Tag Archives: Conspiracy Theories

Fake Remake of a Fake

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I was scrolling through the Twitterz this morning and found that someone had sent me a link to a story that ran last year in our online paper of record—NASA Announces All-Female Remake Of Staged Moon Landings.

There’s an interesting story about why the first “videos from the Moon” were black and white when all the later “landings” were shown in color. Color cameras were available, but there was a dust control problem. The sound stage had been built in a very remote location to prevent it from being discovered, but the filters initially used in the HVAC system weren’t adequate, so monochrome cameras were used to keep viewers from noticing the red Martian dust.

When the Revolution Comes …

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I’m a bit of a gun nut, and I’m generally encouraged by the broadening demographics of gun ownership in America. However, not every trend that I see appears healthy. I’m beginning to see more and more stuff about folks preparing for some sort of disruption centered around the election. Elizabeth Scalia has a post at Patheos that deals with her neighbors arming themselves because of a fear that Barack Obama will suspend the upcoming election.

Sigh.

As one of her commenters points out, the President would have trouble getting the Secretaries of State in all 57 50 states to go along.

And don’t get started on martial law. Please. The idiot fringe brings it up from time to time, but it’s simply impractical on a nationwide scale. Allow me to explain by way of an example.

Back in the days of Watergate, an acquaintance was sitting at my kitchen table ranting about how Nixon was going to declare martial law. After a while I got tired of listening, so I got up, went to a closet, and returned to the kitchen with a revolver and a shotgun. “No,” I said. “It won’t happen.” He replied, “Now I understand why you’re a member of the NRA.”

A coup via martial law in the United States would be doomed. As some believe Admiral Yamamoto said, “There would be a rifle behind every blade of grass.”

Will there be chaos in the streets? Maybe. Someday. But I doubt that the coming election will cause any such problem. Take a deep breath and get on with living.

And don’t buy a gun for the wrong reason.

UPDATE–In answer to an email: No and yes. No, I sold the Ruger .357 about 30 years ago. Yes, I still have the Mossberg shotgun. It was my mother’s, and I intend to hand it down to my son one day.