…is not an option in Afghanistan.
End The Tyranny
What kind of man would think that this is attractive?
Answer: a gay fashion designer.
How much longer are women going to allow some Paris pouf who doesn’t find women attractive to dictate what they should wear and how much they should weigh? How much longer are they going to put up with being forced to look like skinny boys with long hair (and sometimes without the long hair)? What will it take for them to rebel against the schmecker-in-a-concentration-camp look, and demand that actual voluptuous women, the kind that heterosexual men like, be considered alluring again, as they once were in the fashion world and Hollywood?
And yes, before you comment, I know that Ralph Lauren has a wife and kids. But I wouldn’t be shocked to learn that he likes guys, too. And even if he doesn’t, he goes with the anorexic flow because he thinks that’s how you make money in this sick business.
[Update a few minutes later]
How did we get from Marilyn Monroe to Kate Moss? I’m wondering if this had something to do with it. Has the pill made women want their men to look more like women, and for themselves to look more like boys? There’s a lot we don’t know about hormones.
Comment Moderation
I’ve loosened things up so that people can put a link in comments without having it held for mod. More than one will still hold it up, though.
It’s A Quagmire
The White House is bogged down in its war with Fox News:
…while the President drapes his unpopular policies with concern for the well-being of American journalism, more and more editors, reporters, and even unionized janitorial staff are beginning to oppose their commander-in-chief for trying to “win” an unwinnable war with their hands, instead of just using executive powers to ban all dissenting speech.
“I’ve been in the media for a long time, I signed up because I hate this right-wing, knuckle-dragging, imperialist system, and I would gladly sacrifice any number of my fellow Americans to advance my agenda – but this is a dumb war and a rash war,” Keith Olbermann of MSNBC told The People’s Cube outside a congressional office he visited to demand a government crackdown on dissidents. “Why must we in the field put our reputations on the line when this Congress has the power to simply confiscate Rupert Murdoch’s assets and put Beck, Hannity, and Coulter in jail?”
They seem to be losing the battle for the hearts and minds. Of course, in Olbermann’s case, there’s nothing to be won there in the latter case.
I particularly like this: “The dangerous prospect of an informed voter loomed large in the Obama administration’s plans of a pre-emptive strike.”
Mysteriouser
Talking Points Memo has a story indicating that “Country A,” where Stu Nozette reportedly left the thumb drives, was India.
[Via emailer Mitchell Burnside Clapp, who reads TPM so I don’t have to]
Orionids Peak Tonight
It should be a good show, because there will be no moon, and peak will be about 3 AM on the left coast. I don’t know if I’ll manage to get out of town, though. We both have to work in the morning, and it’s at least an hour drive to get far enough from LA to get a dark sky.
Dissecting The Deficit
Most of it is spending. This can’t go on.
Ares 1-X Rolls Out
Clark Lindsey, like me, is severely underwhelmed.
[Update in the afternoon]
Per comments, I don’t know what music they played at the rollout, but what should they have played? The theme from the Titanic?
Sounds Like The Bible
The Augustine Report will be released on Thursday:
According to information from committee insiders, the report will be long, in some cases contradictory, and also be written in a way that could leave the meaning of some of the 10-member committee’s findings open to interpretation.
This may not end well. Based on the history of space policy, that would be the way to bet.
Wow
I’ve known Stu Nozette for over thirty years. This is a shock to me:
…in January of this year, Nozette allegedly traveled to another foreign country with two computer thumb drives and apparently did not return with them. Prosecutors also quote an unnamed colleague of Nozette who said the scientist said that if the U.S. government ever tried to put him in jail for an unrelated criminal offense, he would go to Israel or another foreign country and “tell them everything” he knows.
The complaint does not allege that the government of Israel or anyone acting on its behalf violated U.S. law. In Jerusalem, Israeli government officials had no immediate comment.
The affidavit by FBI agent Leslie Martell said that on Sept. 3, Nozette received a telephone call from an individual purporting to be an Israeli intelligence officer. The caller was an undercover FBI agent.
Nozette agreed to meet with the agent later that day at a hotel in Washington and in the subsequent meeting the two discussed Nozette’s willingness to work for Israeli intelligence, the affidavit said.
Nozette allegedly informed the agent that he had, in the past, held top security clearances and had access to U.S. satellite information, the affidavit said.
The scientist also allegedly said that he would be willing to answer questions about this information in exchange for money. The agent explained that the Israeli intelligence agency, Mossad, would arrange for a communication system so Nozette could pass on information in a post office box.
Nozette agreed to provide regular, continuing information and asked for an Israeli passport, the affidavit alleged.
According to the court papers, Nozette and the undercover agent met soon afterward in the same hotel, where the scientist allegedly said that while he no longer had legal access to any classified information at a U.S. government facility, he could, nonetheless, recall classified information by memory. Nozette allegedly asked when he could expect to receive his first payment, saying he preferred cash amounts “under ten thousand” so he didn’t have to report it.
Nozette allegedly told the agent, “Well, I should tell you my first need is that they should figure out how to pay me … they don’t expect me to do this for free.”
I didn’t know he was Jewish. And maybe he’s not, but while I wouldn’t be shocked (in retrospect) to learn that he is, it seems more mercenary than ideological. I wonder if he was in financial trouble, or if something snapped after working in frustration for the government for three decades, with little progress in space. I mean, what “other foreign country”? It seems to be more anti-US than pro-Israel.
I hope it’s not true, but at least from the news reports, it’s pretty damning. I got an email from someone earlier tonight saying “First Courtney, now this,” but I think that this is a completely different class of…misjudgement, and I wouldn’t put them in the same box at all.
[Tuesday morning update]
Here’s the story at the WaPo.
[Mid-morning update]
NASA Watch has more links.