Destination focus: Moon or Mars?

If we focus on the moon we will neglect mars. If we focus on mars we can't neglect the moon. Please try to convince me in comments that I'm wrong.

Update: Whereas a stronger case can be made for use of ISRU on human missions to Mars, the case for lunar ISRU in the current ESAS architecture does not stand up to scrutiny.

Big surprise

Obama deceives. About Benghazi as well.

Selenian Trading Post/Inn

John Hare has another of his great posts which requires me to defend my mars focus. Keep in mind that focusing on mars does not mean ignoring the moon. I applaud his incremental free market approach to the moon. An approach that too few consider.

The only way that Mars will be developed first is by a top down, massive effort with myopic focus on the red planet.

Forgive me John, but this is a strawman. An incremental free market approach, as he advocates for the moon, is also the best way to develop mars. The thing that will hold back settlement is government interference and regulation. Space is not owned by anyone. We need to reinforce the historical precedent that something not owned can be claimed by possession by anyone (as long as the claim is reasonable.) A charter with all members following the rules makes it legal.

A free market approach isn't going to work anywhere in space if it cost too much for individuals and families to afford. This is why I advocate a charter that provides transportation for free and rewards a colonist's risk of life with assets that make every colonist a potential millionaire with immediate wealth. Those going for flags and footprints do not get these benefits and would have to pay their own way.

It doesn't have to be a massive effort either. Done right it wouldn't be. We could send 42 colonists to mars for $3b. That $3b is paid by a company that could afford it, not the colonists. Those companies would receive assets potentially worth many times their investment made valuable by the very colonists they transport and by other means. This works on mars and not the moon precisely because of the distances and times involved.

I agree somewhat that a myopic focus has some benefits. What about his other points?

...a Lunar ship can be sized at 2% of the Mars ships size, and still haul at least equal tonnage.

There are three steps to either location. Getting to orbit cost the same for either location and today is one of the most expensive steps. That cost can come down by sending more people at a time and using reusable vehicles. But it is the same cost.

The quote above is about the second step, going from orbit to orbit. Ships should of course all be reusable with costs amortised over many round trips. Ships that make more round trips are going to wear out faster requiring expensive replacement, but still there is no question that this cost favors the moon. I would argue that the real expense is political and ease of access works against a colony. You are not free when government dominates all aspects of your life. I strongly believe the moon will be dominated by earth politics where the distance to mars makes it much easier for them to become politically independent. A private venture can self finance to go to mars and no government on earth has the jurisdiction to run (or ruin) their lives. They have the natural right to assert their liberty. This will not be so easy to do if only three days from earth. The precedent is best established on mars.

The third step, landing on either mars and the moon could be done with a Falcon Heavy launch and a Red Lander for nearly the same cost. A reusable SSTO lander would soon provide service for either location; a methane engine for mars and a hydrogen engine on the moon.

Yes, it cost more to send a person to the martian surface than to the lunar surface and it's much harder to come back. The moon also has a ready trade item: Oxygen in its rocks everywhere and probably enough water in certain locations. Those trade items are valuable, but only become really valuable if you are going somewhere else like mars. For a colony to be viable it either has to be self sufficient or have a reliable trade item that can cover costs. Mars has everything it needs to be self sufficient while the moon must depend on trade.

Trade will not be based on massive trade items. People on earth will get wealth from colonies because they will own shares of transportation companies that will operate for profit as well as other companies pursuing their own free market goals. Those companies will profit by getting assets that appreciate the more colonists exist pursuing their own happinesses. How much is a whole world worth? One that isn't dominated by the crushing regulations found on earth?

John is right that a free market is the key. Update: Another mars mission profile. Thank you for the reference John. Real rocket scientists (unlike bums like me) are going to make these things happen.

Let me emphasize: There is no 'colony control authority' as I envision it. Transportation to the surface of mars is simply a ticket paid transaction, with the price covered by land claim. The colonists by their number provide legal enforcement of the transportation companies reasonable by charter claims. Once on the surface of mars each colonist is totally independent and can pursue their own course of action made possible by ownership of valuable assets. They just agree to ownership by the terms of the settlement charter which all members will enforce. They will have to agree to a registry which tracks claims and becomes the first title office tracking chain of title (other title companies will come into existence over time.) Of course survival will require a high level of cooperation and some agreement about who does what, but this does not require they establish some form of government. Common sense and freedom works in small communities. What happens over time is up to the colonists.

The whole point of my vision, as opposed to the Space Settlement Initiative, is to avoid the company town. Wealth is initially distributed to balance risks with, as Thomas Sowell points out, land ownership without odious regulations being the most important element of economic expansion.

VP debate

Before I read what others have to say...

Biden started out looking goofy and ended up looking mad. My 70 yo parents don't watch debates, but they did these last two. They lean democrat but not this year. When it comes to health care mom said, "Biden is lying through his teeth that seniors aren't seeing cuts."

Ryan did ok, especially his summation. I wish he had pointed out that GM will probably end up going through bankruptcy after all but it may have been better to handle it the way he did.

I was surprised at how well Martha moderated. She did a good job. She did seem to try to get Ryan on the abortion issue but not as much as a devoted lefty might have.

Update: Sometimes you don't see because you expect to see it. Martha did interrupt Ryan a lot as he was getting to make a point. I kept seeing it as the moderator keeping time, but you could see it as being a way to control the message. Biden kept interrupting to ask for equal time to the point of being annoying. This is probably why I think Ryan could have done better. I know he had some devastating points to make that didn't get out.

Update2: This certainly fits...

Proverbs 29:9 When a wise man has a controversy with a foolish man, The foolish man either rages or laughs, and there is no rest. #VPdebate

Transcript. Biden's lies. Martha Raddatz.

When Obama took office

Sept. job report explained

Obamacare = Part-Time Work!

Scrutonium outbreak

Save yourselves. The perfect complement. Via Reynolds (like he needs the links.)

Mars transit game changer

I've been using 5.7 km/s as the delta V for going to mars. Now mmeijeri points out this chart which allows a 1.1 km/s cost to mars. So how does that impact per passenger costs?

I have proposed the first mars mission send a dozen colonists on two BA330 class ships to prepare for those that follow because fewer means we really aren't serious about settling mars. Survival requires more than a few hands. The second mission sends 42 at a much lower cost per settler. With 54 colonists on mars you have more than enough to support a full industrial ecology (capable of full self sufficiency.) This means $75m per year is all the support they would require from earth (one Red Dragon lander every 2 yrs) and even that is not absolutely essential.

I'm going to assume a Falcon Heavy (FH) capable of launching 50mt for $100m. I'm also going to assume an upgraded BA330 to a 40mt BA700 with life support for 21. Musk has put the per passenger cost to orbit at $20m, but the FH would be able to launch a stretch Dragon with 42 passengers to orbit for about $2m to $4m each.

So we send 42 settlers to mars on two BA700 which includes the vacuum Merlin upper stage that put it in orbit at no extra cost. Assume 1mt for each passenger we have a dry weight per ship of about 70mt. Two ships tethered together provide gravity and redundancy. Update: See Mars ref. mission.

To get to the surface from mars orbit we need six Red Dragon landers which cost about $900m total to put in mars orbit which would be $22m per settler. This is the highest per colonist cost item so if there is a way to reduce this it could be another major game changer.

Putting a BA330 in orbit cost $100m for the BA330 and another $100m for the launch. Let's say a BA700 would have a total cost to LEO of $300m (or $600m for two.)

The final cost to consider is how much fuel to send 140mt on a delta V of 1.1 km/s using 340s engines at $2m per metric ton. Using Trent's calculator I get 194mt for fuel or 4 FH launches. So the fuel cost is about $1m per settler and the ship cost to orbit is $14m per each colonist (ship cost may be amortized over multiple flights.)

So that gives you a total cost of $41m per colonists vs. $81m I previously calculated. That's huge, our mission cost has been cut in half from $6b to $3b (and lower if we consider reusability.)

Compare that to Mars One $6b for 4 colonists vs. $3b for 42 colonists. The Mars One plan does include other costs beyond just transportation.

I still see no way to get to Musk's $500k per settler, but there is no real need.

Update: Martijn points out this low delta V is from very high Earth orbit to very high Mars orbit. This is true, so there are some costs not included in the above. Specifically, you have to move everything from LEO to EML1, but the most expensive item, fuel can go by the least expensive means (which is to say over time in perhaps small amounts.) The link above doesn't include mercury for a specific reason. All the planets on the chart have atmospheres to circularize orbits at almost no cost. Once the general purpose passenger ship arrives in high orbit around mars, Red Dragon landers will be both on the surface with supplies ready to prepare the site and landers in orbit to take them there. So the first order of business would be to circularize the passenger ships orbit so the landers could reach it. The ship will also probably need to carry fuel to top off the landers. More fuel gives them safer margins.

Update 2: The ships taking passengers to mars orbit would return empty to earth orbit for reuse. This could probably be accomplished with ion thrusters at very low cost relatively. Unused fuel could provide the initial push.

Is that really your question?

This guy is right. We need to start being as consistent in our counter attacks as they are on the attack.

This is an existential war and the media is the enemy. Cut off their air and let them die.

Lies that work

Most people will reject a lie if they know it's a lie. However, people still do believe a lot of lies. If you just can't believe the lies that other people believe you should have just one question...

How is it possible? Well, two... What can we do about it?

To say it's because people are just stupid is unhelpful and is not the central problem.

To say self interest over rules truth is closer to the problem. This is certainly evil when it's the case, but not everyone that believes lies are evil. Is there an explanation that includes a benefit of doubt?

Yes, it is that the best lies contain large elements of truth. People that believe those lies may simply be focusing so intently on the true part they miss the false part. Once they do that, if you don't acknowledge the true part you will have a difficult time arguing to get the lie rejected.

Pragmatically you want lies rejected, but paradoxically focusing on the falsity can work against that. Pointing out what is false will simply be ignored. First you have to acknowledge what is true.  One problem is that the media in this country will often embrace you when you acknowledge truth, then cut you off when you go on to expose the lies. Face it, they really are evil while considering themselves saints but this post isn't about that.

Most people still consider Lincoln to have been a good president. He gave us a warning in the Gettysburg address when he said, "...that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth." That government is in jeopardy today. It could perish.

What is the source of that danger? Lies that contain enough truth that they can destroy us financially. Lies that aren't rejected because people can focus on the elements of truth or apparent truth.

Which lies? Competition is bad. Ownership is unfair. People have rights that makes it ok for government to steal from some to give to others. Arguing what to call it is fruitless. The important thing is for people to realize they are being lied to and come to reject the lies. This isn't easy and will take time, but there is no alternative assuming we don't wish to perish. I'm pretty sure that if Obama is reelected this American experiment in exceptionalism is all but over.

So what truth should we acknowledge? Let's start with one from the bible: "...man dominates man to his  injury." We that believe in competition and free enterprise have to acknowledge that business people are not angels. They aren't doing it for the public good but for themselves. But you can't fix human nature by trying to regulate it with more and more laws. Especially when these laws are made by people looking for their own advantage... dominating others to their injury.

Another truth to acknowledge? Many people have few resources to compete. So it's easy for them to give up while thinking that competition itself is bad. Which is somewhat ironic since they still compete for resources. They do have resources, but the demagogues will focus those resources on redistribution of wealth rather than working the slow path to success. It's not just that some people are lazy. It's not just any character flaw. We have a responsibility to educate enough people when they are young so they know they have to work for their own future regardless of the where they start. It is our fault if we let others educate them to believe they have rights which the government must supply by theft.

We have a lot of work to do. Hopefully it's not too late.

A must read.

One of the best posts I've ever read. The target has been nailed. Every voter should give his point a serious, strong consideration.

The difference between bad and worse is magnitudes greater than between good and better. Our future hangs in the balance.

We need to survive another four years to find better.

Google update

Google has updated it's interface so I can't edit my step to mars page. Wonderful. So it's time to make lemonaid. I'm going to rewrite that page and a few of my other old pages soon...

Against mars.

Borrow from Peter w/o paying Paul

Fed funding entire deficit. QE3: $40 billion a month without end. Are. They. Insane?

The truth is blasphemy???

Only from Islamic documents do we know that Mohammad was an illiterate misogynous pedophile serial hate-crime murderer (including murder of quite a number of his own family who had some things to say about him themselves) that believed his god Allah requires members of his religion to convert, enslave or kill every other person on the planet.

Jesus had a quite different life. Does Islam's teaching that Mohammad was superior to Jesus make any sense on any level?

There are moderate muslims. Libya seems to have them.

Mike Rowe has a website

Thanks to the libtards in the media that cut him off (yeah, they believe in free speech but only when it's theirs) and Rand reminding me I found his great web site.

A really short flight

At least grasshopper exists.

Rand is musing again.

Latest masterpiece agrees with the obvious.

Great lines...

Thomas Sowell, "Let's stop and think, if only for the novelty of it."

I'll add more later.

Equal protection and justice

Article XIV:1 [No State shall] deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

Ed brought the subject up regarding our tax laws and then I came across this article.

Unequal protection under British rule is why we became these United States.

We will not continue to be a country if we don't fix this starting with the elite political class that like the status quo.

Stranger than fiction

Wow. This story is beyond belief. I remember the trial.

In the middle of it is Joe McGinniss, the creep that moved into the house next to Sarah and her family.

History has lessons

We are heading down the same path with QE3.

Thrift may be dead as well. But would come back if the economy went back to historical norms.

I say 'Nuts'

To all those that are 'for it.'

Spontaneous, right?

thousands of protesters arrived in buses and cars to gather on the main street near the heavily-fortified US embassy

They're being bussed in. (I don't care that spell check says only one 's') If you think this is about an anti-Mohammed film I've got a bridge to sell ya.

Update: Definitely not.
Not senseless violence.

What they really need...

...is cameras watching the cameras that are watching the cameras...

Dum da dum dum... dumb.

Obama throws himself under the bus

As president, Obama is our head of state. He can't throw members of the state department under the bus because they work directly for him. He can try, and the press will go along, but that doesn't change anything.

They knew the attack was coming 48 hrs before. They let 4 people die, including an ambassador.

An attack on our embassy or consulate is an attack on our country and as my previous post point out, their are standard historical responses that Obama is the first president to ignore.

Normally, you stand with a president during a national crisis like this, but with Obama changing the rules, he's lost the right to have anybody stand with him... but the press will continue to ignore this reality in order to bash Romney so they can get their guy reelected to another term.

We rounded up the Japanese during WW2. It would make more sense to round up the anti-America press, but instead of sending them to camps, we send them on holiday (revoke their citizenship and exile them.) Freedom of speech we must defend (without bias.) Sedition is something else altogether.

There is no benefit of doubt anymore regarding Obama. He is bad for America.

Embassy basics that 'everybody knows'

What Obama and Hillary don't know...

...the time for an official government protest for an attack on a US embassy is always when rioters attack or deface the embassy compound itself, long before they violate or penetrate the US sovereign territory or deface the US Flag. Not nine hours later and not when the details become clear. Then it is too late to take action to keep an embassy from burning or to protect American diplomats. The objective is safety, more than knowledge.

When foreign TV videos showed rioters on the walls of the US Embassy and tearing apart the US Flag on the early evening of 11 September, the time for a strong US official protest and angry telephone calls to Mursi had already passed. 

Every student of international affairs and international diplomacy knows this. Every experienced foreign policy staff and every competent journalist knows this. But not this State Department and not this US administration and not mainstream US news services. The US simply failed to defend itself.

Via Rand.

Supercomputer for $4000!

I don't know???

Our Sarah

Has no loss for words.

Update: ...and her follow up hits the nail on the head. How much closer to disaster do we need to go before the country wakes up?

Tears and anger

Because they suffered.

Update: Read it.

Point of no return

...the answer may be that the country is closer to the point of no return than most of us believed.

We looked in awe when protesters in Greece rioted because of a cut in welfare. We are Greece.

Point of no return is just that. It's the point where you don't have enough resources left to get back to solid ground... but when you run out of resources, the ground comes up to get you. It's never pretty.

All Obama has to do...

...is get everyone to stop looking for work; then the unemployment rate falls to zero!

LET’S BAN CORPORATE PROFITS!

These people vote??? This is beyond idiocy. It's definitely time to go Galt.

Some lovely real estate

Robots make a nice precursor to people, but we need to send geologists and real estate developers soon.

Click on image to really see terrain, Curiosity rover in bluish patch

Onsite view.

What happens when...

...the government chooses it's members rather than the people?

Can you see the tyranny from your porch?

...often wrong but never in doubt

Thomas tells the truth.

Why is it always more difficult?

I want to know what daily/weekly/monthly interest rate is equal to a given annual rate? You'd think people interested in their personal finances would all be interested in that and that it would be easy to find online calculators to provide that answer. You'd be wrong (or I'm just not using the correct google phrase?) The closest you can come is to google "Effective Interest Rate Calculator" but that gives you something slightly different. They take the annual rate, divide by the periods for a simple rate and give you a new annual rate. Not at all what I want. I want to go directly from an annual rate to a period rate that, when compounded, produces that annual rate. Obviously, too much to ask (I'm sure somewhere on the vast internet it exists, but where?)

Sure I could manipulate the compound interest formula into an spread sheet but then I'd have nothing to bitch about would I?

Anyway, this story is the jumping off point for my rant.

I'm 53. I'm figuring my retirement plans at a 5% return. Historically you could figure on 7% to 7.5% but that's ancient history. Getting 5% passively is a lot harder than it used to be. So I'm looking at what you need to do to actively get 5%. Thus I need to know a daily/weekly/monthly rate to figure that. Or I could quit being a nit picker and just use the 5.13% rate that these calculators provide as my new goal? You still have to divide 5% by the number of period to get the period rate that results in 5.13%, but it leaves little to bitch about. So now we have 0.0137% compounded daily to result in 5.13% annual. Is that right? I'm so confused.

Put another way, that means for every $10k I have, I need to get $1.37 per day to get 5.13% annual. Put that way, it doesn't seem that difficult. Assuming I didn't screw up the decimal place somewhere which is a very common mistake for me. Or to put it even another way, if I have $6k, then my goal for the day is to earn 0.6 * 1.37 or 82 cents that day. But that's when I retire. To build my nest egg, I'm looking at earning one percent per day (ten dollars for every thousand) with as little risk as possible which would make retirement come in as little as two years. It's only a goal.

The last year has been a complete loss financially for me. I've made no progress which is a large part of my reason for moving to this town in the middle of no place. So last month, again starting from scratch, I've decide that phase one of my financial plan is to save money until my birthday at the end of march. The mental trick I'm using is that the money I'm saving DOES NOT EXIST until then. Nobody has any claim on it, can not borrow it, nothing... until my birthday as which time I will have money for phase two...

One percent daily growth for a year. I consider this very doable. The risk is greed, because it's actually not hard to earn a considerably higher rate when talking about just a few tens of thousands. For example, it's pretty easy to double your money in a week by buying an old car that isn't running and paying a mechanic to make it run. Scaling that up is the problem. The stock market solves the scaling problem but has a different set of risks associated with it. Say I buy a thousand shares of a $5 stock. My broker would charge me $14 ($7 to buy and $7 to sell.) One percent of $5000 is $50 so I need to make $64. It's not that hard to find a $5 stock that will give you 7 cents while avoiding most of the downside (look for a stock that bounces considerably more per day with lots of volume. You need volume to be sure you can sell. You have no idea of what you've done until you are back in cash. You may need to make two buys and one sell for 8 cents. If you can't make 8 cents it's better to sell and take a loss than hope tomorrow gives you your money back. Holding a stock that isn't meant to be held will take all your money over time. Buy and hold is for a different type of stock.) It takes about 15 minutes a day. Trying a variety of things mitigates the risks of just a single type of investment. You must actively look for different prospects. Some things will work and others will not. You keep doing the things that work.

Then I reevaluate for phase three. Going from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands.

Phase four is reaching my final goal before I'm too old for it to matter.

All of which sounds good in theory. I really have no option but to make it work in practice. We're all getting old and poverty really, really sucks. More perspective.

My ex-wife's plan is much simpler. Continue to work for another ten years while getting a fixed rate 30 year FHA mortgage and make double payments to pay it off in ten. She's then depending on social security and continuing her second job of teaching piano. She's been doing that for the last ten years with some of her successes now in college. It gives her a great deal of pleasure (and some disappointment but that she puts on the parents for not making their young ones practice.)

Lefty awakening?

Lefties are saying...

Obama has violated his oath to uphold the Constitution

Obama has created an imperial presidency that would have made Richard Nixon blush.

It will be over soon.

Mars One begins to get money

What percent of $6 billion is a silver sponsor anyway?

Love that wild card

It's what she stands for that matters.

What a nice view

The latest mars picture.

Can you imagine this is your backyard?

Scientists estimate it will be a year before the six-wheeled, nuclear-powered rover, about the size of a small car, physically reaches the layers of interest at the foot of the mountain, 6.2 miles away from the landing site.

But for martians that live there, this is known as a day drive.

Can you imagine

Meeting this man?

It's called racketeering

Racketeering is organized theft. Politicians do it with immunity. Taxpayer money is funneled to political cronies that kickback some of it as political donations. This is theft.

Until we do something about it, we have a corrupt government. Citizens should be outraged regardless of which party is doing it.

Update: Another aspect of the racket.

Jadzia Dax

Just another human.

What a wopper

We are intentionally limiting crowd size at rallies

The bad news has been spun. If they did actually want small venues, why do it in places that can hold larger crowds... hmmm? It is never good to see lots of space in your crowd... ever!

But the biggest lie is they want to keep the expense down. That's the biggest fall off your chair onto the floor statement I've ever heard. If they wanted to cut expenses Michelle would have just one assistant rather than the forty or so they spend millions of dollars of taxpayers money on.

Update: Spinal Tap Prez.

A wonder to behold

Ain't it the truth.

If I were the Onion

Joe Arpaio has been sent to Chicago in a surprise Obama sting operation.

What's good for the goose...

...is good for the gander.

Obama wants to rule by executive order bypassing congress and the constitution. Two can play. More.

If it doesn't offend...

...it wouldn't need protection. I support the first amendment.

There was a time...

...when we would not allow;  something like this. It would have been front page on ALL the papers.

The difference is

Mitt would have bought a beer for the guy with an Obama sign even if he didn't drink himself.

This is exactly the problem, Obama is only president to his half.

Deception and Distractions...

...is what Obama offers. Don't forget the down ticket.

$222T head in sand

It's called a cliff and we ARE going over it. The more we interconnect our economies (international bank loans) the more WE means the entire world.

When that happens our leaders will not lose their elections. They will not be impeached. They will be hunted down and torn limb from limb.

Government will then consist of local warlords.

The saga continues...

Thank you. Blogging is not a criminal act.

Release your college records, Mr. President.

He will never, because he does have something to hide.

Disenfranchised

When convicts overturn an election that creates a new law with new taxes. We the people have been disenfranchised.

Voter ID would reduce fraud. Those that benefit from fraud are against it. Too bad.

It's her job

Bachmann is on the House Intelligence Committee. It's her job to ask questions about national security. The people outraged that she would are the problem.

Reid, on the other hand, is just a piece of filth.

Fried Chicken is offensive???

Feigned outrage is all they've got.

Let's see, it was months ago. Most people eat fried chicken. They've eaten chicken before.

Next time it's West's turn, he should find something really offensive to feed them.

They and their policies are the offense.

Tom Smith hits it out of the park

"You didn't build that" fallacy explained.

Tom talks about the apparent ignorance of the basics of finance. I think he's being generous. It is pure ignorance or perhaps he's allowing that they know they're lying bastards?

• Borrowing money is a simple contract governed by the rules of law.
• Selling shares is governed by the rules of law.
• Public infrastructure is fully paid by taxes. Taxpayers over pay to allow for non-taxpayers to use that infrastructure. Therefore, any argument that taxpayers aren't paying their fair share is bullshit.

For the government to come in after the fact and change the rules is fascism.

As if government is part owner of every business and person in this fair land.

Right, the definition of fascism. That's exactly what Obama and Company are doing. They are fascists.

It should have been a Pulitzer

Story Here

Death Spiral

It's scary.

Who is devoid of decency and scruples?

Harry Reid (the pedophile) according to this article.

Curiosity lands soon

Mars rover getting close to landing...

radiation outside the spacecraft carrying Curiosity was perhaps 100 times higher than inside the craft

Even though radiation mitigation is probably not something they spent much time on.

Update: Check out the video. Safe landing.

Tea party continues to win

They changed their focus from national rallies to local elections and have had success without the need for big money.

Everybody in the established elite, right and left, would like you to think the tea party is over. It hasn't even got started!

Sarah is alive and well as well!

That's embarrassing

Nearly one in 10 people in the world deprived of power (more than 600 million people.)

That sounds like an opportunity to me. America needs to commit to helping India into the modern world. They have a lot to offer and so do we. It's appalling how we ignore this major country that could be our greatest ally in the future.

Note politics is the culprit. Obama would have America in the same grip of government.

Hard to fathom

DEA Gone Wild

Muslim Brotherhood probes

Obama Appointees Interfered With New Black Panther Prosecution

This is not the America I grew up in.

Scalia not right wing enough

Ok. He's going by the text. I go by the intent which is to scare the hell out of any government that tends to be tyrannical (all of them.) Citizens should be able to have any arms at all, regardless of being able to carry them. Give a rancher on our southern border a tank and he'd have less trouble with drug cartels I'd imagine.

Go back to the Waco standoff. The government could have waited and captured anyone they wanted in town rather than killing children at the Davidian compound. The 2nd amendment wasn't about hunting for food, it was about defending oneself from our own government. If a group are able to defend themselves on their own property from police and military attack, then the government has to use less tyrannical, more adult methods of persuasion. Courts, with rules of order, are for dealing with issues rather than guns. Giving citizens the ability to defend themselves forces the government to use the justice courts.

Update: Der Schtumpy says it well...

There were numerous wealthy people in America, circa 1776, who OWNED cannons, and ships with cannons on them. Those were the ‘Sherman Tanks and bazookas’ of the day. I see ZERO restrictions on those in MY copy of the Bill of Rights.

Technically, Bill Gates, Warren, Buffet, and even that idiot Bloomberg, have enough money, and should have the 2nd Amendment Right, to own a Arleigh-Burke Class DDG, AND the Rights to arm it!! The Founders made no rule against owning ‘military grade’ weapons. And do you know WHY they didn’t?

Because many of the men who fought in the Revolutionary War had also fought in the French and Indian war AND they still had their Brown Bess musket. It was THE best ‘military grade’ weapon for a single fighting man there was. And that IS the gun they were protecting, so the citizens could protect themselves FROM the government, when they WROTE the Bill of Rights.

So give me my bazooka, or give me death!!

No, mistake was prez candidate of both parties

I can forgive Cheney. Facts are stubborn things. Palin was the only shot McCain ever had. She didn't cause him to lose anything.

Which party is tearing down small business and which is building up?

Feminine, not female

Is baby robot next?

Pasta is good?

Not the bad carb like bread?

Government is not business

They aren't competition. Business, unless government steps in, do not have tax dollars to pay the bills. Government eliminates competition. This is a very bad thing for people in general, but can give an unfair advantage to cronies of the government.

Look at General Motors.

Taxpayers’ losses on the GM bailout are now about $35 billion — to save a company that is worth less than $30 billion.

This is payment for UAW support. GM is a pretend car company.

Focus of government

I'm reading 'Ameritopia' which has an interesting reference in the first chapter to the Federalist papers (#45)...

The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the federal government are few and defined. Those which are to remain in the State governments are numerous and indefinite. The former will be exercised principally on external objects, as war, peace, negotiation, and foreign commerce; with which last the power of taxation will, for the most part, be connected. The powers reserved to the several States will extend to all the objects which, in the ordinary course of affairs, concern the lives, liberties, and properties of the people, and the internal order, improvement, and prosperity of the State.

Do federal laws restrict themselves to external affairs? Do they collect taxes just for national defense?

Obviously not. By saying principally they leave themselves open to abuse. Abuse they have!

The powers of the federal government should be limited to war and treaties with taxes only collected for that purpose. They should have no power over economics foreign or domestic. The states should each handle everything else.

The number of individuals employed under the Constitution of the United States will be much smaller than the number employed under the particular States.

I'm going to look into that which may be enlightening?

Guy and Doll

Was that Adam Guy and Eve Doll?

Tea Party violence

Someday this may happen to the Tea Party movement. So far it hasn't, because there has been no Tea Party violence.

This is so disgusting. The Tea Party and it's members have been slandered so often it's become a joke. But these "uniquely arrogant sort of journalist" will continue no matter how long their putrid accusations get proved not just wrong but stupid and vile.

Update: Not good enough.

Another reason I don't have a facebook account

Privacy from the government and politicians.

Spacesuits part 2

I bet this one doesn't cost $10k.

Don't you wish...

...she liked batman movies? Or him?

Update: Fire Brian Moss, Boycott ABC, ESPN and Disney and Jim might sue for defamation?

A balanced budget in five years?

Amazingly, we could grow our way out of debt if Congress simply froze spending at today's levels. That would balance the budget by 2017.

If that's true, we should only elect those that agree to do it and fire everybody else.

Ignoramus supports imbecile

Warren just replaces Obama's somebody with the 'rest of us.'

It's almost Satanic (like when Jesus was questioned by Satan) in the way she words things. Of course, everything done is done in an environment. She suggests business takes unfair advantage of that environment.

BULL SHIT!

Those earning 50% of income (top 20%, $273k+/yr) paid 70% of taxes.

In other words, the rich paid for those roads. She and Obama would have us believe those that paid no taxes at all were the ones paying for infrastructure!

Update: When does Obama become responsible?

This poor guy (boo hoo) only gets $8k/month. Maybe he should have bought his mineral rights when he bought his land? This doesn't change because he inherited the land. Everybody has to live with what other people do. Even if it means he only gets $8k/mo. while other people do the work. Perhaps Liz and Barry should be crowing about this fellow, but they seem to be from the same cloth?

Score one for the good guys

He never expected anyone to be armed.

It's a job, right?

No. It's pure corruption.

Identifying the Somebody

Obama is such a natural rhetorical fraud that he often gets away with it.

Somebody invested in roads and bridges.

Yes, that someone was the rich!

...the richest 20 percent, which includes incomes as low as $273,000 a year — the area where you will find nearly every small business owner. They paid almost 70 percent of all income taxes despite earning only 50 percent of all income.

But Obama and Warren would have you think that those that paid no taxes at all paid for it. Class warfare is the juvenile and demagogue thinking of a Marxist.

We are all born naked and end up as dust. Somewhere in the middle we hand power over to these idiots.

Waiting to hear...

...from an astronaut that has ridden both the Dragon and the Dream Chaser.

Simulated Dream Chaser Cockpit

Update: CST-100 and others.

SophistiCat amazed by HoverCat

More.

It's just a casino

That's what China told the Ukraine it was to become when they bought it. Well, it is a gamble.

It can hold 50 planes plus helicopters and is about as large as one of ours (maybe not after they clean off the rust.)

Causal or correlative?

analysis found that young adults who finished high school, worked full time and got married after age 21 and before having kids "had a 2 percent chance of winding up in poverty and a 74 percent chance of winding up in the middle class (defined as earning roughly $50,000 or more). By contrast, young adults who violated all three norms had a 76 percent chance of winding up in poverty and a 7 percent chance of winding up in the middle class.

You ain't nuthin' but a lab rat

Mice with sideburns. Update: Hoax.

More than one firefly in the 'verse

It's been pointed out that the original cast of Firefly have other commitments making a reboot unlikely. However, Firefly is a class of ship. Mal was not the only freedom fighter. Perhaps it's time we got introduced to some others?

Scanning thoughts

You have no privacy once you leave your home. What happens when they can scan your thoughts?

In case you missed the decay of society

Daniel Tosh thinks it would be funny is she were gang raped right now.

How do we fix this?

Quarter of Wall Street Executives See Wrongdoing As Key To Success.

They're not wrong is the problem. It sure works for politicians.

Some practical research

I support this. This has direct application to actually doing a settlement mission. It's not enough, but they are doing their part. The missing piece in most settlement scenarios is teaching the settlers the skills they will need to live off the land including the very important aspect of an industrial ecology.

Only 31% are morons

This is great news. Only 12% are ultramaroons.*

*Bugs bunny's way of saying super moron; has nothing to do with leaving someone on an island.

However, if you are sitting with two people... look at the one on the left... then look at the one on the right... If neither are morons... guess who?

Finally we have the answer

Super high-density bullshit was critical to the experiment.

Is Rand Paul right?

The writer is stunned. What is stunning is the lack of understanding between private and public. Public property is held in common and should never be allowed to discriminate. Private property must be allowed to discriminate. When people are not allowed to do stupid things with their own property it is no longer their property.

Rand is clear. He abhors racism. No discrimination should be allowed in public domains.

What the writer fails to understand is liberty only exists when you do not use force against the stupid. The marketplace will remedy this problem without need for government force.

Update: Do the owners arguments matter? How is it anybodies business other than the owners how they handle discounts? Next stop... thought police.

If somebody discriminates for stupid reasons they are doing the community a favor. All like minded idiots are identified when they go to that business. Aren't those opposing 'discrimination' discriminating themselves? They don't like that owners religious preferences. Should they sue them for the over 65 discount? Why not?

Update: How words affect the ability to perceive.

A standing joke

Is that Israel may be the only ones in the middle east without oil. We may have to come up with some new jokes. Did they just peek at some new oil? (Ok. Groan!)

Control freaks want it back

SpaceX has shown that can do spirit. Government hates that.

Can Elon say no?

What about mercury?

Some have proposed mercury is a better destination for settlement than mars. This article provides more for that argument. The problem is the delta V to mercury is about twice that to mars. Mars will come first, but mercury doesn't have to be that far behind.

A mystery. Via Zimmerman.

Let's make one thing clear

Any money you give to government (local, state or nation) is a tax. That name is not exclusive. The tax can also be a fee, penalty, charge or any other name they come up with; but as long as it is money you give to the government... IT IS A TAX.

Are we clear now?

Update: Great legal minds agree...

When the Court restricted federal commerce power in the 1920s and 1930s, it distinguished between taxes, which raise revenues, and penalties, which regulate behavior. This distinction is useless because so many federal exactions do both...

When is a tax not a penalty?

A more perfect union

It's a cumbersome phrase. Our founders aspired to perfection knowing it wasn't achievable. They founded a great country, but with flawed documents. For example, consent of the governed can never really be the basis for a government. You can never get the full consent of everyone and consent of the majority (if you have even that) is just another name for tyranny.

...the ultimate criteria of legitimate governance is the protection of natural rights.

These are liberty and property. If you have these two, you have them all. Having these both means you have life and the ability to pursue happiness. The mistake our founders made was to include superfluous language which tyrants and demagogues use to take away these inalienable rights.

If you actually had these rights (and it's trivial to show that we don't) as long as you were not harming someone the government would have to get your consent. The fact is, they often don't care about your consent if they have the power to force you without it.

Some people are saying Judge Roberts gave congress a new right to unlimited tax. He didn't. It's been in our constitution (Article 1. Section 8.) in black and white since the beginning. All he did was give us a wake up call. All governments are by nature tyrannical. We do need some government, but it should be limited and our founders gave tyrants too much to work with; but they did their responsibility. Now Roberts points out WE THE PEOPLE need to do ours.

"It is not our job to protect the people from the consequences of their political choices."

Update: The eternal meaning of independence day.

100% Bias

100% of U.S. Attorneys donations went to Obama and the democrats.

This is known as equal justice!

The next president (not Obama) should fire them all and start over.