An ounce of enforcement is worth a pound of new laws. Or something to that effect. The editorial board points out today that Los Angeles could more effectively limit the proliferation of marijuana clinics by enforcing existing state law against for-profit operations than by dithering over municipal restrictions.

The board mourns the deaths of more than 100 men, women and children in a Pakistani car-bombing, saying that such terrible events should convince Pakistanis that the fight against violent Islamic extremism is their fight too:

More than anything [Secretary of State Hillary] Clinton can say, a series of assaults that have taken the lives of more than 500 civilians this year should serve to convince typical Pakistanis that this is not just a U.S. war. The United States and Pakistan have a common enemy in Islamist extremists, and the Pakistani state is fighting for its survival.

And the board urges President Obama to stand by his deadline for closing Guantanamo:

The legal axiom that "justice delayed is justice denied" applies with special force to Guantanamo. Whether they are dangerous terrorists or, like many of those already released, bystanders caught up in a post- 9/11 dragnet, these detainees have languished for years without adequate due process.

On the other side of the fold, a consultant to a documentary on convicted murderer Leo Frank writes about his 1915 lynching in Georgia. The subsequent campaigns either to vilify him or clear his name echo today, with haves and have-nots viewing the same events from markedly different perspectives.

Bernstein is just plain wrong that the organization's Middle East program focuses on Israel's alleged human rights violations while ignoring those committed by Arab governments and the Iranian regime. Even a quick glance at Human Rights Watch's website, where recent reports are posted, shows that the majority of those on the Middle East relate to countries other than Israel. According to Human Rights Watch, it has produced 1,776 total documents on the Middle East since 2000 -- 250, or 14%, of which were devoted to Israel.

--Karin Klein

Photo of the aftermath of the Pakistan bombing, Credit: Arshad Arbab / EPA

Truly, the whole marriage issue, including questions the right kind of household for kids to grow up in, is something the nation can't seem to stop arguing about. But the latest uproar doesn't concern gay marriage. It's the case of a Louisiana justice of the peace who refused to officiate at the wedding of an interracial couple, an issue that was resolved by the U.S. Supreme Court decades ago.

Keith Bardwell, a white justice of the peace, refused to perform the ceremony for a white woman and black man this year. This month, in fact. He said their children would suffer because society would not accept them. Yeah, we've really noticed how that held back a kid once called Barry....

The ACLU is calling for Bardwell's resignation. Sounds silly to me. He should be fired immediately, and brought up on disciplinary charges and then sued. It is illegal to refuse to marry an otherwise eligible couple because of their race, or in this case, races.

Photo: A 1965 photo of Mildred Loving and her husband, Richard, whose lawsuit against Virginia led to a landmark Supreme Court decision in 1967 in favor of interracial couples' right to marry. Credit: AP file photo.

-- Karin Klein

The Times editorial board praises President Obama for scrapping the missile defense shield in Eastern Europe, calling the program "immensely expensive technology that still doesn't work, designed for a threat that may never materialize."

As various versions of health-care reform wend their contentious way around Washington, the board finds several weaknesses in the proposal by Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) but finds reason to hope those very weaknesses will help "bring the public's focus back to the flaws in the current system and the challenges posed by any attempt to fix them."

Health care reform and several other moves and policies by the Obama administration have led to some vitriolic protest, which prompted  former President Jimmy Carter to declare that most of this protest was racial in nature. The board finds a kernel of truth in Carter's statement but also sees much legitimate protest about political differences.

On the other side of the fold, two writers debate whether the U.N. Human Rights Council report alleging war crimes by Israel in its Gaza fighting was the product of a prejudicial probe or a clear indication of abuses of international law that should not be tolerated by Israel's allies.

Photo of Jimmy Carter by Paul Abell / AP

--Karin Klein

An extraordinary lawsuit--one that could change the balance of power between multinationals and the indigenous people in the countries where they pull resources from the ground--is nearing verdict in Ecuador, where extensive damage was caused by years of oil extraction: In the first of a two-part series, the editorial board reflects on the damage and the changes in corporate behavior that might come about as a result:

Today, a swath of the Ecuadorean Amazon the size of Rhode Island remains contaminated beyond imagining. At one site after another, oil hangs in the air, slideson the water's surface and saturates the land. Pipelines and waste pits left behind years ago still drip and ooze. Advocates for the plaintiffs have called the former Texaco concession area the "Amazon Chernobyl." Were it in the United States, it would easily qualify as a Superfund site. Neither side in the case disputes the devastation, only who should pay for it. Chevron says it is the state-owned oil company's responsibility; the plaintiffs say it is Chevron's.

On the other side of the fold, the op-ed page offers a trio of tributes to people of accomplishment who have contributed to modern society:

A former aide of the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy reveals another side of the Senate powerhouse. He describes the personal, empathetic man who understood what it was like to lose loved ones and regularly called people who were mourning terrible deaths--such as the victims of the World Trade Center attack-- spending expansive amounts of time sympathizing and even crying with them.

Jim Newton, editor of the editorial pages, pulls from his years of experience covering City Hall to pay tribute to Robin Kramer, chief aide to Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa (and previously, Richard Riordan), who resigned from the mayor's office. Calling her L.A.'s leading grown-up, Newton praises the focus and level head she has brought to Villaraigosa's operation and wonders, with a measure of nervousness, what the mayor's operation will be like without her.

And two academics who have co-authored a book honor the iconic African American civil-rights figure T.R.M. Hunter--flamboyant big-game hunter, plantation owner, and surgeon to the poor. What, never heard of him? That's exactly the point. Now you will have.

--Karin Klein

Photo: Pablo Martinez Monsivais / AP

We're all against censorship of books in this country, right? Especially by libraries. Sexual content, unpopular viewpoints, even true stories of male penguins who partner to raise a chick.

But the New York Times today reports on the decision of the Brooklyn Public Library to relegate one of the books in the cartoon-adventure Tintin series to its back room where it is kept unavailable to the public, even upon request. Some library patrons have objected to "Tintin au Congo," first published 69 years ago, feeling that it depicts Africans as mentally simple and physically like monkeys. Those who find the book offensive might have found an ally in author and Belgian cartoonist Herge, who died in 1983 but in his later years said he regretted this early work and that he had been overly influenced by an editor who wanted to depict the glories of colonialism.

So like many a public figure, Tintin, who will make a modern-day appearance in a forthcoming Steven Spielberg movie, continues to be haunted by his past. The question is how to view that earlier work now. Is it truly offensive, and if so, should it be hidden away or available as a relic of another day, another way of thinking?

Photo: A tourist takes a picture of Tintin at a 2006 exhibit in France. Credit: Jacques Demarthon / AFP / Getty Images 

-- Karin Klein

The editorial board takes up the case of "Hillary: The Movie," a slash-and-burn documentary about then-presidential candidate Hillary Clinton that the Federal Election Commission declared to be a violation of the McCain-Feingold campaign finance law. The board urges the Supreme Court to overrule the FEC and allow communications that don't expressly endorse or oppose a candidate:

The board also supports the efforts of State Sen. Leland Yee (D-San Francisco) and his bill that would make California universities' fundraising auxiliaries, or foundations, subject to the same disclosure requirements as the universities. The foundations provide 20% of the Cal State system's operating budget, and trouble has surrounded such fundraising entities and their vague legal status. The solution can be found in Yee's bill and the board urges the California legislature to pass it.

Over on the Op-Ed page, Jamie Fellner, senior counsel for the U.S. program of Human Rights Watch, writes in about California's prison crisis and the horrible conditions that resulted in a court mandate that California reduce its prison population and address deficient medical and mental healthcare:

Marc B. Haefele, a commentator on KPCC, thinks the UCs could be in trouble. With the passage of Prop 209 banning race-based affirmative action in California, the University of California system is faced with the challenge of making the university system reflective of the state it serves in terms of makeup, while also cutting back on how many students can be offered even a chance at admission. The UCs take only the top high school students in the state, but they are predominantly Caucasian and Asian-American. So what's the answer?

Finally, columnist Jonah Goldberg puts his two cents into the ever-growing money pot as to why the "Obama-care" plan just won't work. He says advocates should blame its less-than-stellar showing on ... wait for it ... President Obama. Surprise, surprise.

-- Catherine Lyons

The editorial board still likes a plan that will go before the L.A. school board this month, allowing outside operators to submit proposals for running 50 new schools that will open over the next few years. What it doesn't like are signs that the district isn't acting transparently about the issue, as indicated by a town-hall meeting where opponents were locked out, and the L.A. Unified's decision to give a new school to the mayor's education partnership even though parents and teachers were not consulted:

The board has this much to say about Adolf Hitler's manifesto "Mein Kampf": It's repetitious, long-winded and evil. But it also argues that Germany should stop banning the book and go ahead with a new, annotated publication of it:

On the other side of the fold, the op-ed page ponders how President Obama's healthcare plan can prevail over doomsayers who claim the government will be taking over Americans' lives. Author Nancy J. Altman offers a possible solution: Take a cue from Franklin Delano Roosevelt's strategy for the passage of Social Security. And folklorist Patricia A. Turner tells the story behind a Ku Klux Klan quilt, and what the quilt's changed ownership says about America.

Photo: Ku Klux Klan quilt. Credit: Cheng Saechow / UC Davis

-- Karin Klein

Did the horrifying murder last month of Los Feliz teen Lily Burk get so much media attention because the 17-year-old victim was Jewish? At least one reader thinks so. A more puzzling question for us at the Opinion Manufacturing Division, though, is whether we should provide a forum for such ugly allegations.

If you've ever wondered why your comments take so long to appear, both on this blog and on the graffiti boards on latimes.com's editorials and Op-Eds, it's because each comment has to be screened by somebody here at the OMD. If a comment doesn't meet The Times' standards -- if it contains profanity, or is blatantly offensive or inflammatory -- it doesn't get posted. Most of the time, deciding whether or not to post something is a snap, and the vast majority of reader responses make their way onto the site -- latimes.com readers are a pretty well-educated, civil bunch. But sometimes, making a call on a reader comment is harder than, say, making a call on President Obama's health care plans. A comment in response to one of today's editorials is a case in point.

The editorial concerned Burk's murder, and the effect it might have on California prison policy. One reader submitted the following:

On the day Lily Burke was killed a man killed his daughter and then himself and several others were shot and killed in the LA area. Lily Burke was a jew so her death is still in the media. It is an insult that the media considerers a jewish girls death so much more important than anyone else's. I had a friend murdered. She was a Mexican American around Lily Burke's age and also killed by a stranger with a criminal record. Her death was not on TV. She got a little spot in a local newspaper. Is a jewish girls death really that much more important than anyone else's?

Should The Times post this comment, or others like it? This one posed so many problems that I ran that question past my fellow editorial writers. It is, on its face, anti-Semitic, playing into a vicious stereotype that Jews control the American media. On the other hand, it raises an important point that should be of great concern to journalists and readers: Do newspapers and other media value the lives of some kinds of crime victims more than others? If this reader had criticized the media for playing up the Burk story because she was white, we would have posted it without hesitation. So why would we be reluctant to post it because the criticism is based on her Jewishness?

The response from my colleagues was mixed. Some thought the comment was clearly anti-Semitic and should be junked; Jews have been victimized for centuries based on imaginary conspiracy theories, so such statements must be treated differently than comments about a non-threatened majority such as whites. Others noted that questionable comments like this one are extremely common on non-newspaper blogs and they provide fodder for the kind of reader interaction and dialogue that is the entire purpose of our forum.

In the end, we decided not to post it, but to blog about it instead. In part, that's because we haven't been able to determine whether or not Burk was Jewish -- her parents are of mixed religious heritage. Does the reader who posted this comment about her know something we don't?

Photo: Lily Burk, in a photo taken by a classmate. Credit: Sarah Faulk

With state officials discussing the early release of 27,000 inmates, the editorial board takes a closer look at California's broken prison system in the wake of the abduction and slaying of Lily Burk. The board traces much of the mess in the current prison system to Jessica's Law, Megan's Law and other emotion-driven pieces of legislature that trap criminals so they can't ever escape the vicious cycle or recidivism.

The board also weighs in again on the Employee Free Choice Act, this time on the elimination of the contentious card check provision. The card check would have tipped the balance of power in favor of unions and away from employers, who hold the advantage today. Neither should have the upper hand, the board says. Instead, workers should be able to decide whether to unionize with as little pressure from either side as possible:

Meanwhile, the op-ed page discusses healthcare from a Canadian perspective, sex bans in nursing homes, and beer in the White House.

First, physician and health policy analyst Michael M. Rachlis gives his Canadian perspective on the U.S. healthcare reform debate, arguing that his country's system hasn't been studied enough by U.S. policymakers. His comparisons are not pretty: All Canadians have health insurance, 46 million Americans do not. Canadians pay no co-pays, health problems bankrupt more than 1 million Americans each year.

Next, psychologist and author Ira Rosofsky ponders whether sex should be banned in nursing homes (is that even legal?). He concludes that one's sex life should never be restricted, but frequently are in nursing homes because of a lack of privacy. He calls for that policy to change.

Finally, columnist Gregory Rodriguez analyzes last Thursday's "beer summit" at the White House and thinks the idea of resolving intra-national conflict -- even something as big as race -- over a few beers just might be the way to go. We'll drink to that.

Photo: Vice President Joe Biden, Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr., Cambridge police Sgt. James Crowley and President Barack Obama share a brewski (or in Biden's case, a pseudo-brewski) at the White House on July 30. Credit: Saul Loeb / AFP/Getty Images

Today's pages are packed with heavy-headed examinations of perennial hot-button items that won't be solved any time soon (think race, education, healthcare and so on), so I'll ease you into the week with Monday's most cuddly topic: wild horses.

The editorial board analyzes a bill that would ban the culling of wild horses despite the fact that there are too many mustangs on the range and it's getting too expensive to keep the 31,000 horses that are corralled (in an attempt to control the growing herd) fed and happy. The editorial board's solution? Birth control:

The board also notes that the July 22 deadline for laying out a plan for Guantanamo Bay came and went with no recommendations by the White House-appointed task forces. The editorial board asks President Obama to keep his word and set a date for closing Gitmo.

On the Op-Ed page, columnist Gregory Rodriguez writes that it's silly for allies of Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. to use his arrest as proof that Americans haven't made much progress on race:

Also on the Op-Ed page, John Stobo and Tom Rosenthal weigh in on the healthcare debate, writing that a plan to cut Medicare costs by extrapolating research data from one region of the country to arrive at conclusions regarding another could leave the urban poor and those who live near pockets of urban poverty without adequate care. Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa endorses L.A. Board of Education member Yoli Flores Aguilar's proposal to allow a variety of school operators to bid on running new L.A. schools. The mayor says the plan encourages new ideas and puts students first.

Finally, pilot Peter Garrison looks back at millionaire adventurer Steve Fossett's plane crash. Garrison writes that although we'll never know what happened on the day Fossett died in 2007, we do know this:

Photo credit: David Grubs / AP photo/The Billings Gazette