Freespace

Wide awake in the Sea of Tranquility

NASA has a cool story about the moon landing here. Meanwhile, Medusa's Kitchen published my poem for Neil Armstrong.

Neil Armstrong

Was 18 years old, and had his pilot's license, when Orville Wright died.

Update: Orville Wright was a year old when Patrick Gass, last member of the Lewis & Clark expedition, died. Gass, in turn, was eight years old when James Cook died.

Yet another reason not to vote Republican

The Republican Party has refused to seat the delegates that Maine Republicans elected, choosing instead a panel of substitutes from other states. That's because Maine's delegates support Ron Paul. Now, I'm hardly a Paul fan, but this move by the party is yet another example of the disgusting way in which the GOP elite are determined to force Tea Party members to get in the harness and mush for this year's Anointed Moderate. It's not like Romney needs the votes--he has plenty even with the Maine delegates voting against him. But the leadership knows that none of the actual voters in the Republican Party support Mitt Romney, and that for all of Paul's many faults, his support is genuine, grass-roots enthusiasm by voters fed up at the status quo Duopoly. And the GOP's mission to purge the party of the Goldwater/Reagan spirit demands that Paul's supporters be silenced as much as possible. Yes, Paul deserves to be defeated--but on the merits, not through procedural shenanigans by a party leadership devoted to Winning At All Costs, and which long ago paid the most important cost: its principles. I say, if we're going to have More of The Same, let's really have more of the same, without what a great Republican once called "the base alloy of hypocrisy."

Amazing artworks

done with ballpoint pen.

The later history of Carolene Products

Josh Blackman has some very interesting details about the Carolene Products case.

Shakespeare, Star Trek, and the SS

The special prosecutors’ office in Germany is planning to file charges against an 87 year old man who prosecutors think served as a prison guard at Auschwitz. The case comes only a few months after the death of John Demjanjuk, who after a lifetime of working in an auto plant in Ohio, was convicted of serving as a guard at Sobibor.

The question of tracking down and prosecuting the Nazi war criminals was much more on peoples’ minds in the 1960s; Adolf Eichmann, of course was tried and convicted in 1961, and executed a year later, for his role in the Holocaust. In 1967, Franz Stangl was arrested in Brazil, and convicted in 1970. A warrant was issued in 1963 for the arrest of Eduard Roschmann; Karl Silberbauer was tracked down in 1962, but never tried. Between 1963 and 1965, 22 defendants were tried for their roles in the Holocaust;
In 1966, Karl Frenzel was sentenced to life in prison.

The question of the lengths to which the Allies should go to track down and prosecute Nazi leaders was an important one among intellectual leaders of the time. In 1954, Jacob Bronowski’s radio play on the subject, The Face of Violence, won the Italia Prize, then something like an Emmy. In Bronowski’s play—which relies heavily on the works of William Blake—a war survivor tracks down a camp guard he witnessed murdering a child, only to find that the guard has now married the mother of the child he killed. Like Blake, Bronowski argues that the crimes of the past can never be recompensed, only mercifully forgiven. In 1963, Hannah Arendt’s classic, Eichmann in Jerusalem, was published, criticizing that trial on due process grounds and questioning whether, notwithstanding the evil of the Holocaust’s perpetrators, the case was less about justice than about political advantage.

The Star Trek episode “The Conscience of The King,” written by Barry Trivers, aired on December 8, 1966, putting the question about the limits to which justice should go in tracking down criminals not only in the context of the twenty-third century, but of the works of William Shakespeare. Captain Kirk, one of the few survivors of a massacre perpetrated by the dictator Kodos The Executioner, discovers that a traveling Shakespearean actor is in reality the dictator, on the run from justice. Kodos’ beautiful daughter, Lenore, has been helping him to keep his secret by murdering those who learn of his identity—although Kodos does not realize that she has been killing the witnesses.

Here's how to paint...

...the garage door

My latest economic liberty lawsuit

Fighting the moving cartel in Kentucky.

Gene Healy: don't believe the hype about Ryan

As a curmudgeonly libertarian, it's my job to pour cold water on the flames of political passion. So -- hey girl: If you're over the moon about the Ryan pick, let me confess: I'm not so excited. And I just can't hide it.
 
Ryan was a loyal soldier throughout the free-spending George W. Bush years, voting for No Child Left Behind and the creation of the Department of Homeland Security, among other debacles. At the dawn of the Tea Party, Ryan lent his support to the auto and bank bailouts. He voted for TARP and gave "one of the most hysterical speeches" demanding others do the same, as Michelle Malkin observed in 2009.

More here.

Speaking in San Francisco Thursday about Obamacare

I’ll be speaking to the San Francisco Bar Association on Thursday about the Obamacare decision and what the next step is in challenging this unconstitutional law. The event is open to the public, but there is a registration fee. More information here.