More Las Vegas thoughts — and the by-now-inevitable open thread

I just returned from a long and fulfilling visit to the Atomic Testing Museum in Las Vegas. It does exactly what the name promises, detailing the history of nuclear testing. Along the way, it touches on science, the Cold War, and popular culture. Despite coming under the aegis of the Smithsonian, it is remarkably free from any Progressive, PC attitudes. It presents the atomic bombing that ended WWII as a tactic that saved millions of American (not to mention English, Dutch, Australian, etc) lives, calls those who sold nuclear secrets to the Soviets “traitors,” and views the Cold War as a battle between Totalitarianism and Freedom. It’s an interesting, informative and intellectually untainted place — I recommend it highly.

And here’s a random observation about Vegas — I think the most unique decadence is the buffets. All cultures have pockets of excessive sex, gambling, and smoking, but only America adds surreal amount of food to the mix. If you’d like to see what I mean, I highly recoend the M buffet.

(Pardon typos. Hard to type and harder to proofread on an iPhone.)