Beware the high priests of the religion. This is certainly not something that the government should be involved with.
A Battery Breakthrough?
Let’s hope this pans out. Among other things, it would solve Boeing’s problem. In fact, it might make electric airplanes possible, let alone cars. And some obvious space applications.
A Bad Gun-Control Law
Of course, gun-control laws are mostly bad. And mostly unconstitutional.
Disclosure: the authors are my legal counsel in the Mann lawsuit.
[Update a few minutes later]
Why Obama is losing on guns:
…Democrats could have threatened to primary these Democrats or withhold campaign funds, but that’s not very realistic in states in which these moderates may barely hang on in an election in which the Democrats could lose their majority. The White House can try to ply them with pork, although that’s a lot harder to do these days since it isn’t clear there will even be a budget. And the president’s not very popular in many states, so an offer to campaign with and for these Democrats isn’t very enticing. For now it seems the Democrats may try to water down the Toomey-Manchin amendment and try to wean away a few red-state Democrats. It is a sort of legislative limbo in which the bar gets lower and lower, but in this case it’s not clear the red-state Democrats want to play the game at all.
It is a misnomer, then, to blame the “gun lobby” for the difficulty in passing legislation. The red-state Democrats, like most of their Republican colleagues, are reflecting their own constituents’ views. If you polled specifically in the states where these Democrats come from, I bet you’d find gun regulation and bans a whole lot less popular than the nation at large. (I imagine some of them are in fact polling.) If the president were more popular in red states or more able to induce enthusiasm, then that might have made a difference.
And it is still possible that the needle can be threaded. Unfortunately for the president, whatever passes will bear scant resemblance to his desired legislation.
Of course, he’s losing on guns for the same reason that he loses on many things — his agenda is not that of the public. They continue to want real jobs, and he continues to ignore their wants.
Attacks Like The One In Boston
Why are they so rare?
I’ve been wondering that for years. Decades in fact, long before 911. My theory has always been that the intersection of the sets of people competent to do such things, and people willing to do such things, is very small. Fortunately. Unfortunately, with advancing technology, it’s going to get easier, expanding the former set.
The Wreck Of The Euro
It has already failed, and is a dead currency walking:
…we’re in an interesting situation. The crisis is crippling the south, but the south has no power to resolve the crisis. The crisis isn’t comfortable for the north but still looks less painful than the solution. So the north, which has the ability to resolve the crisis, doesn’t have the will to do it and the south, which has the will, lacks the ability.
And meanwhile everything in Europe gets worse. As we’ve said before, with the exception of communism itself, the euro has been the biggest economic catastrophe to befall the continent (and the world) since the 1930s. Politicians in Europe thought they were living in a post-historical period in which mistakes didn’t really matter all that much. They were horribly wrong, and the wreck of the euro is blighting lives and embittering spirits on a truly staggering scale.
An “interesting” situation in the same sense as the ancient Chinese curse, “May you live in interesting times.”
Crowdfunding Space
Jeff Foust has a piece up on the topic over at The Space Review.
Busy And Aching
I was traveling most of last week, and I’m now frantically trying to finish the book. Plus, I had a tooth extracted this morning.
Just in case anyone was wondering why blogging has been light to non-existent.
[Wednesday morning update]
Thanks for the sympathy, but it’s really not that bad. The extraction was almost painless, with lidocaine, and I’ve only experienced a little swelling, and not much pain, on ibuprofen. I feel pretty much back to normal today. Next related project is an implant, in a few months after the bone graft has filled in and healed, but my experience with those is that they’re not a big deal, either. Modern dentistry is one of the many reasons that I wouldn’t want to have been born in an earlier era.
The “Pro-Gun” Provisions Of Manchin-Toomey
My Talk At Space Access
Clark Lindsey has a report up.
If WW II…
…had been on Facebook. It’s dark humor, and similar to this golden oldie.