Free Republic

"We are one nation. We are one people.... We've heard that before. Sixteen years ago, when we were an editor at City Journal, we worked on an article by Julia Vitullo-Martin titled "Detroit Fights Back." "No American city ever fell as far or as fast as Detroit," Vitullo-Martin began. "But now Detroit is poised for a comeback. Every signal--economic, political, social--is positive." One hopeful development was the retirement of five-term mayor Coleman Young, whose tenure had proved disastrous.... [Obama] parachuted into this city's sanitized, heavily-securitized [sic] downtown square-mile of corporate headquarters and Whole Foods markets - safe from the murderous...

The guys at the New York Times editorial page are cleverer than they look. We're the first to admit that's a very low standard, but today they have an editorial that seems pathetic at first glance but turns out, on close reading, to be a gem. The title is "His Anger Is a Start." The reference, it hardly need be said, is to Barack Obama. When we saw the headline, we rolled our eyes at the prospect of this once-great newspaper cheering on the latest show of presidential petulance. But it turns out there's a hidden message in the editorial...

We're away today on a reporting assignment; back to normal tomorrow. In the meantime, here's a moderately difficult presidential trivia quiz. We'll announce the answers somtime soon, but if you know them, write us at opinionjournal@wsj.com. The first reader to get all 10 right wins a year's subscription to WSJ.com (and a mention in the column). If you need help, try "Presidential Leadership: Rating the Best and the Worst in the White House," which is avilable from the OpinionJournal bookstore.

Or consider these exchanges from an online chat with Warren Brown, the Washington Post's car columnist. We'll summarize the questions and give you Brown's answers in full: Rockville, MD: [Are today's cars too complicated to last a long time?] Warren Brown: Hello, Rockville. Statistically, today's cars are more reliable, more durable, safer, and more enjoyable....and, yes, substantially more complicated. So, while your techno-angst certainly is understandable, it's statistically unsupportable. Many of today's cars, even the economy models, can run 200,000 miles or so with proper service and care. Be not afraid. It's okay to venture forth into the brave new...

The [APEC] summit in ... Chile, was the site of a ... kerfuffle... over the weekend, as the Chileans picked fights with the U.S. Secret Service and lost. The first ... involved Nick Trotta ... in President Bush's security detail. As the president ... entered ..., "Chilean officers, who appeared to be waiting for the moment, stepped in front of Trotta, blocking him from entering," ... U.S. officials said Chilean police had been chafing for a week about a demand by Secret Service agents that they control the president's space... ... amid a flurry of half nelsons, one Secret Service...

Ace in the Hole Hey, we got the bastard! "The tyrant is a prisoner," administrator Paul Bremer declared today in announcing last night's capture of Saddam Hussein. The erstwhile dictator was cowering in a hole in al-Dawr, 10 miles south of Tikrit, and he surrendered without a shot being fired.

<p>We'd have said no, but then we read - today's column.</p> <p>Krugman weighs in on last week's anti-Jewish tirade by Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad of Malaysia, and the results boggle the mind.</p> <p>Most of it is criticism directed at other Muslims, clerics in particular. Mr. Mahathir castigates "interpreters of Islam who taught that acquisition of knowledge by Muslims meant only the study of Islamic theology." Thanks to these interpreters, "the study of science, medicine, etc. was discouraged. Intellectually the Muslims began to regress." A lot of the speech sounds as if it had been written by Bernard Lewis, author of "What Went Wrong," the best-selling book about the Islamic decline.</p>