I don’t often praise Democrats, but I want to point out that there have been at least three who have been acting as statemen, rather than politicians, recently. One is Joe Biden (surprisingly to me, because I’ve never been very impressed with him in the past). A second is Evan Bayh. And a third is Bob Kerrey. It’s a shame that they have to share a party with the likes of Ted Kennedy.

I was also gratified to see Condi Rice amend her previous statement (“Nobody could have imagine using planes as weapons”) which is hands-down the dumbest thing that she’s ever said (and it’s rare for her to say things remotely dumb). She said in this morning’s hearing that she should have said “I couldn’t imagine…”

I also disagree with her that armoring cockpits was the only thing that we might have done to prevent 911. A different attitude toward hijacking by the public would have helped as well. Now that we have the mentality that there are purposes of hijacking beyond extortion–that there are worse things than losing an airplane and its passengers, it will be much more difficult if not impossible to hijack an aircraft, and if we’d somehow had that mentality prior to 911, the towers might still stand.

[Late afternoon update]

Just in case anyone was confused, I was referring to Senator Kerrey’s piece in the Wall Street Journal today, to which I linked above (sorry, registration may be required), not his hectoring performance in the hearings this morning.

In comments on this post, Marcus Lindroos wrote, apparently from some other planet:

Simberg: I suspect that what the EU is really worried about is that, with Arafat’s death, as with Saddam’s downfall, a lot of dirty laundry may come out in terms of the depths of the corruption of their dealings with him. Old Yasser reputedly has a some pretty sizable European bank accounts. How much of his thievery has he been kicking back to the Eurocrats?

So you “suspect” this is the case… Where is the evidence? Why always suspect the darkest of motives when discussing something that (quite frankly) isn’t perceived as a very important issue over here?

Really, Rand, it’s sad to see how a previously level-headed intelligent guy like you keep firing one dumb anti-European tirade after another. Why do you keep undermining your credibility like this? Why not simply stick to (commercial-) space policy? You make so much more sense talking about that.

While it doesn’t talk about kickbacks, there’s obviously abundant evidence that EU money has been funding terrorism, and that EU bureaucrats have been studiously looking the other way.

The tragedy, of course, as I replied to Marcus then, is that corruption and under-the-table support of terrorism in the EU “isn’t perceived as a very important issue” over there. It explains much about the continuing decline of Europe. Why do I suspect the darkest of motives, Marcus? Because I’ve been observing them for too long, and I know their character.

As for my credibility, I’ll let others judge that, but you might want to consider that it’s not my level-headedness that’s being inconsistent.

Just a thought.

In perusing the latest issue of The New Atlantis (which also has pieces by editor Adam Keiper, Bob Park and Bob Zubrin on the new space policy–the Park and Zubrin pieces are regurgitations of the Great Debate), I see that Professor Diana Schaub, one of the recent appointments to the president’s Bioethics Commission (of which much has been discussed in the blogosphere), says that immortality is a bad thing.

Star Trek episodes. I kid you not.

In perusing the latest issue of The New Atlantis (which also has pieces by editor Adam Keiper, Bob Park and Bob Zubrin on the new space policy–the Park and Zubrin pieces are regurgitations of the Great Debate), I see that Professor Diana Schaub, one of the recent appointments to the president’s Bioethics Commission (of which much has been discussed in the blogosphere), says that immortality is a bad thing.

Star Trek episodes. I kid you not.

In perusing the latest issue of The New Atlantis (which also has pieces by editor Adam Keiper, Bob Park and Bob Zubrin on the new space policy–the Park and Zubrin pieces are regurgitations of the Great Debate), I see that Professor Diana Schaub, one of the recent appointments to the president’s Bioethics Commission (of which much has been discussed in the blogosphere), says that immortality is a bad thing.

Star Trek episodes. I kid you not.

In honor of the occasion, I’ve decided to make all of today’s posts green.

Now I’m going out to the store to pick up a corned beef–a dish that I only have once a year (partly because Patricia doesn’t like it, but I’m back in California, and she’s in Florida, so I can indulge the holiday and my tastes). I may make some soda bread as well.

In honor of the occasion, I’ve decided to make all of today’s posts green.

Now I’m going out to the store to pick up a corned beef–a dish that I only have once a year (partly because Patricia doesn’t like it, but I’m back in California, and she’s in Florida, so I can indulge the holiday and my tastes). I may make some soda bread as well.

In honor of the occasion, I’ve decided to make all of today’s posts green.

Now I’m going out to the store to pick up a corned beef–a dish that I only have once a year (partly because Patricia doesn’t like it, but I’m back in California, and she’s in Florida, so I can indulge the holiday and my tastes). I may make some soda bread as well.

A deranged young man attempted to crucify himself. Horizontally.

He may be a danger to himself, but clearly not to society.

Just how ignorant are network news anchors?

Don’t ask, but consider that while cruising the channels, the guy on CNN Newsnight said that the new object discovered, several billion miles away, was the “most distant object found in the universe.”