Space

A Hundred And Four Years

That’s how long it’s been since the Wrights first launched their first airplane from the dunes of Kitty Hawk. That also means, now, that it’s been four years since the X-Prize was won. We haven’t made as much progress since then as many of us hope, but I think that things are moving along reasonably well. I in fact expect to see an acceleration of suborbital activity, in the near future, with John Carmack hoping to fly into space in the next two years. I think it was Arthur Clarke who pointed out that we tend to be overoptimistic in the short run, and overpessimistic in the long run, partly because we tend to think linearly.

Anyway, I’m going to reprint my thoughts from four years ago, including links to two other pieces that I wrote at National Review and TCSDaily (then TechCentralStation).

Continue reading A Hundred And Four Years →

Political Commentary

The GodFather Candidate

Huckabee on foreign policy.

I can’t believe that this guy could really get the Republican nomination. And of course, just because he’s in the lead doesn’t mean that he has a good chance, since he only has a plurality, not a majority, and seems unlikely to get one. And if he does somehow get the nomination, I can’t see the party rallying behind him.

Technology and Society

Reclaiming the First Amendment

Ron Paul’s supporters and a former Federal Election Commissioner are turning the operation of political speech inside out by turning individual donors into political organizations and the delivery vehicle (pun intended) into a for-profit universal-access media company. Bravo! Or as On the Media puts it:

…a campaign reform loophole as big as the Ron Paul blimp.

Expect ever tighter epicycles from the FEC to try to hold back the Internet and the innovative business processes that low transactions costs make available via personal computers and the Internet. They will nullify all limitations on free speech.

Political Commentary

More Thoughts On The Second Amendment

This is for “Hillary Supporter.” Glenn Reynolds disputes someone who still fantasizes that it’s about the national guard.

[Late Sunday update]

For those who have already read Glenn’s post, you might want to do so again–he has an update:

…it’s important to understand that to the Framers the “militia” wasn’t some specialist unit of government employees, but a group consisting of the armed populace; one that, though in some ways organized by the government, was also in some ways set against the government, as a check. As Akhil Amar says, think jurors, but with guns. Thus, any reading of the Second Amendment that would allow the government to extinguish that militia is impermissible, since it would lead to a state that is insecure, or unfree.

Also, on his comment that “…the ‘militia’ was said to consist of ‘the body of the people’) was essential as a check on government power, the government couldn’t be allowed to disarm it by neglect.”

Doesn’t that imply that we should have federal subsidies for firearms for US citizens?

You know, an affirmative action program for gun purchasers? Wouldn’t anything less be neglect? The more firepower, the bigger the check you get from Washington?

Leave no gun owner behind? 😉

Administrative

Still No Linux Joy

OK, is it just me? Even after fixing my Amazon search problem by moving it to the center column, it is still not showing up in Firefox in Fedora. Can anyone else running that browser/OS confirm the same problem? If my computer is the only one in the world that doesn’t see it, I can deal with it, but I’d hate to think that a lot of my readers aren’t.

Political Commentary

Toss Them Overboard

I’m reminded by a commenter that today is the 234th anniversary of the Boston Tea Party. I had never really thought about the date before–it hadn’t occurred to me that it took place in the winter in Boston. What did Narragansetts wear in that clime?

Anyway, sometimes, particularly given how little difference there is between the two parties, I think we’re overdue for another one.

This little counterfactual (for people who came here via Instapundit) is one of the reasons.

War Commentary

Why The Terrorists Hate Us

Because we put birds inside other birds.

Just an extreme example of the lunacy and denial on the part of the left about the Islamists.

And here are some related thoughts on denial in Canada about the Religion of Peace™:

It’s cultural, it’s because of colonialism, it’s because of Palestine, because of Iraq, because of misunderstanding. Because of anything other than Islam.

Only a bigot would argue that every Muslim was violent or opposed to Western freedom. But only a coward or a liar would argue that there was not a profound and deeply worrying link between conservative Islam and myriad acts of terror, intolerance and hysterical anger.

Biting Commentary about Infinity…and Beyond!