To read this post please scroll down.

 

Readers!

 

It is now July, time once again to celebrate the start of this webpage in 2010 with my annual July fund-raising campaign.

 

This year I celebrate the fifteenth anniversary since I began Behind the Black. During that time I have done more than 33,000 posts, mostly covering the global space industry and the related planetary and astronomical science that comes from it. Along the way I have also felt compelled as a free American citizen to regularly post my thoughts on the politics and culture of the time, partly because I think it is important for free Americans to do so, and partly because those politics and that culture have a direct impact on the future of our civilization and its on-going efforts to explore and eventually colonize the solar system.

 

You can’t understand one without understanding the other.

 

Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent independent analysis you don’t find elsewhere. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn’t influenced by donations by established companies or political movements. 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.


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. 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

  • 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.

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 *