Until they get full haptic suits, it will still be confined to audio and video. Look and hear, but don’t touch.
The Administrative State
Time to blow it up:
A smaller government would mean fewer phony-baloney jobs for college graduates with few marketable skills but demonstrated political loyalty. It would mean fewer opportunities for tax dollars to be directed to people and entities with close ties to people in power. It would mean less ability to engage in social engineering and “nudges” aimed at what are all-too-often seen as those dumb rubes in flyover country. The smaller the government, the fewer the opportunities for graft and self-aggrandizement — and graft and self-aggrandizement are what our political class is all about.
A more accountable government would be, in some ways, an even greater nightmare. Right now, when the federal government screws up, people often don’t find out — look at how the IRS and the State Department have stonewalled efforts to find out what happened with the Tea Party audits or the Benghazi debacle — and even when word gets out, it’s rare that anybody loses their job. (The EPA knew that Flint, Michigan’s water was toxic for months and didn’t tell anyone. Will there be consequences? Doubtful.)
Most of the time, the bureaucracy acts without any real oversight from Congress, or from the public. It’s able to enact political agendas that, if put to an open vote, would never pass. And to the bureaucracy’s supporters, that’s not a bug, but a feature.
It is indeed.
Glenn Frey
The Eagles were one of my favorite bands in my teens. Ed Driscoll has some thoughts, and on the loss of the stars of our youth in general.
We Saw The Launch
We’re probably not the only ones, but due to the soup, there probably weren’t very many. Because we screwed up.
Left later than planned, took 154 over San Marcos Pass instead of staying on the 101 to Buellton, got stuck behind a tour bus, passed it, got stuck behind another nimrod, got stuck in traffic in Solvang, was on road from Solvang to Buellton at launch time, pulled over, and watched it ascend, about 25 miles away, through a break in the clouds.
Drove down to Surf Beach, which had been reopened after the launch, talked to people about what had happened, then spent afternoon driving down Foxen Canyon road wine tasting (with other disappointed launch viewers). Back in LA.
Tomorrow’s Launch
Anyone have recommendations for best place to view from not on base? I screwed up and didn’t get a base pass, and now it’s too late.
The Final Frontier
It’s time to claim your piece. An interesting read on space property rights at Aeon, with a lot of quotes from your humble correspondent. [H/T to Paul Dietz]
Fossil Fuels
Matt Ridley on how they’ll save the world.
The conclusion:
The one thing that will not work is the one thing that the environmental movement insists upon: subsidizing wealthy crony capitalists to build low-density, low-output, capital-intensive, land-hungry renewable energy schemes, while telling the poor to give up the dream of getting richer through fossil fuels.
(Yes, behind paywall, but google the headline and you should be able to read it.)
[Update a while later]
I’m very sorry to hear about Piers Sellers’ illness, and hope for the best, but this NYT op-ed seems to me to be delusional:
All this as the world’s population is expected to crest at around 9.5 billion by 2050 from the current seven billion. Pope Francis and a think tank of retired military officers have drawn roughly the same conclusion from computer model predictions: The worst impacts will be felt by the world’s poorest, who are already under immense stress and have meager resources to help them adapt to the changes. They will see themselves as innocent victims of the developed world’s excesses. Looking back, the causes of the 1789 French Revolution are not a mystery to historians; looking forward, the pressure cooker for increased radicalism, of all flavors, and conflict could get hotter along with the global temperature.
Last year may also be seen in hindsight as the year of the Death of Denial. Globally speaking, most policy makers now trust the scientific evidence and predictions, even as they grapple with ways to respond to the problem. And most Americans — 70 percent, according to a recent Monmouth University poll — believe that the climate is changing. So perhaps now we can move on to the really hard part of this whole business.
I hope that will change next January. As Ridley points out (as does Alex Epstein), it is the poor who would be hit the hardest byaabandoning fossil fuels (particularly with plunging prices), much more so than by “climate change.”
Thirteen Years Ago
They had twelve days to live, but they didn’t know it, and their fate was sealed.
Asking For Permission
“…is the biggest turn-off ever.” Ashe Schow, on how feminism is ruining sex.
Trump, And Space
The headline of this piece by Mark Whittington is a perfect example of Betteridge’s Law.