I think that a bumper sticker that said “I’D RATHER HAVE BUSH’S THIRD TERM THAN JIMMY CARTER’S SECOND” would be a hot seller, assuming that Obama is the nominee. Note, contrary to convention wisdom, I still don’t assume that. There’s this little thing called a “convention” coming up that will determine that.
Category Archives: Political Commentary
I’d Buy One
I think that a bumper sticker that said “I’D RATHER HAVE BUSH’S THIRD TERM THAN JIMMY CARTER’S SECOND” would be a hot seller, assuming that Obama is the nominee. Note, contrary to convention wisdom, I still don’t assume that. There’s this little thing called a “convention” coming up that will determine that.
“The Sun Sets”
…finally, on the British Empire.
Strange to witness one of the oldest and most successful of nations commit suicide without even being aware of what it’s doing.
Strange indeed. And very sad.
[Update, a few minutes later]
You know, if the Saudis wanted to spend their money building Muslim hospitals in the UK (just as the Catholics have their own hospitals in the US), complete with restrictions as to how much hygiene is required on the part of the nursing staff, per sharia law, who could object to them orienting the beds in whatever direction they wished? The only people who would suffer would be the Muslims stupid enough to use their services.
But instead, because Britain, with its NHS (and other programs) has become a welfare state, it’s a lot cheaper for them to spend the money bribing MPs to institute such nonsense in the public hospitals, so they can save their money for funding madrassas that encourage people to bomb the Tube.
This would seem to have parallels to the public school system, and the battles over what kind of “science” to teach in science classes. It is an intrinsic pitfall of state-supplied health and education. Not to mention other vital needs.
“The Sun Sets”
…finally, on the British Empire.
Strange to witness one of the oldest and most successful of nations commit suicide without even being aware of what it’s doing.
Strange indeed. And very sad.
[Update, a few minutes later]
You know, if the Saudis wanted to spend their money building Muslim hospitals in the UK (just as the Catholics have their own hospitals in the US), complete with restrictions as to how much hygiene is required on the part of the nursing staff, per sharia law, who could object to them orienting the beds in whatever direction they wished? The only people who would suffer would be the Muslims stupid enough to use their services.
But instead, because Britain, with its NHS (and other programs) has become a welfare state, it’s a lot cheaper for them to spend the money bribing MPs to institute such nonsense in the public hospitals, so they can save their money for funding madrassas that encourage people to bomb the Tube.
This would seem to have parallels to the public school system, and the battles over what kind of “science” to teach in science classes. It is an intrinsic pitfall of state-supplied health and education. Not to mention other vital needs.
“The Sun Sets”
…finally, on the British Empire.
Strange to witness one of the oldest and most successful of nations commit suicide without even being aware of what it’s doing.
Strange indeed. And very sad.
[Update, a few minutes later]
You know, if the Saudis wanted to spend their money building Muslim hospitals in the UK (just as the Catholics have their own hospitals in the US), complete with restrictions as to how much hygiene is required on the part of the nursing staff, per sharia law, who could object to them orienting the beds in whatever direction they wished? The only people who would suffer would be the Muslims stupid enough to use their services.
But instead, because Britain, with its NHS (and other programs) has become a welfare state, it’s a lot cheaper for them to spend the money bribing MPs to institute such nonsense in the public hospitals, so they can save their money for funding madrassas that encourage people to bomb the Tube.
This would seem to have parallels to the public school system, and the battles over what kind of “science” to teach in science classes. It is an intrinsic pitfall of state-supplied health and education. Not to mention other vital needs.
A Convention Battle
We haven’t seen one of these with the major parties in decades, though I think it’s a good bet for Denver this year with the Dems.
But if you’re interested in how floor fights actually work, here’s some live blogging from Dave Weigel on the Libertarian convention (also in Denver). If this happens with the donkeys in August, there will be a lot of blood shed (literally, in the streets, I suspect).
Space Show
I had a post about this last week, but I forgot to remind people today, that I was on The Space Show this afternoon (I took a break from yardwork, where we’re tearing out old hedges, and still finishing up guttering–on the radio, no one can hear you sweating). Here’s a place to comment for anyone who happened to listen in.
Thoughts On Global Warming
From Freeman Dyson. It’s a long read but worthwhile (as always).
[Update late evening]
Dayo Olopade has an uncomplimentary review of Dyson’s review.
FWIW, I don’t think that GW skepticism is equivalent to Pascal’s wager. But I don’t have time right now to say why.
Hope I live to tell the tale.
More Relationship Advice
It’s round two of Ask Barry!, over at Iowahawk’s place.
Saganites?
I find it amusing that these folks were clueless as to the purpose of the Google Lunar Prize when they signed up:
In my first blog, I wrote why Harold Rosen formed the Southern California Selene Group. In short, he and I registered our team to compete for the Google Lunar X PRIZE to demonstrate that a low-cost space mission to the moon could be accomplished and could lead to lowering the cost of some future robotic missions to planetary moons. Plus, we intended to have fun! Harold and I both are strong supporters of space science and robotic space exploration. (For one, I’m an astronomy and cosmology enthusiast.) We love the kind of work that JPL is doing, for example. But we most definitely are not in favor of human space missions. That is not our goal, nor do we support such a goal.
The Team Summit turned out to be a real wakeup call. In the Guidelines workshop that I attended just last Tuesday, the cumulative effect of hearing all day from Peter Diamandis, Bob Weiss and Gregg Maryniak that the “real purpose” of the Google Lunar X PRIZE was to promote the so-called commercialization of space (which I took to mean highly impractical stuff like mining the moon and beaming power to the earth, as shown in one of GLXP kickoff videos), humanity’s future in space, etc. etc., took its toll. I couldn’t help but think “what am I doing here?” When I spoke to Harold about it on the phone later, he agreed – no way did he want to be involved in promoting a goal he does not believe in.
So, what does this mean? It sounds to me like it’s not just a goal they “don’t believe in” (which is fine–they could not believe in it and still want to win the prize for their own purposes), but rather, a goal to which they are actively opposed, and don’t think that anyone should be pursuing. I’m very curious to hear them elaborate their views, but it sounds like they’re extreme Saganites. For those unfamiliar with the schools of thought, you have the von Braun model, in which vast government resources are expended to send a few government employees into space (this is Mike Griffin’s approach), the Sagan model (“such a beautiful universe…don’t touch it!), and the O’Neillian vision of humanity filling up the cosmos.
So when they say they don’t support such a goal, does that mean they oppose it, and would take action to prevent it from happening if they could? Sure sounds like it. And they take it as a given that lunar mining is “impractical,” but is that their only reason for opposing it, or do they think that it somehow violates the sanctity of the place, and disturbs what should be accessible only for pure and noble science? I’ll bet that they’d prefer a lot fewer humans on earth, too.
[Via Clark Lindsey]
[Update late morning]
Commenter “Robert” says that I’m being unfair to Carl Sagan. Perhaps he’s right–I was just using the formulation originally (I think) developed by Rick Tumlinson, though Sagan was definitely much more into the science and wonder of space than were von Braun or O’Neill… If anyone has a suggestion for a better representative of the “how pretty, don’t touch” attitude, I’m open to suggestions.