Sunday morning roundup

The debacles surrounding the Commonwealth Games are just the tip of the Indian iceberg. The Post has its own take.

Afghanistan through the eyes of a unit of female marines.

Moscow has its own mosque controversies.

Frank Rich suggests Christine O'Donnell might get the last laugh. Dana Milbank on the tea party and the deficit. Also see his column on Professor Beck.

Have child-safe environments turned our kids into useless wimps? We know Big Ag won't let us do anything to save them from obesity.

I find today's essay from the Times' Ombudsman interesting because I've recently run into similar challenges in my own work (day job, not blogging). The more stuff--names, titles, attributions, temporal details--you have to include in your writing, the harder it is to keep the prose flowing. And, as Michael Cunningham points out, writing entails making music, as well as compromising--with your own intentions. His essay is ever relevant in this era of masturbatory writing--writers can't be reminded enough that their product is ultimately for a reader. I also like his translation metaphor. On that note, I've always believed that learning to communicate in another language trains you to communicate more effectively in general--you literally learn to put things in terms that are meaningful to your readers and listeners, or else they won't understand you, or they'll misunderstand you. That experience disabuses you of the delusion that other people should have to work to understand what you have to say, no matter how clumsily you say it.