun)

The legendary Gerry Mulligan-Chet Baker Quartet of the early 1950s wasn't just a great band; it was a great idea for a band. The idea of allowing trumpet and saxophone to improvise freely and interact without the harmonic constraints of a piano gave the foursome both a playful quality and a seriousness not found in other modern jazz combos. The absence of a dominant chordal instrument motivated the four players to work harder, to avoid the clichés and familiar patterns that were already settling into bebop. Everything that the quartet did sounded fresh and original, and it still does more than 50 years later.

Since Mulligan and Baker played together for only two years, they hardly had the chance to grow stale. Both men tried to keep the idea going with different partners and slightly different instruments — Mulligan with Bob Brookmeyer and Baker with Stan Getz — but it wasn't the same. Remarkably, no other regularly working ensemble picked up the slack, and the two-horn, two-rhythm concept had to wait until Ornette Coleman (a mere six years later) to give it new life.

For the last few years, the Brooklyn-based trumpeter John McNeil has been exploring the possibilities of Mulligan's original concept: trumpet and sax with bass and drums and no piano or guitar, playing essentially a bop-based music based on traditional chord sequences. On his most recent album, last year's "East Coast Cool" (the title of which refers to how the West Coast Cool School sound of the '50s was largely invented by New Yorkers like Mulligan and Miles Davis), Mr. McNeil worked with the baritone saxophonist Allan Chase. This week, between Tuesday and Sunday, at the Village Vanguard, the other half of the frontline is the tenor saxophonist Bill McHenry.

MORE:
No Coasting—an Iron-Lipped Trumpeter Bridges East and West: John McNeil's East Coast Cool (Francis Davis, March 3rd, 2006, Village Voice)
-BIT TORRENT: Gerry Mulligan Quartet - The Best Of The Gerry Mulligan Quartet With Chet Baker (Mininova)

HIGH TECH, BUT WHAT ABOUT HIGH TOUCH?:

Making Digital Books Into Page Turners: Despite tepid response to its Reader, Sony sees potential in the market--and Amazon may agree (Business Week, 9/03/07)

Nearly 10 Months After its debut, the Sony Reader is hardly a game changer. Reviews of the tiny handheld book-reading device have been tepid at best, and Sony Corp. (SNE ) has consistently declined to release sales figures, which just might tell you something. But Sony isn't backing away. In fact, as speculation continues in publishing circles that book e-tailing giant Amazon.com (AMZN ) is planning to come out with its own portable reader, Sony is launching a number of initiatives to give its Reader more sizzle.

The market for digital books is nascent, and Sony, despite the Reader's less-than-splashy debut, still sees its potential, believing people will eventually warm to reading on a flat screen everything from books to the magazine you're holding now. The half-inch-thick Sony Reader, which can store about 80 electronic books, allows readers to flip pages and adjust the type size. It sells for about $300, and digital book downloads range from $2 to $20 apiece.

The Reader, however, has not drawn the wows that, say, a new version of the iPod (AAPL ) can still elicit. Many users say they are unhappy with the interface (too many buttons and not intuitive) and complain that books for the Reader can only be purchased at Sony's online service, Connect. Less than a tenth of the titles on the shelves of your average Barnes & Noble (BKS ) or Borders (BGP ) are available at Connect. Lisa Phillips, a vice-president at Random House Direct who received her Sony Reader as a gift last December, is turned off by Sony's closed system. "An open format where you could go to different places and not just use their system would be helpful," she says.

WE ARE ALL TRILATERALISTS NOW:

Japan, US, Australia consider first summit (Aug 24, 2007)

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, his Australian counterpart John Howard and US President George W. Bush will discuss North Korea's nuclear disarmament and China's military build-up, it said, citing unnamed government sources.

Japan will propose holding the trilateral summit talks regularly, the Yomiuri said.

In March, Abe signed a security accord with Australia, Japan's first such agreement with any country besides the United States, its main ally.

Japan and Australia are both close US allies and supported the invasion of Iraq in 2003.

FIRST YOU BREAK THE UNIONS, THEN YOU BUILD A PLANE THAT DEMOCRACIES WILL ALLOW TO LAND:

The ultimate global battle: a review of Boeing Versus Airbus by John Newhouse (Benjamin A Shobert, 8/24/07, Asia Times)

[B]y outsourcing large portions of the 787, Boeing sent a strong message to its workforce about what the company was prepared to do in case it had labor problems on its hands again.

Newhouse expands on this second point when he writes, "There is no evidence, however, that Boeing is saving much money by outsourcing the 787's wing or sections of the fuselage. Japan is not a cheap labor market. To the contrary. Neither is Italy. But the outsourcing does send a message to the unions that Boeing deals with. It says: 'If you mess too hard with us, we can always outsource your job to another place'" (p 169).

Third, the 787's systems-integrator model is an attempt by Boeing to break internal paradigms, the incestuous influence of years of success that set too many people's feet in concrete and made them resistant to change, even as Airbus became increasingly successful. Says Newhouse, "Boeing's engineers are in the main hostile to 'farming out tribal knowledge', as some of them put it" (p 28).

It would be hard to imagine how Airbus's now much-publicized and seemingly plagued A380 super-jumbo could be more different from the 787. Unlike Boeing's reduced-hub model, Airbus believes that the largest unserved market potential lies within Asia, and that the demand here is going to be for aircraft with capacities beyond those of the current generation of 747s. As Airbus officials shared with Newhouse, one out of every 10 flights into London's Heathrow is a 747 jumbo; using the A380, many more passengers could go through the airport with no increase in flights.

It remains a very subjective question, and one Newhouse leaves largely unexplored, how such a change would impact already congested destinations like Heathrow. We are left to wonder, at this early stage of the plane's introduction, how much of a joy it will bring the average traveler. Thoughts of these planes disgorging additional hundreds of people into already strained secondary security checkpoints, customs lanes and baggage claims leaves one less than enthused.

Similarly, the A380 does nothing to rekindle the glamour airplanes once had. Newhouse quotes Adam Brown, former vice president for consumer affairs at Airbus: "The A380 is ugly. [It has a bloated, snub-nosed look.] I concede that," he said. "It has to be, though. To be compatible with the parameters of airports, it is required to sit in an 80-meter-square box. "

THE UNHAPPY 14%:

AP Poll: God vital to young Amercians: Among America's young people, godliness contributes to happiness. (ERIC GORSKI and TREVOR TOMPSON, 8/24/07, Miami Herald)

An extensive survey by The Associated Press and MTV found that people aged 13 to 24 who describe themselves as very spiritual or religious tend to be happier than those who don't. [...]

Forty-four percent say religion and spirituality is at least very important to them, 21 percent responded it is somewhat important, 20 percent say it plays a small part in their lives and 14 percent say it doesn't play any role.

Among races, African-Americans are most likely to describe religion as being the single most important thing in their lives. Females are slightly more religious than males, and the South is the most religious region, the survey said.

KNOW NOTHINGS CAN LEARN NOTHING:

The Political Perils of Targeting Immigrants (Kimberley Strassel, 8/24/07, Real Clear Politics)

History students call it a teaching moment: A week before the general election in 1884, fiery Protestant minister Samuel D. Burchard warned about the perils of allowing his party to identify with "Romanism." Standing by his side in New York was Republican presidential candidate James G. Blaine. Catholic voters were furious.

Mr. Blaine lost the state by 1,149 votes, and the election to Grover Cleveland. It then took Catholics 100 years to get over it, when Ronald Reagan finally convinced them to trust his party again.

Today's question is whether Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani are providing future scholars with their own teaching moment. Their spitting row over illegal immigration continues to lead the news, given how little else there has been to fill the newspapers in these dreary August days. At its current momentum, it also threatens to become a case study in how nativism can drive a political party off a cliff.

MAKING THE QUESTION...:

CBO Projects Lower Fiscal 2007 Deficit (Richard Rubin, 8/23/07, CQ)

Surging individual income tax revenue is helping narrow the federal budget deficit this year, as lawmakers and the White House continue the long-running debate over the country’s fiscal future.

The budget deficit for fiscal year 2007 is expected to be $158 billion, the Congressional Budget Office announced Thursday. That’s $19 billion less than what the CBO projected in March, $47 billion less than the administration’s estimate and $90 billion less than the fiscal 2006 deficit. [...]

By 2012, CBO projects, the government will be running a $62 billion surplus, growing to $109 billion by 2017.

THERE IS NO RUSSIA:

Clashes Break Out in the Caucasus (C. J. CHIVERS, 8/24/07, NY Times)

The shootout followed an outbreak of violence on Thursday in the mountains of Dagestan. Two officers were killed in an ambush, and two other attacks in Ingushetia left a Russian soldier dead. A total of at least 16 police officers and soldiers were wounded, the authorities said.

The attacks in Dagestan were the latest in a series this summer in the republics, which are adjacent to Chechnya. They underscored the degree to which the insurgency, weakened since 2004, has managed to survive and conduct operations against Russia’s numerically superior police and military forces.

They also raise questions about Russia’s official assertions that Chechnya and its neighboring republics, a few hundred miles east of Sochi, where Russia is to stage the Winter Olympics in 2014, are secure and under control.

WORKING WITHOUT A NET:

Niekro to keep testing his knuckleball in Fresno (Andrew Baggarly, 8/24/07, Contra Costa Times)

For years, the Giants wouldn't let first baseman Lance Niekro throw his knuckleball, which was like telling one of the Wallendas that he couldn't touch a trapeze.

Now Niekro's family parlor trick might be the one thing that keeps him in the organization. His experimentation with the knuckler will continue at Triple-A Fresno, and if it's successful, the Giants could have a potent two-way player at the end of their bench next season.

"We know he's got a good one," Giants general manager Brian Sabean said. "It's just a matter of throwing it to hitters. It's a big bridge to cross. It's a lot different from playing catch with it. You've got to be competitive, throw it in the strike zone."

Niekro's late father, Joe, was an accomplished knuckleball pitcher for more than two decades; his uncle, Phil, rode his knuckler to the Hall of Fame.

IF KISSINGER, ARAFAT AND GORBACHEV DESERVED ONE...:

NPD Leader Charged with Inciting Race Hate: The leader of Germany's far-right NPD party has been charged with inciting race hate after proposing Hitler's deputy Rudolf Hess for a Nobel Peace Prize. If convicted, he could face three years in jail. (Der Spiegel, 8/24/07)

NPD leader Udo Voigt could face three years in jail after being charged with inciting race hate.
For an award with such laudable intentions, the Nobel Peace Prize has certainly had its fair share of controversy over the last century. As well as no-brainer winners such as Martin Luther King, Mother Teresa and the Dalai Lama, there have been more contentious laureates such as Palestine Liberation Organization leader Yasser Arafat, former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger.

But Adolf Hitler's secretary and deputy Rudolf Hess? The fact that the head of the far-right National Democratic Party of Germany (NPD), Udo Voigt, proposed Hess for the peace prize during a speech last Saturday to coincide with the 20th anniversary of Hess's death only confirms how twisted the worldview of right-wing extremists is. Apart from the fact that a leading Nazi was never a likely contender for a peace prize, nominations to the Nobel Peace Prize are by invitation only and nominees must be alive.

YOU CAN ALMOST HEAR ENCYCLOPEDIA BROWN'S SIGH OF RELIEF:

Rankin sorry JK joke 'got out of hand' (The Scotsman, 8/24/07)

CRIME writer Ian Rankin was joking when he said his wife had seen fellow city author JK Rowling sitting in a cafe writing a new book. [...]

"This was a joke that got out of hand," he said. "I made the comments at the Book Festival purely as a joke. There were 600 people in the audience and only one person didn't laugh."

SOMETIMES YOU CAN'T AVERT YOUR EARS:

The Mendoza Line's 30 Year Low: Torn-apart lovers shoot out the lights, each other (Jason Gross, August 21st, 2007, Village Voice)

Artists usually dis fans who pick apart their "break-up albums," but denial's pointless with this Brooklyn band's powerful ninth (and final) record: It's the gruesome aftermath of a contact-sport affair. If singers and ex-partners Tim Bracy and Shannon McArdle matched their music to their emotions, they'd be grinding out ear-pounding death metal instead of 30 Year Low's country rock to match the cruelty they unleash.

THE "ERID" SEEMS SUPERFLUOUS, NO?:

Gaping hole found in universe (Reuters, 8/23/07)

A giant hole in the Universe is devoid of galaxies, stars and even lacks dark matter, astronomers said on Thursday.

The team at the University of Minnesota said the void is nearly a billion light-years across and they have no idea why it is there. [...]

The void is in a region of sky in the constellation Eridanus, southwest of Orion.

WHICH BEGS THE QUESTION:

Turkey and Europe: A muddle with global ramifications (Kirsty Hughes, August 23, 2007, International Herald Tribune)

In July, the country's political parties took part in a robust democratic electoral campaign. Turnout was high. And Turkish voters showed what they thought of the military's clumsy intervention in politics by returning Erdogan's Justice and Development Party with an increased majority with 46 percent of the vote.

Even before putting his cabinet in place, Erdogan announced that his advisers are working on a new civilian constitution to replace the military-inspired one of 1981. This bold move suggests that a confident, strong new government will now move fast on political reforms. A replacement for Article 301 can be anticipated. So can a less-hawkish stance on the south-east and any incursion into northern Iraq, supposedly much favored by Turkey's generals. Meanwhile, the economy is booming.

Where then is the European Union? Unfortunately, there is little sign of it gearing up its foreign policy to support democratic modernization of this key geostrategic neighbor and NATO ally. The new president on the block, Nicolas Sarkozy, made clear before and after his election his visceral opposition to allowing Turkey into Europe. And at the end of June, France blocked the opening of membership talks with Turkey on the euro - notionally on "technical" grounds but essentially because Sarkozy wants Turkey to have nothing more than a "privileged partnership" with Europe, never to be a full member of the club. Other member states shuffled their feet and talked nervously in response, but did nothing.

This autumn, the European Commission is expected to issue a fairly critical annual progress report on Turkey, given Turkey's reform standstill in the last year. But it is for Europe's leaders, not its bureaucrats to rise to the moment, and respond to the new positive political situation in Turkey. Europe's position should be clear: If Islam and democracy can go hand in hand, then so can Islam and Europe through Turkey's bid to join the club.

But the EU is in a mess - there is no chance of it making a robust restatement of Europe's commitment to Turkey's membership.

ONLY THE FED HAS EVEN BEEN ABLE TO SLOW THE GROWTH:

Does America need a recession? (The Economist, 8/23/07)

Most people think the question smacks of madness. According to received wisdom, the Fed should not cut interest rates to bail out lenders and investors, because this creates moral hazard and encourages greater risk-taking; but if financial troubles harm spending and jobs the Fed should immediately ease policy so long as inflation remains modest. Central bankers should be guided by the “Taylor rule”—and set interest rates in response to deviations in both output and inflation from desired levels.

But should a central bank always try to avoid recessions? Some economists argue that this could create a much wider form of moral hazard. If long periods of uninterrupted expansions lead people to believe that the Fed can prevent any future recession, consumers, firms, investors and borrowers will be encouraged to take bigger risks, borrowing more and saving less. During the past quarter century the American economy has been in recession for only 5% of the time, compared with 22% of the previous 25 years. Partly this is due to welcome structural changes that have made the economy more stable. But what if it is due to repeated injections of adrenaline every time the economy slows?

Many of America's current financial troubles can be blamed on the mildness of the 2001 recession after the dotcom bubble burst. After its longest unbroken expansion in history, GDP did not even fall for two consecutive quarters, the traditional definition of a recession.

WHERE'S JIMMY CARTER WHEN WE NEED HIM?:

In Beijing, Orwell Goes to the Olympics (ROSS TERRILL, 8/23/07, NY Times)

The penalty for “Chinglish” is usually humiliation, not incarceration. Still, citizens are asked to snitch, Mao-era style, on people who shame China with their shaky English. An outfit called the Beijing Speaks Foreign Languages Program issues prefabricated foreign phrases to workers who cannot converse in any foreign tongue. The Olympics have become one more tool in the authoritarian state’s box of tricks.

Yes, curbing Chinglish — along with current efforts to eliminate spitting, littering and pushing to enter a bus or train — shows the better side of authoritarianism. Clean streets are agreeable, and Beijing’s may now be better than New York’s. The city’s Spiritual Civilization Office has begun a monthly “Learn to Queue Day,” surely welcome to all who have been victims of the scramble to board a Chinese bus. It reminds one that China could have a government far worse than it has now.

Yet behind the attack on Chinglish lies an Orwellian impulse to remake the truth. Banished from Beijing for the Olympics will be not only fractured English, but disabled people, Falun Gong practitioners, dark-skinned villagers newly arrived in the city, AIDS activists and other “troublemakers” who smudge the canvas of socialist harmony.

This summer, around the time of the 18th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square protests, the government honed house arrest as a device to smoothly eliminate dissidents. Hu Jia and Zeng Jinyan, a young couple who often speak up for rights granted in China’s Constitution, and who were already veterans of hundreds of days of house arrest, were again locked up just minutes before they were to fly to Europe to show their documentary film “Prisoner of Freedom City,” which depicts the gap between fact and fiction in the political life of Beijing.

Fictions will abound for the month of August 2008. On all fronts the party-state will pull the rabbit of harmony from the hat of cacophony — “What do you mean by dissidents?” Scientists have been told to produce a quota of “blue days” with a clear sky, perpetuating a Chinese Communist tradition of defying natural as well as human barriers to its self-appointed destiny. Mao vowed to plant rice in the dry north of China as well as the lush south, to prove the power of socialism. “We shall make the sun and moon change places,” he cried. None of this occurred.

IMPORTING THE SUPERIOR CULTURE:

Hispanic Churches Add English Services (ERIC GORSKI, 8/23/07, AP)

While churches from every imaginable tradition have been adding Spanish services to meet the needs of new immigrants, an increasing number of Hispanic ethnic congregations are going the other way—starting English services.

It's an effort to meet the demands of second- and third-generation Hispanics, keep families together and reach non-Latinos.

PANIC MODE:

Islamic Republic of Fear (The Economist, 8/23/07)

As much as the scale of the crackdown, its severity is raising eyebrows. Much of the police action has been accompanied by complaints of brutality, and in many cases by documentary evidence such as graphic footage of beatings, posted on dissident websites. Despite prison crowding, punitive use of solitary confinement appears to have grown more common. The number of executions nearly doubled last year, to 177, bringing Iran the unsavoury distinction of being the world's heaviest user of capital punishment per head of population. This year has seen not only a further jump in the number of judicial killings but a return of mass public hangings, which are sometimes broadcast on state television.

Such harsher treatment, say rights activists, is partly a product of the paranoid atmosphere generated by a government that has deliberately associated any form of civil disobedience with alleged foreign plots. Recent remarks by the country's chief of police made this link explicit. Once they had dealt with “propagators of moral decay”, he said, his forces would turn their attention to those who “theorise on corruption”, such as critics whom he tied to foreign conspiracies aimed at a “soft overthrow” of the Islamic Republic.

But foreign spies and decadent liberals are not the regime's only critics. Mr Shahrudi, the chief judge, has himself voiced dismay over the government's policies. In July he condemned the stoning to death of a man accused of adultery, and sponsored this month's mass amnesty in what was seen as a sign of discomfort with police excess. He has also joined a broad range of former officials, economists, oil executives and businessmen in attacking Mr Ahmadinejad's erratically autocratic economic policies, which have included forcing banks to slash interest rates, splurging on costly infrastructure projects and replacing respected technocrats with cronies.

ALREADY ENGAGED, NOW TO MAKE THE UNION LEGAL:

A Bump in India-U.S. Rapport: Defining ‘Ally’ (SOMINI SENGUPTA, August 23, 2007, NY Times)

The hullabaloo here contrasts sharply with the criticism that President Bush has faced at home from members of Congress, who accuse him of yielding too much to Indian demands, particularly on its right to test atomic weapons. Such a broad exception, critics say, stands to weaken international nonproliferation norms.

The Indian government, and supporters of the deal more broadly, contend that Indians ought not to fret about American domination. “The engagement with America is already complete,” said Sunil Bharti Mittal, whose company, Bharti Enterprises, has entered into a partnership that allows Wal-Mart into the Indian market. “Wal-Mart is here. Indian companies are making acquisitions there.”

Mr. Mittal, who is also president of the Confederation of Indian Industry, said the nuclear accord would be a touchstone of far broader cooperation between the countries in everything from pharmaceuticals to agriculture. “If America and India are really seen as allies, as great partners in progress, you will see trade multiply,” he said.

Beyond the talk of shared values, good will for Americans, their culture, even their government prevails among many Indians. Indians make up the largest number of foreign students in the United States, and they get the largest number of work visas to the United States, according to the American Embassy here. Last year, the Pew Global Attitudes Project found that 56 percent of Indians surveyed had a favorable view of the United States, second only to Japanese’s view.

Prem Shankar Jha, a magazine columnist who has written in favor of the nuclear deal, said part of the good will came because, “by the grace of God, we never became your allies in past, we never got a chance to be let down.”

THE DISCIPLINE OF DEMOCRACY:

Ahmedinejad held to election promises (Kimia Sanati, 8/24/07, Asia Times)

A poll run by the Tehran-based news website Baztab on the second anniversary of the elections that brought Ahmadinejad to power found his popularity plummeting. The poll of 20,000 people showed that 62.5% of respondents who voted for Ahmadinejad in 2005 would not elect him president again. And only 3.5% of those who did not vote for him said they would now vote for him for the presidency.

"The advocates of the [hardline] Ahmadinejad administration claim the Baztab poll was biased, but even a poll run by Fars news agency, which is known to be very pro-government, revealed that 44.6% of the respondents to the poll believed his economic policies had not had any positive effects on the economy, compared [with] 30.3% who believed he had made things better," a reformist activist in Tehran said on the condition of anonymity. Another 25.1% said things are worse economically than they were before Ahmadinejad came to power, said the activist.

"His campaign was mainly focused on promises of fighting corruption and improving people's lives economically," the activist said. "He claimed the oil money was being misappropriated and wasted. These were on the top of the list of the millions of ordinary people outside the minority hardline religious establishment, whose main concerns were issues of religious morality and religious values. The president's failure to deliver his economic promises has naturally disillusioned this large group of voters, who find themselves under even greater pressure than before.

"Voters clearly stated their disappointment with the government last December when they refused to vote for the electoral lists that the president's allies had put out for city councils and the Assembly of Experts. Things are worse now. Gasoline rationing and the problems it has caused in transportation, tourism, agriculture and many other areas are greatly contributing to people's disillusionment with the government," he said.

AVOIDING THE CONTINENT'S FATE:

Tolerance and tradition in Turkey (Husain Haqqani, August 23, 2007, International Herald Tribune)

Turkey, the first secular republic with a majority Muslim population, is expected to soon have a president who prays in public and whose wife wears a headscarf as a manifestation of her religious convictions. Anti-religious secularists in the Muslim world see this development as a threat to Turkey's laicism. But it could also be an opportunity to define secularism in the Muslim world as a political system ensuring separation of theology and state rather than as an anti-religious ideology.

For almost a century, secular elites in Muslim countries have equated secularization with renunciation of Islamic symbols and practices.

NO ONE WINS WHEN YOU FIGHT YOUR OWN ALLIES:

Sadr's army proves hard to beat: U.S. soldiers battling Al Mahdi fighters say that in the eyes of Baghdad residents, the militia offers more than they can. (Julian E. Barnes, 8/23/07, Los Angeles Times)

In the east Baghdad strongholds of the Al Mahdi militia, U.S. efforts to weaken ties between the militant Shiite Muslim group and the Shiite population are falling short, say American soldiers assigned to carry out the plan. [...]

"They want to have the militia here," said one experienced noncommissioned officer who has served multiple tours in Iraq. "So, why are we here?"

The Americans see the militia as a criminal organization engaged in racketeering and execution-style slayings of Sunni Muslims, but many Iraqis believe the militants offer the only protection against attacks by Sunni insurgents and are a reliable source for scarce fuel supplies. So many residents reject the American message of peace between Shiites and Sunnis and continue to support the militia.

"These people are not going to change," said the noncommissioned officer in east Baghdad, who, like other troops, spoke on condition of anonymity because his views differed from those of his commander. "They should stand up to the militia, but they want to have Shiite and Sunni separated."

The flaws underscore the difficulty of crafting a strategy that can work in an environment in which few trust the ability of U.S. forces or the central government to improve their neighborhoods.

Many soldiers also say practices that worked against insurgencies in other wars or in other parts of Iraq may not apply to Baghdad's Shiite neighborhoods.

The Al Mahdi militia is not a textbook insurgent group. To Iraqi Shiites, the militia offers a source for basic services and support for the political and religious work of popular anti-U.S. cleric Muqtada Sadr.

"The Mahdi militia provides services and protects the region," said a 25-year-old clothing salesman in the Shiite neighborhood of New Baghdad who gave his nickname as Abu Atwar. "Militiamen do some killings from time to time, but we do not care about the crimes they commit. Only God can make them pay for that because, as you know, no law is working in Iraq now."

THE IMPORTANT THING IS ADMITTING THEY'RE MENTALLY ILL:

U.S., France savor taste of warmer ties: Sarkozy's enthusiasm for things American has begun to rub off on his people. A film on a Parisian rodent has added some spice. (Devorah Lauter, August 23, 2007, Los Angeles Times)

The leader of the most powerful nation in the world can't wait to have a cookout in Maine, complete with hot dogs and blueberry pie, for the new president of France. "Freedom fries" have regained their rightful name. And American children have become familiar with the word "ratatouille" thanks to a film about a lovable French rat who can cook better than most humans.

Either food is the key factor in geopolitical relations, or Americans have changed their minds about France. Or both.

"After hatred, it's head-over-heels love -- especially for Sarko l'Americain," proclaimed Le Monde newspaper, using a frequent nickname for pro-American President Nicolas Sarkozy.

Although pro-American sentiment appears to be slowly surfacing on this side of the Atlantic as well, there is still ambivalence about getting too close to the United States. It's partly because of disagreements over the war in Iraq, but also because of fundamental questions the French are asking about their own future. The French are eager for change, but they also fear U.S.-style capitalism.

One expert calls the condition "French schizophrenia."

THE REVOLUTION ROLLS ON:

Health plans offer investment (Gregory Lopes, August 20, 2007, Washington Times)

Enrollment in health insurance plans with savings accounts has increased steadily since they became available in 2004, but 2008 could be their breakout year, according to some health care consultants.

August is the month when employers buy health insurance for their employees or switch plans. Health care consultants from Towers Perrin, Mercer and BearingPoint, three of the biggest health care benefits consulting firms in the country, said the current enrollment season indicates that in 2008, health savings accounts will increase dramatically.

INSTINCTIVELY ANTI-HUMAN:

New York Activists Say Giuliani Has Retreated on Gay Issues (Jose Antonio Vargas, 8/19/07, Washington Post)

Frustrated by what he regards as the shifting stance of Republican presidential candidate Rudolph W. Giuliani on gay rights, Ryan Davis logged on to MySpace, gathered a few of his friends and grabbed a video camera. Together, they created a minute-long YouTube video aimed at hurting the former New York mayor with social conservatives in early primary states.

"Gays for Giuliani," it's called.

"I couldn't think of a more ironic title," said Davis, a 25-year-old gay writer and director, sitting in his cramped Hell's Kitchen apartment, showing off what he calls his masterpiece. With the theme music of "The West Wing" in the background, the video shows gay New Yorkers saying things such as: "I would be hard-pressed to think of any conservative politician who embraces the gay community like Giuliani does."

Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney said this week that as president he would allow individual states to keep abortion legal, two weeks after telling a national television audience that he supports a constitutional amendment to ban the procedure nationwide.