This looks like an amazing documentary.
My paternal grandfather immigrated to New York from Poland, and was almost immediately drafted and sent back to Europe to fight in the American trenches. I never learned any details.
The Stupidity Of Gun Buy-Back Programs
Kathleen Cairns, a WBFF Baltimore journalist, tweeted a picture of a woman who was surrendering a 9mm. She hoped to use the money from the program to buy an even bigger gun.
Good for her.
Carter Page
Ten pieces of evidence he’s the most diabolical Russian spy evar:
As of now, Carter Page hasn’t been charged with so much as lying to the FBI or filing a faulty tax return, let alone Russian spying. He endured the most intrusive, intimidating methods the government has at its disposal. He was the subject of media leaks. His reputation was destroyed. If he’s never charged with being a Russian spy, he’s either that slippery … or it would suggest that the top intelligence officials who targeted him were either incompetent or corrupt. It would seem to border on criminal.
I don’t think it “borders” on criminal.
[Update a few minutes later]
The results of the second interview of the corrupt James Comey. I’ve never seen such a disgusting display of arrogant sanctimony. And no, “Republicans” did not pay for the dossier. They initially hired Fusion GPS, but it was the Clinton campaign who paid for the dossier itself. I wonder if Comey really doesn’t know that?
[Noon update]
More thoughts from Neo-Neocon:
Here Comey is repeating MSM and Democratic talking points about Fusion which have been shown to be untrue. Republicans had zero to do with the funding of the dossier, as Comey either knows or should know if he’s at all competent. What he probably does know, however, is that Republican involvement is the fiction the MSM was pushing and that many many Americans probably believe that to be the case, so Comey’s answer will appear to make some sense to those people even though it is based on a falsity.
Comey’s lack of specific interest in who funded the dossier (if he really didn’t know and didn’t ask, which may or may not be the case) would have come from his need to get that investigation going and to use the dossier to jumpstart it no matter what. Why question its provenance if you’re already dedicated to using it despite the fact that Trump’s enemies paid for it, which should have made it highly suspect as a source?
Of course, it turns out that Trump’s oppponent’s campaign funded it, which if anything would make it even more suspect than if other Trump enemies had funded it. But to Comey, all of that was irrelevant (or at least he’d like us to think it was irrelevant). In his previous career, had he really lacked curiosity to that degree? I doubt it very much. But he’s a clever enough lawyer to use it as an excuse now. He’d prefer that we think him a fool rather than a knave, if he has the choice of shaping our opinion.
I say “knave.” The man is no fool, not by a longshot.
Knave indeed.
“Oh, No”
This is funny. The day that Trump learned to tweet.
I still don’t think he knows how to thread, though.
Curiosity’s Future Travels
For those into Mars, Bob Zimmerman has a post up with some speculation.
Gun Control
A statistician changes her mind after actually looking at the data:
“A reduction in gun deaths is most likely to come from finding smaller chances for victories and expanding those solutions as much as possible,” Libresco concludes. “We save lives by focusing on a range of tactics to protect the different kinds of potential victims and reforming potential killers, not from sweeping bans focused on the guns themselves.”
Libresco says she still does not endorse gun ownership, “but I can’t endorse policies whose only selling point is that gun owners hate them.”
What a concept.
Dissing Virgin Galactic
You can find a NASA astronaut to come up with any opinion you want, but Andy Thomas isn’t impressed with SpaceShipTwo. I share the criticisms (which were made by me and others when the SpaceShipOne concept was first revealed), but I don’t think it’s doomed to failure. It offers a different experience than New Shepard, and will have its own market. I continue to find it ironic that the systems Burt added for “safety” probably added hazards instead.
Reproduction On Mars
Nadia Drake has the latest. We continue to not have a gravity lab to study this.
[Update after reading the whole thing]
They seem to be proposing a gravity lab (still unfunded), but they want to put it in lunar orbit. I see no reason to do this, other than to give the Gateway something to do; LEO (and probably in the ISS orbit) makes a lot more sense to me.
Good Food Advice
Breads made with white flour have not only been stripped of all of their nutrients, but they might even contain remnants of the chemical used in the bleaching process. Our obsession with white foods (sugar, I’m looking at you) is totally odd and unfounded. The natural, unbleached version tastes the same (if not better) and is far more nutritious.
Not really. You should cut out the bread, period.
Why must everything that tastes so good be so bad for us? Our beloved creamy, fulfilling ice cream is extremely high in sugar and fat. And since milk is an animal protein, it’s also high in cholesterol. Sure, you can opt for some yogurt or a vegan dessert, but they’re not the same.
The problem with ice cream is the sugar, not the fat or cholesterol.
There is nothing wrong with ordering a regular cup of coffee (and you can even toss in a little half and half if you need it), but the calories add up very quickly when it comes to those fancy $7 coffee beverages. They taste so good because of all the added sugar and fat. You’ll get an immediate boost from a huge sugar rush, and then you’ll crash hard. Then you need another high-calorie coffee drink to feel better.
Again, it’s the sugar, not the fat or the calories that’s the problem here. Counting calories is junk science.
Bacon, sausage, and even cold cuts: they’re oh-so-yummy, but they’re just awful for your health. They contain high levels of unsaturated fat and sodium.
No, bacon has saturated fat. Which is good. And there is more danger from underconsumption of sodium than over.
A guaranteed way to add inches to your waist is to indulge in fried food. High in calories, fat, saturated fat, and carcinogens (yup, in those beloved french fries), there is nothing good about this. Except for their scrumptious flavor, obviously.
The problem with fried foods is not the fat, saturated fat, or calories (unless you’re frying it in seed oils, in which case the fat is bad because of the omega 6s). The problem with fried foods is carbohydrates in the batter. Deep frying dusted veggies in lard or tallow is fine.
Jeff Bezos
An interesting space-related profile from Princeton, his alma mater.
I did an interview a few months ago for the upcoming documentary, even though I didn’t really know O’Neill (I met him once). He had a large indirect influence on my life. The last question I was asked was what single word came to mind when I thought about him. My answer: “Hope.”
[Afternoon update]
It’s important to understand that The High Frontier came out in the mid-70s, a time of doom and gloom. Paul Ehrlich and the Club of Rome were always banging on about overpopulation and running out of resources, and instead of global warming, we were supposed to be worried about a return of the glaciers. In addition to O’Neill’s book, Peter Vajk (himself inspired by O’Neill) came out with a book meant to be a palliative, titled Doomsday Has Been Canceled. Anyway, that’s the context in which I said that he brought hope.