THE NEW YORK TIMES VENDETTA continues.

POLITICO: The GOP’s Winning Streak.

SO OBAMA’S PEOPLE ARE TALKING TAX INCREASES AGAIN. Here’s my proposal: A 50% surtax on anything earned within five years after leaving the federal government, above whatever the federal salary was. Leave a $150K job at the White House, take a $1M job with Goldman, Sachs, pay a $425K surtax. Some House Republican should add this to a bill and watch the Dems react.

UPDATE: Should we also provide that salaries paid to former government officials aren’t deductible for corporations? Or is that going too far? I say: Put it in as a negotiating point!

PROFESSOR BAINBRIDGE: A Question for Kevin Drum re Obama’s Libya Adventure.

MARK LEVIN: These Are Very Dangerous Waters.

BECAUSE IT WORKED SO WELL THE FIRST TIME: Emulating the Wisconsin Protests in Washington State.

PAUL RYAN: “We have a debt crisis staring us in the face, and that’s got to get fixed.”

PROVOCATIVE! REVOLUTIONARY! “As edgy as the school depicts itself, it being in California means the vast majority of its graduates will end up as government employees with union collective bargaining rights.”

MARK WHITTINGTON: What If America Had Beaten The Soviets Into Space?

AT AMAZON, a clearance on outdoor and athletic clothing.

“SMART DIPLOMACY:” Near-Silence On Syria. Given the way the “Obama Curse” has hit the Libyan rebels, maybe that’s for the best.

BARACK OBAMA, THEN AND NOW: Remembering the wild praise of 2008. Rubes.

RAND SIMBERG ON SpaceX’s new Falcon Heavy rocket. “The Falcon Heavy could have major space business implications. A cheaper launch cost could bring in customers that were priced out before, and the extra payload capacity could entice new customers, too. That could include the Air Force and NASA. While the Falcon Heavy has only half the capacity of Saturn V, it offers twice the payload of its American competitors—United Launch Alliance’s (ULA) Atlas V and Delta IV rockets, and for quite a bit less per launch—at least according to Musk’s plan.” Well, let’s hope things go according to plan.

TURNING THE VACUUM into a superconductor.

ZAP: Navy Laser Sets Ship On Fire.

FRANK MUNGER: Back in the day, when important folks wore their fancy furs to visit a nuclear facility.

AT AMAZON, markdowns in Patio, Lawn & Garden.

YEAH, WE’VE BEEN ASSEMBLING FURNITURE. Not only a computer desk, but a file cabinet/credenza. (An office chair, too, but that didn’t take very much in the way of actual assembly). The desk was nicely set up, with all the parts clearly labeled and with straightforward instructions. The credenza, on the other hand, came with bags of loose, unlabeled parts and instructions written in several languages, one of which was probably intended to be English, along with crude and hard-to-read drawings. It turned out okay, and honestly wasn’t that bad, but I just don’t like doing this any more.

When I lived in DC my apartment looked like an Ikea showroom, and I didn’t mind putting furniture together so much. Nowadays, I’m pretty much over it. I’m sure it helps keep my manual skills up to snuff but I think I’m just offended when stuff is poorly packaged and presented.

WE’RE NUMBER ONE! Beating out Louisville by a substantial margin, 100 points to 94.25.

GUNFIRE ERUPTS as army seals Syrian city.

CLOSE: Huge Asteroid To Pass Near Earth In November. “It’s the case of asteroid 2005 YU55, a round mini-world that is about 1,300 feet (400 meters) in diameter. In early November, this asteroid will approach Earth within a scant 0.85 lunar distances. Due the object’s size and whisking by so close to Earth, an extensive campaign of radar, visual and infrared observations are being planned. Asteroid 2005 YU55 was discovered by Spacewatch at the University of Arizona, Tucson’s Lunar and Planetary Laboratory on Dec. 28, 2005. En route and headed our way, the cosmic wanderer is another reminder about life here on our sitting duck of a planet.”

UPDATE: Reader Ross James emails:

Do you remember in Lucifer’s Hammer, when Dr. Sharps is on the Tonight Show, he talks about the bounty of space, specifically the asteroids. He says, “It’s raining soup and we don’t even have a bowl”. I don’t know the composition of this asteroid, but it is passing right by us, we don’t even have to go to the Belt to get it. I know we can’t do anything about it yet, but maybe in the future one of the private companies can capture one of these things and mine it in Earth’s orbit.

That would be nice, though I guess if I owned mines on earth I’d object, and try to find ways to block it. . . .

ANOTHER UPDATE: A reader emails: “FYI the ‘2005’ in 2005 YU55 means that’s when a human first spotted this 400-meter object due to stage a near-Earth flyby just 6 years later. Good thing it wasn’t aimed at us. What on Earth would we do then? Theoretically we could shoot it. Better hope you break it into small enough bits so you don’t get hit with a shotgun blast. Or nudge it, provided we have a space program geared up for that sort of thing.”

Yes, “Spacewatch” is about noticing this kind of thing. Doing something about it is someone else’s problem, alas. Maybe once the Falcon Heavy is flying . . . .

IN RUSSIA, growing rumblings of discontent.

JAMES POULOS: Trump Is Final Proof That The Political Class Has Failed.

THOUGHTS ON blog marketing and hustle.

JUDGE STRIKES DOWN BALTIMORE GUN OFFENDER REGISTRY: And this relevant commentary: “I’m all for tough sentences for violent criminals in general, and criminals guilty of gun violence in particular. But once a criminal has served his or her sentence, they should have all their Constitutional rights restored. Yes, this includes child molesters and other sex offenders. Wait! If these deranged criminals are too dangerous to place in society—and I believe they are—they should be sentenced to life in prison without parole or worse. But this idea of creating two classes of citizens—one with full rights and one without—is profoundly un-American.”