All posts by Rand Simberg

Space & Campaign 2004

What A Shock

There’s no mention of space policy in the Democrat Party platform. It mentions Apollo, but only as an example of how the nation can accomplish great (non-space-related) things when it sets its mind to it. As I noted in a comment there, it’s the old “if we can send a man to the moon, why can’t we solve world hunger?” platitudes.

No shock–there’s been no visionary space initiative on the part of any Democrat president since Kennedy (and I’d argue that even Kennedy’s wasn’t that visionary, since the vision was mainly to beat the Russians to the moon).

I would expect to see the president’s new vision in the Republican Party platform. It would be a monumental screwup, and indicative of its true priority, if it’s not.

Space

Vision Losing Focus?

Jeff Foust has a writeup on Paul Spudis’ and Wendell Mendell’s talks at last weekend’s Return To The Moon Conference. Bottom line: as is often the case, NASA has met the enemy, and it is them.

Spudis thinks that NASA officials are deliberately misrepresenting the vision.

General

A Visit To Cathy’s World

Here’s a fun interview with the very fun (based on my occasional partying with her) and smart Cathy Seipp:

I think people always considered me more of a contrarian than a traditional values conservative. The problem with the L.A. media isn’t that it’s dominated by liberals but that it’s dominated by idiots. Occasionally someone comes along — like Allan Mayer, founding editor of the now-defunct Buzz magazine (and a liberal) — who’s smart enough to hire people with different points of view…

…My mother…told me when I was young that when she was looking for an entry level job after graduating college, she noticed the most interesting, better paying jobs were always under “Men Wanted” instead of “Women Wanted,” which is how jobs used to be advertised. So she just went ahead and applied for the “Men Wanted” jobs and usually got them. And most of the time the men who interviewed her were not outraged that she’d applied but quite nice; they just said it hadn’t occurred to them that a woman might want the job. Which is how it is with most situations, I think; people aren’t usually out to oppress you, they’re just unimaginative.

I loved this:

I don’t mind closely trimmed short beards. But those long, scraggly beards on men are like underarm hair on women. In both cases the tacit message is: “In case you were wondering what my pubic hair looks like, wonder no longer, because now you know.”

She just nailed why I no longer have a beard.

RTWT

General

A Visit To Cathy’s World

Here’s a fun interview with the very fun (based on my occasional partying with her) and smart Cathy Seipp:

I think people always considered me more of a contrarian than a traditional values conservative. The problem with the L.A. media isn’t that it’s dominated by liberals but that it’s dominated by idiots. Occasionally someone comes along — like Allan Mayer, founding editor of the now-defunct Buzz magazine (and a liberal) — who’s smart enough to hire people with different points of view…

…My mother…told me when I was young that when she was looking for an entry level job after graduating college, she noticed the most interesting, better paying jobs were always under “Men Wanted” instead of “Women Wanted,” which is how jobs used to be advertised. So she just went ahead and applied for the “Men Wanted” jobs and usually got them. And most of the time the men who interviewed her were not outraged that she’d applied but quite nice; they just said it hadn’t occurred to them that a woman might want the job. Which is how it is with most situations, I think; people aren’t usually out to oppress you, they’re just unimaginative.

I loved this:

I don’t mind closely trimmed short beards. But those long, scraggly beards on men are like underarm hair on women. In both cases the tacit message is: “In case you were wondering what my pubic hair looks like, wonder no longer, because now you know.”

She just nailed why I no longer have a beard.

RTWT

General

A Visit To Cathy’s World

Here’s a fun interview with the very fun (based on my occasional partying with her) and smart Cathy Seipp:

I think people always considered me more of a contrarian than a traditional values conservative. The problem with the L.A. media isn’t that it’s dominated by liberals but that it’s dominated by idiots. Occasionally someone comes along — like Allan Mayer, founding editor of the now-defunct Buzz magazine (and a liberal) — who’s smart enough to hire people with different points of view…

…My mother…told me when I was young that when she was looking for an entry level job after graduating college, she noticed the most interesting, better paying jobs were always under “Men Wanted” instead of “Women Wanted,” which is how jobs used to be advertised. So she just went ahead and applied for the “Men Wanted” jobs and usually got them. And most of the time the men who interviewed her were not outraged that she’d applied but quite nice; they just said it hadn’t occurred to them that a woman might want the job. Which is how it is with most situations, I think; people aren’t usually out to oppress you, they’re just unimaginative.

I loved this:

I don’t mind closely trimmed short beards. But those long, scraggly beards on men are like underarm hair on women. In both cases the tacit message is: “In case you were wondering what my pubic hair looks like, wonder no longer, because now you know.”

She just nailed why I no longer have a beard.

RTWT