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Readers! A November fund-raising drive!

 

It is unfortunately time for another November fund-raising campaign to support my work here at Behind the Black. I really dislike doing these, but 2025 is so far turning out to be a very poor year for donations and subscriptions, the worst since 2020. I very much need your support for this webpage to survive.

 

And I think I provide real value. Fifteen years ago I said SLS was garbage and should be cancelled. Almost a decade ago I said Orion was a lie and a bad idea. As early as 1998, long before almost anyone else, I predicted in my first book, Genesis: The Story of Apollo 8, that private enterprise and freedom would conquer the solar system, not government. Very early in the COVID panic and continuing throughout I noted that every policy put forth by the government (masks, social distancing, lockdowns, jab mandates) was wrong, misguided, and did more harm than good. In planetary science, while everyone else in the media still thinks Mars has no water, I have been reporting the real results from the orbiters now for more than five years, that Mars is in fact a planet largely covered with ice.

 

I could continue with numerous other examples. If you want to know what others will discover a decade hence, read what I write here at Behind the Black. And if you read my most recent book, Conscious Choice, you will find out what is going to happen in space in the next century.

 

 

This last claim might sound like hubris on my part, but I base it on my overall track record.

 

So please consider donating or subscribing to Behind the Black, either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. I could really use the support at this time. There are five 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. Takes about a 10% cut.
 

3. A Paypal Donation or subscription, which takes about a 15% cut:

 

4. Donate by check. I get whatever you donate. Make the check payable to Robert Zimmerman and mail it 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.


New airport security checks causing protests

And people wonder why I now drive from Maryland to Chicago: It appears that no one is happy with new TSA airport security checks, requiring either a full body scan or a full body pat down. Protests are coming from pilots, flight attendants, passengers, and the airlines. Key quote from the “passenger” link above:

The aggressively enhanced TSA pat down involves over-the-clothes searches of passengers’ breast and genital areas. You can opt not to go through the backscatter body scanners, and thereby keep your genitalia private from pictures, but then a TSA screener will use a front-of-the-hand, slide-down body screening that Ars Technica called “nut-busting pat-downs.”

And there’s National Opt-Out Day, November 24, 2010. (I wish I could participate, but as I said, I will be driving to Chicago for Thanksgiving, mostly to avoid the police-state of the TSA.)

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 or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. 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

  • Jason

    I fought for my country. I fought terrorists. I come home and see these new TSa procedures and have to ask- when did the terrorists win? After deep reflection, I cannot call TSA terrorists- that would insult every terrorist who took the time to decide to be inhuman and oppress people behind the barrel of a gun and years of hate they learned to master. TSA is not making us safer, they are cowering to the terrorists. How about this- everyone must board a plan must be armed. I would rather have this law- and fly on a plane of arabs where the odds are alot less one would be a terrorist than getting groped by in impudent indignant cowardly nazi at the airport.

    Lawsuits against individual TSA agents can now be filed, and against their spouses for supporting them in violating your civil rights in several States. TSA officers and most citizens are unaware of this. Suing the TSA may be useless, but suing the individual and their spouse is a form of legal redress which their employer canno shielfd them from. I suggest anyone who feels offended should contact a lawyer immediately, and the key is to name the offical officers, not the agency- this is the same law that allows one to sue a police officer who exceeded his authority.

    How can a 22 yr old donut poster boy officer lecture a veteran on terrorist when he never even seen one, or served in the military. I am insulted I have to even hear these macho cowards. For ex military personel, I recommend you wear your medals ontop of your civilian clothes to the airport so these jack boot nazis know what a real American looks like.

    And to the Greatest Generation who stormed Normandy, and Landed on Gudacanal and are too old today to stand and need wheelchairs, I apologize for the dehumanizing that you have had to endure in the airport from these thugs- You deserve better, you sacraficed so much for all future generations and the powers that be have thrown it away like pearls infront of Swine. I will stand up for you- and for the TSA agents future grandchildren, as S/he is too cowardly to do so today.

    I ask everyone to reflect on this vilationof privacy and ask yourself- “If this is happening today what will my grandchildren have to endure?” and make a stand for freedom-

  • Wanna strike back at the TSA? Here’s how ya do it:

    1. Print up leaflets with your argument against their practices.
    2. Go stand at the TSA line and hand them out.
    3. Eventually you will get told to stop, have your name taken, and be escorted from the airport.
    4. Try to fly, you will discover you have been put on the no-fly-list.
    5. Sue.

    Hopefully you will be more successful than John Gilmore, who tried to sue over being required to show ID to fly.

    If you’re not willing to do this, just keep complaining on the Internet, that’ll be effective.

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