Everyone is my friend until they prove otherwise.
Posts about the Future
The Democrats prefer pork to buy house votes over security, so they’ve cut funding in 2008 for the European Missile Defense program as I predicted last year. Putin is very pleased with his friends in the Democratic party, as are the leaders of Iran.
Update: More details at MDAA.
Continue reading “Democrats in Congress Cut Euro Defense Funds”
We covered the consequences to the children of Iraq in my earlier post, this one will continue to look at the longer term geopolitical and economic consequences.
As the Democrats continue to posture and bluster about progress in Iraq and by neglect propose surrendering to Al Qaeda, the Sadrists, and Cowardice, it’s time to continue delving into the potential outcomes of surrender. [Update: More on the planned Al Qaida State in Iraq at LGF.]
We covered the consequences to the children of Iraq in my earlier post, this post will continue to look at the longer-term geopolitical and global economic consequences.
Continue reading “Islamic vs. Islamist: Consequences of Surrender”
It’s very refreshing to see Nuclear Energy discussed in the mainstream again as a viable solution to energy problems, and Glenn Beck did so tonight in his segment on Global Warming. True, the show was about debunking the liberal mythos of anthropogenic global warming, but … if Global Warming were really a problem it’s one that could be resolved handily by nuclear energy. He mentioned the 103 reactors operating in the country now, and the fact that they haven’t killed anyone.
It’s what I’ve been saying for thirty five years.
When I was very young I read a very powerful short story called “A Pail of Air” by Fritz Lieber (RIP.) In the story the earth got captured out of the sun’s orbit by a passing dark mass and dragged into dark, cold, interstellar space.
The atmosphere quickly froze and fell to earth along with almost all life on the planet. However it wouldn’t be a story without human protagonists, so it’s also a remarkable tale of life triumphing over dark, cold, and death. In the end the saviour of the story isn’t a person, but a creation of mankind’s: a nuclear power plant. If you haven’t read the story please do so — it is a tale that will grip you and challenge you to think very deeply. [The link above will take you to the online version of the short story]
Continue reading “Nuclear Now”
Because it’s just another dry statistic, you aren’t going to hear much about this in the media, but in Afghanistan infant mortality has dropped by 18% over the Taliban era. That means there are healthier children being provided better care, and that Afghanistan has a brighter future.
Because it’s just another dry statistic, you aren’t going to hear much about this in the media, but in Afghanistan infant mortality has dropped by 18% over the Taliban era. That means there are healthier children being provided better care, and that Afghanistan has a brighter future. You can expect that we will also see overall life expectancy go up, and real wealth to start growing again.
Continue reading “Great News From Afghanistan”
The surrender-deadline bill has now passed the Senate, and it took everything the Dems had to make it so, including a lot of votes bought through pork. It’s unconscionable, it’s terribly wrong, and it’s demoralizing to our troops, to our allies, and to our nation.
Continue reading “The F-word, or Why I Won’t Vote for McCain”
What amazes me is reading some of the online forums in Nepal, the debaters in the forums are quoting heavily from the Federalist papers, and seem to know more about the founding of our country than most Americans. It’s thrilling that the old words which paved the way to our freedoms hundreds of years ago still have power across the world today.
Freedom continues to break out all over the world. Bhutan is preparing mock polls so that people can learn how to vote in preparation for the upcoming 2008 Elections.
 Continue reading “Bhutan Prepares for Democracy”
In March at TED (Thinking, Entertainment, Design), Hans Rosling gave a presentation that clearly demonstrates the great strides the world has made by adopting Capitalism over the past forty years. Please watch this in its entirety, there are things that will amaze you throughout.
Pay attention to China’s adaptation of Capitalism, and Bangladesh’s, and what inevitably followed.
(Hat tip to Pajamas Media for the pointer to this important presentation)
Before you think this is revolutionary thought I’ll point out that Science Fiction writers are generally ahead of the academic crowd when it comes to observations like this, see David Brin’s post from 2005. Also, if you want to play with the graph he’s using yourself, or track particular countries, please go to the sidebar link to “Gapminder” under the info and think-tank blogroll.
Continue reading “Capitalism Conquers Death”
In the sidebar under information and think tank resources I’ve added two links, one to TED, (Thinking, Entertainment, Design), and the other to Gapminder. Both of these present great data, and challenging thinking constructs. While some of the presentations and data are occasionally presented in the antiquated shroud of last century’s class-warfare “MarxThink”, the data itself is valid and important.
Please take a moment to hit Gapminder and view the stats on infant mortality, wealth, longevity, and especially the overall trend of wealth growth throughout the world. It might cheer you up. On the other hand, if you are of a nihilistic bent, the small exceptions to the growth will depress you, or the reason for the growth might make you angry about the countries that grew in wealth. If that’s the case then you need to step back and look in the mirror at yourself because that anger’s about you, not the trend.
China has become the first nation to successfully shoot down a low-earth orbit satellite with a ballistic missile. Russia, opposed to space weaponry, criticizes the US for the Chinese shoot-down (typical,) and this is certain to heat up the Asian Space Race.
Many countries in the region are advancing their space programs by leaps and bounds over the past few years, which why it’s terribly important for us to keep our efforts going. With this threat, China could create a “Space based Pearl Harbor” since much of our defense integration and network centric warfar methods are based on GPS satellites and other recon sats.
The clear worry of all space faring nations is the potential of one nation taking the “high ground”, and by doing so control access to space for all time.
Continue reading “China Destroys Satellite With a Missile”
Japan has deployed their own Patriot PAC-3 Missle defense batteries Friday at Iruma airbase in Saitama Prefecture. This is a full year ahead of the announced date, and will certainly give North Korea something to think on. From Spacewars:
Kyodo also noted that while the current Patriots are deployed as an integrated part of Japan’s own armed forces, U.S. forces last October deployed PAC-3 missiles at the U.S. Kadena Air Base on the Japanese island of Okinawa, the main U.S. military base in the region. Each Patriot PAC-3 launcher can fire up to 16 missiles, the Japanese news agency said.
Tokyo is not betting on the Patriot alone. It has also purchased U.S.-built Standard Missile-3 interceptors to be fired from warships, and hopes top have its first warship armed with them operational by the end of this year. SM-3s are designed for higher level interception of incoming ballistic missiles, though not to intercept extremely fast flying intercontinental ballistic missiles, or ICBMs. Patriots are designed for low level close range interception.
This will put two layers in place, and further development of the US GMD systems and other initiatives will put the rest of the needed missile defense layers in place.
Continue reading “Missile Defense news”
