Tag: policy

Cave exploration the astronaut way

11:18 am

How not to go cave exploring:

An international crew of six astronauts will start training for a caving adventure designed to prepare them for spaceflight. CAVES, an abbreviation of Cooperative Adventure for Valuing and Exercising human behaviour and performance Skills, prepares astronauts to work safely and effectively and solve problems as a multicultural team while exploring uncharted areas using space procedures.

Or to put it more bluntly, overly complicated, bureaucratically organized, and not very efficient. For example:
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NASA has announced its next planetary mission, a lander to Mars that will drill down thirty feet into the planet’s surface

3:36 pm

NASA has announced its next planetary mission, a lander to Mars that will drill down thirty feet into the planet’s surface.

Though exciting in its own right, this mission is far less ambitious than the two missions which competed against it, a boat that would have floated on the lakes of Titan and a probe that would have bounced repeatedly off the surface of a comet. I suspect the reason this mission was chosen is the tight budgets at NASA, combined with Curiosity’s success which makes it politically advantageous to approve another Mars mission. As the NASA press release emphasized,
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The modern leftwing disconnect from reality.

7:27 pm

The modern leftwing disconnect from reality.

[L]ast week a man called Floyd Corkins shot another man called Leo Johnson, the security guard at the Family Research Council, a “conservative” group, according to the muted media coverage, or a “hate group,” according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, who spray that term around like champagne on a NASCAR podium. Mr. Corkins, an “LGBT volunteer,” told his victim, “I don’t like your politics.” In his backpack, he had one box of ammunition and 15 Chick-fil-A sandwiches. Had he had one Chick-fil-A sandwich and 15 boxes of ammunition, he might have done more damage. Or then again perhaps not, given that, as bloggers Kathy Shaidle and “the Phantom” pointed out, he reached his target and then started “monologuing,” as they say in The Incredibles….

I’m not blaming Floyd Corkins’s actions on the bullying twerps at the Southern Poverty Law Center or those thug Democrat mayors who tried to run Chick-fil-A out of Boston and Chicago. But I do think he’s the apotheosis of narcissistic leftist myopia. He symbolizes that exhaustion of the other possibilities — the dwindling down of latter-day liberalism to ever more self-indulgent distractions from the hard truths of a broke and ruined landscape. Our elites have sunk into a boutique decadence of moral preening entirely disconnected from reality: A non-homophobic chicken in every pot, an abortifacient dispenser in every Catholic university, a high-speed-rail corridor between every two bankrupt California municipalities.

Read the whole thing. Steyn once again notes the bankruptcy of modern liberalism and the Democratic Party, which — unless the American public rejects it — will lead to the bankruptcy of our country and probably the world.

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A modern intellectual looks at the Syrian revolt and immediately concludes it was global warming that caused it

1:02 pm

A modern intellectual looks at the Syrian revolt and immediately concludes that it was caused by global warming!

Climate change: is there anything it can’t do?

Seriously, the drought in Syria might be a factor behind the revolt, but to assert that the drought was caused by global warming is weak at best. There is no data to make that assertion, none at all. All we have is the opinion of some global warming scientists that such extreme droughts might happen more frequently as the Earth warms. And since the temperature increase as predicted by those very same scientists has not occurred, we should take all their predictions with a big grain of salt.

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“Obama lauds NASA for Mars landing, pledges continued investment.”

11:15 pm

“Obama lauds NASA for Mars landing, pledges continued investment.”

What a joke. This Reuters’ article is so busy campaigning for Barack Obama that it fails to note one fundamental fact: It is the Obama administration that gutted NASA’s science program so that there is little likelihood of any missions to Mars, or elsewhere, in the foreseeable future. As noted correctly in this Science article describing the same Obama telephone call to JPL,

The president’s sweeping endorsement of research, however, carefully avoids the fact that his 2013 budget would cut funding for NASA’s Mars exploration program by nearly one-third and end the country’s role in two Mars missions planned jointly with the European Space Agency for later in the decade. Both the House of Representatives and a Senate spending panel have added back money for Mars exploration, although Congress is unlikely to settle on a final budget for the agency until next spring.

Look, I freely admit the federal budget has to be cut. And I am freely willing to have those cuts occur in NASA. What I can’t abide is the kind of junk journalism seen in the Reuters piece above, selling Obama as a big supporter of space research when he clearly has not been.

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The Wall

6:01 pm

An evening pause: Fifty-one years ago today the Soviet Union and East Germany — in the name of ideology and communism — cut Berlin in half, putting a wall between neighbors, friends, and families. The documentary below was made in 1962 and will give you a sense of the evil of that wall, as felt by the people who were oppressed by it.

I think it a reasonable thing to remind ourselves again and again that the use of force in the name of any ideology, no matter how well intentioned, is always wrong.

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The very predictable Democratic playbook against Paul Ryan:

2:34 pm

The very predictable Democratic playbook against Paul Ryan:

In the national media narrative – perhaps best illustrated by the shorthand of Jay Leno’s monologue, which presumes that the audience has the barest-bone familiarity with national figures – every Republican figure is reduced to one of three things: Old, stupid, or evil.

George H.W. Bush: Old. Dan Quayle: Stupid. Newt Gingrich: Evil. Pat Buchanan: Evil. Bob Dole: Old. George W. Bush: Stupid. Dick Cheney: Old and evil. John McCain: Old. Sarah Palin: Stupid. ,,,

Because Paul Ryan isn’t old, we will see an effort to paint him as either stupid or evil. You and I know that painting Paul Ryan as stupid is like trying to paint Bill Clinton as chaste. But we have also witnessed the rapid definition of an unknown Republican figure four years ago, and we know that right now, every Democratic official, commentator, talking head, and more than a few reporters awaken this morning with a new mission in life: define Paul Ryan. [emphasis in the original]

In other words, substance be damned, the Democrats have got to find an ad hominem attack that will allow them to dismiss everything Ryan says, even if it makes sense.

For this reason alone I think it justified to fire every Democrat from elected office. Until we can get a reasoned debate on the federal government’s out-of-control debt, it will be impossible to fix the problem. And it is very clear that the Democrats are not willing to have that reasoned debate.

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Politicians who don’t want to do their job

9:51 am

The Houston Chronicle today has an editorial entitled “Let’s bring logic to NASA’s budget process” which describes and supports a bill introduced by two Republican Congressmen which would

model NASA’s budget process after that used by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Doing so would make the agency less political and more professional. It calls for the president to appoint the NASA director to a 10-year term and would make the budget cycle multiyear rather than annual.

The editorial also quotes sponsor Congressman Frank Wolf (R-Virginia) as explaining the goal of the bill is ” to take the politics out of NASA … and create continuity in the space agency.”

Bah. The last thing I want is to take the politics out of NASA’s operations.
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After mandating the sale of 15% ethanol gasoline — that can damage engines and lower fuel efficiency — the EPA is now going to require that you buy at least 4 gallons in order to reduce the damage.

5:35 pm

How nice of them: After mandating the sale of 15% ethanol gasoline — which can damage engines and lower fuel efficiency — the EPA is now going to require that you buy at least 4 gallons when you fill your tank in order to reduce the damage.

The entire auto industry has made it very clear its opposition to 15% ethanol because that mixture is harmful to vehicle engines. So, does the EPA back off? No, it instead doubles down, increasing its regulatory control in a manner that is complex, unenforceable, and impractical.

And when this new regulation doesn’t work and vehicles begin to fail, don’t expect the EPA to pay for the repair. Instead, I expect we will soon have EPA regulators standing at every gas station, checking to make sure we use the right gasoline in the right amounts, ready to fine or arrest us if we dare to do something different.

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Despite a 3x increase in the use of gasoline and diesel fuel since the 1960s, the amount of vehicle-related pollution in the Los Angeles area has declined by 98 percent during that same time.

9:50 am

Good news: Despite a 3x increase in the use of gasoline and diesel fuel since the 1960s, the amount of vehicle-related pollution in the Los Angeles area has declined by 98 percent during that same time.

While many on the left will argue that this proves the validity of government regulation, I only see it as evidence that the initial regulations imposed in the 1970s did their job, and that there is no reason for stricter regulation now, something that the EPA, the Obama administration, and the left continue to demand.

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Documents obtained from the Obama administration have revealed that the administration ordered law enforcement officers to “stand down” and not enforce the law against the Occupy movement.

9:58 am

The law is such an inconvenient thing: Documents obtained from the Obama administration have revealed that the administration ordered law enforcement officers to “stand down” and not enforce the law when protesters in the Occupy movement were trespassing in Portland.

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The price of pizza is set to rise because of Obamacare.

11:32 pm

Now we have to repeal it: The price of pizza is going to rise because of Obamacare.

Papa John’s CEO John Schnatter says that Obamacare will result in a $0.11 to $0.14 price increase per pizza, or $0.15 to $0.20 cents per order.

The fact is that these kinds of price increases are going to occur across the board in almost all service industries, since higher regulation always leads to higher prices.

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Emails by Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and others in the Obama administration now show that, under the GM bailout, they purposely terminated the pensions of 20,000 retirees solely because they were not union members, and then lied to Congress about this.

12:29 pm

Emails by Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and others in the Obama administration now show that, under the GM bailout, they purposely terminated the pensions of 20,000 retirees solely because they were not union members, and then lied to Congress about this.

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Gibson Guitars has struck a deal with the federal government to avoid prosecution for the use of banned wood.

9:48 am

Extortion does work! Gibson Guitars has struck a deal with the federal government to avoid prosecution for the use of banned wood.

The company will pay a $300,000 fine under a criminal enforcement agreement that defers prosecution for criminal violations of the Lacey Act. Another $50,000 fine will go to the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation “to be used to promote the conservation, identification and propagation of protected tree species used in the musical instrument industry and the forests where those species are found.”

Notice the political payoff to an outside environmental group. How nice. I wish my cause could get funding this way, by having the U.S. government threaten companies I don’t like and force them to give me money.

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A pro-life Catholic group announced today it will openly defy the new pro-abortion mandate imposed by the Obama administration.

9:27 am

We’ve only just begun: A pro-life Catholic group announced today it will openly defy the new pro-abortion mandate imposed by the Obama administration.

“The unjust and unconstitutional HHS mandate, against which Priests for Life and 57 other plaintiffs have sued the federal government, takes effect today. We at Priests for Life do not qualify for the year that the government has offered certain groups to ‘adapt’ to the mandate. And we are not ‘religious’ enough for this Administration,” he explained. “But regardless of all that, we do not adapt to injustice; we oppose it.

“Therefore today, on behalf of our organization and on behalf of myself personally, I announce our conscientious objection to this mandate,” he said. “Priests for Life has the highest respect for civil government and advocates the observance of all just laws. But this policy is unjust, and today I reaffirm our intention to disobey it.”

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The IRS and Labor Department have started investigations into the finances of a Romney campaign contributor who was also named number one on Obama’s enemies list.

10:31 am

Leftwing tolerance: The IRS and Labor Department have started investigations into the finances of a Romney campaign contributor who was also one of the first listed on Obama’s enemies list.

I don’t appreciate it when the right attacks George Soros for supporting the leftwing causes he believes in, and I certainly oppose it when the left does the same. Here, however, it appears the Obama administration is using the force of the law to attack a private citizen, merely because he supports Obama’s opponent in the election. Such behavior is immoral, wrong, and hostile to everything our free country is supposed to stand for.

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The TSA protester who stripped naked when TSA agents demanded he submit to a more detailed body search has won his case in court.

3:56 pm

The TSA protester who stripped naked when TSA agents demanded he submit to a more detailed body search has won his case in court.

The money quote from the article:

“I was aware of the irony of removing my clothes to protect my privacy,”

This illustrates better than anything the absurdity of the security arrangements of the TSA. What good is this fake security if it destroys our freedom?

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The lawsuits fighting the Obama administration mandate that religious organizations fund contraceptives against their religious beliefs has now risen to more than 20 separate cases and nearly 60 individual plaintiffs,

2:00 pm

We’ve only just begun: The lawsuits fighting the Obama administration requirement that religious organizations fund contraceptives against their religious beliefs has now risen to more than 20 separate cases and nearly 60 individual plaintiffs.

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Despite a court order one year ago requiring them to “promptly” hold public hearings on the use of x-ray scanners, the TSA still refuses to comply.

9:45 pm

The law is such an inconvenient thing: Despite a court order one year ago requiring them to “promptly” hold public hearings on the use of x-ray scanners, the TSA still refuses to comply.

And I agree with Ham: Everyone should opt out of being scanned by these porn machines, and make the TSA feel them up each time. If enough people do that, they will be forced to abandon these x-ray scanners, which don’t work, have health risks, and are fundamental invasion of our constitutional right against unreasonable search.

In a related story, watch the video below the fold, in which an American citizen successfully refuses to answer any questions at two Border Patrol checkpoints, because in truth, he has the right not to answer those questions. And not only does he not answer the questions, he refuses to participate in a vehicle search, and is eventually allowed to go on his way.
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A proposal by three Republican senators to avoid a “lame-duck looting session” after the November election.

3:46 pm

A proposal by three Republican senators to avoid a “lame-duck looting session” after the November election.

DeMint, Graham and Johnson want their House GOP counterparts to act before the August recess to fund the government through early next year. That would avoid the threat of a government shutdown before Sept. 30 and leave it in the hands of a new Congress and, perhaps, a new president.

What a concept! A proposal that the present Congress do its job now, rather than wait.

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