I wonder if Monday will be different than past Memorial Days.

For many people, so many of our national holidays seem to have become bereft of meaning other than an excuse for a three-day weekend and a beer-sodden barbecue. Post September 11, I noticed that November 11 took on a new poignancy. Will Monday do so as well?

A friend of mine once suggested that we take our holidays more seriously, by using the Jewish Sedar as a model. We should actually take time out from the consumption of barley beverages, and roasting of dead animals with sugary sauces, to tell the story of why we have the day off. For instance, for the Fourth of July, he recommended an oral reading of the Declaration of Independence.

These musings are just prelude to a link. Just in time for Memorial Day, Victor Davis Hanson writes an eloquent and personal tale of another time and place, when men were giants.

Think about reading it aloud with your family on Monday (good luck getting through it without choking or tearing up). And let us hope that the present circumstances will not require similar sacrifices on so massive a scale, and that if we do, the present generation will bear them as did our parents’, and grandparents’.

Glenn points out an article at MSNBC about a group that wants to fence off the Moon from development. They apparently want to use Antarctica as a model. This is in tune with many of the people who think that mankind is too immature to colonize space.

Mr. Smith says Mr. Steiner?s proposal fails to take into consideration how proposed lunar projects such as a solar-power plant designed to help fuel earthly activities could actually help the environment back on the home planet.

Mr. Steiner counters that the same kind of solar plant could be designed to operate in the moon?s orbit, without marring the lunar surface.

Which shows that he doesn’t get it. A major part of the solar power proposal is to utilize lunar resources for the construction. Putting the satellites in orbit might be a good idea for other reasons, but it doesn’t change the need to develop the Moon.

?You know,? he says, ?the moon is a stunningly beautiful place, and it shouldn?t be defiled.?

It’s the ANWR battle writ large–in which they want to close off development of an entire world, and there aren’t even any lunar caribou.

It kind of makes me wish that I were going to the Space Development Conference this weekend, just to see the fireworks when this is proposed to the assembled.

[Update at 5PM PDT]

The Times is covering this story as well.

And I just want to clarify, I don’t want to strip-mine the whole orb.

There are obviously some sites that need to be preserved–the Apollo XI and other Apollo landing sites, impact sites of some of the first Rangers, the Monolith from 2001, the B-17s and V-2 rockets that got lost and ended up there in WW II…

The Economist says we should be worried about neurotechnology.

Fox News is reporting an explosion and fire in an apartment complex in Encino, a part of the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles.

Nothing on the web site yet.

Anglospherian James Bennett politely, and gently fisks Chris Patten.

It’s not just Scott Bell–Andrew Sullivan is worried as well.

He told the German press yesterday that there is no plan to invade on his desk. He said it almost proudly. His military leaders, in a sign of their determination to risk nothing and achieve nothing, are now leaking to the Washington Post that they have all but scotched a serious military option in Iraq.

Well, Andrew, I’ve already pointed out the Clintonian formulation of Bush’s statement. You and I might like him to be more direct, but he didn’t say no plans exist. And consider the possibility that such leaks as are being described are ummmm…disinformation. After all, is it really to our advantage to telegraph our intentions to Saddam? Only if we still hope (futilely, in my opinion) to deter him.

I’m willing to wait for a while longer. And of course, the alternative (that Andrew is justified in his pessimism, and we really aren’t going into Iraq) is too depressing to contemplate…

The Oppressor From Oz points out this petition of Aussie academics favoring a boycott of Israel.

It’s up to over twelve hundred signatures as I type this, and most of them are, as Tim says, err…creative.

It’s hilarious. I just hope it doesn’t get taken down any time soon.

He finally admits, in a column, no less, that The Corner is a blog.

Can Will Warren call ’em, or what?

See that thing with lots of pages?
Index, bib, and T of C?
Writing captured for the ages?
Not a book, says Jonah G.

Look at Jonah?s bold new feature:
Commentary, jokes, and links!
What is that exotic creature?
?Not a blog,? our Jonah winks.

He finally admits, in a column, no less, that The Corner is a blog.

Can Will Warren call ’em, or what?

See that thing with lots of pages?
Index, bib, and T of C?
Writing captured for the ages?
Not a book, says Jonah G.

Look at Jonah?s bold new feature:
Commentary, jokes, and links!
What is that exotic creature?
?Not a blog,? our Jonah winks.

He finally admits, in a column, no less, that The Corner is a blog.

Can Will Warren call ’em, or what?

See that thing with lots of pages?
Index, bib, and T of C?
Writing captured for the ages?
Not a book, says Jonah G.

Look at Jonah?s bold new feature:
Commentary, jokes, and links!
What is that exotic creature?
?Not a blog,? our Jonah winks.