Rand Simberg has some more fun with World War II reported in the modern vein.

Hugh Hewitt imagines the current LA Times, as well as other lilly liverered media organizations, reporting World War II as they are reporting the War against Saddam.

"Hedgerow Hell: Allies Stall in Fields of Normandy"
"Cherbourg Out of Reach --Eisenhower rushing reinforcements. Did Ike underestimate the Nazis?"
"Caen: Montgomery's First Day Objective Still Under Nazi Control"
"Only Rumors of Rockets--No 'Secret Weapons' in Early Fighting"
"St. Loo in Ruins--Hundreds of French Civilians Dead As Historic Village Leveled"
"No Signs of Jewish Revolt in Warsaw--Paris Does Not Rise Up on News of Invasion."
"Germans in Berlin rally to their Fuhrer."

Ralph Peters examins the role of special ops warriors in the war against Saddam. The Rambo Hollywood stereotype is very wide of the mark.

Is there a reporter in all the world more arrogant and clueless than Peter "Lord Haw Haw" Arnett? In earlier times, this sort of thing, rendering aid and comfort to an enemy in time of war, was called treason.

Update: For his service to the Republic of Iraq, NBC has given Arnett the Order of the Boot.

Michael Moore, that fat fraud who managed the unprecendented feat of getting booed at the Oscars, is plotting another atrocity. More proof that the Left is self destructing.

Also, Rod Dreher admonishes Mel Gibson for getting in bed with Michael Moore. Now there's a subject for an interesting conspiratorial documentary. How does one one Hollywood's leading religious conservatives get hooked up with one of the world's most obnoxious socialist jackasses?

The Core, a movie about a team of scientists who have to travel to the center of the Earth to save the Earth, opened yesterday. It was an OK, formula ridden disaster film. Interestingly enough, the science in the movie wasn't all that bad, at least by Hollywood standards.

It looks like Saddam has fired the command of Iraqi air defenses. I wonder if the firing took place against a blood splattered wall.

Also it looks like the marketplace "bombing" was not the fault of the allies.

Drudge is reporting that Madonna's latest video will depict Madonna trying to frag the Commander in Chief. You know, it's getting to be that it is almost impossible to demonize the Left any more as the Left is doing a so much better job of demonizing themselves.

Dr. Paul Spudis had some remarks about lunar ice estimates over on the Space Policy forum:

There are several things in this piece that are not quite correct. Our work merely re-estimates, based on modelling, the true amount of permanent shadow near the poles -- we did not re-estimate the amounts of water. The water quantity estimate is from the LP neutron spectrometer team, who, on the basis of the NS signal, estimate an aggregate amount of TEN (10) billion metric tons of hydrogen (total, at both poles). However, the LP neutron data only senses the upper 30 cm of the Moon, so I imagine that the actual amounts are really much greater -- the Clementine bistatic experiment used S-band radar (13 cm wavelength) and it senses roughly a couple of meters deep or so.

The second thing wrong is the quote attributed to me. I never said anything about mining "precious metals" -- the Moon has no large concentrations of such (as far as we know). My argument was that the water at the poles was valuable enough, both for life-support and for rocket fuel. I also argue for a government-sponsored Lunar Return, an R&D effort with the object of learning how to use off-planet resources. That's a slightly different position than the one attributed to me in this article (about which, by the way, nobody called or talked to me).

The real significance of the increase in the darkness estimate is to increase the POTENTIAL for much greater amounts of lunar water; it does not prove they exist. In any event, we need a series of new, reconnaissance missions to document exactly how much ice there is, where it occurs, what its purity and concentration is, and its physical, chemical, and isotopic make up. This requires at least one new orbital mission and one new landed mission, carrying the appropriate instruments.

The Canadian Parliement has voted to call for the indictment of Saddam Hussein and his cronies for war crimes. Am I to assume that Canada will shortly join in Allied efforts to apprehend these war criminals?

Along with our Canadian friends and our Nowegian friends, we now have the German Friends of America.

Ralph Peters describes the horrendous battle fought by the 3rd Squadron of the 7th Cavalry against Iraqi fanatics.

Several readers, by the way, have asked about my reference to Garryowen in a previous post. Garryowen is the title of the regimental song, chosen over a hundred years ago by it's then commander, one Colonel George Armstrong Custer. It goes like this:

Let Bacchus' sons be not dismayed
But join with me, each jovial blade
Come, drink and sing and lend your aid
To help me with the chorus:

cho: Instead of spa, we'll drink brown ale
And pay the reckoning on the nail;
No man for debt shall go to jail
From Garryowen in glory.

We'll beat the bailiffs out of fun,
We'll make the mayor and sheriffs run
We are the boys no man dares dun
If he regards a whole skin.

Our hearts so stout have got no fame
For soon 'tis known from whence we came
Where'er we go they fear the name
Of Garryowen in glory.

The war in Iraq is taking place amidst places made famous in both the Bible and the Koran, including Ur and Babylon.

Former Senator and UN Ambassador Daniel Patrick Moynihan has died. Albeit a Democrat, Moynihan was a true statesman and , unlike most pols of either party, not only read books but actually wrote a few of them worth reading.

Passed on by reader Steve Johnson, one of my favorite iconoclasts Dennis Miller has some words of wisdom:

TRYING TO HELP...BY DENNIS MILLER


ALL THE RHETORIC ON WHETHER OR NOT WE SHOULD GO TO WAR AGAINST IRAQ HAS GOT MY INSANE LITTLE BRAIN SPINNING LIKE A ROULETTE WHEEL. I ENJOY READING OPINIONS FROM BOTH SIDES BUT I HAVE DETECTED A HINT OF CONFUSION FROM SOME OF YOU.

AS I WAS READING THE PAPER RECENTLY, I WAS REMINDED OF THE BEST ADVICE SOMEONE EVER GAVE ME. HE TOLD ME ABOUT THE KISS METHOD ("KEEP IT SIMPLE, STUPID!) SO, WITH THIS AS A THEME, I'D LIKE TO APPLY HIS THEORY FOR THOSE WHO DON'T QUITE GET IT. MY HOPE IS THAT WE CAN SIMPLIFY THINGS A BIT AND RECOGNIZE A FEW IMPORTANT FACTS.

HERE ARE 10 THINGS TO CONSIDER WHEN VOICING AN OPINION ON THIS IMPORTANT ISSUE:

1) BETWEEN PRESIDENT BUSH AND SADDAM HUSSEIN ... HUSSEIN IS THE BAD GUY.

2) IF YOU HAVE FAITH IN THE UNITED NATIONS TO DO THE RIGHT THING KEEP THIS IN MIND, THEY HAVE LIBYA HEADING THE COMMITTEE ON HUMAN RIGHTS AND IRAQ HEADING THE GLOBAL DISARMAMENT COMMITTEE. DO YOUR OWN MATH HERE

3) IF YOU USE GOOGLE SEARCH AND TYPE IN "FRENCH MILITARY VICTORIES," YOUR REPLY WILL BE "DID YOU MEAN FRENCH MILITARY DEFEATS?"

4) IF YOUR ONLY ANTI-WAR SLOGAN IS "NO WAR FOR OIL," SUE YOUR SCHOOL DISTRICT FOR ALLOWING YOU TO SLIP THROUGH THE CRACKS AND ROBBING YOU OF THE EDUCATION YOU DESERVE.

5) SADDAM AND BIN LADEN WILL NOT SEEK UNITED NATIONS APPROVAL BEFORE THEY TRY TO KILL US.

6) DESPITE COMMON BELIEF, MARTIN SHEEN IS NOT THE PRESIDENT. HE PLAYS ONE ON T.V.

7) EVEN IF YOU ARE ANTI-WAR, YOU ARE STILL AN "INFIDEL!" AND BIN LADEN WANTS YOU DEAD, TOO.

8) IF YOU BELIEVE IN A "VAST RIGHT-WING CONSPIRACY" BUT NOT IN THE DANGER THAT HUSSEIN POSES, QUIT HANGING OUT WITH THE DELL COMPUTER DUDE.

9) WE ARE NOT TRYING TO LIBERATE THEM.

10) WHETHER YOU ARE FOR MILITARY ACTION OR AGAINST IT, OUR YOUNG MEN AND WOMEN OVERSEAS ARE FIGHTING FOR US TO DEFEND OUR RIGHT TO SPEAK OUT. WE ALL NEED TO SUPPORT THEM WITHOUT RESERVATION.

I HOPE THIS HELPS. D.M.

According to Done Deal, Warner Brothers is developing a film based on the premise of a murder taking place on the International Space Station.

Looks like the Medina Division of the Elite Republican Guard is headed toward the 7th Cavalry.

Garryowen!

Looks like there is far more ice on the Moon than anyone hitherto imagined.

It's past time to go back.

Here's a sneak look at three covers for Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.

PETA is mad as hell that the Navy has dolphin and sea lion warriors helping to save human lives. Of course they are.

Reader Mark Reiff offers the following fable on American ingenuity:

Bush and Osama decided to settle the war once and for all. They sat down and decided to settle the whole dispute with one dog fight. They would have 5 years to breed the best fighting dog in the world and whichever side's dog won would be entitled to dominate the world.

Osama found the biggest, meanest Doberman and Rottweiler female dogs in the world and bred them with the meanest Siberian wolves. They selected only the biggest and strongest puppy from the litter, and removed his siblings, which gave him all the milk. After 5 years, they came up with the biggest, meanest dog the world had ever seen. Its cage needed steel bars that were 5" thick and nobody could get near it.

When the day came for the dog fight, Bush showed up with a strange looking animal. It was a 9 foot long Dachshund. Everyone felt sorry for Bush because there was no way that this dog could possibly last 10 seconds with the Afghanistani dog. When the cages were opened up, the Dachshund came out of its cage and slowly waddled over towards Osama's dog. Osama's dog snarled and leaped out of its cage and charged the American Dachshund---but when it got close enough to bite, the Dachshund opened its mouth and consumedOsama's dog in one bite. There was nothing left of his dog at all.

Osama came up to Bush, shaking his head in disbelief, "We don't understand how this could have happened. We had our best people working for 5 years with the meanest Doberman and Rottweiler female dogs in the world and the biggest, meanest Siberian wolves."

"That's nothing,", said Bush. "We had Michael Jackson's plastic surgeons working for 5 years to make that alligator look like a weenie dog."

You don't have to be human to join the fight against tyranny and terror.

Meanwhile the United States Senate has voted to declare war on the people they obviously consider the real enemy, the American tax payers. Hopefully this atrocity will be fixed in conference.

The hostages seem to have taken matters into their own hands. The good people of Basrah have risen against their oppressors.

The British are about to embark on the biggest hostage rescue operation in history, rescuing the good people of Basrah from Saddam's thugs.

Forget Mars. Earth approaching asteroids are where the money is.

Friday and Saturday, the media had the war all but won. Sunday and now going into Monday, it looks like the same media wants to declare defeat. Ralph Peters offers some expert, common sense analysis to cut through that fog.

The fight for Basrah, contrary to previous reports, is still ongoing.

Micheal Moore, that fat fraud, lived down to everyone's expectations at the Oscars. He was. surprisingly, actually booed.

By contrast, Peter O'Toole was the personification of class when he thanked the United States for all the country has done for him.

Well, well, well, the Allied Forces have been in Iraq less than a week and look what they have found. I guess it is easier for WMD inspectors to do their jobs when one heavily arms them and sends in a lot of them.

If the Iraqis think that this is going to dishearten us, they had better think again. Also I would hope that some of the "anti war" folks, who think they can be against a war to remove Saddam but not actually in support of Saddam, will rethink their position in light of this.

There are some Norwegians who like us too.

Now wouldn't it be wonderful if groups like this and the Canadian one below could spread to other countries? Even to France?

Looks like not all Canadians hate America:

Dear American Friends,

I apologize for the anti-American statements which have come from some of my countrymen and my government as of late. There are plenty of Canadians who back your efforts to rid the world of the scourge of Al Qaeda and the viciousness of Saddam Hussein.

Canada and America share the common destiny of the New World.

I appreciate that you have honoured Canada's sovereignty and her distinct traditions while sharing the longest, undefended, border in the world.

You were our allies against Nazism and Fascism during World War II, and contributed to democracy in Japan and Germany.

I appreciate that you took the threat from Communism seriously and contributed to increased freedom and stability among our neighbours in the East.

I appreciate the marvellous American contributions to the world's art, literature, music and movies.

I appreciate the amazing American innovations in science, technology, medicine and business.

I marvel at your generosity and willingness to shoulder so many of the burdens of the world.

I admire your leadership of the world's fight against Islamic terrorism and murderous dictators.

I'm proud of the friendship between Canada and the USA. Whatever I can do to strengthen, deepen and broaden the great bonds between our nations I will do gladly, with open heart and hand.

Signed,


Your Canadian Friends

You're very welcome.

Apparently a Muslim American soldier in the 101st Airborne tried to frag some of his fellow soldiers, hurting sixteen of them. The possibilities of badness resulting from this incident boggles the mind.

Update: One victem has died.

Basrah, the ancient seaport from where Sinbad was reputed to have sailed on his voyages of adventures, is in allied hands.

President Bush yesterday won a victory as far reaching as the one being won in Iraq. The tax cuts passed Congress largely intact in the budget resolution. That means that very shortly, the double taxation of dividends will be history.

The Weekly Standard rewrites the French national anthem for the age of Chirac.

Meanwhile, the "antiwar" protesters are having far too much fun at our expense. Here's a tip for law enforcement. A night in jail does not deter these yahoos. I suggest heavy fines and hundreds of hours of the most disgusting community service that can be devised.

Courtesy of the NRO's The Corner, a list of members of Congress who have declined to support the Commander in Chief and our soldiers in the current war:

The Nays:

Conyers
McDermott
Towns
Honda
Rangel
Waters
Jones (OH)
Scott (VA)
Watson
Lee Stark

Present:

Brown (OH)
Jackson (IL)
Paul Brown
CorrineJackson-Lee (TX)
Payne Carson (IN)
Johnson, E. B.
Rush
Clay
Kilpatrick
Sabo
Cummings
Kucinich
Schakowsky
Davis (IL)
Lewis (GA)
Watt
Doggett
Meeks (NY)
Farr
Owens

Denocrats are urging that people rally around the leader in the war against the enemies of all that is good and decent. The leader in this case is Tom Daschle and the enemy-well-President Bush and the Republicans.

While the new and improved Patriots are knocking Iraqi missiles down with satisfying regularity, it is worth noting that twenty years ago President Reagan brought the idea of missile defense into the public policy discussion and in so doing charged the history of the world.

Shock and awe have begun and even so whatever is left of Saddam's regime is still defiant. Meanwhile liberated Iraqis in Safwan are cheering the Marines.

John Carter McKnight expands on the difficult task of getting a variety of people and organizations to work in harness to see through the goal of spreading human civlization beyond the Earth. Rest assure, the Curmudgeon will be doing his part in times to come and will be posting here in due course some suggestions of how to proceed and what initiatives could be useful.

People who want to cut space spending in order to fund social programs are even more silly in 2003 than they were in 1973.

Once again American men and women are marching into battle to set other men and women free. 2003 will be one of those years, like 2001, 1944 and 1864, when tyranny and slavery will disolve in a torrent of fire and blood. We will pray for those who must give the last full measure of devotion in this war. But unlike a certain senile Senator from West Virginia, we shall not weep. Our country and the world will be a safer and better place when the fighting is done.

Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.
He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored,
He has loosed the fateful lightening of His terrible swift sword
His truth is marching on.

Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
His truth is marching on.

The Iraqis lobbed some missiles at our troops, at least one of which was taken out by a Patriot. Heavens, I thought missile defense doesn't work.

John Fund suggests a creative way to punish France, by luring away her best and brightest and making them Americans.

Looks like we got in a strike at some command and control bunkers, possibly taking out all or part of the Iraqi leadership.

Time's up, Saddam.

Rep Pete Stark (D) Iraq has gone insane with hatred for President Bush.

George Will suggests that Saddam Hussein is not the only pol who will be destroyed in the coming war.

Done Deal is reporting that Robert Rodat will be writing the screenplay for the movie version of Ton Clancy's Red Rabbit. Red Rabbit relates the hitherto unknown role of Jack Ryan in stopping the attempted assasination of Pope John Paul II in the early 1980s. Rodat's previous credits include Saving Private Ryan and The Patriot.

Thanks to T. L. James for posting this message about a new push for space settlements coming from a coalition of groups and people who in the past have spent a lot of time arguing with one another.

Tom Daschle has just been compared to Charles Lindbergh. And not in reference to the flying across the Atlantic thing.

As a historical note, Lindbergh later repented of his insolationism and appeasement stances. I doubt that Daschle will have the manhood to do the same.

The biography of Neil Armstrong is over a year away and the excitement is already beginning to mount.

Janet Reno, arguably the most stupid person ever to be Attorney General, says that might doesn't solve problems. Waco and Elian were acts of passivism, one supposes.

Some Arabs are calling President Bush a cowboy, thinking it somehow an insult. In the words of Bruce Willis's John McLane, "Yippie ki ye-" etc, etc.

Fox News is reporting that Iraqi troops in the north are already trying to surrender. They certainly have not underestimated the man from Crawford.

Your humble servant calls for space settlements in the pages of the Washington Dispatch.

Dubya, by the way, did a great job giving Saddam his marching orders. I predict that Saddam will join a long line of idots who will have underestimated the man from Crawford.

Michael Moore, the original stupid white man, has said pretty much what one might expect about the up coming war against Saddam. Fortunately Rand Simberg has given him a damn, fine whipping.

John Carter McKnight suggests that space advocates cut to the chase and propose what we all really want: space settlements.

The United States will, at least initially, rely on the private sector to rebuild Iraq after the liberation rather than international relief organizations. I can already hear the howls of outrage.

Canada will play no role in the coming war against Saddam. It's just as well. To play a role in a war, a country would have to have an armed force which actually fights wars.

For an example of someone who found out too late what it really means to be a "human shield", let us point to the case of Rachel Corrie, who died after interposing herself between an Israeli bulldozer and a Palestinian building selected for destruction to make the fight against terror easier. This combination of naive high mindedness, mind numbing stupidity, and clueless support of criminals (in this case Palestinian terrorists) would likely get the late Ms. Corrie a posthumous nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize. However I should like to nominate her instead for the Darwin Award, for the one person in 2003 who, through idiocy, took herself out of the gene pool.

Rollcall is reporting that Jim Moran is getting help from that old Clintonista defender of the indefensable, Lanny Davis.

Newsweek thinks that basically the United States and her allies are right to hammer Saddam and liberate Iraq and that the Europeans and others who are protesting are silly for going into such fits about it. Yet, it's still all America's fault because we're being-well-insensitive.

Stuff and nonsense. The Europeans are by and large living in a fool's paradise in which they think the need for military force is no longer valid. They are envious of American power because they have no will and probably no capability to match it. They hate America because the history of the last hundred years has consisted of European screw ups, starting with the First World War, being straightened out with American blood and American treasure.

Basically I would prefer not to hear about European (particularly French) complaints about American "hyper power" until Europeans grow up and learn to take some responsibility. The cliche is that somehow Europeans are the sophesticated, worldly wise adults and Americans are the brash, bullying teenagers. The opposite in fact is true. Europeans are whining adolescents who don't want to face up to their problems and resent the adults (read Americans) who do.

For all of you Gladiator fans or just folks with an affection for things Ancient Roman, a treat. The novel by George Shipway The Imperial Governor has been reissued. The novel is about the Roman Governor of Britannia, Seutonius Paulinus who crushed the revolt by Queen Boudicca during the reign of the Emperor Nero. Shipway also wrote a number of other historical novels, including The Knight and The Paladin, and a hilarious dark, political satire called The Yellow Room.

As early as the late 70s, "peace" protesters have occassionally thought it was fun to sneak on to military bases and commit acts of vandalism. However, unlike the town of La Habra, the authorities at Vandenberg Air Force Base have decided that in the post 9/11 World, this kind of nonsense is no longer protected free speech. However, the "peace movement" remains defiant.

The policy will not deter protesters, said Peter Lumsdaine of the Vandenberg Action Coalition, one of the organizers of the planned trespassing.

"I think it does underline that people in the nonviolent resistance movement are willing to take some risks," Lumsdaine said.

This reminds me of the bravado of those idiotic "human shields" who went to Iraq, took one look at what it ment to be a "shield", and fled. I suspect they'll be singing a new tune the moment one of them gets shot as a suspected terrorist.

George Will says that the good people of California should be forced to live with their choice to reelect Gray Davis as their Governor. The idea is that Davis will make them so angry that they will dump Barbara Boxer from the Senate and give California's electorial votes to President Bush next year.

And-I might add-elect someone like Condi Rice governor in three years.

Alan Boyle gives some perspective on the radidation on Mars tempest in a teapot.

"I like the French. They taste just like chicken." - Hannibal Lecter

Wonder of wonders. Moran actually paid a price for being a buffoon.

Newsmax.Com has sent a list of French products and enterprises to boycott until such time as France comes to its senses:

** Air France. Air Liquide. Airbus. Alcatel. Allegra
(allergy medication). Aqualung (including: Spirotechnique,
Technisub, US Divers, and SeaQuest). AXA Advisors.

** Bank of the West (owned by BNP Paribas). Beneteau
(boats). BF Goodrich (owned by Michelin). BIC (razors,
pens and lighters). Biotherm (cosmetics). Black Bush.
Bollinger (champagne).

** Car & Driver Magazine. Cartier. Chanel. Chivas Regal
(scotch). Christian Dior. Club Med (vacations). Culligan
(owned by Vivendi).

** Dannon (yogurt and dairy foods). DKNY. Dom Perignon.
Durand Crystal.

** Elle Magazine. Essilor Optical Products. Evian.

** Fina gas stations and Fina Oil (billions invested in
Iraqi oil fields). First Hawaiian Bank.

** George Magazine. Givenchy. Glenlivet (scotch).

** Hennessy. Houghton Mifflin (books).

** Jacobs Creek (owned by Pernod Ricard since 1989).
Jameson (whiskey). Jerry Springer (talk show)

** Krups (coffee and cappuccino makers).

** Lancome. Le Creuset (cookware). L'Oreal (health and
beauty products). Louis Vuitton.

** Marie Claire. Martel Cognac. Maybelline. Méphisto
(shoes and clothes). Michelin (tires and auto parts).
Mikasa (crystal and glass). Moet (champagne). Motel 6.
Motown Records. MP3.com. Mumms (champagne).

** Nissan (cars; majority owned by Renault). Nivea.
Normany Butter.

** Parents Magazine. Peugeot (automobiles). Pierre Cardin.
Playstation Magazine. ProScan (owned by Thomson
Electronics, France). Publicis Group (including Saatchi &
Saatchi Advertising).

** RCA (televisions and electronics; owned by Thomson
Electronics). Red Magazine. Red Roof Inns (owned by Accor
group in France). Renault (automobiles). Road & Track
Magazine. Roquefort cheese (all Roquefort cheese is made
in France). Rowenta (toasters, irons, coffee makers,
etc.). Royal Canadian.

** Salomon (skis). Sierra Software and Computer Games.
Smart & Final. Sofitel (hotels, owned by Accor).
Sparkletts (water, owned by Danone). Spencer Gifts.
Sundance Channel.

** Taylor Made (golf). Technicolor. T-Fal (kitchenware).
Total gas stations.

** UbiSoft (computer games). Uniroyal. Universal Studios
(music, movies and amusement parks; owned by Vivendi
-Universal). USFilter.

** Veritas Group. Veuve Clicquot Champagne. Vittel.
Vivendi.

** Wild Turkey (bourbon). Woman's Day Magazine.

** Yoplait (The French company Sodiaal owns a 50 percent
stake). Yves Saint Laurent.

** Zodiac Inflatable Boats.

Mr. Sterling, the TV series about a US Senator who apparently walks on water, heals the sick through his touch, and somehow resembles Jumping Jimmy Jeffords is about to sign off into television history. As I predicted it would.

More evidence that China has big space ambitions.

China intends to reach the moon by 2010. Some here belittle the American moon landing in 1969, proclaiming they will do more than "plant a red flag and pick up rocks," as one space planner put it.

Officials say they aim to exploit the moon's resources. They covet its apparently abundant supply of helium-3, a rare isotope on earth that some scientists believe may prove to be a clean fuel of choice when used in special nuclear fusion reactors that would have to be developed.

"We've got to seize this moment when other countries have no comprehensive plan to return to the moon," Luan Enjie, the head of China's National Space Administration, told the official New China News Agency this month.

And here's a fact which should be a cause for shame in the West.

Barring a quick breakthrough in NASA's review of what happened to the Columbia, the American shuttle fleet could still be grounded when China becomes the third nation to send its own astronauts into orbit, providing an extra jolt of publicity that the Chinese believe will add to the prestige of the mission.

I think we had better get busy.

Reader Steve Johnson would like to pass along the following retail announcement:

All Wal-Mart and K-Mart stores in Iraq will be closing on or before March 17th.
After that, they will all become Targets.
Thank you; that is all................

Yet another film project about America's first battle with trouble making Moslems is in development.

Vandalism may be protected free speech in La Habra. But, perhaps, not assault. That's a comforting thing to reflect upon.

Is it not remarkable about how two dollar gas can concentrate the mind on what is really important.

Jim Moran may be one factor in the defection of some Jews from the Democrat to the Republican Party.

Scientists are about to test an artificial hippocampus. The hippocampus is the part of the brain which stores new memories.

Elizabeth Smart, the teenaged girl kidnapped at gun point from her bedroom eight months ago, has been found alive and apparently well.

Wayne Smith makes the case for building an Orion space ship, which would be propelled by the detonation of nuclear bombs.

Congressman Jim Moran's remarks about Jews is just the latest in a series of boorish statements and behavior.

According to Variety Magazine, actor/director Clint Eastwood has acquired the film rights to a new, authorized biography of Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the Moon. The film, when made, would be Eastwood's second foray into space, as he previously made and starred in the superb Space Cowboys.

Update: The book, upon the film will be based, is called First Man and will be out next year.

"Anti war" protesters ripped apart and trashed a 9/11 memorial in the town of La Habra. That's not the biggest scandal. The biggest scandal is that the police stood by and did nothing, even though they observed the crime being commited. Why? It seems that vandalism is a protected free speech right, at least in La Habra.

I wonder what other crimes could be considered free speech?

James Moran, a Democrat Congressman from Virginia, seems to be in trouble for blaming the Jews for the coming war with Iraq. Like Marcy Kaptur, who slandered the founders for comparing Osama bin Laden to them, he should resign in disgrace. But, as he is not a Republican, I doubt he will.