No, really.

Harry Belafonte paddles ever further around the bend, declaring that US leaders are “possessed of evil.”

I guess the word “evil” hasn’t gone completely out of vogue on the left–it’s OK to employ it, as long as one only applies it to Amerikkkka, and not to people who drive airplanes into skyscrapers, or torture babies in front of their parents.

Here’s a golden oldie. On the fiftieth anniversary of his death, some unrepentant Soviets want to clone Stalin.

I can’t tell whether this is a real story or a gag. The URL isn’t helpful in that regard…

Now this isn’t just wrong, it’s really weird.

A woman wielding a marital aid chased three kids, and bonked one of them in the noggin with it.

Words fail me.

Now this isn’t just wrong, it’s really weird.

A woman wielding a marital aid chased three kids, and bonked one of them in the noggin with it.

Words fail me.

Now this isn’t just wrong, it’s really weird.

A woman wielding a marital aid chased three kids, and bonked one of them in the noggin with it.

Words fail me.

I haven’t mentioned this previously, but I should have. The “Safe Explosives Act” part of the Homeland Security Act, will essentially ban model rockets, or make it so difficult to get and use the engines, because it will require getting an ATF permit, that it might as well.

In addition to being fun and educational, model rocketry is one of the paths that many took to becoming aerospace engineers. There’s a movement afoot to get an exemption for model rocketry from the bill. The details can be found here. Write, fax or phone your Senators.

[Update at 2:10 PM PST]

There’s an article in today’s Washington Times about it.

Model-rocket hobbyists are lobbying Capitol Hill lawmakers for the exemption through faxes, e-mail messages and phone calls. They include Jay Apt, who has flown four space shuttle missions.

“It makes no more sense to restrict aerospace modeling than it would have to ban rental trucks after they were misused in Oklahoma and New York,” Mr. Apt told Space.com.

Actually, it makes a lot less sense. At least the rental truck was actually used for a terrorist act. No one has ever committed terrorism with a model rocket engine.

Clark Lindsey has an interesting interview with Peter Diamandis, one of the founders of the X-Prize Foundation, over at Hobbyspace.

It’s predictable as clockwork. Whenever space policy raises itself to public awareness, one can always count on someone to warn us about the lessons of the Ming Dynasty. This time, Orville Schell does it in the WaPo.

As usual, the talk is about “space exploration” (as though that’s the only purpose to send people into space, and as though the Shuttle and ISS have much to do with “exploration”). Once again, the great tragedy and decline of China is discussed as though it was caused by the ending of the treasure fleets, rather than the latter being simply the symptom of much deeper problems, and largely a waste of money, anyway.

For new readers, my thoughts on Zheng He and the analogy with space exploration can be found here.

[Via Thomas James]

…a giggle of junior-high girls practicing cheerleading moves

Is this any less Shakespearian than “a sea of troubles” (hint: see Hamlet’s soliloquy)?

Another classic affinitive term, from Lileks.

And note, he doesn’t say the atrocious and absurd adjective, “middle-school.”