Bill Whittle has the transcript up now for “Reasonable Men.” Quotes from the Founders.
Category Archives: Political Commentary
A Justice For Our Times
Can you say Associate Justice Iowahawk? I knew you could.
John Tierney
…on the new space policy. And he graciously cites my piece in The New Atlantis from last summer. He also has a report from the Cape today. It’s interesting that no one has mentioned yesterday’s Gagarin and Shuttle anniversaries. I actually worked them into my Popular Mechanics piece, but they were edited out, presumably because they seemed a little tangential. I imagine that next April 12th, on the fiftieth and thirtieth anniversaries, respectively, people will make a much bigger deal of them. And I hope by then we’re seeing some real progress in the new direction.
[Both Tierney links via Clark Lindsey]
Space On PRI
Marketplace has a brief story this morning on the new policy, with sound bites from Jim Bennett of Anglosphere Challenge
The Challenge For Commercial Spaceflight
My thoughts on the past weekend’s Space Access conference, and other current space events, are up over at Popular Mechanics.
We Had To Pass The Bill
…so we would know what was in it:
In other words, theoretically the law kicks them out of the federal health plan now in order to force them to join insurance exchanges … that don’t exist yet. Looking forward to tomorrow, when we’re inevitably told that they meant to do that. Exit question for lawyers: Who would have standing to sue to force the federal health plan to drop Congress now? Any citizen, or is it more refined than that?
I can’t wait until they try to pass a bill to fix that one. If it’s not filibusterable, nothing is.
[Tuesday morning update]
Legislate in haste, repent in leisure.
It’s an incumbent protection plan! All those Evil Republicans who thought they would sweep into power next fall will think twice, now that they know the job comes with no health benefits.
I can’t stop laughing at these morons, and the imbeciles who voted for them and defend them, and told us how these wise solons knew exactly what was in the bill and that we were fools for not understanding it.
[Lte morning update]
Maybe they should complain to the White House. After all, the president told us all that “if you like your current plan, you can keep it.”
Hilarious.
Repeal Looks Like A Winning Issue
Forty-seven percent (47%) of voters believe repeal of the health care bill will be good for the economy. Thirty-three percent (33%) disagree.
Eighty-eight percent (88%) of Republicans and 54% of voters not affiliated with either major party favor repeal. Sixty-one percent (61%) of Democrats are opposed. Republican support for repeal is up eight points from a week ago, while Democratic opposition is down seven.
Not a good trend for the Donkeys. But as is general with such trends, it’s good for the country.
The Maturing NewSpace Industry
Jeff Foust has a report on the past weekend’s conference, over at The Space Review this morning.
[Update a few minutes later]
Here’s another report on the conference, from Doug Messier.
An Interesting Fear
I often have a sense that opponents of the new policy fear it not because they are afraid that private enterprise isn’t up to the job, but because they are afraid that it is. Here’s an example of what I mean, over in comments at the Lori Garver interview:
Simply speaking the reset button has been hit again and once more our astronauts are left standing on the pad with no ship to take them to where no man has gone before. We will one day get back to the moon, but my only fear is that the landing will be covered live by a CNN crew who landed on the last Virgin Galactic flight.
This is an interesting comment, and I’d like to understand more. First, what does the commenter mean by “we”? Does he (or she) mean the nation? Does he mean NASA? Does he mean literally himself and others?
And does he fear it because it is a non-American company? Or because it’s a private company?
If he means that his fear is that NASA will get to the moon, but be (as I’ve noted in the past) greeted by the concierge at the Lunar Hilton, why does he “fear” it? Do any of my readers have such a fear? If so, why? Do you think it a rational fear (in the sense that it is actually something to be feared, independent of how likely it is to occur)?
Why Health Care Is Not A Right
Ed Morrissey explains. But people who don’t understand, or care about the Constitution (like this Congressman who is apparently in perpetual violation of his oath of office) won’t get it. And I liked the question about whether sex is a human right. If I was asking that question of a clueless attractive female, I’d follow up with, “Then you’ll have sex with me, right? Let’s go find a room.” And if/when she refused, I’d accuse her of violating my human rights. Or she’d have sex with me. So it would be win-win.