Monday digest

- Prime Minister of Oz John Howard and early contender for Road Hammer Man of the Year 2007 has come under fire for suggesting that al-Qaeda would prefer that Barack Obama and the Democrats take the White House in 2008. Now before you lefties get all bent out of shape over foreign interference in domestic politics, he's simply following in the footsteps of Gerhard Schroeder, who won Germany on a platform of Bush bashing not too long ago. (Don't forget here at home about how Michael Moore waded in prior to the 2004 election and warned everyone about our current Prime Minister.) You may think that Howard's kind of rhetoric is extreme, but John Kerry seems to think that Iran needs to be accomodated, because according to the Senator, the government there wants a stable Iraq, too. (I'll take some of what he's smoking, thanks.) This type of wrongheaded thinking demonstrates that for all of their foibles, and there are many, the Republicans are still the only ones who can be trusted with the levers of command.

- Couldn't help but notice that the Dixie Chicks' bratty Natalie Maines borrowed a putdown from the Simpsons last night when accepting the award for "Best Country Album" at the Grammies, much to the chagrin of a tight-lipped Reba as the Chicks themselves have said that they don't want to be called "country" anymore because it lumps them in with people like Ms. McEntire. Wasn't it fitting that Maines gloatingly quoted from every 14-year old smart aleck's favourite show? For someone who claims that "I don't have time to go round and round and round", she's been at it for four years and I for one am getting sick of her, but then again, I'm a fan of the genre they formerly belonged to. (They've made it clear that they would prefer it if folks like me just let them move on, despite the fact that I own their first three discs.) Perhaps if I was an LA entertainment industry type who thought that calling showbiz know-it-alls on the carpet when they start mouthing off about Dubya is the equivalent of authoritarian censorship, I'd feel differently.

A must read on that, here.

- Now this is just gold. Even if you believe that human activity is to blame, and there are several credible voices who don't, there's still not a whole lot we can do to stop it - so why not expend our resources on adaptation instead of on the futility of trying to reverse it?

- Yesterday, I reviewed a book called "White Guilt" (scroll down). Here's a very practical example of what the author of that book, Shelby Steele, was talking about.

- Speaking of books, this sounds like a must-read.

- The harmful effects of the increase to the minimum wage are already being felt across the United States as it's becoming too expensive to hire unskilled, inexperienced labor, thereby robbing young people of that crucial first step into the employment market where they gain valuable life skills before moving on to bigger and better things. See here. Then, we have people with six kids from three different fathers. Anybody think that even a $10 minimum wage would begin to address her core issues?