…were state-supported terrorists. The state was Massachusetts.
Pig Farming
Trying to make it more humane and still affordable.
Of course, some people don’t think if a worthy goal. Iowahawk, who grew up on a hog farm (to the degree that he grew up at all), says that he doesn’t eat bacon because he likes it, but just for spite.
The Democrats Lost The Sequester
Plus, it’s long past time to privatize air-traffic control. My long-time associate and friend Bob Poole at Reason has been promoting this for years.
A Conservative LA Times
I don’t see why not. In fact, a very useful first step would be that threatened mass resignation by the staff. That by itself would instantly improve the quality of the rag.
Jake Tapper’s Offensive Tweet
This is pretty damn funny.
Benghazi
The difference it makes:
Maybe there’s an explanation in the internal processes of the State Department. And, it should be said, high officials often make decisions that with hindsight seem obvious mistakes. But she has given us just an exclamation, not an explanation.
And, as the Interim Report goes on to explain, the accounts given by the Obama administration at the time were misleading — deliberately so.
It notes that State immediately reported the attack to the White House Situation Room and two hours later noted an al Qaeda affiliate’s claim of responsibility. There was no mention of a spontaneous protest of an anti-Muslim video.
Yet President Obama, Clinton and press secretary Jay Carney spoke repeatedly for days later of a video and a protest. Clinton assured one victim’s family member that the video-maker was being prosecuted.
Because they had to maintain the false narrative for the election.
The Border Fence
Rubio has already caved:
If you want to write a bill that won’t result in a fence being built, you will give discretion to the DHS as to “where” it should be built, in what form–and, implicitly, where it shouldn’t be built. You will require only a ”plan.”
If you want to write a bill that won’t result in a fence being built but that might con conservatives into thinking it will be, you will throw in lots of meaningless references to possible ”double layer fencing” even though DHS might not decide to build even a foot of that kind of fencing (and none is mandated).
That’s what Rubio and his gang have written. Does Krauthammer–who despairs of getting any actual “enforcement first” bill through Congress, given Dem opposition–think Rubio is now going to pull a 180 and decide to really mandate an actual fence, and that Schumer and the Democrats will go along?
This won’t help Rubio get the nomination in 2016, if he decides to run.
Sleep
Are we on the verge of conquering it?
The comments are sort of interesting. A lot of the naturalistic fallacy is showing up there. I found particularly amusing the one commenter who couldn’t imagine that evolution could make a mistake.
[Via Geek Press]
SpaceShipTwo’s First Powered Flight?
A lot of rumors that it will be happening today. Jeff Foust has the story, with some broader context:
While Virgin may make a flight test of a crewed suborbital vehicle as soon as Monday, another company isn’t far behind. Just down the flightline from Virgin and Scaled at the Mojave airport, XCOR Aerospace is continuing work on its Lynx suborbital spaceplane, with plans to begin an incremental series of tests later this year.
“The concept design is done. I know what the approach is, I can put the numbers together,” Greason said of XCOR’s orbital vehicle plans.“We’re not done yet,” said Jeff Greason, CEO of XCOR, said of Lynx in a presentation at the Space Access ’13 conference in Phoenix earlier this month. “It’s not because of any particular roadblock, but it’s just the usual 90-90 rule of project management: the first 90 percent takes the first 90 percent of the time, and the last 10 percent takes the other 90 percent of the time.”
While development of SpaceShipTwo’s hybrid rocket motor is widely believed to have been the major cause of that vehicle’s delays, Greason said propulsion is not an issue for Lynx. “Propulsion-wise, we’re in great shape,” he said, saying that the four engines, powered by liquid oxygen and kerosene, are now integrated into the fuselage of the Lynx Mark I prototype.
Instead, Greason said, XCOR has been working on a variety of other issues with the Lynx, including tweaks to the vehicle’s aerodynamics, avionics, and landing gear, as well as the production of the vehicle’s wings and a second fuselage. Flight tests are slated to begin in the second half of this year.
It just occurs to me that while the biggest difference is that XCOR was funding-constrained while (as far as I know) Virgin Galactic was not, both have also been delayed for symmetrical problems. XCOR is a propulsion company trying to build an airplane, while Scaled was an aircraft company trying to develop a rocket engine. So it’s natural that both companies have their core competency well in hand, but are being held up by the problem that’s not so much in their wheelhouse.
[Update a while later]
The implication, of course, is that if they’d teamed up, there might have been a suborbital vehicle flying years ago. That they didn’t certainly wasn’t XCOR’s fault.
[Update a few minutes later]
Apparently it was a successful test, and they went supersonic.
This may be the first prediction that Sir Richard has ever made that met schedule.
[Afternoon update]
Clark Lindsey has a roundup of links, including the congratulatory press release from XCOR.
Newtown Versus Watertown
The contrast between the political exploitation of Newtown and the way in which the same media outlets have gone out of their way to avoid drawing the obvious conclusions about Boston could not be greater. In one case, the media helped orchestrate a national discussion in which hyper-emotional rhetoric about the fallen drove a political agenda. In the other, they are seeking to ensure that no conclusions — even those that are self-evident — be drawn under any circumstances.
We’re living in politically correct, and culturally suicidal times.