Wow!

Truely wow. Of course, talk is cheap, but this is heartening. Regarding Ahmadinejad's call for the destruction of Israel:

... while most Muslim and Arab capitals have remained silent on the remarks, a few have spoken out - including Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erekat.

'Palestinians recognise the right of the state of Israel to exist and I reject his comments,' he told the BBC News website.

'What we need to be talking about is adding the state of Palestine to the map and not wiping Israel from the map,' he said.

Achmadinejad Master of Diplomacy

Oh, this guy is a wordsmith, an adept at ambiguity, a dean of deception. Who can pierce through his mask-like visage and discern his true intentions?

Iran's hard-line president called for Israel to be 'wiped off the map' and said a new wave of Palestinian attacks will destroy the Jewish state, state-run media reported Wednesday.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad also denounced attempts to recognize Israel or normalize relations with it.

'There is no doubt that the new wave (of attacks) in Palestine will wipe off this stigma (Israel) from the face of the Islamic world,' Ahmadinejad told students Wednesday during a Tehran conference called 'The World without Zionism.'

Sounds like quite a zippy conference: "The World without Zionism". I'm only surprised it isn't being co-sponsored by the London SOAS.

Newsday.com: Newark paying newspaper to print only good news about city

Newsday.com: Newark paying newspaper to print only good news about city

Call it pay for praise, greenbacks for good news, bucks for beneficial publicity.

The city council here has awarded the Newark Weekly News a $100,000 no-bid contract to publish positive news about the city, The Star-Ledger of Newark reported in Monday's editions

Chomsky's Nest Egg

In Paul Johnson's book 'Intellectuals', he argues that a common thread among the thinkers he surveyed was an enthusiasm for government spending on public goods, and a matching lack of enthusiasm for personally contributing to said spending. By this criteria at least, Chomsky indeed deserves to be Public Thinker Number One!

But trusts can't be all bad. After all, Chomsky, with a net worth north of $2,000,000, decided to create one for himself. A few years back he went to Boston's venerable white-shoe law firm, Palmer and Dodge, and with the help of a tax attorney specializing in 'income-tax planning' set up an irrevocable trust to protect his assets from Uncle Sam. He named his tax attorney (every socialist radical needs one!) and a daughter as trustees. To the Diane Chomsky Irrevocable Trust (named for another daughter) he has assigned the copyright of several of his books, including multiple international editions.

Chomsky favors the estate tax and massive income redistribution -- just not the redistribution of his income. No reason to let radical politics get in the way of sound estate planning.
TCS: Tech Central Station - The Branding of the World's Top Intellectual: Noam Chomsky

Men Falling by the Wayside...

USATODAY.com - College gender gap widens: 57% are women

In May, the Minnesota Office of Higher Education posted the inevitable culmination of a trend: Last year for the first time, women earned more than half the degrees granted statewide in every category, be it associate, bachelor, master, doctoral or professional.

European Fence

Forward Newspaper Online: African Deaths Spark Debate

Europe has been plunged into a furious new debate over immigration policies and the effects of global poverty, after being stunned by scenes of desperate Africans trying to overrun a barbed-wire fence to reach European territory.

Marginal Revolution: Thomas Schelling, new Nobel LaureateGreat review of Thomas Schelling's Nobel prize winning contributions...

Norway Bans Star of David

Aftenposten Norway, Norwegian news in English

A municipally employed teacher in Kristiansand has been prevented from wearing a Star of David around his neck. Kristiansand Adult Education Center, where the man works, ruled that the Jewish symbol could be deemed a provocation towards the many Muslim students at the school, Norwegian Broadcasting (NRK) reports.

Nobel Peace Prize Unpopular - Left and Right...

ABC News: Greenpeace 'Shocked' by Nobel Decision

Greenpeace argued that the group's work has had the opposite effect, and that it was 'shocked' by the Swedish Academy's decision.

'Through the IAEA's worldwide support of nuclear power, 35 to 40 countries today have the capability of building atomic weapons within several months, as ElBaradei himself has recently admitted,' Greenpeace said.

Weight loss no calory counting?

IOL: Low-fat vegan diet may spur weight loss

New York - A diet free of animal products and low in fat may help trim the waistline without the task of strict calorie watching, a new study suggests.

Researchers found that of 64 post menopausal, overweight women, those assigned to follow a low-fat vegan diet for 14 weeks lost an average of 13 pounds, compared with a weight loss of about eight pounds among women who followed a standard low-cholesterol diet.

I think this is nonsense. Let me tell you...