This week holds three tragedies, the fire in Apollo 1, the loss of the Challenger, and the loss of Columbia. How NASA Betrayed Our Heroic Astronauts.
In the first two cases, we had what was known as ‘Go fever.’ The drive to get it done, get into space that we cut corners. Three on the ground and 7 in the air paid for that fever.
Columbia was lost due to political correctness. By building a more “environmentally friendly” main tank, changes were made that led directly to that tragedy over East Texas.
Many people, young and old, died in our colonizing of this continent. We should expect losses when we conquer that last frontier, but from real things, not cutting corners or PC run amok.
It’s time we got back into space, and stayed there.

Chile radically changed their version of Social Security 24 years ago, and it has so far proven to be a big success. No fulfillment of the ‘doom and gloom’ predictions of the naysayers, and good returns has been had on the accounts. Chile offers privatized Social Security model.
Now we face a crisis of our own. We can tell almost exactly when things will happen, and it is better to make a small course correction now than wait and make a violent course correction later.
With your money diversified in several good growth stock mutual funds, you lower your risk while improving your chases of a good return. Instead of putting all of your money on one horse, you put your money on every horse, so you win no matter who comes in first. In order for these funds to lose money, Pepsi, GM, and about a dozen other stable stocks would have to tank simultaneously, in which case the entire stock market will also tank.
But this does not mean you shouldn’t put your money in the stock market. if you are looking for a long term investment, that’s the place to go. It’s just about the only place to go, considering that nothing else has as good a rate of return.
If you are young, put every spare penny you have into your retirement account now, instead of later. A little bit now beats a lot later due to the cascading effect of compounding. Retire with dignity, because I can’t. It’s too late for me, but if you have a good job, invest, invest, invest.

Here is a two part article, No Teacher Left Behind, and the firestorm of spam created by it is covered is covered here, Education Moe-Joe.
In these days of governmental regulation of the work force, unions are becoming anachronistic. They have become Political Action Committees that don’t necessarily have their members interests in mind. As evidenced in the last election, many Union members voted Republican, while the Union leaders poured the membership dues into Democrat candidates by the millions.
Unions also have the bad habit of protecting incompetent members. By keeping these members on at the same pay scale that the hard working members get, why should the worst workers get the same pay as the best workers?
In any case, this article shows these and other problems that the Teachers Union visits upon the students, as the teachers act in their best interests, rather than in the students best interests.
This means that the future of the country suffers because the teachers are turning out sub-standard work, i.e. the qualifications of their students. At least electricians and carpenters have building codes they have to follow. Teachers don’t.
The second article details the spamming of the WSJ by hundreds of letters, spurred by this email:

Dear AFT leader/activist,
Today’s Wall Street Journal includes an outrageous attack on teacher unions by Terry M. Moe (reprinted below). Moe suggests that “If the teachers unions won’t voluntarily give up their power, then it has to be taken away from them–through new laws that, among other things, drastically limit (or prohibit) collective bargaining in public education. . . .”
AFT president Edward J. McElroy will prepare a response to this, but we are also asking our leaders and activists to respond as well and to encourage letters from classroom teachers on this issue. Please send your letters and e-mails to [the Journal].

And the payoff comes from the last paragraph of the second article:

Far from refuting Mr. Moe, the AFT’s letter barrage proves his point. Teachers unions have become the largest single barrier to better American schools, and the political system needs to find ways to reduce their destructive influence.

Their selfish and short-sighted interest in themselves and their lack of accountability is destroying our future, graduating more and more young adults who cannot read their diploma.

“When you say that you agree to a thing in principle, you mean that you have not the slightest intention of carrying it out in practice.” — Otto Von Bismarck

Here is a letter from Lieutenant Colonel Tim Ryan, Commander, Task Force 2-12 Cavalry, First Cavalry Division in Iraq. Media coverage distorts Iraq reality.

All right, I’ve had enough. I am tired of reading distorted and grossly exaggerated stories from major news organizations about the “failures” in the war in Iraq. “The most trusted name in news” and a long list of others continue to misrepresent the scale of events in Iraq. Print and video journalists are covering only a fraction of the events in Iraq and, more often than not, the events they cover are only negative.
The inaccurate picture they paint has distorted the world view of the daily realities in Iraq. The result is a further erosion of international support for the United States’ efforts there, and a strengthening of the insurgents’ resolve and recruiting efforts while weakening our own. Through their incomplete, uninformed and unbalanced reporting, many members of the media covering the war in Iraq are aiding and abetting the enemy.
The fact is the Coalition is making steady progress in Iraq, but not without ups and downs. So why is it that no matter what events unfold, good or bad, the media highlights mostly the negative aspects of the event? The journalistic adage, “If it bleeds, it leads,” still applies in Iraq, but why only when it’s American blood?

I know you can’t trust the words coming out of the news anchors and reporters on the national news programs, and you can generally take them 180 degrees out of what they say. When they say it’s getting worse, it’s actually getting better.
I just wanted to share this with you because I like to share good news with my readers. And this qualifies as good news. WE are winning the war of attrition over there, at a rate of 7:1. We will run out of terrorists long before we run out of troops.
There is a ton of good news that isn’t going to be reported by anybody because the Liberal MSM wants us out of Iraq, and damn the consequences of that action. We must get the word out wherever we can that the terrorists are about as bad as the riots in South Central LA. They are confined to small areas of control and can only exert limited actions outside of those areas.
Spread the word.

Jib Jab has made a new video, for President Bush’s Inauguration, based on the old folk tune “She’ll be Comin’ ‘Round the Mountain.”
It’s funny. Go and watch it.

My good friend Mike at Half-Bakered has returned to the keyboard! Please check him and his Spotlight of Truth out. He brings up very thoughtful commentary and analysis on Memphis and Shelby County.
Welcome back, Mike.

It turns out that the FBI and other authorities are looking for four Chinese nationals who possibly crossed into the US via the Mexican border. FBI Alerts Boston of Four Terror Suspects.
Keep tuned to the news for further updates.

It seems that these people just don’t give up. Protesters Accuse Bush of ‘Exterminating the Muslim Race’.
These deep left-fielders are spouting all of the nutjob stuff, “Bush and his friends at Diebold stole the election (again)”, “Destroying the planet”, etc., etc., etc.
This is one that I really liked:

Molly from Massachusetts accused the Bush administration of “putting out fake science — fake pseudo-science and having Nazi doctors — the same way Nazi Germany did in a lot of ways. There are a lot of parallels now between America and Nazi Germany,” Molly said.

Yes, of course there are. There are Brownshirts roaming the streets, smashing Jewish businesses, violently beating up protesters against Bush… Oh, wait. There isn’t anybody doing that you say? Then I guess WE’RE NOT NAZI GERMANY.
I just included this for a laugh, and to let you know there are people so far out on the fringe, they are barely holding onto the tassels.

Reports are coming in from Boston about a possible dirty bomb somewhere in or around Boston. It is still uncorroborated at this time, but the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency is taking it seriously.

NewsCenter 5′s David Boeri reported that an uncorroborated report said that several illegal immigrants from the California/Mexico border were on their way to Boston carrying some sort of explosive material. So far, no threat has been corroborated.

If this pans out, this ought to slam shut the door on Bush’s “Guest Worker” pipe dream. If a dirty bomb explodes in a major city, and it was snuck across the Mexican border, things will change in a hurry. Fence and mine the border, run guards along the border 24/7, and start throwing out the undocumented illegal aliens. But we have to catch them before anything happens.
We have to be right 100% of the time, they only have to get lucky once.

This is good news: Atheist Loses Bid to Ban Inaugural Prayer.
The SCOTUS Chief Justice told Michael Newdow to go piss up a rope and denied his request to strike the benediction from the inauguration tomorrow.
It made my day. How about you?

The Eco-nuts are at it again: Ecoterror Group Warns of More Firebombings.
These anus headed idiots are at it again, firebombing housing developments because they are ‘intruding on Nature.’ Notice I capitalized Nature, as Momma Nature is a real person, looking out for all of the trees and little creatures of the forest, which the bad land developers are killing.
So, like spoiled evil children, they burn other peoples property. They burn it because of their sixth-grade Michael Moore logic tells them to.
I sincerely hope one of these goes off in their hands one of these days. It won’t teach them not to play with fire, but it will result in one less eco-terrorist.

A wonderful bill is in front of our lawmakers in the House: ‘Self-Defense’ Bill Introduced in House of Representatives.

The proposed Citizens’ Self-Defense Act of 2005, introduced last week by Rep. Roscoe Bartlett of Maryland, would specifically protect the right of law-abiding citizens to use handguns, rifles and shotguns in defending themselves, their families or their homes.
The bill also would allow people whose self-defense rights have been violated by any government entity to bring legal action in federal court.

I don’t know where the NRA is on this, but I’m quite sure they are supporting it, letting the CCRKBA have their moment in the sun and let them get credit for it.
I mentioned it before, the case was South v. Maryland in 1856, which stated that the police are not there for the protection of individual citizens. So calling on the police to come and ‘protect’ you, they can’t be held liable if they don’t get there in time. It’s up to you to protect yourself. 911 is state sponsored Dial-A-Prayer.
If this bill can make it over the hurdles and gets to become law, this would be big leverage on ruling that firearms under the Second Amendment are an individual right.
But, to tell you the truth, I’m not holding my breath. Some Liberal will get to put a ‘poison pill’ amendment in the bill, which will kill it. Hopefully the solid Republican majority will prevent this from happening and pass a ‘clean’ bill.
Here’s hoping.

This will have to be watched closely: Md. Senator Introduces Bill to Criminalize Assault Weapons.
The bill would criminalize the use of “Assault Weapons” (there is no such thing, except in the minds of anti-gunners) and add 20 years on to the sentience for using them in a crime.
Why will this have to be watched closely? Because this bill sounds great on the surface. This guy has been trying to ban these weapons for years now, and all of a sudden he changes course? I don’t trust him as far as I can drop-kick him.
I would be happy if the bill was expanded to add that 20 years for using any firearm in the commission of a crime. That being said, there will likely be a ‘poison pill’ of some gun grab in the bill, which will kill it. If they can keep it on target (sorry about the pun) then I would happily support it. But they will most likely include self-defense using these weapons as part of the commission of the said crime, giving the homeowner defending his family 20+ for doing the right thing.

I have a meeting in Jackson this morning, so I’m up and off early. I’ll be back by this afternoon for my posting.