“While Israel is prepared to make generous compromises for peace, it cannot go back to the 1967 lines because these lines are indefensible. These were not the boundaries of peace. They were the boundaries of repeated wars because the attack on Israel was so attractive. So we can't go back to those indefensible lines and we're going to have to have a long-term military presence along the Jordan [River],” – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Josh Marshall says it best.
Merkel backs Obama on Israel. Next up: Cameron. I think we should stick to Romney's principle and support our allies and friends, don't you?
Remember Terry Teachout in the WSJ? Money quote:
Let it be duly noted that if the title of [“The Book Of Mormon”] were “The Quran,” it wouldn’t have opened. Messrs. Parker and Stone found that out the hard way a year ago when online death threats caused Comedy Central executives to censor an episode of “South Park” in which the Prophet Muhammad was shown wearing a bear costume. The boys have learned their lesson well: Never shoot at anybody who shoots back.
From CNN:
Federal authorities are using words uttered by the co-founder of a radical Islamic group to charge him with threats against the creators of “South Park.” A criminal complaint alleging the communication of threats was filed in Virginia late last week against Jesse Curtis Morton, also known as Younus Abdullah Mohammad … Morton, a former resident of Brooklyn, New York, is the second person charged in the “South Park” case. In February, Zachary Adam Chesser, 21, who admitted to posting online threats, was sentenced to 25 years in prison.
(Full disclosure: they are friends. Which makes my anger at impugning their integrity and courage deep. But no less valid.)
Jim Manzi, who is in Paris, finds that “the French and American public reactions to this event seem vastly more alike than different”:
[H]ow sex crimes are defined, and the severity of the punishment, is not identical between the two countries. However, this difference in attitudes toward sex, marriage and the workplace can easily be exaggerated. I don’t advise you to explain to your French spouse that you have commenced an affair with your co-worker because “il est normal.” You’re very likely to find yourself and your clothes on the sidewalk, while getting an impromptu lesson on the creative use of the French language delivered form a third-floor balcony.
And before people start building grand theories about what the sex lives of French politicians say about French society, they ought to figure out what the sex lives of Bill Clinton, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Newt Gingrich, John Edwards, Elliot Spitzer, the “hiking the Appalachian Trail” guy and so on (and on and on) say about American society in general. I suspect what they really say is that narcissistic personalities in any society are disproportionately drawn to, and enabled by, careers that provide fame and power.
A French poll, finding that “57% of the French public and 70% of French Socialists believe that Dominique Strauss-Kahn (DSK) was the victim of a set-up,” contradicts some of Manzi’s points.
I kid you not.
The blogosphere perseveres where the MSM daren't tread.
I guess a shameless panderer's gotta do what a shameless panderer's gotta do. Money quote from Foxman:
“I don’t see this as the president throwing Israel under the bus. He’s saying with `swaps.’ It’s not 1967 borders in the abstract. It’s not an edict. It’s a recommendation of a structure for negotiations.”
Well: duh. But tell that to Roger Ailes.
Alpacas wait to be judged in the arena at the Devon County Show on May 19, 2011 in Exeter, England. One of the region's biggest county shows, it is often seen as a curtain raiser for the entire showing season. As well being a agricultural livestock and produce showcase, it is also used as a barometer for the health of the whole agricultural industry in general. By Matt Cardy/Getty Images.
Noah Kristula-Green reports that default could easily start another recession. Noah Millman sees through the game Congress is playing:
The debt ceiling is theatre, a way of forcing Congress to acknowledge the consequences of its own budgets. If the Treasury were simply to ignore the debt ceiling and borrow what was required under the operative budget, Congress would scream, but really it would get what it wants: a free pass to disclaim responsibility for its own budgetary decisions.
The Dish 