Jean-Luc Picard - How to dry 'The Wet Blanket'

"The 63-year-old British actor says manned missions
are too expensive. "It would take up so many
resources, which I personally feel should be directed
at our own planet," he said."

You have to admit that manned missions are extremely
expensive compared to sending robots to Mars. I am in
agreement that all space missions should be economical
and focused on generating their own resources
including a payback. Anything less that this and we
are testing peoples patience.

Behind Mr Stewart is an mob of people who are focused
on their retirement, mortgage payments, schooling for
their kids. They are jaded by people comming to them
and saying for 100 billion here and there that all of
the worlds problems will be solved. The truth may be
that it is some of these solutions that bug them the
most as now being problems. Here are the wonders
turned back on themselves:

1) Estrogen fights menopause and contaminates
environment - say hello to a sterile population?

2) Plastic revolutionizes a hoard of items and
contaminates the environment when it breaks down
(phthalates) - ditto.

3) Massive worldwide industrialization and resource
utilization have made everyone rich - only now they
are facing global change that would make this pyrric.

4) The majority of children in the US are either in
poverty, divorced parents, single parents, and
outright neglected by being parked in front of a TV -
are we really to be envied for this?

Where I differ from Mr Stewart and those that think
like him, is that you aren't going to get to a happy
solution by everybody stopping their wicked ways and
working together. History is repleat with examples
where the opposite happened and monsters like Hitler
offer to make it somebody elses problem. Mr Steward
needs to learn of the real state of resources and
trends (which are hotly debated) and then find out
that he has a much better choice than being
fatalistic.

So for an action plan I recommend these simple steps:

1) Point out for 5 of the 6 odd billion people on the
planet that there is not much to hope for by cutting
down trees and burning coal. The richest billion can
always afford to dodge catastrophy if they choose. It
is arrogence of the rich to treat the symptoms of
poverty without really seeking a cure to it.

2) Get a non controversial proposal together that
makes coffee table reading that costs less than 5
billion a year. By this I mean leave out the
red-herrings that make more conservative readers think
we are just dreamers. If more than half the voters in
this country cannot grasp something they like then we
did not hit the target.

3) Do what it takes to win an election - get on the
same page and push the same agenda. Any proposal that
ends up with materials and manufacturing on the moon,
L4, or L5 will stay there for eternity and can be
leveraged as a next step.

At least that is what I think tonight. Hopefully I
didn't overdoo this and repeat what has already been
said.

- Thor

Patrick Stewart thinks we shouldn't send men into
space until every
problem on Earth is fixed.

http://www.lileks.com/bleats/archive/04/0204/020504.html
http://www.nypost.com/news/worldnews/17284.htm

TangoMan