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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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4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
 
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January 28, 2022 Zimmerman/Batchelor podcast

Embedded below the fold in two parts.

To listen to all of John Batchelor’s podcasts, well worth your time, go here.

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

2 comments

  • wayne

    “Rabbit Seasoning” (1952)
    [pronoun trouble]
    https://youtu.be/6e1hZGDaqIw
    2:04

  • BtB’s Original Mark

    Wayne – With Bugs Bunny I expected a good non-postmodern laugh.

    But noooo! I’m sucked back into the variation of the Simulation which includes 543 pronouns.

    Thanks Wayne for wrecking my morning coffee buzz while looking out at frozen sheets of pristine snow covered farmland.

    I guess I’ll return to listening to that PKD novel you previously linked to. Like PKD, I will accept the experience of radical instability in the boundaries that define me and my corner of this awesome frozen world.

    And now that I’m back in the Simulation, I can genuinely say I take offense at this heteronormative Bugs Bunny video. And please don’t reply with the lame excuse that it’s an animation from 1952.

    And Wayne, don’t take my WOKE criticism personally. I, myself, like every good citizen now participate in regular confessions regarding our Non-Woke thought crimes (or misdemeanors). I recently confessed that I am intimidated by the sheer size of the spectrum of gender identities. The PC police will probably jump on me for this, but this whole choose/name your pronouns thing is becoming too much for me to handle. In my defense, I’ve been given dispensation since I suffer from face blindness which falls under the Americans with Disability Act. For the record, I have nothing against those who want to change their gender. More power to them. However unfair issues arise when people around me who are genetically XX or XY change their pronouns on a whim. These ‘thems’ then expect everyone to cater to their choices. I’m sorry, but no, with my face blindness condition I cannot see the new gender cues that apparently the rest of society can.

    But the biggest problem is this whole them/theirs thing. These are plural pronouns. The problem is simply one of confusion. Using plural pronouns for singular persons is confusing, and irritating when reading or listening. Are they talking about one person, or more than one? Sometimes, who knows!
    Now, let me be clear, I’m 100% against bigotry in any form whatsoever, period. I’m suggesting that we simply come up with a new word/pronoun for those who don’t want to use he/she. I honestly don’t see the big deal about coming up with a new word. But, even then, trying to force choosing/naming one’s pronouns all the time is not something I can mentally deal with. No offense to anyone, but just no. This dog is too disabled for those new tricks

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