BEST WISHES TO TERRY DAWLEY

"Thumbs up" and "thumbs down" are quick takes on the week's news.

As President Ronald Reagan is supposed to have remarked to Pope John Paul
II, "It hurts, getting shot." Both men should know; both survived bullet
wounds. Now-retired Erie police officer Terry Dawley would no doubt agree.
He has been shot twice in the line of duty. And the wounds he suffered
during an arrest three years ago have ended his career. Dawley was shot in
the left hand, knee and right thigh; he lost the full use of his hand. This
week, he retired after 13 years' service. Dawley was "the guy you write
books about," one police lieutenant told our reporter, the ultimate
S.W.A.T. policeman, the most decorated officer ever to serve the city of
Erie. Yes, some Americans have become skeptical of the militarization of
police work. Yes, we see how Hollywood romanticizes violence in its police
movies. Neither of those criticisms applies here. Terry Dawley always had a
fine reputation as a policeman. And he was also never afraid to speak his
mind, in public and in print. "I can't even tell you how much I miss it,"
he said of his former profession. We wish him well.

Where angels fear to tread. ... When Congressman Phil English was asked
about his support for the war in Iraq at a meeting with senior citizens, he
said, "I would do it again. Saddam may have dumped the weapons (of mass
destruction) or hidden them, but they will turn up or records about them
will turn up." We hope our congressman knows something we don't. Those WMD
- - how Washington loves those acronyms - seem conspicuous only in their
absence. Of course, we don't mean all possible weapons. We mean the
important ones. We mean nuclear weapons. Where is Saddam's nuke program,
the bombs he was going to give some shadowy terrorist group? Other
supporters of the war have quietly dropped the weapons business, and
justify the war because it rid the world of a horrible tyrant. English is
wise to avoid saying so. He knows uncomfortable questions will follow, such
as why we didn't go in to remove, say, our good buddy Pinochet; or why we
pamper the tyrants ruling Saudi Arabia. No reasonable person mourns for the
Iraqi regime, but many reasonable people think the Bush administration
risked its credibility in its lead-up to the war. If English is right, he
can have the delicious pleasure of saying, "I told you so." But if not. ...

Oh, Canada! Times have changed in the country a French wit once dismissed
as "a few acres of snow." Now an American wit says that to some Americans,
Canada is "morphing itself into a modern Gomorrah with hockey teams." Put
wit aside: Canada is sponsoring some interesting experiments. Let's see if
they succeed or fail. In May, Canada made possession of small amounts of
marijuana a minor offense. In June, its government introduced legislation
to recognize gay marriages; and Vancouver dispensed its first heroin to an
addict. And this month Canada began providing seriously ill patients with
medical marijuana - some of it grown at a government marijuana farm in
Manitoba. Anti-drug warriors in the United States say all Canada's new drug
measures will lead to self-destruction. American cultural conservatives say
"No way" to same-sex marriages. Canada disagrees. Of course, Canada is not
a mirror image of the United States. Despite many similarities, it never
was our 51st state. Parallels need not be exact. But let's see what happens
in those "few acres of snow."

Good riddance to bad rubbish. John M. Poindexter has announced he's leaving
public service on Aug. 29. You'll remember, Poindexter was the genius who
proposed developing a futures market for terrorist attacks, and creating a
massive database of information about all of us ordinary Americans. It took
only a slight breath of publicity to flame a firestorm of public
indignation with both wacky proposals. "I regret that we have not been able
to ... reassure the public that we do not intend to spy on them," he wrote
in his resignation letter. That's because, he did intend to spy on us. This
is the second time the retired admiral has resigned in disgrace. Poindexter
was national security adviser to President Ronald Reagan during the
Iran-Contra scandal, in which arms were illegally sold to Iran to bankroll
Nicaraguan rebels. Poindexter was convicted of lying to Congress about this
mess, but an appeals court overturned his five felony convictions on a
technicality. Prosecutors could not prove they had not used testimony
Poindexter had given Congress under a grant of immunity. Perhaps his first
resignation was just for practice.