Whenever I point out that Islam is a problematic ideology/religion, people say, “You bigot! I know many Muslims, and they’re very nice people!” Well, I also know many nice Muslims, and in fact most of them don’t necessarily agree with Al Qaeda or IS, but Al Qaeda and IS would (rightfully, in my opinion, though I’m no more of a Muslim scholar than Barack Obama) consider them apostates. The point is that most people are “nice” by nature, but that doesn’t prevent them from adhering to beliefs that aren’t very nice at all. I suspect that if you’d lived in Germany during the war, you’d have thought most Germans “nice,” except for that support-of-Hitler thing. Just don’t let them know you’re a Jew.
All posts by Rand Simberg
Heading Back To (Rainy) California
Now that the Cromnibus is crumbling, my work here is done.
Just kidding. It’s that anarchist terrorist Elizabeth Warren’s fault. She’s not only taking hostages — she’s scalping them.
The Fatal Conceit
The Times reassuringly described Gruber as “the numbers wizard at MIT,” who has “spent decades modeling the intricacies of the health care ecosystem.” Gruber has “brought a level of science to an issue that would otherwise be just opinion.”
I might note that the Soviets used the term “science” for their own “scientific” planning commission. I drew little comfort from Professor Gruber’s scientific-planning credentials, especially when I learned “he’s the only person you can go to for that kind of thing.” Gruber, aided by his brilliant MIT graduate student assistants, is a one-man Gosplan, the name given to the Soviet Union’s state planning committee. That is not much of a recommendation. Science is better served by competing ideas not by a one-person monopoly.
Both Gruber and the USSR’s Gosplan planners believe their planning is “scientific” and executed by “the best of the best.” Both types of planning commissars suffer from F. A. Hayek’s “fatal conceit”—the belief that we can plan incredibly complex economic systems. As Hayek pointed out in his writings, such “scientific” plans inevitably fall apart under the weight of unintended consequences.
Actually, I’m not sure they’re all unintended.
Social Injustice Ate My Homework
I’m quite sure I wouldn’t want any of these delicate flowers representing me in court.
Light Posting
I’m at the Galloway Symposium on Space Law this morning, then off to NASA for a LEO commercial workshop in the afternoon. Haven’t decided whether to schlep computer.
Marxism
Workers of the Solar System, unite, and throw off your shackles of gravity!
Space Access Society Update
Concern about Commercial Crew budgets, and a request for funding of next year’s conference. It’s a worthy cause.
Math Versus Maths
Why do the Brits (and Aussies) do it wrong?
No NASA Doesn’t Need More Funding
Despite this call for that, what it needs is a completely different approach, but there are insufficient opportunities for graft in that.
Space Property Rights
A report from a recent meeting at the Hague.