Category Archives: Political Commentary

Business, Economics, Political Commentary, Science And Society

Turn Off The Lights In Cancun

9 Comments

The global warming party is over:

Who now remembers Smoot-Hawley, Quemoy and Matsu, and the Teapot Dome? But these were once issues on which the survival of the known world rested. The only global-warming news of this week was the announcement that the House Select Committee on Global Warming would die with the 111th Congress. Mrs. Pelosi established the committee three years ago to beat the eardrums of one and all, a platform for endless argle-bargle about the causes and effects of climate change. The result was the proposed job-killing national energy tax, but with the Republican sweep, there’s no longer an appetite for killing jobs.

Rep. Edward J. Markey of Massachusetts, the chairman of the doomed committee, organized one final event this week, a splashy daylong exercise in gasbaggery starring the usual suspects assigned to drone on for most of the day about the coming global-warming disasters, the melting of the North Pole and the rising of the seas that would make Denver, Omaha and Kansas City seaside resorts. Wesley Clark was the only former presidential candidate to accept an invitation, and he was a no-show. The star witness of the afternoon session was Robert F. Kennedy Jr., an “environmental attorney” who talked about how “clean energy” is nicer than the other kind. Mr. Markey himself, as bored as everyone else, didn’t bother to return after lunch.

The members of the committee can now retire with their scrapbooks of clippings to recall the happy days of hearings about global warming (some of them before “global warming” became “climate change” and “liberals” became “progressives”), about how clean energy could replace smelly oil wells and provide Democrats with the means to enact sweeping climate-change legislation. Who could have foreseen that the only “sweeping” would be the sweeping out of so many Democrats?

Well, actually, absent massive voter fraud, it was pretty much inevitable.

[Afternoon update]

Some interesting climate-related Wikileaks, with a promise of more to come. I wonder how Assange feels about having exposed these corrupt con artists?

Media Criticism, Political Commentary, Science And Society

Don’t Hold Your Breath

4 Comments

It’s nice to see the New Scientist holding the Obama administration’s feet to the fire on its war on science:

“The public must be able to trust the science and scientific process informing public policy decisions,” Obama stated. Scientific information used by the federal government in making policy should be published, he added, and political officials should not suppress or alter scientific findings. John Holdren, director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, was given 120 days to draft a new policy on scientific integrity in government.

We’re still waiting for that policy to see the light of day. The precise reasons for the lengthy delay remain unclear – the watchdog group Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility has even sued the government under the Freedom of Information Act, in an attempt to obtain documents that may explain the impasse. But it seems likely that the sticking point has been resistance from government officials who just don’t like the accountability that the new policy is supposed to usher in.

It’s less thrilling to see them perpetuate the myth that the Bush administration was worse:

Obama may be a friend of science, but many of the functionaries in his administration are rather less friendly. And if he fails to institute a sea change on the crucial issue of scientific integrity in government, there will be little to prevent a future President who sees little value in science from taking us back to the bad old days.

First, I’m unaware of any evidence that Barack Obama is a “friend of science,” except when the “science” fits his political agenda (e.g., AGW). And assuming that the “bad old days” is a reference to his predecessor, you’d think they might at least make the case that he was worse, but apparently they either can’t, or just think that we should accept it as an obvious given. I think that Obama’s record is much worse than George Bush’s, who, as far as I can tell, seemed to have acquired his “anti-science” creds based on little more than his policy to not provide government funding for embryonic stem-cell research, a decision that seems to have resulted in a flourishing of much more effective research in adult stem cells.

Political Commentary, Space

Here’s Something You Don’t See Every Day

11 Comments

A vice president of Lockheed Martin commenting at a blog (all the way at the bottom):

I would like to provide a more accurate summary of Lockheed Martin and NASA’s proposed goal for a 2013 Orion flight test. The flight test is designed to test Orion for exploration mission capability beyond low Earth orbit (LEO) and is in no way a launch vehicle test. In fact, the launch vehicle that would be used is as close to a standard launch service configuration as possible and there is no NASA objective for this Orion flight test that would require any human rating modifications to the launch vehicle. Its focus is on testing the multipurpose crew vehicle (MPCV) capabilities and systems only and capturing valuable data for NASA’s test objectives for the MPCV. Targeting 2013 for this Orion flight test allows us to fully support Orion IOC as called for in the NASA Authorization Act of 2010 approved by Congress and signed by the President. Ultimately, Orion will fly on the launch system determined by NASA. As Orion progresses, it’s absolutely vital for the nation to move forward on a NASA-developed heavy lift vehicle as a goal for 2016, called for in the NASA Authorization Act of 2010. The HLV is critical to supporting space exploration missions beyond LEO and is key to maintaining U.S. leadership in space if we are to advance technology and explore destinations beyond LEO, such as Earth-Moon Lagrange points, asteroids, and Mars.

John Karas
VP & GM for Human Space Flight
Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company

It looks real enough. Almost like a press release, though in an unusual venue. Note the rote recitation that HLV is required. To say anything else would politically incorrect for a company attempting to get funds out of this ignorant congress.