Part of the current conventional wisdom is that the UK (along with the rest of Europe) is becoming increasingly secular, which is one of the reasons that they are appalled by an American president who appears to be a sincere believer in God.

David Carr has an interesting post on how Brits, having been abandoned by their churches, have taken up paganism.

I came out about in the center of the “right libertarian” quadrant on this political quiz.

Don’t miss the latest column from Mark Steyn:

Some of his allies – the Prime Minister of Britain – have overcome their squeamishness to regime change. Some of his opponents – the Prime Minister of Canada – were still objecting to regime change even after the regime had changed. But it was Bush’s position that counted: one of his strengths is that he won’t sacrifice the objective to the process. By contrast, it wasn’t always apparent that his predecessor had objectives: what exactly was the desired end when Mr Clinton bombed that aspirin factory in the Sudan? In foreign policy, Clinton had tactics, not strategy: his inability to reach what the special prosecutor Ken Starr called “completion” extended far beyond Monica’s gullet. On his tax cuts, on missile defence, on Saddam, Bush is completion- focused.

Plenty more where that came from.

Blogging will be light to non-existent for a while.

That’s certainly how the UK could interpret the apparent fact that Russia was spying on them and giving the intelligence to Saddam. There’s little doubt, of course, that they were doing the same thing to us. Or that the French were involved as well. What’s truly amazingly stupid about it is that it did him no good whatsoever–Russia (and perhaps France) has sundered its relationship with the Anglosphere for no apparent benefit.

Question is now, what to do about it?

With his thoughts at this point. It’s an interesting read.

Now that they’re sure that he’s out of power, and not coming back, a brave stand has been taken by this group of people–they are denouncing Saddam Hussein to be “tyrannical” and “treacherous.” Problem is, it’s the same group of people who a few weeks ago wasted the taxpayers’ time and money passing a resolution against going to war with him. Yup, it’s the Los Angeles City Council.

A confident, self-assured Hans Blix authoritatively states that it’s possible that we may find WMD in Iraq.

Hans, your fifteen minutes are up. It’s just too bad that the media don’t understand that.

The US military is getting out of the way of the Iraqis who want to take out their own trash.

I hope that this sends a message to the jihadists all over the Arab world. I suspect that it will also make for a more pro-American and anti-Arab-dictatorship government in Iraq when one is eventually formed. They’ll remember who their friends, and enemies, were for at least a generation.

Boy, that Marine light colonel does have an unfortunate last name, though, doesn’t he?

What’s the deal with all of the repeat trackback pings? I’ve gotten them from N.Z. Bear, Dean Esmay, Joe Katzman, and probably others in the last few days.

Are you guys using the most recent version (2.63)?

[Update at 11:02 AM PDT]

I just got a third ping from Truth Laid Bear on this post. And he’s using 2.63. Anyone know what’s going on?