Insta points out a great article in the L.A. Weekly which notes that
For some people, the only appropriate response to the pathological hatred emanating from the Middle East is self-flagellation.
To each his own. I was a little taken aback yesterday by reports that Shi'ites in Umm Qasr in chose self-flagellation as their first act of open defiance of Baathist rule. But appparently it was an important ritual that Saddam had banned for the last 35 years.
Listening to members of the anti-capitalist band Radiohead whine about the swiping of some early versions of songs from their new album, you'd almost get the impression that they believe in private property.
Canada may not be able to fulfill its commitment to deploy 1,500 troops in Afghanistan.
UPDATE: Victor Davis Hanson nails it:
It is the singular achievement of the present Canadian government to turn a country whose armed forces once stormed an entire beach at Normandy and fielded one of the most heroic armies in wars for freedom into a bastion of anti-Americanism without a military.
Some economists are saying that oil alone will not finance the rebuilding of Iraq. The country will only find a solid economic footing if its debts are discharged as well. That means France and Russia, among others, will have to write off the large loans they made to Saddam. Considering how Saddam spent that money, it doesn't seem fair to make his victims spend generations paying off the Europeans for the pleasure of being tortured and brutalized.
UPDATE: The Russian Defence Minister is bragging that the Iraqi's recent use of Russian-made weapons has been "great advertising" for them. Perhaps they can call it even then.
Reading this piece in the Christian Science Monitor, I realize that I have never personally seen a statue of Lincoln. There is a notorious statue of Washington on the UT campus, as well as a bronze likeness of a distant relation of mine by the name of Davis. But no Lincoln, and obviously that wasn't an oversight.
I'm reminded of the time I was traveling in Pennsylvania and we stopped at a "Civil War Memorial." We got in there, and much to my astonishment, it was a memorial to Yankees! It made sense when I thought about it; they did win, after all. But it had never occurred to me in my previous twenty-odd years that there were memorials to the "War Against Northern Aggression" in the North.