NOW I UNDERSTAND: It was all Ken Layne’s fault. I should have known.

STANLEY FISH, PRO AND CON: Ben Domenech has the scoop.

MORE ON THE AL QAEDA-HAS-SHOT-ITS-WAD THEORY, FROM REID STOTT. I hope he’s right, but I don’t think we should let our guard down.

EUROHYPOCRISY: Andrew Stuttaford makes a point that some bloggers have made:

EU leaders are indignant at George Bush’s suggestion that he would rather not work with a Palestine run by Arafat. This is, they claim, interfering in the Palestinians’ right to choose their own leadership. Well, it’s an argument, I suppose, but it’s rather difficult to reconcile with the EU response to Austria’s elections two years ago. These elections (which were, incidentally, infinitely more democratic than anything ever seen in the Palestinian Authority) led to the formation of a government that many EU politicians found unacceptably right-wing.

The EU’s response?

Sanctions.

Yeah, but Haider’s worse than Arafat — because he’s critical of the EU. Arafat, on the other hand, loves the EU. And why shouldn’t he? They’re his chief financial backer.

RICHARD BROOKHISER has these observations on the war:

Osama bin Laden has imagination and charisma, if you find dream interpretation and Koranic midrash charismatic. But isn’t it likely that he and his network have profited from the help of a government—and not the dirt-poor kakistocrats of Khartoum and Kabul? Who is the obvious candidate, in terms of both resources and grudges? Our intelligence agents have dismissed the report that hijacker Mohammed Atta met with an Iraqi agent in Prague, but the Czechs have not backed down from it. At home, we are looking for a rogue American scientist as the source of last fall’s anthrax letters. But then came the story that one of the 9/11 hijackers checked into a hospital emergency room with lesions that the attending physician now says were consistent with exposure to anthrax. If that is true, where then did Osama bin Laden get his stash? If Saddam Hussein had been living a monk’s life, he would still be a danger, because he’s manufacturing nukes and germs to incinerate and poison Israelis and whoever else displeases him. But his vows of peace may already have been broken.

Most Americans will celebrate the Fourth of July weekend as they always have—by relaxing, partying and watching fireworks. But this year, we should reflect that not celebrating is our right; that, in many parts of the world, putting on a bathing suit or even drinking beer is forbidden; that, if we hear a sermon over the weekend, it will be a sermon of our choosing; and that when we see the fireworks, they stand for all the explosions from Long Island to Hawaii to, yes, Germany, Japan and Afghanistan, when Americans fought for their rights and their indulgences, and exacted terrible vengeance on our enemies.

Indeed. Say, it occurs to me: Everyone is saying that America might be attacked on July 4 because of that date’s importance. Has it occurred to anyone that we might launch an attack of our own then for the same reason?

RUSSIA IS DROPPING ITS SUPPORT FOR AN IRANIAN NUCLEAR REACTOR: This is partly because of U.S. pressure, but I have to think that the Russians, upon consideration, are less enthused about the notion of a nuclear-capable Iran than they might once have been.

THE BUTCHER OF BAHRAIN: God knows what people would be saying if this guy were an American. But he’s not, so it’s okay.

EUROWEENIE ANTISEMITISM ALERT: Survey says. . . one in three Europeans is antisemitic!

A new form of anti-Semitism has taken hold in Europe, fuelled by anti-Israeli sentiment, according to a survey which shows almost one in three Europeans now harbours some anti-Jewish feelings.

Attitudes towards Jews vary across the five countries surveyed with Belgians, Germans and the French “most likely to hold a prejudiced view of Jews”. Denmark and the UK are said to be the least prejudiced. But attitudes in the UK show a worryingly high level of anti-Semitic sentiment. . . .

One in five Britons believes Jews have too much power in the business world. More than 10 per cent of those surveyed in the UK believed Jews are “more willing to use shady practices to get what they want”.

One in 10 believes “Jews don’t care what happens to anyone but their own kind” while one in three considers “Jews are more loyal to Israel than to this country”.

Fiona Macaulay of the Board of Deputies of British Jews said: “These findings are shocking. If one was to substitute the word Jew for black there would be outrage.”

And remember: the UK is where there’s the least antisemitism. I shudder to think how the French are answering. I think, though, that this analysis has cause and effect backward: I don’t think that antisemitism is fueled by anti-Israeli sentiment.

UPDATE: A reader sends this link to a poll on antisemitism in America. You’ll note, however, that it’s much stronger among recent immigrants.

WELL, THE POWER’S BACK ON, and I’ve got a nearly finished draft of my TCS column. But I think I’m going to bed. Good night.

TEEN SEX VERSUS ADULT SEX: One man’s distinction.

COMPUTING BY CANDLELIGHT: No, really. The power went out shortly after we got home from the “Hey, Arnold!” movie. I’m on the laptop — still with a highspeed connection, since the router and DSL modem are connected to an uninterruptible power supply that’s good enough to run them for hours. But I’ve got a candle burning for room illumination — it’s like Abe Lincoln in the 21st century, sort of. Here at InstaPundit Secret Headquarters we don’t let no stinkin’ thunderstorms get in the way of bloggin’!

The “Hey, Arnold!” movie was pretty darn bad. The Nickelodeon show is okay, and my standards for kiddie cartoon flicks are low — I was even able to enjoy “Return to Neverland,” which most people panned. But I have some standards. It was a rehash of an ancient plot: developer wants to bulldoze neighborhood for mall, kids have to stop him. The developer, in a slap that Virginia Postrel should take personally, keeps telling people not to be afraid of change, and constantly repeats “change is good!” right to the very end. The heroes all want to keep things just the way they’ve always been.

But forget the lame plot. The animation sucked; the drawings all looked faintly blurry all the time. It wasn’t even up to Hanna-Barbera standards. And it wasn’t bad projection — the previews were sharp, and so were the titles. It was just crap.

My daughter enjoyed it, though, and when we got home we finished The Prisoner of Azkaban (on our third time through the series) by flashlight before she went to sleep.

UPDATE: Brian Carnell says the movie sucked like a bilge pump. Yeah, I was actually being kind. He’s right: Nickelodeon should be ashamed. At least it was short.

INSTAPUNDIT has earned me a little money since its inception. But it’s a huge success compared to Salon. Just think how long I could keep going if I were down to my last $1.5 million in cash.

FOR THOSE WHO WONDER how I spend my time, for the last three hours or so I’ve been working on my next TechCentralStation column (space aliens are involved; I’m using the wireless laptop in the playroom, where I have a big comfy chair that’s ideal for this purpose) while my daughter plays Barbies. There was a brief interruption in Barbiedom while she played “Trouble” with her mom when she got back from the office, but the goings on in Barbiedom are apparently very absorbing though I’m a bit hazy on what exactly they are. Of course, I used to be just as absorbed playing with the green plastic soldiers that cost a buck for a whole bag — though that absorption was generally a lot louder and more destructive.

Every once in a while I flip screens and post one of these. In a little while I’ll fire up the grill (a spicy-teriyaki tuna for us, chicken for my daughter). Tonight, we may see the new “Hey, Arnold!” movie if it’s not too crowded.

I’m not sure why anyone should care about this, but somebody emailed me that it was a topic of conversation at the Blogosphere panel yesterday. So, since I couldn’t answer in person, here you are.

A READER SENDS THIS WORLDCOM-RELATED OBSERVATION:

I worked for many years at a big five firm, I have sympathies both ways when it comes to these accounting messes, but with the WorldCom situation, I think the press is missing a few points.

First, the accounting delusions did not cause the company to collapse and 17,000 people to lose their jobs. No, a very bad business model that said if you keeping on growing by acquiring lousy companies, you can become one great big good company, failed (this is simply a variation of the old, we sell everything at a loss but make up for it in volume). All the bad accounting did was extend the time before these people HAD to be laid off. In other words, they were not screwed because they worked for a crooked CFO; they were screwed because they worked for a stupid company.

Second, the CFO was, almost for sure, not trying to defraud people in the sense of achieving any personal gain. Without any personal knowledge of this company, I can almost bet you, what he was thinking, was that if I just buy the company some time, things will correct themselves–and nobody will ever notice how I bridged this problem.

I think that’s probably right.

READER JAY ALLMAN sends this link to an interesting David Warren column on Christian pacifism.

Warren says that the notion that Christ was antiwar is unfounded.

HERE’S ANOTHER REPORT from yesterday’s Blogosphere panel.

JIM HENLEY offers some interesting speculation on the anthrax investigation, and a possible Rhodesian connection. It does hang together nicely, but it’s still speculation. There’s enough information, though, that someone with investigative resources ought to be able to decide if it has some basis.

I LIKE GINGER STAMPLEY’S site policy statement. It’s pretty much the way I feel.

STANLEY HAUERWAS UPDATE: Christian blogger Christopher Johnson says Hauerwas is wrong.