Sunday digest

- As this rally in Venezuela shows, perhaps Hugo isn't the strongman he'd like us to think he is.

- Hamas seems ready to go to war against their fellow Palestinians (Fatah) over the recognition of Israel.

Perhaps this is what needs to happen in order to clarify the future direction of the territories.

- Russian journalistic freedoms are in steep decline. Just yesterday, an outspoken critic of Vladimir Putin was gunned down outside her apartment. It seems the Soviet mentality is far from extinct as this is only the latest in a series of unsolved mysteries.

As I've said before, it'll always be the G-7 to me.

- Fareed Zakaria asks an excellent question: if you were a Shiite, having suffered through a brutal insurgency and an incompetent government, would you give up your weapons?

- Much has been made of Bob Woodward's "State of Denial". I don't place a lot of faith in journalistic re-tellings of intimate conversations within the halls of power. Conversations occur in such a high-pressure and rapidly-moving environment that I doubt that they can be captured accurately. In addition, the journalist who purports to know the "inside story" can only have a bird's eye view at best of what really happens, especially when they're published in near-real time like Woodward so often does.

That being said, I still think that "Guests of the Ayatollah" is a must read.

- Two months before the mid-term elections, aren't there more important things to focus on than a gay Congressman preying on teens? Hell, I'm sure these shenanigans happen all the time in Ottawa (minus the gay angle). Sure, Hastert may have gotten a heads-up, and he deserves to be put under the microscope, but this is receiving far too much attention.

- Finally, why is it that every time Quebec society is accused of being less than completely modern, everyone feels the need to twist themselves into pretzel-like positions to deny it? As Coyne says, "I think they doth protest too much".

It also give credence to my belief that those who are the most intolerant of minorities often belong to minority groups themselves.