Originally Posted By: Art_in_FL
LOL.

Fairly recently the Chinese shot one of their satellites. And a mighty gasp was heard within the US about how the Chinese were going to stage a 'Pearl Harbor on the Hight Frontier'. What got missed was the many developments and tests the US had been doing along the same lines.

The unwritten logic was: US developments are 'good' and in the service of peace' but the Chinese efforts are a 'threat to world peace and US security'. Silly.

Now this administration has, at considerable cost (one estimate was $1 Billion), deigned to shoot at one of our satellites. The experts on such things pointed out that the whole 'hydrazine risk' story was canard. The odds of a hydrazine tank surviving reentry are slim to none. Assuming it made it down at least partly intact the risk was minimal, contamination of an estimated two football fields.

Which means that for purely symbolic reasons, demonstrating we can, we have spent most of a Billion dollars for no practical effect.

Maybe it is just me but this smacks of the psychology of insecure adolescent boys. A need to 'prove themselves' and an immature inability to restrain themselves that drives them to do outlandish inappropriate acts simply because 'they can'. Regardless of the consequences.

Again, maybe it is just me but I keep getting the feeling this administration needs adult supervision.


I'd say the adolescence in these statements is glaring. Isn't it alarming to anyone how, if we're honest, we know so little yet pretend to know so much?

A billion dollars (a wild guess by ANY standards) for technology advancement that goes so much farther than just military use, and "we" whine (like adolescents), yet we'll vote for 10's if not 100's of billions of dollars for PHRASECENSOREDPOSTERSHOULDKNOWBETTER. causes?

I have a hard time thinking outside the box when I know so little about what's inside the box already. I know it's "free" outside the box, and nirvana abounds, but I just can;t bring myself to such self-imposed blissful ignorance. But........Maybe it's just me.

I happen to like this country and any administration that attempts to keep us on track with what historical and empirical evidence (all found where? Inside the box!) tells us brought us to some argueable level of greatness. I won;t be disliking my country enough yet to be voting for "hope" this November....but....maybe that's just me.


Edited by Stretch (02/22/08 12:52 AM)
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