[squash] rumsfeld plays hardball

Great piece from the NYT. For the last six years, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld [74] has slipped down to the Pentagon basement many afternoons and spent a heart-thumping hour playing squash. Mr. Rumsfeld is “very aggressive and he is very intense” on the court, says a former frequent partner [presumably he had a heart attack]. “He hits the ball well, but he doesn’t play by the rules,” says Chris Zimmerman, a devoted squash player who works in the Pentagon’s office of program analysis. He says Mr. Rumsfeld often wins points because, after hitting a shot, he does not get out of the way so his opponent has a chance to return the ball, a practice known in squash as “clearing.”

[sunday roundup] around the blogs

Norman Geras

Some people have asked me [actually I’m lying through my teeth – no people have asked me but hopefully they will in the future] what criteria I use in choosing the featured photo on Sunday’s blog roundup. The short answer is – possession of said photo. Anyway, this is what the lads and lasses are up to today:

Chris Dillow argues on political parties and their necessity: More here.

[tony blair] were you there

As it was in Manchester, I’ll have to check what Norman has to say on this. Lauren Booth, the half-sister of Blair's wife Cherie, led the protest with notable left-wingers plus Galloway. Would Tony Blair be overly concerned, do you think?

[india] pm’s daughter takes on bush

The New York-based 36 year old youngest daughter of Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh is in a legal battle against Pentagon. When Dr Singh talked with Cuban leader Fidel Castro on the world’s united fight against terrorism, Amrit was taking on Bush’s ‘war on terror’ for the American Civil Liberties Union. All of Dr Singh’s three daughters — Upender, Daman and Amrit — have chosen different, independent professions and it is said Dr Singh never interferes with their professional lives. The eldest has teaching background in history and political science at St Stephen’s College and the second worked as consultant with Tata Energy Research Institute. [Ravi S Jha] [I like the first daughter's name best.]

[christianity] the fourth monotheistic religion

It’s Sunday and last evening I posted on the three great monotheistic religions: Islam, Judaism and Money and now it is the turn of the other. To be healthy, we need to take care of spiritual, mental, physical and financial matters [four pillars], agreed? It could be said there are four spiritual situations – acknowledging we haven’t the equipment to stand alone and enlisting help, cutting a deal with darkness, exploring other dimensions or not giving it another thought and substituting financial success for spiritual harmony. What percentage do the latter, do you think? I prefer to play the percentages and opt for the former.

[eggs] saved in the nick of time

The Pedant-General has raised a vital point which must be immediately addressed before tomorrow's breakfast. One must not, repeat not, use a metal device to convey the soft innards to the mouth. It must be of carved bone. Now when you come to think it through, he's correct - do you enjoy poking something metallic into your mouth? Then there is the historical issue of big-endian or small-endian, whether to soft-boil or to coddle [9 minutes], whether to use an egg-cosy and whether to smash or slice. After these have been satisfactorily resolved, there is still the question of eggy-soldiers. In mitigation, may I add that I myself use a carved wooden spoon for mine, these implements proliferating in this part of the world. So, consider yourself now saved from ignominy. Thank you, P-G, for the timely advice.

[islam] ramadan is upon us

Rosh Hashanah and Ramadan too. Good thing they got the war out of the way. The new moon was finally sighted in Egypt indicating the beginning of Ramadan. Starting Sunday, practising Muslims around the world are asked under Islam to refrain from eating and drinking during daylight along with other restrictions and prayers in a long list of rituals. Ramadan, the ninth month of the Islamic calendar, is believed to be the month when the Koran was first revealed in fragments to Prophet Mohammed, through the Angel Gabriel. You have to hand it to the Muslims – they’ve got this fasting business down pat. Religious restraint during the day, then whooping it up into the small hours, just when you're at your most peckish.

[forbes] world top ten and source

The US Top 400 has just been published. I find the world Top 10 equally as interesting:

1]William Gates [US, 50, technology]
2]Warren Buffett [US, 75, investments]
3]Carlos Slim Helú [Mexico, 66, communications]
4]Ingvar Kamprad [Sweden, 79, retailing]
5]Lakshmi Mittal [India, 55, steel]
6]Paul Allen [US, 53, technology]
7]Bernard Arnault [France, 57, fashion]
8]Prince Alwaleed [Saudi Arabia, 49, investments]
9]Kenneth Thomson [Canada, 82, media]
10]Li Ka-shing [Hong Kong, 77, diversified]

[canada] top italian mountie and al qaeda

The overseas image of the Canadian Mountie has always been squeaky clean. A judicial commission reported this week that RCMP Commissioner Giuliano Zaccardelli’s poorly trained and inexperienced anti-terrorist investigators passed along raw and inaccurate intelligence to the United States that very likely led to Canadian Maher Arar's deportation and torture in Syria as an al-Qaeda suspect. Even worse for Mr. Zaccardelli, the inquiry found the RCMP tried to cover its tracks by misleading senior government officials about the force's early involvement in the Arar case. More at Globe and Mail.

[ben laden] une note de la dgse évoquant la mort possible

Après Paris, c'est Washington qui adresse un "no comment" prudent à propos des renseignements publiées samedi 23 septembre sur la possible mort d'Oussama Ben Laden. "Nous n'avons pas de confirmation de cette information", a déclaré un porte-parole de la Maison Blanche, Blair Jones.Le quotidien régional L'Est Républicain a publié samedi une note confidentielle attribuée à la Direction générale de la sécurité extérieure (DGSE), datée de jeudi 21 septembre, qui indiquerait que les services de renseignement saoudiens ont "acquis la conviction qu'Oussama Ben Laden est mort" des suites d'une crise de typhoïde, mais attendraient d'avoir des détails pour l'annoncer. Le Monde.