We lost seven astronauts.

What we must not lose is our resolve.

The movement of humans into space is the most important and noble task that we can perform. People will continue to die on this mission, martyrs to that cause. We can best honor their bravery, their memories, by continuing the work for which they gave their lives.

Mr. President, I suggest you use this opportunity to announce a decade long, wartime level, national effort to establish a permanent lunar colony, AND manned nuclear rockets to Mars. Name those rockets, and those colonies, after the space pioneers that died during the Apollo, Challenger, and Columbia missions.

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Ever found yourself attracted to someone, but their politics put you off?

We were having a knock-down dragout battle royal over on the Daveworld mailing list the other day, mostly about the upcoming festivities in Iraq. As usual it was me and macker against the world, as we are more hawkish than the decidedly left-leaning rest of the list. (there are a few lurking warmongers that are just wise enough to keep their traps shut, but I've promised not to out them)

That very day I happened to be scanning the comics, and ran across this one. I was laughing my toochis off, as it so perfectly described the Love-You-Hate-Your-Politics dynamic I think goes on there, though in most, (but not all) cases, the love is not a Sexual Thang.

We need a Love Cop.

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Ralph Waldo Emerson once wrote that war can "educate the senses, call into action the will, and perfect the physical constitution."

I'm sure this horrified many of the abolitionists, at least those that thought that slavery could and should be ended without a clash of arms.

He was quoted soon after the first battles of the Civil War as saying, "Ah! Sometimes gunpowder smells good."

This also brings to mind the story of the lady that once said to a famous concert pianist, "What beautiful music! I'd give my life to be able to play the way you do."

The musician smiled, and replied, " I did."

To really and truly want something means also wanting to pay the price it takes to get it. If you're not willing to spend the time, the "blood, sweat, and tears," to actually earn your goal, be it that new car, that trim, fit, bod, your own business, or world peace, then you just would like to have it.

If you truly wish to have a peaceful, progressive, free, world, then you also have to be willing to pay the price that requires.

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