Odds and Ends

Here's some miscellaneous news that fell through the cracks as we hit the last stretch...

Rev. Ted Haggard, who resigned two days ago as president of the National Association of Evangelicals because of rank hypocrisy reports of meth-fueled gay liaisons, was dismissed by the megachurch he led today. Haggard, of course, was a close friend of the White House. I love the smell of karma in the evening.

As Saddam's verdict nears, there are reports that a hanging may be the punishment. There are also fears of a "firestorm" of violence following the verdict. Baghdad remains virtually locked down.

David Frum says Vanity Fair lied; he totally loves this war as well as passing the buck for it.

Nuclear programs are very in this year, thanks to a number of trendsetters like North Korea, Iran, or India. Now Algeria, Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, and Saudi Arabia have announced that "they were embarking on programmes to master atomic technology". Remember we as a nation used to universally denounce nuclear proliferation?

Military recruiters, faced with a major shortage of recruits for some reason (your guess is as good as mine), still resort to deceiving their prey in order to get them to enlist. One tactic? Telling potential recruits that the Iraq war is over.

Latest climate change issue? A potential “global collapse” of all species currently fished.

Finally, the Supreme Court will hear a case next week examining whether the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act passed by Congress in 2003 restricts abortion rights. Think the decision will be controversial?