Quick Hits

It's the end of a full day of Smithsonian browsing with a nine-year-old and two four-years-olds. They're well behaved, but I can't match their energy levels. Consequently, I don't have the wherewithal to post much other than links to a couple of intriguing stories.

Via Atrios, Amanda Marcotte at Pendagon has some interesting ideas about the essence of the culture wars. Kos points us to an Miami Herald editorial by Robert Steinback. There are too many good points to quote at length, so read the whole thing, but here's a snippet:

Is that America's highest goal -- preventing another terrorist attack? Are there no principles of law and liberty more important than this? Who would have remembered Patrick Henry had he written, "What's wrong with giving up a little liberty if it protects me from death?"

And Editor & Publisher notes something from Sunday's Meet the Press that I also caught but was too lazy to chase down on Christmas Day. Ted Koppel made the claim, and Tom Brokaw agreed, that had Bill Clinton been president during 9/11, he would've invaded Iraq, too. Clinton had no love lost on Saddam Hussein, but he also had the sense to recognize that Osama bin Laden had none, either. Given the ready agreement between the two, I can only assume that this is a basic assumption in the Washington corridors of power, but that only goes to show how removed from reality the powers that be truly are.