Media Criticism, Political Commentary, War Commentary

The Smoking Gun

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In the latest batch of emails, evidence that Hillary ordered an underling to deliberately mishandle classified information.

I’m sure you’re as shocked as I am.

In a sane world, this woman would never have gotten anywhere near any position of responsibility or consequence, let alone be the putative nominee for president by a major political party.

[Update a few minutes later]

“If she were a Republican, the mainstream media would have (appropriately) disgraced and branded her as a traitor by now.”

Yup. Because she is.

Law, Media Criticism, Political Commentary

The Second Amendment

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Even Barack Obama gets it better than the leftist activists:

In order to argue with a straight face that the right to keep and bear arms is inextricably linked with “service in an organized and sanctioned militia,” you would have to believe the following unbelievable things: 1) that the Founders’ intent in codifying the Second Amendment was to protect the right of individuals to join an organization over which the federal government has constitutionally granted plenary power; 2) that unlike every other provision in the Bill of Rights — and every other constitutional measure that is wrapped in the “right of the people” formulation — the Second Amendment denotes something other than an individual right that can be asserted against the state; and 3) that every major judicial figure of the era was mistaken as to its meaning — among them, Joseph Story, William Rawle, St. George Tucker, Timothy Farrar, and Tench Coxe, all of whom explained the Second Amendment perfectly clearly — whereas a few judges and politicians in the 20th century have been bang on in their comprehension.

I’m just glad that we got Heller before the court drifted too far from the Founders. But we are at the point at which any attempt to deprive us of our rights will result in insurrection. And fortunately, those defending their rights have the guns and knowledge to use them.

Media Criticism, Political Commentary, War Commentary

The Ghosts of Charlie Hebdo

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Thoughts on the first anniversary, that started a terrible year of terrorism, from Mark Steyn:

Both Paris and Copenhagen were twofers: the attacks on free speech were followed by attacks on Jews, at a kosher supermarket and a synagogue, respectively. To Obama, this second group of victims were merely a “random” “bunch of folks”. Couldda been anyone, but just so happened to be “a bunch of folks” who like kosher food. As I commented:

Bank robbers rob banks because that’s where the money is. In Europe, Islamic supremacists shoot up kosher markets, synagogues, Jewish museums and Jewish schools because that’s where the Jews are.

I think most of us understand that a huge percentage of Muslims really hate Jews. I have a high degree of tolerance for hate: I spent a lot of time in Northern Ireland during a period when many Catholics and Protestants seriously hated each other, and I came rather to appreciate the way they were entirely upfront about their mutual hatred. The problem here is that in the biggest resurgence of Jew-hate since the Second World War we’re not allowed to say who hates Jews.

That’s why free speech matters. Without free speech, there are only the official lies – about who’s killing Jews in Copenhagen, who’s sexually assaulting women in Cologne – and there is nothing to say in response to either except to crank up the old joanna for one more chorus of “Imagine”.

Also, from Bosch Fawstin: “if you’re Not drawing Mohammad, then you’re not Charlie Hebdo, and you can’t say ‘Je Suis Charlie’.”

History, Political Commentary, Space, Technology and Society

#SciTech2016

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I’ve been at the SciTech2016 conference in San Diego (drove down from LA this morning ahead of most of the rain). Posting will probably remain light until tomorrow afternoon or Thursday, when I get back to the office.

I should say, though, that Bill Anders was very politically incorrect in the plenary session this morning. He was basically singing from my hymnal, about the obsession with safety, and Apollo not being about space, and he had unkind words to say about Orion, with a poor young woman from the program sitting on the dais with him (it was pretty funny when Ann Sulkosky and another Lockmart guy came up to him afterwards to gently remonstrate with him). It was particularly hilarious, because they’re the primary sponsor of the conference; there was a big Lockmart logo above them.

I introduced myself, and gave him a copy of the book. He said he’d read it (future tense), and I hope he does. It’s nice to run into an Apollo astronaut who’s thinking in 21st-century terms. He said Elon was on his poop list (he used a different word) because he was one of the few Apollo guys who had stood up for him against Cunningham and Cernan, but Elon had stood him up for lunch. I don’t think Apollo astronauts are used to being stood up for lunch.

Business, Economics, Media Criticism, Political Commentary, Science And Society, Technology and Society

“Expert Climate Economists”

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Are apparently morons:

When asked at what date climate change will have a net negative impact on the global economy, the median survey response was 2025. In the recent past, climate change likely had a net positive impact on the global economy, due primarily to the effect of carbon fertilization on crops and other plant life. However, even contrarian economists agree, when accounting for the vulnerability of poorer countries to climate impacts, global warming has been hurting the global economy since about 1980.

The NYU survey asked when the economic benefits we experienced up to 1980 would be completely wiped out; 41% of respondents said that’s already happened. Another 25% answered that it would happen within a decade, and 26% said we’d see net negative economic impacts by 2050. If we continue with business-as-usual pollution and warming, on average the experts predicted a GDP loss of about 10% by the end of the century, and that there would be a 20% chance of a “catastrophic” loss of one-quarter of global GDP.

There is no scientific evidence to believe any of this.

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