Category Archives: Political Commentary
Israel’s Real Strategic Failure
Some thoughts. Israel will always be in a no-win situation in terms of public opinion, because much of the world will never see a Jewish liberal democracy in the Middle East as legitimate. So they might as well do what they need to to survive, and to hell with what those fascists think.
Never again.
Of course, be sure to read Walter Russell Mead’s piece as well.
Nowhere Man
As Glenn says, I can imagine a lot of campaign commercials coming from this. And a commenter notes the same thing that I thought when I heard what McCartney said. George Bush married a librarian.
Moron. I hadn’t realized before how completely lacking in class he was.
[Update a few minutes later]
More thoughts from Jay Nordlinger.
We Con The World
I like it a lot better than the original. Of course, I thought the original sucked.
The SpaceX Telecon
Clark Lindsey has a summary.
[Late afternoon update]
Apparently, the range has finally signed off on the Flight Termination System, so they’re good to go tomorrow.
The Flint Reporting Project
Gordon Young is trying to fund some reporting of one of our premiere post-industrial cities (and my home town). It’s sad to see how far it’s fallen from my childhood days.
More Of The Left’s War On Science
The “sustainable agriculture” movement is senselessly starving people.
The Range Goes Green
…for SpaceX. And they’ve rolled it out to the pad, and erected it.
It’s now less than forty-eight hours until their first opportunity, at 8 AM Pacific. On later flights, when they have to go to ISS, they’ll have a tight launch window (ten minutes more or less, depending on how much performance margin they have), but for the first couple flights at least, there’s no target they’re aiming at in space, so they can go any time within the window provide by the range (four hours, I think, on each day). As Clark notes, while I won’t be surprised if they’re successful (nor will I be surprised if they’re not, on this first launch), I will be surprised if they actually launch at 8 AM on Friday. I suspect that they’ll be operating on a hair trigger when it comes to anomalies that can delay them. There is a lot riding on success (and for those defending the old regime, a lot riding on their failure).
The Nuclear Option
Will it work in the Gulf? I don’t know, I haven’t read it yet, and I probably still won’t know even after I do. But I link, you decide.
Bad News In The Mediterranean
From a scholar of the classics:
…we should pay attention to a growing concern in the southeastern Mediterranean: A bankrupt Greece has alienated its patrons in northern Europe, has alienated the U.S. through years of anti-American rhetoric, has little or no financial resources, and will be facing cutbacks in its military — and a newly assertive Turkey is carving out a position of influence in the region as the real, and far more serious, representative of Islamic government, perhaps in the fashion of the old Ottomans.
Though actually, the old Ottomans would be a preferable (though not good) alternative to the new Wahhibist fundamentalists. At the least, it’s bad news for the Greeks on Cyprus, but allowing Turkey into NATO is making less and less sense.