G!d: So, just how great is Hitchens?

God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything
From The New York Times Book Review:
By MICHAEL KINSLEY

Observers of the Christopher Hitchens phenomenon have been expecting a book about religion from him around now. But this impressive and enjoyable attack on everything so many people hold dear is not the book we were expecting....

Well, ladies and gentlemen, Hitchens is either playing the contrarian at a very high level or possibly he is even sincere. But just as he had us expecting minus X, he confounds us by reverting to X. He has written, with tremendous brio and great wit, but also with an underlying genuine anger, an all-out attack on all aspects of religion. Sometimes, instead of the word “religion,” he refers to it as “god-worship,” which, although virtually a tautology (isn’t “object of worship” almost a definition of a god?), makes the practice sound sinister and strange.

Hitchens is an old-fashioned village atheist, standing in the square trying to pick arguments with the good citizens on their way to church. The book is full of logical flourishes and conundrums, many of them entertaining to the nonbeliever....

Although Hitchens’s title refers to God, his real energy is in the subtitle: “religion poisons everything.” Disproving the existence of God (at least to his own satisfaction and, frankly, to mine) is just the beginning for Hitchens. In fact, it sometimes seems as if existence is just one of the bones Hitchens wants to pick with God — and not even the most important. If God would just leave the world alone, Hitchens would be glad to let him exist, quietly, in retirement somewhere. Possibly the Hoover Institution....

But speaking of foxes, Hitchens has outfoxed the Hitchens watchers by writing a serious and deeply felt book, totally consistent with his beliefs of a lifetime. And God should be flattered: unlike most of those clamoring for his attention, Hitchens treats him like an adult.

From a very entertaining review of both book and Hitchensiana by Michael Kinsley. Note that Jack Miles, in a work of a different sort some years back, posited that G!d had gone into retirement (one might say, absentee landlordship) quite some time ago. The Hoover Institution adds a nice touch.

[I'm trying out the "G!d" formation for the first time here--borrowed from some recent uses in Jewish renewal contexts. I kind of like it. Thoughts and reactions?]

A handy reference guide to GOP scandals

By Holly Allen, Christopher Beam, and Torie Bosch - From Slate Magazine:
Bushies Behaving Badly: A guide to GOP scandals.

Study of Human Papillomavirus and Oropharyngeal Cancer

From The NEJM :

The public health implications of our findings are underscored by the annual increases in the incidence of tonsillar and base-of-tongue cancers in the United States since 1973.36,37 The widespread oral sexual practices among adolescents may be a contributing factor in this increase.38 Our results and those of other studies provide a rationale for HPV vaccination in both boys and girls — since oropharyngeal cancers occur in men and women. If vaccination is as effective in preventing oral HPV-16 infection as it is in preventing cervical infection,39 a substantial reduction in the incidence of oropharyngeal cancer in vaccinated populations would provide the ultimate evidence of causality.

Judith Miller's review of Tenet's book

From The New York Sun:

The real subject of this book is Mr. Tenet's wounded pride. 'At the Center of the Storm,' like its author, is blunt and occasionally profane, witty, deeply combative, emotional, defensive, and scornful of its critics, several of whose attacks on the 506-page book appeared within 48 hours of its publication.

Instantly and universally attacked by both the left and the right, and even by some of his own CIA colleagues, Mr. Tenet rails against the concoction of a mythical history by administration critics that the road to war was paved with lies rather than by incompetence, myths which have become gospel mainly though their endless repetition in the mainstream press and the blogosphere. As a result, he laments, often justifiably, that both he and the agency he led have been smeared.

But Mr. Tenet's book is ultimately unsatisfying, and not, as some critics say, because he and his co-author and a former CIA colleague, Bill Harlow, cashed in on an estimated $4 million book advance and told secrets — since precious few have been divulged here. Rather, the book disappoints mainly because it fails to explore the systematic intelligence crisis that puts us all at risk....

This is an angry book, written after the White House blamed him for the mess it created. Mr. Tenet portrays himself as the latest in a series of "fall guys." But where was he when those policies were being adopted and implemented? Why did he do and say so little at the time? And why, if he could not bring himself to criticize the president he served, did he not quietly resign? He contemplated resigning earlier, he now says, but the president asked him to stay. Only those who remain silently loyal, or at least avoid a ruckus when they go, receive Medals of Freedom.

Ms. Miller, a former New York Times reporter, writes on national security issues.

Talking Turkey (sorry)

TomDispatch : By Dilip Hiro, Head-Scarf Politics in Turkey:

For Americans, whose view of Islam and Islamic politics is, to put the matter politely, less than complex, it's worth being reminded of just how complex, how unexpected, politics (religious or otherwise) can turn out to be anywhere on this planet. With that in mind, Dilip Hiro, Tomdispatch regular and author most recently of Blood of the Earth: The Battle for the World's Vanishing Oil Resources, turns to a country that Tomdispatch has (to my regret) seldom focused on -- Turkey -- and a situation, balanced between democracy and autocracy, in which secularists and Islamists don't come down in the obvious, comfortable places....

The present confrontation between the AKP and the secularist establishment, with the military at its core (originating with the founding of the Republic in 1923), is rooted as much in political power and class differences as it is in Islam.

On one side is an affluent, university-educated, westernized elite, popularly known as "the White Turks," which dominates the military, the bureaucracy, the judiciary, and the Education Ministry; on the other, a coalition of the urban underclass and a rising group of prospering entrepreneurs from (Asian) Anatolia, which covers 97% of Turkey. Both groups are devoutly Muslim and socially conservative. Both have come to value democratic rights and governance.

For old times' sake: Alberto Gonzales, Zen master

By Dahlia Lithwick, Slate Magazine:

Alberto Gonzales is in his happy place. He enters the hearing room in the Rayburn Building for his testimony before the House judiciary committee smiling the smile of a man who sleeps well each night, in the warm glow of the president's love. Gone is the testy, defensive Gonzales who testified last month before the Senate. Today's attorney general breezes into the chamber with the certain knowledge that having bottomed out in April, he has nothing left to prove. His only role in this scandal is as decoy: He's the guy who runs out in front of the hunters and draws their fire so nobody pays any attention to what's happening at the White House.

Gonzales seems to have made his peace with this. No more angry outbursts, no bitter attempts at self-justification. Instead, the AG answers some questions with a giggle and most others with the same old catchphrases we've heard so often. ...

Robert Wexler, D-Fla., finally loses his temper and starts hollering: 'You did not select Iglesias for the list.' (No). 'Did Sampson select him?' (No). 'Did Comey?' (No.) 'Did McNulty?' (No.) Did the president? (No.) 'Did the vice president? (No).' Then Steve Cohen, D-Tenn., follows up with one of the best queries of the day: 'If you don't know who put Iglesias on the list, how do you know the president or the vice president didn't?'

Long silence. Pause. 'They wouldn't do that,' hems Gonzales. 'The White House has said publicly that it was not involved in adding or deleting people from the list.' Someone needs to tell that to Kyle Sampson. And as for Gonzales, he has made himself immortal by merely willing himself to be so. That must be what accounts for his Zenlike state today. It's an ingenious strategy. Instead of letting the president throw him under the bus to protect Karl Rove, Gonzales just lies down in the road, then giggles as the bus runs over his head.

Can you process this?

U.S. official: Peace effort aimed at lessening Arab, EU pressure - From Haaretz :

U.S. Deputy National Security Advisor Elliott Abrams on Thursday told a group of Jewish Republicans that the efforts the United States is now investing in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is aimed at lessening the pressure from Arabs and the Europeans, who weren't happy with the United States in its past approach.

Abrams was quoted by sources present at the meeting as saying Arab and European states want to see that there's at least an attempt or energy being exerted by the U.S. to move the peace process forward.

Abrams explained that the talks are sometimes not more than 'process for the sake of process.'

That's the same Elliott Abrams of Iran-Contra fame. What does it take to put a stake through his heart?

Compared to What? Until they accept responsibility

From Haaretz :

...With all due understanding and empathy to the Palestinians' suffering, the way the Nakba, the 'catastrophe,' is presented in the Palestinian and pan-Arab narrative raises several questions. It is portrayed as something terrible and evil that happened to the Palestinians. There is not even an iota of introspection, self-criticism and readiness to deal with the Palestinians' own contribution to their catastrophe.

We can understand - without justifying it - the Palestinians' rejection of the partition plan, just as we can understand - without justifying it - the Revisionist Zionist position negating the partition. But most of the Jewish community accepted the idea. And if most of the Palestinians had accepted it, then an independent Palestinian state would have risen on part of Mandatory Palestine in 1948, without war and without refugees.

The Palestinians are not prepared to deal with this complex reality. After 1948 quite a few books were written in Arabic about the Arabs' defeat in their war against Israel. To this day no book has raised the question of whether, perhaps, the Arabs erred in rejecting the compromise - painful as it may be - of the partition? Perhaps they would have done better if, like the Zionists, they had gritted their teeth and accepted the half-full glass?...

Shlomo Avineri is a professor of political science at Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Avineri is, in my view, one of the most acute and seasoned realist Israeli thinkers on "ha-Metsav"--the situation. With all the Israeli reflection and self-criticism (the best of which I try to reference here)--it would be nice to see some self-criticism emanating from "the other side." Today's NYT op-ed by Lebanon's prime minister does not make much of a contribution in that direction.

Impeachment Watch: forms of accountability

Powell's Chief of Staff Proposes Impeachment |From AfterDowningStreet.org:

On Thursday, May 10, 2007, Lawrence Wilkerson, speaking on National Public Radio, proposed impeaching President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney.[Wilkerson is a Retired Army Colonel, the former Chief of Staff at the State Department from 2002 to 2005 under then Secretary of State Colin Powell.]...

Wilkerson said in early comments on the show: 'This administration doesn't know how to effect accountability in my opinion.' But he did not raise the possibility of impeachment until after a member of the audience had phoned in.

The first caller who was put on the air demanded an investigation of the lies that launched the war, and asked for accountability 'all the way up.' In response to [neocon Ken] Adelman's claims that history would hold people accountable, the caller said 'I would love to have a job where, worst case scenario, my historical record is flawed.'

[Moderator] framed the question in terms of alleged limitations of the U.S. political system, and Wilkerson replied: 'Well I do think that that's a reality of our system. However, let me back up just a minute and say that I really do think that our founding fathers, Hamilton, Washington, Monroe, Madison, would all be astounded that over the course of our short history as a country, 200 plus years, we haven't used that little two to three lines in Article II of the Constitution more frequently, the impeachment clause. I do believe that they would have thought had they been asked by you or whomever at the time of the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia 'Do you think this will be exercised?' they would have said 'Of course it will, every generation they'll have to throw some bastard out'. That's a form of accountability too. It's ultimate accountability."

Part of the solution: Amos Oz

From Common Ground News Service
By Amos Oz

BE'ER SHEVA, Israel - Each time we Israelis hear the words "the 1948 refugee problem", our stomachs flinch out of anxiety and objection. In our parts, the refugee issue has turned into a synonym for the right of return, and the right of return spells Israel's demise.

Perhaps it's about time we put our thoughts in order, and learn to make the distinction between the refugee problem and what is termed the right of return. The refugee problem can and must be resolved, but not by returning refugees to Israeli territory within its peaceful borders. The call to allow refugees to return to Israeli territory must be rejected because if it is realized, there will be two Palestinian states here and not even one for the Jewish people.

However, the problem of the 1948 refugees must be resolved. Moreover, resolving the refugee problem is a vital interest for the State of Israel because as long as this problem remains unresolved - as long as hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees are rotting in inhumane refugee camps - we shall have no rest. ...

The time has come to openly admit that we are partly responsible for the plight of the Palestinian refugees; not exclusive responsibility or exclusive guilt, but our hands are not entirely clean. The State of Israel is mature and strong enough to admit its partial guilt and to also accept the inevitable conclusions: We would do well to take upon ourselves part of the effort to settle these refugees outside of Israel's future peace borders, in the framework of future peace agreements.

Israel's actual admission to part of the responsibility for the Palestinian refugees' plight, the actual preparedness to bear part of the solution's burden - is likely to send an emotional shockwave through the Palestinian side. It will serve as an emotional breakthrough of sorts that will significantly facilitate the continuation of talks - because the tragedy of the 1948 refugees is an open and bleeding wound in the flesh of the Palestinian people. ...

Perhaps Israel's leadership should initiate a discussion on the Palestinian issue and suggest Israeli participation in resolving the problem such as removing all the refugees from the camps in which they are rotting and providing housing, work and citizenship to any refugee that so desires within future Palestinian borders....

I love the smell of sliming blogs in the morning

The Opinionator - New York Times Blog:

Maybe Giuliani has an outside chance at the G.O.P. nomination, but could a pro-choice Republican win the general election? The Atlantic’s Ross Douthat doesn’t think so: “Frankly, if Giuliani being the Republican nominee doesn’t prompt a third-party run by a pro-life candidate that cuts into his general-election support, then social conservatives ought to retire from politics out of sheer embarrassment.”

Giuliani isn’t the only Republican candidate whose candidacy is suffering because of an abortion-related controversy. One prominent conservative blogger ruled out supporting Mitt Romney after learning that Romney’s wife, Ann, gave $150 to Planned Parenthood in 1994. “It is not because Ann Romney gave money to Planned Parenthood,” writes Erick Erickson at RedState. “It is because this is the straw that broke the camel’s back — one light piece of straw piled on a mountain of political opportunism and reckless vacillation.”

Giuliani to Support Abortion Rights

From The New York Times:

After months of conflicting signals on abortion, Rudolph W. Giuliani is planning to offer a forthright affirmation of his support for abortion rights in public forums, television appearances and interviews in the coming days, despite the potential for bad consequences among some conservative voters already wary of his views, aides said yesterday....
Mr. Giuliani’s aides were concerned both because the responses [to his performance in the recent Republican "debate"] opened him up to a new round of criticism from abortion critics, who have never been happy with the prospect of a Republican presidential candidate who supports abortion rights, while threatening to undercut his image as a tough-talking iconoclast who does not equivocate on tough issues.

Indeed, "a tough-talking iconoclast who does not equivocate" on following his political strategists and their positioning advice.

It's the Constitution, Stupid

Marty Kaplan, The Huffington Post:

"Okay, this is a lightning round. How many of you believe in evolution? Raise your hands. Thank you. Now how many of you believe in the Rapture? Is that hand up or down, Senator McCain? Okay, thanks. Now this is multiple choice, so please listen to the whole question first. How many pairs of chromosomes do you think people should have: 23, less than 23, or more than 23?
Ready? Okay, who says 23? One, two, three, four, five, six hands. Less than 23? I'm sorry Mayor Giuliani, you can only pick one. All right, who says more than 23?'

Can you think of a stupider way for a great nation to choose its leader than the one we have?"...

Here's the most important thing we can learn from any of these candidates: Do they believe in the rule of law? I don't care whether it means we have to hear again, and probably over and over, about Bill Clinton's lying under oath about sex. That's worth the price of finding out what every candidate believes about the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, the separation of powers and every other element of American democracy that we used to count on to safeguard us from tyranny. And since it's a Republican president and his Congressional enablers who have treated their oath-taking -- their swearing to defend the Constitution, to take care to enforce the laws -- like a horny teenager at an abstinence-only ring ceremony -- it's Republicans in particular who should be forced by these debates, by the media, and by the public to answer the only real questions that turn out to count.

The real issue is Bush

Gonzales Is Said to Seem Confident He Will Stay - From The New York Times:

“For anybody to be suggesting that this matter is over or closed is pretty far off base,” Mr. Conyers said, adding, “My experience is when the president says he’s standing behind you, that’s when you should really be concerned.”

Pope Opens Trip With Remarks Against Abortion

ALSO SAYS HE'S CATHOLIC?
From The New York Times:

The Brazilian church’s senior cleric, Cardinal Geraldo Majella Agnelo, also condemned government policies on reproductive health, which have won praise from international public health groups. He singled out sexual education and condom-distribution programs, which have helped cut AIDS transmission rates.
“This is inducing everyone into promiscuity..."

Updated: OxyContin Maker Pleads Guilty, Says It Downplayed Risk

From The New York Times:
By BARRY MEIER

ABINGDON, Va., May 10 —The company that makes the narcotic painkiller OxyContin and three current and former executives pleaded guilty today in federal court here to criminal charges that they misled regulators, doctors and patients about the drug’s risk of addiction and its potential to be abused.

To resolve criminal and civil charges related to the drug’s “misbranding”, the parent of Purdue Pharma, the company that markets OxyContin, agreed to pay more than $600 million in fines. That is the third-highest amount ever paid by a drug company in such a case.

Also, in a rare move, three executives of Purdue Pharma, including its president and it top lawyer, pleaded guilty today as individuals to misbranding charges, a criminal violation. They agreed to pay a total of $34.5 million in fines.

And in case you missed this piece:
The Blotter
OxyContin: The Giuliani Connection
By Brian Ross, Richard Esposito and R. Schwartz
ABC News

Wednesday 09 May 2007

Rudolph Giuliani and his consulting company, Giuliani Partners, have served as key advisors for the last five years to the pharmaceutical company that pled guilty today to charges it misled doctors and patients about the addiction risks of the powerful narcotic painkiller OxyContin.

Establishing a code of conduct in the life sciences

From The Bulletin Online

Should life scientists make an oath analogous to the Hippocratic oath that newly minted physicians make in the belief that they will "do no harm" once they utter the hallowed words? The goal of a Hippocratic oath for life scientists would be to instill a sense of professionalism and responsibility so that they will not engage in potentially harmful activities. A number of advocates have supported the establishment of an oath for life scientists as a way to address concerns about potential future bioterrorists...

A Hippocratic oath for life scientists would be nice window dressing, but it would simply be that. The more important method to ensure that graduating life scientists are ethical and responsible citizens is the oversight provided by their laboratory supervisors, mentors, and/or thesis advisers. These individuals have an important role in watching their students' behavior over the years. Those who show irresponsible behavior and a diminished capacity for self-improvement should not be allowed to graduate (as should be the case in medical school). Graduate schools (and medical schools) should develop policies and procedures for problem students. Behavioral infractions should be carefully documented and should be just as important in the evaluation of a student's academic future as the traditional graduation requirements.

From a terribly confused piece in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. The author plainly does not know what the Hippocratic Oath actually says [which does not include "do no harm"], or its (properly) limited role in medical education and licensing. Nonetheless, she does get one thing (almost) right: "the medical profession [like virtually all professions] does not have a good track record in policing itself." She provides little reason for believing that life scientists are likely to do better, or that the steps she endorses relate adequately to her "do no harm" thesis.

Infantile Liberalism

From The Nation:

Benjamin Barber, a political theorist and author of Jihad vs. McWorld, wades into the debate on shopping and advertising in Consumed. His is an ambitious book that seeks to define a period as well as to outline forms of resistance, which include a new type of global citizenship. A century ago German sociologist Max Weber attributed the rise of capitalism to a new religious spirit, a Protestant ethos of saving and hard work. That argument has yielded a small library of elaborations and refutations. Barber, who is not exactly a shrinking violet, seeks to revise Weber with an idea equally 'provocative and controversial'--the notion of an 'infantilist ethos.' Once upon a time capitalism, driven by a Protestant spirit, 'shaped a culture conducive to work and investment,' serving nations and citizens, but today a consumerist capitalism, driven by an 'infantilist ethos,' 'shapes a culture conducive to laxity, shopping, and spending,' turning us into hapless shoppers and in the process gutting democracy. Not only have children and teens become a vast consuming market but adults no longer grow up: 'Aging adults remain youth consumers throughout their lives.'

From a generally negative review by Russell Jacoby in The Nation, which concludes:

The problem is not the weak prose but the anemic ideas. Barber believes he is offering a bold "utopian dream." But where is the utopia? His goal of "democratizing globalization" and restoring "the balance between citizens and consumers" suggests tinkering, not transformation. At his best, Barber gives us decaf liberalism brewed with fair-trade coffee.

I generally think well of Barber. Readers may wish to draw their own conclusions from his latest book (which I have not yet seen.)

Re-evaluating Arthur Koestler

A Drinker of Infinity by Theodore Dalrymple, City Journal Spring 2007: An interesting take on Arthur Koestler and Darkness at Noon

So [author Arthur] Koestler’s imaginary reconstruction of how Rubashov was persuaded to confess, to which he brought his own intimate knowledge of how people thought and acted who had made the Party their whole life, was entirely new and original. Koestler’s solution to the puzzle was that Rubashov, and those like him [portrayed in Darkness at Noon], confessed not because of any physical torture (though Rubashov is deprived of sleep, a technique that interrogators did use in obtaining confessions) but because it was logical for them to do so. All their adult lives, they had believed that the end justified the means; moreover, and crucially, they had delegated to the Party the exclusive right to judge both end and means. Who were they, then, to object when the Party decided that it needed to sacrifice them, irrespective of whether they were guilty of anything?...

Some on the right have unfairly criticized Koestler, claiming that Darkness at Noon implies that subtle argumentation, rather than crude torture, obtained the confessions at the Moscow trials. But nowhere in the book does Koestler suggest that harsher methods to obtain confessions did not play a role—quite the contrary—or that the methods used in Rubashov’s case characterized every case. Rather, his novel is philosophical, plausibly pointing to the terrible logical and practical consequences of the belief that the ends justify the means, when those ends have been preordained by authority, whether of history, the great leader, or even God.

Darkness at Noon was probably the most influential anti-Communist book ever published, more important (in practice) even than Animal Farm or Nineteen Eighty-Four....

It is precisely because Koestler’s life and work so deeply instantiate the existential dilemmas of our age that he is a fascinating figure, unjustly neglected, and too often dismissed as a sexual psychopath. He was not a naturally good man (far from it), but he was struggling toward the good by the light and authority of his own intellect; unfortunately, as Hume tells us, reason is the slave of the passions, and Koestler was an exceptionally passionate man.

Cheating in professional schools

From Inside Higher Ed :: Cheating on a Different Level:

On Friday, the Faculty Council at Indiana’s dental school voted to dismiss 9 of its students, suspend 16 for various lengths of time and send a letter of reprimand to 21 others for violating its professional code of conduct by knowing about and not reporting the incident. The class has just under 100 students.

Two professional conduct committees — one comprising students and the other faculty — looked into the cheating allegations and the entire faculty had a say in the final decision.

“This has been a wrenching experience for everyone involved — for students who made this big error and classmates, faculty, administrators and alumni,” Goldblatt said. “It’s sad that this happened and it’s sad that we had to take this action.”

The school has an obligation to take cases of cheating seriously because it certifies that graduates “can be trusted to do the absolute right thing in every situation in their professional lives, even when nobody is looking,” he added.

The article is accompanied by some strongly-felt comments and pretty distressing statistics.

Onion Video: Gap Unveils New 'For Kids By Kids' Clothing Line

Video |From The Onion
"What kids can accomplish with a little hard work..."

When Messiah comes, we'll all sing nigguns!

Messiah in all but name - Haaretz :

[Author Zvi] Mark claims that the messianic figure described in 'Scroll of Secrets' is a kind of reflection of Nachman himself. To be more exact, not only does Rabbi Nachman have a messianic mission, but the Messiah is an embodiment of all his qualities and abilities. It comes as no surprise, then, that the niggun, or Hasidic melody, that figures so highly in Rabbi Nachman's world, is slated to play a pivotal role in the messianic era.

One of the properties that Rabbi Nachman attributes to the niggun is the ability to bring back souls who have 'fallen into apostasy.' But the real role of the niggun, it seems, is to draw listeners into a dance so pleasurable and uplifting that they forget all else. The power of the niggun induces a state of mystical ecstasy. And here we find that the mission of the future Messiah will also be achieved through the niggun: 'He will produce new musical instruments and melodies because he will be a great master of the niggun.' These musical innovations will so charm and delight people that they will accept his authority

.

This is one of the more appealing and harmonious messianic concepts I've encountered.

One way or another, many readers will be happy to hear about the pacifist, humanist and universalist nature of the Messiah as envisioned by Rabbi Nachman. It is a refreshing break from the militaristic messianism spouted by extremist groups today, from the territorial-nationalist messianism of Gush Emunim to the personal messianism promoted by certain messianic streams in Chabad.

Michael Chabon on Obama

Jews on ice | Salon Books:

We sent out an e-mail to pretty much everybody we had an e-mail address for who we felt like we had a right to pull on their sleeve. You can create this page through the Obama campaign where you solicit donations and people just click on the link and they can donate any small amount. It seemed like a really great way to raise money for Barack Obama, of whom I'm just completely enamored. I've been voting since 1984 and in every election I've always had to hold my nose, or at best I was all right with the idea of whoever it was I was voting for. I mean I've never been completely certain, completely passionate about a candidate in my entire life as a voter until Barack Obama and it's such a strange, exciting feeling.

What is it about him that you like so much?

In addition to that he's of my generation, he's the same age I am and I feel like he speaks my language in some way --

Not Yiddish?

No, not Yiddish, at least as far as I know. For one thing the guy can write. He's a really good writer and that means a lot to me and is not true of almost anyone else who's ever run for office since I've been voting. I know that might seem silly, but that means something to me. But it's not just that he can write, it's that his writing, especially when he writes about America and American history, displays this sense of complete ambivalence. Of being fully conscious of both what's great and what's terrible about America and American history. The ills, the evils, the massacres, the injustices that have been done, and at the same time a sense of pride and faith and optimism that's coupled with a totally clear-eyed sense of the grimness that's there as well.

Michael Chabon on past and future in Judaism

From Salon Books:

Is there something about Jews and Jewishness that makes the 'what if' story so appealing?

Michael Chabon: I don't know. Certainly it's hard to think of something that would be more focused simultaneously on the past and on the future than Judaism, because Judaism is all about history and what happened to us and how we got where we are. The patterns of our history and the crucial moments -- the destruction of the temple, the expulsion from Spain, Kristallnacht, these key moments, these dates that both seem to change everything and yet merely were repeating, in some way, the last time.

And yet at the same time Judaism, in its truest form, is very focused on the future, on the coming of the Messiah, on the redemption of the world. To have that sort of simultaneous sense of looking backward and looking forward -- I think it does definitely lend itself to the kind of speculative, hypothetical thinking of the counterfactual novel. You're looking at history ... and asking, 'Where are the moments where things changed, where history forked and it could have gone this way?'

A Crusade and a Holy War in the US Military

By Jason Leopold, Truthout:

An Orthodox Jew and former petty officer in the US Navy said his civil rights were violated after a chaplain and officials at a Veterans Administration hospital in Iowa City, Iowa, tried to convert him to Christianity while he was under the VA's care.

David Miller, 46, who is on full disability, said in an interview that his physician at the VA hospital told him last week to go home and pray or meditate in place of using medication to relieve the pain he was experiencing from kidney stones. When Miller complained to VA staffers that his physician suggested he turn to God to treat his medical condition and refused to prescribe pain medication, VA officials provided him with a new doctor.

"My doctor said that since I am a religious Jew, I should try prayer or meditation to deal with the pain," Miller said. "I was shocked that a medical doctor would make such a suggestion. I immediately raised hell and was assigned a new physician."...

Miller dresses in the traditional attire required for Orthodox Jews. He started receiving treatment for a heart condition and kidney stones at the Iowa City VA hospital after moving back to his hometown two years ago. Since then, he said, a chaplain on duty at the hospital has tried on numerous occasions to convert him to Christianity.

'The first two visits by the Protestant (Assembly of God) chaplain were all about trying to convert me, trying to convince me that I needed Jesus, that Jesus was the Messiah of the Jews too,' Miller said. 'My medical records clearly indicate that I am Jewish. However, with each admission, I have informed the nursing staff both verbally and in writing that I require kosher food and that I do not wish to be visited by anyone from the chaplain's office. I requested they contact my rabbi, and I provided them with his name and telephone number. Despite these instructions, during all three of my hospitalizations, I have been denied kosher food and have had to endure my entire hospitalizations without eating.'

The chaplain, Miller said, provided him with a copy of a scripture from the New Testament, despite Miller's protests that he be left alone.

Is this our country? What is going on?

Chirac: Don't let the gate hit you on the way out

By Anne Applebaum - Slate Magazine:

As I say, it's a very important legacy: One of consistent scorn for the Anglo-American world in general and the English language in particular, of suspicion of Central Europe and profound disinterest in the wave of democratic transformation that swept the world in the 1980s and 1990s, of preference for the Arab and African dictators who had been, and remained, clients of France. In his later years, Chirac constantly searched, in almost all international conflicts, for novel ways of opposing the United States. All along, he did his best to protect France from the rapidly changing global economy.

It was, in other words, the legacy of a man who was deeply conservative, almost Brezhnevite in his view of the world - so much so that the word most often used to describe his political beliefs is 'stagnation.' But as he leaves office, the loudest condemnation of his twelve years as head of state comes not from the outside world, but from the French themselves. Don't listen to me, listen to them: After all, it is they who have just elected a man who promised to 'break with the ideas, the habits and the behavior of the past.'

'The French people have chosen change,' Sarkozy declared during his acceptance speech Sunday night. 'I will implement that change.' And what they want, it seems, is a change from Chirac.

Lost, Then Found: Herods Tomb

Lost, Then Found: Herods Tomb From The New York Times Blog:

For decades, archaeologists looking for the tomb of King Herod have focused on one site in particular, based on an account in the first volume of “The Wars of the Jews,” written by the first-century historian Flavius Josephus....

The omission sets up what The Los Angeles Times has called “one of the Holy Land’s greatest archeological mysteries.”

Chasing that mystery and others for the past 35 years has been Professor Ehud Netzer of Hebrew University.

Today, he was finally able to announce an answer: The tomb was on the northeastern slope of Mount Herodium, a site that his team has been excavating since last summer.

And they found Herod's PLO membership card in the ruins.

For more details:Archeologist: King Herod's tomb desecrated, but discovery 'high point' - Haaretz - Israel News: "Archeologist: King Herod's tomb desecrated, but discovery 'high point'
By Amiram Barkat, Haaretz Correspondent, and Haaretz Staff

Masters of the Universe, beware

Masters of Social Change: An Israeli First

SHATIL and Tel Aviv University (TAU) are launching a new track for social activists within the M.A. program in sociology and anthropology. The program will provide staff, volunteers and others interested in social change organizations with the theoretical basis, research tools and practical experience to increase the effectiveness of their work. Fifty people attended an open house introducing the program last week and more than 300 people have downloaded information on the course from the SHATIL website. TAU’s Dr. Nisim Mizrachi, who moderated the open house, said that he and his colleagues believe this is the first program of its kind – not just in Israel, but in the world. The program will begin in the fall of 2007.

The End of Socialism in Europe?

The Blog | Jeremi Suri, The Huffington Post:

Sunday's election of Nicolas Sarkozy as the new president of France marks the end of socialism as a viable political ideology in Europe. ...
Some may dance on the graves of socialism in Europe; some may shed tears. All of us, however, should use this moment to begin thinking creatively about new political alternatives. Democratic systems function best when there is a serious and substantive debate between opposing viewpoints. Politics should be about principles, not just preaching to the converted. The death of socialism in Europe must become the birth of something new, not just a race to conformity. Americans can help if they encourage innovative thinking -- something almost nonexistent right now -- in their own political system.

Why Didn't George Tenet Just Resign?

The Blog | Arianna Huffington, The Huffington Post:

Well, let's not be so disingenuous. Let's stand up. This is why we did it. This is why, this is how we did it. And let's tell, let's everybody tell the truth.[attributed, more or less, to George Tenet]

Great -- except he's about four years too late. Tenet seems to believe there's a major distinction between lying and standing by silently while others lie, and then proudly receiving a Medal of Freedom from the liars.

He could have simply resigned and freed himself to 'tell the truth.' Tenet acts as if resignation were not an option. But it was. And the passion and anger he displays now in the service of book sales could have been used then in the service of his country....

The problem is, the honorable train left the station a long time ago, and Tenet wasn't on board.

But others were. Like John Brady Kiesling, a career U.S. diplomat, who resigned from the State Department. As he wrote in his resignation letter to Colin Powell:

"I am resigning because I have tried and failed to reconcile my conscience with my ability to represent the current U.S. administration. I have confidence that our democratic process is ultimately self-correcting, and hope that in a small way I can contribute from outside to shaping policies that better serve the security and prosperity of the American people and the world we share."

That, Mr. Tenet, is how it's done.

Paris, the President, and Accountability: That's Hot! | The Huffington Post

I thought this would be about the French elections. Silly me.
Arianna Huffington, The Huffington Post:

So it's finally happening: accountability. At long last, a prominent public figure is being punished for serial reckless behavior and the willful denial of its consequences.

Unfortunately, the public figure in question is Paris Hilton, not George W. Bush.

The two have more in common than a privileged background and a reputation for dimwitted pronouncements.

Amusing, if not terribly substantive.

Dilbert's "how to" on living ethically--and liking it!

Link here for cartoon

Republican Hopefuls Demonstrate Doublespeak on stem cells

blog.bioethics.net: Republican Hopefuls Demonstrate Doublespeak: Art Caplan on Blog.Bioethics.net

W

hat exactly, students sometimes ask me, is 'doublespeak'. Now I have a paradigmatic example to show them.

Herewith the wafflings, twistings, turnings and outright mumbo-jumboing of ten wannabe Presidents.The ten GOP presidential candidates held a debate on Thursday evening. Moderator Chris Matthews of MSNBC asked the candidates about stem cell research. Here is that section of the debate transcript.

Premature plan to close Gitmo

TheHill.com - Feinstein proposes plan to close Gitmo:
By Chris Good

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) introduced legislation Monday that would close the U.S. military prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.

“Guantánamo Bay has become a lightning rod for international condemnation,” Feinstein said. “Rather than make the United States safer, the image projected by this facility puts us at greater risk.”

My own view is that Gitmo should be maintained as a (mandatory) retirement home for members of the current Administration.

Better (very) late than never II

AlterNet: Rights and Liberties: A Power Governments Cannot Suppress: From HOWARD ZINN

Fifty years after the executions of Italian immigrants Sacco and Vanzetti, Governor Dukakis of Massachusetts set up a panel to judge the fairness of the trial, and the conclusion was that the two men had not received a fair trial. This aroused a minor storm in Boston.

One letter, signed John M. Cabot, U.S. Ambassador Retired, declared his 'great indignation' and pointed out that Governor Fuller's affirmation of the death sentence was made after a special review by 'three of Massachusetts' most distinguished and respected citizens -- President Lowell of Harvard, President Stratton of MIT and retired Judge Grant.'...

There must be good reason why a case fifty-years-old, now over seventy-five years old, arouses such emotion. I suggest that it is because to talk about Sacco and Vanzetti inevitably brings up matters that trouble us today -- our system of justice, the relationship between war fever and civil liberties, and most troubling of all, the ideas of anarchism: the obliteration of national boundaries and therefore of war, the elimination of poverty, the creation of a full democracy.

The case of Sacco and Vanzetti revealed, in its starkest terms, that the noble words inscribed above our courthouses "Equal Justice Before the Law" have always been a lie. Those two men, the fish peddler and the shoemaker, could not get justice in the American system -- because justice is not meted out equally to the poor and the rich, the native-born and the foreign-born, the orthodox and the radical, the white and the person of color. And while injustice may play itself out today more subtly and in more intricate ways than it did in the crude circumstances of the Sacco and Vanzetti case, its essence remains.

Better late than never

From From The New York Times: Florida Acts to Eliminate Touch-Screen Voting System

By TERRY AGUAYO and CHRISTINE JORDAN SEXTON

MIAMI, May 3 — Florida legislators voted on Thursday to replace touch-screen voting machines installed in 15 counties after the troubled 2000 presidential election here with a system of optical scan voting.

The new system is scheduled to be running in time for the 2008 presidential election.

The move is the nation’s biggest repudiation of touch-screen voting, which was embraced after the 2000 recount as a way to restore confidence that every vote would count. But the reliability of touch-screen machines has increasingly come under scrutiny, as has the difficulty of doing recounts without a paper trail.

“This legislation will preserve the integrity of Florida’s elections and protect every Floridian’s right to have his or her vote counted,” Gov. Charlie Crist said in a statement. “Florida voters will be able to have more confidence in the voting process and the reliability of Florida’s elections.”

How Rove Shaped Testimony on Prosecutor Firings

By Michael Isikoff, Newsweek

Deputy chief of staff Karl Rove participated in a hastily called meeting at the White House two months ago. The subject: The firing of eight U.S. attorneys last year. The purpose: to coach a top Justice Department official heading to Capitol Hill to testify on the prosecutorial purge on what he should say.

Now some investigators are saying that Rove’s attendance at the meeting shows that the president’s chief political advisor may have been involved in an attempt to mislead Congress—one more reason they are demanding to see his emails and force him to testify under oath....

A White House spokesman dismissed the significance of the March meeting, saying it was not surprising that a deputy White House chief of staff like Rove would participate in internal discussions about the firings of presidential appointees. “It’s perfectly natural that he would be there,” said deputy press secretary Tony Fratto. Asked specifically whether Rove had withheld pertinent information to Moscella, and therefore participated in an attempt to mislead Congress, Fratto replied: “The White House’s role was very limited. I'm not commenting about any meetings. If the Committee wants to learn about it, they can accept our offer” to permit Rove and other White House aides to be privately questioned by Capitol Hill investigators. (Democratic leaders on the House and Senate Judiciary Committee have both rejected that offer, saying they want Rove and other White House officials to testify in public and under oath.)

Yawn. What would we do without the godless Rove to kick around?

Obama: The conservatives' choice???

Republicans defect to the Obama camp-News-World-US & Americas-TimesOnline:

DISILLUSIONED supporters of President George W Bush are defecting to Barack Obama, the Democratic senator for Illinois, as the White House candidate with the best chance of uniting a divided nation....

Although Dowd has yet to endorse a candidate, he said the only one he liked was Obama. “I think we should design campaigns that appeal, not to 51% of the people, but bring the country together as a whole,” Dowd said....

“I disagree with Obama on the war but I don’t think it is a test of his patriotism,” Martin says. “Obama has a message of hope for the country.”...


For his optimism about the future, Obama has been dubbed the “black Ronald Reagan”. He frequently challenges the black community to support two-parent families and encourage school students, instead of criticising them for “acting white”.

Could conservatives actually be patriotic in behavior, rather than just in rhetoric?

The Times Names Public Editor

From The New York Times:

The New York Times today named its next public editor, Clark Hoyt, a former Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter and editor who oversaw the Knight Ridder newspaper chain’s coverage that questioned the Bush administration’s case for the Iraq war....

In the prelude to the Iraq war and the early days of the war, Knight-Ridder stood apart from most of the mainstream news media in raising doubts at times about the Bush administration’s claims, later discredited, that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction and ties to Al Qaeda. Bill Keller, the executive editor of The Times, said that record contributed to his selection of Mr. Hoyt.

“There was a lot of work Knight-Ridder did that was prescient, that wasn’t easy to do,” Mr. Keller said. “It’s always hard to go against conventional wisdom. I think it probably brings him a measure of credibility that helps in getting started on a job like that — that he’s been associated with a brave and aggressive reporting exercise like that.”

Mr. Hoyt said that in 2002 and 2003 he had fielded a great deal of criticism “from angry readers who believed that we weren’t being patriotic, from government officials who said that what we were doing was wrong.”

This sounds like an inspired choice for an interesting position. (And I'm beginning to sound like a tired NYT editorial. Sorry for that.) I am an admirer of the Knight Ridder work in the leadup to the war--good journalists doing their job well, and courageously.

N.J. Governor Ready to Resume Duties

From The New York Times:

PRINCETON, N.J., May 7 — Saying that his prolonged absence from a job that he loves was driving him “stir crazy,” Jon S. Corzine resumed his official duties as Governor of New Jersey this morning, three and a half weeks after sustaining serious injuries in a car accident.

I hope he's belted in.

Mandatory posting on "The Queen"

Helen Mirren Sends Her Regrets to Palace - New York Times:

The queen won't be meeting ''The Queen'' just yet. Helen Mirren, who won an Oscar for playing Queen Elizabeth II, has turned down an invitation to dinner at Buckingham Palace, a British newspaper reported.

White tie and tails tonight at the White House? Feh.
Maybe W will choke tying his tie?
Or barf.

LA Times: Bring them home

From The Los Angeles Times:

...it seems increasingly obvious that an Iraqi political settlement cannot be achieved in the shadow of an indefinite foreign occupation. The U.S. military presence — opposed by more than three-quarters of Iraqis — inflames terrorism and delays what should be the primary and most pressing goal: meaningful reconciliation among the Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds.

This newspaper reluctantly endorsed the U.S. troop surge as the last, best hope for stabilizing conditions so that the elected Iraqi government could assume full responsibility for its affairs. But we also warned that the troops should not be used to referee a civil war. That, regrettably, is what has happened. ...

We are not naive. U.S. withdrawal, whether concluded next year or five years from now, entails grave risks. But so does U.S. occupation. The question is how best to manage the risks....

Having invested so much in Iraq, Americans are likely to find disengagement almost as painful as war. But the longer we delay planning for the inevitable, the worse the outcome is likely to be. The time has come to leave.

My own view is that "meaningful reconciliation among the Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds" is itself an illusory goal, and the challenge is working out a tolerable divorce or separation agreement, including custody of the patrimony--in the form of oil wells. (Marriage in that region is not necessarily limited to two partners.) A sensible "strategy" at this point entails something more than dispatching a fleet of helicopters to the roofs of the former palaces in the Green Zone. But it is time for withdrawal to begin, to prompt the necessary political process of facing the realities (and limiting the trauma) of the former Iraq's future.

More on "Compared to What?"

Denial and Democracy in Egypt - From The New York Times:

All of this somehow has escaped the Bush administration’s ambassador to Egypt who, in a recent television interview in Cairo, painted a chillingly sunny picture of President Hosni Mubarak’s government. While he acknowledged there were “some infringements and violations” of human rights, he declared himself “optimistic” about democratic progress in Egypt, adding that the judiciary and the government’s “commitment to the opinion of the common Egyptian citizen” would carry the day.

That not only contradicts reality — freedom of expression and assembly is actually diminishing — it contradicts the State Department’s latest human rights report, which says that Egypt’s rights record remains poor. Egypt’s jailed bloggers and beaten protesters can certainly attest to that.

Rich Pickings: Some prime invective

Is Condi Hiding the Smoking Gun? - From The New York Times: By FRANK RICH

IF, as J.F.K. had it, victory has a hundred fathers and defeat is an orphan, the defeat in Iraq is the most pitiful orphan imaginable. Its parents have not only tossed it to the wolves but are also trying to pin its mutant DNA on any patsy they can find....

This would be a Three Stooges routine were there only three stooges. ...

Satisfying though it is to watch a circular firing squad of the war’s enablers, unfinished business awaits. ...

If that is what this vicious gang would do to a pollster, imagine what would befall Colin Powell if he spoke out. Nonetheless, Mr. Powell should summon the guts to do so. Until there is accountability for the major architects and perpetrators of the Iraq war, the quagmire will deepen. A tragedy of this scale demands a full accounting, not to mention a catharsis.

That accounting might well begin with Mr. Powell’s successor, Condoleezza Rice. Of all the top-tier policy players who were beside the president and vice president at the war’s creation, she is the highest still in power and still on the taxpayers’ payroll. She is also the only one who can still get a free pass from the press....

Apologists for Ms. Rice, particularly those in the press who are embarrassed by their own early cheerleading for the war, like to say that this is ancient history, just as they said of the C.I.A. leak case. We’re all supposed to move on and just worry about what happens next. ... there’s a continuum between past deceptions and present ones, as the secretary of state seamlessly demonstrated last Sunday....

No wonder the most galling part of Ms. Rice’s Sunday spin was her aside to Wolf Blitzer that she would get around to reflecting on these issues “when I have a chance to write my book.” Another book! As long as American troops are dying in Iraq, the secretary of state has an obligation to answer questions about how they got there and why they stay. If accountability is ever to begin, it would be best if those questions are answered not on “60 Minutes” but under oath.

Guts? From this gang?
Bring on the sunpoenas.

Can This Patient Be Saved?

From The New York Times: By Atul Gawande

The case for sweeping reform — for severing health insurance from the workplace and creating a new system — is undeniable. But it’s going to be a long time before the large majority of Americans with decent coverage are persuaded to risk changing what they have. How then to cure a malignant health care system? Can we act before the patient collapses?

Gawande, who played a significant role in Hillary's catastrophic failed reform effort in the early 1990s, apparently believes change must come gradually, and promises to tell us how. As a long-term supporter of a single-payer, universal coverage, system--something like "Medicare-for-all", I'm dubious (as I was of the enormously overcomplicated Hillary Plan then). Stay tuned.

A Liberal Case for Gun Rights Helps Sway Judiciary

From The New York Times:

...Several other leading liberal constitutional scholars, notably Akhil Reed Amar at Yale and Sanford Levinson at the University of Texas, are in broad agreement favoring an individual rights interpretation. Their work has in a remarkably short time upended the conventional understanding of the Second Amendment, and it set the stage for the Parker decision.

The earlier consensus, the law professors said in interviews, reflected received wisdom and political preferences rather than a serious consideration of the amendment’s text, history and place in the structure of the Constitution. “The standard liberal position,” Professor Levinson said, “is that the Second Amendment is basically just read out of the Constitution.”

The Second Amendment says, “A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.” (Some transcriptions of the amendment omit the last comma.)

If only as a matter of consistency, Professor Levinson continued, liberals who favor expansive interpretations of other amendments in the Bill of Rights, like those protecting free speech and the rights of criminal defendants, should also embrace a broad reading of the Second Amendment. And just as the First Amendment’s protection of the right to free speech is not absolute, the professors say, the Second Amendment’s protection of the right to keep and bear arms may be limited by the government, though only for good reason.

I've referred to Sandy Levinson's liberal heresies on this issue previously. The Times has given a new prominence to this debate in the aftermath of Virginia Tech and a controversial and divided appellate court decision. Watch for much more on this issue.

I have not studied the constitutional issue sufficiently to have a considered personal view. While I (of course) deplore gun violence as much as the next effete urban Jew, I have come to doubt the efficacy of incremental reform at the state level, and to despair at the non-likelihood of meaningful legislative action (beyond the symbolic) at the federal level. So I am not among those trashing Democrats for not leading much of a charge post Virginia Tech.

Obama Carefully Courts Jewish Vote

Presidential Candidate Has Recalibrated His Words On Israel And Middle East Peace Process - CBS News: By Ariel Sabar, Christian Science Monitor

...For many American Jews, a candidate's record on traditionally liberal social and economic issues carries more weight than slight nuances in their positions on Israel, says Ira Forman, executive director of the nonprofit NJDC and coeditor of the book 'Jews in American Politics.'

Obama has played as much to those mainstays of Jewish-American politics as he has to the issue of Israel's security, using speeches before Jewish audiences to talk about the civil rights struggle, global warming, and the genocide in Darfur. His early opposition to the Iraq war has also reverberated with Jewish Americans, who, according to Gallup polls, are more likely to view the war as a mistake than are Americans of any other faith....

The media have tended to focus almost exclusively on fine--and probably largely meaningless--variations in pandering comments on Israel. At last someone recognizes that most American Jews care about, and vote on, a larger variety of issues, both domestic and international. Note especially the poll results on Jewish American views of the Iraq War.

Judges Get Crash Course in Sciences

By Mike Baker (AP) From Casper Star-Tribune:

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. - As advanced science plays a larger role in courtrooms across the country, judges who earned degrees in English or the humanities face the daunting task of making informed decisions about some very technical disputes. That's why judges from across the Southeast gathered Friday for a crash course with medical and genetics experts at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

About 60 judges are attending the conference, which is exploring emerging and often contested areas of science.

Unlike other judicial seminars, this three-day intensive training session _ dubbed The Southeast Regional Science and Technology Boot Camp _ aims to prepare judges for some of the most politically charged issues of the day: gene therapy, genetic discrimination, genetically modified foods, human cloning and stem cell research....

The North Carolina conference, funded by the U.S. Department of Justice, also looks ahead to medical disputes _ such as stem cell research _ that are expected to be fought over soon in the courtroom.

George Annas, a bioethics and legal expert who was not involved in the conference, praised judges for seeking out a deeper knowledge of the issues. He said unbiased education can help separate the fact from the hype.

'Good law begins with good facts,' said Annas, chair of the department of law, bioethics and human rights at Boston University. 'It's critical that judges get the science right.'

Bill Moyers Talks With Jon Stewart

WATCH THIS!

We could do worse--much worse--than a Bill Moyers-Jon Stewart ticket. We probably will.

W is for (and pathologically against) Wimps and Wussies

From The Los Angeles Times:
With thanks to The Opinionator @NYT:
By Mark Dery

The trouble with manhood, American-style, is that it's maintained by frantically repressing every man's feminine side and demonizing the feminine and the gay wherever we see them. In his book, 'The Wimp Factor: Gender Gaps, Holy Wars, and the Politics of Anxious Masculinity,' clinical psychologist Stephen Ducat calls this state of mind 'femiphobia' — a pathological masculinity founded on the subconscious belief that 'the most important thing about being a man is not being a woman.'

OK, so maybe I'm overstepping the bounds of my Learning Annex degree in pop psychology. But the hidden costs of our overcompensatory hypermachismo are far worse than a few politicians slimed by pundits. The horror in Iraq has been protracted past the point of lunacy by George W.'s bring-it-on braggadocio, He-Ra unilateralism and damn-the-facts refusal to acknowledge mistakes — all hallmarks of a pathological masculinity that confuses diplomacy with weakness and arrogant rigidity with strength. It is founded not on a self-assured sense of what it is but on a neurotic loathing of what it secretly fears it may be: wussy. And it will go to the grave insisting on battering-ram stiffness (stay the course! don't pull out!) as the truest mark of manhood.

On The (Republican) Debate

From Eunomia : With thanks to The Opinionator@NYT

That brings me to Mitt Romney. Yes, Romney is smooth and, to the untrained eye, almost human. In the superficial world of television debates, he will always “do well” in some sense, because he is a master of appearance over substance. I will be willing to grant that Romney gained the most from last night’s debate, even though he did not necessarily perform as well as some of the others, because he made no obvious mistakes (except for being a treacly and obnoxious politician who reinvents his views when it is convenient) while his two major rivals came away looking unimpressive (Giuliani) or like a crotchety old man who hasn’t had his dinner yet (McCain).

Nice invective. Sounds right.
If you agree, raise your hand. Very evolved of you.
I didn't watch. No regrets.

Ah, modern life...

Send: The Essential Guide to Email for Office and Home - David Shipley and Will Schwalbe - From The New York Times:
By DAVE BARRY

A few years back, when my son was in college, he had to mail a letter. I don’t remember the specific reason, but I do remember having a conversation with him in which he complained bitterly about the amount of work involved — finding a place where he could purchase a stamp, figuring out what kind of stamp he needed, actually writing the letter, locating an envelope, putting the letter into the envelope, having to physically leave his dormitory room to mail the envelope and so on. I grew exhausted just listening to him describe this series of arduous tasks, one coming right after another. I was glad, for my son’s sake, that he never had to live in a world — as I once did — where the only way to change channels was to walk all the way to the TV set and manually turn a knob.

In my case, this is more closely descriptive of me than of my son. Exhausting.

The Politics of High Principle

Israel’s Foreign Minister Says Olmert Should Go - From The New York Times:

Ms. Livni, 48, is a popular but austere figure, and her statement was hardly a clarion call to rebellion against Mr. Olmert. He must make his own decision, she said, but her defection was the biggest blow so far to Mr. Olmert’s chances of hanging on to office, and it lays a clear marker down that she will fight to replace him inside the party.

But Mr. Olmert insisted that he would not quit, and his aides suggested that Ms. Livni had violated the principle of collective government and should herself resign. Some suggested that Mr. Olmert would fire her, but others said that might only make her more popular. One Olmert aide said that Ms. Livni had hoped he would fire her, but that instead he would “leave her out to dry.”

Herzl anticipated Jewish cops rounding up Jewish prostitutes on the streets of Tel Aviv, but could he have imagined this level of machination, incompetence, and corruption in Israel's political leadership? (It does, I suppose, beat tribal sheikhs.)

With all the human talent in Israeli society, how can one explain, or understand, its political failings? Democracy gone wild?

Thought for the Day

Approaching Dead Sea Brings on Sinkholes - New York Times:

'Our life has become much more exciting now because we don't know when we'll drop to our death,' said al-Huweimel, a farmer, munching on a fresh tomato and smiling.

A political metaphor?

Althouse on the Imus contract dispute: "CBS wanted him to do it... "

Althouse:

'CBS wanted him to do it... CBS wanted to encourage him and wanted him to feel totally protected.'
So said Imus's monumental lawyer Martin Garbus.
Legal Battle Brews Over Imus Contract With CBS - washingtonpost.com

It sounds like a great contracts case. High stakes too. The contract was worth $40 million, and he's going to claim other damages, covering "reduced income for Imus's private businesses and charities, as well as his future earnings in broadcasting."

See Ann's blog for discussion of a great contracts case.

Wolfowitz : Another country heard from

Wolfowitz critics point to his lack of ethics - MSNBC.com:

JAKARTA, Indonesia - The controversy surrounding World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz spotlights a lack of ethics that was apparent two decades ago when he was U.S. ambassador to Indonesia, say critics who recall how he failed to speak out against corruption and rights abuses.

Today, as head of the bank, Wolfowitz has been arguing that corruption is crippling the world’s poorest nations. But that was “the very thing he closed his eyes to” when he served as ambassador from 1986 to 1989 during the regime of the dictator Suharto, said pro-democracy activist Binny Buchori.

“He’s a hypocrite,” she said. “He should quit.”

And now we wait for Christopher Hitchens?

Marquette Law School Receives $51 Million Gift

An alumni couple will donate $51 million to Marquette University toward construction of a new Law School facility, Marquette President Robert A. Wild, S.J., announced today. The donation is the largest gift ever made by individuals to a Wisconsin college or university, and is one of the largest ever to a law school in the United States.

Raymond A. and Kathryn A. Eckstein of Cassville, Wis., and Boca Raton, Fla., made the gift as an 'expression of gratitude' to the university. ...
'My wife and I have many fond memories at Marquette. It was the place of our meeting and courtship, and the beginning of our wonderful life together. Catholic, Jesuit education has played an important role in our lives. We are honored and thrilled to be able to provide the Law School with the foundation for a new building, so that students in the future can have the opportunity to benefit from the education we did..."

Mazel tov to Marquette!

Getting bleary

MORE NEWS
* Queen Elizabeth Tours Jamestown
* Surprise Drug Tests at Kentucky Derby

Why not, "Surprise Drug Tests Administered to Queen Elizabeth at Jamestown"?

Latest crisis in Jewish life

How will Junior's cheesecake kashrut crisis pan out?
From The Jerusalem Post:

NEW YORK - Religious Jews in the New York region may have to look elsewhere for a Shavuot delicacy, after learning that their favorite cheesecake lost its Kosher trademark this week.

Junior's, a longtime Brooklyn establishment known for having the best cheesecake in New York, appears on a list of 'Kosher Alerts' newly posted on the Orthodox Union's website. With immediate effect, its products are 'no longer certified by the Orthodox Union and will no longer bear the OU symbol.'

The restaurant, which opened in 1950, is not kosher, but its mail-order cheesecakes had until now been approved by the OU, one of the largest kosher trademarks.

But over Passover, when a non-Jewish foreman baked a batch of cheesecake for a long-time customer [a major no-no], the OU pulled the plug.

According to third generation owner Alan Rosen, 'it was basically a mistake.'

It's especially healthy with your non-kosher cheesecake

Coffee is not usually thought of as a health drink, but new studies have revealed that coffee can be quite beneficial. Drinking coffee wards off Type 2 diabetes and some kind of cancers too. Some experts believe that it can also lower the risk of heart disease and cirrhosis of the liver.

Antioxidants in coffee help control the cell damage that can contribute to the development of the disease. It is also a source of chlorogenic acid, which has been shown in animal experiments to reduce glucose concentrations. It contains tannin which is good for heart and arteries.

Dr. Rob van Dam of the Harvard School of Public Health, who has conducted studies on coffee consumption and diabetes, and participated in a "controversy session" on coffee at the Experimental Biology 2007 meeting underway in Washington, D.C, . says "We're coming from a situation where coffee had a very negative health image."

The study shows that coffee can prevent colon, liver and rectal cancer. The experts believe that maybe coffee reduces the amount of cholesterol, bile acid and natural sterol secretion in the colon, speeding up the passage of stool through the colon (and thus cutting exposure of the lining of the intestine to potential carcinogens in food), and via other mechanisms as well.

People who drank four to six cups of coffee a day had a 28 percent reduced risk compared with people who drank two or fewer. Norwegian researchers found that women who drank one to three cups a day reduced their risk of cardiovascular disease by 24 percent compared with those drinking no coffee at all.

This is taken from a web site called Med India. I am in no position to vouch for its medical claims. I do drink a lot of coffee, and hope the claims are true. Even more so if cheesecake from Junior's (whether or not certified kosher) has a positive synergistic effect. There's a research trial I would volunteer for!

Calf Born With 6 Legs on Nebraska Farm

From The New York Times:
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

LITCHFIELD, Neb. (AP) -- A days-old black Angus calf romps about a central Nebraska farm just like any other -- only this one romps with six legs. ''He's a real freak,'' said Brian Slocum, who said the calf was born Sunday to one of his cows. ''I've never seen anything like this before.''

The two extra appendages -- one a front leg, the other a back -- extend from the calf's pelvic area. The longer of the two extra legs doesn't quite reach the ground, and they don't interfere with the calf's mobility.

The unnamed calf also has organs for both sexes and a surgically supplied rectum.

''I'm curious to see what happens,'' [Slocum] said.

This is a fine candidate for a New Yorker-style contest: come up with the best joke line. Extra credit for plausible links to genetic engineering and/or potential military applications (e.g., the calf can operate an automatic weapon and simultaneously dispense toxic gas while at full gallop. Do calves gallup?)

Activists Want Chimp Declared a 'Person'

From The New York Times:

VIENNA, Austria (AP) -- In some ways, Hiasl is like any other Viennese: He indulges a weakness for pastry, likes to paint and enjoys chilling out watchingTV. But he doesn't care for coffee, and he isn't actually a person -- at least not yet.

In a case that could set a global legal precedent for granting basic rights to apes, animal rights advocates are seeking to get the 26-year-old male chimpanzee legally declared a ''person.''

Hiasl's supporters argue he needs that status to become a legal entity that can receive donations and get a guardian to look out for his interests.

''Our main argument is that Hiasl is a person and has basic legal rights,'' said Eberhart Theuer, a lawyer leading the challenge on behalf of the Association Against Animal Factories, a Vienna animal rights group.

''We mean the right to life, the right to not be tortured, the right to freedom under certain conditions,'' Theuer said.

''We're not talking about the right to vote here.''

And why not? Hiasl is over 18.
Is Hiasl more or less a person than a human individual in a persistent vegetative state? a human fetus prior to viability (or post, but not yet born)? the Enron Corp? Microsoft?

Perhaps more important, how do you/we know? What questions do we ask? What criteria do we apply? Why? And who are we to decide?

And should Hiasl be circumcised?

At the cutting edge of family law

North County Times (Associated Press): Oregon convert to Judaism wants son circumcised; mother opposes

PORTLAND, Ore. -- A divorced couple have gone to court to determine whether their son is to be circumcised following his father's conversion to Judaism.

The former Medford, Ore., man wants his 12-year-old son to undergo the minor surgical procedure, but the boy's mother opposes it. So far, Oregon courts have sided with the father, who has custody.

'The primary custodial parent is the one that makes the decisions about religion and education and about matters of child-rearing,' Kathy Graham, associate dean for academic affairs at Willamette University College of Law.

Other family law experts agree, but say the courts should at least make sure the surgery is in the best interests of the child....

In court papers, the father claims the boy gradually concluded that he also wanted to convert to Judaism and understood that it required circumcision.

The father also claims as the custodial parent he had a constitutional right to raise his son in his religion.

I'd go with the kid on this one (or at least grant him veto power)!

Sierra Club sues Wisconsin, UW on clean air

From The Badger Herald: by Joanna Pliner

The state of Wisconsin — and the University of Wisconsin in particular — could face litigation for violating the federal Clean Air Act.

The Sierra Club, an international environmental organization, held a teleconference and issued a statement Monday announcing its intent to sue the two parties.

According to Jennifer Feyerherm, coordinator for the Sierra Club’s Wisconsin Clean Energy Campaign, coal power plants are the largest sources of soot and fine particulate matter in the air. The Sierra Club’s case against the state of Wisconsin and the university focuses on UW’s Charter Street Heating Plant and the state’s Capitol Heat and Power plant, which both use coal to produce energy.

David Bender of Garvey McNeil & McGillivray, S.C., the law firm representing the Sierra Club, said the environmental organization discovered numerous modifications made to the boilers at the aforementioned coal power plants. Since the Charter and Capitol power plants did not receive permits to make those modifications, he added, the Sierra Club alleged that the plants violated the Clean Air Act.

Bruce Nilles, director of the Sierra Club’s Midwest Clean Energy Campaign, said UW and the state need to “step up” to put Wisconsin on track for “cleaner air and a better future.”

Yale starts work on ‘greenest’ school

New Haven Register :
By Mary E. O’Leary

NEW HAVEN — It was more of a 'bottom-out ceremony,' than a groundbreaking, as dignitaries gathered Thursday at the future site of Kroon Hall, which Yale University hopes will be the 'greenest' building on Earth....

Scheduled to be complete by late 2008, the building [the new Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies] has been designed to meet a platinum Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design standard by combining environmentally friendly materials with high-tech energy savings.

Yale President Richard C. Levin, who speaks often about the importance of environmental leadership, most recently at a gathering of business leaders at Davos, Switzerland, predicted the entire Ivy League will make a collective effort along the lines of what Yale is already doing.

The university has pledged to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions to 10 percent below 1990 levels by 2020, "at a cost that is well under 1 percent of our operating budget," Levin said.

"That’s a small tax. Who wouldn’t pay that price ... for the safety of the planet. That’s nothing. We could do that globally, we could do that across all our institutions. If our government would wake up, we could do that," Levin said.

He said he hopes to have a conference of the 10 leading global universities this summer to get similar commitments.

Can and should great universities be doing more to provide environmental leadership for the society? Is meeting minimum legal requirements an adequate policy?

Harvard A&M?

From Boston Business Journal::
Harvard ponders sustainable farm in Allston

Some Harvard University students and faculty are asking the university to create a farm on some of its holdings in Allston, according to the Harvard Crimson.

The student newspaper reported that Harvard administrators have 'entertained discussions' about a sustainable farm, saying the idea was 'still in the concept phase.'

The Crimson said other ideas put forward to the university include a driving range, a day care facility for Harvard students and staff and a student center.

Maybe a driving range over a sustainable, ethanol-producing sawgrass field? Perhaps with some pot plots, to help with financing? Talk about self-sustaining!

Theorizing Poker at the Harvard Faculty Club

Eye On Gambling : Online Poker is a game of skill, says Harvard expert

Four-time poker champion Howard Lederer makes a plush living playing cards. His scholarly calm at the table has earned him the title 'The Professor,' along with $3.3 million in tournament prize money.

Just don't call him lucky. To describe poker as anything but a game of skill, he says, 'is just wrong.'

Now poker fans in academe are jumping in to help prove that point, most recently with a daylong 'strategy session' at the Harvard Faculty Club bringing together poker pros like Mr. Lederer, game theorists, statisticians, law students and gambling lobbyists.

'The purpose of this meeting,' said Harvard University Law School professor Charles Nesson, kicking things off beneath the dusty visages of long-dead Harvard poets and divines, 'is to legitimate poker.' To do that, Prof. Nesson and his fellows hope to show, statistically, philosophically, legally and otherwise, that poker is a game in which skill predominates over chance.

It is the straight flush of poker theory -- and just about as elusive.

Not my game, but more interesting than most college sports...

U.S. Examines Iraq Battlefield Ethics

TIME: "U.S. Examines Iraq Battlefield Ethics
By AP/PAULINE JELINEK

(WASHINGTON)—A new Pentagon survey of troops in Iraq found that only 40 percent of Marines and 55 percent of Army soldiers would report a member of their unit for killing or wounding an innocent civilian.

In the first internal military study of battlefield ethics in Iraq, officials said Friday they also found that only a third of Marines and roughly half of soldiers said they believed that noncombatants should be treated with dignity.

The study also ... showed that more than 40 percent of Marines and soldiers said torture should be allowed to save the lives of troops.

Bioethics and Armed Conflict

AEI:From Middle East Quarterly (Summer 2007)
Michael Rubin reviews Michael L. Gross's Bioethics and Armed Conflict.

In 2004, the World Medical Association declared that 'medical ethics in times of armed conflict is identical to medical ethics in times of peace.' Gross, an ethicist at the University of Haifa, takes issue with this conclusion. 'Military personnel do not enjoy a right to life, personal autonomy, or a right to self-determination to any degree approaching that of ordinary patients,' he observes. While bioethics focuses on the rights of an individual, military necessity places paramount authority in the state.

Many bioethicists, insulated by peace, wallow in theory and philosophy. Living in Israel--in Haifa, at that--and facing war, Gross infuses his study with reality. As commentators and human rights activists criticize U.S. participation in Iraq and Israeli actions, Gross examines a number of bioethical quandaries that have consequences for contemporary militaries and physicians. He offers rich historical background.

Did Ancient Biotech Create "Nephilim"? Will Modern Science Bring Them Again?

From American Chronicle:

In his book 'Life, Liberty and the Defense of Dignity: The Challenges of Bioethics', the former chairman of the President's Council on Bioethics, Leon Kass provided a status report on where we stand today regarding transhumanism. He warned in the introduction that 'Human nature itself lies on the operating table, ready for alteration, for eugenic and psychic 'enhancement,' for wholesale redesign. In leading laboratories, academic and industrial, new creators are confidently amassing their powers and quietly honing their skills, while on the street their evangelists are zealously prophesying a posthuman future. For anyone who cares about preserving our humanity, the time has come for paying attention'.

Rabbi takes communitarian perspective on bioethics, medical access

:From Washington Jewish Week by Eric Fingerhut

Hear the phrase Jewish medical ethics, and issues such as the religion's view on organ transplants or euthanasia usually come to mind. But Rabbi Elliott Dorff wants to broaden that discussion.

He believes that such matters as most efficiently distributing limited health care resources and ensuring access to health care for all Americans also should be considered through the Jewish ethical framework.

'Secular medical ethics is based on Western liberalism' and has an 'individual rights perspective' based on 'what does the patient want,' said Dorff, rector, professor of philosophy and co-chair of the bioethics department at American Jewish University (formerly the University of Judaism) in Los Angeles.

'The Jewish tradition ... is not as individualistic' and is 'much more communitarian,' which is important in a world in which 'medical care is no longer just [between] the doctor and patient' and resources are limited.

Too much of traditional Jewish bioethics has confined its attention to the here and now, at the bedside. Dorff argues for a more systematic approach to the larger structures of contemporary health care financing and delivery. That's long past due in the field. Rabbi Dorff is not unique in this, but has been one of the leaders.

State Plans Appeal Of Court Rejection Of Prescription Info

From WMUR Manchester:

CONCORD, N.H. -- The state will appeal this week's federal court ruling that struck down New Hampshire's first-in-the-nation law that makes doctors' prescription-writing habits confidential.

Drug companies use the prescription information to target particular doctors and tailor sales pitches to each one, a practice known as 'detailing.'

In announcing her intent Thursday to appeal the ruling, state Attorney General Kelly Ayotte said the law protects physician prescription information from being used for marketing, thereby protecting doctor-patient relationships and the health and safety of patients while also helping containing health care costs.

'The Prescription Information Law protects the state's interests and the interests of New Hampshire's physicians and citizens, which strongly outweigh the pharmaceutical industry's interest in increased profits,' she said.

The law has been on the books since June 30, 2006. It made New Hampshire the first state to try to block pharmaceutical companies' hard-sell pitches by restricting access to information that identifies doctors and other prescribers.

I am sympathetic to the law's stated objectives, and have always been somewhat dubious about the foundations of commercial/corporate free speech. Sounds like an interesting case on appeal.

TierneyLab: Hurwitz Jurors Explain Their Verdict

John TierneyLab Blog From The New York Times

Since the verdict in the Hurwit trial on Friday, I’ve interviewed three of the twelve jurors, and they told pretty much the same story. They said that the jury considered Dr. William Hurwitz to be a doctor dedicated to treating pain who didn’t intentionally prescribe drugs to be resold or abused. They said he didn’t appear to benefit financially from his patients’ drug dealing and that he wasn’t what they considered a conventional drug trafficker.

So why did find him guilty of “knowingly and intentionally” distributing drugs “outside the bounds of medical practice” and engaging in drug trafficking “as conventionally understood”? After attending the trial and talking to the jurors, I can suggest two possible answers:

1. The jurors were confused by the law.
2. The law is a ass (to quote Mr. Bumble from “Oliver Twist”).

I can’t blame the jurors for being confused, because that’s the norm in trials of pain-management doctors. The standard prosecution strategy is to charge the doctor on so many counts and introduce so much evidence that the jurors assume something criminal must have happened. Their natural impulse, after listening to weeks of arguments, is to look for a compromise by digging into the mountain of medical minutiae – and getting in so deep that they lose sight of the big picture.

Tierney is sympathetic to the often desperate situation of those experiencing chronic pain, and their difficulties in getting help from most physicians. His reporting and analysis, and the comments by others, make for an important conversation on the topic.

One more in the long line of casualties in our self-defeating War on Drugs. I suspect historians will regard this "war" as even more catastrophic in its pernicious consequences for American society (not least in its devastating destruction of respect for law and legal institutions) than our failed efforts in Iraq.

William E. Hurwitz Trial : Overreaching prosecution and miscarriage of justice?

By John Tierney - From The New York Times:

Two of the leading pain experts, Dr. Russell K. Portenoy of Beth-Israel Medical Center and Dr. James N. Campbell of Johns Hopkins University, testified without pay as experts for the defense. They said Dr. Hurwitz was widely known as a knowledgeable physician and passionate advocate of giving patients full pain relief, unlike many doctors who were reluctant to prescribe opioids because they feared legal repercussions, particularly when dealing with patients who sometimes used illegal drugs.

Such “problem patients” consumed so much time and energy that most doctors refused to treat them “regardless of what the consequences would be for the patient,” Dr. Campbell testified. He said that he had been initially skeptical of some of Dr. Hurwitz’s high-dose treatments, but was then impressed by the results in patients he sent to Dr. Hurwitz....

“I felt that I had a duty to the patients,” he said. “I hated the idea of inflicting the pain of withdrawal on them.” After the closure of his practice in 2002, he said, two of his patients committed suicide because they gave up hope of finding pain relief.

The most moving testimony came from Mrs. Lohrey and other patients who described their despondency before finding Dr. Hurwitz. They said they were amazed not just at the pain relief he provided but at the way he listened to them, and gave them his cellphone number with instructions to call whenever they wanted.

“I felt like I was his only patient,” Mrs. Lohrey testified. “I think he truly understood the nature of what I was going through.” When she lost her health insurance, she said, Dr. Hurwitz continued treating her at no charge, and helped her enroll in a program that paid for her opioid prescriptions. After Dr. Hurwitz’s practice was shut down, she could not find anyone to treat her for seven months.

From the Drug Policy Alliance:

"While we are saddened that Dr. Hurwitz was not entirely exonerated, we are heartened that the court and the jury rejected the most outrageous and dangerous claims of the federal prosecutors, which, had they gained traction, would have threatened the entire practice of pain medicine across the country," said Daniel Abrahamson, DPA's Director of Legal Affairs. "Hopefully, the Department of Justice will be chastened by this experience and will not willy-nilly target pain doctors who valiantly fight for their patients' well-being."

Ivy League's female presidents meet at Harvard to discuss gender equality and education

From SignOnSanDiego:

When Drew Gilpin Faust, the dean of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, takes over at Harvard on July 1, half of the venerable league's eight schools will be led by women.

[Brown President Ruth] Simmons said the four women, including University of Pennsylvania President Amy Gutmann and Princeton President Shirley Tilghman, have carved a path that will grow among the Ivies and beyond.

“When it starts to become the issue of being the last Ivy League school to have a woman president – who wants to do that?” Simmons said at a forum sponsored by Harvard's Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. “This is a league and this is a league based on competition.” ...

The presidents each acknowledged their relentless ambition, but at the same time said they wound up at the head of four of the world's leading universities almost by accident.

What was not an accident, they said, was that Tilghman, Gutmann and Simmons were all young Princeton administrators groomed by former president Harold Shapiro.

“He would deny credit,” Gutmann said. “But, he should get credit.”...

Tilghman, a biology professor and researcher, addressed the subject again Wednesday, saying she needed determination to advance in science, but also blinders to the obstacles she faced.

“There may be signals out there that tell me I can't do this, but I'm not going to recognize them,” she said. “Adrenaline is a great hormone.”

So are “chocolate and Diet Coke,” Gutmann joked.

Better Never Than Late

From The New York Times:
By MAUREEN DOWD

There should be a course on government called “The Ultimate Staff Guy.” A morality saga about how much harm you can do as a go-along, get-along guy, spending so much time trying not to alienate the big cheese so he doesn’t can you that you miss the moment where you have to can him or lose your soul....

Six former C.I.A. officials sent [George] Tenet a letter ...berating him for pretending he wrote his self-serving book partly to defend the honor of the agency and demanding that “at least half” of the profits be given to wounded soldiers and the families of dead soldiers (there needs to be a Son of Slam law). ...

“By your silence you helped build the case for war,” the former C.I.A. officials wrote. “You betrayed the C.I.A. officers who collected the intelligence that made it clear that Saddam did not pose an imminent threat. You betrayed the analysts who tried to withstand the pressure applied by Cheney and Rumsfeld.”

" ... It is doubly sad that you seem still to lack an adequate appreciation of the enormous amount of death and carnage you have facilitated.”

Thus endeth the lesson in our class on “The Ultimate Staff Guy.” If you have something deadly important to say, say it when it matters, or just shut up and slink off.

Now, where should I put it, exactly?

From The New York Times:

HONG KONG, May 1 — Just as the Anna Nicole Smith saga was finally fading from the tabloids, a much larger inheritance battle has transfixed Hong Kong residents: a will purporting to have been written by one of the world’s wealthiest women, Nina Wang, leaving her feng shui adviser an estate estimated at more than $3 billion.

From the Sublime to the Ridiculous: A Great Activity for Kids

From The New York Times:

HOUSTON (AP) -- A Houston museum is paying cash for live cockroaches as it seeks to populate a new exhibit.

The 25-cent-per-bug offer comes from the Houston Museum of Natural Science.

The center is trying to secure 1,000 live cockroaches for an updated insect display.

Curator Nancy Greig says cockroaches are as clean as the area in which they live, and catching them is a great activity for kids.