Category Archives: Political Commentary

Media Criticism, Political Commentary

The Real Islamaphobes

8 Comments

Why won’t the press stand up for Molly Norris?

Freedom of speech and press are in deep trouble when the American government thinks the best it can do to protect a journalist from death threats is to counsel her to go into hiding, and when the elite voices of American journalism can’t be bothered to say anything in her defense. But it’s actually worse than that. The New York Times’ Nicholas Kristof thinks Muslims are owed an apology. “I hereby apologize to Muslims for the wave of bigotry and simple nuttiness that has lately been directed at you,” he wrote Sunday. “The venom on the airwaves, equating Muslims with terrorists, should embarrass us more than you.”

Instead of telling the rest of us that we’re all bigots, shouldn’t Kristof and the rest of the journalism profession be outraged by what has happened to Molly Norris? And shouldn’t they be angered that her government believes it cannot protect her? Imagine what they would be saying if white-hooded members of the Ku Klux Klan were threatening to kill Norris in Selma, Ala., instead of radical Muslims in Seattle. Would the FBI tell Norris she had to stop being a journalist and go into hiding? And would ASNE and SPJ look the other way as the First Amendment and freedom of the press were symbolically turned to ashes by flaming white crosses?

Cowards.

Political Commentary, Space

No Space Pork!

1 Comment

The Institute for Liberty, which seems to have gone on the warpath against the House NASA authorization bill, held a press conference on the Hill yesterday. Apparently, they’ve been stirring things up in Gabbie Giffords’ and Alan Grayson’s districts, with a lot of constituent letters.

“The bill is worse than a sham,” said Andrew Langer, President of IFL. “It is a travesty of incredible proportions. Despite the advice of Nobel Prize winners and Buzz Aldrin, Congressman Giffords is continuing to support worthless programs at NASA, programs that have not gotten us any closer to our goals in space, while continuing to outsource our manned space flights to Russia!”

I wonder if they’ve been coordinating with Citizens Against Government Waste?

Political Commentary

TOTUS Screws Up Again

59 Comments

The president is teaching an alternate history, in which “Mexicans” were here before the country was founded.

Sorry, prez, but there were no “Mexicans” here at the time. There were Spanish colonies in California and the Southwest, but they were Spanish, not Mexican. There was little to no migration from what is present-day Mexico into what is now US territory, because there was little to draw migrants (the greatest economy on earth not yet being in existence). This is just nonsensical, and feeds into La Raza mythology. He might as well have waved a Mexican flag.

Political Commentary

Are You Better Off…

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…than you were four years ago?

It will be useful to remind the voters that the Pelosi and Reid have been in control of Congress since 2006, when things started to head downhill, economically. And for the administration, I’m assuming that the recent attempt to Alinskyite Boehner is a desperation tactic, because after being gone for two years, blaming Bush doesn’t work any more. It’s also stupid, because to the degree that people know who the next Speaker is, it just serves to further nationalize the local races, which is the last thing the donkeys need.

Media Criticism, Political Commentary, Space, War Commentary

The Latest Lies

9 Comments

I rarely link to Mark Whittington any more, because I see no need to give him the traffic for which he seems to troll, but I’ll make an exception in this case, because it’s so blatant and stupid:

Rand Simberg, like many commercial space advocates, has attacked the Iran Nonproliferation Act (now including Syria and North Korea) as being ineffective and harming commercial space operations.

I have never “attacked,” or even criticized INKSNA, nor do I know anyone else in the commercial space community who has, so he is either making this up out of whole cloth, or he doesn’t understand the difference between INKSNA and ITAR. I guess the latter interpretation is more likely, and more charitable, since he understands little about space and technology policy in general.

[Afternoon update]

Mark has updated his post to continue his fantasies about me:

I suspect that he will play Clinton-like word games by saying not “attacked” but rather “expressed reservations” or “was dubious about” or even “mildly amused by.” Since it seems so important to him, I’ll give him that.

I have done none of the above. I have rarely, if ever, discussed INKSNA prior to that piece yesterday. He needs to adjust his meds, either up or down.