To touch the face of God

20 years ago today a teacher rushed into my classroom and had a hurried conversation with my teacher. The TV, which I don't recall being on before, was turned on and we all sat huddled in shock as the remnants of the invincible American space program sifted down through the cold Florida morning. Thos images still haunt me. They make up some of the first of a sadly growing list of pictures that, when I see them, I recoil in shock and feel the grief and horror as fresh as the day I first saw them.

President Reagan said it best and I won't even try to imitate his prose:

"And I want to say something to the school children of America who were watching the live coverage of the shuttle's takeoff. I know it is hard to understand, but sometimes painful things like this happen. It's all part of the process of exploration and discovery. It's all part of taking a chance and expanding man's horizons. The future doesn't belong to the fainthearted; it belongs to the brave. The Challenger crew was pulling us into the future, and we'll continue to follow them.

"We will never forget them, nor the last time we saw them, this morning, as they prepared for their journey and waved good-bye and 'slipped the surly bonds of Earth' to 'touch the face of God"

On Bin Laden and "truce"

Supposedly Bin Laden has released a tape in which he mentions the possibility of truce with the Great Satan. This from the man who purported to love death. Apparently having his deputies blown up at the dinner table was a bit more death than he had bargained on. (If, indeed, this is Bin Laden on the tape, which of course is very much in doubt.)

Well, you vomitous mass, here is how we respond to an offer of truce (with all due credit to Mel Gibson in Braveheart):

Lower your arms and march straight back to hell, stopping at every home to beg forgiveness for a thousand years of theft, rape, and murder. Do this and your men shall live. Do it not, and every one of you will die today.

On wiretapping

Don't want your phone tapped? Don't call folks in tribal Pakistan and talk about who they are having over for dinner. Simple.

And, yes, I believe that we're tapping those phone calls for a good reason and I have to believe its the right thing to do. Why? Because I have to believe that. If you don't believe that protecting the citizens of the United States is the most important job of the US Government, then what is there left to hold on to? What is the point of government? Is our right to avoidance of illeagal search and seizure a suicide pact? No- but I have to believe that the folks doing the tapping are Americans who have my best interests in heart. That's what I pay them for, afterall.

"The search is underway for those who are behind these evil acts. I've directed the full resources of our intelligence and law enforcement communities to find those responsible and to bring them to justice. We will make no distinction between the terrorists who committed these acts and those who harbor them." President George W. Bush 9/11/01

And that's all I'm gonna say 'bout that.