Random thoughts on politics, current events, popular culture, and whatever else interests me.
Tuesday, February 28, 2012
Bill Maher Being Provocative by Calling Jesus a 'Palestinian'
Bill Maher, always looking for an opportunity to be outrageous, announced that Jesus was a "Palestinian" while being interviewed on Piers Morgan's CNN show. Newsbusters' Noel Sheppard takes him to task over the statement.
Monday, February 27, 2012
'Act of Valor' is a Salute to Navy SEALS, Starring Navy SEALs
"Act of Valor" is frankly the sort of film that we should have expected more of in the more than ten years on in the War on Terror. But in many ways it is an action/war film that has never been seen before, because the actors are real SEAL operators.
Sunday, February 26, 2012
Saturday, February 25, 2012
It's election season again, so it's time to go to the townhall and yell at our elected representatives. This time it's about the birth control mandate.
Friday, February 24, 2012
Penn Judge: Muslims Allowed to Attack People for Insulting Mohammad
Addendum: It appears that despite a garbled YouTube video and transcript, Judge Martin is not a Muslim convert after all. The point about using a Sharia defense to excuse an attack on a man exercising his First Amendment rights still stands, of course.
Addendum: It appears that despite a garbled YouTube video and transcript, Judge Martin is not a Muslim convert after all. The point about using a Sharia defense to excuse an attack on a man exercising his First Amendment rights still stands, of course.
Thursday, February 23, 2012
Wednesday, February 22, 2012
Pat Buchanan Oddly Thinks Israel is a Bigger Threat Than Iran
Pat Buchanan, the columnist, author, and until recently MSNBC's token right-winger, garnered a lot of sympathy when he was fired from his job at the left-leaning news network apparently because of a book he wrote
Tuesday, February 21, 2012
"Castle" Presents a Secret Conspiracy with Real World Villains
"Castle" just concluded a wonderful two-episode story about an international plot to bring down the United States. A number of things distinguished the plot from the usual stories that one sees on episodic network television.
How Prince Henry the Navigator Would Run the Space Program
Charles Miller, a recently resigned adviser to NASA on commercial space flight, has sounded an alarm on the need to create low-cost access to space in an article in The Space Review. His arguments are sound, but his proposal is doomed to fail.
Monday, February 20, 2012
Sunday, February 19, 2012
Saturday, February 18, 2012
Friday, February 17, 2012
Thursday, February 16, 2012
Wednesday, February 15, 2012
Is Romney Too Negative -- or Not Positive Enough?
Whether Mitt Romney is too negative depends on whom one asks. His opponents suggest that he is way too negative. Mitt Romney would be pleased to disagree, noting how useful negative advertising has been for him so far.
Could 'Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter' Be the Start of a Genre?
One can only imagine what the pitch session for the movie version of "Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter" was like. "It's sort of like 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer,' only Buffy is the 16th president of the United States."
Rick Santelli, whose rant heard 'round the world inspired the Tea Party, demonstrates the difference between it and the occupiers.
Bob Zubrin drops the hammer on Obama for the attempt to cancel Mars exploration.
Indeed. This disproves the idea that Obama's space policy is the one bright spot of an otherwise dysfunctional administration.
Thus, in order to accept the constraints on human aspirations demanded by Holdren, Ehrlich, and like-minded thinkers (whether rationalized by alleged limits to available resources in the 1970s, or by the putative threat of global warming due to excessive use of natural resources today), people must be convinced that the future is closed. The issue is not that resources from space might disrupt the would-be regulator’s rationing schemes. Rather it is that the idea of an open future with unlimited resources and possibilities undermines the walls of the mental prison that the would-be wardens of mankind seek to construct.
Indeed. This disproves the idea that Obama's space policy is the one bright spot of an otherwise dysfunctional administration.
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
Monday, February 13, 2012
Sunday, February 12, 2012
The conservative message in the classic Trek episode "Patterns of Force." Come to think of it, the episode was an early examination of Jonah Goldberg's concept of liberal fascism.
Friday, February 10, 2012
Thursday, February 09, 2012
Obama's Holy War Against the Church Will Not End Well
Back during the 2008 campaign, then candidate Barack Obama groused about certain people who bitterly clung to "their God and their guns" to a group of well heeled and presumably secular liberal donors in San Francisco.
Wednesday, February 08, 2012
One thing I really admire about Gingrich is that he is not backing down on the moon base. It matters less how he wants to do it as that he wants to do it:
Also How Newt Gingrich Can Save the Moon Base
Addendum: Rand Simberg, having something like the same idea I had, decides to play speech writer for Newt Gingrich. Unfortunately Rand forgets that when one writes a speech for someone else, one needs to consult with that person about what he wants to say and not write the speech one would like to give oneself. My suspicion is that even if he does a follow up speech, Gingrich is not going to get into the weeds of technical details that Rand does. He would present a few easy to understand reasons for a Moon base, establish a few general principles about how it could be brought into reality, but leave the details to people who know how to do that sort of thing. The last thing Gingrich needs to do is to take sides on the whole heavy lift vs. fuel depot fight. If he were to do so, Romney's aerospace brain trust would bury him.
Bumped
Also How Newt Gingrich Can Save the Moon Base
Addendum: Rand Simberg, having something like the same idea I had, decides to play speech writer for Newt Gingrich. Unfortunately Rand forgets that when one writes a speech for someone else, one needs to consult with that person about what he wants to say and not write the speech one would like to give oneself. My suspicion is that even if he does a follow up speech, Gingrich is not going to get into the weeds of technical details that Rand does. He would present a few easy to understand reasons for a Moon base, establish a few general principles about how it could be brought into reality, but leave the details to people who know how to do that sort of thing. The last thing Gingrich needs to do is to take sides on the whole heavy lift vs. fuel depot fight. If he were to do so, Romney's aerospace brain trust would bury him.
Bumped
'Iron Sky': Moon Nazis vs. President Sarah Palin in 2018
"Iron Sky," the movie about Nazis on the Moon, has been in development for the past five or six years. Now it appears that it will hit movie screens on April 4. It also appears that they have picked the wrong president of the United States to mess with.
Tuesday, February 07, 2012
Monday, February 06, 2012
Sunday, February 05, 2012
Saturday, February 04, 2012
Friday, February 03, 2012
Thursday, February 02, 2012
Dana Rohrabacher, a supporter of commercial space, throws Newt Gingrich under the bus over the lunar base issue. Despite the fact that Rohrabacher has had some nice things to say about Obama's Solyndra approach to commercial space, he has endorsed Romney for president.
Wednesday, February 01, 2012
'Game Change' Meant to Stop Sarah Palin Campaign that Didn't Happen
Conservatives4Palin has a story about the upcoming HBO movie "Game Change" based on the John Heilemann and Mark Halperin book which was an account of the 2008 election that brought Barack Obama to the presidency.
Recap: 'Justified,' Season 3, Episode 3, 'Harlan Roulette'
"Justified," Season 3, Episode 3, "Harlan Roulette" begins with Ava having a parley with Limehouse to set up another meeting with Boyd. Boyd is interested in splitting Maggs Bennett's legacy, once Dicky joins her in the afterlife.
How NASA fixed a $100 million problem for five bucks. Too bad the project was cancelled later for political reasons.