Thanks for your contributions; further discussion.

Brooks, I think Auston Ruse (plus knowledge of Planned Parenthood's public mission statement) is more credible to report on PP's sexual message to the girl scouts than the New York Times. His vision (exercised over lots of years) is as you say, the preservation of international law by discrediting socially radical policies, and the NY Times' vision, not stated at all and known to every active student of current affairs, is their victory. Both are biased, his the one more friendly to space colonization. The other leads to what we have now, exhaustion, a disinclination to sacrifice, a disinclination to learn, all expressed in the current, on-going disinterest in space matters, although you attribute all that to simple cost factor. And yes, I do think war is better than indifference. That's the harshest statement I've ever made in my entire life, and made without any experience of war, but I stand by it, and justify my lack of practical experience in warfare by a hope for martyrdom, which is I guess a battle of one. A life lived without loving something that much is just not lived at all.There are things that are non-negotiable. They'd better be important, that's for sure. After that, death is a small price. I wouldn't mind listing them at all, don't tempt me. They all amount to respect for the enormous capability of humanity, not its debasement, not its reduction to pleasure-seeking machines.

But actually, I'm sorry if I offended you and I hope you'll accept my sincere apology. Tolerance is not the same thing as "religious freedom," and personally I am both tolerant and industrious and would make a good space neighbor, as on earth. It's just, the reason we're not getting there is deeper than economics. We have gone dangerously far down a wrong road, and in my opinion, down a road worse than war. And never trust the New York Times!

--- In spacesettlers@yahoogroups.com, "brooksn" wrote: