“Explore or Expire”

“Explore or Expire”
The Lunacy of no Luna Base!
A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet

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The Russians are going to the moon. The Chinese are going to the moon. The Japanese are going to the moon. The Indians are going to the moon. The US is not going to the moon.

Historian Stephen J. Pyne said the following: "Exploration is a specific invention of specific civilizations conducted at specific historical times. It is not ... a universal property of all human societies. Not all cultures have explored or even traveled widely. Some have been content to exist in xenophobic isolation."

When future historians look back at America’s decision to curtail its exploration of space, they will surely shake their heads in disbelief. Will they compare the US to the ancient Chinese who sailed unknown seas (seven decades before Columbus’ trek to the New World) to discover and explore the eastern coast of Africa -- then went home and walled themselves off from the rest of the world? I suspect they will. I just did.

Back in 1979 James Michener, in testimony before a U.S. Senate subcommittee, said: "We should be most careful about retreating from the specific challenge of our age. We should be reluctant to turn our back upon the frontier of this epoch... We cannot be indifferent to space, because the grand slow march of our intelligence has brought us, in our generation, to a point from which we can explore and understand and utilize it. To turn back now would be to deny our history, our capabilities."

In an article in Redbook, as far back as 1969, Anthropologist Margaret Mead said: "Many people are shrinking from the future and from participation in the movement toward a new, expanded reality. And, like homesick travelers abroad, they are focusing their anxieties on home. The reasons are not far to seek. We are at a turning point in human history... We could turn our attention to the problems that going to the moon certainly will not solve ... But I think this would be fatal to our future... A society that no longer moves forward does not merely stagnate; it begins to die."

I must ask: What has happened to America’s “vision?” What has happened to our spirit of discovery? Where are America’s leaders with vision?

Look at how our horizons have shrunk. We are turning in on ourselves. We cannot survive as a people. The Bible tells us bluntly: “… without vision, the people perish.”

It concerns me to think that future generations will look back on America’s decision to curtail, even withdraw from, the exploration of space as a national failure. There is no other way to look at it. We are blowing the opportunity we have here, at the opening of the 21st century, to move out into space.

I remain convinced today, as I was as a young man, that man’s destiny lies in the stars, in distant universes and galaxies.

There is a yearning, deep within the human animal, to “discover.” Our little planet is floating in a huge sea of “undiscovered countries.” Given the opportunity, I would happily sign on as a “hand” on a ship of discovery to distant worlds. Why? Just to see what is there, to learn, to explore, and to experience any unspoiled regions of man’s reach.

"The urge to explore has propelled evolution since the first water creatures reconnoitered the land. Like all living systems, cultures cannot remain static; they evolve or decline. They explore or expire... Beyond all rationales, space flight is a spiritual quest in the broadest sense, one promising a revitalization of humanity and a rebirth of hope no less profound than the great opening out of mind and spirit at the dawn of our modern age." -- Astronaut Buzz Aldrin, "From the Moon to the Millennium,” Albuquerque Tribune, 1999

America cannot remain static in the exploration of space. Doing so will only induce a national “shriveling-up” of the most splendid society ever to grace this tiny planet. We dare not take our eyes off the stars.

"There is no way back into the past; the choice, as (H.G.) Wells once said, is the universe--or nothing. Though men and civilizations may yearn for rest, for the dream of the lotus-eaters, that is a desire that merges imperceptibly into death. The challenge of the great spaces between the worlds is a stupendous one; but if we fail to meet it, the story of our race will be drawing to its close." -- Arthur C. Clarke, Interplanetary Flight, 1950

Earth is America’s footstool. We have only to reach out from here, to grasp and secure within our arms, the future of all mankind, which lies out there.

The moon? The moon is only a “way station.”

There is no doubt in my mind that man will move out and open the frontier we call space. I have no doubt that mankind will eventually colonize planets other than earth. I have no doubt that movement has already begun. The vanguard is already probing “near-space.” What troubles me, and raises my ire, is the fact that my America is not at the spear point of that vanguard! I must ask why? The only conclusion I can reasonably formulate is this: America’s lack of leadership. There is a void at the top. America is in desperate need of leaders with vision. Without it, we will surely perish.

J. D. Longstreet

There Goes "The Fence!"

There Goes “The Fence!”

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Read it and get MAD!!!

http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/60970

The National Madhouse ... by Alan Caruba

The National Madhouse

By Alan Caruba

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If you think that you are going mad, based on the statements out of the White House and Congress, let me assure you that you are sane, but those in charge of governing the nation appear to have lost their wits.

The Democrat’s third-ranking House leader, Rep. James Clyburn (D-SC), during an appearance on Fox News asserted that “We’ve got to spend our way out of this recession.” It is his view that “We’re not going to save our way out of this recession.” So saving money is bad. Spending money we are borrowing at a rate of a billion dollars a day is good. If that sounds insane, you’re right.

In defending his new budget, President Obama declared that “Already, we have made historic strides…to cut wasteful spending.” The problem with that is that his budget proposal, for a second year in a row, would increase federal spending as a percentage of the Gross National Product at a higher rate than any time in the past 65 years. Fully a quarter of the GNP would be sucked up and spent by the government.

As we all know by now, because the President keeps telling us, that everything that happened last year was the fault of the previous President, George W. Bush, but it turns out that President Obama proposes once again to spend 30% more of the GDP than Bush. President Obama has also given notice to the United Nations that the U.S. would agree to the Copenhagen Climate Change Accord to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. It is reported that this means a reduction of “carbon emissions by 17% from 2005 levels by 2020.” This would be contingent on the passage of the Cap-and-Trade bill lingering in the Senate.

The reduction of greenhouse gas emissions is based on the now widely discredited global warming hoax that blamed carbon dioxide for the non-existent rise in the planet’s temperature.

Thus, the Cap-and-Trade bill is, itself, a hoax and, worse, would increase taxes on all energy use for all Americans. The reduction that President Obama calls for would require a return to the days of horse-drawn vehicles and an end to manufacturing and other activities dependent on oil, natural gas, and coal.

The Environmental Protection Agency has announced its intention to regulate carbon dioxide, the gas other than oxygen on which all life on Earth depends. Its justification for this is, of course, global warming. It requires a lot of gall to ignore the fact that the Earth entered a cooling cycle in 1998 that is likely to last another decade or two.

If the insanity emanating from the White House, Congress and the EPA is not enough, over at the United Nations last Monday the Human Rights Council met in Geneva. It was presided over by Halima Warzasi, a woman whom UN Watch notes “personally shielded the Saddam regime from international censure over the (Kurdish) gas attacks.” She was preceded in the chairmanship by Alfonso Martinez of Cuba. The Council’s principal members include China, Cuba, Russia, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, none of which are famous for their attention to human rights.

Also last Monday, one brief moment of sanity; Ali Hassan al-Majeed, also known as “Chemical Ali” for having ordered the poison gas attacks on the Kurds, was hanged.

To Americans struggling with debt, with mortgages that cost more than the present value of their homes, and, for many, with unemployment, the notion that the nation would end the Bush tax cuts while raising taxes at the same time it is borrowing and spending money at an unsustainable rate is a good definition of madness.

In November, the Obama administration released a report stating that more than $98 billion in taxpayer dollars spent by government agencies was wasted. The main culprit according to the report was Medicare, a program that the same administration via its “healthcare reform” legislation wanted to expand by adding millions more to its rolls.

So you may be forgiven for thinking that something is terribly wrong with the White House and Congress because it is.

Alan Caruba

“Big Daddy” Obama and the American Police State

“Big Daddy” Obama and the American Police State
A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet

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I recently came across an article by John W. White­head, Pres­i­dent of The Ruther­ford Institute entitled: “The State of the Nation: I am afraid.”

In the article Mr. Whitehead says: “We’re encased in what some are calling an elec­tronic con­cen­tra­tion camp. The gov­ern­ment con­tinues to amass data files on more and more Amer­i­cans. Every­where we go, we are watched: at the banks, at the gro­cery store, at the mall, crossing the street.” Mr. Whitehead goes on to say: “We are meta­mor­phosing into a police state.” He says: “Fusion cen­ters – data col­lecting agen­cies spread throughout the country, aided by the National Secu­rity Agency – con­stantly mon­itor our com­mu­ni­ca­tions, every­thing from our internet activity and web searches to text mes­sages, phone calls and emails. This data is then fed to gov­ern­ment agen­cies, which are now inter­con­nected – the CIA to the FBI, the FBI to local police – a rela­tion­ship which will make a tran­si­tion to mar­tial law that much easier. We may very well be one ter­rorist attack away from seeing armed forces on our streets – and the Amer­ican people may not put up much resis­tance.”

Mr. Whitehead is concerned that our Constitution will come under attack. He says: “As national bor­ders dis­solve in the face of spreading glob­al­iza­tion, the like­li­hood increases that our Con­sti­tu­tion, which is the supreme law of America, will be sub­verted in favor of inter­na­tional laws. What that means is that our Con­sti­tu­tion will come increas­ingly under attack.”

It is an insightful article and one that every American ought to read and consider carefully. We encourage you to read The State of the Nation: I am afraid.” By John W. Whitehead at “The August Forecast” HERE.

I, too, am concerned for my country. As Mr. Whitehead has said this is not the America I grew up in. I do not recognize the country we live in today as America.

I see and hear more and more fellow citizens holding hushed and whispered conversations for fear the government – or -- one of their neighbors (who will turn them in to the authorities as a demonstration of their “Good Citizen” status) will overhear them. America is coming more and more, every day, to resemble the old Soviet Union… certainly not AMERICA.

What happened? Americans decided they want security more than they want freedom. Like the Athenians of ancient Greece -- we may never be free again.

I am convinced, more than ever, as I watch the Obama Regime in action, that the people of America are being set-up. “Set-up for what?” you may ask. How about a complete takeover of the country? I believe we are watching a coup de’tat take place right before our eyes.

I have mentioned a number of times, in the past, that I fear the Obama Regime will not allow the November Mid Term Election to take place as scheduled. I have postulated the Obama Regime will declare a “national emergency” and “postpone” the November elections… indefinitely.

Ok. So I am paranoid. That doesn’t mean I’m not RIGHT!

It seems I am not alone in seeing evidence of a “plot” in progress amongst the “minions of menace” in the backrooms of the Obama White House. THEY are in power now, and they do not intend to allow that power to slip through their fingers -- certainly not as a result of free and fair elections… not when those elections can be rigged to go their way.

There is an article by Ed Lasky at the “American Thinker” you need to read. Every American needs to read it and consider it very carefully. The article is titled: “Obama and the White House Chicago Boys.” In the article Mr. Lasky says the following: “Barack Obama has a problem. His polls numbers are dropping and his policies are fueling an angry backlash across America. The Democratic Party is held in disrepute, and congressional Democrats are dropping like flies. This imperils Obama's radical agenda and his own 2012 prospects. What to do? Game the system and rig the future elections. That is how things are done in the streets of Chicago.”

Mr. Lasky says: “What we got was a team that will stoop very low indeed to win elections, honesty and transparency be damned. Obama may be a good basketball player, but he and his team excel in the blood sport of politics, and they will use every trick and tactic, no matter how disgraceful, to win. That may be the Chicago Way, but it is not the American Way."

Again, we urge you to READ Mr. Lasky’s article. You will find it HERE.

America is in DEEP trouble. Even though my fellow Americans HAVE begun to awakened to the threat to their freedom the Socialists and Marxists/Communists in the White House pose, not enough Americans have been roused to action. We conservatives, especially, need to become a massive activist machine. We have to fight to maintain and preserve our freedom. If we don’t “Big Daddy Barry Obama,” and his Chicago machine, will most certainly roll over us and crush our liberty and freedom to death.

J. D. Longstreet

American First, Last, and Always! ... J. D. Longstreet

American First, Last, and Always!
A Citizen of the World, NOT!
A Commentary by J. D. Longstreet
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A recent commenter on one of my articles took me to task for not realizing that I am a citizen of the world FIRST -- and a citizen of America SECOND!

How wrong he is! If you subscribe to world citizenship first, then you, too are wrong.

My allegiance is to America. I don’t give a rat’s behind what the remainder of the countries on this globe does. It is none of my concern -- right up to the point they insist on making trouble for America. It is then that we must send the “United States WORLD Police Force” to clean up the mess the offending country, or countries, has made. I sometimes think our US Navy aircraft carriers should be painted black and white as are our police cruisers. Maybe we could install a gigantic blue flashing light on the carrier’s tallest radio mast. Impressive, what?

I am an admitted isolationist. If I could, I would build a wall around the US and invite the rest of the world to take a hike. Alas, I cannot. I am also a realist and I understand the interconnectedness of America with the rest of the world. I don’t like it, but I understand it. Keep your friends close and your enemies closer.

Look, individuals who prized their independence and self-reliance settled America. They had no desire to be citizens of the world. Our forefathers warned us of “foreign entanglements.” The original America was designed to stand-alone. It was during the war for Independence from Great Britain that we began “entangling” ourselves with European countries as we sought allies to assist in our fight with the British world superpower. We have not been able to disengage since.
Last June, at a fundraiser in Washington, DC, Newt Gingrich is reported to have said: "I am not a citizen of the world. I think the entire concept is intellectual nonsense and stunningly dangerous!"

I agree with Gingrich. It s one of those “warm and fuzzy,” emotion inducing, expressions so favored by the useful idiots of the left. It is also, I have concluded, a result of the brainwashing of America’s youth in that left-wing indoctrination system we refer to, laughingly, as the Public Education System.

Why brainwash our kids into believing they are citizens of the world FIRST? Simple. It will make it much easier for Americans to accept becoming a part of a Global Government which would negate the US Constitution, strip Americans of all their rights as American citizens and render them serf’s of an elite globe spanning Marxist ruling class.

We all know by now that Obama is “a citizen of the world.” He tells us he is. Obama is, or at least was, a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, “the organization that represents those who want globalism, nations without borders, a North American Union, a Godless U.N. Charter that can be changed according to political whims of unelected elite bureaucrats to replace the U.S. Constitution; a new, universal currency to replace the dollar controlled by the central bankers of Europe…” The preceding is from an excellent article by Joe Kress at “News with Views” entitled: “Obama: I’m a Citizen of the World.” You will find it HERE.

There has been, for a very long time, a movement behind the scenes, in the shadows, so to speak, to create a Global Government. A single One-World Government to which all people on earth would pledge their allegiance. The current governments of the various countries on earth would be suppliants to that Global Government. The earth would be under the power of an elite, unelected, oligarchy. A nameless, faceless, group of power-hungry individuals who will decide how everything, I mean EVERY THING, is run. They still believe in the Socialist/Marxist Utopia, which has never existed -- and never will -- so long as human beings are at the helm.

Obama belongs to that group of elitists who believe that they are the “anointed ones” charged with insuring the emergence of Global Governance on earth. They are the people who use phrases such as “a citizen of the world.”

Those of us who consider ourselves citizens of America first place our hands over our hearts when reciting the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag of the US. We do this because our allegiance is to America and ONLY America – FIRST! NOW do you understand why Obama did NOT? (Remember the Photo?)

So, if you are inclined to take me to task for not considering myself a citizen of the world first and America second, you can stand down. Your efforts will be totally wasted. You see -- I live in the REAL world -- not in your fantasy world of Socialist/Marxist propaganda and sloganeering. I am an American, First, Last, and Always!

J. D. Longstreet