There was an interesting discussion at the #SpaceTechExpo on Tuesday afternoon. An indefinite extension is one of the key recommendations in my book.
The Real War On Women
It’s being waged by Islam, not Republicans and conservatives, and to point that out is not “Islamaphobic.”
The Debate On Health Care
No, it’s not over, your not-so-Highness, and we will not cease our dissent.
Oh, and for the record? The debate isn’t over on climate, either. Whenever someone tells me that the debate is over, it’s a pretty good sign that it’s wishful thinking, and that they’re losing it.
SCOTUS On Free Speech
Boo hoo. Senator Schumer says the ruling makes it harder for the IRS to intimidate the Tea Party.
That’s a feature, not a bug, Chuckie.
Recant Your Heresies!
Leftism is a religion, Part 2,354,629:
Eich once made a $1,000 donation to Prop 8, in 2006, shortly before the pro-gay-marriage Senate candidate Barack Obama would be persuaded by the righteousness of the traditional marriage cause, and thus announce his conversion to the proposition that marriage must be as it had been eternally, a union between a man and a woman.
For some reason, the rabid Upper Income White Women (and Feminized White Men) of the tech industry don’t seem to think Barack Obama deserves criticism for that position, but they’re very sure that Eich should either recant or be fired.
As I noted on Twitter the other day, if I were Eich, I wouldn’t let these little fascists mau mau me. I’d tell them that if they really couldn’t tolerate working for such a hateful bigot, they know where the door is.
Those 7M “Sign Ups”
Why yesterday’s champagne-cork popping in the Rose Garden was meaningless propaganda.
[Update a few minutes later]
Want medical insurance? Get in line:
The first thing we thought of when we saw the pictures was the photos we’ve recently seen on Twitter of Venezuelans waiting in bread lines. Waiting in line to purchase necessities is a characteristic not of a prosperous free society but of command economies under repressive regimes. Closer to home, one doubts even the Transportation Security Administration would be so tone-deaf as to advertise long airport lines as an indication it’s doing a great job.
So what in the world could the White House have been thinking? Here’s a guess: They look at the ObamaCare lines and think not of communist subjects queuing up for bread or toilet paper, or Americans for driver’s licenses, but something more like the lines of consumers eager to be the first to get the new iPhone or the latest Harry Potter book. Affluent people often wait in line for things about which they have a particular enthusiasm–or for special experiences, like an amusement park ride, concert or meal at a favorite restaurant.
One obvious difference is that whereas the iPhone and Harry Potter queuers are eager to get the new thing first, the ObamaCare ones are presumably anxious not to miss the deadline (even if it’s not rigorously enforced). ObamaCare lines might have been impressive if they’d begun to form in the last days of September. At the end of open enrollment, the White House boast is akin to the IRS’s citing a “surge” in filing of tax returns two weeks from now as evidence that the income tax system is popular and well designed.
Command economies under repressive regimes seems to be the goal.
Torture
Whether you agree that it is morally acceptable or not, the argument against it that it doesn’t work is and always has been insane. And it now turns out that the CIA lied about its efficacy in getting bin Laden.
[Update a while later]
OK, I misread (or rather, didn’t read) the article, just going by a glance at the headline. Nonetheless, it’s still nuts to think that torture never provides actionable information.
Government Motors
It’s not that GM’s new owners didn’t care. It’s just that they cared more about their political backers: the UAW.
Vegetarians
…are less healthy than meat eaters.
Not surprising — evolutionarily, we’re omnivores. Vegetarians have to rationalize that they’re eating healthier to justify their unwillingness to eat animals, but they’re not.
Spacecraft Tech Expo
OK, now that I have my health care squared away (just under the wire), I’m heading down to Long Beach. Not sure how much I’ll be able to blog from there, but I’ll take a laptop.