To answer that question, Pakistani novelist Mohsin Hamid, who lived in the U.S. as a boy and returned for college, gives Americans a respectful but necessary lesson on the harm caused by their country's policies.

From the BBC:

Pakistan has again said it opposes any military strike by the United States against Osama Bin Laden, if he is confirmed to be in Pakistan.

Foreign minister Khurshid Kasuri told the BBC public opinion in his country would not tolerate such an attack.

He said he was concerned that any US operation against Bin Laden could lead to dozens of civilian deaths.

Washington has said nothing can be ruled out in the pursuit of the al-Qaeda leader.

White House spokesman Tony Snow said the US recognised Pakistan's sovereignty, but the Bush administration always maintained the option of striking actionable targets.

Earlier Mr Kasuri had said that Bin Laden was not in Pakistan.

On Sunday, White House aides said the U.S. wouldn't rule out using force in Pakistan. Kasuri spoke out soon afterward, saying Pakistani troops were best suited to root out bin Laden and al Qaeda.

Further to my last post, here is another snippet of conversation with some far-off ISP tech support guy, again named Sam:

I explain to Sam that I was connected to the Internet, then the connection suddenly dropped. As a precaution, I shut down the modem, rebooted the computer and restarted the modem.

He seemed to be inputting my output.

Then, not 10 seconds later, Sam asks: "Have you tried shutting down the modem and restarting the computer?"

Aggghhh!!!

Filmmakers Debbie Melnyk and Rick Caine think left-wing, shit-disturbing director Michael Moore is on the right side of the major issues facing the United States. The question they ask is could he be more truthful in addressing them in his films.

Some pre-teenaged louts who repulsed a Cornwall, PEI town councillor by twirling a dead chipmunk in front of her have set off an anguished debate about youthful mores, parental responsibility, budding serial killers and the sanctity of life.

The weepy one, who died of colon cancer, had this to say about regrets over the collapse of the Praise The Lord ministry she ran with her corrupt, philandering ex-husband, Jim Bakker. From the BBC story:

"I believe when I leave this Earth because I love the Lord, am going straight to heaven," a gaunt Messner told CNN's Larry King in an interview on 19 July.

Asked by King if she had any regrets, she said: "I don't think about it, Larry, because it's a waste of good brain space."

From the NYT:

France is the country that produced the Enlightenment, Descartes’s one-liner, “I think, therefore I am,” and the solemn pontifications of Jean-Paul Sartre and other celebrity philosophers.

But in the government of President Nicolas Sarkozy, thinking has lost its cachet.

In proposing a tax-cut law last week, Finance Minister Christine Lagarde bluntly advised the French people to abandon their “old national habit.”

“France is a country that thinks,” she told the National Assembly. “There is hardly an ideology that we haven’t turned into a theory. We have in our libraries enough to talk about for centuries to come. This is why I would like to tell you: Enough thinking, already. Roll up your sleeves.”

Citing Alexis de Tocqueville’s “Democracy in America,” she said the French should work harder, earn more and be rewarded with lower taxes if they get rich.

Well-known French philosopher Bernard-Henri Levy, who has written a book on de Tocqueville, had this rejoinder: This is the sort of thing you can hear in cafe conversations from morons who drink too much."

Richard Siklos, author of Shades of Black, on the key deal that brought down Conrad Black.

Guardian columnist Mark Lawson blames the current BBC programming scandal -- faked call-in show contest results -- on a mania for interactivity.

From the Washington Post:

With two new manuals for high school history and social studies teachers, written in part by Kremlin political consultants, Russian authorities are attempting to imbue classroom debate with a nationalist outlook.

The history guide contains a laudatory review of President Vladimir Putin's years in power. "We see that practically every significant deed is connected with the name and activity of President V.V. Putin," declares its last chapter. The social studies guide is marked by intense hostility to the United States.

Both books reflect the themes dominating official political discourse here: that Putin restored Russian strength and built what the Kremlin calls a "sovereign democracy" despite American efforts to isolate the country.

And who are those two gentlemen, and why should they be mentioned in the same breath as the BBC's Alan Johnston, held captive in Gaza for nearly four months before being released? Read on.

From the Beeb:

Spain's High Court has ordered the seizure of all copies of a magazine that carried a cartoon of Crown Prince Felipe and his wife having sex.

The cartoon on the front page of the weekly satirical magazine El Jueves depicted Prince Felipe saying sex was the closest he would come to working.

It was published after the government announced it would pay couples nearly $3,500 for each new baby born.

Surprisingly, the article says defaming the Spanish royal family can result in a prison sentence of up to two years.

A big slapdown for Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf. Iftikhar Chaudri, the country's chief justice, has been ordered reinstated by the country's supreme court. Musharraf suspended him four months ago for purported corruption, although most saw the move as an attempt to intimidate the judiciary in an election year.

Musharraf wanted to ask parliament to clear the way for another five-year term for him.

Here's a Beeb analysis: Musharraf's legal nightmare.

CBC's As It Happens did an interview with Pakistani opposition leader Imran Khan. It's worth a listen. Khan sees this as a huge breakthrough for democracy in Pakistan, as free and fair elections aren't possible without an independent judiciary.

Been fishing, so here's some Conrad stuff I missed:

Conrad makes bail!

Expected, despite prosecution opposition. The real interesting stuff was this from the July 19 Globe and Mail:

Global hunt heightens for Black assets

From a Salon interview with Buzzy Krongard, a former executive director of the CIA, on the U.S.'s National Intelligence Estimate.

From the Guardian:

The murky events surrounding shady Russians stalking one another on the streets of Britain in recent months have outstripped the imagination of the most fevered thriller writers.

But after the horrifying murder of Alexander Litvinenko and the diplomatic furore which followed, new revelations of a second assassination conspiracy yesterday stretched credulity. Unfortunately, given the already-febrile state of relations between the United Kingdom and Russia, the latest story of a hitman apparently flying into the UK to target a victim at a luxury Mayfair hotel is far from a work of fiction. Senior Whitehall sources confirmed yesterday that the suspected assassin was intercepted in London last month before he could mount an attempt on the life of Boris Berezovsky, the Russian oligarch, who has infuriated President Putin with his open calls for insurrection in Moscow.

The BBC has found a batch of faked results for some of its most popular competitive shows. All such programming, in both radio and TV, has been halted.

Former British politician and diplomat Paddy Ashdown says the failings of NATO in Afghanistan can primarily be laid at the feet of NATO.

CTV.ca entertainment producer Darren O'Donoghue has a piece on seven great Simpsons episodes and six great one-liners. There's a movie coming out next week.

Some Simpsons vignettes that stick out in my mind:

When the Germans buy the nuclear power plant and hold interviews with all the employees (pinning down Homer was a challenge), they inadvertently trigger Homer into a reverie about the Land of Chocolate. There's free chocolate everywhere, but Homer really got excited when sees a sign that makes him exclaim: "Wow! Chocolate -- half price!" Later, a public announcement is made: "Attention workers, ve haff completed our evaluation of ze plant. We regret to announce ze following lay-offs, which I will read in alphabetical orduh: Simpson, Homer. Zat is all."

At a Springfield Junior Chamber of Commerce meeting, Mr. Burns tells the tykes: "Faith. Family. Friends. These are the shackles from which you must free yourself if you want to be successful in business!"

"It's not pollution; it's evolution!" -- Monte Burns on a three-eyed fish caught near the nuke plant when he's trying to run for governor. He showed up at the Simpsons home for a photo-op dinner before the cameras and Marge served him the fish. He refused to eat it. On the way out, the now-ruined politico ominously hissed at Homer: "Simpson, I'm going to see to it that all your dreams go unfulfilled." This terrified Homer until Marge pointed out that Homie's dreams were so limited that no man could take them from him.

Crocodile Dundee-looking Aussie: "That's not a knife. This is a knife!" Bart: "That's not a knife. That's a spoon." Disappointed-sounding Aussie: "Oh. I see you're familiah with our little game of knifey-spooney."

In a video arcade, while the other kids are playing ultraviolent karate-kill games, Martin is playing My Dinner with Andre. The notion of the least kinetic movie ever made as a video game is funny enough, but the control buttons were "trenchant insights" and "witty bon mots." You had to press up on the joystick for "tell me more!"

Every Itchy and Scratchy segment ever made.

The Globe reported Tuesday that Conrad Black faces an uphill battle in winning a reversal of the four charges on which he was convicted. Margaret Wente compares and contrasts the attitudes of Black and David Radler.

The U.S. sounds like it wants to ramp up actions in Pakistan against al Qaeda, according to the new National Intelligence Estimate. At the same time, it insists Iraq is still the main front in the WOT. Go figure.

In the display window of the Book City location on the Danforth, they had four volumes out for two different Conrad Black-related titles: Conrad and Lady Black, by Tom Bower, and Black's own Richard Milhous Nixon: The Invincible Quest.

Tucked into each of the four volumes was a yellow card. Each one had the words "Steal of a deal!" plus "guilty one one count," "guilty on two counts," "guilty on three counts," and "guilty on four counts."

Buy the complete set! :)

The Chicago Sun-Times does not appear to have fond memories of its former CEO. However, they have moved on, are looking to the future, etc., etc.

From the July 15 editorial: (h/t to Blacks justice)

Our former boss was convicted Friday in a mixed verdict, but there's nothing mixed about our reaction. Everyone who worked under the trying regime of Conrad Black is breathing a great sigh of relief that a federal jury on Friday convicted him of four of the 13 counts against him -- more than enough to put him behind bars and a giant step toward guaranteeing that he cannot regain control of his media empire.

The verdict also lifts the cloud of uncertainty that has been hanging over the Sun-Times Media Group, formerly known as Hollinger International, since the fraud scandal first erupted in 2003. And it allows us to pursue the civil case against Black and other former officials, so we can finally put to rest this sad chapter in our history. ...

Our reporters, critics, photographers and editors toiled valiantly under tough conditions to put out a quality product. But it's important to note that the integrity of our newsgathering was never impugned by the fraud scandal that hit our corporate parent.

It's also important to note that our company has long since moved on. We have a new name, a new boss, even a new headquarters -- moving out of our aging Wabash Street building, where the old regime cut off the escalators to save money, even while siphoning millions of dollars for themselves, to our new digs up the river. And we have a renewed commitment to being the Chicago area's best source for news and opinion.

Adam Radwanski, formerly of macleans.ca, has materialized at The Globe and Mail. While he's a member of the editorial board, he will also be blogging on politics.

And what better time to start a new politics blog than in mid-July?

It's almost as good at CBC starting its politics blog two days after Parliament adjourned for the barbecue season (why aren't the posts signed over there)?

However, in a minority parliament, there is no political off-season, so what the hell.

I see Dan Cook posted at the Globe's blogolitics blog as of yesterday; will the site be keeping two politics blogs going? Is Cook a politics blogger if he's posting about Flash and Java updates?

I have no answers, only questions.

The Toronto Star's Robyn Doolittle on her hunt for Monica Prince, a juror in the Conrad Black case.

In a July 8 commentary, NYT public editor Clark Hoyt commented on Dubya's proclivity for seeing the evil hand of al Qaeda in Iraq in virtually everything -- and for the NYT to play along.