In Saudi Arabia, Friday is the last day of the weekend and Saturday is the first day of the work week. To celebrate tomorrow not being Monday, I am pleased to present the latest Encounter News Digest. Enjoy your weekend (and may you never work on Saturday.)

Europe Loves Obama, City Journal, by Guy Sorman
“Europe’s media and left-wing intelligentsia see Barack Obama as the most appealing candidate for the U.S. presidency. He exemplifies what the French leftist magazine Le Nouvel Observateur calls “the America we like.” Most Europeans deny that they’re anti-American; they argue instead that there are two Americas—the good and the bad. Michael Moore is a good American, honored with the Cannes film festival’s highest prize in 2006 for his anti-Bush fantasy documentary Fahrenheit 9/11…”

New York, Spare Unruly Teenagers the Cockroach Treatment, New York Daily News, by Anthony Daniels
“In Britain, adolescents are the new mosquitoes. Many storekeepers and municipalities now employ ultrasonic devices, of the kind hitherto used to scatter insects and rodents, to disperse young people wherever they habitually gather to make a nuisance of themselves. The so-called “mosquito” devices - there are some 3,500 installed throughout the country - take advantage of the fact that only people younger than 20 can perceive and be discomfited by the high-pitched sounds the devices make, discouraging them from lingering in the vicinity…”

William F. Buckley Jr. (1925-2008), Town Hall, by Thomas Sowell
“Writing in 1954, Lionel Trilling said that most conservatives do not “express themselves in ideas but only in action or in irritable mental gestures which seek to resemble ideas.” One of the perks of being a liberal is disdaining people who are not liberals. However, as of 1954, Trilling’s dismissive attitude toward conservatives’ intellectual landscape was painfully close to the truth…”

Obama’s Pessimistic Message, RealClearPolitics, by Victor Davis Hanson
“Liberal Democrats from the North haven’t had much success in recent presidential elections — not Hubert Humphrey, not George McGovern, not Walter Mondale, not Mike Dukakis and not John Kerry. Democratic Southerners — Lyndon Johnson, Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton — have done quite a bit better…”

Not Just a Presidential-Election Year, National Review Online, by John J. Miller
“Many Republicans believe that when they picked John McCain as their presidential nominee, they settled on the candidate who has the best chance of winning in November. It may be that he’s a good nominee for GOP Senate candidates as well, if he nudges the electorate a little to the Right of where it would be otherwise. Seeing Hillary Clinton somehow come from behind to swipe the Democratic nomination from Barack Obama wouldn’t hurt, either…”

Bulletin! Students Learn Better When Taught, Roger’s Rules, by Roger Kimball
“Will wonders never cease? This just in from the left, I mean West, coast: people studying English as a second language learn it more effectively when they are taught grammar. I too am flabbergasted. But there it is. Under the splendid headline “English as a proficient language,” The Oregonian reports that some 9,000 students passed the state English examination last year, up from 4,000 the year before. Why the dramatic improvement?…”