Wednesday

I just received a robo-call: "Hello. I'm calling to invite all the men in your household to the Church for Men. Our first meeting is at the YMCA..."

WTF? Maybe it's some kind of double-secret reverse psychology: "[recipient of call thinking] Well, I know how Republican candidates used robo-calls purporting to be from Democrats, to alienate potential Democratic voters. So this call must be some ultraliberal atheist plot to discredit the Church for Men. If the God-haters are going to these lengths, then the Church for Men must be really great, and they need my support, too!"

If that's not it, then I really don't get it. Maybe it's just because I'm not a man. Maybe this deep, masculine electronically generated voice was painstakingly programmed to overcome men's innate distrust of organized religion. Too bad Keith wasn't home.

Monday

On Iraq, U.S. Turns to Onetime Dissenters - washingtonpost.com
Doomsday Clock Will Move Closer to Midnight
Dennis Kucinich's speech to Jesse Jackson's Wall Street Project Conference | Kucinich for President 2008: "policies of unilateralism, first strike, and preemption are dead ends"
McClatchy Washington Bureau | 01/14/2007 | Administration leaving out important details on Iraq: "President Bush and his aides, explaining their reasons for sending more American troops to Iraq, are offering an incomplete, oversimplified and possibly untrue version of events there that raises new questions about the accuracy of the administration's statements about Iraq. "

Sunday

Independent Online Edition > Americas: Shock and oil: Iraq's billions & the White House connection
Secrecy News: "Some foreign officials question what appears to them as a new emphasis by the United States on military approaches to problems that are not seen as lending themselves to military solutions."
Telegraph | News | CIA gets the go-ahead to take on Hizbollah
Rice Visit Leaves Palestinians Gloomy -- Sunday, Jan. 14, 2007 -- Page 1 -- TIME: "They're not interested in solving the conflict in any meaningful way — just uttering nice slogans, that's it."
Cheney admits expanded military spying role inside US - Yahoo! News: "The US military and the CIA have long been restricted in their spying activities inside the United States and are barred from conducting traditional domestic law enforcement work in the country." Until now.
Critics won't halt Iraq surge, Bush says - Yahoo! News It's good to be king.
Jon Swift: Breaking News: Michael Ledeen Is Dead