MICHAEL S. MALONE: The high tech sandwich is missing the meat.

Over the last thirty years, the United States has built, in the form of the electronics business, the most dynamic, innovative and – the petroleum industry aside – most valuable industry in history. These strengths have in turn enabled the U.S. to create millions of jobs to absorb a growing population, kept the country competitive against new challenges in the global marketplace, and through new inventions improved the health, the quality of life, and the prosperity of its citizens.

It is an amazing achievement, and centuries from now people will look back in wonder at how we ever did it . . .and, unfortunately, with equal amazement, that we let it slip away.

And it is all now slipping away.

Ugh. I hope not. But read the whole thing.

CONSIDER IT A WARNING: Asteroid blast reveals holes in Earth’s defences. “As the US government ponders a strategy to deal with threatening asteroids, a dramatic explosion over Indonesia has underscored how blind we still are to hurtling space rocks. On 8 October an asteroid detonated high in the atmosphere above South Sulawesi, Indonesia, releasing about as much energy as 50,000 tons of TNT, according to a NASA estimate released on Friday. That’s about three times more powerful than the atomic bomb that levelled Hiroshima, making it one of the largest asteroid explosions ever observed.”

KRAUTHAMMER speaks truth to power.

WHEN CANCERS vanish on their own, without treatment. Apparently it happens a lot more often than was thought.

DON’T BRING A KNIFE to a coffee fight. Coffee — is there anything it can’t do?

WITH PLASMA ENGINES, a much faster journey to Mars.

UNWIRED: GM to offer in-vehicle WiFi on select models. “Full price for installation is $500 in GM offerings, and you’ll pay $29 every month for 1 GB of service — exceed 1 GB and service stops — or you can plunk down for the 5 GB service.” Hmm. Why not just get a wireless card for your laptop, or even a portable EVDO-to-WiFi router?

OBAMA AND the rats. A President with focus.

IN THE MAIL: Robert Heinlein’s Between Planets, with an afterword by Dr. Travis Taylor. Glad to see that Baen is keeping these in print.

JOE PAPPALARDO: Why Helicopter Missions in Afghanistan are Unusually Dangerous. And necessary.

MORE ON THE BNP’S SUDDEN SURGE, at The Belmont Club.

Leaks which showed how Labour intentionally flooded Britain with immigrants in order to gain a permanent political majority and rub multiculturalism in the faces of poor whites have provoked a storm of outrage in the UK. It plays directly into the BNP narrative of invasion abetted by leftist treason. The Telegraph reported that “Labour threw open Britain’s borders to mass immigration to help socially engineer a ‘truly multicultural’ country, a former Government adviser has revealed.” But it was manner in which the plan was sugar-coated which rankled the most. It was, if the leaks are to be believed, an ideological conspiracy sold as a plan to bolster the economy. It’s almost as if the Left set out to paint itself in the very same colors the BNP wanted it to don. . . . What the Left and Fascism share is a belief in the transformative power of the state. Both regard government as the “high ground” of society and not, as some Americans still believe, simply a necessary evil.

Irresponsible and dishonest government abets evil. Plus, some further thoughts from Andrew Ian Dodge. “There is nothing wrong with disliking the BNP. They are neo-Nazis. The problem is that the political establishment is in a tizzy, and they have no idea how to deal with them. . . . The major parties are not addressing the subjects on which the BNP are gaining votes. Citizens are expressing concern about the present level of immigration, Muslim extremism, and lack of equal access to jobs, education, and social housing. These topics are being addressed by the BNP, leading to increased support throughout the UK. The BNP received six percent of the overall vote in the May elections, gaining seats for the first time, and their support appears to have increased since then. The ‘anti-fascists’ are calling for violence against the BNP. . . . The BNP is reaching disenchanted Labour voters who have socialist instincts.”

DANIEL ORTEGA ASKS FOR TERM LIMITS TO BE OVERTHROWN. Best argument yet for what happened in Honduras. If a sitting U.S. President made a similar effort, I’d favor removing him, too. It’s the dictators’ tell. Well, one of ’em. Then there’s this: “Last week the court’s constitutional panel obliged him. The Nicaraguan press reported that the vote was held before three opposition judges could reach the chamber in time for the session. Three alternative judges, all Sandinistas, took their place and the court gave Mr. Ortega the green light. Mr. Ortega has decreed that the ruling cannot be appealed.”

MICKEY KAUS: “After completely misreading the zeitgeist and– in a series of self-servingly ostentatious steps (‘storytelling,’ emo)–leading his network into a ditch, is CNN’s Jon Klein really going to keep his job? He doesn’t seem even to be ’embattled.'”

ANN ALTHOUSE: “The answer, Ms. Herron (Merron?) is precisely that pop culture permeates the world of young Americans. Why pursue even more of it in college? Learn new things. Get what you can’t get just living in the world soaking up the things you naturally love and enjoy. What is the point of going to college?”

ANDREW KLAVAN: Do Something!

LEADERSHIP: U.S. official resigns over Afghan war: Foreign Service officer and former Marine captain says he no longer knows why his nation is fighting. Under Bush he would have become an instant media hero. Now, not so much, I expect.

TROJAN-HORSE SOFTWARE in high-tech weapons? “As advanced systems like aircraft, missiles and radars have become dependent on their computing capabilities, the specter of subversion causing weapons to fail in times of crisis, or secretly corrupting crucial data, has come to haunt military planners. The problem has grown more severe as most American semiconductor manufacturing plants have moved offshore.”

MISTUH GALT, HE GONE: Tax refugees staging escape from New York.

U.S. NEWS: Are Feminists Jealous of Sarah Palin’s Rise?

LOUIS MENAND ON WHITE HOUSE STRATEGY: “It’s hard to kill the press, but it is not hard to chill it.”

UPDATE: On the other hand, there’s this:

What do tea parties, Glenn Beck, Fox News, and the US Chamber of Commerce have in common? All are demonized opponents of the Obama administration, and more popular then ever.

“If you strike me down, I will become more powerful than you can possibly imagine.”

This seems to be the case, not only for Jedi Knights, but also opponents of the Obama administration (or at least those on their enemies list.)

Heh.

A FINANCIAL-CRISIS HAPPY-HALLOWEEN: McDonald’s Abandons Iceland On October 31. “‘I’ve sold more hamburgers in the last few months than ever before, but the cost is prohibitive. It just makes no sense,’ he told Reuters. ‘For a kilo of onion, imported from Germany, I’m paying the equivalent of a bottle of good whiskey.’”

THOMAS SOWELL is not happy.

MICHAEL YON recommends this post from Steven Pressfield. Really, what more do you need to hear?

BTW, here’s my Steven Pressfield interview. Very interesting guy.

POLL: Christie Up 46-43 in New Jersey.

GOING GALT for real.