U.S. may deploy anti-missile lasers on fighters as soon as 2007.

"We've combined the high energy density of the solid state laser with the thermal management of the liquid laser," New Scientist quoted project manager Don Woodbury as saying.

Doug at Below The Beltway goes for the Star Wars metaphor instead. I suppose a Babylon 5 or Battlestar Galactica reference would be in order as well.

TV preacher Pat Robertson apologizes for wanting Venezuela President Chavez "taken out".

"Is it right to call for assassination?" Robertson said. "No, and I apologize for that statement. I spoke in frustration that we should accommodate the man who thinks the U.S. is out to kill him."

Er, Pat, apparently there are some in the U.S. who do want to kill him . . .

The Christian Science Monitor muses on an Iran-North Korea role reversal:

The two nations have long presented the West with seesawing expectations. Until recently, US officials were more optimistic about progress with Iran, and frustrated with the prickly North Koreans. But there are also signs the two cases are intertwined in complicated ways as the United States confronts what is left of the axis of evil.
. . .
For now, US attitudes about Iran and North Korea may have switched. "In recent months, I think we've almost had a reversal of fortune," said Ted Galen Carpenter, a Cato Institute foreign policy expert, at a recent forum on these issues in Washington.

Finally, the full text of the translation of the draft Iraqi constitution.

My main comment: it's way too long, and way too detailed. However, Iraq does not have the democratic tradition that we did when we wrote our Constitution--some things that didn't need to be said in ours need to be spelled out in theirs. I hope it works.

OpinionJournal takes a look:

It's worth noting, more broadly, that alarums about Iranian-style Shiite theocracy in Iraq have been raised repeatedly over the past few years, often by American or Arab proponents of the Sunni dictatorships that are the Mideast status quo. But one of the most underappreciated stories in post-Saddam Iraq has been the extent to which the Shiite community has remained committed to a constitutional, democratic process--despite the best attempts of the terrorist Zarqawi or cleric Moqtada Sadr to provoke them to violence. Ayatollah Ali Sistani, who adheres to a "quietist" school of Islam that shuns excessive mixing of religion and politics, has continued to play a particularly constructive role.

I had hoped to get through the rest of my life without again discussing That Woman In Texas. But, some things need to be said. When this started, I thought that she was probably pushed over the edge by the loss of her son. But, as more information comes out about her politics prior to the tragic and heroic death of Casey Sheehan, it looks more and more like she is cynically using his memory to push a fundamentally distasteful and disastrously wrong-headed agenda.

Cindy Sheehan's status as a grieving mother does not justify her borderline paranoid anti-Semitic views. Nor does it excuse her Stockholm Syndrome-like characterization of those who killed her son as "freedom fighters." Nor does it excuse her disingenuous attempt to hijack the Gold Star Mothers organization's good name and lash it to her campaign. The Gold Star Mothers can speak for themselves:

Cindy Sheehan is currently in the news. She and her organization have no connection whatever with American Gold Star Mothers, Inc. We are a 501 C(3) organization and, as such, do not engage in political activities. We do support our troops. After all, they are our children. More on gold star mothers vs American Gold Star Mothers, Inc.

Some of us have forgotten what Thomas Jefferson and the Founders knew:

"The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants."

Perhaps the anti-war people simply wish that this was not the way of the world. But whether tyranny comes in the form of a musket carried by a British Redcoat, or an airliner flown by a radical Islamic terrorist, or a mullah spouting violent jihad from a mosque, it is tyranny nonetheless. As previously posted here, Iraq along with Syria are keystones in the militant Islamic war plan. That is why we're there.

Some wars are worth fighting. The pacifist crowd naively shouts that "war doesn't solve anything." They are wrong. War gave the U.S. independence from Britain. War defeated Nazi Germany and militarist Japan. War toppled the repugnant Taliban. War removed the monster Saddam Hussein.

And what about the Iraq war, anyway? I direct your attention to the Congressional Resolution which authorized the war:

NASA official reports that a Shuttle-derived booster will be NASA's heavy lift vehicle of the future:

These will become the launch vehicles to take the USA back to the Moon from 2015 and beyond. Previously NASA administrator Michael Griffin had only expressed his personal preference for Shuttle derived launch vehicles. The 100t launcher will place lunar mission boosters and other heavy hardware into LEO.

Image credit: NASA/Flight International

FEMA thinks the 10-codes are confusing and may delay disaster recovery:

FEMA says law enforcement agencies need to switch away from code entirely by next September, or risk losing federal funding.

Wretchard at The Belmont Club writes about The Dark Frontier:

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's press conference enroute to Paraguay is interesting for a number of reasons -- the first being Paraguay itself. The Power and Interest News summarizes the region's strategic importance to the US. South America is wracked by a confluence of resurgent Marxism, fueled by Venezuela and Cuba; failing states and coca. Of particular interest is the Tri-Border area, centered on the town of Ciudad del Este in Paraguay on the border of Paraguay, Brazil and Argentina. The Associated Press described it as "a key South American point for Islamic terrorist fund raising to the tune of $100 million a year." The Tri-border area is sometimes described as the Muslim Triangle and is alleged to be one end of a conveyor belt leading to the US southern border.

BBC reports chimpanzees learn culture:

"This is the first time that any scientist has experimentally created two different traditions in any primate," Professor Andrew Whiten of the University of St Andrews told the BBC News website.

"Moreover it is the first time anyone has ever done this with tool use in any animal."

Robertson calls for the assassination of Venezuela's president Chavez. Scrappleface has the best spin:

(2005-08-23) -- Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez beefed up security at his residence and offices today after reports that Christian broadcaster Pat Robertson has issued a fatwa calling for the assassination of the South American communist dictator.

Venezuelan police have begun detaining and searching "clean cut, Bible-toting men in unfashionable clothing" as likely followers of the wealthy, charismatic religious personality. However, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) immediately lodged a protest with the Venezuelan government over the "profiling" of '700 Club' devotees by security forces.

Mr. Robertson is revered among his fanatical TV viewers, who each year contribute millions of dollars to advance his so-called "ministry," as much as he's feared by the teams of U.S. journalists who track his movements and record his remarks.

The Pentagon immediately denied that Mr. Robertson's name had previously appeared on any Defense Department "watch list," but a spokesman discouraged news networks from airing video of the Robertson fatwa announcement, fearing his remarks might contain coded instructions for Christian cell groups around the world.

Perhaps instead of multiculturally patting radical Islamic mullahs on the head at their death-filled tirades, we should respond to them with the same derision that Robertson is rightfully receiving.