Another conservative organization that was harassed by the IRS has filed suit against the tax agency.
Pushback: Another conservative organization that was harassed by the IRS has filed suit against the tax agency.
A first look at the Saturn 5’s F1 engines that were recovered from the ocean floor.
A first look at the Saturn 5’s F1 engines that were recovered from the ocean floor and are being restored for museum display.
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 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
IRS official Lois Lerner will invoke the Fifth Amendment when she testifies to Congress.
IRS official Lois Lerner will invoke the Fifth Amendment when she testifies to Congress about the IRS’s harassment of conservatives.
She has the right to do this, but this action puts the lie to the Obama administration claim that no laws were broken in the IRS scandal. Her lawyer very clearly knows that she risks prosecution for breaking the law, and that is why he is advising her to invoke the Fifth.
More labor unions balk at the consequences of Obamacare.
Finding out what’s in it: More labor unions balk at the consequences of Obamacare.
Many UFCW members have what are known as multi-employer or Taft-Hartley plans. According to the administration’s analysis of the Affordable Care Act, the law does not provide tax subsidies for the roughly 20 million people covered by the plans. Union officials argue that interpretation could force their members to change their insurance and accept more expensive and perhaps worse coverage in the state-run exchanges.
Now available in hardback and paperback as well as ebook!
From the press release: In this ground-breaking new history of early America, historian Robert Zimmerman not only exposes the lie behind The New York Times 1619 Project that falsely claims slavery is central to the history of the United States, he also provides profound lessons about the nature of human societies, lessons important for Americans today as well as for all future settlers on Mars and elsewhere in space.
Conscious Choice: The origins of slavery in America and why it matters today and for our future in outer space, is a riveting page-turning story that documents how slavery slowly became pervasive in the southern British colonies of North America, colonies founded by a people and culture that not only did not allow slavery but in every way were hostile to the practice.
Conscious Choice does more however. In telling the tragic history of the Virginia colony and the rise of slavery there, Zimmerman lays out the proper path for creating healthy societies in places like the Moon and Mars.
“Zimmerman’s ground-breaking history provides every future generation the basic framework for establishing new societies on other worlds. We would be wise to heed what he says.” —Robert Zubrin, founder of the Mars Society.
All editions are available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and all book vendors, with the ebook priced at $5.99 before discount. All editions can also be purchased direct from the ebook publisher, ebookit, in which case you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
Autographed printed copies are also available at discount directly from the author (hardback $29.95; paperback $14.95; Shipping cost for either: $6.00). Just send an email to zimmerman @ nasw dot org.
Climate scientists have been forced to revise their climate models due to the unexpected refusal of the climate to warm since the late 1990s.
The uncertainty of science: Climate scientists have been forced to revise their climate models due to the unexpected refusal of the climate to warm since the late 1990s.
In related news, the certainty of some ignorant politicians: A Democratic senator used the Oklahoma tornado to rant against Republicans who have expressed skepticism about human-caused global warming. Update: Senator Barbara Boxer (D-California) followed up by blaming the tornado on global warming while pushing her carbon tax bill today.
The first story attempts very hard to keep the narrative alive that we are all going to die from global warming, even though the gist is that the warming has stopped and all the predictions of global warming scientists have been wrong. The second story illustrates the typically close-minded attitude of liberal politicians. The senator not only refuses to recognize the new data showing that warming has stopped, he has accepted the global warming narrative completely, including the entirely false claim that extreme weather is rising because of global warming.
A California tea party group sued the IRS on Monday.
Pushback: A California tea party group sued the IRS on Monday for its harassment of conservatives.
Leaving Earth: Space Stations, Rival Superpowers, and the Quest for Interplanetary Travel, can be purchased as an ebook everywhere for only $3.99 (before discount) at amazon, Barnes & Noble, all ebook vendors, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit.
If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big oppressive tech companies and I get a bigger cut much sooner.
Winner of the 2003 Eugene M. Emme Award of the American Astronautical Society.
"Leaving Earth is one of the best and certainly the most comprehensive summary of our drive into space that I have ever read. It will be invaluable to future scholars because it will tell them how the next chapter of human history opened." -- Arthur C. Clarke
A Russian Bion-M spacecraft, filled with mice, lizards and other animals, returned to Earth after 30 days in space with about half its mice and all its gerbils dead.
A Russian Bion-M spacecraft, filled with mice, lizards and other animals, returned to Earth after 30 days in space with about half its mice and all its gerbils dead.
The Bion-M experiment, launched from Baikonur, Kazakhstan, on April 19, carried 45 mice, 15 geckos, 18 Mongolian gerbils, 20 snails and a number of different plants, seeds and microorganisms, according to a Russian state news site. About half of the mice died, but the lizards reportedly survived. The Mongolian gerbils all expired, apparently due to an equipment failure, said Vladimir Sychev of the Russian Academy of Sciences, according to AFP.
It is unclear at this moment whether it was the harsh environment of weightlessness or equipment failure that caused the mortalities.
Seven liberal fascists who are fine with using the IRS to target their political enemies.
Seven liberal fascists who are fine with using the IRS to target their political enemies.
Lois Lerner of the IRS scandal apparently has a history of harassing religious organizations when she was with the Federal Elections Commission.
Lois Lerner of the IRS scandal apparently has a history of harassing conservative religious organizations when she was with the Federal Elections Commission.
Why the IRS scandal is the ugliest in U.S. history.
Why the IRS scandal is the ugliest in U.S. history.
Why? Because you, the People, became the targets of a comprehensive federal government effort to stifle dissent, one made using the government’s overwhelming and disproportionate policing and taxing powers.
All of the other scandals, going back to Andrew Johnson’s post-Civil War scandals, Warren G. Harding’s 1920s Teapot Dome scandal, Nixon’s Watergate, Reagan’s Iran-Contra, and Clinton’s Oval Office sexcapades have actually been narrowly focused acts of cronyism, garden-variety political chicanery, or personal failings. It’s been insider stuff.
The IRS scandal, by contrast, is a direct attack on the American people. … Once a government gets the bit between its teeth and starts targeting special interest groups, that is the end of freedom, not just for those first groups targeted, but for everyone. [emphasis in original]
Such a misuse of government power must be dealt with. If we don’t do it, it will happen again, more forcefully, more violently, more viciously, and more effectively. Freedom will die.
In new and apparently successfully ground tests of the SpaceShipTwo engine, Scaled Composites even destroyed one this week to test the operation of different components.
The competition heats up: In new and apparently successfully ground tests of the SpaceShipTwo engine, Scaled Composites even destroyed one this week to test the operation of different components.
Dark matter, WIMPS, and NASA’s Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer
Dark matter, WIMPS, and NASA’s Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer
This very nicely written article describing the scientific goals of AMS is even better in that it emphasizes strongly the uncertainties of the data and the theories behind it.
The White House defends the woman who was in charge of the IRS office when it harassed conservatives organizations and now runs the IRS Obamacare office.
The White House defends Sarah Hall Ingram, the person who had been in charge of the IRS office when it harassed conservatives organizations from 2009 to 2012 and now runs the IRS Obamacare office.
If President Obama was so outraged about this scandal, as he claims, you would think he’d tell his minions that it ain’t appropriate to defend this person. Instead, you’d think he’d be doing what he can to get her removed from a position of power.
Instead, Ingram received a promotion and the largest amount of bonuses of any IRS employee. Moreover, the bonuses from 2010 to 2012 were all greater than $25K per year and thus required Obama’s approval to be issued. And she is still in charge of the IRS Obamacare office.
Sounds to me that, to Obama, her harassment of conservatives at the IRS was a job well done.
Did the IRS audit the Claire Boothe Luce Policy Institute in its effort to harass conservatives from 2009 to 2011?
Did the IRS audit the Claire Boothe Luce Policy Institute in its effort to harass conservatives from 2009 to 2011?
As with almost all of these IRS attacks, the audit found nothing while costing the audited organization or individual a fortune to defend themselves.
AP’s CEO calls the Obama administrations seizure of their phone records “unconstitutional” and says they are considering legal action.
In other news: The CEO of the Associated Press today called the Obama administration’s seizure of their journalists’ phone records “unconstitutional,” noting that they are considering legal action.
What is most disturbing to me is that, despite the clear pattern of abuse of power by this administration — from using the IRS for political purposes to making illegal appointments to smuggling guns illegally to Mexico — too many of its supporters are still willing to make excuses for it.
Two separate IRS offices last year targeted the GOP’s Hawaii leader.
Working for the Democratic Party: Two separate IRS offices last year targeted the GOP’s Hawaii leader for audits and investigation.
Fifty-four Colorado sheriffs as well as a host of other organizations have filed suit against their state’s new very restrictive gun laws.
Pushback: Fifty-four Colorado sheriffs as well as a host of other organizations have filed suit against their state’s new very restrictive gun laws.
In his weekly radio address, President Barack Obama reassured the American people that he has “played no role whatsoever” in the U.S. government over the past four years.
Heh: In his weekly radio address, President Barack Obama reassured the American people that he has “played no role whatsoever” in the U.S. government over the past four years.
Great Britain’s first official astronaut has been picked for a five month mission on ISS in 2015.
Great Britain’s first official astronaut has been picked for a five month mission on ISS in 2015.
Astronaut Michael Foale was born in Britain, but he flew on Mir as an American. Britain meanwhile had banned spending any government money on space exploration in the 1960s, and hadn’t changed that policy until about two years ago. If the reaction to Canadian Chris Hatfield’s ISS mission is any guide, this mission will liven things up a bit for space exploration in the old country.
Judge dismisses case against cop who broke into home with no warrant & killed unarmed man
It ain’t just the IRS: A judge in New York this week dismissed a case against a cop who broke into a home with no warrant and killed an unarmed man inside.
Video below the fold. Watch it. It is blatantly clear that the cops had no right to enter the house and entered it illegally.