politburo diktat 2.0

Florida teen survives solo field trip to Iraq

When the tall, lanky 16-year-old in the white Nikes, unaccompanied and unable to speak Arabic, explained that he had come to downtown Baghdad for the sake of a school project in “immersion journalism” and humanitarian work — all without his parents’ permission — Patrick Quinn’s heart nearly […]

Who would agree with this statement? “Intelligent Design is thinly designed Creationism, a sham, whose advocates should give up on trying to make a modern secular state reflect their beliefs.”
How about well-known and/or thoughtful Creationists like Rush Limbaugh, Cal Thomas, and (the blogosphere’s own resident Creationist commentator) Michael the Thumper? Read on ..

His mind, I mean.
Read.

BBC: Poland set for Baltic air patrols

Poland has become the first former Warsaw Pact country to take responsibility for patrolling the air space of the three Baltic states.
Polish pilots took over the rotating Nato mission from the US at a ceremony in northern Lithuania. Seventy Polish air force personnel will serve there.
Poland joined Nato […]

First, the guy in Miami, now a rowdy air passenger is cast away on remote Atlantic isle
A drunken passenger on a holiday flight from England to Spain was dropped at a tiny island off the African coast after he swore at the cabin crew, a newspaper reported Friday. The plane’s captain decided to leave the […]

aTypical Joe calls Brokeback Mountain “a straight movie for a straight audience that just happens to be wonderfully empathetic to gay people.
Robbo says that Narnia, “in terms of faithfulness to the book, … was pretty good, mostly fiddling with things that were not crucial to the story.”
Rachel doesn’t think “Silent Night” is anti-Semitic.
Tom Hanna […]

From Chris Bertram at Crooked Timber:
Following the publication of a BBC list of the 10 worst Britons of all time , there’s now a meme going round listing nominations for the 10 worst Americans of all time . The propensity of “conservative” blog commenters to include Jane Fonda, MLK, or Paul Robeson on their lists […]

“A prayer for peace in our time.”

Credit to Allah (who once did something similar) and to Jillian, for the photoshopping.

Lefty Professor Juan Cole’s List
I don’t agree with Juan Cole very much, or perhaps at all. Even this list strikes me as mostly the spin he derides in his opening paragraph.
It would be disingenuous to baldly list 2 or 3 of his “debunked myths” that I agree with and trumpet that. So […]

Editorial Examines Nine Reasons for War
Did President Bush intentionally mislead this nation and its allies into war? Or is it his critics who have misled Americans, recasting history to discredit him and his policies? If your responses are reflexive and self-assured, read on.
On Nov. 20, the Tribune began an inquest: We set out to assess […]

The recent election in Iraq has prompted some complaints from the losers, despite UN findings. Perhaps this tactic reflects a Middle Eastern “bazaar mentality” where everything is haggled, even after the fact, and also a cultural unfamiliarity with elections and accepting their results.
“We have found numerous, serious election irregularities in the … election.” *
“The […]

Not to go all-out on this, but a few more interesting evo items popped up today.
First, John McCain, the very model of a moderate rational, secular Republican, says of Intelligent Design, “let the student decide.” *sigh* Steve Benen, at The Washington Monthly adds, “In related news, McCain said he’d like to see students decide […]

Cell Phone Lodges In Woman’s Throat
Police in Blue Springs, Mo. said they received a call Friday from a man who said his girlfriend was having trouble breathing after she swallowed a cell phone. The two had been arguing about the phone, which ended up being lodged in her throat.
Police said the woman, who wasn’t identified, […]

With polls showing that over 50% of Americans believe that “God created humans in present form,” many of the participants in the Intelligent Design (ID) debate, both critics and proponents, conclude that ID advocates can count on a broad base of popular support when controversies erupt. The occasional election of ID-friendly school boards would […]

Denouement - Random Fate
Jack’s Dad passed today. My condolences to Jack; I know this has been a long struggle for him.