bref parcours

Cobb tracks Dick Rutan's supersonic flight and notes the trend: more and more of this kind of tech will be the province of the private sector. This is something I'm somewhat interested in, but don't watch closely enough.

Tacitus offers a meditation on the death penalty (he's against) that accuses Helen Prejean of rambling, but then begins to ramble itself.

The Maximum Leader needs some ideas on what to blog about. Visit his blog and send him suggestions.

"It's the question that drives us, Neo." Not the Matrix: nacho cheese.

The Marmot is sick of confessions of wrongdoing in South Korea. As SK continues its America-wannabe shuffle, though, I think this is only the next step. We'll be seeing more of this, and not just in the political arena. Being home in NoVA as I am, and now able to watch TV (I've lived without a TV in my various residences literally for years), I can say with confidence that American TV's obsession with real-life court shows, smarmy daytime talk shows, and "reality" shows that feature contestants dissing competitors directly to the camera, proves we're a disgustingly, shamelessly confessional culture. Nothing is private. Come to think of it, blogging is a pretty damn confessional activity, even when it's "pundit-blogging." I revolt myself.

The Korean city of Tongyeong has a whopping 82% divorce rate.

KimcheeGI nails it re: lessons for Kim Jong Il after Saddam's capture:

If anything, the events of Sunday evening showed KJI and Co. that the nuke card is their only insurance left. Expect more bluster and bellicose talk of their "advanced" nuke program. The "comrades" up north will kick the policy can down the road until the results of the US 04 election are known. They would much rather deal with a Democrat willing to fall into an "Agreed Framework II" trap. The reelection of President Bush is [NK's] biggest nightmare.

Ay-men. Whatever my misgivings about Bush, I love how he affects the NK (and SK) leadership. Give Bush this: he's not boring-- and he manages this without getting sucked off.

Kirk offers us some things to do when we go see "Return of the King." More substantively, he's got some interesting notes about occupation.

I'm a bit late in posting this, but Annika's back in the swing of things and has some great posts up, including a post about the Battle of the Bulge and one about the Ivy Division.

You might want to saunter over to Dan Darling's Winds of War briefing on Winds of Change.

And, Jesus-- we're now discovering, through Saddam's documents, how badly we were infiltrated.

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