Battle at Kruger

"A battle between a pride of lions, a herd of buffalo, and 2 crocodiles at a watering hole in South Africa's Kruger National Park while on safari."

You gotta see this one.

Benazir Bhutto is Brave

In the face of death threats and now a massive suicide bombing attack on Thursday targeting her transportation convoy, Bhutto is laying it on the line in the Washington Post:

"We are prepared to risk our lives and we are prepared to risk our liberty, but we are not prepared to surrender our great nation to the militants."


Seeking background and insight into this drama, I was surprised to see no major coverage of this today at either National Review Online or The Weekly Standard. Shouldn't we be loudly trumpeting a major figure in the region who is not only using her voice but risking her life to defy the assorted thugs aiming themselves in her general direction?

I know nothing about the alleged corruption during her two previous terms as prime minister, or what the prospects are for her reaching an accommodation with Musharraf, and how delicate all this is for America's interest and position in the region.

But because Al Qaeda always makes it so "bloody obvious" where they stand, I do know her return to Pakistan is the equivalent of a daring beachhead invasion in the larger struggle against violent Islam. Many millions are watching her courage in the face of death. If this region is to ascend to normalcy, it will be in no small part due to leaders like Bhutto who personally embody the cause of life and freedom, and rally the millions to her side, rather than to the side of the Bin Ladens, who from the shadows send others to die for a doomed cult.

From Here to Eternity

Deborah Kerr, 86, just passed away. She starred opposite Cary Grant in the best chick flick ever, "An Affair to Remember." Here is her Washington Post obituary. RIP

Pulling the Curtain Back on "Peanuts"

If you're about 35 or older, you grew up with Charles Schulz's comic strip "Peanuts." And if you didn't, well,

According to David Michaelis' new biography, "Schulz and Peanuts," by 1971, Schulz had 100 million readers and the fourth-highest sales figures of any 20th century author.

According to Salon's review of the biography, it's a warts-and-all kind of book. Just reading the review is enough warts for me, thank you. Maybe I shouldn't be surprised that creator of the first comic strip whose characters had an inner life of existential angst was a -- how do we say? -- "complex" person:

Somehow, without (it seems) actually trying to, Schulz succeeded at making all of his readers think that his strip was about them.

Actually, it was about him. Michaelis reveals that the upshot of Snoopy's brush with campus protest -- a breathless romance with a "girl-beagle" who had "the softest paws" -- was inspired by Schulz's extramarital affair with a 25-year-old office worker named Tracey Claudius. Snoopy's sentimental swooning over his lady love was no exaggeration, either; Schulz inundated Claudius with doting notes and flowers and gifts commemorating each month of their "anniversary." For the straight-arrow Schulz, the affair was a first foray into adultery after almost 20 years in a marriage that, while difficult, produced four kids and underpinned the most productive period of his life. Claudius, who regarded "Peanuts" as "holy," was terrified when he took her to the Tonga Room in San Francisco's Fairmont Hotel, convinced that the newspaper columnist Herb Caen would spot them and blow their cover. "I would be the one that would ruin his image for the world," she told Michaelis. "God! If I'd found this out when I was reading it, I would have been crushed. Charlie Brown wouldn't be innocent to me any longer."

Some readers may feel much the same after finishing Michaelis' biography. Not, however, about the affair with Claudius, which was heartfelt and, in its own small way, tragic. Schulz was no philanderer, though he was prone to crushes on "distant princesses" (cf, Charlie Brown's little red-headed girl). Rather, it's learning about the depressive, anxious, detached, resentful, self-defeating and self-deceiving personality of the comic strip's creator that's likely to puzzle and sadden some of those who grew up with "Peanuts."

Sure Beats "Boxers or Briefs?"

Rudy took the Alien Invasion question the other day from a young boy. Captured on video here.

Wash Post: "Al-Qaeda In Iraq Reported Crippled"

The opening line of this Washington Post story should make you want to read the whole thing:

The U.S. military believes it has dealt devastating and perhaps irreversible blows to al-Qaeda in Iraq in recent months, leading some generals to advocate a declaration of victory over the group, which the Bush administration has long described as the most lethal U.S. adversary in Iraq.

Details on al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI):

There is widespread agreement that AQI has suffered major blows over the past three months. Among the indicators cited is a sharp drop in suicide bombings, the group's signature attack, from more than 60 in January to around 30 a month since July. Captures and interrogations of AQI leaders over the summer had what a senior military intelligence official called a "cascade effect," leading to other killings and captures. The flow of foreign fighters through Syria into Iraq has also diminished, although officials are unsure of the reason and are concerned that the broader al-Qaeda network may be diverting new recruits to Afghanistan and elsewhere.

There appears to be a variety of opinions within the civilian and military leadership as to how damaged AQI is, and whether to actually proclaim victory. But it is heartening that the question is even being asked.

Wikipedia's Growth

From The American comes this this item about Wikipedia's astonishing growth:

There’s ample concern about the quality of Wikipedia, the Web-based encyclopedia which any reader can edit and whose entries top practically any Google search you do. But there’s no question about the quantity. The total database grows by tens of millions of words each month. A fast reader who never needs to sleep, charging ahead at 400 words per minute, would still be unable to read as fast as new content is being created, let alone catch up with the vast amount of text already published. The English-language version alone, at last count, had over 609 million words—more than 15 Encyclopedia Britannicas put together.

Take a look at the graph on this page. While still rising quickly, the English version of Wikipedia now comprises only about one-fourth of the total words in all editions, which include more than 200 languages. Among them: Basque, Arabic, Esperanto, Latvian, Inuktitut (Eskimo), and Cherokee. There’s even a Latin version, with a suitably collaborative motto: Vicipaedia cooperandi opus est.