Category Archives: History

History, Political Commentary, Space, Space History

Fifty-Three Years Of Space

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Today is the Sputnik anniversary. Here are my thoughts from the fiftieth, written three years ago, in Orlando, not far from Disneyworld’s Tomorrowland (the California version was built a couple years before Sputnik) with some tomorrows that remain tomorrows over half a century later.

Over at The Space Review, Jeff Foust has his own anniversary thoughts, in the context of last week’s historic House vote. Also, He alsoFrank Stratford discusses the role of Mars in future human exploration.

[Update a while later]

I didn’t read that Mars piece before I linked to it — I just assumed that because the home page said it was by Jeff Foust, that it was worth reading. Actually, it’s by someone down under named Frank Stratford, and it’s got some nonsense in it, with no very clear point.

History, Political Commentary

The Great U-Turn

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James Bennett, on the resistance of American political culture to “progressivism:”

For decades — at a minimum, since the beginning of the Progressive Era, and arguably earlier — America had been on a course toward a more centralized society, one in which individualism as it had been understood since before the Founding — a society built on independent families living on their own properties, most of them farms — was being replaced by a different vision. The progressive vision was one of citizens as employees whose existence was mediated by negotiations among large corporations, unions, and government agencies. For such subjects, “rights” were to be a designated set of entitlements granted by those organizations.

America had gone some distance down this road by 1980, although not as far as Canada or Britain, and nowhere near as far as Germany or France, which had never been all that laissez-faire in the first place. But 1980 marked the point at which the nation reversed course. Thenceforth it would be headed in the opposite direction, toward a new vision of individualism and decentralism, driven by the computer rather than the plow.

It’s long, but worth a read.

History, Political Commentary, Social Commentary

That’s One Giant Leap Forward

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Not that it’s really news, but there’s a new book out documenting that Mao (Anita Dunn’s favorite philosopher) was the biggest mass murderer in history. But unlike Hitler, he murdered his own kind, so that’s all right. And as usual, one has to ask why it’s acceptable, and even fashionable, to wear a Che or Mao tee shirt on campus, but not a Hitler one.

[Update a couple minutes later]

Wow. It’s amazing to read some of the defenses of Mao (and Che), and anti-West sentiment in comments over there.

History, Political Commentary

A Failed Attempt

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…at channelling FDR? John Pitney has a theory about the president’s latest bizarre off-prompter moment:

One can only guess what the president was thinking. I’m the new Roosevelt, right? So what did he do when he was under attack? He told union guys something about a dog. But instead of tossing off some humorous line about Bo the First Canine, he blurted out a bit of witless self-pity.

It was as senseless as it was unfunny. Not even the world’s looniest dog-hater has ever accused a pooch of ignoring the Constitution and a running up a $13 trillion debt.

I like Treacher’s take, myself:

Who’s a good president? Obama’s a good president, isn’t he? Yes he is!

I certainly wouldn’t compare Obama to a dog. Dogs are capable of learning.

Well, the question is, how old is this dog, and can he learn any new tricks in time for either this election, or the next one?