May 21, 2004

More Martha Sterwart! Complaints that all I ever post about is getting boring, I join the mass media and wallow in the truly important news: Martha Stewart stock up 20 pct on legal advisory Forbes - Shares of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia Inc. rose as high as 20 percent on Friday, following a report that a perjury charge is expected to be filed against a US Secret Service employee involved in the Martha Stewart trial. Jacko Takes Out Loan The Star - Amidst ongoing controversy over child-abuse charges, Michael Jackson is reported to have taken out a loan worth US$10 million from the Bank of America against his Neverland Ranch. This came in the wake of reports that Jackson is having financial difficulties. 2:02:08 PM

Victor Davis Hanson on National Review Online: In just a year the worst mass murderer in recent history is gone and a consensual government is scheduled to assume power in his place in just a few weeks. Postwar Iraq is not a cratered Dresden or the rubble of Stalingrad — it is seeing power, water, and fuel production at or above prewar levels. For all the recent mishaps, two truths still remain about Iraq — each time the American military forcibly takes on the insurrectionists, it wins; and each time local elections are held, moderate Iraqis, not Islamic radicals, have won. When the truth comes out about the U.N.’s past role in Iraq, both Iraqis and Americans may not be so ready to entrust the new democracy’s future to an agency that has not only done little to save Bosnians or Rwandans, but over the past decade may well have done much to harm Iraqis. 11:28:39 AM

The man who will be India's next Prime Minister wore a powder-blue turban. The woman who had just passed up the job wore an enormous smile of relief. After months of uncertainty, a "dream team" takes over, writes Christopher Kremmer in Delhi. 10:28:38 AM