PJ Media has a very interesting piece featuring Rep. Tom Lantos (D-San Mateo), who managed, under threat of subpoena, to bring representatives from Google, Yahoo, Microsoft and Cisco to testify before a select committee of the House Committee on International Relations about their cooperation with the repressive policies of the Chinese government.  The video contains clips from the hearing—as well as an exclusive interview with Lantos, the only Holocaust survivor

After careful consideration, I have decided to give being a hermit a try—at least for the rest of today.  To that end, I’ll leave you with this, which I call “The Hermit’s Haiku”: **** update:  the novice hermit emerges, momentarily, to ask that you please support the single-testicled arts. Now, GET OFF MY LAWN!

Ruth Wisse, Martin Peretz Professor of Yiddish Literature and professor of comparative literature at Harvard, in today’s WSJ Opinion Journal: The resignation of Lawrence Summers as president of Harvard turns the spotlight on the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS), which has consecrated more time and energy to his ouster than to any other project of the past five years. Until now, all blame has been leveled at the president:

From Gallup: More Americans consider Iran the United States’ greatest enemy today than any other country, according to Gallup’s annual World Affairs survey. Iraq, North Korea, and China are also mentioned frequently by Americans as the United States’ greatest enemy. This poll marks the first time that Iran has topped the list as the United States’ greatest enemy; in previous years, Iraq or North Korea ranked first. Republicans are more

From “A Failure of the Press,” today’s WaPo oped from Bill Bennett and Alan Dershowitz: We two come from different political and philosophical perspectives, but on this we agree: Over the past few weeks, the press has betrayed not only its duties but its responsibilities. To our knowledge, only three print newspapers have followed their true calling: the Austin American-Statesman, the Philadelphia Inquirer and the New York Sun. What have

Who cares?—so long as I get to see gay cowboys going at it all tender and dignified and chapless.  Which, that’s certainly worth having to sit through a couple of incoherent George Clooney speeches and an odious Elton John musical number, in my book. Because here’s the thing:  protein wisdom is nothing if not intellectually curious.  And awards?  Meaningless baubles—particularly when to you it’s all about the work.

From Haaretz: The United Nations has reprimanded a security guard for drawing swastikas on a log sheet later seen by a guard from Israel, a UN spokesman said. The guard who drew the swastikas was issued a letter of reprimand and was asked to attend sensitivity training for the September incident, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said Tuesday. Dujarric would not identify the guard who was reprimanded. A UN official speaking

Rather than pontificate at length about the successful coup against Lawrence Summers by the perpetually “powerless” forces within university humanities departments (who, as anyone not a reactionary conservative will assure you, is perfectly ideologically balanced and has no particular political agenda or ax to grind), I thought I’d simply link and excerpt from a few pieces commenting on Summers’ dismissal. First, here’s Alan Dershowitz, quoted by the WaPo: “It’s a