News in Brief

USA Basketball still has problems: Allen Iverson is not among the 22 NBA players invited to try out for the U.S. National Team, even though he is easily one of the league's ten best players and has expressed his interest in and enthusiasm for playing for his country. Why leave out A.I.? (As it were, no Pacers were invited to try out for the team.)

He must have done something to upset God: Pat Robertson, whose theology of divine retribution overlooks the Book of Job and much of the New Testament, yesterday bid for re-election to the National Religious Broadcasters' board of directors. What sin is responsible for this misfortune?

Next time, let's finish the first war before we start the second one: The New York Times reports that, according to police, government officials, village elders, farmers, and aid workers in southern Afghanistan, the presence of the Taliban in that region "is bigger and more menacing than ever." The Taliban are nasty dudes. We should have taken care of them completely before even considering Iraq. So it goes.

(I'm not crazy about the flowery bullet points, but I can't seem to unprogram them.)