Over the summer, a small space capsule touched down in a remote corner of northern China. This event was important because it was the first time any nation had brought back soil samples from the moon’s far side. (cue Pink Floyd) There is no “Dark Side” of the Moon, but there is a side that never faces Earth.
This is part of an ambitious series of Chinese lunar missions and evidence of a new space race focused on the moon. The US, China, and India are all participating. The prize is reaching the moon’s south pole, where scientists expect to find vital minerals and water in permanently shadowed craters.
It’s that idea of establishing rights that’s creating the rush to reach the lunar south pole. Whoever gets there first, the argument goes, can dominate and keep others out…maybe. Lunar-based weapons stations? Arthur C. Clarke wrote about them. I read the stories when I was in high school.
Many experts point to the example of disputed islands in the South China Sea, where China has placed troops and built military bases to control the area and deny it to its rivals. If that happened at the lunar south pole, it could give China an unbeatable advantage. NASA’s chief, Bill Nelson, is seriously concerned about China’s plans, and he’s been sounding the alarm for several years. Bill Nelson: If there’s water, there’s rocket fuel, hydrogen, and oxygen. When the Chinese get there, there’s always the possibility that they say, “You stay out. This is our exclusive zone.”
The entire Chinese space program, commercial, civil, and military, is under the People’s Liberation Army; there is no distinction. The Chinese and the Russians have also said that if you can control space, you can control the future’s destiny and all of humankind. So, the stakes could not be higher.
True, the Chinese have never been to the Moon and don’t have SpaceX-style launch vehicles. Can the People’s Capsule land and maintain a permanent presence? I harbor doubts.
Strategic Turf
A region of semi-autonomous zones within other recognized nations.
The Kurds (who are factionalized) have varying degrees of sentiment toward the United States. Still, the consensus is that the US Government under Obama’s three terms (one with Pedo Joe as a figurehead) has ignored them and treated them roughly. How will all this play out under Trump 47?
Sure, this will Work
Chicago’s new “affordable housing” complex—the first of such projects under Mayor Brandon Johnson—rings in at nearly $700k per unit in an area of the city where “existing units sell for $126,583,” according to a new report by Patrick Andriesen and shared via Illinois Policy. Oh, and Johnson negotiated for the units to be built in West Garfield Park, “the most dangerous neighborhood” in Chicago, per an analysis by leading home security provider Cove:
West Garfield Park is the most dangerous neighborhood in Chicago. The total crime rate in this area is 13,135 crimes per 100,000 people, making it one of the most crime dense populations in the nation. The crime in West Garfield Park is 409 percent higher than the national average. Residents in this neighborhood have a 1 in 8 chance of becoming a victim of crime.
The violent crime rate in this area makes this one of the worst neighborhoods in Chicago. The violent crime rate is 3,596 violent crimes per 100,000 people. The violent crime rate in West Garfield Park is 943 percent higher than the national average, making it a 1 in 27 chance that you will become a victim of violent crime in this neighborhood.
The property crime rate in West Garfield Park is 9,539 property crimes per 100,000 people, ensuring that residents have a 1 in 10 chance of becoming victims of property crime. The property crime rate in West Garfield Park is 433 percent higher than the national average.
Bullet Points:
** Fox chortled, “CNN loses to Food Network as network’s primetime viewership languishes.” MSNBC lost to Hallmark. Well, it is the Christmas season.
** Rebels overthrew Assad, the dictator of Syria. Does this mean that Europe can now send the refugees back?
** NYT reported, “Nobel Laureates Urge Senate to Turn Down Kennedy’s Nomination.” Strange, since they’re all democrats like RFKjr.
** Charlie Kirk tweeted, “The Trump Assassination Task Force reveals that the Secret Service Agent who spotted Ryan Routh in the trees at the golf course opened fire on the suspect and . . . MISSED HIM SIX TIMES FROM FIVE FEET AWAY!! How is that possible?” Yes, there was no sloped roof involved.
** The problem with Pedo Joe was he had to pick subordinates who were dumber than he was. Sadly, he succeeded.
** RCC, are Australians just “British Texans?”
The Duty to Die?
Britain decided assisted suicide was the easiest answer to a hard problem. Recently, the British Parliament advanced a bill that brings physician-assisted suicide (PAS) one step closer to law. The Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill passed its second reading by a vote of 330 to 275, allowing doctors to prescribe lethal drugs to patients they deem terminally ill within six months of death. Of course, advocates of this bill promise tight safeguards, limited eligibility, and lots of compassion.
As Albert Mohler Jr., writing for World Magazine, puts it, “If you declare a so-called ‘right to die,’ then you simultaneously (if evasively) argue for a duty to die.” Once the law treats death as a “solution,” it stops being optional. That duty to die creeps in through subtle pressures—from family guilt to healthcare costs—until vulnerable people see themselves as burdens.
We don’t need to wonder how this ends. Canada already offers a front-row seat to the consequences. Remember Christine Gauthier, the Paralympian and veteran who asked Canada’s Veterans Affairs office for help installing a wheelchair lift? Instead of offering support, they offered to help her die. The message is clear: why help you live when ending your life is so much cheaper?
It’s not an isolated incident. Canada’s euthanasia program, which started with promises of tight safeguards, now allows children and people with mental illness to access assisted suicide. Once the bureaucracy decides some lives aren’t worth living, there’s no stopping its expansion.
Dr. Gordon Macdonald of Care Not Killing points out that the safeguards in euthanasia laws are never more than window dressing.
Identify the Aircraft
1
222 built – “fighter aircraft” – She’s a nimble little minx.
2
6,528 built
3
1,186 built – A major design flaw was alcohol coolant, a popular beverage for ground crews and pilots alike.
4
This was the first turboprop flying boat. 11 built
Parting Shot
End
RCC, are Australians just “British Texans?
It depends on the state Victoria and NSW are more like California in outlook. The two main cities have most of the population. In Victoria 5.3 million out of 6.5 live in state capital. They can almost double for LA or San Francisco in places. Lots of Somalian “refugees” etc
Queensland (my state) is almost three times the size of Texas and the only state with a large majority of people outside the state capital. Brisbane has approximately 2.2 million out of 5.7 million.
I grew up on a working farm with beef cattle and a few dairy cows for milk / fostering calves. My family’s attitude is work and education gets you places. My father was the first person in our family to graduate University after WW2 and all of my siblings and I did. 6 of 16 cousins also did. All of us were from small towns but still good schools back then.
Qld has the better gun laws by local standards. Slightly better then Ca the last time I was in the USA. But overall bad.
Friend from home area lives in Texas with his local family. Will ask him next time we talk.
Identify the Aircraft:
1. Kochyerigin DI-6
2. Lavochkin-Gorbunov-Gudkov LaGG-3
3. Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-25PU Foxbat
4. Convair R3Y Tradewind
Fist pump!
#1: “She’s a nimble little minx.” AIM FOR THE FLATTOP! –Dr. Peter Vinkman
:)
https://dailytimewaster.blogspot.com/2024/12/italian-gun-captured-by-austro.html
I found this in another rss feed i follow Daily Timewaster
Yes, it’s cool. I just let CW know as much by commenting. He puts a lot of effort into his blog and keeps the ball rolling.
Bought a watch he highlighted on his site as a gift. Nice looking timepiece, even if I haven’t worn one in years. Might get another.
The Hippopotamus of Cresta Croce.
https://www.talkbass.com/threads/for-world-war-one-enthusiasts-the-hippopotamus-of-cresta-croce.1443269/
On Friday, BRM posted an article about the new temporary Syrian leader asking Syrian refugees to come home and rebuild their country. I hope they heed his call.
Good luck with that. He’s asking that the Alwites overseas (the Syrians with money looted from the treasury) to return so that the jihadis can lighten their load. The Syrian crooks are crooks (mostly educated at Harvard and Yale), to be sure, but they’ll keep their lucre and spend their winters in Rio and their summers on the French Riviera.
Chicago- $700K/unit breaks down as $12K for the actual unit and $688K for the union bosses, ombudsman, police, and project heads. It’s that 70’s Pinto in the High School parking lot, all show and no go.
***
Aussie’s=Texans- Always thought they were, especially after seeing Crocodile Dundee. Tougher backcountry, and on aspect for RFID in cattle was developed to assist in thwarting cattle rustling, allowing agents to verify legal status of cattle on the tucking trains.
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Pardon Largess- Another grift to protect the proletariat cheats and criminals who are pals of the worst Administration in USA history. Doesn’t take a genius to see it for what it is, “Protect our own.”
***
The more worser problem with The View isn’t entirely the hosts, it’s those who watch it year after year…like a real time soap opera with uglier actors and lousy dialog.
*…jacked-up Pinto…
I was always impressed with the “Racing Pintos” that the street squirrels “modified” in order to pick up chicks at the trailer park.
Dude, you never saw my Pinto.
Heh, got the expected reaction…heck, I had a Maverick 6cyl, not the Boss 302 (much to my chagrin), it wasn’t slow but with the mods it at least looked fast, plus it had a great stereo.
Friends of mine in high school spent all of one year dropping a V-8 into a Vega. Can’t say what happened to it. My Dad’s Vinyl top 2 door Impala, bought new off the lot in 66 endured fishtails and power slides my foster brother mastered on the quilted square miles of Nebraska. (1973)By the time I was old enough to ” ask for the keys to the car” the 396 had been replaced with a 327. I still managed to spin cookies at 1st, 2nd, and 3rd before powersliding into home one frozen winter night (1978) My mom’s pinto? It ” went to all the away football games ” while my buddies and I got roasted in the back end of various cemeteries, always being sure to switch over from a rock station to catch the last of the game for the final score. “Never have I ever?” The last time out with the Impala “it” dead centered a tree one night while dui’d trying to wipe out mailboxes. Thankfully my dad made me replace the grill and radiator.
Will it work in Chicago? About as well as those Whip Inflation Now buttons…
Not sure if bases on the moon would beat rocks from space.
Rocks from space? Well, the moon is a harsh mistress.
That’s what I thought too….
Life imitates art.
Same here.
Was Earthlight the one where he said that we would sink in the Moon dust on the surface?
** in my (very) humble estimation, neither Iran nor Turkey will permit the Kurds their own nation; there will be much blood shed and munitions expended before a Kurdish nation will arise; it will, just not in my lifetime.
** “…the moon’s south pole…” just how many bases does China have at our South Pole? how exclusionary is China down there? worrisome, to say the least! (BTW: the daughter’s just finishing up another 6 month tour, her fifth I believe, if my fingers haven’t failed, courtesy of UT at McMurdo)
** I would have like to fly that DI-6; just from her looks, she’s a beaut.
** one of my wife’s good friends, a tennis buddy, is lying in hospice; her husband and her daughter on death watch. her body is in excellent condition – for a woman of her age, but there’s no obvious cerebral brain function. her body could probably keep going for several years (with IV feeding). I keep thinking: “I’m trapped, I’m unable to communicate. Please (don’t?) kill me.”
religious concepts do not enter into this situation.
Sad to hear, as a lot of us have been through something similar. My last Memorial Service was for an 86 yo rancher/cowboy/REA pole-setting expert (still had great depth perception)…a friend (you stop in for a visit and it was required to have a coffee or stay for dinner). Seriously cool life (the stories were amazing), but he knew the end was near when at 85 he had to sell his good horse. One morning I got a call from his wife, to come to the hospital, not looking good. Ten minutes inside the room and he wakes up (possibly sensing someone else was there besides his bride), looks up at the ceiling and shouts, “What the hell am I still doing here?!” He wasn’t wrong as he had made peace with his good life and was ready to go.
–
The question for me has always been, “Who owns my body?” (excluding God for arguments sake)…apparently “government” believes they do, as in The Matrix.
The question for me has always been, “Who owns my body?” (excluding God for arguments sake)…apparently “government” believes they do, as in The Matrix. We all owe our soul to the Company Store.
>her body could probably keep going for several years
I am sorry to hear of your wife’s friend’s condition. And you are absolutely right about the above. I have a bit of a horror story from my residency. So there was this man who was in the ICU for several years. There was no brain activity other than at the brain stem level, and he was trach’d and on a respirator. He coded at least once a week, and was resuscitated (for values of “resuscitation”) by nearly every resident in the program at one time or another. Eventually I learned the story. In his 50’s or so, after the kids were grown to adulthood, the man had divorced his wife. In doing so, he also left his tight-knit ethnoreligious community. They went through the ceremonial observances as if he were actually dead. The man remarried, a woman outside of his former group. About 15 years later, he got cancer, and the treatment was going poorly. The man divorced his new wife (with whom he was and had been very happy) and gave her the house and all their assets. This was to protect her from financial ruin. Then he had a massive stroke. While they had planned out the financial stuff, they messed up on the medical power of attorney part, as in not having declared one. His “new” ex-wife no longer had a say in his care. His nearest of kin then became his eldest child, an adult woman who purely hated him for leaving the first wife and for leaving their community. She declared him “full code” and ordered “keep him alive for as long as you can.”
—
After a few weeks of this futility, the physicians had a long talk with the daughter, explaining the hopeless prognosis. She replied, “I know, I know. Do you think I’m stupid? But I hope some part of him is still in there. I want him to suffer for as long as possible.” Ironically, the cancer went into remission, so he lived on in the ICU for about two years. It took that long to get a court order to transfer guardianship from the vengeful daughter to an appointee, who was a faculty member at the med school. (Courts purely HATE to get involved in this sort of thing.) After learning the back story I spoke to the faculty member, who told me that he spent a couple of months learning about the man’s faith and his original community’s standards, to try and understand what would be the ethical thing to do under those circumstances. It pretty quickly became clear that the daughter’s vengeance was not in keeping with the ethical tenets of their community (duh), but the guardian said he still wrestled with the issue of terminating life support. Which of course was him doing his appointed job properly. As a physician, or a medical POA, our job is NOT to do what we want, necessarily. It’s to act on behalf of what the patient would want if he is unable to speak for himself.
The politics of dying are as complicated as the politics of living. How charming.
I Have No Voice But I Must Scream
Creepy but appropriate story.
True that the Chinese haven’t been to the Moon and don’t have SpaceX-style launch vehicles, but we have to add the word, “yet” to that. They’ve been making a show of copying SpaceX and have run some tests with booster reuse. As always with the Chicoms, publicity in the news when it works. Hey, it beats dropping boosters on Elementary schools and we’ve seen that. If there’s one thing we know they’re good at, it’s infiltrating companies and stealing designs.
I noticed the missing “yet” also…
I would tune in to the “bacon view”. At least for the recipes.
“Chicago’s new “affordable housing” complex”
Perhaps they think it will spark gentrification.
Last week work took me to places I haven’t visited in 40-50 years. One place was near downtown Denver, a triangular park bound by Court Place, 20th Ave, and Tremont Place. Back in the day we called it Needle Park, and it was a dangerous area. Now, with the exception of some 100 year old brick homes, it is all cracker box condominiums and yuppie coffee shops.
One pleasing sight was Don’s Club Tavern on 6th Avenue, a place I frequented in my misspent twenties. From the outside, it hasn’t changed.
I watched my hometown’s efforts to “improve” sections of the city with public funds, with the ridiculous hope it would draw money into the community. The result were few willing to invest in the real estate, a severe reduction of property values, an increase in crime, and Section 8 housing to insure the area would be an economic cesspool for decades. The reduction in revenue, and lack of citizens with skills to make the community grow, has led to infrastructure decay, incompetent city officials, and a reduction in the population needed for a healthy community. I left the city decades ago and never regretted my decision. EEO, DEI and other abysmal alphabet experiments have a poster city for their efforts. May it be a testament to remarkable failures.
>if you can control space, you can control the future’s destiny
Controlling the highest high ground is one approach. But it seems that controlling the money supply; shaping the zeitgeist through control of popular culture [1]; “guiding the narrative” via the press; and determining what is and is not taught in schools from K through PhD (in some cases literally re-writing history) works pretty well too.
—
[1] Popular Culture: movies and TV (or streaming) shows, of course.
But also music. (How else to explain the astonishing “popularity” of rap? Did Clive Davis, “the man with the golden ear,” somehow gnostically or mystically determine that a then mostly white nation somehow wanted to hear the dulcet grunts of inner city felons and wannabe felons spewing misogynistic obscenities? Or was the “demand” manufactured? You tell me.)
And advertising. (The debacles of Bud Light and Jaguar are when they overreach. What manipulations and “nudges” are you UNaware of? How long did it take to notice — out loud — the astonishing prevalence of mixed-race couples with black man and white woman, but not the other way around? Why the white dad is usually a clueless goofball? That in a group of dudes the black guy is the voice of reason, holding back the violent, impulsive white guy? Thanks, Gilette commercial.)
And the final major brick in the prison-wall of popular culture is pornography.
The people running these various tentacles of the “Western” world-octopus (or vampire squid to use Taibbi’s phrase) seem remarkably aligned. Is there a vast, hidden Cabal with some guy with a Mitteleuropa accent at the top, stroking a white cat? Or even some Bedouin in a tent ruling the High Table with an iron fist? No, of course not. But the effect is as if there is some world-spanning conspiracy. The Chinese are going to need more than a Lunar base, or even a world-girdling orbital array of “rods from God” to wrest supremacy from that non-conspiracy of demons.
Geez, Mike, such a buzzkill…I mean, who doesn’t like the dulcet tones of “Baby’s Got Back” or “Funky Cold Madena”? Those are “clean” without too much offensive overtone…or gun waving cavorting MTV videos. Shall I remind you that none of that would happen without the prescient genius of Mr. Davis…yer just keeping down the boyz.
–
I do enjoy Salt-n-Pepa’s “Whatta Man”, reminds me of my lilly whitebread self. (hahahahah)
People are free to like what they want, but personally I could live quite happily without “Baby Got Back,” the NBA, and even the McRib.
I dunno who this comedian is, but he has a point:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ggtkkWquZU
And you all wonder why I live in the pines surrounded 100% by national forest, an hour’s drive from the nearest gas station.
Mike_C – Your repudiation of Wet Ass Pussy – a cultural song associated for the most part with the inner city – is racist.
I will be sure to speak sternly to myself about this.
/hangsheadinshame
Mike, we agree on the McRib (well, all o it actually)…but what the hay is that gruel made of, nothing but compressed pieces parts below the worst hot dog grade meat, slathered in a flavorful sauce on a sesame seed bun. The aftermath is disconcerting to say the least.
McRib farts are worse than pickled egg farts.
One reason for the promotion of rap, was to create a homogonos black thug culture that stretched from coast to coast. You no longer have northern black or southern black. City black or country black. A Texas black is now pretty much the same as an Atlanta black or a Detroit black. Coupled with the malpractice of our schools, blacks have to think and act the same or they aren’t black. Peer pressure backed by the power of government and pop culture is a powrrful thing.
Imago Dei..yet this groupthink along racial lines is detrimental to the inherent culture. Makes no sense, unless one looks at their skin color – in his case black – as an African tribe. The thing is 99.9% aren’t from Africa so it’s a fallacy to promote some sort of imaginary oppressed charade.
And they have to vote for Biden. Or they ain’t…
>it’s a fallacy to promote some sort of imaginary oppressed charade.
Gary Buechler, known as Nerdrotic on YouTube, says “Authenticity is the currency of the future.” (In the context of pop culture.)
That may prove to be so, but authenticity is certainly not the currency of today’s Fallen West. Victimhood is the currency of the West, so whinging about antebellum slavery on down to largely imagined oppression today certainly makes sense. [snark about certain European laws redacted]
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>to create a homogenous black thug culture
That had not occurred to me. (I had thought it was merely some guy with a Welsh-sounding name looking to make a few (million) bucks. Bucks as in dollars, not the other thing. I denounce myself for the very thought!) But that makes some sort of sense. You’ve given me something to think about.
X2
Funny how euthanasia laws seem to be prevalent in countries with ‘social medicine infrastructures’… Canada, Britain, etc.
Soylent Green is people!
Cheaper to have them self terminate
Once I [hopefully] recognize my expiration date is approaching, I’m walking off into the Contemplative Pasture…right after downing an entire half gallon of seriously good ice cream. Told my mom the last check she wrote should bounce…go out in style. She didn’t, sadly…the brain disease took her in stages, thankfully she didn’t linger.