Not only did the people of Venezuela thwart the power grab of their socialist leader Hugo Chavez, but now we learn that maybe Iran is not close to having a nuclear bomb after all. Most people, I suspect, greeted that latter revelation from a new intelligence assessment with a sigh of relief. The way it is being spun, though, in the media is that this is a “blow” for the Bush administration! Does anyone think that President Bush relished having to deal with this intractable problem? Oh, yes, I realize some people do. But I would just like to observe that the intelligence finding came from the Bush administration. Perhaps the partisans should be suspicious of this good news, as various foreign policy nightmares are apparently getting resolved.

A new study has found that divorce is harmful to the environment, since separate households use more resources and are less efficient than one (the study finding evidence for the perfectly obvious). But maybe these findings will do some good, at least with those with a postmodern sense of morality. Those with troubled marriages often no longer are persuaded that they should stay together for the sake of children. Maybe they will stay together for the sake of the environment.

Charles Krauthammer, who was a medical doctor before he became a pundit, says that the newly discovered way of making “pluripotent” cells from ordinary skin cells is going to be easier, cheaper, and better than harvesting stem cells from unborn children. He credits the pro-life policy of George Bush for pushing the research in this direction. High moral standards have actually HELPED science.