Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Simple Solutions to Simple Problems

John Glenn, first American man to orbit the Earth, on the upcoming interregnum in America's spacefaring capacity:

“I never thought I would see the day when the world’s richest, most powerful, most accomplished spacefaring nation would have to buy tickets from Russia to get up to our station,”
Umkay. I hear that India is in the Space Station market. Just give them the damned thing. That'll leave them significantly less money for ongoing nuclear development...

I'm all for teh Space Science and all, but that thing is a free-fall to nowhere in particular and costs ~$1bn per shuttle launch (setting aside for the moment the 1 in 50 potential for the death of seven, count 'em, SEVEN astronauts) to even get a refrigerator up there.
I say we go robotic and do all of our ant farms studies on the good Earth until the next ride arrives. We did the same throughout most of the 70s and the Republic is still here.

Monday, December 8, 2008

THIS IS NEXT

The clearest statement I've yet seen on where the GOP goes from here is available from this piece that quotes that lovable scamp, Newt Gingrich:

“Look,” Newt Gingrich, the former House Speaker, said the other day (on the air, to Bill O’Reilly), “I think there is a gay and secular fascism in this country that wants to impose its will on the rest of us, is prepared to use violence. . . . I think that it is a very dangerous threat to anybody who believes in traditional religion. And I think if you believe in historic Christianity, you have to confront the fact.” For diversity’s sake, he added that “the historic version of Islam” and “the historic version of Judaism” are likewise menaced—which is natural, given that gay, secular, fascist values are “the opposite of what you’re taught in Sunday school.”
Warnings of violence from the ever mysterious, yet surprisingly well organized "other" couched in a pseudo-religious patina. Welcome to the next four years; Campaign 12, 'Merica Decides! has begun.

GOP: look out, Constitution Party, Here we come. Absolutely determined to become a predominantly southern, crazily religious splinter of a party. The real question, then, is: will the new major party be to the left of the current Democrat? Wouldn't surprise me, actually. All depends on the economy.

Wednesday, December 3, 2008

File under: Yep.

Nice to hear, not unexpected quote from the National Governors Association meetings:

Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer, the incoming head of the DGA, was more blunt: "Just to have an administration, a president, a vice president, who listened, engaged, and came to meeting prepared -- it's a brand new idea."
Competence! What a fucking concept. Next: It is discovered that Obama doesn't hold the very notion of "government" in contempt. Remarkable!