White House is cutting and running from "stay the course"

President Bush and his aides are annoyed that people keep misinterpreting his Iraq policy as "stay the course." A complete distortion, they say. "That is not a stay-the-course policy," White House press secretary Tony Snow declared yesterday.

Where would anyone have gotten that idea? Well, maybe from Bush.—by Peter Baker, Staff Writer, Washington Post

Frozen in memories, but melting before their eyes

To hear the locals tell it, you would think they were referring to a loved family member declining in old age.

“It hurts, it hurts,” Philipp Carlen said of his feeling toward the vast Rhone glacier, which once came to the edge of his hotel, but now has receded several hundred yards. The glacier, whose soft contours and dirty gray surface make it resemble some huge sea creature, a whale perhaps, is rapidly shrinking, in the mild autumn weather, by 12 to 15 feet a day.—John Tagliabue, The New York Times

Less bad is still bad

Tallahassee Democrat columnist Bill Berlow on the issue of energy and the environment—

Over the past three years I've concluded that investing multimillions in the Taylor Energy Center coal-plant consortium is a bad idea.

Because there's a bigger issue that Tallahassee and the rest of the world had better come to grips with: global warming.

Not long ago, when I heard or read those two words, I had to stifle my yawns. Many of those who insisted there was a crisis struck me as Chicken Little types who couldn't explain all the fuss in layman's terms.

Nonscientists like me need our scientific explanations to be simplified.

Then I discovered someone who straddles the science and industrial worlds. Virginia architect William McDonough, a leading advocate of "sustainable" development, summed it up in five words: "Less bad is still bad."—Tallahassee Democrat columnist Bill Berlow

Ted Turner on UN: Needs met, peace kept globally

I've been getting some questions about the value of the United Nations and about what I've learned since I donated one-third of my wealth to start the U.N. Foundation almost nine years ago. Here's the answer:

The fact is that the United Nations works — for the world's poor, for peace, for progress and for human rights and justice. And we need it to go on working if we're going to deal with the serious and sometimes frightening challenges facing us.—by Ted Turner

Times Editorial: Blowing in the Wind

On considering a change in tactics in Iraq—

"... the way this sudden change of hearthas come about, after months in which Mr. Bush has brushed off all criticism of his policies as either misguided, politically motivated or downright disloyal to America, is maddening."—Editorial, The New York Times