PUBLIUS offers a Lebanon news roundup, and promises more of those in days to come.

There’s a lot going on.

I HAVEN’T READ ROPER V. SIMMONS YET, but Orin Kerr has: “I was disappointed by Justice Kennedy’s majority opinion. There just isn’t much there to justify overruling a 16-year-old precedent and striking down 18 state laws. I’m not sure about the juvenile death penalty as a matter of policy, but I found Justice Scalia’s powerful dissent pretty tough to refute as a matter of constitutional law.”

I don’t think that looking to international practice is as horrid as some critics have said, however: More than probably any other provision in the Constitution, the prohibition on “cruel and unusual punishment” would seem to invite that. I note, however, that if reference to international standards becomes common, the Supreme Court’s abortion jurisprudence is likely to become much, much less protective of abortion rights, as the United States is rather far from the median practice in that regard.

UPDATE: On the Court’s use of international law, Julian Ku at Opinio Juris observes: “I am not sad to see the juvenile death penalty go away, but I do think it is odd that treaties to which the U.S. government specifically reserved the question at issue (the international legality of the juvenile death penalty) are being used as evidence of what the U.S. Constitution requires.”

SUICIDE BOMBING IS BAD PR: Yesterday, I commented on the massive terror bombing in Iraq: ” I don’t generally cover the bombing-of-the-day stories, just as I don’t link all the ‘key aide of Zarqawi captured’ stories. But this is a big one. Will it win over any Iraqis to the insurgents’ side, though? Seems doubtful. And it won’t win any friends for Syria, either, given that it’s seen as supporting the insurgents.”

Advantage: Instapundit:

Thousands of mostly black-clad Iraqis protested Tuesday outside a medical clinic where a suicide car bomber killed 125 people a day earlier, braving the threat of another attack as they waved clenched fists, condemned foreign fighters and chanted “No to terrorism!”

This isn’t shocking, really.

INSTAWIFE UPDATE: Various people have emailed wanting a report on how Helen is doing. She’s been home a week now, and the report is, well, mixed.

On the (more important) upside, the heart stuff, she seems to be doing quite well. Her irregular heartbeats are much better — she says she was only subliminally aware of them most of the time, but now it seems “really quiet” in her chest.

Unfortunately, it also hurts. They made a pretty big incision, so that they could push the ICD down far enough to conceal it behind her breast, which means there was more cutting than usual. She can’t raise her left arm very high, or pull it backward — and as often happens with things like this, her right shoulder actually hurts worse, from strained muscles as a result of favoring the left side. It’s made it hard to sleep, too, as just about every position is uncomfortable.

She’s doing OK, I guess, but the 4-6 week recovery period looks about right. I took her out to get her hair done today, which made her feel a bit better. Tomorrow I’ll take her back to the cardiologist for a followup exam, and hopefully she’ll get the go-ahead to drive. (She’ll have to drive my Passat, though, because it’s the only automatic we own, and she can’t really operate a stick shift.) She hasn’t much liked being stuck around the house.

She sends her thanks for the emails and cards, etc., that continue to come in. And so do I: It made me feel like George Bailey.

THIS IS ODD:

A Springfield woman who began lobbying against gun violence after her son was shot to death in 2002 was arrested last week when police allegedly found an illegal gun and drugs in her home. . . .

Since her son’s death, Stevens has become involved in the anti-gun-violence movement. She helped establish and is president of a Springfield chapter of the Million Mom March, an organization that aims to prevent gun violence.

Last fall, she appeared with other anti-gun advocates at a Statehouse news conference to urge federal officials to renew a ban against semiautomatic assault weapons.

Hmm.

CIRCLES AND CHAINS: A photo essay by Greyhawk.

DARFUR UPDATE:

WASHINGTON, Sudan’s government and the militia it supports persist in committing atrocities in the Darfur region despite repeated promises to end brutal abuses and killings, the U.S. State Department says.

Tens of thousands of people have been killed over the past two years, many as a result of disease and hunger, and more than 1.8 million displaced from Darfur in fighting which the United States has called genocide.

“Despite the government’s repeated commitments to refrain from further violence in Darfur, the atrocities continued,” said the State Department’s annual report of human rights abuses worldwide, published Monday.

Last year, then Secretary of State Colin Powell concluded genocide was being committed against the people of Darfur and that Sudan’s government and the Janjaweed militia bore responsibility.

The United States wants the United Nations Security Council to impose sanctions against Sudan but China and Russia have opposed such penalties, particularly on oil.

The full report is here. The section on Sudan and Darfur is here.

HOW DEVIOUS IS KARL ROVE? Just as democracy is spreading in the mideast, his agents provocateur are undercutting Howard Dean’s credibility in his home state:

[A] group of activists has gotten enough signatures here and in some 50 other Vermont communities to place resolutions about Iraq on the agendas of their Town Meetings, a New England ritual as local as tapped maple trees and as old as the American Revolution.

On Tuesday, one-fifth of Vermont towns will consider what role the Vermont National Guard should play in the war, and whether American troops should be withdrawn.

A year ago, this would have been bad for Bush. Now it’s bad for the Democrats. Really, you just have to shake your head in admiration for the guy’s skill.

UPDATE: On a more serious note, Austin Bay doesn’t think much of the anti-war group behind this exercise.

ROGER SIMON HAS THOUGHTS on the editorial changes at the New York Times.

REVERBERATIONS IN SYRIA?

Syrian opposition figures Tuesday hailed the fall of the Damascus-backed government in Beirut under the weight of mass street protests as a possible catalyst for democratic change in their own country. . . .

“A Syrian withdrawal is inevitable. History is on the move and nobody can halt its progress,” said Syrian filmmaker Omar Amiralay. He said Lebanon was now playing the role of “engine for change” in the region.

“I welcome this promising democratic change which will have a contagious effect on the Syrian hinterland and be of benefit for the Syrian and Lebanese peoples,” said Amiralay.

Let’s hope a lot of Syrians feel the same way.

UPDATE: More thoughts here.

SOME MORE COOL PICTURES from the protests in Lebanon, along with a report on how protesters are keeping up the pressure on Syria:

Opposition deputies, many war-time foes, have joined forces, capitalising on fury over Hariri’s death to pressure those they blame — Syria and the government. Syria has denied any role.

What’s interesting, in fact, is the Christian/Muslim unity that’s emerged in these anti-Syrian protests.

IT’S NOT JUST WARD CHURCHILL: The University of Colorado is still dealing with its athletic scandals, too.

ALABAMA’S SEX-TOY LAW gets no respect. Nor should it.

THE PUTIN YOUTH? This report isn’t encouraging:

With President Putin’s popularity in sharp decline, the Kremlin has set up a new Russian youth movement to ensure its control of the streets in the event of mass anti-government protests.

This seems unlikely to succeed. And that Putin thinks he needs it tells us a lot about where things may be heading.

MIKE GALLAGHER APOLOGIZES TO THE BLOGOSPHERE: Thanks to Jeff Blogworthy.

UPDATE: Michael Demmons says that Gallagher should study up on the blogosphere.

STEPHEN GREEN offers some useful perspective.

D70 UPDATE: I’m happy with my Nikon D70, but as I mentioned a while back, it’s had one annoying glitch, an occasional refusal to fire until the exposure mode is changed. Following the advice of the Nikon tech support people (fast!) I reset the camera, but that didn’t help, so I’ve returned it for warranty service. I’ll let you know how that goes.

Meanwhile, despite my earlier drooling over the newer and (much) more expensive D2X, Ken Rockwell offers some persuasive reasons why the D70 is actually better for many purposes.

DON’T TELL OLIVER WILLIS: Ed Cone is now a “conservative commentator!”

It doesn’t take much, Ed.

THIS WEEK’S CARNIVAL OF THE LIBERATED — a roundup of Iraqi bloggers’ posts — is up at Dean’s World.