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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.

 

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Sarah Connolly & the BBC Orchestra – Rule Britannia

An evening pause: I like this verse, which they reprised, with the chorus, which all people should echo.

When Britain first, at Heaven’s command
Arose from out the azure main;
This was the charter of the land,
And guardian angels sang this strain:

“Rule, Britannia! rule the waves:
“Britons never will be slaves.”

Hat tip Jim Mallamace.

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

8 comments

  • Robert Pratt

    A great lyric it is and long among my favorites.

  • Jake V

    That was really well done.

    In listening to refrain:

    “Rule, Britannia! rule the waves:
    “Britons never never shall be slaves.”

    I keep wondering why on earth the United Kingdom ever chose to give up it’s sovereignty and become essentially slaves to Brussels.

  • wayne

    Jake V–
    highly suggest a lecture–
    “Britain in the 20th Century: Attempts to Construct a Socialist Commonwealth 1945-1951”

    https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/britain-in-the-20th-century-the-attempt-to-construct-a-socialist-commonwealth

  • LocalFluff

    I’m surprised to read Americans appreciating this. Maybe the revolutionary spirit has abated and today your rightfully born Queen, at the grace of God, can claim her little cotton colony back from the rebels without too much resistance? The rejoined colony could be named “Greater Bahamas”.

  • LocalFluff

    Queen Elisabeth II was born only 50 years after the US civil war. She’s 91 in two weeks. US history is so very brief.

  • wayne

    Neil Young
    “God Save the Queen”/”America” medley
    https://youtu.be/y-nPsrX05Rk?t=150
    (4:11)

  • LocalFluff

    wayne,
    The arch bishop kisses the queen?
    That’s out of outrageous!

    The insane rituals of European monarchs:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=inKSvLk7kiI

    Imagine the mental illness required to dress up like that and act like that.
    “- Here’s a gold broderied tent and a silly gigantic metal hat that you are supposed to wear. And a couple of sticks for you to hold on to while you sit in your ridiculous chair-like piece of furniture.
    – Yeah, sure fat chance, liksom!”

    That’s why the republic was invented. Electing kings instead of just having them inbreed their strange rituals. It might not always turn out very well, but it is always better than this!

  • wayne

    LocalFluff–
    “Mentally Ill, as the day is long.”

    Game of Thrones – The Hound (Chicken Scene)
    https://youtu.be/KtCsmSMRiC0
    (1:31)

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