North Korea reportedly has attacked a South Korean ship, which is sinking. It will be interesting to see the response from both Seoul and Washington. I wonder if they’d have done this if John McCain were in the White House? This may be one of those tests of Obama that Joe Biden warned us about.
A Propellant Depot Architecture
Dallas Bienhoff of Boeing presented their current concepts at a recent NASA in-space servicing workshop. It’s an impressive story of the performance leverage that a depot gives you, even with Constellation. I wonder if the trade includes dry launch in the depot case?
It’s interesting that he shows how they could use a Falcon 9, and an Atlas, but that Delta is unmentioned. Of course, now that ULA has taken over, perhaps Boeing has no institutional bias any more. I assume that this is the story that he’ll be telling at Space Access in a couple weeks, in the panel that we’ll both be on.
I’d like to see more detail on the ops (one of the slides came through as black for me). How do they propose to reuse the GTO/GEO tug? Aerobraking, or impulsively? You might want to check out some of the other papers at the link to Clark Lindsey’s site as well.
Fiscal Federalism
Is it dead? It seems to be on life support, particularly with the passage of the latest legislative atrocity, but let’s hope it’s not beyond resuscitation.
[Update a couple minutes later]
This seems related — is VAT coming? Europe, here we come.
Message To Dems
People still don’t like ObamaCare. We’re going to follow your sage advice from yesterday, Mr. President, and “bring it ongo for it.”
And it turns out Nancy Pelosi was right — we had to pass the bill to learn what was in it:
Now that the bill has been safely passed and signed into law, the mainstream press is gradually revealing the scores of delightful provisions tucked away in the 2,700 page abomination: job-killing taxes on businesses, innovation-killing taxes on medical products, suffocating regulations on individual freedoms, wealth-sapping taxes on the middle-class, unprecedented intrusions on personal privacy, unconstitutional mandates on individuals, racially discriminatory preferences for favored groups, a Ponzi-scheme-on-steroids financing mechanism, and spending on a galactic, incomprehensible scale.
Not to mention this:
The health care overhaul will cost U.S. companies billions and make them more likely to drop prescription drug coverage for retirees because of a change in how the government subsidizes those benefits.
In the first two days after the law was signed, three major companies — Deere & Co., Caterpillar Inc. and Valero Energy — said they expect to take a total hit of $265 million to account for smaller tax deductions in the future.
With more than 3,500 companies now getting the tax break as an incentive to keep providing coverage, others are almost certain to announce similar cost increases in the weeks ahead as they sort out the impact of the change.
Figuring out what it will mean for retirees will take longer, but analysts said as many as 2 million could lose the prescription drug coverage provided by their former employers, leaving them to enroll in Medicare’s program.
But “if you like your plan, you’ll be able to keep it.” Right? And just think of all the job creation this will mean. For IRS agents.
“Bring it onGo for it,” indeed. For the Democrats, that bill may be the longest suicide note in history.
[Update mid morning]
(Dr.) Paul Hsieh, on the real ObamaCare fraud.
A Federalism-Restoration Amendment
Randy Barnett is looking for feedback. Like some commenters, I think that it’s too specific with regard to health care. What we really need is something to rein in the Commerce Clause.
Celebrate Human Achievement
Joe Katzman explains why environmentalists should be grateful for technology in general, and incandescent bulbs in particular.
And be sure to turn on all your lights at the appointed hour. As Iain notes, in North Korea, as you can see from the satellite image, it’s Earth Hour 24/7/365.
I’m Confused
New Hampshire has banned fish pedicures.
It seems like a redundant and unnecessary law to me. Last time I checked, fish couldn’t afford pedicures. Not to mention that they don’t have pedis to cure. Even in New Hampshire. Though if they do, it will really upset the Discovery Institute.
And yes, before you comment, this is an Emily Litella moment.
Don’t Let The Door Hit You In Where Your Head Is
It looks like David Frum has been canned from the American Enterprise Institute.
Wow
I hadn’t realized how big Stupak’s congressional district is. It’s the entire Upper Peninsula and the top of the Lower Peninsula. I would have thought that’s Republican territory. It may be now, if it wasn’t before.
Dizzy In The No-Spin Zone
I watched this last night, and didn’t know whether to be amused or appalled:
Apparently you need to water board him to get him to admit that the IRS is going to be involved in the individual mandate. And maybe he’d even stand up to that.