U.S. READIES for high-stakes missile defense test.

THE GOVERNMENT is still "open for business." I don't know whether I'm relieved or disappointed.

UH-OH. ANNIHILATION IS ONLY 3.8 billion light-years away.

YET ANOTHER REASON TO DOWNSIZE BIG GOVERNMENT: Business is so dependent on government that it has been reassuring Democrats that it wants to avert a shutdown and fiercely lobbying Republicans to strike a compromise.

Republicans have two powerful pulls on them: the business lobby and the Tea Party. One has money. The other has votes. Boehner might have to choose between the two.

Go with the votes. The other will follow.

RUSSIA SEEKS 50% SHARE of global space-launch market. The Obama administration certainly seems willing to help.

GAS PRICES went up 10 cents a gallon at my usual gas station last week. That's roughly a 100% inflation rate. I think it may be time to quit working and move back in with Uncle Sam and Aunt Nanny.

NOT A CHANCE: Why can't Maureen Dowd and her fellow liberals grow up?

SO WHO NEEDS the federal government anyway? "Larimer County [CO] Sheriff Justin Smith, worried about the economic impact of shuttering Rocky Mountain National Park in the wake of a federal budget stalemate, today said he’ll provide law enforcement and emergency services to help keep the park open." And the National Mall will remain open. "Anyone can happily walk down the National Mall anytime they want, rain or shine, millions of cherry blossoms or none, whether the government is running or not. There’s no price of admission, no gatekeeper to keep anyone locked out."

WOULD YOU BUY a new car from this man? Hell, I wouldn't buy a used car from him - assuming I could find one.

SHUT IT DOWN: "Let the hacks go out and make things, like the rest of us. If they can’t, they’ll starve."

Read it all.

DEMOCRAT LOSES WISCONSIN ELECTION: “My suspicious, cynical side says that the Republicans delayed the full count to flush out any Democrat tricks. God bless ‘em, I hope they’re just that smart.”

Instapundit would be ‘very surprised’ if they were that smart. I think they’re probably smart enough, but I’d be surprised to find they actually had the cojones to do it.

SPRING SPRANG. The first 3 trees (of 100's) in my yard are showing green. It's about time. The green is barely visible above the house.

LIGHT POSTING for the next few days; I've finally started filling out tax forms. So far, I've used Form 1040, Schedules A, B, D, M, and R, most of the worksheets in the 1040 Instruction booklet - and I'm less than half through!

It's going to be a long weekend ....

POLL: Americans want a new President. Only for about the last 2-1/2 years.

HEH. JOE BTFSPLK is the “only non-essential federal employee left and hence the only one directly subject to the horrors of a government shutdown.”

OBAMA ON GAS PRICES: it’s your fault for not buying a Prius.

UPDATE: the media tried to scrub the story; they didn’t quite succeed.

NEW 'GREEN' LIGHT BULBS are causing mercury pollution. There are at least two natural laws at work here: the Law of Unintended Consequences (there will be; usually bad) and the Law of Insanity (doing the same thing over and over again, expecting different results). I don't know whether to laugh (at the unintended consequences) or cry (at the insanity), or both.

WHAT IF THE GOVERNMENT SHUT DOWN ... and no one cared. My favorite comment:

[T]hink of government workers like teenagers. You pay them an allowance, but do you get any work out them? They eat the food, put their feet on the furniture and complain loudly whenever they are unhappy.

Read it all.

THE TROUBLE, of course, is that progressives are unable to learn from experience.

BARACK 'HUSAME' OBAMA. Read it all - the pun is in the last line.