Without bundling, programmers like Disney and Viacom might no longer be able to afford shows with smaller but loyal followings. Under the current system, they can produce niche channels like ESPN Classic because they are bundled with ESPN and other channels, the programmers say.

When asked whether they want total choice, especially from historically monopolistic quasi-utilities, it's no shock that most people say: heck, yes. Yet, as the author and psychology professor Barry Schwartz and two of his colleagues pointed out a few weeks ago in The New York Times Magazine, Americans have this funny habit of confusing freedom, which they cherish, with choice, which can give them headaches.

Why Can't I Have Just the Cable Channels I Want?

What's up with Peeps, anyway?

Soft, Chewy and Taking Over the World

YOU just paid $153 at StubHub.com for a ticket to the July 3 Madonna concert at Madison Square Garden, more than double what it would have cost you at the box office.

Did you get taken?

No, say many economists.

The Price of Admission in a Material World

Each country has its talents; Italy has a talent for beauty. This attribute is not easily measurable: no online graphic can illustrate it. Still, it is palpable, and an architect's cultural work in an ancient Afghan town seemed to me part of a particular Italian disposition.

The modern world does not like such particularities. The rapid movement across borders of capital, goods, labor, technologies and ideas — the thing we call globalization — is a process of accelerated convergence. It brings many welcome things, among them opportunity and cheap goods; it also stirs unease because its stamp is sameness and its pre-eminent criterion efficiency.

This unease has been evident in Europe of late. French youth, invoking revolution in the cause of stability, spent weeks in the street to protest and ultimately overturn a law that would have given them jobs at the price of losing existing guarantees against the abrupt termination of employment.

The proposal smacked too much of "precariousness" for the French. That is to say, it smacked too much of the market, of capitalism, of globalization, for it is in the nature of all these things to be changeable, dynamic and ultimately precarious. They opted, in short, for security over risk, a choice many Americans find puzzling.

Vive La Dolce Vita

A Dutch and two US warships set sail toward the Yemeni coast Sunday to aid a US-flagged sailboat under attack by pirates, the Italian port authority said.

The sailboat, identified as the Tir Na Nog with three people aboard, was attacked by pirates in the Gulf of Aden, 50 miles off the Yemeni coast, said Massimo Maccheroni, spokesman for the Italian port authority.

He said Italian officials alerted US and Yemeni authorities after being contacted by an Italian ship in the area.

No further details were immediately available.

US to Aid Boat Under Attack by Pirates

WHITE HOUSE spokesmen have played down press reports that the Pentagon has accelerated planning to bomb Iran. We would like to believe that the administration is not intent on starting another war, because a conflict with Iran could be even more damaging to our interests than the current struggle in Iraq has been. A brief look at history shows why.

Bombs That Would Backfire

AS the No. 2 general at United States Central Command from the Sept. 11 attacks through the Iraq war, I was the daily "answer man" to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. I briefed him twice a day; few people had as much interaction with him as I did during those two years. In light of the recent calls for his resignation by several retired generals, I would like to set the record straight on what he was really like to work with.

When I was at Centcom, the people who needed to have access to Secretary Rumsfeld got it, and he carefully listened to our arguments. That is not to say that he is not tough in terms of his convictions (he is) or that he will make it easy on you (he will not). If you approach him unprepared, or if you don't have the full courage of your convictions, he will not give you the time of day.

Mr. Rumsfeld does not give in easily in disagreements, either, and he will always force you to argue your point thoroughly. This can be tough for some people to deal with. I witnessed many heated but professional conversations between my immediate commander, Gen. Tommy Franks, and Mr. Rumsfeld — but the secretary always deferred to the general on war-fighting issues.

Ultimately, I believe that a tough defense secretary makes commanders tougher in their convictions. Was Donald Rumsfeld a micromanager? Yes. Did he want to be involved in all of the decisions? Yes. But Mr. Rumsfeld never told people in the field what to do.

A General Misunderstanding

VERIZON had a pretty bad year in 2005, but its chief executive did fine. Although Verizon's earnings dropped by more than 5 percent and its stock fell by more than a quarter, he received a 48 percent increase in salary and compensation. This handsome payout was based on the recommendation of an independent consulting firm that relied on Verizon (and the chief executive's good will) for much of its revenue. When asked about this conflict of interest, the consulting firm explained that it had "strict policies in place to ensure the independence and objectivity of all our consultants."

Please stop laughing.

I'm O.K., You're Biased

IF you make your way over to the Javits Convention Center for the New York International Automobile Show — or if you've gone to any auto show in the last year or so — you'll know that hybrid cars are the hippest automotive fashion statement to come along in years. They've become synonymous with the worthy goal of reducing gasoline consumption and dependence on foreign oil and all that this means for a better environment and more stable geopolitics.

And yet like fat-free desserts, which sound healthy but can still make you fat, the hybrid car can make people feel as if they're doing something good, even when they're doing nothing special at all. As consumers and governments at every level climb onto the hybrid bandwagon, there is the very real danger of elevating the technology at the expense of the intended outcome — saving gas.

Life in the Green Lane

The Defense Department has issued a memorandum to a group of former military commanders and civilian analysts that offers a direct challenge to the criticisms made by retired generals about Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld.

The one-page memorandum was sent by e-mail on Friday to the group, which includes several retired generals who appear regularly on television, and came as the Bush administration stepped up its own defense of Mr. Rumsfeld. On the political front, Republican strategists voiced rising anxiety on Saturday that without a major change in the course of the Iraq war, Republican candidates would suffer dearly in the November elections.

Pentagon Memo Aims to Counter Rumsfeld Critics