I can agree with that.

Today I'm looking out the window at the Saturn V and I a half mile from here and remembering what it was like to be 15 years old when all the hard work of neighbors and Dad's friends finally fired up and headed out for the Moon. It was 1969 and I was a long way from and dead center of the events of the day watching as a boy with an official NASA schedule in one hand and a guitar in the other.

Palin is irrelevant to me. I want to hang on to that kid a little longer. I need him.

Ahhh yes. The early space era. I was 12 when we landed on the moon, and remember being up at 2 or 3 in the morning to watch the first step on ther lunar surface in the days when most tv stations played the national anthem and went off the air for the night before or around the same time. I also remember keeping a cigar box full of clippings regarding the Gemini programs before that. Yes, I was a space cadet even then. The guitar for me was not until about the age of 17......and I still ain't learned how to play it!

Me either. But I can wear my Apollo 11 lapel pins given out to the old timers when I try.

69 was magic. So was 47. Go figure. The Mayans and Aztecs were right about coupled time events, years and short cycles that lock phase with other years and short cycles. Of such are memories made.

My husband was one of those kids who loved anything to do with space...we still have boxws of newspaper clippings and Life magazines containing articles about the Gemini and Apollo missions.

Years later, he's working for NASA. He loves it.

I started my technical career at MSFC with STS-1 in 1981/82. It was the slowest environment I've been in but that was when I was a youngster. I'd love to go back there. It was the one job where every day I drove into work believing in what I was doing.

My own personal feeling is that Sarah Palin is not going to "evolve" on her own. At least not in a good way. Past history has shown that if people can get away with something, they usually continue to try to get away with it until it catches up with them (Bernie Madoff, for example). As far as leaving them (people or things) to their own devices for their "evolution", that doesn't seem to work well either. Reaganomics' trickle down theory, for one .... all that trickled down on the middle and lower classes was more shit (it does, indeed, flow downhill. Corporate greed .... AIG is issuing more bonuses. Not to mention the holier-than-thou politicians recently caught with their pants down, literally!

Speaking of which, there was only one candidate in the last presidential primaries (to my limited knowledge) who repeatedly spoke out against corporate America's greed. Say what you will about the guy but John Edwards said that you can't ask them to do something, you have to make them! That was before the economy tanked. And now, our government has suggested (re: asked) that AIG, et al, do the right thing (evolve) but here comes, what is it, round three or four of the bonuses?

Things were pretty violent in the 60s & 70s. Chicago's Democratic convention, the Kent State killings, tear gassing of protests, violent militant underground organizations, etc., etc. Maybe the harsh words and criticisms aren't so bad in comparison. Better that than have it come to a head to the point where The Anarchist's Cookbook becomes a popular leftist read again.

The last administration started brewing in that old, fetid cauldron all over again. A lot of their politico cronies were throwing their own poisons into that potion as well. And as we've seen from recent news that has come to light, the stench is still coming from it (Cheney & the CIA, for instance). My own opinion, for what little it may be worth, is that a lot past actions have present consequences. To let them pass by with no repercussions gives license to impunity, immunity and a skewed sense of entitlement to those who committed them and those who might in the future.

People are pissed. Maybe not as much as they should but they are pissed. Even Gandhi could get pissed. Even good ol' Pete gets bristly and he's the closest to Gandhi that the ol' USA has right now. I mean, look what Dylan going electric did to him!

I'm not saying that Palin won't change. Hell, even George Wallace apologized for his racism in his later years. But wait for her to evolve? At what cost in the meantime?

Wise and rational thoughts, Captain Z......

Agreed, and much appreciated, Z.

Who said anything about waiting? What is the alternative? Extinguishing her?

Len wrote:

"What is the alternative? Extinguishing her?"

That would be HER preferred method of dealing with dissent......

YES! Not her, but her career!


I mean we already had a dummy in charge in the recent past. Look where it got us!

Rather harsh choice of words, depending on your method of extinguishing. But, given who she is, yeah ..... it's gonna be a long while before any philosophical Darwinian-type change happens there. Ergo, a long wait! I certainly doubt that any political evolution-accelerating monolith (ala Arthur C. Clark) is going to plop down in front of her anytime soon. "Just go away" sounds very appropriate in this instance.

Palin: Alaska tour is thanks, not goodbye
By MATTHEW DALY (AP) – 2 hours ago

July 19, 2009

"I am Alaskan. I've grown up here and I'm going to remain in Alaska," she told The Associated Press in an interview. "It's not farewell, it's more like thanks for letting me be here and I'll see you soon."

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/art ... wD99HNID00

It's official.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/26/magaz ... f=magazine

Not sure whether to post this here or in the ST thread...but here it is:

http://www.hulu.com/watch/85839/the-ton ... does-palin