…maybe it’s time to stop referring to the neocon policies of the Bush administration. The neocons are gone, many for so long that no one seems to remember their leaving. What we now have in Washington is a mishmash of old political realism and improvisation, topped with increasingly empty oratory on freedom and democracy. That should please quite a few of Bush’s domestic critics. He’s returned to the futile routine in the Middle East that they always urged him to.
Well, the anti-war folks are always fighting the last anti-war.
Speaking of The New Atlantis, in addition to the Zubrin excerpt, the fall 2007 issue has a lot of space essays to commemorate the half century since Sputnik. It has a classic essay from the early space age by Hannah Arendt on man’s limitations (which I may get around to commenting on later), with several current-day responses, some retrospection from Jim Oberg and (at long last) my review of Michael Belfiore’s Rocketeers.
You probably figured this out from my last couple postings, but we’re safely back home. We overslept this morning, and almost missed our flight, but made it in the end. And TSA isn’t any better. But at least they have a sense of humor about it: “This week, lipstick is classified as a solid. We don’t know what it will be next week, but this week, it doesn’t have to go in the plastic bag.”
Five and a half years extra life expectancy after 30 years. Not bad. An extra 30 after 100 years. Nice. I guess the combination of stress, pollution, moral decrepitude, corroded job protections, declining medical care and all the other crises of the day are actually coincident with increased lifespan. Don’t be optimistic about it; it’s not fashionable.
Busy packing, and heading off to St. Louis tonight, to visit a few more people, then an 8:15 AM flight from there in the morning. Probably no more posting until tomorrow afternoon, if then.
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