What They Can Do With Their Money

A quick thought on what the oil companies can do with their record profits. Kick a few bribes at the EPA to fast-track a few refineries. Hell, the agribusinesses should do the same to start up a bunch of stills for ethanol. I've heard that an ethanol distiller has purchased a brewery in the Northeast. How difficult would it be to push this more nationwide?

Was it Boredom?

Or perhaps it is simply a matter of having a sense of humor? A high court judge in England implanted a code in his ruling over the plagirism case regarding the DaVinci Code.

Evidently it is a lightly hidden ciphertext that in turn is a substitution code. At least one of the lawyers is promising to break the cypher.

Backhanded Insanity Defense

Let it be resolved that Zacarias Moussaoui is crazier than your average loon. First he undoes everything that his defense team had been working on for years by admitting he knew everything about 9/11 ahead of time, and then he claims that his defense team was out to get him,

Zerkin had asked Moussaoui whether he believes his defense team is in a conspiracy to kill him.

Moussaoui responded that the defense attorneys have engaged in "criminal non-assistance," the AP reported.

From my own point of view, I'd say give the guy life in prison. He wants martyrdom, and he'll use the state to get it. Kind of like the old joke that when the masochist says, "Hurt me," and the sadist says, "No."

Tech for Terrorism

In light of Iran's enrichment of power plant grade uranium, I will acknowledge that it is not the same as saying that Iran has the bomb.

That is, they don't have a nuclear device to pass on to those who would wish to do our country harm. What I am concerned about is the use of this material in dirty bombs. Is there some way of tracking where a given sample of uranium had been refined?

Political Tacking

There is a certain course a candidate for the Presidency has to take on the way to the Office. Name, hard to the wing in the primaries and hard again to the center for the general election. Captain's Quarters has compiled the signs of John McCain, infamous Maverick of the Republican Party, taking the turn right-ward.

One of the quotes cited has McCain on the Daily Show conceding that he is headed toward "crazy-base world" in preparation for a run. Agreed, not a great way to get in good with that base, but I think that it does prep the road back for him to the center should he pull in the nomination. The media might just be a bit more forgiving if he comes off as insincere in the first part rather than in the second. Granted, the media will never favor a Republican, no matter how unorthodox, or a Democrat.

That wink is going to keep him in relatively good stead through the primaries. At least for him, the media will cover him as if they didn't have their noses pinched shut.