Our Lady of Survival

Kuwait bans Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 911, because it insults the Saudi royal family.

Must-read Robert Fisk article on the current state of Iraq.

In what was either a Freudian slip or a bad translation, the BBC said today that one of the Christian churches bombed in Iraq was "Our Lady of Survival." That would be: Our Lady of Salvation.
Update: the NYT calls it Our Lady of Deliverance. Squeal like a piggie.

Speaking of churches and survival, Kerry went to church today. Now if he needs to prove to the god-botherers that he’s one of them, fine, whatever, but does he need to denigrate rational thought at the same time? "More physicists and more and more scientists, the more they learn in some ways the less they know about some things and the more they believe in that power," he said.

It will be the 90th anniversary of the start of World War I on Wednesday, and the British papers are talking to veterans. Unlike Kerry, who won’t shut up about Vietnam, these men didn’t talk about their experiences. One is described by the Telegraph as never discussing it with his wife of 68 years, his children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren or great-great grandchildren. Another, who was at both Jutland and Passchendaele, says, "I used not to think about it at all, but now that I keep getting bothered by people like you, because I am one of the few left, I suppose I think about it more."