i hereby proclaim siam the united states of america!

Below the fold, the US has asserted its right to develop space-based weapons, and declined to participate in treaty negotiations to limit them.

I must confess to having mixed feelings about this. As long as sovereign nations are the norm, defense is a necessary evil. (Note that I did say defense.)

On the other hand, I can't help but think that maybe we're scared of our own shadow here:

John Mohanco, deputy director of the office of multilateral, nuclear and security affairs, said the United States faced a threat of attacks from the earth or from other countries' spacecraft. He did not name any potential attackers.

"As long as the potential for such attacks remains, our government will continue to consider the possible role that space-related weapons may play in protecting our assets," he told the United Nations-backed forum.

"For our part, the United States does not have any weapons in space, nor do we have plans to build such weapons," he said.

So...we don't have weapons in space, we don't plan to put weapons in space, but we do face potential attacks from space so we may need weapons in space?

Did I miss something?

If you've ever wondered why the aliens haven't announced themselves by landing on the White House lawn or in Times Square, this sort of thing might have something to do with it. We've some evolving left to do.

On a related note...Stephen Hawking has stated that he believes getting off this planet is the only way we will survive as a species.

Yeah...that seems about right.