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Readers!

 

The time has come for my annual short Thanksgiving/Christmas fund drive for Behind The Black. I must do this every year in order to make sure I have earned enough money to pay my bills.

 

For this two-week campaign, I am offering a special deal to encourage donations. Donations of $200 will get a free autographed copy of the new paperback edition of Genesis: The Story of Apollo 8, while donations of $250 will get a free autographed copy of the new hardback edition. If you desire a copy, make sure you provide me your address with your donation.

 

As I noted in July, the support of my readers through the years has given me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.

 

In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.

 

Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.

 

Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:

 

1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.

 

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Rage

“We’re not seeing “panic.” What we’re seeing is rage that the country is having a deadly disease foist on it for no good reason.”

Read it. You will feel rage also.

Genesis cover

On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.

 

The print edition can be purchased at Amazon. from any other book seller, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.


The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
 

"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News

4 comments

  • Jake

    As best as I can tell from the official reports, Ebola tests will show a negative result during the 21 day incubation period. So there is no way to rule out that someone who has contacted Ebola has it until the incubation period is passed and the virus is established and contagious. It seems to be that a 21 day mandatory quarantine is a very reasonable course of action. I could respect a quarantine at home if it were enforceable (meaning individuals are tested negative and allowed to transport home in a private vehicle), but given how nurse Kaci Hickox is flaunting very reasonable protocols I don’t think it would work.

  • wodun

    Or the doctor who claimed to have self isolated but was really riding every subway in NYC. Sure, hard to transmit but when you have millions of possible encounters, the probabilities change.

  • Jake

    Last week the CDC said you can’t get ebola riding on a bus and sitting next to someone who has it. Today they said you can get it if someone who has it sneezes on you: http://nypost.com/2014/10/29/cdc-admits-droplets-from-a-sneeze-could-spread-ebola/

    When will the federal government put medical science ahead of politics?

  • Edward

    Nurse Kaci Hickox may have been a hero when she was risking her life treating Ebola patients, but she shows disrespect for Americans when she roams among us at risk of becoming, at any moment, a “Typhoid Mary.”

    We can only hope that she is not infected and will not become sick, both for her sake but also for ours.

    The problem is not so much that she might spread the disease, but should she become sick, then as with all the other cases, fear will spread and precious resources will be expended tracking down those with whom she has come in contact. Businesses and schools may be closed down, multiple places (not just her home) will be cleansed, and her boyfriend will be subjected to quarantine — heaven forbid that he refuse, as she has done.

    She may have been a hero, but in my book she has become a goat for portraying such poor citizenship, just as Dr. Spencer did. These people should not only set a good example, but they — of all people in America — know first hand what happens to people who contract Ebola. And they are willing to risk infecting others for their own personal comfort and convenience — both of which they were willing to give up for strangers in a foreign land.

    The chances of spread may be low per encounter, but add up all the other irresponsible returning doctors (I hope it is limited to only those two, but the history of those previously under voluntary home quarantine shows otherwise) and all of their contacts, and we are likely to end up with more infected Americans, each of whom has a lot of contacts to increase the spread. Isn’t that how it spread in Africa in the first place?

Readers: the rules for commenting!

 

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