Oh my goodness, it’s too good to even quote. Just go and read it.

Salon has an essay on Dirk Bogarde that should not be missed. What passes for acting these days in the movie industry is appalling.

Can someone please explain to me how we can afford to have a larger defense budget than the next 25 countries combined, but we’re not going to make the deadline for screening all airline baggage for explosives?

I find great satisfaction in this: Charlton Heston has Alzheimer’s.

From tonight’s West meets East gathering:

swerdloff

jhames and webdaddy

brian and dan’l

I didn’t get a picture of him, but I did meet the lovely and talented mr. swill.

Foreign Policy has a very interesting article whose thesis is that America is now in decline because of a number of factors, including:

• Public and private spending that is too heavily focused on military technology
  
• The damage to our economic interests from an attack on Iraq
  
• The likely failure of an attack on Iraq to “win” given the high risk of casualties and the lack of public support for combat leading to significant losses
  
• The collapse in our world stature and leadership when we, as the foremost military power in history, fail to create a sustainable regime to follow Saddam Hussein</p>

Monks Trade Blows in Unholy Row at Jerusalem Shrine

The rooftop compound of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre bore scars of conflict on Monday after Egyptian Coptic and Ethiopian monks traded blows over a chair at the traditional site of the crucifixion of Jesus.</p>

About 11 monks were taken to hospital after clerics from the rival sects that jealously share the courtyard on the roof of the Jerusalem shrine threw rocks, metal rods and chairs at each other in the latest chapter of a centuries-old dispute.

For the six Christian sects that jealously guard their rights at the church, enshrined in a 1757 Ottoman “status quo” law, the movement several weeks ago by one denomination of a chair into a spot claimed by another was a declaration of war. </blockquote>

Yay! A new episode.

Is it just me, or does the cover model of HX this week remind you of Choire?

Today’s Cathy is for all of us looking for friends/love/whatever on the web.