Dale wants me to comment on yesterday’s entertaining but unconstructive rant from the sage of Mojave. I know it will sound like heresy to some, but the post title is all I have to say at this time, for those commenters at his post who seem to think the opposite. He won the X-Prize because he got funded, not because he’s the only person who could do it, or even had the best way to do it. The fact that he doesn’t know how to get to orbit means nothing, except that he doesn’t know how to get to orbit. There are smart people who do, given sufficient funds, and there is more than one way to do it.
[Update a couple minutes later]
I just noticed that Sam had some other thoughts on one of Burt’s other unuseful and illogical comments.
“Perhaps the only way for draconian drug laws to change,” says Drug Policy Alliance Executive Director Ethan Nadelmann, “is for people like Limbaugh to join other nonviolent drug offenders behind bars.”
One of those nonviolent drug offenders is Richard Paey, who faced allegations remarkably similar to those against Limbaugh. Both men suffered severe back pain for which they underwent unsuccessful surgery, and both were accused of fraudulently obtaining more narcotics than they really needed. But while Limbaugh remains a free man and will not even face criminal charges if he continues to attend drug treatment for the next 18 months (something he was planning to do anyway), Paey is serving a 25-year sentence in a Florida prison.
I’m not blogging the conference–I’m too busy schmoozing, and I’m not staying at the conference hotel, so it’s a PITA to haul a laptop around there. But Clark Lindsey has already built a page of links to his and others’ comments so far. I may have some thoughts on the conference early next week, after things have calmed down and I’ve had some time to gather some. Anyway, there are three days remaining (though I will only be attending today).
…between Juan Cole (who I hope goes to Yale soon, so he ceases damaging the reputation of my alma mater in Ann Arbor) and Christopher Hitchens continues. One of the Iranian readers at Winds of Change says that Professor Cole’s Farsi isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. And Iowahawk has hacked Juan’s outbox, and found a first draft of one of his emails to Hitchens. As Joe points out, it’s difficult to parody the professor, since he does such a good job of it himself, but Mr. Burge manages it.
Joe Katzman has some thoughts (and a useful comments section) about the comment and trackack spam problem that (among other things) keeps people from posting Blogspot URLs here. It’s not your father’s Internet.
Instapundit has an interesting roundup of links and discussion about the notion of the morality of allowing the Saudi and Iranian governments to control their oil, and the hypocrisy of the left in defending their right to do so.
Posting has been light, because I’ve been busy helping someone help Mike Griffin get us Back To The Moon, And Beyond, but I’ll be heading over to the hotel tonight to schmooze with early arrivals at the conference. There should be quite a few, since the festivities start at 9 AM tomorrow.
Earlier this year, five days short of the second anniversary of the Madrid bombings, the Zapatero government, which had already legalized marriage between and adoption by same-sex partners and sought to restrict religious education in Spanish schools, announced that the words
This is really a shame, because in the context of modern lifestyles and medicine, he wasn’t that old. I was a devoted Wall Street Week fan for decades.
Despite his loss of the ultimate battle, I’ll always remember him as the eternal optimist, an attitude well justified by events.