And the president thinks he should personally negotiate with this regime with no preconditions?
I wonder if the president thinks that Ronald Reagan shouldn’t have “meddled” in the Soviet Union?
Monthly Archives: June 2009
Support Trader Joe’s
I haven’t been able to shop at Trader Joe’s since we left California, because for some reason they have never opened up any in Florida (I’m guessing it has something to do with state laws — perhaps the restriction on hard liquor sales in groceries?). Anyway, here’s one more reason that I wish I could:
Very sadly, the tactic employed against Israeli products in Europe has now made its way to our own country, taking root in our own backyard and focusing its attention upon a grocery retailer that many of us patronize, Trader Joe’s. Only the difference is that in the United States there is a significantly larger Jewish population than there is in Europe and we now find ourselves in a position to make an immediate and very positive impact on Israel’s behalf.
I hope that this anti-semitic (and yes, sorry, that’s what it is) boycott helps them more than hurts.
Down In Flames
Jim Oberg shoots down bad media coverage of the US satellite shoot down.
Major Economic Downturn
Women, children, minoritiesMen hit hardest:
The senior economists listened attentively as Gandy and Smeal and other advocates argued for a stimulus package that would add jobs for nurses, social workers, teachers, and librarians in our crumbling “human infrastructure” (they had found their testosterone-free slogan). Did Furman mention that jobs in the “human infrastructure”–health, education, and government–had increased by more than half a million since December 2007?
One could pardon him for not being argumentative. His boss at the economic council, Lawrence Summers, had become a national symbol of the consequences of offending feminist sensibilities and had been opposed by feminists in his appointment to the top White House post. Gandy and Smeal found their circle partners to be engaged and curious and were delighted that they stayed longer than scheduled: “We left feeling that all our preparation would bear fruit in the form of more inclusion of women’s needs, and we were right.”
They were right indeed. Our incoming president did what many sensible men do when confronted by a chorus of female complaint: He changed his plan.
No one will ever accuse him of being a strong man. Or a sensible one, actually.
“Invincible”
A musical photomontage, from Iran.
What’s Going On In Suborbit?
Alan Boyle has a roundup. I found this intriguing:
You don’t hear much from New Space’s most secretive player, but it’s virtually certain that the venture – backed by Amazon.com billionaire Jeff Bezos – will start commercial spaceflights by 2010 as originally envisioned. In February, Bezos told talk-show host Charlie Rose that Blue Origin was working on its second test vehicle, and that there would be at least one more test vehicle after that.
“Virtually certain”? Because Bezos says so? Maybe, but they’ll have to do a lot more test flights than they have been to meet that schedule, I would think. If true, it looks like a race between them and XCOR to see who gets there first. Virgin won’t be first to market, but there’s not necessarily anything wrong with that.
On a related note, the latest Lurio Report is out, for those who subscribe (and if you don’t, you should, if you want to stay on top of this kind of stuff). Clark Lindsey has a summary of the contents.
Getting Their Wish
The “social progressives” are always complaining because we’re not more like Europe. Well, they can stop whining now:
The US unemployment rate exceeded Germany’s rate in April and was very close to the rate in France.
Spreading the wealth around. And the poverty.
[Update a few minutes later]
A depressing chart of how hard it will be to recover.
[Update a few minutes later]
My piece on Munchausen’s Syndrome By Proxie is up at Pajamas Media (I wrote it a couple weeks ago, but Iran had kept it off the front page, and I have a feeling it will be relevant for a long time, unfortunately).
Thoughts On Dads
…and cars.
I have my own dad and car story. As I’ve mentioned in the past, my dad was first an AC, and then a GM executive. He got company cars to drive, and he got discounts on cars that he wanted to buy. Generally, he would get a company car like a Caddy, drive it for a while, then buy it at discount, and then sell it to get a new one, on a yearly basis. But when I was just starting to become aware of cars in my “tween” years, my step-brother bought an Austin-Healy Sprite. Not the one that was a copy of the MG Midget (one of which I later bought myself on a whim because it was a great deal) but the original, “bug-eyed” variety (following in suit, my younger brother even later bought a couple of Healy 3000s, in the first one of which he had an accident when a woman made a left in front of him, with me in what passed for a back seat, and I got tossed out the back, with no serious injuries, but he and his friend in the front seat got some nasty face cuts from wheel and windshield — he bought the next one with the insurance money therefrom).
Anyway, I wonder if that, and the combination of a sort of mid-life crisis (he was forty-five, and about to have his first coronary, the second of which would kill him a little over a decade later) spurred him to buy the coolest car that he ever bought, at least to my knowledge.
The 1968 models (which came out as they always did in the fall of the previous year) represented a wonder year for me, as far as General Motors was concerned. The change in styling was so dramatic, that it almost seemed like I’d been instantly transported into the future. The lines were curved, not square, the windshield wipers were hidden, giving the cars a streamlined look. The Vette went from something that looked all right to the classic Stingray that I think is still the best-looking in its history (yes, I know many disagree — don’t waste time trying to argue with me in comments — you’re wrong. The early ones were ugly and it didn’t achieve its style potential until ’68).
And in that year of their, but not my, Lord, late 1967, my father ordered a 1968 Pontiac. A LeMans. A green one. A convertible.
And here’s the coolest thing. Unlike his Caddies, or Caddie wannabes, like a Buick deuce and a quarter, it had a stick shift. With a clutch. Three on the floor, baby.
I never drove it, because I wasn’t old enough, but I sure wanted to. We took that car a lot of places, with the top down, and I think my dad liked driving it, though after it died (a cracked bell housing that resulted in the clutch not disengaging, and not worth the money, at least to him, to repair) he went back to his standard living rooms on wheels. I wish I’d talked to him more about why he’d bought it. I wish that I could talk to him more about a lot of things.
It’s been thirty years now, but I miss you, Dad.
Has Obama Betrayed Israel?
A debate.
I would say he has. Of course, some of his supporters would see nothing wrong with that.
Unresponsive
The Constellation presenters at the Augustine Commission, didn’t even attempt to answer the mail:
The main objectives are faster support of the ISS (which I take to mean shrinking the ISS human spaceflight gap), going to the Moon and generally beyond LEO, stimulating commercial spaceflight (which I take to mean encouraging commercial spaceflight more than the status quo), and fitting the Administration’s budget. Safety, robotic support, international participation, and long-term ISS use are also factors.
The main thing that struck me about the Constellation presentation is that it simply doesn’t address the objectives. Follow this quick and to-the-point link; it captures my reaction exactly. Of the 4 main objectives, the only one it addressed head-on is “supporting missions to the Moon and other destinations”. On the other issues, it didn’t even attempt to present a solution. It didn’t pass or fail – it got an incomplete.
Well, this is the same gang that pretty much completely blew off the Aldridge Commission recommendations, so it’s hardly surprising. I’m pretty sure that Augustine et al noticed this as well. I don’t know what’s going to come out of the Augustine Commission, but it’s pretty hard to see how it will be business as usual, given how pathetic was the defense.