1.  Via Allah, national embarrassment Jimmy Carter once again shows off his foreign policy acumen by arguing that “the pre-eminent obstacle to peace is Israel’s colonisation of Palestine.” So far, this piece has appeared only on Tom Paine and Pakistani papers, but, well, every little bit helps, Jimmy.  Seriously.  Just throw up a few houses and all will be forgiven. 2.  Via Ed Hirsch and The Corner, a William Saletan

Managed to get a dermatologist appointment today, so I’m going to bring these bastard moles to a mole expert and get his opinion on them.  I’m hoping he hates them with such a burning fury that he melts them off with a soldering iron.  But don’t tell them I said that.  They’re mean, spiteful, suspicious things, these irregular-shaped lesions—and it was all I could do just to get them to

To Nathan Woods for the Walk the Line DVD.  I’ll admit to having a soft spot for Reese Witherspoon (I’ve liked her since The Man in the Moon—and was blow away by her in both Freeway, a criminally underseen B-movie classic, and Election), and Joaquin Phoenix made me take notice in Too Die For, a cameo role in U-Turn (and of course, as a young kid—“Leaf Phoenix” back then—in Parenthood). 

From the Washington Post: The United Arab Emirates company that was attempting to take over management operations at six U.S. ports announced today that it will divest itself of all American interests. The announcement appears to head off a major confrontation that was brewing between Congress and the Bush administration over the controversial deal. Sen. John Warner (R-Va.) announced on the Senate floor shortly before 2 p.m. that Dubai Ports

Greg Lukianoff, Interim President Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), sent along the following email that I believe illustrates perfectly the critique of the academic “tolerance” culture that I’ve been at pains to describe and explain—both from a sociolinguistic and a political perspective.  And given how essential it is that such a philosophical paradigm is intellectually thwarted—despite its near ubiquity in university humanities departments, which then translates into its

Woke this morning to find that one of my irregularly shaped arm moles had completely disappeared—which, had I not been so tired, I would have proclaimed a work of Providence, then spent the rest of day peddling the story of my “Miracle Melanoma” to, say, FOXNews (David Asman absolutely lives for this shit), or maybe Newsmax. Unfortunately, I decided to roll over and go back to sleep instead, and when

Wretchard provides some interesting commentary on Robert Kaplan’s Atlantic Monthly piece, “The Coming Normalcy”.  Writes Wretchard:

A video performative, courtesy Standwithus.com. Thanks to Craig C.

From the AP: Contending that women have more options than they do in the event of an unintended pregnancy, men’s rights activists are mounting a long shot legal campaign aimed at giving them the chance to opt out of financial responsibility for raising a child.

Well, there’s been no discernable growth in the size of the moles over the last couple hours, but as a pessimist, I can’t help but to point out that it’s still early. Developing…. update:  Also, I should point out that I can’t see the moles on my back, one or two of which are what prompted the doctor to refer me to a dermatologist.  So for all I know, one