Political Commentary, Space, Technology and Society

A Space Libertarian Follow Up

7 Comments

I just ran across this (five-year-old) post of mine that seems relevant to the recent discussion (which has a fascinating discussion by Carl Pham in comments on the nature of law, dictatorships and the state):

As a comment outside the context of the debate, Dr. Kurtz’ position is one shared by many, but the point is not that space is by its nature a libertarian utopia, any more than (and yes, I know he dislikes the analogy, but that doesn’t make it invalid) were the Americas two and a half centuries ago. Yet somehow we created a form of government here previously unseen in the history of the world, that was quite libertarian in philosophy (certainly much more so than either major party today).

From the standpoint of forming new societies, the point of settling space is that it’s a tabula rasa, and that many different groups and ideologies will find room there to do social experimentation. This is a factor that is independent of technology. Yes, cooperation will be required, and perhaps even laws, but there’s nothing intrinsically unlibertarian about that. Ignoring teleological arguments about our duty to be the vessels that bring consciousness to the universe, this is to me the greatest value of space–an ongoing large petri dish in which groups of like-minded people can continue to seek improvements on society, unconstrained by existing governmental strictures that are now dominant on this planet.

There’s some good discussion in comments there as well.

Media Criticism, Political Commentary

From Christianism To Europeanism

2 Comments

Some thoughts:

Liberals are determined to mock and ridicule the notion that Obama’s moving America in a European direction. But of course he is. Liberals have been — unapologetically — pushing America in that direction for generations.

Anyway, what I didn’t get into in the column is how this contrasts with the theocracy-panic of five minutes ago. Back then, the liberal consensus was that we need to be very, very, very scared that the bible thumpers were going to take over everything and turn us into a Handmaid’s Tale (itself a classic example of paranoid fiction). But back then, if I had suggested that America’s rich history of religious tolerance and pluralism could stand up to the Orwellian onslaught of Bush’s Office of Faith Based Initiatives, I would have been laughed off as ludicrously naive.

But when Obama is literally spending trillions of dollars to move us in a European direction, conservatives like Mark Steyn, Charles Murray, and others are supposedly daft for thinking this is anything worth worrying about.

It’s just the substitution of one religion for another — worship of the state.

Space

Too Big A Leap?

12 Comments

Doug Messier wonders if Scaled and Virgin bit off more than they can chew with SpaceShipTwo.

I agree with him that it was a mistake to not fly SpaceShipOne more (and perhaps even commercialize it). I think that they made two misjudgements (well, actually, three). Their determination to stick with a hybrid, the initial decision to develop it within Scaled instead of subcontracting, and an overabundance of faith in Burt (which wasn’t helped by his health problems a couple years ago, though he’s reportedly much better now). The explosion cost them at least a year, and probably more, now that they’ve let a new subcontract to SpaceDev for the propulsion. They would have been a lot better off to just go with a liquid from the beginning (as some of us suggested to them). It might have been too risky to rely on XCOR for SpaceShipOne, because they didn’t yet have the track record, but they should have considered them (or someone else, such as Armadillo) for the new vehicle.

I wonder if they’ve been schedule constrained by budget? If not, a 2011 service date (six years after program start) puts into question the ability of private industry (at least this particular team) to do things much faster than the government.

Political Commentary

The Gift That Keeps On Not Giving

14 Comments

Is anyone surprised that the DVDs that the president gave Gordon Brown don’t work in British players?

By the way, when Obama’s unlikely gift was disclosed, a reader emailed me to ask if Clueless was among the films. Funnily enough, it was not.

Me, neither.

[Update a few minutes later]

Iowahawk called this a week and a half ago.

[Friday morning update]

Barack Obama, unplugged — it’s a Special Olympics presidency.

And more from Mark Steyn:

I haven’t run into Gordon Brown in over a decade, but my memory of the last time I met him in a TV green room is of a glowering misanthropic type who enjoys nursing a grudge. What doesn’t go around (in the DVD player) comes around. When the President and his Teleprompter visit London for the G20 summit in a couple of weeks, it would be a tragedy were Barack Oprompta to rise for his big speech to find nothing but the words “Wrong Region” flashing on his screen (although I’m sure the Queen would be very polite and string along and make all the swells stand up and join the toast to “Ron Region”, whoever he is).

But don’t forget, folks: Somewhere in Texas a village has been reunited with its idiot, and we now have the whip-smartest administration of David Brooks’ lifetime.

The sycophancy of the press is truly disgusting, particularly after the way they bashed George Bush for eight years.

So, whose words were the “Special Olympics” line, his or TOTUS’? Or is Joe Biden writing his material for him now?

[Off to check…]

Heh. TOTUS says “Don’t blame me, I didn’t do it.”

Okay, I see the bus coming right at me, so let’s be clear: this was His ad lib.

It’s OK, we believe you. Hang in there. You have a tough job.

[Late morning update]

More from Powerline:

Can you imagine the Democrats’ reaction if the Bush White House had given a European head of state a set of DVDs that can only be played on North American machines? It would have been conclusive proof of Bush’s provincialism, lack of sensitivity to our allies’ sensibilities, ignorance of the wider world, techno incompetence, failure to appreciate the superiority of European civilization, blah blah blah. That’s how it would have been reported and editorialized on in every newspaper. So let’s check tomorrow’s papers and see whether that’s how Obama’s gaffe is covered. Or whether it’s covered at all.

I’m not going to waste my time looking.

Business, Economics, Political Commentary, Social Commentary

Downsizing?

14 Comments

There may be a new trend in the Midwest:

Temporary Mayor Michael Brown made the off-the-cuff suggestion Friday in response to a question at a Rotary Club of Flint luncheon about the thousands of empty houses in Flint.

Brown said that as more people abandon homes, eating away at the city’s tax base and creating more blight, the city might need to examine “shutting down quadrants of the city where we (wouldn’t) provide services.”

He did not define what that could mean — bulldozing abandoned areas, simply leaving the vacant homes to rot or some other idea entirely.

Presumably, those areas would go back under the jurisdiction of the county, like other unincorporated areas, including policing by the Sheriff rather than city police.

Science And Society, Social Commentary, Weird

The Really Big O

1 Comment

I am not qualified to render an opinion on this subject:

The idea that birth can be orgasmic isn’t new. The British birth guru Sheila Kitzinger says that she has met “hundreds” of women during the course of her career who report experiencing orgasm during labour – some were hoping for it, others were taken completely by surprise. She herself has experienced it during three of her four labours (she has five daughters: one birth was twins). “It is difficult for a man to understand,” she says “hard, too, for any woman who has had an average hospital birth. But it can be one of the most profound psychosexual experiences in a woman’s life. Each contraction may bring a rush of joy so overwhelming that the pain recedes into the background.” She puts this partly down to simple biology. “The pressure of the baby’s head against the walls of the vagina and the fanning out of the tissues as the head descends bring for some women an unexpected sensation of sexual arousal, even of ecstasy.” But is this really an orgasm? Or just a very unusual sensation? “It can be orgasmic. People recognise it as an orgasm. And it can be a multiple orgasm, one with each push.”

Well, there can be a fine line between pain and pleasure, particularly when it comes to this sort of pain and pleasure.

Biting Commentary about Infinity…and Beyond!