Go 4 TLI

This was a bit of a hit on my Facebook page. http://deadspin.com/5716038/the-greatest-l...team-letterhead

Dolly Parton always gets a nod from me. Here is one of my favorites. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GHlhEmBrPSY --HH

Happy birthday, Betsy!

Link Needless to say, they have my resume ...

I have not visited the Forum in quite some time, so forgive me if I repeat something that has been already said on another thread. I have been chewing the prospect of civil war in my future -- perhaps as soon as ten years from now -- for about the last year and a half. I say ten years from now because one of my Facebook friends pointed out that the health care bill passed on the anniversary of the Stamp Act. It took ten years from the Stamp Act to Lexington and Concord, during which the colonists' grievances were repeatedly ignored. I mention this simply to say that this time frame I postulate is not completely arbitrary. I see three possible futures: (1) That activism and possibly mass civil disobedience are the crossroads in turning this country away from its slide into statism and back toward capitalism. In this scenario, a Congress hostile to the Obama/Reid/Pelosi agenda is elected and repeals ObamaRomneyCare. (I call it that to remind myself and others that Republicans have traditionally been part of the problem and not the solution.) Even if President Obama vetoes such an appeal, it would be unprecedented! Much already is unprecedented. I remember being discouraged by the fact that work concerns prevented me from attending last year's tax day Tea Party in downtown Washington, DC. Yet, when I got back home to sleepy suburban Fairfax County, I stumbled upon a Tea Party of about 1000 people who braved cold and rain to attend. This, I knew right then and there, is the stuff of revolution. Also, unlike past statist legislation like Social Security and Medicare/Medicaid, this bill is very unpopular. The endgame of this scenario is civil disobedience. When the day comes that Americans are required to pay into this system or pay a fine, I know that I will refuse to pay either. And let the authorities arrest me. I will offer them no resistance. I would hope that at least a million other Americans do the same thing. But, how optimistic am I that things will play out that way? Not very. I am definitely a pessimist on this topic. But, as Betsy put it: (I'm referring to target shooting with my Enfield 1853 replica.)(2) If you can get a hold of a Swiss military surplus rifle like a K31, do so! Yes, it shoots their arcane 7.5mm ammo, but remember this rifle was made by the same people who make those great watches. The wood, having been dragged all over the Swiss Alps, will be pretty dinged up. But I certainly will not complain about the machining of something I bought for $225.

At one of the Hollywood showings of Monna Vanna, I asked Linda not if, but when, she would do this again. For a brief moment I thought I was about to die. Quent and Linda, now that a continent protects me ... more?

Some comments: First, I know the author, Jim Oberg, from when I worked in Houston. As the byline stated, he is trained as an engineer and worked as a rendezvous engineer at Mission Control for 22 years. But he is not one who will shy away from criticizing NASA either. Jim speaks Russian, wrote Red Star in Orbit in 1982 in which he documented the secrets of the Soviet space program years before Moscow acknowledged them, and he also exposed the fact that US money sent to Russia for the space station was being diverted to building mansions for cosmonauts and other commissars. That last expose made 60 Minutes. Needless to say, Jim left NASA under a cloud. But while its management may hate him, the rank and file does not. They, and I, have nothing but the highest regard for his competence, honesty, and integrity. Jim mentioned the fact that the differing orbits' inclinations (angle measured from the equatorial plane) of Hubble (28.5 degrees) versus ISS (51.6 degrees) precludes the option of flying down to ISS. This may sound counter-intuitive, but raising and lowering an orbit's altitude is vastly cheaper on fuel than changing it's inclination in what's called a "plane change maneuver". The maneuver to change from Hubble's inclination to that of ISS would require about 20% of the fuel required to get the Space Shuttle into orbit in the first place. Jim doesn't mention that the reason that these two orbits have such differing inclinations was to accommodate the Russians in the first place: the Baikonour Cosmodrome is at a 51.6 degree latitude, thus favoring that inclination for them for ISS. The space station formerly known as "Freedom" was slated to fly at a 28.5 degree inclination, supporting a due easterly launch from the Cape. The upweight penalty for deviating from an easterly launch azimuth is not trivial. At the Cape it's a ton to low earth orbit per degree off if memory serves. Matters only get worse at higher latitudes.

Thank you, everybody, for the birthday wishes.

Crime and Punishment was pretty dreadful. I only slogged through it because it was a reading assignment in high school English. Same with that Marxist drivel by Richard Wright, Native Son.

I got this from a gun forum. A simple prayer. I'm not sure it qualifies as humor. More like irony. I don't pray, but I agree with the sentiment 100%.

That may not be as crazy as it may sound. But only in an underhanded way. It seems that the Messiah is manipulating the census.

Ah, the infamous "I have a Scream" speech. If Obama really want to be funny, he could nominate Ron Paul to the post ...

Oh, BTW, was that a picture of Ayn Rand on Jayne's t-shirt near the end, when he is standing on top of Serenity as the crew is repairing it?

I was hooked on Firefly from the moment I saw the trailer. That was with special friends, old and new, in a beach house we rented on Cape Hatteras over Thanksgiving weekend. They are all rabid Joss Whedon fans, and they were more than happy to convert me. We saw the first six or so episodes in order, thus combining Thanksgiving with a Firefly party. I then saw the rest, in order, with a borrowed DVD. I have seen many of the episodes many times. This is the best season of TV I have ever seen. I just saw Serenity on Monday night, at a party with some of the same friends from the Outer Banks. Again, fantastic!