NASA’s Budget

January 14, 2014 Rand Simberg 4 Comments

As usual, SLS/Orion is funded above the request, and Commercial Crew below it. And technology takes it in the shorts yet again. But at least they didn’t underfund Commercial Crew as much as they have in the past. It’s only about a hundred-twenty-five million less than the $800M+ request. It apparently also contains a three-year extension on launch indemnification.

Note that Congress is demanding a cost-benefit analysis for Commercial Crew, but (as Clark Lindsey notes) not one for the wasteful $3B that’s going to SLS/Orion.

Business, Economics, Media Criticism, Political Commentary

Jobs

January 14, 2014 Rand Simberg 3 Comments

How Democrats kill them. While lying (perhaps even to themselves) about how they’re creating them.

Media Criticism, Political Commentary

The IRS Abuse

January 14, 2014 Rand Simberg 5 Comments

The fix is in:

Unlike Chris Christie’s Bridgegate, which hardly anyone cares about, a majority of the American people have consistently believed that the IRS targeting was deliberate and political. Obama himself said it “outraged” him, before he fake-fired the interim IRS chief and put the fix in place by appointing one of his own political contributors, Barbara Bosserman, to “investigate” it. Now his political contributor says “Nothing to see here, move along.” His Treasury secretary, Jack Lew, calls the abuse a “fake scandal.” So much for the president’s alleged outrage.

Across all these revelations, just 10 of the 41 groups that the American Center for Law and Justice is representing in the IRS abuse case have even been contacted by the FBI. Just 10. Ever.

That’s not an investigation, but it was never intended to be an investigation. The fix was always in on this thing.

I don’t think that Issa is going to let this go.

Economics, Health, Media Criticism, Political Commentary, Social Commentary

Millennials

January 14, 2014 Rand Simberg 2 Comments

Is this the year they finally get fed up with big government?

These ads depict millennials as emotional, instinctive animals acting on appetites, impulses, and desires rather than moral and intellectual beings capable of acting according to reason and prudence. The liberal poster child is a product of the state, dependent on cradle-to-grave government support, to which free birth control is a higher end than a well-paying job or — heaven forbid — starting a family.

For many millennials, the scales have fallen. They realize that the future of Obamacare depends on their signing up to pay higher insurance premiums and deductibles. In the era of iPhones and PS4s, they realize that a government that can’t design a website can’t be expected to manage the intricacies of the entire health-care industry. In the wake of the news that the NSA collects mountains of metadata, they also fret that the government that wants you to talk about health care could (with a warrant) listen in on that very conversation.

Given the bleak reality for many millennials today, it’s obvious that the Democratic party can’t talk straight to them. Instead, it manufactures witty, tongue-in-cheek social-media campaigns and faux controversies like the “war on women.” (As with most faux liberal controversies, the data seem to suggest the opposite — in 2009 women became a majority of the work force for the first time ever, while 2013 saw women under 30 earn a higher median income than their male counterparts did.)

These tricks worked in 2008; they worked again, albeit to a far lesser degree, in 2012; but in 2014, it appears the magic has finally worn off. Many millennials see through the catchy rhetoric to the empty promises.

Let’s hope. As I’ve said in the past, I’d like to see a poll that asks if people would be more, or less likely to vote Republican if they promised to repeal and replace Barack Obama next year.

[Update a while later]

ObamaCare flops with the young.

Well, big surprise. What’s in it for them?

Business, Economics, Media Criticism, Political Commentary

Income Inequality

January 14, 2014 Rand Simberg 1 Comment

Republicans should own the issue, with competition and markets, and fighting cronyism:

Well, no. Inequality has increased across advanced economies. Macro factors such as globalization and technology deserve most — but maybe not all — of the “blame.” Big Government loves to pick winners and losers in the private sector. Some lucky ducks owe their place in the 1 percent or 0.1 percent or 0.01 percent to federal favoritism. Conservatives shouldn’t mind at all when value-creating innovators and entrepreneurs strike it rich while crony capitalists do not. The precious tax breaks and subsidies that go to rent seekers, such as those in the agriculture and alternative-energy sectors, should get the ax. Sorry, Big Sugar and Big Solar.

Unfortunately, they don’t mind cronyism that much, as long at it’s their cronyism.

Media Criticism, Political Commentary

SCOTUS On Recess Appointments

January 13, 2014 Rand Simberg 21 Comments

Looking like this lawless administration getting shot down in court again is the way to bet:

Even liberal Justice Stephen Breyer, who was perhaps most favorable to the president’s case, expressed puzzlement at the administration’s claim that Congress was actually in a lengthy recess at the time Obama acted. Breyer noted that if the Senate recessed it ran afoul of the Constitution by failing to notify the House.

“Would you write an opinion that [says] the Senate of the United States has violated two provisions of the Constitution?” Breyer asked Verrilli.

Of course, at some point, they’ll just start defying the Supreme Court as well. The only real Constitutional solution to this president is impeachment and removal.

[Update a while later]

I don’t know who has the tougher job when it comes to defending this administration, Carney or Verilli.

Health, Science And Society, Technology and Society

Cancer Deaths

January 13, 2014 Rand Simberg 4 Comments

A new protein that could prevent 90% of them?

“We’ve found a way to dispatch an army of killer white blood cells that cause apoptosis — the cancer cell’s own death — obliterating them from the bloodstream. When surrounded by these guys, it becomes nearly impossible for the cancer cell to escape,” said King.

Faster, please.

Transterrestrial Musings