SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE - AT 11:16 P.M. ET:

SAUDI DECADENCE – A few days after Saudi Arabia announced, with great fanfare, that women would get the right to vote, a Saudi court has sentenced a woman to 10 lashes for driving a car.  So, if you're female you'll be allowed to vote...unless you show up at the polls driving a car.  What is remarkable is how little protest there is internationally regarding Saudi justice, and the kingdom's attitude toward women.  Of course, Saudi Arabia knows how to spread the oil money around, and money buys influence...and silence.

THE USUAL STATEMENT – Crown Publishers is saying it stands behind Joe McGinniss's smear job on Sarah Palin, a day after Palin threatened to sue the publisher.  This is the standard line publishers put out when a book is under attack.  The book is getting near-universal bad reviews.  It tells tawdry tales, but very little evidence is presented to back up the stories.  It is very hard for a public figure to successfully sue for libel, under the New York Times vs. Sullivan rule.  The public figure must prove that the offending statements are false, and were published with actual malice.  But if Sarah does sue, it could be a remarkably interesting trial.

ANDY GOING – Andy Rooney, at 92, is retiring from "Sixty Minutes" after 33 years with the show.  Rooney's end-of-the-show, gripe-filled commentaries on American life became a regular feature of "Sixty Minutes."  I never thought, frankly, they were all that great.  The great part is that CBS allowed Rooney to stay on until 92, a far cry from the obsolete "out at 65" standard that still applies in too many places.  Rooney's tenure is a sign of the future, as more and more Americans are working well past retirement age, some because they have to, others because they want to.  A more realistic, modern retirement age will become a major subject of discussion in the Social Security debates we're about to have.

IRAN THREATENS – Iran is threatening to send its navy close to American shores because the U.S. Navy operates close to Iran.  This would represent a major escalation of tensions between the two countries, and would conjure up visions of another Cuban Missile Crisis.  When Iran gets the nuclear weapon, it could easily launch a missile with an atomic warhead from a ship near our shores.  We would be aware of that capability, and it would have to affect our strategic thinking.

September 27, 2011