Political Commentary

It’s Not Just Well-Aged Beef

6 Comments

It’s rotten:

In the 60 pages of words, there’s hardly a major new idea or an idea that departs significantly from the Democratic Party’s agenda since the New Deal. It’s all here: the activist government, the ambitious programs without reference to costs, the appeal to some people’s sense of victimization. There is also one striking omission–a list of anything that Senator Obama has actually done in the course of his brief career to advance any of these goals.

The point is that there is nothing here to back up a candidacy that is based on bringing the nation together to effect change. It’s a rehash of the same policies and programs that the Democratic Left has been pushing–largely without success–for the last 40 years. For some people, as least, the era of big government is not over.

I continue to be amazed at the willful self delusion on the part of the Democrats that either of their candidates are electable.

Economics, Humor, Philosophy, Political Commentary, Social Commentary

Idiot Alert

Over at Reason, the sad tale of a free-loader wannabe:

The group was now “out of food, hadn’t slept in days and were really cold,” and decided, in a grubby version of Dunkirk, to abandon the mission and head back to England. Boyles is disappointed-but not deterred. He is, the BBC reports, planning “to walk around the coast of Britain instead, learning French as he goes, so he can try again next year.” At which point the cycle begins anew, when, upon reaching Baden-Baden, the poor lad will realize that he should have also studied German.

As Wilde said in another context, one would have to have a heart of stone to read this and not laugh out loud.

Humor, Political Commentary

Her Next Career

Iowahawk provides a glimpse of Hillary!’s future in the restaurant business.

Describe Incident(s) (be specific, including time)

At initial clock-in at 3:55 4/21/08, Sharon says Hillary refused to change into uniform skirt, which she said was demeaning, unflattering to legs. Hillary agreed to wear skirt only after lengthy argument between Sharon and Hillary’s attorneys. After numeorous complaints from customers, Hillary allowed to wear pants.

On 4/22/08, Sharon arrived for dinner shift, found restaurant unstaffed. Entire crew was in breakroom, where they said Hillary forced them to attend something called “Sausage Pricing Taskforce.”

Disciplinary Action:

Verbal reprimand; ordered new pantsuit uniform from District 6 Supply (size 18 short)

It gets better, naturally.

Space

Me, Too

Clark Lindsey, in response to NASA’s “rebuttal” of Ares criticism:

Still waiting for a sensible rebuttal to the rumor that the Ares I is a stupendously overpriced way to send people into space in the 21st Century.

[Update a few minutes later]

“Rocket Man” has some more thoughts:

“If we change the approach in architecture of Constellation…we simply won’t ever get off the ground,” King said. So instead of using either the Atlas V or Delta IV rockets, both of which are flying and building statistics, one of which is being man-rated commercially, King claims ARES involves less development risk (ahhhh, we think Atlas and Delta are already developed, Dave), would be about a fifth cheaper (ahhhh, buy Atlas and Delta in quantity and see what happens to the price, Dave), and twice as safe for the astronauts on board (ahhhh, paper is always safer than the real thing, Dave, you know that).

No, the reason for the dissension is not coming from the contractors who lost as the Emperor theorized and King echoed. The reason for the debate is that ARES is no longer heritage hardware being employed as designed and King’s own folks can’t see how to make it work. From the casings, to the fuel mix, to the addition of segments, to the control systems, ARES is brand new from the inside out. The upcoming ARES 1-x test flight is a hoax designed to generate momentum, not to test as-designed hardware. King’s premonition scare tactics (“If we continue to argue over how to accomplish this mission, we run the risk of losing the opportunity to do the work.”) will come to pass, not because of the arguments, but because no one stopped long enough to have the arguments in the first place.

Yup. If this program fails, it will be entirely on the heads of the people who chose this flawed architecture, not its critics.

Popular Culture, Social Commentary, Technology and Society

What’s The Point?

Sarah Pullman is very unhappy with Facebook’s privacy policy.

OK, I got a Facebook account last fall, at the urging of several people, who told me that I simply had to have one (though they could never actually explain why). I’ve yet to figure it out myself. I’ve gotten no discernible benefit from it (of course, I haven’t invested much time in it, either). Can anyone explain to me what the big deal is, and what I’m missing out on if I don’t have an account, or don’t use the one I have?

[Update late morning]

While we’re on the subject, here’s an article on which is better for business: Facebook or LinkedIn?

Popular Culture, Social Commentary, Technology and Society

What’s The Point?

Sarah Pullman is very unhappy with Facebook’s privacy policy.

OK, I got a Facebook account last fall, at the urging of several people, who told me that I simply had to have one (though they could never actually explain why). I’ve yet to figure it out myself. I’ve gotten no discernible benefit from it (of course, I haven’t invested much time in it, either). Can anyone explain to me what the big deal is, and what I’m missing out on if I don’t have an account, or don’t use the one I have?

[Update late morning]

While we’re on the subject, here’s an article on which is better for business: Facebook or LinkedIn?

Biting Commentary about Infinity…and Beyond!