Michael Totten describes a visit to northern Israel, at the Lebanese border:
All posts by Rand Simberg
Moving On To The Next Stage In Media
I’ve come to this conclusion myself (actually a couple years ago, but I’ve been too lazy to do much about it). As a result of that, I had Andrew Case co-blogging with me for a while, until events overtook him, and Sam Dinkin has been helping out some. I just can’t hold down this fort by myself and make a living as well (at least not until I get circulation and potential ad revenue up).
But as this weekend shows, I need help. I’m soliciting potential co-bloggers (at the risk of hurting feelings of those I don’t select, but it’s no different than a job interview in that respect). If you think you have something interesting to say on space policy, technology policy, and policy in general, drop me a line (or even audition and make your case in comments here).
My experience is that many people who I would have thought would be good bloggers…aren’t. It takes more than writing skill to be a blogger. It takes an attitude. You have to not only be willing to let your first draft hang out there, you have to be eager to. People who have actually been bloggers will have a leg up on people who are simply published writers, because they’ve demonstrated they have the chops for getting things up there quickly and timely.
I’m putting out feelers to people I know, but I’m opening up the opportunity to all readers. If you want to be part of this site beyond commenting occasionally (or more than occasionally), make your case.
You Have To Be Lucky Every Time
Rush Limbaugh has an interesting interview with Paul Greengrass, the (“liberal”) director of United 93:
GREENGRASS: I’ll tell you one of the most chilling things that I have learned from my experience of looking at terrorism. About 20 years ago the IRA bombed the hotel where the prime minister, Prime Minister Thatcher, and her cabinet were, and about ten people were killed, and Prime Minister Thatcher — who I never agreed with politically in the entirety of her career, but she was our prime minister, and I don’t agree with blowing her up. Luckily she escaped. Later that night, the IRA issued a statement. They said, “Tonight you were lucky. You have to be lucky every time. We only have to be lucky once,” and in that expression is the heart of the mind of the terrorist operation.
“We only have to be lucky once. You have to be lucky every time,” and the truth is we can’t always be lucky.
That’s why we’ve gotta find somewhere solutions to these things, and we have to be prepared, it seems to me, and maybe you and I aren’t going to agree about this, to look at what we do and ask ourselves some tough questions about it. Are what we’re doing, are the things that we do, the things that they want us to do? Because one of the things terrorists want to do is goad us, make us react in ways that make the problem worse. I’m not making a political point now. I’m just, you know, answering the question, and that also is in this film. You know, we, all of us, wherever we stand on the political spectrum, if we’re going to confront this problem and prevail, have got to ask ourselves hard questions and be prepared to challenge our beliefs. Because unless we get some consensus here, we’re not going to prevail.
If you’re going to see the movie this weekend, it’s a good time to reread (or read for the first time, if you missed it) humorist Dave Barry’s staggeringly unfunny, but masterful essay on the event. I wish I’d written it. I wish I had a tenth of the talent it took to write it.
A Lousy Investment
Malcolm Kline says that politicians’ efforts to steer even more money into the black hole of college education is misguided:
In a recent conference call on the plan, both lawmakers rebuffed three attempts to get them on record explaining why college and university administrators have nothing to do with the exploding cost of higher education. It
Word To The Wise
Hosting Matters probably thought that it was a coup to host Instapundit, and it was, in the sense that they’ve gotten a lot of other high-profile bloggers as well. But there’s a down side. It’s not clear whether or not this DOS attack is an attack on so-called “right-wing” bloggers, but right now, I’m glad that I don’t share a pipe with him, and the others. It should be noted that, even if the attacks appear to be originating from Saudi Arabia, this doesn’t meant that the Saudis are doing it. There’s a reasonable chance that it’s being done by zombie machines directed from elsewhere (perhaps as an attempt to frame the Saudis for it, or just because they may have more unprotected machines).
When one sees the long list of quality blogs that were brought down due to this, it makes one think that there should be some diversification in hosting services, to eliminate this potential single-point failure for a significant part of the blogosphere.
Humor Break
Sorry, but I’m busy with work and continuing kitchen drama. But meanwhile, here’s a knee slapper of a space joke:
Q: How did Mary’s little lamb get to Mars?
A: On a rocket sheep.
Get it?
A rocket sheep?
Huh? Huh?
Feel free to pass it on to everyone you know–share the hilarity!
Keeping An Eye Out
This isn’t news any more (it was published in February), but Paul Dietz had a post that I just found out about describing a new asteroid-hunting scheme that seems very promising:
All NEOs down to a few hundred meters in diameter will be found. If any are possibly going to hit Earth soon, we’ll know.
Good. We can’t do this too soon.
Yes, And So?
At this point, I’d like to think that teaching Marxism in an economics course is the academic equivalent of teaching Biblical literalist creationism in a biology class. But nutball academics don’t agree, of course:
Siddique plans on filing a complaint with the USG regarding an introductory economics course, because it ignores “Marxist economic viewpoints, privileging capitalist ones exclusively.”
Just a little blowback from the recent efforts to get a little balance into the college classrooms.
Cut Pork For Thee, But Not For Me
I’d like to think that this polling result is as significant as Instapundit thinks:
Among all Americans, a 39% plurality say the single most important thing for Congress to accomplish this year is curtailing budgetary “earmarks” benefiting only certain constituents.
Sounds like a political tsunami that will sweep away earmarks, right?
Probably not. First of all, though the number is high, it’s not a majority. And even if it were, there’s a familiar phenomenon, in which large numbers disapprove of Congress, but like their own Congress(wo)man. It’s all those other clowns that are the problem. I suspect that they’ll have the same attitude toward pork. They oppose it in principle, but when it comes to benefitting them, I suspect that most people will take the money and let their Congressman run. One man’s pork is another man’s vital district need.
The Myth Of “Peak Oil”
Ron Bailey explodes it.