Angel >> U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell Last Thursday on MTV, Powell advocated the use of condoms to sexually active young people in a worldwide broadcast, angering Republican right-wingers. Powell’s frank talk may have alienated groups like the Family Research Council, American Values and Concerned Women for America, but his realistic look at the sex lives of the world’s youth will probably do more good than any amount of hypocrisy or wishful thinking on the part of the religious right. Officially the White House promotes abstinence as the number one weapon against HIV/AIDS and unwanted pregnancy.

Insect >>Canadian premiers’ Kyoto Protocol pouting Alberta’s Ralph Klein made a stink this week during a trade mission in Moscow about how nine out of 10 provincial premiers don’t support the ratification of the Kyoto Protocol (Quebec was the odd province out). The premiers think that meeting the target of a 26 per cent reduction in greenhouse gases by 2012 will harm the economy (it will, a federal study shows, but not that badly). The provincial premiers didn’t mention the costs in health care due to smog-related illness, of natural disasters from floods to draught, or the benefits from developing cleaner technologies.