Interesting Weekly Standard essay by Gerard Baker, the U.S. editor of The Times of London, on the future of U.S./Western European relations.  A bit: Conscious that a sullen and hostile Europe is not in America’s best interests, and eager to enlist even reluctant allies in the global struggle for liberty, the Bush team has decided to do all it can to mend fences. It won’t compromise on its priorities, of

“The highly vaunted US military machine, laurelled and praised for its historic march on Baghdad in March and April of 2003, today finds itself a broken force, on the defensive in a land that it may occupy in part, but does not control.  History will eventually depict as legitimate the efforts of the Iraqi resistance to destabilise and defeat the American occupation forces and their imposed Iraqi collaborationist government.  And

Filleting Your Fish Filleting is a popular method of preparing fish for meals. With a little practice and the proper knife, filleting is really easy. To fillet a fish, you simply cut the flesh away from the bones and skin. The end product is a boneless and skinless (or scaleless) piece of fish ready to be cooked. First, Keep Your Catch Fresh Nothing beats the flavor of fresh fish. But

From the AP (via Drudge): Howard Dean, the newly minted leader of the Democratic Party, and former Pentagon adviser Richard Perle made clear their opposing views on the war in Iraq during a debate marred by a protester who tossed a shoe at Perle. Perle had just started his comments Thursday when a protester threw a shoe at him before being dragged away, screaming, “Liar! Liar!” The protester was later

**** backstory here; more here.

**** (h/t OTB)

Hume:  “Whatever.  Screw ‘em.”* **** (h/t INDC Journal) **** update: Glenn rounds up some other reaction, and re-links this debunking of the Media Matters / Kossack claim of Humean perfidy by the brilliant Megan McCardle. Meanwhile—and surprising to precisely no one—Al Franken’s suggestion that Hume lied is based on his own misrepresentation of the original transcript. But you know:  ends justify the means and all that… **** update 2: Dim

..Why Miss Coulter!  I’m a married man!  But if you insist on pleasing yourself in front of me like that, I suppose there’s not much I can do about it…