Tuesday, August 2, 2011

"We can barely defend ourselves."

Today's New York Times has several articles regarding the apparent debt ceiling deal, and this one contains this quote from Republican representative Bobby Schilling, member of the Armed Services Committee. He was expressing concern over the "automatic cuts" that would engage if certain legislative milestones are not met.

Mr. Schilling whipped out a little chart that showed a reduction in bombers and other weapons programs over recent years. He said the proposed cuts to the military if a new Congressional committee should fail to come up with a deficit reduction plan that passes muster with Congress “really scares me,” he said. “We’re on the fringe right now. We can barely defend ourselves.” (emphasis added)

Really??? We can barely defend ourselves???

OMG. What is this bozo doing on the House Armed Services Committee?

Monday, August 1, 2011

The Last Reentry

The crew of the International Space Station took these pictures of the final flight of a space shuttle (Atlantis, STS-135).  I learned of these images from the August 1, 2011 edition of Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD).