I’d heard budget rumors about this a few days ago, but now Space.com has a story on it. NASA is terminating the office that monitors space debris.

No, not asteroids–it’s things like tools, and payload shrouds, and loose screws, and flaked-off paint, and the results of the occasional satellite explosion. This is a very real problem–as the article points out, we often have to change out windows or thermal-protection tiles in the Shuttle Orbiters because of strikes from these things–at differential velocities of thousands of miles an hour, a paint chip is like a bullet.

They may restore funding, and I wouldn’t be shocked if this turns out to be a “Washington Monument” threat (you, know, like when the government is threatened with a budget cut, they pull out some popular thing that they’ll threaten to cut, to fend off any cuts at all). It might be just part of the overall agency posturing to defend as much of their budget as possible, by threatening cuts in vital programs (while ignoring internal pork and hobby shops).

We’ll just have to see how it all plays out.

There’s an eminently sensible (and timely, considering the recent anti-globo funfest in DC) column in today’s Times of London by Mick Hume (presumably not closely related to either David or Brit) on the reflexive anti-Israeli posture in much of the west.

Attacking the Israelis has become a way to vindicate any petty prejudice. It unites my German friend?s right-wing grandmother, who has waited 50 years for an excuse to criticise ?the Jews?, with left-wing protesters who imagine that the Palestinian struggle is on a par with them vandalising a burger bar.

Sympathy with the terrible plight of Jenin is no reason to endorse the anti-imperialism of idiots. Populist anti-Israeli rhetoric is cheap, but offers no solutions to the long-suffering peoples of the Middle East. And climbing on the backs of the victims to strike moralistic postures is just, as the diplomatic French might say, merde.

That’s my first suggestion for the campaign slogan.

Another might be, “Three chickens on every plate, and an electric car in every garage.”

Go ahead, come up with some of your own, to get ready for the Michael Moore Green Party gubernatorial run.

Go for it, Mike! Anything to make the Green Party seem even more ridiculous and irrelevant, I say.

Can’t wait until Tim Blehh gets hold of this one…

That’s my first suggestion for the campaign slogan.

Another might be, “Three chickens on every plate, and an electric car in every garage.”

Go ahead, come up with some of your own, to get ready for the Michael Moore Green Party gubernatorial run.

Go for it, Mike! Anything to make the Green Party seem even more ridiculous and irrelevant, I say.

Can’t wait until Tim Blehh gets hold of this one…

That’s my first suggestion for the campaign slogan.

Another might be, “Three chickens on every plate, and an electric car in every garage.”

Go ahead, come up with some of your own, to get ready for the Michael Moore Green Party gubernatorial run.

Go for it, Mike! Anything to make the Green Party seem even more ridiculous and irrelevant, I say.

Can’t wait until Tim Blehh gets hold of this one…

Now the headline is “Brutal, Yes. Massacre, No.”

All of this anti-semitism and Muslim rioting in France is taking a political toll. As reported in Le Figaro, there was an electoral shocker there yesterday. Chirac came in first, but Le Pen came in second, ahead of Jospin. There will be no socialists in the runoff. For those who are French-language challenged, here’s another version of the story in English.

It’s going to be a very interesting (and perhaps violent) run-off.

Leftist Robert Kuttner is concerned that his side is losing. He should be.

He still holds out hope (based on an extremely flawed analysis) that the trend can be reversed.

Nine years ago today, men, women and children in Waco were incinerated as a result of actions by overzealous publicity-hungry federal troops.

Seven years ago today, the Murrah Building was bombed by Timothy McVeigh (possibly with the aid of some of the same terrorists we are presently fighting in the Middle East, who were never held to account because the “right wing” was too attractive as an undiluted target by the Clinton Administration).

Amidst all of the nonsense coming out of the media about “root causes,” and “Israeli war crimes,” it’s always good, as a reminder to understand the real issues at stake, to read Bibi.