Scroll down to read this post.

 

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


The grassroots revolt led by mothers

The Liberty Bell
“Proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all
the inhabitants thereof.” Photo credit: William Zhang

Bring a gun to a knife fight: The recent upheavals at school board meetings over the effort by public school officials to insert pornography in elementary schools — against the will of parents — points to a revolution that is likely not to end until either the public schools change drastically, or die because parent cease sending their kids to these schools.

The ramifications however could extend far beyond the classroom.

This revolution is best illustrated by Moms for Liberty, a new organization only three years old that has grown to become a major political factor in school board elections, and thus by proxy a major influence on larger elections on the local, state, and even national level.

Nor have they restricted themselves to protesting at school board meetings. [Moms for Liberty] have endorsed and actively supported parent-friendly candidates for school board seats nationwide. In 2022, they supported 500 candidates, 275 of whom won. Moreover, their candidates took control of 17 school boards in California, Florida, Indiana, Minnesota, New Jersey, North Carolina, and South Carolina. Moms for Liberty has now set its sights on school board elections in 2024, even as the organization enjoys rapidly growing conservative support and donor funding.

Moms for Liberty chapter distribution
Moms for Liberty chapter distribution

In those three years Moms for Liberty has grown to include almost 300 chapters in 45 states. What is most fascinating is the distribution of its chapters, as shown in the graphic to the right, taken from its chapter webpage. One would expect these chapters to mostly exist in Republican-controlled states, but instead, there is a strong concentration of chapters in Democratically-controlled strongholds, such as California, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Washington. It appears this parent-run organization is taking its battle head-on against the left.

Though its existence stems from the fight to stop the queer agenda from being taught to kids, in the end this movement of parents is guaranteed to have a significant national impact politically. For decades school boards have been used by the Democratic Party — in league with leftist teachers’ unions — as a minor league proving ground for future candidates in statewide and national elections. Review the resume of almost any Democrat and you will find a former school board member. These unions fund school board candidates, who once in office begin the climb to higher office as dedicated Democrats.

Thus, the take-over of school boards by Moms for Liberty is an existential threat to both the Democratic Party and the teachers’ unions. By taking those school board victories away from the left, these parents will also producing many future conservative political candidates. Just has the Democrats have used school boards as their candidate training ground, the moribund Republican Party is going to discover itself overrun with new candidates coming from these school board victories. And unlike the traditionally boring and establishment Republican candidates we’ve seen for decades, always careful to offend no one while doing nothing to change the status quo, these new candidates will be expressly focused on overturning that status quo, not caring if someone is offended in the process.

In this sense, Moms for Liberty will become the Republican Party. Or as many a Jewish mother has said, “From your lips to God’s ears!”

More important, the victories by parents in school boards nationwide will give Americans the first real opportunity to end left’s control over the schools and the education of children. Not surprisingly, this possibility has generated a response from those leftist teachers’ unions.

Becky Pringle, for example, is the President of the National Education Association (NEA). According to a report in Newsweek, “Pringle accused Moms for Liberty of ‘running extreme’ candidates who ‘politicize classrooms’ and ‘use students as pawns in culture wars.’” She also denounced the Parents Bill of Rights Act (HR 5) that was passed by House Republicans last March, insisting that the bill “would make it easier to pass book bans and censor honest, accurate history.”

To Pringle, teaching kids that American is evil and that socialism will produce a paradise on Earth is what defines “honest, accurate history.” The left’s control of the school boards has allowed it to turn the schools into leftist indoctrination machines, churning out ignorant little Democrats trained to help the left reshape the culture into an anti-American socialist paradise that increasingly resembles Venezuela and the Soviet Union.

Thus, the effort by Moms for Liberty to put the school’s back into the hands of parents might actually make it possible for us recover our American culture, based on liberty, individual rights and responsibility, and limited government.

The original goal by Moms for Liberty might have been to change the schools, but the longer term consequences will be to change the political and cultural landscape, in ways that at this moment cannot be measured.

Readers!

 

Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows 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.

 

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.

 

2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
 

3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:

 

4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
 
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652

 

You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.

18 comments

  • “Pringle accused Moms for Liberty of ‘running extreme’ candidates who ‘politicize classrooms’ and ‘use students as pawns in culture wars.’”

    As has been observed many times by many people, Democrats are masters of projection, and lack the self-awareness to realize it. I suggest that anyone so divorced from an understanding of their own actions cannot be considered sentient.

    As for ‘honest, accurate history’, perhaps Ms Pringle would like to start by teaching the Democratic Party’s unwavering commitment to slavery and the repression of non-white people in this country.

  • Ben

    What was the old WWII bomber pilot addage about how you know when your over the target?

  • Lee S

    Hello guys…. I have very little to say on the above, only to say that the right wing panic is probably just that… You guys enjoy making a drama out of anything you can ( no offence intended!)

    But on a kinda related note .. how does everyone feel about the “climate crisis”? I am currently on a short holiday on the Greek island of Rhodes… And literally half the island is on fire… 19000 tourists have been evacuated…. The wind and heat are unprecedented.. ( I lived here for 3 years a long time ago, and the climate is very different today!).

    I believe your having problems over there also.

    While , as I have always said, climate change could have absolutely nothing to do with human intervention, there is now no doubt things are changing … and my opinion is that we should probably try harder to not make things worse

    I know I am talking to a very skeptical crowd… But seeing a place I genuinely love burn … ( I have seen photos of a bar I was in 4 days ago burnt to the ground) , and experiencing the strange weather ( unusual heat and winds blowing harder and in the wrong direction..).. it seems to me that the time is right to take this stuff for real!

    Thoughts appreciated! ( I may argue tho!! :-)

  • Ferris

    To Lee S, a reminder:

    The climate has been changing for 4.5 Billion years.

    While it is possible that humanity has had SOME effect on the climate, the overwhelming majority of the changes are due to other factors completely outside of human influence.

  • Cotour

    https://fireecology.springeropen.com/articles/10.1007/BF03400631

    DOH, Homer: “And a conflagration arose greater than any one had ever seen up to that time, kindled, I mean, by the hand of man; for in times past in the mountains when dry branches have been rubbed against each other a forest has caught fire spontaneously therefrom and produced a conflagration.”

    “Naturally started wildfires, also, were a very common phenomenon all over Greece. Homer in Iliad (Λ. 155) sings:”

    Summer is hot.

  • Cotour

    A little more:

    “At present, fire still constitutes a very important factor of the Greek wildland ecosystems. Wildfires in forests and rangelands are very common. D. Kailidis (1972) reports that from 1956 to 1971 the average number of wildfires registered all over Greece per year amounted to 612, and had destroyed, on average, 10 150 ha of forest and brushlands, with an estimated damage of about $7 336 000.”

    Summer was hot during Homers day, and summer was hot in the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s. And there were forest fires probably every year over the last two thousand or so years. Sometimes more, sometimes less. Why? Because the climate changes year to year and we are generally in a warming trend I.E. post ice age cycle.

    And summer is still hot today.

    Luckily fall is but about a month away.

    Then it gets cooler.

  • Cotour observed: ” . . . we are generally in a warming trend I.E. post ice age cycle.”

    A mere 15000 years ago, much of the Northern Hemisphere was covered in ice, and not just a little. But we live on a dynamic planet, and there have been numerous times when the planetary climate was much warmer than the present day, and much higher concentrations of CO2. Looking at the record, one might reasonably expect the Earth to warm after an Ice Age. I think the most significant human influence may be to slightly accelerate a natural process. Then there is the seeming link between planetary climate activity and sunspots, something likely true for every atmospheric body in the System.

    But wait! Remember the *other* climate change of the 1970’s? Global Cooling and the coming Ice Age? Learned scientists pontificated at length about the inevitability of a cooling climate. Less than 20 years later, it was Global Warming. And there are some scientist who aren’t entirely sure we’re out of the Ice Age woods, yet.

    Lee S, consider that for matters of this import, the messenger is as important as the message. And the messengers, and their message, have failed so spectacularly in government, education, public safety, and public health, that even the San Francisco City Council publicly admitted to their misdeeds. The people responsible for the destruction of American cities are the same people grooming children are the same people repressing American Blacks are the same people wanting to impoverish people in service of their religion.

    I’ll pass.

  • wayne

    “What the dinosaurs saw before the Chicxulub impact”
    https://youtu.be/J0tCK2c4L7s
    12:48

  • Alex Andrite

    Great thread all around.
    Thanks folks.

    I vote for sunspots this time.
    Solar maximum approaches, a busy one at that for “spot” and friends.

    Love it.

  • Edward

    Ferris,
    The climate may have been changing, but keep in mind that there has never been a forest fire ever before. To have one now is a sure sign of climate change, and change in the wrong direction. Also, there have never been hurricanes, tornadoes, or rain storms, either, so when those come along, they will also be proof positive of climate change, also in the wrong direction.

    Too, keep in mind that the U.S. met its Kyoto Accord assignment and that China, India, and Brazil have no limits set on them, so they and the U.S. are the only successful Kyoto nations on the planet. More proof positive that anthropogenic global warming is a major problem that could have been solved had China, India, and Brazil met limits similar to the U.S.’s, but instead they built coal-burning power plants and they burned down their rain forests, which formerly had cleansed the air of the evil CO2 pollutant.

    Meanwhile, humanity is definitely the cause of climate change and global warming, because we are responsible for a whopping 2% of the total amount of CO2 that goes into the air, each year, an amount that overwhelms all the CO2 sinks of the world.

    But then there are those who complain the most about climate change and global warming and the coming Ice Age, due any millennium, now (or last decade, depending upon who you listen to). They use powered transportation to go to work or go on vacation, use power at their workplaces, and buy things that were made and delivered using power. They complain about the problem that they have defined, but then they do nothing to solve it, living life as though it is all someone else’s fault.

    Worse than that, though, is that it is too late. We were warned that if we didn’t solve the problem by the year 2000, then it would be too late, the end would be upon us, the seas would rise, the forests burn and turn to deserts, and all the polar bears would drown.

    Also, the Maldive Islands will Be Underwater by 2018 (they’re not)

    And Britain will Be Siberia by 2024

    And climate genius Al Gore predicted an ice-free Arctic by 2013, and someone else predicted that the Arctic will be ice free by 2018,

    Climate genius Prince Charles said we had 96 months to save world, and the UK Prime Minister said we had 50 days to ‘save the planet from catastrophe.’

    In addition: we were warned that Manhattan would be underwater by 2015. There were supposed to have been fifty million climate refugees by the year 2020. And, of course, snow was supposed to be a thing of the past for the past two decades.

    So, it is far too late to start taking action. The seas will rise and consume Obama’s recently bought oceanfront property (too bad for him, he didn’t get it at a discount due to the limited time he could enjoy it), and Florida will be under water any day, now. Any day.

    So, is it unreasonable to be skeptical when the “experts” warn us? Yes. Their track record is 100%. In the wrong direction. Should we be skeptical when some random person sees a forest fire and blames global warming changing climate? Well, no. “Him, we should finally take seriously.

    Because there has never, ever been a forest fire ever before.

  • Cotour

    Blair:

    But, “Extreme MAGA Republicans”!

    And don’t worry, John Kerry has all our backs.

    Now there is someone I would not trust as far as I could kick him.

  • wayne

    John Kerry
    April 1971
    https://youtu.be/H3mvpuv74bo
    2:05

  • markedup2

    I just had occasion to look at the temperature records of 1953 for my city. It was basically the same as this year (so far, at least). Right now, it’s summer so it’s hot. Big advantage over 1953: I have air conditioning (until Democrats take it away).

  • All:

    I find it fascinating how Lee S. has hijacked the discussion to get us to talk about climate change, something that is entirely off topic, but serves to distract us from the point of the post, that the left is now working to indoctrinate little kids in the most evil ways, and there are parents out there who are leading the fight to stop this.

    I guess Lee S. wants to make us forget about the queer agenda in the schools, being imposed by the leftist Democrats in the U.S. and elsewhere. It is something impossible to defend, so the best defense is distraction.

  • pzatchok

    Poor Lee S.

    He is so put out by the world that he and his family have to vacation in Greece, of all places.
    And its now all on fire to boot.

    At least he is worrying about the conservatives,who are worried about their own children. And how they are being educated and what they are being educated in.

  • Cotour

    I think that Senator John Kennedy brings out the real point of all of this “Climate Change” hypocrisy in a manner that only how he can bring it out:

    Senator John Kennedy questioning a Tulane professor: https://youtu.be/d7P6AbcEh0U All in just 5 minutes.

    Intellectuals or supposed intellectuals and “politically correct” policies will kill us all.

  • pzatchok

    By the records over the last 100 years in the US.

    We have had about 30 years of the very same temps and weather, About every ten years a group of high temperatures comes along We have had about the same in cold temps also.

    Funny how that happens.

  • Cotour, Thomas Sowell said it well:

    It is hard to imagine a more stupid or more dangerous way of making decisions than by putting those decisions in the hands of people who pay no price for being wrong.

    This professor is a poster child for this quote.

Readers: the rules for commenting!

 

No registration is required. I welcome all opinions, even those that strongly criticize my commentary.

 

However, name-calling and obscenities will not be tolerated. First time offenders who are new to the site will be warned. Second time offenders or first time offenders who have been here awhile will be suspended for a week. After that, I will ban you. Period.

 

Note also that first time commenters as well as any comment with more than one link will be placed in moderation for my approval. Be patient, I will get to it.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *