I've said this before but I'll keep repeating it: The unnerving aspect of the suicide bombings is not the killing of civilians but the breaking of the suicide taboo. I've brought up our destruction of N. Korea, but I've just begun W.G. Sebald's On the Natural History of Destruction, where he reminds us (meaning Americans, Europeans haven't forgotten) of the work of Sir Arthur 'Bomber' Harris.

More on 'rational' economic practice and catholicism: My devoutly religious (and anti-Semitic) landlady has never raised my rent in the 12 years I have lived in her building. At this point I pay a third of market rate. I once offered to pay a little more rent and she declined. The people in my neighborhood were trained by the church to know their place. My landlady thinks, quite literally, that it is not her place to be greedy. She thinks about maximizing profit as much as she thinks about foreign policy.

Yesterday the Times had a piece on the response to Morgan Freeman's new role as God. It's fluff with some some light drizzlings of thought sprinkled over it. But since similar issues have been brought up concerning Christian support for Israel, why not phrase the question the same way: Is this just another example of "Philo-Negritude?"