…pinup calendar. I’m not sure whether or not this is safe for work.
Category Archives: Political Commentary
Hillary Must Step Down
So says Jack Shafer. The question is, if the leaks have really compromised her to the point that she can no longer be effective as SecState, is she still a viable presidential candidate?
On The Mindless Tribalism
…of The Nation:
It’s possible that not all of the magazine’s archives are online, or that the search engine didn’t pick up every example. But hey, I at least made the effort, which is more than we can say for vanden Heuvel. Even if I missed a few, I think my point is made: Libertarians have been out in front on this issue from the start. And contra vanden Heuvel and Ames/Levine, not only was libertarian criticism not muted when a Republican occupied the White House, during that time libertarian journalists, wonks, and pundits did a damned sight better job covering TSA abuses, inefficacy, and theatrics than the The Nation.
The mindless criticism of the Koch brothers by those funded by George Soros is also simultaneously amusing and infuriating.
The Latest Lurio Report
…is out. Clark Lindsey has the T of C. If you’re interested in what’s going on with commercial human spaceflight, and you don’t subscribe, you should.
Freezing Federal Pay
It’s a nice gesture, but a drop in the barrel in terms of savings. We need to be much more radical.
Good Question On Wikileaks
From Jonah:
Is there any prominent person or editorial board (outside of the administration) on the left who made a huge stink about Valerie Plame’s outing who is remotely as horrified by the ongoing Wikileaks travesty?
The outrage is indeed selective.
What I want to know is why Wikileaks can’t get its hands on Obama’s college transcripts. Apparently, there are some secrets that the administration can keep.
[Update a couple minutes later]
Michael Ledeen actually kind of likes the leaks. Well, some of them are damaging to the terrorists. And it’s nice to see that the administration and State Department aren’t as utterly clueless in private as they are in public.
Another Mole To Whack
Here’s yet another fact-free and logic-free “conservative” critique of the new space policy, this time over at Human Events. It’s got it all.
Claims that NASA funding is going to be diverted from space exploration to climate change? Check.
Claims that NASA funding is going to be diverted from space exploration to Muslim self esteem? Check.
Assertion that we cannot get back to the moon without a heavy-lift vehicle? Check.
Nonsensical allusions to the Columbus/Isabella metaphor? Check.
Nonsensical claims about spin-off, including Tang? You got it.
I suppose I should see if I can rebut over there.
Unrepentent
Thoughts on freeing Lori Berenson. She can rot there, for all I care (maybe give her Joran Van Der Sloot for a roomie — sociopaths deserve each other). But someone needs to take care of her kid.
A Moment Of Silence
…for the unfortunate Iranian nuclear scientist who was killed by a bomb this weekend.
OK, that’s long enough. Between this sort of thing and Stuxnet, I’m glad to see that someone is doing something about this. I wish that I had confidence that it was us.
[Update a while later]
On the life expectancy of Iranian nuclear scientists:
The attacks could be a concerted effort to retard Iran’s nuclear progress, or they could be meant to hype Iran’s own “terror threat” and provide an excuse to crack down on domestic opposition. The only certainty is that the life expectancy of Iranian nuclear physicists is falling rapidly, and is now almost as low as that of Iran’s civil-rights activists, journalists, and public intellectuals.
Given the stated goals of the Iranian nuclear program, I’m hoping that it will go lower.
So Much For Foreign-Policy “Experts”
I’m shocked, shocked to hear that the anti-Israel types got it all wrong.
They had promised that an “even-handed approach” to the Middle East that “put daylight” between the US and Israel would lead to Israeli gestures, at which point Arab regimes would reciprocate. Nothing of the sort came out of the Riyadh meeting. Instead of admitting that they had somehow gotten Saudi priorities or intentions wrong, that crowd doubled down and insisted that the Saudis cared so much about the Palestinians that Obama needed to put even more pressure on Israel to bring around Arab countries.
On the other side you had Middle East experts like Dan Diker, who insisted on One Jerusalem Radio’s Omri Ceren Show that the Saudis gave Obama a bruising lecture on what they actually care about, and it wasn’t the Palestinians. Under this theory King Abdullah expected to talk about militarily confronting Iran, and he couldn’t believe it when Obama kept reciting bromides about the earth-shattering importance of the Israeli/Arab conflict and his enthusiasm for solving it. That was a regular public topic between the two – Obama’s first talk with Abdullah focused on Gaza and the President later emphasized his abiding support for Saudi Arabia’s “Israel Has To Commit Suicide” plan – but the King kind of thought he was dealing with a serious person who could separate spectacle from policy. Instead he got the equivalent of an International Relations graduate student enamored with pseudo-sophisticated “insights” he’d gleaned from Arab media outlets. Ergo, meltdown.
The country’s in the very best of hands.