Why Waste Money on Space?

I got riled up while reading the latest Utne Reader by an article by Keith Goetzman entitled “Houston, We Have a Problem“. He eloquently argues that we should stop wasting money on space research and spend it solving problems here on Earth.

Let’s look at the numbers. What fraction of a percent of our national budget is spent on space? NASA got about $16B in 2005 (including military allocations) out of $2,200B Federal revenues. That’s 0.72%, leaving only a paltry 99.28% to deal with problems here on Earth. I’m ignoring the record-high deficit spending that makes the NASA fraction even smaller. Look the numbers up yourselves. Check my assertions.

We could spend that little fraction on some other issues here at home. But how will we solve problems such as the next major asteroid impact? Yes, it will happen; we just won’t know when. How will we solve the problem of running out of {pick your resource}? Anything we need down here (or a reasonable substitute) can be found up there. After we build a space elevator, it would be cheaper to get it from up there than to dig it up here now! But, this project would necessarily be a crash program about as expensive as — and probably longer lasting than — a war in the middle east and it’s aftermath. Of course, the space elevator would employ a comparable number of people in a third world location that a hypothetical war on Iraq would kill …

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Incoming Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee: Bring Back the Draft

MSNBC reports that Americans would be required to sign up for the military draft after turning 18 under a bill that will be introduced by Charles Rangel, a Democrat, the incoming chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee.  Rangel states that bringing back the draft is a way to…

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Liberal Pledge to Disheartened Conservatives

Michael Moore recently published this pledge in the Los Angeles Times.  I applaud each of these twelve points: 1) We will always respect you. We will never, ever, call you "unpatriotic" simply because you disagree with us. In fact, we encourage you to dissent and disagree with us. 2) We…

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If Americans won’t investigate the Bush administration, Germany will

If the American Congress has no interest in investigating the Bush administration's abuses of power, we can always rely on the Germans to lend a hand. As reported on NPR this morning, and also in Time and elsewhere on the internet, Germany's chief prosecutor is seeking a criminal investigation and…

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Terrorism as a political tool exploited by the alleged victims

It should now be clear to everyone (though, sadly, it is not) that the threat of terrorism has been drummed up for political gain by neoconservatives. In the past, politicians often offered us hope. In recent years, they have found it more useful to claim that they are protecting us from nightmares. Thus, they often claim that they are rescuing us from horrible dangers we cannot see, by conducting their wars on "terror" and immorality. In reality, they have been offering us dark illusions and fantasies. Until two days ago, those politicians with the darkest imaginations had become the most powerful. For those of you wondering how this insanity came to be, consider viewing the BBC’s superb documentary: “The Power of Nightmares: The Shadows In The Cave.” Here is a taste of this gripping three-part documentary (If these links don't work, try Here's a new set of links that work on Google for the three parts of the documentary. Part I Part II Part III ):

There are dangerous and fanatical individuals and groups around the world who have been inspired by extreme Islamist ideas, and who will use the techniques of mass terror - the attacks on America and Madrid make this only too clear.

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