Retro Soviet Space Goodies!

Glenn Reynolds gave us a link to some pretty cool "RETRO-FUTURISTIC ART" like this:



Looking at the examples took me back to my youth and comic books (I still have over 1000 is some long boxes in the closet, including all the original 1980s X-Men and Daredevil issues).

However, seeing this image in the collection took me back to another time in my life:


When I was a young ROTC cadet in the late 80's, I used to love reading the annual Soviet Military Power publications that the DoD put out.



It was a window into a new world that I was just about to enter, and I wanted to learn about the enemy. Like the comic books, I still have some of these SMP issues on my bookshelf. Ok, I am a geek...

But the image above reminded me of the images (actually paintings) that graced the pages of Soviet Military Power. To my young mind, it was something I had never seen before, especially in my liberal hometown.

So, as a postscript to other retro-futuristic art, I offer you.....

Retro-Futuristic Soviet Space Art courtesy of the Defense Intelligence Agency:


SOVIET SPACE-BASED STRATEGIC DEFENSES
by Ronald C. Wittmann, 1987


Soviet Space Station and Shuttle
by Brian W. McMullin, 1986


Soviet Anti-Satellite System
by Ronald C. Wittmann, 1986


Mars Lander
by Brian McMullin, 1986


Space Particle Beam
by Ronald C. Wittmann, 1987

The art that was part of Soviet Military Power offered much more than speculative ideas on Soviet space adventurism....planes, trains, tanks, missiles. I encourage you to go browse the collection.

Imagine A Planet without People

Both K-Lo and Glenn Reynolds were kind enough to point out the article on the lefty moralists who see children as 'selfish' and the ultimate downfall of the planet.

"Meet the women who won't have babies - because they're not eco-friendly"

The girl who is the prime example in this story, Toni, has the following to say:

"Every person who is born uses more food, more water, more land, more fossil fuels, more trees and produces more rubbish, more pollution, more greenhouse gases, and adds to the problem of over-population."

To take that lefty line of thinking to it's logical extreme would say that "every person who dies uses less food/water/etc..."

So, I guess it is no wonder that the left loves guys like Stalin, Pol Pot, Castro, and any other commie dictator. Based on the number of people they have killed, they are enviro-heroes!

Would the left consider mass graves or the Killing Fields to be Carbon Offsets?

Anyone want to bet that our girl Toni has a Che T-Shirt somewhere in her wardrobe?


(H/T to Michelle Malkin for the graphic)

UPDATE: Welcome fellow Instapundit disciples....please feel free to browse around the rest of the site.

UPDATE II: Another thought that had occurred to me, was that this helped explain the disturbing European demographic trends outlined by Mark Steyn in his book "America Alone".

On this story Mark notes: "...it's precisely those groups that profess to care most about the environment - Western Europeans, Canadians, Vermonters, San Franciscans - that are self-liquidating the fastest. If you've ever seen the trash in small Yemeni villages or even in Bedouin encampments, the environment doesn't seem to be a big priority. But they'll be the ones left to man the Greenpeace offices."

Indeed...when all the tree huggers snuff out their own familial existence, the only ones left will be those who care least about the planet. That's another line of great lefty logic. What's that saying about a nose and face and some spite??

Tales from the Bureaucratic Crypt

There is plenty of buzz around the blogosphere about how some wounded vets who have been discharged due to their injuries, are being asked to give portions of their enlistment bonuses back because they hadn't served their full term of enlistment.



For anyone who has served time in the military is probably not surprised by this display of bureaucracy in action. It is practically standard operating procedure. If anyone has forgotten this, I refer you back to the Walter Reed brou-ha-ha from earlier this year.

The bad results of such bureaucracy are usually unintentional, but sadly are hard to combat.

The best observations on this can be read at In From the Cold:

As a retired military officer, I have no doubt that the letter was a mistake. And, I have no reason to believe that the Army isn't trying to rectify the situation.

[...]

The military, like the rest of the federal government, operates under personnel and compensation rules that are, at times, obtuse, confusing and even contradictory. Making matters worse, many of these databases can't share information, due to the Privacy Act or technical problems.

Enter Private Fox. Somewhere, an Army finance system showed that Fox was discharged before his tour was up, and that he received a reenlistment bonus. Based on the early release and the amount paid, the "system" determined that Fox must refund part of that money.

Meanwhile, other databases (correctly) identified Fox as a wounded warrior who had to leave the military due to combat-related injuries. If the compensation system could only communicate with the appropriate personnel databases, then Fox wouldn't have received that letter, demanding a refund.

For those of us in the military, this is representative of headaches we face everyday. Luckily, my worst headache is dealing with DTS.

CNN carries Dems water on War

I know that headline is a shock to many of you. So lets look at the details....

CNN gives prominent display to "a report" that pumps up the costs of the wars to include the cost of everything including the kitchen sink....



In fact this "report" is nothing but a propaganda sham by Congressional Democrats.

A couple of really rediculous points stand out clearly. First, the "costs" include the increase in the price of oil, which the Dems squarely blame of the war in Iraq ("The war in Iraq has disrupted world oil markets leading to increased prices", Page 3)

This of course is bunk. There are so many other factors which have driven the cost of oil to its heights. Increased demand, and decreased supplies to start. I guess this means that the Dems have abandoned one of their favorites memes blaming the high prices at the pumps on the evil oil companies.....

The Dems also crow about how costs will climb to $3.5 trillion....10 years from now. Less than 50% of that is attributed to 'Direct Appropriations' (Page 9). Almost a third belongs to some cost called 'Foregone Investment Return". Hmmmm...what is that saying? Lies, Damn Lies, and Statistics?

I don't see any mention of all the extra armor that the Dems called for to curry favor for elections. You remember that? We had to have extra armor to 'protect the troops'. As it turns out, it mostly ended up distancing the troops from the Iraqi populace, the exact opposite of what the new winning counter-insurgency strategy calls for.

So maybe if we had spent less on armor, we could have been closer to the Iraqi populace, which might havehelped shorten the war, thus reducing the cost.....who knows, but food for thought.

Anyhow....thanks CNN! What would the Dems do if you weren't around to carry their water and trumpet their partisan talking points?

Evolution of Terrorism

Lets examine the recent history of terrorists on film....

1994 - When terrorists were still from the Middle East....

('True Lies', Islamic terrorists with nukes....)

2002 - Let the "white"-washing begin....

('Sum of All Fears', Islamic terrorists from the original Clancy book magically become Nazis...with nukes...)

2007 - A movie about 'terror' in Vietnam remade for modern times.

('Redacted', look who's terrorizing innocents now, US Troops! Oh, wait, I think John Kerry warned us about this...)

They told me if Bush was re-elected, artists would lose their civil liberties and would fear to express dissent... Ummm...not so much!

The next time someone says that the Bush administration has been crushing all dissent since 9/11, point out to them all the movies that somehow avoided the government censors and made it into distribution.....

Project Valour-IT

Now is the time of year for Soldier's Angels' annual Project Valour-IT Fundraising drive. A friendly competition between teams representing each military service to raise the most funds for this noble cause.


I am a proud member of Team AF. This year's goal is $60,000. (See the widget on the right)

Valour-IT helps provide voice-controlled and adaptive laptop computers to wounded Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Marines recovering from hand wounds and other severe injuries at major military medical centers. Operating laptops by speaking into a microphone or using other adaptive technologies, our wounded heroes are able to send and receive messages from friends and loved ones, surf the 'Net, and communicate with buddies still in the field. The experience of MAJ Charles “Chuck” Ziegenfuss, a partner in the project who suffered serious hand wounds while serving in Iraq, illustrates how important these laptops can be to a wounded service member's recovery.

People may not think of the Air Force when it comes to these types of combat wounds, but just this week an AF NCO lost his arm below elbow in an IED explosion.

So please help Team Air Force raise money for the wounded of all the services by contributing generously to Project Valour-IT.

To contribute, please click here, or through the widget to the right.

New Angle on History

Thanks to inspiration from Spook86 over at In From The Cold, I put together the following photo montage:



The coincidence of the angle is most interesting...

I could have also included these as well:



There is nothing of significance to all of this, but again, I find the similar angles compelling....

The Irony of Pancakes

So the news is good today....

1) How the War was Won (Part one)

2) Former Iraqi insurgents kill 18 AQI terrorists

3) Anti-war movies tank at the box office

On that latter subject.....

I strolled into the living room earlier, where my wife was knitting and watching one of the Austin Powers movies that was playing on the cable channel E!

The movie went to break and there was an ad for a show on the channel about Robert Redford's boring and poorly reviewed new film, Lions for Lambs.

The best part? The show was being sponsored by IHOP's new special dish....'Pancake Surrender'.....



You can't make this stuff up.....

"To surrender is the only option" I wonder if IHOP will cater the Democratic National Convention next year?

Mr Redford, what type of syrup would you like with your order of surrender? Ironic Boysenberry, or Pompous Pecan, or Melodramatic Maple?