A skeptical one, over at The New Atlantis. Definitely worth a read to see what are probably the best arguments against. The latest current top post, on the racism of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, is thought provoking.
Category Archives: Political Commentary
The Year Of Commercial Space Travel
I have another retrospective/prospective at AOL News today. Unlike the PM piece, though, this one emphasizes the coming year more than the past.
[Update mid morning]
Jeff Foust has a similar piece over at The Space Review, but much longer. Of course, when you’re the editor, you have more control over word count.
[Bumped]
The Christaphobia
…of Hollywood and the elitist left:
Because those craaaazy red states are the places where you’re likely to find fundies, and the Westboro church is just the natural extrapolation of the red-state fundie ideas, right? RED STATE! OOHGABOOGA! Think of it: horror movies often have guys who A) kidnap victims, B) saw off their heads, and C) film it all for their own enjoyment. Oh, if only there really was a group of religious extremists who did these all things – it would give a movie a certain horrible topicality you just don’t get with unkillable bogeymen. But Smith would never do a movie about Al Qaeda in, say, a city in a blue state. No one would produce it; no one would distribute it. But a movie that links the Westboro church to something inherent in the ideological distinction of a “red state” will get you backslaps from all the right-thinking people. It’s lazy. It’s super-lazy.
A couple points. First, this is just more slander of Christians while ignoring the fact that Fred Phelps and his fellow vile cretinous loony tunes are Democrats. But as with Timothy McVeigh, they never let reality get in the way of an urban myth when they see an opportunity to smear conservatives and Christians.
Second, they’re both Christophobes and Islamaphobes. They’re Christaphobes in the same sense that they (projecting) accuse others of being “Islamaphobes,” that is, they have an irrational fear of Christians (at least as far as their remaining hale and hearty goes, though perhaps their fear that Christians will help undo the state that they worship is genuine). On the other hand, while those they call “Islamaphobes” have a quite reasonable concern about a foreign totalitarian ideology making a foothold in our own culture, the leftist elites have a simple and genuine fear of actual violence from Muslims (though they rarely state it explicitly), were they to ever give them the same treatment that they fearlessly mete out to peace-loving Christians (and conservatives) every day.
The Democrats And Health Care
An account of political self destruction.
[Update a few minutes later]
Well deserved, I should add. Maybe we can finish the job in a couple years.
Reading The Constitution Isn’t Enough
Apparently, someone needs to sit down with young Ezra at bed time and read him the Federalist papers as well.
[Monday morning update]
Failed State Watch
The political establishment in Washington continues to fail to take Mexico seriously. We are literally being invaded from the south, and the federal government is issuing rubber bullets and beanbags. And of course, this lawlessness and corruption is inevitable as long as we continue the futile War On (Some) Drugs.
Everyone I Know
As a native Californian, it no longer astonishes me how so many in this state, one bountifully blessed by nature, have become deaf to reason. I’ve grown sadly used to such alleged thinking. The people of California who determine government, business and societal direction have swallowed their own hype, firmly believing that California’s greatness cannot be damaged or destroyed by their actions. In this they are completely mistaken, utterly unaware of this being the case.
These people are committed to the philosophy that wealth is both to be obtained at all costs and the greatest of evils, something to be seized and redistributed to those unwilling to work toward bettering themselves. California is a nanny state on steroids, driving businesses away and mocking them as they leave for failure to be good citizens, never once stopping to note how their departure also means the loss of jobs and tax revenue. It preaches diversity but practices division, excuses all from personal responsibility and promotes itself as a godless church giving alms to the poor while not once noticing that not only in doing so does it keep them forever chained to government handouts, the donation basket is empty due to having driven away all followers from its pews.
There is no reason to believe any of this will change in the near future. Politically, the state is firmly in the hands of liberal Democrats who are blind to economic reality, forever beholden to overpaid and horribly over-pensioned state employees who accept no responsibility for the economic crisis. Unemployment is rampant due to the state’s anti-business attitude and insanely excessive regulatory addiction. Taxes are obscene; the highest in the nation. The California GOP is pathetic, unable to find and support quality candidates that stay on message while speaking honestly about the state’s problems. Sacramento gleefully doles out taxpayer dollars to illegal immigrants while strangling farms with inane environmental laws that solve nonexistent problems while creating authentic new ones. California is tens of billions of dollars in debt with no cohesive policy, let alone the courage, to do what is necessary to solve the problem: create jobs by easing regulations and slashing taxes while simultaneously making deep cuts across the board in government spending, starting with its state workers salaries and pensions. Instead, it will most likely beg for a federal bailout, which it won’t get, and then either declare bankruptcy, hiding behind judicial decisions as to what will be done to relieve the debt, or simply default on what it owes to most everyone.
Well, apparently, that’s what California wanted.
NASA, Why Build A Rocket?
Some good advice from FLAToday. Unfortunately, the comments section is overflowing with ignorance and illogic, including the usual lies about SpaceX.
The Year-End Lurio Report
…is out. Clark Lindsey has the Table of Contents. If you don’t subscribe, you should, if you want to stay on top of this exciting new industry. Charles has a lot of detail on various goings on, including the Dragon flight, that you’ll have trouble finding other places.
The Year The “Progressives…”
…came after the Constitution. And the Constitution fought back. It was also the year that the “voters saw the left’s unvarnished agenda and said no:”
Never has a Congress done so much and been so despised for it.
…The real story of 2010 is that the voters were finally able to see and judge this liberal agenda in its unvarnished form. For once, there was no Republican President to muddle the message or divide the accountability. The public was able to compare the promise of 8% unemployment if the government spent $812 billion on “stimulus” with the 9.8% jobless result. They stood athwart liberal history in the making and said, “Stop.”
And justly so. No, the government, and especially the federal government, can’t make you eat your broccoli.