Slip of the Tongue?

And now the most absorbing two minutes in television, the latest from the wartime grapevine:

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Slip of the Tongue?
Opponents of military action in Iraq may be trying a new argument in the wake of U.N. weapons inspection chief Hans Blix's unequivocal statement that Iraq is not accepting the United Nation's demand that he disarm. The argument is that the United Nations did not really mean what it said. Jessica Mathews, president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, makes that case in the Washington Post today. Yes, she says, U.N. Resolution 1441 did demand that Iraq make a full declaration of its weapons, but "not in the expectation of getting one but because every fact Iraq could be pressured into revealing is one inspectors do not have to uncover."

Church Controversy
The presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church in America says of his country, "We are loathed and I think the world has every right to loathe us, because they see us as greedy, self-interested and almost totally unconcerned about poverty and suffering. As for President Bush, Bishop Frank T. Griswold III, was particularly critical of President Bush for what he called "reprehensible" rhetoric about Iraq. In an interview this month with the Religious News Service, Griswold added, "I'd like to be able to go somewhere in the world and not have to apologize for being from the United States."

Freedom to Wear?
A law center representing people of faith is pressing a junior high school in Pennsylvania to reverse itself and allow a student to wear a T-shirt proclaiming the child's opposition to abortion. St. Thomas More Law Center in Ann Arbor, Mich., says the student was ordered by the principal at Abington Junior High School to remove the T-shirt or turn it inside out because its anti-abortion slogan was the equivalent of a swastika. The law center has sent a letter to the school arguing that the student has a constitutional right to express his views and asking for written assurance he will be allow to do so.

President Pleasing the People?
The latest ABC News Poll indicates that President Bush's argument in the University of Michigan affirmative action case coincides with the majority view of the American people. The administration's brief in the case criticized the university for awarding points to applicants solely on the basis of race. The ABC Poll found that people were opposed to preference programs by 66 to 30 percent, though they were in favor of assistance to minorities by a similar margin.