Jed Perl decries the cult of manic American adulation of pretentious modern European painters as he views the Gerhard Richter retrospective at MOMA. The New Republic

Brain scans draw a dark image of the violent mind Boston Globe

Presidential Health Picks: “President Bush has finally chosen his nominees for two of the nation’s top health positions, the director of the National Institutes of Health and the surgeon general. Both have compelling personal biographies — rising from obscurity and hardship to great prominence — but are relatively unknown outside their fields. Their views on social and ethical issues are a mystery, but the White House seems certain that neither is likely to challenge Mr. Bush’s policies on hot-button issues like embryonic stem cells, cloning and sex education.” NY Times editorial

Bush Diplomacy Yields Few Promising Signs: ‘The administration is sensitive to any suggestion it has not done enough, or been inconsistent. When a reporter at the daily State Department briefing began a question by noting that “It looks like you pretty well failed to persuade the Israelis,” the even-tempered spokesman, Richard A. Boucher, interrupted him, saying, “Just had to get that word in the first sentence, didn’t you?” ‘ NY Times

Why another Gore campaign would be good for the Democrats:

Despite winning a bare majority of the popular vote, he was a dreadful candidate in 2000, who somehow managed to turn eight years of peace and prosperity into an electoral burden. He is a smug, stubborn, and aloof human being. He will clutter the race in 2004, suck money from other candidates, force some interesting possibilities from the field, run another awkward, tired faux-populist campaign and, if nominated, he will lose, more decisively this time, to George W. Bush. This critique seems reasonable enough in many of its particulars, but not in its conclusion—that life would be a lot simpler if Gore would just go away. Quite the contrary, Democrats should nurture his ambition and cherish his ineptitude. –Joe Klein Slate

Klein’s idea is that the voting public find Gore so craven and contemptible that any Democratic candidate who defeats him in the primaries — in contradiction to the received wisdom that a primary battle is divisive, wasteful and injurious — will be a hero; this may be the only option to defeat an incumbent President riding the crest of War-on-Terrorism® popularity.

Did Early Interest in Eating Meat

Spur Organized Societies?: “Ever wonder why humans evolved into social animals with rules and regulations covering just about everything we do? Meat, most likely.” ABC News Related: Hunter-gatherers ate lean cuts: “Wild meats gnawed by ancient hunters contain healthier fats than modern farmed cattle. This finding backs the idea that a palaeolithic diet is the key to good health.” Nature

Discussing the Nature of Reality, Between Buffets: ‘ “I haven’t been to a meeting before where speaker after speaker says what they think,” said Dr. Fotini Markopoulou Kalamara of the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics in Ontario, commenting on the boldness, philosophically and scientifically, of the discussions.’ NY Times