LazerFX

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• Heteromeles commented on Books I will not write: BIGGLES!!
  Beat me to it. While the 1500 km ceiling is nice, 4.5 km/sec is still slow compared with a bolide coming in between 10 and 70 km/sec. And its warhead is 1.5 tons, which is nice. This is where the rocket equation sprouts teeth, because each stage below it has to accelerate the mass of whatever it's carrying. I suspect that will get rather annoying. Still, if there's good stable solid rocket propellant, and we can use it to loft something the weight of a Mercury capsule into space...why aren't we?...
• Heteromeles commented on Books I will not write: BIGGLES!!
  This is what is tearing the US apart, that freedom is somehow compatible with slavery cannot be sustained. I think there's a simple explanation for this thinking: it's the idea that people are not equal. It's 'Freedom for us, slavery for them'. Since I periodically have to remind myself of this, the phrase "All men are created equal" is in the Declaration of Independence, not in the Constitution. There's apparently a fair amount of case law saying the Declaration isn't a legal document. One of the big causes of the Rebellion was the notion that the Northern Republicans were trumpeting...
• CharlesW commented on Books I will not write: BIGGLES!!
  The making of arbitrary political decisions about deeply divisive issues by the US Supreme Court has made a complete mockery of the US constitution: it is in effect a judicial coup d'etat. So where will the counter-coup come from?...
• Uncle Stinky commented on Books I will not write: BIGGLES!!
  Just because it shows up a couple of times upthread; there was nothing at all wrong with the Treaty of Versailles by the standards of the time. It suited both sides to lean into the "squeezing till the pips squeak" bit. If anyone really wants details, The Myth of Reparations by Sally Marks is a good place to start....
• whitroth commented on Books I will not write: BIGGLES!!
  Just write in uppercaps? You mean... UN-altered REPRODUCTION and DISSEMINATION of this IMPORTANT information is ENCOURAGED (R. Mcelwaine)...