Monday morning roundup

Syria's awakening.

Argentina's Jewish gauchos insist on holding up the fort.

Saudi women's quiet, apolitical campaign is changing more than attitudes about driving.

The TIP report is often criticized and dismissed, but it makes a difference.

Jessica Valenti articulates an excellent point about Bristol Palin. By the way, I looked up Redline on Yelp because a friend picked it, and couldn't believe this review. Yelp should have a button for 'horribly offensive and in the poorest taste.'

I'd permalink to a Toles cartoon but the Post has made that impossible. And they think people might pay for access to their abominable website?

A policy change has the potential to rein in home prices in some of DC's upscale neighborhoods.

I'm all over making cities hostile to cars, but then you've got to make them friendly to public transit. I drove into DC yesterday because I was meeting a friend for lunch in Eastern Market and then going to see a play in the Atlas District. Two different neighborhoods in Capitol Hill, no direct subway connection. Take a bus in DC, on a Sunday? Please. I suppose I could have walked (half an hour) if I had more time, I didn't, so I drove. It took me twenty minutes to drive to Eastern Market (and another ten to park). It would have taken 40 minutes just on the metro, not including wait time. Then to get NE, I'd have had to take take the blue line to L'Enfant, the yellow to Gallery, and the red to Union Station--that's three transfers--only two walk 25 minutes to Atlas. Really? And this is in DC, which has a very decent public transportation system as American cities go. How do you expect people to cut back on driving in, say, Albuquerque? On a side note: my mother would be horrified at the concept of deliberately not synchronizing lights. I'm all over making parking expensive, but I don't see how making traffic worse is going to help emissions.

The Times adds its voice to the chorus that's urging the President to get with it on gay marriage.