Columnist Jonah Goldberg says issues that may seem irrelevant actually give us clues about the candidates:

Whatever the true import of Obama's relationship with Wright may be, or whatever the proper weight voters should give to his view that poor whites "cling" to guns and religion because they've suffered under bad economic policies, or, for that matter, what Clinton's "sniper fire" story says about her, it strikes me as absurd to argue that these data are meaningless but their stance on a gas-tax holiday is of enduring importance.

Pacific Council on International Policy adjunct fellow Joshua Kurlantzick profiles China's educated, wealthy next-generation nationalists who aren't afraid to be aggressive toward the West. And USC's Sara Catania has an idea for the Silver Lake Reservoir: a new kind of urban park.

The editorial board thinks a tax on services might work for California if done right and explains why Yahoo and Google's teaming up on advertising would be bad for consumers. The board also responds to the death of racehorse Eight Belles at the Kentucky Derby last weekend:

As we explore the limits of physical performance, sports trend toward the more extreme, even if it harms rather than enhances the athlete's health. Steroids in baseball, eating disorders in prepubescent gymnasts, whatever it takes to win, until there's a public pushback that threatens the sport. Without industry reform in the near future, it's easy to imagine such a pushback against the biggest athlete of all -- the racehorse.

On the letters page, readers discuss May Day. Chino's Raul Perez asks, "How is it that I have to have a passport to enter the country in which I was born, raised and served in the armed forces while others come and go as they please?"

Immigration reform may be down and out, but it doesn't mean Congress can't agree on important immigration issues — such as ensuring that supermodels, singers and athletes have an easier time getting into the United States. From Sunday's L.A. Times:

Even in polarized Washington, Democrats and Republicans can appreciate immigrants who throw a fast pitch, have a beautiful face or sing a catchy song. Bills to make it easier for athletes, fashion models and performers, such as British singer Amy Winehouse, to work in the United States have enthusiastic support, even from some of the most hard-nosed immigration critics.

Yep, this is what immigration legislation has been reduced to in the name of progress. Not that I'm complaining — a little reform is better than none at all, right?

The legislation does deal with a more pressing problem: Many models have to apply for an H-1B skilled worker visa. This further limits the number of those priceless documents available to tech companies, which face a desperate annual scramble for international talent. But there is a solution in the making:

Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.) proposed a solution that could address Silicon Valley's hunger for skilled foreigners and benefit his city's fashion industry. His bill would create a new category for those models, probably limited to about 1,000 five-year visas, and would free up H-1B visas for more engineers. 

Ranking subcommittee member Lamar Smith (R-Texas) had something to say about that:

He said he could picture Weiner (who is single, handsome and 43) "in a posh downtown New York City hotel celebrating the passage of this bill surrounded by hundreds of energized, wildly ecstatic fashion models. And you know for a fact he's going to have an annual celebration. It's almost too much to bear."

Smith paused. "But not too much to oppose the bill."

Psychologist Carol Tavris and oncologist Avrum Bluming put the latest breast cancer scare in perspective, and cartoonist J.D. Crowe comments on Hillary Clinton and John McCain's accusations of "elitism" against Barack Obama. Web editor Tim Cavanaugh wonders if the Vermont/Manchester project can survive the gentrification wars, and Patt Morrison searches between California's seat cushions for some spare change:

From Yreka to San Ysidro, official California is busted flat. We're so broke that Fabian Nuñez is probably drinking Two-Buck Chuck.

The temptations to make ends meet with corporate/civic deals are enormous. Budget Helper recipes can be a blessing for cities and states through the lean years, or they can become desperate sellouts that elected bodies can't scrape off their shoes once times turn good again.

The editorial board slams the state Legislature for neglecting the inmate medical system — and leaving California with a $7-billion bill — and sounds the alarm on world hunger as one of the greatest threats to international stability. The board also rolls its eyes at the New York Yankees' quest to dig a Red Sox jersey out of its new stadium:

... when somebody in the Yankees' front office ordered construction workers on Sunday to drill chunks out of the foundation — a five-hour job that cost a reported $50,000 — in order to remove the voodoo Fan Merchandise of Doom, it became clear that this incident was more than just a harmless sports prank. It was a reminder that for all of humanity's pretensions to modernity and reason, we are essentially just bald monkeys who wear shoes.

Readers provide some perspective on closing U.S. detention facilities at Guantanamo. Maria Matan writes:

Having just watched the better part of the "John Adams" series on HBO, and having a basic knowledge of the Constitution, it seems to me unlikely that our founding fathers would have stood behind the Bush administration's assumption that offshore detentions at Guantanamo can be justified without sufficient evidence to bring charges.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger explains why he opposes a bill that would have state's pension systems divest from certain private equity funds because of human rights concerns:

[T]his measure is unlike the legislation I signed with respect to Sudan and Iran. Those measures barred investment in entire countries. AB 1967 instead addresses investment into a relatively small class of investment vehicles. It does not send the same powerful signal to the world, would do little to address human rights and would impose a costly burden on California.

What's more, if anyone thinks this bill will inhibit the ability of questionable sovereign wealth funds to invest, they are fooling themselves. Any sovereign wealth funds covered by this legislation would still be able to invest in the multitrillion-dollar public stock and bond markets around the world.

Author Nancy Altman offers some politically palatable fixes for social security. Writer Matthew DeBord forgets "mission creep" for a bit and worries about Gen. David H. Petraeus' "ribbon creep." And columnist Tim Rutten reminds that Olympic protests historically have been futile.

The editorial board debunks some Special Order 40 myths, asks whether it's worth staying in Iraq to fight a proxy war, and says San Francisco is the perfect forum for protests against China as the torch passes through.

Readers discuss Tim Rutten's column on John Yoo's torture memos. L.A.'s Jerome Argesty says, "This is not a matter of academic freedom: it is a matter of neglecting morality and justice in educating young lawyers."

Contributing editor Ian Buruma says Tibetan culture may not survive China's modernization, except among the diaspora:

The Chinese have exported their version of modern development to Tibet, not just in terms of architecture and infrastructure but people, wave after wave of them: businessmen from Sichuan, prostitutes from Hunan, technocrats from Beijing, party officials from Shanghai, shopkeepers from Yunnan. The majority of the people living today in the Tibetan capital, Lhasa, are no longer Tibetan. Most people in rural areas are Tibetan, but their way of life is not likely to survive Chinese modernization any more than the ways of the Apaches did in the United States.

George Washington University's Jonathan Turley wonders why you can be competent to stand trial, but unfit to represent yourself. And Hope College's David G. Myers says primal urges are to blame for March madness.

The editorial board warns taxpayers that they'll face new risks as Fannie and Freddie buy more mortgages thanks to a rule change. The board also wants to know where scientific exhibits got their cadavers, and thinks the Supreme Court erred by not giving Jose Medellin, a Mexican national on death row in Texas, another day in court.

Readers discuss discussing race. Torrance's David Nelson says, "The article begins: 'How do we start a national dialogue on race?' A better question is: Why should we?"

Columnist Gregory Rodriguez says Barack Obama's speech on race may have been brilliant, but it was the wrong move:

Throughout the campaign, Hillary Rodham Clinton's surrogates repeatedly tried to bait Obama into talking about race; they worked to pigeonhole him (and marginalize him) as the "black candidate." But in the end, it was Obama's own alliances that tripped him up and obliged him to directly address a subject (one that he now says we "cannot afford to ignore") that he had so deftly avoided -- or as the Obamaphiles had it, transcended. For all the kudos the Illinois senator has received for his candor, the very act of delivering Tuesday's address was a defeat. Obama was a much more powerful force for racial progress when he so effortlessly symbolized it, rather than when he called on us to address "old wounds."

Assemblyman Van Tran (R-Garden Grove) argues that SAT subject tests should stay, in part because they give recent immigrants a chance to show their strengths. Loyola Law Schools' Karl Manheim and Consumer Watchdog's Jamie Court say health insurance mandates of the Clinton and Obama kind may not pass constitutional muster. And writer Joe Queenan wonders why Garth Brooks gets a spot in his kid's academic calendar.

The editorial board notes new Census numbers showing that California sprawl is slowing down, and looks at why double amputee Oscar Pistorius was barred from the Olympics for being too fast. The board also explores why Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger dismissed fellow film icon Clint Eastwood and brother-in-law Bobby Shriver from a state commission.

Readers react to the violence in Tibet. Sherman Oaks' Elke Heitmyer says, "Tibet has been 'another Burma' for a long time already."

I'll have to admit that I'm a little conflicted about Dodgers owner Frank McCourt. On one hand, compared to previous owner News Corp., McCourt has more or less proven his commitment to building a successful franchise by renovating Dodger Stadium and keeping up with league-wide increases in average team payroll. (Whether the Dodgers are spending their cash on the right players is another matter.)

But McCourt has this clunky insecurity about him, as if he really, really wants Dodger fans to like him no matter how clueless he looks. I can't think of a quote that embodies this feeling more than what he said when the the team played its final game this week at Dodgertown in Vero Beach, Fla., where the Dodgers have held their pre-season spring-training since 1948 (the team plans on moving to a sports complex in Glendale, Ariz. in 2009):

McCourt said many Dodgertown landmarks, such as the street signs and light posts topped with baseballs, will be relocated to the Arizona facility or put on display at Dodger Stadium.

"After all, Dodger Stadium is Dodgertown," he said. "And for that matter, L.A. is Dodgertown."

No, no, no, no, no, Frank.

It's safe to say that any lifelong Dodger fan (as I am) can pick up the total historical tone-deafness of that statement. You don't shrug off abandoning your spring-training home for six decades by implying that Vero Beach doesn't deserve the well-earned Dodgertown moniker on your way out. As I'm sure McCourt knows, the Dodgers have played spring ball at Vero Beach since they were the Brooklyn Dodgers. Vero Beach Dodger fans can arguably claim a stronger emotional attachment to the team than Angelenos.

Granted, holding spring training in Florida as opposed to Arizona makes little economic sense. But the Dodgers' trip there every March was a sign that the team still valued a tradition that pre-dates its arrival in Los Angeles. Moving away from that tradition may be necessary, but it's also a somber ritual — even Tommy Lasorda reportedly cried in the clubhouse following the final game.

As for McCourt, all he should do from here on out is make the economic case for the spring-training move to Arizona and acknowledge the historical significance of this change.

It seems like the more we hear about sports doping, the more we hear athletes using words like “stupid” or “mistake” rather than “cheating” or “unethical.”

Yankees pitcher Andy Pettitte: “Was it stupid? Yes, I was stupid.”

Track star Marion Jones: “Making these false statements to federal agents was an incredibly stupid thing for me to do.”

Baltomore Orioles second baseman Brian Roberts: “I know I made a mistake.”

Nationals catcher Paul Lo Duca: “I apologize for ... mistakes in judgment....” (though he never owns up to what the mistake was).

Their apologies might be perfectly sincere, but there’s a missing element to them nonetheless. They might have been stupid (although they also might have simply taken a risk that went bad on them). They certainly made mistakes. But these are the easy words. “Stupid” is a word that truly goes with unthinking misjudgment, not a calculated effort to gain the upper hand in a competitive sport. “Stupid” is when you make repeated subtraction “mistakes” in your checkbook. It implies the athletes were dupes instead of witting participants. Who wouldn’t forgive some bad subtraction?

Cheating is a good old word that speaks clearly to the idea of not depending on one’s own hard work, if trying to get an unfair advantage over others. It’s not the same as a stupid mistake, and if kids really do emulate their sports heroes, they’re not getting the message they need.

No one makes the contrast between true contrition and the “stupid” confession clearer than Pettitte, whose full quote went like this: "Was it stupid? Yes, I was stupid. Was I desperate? Yes, I probably was. I wish I never would have done that, but I don’t consider myself a cheater."

Then what was he apologizing for? Bad subtraction?

Columnist Joel Stein hangs out with the Oscar accountants:

PriceWaterhouse seems to have more safety systems in place than the Air Force department in charge of transporting nuclear missiles. The counting location is kept secret. Counters work in groups but don't know one another's totals. "Winners" envelopes are prepared for every nominee; the losers' are shredded after the ceremony. Rosas and Oltmanns also memorize the winners and take separate cars to the show. So I was shocked to find out that no one checks to make sure [Rick] Rosas and [Brad] Oltmanns didn't just make winners up -- either for fun or under the threat of violence from a Weinstein brother.

Writer Woody Woodburn recalls his Super Bowl highlight -- miraculously surviving a car accident just after the game in 2003. Author Philip Jenkins notes that the religious right has splintered, but tough times could bring it back. 

The editorial board says the U.S. can't afford to lose Canada and NATO's support in Afghanistan. The board also tells California lawmakers not to micromanage lenders, and praises a wage deal for private security guards.

Readers react to the new animosity between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. San Clemente's Denise Gee says, "Right now, there is not one candidate in any party I could visualize taking charge of our country, bringing back dignity and honor to the office, providing real change and restoring America's place in the world."

While you're busy digesting the George Mitchell steroid report, the "serial news conferences" accompanying it and the curious mix of apathy and hysteria with which the nation seems to be greeting this long-expected news, take a look back through the archives of Dust-Up, for our debate on steroid use back in March. Halos Heaven proprietor Mat Gleason took the tough-on-enhancers stance:

The hysteria around privacy issues and drug testing is overblown. For years we were told there was no smoke, proof there was no fire. Jose Canseco changed that. His former teammate Mark McGwire fell from the pinnacle of prestige to perennial pariah in record time. What were they hiding? Lots. Why were they hiding it? There is a culture that protects superstars -- and some of the guys racking up big numbers were juicing, no doubt about it.

New York Sun baseball writer Tim Marchman, on the other hand, said let a thousand mystery-skin-creams bloom:

We don't need to protect ballplayers from themselves and their juiced-up peers. They have a union and other legal mechanisms by which they can do so, to precisely the degree they feel appropriate. If you don't think that's good enough, don't spend any money on baseball. Don't have any illusions, though, that the game is now different from any other sport, any other high-stress profession, or different from the game we all watched when we were kids.

Meanwhile, our former colleague Matt Welch launches into a locker-room-trashing 'roid rage over at Reason:

In any case, we now know beyond a shadow of a doubt that if you give a former Senate Majority Leader $2 million a month for more than a year and half, force clubhouse lackeys to testify under threat of $100,000 fine, and have federal prosecutors grant vastly reduced sentences to drug convicts in exchange for cooperating with Mitchell's private investigation, you can indeed produce circumstantial evidence that Nook Logan (career home runs: 2) and nearly four score others may have taken legal supplements without a prescription to help them recover more quickly after working out, many during a time when such supplements were perfectly acceptable according to Major League Baseball's own rules. And as a direct result, your teenage daughter might eventually face drug testing if she plays sports, once Congress goes through another thrilling round of reforming government.

The editorial board considers whether it's time to let USC run the Coliseum:

The Times has long promoted the Coliseum as the best place for an NFL team. Still, we have to hand it to Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa for recognizing the truth: The NFL and the stadium broke up long ago and aren't getting back together. At least, not as long as the commission acts as a marriage broker.

USC, of course, wants everything: the ability to run the Coliseum for the next four decades, lucrative naming rights, power to bring much-needed seating, lighting and facility improvements. And it wants it for a very long time. Would USC be able to demolish part of the stadium or to alter the look and feel of the historic structure with renovations?

The board doesn't like the GOP's new compassionless conservatism, on display at Wednesday night's debate. And the board wonders whether Lebanon's new leader can bring in democracy.

The University of Richmond's Carl Tobias takes a look at the newest member of the 9th Circuit. Mansoor Ijaz thinks neither Nawaz Sharif nor Benazir Bhutto would make for good Musharraf replacements. Columnists Joel Stein plots world domination, one drink at a time. And columnist Ronald Brownstein says there's still some fight left in the GOP.

Readers react to USC's proposal to leave the Coliseum for the Rose Bowl. Calabasas' Jonathan Kotler notes a trend of teams leaving the Coliseum: "The Los Angeles Chargers: gone. The Los Angeles Rams: gone. The Los Angeles Raiders: gone. The Los Angeles Lakers: gone. The Los Angeles Kings: gone. UCLA football: gone. USC basketball: gone. USC football: one foot out the door."

What’s in a name? Rich material for feature writers. On a Thanksgiving visit to my home town, I enjoyed an article in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that put a local spin on that perennial trend story: fads in baby names.

Not surprisingly, in a town in which pro football is the official religion, the most cringe-making name in the story derived from our storied NFL team:  a boy named Steeler Gerard Petrocky. The grandson of a season ticket holder, little Steeler was born Nov. 19, 2006, “nine months after the Steelers won a fifth Super Bowl.” Maybe he’ll get to share a tailgate party (or an analyst) with Tré Rivers Kemerer, whose name is a Romance language play on the Steelers’ former home field, Three Rivers Stadium. And we laughed when George on Seinfeld wanted to name his hypothetical baby “Seven”!

Steelers monikers aside, Pittsburghers seem to be in the thrall of the same trends evident in baby names across the nation, including the fashion for place-names (Dakota, Montana, etc.)

When I attended my nephew’s graduation from my old high school last year, I noted that the roll call included all the trendy names that were unknown to my generation but ubiquitous on Facebook. You know: Ethan, Jared, Kyle, Joshua, Ryan. The kids I grew up with were named John and James and Robert and William. I did know some kids named Ryan — but that was their last name.

Some things do remain constant, though. Michael, a familiar name in the 1950s,  is still popular, finishing second (behind Jacob but ahead of Joshua) in the Social Security administration’s 2006 hit parade of baby names. I just hope some of those Michaels aren’t spelled “Mykal.” I wouldn’t want to win that way.

Today was the day one of my journalistic chicken-littles came home to roost. After years of me sticking up for one of baseball's biggest all-time jerks -- bashing his tormentors the San Francisco Chronicle, lamenting the ritual shaming of athletes, serially mocking and scare-quoting the "House Committee on Government Reform," urging Congress to get out of the urine-testing business, and even writing a piece entitled (in all seriousness) "George Bush vs. Barry Bonds" -- baseball's all-time home run king has been indicted by a federal grand jury on four counts of perjury and one count of obstruction of justice. If convicted, the seven-time MVP faces up to 30 years in the slammer.

So do I come here for forgiveness? Oh hell no! To see why, read on.

The editorial board enumerates the reasons why there's more at stake in this writers strike than the one 20 years ago:

While the writers were walking the picket lines, however, consumers around the world were buying more than 1.8 million pocket-sized music and video players, 600,000 video game machines and countless video games to play on them. They picked up 2.1 million computers, 140,000 camcorders and 9 million cellphones, at least 1 million of them capable of tuning in video from the Internet.

Meanwhile, more than 14 million people spent up to two hours a day on MySpace, Facebook or other social networks, and more than 5 million spent about an hour, on average, watching video clips on YouTube....Put another way, consumers are rapidly equipping themselves to tap into entertainment sources that don't contribute a dime to Hollywood or the writers union.

The board says Southern California deserves more Proposition 1B money because its ports process more goods. The board also weighs in on the economics of the ports' clean trucks plan.

On the op-ed page, producer Marshall Herskovitz asks if the suits are ruining TV. The New America Foundation's Andrés Martinez says U.S. immigration policy is keeping talent out of the country. And Scott Olin Schmidt argues that USC sends the wrong message when it continues to honor infamous grad O.J. Simpson.

Columnist Joel Stein wishes everyone a Happy Slut Day:

People vastly prefer Halloween parties because New Year's Eve involves dressing up like an adult, whereas Halloween involves dressing up like a slut....

There's no chance that harrumphing will return Halloween to the innocent and carefree days of threatening neighbors who don't give you candy and vandalizing trees with toilet paper. So we need to invent a separate holiday when adults can get drunk and finally wear that pair of boots that seemed OK in the store but it turns out go up a little higher than you thought.

That's why, after much research and consultation, I have founded our nation's newest holiday: Slut Day.

Contributing editor Gustavo Arellano introduces America to the postmodern Mexican, USC's Mark Sanchez. UCLA's Michael L. Ross deems Myanmar the world's newest petro bully.

The editorial board charts a new course for Cuba policy and praises Maria Shriver for making relevant her retro First Lady role. The board also thinks Argentina's leading presidential contender --a Peronist former First Lady -- will be good for the U.S.

Readers continue to respond to the fires. Whittier's John L. Peel says, "When these fires are out and the crews have made their way home, I hope that the respect continues -- that when we see the red lights and hear the sirens, we can set our own hurry aside, move over and stop so that fire, rescue and law enforcement can do their jobs."

George Washington University's Jonathan Turley makes the case for why Michael Mukasey shouldn't become the next attorney general:

It was perhaps the most awaited moment of the confirmation hearings when Democratic Whip Dick Durbin of Illinois asked Mukasey directly about water-boarding, a now-infamous process in which an individual is strapped to a board, a towel pulled tightly across his face, and water is poured on him to cut off air and simulate drowning. Although the technique is known to have been used by the CIA on suspected terrorists, it is a clear and unambiguous act of torture under international and U.S. law.

When asked about it, though, Mukasey suddenly seemed to morph into his predecessor, Alberto R. Gonzales -- beginning with a series of openly evasive answers that ultimately led to what appeared to be a lie.

Author Daniel James Brown says there are better ways to fight fire, even before it starts. Dave Zirin and Tom Krattenmaker wonder, when winning collides with religious values, which evangelical athletes would choose.

The editorial board explores the religious right's options for throwing support behind a third party. The board also asks the EPA to save California a costly legal fight and grant the state permission to tighten clean air standards. Finally, the board laments that the city gives handouts to fired department heads just to avoid lawsuits.

Readers respond to the ongoing California fires. Ventura's Cathy Schwemm says, "We know that the Santa Anas blow hot and dry in the fall and that dry chaparral plants burn. What we don't apparently know is how to say no to campaign contributions from developers."

Rep. Jane Harman (D-Venice) defends her decision to withdraw her support from the Armenian genocide resolution:

I originally co-sponsored the resolution because I was convinced that the terrible crime against the Armenian people should be recognized and condemned. But after a visit in February to Turkey, where I met with Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Armenian Orthodox patriarch and colleagues of murdered Turkish Armenian journalist Hrant Dink, I became convinced that passing this resolution again at this time would isolate and embarrass a courageous and moderate Islamic government in perhaps the most volatile region in the world....

Timing matters. I asked a leader in California's Armenian American community just days ago why the resolution was being pushed now. "They didn't ask me," he said. It wasn't his call, and he probably would not have pushed it.

Rick Steves shows that the European strategy of curing rather than punishing drug addicts works better than a "war". And columnist Joel Stein asks Dodger Kirk Gibson for advice on how to reenact Gibson's famous 1988 home run.

The editorial board argues that it's unwise for Gov. Schwarzenegger to link healthcare to the state lottery. The board is glad the city won't be penalizing the homeless for sleeping on sidewalks, but hopes the city will start building housing for them, too. And last, the board notes that Madonna is at the forefront of another trend -- that of major acts ditching record labels.

In my Opinion Daily from last night about the Dodgers' bullying P.R. and the organizational incoherence underlying it, I made passing comparative reference to the on-the-same-page success of the Los Angeles Angels of not-Los Angeles.

As if by magic, The Times' Hall of Fame baseball writer Ross Newhan, an original-Angels beat writer and author of the only quality book-length history of the team, penned a fine feature that describes an Angels organization meeting in the fall of 1999 introducing then-newbie General Manager Bill Stoneman and Manager Mike Scioscia to, among other people, the team's P.R. staff:

Stoneman and Scioscia heatedly and pointedly declar[ed] the need for an overhaul of focus and direction in an organization that had known mostly failure, frustration and frequent fluctuations in personnel and philosophy during the 45 years Gene Autry owned the team and the four that Disney had.

"What happened," said a person who was in the meeting, "is that Bill and Mike kept getting peppered by questions from the marketing staff as to which of the players they would build an advertising campaign around since, as one of the marketers said, they were not going to win a World Series and it would be foolish to build a campaign around the team.

"Bill and Mike looked at each other incredulously. I thought they were going to come out of their chairs. They'd been on the job for only two weeks and they were being told that the organization's expectations didn't include a World Series. Well, both of them laid it out right there, saying that every day they came to work the goal from top to bottom should be and would be to reach the postseason and to win the Series."

Like a lot of good management stories, this sounds both trite and right (and is pure crack to us management-by-baseball fanatics).

Some reaction to my column at an Angels site, and at a non-Angels site.

Pepperdine law professor Douglas W. Kmiec talks about UC Irvine's hiring and controversial un-hiring of legal scholar Erwin Chemerinsky:

Erwin Chemerinsky is one of the finest constitutional scholars in the country. He is a gentleman and a friend. He is a gifted teacher. As someone who participates regularly in legal conferences and symposiums, I have never seen him be anything other than completely civil to those who disagree with him.

So the news that UC Irvine had selected him to be the first dean of its new law school was welcome indeed. And the subsequent news -- that it withdrew the offer Tuesday, apparently because of Erwin's political beliefs and work -- is a betrayal of everything a great institution like the University of California represents. It is a forfeiture of academic freedom.

Contributing editor Timothy Garton Ash says Europe is in the thick of the war on terror, even if Europeans don't know it. Former CIA counter-terrorism official John Kiriakou and Kissinger McLarty Associates' Richard Klein talk about that other war we're losing--in Afghanistan. Columnist Patt Morrison wants to ban the Star Spangled Banner from being sung at ball games so it won't be butchered by tuneless fans.

The editorial board advocates for stronger water conservation to prepare for a dry 2008, and thinks congressional sub-prime bailout plans fail to help the true victims. The board also weighs in on UCI's Erwin Chemerinsky controversy.

Readers react to a Column One on Elyn Saks' struggle with schizophrenia. Los Angeles' Frank C. Baron says, "Those of us struggling with mental illness just want to be treated like anyone else...."

The editorial board thinks up a few ways to spend what another year in Iraq will cost:

How about spending $20 billion on anti-poverty and education programs in Afghanistan and the tribal areas of Pakistan, to give the population a reason to fight the Taliban? Or distributing $20 billion in emergency support to impoverished Iraqi families? Wouldn't $10 billion help repatriate the 2 million Iraqi refugees abroad and resettle the 2 million inside Iraq who have fled sectarian violence? Would $10 billion for child-health programs in Islamic nations help demonstrate that Americans are not, in fact, at war with Muslims?

The board asks what a new study that says liberals are more adaptable means for people who switch sides. And finally the board thinks L.A. students should have a wide choice of electives instead of doing teachers' chores for credit.

Columnist Ronald Brownstein says Washington needs to change its partisan style before asking Iraqis to learn to compromise and reconcile. The Humane Society's Michael Markarian praises soccer star David Beckham for wearing synthetic cleats instead of kangaroo leather ones. Writer Richard A. Viguerie and Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) both write about choosing an attorney general.

Readers react to Gen. David H. Petraeus' report to Congress. Los Angeles' Doug Wichert says, "War is still too important to be left to the generals."

Superintendent David Brewer, school board president Monica Garcia, and board member Yolie Flores Aguilar say that No Child Left Behind leaves English learners behind:

In L.A. Unified, 297 out of 1,000 schools were judged to be not making adequate yearly progress in 2006, and the district as a whole did not make adequate yearly progress because, among other reasons, [English learner] students were challenged to meet achievement targets that are unfair and unrealistic.

Students who don't speak English as a first language need three to five years to become fluent. Achieving the fluency to understand subject-matter tests may take several more years.

But No Child Left Behind requires that EL students be tested in English or in their native language to "the extent practicable." Congress and the Department of Education do not define what's "practicable," and many states, including California, have dropped the ball on developing reliable assessments of EL students' academic achievement.

Columnist Joel Stein observes "pit lizards" -- female Nascar groupies -- in their natural habitat. Columnist Rosa Brooks notes that although the Bush administration was once a bastion of loyalty, now it's the subject of many tell-all books. And Seed magazine's Chris Mooney explores the link between hurricanes and global warming.

The editorial board says it's time to revisit nuclear disarmament after six nuclear bombs were accidentally flown around the Midwest. The board also supports the Senate's modest healthcare plan for poor kids, and asks if party infighting is blocking good bills in Sacramento.

Readers react to Bruce Bawer's thoughts on the "peace racket." Valencia's Phil Rizzo tells Bawer and his ilk not to fear the peace movement: "We are serious. We are not violent. We do not play our role like warmongers do."

Former California Assembly member Jackie Goldberg argues that her same-sex union law was never meant to be an excuse to ban same-sex marriage:

My goal was simply to help families that had, for too long, gone without legal protections. But from its conception, I knew this was a flawed exercise. When the Legislature passed the bill in 2003, I told reporters that this "separate and unequal" system was the best we could achieve and that I would have proposed allowing same-sex couples to marry if I'd thought that would pass. I never imagined that domestic partnerships might somehow be used as an excuse not to allow same-sex couples to marry.

Jeremy Rifkin explains how global warming allowed Russia's land grab in the Arctic, and why it could get worse. Barry H. Gottlieb doesn't see anything wrong with punishment-by-shaming, like a Bangkok police squad's plan to make misbehaving cops wear Hello Kitty armbands. And columnist Patt Morrison practices her film criticism on a six-hour must-see movie -- traffic school instructional tapes.

The editorial board remarks on Barry Bonds' 756th home run and what it says about the changing game of baseball. The board wants to use the Olympics to leverage reform in China, and comments on a court's ruling on congressional privilege.

Letter writers note Angel Stadium's rat problem. L.A.'s Carol Vogelman suggests: "All Angel Stadium needs to do is import a handful of cats...."

It seems as if it's been only two years since the California Teachers Association branded Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger an enemy of schools, took him to court over a budget that they said illegally shortchanged education, and defeated every ballot measure in his special election, sending his approval ratings into the dust. That's because it really has been only two years. But the governor and the CTA settled and made up, and he's viewed as a sort-of friend to education, at least for the present.

So maybe it's only a little weird that a charter school in Woodland Hills would rename itself Arnold Schwarzenegger Elementary School.

That's what happened Monday, on Schwarzenegger's 60th birthday.

Most fifth-graders might be unimpressed with getting their school named after a governor. But named after the Terminator? Cool.

But is it a good idea? Charter schools can name themselves after whomever they want, but that doesn't mean they should, especially when the person's legacy is not yet complete. It seemed like a good idea in 1977, for example, when Dodger Steve Garvey was known as "Mr. Clean" and was considered an upstanding role model for kids, to name a junior high school after him. But Garvey at the time was not only still alive — and therefore able to lose his role-model status — but still playing.

The rest is history. Kind of. Garvey's wholesome image helped boost talk about his becoming a political candidate after retiring from baseball — the U.S. Senate was mentioned at the time — but the family image evaporated when he divorced, his wife wrote a tell-all book in which she accused him of cheating and abuse, and he acknowledged fathering two children by two different women at about the same time. Not that such actions would be deemed disqualifying for political office today. But is he still Mr. Clean? Still someone you want your school named after?

There's no suggestion that the governor is headed toward some new scandal. But he signs the budgets. What if he has to slash school funding? Although, then, perhaps, they could call the school Terminator Elementary.

Given all the celebratory gunfire that went off throughout Iraq on Sunday, you’d have thought that a small war had been won. In this case, however, the battleground was Bung Karno stadium in Jakarta and the victory was over Saudi Arabia for the 2007 Asian Cup.

While the fanaticism of soccer fans worldwide is terrifying to behold, there’s something supernatural about the way a sports field can produce more patriotic sentiment than any arbitrary national boundary. As National Public Radio's Steve Inkseep noted, the three frontline players were an Iraqi Kurd, a Sunni Arab and a Shiite Arab. Together, they led their team, the Lions of the Two Rivers, to victory.

It's a testament to the power of the games that even last week's car bombings, which targeted and killed more than 50 Iraqis celebrating Wednesday's victory over South Korea, couldn't deter exuberant fans from taking to the streets.

Sports might seem somewhat trivial, in light of Iraq's many serious problems. As Matthew Gray, head of the Center for Arab and Islamic Studies at Australian National University, notes, "Far more important is the day-to-day safety and economic opportunity … for ordinary Iraqis, and on that front, you've got to be pretty pessimistic." Team captain Younis Mahmoud, who refuses to return to Iraq given the level of violence, seems to agree—and that's a sad, though understandable, standard to set.

But in a country facing political strife, religious tension and ethnic violence, it’s still significant that this multicultural team has seized the spotlight.

And as the Iraqi parliament went into recess today without passing any of the legislation that could bridge the gap between Sunnis and Shiites, it's a reminder that at least some people are willing to put differences aside and get the job done. As Sunni bloc member Omar Abdul Sattar sardonically suggested, "Maybe we should replace the political team with the football team."

Personally, I think it would be better to replace the soccer team with parliament. If only both sides had thrown aside their differences, thrown on jerseys and scrimmaged instead, the world would be a better, albeit sweatier, place.

Contributing editor Timothy Garton Ash takes the long view on Iraq, and it doesn't look good:

So Iraq is over. But Iraq has not yet begun. Not yet begun in terms of the consequences for Iraq itself, the Middle East, the United States' own foreign policy and its reputation in the world.... [A] pained and painstaking study from the Brookings Institution argues that what its authors call "soft partition" — the peaceful, voluntary transfer of an estimated 2 million to 5 million Iraqis into distinct Kurdish, Sunni and Shiite regions, under close U.S. military supervision — would be the lesser evil. The lesser evil, that is, assuming that all goes according to plan and that Americans are prepared to allow their troops to stay in sufficient numbers to accomplish that thankless job — two implausible assumptions. A greater evil is more likely.

Columnist Patt Morrison exposes the costs of keeping the governor's Gulfstream going, and Yeshiva University law professor Marci A. Hamilton thanks Sacramento for its historic legislation letting victims of abuse sue the Los Angeles Archdiocese. 

The editorial board examines the National Intelligence Estimate and cuts through common partisan responses. The board also explains why the Drug Enforcement Administration is going after L.A. landlords, and why the National Football League's tight grip on its copyrights could backfire.

On the letters page, see Mission Viejo's Joseph Lea's solution for California's water woes.

The editorial board responds to the L.A. Archdiocese's $660 million sexual abuse settlement:

In this case, money does talk — and what it says is something the American church in general and this archdiocese in particular were scandalously slow to acknowledge: that, for decades, wolves in shepherds' clothing took advantage of the most innocent members of their flock. They were enabled by bishops who looked the other way or naively trusted that sexual predators could be rehabilitated or given "safe" assignments.

In announcing the settlement, Cardinal Roger M. Mahony offered "my personal apology to every victim who has suffered sexual abuse by a priest, religious, deacon or layperson in this archdiocese." We have no doubt that the apology was a heartfelt one. But the cardinal also bears responsibility for his excessively defensive legal strategy.

The board also explores one state senator's efforts to help keep some of the 150,000 California students who drop out each year in school.

On the op-ed page, columnist Jonah Goldberg flexes his long memory to expose "partisan amnesia" among liberals. Contributing editor Bill Stall says Yosemite Valley should stop trying to limit visitors and stick to its management plan. Carl Marziali, who reported on clergy sexual abuse for "This American Life", was surprised that no one mentioned the massive settlement at Mass. Retired New York Times sportswriter Gerald Eskenazi finds it a lot harder to be a baseball fan in the age of Barry Bonds and the asterisk.

Letter writers react to the Catholic Church settlement. Studio City's Jack Bailey says, "If [Cardinal Roger M.] Mahony were a decent man, he'd resign. I guess that means he'll stick around."

The editorial board writes at length about how to get a revised Kyoto Protocol back on track:

What's needed is a new, improved version of Kyoto that brings India and China onboard and commits them to "grow green," but still leaves the tougher cuts up to those nations better able to make them, such as the U.S., Canada, Japan and Europe. A better treaty would scrap the unworkable carbon-trading scheme and instead impose new taxes on carbon-based fuels.

On the op-ed page, University of Michigan law professor Samuel R. Gross discusses the likelihood of false convictions, debunking conventional wisdom that the rate is far less than one percent. Columnist Gregory Rodriguez explains why moving away from family-based immigration isn't the American way, and columnist Niall Ferguson recaps the G-8 summit and whether it should really be the G-11. TV writer and kids' baseball coach Jeff Strauss pens a letter to his teams' families.

On the letters page, readers react to the immigration bill impasse in the Senate. Santa Ana's Dan Naber asks what's on a lot of minds: "Is it going to be the same government as the one that can't get a passport out in three months that will be responsible for enforcing whatever regulations come from an immigration bill?"

The editorial board weighs in on the now-stalled immigration reform:

The shameful — and we hope temporary — shelving of an immigration reform bill by the Senate contradicts the aphorism that success has a thousand fathers but failure is an orphan. This failure has plenty of fathers: Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), who issued an ultimatum he couldn't enforce; Republican senators who played to the know-nothing fringe; and the Bush administration, which blessed a "grand bargain" reached by a bipartisan group of senators but didn't follow through with enough pressure on recalcitrant members of the president's party.

The board says that a proposed California vote on Iraq may have less to do with war and more to do with term limits. Slingbox, which lets cable and satellite subscribers watch baseball games online, is okay by the board, even if Major League Baseball isn't a fan. 

On the op-ed page, columnist Rosa Brooks explains why the phrase "unlawful enemy combatant" used to be legally meaningless, and what that means for Guantanamo Bay detainee trials. James Traub wonders is the Iraq war signals the end of the "democracy promotion" doctrine. Charlotte Allen says Paris Hilton might have taken a lesson from Martha Stewart on using jailtime to her advantage, and columnist Joel Stein thinks Southern California doesn't deserve a Stanley Cup-winning hockey team. 

Letter writers continue discussing the Six Day War. San Francisco's Bill Kennedy Kedem notes that forty years later, threats of annihilation "continue by oil-fueled, fundamentalist-inspired Arab and Persian governments."

A deal announced today by Sling Media and the National Hockey League shows off not only an intriguing TV-PC convergence app, but also a content provider recognizing the opportunity to make it work for them. Read more about it at the Bit Player blog.

The editorial board points out that the road to stopping genocide in Darfur travels through Beijing's 2008 Olympics:

[W]hen director Steven Spielberg, an artistic advisor to the Games, sent a personal letter to Chinese President Hu Jintao requesting a change in policy toward Sudan, it got attention. Shortly afterward, Bashir permitted the 3,000 U.N. peacekeepers, and the timing may not have been coincidental.... China, which sees the Games as a sort of coming-out party, is desperate to avoid an embarrassment like the 1980 boycott of the Moscow Olympics.

Taking up the cause of the little (or littler) guys in two other editorials, the board suggests Microsoft may not be able to bat down the open source movement, and asks the Securities and Exchange Commission to support the UC Regents in their case against Enron's bankers.

On the op-ed page, former Associated Press Venezuela correspondent Bart Jones describes the shenanigans got RCTV kicked off air by Hugo Chavez. George Washington University's Walter Reich explains why King Herod's tomb is the latest hurdle for peace in the Middle East. Patrick Brady asks for amnesty for doping cyclists, and columnist Ronald Brownstein asks why Democrats are harking back to Clinton-era healthcare reforms.

On the letters page, Darcy Vernier of Marina del Rey has figured out how to get U.S. troops out of Iraq: "When every family is looking at their son (and maybe daughter) possibly heading off to deadly war, the resultant outcry will bring the country and the war to a stop."

Online, Tom Tanton of the Institute for Energy Research and Judy Dugan of the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights discuss rising gas prices in this week's Dust-Up. Today they consider whether there's a right price for a gallon of gas.

Some observations about the parking/traffic situation at Dodger Stadium on Opening Day:

John Stodder:

The traffic was apocalyptically bad.

Len:

[T]he newly-reconstructed parking setup at Dodger Stadium [...] was as well thought out as giving Stevie Wonder a plasma HDTV for Christmas.

Protoford:

[T]he line for every parking lot entrance I tried was backed up for miles. It took an hour and a half to go that last mile to park and sit in our seats.

Kevin Roderick:

[T]he worst back-up I've ever seen on Sunset Boulevard

Sons of Steve Garvey:

[I]t was a disaster leaving.

Samash:

[A]n hour after a game, the lot was still packed.

L.A. Taco:

The parking was also a huge nightmare, people I was with who parked inside the stadium took 90 minutes just to get to the Freeway.

Dodger Season Ticket Holder 1220252:

[W]hat I can't (and won't) tolerate is a man who made his fortune in the parking lot business charging me an exorbitant fee to sit in gridlock. In a parking lot. FOR AN HOUR AND A HALF.

Jon Weisman:

Perhaps the most discouraging indication is that the new parking attendants seem to have been hired and schooled in the same manner as the food and beverage concessionaires: without any premium on expertise or efficiency, and indeed, with no small disdain by some of them for the people they are hired to serve.

BlueFan88:

Not only is there a 50% increase for parking making it a ridiculous $15.00 now, but they are making Dodger fans miserable trying to enforce the "new" system. Needless to say, it is a total CLUSTER****! Trying to get into the Stadium, I spent nearly two hours in lanes that did not move miles outside the Stadium. However, trying to get out was so much worse.

(Excerpt edited slightly; also, make sure to click on the link for the "Hostage Crisis at Dodger Stadium" videos.)

The Dodgers' Josh Rawitch:

I noticed that the comment section in yesterday's post only included two comments on parking: one positive and one negative. I guess that's about the same as an early peek of the morning media, as the L.A. Times seemed to have found a lot of fans who were frustrated, while the Daily News seemed to have spoken with those who thought it was better than in years past. And among my friends who came to the came, some said it was easier than ever while others battled heavy traffic on the streets before getting into the parking lot. I think that's to be expected on Opening Day, when parking is at its absolute worst, particularly as the crowd lets out onto freeways that are backed up already from regular afternoon traffic. But, thank you to everyone for their patience and hopefully everyone will wait to see how the new parking plan works under normal circumstances. I can tell you this much - every Dodger employee parked offsite and was shuttled in to try and make more spots for the fans, so any parking issues were certainly not from a lack of effort. We are committed to fixing a problem that has lasted nearly 50 years and as always, we welcome everyone's feedback.

Rob McMillin:

Josh Rawitch, you are part of the problem.

If everybody in Pittsburgh is a Steelers fan (except me), every denizen of the District of Columbia is a Hoya -- at least before Georgetown’s loss to Ohio State. As I know from my time as an editorial page editor in Pittsburgh, the local paper is expected to join in the communal celebration for the home team.

The Washington Post complied last week with an editorial that nicely sidestepped from wishing the Hoyas well (the headline was “Go Georgetown”) to making a Serious Editorial Point: that Georgetown and other basketball powers should do a better job of graduating their hotshot players. Saith the Post:

If you're heading to Greece for spring break, have a wonderful vacation. But beware of the women's volleyball hooligans.

One man was killed Thursday and seven others wounded in a skirmish between rival Greek volleyball clubs Panathinaikos Athens and Olympiakos Piraeus; as a result, play in all Greek professional sports has been suspended for two weeks. We've all heard about the open warfare that can break out between rival countries in soccer matches, but seriously -- women's volleyball?

Sports are inherently tribal (my high school/college/city is better than yours, because my steroid-enhanced gladiators can beat up your steroid-enhanced gladiators), but in Greece and some other countries it's so tribal that the fan experience becomes something like gang warfare. After Thursday's volleyball riot, police raided supporters' clubs and found an arsenal of makeshift weapons like pickaxes (they probably weren't being used for digging), iron bars and baseball bats. Repeat after me, Greek sports fans: Styrofoam fingers, good. Weapons of mass destruction, bad.

Maybe that's just the way it is in homogeneous societies (in this country, we like to divide our gangs up by race rather than sports affiliation). Or maybe the land that spawned the Olympics just takes its volleyball a little too seriously for its own good.

The Freeway Series began last night with a bang (pictured) and a triple play, signaling to a grateful nation of baseball fanatics that our long winter nightmare (occasionally referred to as "the offseason") is finally at a close. For Angels and Dodgers fans out there, here's a roundup of links to get you ready for Opening Day:

* The L.A. Times' own Angels and Dodgers pages.

* The Hardball Times' Five Questions series (Dodgers, Angels); plus Joe Florkowski's five good things and five bad things about the Angels' spring.

* ESPN.com writer Eric Neel's terrific multimedia piece on Dodgertown in Florida.

* For my money, the best local baseball websites:
Jon Weisman's Dodger Thoughts
Rev. Halofan's Halos Heaven
Rob McMillin's 6-4-2 -- an Angels/Dodgers double play blog

Play ball, and let the trash-talking begin! I'll start: Angels will win at least 12 games more than the Dodgers....

(Photo: AP)

Today's installment of the Great Steroids Debate chews on what the punishment should be for baseball players using steroids (or greenies, or marijuana). Excerpt from Mat Gleason:

The simplest punishment would be that players who are caught involved in banned substances and illegal drugs, be they recreational or performance enhancing, lose the right to have a guaranteed contract.

There is a denial of death, of consequence, inherent in drug use. Athletes shrug off health concerns and legal "details" because the family is taken care of once the ink is dry. If the wives and children were suddenly exposed to a little risk, it wouldn't take much more of a village to keep a majority of jocks in line.

And from Tim Marchman:

We don't need to protect ballplayers from themselves and their juiced-up peers. They have a union and other legal mechanisms by which they can do so, to precisely the degree they feel appropriate. If you don't think that's good enough, don't spend any money on baseball. Don't have any illusions, though, that the game is now different from any other sport, any other high-stress profession, or different from the game we all watched when we were kids.

Wait! This just in -- Angels center fielder Gary Matthews, Jr. denies ever taking human growth hormone. Stay tuned for reaction....

Today's installment in our week-long Dust-Up debating steroids in baseball grapples over the question: How have they affected the game? Excerpt from Tim Marchman:

[W]ith honorable individual exceptions, people get outraged about steroids not out of concern for athletes or the integrity of the game, but because they'd rather see a more balanced game of baseball. They blame steroids for the death of the 100-stolen base man, the suicide squeeze, and the taut 2-1 pitcher's duel. This isn't a generally held opinion -- if it were, baseball teams wouldn't be making so much money they literally can't spend all of it -- but it does motivate many of the sniffy traditionalists who get loudest at the mouth about the death of honor and integrity in the sport of Cap Anson, Hal Chase, Joe Jackson and Pete Rose. [...]

[S]teroids are just one among many reasons why this is an era of power hitting, and probably not the most important. Smaller ballparks, weight training, thin-handled bats, umpires' narrow interpretation of the strike zone and juiced baseballs are just a few of the reasons for the explosion in offense. I don't know if any one of these is more important than the steroid needle, bu