The Madness of King George: According to White House staffers, the president is getting increasingly erratic, one moment saying he's guided by "God's will," the next calling those he perceives as disloyal "fucking assholes." In a report for Capitol Hill Blue, one aide says, "This is what is killing us on Iraq. We lost focus. The President got hung up on the weapons of mass destruction and an unproven link to al Qaeda. We could have found other justifiable reasons for the war but the President insisted the focus stay on those two, tenuous items.” Also: former US weapons inspector David Kay calls those who continume to claim WMDs will be found in Iraq are "delusional," stating unequivocally, "There are not actual stockpiles of newly produced weapons of mass destruction."

A Buddhist perspective: Vietnamese Buddhist monk and "engaged Buddhism" practitioner Thich Nhat Hanh discusses torture, compassion's role in international politics, and more in this Beliefnet interview. "The very ideas of terrorism and imagined weapons of mass destruction are already collective karma in terms of thinking and speaking," he says. "The media helped the war happen by supporting these ideas through speech and writing. Thought, speech and action are all collective karma." And: Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams writes that torture imagery like those revealed at Abu Ghraib are "all too familiar" in Ireland. Plus: A new UN report says that torture at Abu Ghraib "might be designated as war crimes by a competent tribunal".

Fuming about gas prices? With American gasoline prices averaging $2.05 a gallon (and hitting $5.79 a gallon in the UK last week), how come Iraqis are only paying five cents a gallon? The answer: US subsidies. Since Iraq can't refine it's oil into gasoline, the US buys fuel at $1.50/gallon from neighboring countries and has it shipped in to Iraqi service stations--costing US taxpayers more than $500 million for a three-month supply.