Grasshopper's Vacation

R.I.P. Bunnies P…

What about, the “Axis of Allies”?

@Cmdr:

Long and arduous.  All we did was go fishing really, and well, “camping” if you can call a mobile home that isn’t so mobile camping really.

what kind of fish did you catch?

I didn’t think Enemy At the Gates was very good as far as representing the reality of WW2 in Russia.  It was still entertaining.

I liked Stalingrad a lot better.  Worth checking out, if you can find it.

I saw Gibson’s gillipoli and it reeked. oh god it was bad…

Nazi intrusions / restrictions on his business opened Oscars eyes a bit more to the Nazi atrocities against the Jews.

He still managed, and he knew he had to keep a friendly face forward so the Army would keep buying his cookware.  But he finally saw enough and was in the end became human.  Keeping his workers alive amid his dwindling resources was his way of taking it to “Der Herr”.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Space_Station

http://imdb.com/title/tt0290296/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_International_Space_Station_visitors

Guests and staff are associated with the following countries:
USA,
Russia,
Japan,
Italy,
Australia,
S. Africa,
UK,
France,
Canada,
Peru,
Spain,
The Netherlands,
Latvia,
Belgium,
Costa Rica

Components are also made in places around the globe.

Main Participants:
USA,
Russia,
Japan,
Canada,
Brazil,
UK, Ireland, Portugal, Austria, Greece, Luxemburg, (Euro Space agency)

Up there, all alone, on the front porch to the final frontier…
They are up there advancing the cause of humankind. 
I just checked out the IMAX DVD.  Comments by astronaut and cosmonaut alike both speak of seeing the earth below without any borders.  One even said that we will not set up permanant residence on the moon as individual countries, but as allies representing all mankind.

The Imax special features pointed out a how a shot from the porthole on the Soyuz was not directly available due to the bulkiness of the camera.  The quick problem solving ideal of one cosmonaut and the skills applied by rest of the crew, they set up mirror reflective shots that were angled just right.  You would not know it was reflected if they didn’t tell you.

These people live, eat, work, sing, and make movies together up there.  Sharing for them is essential to surviving.  The main crew is 3, which will go up for a while as Soyuz and Shuttles dock to trade out crews.

All of the space agency crews are highly educated and heavily trained.  Touring guests are also well trained.  The guests so far have been highly successful technology entrepreneurs, so they also understand the discipline needed for successful trips up there.  The tourism bill at ~ $20 mil cash is high enough to prevent a fraudster from getting on board.

The contrast  to the UN is dramatic. 
Maybe its because its mostly enlightened nations that are making the effort, so the petty dictators don’t have a say.  The Russian and US space agencies show a very unified front to all the other participants, so unity of purpose for any new objective is quickly achieved.  They also have the strongest communications links for station ops.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/21/AR2005092102036.html

EXCERPT
Clinton seems to have found his role as facilitator-in-chief, urging us to give up our deadly national passivity(LJ Note : A Clinton trademark…no economic initiatives, no energy policy, no move on Osami bint Lami, no response but words to the first WTC attack[1993], a chicken run from Mogadeshu with only high tech low results battles/wars, including Yugoslopia, for the remainder of his term.) and start thinking things through for ourselves. Commandeering the role of government through civic action suddenly feels like a very empowering notion – the alternative being to find oneself stranded in a flood waving a shirt from a rooftop(LJ NOTE : Thanks to decades of Louisiana state and local Democrat misappropriation and mismanagement of Levy repair funds.)
…

The White House doesn’t seem to realize it yet, but we are entering a post-spin era in public life(LJ NOTE : The Clinspin machine geared up his last year in office. Recall/google the Clinton attempt at a Middleeast solution…Yassar turned down an offer of 98% of everything he wanted. Since Clinton’s Reaper Visit he has revved it up to CLINSPIN). The shift has long been underway in the business world, propelled by the Enron catastrophe and the collapse of the (LJ NOTE : CLINTON) dot-com bubble. Process, not perception(LJ NOTE : Sounds like the liberal classroom…“Process , not result,”) is king in boardrooms today. After so much corporate malfeasance it all got too dire to put up with fake CEOs anymore. (LJ NOTE : Google the timeline. The malfeasance was during the Clinton years, while the the cleanup occured during the W years.)
…

The irony is that no one would have believed that Clinton – the king of spin, who went out under a cloud of indecency five years ago – could climb back to such credibility. …he’s backlit now by his disciplined handling of the economy(LJ NOTE : A Republican US Congress held his feet to the fire and he trumpeted his accomplishment.), the unsought(LJ NOTE : Read as INCORRECT.) comparisons of how well FEMA used to perform under his watch and the enlightened(LJ Note : Last Chance! Redemption) nature of his global activism.
…

On Clinton’s face these days is a look of wry, judicious knowingness(LJ NOTE : William Jefferson Clinton will win an Academy Award. A feat never accomplished by Ronald Reagan[ http://www.reelclassics.com/Actors/Reagan/reagan.htm ].) It’s the look of political wisdom, and it imparted to his conference’s departing crowd something like serenity.
(LJ NOTE : He’s ba-acck!!)
END EXCERPT