Featured Articles

No one should ever accuse the left of being troubled by such things as being logically consistant. Such dangerous tendancies towards rationality are to be avoided at all cost, lest there be some hinderance to their giving free reign to their supreme standard for evaluating issues: How does one FEEL about it, and DON't confuse the issue with facts.

This is exemplified by a couple of issues that are currently in the news. The first is the ruling by Federal District (mis-)Judge Hellerstein (should be Hell-stein?) ordering the release of more pics from Abu Ghraib. It is conceded, even this mis-judgement that this will lead to renewed attacks on US forces in the middle-east, with highly probable loss of life. That's OK though says the Hell-judge, since they are attacking us anyway. This says nothing about the direct damage to US interest when this stuff is once again smeared all over the place on al-Jazeera, et al.

Does anyone else remember the MEANING of the phrase "aid and comfort to the enemy"? (mis-Judge, rope, tree - Some assembly required!)

The other case is renewed in the news cycle by the scheduled testimony of NYT reporter Judith Miller on the disclosure of Valerie Plame as a CIA person. The MSM has been fulminating about this for some time, with great expressions of concern because her life might be in danger if she were engaged in covert ops.

REALITY CHECK: Ms. Plame has been an inside the HQ desk-jockey for years, and has NOT been currently engaged in the admittedly critical 007 type of stuff overseas. Additionally, there was no secret of the fact that she was working for the agency at Langley - this information was out there from other sources, including her husband.

LOGIC CHECK: Lots of concern expressed in the MSM about the so-called danger to former-spy Plame. If she was IN REALITY an active undercover operative, this might be valid. Even if theis WERE the case, is HER life intrinsically more valuable than the lives of US troopers in harms way in the mid-east? The same MSM has little or no concern about that when commenting on the mis-judgement concerning yet more Abu Ghraib pics, which can serve no real purpose, other than to stimulate a certain political agenda at home while providing at a minimum PR aid and comfort to the enemies of the United States.

F.E.T.E.

I can't say as though I've ever watched Bill Maher's show on HBO, but couldn't resist tuning in tonight to see George Galloway and Christopher Hitchens. It was about what you'd expect, and nothing worth noting. Galloway truly is treacherous...

Excerpts from today's Argus Leader:Air Force officials are looking at Ellsworth Air Force Base as a possible location for a military financial-services operation that could mean the addition of more than 700 jobs, Rep. Stephanie Herseth said. Although no decisions...

More talk in the blogosphere about Daschle and a presidential run. Possumblog: A Prophet Amongst Us Oval Office 2008: Tom Daschle...

Don't worry, we'll take care of Iran nukes: Israel

Radio talker Michael Savage on his SAVAGE NATION program reported on Israeli willingness to take out Iran's nukes if the US fails to get the Eurabian - UN axis to do anything more than a bit of jawboning.

After hearing this, the Chief has been looking for some sort of reportage on this topic but without success until this coverage from the India Express website popped up linked on World Net Daily. The story is datelined out of Washington, so one might note the US MSM looking the other way again.

It's not as though the prospects of a preemptive strike on Iranian nuclear facilities wouldn't be significant. One has to wonder why the lack of coverage on this one.

As far as the actual issue is concerned, the Chief sees chances for some real action out of the Euroweenies or the UN as being slim to none. If Israel is willing to do the heavy lifting on this one, the US would be well advised to give them a wink and a nod, and stay out of the way.

New York Post, Sunday, September 25, 2005, page 29. HEADLINE: Mrs. President: Five who could be the Very First Lady. Picture of Geena Davis who is playing the first woman president in a TV series, and then pictures and bios...

NASA administrator says space shuttle was a mistake

Any good "hard" science fiction fan was capable of making this analysis. Among others, rocketeer Homer Hickham, author and main character of October Sky retired from NASA and wrote a novel titled Back to the Moon in which NASA is given a pretty good black eye for having become moribund with bureaucracy and political correctness.

Latest in this feeling that NASA had lost its direction comes from no less than the NASA chief administrator himself:

The space shuttle and International Space Station ? nearly the whole of the U.S. manned space program for the past three decades ? were mistakes, NASA chief Michael Griffin said Tuesday.

Griffin said NASA lost its way in the 1970s, when the agency ended the Apollo moon missions in favor of developing the shuttle and space station, which can only orbit Earth. ?It is now commonly accepted that was not the right path,? Griffin said. ?We are now trying to change the path while doing as little damage as we can.?

Reading between the lines, it appears to the Chief that NASA needed more von Braun and less Rube Goldberg in its design philosophy:

Asked Tuesday whether the shuttle had been a mistake, Griffin said, ?My opinion is that it was. ? It was a design which was extremely aggressive and just barely possible.? Asked whether the space station had been a mistake, he said, ?Had the decision been mine, we would not have built the space station we're building in the orbit we're building it in.?

Sounds like we finally have a NASA chief worthy of the name after too many bureaucrats, program managers and barely-disguised political hatchetmen, and not nearly enough engineers in the lead. Hopefully now the Congresscritters will give Griffen the support needed to get us back on the road towards the stars. It's absolutely essential if our civilization is to continue to exist and improve itself.

At 50-years old, John Roberts is going to be Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court for a long, long time. In a vote that found half of the Senate Democrats voting to confirm him, a new era of America's...

A Message from tdaxp

Send feedback to danhabbott@gmail.com

Browse the Archives

What's New with the Blogs

South Dakota Blogs

American Blogs

Pro-Freedom, Anti-Terror

South Dakota Blog Alliance

RadioActive Chief, Ryen McClaren, Sibby Online, South Dakota Politics, Straight Talk

tdaxp Blog Network

Jim River Report, tdaxp, Bloglines, Cobuyitaphobia, Junk Politics

Breaking News

South Dakota Mainstream Media

American Mainstream Media

British Mainstream Media

Everyone Else

Jim River Report Archives

1. today
2. this month
3. this year

How Popular is the Jim River Report?