Free Enterprise in Space
From the Ayn Rand Institute:IRVINE, CA--On Monday SpaceShipOne made its winning flight, destroying forever the myth that space exploration can be done only by the government. Space exploration, as the grandest of man's technological advancements, requires the kind of bold innovation possible only to minds left free to face the vast universe directly. By placing the space program under government funding, we necessarily insert the corrupting barrier of bureaucratic whim between the reasoning mind and the facts of reality. The results are obvious: the space program is a political animal, mired in shifting, inconsistent, arbitrary and ill-defined goals. SpaceShipOne has now taken the first free-market steps toward the stars. If the government, exercising its proper function, established a system of private property rights in space, free industry would have ample incentive to reach and exploit stellar bodies. Ahead of these bold space entrepreneurs lie enormous technical difficulties, the solution of which will require even more heroic determination than that which tamed the seas and the continents. To solve them, America must unleash its best minds--as only the free market can do.
Campaign Fodder
From Cox and Forkum:
Excerpt from the Vice Presidential debate, after Senator Edwards disputed Vice President Cheney's rebuttal about the cost of the war:EDWARDS: [...] Not only that, 90 percent of the coalition casualties, Mr. Vice President, the coalition casualties, are American casualties. Ninety percent of the cost of this effort are being borne by American taxpayers. It is the direct result of the failures of this administration. IFILL: Mr. Vice President? CHENEY: Classic example. He won't count the sacrifice and the contribution of Iraqi allies. It's their country. They're in the fight. They're increasingly the ones out there putting their necks on the line to take back their country from the terrorists and the old regime elements that are still left. They're doing a superb job. And for you to demean their sacrifices strikes me as... EDWARDS: Oh, I'm not... CHENEY: ... as beyond... EDWARDS: I'm not demeaning... CHENEY: It is indeed. You suggested... EDWARDS: No, sir, I did not... CHENEY: ... somehow they shouldn't count, because you want to be able to say that the Americans are taking 90 percent of the sacrifice. You cannot succeed in this effort if you're not willing to recognize the enormous contribution the Iraqis are increasingly making to their own future. We'll win when they take on responsibility for governance, which they're doing, and when they take on responsibility for their own security, which they increasingly are doing.UPDATE: From CNN: Car bomb kills Iraqi national guard members.
SpaceShipOne
Brian Binnie successfully piloted the Scaled Composites/Paul Allen craft SpaceShipOne to an altitude of 368,000 feet this morning, breaking the threshold of space by 40,000 feet. By reaching space (and returning safely) twice within two weeks--all without government handouts--SpaceShipOne earned the coveted $10 Million Ansari X Prize. Last week's flight was piloted by Michael Melvill, who became the first commercial astronaut back in June.Let this be a reminder to skeptics that there's no such thing as "only" human. Congratulations to the SpaceShipOne team!
FarenHype 9/11
From Cox and Forkum:
This is the second of three new Michael Moore cartoons that we created for a companion book to the new DVD, FahrenHYPE 9/11. The DVD and book debut tomorrow, Oct. 5th, the same day that Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11 appears on DVD. A trailer for FahrenHYPE 9/11 can be viewed on the Web site. Like our most recent Moore cartoon, this one is based on my observations about Fahrenheit 9/11. In the film, Moore assaults the viewer with graphic images of maimed Iraqi children, dead Iraqi babies, wounded and dead American soldiers, and American soldiers killing Iraqi combatants. Yet Moore did not show a single image of the 9/11 attacks. No airplanes striking the WTC. No explosions. No jumping victims. Nothing but the sound of the attacks, some reaction shots and a few aftermath images. Such editing choices speak volumes about Moore's motives and lack of objectivity.
The Draft = Slavery
From The Ayn Rand Institute:IRVINE, CA--Once again a proposal to reinstate the draft is being floated by various politicians. "This would be one of the worst violations of individual rights since slavery," says Dr. Andrew Bernstein, a senior writer for the Ayn Rand Institute, "because in fact involuntary conscription is a form of slavery." In the current proposal, the draftee could opt for community service instead of military service. "This choice exposes the truly hideous premise of the drafters: your life belongs to them, to the state, to the community--to anybody but you. Whether the government forces you to fight and die in Iraq or lets you "volunteer" to clean sewers doesn't really matter to them--as long as you accept that your life, liberty and pursuit of happiness are theirs for the taking." How is it possible, asks Dr. Bernstein, "228 years after the Declaration of Independence that the politicians of this country still have not understood or accepted the idea of inalienable individual rights? Those who propose to reinstate the draft do not deserve to be elected or re-elected to any office."