Iran, travel, PR, health

* Dissident Iranian cleric Grand Ayatollah Montazeri has died, and this is proving a focus for protests. Retrospective on his life; blog on his funeral and protests.
* Israel used to take organs without asking. Bit foolish given the blood libel history.
* SCOTUS law clerks increasingly polarized. Apparently law schools are seen as "overwhelmingly liberal".

I'm going to take my chances flying to Spokane this year. Hopefully this flu-like thing (third sickness this term, wtf) will blow over soon. Anyone want to drive me to a 10:10am flight Thursday the 24th, for $25? The shuttles are suboptimal.

* Quotes in favor of proportional representation
"[legislatures in the United States] should be an exact portrait, in
miniature, of the people at large, as it should think, feel, reason, and
act like them." -- John Adams
"... the portrait is excellent in proportion to its being a good
likeness,...the legislature ought to be the most exact transcript of the
whole society... the faithful echo of the voices of the people." --
James Wilson at the Constitutional Convention


* Editor of libertarian magazine Reason prefers French health care.
* US health reform timeline over the decades

When people (Jared Diamond) talk about the Americas not having had many domesticable species, why don't bison and wild rice count?