There's a push in the Congress to double NASA's research and development budget by 2008. There is nothing in the article which suggests what is considered R&D. However, since NASA is choosing a kind of technology development path toward getting people beyond Low Earth Orbit and since cheap access to space research seems underfunded, this move may be a good thing.

Both monarchy and terrorism seem to be lucrative occupations, according to Forbes Magazine.

Chirac is facing discontent within his own party over his anti American policy.

President Bush last night overturned fifty years of US Middle East policy. And about time, too.

Condi Rice for Governor of California in 2006? I should think that the now moribund California GOP will think it had gone to heaven while still alive.

There's a new strain of genetically altered corn which can feed tens of millions and will cut down on pesticides. Naturally the environmentalists are against it.

Phil Donanue, not content to go quietly into that good night, charges conservative bias as the cause of his cancellation.

John Carter McKnight gives Bruce Moomaw (see below) a damn fine thrashing.

Of course, while space is exciting, not everybody likes excitement. Oddly, in the entire history of naval aviation, no one is on record as objecting to it because most people would rather hoist a beer than hook a wire.

Risky pursuits from piloting to mountain-climbing have been recognized as the passion of some odd few, and the tame majority has largely gone about their business, either catching a vicarious thrill from their exploits or ignoring them entirely.

Only space has attracted the busybody, the Puritan (in the definition of "somebody desperately afraid that somebody, somewhere is having a good time"), the seeker of the universal wet blanket.

Some robotic partisans come to their position from an opposition to adventure.

Indeed.

Looks like the discussion of whether a probe will be sent to Pluto and if so how has been concluded.

Gary Martin, NASA's technology guru, says that developing the technology to send humans beyond LEO is a slow, step by step approach. Just reading between the lines, I believe it is too slow. NASA ought to be thinking about how to break out of the Low Earth Orbit trap in years, rather than decades.

Democrat Governor of New Mexico, Bill Richardson has discovered late in life that tax cuts can be a good thing.

The anti Estrada fillibuster may be starting to crumble.

Bruce Moomaw makes a positively silly arguement that goes like this. "The space shuttle and space station have been boondoggles." A true statement. "Both programs are human space flight." Also a true statement. And therefore: "Human space flight is a boondoggle." A fallacious arguement, on the same leval as, "The Titanic sank." and "The Titanic was human travel across the ocean." And therefore. "Ocean travel by humans is too dangerous and should be stopped."

Moomaw also commits the same fallacies which most anti human space flight zealots commit. First he suggests that space flight is all about exploration and science as ends in themselves. They are not. They are means to the end of spreading human civilization beyond the Earth in order to ensure humanity's long term survival. The second fallacy that he commits is by claiming that robots can do all the science which needs doing as well if not better than humans, for the most part. It is a "fact" which people claim is true in space which no one has seriously claimed is true for field science conducted on Earth.

David Frum says that Canada is divided on the necessity of war with Iraq on linquistic lines. The English speaking Canadians are all for it. The French speakers are, like their cousins in Europe, against it.

Mackubin Thomas Owens examins the film Gods and Generals as both history and myth.

Looks like Phil Donahue is finally off the air. I seems that liberal harrangues coupled with whining self pity does not have much of an audience.

According to Done Deal, Michael Moorcock's Elric saga has been optioned for the movies.

Will NASA's budget become a partisan issue? I sincerely hope so. There needs to be some kind of arguement to shake up the status quo.

A group called Citizens United are calling for a boycott of French and German products. Included is a list of such products to avoid until the French and the Germans get their minds right.

We may be close to finding out what exactly killed Columbia and her crew.