Cupboard

Bush and Mars

Google provides warm fuzzies for nasa:

I'm very happy to have witnessed a successful landing on Mars. I'm particularly happy that it was unmanned. I am firmly of the opinion that, if one values science per se, manned missions are a disastrous waste of money.

I am very unhappy, on the other hand, about Bush's ill-conceived push for the moon. There's the matter of his already having bankrupted the nation through vast military-industrial welfare (a.k.a. the "War on Terror"), but there's the more puzzling and frightening matter of motivation. I don't think anyone could seriously entertain the notion that Bush has any personal interest in science. Why does he want the American flag planted on the moon? Is it merely a further gargantuan handout to the military-industrial complex?