Month: August 2011

So… we’re abandoning the International Space Station?

Looks like that might happen.  Only ‘temporarily,’ of course.

Astronauts may need to temporarily withdraw from the International Space Station before the end of this year if Russia is unable to resume manned flights of its Soyuz rocket after a failed cargo launch last week, according to the NASA official in charge of the outpost.

Mind you, ‘temporarily’ in bureaucrat-speak means ‘a unit of time ranging from the sound of the beep [beep!] to five minutes before the end of time…’

Via Glenn Reynolds.

Moe Lane (crosspost)

PS: Hey, do you know what 787 billion dollars could have bought us in 2009?  A functional manned space program!  Then we and the ISS wouldn’t be dependent on the Russians’ ability to launch rockets that don’t blow up!  No, wait, forgot: Texas, Alabama, and Florida won’t be voting Democratic in the next Presidential election.  Never mind…

#rsrh @aceofspadeshq has to use small words again…

…with dhimmi self-beclowners… including one spectacular reductio ad Huntsmanian argument.  If you don’t feel like clicking the link, it goes like this: if you’re going to decide that sufficient levels of hanging with Grover Norquist is a troubling sign of dhimmitude, then – due to the influence of ATR – you’re going to inevitably end up supporting… Jon Huntsman, who is the only Republican candidate of the bunch who won’t sign Grover’s tax pledge*.

I suspect that this would generally be considered a suboptimal result by the target demographic in question.

Anyway, there are times when I enjoy posting stuff, and there are times when I feel wearily obligated to post stuff.  The latter applies in this case; honestly, Ace has better things to do than this, and frankly so do I.  Which is why this is going in RedHot in RS, despite the fact that Ace wrote a crackerjack post here…

Moe Lane

*Link goes to Ace because Crooks & Liars doesn’t deserve the traffic.  By the way: if C&L loves you as a candidate, then you’ve done something horribly, horribly wrong.

Since when is Twitter public property?

As I understand this stalking case, the guy’s facing criminal charges for cyberstalking, which in this case seems to be somewhere between ‘being a relentless jerk’ and ‘there may be actual worms in his head.’  I understand free-speech concerns, but Twitter isn’t actually public space: it’s a private forum where people are permitted to register and participate without paying a fee.  And I’m not being pedantic, here: it’s that distinction that allows site moderators to moderate sites*.

Which is not to say that, say, Eugene Volokh is wrong to question the law itself.  The defendant seems to have avoided sufficiently explicit and credible threats of violence, at least from a legal point of view (warning: I am not a lawyer); and I favor a high bar for that sort of thing.  But I think that it makes more sense for Twitter to seek legal redress against somebody who is deliberately abusing their communications network to harass other people.  For that matter, isn’t this sort of thing more properly a case for the civil court system anyway?

Moe Lane

*This is, as I can attest personally, a distinction that is lost on a lot of ‘libertarians.’

#rsrh Rude observation: If malaria was endemic…

…to Marin County, CA, DDT gel-packs would be available for sale in every Home Depot in America.  And if soybeans ever get hit with the equivalent with Phytophthora infestans, there’ll be genetically modified tofu being hyped in the organic markets within three months. Alas for actual sufferers from malaria and food insecurity, their problems are not the problems of our professional ‘altruist’ class; in fact, solving the former’s problems end up causing problems for the latter, which is a major reason why the former’s problems are not actually being solved.  Which is my subtle way of agreeing with Glenn Reynolds: whether or not anti-DDT efforts (and anti-GMF efforts) are meant to keep dark-skinned people from the Third World sick and starving, that’s how things end up.  That is the result of ‘success.’

Malaria.

Food insecurity.

Moe Lane

PS: This isn’t my fault.  I’m just mentioning it.

NYT WILL NOT BUDGE on Issa’s golf course visibility!

It is adamant that you can see a golf course from the Representative’s San Diego office!  Adamant!  The Time has a third-party ad and everything!  So there!  But what about the allegations that Rep. Issa used his influence and position to make significant profits on both a mutual fund purchase and a real estate sale?  Which is to say, two of three allegations* that the New York Times used as the framework for its hit piece on Representative Issa?

Yeah.  About that. Continue reading NYT WILL NOT BUDGE on Issa’s golf course visibility!

Wisconsin progressives attack charter school.

Yup, ‘attacked.’  Those locks didn’t vandalize themselves, and they weren’t vandalized by the Scott Walker administration.  That leaves a pretty small list of suspects from which to choose.  Anyway, I’m just putting this video about the protests at Messmer Preparatory Catholic School (via Hot Air) up, without any of the (scathing) editorial comments that I had originally written.

But see if you can guess what the major difference was between the ‘choice’ school kids being protested at, and the screaming vandals doing the protesting.  Hint: if you know anything about the DC school choice saga then you already know what I’m talking about – which is also true if you’re a typical progressive activist.  The only difference there is, you’d rather gargle razor blades then admit that you do know what I’m talking about*. Continue reading Wisconsin progressives attack charter school.