Culture Wars

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has ordered government and cultural bodies to use modified Persian words to replace foreign words that have crept into the language, such as "pizzas" which will now be known as "elastic loaves," state media reported Saturday.

I wonder if they have a new word for "rube".

Letterman Unspins O'Reilly

Balkinization

Balkinization is a must read.

Big Brother

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said Tuesday that President Bush personally blocked Justice Department lawyers from pursuing an internal probe of the warrantless eavesdropping program that monitors Americans’ international calls and e-mails when terrorism is suspected.

Whoever thought "Big Brother" would look like Alfred E. Newman.

Policy In Ruins

By late November of this year, the United States will have been at war in Iraq for as long as we were involved in World War II. Under those circumstances, the burden of proof should not be on those who argue for changing what we're doing. It should be on those who set a failed policy in motion and keep promising, despite the evidence, that it will somehow pay off if only we "stay the course."
E.J. Dionne Jr.

The More Things Change..........

On this day in 1099, in the First Crusade, a force of European Christians conquered the walled city of Jerusalem, massacring thousands of its inhabitants.