OKAY, HERE’S A QUICKIE: Howard Owens says we shouldn’t be ashamed of the Crusades: they were a defensive war against Arab aggression.

And the Blogosphere panel has already produced a Lileks piece. Also, a good column today from Charles Krauthammer and a rather mixed column from Salman Rushdie — I don’t think that the war is going badly, as he seems to, but he’s certainly right about the Muslim world’s muteness on terrorism. Oh, and the irony: this story came with a huge honkin’ popup ad.

And lastly, check out the picture of Dick Gephardt accompanying this article in the New York Times. He looks like they caught him in the middle of a downhill ski run. Nobody was trying very hard to make him look good when they decided to run that one.

Have a good day. I’ll be back later.