"I read the news today, oh boy..."

• The special issue of Newsweek, which gives the reader an inside account of the presidential campaign this year (entitled "How Bush Did It"), just came out on Monday. I highly recommend it. There are some very telling insights found in its pages. Some readers have already commented on them, and there will be more with my own two-cents worth, at a later date.

• Yasser Arafat, the leader of the Palestine Liberation Organization, passed away the night before last in Paris, and the wire services show the French soldiers carrying his casket in procession. Personally, I've never been all that impressed with the guy. I question whether Arafat ever left the situation better than he found it, and wonder if he preferred to play both sides in an attempt to maintain the illusion of authority. Well, he won't be doing that anymore, will he? I still hear stories about how Israeli military and police treat Palestinian civilians like they're all criminals, at airport check-ins, on the street, you name it. We can stick our noses in their business all we want, but the fact remains; as long as the sons of Isaac and the sons of Ishmael cannot get along, there will be no peace in the Middle East.

• The American bishops are meeting in DC next week. I used to get press credentials to get into the event every year. Starting last year, I didn't. I won't this year either. They'll no doubt spend most of the week stumbling all over one another with the whole priest-sex-scandal thing, and various pressure groups will be standing around outside hamming it up for the cameras, trying to make everybody think somebody inside should give a rat's behind. (Trust me, they don't.)

• I admit, I haven't commented as much lately. There's a reason. Stay tuned...