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These gems from Gene Weingarten, writing in the WaPo:What if Freud had been a woman?Sex would not be considered the primary force that drives human behavior. Instead, it would be Fear of Having a Large Behind. All men would be...

It's been a crazy week if you've devoted any time to trying to monitor the moonbats. I myself have had to bite my tongue more than once when posting on some of the "anti-war" demonstrations over the weekend. But it...

I caught just a bit of former FEMA head Mike Brown in front of a House committee that is investigating what went wrong with Katrina relief. I must say watching Brownie in front of these jerks is like watching Florida...

In the MLB playoffs I will pull for the Angels in the AL and the Cardinals in the NL. The best of all worlds is the Cardinals beating the Yankees in the World Series, as that would represent the team...

Battlestar Galactica, one of the few television series that I watch regularly, finished up with its summer finale tonight. Season two didn't pack quite the same punch as season one did, for the following two reasons: Too many Baltar -...

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.

Gain SERENITY with new film.

This is one that the Chief has a BAD hankering to go see soonest. Although I have been a long-time Sci-fi afficianado, a lot of the stuff coming out seems to be long on effects, and somewhat short on substance. The I, Robot film for example, took a concept from Isaac Asimov, and proceded to totally warp it beyond recognition.

Serenity, is a movie sequel to the 11-episode TV series Firefly, which has become an instant cult classic of libertarian science fiction.

Take my love. Take my land.
Take me where I cannot stand.
I don?t care, I?m still free.
You can?t take the sky from me.

Take me out, to the black.
Tell ?em I ain?t comin? back.
Burn the land and boil the sea.
You can?t take the sky from me.

Have no place I can be
Since I found Serenity.

~ Theme Ballad of Firefly

"That's what governments are for, [to] get in a man's way."

~ Mal Reynolds, Captain of Firefly-Class Boat Serenity

Hey, with an attitude like that, it's GOT to be great. Whether or not you're a sci-fi fan, go see it. This sort of content needs to be supported in the media market-place if we don't intend to give it all up to the Oliver Stones, Michael Moores, and Brabra Streisands of the world.

GO SEE SERENITY!

I blogged on the Patriot Act a couple days ago. Now the only radio talk show host I can stand, the very intelligent Dennis Prager, takes up the fight. Although the column in its entirety is a bit weak, I...

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