…about the Ten Commandments. [Keyboard warning, and you need bandwidth]
Lee Harvey Oswald’s Other Victims
Did the ideals of The New Frontier die with Jack Kennedy? It’s an interesting explanation of how many Democrats seem to have become Oswalds, rather than Kennedys, and why JFK would probably be unable to get the presidential nomination of the party today.
Also, some interesting related thoughts by a commenter at Dr. Sanity’s place. The totalitarian impulse of the communists didn’t die–it just became subsumed into the Democrat Party.
Lee Harvey Oswald’s Other Victims
Did the ideals of The New Frontier die with Jack Kennedy? It’s an interesting explanation of how many Democrats seem to have become Oswalds, rather than Kennedys, and why JFK would probably be unable to get the presidential nomination of the party today.
Also, some interesting related thoughts by a commenter at Dr. Sanity’s place. The totalitarian impulse of the communists didn’t die–it just became subsumed into the Democrat Party.
Lee Harvey Oswald’s Other Victims
Did the ideals of The New Frontier die with Jack Kennedy? It’s an interesting explanation of how many Democrats seem to have become Oswalds, rather than Kennedys, and why JFK would probably be unable to get the presidential nomination of the party today.
Also, some interesting related thoughts by a commenter at Dr. Sanity’s place. The totalitarian impulse of the communists didn’t die–it just became subsumed into the Democrat Party.
New Car Rentals: Smaller, Better, More Expensive
Watch a flexible economy re-price capital in real time. A subcompact is renting for more than an SUV in Boston from Avis according to WSJ. This is a strong signal (though not the first) that it is time to retool. Honda is building new plants to churn out hundreds of thousands of hybrids that will hit the market in a few years.
What Have The Pythons Done For Us
Jim McCormick dissects the latest Roman-bashing revisionism, over at Albion’s Seedlings.
Barking Sea Spiders
I’m taking Patricia out to dinner tonight, then putting her on a red eye back to Florida, and I’m going up to Mojave tomorrow, so probably light posting for the next day or so. To hold you over, though, read about the latest ground-breaking research in fish f@rts. Let the japery in the comments section commence!
Us And Them
Arnold Kling reminds those who have forgotten of the asymmetric difference between us and the real enemy (i.e., not the Bush administration, which seems to be the real enemy to much of the left, and too much of the Democrat Party):
- Many people have fled radical Muslim regimes to live in the U.S. Hardly anyone has fled the U.S. to live under radical Muslim regimes.
- In the United States, women are allowed to choose whether or not to wear modest clothing. Radical Muslims deny them that right, as well as others.
- Americans who abuse enemy prisoners cower in shame and are prosecuted. Radical Muslims celebrate war crimes, proudly display photos and videos of war crimes, and honor the criminals.
- More Iraqis would like to see the terrorists give up tomorrow than see the Americans leave tomorrow. (If there is any doubt about that, we can put the issue up for a vote in Iraq.)
- Americans see negotiations as a way to resolve differences. Radical Muslims see negotiations as a sign of weakness.
- When Muslims come to live in America, we provide them with safety, tolerance, and equal rights. Jews and Christians do not enjoy equal rights — or even safety — inside countries run by radical Muslim regimes.
- The American military is trained to try to minimize civilian casualties. For radical Muslims, civilian casualties are a measure of success.
- Americans go to war reluctantly, when other means fail. Radical Muslims accept cease-fires reluctantly, when other means fail.
- Americans desire the approval and support of the European people. Radical Muslims desire the intimidation and submission of the European people.
- If radical Muslims would renounce violence, then we would not disturb them. If we renounce violence, then we will be conquered and brutalized.
A Boom In Spaceports?
What I found interesting was this, though:
The FAA also is considering two proposed spaceports in Texas, including a private spaceport on 165,000 acres of desolate ranch land about 120 miles east of El Paso bought by Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos. Bezos had said his space tourism firm, Blue Origin, would first build basic structures, then begin flight tests in six to seven years.
Six to seven years? I thought that they wanted to do suborbital tourism, at least initially. Why would it take six to seven years, given that they’ve been working on it for a number of years already? It makes me wonder how serious Mr. Bezos is about this business, because that would put him way behind the competition (though perhaps he thinks that his design will be so superior that it won’t matter).
One of the dangers of having too much money is that you’re sometimes willing to spend it with no expectations of getting it back, so it’s treated more as a hobby. John Carmack has noted this explicitly in the past with respect to Armadillo (though he may be evolving it into a business), but is Blue Origin similar?
Prizes And Privates
Over at today’s issue of The Space Review, Robin Snelson writes about NASA’s latest (and very interesting) Centennial Challenge, to demonstrate lunar landing technology. Also Jeff Foust writes about Elon Musk and SpaceX’s status, and there’s an interview with Newt Gingrich, on space prizes, private enterprise, and NASA.
[Update a few minutes later]
I just got around to reading the Gingrich interview myself, and clearly, under a (hypothetical, and unlikely) Gingrich administration, space policy would look much different:
I am for a dramatic increase in our efforts to reach out into space, but I am for doing virtually all of it outside of NASA through prizes and tax incentives. NASA is an aging, unimaginative, bureaucracy committed to over-engineering and risk-avoidance which is actually diverting resources from the achievements we need and stifling the entrepreneurial and risk-taking spirit necessary to lead in space exploration.
And he’s just warming up. I’m sure that Mark Whittington will now attack Newt as an “Internet rocketeer.”
[Update at 1 PM PDT]
I had been unaware of the schedule controversy described in the comments. It would be interesting to see a response from Ken Davidian or Brant Sponberg.