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Red State seems to have some inside knowledge. Word in legal circles is that Priscilla Owen is set to become the next justice appointed to the United States Supreme Court. Unfortunately, I have received reliable information late this afternoon that...

Last week NRO reported the number of hurricanes hitting each state in the past 104 years: Direct Hits, 1900-2004 Florida 64 Texas 38 North Carolina 29 Louisiana 27 South Carolina 16 Alabama 12 Mississippi 9 New York 9 Connecticut 8...

The post I made regarding the South Daktoa Democrats billboard has the South Daktoa Democrats stumped. Here is all Chad Schuldt can say:Trent spanks Sibby for his typical nuttiness yesterday about the Grassroot Democrats billboards in Sibby?s hometown.Looks like Schuldt...

Bali bombings kill at least 25

The same old same old from the religion of peace, with homicide bombers attacking highly strategic tourist restaurants:

Suicide bombers targeted the Indonesian tropical resort of Bali with coordinated attacks yesterday that devastated seafood and noodle restaurants packed with foreigners, killing at least 25 persons.

Dealing with the Islamofascists reminds the Chief of an admonition on the cover of a SD noxious weed handbook: "Better to kill them than to put up with them." Appropriate turn of phrase.

Sen. John Thune met with Judge John Roberts yesterday at his Washington D.C. office. My meeting with Judge Roberts today only furthered my high opinion of him and my confidence in his ability to serve as Chief Justice of...

According to Matt Taibbi ("Hunter Thompson, but without the talent!"), Douglas Brinkley left his cats and his maid behind when he evacuated New Orleans. But that's all right, he did this probably knowing that Sean Penn was going to be...

NASA administrator says space shuttle was a mistake

Any good "hard" science fiction fan was capable of making this analysis. Among others, rocketeer Homer Hickham, author and main character of October Sky retired from NASA and wrote a novel titled Back to the Moon in which NASA is given a pretty good black eye for having become moribund with bureaucracy and political correctness.

Latest in this feeling that NASA had lost its direction comes from no less than the NASA chief administrator himself:

The space shuttle and International Space Station ? nearly the whole of the U.S. manned space program for the past three decades ? were mistakes, NASA chief Michael Griffin said Tuesday.

Griffin said NASA lost its way in the 1970s, when the agency ended the Apollo moon missions in favor of developing the shuttle and space station, which can only orbit Earth. ?It is now commonly accepted that was not the right path,? Griffin said. ?We are now trying to change the path while doing as little damage as we can.?

Reading between the lines, it appears to the Chief that NASA needed more von Braun and less Rube Goldberg in its design philosophy:

Asked Tuesday whether the shuttle had been a mistake, Griffin said, ?My opinion is that it was. ? It was a design which was extremely aggressive and just barely possible.? Asked whether the space station had been a mistake, he said, ?Had the decision been mine, we would not have built the space station we're building in the orbit we're building it in.?

Sounds like we finally have a NASA chief worthy of the name after too many bureaucrats, program managers and barely-disguised political hatchetmen, and not nearly enough engineers in the lead. Hopefully now the Congresscritters will give Griffen the support needed to get us back on the road towards the stars. It's absolutely essential if our civilization is to continue to exist and improve itself.

The left is critcizing Karl Rove for his visit in the burgeoning political hotbed of North Dakota:A senator from New Jersey is criticizing White House adviser Karl Rove for planning to attend a North Dakota fundraiser the same day Hurricane...

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