Frank White says that the Obama space policy is the second most important in history after JFK’s. I agree. Not sufficient reason to give him a second term, though.
Category Archives: Economics
Space Advocacy Fallacies
Wow. It’s been a while since I’ve seen a single piece so rife with them. Not sure it’s worth my while to fisk it, but others can have at it in comments.
Here are just a few (ignoring his misstatement of the purpose of government in the very first sentence):
- The spin-off benefits of human spaceflight exceeds the cost.
- We don’t spend any money in space, it’s all spent on earth.
- We need giant government projects.
- Why are we spending money on bullets instead of what I want to spend it on?
And on and on. I should note that this is Tinkerbell thinking.
Farmers, The Committee, And Tinkerbells
Jeff Foust reports on Mark Albrecht’s diagnosis of NASA’s ills. And in comments over there, Mark Whittington once again demonstrates himself to be a tinkerbell.
[Update late evening]
Hilarious. Tinkerbell has showed up in comments here, whining about being aptly named, and cluelessly clapping her little hands to keep the useless SLS/Orion alive.
[Monday morning update]
Jeez, Mark is so bereft of the ability to understand Albrecht’s metaphor that he imagines I’m actually calling him a fairy.
Perspective
Did the nation invest a hundred billion dollars in Colorado Springs? What will the effect be on foreign policy if it burns? Shouldn’t safety be the highest priority for our firefighters? Don’t their lives have infinite value? Why are we risking their lives in fighting this fire?
Finally, which would you rather do, and feel it more worth the fight in terms of your risk of life? Fight this fire, or ride a Dragon to the space station without a launch abort system?
Just asking.
Outsourcing
Obama doesn’t know what it means:
Because the Obama campaign knows that one of its most important constituencies is economically illiterate yokels — a demographic to which the president himself apparently belongs — it is on the airwaves claiming “Romney’s never stood up to China — all he’s ever done is send them our jobs.’’ (Whose?) The Obama campaign cites a Washington Post story on the subject, and the Romney campaign has noted that the folks over at WaPo did not distinguish between outsourcing and offshoring (and, indeed, the story is not a very smart one — do read it and see). Obama responded thus: “Yesterday, his advisers tried to clear this up by telling us that there was a difference between ‘outsourcing’ and ‘offshoring.’ Seriously. You can’t make that up.” And indeed you wouldn’t have to make it up, because it is a real thing: different words with different meanings. (Seriously, can we get this guy a library card?)
To be fair, he’s ignorant about business and economics in general. And it shows in his policies.
Peak Oil
…is nowhere in sight.
The World’s Smallest Violin
That’s what I’m playing for people who can’t successfully prosecute idiotic and immoral anti-prostitution laws. Glenn has the right idea:
…why not just legalize prostitution. Legal prostitution is safer and healthier, and it’ll provide employment opportunities for some of those unemployed college grads.
It’s not like it goes away if you make it illegal.
Yeah, I know. I’m just being a crazy “right winger,” as usual.
The EU
…cannot hold together. With France joining the rest of the PIIGs, it’s hard to see survival of the Euro, except perhaps in Germany and the Netherlands. They may reach a point at which it just makes sense to go back to the guilder and deutschemark.
Fracking
…cuts carbon more than cap and trade. Don’t tell the watermelons.
Art
Political art. Politically incorrect art. That is apparently doing very well for the artist.