I sent some money to the Kerry campaign, before I stopped payment on the check.
Tolerance
Mark Steyn says that our supposed betters in Europe have it backwards:
In 2002 and 2003, I took a couple of two-legged, mini fact-finding trips – first to western Europe, then on to the Middle East. And both times I was struck by the way the Muslims of Araby were far less inflamed than those in the alienated immigrant ghettoes around Paris and Amsterdam. Life in the West, exposure to the self-loathing platitudes of Anglican clerics, these are the sort of things that seem to inflame Muslims. Many of the wackiest Islamists from Richard Reid to Zacarias Moussaoui to Metin Kaplan are products of the enervated Europe symbolised by the Rev Mark Beach…
…[The Islamists’] most effective guerrillas aren’t in the Hindu Kush, where it is the work of moments to drop a daisycutter on the mighty Pashtun warrior. They’re travelling light on the bridle-paths of Europe – the small cells that operate in the nooks and crannies of a free society, while politicians cling to the beaten tracks – old ideas, multicultural pieties and a general hope that things will turn out for the best.
Lies, Damned Lies, And Aerospace Cost Estimates
Dwayne Day has a long, but worthwhile description of how bad the reporting has been on the president’s space initiative, and the source of the mythical trillion dollar program.
Jeff Foust has a related piece on how badly the administration and particularly NASA has handled the media, with the danger that this president’s space initiative may share the fate of his father’s.
I remain very concerned about this program, because I think that the approach is fundamentally technically flawed. If Dennis Wingo is right, they’ve narrowed down the trade space far too much too early, by looking at a binary decision between building at ISS with EELVs (a bad idea for two reasons–ISS and EELV) or building a heavy lifter and replicating Apollo. Either approach will result in a program that’s ultimately unsustainable, if it succeeds at all.
There are other options, but it requires new thinking that NASA is clearly not yet ready for. I think that the president’s initiative would have a much better chance if he had set up a clean new agency, rather than giving it to the existing NASA, just as we did when NASA was established forty six years ago. It’s not clear that Code T as such will be able to break out of NASA think as long as it’s a code within the agency, rather than one that’s independent.
Ringing the Bell
Dennis Wingo has a lengthy criticism of Jeffrey Bell’s recent Space Daily articles.
Drawing A Blank
Jeff Goldstein, a blogging English professor (now, with 97.3 percent less postmodernism! Like Michael Moore, except smart and funny. And less than a county in size…), is looking for testimonials for his recently resurrected web site.
But I couldn’t think of one.
Mixed Message
Do the Donkeys think that this ad will be effective?
It starts by complaining about the five trillion dollar budget deficit, and then immediately segues into whines about budget cuts.
Huh?
Pressing Cultural Issue
Bluegrass is indisputably a form of jazz.
Discuss.
Speak For Yourselves
As usual, none of these mindless minions who claim to speak for the Iraqis have apparently bothered to ask them what they think.
Compare and contrast:
From Sydney to Tokyo, from Santiago, Chile, to Madrid, London, New York and San Francisco, demonstrators condemned U.S. policy in Iraq and said they did not believe Iraqis are better off or the world safer because of the war.
to
Seventy per cent of people said that things were going well or quite well in their lives, while only 29% felt things were bad.
And 56% said that things were better now than they were before the war.
Not An Endorsement He Needed
I haven’t seen Gibson’s movie, but I didn’t think that it was anti-semitic until I read this–now I’m having doubts. I doubt if Yasser thinks that the Protocols of the Elders of Zion is anti-semitic.
Why I’m Not In A Union
Geeeeez.
Go check out the idiot union rep at NASA Watch. The moron can’t even spell his name right. Maybe she’ll threaten to sue me for unfair labor practices, too, for calling her a moron and an idiot. Sorry, dear, but truth is an absolute defense against libel.
(Sorry, no permalink–maybe Keith will move this to Spaceref so future viewers of this post can find it).
And hat tip to Mike Puckett in the comments section of this post.
[Update at 9 PM PST]
I should add that I found this particular part the most moronic (and sadly, typical of leftist thinking):
You have either missed the point of the Bulletin, or you are trying to stifle Freedom of Speech.
Once again, we’re not allowed to critique dumb commentary without being accused of “stifling Freedom of Speech.” As though by the mere act of criticism, the perpetrators of free speech have been hustled off to the gulag, to speak no more.
Here’s a quarter, Virginia. Go call someone who gives a damn.
[Update on Saturday morning]
Clark Lindsey has some further thoughts (scroll down, though the beginning part about potential Centennial prizes is worth a read, too):
It also brings up the serious topic of the brother-in-law effect commonly cited by space startup companies. A potential investor initially shows great enthusiasm and seems ready to write a check but a few days later backs off after talking to a brother-in-law or other contact who works at NASA. The NASA person typically knows little about the project but bashes it anyway and influences the investor against it.
I’ve heard that the military has rules forbidding employees from expressing any such personal judgments about commercial products of possible military use because of potential conflicts of interest. Similar rules should be placed into the next NASA budget authorization.