Bush Requests Billions of Dollars to Go To Mars

[Sloth]

When I read these headlines I thought... Okay, you can have it, but only if you promise not to come back.

[mccutcheon]

I like that. With the billions sent on the war and the billions spent on Outersopace, where does the health care come in. And the schools. I've heard the kids are the future. But I don't fucking beleive it. The 60's didn't give us anything, except a few good albums, oh wait, but also Bush as pres. Society is not getting better. I drink my wine and whine.

[Myke115]

"drink my wine and whine." ... I like that. I think I'll go drink my wine and whine too. I love wine. I think I'm starting to like it better than beer. Maybe I'm just getting old.

[Maverick]

Actually, I think this reinvigoration of the space program is the first good thing he has proposed. Too bad it's an attempt to drum up support in the upcoming election (JFK style), rather than a sincere goal. Or, maybe he is sincere, I can't ever tell. He just seems like he's never been truly sincere about anything in his life.

Anyway, I hope we do get a moon base, a manned Mars mission, and eventually outer solar system exploration. Wish someone would hurry up and invent a warp drive. Maybe there'd be more money for all of this if not for pissing off so many arabs then having to go to war against them.

[mccutcheon]

Mav wants to be a spider from Mars.

[bfj]

What is really driving this push to put money into the space program is a plan that will give the U.S. the ability to attack anywhere on the Earth, within minutes, using lasers. It's another move to bolster the U.S. military strength. The U.S. military has been working with lasers for quite sometime. In 1989, under the direction of George Sr. we "tested" our missles on Panamanians. There is a great documentary called "The Panama Deception" about it. It won an Oscar...

[Maverick]

lasers are cool.

[martino]

mav i respect you and all (apart from the fact that you are a sting fan), but i think there is no real justification for manned space travel.

from a scientific point of view, there is very little that a human can do better in space than a robot. on the contrary: accomodating a person make a spaceship heavier and much more expensive. machines don't need all the air and space and water and radiation protection and life-support backup facilities.

so why use an astronaut? the only reason i can think of is that it is romantic and noble. but what's so romantic about putting the life of a highly-qualified person at high risk so that he can do something nobody else has done, but what could be done better by a robot? to me, this is akin to the "survivor" tv series or to jackass stunts: the riskier something is to a person, the more interesting. but that is not noble at all.

[marky]

Mav, surely you can't be for this space thing considering the current level of the federal deficit. High deficits mean less money available for private investors to borrow. The future economic well-being of this nation is already at risk. Space program my fucking ass.

I read some Republican said "Reagan proved deficits don't matter." But there's a problem with that thinking. Economic booms like the dot-com end of the 90's thing don't come around very often. We'll be lucky to see another one in our lifetimes. We need booms like that to get us out of deficits.
Clinton couldn't have left us with the surplus any other way.

[Sloth]

I agree with Mav that the space program is a great idea. The universe is a big ole place and Earth is a very small new place with small-minded dictators like Bush in charge. To quote Kundera, life is elsewhere.

[mccutcheon]

Shit mouth gave his speech last night, and boy are we in a world of trouble. And with Kerry Winning Iowa, Dean doesn't seem to have much of a chance- even though it's early days. But no voting green this time for me. I'm voting for any President who has a chance at beating Bush. That makes me feel like I ain't got that many choices. Well, shit on Popsicle stick it gives me the cold shivers. And I've always liked Tom Deschnale the minority leader from South Dakota. Why doesn't he run? Is he way too liberal to get elected? I remember when the war started he was the only one against the war. Or is it called the Fight Against Terrorism. And do you know when that fight started? The third day Bush was in office, he called a meeting and said 'bring me the generals' we are going to attack Iraq. This of course was a good year before 9-11. But the two aren't connected are they? That's right. We attacked Iraq because Saddam had weapons of mass destruction. So where are they? I know- Saddam sold them to Osama, who will sell them to any other country we want to invade. I mean, we need some excuse don't we?

[Guest]

Mc, do you have any documentation of that statement "The third day of office bush decided to attack Iraq...blah blah"

I would love to get a source on that. That makes it sound so Biblical to do something on the third day. Maybe Bush is the Second Coming of Satan?

-slothers

[Maverick]

Mark, and others,

I admit that the concept of spending money on the space program may seem frivolous when there are so obviously things here at home that need fixing, but I do support human presence in space, for many reasons.

Space exploration should be an alliance building endeavor. To limit the cost of it to our taxpayers, we should band together with as many other nations as we can and work together. This would have the benefit of enriching the project with new ideas and ways of thinking from people of other cultures, as well as promote understanding and interdependence among people of different countries. That is valuable in itself, aside from the technological and scientific advances that could come from it.

We should not discount the power that having a goal can have. People band together for a purpose, especially one as lofty and romanticized as the exploration and/or colonization of space. It happenned in the 60's when Kennedy declared the goal of reaching the moon before the decade was out. Even people who were not involved directly had a feeling of pride and accomplishment when the goal was attaned.

The practical applications that space travel and exploration can bring (medicines, geologic discoveries, commercial manufaturing, tourism) should be secondary to the coalition building and spirit of cooperation that it can foster among the citizens of earth.

That is why I am for space travel, not to the exclusion of, but in conjunction with social and economic programs here at home.

[mccutcheon]

It was on 60 minutes. but maybe you can't believe tv. But bush has a knack for these things, this is a man who passed legislation against affiritive action on MLK day.

[Jack smack my ass]

Feingold (D-WI) was also, and has always, been against the war. Why isn't he running?