Here’s one of the most bizarre stories I’ve read in a long, long time. According to the Guardian Online: “Doctors from London University have revealed details of what they believe is the largest amount of ecstasy ever consumed by a single person. Consultants from the addiction centre at St George’s Medical School, London, have published a case report of a British man estimated to have taken around 40,000 pills of MDMA, the active ingredient in ecstasy, over nine years.” 40,000...

I recently argued that there is now an opportunity to roll back the incendiary rhetoric and to consider what other, non-military options should be on the table with respect to the Iranian nuclear crisis. In fact, “crisis” is too loaded a term. There is some sort of crisis, to be sure, but there is no immediate crisis. Iran is not about to build a nuclear arsenal in the near future, let alone to launch it against Israel and Europe. It’s true that Iran is now enriching its own uranium,...

…and Happy Easter to my Christian friends!

Over at The Reaction, The (liberal) Girl Next Door wonders what it might take to reclaim liberalism in and for America.

Well, it was only a matter of time, as I mentioned a couple of weeks ago. If you missed it, Iran has announced that it has “succeeded in enriching uranium to new levels,” according to The Washington Post. Is this a crisis? Yes. We simply cannot accept a nuclear Iran and, obviously, Iran is well on its way to becoming a nuclear state. So what to do? Reports suggest that the Bush Administration is preparing for war and that a plan to use nuclear weapons against Iran’s nuclear facilities...

My friend and Reaction guest blogger Sean Aqui of Midtopia has written an excellent post on Islam’s Reformation — see here. He argues that “what we are seeing today is Islam passing through the same painful adolescence that both Judaism and Christianity endured centuries ago,” which is to say, we are witnessing “Islam’s bloody transition from its medieval origins to modernity.” Sean’s conclusion: “Our job… is to encourage and support the...

Here’s the latest on the Italian election from the BBC: Italy’s centre-left opposition leader Romano Prodi has been declared official winner of the parliamentary election after an extremely close race. But his rival, centre-right PM Silvio Berlusconi, refused to admit defeat, saying there had been irregularities. Official results showed Mr Prodi had won just enough seats to control the Senate (upper house) after having already won a lower house majority. He rejected Mr Berlusconi’s...

Are we about to witness Shock and Awe: The Sequel in Iran? Also, check out The Carpetbagger Report, where the Sunday Discussion Group sought to answer these questions: “Is this some kind of bluster intended to bolster European diplomacy? Is the Iranian threat legitimate? Is the threat of war Bush’s new campaign strategy for the midterm cycle? If Bush’s war planning is folly, what would a responsible Iran policy look like? How do Democrats approach the political element of this...

The Italian election is over. Polls closed today at 3 pm local time. I’m rooting for Romano Prodi’s The Union coalition, although I suspect I’d support any reasonable opposition to Silvio Berlusconi’s House of Freedoms coalition (which includes his own party, Forza Italia). Seriously, is there a more corrupt, venal, and shamelessly plutocratic leader in the Western world than Berlusconi? (If so, let me know.) Germany’s Der Spiegel, always a great source for European...

Over at The Reaction, guest poster J. Kingston Pierce of Limbo follows the mendacity in and around the Bush Administration. His argument: “George W. Bush endorsed the leaking of classified intelligence information before he opposed it.” Read the whole post here.

The Washington Post reports this: “Scientists doing climate research for the federal government say the Bush administration has made it hard for them to speak forthrightly to the public about global warming. The result, the researchers say, is a danger that Americans are not getting the full story on how the climate is changing.” It’s important to report this, of course, but it’s no surprise that the White House is giving climatologists a hard time. As we all know, Bush doesn’t...

The (liberal) Girl Next Door prepares for “a summer of fun” as more and more scandals come to light. But how to fix a divided country?

I’ve written a fairly long post with the above title over at The Reaction. I address centrism, moderation, liberalism, and the nature of American politics. My argument is that various factors, various forces, are pulling the center of gravity in American politics back to the left. Essentially, that is, back to where it belongs, back where it really is — in truth, not perception. Conservatives have defined the parameters of American politics for a generation. That is finally changing as...

Evolutionary news from The New York Times: “Scientists have discovered fossils of a 375 million-year-old fish, a large scaly creature not seen before, that they say is a long-sought ‘missing link’ in the evolution of some fishes from water to a life walking on four limbs on land.” Fascinating stuff. And surely “a powerful rebuttal to religious creationists”. But I’m sure they and their ID-pushing compatriots of denial will offer up some see-no-truth, hear-no-truth...

I’ll have more on this soon, when I do a fuller post on rendition and torture, but I wanted to link to this important story. According to the BBC, Amnesty International has released a report that “provides detailed accounts of the experiences of three Yemeni men who claim to have been held in at least four different secret US prisons between October 2003 and May 2005″. Amnesty also claims to have “records of nearly 1,000 flights, mostly using European airspace, which were...

You know, I really like the new HBO show Big Love, but Saskatchewan is absolutely right to stand firm against a polygamist sect, The Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, that may be trying to set up a new community in the province. For those who think otherwise, polygamy is not the same as same-sex marriage and should not be tolerated. The leader of this sect, which is based on the Utah-Arizona border, is under investigation and is being sought by Utah officials. The sect itself...

Sign of the Apocalypse #30 at The Reaction: According to The Washington Post‘s Howard Kurtz, long-time Today Show co-host Katie Couric is set to take over the CBS Evening News from Bob Schieffer. An announcement is expected this week. Why is this a SOTA? Not because of Couric herself, although I don’t think she’s the right person to take over a nightly network news broadcast (although, in terms of ratings, her popularity may help her lead the show out of the basement). No, it’s...

An update on the new French employment law and the protests against it — which I’ve already looked at here, here, and here. According to the BBC, President Chirac has “vowed to enact a modified version of the legislation”. How modified? — “[Chirac] pledged to shorten from two years to one the period in which youths under 26 could be fired — and said employers would need a reason for the dismissal.” But his decision has been “condemned”...

Over at The Reaction, co-blogger Creature offers up some confessions in response to Senator Feingold’s censure resolution. He’s not terribly happy with the Democrats. See here.

It’s the ongoing non-story story. The magicians of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., as I called them recently, are trying to deflect attention away from all the bad news that continues to plague the White House, both at home and abroad, by creating non-news of their own. That non-news has to do with high-level personnel shuffling at the White House itself. Is it news that Card resigned? Not really. Is it news that Bolten was tapped to be his replacement? Not really. But the Washington press, the chattering...

Believe it or not, there’s a lot that I like about Condoleezza Rice. Last June, I even asked if it was finally time to give her her due. At the time, she had just called on Egypt and Saudi Arabia “embrace democracy by holding fair elections, releasing political prisoners and allowing free expression and rights for women”. Plus, she had “met with Sharon and Abbas to help hammer out an agreement for a peaceful Israeli withdrawal from Gaza; told Syria to ‘knock it off’...

(Note: This post first appeared earlier this week and prompted an excellent, informative discussion among readers in the comments section. It has been updated in light of recent developments. I am particularly interested to know what your own proposed solution(s) to the Iranian nuclear crisis might be. — MS) ********** Wednesday marked the appearance of Real Security: The Democratic Plan to Protect America and Restore Our Leadership in the World. It is an admirable effort by Congressional Democrats...

I don’t have the time to comment properly on these stories right now, but they’re all worth following. All links are to The Washington Post: – Ehud Olmert’s Kadima Party (founded by Ariel Sharon) won the most Knesset seats in Tuesday’s Israeli elections (28 of 120). Israel uses a List-PR (proportional representation) electoral system, with seats apportioned according to the popular vote. Olmert will now look to build a governing coalition, likely with Amir Peretz’s...

Sign of the Apocalypse #29 at The Reaction. This is Britney. Britney Spears. On a bearskin rug. Giving birth to Baby Federline. As sculpted by Daniel Edwards. According to the Post, this piece of “art” will soon be on display at Brooklyn’s Capla Kesting Fine Art gallery. Next to “anti-abortion materials” as part of an exhibit called “Monument to Pro-Life: The Birth of Sean Preston”. Yes, that’s right. This piece of “art” comes with a pro-life...

How to deal with the intractable problem of HIV/AIDS in the developing world? Vivek Krishnamurthy offers a “modest proposal” here.