The Rest Of The Week In Review

Yeah, I know it's Tuesday night. Sue me - I was out of town.

• With the furor about Rev. Wright, I'll bet that this poignant story about Barack Obama's mother, who I'm guessing had a far vaster influence on his life and worldview, got a little lost. It's an interesting piece that shows how complex our relationships and life experience can be. Meanwhile, I'm still wondering, with Amanda Marcotte, why I know Jeremiah Wright's name, and why, if everyone agrees that Obama doesn't share his more extreme beliefs, why this controversy is anything more than a faith-based effort.

• Not that I'm totally in sync with the Vatican's concept of sin, but if they want to add pollution to the list, I would think that's a step forward. There are some really interesting things happening in the environmental space.

• We're still weirded out by sex in this country, but for some perspective, consider that a Saudi shiekh caused a major controversy last week by dancing with swords at a wedding, and that the Korean owner of the Washington Times believes this:



• The Southern Poverty Law Center has chronicled a disturbing rise in hate groups, directed mainly at Hispanics and blacks. This is of course the downside to a refreshing day in America about race.

• This was truly disgusting:

In a press briefing on Monday, Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell dismissed KBR’s gross negligence (providing contaminated water to the troops). He responded by joking about how everyone knows the water in Iraq is unsafe, and advised everyone to avoid drinking it:

"You know, we’ve all been to Iraq several times. Everywhere you go they make it perfectly clear that you don’t want to drink the water, so I’m a little surprised myself that this is an issue. As I understand it, the bottled water, which is what you’re supposed to be drinking in Iraq, had no issues whatsoever in the testing that was done. Evidently, there was some issue with some of the other water that was, I guess, primarily meant for washing. […]

But I think our encouragement is always — for journalists and warfighters alike is read the signs and just drink the bottled water."

These are revolting people.

• In other awesome military news, another strike into Pakistan killed only civilians, a THIRD of women in the military have experienced sexual harrassment, and military officials are keeping UN monitors out of Iraqi prisons. This is called "restoring moral authority."

• In some rare good news, it looks like Britain will not deport the gay Iranian teenager who would almost surely face execution if returned to Tehran. Any day that intolerance is stopped from its forward progress is a good day.

• Say it with me now: Representative Jack Kevorkian. Given the importance of name ID, it's probably more of a possibility than anyone thinks.

• The Siegelman case just gets uglier and uglier.

• And finally, honestly, if my WiFi reached my bathroom I could probably spend a couple years on the toilet myself. Which is a disturbing image I shouldn't leave you with, and yet I will.