Media Criticism, Political Commentary, Space

“US Control Of Cis-Lunar Space”

5 Comments

Say what?

Decades ago, when I was an AIAA Congressional Science Fellow, a group of AIAA industry representatives met with my then-boss, Sen. Adlai Stevenson, III, and asked what real influence I had exercised while doing staff work in Congress. Sen. Stevenson smiled and replied, “This is Washington. Not even the President has any influence.” It was meant as a joke, but the experiences of three presidents who proposed human space initiatives prove that it was no joke. George H. W. Bush’s Space Exploration Initiative was killed by NASA coming up with an unaffordable plan. George W. Bush’s Vision for Space Exploration was hijacked by ideologues who wanted to create US control of cislunar space with a permanent lunar base.

Emphasis mine. That’s sure not what happened on my planet. On my planet, the VSE always contained a lunar base, but Mike Griffin and Scott Horowitz came up with an awful plan to implement it that never had a chance of succeeding in any affordable way. Not sure what planet Lou posted that from.

Business, Media Criticism, Space

The SpaceX Engine “Anomaly”

12 Comments

Space News has the story. Some have said that this proves that Fragola was right, but that’s nonsense. He tried to create a rumor that the stage blew up. SpaceX had never denied that there was an engine problem, and they apparently provided the information quickly to everyone that needed to know (i.e., NASA and the FAA). They aren’t under any obligation to air all their laundry publicly.

Political Commentary, War Commentary

Credit Where It’s Due

6 Comments

Anyone who’s been reading me for a while knows that I don’t have a very high opinion of the vice president, so when he does something praiseworthy, it should be noted. I thought that his speech yesterday was very classy, and in sharp contrast to Paul Krugman’s odious column. It was very refreshing to (for once) hear a member of this administration praising the previous one, rather than blaming it for all of its own problems.

Business, Economics, Humor, Political Commentary

America Needs A Control Group

3 Comments

Frank J. has some thoughts on people who are anti-science:

despite the obvious importance of science, one group of people does everything in pure defiance of scientific methods: politicians.

What do politicians do when they think they have a great idea? They just go and implement it. It’s like someone thinking he’s got a cure for cancer and immediately injecting it into everyone he can. That’s a madman, not a scientist. You always have to at least try out your idea on monkeys to make sure it doesn’t kill them.

Were farm subsidies first tried on monkeys? Social Security? Bank bailouts? No, the unscientific politicians went straight to trying all their ideas on humans, and now we have a bunch of bankrupt people instead of harmless bankrupt monkeys.

But the problem with testing political ideas on monkeys is that forcing them to go billions into debt would violate animal-cruelty laws. The only ones we’re allowed to do that to are people.

There was an old joke in the Soviet Union. The teacher is lecturing the class on Karl Marx, and one of the kids raises his hand and says, “Teacher, is it true that Marx was a great scientist?” The teacher answered that, yes, indeed, he was the greatest scientist who had ever lived. The kid thinks for a while, and then says, “If he was such a great scientist, why didn’t he try this crap on rats first?”

Popular Culture

One And Oh

1 Comment

Well, the Lions tried to lose the game against Tampa Bay at the end, as is their wont, but didn’t quite succeed. And the Tigers have now won nine straight. They’d have to have a monumental collapse now to not win the division. It’s a good sports weekend for the Great Lake State.

By the way, I almost felt sorry for Notre Dame last night. Almost.

Media Criticism, Political Commentary, War Commentary

The Dark Day

30 Comments

…that brought out the worst in Britain. Note that the know-nothing anti-Americanism continues in comments there.

I was in San Juan, Puerto Rico, getting ready to head to the airport to fly back to California, when I saw the second plane hit on television, and knew instantly that we were at war, and probably against Islamism. I didn’t bother to go to the airport, because I was pretty sure that all flights would be grounded shortly, and I turned out to be right.

When Patricia got home from work, she said that many of the Puerto Ricans she worked with were shocked, but that many of them were actually happy that it had happened, and thought that we had it coming. Their resentment of the country that had provided them with a higher standard of living than any of their neighbors for decades quickly came to the fore. As Mark Twain said, a dog will not bite the hand that feeds him — this is the principle difference between a man and a dog.

Biting Commentary about Infinity…and Beyond!