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This by Jack Shafer writing in Slate:In today's hearings, Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del., and Sen. Herb Kohl, D-Wis., rejected the strikes and balls analogy as specious. But I think Roberts' analogy holds up remarkably well, so well that he could...

Letter in today's Argus Leader:Herseth voting record Published: 09/12/05 It's annoying to see letters promoting Rep. Stephanie Herseth's work in Congress. What's interesting about her sales angle is the notion that Herseth works well with Republicans. Many liberal voters have...

Start-up Firm Building New Space Capsule System

No links to this YET - but the October issue of Popular Science reports on a firm called T/Space which is developing, with NASA backing, and some project collaboration with Rutan's Scaled Composites, a capsule system called the CXV or Crew Transfer Vehicle capable of carrying three or four astronauts to low Earth orbit, and returning for a wet landing, like the Mercury/Gemini/Apollo had.

The launcher is an aircraft launched propane & liquid oxygen rocket. The whole emphasis has been on economy and simplicity of design - and seems to be making some real progress - possibly having things ready to go b\y '08 or '09 - an unheard of timeline for NASA projects.

Best of all, this will be privately owned/operated, flying as contractors to NASA, or whoever else wants/needs to get to orbit. Meanwhile, NASA is proceeding with its plans for vehicles to replace the shuttles also apparently based on a larger, more advanced capsule design for personnel, and a heavy lift cargo launcher, for well, cargo. NASA doesn;t plan to be ready to fly before 2012 at best, so the T/Space CVX could fill a gap to help keep the International Space Station in business until then.

The folks at T/Space emphasize that they are NOT building a shuttle replacement - but perhaps a modern replacement for the truly antiquated Soyuz technology.

This is truly good news - the US must maintain an effective capability for space, if for no other reason, to prevent a default ceding of the ultimate high ground to China, Russia, or whoever else goes after it.

From Star Parker:The charges of racism-inspired foot-dragging isn't just nonsense. It's pernicious nonsense. This is how the New York Daily News called it regarding charges, from the usual circle of black leaders, that the rescue efforts in New Orleans were...

From Rush Limbaugh: You see, most of the hate-America crowd first is a bunch of socialist, and they look at socialism as well intentioned. Socialism is an equal opportunity promise. It's an equal opportunity opportunity if you will. Capitalism, of...

The Washington Times:This is yet another example of an irresponsible decision by a liberal activist judge unable to separate personal politics from public service, said Sen. John Thune, South Dakota Republican. As we work to fill two vacancies in the...

Today's FARK headline: Today's "I'll never drink again" story brought to you by Denver, where man on painkillers, who hadn't slept for two days because of tooth abscess, decides to have a few beers and go four-wheeling at night in...

Oh, that liberal media. You'd think that the oh-so-earnest Reuters could do a bit better than this: At least two major corporate clients of lobbyist Joe Allbaugh, President Bush's former campaign manager and a former head of the Federal Emergency...

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