“I go in the Oval Office, pretend I’m going to work, and then I switch on ‘Homeland.’ ”
Focused like a laser: “I go in the Oval Office, pretend I’m going to work, and then I switch on ‘Homeland.’”
Author: Robert Zimmerman
A Justice department official today refused to rule out the possibility of passing a law that would criminalize speech against any religion.
A Justice department official today refused to rule out the idea of passing a law that would criminalize speech against any religion. With video.
The exact wording of the question: “Will you tell us here today that this administration’s Department of Justice will never entertain or advance a proposal that criminalizes speech against any religion?”
Despite being asked the question four times, the official consistently refused to answer the question directly. In other words, the Obama administration would consider criminalizing speech against religion. Or to put it more bluntly, they don’t believe in freedom of speech.
A mother was arrested and jailed because a neighbor complained that she was allowing her kids to play outside.
Freedom dies, one inch at a time: A mother was arrested and jailed because a neighbor complained that she was allowing her kids to play outside.
Congress is on a pace this year to pass the fewest laws in a single year since World War II.
Gridlock is good! Congress is on a pace this year to pass the fewest laws in a single year since World War II.
Just 61 bills have become law to date in 2012 out of 3,914 bills that have been introduced by lawmakers, or less than 2 percent of all proposed laws, according to a USA Today analysis of records since 1947 kept by the U.S. House Clerk’s office.
The absurd oversampling of Democrats in most recent polls, as illustrated in one graph.
The absurd oversampling of Democrats in most recent polls, as illustrated in one graph.
There is no reasonable justification for this Democratic skew, especially those greater than five percent, unless you want to make it look like Obama is in the lead.
Pluto has another moon!
Pluto has another moon!
This makes six, with the most recent discovery, named Plutino 15810, an especially unusual one. From the paper’s [pdf] conclusion, published on the Cornell University Library astro-ph website:
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Three astronauts have safely returned to Earth from ISS.
Three astronauts have safely returned to Earth from ISS.
More important, the Russians have now delayed the next Soyuz manned launch to ISS for a week due to “some malfunctions [that] have appeared in one of the devices of the decent module.”
They also say the delay is to avoid a flight conflict with the next Dragon mission on October 15. This is interesting in that the last word we had from NASA was that the Dragon launch could occur as early as October 5.
National Media Museum in Great Britain has restored the first color movie images, shot in 1901-1902.
The National Media Museum in Great Britain has restored the first color movie images, shot in 1901-1902. With video.
“Sequestration would come at ‘great cost’ to NASA.”
Another whining article about sequestration: “Sequestration would come at ‘great cost’ to NASA.”
Let’s be blunt. An 8.2 percent cut in NASA’s budget will not destroy the agency. It will hurt them, surely, but it will only bring their budget back the agency’s 2005 budget. Considering the deficit and debt, this is hardly a draconian cut.
If the Republicans are serious about getting the budget under control — as they say they are — then these automatic cuts imposed by sequestration should not give them heartburn.
As for the Democrats, no point in caring what they think or do. We already know they aren’t serious about getting the budget under control, considering the budgets Obama has proposed, all of which were rejected unanimously by both Houses of Congress, and the refusal of the Democrats in the Senate to even offer a budget for the past three years.
Weird Planet fractals
An evening pause: There is really a very thin line between math and life.
“I demand to be arrested.”
Me too! “I demand to be arrested.”
Obama cracks down on free speech.
Obama cracks down on free speech.
In order to spare themselves the sort of critical scrutiny to which they are unaccustomed, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton have fallen in with the absurd claim that violence has broken out in eleven Muslim countries, and terrorists armed with RPGs and (reportedly) mortars carried out a military operation to assassinate a U.S. ambassador, as a result of a 14-minute YouTube video. As always, Obama’s first priority is to point the finger of responsibility elsewhere.
So the Obama administration cracked down on the Christian who made the film–essentially an amateur production–which is critical of Islam, but no more so than many Hollywood productions have been of Christianity. The federal government sent Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies to bring the filmmaker into custody on the pretext that his uploading the movie trailer to YouTube may have violated the terms of his probation on a bank fraud conviction. That led to the famous photo of Nakoula Basseley Nakoula being taken into custody.
Shameful, disgusting, and inexcusable. The Obama administration is essentially attacking American citizens for the evils committed by Islamic radicals half a world away.
Patty Cake
An evening pause:
The Obama administration has delayed deployment of 50 Marines to protect its embassy in Khartoum because of objections of the Sudanese government.
The Obama administration has pulled back the deployment of 50 Marines to protect its embassy in Khartoum because of objections of the Sudanese government.
In other words, the Obama administration is more willing to obey the orders of the Sudan government than it is willing to protect the lives of U.S. citizens abroad.
Blame the movie
Prices, Demand, and SpaceX
For the past three days there has been a very lively debate by readers of Behind the Black, attempting to figure out the actual cost of launching payload to low Earth orbit by various rockets, including SpaceX, the space shuttle, and the NASA-built Space Launch System.
Three stories published today add some new information to this debate.
» Read more
Neil Armstrong’s ashes were buried at sea today.
R.I.P. Neil Armstrong’s ashes were buried at sea today.
Disgrace in Benghazi.
The men who organized this attack knew the ambassador would be at the consulate in Benghazi rather than at the embassy in Tripoli. How did that happen? They knew when he had been moved from the consulate to a “safe house,” and switched their attentions accordingly. How did that happen? The United States government lost track of its ambassador for ten hours. How did that happen? Perhaps, when they’ve investigated Mitt Romney’s press release for another three or four weeks, the court eunuchs of the American media might like to look into some of these fascinating questions, instead of leaving the only interesting reporting on an American story to the foreign press.
For whatever reason, Secretary Clinton chose to double down on misleading the American people. “Libyans carried Chris’s body to the hospital,” said Mrs. Clinton. That’s one way of putting it. The photographs at the Arab TV network al-Mayadeen show Chris Stevens’s body being dragged through the streets, while the locals take souvenir photographs on their cell phones. A man in a red striped shirt photographs the dead-eyed ambassador from above; another immediately behind his head moves the splayed arm and holds his cell-phone camera an inch from the ambassador’s nose. Some years ago, I had occasion to assist in moving the body of a dead man: We did not stop to take photographs en route. Even allowing for cultural differences, this looks less like “carrying Chris’s body to the hospital” and more like barbarians gleefully feasting on the spoils of savagery.
The scientists who took the first image of single molecule in 2009 have improved the resolution of their images.
The scientists who took the first image of single molecule in 2009 have improved the resolution of their images.
They not only can see the molecule, they can now detect the differences between the atomic bonds holding the different atoms together.
Astronomers have discovered the first exoplanets to be found inside an open star cluster.
Planets without end: Astronomers have discovered the first exoplanets to be found inside an open star cluster that are orbiting sun-like stars.