Below The Beltway

Writing in the Orange County Register, Mark Steyn writes about the Abdul Rahman case and asks whether the West is willing to stand up for its ideals.
Fate conspires to remind us what this war is really about: civilizational confidence. And so history repeats itself: first the farce of the Danish cartoons, and now the tragedy [...]

Today’s Washington Post carries a story with more information about apparent intelligence sharing by the Russians in the days before, and after, the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
Russian officials collected intelligence on U.S. troop movements and attack plans from inside the American military command leading the 2003 invasion of Iraq and passed that information to Iraqi [...]

It was the Muslim Sabbath yesterday, and, not unexpectedly, the subject of Abdul Rahman was on the minds of many Muslim preachers in Afghanistan:
KABUL, Afghanistan, March 24 ? Preachers used Friday Prayer services to call for the execution of an Afghan Muslim who converted to Christianity, despite growing protests in the West. The conversion of [...]

Last night’s game between the George Mason Patriots and Witchita State Shockers was never really a contest. From the beginning, the Patriots dominated the floor, starting with three successive three point shots before Witchita had even scored a basket, and it just got better from there. At the half, Mason was ahead by 16 points [...]

ABC News has released summaries of a series of documents from Saddam Hussein’s government, two of which should raise serious national security concerns.
Two Iraqi documents dated in March 2003 ? on the eve of the U.S.-led invasion ? and addressed to the secretary of Saddam Hussein, describe details of a U.S. plan for war. According [...]

That’s what Juan Cole says, and what he seems to suggest other libertarians should do.
The right wing of the Republican party has sold the libertarian/centrist wing of the party a bill of goods, and the modern ?conservatives? are clearly nothing more than statists who, rather than redistributing wealth like their brethern on the left, instead [...]

While the vast majority of the West is understandably outraged at the prospect of a man being put to death for his religious beliefs, the reaction is quite different among Afghanistan’s Muslim clerics.
KABUL, Afghanistan — Senior Muslim clerics demanded Thursday that an Afghan man on trial for converting from Islam to Christianity be executed, warning [...]

Maybe not today, but that’s where things are headed thanks to services like this:
LONDON, England — Universal Pictures and the online rental firm Lovefilm are launching what they say is the world’s first download-to-own movie service in Britain next month.
Starting with “King Kong” on April 10, the companies say the new service will let people [...]

President Bush may have made a weak statement in connection with the Abdul Rahman case, but that certainly isn’t true of Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice spoke this morning with President Hamid Karzai and discussed the affair “in the strongest possible terms,” said the State Department spokesman, Sean McCormack.
“She called specifically [...]

The next Virginia Blog Carnival is on Monday, March 27th and we need a host. I can’t do it myself, otherwise I’d be happy to step in. So I’m joining Kilo in asking people to step up and volunteer.
Update: Shaun Kenney has answered the call. Here are his submission guidelines.
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