Call me crazy, but it doesn’t look to me like Islam has any self esteem issues at all, let alone ones that NASA is likely to do anything about.
(For those who have been emailing me asking me what I think of Charlie Bolden’s excellent diplomatic adventure. I’ll have a lot more thoughts over at Pajamas Media later.)
I think the fundamental problem is that Sharia is supposed to be God’s law. That means a few religious figures (who have an inside connection to God, of course) decide what is legal and illegal. The vast majority of people subject to the law have no say. The other cruel and crazy stuff (like that most of the law originated with Mohammad who saw nothing wrong with married soldiers kidnapping women of enemy tribes and raping them in ways that wouldn’t lead to childbirth) is just icing on a very flawed cake.
he wanted me to find a way to reach out to the Muslim world and engage much more with predominantly Muslim nations to help them feel good about their historic contribution to science, math, and engineering
If Bolden is even halfway serious here, then what the hell is Obama thinking? This is pretty retarded even for fifth column stuff.
Hehe, if this is the backlash against “expanding international cooperation” and “soft power” then I can’t wait to see the backlash against “inspiring kids to get into science and math” when Project-M ramps up.
I wonder if they’ll fall back on “spinoffs”.
All these bullshit justifications for the space program are fine to talk about, but as soon as you act on them like they’re the real goals you quickly find out how untrue they really are.
Human spaceflight is not about science. It’s not about international cooperation. It’s not about inspiring kids or getting nifty spinoffs. Human spaceflight is about learning how to go out there and make the future homes for humanity. It’s about the *long term* and the US needs to adopt that thinking as their own.
The rest of the interview is quite good.
The goal of Islam is to kill or enslave you.
Can we discredit those that would lie about it?
Can we not elect them to make enslavement easier?
Can we not appoint supporters of legislation over the constitution to the supreme court?
Not all religion is compatible with our constitution. Listening to lies while liberty is fading away is just plain stupid.
while I really don’t think you have any idea what the goal of Islam is, I think your hate filled words indicate that you have not even bothered watching the video.
It’s pretty bad when me and NASA Watch agree on something.
Go watch the video.. sit through the first 5 minutes and watch the whole thing. Disengage your hate and reengage your brain.
I’m reminded of the old Star Trek Joke:
“Why aren’t there any Muslims on the Enterprise?”
“Because it’s set in the future.”
Trent, I read Ken’s comments above and think he pretty much hit the nail on the head. I am intrigued by your rebuttal. Would you take a few moments to educate me on the real goals of Islam are?
Yes, I would like Trent’s insights into “the lighter side” of Sharia. I understand after Mohammed slaughtered a couple of hundred non-believers and then celebrated with with his twelve year old concubines, he could be quite the card.
Islam’s self-esteem problem is that Muslims have lots of phony self-esteem. The Koran tells them that they’re Masters of the Universe, and those other people designing computers and inventing vaccines should bow down to them. The dissonance between what they’re taught and what they see is extreme. It probably deters them from doing things that would create real self-esteem (patent offices in Islamic countries sometimes go a year or more without issuing any patents). Obama via Bolden’s contribution to the problem is very minor, but it is a contribution.
Of course the West has made phony self-esteem public policy. But it’s effects seem to have been limited. The relative ineffectiveness of public policy is widely seen as a problem, but to me it’s a safety feature.
The problem with building someone’s self-esteem is the prefix.
As for NASA being involved, I think this boils down to the belief (and I’ve read Pelosi suggesting similar things) that great minds exist at NASA and are bottled up working issue that have less impact on mankind and wellbeing as other activies. Those minds should be put to use helping to solve other world delimmas.
There is several problems with this line of thought. The first is the suggestion that NASA has a lot of great minds. It has many, but they are fewer than media typically portrays. Second, those minds aren’t interested in solving social problems, which is why they got a job at NASA rather than the State Department or UNICEF. It’s not to say they don’t have compassion to see strife end; it’s just they rather solve other problems, just like the President rather play golf.
Finally, what’s wrong with Sharia law? There’s several issues. First, it, like most religious based laws, restricts liberty in many ways. Particularly, the rights and freedoms of women are reigned in, as they are made subservient to men. Then, there are the banking laws; that are as misguided as Progressive views of Keysian economics. To enforce Sharia banking laws requires very heavy regulation that generates a powerful police state necessary to resolve simple contract issues.
your hate filled words
Would you be kind enough to point them out? Scripture tells me to, “hate what is bad.”
I really don’t think you have any idea what the goal of Islam
Certainly not all of them, but tell me, is to kill or enslave you erroneous?
I was watching Lawrence of Arabia the other night. During one of his conversations with Lawrence, Prince Faisal says, “my people have little experience of machinery or explosives.” Matters have demonstrably improved at least a bit since the Arabia of World War I – though one could perhaps wish that there hadn’t been quite so much improvement with respect to explosives. But there’s no question Charlie B. has his work cut out for him.