Can you imagine what would have happened if luxury liners were still allowed to underman lifeboats, some 90 years after the sinking of the Titanic. This article points out that the mistakes and blunders that characterized the tragedy of September 11 may be repeated because of the lack of a public inquiry into those events. The whole point of such an inquiry isn't simply to get people on the record with what they recollect, or to have some panel make recommendations to prevent such snafus in the future. It's to put a human face on the screw-ups, such as the Base Commander at Pearl Harbor, or the head of the White Star cruise line; embarassment and shame have always been an effective way of overcoming bureaucratic lethargy.