ANOTHER REASON to invade Iraq.

HERE’S A PETITION TO ARM AIRLINE PILOTS, which you can sign if you’re interested.

NPR UPDATE: Reader Jack Shaw sends this:

I actually enjoy NPR, but yesterday the Chicago affiliate (on its program Worldview) broadcast a hilarious speech by Robert Fisk, which he gave at North Park University on April 7. There are too many rich moments to dissect in an email, but the most absurd came when he brought up Mark Steyn’s response to his “they beat me” column and, to horrified gasps from the audience, revealed that Steyn’s column was headlined “A multiculturist gets his due.” The message to the teen audience was, of course, that the pro-American media “hates us”, and would like to see us beaten bloody for speaking the truth. There was no acknowledgement that the line from the WSJ was ironic, intended to mock Fisk’s own words to the effect that he deserved it.

At first I thought Fisk was being manipulative. But as I continued to listen I realized, no. He’s really that stupid.

Here’s the link if you want a listen.

THE COPYRIGHT CRUSADE: Reader Brian Carnell says that Jack Valenti gets his numbers from this strategy document. It’s written from a “war” perspective, with “theaters of conflict” and “counterinsurgency” advice.

Yeah, and we know what the first casualty was in this war. . .

I SWEAR, THIS IS ABSOLUTELY THE LAST CANADIAN ANTHEM UPDATE: Reader Stan Waite writes:

Just wanted you to know that I attended the Texas Rangers vs. Toronto Blue Jays baseball game last night. During the singing of the national anthems, the entire crowd stood for the Canadian National Anthem as well as for the Star Spangled Banner. A gentleman in my section was even singing the Canadian National Anthem with a Texas “twang”.

Er, how else should it be sung?

FEDS QUIETLY TAKING OVER NANOTECHNOLOGY? I’ve heard rumors to that effect, and it’s the subject of my TechCentralStation column today. I think it would be a bad idea.

DOC SEARLS says that Jack Valenti is out of touch with reality. He also notes that the movie industry’s claims that 350,000+ movies are being illegally downloaded every day on the Internet would require near-impossible amounts of bandwidth.

Valenti, lying? Say it ain’t so!

NORWEGIAN CENSORSHIP ALERT: They’ve jailed a guy for having antisemitic stuff on a website. I guess it’s only okay to say that kind of stuff over there if you’re a politician.

JOSH MARSHALL believes Karen Hughes about her reasons for leaving the White House.

YALE SLAVERY UPDATE: Sarah Maserati (and what a cool name that is) writes that reports alleging Yale’s involvement in the slave trade (reported on InstaPundit back in August) have turned out to be bogus.

So far as I know, Michael Bellesiles had absolutely nothing to do with this research.

NPR HAS GONE TO THE DOGS — or rather, to the corporate niche-marketers, according to James Bowman. That’s fine, but they should drop the pretense that there’s anything “public” about their network, except for a small portion of their funding. It’s just Clear Channel for bobos now.

THE IRA / COLOMBIAN CONNECTION is the subject of hearings today in the House International Relations Committee. Gerry Adams has refused to talk about it, which strikes me as deeply suspicious. This doesn’t seem to have gotten as much press coverage as it deserves.

I think we should show our appreciation for British support in the war on terror by bringing the hammer down on these guys. Let Ted Kennedy complain all he wants.

UPDATE: Here’s a story on the IRA / Cuban connection.

SAUDI TROOPS — that is, troops presently loyal to the House of Saud, which currently controls much of Arabia — are massing on the border with Jordan. This is seen as an anti-Israel move, but is it really? It’s 8 mechanized brigades of Saudi troops. That would probably be enough to take on the Israeli girl scouts.

Maybe it’s an effort to block the pending Hashemite Restoration?

CATS AND DOGS, LIVING TOGETHER! Mickey Kaus is saying nice things about The American Prospect! No, really. He is. See for yourself. I’m not making this up!

PATRICK RUFFINI has climbed on the war-profiteer bandwagon. And his store also includes Condi Rice 2008 campaign merchandise! Collectible! Valuable! Soon to be imitated!

CORNEL WEST UPDATE: He’s already being “disrespected” by his once and future colleagues at Princeton, five of whom refer to his remarks about Larry Summers as “highly inappropriate, indeed repugnant and intolerable.”

Sorry Cornel: it may be that people are going to expect you to act like an adult wherever you go. Bummer, that.

STILL MORE ON CANADIAN ANTHEM-BOOING: Reader Evan McElravy writes:

It gets uglier. In the past when relations between the “two solitudes” have been tense, as happens from time to time, there are periodic episodes of hockey fans in English cities booing the French verses of “O Canada.” There was one game in particular a few years ago, in Calgary I think, where some Canadiens players refused to go back out on the ice after. So Canadians boo their own national anthem too, though I’m not sure that excuses the Detroit fans I’ve been to a fair number of U.S.-Canada sporting events (baseball and hockey, on both sides of the border) over the years and can’t remember it ever having happened, but I suspect it isn’t that uncommon. Given that Detroit has a closer intimacy with Canada than any other American city (well, Buffalo), I suspect that there aren’t any real hard feelings though. Imagine if individual cities in the U.S. had their own “civic anthems” that played before games. I suspect there would be plenty of booing then and nobody would think twice about; would that really be any better than doing it to another country, though?

I was brought up to believe that booing was generally rude. Of course, we didn’t go to many hockey games, either.

UPDATE: Reader Tom Milway writes:

I’m in Montreal right now, and I am a huge hockey fan. Last night at the Molson Centre more than a few idiots booed the Star Spangled Banner. The same thing happened Sunday night in Vancouver, the same night that the Pistons fans booed O Canada. Classless behaviour in cities that benefit extraordinarily from American patronage.

Hmm. You think that sports fans are just idiots? No, that would be too harsh.

KEN LAYNE takes on the evil puppet people. You know, Bert is still at large.

BRILL’S CONTENT from beyond the grave. Well, sort of. Reader Eric Vetter writes:

With some embarrassment I admit that I was a subscriber to Brill’s Content [back before I figured out that the Blogs did what he pretended to do…] Anyway, I got a copy of Mother Jones today stating that “The balance of your Brill’s Content subscription has been transferred to Mother Jones Magazine.” Need I say more?

That’s quite odd.

HATE MAIL OF THE WEEK, this from Barbara J. Vaught, legal secretary:

You are despicable. Instead of calling yourself an out and out “liberal”, you hide behind the shirt tales of the so-called “libertarian” party. Since you proudly boast that you are based on grounds of toleration (meaning tolerating anything and everything that morally prohibits) — what I am curious to know, what are your views on world trade, Mr. Liberal Thinker?

Yeah, liberals, libertarians, they both start with the letter L and pretty much agree on everything.

And I think world trade is just dandy. “A McDonald’s in every village, and ‘Baywatch’ in every language” is my motto. But not that lame Hawaiian version. I have some standards.

UPDATE: Reader Glen Hoffing savages me some more:

So liberal and libertarian both start with the letter L?

It is typical of you to downplay the connection.

As any half-wit moron can see, the FIRST FIVE LETTERS are identical.

Yeah, I’m busted. But I’ll be back, spreading more of my liberal poison across the minds of America’s impressionable weblog-reading community. Buwhahaha!

THERE’S A NEW SmarterHarper’sIndex up for this month. The first couple of times I tried to log on, I got a “Server too busy” error, so I guess it’s getting popular. . . .

STILL MORE ON THE CANADA-BOOING INCIDENT — Dan Hartung writes:

I recently went to a Blackhawks game and some jerk behind us was constantly yelling “DETROIT SUCKS!”

Except the other team was Pittsburgh.

Don’t think a lot of thought goes into this …

Reader Matt Bruce sends this ESPN column by Mark Kreidler that makes a similar point.

RON BAILEY SAYS THAT Bill Kristol is wrong, very wrong in his predictions that genetic technology will lead to a Brave New World scenario:

As a consequence of this growing federal role, the government would necessarily be involved with setting standards and protocols for any new genetic technologies, including most especially interventions aimed at genetic enhancements. According to Kristol, cloning, even just therapeutic cloning to create perfect transplants, is further down the slippery slope where, when we reach the bottom, we will find that the Brave New World of government-mandated eugenics is inevitable. . . .

No one else appeared to notice the irony of Kristol’s analysis. Here was the man who is often credited with single-handedly stopping Clinton from nationalizing health care now declaring that free market medicine is doomed. Of course, Kristol might declare it doomed because such a declaration conveniently suits his political needs of the moment — that is, bolstering his campaign to ban both therapeutic and reproductive cloning. In any case, instead of trying to stop potentially beneficial biomedical research because he fears what the government may do with it one day, Kristol should instead be redoubling his already successful efforts to make the government less powerful and less intrusive in the private choices of citizens.

What he said.

STEVEN CHAPMAN has a novel proposal for nuclear disarmament. Watch out, Steve — you’ll have those violent “peace activists” after you!

NEW DEVELOPMENTS ON THE “PEACE ACTIVIST” FRONT, reported by Bill Herbert. Frankly, I think the Marines should take some lessons from these guys.