Bits & Bytes

• Sorry Sheila, that was the moon-- The October 13 issue of National Review reports an incident where Representative Sheila Jackson-Lee (D-Texas) visited the Mars Pathfinder Mission Control Center and asked if the Pathfinder took pictures of the flag Neil Armstrong planted in 1969.
• Since when is giving people choice comparable to enslaving them?-- The October 5 Indianapolis Star quotes Senator Ted Kennedy (D-Mass) attacking Senator Dan Coats' (R-IN) idea of giving Washington D.C. school children vouchers by saying "Republicans in Congress should stop acting like plantation masters and start treating the people of D.C. with the respect they deserve."
• It's called standing up for what you believe in, Jerry-- On the October 7 "Afternoon Edition," Republican State Representative Jerry Bales decried "partisanship" and implied party differences keep work from being done.
• "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" at Stanford--A writer on Stanford University's student newspaper was fired for violating the paper's gag order on material about Chelsea Clinton (who is a student at Stanford).
• Gorby must be proud--In the tradition of the communist regime he headed, the IU Auditorium claimed tickets for Mikhail Gorbachev's lecture would be free and equally available for all students, but actually provided special access to some by offering advance tickets to members of the Auditorium e-mail list.