Am I the only one to notice what was missing in the invocation when Gerald Ford’s body was returned to the U.S. Capitol? The chaplain of the U.S. House of Representatives, the Rev. Daniel Coughlin, said: “Lord, we  humbly ask you to grant peace and reconciliation, healing and gentle civility to this nation, as this man so nobly tried to do in life's singular moments, by his effort to close chapter upon chapter on America's sadness.”

    Eloquent indeed, but note that Coughlin said “Lord” (and, at another point, “Lord God”), not “Lord Jesus.” The Senate chaplain, Dr. Barry Black, a former Navy chaplain, also eschewed the J word, but Black did pray “in the name of him who is the resurrection and the life,” an allusion to John 11:25, in which Jesus says: “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in me, yet shall he live.”

       Coughlin’s delicacy in particular was an interesting footnote to one of the oddest controversies to consume Congress in 2006: whether a defense authorization bill should include language sought by evangelical Christians that would allow military chaplains to pray in Jesus’ name, even at events attended by non-Christians.

    The so-called Jesus amendment, which was shelved in an end-of-session compromise, said: “Each chaplain shall have the prerogative to pray according to the dictates of the chaplain’s own conscience, except as must be limited by military necessity, with any such limitation being imposed in the least restrictive manner feasible."

       What’s really interesting is that Coughlin is a Roman Catholic priest, the first to serve as House chaplain. He was appointed by outgoing Speaker Dennis Hastert in 2000 after an unedifying campaign against another Catholic who had been expected to get the post. (You can read about that controversy here.)

     Coughlin’s prayer for encapsulates several developments in American church-state relations, from the mainstreaming of Catholicism to greater solicitude for Jews and Muslims.  Yet Coughlin’s choice not to pray explicitly in Jesus name would sit poorly not only with evangelical Protestants but also with some Catholics, who might ask: “What price assimilation”? 

    The prayers for Ford offer a twist on the debate over whether religion has been banished from the public square (or the Capitol Rotunda). Obviously, it hasn’t been, but in both Congress and the military the price for government-endorsed “civic religion” is a certain fudging of doctrine. Maybe advocates of a more porous wall between church and state should be careful what they pray for.

Want to see your tax dollars at work, in a demonstration more incandescantly revealing than the light of a thousand suns? Get out there and find an uncut video of Saddam Hussein's execution, which looks like nothing so much as a gang killing befitting the legendary Godfather fanatic. (On the off-chance killing of Saddam finally eliminates the Godfather pictures as a cultural touchstone, it will all have been worth it.) After all the blood and treasure we've spent in Iraq, this is the most professional job we can get? The ski-masked hangmen, according to one eyewitness, danced around the corpse. Remember: These are the good guys doing the killing here.

No Rocky Sullivan waterworks for the bully of Baghdad, by the way. Saddam takes it like a man for the duration of the ordeal available here. I just wish we could see the whole thing. At times like these I wish for Arab TV news, which knows no coyness when it comes to delivering grisly death. I also wish our own state-sponsored killing were done with this kind of brio. The more we dress up execution with humane cocktails of poison and gas, the more horrific it is revealed to be. Our own executions could stand a little more honesty about the sacrament of human sacrifice and everything that it entails.

Praise Allah for the pre-Copernican Islamic holiday calendar, which by divine accident means we may get a Saddam-free 2007. The imperative to get the ugly business of killing a man over with before the haj really heats up has spared all of us a Mumia-style limbo of pleas and appeals that might have dragged on well into President McCain's first term. Specifically, Eid-al-Adha (which ironically celebrates Abraham's narrowly averted sacrifice) is dawning over Iraq right now, and Saddam Hussein's execution is scheduled to come off in the early morning hours—bad news for Saddam, for those of us who believe the state should use a minimum of force to protect its citizens, and for Jerry Haleva (pictured at right), Hollywood's Saddam of record. (He's played the doomed dictator in six films.)

It's a customary copout at times like these to note that, well, we're opposed to the death penalty, but in this case we'll make an exception. Another factor in favor of the copout is that an execution backed by the full faith and fanfare of the state may contribute in some small way to stability in Iraq (or do just the opposite, or most likely have no effect at all). But let's dispense with the copout: State-sponsored execution is a loathsome, outdated practice that tarnishes everybody connected with it—including the citizens who approve it through their participation in the workings of the state. It would have set a greater example for Iraq and for the world to let him rot in prison, his signal (already grown so faint after just three years) fading into oblivion.

Is the great za'im of Tikrit even now conferring with some Father Jerry counterpart, an old friend and cleric trying to persuade him to go to the gallows bawling like a yellow coward, so that kids may learn from his example and stick to the straight and narrow path? Unlikely, but tales of Saddam's behavior in his final moments will almost certainly be with us for many years—even if the Iraqi government makes public its promised snuff videotape. Maybe the most regrettable thing about the execution is that it re-dignifies Saddam Hussein as somebody important enough to kill. For the millions of survivors of Saddam's victims in the three gulf wars and the bloody maintenance of his 24-year reign, that importance was never in doubt, and I hope they get some comfort from his end. But Iraq has had few enough examples of living former leaders that it's too bad the courts have ignored the wisdom of James T. Kirk: "The problem with the Nazis...wasn't simply that their leaders were evil, psychotic men—they were!—but the main problem, I think, was the Leader Principle."

Will the Leader Principle (which for my money is too strong everywhere at all times, but is particularly pronounced in Saddam's little corner of the world) lose some strength from the spectacle of a bloodthirsty tinpot swinging from a rope? I'd doubt it. People love their strong men—including, as it turns out, many fair-weather supporters of the Iraq war, who now welcome the prospect of building up some new sub-Hussein tyrant to enforce a cold peace in Baghdad. This is the kind of mad logic that results when we measure out our progress in the termination of human lives.

A little more than a year ago, Ed Whitacre, CEO of SBC (since renamed AT&T), famously told Business Week, "For a Google or Yahoo or Vonage or anybody to expect to use these pipes [for] free is nuts!" The response from Google, Amazon and other Web-based companies was, in essence, "It's ON." And now it looks like Whitacre was nuts to think he could say something like that and not be the one to pay.
Today, the FCC approved the latest in a string of Whitacre acquisitions, AT&T's $84.5 billion acquisition of BellSouth. But it did so only after AT&T agreed not to charge Google, Yahoo, Vonage or anybody else for priority delivery of its data. The restriction, which lasts for two years, specifically bars AT&T from offering "any service that privileges, degrades or prioritizes" any data transmitted to its broadband customers.
In other words, the FCC told AT&T that it was stuck offering a "dumb pipe" to DSL users for at least two years. The two exceptions to the Net neutrality requirement were for managed corporate networks and for the TV service AT&T is starting to introduce. Those carve-outs make sense because they draw a bright line between what happens to data transmitted by an Internet access service and how traffic can be managed in other services running over the same network. And a temporary restriction is appropriate, given the promise of more competitors emerging (particularly in wireless broadband) as well as the new Democratic majority in Congress' interest in Net neutrality.
Other interesting new concessions by AT&T include agreements to bring 3,000 jobs back to the U.S. that BellSouth had sent offshore; to offer relatively low-speed broadband (768 kbps) for less than $20 a month with no obligation to buy AT&T's phone service, too; and to offer wireless broadband to at least one fourth of its service area by 2010 (if it doesn't, it will lose those wireless licenses).

Addendum: FCC Chairman Kevin Martin and fellow Republican Commissioner Deborah Taylor Tate issued a remarkable joint statement that declares the Net neutrality condition unnecessary and pledges not to extend it to other carriers. Read it here. AT&T agreed to the condition (and several others aimed at preserving competition for business phone lines) at the insistence of the FCC's two Democratic commissioners. Given their stance, look for Democrats on Capitol Hill to legislate on this issue, using the AT&T rules as the starting point.

Today's OpEd page looks to powerbrokers past for a solution to the Iraq mess:

Adrian Goldworthy imagines doing to Iraq what Caesar did to Gaul, except the part about dividing it into three parts.

Jack Weathorford channels Genghis Khan, taking the countryside, letting the cities rot, and bringing law and order throughout the land, by killing people.

Joseph J. Ellis learns the value of inaction from the American Fabius. (That's George Washington, for you folks in the cheap seats.)

Harold Holzer twists like Honest Abe (Lincoln, that is), until he's got a winner.   

Now it's your turn. Whom would you pick as your Iraq war avatar? Alexander, Hannibal, Crazy Horse, Napoleon, Rayovac of Ceti Alpha 7? Or would you dispense with models entirely, and find some totally new tactic? Tell the world, in the comments. 

* Top 10 stories at LATimes.com.

* Mike Watt's top 10 sunrises in Pedro.

* Defamer's year in review.

* Joseph Mailander's top 10 cocktails, and things to expect from the L.A. blogosphere in 2007.

* Top 10 L.A. disappearing acts, by Mike and Maria from Franklin Avenue.

* Mayor Sam's top 10 New Year's resolutions, and top 5 predictions for 2007.

* BoingBoing's most trafficked posts of 2006 (and all-time).

* L.A. City Nerd's top 10 events that impact the city's future.

* Pajamas Media's "world awash in fear and fascism" year in review, part 1.

* Ken Layne's top 10 best things.

* Little Green Footballs' poll for "anti-idiotarian of the year."

* "Best catches of 2006" at FishbowlLA.

* Curbed L.A.'s real estate awards.

* 142 things LAVoice.org blogged about.

* Reason magazine's people of the year.

* Largehearted Boy's master list of year-end music lists.

* Four of the top 10 blog posts of 2006 came from L.A.-based Crooks and Liars, notes Mickey Kaus.

Breathe easy, California: Even from his sickbed in Saint John's Health Center, Gov. Schwarzenegger is making sure Cruz Bustamante's hands don't get anywhere near the ship of state's rudder, ever again! His doctor cleared him for duty Tuesday, and now the governor is up-and-at-them, writing with the gubernatorial pen, holding a video conference, oozing enthusiasm for the minutiae of state leadership. You can help out by coming up with captions for these official governor's office photos:

"Honey, I forgot to duck."

There's been a lot of speculation and japery about the supposed fishiness of a healthy 59-year-old breaking a bone from a standing fall. I wouldn't wish a broken femur on Thulsa Doom himself, let alone on Conan, so I'll note that always, there remains the discipline of steel: Arnold's biceps are still bigger than my thighs (and possibly bigger than his own, if this accident is any indication).

Caption suggestions are welcome in the comments.

Update: Ken Schultz comes through with a caption for the IV-in-the hand shot. The other two pics remain uncaptioned.

What happens when a Jewish atheist in Venice writes Jack Abramaoff in prison, telling him that "You're why people hate Jews"? He writes back about the "King of the universe," that's what!

(Link via Cathy Seipp.)

I have long believed that there is no better recipe for outrageously stupid public policy than mixing politicians with sports. A fine example comes this week from the Wall Street Journal, which reports that the current building boom for college football stadiums is being financed partly by leasing expensive luxury suites to fans, who can then deduct 80% of the price from their taxes, on the comical grounds that the expenditure amounts to "charity." How could such a loophole get created, especially when game tickets themselves are not eligible? A quick look inside the sausage factory:

In 1986, the Internal Revenue Service ruled that [charitable] gifts [to universities] required to obtain a "substantial benefit," such as season tickets, are not deductible. Nevertheless, a tax-reform act passed that same year allowed full deductions for contributions for the right to buy seating at the University of Texas and Louisiana State University. The provision was pushed by the late Texas representative J.J. Pickle, a University of Texas alumnus and influential member of the House Ways and Means Committee, and the late Louisiana Sen. Russell Long, an LSU graduate and longtime member of the Senate Finance Committee.

In 1988, Congress extended the deduction to all universities but reduced it to 80%.

Additionally, the Journal reports, the stadiums are often built with tax-exempt bonds; tickets and concessions can be written off as buxiness expenses, colleges can deduct the millions they pocket by selling naming rights, and so on. Best quote:

"I don't see a thing in the world wrong with" the 80% deduction, says oil executive W.A. "Tex" Moncrief Jr., who leases a luxury suite at the University of Texas stadium. "That money is used to further many educational activities."

   "Always give your best, never get discouraged, never be petty; always remember, others may hate you, but those who hate you don't win unless you hate them, and then you destroy yourself."

     -- Richard M. Nixon, farewell address to his staff in 1974

     “I call on you not to hate because hate does not leave a space for a person to be fair and it makes you blind and closes all doors of thinking and keeps away one from balanced thinking and making the right choice."

     -- Saddam Hussein, farewell letter to his supporters, 2006