Archive for November, 2022
November 30, 2022
STAY WARM: Lasko 5586 Digital Ceramic Tower Heater with Remote. #CommissionEarned
“NOTHING BLEW UP, WHICH IS ALWAYS A WIN.” SpaceX fires up 11 engines as it prepares massive rocket for orbital test. “On Tuesday, SpaceX test-fired its Super Heavy rocket for about 12 seconds, making it the longest duration firing of the massive booster so far. The test, which ignited 11 of the 33 Raptor rocket engines, came as SpaceX continues working toward an orbital launch attempt of this Super Heavy first stage and its Starship upper stage. Earlier this month, SpaceX fired 14 Raptor engines on this booster for a few seconds, so Tuesday’s test did not set a new record regarding the number of engines tested. However, this “long duration” firing is the longest period of time that so many Raptor engines have been fired at once.”
Hey, blowups happen. And you can learn from them. That’s part of rocket science, too.
ON A LONG ENOUGH TIMELINE, THE LEFT CANCELS EVERYONE: Will The Left Cancel Mr. Rogers Now?
NOT MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE: “DE-POLICING.” New study finds deaths from firearms are reaching unprecedented levels. But it does mention something that’s usually not prominently mentioned:
Maximum rates of fatalities by homicide among Black non-Hispanic men (141.8 fatalities/100,000 persons) significantly outpaced rates of fatalities among white non-Hispanic men (6.3 fatalities/100,000) and Hispanic men of the same age (22.8 fatalities/100,000 persons). The data does show there are also differences in fatalities by intent. Suicides were most common among white non-Hispanic men 80-84 years (45.2 fatalities/100,000 persons).
“Firearm fatalities accelerated dramatically during the COVID pandemic. Multiple potential factors have likely contributed to this including severe economic distress, an erupting mental health crisis, and a significant uptick in the sale of firearms,” says Eric Fleegler, MD, MPH, associate professor of pediatrics and emergency medicine at Harvard Medical School and emergency medicine physician at Boston Children’s Hospital.
Again, not mentioned: De-policing.
XI JINPING UNMASKED: The Tiananmen Tiger Stalks the Chinese Communist Government.
Throughout the country protesters — some wearing surgical masks– stand before cellphone cameras and raise blank sheets of white paper.
Right — white empty space. To paraphrase Cool Hand Luke, sometimes nothing is a real cool message. The blank sheets simultaneously satirize and defy the CCP’s malignant state censorship.
My translation of the blank: “We Chinese citizens say nothing yet you CCP tyrants fear our thoughts.” The empty page attacks the CCP’s systemic truth denial.
Check it out.
UPDATE: A death in the family took me away for awhile. Here’s a column from last week I should have blogged. Rubio and Roy Challenge the Woke Pentagon.
EUROPE’S GREEN POLICIES AS OUROBOROS: ‘Practically Unviable’ for Volkswagen to Build EV Batteries in High-Cost Europe. “It takes a lot of energy to produce a lithium-ion battery large enough to power a car or truck, and Europe’s high energy prices drive up the cost of making the batteries that were supposed to reduce costs.”
FIRST YALE, NOW THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS FACING JUDICIAL PUSHBACK OVER FREE SPEECH: Kansas Supreme Court Justice Caleb Stegall resigns KU Law teaching position over free speech issues.
On Oct. 19, the KU student chapter of the Federalist Society invited Jordan Lorence, the senior counsel and director of strategic engagement at the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), to speak to KU Law students about the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause.
Associate Dean Dean for Academic and Student Affairs Leah Terranova fired off an email to the entire staff and student body of the law school, decrying the talk as “hate speech” 90 minutes before the start of Lorence’s talk.
On November 25, Kansas Supreme Court Justice Caleb Stegall, who has been teaching appellate advocacy at KU Law as a member of the adjunct faculty, submitted a scathing, six-page resignation letter to Dean Stephen Mazza, head of the law school.
Stegall wrote that he had sensed “a dampening of the spirit of open inquiry I have so loved and benefited from at KU Law. A spirit that — going all the way back to my days as a law student — always existed within Green Hall. But events this fall have brought an unwelcome clarity to what before was only a vague and foreboding feeling. So I write to let you know that, as a result, I will not be renewing my teaching relationship with KU Law next fall.” . . . Stegall said he was concerned about a “closed and fearful environment, brimming with hidden hostilities and carefully nursed grievances.”
Directly referencing the controversy over Lorence, Stegall said he was “disappointed to hear from KU Law students who recently came to me to express concern over administration actions surrounding a lunch-hour event sponsored by the student chapter of the Federalist Society.”
According to Stegall’s letter, after the announcement of the Lorence event, there was a “significant uproar” among students and faculty.
Stegall wrote that when members of the KU FedSoc expressed concern about what might happen at the event and asked the administration to provide security, the students were instead told they should cancel.
Good for him. Educrats have no business launching personal attacks on student organizations that they oversee, and Dean Mazza needs to discipline the Associate Dean.
Much more at the link.
REMEMBER THE ABRAHAM ACCORDS? President Joe Biden clearly doesn’t, considering he wasted no time upon being sworn into the Oval Office in shutting down his predecessor’s historic diplomatic initiative. The Lid’s Jeff Dunetz explains why that initiative was historic:
“The peace deals that team Trump moderated took a totally different approach. Unlike previous administrations (both Democratic and Republican), the deals did not involve ‘land for peace,’ only ‘peace for peace.’
“The supposed peace experts of previous administrations had always bloviated that no Arab country would ever formalize ties with Israel before a Palestinian state was created, but the Trump team proved them wrong.”
Instead of pursuing what worked, Biden has returned to the old discredited formula. Not coincidentally, that formula includes U.S. energy dependence and the U.S. pouring millions of tax dollar down the fetid sinkhole that is the Palestinian Authority. We should hope whoever is Biden’s successor will have this Dunetz analysis at hand as a guide to how to restore hope in the Middle East.
GUN BLOG SILENCED: Blogger Censors Borepatch. “What Google hopes to accomplish by censoring a 14-year old post to gun cleaning solvents is unclear.”
SKYNET SMILES: San Francisco police ‘killer robots’ would have explosives, not guns: SFPD.
Sleep tight, San Fran citizens!
EPIC DEAL: Calvin Klein Men’s Dress Shirt Slim Fit Non Iron. #CommissionEarned
XI’S GOTTA HAVE IT! China is censoring the World Cup in a uniquely stupid way. “China blurred out faces in the World Cup so that their citizens wouldn’t know the world is maskless.”
PRESSURE WORKS: Chinese Cities Ease COVID Restrictions After Protesters Clash With Police.
Protests in Knoxville had a similar result a couple of years ago.
MARK JUDGE: Hey Hollywood, maybe make a #MeToo film in which the men are innocent? “The new #MeToo movie She Said has bombed. The prestige picture, based on the crimes of disgraced film producer Harvey Weinstein, only made $2 million — ‘one of the worst results of a major studio in history,’ as Variety put it. Here’s an idea, Hollywood: Make a #MeToo movie in which the accused actually turn out to be innocent.”