Mark Steyn has some thoughts on Katie Couric's less-than-royal "we." And yes, I didn't make a mistake in the categorization. It is a space post, though it's also a politics post.

No, they weren't an "airborne UN". They were an airborne America. For a start, if there was such a thing as a UN rocket, the Israeli guy wouldn't get anywhere near it, except on a one-way ticket to establish the viability of Ahmadinejad's new designated homeland for the Jews on Planet Zongo. I doubt even an EU space shuttle would be eager to admit any astronauts from the Zionist Entity. As for the "Indian woman", Kalpana Chawla was the American Dream writ large upon the stars: she emigrated to the US in the Eighties and was an astronaut within a decade. There's no other country on earth where you can do that. And I'll bet she had no qualms about using the dread "we" word.

Actually, I can understand her point, I don't include Ms. Couric when using the term "We" either.

If a government pursues confiscatory tax policy, continues to erode the bill of rights, continues to flaunt the elective process by legislating through the courts and imports a new underclass while granting massive entitlements to keep immoral kleptocrats in office, then I refuse to include the supporters of said government in that group of people with which I identify either.

231years ago, a lot of British subjects stopped refering to supporters of the British Crown as "we", because they no longer could identify with that group. It's quite possible that history could be repeating itself, and Katie Couric's refusal to say "we" could well be a small precursor of that event.

An Airborne UN would be funded by Iraqi oil-for-food graft, and it would turn a blind eye to crewmembers' sexual indiscretions in Congo.

http://www.times*nline.co.uk/tol/news/world/article405213.ece

(change the asterisk to a "0" for link to work)

Couric isn't completely off the mark. The Space Shuttle had two of the characteristics of a UN success, namely it was completely funded and operated by the US.

One personal lesson sad stories like this reinforce for me is DON'T RIDE MOTORCYCLES. If people die in motor vehicle crashes even when shielded by a couple of tons of metal the risk in riding a motorcycle must be considerably worse. And given how dangerous vehicle crashes are -- one of the riskiest things we do on a daily basis is ride in vehicles -- it's not worth it to me.

Your mileage, and risk tolerance, may vary.

Darn it, wrong link!