"We are all Spanish now"

The big news story today is the bombing of a Madrid railway station, killing almost 200 people and injuring almost 1000, causing chaos during the morning rush hour commute. The Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar has issued a statement in which he notes that Spain will not be coerced by this act of terrorism, and that all those responsible will be found and brought to justice. The event brought compete shock to the Spanish people and condemnation from world leaders and newspapers. Although the source of the attacks is still unknown and no one has claimed responsibility, the Basque separatist group ETA is seen widely as the planners of the attack. Still, Al-Qaida or other Islamic groups can not be ruled out.

Though the race for the White House appears to be a toss up, many analysts are expecting that Congress will remain Republican controlled in the next legislative session. Despite the current control of the Senate by the Republican Party though, four Republican senators including John McCain defected to the Democratic side passing a bill that would prevent any further tax cuts from being implemented without at least 60 votes in the Senate for the next five years.

Meanwhile, John Kerry and Howard Dean seem to have made up as they met on Wednesday to talk about a strategy to defeat George Bush in November. In addition, members of the Congressional Black Caucus are expected to regularly meet with Senator Kerry to help him plan a strategy for minority voters. Slate features an article today about how Kerry's Catholicism might play in the upcoming election and how it will be different than with John F. Kennedy ran. It also has an article on the impact George Soros might bring to the race.

I don't usually cover sports stories here, but this one really got my attention. Vancouver Canucks forward Todd Bertuzzi delivered an apology after violently attacking Colorado Avalanche forward Steve Moore from behind, sending him to the hospital. If you've seen the video of this, you know how bad it was. The NHL came out today to suspend Bertuzzi for the rest of the season, but I personally believe that this is far too lenient -- any player who deliberately attacks another in this sort of fashion should be expelled from the game permanently.

In other news:
- Physicists in Switzerland may have found one of the most sought after elementary particles known as the Higgs Boson, which could explain why particles have mass and is fundamental to our understanding of matter.
- Researchers at Harvard Medical School have challenged the idea that females have a set number of eggs in their uterus after fetal development.
- Scientists have discovered that untouched regions of rainforest are being affected by rising levels of carbon dioxide in the air.
- Harvard University scientists have discovered why Neptune and Uranus' magnetic fields are not perpendicular with their orbit like every other planet in the solar system.
- Four of the largest internet providers have filed lawsuits against companies accused of spending unsolicited emails.
- McDonald's may have jumped the gun with their elimination of supersizing. The House of Representatives passed a bill today preventing lawsuits against food manufacturers from people accusing their products of making them fat.
- Speaking of fat, what's up with opera singers being overweight?
- Rebels in Uganda have begun to terrorize local civilians again after killing 200 in an offensive last month.
- Two former Croatian generals are voluntarily flying to The Hague to face war crimes charges for their alleged participation in atrocities against the Serbs in 1995.
- A history lesson by the British on what happens when you don't leave Iraq.
- A Rabbi strike in Israel is starting to cause problems with the food supply.
- The Israeli High Court of Justice has extended its order to suspend construction on part of the wall being built between Israel and the West Bank.
- Mossad might be one of the most feared and respected intelligence agencies in the world, but they seem to be having some trouble finding who stole their leader's cell phone.
- Things may be looking up for the NDP -- they just got a very high-profile candidate in Monia Masigh, the wife of the Canadian citizen Maher Arar who was held and tortured in the Syrian jail after the United States arrested and extradited him there.
- The Economist serves up an analysis of Argentina's latest fiscal crisis.

Finally, some Ann Coulter. In this article, Ann Coulter is defending the Passion of the Christ. All good you say, what's wrong with that? Well, a lot, especially when she gets to this sentence:

Being nice to people is, in fact, one of the incidental tenets of Christianity (as opposed to other religions whose tenets are more along the lines of "kill everyone who doesn't smell bad and doesn't answer to the name Mohammed").

Now completely overlooking the fact that Islam, which she seems to be trying to bash here, also has the whole 'being nice to people' tenant in it, what blew my mind about this article was that she alludes that Muslim people smell bad. What is this, fourth grade again? "Ha ha, I don't like you -- you smell!!" So much for intellectual discourse from Ms. Coulter and her compatriots at Townhall.com.