Part 2 of Walter Russell Mead’s thoughts on reforging America for the 21st century. I wonder if he’s read Albion’s Seed, which discusses at length the different flavors of the notion of liberty, depending on what part of England had settled that part of the new country.
Category Archives: Social Commentary
Merchants Of Despair
Speaking of Bob Zubrin, he has a new book out on the anti-human environmental movement, that looks interesting. Here are some blurbs.
So What Is It With Joe Farah?
Does he not see himself as others see him? I noticed that myself when watching the show.
My guess. If he’s like me, his facial hair went gray first, so he started dying it. Then the rest of his hair started to go gray, but he decided that it was too much work, or cost, or something to dye it, but he kept doing the stache out of habit. Or something.
Talking Moon Colonies
Just a reminder, that Brian Wang and I will be on Fast-Forward Radio tonight, at 8 PM Pacific.
A Reminder Of Crucial Truths
Some thoughts from Paul Hsieh on man, technology and the state of nature.
Fast-Forward Radio
I’ll be on tomorrow night with Brian Wang, to discuss moon colonies.
NASA’s Irrational Approach To Risk
Bob Zubrin asks how much an astronaut is worth. I don’t think that this is historically accurate, though:
The attempted Hubble desertion demonstrates how a refusal to accept human risk has led to irresponsible conduct on the part of NASA’s leadership. The affair was such a wild dereliction of duty, in fact, that O’Keefe was eventually forced out and the shuttle mission completed by his replacement.
That’s not how I remember it. I recall at the time that I thought, and even advocated, that O’Keefe step down, because he had demonstrated himself unable to do the job, being traumatized by having to tell the Columbia families and friends on the tarmac at KSC that their loved ones weren’t coming home, which is probably what caused his timidity about Hubble. But I’m aware of no evidence that he was “forced out” over the decision. I thought that he simply wanted out of the job and took the best offer that came along. The administration would have been loath to remove an administrator, knowing how hard it is to find a good one. Someone should write a letter to the Reason editor on this. Bob either needs to substantiate this with a credible citation, or the magazine should run a correction. Because I think it’s wishful thinking on his part.
[Update a few minutes later]
Bad link, it’s fixed now, sorry.
[Mid-afternoon update]
While I criticized O’Keefe at the time, I didn’t actually disagree with the Hubble decision at the time. The problem that I saw with it was that it was based on irrational criteria. All the focus was on astronaut safety, and no one seemed to be considering how disastrous it would be if we lost another orbiter. NASA had no shortage of astronauts, but there were only three birds left in the fleet, and we would have had to complete ISS with only two, if the program survived at all. Add to that the fact that we probably could have launched an improved Hubble replacement for the cost of the repair mission, and the decision to do it was irrational in its own way, driven by an emotional attachment to the telescope that had shown so many wonders over the past decade.
Science Fiction Faces Facts
Greg Benford writes about the evolution of science fiction through the space age, up to now, as part of the Reason space issue.
A Tale Of Two Rights
My thoughts on abortion and guns, over at PJMedia.
They Must Be Doing At Least One Of Them Wrong
I don’t golf, but is it really equivalent to s3x in terms of strenuousness?