A Spectatular Piece of Obsolete Technology

I watched the space shuttle land at Edwards Air Force Base. There is no doubt, even many years later, that this is a spectaculr piece of engineering -- essentially a computerized projectile carrying human beings.

Wildly more expensive (and completing many fewer voyages) than contemplated, and like the B-52, flying well beyond its planned life, the shuttle is also a contemporary version of a yacht, "a hole in the water into which one pours money."

The robotic space probes and Hubble telescope have produced far more science, and if the shuttle was planned to be the first step in a human space exploration program, that effort has been stalled.

I'm all for space exporation. The new private efforts are one promising approach. If we continue the public effort, we need to rethink the goals and the timetable, and to design a different vehicle.

But kudos to the crew and to NASA anyway -- it's still an amazing sight!

Idiotarianism Redux

This story describes crackpot religiouz zealotry at its worst.

Apparently not only does "God Hate Fags," according to the whacked-out Fred Phelps, he hates American soldiers, who must also be "fags."

Disgusting.

Good News on Avian Flu

It appears from this story that a vaccine that's effective may have been developed, although for ethical reasons indirect evidence -- an increased immune response with increased dosage -- is used to measure effectiveness.

One problem, as the article says, is inadequate production facilities. This problem, it would seem, is one that money could help with. Given the general nature of the threat, this is something government should spend money on.

Even if, provided vaccination works, we'll never know the magnitude of the threat we averted.

More Food for Pessimism

Fred Iklé is a thinker about strategy, including the "unthinkable."

In this piece, he argues that the absence of a nuclear attack for the last 60 years, anywhere in the world, is partly a matter of luck.

If our luck is running out, the danger is abetted by incompetence. We aren't doing enough, again with known or achievable technologies, to do such things as detect smuggled nuclear devices in ship containers.

Although the anti-nuclear movement was largely part of the kooky left, it was right about one thing -- a nuclear attack or conflict would be incredibly horrible, and greater efforts to prevent one are urgently needed.

OK. Enough dark stuff. How's Britney's pregnancy going? Are Brad and Angelina an item or not?

If You Want Something to Worry About

I recently finished reading The Great Influenza, an account of the influenza pandemic of 1918.

Aside from considerable dirt on my favorite bête noire, Woodrow Wilson, the book describes the horrors of a world disease event that killed millions.

The Great Influenza is on point today because every sign is that we are very likely to be hit with another influenza epidemic, of one or more variants of the Avian or Bird Flu that is now spreading in domestic and wild populations of birds in Asia. Here's recent roundup on possible preventive measures.

Here is a legitimate rôle for government, and of course, not nearly enough is being done. We should be stockpiling Tamiflu, and increasing budgets for research on vaccines and antiviral agents, and epidemiology. The flu virus is a rapidly mutating and recombining virus. Given a sufficient number of trials the emergence of a virulent strain highly contagious in humans is likely. With globlization, the spread of such a virus before measures such as quarantine and mass Tamiflu treatment in the vicinity of an outbreak becomes more and more of a threat.

People who worry about leakage of nuclear radiation from Yucca Mountain 5,000 years from now, increases in emphysema cases from automobile emissions, or marginal increases in cancer rates from pesticide residues ought to refocus their priorities. Here is a massive threat of millions of deaths, not enough is being done, and our environmentalists and self-proclaimed public health watchdogs are silent.

This really is a big deal.

An Honorable Endorsement

Ken Karst was one of my favorite law professors.

A constitutional scholar, who also taught the much-feared "Federal Jurisdiction," known at Harvard as "Darkness at Noon," Karst is a liberal, but thoughtful and professional. Here's his take on Justice Roberts, in a letter to the American Bar Association:

Dear Mr. Marshall,

Thanks for your letter asking for my views on the nomination of Judge Roberts to the Supreme Court. Alas, I have nothing useful to say about his history. I don't know Judge Roberts, nor have I seen him in action as an attorney or a judge. All I know about him, I have read in the press.

However, ignorance rarely prevents one from having a view, and I do have one. I am one of those liberal law academics whom Justice Scalia sometimes blames for the Supreme Court's straying from the True Path. Even so, I believe the Senate should confirm Judge Roberts's nomination. By all accounts, he is a first-rate lawyer, who listens carefully to arguments, even when they go against his initial inclinations. He seems to me to be a true conservative, who sees the judicial role as one in which courts conserve. I don't expect to agree with all his decisions, even on matters of intense controversy. I should compare him to the second Justice Harlan--with whom I often disagreed, but whom I still consider an excellent Justice.

Even though I have nothing to offer except opinion, I am grateful that you had me on your list, and I wish you and your ABA colleagues well in your deliberations.

Sincerely,

Ken Karst

When's the last time we've seen a thoughtful, civil comment like that from either side? (I hope he's right.)

Instead, we have the Gray Lady nosing about the adoption of Justice Roberts's children.

Civility is not dead, just moribund.

HT: Volokh.

Colo(u)r Illusions

These colo(u)r illusions are astounding, amazing, etc.

HT: The inimitable Eugene Volokh.

Light Blogging -- But No Valerie Plame!

My precious laptop croaked, and I'm fighting with Apple about it. And business is heating up.

Hence, light blogging, soon to be remedied, I hope.

At least you won't hear about the non-story of the century, the Valerie Plame-Joe Wilson-Bob Novak-Judith Miller foofaraw. The misguided notion of a Journalist's privilege might be worth a mention, but otherwise, my friends, it's a Yawn.

Wifebear

She Who Must Be Obeyed has taken up the blogging cudgel, here.

I am reminded of my father's old joke, one of many. It seems a couple were celebrating their 50th anniversary, and the husband was asked the secret of his success.

"Well," he wheezed, "I make the big decisions, and my wife makes the small decisions."

When asked for examples, he went on, "She decides where to send the kids to school, whether to sell the house, what job I should take, and so on."

What were the big decisions, then? "Whether Red China should be admitted to the UN." (This was a while ago, before we started sticking them with all our dubious paper in exchange for electronic devices.)

Our blogs are like that. She writes about dogs, cats, adolsecents, stupid drivers, checkout line psychics, and insomnia, a lot of what Deborah Tannen calls "trouble talk," a penchant of American women but not men. I write about constitutional law, the place of religion in society, foreign policy, and prevailing idiocies.

Here's a Tannen riff on "trouble talk":

For example, women often enact a routine I call “trouble talk”: One woman tells a trouble, and the other offers a matching one. A woman from Massachusetts complained that a woman friend from New York was always putting her down. It turned out that when she mentioned a problem, her friend often said, “That’s not a problem for me.” This violates the rules of troubles talk, which require that if you can’t say, “I’m the same way,” you should at least say, “I know how you feel.” Refusing to admit to being the same seems to imply thinking you’re better.

Wifebear has managed to create a network of groupies, from Canada to Lisbon to Singapore. More power to her. Remember, "Patriarchy is nothing but repressed matriarchy."

Portrait of the Blogger As an Old Reptile

Adam, Rick Lee's nephew, started a photo blog.

As the caption for this picture, he says "Looks like a grumpy old man."

And the kid doesn't even know me.

Not Afraid: An Outpouring

Here.

See the whole thing.

London

Churchill said, some 65 years ago:

We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our Island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender, and even if, which I do not for a moment believe, this Island or a large part of it were subjugated and starving, then our Empire beyond the seas, armed and guarded by the British Fleet, would carry on the struggle, until, in God's good time, the New World, with all its power and might, steps forth to the rescue and the liberation of the old.

Once again, Britain's fight is our fight.