A LOOK AT SUICIDAL TENDENCIES IN THE WEST, from Bruce Thornton. I think he overstates the problem.

READER BRUCE GERYK points out this buried lede from Anne Applebaum:

It is also possible that Newsweek reporters relied too much on an uncertain source, or that the magazine confused the story with (confirmed) reports that prisoners themselves used Korans to block toilets as a form of protest.

I had missed those confirmed reports, but heads should roll at the Pentagon for this.

Not because it happened, but because we didn’t make it a big story across the Arab media. That’s unforgivable.

UPDATE: Applebaum is criticized, here.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Tom Maguire has more questions for Applebaum.

UNSCAM UPDATE: There’s an oil-for-food roundup at Canadian blogsite Newsbeat 1.

MORE ON UZBEKISTAN, from Veronika Khokhlova.

WHATEVER ELSE JOHN NEGROPONTE DOES, I’m pretty sure he won’t be taking advice from Richard Clarke.

DAVID CORN IS DEFENDING MICHAEL ISIKOFF against his attackers on the left.

RISAWN is beach-blogging, photo-blogging, and even cat-blogging from Greece, and observes: “See, we were trained on trying to blend into the populace and appear sort of unamerican. The thing is, Americans stand out like a Doberman in a pack of chihuahuas.”

GOT STAR WARS POSTS? Drop by The Carnival of the Force and make a contribution.

UH-OH: “Newsweek Lutefisk Story Sparks Fury Across Volatile Midwest.”

REX HAMMOCK COMMENTS: “John Jay Hooker is a much better blogger than Phil Bredesen.”

REALITY-BASED BLOGGING over at The Corner.

THERE’S LOTS OF GOOD STUFF over at The Belmont Club, and if you haven’t been there in a while you should drop by and just keep scrolling.

I’M NEITHER SURPRISED NOR SAD: CBS has cancelled 60 Minutes II.

OLD NEWS DISGUISED AS NEW: DefenseTech shoots down the NYT’s somewhat breathless report on space warfare.

THE HELPLESSNESS OF THE BLOGS: Bird’s Eye View uses the example of Uzbekistan’s media clampdown as a jumping-off point for discussing how blogs depend on Big Media for news.

That’s largely true now, of course, though — and Uzbekistan is actually a good example — email, etc. can allow news to get out even where reporting is silenced, as the post notes. And it’s also an illustration of why I’m so big on the idea of having lots of bloggers scattered around the world, preferably equipped with digital cameras so that they can send not only reports, but pictures and video. The more of that sort of thing we can draw on, the harder it will be for tyrants — or media organizations themselves — to black out coverage.

IT’S THIS WEEK’S CARNIVAL OF THE VANITIES, full of posts from bloggers you may want to start visiting regularly. Go on — read some other blogs that you haven’t read before. I’ll still be here when you’re ready to come back.

I WAS GOING TO DO a big post on filibusters, but I really don’t have anything to say that I haven’t said before. Sorry.

There’s a lot of role-reversal going on: The New York Times has switched its position since the 1990s, along with some leading law professors, and Crooks & Liars has some amusing video (here and here), but this seems to me to be a purely political fight, and one I’m not terribly interested in. If I thought that Bush were likely to nominate actual small-government strict constructionists to the Supreme Court, perhaps I’d care more, but I’ve seen no sign that he’s likely to do that.

THIS WEEK’S CARNIVAL OF EDUCATION is up.

PATRICK RUFFINI is hosting a Star Wars PhotoShop contest.

UPDATE: Meanwhile, here’s a Star Wars roundup over at BlogCritics.

THE TANGLED BANK, a cool science and medicine blog carnival, is up in its latest installment. Check it out.

SIGNS OF PROGRESS IN SYRIA?

Beset by U.S. attempts to isolate his country and facing popular expectations of change, Syrian President Bashar Assad will move to begin legalizing political parties, purge the ruling Baath Party, sponsor free municipal elections in 2007 and formally endorse a market economy, according to officials, diplomats and analysts. . . .

Emboldened opposition leaders, many of whom openly support pressure by the United States even if they mistrust its intentions, said the measures were the last gasp of a government staggering after its hasty and embarrassing troop withdrawal last month from neighboring Lebanon.

The debate over the changes comes during a remarkable surge in what constitutes dissent in this country of 18 million. For the first time in years, opposition figures and even government allies are openly speculating on the fate of a party that, in some fashion, has ruled Syria since 1963 in the name of Arab nationalism, and today faces perhaps its greatest crisis.

As Jonah Goldberg notes, the rush of democratization has reached the point where the Post isn’t even treating this as big news.

UPDATE: Here’s a report of pro-democracy protests in Syria, with photos.

LINCOLN CAPLAN WRITES about law blogs. Ernest Miller has some thoughts in response.

NEWSWEEK meets 21st Century war: That’s the subject of Austin Bay’s latest column.

TIPPED! My TechCentralStation column today is about media in the aftermath of the Newsweek debacle.

MARK GLASER looks at bloggers in Bahrain, who are starting to play a significant political role.