Did you know the US has a Mini-Shuttle? Now you do. The Orbital Test Vehicle, also known as the X-37B, touched down recently at California’s Vandenberg Air Force Base, becoming the first U.S. vehicle to make an autonomous runway landing from space.
The military won't say what the X-37B was doing during its seven-plus months in space, but officials intend to launch a second X-37B vehicle in 2011. The vehicle expected to fly in the spring is a second spacecraft, but the idea is to cut down the time needed for servicing the space planes from months to days -- and at a fraction of the cost NASA pays to get its shuttles ready for flight.
Read more here:
http://news.discovery.com/space/secret-mini-shuttle-lands-in-california.html
I recently received an email soliciting funds to help Palestinian farmers. Now, I’m not a hardhearted person but it seems to me that the oil-rich Arab states should take care of the Palestinians. We (US citizens) need to take care of American farmers. I replied with this article:
Save the farms and feed millions or
save the smelt and kill the farms?
FRESNO, Calif. — A federal judge recently turned down California farmers' emergency request to suspend water pumping restrictions in the state's delta. The restrictions were put in place to protect the smelt, a finger-sized fish.
Farmers across the fertile San Joaquin Valley argued those restrictions have caused hundreds of millions of dollars in crop losses as the shortages have forced them to fallow their fields and lay off thousands of farm workers. The farms produce half the nation's fruits and vegetables.
"We can't plant any of our annual crops until we know what kind of water supply we're going to get," said Don Devine, a Fresno farmer who grows organic sweet corn and cantaloupes on the valley's dry west side. "It's a heartbreaker to have to lay people off, but we've had no choice because there's no water."
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Here is another example of government restrictions on landowners:
Rain that falls on private property is not considered to be "owned" by the landholder in all states, making rainwater collection potentially illegal. Several Western states and Alaska have regions that require homeowners to get permits first, and in Utah catchment is prohibited.
"We gather, with friendship and respect, to reaffirm that pledge, and to renew our determination to stand together in the pursuit of freedom and peace. We come to express our appreciation for a faith that has enriched civilization for centuries." - George W. Bush at the re-dedication of the Washington Islamic Center, June 2007.
Ghazi Mustafa Kemal Pasha (born in 1881) was a mass murderer of non-Muslims. His successful jihad of 1919-1922 killed or expelled nearly all non-Muslims from Asia Minor. The honorary Ottoman title of "ghazi" is interpreted to mean "Allah's victorious warrior", "destroyer of Christians", and "successful defender of Islam".
It seems that the "global recession" has not impacted negatively on everyone. Check out this Mercedes Benz owned by an Abu Dhabi oil billionaire.
That is NOT stainless steel, people, it is WHITE GOLD!
I'm sure you'll sleep better tonight, knowing that the money you're paying for gas these days is supporting a good cause... (cue Sarah Palin) "Drill, baby, drill!"
David Brooks and Gail Collins had a jovial yuck-fest in the Times blog on Wednesday, Sept 1st. See it here. The Times calls its blog “Opinionator – Exclusive Online Commentary from The Times” (italics added by me.) I’m sure all the people who don’t read The Times won’t read their Opinionator either, but I digress.
There were guffaws and chuckles aplenty throughout their exchange, all at the expense of the Tea Party movement and Glen Beck’s “Restoring Honor” rally.
Here are a couple of their less amusing statements:
Gail Collins: “I can’t buy into the idea that the Tea Party is angry because traditional values are being ignored and mocked by the American elite. As elites go, the one today is really pretty low key. I was around for the various rebellions of the sixties and seventies, and if you wanted to see traditional values being made sport of, that was your period.”
David Brooks: “People like those at last weekend’s rally want the Judeo-Christian ethic back, which sweetened and softened life on the frontier (physical or technological). And so they march. They are only vaguely aware of this value system. It is so entwined into their very nature, they can not step back and define it. But they feel it weakening. It might be possible for a responsible person to tap into this sense, but none has, so Glenn Beck has.”
All the while David and Gail coyly avoid (try saying that five times fast) any hint that they consider themselves to be part of “the American elite.”
Here’s a reality check for you two self-important clowns:
Any opposition to a constitution-based government that has respect for the rule-of-law is comprised of two factions, the gullible and the dangerous. The gullible group enables the dangerous group to do the dirty work. When the dangerous no longer need the gullible, they become a liability and therefore expendable.
So Gail and David - just pop off to the Hamptons to sit on someone else’s expensive ocean-view property, and drink someone else’s expensive wine. When the doorbell rings, maybe it will be just another elitist guest, or it just might be the government police come to re-locate and re-educate you.
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Don’t expect support for conservative views in the Bangor Daily News. Why?
Read this closing line of an editorial in the BDN on 9/28/08:
“Great Britain’s focus today is on its own prosperity within the context of the European Union. That more modest self-image is a better model for the U.S. than that of strutting superpower.”
After scanning the more than 1100 editorials in their archives, it became apparent to me that the Bangor Daily News has subscribed to the lefty mantra “The U.S. is baaaad, the rest of the world is good-enough.”
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This is troubling … check out this link:
Bad News – Some think U.S. Treasuries should be downgraded to “Junk.”
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