The Tenors – My Father’s Son
An evening pause: For Father’s Day this coming Sunday.
Hat tip Danae.
Author: Robert Zimmerman
Iraqi forces retake Fallujah from ISIS
Good news: Iraq has retaken Fallujah from ISIS control.
This is their victory, not ours, and stands a very good chance of sticking because of that.
June 16, 2016 Zimmerman/Batchelor podcast
Embedded below the fold. Lots of science in this segment.
» Read more
Ten scientific benefits of owning a cat
News you can use: Ten scientific reasons owning a cat will improve your life.
I especially like #4.
Facebook bans gay web magazine for criticizing Islam
Fascists: A homosexual web magazine has been banned by Facebook for publishing criticisms of Islam.
The social media platform has again been censoring pages that criticise Islam. Facebook banned the page of gay magazine Gaystream after the publication wrote an article attacking people for defending the attitudes of the religion towards homosexuals. Journalist and editor-in-chief of Gaystream, David Berger, claimed that the site had blocked the magazine’s page because of an article that sharply criticised Green party activists who “played down the causes of the attack,” Junge Freiheit writes.
Mr. Berger claims that not only was the Facebook page deactivated, but his personal account was also shut down for 30 days after he posted an article he had written called: “Cologne professional Homos scale new stage of Islam-masochism.” In the article, he heavily criticised the Cologne Gay Museum director Dr. Brigit Bosold who told German media she was more afraid of straight white men than Islamic radicals and migrants.
It is entirely within Facebook’s legal right to issue such bans, as the company is a private entity and the first amendment does not apply to them. Nonetheless, this story, as well as other examples where Facebook banned people merely for expressing conservative ideas, is another example of why I am not on Facebook. Why give them power to restrict my freedom?
The story also illustrates again the intolerant and oppressive face of the left. They always claim they want a “national conversation” about the important issues of the day, but as soon as someone takes them up on that claim but says something they disagree with, their first response is to try to silence that speech.
Senate to vote Monday on four gun control bills
Call your senator! The Senate will take up four gun control bills on Monday, all useless in preventing the Orlando mass killing but all very useful in denying innocent Americans their second amendment rights.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., authored the terror watch list measure. It would allow federal investigators to block gun purchases by people who they are scrutinizing for possible links to terrorism. The Senate will also vote on an alternative to Feinstein, sponsored by Sen. John Cornyn, that would put in place a three-day delay for gun purchases by people on the terror watch list. Cornyn’s bill would require the federal government to prove in court that the purchaser should not own a weapon.
A third measure, sponsored by Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., would require background checks at gun shows. Senators will also consider legislation sponsored by Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, that aims to increase prosecutions of people who try to illegally purchase guns, and ensure those will mental illness can’t buy them.
The first and second are blatantly unconstitutional. The third is bull because background checks are already required at gun shows. And the third is both unconstitutional as well as an empty gesture accomplishing nothing. All four would have done nothing to prevent the Orlando murders, since the madman there had followed the law very carefully, was screened heavily, and was not even on a terrorist watch list.
And once again, the useless Republican quislings in Congress, instead of standing up for our rights, offer incremental compromises that serve to squelch our freedoms only a little. No wonder the pubic wants an outsider for President.
Speaking of outsiders, below the fold is Ted Cruz’s response today in Congress to the Democratic fascist push to deny us our right to keep and bear arms. No compromise on freedom from him.
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Blue Origin delays New Shepard flight
In the heat of competition: Because of leaky o-rings Blue Origin has delayed its next flight of New Shepard to Sunday.
I can still find nothing to indicate the flight time.
Quincy Coleman – Baby Don’t You Cry (The Pie Song)
An evenig pause: Recipe by Sunita Marie, whose youtube channel simply says, “Music is fun.”
Hat tip Edward Thelen.
ExoMars snaps its first images of Mars
In preparation for its October arrival in Mars orbit, the European ExoMars probe has successfully sent back its first images of the red planet.
The image is very fuzzy with a very low resolution, but that is expected considering the distance. What the image demonstrates is that ExoMars’ camera is working as expected.
Democratic Senator condemns idea of due process
Fascist: Senator Joe Manchin (D-West Virginia) today argued that the idea of due process, enshrined in the fifth amendment of the Bill of Rights, must go.
“The problem we have—and really, the firewall we have right now, is due process. It’s all due process. So we can all say, ‘yeah, we want the same thing,’ but how do we get there. If a person is on a terrorist watch list like the gentleman—the shooter—in Orlando, he was, twice by the FBI, we were briefed yesterday about what happened. But that man was brought in twice. They did everything they could. The FBI did everything they were supposed to do. But there was no way for them to keep him on the nix list or keep him off the gun buy list. There was no way to do that. So can’t we say that if a person is under suspicion, there should be a five year period of time that we have to see if good behavior, if this person continues the same traits? Maybe we can come to that type of an agreement. But due process is what’s killing us right now. [emphasis mine]
If you had any doubt about the fascist direction in which the Democratic Party is heading, this one quote should end that doubt. They have already demanded that the first and second amendments be changed or removed. Now Manchin, who is supposedly a moderate Democratic, is calling for the end to the fifth amendment. Apparently, the idea of liberty as expressed by the Bill of Rights is something that Democrats no longer support. And if you vote for them, you no longer support it as well, making you as much a fascist as they are.
Global warming skeptic responds bluntly to Democratic subpoena
In response to a subpoena from the Democratic Attorney General of Massachusetts, Maura Healey, for 40 years of past correspondence between a think tank and Exxon, the think tank founder had this response: “F–k off, Fascist”.
Healey subpoenaed Exxon as part of a multi-state effort among liberal prosecutors to investigate the company for allegedly trying to cover up global warming science. Healey alleges the oil giant lied to shareholders and consumers about the risks of global warming in its communications and shareholder filings, according to a copy of the subpoena obtained by The Daily Caller News Foundation.
She’s targeting CIP and other prominent conservative groups, like the Heritage Foundation and Americans for Prosperity (AFP), because of their supposed ties to Exxon. The only problem is, neither CIP nor AFP are funded by Exxon.
I think this response not only provides an accurate description of this liberal Democratic effort to squelch dissent, but is the correct response. It is clear that the Democratic Party has become the home for intolerant, hate-filled totalitarians who think it okay to silence debate and use the law to oppress those who disagree with them. It is also clear that more people have to tell them to go to hell.
Kelly describes medical issues from weightlessness
In prepared remarks to a congressional subcommittee today, astronaut Scott Kelly described the medical problems he has experienced since returning from his 340 day mission on ISS.
Kelly claimed in these remarks that weightlessness caused permanent effects (which this news article decides to emphasize), but I think that might be an overstatement. None of the specific problems he experienced appear to be permanent ones, and in my interviews with Russian astronauts who stayed even longer on Mir they noted no permanent effects. One did say however that the recovery time tended to match the mission time, so that if you spent a year in space it took a year to completely recover. Kelly has only been back about three months, so his recovery is certainly not over yet.
Update: Kelly’s remarks were part of a hearing promoting legislation that would give astronauts lifetime medical coverage from the government. Thus, there is a bit of lobbying going on here.
Fire in space
The NASA fire experiment on Cygnus was successfully ignited on Tuesday.
No video or pictures yet, as far as I can tell. All they say so far is that “Saffire-I has been ignited inside the Orbital ATK Cygnus cargo spacecraft and telemetry indicates a burn of the cotton-fiberglass material blend.”
Newly discovered asteroid quasi-moon of Earth
A newly discovered asteroid has a solar orbit that makes it Earth’s constant companion.
As it orbits the sun, this new asteroid, designated 2016 HO3, appears to circle around Earth as well. It is too distant to be considered a true satellite of our planet, but it is the best and most stable example to date of a near-Earth companion, or “quasi-satellite.”
“Since 2016 HO3 loops around our planet, but never ventures very far away as we both go around the sun, we refer to it as a quasi-satellite of Earth,” said Paul Chodas, manager of NASA’s Center for Near-Earth Object (NEO) Studies at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. “One other asteroid — 2003 YN107 — followed a similar orbital pattern for a while over 10 years ago, but it has since departed our vicinity. This new asteroid is much more locked onto us. Our calculations indicate 2016 HO3 has been a stable quasi-satellite of Earth for almost a century, and it will continue to follow this pattern as Earth’s companion for centuries to come.”
The asteroid is thought to be between 120 to 300 feet across.
ULA pinpoints cause of Atlas 5 premature shutdown
In the heat of competition: ULA has completed its investigation into the premature shutdown of the Atlas 5 first stage during its March launch of Orbital ATK’s Cygnus capsule and has corrected the problem.
An extensive review of all post-flight data observations determined that at approximately T+222 seconds, an unexpected shift in fuel pressure differential across the RD-180 Mixture Ratio Control Valve (MRCV) and a reduction in fuel flow to the combustion chamber caused an oxidizer-rich mixture of propellants and a reduction in first stage performance. The imbalanced propellant consumption rate resulted in depletion of the first stage oxidizer with significant fuel remaining at booster engine shutdown. The engine supplier has implemented a minor change to the MRCV assembly to ensure the anomaly does not occur on future flights.
Engine hot-fire testing, extensive component and assembly level testing and analyses have been performed to confirm the findings. Detailed inspections and minor hardware replacement on all engines will support the current launch manifest.
They have now scheduled the next Atlas 5 launch for June 24.
Orbital ATK delays Antares launch until August
In the heat of competition: The review of Orbital ATK’s May 31st static fire test of its Antares rocket has caused the company to delay the upgraded rocket’s first launch until August.
Additional information pointed to data on “vibrations” during the Static Fire test that could be deemed as a problem for the vehicle’s avionics. A “fix” was already understood to have been approved.
Orbital ATK, while admitting the launch is slipping from its early July launch date estimate to a date likely to be in the August timeframe, pointed to trajectory evaluations as a specific relation to the launch date deliberations. “Final trajectory shaping work is also currently underway, which is likely to result in an updated launch schedule in the August timeframe,” added Orbital ATK.
They expect to make a decision on launch date in a few weeks.
Anthony Hopkins & André Rieu – And The Waltz Goes On
An evening pause: From the youtube page: “[Actor Sir Anthony] Hopkins said he had been an admirer of André Rieu for several years and wanted to meet him, so he sent him some music that he wrote with Rieu specifically in mind to perform and his dream came true when André Rieu masterfully performed it with his orchestra.”
Hat tip Danae.
Leftwing filmmaker Michael Moore demands the removal of every elected official who disagrees with him
Fascist: Leftwing filmmaker Michael Moore has called for the removal from office of any member of Congress who does not immediately bow down and support a bill that bans all assault weapons (whatever those might be):
“Any member of Congress who hasn’t announced support for a bill to ban all assault weapons by Friday should be removed from Congress,” the Academy Award-winning documentary filmmaker tweeted Tuesday evening.
Moore might be calling for their defeat during an election, but I personally do not think so. The left has become increasingly intolerant and strident in recent years, more willing to openly oppress anyone who disagrees with them, and I think this describes precisely what Moore really wants to happen.
Another gravity wave detected by LIGO
The LIGO gravitational wave detector has detected its second gravitational wave, thought to come from the merger of two black holes.
The new observation came at 3:38.53 Coordinated Universal Time on 26 December 2015—late on Christmas day at LIGO’s detectors in Livingston, Louisiana, and Hanford, Washington. As in the first event, the detectors sensed an oscillating stretching of space-time, the signal, according to Einstein’s general theory of relativity, of massive objects in violent motion. Computer modeling indicated that its source was two black holes spiraling together about 1.4 billion light-years away. (LIGO researchers had seen a weaker signal on 12 October 2015 that may be a third black hole merger.)
Note the last sentence in the quote above. They might have had a third detection, but are uncertain enough to have not claimed it as one.
Trump the gun control expert
Donald Trump said today that he will consider regulations that will allow the federal government to deny anyone their second amendment right should they be suspected of harboring evil thoughts.
Donald Trump says he’ll talk to the National Rifle Association about introducing new restrictions on guns for suspected terrorists at an upcoming meeting. Trump said Wednesday morning in a tweet: ‘I will be meeting with the NRA, who has endorsed me, about not allowing people on the terrorist watch list, or the no fly list, to buy guns.’
Earlier this week Trump hit presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton over her support for an assault weapons ban and accused her of trying to to not only ban guns, but get rid of the Second Amendment. Clinton had also called for a block on firearms purchases for persons on the TSA’s no fly list and the FBI’s terror watch list.
Trump said last year after the Paris terrorist attack that he was in favor of congressional legislation that would do just that.
Remember, you get on a no-fly list or a terrorist watch list not because you actually did anything wrong and were convicted of it in a court of law, but because some federal government bureaucrat decides to put you on the list, based merely on their opinions or conclusions. Just imagine giving this power to our federal government: What could possibly go wrong?
Once again, it is imperative that Trump be surrounded by as many conservatives as possible. Hillary Clinton, a confirmed leftist, cannot be influenced on this and other political matters. Donald Trump, however, can be.
Update: This article, 6 Things To Know About Tying Gun Sales To A Watch List, is definitely worth reading, as it puts the entire issue into clear perspective. The calls by Democrats to deny second amendment rights to anyone on a government suspect list are nothing more than a fascist effort to gain power over free Americans.