Medary.com

Found this at Powerline, who credits Les Baitzer.

Happy Independence Day. Y'all be careful with the beer, brats, burgers, and fireworks.

As time goes, on, the overly complex Space Shuttle system becomes more and more ridiculous--the Shuttle has been grounded for over a year due to insulating foam. Now, the latest attempt to launch is in doubt due to more problems with . . . insulating foam.

Insulating foam, for crying out loud.

It's way past time for NASA to get out of the way and let private entrepreneurs take a real crack at access to space. The good news is that current NASA Administrator Michael Griffin seems to be edging towards the same conclusion with this testimony in April before the Senate:

We also need your support for our effort to leverage the capabilities of commercial industry to demonstrate potentially cheaper means to deliver cargo, and later crew to the International Space Station.

Nice, but this doesn't go far enough. NASA needs to bite the bullet and outsource human space flight completely. It's time.

AP snippet in the Kansas City Star:

Firecrackers caused the most injuries, but sparklers accounted for almost half the injuries to children younger than 5 last year.

I prefer the big up-in-the-sky displays myself . . . and who in their right mind would hand a sparkler to a 4-year-old, anyway?

Yes, you read that right.  It does get hot in North Dakota--hot enough that Interstate 29 in Fargo has buckled under the heat, as the Fargo Forum reports (registration required):

Sweltering heat Friday caused two small sections of Interstate 29 near Fargo to buckle, forcing maintenance crews to make emergency repairs during rush-hour traffic.

A 10-foot section of northbound I-29 near the 19th Avenue North overpass buckled about 5:30 p.m., causing traffic to bottle up for 1½ miles, said Bob Walton, Fargo district engineer for the North Dakota Department of Transportation.

An AP report via Yahoo News:

Coke and Mentos have embraced the phenomenon. Mentos, a subsidiary of Perfetti Van Melle USA, Inc., features the video on its Web site, and a Coca-Cola Co. spokeswoman said the Atlanta company is pleased that people are having fun with it.

"You never can tell what's going to capture people's imagination," said Susan McDermott, the spokeswoman. For the record, she noted, people won't suffer harm from chomping Mentos and washing it down with Diet Coke.

See the magic here.

Against a dimming sky after sunset, lights on the structures on Launch Pad 39B cast a warm glow on Space Shuttle Discovery. Photo credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett

The Space Shuttle is scheduled to launch this afternoon, weather permitting (currently 40% chance of a weather problem). Bigger issue now is a small thruster at the rear of the orbiter, where a temperature sensor is causing problems. If that doesn't clear up, they can't launch. Where's Burt Rutan when you need him?

Sometimes it's a problem that the press (and the public) have the attention span of a May-fly.

The U.S. military testifes before a Congressional Committee that chemical weapons FOUND IN IRAQ qualify as "weapons of mass destruction."

What's that, you say? Chemical weapons found in Iraq? But, but, but . . . Bush Lied! We know it's true, because the Democrat fever-dream left said so!

Sorry, Kos Kidz, you were wrong, AGAIN:

Munitions Found in Iraq Meet WMD Criteria, Official Says By Samantha L. Quigley American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, June 29, 2006 – The 500 munitions discovered throughout Iraq since 2003 and discussed in a National Ground Intelligence Center report meet the criteria of weapons of mass destruction, the center's commander said here today. "These are chemical weapons as defined under the Chemical Weapons Convention, and yes ... they do constitute weapons of mass destruction," Army Col. John Chu told the House Armed Services Committee. The Chemical Weapons Convention is an arms control agreement which outlaws the production, stockpiling and use of chemical weapons. It was signed in 1993 and entered into force in 1997. The munitions found contain sarin and mustard gases, Army Lt. Gen. Michael D. Maples, director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, said. Sarin attacks the neurological system and is potentially lethal. "Mustard is a blister agent (that) actually produces burning of any area (where) an individual may come in contact with the agent," he said. It also is potentially fatal if it gets into a person's lungs. The munitions addressed in the report were produced in the 1980s, Maples said. Badly corroded, they could not currently be used as originally intended, Chu added. While that's reassuring, the agent remaining in the weapons would be very valuable to terrorists and insurgents, Maples said. "We're talking chemical agents here that could be packaged in a different format and have a great effect," he said, referencing the sarin-gas attack on a Japanese subway in the mid-1990s. This is true even considering any degradation of the chemical agents that may have occurred, Chu said. It's not known exactly how sarin breaks down, but no matter how degraded the agent is, it's still toxic. "Regardless of (how much material in the weapon is actually chemical agent), any remaining agent is toxic," he said. "Anything above zero (percent agent) would prove to be toxic, and if you were exposed to it long enough, lethal." Though about 500 chemical weapons - the exact number has not been released publicly - have been found, Maples said he doesn't believe Iraq is a "WMD-free zone." "I do believe the former regime did a very poor job of accountability of munitions, and certainly did not document the destruction of munitions," he said. "The recovery program goes on, and I do not believe we have found all the weapons." The Defense Intelligence Agency director said locating and disposing of chemical weapons in Iraq is one of the most important tasks servicemembers in the country perform. Maples added searches are ongoing for chemical weapons beyond those being conducted solely for force protection. There has been a call for a complete declassification of the National Ground Intelligence Center's report on WMD in Iraq. Maples said he believes the director of national intelligence is still considering this option, and has asked Maples to look into producing an unclassified paper addressing the subject matter in the center's report. Much of the classified matter was slated for discussion in a closed forum after the open hearings this morning.

Biography:
Lt. Gen. Michael D. Maples, USA

Related Sites:
Defense Intelligence Agency
National Ground Intelligence Center

Hat tip: The American Thinker

I'll confess, I don't seem to have the same outrage that many on the right have about the N.Y. Times continuing to expose classified programs designed to gather intelligence on Al Qaida and other terrorist organizations.  What I feel is more of a weary recognition that the Times and others in the media simply don't understand the consequences of their actions. 

Patterico points this out quite clearly as he deconstructs the Times' latest attempt (registration required) at explaining why they committed treason (Patterico's comments in italic, quotes from the NYT editorial double-indented, emphasis Patterico's):

Finally, the fun part of the editorial, in which the editors write something so patently laughable that you can appreciate it even without my bitter mocking:

It is certainly unlikely that anyone who wanted to hurt the Bush administration politically would try to do so by writing about the government’s extensive efforts to make it difficult for terrorists to wire large sums of money.

From our side of the news-opinion wall, the Swift story looks like part of an alarming pattern. Ever since Sept. 11, the Bush administration has taken the necessity of heightened vigilance against terrorism and turned it into a rationale for an extraordinarily powerful executive branch, exempt from the normal checks and balances of our system of government. It has created powerful new tools of surveillance and refused, almost as a matter of principle, to use normal procedures that would acknowledge that either Congress or the courts have an oversight role.

Let me translate the bolded sentences for you:

Nobody could possibly think we’re trying to get the Bush Administration by revealing the Swift program. After all, the Swift program shows Bush is fighting terrorists, so it’s not as though the Swift program reflects badly on the Bush Administration.

But Good Lord, the Swift program sure does reflect badly on the Bush Administration!

This is the funniest thing I have read in the New York Times in, like, ever. You guys crack me up!

The funniest part is that you’re really trying to be serious.

Yes, the editors of the New York Times really do appear to be that stupid.

(Hat tip:  Power Line)

The NCAA Division I Mid-Continent Conference has decided to visit three institutions in their expansion search:

IPFW (Indiana-Purdue Ft. Wayne)
North Dakota State University
South Dakota State University.

With luck I'll be watching my Jackrabbits in conference play beginning 2007-08.

One of the daytime talk shows inadvertently showed up on my TV, and before I was able to change the channel, I overheard a distraught woman ask someone (who looked a little like psychic Sylvia Brown, but who can tell?) "I want to know, is he in peace."  Sylvia (?) of course, answered, "Yes, yes he is."

Has anyone ever heard a "psychic" answer this question with "Oh Lord no, sweetie, he's burning in hell."

Me neither.