Poor, poor George. The NY Times editorials are famously reserved and “prudent,” so it’s refreshing – and somewhat startling – to see them so willing to tell it like it is.

After President Bush’s disastrous visit to Latin America, it’s unnerving to realize that his presidency still has more than three years to run. An administration with no agenda and no competence would be hard enough to live with on the domestic front. But the rest of the world simply can’t afford an American government this bad for that long.

In Argentina, Mr. Bush, who prides himself on his ability to relate to world leaders face to face, could barely summon the energy to chat with the 33 other leaders there, almost all of whom would be considered friendly to the United States under normal circumstances. He and his delegation failed to get even a minimally face-saving outcome at the collapsed trade talks and allowed a loudmouthed opportunist like the president of Venezuela to steal the show.

It’s amazing to remember that when Mr. Bush first ran for president, he bragged about his understanding of Latin America, his ability to speak Spanish and his friendship with Mexico. But he also made fun of Al Gore for believing that nation-building was a job for the United States military.

Three agonizing, endless, dreary grinding years. I am so, so glad to be out of America during my country’s most abysmal episode ever.

If this turns out to be true, our glorious little war in Iraq is about to get a hell of a lot harder to justify.

Powerful new evidence emerged yesterday that the United States dropped massive quantities of white phosphorus on the Iraqi city of Fallujah during the attack on the city in November 2004, killing insurgents and civilians with the appalling burns that are the signature of this weapon.

Ever since the assault, which went unreported by any Western journalists, rumours have swirled that the Americans used chemical weapons on the city.

On 10 November last year, the Islam Online website wrote: “US troops are reportedly using chemical weapons and poisonous gas in its large-scale offensive on the Iraqi resistance bastion of Fallujah, a grim reminder of Saddam Hussein’s alleged gassing of the Kurds in 1988.”

The website quoted insurgent sources as saying: “The US occupation troops are gassing resistance fighters and confronting them with internationally banned chemical weapons.”

In December the US government formally denied the reports, describing them as “widespread myths”. “Some news accounts have claimed that US forces have used ‘outlawed’ phosphorus shells in Fallujah,” the USinfo website said. “Phosphorus shells are not outlawed. US forces have used them very sparingly in Fallujah, for illumination purposes.

“They were fired into the air to illuminate enemy positions at night, not at enemy fighters.”

But now new information has surfaced, including hideous photographs and videos and interviews with American soldiers who took part in the Fallujah attack, which provides graphic proof that phosphorus shells were widely deployed in the city as a weapon.

I thought the use of chemical weapons was the No. 1 reason for calling Saddam a madman. If this story is true…I don’t even want to think about it.

Update: Yes indeedy, we’ve got another bombshell on our hands. We sure know how to fight a good war of liberation and win hearts and minds.

And it’s about time.

THE Vatican has issued a stout defence of Charles Darwin, voicing strong criticism of Christian fundamentalists who reject his theory of evolution and interpret the biblical account of creation literally.

Cardinal Paul Poupard, head of the Pontifical Council for Culture, said the Genesis description of how God created the universe and Darwin’s theory of evolution were “perfectly compatible” if the Bible were read correctly.

His statement was a clear attack on creationist campaigners in the US, who see evolution and the Genesis account as mutually exclusive.

“The fundamentalists want to give a scientific meaning to words that had no scientific aim,” he said at a Vatican press conference. He said the real message in Genesis was that “the universe didn’t make itself and had a creator”.

This idea was part of theology, Cardinal Poupard emphasised, while the precise details of how creation and the development of the species came about belonged to a different realm – science. Cardinal Poupard said that it was important for Catholic believers to know how science saw things so as to “understand things better”.

His statements were interpreted in Italy as a rejection of the “intelligent design” view, which says the universe is so complex that some higher being must have designed every detail.

A lot of Americans (particularly in red states) are dumb enough as it is. We don’t need to make them dumber by spoon-feeding them drivel about “Intelligent Design” and some un-named, un-namable “creator.” Everything about ID is a canard, a slick re-packaging of Creationism and an attempt to wipe out our brain cells and critical thought processes.

To those of you who defend Commander Codpiece, please tell us, are you happy that he believes ID should be taught in science classes alongside evolution? Do you believe that elevates America in the eyes of the scientific community and of the world? As to that bullshit argument, “Well, we’re just sayin’, we should teach it along with evolutuion because, you know, it could be possible…” To that, all I can say is that there might be some truth in astrology as well but we don’t teach it at universities. The Fundies’ attacks on evolution are a blessing for their opponents, as there is simply no defending them without looking like a jackass. (Bush looked like a jackass before endorsing ID so he had nothing to lose.)

There’s an above-average post about them over at east Asia Watch, and some interesting comments, too.

Unfortunately, if you dig around the the rightwing blogosphere you’ll see they are using this to bolster their dire warnings of an imminent “China threat” and to fan the flames of the “now’s the time to cut all ties with China” meme.

This beautiful, heartbreaking story goes so contrary to Charles’ life-guiding equation (the shorter version of which is, “Muslims bad”).

The family of a Palestinian boy killed by Israeli troops have donated his organs to be used for transplants in
Israel, voicing hope that the life-saving gesture could bring peace a little closer.

Soldiers shot and critically wounded 13-year-old Ahmad al-Khatib last week on a raid into the West Bank city of Jenin to look for militants. The army said troops mistook Khatib’s toy gun for a real weapon.

Khatib died of his wounds in an Israeli hospital. After consulting with Muslim authorities, his family decided to give his organs to six Israelis awaiting transplants.

“We are doing it for humane purposes and for the sake of the world’s children and the children of this country,” Khatib’s father Ismail told Reuters on Monday.

“When I donated my son’s organs I did not say (they should be) for a Jewish child, an Arab child, whether Muslim or Christian.”

Somehow I suspect we won’t be reading this in Chucky’s daily rant against the Muslim “beasts.” It so does not fit with his site’s tortured conviction that every Moslem is a terrorist.

Why else would they suddenly close down all the poultry markets in town?

Authorities ordered all live poultry markets in China’s capital to close immediately and went door-to-door seizing chickens and ducks from private homes, as the government dramatically beefed up its fight against bird flu on Monday.

Beijing also announced that 6 million birds had been slaughtered around the site of China’s most recent bird flu outbreak, and the
World Health Organization said it had been asked to help in the reopened investigation of the country’s possible first human cases of the virus.

The escalation of anti-bird flu measures in the world’s most populous country came as a meeting of hundreds of international experts in Geneva opened with warnings that a global human flu pandemic is inevitable and could cost the global economy at least $800 billion.

“It is only a matter of time before an avian flu virus … acquires the ability to be transmitted from human to human, sparking the outbreak of human pandemic influenza,” WHO director general Lee Jong-wook told the gathering.

If this is a sign of pro-active steps to fight the bird flu menace I certainly applaud it, and hope we begin to see a meaningful flow of information. And then I want to see them close those killer markets in Guangzhou.

Too much is already out there on this topic so I’ll try to be be brief.

Nothing is more depressing than seeing those on the right jump for joy over the Muslim youths rioting in Paris. They’re thrilled because it confirms how dysfunctional and bad France is, and confirms that Muslims are animals. (For a fine example, head over to this monstrous site — a real “hate site,” and one linked to enthusiastically by InstaPuppy and Michelle Malkin.) It’s depressing because their joy is ill-founded and based on two lies: 1.) that this is part of a worldwide Islamofascist “intifada,” and 2.) that the rioting is due to France’s liberal, multicultural, Muslim-loving tendencies.

Actually, France takes a rather right-wing, Charles Johnsonesque approach to Muslims, isolating them from mainstream society, ghettoizing them and enforcing a unicultural policy.

The government has been embarrassed by its inability to quell the disturbances, which have called into question its unique integration model, which discourages recognizing ethnic, religious or cultural differences in favor of French unity. There is no affirmative action, for example, and religious symbols, like the Muslim veil, are banned in schools.

And returing to No. 1, this isn’t about Muslim terrorism. It’s about poor disaffected youth on the fringes of society, warehoused in project housing with no hope and no future. The rioting may be totally wrong and inexcusable, but at least see it for what it is. It is not a 911-like attack, but the result of many years of stigmatization and poverty. First try to understand it, then criticize it. Is that too much to ask?

LGF Watch offers an eloquent and cogent reminder of how stupid Charles and Michelle and their lemming followers are being as they decry Muslims and the French and declare it proof of the failings of liberalism.

Senior European affairs analyst Charles Johnson seems to believe that Islam, and nothing else, is the “root cause” of the gang violence that has been plaguing France for the past ten days. Does the worldwide Pajamas Media empire now include on-the-ground news gatherers in Aulnay-sois-Bois? That would account for his unflinching certainty that the car-burnings are an “intifada” whose ultimate aim is to force Brigitte Bardot into a burqa. Or something.

But as Oscar Wilde once remarked, the truth is rarely pure and never simple. Unlike Charles, I don’t claim to know why the rioters are rioting, or how to make them stop. But it’s clear that Islam is just one of several possible contributing factors, which include chronic unemployment (would Charles hire a well-qualified Muslim?); racism (the French loathe Muslim Arabs almost as much as the lizards do); inept policy decisions, such as the suspension of community policing last year; political wrangling between two monumental egos at the head of the French government (Messieurs de Villepin and Sarkozy); and the failure of the French model of “uniculturalism.”

Yes, “uniculturalism.” Contrary to the conventional wisdom among the so-called “politically incorrect” right-wing élite, France and other European countries do not practice “multiculturalism.” For decades, France’s official policy has been to deny the existence of racial and ethnic differences among its citizens. There are no hyphenated Frenchmen — at least not officially, but as we all know, Frenchmen whose skin is the wrong color, or whose parents were born in the wrong country, are likely to find themselves warehoused in high-rise ghettoes. Out of sight, out of mind, and out of work — because as there are officially no ethnic groups in France, there’s no such thing as affirmative action either.

And this is the model to which the enemies of “multiculturalism” aspire….

So the next time you see a headline that reads “Muslim Rioting,” keep in mind that “Unemployed Rioting” or “Youth Rioting” or even “Male Rioting” would all be equally accurate.

Oddly enough, Michelle Malkin — perhaps inadvertently — touched on this when she headlined the troubles as “Muslim Immigrant Gang Violence.” Gang violence is exactly what it is. And gang violence can be found pretty much everywhere. It’s not a uniquely French problem, or a uniquely European problem, and certainly not a uniquely Muslim problem (Belfast, anyone?).

As we wait to see what happens, all we can do is hope that the rioting will subside, that the epidemic of car-burnings will recede to its usual background level, and that the French government can find the political will to solve the problem of the banlieues once and for all. And not just because this would annoy the right-wing élite, which is already breathlessly anticipating the spread of the violence to other countries in Europe.

Just two words, LGF Watch: Thank you. It’s so heartbreaking to see Michelle and Mark Steyn and InstaPundit and others, who really should know better, exploit this and use it to encourage yet more racism and hatred, without ever asking for perspective, without ever wondering why it happened, without ever looking beyond what they want to believe, i.e., that the Muslims and the French are each monolithic groups of very bad people who deserve the very worst.

It’s good that they seem to be finally telling the truth. But why do they always have to start by lying? [Update: I’ll reserve judgement about whether anyone lied until I understand it better.]

China said Sunday it had asked for outside help to test three possible cases of bird flu in people, while scientists and government representatives prepared for a strategy session in Geneva amid fears of a possible worldwide flu pandemic among humans.

China said it asked the World Health Organization to help determine whether the virus caused the death of a 12-year-old girl and infected her 9-year-old brother and a 36-year-old middle school teacher in Wantang, a village in central Hunan province.

Chinese experts “cannot rule out the possibility of human transmission of H5N1 bird flu” in the cases of the three, who came down with pneumonia last month following a bird flu outbreak among poultry in their village, the official Xinhua News Agency reported.

The girl’s brother and the teacher recovered. Chinese officials initially said the girl and her brother tested negative for the bird flu virus.

Still no deaths from bird flu in China despite 62 dead in neighboring countries. If only those neigbors could emulate China’s advanced infection containment capabilities.