I wish, but it is hilarious.
Category Archives: Political Commentary
A One-Two Punch At Orion
In October in Las Cruces, Bob Bigelow, with the Lockmart rep sitting next to him on the podium, made it clear in no uncertain terms that he considered Orion unnecessary and the wrong solution for BEO exploration. Today, at the NASA/SpaceX presser, Elon essentially compared Dragon to Orion and found the latter wanting, with less capability (at least in terms of thermal protection) than the former, and more than an order of magnitude difference in cost. I wonder if anyone in Congress will be paying attention to this next year when it’s time to get out the knives for the rescission bills? Lockmart is clearly worried about it, which is why they came up with the 2013 Delta IV launch demo.
[Update a few minutes later]
Clark Lindsey has transcribed highlights from the press conference, and has a roundup of links on the flight.
A Huge Milestone
My piece on today’s historic flight is up now, over at AOL News.
Obama’s Sputnik Moment
Jonah Goldberg points out the absurdity of it. Here’s a similar piece I wrote a couple years ago on the thirty-ninth anniversary of the first Apollo landing, on why solving the energy problem is completely unlike going to the moon.
Whatever Happened To The Constitution?
Thoughts on limited government (which isn’t about the size of government).
Warren Buffett
As usual, follow the money, and in this case, there’s a lot.
Get That Man A Teleprompter
I missed or, rather, didn’t see the president’s news conference today. But Rich Lowry did:
Only someone who desperately hates the position he’s in now, having to try to accommodate political realities in a center-right country and kiss his former messiahship goodbye, would show such peevishness. We got a good look behind the curtain for a moment this afternoon, and it wasn’t pretty.
I’m guessing we’re going to see a lot more of that in the next two years. And it won’t bode well for his reanointment.
[Update a couple minutes later]
“If this deal gave people the belief that Obama might grow in office, the press conference probably deep-sixed that.
[Update a few minutes later]
Remember all that nonsense from the David Brookses and Chris Buckleys of the world in 2008 about his “first-class temperament”? It’s hard to take anything they tell us seriously, at this point.
Res Ipsa Loquitur
Well, not entirely. Ed Morrissey has some thoughts.
This is what happens when you put in place either economic incompetents, people who actively want to wreck the economy for their own political ends, or both. There are, after all, people who would rather rule in Hell than serve in Heaven.
[Update a few minutes later]
John Kerry was extolling the stimulus effects of unemployment benefits, as in more money returns to the economy for each dollar paid out to the unemployed. If so, why not simply put us all on unemployment benefits and watch the economy grow?
Or perhaps Kerry could advocate a national boat sales tax to collect the sort of revenue that he so carefully had tried to avoid. Or perhaps he might look carefully at zillionaire family trusts and the billions they divert from the strapped federal Treasury. Or perhaps he could take away the tax deductions on third or fourth homes above a certain square footage, maybe ending the deduction for property taxes on multiple homes?
My point? Why do Democrats always go after the orthodontist, electrical contractor, or insurance agency owner, and never the Buffetts, Kerrys, or Gateses? Bill Gates and Warren Buffett will defer more money from the federal Treasury by avoiding inheritance taxes (to channel their profits into their foundations) than all the billions lost this year by keeping tax cuts for small businesses.
Part of the problem is that these new aristocrats aren’t really liberals.
More Bristol Derangement Syndrome
Well, at least these people didn’t shoot their television:
“I … believe that the program was fixed by extreme supporters of the Tea Party and Radical Right-Wing,” wrote one viewer. “There is no disclaimer that it is a political show, and instead that is what it has become. It is tragic to say that it could have been fixed but I hope ABC’s ratings blow-up and go down in flames.”
“You need to investigate the fraudulent voting practice on ABC’s Dancing with the Stars,” another viewer complained.
A third viewer protested that DWTS judge Carrie Ann Inaba’s hugging of Bristol Palin was “unfair treatment” that “was a signal for GOP/Tea Party supporters of Sarah Palin to ‘stuff’ the vote for Bristol Palin.”
“My 96 year old Mother-in-Law can dance better than Ms. Palin,” continued the viewer. “I want my Government to protect me the viewer from deceptive practices.”
Actually, I prefer the television abuser to people who want the federal government to regulate what I watch. Time to rein in the FCC.
“No Future For The Jews”
In the Netherlands?
“I see no future for recognizable Jews, in particular because of anti-Semitism, specifically in Dutch Moroccans, who continue to grow in number,” Bolkestein reportedly said.
The former politician added that the many Arab television channels in the Netherlands contribute to the spread of anti-Semitism. He said he has no confidence in proposed measures to combat anti-Jewish sentiment.
“The Palestinian-Israeli conflict continues to fester,” Bolkestein said. “I foresee no quick solution, and anti-Semitism will continue to exist. Moroccan and Turkish young people won’t care about the measures.”
Politician Geert Wilders, who visited Israel this week, responded that “Jews shouldn’t emigrate, anti-Semitic Moroccans should.”
It is tragic that Holland, for centuries a bastion of tolerance and accepting of the oppressed from all over (e.g., before the East Anglian Puritans came to New England they had gone to Leyden) has absorbed an intolerant poisonous culture into its body politic. Charles Martel would be appalled. This won’t end well.