Saturday, March 23, 2013

Next Big Future: Fall 2012 Interview with John Slough on Direct Fus...

Next Big Future: Fall 2012 Interview with John Slough on Direct Fus...

Comment:

This is a direct fusion to thrust concept.  I've always thought that Dense Plasma Focus would be perfect for this if it were perfected.  Now here's this concept to throw into the mix.

If fusion can be made to be as efficient as he is claiming, some really ambitious projects can be attempted.




Colonizing the asteroid Ceres

Several factors support the idea.
  1. It has plenty of water
  2. It is in the asteroid belt, meaning it is in the neighborhood of the other asteroids
  3. It's in the sweet spot for mining metal asteroids, which could prove lucrative
  4. It has enough sun to use solar power
  5. It is between Mars and Jupiter's moons, making it a way station between both
  6. The gravity well isn't as deep, meaning it won't need as much fuel to land or take off
  7. More frequent launch windows to Ceres from Earth, as opposed to Earth to Mars.
Some thought has been given to the idea here.

Here's someone who wants to go to Ceres first before going to Mars.

This forum discusses colonizing Ceres before the moon.  More discussion on the wiki here.

Update:

Some of the discussion talks about landing and taking off the asteroid using rocket engines.  This is wasteful of fuel.  Here's a way to do it--- use a Hunter type gas gun to launch the ice into space.  Muzzle velocity from a military type gun is twice the escape velocity of Ceres, so you won't need that much velocity to get into space.

The ice could be collected and processed at a space station in orbit around Ceres.  It would also require transport to and from the station.   You'd need a big tanker because the trip is long.

In addition to space hardware, the project would entail setting up the hardware on the surface of Ceres.  As well as the gas gun, you'd need to mine the water from the asteroid itself.  This would need hardware for that.  So, the main challenge here is to get the hardware into place on the surface of Ceres, and in orbit, so it can mine the water and then transport it to space.  From there, it can go to where it's needed.

Update:

Here's the delta-v's in a chart that includes Ceres.  The delta-v looks daunting, so a manned trip will be challenging with today's tech.  According to this chart, and assuming I'm reading it right, a trip to Ceres would require 4 km/sec more in delta-v than a Mars trip.

However, if you don't launch from Earth, but from the moon, or from a Lagrange point, the delta-v becomes much smaller as you don't need to get out of that deep gravity well.  It should also be noted that the trip includes both ways.  You can use aerobraking to slow down the Earth part of the trip, which also saves a lot of delta-v.

Update:

Getting to Ceres is the biggest problem.  Once you are there, you could land a lot of equipment there without the need for a lot of propellant.  You may achieve some rather dramatic mass fractions, if my calculations are anywhere near correct.  Something like 90% if you use LH2/LOX.
In order to pull off such a project, there would need to be an infrastructure in place.  Preferably, several refueling stations, viz

  • LEO.  This would enable the project to avoid lifting off without all the fuel for the whole trip.  Only that necessary to get to orbit.  Once there, refill to get to next destination.  You could supplement what came from the Moon with gases harvested from the edge of space.
  • Lagrange point--- one of the Earth Moon ones, perhaps one could double up for service from the Moon's surface.  It could transfer from L1 to L4 or L5 and top off.
  • Mars orbit.  Or at one of the moons.  Top off there with fuel from the surface of Mars or from the moons themselves.  A caveat to this one is that it may not help that much.
The idea is to minimize masses that have to escape deep gravity wells.  This would enable smaller rockets to be employed.

Update:

This is part 3 of a series.  Part 2 is here, Part 1 is here.


Comet Tempel 1 Impactor ejects mighty water mass

** Impactor ejects mighty water mass **
The Nasa projectile that slammed into Comet Tempel 1 last year ( note: 2006 article)  kicked up 250,000 tonnes of water, new data shows.

Comment:

It's interesting that so much water exists out there in space.  A way to get to this water and use it could be found and that would enable you to live out there.  Yes, how to get to it is the problem.


An American Cyprus?

frontpagemag.com

Beating Mitt Romney was no great achievement. Neither was beating McCain. But at some point the government-media complex of social welfare and crony capitalism will go up against an angry populist with an agenda and an organized movement, from the right or the left, and then things will get properly ugly.

Comment:

Mitt Romney threw the election when he wouldn't go after Obama on Benghazi.



Patton: Red State Governors Should Be Careful What They Wish For

gopusa commentary

quote:
When my wife and I used to vacation in Colorado in the 1970s, I started noticing bumper stickers that read “Don’t Californicate Colorado.” 
Comment:

Too late now.  Colorado has been "Californicated".

The advice is to Rick Perry and other Republican governors of Red States---don't import the other states' problems.


WHERE'S LUCA BRASI WHEN YOU NEED HIM?

Ann Coulter - March 20, 2013 

Not two days later, in the Republican primary for Tim Scott's old congressional seat from South Carolina, among the top two finalists was Mark Sanford, the Todd Akin of South Carolina. You would think Akin would stand as a beacon, reminding Republicans to stop giving away winnable seats by running ridiculous candidates. Alas, no...  The Republican Party owes Sanford nothing. He had a chance and he blew it. National Review wasted five years of cover stories on how awesome he was, but he never accomplished anything of substance.
There's probably a story here if you dig a little deeper.  Coulter considers these to be unforced errors, but what if these aren't errors?   Yes, that's right.  Somebody could be doing this stuff deliberately.


Cyprus's choice: Iceland or Greece? – Telegraph Blogs

Should Cyprus follow the Iceland model and tell the banksters to bleep off?

Cyprus's choice: Iceland or Greece? – Telegraph Blogs
What will the unhappy Cypriots do? Will they mortgage themselves to a dodgy, authoritarian kleptocracy? Or – drumroll – will they spurn the EU and take Russia's money instead? Actually, there is a far better option: an option offered by another thinly populated island on the fringes of Europe whose financial sector had outgrown its [...]

Michael Moore's Irrational Reasoning: White Gun Owners Racist, But Understandable They're Not Afraid Of White Neighbors | NewsBusters

Moore say 90% of the guns in America are owned by white people. Then he compares this country with other countries as if owning the guns ( implying that white people are paranoid ) is the problem.  Maybe the neighborhoods are safe not because they are white, but because they are armed.  Secondly, what he claims about other countries being safer is wrong. Crime rates in some of these other countries he mentions is higher.  
Michael Moore's Irrational Reasoning: White Gun Owners Racist, But Understandable They're Not Afraid Of White Neighbors | NewsBusters
Source: newsbusters.org
Call it Michael Moore's Jesse Jackson moment . . . Jackson once famously said , that when he walked down the street and heard footsteps behind him, he was relieved to turn around and find a white person behind him. This evening, on Ed Schultz's soon-to-be-extinct weeknight MSNBC show, a histrionic Michael Moore accused white gun owners of racism . . . then proceeded to say it was reasonable for them not to be afraid of their white neighbors  . . . and admitted he felt more comfortable walking do...
 
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NBC: 'Hopes' of Gitmo Terror Detainees Were 'Crushed' By Obama's Failure to Close Prison | Media Research Center

MRC.org:

quote:

Isikoff forwarded the Obama administration defense: "White House officials say they're still committed to closing Gitmo as the President once promised....But they say their hands are tied by Congress..."
Looks like the far left hasn't forgotten about Gitmo, but Obama has.  When asked, he blames others as he usually does when he doesn't fulfill campaign promises.

It was noted in the comments that they are spending $1 million on each detainee.  It would be a lot simpler and cheaper to just execute them.  Releasing them only gives them the chance to attack again.

Ten Years after Iraq, US Threatens to Bomb Middle East Country over WMD

Via Meadia

On the tenth anniversary of Iraq, another American President is threatening the use of force in the Middle East. What’s more, the American public is behind him. A recent Pew poll has just found that 64 percent of Americans—and 62 percent of Democrats—believe preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons is more important than avoiding war.
Boy did the Democrats change their tune.  They stopped Bush from taking care of this problem.  Now they are behind Obama when he rattles the sabers.  What's more, Obama could be in trouble with regard to Benghazi, if that ever gets to light.  Would he use force in order to bail him out of a difficult political situation?

Update:

Corrected an error in the text, and this post got bumped to the top.  Don't know why.

Update:

As long as this post remains on top, I may as well update it again.

What does this poll really mean?  I can't believe Obama really intends to attack Iran.  Another explanation for this is that is not a prelude to an attack, but it is merely to project a hawkish image to the Israeli public so that they won't regard Netanyahu as their protector.  It is meant to make the Israelis reject their Prime Minister in the hopes that Obama will come to their rescue and will attack Iran.  But I think if that is what Obama and his henchmen in the media are doing with this poll, then it is a ruse.  The idea is to get rid of Netanyahu.

This may also serve to help Obama in the US too, just in case he gets into trouble over Benghazi.


Zero Hedge:The collapse of the bond market dead ahead?



Chris Martenson Warns "Market Risks Today Are Higher than Ever"


Friday, March 22, 2013

Please Do Not Adjust Your Child

by Daren Jonescu,  American Thinker

Something has gone terribly wrong with the modern world, and public education is at the heart of the problem. The solution will not and cannot come from a publicly educated population. Begin the process of liberating children's souls now, so that in the future there will once again be Thomas Jeffersons and Benjamin Franklins to do what will need to be done.
I agree.  Perhaps the least they can do is to stop feeding the damned beast.  No more money.

Next Big Future: Blueseed Seasteading has a new tighter budget and ...

Next Big Future: Blueseed Seasteading has a new tighter budget and ...: Blueseed will station a ship 12 nautical miles from the coast of San Francisco, in international waters. The location will allow startup en...

Below is a must see video of our current situation with regards to education.

If I may add to that, there's just one and only one reason why our educational system is what it is--- who's running that system.



Next Big Future: Elon Musk at TED Video

Next Big Future: Elon Musk at TED Video: Entrepreneur Elon Musk is a man with many plans. The founder of PayPal, Tesla Motors and SpaceX sits down with TED curator Chris Anderson to...

Texas May Start Hoarding Gold, Secession Next? | Daily Ticker - Yahoo! Finance


  

Personal message:

The use of "hoarding" is a bit questionable. What is the justification of using that word, as well as speculation about secession?
Texas May Start Hoarding Gold…Secession Next? | Daily Ticker - Yahoo! Finance
http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/daily-ticker/texas-may-start-hoarding-gold-secession-next-192407075.html
We all know the cliché: 'Don't mess with Texas.' Well, a new piece of legislation is being proposed to send that message to Washington, when it comes to protecting Texas' gold. A lawmaker has proposed a bill to create a Texas Bullion Depository, which would allow the state and its citizens to store gold bullion [...]
Read the full story
To learn more about Yahoo!'s use of personal information, including the use of web beacons in HTML-based email, please read our Privacy Policy. Yahoo! is located at 701 First Avenue, Sunnyvale, CA 94089.


The Doobie Brothers - What a Fool Believes (with lyrics)

"what a fool believes he sees, no wise man has to the power to reason away"...



What a fool believes

reason.com:   If You Don't Support an 'Assault Weapon' Ban, You Hate Children and Want Them to Die

Excerpts:

  • Daily News columnist Mike Lupica says "any fool knows that Lanza couldn't possibly have killed as many children as quickly as he did on the morning of Dec. 14 without an assault weapon in his hands." Lupica is right. That is what a fool knows, or thinks he knows. But is it true?----[emphasis added, comment: answer to question is " No."]
  • as Kopel pointed out, the criteria that legislators use to identify so-called assault weapons "do not ban guns based on how fast they fire, or how powerful they are." Rather, "the definitions are based on the name of a gun, or on whether a firearm has certain superficial accessories (such as a bayonet lug, or a grip in the 'wrong' place)." [ emphasis added]
  • In reality, handguns are the weapons favored by mass killers, including the one responsible for the deadliest shooting by a single gunman in U.S. history, at Virginia Tech in 2007.
  • "Ms. Feinstein said that she still could not get out of her mind looking for the pulse...and in the process 'putting my fingers in a bullet hole.'"...Dan White's crime is clearly irrelevant to the constitutional issue, and it does not even make sense as symbolism. Because White killed Milk and Moscone with a revolver, Feinstein was essentially saying, we cannot tolerate barrel shrouds on rifles

Comment:


Limitations upon how many bullets in an ammo clip wouldn't have mattered either.  Adam Lanza didn't even use all of the bullets in the clips, as he replaced the clips as he went from room to room whether he needed to or not.  It wouldn't have made a difference.

Therefore, it is all political theater masquerading a good governance.  In order to defeat the theater, you have to defeat the theatrics.


Aurora, Colo., theater shooter James Holmes converts to Islam

Washington Times via Instapundit

“He has brainwashed himself into believing he was on his own personal jihad and that his victims were infidels,” the source told the National Enquirer.

In my opinion, it looks like he wants to be a martyr, but the Muslims don't want him.  Firstly, he can claim an insanity defense and probably succeed at getting a lighter sentence.  But his attorneys are blocking that, probably because Holmes has told them to.   In addition, I think Holmes is an individualist seeking glory, not someone who has had a sincere conversion to a faith.  His mind processes are strangely skewed; he is probably crazy.

This is an important case on a couple levels.  Prosecution probably wants the death penalty.  That's number one.  Number two is gun-control.  But a guy like this should have been stopped before he could do damage.  We haven't heard the end of this one.


Brewing crisis in Republican Party


There's a crisis coming from within the Republican Party on the issue of same sex marriage. Either they get something agreed upon that everyone can accept, or the Party will split.


Huckabee: Evangelicals Will Walk if GOP Backs Gay Marriage

Huckabee is right.  They are going to split the party over this if they keep this up.


Lindsey Graham: The White House Must Permit Benghazi Survivors to Speak

Ace

I would say they should also offer immunity from prosecution via legislation, but the Senate Democrats would block that and thus renew the very threat that keeps these people quiet.[emphasis added]

Why would the Senate Democrats block access to the survivors of Benghazi?  Why would the President do this?  Are they collaborating in order to hide something from the public?

The media asks "what cover-up"?  If this isn't a cover-up, what explains their being held back from testifying?  What is the administration and the Democrats afraid of?  Why isn't the media more curious about this?

Zero Hedge: These numbers don't compute



The Global Financial Pyramid Scheme By The Numbers


Thursday, March 21, 2013

Dems force GOP to vote down RSC budget - The Hill's Floor Action

Dems force GOP to vote down RSC budget - The Hill's Floor Action

It's not clear what their talking about.  Raise
retirement age to 70, or change medicare age to
70, or both.

Washington Post: why support for gay marriage is soaring

http://m.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2013/03/21/support-for-gay-marriage-is-soaring-heres-why/

the poll does not go deep enough in its analysis.  the
main thing about it is that it is fashionable.

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Reuters.com - House averts government shutdown, backs Ryan budget



 Personal Message:      According to this, the debt limit is still ahead     

 Reuters.com - House averts government shutdown, backs Ryan budget   

   http://www.reuters.com/article/email/idUSBRE92K0P520130321  
 

Debt limit flushed down the memory hole

I tried to share a post from the Washington Post.

That didn't work so I am forced to to try again in another way.

What is mentioned is that an agreement has been reached to fund the government to the end of the fiscal year.

Nothing was said about the debt limit, so I don't know if I missed something or not.

Perhaps they're not going to address the debt limit at all.

They are going to pretend the debt limit doesn't even exist, assuming that I am correct in that they haven't addressed that issue.

If they do not address it then that's just another example the dysfunction in Washington.



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Michael Crichton on religion

Collecting my Thoughts

Today, one of the most powerful religions in the Western World is environmentalism. Environmentalism seems to be the religion of choice for urban atheists. Why do I say it's a religion? Well, just look at the beliefs. If you look carefully, you see that environmentalism is in fact a perfect 21st century remapping of traditional Judeo-Christian beliefs and myths.
I link to this quote because I saw it yesterday, but don't remember where.  So, I linked it here.

It seems that recently someone said that carbon taxes and carbon trading schemes will fight global warming.  You have to have a lot of faith to believe that.  Europe has those things, but America is reducing its carbon emissions faster than Europe is.  It is not helping Europe solve that problem.  In fact, it is leading Europe to disaster.

Call me a conspiracy mongerer if you must.  But I don't think they are fighting climate change.  They are fighting the people.  The people would not freely choose this if they knew all of the options.


The Constitution won't save us from a Cyprus like confiscation

People in this country are taking the event in Cyprus rather calmly.

It's a boil-the-frog type problem here.

People may feel safe because of our traditions and our Constitution.  But if it can happen there, it can happen here.  It should be remembered that the left really admires Europe.  Stuff like this event matches up well with the rest of the blue social model.  They over-promise and under-deliver.  When they can't pay for all their promises, they do a Cyprus.

If Social Democrat leftist blue model can bring a Cyprus type event, it can certainly happen here.  The Constitution won't save us because the politicians will not honor it.  They will emulate Europe.  Thus, the politicians will allow it to be subverted over time, and when it is fully subverted, there won't be any protections left.

It is being subverted slowly, through the culture.  They get to the weaker members.  They go after the kids, the women, and the elderly.  They go after the disaffected and deranged.  These are being used as instruments intended to bring about the destruction of the Republic.  The Constitution is seen as an obstacle to be overcome.  Listen closely to their words and you will understand this to be true.

Problems aren't solved, they are exploited for political gain.  The subversion gathers strength.

That subversion has gone a long, long way towards its goal.  The frog is nearly boiled alive.


Flour Bluff (TX) Parent Upset Over Lesson on Terrorism & Government (CSCOPE Curriculum)

Free Republic

One mother of a child in Flour Bluff ISD says when she did, she was shocked that lesson taught her son to blame the United States for the 9/11 attacks.

Wow.  What a shift of opinion from what existed right after the attacks.  Back then, "patriotism ran amok",  Dan Rather complained.   From patriotism to oikophobia, from which these attacks really sprang.  Many of the terrorists captured said that they thought that America was hollow.  Yes, hollow from these termite-like boring-from-within type tactics of the oikophobes.  The inner enemy within is more dangerous than the enemy without.  The enemy within makes us weak and invites the enemy without to attack.  Attacks are made because of weakness, not because of strength.

A reminder that I posted about before:  When asked why they attacked us at Pearl Harbor, the Imperial Japanese official said that they thought that America would not fight.  To find an analogy in the natural world, predators strike the weak, not the strong.  It is a fact of nature.

Got to get to those kids first, don't you know.  We are losing our civilization because the leftists have gotten to the children first.  The children are the weak point.

The leftists are a death cult.  If they succeed, lots of people will die.


ParaPundit: Obama Wants House Repubs Out Of His Way In 2015, 2016

ParaPundit: "The goal is to flip the Republican-held House back to Democratic control, allowing Obama to push forward with a progressive agenda on gun control, immigration, climate change"

Comment:

What a toxic brew that would be if he is successful.  None of that agenda is a good thing.  None.

Obama is truly an aspiring dictator.  Every bit of that only concentrates power into the hands of the Democrats.  None of that actually solves any problems.  He is trying to force us into a one-party state.  Not to solve problems, but to increase power for himself and his followers.

Scary stuff.


"Cat is out of the bag"---wealth tax is inevitable



Saxo Bank CEO: "Is Cyprus Deposit Levy The First Sign Of Widespread Wealth Tax?"


Raising Adam Lanza

This is a PBS documentary that probes the background and character of the young Adam Lanza.

It is striking how simple it would have been to detect the psychological problems of this kid if there was a background check.  Furthermore, he may not even have bought any weapons himself.  His mother bought guns for him.

Still, you can't predict with certainty what someone will do.  There has been no record of anyone with Lanza's problems that eventually become violent in this way.  If you exclude anybody with any psychological problems, you may exclude plenty of people who really aren't a threat.  Others may slip through the system.

A background check is not a panacea.  There aren't any.



Watch Raising Adam Lanza on PBS. See more from FRONTLINE.


Wednesday, March 20, 2013

[PJ Media] Recommendation: Number of Undetected 'City Killer' Asteroids 'Very Large,' House Panel Told



Question comes to mind about Senator Cruz's comment about Bruce Willis. Did somebody else say that first?

Title: Number of Undetected 'City Killer' Asteroids 'Very Large,' House Panel Told
http://pjmedia.com/blog/number-of-undetected-city-killer-asteroids-very-large-house-panel-told/

Asteroids: Senator at space-threat hearing calls for Bruce Willis


Cruz said it,BTW


LA Times:
http://soa.li/aloaJFT

Faced with space debris, solar weather and giant space rocks, senators at a subcommittee hearing called for backup in the form of a fictitious asteroid-hunter as they discussed the many space-born threats Earth faces.

About those low information voters



It appears that I agree with Rush after all.

We use different terminology to say the same thing.

Rush calls it low information voters, I call it stupefied voters.

He saying the same thing I'm saying, or I'm saying the same thing he saying.  I don't listen to show as much because my radio doesn't work worth a flip.

I still think that he is blaming the voter when the blame really belongs elsewhere.



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Proposed bill to prevent Cyprus like confiscations

Instapundit has a suggestion for new legislation that would bar any Cyprus like events.

We have a law that prevents this type of event.   It is call the Constitution. Politicians should follow that law because it is the supreme law of the land.

To do otherwise would play in their hands, because they could say that it is just a political stunt, and they would be right.



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NASA wants lasers to shoot down asteroids that could strike Earth

NASA wants lasers to shoot down asteroids that could strike Earth

No frickin' lasers on frickin' shark's heads.

Seriously, this may not be a bad idea, but questions arise

  • how powerful the laser
  • what is it's energy source
  • how do you get it into position
And so forth.


Why We Are Here?

by Roger Wiegand, Kitco Commentary

I'm linking to this post because he says basically what I've been saying on this blog.  He does it all in a short summary and probably more objectively than I can muster.  I suppose I get too emotionally attached to this stuff sometimes.  Excuse me please, and just read this article if you just want the straight skinny without the drama.

Update:

Now, I've moved over to Zero Hedge and here is a video by Russia Today of all places, which has Nigel Farage of the UK stating something that if we had an honest media, we'd be hearing here as well.  It is just as much about us as it is about them.

Update:

I wrote before about an "event" that would set the whole thing off.  That thing is collapse.  The event may be what's happening now in Cyprus.  Cyprus is tiny, how can this have such big effects?  I think the answer is the ideas behind the actions.  Ideas are what matters.  The ideas behind this confiscation is what matters.

Update:

We are here because of the failure of the blue social model.


Tuesday, March 19, 2013

Schlafly: GOP Establishment Gave Us Losers Like Dole, McCain and Romney | CNS News

Schlafly: GOP Establishment Gave Us Losers Like Dole, McCain and Romney | CNS News


She's right.  But she's old.  Who will replace her when her time comes?  Yeah, that sounds morbid, but if you see how she looks, maybe not.

I watched the past cycle more closely than usual.  The big money won and Romney had the big money.  Ideas don't count for anything---see Newt Gingrich.  The question is this: why do people fall into line?  Because they have no other choice?  If the choice is no choice, then there's no choice.  They offer nothing.  That's the point.

Update:

They really can't snub Schlafly.  Keep that in mind when the subject of Pam Geller comes up.  If they snub the old lady, it's instant oblivion for them and they know it.  They can get away with it with Geller.

So, Schlafly can give them a piece of her mind, and they have to sit still for it.  I don't see why they isn't the case with Pam Geller.  She's one of the best things they got going for them.  Too stupid to see that, unfortunately.






Zero Hedge has a great comment in one their posts

Just wanted to say that Zero Hedge is a great resource.

Now, for the latest reason why I am praising them to the hilt.  Got this from the comment section of this seemingly innocuous post:

Sinclair - All Hell Is Breaking Loose After Cyprus Catastrophe

Sinclair: “Taking Russian money is very foolish. You have to understand the culture of the people you are dealing with. The government leaders in Cyprus have no ability to protect themselves from the retribution of the former Russian KGB agents, including Putin himself.



The government leaders in Cyprus are trying to back-pedal right now in order to save their lives.  
Comment:

Think Khan in the movie Wrath of Khan.  These are the guys who kill people using the most unusual ways and means.  Saving their lives is no exaggeration of the situation, in my estimation.


Update:

Maybe it is an exaggeration, who knows---now I am not sure.  Evidently, there was a consultation with the Russians.  But they are talkiing about making it more "progressive" which puts them into hot water.



[PJ Media]: The EU Crosses the Rubicon; How Far Behind Is the US?


The article,   The EU Crosses the Rubicon; How Far Behind Is the US? , discusses confiscation of 401k's in connection with what has just transpired in Cyprus.

Chris Laird talked about this, and things like this, years ago. He even recommended taking money out of accounts---years ago. This should not be news to anybody. The shock out there tells you the state of delusion out there. But I repeat myself.  No use beating it to death, I suppose.

Even if you are ahead of the curve on this, it confers little advantage.  As the author, Ed Driscoll says, perhaps you should just Enjoy the Decline.

Update:

There are those who thought Monday may have been really bad in the markets.  Nope.  This all reminds me of the USS Cole bombing in 2000.  On Columbus Day, no less.  Even back then, which was a time when most of the population had its collective head up its ass, the market did decline 400 points at the open.  But it gained it all back, thereby blowing off the significance of the event.

Less than a year later, the 9-11 terrorists hijacked the planes and crashed them into the World Trade Center, killing 3000 people.  No big deal, I suppose.

This country is hosed.  And the funniest thing about it all is that nobody gives a damn.  Well, not exactly funny.  Maybe peculiar is the better word.






Monday, March 18, 2013

Lupica: Lanza plotted massacre for years

New York Daily News.com

quote:

Lupica: Lanza plotted massacre for years
Law enforcement reportedly discovers a sickeningly thorough 7-foot-long, 4-foot-wide spreadsheet with names, body counts and weapons from previous mass murders and even attempted killings. 'It sounded like a doctoral thesis, that was the quality of the research,' an anonymous law enforcement veteran said.

Comment:

You need to read this.  Lanza equated his planned murders to a video game.  How do you predict something like this in advance?

You probably can't.  So what to do?

There's one gun-control proposal that I've heard about which is relevant to the facts of this case. Lanza's mother made straw purchases for her son, according to this article.  If that's correct, then banning straw purchases for somebody else needs to be scrutinized.   Of all the proposals I've heard, this is the one that may actually make some sense.


Update:

I got this from Drudge and below the link to this story was another which listed all of the proposals to deal with this.  Same old, same old.  None of the proposals listed would have stopped this at all.  Are these people on crack or something?  You really have to be pretty dense to keep on insisting after this report that the thing to do is to regulate guns.  None of the proposals have a damn thing to do with what happened.


I've been pissed all day

What put me in a bad mood?  Rush Limbaugh.

What did Rush say that pissed me off?  A few things.
  1. He said that the Republicans are worried that so many young people in the party favor same sex marriage.  That doesn't make me mad at Rush, but it makes me mad at the people who should have done something about this and didn't.  Now this is upon us and the only thing they're thinking is how they figure they are going to cave in to something that is as bad as this is.
  2. He said they are worried about their donor base.  Actually, I don't think this is true.  I think they are getting payola so that they can betray the rest of the people who believe their bullshit about protecting the heritage of this country.  If they paid more attention to the people who actually cared enough to bring their asses to the polls and vote, they'd be in a lot better shape.  Chasing after the big bucks invariably means being co-opted into their agenda, which is corrupt, and intends to screw everybody all the time.
  3. He said he doesn't want to criticize the Republicans.  He should be ripping them a new one every single day until they either got the right religion, or just jump the party.  Better to get rid of the unfaithful bastards and start fresh.
Another thing I thought about in overall picture situation is why the hell do I give a shit?  Nobody else does.


Google Street View Climbs World's Highest Mountains

I was messing around with this last night.  Note about an hour later: This needs clarification.  I didn't climb any mountains on Google.   I was searching for some local stuff on Google Street View.  Amazing stuff.

An article from PC Magazine has been sent to you. Follow this link to view the article: Google Street View Climbs World's Highest Mountains

Copyright © 2013 Ziff Davis Inc. All Rights Reserved

Simplicity itself

Green Power science has another video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1J-nB7-jIJo&feature=youtube_gdata_player

The interesting thing about this video is the simplicity: use stretched plastic and water and something to put the stretched plastic over in order to collect the water.

This will focus the sun rays hot enough to burn wood.   See the video.





Sent from my Virgin Mobile Android-Powered Device

Enviros threaten Stephen Lynch on Keystone pipeline - Maggie Haberman - POLITICO.com

Enviros threaten Stephen Lynch on Keystone pipeline - Maggie Haberman - POLITICO.com


Weird science

There's an attempt to resurrect a frog which has been extinct.  It's on popular science.

The extinct frog gives birth through its mouth. I guess that means mom has a frog in her throat.



Sent from my Virgin Mobile Android-Powered Device  ( corrected )


New category has to wait

I didn't have any political stuff on my series list.

That can be corrected.

Thus, I create a new category. However, I want to avoid too many categories and subcategories.  I think I'm going to rename politics schmolitics as social criticism.  Or,  perhaps something else .  I'll have to come up with another name for that.

How about this : politics schmolitics and the social criticism?

One additional consideration: may want to do it on the new blog.

The reason for this is that it will screw up my downloads as I am importing a post from the old blog to the new blog.




Sent from my Virgin Mobile Android-Powered Device

World Inflation into Stock Markets, and Economic Armageddon

Chris Laird, Kitco Commentary

quote:

But I estimate the US Fed (this is an educated guess) is holding roughly ten $trillion USD ‘worth’ of Euros, or rather divide by 1.30 to get a number – maybe 8 Trillion Euros in secret accounts between the US fed and the ECB...We are now in the world stock bull of world COORDINATED QE intended to inflate the stock markets even though, the world economies are in the process of collapse!...Think on what I just said for a moment before u read on

Comment:

It makes sense to me if they did this.  It also makes sense that they are going to start confiscating wealth wherever they can get away it.  The system must preserve itself, the rest is expendable.  That includes you and everything you care about.



Lockheed Martin Throws More Dirt on Malthus’ Grave

american-interest.com  via Instapundit

Lockheed Martin has developed a filter...lets water pass through but blocks all salt molecules. It will use almost 100 times less energy than other methods for making salt water drinkable

Quite impressive.  A little early to break out the champagne.  Let's see the thing do what it claims.

If I seem skeptical, it's only because I've heard these claims before.

About identities

Spent a good bit of yesterday watching Brave New World.  There was something that attracted my attention, it was their motto: Community, Identity, Stability.  I noted that people's identity tends to get associated with their tribe.

When Linda Lysenko got stranded with the savages, she never fit in and was never accepted.  Likewise, her son was never accepted, because he was somewhat different from the rest.  When John grew up and visited the "other place" his mother told him about, he found that he couldn't fit in nor be accepted there either.  He had no identity that could fit in and be accepted in either place.  Lysenko could never understand nor fit in with the savages.  But John did come to understand the people in the other place, which is the Brave New World that John couldn't fit into.  Why do you suppose John could not fit into the Brave New World?

This made me think of something.  Could identities be changed?  This was the experiment that John was subjected to.  John couldn't change, or could he?  He decided not to try, as Mustafa Mond was attempting to get him to change, but he wouldn't.  The key point to me is that he decided not to try.  There is the implication here that identity can be changed.

What about the real world?  An example of someone who changed identities was Patty Hearst.  She changed into Tanya, who then became a member of the group that had kidnapped her.

So, nobody can ever change?  She certainly did, and then she changed back into her former identity when she got away from the group.

In that case, changing identities can happen.  But what about sexual identities?  Certainly, it can happen in the case of trans-sexuals.  They can change from one sex to another and that is accepted without question, it seems.  But in the case of homosexuality, it does appear to be questioned.  It seems that once someone is homosexual, they are always homosexual.  Or so we are told.  There have been some who have changed their sexual identities from homosexual to straight, but this is met with skepticism.

Or it was with Bill Maher, in his movie, Religulous.  He interviewed a guy who had turned from homosexual to straight, but he certainly didn't believe it.  He makes little doubt of his skepticism there.  For him, it was simply impossible to change from homosexual to straight.  The entire movie is on Vimeo, by the way.

Maher doesn't seem to notice that he is being trapped into his own belief system.  It seems that he is a bit like Linda Lysenko.  He won't change because his identity is so wrapped up in his tribe that he can't exist apart from it.

That's one thing that I noticed.  People are going to believe something, it doesn't matter what it is, it is still a belief.  A belief is what you choose.  You aren't subject to it, you choose it.  So, here's Maher denying belief, while trying to get those who watch his movie to change theirs.  Maher decides to reject belief while at the same time, he's ensnared by it.

What you believe is also your identity, don't you think?  It's what you are as much as anything else.  What you believe determines what you do, and what you do certainly makes you known for who you are.  You can certainly decide on what to believe, and in turn, this will determine what you do, and what your identity shall be.

There is a free will, after all.  John the Savage could not fit in because he decided that he could not be the same way that they were.  He could not fit in with the savages because he could not be accepted as the outsider.  John was different because of what he decided to think about his situation, and he would not adapt himself to it.  It amounted to what John believed and what he did in response to his belief.  All of this was subject to his will.



Sunday, March 17, 2013

Colonel Richard F. ("Dick") Brauer Jr. USAF, (Ret) on Benghazi


Published on Feb 14, 2013

Terry Lovell interview Col. Dick Brauer on Benghazi, a 3 part interview.



SOS at CPAC: "Where's Admiral Gaouette?"

News from America - News - Israel National News

  • ADM Gaouette was the commander of the USS Stennis Carrier Strike Group on station in the Persian Gulf area who was mysteriously summarily stripped of his command during the attack in Benghazi, Libya,
  • ADM Gaouette's detention and total disappearance weeks before the November 2012 presidential election was a story that CAPT Bailey says "disappeared into a black hole of silence."
  • "Where was President Obama's CBA (Cross Border Authority) for the Benghazi ‘rescue’ attempt when US Defense Secretary Panetta claimed Obama told him, ‘Do whatever you gotta do to save American life.’?”...in effect, Obama's telling Secretary Panetta to "Do whatever you gotta do" without simultaneously issuing a specific CBA enabling such action is like "telling a fire station to extinguish a 5-alarm blaze while the firemen were not legally allowed to even leave the fire house, go to the fire, or douse the burning building." 
Story comes from Israel National News.  Well, I don't know how good the information is, but it can't be any worse than what we are getting from our own media, which is the mushroom treatment.


westernjournalism.com: The Scandal That Will Bring Obama Down

The Scandal That Will Bring Obama Down

It’s even worse than we previously thought. A retired four-star admiral is now claiming that Barack Obama intentionally conspired with America’s enemies to stage a bogus attack and the kidnapping of an American ambassador so he could “negotiate” the release of a “hostage” and bolster his mediocre approval ratings...The Washington Examiner, quoting retired Four-Star Admiral James Lyons, writes: “the attack on the American Consulate in Benghazi… was the result of a bungled abduction attempt

Well, it will interesting to see where this goes, but it probably won't result in his impeachment and removal from office.  There's way too much importance placed in this man by the left, so they will never permit this, no matter what the evidence is.

Nevertheless, it should be pursued, it must be pursued.   Admiral Farragut of the US Navy during the Civil War was paraphrased as saying "damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!"  The current opposition leadership, if they claim to be any such thing, in order to maintain its credibility as such, must do no less.


Zero Hedge: "Just the beginning"


For Everyone Shocked By What Just Happened... And Why This Is Just The Beginning


Stupidification of America

Awhile back, I linked to a post on Parapundit which referred to the Stupidification of math education in America.  It has occurred to me that this phenomenon goes well beyond just math.  In my opinion, our entire culture is being stupefied.  That last post was just another piece of evidence in support of that notion.

Here we are, allowing our language to be usurped, our culture to be usurped, our beliefs usurped, our identities usurped, which is what the educational systems must want.  So it teaches us how to be stupid, so we won't recognize important distinctions between one thing and another.  While the politicians muddy the waters, the educational system denies us the ability to see how, and thus muddies our own brains.  We become too stupid to recognize what is going on, and thus it becomes easier to subjugate us to their whims.

When I read that there was such a thing as "gay conservative", I knew immediately that the author was stupefied by the stupefied culture.  After all, what in the heck is a conservative?  Has that definition now been usurped with another definition that is more pleasing to the usurpers?  Gay conservative is a term that should recognized as an oxymoron- a contradiction in terms.  To be gay is not to be conservative at all, but to be revolutionary, or more accurately, seditious.  To be seditious is to be one who intends to overthrow the existing order.  Contrariwise, a conservative is someone who follows traditions, who support the current order.  That tradition is not one that the "gays" find acceptable, as the tradition is Christianity.  Christianity does not approve of homosexuality.  While we are at it, someone who is "gay" used to mean something different than what it means now.  That bit of language usurpation enabled the political and cultural usurpation that we are witnessing now.

The stupefying will pave the way for the death cult to subjugate the nation and to ultimately destroy it.


GOProud's LaSalvia: 'I'm embarrassed to call myself a Republican right now'

 [PJ Media post referenced]: GOProud's LaSalvia: 'I'm embarrassed to call myself a Republican right now'

Conservatism is being redefined when conservativism doesn't mean what it used to mean. For example, what it used to mean was that you were a Christian if you were a conservative. How can you be a Christian and be for gay marriage? The only way this can happen is if conservatism is being redefined right in front of our very eyes.

Yes, once that happens, Christianity too, will be redefined, or persecuted for their beliefs.

A few distinctions please:  number one, you can be a conservative and not be a Republican, and vice versa.

Number two:  He doesn't have to be embarrassed to be a Republican if he can't be sponsored by a conservative organization.  He is conflating the two terms.  Those distinctions should be kept in mind when reading something like this.

I think I should draw a distinction between myself and libertarian types like Glenn Reynolds.  I could vote for a libertarian only if conservatives and Republicans give up fundamental principles.  However, that doesn't mean I whole heartedly endorse libertarian views.

There's something wrong when the distinctions are being blurred and the definitions are being changed.  It isn't conservative when that happens.

On this point, I support CPAC.  But the inclusion of Muslims, not so much.