Update

Loyal readers: Today has been frustrating. Blogger was on the fritz for the vast majority of the morning and afternoon. And I was halfway through a post I'd spent an hour on when my browser shut down with no warning this evening. There is so much to comment on, but time is not on my side . . . On Japan, I wanted to address the comments of an Alert Reader in the posts from my last Japan piece -- I think we agree and the fault is mine for writing poorly. The question is not a rise in Japan's militarism -- as the regional press, English-language Japanese press, and International Herald Tribune types would have it be. No, the question is one of Japan becoming a fully-functioning member of the world community at long last -- and we should welcome and encourage the support of its military, not lean on half-century old fears of a racist fascism taking root there. Anyway, that's the 30-second version of that post. On Iran, I have a few good links from another Alert Reader. I'll try to get these out later tonight, but that post won't be as substantial as past Iran posts. I will return now to what I was working on before Safari failed me: The Rightist Critique of the War, Part I.