Business, Media Criticism, Space

More Space Misreporting

14 Comments

There’s a story over at the Grauniad today about the dotcom space millionaires, featuring Elon Musk and SpaceX. As usual, the reporter doesn’t understand what Constellation is/was:

His confidence has been boosted following last month’s decision by President Barack Obama to drop funding for the Constellation programme – the Nasa spacecraft intended to replace the space shuttle, which is to be grounded later this year.

Once again, Constellation is not now, and never was, a “replacement” for the Space Shuttle. If anything, it’s a replacement for Apollo. It’s an architecture of vehicles designed to get humans back to the moon, including launchers, capsule, earth-departure stages, and lunar lander and ascent vehicle. And the only parts that are really being cancelled are the Ares I launcher and the Orion crew module, because none of the rest of it was scheduled to start development for years.

Beyond that, the reporter doesn’t seem to understand the difference between suborbital and orbital, saying that Falcon I went to suborbit. Well, the first one did, but the other four went to orbit, albeit only the last two with full success. And all five were intended to.

Media Criticism, Political Commentary

You Know What’s Worse Than Being A Racist?

70 Comments

Falsely accusing others of racism. Even if Clyburn did hear the N-word, (I think he’s probably lying), it doesn’t justify tarring (and I choose that word deliberately) everyone at the protest. This, and similar comments by Janeane Garafolo, is contemptible. And I and a lot of other people are getting pretty damned tired of it.

[Update a couple minutes later]

I agree with Dana Loesch:

I mean, if you’re going to smear a group of people by claiming that they were shouting slurs, perhaps make sure you don’t post video that completely refutes your claim and makes you look like a race hustler. Just saying.

That’s exactly what it is: race hustling. Identity prostitution and the Democrat party is the biggest pimp of all. To say nothing of Al Gore’s fleecing of the Cheyenne and Arapaho (I take interest in indigenous affairs because of my family’s proud heritage); the evisceration of under-privileged kids in DC to go to better schools via vouchers; Obama bringing in Sharpton to quiet the black community’s concerns that the administration’s economic policies are hurting them; or the cover up of the Gladney hate crime (and the socialists who called him an array of slurs); Democrats use minorities as nothing more than tools to claim power. It’s disgusting and as many, including Jay Stewart, Andre Harper, Charles Lollar, Stephanie Rubach, and others have said, inherently racist. These activists have spent so much of their lives asking the Democrats where is the progress? and pointing out how certain policies destroy their communities.

Socialists go about their concern for civil rights in the same manner that fake Christians go about their faith: they only take it out for the times they think people are watching or when they think that they could gain something from it. They hang it up in the closet when not in use.

And they keep them on the “liberal” plantation. Where they want to put all of us, and this bill, if it survives the vote and the courts, will be a big step in that direction.

Space

David Brin On Space Exploration

26 Comments

There are some videos over at Next Big Future. I have no comments on them, because I haven’t taken the time to watch them yet, but some of my readers may be interested. It will be nice when it gets cheap to transcribe things like this.

I will say, though (as I often think) that it would be nice to banish the word “exploration” from the discussion. Brin appears to be talking about a lot more than that. That was a perhaps fatal flaw with the Bush plan — calling it the Vision for Space Exploration. As long as we think that we’re doing “exploration,” it opens up a hole big enough to fly a shuttle through for opponents to say, “let’s do it with robots.” What we needed was a vision for space development and a vision for space settlement. Once you get buy-in for that, the notion of doing it without people becomes instantly absurd.

Business, Economics, Political Commentary

Obama’s Middle-Class Squeeze

83 Comments

I’m shocked, shocked:

The hardest hit won’t be those earning more than $250,000 a year–the group that he says needs to “pay their fair share.” Rather, it’s families whose combined annual income is around $100,000 who could be crushed under this plan.
Many of these middle-class families will probably opt to pay the federal fine, and go without health insurance until they get sick.

These folks will be too “rich” to qualify for ObamaCare’s subsidies, but probably too poor to easily afford the pricey insurance that the president’s plan forces them to buy.

Many of these $100K families will be obliged to buy a policy costing an average of $14,700 for the mid-level, “silver” health plan, according to the Congressional Budget Office’s estimates. After income taxes, they’ll be spending almost a quarter of their net income for health insurance.

I think that if you pass a law that requires you to purchase something, and it’s enforced by the IRS, it’s not unfair to call it a tax. And it’s another demonstration that every one of Obama’s statements (this one about no raising taxes on people making less than a quarter million) has an expiration date.

[Late afternoon update]

A commenter asks what he can do to fight this in the final hours. This looks like a good place to start. Whatever your political affiliation, if you want to stop this, it’s all up to the Republicans at this point, and you’re going to have to help them this weekend, if not in the future. Don’t look for any help from the Democrats.

Education, History, Popular Culture

Daniel Boone Was A Man

31 Comments

A big man. Fess Parker has died. We used to see him when we went to the Fess Parker winery up north of Los Olivos. I wonder how many kids today know who Daniel Boone or Davy Crockett were?

[Evening update]

I am negligent, given the occasion and timing, in not linking to Davy Crockett’s famous speech on his obligation to the Constitution. Sadly, we live in a time when not many of either party give much of a damn about it, but certainly not the Democrats.

Political Commentary, Space

Hardball

30 Comments

“Sell your vote, and we will publish it.”

Sounds good to me. That’s just called political accountability. I also like the threat that any nominations for sold votes will be held by the Senate.

Speaking of which, there’s an interesting rumor over at Human Events:

Rep. Bart Gordon (D-Tenn.) who announced his retirement from Congress has been promised the job of NASA administrator in exchange for his vote, and Rep. John Tanner (D-Tenn.), another retiring Democrat, has been promised an appointment as U.S. Ambassador to NATO in exchange for his vote.

It will be interesting to note any job announcements from this Tennessee duo post-House retirement. Both voted against passage of the House bill back in November.

Emphasis mine. If true, this has at least two implications. First, the administration is willing to throw Charlie Bolden under the bus. Second, they’re also willing to throw the new plans for NASA under the bus for health care, because Gordon (who just happens to be the relevant committee chairman) has expressed skepticism about them:

Even Rep. Bart Gordon (D-Tenn.), the House Science and Technology Committee chairman who has no real parochial interest in Constellation, branded NASA’s budget request “a radical departure” from the Bush-era plan twice endorsed by Congress.

Stay tuned.

[Update a few minutes later]

As I said, if it’s true. My question is: why would he even want the job, particularly if he relishes the status quo? It’s no plum.

[Update a couple minutes later]

In light of this news, you might want to listen to the live webcast of the Senate Commerce Committee hearings discussing commercial crew. It’s quite a line up. But it may or may not be relevant, depending on how the policy works out.

[Update a couple minutes later]

Clark Lindsey is following Twitter feeds on the hearings. Stafford is testifying now. Saying that we need the POR for “risk mitigation.”

I never fail to be astounded that people don’t recognize the high amount of risk with Ares.

[Early afternoon update]

Over at Space Politics, pseudonymous commenter “Major Tom” notes that this may be a recycling of an old rumor from last year, before Bolden was chosen. That is certainly possible. It would be nice to see some substantiation or verification of it.

[Update a few minutes later]

Gordon has announced that he is now a yes vote on the bill. FWIW. For some reason, no quid pro quos are discussed.

Biting Commentary about Infinity…and Beyond!