Opinion: Weekend Opinion Roundup

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Weekend and Monday Opinion from the LA Times:

W. Hodding Carter: Why we’re flush with success
It’s difficult to plumb the depths of the debt the civilized world owes to the brains behind our drains.

Niall Ferguson: Young, Desperate and Hot -- It’s a Volatile Mix
Forget the ‘60s and ‘Make Love, Not War.’ Today’s world is facing a Summer of Rage, especially in the Middle East.

David P. Barash: When Man Mated Monkey
Icky as it sounds, we mingled across species in the past, which could help us win evolution wars in the future.

Dave Fratello: Jail Won’t Cure Drug Users
Proposition 36 mandated treatment to overcome addiction. A new law turns that notion on its head.

Editorials

Middle East: Response and Responsibility
Hezbollah, along with its Syrian and Iranian backers, bear the blame for the Israel-Lebanon crisis.

Hooray for Media Consolidation
It might sound counterintuitive, but Time Warner controlling 98% of L.A.’s cable market is good for consumers.

Doha’s Hope for Africa
Lowering tariffs on medicine could save millions.

Selected Weekend Commentary:

William Powers: Breaking news
Shrinking circulation! Fact-checking goofs! Partisan reporting! Despite the scare headlines, journalism’s sob story may still have a happy ending.

Kyle Pope: The Critics Hated ‘Pirates of the Caribbean.’ So What?
In movies, books, TV and theater, audiences know what they like, no matter what mainstream critics say.

Constance L. Rice: The LAPD: Back From Scandal
Police and city leaders are on the right track to changing the department’s image.

Charles L. Linder: Arrest Immigrants, Flood the Courts
Congress is blind to what a border crackdown would do to the overworked judiciary.

Morton H. Halperin: Bush: Worse Than Nixon
The writer was on Richard Nixon’s “enemies list,” but Bush’s power grab has him really worried.

Michael Skube: We’re Not Soccer Suckers
Media scolds want Americans to join the global party, but we’re not buying it.

Gary Hufbauer: Confronting the ‘Dear Leader’
Economic sanctions coupled with offers of aid aren’t much, but they’re all we have in our standoff with North Korea.

Meghan Daum: Behind Batwoman’s Gayness
Today’s women are pigeonholed as either girly girls or lesbians.