In support of the Iranian Blog Burst idea, I'll be running at least one Iran-related item per day for the next week. Usually more. I'll also be linking to John's Open Letter to the Iranian People every day.

• New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman banned in Iran! Accused of espionage, no less. Howard Fienberg of Kesher Talk has the whole story, and wonders "how the mad mullahs would react to a visit from National Review's James Robbins or Michael Ledeen... can you say public beheading?" Well, someone would certainly end up beheaded in that confrontation. As I've long maintained, "a man is judged by the enemies he keeps."
  

• I'll Be Back, Part I: 6 Proposals for rebuilding the World Trade Center complex, complete with background coverage and previews of all 6 plans. With a top height of 86 stories, I must admit that I'm a bit disappointed. It looks like the designers have wimped out. None of these even measures up to the "twin lights" display. Surely we can do better.
  

• I'll Be Back, Part II: These alternatives certainly pale before my preferred plan, a scaled-down version of this model. That plan not only encapsulates the essence of New York and provides a notable new landmark, it significantly enhances the structure's stability in the event of future terrorist attacks. I think it's a winner all around.
  

• Another Blogtivist effort seeks to gather the goods on Demo-loony Congresscritter Cynthia "9/11 was a Bush plot" McKinney. Kesher Talk asks you to send in your articles, pointers, and other compilations of her looniness and payoffs from supporters of terrorism. If you do, her political enemies will put it to good use. Help her Democrat challenger make Ms. McKinney an ex-politician!
  

• Josh Trevino of i330 finally went to Movable Type, and it looks great. Today's highlight analyzes the burdens of Empire when you're an American functionary, stranded in some screaming hell-hole filled with jihadis as you wait for the helicopters to arrive. And of course, wondering what to do with your cat. Fortunately, the State Department has some advice for you. Perhaps Colin & co. could do something useful for a change, and ship this briefing to Iran's mullahs. Now that would be a diplomatic statement worthy of the name.
  

• LakeFX's Dan Hartung meditates on evil in this July 14 posting (sorry, Blogger's archiving is bust..scroll down to it). One paragraph in particular stood out for him, and I commend it to you, too: "Evil is the Bad elevated to the status of the inexplicable. To understand is to forgive. Evil sometimes means the thing we cannot understand, and cannot forgive."
  

• Flit asks: When will we do something about a Canadian held under flimsy charges and tortured in Saudi Arabia? Never, Flit. Never, ever. That's the truth. And for the last 30 years, it has always been the truth. If you want to wander around in foreign countries and feel safer, wear a Canadian flag on your backpack. If you actually want protection should something bad happen to you, carry an American passport. Unless you're in Saudi Arabia, of course.
  

• Let me be clear. What happened to those American women in Saudi Arabia is beyond appalling, and needs to be dealt with. Starting with the slimy U.S. diplomat who expelled them from the Embassy into certain rape and imprisonment. That said, I do have less sympathy for people who went there of their own accord instead of being kidnapped. Saudi Arabia is not, repeat NOT a civilized country. When you visit the doghouse, don't complain about the fleas.
  

• Ah, yes, our "friends" the Saudis. Norwegian Blogger gets to the heart of their dilemma, and knows how to deal with them. His ancestors would be pleased.
  

• How many ways are there to run a con? Snarkout knows.
  

• Speaking of cons, hypocrisy doesn't even begin to describe this. Anyone still think the ACLU and its affiliates actually have much to do with free speech or civil liberties? Me neither... just one more piece of evidence in a long, long list.
  

• I know this one's a few days old. But damn, it's good. Vodkapundit explains why the environment is better off when people are rich. Much better off. Howard Fienberg makes similar points in his July 9 Tech Central Station column. They both make necessary points, but the debate needs to go further. The challenge is preserving the environment as economies come up the growth curve... and that raises a whole new set of issues. Hopefully, as technology advances we can continue to improve those odds. But it will take more than technology to pull off the transitions.
  

• "Linking small things, for big bucks." Nanotechnology is still in its early stages, but Nanodot points to recent developments like a new nanotechnology center at Purdue University in Indiana aimed at linking scientists and entrepreneurs. As Rand Simberg often reminds us when discussing space travel, it's not just an engineering challenge; it's about building an industry.
  

• Jeffrey Harrow covers new developments in the war. Not the War on Islamists - the war the entertainment industry is waging on its customers. (This means you!) Read his "Musical Technological Escalatio" reports, and you'll see that this characterization may not be an exaggeration.
  

• Ranting & Roaring has one positive development on the copyright front, courtesy of a proposal by Congressman Rick Boucher (D-VA) to extend fair use rights. Since the industry is doing its level best to remove them from you entirely, this is an important development. Rep. Boucher's home page has an email link, and you might consider using it to express your support.
  

• Good news and bad news from Venezuela, an important cog in our oil supply situation and the chief architect of OPEC's price increases over the last several years. El Sur completes his rundown of recent developments by noting: "The opposition's initial mass actions... all carried with them the possibility... of a coup. That now in 'been-there, done-that' status, a new approach is needed. This approach, when found, will probably be much more difficult to realize than a coup would have been. On the other hand, it will also be more legitimate, which means its benefits will be longer lasting." Let's see: raising oil prices, trashing Venezuela's oil infrastructure, cozying up to narco-terrorists, arming unaccountable militia gangs internally - however it happens, some lasting change there is sorely needed.
  

• Bob Frankston of the charmingly-named tech site SATN.org has a very worthwhile essay. It starts out covering programming, then quickly broadens into meaningful philosophy. "It wasn't really a matter of lying to myself as much as not having the incentive to seek the truth. What we have is a failure of advocacy. I simply didn't have the incentive to solve a problem that I didn't know was solvable." And of course, that dynamic explains a lot of other things as well.
  

• Pejman asks if anyone else is concerned that a Polio virus was recently created by chemical means in a lab. Charles Murtaugh has some good additional perspective on this subject. Here's what it means: it means that any virus whose genetic sequence is mapped will be re-creatable in the not-too-distant future, without requiring original specimens. That's bad enough in the hands of a country like Iran, but the means will eventually become available at much lower levels than that. Welcome to the first harbingers of the scenarios Bill Joy painted in his famous WIRED article: "Why the Future Doesn't Need Us."
  

• Robert Batley on the American Way of War, from Gettysburg on the one hand to Omaha Beach on the other. "In the war on terror further tests lie ahead, President Bush tells us, including action to topple Saddam. History suggests the chief test will be not whether Americans will abide body bags, but whether they can grasp the nettle."

Here's hoping Dubya & co. realize that this is going to hurt... and do it anyway.