SOME GOOD NEWS ON THE COMMERCIAL SPACE MARKET, from Aviation Week:

A private spaceflight industry, dubbed “new space” by some of its proponents, is steadily emerging from the dusty desert hangars and closely guarded office-park high bays that incubated it, ready to leap off launch pads across the globe into a role self-consciously reminiscent of civil aviation 80 years ago.

Private spending on space-related activities already exceeds that of governments, mostly for building, launching, operating and using commercial communications satellites, according to a new Space Foundation report that found only $70 billion of the $180 billion in worldwide space revenues comes from governments.

Other articles, not available online, talk about the growth of dedicated commercial-space suppliers. Bring it on!

Plus, some related good news, from Rand Simberg.

GRAND ROUNDS is up!

JONAH GOLDBERG: “If Mayor Bloomberg or Senator Clinton wanted an easy Sista Souljah target, surely this is it.”

ENERGY SELF-SUFFICIENCY AND LIVING OFF THE GRID: Some first-hand experience.

FUNNIEST POLITICAL QUOTES of 2006.

JOSH MANCHESTER looks at standard narratives and the grunts.

VARIOUS PEOPLE WANT ME TO RECOMMEND KIDS’ BOOKS, but my chief exposure to those has come from my daughter’s reading, and she’s now moved on to Anna Karenina — which she liked. But in response to these reader requests, I called in someone with more expertise — the Insta-mom, who’s an elementary school librarian. Here are her recommendations:

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For the preschool set:

Mommy? by Maurice Sendak, Al Yorinks, and Matthew Reinhart. Scholastic, 2006.

This high-tech pop-up book features a typical monster-taming Sendak protagonist, a toddler who wanders into a suitably spooky-looking house calling “Mommy?” and proceeds to de-“bolt” a Frankenstein monster, nip the knickers off Wolf Man, and unwind a mummy’s wrappings, until he finds a suitably maternal monster at last.. A slightly macabre take on Are You My Mother?, this book has some sly fun for the adults who will undoubtedly have to “read it again!”

For the Kindergarten-Grade Two reader:

Cha Cha Chimps by Julie Durango. Illustrated by Eleanor Taylor. Simon & Schuster, 2006.

Ten bed-bound chimps slip out to cha cha the night away at Mambo Jamba’s, where they count down from ten to zero as they hokey-pokey with a hippo, macarena with a meerkat, and belly-dance with a cobra, until a hip Mama Chimp “hustles” them home to jam in their jammies with a sitter while she boogies the night away. Kids hearing this story will pick up the refrain “Ee-ee-oo-oo-ah-ah-ah, ten little chimps do the cha cha cha” by the second time around.

Bats at the Beach, by Brian Lies. Houghton Mifflin, 2006.

Bats break out the moon-tan lotion and frolic on a moonlit beach, doing all the things kids love doing by day on the sand. Rhymed verse dances through enchantingly dark but luminous night time fun. (See if the kids notice that the author is hanging upside down on the “About the Author” back flap!)

For the sophisticated not-too-old-for-picture-books set (and anybody else who’s still alive):

Frankenstein Makes a Sandwich and Other Stories You’re Sure to Like, Because They’re All About Monsters, and Some of Them Are Also About Food . (You Like Food, Don’t You? Well, All Right Then.,.) by Adam Rex. Harcourt, Inc., 2006.

A real tour-de-force by author-illustrator Adam Rex, with rhyming spoofs of the lifestyles of such monsters as Wolfman (hair clumps in his roommate’s drain), Dracula (spinach in his teeth), Invisible Man (can’t get a decent haircut), Yeti ( “Don’t call me BIGFOOT!), and the Phantom of the Opera, (has writer’s block because he can’t get “The Girl from Ippanema” and other ditties off his mind.) The copyright page even features a snow angel left by The Invisible Man. A book for all ages (even those old enough to KNOW the tune to “Girl from Ipanema”!) [GLENN ADDS: I like the cover on this one, too!]

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Hope these are helpful. I’ve been trying to talk her into starting a children’s book-blog of her own.

UPDATE: Meanwhile, the Insta-wife points out a book written by a kid.

AN ARTICLE IN THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR profiles Bill Roggio’s blog-reporting from Iraq, but worries that his readers are getting a one-sided picture if they don’t follow traditional Big Media coverage, too. True enough, though the Big Media coverage is hard to avoid unless you actively try to.

Of course, they might be eschewing Big Media coverage because of things like CNN’s admitted sucking-up to Saddam, Reuters’ various fauxtography scandals, AP’s Jamil Hussein problem, and the like. And aren’t the Big Media consumers getting a one-sided, agenda-driven picture, too? That would seem to be a bigger problem.

THE WHITE HOUSE IS trying to revive the Doha Round trade talks, but the Wall Street Journal (free link) reports that it’s an uphill battle. The “Lou Dobbs Democrats” are a problem, but other Democrats are siding with the Bush Administration: “Some old-line Democrats, such as Rep. Charles Rangel of New York and Montana Sen. Max Baucus, could emerge as allies of the administration and its free-trade agenda. The two lawmakers, who will take over the House Ways and Means Committee and the Senate Finance Committee, respectively, share traditional Democratic concerns, but have records that support free trade. This past weekend, they joined Republicans to rally support in Congress for a Bush-backed trade package, which included legislation lifting Cold War-era economic restrictions on Vietnam.”

Larry Kudlow was pretty harsh last night, saying that Lou Dobbs and Pat Buchanan are idiots, as are all protectionists. I’m inclined to agree, but I’m not sure the polity does.

UPDATE: Link was bad before, fixed now. Sorry!

PINOCHET VS. CASTRO: A surprising editorial from The Washington Post:

It’s hard not to notice, however, that the evil dictator leaves behind the most successful country in Latin America. In the past 15 years, Chile’s economy has grown at twice the regional average, and its poverty rate has been halved. It’s leaving behind the developing world, where all of its neighbors remain mired. It also has a vibrant democracy. Earlier this year it elected another socialist president, Michelle Bachelet, who suffered persecution during the Pinochet years.

Like it or not, Mr. Pinochet had something to do with this success. To the dismay of every economic minister in Latin America, he introduced the free-market policies that produced the Chilean economic miracle — and that not even Allende’s socialist successors have dared reverse. He also accepted a transition to democracy, stepping down peacefully in 1990 after losing a referendum.

By way of contrast, Fidel Castro — Mr. Pinochet’s nemesis and a hero to many in Latin America and beyond — will leave behind an economically ruined and freedomless country with his approaching death. Mr. Castro also killed and exiled thousands. But even when it became obvious that his communist economic system had impoverished his country, he refused to abandon that system: He spent the last years of his rule reversing a partial liberalization. To the end he also imprisoned or persecuted anyone who suggested Cubans could benefit from freedom of speech or the right to vote.

The other contrast is that you can find apologists for Castro in pretty much every newsroom and university campus in America. Pinochet, not so much.

DEAN BARNETT is setting the bar low.

MARK GRABER: “Has anyone noticed that what seems to unite the first politicians to declare their candidacy for the presidency is a total lack of experience in foreign policy. Indeed, such inexperience seems almost to be a qualification for the contemporary presidency which, since 1976 has been occupied for all but four years by a person with no foreign policy experience. From Jimmy Carter on, winning slogans seem to be ‘Vote for Me: Because I have Never Made a Foreign Policy Decision I Cannot Be Blamed For Our Present Mess.'”

This bespeaks a — well-founded — lack of confidence in our foreign-policy establishment, but it’s probably actually a formula for giving that establishment more, rather than less, influence over time.

JULES CRITTENDEN OFFERS KOFI ANNAN’S FAREWELL SPEECH, “translated from the original bullshit.”

ANN ALTHOUSE: “Remember how the Democrats ran on the competence issue?”

Heck, I remember when they ran against the “culture of corruption!”

UPDATE: On the other hand, Anklebitingpundits says they’re doing well on pork. That’s good news.

JAMES WOOLSEY ROCKS. No, literally.

YOUR MONEY or your land.

“FKMPG” — Fred Krause Miles Per Gallon — was a metric invented by my college friend Fred Krause. It’s defined as “the mileage actually achieved by a vehicle travelling at 85 mph with the air conditioner set on ‘MAX’.”

Now it looks as if the EPA is playing catch-up with Krause! They’ve still got a ways to go, though.

MORE REPORTING FROM FALLUJAH BY BILL ROGGIO: Read the whole thing.

LIFE IMITATES TEAM AMERICA: It’s been doing that a lot lately.

LITVINENKO UPDATE: “MOSCOW — Investigators here questioned a key witness Monday in the radioactive poisoning death of former KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko, as four more possible victims of contamination were hospitalized for tests — this time in Germany.”

TERRORISTS TARGETTING KIDS: If the Israelis did this, it would be a huge story.

MICKEY KAUS: “The Brit papers are breaking the story that the Clinton-administration ‘secret service’ ** secretly bugged Princess Diana ‘over her relationship with a US billionaire’ Ted Forstmann. Initial questions: What was the grave high-level concern about Forstmann, a big-deal investor, Republican, and education activist? … What, were they worried Diana might endorse school choice?*** … And did they have a warrant?” I’m guessing the answers are no, and no.

UPDATE: Lots of updates to Kaus’s post, so be sure you follow the link.

Meanwhile Byron York has more on the Diana-bugging story. Is this what Sandy Berger was trying to cover up?

RANDY BARNETT looks at judicial deference and the rights to life and health.

SOME THOUGHTS ON the ABA’s role in law school accreditation.

NOW IT’S THE EDITORS OF POPULAR SCIENCE posting their Holiday Wish List.

I have to say, the Zojirushi Mr. Bento isn’t something I expected to find there, but it’s actually pretty cool. The flower-shaped computer speakers, though, are just weird — though 14-year-old girls everywhere will love them. I won’t be springing for the Ducati, however. Much less the Bugatti Veyron, which updates the verse about “I lost my license, now I don’ t drive.”