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Random thoughts on politics, current events, popular culture, and whatever else interests me.
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Sunday, May 25, 2008
The Mars Phoenix has landed and is returning pictures. John Culberson, who happens to be my Congressman, dropped by to witness the event live. Saturday, May 24, 2008
Rand Simberg uncovers a remarkable group of people who seemed very enthusiastic about entering the Google Lunar X Prize until they discovered that it was supposed to promote space commercialization and human space flight. It's sort of like being all for the Apollo program until discovering that the goal was to land a man on the Moon. If the hope that somehow Obama will get killed is all that is left for Hillary, then it may be time for her to quit and start getting ready for 2012. There's to be a space panel at the annual Daily Kos convention. The "progressive" approach to space policy could be summed up, apparently, thus: NASA is in crisis–overburdened, under-funded, and inefficient. Yet the progressive legacy of space, which dates back to JFK, is being quietly reborn: NASA can reinvent itself as a critical resource in climate change mitigation; the UN and some in the U.S. military are collaborating to prevent space weapons from becoming an arms race with China; progressive “NewSpace” entrepreneurs are creating new domestic high-tech jobs. Before 2009, a new progressive space policy needs to be devised and advocated beyond the traditional space constituencies, to upgrade Bush’s failing space exploration vision. Who better to initiate this work than the Netroots? One suspects that JFK would have loved Bush's "failing space exploration vision", but of course there is not much that is of JFK that is tolerated in the modern American left. And NASA as a "cimate change mitigation" resource? Words fail me. There is more: This year, NASA’s policy of returning humans to the Moon has come under fire from the Left since it is generally thought of as one of George W. Bush’s signature policy goals– his “Vision for Space Exploration.” Progressives in the space community are working hard to dissociate this policy agenda from the failed Bush Presidency so that it may be considered on its own merits. They are also formulating new space policy goals more central to the Progressive agenda, such as expanding NASA’s role in understanding Earth systems to mitigate climate change, as a bulwark against declining science and technology education in the US, and as a diplomatic tool for peaceful international collaboration with Europe, Russia, and even China. Translated, we're going to end the Vision for Space Exploration because it was conceived by the evil George W. Bush and it is not "central to the progressive agenda" and we're going to have NASA do politically correct things like low Earth orbit naval gazing and cooperation with the butchers of Tiananmen Square. And we're going to have arms control in space treaties which the Chinese will then ignore and cheat on. Count me as underwhelmed. Friday, May 23, 2008
It seems that the Russian Communist Party does not like the new Indiana Jones film. I thought it was great my own self. More about that anon. The following was sent by Donna Calcote: A man was being tailgated by a stressed out woman on a busy boulevard. There are going to be two Obama space related meetings at the International Space Development Conference. One on Thursday evening calling itself the Space Policy Advisory Group and the other May 31st that has something to do with aerospace community outreach. I do not envy the tasks of people who support space and support Obama, which seem to be contradictory things. In the meantime, the Orlando Sentinal takes a dim view for what passes for the Obama space policy. Sometimes one just despairs of the intelligence of our political class. A number of Senators are all in favor of drilling for oil, just not in their states. Thursday, May 22, 2008
Oliver Stone's love letter to President Bush is getting to be weirder and weirder with the selection of Richard Dreyfus to play Dick Cheney. Even weirder is the reaction by Harry over a aintitcool. . The Hollywood Reporter broke today that Richard Dreyfuss has been cast as the shotgun wielding maniac, Dick Cheney. There's probably never been a Veep with the Dick's gaze of evil incarnate. Can Mr Holland capture this Sith Lord's air of pitbullishness? Sith Lord? I understand that Harry has made a great success for himself at being a professional media geek, but someone ought to tell him that life is not Star Wars. More like Serenity... It seems that Pelosi's and Reid's Congress is so incompetent that it can't even jam a pork barrel laden spending bill past a Presidential veto correctly. Looks like, now that he's down in Florida, Obama now supports a strong space program. He had previously promised to gut space spending to pay for an education initiative. "I want us to understand what it is we want to accomplish, so we can continue to build this program," the Democratic presidential candidate said, as he spoke during a "town hall-style" meeting Wednesday in Kissimmee. "Other countries are in position to leapfrog us if we don't continue to make this investment." Count me as just a little bit of a skeptic when it comes to these kind of election year flip flops. Even though: Obama said he would fund a strengthened space program, including the Orion program, which is designed to return Americans to the moon and later get them to Mars. Of course supporting the Orion program does not necessarily mean supporting the exploration aspects of it. One could consign Orion to a low Earth orbit vehicle, resupplying ISS (and, incidentally, pushing out any commercial vehicle that might be developed under COTS) and call it a day. Addendum: The video clip that accompanies the story shows a somewhat more disturbing view of what Obama is thinking regarding space exploration. "I want to review with NASA what are we doing in terms of manned flights to the Moon or Mars vs for example things like Hubble which yields us more information and a better bang for the buck." Leaving aside that the Hubble was deployed and is serviced by the space shuttle, that statement suggests that under an Obama space program we'll be flying more robots than humans. The statement also suggests that the argument that replacing the Ares 1 and Ares 5 with some kind of more "politically viable" architecture will be an exercise in futility. Obama seems to be of the mind that human space exploration is not "politically viable" no matter what kinds of rockets are used. Addendum 2: Obama's plan to gut NASA spending to pay for his education initiative seems to have magically vanished from his web site. At least I was not able to find it in the usual issues area. Curiouser and curiouser. Addendum 3: Still there. Go here and scroll down to the bottem. Wednesday, May 21, 2008
It appears that James Marsters (aka Spike from Buffy the Vampire Slayer) will play Buzz Aldrin in an upcoming film, Moonshot, about the days leading up to the launch of Apollo 11. It looks like while liberals fight wind power tooth and nail in the North East, Texas is rapidly becoming a wind farm giant, thanks to oil tycoons like T Boone Pickens. Roswell Beacon Puts Barack Obama in the Crosshairs. Of course Barack Obama is hardly the first or only politician whose death people have imagined. Tuesday, May 20, 2008
Teddy Kennedy has a malignant brain tumor. This is not good. Addendum: More thoughts, including political fall out. Glenn Reynolds discusses private property rights in space, calling for an international treaty that would recognize such. Monday, May 19, 2008
The Food Gestapo at the Democratic Nationa Convention has gone to see the little people as my Irish granny would say. Forbidding fried foods is one thing. But mandating blue food? Blue food? Vincent Bugliosi, who prosecuted Charles Manson and pretty much put the JFK assasination conspiracy theories to rest in his last book, has now published a new book in which he advocates that President George W. Bush be tried for murder and, if convicted, for what I can tell, put to death. The depths of hatred and insanity that this idea must take is mind boggling. Stephen Metschan gives us Part 1 of what one supposes is an advocacy for the Direct launcher scheme for returning to the Moon. Sunday, May 18, 2008
It appears that Barack Obama has revived John Kerry's "Global Test", but proposes to apply it not just to foreign policy but to the way Americans live their lives. "We can't drive our SUVs and eat as much as we want and keep our homes on 72 degrees at all times ... and then just expect that other countries are going to say OK," Obama said. The mind boggles at the arrogance of a man who could say that and propose to enforce that view as President. I vow this. They will take my car, my air conditioner, and my barbeque grill when they pry them from my cold, dead hand (g). Apparently Indiana Jones not only fights Commies in the new movie, but is accused of being one. One would think that accusations of grave robbing would have been enough to have given him the boot from his teaching job. Saturday, May 17, 2008
A remake of Robocop I could see. But Red Dawn? Maybe as alternate history. Or, perhaps, this time we get invaded by the Red Chinese. Senator Tom Harkin, who once boasted (and even exaggerated) his own military service, seems frightened by John McCain's service. How far is the "international cooperation" language in the House version of the NASA Authorization bill meant to go? Opinions seem to vary, but trying to make the exploration program "more acceptable to a future Democrat President" (i.e. Obama) seems to me to be valid. Cooperation with China, for a variety of reasons, illustrated most recently by the political fuss surrounding the Olympics, should be off the table for the time being, though. Congress is pushing something called participatory exploration I wonder if it has something like this in mind. Senator Teddy Kennedy is in the hospital with a couple of seizures. Despite the obvious political difference, we wish him and his well and a speedy recovery. It looks like the Senate is dragging its feet on opening up huge shale oil deposites in the Rocky Mountain West. Friday, May 16, 2008
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