Five things that Obama has done to make it happen. Only five?
Category Archives: Business
And The Other Half Are Fools
Almost half the voters don’t believe Obama’s promise that if you like your health insurance, you can keep it. What’s wrong with the rest of them?
[Update a while later]
Goody. ObamaCare has stopped construction on forty-five hospitals. And the problem with this gang is that it’s always hard to tell if these kinds of consequences are intended, or not.
The Year Of Commercial Space Travel
I have another retrospective/prospective at AOL News today. Unlike the PM piece, though, this one emphasizes the coming year more than the past.
[Update mid morning]
Jeff Foust has a similar piece over at The Space Review, but much longer. Of course, when you’re the editor, you have more control over word count.
[Bumped]
The Democrats And Health Care
An account of political self destruction.
[Update a few minutes later]
Well deserved, I should add. Maybe we can finish the job in a couple years.
Brown Paper Wrapper
Ebooks have sent the sales of “romance” novels soaring.
Everyone I Know
As a native Californian, it no longer astonishes me how so many in this state, one bountifully blessed by nature, have become deaf to reason. I’ve grown sadly used to such alleged thinking. The people of California who determine government, business and societal direction have swallowed their own hype, firmly believing that California’s greatness cannot be damaged or destroyed by their actions. In this they are completely mistaken, utterly unaware of this being the case.
These people are committed to the philosophy that wealth is both to be obtained at all costs and the greatest of evils, something to be seized and redistributed to those unwilling to work toward bettering themselves. California is a nanny state on steroids, driving businesses away and mocking them as they leave for failure to be good citizens, never once stopping to note how their departure also means the loss of jobs and tax revenue. It preaches diversity but practices division, excuses all from personal responsibility and promotes itself as a godless church giving alms to the poor while not once noticing that not only in doing so does it keep them forever chained to government handouts, the donation basket is empty due to having driven away all followers from its pews.
There is no reason to believe any of this will change in the near future. Politically, the state is firmly in the hands of liberal Democrats who are blind to economic reality, forever beholden to overpaid and horribly over-pensioned state employees who accept no responsibility for the economic crisis. Unemployment is rampant due to the state’s anti-business attitude and insanely excessive regulatory addiction. Taxes are obscene; the highest in the nation. The California GOP is pathetic, unable to find and support quality candidates that stay on message while speaking honestly about the state’s problems. Sacramento gleefully doles out taxpayer dollars to illegal immigrants while strangling farms with inane environmental laws that solve nonexistent problems while creating authentic new ones. California is tens of billions of dollars in debt with no cohesive policy, let alone the courage, to do what is necessary to solve the problem: create jobs by easing regulations and slashing taxes while simultaneously making deep cuts across the board in government spending, starting with its state workers salaries and pensions. Instead, it will most likely beg for a federal bailout, which it won’t get, and then either declare bankruptcy, hiding behind judicial decisions as to what will be done to relieve the debt, or simply default on what it owes to most everyone.
Well, apparently, that’s what California wanted.
The Year-End Lurio Report
…is out. Clark Lindsey has the Table of Contents. If you don’t subscribe, you should, if you want to stay on top of this exciting new industry. Charles has a lot of detail on various goings on, including the Dragon flight, that you’ll have trouble finding other places.
The Year In Commercial Spaceflight
My year-end roundup is up now at Popular Mechanics.
Botched Environmental Predictions
Here are eight.
Speaking of which, here’s some new research (yes, “peer reviewed”) indicating that most of the warming modelling done to date is invalid. I’m shocked, shocked.
Decades from now, scientists, real ones, are going to be amazed at the hubris of today’s generation of climate “scientists,” given how little we really understand this complex and chaotic phenomenon.
“Rethink”?
I don’t think we need to “rethink” public employee unions. The word he’s looking for is “outlaw.” There’s a reason, and a good one, that they used to be illegal (including under the Roosevelt administration). They’ve pretty much fiscally destroyed California.