So last Monday, y'all got drunk and celebrated the 40th anniversary of the moon landing, right? (OK, maybe not the drunken part). But how many of you knew that the moon landing occurred 25 years to the day after the unsuccessful assassination and coup attempt against Adolf Hitler, carried out by some of his senior officers? There was even a movie made about it last year, but I don't think I'll be seeing it -- I'm not sure I could suppress my gag reflex at seeing that much of Tom "I love Scientology" Cruise.
Now the second part of this coincidence is that, exactly 25 years after the moon landing (well, plus or minus a couple of days, because it didn't happen all at once), Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 impacted on Jupiter. On that occasion, I could almost persuade myself that I could make out a black blemish on the planet's face through my 4.25-inch Newtonian and the July heat shimmer. Or I may have been hallucinating: my keenest memory of that event is trying to stand very still and steady at the eyepiece, on a hot humid night, while feeling about a million pin-pricks in my legs as every mosquito for miles around attacked the only human in Kanata insane enough to be outside at 4am.
As a postscript we got a repeat performance this year: just one day before the 40th anniversary of Apollo (and therefore the 15th anniversary of SL9), something else biggish hit Jupiter.
What does this all mean? Absolutely nothing, except for the human tendency to see patterns (mostly by tossing out all the data that doesn't fit) where there aren't any.
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6 comments:
"the only human in Kanata insane enough to be outside at 4am"
Don't count on it, EK.
βPer
To my recollection, there were at least 2 of us. (Though I did decide that there was no need for me to stand around getting eaten during the setup and focusing phase of the enterprise. My excuse was that my mosquito bites itch for 5 days while Eamon's go away within 24 hours.)
I was wondering how I hung myself on Ed's blog when I posted the State Constitutions of the various States? I didn't write the blatantly Christian Constitutions, and I am not one of Barton's cronies that believe we are a Christian Nation.
I did a good post, that didn't make it, with quotes by Thomas Paine affirming Israel was a Republic, as well as James Madison affirming Martin Luther, and the Reformation, as leading the way for Natural Rights.
Why even have a debate if it's not based on the words of the framers themselves? You can't fault me for giving my own opinion; it wasn't mine.
OFT: Your claims have been dealt with by the American history buffs over at Brayton's place. If you won't listen to them, why would you listen to a Canadian kibbitzer?
Have a lovely day.
The State Constitutions weren't dealt with. There was a lot of name-calling, typical of that blog, but no one gave a valid rebuttal to the Constitutions, which, contrary to what Barton or anyone else says, is the basis for the Christian Nation Thesis.
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