Live at the Crime Scene

It seems that the EU budgetary talks have collapsed when Britain refused to give up its rebate (yet another gift from the Iron Lady whose efforts to save Britain Tony Blair is undoing more each day). Of course, the fact that the rebate consists of 2/3 the difference between what Britain pays to the EU and the benefits they receive (about £3 billion) does not occur to the likes of l'escroc and walking political corpse Gerhard Schroder. Chirac wants more subsidies to keep his career afloat, and since Britain is the only one of the Big Three European Nations that has a semblance of an economy these days, only the UK can pay for it. Blair didn't sign thanks to the efforts of the always-amusing Daily Sun, who have rented a tractor, emblazoned it with the slogan "Hands off our rebate!", and drove it through the streets of Brussels. I apologise for the lack of linkage to this, but old Sun articles require a subscription to access.
Before one gets too enamoured with plucky Britain's stand against the Continental Goons, it seems that there's much internal decay about the Sceptered Isle. It seems that Tony Blair is resorting to desperate measures to deal with the rise of youth mob culture in Britain. Calling the Army on to the streets shows that the social breakdown in Britain is reaching endemic proportions. Add this to the presence of a political-police organisation (the "Community Support Officers") and the ability of authorities to issue ASBOs, or Anti-Social Behaviour Orders that impose penalties without trial. Let this be a lesson to all those who believe that mere force exercised by the government can replace civic virtue.
On the positive side, someone has finally produced a parody of the cookie-cutter Ken Burns documentaries. It's called the Old Negro Space Program, and it's positively side-splitting. Take a look.
And, in related space news, there's a third challenger who is working towards NASA's new shuttle-replacement programme. They're called Transform Space, and they're backed by Scaled Composites. They're the dark horse group, but the seem to have their act together. Here's a link to their CXV concept. It's less Apollo-esque than Boeing's, but more compact than Lockheed-Martin's. They also have a lunar development plan. Sounds like a good crew.