U.S. Is No Haven, Canadian Judge Finds — A Canadian legal ruling states that the United States is no longer a safe asylum for refugees. Among other things, the judge cites the Maher Arar case. That's an incident no American of any political stripe has the least cause to be proud of.
In Japan, cellular storytelling is all the rage — Apparently these "cell phone" novels are popping onto the best seller lists.
White House press secretary Dana Perino doesn't know what the Cuban Missile Crisis was — I doubt this seems like a problem to conservatives, but it damned sure ought to. That's high school U.S. history. For another, she's the freaking White House press secretary. On the other hand, since anti-intellectualism is a carefully-cultivated trend within modern conservatism, I suppose this ignorance of key aspects of American history shouldn't be the least bit surprising. (Long time readers may remember the Trent Lott issue from last year, about him not knowing the difference between Shia and Sunni. A somewhat parallel situation. My observations at the time, and reader comments, here.)
Cash for peace — Money shot:
"The US budget for Iraq in FY 2006 comes to $3,749/Iraqi. This is more than double their per person GDP. It's like spending $91,000 per person in the US. Why not just bribe the whole country?" But seriously: Why not just bribe the whole country? If we're determined to commit an enormous amount of resources to the Iraqi people, why not let the Ghost of Milton Friedman take over and simply design some sort of program that offers enormous economic benefits in exchange for reductions in violence?