Stuff From All Around

Just in case you have nothing to read ...

Isabel Kershner, NYT: Israel Drops Rape Charges as President Agrees to Quit:

The Israeli government has dropped rape charges against President Moshe Katsav in exchange for his agreement to step down and to plead guilty to lesser charges, the attorney general, Menachem Mazuz, announced Thursday.

Mr. Katsav, 61, will receive a suspended sentence and will pay a total of $11,695 in compensation to two of the women who accused him, Mr. Mazuz said. One of them had worked for Mr. Katsav when he was tourism minister in the late 1990s; the other worked in his office in 2003 and 2004. Mr. Katsav will plead guilty to committing indecent acts without consent, sexual harassment of the two women and harassing a witness.

He is expected to resign on Friday. His seven-year term as president, a largely ceremonial post, was to end in July. Shimon Peres is expected to take office as president on July 15.

Here's a letter to the editor of the Capital Times in Madison, Wisconsin: Kevin Barrett on the "leftist" media's freeze-out of 9/11 truth. Well ... at least they published it.

At ABC's Political Punch blog, Jake Tapper wonders whether the media were unfair to Ann Coulter when they used an out-of-context sound-bite -- in which she was misquoting somebody else!

At Wired dot com, there's a commentary from Bruce Schneier which I like quite a bit; it's called "Portrait of the Modern Terrorist as an Idiot" and it's definitely worth a read. If you start clicking Bruce's links you could be there for quite a while -- and that wouldn't be bad thing.

Last and definitely not least, how about this story? ABC News: Man With Headache Finds Bullet in Head

A woman was arrested Tuesday after her husband woke up in the middle of the night with a terrible headache and later learned he had a bullet lodged in his head.

Regular service will resume shortly.

Wake Up!! It's Tuesday!!

Is it necessary? Is it possible!!? Pervez Hoodbhoy does a fine job Re-Imagining Pakistan. Gwynne Dyer thinks about the future, and it includes carbon rationing. RAW STORY says the Navy buildup off Iran is a WARNING, and a Canadian hockey player has been fired for not desecrating a flag -- for the troops, of course!

Over at Atlantic Free Press, Rod Amis asks Keith Olbermann to pay attention to Mexico, while Phil Rockstroh says we're Eating the Planet Like a Bag of Doritos for Jesus. Would you like a beverage with those Doritos? Be careful what you put in it! "Mythbusters" explain what happens when you drop Mentos in your Diet Coke.

On a personal note: Homeyra has been dreaming of a nearly frozen blog, my Liquid Bombers piece, "Brother of Ringleader Released Without Charges", has been published today at Start The Revolution, my more recent piece, "Mission Accomplished! Attacks in Iraq at highest levels ever!!" has been published today at Atlantic Free Press, and Technorati finally rates this humble blog above the 100,000 mark! (It's in the 85,000 range now, up from the quarter-of-a-million range the last time I looked.)

For the penultimate words -- and a jolt of serious wisdom -- let's turn to the above-mentioned Pervez Hoodbhoy. Last week he gave the commencement address at the Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture in Karachi. He was talking about Pakistan, but his words may have been more universal than he realized:

First, I wish for minds that can deal with the complex nature of truth.
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My second wish is for many more [people] who accept diversity as a virtue.
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My third, and last, wish is that [people] learn to value and nurture creativity.
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We have to wake people up and get them politically engaged again.
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We can change for the better. We can be like other nations on this planet. We can make responsible choices for who should govern us. We can bring justice to our people. We can be a decent civilized, peaceful, well-informed, educated people. It’s only a question of trying and getting our act together. That is the task before all of us, young and old.

Yes, it's necessary. Yes, it's possible.