Bush Speaks the Truth

From his townhall meeting on March 16th:

"And then we had a problem in our society in that we've had some people that were -- [in] positions of responsibility [that] didn't tell the truth."

Hmm... now who's been in a position of responsibility over the past couple years that hasn't told truth? That's a tough one. Let's see what he goes on to say:

"You might remember the corporate scandals."

Oh, that's what he's talking about. I was thinking of someone else.

Outposts of an Empire

A journey with the US military's man in Mongolia.

That day Wilhelm and I had to endure large meals at six zastafs, with vodka toasts at every one. This was in addition to drinking the blood of a black-tailed gazelle that Colonel Ranjinnyam had shot with his Makarov pistol from the UAZ. Having swallowed a glass of blood and eaten the animal's testicles and eyeballs, Wilhelm turned to me. "Like I said," he announced, "this is better than rush-hour traffic on 395 en route to the Pentagon." He never tired, never stopped laughing and slapping his fellow officers on the back. Major Altankhuu confided to me at one point, "Colonel Wilhelm is a great man. He makes us like America so much."

An Adventure to Color

The Law and Order coloring book.

Nuclear Nightmare

Seymour Hersch gives a very depressing update on nuclear proliferation and the new push to find bin Laden.

“There is a nuclear network of black-market centrifuges and weapons design that the world has yet to discover,” a diplomat in Vienna told me. In the past, he said, the I.A.E.A. had worked under the assumption that nations would cheat on the nonproliferation treaty “to produce and sell their own nuclear material.” He said, “What we have instead is a black-market network capable of producing usable nuclear materials and nuclear devices that is not limited to any one nation. We have nuclear dealers operating outside our front door, and we have no control over them—no matter how good we are in terms of verification.” There would be no need, in other words, for A. Q. Khan or anyone else in Pakistan to have a direct role in supplying nuclear technology. The most sensitive nuclear equipment would be available to any country—or any person or group, presumably—that had enough cash.