Evil

You didn't think Lewis Black was going to let convention week go by without stirring the political pot on his weekly The Root of All Evil show on Comedy Central. This week's topic: Red States vs. Blue States. The question: Which is the greater threat? Black's "history" of conservative and liberal geography is worth a tune-in by itself: "The Civil War ended in 1865, unless you live in the South." Unfortunately, I can't find another line to quote that wouldn't offend someone. But one of the jobs of a comedian, especially a political comedian, is to push the boundaries and make us uncomfortable enough to rethink our beliefs and prejudices - and cable TV is the place to do that.

Alexander Solzhenitsyn is dead. Peter Rodman is dead. And memory is dying with them. Over the weekend, Mr. Solzhenitsyn, the 89-year-old literary titan, and Mr. Rodman, the American foreign policy intellectual, passed away. I knew Mr. Rodman and liked him very much. We were partners in a debate at Oxford University last year. He provided the gravitas. A former protege of Henry Kissinger and high-ranking official in two Republican administrations, Mr. Rodman was one of the wisest of the wise men of the conservative foreign policy establishment.

You want to understand the evil of Radovan Karadzic, the former Bosnian Serb leader who was arrested last week for war crimes committed in the Balkans during the early 1990s? Then read the obituary that has just appeared of Dinko Sakic, who was convicted of war crimes in the Balkans during the Holocaust. And consider, too, the behaviors, beliefs and psychologies of mass murderers in other places, both leaders and followers, who were no less monstrous than they were. Almost invariably, this rogue's gallery of killers remained unrepentant about what they did, believing to the end in the justice of their actions and their causes.

Yankees@Orioles 7 P.M. [MASN2] The Evil Empire hits town, with Daniel Cabrera (above) scheduled to pitch for the Orioles. The Yankees, who typically look at a lot of pitches, were not a terrific matchup for the big guy last year. Cabrera was 1-3, giving up 18 earned runs in 27 innings. But the victory was a shutout in which he went 6 2/3 innings and gave up just two hits.

Labeling abortion `evil' is just unfair I don't know what outraged me more about Steve Chapman's column on abortion: The fact that he assumes a decline in the number of abortions is bad news for the pro-choice advocates or that he finds it acceptable to call abortion "evil" ("America's growing aversion to abortion," Opinion Commentary, Jan. 21). First of all, the pro-choice community works harder to reduce the number of abortions in the United States than the anti-abortion folks do. We are the ones fighting to make sure women have access to contraceptive services so they can reduce the chance that they will be in the position of deciding whether or not to have an abortion.

The Army's brightest young officers - the men and women upon whom the success of the service genuinely relies - are voting with their feet. Every West Point graduate must serve five years after leaving the academy, and historically all but about 29 percent of them continued their military careers after that term was up. But no more - as McClatchy Newspapers has reported, 35 percent of the Class of 2000 left the Army five years after graduation; 46...

DENVER-- --The Boston Red Sox obviously have forgotten where they came from. Didn't this used to be the long-suffering American League franchise that waited 86 years between World Series titles and led the majors in historic baseball angst for most of the 20th century? Well, it's a new century and the Red Sox look a lot more like their archrivals in New York than the team that used to torment its fans with ever more imaginative ways to either stay out of the World Series or, failing that, let the Fall Classic slip away in historically frustrating fashion.

So, is it time to start really disliking the New England Patriots? The beat-down of the Dolphins was certainly predictable. The Patriots have become the equivalent of a powerhouse college team that can run up the score at will against lesser opponents. They have a coach who is a convicted (by the NFL) angle-shooter. And a front office that is playing Big Brother by forcing an online ticket broker to give up the names and personal identification of 13,000 people who were involved in Patriots ticket transactions during the past several years.

WORLD Israeli raid targeted a reactor Israel's air attack on Syria last month was directed against a site that Israeli and U.S. intelligence judged was a partly constructed nuclear reactor, apparently modeled on one North Korea has used. pg 19a Vatican suspends monsignor The Vatican said yesterday that it has suspended a monsignor from a senior post at the Holy See after an Italian TV program using a hidden camera recorded him making advances to a young man and asserting that gay sex was not sinful.

THE WINNER Long shot Evil Storm rallied to win the $300,000 Classic, the feature race on Maryland Million Day at Laurel Park yesterday. Jockey Jeremy Rose guided Evil Storm to victory in 1:58.19 over 1 3/16 miles. Favorite Five Steps was three lengths back, Diamond David finished third and defending champion Due fourth. The 12-race card drew a record crowd of 26,788. THE PAYOUTS Horse Win Place Show Evil Storm $25.20 $9.00 $6.20 Five Steps $3.40 $2.60 Diamond David $10.40 MORE COVERAGE Notebook, results.