Shuttle

US space shuttle Discovery set to launch July 13: NASA
http://www.physorg.com/news4874.html

We vacationed every summer in FL. It was always part of the trip to visit Cape Canaveral (Cape Kennedy). I have fond memories of it. Hot faced from too much sun, beach clothes and sandals, and seeing those incredible rockets towering into the sky as my dad drove us onto the compound. Little did I know of the history, for I was born in 1968 and at the time was a child. My dad was really into it and took all the time to explain the details of the thing. To me, he was everything, and so was my country. He bought me a Space Shuttle model, and I remember clearly the towering building wherein it all was assembled -- labeled with our nation's flag. I remember the juggernaut machine that traveled at one or two miles an hour which moved the rockets into place. I remember the launch pad, the museum displaying the Apollo crafts and astronaut suits. My dad took lots of pictures. He taught me to believe in our country and in its projects. There was so much pride in me then. I was proud of my dad, our country, our achievements.

My dad is gone now, and I'm not sure what he would think about things now. I think he would be sad. We have angered countries, lost landmarks and shuttles have fallen. I would not want him to know these things, and I bear them now in his memory, but maybe, just maybe, we can regain our standing as a nation and in space....

Microcosmic Gods

We really can't hold on. We can't even hold on to one part of it or even one piece. Naked we are born and naked we leave -- Job said. Yet, oh how we try. In high school I read, "Microcosmic Gods." It's an early scifi story about a scientist who creates life in a petrie dish and then continues to test and strengthen that life over time. At each test many of the organisms die, but those who adapted to the test or were strong enough to endure lived on to reproduce a stronger offspring -- evolution microscopically. As time passed and years went by the experiments continued until the organisms became more intelligent than the scientist, yet, they always thought of him as their father, their god. Finally, at the end of the story, they reach out to assist their own god realizing he is inferior to them.

Sometimes it seems we are nothing more than organisms in a petrie dish. He strips of this and that. At the moment it seems unbearable and we kick and scream against him, against reality, in death throws. What follows is a period of coma where we are zombies living in the aftermath of the loss, in shock, in lingering disbelief. Ah, reality "is strict in his arrest" (as Hamlet might say). The ultimate manifestation of reality is death, and we will all most likely attend a service wherein we bury someone and face that reality.

It is reality that we must serve. Attempts to circumvent it end in disaster. Our brains, it seems, are adroit at leading us into un-realities ... things that, at the moment, seem so promising but end in harm. All difficulties, really, come from a struggle against reality. Spending money that we do not have, eating food that we do not need, making love to someone who is not ours -- all of these are harmful to our existence. So we do the un-realities and we reap the results: obesity, debt and broken homes. To "fix" we liposuction, bankruptcy and remarry.... then we suffer illnesses, age quicker and die sooner. The body, it seems, creates sickness that reflect the harm of our attempts against reality.

Reality is the scientist and his tests. We are the organisms. But it is not always ill that he bestows. Sometimes he showers down nutrients that grow without killing. We can spend the money we do have. We can eat the food we need. We can make love to someone who is ours. Perhaps all religion is really a force trying to steer humanity away from the forays into the streams of un-reality and back into the healthy river life, reality. It seems we are meant to live in plurality and to do so we must be in harmony. Anyone in the choir who does not sing the same song, the same key and the same rhythm causes discord and it is unpleasant to the ear. Heh, in some church right now somewhere in the country sits someone listening to bad singing, wincing, thinking, "how on earth did they allow this music?" Yet, that person is fat or bankrupt or making love to someone not theirs and reality chuckles at the irony....

Perhaps, if we keep struggling to live in harmony with reality we will grow to benefit that reality. Perhaps, it is only by, first, giving in that we truly start to live. Once we give in we thrive and once we thrive we contribute. Finally, we are reality, we are life and everything we do prospers. Then, we are organisms who have reached a place beneficial to our creator....

Oh The Irony....

"These were just kittens we were trying to find homes for," he said. "PETA said they would do that, but these cats never made it out of the county."

That's cold man....

I can hear Elmer Fudd right about now, "kiwl duh wabbit, KIWL DUH WABBIT!!!"

The New Dachau

Rush makes the point that while democrats and liberals are very concerned how cold-blooded terrorists fair at Gitmo, they did not have such sentiments towards American citizens during the Clinton administration's "Waco" tragedy. Regardless of how weird, odd and strange they were, they were American citizens. And with only untried charges against them, the government blared music at them all night, shown bright lights on them so they couldn't sleep, and ultimately used M1 Abrams to, arguably, burn the compound to the ground. Again, they were Americans not yet convicted of anything and due all the rights and laws of the founders. Now, democrats in congress are concerned whether or not Arabs held in Cuba have proper air conditioning. These are people who are not Americans and who have sworn to live or die to kill any American -- indeed they will kill any Caucasian or, heck, anyone not like them they can find.... So amazing.

This says nothing of how Randy Weaver was treated at Ruby Ridge by a liberal-controlled government. For deciding to live in the great outdoors and own a few guns and mistrust his government, he was first entrapped and then his son and wife were slaughtered by federal thugs under the directive of Janet Reno/Bill Clinton. His wife, carrying an infant, was shot in the head by a trained sniper (imagine, that man had to see it was a woman with a baby). God forbid we find a family of terrorists plotting the next big mass-killing of American citizens who might decide to defend themselves deep in the woods. Why, our first job would be to make sure they have Qurans and all the religious food they can eat. We'd also provide air conditioning, clean towels and a subscription to Netflicks. Of course, amnesty international would be nearby proclaiming that all of that just-described treatment constituted the new Dachau....

Gitmo

I think it means, "get mo' terrorist!"

Dick Morris has a good review this week on the political issues surrounding the prison-base at Guantanamo Naval Base.

I really enjoyed amnesty international's claims that America is the caretaker of the new gulags -- a nice comparison to the Soviet version. The problem is, out of some 70,000 prisoners processed at Guantanamo Bay only about 100 have died and only 5 warranting any investigation. We have about 24,999,995 to go to if we want to catch up with the soviets.... We've also spent over $2 million trying to get the proper, religious, foods to the prisoners there, and by and large have treated these people with far more humanity than they would ever think of offering an American (the comparison can hardly be made). The gulags were a place where people were interned for being late for work or having a minor accident on the road. Once there, they were literally worked to death and once they died they were left to rot where they fell, trampled under foot until they became, literally, "camp dust." This became an expression of threat in the former U.S.S.R. itself, a sort of, "take him for a ride" amongst gangsters. Humans in these camps were treated worse than animals, and many there longed to be the dogs guarding them who received proper care. This comparison by amnesty international is ludicrous and they should be ashamed. It rivals (I want to say eclipses, but I'm not sure) Michael Moore's confession that there is no terrorist threat against America -- said in the wake of 911.... In the mean time, when these same people have had the opportunity to capture our soldiers, they kill them, mutilate them and hang them from bridges. They go on to kidnap any European, or Caucasian, they can find and treat them the same. They saw (not cut) their heads off, make videos of these grizzly acts, and load them on the Internet flaunting their butchery. What does amnesty international, or Michael Moore, have to say about that?

"Liberty or death," but that never meant laying down arms and allowing the enemy to conquer. Just whose liberty are AI and Michael Moore concerned about? Sure, giving your enemy the liberty to attack you is, indeed, liberty -- in bizarro world! Tyrants, tyranny and terrorists must be met head-on and fought. Neville Chamberlain took the long, passive road of peace with Hitler, and Hitler used every gift, token and boon to advance his empire until it was obvious that all passivity had accomplished for England was to put them horribly behind the 8-ball in an all-out war with a determined and evil enemy.

I'm all for liberty, freedom and rights. God bless all who stand-up for such. But anymore that seems to mean everyone's rights but Americans to defend their country. Rights, it seems, begin outside the borders of the United States, those same borders all other foreigners are trying their best to cross. There seems to be two popular desires with non-Americans when it comes to their thoughts on our country (and, indeed with some Americans too): to come into our country and live off the blessings or destroy it. The rest want either to eliminate laws that protect our tax money and entitlements or to eliminate our ability to defend our statehood.

How can we make sense to such critics? If 911 can't convince you then what on earth can?...

Silencing The PC

LCDs tend to top the list of ergonomic concerns when it comes to computers, but the Wall Street Journal has an article today discussing the "growing movement" of "quiet computing." Apple has made the low volume-noise of the Mac mini an advertising point and Dell apparently has an "acoustic lab" where tests are carried out to ensure their computers live up to their quiet standards. The article goes on to mention such sites as SilentPCReview.com. Silencers are out to put an end to "loud gaming PCs" which produce upwards of 55 decibels. The golden mean of sound should be 20 decibels or below, "a sound all but inaudible, even close by." Some go as far as suspending disk drives in hammocks "made of elastic bands." The issue has grown recently due to media-center PCs which have brought computer noise to the living room.