As I was sitting down to write this piece, I saw several interesting news headlines so rather than a long piece on one subject, I'm going to make a few short comments about each of a few stories.

1) The Kite Runner During the vacation I just finished, I read "The Kite Runner". It had gotten a lot of accolades and attention when it came out a couple of years ago and now I know why. It's a truly excellent book, and well worth a read. Here's an interesting story about the best Afghan kite maker, much like a character in the book:
http://www.yahoo.com/s/554497

Although I can't say I really remember it, I was in Afghanistan in 1974, shortly before my 9th birthday, and before the Russians invaded. I have a vague recollection of it as dusty, chaotic, rugged, and fascinating. I hope it one day again becomes a place that tourists, even if only the truly adventurous ones, can visit in safety and admiration.

2) By a 63-34 vote, the Senate passed a bill which, according to this news story, would "permit funding for research on embryonic stem cells regardless of the date of their creation, so long as they were donated from in-vitro fertilization clinics, they would "otherwise be discarded" and donors gave their approval." Of course, President Bush has said he would veto the bill if it gets to his desk. While I do not believe Federal funding of science is constitutional, we already do a lot of it and I would certainly rather see this sort of work done than much of the other pork-science out there. Were Bush to veto the bill arguing it is not constitutional, I'd applaud. But for him to have used the only veto of his Presidency so far on this issue shows just how worthless he as been as far as his oath to protect and defend the Constitution, and his claim to be a fiscal conservative. Go ahead, Mr. Bush, veto this again and remind us again how you only can find your veto pen for the least important excesses of government.

3)John McCain is firing some consultants and some campaign staff, apparently to save money after his fairly dismal first quarter fund-raising results, raising only $12.5 million, or half of Clinton, Obama, and Romney. (Giuliani didn't raise much more than McCain, but he did not put a lot of effort into fund-raising at the beginning of the year, and then reportedly raised $10 million in March alone.)

Strangely, the best thing that might happen to McCain would be for Fred Thompson to get into the race, because Thompson would probably most directly take votes from Giuliani. Even so, I have said for some time and still believe that McCain is not a good candidate and that he has done too much damage to his reputation with the real base of the GOP to win the nomination. He might as well start firing people, because he's not going to win and it's not going to get any easier for him to raise money as more people begin to believe a contribution to him would be wasted.

4) Finally for today, a comment on the Duke lacrosse fiasco: This case stunk from the beginning, with the local district attorney, Mike Nifong, going after rich white kids in order to get votes from local blacks for his re-election. Nifong will be lucky if he only gets disbarred, and I'll be surprised if he doesn't. These kids should sue Durham county for not reining in their mad dog Nifong, and they should sue Duke for their rush to judgment, suspending the young men without any proof they had done anything. One of the lacrosse players made a fairly important statement: "If police officers and a district attorney can systematically railroad us with absolutely no evidence whatsoever, I can't imagine what they would do to people do not have the resources to defend themselves." This is absolutely true, and one of the reasons we must be vigilant even against those we entrust to protect us.

The statement from the North Carolina Attorney General was especially damning:

We approached this case with the understanding that rape and sexual assault victims often have some inconsistencies in their accounts of a traumatic event. However, in this case, the inconsistencies were so significant and so contrary to the evidence that we have no credible evidence that an attack occurred in that house that night....

The eyewitness identification procedures were faulty and unreliable. No DNA confirms the accuser's story. No other witness confirms her story. Other evidence contradicts her story. She contradicts herself....

In this case, with the weight of the state behind him, the Durham district attorney pushed forward unchecked. There were many points in the case where caution would have served justice better than bravado. And in the rush to condemn, a community and a state lost the ability to see clearly. Regardless of the reasons this case was pushed forward, the result was wrong.

As I said before, this case stunk from the beginning. It was obvious what was going on, obvious that the complainant was exceptionally unreliable, obvious that the DA didn't care. I'm shocked that it took so long to dismiss all charges considering that the news of the DA hiding exculpatory DNA evidence from the defense came out in December. In any case, we are now on the first step toward justice being done. The next steps will involve 1) a big payment from Durham County to the young men, 2) a big payment from Duke to the young men, 3) a big payment from Duke to the fired lacrosse coach, 4) free tuition at Duke law school for any of those boys who want to go, so they can then sue Duke if necessary later on, and 5) Mike Nifong being disbarred and disgraced, and I only stop there because there is probably not a law which would allow him to be jailed, which he surely deserves.