Executives at American Express are accompanied by "minders" during interviews with the press. What is this, North Korea?

The cost of maintaining a new car fleet is rising. But because customers are balking at paying higher prices for their rentals, the companies are gradually breaking out expenses from the rental base price.

The car rental industry is not keen to discuss this subject. But the process, known as "unbundling," was confirmed in an unusual interview with one of the foremost experts in the car rental industry, David Kilduff, the head of car rental procurement for American Express Business Travel. I was allowed to speak with him only on the condition that a member of the company's public relations staff be present. Mr. Kilduff jokingly referred to him as "the guy in Mutual of Omaha's 'Wild Kingdom,' up in the tree, waiting to take a shot."

I asked Mr. Kilduff if these unbundlings were, in effect, stealth rate increases. And just as he began to agree with me, his handler interrupted him. "You really can't say that," the publicist snapped, cutting Mr. Kilduff short.

Rental Car Customers Chafe at Tougher Rules

Is it really possible to expect that more punishment from the Israelis and the Americans, this time for not voting the way we wanted them to, would lead them to abandon Hamas?

A far wiser course for the United States to pursue would be to step back and desist from deliberately provoking the Palestinians, and give Hamas a chance to reconsider its own options.

The Right Way to Pressure Hamas

"The bottom line is that there is no US-Israeli plan, project, plot, conspiracy to destabilize or undermine a future Palestinian government," said Sean McCormack, a State Department spokesman.

What there was, Mr. McClellan and Mr. McCormack said, was a threat to cut off aid to the Palestinians if Hamas does not renounce violence, recognize Israel and accept previous agreements.

In other words, "we will bring you down, but it will be your own fault."

US and Israel Deny Plans to Drive Hamas From Power

After a tortured debate, Parliament voted overwhelmingly on Tuesday for a total ban on smoking in indoor public places in England — a move that seemed certain to end the time-hallowed traditions of the smoky British pub, where a pint of ale and a cigarette once defined the downtime of generations.

British Ban Indoor Smoking

"I look around," Trent Lott said, "and think, 'Am I the only one who thinks this is stupid?'"

Senator Ted Stevens, Republican of Alaska, said, "It's sort of arrogant of us, isn't it?"

Politics Trump Policy in an Election Year

The White House characterized last week's closed-door briefings as a significant concession and a sign of the administration's respect for Congress.

Many Democrats dismissed the briefings as virtually useless.

I sense an impasse.

Senate intelligence committee member Mike DeWine (R-Ohio) is drafting legislation that would "specifically authorize this program" by excluding it from the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. Senators Snowe and Hagel also support the plan.

What, then, exactly, would be left for the FISA court to do? By all indications, DeWine's "exclusion" is effectively a repeal of FISA.

Hagel said, "if the inquiry is just some kind of a punitive inquiry that really is not focused on finding a way out of this, then I'm not so sure that I would support that."

Because really, what's the big deal?

Congressional Probe of NSA Spying Is in Doubt

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"If popular culture has taught us anything," Daniel H. Wilson says, "it is that someday mankind must face and destroy the growing robot menace." Luckily, Dr. Wilson is just the guy to help us do it.

If Robots Ever Get Too Smart, He'll Know How to Stop Them

Do you think NYT's opinion of this approach comes through clearly? This piece isn't even labeled as "news analysis."

The strategy has many risks, especially given that Hamas will try to secure needed support from the larger Islamic world, including its allies Syria and Iran, as well as from private donors.

It will blame Israel and the United States for its troubles, appeal to the world not to punish the Palestinian people for their free democratic choice, point to the real hardship that a lack of cash will produce and may very well resort to an open military confrontation with Israel, in a sense beginning a third intifada.

Farhat Asaad, a Hamas spokesman, laughed and added: "First, I thank the United States that they have given us this weapon of democracy. But there is no way to retreat now. It's not possible for the US and the world to turn its back on an elected democracy."

Care to make a wager on that?

US and Israelis Are Said to Talk of Hamas Ouster

SCHMIDT: We try very hard to look like we're out of control. But in fact the company is very measured. And that's part of our secret.

PAGE: We don't generally talk about our strategy ... because it's strategic. I would rather have people think we're confused than let our competitors know what we're going to do. That's an easy trade-off.

BRIN: You always hear the phrase, money doesn't buy you happiness. But I always in the back of my mind figured a lot of money will buy you a little bit of happiness. But it's not really true.

PAGE: If we were motivated by money, we would have sold the company a long time ago and ended up on a beach.

Lou Pai was motivated by money.

Then there is the "enigmatic" Lou Pai, one of the only higher-ups able to foresee the bad future and escape while Enron's stock prices were still unrealistically bloated. In the film, Lou Pai is first introduced as a kind of mad genius, in charge of a highly speculative new division of Enron, for which he grossed, during his tenure, over a hundred million dollars. But there's always a dark, seedy underbelly, and the film does not hesitate to amplify it for all it's worth during the Lou Pai "Chapter": the music turns dark, the screen flickers with sinister strobe effects, and we see video of the evil Mr. Pai speaking in slow motion. Did he kill someone? No. Did he gleefully participate in the My Lai massacre? No. Did he fund communists on the side? No.

Worse: he liked strippers.

So much so that he left his wife for one. Then he bought a bunch of Colorado and moved to a castle in Hawaii.

For more on Pai:

On February 25, 2000, Lou Pai sold 10,000 shares of Enron stock at $65.04 a share, yielding proceeds of $650,400.

On March 7, 2000, Lou Pai sold 100,000 shares of Enron stock at $72.02 a share, for a total of $7,202,000.

On March 22, 2000, Lou Pai sold 1,760,500 shares of Enron stock at $74.57 a share. Total return: $131,280,480.

Over the next two months, Lou Pai sold nearly two million additional shares of stock, worth more than $130 million.

During a single week in May 2001, shortly before he retired from his position at Enron, Pai cashed in additional shares worth more than $70 million.

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