2003.05.05
 | From the website for the museum exhibit Yesterday's Tomorrows. I'm a sucker for this kind of retrofuture city scene. |
Quote of the Moment
If you can't beat them, arrange to have them beaten.
News Stories of the Moment
Wired had a piece on replacement for risky "stomach stapling" surgery: pills that expand in the stomach. Seems corny, but also like they've through a lot of the possible complications.
Slate.com had some interesting pieces as well: I haven't heard nearly enough about Bill Bennett's Gambling scandal. Man, case in point for Dan Savage's "Skipping Towards Gomorrah"; stop knocking other people's vices, and don't point out the mote in the other guy's eye when you have a 2x4 dangling from your own.
Also, Fred Kaplan analyzes Al Franken's jibe at Paul Wolfowitz, "Clinton's military did pretty well in Iraq, huh?" Saying yes, in some ways it was Clinton's Legacy in the army--but much R+D is pretty much independent of the presidential office, and Clinton really was reluctant to put any American soldiers at risk. (Of course that was pre-9/11. I think that might have made a difference for any administration.)
Doing a Google News search on "Bill Bennett" is interesting. Some of the first hits are conservative commentators rushing to his aid. They tend to focus on the arguments that Slate.com presents and rebuts, and then drag out the old Clinton trope. And of course they blame "the liberals"...but really, it's a libertarian kind of view, that Bennett shouldn't be trying to define and dictate people's lifestyles in the first place. (Oddly, the extension of that viewpoint is that people shouldn't pick on his gambling, since its his own "victimless" vice, but...America can be guilted into listening to honest blowhards, but hypocrites get the scorn they deserve. If you're going to preach, you should have the courage to live your convictions.)