Sunday morning dribs and drabs

It's a beautiful Sunday morning in the nation's capital. Before I head out to shovel the driveway and then go off to Chapters, here are a few nuggets:

- A couple of alarming pieces, here and here, chroncling the latest developments in the battle between radicalism and the West for Islamic minds.

- A couple of conservative titans take differing views on the state of play in Iraq. William F. Buckley urges the US to admit defeat, while Bill Kristol urges persistence. (Be sure to read the Fukuyama piece Kristol refers to. Check the archives on the right sidebar for a link.)

- Today, the world's population is expected to top 6.5 billion. Birthrates in India, among other places, are driving the explosion. It's estimated that close to 30 children are born every minute there, and there are also moves afoot to develop sterilization programs in some regions of the country. While we'll no doubt be subjected to the usual hue and cry about overpopulation and finite resources, the truth of the matter is that if the right economic forces are harness and encouraged (read: the expansion of capitalism) the negative effects of population increases can be more or less avoided. See here for a story on how India is changing.