Pulled Over for Speeding!

Six days on the road, and pulled over by the government for speeding through -- cue Dr. Evil -- One Billion Dollars!

Cash for Clunkers is over.

Actually the government isn't sure whether they've spent $1 billion or $2 billion. Or less.

But they are sure that they are going to be in trouble quickly because a lot of people jumped on the Cash for Clunker voucher program.

As I said yesterday, I don't like the program, and if they add more money and start it up again there will be repercussions and consequences, to be especially felt by the poor as they won't be able to find parts for the old cars that many will keep because they can't afford a $40,000 vehicle. Or $30,000. Or $20,000. Or even $10,000.

And why will the used car parts market go sky high? Because the cars taken in by the Cash for Clunkers program are being crushed and sent off to China for meltdown. China, doing the CO2 intensive remanufacturing that Americans aren't allowed to do anymore.

I'm glad Cash for Clunkers is over, and I hope that you are paying attention. If you turn your thermostat control over to these people, or your health care, don't be too surprised when you find that they suspend some other things you were counting on.

Original Tapes of '69 Moon Landing: Erased

A good example of why "government-run" anything is a bad idea.

NASA released the first glimpses of a complete digital make-over of the original landing footage that clarifies the blurry and grainy images of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walking on the surface of the moon.

The full set of recordings, being cleaned up by Burbank, California-based Lowry Digital, will be released in September. The preview is available at http://www.nasa.gov.

NASA admitted in 2006 that no one could find the original video recordings of the July 20, 1969, landing.

Since then, Richard Nafzger, an engineer at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Centre in Maryland, who oversaw television processing at the ground-tracking sites during the Apollo 11 mission, has been looking for them.

The good news is he found where they went. The bad news is they were part of a batch of 200,000 tapes that were degaussed -- magnetically erased -- and re-used to save money.

Maybe it's better that we not know the name of this "rocket scientist" who decided that the originals of this historic event should be erased and re-used. It is almost beyond belief that anyone could be that short-sighted and ignorant.

But that's bureaucracy for you. Bureaucrats know the price of everything and the value of nothing.