VDH: Spare us the collective outrage.
All posts by Rand Simberg
“Free Palestine”
What it really means:
“Free Palestine.”
— Rawan Osman روان عثمان (@RawaneOsmane) May 25, 2026
I grew up on those words.
In Lebanon, most people around me wanted a free Palestine for a very practical reason — to send the Palestinian refugees back. The civil war that tore my country apart was ignited in no small part by the Palestinian armed factions who… pic.twitter.com/KTwBrwKbJG
Best Practices
I’m sure you’ll be as unsurprised as I am that when it comes to managing upper stages, China is not following them.
[Update a few minutes later]
Maybe we should make a “Hungry Hippo” version of Starship one day to collect and de-orbit spent rocket stages and other space junk
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 26, 2026
Why Democrats Need To Call Republicans “Nazis”
As has oft been said: They don’t try to eliminate people because they’re Nazis; they call them Nazis so they can eliminate them.
Democrats NEED to call Republicans “Nazis,” and the inverse is not true because it’s unnecessary.
— Cynical Publius (@CynicalPublius) May 24, 2026
I’ll explain.
Republicans freed the slaves. Republicans won the Civil War and magnanimously reconciled with the losing Democrats even though they did not need to. Republicans…
The Church Of TDS
The Colbert show, explained:
I am the Senior Vice President of Late Night Strategy at CBS. I am the person who turned a comedian into a priest and charged advertisers to watch the congregation.
— Peter Girnus 🦅 (@gothburz) May 23, 2026
I want to be precise about what I built. Not a comedy show. A permission structure. For eleven years, six million… pic.twitter.com/UnOQ3PGk7O
Cuba
Is it finally, after over six decades, on the verge of freedom?
I guess that the question is what the basis of its economy will be. It could certainly do pineapples, coffee, and (if we were to end our own domestic restrictions) sugar, rum and cigars. But it could also become another tropical tourism mecca, with all its beaches. But they’d have to figure out how to avoid the tyranny of another Batista.
Scrub
Well, better luck tomorrow. I’ll be on a plane from DC to LA, or maybe on layover in Philly, but I might be able to see it on my tablet on the plane.
“Starship Is Going Nowhere”
I gave up on this Elon-deranged nonsense after the paragraph in which he demonstrated his profound ignorance of orbital mechanics and the rocket equation, because I’m at an AIAA conference all week and don’t have time to properly fisk it, but have at it in comments.
The New Anti-Semitism
[Update Saturday afternoon]
Israel knows a defamation case won’t fly. That’s not the play.
Blue Origin’s Finances
It seems to me that Bezos could solve this problem on his own, but maybe he’s tired of financing it all himself if he can find Other Peoples’ Money.