THE GROWING ACCUMULATION OF AL QAEDA CAPTIVES...poses an opportunity but also some tricky problems as Isikoff and Hosenball explain in this informative article from the current issue of Newsweek.

REGIME CHANGE IN IRAN...is feasible and, in the view of the indefatiguable Richard Perle, desirable. He explains why and how in this recent published interview from New Perspectives Quarterly.

FERGUSON'S TAKE ON LAURA BUSH'S STANDUP: This commentary by one of the best (and most truly witty) writers at the Weekly Standard is simply not to be missed.

BROOKHISER ON THE OTHER BUSH: The president's comportment and speeches on the recent European trip puzzle some but hearten others--among whom one of the best writers at the National Review (and, today, at the New York Observer) is to be numbered.

THE CLASH OF CIVILIZATIONS THESIS...as viewed and rejected by a leading Arab intellectual. The author, Sadik Al-Azm is a Syrian professor of philosophy who has been closely associated with the Middle Eastern reformist movement.

THE NEW EUROPEAN ANTI-SEMITISM...is examined here by the The Australian's Paris correspondent. We thought that the French had gone about as far as they could go in the performance of public judeophobic outrage. But we were wrong.

MILITARY INTELLECTUAL IS NOT AN OXYMORON! So argues--and demonstrates--Col. Lloyd Matthews, the former editor of Parameters, the U.S. Army War College Quarterly. As one who served a brief and juvenile hitch at the Naval War College, the proprietor found this article right on target.

HOW TO WIN AN ARGUMENT DESPITE YOUR IGNORANCE...was, we thought, best taught by Stephen Potter in his classic Lifesmanship books. But, we learn here that the philosopher, Schopenhauer, laid out similar ploys and gambits about a hundred and fifty years ago!!

HAS THE TIME FOR PBS COME AND GONE? This agitated--but not unpersuasive--observer, writing for the Denver Post, has some sharp and impolite observations about the programming provided by public television as it revs up its contributions-hustle.

THE OPINIONS OF HILTON KRAMER...are always worth considering and are usually put forward in forthright and acerbic prose. This month's "Notes and Comments" section from New Criterion, the magazine he edits, are representative of a master at his curmudgeonly best.

THE CHICAGO MOB, MURDER, AND CHAUCER...were featured on our program, last Thursday night and were further reflected upon by John Kass, our program guest, in his--as always, sharply pointed--column at the Chicago Tribune. The full program will be up on our audio archive in a few days.

TWO PERFORMANCES OF STRAVINSKY'S FIREBIRD SUITE...are available here in separate--but equally engaging--performances by the Kirov Orchestra conducted by Valery Gergiev.

THE DARKNESS IN RUSSIA...as it "celebrates" the sixtieth anniversary of the end of the European war is conveyed here in flashes of the omnipresent Stalin, still broodingly present after all these years. This suggestive and insightful article is by the head of the Moscow Center of the Carnegie Endowment for Peace.

THE PAKISTANI MINISTER FOR RELIGIOUS AFFAIRS SPEAKS...either with forked tongue, muddled mind or in a mode of logic unknown in the non-Islamic world. Whatever he is disclosing in this interview with a leading Pakistani newspaper is interesting if true--and even if it isn't.

MAKING SENSE OF MODERN CHINA...is the task set by the authors of the three respective books reviewed here in the U.K. Economist. The one that makes most sense to the reviewer is the one that is closest to being a memoir rather than a scholarly or journalistic study.

THE BEST COMMENTARY ON THE NEW POPE...and the urgent task he is about to confront is--in our enthusiastic opinion--this one by Joseph Bottum, published a few days ago in the Weekly Standard. Essential reading!

THE RETURN OF THAT "GIANT SUCKING SOUND:" The millions of illegals from Mexico are sending multi-millions southward even as their president plans to get them onto American social security rolls. Some of the astonishing facts are reported here by Investor's Business Daily.

WHERE ARE THE GALBRAITHIANS? He seems to have precious few acolytes when compared to Keynes, Friedman, Samuelson, Lucas or Tobin. Why? An unambiguous and persuasive answer is provided by Bradford DeLong in this review/essay from the new issue of Foreign Affairs.

A WARRIOR NEO-CON...gets a surprisingly balanced profile from a New Yorker writer. One has to wonder whether this representation of the career and thought of Douglas Feith was seen by David Remnick, the presiding power at the magazine.

HOW DANGEROUS IS IT TO BE FAT...EVEN JUST A LITTLE? Far more, says Michael Fumento, that the New York Times has recently suggested. This valuably interactive (well linked!) article appeared a few days ago at Townhall.com.

WHAT'S WRONG WITH SCIENCE EDUCATION...when it goes wrong in contemporary American schools? The question is asked by Pamela Winnick in the current issue of the Weekly Standard and the answer turns out to have far more to do with leftism than with "religious influence."

ARE AMERICAN NEWSPAPERS ON A DOWNWARD SLOPE? Some observers do find that meaning in recent circulation statistics. In this article, a staff writer for the American Journalism Review seems to be trying to persuade us (or herself?) that the Washington Post may have found the road to survival that other papers must now also pursue. We doubt it--but the case is worth thoughtful examination.

THE MAGISTERIAL VOICE OF BERNARD LEWIS...is heard again in this new article from Foreign Affairs. The basic issue is not whether the "modern Middle East" is capable of change but, rather, how the direction of that change might be intelligently influenced.

THE NUCLEAR SAGA OF TELLER AND OPPENHEIMER...is dramatically recounted here--with full attention to its tragic import--by Vivian Gornick in this review of three recent biographical works.

GENDER ANDROGYNY IS IMPOSSIBLE...but the feminist program that seeks to achieve it has, says Stanley Kurtz in this significant article from the current City Journal, already done considerable harm--particularly to boys. And, incidentally, says Kurtz: Summers was right!

JACKIE MASON'S EPISTLE TO THE JEWS...is strong and rather bitter stuff and, in this accusation that they are foolishly in thrall to the Democratic Party, he doesn't soften the blow with his usual performance "shtick."

JOHN HENRY IN AMERICAN FOLK PERFORMANCE: Few American songs have accumulated as many versions as that of the great labor hero who challenged the powered steam drill. Here are seventeen (!!) seperate versions. Not to be missed: Leadbelly, Bill Monroe, Johnny Cash, Big Bill Broonzy and Doc Watson.