Random Notes

Part of my email correspondence might be called Tiger's Greatest Shots. A number of correspondents are saying that Sunday's four-iron from the rough (downhill lie) under the tree and then up and over the trap onto the 15th green was on a par with the legendary six-iron (from the bunker, all carry, over water) at the Canadian Open a couple of years back. Michael Thomas would probably say: not. And I suppose he'd be right. But what a golf shot. Phil Mickelson's caddy looked like he'd seen a ghost.

Here's a prediction: All this chatter about British Prime Minister Tony Blair being in deep political trouble is going to look very foolish in about six weeks time. For someone who was widely derided by conservatives as the British Clinton, Blair has proven himself to be an extraordinary leader and ally. After the liberation of Iraq, he will be the leader of New Europe and rightly so.

What do you suppose the defection rate is within the Iraqi regular army? What do you suppose it is within the much ballyhooed Republican Guard. The best guesstimates are 35% and 30%, respectively, and that's before the onslaught; an onslaught, by the way, that will be the most ferocious application of targeted (non-nuclear) military hardware in human history. What do you suppose the defection rate will be then? My guess would be 90%.