Twenty-nine years ago today, January 28, 1986, the NASA Space Shuttle orbiter Challenger exploded and broke apart 73 seconds into its flight, leading to the deaths of its seven crew members including the first teacher in space, Christa McAuliffe.
Space Shuttle flights began to seem routine by 1986, but the addition of a teacher heightened interest in this launch. Schools had assemblies, offices turned on their TVs etc., all to celebrate the launch. The celebration lasted only a minute and 13 seconds.
#1
I was in German class at the time they announced it over the loudspeakers. I lived in a town where alot of the Astronauts lived, several were in my classes. Back then we had a real principle too, when the vultures from the media came on campus to try and pester the astronauts kids (Who gave them the finger and told them to F*** OFF!), the principle threw them off campus and told them if they returned, they'd be arrested.
Liz Peek at the Fiscal Times gets at why we aren't succeeding in our fight against ISIS and Islamicism. A taste:
Today, we have a president, and a younger generation, that views the U.S. through a different prism – one clouded by Vietnam, racial discord, and now the war with Iraq. It is “cool” to distrust and disdain the U.S., and the media feeds the skepticism. In covering the U.S. engagement in Afghanistan, for instance, news organizations have seldom reported on the military’s successes in building schools and providing basic services in that country; they prefer to zero in on instances of civilian casualties and misdeeds by our soldiers. The coverage leads us to doubt our military, and our morals.
That uncertainty is widespread and perpetrated by our schools. A typical high school U.S. history course focuses on our mistreatment of Native Americans, the scourge of slavery, and the Vietnam War. The role played by the U.S. in World War II merits at best a footnote. Students emerging from our colleges are well versed in issues of gender and race but have no idea why the shortcomings of socialism crushed the Soviet Union.
How can we persuade people everywhere that our system of government is the best in the world when we don’t even try to convince our own schoolchildren? How can we celebrate our commitment to freedom and tolerance when our intelligencia exploits our racial divisions? In India this week, President Obama criticized that country’s human rights shortcomings, but to soften his words admitted, "There were moments in my life where I've been treated differently because of the color of my skin." Yes, Mr. President, you’ve had a hard life.
She says what we've been saying and she says it well. Highly recommended for the polish and ability to assimilate her writing into our thoughts.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/29/2015 00:00 ||
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#1
And Marx is so early industrial 19th Century. When their fantasy doesn't evolve as they thought it would, they have to create new fantasies to replace it. Unfortunately, they drag the rest of us along into the abyss.
#2
"a younger generation, that views the U.S. through a different prism – one clouded by Vietnam, racial discord, and now the war with Iraq"
As taught in Public Schools and Universities by design.
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
01/29/2015 10:49 Comments ||
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#3
The Left has *never* liked America. No recognition of their inherent aristocracy. Few opportunities for graft. An indefensible predilection with letting people go about their own business. Must be maddening to them--a perfect Hell.
#6
The conservatives have never truly vilified Marx the way they should have. We should be mocking everyone that says anything Marxists as a bloody-handed barely mature dolt.
Just as supporters of multi-culturalism should be asked constantly if killing of gays in the Muslim world, is no better or worse than the lack of gay marriage in the US. Or if owning mostly African slaves in the Arab world is no better or worse than issues involving the black community in the US.
Decades of not pushing back has left the pro-Marx and pro-Multiculturalism as the default.
#7
I hate the word elite when it comes to criminals and crooks. I suggest calling the highest level of criminals and crooks, the 10 most wanted thugs.
In the mean time, one of the top 10 thugs is now having the Bundy Ranch sons summoned to Las Vegas on trumoed up charges, only to arrest them when they arrive on other trumped up charges.
[DAWN] MEETINGS, meetings, meetings -- when the PML-N assumed office for a third time at the national level in June 2013, there was a widespread belief (or maybe just an impression) that the party would be more organised, more efficient and better in matters of governance than several, if not most, other governments in the chequered political history of this country.
Fast forward 19 months and much of that hope has dissipated, though now it seems that even a modicum of sensible, smart action by the government is elusive.
Also read: PM retreats to Murree for key meetings
The PML-N appears to have settled into the following pattern: in Lahore, Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif ...Pak dynastic politician, brother of PM Nawaz Sharif, chief minister of Punjab... takes notice of crises, requests a report -- and then nothing is heard of follow-up actions; in Islamabad, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif ... served two non-consecutive terms as prime minister, heads the Pakistain Moslem League (Nawaz). Noted for his spectacular corruption, the 1998 Pak nuclear test, border war with India, and for being tossed by General Musharraf... convenes emergency meetings to respond to crises -- and invariably the blame falls on bureaucrats instead of the close circle of politicians on whom the prime minister exclusively relies.
Outside those bubbles, the country appears to do little more than lurch from one crisis to the next.
After the Beautiful Downtown Peshawar ...capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (formerly known as the North-West Frontier Province), administrative and economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Peshawar is situated near the eastern end of the Khyber Pass, convenient to the Pak-Afghan border. Peshawar has evolved into one of Pakistan's most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities, which means lots of gunfire. school massacre, the country was well and truly at a crossroads. Not only was the public behind a serious and sustained effort to fight militancy, the state itself had been seemingly shocked into action.
As the government of the day, primary responsibility for organising and building the civilian capacity of the state to take the fight to the forces of Evil in the urban and rural areas of Pakistain fell on the PML-N.
However, Caliphornia hasn't yet slid into the ocean, no matter how hard it's tried... after floating a 20-point National Action Plan, shepherding through parliament the army-demanded 21st Amendment and taking a few, scattered steps against krazed killer and krazed killer elements, the PML-N seems to have run out of steam -- and ideas and the will too.
Where is this country's Peshawar moment now? Energy -- gas, electricity, fuel oil, petroleum, etc -- is an important element of a government's socioeconomic policy, but the basic, fundamental crisis in this country was, and remains, the fight against militancy.
Where is the government's urgency on that issue, when Prime Minister Sharif can convene a meeting to discuss the electricity and fuel crises involving the interior minister but not a word on the militancy and extremism issue?
In the wake of the horror in Peshawar, the government appeared to belatedly understand that terrorism is a long-term threat that can neither be defeated through military operations nor be rolled back without dismantling the enabling environment that the krazed killer mosque-madressah-social welfare network has created.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/29/2015 00:00 ||
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[DAWN] Pakistain was declared the third cheapest country to live in according to the cost of living index in a report published by Numbeo.com. Kudos. It is incidentally also the cheapest to die in.
Consider this: The cost of a life in Pakistain's former capital, the largest city of the country and the economic hub of the state, Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... , is a meagre two thousand rupees.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
01/29/2015 00:00 ||
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Comes from my son (age 9). "We argued with them about Bibi during the break*. There was 3 of them and like 13 of us---but they were screaming so loud, we couldn't say a word!"
*Political arguments are Israeli national sport---and we start young.
That's because g(ro)mgoru is relating something his son actually said, Dale, not giving an exerpt from an article or blog post. This post here at Rantburg is the only place where it exists.
#4
Old lawyer joke. If the law is on your side, argue the law. If the facts are on your side, argue the facts. If you have neither the law nor the facts, pound your fist on the table.
In a remarkable coincidence, you do seem to see the Left do a lot of table pounding.
"The Obama administration's latest approach to the Middle East may be its most dangerous yet, choosing terror-sponsor Iran over longtime Arab allies. And that's on top of the president's seeming desperation to strike a nuclear deal at any cost. What is going on?" Hint:
#3
What we have here is a, semi-illiterate, idiot who thinks he's a genius. Now what geniuses do---they take something "everybody knows" and turn it upside down. The problem is, and what makes them geniuses, they can spot mistakes in common belief and replace it with something better. Of course, when first proposed, all the right thinking people think the genius' idea is crazy.
Idiots with delusions of grandeur, however do not grasp the fact that, while all genius ideas were considered crazy initially, the converse is not true. At least, being egomaniacs, they don't believe it with respect to their own ideas.
You can see it in academia where "researchers" spend decades trying to overturn some accepted theory---staunchly ignoring inconsistencies in their own.
Now lets apply the above considerations to US ME policy. Which, traditionally, had two main aspects.
(a) Stick with Saudi & Gulf Emirates because we need their oil (and also, they're generous to their friends) against Iran.
(b) Support Israel (even though we [the elites] don't like them) because.
(1) For some strange reason the hoi poloi do like them.
(2) They do a lot of R&D for us.
(3) We can always gain points with our true friends the Saudis by forcing confessions for Palestinians.
(4) If they think they have nothing to lose, the inconsiderate bastards may nuke the Gulf oil fields.
Now Obama, being a genius---ValJar told him so, will change all that. The people who criticize him now will be for ever after astonished & admiring.
p.s. Supporting Iran's nuclear ambitions may also solve the problem of neocolonialist Zionists. But we're not supposed to talk about it---hoi poloi and their irrational beliefs, remember.
#4
Epicycles. When your view of the universe doesn't meet the observed reality, nuance your model, tweak it here and there. Never admit your faith based political 'religion' is wrong.
The sky over New York City was a falling sheet of white. Trails of footprints, work boots, paw prints, sneakers and bird claws, told their own story of how the residents of city were getting through the blizzard to their daily errands. Shoppers lugged home milk as if cows were going extinct. Miniature snowmen decorated mailboxes and garbage trucks towing orange plows clattered down empty streets.
Nowhere in the city was the blizzard more pronounced than in Central Park, designed a century ago to create a miniature forest in the heart of Manhattan. Even the tallest trees, taller than any others in the city, were layered with coats of snow and visibility had vanished into a cloud of whiteness.
And walking along a path in the Ramble, I heard a woman lecturing her children on the dangers of what else, but Global Warming.
#2
But then who besides environmentalists would fancy the idea of reverting Manhattan to a swamp bordered island with poor water sources and high rates of disease?
There are times my friend. Good read, distinguishing between the environmentalist and conservationist.
"The scientists say Global Warming is coming", the mother said. "It's too cold out for that," answered the little girl.
Listen, man-child, and you shall hear
Of global warming nonsense from Al Jazeer
On the 28th of Jan, in score plus five
Weather is now a lie
To turn young bulls to steers
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Twenty-nine years ago today, January 28, 1986, the NASA Space Shuttle orbiter Challenger exploded and broke apart 73 seconds into its flight, leading to the deaths of its seven crew members including the first teacher in space, Christa McAuliffe.
"The Obama administration's latest approach to the Middle East may be its most dangerous yet, choosing terror-sponsor Iran over longtime Arab allies. And that's on top of the president's seeming desperation to strike a nuclear deal at any cost. What is going on?"
