Media Criticism, Political Commentary

Extreme-Left Democrats

27 Comments

Are pushing Middle America away:

“It always strikes me as funny that the folks on TV call Republicans ‘extreme,’ and pretty much ignore that Democrats have left no room for people like me in my own party,” said Yvonne, a Youngstown native who did not want to give her last name.

To Yvonne, who has lived all of her 30-plus years in that eastern Ohio city, being a Democrat is like listing your religion, the part of town where you grew up, and the school you attended.

“It’s a part of my identity,” she said, adding after a pause: “Or was.”

When Ryan made his announcement last week, the national press offered no questions or headline-grabbing adjectives — just praise.

That was an interesting departure from the media reaction when then-candidate Cory Gardner, a Colorado congressman running for U.S. Senate last year, changed from support to non-support of “personhood.”

“Bombshell,” “extremist” and “cheap election-year stunt” were the words in some of the milder headlines.

Gardner moved to the center. Ryan moved to the left wing.

Ryan was praised. Gardner was hammered.

Now think about that for a moment: One politician moved to his party’s wing, not its center, and it was as if a tree fell in a forest — with no one listening. Another politician moved to his party’s center, and hair collectively caught fire.

Apparently, “extremism” is only bad when it’s in favor of liberty and limited government.

Mathematics, Media Criticism, Political Commentary, Science And Society, Technology and Society

On Climate Change

12 Comments

…the science battle rages.

It would sure be nice if some of these self-identified climate “scientists” would learn some statistics. And stop calling people who understand statistics names like “denier” and “anti-science.”

[Monday-morning update]

Inside the latest global warming scandal:

This kind of thing is going on all over the world. It is one of the reasons why the satellite data (which, however, go back only to 1979) are so important: they have not been corrupted.

Yup.

[Bumped]

[Update a few minutes later]

Soviet-style disinformation dominates the climate “debate”:

Why is it that when a political figure makes a misstatement about a global warming-related issue, which happens many times every day, no government scientific agency or leading university scientist ever corrects them?

For example, all climate modelers correctly label their speculations of future world temperatures as “projections,” meaning that they have no validated forecast skill. Yet politicians, mass media, and the public treat the models as providing temperature forecasts or predictions. Because this misusage is never corrected, politicians cheerily continue to base expensive public policy on it.

Another example: carbon dioxide, as an essential factor in photosynthesis, is the elixir of planetary life, yet politicians dub it a “pollutant.” Similarly, badging the theoretical global warming problem as a “carbon” issue represents scientific illiteracy because it fails to distinguish the element “carbon” from the molecule “carbon dioxide,” and deliberately encourages the public to confuse a colorless, odorless, beneficial gas with soot. Again, climate-alarmist scientists say little or nothing to correct these mistakes.

Many in the public understand that Hendricks’ behavior is typical of politicians everywhere. But most people do not recognize that fraud is also being directly committed in support of this travesty by many of today’s self-appointed “leading climate scientists.” For when they are not directly massaging the data relied upon in their scientific writings, these scientists often report their findings in ways that are intended to deceive the reader into believing that dangerous global warming exists, or will shortly exist. The UN’s climate reports are the magnum opus of this style of operation.

Yes.

Business, Space, Technology and Society

SpaceX

28 Comments

They got the go-ahead a while ago to start fueling. Things are on schedule, as far as I know.

[Update a little over an hour before launch]

Everything still progressing nominally.

Here’s some good technical background on SpaceX’s quest for reusability. Assuming it’s accurate (and I didn’t see any obvious problems), that is a great, detailed description of the Falcon 9 (and its history).

[Update after scrub]

They scrubbed, primarily (it seems) due to a range radar problem.

No, I don’t have strong opinions about this at all…

Business, Media Criticism, Political Commentary, Space, Technology and Society

On The Radio

OK, actually, on the telephone. I’ll be having a Ricochet discussion with John Walker in half an hour to talk space stuff (probably including today’s Falcon fly-back attempt, and the ASAP report).

To participate, call +1 712 432 0375, then enter the access code 139584# and confirm by pressing 1. To enter the access code, you may have to put your phone into tone dialing mode, which may not be the default if you’re on ISDN.


Here’s the link for Ricochet members (it’s behind the paywall).

[Update a couple hours later]

Here’s the audio, for those interested.

History, Media Criticism, Political Commentary, War Commentary

The Ghosts Of Auschwitz

1 Comment

…in the Middle East:

At the beginning of the decade, Muslim Brotherhood godfather Sayyid Qutb had written his own Mein Kampf titled, “Our Struggle against the Jews” in which he claimed that Allah had sent Hitler. The claim has more recently been repeated by the Muslim Brotherhood’s Yusuf al-Qaradawi on Al Jazeera in ’09.

“The last punishment was carried out by Hitler… Allah willing, the next time will be at the hand of the believers,” he said. Today everyone agrees that the Nazis were evil. By the fifties, even Eichmann’s fellow Nazis were looking to jettison the Holocaust and improve their brand. But the Nazis back then were often treated the way that Muslims are today.

Media coverage emphasized distinctions between the radical and moderate Nazis. (Hitler was, of course, a moderate.) Nazi grievances were treated as legitimate. Their crimes were lied about and covered up.

In 1933, the Associated Press’ wire report claimed that the persecution of Jews had already ended. Another wire story headlined “Jew Persecution Over Says Envoy” cited Secretary of State Hull’s relief that the Hitler regime was doing its best to curb further persecution of the Jews.

Hull would later apologize when the Republican Mayor of New York City referred to the Fuhrer as a “man without honor”. Mayor LaGuardia might have been suffering from Fuhrerphobia.

Jewish protests were treated as shrill and baseless alarmism.

“U.S. Investigation Shows No Cause for Protest,” the AP headlined its coverage.

“Notwithstanding assurances given by German government leaders and by Hull that the Nazi excesses against the Jewish race had ceased in Germany, Jewish leaders went ahead with plans for mass protest meetings,” another wire story read. “All requests that these meetings be canceled fell on deaf ears.”

A week before the story, the first official Nazi concentration camp of Dachau had opened.

The media coverage should sound familiar. It’s how Iran’s nuclear buildup is being covered. It’s how Muslim violence against Jews is covered. It’s discussed reluctantly and immediately dismissed. Jews are written off as pests who refuse to listen when Kerry, like Hull, tells them there’s nothing to worry about.

That is how the Holocaust really happened.

I could be polite, and say their heads are in the sand. But really, they’re up their fundaments.

[Afternoon update]

The Islamic State is raising an army of child soldiers, and we’ll be dealing with them for decades.

But, but…CRUSADES!

Biting Commentary about Infinity…and Beyond!