BURT RUTAN says he was misquoted.
Archive for 2010
February 26, 2010
SPACE LAWYERS, ROBERT HEINLEIN, AND THE U.N. The reference to “metalaw” comes from early space law writer Andrew Haley, and shows that Heinlein actually knew something about what he was invoking.
“BORIS KARLOFF EYES?” That would be an awesome song. But see the picture and judge for yourself. Don’t go for the video, though, unless you’re brave. Or, you know, a Blumenthal fan.
REASON: Who Will Watch The Watchmen? An interview with National Journal’s Shane Harris, author of The Watchers: The Rise of the America’s Surveillance State.
MONEY CAN’T BUY HAPPINESS, but high status gets you more dopamine receptors. This is why politicians seldom retire early.
Not only did I not think it would be going away, I thought the people who were going on about the fierce moral urgency of change were either tools or rubes. And I was right!
UPDATE: Mathprof Stephen Clark writes: “Be sure that your readers understand that you are using the mathematical ‘or’ in your statement above. Surely, one can imagine a nonempty intersection of those two classes.” Indeed.
A BLACK GUY DOESN’T HAVE A CHANCE IN NEW YORK: First they squeeze out Paterson, then they call for Charlie Rangel to surrender his chairmanship, and, of course, they’re gunning for Harold Ford, Jr. Somebody tell Keith Olbermann, quick!
Oh, wait, he’s got to deal with charges of NBC racism from the Congressional Black Caucus.
UPDATE: Now they’re pushing out Desiree Rogers. Maybe it’s not just New York!
JOHN SCALZI on how creative work produces jobs. Obviously, then, the solution is to tax creative people more, so that they’ll have to work harder! [Don’t give ’em any ideas — ed. I think that horse is already out of the stable.]
OFFICIAL: Lexus’s new hybrid hatchback.
IN THE MAIL: Tails of Wonder and Imagination: Cat Stories.
I GUESS THIS MEANS MORE SNOW: U.T. Offers Honorary Doctorate to Al Gore. There’s some controversy.
BYRON YORK: Why Obama defies the public on health care.
“A PHENOMENAL WASTE OF TIME:” Megan McArdle on the healthcare summit. Plus: “When Kevin Drum and Clive Crook are both giving the edge to Republicans, I’m prone to agree.”
I’M GOBSMACKED: Patriot Act Renewal passes House. Plus, House leaders strip ban on degrading interrogation. So much for the fierce moral urgency of change. . . .
REDUCING “FREEDOM OF RELIGION” TO “Freedom of Worship?”
SHOULD JEWISH STUDENTS stop attending U.C. Irvine?
THE NEW CLASS WAR: “The old social and political divisions have given way to two new classes — rather as on the trains. Those in economy are most of us, paying for the comforts of those in first class. And those in first class are the new political class — all those who owe their advancement and their security and their pensions and their privileges not to their backgrounds or their talents, or even necessarily their political parties, but to the state and our taxes.”
JOHN MCCAIN: Passing Health Care Bill Through Reconciliation Would Have ‘Cataclysmic Effects’. Opponents, I feel sure, will regard this action as illegitimate.
THE OBAMA TALK RADIO PUSH: Report Your Call!
MEGAN MCARDLE: New York will miss David Paterson: “David Paterson is not a great politician. . . . But when the state had a crushing budget deficit, he made some hard choices. Unpopular choices, which a better politician wouldn’t have made–but which are ultimately the reason that New York is not yet California. . . . It’s not all that likely that we’ll get a higher degree of moral probity from whoever succeeds him in the governor’s office. But it’s quite likely that we’ll get a lower level of willingness to make tough calls when the chips are down.”