Stones Cry Out

The Space Shuttle ended a 30 year run of launches, today, with its final launch at Cape Canaveral. Is this the effective end of government sponsored manned space exploration? Despite the euphoria of the 1960s, what with the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo missions geared to get us to the Moon before the Soviet Union, and along with it an implausibly fictional dream of exploring the universe, we are left with the potential prospect of sending robotic rovers to boldly go where no man has gone before. In 1967 we were dreamers: dreaming of Pan Am passenger shuttles, transporting people to operational Lunar Bases by 2001, or of moving past the speed of light to meet up with Vulcans in the 23rd century. Yet the laws of physics (and economics) are unmoving reality checks, and it appears that where no man will ever get to where no man has gone before.

Yet, despite the silliness of some of our predictions, hopes, and dreams over the past 50 years of manned space travel, I think it’s interesting to note the changes that have occurred between the first and last Shuttle launches. Consider that at the first launch of the Shuttle, in 1981, there were no laptops carried by the astronauts, indeed, there were no laptops at all! The digital cameras they now use to record images and video were also nonexistent. If an astronaut desired to carry a portable music device onboard in 1981, it would have been a Sony Walkman and it would have played cassette tapes. Of course, now an astronaut can slip an iPod in his pocket and carry thousands upon thousands of songs. Or consider the changes in video conferencing, e-mail, cell technology, as well as the computer processing power needed for virtually all of these advancements.

Still, there is a sense of loss as we bid farewell to this part of our history – a decidedly 20th century aspect of history. Will the future of manned space travel move from government funding to that of private enterprise? If so, what are we to make of such a transition? It might end up that such a venture will be an example of how, save for political or national security issues, government is best left out of areas which private enterprise is fully capable of handling.

I leave you with a song, penned by Kate Campbell, comparing the building of a concrete canoe with the first end of the space program…

Bud’s Sea-Mint Boat
by Kate Campbell

He lived his life
A civil service man
Designing toilets
For the space program
He believed
If we could go to the moon
There’s nothing on Earth
A man can’t do

So he ordered a ton
Of sand and clay
In his front yard
He built a frame
Most folks said
It’ll never float
Still they came to see
Bud’s cement boat

A dream is anything
That you want it to be
For some it’s fame and fortune
But for others concrete
Sometimes you just
Gotta follow your heart
No matter where it leads

He gave up fishing
And most of his friends
Worked all night
And every weekend
But he didn’t mind
The sacrifice
Cause he’d build a boat
That’s one of a kind

Well the neighbors thought
It was a real eyesore
They’d say hey Bud
What are ya building that for
And knowing they would
Never understand
He’d just smile and say
Because I can

Well he got laid off
In seventy-four
And they don’t go
To the moon anymore
But down around
The Alabama coast
She still floats
Bud’s Sea-Mint boat

Good morning.

1. Is there a word for this? Starting an argument on a faulty premise and running from there. “If we don’t raise the debt limit” spending will have to be cut. It doesn’t follow however that interest payments are the first spending items to be cut. Unless apparently, you are a Democrat.
2. Statistics and the Law.
3. Marriage as lilfestyle.
4. Well, to be honest I’m mostly linking this so I don’t lose it and can go back to it.
5. Democrats are for voter fraud because they think there should be 0 barriers to vote … as if that some how leads to a more informed electorate.
6. Here’s a conversation starter for the Casey Anderson kerfuffle. I don’t know right now how I’d react regarding my children. 
7. Why we (developers) despise Microsoft and Apple.
8. Tree of Life, anti-Semetic (and is that Jewish=Semitic or Middle East = Semitic) and another review here.
9. Mr Libby and Fast/Furious.
10. Why? Because “smart” doesn’t mean what it used to.
11. Speaking of the whole assumptions going into Medicaid and its expansion. Examine the premises.
12. Narrative is fundamentally conservative?
13. eMPG, I think the fundamental problem with eMPG ratings is it ignores the 30% efficiency loss in generating electricity.

Good morning.

1. Parallels between US and Church doctrine.
2. Which apparently confuses some people about what the term theocracy might mean.
3. IMF considerations.
4. Kids games.
5. The news isn’t the 2:3 ratio its the small numbers.
6. 60W equiv LED?
7. $1T for what?
8. TSA’s next hurdle.
9. That Obama/PDF examination … the error? Attributing to malfeasance that which can be explained by incompetence. 
10. Bulgaria and WWII genocide.
11. I wonder if the picture requirements on tobacco products is Constitutional. If so, would this too be?
12. Blowing whistles in the Obama mileu.
13. Hmmm. No mention of the effects of extraordinary low interest rates on retirement.
14. So that’s what school administrators are for.
15. Return of the Soviets.

I was at a client site for most of last week and on vacation the rest up until yesterday. That’s why I didn’t do much on the blog; I was busy, and then I was taking it easy.

Democrats in Congress have apparently been taking for over 2 years now, not passing a budget in all that time. Did any of you folks on the Left notice? Or care? Congressman Paul Ryan did.

Vacation starts tonight. Off on a road trip … which is a thing we’ve never done as a family. My eldest daughter planned it (and hopes to drive to collect hours for the permit).

1. He’s against corporate jets because, you know, the only private jets will be in the government, i.e. his. 
2. Except there was a well functioning quasi-anarchic ideal-libertarian society … read about the Western folkway in Albion’s Seed. The only problem with that society vis-a-vis libertarianism, is that it typically horrifies modern libertarians.
3. One Mr Savage touting the benefits of virtue ethics via a good bad example.
4. Having left the AGW fold.
5. A non-birther looks again … and remind me, why have the liberals not learned the Rathergate lesson? Digital forgery isn’t the best option … it will be found.
6. Temperment as divider.
7. From the “Moderate Voice” (in quotes because while putatively moderate and having the goal of collecting diverse viewpoints … oddly enough he has no conservatives writing for him … but I digress) … this is the theme of the day. GOP intransigence in the face of Democrat compromise. Except the Emporer has no clothes. There is no actual Democrat compromise on the table. It’s a myth.
8. Notice how they’re careful to point to Sulphur as the pollutant not CO2 (which would also be present in abundance of course).
9. Likely an unintended consequence?
10. CAFE.
11. Toward a pro-killer society?
12. So, would we be better with an intelligent President like this one (was)?
13. Macedonian reactions to police violence in context.
14. Omnipresence demythied.
15. Lying to Congress a jailable offence? Shouldn’t the President and most of Congress be with him in jail? 
16. Riffing on Krugman errors.
17. And some political advice for our times.

Good morning.

1. So, the PDO, important for you or not?
2. Talking taxes.
3. Well, there you go!
4. Noting the liberal movement to co-opt language via re-definition. Sometimes I also have wondered how people who suffer from actual phobias think about calling policy disagreements phobias. 
5. That’s right, I still don’t think cops are dangerous to people (in any special way). People are dangerous to people. 
6. Mr Jagger.
7. On Mr Strass-Kahn.
8. So … still want to rush post haste out of Iraq and Afghanistan?
9. On that topic … 
10. Takeover bid quantities.
11. Heh.
12. A Tea Party sign. If you have a problem with that sentiment you haven’t been watching anything in the beltway for two decades or more.
13. My car has been banned 🙁

Well, for those of you can’t help but keep reading and reading and reading … some reading for the 4th.

1. I haven’t but perused this, but Kass&Kass have a wonderful anthology on Marriage (Wing to Wing) and now they have a new one on what it means to be American. The same thing occurs with the marriage book, liberals are (often? typically?) allergic to reading books or anthologies collected by a someone who is thought conservative. And clearly this is a conservative tome, after all that’s why you have a Veteran’s day speech included by that arch-conservative John Kerry.
2. One of my favorite US historians to read is David Hackett Fisher, two book by him should be on everyone’s shelf, Washington’s Crossing and Albion’s Seed.
3. Mr Olson (no relation to my knowledge) points to Chesterton on Patriotism.
4. A repeated theme over the years on patriotism on this blog is that for myself, I think the patriotic feelings we have for country are best described by the first chapters of the book of Ruth chapter 1.

Remember my post noting how some Pharmacists now carry weapons to protect themselves from drug addicts holding them up for oxycontin? Well, in Long Island we have a story of 4 people (2 employees and 2 customers) being shot dead in a Pharmacy hold up. The alleged shooter (and his wife) has been found and arrested. From ABC News,

Drug stores are now equipping themselves with surveillance cameras to protect themselves from possible break-ins.

Seriously? All I have to do to protect my household from a possible break-in is install a surveillance camera?

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Remember my post noting how TSA is keeping us all safer by patting-down 5 year-old girls and 80 year-old grandmothers? Well, besides letting the identity-thief stowaway get a free ride, it seems that the TSA also has an inability to keep checked firearms from getting stolen.

We should reflect upon the life of the forgotten Founder, John Adams, who made independence possible.

The NBA follows the NFL’s example and heads for a lockout.

In both cases, you have millionaire team owners and players trying to figure out how to divide up billions in revenue.

Ain’t professional sports great?

Of course there are .22 caliber shotguns! The internet told me so.
A couple of years ago I overheard a recent college grad, at work, exclaim to a colleague, “What did they do before there was Google?” It seems they were searching for some elusive answer to an inquiry they had. Now, I’ll be the first to admit that I use the internet for a variety of searches, typically those involving how to get a piece of software/hardware to do what it is supposed to do. However, a good dose of incredulity is in order whenever one reads a search result on the internet. Especially from an “ehow” type site.

Case in point is the article Do You Need a Gun License for a .22 Caliber?, over at said eHow. From the article, in response to the question “What is a .22 caliber”?,

There are many types of guns that use this size ammunition; these guns include revolvers, rifles, pistols and shotguns.

Hmmm. While I suppose it is possible to build a .22 shotgun, it seems to be pretty much a one-off.

Also,

To own a .22 caliber, it is necessary to complete a Federal Firearms License application.

Well… you purchase a firearm (regardless of whether it’s a .22) through an FFL dealer.

And,

You must submit this form to the AFT (Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives.)

C’mon. AFT? Try ATF (which kind of corresponds to Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms).

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Them Homeschoolers are always kept at home… except when they’re winning stuff

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Amazing Milky Way Timelapse

Plains Milky Way from Randy Halverson on Vimeo.

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Rep. King Calls Out TSA on Security Breach
Of course, this now means that TSA will step-up pat-downs of 5 year-old girls, 90 year-olds in walkers, armed forces personnel, and nuns.

###

Facebook Tip for Parents
Did you know you can submit an underage report for your kid if they’ve signed up to FB and are under age 13?

Good day.

1. Well, that kind of overconfidence is something I don’t have to worry about.
2. Kinda shadenfroody … Let’s see it take $250k just to jump regulatory burdens in CA to open a hamburger joint, companies that want to startup building cars go to 3 wheels to avoid the high costs of regulation (see Aptera), and so on. All Democrat inspired regulatory burdens that are mostly useless, expensive and hampering real progress. But go ahead, get pissed if it applies to your pet projects. 
3. Manufacturing and myths.
4. That health mandate ruling, an objective (non ideological) description.
5. I don’t get Engaget’s bias here. This is the umpteenth Android tablet they’ve noted “on parity in price” with this and that … but forgetting to mention it’s $100 more than the Asus Transformer? Why the omission? It a anti-Taiwan bias?
6. Speaking of ID and evolution.
7. History as a Lawyer is different than not (a lawyer). Specifically a non-Lawyer looks at the Jackson legacy quite differently.
8. Is that a good example for young girls with big dreams or big girls with young dreams?
9. A reminder for our summer project … liberty and independence is not conceived as the maximization of choice but of communion in love.
10. The unsung consequences (which no liberal will admit even afterwards) to Mr Walker’s school budget union fight.
11. More unsung, the unnoticed consequences of that 4th circuit Obamacare-as-Constitional ruling.

Traveling tonight, which might mean links tomorrow will be in the evening. 

1. Lazy lawmakers. Who’d of thought such a thing could be possible? Washington not attending diligently to their primary job (making good law)? 
2. Google and search bias.
3. Commenting on a stupid move made by Mr Obama.
4. No that’s a real non-news story (or should I more accurately coin it a news story for which news reporters are only audience). What “spotlight?”
5. Cost and life. I’d say no. And the question might be what price you would find reasonable. My gut response is a few hundred bucks.
6. Putting the “no soldiers in harms way means it isn’t war” in context.
7. Why not in the US? Answer: regulations.
8. “Are you a flake?” … here and here.
9. Here’s the thing on the recent Afghan move from FP, “It’s clear that Obama and his advisors approach these decisions as politicians, not strategists.” That’s always a bad move in war. Here’s one who concurs.
10. This is not unrelated.
11. Speaking of war, cinema?
12. LOL.
13. What makes a man.
14. Talking CO₂.

Good morning

1. One of Orthodoxy’s key words, fullness.
2. Not-sold-here, thanks to our regulatory barriers.
3. I have difficulty imagining a good reason to get something like this.
4. Slightly cute. Or is the word precious?
5. Morning glory.
6. Boy or girl.
7. Hegel and a Pope.
8. The mythical socialists (HT).
9. What passes for the new government mandated tobacco ads in another venue.
10. Browser wars.
11. Ngrams … and a follow-up.

Good morning.

1. American exceptionalism, looking back.
2. Big pharam and Madison ave.
3. Mr Obama and the Afghan shift.
4. What, kind sir, does “marry” mean anyhow?
5. Orthodoxy and going against grain.
6. Perhaps at the next Obama press conference or campaign stop, someone can ask him to defend this.
7. That’s because those young people are raised by older people who by and large are also … True story. A few weeks ago when my parents visited, my mother claimed to have never heard of William the Conqueror or the significance of the date 1066. I’m still not sure I believe her.
8. About those required graphics on cigarettes. 
9. Fuel cell news.
10. What is racism?