Apparently the Universe has "Property of USA" Stamped on it

Now, I don't mean to pick on Americans disproportionately, I believe in offending everyone equally (i.e. the George Carlin school of political correctness), but frankly, the policy down there is big, bad, and ugly. I mean its terrifyingly bad.

Bush et al. have announced a new space policy that aims to curtail access to space for nations deemed to be enemies of the United States. Inherent conflict: The Outer Space Treaty of 1967 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outer_Space_Treaty), which the US has signed and ratified specifically prohibits the claiming of any space resource by any nation as these are considered the common heritage of mankind. By the same token, I find it very unlikely that the United States can dictate who has access to space, any attempt to do so would run afoul of international law. Also, the new policy rejects any treaties that would prevent the weaponization of space by the US. But the weaponization of space is explicitly forbiden by the treaty, this violates international law, no if, ands, or buts. Once again American policy grossly oversteps the bounds of what is actually US juristiction.

What propted this might be the newly minted manned spaceflight capability of China. Perhaps by trying to effectively claim space for the United States, Washington thinks that it can prevent China from becoming the next superpower, but I'm afraid that die is cast.

This whole issue has been very under the radar, the new policy was published on October 6 with as little fanfare as possible. It becomes another example of a government which has become so corrupt and power-mad that it no longer recognises that some things simply aren't under its control.