Victoria Pynchon, an attorney-mediator whose impressive credentials include 25 years of experience in commercial litigation coupled with an LL.M. in dispute resolution from the Straus Institute, Pepperdine Law School, has just launched a negotiation blog, Settle It Now Blog Spot.

Vickie describes her blog this way:

My blog is a negotiation blog, covering distributive and integrative negotiation techniques, interspersed with short articles about the social psychology of conflict, transformational mediation and mindfulness in commercial mediation and litigation…I find that most litigators and trial attorneys HATE to negotiate because they have never been educated or trained to do so. The blog is meant to convey the nuts and bolts essentials of mediation and to do so in a lively and entertaining manner. I hope attorneys will be able to skim my entries in the 5 minutes they have every other day to take a breath and relax.

Vickie also publishes Settle It Now, a web-based dispute resolution journal.

Bad news arrives from England today–bad news most certainly for Americans like myself who are committed to the principles of international diplomacy.

Justin Patten at Human Law reports on the results of a survey of Britons published in the Daily Telegraph which shows that Britain, formerly one of America’s closest allies, now has a deeply negative view of the U.S. as a direct result of the Bush administration’s strong-arm approach to foreign policy.

From the Telegraph’s report:

A majority of Britons think American culture and the actions of the present American administration are making the world a worse place to live in, and almost no one believes America is now, if it ever was, a beacon to the world. Well over half of those interviewed regard the US as an imperial power bent on dominating the world by one means or another.

Americans can read all the grim details here. (And if you need some cheering up, here’s a clock counting down to Bush’s last day in office.)

Anyone who follows American politics knows that the quality of public discourse has deteriorated rapidly here in recent years. Facts no longer matter. Irrationality triumphs over common sense. Personal attacks on character and patriotism are the rule. Informed, intelligent debate by political leaders and other public figures no longer seems possible.

In an effort to stem the rapidly flowing tide of partisan vitriol here in the U.S., four Wesleyan University graduates teamed up to create BeyondPartisan.org, a web site designed to foster a different kind of discourse:

The Beyond Partisan process begins with an issue-article, a brief and accessible piece focusing on a single policy area. Fact-based and reasoned issue-articles push the bounds of previous efforts and expand the borders of consideration. Simple, short and open dialogue through web-posting creates a conversation to which each American is invited—a conversation which no American should ignore. Your contribution must not stop at short responses. Your full-length opinion pieces will act as your personal message to your fellow citizens: this is the editorial page for every American. We must as citizens reflect upon our discussion and find the shared values which move us toward consensus. This is not the partisan tirade of lone-gunmen bloggers; this is a return to the egalitarian foundation of America’s birth through the means of modern technology.

For further information, read the BeyondPartisan.org mission statement.