Category: Uncategorized

What’s the biggest challenge to commercial space travel? No, it’s not the technical challenge of launching men 100 miles high on top of a huge explosive, but H.R. 3752, a piece of pending legislation with ominous consequences. Already, contenders for the space race are lobbying for regulation that is most favorable to their preferred method of rocketry. Before a single private rocket reaches space, pull-peddlers in Washington are already competing for government permissions and favors. Since space travel is currently popular with voters, it is just as likely to receive federal dollars as federal regulations, but either result is likely to keep rockets grounded.

Anyone who has faith in government-run space travel should take note of the space shuttle program. It’s problems go far beyond the “NASA culture,” (compare it to the single-minded vision of Burt Rutan) safety compromises with environmentalists, or their ancient and dilapidated condition. The very notion of a government run “shuttle” should set of warning bells for anyone who has experienced Amtrak or government-run airlines. The shuttle’s creation and stagnation was the result of a compromise between clashing constituencies, a need to justify funding, and (ironically) an inability to take risks and seek bold new direction.

It takes a sociology professor to sink to this level of lunacy:

A Portland lawyer says suffering by African Americans at the hands of slave owners is to blame in the death of a 2-year-old Beaverton boy.
Randall Vogt is offering the untested theory, called post traumatic slave syndrome, in his defense of Isaac Cortez Bynum, who is charged with murder by abuse in the June 30 death of his son, Ryshawn Lamar Bynum. Vogt says he will argue — “in a general way” — that masters beat slaves, so Bynum was justified in beating his son.

The slave theory is the work of Joy DeGruy-Leary, an assistant professor in the Portland State University Graduate School of Social Work.

Because African Americans as a class never got a chance to heal and today still face racism, oppression and societal inequality, they suffer from multigenerational trauma, says DeGruy-Leary, who is African American. Self-destructive, violent or aggressive behavior often results, she says.

I bought an apple pie today. The top of the container has the words “NOT FOR WEIGHT CONTROL.” Is there an apple pie that you do eat for weight control, or is this warning for idiots who are liable to sue because they got fat from eating too many pies? Don’t they watch South Park?

After years of browsing dozens of blogs daily, I finally got an RSS newsreader – RSS Bandit. It’s a free C# project, so I can hack (and perhaps contribute to) the code. It has a nice tabbed reading pane, auto-locates feeds from a website’s URL, allows me to comment right from the reader, and will upload my subscriptions to my website so that I can sync between different computers.

With the newsreader, I can rapidly skim 400+ news sources daily, from the New York Times, to the Drudge Report, to the ObjectivismOnline forum. I’ve added an OPML export of my subscriptions to my site, along with the 12 other feeds on my syndication page . Isn’t technology great?

I have created an Objectivism Wiki at http://wiki.objectivismonline.com

The Wiki will be a “hierarchical, user-contributed reference on the philosophy of Objectivism.” My goal is to make it the #1 reference on Objectivism on the Net. I am inviting everyone to contribute content. Anyone can add any content you want, edit any page, and instantly see the updated, “live” results.
More info at the forum.

Pakistan has tested a nuclear-capable missile with a 1500 mile range. I wonder where it will “accidentally” export the technology next – Libya, Iran, North Korea, or all of the above? Hint: “Some experts say the Ghauri missile was developed with North Korean help in return for nuclear know-how.”

While some protest “over-priced” gas, Minnesota is cracking down on stations that sell “underpriced” gas. When will people learn that prices cannot be set by decree, public opinion and not even chain letter?
(Hat tip: Tim)

California’s Senate voted 24-8 today to pass a bill restricting how Google’s ad-based Gmail service can serve up ads. The commie bastards responsible for this atrocity have a taxpayer-funded staff to take care of their taxpayer-funded email accounts, while Google works hard to allow millions of people to get access to a free and technologically innovative email account. Well, I am going to make Senator Figueroa’s attack on America a bit harder by emailing the CA senators from my Gmail account. (Assembly emails are here.) Feel free to send the letter below…or anything else that will help them appreciate the value of email.
Continue reading CA's war on Gmail

An experiment in capitalism in North Korea? Or a desperate attempt by the regime to retain power? More likely the former, but it’s also evidence of the global recognition of the wealth-creating power of markets.

Nicholas Thompson of the New York Sun describes the powers granted the New York attorney general Eliot Spitzer by the 1921-era Martin Act:

The purpose of the 1921 Martin Act is to arm the New York attorney general to combat financial fraud. It empowers him to subpoena any document he wants from anyone doing business in the state; to keep an investigation totally secret or to make it totally public; and to choose between filing civil or criminal charges whenever he wants.
People called in for questioning during Martin Act investigations do not have a right to counsel or a right against self-incrimination. Combined, the act’s powers exceed those given any regulator in any other state.
Now for the scary part: To win a case, the AG doesn’t have to prove that the defendant intended to defraud anyone, that a transaction took place, or that anyone actually was defrauded. Plus, when the prosecution is over, trial lawyers can gain access to the hordes of documents that the act has churned up and use them as the basis for civil suits.
“It’s the legal equivalent of a weapon of mass destruction,” said a lawyer at a major New York firm who represents defendants in Martin Act cases (and who didn’t want his name used because he feared retribution from Mr. Spitzer). “The damage that can be done under the statute is unlimited.”
Mr. Spitzer and his allies, of course, see the law the opposite way, lauding its unlimited capacity for good.

The purpose of government is not to “do good” of course, but to prevent (and punish) evil. The problem with unlimited power to “do good” is that it always leads to tyranny, no matter how noble the motives.
More commentary at the Agitator. Hat tip: CapMag.