Most want money spent on Earth, not space (Barf Alert)

Houston Comical (AP) ^ | 1/13/04 | WILL LESTER

[JohnGalt]

Using the current political lexicon, I was employing the term to classify those who still think NASA represents a competent government agency.

[Little Bill]

...And you continue to live in Mass? Even my ancestors took one look at the place and moved...to Conn and points West, 1629

I now live in NH and Mass as a rebuttal to future shots.

[GraniteStateConservative]

Spend the money on Asimo robots for everyone. An Asimo in every pot!

[JohnGalt]

The 1814 Society

I consider New England a separate country but will head North before too much longer. It's a tough battle for the under-30 crowd in Massachusetts.

[Little Bill]

It's a tough battle for the under-30 crowd in Massachusetts..

Trying to hire someone from the under-30 crowd is difficult, to many self promoters not enough workers, if you can get someone who can keep their mouths shut long enough to learn something you are fortunate. A lot of smart people out there but not to many who want to pay the dues.

I am retiring in a couple of years so there is a slot open in the Power Engeneering biz. Long hours and good pay, a lot abuse goes with it.

[mrsmith]

I thought I laid the sarcasm on plenty thick!

I'm all for digging into the asteroids, but to continue the Alaska parallel, they're like the whales: chickenfeed. The unfound riches in the Moon are like the gold and oil in Alaska- far beyond our guesses.

[TigerTale]

I thought I laid the sarcasm on plenty thick!

One of the most difficult inflections to convey via text, IMO. :)

[Publius6961]

Of course the leeches and the parasites want the money spent on them earth!

D'OH!

[Flightdeck]

"I was employing the term to classify those who still think NASA represents a competent government agency"

That's what I thought you meant, and you are horribly wrong. While they need to get rid of both O'Keefe and his deputy and replace them with scientists, NASA today is bearing the brunt of know-less-than-nothing journalists and speculators. For all the people who think the X-prize represents private industry triumphing over government incompetency, I've got news for you: Rutan and his white knight are orders of magnitude behind what NASA can do, and they are only there because of NASA in the first place.

NASA is much more than a "competent" government agency. It's personnel are for the most part in another sphere of knowledge, and would probably laugh at the inane criticisms, if the criticizers didn't have control over their budget. I ask any armchair critics of NASA to please explain to me the three bodies in motion problem that was just the first of dozens of technical problems to get Spirit safely on Mars. And when you're done criticizing the space shuttle, I'd like to see you try and build the first ever liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen rocket engines complete with preburners and turbopumps in triplicate and have them work in tandem with the largest controlled explosions (SRB's) on earth. Then do it 135 times in a row (you're allowed one failure!) Then do it without computers. There was not a SINGLE astronaut in the corps who wouldn't volunteer to be the next one up the day after Columbia disintegrated, so before you use their lives in your equations, why don't you ask them what they're willing to risk.

I know these people. I speak with a great deal of knowledge of NASA. They are the most brilliant community of people assembled on earth. Those of you who don't have the information, and criticize what you don't understand look foolish to those who do.

[JohnGalt]

If my gubmint check was as big as yours, I'd probably be defending them too.

[RightWhale]

The unfound riches in the Moon are like the gold and oil in Alaska- far beyond our guesses.

Here, this may prove useful:

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[Flightdeck]

"If my gubmint check was as big as yours, I'd probably be defending them too."

Drivel. More like, if you knew as much as I knew, you'd be defending them, too. And the "gubmint" doesn't pay me, I pay them.

But you don't know as much as I do, and you never will. Come back with a Ph.D. in engineering or physics, and maybe I'll listen. Otherwise your presence on this message board is useless, "gubmint".

[JohnGalt]

If I had a nickel for every gubmint employee who thinks their job is essential and somehow immune to the failure and inefficiency of all other socialist enterprises...

Tell you what, if you quit your job today, you would probably be helping this web site achieve its mission statement.

We're working to roll back decades of governmental largesse, to root out political fraud and corruption, and to champion causes which further conservatism in America

[mrsmith]

Mike Doogan's column
"...The moon is cold, dark, lonely and a long way away from the continental United States.
Remind you of anywhere?
So when the folks at NASA get around to figuring out who to send, who will they pick?
That's right. Us.
At least that's who they should pick. I mean, ask yourself this. If your lunar rover got a flat, who would you rather see coming around the crater? Some guy in one of those Pillsbury Doughboy suits who grew up in Chicago and has a Ph.D in astronautics? Or a fellow from Tok driving a beater pick-up full of rusty tools and dogs?
Of course, somebody would have to figure out how to make a spacesuit for a dog. But that's just details. As long as it can be patched with duct tape, practically anything will do.
Clearly, what the moon colony needs are people with practical experience in a forbidding climate. Not a bunch of button-pushing fitness fanatics with zero experience trying to put a generator back together at 30 below... "

[RightWhale]

somebody would have to figure out how to make a spacesuit for a dog.

Done. Saw it 30 years ago. A Saint Bernard looks kind of odd in a spacesuit, but there it is.

[johnb838]

I want a pony.

[johnb838]

I love whales but they've got to go.

[Flightdeck]

I just said I didn't work for the government. Rather than address any issue we were debating, you tried to spin-off some stupid attack on "gubmint". There is no "gubmint". I looked it up in the dictionary. It's not a word. Quit using it.