As a sideline, I would love to know how the US conservatives are treating the Libyan uprising.

Because up till now they have taken it for granted, as Thorne did, that if the people are against the government they must be for an Islamist state (or at the very least, if they get democracy they might vote for Islamists) and therefore the whole thing was a disaster. (This may have been because Obama was in favour of the Egyptian revolution, so it must be bad.) But now it's Mad Dog Gadafi, I'd guess they don't know who to root for.

Less amusingly, there are nasty hints that a racist element has crept into the Libyan uprising. It looks as if Gadafi's use of African mercenaries has given some Libyan Arabs an excuse to turn on their black neighbours.