Category Archives: Media Criticism

Media Criticism, Political Commentary, Social Commentary

Obama’s Mistakes

6 Comments

…and the role of race:

I can easily imagine a white voter who would deny that race made him “much more likely” to support Obama or even that race was “an important factor”, but who was nonetheless delighted that an exceptionally talented black man had presented himself as a candidate for the presidency, who felt it was a good thing for the country, and who would want to support him other things equal. I bet most of the people I know fall into this category (and they’re not all partisan Democrats). None of them would say they voted for Obama because he’s black–a sentiment, of course, that would be insulting to the man. Nonetheless, I think they’d say, it’s great that he is.

Call it reverse racism if you must. (That label is one good reason, by the way, to suspect “underreporting of pro-black sentiment”. People would rather think of themselves as color-blind than prejudiced in either direction.) Whatever: I think that attitude is entirely justified. It’s not being captured in the studies I’ve seen. And if it’s as widespread as I’d guess it to be, it could easily be worth another 2 to 4 percent of the popular vote.

As I’ve often written, the fact that he was (half) black was the only reason I could see to vote for him. But other things weren’t equal, so I didn’t. And won’t.

Business, Media Criticism, Political Commentary, Space

“Balance”

9 Comments

Andy Pasztor always has to toss fecal matter in the punchbowl:

John Marshall, a former member of NASA’s outside safety review board, said SpaceX continues to face major challenges in demonstrating its rocket is ready to carry astronauts. “They are still a long way from having a vehicle” that can be certified as reliable enough for such missions, Mr. Marshall said in a recent interview. “The company is clearly not ready,” he added, to tackle manned launches “by a long shot.”

At least he found someone willing to go on the record with this kind of stuff. What does “a long shot” mean? What does “certified” mean? Do others have a different opinion.

You know what? If it were important to get someone to the station, it’s “safe enough” now. But it’s clearly not.

That’s not to say, of course, that they shouldn’t investigate, and find out what happened, and mitigate it. But there’s no reason to think that they won’t do it, and do so quickly. Garret Reisman said that they would in Las Cruces, and he’s presumably going to ride it himself.

Business, Economics, Media Criticism, Political Commentary, Space

The Deferred Dreams Of Mars

64 Comments

This article reminds me of a passage from my space safety book (still in draft form, but nearing completion, with illustrations):

Unfortunately, Congress has been pretty much indifferent to missions, or mission success, or “getting the job done,” when it comes to space. Its focus remains on “safety,” and price is no object when it comes to it. In fact, if one really believes that the reason for Ares/Orion was safety, and the program was expected to cost several tens of billions, and it would fly (perhaps) a dozen astronauts per year, rather than fifty million dollars, NASA was implicitly pricing an astronaut life to be something on the order of several billion dollars.

As another example, if it were really important to get someone to Mars, we’d be considering one-way trips, which cost much less, and for which there would be no shortage of volunteers. It wouldn’t have to be a suicide mission – one could take along equipment to grow food, and live off the land, but it would be very high risk, and perhaps as high or higher than the early American settlements, such as Roanoke and Jamestown. But one never hears serious discussion of such issues, at least not in the halls of Congress, which is a good indication that we are not serious about exploring, developing or settling space, and any pretense at seriousness ends once the sole-source contracts have been awarded to the favored contractors of the big rockets.

For these reasons, I personally think it unlikely that the federal government will be sending humans anywhere beyond LEO any time soon, but I do think that there is a reasonable prospect for private actors to do so – Elon Musk has stated multiple times that this is the goal of SpaceX, and why he founded the company. There are a number of other people with similar goals and financial resources, and one or more of them is likely to achieve them, because they have a much different tolerance for risk than bureaucrats and Congresspeople. The real danger of NASA hypersensitivity to safety is not that it will prevent NASA from sending astronauts into space, but that its standards will osmotically bleed over into the regulation of commercial human spaceflight, making it more unaffordable for all.

Just as a tease…

Media Criticism, Political Commentary, War Commentary

General Ham And The Stand-Down Order

17 Comments

An interesting rumor. As Moe Lane says, the president should have the General debunk this immediately.

And at what point does DCI Petraeus noisily resign? A run at the presidency as a Republican would survive a stint at the CIA under a Democrat, but it won’t survive complicity, or remaining silent, in a coverup.

[Update a while later]

DrewM over at Ace says it doesn’t hold water.

Business, Economics, Media Criticism, Political Commentary, Satire

Employee Code: USAPOTUS0044

3 Comments

A performance review:

Deliverable 2: Public Safety. Under your management, violent crime is up 18 percent — the first such increase in 20 years. Your “Fast and Furious” project has caused serious damage to the balance sheet: one dead federal officer, more than a hundred dead civilians, a seriously cheesed-off next-door business partner, and zero cartel convictions — the lattermost being, if I understand your business strategy, the whole point of this mess. Your performance reports here have been remarkably obstructive, which is why you should have on our advice terminated Eric Holder.

Deliverable 3: Energy. When interviewing for this position, you said, and I quote, “We could have headed off $4-a-gallon gas.” We’ve seen gas prices above or near $4 for most of your term, and above $5 in some parts of the country under the management of your associates. Energy production on the firm’s lands is down substantially year-over-year.

Deliverable 4: Balance Sheet. During your interview, you proposed cutting the firm’s current operating deficit in half. In fact, the firm has acquired trillions of dollars of new debt under your management, along with new unfunded liabilities that our accountants are still trying to work out. When you were presented recommendations from a committee named by you and your management team, you refused even to consider implementing them. You are on track to add another $1 trillion in debt this year.

…On a personal note, I’d like to say that the first time I ever had to fire anybody, I felt really bad about it. She was a nice young woman in her first real job, courteous, well-liked, always on time, and eager to do a good job. She had, unfortunately, been hired for a position that required more than her talents and experience enabled her to deliver. This is also true of you, with the exception of being courteous, likable, and punctual. If I could, I would fire you twice.

Well, it was a foolish hire.

[Update a while later]

UNINSTALLING OBAMA…..……………. █████████████▒▒▒ 90% complete.