Books reviews, current events, and other musings

 
News of the Weird mentions the delightful priorities of the current administration:

In recent months, at the same time that the Bush administration was mobilizing support for a military invasion of Iraq, other administration representatives were working with Iraq (and Iran, Libya, Sudan and the Vatican, and against almost all of the U.S.'s traditional allies) to resist United Nations worldwide support of "reproductive health services" (including abortion), sex education (except "abstinence") and gay rights. One critic called it "pervers(e)" to blame Iraq for "unspeakable acts of terrorism" while joining them "in the oppression of women." [Washington Post, 6-17-02]

Paul Begala's letter to the Washington Post phrases things well (from Unknown News):

What is not excusable is misleading the country -- repeatedly, as The Post and others have noted -- about going to war. There is something odd about a White House that thinks misleading people about sex is a crime, but misleading us about war is good public policy.

On a lighter note, some computer scientists at MIT have proven that Tetris is finding the optimal Tetris strategy is an NP-complete problem (from Medley).
posted by Julian at 7:40 PM