Category Archives: Media Criticism

Media Criticism, Political Commentary, Popular Culture

Happy Independence Day

6 Comments

Sadly, I think that too many take our freedom for granted, and are too willing to trade it for government cheese. But I think that the past couple years have seen a reawakening of the principles on which the country was founded, as a backlash against the current political class, which to the degree that it isn’t entirely ignorant of them, seems to hold them in contempt.

Part of that backlash is two promising web sites, debuting today, Declaration Entertainment, and Big Peace, another Breitbart production. I wish them luck in their efforts to help restore the Republic.

Business, Media Criticism, Political Commentary, Space

It Just Makes You Want To Cry

71 Comments

Here we go again. No one at this American Thinker piece, neither the author or any of the commenters, has clue one about the new policy:

Now, with the Obama administration’s new “plan” for NASA effectively ending nationally funded human spaceflight, we drop a torch others are grabbing.

Where do they come up with this nonsense? How can one sanely characterize a policy that extends ISS until at least the end of the decade, and that has billions of dollars budgeted to buy crew services, as “ending nationally funded human spaceflight”?

NASA has long been planning to cancel the Shuttle program, which is understandable, considering budget constraints and the priority of the Constellation program. But to cancel both programs leaves the U.S. with no viable human space transport. The International Space Station, which represents a $100-billion investment by U.S. taxpayers, will be unreachable by scientists and astronauts from the U.S. without hitching a ride on Russian or Chinese space transport. This is unacceptable.

Or from commercial American services, which will be available much sooner than Ares/Orion. And later, he finally gets around to discussing this:

With the ending of the Constellation program, there are no future human missions for the U.S., except those made possible in commercial spaceflight. While commercial spaceflight is tremendous in its future implications, it will progress only in areas that have demonstrated a possible fiscal return…and space operations are so expensive and difficult that it is highly unlikely that any true exploration would occur. Commercial space flight is space exploitation, not space exploration. For the foreseeable future, an entity like NASA — which is nationally funded and not constrained by profits and losses — and a project such as Constellation is the best way to extend our reach into and knowledge of space. Robotic missions are all well and good for certain applications, but one does not learn anything about putting humans in space by putting robotic vehicles in space.

Sigh…

Where to start?

Look. We are simply transitioning from a mode in which NASA develops and operates its own earth-to-orbit vehicles to spec, to one in which it purchases transportation services to LEO for crew from private providers, as it has been doing for years for satellites and probes. No one said that NASA was “getting out of the planetary exploration business” when it launched LRO and LCROSS on a commercial Atlas, and if they had they would have rightly been considered insane. Why is it any different for astronauts?

Exploration starts when we get into LEO, not at Cape Canaveral.

And you cannot simultaneously know anything about Constellation and state that it is “the best way to extend our reach into and knowledge of space.” Constellation was a fiscal disaster waiting to happen. It was unaffordable both in terms of its development costs, and its operational costs. There are many better ways to accomplish that goal. The new policy is one of them.

Jeebus crow.

Education, History, Media Criticism, Political Commentary

Jobs Americans Can’t Do

11 Comments

Scott Ott, on the disastrous state of the American educational system, thanks to the unions and collectivists. They’ve achieved Dewey’s dream.

And this seems related:

There’s good news for American education. About three-quarters of residents — 74% — know the U.S. declared its independence from Great Britain in 1776. The bad news for the academic system — 26% do not. This 26% includes one-fifth who are unsure and 6% who thought the U.S. separated from another nation. That begs the question, “From where do the latter think the U.S. achieved its independence?” Among the countries mentioned are France, China, Japan, Mexico, and Spain.

Actually, as a commenter points out, it raises the question — it doesn’t “beg” it (a phrase that confuses many people). Which is also a symptom of deteriorating education, even among the supposedly educated.

Media Criticism, Political Commentary

As Predicted

15 Comments

It’s a media blackout for the Black Panthers and the (In)Justice Department.

[Update a few minutes later]

Well, at least the Al Gore sexual assault allegations have gone mainstream. As some have pointed out, part of his problem was his hubris in making himself a celebrity, which opened him up as fair game for the entertainment rags.

I wonder if he’s past his media sell-by date? Or they’re happy to toss him under the bus to give them a distraction from having to report corruption at the Justice Department?

[Afternoon update]

Well the Philadelphia EInquirer is finally covering a local story.

Media Criticism, Political Commentary, Social Commentary

OK, So It’s Not Just Me

16 Comments

Even ignoring the fact that the bad guys on the Broadview Security commercials are the most caucasian male demographic outside of a Klan rally, I’ve always been particularly annoyed by the commercial with the miscreant “AJ.” It never made any sense to me. Apparently, someone else agrees.

And would Broadview really take that much heat if they at least once in a while implied that some break-in artists have more melanin in their skin? Can’t they at least be equal opportunity, if not actually corresponding to reality?

Media Criticism, Political Commentary

So Will This Have Legs?

6 Comments

Imagine that in, say, 1982006, Klansmen had hung out at a polling place in Georgia, holding a night stick, and intimidating black voters. And it was caught on video tape. And the Bush administration Justice Department had prosecuted the perps, gotten default convictions, and then basically walked away from the case, giving one of them a slap on the wrist. And it was determined that this was not a legal decision, but a political one, and that some of those responsible had lied under oath to Congress about it, and there was reason to know that the Attorney General was at least aware of it, and perhaps even drove the decision.

Imagine that. Imagine the bays of outrage from the press, demanding Congressional hearings, and to know what the president knew and when he knew it.

Well, that’s sort of what’s happening now. Except, of course, without the Congressional hearings or discussion from the media. Other than Fox News, and PJM, which of course, as the White House said, aren’t legitimate news sources.

Media Criticism, Political Commentary, Space

Depressing

10 Comments

So, over at Red State, we have an editorial from a congressman trying to preserve the pork for his district, and falsely equating Constellation with American human spaceflight. The comments are almost universally equally ignorant. I searched them in vain for anyone who understands what’s actually going on.

You want to gather them all in a room and ask them some questions:

Do you know that NASA had nothing to do with GPS?

Do you know that NASA is getting an increase in its budget (and no, it’s not all going to global warming research and Muslim countries).

Do you know that the new plan will have people getting up to the station without the Russians much sooner, and for much less cost than the old one did?

Do you know that NASA has technology development plans that will make it much more affordable to send astronauts beyond low earth orbit? Plans that were going unfunded under the old program?

Do you know that the only parts of Constellation being worked on did nothing except get NASA astronauts to low earth orbit with a redundant rocket, at a cost of more than a billion dollars a flight? That the hardware needed to get beyond earth orbit wasn’t planned to be developed for years, and wasn’t even well defined?

Do you know that a commercial rocket will fly in the next few weeks with a commercial capsule that could deliver crew to orbit in the next three years or so. And that the rocket and capsule, and its manufacturing facilities were developed, and its launch pads modified for less than the cost of the Ares I-X flight test?

Sigh…

[Update a few minutes later]

OK, I kept plowing, and I finally found a couple commenters who get it:

No thanks to Constellation
utahtim Tuesday, June 29th at 7:12PM EDT (link)

Constellation is bad rubbish and good riddance. You may be correct that Mr. Obama’s space policies will reduce the number of government jobs in Alabama and elsewhere, but claiming NASA is good at “human exploratory space flight” anymore is just plain wrong. NASA hasn’t put a man beyond low earth orbit (unless you count fixing Hubbell) since the 1970s, and when it has put people in low earth orbit, it’s only been a few government employees at a cost of roughly $1B a flight, and not very often at that. NASA doesn’t even have a good safety record. I favor the idea of human space exploration, but there are far better ways to go about it than with the expensive, bloated, dated, and constantly slipping government project that is Constellation. No thanks.

Not the NASA of Apollo
freeus Tuesday, June 29th at 8:04PM EDT (link)

I have worked at KSC for almost 20 years and this is NOT the NASA that launched the Apollo missions. It has become no different than any other Government agency bogged down with endless rules, regulations, inefficiencies, and bloated beaurocracy. It took 25 years – YEARS! – to build the ISS and Constellation had spent nearly 10 billion over the past 5 years with little to show. I’m certainly not an Obama supporter, but cancelling Constellation (and Shuttle – another incredibly inefficient program) is the right thing to do. The way NASA has been operating for decades has got to stop.

Unfortunately they’re pretty scarce.