Secrets and Lies

"The power to take life is too awesome to be given to government."
-Richard Cohen

About time. Women given full voting rights in Kuwait.

OK, here's my problem with the Newsweek retraction of the Koran story - it's not like our interrogators in Guantanamo haven't done worse, and it's not like the story's been disproven. Whuf.

Bob Scheiffer urges the use of common sense when it's a question of whether or not to notify the President of a possible attack.

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ACLU files suit over government funding going to chastity ring program. Hey, where can I get one of those?

LiveOnline transcript with Joel Achenbach (on his recent future of space article.)

Are we prepared to reinvent human evolution?

NBC releases their fall schedule - and Scrubs is delayed? NOOOO!
Also, check out Virginia Heffernan's journal, good stuff.

1.) Bebe pics from zoo posted.

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2.) Also posted today: some scans from a Fantastic Four "What If?" issue, in all their 1960's glory.

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3.) Last night: much playing with MusicMatch Jukebox. Free version should meet most of my music needs.

4.) Tonight: bebe wrangling, Deadwood, and The Shield.

Thrilling Two-Fisted Tales of Commuters Observed:
Again, catch the same trains more or less every day (when I'm not running late,) and gravitate towards the same (most efficient) cars. As do other professional riders, so you start to recognize the same people. The really quiet working-class Mexican couple that ride home at the same time, the girl in the uniform that sleeps the entire ride across the Orange line, etc. There's a tall black man who gets off the train at Metro Center every morning. If I had to guess by hit attire, I would go with construction worker, though he doesn't carry a hardhat and a cooler that seems to go with that outfit. So, he's a morning zombie like the rest of us most of the ride in, where there's rarely talking above a hushed whisper or the occasional cough (or snore.) But when he's leaving the car, he says in a loud, confident voice "You all have a good day now" or words to that effect. No inherent religious overtone, but shades of it. But a couple people here and there always say 'you too' or the like. Surprising the first couple times it happened, but it's become downright normal.

"I have written before about how the press corps sometimes seems to shun big questions in favor of littler ones. Here's a big one for the president: Could he envision a circumstance in which he would call for a preemptive nuclear strike? What would that circumstance be? If not, why is the Defense Department preparing contingency plans for doing such a thing?"
-Dan Froomkin