July 02, 2008
You're Welcome, Dwayne

A hat tip or even just a link would have been nice, Dwayne. Especially if you're going to take my point as one of your own.

As an amusing aside, when one follows the Google search link he does provide, a good number of the results have to do with James Hansen calling for trials of oil executives and others who question the political orthodoxy of global warming...trials whose political nature and predetermined outcome would no doubt have pleased the arguably fascist Roland Freisler.

[hat tip: NASAWatch]

ADDENDUM: In case it wasn't obvious what the first paragraph above is referring to, the reference to the Overview Effect in Dwayne's piece was to my eye a clear reference to my "Liberal Fascism Effect" post. If it is a reference to my post, Dwayne misunderstands (or willfully misrepresents?) what I said there, using it as one of his featured examples of namecalling...after which, as one of his own points, he blames this growing tendency to spot "fascism" everywhere on Jonah Goldberg. This was of course exactly the point I made at the beginning of the post -- that Goldberg's book had left me with an amusing (to me) tendency to spot fascist tendencies in even mundane things.

I think if Dwayne had actually read the book, he might have understood what I was referring to.

Posted by T.L. James on July 2, 2008 07:29 PM | TrackBack

Comments

> James Hansen calling for trials of oil executives and others who question the political orthodoxy of global warming...

Hm. How does that differ from your attacks on journalists who question the political orthodoxy of Project Orion?

For example, http://www.marsblog.net/archives/001778

You don't see anything fascist about the US President appointing a Lockheed corporate director to run the US space policy commission, after which Lockheed just happened to "win" the contract to build the capsule the commission recommended, while Lockheed employees say journalists should publish nothing but praise for Lockheed and Orion?

If you "prefer rationalism and individualism as the basis for the permanent settlement of space," please explain how Project Orion will allow individuals to permanently settle space.

When will it be possible for individual space settlers to buy a ticket on Orion, T.L.? How much will it cost?

There's a serious disconnect between your professed belief in individualism and space settlement, on the one hand, and your cheerleading for a $100 billion government program to make spaceflight even more expensive, on the other.



Posted by: Edward Wright at July 5, 2008 03:47 PM

> When will it be possible for individual space settlers to buy a ticket on Orion? How much will it cost?

Then there's that other capsule, the one you told us Lockheed was going to develop with its own money.

You crowed, "LM is suddenly...alt.space, itself," remember?

So, why no blogging about how the executive director of the AIAA recently went to Capitol Hill and tried to get a big budget increase so NASA could funding that "alt.space" capsule along with Orion?

Does "rationalism and individualism" entail an endless string of national socialist space transportation systems?




Posted by: Edward Wright at July 5, 2008 04:32 PM

Sheesh, Ed, and I thought I was pushing the appearance of narcissm with that post -- you're quoting yourself in comments now?

I don't know what your beef with me personally is. Frankly, I don't care. You're starting to sound like Elifritz, though, so for your own well-being you might want to seek help.

As for my supposed 'fascist attack' on Seth Borenstein, you might want to seek help for your reading comprehension and reasoning skills, as well.

If you wish to continue making your nutty comments here, Ed, I will expect you to be a little more exact in your criticisms. I was NOT the one who -revealed- LM's non-Orion capsule work, as you seem to state above. I know what you *meant* by that, but others might not - I'm not a lawyer, but to my eye that's getting pretty close to actionable. And before you accuse me of being a fascist, or "threatening" you, or whatever epithet your fevered imagination suggests, understand that I am merely telling you to exercise a bit of common sense and adult responsibility when commenting on my site.



Posted by: T.L. James at July 5, 2008 09:58 PM

"I was NOT the one who -revealed- LM's non-Orion capsule work, as you seem to state above. I know what you *meant* by that, but others might not..."

In that case, I hope they will take the time to read the words that you're trying to duck out of:

http://www.marsblog.net/archives/001791.h t m l

I am "quoting myself." Those words clearly say "Posted by T.L. James on September 21, 2006 09:57 PM" -- even if T.L. James doesn't want to stand by them.

If you want to sue me for saying mean things about Lockheed Martin, go ahead. Don't just threaten me. (Kind of ironic that you're behaving just like James Hansen, the man you criticize, don't you think?)

In the meantime, I'll ask you again why the American taxpayers should fund Lockheed to build not just one but *two* superexpensive launch systems.

I'll also ask you why the US should ignore military spaceplane development and continue the decades-old prattle about "space for peaceful purposes only" while the Chinese have their own military spaceplane hardware on the runway.

You've told me that Lockheed is dominated by conservatives and libertarians. If that's true, why doesn't Lockheed call for a space policy that promotes liberty and protects the security of the United States, instead of just asking for more handouts?



Posted by: Edward Wright at July 6, 2008 03:03 PM

Are you really that idiotic that you can't tell the difference between my musing on a published article and unilaterally revealing proprietary information? I guess so, since you can't tell the difference between being asked to be a responsible adult and being threatened with a lawsuit.

Like I said, Ed, get help. I don't have enough time in my day to unpack the never-ending irrationality in your comments.



Posted by: T.L. James at July 6, 2008 07:56 PM