This piece by a Canadian journalist on recent diplomatic blunders and Canada's military preparedness is well worth a read. David Frum's new daily political column in NRO is an excellent source for those who want to keep up with US politics; today's takes apart new Presidential candidate John Kerry of Massachussetts and calls the Dems dum-dums, a party going nowhere because their current stances are simply reactive to whatever the Reps do. They have no coherent platform of policies and are taking the initiative on nothing. In his blog on Slate, maverick Democrat Mickey Kaus takes a piece out of Kerry, too, and links to some other non-conservative writers who are also Kerry-critical. If the moderate-liberal New Republic is slagging off Kerry two whole years before the 2004 elections, his candidacy will go nowhere. (But then we all know that TNR is in Al Gore's pocket.) But I don't think the Dems have any concievable candidate who can derail Bush, barring unforeseen disaster. Kerry might be the best that they can get, in which case the Reps win in a walkover. Glenn Reynolds links to this article by Barry Rubin from Foreign Affairs called "The Roots of Arab Anti-Americanism", which you ought to check out; no earth-shaking developments here, but an excellent summary of the situation. James Taranto links to the just-released British government report on human rights abuses in Saddam's Iraq. It makes horrific reading. Among the sources are such notorious right-wing imperialist groups as the United Nations, Amnesty International, and Human Rights Watch. This is a must-read. Get this, AI is slamming the British government for warmongering, using this report to justify a war against Saddam. Well, the report bloody well justifies a war against Saddam. I can't believe that any responsible person can read such an indictment and not demand that something be done to stop these crimes.