Holy Saturday and the world keeps turning

Hope everyone is having a nice Holy Saturday or Passover commemoration. Have you been paying attention to the Artemis Mission? Here's a live tracker. The world is still turning.

NASA has gotten pretty expensive lately:

Artemis is an absurdly expensive boondoggle & it will cost the same as ~14 hours of Medicare/Social Security spending

The Artemis Mission has triggered a renewal in conspiracy theories concerning faking of the first moon landing, based largely on two strange interview exchanges with Buzz Aldrin, one in 2000 and one in 2015. But Aldrin supported Trump for President in 2024 based on support for the space program.

Artificial Intelligence is gonna be fun.

Michael Smith:

America the Sin Eater

We didn’t choose to police the world—we earned the burden by pretending we didn’t have to. In a borderless, asymmetric world, refusing to act early doesn’t prevent conflict—it guarantees a bigger one.

People wonder why America is filling the role of global police when Trump promised no more new or “forever wars.”

I think there is a simple reason—and it is one I have personally experienced over a business career that included frequent international travel, extended assignments abroad, and even a few years living overseas.

9/11 changed more than just America; it changed our relationship with the rest of the world and how American citizens moved through it. Personally, I went from believing I had a kind of protective aura because I was an American to understanding I was a target. As terrorists grew emboldened, it became clear that if I were detained or kidnapped, there was no guarantee American assets would be coming to retrieve me. Holding an American passport was no longer a guarantee.

When I landed in Dubai in 2002 on an American Airlines flight, I remember thinking that being an American on an American airline, flying over Middle Eastern terrain within MANPAD range in a plane with a big American flag on the tail, might not have been the best idea.

It also awakened me to the reality that as America pushed globalization, we failed to recognize that globalization works in reverse—importing cultures and people not aligned with American principles and values. That realization only deepened when former President Obama worked to diminish American standing and leadership in an effort to make us just one nation among many. He and his allies believed that being a superpower drew too much attention, and that if we were simply another country—like those in Europe—there would be less threat to America and Americans.

Ludicrous. When America appears weak, as it did during the Carter, Obama and then the Biden administrations, the threat does not recede—it grows.
The truth is that America has always been more than “Team America: World Police.” It has been the world’s sin eater.

In historical lore, a sin eater is someone who takes on the sins of another through a ritual act, absolving them and allowing them peace. America has often played that role—absorbing the consequences of global disorder and, in the process, preventing humanity from being permanently stained by the worst evils men inflict on one another. At times, this “sin eating” has not only preserved peace but advanced the broader cause of civilization.

There is a simple rule about problems: they rarely improve when ignored. More often, they grow—and once they metastasize, they become far more difficult to resolve quietly.

That is why I find the assertion that Iran “presented no imminent threat” to America so unconvincing. . .

Read the whole thing, if you have time. I have seen arguments from the Woke Right that if the Ayatollahs really intended to destroy "all Jews", "all Infidels", etc. they would have already murdered members of minority religions in their own population (rather than murdering protesters?)

Perhaps they have never heard of the Hidden Imam.

WEEKEND

The Week In Pictures: No Queens Edition

It was a busy week! The Democrats conducted one of their periodic “no kings” self-owns, while the Noem family experienced an unexpected bump in the road. April Fools Day came and went, and Tiger Woods’ vehicle once again let him down. The conflict in Iran continued, but memesters didn’t seem to notice. The Supreme Court heard a big birthright citizenship case, and if some of this week’s memes puzzle you, google “KitKat.”

Music

Hope you have something nice planned for this weekend.

This is the Thread before the Gardening Thread.

Last week's thread, Competing Intellectual Systems

Comments are closed so you won't ban yourself by trying to comment on a week-old thread. But don't try it anyway.

posted by K.T. at 11:23 AM

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