Why China wants war of words with USBeijing’s belligerence is a diversionary tactic. There’s nothing like nationalist outrage to sweeten unpopular economic reform  

   Blagojevich and Legal BriberyBy SCOTT TUROWChicago  IN May 1980, during the height of the movement to add an Equal Rights Amendment for women to the Constitution, an activist named Wanda Brandstetter delivered a note to Nord Swanstrom, an Illinois state representative. “Mr. Swanstrom,” it said, “the offer to help in your election and $1,000 for your campaign for pro-E.R.A. vote.” Things did not go as Ms. Brandstetter hoped. The measure was never ratified by the Legislature, while her offer of $1,000 led directly to her conviction for bribery in the Illinois courts. Since Ms. Brandstetter’s case, it has been clear in Illinois (and eventually in the federal courts too) that, notwithstanding the First Amendment protections the Supreme Court has applied to political contributions, prosecutions for bribery and extortion may be brought when a donation is tied directly to a specific act by an elected official. So, people are right to wonder how the jury in the trial of Rod Blagojevich, the former governor of Illinois, could possibly be unable to come up with a verdict on any bribery-related charges, finding Mr. Blagojevich guilty only of lying to federal agents when he characterized himself in 2005 as uninvolved in political fundraising. After all, government wiretaps revealed Mr. Blagojevich threatening not to sign legislation beneficial to the harness racing industry unless he received a $100,000 campaign donation from one race track executive. He even threatened to hold up an increase in state Medicaid reimbursements for pediatric cases until the chief executive of Illinois’s leading children’s hospital contributed $50,000. Yet the unwillingness of one or more jurors to convict Mr. Blagojevich of anything but bare-faced lying makes some sense. I suspect the jury’s indecision might have been a reaction at some level to the hypocritical mess our campaign financing system has become, especially…

   Moon landings: One small step for Man. . . one giant whinge from Buzz Andrew Pierce lost a childhood hero on the day he met Buzz Aldrin.   By Andrew Pierce

    I can still remember crowding around the solitary, battered black and white television in my primary school to catch a glimpse of the first astronauts on the Moon. It was just days after Dad had taken me into the garden to point out a bright light moving silently across the night sky, which he insisted was Apollo 11. I believed him, of course. Why wouldn't I? This was the stuff of schoolboy dreams. A quarter of a century later, I was in the same room as Buzz Aldrin, who followed Neil Armstrong out of the spacecraft and on to the surface of the Moon. I was in Marrakesh, covering one of Sir Richard Branson's attempts to circumnavigate the globe in a hot-air balloon. Aldrin had come to lend his support. Everyone in the crowded hotel bar was craning their necks, standing on tip toes, jostling, in an attempt to catch a glimpse of this giant among men, a hero who had been part of the single greatest technological achievement of all time. What a disappointment, then, when I eventually fought my way to his side. He was miserable, and whinged about the fuss generated by the Moon landing. "It's overrated," he said. "There was nothing for us on the Moon. We should have gone to Mars." I pressed on, desperate to hear from the horse's mouth what it was like to walk on a lunar surface, but to no avail. I'm sure he must have been bored recounting it all again – regardless, though, the idol had fallen. In fact, he only became animated…

 Portraits of PeruModel-turned-photographer Helena Christensen travels to Peru and records the tough reality she finds there  

 Airborne laser downs missile in testBy W.J. Hennigan An airplane armed with a laser destroys missile over the ocean near Point Mugu, marking what is called a breakthrough in missile defense. Above, an infrared image of the test.