Set Sail for the Sun. (YouTubish.) R.I.P. Karlheinz Stockhausen.

JewsRock.org. All this chitter chatter chitter chatter chitter chatter 'bout schmatte schmatte schmatte.

Shaolin: Temple of Zen. Nifty photos. And here is a movie about the Shaolin. (Second link YouTube.)

What makes us moral. "Morality may be a hard concept to grasp, but we acquire it fast. A preschooler will learn that it's not all right to eat in the classroom, because the teacher says it's not. If the rule is lifted and eating is approved, the child will happily comply. But if the same teacher says it's also O.K. to push another student off a chair, the child hesitates...In both cases, somebody taught the child a rule, but the rule against pushing has a stickiness about it, one that resists coming unstuck even if someone in authority countenances it. That's the difference between a matter of morality and one of mere social convention, and [some] believe kids feel it innately."

The amero conspiracy. "The North American Union is a supranational organization, modeled on the European Union, that will soon fuse Canada, the United States, and Mexico into a single economic and political unit. The details are still being worked out by the countries' leaders, but the NAU's central governing body will have the power to nullify the laws of its member states. Goods and people will flow among the three countries unimpeded, aided by a network of continent-girdling superhighways. The US and Canadian dollars, along with the peso, will be phased out and replaced by a common North American currency called the amero...If you haven't heard about the NAU, that may be because its plotters have succeeded in keeping it secret. Or, more likely, because there is no such thing."

Bethlehem 2007 A.D. "The birthplace of Jesus is today one of the most contentious places on Earth. Israelis fear Bethlehem's radicalized residents, who seethe at the concrete wall that surrounds them." (Did you just ask for bonus links? Here is a look at the wall surrounding Bethlehem, here is Kenny Rogers singing "O Little Town of Bethlehem," and here is a version by Robin Trower. All bonus links YouTube.)

Surfing in downtown Munich. Surfing Montreal. Surfing the Waimea rivermouth. Surfing a tidal bore in Alaska. Glacier surfing in Alaska. Dynamite surfing. (Fake, thank goodness, but well done.) Wake surfing. Stand-up paddle surfing. Wave-pool surfing, Japanese style. (All YouTube links.) more inside

Denial makes the world go round.

Understanding the "carried interest" issue. This is the reason hedge fund managers pay just 15% in tax on their income rather than the up to 35% others pay in regular income tax, the reason Warren Buffet pays a lower tax rate than his secretary. While some Democrats are fighting to change things, others are...well, some would say they're selling out to hedge fund money.

Roger Cohen on Obama. "The world isn’t voting. America is. But the candidate who most mirrors the 21st-century world seems clear enough."

New and improved stereotypes to teach your kids. (Via.)

Malcolm Gladwell dissects criminal profiling. His conclusion: It's no more than a parlor trick.

Recently published: "Supercapitalism" by Robert Reich, former U.S. Secretary of Labor and keeper of an interesting blog.

James Brown gives you dancing lessons.

The W.G.A.: "Why We Fight." The reason The Daily Show is suddenly in re-runs. more inside

The mysterious death of Lyndon LaRouche's printer. 'The LaRouche movement has been called many things: Marxist, fascist, a political cult, a personality cult, a criminal enterprise, and, in the words of the Heritage Foundation, "one of the strangest political groups in American history." More than anything else, however, what it resembles is a vast and bizarre vanity press...One of the LaRouche movement's longest-serving loyalists was Ken Kronberg. A handsome classics scholar and drama teacher, Kronberg owned and managed PMR Printing, the outfit that has generated the idiosyncratic propaganda that sustains LaRouche's entire enterprise.'

Flooding traps 300,000 in Mexico. NewsFilter.

Black Confederate marching for "heritage." It’s a sight that elicits a second glance, maybe a third. A black man marching along the S.C. 28 toward Walhalla dressed in Confederate butternut, carrying a Confederate battle flag...“This flag has nothing to do with hate,” Mr. Edgerton said of the starred red, white and blue St. Andrew’s Cross battle flag he carried. “It’s the flag of Southern heritage, black and white"...“I wish I could report that after five years all my suffering had been vindicated,” Mr. Edgerton said. “But it hasn’t. Not when you have organizations like NASCAR that have banned our flag.”

Blackwater guards offered immunity. Special bonus, tonight only: a profile of and interview with the head of Blackwater. Fair and balanced: More on Blackwater and the military-contractor issue here and here and here.

Yummy delicious Tex-Mex. “Cal-Mex is long on burritos and sour cream....In New Mexico, it’s all about green chilies, and in Arizona they are proud to have invented chimichangas — deep-fried burritos. The embodiment of Tex-Mex is a cheese enchilada with gravy.”