Iran

"The shifting geopolitical landscape in the Middle East after the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, which propelled traditionally oppressed communities such as Shi'ite Arabs and Kurds to unprecedented positions of power and influence in that country, has also emboldened Iranian minorities to agitate for greater cultural rights and political representation."

Christianity in Asia...................ATimes

"Ten thousand Chinese become Christians each day, according to a stunning report by the National Catholic Reporter's veteran correspondent John Allen, and 200 million Chinese may comprise the world's largest concentration of Christians by mid-century, and the largest missionary force in history. [1] If you read a single news article about China this year, make sure it is this one."

Rex Murphy- U of T misses the Mark- Gun club

"Toronto has been experiencing, sadly, another summer of handgun violence mainly related – as with previous outbreaks – to criminal gangs. If the University of Toronto, or any of its spokespersons, can establish any real connection or association between criminal use of handguns on Toronto streets and the existence of the Hart House shooting range, it should declare it.

If it cannot, and if as I suspect there is none, it should explain then, with reason and argument, why it has shut down a useful and distinguished activity on the university campus. That's what universities do: Give reasons and make arguments."

More on The New Republic/ Beauchamp story.....................via Instapundit

"So Beauchamp was lying the whole time, and now that he has two entirely different stories, he was either lying to TNR, which probably paid him $50 per article and which can’t put him in prison for lying to them (because he’s not under oath when he’s spouting off to Franklin Foer), or he lied to the Army, which pays his entire salary and can and will put him in jail for quite a while if he lies to them . . . . So guess which one Beauchamp is more likely to have lied to — the people who couldn’t jail him, or the ones who could. And would. That’s about as definitive a refutation as we’ll get in this saga, but it’s a good one."

More on that JFK plot

"Taped conversations between the alleged conspirators show they planned to seek Tehran's help in a strike intended to dwarf the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, according to a 28-page document signed by Assistant U.S. Attorney Marshall C. Miller and delivered to lawyers here"

"TV Host Resigns....( probably for health reasons) ....After Row with Tehran Police"

"It's Judgment Day, Says a Longtime Surgeon".................via .....Comarow editor of America's Best Hospitals.........USNews blog

"This is a new era, says Russell. Report cards that accurately reflect the ability of hospitals and of individual surgeons to deliver good care are becoming a given, he says, and physicians had better get used to it. Airing data surgeons once stockpiled in their own notebooks, if they kept them at all, is nothing but positive. Transparency, he calls it. When the proudest, most macho members of the medical community willingly buy into the idea that their work should be measured and judged, I'm a little more optimistic that others will fall in line"

Right-Of-Center Bloggers Select The Most & Least Desired 2008 Republican Nominee...............RightWingNews

China / Russia military exercise ...............Timesonline

Walid Phares: alternative to the $20 billion arms deal...... ...American Thinker

The US Government is considering a new gigantic arms sale to the Saudi Kingdom, up to 20 billion dollars' worth of complex weaponry. The proposed package includes advanced satellite-guided bombs, upgrades to its fighters, and new naval vessels, as part of a US strategy to contain the rising military expansion of Iran in the region. The titanic arms deal is a major Saudi investment to shield itself from the Khomeinist menace looming at the horizon: an Iranian nuclear bomb, future Pasdaran control in Iraq, and a Hezb'allah offensive in Lebanon.

The real Iranian threat against the Saudis materializes as follows:.......

Pew Report.......

"Judged by their answers to three news knowledge questions2, the most informed audiences belong to the political magazines, Rush Limbaugh's radio show, the O'Reilly Factor, news magazines, and online news sources. Close behind are the regular audiences for NPR and the Daily Show."

Sgt.Aguina- "This is part of the battlefield"................Pajamasmedia

Al Qaeda's warning....

Michael Barone-"There is enough good happening on the battlefields of Iraq today that Congress should plan on sustaining the effort at least into 2008

It's not often that an opinion article shakes up Washington and changes the way a major issue is viewed. But that happened last week, when the New York Times printed an opinion article by analysts of the Brookings Institution, Michael O'Hanlon and Ken Pollack, on the progress of the surge strategy in Iraq.

Yes, progress. Messrs. O'Hanlon and Pollack supported the invasion of Iraq in 2003 Â-- Mr. Pollack even wrote a book urging the overthrow of Saddam Hussein Â-- but they have sharply criticized military operations there in the ensuing years.

Speed cameras- via Instapundit

Captain Ed- More on the Minneapolis Bridge collapse

His father has some thoughts on inspections

Lorrie Goldstein- U of T gun club

"The decision of administrators at the University of Toronto to shut down the venerable Hart House Rifle and Revolver Clubs next month speaks to more than political correctness run amok.

It reflects the rigid, leftist ideology that has infected so many campuses, as these alleged bastions of academic freedom increasingly become megaphones for what is popular, rather than what is right.

Those responsible for the closure, done without any meaningful consultation with the 450 law-abiding students who belong to the clubs, acknowledge their edict isn't based on safety issues."...

Border

"Burgard: When first I started hearing about the rapes on the border and how the "drogandos" would put guns to people's heads and say "You are going to carry this backpack of drugs into America or we are going to kill you and leave you in the desert." I didn't hear it from a bunch of white guys in Arizona or Texas. I was hearing it from fellows who had fled the corruption of Mexico in order to put food on the table for their families. Seeing 86 California hospitals going bankrupt in the past few years. Watching my taxes go up while most of many of my friends have had to have both parents working in order to pay for private schools for their kids."

Bill Kristol- The Defeatists are in retreat

Michael Yon -Al Qaeda is guilty of monstrosities in Iraq - no matter what anyone says

"Amid all this talk of timetables for the War in Iraq, blurred as they are by a strange lemming-like compulsion to declare the "surge" strategy a failure almost before it actually began, one deadline looms larger with each passing day: It's time for a reckoning with the truth."

"At times it sounded as if many lawmakers are more preoccupied with bashing Mr. Gonzales and the Bush administration than in preventing al Qaeda

from striking the homeland once again."

Oliver North

"We're in a generation long battle against terrorism, against al Qaeda-inspired terrorism, and this is a battle for which we can give no quarter. It's a battle that's got to be fought in military, diplomatic, intelligence, security, policing and ideological terms."