News below the fold

Good news:UK vet tests negative for bird flu.
Bad News: a second person is sick with the flu...awaiting tests
Worst news: Oh NO NOT FLUFFY...Indonesian cats have tested positive.

NYTimes: Anti Catholicism by John Edward's bloggers is merely "expressing their opinions in provocative and often crude language."
Yup. Anti Catholism is the only hate speech approved of by the NYTimes.

BBC experts aren't sure why so many helicopters have been shot down recently in Baghdad. Of course, everyone knows it's because it's probably because Iran or another outside country has supplied SAM type missles to "insurgents", but no one wants to admit it...Former Spook gives details.

Poll in China finds one third are believers in a major religion, most Buddhists or Taoists but 12% are Christian.LINK2 The highest increase is in areas with economic growth, not in superstitious rural areas, and is seen as a way to find a meaning in life.

And if you are interested in China, check out LINK this slick magazine which discusses Chinese theories of cooking, brewing tea, Shadow puppets, and the UFO's of the Fujian mountains (actually the round castles of the Hakkan people).

Salim Mansur points out that those who hate Islam and the jihadis that distort Islam are both ignoring the Koran and the many many verses of peace and love and justice.

THAT is what D'Souza argues in his latest book: that pious Muslims have more in common with the values of middle America than with the jihadis--and like middle America, they reject the immorality of Hollywood and the upper East Side of NYC...