Pat Oliphant for March 26, 2012

Well, not to be unkind, but “helmet head” is already dressed (coifed?) for the landing?

Word is, Adelson cut off Newt’s allowance.

You liberals just keep flapping your lips. You want China to own the moon?? Gingrinch is a genius, and will certainly gain the Republican nomination and will have no problem trouncing Obama in a debate. I’m……keeping a straight face, I assure you.

Time to scoot, Newt, waaaaay past time actually.

Here’s the thing to remember when Gingrich speaks in this regard: Ideas are not responsible for the people who hold them. I’m sure reasonable advocates for moon exploration and colonization would like a high-profile spokesperson, but cringe when goofs like Gingrich step forth. Pundits looking for an easy laugh call him a “lunatic,” and smugly hug themselves for use of the term. Too bad it was Gingrich. Intelligent as he is, he now spoils every idea, even the good ones, he puts his mouth around.

I really believed (and “believe” is the correct word) that we would make steady progress in space travel. The situation shown in the movie “2001” was not really that much of a stretch to many of us back then. But it turned out the lunar effort was a Cold War stunt for politicians! Voter interest waned, appropriations dried up, and William Proxmire’s snideness tainted public perception of scientific research.

The Western economies won’t support big projects now, even though slight percentage of funds now for military use would achieve them. What would we have done with the money spent in Afghanistan and Iraq? Built several space stations? Begun to mine the moon or the asteroids? Or even the ocean depths?

Mostly likely China, in the coming decade, will duplicate every one of the space feats that the U.S. has achieved so far – and then surpass them. National Geographic had several articles about nations, formerly poor but now plush with Western money from oil, gas, and rare earths, who now build grand cities in the wastelands: grandiose monuments to dictators, potlatch on a huge scale. Maybe China will be wiser. Whoever takes the decisive steps outward, more power to them.

Once when I was young I looked at the planets and stars and made believe I would explore some of them. Silly kid.

@emptc12I watched an interview with Neil Degrasse Tyson, astrophysicist and science popularizer, yesterday. He had a LONG list of modern tech spun off from NASA, including things like Lasik eye surgery that would never have really occurred to anybody was related. He wants to do both Mars and the Moon (and points out how small NASA’s budget really is as a percentage of the total federal budget). All that being said, though, Newt IS delusional on a very wide range of subjects. Anybody who was a chicken hawk who compares himself to General Charles de Gaulle just can’t be right in the head………

True Newt lunacy…coming from The Far Side of the Moon.

Whoever said the man is a genius was right — he is. He is also a megalomaniacal, narcissistic psychopath — which kinda overrides any really bright ideas that he has.

All joking aside, yes…space exploration is an absolute necessity both for the U.S and for all of mankind and womankind. There is no long term future for our species if, for whatever reason, mankind and womankind do not go forth into the universe. It is not a question of adventure, military conquest or even scientific knowledge—though it will be all of those things—it is truly a question whether our species has the vision and the will to carve out new horizons for ourselves and for all the generations to come or whether we choose to perish, in a few eons, on home planet, Mother Earth. Space awaits us, it is our potential knew home as it has been for the last five billion years for our planet; but as good as Mother Earth has been to us Her life is limited, therefore we must, someday, leave Her or perish with Her.