The most depressing thing I heard this week, other than “degenerative spinal deterioration”, was Mara Liaason on Fox News Sunday saying something like “the beauty of a huge stimulus package is that it can keep growing until it has something for everybody”.
Well Jim Pinkerton of the Lifeboat Project has a plan for my money…. a gargantuous manned space program:
Barack Obama, who has blazed so many trails in his life, can blaze still more, including a track to space, over the far horizon of the future. In so doing, he would be keeping faith with a figure that he in many ways resembles, John F. Kennedy.
Besides being a huge suck up, Mr. Pinkerton, frankly, is just silly. No amount of money can overcome the problems manned space flight has. The energy to lift problem needs to be overcome. Until then we should not put people into space at all. I support research in propulsion, but that can be funded to excess by removing all the stupid spending NASA does keeping a few humans in space occasionally.
I do agree, generally, with the very long term goals of the Lifeboat Project (ensuring humans don’t die with Planet Earth), but I believe that is intrinsically tied to the survival of the United States.
And spending trillions stupidly guarantees us Bolivia-esqe influence not leading mankind boldly to the stars.
Everybody wants money. Everybody will call it investment. Everybody is lying.