Author: Andrew Sullivan

It's continuing. I can remember when neocons valued Turkey as a critical ally, as a vital bridge between east and west. Now, the rhetoric has gone to that of a "fifth column". Amazing what a tilt against Israel's policies toward the Palestinians can do.

From the Daily Mail:

Mrs Cameron, 38, is said by friends to be 'knackered' as she prepares for the birth of her fourth child. Her fourth child is due in September and although at 36 weeks, most airlines would allow her to fly, she won't be accompanying her husband to the US this week:

Most airlines allow pregnant women to fly up to and including the 36th week, provided the pregnancy has been straightforward. Mrs Cameron's baby is understood to be due in early September, meaning she could still travel if she wished.

If she were a real American, she'd not only be flying in a month's time, but experiencing labor on two transcontinental flights! Honestly, these women who actually behave according to the usual rules of human biology, time and space. They really should be refudiated.

It's getting good out there. My faves:

To suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous liberals, or to quit halfterm, and by opposing, rake in speaking fees

Neither a thinker nor a reader be / for thought oft loses both itself and friend / and reading dulls the edge of Fox TV

"How's all that bein' and not bein' workin' out for ya?"

She's used the word "refudiate" before – on Fox. But for some strange reason, no one noticed at the time. Still, Twitter is no match for Dish readers. Have at it. A Palinized Shakespeare quote in 140 characters. Come on: you live for this.

Sans Rasmussen, as usual. At this point in his presidency, Ronald Reagan had 42 percent approval and was headed to a low of 37 percent. Clinton was at 42 percent, headed to a low of 39 percent. George W. Bush was at 76 percent approval. Truman was at 34 percent.

Goldblog:

I'm afraid that Sarah Palin, if she were ever to become President, would help create what Muslim extremists have so far unsuccesssfully sought to provoke: an all-out clash of civilizations.

This is the ad now running on Drudge:

A new strategy in the fight against AIDS in Africa:

In the education study in Malawi's Zomba district, which has both high HIV rates and school dropout rates among young girls, the World Bank found cash payments for at least 75 percent school attendance each month reduced infection rates by 60 percent, compared to an unpaid control group. "Girls who received payments not only had less sex, but when they did, they tended to choose younger, safer partners," the World Bank said in a statement on the studies, which were released on the first day of the 18th International AIDS Conference in Vienna.

Cash transfers, the institution said, enabled a significant drop in what is called "transactional sex" among girls and young women who trade intercourse for assistance, gifts or money. Schoolgirls who received payment appeared to avoid older, wealthier men who are much more likely to be HIV positive than schoolboys, according to the study.

In the NYT, the corruption of language continues. If China threatens repeated beatings and sleep deprivation, it's torture. If the US does it, it's not.

Anchorage, Alaska, 11.41 pm

Julian Sanchez exposes Jonah Goldberg's double-standard:

Some unemployable inner city junkie who resorts to theft can expect a lecture on personal responsibility—not sympathy for how “unseemly” it is for his crime to be publicly exposed.  But a multi-millionaire who beats up women and then threatens murder?

But at least Jonah said something. Lopez remains mum on her feminist woman-beater.

They're still full of it. David Gregory admirably insists they give specifics. They cannot. They will not. They are fiscal frauds. Maybe at some point, the voters will realize this. Maybe even before November. These are the people who doubled the debt in eight years of growth. And they want to go back to the very same policies that made that happen.