Freedom is worth defending. That is why the US military exists. Racism is not.

Ed, get your facts straight – Iraq was not behind 9/11. Bush went there because “he tried to kill my daddy”.

The US is about freedom to MAKE MONEY. don’t kid yourself that it stands for anything else. You should look at 80 years of US foreign policy, including such notable examples as overthrowing democratically elected governments around the globe when they weren’t voting the way we liked and installing/propping up dictators, before you spout of jingoistic rhetoric.

Now back to space discussion

Karen, I don’t know where you get your news from, but we did invade with overwhelming force.

As for “minding our own business,” you should ask someone what happened on September 11, 2001. You clearly have no idea what’s going on in the world and who’s behind it. No, it is not Mexican terrorists.

Freedom is worth defending. That is why the US military exists. Racism is not.

By the way, it’s funny you say you don’t want “uneducated” people in America, while your blog prases the so-called “Minutemen” and other “militia” groups. If there’s one high-school diploma in that entire sorry mob, I’d be shocked.

Such ideas won’t win you many friends in the space movement, Karen, or in Congress. It’s funny that you say you don’t want uneducated people in America, but your blog praises the so-called “Minute Men” (sic) and other “militia” groups. If there’s one high school diploma in that whole sorry mob of military rejects, I’d be surprised. You certainly won’t find any “real scientists.”

I highly object to equating securing our borders to oppressing people. By international law we have the right to secure our borders. No one has the right to cross without permission. This is not opression.

I also highly object to our border guards being pelted with stones and unable to defend themselves. I highly object to our millitary being deployed on the border without even the right to detain people. (The millitary should not be deployed on any defense mission without the right to act with force.) I also highly object to the free flow of illegal drugs and posibly terrorist across our borders.

We have large groups of criminals waving foriegn flags while protesting in our streets. We are being invaded.

The reason the millitary is broke because of the Iraq blunder, which we should have never gotten into and if Bush insisted, we should have invaded with overwhelming force. Now we are in a vietnam situation with no gracefull way out.

Also the cold war is over we don’t need a massive fleet of bombers. We should start minding our own business and stop invading others.

We may not agree on much, Edward, but from the absolute opposite side of the political spectrum, I think this is very, very well put. I agree with this without reservation.

— Donald

That statement speaks volumes about your priorities.

In the next few years, the USAF will retire half of its B-52 bombers, all of its F-117 stealth fighters, and all of its U-2 spy planes. Not because they aren’t needed — the US bomber is already at the smallest size it has been since the Great Depression — but to save money.

The total annual savings from all of these sacrifices would pay for just one Saturn V or Shuttle-derived Heavy Lifter.

The US military is being asked to sacrifice a huge part of its combat capability. Yet, you demand that NASA must not only return to the Moon, but must do so in the most costly manner possible?

> Private enterprise should pay its own way if
> it is private enterprise. I do think that general research that aids commerce should be funded.

I agree. Private enterprise should pay its own way — and that includes Karen Shea Cramer. You have no more right to demand subsidies and handouts than anyone else.

If Congress wants to stop funding civilian space programs, that’s fine with me — but as long as Congress continues to spend taxpayer dollars on civil space, they have an obligation to do something useful with those dollars.

Building giant rockets that increase the cost of space transportation is not useful, and it will not aid commerce.

Tax incentives, purchases of commercial launch services, and prizes for technical demonstrations would aid commerce.

> As for my post on immigration. I suggested that we defend against those illegally crossing
> our borders by allowing defenders to shoot to kill. It was very effective at slowing unauthorized
> border crossings in Berlin.

You think East Berlin is the model for good government???

No one is attacking our borders, Karen. Murdering men, women, and children is not “defense.” And no, murdering people at the Berlin Wall was not effective. Not in the long run.

By oppressing people, the Communists were merely sowing the seeds of their own destruction. We must not allow those same seeds to be sown on our continent.

> If we let too many uneducated people from backward countries in, soon the US will just
> be another backward country and we will never get into space.

Uneducated? Within one generation, immigrant groups are often better educated than those born in America. Often with advanced degrees in science and technology.

When there’s something that shows thought worth responding to, then I will give it the response it is due.

The punch is ready.

Sweep the streets, In DC we do it by machine or members of the under class. And I clean my own house.

If a job has to be done someone will pay someone enough so they are willing to do it.

Do you know that a steam engine was used to open temple doors at during the roman empire. It never was put into wide spread use because of cheap slave labor.

The renaisance was created by the labor shortages caused by the black plague. Cheap labor is very bad for technological development and advancement.

Karen, rule of thumb: historically, societies that are open to outside ideas and influences and with large “alien” populations do well; those that close their borders do not. I see no reason to think that has changed today, and it is no less vital for us to get new ideas from outside sources. Also, if you throw out all the illegal aliens, who do you think is going to work in the fields, sweep the streets, and clean your house? Most Americans (including, to be honest, this one) think they are too good for this kind of work. Yet, somebody has to do it.

— Donald

The millitary gets quite enough money. Private enterprise should pay its own way if it is private enterprise. I do think that general research that aids commerce should be funded.

Art and religon are not NASA’s Mission. Religon should not be funded by the government.

Tell me what historical research is there to do in space? Besides geology.

As for my post on immigration. I suggested that we defend against those illegally crossing our borders by allowing defenders to shoot to kill. It was very effective at slowing unauthorized border crossings in Berlin.

Those allready in the country should simply be made to feel unwelcome as posible.

I have given up on politics and politicans because they seem to have given up on the greatness of the US. We are the most powerful country in the history of the world, we CAN do anything any previous government has done. The question is SHOULD we. But I am sick of hearing we can’t get rid of the illegals and we have no right to defend our borders.

If we let too many uneducated people from backward countries in, soon the US will just be another backward country and we will never get into space.