Maybe I'm the only one, but I do not give a #^#$% about the latest Mars rover.
Well, actually I do. I dislike it and wish we'd stop wasting money on crap like this.
People, have we not been getting photos of Mars from rovers since 2004? Is this not old hat? Will we ever find Mars' "good side" and get the photo we've been looking for?
This latest photo shoot cost $2.5 billion (about a billion over budget). Apparently we want to find out if life ever existed there.
Of course life existed on Mars. Has NASA never watched Bugs Bunny?
Why is the JPL the lucky recipient of a seemingly permanent, federally funded, high wage, full employment program? They've been on the gravy train long enough!
And they say that political science research is useless and should be defunded! While that may be true, it's way way way better than the NASA-JPL cabal.
Showing posts with label the woodshed. Show all posts
Showing posts with label the woodshed. Show all posts
Wednesday, August 08, 2012
Sunday, March 25, 2012
Sunday morning at the woodshed
Wow. Lant Pritchett absolutely eviscerates the Obama administration over their pick for World Bank President.
Here are some of the salty bits:
“It’s an embarrassment to the U.S. You cannot with a straight face say this person is the most qualified to lead the World Bank.”
and:
Adds Pritchett, nominating Kim “is like picking the short stop for the New York Yankees out of the scrub leagues.”
Finally:
“there’s no question that Kim has done terrific things, but I wouldn’t nominate Mother Teresa to head the World Bank if she were still alive.”
I personally think that the World Bank's composite scorecard is way over par (during its existence, on balance, it's done more harm than good) and favor abolition.
But I don't think the main problem has been choice of leadership.
As Mallaby's superb book "The World's Banker" makes clear, WB Presidents cannot make the behemoth bank bureaucracy march to their own tune.
The problem is institutional, the problem is conceptual, the problem is philosophical. The WB is one of the last bastions of central planning, and it functions about as well as other such bastions have functioned.
Here are some of the salty bits:
“It’s an embarrassment to the U.S. You cannot with a straight face say this person is the most qualified to lead the World Bank.”
and:
Adds Pritchett, nominating Kim “is like picking the short stop for the New York Yankees out of the scrub leagues.”
Finally:
“there’s no question that Kim has done terrific things, but I wouldn’t nominate Mother Teresa to head the World Bank if she were still alive.”
I personally think that the World Bank's composite scorecard is way over par (during its existence, on balance, it's done more harm than good) and favor abolition.
But I don't think the main problem has been choice of leadership.
As Mallaby's superb book "The World's Banker" makes clear, WB Presidents cannot make the behemoth bank bureaucracy march to their own tune.
The problem is institutional, the problem is conceptual, the problem is philosophical. The WB is one of the last bastions of central planning, and it functions about as well as other such bastions have functioned.
Saturday, March 03, 2012
Welcome to the woodshed
They do the work, so I don't have to!
Let's start off this new KPC feature with a double-header.
First, Clive Crook takes Jon Chait to the woodshed.
Then, in the mother of all beatdowns, Bob Kuttner takes Tim Geithner to the woodshed and just wails away on him.
Let's start off this new KPC feature with a double-header.
First, Clive Crook takes Jon Chait to the woodshed.
Then, in the mother of all beatdowns, Bob Kuttner takes Tim Geithner to the woodshed and just wails away on him.
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