I haven’t discussed the most recent developments, but Jonathan Adler is.
[Update a few minutes later]
Sorry, that’s not news. The news is that the court recently refused to rehear our appeal en banc, but that’s not what this story over two years old is about.
…don’t reduce gun violence or suicides.
Just one more aspect of the Left’s denial of science.
Though it’s not clear from the headline, Marco Rubio has introduced legislation to amend the Constitution to keep it at nine seats. Yes, make them vote and be on the record for all this crazy process nonsense they’re spouting on the campaign trail.
He may get off the hook for the prostitution rap. When I heard about this, I thought it was stupid, unless he knew that there was human trafficking involved and was part of it. Prostitution laws are stupid, and much more harmful to women than consenting sales of sex.
One has gotten snagged by the Mueller probe, and another may be. It’s long past time.
Over at The Space Review, Jeff Foust has the story on last week’s events.
[Update a few minutes later]
Also over there a sort of debate on the pros and cons of NASA’s approach to getting back to the moon. I’d note that Hedman’s objection to transpiration cooling is both weak (in the sense that even if Starship was expended, it would still deliver more payload for much less money than SLS ever will) and moot, since Elon has stated that with the steel and standard thermal protection, they may only use it in areas that are scorched when they return.
Yes, the gun-control case against it is full of lies. As he notes, this isn’t about the AR-15; it’s about banning all semi-auto rifles, if not all semi-auto guns, if not all guns. That’s always their ultimate goal, because they know that an armed society is a free one.
A righteous Twitter rant from Phil Metzger:
Follow the thread. He lambastes the Alabama delegation, and how this actually harmed Alabama. He’s right. It’s tragic.
Don’t read the Constitution the way he did. A long but interesting disquisition on the founding documents.
SLS is still running behind schedule. It is very likely it will not be ready for that June 2020 launch. In a few weeks Bridenstine’s review will come out, and it is likely going to show that a combination of private rockets can do the job, on time and for less money. Faced with further SLS delays, Bridenstine will likely have the political clout to enable him to make the switch, especially because he clearly intends to also continue his public and strong support for SLS for later launches. Such statements will act to placate these naysayers
Get that first Orion launch up using private rockets however and game will shift. It will then become very obvious that SLS is unneeded, and too expensive. While the corrupt political class in Washington will likely continue pouring taxpayer money into this black hole for years to come, the political winds will steadily begin shifting against it. And this shift will become even more evident should SpaceX succeed in getting its Starship/Super Heavy rocket operational in the next few years. At that point even Washington lawmakers will have to bow to reality and shut SLS down.
What will they then do? Don’t fool yourself. The pork and corruption will not cease, as long as these people remain in power. They will find a new boondoggle they can fund that will use these cheaper private rockets. Gateway immediately comes to mind. It won’t get us back to the Moon, but it will give lawmakers a big space project which will allow them to funnel money to their big old space contractors like Lockheed Martin and Boeing.
I wonder if part of this is Bridenstine trying to light a fire under Boeing and Marshall to get SLS flying sooner?