...people who think that it's sophisticated to make snarky remarks about someone else's taste in books, or popular music, or movies, or whatnot, need to grow up.

I have always found this tedious even in casual conversation, but it's especially snobby (or anti-snobby as the case may be) when you see it in print, where someone obviously had time to think it through and decided to say it anyway. Antonin Scalia is a huge opera buff, but this doesn't make him a worthy person. Oprah Winfrey has middlebrow taste, but this doesn't make her a bad person, regardless of what Norah Vincent and Jonathan Franzen may think.

The art police ought to stay in their caves, where they belong, and leave the rest of us alone to enjoy our lives.

Yes, some of the time he is full of it on his economic policies. But a certain amount of B.S. is necessary for any vaguely successful retrenchment of government power in an insatiable entitlement state. ...Bush and Karl Rove are no dummies. They have rightly judged that, in a culture of ineluctable government expansion, where every new plateau of public spending is simply the baseline for the next expansion, a rhetorical smoke screen is sometimes necessary.

...it’s not true that Bush is a man of his word. He has shimmied and shifted in lots of areas, including Iraq, manipulating language the way Clinton did and exaggerating in the same way that he once pilloried Gore for doing.

Even though there is no credible evidence linking the Iraqi president to the 9-11 attacks, Bush persists in suggesting on the campaign trail that Saddam might use Al Qaeda as his “forward army.” Polls show that two thirds of Americans believe Saddam was behind 9-11, a useful myth irresponsibly fed by Bush. The president said in a speech last month that Saddam is experimenting with unmanned drones capable of reaching the United States with weapons of mass destruction. When confronted with the geographical improbability of such a feat, a White House spokesman countered that the drones could be launched from ships. Unless Iraq has an aircraft carrier we don’t know about, that scenario is equally implausible.

But Bush carries on, his reputation for honesty and integrity unchallenged and his image as a plainspoken Texan touted at every turn by his loyal followers. Another case in point is the battle over the proposed Department of Homeland Security. Bush initially had no interest in a big reorganization, probably with justification. It’s a mammoth undertaking; it would take years to accomplish and the payoff in terms of making the country safer is questionable. Yet Bush embraced the idea when the war on terrorism was faltering, and when the legislation stalled in the Senate he saw an opportunity to link national security with Democrats holding up the bill. He could have reached agreement some time ago on the personnel issue blocking its passage, but instead he held out because he knew it would force Democrats to resist him and either look unpatriotic or turn on their base—the federal unions whose job protections are in dispute.

Compared with taking the country to war based on a body of lies, Bush’s duplicity on domestic issues doesn’t seem as egregious, but the pattern is disturbing. On the budget, he has managed (or mismanaged) the biggest fiscal reversal in the country’s history. Part of the loss of revenue is the result of 9-11 and the recession, but Bush has totally abdicated his responsibility in steering the country out of the financial mess. His response is to gloss over the $300 billion loss from the balance sheet, pick a fight with Congress over a symbolic $13 billion appropriations bill and then claim he’s fiscally responsible.

There is hardly an issue where Bush hasn’t pulled a fast one. The rules he announced with great fanfare this week to make it easier to move generic drugs onto the market were passed by the Senate in July. Bush opposed them then; now with polls showing voters think he hasn’t done enough on domestic issues, he’s flipped.

How does he get away with such crass duplicity? The media doesn’t want to disturb the story line. Gore was the prevaricator; Bush was intellectually challenged. So when Bush fiddles with the facts, the media doesn’t see malevolence. They see a man who’s not articulate, who doesn’t speak with lawyerly precision.

To help doctors prevent obesity-related ailments, the World Health Organization established in 1997 a body mass index standard, calculated by dividing a person's weight in pounds by height in inches, dividing again by height in inches and multiplying by 703.

A normal weight is a BMI of less than 25; overweight is under 30 and obesity is over 30.

But the 10-country research showed that Asians had more fat content compared to Caucasians, which meant that a BMI of 25 was way above overweight for Asians.

In response, a group of WHO experts in July recommended an Asian optimal BMI of 23. Anything over it should be considered overweight and a health risk, they said.

In other words, an Asian and Caucasian may be the same weight and height, but the Asian is at greater risk for fat-related illnesses such as heart disease and diabetes.

Calli Cox, publicist and adult film actress for Shane Enterprises, said more than 100 students were involved with the filming of "Campus Invasion," while 20 to 30 signed a modeling waiver permitting their likeness to be used in the final version of the film.

Cox said the students who signed the release were filmed receiving oral sex from adult film actresses. In all, Shane Enterprises brought six adult actors to Bloomington -- two male and four female.

Cox said Shane Enterprises solicited campus groups from greek organizations to clubs to take part in the filming three weeks prior to their four-day visit.

"We contacted several different organizations on campus and got a very good response from several people," Cox said. "These students are adults who made their own decisions."

"One student told us he films his own adult movies in his dorm room all the time," Cox said. "These things happen on your campus whether we are involved or not."

The most controversial provision would protect pharmaceutical companies from lawsuits over the side effects of vaccines they create. The protections would be retroactive to lawsuits already in court concerning ingredients use din vaccines. Democrats said that among the lawsuits that would be thrown out were those involving claims that mercury-based preservatives used in vaccines cause autism in children.

(Note: P.L.A. has lots to say about that...)

The bill also includes liability protections for makers of airport screening equipment and airport security firms and weakens an amendment offered by the late Sen. Paul Wellstone, D-Minn., that bars companies that set up offshore tax havens from getting federal homeland security contracts.

• Enact new liability protection for pharmaceutical companies for the vaccines they make.

• Gut a Senate amendment that would prohibit the government from signing contracts with companies that move their headquarters offshore -- where they don't have to pay U.S. taxes.

• Create a homeland security research center program at a U.S. university. Democrats say the legislation is written in such a way as to create the center at Texas A&M University in Texas, home to some powerful GOP lawmakers and Bush.

• Provide liability protection for airport screening companies.

• Provide liability protection for companies that sell anti-terrorism technologies or products.

• Erect barriers to the Transportation Security Agency for the issuance of some security rules for travelers.

• Allow the Department of Homeland Security to hold advisory committee meetings in secret, a move Democrats say is a gift to corporate lobbyists.