Is al-Sistani Really Issuing Fatwas? And Was John Roberts Playing Peppermint Patty?

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Updates on two (relatively) recent blog posts of mine (not because anyone asked, but because I want to keep on giving).

First, a while back, I linked to an AP story that claimed that "moderate" Shiite cleric Ali al-Sistani was issuing fatwas against U.S. troops, or was contemplating the same. The Weekly Standard's Bill Roggio says it ain't necessarily so here.

Second, in a May 7 blog post about John McCain's stated intention to appoint "conservative" judges similar to Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, I asked readers to never forget that da judge played Peppermint Patty in his all-boys' high school production of You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown (if I'm not mistaken, I've trotted out this bit o' trivia virtually every time I mention Roberts). reason contributor, screenwriter, and Univ. of Chicago Law School grad Steve Kurtz wrote to inform me:

I'm tired of seeing this mistake reprinted.  There is no Peppermint Patty character in You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown. There is a Patty, based on one of the personality-free girls from the early Peanuts strip. The show was a huge off-Broadway hit debuting in 1967—since Peppermint Patty made her first appearance in late 1966, the show was probably written before she even existed. Charlie Brown has since gone on to be one of the most-performed musicals of all, partly because it's very entertaining, partly because everyone reads Peanuts, partly because it's so cheap to produce.  When it was revived on Broadway in 1999, the character of Patty was dropped and Sally, Charlie Brown's younger sister, was added.  She was played by Kristin Chenoweth, who got the best reviews and won a Tony for the role.

I'm happy to set the record straight on that score, though I'll note that the non-minty Patty, while indeed being personality-free, is in the very first Peanuts strip, and yes that is Shermy, dear angry Shermy, the Chuck Cunningham of the Chas. Schulz universe, making about the best joke ever in the whole run of the strip: