SATURDAY,  JANUARY 26,  2008

•   Oh, we just can't wait.  It's so moving when leaders of al Qaeda get so, well, so close to their people.  You know, crazed fanatics are just like you and me.  Let's not demonize them because of their occasional outbursts or airliner/skyscraper meetings.

I mean, get this:  Al Qaeda groupies can now submit questions to Ayman al-Zawahri, the warm, gregarious deputy head of the misunderstood group.  And the questions that have come in prove that these are just folks.  Here's one:

What is the role of women in al Qaeda? ... We are the ones who sit with broken hearts and we sit here with nothing to do. 

Let's put these ladies to work.  And another question:

Is the British Muslim allowed to kill British civilians whether they are nonbelievers or Muslims who support the war against Afghanistan, Iraq and others? 

You know, I've been wondering about that one myself.  I'm really glad someone asked.  Oh, here's a third entry:

Is the woman in the Maghreb obligated to do jihad, and if so, is it permitted to leave her sons with someone else and go to do jihad?

 See.  Child care is a universal concern. 

The esteemed deputy leader's answers are expected in the next several weeks.  Take notes.  When do you get wisdom like this for free?

•   History is important, and today, January 26th, is a famous anniversary.  Do you know what it is?  No?  Well, okay, I know how bad the schools are.  But on this day, in 1998, President William Jefferson Clinton formally denied he'd had an affair with Monica Lewinsky.  Ah, our glorious yesterdays.   The BBC - it's the best I could do on this one - reprints its original story, and has video.

Who would have thought that, ten years later, Bill Clinton would be campaigning for his wife for the office he held, and that Monica Lewinsky would be a graduate of the London School of Economics?  The second is more believable.

•   And speaking of our prince, I must give him credit for one thing.  He's the only person showing real passion during this campaign.  Of course, he's also raising eyebrows, and the tut-tutting has begun, as Reuters reports:    

The Dallas Morning News editorial page felt compelled to comment, writing that "there's something disconcerting, even diminishing, about watching a former president get down and dirty on the campaign trail."

Right.  As opposed to the nobility of former President Jimmy Carter, who's honored his past office by groveling before every petty dictator who'll take his calls or pay his air fare.  You want to tut-tut, what about that, Dallas?     

•   Arun Gandhi, grandson of the guy who started the family nonviolence business in India, has resigned from the University of Rochester after writing a wild-eyed piece for the Washington Post claiming that Israel and Jews were "the biggest players" in the world's culture of violence.

What's shocking is that the board of directors at the institute Gandhi headed within the university accepted his resignation.  Good on them.  There was no whining about "academic freedom," one of the most abused concepts of our time.  There were no complaints about "outside pressure."  The university made plain its contempt for Gandhi's words, and the lunatic fringe - Rochester must have its quota - didn't do its usual thing.  This is what happens when a university acts firmly, and with a heavy dose of common sense.

Our universities have become receptacles for the academic leftovers of the 1960s, and for those like Arun Gandhi, whose sole attribute is his family name.  "Scholars" are entitled to reasonable academic freedom.  They must also be held accountable for what they do and say, like any adult.

Now we'll wait for some deranged college president to see this as a chance to hire a Gandhi.  Why do I think the man will be wearing the beanie of some other "house of learning" fairly soon?

•   The Federal Communications Commission has proposed a $1.4-million fine against 52 ABC-affiliated TV stations for an "indecent" scene in a 2003 episode of "NYPD Blue."  I will not comment on the substance of the complaint. You can make your own judgment.  But please notice the year of the broadcast - 2003, five years ago.  Does it really take five years for our FCC to decide a case like this?  No wonder American broadcasting has descended to its current level.  This agency is supposed to represent the community's interests.  Apparently, it does this by sponsoring long lunch hours and doing very little work. 

By the way, the story describes the stations as "ABC Television Network stations."  It gives the wrong impression.  Most are simply affiliates of the network.  ABC only owns ten stations.

•   Here's a fine example of why more and more Americans distrust the press.  Yesterday, The New York Times trashed Rudy Guiliani in its editorial endorsement of John McCain for the Republican nomination.  Today the paper runs a "news" story on how the Guiliani administration in New York overrode police objections to the location of a planned emergency command center.  The center was destroyed in the September 11, 2001 attacks. 

The story might be legitimate, but the timing is awful.  The Times has repeatedly been accused of pursuing its editorial-page biases in its news stories.  You'd think they could have waited a week to run a story about events that happened years ago. 

•  This is a remarkable story worthy of an old-time, not new-time, Hollywood movie.  Negatives shot by Robert Capa during the Spanish civil war, thought lost in World War II, have been found and recovered.  Capa was one of the architects of modern war photography.  Students of photography hope that the find contains the negative of one of the most famous pictures ever taken, that of a Spanish soldier falling backward, presumably at the instant he's hit by a bullet.  Some charge the photo was faked, others claim it was real.  Studying the photos before and after the picture in question might solve the mystery.  Capa was killed in 1954 during the French phase of the Indo-China war.

By the way, the story points out that photographic fakery was common during the Spanish civil war, and that Capa, a partisan of the Communist side, engaged in the practice.  Please recall that such artistry showed up in the Lebanon war of 2006.  Ah, tradition.

More later.

Posted on January 26, 2008.