rec.sport.football.college

On Wed, 27 Feb 2008 01:12:23 -0500, John Rogers wrote...

> >>Is the view that "the money is going to be spent anyway, so I might as
> >>well support efforts to get the money to the programs that I think are
> >>wisest" a defendable view? Probably so these days with non-stop
> >>federal spending as far as the eye can see and no politician in sight
> >>with the guts to try to step in front of that locomotive.
> >
> >So...
> >
> >You would have been against the Lewis & Clark Expedition, eh?
>
> Unless we intend to go to the Moon/Mars/etc. and claim it as official
> territory of the United States of America, I don't see where your
> argument has any merit.

Hold onto something, Rogers: I agree 100%.

I've written before that I consider the space program in general to be a
giant pit down which we keep dumping money. There are side benefits, as
some like Mihos will point out, that come from such research. However,
it seems to me (and always has) that said side benefits might come from
other research as well, or might even come faster via directed research
that doesn't involve spending billions to get one functioning project.

Space exploration is a nice scientific aim, best suited for a time when
we've pretty much conquered the very real problems down here on the
ground that are threatening our planet, our people, etc. That time is
not now, and the continual waste of money on space - at this point in
time - is to me utterly unconscionable.

--
. Hokie