SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:45 P.M. ET:

HE'S LOST HIS MOORINGS AGAIN – Onetime well-known filmmaker Michael Moore has asked for permission to visit Iran to attend a film festival.   Among other motives he gives in going to Iran, Moore says he wants to protest U.S. policy.  Apparently, Barack Obama isn't far enough left for him.  Moore has very little audience left here, but will undoubtedly pack 'em in at the Iranian cinema.  I say, let him go.  And let him stay if he wants to.

OUTRAGE IN BRITAIN – I've always felt there were two Britains, the Britain of Winston Churchill, which we love, and a lesser Britain, a product of the welfare state.  The second is often on ugly display.  There comes now the story of a British soldier who lost both his legs and an arm in Afghanistan.  So what does the nanny state do?  It puts this soldier, his intended wife, and their two children, in a tiny apartment on the sixth floor of a high rise.  The government told the trooper there's a five-year wait for better housing.  But London's Daily Mail reports that large homes go directly to asylum seekers.  Disgraceful.

UPDATE – This morning, in a story about crime, we reported that 31 people had been shot in New York this weekend.  Well, make that 46.  A city made very safe over the years, beginning with the inspired work of Rudy Giuliani, became a shooting gallery this past weekend.  Gunfire erupted today at the annual West Indian Day parade in Brooklyn, right near the area where Mayor Mike Bloomberg was marching.  Oh, and by the way, seven people were murdered this weekend in the president's home city of Chicago.  Notice the interest at the highest levels.

September 5, 2011