OK I may be the most calloused human on the planet, But... What the hell is wrong with "you people" 1 NASA 2 9/11 1st point: 7 people die in the name of science and we launch a giant (I'm sure expensive) investigation into who is at fault, and who can be blamed. What we should do is mourn these lost astronauts along with the dozens previously lost in the space race respectfully. We then should allocate appropriate funding to bring the shuttle program back to its glory. Breath life back into the X-33 program wich was underway to replace the aging shuttles and be a more efficient launch vehicle http://observe.arc.nasa.gov/nasa/ootw/1997/ootw_971001/vstar.html as a nation we wast time with investigations and huge memorials, while we should be charging forward with more advancement and support of NASA wich apparently is worthy of great attention in times of disaster, but easily ignored the rest of time. China is pushing towards manned space flight and gotting to mars. I say we as a nation unite behind scientific advancement rather than war. lets beat China. 2nd Point: 9-11 is compared to the holocaust and to pearl harbor. Are we demented?? 3,000 people died in NYC, I know I have family involved and i live in NY. but the holocause killed 6,000,000 ++++++ 1/2000 as many. Perl harbor united a nation and sent us into war. the deaths on that day resulted directly in the loss of every American killed in the Pacific sphere of WWII, and certainly inspired the inlistment of many of those that died in Europe. besides we hunted down those responsible for Perl. We apparently dont give a rats ass about Bin Laden any more. and this is my real point on 9-11 when is the last time you heard anything about him. We dont care about him, somehow we are blaming Iraq now. dammit if we were the sleeping giant i have no idea what we are now. all that crap about how we will administer swift justice, and dont mess with America looks pretty stupid whe we cant even find binladen! damit we need to finish what we started. hell now we are all bout finishing what bush SR started in Iraq. Are we going back to Vietnam next? and how many times have you heard that we killed or arrested some senior member of AlQueda. I think the number Powell said was 216 Sr members. hel our government dosnt even have 216 senior members. we shot some random dude driving a jeep and we call him a SR member for some PR purpose. Why cant we catch the most senior of senior members. The dude must be lonely by now if we have 200+ of his cronies. Ya know, last weekend I was down on the lower west side and i can say that I truely miss those buildings. but what I miss more are the Balls this country used to have. every time one of my grandparents generation dies, I think we loose them a little bit more. lets do things the american way again. if they destroy it we build it back 2X as good. if we are attacked we give it back 10X as good. if something of national importance falters, we get behind it and with the will of our people and the money in our wallets we push it further than ever before. so screw your investigations your frivalous lawsuits your civil cases your suspended sentances your reality tv your insider trading your ME ME ME ME Peace, Micah
I agree. Fault-finding is only useful to a degree. It was an accident - but given the forces involved, a crash may have been inevitable. Let's build a better system.
Agreed. VOR, I've never heard anyone, anywhere, at any time, compare 9/11 to the Holocaust. The Pearl Harbor comparison is very appropriate, however.
Who compared 9/11 to the Holocaust? It was compared to Pearl Harbor because the US was attacked on American soil. But I like your overall point. America just has to come back stronger.
I don't disagree completely with your point, but your bravado is a bit strong. There are many decaffienated brands on the market that are just as tasty as the real thing.
I wanted touch on the NASA portion of the thread. #1) IMO, there is no bringing the shuttle back to its glory. Originally, the shuttle was thought to have cost 5 mil per launch when it was originally developed. Nowadays, NASA is spending 500 mil per launch. If you look at their apropriated budget set by Congress, which is apporximately 15 billion, coupled with the fact that most agree that ideally, 6 shuttle flights per year, minimum are needed to justify the IST's existence, the shuttle launches cost NASA 20% of their total budget. This is just for shuttle launches!!! Bottom line is, the Shuttle program is expensive, problematic and not entirely safe. Not sure if it was CNN or Time Magaize, but a great stat was brought up. The shuttle has 2.5 million moving parts. So even if the abundant number of safety inspections, tests, checks and re-checks insure a 99.9% safety rate, that still leaves 2,500 parts that conceivably could go south. #2) With regards to the X-33. I have kept up with this program quite a bit. The original concept of this vehicle was not unlike that of the shuttle back in the 70s. The design was too complicated and relied too much on unproven technology or technology that has not even yet been developed. Several tests on various components of this new shuttle were run and failed miserably, sometimes more than once. I think they had worked on this project for over 5 years and never could get to the point of even making a proto type to test. I am a huge fan of NASA, the shuttle program and space exploration in general. I have to agree with alot of the experts out there that the time has come to take a step back from the IST (which IMO, hasnt come close to justifying its cose) and the shuttle program and take a new direction. If that means not going to space for 3 years, then so be it. If China beats us to Mars, then there is nothing to do. There has to be a cheaper, less expensive way to do things.
I thought I'd interject this discussion with a line from Armageddon: "Hey Harry, you know we're sitting on four million pounds of fuel, one nuclear weapon, and a thing that has two hundred thousand moving parts built by the lowest bidder. Makes you feel good doesn't it?"
actually i had just haerd some dumbass tv reporter doing so the morning i wrote this. actually maybe it was in a Yahoo article. maybe i can find it in their archives. it was the day I wrote this rant. well whatever. its friday, there are 10" of snow outside, I have some fresh Filet Mignon in the fridge, a ton of beer abd all my buddies are coming over. I am a happy man. I will be happier when the ladies arive later tonight though
