More on astrology and _Columbia_: Firstly I didn't mean to imply that such divination practices were invented solely in the West. China, by way of conspicuous example, developed its own system.

The _Columbia_ connection? Well, there's this *troll* who bills himself as an astrologer of note and, evidently, a champion of faith against scientism/materialism/naturalism. He writes fairly well, but in my opinion he's not advancing his cause. The guy, whose moniker I won't mention, maniacally cross-posts to newsgroups such as alt.sci.planetary, where his views are unwelcome. I've seen cranks come and go there over the years, but this clown takes the cake; he's always altering his name and address to evade readers' filters. He badly needs satirizing, but I haven't done it yet, my excuse being that my home ISP for some reason apparently doesn't allow for posting! Anyhow, he recently seemed to be *gloating* over the _Columbia_ disaster & what it means for NASA. One can unsparingly criticize the agency's manned space program, notably for putting all its eggs in one basket--but this cyberjerk was out of line. Unfortunately his response wasn't the worst.

While I'm at it: If you want to impress people with your ability to predict, get your prognostications/prophecies out there for people to see *in advance*. Predicting the past ain't good enough.

At about the time I launched this blog, current events dropped a horrific surprise on us. Yes, I mean the _Columbia_ disaster, which affected me as it apparently did the nation at large. Leaving aside the media hype, what I find most provocative is the timing: NASA's three incidents with astronaut fatalities all occurred within a span of a few days on the calendar over a 36-year period. There's one for the astrologers to figure out!

Not that I'm arguing for or against astrology. The subject, in fact, fits under the heading of White Studies, this blog's ostensible topic. At the very least I'd describe the practice in question as cultural baggage, in this case the baggage of Western Civilization. I might almost have titled the blog "In Defense of Western Civilization," because that's more or less (I think!) what it's about. White Studies is of course a more eye-catching formulation, offered in parody of the various racial/ethnic/gender/sex-related study programs you can find helping to balkanize the education world these days. It is *not* about any sort of white separatism/supremacy/racism.

My notion of "white," in fact, is rather inclusive, owing more to science than popular culture or tradition. We're talking North Africa to South Asia here! Yes, Islam is, regarding geographic origins, of the "white" world--which should be taken neither as praise nor blame. I'll admit I've never formally studied the subject, though I consider myself relatively well-informed about this culture, which in fact overlaps that of "the West."

It's not as if our civilization needs to be identified with a race, of course. There's a multiracial aspect probably going back to Egypt. Unfortunately racialism still offers some people a route to political influence.

One more possible reason for the name "White Studies": this may not be the "Great White North, but Canada's pretty close. I think we could claim the title of "Little White North" here, anyway!