Dispatches from Friday’s opinion page:

Rosa Brooks:No Escaping Sexualization of Young Girls
With JonBenet back in the headlines, it's hard for a parent to avoid paranoia.

William Ratliff: Chavez Does China
Venezuela's loudmouth whispers to Beijing, but it's not likely Mao's heirs will go for his anti-American policies.

Hart Seely: Whatever Happened to Rumsfeld the Poet?
Defense secretary has gone from folksy press-conference hero to J.D. Salinger figure.

Shakeel Syed: The Governor's Cold Shoulder to Muslims
Rebuffing California's Islamic leaders sends a message of intolerance.

Editorials

Let Companies Buy and Sell News
The FCC should relax unreasonable ownership restrictions on the media.

Release the Prop. 63 Funds
State should disburse to counties the $1-billion surplus for mental health services.

France Finally Steps Up
Chirac now backs Gallic words with 2,000 soldiers. But that still lags Italy and misses a historic opportunity.

Thursday’s musings:

James Traub:The Bosnia Excuse
France is using the U.N. debacle to shirk its peacekeeping duty in Lebanon.

Patt Morrison: We can all just get along without this
Why a satire about the 1992 riot crashed and burned at the box office.

Eve Conant: Yoga Goes to War
Sailors and soldiers are seeking enlightenment in uniform. Are tow-truck drivers and Wall Street traders next?

Jonah Goldberg: Wal-Mart Drives Democrats Batty
The left's dunderheaded broadsides at the nation's biggest employer.

Editorials

Never Enough on Stem Cells
Scientists should stop trying to appease religious conservatives about research those critics will never support.

Shocking Honesty vs. Tom Cruise
Megastar receives that rarest of Hollywood artifacts — a very public dismissal.

Muddling Mullahs
Trying to decode Iran's puzzling response to the nuclear ultimatum.

Today’s thoughtful opinion pieces:

Max Boot:Israel Should Hit Syria First
A preemptive-war policy keeps the enemy from fighting on its own terms.

Erin Aubry Kaplan: Ambassador Young's Wal-Mart Mistake
Before Civil Rights icon Andrew Young disparaged Jewish, Korean and Arab grocers, he made a bigger error: Taking a job at Wal-Mart.

A. Yasmine Rassam: Iran Hostage Crisis, Take 2
If the U.S. backs down in Iraq, Tehran's mullahs will move in and take the Middle East captive.

Noah Zatz: Re-Reforming Welfare
Ten years later, get-tough work rules get the credit for slashing welfare rolls. But incentives are the untold success story

Editorials

Democrats' Shameful Wal-Mart Demonization
Presidential hopefuls only hurt themselves when pandering to unions by bashing the country's largest employer.

A Congo Comeback
Despite violence, a presidential election offers tenuous hope that democracy has a chance in the ravaged nation.

Airbrushing Cartoon History
Today, Tom and Jerry lose their smokes. Tomorrow, Bogart and Bette Davis?

Today’s exciting ideas:

Ezra Klein:The Job Sen. Clinton Should Want
Skip the presidential rat race and whip the Senate Democrats into shape.

Joel Stein: Eat Yer Heart Out, Woodstein!
Groundbreaking investigative journalism from the state GOP convention.

David G. Myers: Bush Needs a Fact-Check, Not a Gut Check
Sure, intuition can develop with experience. But trusting your hunches has perils, too.

Heather Dundas: Baby, It's Cold Back East
A SoCal mom explains winter and the other facts of life to her college-bound daughter.

Editorials

Finish What Job?
President Bush's simplistic rhetoric could be used to justify open-ended commitment in Iraq.

Terminal Gas Problem
There's one smart way to choose a site for California's much-needed liquified natural gas terminal, so why is Sacramento dithering?

Mayor Is Right to Cross Picket Line
City architects and engineers should go to work today, and accept a raise the rest of us would enjoy.

Weekend and Monday Opinion from the LA Times:

Andrew J. Bacevich: Slam-Dunk Wars Don't Equal Wins
Middle East shows that victory that defeats the enemy but leaves issues intact is hollow.

Niall Ferguson: The Myopia of Hindsight
Two tragic stories of war show the problems of coming to terms with the past by using today's standards.

Jack Williams: Who Owns the Back of a Baseball Card?
A legal ruling hits it out of the park.

Editorials

Lethal Injection -- Still Lethal
Fighting the death penalty by calling lethal injection "cruel" misses the crucial objection.

Time to Jettison Pluto
As scientists discover more orbiting things, it's better to lose the ninth planet than gain a bunch of new ones.

The Un-American Senator
George Allen disgraces himself with a racist slur.

Sunday Feature: Katrina: A Year Later:

Editorial: Not Too Late for New Orleans
City can still get moving on reconstruction, but time's running out.

Joel Kotkin: Where Did the Gulf Coasters Go?
Hurricane Katrina's refugees might never go home, and that's good news for Houston, Atlanta and Dallas.

Christine Wiltz: New Orleans' Soul Survival
The hurricane shattered the city, but it hasn't rattled its spirit.

George Penick and K. Jack Riley: Mississippi Comeback
Out of the spotlight, the state is making all the right rebuilding moves.

Selected Weekend Commentary:

Peter Skerry: Give Illegal Immigrants Licenses -- and Obligations
Tying eligibility for driver's licenses to learning English or staying out of jail could help stem the anti-immigration backlash.

Paul Kennedy: United Nations: The World's Scapegoat
Middle East cease-fire will evaporate if great powers hide their failures behind the U.N.

Meghan Daum: FM May Be Annoying, But Jill's an Airhead
A radio station for women says it's for bad girls, but really it's just bad.

John Yoo: Anti-Terror Weapons We're Afraid to Use
The old-fashioned approach to catching terrorists isn't enough.

P.W. Singer: Them's fighting names
History can be quite capricious when it comes to naming wars.

Friday’s opinion:

Nick Schou: The CIA-Contra-Crack Connection, 10 Years Later
Reporter Gary Webb was the victim of his own hyperbole, but he never got credit for what he got right.

Rosa Brooks: Get Happy the White House Way
Bummed out by the Middle East? Turn that frown upside down!

Priti Patel: The CIA Torture Loophole
A contractor was found guilty in the death of a detainee, but the potential for more abuses is high.

John W. Handy: Save the C-17
We need the winged workhorse for hurricanes, tsunamis and the war on terror, says a retired general.

Editorials

Bush: Unconstitutional, Again
The president and Congress should spend more time following the law and less trying to find creative ways to break it.

Defining Victory in Lebanon
Talking about who "won" the war is premature as long as Hezbollah remains armed.

Fighting Cancer in School
LAUSD vaccinations represent a health-policy breakthrough.

Today’s stupendous opinions:

Jonah Goldberg:The Swastika and the Scimitar
Anti-Semitic paranoia is alive and well among Muslims.

Kelly Candaele: Unions Should Organize, Not Politicize
More collective bargaining, not government action, is what workers need most.

Patt Morrison: It's Not Stealing, It's an iPod Intervention
An L.A. crime wave is claiming thousands of iPods. Kids, you're better off without 'em.

Geoffrey Nunberg: 'Islamo-Creeps' Would Be More Accurate
President Bush refers to Muslim terrorists as 'fascists.' Does he know what he's talking about?

Editorials

School Reform's Coalition of the Unenthused
The mayor was so successful at building support for his plan, you almost wouldn't know that his backers are blase.

Iran's Newest Blogger
Take President Ahmadinejad's poll!

Out of Control at LAX
Four glitches in a month suggest something's seriously wrong with the airport.

Today’s wonderful opinions:

Julia E.Sweig:Why They Hate Us
No, it's not our freedoms. Anti-Americanism isn't going away until the U.S. puts some fairness in its foreign policy.

Talya Rachel Meyers: The Horror of Renting in Santa Barbara
Grad student discovers the joys of apartment hunting in the nation's 7th-most expensive zip code.

Joel Stein: Elmo Is an Evildoer
The self-obsessed Sesame Street Muppet is destroying all that is holy on children's TV.

Timothy Garton Ash: Cash for Grades
A Santa Ana school trades the green stuff for good algebra scores.

Editorials

No "Timeout" for Property Rights
Moratorium proposal on condo conversions is another troubling sign that City Hall wants to keep housing affordable by handcuffing landlords.

Pre-election Terrorizing
The Republicans, again, play unseemly politics with terrorism.

Cash Out on Boardwalk
What does it mean when Monopoly goes plastic?

Weekend and Monday Opinion from the LA Times:

Niall Ferguson: Testing the Limits of the U.N.
Who seriously expects Kofi Annan to stop Al Qaeda terror attacks?

Richard K. Betts: How Superpowers Become Impotent
In Lebanon and Iraq, guerrilla tactics turn clean, mean fighting machines into wimps.

Carole King: Idaho's Off-Road Uproar
A bill promises to preserve the wilderness -- for gearheads.

Tom Standage: It's Tea Time in America
How about some Earl Grey with your apple pie?

Editorials

Bending Prop. 13
California voters have been restoring taxes, including on property, bit by bit.

Where AIDS Drugs Work
A higher percentage of sub-Saharans take their HIV medication as directed than do Americans.

Plugging in to the Neighborhood
Power outage creates a little old-fashioned street bonding.

Selected Weekend Commentary:

Jenny Price: Targeted by Gun Nuts
After she wrote a gun-control op-ed, the writer got threats and worse: a blogosphere hit job on her murdered brother.

Jorge G. Castañeda: Fidel Fatigue
Long live the revolution? That's the last thing Latin America needs.

Edward Gonzalez: Castro's Deal With the Soviet Devil
Communist money and military might fed his ego and sank his nation.

Abraham Cooper: Outside the Tent: Times Coverage of Israel Is Full of Holes
When it comes to local Jews' relationship with Israel, this paper just doesn't get it, says a rabbi.

Salam Al-Marayati and Edina Lekovic: Outside the Tent: What The Times Isn't Telling You About Hezbollah
Why does this paper take Israel's side? asks a Muslim leader.

Joe Robinson: BlackBerrys Don't Fit in Bikinis
Laboring on your vacation actually hurts American productivity.

Caleb Carr: A War of Escalating Errors
Israelis and their foes are swinging wildly -- and missing their targets.

Meghan Daum: The Upside of Marrying Down
That sanitation worker sounds like a catch. Am I crazy?

We are proud to introduce our third Los Angeles Times Opinion Blog, Bit Player, written by the incomparable Jon Healey. Jon is an editorial writer at the Times who pens most editorials on the subjects of business, entertainment and technology. His knowledge in these areas is encyclopedic, and his blog is bound to be an entertaining and enlightening read.

Jon starts by writing about Sony BMG and the Times' entertainment poll series, which has been running this week. We hope you will go and take a look!

Your final fill of opinion for the week:

Rosa Brooks:Antiwar Wackadoos Are Winning
Opposing the war in Iraq is no longer fringe -- it's American.

Michael D’Antonio: Big Science Loses a Problem-Solver
In his nine decades, James Van Allen confronted many problems. Solving them was the passion of his life.

Denise Hamilton: Just Hold Your Nose and Read
Sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do to get kids into books -- such as the grossly funny 'Captain Underpants.'

Susan Trento and Joseph Trento: The 10-Year-Old Terrorist Plot
Security experts knew of this kind of plan, and have been urging carry-on restrictions, since before 9/11. Why is TSA so late?

Editorials

Terror in the Air
London arrests are grim reminder we can't let our guard down from Islamic terrorists.

BP's 'Big Problem'
The world's most self-congratulatory conscientious oil company pounds Alaska through careless neglect.

A Trial Lawyer by Any Other Name
The Assn. of Trial Lawyers Consults Orwell on Re-branding.

Thursday’s musings:

T. Christian Miller:Marshall Plan, Minus the Plan
$30 billion later, Iraq's reconstruction is more distant than ever, a Times reporter says.

Jonah Goldberg: The Last Hawkish Democrat Leaves the Building
Democrats trade the 21st-century Scoop Jackson for the ghost of McGovernism past.

Mark Kendall: L.A.'s Landlocked Minor League
Angels-Dodgers rivalry divides the Inland Empire. Low-stakes baseball unites us.

Editorials

Learning From Boston: A Bad School Made Good
Richard J. Murphy School shows how mayoral control and accountability can get results.
Fourth of four parts

No Such Thing as a Free Search
AOL fiasco shows that online privacy remains elusive.

Wednesday’s page:

Rajan Menon:Kiss Iraq Goodbye if Shiites Align With Hezbollah
How fallout from Lebanon could choke a fragile U.S.-Muslim alliance.

Erin Aubry Kaplan: South L.A. Hungry For a Supermarket
Retail pullouts are creating a community crisis.

Max Boot: Radical Ideas for Iraq
The current strategy isn't working. We either need more troops or a lot fewer.

Bill Stall: A Big Fat Boot Print on Paradise
When a hiking magazine spotlights unspoiled wilderness, how long will it stay that way?

Editorials

Learning From Boston: A School Board That Clicks
When school boards aren't elected, they actually get things done.
Third of four parts

What's in a Drug's Name?
What's bad for Bristol-Myers Squibb could be good for the rest of us.

They are all part of your daily dispatch from the LA Times opinion page:

Daniel Jonah Goldhagen:Israel's Way Out
Hezbollah and Hamas attacks have backed it into a corner. Escalation against Iran and Syria might be the best hope.

William G. Ouchi: Wrong School Bill, Right Idea
Let's get real mayoral control of LAUSD.

David Ehrenstein: Gay Marriage Gets Even
Keep the confetti handy, because the tide has turned on same-sex unions.

Joel Stein: David Hasselhoff, Up Close and Personal
Watching the former 'Baywatch' star fall apart isn't so funny.

Editorials

Tantrum South of the Border
Lopez Obrador's defiance continues, but thankfully even his own allies are getting tired of the act.

Bush's Change of Heart on the Middle East
His support for a cease-fire was slow in coming, but the proposal reclaims the moral high ground.

Dogsledder Was a True Champion
Susan Butcher taught us all a valuable lesson about sporting candor and integrity.

Claire Hoffman's profile of "Girls Gone Wild" founder Joe Francis in Sunday's West Magazine has sent ripples through the blogosphere. Everyone seems to have the same reaction: What a tremendous jerk. Some selected blog commentary on Francis, and Hoffman's article:

• Update: The New York Post's Page Six finally weighs in, calling him "worse than wild": "Joe Francis needs to hire a public relations rep as soon as possible."
• Gawker writesthat "His antics in this one piece alone have bought him a whole new fresh round of media abuse [...] roll camera!"
• Ezra Klein says the piece is "one of the most chilling and explosive pieces of journalism I've ever read."
• Lilian White at The Modern Girl Friday writes that "with men like Joe Francis rampant in the adult entertainment industry, sex is still about exploiting power, money and innocence [...] is it any surprise that sex still has a negative connotation in our society?
• Giant Magazine names Francis "Scumbag of the Year": "Sure, it may not be quite as bad as when he was forced at gunpoint to simulate sodomizing himself with a vibrator, but this still can’t be very good for Joe Francis."
• Defamer is shocked by Francis' lawyer's response to a rape allegation: "whenever this queasy feeling subsides, we'll probably be able to better appreciate the courage and skill it takes for a lawyer to refute an allegation of rape with a reference to his client's allegedly impressive penis size. Perhaps Francis' PR team will follow up this official statement with an announcement of a telethon to fund the legal defense of overendowed millionaire pornographers who are ruthlessly victimized by inebriated, exhibitionistic co-eds."
• A Little Cheese With That Wine writes:  "This man is a pig, a purveyor of what is horrible in our society. And what I find most revolting is that he has more money than he knows what to do with. What I find most chilling is he made this fortune because of a sleazy need in this culture."

Weekend and Monday Opinion from the LA Times:

Lee Terry: Stephen Colbert for Congress!
Getting skewered by the TV comic is one of the best things a legislator can do.

Niall Ferguson: The Coming Tsunami of Trash
How will we solve the latest ocean-borne tragedy?

Thomas P. Sullivan: Safeguards for the Innocent
California should reform recording rules for eyewitnesses and suspects.

David L. Ulin: Having Sex? Use Plan B
The 'morning-after' birth control pill has become its own odd beachhead in the war over reproductive rights.

Editorials

Learning From Boston: How a Mayor Can Reform Schools
Menino took authority, raised private money and achieved revolutionary results.
Second of four parts

Trading With the (Former) Enemy
It's time to make nice with Vietnam.

From Sunday:Learning From Boston: School Reform Done Right
L.A. in 2006 is where Boston was in 1991.
First of four parts

Selected Weekend Commentary:

Joe Domanick: Prison Fix: Call in the Feds
California's dysfunctional prisons need a judicial jump-start.

Jeanne S. Woodford: Why I Quit the Prison System
California's last corrections chief on what the state needs to do next.

Aaron David Miller: A New, Messier Mideast
A bolder Iran, empowered Hamas and Hezbollah, and defensive Israel mean a troubled future.

Tom Engelhardt: Barbarians With Wings
Air power was supposed to make warfare civilized. It hasn't worked out that way

Gregory Rodriguez: Cuba Libre!
Cuban Americans will have to craft a new identity if the island turns democratic.

Gregory Rodruigez: Resilence Among the Ruins
How do people cope with life in a war zone? Through a delicate balance of memory and denial.

Larry Crowder: Healthcare for the Oceans
There's only one way to save the seas -- a scaled up, big-picture effort.

Meghan Daum: Bigger Breasts, More Testosterone
Is it possible to compete in any arena without an artificial boost?

Rounding Out the Week of Opinion:

Imad Moustapha:Syria Wants to Talk, But Bush Won't Answer the Phone
Damascus has effectively cooperated with Washington on terrorism, says Syria's ambassador.

Paul Slansky: Mel's No Tom, Hugh or Woody
Apologies aren't Hollywood standard issue, but neither was Gibson's hate-fueled rant.

George Weigel: No Tears for Fidel, Please
The murderous dictator put revolution ahead of country, so shed them for the people and way of life he repressed.

Editorials

Justice After Guantanamo
The White House still thinks the ends justifies the means in trying suspected terrorists.

Turkey's Balancing Act
Despite some worrying recent developments in NATO's only Muslim country, the Lebanon tragedy may provide an opportunity.

Does California Really Need a Hall of Fame?
Maria Shriver's shrine feels like the expression of an insecure state.

Tony Blair, the Prime Minister of Great Britain, stopped by the Times yesterday for an action-packed Q&A session with the editorial board and other senior editors. Among the questions that were asked was one question from a reader. Exerpts from our conversation with Blair are below. The full list of questions and more information can be found here.

Featured question

Why do you continually focus so much on increasing economic aid to Africa instead of corruption, when you know, and if you don't you certainly need to find out the reality, especially here in Nigeria, that the VAST majority of it never reaches the poor people for which it is intended?

Blair's response

"We've got a peer review process, which the African governments are going through, which is actually quite robust, where they have to come up to certain benchmarks on democratic process.

"We've also got the agreement on the extractive industries, which I'm trying to get everybody to agree to, but which will basically mean that there is transparency in all the exploitation of the metal resources of Africa so that people see what's actually being paid and why.

"The only way of dealing with Africa is a partnership. We have got to put immense pressure on African countries and African leadership to stop practices of corruption, to get proper judicial systems, we are prepared to help and support them in that, but it was actually a very important moment when President [Olusegun] Obasanjo put forward his proposal to stand for a third term, they said no, and now he's leaving office. That's important. There have been African countries changing hands for the first time democratically. But then you get a situation like Zimbabwe where you kind of despair because the pressure for change there should be coming from within Africa, not from outside Africa.

Other selected quotes from Blair:

On Middle East violence: "My argument is that the immediate crisis in the Lebanon is indicative of some far deeper crisis, which is basically a struggle about global values.... The most important thing is that we show that our values are based not just on freedom but also on fairness."

On Israeli bombing of Lebanon: What happened at Qana was terrible and tragic, but the fact is you're not going to get a cease-fire unless it's on both sides as part of an agreement.... Short term — there's no point in being absurd about it — there's a lot of damage to the cause of moderation done amongst the Arab and Muslim countries, but what's Israel supposed to do when it comes under attack like that?"

On Iraq's future: "It has evolved into a different type of conflict ... and we will judge whether we have succeeded or not when the democratically elected Iraqi government is predominantly in charge of its country.... You cannot say we have succeeded if in Baghdad actually you've got militias running the streets rather then the Iraqi army and security forces. So that's the test."

On climate change: "America should always be in the lead on every major issue.... You could take the view if America led on climate change the rest of the world would resent it, but actually they wouldn't. The rest of the world would say, 'Well, that's great, America's caring about an issue we care about.'... A climate change deal without America, China and India is, how can I put it, not entirely effective."

On use of force: "Sudan is a classic example in which once again we are not intervening as strongly as we should be.... I'm basically an interventionist. Afghanistan shows you what happens when you're not. We let that place go."

On Bush: "Any world leader who deals with President Bush will tell you that whatever disagreement some of them may have with his policy, he is always a charming and courteous person to deal with.

Today’s thrilling opinion pieces:

Max Boot: Messed Up Are the Peacemakers
Nowhere is the dismal record of peace processes clearer than in Israel's case.

Daryl F. Gates: In L.A., We Can't Always Just Get Along
former police chief puts recent dustups among city leaders in perspective.

Erin Aubry Kaplan: Where Have You Gone, Ralph Bunche?
Rice and Powell have twisted the ideals that the statesman brought to diplomacy.

Frida Ghitis: War, the Small Screen, and the Big Picture
TV cameras are drawn to human drama, for good and bad.

Editorials

Welcome Hot Air from Arnold and Blair
Global-warming pact between the California governor and British prime minister may not amount to much, but it's a welcome sign.

Fiddling While Iran Arms
Russia and China delay meaningful U.N. pressure on Tehran.

Our So-Cal Life: WiFi Mission to Burbank by Michelle Keller
Beautiful downtown Burbank is supposed to have free WiFi for the masses. But does it work?