I am not sure whether you all are already reading The Event by Mick LaSalle, if not, you are missing out on a great story. Mick publishes it online, every week, one chapter. It is a great story, I am hooked, as are many readers of The Moderate Voice (and of course many many others).| MORE ›

Glenn Trush reports for Newsday:

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton finally dropped by Rutgers to meet with the school’s women’s basketball coach — but the players themselves skipped the half-hour meeting, citing their studies and Imus fatigue.

Yeah, good excuse.

“I love argument. If I reach a setting where everybody agrees, I will argue. I don’t do it purposefully – it’s just in my nature. I’ll begin arguing the opposing viewpoint. It’s the only way that I’ve ever found to really reach the right conlusions.”

- Hugh Hewitt quotes Republican candidate Mitt Romney in A Mormon in the White House? 10 Things Every American Should Know About Mitt Romney.| MORE ›

“Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani and European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana will meet next Wednesday for talks on the dispute over Tehran’s nuclear program, an EU official said on Friday.”

The official went on to say that “They will be preliminary discussions with a view to seeing if it would be possible to restart negotiations.”

Iranian news agency ISNA quoted Larijani as telling Solana:| MORE ›

The New York Times has an interesting article up, written by Kirk Johnson:

Both sides of the abortion debate expect a new push for restrictions as state lawmakers around the country digest the implications of the Supreme Court decision Wednesday upholding a federal ban on a type of abortion…

The reasoning of both the court’s majority opinion upholding the restrictions and the dissent gave encouragement to opponents of abortion.| MORE ›

Well, keep it limited:

Eating less salt reduces the chances of suffering a heart attack or stroke, the first long-term study of salt’s impact on health confirms today.

The findings, from a 15-year study, offer the clearest evidence yet that cutting salt consumption saves lives by reducing the risks of cardiovascular disease.| MORE ›

An interesting column at the Washington Post by one of the best columnists in America, David Ignatius, about Condoleezza Rice.

For the past few years, the United States has been in self-imposed diplomatic isolation in the Middle East. But two paths out of that wilderness are becoming visible, and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is moving cautiously down each one.

The first path leads toward a regional solution to the nightmare problem of Iraq.| MORE ›

E.J. Dionne on gun control:

No one pretends that smarter gun laws would prevent all violence. But it’s a disgrace that we can’t try to learn from tragedies such as this week’s Virginia Tech massacre and figure out whether better laws might at least modestly reduce the likelihood of such horrific events happening again.

Our country is a laughingstock on the rest of the planet because of our devotion to unlimited gun rights.| MORE ›

Charles E. Donovan says yes, no question about it:

I attended Georgetown University in the the 1970′s, graduating in 1980. If my grades had been at stable “D+”, I would have been suspended. Apparently at Virginia Tech it is acceptable to lack mental health stability, have suicidal ideation’s while on campus and suffer with severe depression…

We all know the importance of sustained improvement with severe depression.| MORE ›

A 21 year old Dutch corporal was killed in Afghanistan by the Taliban. While on patroll, a bomb exploded. The 21 year old Dutchman died instantly. His remains have been brought to Kandahar, his body will be flown back to the Netherlands next week. It is the sixth Dutch soldier to die in Afghanistan, but the first to die due to ‘violence of war’.

He was a member of the “Luchtmobiele Brigade”: an unit that – among other things – operates behind enemy lines.| MORE ›