It’s about time someone exposed the myth that the war in Iraq moved Qaddafi to get rid of his nukes. That’s pure Bush fantasy.

A Choice for the Rogues
By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN
Published: August 2, 2006

I seriously doubt the Bush team will succeed in curtailing the Iranian or North Korean nuclear programs until it resolves a contradiction that has been at the heart of this administration from the beginning: Is it for a change of regime or a change of behavior in Iran and North Korea? Because the Bush team has refused to make up its mind, it’s gotten neither. All it’s gotten are two better-armed rogues.

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MoDo takes on Mad Max.

Mel’s Tequila Sunrise
By MAUREEN DOWD
Published: August 2, 2006

My mom always warned me to stay away from tequila.

She would have given the same advice to Mel. She loved Mel, and always thought he would have been perfect for the role of Michael Collins, the romantic fighter for Irish independence who came to a bloody end in a roadside ambush in 1922.

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Oops, Charles Johnson won’t be happy to hear this:

Naveed Haq, now widely portrayed as a Muslim American so angry at Israel that he shot up a Jewish charity in Seattle, had recently converted to Christianity. His conversion is perhaps the most startling contradiction in a puzzling life.

He had a degree in electrical engineering and was the son of a successful engineer. But he couldn’t hold a job and recently worked as a security guard and retail clerk in the Seattle area. His father was a founding member of the Islamic center here. But the son was rarely seen at a local mosque for more than 10 years.

Haq, 30, told a ministry leader that he saw too much anger in Islam and wanted to find a new beginning in Christianity. He converted to Christianity, but, as with many other endeavors in his life, drifted away from the faith.

Of course, Michelle was revelling in her certainty that the killer was a Muslim, and Chuckles was even giddier. They insist it was an act of “Islamist-inspired” terrorism, a part of the jihad. Seems to me more like the sick and twisted act of a mentally ill and deeply troubled drifter. Islamism and terror had as much to do with it as his Christianity, i.e., nothing. Keep scrolling through Malkin’s hate site to see how frantically she’s been fanning the flames of this story to convince us it’s part of the vast Islamofascist conspiracy. Once again, she looks foolish and hysterical, choking on her own noxious hatred of swarthy brown people. I’m guessing she’ll make a Gobineau-esque argument that Islam is genetic, and once a Muslim always a Muslim.

It’s going to be the only Chinese airliner listed in Hong Kong, Shanghai and London. Before you invest, be sure you read this.

It’s one thing to kill dogs suspected of having rabies, and quite another to torture and kill little kittens slowly just for the fun of shocking people with the gruesome photos. ESWN has the rather remarkable story of the cybersleuthing being employed to track down China’s new cat killer, who sounds even more fiendish than the lady with the stilletto heels.