Someone reading this Kiplinger newsletter article might think that the author knows what he’s talking about, but he gets a number of things wrong, including making the same mistake as many in ignoring the existence of the Atlas and Delta. Fortunately, he’s corrected on many counts in comments by Clark Lindsey, Robert Horning, “Red” and others.
[Update a while later]
Even the subhed is wrong. There is no such thing as the “Constellation rocket.”
Suppose that, a week before the Congress voted on whether or not to authorize military force, a document had been generated that showed there were no WMD in Iraq. Suppose further that it was reported that the Pentagon had sat on it, and not released it until weeks after the vote. And when asked why, the explanation was “we didn’t want to influence the vote.” Then, a Pentagon official comes out and denies that it was deliberately withheld, though the record clearly shows that the information was known by the defense secretary prior to the vote.
Imagine the howls from the Democrats and the press, and calls for firings and impeachment, and demands for a new vote.
Substitute health care reform for Iraq, HHS for Pentagon, and “will cost much more than advertised” for “no WMD,” and that’s exactly what has happened.
[crickets chirping…]
No, Virginia, there was no deregulation.
Doug McKinnon is the latest “conservative” to bash American industry, complete with the now-standard out-of-context Rutan quote:
For the past five decades, the United States has held that title. With his decision to cancel NASA’s human spaceflight program and outsource it to private industry, Mr. Obama has now ensured that the People’s Republic of China with its military run program or Russia, will now wrest the title from us and hold it for decades or more.
I feel like I’m playing whack-a-mole.
Hint: NASA’s human spaceflight program has not been cancelled. All that was cancelled was their bloated, unnecessary new rocket. And the notion that China is ever going to be ahead of us in this area, let alone “for decades or more,” when there are superior rockets to theirs sitting on the pad in Florida right now, is ludicrous.
And then we have this bit of sophistry, from the smartest guy in the room.
Michael Griffin, the former administrator of NASA and himself a strong advocate of true “commercial” space, feels the president is misreading private sector capabilities as well as long-term viability. Griffin said to me, “Suborbital flight takes about 2 percent of the energy needed for orbital flight. Understanding that, the reality is that the commercial space industry is a number of years away from fielding economical, capable, reliable, and logistically dependable transportation just for cargo. With human spaceflight being harder yet.”
Nice diversion from the topic. No suborbital flight producer is contemplating going after this market any time soon. And yes, it is a “number of years away,” if that number is “one” or “two.” How economical, or logistically dependable was the Shuttle? How “economical, and logistically dependable” would Ares have been?
I used to think that he had convinced himself that what he was saying was true, but now I just think that he’s a deliberate liar, perfectly willing to gull the gullible.
[Update a couple minutes later]
You’ve gotta love the failed irony sensor here:
Neither space nor our future in it should be a partisan issue driven by politics of the moment.
I sure wish that these folks really believed that. If he’s really a “long-time consultant on space,” it’s kind of frightening, but it would explain why the policy is such a mess.
[Update a minute or two later]
And of course, the first commenter credits NASA with teflon. The myths that just won’t die.
[One more update]
OK, I see that this isn’t a new piece, just new to me. It was from the week of the Florida speech. I wonder if anyone has responded it to it over there yet?
Eric Berger has a reasonably objective FAQ on the recent space policy changes. Don’t expect it to change the minds of the hyperbolic hysterisists, though.
The Orange County Register has come out in favor of the new direction in space.
Harry Reid, not Lindsey Graham, killed the climate bill.
Please provide evidence of the n-word incident.
I think they were just race baiting. They were deliberately trolling the crowd to get them to do it, and when they couldn’t, they just lied about it. It’s all they have.
[Update a couple minutes later]
Andrew Breitbart says they’re not going to take any more of this.
That’s what Pulitzer-Prize-winning authoritarian-government admirer Tom Friedman thinks the Tea Partiers should form. I always love this:
I’ve been trying to understand the Tea Party Movement. Sounds like a lot of angry people who want to get the government out of their lives and cut both taxes and the deficit. Nothing wrong with that — although one does wonder where they were in the Bush years.
They were there all along, and few of them were very happy about the spending, but they weren’t idiotic enough to think that the Democrats would be better. And sometimes quantity has a quality all its own.
Anyway, I think that what Beijing Tom really wants is a watermelon tea party.
A Reuters editor defends Rush Limbaugh. With Joan Walsh making a fool of herself (again) as a bonus.
[Update a couple minutes later]
Speaking of Joan, she doesn’t understand what a bailout is, either, and accuses those who do of being “liars.”