Joe Pelton has an editorial over at space.com about space policy. It contains the usual justifications (we need to save ourselves from the asteroids, etc.), but while I agree that there are questions that have to be asked, I’m underwhelmed by his:

Why explore space and why send humans into space?

Why does NASA spend the money it does?

Why does NASA use the resources it has the way it does?

What is NASA?s role in terms of education, health care, energy and job creation?

Why is there not more international cooperation in space activities?

Should the U.S. government, at all levels, not realize it needs to do a better job telling us why space and space research, exploration and applications are key?

Why the focus on NASA? This needs to be framed much broader–what is the role of the government, and of the private sector?

And what’s the big deal about international cooperation? Why is this apparently a desirable goal, in and of itself? There’s no good reason for it to be. We should cooperate if it makes sense, not just for cooperation’s sake.

Go read Lileks.

Go read Lileks.

Go read Lileks.

As expected, it looks like the only thing “sexed up” about the British government’s dossier was the BBC story about it…

[Update on Friday morning]

Via Instapundit, Brendan O’Neill says that Blair’s critics were the real spinners. I’d actually be embarrassed to claim that I was “duped” by such a supposedly incompetent government, just as the Dems should be ashamed to be continually outwitted by the retarded monkey in the White House, but I guess when you hunger for power, you have no shame…

…by getting on an airplane.

I’m flying from SFO down to LAX this morning. I expect that I’ll cheat death and whatever perverse form of Allah our enemies worship once again. More posting later.

[Update at 11 AM PDT]

Landed safely and am back home, as expected.

Up yours, Islamonazis…

…by getting on an airplane.

I’m flying from SFO down to LAX this morning. I expect that I’ll cheat death and whatever perverse form of Allah our enemies worship once again. More posting later.

[Update at 11 AM PDT]

Landed safely and am back home, as expected.

Up yours, Islamonazis…

…by getting on an airplane.

I’m flying from SFO down to LAX this morning. I expect that I’ll cheat death and whatever perverse form of Allah our enemies worship once again. More posting later.

[Update at 11 AM PDT]

Landed safely and am back home, as expected.

Up yours, Islamonazis…

A Springfield, MO newspaper has dropped Doonesbury, due to reader feedback.

“Doonesbury” was the most reviled strip, with 1,133 of our voters ranking it in the three they hate most.

Now, if they’d just pick up Day By Day…

The latest Field Poll from California implies that McClintock will be the spoiler who will give the race to Bustamante. It will be used, of course, as ammunition for the Schwarzenegger camp to pressure him to drop out. Frustratingly (at least to me), the poll does a Schwarzenegger matchup against Bustamante without McClintock, but it doesn’t do a McClintock-Bustamante matchup sans Schwarzenegger.

If I were McClintock, I’d take some of the little money he’s spending on ads to do my own poll that did exactly that. It would do two things. First, it might provide a reality check to see if he really has a chance, and second, if it shows that he does, then it would provide counterleverage, allowing him to actually pressure Schwarzenegger to drop out.

[Update on Tuesday afternoon]

Dan Weintraub has some relevant data:

The poll is a bit dated, but there’s lots of other stuff to chew on, including these head-to-head match-ups:

Schwarzenegger 49
Bustamante 42

and

McClintock 41
Bustamante 47

That looks like the same forty percent that voted for Simon last fall. It still doesn’t answer the question of who would get Arnold’s vote if he dropped out, though. Bustamante would probably get some of it, but he’s not likely to get that full forty seven percent–there are too many donkey-like alternatives (Green Party, Arianna). But it’s more likely that McClintock would pick up the full forty one percent without Arnold in the race–with Ueberroth out, he’s really the only serious Republican left. So it’s got to look tantalizing to him, and it weakens the case for him dropping out.