Astronauts doomed from the start

.heraldsun ^ | 2/3/2003 | PHILLIP COOREY and ANNA COCK

[TLBSHOW]

Also last week, another practitioner of the Religion of Peace, this one with ties to al-Qaida, tried to board a plane in Sweden with a gun. This story did not merit front-page coverage at The New York Times.

On July 4 this year, an Egyptian living in California -- who had complained about his neighbors flying a U.S. flag, had a "Read the Koran" sticker on his front door, and expressed virulent hatred for Jews -- walked into an El Al terminal at the Los Angeles airport and started shooting Jews. (Not that there's anything unpeaceful about that.)

The Times casually reported the possibility that his motive was a fare dispute. Four days after the shooting, the story vanished amid an embarrassed recognition of the fact that any Muslim could snap at any moment and start shooting.

Despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary (generally found around Page A-12 of the Times), Americans have been cowed into perseverating that Islam is a "religion of peace." Candid conversations about Islam are beyond the pale in a country that deems Screw magazine part of our precious constitutional freedoms.



Ann Coulter is a lawyer and author of the New York Times best seller, High Crimes and Misdemeanors: The Case Against Bill Clinton. Her most recent book, Slander: Liberal Lies About the American Right, is a number one New York Times Best-Seller.

Coulter is the legal correspondent for Human Events and writes a popular syndicated column for Universal Press Syndicate.

[Illbay]

The problem I have with all this is, it isn't that it "exploded," but that there was something wrong probably from the get-go.

They've been flying these things for more than twenty years. The Challenger disaster--supposedly--taught NASA NEVER to take anything in stride. I would bet the ratio of scheduled to actual launches is probably nearly eight-to-one...they call them off quite frequently for the slightest provocation.

These things are sensored up the wazoo. So what went wrong? (It's a rhetorical question, folks; don't bother telling me that it's going to take a lot of investigation to find out. I do forensic engineering, as it happens).

What I mean is, not "what happened" but "how could it have happened, so catastrophically, without anyone having the slightest clue?"

True, out of the four major catastrophes involving extreme danger to the crew, although the emergencies all came on suddenly and, well, "catastrophically," only Apollo 13 offered a chance for the crew to recover from the disaster. Apollo 1, Challenger and now Columbia were all, one minute routine conversations with Mission Control, the next moment all crew dead (Apollo One happened on the pad, and it's true that the guys weren't dead instantly like in the two shuttles, but it was over in less than a minute).

That indicates that probably sudden destruction and death are going to be the rule rather than the exception when it comes to space flight.

But I just can't believe that things were so lax, that no one had any idea (or if they did, they were once again ignored as in the case of Challenger).

So that leads me to the vague uneasy fear that this was sabotage. NOT during the flight, and not from the ground, but some time--maybe quite some time--before the Columbia left the earth.

Given that there are forces with huges resources at their disposal, who hate us and wish us destroyed; given that there was an Israeli air force officer on that shuttle--the first and only one--and given the unfortunate regularity with which employees of our government, such as Hanson, Pollard and many others, are willing to sell out for filthy lucre even if it means that good Americans have to die so they can retire early and wealthy, it's just too much of a possibility--even though the probability might be low--for me to ignore.

After all, had someone told me that with our vaunted "airport security," not one but FOUR commercial aircraft would be commandeered by boxcutter-wielding freaks from the deepest pits of hell, and three of them flown into major buildings, destroying a chunk of the PENTAGON, for goshsake, and LEVELING the Twin Towers, I'd have thought him out of his mind.

Things that make you go "hm."

[TLBSHOW]

Are you talking about you? Then don't post to me again!

[TLBSHOW]

The more I get attacked by these two the more I think NASA and the people there are to blame for allowing this ship to fly. And I will look into it even harder.

[A Citizen Reporter]

Todd, could you PLEASE stick to the topic of YOUR OWN THREAD? PLEASE, for the forum's sake. It's late, you really stuck your foot in it with your Islam reference, (and by the way, I haven't been able to find anyone bringing up the President before you did). So now that you've made a perfect mess of your own thread, will you give it up. Go turn on your TV or something.

[Luis Gonzalez]

"THAT COMING FROM THE ISLAM IS PEACE GUY REALLY MAKES ME LAUGH"

I never said that Todd, I simply corrected you each and everytime that you shot your mouth off, pretty much as I am doing right now.

I think you have serious personal issues that you need to deal with, it's painfully obvious to most. I'm not sure of whether is a question of self-image, or maybe some medical issue, but I am fairly certain that you are either disturbed, or suffer from a potentially fatal case of under-developed intellectual capacity.

I don't know what happened to the shuttle, and that's MY point, but you have no facts, you have suppositions.

I will say that you get a tremendous amount of mileage from these rants of yours, it has ocurred that this in fact is your thing---like my kids, you just want some attention.

What will happen here is that you'll stick to your story until NASA completely proves you wrong-something that would shut most people up-which would then give you a theme for another thirty or fourty "Columbia DisasterCover-Up" threads.

It's about getting some attention, isn't Todd?

[TLBSHOW]

nasa; problems

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&safe=off&q=nasa%3B+problems

[Luis Gonzalez]

There is a web forum constructed and run by banished ex-FReepers as a protest to banishments in general, whose core set of beliefs are centered about the right of all to speak their minds freely.

Except when it came to Todd.

They banned him.

[Luis Gonzalez]

"The more I get attacked by these two the more I think NASA and the people there are to blame for allowing this ship to fly."

Yes, that's right Todd...Howlin and I are running a cover-up for NASA right here in FR. We get our orders from this guy.

[TLBSHOW]

Don A. Nelson

NASAProblems.com

http://www.nasaproblems.com/

[woofie]

We get our orders from this guy.

I have long suspected as much....

[A Citizen Reporter]

Banned, by the unbannable? Geesh!

[Jael]

I too would be interested in seeing the results of such a study. But, they way things are dissapearing off the web in regard to the Freon foam issue, the only place you will probably ever hear about it is right here on FR.

[TLBSHOW]

Reply from the President's OSTP: "I do not think that it is appropriate for the President to issue a moratorium on Space Shuttle launches at this time" Dec. 4 2002.

[Jael]

Rather than becoming frantic over a single report of "wear and tear" suffered 20 flights ago,

Actually, the report is much more sinister than a simple wear and tear issue. The guy in charge of inspecting these parts of the Shuttle makes that clear that this was a huge amount and that the amounts had been increasing. (Since the Freon-less formula had been used.)

[Jael]

"NASA knew from the second day of Columbia's 16-day research mission that a piece of the insulating foam on the external fuel tank had peeled off just after liftoff and struck the left wing, possibly ripping off some of the tiles that keep the ship from burning up when it re-enters Earth's atmosphere."

http://www.washtimes.com/national/20030203-87326768.htm

[Concerned]

A CITIZEN REPORTER WROTE: "Oh Good grief, I read your post and started to respond to it. Then I decided that most of the stupid things you put in there would have been answered had you watched the press conference today."

Thank you for letting me know about the press conference today. There is no need for a personal attack, however. Unfortunately, I did not know there was a NASA news conference scheduled for today, but I probably would not have been able to access it anyway as I have spent the past week in the hospital with my daughter. The hospital's TV channel selection is so limited, they don't even have CNN.

Given my current inability to see much news, I have no idea which "stupid things" you are referring to which would have been answered for me. Please fill me in.

A CITIZEN REPORTER ADDED: "BTW, your writing style is very similiar to another freeper.....beginning with ex.....?"

Apparently, you don't like my writing style. I have no idea which "other freeper" you are referring to. Prior to this past week's hospitalization, I was out of town for the better part of the previous two weeks, so I am not recognizing who or what writing style you are referring to. Sorry you apparently don't like it.

[TLBSHOW]

Don't pay her no mind this story is about to break wide open.

[TLBSHOW]

Nasa was warned about problems and from what I see did nothing!

[Lancey Howard]

Actually, the report is much more sinister than a simple wear and tear issue. The guy in charge of inspecting these parts of the Shuttle makes that clear that this was a huge amount and that the amounts had been increasing. (Since the Freon-less formula had been used.)

"freon-less"

Uh, can we back up for a second here? Is this "freon-less" formula what the NASA guy meant by "environment friendly"?

Am I correct in believing that this change in formula was caused by pressure from enviro-whackjobs??

AM I GETTING THE FEELING THAT THE ENVIRO-SCUM MAY HAVE BEEN RESPONSIBLE FOR THIS DISASTER???