News of the day

When I'm traveling--especially if I don't have formal dinners at night--I tend to get my International Herald Tribune fix (I can't justify the cost of buying it daily in Basel, so I just get the weekend edition). In that regard, two articles jumped out at me the last couple of days. First, I don't expect your average American to understand the difference between Sunnis and Shiites (after all, how many can actually explain the differences between Lutherans, Methodists and Presbyterians?), but I'd like to think people responsible for foreign policy would, you know, have at least a bit of a clue. Uh, no. Geez. Second, and on a much lighter note I read this today and had to laugh about the existence of a sandwich consisting of french fries, butter and vinegar--I mean, we eat some fattening food in the States but that's as bad as anything deep-fried that you'd find at your average State Fair.