A (Liberal) Dose of Sarcasm

From the comment section of DailyTech‘s article, “Obama, Congress Pack Net Neutrality, Broadband Into Stimulus.”

MrBungle123: The recession Bush inherited from Clinton was shortened by the Bush tax cut.

(several comments later, in reply to MrBungle123)

sgw2n5: Bwahahaaaahaahaaa
Cool, DT has their own revisionist historian!

If you bother actually reading the original article, it’s pretty standard stuff, just reporting on the inclusion of a $6 billion portion of the stimulus package intended for increased broadband penetration and the protection of net neutrality.

Unfortunately, any time that Obama and/or Bush are mentioned, the comment section quickly devolves into a partisan hate-fest. Normally intelligent people turn the worst kind of either populist or capitalist imaginable, depending on their views. Language gets a bit nasty, and right when you’re about to move on in your websurfage, a gem pops up in the comments.

Should NASA be Militarized?

According to this DailyTech article (contents posted below), President-elect Obama is considering a militarization of the US space program in order to solve NASA’s funding woes. Check it out:

Artist's rendering: Ares I

If Ares I development isn’t as far as long as Obama likes, it could be possible NASA will use military funds for future technology development

President-elect Barack Obama, once he takes office later this month, could remove the barriers between the US Department of Defense (DoD) and NASA, in an effort to help the U.S. space agency better compete with Russia and China.

The most important task for NASA is to build a new rocket capable of carrying Orion to the International Space Station (ISS), with a future mission to the moon likely.  The U.S. space agency originally planned to have the Ares I rocket take Orion into space, but President-elect Obama wants to try and get Orion into the air as soon as possible.

“The Obama administration will have all those issues on the table,” former President Bill Clinton’s space adviser Neal Lane told Bloomberg.  “The foreign affairs and national security implications have to be considered.”

The current generation of space shuttles will be retired next year, and there will be a five-year gap between the shuttle retirement and the scheduled release of Orion.  Ares I completed its first preliminary design review last year, with Boeing and Alliant Techsystems prepared for a first launch in 2015.

(Wise)crack of the Day

While reading the DailyTech article “Report: Obama May Militarize Space Program“, I noticed the following exchange in the comments section:

Reclaimer77: Do you believe Obama gives jack crap about military applications ??

Mdogs444: No. I think he wants a satellite that can emit rays of happiness while we all hold hands and sing songs about world peace.

I don’t care who you are, that’s classic.

Campaign 2008

Obama and McCain

It doesn’t matter who you’re voting for in November (well, it does, but not right now), you need to be aware of both candidates’ positions when it comes to science and technology. Website Sciencedebate 2008 provides an excellent side-by-side comparison of McCain and Obama’s responses to fourteen carefully selected questions regarding our nation’s future in science and technology. The following is a copy of the questions, and the responses to each (a word of caution: this is not for the faint of heart. The total document is HUGE):

Lipstick on a Pig

Many of my friends are conservative. No, that’s an understatement. Most of them are so conservative that if you gave them a choice between wiping terrorism off the face of the earth or making abortions illegal, they’d have a hard time deciding between the two options.

It (more or less) goes without saying that they are also, like your average American, relatively ignorant of the details of our presidential election. Mostly they just parrot what they hear on Fox News. Most recently, a few of them got wind of the phrase “lipstick on a pig” in connection with the Obama campaign. They don’t know what it means or in what context it was spoken, just that it was aimed at the McCain camp. Most of them think for a minute, and make an incorrect connection between said phrase and Palin describing herself as a “bulldog with lipstick”. They realize that the word lipstick is present in both, and assume that Palin is being called a pig. They don’t know why she’s being called a pig, or how or when it started (they don’t even know that they’re completely wrong on the matter), but they know they’re angry as heck that their precious VP candidate has been insulted. It completely escapes them that not only is insulting the opposing party nothing new in the world of politics, their beloved GOP is the master of degrading implications and sly remarks.

A campaign button for Palin/McCain. Yes, I did that on purpose, just as whoever created the button did. They might as well get it over with and make McCain give her the nomination.

Here’s a great article detailing some of the prior uses of “lipstick on a pig”. This is nothing new – it’s been around at least 20 years, and has been used in far more direct ways than the most recent example.

Golly, I Just Love Those Republicans! *end sarcasm*

Some of the things that people will do for their respective political parties are pathetic.

Case in point: Republicans in Virginia lying to college students about there being financial consequences if they registered to vote (after finding out bunches of us college kids plan on voting for Obama). I hope they’re happy, because according to the link around 1000 people withdrew their registration applications. Way to fight for democracy, Republicans.

If the GOP would put half as much effort into spreading democracy (and more importantly, the practice thereof) in the United States as they do in Iraq, we might actually have something to thank them for. Oh wait, I forgot. There aren’t any incentives to practice domestically what you preach internationally. My bad.