Concealability seems poor.
This one is rough. It features animal cruelty *and* profound human stupidity: the prime features of downright evil. It’s one of those vids that produced an *instant* negative emotional response in me, as it may others, so I’m putting it after the break. Don’t click “Continue reading” if you don’t want your day freakin’ ruined, you heart broken, your gut wrenched, your remaining shreds of your former faith in humanity stripped away by the sounds in the last second of the video.
There is apparently some discussion about parking some THAAD missiles along the west coast to protect against the likes of a Nork missile. The THAAD isn’t a full-up anti-ICBM system, but it’s the best the US currently has for land-based systems. It’s also the only missile in operation that has an important subsystem (the igniter) designed by *me.* So there.
There is, of course, no actual money for this.
An updated version of a post from a few years ago with obsolete formatting, with added editorial bloviation!
Point of note: 1963 is 54 years ago. With all the advances in the last half century, America still relies on the Minuteman. Since the Minuteman was developed, we also developed the Midgetman and Peacekeeper ICBMs… and got rid of them.
Note as well that the five year development time for the original Minuteman is year and a half longer than the time since I originally posted another version of this old Minuteman video. And in that three and a half years, the United States does not seem to have developed a new ICBM, while in that time the North Koreans and Iranians *have.* The Russians have tested updated versions of the “Satan” ICBM (the RS-28 Sarmat), which carries 10+ warheads; the Minuteman III currently mouldering in American silos were designed for a whopping 3 warheads, but now carry a grand total of *one* warhead due to treaty restrictions.
Also of historic note: when the Minuteman was developed, a lot of components that, were they to be developed today, would be digital were then analog. The safe-and-arm for the solid rocket motors was essentially a heavy chunk of clockwork. The S&A simply served the purpose of making sure than an accidental electrical or mechanical discharge somewhere, if it inadvertently set off the ordnance lines leading to the motor igniter, would not actually get to the igniter. They are simple mechanical blocks that prevent the signal from getting through unless they are properly activated.
The Minuteman S&A’s worked well enough. So, when Thiokol was developing the solid rocket boosters for the Shuttle, they used the Minuteman S&As. And since once something is designed and fielded at NASA it almost never changes, the 1963-vintage S&As stayed with the RSRMs throughout the lifespan of the Shuttle. Last I knew, they were also in use on the five-segment boosters to be used on the “next generation” Space Launch System.” So *if* the SLS gets built (doubtful) and flies for decades (doubtful), the relatively ancient Minuteman S&As will probably fly with them throughout the SLS’s lifespan. If SLS flies in 2020 and lasts 20 years, the Minuteman S&A will have an 80 year operational life. Of course, by the time the SLS is retired, the Minuteman ICBM itself might still be in service.
The artist in question, Jon McNaughton, is a politically conservative Mormon who incorporates both political conservatism and Mormonism into his art. Many of his paintings are pretty blunt statements of politics and/or faith, blunt to the point of being propaganda with all the subtleties of a 90-page “speech” in an Ayn Rand novel. Still, he is a reasonably skilled painter and illustrator, and boy howdy does he get some people riled up.
This latest illustration deals with abolitionists rescuing people from slavery. What’s got people annoyed is that the abolitionists in question in this painting are, first and foremost, Operation Underground Railroad founder Tim Ballard and his wife, who have the audacity to be white people trying to rescue brown people from the sex slave trade. *Apparently,* Operation Underground Railroad actually employs people like mercenaries to actually rescue actual slaves from actual slavery. If this is in fact accurate… I can’t see why anybody but a slaver would have a problem with this. But OF COURSE people have a problem with the “optics” of a white guy rescuing a brown kid, because reasons. Seriously. Read the article. People are miffed.
Additionally, the painting includes talk show bloviator Glenn Beck, sure to annoy the bejeebers out of the progs.
I don’t have a lot of use for a lot of McNaughtons art, as it tends to be heavily religious and, distressingly, rather theocratic. A number pf his paintings push the notion that America was founded as a Christian theocracy and that’s what we should get back to, which is a point of view I gotta say I can’t quite get behind. But, hey, it’s his art and more power to him. It’s worth pointing out that his way of expressing his ideology in art is to apply paint he bought to a canvas he bought… as opposed to the Progressive approach to art which is generally to apply spray paint to someone else’s property, or to apply flame to books, bricks to storefront windows, hammers to statues, bike locks to foreheads, force to free speech.
If you go through the catalog of his art, you kinda get the impression that he was not a terribly big fan of Obama:
As I said, a lot of his art is religious, and to my eye rather disturbing. Such as this:
Fortunately, there’s this thing called “Photoshop.” Some years ago, someone improved it…
See? *THIS* is how you do ideological art. McNaughton painted what he liked. Didn’t hurt anybody or damage their stuff or deprive them of nuthin’. And someone else digitally reworked a piece of McNaughton art into a parody/homage/more accurate representation of the Chtulhu-laden future that awaits us all. The proglodyte approach, however, would be to firebomb the art gallery hosting the painting, or trying to pass laws to get it banned.
These auctions for some of my cyanotype blueprints end tomorrow. Most have no bids, so if you want ’em they should go for cheap. These are some of the BIG blueprints.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Space-Launch-System-1-72-scale-Diagram-Cyanotype-Blueprint/253278318585
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Large-Cyanotype-Blueprint-of-the-Consolidated-B-36-Bomber/253278304259
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Lockheed-Skunk-Works-hypersonic-X-24C-L301-cyanotype-blueprint/253278262083
Here we have on display that can-do, screw-you spirit of awesomeness that saw Americans through the dark times of FDRs New Deal Depression Expansion programs, World War II, the Cold War and the early Justin Beiber years.
WEST COLUMBIA, S.C.
A hungry, slightly inebriated man knew just what to do when he stopped by a South Carolina Waffle House early Thursday only to find the restaurant’s staff snoozing: He cooked up his own meal, snapping selfies along the way.
Best line of the year: “I give all the credit to my old friend vodka”
Couldn't sleep so I went to waffle house….guess what…everyone on shift was asleep
Posted by Alex Bowen on Wednesday, November 29, 2017
Mockery is the sincerest form of dealing with ignorant political extremists, especially the likes of Piers Morgan and Cenk Uygur.