Curmudgeons Corner |
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Random thoughts on politics, current events, popular culture, and whatever else interests me.
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Friday, November 27, 2009
This story about the latest scandal from the British health care system reminds me of the scene of Lawrence of Arabia when Lawrence visits a field hospital in Damascus to find injured Turkish soldiers laying around unattended in their own filth and blood. A convoy of British doctors, nurses, and medics show up. They commanders stomps around yelling, "This is an outrage! An OUTRAGE!" Then he puts Lawrence on the ground, yelling, "Filthy wog!" Lawrence giggles uncontrollably. That expresses my feeling upon reading this and wondering what we may have in store under Obamacare. Apparently Sarah Palin told a comedian disguised as a reporter that Canada really ought to bring private sector competition into its health care system. Allahpundit is reporting that some of the lefty blogs thinks this is funny. Thursday, November 26, 2009
China's second lunar mission will launch next October. Addendum: More on China to launch Chang'e lunar probe in October, 2010 Dana MacKenkzie writes about the Lunar Exploration Analysis Group (LEAG)that took place recent in Houston here and here. There seems to be a lot of talk about the term "sustainability" in the sense that we need to find a way to make the Moon a destination to where we will go essentially forever, without the fits and starts of political fashion interfering. This usually translates into using ISRU technology to allow people to live on the Moon. There is also political sustainability as well as economic viability I suppose I should name some names here. Paul Spudis is an especially passionate advocate of the idea that we must think about sustainability when we return to space. I wish I could just copy his whole presentation here, but that would not be very original. He said, “The goal is not to excite the public. The public must see the value in lunar exploration, which is different from making it exciting.” He took issue with the Augustine Commission’s conclusion that the ultimate destination (their words) is Mars. “The goal of returning to the moon is to become a spacefaring species,” he said. I think this is a great mission statement. Mars is not the ultimate goal; the ultimate is to be able to go wherever we want. Spudis would build up that capability on the moon. Michaele Salahi and Tureq Salahi Gatecrash White House State Dinner Michaele Salahi and her husband Tureq Salahi were apparently able to penetrate White House security and attend President Obama's first state dinner with the Indian Prime Minister. Michaele Salahi was incautious enough to boast of it on her Facebook page. Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Ed Begley Jr. Has a Meltdown on Fox News Ed Begley Jr. is an actor and has appeared on such films as Pineapple Express and episodes of TV shows almost without number, dating back to the old version of Battlestar Galactica, Adam 12, Mannix, and My Three Sons. Senator Kent Conrad believes that People Who Don’t Believe in Civilian Trials for Terrorists Should Leave America and ‘Go Somewhere Else’ That's a whole new take on the "love it or leave it" cliche. Navy SEALs Face Court Martial for Beat Down of Terrorist Prisoner Recently a team of Navy SEALs captured Ahmed Hashim Abed, the terrorist who murdered and then mutilated three Blackwater security guards in Fallujah in 2004. Now three of the Navy SEALs face a court martial for prisoner abuse. Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Surprising New Mammography Recommendations The United States Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) earlier this November issued new guidelines regarding mammograms and breast self-examination which have resulted in recent controversy. These recommendations can be found at the website of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). The Great Climate Change Hoax's Coming Demise The scandal surrounding the exposure of the global warming emails could be called "Climategate" (a real cliché), the Great Climate Change Hoax, or just, as Andrew Bolt said of it, "the greatest in modern science." This is the sort of story that makes one wonder if one is living in the Twilight Zone. Navy SEALs have secretly captured one of the most wanted terrorists in Iraq — the alleged mastermind of the murder and mutilation of four Blackwater USA security guards in Fallujah in 2004. And three of the SEALs who captured him are now facing criminal charges, sources told FoxNews.com. Are you kidding me??!! The 9/11 Never Forget Coalition to Launch December 5th Protest The decision by the Obama administration to try Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four of his fellow terrorists has outrage many, but none more so that a group of people who have formed the "9/11 Never Forget Coalition." On the Republican 'Purity Test' A group of conservatives on the Republic National Committee are circulating a document they call a RNC Resolution on Reagan's Unity Principle for Support of Candidates and what others are calling a "purity test." Charles Manson Son a Gandhi-Loving Vegetarian Matthew Roberts, a Los Angeles disk jockey, is a vegetarian and an acolyte of Mahatma Gandhi, a fervent believer in non violence. Matthew Roberts is also the biological son of one of the most notorious mass murderers of the 20th Century, Charles Manson. Monday, November 23, 2009
A reader sent me the following. It it is not true, it should have been. GOD Is Busy Adam and Jamie of Mythbusters fame were up at the White House on the occasion of the roll out of Obama's STEM initiative, encouraging science, technology, engineering, and math education. All very well and good if it becomes more than a photo op, but it's worth looking at just to see Adam in a suit and Jamie at least wearing a jacket. SNL Obama Skit Lampoons President It has been said that it is very hard to lampoon President Barack Obama. People who say that really mean that they are afraid to lampoon the President. But the most recent Obama SNL skit seems to have broken that taboo, once and for all. Global Warming E-mails Rock Scientific Community Controversy is swirling about the infamous global warming emails that were hacked from the computer at major global-warming advocacy center in the UK and then distributed on the Internet. Accusations of fraud have ensued. "Look But Don't Touch" now has a new name. It's now called Operation: Plymouth Rock. Of course the original Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock meaning to stay, not jet pack over and admire it. A man spent twenty three years trapped in his own skull very much aware but unable to communicate with the outside world. He was misdiagnosed as being in a persistent vegetative state and was unable, until technology caught up with his predicament. This revelation puts some new light on the Terri Schiavo case. Terri Schiavo was another person thought to have been in a "persistent vegetative state" who was starved to death, IMHO, for the convenience of her estranged husband. Was an actual, functioning human being murdered after all? Jeff Foust turns his attention to Dysfunctional space advocacy. It is, if anything, worse than what Foust states. Space advocacy is a set of squabbling middle school cliques. Stephen Ashworth hits back at certain European former bureaucrats who disdain space tourism. Dwayne Day looks on with bemusement at PETA protests against NASA. Jim Gagnon calls for a land rush in space. Dexter Season 4 Episode 9 Hungry Man In 'Dexter' Season 4 Episode 9 'Hungry Man', Dexter finally comes to realize the true nature of Trinity, the man whom he seeks to use as a role model. Debra understands the importance of family. Angel and Laguerta know their love cannot be denied. Sunday, November 22, 2009
Paul Spudis wine and cheese from lunar dirt. Add it a good fillet Mignon, a green salad with olive oil and wine vinegar and I am so there. A Burka Barbie for Oppressed Muslim Girls Everywhere Is the Burka Barbie bad for young girls and their self image? Apparently the famous auction house Southerby's in London does not think so. It has sponsored an auction of a number of Barbies dressed in Burkas for auction. Patrick Kennedy, Abortion, and the Catholic Church Congressman Patrick Kennedy, Democrat of Rhode Island, has been denied communion by the Catholic Church because of his pro choice views on abortion. Patrick Kennedy's fight with his own church illustrates the intersection of politics and religion. Senate Health Care Reform Vote a Political Suicide Bombing The Senate vote on health care reform proceeded along strictly party lines, with all fifty eight Democrats plus independents Joe Lieberman and Bernie Sanders voting to proceed to debate and all but one Republican voting against. Saturday, November 21, 2009
'New Moon' - More Teenage Angst and a Love Triangle for the Ages 'New Moon' continues the adventures of the weird lovers, the human girl Bella, and the vampire boy Edward started in 'Twilight'. The romance becomes a love triangle because of the introduction of Jacob, who is a—well—a werewolf of course. The Blind Side, which I am assured is a feel good movie and hence something I will not see because the heart warming also tends to be stomach turning, has a cheap, partisan shot at George W. Bush. John McCain is in a spot of trouble in Arizona and may need none other than Sarah Palin to get him out of it. This will cause the incompetent campaign staffers who have felt the wrath of Sarahcuddah to grind their teeth. My advice? Drink your wormwood like good little boys and girls. Friday, November 20, 2009
Is Mary Landrieu's Vote Being Bought for $100 Million of Our Money? Senator Mary Landrieu, Democrat of Louisiana, is considered a swing vote in the battle concerning health care reform. Mary Landrieu is considered a moderate, representing a red state, and is up for re-election in 2010. The wet side of the Moon PICTURE a habitat atop a hill in warm sunlight on the edge of a crater near the south pole of the Moon. There are metal ores in the rocks nearby and water ice in the shadows of the crater below. Solar arrays are set up on the regolith that covers the Moon’s surface. Humans live in sealed, cave-like lava tubes, protected from solar flares and sustained by large surface greenhouses. Imagine the Moon as the first self-sustainable human settlement away from Earth and a high-speed transportation hub for the solar system. Thursday, November 19, 2009
Sarah Palins favorables are up. Be afraid libs. Be very afraid. Addendum: Palin more popular than Obama? 40 years ago, the third and fourth men to walk on the Moon landed as part of Apollo 12. One astronaut, Pete Conrad, was the most colorful of all astronauts and went on to command a Skylab mission and be a flight controller for the DC-X. His partner, Alan Bean, is the only artist to ever set foot on another world. Conrad is no longer with us, alas, but Alan Bean is still alive and creating great paintings of the first ever exploration of the Moon. MSNBC's Norah O'Donnell Badgers Teenage Girl About Sarah Palin MSNBC's Norah O'Donnell must have been out sorts, covering Sarah Palin's first stop on her book tour in Michigan. How else can one explain Norah O'Donnell's merciless grilling of a girl of about thirteen standing in line to get her book signed? Senate Health Care Bill Rolled Out The Senate health care bill that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid rolled out Wednesday can certainly be said to be more substantial than the House version of health care reform. The Senate health care bill is 2074 pages long, 84 more than the House bill. Like most of conservadum, I am in the middle of reading Going Rogue: An American Life  . I haven't gotten to the policy bit, but I can offer this little gem for those of you interested in things space.My first clear memory of school was when our kindergarten teacher wheeled a black and white television into the classroom so we could watch American astronauts land on the Moon. The lunar landing had happened on July, 1969, before school started, but even watching taped images of an American walking on the Moon stirred in me an overwhelming pride in our country--that we could achieve something so magnificent To be sure, even Barack Obama, the most anti space President in a while, is compelled to give us fond memories of the Moon landing. But Palin also relates how exploration of Alaska was crucial in uncovering the resources, such as gold and oil, that made that place so rich in the decades after it was called "Seward's Folly." It may be reading too much, but it would seem possible that a President Palin might understand more than most how the exploration of space can discover resources of worth in this century. It also seems to me that Sarah Palin might have an understanding about what it would be like to live on a space settlement. Staples that we in the lower 48 take for granted at the super market can only be had in Alaska in two ways, either transported at great cost, or grown, raised, or hunted by ones self. Apparently Alaskans grow things like lettuce and carrots in heated green houses as well as raise their own chickens. Moose and caribou are their red meat. There won't be a lot of hunting on the Moon or Mars, but one suspects a lot of agriculture in the way Sarah Palin describes, undertaken even by town dwellers. The following is kind of lame, NASA PAO boilerplate, but note who is giving it. Addendum: More on Dwayne Johnson, star of 'Planet 51', touts the US space program Wednesday, November 18, 2009
John Birmingham looks upon the sudden popularity of the undead down under as a result of the Twilight books and doesn't like it at all. The sudden population explosion of neo-Gothic Edward and Bella wannabes amongst intense, bookish teenage girls and the skinny boys who want to have sex with them has provided the perfect cover for hundreds of actual bloodsucking ghouls to emerge from hiding and walk our streets as if those streets were nothing more than the fresh meat aisle at the local supermarket. Water on the Moon; What Comes Next? The theory that the moon's permanently shadowed craters contain water ice has been postulated by scientists for decades. In 1994, the Clementine probe found indications. In November, NASA's LCROSS probe confirmed it. Al Gore's Science Illiteracy Al Gore was on The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien recently and was attempting to explain the utility of geothermal energy, which taps the Earth's heat to generate energy. In so doing, former Vice President Gore proved to be an ignoramus. Newsweek Palin Cover Controversy Continues Facing a firestorm of criticism over their use of a sexy photo of Sarah Palin on its cover, Newsweek choose to acknowledge the controversy, while making a very disingenuous response. In fact, it went beyond disingenuous to the absurd. Pinks Slips for Congress Sometimes just calling the office of one's congressman or sending him or her an e-mail may not be enough when the issues are serious and the congressman seemingly unresponsive. That is where Pink Slips for Congress come in. |