It's Friday, and a wonderful blogging day too! Here's a neat story about an idea to produce all of Earth's power needs on the moon, and beam it down---thanks to Matt Drudge for being there first again!

Testimony of Dr. David R. Criswell: Senate Hearing on "Lunar Exploration"

Then, another Ann Coulter column:

The Plan

Which says the usual things about the usual democratic candidates.

Why not go buy something now, from the Port Watson Store? Click on the Descriptions, the Master Wordsmith wrote 'em and they're funny!

This sort of thing bugs me:

PATRIOT ACT: Law's use causing concerns

Use of statute in corruption case unprecedented, attorneys contend

Duh. That's what it's there for, sillies! You think the Feds would use this for Terrorists? Heck no! Those people have guns and stuff, and might shoot back.

Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., said Congress intended the Patriot Act to help federal authorities root out threats from terrorists and spies after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

"The law was intended for activities related to terrorism and not to naked women," said Reid, who as minority whip is the second most powerful Democrat in the Senate.

Uh, sure. Except that the law was passed so fast that most Senators probably didn't actually read it. The only Senator that voted against the regrettably named "Patriot Act" was Russ Feingold.

The "Patriot Act" is another foot into our rapidly evolving Police State. It should be allowed to expire without renewal in 2005, but somehow I doubt it will be. Anybody want to go to the Caribbean instead?

Now this story is interesting for a number of reasons:

Pentagon's call to mercenaries

By Katty Kay
BBC correspondent in Pennsylvania

It's from the BBC, so you should consider the credibility level extremely low...and I really doubt that we're getting our money's worth if the Pentagon is actually spending $30 Billion a year (the correspondant mentions a figure of $300 Billion over the last decade) on mercenaries. If they were, I'd say they should be used to do regime change in places like Zimbabwe and Sudan, among others. Tanzania too, while we're at it. Africa is just crying out for some serious ass whipping---let's get this Empire building show on the road, m'kay?