Water intifada--would that be a super soaker?

A piece in the NY Times on how the US is training for urban warfare in Baghdad buries its lead rather deep: the model they’re using is the recent Israeli incursions into Jenin, as in “Massacre of”.

Some death penalty facts, in the week that the Supreme Court refused to deal with the execution of minors: About 70 countries have abolished it for all crimes, with a further 23 countries having a “de facto” abolition, with no executions in the past ten years. Since 1990, 34 countries have abolished the death penalty, including Lithuania, Latvia, Bulgaria, Ukraine and Turkmenistan.

And this week, the last territory under British rule, the Turks and Caicos islands, abolished it. The last execution in British territories was in 1977 in Bermuda, two men for the assassination of its governor.

Godfather IV. Please god no.

The US will release some of the Guantanamo prisoners. The harmless ones. Did you know we had an octogenarian in custody?

Israel has banned Palestinians drilling for water, accusing them of conducting a “water intifada.” Also, no picking of olives (this is the season for that), because they figured it was easier than to protect Palestinian pickers from attack by settlers.

Another downtrodden minority is organizing: the insane. I just for the first time saw this marvelous expression--“mad pride”--but I googled it and evidently it’s widespread.