A few days ago the space shuttle Atlantis landed on Earth for the last time. With that we (the USA) have retired our fleet (what's left of it) of shuttles and ended the American space program almost completely. NASA is a former shell of what it once was, devoting more time to climate change (a hoax) and making nice with muslims (that don't care). American, might, industry, ingenuity and pride are being swept out to sea. Thanks partly to the Bush and mostly to the Obama administration's murdering of our economy.
The cost of the entire Apollo program and the Shuttle program combined is right at 400 billion dollars*. While four of five years ago that may have seemed like a lot of money, keep in mind that Obama's failed stimulus that was supposed to keep unemployment under 8.5% cost 800 billion. So for half the cost of the stupid so called stimulus we put men on the moon and space ships going back and forth for 30 years. Add the ISS (international space station, that's called international but essentially we paid for and built the whole thing and let other countries paint their flag on.) in for another 100 billion and it's still sad. The future lies in space and America is giving the future away to China and Russia.
Russia is celebrating, they are now the kings of space and we have to pay them millions of dollars to take our astronauts out to the ISS. Far less glamorous than our shuttle, the principle of Russia's Soyuz rocket and capsule system for sending humans into space has changed little since Yuri Gagarin became the first man in orbit in 1961. Yep we're flying in over fifty year old Russian tech. But it's not that bad, last year they switched the Soyuz capsule from an anolog computer to a digital. Yeah last year...
So the question whether space exploration is really desirable at a time when so much needs doing on here on Earth comes to mind? It is a serious question that requires a serious answer. There are many arguments, from jobs and education to technology development and national security, for keeping us in space. Though one argument stands out, that argument is exploration, and that we should continue to challenge ourselves for the one basic reason; self-preservation as a free creative, intelligent society. As opposed to a stagnating, socialist slave society.
* All dollars adjusted for inflation to 2010.
When Obama passed his trillion dollar (total & utter failure) stimulus plan two years ago a chunk of it was designated for high speed rail, though I haven't noticed any bullet trains whizzing by and traffic is worse than ever. That chunk amounted to $8 billion that was invested as "seed money" and now Veep Biden has told us the White House is investing another $53 billion of our money in getting this so call high speed rail going. But the more I read up the more clearly I see high speed rail is really just high-jacking our wallets. The Obama Express is moving all right, bringing us straight to bankruptcy hell, let me explain a few things that will help us pull the emergency stop line on this runaway nightmare.
Here in California the big talk has been a high speed line between LA and San Franfreako. The original projected cost of this masterpiece was around $28 billion dollars, but things change and budgets swell, so now the price tag is more like $43 billion. But as time passes the budgets keep changing and swelling, the final cost is looking to be oh $100 billion. Take the number form the above paragraph and add them up... So with all the stimulus money and the newly allocated cash plus the $9 billion in Calif bonds the rail project between LA and SF is $30 billion dollars in the red. That doesn't leave much for the rest of the country.
But high speed rails will reduce traffic and that will help everybody! Or will it? Let's stick with California, the line from LA to SF will alleviate little to no traffic. Not many of you currently stuck on the 101 fwy reading this on your smartphone because traffic hasn't budged in 3 hours are going all the way up to Frisco are ya? Same story country wide, high speed lines are mainly for city to city use and most of the backed up freeways are within city limits. Even light rail lines in LA and NY do little to nothing to ease off the massive number of cars.
The biggest hurdle to making high speed rail a reality is the track. We can't use the existing tracks because freight trains dominate existing tracks and if you've ever had to wait while a mile long freight chugs past, you know they don't move that quick. So new tracks are needed, country wide. Now granted it won't take as long as the original lines that crossed this great Nation, but I bet you it will cost a whole lot more. Not to mention the cost of Air Force One jetting back and forth so the Anointed One can drive a gold spike into every finished product.
If we really want to "Win The Future" we have to stop spending money or as The One puts it "Investing" and start saving. The American people have become the People of NO. No more pouring our hard earned money into a bottomless pit. No more taxing us into oblivion. No more bail outs, no business is too big to fail, even the states. No more socializing of American industries and institutions. We have to rise up, not in revolution, off our couches and into the voting booths. Make all these big spending politicians Democrat or Republican do what we've been trying to do for the last few years, find a real job.
