Mark Whittington has a flashback to the sixties, and discusses the myth that Apollo took food from the mouths of starving babies, complete with a dated and nonsensical protest song by Gil Scott-Heron.

While it seems appalling at first blush, Nathan Lewin has a possible, right-out-of-the-bible-eye-for-an-eye solution to discourage human bombs–kill their families.

It’s not quite that simple. He proposes sparing any who will renounce the act and don’t accept the blood money from the terrorist sponsors, so they have an out. But he hopes that it will create a dramatic change in the incentive structure for the “martyrs.”

My entry:

“My Other Car Is Air Force Two”

One wonders if Monica Lewinsky will ever become an adult.

Tom Brosz is fending off some of them over at Habitable Zone.

Several people, including Instantman and the Vodka guy, have linked to this TechCentral piece by Pejman, saying that it shows that we’re gearing up for war with Iraq.

I don’t see anywhere that it makes such a case. There is some evidence presented that we are not, and some (perhaps) wishful thinking expressed that there’s more going on than we see, but he provides no actual evidence of it, and that only in the second graf.

Mostly, it’s a description (with which I mostly agree) of why we should be doing so, but I see little here to persuade me that we actually are.

Sounds like things are getting ripe for another coup, far bloodier than the last one.

Chavez is purging the armed forces.

But Chavez has removed so many generals and admirals since the coup that he has been obliged to appoint some lower-ranking colonels in their place, causing resentment among senior officers.

“Meritocracy is being replaced by unconditional commitment and loyalty to the president,” said Vice Adm. Rafael Huizi Clavier, president of the Institutional Military Front, a group of retired senior officers critical of Chavez. “The fundamental values of the armed forces are being lost and the military is becoming a praetorian guard.”

For anyone who tried to view the site in the last few hours, you may have noticed a blank page. I had a disk allocation problem that didn’t allow the index to update. If you’re reading this, it’s fixed.

OK, I couldn’t find it with Google. Everyone inside the Beltway has to use a shorthand name for the various officials. It’s the law.

Let me be the first to declare the DC shorthand for the Secretary of the new department (assuming that it passes Congress, with the proposed name).

It’s based on the same principle as SecDef for the Secretary of Defense.

There will also be UnderSecHomeSecs.

(By the way, the dental work went OK, for anyone who cares. Light posting this weekend, back to normal on Monday.)

Posting will be light/non-existent today, at least until much later. I’ve got some major dental work scheduled this morning. Hopefully the painkillers will make for some interesting posts this evening…