malada

Some State Department wag declared that the the US of A is a Christian nation.  

Let's let history speak for itself. 

Native Americans - PAGANS

Pilgrims - HERETICS

Puritans - HERETICS-

Presbyterians - HERETICS

Jews - eh, nuff said

Unitarians - HERETICS

Dutch Reform - HERETICS

Catholics - HERETICS

Baptists of all stripes -  HERETICS

Universalist s  -HERETICS and proud of it

Spiritualists - HERETICS

Latter Day Saints - HERETICS



Nearly every faith that settled or was born in America was somebody else's heresy often punishable by death.   

So I rejoice in my heresies as the true faith of America,


 
- 

I paused on the story "Incubus on the Job" because I was stuck on that rising middle section that leads up to The Chase".  I finally worked that out in my head when my health crashed. Hands shake so badly I can barely type so I can only write down snippets.  I bought a new keyboard hoping a more mechanical style would help but it's too sensitive,  I also have the time to work out proper order, introduce important new characters and flesh out others,


But after months of doing this my mind is a little tired of the story and as I drifted off to sleep I asked my brain for a blank slate - something new, 

And I got a big honking parcel.

Enter "Flight of the Hydrogen Boys". 

Steampunk!

Zeppelins!

Magic!

Submarines!

War!

WORLD BUILDING ON PLANETARY SCALE!

I really need to get better so I can start pounding these stories out.
 

What a brilliant idea!  Save tons of weight by leaving off the landing legs on the Super Heavy booster and just catch it using 'chop sticks' on the launch tower!  

Which out of 14 launches has happened... twice?  

Because  if the landing goes badly you lose your launch pad?  A very expensive launch pad.  

There are reasons launch pads and landing areas are kept far away from each other. 

Go play with your toy cars, Elon.  The world is safer that way. 
  

So Musk is going to be wrapping up Fa;con 9 and going all in on Starship and Sup[er Heavy.  This will free up a lot of talent from SpaceX 

A lot of Canadian talent, I hear. 

Musk is a flake   Canada should have have its own space port,  its own reusable rockets and capsules.    Government or private.   NASA has failed.   We  need  to regroup down here.  Musk is pulling the rug out of affordable launches and his replacement barely reaches orbit and hasn.t demonstrated re usability.  He has given us exciting and costly explosions.  

I know...  space is hard.  Look at it as  a jobs program.  The more rockets the better. 

A rich country could have breakfast and lunch for every student

a rich country could house every veteran,

a rich country could afford health care for every citizen,

a rich country could afford no kill shelters for abandoned pets...

a rich country could have extensive park services both state and national...

and so much more....

Juggling medications has wreaked hob on  my sleep cycle.  Since I've given up coffee I'm no longer jolting myself awake during the  day so I'm napping a lot.  Like twice a day.  My body has been wrecked - well my skin mostly - so I really, really need to admit that I need the rest.  

So I'm up at 4:30 IN THE morning doing laundry.  I'm tired but not sleepy.  It's frustrating but with naps during the day I should be getting the sleep and rest I need.  

I'm slept some earlier in the night and I'll fall back to sleep after the laundry gets in the dryer.  

tRump announced an agreement with Greenland and murmurings of approval were heard from Europe..  
  
Yeah, count me skeptical.  

Either real adults actually wrote it and Donnie Little Hands had nothing to do with it, or Don-Don will change the whole thing at the last minute and screw it up.  

I don't know the details but details matter.  Put the agreement under a microscope.  Take your time.  

Once again we're in an energy (oil) crisis.  

I remember my my first in the 1970s.  Back them there was a push for renewables:solar, wind, biofuels, conservation  Butt in the 50 years since  we've made  only fitful progress weaning away from fossil (Middle Eastern) fuels.  Our cars and transportation isn't that much more efficient and data centers threaten to gulp more electricity for AI slop,  Although we're now 'friendly' with countries who were once once adversaries like Saudi Arabia - with friends like those, who needs enemies?  They're involved in a proxy war which threatens even more supply lines and their army can't seem to fight it's way out of a paper bag.  The Saudi's are asking for American forces now which means American soldiers on the ground.  They're just fine with nice clean jet fighters, oh nice clean hands no blood on Saudi hands... they want someone else to do the dirty work.  

I'm just tired of my wallet and my life being ruled by religious zealots of various stripes.   

I'm rambling a bit.  It's 5 in the morning and I've barely slept so.... meh.  

It was a normal day shift in television Master Control at our local PBS station.  I was slinging tapes: one inch reel to reel video and 3/4 inch U-matic cassette, running tape breaks off u-matic tape with voice overs done off cart machines live, switching live from tape to satellite and back again.  I think it was TeleStar 4 at the time.  It was the kids block: Sesame Street, Mr. Rogers Neighborhood,, Clifford the Big Red Dog, The Puzzle Place... good stuff!

Digital TV was just being worked on.  WNET Channel 13 in NY had a brand new digital transmitter and antenna in the North Tower, at the time and their chief engineer was on site that day. 

Along with individual tape machine monitors I had a preview monitor, an off the air monitor, and a big TV (20 inch maybe?) connected to our local cable company to check our cable signal.  At one of my too-many coffee breaks I heard one of the radio people (we had our local NPR station down the hall)) mention planes striking the Twin Towers in NYC. 

I went back into TV Master and switched the cable feed to CNN.  

I learned later that there was a lot of discussions both locally and nationally about finding a news feed - most likely off of satellite - to put to air.  It was decided to stay a safe harbor and remain with the regular children's programing.  It was the right decision.  In a time of disaster we were a safe harbor for the youngest of us all. 

I watched live as the North Tower's antenna fell inward like a knife.  PBS lost some of its own that day.   
  
The United States had the world's attention right then and there.... and we made a mess of it.  True, we needed to find those responsible and bring them to justice but we turned into chest thumping militaristic bullies.  Our leadership lead us into pointless wars and conflicts,encouraged fascism at home and turned us into a pariah on the world stage.  Bin Laden wanted to destroy the United States - it just took 25 years for that to happen.