The Dish

West Hollywood, California, 9 am.

Good news, at long last. Al Qaeda is losing popularity in the Muslim world, according to the new Pew poll. A shift against suicide bombing as a tactic has occurred dramatically among Muslims in Jordan, Pakistan, and Indonesia. Europe’s Muslims seem to be moderating in their views as well. Osama’s approval ratings in Jordan have gone from 60 percent to 24 percent in one year. Good going, Zarqawi. And most Westerners believe democracy can work in the Muslim world. Interestingly, more Brits and French believe this than Americans. There’s mixed results in the report as well, but, as TPM notes, there’s good reason to look on the bright side as well.

They come in all the time and mainly, I just chuckle, reply or delete. But a couple today are worth passing on:

Mr. Henninger has a very high opinion of his gender. Take a poll of women over the age of 25 in this nation (or perhaps any other nation), and I believe one will find that fully 33 1/3 % of them will be very sure that they have married a snake. And be assured that it is one of the opposite gender!

Several along those lines. Then this:

Eureka! Finally, you have figured it out. Karl Rove beats the Democrats every time not because he is a genius, but because they are utter fools.

Education is an arduous process at times.

A reader writes:

Every Democrat I know, including me, supports the War on Terror. What many of us do not and did not support is the War on Iraq. These are two separate things.
For those of you who chose to believe that we had to wage war against Saddam because of WMDs, or democratizing the region, or "links" to Al Qaida and 9/11, there were an equal number of us who felt that all of those arguments were a sideshow, a distraction, from the REAL war. That war was taking place in Afghanistan and Western Pakistan.
How many Democrats have you heard or read about that are "ambivalent" about THAT war? And how do you think we feel now, watching that one – the real one – slip away? I am heartsick that we did not finish the job. It sickens me that Osama has slept soundly since the Spring of 2003. Guess what, he knows we’re not coming.

Not a single Democrat was in the Senate to hear his Iraq war speech. He was introduced by John Warner and praised by Rick Santorum afterwards. No surprise then to hear this:

"If the unexpected happens, do I want to keep open the option of taking my case as an independent Democrat to all the voters of Connecticut so that they can have the last word in November? That’s a question I haven’t decided."

McCain-Lieberman: Independents for ’08. Just thinking out loud.

No one fights like Democrats fight. The Kos-TNR dust-up is riveting. Here’s my magazine’s latest riposte. I think Jon Chait’s gift for humor-writing is way undervalued. I disagree with him on a very large number of subjects. But he cracks me up.

This reader is right, and my catechetics obviously require refreshing:

What kind of a Catholic are you? The insurance policy was not to insure against ‘immaculate conception,’ but virgin birth. The doctrine of the Immaculate Conception is that the Virgin Mary was conceived in the womb of her mother free from all stain of original sin, so that she might be a spotless vessel when carrying the Christ. Her own conception, however, was by otherwise normal means between Anna and her husband Joachim.

Forgive me. I have muddled that up before. This, by the way, is how I first discovered the facts of life. I was in a religious instruction class on the "immaculate conception". It made no sense to me at first. What would a "maculate conception" be, I asked my teacher? He sighed, realized it was time for the talk and went into the basics. I was ten. I didn’t believe a word of it. I found it far easier to believe that Mary was born without sin than that my parents had done that to conceive me. But I digress …

I might as well marry a snake, according to the Wall Street Journal. Thanks, Mr Henninger, for comparing my fiance with an animal. We get your point.

Malibu, California, dusk.

An insurance company has issued and then revoked a policy insuring three sisters against the risk of immaculate conceptions. Money quote:

The company, which is based in Braintree, specialises in accident and unemployment insurance.
Mr Burgess said: "The people were concerned about having sufficient funds if they immaculately conceived. It was for caring and bringing up the Christ. "We sometimes get weird requests and this is the weirdest we have had."

Just hand him a hammer and a saw and he’ll pay for himself.