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Got Milk?

Charles Johnson reports that the beverages of choice for some Islamic extremists are camel’s milk, and camel’s… urine.

Well, if you can’t tell mammary output from bladder output, maybe it’s not surprising that you can’t distinguish a skyscraper from a runway. Or your ass from a hole in the ground.

NBC News has learned that for the first time, U.S. Air Force F-15?s used thermobaric weapons Saturday against caves south of Gardez. Two of the extremely accurate, 2,000-pound thermobaric bombs were dropped into caves in eastern Afghanistan where al- Qaida and Taliban fighters were believed to be hiding, U.S. defense officials said.

The thermobaric warhead is designed to penetrate deeply into caves or tunnels, creating many times the normal pressure to propel the explosives further inside the cave and kill more people. The weapons contain ?fuel-rich? warheads that can fill tunnels with fireballs.

Hope they’ve restocked the virgin supply.

Space

The Other NASA

Bryan Preston has some heartburn over some of my space commentary (I’m not sure exactly which, because he doesn’t provide any specific links).

I guess my problem with Simberg is that he focuses exclusively on the manned space flight program, and just ignores everything else that NASA does.

That’s because I don’t have that much of a problem with the other things that NASA does (though I think that the aeronautics program has a lot of problems as well). What JPL does is great, for the most part, though they could do it even better if launch were lower cost and more available. Hubble is one of the many things that NASA has done that is worthwhile, even with the initial cockup.

But my point is that there is more to space than science, and 1) NASA is unwilling to recognize it, and doesn’t do those non-science things very well, yet it receives exhorbitant funding for them and 2) NASA pretends that the manned space program in particular is about science, when it is certainly not–it is about jobs and national prestige.

The manned flight program is usually the most visible part of NASA, but the science mission is arguably the most important– that’s where most of the real ground-breaking research is taking place. And with programs like Hubble that require in-orbit servicing, you can’t have one without the other at this stage. NASA will evolve into whatever the American taxpayer wants and needs it to be, but calling it “socialistic” and calling for its defunding is just hyperbole without thoughtfulness.

When I (accurately) call NASA that, I am primarily talking about the manned spaceflight portion.

Uncategorized

Trouble At The Mill

And for those interested in my PQ (Philosophy Quotient) here are my results from this test.

1. Mill (100%)
2. Rand (91%)
3. Kant (79%)
4. Aristotle (76%)
5. Aquinas (72%)
6. Stoics (72%)
7. Epicureans (66%)
8. Bentham (64%)
9. Sartre (57%)
10. Hume (52%)
11. Prescriptivism (52%)
12. Plato (51%)
13. Spinoza (47%)
14. Nietzsche (42%)
15. Augustine (39%)
16. Hobbes (39%)
17. Cynics (26%)
18. Ockham (20%)
19. Noddings (13%)

I haven’t had the time to figure out what this means.

Uncategorized

Now This Is Disturbing

Just to match myself up against my weglogging compatriots, I took the religion test that everyone else has been taking. Here’s how I came out:

1. Nontheist (100%)
2. Secular Humanism (100%)
3. Unitarian Universalism (92%)
4. Theravada Buddhism (75%)
5. Liberal Quakers (69%)
6. Neo-Pagan (65%)
7. Mainline to Liberal Christian Protestants (58%)
8. Taoism (42%)
9. New Thought (42%)
10. Scientology (42%)
11. New Age (41%)
12. Bah

Uncategorized

Now, That’s A Good Reason

In a story about Janet Reno’s campaign in the Florida panhandle, I found this little gem.

Many in the audience were snowbirds, Democrats from places like Wausau, Wis., visiting the heavily Republican Emerald Coast.

“I was born a Democrat and my dad was born a Democrat. I gotta stay Democrat,” said Wausau’s own Irv Fletcher. Fletcher and his group arrived early at Angler’s Beachside Caf

Uncategorized

Now, That’s A Good Reason

In a story about Janet Reno’s campaign in the Florida panhandle, I found this little gem.

Many in the audience were snowbirds, Democrats from places like Wausau, Wis., visiting the heavily Republican Emerald Coast.

“I was born a Democrat and my dad was born a Democrat. I gotta stay Democrat,” said Wausau’s own Irv Fletcher. Fletcher and his group arrived early at Angler’s Beachside Caf

Uncategorized

Now, That’s A Good Reason

In a story about Janet Reno’s campaign in the Florida panhandle, I found this little gem.

Many in the audience were snowbirds, Democrats from places like Wausau, Wis., visiting the heavily Republican Emerald Coast.

“I was born a Democrat and my dad was born a Democrat. I gotta stay Democrat,” said Wausau’s own Irv Fletcher. Fletcher and his group arrived early at Angler’s Beachside Caf

Uncategorized

Dying RINO

I mentioned previously that Riordan was not a lock for the Republican nomination. Partly because the “he’s the only Republican who can beat Davis” argument falls kind of flat when Bill Simon is leading Davis by two points in the Field Poll. When an incumbent is behind to a total political unknown, it’s pretty bad news for him.

My money was previously already on Simon for the nomination. With Simon’s surge, particularly against Davis, the only reason that real Republicans might have had to vote for Riordan has evaporated.

Now I think Simon’s got a shot at following in Reagan’s footsteps and beating an incumbent Democratic governor as well. And what a breath of fresh air he’d be–a non-politician.

Biting Commentary about Infinity…and Beyond!