Two articles I discovered today that make for interesting reading.

The first one was about the Supreme Court will strike down U.S. cities outright bans on handguns, and thus establish a nationwide ownership right.  This has been a long time coming and I hope that it goes through.

On the other side of the coin, Maximum Leader, Dear Leader Comrade Barrack H. Obama, has decided to use the power of his office to create more national parks, etc – while at the same time, taking MORE land out of economic development, and/or energy production.

Such actions will increase the recession by prolonging the time and increase the number of unemployed workers in our nation.  Senator DeMint wrote the article that appears in the Washington Times.

Use the links below to read both articles please.

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Ref. March 2, 2010. “DEMINT:  WHite House land grab” by Sen. Jim DeMint. (http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/mar/02/white-house-land-grab/).

Yahoo News, March 2, 2010. “Justices may extend gun owner rights nationwide.” by Mark Sherman. (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100303/ap_on_go_su_co/us_supreme_court_guns_11).

Burt Rutan is an amazing man.  A designer of avaition and now branching out into space in the last ten years.  I personally think that in another fifty years, when people talk about the great aviation pioneers in human history – Burt Rutan is going to be in the top 25.

Recently, he gave a interview to the Wall Street Journal which “cherry-pick” his comments to A Mr. Thomas M. Culligan, a assistant to Congressman Frank R. Wolf of VA.

The actual posting was on comspacewatch.com.  Mr. Rutan’s comments as presented are in that article is printed below.  What is important here is that those of us who are believers is manned spaceflight… especially by the United States of America, and represented by NASA – have been shafted by our very own government. Anybody who has followed my blog knows I am a space cadet.  So I have to be counted among that number of “believers.” The most telling comment was his final paragraph in that note to the news media…

Quote: “Some have guessed that my recent comments are based on my overall displeasure with the Obama Administration. they are not; however it does seem that the best technical minds in U.S. industry are still striving to find HOW America can continue to be “exceptional”, while the Administration does not want America to BE “exceptional”. end quote by Burt Rutan.”

Commercial space can handle the – well, day to day chores of resupply the international space station.  And since we have no Star Trek like Starfleet for exploration duties, that task falls to NASA.  And NASA should be the ones testing new hardware, travelling to the moon and beyond.  In their tracks, the commercial operators can follow behind building the moonbases and other things needed to make the human race space farers and colonizers.

Since Mr. Rutan doesn’t want anything of hsi statement taken out of context, it is posted below.  The original link is in the Ref. section.

Burt Rutan has released a statement saying the Wall Street Journal “chose to cherry-pick and misquote my comments to Cong. Wolf.”

“To my friends in the Press…

Since the WSJ chose to cherry-pick and miss-quote my comments to Cong Wolf and since the blogs have taken that to further mischaracterized my comments, I am forwarding the Wolf memo in its entirety, in the hopes that some of this gets corrected. Some additional clarification of my thoughts follow: My basic concern is that the real value of NASA’s contributions that America realized in the 60s and early 70s is now being completely discarded. How can we rationalize a surrender of our preeminence in human spaceflight? In my mind, the important NASA accomplishments are twofold: 1) The technical breakthroughs achieved by basic research (not by Development programs like Constellation) and 2) The Forefront Manned Exploration that provided the inspiration for our youth to plan careers in engineering/science and that established the U.S. as the world leader in technology.

In short, it is a good idea indeed for the commercial community to compete to re-supply the ISS and to bring about space access for the public to enjoy. I applaud the efforts of SpaceX, Virgin and Orbital in that regard and feel these activities should have been done at least two decades ago. However, I do not see the commercial companies taking Americans to Mars or to the moons of Saturn within my lifetime and I doubt if they will take the true Research risks (technical and financial) to fly new concepts that have low confidence of return on investment. Even NASA, regarded as our prime Research agency has not recently shown a willingness to fly true Research concepts.

For years I have stated that a NASA return-to-moon effort must include true Research content, i.e. testing new concepts needed to enable forefront Exploration beyond the moon. The current Ares/Orion does not do that. While I have been critical of Constellation for that reason, I do not think that NASA should ‘give up’ on manned spaceflight, just that they should be doing it while meeting the 1) or 2) criteria above.

Some have guessed that my recent comments are based on my overall displeasure with the Obama Administration. they are not; however it does seem that the best technical minds in U.S. industry are still striving to find HOW America can continue to be “exceptional”, while the Administration does not want America to BE “exceptional”.

Burt Rutan

Thomas M. Culligan

Congressional Appropriations Legislative Assistant

The Hon. Frank R. Wolf (VA-10)

Tom,

I occasionally banter with my friend, Mike Griffin on subjects that include golf, the AGW scare and NASA policy. After sending him my latest tirade, he shared with me his recent letter to you regarding taxpayer-funded space research. I promised him that I would send you my thoughts on the debate, which follow:

From my past comments on NASA’s post-mid-70s manned space efficiencies/accomplishments, an observer might think that I would applaud a decision to turn this important responsibility over to commercial developers. However, he would be wrong.

No question, it would be good to see commercial companies quickly succeed at orbital access and to take that capability beyond low earth orbit. However, I am fearful that the commercial guys will fail; i.e. they will do little more in my remaining lifetime than NASA accomplished in 3.5 years with Gemini in the mid 1960s. That would be a very big mistake for America to make, as we move into an era of real competition in space exploration as well as risk the loss of our leadership in nearly every other technical discipline.

Mike Griffin’s excellent statement says it best; “I too want, in the strongest possible terms, to have government policies which serve to stimulate private development of space. But at the same time, I too am reluctant — with an analogy to instrument flying — to give up an airport where I know I can get in on the approach, for one where I might”.

What I would like to see is a decade or two of overlap – an initial push in the commercial arena of manned spaceflight (Development programs, not Research programs), while NASA flies risky new ideas (read, true Research programs, giving at least a chance of discovering an important new Breakthrough), and at the same time pushes the forefront of Exploration beyond the earth’s moon.

Imagine how much better America could motivate our youth if we were spending the billions of Stimulus Package money on making real progress in our efforts to someday colonize off the planet.

Two years after Neil and Buzz landed on the moon, America led the world in awarding PhDs in science/engineering/math. Today we are not even on the first or second page and most of our University’s technical graduates take their skills back to their own countries to compete with us. The motivation of our youth is the most important thing we do for our nation’s long-term security and prosperity. NASA’s role in that can be as critical as it was in the 60s if the taxpayers fund true Research and Exploration.

The attachment is a photo I took at the Shuttle STS-130 launch – Caption: “Reaction when told about the President’s NASA directive to abandon manned spaceflight”.

As always, I am ok with the distribution of my thoughts without limitation.

While I usually offer candid remarks at the drop of the hat, I am not interested in Congressional testimony, since under duress I occasionally have been known to blurt out the truth. I have no interest in being in the same room with John Holdren….. Taking a line from a very old play: “I must turn away, least I soil my hands with the blood of a fool”

Burt Rutan

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Ref. February 26, 2010.  ”Burt Rutan Issues Clarification on Wall Street Journal Remarks” (http://www.comspacewatch.com/news/viewpr.rss.html?pid=30293)

This is Deja vu all over again!

Argentina’s glamorous leader Cristina Fernández de Kirchner (aka “Botox” Evita) is making noise about the Falklands islands.

Quote:  Away to the south, a giant British oil rig has arrived off the Falkland Islands, the isolated South Atlantic archipelago which Mrs Kirchner has described, in a characteristically fiery speech, as “an illegal colonial enclave”. No one can yet say how much oil lies below the wild waters around the islands, but it is likely that considerable riches are at stake – not the least of which, for the 57-year-old Mrs Kirchner, is the chance of reviving her battered political standing.

Last week, as relations between Britain and Argentina sank back towards the deep-frozen levels of 25 years ago, Mrs Kirchner imposed what amounted to an economic blockade. According to a new government decree, any ship passing through waters claimed by Argentina must have a special permit. To underline how seriously the issue is being taken, the foreign ministry impounded a small Danish freighter accused of carrying oil pipeline equipment. End Quote.

An illegal colonial enclave?!  Twenty plus years after a short, navy loving, gut busting war – the Falklands remain a part of the British Empire. And the issue appeared to me to be totally settled back then.

It seems that in the new 1994 Argentinian constitution – the Argentine peoples still desire to gain control of those islands.  And I guess they don’t care how many generations it will take to realize that dream. Better make that a nightmare.

This is (in this blogger’s mind) in part due to the influence of Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez who is trying to create some sort of South American Socialist empire.

So they found oil in the Falklands… good show Britian!

So… are we going to have a Second Falklands War?  Well, if there is such a thing, I am not to sure about Prime Minister Gordon Brown.  From what I have heard about him since the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, I don’t seem him matching the caliber of wits that the Iron Lady herself, Lady Margret Thatcher had in the First Falklands War.  Can there be another task force like in 1982?  Captain Michael Capp doesn’t seem to think so.  check out his article in the last link below.

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Ref.  Newsweek cover (source from Wikipedia) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:The_empire_strikes_back_newsweek.jpg).

Telegraph.co.uk, February 20,2010. “The Botox Evita seeks a new lift” by William Langley(http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/7280424/The-Botox-Evita-seeks-a-new-lift.html).

Daily Mail.co.uk, February 19, 2010. by  Capt  Michael Clapp   (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-1252149/Its-bitter-truth-We-send-task-force-Falklands-today.html)

At least not for what some Republicans are hoping for a ground swell to cast them back into office.  The problem with that is that they (The Republicans) will miss read their ‘victory’ and go back to doing the stupid things that got them kicked out in the first place!

Wonderful article by Howard Rich (url is below, just copy and paste).  Please read it.  Towards the end of that article Mr. Rich wrote was a wonderful question and answer.

Quote:  Was Bush a better steward of your tax dollars than Obama?

Yes – but that’s the problem.  Getting mugged worse the second time around doesn’t absolve the first thief of his culpability.

The simple, unavoidable truth is that Bush and his GOP allies were fiscal liberals, and no amount of “Republican revisionism” can erase that fact.  End Quote.

I think that those people who support the efforts of the group of Americans known as the Tea Party (or if your a Democrat, the insulting homosexual term Tea-Bagger), do not like where BOTH parties have taken this country too.  In my view, it will take the Tea Party to get the Republicans into office in 2010 so there can be NO super majority in the Senate.  Then let the GOP get a president elected in 2012.

I say this only to stop the slide of our country into socialism.  For our society, our economy, the current (Socialist)  Democrats must be removed from office so that they can do no more harm to this country – the one that they took a oath to preserve and protect when they entered office.

But past that point, the Tea Party will have to go it on its own as a third party and get rid of one (hell, get rid of both) current political parties.  It is sad – but clear to me that the Baby Boomer generation has failed this country as far as the political leadership it has offered up.  Sad to say, sadder for me since I am a Tail-End Charlie of that generation.  But in point of fact, I always like to point out that since I was born after Sputnik, so I was a member of the first generation of the Space Age!  And for those of you who do not know what Tail-End Charlie means, just google it.  (OK, it means either the last aircraft in formation or the tail gunner on a bomber.  Usually a British slang term).

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Ref. Townhall.com. February 19, 2010. “Missing Bush?” Why Republican Revisionism Won’t Sell by Howard Rich. (http://townhall.com/columnists/HowardRich/2010/02/19/%E2%80%9Cmissing_bush%E2%80%9D_why_republican_revisionism_won%E2%80%99t_sell?page=full&comments=true).

AP image with article.

Today, a 53-year old man finally reached his limits.  Taking his Piper Cherokee airplane, he dived into the seven-story Austin, Texas, office building of the Internal Revenue Service to deliver his own personal message.

Joseph Stack took off in a Piper Cherokee from Georgetown Municipal Airport in Texas at 9:40 a.m.; Stack was an experienced pilot who owned his own airplane.  He crashed into the IRS building 20 minutes later.

Department of Homeland Security dispatched two F-16Ds from Ellington Field near Houston, Texas, to conduct a patrol over Austin.  DHS officials told reporters that they feel that this was not a act of terrorism.

It appears that Mr. Stack also set fire to his home before his final flight.

IRS Agent William Winnie said he was on the third floor of the building when he saw a light-colored, single engine plane coming toward the building. “It looked like it was coming right in my window,” Winnie said.

I now quote the article:  In what appears to have been his suicide note, Stack is believed to have written:

“If you’re reading this, you’re no doubt asking yourself, “Why did this have to happen?’ The simple truth is that it is complicated and has been coming for a long time…

“Violence not only is the answer, it is the only answer…

“I saw it written once that the definition of insanity is repeating the same process over and over and expecting the outcome to suddenly be different. I am finally ready to stop this insanity. Well, Mr. Big Brother IRS man, let’s try something different; take my pound of flesh and sleep well,” the note, dated Thursday, reads.

end quote.

I then clicked on the link to read Mr. Stack’s “Suicide” note.  That is the second link shown below in the reference section.  I for one read it and could not help but think – when will I be pushed to my own breaking point?

I think every man and woman keeps running a mantra in the back of their minds when times are tough – is now the time that I snap?

For that purpose only, I have included the link to that suicide note and urge readers to read it themselves.  And then ask themselves, “Where is my breaking point?”

UPDATE:  February 20, 2010:  Just read a interesting article on Global Guerrillas blog and I thought I would share the link for it here (http://globalguerrillas.typepad.com/globalguerrillas/2010/02/journal-rage-against-the-machine.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+typepad/rzYD+(Global+Guerrillas)).  Mr. Robb’s view is that Joseph Stack  was  ”just a canary in the coal mine – people on the margins, mentally and situationally, that fatally explode at the early onset of severe societal and economic pressure.”

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Ref.

Foxnews.com, Feb. 18, 2010.  ”Pilot Crashes Into Texas Building n Apparent Anti-IRS Suicide.” (http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,586581,00.html)

Foxnews.com, Feb. 18, 2010.  ”RAW DATA:  Joseph Stack Suicide Manifesto” (http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,586627,00.html).

Source: AP Photo/Austin American-Statesman, Jay Janner.

image of Piper Cherokee from FreeFoto.com.

Global Guerrillas blog by John Robb (http://www.typepad.com/services/trackback/6a00d83451576d69e201310f2071ba970c)

Professor Phil Jones it seems is being passed off as some sort of absentminded professor type.  Quoting the article: “The academic at the centre of the ‘Cimategate’ affair, whose raw data is crucial to the theory of climate change, has admitted that he has trouble ‘keeping track’ of the information.”

And this as well, ” Professor Jones told the BBC yesterday there was truth in the observations of colleagues that he lacked organisational skills, that his office was swamped with piles of paper and that his record keeping is ‘not as good as it should be’.

Professor Jones has stepped down as director of the University of East Anglia’s Climate Research Unit.

For more details, please read the article. (link below).

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Ref:  The Daily Mail. February 14, 2010. By Jonathan Petre (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1250872/Climategate-U-turn-Astonishment-scientist-centre-global-warming-email-row-admits-data-organised.html)

Those of you who are Star Trek fans should know the name of the artist that was with the Next Generation era tv programs – Michael Okuda.  Remember those fantastic display panels?  They were given the name “Okudagrams” in honor of him.

Anyway, he has his own website and today, I stopped in and found this:  Support Constellation.

The current PROPOSED Federal budget for 2011 will basically drop the return to the moon program from NASA’s budget.  Instead, while NASA will get additional funding, none of it will go to the Constellation program.

Longtime readers of either of my blogs such as this one or my other one (http://aerospacedreams.blogspot.com/) know that I am not too happy with the Apollo on steroids program.  While in principle, I agree with President Obama that private industry should step up and build vehciles that can take our astronauts up to the international space station (such as SpaceX’s proposed Dragon capasule); to simply drop what has been done for Constellation is bad news.

I support the Jupiter Booster plan that NASA engineers have proposed using as much common hardware from the shuttle program as possible for our boosters.  I suppot ‘man rating’ the modern Delta and Atlas boosters that we currently are using now.

And when in the future, Virgin Galactic – when they get tired of just doing sub-orbital flights and want to go all the way up into orbit.

Anyway, please visit the Okuda’s website for supporting the Constellation Program.  Also, this is the previous article that I posted on this subject matter here on The Shanks Dimension (http://www.theshanksdimension.com/2010/01/back-stabber-in-chief-no-more-moon-program/).

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Ref.  (www.supportconstellation.com)

This is what I responded too over a post done on Russian Navy Blog in regards to the following story: “Fascism in America: Heil Sarah! Teabaggers and the threat to Democracy.” Including some misspelled words – sorry about that.

Comment start:

Fine – So you hate the American people who disagree with your political point of view.

You insult them with the term “teabagger” once you start into Umberto Eco list instead of using the term “Tea Party.”

Item number 3 (Cult of action for action’s sake… distrust of the intellectual world).  Let me say here that the intellectual world invites such critisms.

Yes, Cheney said Obama dithered over Afghanistan. Hummm, climate scientist “cooked” the books to try and prove that global warming is a fact.  In fact, I think is more than likely we are about to go into another mini iceage.  By the way, talk about the coming ice age began in the 1970s if I remember correctly.  Nuclear Winter in the 1980s, etc. then in the 1990s, suddenly its “global warming?” The earth has been here for how long before us puny humans arrived on the scene?

I have noticed that item number 4 Disagreement is Treason for the past 20 years hold true no matter who is in the white house.  Right now, Obama is in there.  I disagree with the majority of his policies.  Therefore, I must be a traitor go by this logic.

Quote “The teabaggers are part the neocon history rewrite project that turns the Founding Fathers into religious zealouts united by spiritual beliefs rather than a bunch of squabbling Diest free thinkers. Rather than seeing the American Revolutions as a modernist rebellion against monarchy and colonialist economics, the teabaggers believe the founding fathers marched in lockstep towards a medieval theocracy.”  Despite what you may think, I thnk our fore fathers were more religious with the desire to protect the rights of the citizen from religious oppression.  Too often I hear the left talk about seperation of church and state – well, that has become a religion in its own right it seems.  I remember in my grade school or junior high classes that when this subject came up – it was about preventing the American government from establishing a “official” Church of America (i.e Church of England).  But since the 1970s every effort hase been made to drive a wedge between government and (any) religious endeavor. No, I don’t see our fore fathers as religious zealouts or Diest thinkers.  They did have a good grasp of what I will choose to call here as common sense.

Item number 6 (Appeal to a frustrated middle class).  Well, I see that BOTH political parties play for the middle class and nothing really ever happens. The middle class remains screwed! And that leads into item 7 (Obsession with a plot).  Birthers, ACORN haters, Census phobics, etc. So, you have a thing against the movie Red Dawn?  I am affraid of Interpol having access to the USA without any American oversight to their activites within our own borders.

Item number 9 (life is permannent warfare, etc).  Well, Ike warned us about the military idustrial complex.  EVERY administration since 1960 has found itself some chicks**t confict to get this country involved in.  Part of that was due to the cold war and the global chess match we and the USSR were playing.  Supposely in the 1990s, that would have come to an end.  Nope.

Its not until item nubmer 9 that you finally start using the term Tea party instead of tea bagger again.  But I take you at your word about wanting to humilate some of your fellow citizens who disagree with you.  Quote “We saw the contempt at the town halls where the teabaggers shouted down cancer survivors (and the occasional Jew). But also we saw Tancredo tell the teabaggers that they are the real citizens, and that other people have no idea what this country is about.” If you say so.  I have never heard of this happening.  I will not argue with you over it.  OF the people that I have seen in the movment, this does not compute.

Item number 11 (Cult of Heroic Death). So, only those crazies who are a part of this movment would automatically be insane enough to engage in suicide bombings?  HELLO!  We’re Americans damn it!  If it coems time to spill blood in the streets, it will not be that tactic.  Ask yourself how YOU would go about another armed revolution in the United States.  The people who live and work here.  Americans as a whole do not have that suicide culture.

Item 13 (Ur-Fascism must be against “rotten” parliamentary government).  I’m amazed that the dems did not steamroll Obama care through both houses of Congress and have President Obama sign it already.  Same with Cap and Trade. The socialists have it made to remake America into a socialist country – so what stopped them.  It sure as hell wasn’t the Republican Party!  It was those crackpots in the Tea Party (sorry, you perfer the term teabagger).

You come down on folks like Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin.  Your pretty much calling them Nazi Brown shirts (with or without the nazi part). Glenn Beck as John the Baptist.  Come on, are you going off the deep end here?  The only Messiah in these parts was the one the Main Stream Media put into office with slanted reporting in 2008 – that being President B.H. Obama.

And lets go back to item 14 for a moment (Ur-Fascism speaks Newspeak).  BHO compaign team focus group the hell out of what words would appear the most to the American people.  Hope and Change were the result.  That was what got him into office.

But the MSM is losing control.  They cannot keep putting lipstick on that Hope and Change pig forever. The LONGER the current crop of dems remain in Washington DC, the worse it will get.

But thankyou for making this posting.  I would recommend that you add more labels to this particular post than what you already have.  As in Tea Party, Socialism, Fascism, etc.  Teabagger by itself will not do this any justice.

Comment end:

As an aside, over on The Jawa Report, (http://mypetjawa.mu.nu/archives/200870.php).  THIS IS THE BEST EXAMPLE OF SOCIALISM EVER!  You need to go over there to check it out for yourself.

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Ref. Russian Navy Blog, February 6, 2010. Fascism in America: Heil Sarah! Teabaggers and the threat to Democracy.  (http://redbannernorthernfleet.blogspot.com/2010/02/fascism-in-america-heil-sarah.html).

Picture of Sarah Palin found at founding bloggers.com from recent Tea Party Convention.