I’m off to Cornell for the weekend. I’ll be back Monday.

In this otherwise excellent, though skimpy on details, Slate article by Gary Bass on what causes civil wars, one finds this curious sentence:

Throughout Africa, as the Stanford civil war experts James Fearon and David Laitin point out, 18,000 examples of ethnic groups interacting regularly with each other between 1960 and 1979 led to only 52 civil wars.

I’m sorry, but “only 52 civil wars” really aren’t words that should go together. Though it would funny if Republicans started claiming that “only one – one! – civil war” is going on in Iraq.

Call me tacky, but good riddance to bad rubbish. This guy paid off theocrats in Iran and supported fascist murderers in Nicaragua. He was scum of the highest order.

Andy Card’s resigned, to be replaced by Josh Bolten. He may run for governor in Massachusetts, but would lose, like any other Republican, to either Tom Reilly or (if we’re lucky) Deval Patrick. I can’t say I think this is that big of a deal; Card’s fall has been in the, er, cards since the Harriet Miers pick, which he handled instead of Rove. That clearly showed Rove to be the superior political strategist, and Boy Genius will remain what he’s been all along: chief of staff in everything but name.
P.S. Todd Gitlin, everyone’s favorite SDSer, has some interesting dirt on Bolten.

Ideally, Yossi Beilin and Meretz-Yachad would win, but, well, that’s too much to ask with. I could live with a Kadima victory with a strong second-place showing from Labor. At least Bibi’s very, very far from regaining the Prime Ministership.

Is it just me, or is it completely bizarre that Maryland Lt. Governor and Senatorial Candidate Michael Steele’s former brother-in-law (who he is still friends with) is Mike Tyson?

I don’t know why, but seeing this when I went to look for a book at Amazon was quite disturbing.