The world of New Age, um, wisdom never fails to provide hours of harmless entertainment. Here (via a morning surfing Scott Burgess’ delightfully acerbic blog) is a web page dedicated to a clearly important piece of work previously unknown to me – The Shamanic Way of The Bee.

There you will find this: “In The Shamanic Way of the Bee the intriguing world of bee shamanism - the Path of Pollen - is revealed and explained as both a vital part of our heritage and a practical system of healing, wisdom and spiritual development. It is written as a marriage of ethnography and autobiographical memoir, detailing the true adventure story of his initiation into this ancient tradition. As with all new and unusual experiences, his immersion in a new world order and way of being was sometimes terrifying, sometimes exquisitely beautiful, and readers everywhere will be enchanted as they share his journey.”

Perhaps I should review it.

Kathryn? Kathryn?

Yes, yes, I know that’s not a headline to bring the crowd to its feet (and I promise not to mention it at Chicago – unless, hint, asked, hint), but the next round in the EU’s gathering crisis is the budgetary talks being held next week. Basically, the Commission in Brussels wants more money (there’s a surprise), and most national politicians don’t want to hand any more over (there’s another). One possible source of funds? The (very partial) rebate on the UK’s budget contribution negotiated by a handbag-swinging Mrs Thatcher way back when.

Jacques Chirac, desperately trying to deflect attention from the slight, uh, embarrassment recently inflicted on him by French voters has suggested that the UK should give up this rebate as a “gesture of solidarity” to Europe.

Tony Blair (credit where credit’s due) hit back with a gesture or two of his own (nicely illustrated over at EurSoc).

"Britain has been making a gesture because over the past 10 years, even with the British rebate, we have been making a contribution to Europe two and a half times that of France. Without the rebate, it would have been 15 times as much as France. So that is our gesture. The reason why the rebate exists is because otherwise there would be this quite unfair proportion of British contribution. The reason for the unfairness is because the spending of Europe is so geared to the common agricultural policy."

France, needless to say, is the main beneficiary of the Common Agricultural Policy (the subsidy/protection regime for the EU’s farmers).

Will Chirac give that up?

Mais non.

Here’s an interesting list of questions for those such as James Wolcott who believe that George Galloway is a hero of our time.

Hat-tip Harry

Ayaan Hirsi Ali is, a regular readers will know, one of the most interesting figures now active in politics in European. A relentless campaigner for secular values and women’s rights, she says nothing that that has not been said many times before on the continent of Voltaire, Tom Paine and John Stuart Mill. Despite that, as this article reminds us, she finds herself under attack from the very people who should be among her allies.

Amongst some on the left, it seems, the values of the Enlightenment are trumped by the pieties of multiculturalism.

Also check out the comments from the Norwegian human rights activist who believes that strict immigration controls are the best way to protect both “European values and Muslim women’s human rights.”

Interesting times.

The USDA completed a study on amenities to understand why people choose to live where they do and, more importantly, why they are leaving the farm belt.

Basically, they came up with a rating system that shows that places in the west and south that aren't cold in the winter or too humid in the summer are nice places to live. Our tax dollars at work. Oh, and have more scenery around is preferable too.

The study is here.

I came across it in Scientific American's May issue. The intro to the story is here.

Kind of fits in with the weather discussion you have going on. And yes, LA is nice (Culver City is about 70 degrees right now...). But we do have Barbara Boxer.

Where do I apply to read the Corner professionally for the White House? I used to be able to do some work and refresh every half hour or so. Now with Bench Memos, The Buzz, TKS, The-As-Yet-To-Be-Named Media Blog, I do well to cram four hours of work into my nine hour day. Keep up the good work.

Woody [Allen, who writes fortune cookies, about Homer]: That is ... he's like a young me.

Writer: Please, Young Mi was a hack compared to this guy.

Radical Arab militants have been trickling into Iraq to join the fight of Ba'athists and radical Islamists against US forces. But another,non-violent Arab contingent of volunteers has been gearing up for battle on a different front the defence of Saddam Hussein.

During the past year, the committee for the defence of Mr Hussein, known by its acronym Isnad, has swelled to more than 2,500 lawyers. Some are Iraqis, led by Mr Hussein's head lawyer, Khalil al-Duleimi. But the majority come from Arab states, with Jordan providing as many as 600 of the legal experts. In Libya, the head of the support committee is Aisha, the daughter of Colonel Muammer Gadaffi.

Melanie Phillips has a piece in the Spectator about the recent French court judgment against Le Monde. The paper was found guilty of racial defamation against the Jewish people for a piece it ran in 2002 called “Israel-Palestine: the Cancer.” Here’s Phillips:

One might have expected such a momentous ruling pronouncing Le Monde guilty of racial prejudice against the Jews to have made waves. Not a bit of it. The French have ignored it. The case was only brought to light by the Middle East commentator Tom Gross in the Wall Street Journal Europe, who asked why nothing had been written about it anywhere a week after the ruling. Following his article, the Guardian belatedly ran a story.

The media has been silent because the same kind of calumnies are routinely published and broadcast in Britain and throughout Europe: obsessively disproportionate and libellous coverage which equates Israel with the Nazis, misrepresents its defence against terror as brutal aggression, and singles out the Jewish people in their ancient and restored nation state as uniquely unworthy of self-determination.

But should we celebrate the ruling? Here’s Phillips again:

…[H]eartening as it is to see a public body at last calling this prejudice by its proper name, the case against Le Monde also provokes unease. Racial prejudice is hateful and should be exposed as such. But this should be done at the bar of public opinion, not in a court of law.

Homer: These fortunes are terrible. They're supposed to predict stuff and ease you through times of doubt and sickness.

Manager: Well with all due respect sir I suppose you could come up with better fortunes?

Homer: You will be aroused by a shampoo commercial.

Manager: That's not bad!

... Manager: This gentleman here can write better fortunes than all of you put together. Show them!

Homer: Okay lets see, um... The price of stamps will climb ever higher....

I listened to Cavuto's interview with W and I think you're being a bit unfair in your criticism. He asked the question in the context of Social Security, noting the polls suggest the President is having a hard time getting his message out to the American people. My reaction to the question was that it was a proxy for the more direct (and less politic) question: "Does the focus of the media on vapid, titillating stories like the Michael Jackson trial make it more difficult for you as President to get the public engaged on complex, real-world issues such as the financial stability of the Social Security system?"

I'm not in the tank for Cavuto but fair is fair. He was trying to get W to chastise the media for wasting time on stories of no lasting consequence while giving the big, life-altering stories short shrift....

Hollywood actor Sean Penn, adopting the role of a journalist, scribbled in his notebook as Friday prayer worshippers in Tehran chanted "Death to America." Penn, 44, in Iran on a brief assignment for the San Francisco Chronicle ahead of presidential elections on June 17, may be one of the best known faces in film, but he went unrecognized by the 6,000 faithful at Tehran University.

Working with a translator, Penn took copious notes as hardline cleric Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati urged the congregation to vote en masse "to make America angry."

His father, William H. Pryor Sr., was the band director in the local Catholic high school, and so it was no surprise that the younger Mr. Pryor, an award-winning timpanist, would enter college majoring in music. But when he came home for the summer, his mother spied him watching C-Span, and knew he was headed in another direction.

Governor Mitt Romney has promised to endorse Lieutenant Governor Kerry Healey in the 2006 gubernatorial race if he decides to run for president, a top Republican Party official and a Healey adviser said....

WASHINGTON, June 9 - The United States has received "credible information" that Syrian operatives in Lebanon plan to try to assassinate senior Lebanese political leaders and that Syrian military intelligence forces are returning to Lebanon to create "an environment of intimidation," a senior administration official said Thursday.

His critique closely matches many of the essays on the failure of liberalism politically: we didn't need to persuade ordinary voters in order to get our way so we didn't bother and now we are paying the price:

[N]ational environmental groups gained influence and funding through their ability to deploy professional staff to master the arcane intricacies of federal legislation and regulation. These staff forged close relationships with key congressional staff, primarily among Democratic legislators, who were then usually in the majority. Environmental groups relied on these relationships in the 1980s and 1990s to thwart anti-environment initiatives, especially during the Reagan administration.

Although successful in the near term, these tactics were pursued largely at the expense of developing a positive message and effective strategies for mobilizing mainstream Americans into a bipartisan constituency for environmental protection. This grassroots organizing is hard work, takes a long time to show results, and requires dispersing resources around the country instead of supporting a centralized staff in Washington, DC, or New York City.

Hello Kathryn:

I would like to encourage anyone thinking about attending the Chicago event to JUST DO IT! Atlanta was a ton of fun. The 7 hours (!) passed by in a flash (and continued with many of the NROers and attendees proceeding to a local bar until the wee hours of the morning.)

I was able to speak with all of the NRO writers there (and also head suit Ed Capano). All were wonderful. Jay Nordlinger is truly the world's most gracious human being (as was previously noted). I would also note that it was very much a treat to meet and speak with the other attendees. Smart and interesting group.

I am envious that Chicago will have Byron York, who was not in Atlanta (his book is marvelous!), although I will note that Atlanta was lucky to have the delightful Warren Bell.

Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean apologized today for calling Republicans “pretty much a white, Christian party,” saying that he failed to mention that they were “fat and ugly” as well.

Conservatives can eat organic and-shocking as it may be-can be pretty darn funny. Neither makes us anomalies. Conservatism is about ideas, but it's not a lock-step army, with dress and behavior codes. ... If, in the end, "South Park Conservatives" and "Crunchy Cons" make more people realize conservatives are people too-i.e. most of red America-cool, fine. But my worry has always been these unnecessary labels and things just further ghettoize and stereotype.