Starbucks

And He and I, perplex us,
If positive, 'twere we
Or bore the garden in the
Brain This Curiosity
--Hummingbird, Emily Dickenson

The lark's on the wing;
The snail's on the thorn;
God's in his Heaven -
All's right with the world
--Pippa Passes, Robert Browning

Is the head dead, yet?
--Dirty Laundry, Don Henley

_________

The St. Pete Times ran a piece today on the Air Force Research Laboratory Munitions Directorate at Eglin Air Force Base:

"Today, the focus is 'nano' and 'bio,' among other "os," says John H. Pletcher, associate director for weapons.

"Someday, the directorate might demonstrate a nanoenergetic, robo-plane based on a hummingbird's physiology that flies itself into the head of a terrorist drinking thick coffee on a balcony in Beirut, Lebanon, and then explodes.

"'Nano' refers to scale. It's one-billionth of a unit. A nanometer. A nanoliter. A nanogram (Think Nano, Bio, or Robo for Weapons of the Future.)"

I read this while drinking morning tea. Somehow, I could not share in the directorate's glee over this posited scenario. Does this scientist working for the Air Force not understand jurisdiction, and the fact that murdering a "suspected terrorist" is, in fact, murder?

Perhaps if the blast is kept intercranial, and there is not too much splatter, they can reuse the same thick coffee to bait the next suspected terrorist.

"Nano" might also refer to the breadth of one's morality who thinks a hummingbird bomb flying into someone's head while they're drinking "thick" (Turkish?) coffee in Beirut and exploding sounds like a good idea.

This wouldn't be "racial profiling," would it? What with our non-targeted airport searches, surely we've become too p.c. for that business.

--Lisa