Obama draws a moral equivalency between modern Islamists and medieval Christians

President Obama addressed the subject of religious-based violence, such as practiced by ISIS, at the National Prayer Breakfast on Thursday. While the president roundly condemned the atrocities committed by denizens of the Islamic State, he also choose to lecture Christians about Christianity’s violent past. He said, "Unless we get on our high horse and think that this is unique to some other place, remember that during the Crusades and Inquisition, people committed terrible deeds in the name of Christ. In our home country, slavery and Jim Crow all too often was justified in the name of Christ.”

Republicans look forward to a post-Obamacare future

With Congressional Republicans mounting the 56th assault against Obamacare, now with the help of a GOP-controlled Senate, some are looking for an alternative health care reform measure to replace it with once it is gone. Adding to the impetus to find a way to enact true health care reform that might actually work, the prospect of the Supreme Court striking down subsidies for Obamacare customers in states with no state-run exchanges looms large. Without those subsidies, the Affordable Care Act collapses. With that in mind, Sen. Orion Hatch, Sen. Richard Burr, and Rep. Fred Upton have laid out a post-Obamacare health care reform proposal in Thursday’s USA Today.

Hillary Clinton offered philanderer John Edwards Attorney General in 2008

According to a Wednesday story in Hot Air, David Axelrod describes in his forthcoming memoirs how then-senator and presidential candidate Hillary Clinton tried to ease out her rival, John Edwards, from the 2008 race. In return for dropping out and endorsing her, Clinton promised that Edwards would become Attorney General in her administration. Since Edwards had carried on an adulterous affair while his wife was dying of cancer, even fathering a child with his mistress, the alternate universe in which Edwards agreed to the deal would have been entertaining.

NBC News Brian Williams caught in a lie about being shot down in Iraq

NBC News’ Brian Williams used to tell one and all who would listen the story of how he was shot down in a helicopter with a camera crew over Iraq in 2003. According to Williams, he and company made a hard landing and came under the protection of a nearby American Army unit. It was an exciting story that he repeated often over the 12 or so years hence, on Letterman and, most recently, Jan 30 during the broadcast of a tribute to a retired soldier at a New York Rangers hockey game, according to Wednesday story in Stars and Stripes.

The Man from Mars: The Asteroid Mining Caper

Democrats will boycott Netanyahu's speech at their peril

The Washington Examiner reported on Wednesday that dozens of House Democrats may decide to be elsewhere when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addresses a joint session of Congress on the subject of Iran. Indeed, the White House has not yet committed to having Vice President Joe Biden attend. However, Hot Air suggests that the Democrats may be lurching into the mother of all political blunders if they decide to boycott Netanyahu.

NASA planning for an Europa probe proceeds apace

Even though funding for a mission to Europa included in President Obama’s 2016 NASA budget request is only $30 million, as opposed to $100 million in 2015, its inclusion represents a commitment to fly such a mission in the early to mid-2020s. NASASpaceFlight.com indicated on Monday that planning for such a mission has already begun. The main contender is a concept called Europa Clipper, a probe that would not orbit Europa, but rather orbit Jupiter and fly by the moon multiple times.

ISIS burning captured Jordanian pilot alive sparks outrage and an opportunity

ISIS murdering captured Jordanian pilot Moaz al-Kasasbeh by setting him on fire and burning him alive was barbaric even by the standards of the terrorist army that has ravaged the Middle East in the past year. Beheadings were clearly not working for the terrorists any longer, so ISIS instead went for a public burning, putting the atrocity out on video for all to see. The terrorists may have made a mistake, however. King Abdullah of Jordan has vowed revenge, according to a Tuesday story in the Washington Examiner. He is quoting Clint Eastwood while so doing.

Vaccination becomes an issue in the 2016 presidential race

Strangely, vaccination has become an issue in the 2016 presidential election. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Kentucky allowed his libertarian instincts to override his medical training by suggesting that vaccinations could lead to mental disabilities, something not admitted to in medical science, according to a Tuesday story on NBC News. He suggested that vaccinations should be voluntary on the theory that parents have absolute autonomy over their children.

The Last Moonwalker and Other Stories

Has the FAA found a way to protect private property rights on the moon?

When the Outer Space Treaty which, among other things, forbade claims of national sovereignty on other worlds was signed and ratified by the United States in 1967, little thought was given to the idea of private property rights. Now, with companies like Moon Express and Bigelow Aerospace contemplating private lunar operations, that question has become a concern. According to Reuters on Tuesday, the FAA may have discovered a way to enforce private property rights on the moon without, it is hoped, violating the Outer Space Treaty.

Addendum: Paul Spudis has some thoughts.

This issue leads us to the consideration about the presence and role of the U.S. federal government in space. I have contended previously that a strong federal presence in space is necessary to ensure that our rights are established and that our values be protected and promoted. In the hypothetical context mentioned above (Bigelow vs. China), a single American company facing a determined nation-state is not likely to prevail in a manner favorable to the interests of free market capitalism. Legal recourse on Earth would be limited (more likely, non-existent) and it is also unlikely that the United States would go to war over the infringement of some corporate plot of land on the Moon – at least during the early stages of commercial space. However, if the federal government establishes a presence, it gives notice to the world of our national interests there. Such a presence makes the infringement of property and access rights of American corporations both less likely to occur in the first place – and more easily resolved if such a situation arose.

Indeed.

Reaction to Obama's NASA budget proposal tepid at best

Thus far, the reaction to President Obama’s 2016 NASA budget proposal has been tepid, at best, on Capitol Hill. The reaction of Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas, the chairman of the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee, which oversees the space agency, was typical. According to a Monday story in Florida Today, Smith said, "The president has delivered a budget request that does not adequately support the programs that will take us farther into our solar system to destinations like Mars." He said that despite the fact that the president’s proposal spends a $500 million more than in FY2015.

Ted Cruz prepares a new assault on Obamacare

No more relentless foe of Obamacare exists than Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas. He, after all, instigated the fight in the fall of 2013 that led to a government shutdown over an attempt to defund the health care reform law. Now, a year and some months later, Cruz is going after Obamacare again, filing a full repeal bill in the Senate. As Hot Air noted on Monday, this bill has a pretty good chance of reaching President Obama’s desk, unlike the 50 or so other repeal measures that died in the Senate, thanks to Harry Reid.

Gabriella's War: A Vampire Gabriella Novel (The Vampire Gabriella) (Volume 4)

Sarah Palin calls for a constitutional convention to curb Obama's powers

Sarah Palin, former governor of Alaska, former vice presidential candidate, and still the most powerful female politician on the planet, has placed her influence behind a movement to call a new constitutional convention, according to a Monday story in the Washington Examiner. The purpose would be to pass amendments that would restrain President Obama’s strategy of governing through executive degrees. The idea of a constitutional convention is part of Article V of the Constitution, allowing the states to propose new amendments.

Obama's 2016 NASA budget status quo, funds Europa mission

The Washington Post reported on Monday that the NASA portion of the president’s 2016 budget proposal is basically status quo though it does provide further funding for a mission to Europa. A Europa probe is near and dear to the new chairman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee that funds NASA, Rep. John Culberson. However, the $18.5 billion dollar budget proposal also funds the asteroid redirect mission, which has come under increasing fire from both Congress and the scientific community.

Addendum: Eric Berger has some analysis.

Chris Christie seems to side with parents who do not vaccinate their kids

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie stepped in it, according to the Washington Examiner on Monday, when he seemed to be somewhat agnostic concerning whether or not parents should vaccinate their children against deadly diseases. He later walked back those remarks, suggesting that the deadlier the disease, the more vaccinations against them should be required. However, as Hot Air reported, he seemed to be sympathetic to parents who believe that there is a link between autism and vaccinations. That theory has been thoroughly discredited, based as it was on a paper in Lancet that was since withdrawn when it was shown to be based on fraudulent research.

After Nearly a Decade, New Horizon Spacecraft approaches Pluto

As Ted Cruz looks ahead to 2016 he looks back to 1980 and 2004

The sure sign that someone is running for president is whether he or she is raising money and hiring staff in advance of the big announcement. In that vein, according to a Sunday article in the Houston Chronicle. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas is all but certain to run for president. He is raising and spending money through his Pac and is hiring heavy hitter political talent. ”Entering 2015, Cruz’ PAC had $131,000 on hand and his fundraising committee had $227,000. His Senate campaign account had not yet filed its end-of-year report.”

The day the space shuttle Columbia died

My experience of the space shuttle Columbia disaster took place in my den on an otherwise lazy Saturday afternoon. The TV was tuned to the news, which was going to broadcast the landing of the shuttle mission STS 107.

Also A 1996 Plan to Use NASA’s Oldest Orbiter to Make Money on the Moon