I had planned on doing a bit of posting about the various talks and tours from this weekend’s YAF West Coast Leadership Conference, but it turns out there’s a beach about 50 yards from the hotel. And lots of bars. So, well, you know. Brief summary of days 1 and 2, for those interested: “Liberals = Evil; Lagavulin by the glass = $9.70” And yes, my pecs are marvelous.

Moises Naim is the editor of Foreign Policy magazine and the author of “Illicit: How Smugglers, Traffickers and Copycats Are Hijacking the Global Economy.” While President Hugo Chavez has been molding Venezuela into his personal socialist vision, other transformations — less visible but equally profound — have taken hold in the country. Venezuela has become a major hub for international crime syndicates. What attracts them is not the local market;

The AP, doing what it does best: The United States ranks near the bottom for infant survival rates among modernized nations. A Save the Children report last year placed the United States ahead of only Latvia, and tied with Hungary, Malta, Poland and Slovakia. The United States tries to save lots of preemies and other babies that wouldn’t be considered worth the effort elsewhere, which is why these stats are

Brian McMurphy, who’s making me miss Smantix a bit less over at Six Meat Buffet, has up a judicious appreciation of Norman Mailer’s life and works.

had it not been so patently racist. Sexism rears its ugly head: “I’ve never heard of one woman beating another woman to death,” said Hayes, hired by Linda’s ex-husband, Seymour, to represent the family. “You know how much work it is to beat somebody to death? Women shoot them, they stab them, they throw them in front of cars. I’ve never seen this – and I was in Homicide!”

Mr. Charming. Spain’s King Juan Carlos told Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Saturday to “shut up” during closing speeches by leaders from the Latin world that brought the Ibero-American summit to an acrimonious end. “Why don’t you shut up?” the king shouted at Chavez, pointing a finger at the president when he tried to interrupt a speech by Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero. Zapatero was in the middle

X-Ray of Lakshmi Before Parasitic Twin Removed: DaVinci code.

The Tao closed almost 300 points lower for the week ending Friday, as investors shifted their orgones towards International Happiness Funds. Reality futures were down 4.2 percent as municipalities scramble to reassess properties before declining valuations take a bite out of their projected property tax collections.

Miami Herald: Just give him the keys, and nobody gets hurt The rapid escalation of the U.S. anti-immigration hysteria — fueled by ratings-hungry cable-television hotheads and leading Republican presidential hopefuls — is a dangerous trend: It may lead to a Hispanic intifada that may rock this nation in the not-so-distant future. Remember the Palestinian intifada of the early 1990s, when thousands of frustrated young Palestinians took to the streets and

Norman Mailer, inventor of the word “fug,” dead at 84.