From a mail list I subscribe to:
If a Republican is elected President in November ’08, Roe v Wade is a dead fetus walking.
Of course, I think that Roe should be reversed simply because it was such an atrocious opinion, independently of my opinion on abortion. People should also understand that a reversal wouldn’t outlaw abortions, per se. It would simply restore the issue back to the states, and the political process, where it always belonged.
They’ve found a cause, and solution to the foam-falling problem that gouged the tiles on the last flight. I wasn’t sure they’d be able to do it at all, let alone this quickly. On the other hand, I think they could have continued to fly with it as is, and if they hadn’t found a solution, they should have. If it occurred again, it would only be a real problem on the Hubble mission.
I in fact think that the Shuttle is now about as safe as it can be made, and it’s in fact pretty safe. I’ll be very surprised if they lose another orbiter before they retire it. But even if I’m right, that’s no reason to not retire it (though many will attempt to keep it alive). I’ve never thought it should be retired for safety reasons (at least not because it kills astronauts occasionally). We lose people mining, in construction, driving, and even in recreation. The notion that we can’t afford to do so in space is silly. And in fact it’s ridiculous, when we’re losing people fighting a war, to argue that we can’t afford to do so to open a frontier. If we, as a nation, can’t grow up about this, and think that it’s not worth losing people occasionally. we should just give up.
As I’ve noted previously, and recently, the real problem with an unreliable Shuttle is that we can’t spare the vehicles. A reusable vehicle that’s not reliable isn’t affordable (one of the reasons that talking about “human rating” one is oxymoronic, and misses the point). And the real problem with Shuttle isn’t that it’s unsafe, but that it costs too much, for too little. There are a lot more useful things that we could be doing in space for that billion dollars per flight. Unfortunately, NASA is replacing it with a system that will be no improvement at all in that regard.
An entertaining history of the late Weekly World News:
Clontz, who died in 2004, legendarily instructed his reporters to stay out of the way, let the sources tell the story: ”You’ve got to know when to stop asking questions.” If a guy called in and said Bigfoot stole his wife, then Bigfoot stole his wife. Why fact-check your way out of that one?
”We knew our core constituency wasn’t just college kids who are laughing at everything, but many people took the stories straight up and enjoyed them for what they were,” said former WWN managing editor Sal Ivone, proud author of the tortured-genius-demands-lobotomy classic. “They didn’t want to question it. So that was the way we played it.”
For a while, readers lapped it up. Circulation peaked at 1.2 million in 1988 with a front-page edition declaring ”ELVIS IS ALIVE — and living in Kalamazoo.” The tip was phoned in by a Michigan housewife.
A story would often start with a shred of truth and then a WWN writer would ”polish” it, sometimes to brilliantly ridiculous extremes. That’s why the WWN was the only media outlet to score exclusive Hubble telescope photos of Heaven.
”I always thought of it as the ultimate in wish-fulfillment,” Ivone said.
…Ivone said running characters like Bat Boy were a byproduct of reader appetites for story arcs.
Bat Boy was one of those happy accidents that could only occur at the Weekly World News. Dick Kulpa, the WWN’s graphics genius, was Photoshopping a human child’s image into another alien baby.
Tired of the same-old, same-old, Kulpa gave the tyke pointy ears, fangs and huge eyes. Ivone, who was standing nearby, muttered: ”Bat Boy!” The rest is blissful tabloid history.
It will be missed.
Just in case you had somehow deluded yourself that Robert Fisk was sane, he’s apparently joined the 911 Truth Brigade. As someone at The Corner pointed out, the title should have been “Especially I…,” not “Even I…”
I don’t have time, but anyone want to have a go at fisking Fisk?
Just in case you had somehow deluded yourself that Robert Fisk was sane, he’s apparently joined the 911 Truth Brigade. As someone at The Corner pointed out, the title should have been “Especially I…,” not “Even I…”
I don’t have time, but anyone want to have a go at fisking Fisk?
Just in case you had somehow deluded yourself that Robert Fisk was sane, he’s apparently joined the 911 Truth Brigade. As someone at The Corner pointed out, the title should have been “Especially I…,” not “Even I…”
I don’t have time, but anyone want to have a go at fisking Fisk?
Al Maliki has asked Hillary Clinton and Carl Levin to “come to their senses.”
In all its incandescent lunacy and glory.
This is sedition (not to mention a profound misunderstanding of the Constitution and the basis of this country’s government). But then, how would an idiotic Brit visiting here be expected to know? No need to arrest him. Just deport him.
Better yet, ridicule him, as he so richly deserves. I just wish that it would have any effect on such a moron.
Of the two simultaneous missions under way – maturing a responsible government and advancing our own strategic interests – the latter is far more important. In fact, it’s vital. And on that track, we’re making stunning progress.
Out here in Anbar Province, al Qaeda did what religion-driven extremists always do eventually – they over-reached, setting the bar so high that nonfanatics couldn’t measure up (nor did they want to). The terrorists responded with a campaign of slaughter against their fellow Muslims.
Now the Sunni Arabs who were fighting so bitterly against us are fighting beside us to destroy al Qaeda in Iraq. And the terrorists are going down.
Out here in Anbar Province – long the most troubled in Iraq – the change has come so swiftly and thoroughly that it’s dazzling. Marines who were under fire routinely just months ago are now directing their former enemies in battle.
Although this trend has been reported, our battlefield leaders here agree that the magnitude of the shift hasn’t registered back home: Al Qaeda is on the verge of a humiliating, devastating strategic defeat – rejected by their fellow Sunni Muslims.
If we don’t quit, this will not only be a huge practical win – it’ll be the information victory we’ve been aching for.
No matter what the Middle Eastern media might say, everyone in the Arab and greater Sunni Muslim world will know that al Qaeda was driven out of Iraq by a combination of Muslims and Americans.
Think that would help al Qaeda’s recruitment efforts? Even now, the terrorists have to resort to lies about their prospective missions to gain recruits.