Wednesday and the sun is shining

The sun is shining though we are getting a bit of the cool weather we have been missing. Oh well. Might be warm enough to chase a golf ball around the greensward this afternoon. Definitely warm enough tomorrow and this weekend.

Notes from around the globe that caught my eye:

-from WAPO and David Ignatius, a look at the troubles in Pakistan with a little recent history to help us see what possibly could be. The history is that of Iran, the fall of the Shah and the ascension of rulers who are anything but democratic. Ignatius:

"...So ask yourself: What Iran policy would have made sense, in hindsight, given the ruinous consequences of the Iranian revolution? Should the United States have encouraged the shah to crack down harder against protesters and ride out the storm, as some hard-liners urged at the time? Or should it have moved more quickly to encourage a change of regime, after it became obvious the shah couldn't or wouldn't reform?..."

He admits that even now with all that done and gone we have little idea what would have been the best road to take. And with that he makes the point that that is the point: we don't know. And from that the suggestion that maybe we should do less meddling... Hmmm. Is it in our nature and makeup not to meddle? Aren't we the solution to all the world's problems? the guys with the white hats and all the answers, not to mention the 'most powerful nation in the world'? Don't we have the moral obligation to go out and help the downtrodden and the ignorant, the pagan and the infidel?

-and speaking of us being the good guys, this from a reader at tpm:

I watched a 50's movie yesterday entitled The Circle of Deception. It was about the British sending a soldier to German-occupied France duirng WWII with the intention that he be captured, tortured and broken to give the Germans misleading information.

What torture did those hideous Nazis use? First beating with a cord, then electric shock and finally waterboarding. So shameful that we now find ourselves in this position! Unbelievable.

Turning the page:

-Eric passed on the news that the Hatchets' Ty Zeller has decided to go out of state to North Carolina. It's good for the young to travel.

-back to reading McCarthy's The Crossing and just this morning, about half way through the book, it's sounding familiar. Two teen age boys, Billy and Boyd, have just rescued a teen age girl from the seemingly devilish designs of two rascally older men getting juiced. Setting is somewhere in Mexico near the Rio Grande back in the 1930's (I think). It's worth reading again...

Time to head on over to the gc. Pacers still undefeated? Irish still moaning?