Flit

VDH insanity watch

The now almost perpetually amusing Victor Davis Hanson:

"Aside from the fact that most don't feel Iran's bomb would be 'progress,' why would the glorious Islamic revolution, and its brilliant Islamic scholars, need science from anyone else's hands? Can't Ahmadinejad go back into his well and conjure up some engineers that are Iranian trained, unpolluted by Zionist physics, and also religiously correct?"

He's referring to Ahmadinejad's recent complaint that the West was denying Iranians access to nuclear energy. Surely Hanson isn't arguing that Iran should just bull ahead with its nuclear program independently right? So either he's arguing that Muslims should devote their time in inventing a time machine so that they can go back and invent stuff before Newton, Einstein, et al so Muslims would get the credit for it instead, or alternatively he just felt like saying something stupid and racist today. You pick.

Other news you didn't read today

It's been three months and a day since the last Canadian fatality in Afghanistan. Again, no streak like this can last forever, and the winter pause in Taliban ops had a lot to do with it (the mountains should be navigable again in about two weeks or so) but it has been a notable run.

Airline travails

I don't know about this whole Sudafed issue. My example of clueless governmental overregulation would be the confiscation of a tin of boot polish from my carry-on bag on a recent Ottawa-Toronto flight of mine. I should probably mention I was in uniform at the time.

I do think it's reasonable to assume that the threat of a uniformed, accredited Canadian soldier threatening the safety of a Canadian plane with his can of black polish is even theoretically nil. Anyway, I decided to take another look at the current official list of prohibited flight items for Canadian airlines, figuring I'd missed the relevant regulation. I can't help noticing that boot polish is not on the list. Still, if you're like me and sometimes want to polish up before the briefing that you're travelling in the first place for, consider this a warning that you might need to look at other options. Not sure what those are, buying your polish on the other end at the way to the meeting, perhaps, but hey.

That's the problem with being in uniform, of course. We're sort of prohibited from raising a fuss in public places, too.