Down with | - Part 4

Down with NASA – a 50 year shuttle to nowhere!

Posted by Ralph at 11:02 Down with

Feb 232015

: Image via Wikipedia

Back when I was a kid in the 50’s, everybody thought for sure we would be in space by 2000. I mean really in space with at least a working space station and regular missions to the Moon if not a colony. Not the hokey, useless space station that we can’t get to anymore anyway.

When the Russians were first to launch a satellite (Sputnik will be forever etched in my brain), the US rushed to catch up. The Moon landing was a triumph and right on schedule but after that things went horrible wrong. The adventure was over. The bureaucrats took charge and we wasted the next 50 years going nowhere with the space shuttle – the biggest waste of government dollars since the Great Society.

The public didn’t know. The NASA mouthpieces had a good story – if you didn’t think about it. A reusable vehicle makes sense so long as it gets you where you need to go. Unfortunately people with lives to live don’t spend much time thinking about space. We didn’t know that the worthless space shuttle couldn’t reach the altitude necessary for space exploration or a station that could serve as a way station to the moon. The $174 billion cost of this program to nowhere may not seem so big compared to TARP but the dollar amount is only part of the cost. Since the program started in the 60’s the US space program has been heading in the wrong direction on a road to nowhere. Now that the space shuttle has been axed we are up the creek without a paddle. We can’t even go back to the Apollo program because we threw away all that technology. Thank you government bureaucrats!

Looking back, it is obvious that only fools would leave the future of the human race to a government program. We were naive in the 60’s. We still thought that we could do anything so long as we developed a government program for it. As we now know surveying the wreckage of the paradise that used to be California President Reagan was right when he said. ‘Government is not the solution. Government is the problem.’

Contrast the space shuttle debacle with the private space program which has so far accomplished far more than NASA in making space open to exploration. They have a reusable craft which doesn’t look anything like the clunky shuttle and they will be offering commercial flights into space soon. No astronauts. No space walks. Just real tourists seeing space up close and personal. You can book a flight right now. They also have vision. They are planning for a space station which will be a hotel as well as a transit point for trips to the Moon. We are finally going to get into space but not with the government driving

So lets kiss off the $450 billion or so that NASA has cost us to date off as a lesson and kill NASA. We don’t need to spend any more money letting them lead us further and further away from space. I see the future of space and it doesn’t have the government’s stamp on it. The future of space is in private hands.

Ralph

Ralph is the inspiration for Cantankerous Old Coots and is our Grand Duke of Cantankerousness

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Yet another DA DA

Posted by Bob@HayleStorm Interactive at 11:02 Bob's Politics, Down with, Podcast, rants

Feb 232015

Folks…it is hard to believe how dumb many a DA can be…all over the country. Last week in Georgia, this week in Pennsylvania…the DA DA’s seem to be running amok.

[powerpress]

Bob@HayleStorm Interactive

Bob comes to us with a skeptical attitude and a full cup of Cantankerousness. He also writes about homesteading and yurts over at JuicyMaters.com and rants about politics at Common-Sense-Conversation.com Most of the time, though, you'll find him at HayleStorm.net, cranking out great websites for clients OR writing tutorials teaching them to build their own sites.

Railing at Mother Nature…What a Bitch.

Posted by Justin at 11:02 Coot Law, Down with, rants

Feb 232015

You can't miss Utah

The weather in Utah is legendary for changing at a moments notice. Ok maybe not legendary, but at least known to the public here. Give it a minute the weather will change is a mantra we live by in the spring.

So When this post was written we had just finished a day of heavy rains. The weather forecast said it was going to be partly cloudy and warmer. I washed a load of towels to hang outside on the line. Just getting ready to hang them out, and it starts raining. I am sure mother nature was just thwarting me.

I had a few choice things to say to Nature at that point. I kind of wanted to be Captain Dan in Forrest Gump screaming at the storm. But, I had kids at home.

There will be another snowstorm, that is almost guaranteed. Except it will be 80 this weekend and I have to get the lawn mower out before the jungle sets in. My Great Grandpa, who had a garden that should have been on a magazine, always said, “Don’t plant anything until after Mother’s Day.” That is sage advice here, because you will just get your tomatoes growing and it will freeze. It just does here.

I have never been disappointed with that advice, even with pressure from my wife a few times becasue the weather was nice. Didn’t plant, didn’t get frozen. So, do you all have some interesting weather thwarting stories to share with us? I would really like to hear them. You can’t beat Mother Nature completely but you may be able to slap some sense into her once in a while. Well, probably not.

Have a great Weekend.

-Justin

Justin

Justin is the young Coot with a Cantankerous Soul who continues to be educated by older, more cootish Ralph and Bob. His Cantankerosity is his own.

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Down with Travel

Posted by Ralph at 11:02 Down with

Feb 232015

This will be short

and too the point today because it’s that time again. This Coot is getting ready to travel. You would think that I’d be an old hand by now with the amount of traveling we have done in the past two years. You would be wrong. I’m old but it seems that each trip is just as unsettling as the last. When we started I worried about what I didn’t know about traveling. These days I worry about what I do know. You just can’t win.

What I do know is that traveling sure beats staying home and twiddling your thumbs watching reruns of Law and Order. Some people get upset at the cramped airplane seats and terrible food. I just grin and bear it. I finally got my Doctor to give me something to make me sleep.

Just one of the fabulous sights in Peru.

We’ve had out share of disasters. I’ve been robbed and pick pocketed multiple times. My wife left her passport on the plane. We’ve waited hours for buses that never came and taken the wrong direction from time to time. Somehow it all worked out. Have I learned any lessons? Definitely. Have I learned how to do better? The jury is still out.

So Friday,

my wife and I set out for Peru on a four city marathon. Our past trips were all one city stays but Peru seemed to demand a more complicated trip. We start with a few days in Lima and then fly to the Sacred Valley and Machu Picchu. Then on to high altitude Cuzco and finally to the beach at Huanchaca. The complexity of the arrangements is daunting- well maybe I exaggerate. We have it all booked. What could possibly go wrong?

Maybe I’ll post some pictures on the trip. Maybe I won’t. Everyplace we are staying claims to have internet. Stay tuned.

Ralph

Ralph is the inspiration for Cantankerous Old Coots and is our Grand Duke of Cantankerousness

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Down with lazy, no good, non-writing buggers.

Posted by Justin at 11:02 Coot Smirk, Down with, Plain 'ol Cantankerous, principles

Feb 232015

This post is about me. It is about ineptitude, insolence and laziness. I couldn’t think of another “i” word that meant laziness. I could have looked it up but that would defeat the purpose of laziness.

There’s A Fine Line between Rest and Laziness (Photo credit: SaraiRachel)

For a long time, Ralph has been at the head of this site. For reasons known to the Universe and the laws of B.S., Bob and I have been largely absent. Bob has an excuse, he is Bob. I could come up with excuses too, but they all boil down to laziness. You know the old saying, “Excuses are like assholes, everybody has one.”

I am not going to sit here and write yet another post saying how I should post more, I am going to try and figure out just what should be done to the lazy good for nothings who go and start a site and then don’t do anything with it.

Drawing and quartering seems a bit harsh. flogging? Maybe. Turn the whole damn thing over to Ralph? Nah, that is the sure way to lose all control. So, I will write a Down with post. It is now April and the showers are starting here in Utah.

What does that have to do with writing? Nothing. Just a random thought. What do I need to do about posting? That is the question. The Coots has existed to try and bring a modicum of reality to the web. We seek to enlighten this generation about being yourself, and just letting things go. We even have tried to get you all to join us for Cantankerous Lessons. None of that has worked. I do hope Bob is getting some traction on his podcasts, they are actually quite good, and guaranteed to make you feel at least something.

I am working on yet another iteration of the old Cantankerous Old Coots podcast myself. But, I don’t know that people would be interested in hearing me bitch and moan about the world, even though it works for Bob. What I would like to do is have guests. People who would be interested in joining myself and maybe even Ralph and Bob, to talk about the world and this pussy footing, politically correct, sissified country that we are now inhabiting.

I would really like to hear from the hundreds of people that visit this blog each day hoping that Ralph will pull another nugget of cantankerous wisdom out of his ass and make you all smile. I hope is is not a disappointment when it is Bob or I that graces this page. If you are interested in joining me for an episode of “The Cantankerosity Sessions”, send me an email or comment below.

I plan on recording the episodes over Skype, unless you happen to live in the Greater Salt Lake area, and then we will still do it over Skype. You can be a part of history, or at least lost in the endless sea of podcasts that inhabit iTunes.

Imagine now that I am doing the Jedi wave and saying, “You will come and be part of the podcast. The Coots are your friends, and friends talk about what bugs them.” Bugs them like lazy, no good, non writing buggers. Join me. Be Cantankerous. The first Cantankerosity Session will hit you next week, with or without you.

-Justin

Jeremiah Brandreth (1790 – 7 November 1817) was an out-of-work stocking maker who lived in Sutton-in-Ashfield, Nottinghamshire who was hanged for treason. He was known as “The Nottingham Captain”. He and two of his conspirators were the last people to be beheaded with an axe in Britain (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Justin

Justin is the young Coot with a Cantankerous Soul who continues to be educated by older, more cootish Ralph and Bob. His Cantankerosity is his own.

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