Mark Steyn discusses the culture of passivity and, as usual, nails it.

I have to say though, after reading this:

On September 11, 2001, the first individual to be named among the dead was the wife of the US Solicitor-General, Barbara Olson, whom I’d sat next to at dinner a couple of months earlier. On September 11, 2003, I woke to the news of the death of the Swedish foreign minister, Anna Lindh, whom I also sat next to a couple of months ago, at a conference.

As much as I enjoy his writing, I’d be a little nervous about having dinner or sitting next to him…

I’ve had a bumper crop (in terms of patio farming) of chiles this summer. I’ve got a few Anaheims (that plant didn’t do that well, which is unfortunate, because I use it the most, and often sub it for bell peppers in recipes), quite a few jalapenos (some turning red), a bunch of serranos (about a third of which are now red), a good bush of little yellow but potent tabascos, and the biggest problem–several dozen large habaneros, fit for a sauce for Lucifer himself, and guaranteed to take the hair off any tongue that has the temerity to come within a quarter mile of them. I’m afraid that they’d have the effect of the Guatemalan insanity pepper from the Simpsons episode in which Homer had his vision quest. Muy, muy picante…

What should I do with them, both in terms of when to harvest, how to preserve or dry, and what kind of sauces, salsa, etc. to make with them? Also, how do I do all this, and live, or at least not burn off all of my precious guitar-playing digits?

And as Jonah says, NARAL.

Babies smile and suck their thumbs in the womb. Guess they don’t learn if from their mothers after all…

Boy, talk about egregious overuse and abuse of a metaphor (Michigan football fans only).

Joe Pelton has an editorial over at space.com about space policy. It contains the usual justifications (we need to save ourselves from the asteroids, etc.), but while I agree that there are questions that have to be asked, I’m underwhelmed by his:

Why explore space and why send humans into space?

Why does NASA spend the money it does?

Why does NASA use the resources it has the way it does?

What is NASA?s role in terms of education, health care, energy and job creation?

Why is there not more international cooperation in space activities?

Should the U.S. government, at all levels, not realize it needs to do a better job telling us why space and space research, exploration and applications are key?

Why the focus on NASA? This needs to be framed much broader–what is the role of the government, and of the private sector?

And what’s the big deal about international cooperation? Why is this apparently a desirable goal, in and of itself? There’s no good reason for it to be. We should cooperate if it makes sense, not just for cooperation’s sake.

Go read Lileks.

Go read Lileks.

Go read Lileks.