1. "Things to Look Into: The Cinema of Terrence Malick." By Adrian Martin, for Rouge.

"When making a film, Terrence Malick speaks to his collaborators in poetic images. To Martin Sheen in Badlands (1973), he said: 'Think of the gun in your hand as a magic wand.' To the post-production team (editors and sound mixers) on The Thin Red Line (1998), he advised: 'It's like moving down a river, and the picture should have the same kind of flow.' And to Jörg Widmer, his Steadicam operator for The New World (2005), he whispered: 'You have the quail at the wing when it's about to fly.' What kind of directions are these to give your actors and technicians? Malick does not talk to them about the usual, conventional things: the inner psychological or emotional states of characters; the themes or intentions of the story. He does not even talk about the composition of the shots or the editing pattern he envisages for them. Rather, in every case, he asks those who work with him to inhabit a state, a mood, a feeling that is captured in a precise physical image: the wand in the hand, the water in the stream, the bird at the wing."

"Filthy, debauched, and representing everything mainstream society stood against, the Five Points underground clubs mark perhaps the earliest examples of alternative nightlife in the modern era."

"These concerns intensified as the existence of these CIA prisons began to be revealed—first by The Washington Post's Dana Priest in 2002, followed by many other reporters, including this one, here and abroad—as well as through investigations by human rights organizations...The names of these vanished prisoners, and what was being done to them, were still unknown, except for some details by a few released former CIA secret prisoners. But the existence of these gulags greatly tarred America's image among our allies and the rest of the world. Damage control by the administration consisted of the president, the secretary of state, and other officials denying there were such prisons, in a pious chorus of assurances that "the United States does not torture." (I offer to any cartoonist the children's story of Pinocchio, whose nose kept lengthening with each lie he told.)"

4. "Power-Sharing Pact: At last, two of Northern Ireland's most implacable foes have agreed to work together. It's not a solution, but it is progress." By Stryker McGuire of Newsweek.

"Earlier today, the two leaders of the province's largest parties, the once-implacable foes Ian Paisley and Gerry Adams, agreed finally to share power. Not now, but perhaps soon—which in this contentious land counts as a major step forward."

"I'm a lot like you were."
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"Links for the Day": Each morning, the House editors post a series of weblinks that we think will spark discussion. Comments encouraged.