Nearly every night here for the past month, Iraqis weary of the tumult around them have been turning on the television to watch a wacky-looking man with a giant Afro wig and star-shaped glasses deliver the grim news of the day.

A TV Comedy Turns an Unconventional Weapon on Iraq’s High and Mighty: Fake News - New York Times

As a defense against terrorism, militarizing the Great Lakes is a symbolic defeat. And it is another in a series of incremental changes that threaten to change everything that we take for granted about our country.

Fire on the Water

Her case fuelled the debate on full-face veils, originally sparked when Commons leader Jack Straw said he asked Muslim women to remove veils when they visited his constituency advice surgeries.

Prime minister Tony Blair also added his voice to the debate saying the full-veil was a "mark of separation".

I think this is a really interesting issue. A woman was fired from her teaching job for wearing a full face veil. She is suing (of course), but the Prime Minister got involved and made some comments about the need for dialog about the integration of British Muslims into society.

On the one hand, you've a right to freedom of religion. But I think it goes without saying that wearing these things goes beyond simple religious expression to the point where it becomes deliberately anti-social. I've been told that Muslim women want to wear them. I'm concerned that this is a bit like the arguement that southern slaves were comfortable and didn't want to be free. The objective truth about the social position of these people is not justified by the fact that they have grown accustomed to it and find it comfortable or even desirable.

I think its probably reasonable to ask that these things not be worn in particular professional contexts. If my religion required me to wear a dead rat on a chain around my neck I imagine I would also have trouble getting a job.

I'm generally interested in the dialog between British Muslims and the rest of their society. There is a radical fringe there. The people who attacked the underground summer before last were locals. They grew up in Leeds. There seems to be, on some level, a unhealthy lack of rejection in regard to certain events by some of the spokesmen for the British Muslim community. There was a press release put out just a few days after the airplane "liquid bombers" were arrested which essentially said "this wouldn't happen if your foreign policy conformed with our views." Something worries me that having grown up in England these people have looked at the IRA as a model for how to behave. In any event, I think that the global dialog between western and Islamic society is going to start here. This is the space to watch.

BBC NEWS | Politics | MP tells veil woman 'let it go'

The war I knew was infinitely more complex, contradictory and elusive than the one described in the network news broadcasts or envisioned in the new field manual. When I finally left Baquba, the violent capital of Iraq’s Diyala Province, I found myself questioning many aspects of our mission and our accomplishments, both in a personal search for meaning and a quest to gather lessons that might help those soldiers who will follow me.

We learned that counterinsurgency cannot be conducted from afar.

But did we make a difference?

In theory, security should have improved with the development of capable Iraqi Army and police units. That did not happen. This is the central paradox of the Iraq war in fall 2006.

This paradox raises fundamental questions about the wisdom and efficacy of our strategy, which is to “stand up” Iraqi security forces so we can “stand down” American forces. Put simply, this plan is a blueprint for withdrawal, not for victory. Improving the Iraqi Army and police is necessary to prevail in Iraq; it is not sufficient.

Counterinsurgency is more like an election than a military operation.

Waging War, One Police Precinct at a Time

North Korea said today it has performed its first-ever nuclear weapons test.

USGS has confirmed. Buy the t-shirt!

N Korea's nuclear test 'happiness' - World - smh.com.au

I think that Benedict knew precisely the risks he was taking and thought the risks worthwhile. Why? Because he believes in the power of reason to cut through the fog of passion. Because he believes that serious problems — such as those posed by jihadist Islam — can be solved only by examining them at their roots.

USATODAY.com - OPINION

A stark assessment of terrorism trends by American intelligence agencies has found that the American invasion and occupation of Iraq has helped spawn a new generation of Islamic radicalism and that the overall terrorist threat has grown since the Sept. 11 attacks.

Spy Agencies Say Iraq War Worsens Terror Threat - New York Times

The article cited a confidential French foreign intelligence document dated September 21 in which a source said the Saudis had received confirmation that bin Laden died of typhoid in Pakistan on August 23.

There seems to have been what I've called an air pressure change in the past month. If this was true, it would explain it.

CNN.com - Rumors swirl over bin Laden's fate - Sep 23, 2006

What the Pope actually said, if you're interested, is linked here. The inclusion of the controversial quotation is intended to be provocative and to draw the listener in to the talk. The talk doesn't refute the observation, but uses it as a basis upon which to frame the irrationality of the God of Islam, in contrast to the rational God of Christianity. If he knew this statement would be read by Muslims, he would have known that it would have angered them.

In a way, it speaks to the fundamental philosophical perspective that fuels Al'Queda. Al'Queda beleives that the flaw inherent in western society is the bifurcation between science and religion. They see Islam as a religion in which rational scientific pursuits exist in complete harmony with God. Here, the Pope strikes at that bifurcation while bringing a counter accusation to fundamentalist Islam.

The primary purpose of the essay is a manifesto for the academic study of religion, which is assailed on the basis that it is not empirical. I might agree with the Pope, that questions of philosophy and ethics might have right and wrong answers, and while these questions cannot be effectively assessed by empirical means with today's techniques, that these answers might be found through intellectual observation and analysis, and religion is certainly one of the ways in which these matters are explored, and as such is a valid academic pursuit.

The problem here is two fold. First, the Pope wishes, as Christians often do, to argue that Religion is a prerequist to ethics. I think that good ethics makes sense systemically, and encouraging systemic good doesn't require a God standing over your shoulder. Furthermore, religious people seek to do more than to assess questions of philosophy. They ask people to accept matters of fact about the physical word that are not merely unsupported by empherical evidence, but directly undermined by it. Having said that, I think the Vatican has been distancing itself from that sort of thing lately.

The intention here is not one of retrenchment or negative criticism, but of broadening our concept of reason and its application. While we rejoice in the new possibilities open to humanity, we also see the dangers arising from these possibilities and we must ask ourselves how we can overcome them. We will succeed in doing so only if reason and faith come together in a new way, if we overcome the self-imposed limitation of reason to the empirically verifiable, and if we once more disclose its vast horizons.

I wonder if physicists are going to start burning stuff in the street?

Cartoon War ][ - The Pope Strikes Back

He spent a typical day watching movies, going to class and playing football. He was fascinated to learn about the solar system, and now enjoys reciting the names of the planets, starting with Earth.

An interesting perspective on GitMo that I hadn't seen before. On the other hand I'm a little concerned that they have him reciting the planets starting from Earth. He ought to be starting from Mercury. I hope GitMo didn't teach him to be geocentric. :)

Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | Cuba? It was great, say boys freed from US prison camp