• According to Reuters, the Iranian news agency ISNA reported this weekend that Iran "has completely stopped selling any of its oil for U.S. dollars." This is probably not as dramatic as it appears at first blush since Iran has been steadily reducing its sales in dollars for some time, preferring the euro and yen.
   
• You've probably heard by now that "Scooter" Libby has dropped his appeal of his conviction for outing CIA agent Valerie Plame. President Bush had already commuted his prison sentence. But the BBC offered this insight—

  The decision to drop the appeal is also a tactical one, correspondents say.
  
  Even if a federal appeals court overturned Libby's conviction, that would lead to another long and costly trial.
  
  If he was convicted again, Mr Bush's commutation would not apply and the president is likely to have left office.

• The diocese of San Joaquin, California, has become the first of the Episcopal Church's 110 dioceses to vote to secede from the American church and join the Province of the Southern Cone (South America). Too much "liberal theology" (read, "gays") in the American church, you know.
  
  Along the way the diocesan bishop, John-David Schofield, led his flock to believe that "... the Archbishop of Canterbury has been fully informed of the invitation of the Province of the Southern Cone and described it as a 'sensible way forward.'" On Monday the Archbishop let it be known that he had done no such thing.

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