Category Archives: Media Criticism

Media Criticism, Political Commentary, Space

The Irony-Challenged Senator From Florida

19 Comments

I just got an email from someone will remain anonymous, to protect the guilty:

This weekend the Washington Post had this marginally interesting article on the Congressional resistance/support for the asteroid mission.

But buried within is a prizewinning quote from the irony-challenged senior Senator from Florida.

Nelson, the Florida senator who is a key advocate for NASA and the administration’s strategy, criticized the Republicans in the House for overreaching.

“A committee of politicians doesn’t know better than the experts in aerospace and science,” Nelson said.

This from a Senator who personally sponsored legislation forcing NASA to build a shuttle-derived heavy-lift launch vehicle, and when they balked, bullied NASA’s senior management to build that “monster rocket” (his phrase) despite their showing him that it didn’t fit in the budget. And that was before sequestration.

I guess committees of politicians are only experts in designing rockets, not in choosing where to send them.

Apparently.

Business, Economics, Media Criticism, Political Commentary

A Note To Paul Krugman

9 Comments

It took more than “markets” to wreck Detroit:

Krugman is right that Detroit is essentially Ground Zero of the disruptive changes wrought by an economy in transition. But as this story and others like it show, it’s difficult not to conclude that the city is also the victim of rampant fraud and stupidity on the part of an all-Democratic political machine. Officials decided time and again not to fund the promises they made to city pensioners, and feds and regulators just as often declined to do anything about it. If something this egregious and destructive were happening in the private sector, Mr. Krugman would (rightly, in our view) be all over it, demanding that people go to jail and regulations be tightened. He would want to investigate the ties of influence that allowed serious financial wrongdoing to go on for years without serious oversight. He’d name names and pin shame on the wrongdoers and their political allies.

But Krugman is a hack who hates markets, so everything looks like a nail to his socialist hammer.

Media Criticism, Political Commentary

The San Diego Lothario

4 Comments

Don Juan this guy ain’t:

…her job became a nightmare, Jackson said, as she was subjected to the “Filner headlock” and repeated comments by the 70-year-old Democrat that he wanted to kiss her, have sex with her, even marry her. On one occasion, she said, he suggested she should work without wearing panties.

That’s how I always get women into bed — with a headlock. Works every time.

I have to say, though, that I’m pleasantly surprised that we don’t have to play “Guess that Party!”

Business, Economics, Media Criticism, Political Commentary, Social Commentary

Stand Your Ground Laws

1 Comment

Detroit’s future may depend on them.

[Update a few minuts later]

The single most important lesson gun owners should learn from the George Zimmerman case:

Part of the ethos of responsible concealed weapons permit holders is to avoid getting into dicey situations whenever possible. We should remain aware of our surroundings at all times. We should avoid getting into unnecessary conflicts. If conflicts arise, we should attempt to defuse rather than escalate them. If some jerk gets angry because he thinks we stole his spot in the grocery store parking lot, we should back down or remove ourselves from the situation — precisely because we recognize the deadly consequences if things escalate out of control.

In particular, we must not seek out confrontations counting on our handgun to bail us out of trouble. Anyone exercising his right to carry a firearm for self-defense has corresponding responsibility to exert greater — not lesser — control over his emotions.

I’ve never been a big fan of Zimmerman, or his behavior. I’ve just been appalled by all the false race-baiting narratives that the left and the media (if that’s not redundant) have come up with to demonize him and confer childhood and sainthood on the young thug Trayvon Martin.

Media Criticism, Political Commentary

The IRS General Counsel

45 Comments

There is no innocent explanation for him to meet with the president:

I can’t for the life of me come up with any kind of innocent explanation for why Obama would have met with the Chief Counsel of the IRS. That meeting shouldn’t ever happen, and especially not without the Commissioner of the IRS being there. Presidents just don’t go to agency chief counsels with legal questions. Presidents don’t go to anyone with legal questions. Their staff does. The idea that the President would sit down with some random agency chief counsel and discuss some pressing legal issue is just bizarre to anyone who has worked in the legal field at that level. I am not sure the reporters covering this story understand how legal advice is actually delivered to the President and just how out of the ordinary that meeting was.

What should really concern the media, and would if they weren’t in the tank, is the number of things that they need to seek innocent explanations for in this administration.

Related: Does this scandal reach into the White House? We should hope so:

…the higher this scandal goes, the better it is for the country. We say that not because we don’t care for Barack Obama–let’s be honest, a President Biden would be no bargain either–but because the president can be held accountable if it turns out he or his top aides essentially instructed the IRS to steal the 2012 election. A corrupt administration can be dealt with, as Richard Nixon’s was 40 years ago.

By contrast, if career IRS employees acted on their own, it means the integrity of American democracy itself is threatened by an out-of-control administrative state. In that case, how to solve the problem is not at all clear.

It would require a complete overhaul and housecleaning of the federal establishment. In fact, I would propose not allowing federal employees to vote. They have too much power as it is, and a huge conflict of interest.

Education, Media Criticism, Popular Culture, Social Commentary

Hyphens

10 Comments

Is the Internet killing them? This is the problem:

“People are not confident about using hyphens anymore, they’re not really sure what they are for,” Shorter OED editor Angus Stevenson told Reuters at the time.

It’s part of the continuing breakdown of the educational system. Hyphens are important, primarily for disambiguation of modifiers. There is a difference between a light brown suitcase and a light-brown suitcase. The former is a brown suitcase that doesn’t weigh much, and the latter is a suitcase (of unknown weight) that is light brown. It’s that simple.

Media Criticism, Philosophy, Political Commentary

The Supreme-Court Shut Outs

1 Comment

Thoughts on the constitutional recklessness of this administration:

When a president pursues policies that require such expansive federal power that he can’t get a single justice to agree, something is probably amiss.

Such overreach, though, has become a part of our political culture. Administrations of both parties are often unwilling to accept constitutional limits on their authority.

This administration, though, more than most, finds that pesky Constitution to be an impediment to its goals to “transform society.”