Archive for 2022
August 14, 2022
OPEN THREAD: Have fun, kids.
I’M NOT FILLED WITH CONFIDENCE: Harris says U.S. to update commercial space regulations.
Harris did not elaborate on specific regulatory issues the National Space Council will take up at its next meeting. However, one longstanding issue has been determining what agency or agencies will have responsibility for authorization and continuing supervision of commercial space activities required by Article 6 of the Outer Space Treaty. While those responsibilities are understood for existing industries like satellite communications and remote sensing, they are less clear for emerging commercial markets like space stations, satellite servicing and lunar missions.
“I applaud the vice president’s leadership to address the rules of the road for commercial space. Specifically, industry needs a clear and efficient process for providing continuing supervision of private sector activities as required by the Outer Space Treaty,” Mike Gold, executive vice president for civil space and external affairs at Redwire, told SpaceNews. “This process must encourage innovation while providing the government with the information necessary to preserve and protect the space environment.”
There have been previous efforts to address Article 6 oversight. The Obama administration pursued a “mission authorization” concept that would have been handled by the Federal Aviation Administration’s commercial space transportation office, but didn’t complete the effort before the end of the administration. The Trump administration moved to have that responsibility go to the Office of Space Commerce within the Department of Commerce, but made little progress.
The FAA isn’t crazy about regulating space (it thinks of itself as about airplanes), but like all bureaucracies it will fight bitterly to keep its responsibilities from being given to someone else.
OKAY, GROOMER: “So even something this extreme couldn’t convince academics to overcome their knee-jerk instincts that anything said by a conservative is wrong.” “In 2006, Andersson founded ‘Destroyer Magazine’, a Swedish publication which sought to ‘to bring back the adolescent boy as one of the ideals of gay culture’. Wikipedia says it [features] ‘sexually suggestive shots of boys as young as 13.'”
THE LID: Even The Left Is Now Furious With Biden’s Most Inept Cabinet Member.
Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra’s inept leadership embodies the overall failed response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
President Joe Biden should fire him but will not because the White House runs on identity politics. Becerra, therefore, brings trivial “diversity” to the team, and they like that nonsense while Americans suffer.
Early in 2021, Biden drew criticism from woke Hispanic radicals who wanted more progressive Hispanics elevated to Cabinet positions. Biden panicked and assuaged the radicals, offering Becerra the vital job during a pandemic, despite the Californian being a lawyer with absolutely no executive or medical experience. Even Speaker Nancy Pelosi reportedly “had worked closely with Becerra in the House and viewed him as untrustworthy.”
Becerra rightly received zero confirmation votes from Republicans as every Democrat senator embarrassingly fell in line.
But now, even the mainstream media is irked.
Read the whole thing.
WELCOME TO THE ERA OF ANTISOCIAL MEDIA. I noticed this: “I am reminded of the decline of blogging, from its golden age (roughly 2001 to 2012) to now. There are still many good blogs, but they don’t have the broad cultural relevance that Andrew Sullivan, Daily Kos or Instapundit had in their heyday.”
It’s largely true, and that’s okay. Like Galadriel, I am better off without the ring of power. Though we did keep the orb. As one does.
CHRISTIAN TOTO: All the Times Roger Waters Made Zero Sense.
You’re gonna need a much bigger blog.
HANS BADER: “Minneapolis Schools Will Lay Off White Teachers First.“
THIS IS TERRIFYING TO ME: Fortunately, the schools are getting major pushback:
As a teacher in Oakland, Calif., Kareem Weaver helped struggling fourth- and fifth-grade kids learn to read by using a very structured, phonics-based reading curriculum called Open Court. It worked for the students, but not so much for the teachers. “For seven years in a row, Oakland was the fastest-gaining urban district in California for reading,” recalls Weaver. “And we hated it.”
The teachers felt like curriculum robots—and pushed back. “This seems dehumanizing, this is colonizing, this is the man telling us what to do,” says Weaver, describing their response to the approach. “So we fought tooth and nail as a teacher group to throw that out.” It was replaced in 2015 by a curriculum that emphasized rich literary experiences. “Those who wanted to fight for social justice, they figured that this new progressive way of teaching reading was the way,” he says.
Phonics. Phonics. Phonics. It’s the approach that works.
WE MAY BE EATING THERE 7 DAYS A WEEK SOON: Costco won’t raise the price of its $1.50 hot dog combo despite brutal inflation.
IS THERE NOTHING IT CAN’T DO? CBS says study shows that climate change is having an effect on childhood obesity.
JOE CHONCHA: Biden frontrunner for ‘Lie of the Year’ award as many in media look the other way.
“I just want to say a number: zero. Today, we received news that our economy had zero inflation in the month of July. Zero percent. Here’s what that means: While the price of some things go up — went up last month, the price of other things went down by the same amount. The result? Zero inflation last month.”
That was President Biden speaking to the country last Wednesday. His administration has attempted to redefine what infrastructure means (it’s not only about improving roads, bridges and power grids, but also about paid family leave and child care) and what a recession means (it’s not two straight quarters of negative GDP growth anymore). But it just moved into the lead to win the “Lie of the Year” award with the claim that the U.S. economy is experiencing zero inflation.
The facts: Inflation still stands near a 40-year high and came in at 8.5 percent in July.
“Prices have risen across a wide range of goods and services, leaving most Americans worse off,” the AP reported this week. “Average paychecks are rising faster than they have in decades — but not fast enough to keep up with accelerating costs for such items as food, rent, autos and medical services.”
In other words, the money coming into the average household still isn’t keeping up with the cost of everyday items. But the president and this administration decided to turn the most basic economic norms on their head for cheap political gain by arguing that since the inflation rate fell by six-tenths of a percentage point to 8.5 percent in July compared to the same month of last year, that somehow means zero percent.
To be fair, as an Obama administration retread, Joe’s in good company for the Lie of the Year Award:
READER FAVORITE: Apple AirPods Pro Wireless Earbuds with MagSafe Charging Case. #CommissionEarned
ITS ORIGIN AND PURPOSE, STILL A TOTAL MYSTERY: Salman Rushdie Stabbing Suspect ‘Had Contact With Iran’s Revolutionary Guard.’ “Intel officials told VICE World News Hadi Matar had been in contact with members of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard. There’s no evidence Iran was involved in organising the attack.”
As always, life imitates Monty Python. “May I take this opportunity of emphasizing that there is no cannibalism in the British Navy. Absolutely none, and when I say none, I mean there is a certain amount, more than we are prepared to admit, but all new ratings are warned that if they wake up in the morning and find any toothmarks at all anywhere on their bodies, they’re to tell me immediately so that I can immediately take every measure to hush the whole thing up.”
TWO ENGLANDS IN ONE!
Shot: Appalled at attack on Salman Rushdie: British PM Boris Johnson.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson expressed his shock at author Salman Rushdie being stabbed by a man at an event in New York on Friday and condemned the attack on his freedom of expression.
“Appalled that Sir Salman Rushdie has been stabbed while exercising a right we should never cease to defend,” Johnson said in a tweet. “Right now, my thoughts are with his loved ones. We are all hoping he is okay,” he said.
Former chancellor and the contender to succeed Johnson as the new prime minister, Rishi Sunak, also took to Twitter to express his shock. “Shocked to hear of the attack on Salman Rushdie in New York. A champion of free speech and artistic freedom. He’s in our thoughts tonight,” Sunak said.
Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, the other finalist in the Conservative Party leadership election, said: “Disgraceful attack on Sir Salman Rushdie. People must be able to speak freely and freedom of speech must be defended. “My thoughts are with him, his family and loved ones.” “My thoughts are with him, his family and loved ones.”
Chaser: UK Man Arrested For ‘Malicious Communications’ After Posting Meme Mocking the Transgender Flag.
Hardly a day goes by without some viral international incident reminding us why we’re so lucky to have the First Amendment. The latest such lunacy comes courtesy of the United Kingdom, where police just arrested a man for posting an allegedly offensive tweet.
Yes, seriously.
As shown in a viral video, Hampshire officers on Thursday confronted and arrested a UK man. One of the officers says, “Someone has been caused anxiety based on your social media post. And that is why you’re being arrested.”
—Foundation for Economic Education, August 2nd.
SO EARLIER THIS WEEK, I EXPERIMENTED WITH SHOOTING THE 5.7 X 28 CARTRIDGE: My first impression was how small and light a box of 50 cartridges was. I first shot through a Ruger 57, which was very unsatisfactory as the trigger safety was hinky. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn’t.
I switched to an FN57 and it was better, though it stovepiped on the first shot. After that things were smooth, and the gun was certainly low-recoil and accurate. I doubt it’s the cartridge’s fault, and those were rental guns at the range, which have probably seen a lot of use. Still, not the most auspicious introduction to this new caliber.
K-12 IMPLOSION UPDATE: Inside the Massive Effort to Change the Way Kids Are Taught to Read.
As a teacher in Oakland, Calif., Kareem Weaver helped struggling fourth- and fifth-grade kids learn to read by using a very structured, phonics-based reading curriculum called Open Court. It worked for the students, but not so much for the teachers. “For seven years in a row, Oakland was the fastest-gaining urban district in California for reading,” recalls Weaver. “And we hated it.”
The teachers felt like curriculum robots—and pushed back. “This seems dehumanizing, this is colonizing, this is the man telling us what to do,” says Weaver, describing their response to the approach. “So we fought tooth and nail as a teacher group to throw that out.” It was replaced in 2015 by a curriculum that emphasized rich literary experiences. “Those who wanted to fight for social justice, they figured that this new progressive way of teaching reading was the way,” he says.
Now Weaver is heading up a campaign to get his old school district to reinstate many of the methods that teachers resisted so strongly: specifically, systematic and consistent instruction in phonemic awareness and phonics. “In Oakland, when you have 19% of Black kids reading—that can’t be maintained in the society,” says Weaver, who received an early and vivid lesson in the value of literacy in 1984 after his cousin got out of prison and told him the other inmates stopped harassing him when they realized he could read their mail to them. “It has been an unmitigated disaster.” In January 2021, the local branch of the NAACP filed an administrative petition with the Oakland unified school district (OUSD) to ask it to include “explicit instruction for phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension” in its curriculum.
Exit quote: “We abandoned what worked because we didn’t like how it felt to us as adults, when actually, the social-justice thing to do is to teach them explicitly how to read.”
It’s an idea so crazy, it just might work.
AT THIS POINT, I’D SAY THE SCIENCE IS SETTLED: Doctors from USC, UCLA say mask mandates for COVID-19 not effective, as debate goes on.
Related: Hageman Campaign Creates ‘Cheney For Virginia’ Website:
Congressional candidate Harriet Hageman has doubled down on her claims that her Republican primary opponent U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney is not a true Wyomingite by creating a spoof website called “Liz Cheney for Virginia.”
The website LizCheneyForVa.com portrays Cheney as a Virginia resident who is working for the priorities of that state.
Cheney spokesman Jeremy Adler did not immediately return Cowboy State Daily’s request for comment on Monday.
In an ad posted on her YouTube channel, also titled “Cheney for Virginia,” Hageman continued to question Cheney’s commitment to representing Wyoming, a topic she has frequently addressed in her campaign.
“Liz Cheney clearly doesn’t know what being a representative means,” Hageman said. “She’s not representing us. She’s not representing Wyoming. She’s not representing our values. Let’s send her home … to Virginia.”
The spoof website invites visitors to get to know Cheney’s hometown in Fairfax County, Virginia and links to a tourism website all about the attractions in the area. It also claims she bases her family in northern Virginia.
It’s a great piece of trolling.
Earlier: Why Wait? Here’s Liz Cheney’s Concession Speech in Advance.
UPDATE: Twitter reacts: Did Al Franken MEAN to put the final nail in Liz Cheney’s campaign’s coffin because YUP we’re pretty sure he just did (and we can’t stop laughing).
(Updated and bumped.)
THAT WOULD BE GOOD: Is the future of the microchip industry going to be Made in America?
But I don’t think it’ll happen because of subsidies.
THE USSR WAS AN ENVIRONMENTAL DISASTER, BUT WE ALWAYS HEAR THAT CAPITALISM IS DESTROYING THE PLANET: The Soviet Union once hunted endangered whales to the brink of extinction.
NEO: More reflections on the Mar-A-Lago raid: Trump as an illegitimate president.
On this blog, commenter “Greg Hlatky” remarked:
You are watching the Ruling Class lose its collective mind over a man who has not been in office for more than a year and a half, didn’t take his salary when President and likely isn’t drawing a pension. Unless Trump is just a MacGuffin.
Trump isn’t just a MacGuffin, but he is at least partly a symbol. Sarah Palin was a similar symbol before him, but because she never was elected VP, the focus on her faded. Trump would have faded, too, if he had lost the 2016 election. His winning and becoming president was the outrage that cannot be forgiven, ever. They could not believe it happened, and they think he must be prevented from ever winning again or ever taking a position of any kind of political power.
Not just Trump, though; any Republican who isn’t part of the genteel NeverTrumper club must never take power. Any Republican who might really be serious about stopping them and especially about draining the so-called swamp cannot have any power. It is a deadly serious game and they are determined to win.
Trump himself said, and he was correct: “They’re not after me, they’re after you – I’m just in the way.”
Read the whole thing.
Related: The ‘cabal’ that bragged of foisting Joe Biden on us must answer for his failed presidency.