Favorite author of the week Andrew Klavan writes about the common ground between Batman and George W. Bush (favorite president of the century).

There seems to me no question that the Batman film “The Dark Knight,” currently breaking every box office record in history, is at some level a paean of praise to the fortitude and moral courage that has been shown by George W. Bush in this time of terror and war. . . .

Why is it then that left-wingers feel free to make their films direct and realistic, whereas Hollywood conservatives have to put on a mask in order to speak what they know to be the truth? . . .

Leftists frequently complain that right-wing morality is simplistic. Morality is relative, they say; nuanced, complex. They’re wrong, of course, even on their own terms.

Left and right, all Americans know that freedom is better than slavery, that love is better than hate, kindness better than cruelty, tolerance better than bigotry. We don’t always know how we know these things, and yet mysteriously we know them nonetheless.

(Thanks to Deborah H.)

Did you see the news that looting reports in Southern Iraq were fabricated, exaggerated, or otherwise untrue–I’m sorry, I mean inaccurate? Well, M.A. Orthofer of the Literary Saloon was in Iraq several years ago and saw some of the places reportedly looted. He suspects that some, maybe a lot, of art and history destruction occurred just because we’ve been fighting over there. Armies break things. Better to break something and save a life than avoid breaking it while failing to save that life.

Orthofer’s main point is that the first press reports of this did not link readers to the original report, from which Orthofer quotes. Make your judgment on that report, but I think we could easily read that quotation as a confession of the surveyors desire to confirm that looting did occur, despite their lack of evidence.

If this story is true, it’s a good example of the need for Christianity around the world. Africans in the Congo and Rwanda are fighting over control of a mineral used to make certain electric capacitors which are used in Sony Playstations. Children are reportedly being sent into the mines to collect a mineral that has increased in price 500% due in part to demand for Playstations. It is just as unacceptable for the miners to abuse themselves and their progeny for this as it is for Sony to refuse responsibility for helping to create the situation. Everyone must do what he can reasonably do to love his neighbor as he would himself. Though Sony is the big name in this story, everyone in the market handling this product is responsible to understand what’s going on to the best of his ability. But I’m not telling you anything new.

In New Mexico’s Fort Stanton Cave, surveyors have discovered unique formations. “The few who have walked on the formation say they’ve seen nothing else like it. Early studies point to its uniqueness: Already, some three dozen species of microbes previously unknown to science have been uncovered,” reports Susan Bryan. Though it may be closed to the public, I hope they have some photographs taken.

In these troubled times, I don’t often have good things to say about judges anywhere in the world.

Judge Rob Murfitt of New Zealand is an exception.

One small candle in the cultural night.