What Caught My Eye Today

Arms Control - Chief negotiators of a landmark treaty banning cluster bombs predicted that the United States will never again use the weapons, a critical component of American air and artillery power. The treaty formally adopted Friday by 111 nations, would outlaw all current designs of cluster munitions and require destruction of stockpiles within eight years. It also opens the possibility that European allies could order U.S. bases located in their countries to remove cluster bombs from their stocks. The United States and other leading cluster bomb makers — Russia, China, Israel, India and Pakistan — boycotted the talks, emphasized they would not sign the treaty and publicly shrugged off its value. Of course they did. Why wouldn't they want to maintain their weapons advantage? Treaty backers — who long have sought a ban because cluster bombs leave behind "duds" that later maim or kill civilians — insisted they had made it too politically painful for any country to use the weapons again. Wouldn't it be nice if that bit wishful thinking were actually true. Have these guys had their heads buried in the sand for the past few years. Clearly, the U.S. doesn't really give two shakes what the rest of the world thinks of its actions.

Afghanistan - Here's a bit of breaking news. The outgoing American commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan said the insurgency there will last for years unless Pakistan shuts down safe havens where militants train and recruit. Lemme see. what word am I looking for here? Don't help me...oh, that's right..."DUH!!!"He also blamed new peace agreements in Pakistan's tribal areas for a spike in violence in eastern Afghanistan, where U.S. forces operate along the volatile border. Violence and the drug trade have also spiked. Insurgents last year set off a record number of suicide bombs — more than 140. More than 8,000 people, mostly militants, died in violence. There is a record number of U.S. forces in the country — 33,000, including 2,400 Marines who arrived this spring to battle insurgents in the south. Here's a bit of irony that I still cannot figure out. We have 5 times as many troops in Iraq--where coincidentally, the Iraqis are pressing us to leave--while in Afghanistan--you know, the place where this whole war on terrorism began in the first place--the government is hanging on by a thread due in large part to the fact that there are not enough security forces on the ground to match up against insurgent forces. I just don't get it.

Catholicism - The Vatican insisted that it is properly following Christian tradition by excluding females from the priesthood as it issued a new warning that women taking part in ordinations will be excommunicated. The move dashed the hopes both of women seeking to be priests and of Catholics who see that as an option for a church struggling to recruit men. While I don't necessarily agree with the Vatican's decision, anyone who is surprised by it doesn't really know much about institutional influences of the Vatican. The church has always banned the ordination of women by stating that the priesthood is reserved for males. The new decree is explicit in its reference to women. The decree said anyone trying to ordain a woman and any woman who attempts to receive the ordination would incur automatic excommunication. So much for a kinder and gentler Catholic Church. The Vatican released figures this week showing that the number of priests increased slightly worldwide between 2000 and 2006, with the growth in Africa and Asia. It said the number remained stable in the Americas but dropped nearly 6% in Europe. There is a saying in the business world that goes something like this, "If you aren't innovating, you're dying." I'm not suggesting that Catholicism is on life-support, but let's hope that hanging on to this particular tradition doesn't come back to haunt the Church down the road.

Tennis - The second major of the year, the French Open, is wrapping up its first week. If you follow this particular event, that basically means most Americans have been ousted from the clay court tournament. On the men's side, Andy Roddick didn't bother to enter the event (good move, seeing as he usually loses in the first round anyway) and #7 James Blake went down in the second round. The last American standing was some dude named Wayne Odesnik who got his butt handed to him by #3 seed Novak Djokovic. On the women's side, things didn't go much better. Both Williams sisters got eliminated in the third round. Venus was the #8 seed and Serena was the #5 seed. No other American woan made it past the second round. Now with that out of the way, here are my picks for the finals. On the men's side, I'm going to go out on a limb and pick Rafael Nadal (#2) in four sets over whoever he faces, though my sentimental pick is Roger Federer (#1)--dude deserves to complete his career grand slam. For the women, it's pretty much a free for all with Justine Henin having recently retired, but I'll go with #1 Sharapova over whichever Serbian she faces--#2 Ana Ivanovic or #3Jelena Jankovic

Space Shuttle - I challenge you to get through this last item without cracking a smile. NASA pushed ahead with Saturday's planned launch of space shuttle Discovery on a delivery trip to the international space station. The mission has taken on new urgency — the seven shuttle astronauts will take up a new pump for the space station's malfunctioning toilet. They're also ferrying a $1 billion Japanese space lab that has been more than 20 years in the making. The Japanese lab — named Kibo, which means hope — will be the biggest room at the space station once it's installed. It's 37 feet long and more than 32,000 pounds, and fills Discovery's entire payload bay. The Russian toilet pump, on the other hand, is a mere 1 1/2 feet long and tucked into the crew cabin. It was flown to Florida from Moscow on Wednesday, a rush job precipitated by last week's toilet breakdown at the space station. The station's three residents can use their toilet, but have to flush it manually with extra water after every three or four uses. The problem is on the urine-collection side. They will use Discovery's toilet, once the shuttle arrives. Always nice to see proper perspective being given to these shuttle missions. Where else would a billion dollar piece of equipment twenty years in the making play second fiddle to a busted toilet?