It might be a better income than writing plays.

Living in New York, actress Carmen Pel

…or a dead end?

Clark Lindsey has a good survey of opinions on the utility of suborbital vehicles, in terms of their applicability to orbital space transports. Regular readers will know that I concur with Dan DeLong and Henry Spencer, and that I have little respect for the opinion of John Pike.

We’re slowly recapitulating manned spaceflight the way it should have been done in the first place, had we not been derailed by Apollo.

Maybe they’ll allow him to continue to blog from prison.

I wonder if the mainstream media is making enemies for life among a very important segment of the American population?

OK, a space post. I’m a little jealous, because Clark Lindsey got a scoop (well, not really, it’s just a release by the Space Access Society, but whenever Henry Vanderbilt does a Space Access Update, it’s usually worth reading, and it’s not yet available on the Space Access Society site).

Fortunately, Clark published it on his site. It has, as usual, some common-sense advice as to what to do about NASA which, as equally usual, will probably not be followed. Henry is more optimistic than I, but I hope he’s right.

Caroline Glick explains why what happened to today is so momentous, and such a crucial psychological blow to the enemies of freedom (registration required).

Saddam’s ability to remain at large bolstered his henchmen and empowered jihadists throughout the Arab and Muslim world to the cause of defeating the US and its allies.

The psychological impact on Saddam’s loyalists and on terrorists around the world of the picture of the tyrant’s dirty, mired face and meek complicity during his medical examination by a US army doctor is immeasurable. Today they are forced to ask the question, “Why should we die when Saddam surrendered so abjectly?”

It has been argued that it was wrong for the Americans to show such pictures of Saddam. Doing so, it was said, will enrage jihadists who will fight all the more desperately to regain the honor lost by Saddam’s humiliation.

The problem with this argument is that it fails to take common sense into account. Saddam’s surrender is a signal to his allies as much as to his victims.

If you don’t realize what an uphill battle we have to get the Europeans in touch with reality, go read this account by an Israeli of a conversation in Germany.

When they pulled Saddam out of his hole, did he see his shadow?

Bush tries to pull another fast one (scroll to the bottom of the post).

[Via Iowahawk, who’s hit the blog running.]

[Update at 2:30 PM PST]

Eye on the Left has a scoop–the latest cover of Prison Life magazine.

…with whom the still-defiant Saddam reportedly shared his hole.