“Israel’s Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, approved a plan yesterday for security measures to seal off Jerusalem from the West Bank,” The Independent reports. “The plan is expected to include look-out towers, electronic cameras, trenches and more military checkpoints.” Proposals to fortify the entire metropolis — including its occupied Arab eastern half — came as the city spent another day on the highest alert. Mr Sharon — who campaigned for election

“Republicans say they may take action to stop congressional investigators from suing Vice President Dick Cheney to get information on business executives who met with him and his aides on energy policy.” the AP reports. ‘I think it may come to that,’ said Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee. Congress’ investigative arm, the General Accounting Office, shouldn’t be ‘trying to impose disclosure on internal

“A Utah woman has won $270,000 in damages against a fundamentalist church which promised her the Second Coming. Kaziah Hancock was told she could meet Jesus in the flesh if she handed over land and water rights to the Salt Lake City church. When he didn’t show up, she sued the church for breach of contract, fraud and emotional distress and won.” Textbook contract law — which (blessedly?) protects idiots

The AP’s Brian Murphy reports that “[j]ailed fighters of the fallen Taliban shout the name of their former foe, but no longer in anger. ‘We want to go to an American prison,’ many plead. Anything, they say, to leave Shibergan prison in northern Afghanistan, now jammed to more than 10 times its capacity with about 3,500 men. But unlike the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay, this has been a

I readily admit when I’m wrong. Turns out shoe searches might not be such a bad idea, after all. But let’s get it right, can we? I mean, you’d think our new and improved, federalized airport security crews would be able to keep tabs on one shoeless guy whose hightops had explosives residue on them, wouldn’t you…? And now that security’s been federalized, we get to pay for such institutional

Here’s an excerpt from John O’Sullivan’s rather keen and candid column on the cult of diversity: both political parties support diversity preferences

I just came across this li’l nugget — from NRO’s Jonah Goldberg, who’s down on the Corner, bloggin’ on the SOTU address: Okay, I admit this is unfair criticism…but I loathe the phrase ‘economic security’ and it makes me cringe that this was his biggest applause line. How come every civil libertarian in open-toed shoes thinks it’s brilliant to say something like ‘our security must not come at the cost

Jay Nordlinger spends a good bit of space in his latest NRO “Impromptus” column taking a big stick to Al Sharpton. Here’s a sample: There are a great many black Americans who are repulsed by the likes of Sharpton and Jackson; of course, they