A friend of mine, having read my piece on space cooperation with China, had this to say:

Well, your article made sense to me. I'm sorry you're getting flak over it.
And while I'm not equating the two, it's not just the human rights
violations that bother me -- China has some of the most horrific policies
towards animals I've ever heard of in a modern nation.

This made me snicker a little bit. I'm not much of an animal lover, unless they're on my plate with the appropriate sauce. But then I came upon this story that demonstrated to me that the Chinese powers that be are not just cruel to human beings unfortunate to be under their control.

Looks like Neil Armstrong has been telling the truth all of these years.

Looks like Congressman Mark Foley (R) Florida is resigning over some very inappropriate emails he sent to a sixteen year old male Congressional page. I am reminded of the Gary Studds scandal in which the Massachuttes Democrat actually had an affair with an teenaged page and despite being censured for it, was able to brazen it out and serve for another thirteen years. But of course standards are a bit different if you're a liberal Democrat.

Addendum: I am reminded that Dan Crane, a Republican from Illinois, was censured at the same time as Studds for a fling with a teenaged female page and was defeated for reelection the following year. Point proven again.

Some of the things we'll see, for the first time in decades, when Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter starts imaging the lunar surface, are the original Apollo landing sites. Not that it will stop certain conspiracy nuts from believing that we never went to the Moon.

According to Algore, cigarette smoking not only causes cancer, but apparently global warming as well.

One of the interesting arguments used by people who objected to my bringing up Chinese human rights violations in my recent space cooperation piece was a variation on, "Oh, yeah? What about Guantanamo?" The respondents seem to think that there are all sorts of horrors being inflicted on innocent, inoffensive terrorists. Rich Lowery, however, recently went down to Club Gitmo and tells the truth of the matter, which seems quite different from the imaginings of the people who have filled my inbox.

The Iranians may have accomplished the impossible. Two Middle Eastern countries, once thought as different as two countries could be, may be having a rapprochement to meet the threat of the Mad Mullahs.

It seems that the Chinese are testing a laser weapon on American satellites with a view of finding out ways to disable their electronics. The fact that that they would do such a thing while begging the United States for joint space cooperation arrangements speaks not only to the arrogance of the Chinese government but also their perception of the weakness of the American government. Via Stacy Bartley.

Recently, science fiction and fantsy writer John M. Ford died at the far too young age of forty nine. While he is best known for his Star Trek novels, The Final Reflection and How Much for Just the Planet, he also did some excellent alternate history. One was a story, whose title escapes me, of a community in upstate New York still struggling to survive thirty years after the Cuban Missile Crisis went nuclear, in which both John F. Kennedy and Elvis are still alive. The other is this curious novel that combines the Byzantine Empire, the Florence of Lorenzo di Medici, and the Wars of the Rose.

John will be missed.

In which I imagine what The Next Voyage to the Moon will be like.

The Dittmar study, that suggests that the 18-24 Year old demographic is disinterested in the Vision for Space Exploration is somewhat less than meets the eye. This demographic is disinterested in quite a few things, including actually getting out to vote.

More fallout from my piece on Chinese space cooperation, this time positive.

My Houston Chronicle piece on US Chinese space cooperation has stirred up quite a bit of controversy. Besides my email box being filled with messages objecting to the premise of the article (and in a couple of cases objecting to Your Humble Servant), Lucy Sherriff of The Register responds with a couple of points that need looking at.

Writing in The Houston Chronicle, he argues that the US should think very carefully about making friendly overtures to a country that is prone to holding US soldiers captive.

He's probably right, but it is disingenuous to pretend that China was the only one behaving badly in that case. After all, the US plane in question was "gathering intelligence" [Er, is that the same as spying? - Ed] on a new Chinese warship.

True, but irrelevant. The EP-3 plane was over international waters when the Chinese fighter collided with it, forcing it to land. The Chinese eventually released the Navy crew without charging them with spying, so one can conclude that they had not been doing anything illegal.

He also contends that NASA should consider the morality of working with a government that routinely tortures and kills its own people.

Could he really be suggesting that NASA should tell the Bush administration that it can stick its annual funding until: Guantanamo Bay is closed, there are promises that no similar facilities will be re-opened, and Bush has scrapped the death penalty?

Well, gracious. The problem is that there is no torture nor human rights violations going on at Club Gitmo. Despite various allegations of that sort of thing, no one--even human rights organizations which have visited the facility--have found any evidence of it. And we in the United States find that the death penalty is an appropriate punishment for certain heinous crimes, such as murder. In any case, the President would have to have the cooperation of the Congress to eliminate the Federal death penalty and has no power at all regarding death penalty laws in the various states of the Union.

To be fair, Ms. Sherriff does agree with some of my points.

One other thing, the quote Ms. Sherriff offers at the end was not from Sun Tzu. At least I was not able to find it in my copy of The Art of War. It is a quote from that great strategist and man of respect, Vito Corleone.

Addendum: Fred Kiesche writes:

I don't have "The Art of War" handy, but her bit:

"Perhaps Whittington should consider whether Griffin
has had reason to consider General Sun Tzu's phrase:
keep your friends close, but your enemies closer."

Might be a variant on the Sun Tzu quote that goes
something like "Know your enemy as you know yourself".

Or maybe it's a variant on that other bit of
philosophy: "The enemy of my enemy is my friend?"

Yep. I think your interpretation is closer!

Addendum 2: A thoughtful reader has sent me this link that suggests that "Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer", while not in The Art of War, is still attributed to Sun Tzu.

While I thought that NASA Administrator Michael Griffin's visit to China was of limited utillity, it seems to have been even more limited due to the fact that the Chinese did not invite Griffin to visit their Mission Control or their launch facility in the Gobi. That's sort of like taking a tour of American space facilities without seeing the Johnson Space Center in Houston or the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. One would think that if the Chinese were eager for a space cooperation arrangement with the United States, they would be a little bit more open and forthcoming.

Condi Rice responds to Bill Clinton.

Apparently space exploration still polls very well.

Addendum: More on polls via Jeff Foust.

Rocket Plane/Kistler's COTS program seems to have suffered a set back Rand Simberg has some insights.

Two pieces on commercial space in this week's Space Review, one about Kistler and the other about Bigelow.

Space exploration: A cultural and historic perspective.

Mr Paul's first mistake was to believe that any business deal with the Clintons would be on the up and up.