Call For Papers

This year, the Space Studies Institute is doing what used to be known as the Princeton Conference on Space Industrialization in conjunction with the National Space Society’s International Space Development Conference, in LA in May. They have a call for papers up for anyone interested in presenting relevant ideas.

[Update on Wednesday morning]

As Lee Valentine notes, the full name of the conference is Conference on Space Industrialization and Space Settlement, making it rare, if not unique, among regularly held space conferences.

Abramoff Is A Republican Scandal

So says Rich Lowry. He’s right, but of course not because there’s something uniquely corrupt about Republicans per se (though there is something uniquely hypocritical about their corruption, because they were supposed to be the party of smaller government, and present fewer opportunities to seek rent, as George Will eloquently points out). It’s because Lord Acton had it largely right–power does indeed corrupt.

The Republicans should view this as an opportunity to get back to their small government roots. Unfortunately, they probably won’t. Not that I’m inclined to vote for Democrats in preference, of course, because we know they’d be even worse. There is a “culture of corruption,” but it’s a culture of power, not of party.

I Thought I Was Going To Have To Shut Down

…when I read that there is now a federal law against annoying people via the Internet. I mean, I’d probably get fifty to life. Or consecutive life terms, to judge by some of my commenters.

But then I saw the loophole, that says it’s OK to do it, as long as you don’t do so anonymously.

But what will Atrios do?

[Update on Tuesday morning]

A lot more discussion on this here.

It seems to be possible to read the law as applying to Internet telephony only (perhaps to extend existing anti-harassment laws that apply to phone calls to VOIP, but it’s vague enough that we can be assured of some pretty broad prosecutions that will result in court interpretations (hopefully interpretations that the law is unconstitutional nonsense).

[Late morning update]

Orin Kerr confirms that it is a VOIP issue.

Blogging Without Thinking

Or at least without educating oneself on the subject. Over at this week’s Carnival of the Capitalists, the very first post is a libertarian (my guess) whining about government regulation of space tourism. This is always the knee-jerk response of small-government types (of which I’m one) when they’re completely unfamiliar with the history of commercial space and space law in general.

The FAA NPRM that Mr. Cohen is so exercised about was not a spontaneous power grab by the federal government, and didn’t appear ex nihilo, even if he wasn’t following the subject–it was the result of years of discussion with the industry, and a result of a consensus between them and the regulators (though there are a few dissenters, but even they don’t want no regulation–they just want a different set of rules and a different part of the FAA to regulate it).

Like it or not, the 1967 Outer Space Treaty obligates the federal government to regulate launches. It will continue to do so until we decide to renegotiate or withdraw from it (good ideas, in my opinion, but unlikely to happen soon). There was never any option for non-regulation–the only question was what form the regs would take. Absent any defined regulations for it, it was impossible to raise money for it (because investors hate uncertainty in general, and regulatory uncertainty in particular), which is why the nascent American space tourism industry fought very hard a couple years ago to get legislation to legally define this new flight regime, and expand the FAA’s legal authority to explicitly deal with space passenger launches, in a way that would green light investors and not stifle the industry. So far, it has been quite successful, since the money is now flowing, and no serious player (other than Burt) is complaining about the regulation level. If you look at the comments on the NPRM so far (and ignore the nutty ones), you’ll see that they’re constructive, and meant to fine tune a good first cut by the agency. So far, they seem to be in keeping with both the letter and intent of the legislation.

Before people let loose with their keyboards on this issue, they might serve their readers better if they review and familiarize themselves a little with the history first.

[Update on Monday evening]

Here’s an equally naive, but more optimistic (and realistic) take:

Last week, for probably the first time in my life, I got excited by the prospect of U.S. government bureaucracy. The Federal Aviation Administration took a step toward developing rules for space tourism, issuing more than 120 pages of proposed guidelines for

How Should History Treat Clinton’s Impeachment?

An interesting article from a history professor:

Clinton, however, had no…lofty ideals in his self-made scandal. He brought sex into the arena by first lying to the public during the campaign over Jennifer Flowers; then again by attempting to hush Paula Jones in her civil suit; then finally by giving false testimony to a Grand Jury. In the process, he managed to become the only president ever to be disbarred by allowing his attorney to submit a false statement to a federal judge. (There must be a standing joke here to the effect that if you aren

How Should History Treat Clinton’s Impeachment?

An interesting article from a history professor:

Clinton, however, had no…lofty ideals in his self-made scandal. He brought sex into the arena by first lying to the public during the campaign over Jennifer Flowers; then again by attempting to hush Paula Jones in her civil suit; then finally by giving false testimony to a Grand Jury. In the process, he managed to become the only president ever to be disbarred by allowing his attorney to submit a false statement to a federal judge. (There must be a standing joke here to the effect that if you aren

How Should History Treat Clinton’s Impeachment?

An interesting article from a history professor:

Clinton, however, had no…lofty ideals in his self-made scandal. He brought sex into the arena by first lying to the public during the campaign over Jennifer Flowers; then again by attempting to hush Paula Jones in her civil suit; then finally by giving false testimony to a Grand Jury. In the process, he managed to become the only president ever to be disbarred by allowing his attorney to submit a false statement to a federal judge. (There must be a standing joke here to the effect that if you aren

More Of This, Please

The UCLA Alumni Association is fed up with nutty professors. Alumni associations actually have a lot of power in the war to take back academia from the radical left, but they have to care, and exercise it.

[Update on Monday evening]

As Jane Bernstein points out in comments, if you read the fine print, it’s not the UCLA Alumni Association–it’s another group (probably less official) called the Bruin Alumni Association. Kudos to them anyway.

Biting Commentary about Infinity…and Beyond!