Better with Age

William F. Buckley Jr. once again shows himself to be one of the most intelligent columnists in the country.

What al Qaeda's up to

Debka has a couple of articles detailing al Qaeda's latest offensive here and here.

Note: Debka can be rather hit-or-miss. They list some of their correct predictions in the first article. They were also wrong about an assassination attempt on Colin Powell a few years back, and they wrongly reported that Tariq Aziz, Saddam's prime minister, had been captured prior to the invasion of Iraq. I'm not saying they're wrong, but the fact it's written doesn't make it so.

This Is Exciting

Accoridng to the New Scientist, there may be life on Titan, Saturn's largest moon.

Over at TCS

Frederick Turner has an interesting article on the obstacles creationists have to overcome in their attempts to disprove the theory of evolution, and Douglas Kern writes a thought-provoking piece on the long-term viability of the Fifth Amendment right prohibiting self-incrimination.

Christians and the Death Penalty

Joseph Bottum has a fascinating article in this month's issue of First Things on the proper Christian view of the death penalty in deomcratic society. I don't know that this will necessarily change my position- I'm mildly pro-death penalty- but this is the first argument I've run across that could bring my position into alignment with the view put forth by the late Pope John Paul the Great in his encyclical, Evangelium Vitae.

It's Coming

My favorite time of year (i.e. football season) will soon be upon us. On the college level, the Big Ten looks to be the strongest conference, with four teams obviously capable of winning the title and the potential for another five teams to emerge as dark horses. Unfortunately, this may be its downfall because it could quite possibly prevent one team from emerging as a national title contender. Furthermore, even if a team emerges as a national title contender this year, the conference is so physical from top to bottom in a way no other conference can match that any national title contender might just have to go through much to actually win it all in Pasadena.

On the professional level, the big story is whether or not Terrel Owens will get a new contract from the Eagles (likely not at this point). I don't much care at this point, but I can't help but wondering if T.O.'s decision to demand a new contract stems at all from his injury he sustained last year against Dallas.

New Piece

I have a new piece up on tolkien-movies.com concerning the relationship between God and morality.

Hooray for France

No, that wasn't sarcastic. I may have my issues with the France, but when it gets something right, it really gets it right.

This May Explain A Lot

It would seem that a significant number of people who spend time in the EU Parliament are using cocaine. Of course, that's okay because, according to Parliamentary spokeswoman Marjory van den Broeke, "It seems the findings are in line with the findings in other public buildings." In other words, this just means that cocaine abuse is no larger a problem in the EU Parliament than in European society at large. Funny, I would have thought you'd want people working in a legislature to be less likely to abuse drugs like cocaine than society at large. Who knows. Maybe it helps them get more work done.

Ms. van den Broeke also gives a good non-denial-denial when she says "It is not a problem we are aware of at all." And of course, the EU Parliament also attepmts to duck the issue by saying that the German press' investigation may have been illegal because they didn't notify the EU Parliament before going forward with their investigation. What rot. The EU Parliament is a public institution, and the media have a right to investigate what goes on there. I know press freedom isn't the same in Europe as it is here, but holding government institutions to account is one of the primary functions of the news media, and if they uncover a problem like this, the EU Parliament shouldn't be able to deflect attention from the substantive problem by hiding behind a tissue-paper thin legal nicety. If there is a problem with drug abuse at the EU Parliament, the EU Parliament should fix it and publicly, not stonewall and try to turn attention away from an obvious problem. Although, if they did that, they wouldn't be the EU Parliament, would they?

(via Drudge)

He Must Not Have Been Able to Find Work

Omar Sharif: sucide bomber.

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