THINGS YOU MIGHT HAVE MISSED from the weekend: A free trip to space via FreeSpaceShot.com, the new Books For Kids Blog, with lots of book recommendations for everything from young kids to teenagers, and another U.N. scandal.

STOP THE PRESSES: Hillary says she’ll win.

A DRAFT FRED THOMPSON SITE.

THE NIKON 18-200 VR LENS: Ken Rockwell loves his. I’d be interested, but they’re pretty hard to get.

UPDATE: Rick Lee has one, loves it, and posts some photos and a review. He emails: “It’s like a miracle. Mind you, this is the first VR lens I’ve owned so it’s all new to me, even though this isn’t really new technology. That VR (vibration reduction) stuff works. Plain and simple, you can shoot at much lower shutter speeds than usual and the pictures look like you used a tripod. I’m glad to have a lens that’s this good with such a wide focal length range. Before, I was constantly switching between my 12-24mm and my 24-85mm and my 70-300mm. 12mm is really wide and you don’t need that all the time. 18mm is pretty wide so most jobs I can do with this one lens. ”

He says that it’s easier to get them through actual camera stores than through big retailers like Amazon or BH. Maybe I’ll check the one near me.

SNOWFLAKES: Maybe not as unique as previously thought.

IRAN: Tomatoes up, oil down. Ahmadinejad unhappy. “The price of tomatoes has tripled in the past month in the Iranian capital. Meanwhile, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad yesterday proposed cutting the oil price on which the next budget is based to protect Iran from ‘enemies’ trying to hurt the economy by lowering international crude prices.”

ALWAYS OUTNUMBERED, NEVER OUTGUNNED: Today’s New York Times has five letters responding to my column from earlier this week. Not surprisingly, most disagree, and Robert Spitzer accuses me of fomenting “vigilantism.” I guess he means something like this from Schenectady:

Ralph Schulenburg Sr. feared if he didn’t take action, the two armed intruders would kill everyone inside his Division Street home.

The pair, he said, made no attempt to hide their faces, and one of them even boldly gave his name as “Charlie” when one of Schulenburg’s sons asked.

“I wasn’t about to just sit there,” Schulenburg, 50, said Saturday as he recounted the events that played out inside 421 Division St. on Friday afternoon.

But he said it was his son, Ralph Schulenburg Jr., 23, who grabbed an old Mauser rifle and shot the intruders during a fierce gunbattle.

Aaron Peavy, 21, of Albany, was shot in the heart and killed. His alleged accomplice, Charles E. Little III, 20, of Troy, was shot in the left hand and lost at least one finger. It was the fourth time since early December that alleged intruders have been shot inside homes they targeted in Schenectady.

I can live with this kind of vigilantism. Home invaders, not so much. As for the Harvard research, well, I’m always skeptical of “public health” research on guns, for good reason, and I’ve noted the funding source here. It’s not necessarily unethical, but I can only imagine the outcry if the NRA were sponsoring research of this sort. (Thanks to reader Chris O’Brien for the Schenectady story).

MORE CRITICISM FOR BUSH, from disappointed hawks who think he should be doing more.

UPDATE: If the Republicans lose Hugh Hewitt, who’s left?

ANOTHER UPDATE: At Captain’s Journal, more criticism of the Rules of Engagement.

CHINA MILITARIZES SPACE: StrategyPage looks at the space debris problem:

While China has now demonstrated its ability to destroy satellites (at the cost of a launcher and a maneuverable KillSat), it has also caused a major stink among the dozens of nations that own, or use (usually via leasing arrangements) the several hundred satellites in orbit. That’s because this Chinese test increased the amount of dangerous space debris by about eight percent. That’s a lot. By common agreement, nations that put up satellites, include the capability for the bird, once it has reached the end of its useful life, will slowly move closer to earth, until it burns up as it enters the thicker atmosphere. This approach leaves no debris, which can collide with other satellites, behind. Even a small piece of satellite debris can, when hitting another satellite at high speed, destroy, or fatally damage, it.

That’s a short-term PR problem. Over the longer term, if the ASAT weapon really works, China has an advantage, of course, in that the United States is far more dependent on satellites than, well, anyone else, making us more vulnerable to an asymmetric attack. I’ve had some thoughts on space weaponry here and here.

BLOGROLL UPDATE: With some help from reader David Milam, the blogroll has been updated, purged of bad links, etc. If I accidentally deleted your blog and it’s not dead, let me know.

PAKISTAN: Not so friendly.

I like what I’m hearing about Azerbaijan, though.

And here’s more news from Afghanistan, courtesy of Major John Tammes.

MOHAMMED FADHIL reports on the surge. “From where I sit in Baghdad I see clearly that those who talk about last chances are in fact rushing failure in Iraq. What they wish to do is to set up a very high bar that is technically impossible jump over within a few months or even a year. Instead we need to identify what we really want to accomplish and can realistically accomplish through this plan. Total victory over militias and terrorists is a fantasy, and there are several examples of advanced nations that still suffer from persistent armed factions as in Spain or even the UK.”

DANNY GLOVER’S AIRCONGRESS has all the video announcements from all the Presidential candidates over the past week, available for your perusal.

And Glover emails: “One thing is certain from all of the activity: Democrats are winning the race online. Their use of technology is much more innovative, and it’s evidence of an Internet-friendly strategy partywide.”

HILLARY CLINTON AS MARGARET THATCHER? Professor Bainbridge says not so fast!

IN THE MAIL: David Clary’s new book, Adopted Son: Washington, Lafayette, and the Friendship that Saved the Revolution.

FACT-CHECKING THE AP AND JAMIL HUSSEIN: Michelle Malkin has photos from Iraq.

She’s also got a column in the New York Post where she reports: “The Sunni mosques that as Hussein claimed and AP reported as ‘destroyed,’ ‘torched’ and ‘burned and [blown] up’ are all still standing. So the credibility of every AP story relying on Jamil Hussein remains dubious.” That’s what the photos are about.

UPDATE: More AP problems here.

THE LIFEBOAT FOUNDATION now has a blog.

DAN RIEHL ON RELIABLE SOURCES: Allah has the video.

DUKE (NON) RAPE UPDATE: K.C. Johnson posts a Sunday roundup on this continuing disgrace.