Both of the tidbits in my blog entry from yesterday have gone on to greater depth. For starters, the good Rev. Falwell has gone on to his great "reward." Anything I have to say about him will be covered in the eulogy I wrote on him, which will be in next week's City Link. Check it out then.

As for the other, the idea that World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz's head is on the chopping block, ABC news is now reporting that Wolfowitz will resign this afternoon.

The soon-to-be-shitcanned

Truth to tell, global finance is not my area of expertise. I honestly have no idea how good a job Wolfowitz did at the bank. I do know that, on its surface, the reason he's resigning (which, in Washington terms, is more or less the same as being fired) — that he helped his girlfriend get a better job with a higher salary — seems like an obvious conflict of interest on its surface. And I wouldn't count on Wolfowitz to be able to take on the staggering problem of third-world debt relief. He's not exactly a brilliant guy when it comes to predicting future trends:

"There's a lot of money to pay for this. It doesn't have to be U.S. taxpayer money. We are dealing with a country that can really finance its own reconstruction, and relatively soon."
— Wolfowitz, on Iraq, March 27, 2003

"We are treating the Iraqi prisoners extremely well. In fact I think they get good food and shelter and they're free from the horrible commanders they used to work for. I think most of them are much happier, frankly."
— Wolfowitz, March 23, 2003

"I can't imagine anyone here wanting to spend another $30 billion to be there for another 12 years."
— Wolfowitz, on Iraq, Feb. 28, 2003, $500 billion and 4-1/2 years ago

Of course, all those incredibly stupid quotes are really just excuses to justify the concept of pre-emptive war that Wolfowitz has long upheld — a concept that sounds uncomfortably like the concept of aggressive war, which was cited at the Nuremburg Trials as the worst crime of the Nazis. Not that I'm comparing Wolfowitz or his cronies to Nazis — they're still not even close on the evil-o-meter — but it does show what sort of horrific things even the most reasonable of people can justify to themselves when they get scared. And I think, in the final summation, that's really always been Wolfowitz's problem. He's a tremendously frightened man.