as you were
Overcast sky = no meteors.
Long and provoking article from The Prospect dissecting the East v. West division. He essentially splits the Western tradition into what he sees as its component elements—humanism, rationalism, romanticism, and the previous religious tradition—and while he's still speaking in terms of isms, at least it goes a little deeper. His point that religious fundamentalism knows no bounds is well taken, and reminds me of the Falwell/Robertson/bin Laden quiz where you try to figure out who said what. I didn't do well.
The Washington Post mentions, in an offhand way, that the CIA has been in Afghanistan for the past 18 months. I could have sworn that like a month ago, when everyone was complaining about the organization's inefficacy, there were said to be no case officers at all in the region. Hmm.
