Onward to Mars.
And, yes, for all NASA’s failings, I’m one of those people who believes that the space program is important.
And because most occasions are an excuse for poetry, here’s a snippet of what Rumi had to say about the moon, generally. (And I’m sure he would have had something every bit as enthusiastic to say about the moon landing specifically had he been around in the 20th Century instead of the 13th. Really. I know these things about Rumi.)
The sky was lit
by the splendor of the moon
So powerful
I fell to the ground
(W.H. Auden wrote about the moon landing directly in September of 1969, but his attitude was that of a Luddite, so screw him.)
“Onward to Mars” – Okay, assuming we can set aside a few bucks and maintain a supply of people who enjoy travel in tin cans. But hopefully just for the hell of it – not under any illusion that it’s to “keep alive the only meaningful life we know” as suggested by the philosopher Von Braun and the boulevard savant, Tom Wolfe.
On the 40th anniversary of the original walk on the moon, NASA and the LADWP are teaming up for a revolutionary new green energy initiative. LA is at the forefront of the green revolution! The mayor posted an article about this at huffingtonpost.com– http://www.huffingtonpost.com/antonio-villaraigosa/the-next-great-challenge_b_241583.html
Los Angeles Department of Water and Power ? Presumably they will be the subject of Tom Wolfe’s next big book…
Fair enough.
(And I can’t stand his fiction either. But the best of his NF inspired me enormously as a young journalist. I think with The Right Stuff he was at the top of his game both in terms of research, insight, and prose style—and he had, by that time, stopped using his most vexing Prose Party Tricks, which was a good thing.)
Ooops. Two comments slipped in while I was typing. That was in response to reg’s #1.
I totally agree with you on Wolfe’s writing ( I think you have to look to Norman Mailer to find another who is so uneven as a writer and who so often sounds like he’s got his head completely up his ass in the course of one set of observations while sounding absolutely brilliant on some other topic or occasion. (Actually, I think that Mailer is probably more uneven, but that’s at least partly because he was more ambitious and audacious than Wolfe. Wolfe was really fixated on this Dickens-Thackery thing, which gave his fictional novels a palatable gloss, while Mailer could descend into total WTF? territory, probably believing he was reaching for something.)
Just think. In the 1960’s, when NASA was creating new technology in engineeering, health, and science and creating miniaturizations, which benefit us tremendously today, I was enthusiastically behind them while liberals were whining and wailing that we shouldn’t spend money going to the Moon while people were starving on Earth. As usual, the liberals were stupid and failed to anticipate and admit the life improvements brought to us by NASA.
And, where would we be without Moon Pies?
Also, if it hadn’t been for another event that happened 40 years ago at this same time, Mary Jo Kopechne would be 68 years old today.
Let’s not forget this historic leadership moment either — Video
I am enthusiastically behind sending a man to Mars…as long as it’s Woody (who is already intimately familiar with the atmospherics.)
It’s “interesting” – in a supremely boring way – that Woody claims “liberals” hated the space program and in a bizarre pirouette…wait for it…talismanically invokes the Kennedy name in further service of the Right’s “Liberal Derangement Syndrome.”
What a childish, ignorant little tool…
Oh, I see, reg. Because it was Kennedy who announced the goal of a manned Moon landing, simply as part of the Cold War (and military control of space), that covers all liberals past and future who pretend that they supported the mission for its scientific values and achievements. Yeah, right.
Well, idiot, it was the same fools like you who were against the project after Kennedy died. It sure wasn’t conservatives who were whining about feeding the poor with our investments in space and the future. Liberals followed the herd, but when the head sheep died, they got lost in their own hysteria.
Here are current, typical liberal comments from discussion on the space budget today.
and
It’s the same old story about teaching someone to fish versus giving him a fish. But, liberals have no foresight and simply smell like fish.
reg, why don’t you ignore my comments, as you have said that you would in the past? Just disagree and move on. People get sick of reading your hissy fits, plus you’re always wrong.
Oh, and Pres. Nixon was the president who saw the Moon landing to the end. Were liberals backing him and the mission, too?
Woody – you’re a bundle of bigotry and childish assertions. The only thing you’re right about is that you deserve to be ignored. Mea culpa. It’s just annoying reading this blog and having to slog through your steady stream of nonsense. You mastered one thing as a child…being an annoying asshole with a real talent – or more like desperation – for getting people to pay attention to you by honing your ignorance into a parlor act. An unfortunate way of compensating for the fact that you have nothing interesting or useful to say.
Ah, reg, I make worthwhile points that you can’t truthfully refute rather than get all gay and call people names.
Another unintentionally hilarious example of your lacking any sense of what a fool you are.
I nominate reg to be the first gay person on the Moon.
“That’s one small step for homosapiens. One giant leap for homosexuals. We “come” in peace for all mankind, and we do mean men!”
You’ll have to fatasize about a President named Dick calling you.
Ah, Woody – after all of your huffing and puffing and phony outrage to claim the “high road”, you just stumble back into the comfort of the gutter. But that’s your nature. Down in Gingrich County, it’s called “normal.” You really can’t help yourself…