Common Core and Freedom of Thought

Once again, traditional values have come under attack as the ever vigilant progressive movement continues in its mission to destroy American culture.  I'm referring to the so-called Common Core education standardization.  Most parents know instinctively that this government intrusion into their children's lives has the stigma of governmental control all over it, but the packaging and marketing has been successful.  So far.

The left has always used a false paradigm to sell their propaganda, which is the unquestioned assumption that they are, of course, always right in their positions, and any opponent is therefore universally wrong.  It's the application and implementation of these programs, not the notion of them, that is detrimental.  Emotion is always at the forefront in their marketing, and logic - that is, the details -  is murky at best or simply ignored. For instance who isn't in favor of clean air?  Of clean water?  Of preserving the environment?  No one, of course.  But it's always how one achieves those lofty goals that disagreement occurs.  Let's say we can agree that one clear duty of parenting is to educate our children at least to, and hopefully beyond, the levels to which we were exposed.  Who is in favor of educating their children to the highest level possible?  Most hands go up. But in progressive-speak, hands up, you're in favor of Common Core; hands down, you're opposed to educating your children. 

Not so fast.  That conclusion is logically flawed.  In short, it's a lie and a trap.  Tell us first what these standards are and how will they be applied. Reading and math, says the proponents, need to be standardized. Well, that's fine, but why does the federal government need to be involved?  Here's why:  the progressives in the federal government are of the opinion that the citizenry must toe the utopian party line, and the way to do that is get to them early while just starting out in school.  Set a "standardized" curriculum that stays in place for the full twelve years.  Yes, we'll have them read, but exactly what will they read?  Yes, we'll have them learn advanced math, but exactly how will we present it?  The goal is indoctrination through education, not education itself, because progressives believe our children belong to them, and parents should have little or nothing to do with child rearing.  Remember Hillary Clinton's famous "it takes a village to raise a child" pronouncement?  This is it being implemented.

Don't believe me?  Paul Reville, member of the liberal think tank Center for American Progress (founded by John Podesta, current counsel to Obama and former Clinton chief of staff) and former Massachusetts education secretary, in an interview with CNN, said, "Why should some towns and cities and states have low standards or no standards and others have extremely high standards when the children belong to all of us and would move [elsewhere during their education]?"  (Emphasis mine)  Wow.  My kids don't belong to the federal government, and I'm pretty sure you feel that yours don't either.  Nor do I want them indoctrinated into some failed utopian system of government that is diametrically opposed to the Constitution and the American way of life.

So before you succumb to the appeal of standardized education, ask yourself:  What's the agenda both seen and unseen, and more importantly, who's administering it?

Super Bowl XLVIII

Did y'all feel the same way I did about last night's Championship Game?  That it was slightly mundane, possibly mediocre?  Maybe somehow out of sync?  I sure did.  A contest between champion football teams should be somewhat an even match, I would think, and thus exhilarating.  This game was a rout, pure and simple.  I'm not sure the Broncos even showed up, the domination by Seattle was so utterly complete.  That was the most one sided game I've seen since my granddaughter's soccer team's defeat a few weeks ago.

And the commercials were - with perhaps a half dozen exceptions -  without imagination or creativity.  The Maserati ad was incomprehensible, the Coke commercial was downright insulting, and the others were obviously targeted toward the mouth breathers in the audience.  And what about the two-minute ad featuring Bob Dylan (Bob Dylan? Really?) promoting an American made car, even though Chrysler is wholly owned by Fiat?  That's like saying Nissan or Mercedes M-Class is an American made car.  They technically are, but gee whiz . . . they really aren't.  Horses and puppies always have a high "aww" value, and they didn't disappoint.  Audi and Volkswagen were clever and got the marketing point across.  Well done.

The Super Bowl is an American Cultural event, comparable to a national holiday.  The expectation is that it should be well worth the four hours the audience invests into it.  That includes a game that keeps you on the edge of your seat, and commercials that stimulate, titillate and entertain.  Super Bowl XLVIII did not meet expectations.

Thankfully the half time show rocked.  I have new respect for Bruno Mars.

More of the Same

In Florida House District 13, there's a special election resulting from the unfortunate passing of a good man, Congressman Bill Young.  Rep. Young (R), lived in and represented Pinellas County,was responsible for a good deal of  federal assistance for the military in this area, especially as concerns MacDill AFB in Tampa, and was a staunch small government, low taxes, constitutional representative.

But he passed away during his term, and a special election was called to replace him in congress.  His heir apparent, Mr. Tom Jolly, won a Republican primary for this seat, and now faces Alex Sink, a Democrat, and Lucas Overby, a Libertarian, in the run off.  Of the three, Overby and Jolly represent the best future for Pinellas County, as well as for congress.  They both are freedom loving, self reliant, low taxes, small government proponents and would bring needed change to the over-reaching nanny state bureaucracy in Washington.  Both are life long residents of Pinellas County as well.

Sink, in contrast, is more of the same big government statist elites who know better than we mere mortals.  Although she's a Southerner, which in of itself weighs mightily with me, she is also just another carpetbagger, which also weighs mightily with me.  The former is a virtue, the latter is not.  Back in September the Democrat Party wanted her to run for governor against incumbent Republican governor Rick Scott in 2014.  She declined, presumably because the party brass wanted to run the chameleon Charlie Crist, the darling of the silk stocking set, and a partner at Morgan and Morgan, the law firm pushing the "medical"  marijuana ballot issue.  As luck would have it a vacancy arose in District 13, and the party brass offered her the consolation prize - a shot to run against two virtual unknowns for the house seat; one Republican, one Libertarian.  Cool.  Piece of cake.

But wait.  There's a problem.  Alex lives in trendy rural Hillsborough County; she doesn't live in Pinellas and never has, and residency is a requirement for candidacy.  So in dark of night in September or thereabouts, Alex rents a modest house in Pinellas Park, and viola!  Instant resident.  Requirement met, say the Dems, press on.  Imagine if a Republican had done this.  The press wouldn't sleep until justice was served.  Yet not a peep from the St. Petersburg Times (now called the Tampa Bay Times in an effort to achieve legitimacy in the Tampa Bay area).  Nothing to see here, move on.

Shame on you, Alex Sink.  You have put the corruption of your party's ends-justifies-the-means policy ahead of your Southern heritage and your personal integrity.  Of all people in the world, as a Southerner surely you should be deeply sensitive to the stigma of a carpetbagger.  

I would respect her in a run for governor, that's a straight up contest.  But to so blatantly in-your-face roll over to the state's corrupt and vile Democrat party apparatus in seeking a house seat in this way leaves me with a very low level gag reflex.  Pinellas County is a politically diverse district, true, and she may prevail.  But for the future of my home county, as well as for the House of Representatives, I fervently hope not.

The Imperial Presidency

If you heard the Kenyan's speech last night, you are now convinced that this president intends to rule, rather than govern.  He assured us he will circumvent congress should they not rubber stamp his socialist policies, and will rule by executive edict.  Never mind that such action is clearly against the law, and upsets the checks and balances that the branches of government use to temper each other.  Lame duck is now rampant tyranny.

And where is the loyal opposition?  The GOP is hiding under the bed lest the communists paint them as racist neanderthals.  The president is half black, you see, and we cannot criticize his policies because, well, he's half black.

Replete with the usual worn-out socialist rhetoric, he touched on all the bulleted talking points:  $10.10 minimum wage for government workers, class warfare in implementing "ladders to success" for the middle class (the very folks he destroyed by the way), and on and on.

What did we expect?  He's an America hating Marxist communist.  Did we really expect him to lower taxes, get government off the private sector's back, let the economy heal itself, and to defend the borders?  No, we didn't.

Inequality Idiocy

The Kenyan will give his state of the coup speech tonight, and it's rumored that the focus of such will be on "inequality."  Inequality?  What exactly does that mean, anyway? Inequality of income?  Of position?  Of citizenship?  To think that inequality is a national disgrace is to embrace absolute idiocy.  But the progressives love it.  It serves their purpose in creating further divisiveness among the low information populace.  Our system of government assures citizens an equality of opportunity, but nothing, especially socialist utopias -  can guarantee an equality of outcome. 

Let's review the notion of "inequality."  Ol' Lightfoot is six feet tall, weights about eighty-eight kilos, and is healthy and fit.  So is Payton Manning.  Now, Payton earns a lot more money than does Lightfoot, he's more of a cultural icon, and I'm betting he has a bigger house and a better auto that do I.  Now, why do we have such inequality here?  It's not fair.  Why should he have all that life affords, and I have to watch him enjoy his wealth and fame and glory.  It's simply not fair that he has so much and I have so comparatively little.  Shouldn't he buy me a bigger house and a faster car?  Shouldn't he put a couple of million dollars in my bank account?  Shouldn't he give something back . . . to me?  After all, we are equal, right?

Of course not.  Ridiculous, isn't it?  Payton Manning is one of the best quarterbacks who has ever played the game, and Lightfoot is not.  He's paid his dues, he earned everything he has and he's deserving of all that he's made.  So why should anyone think they are "owed" anything whatsoever from those who have made something of themselves?  And the case gets stronger when you compare the progressive left wing whiners to the people who have actually created wealth, not only for themselves, but for thousands of others.  Think Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, Larry Page and Sergey Brinn.  And these are just guys in the technology business.  What fabulous advancements have their companies - Apple, Microsoft, Amazon and Google  - made for the benefit of all mankind?  Please tell me what exactly have the whiners done for the good of anyone?

Let's take it one step further.  Let's say ol' Lightfoot is not equal to an illegal alien; that illegals are burdened by inequality.  Is that fair?  Of course it is.  Here's why.  My ancestors came to this country from Ireland, Scotland, England and Germany and obeyed the law of the land, spoke English, gained citizenship, created wealth for themselves and others, had families, and generally were part of this marvelous experiment in self government.  In short, they assimilated into being Americans.  Now come millions of people who haven't achieved citizenship, refuse to speak the language yet demand that we speak theirs, contribute nothing except perhaps some sales tax, yet they expect all the perks and benefits as citizens enjoy.  Why do they feel they are exempt from compliance with the US immigration policy as it has been for centuries? There's an answer to that, but it's a big issue and we'll address it in another post. 

So while using the last five years to destroy the United States and its economy, the Kenyan will now carp about some progressive non-issue like inequality.  In the face of real issues facing this country, which will likely be ignored or simply marginalized, this topic is not only meaningless, but insulting.

Brain Wave Self Control

For the last thirty or more years, researchers have affirmatively determined that people are able to control their brain wave patterns, and by doing so, not only enhance a feeling of well being, but attain other benefits such as gaining a higher cognitive function (higher IQ), and overall better health.  Self guided meditation today has been lauded by physicians and psychologists alike as a boon to preventative health programs.

But this is nothing new.  Ancient teachings have put forth this notion that control of one's mental process can yield fantastic - and theological - results.  Clearly the most familiar technique is that of yoga, a discipline that began in the third or fourth century BC in India.  Most of us associate the practice of yoga with Hatha yoga, that form of physical exercise necessary for purification of the body.  By controlling the physicality of the body, one purifies oneself for higher mediation.  But another less known form of yoga is Raja yoga.  Raja yoga meditation is generally based on directing one’s life force to bring the mind and emotions into balance so that one's attention may be easily focused on the object of meditation.  In those days, that object was typically the Lord, or the maker of life.  A yogi may require years and years of rigorous and applied practice to reach that state of nirvana, or achieving oneness with the universe.  

Today, science has taken the heavy lifting out of the task of attaining that state of awareness necessary to provide these mental and physical health benefits.  In one method, a practitioner would merely focus his attention on complete relaxation, all the while mentally reciting positive affirmations. Other folks use specialized music (euphemistically referred to as New Age music) to train the brain to resonate at at given frequency.  There are four frequency ranges of brain wave patterns, measured in cycles per second:  From lowest frequency to highest, these brain wave patterns are Delta (.5 to 4Hz, or a state of deep sleep): Theta (4 to 8Hz, or a state of higher REM state of sleep); Alpha (8 to 14Hz, or a state of very relaxed but highly mentally alert); and Beta (14 to 30Hz, or a state of highly alert and focused - our daily awake state).

To achieve the mental and physical benefits that we know can be attained by controlling one's brain wave activity, one needs only to enter into an Alpha state several times a day for perhaps fifteen minutes at a time.  This is not mind control, but self control of one's own mind.  It works wonders and is easy to do, once you accept the reality that each of us controls our own health and personal destiny.

You Have The Right . . .

You have the right to many things in our fair country: the right to keep and bear arms, the right to be secure in one's papers and effects, the right to a jury trial, and the right to remain silent, among many others.  You also have the right to be stupid.

You also have the right to be lazy.  So, if you're both stupid and lazy, you'll likely fall for any disingenuous nonsense foisted upon the populace via the compliant media.  My morning laugh is produced by the unfailingly partisan PolitiFact column in my local liberal newspaper.  It's laughable because, without exception, its take is that conservatives (read Republicans) are evil, lying bastards, while the enlightened left (read Democrats) are compassionate, tireless champions of the victim class.  In turning to the op-ed pages and reading the letters to the editor, one finds that many readers apparently buy into these simplistic categorizations.  But rather than rail against the published idiocy of these misinformed non-thinkers, one realizes that the stupid and lazy need to have their opinions fed to them in bite-sized dosages, analyzed and predigested.  Pity.  But that explains the purpose of propaganda outlets like PolitiFact.  If the liberal, progressive, Marxist and Communist pundits factually told people what they actually stood for, few people would support it.  It is an anti-individual position, and clearly inherently contrary to human nature.  Therefore their agenda must be cloaked in feel-good, compassionate pablum that tastes good, and is easy to swallow.  But only for those who are stupid and lazy.

Bye Bye 2013

Some random thoughts on the passing of the year, in no particular order.

Bye, Bye Love.
Bending guitar string blues to one of the most influential men of rock n' roll:  Phil Everly of the Everly Brothers passed away yesterday at age 74.  He and Don influenced me and many others with their fine, tight harmonies and musical hooks in hits such as Bye Bye Love, Cathy's Clown and Wake up Little Suzie.  They embodied the evolution of rockabilly into folk and folk rock.  Cathy's Clown was #1 on Billboard for months in 1958 in both Country and Pop categories. Rock on, Phil.

Winter Woods Walking.
Few people other than Florida natives have seen the real Florida - the beauty and diversification of the untamed Florida landscape.  I had the privilege of hiking a few miles in a remote tract of the Withlacoochee State Forest yesterday.  In a short, two-mile hike, we saw magnificent, century-old live oaks, branches covered with Resurrection Fern; cypress bogs with newly formed knees; flatwood pine forests; deer and racoon tracks everywhere; hog spore; mushroom blooms at my feet; and lakes teeming with gators and fish. The waterfowl performed a cacophonous symphony to which the gators barked the bass score.

The topographical diversity is amazing, especially in such a confined area. We hiked the northern part of the Richloam tract just east of I-75 and north of SR 50, and the trail we were on is a horse trail known as the Blue Diamond trail, branching off the Hammock trail.  It was an ethereal, soul cleansing  experience.  I stood at the edge of a lake, smoked a cigar, and took in the serenity.  The beauty and solitude in the deep Florida woods is worth the hike.  Have a good pair of hiking shoes, carry a good knife, a compass and water, and wander these miles and miles of trails for yourself.  You'll be renewed beyond your expectations.

Global Warming, er, I mean Climate Change.
The New Orleans Saints beat the Philadelphia Eagles last night in 21 degree weather.  Tonight the Green Bay Packers will play the San Francisco 49ers in what's forecast to be possibly negative-8 degree weather.  A Green Peace research ship had to be rescued from being trapped in ice in the Antarctic, its scientists airlifted off the immobile ship by helicopter.  Ironically, they were down there to prove the existence of global warming.  Beijing is so smogged in that people must wear masks to filter out particulate matter.  The sun shifted magnetic poles last year - it's now upside down - and the earth's own magnetic poles shifted by a significant measure.  But we are to believe that western civilization and our SUVs are killing the planet.  Nice try, but rubbish.  The planet isn't dying, and even if it were, we're not the cause.  Three-fourths of the Earth is ocean, and the oceans drive and cleanse the atmosphere.  It's self cleansing, and has done so for millennia, including filtering the devastation from catastrophes such as meteor impacts, volcanoes, wild fires, and everything else that occurs naturally.  Whatever is happening is a natural climate adjustment as we move from ice age to ice age, and just because people have only been here for a relatively short time, we narcissists assume we're the cause.  We are not.  The world has been here long before us, and will be long after we're gone.

Alien Nation.
In 2013, two nations picked up on the planetary exploration NASA seems to have abandoned.  India sent a probe to Mars, and China landed an unmanned robotic rover on the Moon.  Back in November, I posted about the exploration of our nearest celestial neighbors.  As the Chinese rover cruises the Lunar landscape, seeking answers to questions no one dares ask, I think back to July 1969.  A couple of Americans walked on an alien landscape, and answered many questions no one dared ask. One is, "why haven't we been back since the Apollo project?"  Many scientists have evidence of artifacts that were seen and/or found on the moon, and that begs yet other questions.  "Who's been here?' is certainly one.  Perhaps the Chinese will learn what we learned during the the Apollo missions, and hopefully they won't be as squeamish about announcing their findings to the world as our government has been. Bottom line?  We ain't alone, my friends.

Alien Nation, Part Deux.
Comes now one Mexican alien living in California who, after petitioning the state supreme court, has now been granted permission to practice law in the state of California.  He's not an American, although he lives in California, but presumes to be proficient in law.  In contrast, my wife is a lawyer, having spent 4 years in college and another 3 years in law school, earning a Juris Doctorate degree magna cum laude.   Fair?  Well, she's a real lawyer, and this joker is not.   And she's not a criminal and he is.  She graduated with highest honors, and this person did not.  Yet he's allowed to practice law in California.  This kind of nonsense is why people refer to California as the land of fruits and nuts.

Kenya.
Speaking of aliens, the Kenyan's half brother - same father, different mother - was surprisingly forthcoming in a candid interview recently.  Seems he and his brother have opposing views on American exceptionalism.  Both are Kenyans, yet one is a political conservative living in Kenya; the other is a Marxist/Communist living in Washington, DC.  You get to guess which is which.

Water, Water Everywhere

NASA's Hubble telescope has found water vapor plumes emanating from Jupiter's moon Europa.  Scientists have found evidence of vast liquid oceans trapped beneath Europa's frozen surfaces, and suspect that these plumes are further proof that huge amounts of liquid water exists on Europa.  The Cassini spacecraft has also found evidence of liquid water spewing from geysers on Saturn's icy moon, Enceladus.  

Scientists, in their search for extraterrestrial life, entertain the tantalizing possibility that these two celestial objects harbor life, at least life as we understand it.  

Traces of liquid water have been found both on Mars and the Moon, as well.  Several nations are planning to establish human colonies on both Mars and the Moon, and the presence of water will certainly help make that endeavor a reality.

Rape Not Rape

Comes now the esteemed defender of women's rights, the self promoting champion of defenseless women everywhere, the shrill Ms. Patricia Carroll, attorney at law, to demand that the State of Florida investigate alleged inconsistencies and failures by the Tallahassee Police Department regarding the investigation of Jameis Wilson in the matter of an alleged rape.  Seemingly unaware that the "accuser" declined to press charges for over a year after the "event," Ms. Carroll nonetheless held a press conference today to demand the State investigate the Tallahassee Police Department for failure to charge Mr. Wilson for raping his accuser.  The State Attorney declined to pursue the investigation because Tallahassee PD determined the accuser was not creditable (DNA tests revealed that she had had sex with others that day prior to the alleged "rape"), several witnesses testified the the sex was consensual, and the accuser herself didn't press charges for over a year.

None of this matters to Ms. Carroll, who must believe that all sex is rape.  We've heard this notion espoused by radical rabid feminists for years.  Had Mr. Wilson not achieved the notoriety of being Florida State University's Heisman Trophy-winning undefeated star quarterback, I wonder if there would be any controversy at all.  And I wonder is she realizes Mr. Wilson is black.  Northern liberals usually save their vitriol for white people, especially as concerns women and black "victimization."  When liberals disagree with an outcome, they are quick to air their grievances in the court of public opinion.  They know that spin trumps truth, and a lie told often enough will eventually be perceived as true.  Remember George Zimmerman's character assignation after his acquittal.  Think of the insidious Tawana Brawley hoax.  Lives destroyed.

Ms. Carroll's four-person law firm claims offices in Dade City and New Tampa, according to her firm's website.  This site, by the way is so infected with malware threats that my anti-virus program caught eight - Exploit Blackhat SEO - to be exact, before I could even navigate past the home page.  Further, it is so riddled with malware that the majority of the text consists of links to viagra, cialis and other pharmaceutical sites.  Visit at your own risk.  Speaking of credibility.

Incidentally, Ms. Carroll, after having earned a BA in Psychology from Providence College in Rhode Island, migrated her way to my fair state, where she earned a JD in law from University of Florida.  UF and FSU are bitter rivals.  She's a UF alumnae, and Jameis Wilson is an FSU student.  Simple college rivalry?  Or a ruse to take focus off the ObamaCare train wreck? 

Are You Smarter Than a Politician?

The Intercollegiate Studies Institute has an online civic literacy test which is fun, challenging and easy to take.  If you think you know something about the political issues we face, and how those issues came to be, take this civics test!  I scored in the top 2%, and I should have known the few questions I did get wrong.  What's frightening is that most civilians got a higher score than did our elected officials.
Of the 2,508 people surveyed, 164 say they have held an elected government office at least once in their lives. Their average score on the civic literacy test is 44%, compared to 49% for those who have not held an elected office. Officeholders are less likely than other respondents to correctly answer 29 of the 33 test questions. This table shows the “knowledge gap” for each question: the difference between the percentage of common citizens who answered correctly and the percentage of officeholders who answered correctly.
Theme of Question		Citizens	Elected Politicians	Knowledge Gap
1.	U.S. – Soviet Tension in 1962	70.09%	56.51%	-13.58%
2.	Declaration of Independence	83.09	69.78	-13.31
3.	Sputnik	74.1	62.82	-11.28
4.	Definition of Free Enterprise	41.45	32.08	-9.37
5.	M. L. King’s “I Have a Dream”	80.5	71.5	-9
6.	Electoral College	65.88	57.31	-8.57
7.	Scopes “Monkey Trial”	67.76	59.21	-8.55
8.	Susan B. Anthony	80.84	72.98	-7.86
9.	Power to Declare War	53.6	45.82	-7.78
10.	Business Profit	49.11	41.38	-7.73
11.	International Trade	37.47	30.45	-7.02
12.	FDR’s Government Programs	66.63	59.73	-6.9
13.	Abortion	50.77	43.94	-6.83
14.	Federal Branches and Foreign Policy	54.71	48.39	-6.32
15.	First Amendment Freedoms	79.58	73.32	-6.26
16.	Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Aquinas	29.49	23.29	-6.2
17.	FDR and the Supreme Court	25.07	19.24	-5.83
18.	Taxes and Government Spending	27.7	22.12	-5.58
19.	Free Markets vs. Centralized Planning	16.25	10.71	-5.54
20.	Action Prohibited by the Bill of Rights	26.41	21.24	-5.17
21.	Commander in Chief	79.04	74.46	-4.58
22.	Anti-Federalists and the Constitution	38.22	33.82	-4.4
23.	Source of phrase “a wall of separation”	18.92	15.07	-3.85
24.	Policy Tool of the Federal Reserve	43.12	40.48	-2.64
25.	Powers of the Federal Government	75.01	72.69	-2.32
26.	World War II Enemies	68.76	66.58	-2.18
27.	The Puritans	19.1	17.32	-1.78
28.	Definition of a Progressive Tax	51.26	49.97	-1.29
29.	Three Branches of Government	49.65	49.32	-0.33
30.	Definition of a Public Good	27.6	28.03	0.43
31.	Gettysburg Address	21.06	22.95	1.89
32.	Fiscal Policy for Economic Stimulus	36.07	39.93	3.86
33.	Lincoln–Douglas Debates	19.06	23.62	4.56

Keep this in mind when you go to the polls next year.

MAVEN Underway

MAVEN, NASA's latest Mars probe, is scheduled to launch today at 1328 EST from Cape Canaveral.  Here on the west coast of Florida, weather permitting, we can see the launch from a hundred miles away - a vertical stem of fire and smoke.  It's really cool.

MAVEN sits atop an Atlas V rocket at Cape Canaveral

But MAVEN - Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution - is NASA's latest foray into our on-going,  on-site study of Mars. It seeks to determine why Mars devolved from a warm moist planet with a dense atmosphere to a cold and barren, airless planet. The early Martian atmosphere was thick enough to hold water and possibly support life, but most of that atmosphere is gone, eroded by the sun, or lost from some other cause.  “Something clearly happened,” University of Colorado’s Bruce Jakosky, the principal Maven scientist, said. “What we want to do is to understand what are the reasons for that change  . . . .” Maven's journey will require a flight time of 10 months to reach Mars, entering into orbit around Mars in September 2014. Its eight scientific instruments will attempt to determine when and why Mars's atmosphere went missing.

The U.S. is not the only country exploring Mars.  MAVEN will join India's probe launched earlier this month.  Two years ago, China failed in a joint attempt with Russia to put its first Mars probe in orbit.  China now says it's likely to be five to seven years before they makes it to Mars. You can't discover the same things twice, China's National Space Science Center director, Wu Ji, points out, so China will pick up where the U.S. and India left off.

NASA has been sending probes to Mars since November 1964, when the agency launched the Mariner 3 spacecraft on an attempted Red Planet flyby. That mission failed, but Mariner 4, which blasted off just three weeks later, managed to beam home 21 up-close photos of Mars — the first pictures of another planet ever returned to Earth from deep space, and we've learned much about the Red Planet since then.  This will be NASA's 14th mission to Mars. 

The New Revolution

The media will tell you what they fear.  They fear the Tea Party.  They fear Libertarians.  They fear Christians. They fear those who believe in liberty, in self actualization and self reliance. They fear those who believe in something larger than themselves. They fear those who believe in smaller government, limited debt and low taxation. Those they fear they demonize.  They marginalize.  And they ridicule and mock. 

It should be no surprise that largely because of the media's propaganda, the two political parties are losing believers.  Something is obviously wrong, and folks sense that, even as the media pumps out the daily demagoguery and divisiveness.  Us, the left, tolerant and enlightened.  Them, the right, ignorant and repressive.  Yet nothing is more intolerant than the progressive left.  Think not?  Utter "redskins," or fly a confederate flag, or speak God's name in public and see what happens.

But a revolution is taking place.  It's grassroots, it's quiet, it's unorganized.  To the media and their handlers, it's fearsome.  It's an opposition  - both intellectual and literal - to the all encompassing Big Brother government and nanny state that this regime is dedicated to implementing.  And they've done an admirable job in doing so thus far, even considering the gross incompetence their arrogance and ideology has created.  In the last five years under the heavy hand of this regime, folks have started to wake up and they see the situation for what it is.  Democrats and Republicans both are less sure of the direction of their parties, and are taking a hard look.  They're seeing the Constitution being shredded as government lawlessness becomes even more blatant.  Want more Barack Obama-Nancy Pelosi-Harry Reid corruption?  Vote Democrat.  Want more Lindsey Graham-John McCain-Mitch McConnell RINO spinelessness?  Vote Republican.  

But wait - there's a new revolution.  Vote in those who will bring the county back from communism.  Vote in those who will respect and obey the United State Constitution and our government of laws rather than of men. Find Libertarians and Tea Party members in your state, vote them in. Many times, they are one and the same. Change your party affiliation.  Make your voice heard.  In Florida, vote Adrian Wyllie for governor.  In Texas, Libertarians have Kathie Glass, and Ohioans have Charlie Earl.  And there are others.  If the country doesn't stand up and take back its legitimate constitutional legacy at the ballot box one year from now, it may very well have to do so by other means.

They Will Tell You What They Fear

Yes, they certainly will.  "They" are the propaganda machine and its apparatus:  The federal government, the major political parties, the mainstream media, and the collective bargaining groups.  And who do they fear?  Who have they ganged up on?  Who do they want demonized, marginalized and destoyed?

The so called Tea Party.

My, my, my!  Such a fuss over nothing.  The Tea Party is an unorganized group of American citizens who actually understand the fundamental American principals of self government, and who advocate for smaller government, fewer taxes, and balanced budget.  We the people.  Wow, that is seriously subversive!

But wait.  The tea party has no formal organization; no official party status, no headquarters office, no president, and no charter.  How can they be so dangerous?  Why does the regime, acting through the IRS, want to lock them up and throw away the key?

Because smaller government and individual self actualization are things the progressive mind cannot abide.  The central planners always knows what's best for us, and these Tea Partiers are just fouling up the glorious march to social utopia, as their ideological potency demonstrated noticeably during the 2010 mid term election cycle.  I expect this demagoguery from the left, but even establishment Republicans, once conservatives themselves, want to silence this voice.  Shhh.  We're busy compromising with the Marxist/Statists/Progressives right now.  We don't want to hear your radical, hard right, intolerant and ignorant references to the United States Constitution and Bill of Rights.  We need to exert governmental control over every aspect of your life, and you're being obstructionist.  You gotta go along to get along.  You're just too ignorant with your God, Guts and Guns rhetoric to understand that we have the common good on our side.  

Immigration?  What the hell, let 'em all vote!  Gay marriage?  Sure, they love just as we do.  Electronic surveillance?  Oh, who has any privacy nowadays, anyway?  Health care?  Let the old, sick and infirm die off, it's nature's way!  National debt?  Whaddaya mean, I'm broke - I got checks left!!  Founding fathers?  Slave owning old white men - what relevance do they have today? 

Yeah, well, there's that.  If the government gets any more tyrannical, it'll be 1860 all over again.  End of the day?  From my cold dead hands as I lie in a pile of hot spent brass.  Don't tread on me.  Smile; wait for flash.

Life and the Indefinite Cosmos

Today, United States NASA spacecraft Cassini is exploring Titan and the other moons of Saturn from orbit.  Forty-four years ago, in 1969, American astronaut Neil Armstrong was the first human to walk on a celestial body; the Moon. 

In 1971, the USSR's Mars 3 lander made soft landing on Mars, the first man-made contact on the Red Planet. Since then, a number of man made robotic probes have visited Mars. Today, the US still has a robotic rover still cruising around on the surface of Mars. In 2008, the Indian Space and Research Organization successfully launched a lunar orbiter, Chandrayaan-1, which discovered evidence of water on the moon. Last week they launched  Mangalyaan, which means "Mars craft" in Hindi.  In this launch India will attempt to become only the fourth country or group of countries to reach the Red Planet, after the United States, Soviet Union, and Europe.

We're searching for proof of life in all the right places.

As a human endeavor, regardless of which country initiates the technology, humans have consistently and intrinsically sought that which is greater than themselves.  Prehistoric man migrated from continent to continent searching for contact.  Ancient modern man created gods to explain the existence of that which he could not fully comprehend; the cosmos, the finality of life, even the weather. Today, we are still searching our back yard to the extent that it is possible at our current level of technology, and we still seek contact.  We seek life; we seek ourselves. 

But with all the difficulty involved in reaching the even the nearest planet, Mars, or even in landing on the moon, which is only 221,000 miles away at perigee (I have logged that many miles on my truck), we have only barely scratched the surface, so to speak.  Some reports emphatically claim there are alien artifacts on the moon, found during the Apollo landings, and the same have been found on Mars by our Martian rovers. I don't know this for sure, but neither do I discount the possibility, and here's why:  It is inconceivable that life - even as defined as we know it - is confined exclusively to Earth.  Putting aside the theological considerations, it is simply a statistical impossibility that of forty billion possible Goldilocks zone planets in our Milky Way Galaxy alone, that life hasn't formed - or was created by intelligent will - elsewhere in our neighborhood.  I think life is out there, and we're trying hard to make contact.

Maybe Richard Hoagland is right and we did find it.  He presents some compelling arguments in support, after all.  On the other hand, though, perhaps intelligent extraterrestrial life has already made contact with us.  And maybe we didn't notice. That could be.  

The Little Coup that Could

I grew up in the 50s and 60s, and can still remember the "duck and cover" drills we used to have in  school.  It was during the height of the cold war, and we knew the USSR was just waiting to invade us.  My family had a improvised bomb shelter in the basement, stocked up with canned goods and bottled water, and we were prepared. I live on the west coast of Florida, and we're only a hundred or so miles from Cuba, where the Russians had deployed ballistic missiles.  We were an easy target for them at only 35 miles from MacDill AFB.  Of course, we know how that turned out; the USSR backed down and removed the missles from Cuba, and in a political gesture for the USSR to save face, President Kennedy denied support of the Cuban liberty fighters, and they were decimated at the infamous Bay of Pigs invasion.  Not our finest hour.

But we won the cold war.  Really, we did.  The USSR devolved into several sovereign nations, the Berlin Wall came down, and all was right with the world.  And yet today, we in the US find ourselves under the rule of totalitarianism.  How did that happen?  How did this communist coup occur?   Back in the bad old days of the cold war, Soviet Premier Khrushchev banged his shoe on the lectern at the United Nations and screamed, "We will bury you."  And now all these years later it would seem he was right.  Although it's unclear if the remnants of the old Soviet apparatchik is responsible for empowering this unknown alien and his minions who now control us, the fact remains that we are buried under a gargantuan government that we can no longer support or tolerate.

To make matters worse, in the face of this coup - literally a government takeover - there is no loyal opposition.  The old guard of the Republican Party like McCain, McConnell, Rove, and many others, seem hellbent on kissing ass of the Marxist regime now in Washington.  And they wrack themselves trying to figure out why support of the GOP is dwindling.  Immigration?  Government shutdown?  Gays?   No.  Allow me to clarify.  It's because the vast majority of the American people do not want a socialist totalitarian state, and they see no opposition to it from the GOP.  So then why support your enemy's friends?  We have a constitution that puts quantifiable limits on federal governmental power.  The left has been marginalizing and denigrating that document for decades, hoping that people will forget that we own the government and it works for us, not the other way around.  Yet they do forget and now the situation is dire.  The only salvation comes next year; we have an election to change the political mindset in Washington, if we are brave enough to do so.  On that point I wonder if we are.

 

What's in a Name? Political Correctness and Tyranny!

So now it's politically incorrect to refer to a professional football team's name as the Redskins.  After a century of existence, somehow now that is a racist and offensive name.  Let us just call them the Skins, says Charles Krauthammer, a usually thoughtfully commentator.  Yikes, that's pretty macabre.  I know some native Americans -Indians, as it were - who are not in any way offended by that team's name.  In fact they're proud of it.  Here in Florida a few years back, the same tightly wound, perpetually offended pantywaists decided that the University of Florida's mascot Seminoles was offensive to Native Americans.  Demeaning somehow.  BS, the FSU alumnae said!  BS, the Seminole tribe said.  We're not offended, far from it.  We take pride in our heritage.  

So why bother trying to recast longstanding brands?  In any application of the notion, it's simply tyranny by way of  thought control.  Native Americans - Indians - are victims of the vile aggressive white man, and in no way can a white man utter that redskin slur.   The "N" word is another example.  It's merely a contraction of the word Negro, which is the proper name of the race, just as Caucasian is the proper name for the white race. But they, too, are victims of the white man in the progressive mind. The white man's culture must be changed, rewritten, for the better, and for the common good.

 Don't buy that?  Well, George Orwell had it identified over a half century ago - define the language and you define the culture.  And it's the culture the liberals/progressives/Marxists seek to fundamentally change.  Remember that slogan Hope and Change?  This is a manifestation of that change; the erasure of the Western, Caucasian culture.  And that attempt to rewrite history is racist.    

The Demise of American Culture

America is a relatively young country compared to Europe and Asia, that's true, but we do indeed have a national culture. This culture can be found in the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and reiterated again in the Bill of Rights.  This American culture is one of individual liberty, of being a citizen of a nation that respects individual rights and responsibilities, and a very, very limited government.  It's a culture of strength borne of prosperity, of personal responsibility, of faith in something greater than oneself.  But in the last six decades, something has happened, something that has turned our established culture on its head.  That something is liberalism as defined by the progressive movement.

Instead of elevating all to a sustainable socioeconomic level, as conservatives seek to do, liberals want all to "share" the misery of those who cannot, or will not, take responsibility for themselves.   It's based on emotion:  who doesn't feel sorry for the homeless in the streets, or for the dirt poor trying to eek out a living in an urban jungle?  Of course we do.  That's why Americans contribute more money to charities than any other nationality in the world.  But when progressives seek to level the playing field - which is pretty level already, given the structure of our constitutional republic - they do far more harm than good.  A conservative may see a man in a hole, and he offers his hand to pull the man out.  But a liberal sees that man in a hole, and wants all of us to climb down in there with him, to ensure that he's comforted in his misery.  Insane.  And completely ass backwards.  So now in the last sixty years we have lawmakers who have been elected to provide folks with stuff that they neither earned nor deserve.  Think LBJ's Great Society, a government program that sought to end poverty.  What's the end result of that program after sixty years?  Billions of dollars thrown away and yet even more poverty, as well as the creation of generations of people who know not self reliance, but only guaranteed government assistance.  What does that do to instill initiative and a sense of self worth?  Does it feed the economy?   Create jobs?  

Then we had the notion of political correctness, where the truth was muted so as to not offend anyone.  Perfected by Germany's Goebbels, it has developed now beyond ludicrous, it even eclipses Orwellian repression.  Forget about the truth - it's a casualty of that ill begotten need to share the misery.  We can't state the facts about crime and its source - we must blame guns.  We can't call a Muslim jihadist a terrorist, he's a freedom fighter or an enemy combatant.  We can't celebrate competence - we dictate that high school football teams can't win by more than a certain number of points.  And for some reason black people refuse to be called by their race - Negro - instead opting for African American.  I'm Caucasian of Scot and Irish heritage - am I a Scot American?  I'm proud of my heritage, to be sure, but I consider myself to be an American.  Period.  Why do Blacks want to continue to be segregated?  Why not just be an American? But we know the answer.  LBJ once said that through his policies he'd have "them niggers voting Democrat for a hundred years."   And they are.  You can look it up.

We wonder why there's such an attitude among certain segments of the population.  Track crime thorughout the US and you'll find that it's those who most rely on government who perpetrate most of the crime.  They kill and rob with impunity because they have no moral fiber, no self worth.  And consequently they see no worth in others, their victims, either.  You can look that up, too.

And so the demise continues as we slouch toward society's lowest common denominator as our new baseline of behavior. Schools seek to indoctrinate, not educate.  Gangs kill and rob and maim at an unprecedented rate.  The government becomes more oppressive than most dictatorships around the world, playing on our fears of terror or rampant crime.  The victim is charged; the perpetrators are forgiven.  Self defense is a crime.  TV promotes only negative societal messages.  And worse, Americans of faith are not only ridiculed in the media, they are reviled.

Huxley and Orwell couldn't even imagine it being this bad.

The Genius of Terrorism

I hate terrorists. I mean all terrorists - the ones that kill and the ones that manipulate, as well. In 2001, one insane jihadist and a couple dozen adherents brought the world's greatest nation to its knees. Al Qaida could never defeat the US militarily, but they have certainly fundamentally altered each of our lives. The fallout of that single day - which future historians may regard as World War III, and being only one day long - continues to impact us even a decade or more later. What an ingenious campaign. We blamed Iraq and defeated that nation. We chased our tails hunting bin Laden all over the world at a phenomenal cost of treasure, effort and blood. Oh, yes, we won - he's dead, but our culture of individual liberty is gone, perhaps forever. He won, too, because willing accomplices in media and the government rushed to take advantage of the nation's fear that we'd be attacked again.

Now comes Big Brother and the Police State. Nothing is held back, all liberties are lost. Make a call? You're on talk radio. Send an email? Published news. Whisper outdoors? Drones above. And it's getting worse. Four of the nine supreme court justices are hard core lefties. Individual liberties, they ask? That's for us in government to bestow upon you as we see fit. Guns? We have them, but you won't. The Bill of Rights and the Constitution - you know, our basic government framework that acknowldeges that each man is born free, with the right to pursue his own happiness absent any governmental interference - are to them merely "dead documents" with little if any relevance to today's modern and complicated world. Government says these suspensions of liberty are neceaasy to keep us safe. If we stand down, they tell us, nukes will go off in our cities, and chaos will reign. Really.

Is this current adminsitration not a terror organization, as well? After five years, are you more circumspect in your thoughts and actions? Do you begin to fear the NSA, the TSA and the IRS as adversaries that are controlled by others than "we the people?"

We have until late in 2014, I believe, to take the country back. If we fail, the concept of a free people will be subjugated by opressive governments, both here and globally, for a very, very long time.

The Responsibility of Staying Informed

Responsibility is hard work.  It really is.  Think about it.  It's a lot easier to sit there on the couch after work and watch the news shows on TV, nod sagely, and pretend you're being informed of the events of the day.   But for the most part, you're not being informed as much as you're being indoctrinated.

Most people will agree that the mainstream media is biased  to the left, but when a story airs, many viewers are accepting the content of the newscast as gospel.  MSNBC, CNN, ABC and CBS news shows have a definite political spin:  their stories must fit their liberal, progressive narrative.  FOX news presents a stark contrast to the far left, but still could be even more conservative. I know some folks who still swear by CNN as the end-all, be-all of news and information, and they'll admit that, while yes, there's some spinning going on, the content is pretty much on point.  Rubbish.  Contrast the TV version of a given national or international news story with an online version of the same, and you'll find an altogether different presentation.  Same with newspapers.  For example, I get two papers daily, one is far left progressive, the other slightly right of center - I wouldn't call it conservative by any means.  But it's enlightening to read the same story from the AP in the lefty paper, and then see the same story from McClatchy - which is hardly a conservative outlet - WSJ or some other news source in the center-leaning paper.

A classic example of media influence is the gun control debate.  Piers Morgan and other talking heads know for a fact that more guns in our culture will result in more crime and in more gun deaths.  To them that's a fact.  But the reality is that more guns in the hands of responsible law abiding citizens actually reduce crime.  In cities with the most draconian gun laws exists the highest incident of murder and gun related crime.  See John Lott's exhaustive study, Guns and Crime.  Coloradans just recalled two of their state legislators who pushed through unpopular gun control measures, and every state now has right to carry laws.  Conversely, Washington D.C., New York and Chicago, cities with the strictest gun laws, have the highest crime rates in the country.  Chicago just recently became Murder Capital, USA.  But facts can't get in the way of the progressive narrative:  Piers Morgan and others will be on TV again tonight with the same old tired emotional pablum, and the uniformed viewer will lap it up.

So how to do we stay informed rather than propagandized?  I suggest saturation.  I watch CNN and FOX, I read two newspapers daily, a monthly business journal or two, and I visit four news portals daily on the internet.  By staying neutral - that is, by paying attention and not screaming in utter astonishment at the nonsense and drivel you will surely see and hear, you can begin identify the real from the spin.  From that you may form your own educated and informed opinion.  That is the responsibility we have as Americans: to stay informed so that our voice can be one of reason, logic and lawfulness. When we vote at the civic, state or national levels, we must have a educated and informed grasp of the issues.  That is our responsibility for being and remaining free.

Try it and see what you learn.  Be free; be informed.