• Articles mentioning a 'threat' in today's New York Times: 22
• The Economist's frightening new amusement park: Econoland
• Jim Lobe interviews Chas Freeman
• More than doubling: U.S. troop numbers in Afghanistan
• A public database: Who profits from the Israeli occupation?
• Julie Flint and Alex de Waal on Luis Moreno Ocampo – Case Closed: A Prosecutor Without Borders
• Novels:

There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old’s life: “The Lord of the Rings” and “Atlas Shrugged.” One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves orcs.

Please add your remarks and links of the day in the comments.

Sadly, those good old times are gone. BBC report on the spring Swiss spaghetti harvest, April 1 1957:

Headlined In Defense of Genocide the neoconned WaPo editors condemn the Arab league for hosting Sudan's President Bashir while at the same time accusing Israel of war-crimes. The polemic includes this sentence:

T]he United Nations has reported more than 300,000 civilian deaths in Darfur as a result of the genocidal campaign sponsored by Mr. Bashir.

There are three false claims in this one sentence. As these false claims are often repeated from the far right to the interventionist left, let me try to dispel them once and for all.

1. The number of 300,000 is false.
2. The UN did not 'report' that number.
3. There was no genocide in Darfur.

The 300,000 number is simply taken from hot air. It is based on a exaggerated statement by the UN's humanitarian chief John Holmes:

Cont. reading: The False Darfur ‘Genocide’ Numbers

• Netan-Yahoo to Obama: Bomb Iran or I will
• Richard Sale: Israel's Covert War on Iran Faces Disapproving White House

• Soon to die: NATO turns 60
• Useful: The Idiot's Guide to Pakistan
• Margolis: Beware those treacherous AfPaks

• War Pigs – Cost Of A Global Empire
• Financing the Empire – Does US Face G20 Mutiny?

• Buiter on bad stimulus: Please torch my car
• This piece looks a bit into the bankruptcy proceedings of GM and Chrysler. It would take two years at least for GM to go through these. The piece misses the $1 trillion in Credit Default Swaps written on GM debt.Those will be 'triggered' by a the bankruptcy. Who will have to pay? Obama Said to Find Bankruptcy Likely for GM, Chrysler
• Stiglitz: Obama’s Ersatz Capitalism

Please add your remarks and links of the day in the comments.