BOOKING A FLIGHT TO SPACE, with travel insurance. “The first flights of the new airlines that will take tourists past the threshold of space are poised to take off in 2012, and getting a seat on one is not all that different from booking a trip someplace on Earth. You can sign up on the Web site of, say, Virgin Galactic, the most prominent of the new space tourism companies, or go to a travel agent and put down a hefty deposit. Soon you will be able to buy travel insurance, just as you can for any other vacation.”

You know, back in the ’90s I worked on two things that had a high “giggle factor” then — Second Amendment rights and space commercialization/tourism. Both have now reached the point where the giggle factor is nearly forgotten.