By-Pass the Moon?

Mike Combs wrote:
> Yeah, I saw on one of the Usenet Newsgroups where somebody
>posted the link to this and then expressed the opinion that
>the asteroids were a better sources of raw materials than
>the moon.

I also noted the lack of mention of asteroid resources. I favor
asteroidal resources over the Moon's, but in the context of this
message -for general media consumption, I thought it was OK to not
mention this, since I've thought it's hare-brained to focus on the Moon
as a "stepping stone" or refueling point to Mars.
Get the media away from that useless idea, and onto other reasons for
going to space.

And I also noticed that the article used everything as a way-point to
Mars, but again for general media consumption, you've got to.
The only reason I support the Mars Society with its fixation, is that
Mars is a big politically popular sexy target, and once we've got a
transportation infrastructure for Mars exploration (from initial HLVs
to space volatiles) we've got the entire solar system.