Iraq exile says nuclear bomb months away

Reuters UK has this article.

LONDON (Reuters) - An exiled Iraqi nuclear scientist believes Baghdad is closer to building an atomic bomb than previously thought, according to The Times.
The newspaper said Dr Khidir Hamza, described as a top Iraqi nuclear researcher who fled to the West in 1994, believed that Iraq was able to make copies of a German-built centrifuge and use them to enrich uranium to produce a nuclear bomb.

The German-built centrifuge was dismantled by international arms inspectors before they were withdrawn from Iraq in 1998. But Hamza told the Times that Iraqi scientists had studied how the centrifuge was built and learned how to copy it.

War: What Is It Good For?
Quite a lot, actually.

Writing recently in National Review Online, Jonah Goldberg asks, "War: What Is It Good For?" He answers his question, he closes his article by pointing out the morality of his position: "The biggest favor the United States ever did to militaristic Japan was to crush it militarily. Our victory ushered in prosperity, democracy, and a productive peace. The Iraqi people would be lucky if we did them the same favor."

Material progress is not the only boon of war. Society is often the beneficiary of battle as well. Democracy was born in Athens in the 6th century thanks to the Cleisthenean reforms, which were themselves the product of drastic military reforms. The rise of the infantry during the Middle Ages has been credited with sowing the seeds of democracy in the modern era. And even more recently, wars freed slaves here at home and abroad. Women's suffrage would not have been possible without war.

The idea that wars are never forces for good is the geopolitical equivalent of the old canard that violence never solves anything. The slaves freed by the force of arms certainly thought violence solved the problem of human bondage on American soil. The residents of Dachau no doubt saw some utility to war when American GIs opened the gates. War can be horrible and cruel, but it can also be just and morally necessary.

These examples, most of which come from Robert Nisbet's indispensable (though out-of-print) book Prejudices, are small illustrations of the fact that wars are not all bad. [More]

He makes a strong argument that is difficult to refute. looking at it from an historical perspective there is plenty of evidence to support these assertions.

World warns Iraq to obey U.N.

Reuters has this article

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Russia, Europe and key Arab states have piled pressure on Iraq to readmit U.N. weapons inspectors to avert possible U.S.-led military action.

Russia gave no comfort to its former ally Iraq on Friday, saying it must obey U.N. resolutions or face the consequences ...

Alin Turin on the Florida Primary

The article is here

You can imagine the call Governor Bush took from his brother,

"Jeb, it’s key this election down there be smooth. We’re getting all kind of flak for taking on Saddam. We don’t need issues about the election. Anything that makes us look badly in Florida will hurt us nationally. Jeb, I’ll need you again. Jeb? Jeb are you there?"

Two years ago the rest of these United States watched Florida struggle with a novel experience: holding an election.

Last year Florida’s legislature reformed the physical process of voting so as to avoid any repeat of the problems of 2000. Tuesday’s primary was the first test.

Early Humans, Smart but Forgetful

Stone tools from the oldest such site in India suggests early humans living one million years ago had the ability to plan ahead, work in groups and possibly even communicate.

But despite achieving these feats with a brain just half the size of modern humans, they appear to have been rather forgetful too.

Singing a different tune

Bill O'Reilly discusses the The uproar over rapper Ludacris getting fired as a spokesman for Pepsi Cola.This time comparing Ludacris and Britney Spears

The article is Here

I believe Ludacris is dangerous. Scores of grammar school teachers in the inner cities of America have written to me detailing horror stories spurred on, they say, by rap music. One fifth-grade teacher told me that it is common in her class for 10-year-old boys to call little girls "bitches." And those little boys can quote the lyrics of Ludacris with amazing accuracy.

Another teacher, who works in a Los Angeles ghetto, has a once-a-week "real talk" half hour in her classroom. She told me that some eighth-grade girls now say they want to become strippers and some boys pimps. When asked why, the kids say it looks like fun in the rap videos. Nobody in her class mentions Ms. Spears at all.

Now, I'm sure there are little girls who can sing Britney's songs about young love all day long as well. And some of these girls inevitably will want to dress in a manner inappropriate for their age because of the Spears influence. That is not good. But it is a million miles away from a handgun, a crack pipe and selling sex.

The Straits Times has this Article.

The Singaporean man who tried to gatecrash a Sept 11 memorial service at the United States Embassy has been sent for a psychiatric check- up.

The man, a part-time taxi driver, wanted to attend the event dressed in a khaki-coloured army uniform, with a mask of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein over his head.

Give this man a job on Saturday Night Live.

Do you love NY Ray?

I was thinking
How can Hussein be compared to Hitler when he has no navy or air force, and now has an army 1/5 the size of twelve years ago, which even then proved totally inept at defending the country?

Ron Paul has 50 more similar questions