As Clark notes, the phrase “low-cost SDLV” is an oxymoron. It’s only low cost compared to Ares. Any solution that involves preserving the Shuttle infrastructure is going to be intrinsically high cost. Half a billion dollars per flight (and I’ll bet that doesn’t amortize development) is a lot of money. We’ll never open up space that way. The time for a Shuttle-derived vehicle was twenty years ago, when we were still operating the Shuttle and building the station. It’s an anachronism today.
Category Archives: Political Commentary
Now He Tells Us
Mort Zuckerman has figured out that he was one of the rubes:
Obama clearly wishes to do good and means well. But he is one of those people who believe that the world was born with the word and exists by means of persuasion, such that there is no person or country that you cannot, by means of logical and moral argument, bring around to your side. He speaks as a teacher, as someone imparting values and generalities appropriate for a Sunday morning sermon, not as a tough-minded leader. He urges that things “must be done” and “should be done” and that “it is time” to do them. As the former president of the Council on Foreign Relations, Les Gelb, put it, there is “the impression that Obama might confuse speeches with policy.” Another journalist put it differently when he described Obama as an “NPR [National Public Radio] president who gives wonderful speeches.” In other words, he talks the talk but doesn’t know how to walk the walk. The Obama presidency has so far been characterized by a well-intentioned but excessive belief in the power of rhetoric with too little appreciation of reality and loyalty.
Well, I suppose he wishes to “do good,” by his definition of “good.” Of course, that’s kind of meaningless. So did Adolf Hitler, after all. And we know what the paving stones of the road to Hell are. Of course, I’ve never thought his speeches were particularly wonderful, either, unless by “wonderful” one means gaseous if not vacuous.
[Late afternoon update]
Bill Quick isn’t very impressed by Peggy Noonan’s and Zuckerman’s uptake speed:
Listen up, you punked, chumped boobs: We looked at Obama not through your rose colored hallucinations, but through the cold, clear spectacles of reality. None of what he’s done since has surprised us one bit. In fact, many of us, myself included, predicted it even before his coronation by people like you. Yes, it’s nice that after a year and a half of horrible examples, the truth about him is finally beginning to penetrate your skulls. But why, for the love of god, couldn’t you see it at the beginning, when it was no less obvious, but your understanding of it might have done some good?
Though, as he points out, useful idiots like them did prevent a McCain presidency, which would have been a disaster for small-government libertarianism. I wish that I were as optimistic as Bill, though, that Obama has wrecked the socialist project for decades.
Leftists And Islamists
…sitting in a tree. K I S S I N…Gee, and people wonder why we point out that they are allies? The common bond, of course, is that they both despise classical liberalism (i.e., the core values of the US. And Israel).
We’ll Fix That
Harry Reid says he’s never been unemployed.
Just give us a few months, Senator. About seven.
The Thin Skin Of Journalists
Some thoughts. Many are not well adapted to the new media environment.
Caroline Glick’s Latest
Fresh from having “We Con The World” pulled from Youtube, she takes another sharp jab at the world media.
Now That’s Desperation
North Korea is finally turning to the free market? I don’t understand why. I was under the impression that the government was indifferent to starvation.
Advice For The Administration
…in which it has no interest: how to waive the Jones Act.
I’ve got a better idea, for which there will be even less appetite in this administration — repeal it. It’s a protectionist relic of the last century. Along with Davis-Bacon (which is also racist in intent). Not to mention the Wagner Act.
“Vladimir Obama”
They told me if I voted for John McCain, the special relationship with the Britain would deteriorate. Man, the Brits aren’t happy.
The vitriol has a xenophobic edge: witness the venomous references to “British Petroleum”, a name BP dropped in 1998 (just as well that it dispensed with the name Anglo-Iranian Oil Company even longer ago). Vilifying BP also gets in the way of identifying other culprits, one of which is the government. BP operates in one of the most regulated industries on earth with some of the most perverse rules, subsidies and incentives. Shoddy oversight clearly contributed to the spill, and an energy policy which reduced the demand for oil would do more to avert future environmental horrors than fierce retribution.
Mr Obama is not the socialist the right claims he is (see article). He went out of his way, meeting BP executives on June 16th, to insist that he has no interest in undermining the company’s financial stability. But his reaction is cementing business leaders’ impression that he is indifferent to their concerns. If he sees any impropriety in politicians ordering executives about, upstaging the courts and threatening confiscation, he has not said so. The collapse in BP’s share price suggests that he has convinced the markets that he is an American version of Vladimir Putin, willing to harry firms into doing his bidding.
Guess that relationship will have to be on hold until 2013.
[Updatea early afternoon]
Barack Obama, most unpopular man in Britain. Glad we have that “smart diplomacy.”
Good Luck With That
This lunatic DoJ really is going to sue the state of Arizona for enforcing federal immigration law. Hope they read the bill first.