Books, movies, politics, and whatever I want

Archive for December, 2013

Why is the media suppressing facts about the latest school shooting?

Monday, December 30th, 2013

Here is what you probably know, kid brings a shotgun to school (a “gun free zone”) and shoots another student before killing himself.  The student he shot later died from her wounds inflicted by the kid who ignored the numerous victim disarmament laws in place.

Here is something you probably haven’t heard, because it doesn’t fit the media narrative.  One of the law flaunting murder’s fellow students described him as “a very opinionated Socialist.”  He also was, like our Dear Leader, a Keynesian.

He was also a strong proponent of so-called “gun control” laws.  Yet, he decided to advance his political views through the barrel of a gun.  Guess that makes him a good progressive.

Which is the message the “traditional” main stream media doesn’t want getting out.

Now imagine how they would have handled this story if this murderer had political leans anywhere to the right of center.

 

Rocket City Rednecks

Sunday, December 29th, 2013

I discovered this show by reading one of Travis Talyor’s non-fiction books, A New American Space Plan.   While this post is about the TV show, pick up this book as well.  It’s a well laid out case of why American should be serious about getting into space again and how to do it.

Also take the time to watch the show, Rocket City Rednecks, either by streaming or on optical disk.   This show is about five self-identified Rednecks from Huntsville, AL, two of which are actual rocket scientists from NASA who actually build working gear.  Really cool gear that works.  OK, it works most of the time, but even when they fail, they learn from their mistakes so then can do it better the next time.  That is really one of the important lessons.  It’s OK to fail, as long as you learn from it.   Most of the gear is built in Travis’ father’s garage.   Charles Travis is a retired NASA machinist who worked on the Apollo program, and one of the five Rednecks who star in the show.

I’ve watched about a third of the first season so far, and they have built some really nifty gear so far.  These include a still in order to build a moonshine fueled rocket, the actual rocket, a balloon based observation platform, a working submarine, a radio telescope array using 18″ satellite dishes, under vehicle armor capable of withstanding an IED blast (they drove the pickup truck away afterwards), and a working “Iron Man” suit, that had armor capable of  stopping 9mm handgun rounds, lifting over 100 pounds with a single arm and fired rockets!

Just to add to the overall coolness of this, most of their projects are done over a single weekend with a budget of about $1000.  Keep in mind that three of these Rednecks are current or former NASA employees.  The two active ones have eight advanced degrees in science between them (Travis has five post-graduate degrees.  For those of you who know me, yes, that is one more than Amy currently has).  Rog (Rednect #4) doesn’t have any advanced degrees, but he does have a genius level IQ, and Michael (Travis’ nephew) is mechanically inclined and studying to be a machinist.   Still, if you know basic work working, basic welding, how to solder two wires together, and some basic programming, you and your friends could try some of this stuff.

Which is kinda the whole idea of the show.  To get kids off the XBox and out there building go carts, rockets, radio sets and other cool gear.

This is the kind of show my dad would have loved.  He was 22 year veteran of the Army Corps of Engineers, and would have been out teaching kids how to to build the things the Rednecks are building.

Originally published at Urbin Technology

Obamacare is even more of a Charlie Fox than we thought

Thursday, December 26th, 2013

It was clear that our Dear Leader‘s signature program was a Charlie Fox of epic proportions from the start, but Team Obama seems Hell Bent to take incompetence to even higher levels than they have in the past.

Case in point, they can’t even enroll Barry Soweto or as he’s known these days, Barack Hussein Obama, into their system.

If they were just corrupt, they could have faked it, but these idiots are corrupt and incompetent!   To be fair, the system is working as well as one would expect with a corrupt community organizer with communist leanings, who never worked a real job in his entire life, running the system.

Update: Nobody’s This Stupid and Incompetent

A twofer for Barry

Thursday, December 19th, 2013

Our Dear Leader has racked up two new awards.

First, the left leaning Politico picked his signature line, “If like your health insurance, you can keep it,” as the 2013 Lie of the Year.

Then, the Washington Post selected Barry’s same signature line as the “Biggest Pinocchio” of the Year.

It is quite telling that the President who promised the “most transparent administration ever”, has his signature line about his signature policy, selected by two separate news organizations as the biggest lie of 2013.  To be fair, the “most transparent administration ever” promise was a huge lie also.

Update: Obama’s Epic Fib About the NSA

UpdateInto Year 6, Obama admits he’s clueless

Update: Two sources point out that Politico rated their “Lie of the Year” as true before the 2012 election.

A damn good question

Saturday, December 14th, 2013

“There is a sense of unraveling that transcends the normal ideological disagreements that have roiled this nation to varying degrees throughout our history. Both sides of the ideological divide have endured presidents with whom they disagree, sometimes vehemently. Yet I’m getting the sense that millions of Americans of every stripe are now aware that we are in uncharted waters. We are being led by a man who is at once so very full of himself, even as virtually everything that goes wrong is either something he is unaware of, or someone else’s fault. It is remarkable that in the entire five years after this president promised to fundamentally transform the United States of America, not a single reporter has asked the ultimate question: Transform it into what, Mr. President? We have three more years to learn the answer. For millions of Americans, it doesn’t get any creepier than that.”

— Columnist Arnold Ahlert

Quote of the Day

Thursday, December 12th, 2013

Fascism has become a term of general derision and rebuke. It is tossed casually in the direction of anything a critic happens to dislike.

But fascism is a real political and economic concept, not a stick with which to beat opponents arbitrarily. The abuse of this important word undermines its true value as a term referring to a very real phenomenon, and one whose spirit lives on even now.

Fascism is a specific ideology based on the idea that the state is the ideal organization for realizing a society’s and an individual’s potential economically, socially, and even spiritually.

The state, for the fascist, is the instrument by which the people’s common destiny is realized, and in which the potential for greatness is to be found. Individual rights, and the individual himself, are strictly subordinate to the state’s great and glorious goals for the nation. In foreign affairs, the fascist attitude is reflected in a belligerent chauvinism, a contempt for other peoples, and a society-wide reverence for soldiers and the martial virtues.

— Lew Rockwell,Fascism versus Capitalism

Quote of the Day

Tuesday, December 10th, 2013

“That eugenics was part of the progressive agenda is one of the most heavily-airbrushed features of history.”

Arnold Kling

Quote of the Day

Tuesday, December 3rd, 2013

Replace “racism” with “communism” and I defy you to tell the difference between MSNBC and a 1958 John Birch Society newsletter.

David Burge