Chicago Boyz

Starship Dimensions is a great site that shows the relative sizes of starships from various Science Fiction series. I had no idea that the second Death Star’s diameter is five times that of the the first one’s, for example. I can’t believe that the Battlestar Galactica is only 600 meters long, though; it has to be at least a mile!

I like taking photos but I’ve got nothing on this guy.

(via Dave Barry)

Just the other day I suggested, but then retracted, the proposal that Belgium should be destroyed.

Clearly, alarm bells went off in Brussels.

Next thing you know den Beste is reporting that France, Germany, Belgium and Luxembourg are creating a military alliance.

Coincidence?

Of course, Julie Taton, Miss Belgium 2003, is the most qualified Belgian around, categorically, whatever the task may be. So I hereby propose that she immediately be given the rank of field marshal in the Belgian Army, and then be appointed to command the new EuroWeenieArmy (“EWA”). The one thing I insist on is that Field Marshall Taton must wear a uniform (and a helmet!) like Marlene Dietrich used to do.

Speaking of Miss Dietrich, check these out! (Click on the WWII images.) Look at Marlene upstaging General Bradley! She looks sharper in an Army uniform than he does, by miles. What a star Marlene was. And she could only have been from Europe, from Old Europe. She was Old Europe when it had class, taste, elegance, panache, pathos, toughness, vitality — and mystery and poetry, all with a whiff of cynical hedonism and a certain stylish decadence. Old Europe has no one in Marlene’s league these days.

Evil days have befallen Old Europe. Dull, gray days. The old girl is a pale shadow of her former self. All so unnecessary, so stupid, such a squandering of a great heritage. Wake up, Old Europe. Stop wasting your time trying to make an enemy of your best and only true friend, America. Wake up and be young again. Wake up and be great again.

The Oracle of the Antipodes explains (scroll down to first May 1 post) why car theft is a growth industry where he lives.

Tuesday’s WSJ has a front-page article (requires subscription) about Mike Hawash, the Palestinian-American software engineer who has been held without charge – as a “material witness” – by the U.S. government for more than a month. The case has occasioned many questions, both because Hawash wasn’t charged with anything until Monday and because he is a successful and seemingly upstanding person, with prominent defenders (including the management at his employer, Intel).

I have no idea if Hawash is guilty or innocent, though I am troubled that the government would hold a U.S. citizen for over a month without charge. Time will tell. I hope, if Hawash is guilty, that Ashcroft & Co. make their case well. If he turns out to be innocent, or if the government’s arguments are weak, the prominence of this case almost guarantees a political backlash against future anti-terrorism investigations. That might be a good thing to the extent it forced the government to be more careful. But it might be bad if it made investigators too cautious. I hope they know what they’re doing, because there probably are some terrorists out there, and the Justice Department will need all of the credibility it can muster if it is to capture and convict them.