Here’s The National Review’s Rich Lowry explaining the Bush administration’s “shift” on the status of Gitmo detainees: As far as I can tell from chatting with Geneva guru and Yale/Johns Hopkins law professor Ruth Wedgwood, the administration’s position comes down to this: If the Taliban were to wage a lawful war, wearing uniforms, with a neighboring country, say over a border dispute, they would qualify for Geneva protection. Of course

A reader linked me to this 1992 interview of Noam Chomsky by John Pilger, but I couldn’t bring myself to focus on it. Until, that is, I re-fashioned it a bit (courtesy of the Dialectizer)… J. “Elmer” Pilger: Noam Chomsky has been awmost impossibwe to pigeon-howe. He was against the manipuwations of bof sides in the Cowd Waw, bewieving that the supewpowews wewe actuawwy united in suppwessing the aspiwations and

The bright and fiesty Glenn Kinen responds to my earlier quip that TNR’s Peter Beinart may have overstated his case a bit when he called for stricter U.S. gas mileage regulations as one half of his two-pronged strategy (he also advocates helping the Russians shore up their nuclear material) to defeat the “axis of Evil.” Hey, Glenn– Still in the middle of grading papers, but I promise I’ll post a

Decrying the “rabid right-wing racists deconstructing my work,” Ted Rall takes to the Comics Journal message board to right perceived ideological wrongs — stomping out unfriendly critical discussion and making the world a safer place for…silly, crayon-based communism. Here’s his latest screed, broken down (and amplified) for your convenience: I have never apologized for Osama or Al Qaeda, though I have certainly made the point that many of their complaints

U.S. News and World Report’s current “Washington Whispers” carries this nugget of speculation: You’ve heard the theory that September 11 was chosen for the terrorist attacks because the date, 9-11, is the emergency number. Now, terrorism experts fear that April 11, or 4-11, the information code, will be the next disaster day, possibly through a cyberattack. Also from “Washington Whispers,” Redford and Newman together again (Tagline for movie pitch: “Will

Great column from The Boston Globe’s Jeff Jacoby on Mid-East scholar Steven Emerson and The New McCarthyism. Blacklists, anyone? Why, look no further than NPR. [related: The Idler, “BIAS: A National Public Radio Cover-Up?”]

The New Republic’s Peter Beinart argues that to defeat the “axis of Evil,” the Bush administration must provide aid for nuclear security in the former USSR and (yawn) regulate for better gas mileage here at home. The first part I agree with. But c’mon, Pete. Anti-SUV arguments? You sound like Bill Maher. I thought we’d moved beyond such nonsense… So what, every time I drive to work in my Jeep,

David Brooks has an instructive column on the Olympics and patriotism in The Weekly Standard. Here’s a bit I particularly enjoyed: We are about to enter the Olympic season, and there are going to be a bunch of obnoxious stories about the overbearing patriotism of the host Americans. My point is first that all nations are overbearingly patriotic come Olympics time. And all nations should be. Patriotism, the love of

Via email: Underground cartoon sniper Jim Treacher follows up his editorial work on a typically sneering Rall scribble with a riposte to a typically sneering Teddy posting (‘tseems Teddy scans the message boards looking for references to himself, then responds!; how long before he discovers the job bloggers are doing on him…?). Jim writes: In a recent message board conversation , Mr. Rall indulged in his usual habit for labeling