Booster club
In the Mojave Desert, an inventor is apparently so powerfully seized with the accuracy and primacy of his own beliefs that he plans to blast himself into the stratosphere in a homebuilt steam rocket to prove that the Earth is flat.
Saturday, Mike Hughes plans to travel 1,800 feet up at 500 miles an hour in a rocket he’s made from scrap metal — the launch pad is a converted mobile home, the mission part of a series that Hughes plans to undertake. Hughes plans to use the trip to debunk what he claims is a conspiracy of Freemasons and secret groups like the Illuminati — all of whom apparently have conspired to maintain the claim that the world is round.
Hughes plans to stand up, take off and prove the Earth is actually a disk. He’s a new convert to Flat Earth beliefs, but a longtime home rocketeer. Allying with the Flat Earth movement found him mission funding he hasn’t been able to raise otherwise.
He’s also a prime example of those who believe their own legend above all else. But he’s not alone.
In similar news, a raft of Canadian senators, including two representing this province, are equally intent on a challenging and outlandish mission. Against all odds, they have managed to find the strength to present themselves with medals attesting to their own worth.
Truly, you cannot make this stuff up.
The 1,500 medals were made by the Royal Canadian Mint for $225,000 to honour this nation’s 150th anniversary — senators were to hand them out to Canadian “unsung heroes,” but, in a move that’s not entirely unexpected if you follow the Senate with any care, 47 of the medals have been awarded to unsung heroes who happen to also be senators or former senators.
Receiving the medals was an option for all senators: to get one, all they had to do is not turn the honour down.
Many didn’t. Clearly, they felt that, as a Senate news release on the medals announced, they were included among those who “through generosity, dedication, volunteerism and hard work” make our nation “a better place.”
Among those accepting the medals? Mike Duffy and Pamela Wallin, who appear to have never seen a benefit they didn’t deserve, and from this province, Senators David Wells and Fabian Manning. (Stand by for effusive senatorial backtracking in 3, 2, 1…)
We appreciate the dedication and hard work that the medal represents, but it’s probably worth pointing out that this entire province is stuffed full of people who would be more than willing to put their shoulders to the wheel, noses to the grindstone and relieve senators like Manning and Wells of their incredible burdens. (For the appropriate and existing Senate pay and benefits, of course.)
Congratulations, Wells and Manning and all fellow senatorial medal recipients, for building and launching your very own death-defying steam-powered rockets of self-worth. Onwards and … upwards?