Some religious stuff: Cecil Adams on how courts swear in atheists.

Another article (not quite as old) by Ian Buruma on the Chinese worship of Mao Zedong; it's via Edward Driscoll, who has some observations on the leftist fondness for evil men. I was led to Edward Driscoll via Kathy Shaidle.

By the way, if you don't want to go on a pilgrimage to Mao's hometown of Shaoshan, how about going to the Killing Fields in Cambodia (via Orrin Judd, who also reminds us of George McGovern's "wise" words: "The growing hysteria of the administration's posture on Cambodia seems to me to reflect a determined refusal to consider what the fall of the existing government in Phnom Penh would actually mean...."). I had forgotten where I'd read about this; on google I looked for mcgovern cambodia skulls and was led to Nonsense Verse. It's interesting to see where the skulls and McGovern end up. Incidentally, former senator Paul Simon recently had local broadcast on how war was such a bad idea, and he put forward how although the right excoriated Truman, he did the right thing. Wait a minute! If we'd gotten rid of the North Koreans, we wouldn't be in this mess! I'm still undecided on the war in Iraq, but the opponents are making a pretty good argument in favor of it.