The Blog of Record

In case you were wondering. Plus, why an all-girl crew might be optimal for long-term space exploration.

Farewell Ares I?

Obama’s NASA transition team has asked the agency to comment on the implications of canceling the Ares I launch vehicle. Executives at Alliant Techsystems (ATK), the Edina, Minn.-based prime contractor for the Ares 1 main stage, seem to be doing a ROTC traffic director “everything’s fine!!!” sort of thing. Are they covering nervousness, or really do believe, once all the answers are in, Ares I really is the right answer? Only time will tell.

“The beatings must be light and must not make her face ugly. He must beat her where it will not leave marks. He should not beat her like he would beat an animal or a child – slapping them right and left.”

As the source says, “Over there, they do things a little differently. And who are we to judge?”

Source.

It was the behavior of her opponents, wich was civilized and honest while that of her comrades was “end justifies the means” dishonesty and fraud.

Plus some harsh words about her generation, the Baby Boomers:

The brown-shirt style antics on campuses these days? My generation started them with their stupid take-overs of administration buildings and riotings at Democratic Conventions and such. Alas, everyone caved to us. They appeased us. My whole spring term at Dartmouth we were “on strike” and didn’t attend class, but we were all “passed” our courses. Just about every campus across the United States was on strike that spring. We were the ones who threw out the canon. Who coined the words “Dead White Men” and repudiated them.

I repent. I deeply regret the legacy my generation has left the Western world. We bequeathed an intellectual amnesia that allows Jason Cherniak to think Trudeau created our rights to free speech with the Charter. We have left stupidity in our wake.

Suketu Mehta on why the terrorists went after this city:

There’s something about this island-state that appalls religious extremists, Hindus and Muslims alike. Perhaps because Mumbai stands for lucre, profane dreams and an indiscriminate openness.

And:

Mumbai is a “soft target,” the terrorism analysts say. Anybody can walk into the hotels, the hospitals, the train stations, and start spraying with a machine gun. Where are the metal detectors, the random bag checks? In Mumbai, it’s impossible to control the crowd. In other cities, if there’s an explosion, people run away from it. In Mumbai, people run toward it — to help. Greater Mumbai takes in a million new residents a year. This is the problem, say the nativists. The city is just too hospitable. You let them in, and they break your heart.

“Eye on Britain” by John Ray, who is an Aussie.

Gregory Mankiw on what can be done to fight the economic downturn and why it’s only the government that can do something now.

You need to create a clearance sale culture, says Seth Godin.

If you want to avoid being stuck with inventory or downtime during a recession, you might profit from realizing that people tell themselves a different story when they go to buy something [in a recession].

Hey, they just want equal rights!

And, of course, there are people for whom there’s no difference between people and animals:

A German zoo provoked outrage from gay lobby groups after attempting to mate a group of gay male penguins with Swedish female birds who were flown in especially to seduce them.

Well, being aggressive and using every opportunity to pound their message has always been the most successful strategy for social activists. Muslim activists have refined it to perfection.

Christmas spirit: Planned Parenthood of Indiana is offering gift certificates that can be used to pay for abortions.

Source.

People in Britain are getting letters from local councils saying camp sites for nomadic gypsies (”travelling communities”) will soon back on to their gardens or be built right on their land. Their property values are plummeting. Those who don’t want their land to become gypsy camps are threatened with compulsory purchase orders.

That’s what an Irish study found.

The wording is

“controlled for another person’s gain” such as a pimp, trafficker or brothel owner.

And the stated intention, of course, is to protect the women from exploitation.

Anyone caught doing so would receive a criminal record and a hefty penalty, and would have no defence by claiming they did not know the woman was controlled.

Announcing the plan, [Home Secretary Jacqui] Smith said she was willing to risk that men who believed they had checked that a prostitute was working free from control would be punished if they had been misled.

She is willing to risk that men will be charged with rape for being lied to. Video below.

A calculator lets you see your odds for a divorce:

The calculator uses data from the U.S. Census bureau to allow users to compare themselves to others who married about the same time period, have a similar education and have been married as long as you. With the marriage calculator, you can find out how many people with similar backgrounds have divorced. In addition, it estimates how many people like you are likely to get divorced in the next five years.

The calulator is at http://www.divorce360.com/content/divorcecalculator.aspx.

When adopting children from a place like Russia, you never know what kind of abuse they may have experienced in their short lives and what it did to their minds. One of the comments:

I am the director of an adoption agency and would like to remain anonymous. I have been involved in International Adoptions for over 10 years. I have purposely stayed away from offering placements from Russia because when it comes time for Prospective Adoptive Parents to get child background studies on their child(ren) rarely are they told the entire truth about the child(ren). Adoptive parents are not told about severe behavioral and severe medical issues the children have. It’s a recipe for disaster and one I prefer to stay away from. It is not only a heartache for the parents but for the children as well. If respite care is needed for older children it is best to create and maintain a program in the older child’s country of residence.

One of the results:

Since the early 1990s, the murders of 15 Russian children by their adoptive parents have been documented.

In his new video tape, Osama bin Laden’s No. 2 (if Osama is still alive) calls on the American people to “embrace Islam to live a life free of greed, exploitation and forbidden wealth.” It’s funny, but if you take Islam out of it, that’s Communism!

The most important part of al-Zawahiri’s new tape, though, is what he is not saying: he’s not saying “or else”. In one of the earlier al-Qaida tapes, Osama bin Laden told America to convert to Islam or be destroyed. There’s no “or else” now. These clowns know saying it now would make people laugh at them, because everybody – including themselves – knows they are impotent. Al-Qaida in Iraq has been crushed, and now America is ready to shift its focus to Afghanistan. And there is no reason for these pathetic relicts of the 7th century to hope the result will be different there.

It’s called the Warrior and Family Support Center and it’s being built at Fort Sam Houston.

Edna Parker was born in 1893 and lived alone in her farmhouse till age 100 after becoming a widow in 1939. She never drank alcohol or smoked and was always physically active, but the main part of living so long is still the right genetics.