Christopher Hitchens takes Professor Cole to school on what Persian words mean:
In some ways, the continuing row over his call for the complete destruction of Israel must baffle Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
I have to say, that this is a brilliant opening line of the article. Hitchens has a way of finding the key truth that eludes most of us, but once stated, is stupefyingly obvious.
Christopher Hitchens takes Professor Cole to school on what Persian words mean:
In some ways, the continuing row over his call for the complete destruction of Israel must baffle Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
I have to say, that this is a brilliant opening line of the article. Hitchens has a way of finding the key truth that eludes most of us, but once stated, is stupefyingly obvious.
Christopher Hitchens takes Professor Cole to school on what Persian words mean:
In some ways, the continuing row over his call for the complete destruction of Israel must baffle Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
I have to say, that this is a brilliant opening line of the article. Hitchens has a way of finding the key truth that eludes most of us, but once stated, is stupefyingly obvious.
Well, OK, not never, but I’m often amazed at which posts resonate with the readership, and which don’t. Why was getting rid of the penny such a hot item, in terms of comments, when other posts that day, of serious, war-related nature went uncommented? I expect this when I get an Instalanche or something, but as far as I know, no one has even linked to it.
Is this a hidden issue in the elections this year? All politicians in tight races, take note–down with Lincoln!
Oh, and yes, for those interested, I’m now safely in California, but remain busy. Keep those cards and letters pouring in!
I built the partial wall for the bar today (sans drywall), and we got the new appliances in place, though the plumbing will have to wait for the sink to be installed, which in turn has to await installation of the counterstop, which will be a luxurious pattern of granite that we haven’t selected yet, so no cold water or ice from the new fridge. It’s definitely starting to look like a new kitchen, though, and we have cooking functionality back and a fridge, though dishwashing remains problematic, and will continue in that mode until I get back from CA in two weeks.
It occurs to me that you know that you’re in the middle of a major remodel when, in addition to keeping a grocery list, you keep a continuous Home Depot list. In building the new wall and attaching studs to each other, I discovered a miraculous thing–screws that the heads won’t strip out of under the tender ministrations of an 18-volt drill. The down side is that they eat phillips bits for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Still, its easier to change a bit, and they’re cheap these days, than to try to remove a half-driven screw with a hole where the cross used to be…
Anyway, I’m packing now, flying out to LA in the morning, and I’ll be at the International Space Development Conference on Thursday and Friday, at least part of both days. Hope to see many of you there.
According to this, pennies are now worth less than their cost of manufacture. My rule for getting rid of a coin is the point at which you can no longer purchase anything with a single one of it. In fact, at this point, with multi-hundred-thousand-dollar houses, and new cars costing over twenty thousand dollars, is there even anything that you can buy with a nickel any more?
Time to can the coin, and come up with some other way to honor Mr. Lincoln.
One of the announcements at the Space Access Conference last weekend that I didn’t mention is the new private Teachers in Space initiative (boy, is that web site hard on the eyes…). Jeff Foust has the story at The Space Review today.
Watching United 93, Gerard Vanderleun remembers the other heros of that day:
Far away on that day, far from the pillar of flame and plume of ash at the foot of the island, there was another fire in a field in Pennsylvania. Those nearby felt the shudder in the earth and saw the smoke, but it would be some days before we understood what it was, and longer still until we began to know what it meant.
The film I saw by myself tonight expands that meaning and brings a human face to the acts by the passengers of United 93 that endure only in that rare atmosphere that heroes inhabit. What I know in my heart, but what always escapes my understanding until something like this film renews it, is that heroism is a virtue that most often appears among us not descending from some mythic pantheon, but rising up out of the ordinary earth and ordinary hearts when the moment calls for actions extraordinary.
I saw this ordinary courage in New York on that day as I learned of the police and the firemen who had gone up the stairs to save others’ lives. That they, in their hundreds, had gone up when all others were fleeing down is an image that can never be erased from my memory. Time fades all impressions as surely as it faded the faces of the missing on the walls of my city, but let’s, just for now, remember it it once again, for it we fail to remember and sustain the memories of our heroes, we are surely done as a nation and a people.
Watching United 93, Gerard Vanderleun remembers the other heros of that day:
Far away on that day, far from the pillar of flame and plume of ash at the foot of the island, there was another fire in a field in Pennsylvania. Those nearby felt the shudder in the earth and saw the smoke, but it would be some days before we understood what it was, and longer still until we began to know what it meant.
The film I saw by myself tonight expands that meaning and brings a human face to the acts by the passengers of United 93 that endure only in that rare atmosphere that heroes inhabit. What I know in my heart, but what always escapes my understanding until something like this film renews it, is that heroism is a virtue that most often appears among us not descending from some mythic pantheon, but rising up out of the ordinary earth and ordinary hearts when the moment calls for actions extraordinary.
I saw this ordinary courage in New York on that day as I learned of the police and the firemen who had gone up the stairs to save others’ lives. That they, in their hundreds, had gone up when all others were fleeing down is an image that can never be erased from my memory. Time fades all impressions as surely as it faded the faces of the missing on the walls of my city, but let’s, just for now, remember it it once again, for it we fail to remember and sustain the memories of our heroes, we are surely done as a nation and a people.
Watching United 93, Gerard Vanderleun remembers the other heros of that day:
Far away on that day, far from the pillar of flame and plume of ash at the foot of the island, there was another fire in a field in Pennsylvania. Those nearby felt the shudder in the earth and saw the smoke, but it would be some days before we understood what it was, and longer still until we began to know what it meant.
The film I saw by myself tonight expands that meaning and brings a human face to the acts by the passengers of United 93 that endure only in that rare atmosphere that heroes inhabit. What I know in my heart, but what always escapes my understanding until something like this film renews it, is that heroism is a virtue that most often appears among us not descending from some mythic pantheon, but rising up out of the ordinary earth and ordinary hearts when the moment calls for actions extraordinary.
I saw this ordinary courage in New York on that day as I learned of the police and the firemen who had gone up the stairs to save others’ lives. That they, in their hundreds, had gone up when all others were fleeing down is an image that can never be erased from my memory. Time fades all impressions as surely as it faded the faces of the missing on the walls of my city, but let’s, just for now, remember it it once again, for it we fail to remember and sustain the memories of our heroes, we are surely done as a nation and a people.