(Paid Lockmart flack) Loren Thompson weighs in.
It’s actually the least hacktastic piece I’ve ever seen from him, except he doesn’t seem to realize that Atlas V alrady requiers “cryogenic handling” because LOX.
The “Rape Epidemic”
To be fair, most, if not all Democrat political narratives are.
Emerging Space
A new report from NASA that looks like it could be interesting. Haven’t read yet, though.
Obama’s War On Terror
His half-hearted one:
Barack Obama’s heart was never in the war on terror, and he burst onto the national scene with an anti-Iraq War riff. He called it a “dumb war,” a phrase that echoes still in his foreign-policy slogan of “don’t do stupid stuff.” The latest declaration, “No boots on the ground,” is cut from the same cloth. As faculty-lounge wordsmiths go, he’s top shelf.
Voters were with him big time in 2008, and a majority stayed with him in 2012 as he promised to get out of Afghanistan, too. He had OK’d the assassination of Osama bin Laden, a fact he waved like a bloody scalp, and it shielded him from direct hits after the Benghazi terror attack.
His mistake, or his latest mistake, was that he began to take his Houdini-like escapes for granted, and thus was gob-smacked when the “war-weary nation” suddenly wanted a tougher president after the Islamic State beheaded two Americans. In a flash, the usually nimble president was way out of step with the country.
Yet Obama again proved himself a cynical politician worthy of a fickle public. After some flub-a-dubs, he announced a strategy that is true to his core. It is neither-nor.
It is neither a strategy for victory, nor a strategy for doing nothing. Like a man taking a shower while wearing a raincoat, he put America back into the fight without a commitment to win.
As Glenn notes, this is nothing except an effort to get through the next six weeks. After the election, he’ll (as he told Vladimir) have “more flexibility.”
Lois Lerner
She tells Politico she did nothing wrong.
Well, I guess that’s that.
[Update a couple minutes later]
So, the explanation for the criticism of Lerner is anti-Semitism? And here I didn’t even know she was Jewish (though, admittedly, given her name, it doesn’t surprise me in retrospect).
[Update late afternoon]
No, Politico, Lois Lerner is not the victim here.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
He should either substantiate his claim, or apologize to President Bush, but I suspect his ego will just cause him to continue to ignore the criticism.
Space Tourism
Is it being overhyped?
I fearlessly predict that, as with any other experience, some will be underwhelmed, and others will have their expectations exceeded.
In related news, tired of waiting, and fearing that they won’t get to the (arbitrary) von Karman line, some Virgin Galactic customers are demanding refunds.
[Update a few minutes later]
Richard Branson’s credibility is collapsing in the media.
A Relationship In Trouble
[Afternoon update]
A question for the ladies: Is the ad sexist, or scintillating?
Commercial Crew And Commercial Engines
Jeff Foust has the story on last week’s commercial space announcements.
“Marching Against Climate Change”
It was the usual post-communist leftie march. That is, it was a petit-bourgeois re-enactment of meaningless ritual that passes for serious politics among those too inexperienced, too emotionally excited or too poorly read and too unpracticed at self-reflection or political analysis to know or perhaps care how futile and tired the conventional march has become. Crazed grouplets of anti-capitalist movements trying to fan the embers of Marxism back to life, gender and transgender groups with their own spin on climate, earnest eco-warriors, publicity-seeking hucksters, adrenalin junkies, college kids wanting a taste of the venerable tradition of public protest, and, as always, a great many people who don’t think that burning marijuana adds to the world’s CO2 load, marched down Manhattan’s streets. The chants echoed through the skyscraper canyons, the drums rolled, participants were caught up in a sense of unity and togetherness that some of them had never known. It was almost like politics, almost like the epochal marches that have toppled governments and changed history ever since the Paris mob stormed the Bastille.
Almost. Except street marches today are to real politics what street mime is to Shakespeare. This was an ersatz event: no laws will change, no political balance will tip, no UN delegate will have a change of heart. The world will roll on as if this march had never happened. And the marchers would have emitted less carbon and done more good for the world if they had all stayed home and studied books on economics, politics, science, religion and law. Marches like this create an illusion of politics and an illusion of meaningful activity to fill the void of postmodern life; the tribal ritual matters more than the political result.
In other news, King Canute sits on the beach, against the tide. MT @mrford0: 311,000 march against Climate Change in NYC #climatemarch
— Rand Simberg (@Rand_Simberg) September 22, 2014