Recently NASA WATCH violated my copyright by posting an entire blog post I had posted on another blog. NASA Watch suggested my comments were bizarre and in the past were odd. Also suggested my rhetoric was goofy, insensetive and ill-advised. I am not sure why NASA WATCH sees my writing as so important.Does Keith Cowing see me as a threatening competior? Is it because he has tied himself so securely to a dying agency? Is it because he doesn't feel qualified to engage in a real debate so he attacks people not ideas?
It is flattering that Keith Cowing thinks my words are so important. I believe he finds my writing odd because I come at the aerospace industry from an entirely different viewpoint than most, one dedicated to space settlement. I also value truth which is not a value shared by many in the space industry. I have found the way to really anger people in the space industry is by pointing out the truth.
Keith also needs to study literature, since he obviously did not understand my reference to the tragic hero of classic Greek and Shakespearian literature. He also misunderstood the literary device of understatement as a way of adding emphasis to an idea. Keith also seems to not understand the concept of innocent until proven guilty. Or the idea that bad acts do not negate past good acts.
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5 comments:
Karen,
I posted a comment in your defense over at NASAWatch– noting that your characterization of 'tragic figure' is spot on.
However, get over yourself on this. Keith can be merciless for sure but he always goes to the facts. Attacking his motivations is going to be useless.
Your thesis and analysis was exactly correct. Exploring your notion is a better approach.
Michael Spencer
http://www.msadesign.com/
Thank You Michael for your concern,
I am not attacking Keith. I am wondering why my writing is such a concern to him.
I am not looking for mercy.
Keith isn't concerned by you. He's concerned that you may be an apologist for Nozette.
I see a good analogy between Stewart Nozette, Bill Clinton, Eliot Spitzer, Mark Sanford, and the NWA pilots (overflying MSP) -- how could somebody who had so much going for them put it all at risk for something so stupid? In that sense this is classic tragedy, but the word hero (as known today) sticks in the craw. Its usage in the study of Greek lit is not sufficiently well known, and therefore any use of the term requires a paragraph or two of education to avoid misunderstandings.
That was your mistake. You can either blame Cowing for not being fully literate, or take him as a signal that you left a hole in your article.
I do not defend what Dr. Nozette did in September. I was expressing how sad it was in the light of his past accomplishments.
I used the word hero in both senses of the word. One the term describing the classic tragic character, the other as some one to be admired for his accomplishments.
When Dr. Nozette got Clementine funded and flown we hadn't been to the Moon in decades and NASA had no intention of ever sending even a probe back. The Moon is the key to space development, with out it there will be no long term space development. Without Dr. Nozette there would have been no Clementine. Without Clementine there would have been no Lunar Prospector or knowledge of water on the Moon or a new Vision for Space Exploration. Without Dr. Nozette there would have been no movement towards lunar development. Dr. Nozette was my hero, even though I knew he was a deeply flawed man.I just didn't realize how deeply flawed.
On the subject of explaining terms. I am sorry that I did not realize that I had the benefit of a superior education and Keith did not. I studied Tragedies multiple times in high school and as an undergraduate and assumed that others had too.
I would think if Keith is going to the trouble to pull a deleted article up from the Google cache and post it in its entirety, violating copyright, he would go to the trouble of understanding it. Even if that requires a Google search or two on terms. He obviously knows how to use google.
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