Thursday and Friday

+ Listening to the radio on the way home yesterday I had a very strong desire to rant against bureaucracy. Terry criticized bureaucracy last week in a comment and I defended it as a necessary evil in a follow up email to him. But to hear about the 9/11 Commission meeting to decry inaction the same day that the first Katrina Hearings are held is enough to drive me crazy!

In that vein, I'm very frustrated by the current condition of the airline industry. Are we just going to keep subsidizing and bailing these antiquated businesses out? Help 'em out, but make 'em change. Let's put the market to work on this thing. We obviously have too much capacity for what people are really willing to pay. If we had real prices you'd see a lot less business and pleasure travel. Would that be the end of the world? Do we want taxpayer-subsidized air travel instead? Agghh!

+ If you've eaten around me, you know I like to eat meat. Still, Steve had a very convincing comparison of human anatomy with other herbivores .

+ Rave for the iPod nano.

+ Brad reports a request by a Christian reporter to, since he's an out-of-the-mainstream wacko, excommunicate Pat Robertson from news reports. Sound good to me.

+ Best dictionary website EVER!

+ Number of the beast comparers, start your engines!

[Beginning] in 2007, every baby born in the Netherlands will receive a Citizens Service Number and will have an electronic dossier opened in a central database. This will allow Dutch authorities to track each citizen from cradle to grave.