Transterrestrial Musings

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Posted by Stephen Macklin at June 21, 2007 05:39 AM

Wow -- read his post. That's not blogging, it's the same as writing for a magazine!

Posted by Trudy W. Schuett at June 21, 2007 06:05 AM

Rand, Like Mark Whittington, has a visceral, unwavering hatred for Democrats and will go to absurd extremes to try and score a point.

Posted by Keith Cowing at June 21, 2007 07:05 AM

Rand, Like Mark Whittington, has a visceral, unwavering hatred for Democrats and will go to absurd extremes to try and score a point.

I think someone is projecting.

Posted by Leland at June 21, 2007 07:40 AM

"Rand, Like Mark Whittington, has a visceral, unwavering hatred for Democrats and will go to absurd extremes to try and score a point."

Keith ought to know better. I have never hated anyone solely on the basis of party affiliation. I leave that tendency for certain other people.

Posted by MarkWhittington at June 21, 2007 08:23 AM

Keith, I think you confuse amusement with "visceral, unwavering hatred." I don't, in fact, hate anyone.

Do you think that Clark Lindsey is also consumed with "visceral, unwavering hatred for Democrats"? His site pointed it out first, which is where I got the link. Anyway, the post said nothing about Democrats. For instance, Ralph Nader is a "progressive" (or so he fancies himself) but he's not a Democrat.

Posted by Rand Simberg at June 21, 2007 08:53 AM

Check out this comment thread:

Link

This is an opportunity to engage in detailed discussion with a "robots preferred" guy who is not unintelligent but fails to grasp the leverage offered by ISRU.

And yes, I agree with ANKOSS to a point.

= IF = we need to bring everything from Earth space settlement probably will be too expensive.

Thus ISRU, ISRU and more ISRU needs to be the mantra.

Also of note: I do not believe the words "space settlement" have ever passed Sean O'Keefe's lips, at least in public. Before settlement will be accepted we need to change the mental infrastructure across America.

Not merely in closed groups preaching to the choir, but in the streets.

Posted by Bill White at June 21, 2007 08:54 AM

Why not blog at Kos? Maybe because of stuff like this.

Anecdotalism at its dumbest. Clearly the decadent liberal/Western system is on the verge of collapse.

Posted by Brian Swiderski at June 21, 2007 09:26 AM

Oh c'mon Rand - your distaste and hatred of the Democratic party and what it stands for is often just as visceral as Mark's....

Posted by Keith Cowing at June 21, 2007 10:14 AM

No, Keith, my "hatred" of the Democrat party is not "visceral" at all, since it doesn't exist. And if it does, there's certainly nothing in this post to indicate it. I have a strong preference for them not to have power, however, rationally based on long experience.

Posted by Rand Simberg at June 21, 2007 10:19 AM

Keith, going by your conclusion from whatever analysis you may have, then can I assume the creator of NASAwatch has a visceral hatred of all things NASA?

Posted by Leland at June 21, 2007 10:25 AM

By the way, it does appear communal blogs have serious drawbacks:

We also have people who come and start writing series, request new tags and in 6 months they are gone and we are left with tags that no one will search on so we still have to go back and clean those up, only instead of one or two, we have to clean up 20 or more.

We are more open to new tags on political issues, since this is a political blog, but we generally wait to see how the community overall is addressing the subject matter over a number of dairies by different people and over time. New tags for non-political subjects one person is writing on are harder to justify.

Besides whining, is that commenter trying to suggest space isn't political?

Posted by Leland at June 21, 2007 10:30 AM

The "Democrat Party"

Heh!

Point proven.

Posted by Bill White at June 21, 2007 11:01 AM

What point is that, Bill? Oh, right, I forgot. You don't do that well with the logic thingie.

Posted by Rand Simberg at June 21, 2007 11:08 AM

Leland, this "tag issue" actually is a microcosm of the challenge of getting space exploration into the mainstream of American culture.

Our future success in persuading the D-Kos tag gurus to accept what Ferris proposes will be a win for space advocates. And good practice for learning how to preach beyond the choir.

Hmmmm . . .

Maybe we need to contact Bill Richardson and ask his staff to prepare a space policy diary for Daily Kos.

Posted by Bill White at June 21, 2007 11:09 AM

Leland: Keith, going by your conclusion from whatever analysis you may have, then can I assume the creator of NASAwatch has a visceral hatred of all things NASA?

Clearly you have problems with the English language, Leland. Just read my ISS posting. Hardly 'hatred" of NASA.

Posted by Keith Cowing at June 21, 2007 11:10 AM

"Democrat" party is an epithet apparently coined by Rush Limbaugh and the use of that term is evidence supporting Keith Cowing's point.

Posted by at June 21, 2007 11:11 AM

Trudy makes a great point lost in this tit-for-tat:

Wow -- read his post. That's not blogging, it's the same as writing for a magazine!

Posted by Bill White at June 21, 2007 11:13 AM

"Democrat" party is an epithet apparently coined by Rush Limbaugh

Apparent to whom?

and the use of that term is evidence supporting Keith Cowing's point.

Even if true (it seems doubtful to me--people have been calling the Democrat Party the Democrat Party all my life) in what way? Still waiting for someone to actually describe, you know, a syllogism by which any of this makes sense?

Posted by Rand Simberg at June 21, 2007 11:17 AM

Oh, and how/why is it an "epithet" to call the party that consists of people who call themselves Democrats the Democrat Party? Republicans are members of the Republican Party, and Democrats are members of the Democrat Party. Why is this a problem? It seems perfectly consistent and fair to me.

Posted by Rand Simberg at June 21, 2007 11:20 AM

My grandmother (life long Detroiter until her death) pronounced Arab "A-rab" (long "a") her entire life until her daughter married a Lebanese Christian who with great reluctance explained that A-rab (long "a") was considered insulting by his community.

My grandmother was horrified that she never knew that.

Democrat party is an epithet to Democrats. Trust me. ;-)

Posted by Bill White at June 21, 2007 11:33 AM

Hm... kind of also reminds me of my irritation about how everything in the "Space" heading on slashdot automatically gets grouped in with the "Science" section. I often submit stories on Bigelow Aerospace, SpaceShipOne/Two, and SpaceX which then grouped in with Science, even though their relation to science is quite tangential.

Posted by Neil H. at June 21, 2007 11:47 AM

This comment from one of the main tag editors (the people responsible for removing the tags) is absolutely precious: "SarahLee and I are the main tag editors, and we've agreed on 'space'. 'Space' will not be a big factor in 'electing Democrats', the purpose of this blog."

Posted by Neil H. at June 21, 2007 11:51 AM

Clearly you have problems with the English language, Leland. Just read my ISS posting. Hardly 'hatred" of NASA.

Clearly you have problems with logic. You have failed to explain how Rand has "visceral, unwavering hatred" of Democrats. You act as if he has a blog dedicated to the wrong that Democrats caused him; while ignoring the fact you created a website to monitor NASA because you were RIF'd. I mean if "NASAwatch" isn't a grand display of capacity to hate then what is?

Just to show I'm really in a good mood and messing with you (though deserved, Keith), how the heck did you miss an opportunity to link back to your website when you directed me to read the ISS post? In your quest to insult my English Language skills, did you forget the old HyperText Markup Language?

Posted by Leland at June 21, 2007 11:52 AM

Democrat party is an epithet to Democrats. Trust me. ;-)

I believe that I've heard something like that before. But I really don't understand why. What exactly is the source of this?

Posted by kayawanee at June 21, 2007 11:53 AM

The Washington Post
January 25, 2007 Thursday
President's Sin of Omission?;
Dropped Syllable in Speech Riles Democrats
Libby Copeland, Washington Post Staff Writer

The president in his State of the Union address Tuesday night left out a tiny little suffix that means a whole lot to some people. He did it so subtly you could have missed it. Just a little "-ic." What's in an "-ic"?

Bush started the speech on a bipartisan note, honoring the first Madam Speaker, Democrat Nancy Pelosi, and calling on the country to come together.

Then: "I congratulate the Democrat majority," he said, dropping the last two letters from "Democratic."

Bush does this a lot, and while it's hard to say if the omission was intentional in this instance, it is a semantic tactic that's been part of Republican warfare for decades. It's a little thing, a means of needling the opposition by purposefully mispronouncing its name, and of suggesting that the party on the left is not truly small-"d" democratic. The president's pronunciation was all the more striking because it was apparently not what Bush was supposed to say. The prepared speech that the White House distributed beforehand retained that precious "-ic."

The case of the missing suffix provoked an oh-no-he-di'int reaction from some Democrats. The bloggers caught it, of course. (Bloggers catch that sort of thing.) "Code word," wrote one. "Calculated insult," wrote another.

"We all noticed," says Markos Moulitsas Zúniga, founder of the liberal blogging site DailyKos.com, who replayed the president's opening words on his TiVo to make sure he'd heard what he thought he heard. "He just clearly couldn't help himself."

"Like nails on a chalkboard," says John Podesta, chief of staff in the Clinton White House, and president of the Center for American Progress.

Tuesday on CNN, Democratic strategist Paul Begala noted the omission right after it happened, adding that the president was being "insulting" and "self-defeating." Republican strategist Mike Murphy chided Begala, saying that if this was his "biggest complaint, I think the president had a pretty good night."

But for those who see a big symbol in two little letters, the question becomes: Is a man who can't say "-ic" capable of being bipartisan?

"He offers this olive branch," Begala says. "Boom, 10 seconds later, he drops the hammer, insults the party and he winks at his base. . . . It tells you what's in his heart. It tells you that he has no damn desire to compromise."

The missing "-ic" has a long legacy. Dick Armey was fond of saying "Democrat Party." Commie-hunting Sen. Joseph McCarthy even used the phrase half a century ago. Bush used it Tuesday night even as he was calling for politicians to "cross that aisle," even in the context of a formal address and even as he addressed a Congress dominated by those he was insulting.

Or not. Could the word have been unintentional?

"It's hard to disentangle whether that's an intentional slight at the opposition, or traditional problems with the president's vocabulary," says Julian E. Zelizer, a congressional historian at Boston University.

"I doubt if it was a conscious slight," says nonpartisan political analyst Charlie Cook. "I think it was just a force of habit." When it comes to omitting the "-ic," Republicans "have been doing it so long that they probably don't even realize they're doing it."

Posted by at June 21, 2007 12:36 PM

It's a little thing, a means of needling the opposition by purposefully mispronouncing its name, and of suggesting that the party on the left is not truly small-"d" democratic.

Ah, I see. Maybe the Democrats should start referring to members of their party as "Democratics".

Republican party members = Republicans
Democratic party members = Democratics

That was easy!

Posted by kayawanee at June 21, 2007 12:52 PM

Tsk tsk Leland. Missing the forest for the trees....

Posted by Keith Cowing at June 21, 2007 01:07 PM

Tsk tsk Leland. Missing the forest for the trees....

No he's not. Rand makes disparaging remarks about the Democratic Party, which you are assuming it means he hates them.

I think you've lost your ability to process logical thought, but I don't hate you either.

Posted by Mac at June 21, 2007 01:19 PM

No, Mac I base this on the things Rand has posted here over the years. He is just in denial when he says he doesn't hate democrats.

Posted by Keith Cowing at June 21, 2007 03:48 PM

just in denial when he says he doesn't hate democrats.

[laughing]

No, Keith, I'm not "in denial." I really don't hate Democrats. Or anyone, for that matter, including Al Qaeda. I don't find hate a useful emotion.

But if you find it entertaining to attempt to psychoanalyze me on line, who am I to deny you your harmless pleasure?

Posted by Rand Simberg at June 21, 2007 04:35 PM

Many of you are indeed just entertainment.

Posted by Keith Cowing at June 21, 2007 05:07 PM

Rand, you know quite well that the use of the phrase "Democrat Party" is an insult. Who are you trying to kid here? Don't insult your own intelligence.

The basic point is that you don't call someone a term that they don't want to be called. I think you should understand that and not try to hide it with "logic arguments" of why it is OK.

Since when has the term been used? Since the berserk wing of the Republican party that is under talk radio control coined the term.
Like the immigration bill is the "Kennedy Amnesty bill".

You should just admit that you are a closet Republican of some flavor, though you want to be something else, but can't quite figure out what that might be.

Posted by Offside at June 21, 2007 05:21 PM

Democratic is ok but Democrat isn't? Hilarious nitpicking that doesn't make any sense and spawns outlandish conspiracy theories. Both the main US parties should get a joint "worst names" prize anyway. An additional "simultaneously worst & best mascot" prize goes to the Asses. Oh? That's no good either? Might be a good idea to stop complaining about irrelevant details or people (the three quarters of the US population that could but didn't vote for the Democrats) will decide it fits (their choice of name could get even worse you know).

Being called a Democrat is an insult according to Democratics? No wonder that party is in big trouble...

And no I don't hate Democrats -oops, Democratics- in general either. There are lots of good persons who tend towards, are, or previously were (*cough*Reagan*cough*Rice*cough*), Democrat(ic)s, even some among the elected ones. For some strange reason I can't envision them getting worked up over this issue though. Actually Jon Stewart (a Democrat(ic) tending towards socialism) might since he would instantly see the comedy in it -part of what makes him great. Some others post here and/or run sites most of us probably visit and hold dear because they provide intelligent, interesting, and/or enlightening opinons.

I wonder if Irshad Manji would find it an insult to be called Communist instead of Communistic. She's a lesbian muslim communist so I guess she's a member of at least one Communist Party, and yeah I think she's a fantastic person even though I despise the ideology of communism.

Change of subject.

As many of the posts here amply illustrate there's no "choir" not even within NewSpace. Everybody (including me) has all sorts of different ideas, approaches, and opinons -it's part of what makes NewSpace great. Sure some of it is popular and fairly commonly held but it's still more reminiscent of serenading alley cats than a choir (and that's the way it ought to be) ^_^

Posted by Habitat Hermit at June 21, 2007 05:35 PM

Rand, you know quite well that the use of the phrase "Democrat Party" is an insult. Who are you trying to kid here? Don't insult your own intelligence.

I'm happy to admit that Democrats irrationally consider being called the "Democrat Party" an insult. The fact that I find that amusing doesn't mean that I "hate them" (let alone "viscerally" so), any more than do any other satires of the Democrat Party that I do.

You should just admit that you are a closet Republican of some flavor...

Why should I "admit" something that is nonsense? I've always said that I wished that I had another choice. I've never been a Republican. I've only voted for a Republican for president once in my life (it wasn't in this millennium).

I was, once upon a time, a Democrat. I was foolish enough, in fact, to vote for Jimmy Carter in my first vote for a president.

And when I was, I wouldn't have been so juvenile (even though I was quite young) as to consider the phrase "Democrat Party" an insult. But maybe that's just me. Or maybe, it's an indication of the level of emotional maturity of most Democrats.

Posted by Rand Simberg at June 21, 2007 05:42 PM

"Democrat party is an epithet to Democrats. Trust me. ;-)"

"My grandmother (life long Detroiter until her death) pronounced Arab 'A-rab' (long 'a') her entire life until her daughter married a Lebanese Christian who with great reluctance explained that A-rab (long 'a') was considered insulting by his community."

So are you saying that Democraticistics are as anal-retentively touchy as Arabs are? That explains a lot. It's been my experience that Muslims go into shit-fits if you don't pronounce their names and other Arab words exactly correctly with every freaking glottal stop and guttural in place. I got so sick of my Islamic Thought (a class I took in pursuit of a Humanities degree) professor stopping the conversation dead to correct our pronunciation of some word or other. (The funny thing is he was from Pakistan so I'll bet his accent drove Arabs crazy.)

In short, Bill, your grandma was probably sold a bill of goods. Secure, confident people don't lose sleep at night worrying about whether people are saying "Muh-hhammmAD" instead of "Moe-hommid."

Posted by Andrea Harris at June 21, 2007 06:30 PM

I forgot to add -- "and Arab Christians" -- re the anxiety about everyone pronouncing everything about them correctly. Arabs are on the whole a touchy bunch, and they seem to have exported this to other countries along with their "religion."

Posted by Andrea Harris at June 21, 2007 06:33 PM

Heaven forbid 'Democrat Party' should become an insider aniti-semetic catch phrase like 'Neocon' for example........

Hell, I bet a Democrat was the first to truncate the word like they did with 'SocSecurity'.

This isn't a conspiracy, it is lazy enunciation. Heaven forbid Chimpy McHitler should ever mispronounce a word, he never has done that before has he?

The nutburger wingbats are projecting again.

Posted by Mike Puckett at June 21, 2007 08:31 PM

Andrea: So are you saying that Democraticistics are as anal-retentively touchy as Arabs are?

As opposed to Southerners?

Posted by Brian Swiderski at June 21, 2007 08:58 PM

I think they aren't going far enough. Space should be aggregated up to PORK BARREL along with highways and such.

Posted by Sam Dinkin at June 21, 2007 09:21 PM

"Since when has the term been used? Since the berserk wing of the Republican party that is under talk radio control coined the term."

And since senator McCarthy used the term... that must mean that Rush Limbaugh reached back through space and time to place McCarthy in his thrall. Geez, that Rush Limbaugh, is there anything he can't do?

Posted by Ed Minchau at June 21, 2007 09:35 PM

Now that I think about it a bit more, I'm thinking that Truth In Advertising ought to apply to political party names. We could rename the Republican party as the "BootOnYourNeck Party - Jackbooted Thug division", the Democratic party as the "BootOnYourNeck Party - Cowardly Clown division", the Libertarian party as the "LeaveMeTheHellAlone Party - Wackjob division", the Communist party as the "AsshatsWhoCannotFigureOutHistory Party", and so on.

Posted by Ed Minchau at June 21, 2007 09:46 PM

Well, the choir here has sung. The defense of the use of the phrase "Democrat Party" is quite extensive. Democrats consider the term an insult but that makes little difference to the non-Republicans here.

Perhaps liberals should call all Republicans NeoCons. Can't do it here though since the term has been banned, right Rand? I guess someone found the term insulting or else synonymous with
failure.

The stupidest arguments here are those that attempt to use logic to prove that the Democrats have no reason to resist the term. Again, Democrats don't want to be called The Democrat Party. You don't call someone a term they consider insulting, unless your actual intent is to insult as it clearly is here.

Perpaps some of you can also come up with the logic that explains why African Americans should be referred to as N*****. Why not, it certainly was in use at one time, and the people who clearly didn't like the use of the term were the N****** themselves. Kinda like the Democrats.

Rand, anyone who observes your commentary whenever an election draws near knows that your independence leaves you completely at such times.

Oh and yes, I know, every time Limbaugh uses the phrase he uses it as a honorific, with full intent to promote the civic discourse so needed in this country.

Posted by Offside at June 22, 2007 06:12 AM

anyone who observes your commentary whenever an election draws near knows that your independence leaves you completely at such times.

I've no idea what that means, unless it means that as an election draws near, I grow more concerned about Democrats getting more power. It certainly not because I grow to like Republicans more. My recollection was that at the last election, I said that the Republicans deserved to lose, and I'm happy that they did. I'm only unhappy that the Dems won, because they did nothing to deserve to.

I have no loyalty to either major political party, regardless of the date.

Posted by Rand Simberg at June 22, 2007 06:29 AM

Andrea: So are you saying that Democraticistics are as anal-retentively touchy as Arabs are?
As opposed to Southerners?

Oddly enough, both cultures are honor/shame cultures. Florence King pointed out that the South had such a checkered past that it evolved cultural attitudes to compensate for its basic lawlessness -- sure, there was slavery, so the way to be a good person was to be kind to slaves. And so on. So despite the fact that you meant it as an insult, I do acknowledge that there are elements of Southern American culture that are similar to traditional Arab culture.

Which is why, considering how much compassionate, progressive, liberal Northerners hate the South and use it as their all-purpose whipping boy for everything that is bad about America, they are willing to give Arabs (and other Muslims from similar cultures) a pass on their behavior.

Posted by Andrea Harris at June 24, 2007 08:33 AM

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