Sarkozy Ahead!

After their televised and widely watched debate this week, Nicholas Sarkozy has extended his lead over Ségolene Royal in the French presidential election. The scuttlebutt is that Royal imploded in the debate, but Sarkozy kept his cool throughout.

The election is Sunday. Go Sarkozy!

US Passports: Now 20% More Patriotic!

I'm surprised we didn't hear more about this sooner.

They Can Send Their One Kid

China allows only one ticket per family to the 2008 Olympics.

"A Joint in One Hand, the Koran in the Other"

There's no God but Allah, man! Best quotes:

• "My child will learn to roll joints and smoke at the age of six."
  
  
• "How can you outlaw weed? God orders us to smoke it."
  
  
• "Friends, you can't take away the gun on a Muslim's belt, the horse beneath him or the joint in his hand."

HT: Sullivan.

Le Pen's Offices Destroyed

There was a riot. It got ugly.

Hat tip: Joe.

A State Is Trying to Set Its Own Foreign Policy (Again)

California is looking to divest from Iran with respect to its pension investments. Unfortunately, they are probably preempted from doing so by the "dormant foreign affairs" clause of the Constitution; Massachusetts and Illinois both learned the hard way that there are strict limits on the states' ability to meddle in foreign matters.

Perhaps Congress can authorize, to a very limited extent, the exercise of such soft power on the part of states? It would allow them to establish policies that are preferred by their citizens, while ensuring that national foreign policy is not compromised. This would require very narrow tailoring, however; for instance, a ban on investment in the state of capital from a target country cannot be permitted.

European Commission Investigating Apple

...regarding iTunes and antitrust laws, apparently. Though there is this paragraph:

The Commission’s main concern is that iTunes’ current set-up in the European market prohibits users in one country from downloading music from a website intended to serve another country. Its move against Apple and the music groups was triggered by a 2004 complaint from a British consumer organisation criticising the fact that the UK version of iTunes was more expensive than Apple’s product in other European markets.

This sounds like it's more a question of consumers' free market rights than an antitrust issue. I wonder what's going on here?

UPDATE It's competition (European for antitrust). Of course, the source for this story is... the story above. Hm.

Shilling for Tehran?

What is Nancy Pelosi doing?

A Question for Ahmadinejad

But what about the log in your eye?

Caracas' Creeping Socialism

Not so creeping anymore. I guess McCain's concerns seem more and more justified.

McCain on Socialism in the Western Hemisphere

This obviously targets the Cuban vote in that crucial state of Florida. But I wonder if it mightn't become a theme of his campaign throughout the rest of the country as well. Until 1991, anti-communism was the glue that held together the disparate strains of the conservative coalition - social conservatives, religious conservatives, libertarians, neo-cons, etc. Perhaps McCain feels that opposing the odious left-wing regimes of Castro and Chavez can perform something of the same function. After all, none of the current contenders for the GOP nomination seems to have the edge in cross-constituency appeal; what worked in the past might work now, for him, albeit to a greatly reduced extent.

Tehran

... the Paris of the East. Here's a great quote:

An intense physical consciousness is quintessentially Persian, my friend later explained to me. It goes beyond appearances to a strong sense of pride in having what Iranians see as their superior culture and history. You could call Iranians the French of the Middle East.

In a good way, let's hope.

Dr. Freud, Call Your Office

I'm not sure what to make of this story. If the Iranian officers were in Iraq or Turkey to further the insurgency in Iraq, then they got what they deserve. But the most striking passage didn't involve Iran's claims or threatened retaliation - it was this:

“We’ve got the ability to capture a nice bunch of blue-eyed blond-haired officers and feed them to our fighting cocks,” he said.

Anyone know the ayatollah's take on double entendre?

Now the Notes Have Gone Nuclear

This is Iran's new banknote, the largest denomination that country has ever printed. According to Agence France-Press, the quote in Arabic is from Mohammed, and says: "If the science exists in this constellation, men from Persia will reach it." (Note: AFP says that hadith means "saying of the Prophet." It does not; it means one of many reports on the sayings and doings of the Prophet. The entire corpus of ahadith is the Sunnah, which explains and illuminates the Quran.)

Switzerland Invades Liechtenstein!

We must respond to this illegal aggression from the Neutral Menace!