Since the Crank is on the road, here is a collection of links for your reading pleasure:

* Jonah Goldberg notes the passing of Julia Child and refers to her service in the OSS during the Second World War. This article has more on that under-reported aspect of her remarkable life. (UPDATE: Also, this is funny).

* Daniel Drezner's site examines this interesting proposal to make health insurance, rather than health care, a universal government entitlement. Though I’m deeply skeptical, I’m not sure where I come down on that. Anyway, the question of how to possibly protect those Americans without health insurance reminds me, for whatever reason, of a great quote by Winston Churchill on the middle ground between capitalism and socialism:

“I do not want to see impaired the vigor of competition but we can do much to mitigate the consequences of failure. We want to draw a line below which we will not allow persons to live and labor, yet above which they may compete with all the strength of their manhood. We want to have free competition upwards; we decline to allow free competition to run downwards. We do not want to pull down the structure of science or civilization; but to spread a net over the abyss.”

* Ralph Peters argues that al Qaeda and its terrorist allies are proving to be their own worst enemies, while Dan Byman writes that, though Americans face grave danger, we may be a good deal safer than we think.