Friends, I want to tell you a little about the new issue of National Review — it has many good things in it, I hope you’ll agree, including an Abigail Thernstrom piece on racial politics, a Rob Long piece on Anna Nicole Smith, and a Michael Novak piece on atheism. This third piece is massive, as well as excellent. Also, Ramesh Ponnuru makes the case for John McCain. If anyone can make the case — for anything! — Ramesh can.

My own piece is about independent journalism in Cuba, particularly a group called Jóvenes sin Censura, or Youth Without Censorship. I have cited them in this space before. They are an extraordinarily brave band, like all independent journalists in Cuba. Week before last, I managed to speak to two members of the group: Liannis Meriño Aguilera, the director, and Luis Esteban Espinosa. Liannis is 23, Luis Esteban only 20.

According to Reporters Without Borders, Cuba is the fourth-worst place in the world for journalists. North Korea is the worst, followed by Turkmenistan and Eritrea. Cuba is ahead of — meaning worse than — such beauties as Burma, China, Iran, and Saudi Arabia. Castro has his official press, and everything else is illegal.

Yet independent journalists persist, and there are many little agencies across the island. Those who work for them are subject to constant monitoring, harassment, and worse. (I detail all this in that NR piece.) About 25 independent journalists are now in prison, kept in the most deplorable conditions. You may remember that I mentioned Juan Carlos Herrera Acosta, who took the extreme step of sewing his mouth shut. Only those familiar with a totalitarian system can understand why people would resort to such a thing.

Independent journalists are not allowed to use the Internet, of course; they usually make do with pen and paper. Often they don’t have phones, because State Security rips them out. As I say in this piece, Cuba’s independent journalists not only have to be braver than their colleagues elsewhere; they have to be more resourceful, too.

Raúl Rivero said something telling, in an interview with the Miami Herald. (Rivero is a noted poet and journalist, once a political prisoner, now in exile in Spain.) “Whenever a foreign journalist came to interview or visit me and said, ‘What can I do for you?’ I would answer, ‘Leave me your pen.’”

We in free societies are able to use the Internet, fortunately, and we can read the reports of independent journalists at various sites: CubaNet.org, PayoLibre.com, Directorio.org. This last is the site of the Directorio Democrático Cubano, in Miami — a splendidly meritorious group. And please note the motto of CubaNet: “Only oppression should fear the full exercise of freedom.” It is a statement by José Martí.

Liannis, Luis Esteban, and the others in Youth Without Censorship report on matters large and small. Liannis was detained by State Security one day when she reported on the firing of two young men from a cigar factory for homosexuality. “Why do you defend these people?” said the agents. Liannis replied coolly, “We defend the rights of all people, no matter who they are.” She made a point of telling me that she would report decent acts of the government, if ever any occurred.

The young woman breathes a rare journalistic spirit.

On February 15, Liannis contributed this humble but meaningful report: “Residents of a small fishing village in Holguín province complain that increasingly stern restrictions on their traditional occupation mean that only foreign tourists can fish their waters.” A couple of weeks before, Luis Esteban had contributed this: “A police captain known locally only as Claudio imposed a fine of 400 pesos — almost two months’ salary — on a wheelchair-bound handicapped street peddler.”

In addition to Reporters Without Borders, the Committee to Protect Journalists is a valuable resource. I also wish to direct your attention to two blogs (of many): Babalu and Uncommon Sense. The former is run by Val Prieto, the latter by Marc Masferrer. Masferrer was able to conduct an interview with an independent journalist named Aini Martín Valero. It is an enlightening and moving interview — here.

‐Before I leave the subject of Cuba, I’d like to mention René Montes de Oca. He is a Christian, a democracy activist, an official of Cuba’s Human Rights Party (Partido Pro-Derechos Humanos). He is also a political prisoner. Longtime readers may remember that I first interviewed him in 2001, when he was on the lam. (That article is here.) I asked how he could risk so much, be so defiant, be so brave. He answered,

“There are many brave people in Cuba, both men and women. We Cubans have always been faithful: a faithful community, a faithful people. We take our strength from the Bible. We believe in love, justice, and peace, and we bear it in mind not to go with what is wrong. We take God’s truth to the darkest and loneliest places of human existence: like the prisons.”

I also asked him what he wanted out of us in the United States. He said he would like Americans to remember “their sense of unity, justice, and liberty that they have maintained over so many years, which has made them a hospitable and great nation for the dispossessed and desperate peoples of the world.”

René was, of course, quickly rearrested, and I wrote about that here. I again wrote about him in 2003, here.

I bring up all this because there is some news about René: He has finally gotten his day in court, to the extent that the Communist system allows such a day, and he may be released in July. Marc Masferrer talks about it on his blog.

And if I know René, he will be right back at his work, which is to shout against oppression, to bang away at the shackles that bind those he loves.

‐Speaking of those who love others, “the wife of a blind Chinese activist who was jailed after he documented cases of forced abortions was reunited with her husband Thursday for a 10-minute visit, the first such meeting since he was detained a year ago.” Ten minutes is better than nothing, I suppose. The prisoner in question is Chen Guangcheng. And you may read the rest of this news story here.

The wives of political prisoners are a special and glorious class of people: Avital Sharansky, Christina Fu (the wife of Jian-li Yang) — they are exemplars of decency and devotion. In helping the individuals they love — the spouses to whom they’re pledged — they help the whole world, a measure of love leavening the whole.

‐Did you hear about the Israeli entry in the Eurovision Song Contest? It’s called “Push the Button,” and, as Steven Erlanger of the New York Times said in his report, “the message of the song . . . seems to be a banal and perfectly understandable plea not to be incinerated by a nuclear bomb in the hands of a lunatic.”

The words go, “I don’t want to die; I want to see the flowers bloom / Don’t want to go kapoot-kaboom, and I don’t want to cry / I wanna have a lot of fun, just sitting in the sun. / But nevertheless — he’s gonna push the button.”

As you might expect, the Eurovision people are not very happy with this song — not very happy at all — and they may ban it from the contest. Because you can’t worry about the obliteration of Israel by Iran; you are obligated to worry about global warming. Let’s have our priorities straight!

By the way, my favorite line from Erlanger’s piece (written from Jerusalem)? “Israelis are increasingly obsessed by Iran’s pursuit of enriched uranium, which few here doubt is intended to create a nuclear weapon.” Obsessed, yes! And anyone not obsessed is an idiot.

‐Over the last several weeks, many of us Repubs have been asking one another, “Which candidate do you support for 2008? For whom would you vote in a primary?” And the key word is “would,” because most people will not have a chance to vote in a primary. Seems to me that, years ago, the presidential primaries started in the snows of New Hampshire; they built around the country; some candidates dropped out, some candidates came in; and it all culminated in California, in June. Then we had the conventions.

It was wonderful, for those who enjoy following politics.

But now, it’s all over in a snap, because the parties decided they had to have their nominees ultra-early. So a handful of states decide it all. When will a Californian, or a Texan, or a Floridian, ever vote in a primary — a meaningful primary?

I guess Iowans, New Hampshirites, and South Carolinians decide, and that’s pretty much it. Seems like a pretty stupid way to run a railroad.

‐Ever since I was a kid, I have been squeamish about direct election of judges and prosecutors. I mean, I understand the arguments for it, but . . .

Take this guy down in Duke-land, the lacrosse guy, Nifong. He pleaded that this case arose “during the last few weeks of a hotly contested Democratic-party primary in which I was seeking to retain my office,” and “I was not always able to give the case my full attention.”

You see what I mean? I am not settled against the direct election of judges and prosecutors, never have been. But “squeamish” is the word I use.

‐All hail Naomi Campbell, the supermodel, for saying she “very much regrets losing her temper and hitting her maid with a cell phone over a pair of missing jeans last year.” (I am quoting this report.) She said, “I felt very remorseful for having thrown the phone at someone that didn’t deserve it.” And “I have a deep sense of shame for the things I’ve done.”

A sense of shame — nay, a deep sense of shame? You never hear that, from anyone, these days. Way to go, contrite one. And, hey: what a knockout. I discovered something when I encountered her in the lobby of New York’s Four Seasons. (I immediately and dutifully reported this in Impromptus.) Naomi Campbell is unphotogenic. Downright unphotogenic, this supermodel is. She is so much better looking in person than she is in photos, it’s not even funny. She should sue the photographers.

Or throw her cellphone at them!

‐Remember Colin Powell, in 1996, announcing that he wouldn’t run for president? In his remarks, he said that America should rediscover a sense of shame. That was an extraordinary moment.

‐Indulge in a speck of music? For a review of the New York Philharmonic, conducted by Kurt Masur, with the violinist Sergey Khachatryan, soloist, go here. The review was published in the New York Sun.

‐In last Thursday’s Impromptus, I spoke of Ayaan Hirsi Ali, one of the leading anti-terrorists in the world. And a colleague drew my attention to an interview of her published in Newsweek. What was the title over this interview? “A Bombthrower’s Life.”

That may be the most inapt title I have seen this decade. Actually, dear Newsweek, Hirsi Ali is a consummate counter-bombthrower. It is she, not her enemies, who is ducking the bombs.

And I’ll see you later, cool ones.