Robert Spencer continues his fascinating series “Blogging the Qu’ran” at Hot Air, with Sura 3, “The Family of Imran,” verses 1-32. Links to all of the preceding installments can be found here. This week’s piece, among other things, gets to what is perceived by some Muslims as the Qu’ranic justification for when “believers may legitimately deceive unbelievers.”

Ibn Kathir says that the phrase Pickthall renders as “unless (it be) that ye but guard yourselves against them” means that “believers who in some areas or times fear for their safety from the disbelievers” may “show friendship to the disbelievers outwardly, but never inwardly. For instance, Al-Bukhari recorded that Abu Ad-Darda’ said, ‘We smile in the face of some people although our hearts curse them.’ Al-Bukhari said that Al-Hasan said, ‘The Tuqyah [taqiyya] is allowed until the Day of Resurrection.” While many Muslim spokesmen today maintain that taqiyya is solely a Shi’ite doctrine, shunned by Sunnis, the great Islamic scholar Ignaz Goldziher points out that while it was formulated by Shi’ites, “it is accepted as legitimate by other Muslims as well, on the authority of Qur’an 3:28.” The Sunnis of Al-Qaeda practice it today.

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Bill Kristol was questioning President Bush’s basic decency and courage six weeks ago (before the Libby commutation); now, he gives us BUSH THE WINNER: WHY HISTORY WILL JUDGE THE PREZ A CLEAR SUCCESS. For what it’s worth, I generally agree with the thrust of his column. I hope that he’s right with his optimism about Iraq. There are so many more crucial battles to be fought on that score, both on the homefront and on the real front. And I think he gives less attention than deserved to what the President has achieved on the Supreme Court. Dubya appears to have succeeded where both Ronald Reagan and his father failed, in substantially shifting the balance of the court away from liberal judicial activism, and that is a very big thing indeed. Some may say, “Look at Harriet Miers, look at what he almost did.” Well, we don’t know what Miers would’ve been, but, in replacing her with Samuel Alito, he came up with someone who — it seems — was a knockout second choice. And that beats Reagan’s performance in coming up with Anthony Kennedy when Robert Bork had gone down to defeat. Results matter. And I would also go farther than Kristol in predicting that before President Bush leaves office, a whole lot of people will remember why they liked him in the first place, and he will depart with high approval ratings.

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The competition to be the next president seems to currently be about what will happen once people actually start paying attention, and poll ratings start shaking out to something that relates more to reality — in particular on the Republican side (the Dem nomination has always been Hillary’s to win or lose and it will stay that way until she does one or other of those things). Giuliani continues to look strong in the ratings, but his inherent weaknesses when it comes to appealing to a conservative nominating electorate will come to bear eventually — especially because he has utterly flubbed the abortion and gun control issues, by attempting to claim consistency. Fred Thompson — the front-running non-candidate — has been in the strange position lately of taking hits from liberals for not being conservative enough. The only tangible effect this seems to have had is to feed into his campaign’s theme that he is the guy that the Democrats actually fear. As for Mitt Romney: Richard John Neuhaus wrote an interesting piece recently touching on reasonable versus unreasonable reservations that many believing Christians may have when it comes to voting for a Mormon for president. Suffice it to say, he has a hill to climb (and it’s not about the weird Mormony things he might do as president, but more about what Ronald Reagan did for jelly beans, if you’re old enough to remember). But as Neuhaus makes clear, this is only going to be one factor among many. I would suggest another factor when it comes to Romney, and that is health care. A program for universal coverage, signed into law by Romney, is “progressing” in Massachusetts. My question: How is it a conservative solution to compel people to buy health insurance whether they want it or not? The Massachusetts plan would penalize people who don’t buy insurance with fines (or taxes, or whatever you want to call them). The first year, the penalty would be $200. The second year, it would be “up to half the cost of the annual average cost of a health plan.” Am I crazy, or don’t conservatives think that the major reason for exhorbitant costs in the area of health care is an insurance mentality (someone else always pays the actual bills, so why worry what things cost)? How does Romney-Care address that, and how would Americans outside of Massachusetts like the idea of federal fines for not buying health insurance?

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From Colorado’s Loveland Daily Reporter-Herald: Tiny dog with giant heart saves toddler.

The Longs don’t often see rattlesnakes in their manicured backyard behind a yellow farmhouse near Masonville.

But last week, a rattler slithered onto the rocks in their yard and into the path of their 1-year-old grandson, Booker West.

As Booker splashed his hands in a birdbath in the yard, and as his grandfather, Monty Long, watched him, both unaware of the snake, the rattler poised, standing tall. It rattled and then it struck.

But the family’s Chihuahua, 5-pound, mellow, blond, 1-year-old Zoey, threw herself in front of Booker, taking rattlesnake fangs to the head and face.

“She got in between Booker and the snake, and that’s when I heard her yipe,” Monty said, sitting in his living room Thursday, an almost-walking Booker on his lap.

[...]

“(Zoey) took the bite for him,” he said. “If I hadn’t been paying attention to her yipe telling me something was wrong, (Booker) would have been next.”

And for her efforts, Zoey earned a face the size of a grapefruit, a trip to the veterinarian’s office, antivenin and morphine shots and a scar that cuts vertically across her head. She almost lost an eye.

“They didn’t know if she was going to make it,” Monty said.

But she has earned hero status in the Long household.

“She knew she was a good girl,” Denise said. “She just pranced around after that.”

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People can sometimes be heroic too. Some Smeaton video from Scotland Today at this link.

“I heard a noise and I thought, ‘Och, maybe it’s just been a wee bomb.’”

Smeaton-mania quickly turned into a big online in-joke, which is fine, so long as everyone remembers that it’s not about making fun — it’s about affectionately lauding the kind of spirit that we can’t do without.

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