Friday at last, True Believers!  A special totty dose this Friday, in fact, as I stumbled across this photo set of a lovely gal and couldn’t decide which to present – so I’m posting them all.

And while I may still be ensconced here in America’s own little Caribbean paradise and not in my own beloved Colorado, I do at least have a full two-day (not three, not for this busy camper) weekend ahead.  I plan to visit the El Yunque National Forest for a bit of hiking through the rain forest – watch this space for photos – and do some shopping in Old San Juan for a birthday/anniversary present for my own sweet Mrs. Animal.  (Shh.  Don’t tell.)

The job here looks to last until the end of August, but I’ll have time at home interspersed in there, so Colorado’s trout population will not go unmolested all summer.  And there is the larger duty to fulfill; scouting out the hills around Parshall in anticipation of Mrs. Animal’s archery season forays and loyal sidekick Rat and my October rifle season deer/elk hunt.  I do have my priorities.  So do my hunting partners.

Moving right along; first, a science story:  Scientists Detect Earth-Equivalent Amount of Water Within the Moon. Excerpt:

There is water inside the moon — so much, in fact, that in some places it rivals the amount of water found within Earth.

The finding from a scientific team including Brown University comes from the first-ever measurements of water in lunar melt inclusions. Those measurements show that some parts of the lunar mantle have as much water as Earth’s upper mantle.

Lunar melt inclusions are tiny globules of molten rock trapped within crystals that are found in volcanic glass deposits formed during explosive eruptions. The new finding, published this week in Science Express, shows lunar magma water contents 100 times higher than previous studies have suggested.

What is neat about this is the possibilities it presents for a long-term human colony on Luna.  There is one problem yet to be overcome, though, and that is the Moon’s one-sixth normal gravity; people who lived on the Moon for an extended period would probably never be able to return to Earth again.  See Heinlein’s The Moon is a Harsh Mistress.

Next up, a couple of pieces of commentary from the world of economics, a kind of hobby of mine.  The first is from Atlanta libertarian talker Neal Boortz:  America Isn’t Europe… Yet. Excerpt:

You can’t spend like Europe and expect American results.

Americans shouldn’t strive to be like Europe … especially when it comes to spending on social programs.  Though this is exactly what Democrats are striving to achieve.  In discussions about our entitlement crisis, it has become increasingly apparent that Democrats have mounted their moral high-horses and are ready to battle for more government spending.  They will do this under the guise of “security” or our “moral duty” to help those who can’t help themselves.  However, the real purpose of their efforts is clear: power.  That’s it.  Bigger government, more spending, more programs to “secure” Americans means that Washington wields more power over you because you are more dependent on it.  I firmly believe that this is not the American way.  This is the liberal perversion of American ideals for their selfish pursuit of power.  But throughout the years, their vision has become much more accepted and mainstream.  There are a few reasons for this: government education, the liberal media and a celebrity-obsessed culture.

There are a few ways in which I’d like to emulate Europe, but only a few.  Some of the food, some of the beer (German!) and maybe the tendency towards turbo-diesels in cars.  That’s about it.

Finally, one from Investor’s Business Daily on a theme about which I have harped before:  Government Doesn’t’ Create Jobs.  Excerpt:

In a joint op-ed with the British prime minister, President Obama admits that jobs are created by an innovative private sector. So why is he strangling ours with regulations, rules and taxes?

We would hope it was a candid admission of the truth rather than just boilerplate rhetoric in an op-ed in the Times of London by President Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron. But there it was: “Governments do not create jobs; bold people and innovative businesses do.”

For once, the president is spot on. Businesses create jobs to fill a need, and their incentive is profit. Businesses invest; governments can only spend. Businesses create wealth, as do their employees.

Government consumes wealth and sucks the economic oxygen out of the room. Its employees create paperwork and regulations that restrict economic growth.

There’s no better example of this than the Obama administration’s failed stimulus.

As usual, IBD says it better than I could.  Read the whole thing.

Happy Friday, True Believers!  More, as always, as events warrant.