Two Cheers for NPR
In today's Wall Street Journal, Scott Simon, host of NPR's "Weekend Edition," has a column lamenting the end of the space shuttle program. Entitled "At Cape Canaveral, the Rocket's Red Glare," the piece describes the final launch of the Endeavour, to which Simon and his wife took their two little girls. The writing is just gorgeous, the sentiments those of a patriot.
Did the earth move? Oh yes. The heavens rumbled, a thousand suns burst, and a billion lions roared....The slow, stately, inextinguishable rise of the rocket elegantly embodied American power, like a Yankee clipper ship in full sail. And I realized in that moment that when it comes to exploring space, I want America to be in the driver's seat, not the passenger side....
[S]ending human beings hurtling into the stars gives us an actual, visceral commitment to space. It puts our species over the wall, where we are obliged to follow. I worry that losing the power to launch spacecraft may take some of the spark out of our daring.
I still see no argument for federal funding of NPR, and I'm of divided mind about funding for NASA. But we conservatives ought to salute patriotism--and, for that matter, good prose--wherever it appears.
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Aug '10
Re: Two Cheers for NPR
Why should it be surprising that one bloated, statist bureaucracy would send out a love letter to another bloated, statist bureaucracy. Rent seekers gotta stick together.
Aug '10
Re: Two Cheers for NPR
It is too bad , as Misthiocracy noted, that the doomed NPR sings to the doomed NASA.
Scott Simon is one prosaic guy though, his interviews were the best part of Saturday morning NPR, back when I could still listen to it before they got BDS. Even click and clack had to get in on the act, wonder how many of us just had to turn it off.
Edited on May 17, 2011 at 1:20pmApr '11
Re: Two Cheers for NPR
Being the nerd I am, I used to subscribe to "Analog", which was a science-fiction magazine with a couple of factual articles. One of the editors -- even back in the 90's -- would argue that it was long past time that space should be pursued by the private industry, and even acknowledged that private companies would be able to do so at a fraction of the cost.
That idea stuck with me, and personally I wouldn't mind seeing it in action. Scott Simon makes a consistently liberal assumption: That if the government does not continue to perform a task it has normally done for a measure of time, then that task will not be done at all.
May '10
Re: Two Cheers for NPR
I agree, Peter. Beautifully written.
Mar '11
Re: Two Cheers for NPR
Peter Robinson
I still see no argument for federal funding of NPR, and I'm of divided mind about funding for NASA. But we conservatives ought to salute patriotism--and, for that matter, good prose--wherever it appears. ·
Yes, there is no case for federal funding for NPR and, yes, he does write well - for a Liberal Patriot, if that is not a contradiction ;-)
As for NASA, we touched on this briefly yesterday. I think this is one of the few areas where the Federal Government should get involved. But they should do the impossible, impractical, things - and leave the subsequent practical developments to private industry.
Mr Obama is doing the latter, but none of the former - instead he is encouraging NASA to focus on mythology - Climate Change and Muslim Outreach.
Hopefully, one day we will again have a visionary American President who will direct NASA to boldly go where no man (or woman) has gone before - otherwise the USS Enterprise will remain a dream from the past.
My guess is, he (or she) will not be a Democrat.
Edited on May 17, 2011 at 1:45pmMay '10
Re: Two Cheers for NPR
David Williamson
My guess is, he (or she) will not be a Democrat. · May 17 at 1:41pm
Edited on May 17 at 01:45 pm
Only Nixon could go to China. Only Mitch Daniels could put a man on Mars?
May '10
Re: Two Cheers for NPR
Oh, to slip the surly bonds of earth and touch the face of God...
Mar '11
Re: Two Cheers for NPR
Trace Urdan
Only Nixon could go to China. Only Mitch Daniels could put a man on Mars?
Haha - and who would that man be?
Oct '10
Re: Two Cheers for NPR
The US has spent trillions of dollars creating the disasters of welfare and government education. Can anyone reasonably argue that that astronomical amount could not have been better used to expand mans horizons, rather than confine his ambitions?
Oct '10
Re: Two Cheers for NPR
So we should use fourty-year-old technology that costs orders of magnitude more per flight then a modern system would?
This is nothing more then a circus act.
Aug '10
Re: Two Cheers for NPR
Yes it could have, but privately. Not in the hands of an agency of the US government.
Apr '11
Re: Two Cheers for NPR
Flownover, I gave up listening to and contributing to NPR several years ago. Just couldn't take it any longer. I still listen to "Only a Game" on Saturday mornings but that's all I can handle.
Mar '11
Re: Two Cheers for NPR
Joseph Eagar: So we should use fourty-year-old technology that costs orders of magnitude more per flight then a modern system would?
This is nothing more then a circus act.
I think that was why the Shuttle was cancelled. Problem is, we haven't developed the next technology, and will now be relying (at great cost) on the Russians.
Burt Rutan and Virgin Galactic are great - private enterprise at its best, but also old technology - cleverly applied, tis true.
The problem with NASA is it's overwhelming bureaucracy - it could not do an Apollo or Shuttle program, now. So, like the whole Federal Government, it's become so dysfunctional it can't do anything - except Climate Change and Muslim Outreach.
So, go back 40 years in reduced Government, but develop new technology.
Aug '10
Re: Two Cheers for NPR
David Williamson
I think that was why the Shuttle was cancelled. Problem is, we haven't developed the next technology, and will now be relying (at great cost) on the Russians.
Only in the very short term.
The Space-X corporation has already put a satellite into orbit, they have plenty of orders for more, and other companies are rapidly bringing their own solutions on-line. Their first resupply mission to the ISS is scheduled for this year.
Burt Rutan and Virgin Galactic have gotten most of the headlines, but they really aren't the biggest players in this industry, and the industry is growing very rapidly. I can see zero reason to believe that the private sector cannot take over all non-military heavy lift projects in the very short future.
The biggest obstacle, I think, will be the FAA. I believe the conditions that the FAA will put on private human spaceflight will be MUCH more restrictive than what NASA ever had to contend with. I believe that the FAA will not allow private operators to take nearly the same amount of risk that NASA was allowed to take, and it will slow down private development.
Aug '10
Re: Two Cheers for NPR
You know what kinda pisses me off? Every single shuttle launch gets live news coverage, but Space-X is virtually unknown in the popular consciousness.
These guys are on-track to put humans into orbit before the end of the decade, and they have the contract to ferry US astronauts to the ISS.
This company should be hailed as the saviours of US space flight, and every single launch should be hyped to the gills by the media. And yet they work in relative obscurity.
It makes me wonder, just how much of NASA's budget is eaten up by it's PR department. Clearly, THAT's one part of NASA that does exceptional work.
Mar '11
Re: Two Cheers for NPR
Let me quote from Rich Lowry's Sputnik Fallacy
The Apollo program put a man on the moon, creating a shining moment of national pride. It also fed liberalism’s disastrously simplistic view of how progress happens — spend a lot of federal money, put a lot of experts in a room, and wait for the wondrous results.
The patriotic rhetorical trappings don’t make it any less arrogant or foolish.
Liberal technocrat elites believed that If they can put a man on the moon, they can also reform society or manage markets etc.
varun82vijay@gmail.com
Aug '10
Re: Two Cheers for NPR
Yeah, I love Barbara and Martin Bain in that.
Jan '11
Re: Two Cheers for NPR
David Williamson
As for NASA, we touched on this briefly yesterday. I think this is one of the few areas where the Federal Government should get involved. But they should do the impossible, impractical, things - and leave the subsequent practical developments to private industry.
I completely agree.
A much-underrated aspect of our space program is that it's a (relatively) inexpensive innocuous expression of patriotic greatness coupled with scientific and technological benefits; basically, all the benefits of war without the carnage* and at a fraction of the cost.
It does America good to be able to say "You know what the Taliban did with their discretionary cash? Blow up statue. Know what America does with its? Go to frickin' Mars."
* Insert anti-shuttle-joke here.