I'm in Denmark this week as an observer at an Iraqi "reconciliation conference" that has brought nearly two dozen political and religious leaders to Copenhagen. It's a fascinating group. The clerics range from Sunnis and Shiites to members of little-known pre-Islamic sects like the Yezidis (who seem to be historically linked to the Zoroastrians) and the Mandaeans (the central figure of whose faith is John the Baptist), all of whom have suffered ghastly depredations in the terror war following the defeat of Saddam Hussein. Political figures include National Security Adviser Muwafaq al-Rubayie, who spent a long and intense day here on Tuesday (2/19), and remains in close contact as the participants try to hammer out a collective document. It's probably sheer coincidence that this conference takes place at the moment General Petraeus is expressing considerable hope for reconciliation, and his statement that Iraqis need to shout instead of shoot is very much in the forefront of the discussions here.

Why do individuals and countries engage in self-destructive behavior? Many books have been written on the topic, but given the U.S. election campaign, it is worth examining why some politicians and other opinion leaders advocate policies contrary to both good theory and empirical evidence. Despite this evidence of success, Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama want to increase the top tax rates, though there is no evidence that raising the top rates will result in any more revenue but there is evidence it will result in slower growth. They can get away with it because voters have had their brains mangled by public education. Since education in almost all countries these days is chiefly in public institutions, except for relatively small numbers of students educated in U.S. private schools and universities, it should come as no surprise that the government employees doing the "educating" are biased toward the public sector and are anti-business.

This is a quick warning and a long thank you. First, I need to warn you about a very dangerous new computer virus, a "trojan horse" or "worm" traced to a group of malicious hackers in China.  It's called Mocmex and it can destroy your PC Windows computer.  Another good reason to get a Mac!  Read the link to see how you can protect yourself. Second, we'll get back to transistors and electrons next week, but I am still coming down from the wonderful time I and my fellow TTPers had in Sarasota.  So pardon me if I wax philosophical and take the time to share our blessings. This being a techie column, let me put it in techie terms.  If life were a technological device, what would be yours?

I have been saving a very special bottle of wine - a 1992 Chateau Vieux French Bordeaux - for a very specific occasion:  to celebrate the death of Fidel Castro.  Looks like I'll be opening it soon - for the best news of the week is Castro's announcing he has one foot in the grave by ending his 49-year run as Cuba's El Jefe Maximo. I chose the vintage not just because 1992 was a great year for French reds, but because I went to Cuba that year.  I told the story a couple of years ago in Cuba Libré.  A meeting with Castro had been set up, at which I intended to tell him the Cuban people would some day urinate on his grave.  He got wind of it and canceled the meeting.  My wife was very relieved. Dagny D'Anconia explained the dictator's slow and awful descent towards demise some time ago in The Partial Assassination of Fidel Castro.  Drawn-out lingering nightmare agony - just the sort of hell a piece of murderous human garbage deserves. What's hilarious is the lib media's portrayal of Raul Castro as a Cuban Mikhail Gorbachev reformer.  Raul is a 76-year old alcoholic who hasn't much longer to go himself.  The army and secret police still run everything, but with Fidel gone the regime has no legitimacy.  Odds will increase for a really bloody revolution.

Texas State Sen. Kirk Watson had an embarrassing moment the night the candidate he is supporting for president won the Wisconsin primary.  MSNBC's Chris Matthews asked him to name a legislative accomplishment of Sen. Barack Obama. "I'm not going to be able to do that tonight," Mr. Watson replied. Or any other night.  Barack Obama, noted National Review's David Frum, has the thinnest resume of any candidate for president since William Jennings Bryan in 1896.  Then 36 (the youngest man ever nominated for president), Bryan had been a congressman for only six undistinguished years when, on July 9, he electrified the Democratic convention in Chicago with his Cross of Gold speech. "Men and women screamed," wrote one eyewitness reporter, and "like demented things, divested themselves of their coats and flung them high in the air."  He won the nomination the next day. Bryan got creamed in the general election, which suggests there is a limit to how high a populist with little on his resume besides a charismatic personality and a silver tongue can rise.

How much money would the government have to give you and every other American to avoid a recession? You cannot answer because the question contains a false conclusion, and when political arguments are about false conclusions, the wrong policies are pursued. To try to reverse the current economic slowdown, one first must understand the real causes and then try to correct those causes. Many in Congress, the administration, and the Fed have misdiagnosed the problem and then given the wrong medicine -AKA "the stimulus package." There are four government-caused reasons why Washington remains "stuck on stupid" regarding the economy.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi declared again on CNN's "Late Edition" program Sunday (2/10) that the troop surge in Iraq is a failure. Ms. Pelosi's timing was unfortunate for what shreds remain of her credibility.  Her statement coincided with the release by U.S. forces in Iraq Saturday (2/09) of the diary of Abu Tariq, an al Qaeda leader around the northern city of Balad. The diary was captured in a raid in November.  It apparently had been written the month before. Abu Tariq once had nearly 600 fighters under his command, but his force has dwindled to no more than 20.  The chief reason for this, he wrote, was the decision of most Sunni tribes to throw in with the Americans.