SPACE JUNK, BETTER PUT UP MY UMBRELLA: Astroscale and rocket maker MHI team up to develop debris removal technology.
Archive for 2021
July 28, 2021
BIPARTISAN CONCERN: Abbott aims to restrict immigrant travel through Texas, citing rising Covid-19 infections. If Covid concerns justify restrictions on Americans, how can they not justify restrictions on illegal aliens?
PAST PERFORMANCE IS NO GUARANTEE OF FUTURE RESULTS:
More juxtapositions at the link.
Via Robert of Small Dead Animals, who writes, “Please send this link to everyone you know who still trusts the traditional news media.”
CAR BREAK-INS ARE UP 753% IN SAN FRANCISCO’S TOURIST HUB: But no need to panic! “Last month, the Police Department’s Central Station saw a 753% increase in auto burglaries compared to the previous May. But that was the height of lockdown restrictions. They are up only 75% compared to 2019.”
The “only” is a nice touch by the DNC operatives at the San Francisco Chronicle.
Related: DA Chesa Boudin Takes Questions at Manny’s, Compares Recall to ‘Big Lie.’
I suppose it’s good interdepartmental relations when international socialists reference lines by National Socialists.
DON’T PULL THE STAKE OUT OF ITS HEART! Remains of Giant Vampire Bat From 100,000 Years Ago Found in Argentinian Cave. We’ve all seen that movie.
FLIPFLOPS: ‘The CDC hasn’t changed’: Biden’s top health officials try to sell new masking guidance.
Related, via a friend.
GENERAL MILLEY HAS A RICH FANTASY LIFE:
General Milley had no direct evidence of a coup plot. But in the days after Mr. Trump’s electoral defeat, as the president filled top military and intelligence posts with people the general considered loyal mediocrities, General Milley got nervous. “They may try,” but they would not succeed with any kind of plot, he told his aides, according to the book. “You can’t do this without the military,” he went on. “You can’t do this without the C.I.A. and the F.B.I. We’re the guys with the guns.”
While some might greet such comments with relief, General Milley’s musings should give us pause. Americans have not usually looked to the military for help in regulating their civilian politics. And there is something grandiose about General Milley’s conception of his place in government. He told aides that a “retired military buddy” had called him on election night to say, “You represent the stability of this republic.” If there was not a coup underway, then General Milley’s comments may be cause more for worry than for relief.
And you know, there wasn’t. There really wasn’t. The way we select our top military leaders seems clearly flawed.
Also “mediocrities?” Dude, you aspire to mediocrity.
21ST CENTURY HEADLINES: Fitbit-wearing baboons reveal price of social cohesion.
RELATING TO CHARLES GLASSER’S SECTION 230 POST BELOW, I should note that Clarence Thomas has criticized the judicial overreading of its provisions. “Adopting the too-common practice of reading extra immunity into statutes where it does not belong, courts have relied on policy and purpose arguments to grant sweeping protection to Internet platforms.”
ABOUT SECTION 230: In an Instapundit item below, John Tierney links to a City Journal article that frames up “Big Tech Censorship” as the the most “controversial” problem with Section 230, which provides immunity to “internet service providers” for content ostensibly created by third parties.
While I agree that the censorship problem has to be solved by either a judicial ruling that declares the web a “public space” or a re-write of the statute, I think the real problem is that the more common problem is an overly broad statute that allows virtual newsrooms to defame with impunity. The statute was passed in part to protect companies like AOL and CompuServe for content they didn’t create, particularly, kiddie porn.
One prescient court noted in the early years of digital space that:
“The internet (or ‘Net’), heralded as the most significant achievement in human speech since the printing press, has become ground zero in a legal battle over the First Amendment and the right of individuals to speak (or rather type) anonymously. At its best, the Net is the ultimate conduit for free speech and expression; at its worst, the Net can be a character assassin’s greatest weapon.”
The statute reads in relevant part:
“No provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider.”
The provision means that ISPs like AOL are not legally responsible for the defamatory postings of third parties. But neither are newsrooms, because the broad language of Section 230 defines “interactive computer service” as:
“The term “interactive computer service” means any information service, system, or access software provider that provides or enables computer access by multiple users to a computer server, including specifically a service or system that provides access to the Internet and such systems operated or services offered by libraries or educational institutions.”
As much as I support protection for a free and vibrant press, allowing “breathing space” for good faith errors, the broad word “any” has been used to allow some pretty nasty stuff to be published, from Gawker to Occupy Democrats to Wikipedia.
If they are going to “fix” 230, they need to consider this.
THE ELECTION WAS TOTALLY FREE AND FAIR, SO WE DON’T WANT YOU LOOKING INTO WHAT HAPPENED: DOJ fires warning shot against ‘unusual’ post-election ballot reviews.
It was an unusual election. Of course the reviews are going to be unusual, too.
CONSCIOUSNESS OF GUILT: China hits back after EU official joins call for cooperation on pandemic origins probe.
HONESTLY, THE HARDER THEY PUSH IT THE MORE THEY GET PEOPLE’S BACKS UP: Study: COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy holding constant among some groups.
Phony social media astroturf campaigns don’t help, either.
THE LEGAL CASE AGAINST BIG TECH CENSORSHIP: How to Interpret Section 230. The tech giants may not enjoy as much immunity as they think.
THE HYSTERIA OF THE LAPTOP CLASS: Still Panicking. Brian Anderson of City Journal and I discuss the moral panic that brought us lockdowns — and caused the nation’s elite to flout the norms of journalism, academic freedom and science during the pandemic.
NEWS YOU CAN USE: Motivation depends on how the brain processes fatigue. “Intriguingly, the researchers found that there were two different types of fatigue that were detected in distinct parts of the brain. In the first, fatigue is experienced as a short-term feeling, which can be overcome after a short rest. Over time, however, a second, longer term feeling builds up, stops people from wanting to work, and doesn’t go away with short rests.”
AT HELEN’S PAGE: Books by Jeremy Abrams, including Hamlet’s 2020 Vision: A recasting of Hamlet as the tragedy of the 2020 election.
HERD IMMUNITY? Eight reasons why the UK’s coronavirus cases appear to be falling.
Shorter version here. Upshot: People who recover from Covid have strong, lasting immunity. Plus bonus immunity to SARS-Cov-1, generally known just as SARS.
RIP: ZZ Top Bassist Dusty Hill Dies at 72. “No cause of death was cited,” however, “Earlier this month, Gibbons and Beard played their first performances without Hill in more than 50 years, stating that the bassist had been forced to seek medical attention ‘to address a hip issue,’ according to a statement, although his ailment was apparently more serious than they let on. ‘Per Dusty’s request the show must go on!,’ the statement continued, and the band’s longtime guitar tech, Elwood Francis, filled in.”
Prior to Hill’s death, “the Gibbons/Hill/Beard trio [lineup of ZZ Top] has been in place since 1970. That’s enough to make ZZ Top the longest-running group with an unchanged line-up in the entire history of popular music.”
MORE LIKE THIS, PLEASE: Eric Adams declares war on AOC’s socialists.