What is "indisputably the finest American children's book"?

See here for an original take on a familiar classic by a keen observer of American culture.

Meanwhile, "Mothers and Other Monsters," by Maureen McHugh, recommended by NPR's Librarian, is not a children's book, but isn't that a delicious title?

The Neville Chamberlain Of Our Time

Kofi Annan, who even now incredibly, credulously asserts that the Iranians "are interested in serious and constructive negotiations" is not merely incompetent and corrupt. He is as dangerous and as much of an aider and abettor of an incipient genocidal threat in our time as Neville Chamberlain infamously was in his. As Anne Bayefsky puts it (link):

"So now you have it. The top U.N. officials responsible for nuclear nonproliferation are in the business of facilitating Iran's acquisition of nuclear weapons."

See also Rabbi Abraham Cooper's Lesson of '38

More Mullah Madness

An Iranian court has sentenced a teenage rape victim to death by hanging after she weepingly confessed that she had unintentionally killed a man who had tried to rape both her and her niece.

. . .

In August 2004, Iran’s Islamic penal system sentenced a 16-year-old girl, Atefeh Rajabi, to death after a sham trial, in which she was accused of committing “acts incompatible with chastity”.

The teenage victim had no access to a lawyer at any stage and efforts by her family to retain one were to no avail. Atefeh personally defended herself and told the religious judge that he should punish those who force women into adultery, not the victims. She was eventually hanged in public in the northern town of Neka.

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See http://www.iranfocus.com/modules/news/article.php?storyid=5183

Maybe They Can Use A Sheet With A Hole In It

Check out this debate:

According to ... the religious edict issued by Rashad Hassan Khalil, a former dean of Al-Azhar University's faculty of Sharia (or Islamic law), "being completely naked during the act of coitus annuls the marriage". ...

Suad Saleh, who heads the women's department of Al-Azhar's Islamic studies faculty, pleaded for "anything that can bring spouses closer to each other" ...

During the live televised debate, Islamic scholar Abdel Muti dismissed the fatwa: "Nothing is prohibited during marital sex, except of course sodomy."

See http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2006/01/09/1136655112299.html?from=top5

According to world-renowned Jewish Studies Professor Elaine Goodfriend, however, the notion that religious Jews have sex through a hole in a sheet is a "myth."

Kadima, The Way Forward

Amir Taheri writes about how Sharon cut the Gordian knot:

"For a war to be won, it is not enough for one side to claim victory. It is also necessary for one side to admit defeat. Yet in the Arab-Israeli wars, the side that had won every time was not allowed to claim victory, while the side that had lost was prevented from admitting defeat. Why? Because each time the United Nations had intervened..."

See http://www.benadorassociates.com/article/19168

McWhorter's splendid "Winning the Race"

Read this "arch" review of a new book by "black conservative" John McWhorter (formerly a professor of linguistics at UC Berkeley) apparently concluding that the principal source of disparities between blacks and whites is not (as the left contends) exogenous, such as racism, but its converse -- the debilitating sense of vicitimization exacerbated by the obsession with racism: http://www.opinionjournal.com/la/?id=110007768

Actually, is not racism in the 21st century more of a problem on the left than on the right? Certainly some of the most blatant racism today is by liberals against black conservatives. See these articles by Jay Nordlinger and Ted Hayes.

1/23 Postscript: to top it off, see this scintillating piece by Shelby Steele, contrasting Hilary's pandering with Condi's archetype, and noting that if "blacks were to take her example and embrace overcoming rather than grievance, the wound to liberalism would be mortal."

Archaeological Discoveries

If you are into antiquities, you might want to check this out:

Among the unusual finds extracted by Bar-Ilan University's Gabriel Barkai and his team of students and volunteers is a "bulla," or seal impression, thought to be used to close cloth sacks of silver.
"It bears the name Gedalyahu Ben Immer Ha-Cohen, suggesting that the owner may have been a brother of Pashur Ben Immer, described in the Bible [Jeremiah 20:1] as a priest and temple official," Mr. Barkai said.
That verse says: "Pashur, the son of Immer the priest, who was also chief governor in the House of the Lord, heard that Jeremiah prophesied these things."
The team's discoveries span 10,000 years "and belong to all the historical periods that transpired in Jerusalem," Mr. Barkai said.

http://www.washtimes.com/world/20060102-123421-5168r.htm