[ambrose]

Nowhere is the government empowered to explore space

Idiot alert...

"Section 8. The Congress shall have power to... To promote the progress of science and useful arts ... To provide and maintain a navy"

That's Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution

[RLK]

A good example of high school journalism.

[MediaMole]

After reading these vacuous ramblings spewing forth from Auburn, only one phrase comes to mind...

ROLL TIDE!

[Sparticus]

Earth First!!
We can strip mine the rest of the galaxy when the time is right.

[mitch5501]

"This nostalgic space challenge is merely a cheap, meaningless way to buy patriotism. It's a resume booster, a guaranteed applause line for stump speeches."

Why would it boost his resume? why would it bring guaranteed applause?

Perhaps because it makes a welcome change from the anti christian/homosexual agenda/abortion/Iraqi oil/tree hugging/patriot bashing/Bush bashing/America bashing/flag burning/UN loving/all beliefs are valid/multi-cultural/politically correct swill that confronts us everytime a liberal opens his or her mouth?

Buying patriotism?...I think it's because he's a patriot!

Idiot

[JasonC]

100 years from now, no one will remember the tax rate last year. No one will remember whether the economy grew 5% or 3% or 1%. People will not care about W or Clinton any more than they now care about Taft or Cleveland, they will just know democratic politics continued and things more or less stayed on an even keel.

But just as last December they remembered that a couple of bicycle mechanics took to the air over a North Carolina beach, 100 years from now they will remember whether and when we went to Mars. They will remember every jot and tittle of it, when the writer of this piece, and all his readers, are bleached bones, and all the dross of their combined material possessions are moldering in scrap heaps or buried in landfill.

The writer thinks Mars doesn't matter, because he suffers from the delusion that he does. He doesn't. As one writer (R.P. Harrison, if anyone wants to know) has put it, "there exists an allegiance between the dead and the unborn of which we the living are merely the ligature." He has not this basic humility, and because it he is blind. Those who know better will do the right thing despite him and those like him.

[Fledermaus]

Funny, I watched the SOTU and I've read a lot about it afterwards and the consensus and facts say Bush never even mentioned the space program.

[ambrose]

Mars ping.

[backhoe]

Earth First!
( We'll Strip-Mine the
other Planets Later... )

[Drango]

Did Jason Blair write this? The author of this screed was in the twlight zone when the speech was given. As several others have correctly noted, Bush didn't mention Mars or the space program.

[mhking]

In Tuesday's State of the Union address, Bush proposed doubling NASA's budget to fund a permanent station on the moon and, one day, a manned mission to Mars, at a cost of more than $1 billion.

No, he didn't. This moron screwed up from his initial premise.

The space proposal was a separate measure that was not mentioned in the SOTU.

Of course, had this been AlGore (complete with claims of being the first astronaut himself) to come up with the notion of going to Mars, this writer would be falling all over himself trying to worship at the altar of Gore.

Just damn.

If you want on the list, FReepmail me. This IS a high-volume PING list...

[EveningStar]

Eat shit, Mr. Mackey.

[Brett66]

Will a Mars mission feed the hungry, house the homeless or educate disadvantaged children? But the most important question is the one no one is asking. Why is this any business of the government's?

LOL! He worries about space exploration being part of government activities, but doesn't even question the social programs.

Space exploration has a tentative relation to defense, so I think it's on more solid constitutional grounds than programs for education, feeding the chil'run, etc.

Spending money on the space program always becomes a rorschach test for liberals where they can supplant the miniscule money spent on space and plug it into their favorite socialist utopia scheme.

How about this for a rationale, let's spend ten times more on space exploration and when the next utopian comes along trying to spend money on their latest socialist scheme we can say "sorry, no money for that!" Works for me......

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

Space exploration should be funded by private investors risking their own money, not ours. It is unconscionable to force every taxpayer to pay for a nonessential project they may or may not support.

Wow. I like this guy's angle on space exploration. Questioning the constitutionality, necessity, and cost of Bush's new space program will get no objection from me. However, his sarcastic derision of Bush, whatever his faults, galls me.

[CaptRon]

Apparently, there's still room for another a-hole here though.

[RightWhale]

In Tuesday's State of the Union address, Bush proposed doubling NASA's budget to fund a permanent station on the moon and, one day, a manned mission to Mars, at a cost of more than $1 billion.

Did he? A whole billion dollars? Right in the SOTU?

[aruanan]

Is this Mackey the same guy from Southpark?

[KC_for_Freedom]

Well, I have a son at Auburn, but he did not write this. (Thank G-d).

The author only got one thing right that I can see and that is that this will promote employment in the ranks of unemployeed aerospace engineers.

We have not ruined the Earth, and colonization of the moon and planets is still in the province of science fiction.

All one can conclude is that journalists at the Plainsman are not from the college of engineering.

[StriperSniper]

Mars (soon to be The Halliburton Red Planet Presented by Fox News)

Heh, heh, heh.