Some upcoming myths on Mythbusters. My favorite: What really happens with poop hits the fan?

Are We Headed for a Space Bubble? Very likely, despite some of the chest thumping going on by some "commercial" space advocates. This will be a good thing, provided that the Obama administration does not try to keep firms afloat with bailout money.

Virgin Galactic Wants You to Fly into Space

Bill Maher Showed Up on Jay Leno; What Could Go Wrong? (Video)

Obama Now in Favor of Repealing Key Part of Health Care Reform

The health care reform bill has become so onerous that even the Obama administration is now in favor of repealing an important portion of it, the provision that requires businesses to submit a 1099 from transactions over $600.

Raul Castro's Cuba Shrinks the Size of Government, Enacts Free Market Reforms

In an astonishing example of how the world has turned upside down while President Obama is busily expanding the size and reach of the American government, Raul Castro, ruler of Cuba, is shrinking the Cuban government.

True Lies the TV series?

John Boehner -- the Latest Enemy of the People

The latest enemy of the people, according to the Obama administration, is John Boehner, the current House Minority leader and who most believe will become Speaker when the Republicans take over the House.

Dinesh D'Souza's piece of Obama the foreigner (psychologically, at least) is well worth reading. Here is a taste:

One more anomaly: A few months ago nasa Chief Charles Bolden announced that from now on the primary mission of America's space agency would be to improve relations with the Muslim world. Come again? Bolden said he got the word directly from the President. "He wanted me to find a way to reach out to the Muslim world and engage much more with dominantly Muslim nations to help them feel good about their historic contribution to science and math and engineering." Bolden added that the International Space Station was a model for nasa's future, since it was not just a U.S. operation but included the Russians and the Chinese. Obama's redirection of the agency caused consternation among former astronauts like Neil Armstrong and John Glenn, and even among the President's supporters: Most people think of nasa's job as one of landing on the moon and Mars and exploring other faraway destinations. Sure, we are for Islamic self-esteem, but what on earth was Obama up to here?

POLL: DO YOU SUPPORT HOUSE OR SENATE VERSION OF 2010 NASA AUTHORIZATION ACT

Texts of actual bills attached, which is useful since I suspect most people who are getting irate about one or the other has not actually read them.

Frank Tipler responds to Stephen Hawking on physics and the existence of God.

Muslims have been enriching Texas history since before the Civil War. Hajj Ali, later known as "Hi Joli" was a camel driver for the United States Camel Corps in the 1850s, fighting Indians and having other adventure until he died in the early 20th Century, still regaling people with his stories.

Liberals: We Oppose Obama Because We're All Insane

The problem with the United States is that we really don't appreciate President Obama because we're all nuts. Politico's Ben Smith is detecting that particular meme among many in the liberal political class.

Democrats to Pelosi and Obama: Let's Extend the Bush Tax Cuts Across the Board

President Barack Obama and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi have drawn a line in the sand: no extension of the Bush tax cuts for families making over $250,000 a year. But they are being challenged from an unexpected quarter.

Texas pioneers clean wind energy; biggest wind power state in the Union

Christine O'Donnell Pulls Ahead of Mike Castle in Delaware

Just days after both Sarah Palin and Senator Jim DeMint endorsed Christine O'Donnell for United States senator from Delaware, O'Donnell surged ahead in a PPP poll of Mike Castle, the sole congressman from that state.

Jeff Foust has an excellent piece on Debating the future of human spaceflight in an environment of no direction and no funding. Paul Torrance writes about The Real Mistakes of the Space Shuttle Program.

Nancy Pelosi as the Wicked Witch of the West (Video)

First of all, I have heard of sibling rivalry, but this is ridiculous. Also the fact that Olivia de Havilland (aka Melanie Wilkes)and Joan Fontaine are yet alive just blows my mind.

'True Blood' Season 3 Episode 12 'Evil is Going On'

"True Blood" Season 3 Episode 12 "Evil is Going On" begins with Russell and Eric chained together with the silver handcuffs slowly barbequing in the sun. Then Eric has a vision of his dead sire Godric.

'Mad Men' Season 4 Episode 8 'The Summer Man'

"Mad Men' Season 4 Episode 8 "The Summer Man" starts with Don Draper doing two things that are unusual for him. First, he is swimming incessantly as a form of both spiritual and physical exercise. Don is also keeping a diary.

Poverty Rate Skyrockets Under Obama

Experts are predicting that 2009 census figures are going to show a significant jump in the number of Americans living in poverty. This development will have happened on the watch of Barack Obama, unfortunately for him.

Palin and the Left’s Status-Anxiety

Since they have few meritorious indicators of a personal and group claim to status remaining, leftists are forced to fall back on the same standards employed by the European upper classes. They try to restrict status not by merit but by conformity to their own life pattern. They demand that people go to the right elitist schools. They demand that people live in certain communities. They demand that people have the right recreational interests. They demand that people enjoy uniform kinds of art and music. They demand that people have the proper modes of speech, accent and allusion. They demand that people have the right religious beliefs. And so on.

On this basis Palin is a nightmare: She went to a state college. She lives in the “backwoods”. She likes hunting, fishing and sports. She likes country music and representational art. She doesn’t have the right accent. She doesn’t dress appropriately. She’s a Pentecostal instead of atheist, Unitarian, Episcopalian, etc.

Palin’s success stabs them in the heart of their anxiety. If Palin can be a successful political leader, what does that say about the leftists’ claims of intellectual and moral superiority? If people don’t just instantly assume that leftists are smarter and better than everyone else, why would people trust a leftist government to make so many decisions about the people’s live, e.g., medical care?

That is why leftists see Palin as a genuine and significant threat of unusual magnitude. In the emotional thinking of leftists, she is a personal threat to everything each individual leftist has attained in life. They feel a sincere, visceral sense of danger about her because she attacks the very core of their egos. They feel the same hatred towards Palin that the European upper classes felt towards the upstart middle-class. They feel the same hatred that poor whites felt towards non-whites. They feel that way for the same reasons. If she succeeds, worse, if she is right, then they become nobodies.

As long as she is viewed as a significant political figure, the left’s obsession with Palin will never wane because it does not spring from rational roots. She threatens something too deep and too profound in a political subculture built around the belief that a small percentage of human beings have a vastly superior understanding of the world compared to all the rest.

Is John Boehner Caving on the Bush Tax Cuts?

In an interview on "Face the Nation" the likely future Speaker of the House John Boehner signaled that he was willing to cave to President Barack Obama on extending the Bush tax cuts to all tax payers.

Michael Moore Pours Gasoline on the Ground Zero Mosque Controversy

In an obvious attempt to pour gasoline on the fire of the Ground Zero Mosque controversy, film maker and provocateur Michael Moore has proposed building the 9/11 Mosque on Ground Zero and is soliciting donations to accomplish this.

Christian Toto reviews My Road to Al Qaeda the HBO documentary starring Lawrence Wright, author of the excellent study on Al Qaeda, "The Looming Tower." While the documentary has a chilling portrait of the terrorist mindset, it is ruined, IMHO, by it's blame America first conclusions.

Wright’s on target when he says the U.S. needs to better understand the radical mindset before engaging in a war on terror. But by blasting the Iraq War, excoriating enhanced interrogation techniques, and decrying modest crackdowns on civil liberties, Wright leaves few other tools available to beat back terror cells around the globe.

Anything the Western world does to fight al-Qaeda trips the Muslim “humiliation reflex,” causing them to hate the West even more. But what’s Plan B?

Wright lets loose with platitudes like, “Al Qaeda can’t destroy America. We can only do that to ourselves.” He’s correct — in theory — but a few well placed nuclear suitcases will bring down the country far more quickly than any draconian laws we can put in place to fight terrorism.

Also I had no idea that Wright had co-written the 1998 film "The Siege" which depicted an Islamo Fascist assault on America and America's overreaction to it, which involved rounding up Muslim Americans FDR style and actual torture (not just the water boarding kind.) The movie was horrible and is now just about unwatchable.

Paul Spudis discusses natural bridge recently discovered on the Moon.

Star Trek Does Monty Python (Video)

Rebuilding the World Trade Center Proceeds Apace

When of the great running sores nine years after the terrorist outrage of 9/11 2001 is that the World Trade Center has not yet be rebuilt. But according to the Wall Street Journal, that is finally about to change.

Jon Goff has left Masten and has started his own company, Altius Space Machines. Despite our well documented differences, I wish Jon the best of luck with his entrepreneurial endeavors,

Rush Limbaugh Went to School with Terry Jones, the Koran Burning Pastor

No one was more shocked than Rush Limbaugh when he discovered that he had went to High School in Cape Girardeau, Missouri with Terry Jones, also known as the Koran burning pastor of the Dove World Outreach Center.

9/11: A Thousand Stories of Heroism from the World Trade Center

I've written about 9/11, the Second Day of Infamy, in these pages six years after and again eight years after, and one would think there would be little enough to add today, nine years after. But after watching one of those TV specials it seems that there is after all.

Rick Tumlinson's purple prose is always entertaining. but also illustrative of how not to try to affect the political process. Here is a choice sample:

In the coming weeks some in Congress will try to kill America's future in space as they desperately work to prop up the tax sucking, pork eating dream murdering monster known as the Constellation rocket program. Right now a bought and paid for cabal of hypocritical puppets in the House and Senate are trying to prop up this corpse of a dead end plan to go to the Moon and Mars that not only failed to deliver on President Bush's promise of a permanent U.S. presence in space, but continues to eat the budgets of the very exploration it was meant to support.

Worse, in order to line the pockets of a few old space contractors, those who support what I call the Constellation Hallucination want to block President Obama's plan to re-invigorate our space program that gets NASA back to exploring by kickstarting our commercial NewSpace transportation industry. With some democrats turning against their own president and so-called conservatives lying to their own constituents about the choice between their strangely socialist space agenda and the NewSpace frontier enabling Obama's space plan, it is obviously all about the money -- our money, and making sure it goes into the right pockets, not into opening space.

Those defending the status quo with hollow arguments that the president's plan is destroying our space program have succeeded so far in confusing the public as to what this is all about, and worse, made American enterprise look like the bad guys while defending a NASA human spaceflight status quo that has been a failure to launch when it comes to the dreams they have peddled us for all the decades since Apollo.

The first lesson is that when one is trying to influence members of Congress, one might want to consider not calling them a "cabal of hypocritical puppets." Nor should one suggest that the public is "confused." That tends to alienate the very people one is trying to convince. Just saying.

Mind, I'm still wondering what is so "commercial" about a scheme that shovels six billion dollars in subsidies into space firms. I'm hoping that things like the Boeing/Space Adventures alliance will bear fruit despite the state capitalism of Obamaspace.

Commercial Space Deal Between Space Adventures and Boeing to Be Announced

Alan Boyle, at MSNBC, is writing that Space Adventures, which arranged for trips by such people as Anousheh Ansari and Richard Garriott to the International Space Station, has signed a commercial space deal with Boeing.

Sony eBook Reader to Enable Ebook Lending Libraries

Sony is rolling out its new eBook reader in competition with the Amazon Kindle and the Barnes and Nobel Nook, along with the ebook feature of the Apple iPad. The Sony eBook has a couple of features that make it stand out.

Some one should tell Rand Simberg that "Pork" does not equal "spending I do not like." By his definition, the Obamaspace proposal is filled with pork and subsidies for so called "NewSpace" companies.

His wish that NASA go on autopilot without an authorization bill may be granted. But it is a case of "careful what you wish for." The default is Constellation as is, albeit very inadequately funded.

Dove World Outreach Center Cancels Plan to Burn Koran on 9/11; Update: Only Suspended

Terry Jones, the pastor of a Florida based church called the Dove World Outreach Center, has decided to call off a planned burning of the Koran, the Muslim holy book, in commemoration of the terrorist attacks of September 11th, 2001.

'The Lord of the Rings Online' Virtual Role-Playing Game Debuts

"The Lord of the Rings Online," a virtual, computer-driven role-playing game set in Tolkien's Middle Earth during the War of the Ring, debuts on Friday, Sept. 10. Players are invited to join in on the adventure.

Mike Griffin thunders against Obamaspace.

Did Fidel Castro Reject Communism?

The second part of Jeffrey Goldberg's article in the Atlantic about his conversation with Fidel Castro, retired tyrant of Cuba, has a more astonishing revelation than did the first. Castro, it seems, has started to sour on communism as practiced in Cuba

How the Tea Party Senators Will Redefine 'Moderation'

If the White House and congressional Democrats are looking forward to the prospect of Tea Party-inspired senators and congressmen with fear and loathing, the Republican Senate leadership seems only a little less nervous.

Florida's 2010 24th Congressional District Race; Republican Sandy Adams Challenging Incumbent Suzanne Kosmas

Andy Griffith's Popularity Nose Dives Over Support for Health Care Reform

The acrimony surrounding health care reform, stoked up to white hotness as the 2010 midterm elections draw nigh, seems to have claimed another victim, albeit an odd one: Andy Griffith, the long-living television and film star.

Hansel and Gretel: bounty hunters.

Film and TV versions of Stephen King's "The Dark Tower" to be directed by Ron Howard.

The Human Exploration Framework Team's Phase 1 closeout report is now up. The one data point that jumps out is that the first trip to a NEO happens in 2031, not 2025 as proposed by the President. One of the selling points of Obamaspace was that we were going to have some exciting deep space voyages sooner than were planned under Constellation. Even given the most pessimistic (and thus arguable) projections for the Program of Record, it looks like (pending the Phase 2 report) Obamaspace pushes everything to the right by a number of years.

At this rate, we really will have to bring our visas the next time we land on the Moon.

A real life tractor beam.

Japanese Launch Microwave Powered Rocket

John F. Kennedy Debates Barack Obama on Tax Cuts (Video)

Warehouse Fire Destroyed Houston Ballot Machines, Raising the Possibility of Voter Fraud

Pajama Media's Bryan Preston is reporting that there are fears that a campaign of voter fraud, coupled with the lost of ten thousand voting machines in a warehouse fire, may be threatening the integrity of the 2010 elections in Houston.

Obama's assault on the Constellation return to the Moon program is now an issue in the Illinois Senate race.

Improving NASA's Public Relations -- a Thought Experiment Posed by Frank Sietzen

Frank Sietzen, a space journalist and co-author of "New Moon Rising," about the return to the Moon initiative now under assault by the Obama administration, poses an interesting question on the NASA Watch website:

More on President Reagan Film Biopic to Be Made

A motion picture biopic of President Reagan is in the works, to be entitled, simply, "Reagan." Unlike the infamous miniseries, "Reagan" the movie will be respectful of its subject. That would make the Reagan film cutting edge by Hollywood standards indeed.

Fidel Castro to Ahmadinejad: Stop the Anti-Semitism

Jeffery Goldberg, of The Atlantic, recently went to Cuba and had an interview with elderly retired dictator Fidel Castro. Goldberg recounted what transpired in a recent article. Castro had some surprising things to say.

Health Care Reform to Cause Insurance Premium Hikes

According to an article in the Wall Street Journal, those who buy health insurance as individuals or through a small business are about to be socked with huge premium increases, ironically as a result of efforts to make health care reform more palatable.

'Covert Affairs' Season 1 Episode 9 'Fool in the Rain'

In "Covert Affairs" Season 1 Episode 9 "Fool in the Rain," two people go on a journey that ends with both in the same place. Annie winds up in Niagara with her sister. An Iranian gentleman named "Yahya" Rahimi also arrives by the Falls.

A film biopic about President Reagan that will be--well--accurate and respectful of its subject.

Richard Daley to Step Down as Mayor of Chicago; Rahm Emanuel to Seek Office in Advance of White House Staff Shakeup

Mayor Richard Daley the Younger of Chicago has decided to retire after his current term, clearing the way for Rahm Emanuel, the current White House Chief of Staff, who is known to be desirous of returning to Illinois and being Mayor himself.

Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas: No Recognition of Israel as a Jewish State

Illustrating the essential barrier to Middle East peace, Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas stated during a recent interview that he will never recognize Israel as a Jewish state, which is to say he will never recognize Israel as it exists.

Republicans to Take Over House -- Cook Political Report

The Cook Political Report, as quoted by Taegan Goddard's Political Wire, has announced that it is projecting that the Republicans will gain at least 40 seats in the House in the November elections, one more than needed to achieve a takeover

In Building a foundation for commercial crew Jeff Foust relates how NASA is providing grants and subsidies to various companies to try to jump start a commercial space transportation industry. Absent in Jeff's analysis seems to be how these companies are seeking private financing and markets. Commercial in what sense?

Also VASIMR: hope or hype for Mars exploration?

Battles Loom Between Obama and Congress for 2011-2012

If, as expected, the Republicans take over the House in November (and perhaps the Senate as well), the stage will be set for epic battles between the Obama administration and a new Republican-controlled Congress.

Dove World Outreach Center's Plan to Burn the Koran for 9/11

A church calling itself the Dove World Outreach Center in Florida has decided to commemorate 9/11 by burning copies of the Koran. The church gives 10 reasons why it is doing this, mostly having to do with the fact that Islam disputes Christianity.

Why Obama's Commercial Space Initiative is Not Commercial

One of the selling points of the Obama space policy is that it proposed to enable a commercial space transportation industry. No longer would NASA build expensive, in-house space ships like the shuttle or the proposed Orion/Ares 1.

Bart Gordon offers an inconvenient truth. The Obama administration, like the Bush administration before it, is not asking for enough money for its space program.

Will Valentina Matviyenko Be the First Female President of Russia?

Could the next President of the Russian Federation be a woman? The UK Independent is speculating that Valentina Matviyenko, the current governor of St. Petersburg and ally of Vladimir Putin, could run for that office in 2012.

Lori Garver's Small Vision of the Next Fifty Years in Space

Recently NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver made a speech to the American Institute for Aeronautics and Astronautics on what she termed "the next fifty years in space." The address was primarily a defense of the controversial Obama space policy.

Addendum: Trent Waddington admonishes me.

Hey Mark, rather than just being a naysaying nelly, how about you throw your hat in the ring and take up a role in the next administration? It's easy to dream big, but actually turning that into reality seems to be something you consider someone else's job.

Well, of course, if any political candidate wants my advice, I am available at reasonable rates. In the meantime, anyone can go to my Associated Content page search on terms like "NASA" and "Space" and get a huge amount of space policy writing. In fact, even in my critique of Lori's small vision, I suggest that the goal of any space effort is to spread human civilization across the solar system, not just a few rich people in space hotels in LEO and government space explorers on Mars for temporary jaunts.

In the meantime, for a more expansive view of what space in the 21st Century could be like, given wiser choices that this administration is making, my own The Next Fifty Years in Space written several years ago.

Bumped.

'Mad Men' Season 4 Episode 7 'The Suitcase'

"Mad Men' Season 4 Episode 7 "The Suitcase" takes place on the eve of and during the Cassius Clay/Sonny Liston rematch that changed boxing history. But the real title bout is between Don Draper and Peggy Olson.

Obama to Propose $50 Billion Infrastructure Spending Program

President Barack Obama, as part of Stimulus 2.0, which will also include targeted and temporary tax cuts, is going to propose $50 billion in new infrastructure spending. That means roads, bridges, railroads, and airports.

Space Politics posts a bizarre argument for the government providing the bulk of the upfront investment in "commercial" launchers, based on the failure of the EELV to get an adequate commercial market.

Sowers noted the parallels between the EELV and commercial crew debates are “kind of eerie”. Because of that, he argued, repeating the same approach of the EELV program, with private ventures picking up most of the costs of developing systems on the basis of capturing promised commercial markets, is unwise. “Assuming the existence of a commercial market to entice or extort the companies to invest is the wrong way to go,” he said. Having the government invest in developing commercial crew capabilities is better for several reasons: the government needs the capability, a commercial approach can reduce costs over an all-government system, and the government can get a long-term benefit as commercial markets do emerge and cost go down as flight rates increase. “The government should invest” up front, unlike the EELV case, he said, “and if the government does invest, then a commercial market can be established and then the government can get its return on investment.”

However, if the commercial market is not established, the tax payer is stuck with both the bill and a launch system that will cost more to operate because there are no commercial customers to goose up the launch rate.

How is this whole scheme "commercial" again? And why are nominally libertarian space advocates supporting it?

Glenn Reynolds looks at the intellectual roots of James Lee's craziness.

Obama Grovels to the United Nations, Seeking Validation

Much has been made of the report that Obama administration is making to the U.N. High Commissioner on Human Rights, that essentially accuses the State of Arizona of being a human rights abuser, at one with Iran, Cuba, and Burma.

Obama to Seek New Stimulus Package, Focusing on Tax Cuts

With the unemployment rate stubbornly hovering near ten percent, despite hundreds of billions of dollars paid out in stimulus funding, President Barack Obama is considering a measure that will contain—more stimulus.

Sarah Palin's Unwanted Neighbor, Joe McGinnis, Moves Out

The good news, insofar as Sarah Palin's family is concerned, is that Joe McGinnis, their unwanted neighbor of some three and a half months, has finally left the rented house next to the Palin homestead.

Russian Finance Minister, Alexei Krudin, Urges More Smoking, Drinking to Boost Government Revenues

The Russian Federation, like many other countries, including the United States, has problems raising revenues to fund government programs. But Russian Finance Minister Alexei Krudin thinks he has a solution—more smoking and drinking.

'Nanny McPhee Returns' Starring and Written by Emma Thompson, a Review

"Nanny McPhee Returns" is the sequel to the 2006 film "Nanny McPhee", the story of a nanny with strange powers and an off putting appearance, who teaches a Victorian era family consisting of a widowed father and seven ill behaved children a few life lessons.

Now Sarah Palin Accused of Gay Bashing

In the wake of the now infamous Vanity Fair hit piece, of which now even the author is admitting may have some errors in it, Sarah Palin's acerbic reaction to the piece is now being spun into a manufactured controversy.

Now Some Democrats Want to Cut Spending, Taxes

Senaator Michael Bennet is angry about the increasing size of the national debt. According to the Washington Post, he even said so. "'We have managed to acquire $13 trillion of debt on our balance sheet. In my view, we have nothing to show for it.'"

Project M Update: Third Free Flight of Armadillo Lunar Lander Prototype (Video)

It looks like Ann Coulter has been lurking on Answers.Com on Yahoo looking for research material. For one theological question, my darling wife seems to have been awarded with "best answer" for one posed by the lovely, gracious, and formidable Ms. Coulter. I will never hear the end of it.

Selling the Space Program: A Conversation with 'Don Draper'

One of the talking points coming out of the Obama administration is that the one thing wrong about the new space policy that cancelled the Constellation space exploration program was that it wasn't sold properly.

David Brooks posits an alternate history in which Barack Obama did not make so many bad policy choices. Unfortunately he makes the common mistake of bad alternate history of creating an alternate Obama, doing things that the real one never would have contemplated.

Meeting Mr. Palin.

Night of the Living Trekkies. Oh my.

Young People, Former Obama Supporters Turn on the Democrats

Back during the 2008 campaign, much was said about how then-candidate Obama was scooping up the youth vote. But a recent story in the New York Times suggests that young people are abandoning the Democrats and are now up for grabs.

Why we miss Bush.

'Futurama' Season 6 Episode 12 'The Mutants Are Revolting'

"Futurama" Season 6 Episode 12 "The Mutants are Revolting" concludes the current season of the series with yet another tedious polemic on a burning 21st Century issue in a thinly disguised science fiction context -- illegal immigration.

Stephen Hawking: God Did Not Create the Universe

Stephen Hawking, one of the greatest theoretical physicists of our time, has concluded that God is not necessary as an explanation for the creation of the universe. Such is part of Hawking's upcoming book, "The Grand Design."

Vanity Fair Sarah Palin Hit Piece Falls Apart Under Scrutiny

Vanity Fair has unleashed a ten thousand word hit piece on Sarah Palin in the latest issue based largely on anonymous sources that has already begun to fall apart under close scrutiny by reporters who actually check facts.

Register to Vote--or Chuck Norris Will Kick You in the Face (Video)

Buzz Aldrin has an interesting idea concerning international cooperation in space; a coalition of English speaking countries. Two problems with his concept. Buzz seems to have ignored Canada and, with all due respect for the fact that he had already been there, we need to go back to the Moon first.

Addendum: Buzz Aldrin -- Anglosphere to Mars

Buzz Aldrin, the second man to walk on the Moon, was in New Zealand recently and made an interesting proposal to form an international coalition to explore and eventually colonize Mars. Aldrin, though, had an interesting twist

Boxer, Fiorina Clash in US Senate Debate

Senator Barbara Boxer and her opponent, Carly Fiorina, met in a debate at St. Mary's College in Moraga, Calif.. The two candidates sparred over the economy, one another's records, and a number of other issues such as gay rights and global warming.

The Maverick Meghan McCain: Like Father like Daughter

Meghan McCain, the somewhat colorful daughter of Senator John McCain, has a new book out, "Dirty, Sexy, Politics" that has, upon the cover, a picture of Ms. McCain herself
quite fetching in tight blue jeans atop the head of a Republican elephant.

David Criswell discusses his idea of lunar based solar power stations.

Review of 'After America' by John Birmingham

James Jay Lee, Environmental Extremist, Takes Hostages at the Discovery Channel Building

A man named James Jay Lee has taken hostages at the headquarters of the Discovery Channel in Silver Springs, Maryland. The Discovery Channel building has been evacuated, and Lee is demanding to speak with Discovery Channel executives.

Addendum: Standoff over. Lee shot by police. Hostages safe.

Sarah Palin is Headed for Iowa, 2012 Caucuses a Short 18 Months Away

With the first-in-the-nation 2012 caucuses a mere 18 months away, Sarah Palin is headed for Iowa to speak before the Iowa Republican Party Ronald Reagan Dinner, which raises money for the state party.

'Covert Affairs' Season 1 Episode 8 'What is and What Should Never Be'

In "Covert Affairs" Season 1 Episode 8 "What Is and What Should Never Be," Annie finds herself on the floor of a warehouse, a gun close to her hand, a sprinkler system soaking everything in sight, and several bodies she cannot account for.

Obama Iraq Speech Takes Funereal Tone

President Barack Obama delivered the announcement of the end of combat operations in Iraq with all the eloquence of a college professor droning on about the issues related to the War of Jenkin's Ear in the 18th Century. Wake me up when he's done.

Alaska's Lisa Murkowski Concedes to Joe Miller

Almost four years since she ended the career of Alaska Governor Frank Murkowski, Sarah Palin polished off the career of his daughter, Senator Lisa Murkowski. The Republican nominee for Alaska Senator is lawyer and military veteran Joe Miller.