Author: Robert Zimmerman

After postponing Juno’s second midcourse correction burn, engineers have now successfully completed that burn.

6:03 pm

After postponing Juno’s second midcourse correction burn last month, engineers have now successfully completed that burn.

NASA’s Juno spacecraft successfully executed a second Deep Space Maneuver, called DSM-2 last Friday, Sept. 14. The 30 minute firing of its main engine refined the Jupiter-bound spacecraft’s trajectory, setting the stage for a gravity assist from a flyby of Earth on Oct 9, 2013. Juno will arrive at Jupiter on July 4, 2016.

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The automatic budget cuts triggered by sequestration appear increasingly likely according to two defense analysts.

4:47 pm

Good news: The automatic budget cuts triggered by sequestration appear increasingly likely according to two defense analysts.

Now that the Obama administration has released some details on how these 8.2 and 9.4 percent cuts will be imposed, I find them a refreshing change from business-as-usual in Washington. As far as I can tell, the only thing really wrong with them is that they only scratch the surface of the federal budget debt.

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The French magazine whose offices were firebombed last year after publishing an issue ridiculing Mohammad is about to do it again.

2:55 pm

Go for it! The French magazine whose offices were firebombed last year after publishing an issue ridiculing Mohammad is about to publish another issue doing the exact same thing.

Charlie Hebdo’s latest move was greeted with immediate calls from political and religious leaders for the media to act responsibly and avoid inflaming the current situation. Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault issued a statement expressing his “disapproval of all excesses.”

The magazine’s editor, originally a cartoonist who uses the name Charb, denied he was being deliberately provocative at a delicate time. “The freedom of the press, is that a provocation?” he said. “I’m not asking strict Muslims to read Charlie Hebdo, just like I wouldn’t go to a mosque to listen to speeches that go against everything I believe.”

I say, good for the magazine Charlie Hebdo. And more publications should join in! If a lot of people make fun of Islam and Mohammad, it will make it very difficult for the religion-of-peace’s firebombing and rioting mobs to keep up.

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A Florida family now faces fines for hosting weekly Bible study sessions in their home.

11:05 am

A Florida family now faces fines for hosting weekly Bible study sessions in their home.

Shane and Marlen Roessiger, of Venice, Fla. are facing a $250 per day fine for hosting Friday night prayer and Bible study gatherings that are attended by as many as 10 people. “It is difficult to understand how it is illegal to have a prayer meeting on Friday night with a half dozen people but it is alright if I invited the same group on Monday evening to watch Monday night Football,” Roessiger said. The Roessigers are also facing a fine for putting a small sign in their front yard.

Gee, maybe they should riot and kill people instead. That way the government would call them members of the religion of peace and let them practice their religion freely.

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Astronaut Sunita Williams completed first simulated triathlon in space this past weekend on ISS.

9:10 am

Astronaut Sunita Williams completed the first simulated triathlon in space this past weekend on ISS.

After “swimming” half a mile (0.8 km), biking 18 miles (29 km), and running 4 miles (6.4 km), Williams finished with a time of one hour, 48 minutes and 33 seconds, she reported. The space station has its own treadmill and stationary bike, which use harnesses and straps in place of gravity to keep astronauts from floating away. To simulate the swimming portion of the race, Williams used what’s called the Advanced Resistive Exercise Device (ARED) to do weightlifting and resistance exercises that approximate swimming in microgravity.

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A Justice department official today refused to rule out the possibility of passing a law that would criminalize speech against any religion.

11:59 am

A Justice department official today refused to rule out the idea of passing a law that would criminalize speech against any religion. With video.

The exact wording of the question: “Will you tell us here today that this administration’s Department of Justice will never entertain or advance a proposal that criminalizes speech against any religion?”

Despite being asked the question four times, the official consistently refused to answer the question directly. In other words, the Obama administration would consider criminalizing speech against religion. Or to put it more bluntly, they don’t believe in freedom of speech.

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Congress is on a pace this year to pass the fewest laws in a single year since World War II.

10:15 am

Gridlock is good! Congress is on a pace this year to pass the fewest laws in a single year since World War II.

Just 61 bills have become law to date in 2012 out of 3,914 bills that have been introduced by lawmakers, or less than 2 percent of all proposed laws, according to a USA Today analysis of records since 1947 kept by the U.S. House Clerk’s office.

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Three astronauts have safely returned to Earth from ISS.

9:23 am

Three astronauts have safely returned to Earth from ISS.

More important, the Russians have now delayed the next Soyuz manned launch to ISS for a week due to “some malfunctions [that] have appeared in one of the devices of the decent module.”

They also say the delay is to avoid a flight conflict with the next Dragon mission on October 15. This is interesting in that the last word we had from NASA was that the Dragon launch could occur as early as October 5.

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“Sequestration would come at ‘great cost’ to NASA.”

8:06 pm

Another whining article about sequestration: “Sequestration would come at ‘great cost’ to NASA.”

Let’s be blunt. An 8.2 percent cut in NASA’s budget will not destroy the agency. It will hurt them, surely, but it will only bring their budget back the agency’s 2005 budget. Considering the deficit and debt, this is hardly a draconian cut.

If the Republicans are serious about getting the budget under control — as they say they are — then these automatic cuts imposed by sequestration should not give them heartburn.

As for the Democrats, no point in caring what they think or do. We already know they aren’t serious about getting the budget under control, considering the budgets Obama has proposed, all of which were rejected unanimously by both Houses of Congress, and the refusal of the Democrats in the Senate to even offer a budget for the past three years.

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Obama cracks down on free speech.

8:24 pm

Obama cracks down on free speech.

In order to spare themselves the sort of critical scrutiny to which they are unaccustomed, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton have fallen in with the absurd claim that violence has broken out in eleven Muslim countries, and terrorists armed with RPGs and (reportedly) mortars carried out a military operation to assassinate a U.S. ambassador, as a result of a 14-minute YouTube video. As always, Obama’s first priority is to point the finger of responsibility elsewhere.

So the Obama administration cracked down on the Christian who made the film–essentially an amateur production–which is critical of Islam, but no more so than many Hollywood productions have been of Christianity. The federal government sent Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies to bring the filmmaker into custody on the pretext that his uploading the movie trailer to YouTube may have violated the terms of his probation on a bank fraud conviction. That led to the famous photo of Nakoula Basseley Nakoula being taken into custody.

Shameful, disgusting, and inexcusable. The Obama administration is essentially attacking American citizens for the evils committed by Islamic radicals half a world away.

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The Obama administration has delayed deployment of 50 Marines to protect its embassy in Khartoum because of objections of the Sudanese government.

2:49 pm

The Obama administration has pulled back the deployment of 50 Marines to protect its embassy in Khartoum because of objections of the Sudanese government.

In other words, the Obama administration is more willing to obey the orders of the Sudan government than it is willing to protect the lives of U.S. citizens abroad.

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