A man walks up to a shrub and asks: “So, what's our exit strategy from Iraq?” The voice-over intones: “OK, it's kind of ridiculous to think you're ever going to get an answer from this bush.” A picture of the president appears on the screen. The voice-over continues: “But it's also kind of ridiculous to think you're going to get an answer from this one.” —story "Coming to the end of options" in The Economist

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Extreme forms of Western entertainment come to Afghanistan via satellite—

In a country where converting to Christianity from Islam carries the death penalty, the Christian channels are just as offensive to some as the pornography, although not as popular. —Terry Friel reporting from Kandahar, perhaps from his hotel room

It's a relief to know that pornography's more popular than Christianity. There's less chance of anybody getting hurt.

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I am going to Washington beholden to no political group except the people of Connecticut and, of course, my conscience. —Senator Joe Lieberman commenting on the possibility of joining the Republican caucus

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When Madonna and Harvard are in agreement, the mobilization of fundamentalist Christians in favour of Israel and opposed to masturbation is no longer enough. —Alexandre Adler commenting in Le Figaro on the convergence of opinion between "Hollywood" and academia

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On post-partisan depression—

When partisans imagine being devastated when their candidate loses, they focus on how they will feel when they think about it. What they fail to realize is how seldom they think about it. —Daniel Gilbert, Harvard psychologist, commenting on the findings of his research

Tags: * election psychology depression psychological immunity post partisan depression

The Washington Post today is running an article by Zachary A. Goldfarb headlined "The Questions That Defined the Election."

Eagerly I began to read the Goldfarb analysis, but since it was spread over three web pages I switched over to the print view. Imagine my surprise when the "questions" morphed into other questions.

To give you a feel for how different they are, here are the headings in the original—

• The elephant in the room
• Money matters
• Tune in, Turn on
• The Abamoff echo
• Border patrol
• Anxious suburbs
• Tough terrain
• Red-state revival

Now over in print view we have—

• Ballot issues
• Iraq
• Immigration
• Money matters
• The elephant in the room
• Tough terrain
• Scandal alert

Since the "elephant in the room" was George Bush, it's interesting that he comes first in the standard online version but falls way down the list in the printable version. Now I don't know what I'm supposed to think.

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