James Doohan, the actor who played Mr. Scott in the cult 1960s television show Star Trek, has died. Fans of the show -- Trekkies as they are widely known, or Trekkers, as they prefer to be called -- are in mourning .

Besides the regular appearance of new films and television series, episodes of the show have been rebroadcast for years now, stoking the flames of hardcore fandom. As the exclamatory chief engineer Scotty on the series' Starship Enterprise, Doohan turned a bit part into a character that became, at least, a minor pop-culture figure, and for some an icon. On one of the larger Star Trek fan Web sites, a "Starfleet Commander" has even ordered a 30-day mourning period for their fallen comrade. And fans in uniform are advised to wear mourning bands.

So in case you've been off the planet for more than a quarter century and haven't appreciated Scotty's witticisms, here are some quotes .

"Let's Bomb Mecca!"

The breadth of understanding for Islam among some of the powers that be in the United States is breathtaking. One gets the impression that, were the constitution not clear about the separation between church and state, the country might rapidly turn into a Christian theocracy. And Muslims would be the first to go.

Perhaps that is going a bit far, but the news coming out of the world's most powerful democracy these days is far from reassuring. A judge in Guilford County, North Carolina recently forbade a woman from swearing to tell the truth on a Koran rather than a Bible  before giving court testimony. In other words, swearing on a Bible makes her more likely to tell the truth. But still, the judge's decision isn't half as bad as the comments by Rep. Tom Tancredo of Colorado last Friday. Speaking on the WFLA radio station in Orlando, Florida, Tancredo said that, were Islamist terrorists ever to set off nuclear devices in the United States, it might be a good idea to "take out" Muslim holy sites.  Specifically, bombing Mecca. Is it any wonder that many Muslims are skeptical of the United States?

Happy Birthday to Mass-Scale Death and Destruction

It was an event that changed the world forever. Sixty years ago, the very first atomic bomb was exploded at Alamogordo  in New Mexico. At the time, it represented the pinnacle of scientific achievement and was the result of years of work from the world's leading scientists. But even though it was a cause for wonder, it was also a cause for horror. Just three weeks after the first test detonation, it was used in battle for the first time in Hiroshima, Japan -- with appalling results.

The Bomb was the result of the top-secret Manhattan Project  and was pushed to completion as rapidly as possible as a way to bring an end to the slaughter of World War II. Yet despite American arguments that the use of the bomb was necessary to avoid the massive casualties that would have resulted from an invasion of Japan, many of the scientists who worked on the project soon resigned. Project leader J. Robert Oppenheimer  even went so far as to say, "I feel we have blood on our hands."