Virginia Postrel (who still doesn’t have any way to permalink individual posts) has some good thoughts on the cloning debate today.
Honor
For people who agree with Kathy Kinsley’s proposal that the Afghan scientists who hid the radioactive material from Al Qaeda deserve a Peace Prize, there’s now an on-line petition available.
I’ve signed it. (Thanks to Dan Hartung for setting it up)
[Update at 10:45AM PDT]
When I signed early this morning, I was number four. Now there are twenty seven. I know that Kathy and I have both publicized it, but don’t know if anyone else has picked it up on their blogs yet. We’ll know that Instantman has when it starts jumping by orders of magnitude. Did all those signatures come from my and Kathy’s site?
[1:11PM PDT Update]
Now there are thirty seven signatures, and I see that Bill Quick has linked to it.
Let’s see how fast we can spread this meme.
Remembrance And Celebration
As I discussed last week, today is the forty-first anniversary of the first manned spaceflight, and the twenty-first anniversary of the first Shuttle flight. The Yuri’s Night celebrations will occur all over the world today. They’ll be doing a continuous webcast, and the number of worldwide (and offworld) parties is now up to a hundred and twenty.
Hit ‘Em Again, Harder…Harder
As if he hadn’t rendered Mr. Antiwarblogger sufficiently subterranean yesterday, Lileks pounds him a few feet deeper. The rest of the bleat is hilarious as well.
Hit ‘Em Again, Harder…Harder
As if he hadn’t rendered Mr. Antiwarblogger sufficiently subterranean yesterday, Lileks pounds him a few feet deeper. The rest of the bleat is hilarious as well.
Hit ‘Em Again, Harder…Harder
As if he hadn’t rendered Mr. Antiwarblogger sufficiently subterranean yesterday, Lileks pounds him a few feet deeper. The rest of the bleat is hilarious as well.
Well, Duhhhh…
Not there was much doubt, but Israel has provided the U.S. government with evidence of Arafat’s complicity in the Israeli terror attacks.
More Irony
The growing sense of new pogroms against Jews worldwide may spur additional emigration to Israel, further confounding Palestinian extremists’ goals. Some may conclude that Israel, buttressed by a growing Jewish population willing and able to defend itself, may be the safest place…
Wobbly Watch
An interesting article in the weekly Standard by Kristol (never known as a big Bush fan) and Kagan, asks the question, “has Bush jumped off the anti-terrorism train?
Either this is more of a deep deception by the White House and, as Jonah Goldberg has pointed out, they have recognized that a “war on terrorism” is indeed too simplistic, and has declared war on the real enemy instead, but don’t want to tip their hand yet, or they really are out to sea in a policy sense. There’s insufficient evidence for me to tell which is the case.
End Near For Chavez?
A half a million people reportedly marched on the Palace in Caracas demanding his resignation.
If he refuses, can a coup be far behind?
[Update at 2:37PM PDT]
Now, he’s apparently shut down the private television stations, while condemning them on the government station. This is always the end point of imposed socialism. No other freedom can survive the usurpation of property rights.
I think that President Chavez is due for a long vacation in someplace like Havana, and soon.
[Update at 2:52 PM PDT]
Here’s the latest update from AP.
Multiple shots were fired near the palace, and scuffles with police erupted in several downtown locations. Some people fired on crowds from rooftops. A body lay in a pool of blood next to the presidential palace.
Greater Caracas Mayor Alfredo Pena, a Chavez opponent, quoted Manuel Rojas, director of Caracas’ Hospital Vargas, as saying that four people were killed and 24 wounded.
“Chavez has shown his true face. This dictator’s apprentice brutally ordered the repression of a peaceful demonstration,” Pena claimed.
[Late update at 10:34PM PDT]
The coup is now official according to Reuters. Chavez is history.
I don’t know if this is good, but getting rid of Chavez surely isn’t bad. At a minimum, we should be in there gathering up any intel that we can, to see what kind of mischief Castro was up to in South America, and what relationships there may have been with guerilla groups like FARC in Colombia (which may be the next threat to stability in the region).