Dale Amon has pictures from Mojave that you’re unlikely to see anywhere else. They’re worth a look, even though my ugly mug is in some of them.
What He Said
Thanks, Mindles, for stating better than I could my ongoing frustration with people who assume that I’m a rabid right winger because I don’t agree with rabid left-wing positions. There’s only one part of the post with which I disagree:
Bush never saw a spending bill or entitlement he didn’t like, all small government rhetoric aside.
What “small government rhetoric”? I’ve never heard any.
I had hopes that Bush planned to shrink government, despite his talk about “compassionate conservative,” but it was hope based on faith, not evidence. All I knew was that he would be preferable to Albert Gore Jr.
I also know that he will be better than John F. Kerry.
That is to damn him with faint praise.
But I’m sure that I’ll continue to be lambasted as a right-wing Bush lover.
More SpaceShipOne Discussion
Clark Lindsey has a summary of the Av Week article.
Increasing Productivity Rocks
Let’s raise a glass to stubborn freelancers.
Another SpaceShipOne Problem
Apparently there was an attitude control failure toward the end of the burn. That could have been a vehicle (and pilot) killer if it had happened earlier.
The Definitive SpaceShipOne Show
Here’s a great photo slideshow, including a lot of pictures from the chase planes.
Another New Space Blog
Burt seems to have inspired a number of people to start blogging about space. Here’s a new entrant, called The New Space Age.
It points out some interesting quotes from John Marburger, the president’s science advisor, on the vision. He seems to be implying space settlement and resource utilization.
“The Rush To Mount More”
Mark Steyn has, I think, the definitive review of Bill Clinton’s turgid and overlong autobiography. My favorite bit:
The president appears to have accidentally modified his story and started his relationship with the comely intern several months earlier than he testified to at the time: “During the government shutdown in late 1995,” he writes, “I’d had an inappropriate encounter with Monica Lewinsky and would do so again on other occasions.”
Truly, that is one of the saddest sentences ever written. If I were the big spenders at Knopf, I’d have said: “Look, we understand that a politician with legal difficulties has to say things like ‘inappropriate encounter.’ And, if you want to write a memoir in dead pol-speak, that’s OK, we’ll pay you 20,000 bucks. But for 10 mil do us a favor and lay off the ‘I had an inappropriate encounter’ stuff. Shoot for more of ‘The shaft of light from the dying sun through the Oval Office window caught the swell of her bosom as she slid the extra-large pepperoni across the desk. I knew it was wrong. I’d penciled in that evening for bringing peace to Northern Ireland, but what the hell, the two sides of that troubled island’s sectarian conflict were separated by as deep a divide as the plunging cleavage now beckoning from her low-cut angora sweater. Ulster could wait.'”
“The Rush To Mount More”
Mark Steyn has, I think, the definitive review of Bill Clinton’s turgid and overlong autobiography. My favorite bit:
The president appears to have accidentally modified his story and started his relationship with the comely intern several months earlier than he testified to at the time: “During the government shutdown in late 1995,” he writes, “I’d had an inappropriate encounter with Monica Lewinsky and would do so again on other occasions.”
Truly, that is one of the saddest sentences ever written. If I were the big spenders at Knopf, I’d have said: “Look, we understand that a politician with legal difficulties has to say things like ‘inappropriate encounter.’ And, if you want to write a memoir in dead pol-speak, that’s OK, we’ll pay you 20,000 bucks. But for 10 mil do us a favor and lay off the ‘I had an inappropriate encounter’ stuff. Shoot for more of ‘The shaft of light from the dying sun through the Oval Office window caught the swell of her bosom as she slid the extra-large pepperoni across the desk. I knew it was wrong. I’d penciled in that evening for bringing peace to Northern Ireland, but what the hell, the two sides of that troubled island’s sectarian conflict were separated by as deep a divide as the plunging cleavage now beckoning from her low-cut angora sweater. Ulster could wait.'”
“The Rush To Mount More”
Mark Steyn has, I think, the definitive review of Bill Clinton’s turgid and overlong autobiography. My favorite bit:
The president appears to have accidentally modified his story and started his relationship with the comely intern several months earlier than he testified to at the time: “During the government shutdown in late 1995,” he writes, “I’d had an inappropriate encounter with Monica Lewinsky and would do so again on other occasions.”
Truly, that is one of the saddest sentences ever written. If I were the big spenders at Knopf, I’d have said: “Look, we understand that a politician with legal difficulties has to say things like ‘inappropriate encounter.’ And, if you want to write a memoir in dead pol-speak, that’s OK, we’ll pay you 20,000 bucks. But for 10 mil do us a favor and lay off the ‘I had an inappropriate encounter’ stuff. Shoot for more of ‘The shaft of light from the dying sun through the Oval Office window caught the swell of her bosom as she slid the extra-large pepperoni across the desk. I knew it was wrong. I’d penciled in that evening for bringing peace to Northern Ireland, but what the hell, the two sides of that troubled island’s sectarian conflict were separated by as deep a divide as the plunging cleavage now beckoning from her low-cut angora sweater. Ulster could wait.'”