The Cyprus banking crisis presents, in microcosm, everything that is perverse about the European leaders’ response to the continuing financial collapse. And bravo to the Cypriot Parliament for rejecting the EU’s insane demand to condition a bank bailout on a large tax on small depositors.

The Middle East has a propensity for producing both the tragic and the absurd, two qualities that converged in appallingly consummate fashion with the attacks this week that killed U.S. diplomats in Libya and threatened American embassies across the region.

The deaths of Christopher Stevens, U.S. ambassador to Libya, and three of his colleagues at the American consulate in Benghazi on Tuesday represent a profound tragedy on many levels. First and foremost is the loss of such brave and dedicated individuals, who served their country in a place wracked by chaos, uncertainty and violence. Stevens had a well-deserved reputation as a diplomat with a rare understanding for this complicated region, but in the tributes to his valor, let those who died with him—and the thousands of others who have served alongside them—not be forgotten. Their willingness to put their lives on the line for their country reflects their commitment to making the world a better place, something that those who would do them harm lack the capacity to recognize, much less achieve.

As some of you know, there is far more to the Tibetan diaspora than the Dalai Lama. More than 200,000 refugees are living, sometimes stateless, in other countries. Tenzin Dorjee, whom I've mentioned here before, is the director of Students for a Free Tibet and one of the next generation of Tibetan leaders in exile. Last week, he wrote at The Huffington Post about an incredibly moving art project, conceived after activist and artist Tenzing Rigdol's father died in exile longing to see his homeland one more time: 

I've written a lot about the detention provisions in the National Defense Authorization Act restricting the ability of the executive branch to try suspected terrorists in civilian court and mandating military detention even in the case of domestic arrests. In their letter to the president, a group of Republican committee chairs lets the cat out of the bag as far as the long term objective of such policies:

The latest Gitmo "controversy" is Majority Leader Mitch McConnell calling for a couple of Iraqi terrorism suspects arrested in his state of Kentucky to be transferred to Gitmo and tried by military commission.

“A few years ago, we set up military commissions for the specific purpose of trying foreign terrorists,” Mr. McConnell said. “The perfect place for these terrorists is at Guantánamo, to be interrogated. And, if subsequently a trial is deemed appropriate for these foreign terrorists, there are courtrooms down there for the military commission trials. There is really no reason to be mainstreaming these foreign terrorists into a regular U.S. court.”

Sometimes, I'm dumbstruck by the insane things anti-immigrant folks say (for instance when the Heritage Foundation's Conn Carol suggested, during our Bloggingheads repartée, that one of the big problems with illegal immigration is the widespread epidemic of undocumented workers defecating on people's property). The National Review has another such gem today from Mark Krikorian, the executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies -- a hate group that masquerades as a think tank. Krikorian objects to the "pseudo-congressman from Puerto Rico" saying, "We are a nation of immigrants."

A follow-up on Gershom Gorenberg's piece last month about the plight of a young girl in the West Bank in need of medical attention.

At 10:03 on Monday morning, Osama Rusrus phoned from Beit Umar in the West Bank with wonderful news: His wife Sunya and daughter Dalal had crossed through the checkpoint into Jerusalem, on their way to Alyn Hospital.

It took nearly two months of wrangling with the Israeli authorities, especially a security agency that never signs its name.