Randy Barnett thoroughly dismantles a “living Constitutionalist.”
The Sarah Palin Smear
Was the New York Times sloppy, malicious, or careless? I think they were reckless. I won’t discuss the interesting parallels to my own legal case.
[Update a couple minutes later]
I like this comment:
Any settlement must include an apology printed on the front page of the Sunday Times, in large, boldface font, above the fold, including the statement: “The New York Times hereby acknowledges that the editorial was written by dishonest, ignorant, malicious idiots who perfectly represent the quality and tenor of this publication in general.”
If I were her, that’s what I’d demand.
So Much For That Narrative
Pr0n featuring violence against women is more popular with women than with men. I’m not entirely surprised. But it sure blows a hole in the “rape culture” theory.
Trump And Putin
He has Vlad over a barrel (of oil).
Interesting to compare current to previous president. One is a stooge of the Kremlin, and then there's Donald Trump: https://t.co/4QtnX0HrYr
— Rand Simberg (@Rand_Simberg) July 8, 2017
Funny, I’m old enough to remember when Barack Obama told Sarah Palin we couldn’t drill our way out of our energy problems. But then, I’m old enough to remember lots of stupid things that Barack Obama said.
The Leftist Freak Out Over Trump’s Speech
Why yes, yes they do hate Western civilization:
So, for Jamelle Bouie, a Westerner asserting the value of Western civilization is barely-veiled racism? If that’s true, then the term “racism” is meaningless. In fact, it’s worse than meaningless: it’s dangerous. If you tell people that to love and to want to defend the culture of the West is a racist act, then they will cease to care about your judgment on the matter, because you are requiring them to hate themselves as an act of virtue. In that regard, Jamelle Bouie’s sentiment here is a much greater gift to the racist alt-right than anything Donald Trump said in Warsaw.
I mean, really, how ignorant and provincial do you have to be, Messrs. Beinart and Bouie, to hear Trump’s speech and think of it as a #MAGA version of a Nuremberg Rally Address? Is the degree of self-hatred of the West required to be a virtuous, woke person such that you cannot tell the difference between Handel’s Hallelujah Chorus and the Horst Wessel Song? Do they really think Kenneth Clark’s Civilisation (all of which is available on YouTube, starting here) is a plummy version of Triumph of the Will? If standing against this kind of liberal insanity means I have to stand with Donald Trump, well, okay, I’ll stand with Donald Trump. I won’t like it, but at least Donald Trump doesn’t hate his own civilization.
It’s why they find common cause with Islamists. Also (as usual), want more Trump? Because this is how you get more Trump.
[Mid-afternoon update]
Jonah Goldberg: In defense of western civilization.
[Saturday-morning update]
Trump defends the West, and the Left cries foul. They’re really showing their colors. So to speak.
[Update a few minutes later]
Some of the critics of Trump’s speech in Poland reject the idea of the greatness of Western Civilization. You don’t say.
Pence’s Speech At KSC
Bob Zimmerman listened to it, so you don’t have to. It was pretty uninspiring, at least to anyone who knows what’s going on.
[Update a few minutes later]
Keith Cowing has a word cloud of the speech.
[Update a few more minutes later]
And more from Loren Grush:
it was a speech with very little substance. There were many anecdotes about the US’s past achievements in space, Pence argued that recent administrations had failed to “match the spirit of the American people” when it came to creating space policy. Multiple times he insisted that Trump would open “a new era of American space leadership.” But the most recent presidential budget request calls for cutting NASA’s funding, as well as canceling some of the agency’s offices and programs. Space is expensive. How does Pence plan to match our ambitions with our missions if there isn’t a detailed money plan?
So, six months into the Trump administration, NASA doesn’t have any space policy priorities or definitive leadership. NASA administrators are often instrumental in steering the direction of the space agency, and without one, the agency will lack a strategy for how to move forward. This is now the longest amount of time NASA has been without a new permanent administrator; the record was previously held by President Richard Nixon, who took 164 days after his inauguration to fill the position, according to the Planetary Society. NASA’s current acting administrator Robert Lightfoot, who took over temporarily when Trump was inaugurated, has now served longer than that. And there’s no indication when a new administrator will be named.
“Depending on the details, this backwards speech could signal a backwards space policy, meaning rolling back the progress that’s being made instead of building on the commercial space policies that Reagan started and Obama continued,” says Larson.
I have no particular expectations about civil space from Trump. But I’m happy that at least milspace seems to be undergoing reform.
Coffee
It’s bad, and people who drink it are bad. Someone after my own heart.
XCOR
I had lunch with Doug Jones in Mojave last week (he’s one of the “contract” employees remaining). It’s a sad end to a once-promising company.
[Thursday-morning update]
Here’s the story from Jeff Foust. I hadn’t realized that Michael Blum had moved to XCOR after Firefly went under.
[Update late afternoon]
Here’s the take from the local Midland paper.
Our Wonderful Public-Education System
NPR tweeted the Declaration of Independence, and you’ll never guess what happened next!
The Second Happiest Fourth Of July In History
Well, for the Union cause, anyway. Gettysburg had been won the day before, and most recognized that the fall of Vicksburg was the turning point in the war. Union victory was almost inevitable at that point, though it would take almost two more bloody years.