Since the beginning of the recession (roughly January 2008), some 7.9 million jobs were lost in the private sector while 590,000 jobs were gained in the public one. And since the passage of the stimulus bill (February 2009), over 2.6 million private jobs were lost, but the government workforce grew by 400,000.
I think it’s exactly what they wanted to happen. Have to keep those public union people employed so they can keep providing the campaign cash. Especially when they can pass laws to shut down the opposition.
It’s been six months since the roll out. They’ve made a lot of progress. It’s a real rocketplane now. Or at least airplane — not sure about the status on the hybrid motor.
[Update late afternoon]
I am reliably informed that it was not the real thing, but a model that some of the Virgin guys were flying in the parking lot this morning. The day will come, though. They’ve been doing captive-carry flights. At some point, they’ll have to drop the bird.
Nah, nobody would pay anything to see something like this.
[Update a few minutes later]
It occurs to me that the first suborbital vehicles will be capable of reaching the lower ionosphere. How much extra would people pay to fly from high latitudes and see that up close and personal? Of course, there is another issue of whether or not it would be hazardous. I doubt it, but there might be some test flights required first. Perhaps even unmanned, by Masten et al. That’s the reason that they call it the “ignorosphere.” We haven’t really had the opportunity to study it that much. The new vehicles will provide us with one, finally.
At least temporarily. A federal judge has struck down the idiotic and mendacious drilling moratorium.
My prediction: the lamestream media and the administration will attempt to make hay out of the fact that Judge Feldman is a Reagan appointee. I expect them to appeal, unfortunately. But at least the ban is lifted for now, or will be in thirty days.
[Update a few minutes later]
They’ve already said they’re going to appeal. But I don’t think they can get it reinstated until they win the appeal, if they do (and I suspect they won’t). I wonder if they’ll try to get the appellate court to take it as an emergency case? No, I don’t really. You know they will.
Will there be a federal bailout of California? As a Californian, I’m firmly on record as opposing it, so don’t get mad at me when they pick your pocket to prop up our public-employee unions. If I were Whitman, I’d be running on a platform of abolishing them.
…and the day of public/private partnerships in space has arrived. See also Sam Dinkin’s article on individuals and individualists picking up the slack. Like some of the Japanese soldiers holed up on remote Pacific islands after the war, though, Apollo Cargo Cultists will continue to fight a rear-guard action.
