NASA HAS PROBLEMS, and Bart Gordon (D-TN) has noticed: “The chairman of the U.S. House science committee said Thursday that NASA is headed for ‘a train wreck’ if the space agency isn’t better funded to finish building the international space station and develop the next-generation spacecraft.”

NASA’s commitments do seem to exceed its resources.

PAKISTAN surrenders another region to the Taliban. Bill Roggio has thoughts about what’s pretty clearly a bad development, with the bad news lightened only by the reality that the Pakistani government’s control in the tribal regions has always been kind of notional.

SOME BRAVERY FROM BILL RICHARDSON: No, really.

THE STOCKHOLM SYNDROME and “Islamic feminism.”

THE GATHERING OF EAGLES: A roundup, with photos.

UPDATE: Washington Post: Counter-demonstrators number in thousands. Excerpt:

As war protesters marched toward Arlington Memorial Bridge en route to the Pentagon yesterday, they were flanked by long lines of military veterans and others who stood in solidarity with U.S. troops and the Bush administration’s cause in Iraq. Many booed loudly as the protesters passed, turned their backs to them or yelled, “If you don’t like America, get out!”

Several thousand vets, some of whom came by bus from New Jersey, car caravans from California or flights from Seattle or Michigan, lined the route from the bridge and down 23rd Street, waving signs such as “War There Or War Here.” Their lines snaked around the corner and down several blocks of Constitution Avenue in what organizers called the largest gathering of pro-administration counter-demonstrators since the war began four years ago.

The vets turned both sides of Constitution into a bitter, charged gantlet for the war protesters. “Jihadists!” some vets screamed. “You’re brain-dead!” Others chanted, “Workers World traitors must hang!” — a reference to the Communist newspaper. Some broke into “The Star-Spangled Banner” as war protesters sought to hand out pamphlets.

It’s not 1968. Read the whole thing. And Worker’s World refers not just to the Communist newspaper, but to the organizers of the antiwar demonstration, as the Post should have known.

ANOTHER UPDATE: More here:

The article doesn’t mention International ANSWER, but the signs give the game away. Apparently the reporters in the linked story weren’t curious enough to find out who organized this “anti-war” rally and who attended. But details like that would interfere with the intended message that mom and pop America are turning on our troops and our mission. No Iran war, indeed.

As for the Iraq War, I believe the protesters should be marching in Tehran, Damascus, and in small towns in Anbar. If they stop shooting, bombing, and gassing, the war will end.

But read the whole thing.

INDEED: “The ultimate problem, of course, is this: how do you know if the nice young man who has just broken into your home is there to quietly burgle you, or to rape and dismember you?” And who should bear the risk of error?

A BUNCH OF BAD NEWS FROM EUROPE, at Brussels Journal, followed by a declaration of sorts. But who will sign on?

Sadly, this all seems to be going as predicted.

HERE’S MORE VIDEO ON THE SECULAR ISLAM SUMMIT by Andrew Marcus, this time featuring Richard Miniter.

MICKEY KAUS: “U.S. military deaths in Iraq have apparently declined by about 20% since the ‘surge’ began. It would be a caricature of MSM behavior if the New York Times, instead of simply reporting this potentially good news, first constructed some bad news to swaddle it in, right?” And yet caricatures always capture some key element . . . .

AUSTIN BAY HAS A ROUNDUP on Zimbabwe’s spiral into chaos.

A LOOK AT NEXT-GENERATION SMALL ARMS TECHNOLOGY from Popular Mechanics.

SNOW DEEP, FAITH STRONG! In spite of countervailing effects. . . .

UPDATE: A prediction: “A few more months from now, every idiot who mutters about how all these inconvenient cold snaps don’t actually prove anything about global warming will be on a soapbox. Shouting. That it is hot. In the summertime.”

ANOTHER UPDATE: An amusing photo. The “Stop Global Warming” sign is partly obscured by the blizzard.

HEH: “When the editorial pages of The New York Times accuse the BBC of anti-Western bias it is worth taking notice. It is a little like Osama bin Laden accusing Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of being a bit harsh on the Jews.”

BRING ON THE MARTIAN WARMING: “A spacecraft orbiting Mars has scanned huge deposits of water ice at its south pole so plentiful they would blanket the planet in 36 feet of water if they were liquid, scientists said on Thursday.”

SPREADING MALWARE though fake blogs at Blogspot.

BILL ROGGIO LOOKS AT Al Qaeda’s cholorine attacks.

AIRPLANE READING: As part of my airplane and airport reading — of which there was a lot more than there was supposed to be — I took along this book by Naomi Novik, which several people have called a combination of Anne McCaffrey and Patrick O’Brian. I think that’s about right, and I enjoyed it very much.

DRIP, DRIP: “Tennessee mine enriched Gore, scarred land.” The Nashville Tennessean is promising a big story for tomorrow.

EXPLANATIONS FOR THE “LAUGH GAP:” I wonder if these apply to the “Op-Ed gap” that people were writing about last week, too?

SO IT WAS JOE WILSON WHO OUTED VALERIE PLAME? And even she didn’t know whether she was covert? I can’t believe I’m even still blogging about this.

UPDATE: Reader William Casey emails: “After watching the Valerie Plame-Wilson hearing, it is obvious that the CIA keeps the covert status of their agents so secret that even the agents don’t know whether they are covert or not.”

ANOTHER UPDATE: Valerie Plame doesn’t know if she was covert, and John McCain doesn’t know his own position on condoms for AIDS prevention. If Scooter Libby had been so quick to plead ignorance and forgetfulness, he’d never have been charged. . . .

I’M BACK. Actually I got back last night, but rather later than I had hoped as a result of air-travel disruptions attendant upon the Northeast blizzard. My trip out was delayed even more, with less excuse, something I’ll have a lot more to say about later.

I’ve spent a few minutes scrolling down the page, and it’s clear that my guestbloggers did their usual topflight job. Whenever I go away, I get a few grumpy emails from people who’d rather have me blogging, but personally I like the blog better when they’re on the job. Maybe it’s like eating your own cooking . . . .

Anyway, check them out at their home blogs: Ann Althouse, Megan McArdle, Tom Maguire, and Michael Totten.

Regular blogging will resume a bit later.

Shaggy Blog: It’s a good laugh for a good cause and Tim Worstall is involved with this project (at lucky 13) so we have every confidence it is excellent. Well, for Brit humour, anyway.

Opportunity Lost: Inspired by the posting below about the “Vice Chancellor for Equity and Inclusion”, I feel obliged to point out that the “Vice Inclusion and Equity Chancellor” would be, here it comes, the Vice ICE.

Now, if we could just get the University of Miami interested…

TONY WOODLIEF:

The University of California at Berkeley is looking to hire its first Vice Chancellor for Equity and Inclusion, and I think it’s about darn time. I’m heartened to know that with this renewed focus on recruiting students and faculty from underrepresented groups, Berkeley’s agents will soon be scouring Iowa for devout homeschooled virgin boys. Young men returning from service in Iraq, likewise, may find a warmer reception than they would have received in years past. And no doubt many young parents, as well as retired executives, will soon be submitting their applications to the more equitable and inclusive Cal-Berkeley. Observant pro-war Jews, aspiring Christian filmmakers, chaste young pro-life activists — all are welcome under Berkeley’s big tent, right?

If You Read One Story About The Plame Hearing: I currently am recommending Matt Apuzzo of the Associated Press, who has done a fine job on the Plame/Libby story for months. But if this is like potato chips and you want one more, John Podhoretz provides some fun at The Corner.

OK, it is potato chips for me – the news that Ms. Plame is so covert that not even she knows if she is legally covert is the stuff of late night comedy. This is from Mr. Apuzzo:Plame also repeatedly described herself as a covert operative, a term that has multiple meanings. Plame said she worked undercover and traveled abroad on secret missions for the CIA.

But the word “covert” also has a legal definition requiring recent foreign service and active efforts to keep someone’s identity secret. Critics of Fitzgerald’s investigation said Plame did not meet that definition for several reasons and said that’s why nobody was charged with the leak.

…Plame said she wasn’t a lawyer and didn’t know what her legal status was but said it shouldn’t have mattered to the officials who learned her identity.

I can quit anytime… but if you are weak of will, more here. (Shameless self-promotion alert).

WHOOPS: The WaPo switched stories at their site, but the link to Matt Apuzzo is fixed now.