Worse than ever, after thirty-five years.
What reason is there for them to get better? The unions and the left (but I repeat myself) won’t allow real competition.
Category Archives: Political Commentary
Max Boot
I used to admire his writing, but he has become the poster child for Trump derangement:
Before yesterday, my primary criticism of the Washington Post’s Max Boot was political in nature. As I wrote in a recent book review, I found it regrettable that Boot’s opposition to the president had not prevented him from “succumbing reactively to Trump’s cult of personality, or from making Trump the origin of every graph onto which he plots himself.” As of yesterday, my primary criticism of the Washington Post’s Max Boot is that he is a narcissistic, dishonest, calculating, manipulative writer who is prone to engaging in precisely the sort of willfully dishonorable conduct that he claims to disdain in others.
Tell us how you really feel, Charlie.
When a former conservative is telling you to vote for Democrats (as George Will did as well in the last cycle), particularly the Democrats currently on display in the primary campaign, you know that he has gone completely around the bend.
Glenn’s Book On Social Media
I haven’t read it yet, but Bob Zimmerman gives it a favorable review.
Consensus Enforcement In Climate
Judith Curry, on the latest travesty.
Science is not science without “contrarians.” It is religion.
[Thursday-morning update]
Related: Enlisting peer-reviewed science in the climate crusade.
The “White Supremacy Threat”
Why Democrats are continually talking about it, and why it won’t work.
A Vegan President?
“I vote ‘No.’“
I was thinking this the other day, and even tweeted about it, I think. Booker is an asshat on many levels, but I’m pretty sure that voting for a vegan would be more controversial than voting for a gay president. Pretty sure we’ve never had one in the White House. Vegans should go back to Vega.
Sexbots
Will they bring about the end of civilization?
Tardigrades
…were probably already on the moon. I had a discussion about this on Twitter yesterday. I think people are making too big a deal over it.
The South
The less racist it becomes, the more Republican it becomes.
Surprising no one familiar with the actual history. The Democrats have always been the party of racism, and likely always will be. It’s a defining feature.
Blue Origin
They’re filing a lawsuit against the USAF over launch procurement.
I don’t understand why the Air Force wouldn’t want more than two launch providers.
[Afternoon update]
I have some thoughts on Twitter, based on some of the comments here.
First, since people are saying that Blue Origin should demonstrate the ability to develop an orbital rocket, it’s fair to say that so should ULA. They’re flying vehicles developed by other companies over two decades ago.
Arguably, only two teams with recent orbital launcher development experience are SpaceX and NGIS (by acquiring Orbital ATK). Vulcan and New Glenn both currently remain paper rockets. At this point in time, SpaceX has the most experienced launch-development team on the planet.
And while NGIS does have the Antares experience, that won’t necessarily apply to their new vehicle. Even if it was a good idea, no one has successfully developed an orbital launcher based on a large segmented solid rocket. We know that Ares I had teething issues. And of course, this all ignores the reusability factor.
I assume that ULA still wants to recover engines, but that won’t make them competitive with Falcon series, let alone a successful Starship program. At least Blue plans booster reuse.
And ULA will remain hobbled by its parents’ unwillingness to allow it to spend sufficient resources on Vulcan development (and forget ACES). So the trajectory is that, if only two providers, Blue Origin and SpaceX are the way for the USAF to bet.
Also, both Blue Origin and SpaceX will have large commercial markets. Because it probably won’t be cost competitive, Vulcan probably won’t. But there are political reasons for the blue suits (if they remain in charge of launch procurement) to want to keep ULA alive.
If I were the head of Pentagon procurement, I’d go talk to the
FECFTC about forcing a divestiture of ULA from its parents, not just on legitimate charges of child abuse, but because of the huge changes that have occurred in the launch market since 2006. But USAF seems to be stuck in the past, when it comes to procuring launches.
[Tuesday-morning update]
A nice history of the RD-180 and how it’s about to be superceded by both BE-4 and Raptor. The days of Russian dominance in rocket propulsion have come to an end.
[Bumped]