I love Burt Rutan, and all that he represents. For those of you who don't know, Burt also built and design Voyager, the only airplane to circumvent the world with out refueling. I would make a comment of the merits of private industry right now, but that'd just label me a NASA hater.

I've read a lot lately about the "lack of follow through" concerning the U.S. foreign policy. I've read a couple of pieces about it in the N.Y. Times and quite a few AP articles also. The basic jest of all these articles have been: The U.S. goes into a country, kicks their butt, loses interest, and then looks around for somebody else to beat up on. The entire purpose seems to be to point out that we are going into these escapades recklessly and don't think them through. I don't buy it. I think as a whole, this country has put an incredible amount of thought into what comes after the butt kicking. And each time we face the decision we come up with the same conclusion. Let the people rule themselves. We give them initial direction, restore order in the beginning, and then let the people do their own thing. This may seem like a foreign idea to the left-wing editorial writers, but then again, so does the U.S. constitution (except of course for the 2nd amendment, they wave that flag @ super sonic speed). I may be a dirty imperialist, but I don't think the idea of having a bunch of countries modeled after the U.S. is a bad thing.