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Monday, February 03, 2003

Bush Sends Congress a Budget Plan With Record Deficits. President Bush today proposed a $2.23 trillion budget plan for 2004 and deficits for the next 10 years. By The Associated Press. [New York Times: Politics] So, deficits for the next 10 years (at least). So you can hear the speeches now: the next Democrat that's elected is going to have to do something about these deficits. The only way to do that will be to roll back taxes. So the Republicans will be hollering about "the biggest tax increases in history" (as they did with Clinton), ignoring the fact that we'll need these tax increases to make up for the the biggest deficits in history (as before Bush gave us, did Reagan). 10:21:19 PM  Permalink  comment []

NASA Dismissed Advisers Who Warned About Safety. Some former members of an expert NASA panel now say that the agency removed them to suppress their safety warnings. By William J. Broad and Carl Hulse. [New York Times: Politics] One impression I've had in watching a lot of TV over the weekend (away from computer) is that NASA has been pretty forthcoming. I remember that it really seemed like NASA stonewalled a lot after Challenger in '86, so much that it seemed like they were nearly denying that the disaster had even taken place. But at least after the fact now, they seem to be honest and straightforward. But this reprot does sound like a 'killing the messenger' syndrome. And remember that in the Homeland Security Department, there's no civil service protection for whistle blowers: a culture of cover your ass is already locked into this department, and it hasn't even gotten started yet. 10:18:40 PM  Permalink  comment []

Happy Birthday James Joyce!. "On this day in 1922, James Joyce's fortieth birthday, Ulysses was first published. Joyce was very superstitious, and very apprehensive of a hostile reception for the novel that had been seven years in writing and sixteen years in gestation; he chose the birthday publication for luck." Today in Literature [Follow Me Here...] 10:08:34 PM  Permalink  comment []

Bush's $2.2 Trillion Budget Proposes Record Deficits. The budget will speed up billions of dollars in income tax cuts and will provide huge increases for the Pentagon. By Elisabeth Bumiller. [New York Times: NYT HomePage] Just half way through his administration this guy has erased the budget surplus we had after the Clinton years and given us the biggest deficits in the nation's history. It used to be that conservatives stood for fiscal responsibility. Heck, it's not hard to remember when the Republicans were demanding a constitutional amendment to enforce a balaned budget! There's no talk about that now. There's not even a pretense at offering a balanced budget. Just spend more and tax less. They talk about the Democrats being "tax and spend," but they're "spend but don't tax." The Republicans are the party of "we don't have to pay for it!" 9:58:20 PM  Permalink  comment []

A Failed Mission. The shuttle program was a failure from the get-go. Indeed, manned space flight in general has turned out to be a bust. By Paul Krugman. [New York Times: Opinion] 9:54:16 PM  Permalink  comment []

Feeling Mach 25. Compared to launching, re-entry does not seem dramatic from inside the orbiter. On the outside, it is a different story. By Jay C. Buckey Jr.. [New York Times: Opinion] 9:53:15 PM  Permalink  comment []

Was this trip necessary? 5...4...3...2...1...Goodbye, Columbia "There is something noteworthy a rocket can do that the shuttle cannot. A rocket can be permitted to fail." Gregg Easterbrook's 1980 Washington Monthly cover story looks into the Columbia's beginnings, the hazards he saw in the shuttle, and its weaknesses compared to rockets. [via Slate via MetaFilter] I just heard Easterbrook and several others on the PBS Newshour. Easterbrook proposes we scrap the shuttle and the space station and start over; if it means a 10-year hiatus from space, then so be it. Myself, I've always been very very fascinated and oftentimes obsessed with the space program, and a, let's say, booster of it. But it seems to me worthwhile now to really ask ourselves what good this thing is. The space community should be at the head of the class asking this question. Space travel will never be completely safe, and to act like it should be is to act like we were innocent before 9/11. If we don't have a real debate about this now, we'll just continue stumbling along with a very expensive, arguably useless system. I hope to write more about this soon; I'm certainly going to be reading a lot about it. 7:03:58 PM  Permalink  comment []

Celebrating Simpsons.Inside the Actors Studio "Sunday, February 9, 7:00 p.m. CST, Bravo TV In anticipation of the landmark 300th episode of The Simpsons, James Lipton sat down with the series' accomplished ensemble to meet the actors behind the voices in order to discover how they have managed to create such a wealth of believable and beloved characters." ... [The Shifted Librarian] I love hearing about stuff like this. It then takes me only a minute or two to plug it into the Tivo. I know I'll forget about it by the 9th, and then be pleasantly surprised to see it turn up then! 6:58:22 PM  Permalink  comment []

Our Galaxy's Next Supernova? [Scientific American] Because the star is 10,000 light years away from us, it could have "already" blown, and we just don't know it yet. If it blew 5,000 years ago, we wouldn't know for another 5,000 years. 6:53:46 PM  Permalink  comment []

New Ry Cooder album. As the article I posted last week said, Ry Cooder's Mambo Sinuendo is "an album of seductively menacing Cuban guitar music." Now that I've listened to it about a dozen times, what I would say is that this is the first totally cool music of 2003.      Imagine - June, 1958 -- back alley underground Havana bar. Beneath the intertwining shadows of a ceiling fan and cigar smoke, a young, fiery Fidel Castro is doing bong hits with Duane Eddy and Link Wray. On stage, Rubén González sits in with the The Ventures... This album lacks the majesty of the Buena Vista Social Club, but I really dig it and recommended it highly. [michael britten's Loftware] 6:49:08 PM  Permalink  comment []

Back from a trip to Columbus Ohio, for the funeral of my mother-in-law. Funerals are very difficult for me. The obituary is here; it illlustrates the claritiy of my father-in-law's writing. Note that there marriage lasted 61 years; it's the most loving marriage I've ever seen. 4:38:41 PM  Permalink  comment []

Buddy Holley. The Day the Music Died ...It was February 3, 1959 that Buddy Holley, Ritchie Valens, and The Big Bopper were killed in a plane crash. You need look no further to find one of the true icons of rock and roll than Buddy Holley. Originally scheduled to fly, Waylon Jennings gave his seat to an ailing Big Bopper. When Holly learned that Jennings wasn't going to fly, he said, "Well, I hope your old bus freezes up." Jennings responded, "Well, I hope your plane crashes." This friendly banter of friends would haunt Jennings for years. And can anyone really decipher Don McLeans' "American Pie"? More. [MetaFilter] 3:54:12 PM  Permalink  comment []

A Dose of Practical Advice to Help Control Diabetes. "Carol Guber's Type 2 Diabetes Life Plan" provides valuable information on the nature of the disease and its complications. [New York Times: Books] 3:42:42 PM  Permalink  comment []

© Copyright 2004 Steve Michel.