Archive for 2011

PRIVACY? Ohio Paper Outs CCW-Holding Politicians. “On the plus side, the article does highlight the clear double standard whereby some politicians want the right to carry in public meetings, many of which are designated off limits to concealed weapons. They want to be like you and me, only better. Or safer.”

IN THE MAIL: From David Drake & John Lambshead, Into the Hinterlands.

INTERNAL FRICTION:

It turns out that President Obama much-exalted “green” jobs initiative is having a hard time getting off the ground in large part due to the federal government’s own extensive regime of regulatory red tape. Investor’s Business Daily reports that a number of internal reports have shown that certain federal regulations, many of them championed by labor and environmental groups, are thwarting efforts at the state level to create these “clean tech” jobs. (Ironically, these groups are some of the biggest supporters of Obama’s green agenda.)

Oft evil will shall evil mar.

NO WONDER THEY CAN’T FIND KHADDAFY!

EMAIL OF THE DAY:

I work for Karen Anderson, Poul Anderson’s widow, as assistant, chief cook, bottle washer, computer geek and, lately, Kindle content creator. We are going to be trying to get Poul’s entire backlist up as I get them converted, and the first one – “Call Me Joe” – went live over the weekend. That’s the one that contains the immortal line “I’ve yet to see any problem, however complicated, which when you looked at it the right way didn’t become still more complicated.” This edition has the original Kelly Freas Cover from Astounding in 1957 and all four of Kelly’s interior illustrations, and is authorized by the estates of both.

A Poul Anderson story you probably haven’t read, for 99 cents? Sounds like a deal to me.

UH OH: NASA fears leaving space station unmanned. “The possible first-ever evacuation of the International Space Station, if a Russian spacecraft is not launched in November, would risk the loss of the orbiting lab, a NASA official has warned.” Hmm. If the ISS goes all Skylab on us, it’ll just be another Jimmy Carter parallel. . . .

JERRY POURNELLE: DESPAIR IS A SIN: “I do not warn you of a future you cannot avoid. On the other hand I have for forty years warned that we are approaching a precipice, and yet we continue to move toward it. Sometimes I get discouraged.”

WASHINGTON EXAMINER: New Warning Bells In Operation Fast And Furious Probe.

A bruised and battered veteran of the U.S. Civil Service explained how the government silences whistleblowers and other uncooperative employees: “They give you a big promotion, a fancy title and a new office, but no staff and nothing to do. Then they tell you to watch the flagpole in front of headquarters and, if that flag moves, you come tell us immediately. After that, you’re never heard from again.” Whistleblowers in the Washington bureaucracy come in all ideological stripes, but the one thing they almost invariably have in common is being subjected to this treatment. Some stick to their guns and alert the public to a problem in government, but most are bored into submission.

Kenneth Melson, the now former acting director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives at the center of the Operation Fast and Furious scandal, appears to be getting the treatment now.

It does look suspicious.