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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.

 

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The regulations are “overly prescriptive, operationally burdensome, and the incentives are too difficult to achieve to make this voluntary program attractive.”

Why don’t we just repeal it? “An umbrella group representing premier organizations such as the Mayo Clinic wrote the administration Wednesday saying that more than 90 percent of its members would not participate, because the rules as written are so onerous it would be nearly impossible for them to succeed.” There’s also this lovely quote:

[The Obamacare regulations] are overly prescriptive, operationally burdensome, and the incentives are too difficult to achieve to make this voluntary program attractive.

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

4 comments

  • LINO

    You better start figuring out ways to improve this program. I haven’t heard any serious politician that believes that it might be repealed.

    Yes, it’s expensive. So is our military presence in Iraq/Afghanistan/Western Europe,etc. If we pull out there and leave —c—an we offer medicare-type coverage to all Americans?

    Why not just amend it to look like what they’ve done in Massachusetts?

    I love to over-simplify!

  • it is strange that i love watching news and consider myself somewhat informed but I really have no idea what obamacare is or what it is going to do . i know democrats like it and republicans don’t . i know it says everyone has to buy health insurance or pay a fine . i know some people say the country is doomed with it some say it is doomed without it . im a younger person though, i don’t really understand how the huge entitlement programs work either and I’m not planning on the government taking care of my finances and providing me income into old age . currently my retirement plan is to work until I can’t anymore then die quietly without complaining too much . i agree with lino it won’t be repealed unless in 2012 there is republican pres, senate, and house and i don’t think that will happen but i’m not saying its impossible who knows what will happen

  • LINO

    Given the positions of fully invested politicos like Romney and Gingrich, who have reversed their fields on this issue as the opposing party embraced their old positions, it is hard to understand how the current posturing is not politically driven. I understand what’s driving what they’re doing, but it doesn’t impress me as serving anyone but themselves.

    I would be impressed if I were hearing cogent arguments about how we could truly get medical coverage for all Americans that didn’t involved uninsured people running to the emergency room for care, which is the most expensive possible option and is passed on to each and every one of us, whether we like it or not.

    If every Western nation can manage this program, so can we. We are kidding ourselves if we believe that we already don’t bear these expenses. We just need to be smarter about doing it and reduce expenses in the process. That would serve us all.

    “ObamaCare” is a first step in this direction. Seeing it as a solution is disingenuous, as the criticism that invites is obvious. It is far from the end product. Wiping it away is only reasonable if you have lined up a more effective replacement. Failing that, we need a more constructive approach.

    I am waiting to see both parties line up behind getting it where it needs to be, rather than either blindly supporting or attacking it.

    As long as this remains a partisan issue, we are all doomed to a limp and ineffective morass of an approach, whatever party is in power.

  • Kelly Starks

    >== I haven’t heard any serious politician that believes that it might be repealed. ==

    Actually thats taken as inevitable- even democrats and political groups that once supported it are against it and getting “exceptions” so the rules don’t cover them. This is especially true with core Democratic supports like big unions – so its dead program walking.

    >== If every Western nation can manage this program, so can we. ==

    Thats the pouint – no nation has mdae this work, and most all western nationa that have adopted programs like these are overturning them.

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