The Stratosphere Lounge with Bill Whittle was recorded before a global audience during a livestream on 06/20/19.
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The Stratosphere Lounge Episode 222
The Stratosphere Lounge with Bill Whittle was recorded before a global audience during a livestream on 06/20/19.
16 replies on “The Stratosphere Lounge Episode 222”
OOOoooh–news as from ’69 sounds like it would be a lot of fun, and probably thought-provoking as well.
Absolutely, read Collin’s book “Carrying the Fire.” He’s an excellent writer. The best thing in it, however, is the exquisite poem from his wife, written to him before he went up.
As Bill started in on getting people to turn off their cell phones and spend 6 months in the mountains, it reminded me of “3 1/2 days”, one of his best Afterburner’s of all time. For those who haven’t seen it here is the YT link.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OAOrT0OcHh0
As yes, Bill, my Avatar is Ron Swanson drinking Lagavulin.
I got a Johnny Astro too. But the way it gobbled D batteries caused the fan to drop off quickly.
Elon Musk and SpaceX deserves our support!
Moon landing deniers are delusional. They are cursed by God with strong delusion. Only God can free them from their delusion.
The decline of Christianity is what happened, Bill.
Sorry, but anywhere but earth is uninhabitable. The radiation alone is insurmountable. Only machines can do the job.
You say that the “Silent Generation” accomplished the miraculous when they landed on the moon. Personally, I believe they landed on the moon because they sure weren’t here on earth. The science may be cool, but what you will have to explain to their children is why this is significant.
You see, the lucky ones of my generation were essentially raised by their grandparents while their parents ignored them. Some members of the “Silent Generation” were busy dying from WWII diseases (unusual cancers mostly) like my mother. And WWII didn’t end wars, that’s for sure. Other’s like my father were there physically but could not be depended on to provide leadership or protection for their children… and sometimes not even to provide sustenance.
In 1973, America’s fertile generation started killing their children as the number of “latch key kids” grew astoundingly. I personally don’t wonder why the children of the “Silent Generation” became what is now known as helicopter parents (which is not a better parenting model, of course). It has been some time since America had sane families except in certain pockets of the country. And now the future of our nation depends on those pockets of exception to the rule.
Excellent points. I also think that the idea of the nuclear family as the perfect ideal is actually a 20th century novelty. Always before we had large extended families, often living in the same house. Now we attach stigmas to that, and don’t even have enough children to have extended families. I have relatives now who don’t have any siblings or first cousins, and won’t ever. Perhaps worse, I hardly ever see my own first cousins, whom I saw almost every weekend growing up, and some of them live close by. Ditto my aunts and uncles. We have become increasingly isolated from what family we have, and the next generation has far smaller families (both nuclear and extended). Part of the reason we’re having fewer children is birth control and abortion, but another part is that our isolated nuclear families don’t have the support of extended families. Parents are afraid they won’t be able to support their children. If they had large extended families (or even larger nuclear families!), they would have plenty of support, and I’m not talking about money, but all of the intangible benefits. But speaking of money, how many parents have you heard state that they can’t afford more children because college is so expensive?
There’s something really wrong here, and it is multi-generational. We need to re-orient our whole society towards raising (large) families.
You do now that the reason for large families in the past was to have enough children to support you when you were old, right? 😉 Yes, we have turned many things on their head by having too much government involvement in the community and not enough “nosy family”.
Even though I went to college (a couple of private, conservative ones) I don’t really support kids going to college these days. Learn skills, sure. But there is so much garbage taught, we aren’t putting any of our kids through college. One went into the army and is loving it. The next wants to find a way to become a coroner. Not sure how that will work out.
As for large families, I guess the Catholics, German Baptists and Mormons (or ex-Mormons) will inherit the earth. You actually do find many more large families in more countrified places than in urban areas where people are expected to have “careers”.
Agree on all counts, except that you left Muslims out of that list of those who are reproducing.
I’ve often wondered whether urban leftists will die a natural death precisely because they reproduce at such low rates, often not at all. And when they do produce their 1.2 offspring, they are such helicopter parents that their children (post-millenials, it seems) reject their ideas and become conservatives.
On the Muslim question, I have heard of new statistics that in the West, Muslim aren’t reproducing as much as the MSM reports. So I would beware of fake news on that score. And one of the serious problems they have is too much intermarriage. (The Amish do too, but I think they could be persuaded to increase the genetics of their community much easier than what is truthfully pre-Islamic cultural norms in the Middle East.) In any case, it behooves Conservative Americans to find a way to rebuild the sense of community that we once had.
As a side note, I take issue with many demographers on their manipulation of generational statistics to the point that there is no order whatsoever and people end up comparing apples and oranges. If you are going to give every generation 20 years (like they did the Baby Boomers), the generational birth dates would be as follows: Baby Boomers 1945 – 1964, the “I am too disdainful and self absorbed to name it” Generation (seriously, X and Y are letters of the alphabet, not a name) 1965 – 1984, the Millennial Generation 1985 – 2004 (guess this is who they are calling Millennial? who were teenagers at the beginning of the new millennium) and the New as yet unnamed generation not fully born yet 2005 – 2024.
In any case, to some extent, a Conservative is a Liberal who grew up and became a responsible adult.
I was glad I was able to watch live this time!
No grumbling after the camera goes off? Come on Bill, that was becoming my favorite part of the TSLs!
I have a female cousin Chemical Engineer professor in California. Conservative, and has goverment grants attached to her.
Bill, Get in touch with Scott Manley and check out Kerbal Space Program to brush up on your Orbital Mechanics. Scott is a bigger Space Nerd than you are.
When it comes to Hillary’s illness, I’m betting on Kuru.
A good proof that the moon landing happened is that the Soviets did not denounce it. To receive the faint radio signal from the mission, a highly directional antenna was required. They had to point it at the moon landing site to receive their signal. If it was any other way, the Soviets would have been very happy to expose the fake.
My father who now deceased played football with John Glenn in college (Muskingum). Watched the moon landing live at 14, met (briefly) Neal Armstrong. The Palm Sunday that same year became a Chrustian. Remarkable year for me.