Do be-all and end-all always go together? Can something be a be-all but not an end-all, or vice versa?

I can’t get Java working under Mozilla. (sigh) I wonder how I did it once before.

From 1990 to 2001 most of my working day was spent in WordPerfect 5.1. Now every office manager says “We have to use Messy-Word because it’s the staaaandurd.”

Is it too much to ask that the standard of 2003 offer the same features and ease-of-use of an ‘obsolete’ competitor?

Yup.

BBC: Decoding Iraq’s symbols of celebration (thanks to Lee Gold for the link)

So it looks like the Chinese pneumonia may be the newest mutant of the common cold. Maybe a vaccine for the latter will emerge from efforts against the former.

What’s a Latin term for someone to whom habeas corpus does not apply? Anyway, MoorishGirl reports that an Intel engineer, naturalized 14 years ago, is among the ‘disappeared’.

Update:

Aug 6: Mike pled guilty today to one count of his three-count indictment. He admitted attempting to enter Afghanistan with members of the “Portland 6”. We hope that justice has been served, and our focus now shifts to support for Mike’s family in this difficult time.

2004 Oct 24: This item formerly linked to www.freeMikeHawash.org, which naturally is now dead.

Thanks to Dr Frank for citing this piece – “If you want peace, preach to the unconverted” – which more or less expresses my feelings about the street peaceniks.

November update: The column itself is no longer available for free, but Frank quotes it at length.