Category Archives: Media Criticism

Business, Economics, Media Criticism, Political Commentary

Economic Ignoramus?

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…or liar?

Governor O’Malley on Fox News Sunday, in an attempt to defend the president, said that it “was not true” that he hadn’t cut the deficit in half as he promised. How? By confusing the deficit with the debt. He said that when the president came into office it was ten trillion, and it had only gone up six trillion since then, which was about “half.” Or something like that. It wasn’t clear what his point was, but it was clear that he either doesn’t know what the word deficit means, and the difference between it and the debt, or he thinks we’re stupid. Unfortunately, Senator Ayotte, while sticking to her guns, didn’t point out his ignorance in real time, nor did Chris Wallace.

Of course, being an economic ignoramus and a liar are not mutually exclusive by any means. Many Democrats seem to be both.

Business, Media Criticism, Political Commentary, Space

Singing My Tune

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When I was at the AIAA meeting in Pasadena last month, Doug Stanley told me that this study would be coming out soon:

Commercial launch with propellant depot architectures significantly improves the extensibility and mission payload capability by providing a robust framework for all foreseen missions in the next 30 years. Adding to commercial launches every few months provides experienced and focused workforce to improve safety, operational learning for reduced costs and higher launch reliability, reduce launch costs depending on the government/industry business model. The depot framework allows multiple competitors for propellant delivery that is low-risk, hands-off way for international partners to contribute because it is not in the critical “mission” path and provides redundant alternatives available if critical launch failure occurs. The architecture provides reduced critical path mission complexity (Automated Rendezvous and Docking events, number of unique elements), provides additional mission flexibility by variable propellant load. Commonality with COTS/commercial/DoD vehicles will allow sharing of fixed costs between programs and “right-sized” vehicle for ISS, thus stimulate US and international commercial launch industry. Development risk is reduced by eliminating four space elements including the major Earth-to-orbit launch vehicle and solar electric propulsion transfer vehicle, large mass margins with current and proposed launch systems, and the Cryogenic Propellant Storage and Transfer in-space technology demonstration program. Finally, the architecture creates powerful partners from commercial US industry and internationals that increases political sustainability of the overall program.

But other than that, it totally sucks.

Media Criticism, Political Commentary

The Media’s Fantasy

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…and the imaginary man, exposed:

The Obama of the imagination is the media’s Obama. Out of their fascination with the color of his skin and their mindless awe at his windy teleprompted rhetoric, they constructed a man of stature and accomplishment. Now, with the White House on the line, they’re waging an ongoing battle against the undeniable evidence that he has never been, in fact, that man. The result in these quadrennial autumn days has been media coverage of a fantasy election, an election in the news that may bear no relation whatsoever to the election as it is. Polls consistently skewed to favor Democrats in percentages beyond any reasonable construct of reality have left us virtually ignorant of the state of the race. Orchestrated frenzies over alleged gaffes by Mitt Romney have camouflaged an imploding Obama foreign policy, an Obama economy threatened by a new recession, and an Obama campaign filled with vicious personal attacks and lies.

Governor Romney’s unprecedented dismantling of the president in their first debate — an encounter so one-sided it reminded me of the famous cartoon in which Godzilla meets Bambi, with predictable results — was surprising only for Romney’s warmth and clarity. Obama’s hapless fumbling, bad temper, and inarticulate inability to defend his record were actually thoroughly predictable. They were simply facets of the man as he truly is, unfiltered by the imagination of his media supporters: a man who has succeeded, really, at almost nothing but the winning of elections; a man who cannot distinguish between his ideology and life; a man who does not seem to know how the machinery of the world actually works.

There’s no reason to suspect that he’ll do any better in the next debate, and particularly the last one.

Education, Media Criticism, Political Commentary

Fooling Themselves

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The Left’s narrative problem:

Because they basically control the mainstream media, and because they have created for themselves a fictional conservative worldview (evident in many an Aaron Sorkin project and Barack Obama speech) rather than confront the actual conservative worldview, liberals are often caught off guard when faced with an actual argument for positions they disagree with. What we’ve seen in the wake of the debate is that some on the Left are so wedded to their imaginary right-wingers that when their actual opponents advance positions or make arguments that are different from those imaginary ones they will call those actual opponents fakes and liars. They believed their own caricature of Mitt Romney, and his unwillingness to play into it strikes them as dishonest. Or put another way: Confronted with evidence of their own dishonesty about who Romney is and what he stands for, they call the evidence a lie.

It’s often been noted that the Left has trouble debating when they get in real debates, where they have to confront real arguments instead of their fantasy straw men. That’s the disaster that comes from cocooning yourself in academia or a news room where your assumptions are never challenged. Even Dana Milbank sees the problem:

Obama has set a modern record for refusal to be quizzed by the media, taking questions from reporters far less often than Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton and even George W. Bush. Though his opponent in 2008 promised to take questions from lawmakers like the British prime minister does, Obama has shied from mixing it up with members of Congress, too. And, especially since Rahm Emanuel’s departure, Obama is surrounded by a large number of yes men who aren’t likely to get in his face.

This insularity led directly to the Denver debacle: Obama was out of practice and unprepared to be challenged. The White House had supposed that Obama’s forays into social media — town hall meetings with YouTube, Twitter, Facebook and the like — would replace traditional presidential communication. By relying on such venues, Obama’s argument skills atrophied, and he was ill-equipped to engage in old-fashioned give and take.

And unfortunately for Milbank, he’s much too optimistic about Obama’s ability to fix it in time to save the next debates, or his campaign.