If we were telling the Saudis the truth, we would tell them that their antimodern and antipluralist brand of Islam — known as Wahhabism — combined with their oil wealth has become a destabilizing force in the world. By financing mosques and schools that foster the least tolerant version of Islam, they are breeding the very extremists who are trying to burn down their house and ours.

But we also need to tell ourselves the truth. We constantly complain about the blank checks the Saudis write to buy off their extremists. But who writes the blank checks to the Saudis? We do — with our gluttonous energy habits, renewed addiction to big cars, and our president who has made "conservation" a dirty word.

In the wake of the Iraq war, the E.P.A. announced that the average fuel economy of America's cars and trucks fell to its lowest level in 22 years, with the 2002 model year. That is a travesty. No wonder foreigners think we sent our U.S. Army Humvees to control Iraq, just so we could drive more G.M. Hummers over here. When our president insists that we can have it all — big cars, big oil, lower taxes, with no sacrifices or conservation — why shouldn't the world believe that all we are about is protecting our right to binge?

And so the circle is complete: President Bush won't tell Americans the truth, so we won't tell Saudis the truth, so they won't tell their extremists the truth, so they can go on pumping intolerance and we can go on guzzling gas. Someday, our kids will condemn us for all of this.   

Tom Friedman on hard truths that aren't being told.

I have been neglecting my music category for a while now. This must change. As an extremely nerdish audiophile, I have, for many years, eschewed mp3 players as a waste of money. I was wrong, or at least I'm now wrong. The new iPod's are the bomb. A few weeks back, I bought one. I have not regretted it. The AAC encoding provides an audibly superior advantage over MP3 rivals. I have a very hard time distinguishing it from CD in most cases. In addition, over the last few weeks, I've discovered that the convenience of being able to carry a good portion of my CD collection - in an extremely listenable format - in my shirt pocket just frickin rocks!

More importantly, as I've posted previously and continue to believe, the iTunes Music Store might just save the music industry. Along these lines, here is a list of albums, or partial albums, that I've purchased from the iTunes Music Store:

• The Donnas - Spend the Night
• Praxis - Transmutation
• The Bad Plus - These Are the Vistas
• The Streets - Original Pirate Material
• Tony Williams - Turn It Over
• The Mighty Mighty Bosstones - Live From The Middle East
• Sonic Youth - Sister
• Cibo Matto - Stereo Type A
• Afroman - Because I Got High (just the one song because that shit is funny)

All of these items are things that I was on the fence about purchasing or were for backfilling my current CD collection with things I used to have on cassette. I probably never would have considered them if they were more than $9.90.

If anyone is on the fence about purchasing an iPod, just do it. Apple has a huge winner on it's hands, and combined with the iTunes Music Store, could very well own the online-music biz for quite a while unless something changes quickly.

Yet Prof. John J. Pitney, a Claremont College political scientist, said: "In the past couple of years, I think we've seen a shift from rough parity to a slight Republican advantage, which I think reflects a shift in public interest to national security, which Republicans own. If you think about bombs and rockets most of the time, you're probably going to vote Republican."

A very good article in the Times about the Republican plans to sew up long-term dominance in the 2004 election. If the concept presented bothers you, it's time to get involved! Don't let the Republican's own national security!