The Great Libertarian Utopia!

No taxes! Free market...

...where unrestrained Capitalism rules! No Big Government!   

Everything is private sector!

                                         

                               Check out these wonderful benefits!!!

• Your house catches fire; F.D. shows up. You can't pay them...they let it burn down.
• Someone robs you or assaults you or a family member; Your assault rifle jams!....Rent-a-cops show up. No money to pay them?...No investigation.
• No Judiciary; Highest bidder wins the legal dispute.
• No libraries; You buy or rent everything you read...even if you only need it for reference. No more free rides for the kiddies! Let them buy books or do without!
• No Public Schools; Replaced by expensive private schools that teach with no oversight or accountability (They can teach your children that Zeus made the world or that American Slavery, the Jewish Holocaust or the forced displacement of Native Americans never happened). You can't pay? No problem. Your kids don't get an education.
• No regulation of HMOs, no public Health Care assistance; HMOs can deny treatment or dump you when you get chronically ill. If you can't pay for insurance or treatment....you can just die!
• No Unemployment Benefits; Lost your job and can't quickly get another? Tough cookies!...Go get a job in retail or fast food for a quarter of your former hourly wage and half the hours...no health care, no benefits. Can't pay for your home or vehicle with the lower earnings? Tough crap...lose them. Can't afford food?....Starve, loser!
• No public assistance, food stamps, welfare; See above.
• No public roads; Need to drive somewhere? You'll pay a toll to a private company to use the roads. Different companies own different roads (free market!) so you have to make sure you have access and $$$ before you travel.
• No civil rights in the new all-private sector economy; Need to go to a hospital? Drive on a private road? Buy utilities? Eat dinner in a restaurant? Hire pay-for police or fire protection? Get your kids into a private school? If the owner doesn't like "your kind" you can be denied services. Don't like it? Too bad! Personal "freedom" and "property rights" are all that matter.
• No armed services; Replaced by private armies and mercenaries that kill for the highest bidder. Better keep that assault rifle nearby! If another country nukes you....dig out the survival gear!
• No space program; Private industry can't apply an effective profit motive to space travel or exploration...besides, science is bad, it makes you think too much!....Way too many intellectuals already!

• No Social Security; Didn't make enough money to invest in retirement and still pay your living expenses? Stock market tanked and you lost all of your investments? Tough crap LOSER! Hahahahaha!
• No weapons laws; Anything goes! Better get that machine gun, bazooka or rocket launcher while it's still on sale! They'll be available to anyone who wants one....no questions asked, no restrictions! It's legal open war in the streets folks! Got a neighbor that pisses you off? Just blow 'im away when he's not looking!
• No Post Office; It was nice to have your mail delivered cheaply and efficiently wasn't it? What? You don't want to pay ten bucks to mail a letter? (shrug).
• No anti-pollution laws; Return to the glorious days when turds and PCBs graced our rivers and lakes! Remember those breath-taking killing fogs of air pollution?
• No more unions or worker's rights; What a waste they were! Back to child labor, sweat shops, sexual harassment, poverty wages and workplace hazards. Don't like the conditions?....Go work at another low paying sweat shop. Maybe it'll be better there (or not).
• No more food safety laws; Industries get to regulate themselves (kinda like letting inmates run the prisons)! Would you like some shit with that Big Mac? Some salmonella with your sausage?
• Private prisons; Increase the number of inmates, increase the profit! You didn't litter or jaywalk today, did you?
• No Government or laws; It's anarchy! Yipeeeeee! Every man for himself!
  
  
  Yes! All of this and more can be yours in 
   the Great Libertarian Utopia!
• Democracy doesn't work anyway!
• Your vote doesn't count!
• Politicians are all the same! They all work for the same master! Why not eliminate the middle men and allow the rich to lord over you directly!
• Bring back feudalism, racism and theocracy!
• Embrace the new dark ages where every man is free to exploit any other person without fear of Government intervention!
• Stop the Government from robbing you of the hard-earned money you would have had if there were still a Government!
• Ron Paul for King! (What? Elections? What for?)

SpaceX Falcon9/Dragon Launch Successful!

SpaceX has successfully launched the first civilian mission to resupply the International Space Station. This is a momentous event in space travel. Up until now only governments, and not many of them, have been able to put a vehicle in space. The Falcon9/Dragon combination will not only carry cargo to the ISS, but is also designed to ferry passengers to and from Earth orbit.

SpaceX posted this at their website today;
Hawthorne, CA –
At 3:44 a.m. Eastern, the Falcon 9 carrying Dragon launched from SpaceX’s launch pad at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. Now Dragon heads toward the International Space Station. On that journey it will be subjected to a series of tests to determine if the vehicle is ready to berth with the station.
Broadcast quality videos, including video inside of the SpaceX factory, may be downloaded at vimeo.com/spacexlaunch and high-resolution photos are posted at spacexlaunch.zenfolio.com.

Anyone who thinks that manned spaceflight isn't making any progress need look no further for proof that we continue to make advances in that field of exploration.

Avante SpaceX!!

More here.... http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-18154937

This View of Life

My other attempt at Blogging...

I must confess that i swiped the name of this blog from Stephen J Gould's "Natural History" magazine column. Its ultimate origin lies in the quote 'There is grandeur in this view of life' from Charles Darwin's "Origin of Species".
I've always liked the phrase and respected the writer and scientist.
So this is a kind of tribute to him...it might not always be about science. But i'll try to keep it interesting

In the event that you simply MUST subject yourself to more of my cr@p...Here's the link...
http://www.care2.com/c2c/share/sharebook

Challenger STS-51-L

Twenty six years ago today America, indeed, the world, lost seven heroes. The Challenger disaster brought home how truly dangerous spaceflight is...and how courageous our Astronauts are.

Exploring the unknown has always brought with it danger and the possibility that something could go wrong. These seven men and women...these heroes... were well aware of that possibility and yet chose to take that risk to further mankind's understanding of what lies beyond our tiny oasis of rock, water and air. The pure quest for knowledge is perhaps the most noble endeavor humanity can undertake. It requires no malice, no weapon, no harming of fellow creatures, no religious fervor or desire for personal gain. This is the mission these heroes had set themselves upon when misfortune struck. May we always remember them with that in mind. They gave their lives so that others could one day "boldly go where no one has gone before."

"Space- Head" Newt.

 Presidential Hopeless Newt Gingrich; "By the end of my second term, we will have the first permanent base on the moon and it will be American," He proposes an entirely American effort to establish a colony of perhaps 10,000 people on the Moon by 2021.

Newt Gingrich's idea of a large-population Moon colony is what i would expect from a person who has no idea what he is proposing or talking about. The cost of a large Moon colony, along with all the hardware that goes with it would be many times his estimate. There is the problem of  the physical degeneration of the inhabitants to account for (try getting 10,000 people to exercise for hours a day). Most, indeed all, of the resources for the large colony would have to be delivered from Earth until mining, manufacturing and farming could be established on the moon. Advances that would take years, perhaps decades, to achieve.

The only way i could envision this happening would be through a fully international effort backed by major corporate interests. It is simply too vast a project to be embarked upon by any one nation, particularly in light of today's financial situation. It is improbable, as well, that Americans as a majority would support such a venture. I already see dissatisfaction and criticism over the paltry .6% (est) that NASA presently ekes from the national budget.

Finally, Newt isn't a "space-head" (except perhaps in the sense that there is a vast emptiness in his skull). He's a Science Fiction aficionado....this isn't nearly the same thing. The former concerns themselves with what can be, is being and has been accomplished in space, the latter with fictitious stories of what might be.

I am a booster (pun intended) of a more advanced and aggressive space program. I'd like nothing more than to see mankind burst forth into the Cosmos in my lifetime. However Newt's methods would lead to failure. He is not a visionary....he is an illusionist.