Why Radical Islam Just Won't Die  —  THE big surprise, viewed from my own narrow perspective five years later, has taken place in the mysterious zones of extremist ideology.  In the months and weeks before the invasion of Iraq, I wrote quite a lot about ideology in the Middle East …

Dick Cheney's Error  —  For at least six years, as I've become increasingly frustrated by the Bush administration's repeated betrayal of constitutional — and conservative — principles, I have defended Vice President Cheney, a man I've known for decades and with whom I served and made common cause in Congress.

Haunting Obama's Dreams  —  It is a tribute to Hillary Clinton that even though, rationally, political soothsayers think she can no longer win, irrationally, they wonder how she will pull it off.  —  It's impossible to imagine The Terminator, as a former aide calls her, giving up.

Halleluja  —  This may be the greatest piece of surrealist performance art of the internet era:  —  I'm speechless.

Why am I so afraid that the Democratic Party is shooting itself in the foot?  —  The Dems are far from perfect—in any time—but here we are in what has to be a Democratic year and it looks again like we are self-destructing.  —  We have two great candidates—one a hard working …

Gap in Life Expectancy Widens for the Nation  —  WASHINGTON — New government research has found “large and growing” disparities in life expectancy for richer and poorer Americans, paralleling the growth of income inequality in the last two decades.  —  Life expectancy for the nation …

BBC admits inaccuracies in coverage  —  The BBC has apologized for significant errors in two recent news reports on Israel.  —  In a news item on March 7, following the Mercaz Harav Yeshiva attack, the BBC showed a bulldozer demolishing a house, while correspondent Nick Miles told viewers …

Tatt's harsh for cop wannabe  —  PATRIOTIC squaddie Craig Briggs has been barred from joining the police — because he's got an ENGLAND tattoo on his arm.  —  The Iraq veteran, 22, had wanted to be a cop since childhood and was advised to join the Army to get experience first.

Web host suspends site planned for anti-Koran film  —  Source: Reuters  —  A U.S.-based web service, which Islam critic and Dutch right-wing lawmaker Geert Wilders planned to use to show his film critical of the Koran, said on Saturday that it had inactivated the site due to complaints.

Tibetan revolt has China's empire fraying at the edge  —  For all its overwhelming force in the lonely mountain passes, where military convoys toil towards the clouds, or in the dark alleys of Chengdu's Tibetan quarter, where soldiers stand watch, the sour tang of a debacle for China is in the air.

What Politicians Say When They Talk About Race  —  Americans and their political leaders have been tongue-tied on the subject of race.  We were reminded of that last week when Senator Barack Obama, the front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination, took the almost unimaginable step …

To Keep and Bear Arms  —  Nearly 135 years ago, the United States experienced what may have been the worst one-day slaughter of blacks by whites in its history.  On April 13, 1873, in the tiny village of Colfax, La., white paramilitaries attacked a lightly armed force of freedmen assembled in a local courthouse.