APPLYING TO GRADUATE SCHOOL VIA BLOG? Tacitus is giving it a shot.

I NEVER GOT UP TO SPEED on the Plame/Wilson affair, which heated up while I was on vacation. But Mark Kleiman has more.

DALE AMON WANTS FOLLOWUP on a couple of stories from before the Iraq invasion.

THE MIRROR offers a list of top blogs. Tim Blair’s comment: “In your face, John Pllger!”

WE CAN’T BE MURDERERS. THAT WOULD BE UN-ISLAMIC!

The Iranian Government has rejected the findings of a judicial inquiry into the death in custody of journalist Zahra Kazemi, a Canadian national.
It emerged on Monday that the judge investigating the case had charged two officials from the intelligence ministry with “complicity in semi-intentional murder”.

But a government spokesman on Tuesday cast doubt on the legitimacy of the inquiry, describing its findings as having nothing to do with reality.

Well, that’s settled, then.

IT’S FREEDOM OF RELIGION, not freedom from religion, we’re told. So I guess this would be okay. . . .

UPDATE: Reader Ben Gibbons emails:

If most of the Founding Fathers of our nation had been followers of Cthulhu (and even those who weren’t devout recognized his importance); if they had specifically mentioned Cthulhu in the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence as the fountainhead of all liberties and freedoms; if our laws, culture, and customs were based in large part upon the principles found in the teachings of Cthulhu; then you might have a point. As it is, you’re just full of it.

Hmm. So the real question here isn’t whether we have a state religion. Rather it’s the claim that we do, or should, have a particular state religion. I’d certainly prefer Christianity or Judaism to the Elder Gods, if that’s the choice. But I don’t believe that the Constitution requires me — or even permits me — to make that choice.

ANOTHER UPDATE: To my surprise, this post is generating less email than my dissing of White Castle and Krispy Kreme, below. But Michael Gebert writes:

I have to wonder which Founding Fathers Ben Gibbons thinks were so determined to see Christianity sewn into the very fabric of our government and society.

Was it John Adams, who said of the framers, “It will never be pretended that any persons employed in that service had interviews with the gods, or were in any degree under the influence of Heaven, more than those at work upon ships or houses, or laboring in merchandise or agriculture; it will forever be acknowledged that these governments were contrived merely by the use of reason and the senses.”

Or maybe it was Jefferson, who said “Christianity neither is, nor ever was a part of the common law”?

Or Franklin, who said “When a religion is good, I conceive that it will support itself; and, when it cannot support itself, and God does not take care to support, so that its professors are obliged to call for the help of the civil power, it is a sign, I apprehend, of its being a bad one.”

If there’s a reason why Iran is terrorized by corrupt mullahs and we aren’t, I think it starts here. We forget that at our peril.

As George Washington noted, “the government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion.”

I’m willing to ignore, as de minimis, things like “In God We Trust.” But there’s nothing de minimis about what Roy Moore was attempting. He wanted to make a statement, to the effect that George Washington was wrong, and that the United States is a Christian nation. He wanted, in other words, to establish Christianity as the officially sanctioned religion. And that’s not, er, kosher. It’s quite obvious that Moore has more in mind than merely making a cultural/historical statement about the role of the Judeo-Christian tradition in law. And to suggest otherwise is either to be completely clueless or to, er, bear false witness.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Boy, while I was on my birthday break, the mail poured in on this post. Some messages didn’t get read — like the one with the subject line “You are a serious dumbfuck regarding the Living God and this country ” Well, actually, I did read that one. It continued:

Wet nosed bloggers afraid of God. “Oh, look at the muslims!! That’s what happens when people get religion!!” The muslim are fucking devils, boy. They worship the devil. They want to put the world off on the Living God of Creation. Atheist fucking bloggers. Fucking “I’m correct on this, see, am I correct? I am correct and everybody can see that. I’m part of the correct, intelligent people.” Fucking two-digit I.Q. comic book fucking genius atheists.

Uh, right. On a more civil note, Clayton Cramer says that many of the above quotes are wrong. (Though in an earlier post he seems to regard me as one of the “intellectual shock troops” of the left.) [Well, you have written for The Guardian, after all! — Ed. Just call me Atrios! I think he just did. — Ed.] At any rate, I apologize for the errors — I didn’t check the Gebert quotes, and I’ve always regarded Liberty magazine as trustworthy — and as it’s published by the Seventh Day Adventists, it can hardly be called a shill for secular humanism.

Quotes or not, the notion that what Roy Moore was trying to do is either constitutional, or consistent with American ideals, is just wrong. Adopting a particular religion’s tenets — and any reading of the Ten Commandments makes clear that they’re religious tenets, not general guides to living as some maintain — is establishing a religion. That’s forbidden by the First Amendment. Interestingly, it also appears to be forbidden by the Alabama Constituion, which Justice Moore presumably swore to uphold. It’s hard to be sure with web searches, but I believe this is the current text:

That no religion shall be established by law; that no preference shall be given by law to any religious sect, society, denomination, or mode of worship; that no one shall be compelled by law to attend any place of worship; nor to pay any tithes, taxes, or other rate for building or repairing any place of worship, or for maintaining any minister or ministry; that no religious test shall be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under this state; and that the civil rights, privileges, and capacities of any citizen shall not be in any manner affected by his religious principles.

Those who think that America should be run according to religious principles are entitled to their opinions, of course. But they shouldn’t pretend that they’re asking for anything less, or that doing so isn’t an establishment of religion.

MORE: The Krispy Kreme issue, however, is provoking outright lawlessness. Can’t we all just get along?

THE COLUMBIA ACCIDENT REPORT IS OUT. The cause is damage from a foam strike on launch causing burn-through on reentry, essentially. That’s what it looked like at the time.

I looked over the report quickly to see if I could find discussion of the issue raised by Brian Carnell back in February: the reformulation of the foam for environmental reasons, said by some to make it less robust. There’s a bit of discusison in Chapter 3, (p. 3), which notes that the foam was reformulated for environmental reasons, but I can’t find any discussion of whether that had any impact. I may have missed something, though — the report is very long, and I’ve just skimmed it.

Here’s a news story summarizing the report.

LT SMASH IS HOME.

MOSTLY AFRICA REPORTS that the freed Algeria hostages are being told not to sell their stories to the media.

JAY SOLO: “Isn’t it funny how wrong near future SF can get things?”

INSTAPUNDIT gets results.

HOWARD VEIT PREDICTS HIGHER GAS PRICES by the end of the week, and says the Bush Administration has dropped the ball. I guess a lot of folks will be singing those Gas Hog Blues again.

JEFF JARVIS OFFERS SUGGESTIONS for 9/11 anniversary coverage.

UPDATE: Reader Steve Mytyk emails:

The best thing that any network could do, from both the public service aspect, and adding to their own bottom line, would be to replay their exact video coverage of that awful morning, from 8:45 am ET until the fall of the second tower. I guarantee it would have every TV eyeball riveted to their station.

I guarantee it won’t happen. There’s too much investment in forgetting all that stuff. The networks didn’t even show most of the jumpers at the time for fear of making America angry.

NOTHING TO SEE HERE, MOVE ALONG:

VIENNA, Austria (AP) – U.N. inspectors have found traces of highly enriched, weapons-grade uranium at an Iranian nuclear facility, a senior diplomat said Tuesday, citing a report by the International Atomic Energy Agency.

The find heightened concerns that Tehran may be running a secret nuclear weapons program.

Gee, do you think? Of course, the Iranians offer a variation on the “some other dude must have left it there” explanation:

Iranian officials did not contest the finding by the IAEA inspectors but said the equipment was already contaminated by traces of enriched uranium when purchased by Tehran.

I think they should demand a refund immediately from the original seller. Er, and who might that be?

THE KRYSTAL PICTURE BELOW seems to have inspired nostalgia in some Knoxville expatriates, who want more pictures of Knoxville. Here’s one from in front of the law school. Click on the image for a larger version. (Here’s another.)

Quite a few people seemed to be offended by the notion that Krystals are better than White Castles. Well, I know there’s regional pride and everything, but what can I say: Krystals are better than White Castles.

I’ve eaten both, and, well, there’s just no comparison at all. I don’t see what makes Krispy Kreme so appealing — to me they’re just donuts — but Krystal has White Castle beat hollow.

And they have FREE WI-FI! I’d like to see White Castle beat that!

FREE WI-FI SEEMS TO BE SPREADING!

Hey, maybe I am right about free wi-fi being the way to go.

For those of you from Knoxville, this is the Krystal located on “The Strip” next to campus (famous for 3am Bob Dylan performances, etc.). For those of you who don’t know what a Krystal is, it’s like a better version of White Castle: more flavor, less grease.

Though still not haute cuisine by anyone’s standards. But hey, add the wi-fi and they could be the South’s next export to the rest of the country: a sort of high-tech Krispy Kreme for the 21st century.

Er, or something like that.

UPDATE: Starhawk notes that Houston’s public libraries are getting free wi-fi hotspots. Cool.

MORE UNRAVELLING AT THE BBC:

The claim that Iraq could deploy “chemical and biological munitions” within 45 minutes was made in a classified email issued by a member of the joint intelligence committee (JIC) – but with both sender and recipient blacked out for security reasons.

It was distributed to Downing Street and Whitehall staff six days later on September 5 as new drafts of the September 24 dossier were being prepared.

The email stated that “forward deployed storage sites of chemical and biological munitions could be with military units and ready for firing within 45 minutes”.

That revelation, presented on day nine of the inquiry by Sir John Scarlett, the chairman of the JIC, appears to blow out of the water the original suggestion by BBC reporter Andrew Gilligan that the claim was made up.

Stay tuned. The Guardian is all over this story.

UPDATE: Boy, when it rains it pours: Here’s more embarrassment for The Beeb, which just can’t seem to avoid sexing up weapons stories.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Roger Simon is comparing the BBC to Nixon and to The New York Times, a comparison in which the Times comes off best.

AL GIORDANO IS taking on censorship at Indymedia. Of course, the real news is that someone at IndyMedia cares about anti-Semitism.

UPDATE: Michele has more on IndyMedia’s devotion to free speech, here, here, and here.

VIRGINIA POSTREL IS BLAMING SOCIALISM for the French heat deaths.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO TODD STEED!

I MENTIONED A WHILE BACK that North Korea was probably realizing that it couldn’t expect the Chinese to bail it out of any trouble it got itself into. And here’s a story from the Korea Times that seems to support that:

A Chinese scholar who is also a key Communist Party member in Shanghai, has said Chinese President Hu Jintao through his top envoy informed North Korean leader Kim Jong-il of a possible United States invasion.

Shen Dingli, professor at Hudan University in Shanghai and who was visiting Korea for an international seminar, was quoted by sources as saying that Hu¡’s message was very clear about the possibility of U.S. military action against the communist country that is defying international calls to abandon its nuclear weapons program.

Attending a workshop held on the sideline of the 12th Harvard Project for Asian and International Relations last week, the Chinese expert on international relations said, “Hu told Kim, `If you make a problem, the U.S. will attack you. Don’t expect any help from us.”

He said that words of advice by the leader of Pyongyang¡’s only ally apparently scared the North Korean leader into accommodating Beijing¡’s suggestion that Pyongyang should engage in talks with the U.S. under whatever format.

Interesting. And encouraging.

A FRENCH QUAGMIRE in Cote d’Ivoire?

MARS APPROACHETH: And Jay Manifold is covering it.

HOWARD DEAN: Imperialist? (Is there a hidden Dean / Ledeen connection?) And scroll down for more on Fumento and the Atkins Diet.

As I say, I’m an Atkins skeptic. But — having stuck to the “eat less, exercise more” plan fairly effectively, though not to the point of having a 33-frickin’-inch waist — I don’t speak from firsthand experience.

INDIA IS A QUAGMIRE!

No one had taken responsibility for the blasts as of late afternoon, and it was unclear how the bombs were detonated. Suburban Bombay, whose official name is now Mumbai, has been the site of five explosions — two on buses, two at markets and one in a train — in the last eight months that have killed a total of 15 people. The most recent was in July.

Officials have blamed the Students Islamic Movement of India for the attacks, saying the group operated in conjunction with the Pakistan-based Islamic militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba. Both groups are banned in India. The Bombay police commissioner, R. S. Sharma, said tonight that law enforcement authorities suspected that so-called jihadi groups were also responsible for the blasts, although he offered no specific evidence for that assertion.

We’d better pull out the U.S. troops! Oh, wait. . . .

The other possibility is that it’s just a war of Islamist expansionism against civilization, I guess.