Political Commentary

We Had To Pass The Bill

41 Comments

…so we would know what was in it:

In other words, theoretically the law kicks them out of the federal health plan now in order to force them to join insurance exchanges … that don’t exist yet. Looking forward to tomorrow, when we’re inevitably told that they meant to do that. Exit question for lawyers: Who would have standing to sue to force the federal health plan to drop Congress now? Any citizen, or is it more refined than that?

I can’t wait until they try to pass a bill to fix that one. If it’s not filibusterable, nothing is.

[Tuesday morning update]

Legislate in haste, repent in leisure.

It’s an incumbent protection plan! All those Evil Republicans who thought they would sweep into power next fall will think twice, now that they know the job comes with no health benefits.

I can’t stop laughing at these morons, and the imbeciles who voted for them and defend them, and told us how these wise solons knew exactly what was in the bill and that we were fools for not understanding it.

[Lte morning update]

Maybe they should complain to the White House. After all, the president told us all that “if you like your current plan, you can keep it.”

Hilarious.

Political Commentary

Repeal Looks Like A Winning Issue

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Even without “replace”:

Forty-seven percent (47%) of voters believe repeal of the health care bill will be good for the economy. Thirty-three percent (33%) disagree.

Eighty-eight percent (88%) of Republicans and 54% of voters not affiliated with either major party favor repeal. Sixty-one percent (61%) of Democrats are opposed. Republican support for repeal is up eight points from a week ago, while Democratic opposition is down seven.

Not a good trend for the Donkeys. But as is general with such trends, it’s good for the country.

Political Commentary, Space

An Interesting Fear

77 Comments

I often have a sense that opponents of the new policy fear it not because they are afraid that private enterprise isn’t up to the job, but because they are afraid that it is. Here’s an example of what I mean, over in comments at the Lori Garver interview:

Simply speaking the reset button has been hit again and once more our astronauts are left standing on the pad with no ship to take them to where no man has gone before. We will one day get back to the moon, but my only fear is that the landing will be covered live by a CNN crew who landed on the last Virgin Galactic flight.

This is an interesting comment, and I’d like to understand more. First, what does the commenter mean by “we”? Does he (or she) mean the nation? Does he mean NASA? Does he mean literally himself and others?

And does he fear it because it is a non-American company? Or because it’s a private company?

If he means that his fear is that NASA will get to the moon, but be (as I’ve noted in the past) greeted by the concierge at the Lunar Hilton, why does he “fear” it? Do any of my readers have such a fear? If so, why? Do you think it a rational fear (in the sense that it is actually something to be feared, independent of how likely it is to occur)?

Space

Two Space Anniversaries

9 Comments

Today is the forty-ninth anniversary of the first human spaceflight (and human in orbit). Yuri Gagarin orbited the earth (or almost orbited the earth — it’s unclear if he can be said to have gone quite all the way around) on this date in 1961, which means that next year will be a half century of human spaceflight. It’s also the twenty-ninth anniversary of the first Shuttle flight, so if the program is shut down on schedule, it will have flown for almost exactly thirty years. Let’s hope that the next half century sees much more progress than the last one did.

Political Commentary

Why Health Care Is Not A Right

78 Comments

Ed Morrissey explains. But people who don’t understand, or care about the Constitution (like this Congressman who is apparently in perpetual violation of his oath of office) won’t get it. And I liked the question about whether sex is a human right. If I was asking that question of a clueless attractive female, I’d follow up with, “Then you’ll have sex with me, right? Let’s go find a room.” And if/when she refused, I’d accuse her of violating my human rights. Or she’d have sex with me. So it would be win-win.

Political Commentary, Space

More Ignorance

38 Comments

A point that Jim Muncy (or Henry Vanderbilt, or both) made last night in the wrap-up session was that he have to keep stamping down this nonsense that the new policy is the end of human spaceflight. Unfortunately, it’s like whack-a-mole. Here’s the latest, over at American Thinker:

America’s subsequent triumph in space, as the first and only nation to land men on the moon and safely return them, is the greatest achievement of the 20th century. So it makes perverted sense for Obama to destroy our pride in this matchless accomplishment and stage our humiliation before the world. America, which once deployed masterly innovation, commitment and daring to vanquish the Soviets in space, is now deliberately stranding seven astronauts in orbit with no way home except to hitch a ride from the Russians. We’ve surrendered the New Frontier.

The symbolism is breathtaking. From now on, whenever we remember with pride the courage and sacrifice of the Mercury astronauts, or Neil Armstrong taking “One small step for a man, one giant step for mankind,” or Jim Lovell and the crew of Apollo 13 calmly tinkering with duct tape to repair their capsule, we’ll quickly deflate with the afterthought: “Oh yeah. Now the Russians do that. We don’t.” There will always be a punchline, an asterisk, an anti-climactic stain at the end of the story.

Hey, lady? News flash. That was the Bush administration policy. And with that plan, we were not only going to be without a means to get to the space station before 2017 (and likely later), but at that point in time, we wouldn’t even have a space station. So if you’re going to complain about “surrender in space,” you’re six years late, and blaming the wrong guy.

Space

An Evolving Armadillo And Other Space Access Stuff

1 Comment

Jeff Foust has a report on John Carmack’s talk on Thursday over at New Space Journal. I’m scrounging around looking for other reports on the conference, but I think that Clark’s is the most comprehensive. Henry Cate has quite a few posts, as does Doug Messier, but no permalink for conference posts in general, so for now (as with Clark Lindsey’s) scroll down.

[Sunday evening update]

Here’s the permalink to Clark’s conference compilation.

Media Criticism, Political Commentary

Decapitation

16 Comments

When I saw this on the news this morning, the first word that came to my mind was “Katyn.” Apparently, the same thing happened to Arthur Chrenkoff and Richard Ferndandez.

When I heard it went down in bad weather, it also made me think of this, which to me remains suspicious. Given the nature of the reporting on that one, I’m disinclined to trust any early reporting on this event.

[Update a few minutes later]

I should note that I wrote this before hearing that they had been on their way to commemorate the massacre, and linked the other two pieces based on headlines only. So the resonance is even stronger than I had realized. This will be a very unsettling event for eastern Europe. It should be for western Europe as well, but it probably won’t.

Biting Commentary about Infinity…and Beyond!