Saturday rapid fire

• Thought crime in High School writing class -

  Allen Lee, 18, faces two disorderly conduct charges over the creative-writing assignment, which he was given on Monday in English class at the northern Illinois school.

  Students were told to "write whatever comes to your mind. Do not judge or censor what you are writing," according to a copy of the assignment. This is the first salvo in the education establishments overreaction I suppose.

  I wonder how far it will spread. It's bad enough that 99% of corporate writing is so measured and passive it might as well be written in Latin, now it's going to start even earlier.

• An interesting profile of international arms dealers. This one is worthy of a James Bond villain status.
  
• An Israeli newspaper ranks the US presidential candidates in terms of their willingness to defend Israel. Curiously lacking is the American counterpart to their prime ministers.