Carnival of the Liberated, a weekly sampler of the best work of Iraqi bloggers, is up on Dean’s World. If you don’t care to read all of the 100 or so Iraqi bloggers for the last week, I’ve done it for you and given you an index to the best of what they’ve been saying over the last week.

It’s one week until the 2004 presidential election and, except for the pain, work, and fatigue that I’ll have on the actual election day, I wish it were today.

Is it too late to ask for a mulligan on the primaries?

From Drudge Report:

WASHINGTON (AP) – William H. Rehnquist, a conservative who is the second oldest man ever to be chief justice of the Supreme Court, has been hospitalized with thyroid cancer.

The 80-year-old Rehnquist spent the weekend in Bethesda Naval Hospital in suburban Maryland, and underwent a tracheotomy on Saturday, the Supreme Court said Monday in a statement.

The Supreme Court is not meeting this week, and Rehnquist is expected back on the bench when the court returns to work next Monday, according to a statement issued by the high court.

Rehnquist, named to the court in 1972 by President Richard Nixon and elevated to chief justice by President Ronald Reagan in 1986, has had a series of health problems.

With the advanced age of this Court it’s remarkable that more attention hasn’t been paid to prospective Supreme Court appointments in this campaign season. If this doesn’t bring the issue into sharper relief, nothing will.

Celeste Bilby over at Winds of Change draws our attention to a fascinating project that I, at least, had no idea existed. The Society of St. Andrew has an ongoing project to feed the needy with food that would otherwise go to waste gleaned by volunteers from already-harvested fields. They’ve got offices right here in Illinois in Downers Grove and Bourbonnais. They glean year-round, weather permitting. And they’re looking for volunteers.

This could be a good opportunity to get out in the gorgeous fall weather we’ve been having around here lately and do a good deed at the same time.

From David Broder’s column:

We knew much less about Kerry because his work as a senator from Massachusetts for almost two decades had not really merited careful national analysis. The positive qualities he has displayed — this year and in the past — are an ability to dig deeply into a subject and master its details, to formulate and articulate reasonable-sounding if untested proposals, and a knack for exploiting political openings while avoiding political threats.

But we also know much more about his liabilities: a tendency to overstudy issues, procrastinate and avoid hard choices; a willingness to be swayed by conflicting advice; an awkwardness in dealing with colleagues and staff; and a frequent impression that decisions are being guided by opportunism rather than firm beliefs.

[…]

Viewed in this light, the choice for the country becomes one of confirming an executive with visible and even fundamental shortcomings or entrusting the presidency to a man whose habits of mind and of action are far removed from the challenges of the White House.

Hat tip: Powerline

Broder is far from a right-wing ideologue.

Michael J. Totten has a very interesting column up at Tech Central Station in which he discusses some of the considerations in admitting Turkey to the European Union. Here’s how he concludes his column:

If the fear of History, fear of the “other,” or some combination of both prevent Turkey from joining the union, the danger is that Turkey may drift, like a spurned would-be lover, away from the Europe it aspires to join. If it turns from the West, it can only turn back to the East. Turkey, then, is in play.

Europe is at a crossroads, too. It can wallow in stasis and passivity. Or it can the initiative and act.

Europe can still have a role, if not as a super-power then at least as a civilizing soft power. What better way to carry out that mission than to admit Turkey into the union, to “Europeanize” at least one part of the House of Islam, and to set up a permanent Western camp on the edge of the Middle East itself.

Annexation is risky. But there will be problems in the Turkey-Iraq-Syria border region whether Europe moves into the neighborhood or not. Europeans should act while they can instead of waiting to be acted upon. They can handle it, in theory. But not unless and until they burst their psychological bubble where they pretend History is over.

Michael lays out some of the diplomatic and security considerations in admitting Turkey to the E. U. pretty well. But I think there are a few very basic things that Michael isn’t taking into consideration. Turkey has a population of of roughly 62 million people. That would make Turkey the largest country in the E. U. other than Germany. The people there speak Turkish. And Turkish is not an Indo-European language. Here are the approximate populations of the countries currently in the E. U. which have a non-Indo-European official language:

For a speaker of a Romance language (French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, etc.) to learn another Romance language takes some effort but it’s not that costly a matter. It’s similar for speakers of Germanic languages. And the Slavic languages are even closer, having differentiated only within the last 700 hundred years or so. Within each of these language families there are lots of cognate words, similar constructions, and similar sounds and concepts.

For a speaker of a Romance language to learn a Germanic language (or vice versa) is a bit more of a stretch. But there are still some cognates, particularly in words that both languages have borrowed from Latin or Greek.

Forget about that with a non-Indo-European language like Turkish. It’s not inflected like the Indo-European languages and the Semitic languages all are. It’s agglutinating. That means the language is built on an utterly different basis. And forget the handy Latin and Greek borrow words. The ones that are there are unrecognizeable.

So there are real and substantial costs in learning a non-Indo-European language.

Will either Europe or Turkey be willing to pay the costs?

Compare

As some day it may happen that a victim must be found,
I’ve got a little list—I’ve got a little list
Of society offenders who might well be underground,
And who never would be missed—who never would be missed!
There’s the pestilential nuisances who write for autographs—
All people who have flabby hands and irritating laughs—
All children who are up in dates, and floor you with ’em flat—
All persons who in shaking hands, shake hands with you like that—
And all third persons who on spoiling tete-a-tetes insist—
They’d none of ’em be missed—they’d none of ’em be missed!

CHORUS. He’s got ’em on the list—he’s got ’em on the list;
And they’ll none of ’em be missed—they’ll none of
’em be missed.

There’s the banjo serenader, and the others of his race,
And the piano-organist—I’ve got him on the list!
And the people who eat peppermint and puff it in your face,
They never would be missed—they never would be missed!
Then the idiot who praises, with enthusiastic tone,
All centuries but this, and every country but his own;
And the lady from the provinces, who dresses like a guy,
And who “doesn’t think she waltzes, but would rather like to
try”;
And that singular anomaly, the lady novelist—
I don’t think she’d be missed—I’m sure she’d not he missed!

CHORUS. He’s got her on the list—he’s got her on the list;
And I don’t think she’ll be missed—I’m sure
she’ll not be missed!

And that Nisi Prius nuisance, who just now is rather rife,
The Judicial humorist—I’ve got him on the list!
All funny fellows, comic men, and clowns of private life—
They’d none of ’em be missed—they’d none of ’em be missed.
And apologetic statesmen of a compromising kind,
Such as—What d’ye call him—Thing’em-bob, and
likewise—Never-mind,
And ‘St—’st—’st—and What’s-his-name, and also You-know-who—
The task of filling up the blanks I’d rather leave to you.
But it really doesn’t matter whom you put upon the list,
For they’d none of ’em be missed–they’d none of ’em be
missed!

CHORUS. You may put ’em on the list—you may put ’em on the list;
And they’ll none of ’em be missed—they’ll none of
’em be missed!

W. S. Gilbert

with

On November 2, the entire civilised world will be praying, praying Bush loses. And Sod’s law dictates he’ll probably win, thereby disproving the existence of God once and for all. The world will endure four more years of idiocy, arrogance and unwarranted bloodshed, with no benevolent deity to watch over and save us. John Wilkes Booth, Lee Harvey Oswald, John Hinckley Jr – where are you now that we need you?

Charles Brooker from The Guardian

The Guardian later issued an apology and told us it was all in good fun. T’aint funny, McGee.

Jon Stewart of The Daily Show being interviewed on 60 Minutes this evening:

I wouldn’t be a bit surprised.

I was appalled last night in listening to The McLaughlin Group at how strident Lawrence O’Donnell had become. Previously I’ve found him to be an articulate and measured although forceful advocate for his positions, some of which I agree with. This was really excessive. Apparently it’s his new look:

Meanwhile on MSNBC, the network’s Senior Political Analyst, Lawrence O’Donnell, comes unglued—assuming he was ever glued in the first place—during an episode of Scarborough Country.

(includes link to video clip)

Note to all advocates: shouting down your opposition, denial, and fallacies are not refutation. They are merely contradiction, something entirely different. I’m beginning to fear for the Republic.