A worth-repeating quote from Henry Spencer (a Canadian) over at sci.space.policy a few days ago:
>> Of course, I don’t expect that this fact
>>will make the politics of launching
>> a nuclear engine much easier.
>
> Oh it will happen. It’s just that manned space
> exploration is passing away from the
> democraciesthat are too narcissistic to care.
Nonsense. What we’ve seen so far (and what NASA is trying to return to) is just incidental dabbling. The days of real space exploration by free men still lie ahead, and in fact are getting pretty close. The cartoons are ending, and the curtain is about to go up on the main feature.
If all this sounds bizarre and fantastic, you need to stop thinking in terms of the socialist dream — spaceflight for the glory of the almighty state, the way NASA does it — and start considering the sort of space exploration that free people might do for their own reasons. It’s already possible to fly in space for any reason you think sufficient, if you’ve got the price of the ticket. It hasn’t worked out quite the way we thought — who would have *imagined* a world in which the only commercial spaceline requires you to learn Russian to get a seat assignment?!? — and it’s too damned expensive, but these nuisances will change soon, when real competition begins.
NASA will never, ever put men on Mars. Their target date for it is receding more than a year per year. But the first footprints on Mars almost certainly will be those of free men.
What is most missing from the left in America is an element of grace–of civic grace, democratic grace, the kind that assumes disagreements are part of the fabric, but we can make the fabric hold together. The Democratic Party hasn’t had enough of this kind of thing since Bobby Kennedy died. What also seems missing is the courage to ask a question. Conservatives these days are asking themselves very many questions, but I wonder if the left could tolerate asking itself even a few. Such as: Why are we producing so many adherents who defy the old liberal virtues of free and open inquiry, free and open speech? Why are we producing so many bullies? And dim dullard ones, at that.
Just as torturing helpless animals as a child is a good sign of a psychopath, corrupt politicans usually cut their teeth on land deals.
And in an email, Dennis Wingo explains what Harry Reid did:
First, Harry buys the land for $400k in 1998.
Second, he sells it in 01 (before the Bush tax cuts) for $400k, with no net capital tax gain.
Third, he sells it again in 04 and pays personal capital tax gain at 15% the rate in 04.
This is a $165k tax on a $1.1M sale.
If that had been a sale through a company, the sale would have been taxed at the corporate tax rate of 35% or $385k. The difference is $220k in his pocket by the way that he accounted for the sale.
Frankly, I would love to see the Republicans lose power, because they deserve to. Unfortunately, there’s no way to do that without having the Democrats win, which they don’t deserve, and the country would suffer for it. And not fake, hysterical suffering like the fantasies of the Bush haters.
Oh, and if we had more Republicans like Dick Armey, who came down with both feet on idiotarian bully James Dobson, the party would be in a lot better shape. What we need is an army of Armeys.
Next time they call people fascists, some of these folks need to look in the mirror.
[Update a couple minutes later]
Jonah Goldberg (with whom I had the pleasure of chatting for a few minutes last night) has related thoughts.
So much of the demonization of conservatives from liberals in the last fifty years has worked on a formula which goes something like this: “I want use the state to impose my dreamy good intentions. Conservatives are evil. So, if they get ahold of government they will use government to do evil in the same way that we would do good.”
The illustrator for The Flintstones, and many other classic Hanna-Barbera hit cartoons, has died. I’m dating myself, but I remember being allowed to stay up and watch, and if I was good, watching Jackie Gleason and Crazy Guggenheim.
Of course, back then, we didn’t realize that Huckleberry Hound was so gay. But it seems obvious now.
The illustrator for The Flintstones, and many other classic Hanna-Barbera hit cartoons, has died. I’m dating myself, but I remember being allowed to stay up and watch, and if I was good, watching Jackie Gleason and Crazy Guggenheim.
Of course, back then, we didn’t realize that Huckleberry Hound was so gay. But it seems obvious now.