Many factors will have to be considered when, in 5, 10, or 25 years, we evaluate the success or lack thereof of our regime change operation in Iraq. One of those must be how civil rights were affected in that nation.

Considering the atrocities that Saddam Hussein committed, it might seem obvious that civil rights will be improved under the nation's Islamic democracy. Unfortunately, the question simply isn't that clear. Hussein was evil in many respects, but he was not a Muslim extremist, nor was his government strictly Islamic.

The current government in Iraq, though democratic, is much more harshly Islamic. According to this report, while gays would be ridiculed under Hussein, they now often face a sentence of death if they come out in the open.

I wonder how the situation for women, Christians, and other minorities has changed. That's a question we'll be facing for many years to come.

Andrew Sullivan highlights how Sen. McCain is dancing around the gay adoption issue (just as he has danced a bit on the gay marriage/civil union issue). Read the McCain quote for yourself, but to me it comes off that McCain wants to appease the evangelicals, but does not actually share their opposition to gay adoption. He repeats the phrase "family values" several times and refers to the importance of having two-parent families adopt, but nowhere in the quote does he ever refer to those two parents having to be a man and a woman.

An Islamic terrorist group has threatened to attack the Olympics in Beijing. Another Islamic group has claimed responsibility for the attacks that recently took dozens of lives in India.

This threat knows no national boundaries and is not confined to the U.S. The quicker Europe, Russia, and others realize this fact, the better the world will be for all of us.

The arguments against simply don't hold up to logic or to observed reality. This Q&A from the Senate is convincing:

Slate and the Guardian each have a funny article on the many different approaches people take when selecting a profile photo for sites like MySpace.

...as often is the case, we'll see a follow up case to spell out more precisely to DC what it may and may not do in regards to gun regulation.

Here's what the District is doing, in part:

- Not allowing gun stores to open in the District, via zoning laws
- Requiring guns to be permitted (no problem there), but creating a permit process that can take weeks to months
- Requiring any licensed gun to first undergo ballistic testing by the police department
- Allowing only 1 gun to be licensed in the first 90 days

Google makes a ton of money every quarter, but the vast majority of it (90+% the last I looked) comes from just one source: text ads. If the search giant learns an effective way to monetize Youtube, that will change soon.

The key to Google's success in online ads is the way it parlayed the strength of its search engine. Google kept its search page clean and chose text ads over large and annoying graphic ads. It then extended this ad network to other websites. DC has had a Google-hosted ad in the right sidebar for a couple years.

While having only one real source of revenue could be cause for concern, Google isn't in trouble at this point, because its dominance in the online ad and search business is actually growing.

Nevertheless, if and when Google is able to incorporate ads in Youtube videos, it will find the "holy grail," as CEO Eric Schmidt describes it. Youtube's dominance could be leveraged for a boatload of cash. But Google is playing its hand carefully, realizing that any ads it incorporates must not be annoying to the viewer. For if Google did incorporate intrusive ads, another internet company could take advantage with their own lean and mean video site, just as Google did with Yahoo/MS/AOL.

Radiohead turned to Google (or maybe it was the other way around) to form a groundbreaking music video for the group's "House of Cards" off their new album "In Rainbows."

The video uses no cameras or light; rather, it uses 2 distinct types of 3D scanning technologies which produce data points in the three spatial dimensions over time. The effect, along with the tone of the song, can best be described as spooky.



Even more impressive is that since this video is actually just a modeling of data, viewers can manipulate and turn the image as its playing. Google has also invited people to make their own video models of the data. This takes music videos in a whole new direction. Go to the Google Radiohead Code page to interact with the data and to see the making of video.

When Hillary Clinton gave her concession speech a few weeks ago, she spoke of the fissures her nearly-successful campaign had created in the political glass ceiling for women.

But now, as the Broward-Palm Beach New Times reports, not only has America been able to consider a black and a woman presidential candidate, they might also be able to consider a gay vice presidential nominee.

The rumors and strong circumstantial evidence swirl around Charlie Crist, the Republican governor of Florida whose name is being dropped as a possible VP nod for John McCain.

Crist got married a couple decades ago, but his marriage to the woman lasted only a year or two. He remained unmarried ever since. Further, the owner of a gay bar in Florida (the Green Iquana) as well as patrons there report that Crist visited the establishment regularly and was believed to be gay.

Now Crist has suddenly gotten engaged (to a female). Political pundits openly wonder whether this was a political move to make him palatable to Republican voters--opening the door to his pick as McCain's VP.

If Crist is indeed gay, then he's hiding it for political gain. Sad. Instead of creating cracks in a proverbial glass closet for gay politicians, he'd be reinforcing that closet. How many gay Republicans need to be burnt (think of Mark Foley and Larry Craig) by their deception, before other ones realize the pain that the closet bottles up?

Every year my family goes to Victory Field, the home of the triple-A Indianapolis Indians, for their July 4 celebration...


One of the best minor league stadiums in the country.


What's it say that we have to buy our miniature flags from China?

I've been as vocal as any in condemning even the slightest incorporation of Islamic holy law (Sharia) into our western legal system. See this post about the Archbishop of Canterbury.

But we also have to be careful to not overreach in our interpretation of certain public statements. Take the latest statement by the UK's top judge, Lord Chief Justice Phillips, that certain Islamic legal principles could be employed in the nation, especially in family matters. At first glance, and this was indeed my reaction, that notion seems abhorrent. But he actually was making a narrow reference, as he explained when he said, "Those entering into a contractual agreement can agree that the agreement shall be governed by a law other than English law."

When two parties into a contract, they can agree on the law to be used to govern that contract as well as the process to be undertaken if the contract is breached. Both of these abilities are limited inasmuch that nothing in the choice of law or dispute resolution conflicts with the applicable statutory and common law.

In plain English, that means that two parties could agree that Sharia govern certain aspects of their contract and that they would at first use arbitration under that law shall a dispute arise.

This, by itself, is not troubling IF English courts strictly enforce the rule that no element of the contract conflict with domestic law.

The courts, in America and Britain, are going to have to be extremely careful. I can assure you that they will face extreme criticism if they allow Sharia to subvert the value system already established by existing law.

George Will has a nice column about how we figure the exact date of our independence. Turns out a few Americans in North Carolina started the ball rolling about a year early.

"Alcohol is flowing again in Baghdad"

So far the liquor stores are only open inside the 'green zone,' but business is reportedly brisk. Well hey, if you lived in Iraq wouldn't you like to have a beer every once in a while--or maybe straight scotch would be necessary.

Many politicians and talking heads, including John McCain and Bill O'Reilly, have blamed speculators for driving up the price of gasoline. They refer to them as if they live in the shadows doing their evil work. They describe speculation as if it was illegal. It is--of course--not. Investing in commodity futures involves speculation just as stock trading does.

So who are these speculators? Well, uhhh, in a way they're us. Check out this excellent article describing how pension plan managers are investing in oil/gas futures in order to grow their clients investments.

The flip side of all this is, however, that this speculation could be creating a bubble. If it is indeed, then these pension fund managers run the risk of losing their clients a lot of money when the price of oil falls.