TO BOLDENLY GO: New leadership at NASA.

IN THE MAIL: From James Walsh, Libertarian Nation!: The Call for a New Agenda.

PUBLIC PENSION UPDATE: Baltimore Pension Dispute Illuminates Public/Private Divide.

Severe market downturns lay bare any number of Ponzi schemes, and under-funded defined benefits pensions, public and private, can be justly described as such schemes. The problem with private plans is large enough. The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp., which insures the pensions of 44 million Americans, said in a report this week that its deficit has tripled in just six months to a record $33.5 billion. Chances are it will have to be added to the growing list of entities to be bailed out by Uncle Sam. But this is trivial compared to the under-funding in public plans, which cover about 22 million workers. The deficits in the latter systems are said to total more than a trillion dollars. And these are not insured.

So, when Mayor Dixon capitulates to Baltimore’s public safety unions, withdrawing a pension reform measure and suggesting there is a need for a “bigger fix,” we are left wondering what that could possibly be. If the public safety unions had their way in blocking this proposal, how will “more comprehensive changes” be enacted? Yet, how can they be avoided?

A “bigger fix” is a code-phrase for “higher taxes so we can continue business as usual.” But here’s why voters aren’t interested:

The gap between the public sector and private business in wages and benefits continues to grow. Last month, USA Today reported federal figures showing that public employees earned benefits worth $13.38 per hour in December 2008, compared to $7.98 for private sector workers.

A full-time government worker receives benefits worth an average of $28,830 per year. A private worker’s benefits are worth an average of $16,598. Yet in this time of recession/depression, the shrinking private sector foots the bill for massive bailouts of public employees. In the nongovernment world, jobs are being lost by the hundreds of thousands each month. Government workers are secure in theirs. As the ordinary American becomes more aware of the disparity and unfairness of the current system, anger builds.

Right now the Political Class is more interested in explaining that anger away than in doing anything about it. But I think a tipping point is in the offing.

DOLLAR LOSING ITS IMPORTANCE? Jeffrey Sachs says that’s a good thing.

WHY NOT negative interest rates?

SAN ANTONIO: Notes from the Underground Economy. Pay attention: By the second Obama term we’ll all be part of it. . . .

DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE meddling with newspapers.

WE SHOULD BE ENCOURAGING RESILIENCE: Will Obama Kill Navigation Backup System as GPS Threatens to Fail? “Obama’s budget attempts to ax LORAN-C, a navigation backup program, even as experts at the Government Accountability Office sound warnings about satellite reliability. What will happen if GPS fails?”

Plus, a look at the backup system.

Meanwhile, Cringely says this is just the GAO playing politics.

ANN ALTHOUSE: Since when are American children expected to identify with the President?

An explanation, in the comments.

HOW TO KILL 66,000 JOBS.

BROADBAND AVAILABILITY around the world.

SOME TRAFFIC REPORTING from Tom Vanderbilt.

SWINE FLU UPDATE: WHO chief says world should prepare for severe flu.

BUY NOW, WHILE YOUR DOLLARS ARE STILL WORTH SOMETHING: Fed’s Plosser Says Inflation to Increase, Warns of Complacency. I suspect that he’s grossly underestimating the problem. But I hope I’m wrong.

WHY DON’T I GET ASSIGNMENTS LIKE THIS? Test-driving the Aston-Martin DB9.

THE NEXT STEPS FOR SWINE FLU: Predictions, Protection and Prevention. ” Federal health officials will probably recommend that most Americans get three flu shots this fall: one regular flu shot and two doses of any vaccine made against the new swine flu strain. Having had annual flu shots for the last several years gives ‘little or no immune benefit’ against the new virus, the officials said on Thursday as they released more details of blood tests briefly described on Wednesday.”

A PREGNANT 66-year-old woman.

SPACE STATION KITCHEN UPGRADED, Astronauts Drink Own Urine to Celebrate.

75 MOVIES every man should see.

FACTCHECK.ORG: Pelosi’s tortured denials.

Plus, Boston Globe: “It now seems clear that top Democratic leaders like Pelosi knew about the policy, and chose not to challenge it.”

Until they felt the fierce moral urgency of change!

WHAT ABOUT THE CHILDREN? “Here we have President Obama and his administration saying, ‘Here we are for the common, middle class people,’ and here he is not letting 150 5- and 6-year-olds into the White House because he’s throwing a lunch for a bunch of grown millionaires.”

ANN ALTHOUSE: WOMEN ARE unhappier than ever. Despite all those choices:

Oh, how I loathe this liberal meme about choice and happiness! Though liberals believe fondly in “the right to choose,” they also love to say that choice makes us sad — but they only seem to mean that choice in the economic sphere is bad. (Notice how it softens you up to accept the crappy car the government wants you to drive and the good-for-everybody health care system it would like to provide.)

Anyway, why are women so sad? I think it’s because we think about our feelings so much and care so much about being happy.

Nothing is worse for happiness than a cultivated sense of entitlement.

CHINA: Don’t expect us to cut greenhouse gases.

SOME MORE Bussard / Polywell Fusion news. Faster, please!

TAXMAN TAKES HALF OF TEENAGER’S VIRGINITY earnings.