it is precisely the weirdness of Meon Nara that proves the stubbornness and ubiquity of the ugly ideological weed we call anti-Semitism. It is a weed most commonly found among those desperate for scapegoats — such as failed Muslim societies and impoverished communist dictatorships. But South Korea ranks among the most dynamic, successful and well educated nations on Earth. The fact that Rhie’s comic could become a best-seller in this sort of locale provides bizarre but convincing proof of Ruth Wisse’s famous description of anti-Semitism as “the most successful ideology of the 20th century.”
Why won’t anti-Semitism die? The Muslim world’s bloodthirsty demonization of Israel and the Jews who inhabit it obviously plays a major role. But another factor — which is more relevant in capitalist, secular nations such as Korea — is that Rhie’s caricature of the all-powerful Jew, like all stereotypes and prejudices, has a tiny grain of truth behind it.
It’s Apparently Beyond The Ken
…of the cable news channels how profoundly uninterested I am in who the father of Anna Nicole Smith’s baby is. They seem determined to not only tell me, but tell me that they’re going to tell me, repeatedly.
It’s Apparently Beyond The Ken
…of the cable news channels how profoundly uninterested I am in who the father of Anna Nicole Smith’s baby is. They seem determined to not only tell me, but tell me that they’re going to tell me, repeatedly.
It’s Apparently Beyond The Ken
…of the cable news channels how profoundly uninterested I am in who the father of Anna Nicole Smith’s baby is. They seem determined to not only tell me, but tell me that they’re going to tell me, repeatedly.
Mystery
Whose name is missing from this article? Is this a separate deal from Benson Space Company?
Location, Location…
Few real estate agents would be surprised at how cave people chose their caves.
Hey, picking a home is so easy, a cave man can do it!
Hard Or Soft Nanotech?
The answer seems to be (unsurprisingly, at least to me) both. And that’s good news, since many have claimed “neither.”
Useless Intellectual Property
I can’t imagine any other operator even wanting to use Burt’s concept. It was a nice stunt to win the prize, but it’s certainly not scalable to an orbital system, and there are plenty of ways (perhaps even better ones) to do suborbital without it. But a patent, however pointless, probably makes some investor (perhaps including Branson, who is reportedly part owner of TheSpaceShipCompany) feel more financially secure.
Carbon Abatement Investment
“[W]hat the world
Class Warfare
And from The Nation. I’m shocked, shocked.
The whole saga is Dickens for the new millennium, but without the other half. So it’s up to us scolds at The Nation to point out the obvious. Simonyi might have spent his money fighting AIDS, or building housing for Hurricane Katrina survivors, or providing clean water to developing nations, or mosquito netting and medicine for malaria patients, or musical instruments for needy, photogenic, musically-gifted inner city school children or…well, depressingly, the list goes on and on. But picking on the follies of the rich is easy, and in this case, not particularly fun. Just think of the carbon footprint a Soyuz rocket leaves!
But the next time the bards of capitalism sing the praises of Warren Buffett, Bill Gates and the outstanding generosity of the mega-rich in the age of extreme wealth (and extreme poverty), I’ll trot out Charles Simonyi’s space odyssey as counter-example.
Indeed, Simonyi’s spending habits are a window into how the world’s wealthiest citizens consume and contribute. Worth about $1 billion, Simonyi’s no Scrooge McDuck. He’s endowed a chair at Oxford and funded the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton. In 2003, Simonyi finished 23rd in the Slate 60, the annual ranking of largest American charitable contributions, when he gave $47 million to start the Charles Simonyi Fund for Arts and Sciences. But for each act of noblesse oblige, there’s an extravagance. In Simonyi’s case, not only is he the 5th space tourist ever, he also owns the world’s 39th largest yacht, which is so big that one could, as Power and Motoryacht Magazine tell us, “easily mistake her for a military vessel.”
Woe betide a rich person who doesn’t give enough of their money away to satisfy Mr. Kim. Somehow, for people like him, I don’t think that there is ever enough.
[Sunday evening update]
Mr. Kim is taking quite a(n appropriate) beating in comments, including one from frequent commenter here, Brian Swiderski, under the pseudonym “Space Duck.”