gleans at 10:20 PM EDT, 3/18

Middle America suffers social tension over Iraq

As calls to bring US troops back from Iraq mount, big cities and small town America alike are feeling growing social tension.

John Keegan: Another year of conflict ahead

Signs are good, says US general Iraq in numbers (since 2003)

 

In Race for President
Wall Street Journal - By AMY SCHATZ. WASHINGTON -- John Edwards topped the field of Democratic presidential contenders in the liberal blog DailyKos's latest straw poll. 

A mysterious, huge, dense mass of cold water is milling off the coast of Sydney, baffling researchers and delighting fishermen ... [more]

 

Pessimism 'growing among Iraqis'

 

 

  Iraqis have little confidence in their own government and the US-led coalition forces, a major survey shows.      

New world order
  Europeans grumble as US swaps old alliances for an 'open marriage'

    Inflation is eating US wage gains
  Food, housing, and healthcare costs rose at a 6 percent yearly rate in the past three months. By Mark Trumbull

Congress eyes lost billions sent to Iraq
Audits discovered $10 billion in lost or wasted funding since 2003, prompting talk of reforms to prevent war profiteering. By Peter Grier

The un-Rumsfeld: Robert Gates's way at Defense
Observers say Gates has established himself as a pragmatist and effective navigator of the Washington bureaucracy. By Gordon Lubold

Sunni Insurgents Show Resilience in Iraq
  Forbes - By STEVEN R. HURST 03.18.07, 3:54 PM ET. Sunni insurgents, resilient despite the five-week security crackdown in the capital, killed at least seven more US troops over the weekend.

Yukio Mishima was a right-wing fanatic and national embarrassment for Japan. He was also a vastly talented writer... more» 

The Victorian “crisis of faith” predates Darwin’s Origin of Species. Tennyson felt confronted by “nature red in tooth and claw” in 1850... more» 

'Marilyn given suicide drug by Rat Pack friend'

Marilyn Monroe's apparent suicide may have been the result of a plot hatched in the knowledge of Robert Kennedy, claim FBI files.

Dumbing down Latin in the classroom, ad absurdum

We should stop assuming that children need to have everything made easier, and make things more interesting instead

Partner Adopted by an Heiress Stakes Her Claim 
  By PAM BELLUCK and ALISON LEIGH COWAN  
  The former lesbian partner of the granddaughter of the founder of I.B.M. is seeking a share of an inherited fortune.  

 

         

 

World's most important crops hit by global warming effects
  Independent - By Steve Connor, Science Editor. Global warming over the past quarter century has led to a fall in the yield of some of the most important food crops in the world, according to one of the first scientific studies of how climate change has affected ...