The next morning, Cortez assembled the Cholulan caciques, commanders, nobles, and priests, together with the Tlaxcalan commanders, in the freshly swept courtyard.  Mounted on his horse, he had the Mesheeka ambassadors standing on one side, and Malinali on the other.  Behind him were arrayed his officers, resplendent in polished armor, and a contingent of Totonac warriors led by Mamexi, all in their finest feather headdresses.  Cortez began speaking to the Cholulans sternly:

"Two days ago, the king of Cholula was guilty of a great treachery, which he and his followers paid for with their lives.  The entire city of Cholula deserves to be destroyed for this treachery, and your enemies of Tlaxcala wished to do so.  But you are subjects of the Lord Montezuma, and it is out of my respect for him that I will forgive Cholula.  I will pardon and forgive Cholula on one condition:  that the Cholulans make peace with Tlaxcala.  Nobles and leaders of Cholula:  have you chosen one among you to now be your king?"

Amazing scenes from Baltimore: rioters throwing bricks at police, looting and burning down a CVS pharmacy and other stores, stomping on police cars and setting them on fire.

The rioting followed the funeral of Freddie Gray on Monday (4/27), a black man who died in police custody in uncertain circumstances. The next day (4/28), National Guard in camouflage patrolled the streets, and a curfew was imposed.

The rioters also burned down a housing project for seniors and a community centre, a $16million investment by the Southern Baptist Church that was due to open in six months. It was meant to be a sign of hope in a blighted area.

And yet, despite the evident self-destructiveness, some were claiming that the rioters were "uprisers" that represented a "rebellion". Morehouse College professor Mark Hill Lamont told CNN that the turmoil in Baltimore was "resistance to oppression" rather than rioting.  Salon commentator Benji Hart called the rioting a "legitimate political strategy"

But there was nothing "political" in the rioting and looting. In fact, in political terms, destroying one's neighborhood is a big setback for those who want to have legitimate concerns about policing addressed and effect other changes.  Liberals seem to not care less.

We all make mistakes, and sometimes those mistakes let other people down, or hurt them. What's the best way to deal with the people we've disappointed or hurt?

It matters how you apologize, and Heidi Grant Halverson, author of Focus, has some great advice about this. It's personally useful, but can also help us understand a dynamic that affects political differences with friends and neighbors.

The most important thing to remember is that when you have let somebody down, or done them harm, they don't care very much about how this affected you. When you start by explaining why you did or didn't do the act that you're apologizing for, you're telling them about yourself, and not addressing the effect you've had on them.

The best way to apologize is to start with the other person in mind, based on realizing that person will have different expectations depending on your relationship with them.  Here's how.

As Chairman of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, it was John McCain who launched the investigation of lobbyist Jack Abramoff. 

Those investigations provided the springboard for the incredible media frenzy of the "Abramoff lobbying scandals."  The Washington Post, for example, ran over 50 above-the-fold front page headline stories on Abramoff to feed the frenzy.

Jack Abramoff is in jail today because of John McCain.  Now it's payback time.  Abramoff will be setting off a bombshell timed to do maximum damage to his nemesis right before the election. 

And in so doing, he will be ripping the lid off and exposing the dirtiest secret of how Washington really works.  The way it works is like this.

The Jade Steps

Chapter Twenty One: The  Trap of Cholula

They spent most of the siesta, the Spaniards' period of rest after the mid-day meal, having fun turning Spanish words into Nahuatl. Malinali was having so much fun it made her forgetful. She shook her head. "I must leave," she told them. "Our Mesheeka guests have come for their daily ceremony of complaining to Captain Cortez, and I must be there, for it is through me that they address their complaints."

"Have fun," Aguilar joked. Malinali sighed. "Our talking - that was fun. But ‘fun' and ‘Mesheeka' are two words that don't go together - in Spanish or Nahuatl."

Today is the nineteenth day here in Tlaxcala, she thought as she walked to Cortez's quarters, and for every one of those days, the Mesheeka emissaries who had accompanied them from Xocotlan had come to complain to Cortez about what terrible people the Tlaxcalans were, how they were all traitors and thieves and poor and wicked and not fit even to be slaves. It was so tiresome to hear and translate, and how Cortez could pretend to always be courteous and polite, or even stay awake, during the daily moaning, she didn't know.

When she saw the crowd of soldiers in front of Cortez's quarters, she realized something was different.