Molly Ivins gets all huffy about Karl Rove "impuning" her patriotism. Then she proceeds to claim that American soldiers "killed more Iraqis than Saddam Hussein ever did." A strange kind of patriotism that accuses American soldiers of being more genocidal than Saddam. I guess Ms. Molly gets her talking points from the same place as Dick Durbin, though at least she didn't use the word "Nazi."

Latest in a series of travel pieces, A History Lovers Guide to Bologna.

Ward Churchill advocates the murder of American military officers. Mrs. Curmudgeon is very displeased.

I think it's time for a good tarring and feathering.

Dr. Walter Williams explains the relationship between the Kelo Ruling and the far left's jihad against Bush's judicial nominees.

Latest in a series of travel pieces, A History Lovers Guide to Istanbul.

Latest in a series of travel pieces, A History Lovers Guide to Athens.

President Ronald Reagan has been voted the greatest American, edging out Lincoln, Washington, and Martin Luther King. Worse, from the point of view of the far left, President George W. Bush made number six and his career is not even over yet.

Of course Clinton came out ahead of Elvis and that's just wrong.

Yet another wild eyed lefty finds Hillary unacceptable.

It is nice to know that in a political culture that seems to value dissembling and compromise that there is at least one leader of principle and certitude.

Would it not be the sweetest of ironies if Justice David Souter could be the first victim of that horrible ruling that the government can take your house for essentially any reason?

Shelby Foote, the great civil war historian who so graced Ken Burns' Civil War minseries, has died at the age of 88.

Latest in a series of travel pieces, A History Lovers Guide to Dublin.

A sequel to Master and Commander? Perhaps even two? I'm certainly all for it. But that means Russell Crowe has to stay out of jail.

There are some very interesting things in the House version of the NASA Authorization Bill. First, it actually orders NASA to return people to the Moon before 2020. That means that Science Committee Chairman Sherwood Boehlert, who has had a kind of passive/aggressive stance against the Vision for Space Exploration, seems to have finally concluded that it's going to happen. Second, there's a pretty good provision for prizes in the bill. It doesn't limit the amount of money NASA can spend for a prize (albeit with reporting provisions for prizes over 10 million dollars) and allows NASA to solicit funds from the private sector and other agencies to finance prizes. Finally, the bill is going to include some legislation about Earth approaching objects. This is important for two reasons. One such object took out the dinosaurs and another could do the same for us. Second, a lot of those objects have great value. A nickel-iron asteroid could have trillions in usable minerals.

Looks like Michael Griffin is serious about contracting out resupply and crew rotation services for the space station to the private sector. That is, if the private sector can deliver.

Alan Wasser has uncovered Johnson Administration documents revealing for the first time the true purpose of the 1967 Outer Space Treaty. Essentially the treaty was designed to curtail spending on space exploration after the Apollo Moon landing in order to divert that spending to social programs (i.e. the Great Society) and foreign aid. Considering the history of the past thirty years, it is a damning indictment of LBJ's space policy.

More reviews of Serenity, based on Thurday night's screening.

A new poem by Sappho, one of the greatest poets of the ancient world, has been uncovered.

Now that the Supreme Court says governments can take your house or business for private development, there is a proposal to add an amendment to the Texas Constitution to make sure that can't happen in Texas. As well there should be. Indeed, there needs to be something of the life added to the US Constitution.

Last night we saw a sneak preview of the film Serenity. It's the movie spinoff of Firefly, the splendid science fiction series that was mishandled by the Fox Network and then cast aside into cancellation oblivion. Without revealing any details, the movie does tie up some plot lines in the series, and opens some new ones that could be handled in sequels. And Ms. Curmudgeon and myself were blown away by the sheer splendor of this epic SF western. It had a heart and soul that has been conspicuously lacking in certain other (ahem!) genre offerings in recent weeks. I urge everyone who reads this to see Serenity when in opens in late September.

M. E. Russell has some more thoughts.

And, oh yes, go and buy the DVD of the series you likely missed:

Addendum: More from Ms. Curmudgeon.