Student dissidents are accusing the New York Times of being a propaganda machine for the theocracy. If only Americans could see that clearly.

Student dissidents are accusing the New York Times of being a propaganda machine for the theocracy. If only Americans could see that clearly.

Here’s a good long and detailed rundown on the NYT scandal over Jayson Blair.

I find the most interesting thing about it the source, and the voice. It’s by the NYT, written in active voice third person, as though they were another paper reporting about the competition. I assume they made that editorial decision to give it more of an air of objectivity. It’s nice not to read, “mistakes were made…”

Jonathan Rauch says that, contrary to conventional international “wisdom,” George Bush didn’t “squander” the world’s good will after September 11–he spent it. (Not a permalink, unfortunately).

I was going to note something about the story (available from several sources) that Rep. Joe Barton wants to shut down the Shuttle program because it might kill astronauts. Either that, or fly it unmanned, which is an utterly senseless idea.

The significance of this is that the congressman is from Texas, tribal homeland of the Shuttle, and he’s on the Space and Aeronautics subcommittee. I’m not necessarily opposed to ending the current manned spaceflight program in its present form–there are several arguably good reasons to do so even if one supports humans in space, but to do it because it’s unsafe is, well, stupid. It would be yet another case of doing (possibly) the right thing for completely the wrong reason, and when we do right things for wrong reasons, it dramatically diminishes the possibility of doing follow-up right things.

Anyway, fortunately, I don’t have to say much, because Thomas James already has.

In case anyone’s wondering, I’m taking care of a convalescing Patricia, who had some minor surgery on a torn shoulder tendon today. She’s (only, thankfully) temporarily the one-armed woman…

What he said.

“Giving NASA managers and government contractors who have failed over and over again billions of dollars to design and build a spaceplane specifically and only for NASA’s use is the old way of doing things,” Tumlinson said.

“We don’t need one Orbital Spaceplane, we need many spaceplanes. We shouldn’t be laying off astronauts, we should be opening the space frontier for more Americans. If this is done right, NASA can get all the transportation it needs, save billions in taxpayer funds, kick start a huge new industry and along the way, the people will at last get a chance to go into space themselves.”

What he said.

“Giving NASA managers and government contractors who have failed over and over again billions of dollars to design and build a spaceplane specifically and only for NASA’s use is the old way of doing things,” Tumlinson said.

“We don’t need one Orbital Spaceplane, we need many spaceplanes. We shouldn’t be laying off astronauts, we should be opening the space frontier for more Americans. If this is done right, NASA can get all the transportation it needs, save billions in taxpayer funds, kick start a huge new industry and along the way, the people will at last get a chance to go into space themselves.”

What he said.

“Giving NASA managers and government contractors who have failed over and over again billions of dollars to design and build a spaceplane specifically and only for NASA’s use is the old way of doing things,” Tumlinson said.

“We don’t need one Orbital Spaceplane, we need many spaceplanes. We shouldn’t be laying off astronauts, we should be opening the space frontier for more Americans. If this is done right, NASA can get all the transportation it needs, save billions in taxpayer funds, kick start a huge new industry and along the way, the people will at last get a chance to go into space themselves.”

My team (to the degree that I have a team), the Detroit Tigers, started out the season as the most pathetic team in the major leagues, with a 3-25 start. They were so deep in the cellar at the end of April that they needed a shovel to get to the floor of it.

They just took four straight, and swept the Orioles.

Amazing. Wonder if this is a fluke, or a turning point?